#also it sounded like there was a villain status reveal with it and I want that so bad

[beastking-golion]

Alright no more fuckin around, someone better tell me how the hell you snu snu Chen 🔫

[writing-with-sophia]

Describing a villain's appearance in a natural way

Someone asked me how to describe a villain's appearance in a natural way, so today I take a little time to write this post.

One of the first factors to explain when a character emerges is their appearance. To make those descriptions more natural and less restrictive, you should combine them with other positive aspects such as personality and behavior. Here are some tips:

Use sensory details: Consider the five senses when describing the villain's appearance. What do they look like? What do they smell like? What do their voices sound like? What texture do their clothing or skin have? Is their appearance pleasant or unpleasant to the senses?

Focus on physical features: Describe the villain's physical characteristics such as their height, weight, body type, facial features, hair color, and eye color. Use descriptive language to give the reader a clear image of their appearance. However, you should just chose and describe what is most prominent, noteworthy, and can be considered a unique feature of that character. If you describe everything, including hair, face, eyes, lips, clothes, hands, etc., it will be incredibly long and uninteresting, and it will not impress the reader.

Use metaphor and simile: Using metaphors and similes can help create a vivid image of the villain's appearance. Comparing the villain's appearance to something else can help create a clearer image in the reader's mind. For example, you could describe the villain's hair as "wild and unruly, like a tangled forest."; their eyes as "cold as steel" or their skin as "pale as death."

Consider clothing and accessories: The villain's clothing and accessories can also give insight into their character and background. For example, a villain who wears all black and has a lot of leather might be perceived as more menacing than one who wears bright colors and flowing fabrics. Or, if the villain is very well-groomed and dressed in expensive clothing, it might suggest that they are wealthy or have a high status.

Use context: The context of the story can also help shape the description of the villain's appearance. For example, if the story is set in a medieval fantasy world, the villain might have a more archaic appearance, while a modern-day villain might have a more contemporary appearance.

Avoid cliches and stereotypes: While it's important to give the reader a clear image of the villain's appearance, be careful not to rely on cliches or stereotypes. E.g. describing a villain as having a scar on their face or a hook for a hand can feel overdone and lacking in originality.

Consider the impact on other characters: The way the villain looks can have an impact on how other characters react to them. For instance, if the villain is very imposing or intimidating, other characters might be scared or intimidated by them.

Don't forget about body language: The way the villain carries themselves can also be revealing. E.g if they are slouching or have a sneer on their face, it can suggest that they are arrogant or dismissive.

And here is an example of how to describe the appearance of my character who is a villain:

"As soon as he stepped into the room, he commanded attention. With his broad shoulders and imposing stature, he seemed to fill the space with his presence. His suit was impeccably tailored, the fabric hugging his powerful frame like a second skin. But it wasn't just his appearance that made him stand out - it was the air of confidence and authority that surrounded him. He moved with purpose, his gaze sharp and calculating, and his voice dripped with honeyed charm that was as dangerous as it was seductive. It was clear that this was a man who was used to getting what he wanted, and he was willing to do whatever it took to get it."

In this example, the villain's appearance is described in a way that reflects his personality. His imposing stature and tailored suit suggest power and wealth, while his air of confidence and charm hint at a ruthless and manipulative personality. By using description that reflects the villain's personality, the reader can get a better understanding of who the character is beyond just their physical appearance.

Remember that ultimately, the way you describe the villain's appearance should serve the story and help create a clear and compelling image in the reader's mind. By using a mix of descriptive language, sensory details, and context, you can create a vivid and memorable villain that readers will love to hate.

[codenamesazanka]

It's October, so here is one of my absolute favorite League fic: a Japanese fanfic about the League on the run post-Overhaul, looking for shelter, and coming across an old Buddhist temple. Strange happenings occur.

雨夜森奇談 | A Strange Tale of a Forest on a Rainy Night: https://www.pixiv.net/novel/show.php?id=20672060

It's a wonderfully written and plotted spooky genfic story - with gorgeous imagery - that involves the whole cast, tho with slightly more focus on the (not necessarily ship) pairings of Shigaraki & Spinner and Compress & Dabi.

Mostly readable via Google Translate, with maybe some odd phrasing. I highly recommend it!

But if you want, click the Read More for my summary.

Largely Mr. Compress POV. The League is hiding out on a mountain, getting soaked in the rain, when they come across a great gate to some sort of compound. Toga and Twice are happy they've found shelter at this temple, wanting to believe that there might be a compassionate Buddha-like monk inside who would help even Villains; Dabi, Spinner and Compress are more skeptical, but wonder if they might be able to get by using false identities. Meanwhile, Shigaraki is strangely quiet and hesitant and even seems uncomfortable.

Fortunately, when a monk appeared, he turned out to be blind, unable to recognize the League at all, and are happy to welcome in guests for the night.

Due to Shigaraki's strong and harsh insistence, the League forgoes staying in the lodging house, instead spending the night in the temple hall where a giant Buddha statue is enshrined. Shigaraki also rejects the monk's offer of futons, food, and showers. This causes conflict between him and Toga, who's confused about Shigaraki's rejection of the monk's kindness, as well as his uncharacteristic denial of the League's wants; while Shigaraki snaps that Toga (and Twice) have lost their sense of caution. Compress mediates, calming everyone down by unmarble-ing supplies.

As he goes around giving everyone towels and blankets, Compress notices Spinner in a daze, shivering violently as if cold, while everyone else was okay. But Shigaraki calls out to Spinner, giving an order to accompany him to find the bathrooms, and so the two of leave before Compress can talk more with Spinner.

Much later in the night, while everyone else seems to be sleeping alright, Compress is wide awake thanks to the noisy storm outside, loud rain and winds beating against the building. He discovers that Dabi is still awake as well. Dabi asks if it's because of the awful rotten smell that's preventing his sleep - but Compress doesn't smell anything like that at all. For his part, Dabi doesn't hear any sounds of a chaotic storm, or any noise. Compress then realizes that the sounds he hears isn't wind - it's voices.

Shigaraki suddenly speaks up, making both men turn to look at him. Shigaraki, sitting in front of the Buddha statue, gaze piercing, asks Compress and Dabi if they trust him. If they do, he'll tell them everything.

POV switches to the monk, who narrates that he's been blind from birth. Tonight, he's got guests - he can't see them, but he knows/senses there are six of them. In the middle of the night, he visits the building they're staying in, but when he steps into the temple hall, he can only sense the presence of a single person - the leader of the group.

The monk tries to question the young man about where the others have gone, but the young man seems to ignore him, giving non sequitur responses. The young man says that he was expecting the monk; that he's unsure whether the monk was doing all this intentionally, but it doesn't change what's going to happen. He then calls the monk a monster, a ghost. The word confuses the monk, but also paralyzes him—literally.

POV switches back to Shigaraki, who reveals that from the moment he arrived at the temple gates, he saw nothing but ruins, despite what his teammates were saying. And where the others saw a monk, Shigaraki could only perceive a walking skeleton, mumbling fragments of words. To Shigaraki, his League kept acting like they were all in a nice temple compound instead of a weedy field with crumbling, unliveable buildings, and interacted with the unintelligible skeleton as if it was an ordinary person.

Shigaraki thought it at first that he had gone insane, but then realized it was the opposite: he was the only sane one among five people lost in some kind of illusion. But then there was Spinner, who said he felt a terrible chill like someone was watching them. Then there was Dabi and Compress, one who was smelling things no one else was smelling, and the other hearing things no one else was hearing.

With that information, Shigaraki came up with a plan and gave orders.

Shigaraki tells the skeleton in front of him that AFO and the Doctor have theorized something like this happening - quirks being so varied that there might even exist a quirk that can bring someone back to life after death. He asks the skeleton if that's what his power is—but the answering moan was still incomprehension to Shigaraki.

Suddenly, the skeleton charges forward to attack Shigaraki, only to be covered by a blanket and tackled by Spinner, who had been hiding on the ceiling. Spinner tells Shigaraki that he was right; Spinner saw the monk change from a person to a monster halfway through Shigaraki's monologue. Shigaraki proceeds to decay the skeleton, sending it off with "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" (which he acknowledges is a heathen/non-Buddhist phrase, but whatever).

Meanwhile, Dabi and Compress have been sent on a mission by Shigaraki. Walking across the temple compound, they discuss whether they believe Shigaraki's story about the temple being in ruins and the monk being a skeleton; and whether they believe Shigaraki's totally unsubstantiated theory that the monk has died a violent/unnatural death, was revived by some kind of Undead quirk, and was now luring people into the temple and killing them, leaving corpses that was the source of the smell and ghostly voices Dabi and Compress were experiencing - which is why Shigaraki sent them to find those corpses. (He also told Compress to marble a sleeping Toga and Twice and take them with him, just in case.)

Eventually, Dabi and Compress arrives at a building that they had seen was intact earlier in the evening, but now appears to be a decaying wreckage. Inside is a heap bodies in different stages of decay. For Compress, the voices have become deafening; for Dabi, the smell has become unbearable. To put the dead to rest, Compress suggests Dabi burn them, because after all, "Dabi" means a (Buddhist) cremation funeral. As Dabi activates his quirk, Compress then also unmarbles some artificial magic-trick flowers to give to the dead, then puts his hands together for a prayer.

After that, Compress and Dabi met back up with Spinner and Shigaraki in the main temple, where they gave another prayer to the Buddha statue before leaving the ruins. Only when they were safely back in the forest did Compress unmarble Toga and Twice, who after being told what happened, freaked out. While Shigaraki snapped at them for being noisy, Spinner muses to Compress that there was still something he doesn't get - how had they known the place was a temple? Shigaraki saw only ruins, while everyone else saw a gate, with no sign or indication of what was beyond it. Compress recalls that it was Twice who saw a roof through the trees and walked towards it; and when they arrived, Toga asked if it was a mansion, only to be told it was a temple by... a voice that Compress now realized belonged to none of the League.

Compress tells Spinner that since it's all over, it's better to just forget about it.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

I also saw someone say Adrien getting turned into a pigeon in the same Mr. Pigeon 72 episode was also foreshadowing for the sentitheory, what do you think?

I'm gonna be honest, I sat here staring at this ask for a solid minute trying to make sense of the words on my screen because this is one of the most nonsense things I've ever read. Media literacy can't actually be this bad, right?

No, Adrien being turned into a pigeon is not foreshadowing unless you think him being turned into a Reflecta clone and a Style Queen golden statue also mean something, which I highly doubt is the case. Turning people into things is just a standard akuma power and Adrien gets to be one of the victims from time to time in order to make an episode's plot work the same way he occasionally gets mind controlled. The fact that one of the things he got turned into was a bird doesn't foreshadow anything because that's not how foreshadowing works. Foreshadowing doesn't mean "I can find a way to loosely connect these two things!"

[image: the "I've connected two dots, you didn't connect shit" meme]

For the pigeon transformation to have meaning, it would - at the very least - need to be unique to Adrien in some way, but it's not. He's one of many identical pigeons and I'm guessing that this person wasn't claiming that they're all sentimonsters, right? If not, then how is it foreshadowing? What makes this transformation different on a rewatch now that we know Adrien's status? Because that's how foreshadowing works. It should play different once you know what it was setting up.

If you want an actual example of akuma-based foreshadowing, look at Wishmaker, which showed us Adrien's childhood dream vs everyone else's. The fact that Adrien has no hopes or dreams of his own while all of the real humans do is pretty clearly meant to make you go, "Huh, that's odd." Then, on a rewatch, you go, "Oh, this is because he's not a human!"

That's the way that foreshadowing is supposed to work. It's subtle or blatant highlighting of an oddity that will come to have meaning later on. You may be able to guess the meaning before the reveal, but it should play into the reveal in some way.

Another example of foreshadowing is how, in the later half of season four, the camera starts focusing on the Agreste's wedding rings every time Gabriel or Nathalie gives a command that Adrien then obeys. It's meant to make you go, "Huh, that's odd."

A weird*, but ultimately solid example of subtle foreshadowing is the butterfly logo on Adrien's shoes, hinting at his father's villain status. We know that Adrien probably only wears his father's brand and butterflies are a big deal in the show right from the start, so why would you give Adrien a butterfly on his outfit if that doesn't mean something about his father? You wouldn't, so it's obvious that this is a clue that Gabriel is Hawkmoth or at least involved with Hawkmoth. Let's compare that to the pigeon stuff to really highlight foreshadowing vs grasping at straws.

"Gabriel put subtle nods to his villainy in his clothing line because he's an egomaniac" is a really logical thing to assume. Similarly, "Everything on Adrien's body was put there with purpose by the animators because it had to be custom designed for him, so that butterfly is not an accident," is solid logic. There is no reason for that butterfly to be there if it doesn't mean something.

"Emilie and Gabriel gave their magical designer baby a pigeon allergy to give viewers a subtle hint that he's a magical designer baby made from a peacock feather," sounds like the ramblings of a mad person. Do you also think that Adrien's inability to play soccer is going to come back to mean something outside of Penalteam? Or that him bragging about being good at physics in Evillustrator means that he's ultimately going to be a physicist*? You better or else you're cherry picking because the pigeon allergy is not given any more importance than those other little facts. Facts that were clearly only dropped for the sake of a joke.

This is the problem with trying to claim that a random joke from a random episode must have deeper meaning. It certainly can, that's how subtle foreshadowing works, but for a thing to be foreshadowing, it has to create a clear association between A and B. It also needs to be logical. The pigeon stuff is neither clear nor logical.

Pigeon-related things that would have actually counted as foreshadowing in Mr. Pigeon 72 if they had been included:

Adrien!pigeon not responding to Mr. Pigeon's commands because Mr. Pigeon doesn't have Adrien's amok and that's the only way to control a sentimonster no matter their form (this would go against established lore since Adrien has been able to be mind controlled in the past, but I'm just spit-balling ideas here, okay? Work with me people! Miracular and the Paris special let him get cataclysmed without breaking like a normal senti, so retconing the rules for the sake of the plot is par for the course in my book)

Mr. Pigeon being unable to have a sentimonster because they're allergic to feathers combined with Adrien!Pigeon constantly sneezing, making him standout and be useless

Kagami being established to also have feather allergies since she's also at the pool in this episode, making it really freaking easy to establish this since Marinette is listing off random ass things that Kagami and Adrien have in common

If it doesn't result in an "oh!" or "I knew it" moment later on, then it ain't foreshadowing. But it could be something else.

*Let's circle back to the physics thing briefly because you might have thought, "Wait, that could be foreshadowing if he goes into physics, couldn't it?" And kind of! You're thinking of foreshadowing's parent technique, setup and payoff (or, at least, I've never seen it called something else.) The difference between general S&P and foreshadowing is that foreshadowing should stand out as odd like Adrien's shoes or the rings. It's something that's there to make you go, "Huh." Meanwhile, many of techniques used for setup and payoff don't require a "huh" feeling.

Allow me to explain!

Adrien being good at physics isn't weird, it's just a fun fact about him and it's normal to develop your characters as a story goes on just to flesh them out and make them feel more real. Every little thing you learn doesn't have to mean something about their ultimate fate. But sometimes the things you learn do lead to something bigger. That's just crafting a good, logical story. Knowing Adrien enjoyed physics class at 14 means nothing for his eventual career path, but if he does go into physics, it's now no longer out of the blue.

But it's also not foreshadowed. It's just setup.

An actual example of this type of thing is Marinette's diary. Her diary has been used as a nice little character quirk throughout the show. Then we get to the Paris special and - suddenly - the diary actually matters to the plot.

This isn't foreshadowing. The diary was never presented in a way that would make you think, "Huh, that's coming back later" or "Hmmm, that's odd." But it's still a satisfying moment to see her diary lead to something since it's been around for so long.

If we were never told that Marinette kept a diary and we only ever saw her hiding this pink book, then that would have been foreshadowing as we'd be thinking, "Huh, that's odd." Then we'd get to the Paris special and go, "Oh! That's what the book was!"

In other words, foreshadowing requires a reveal. I'll also note that there's no hard rules for this stuff. I tried to pick good examples that were clearly foreshadowing and clearly not, but there's grey area here, so it's okay if you disagree about some of these being foreshadowing. (Except for if you disagree on the pigeon stuff. I will fight you about the pigeons!)

Another example of setup and payoff is Gabriel getting cataclysmed and then slowly dying throughout the season. His death isn't foreshadowed, it's just a thing that's happening. On the other hand, Nathalie dying via the peacock is used for foreshadowing because it leads to Adrien comparing Nathalie's illness to Emilie's, which is the setup for the reveal that Emilie used the peacock. Nathalie's illness is also just a non-foreshadowed setup for Emilie's reveal so that the peacock hurting people doesn't come out of nowhere, which is why setups are important. You can skip all foreshadowing and only use setups and still tell a good story.

The pigeon stuff was never foreshadowing, but if any of it had been revealed to mean something by the show, then it could be argued to be a situation where it was introduced as a setup for a later payoff. But the pigeon thing has f-all to do with sentimonsters, so once again, it's nonsense and people need to let it die! The pigeon thing has been used for its intended purpose: gags. That's why it came back in Mr. Pigeon 72! Mr. Pigeon 1 didn't foreshadow that, it just setup a gag that they decided to revisit because this is a comedy and little kids probably find Adrien sneezing and messing things up funny.

*One final note: the reason I called Adrien's shoes "weird" is because the butterfly logo was great subtle foreshadowing back when people thought that the butterfly was the logo for Gabriel's company. Now that the logo is a massive G, the butterfly raises questions about Gabriel's design choices since we never see it anywhere else. I've often wondered if this was originally meant to be Gabriel's logo, but they scrapped the idea for some reason. Either way, it's still foreshadowing, it's just slightly less good now that we have to ask, "Why did Gabriel put butterflies on these sneakers for teen boys and no where else?"

[im-not-buying-it-ether]

Hi! Happy birthday to Bat-Swap!!!🥳🥳🥳

I was wondering if there were any deleted scenes/concepts that didn't make it into the final fic? Or a character you wanted to add but didn't get the chance to?

Love your writing! Might have to go reread for the fic's birthday!

The muse, the Michelangelo, the WOLF!!

Oh god so many, I thought this fic up with the ending coming like a week later and so much came up in between that got scrapped into the Outtake Doc for any later use.

I have a list of my minds bullcrap, hold up, gotta dig through the receipts

In absolutely no particular order-

Back when we met Pinky I planned to reveal the whole Vasquez extended Marvel family through a statue for each Marvel at the park, one basically guarding each path that all branched out of the center area Billy’s was at. By then I had already made plans to make the Sins and maybe Blaze a looming Big Bad so I had a concept of the statues having their own importance sometime in the final confrontation I have planned (bc we gotta have one, I love comics and comic are all about that big payoff fight) but that got scrapped for the longer buildup and the timeline I refined to make them heroes for too short a time to get such big memorials

One more overarching idea was to make the Batfam more hostile to Cap, not liking the situation as much as he wasn’t and not getting along well. I wanted to start off with a lighter note so I changed peoples tune

Was going to have a moment of some Batfam like Tim and Steph (who were involved with YJ) asking about Freddy and wanting to catch up with him, with the allusion to the Marvels being more tight knit with Billy seeming like the exception given how much he seems to travel more than his siblings.

One scrapped scene that might make a comeback with some editing is Bruce as Cap joining Pinky on a pre-planned stake out/take down, with more than a couple of playful jabs that “Look at us! The redder versions of you and Krypto-boy!” Plus some more Pinky love bc that kid was insane (like every Fawcett character honestly)

Actually cut the Katabasis chapter down; had an outline and some paragraphs done of Tim destroying SBP and getting a whack at him with a lot of unhealthy pent up issues that I doubt fully got resolved after the Everything™️ that was The Teen Years Of Tim Drake

Dick was supposed to have a scene visiting Damian in the hospital first but plans very obviously changed and I added a Dick & Billy focused bonding-ish chapter

Two things with Lucy’s reveal actually, was gonna have her book be a redo of the old Owlman and Pulchinella characters from Harley’s failed romance novel now turned turned adventure novel but changed it to basically be personally made story of a Lucy like sidekick to Capitano (Billy). More endearing to me to have Harley making books like she always wanted to that are aimed for her daughter’s wild imagination and Billy helping in recommending them. Also was going to have Lucy jokingly call Bruce-as-Billy “Batsy” as a riff on Billy’s last name and Bruce in his stupidly big brain for everything criminal put some pieces together about how she said that name and the kind of smile+laugh she’s got but have no chance to say anything before the doors shut. Just to fuck with him more

Was going to have Kit and Jason have a chat when Jason first woke up, with Kit realizing who the guy he scared unconscious was and adding my long desired “Oh this ghost is a kid I accidentally avenged by murdering a guy.” Moment. Will never forget that Jason killed Captain Nazi, top tier stuff to mess with

I had another small villain confrontation idea in Mr. Banjo Jr leading a crime spree parade, even had lyrics for him to sing about sticking it to the man I even named (bc I am insane at all times) “Rebel souls unfold” to work in more of a Music Miester-y way in leading the brainwashed Fawcettizens in attacking Bruce-as-Billy, all with lyrics of Banjo Jr hyping himself up and making it sound like a revolt against heroes. Honestly a lot of fun thinking up but it never got to the writing stage for a scene and I don’t know where I’d put it now that things are getting serious. I’ll probably post it when I have a full list of scraped concepts when this monster of a fic is finally over, haha

(Wow, I just switched to numbers instead of dots here, Holy moley)

There are a lot of scrapped ideas I feel confident in including later and other ones I want to foam at the mouth about with everyone but are all spoilers so aaaAAHHH but I continue on! Honestly, blame my brain for having so many ideas and only ever writing in flow of thought for this mess of brain matter in my cranium. Ugh

[duhragonball]

Requiem for a Bio-Broly

So I looked at the new Sparking Zero lineup, and it's currently at 184 characters, if you count the three DLC guys. And once again, Bio-Broly did not make the cut.

I'm not really surprised, but it is kind of interesting that this guy has never made it into any of these fighting games. He's in Dragon Ball Heroes and Dokkan stuff, and I'm pretty sure that's because those card-based style of games need as much variety as possible, which is why they do all those what-if characters and scenarios.

It only really surprised me when Budokai Tenkaichi 3 skipped him, because that game had a ginormous roster, to the point where it was tough to even guess how they'd fill all the slots. And unsurprisingly, often-overlooked movie villains like Garlic Junior and Dr. Wheelo were on the roster. But not Bio-Broly. I think that's when I first got intrigued about his exclusion from these games, because BT3 was the first game to get all of the other Z movie villains in it, and that made Bio-Broly conspicuous by his absence.

The later games had smaller rosters, but they also seemed eager to add some special attraction, usually a character who hadn't been used before. Raging Blast 2 had Hatchiyack, but also Androids 13 and 14. Battle of Z really touted Beerus and Whis, since I'm pretty sure that was their video game debut. And Xenoverse 2 has been adding DLC characters for the better part of a decade now. You'd think one of them might toss in Bio-Broly, if only for the novelty of it, but no.

I don't want to sound like some kind of Bio-Broly fan. The character sucks, and so does his movie. But he was still a movie villain. Like, that's kind of a special status in these games. They get used as bonus stage bosses or special unlockable guys, or whatever. GT is pretty awful too, but it's still fun to see Omega Shenron and Baby in these games. I would argue the games are the only time GT characters are really handled properly. I'm sure someone could come up with a cool story mode segment involving Bio-Broly. The quality of his movie is irrelevant.

So with this game, Sparking Zero, I figured he was probably going to finally get his spot, if only because there were so many spots to fill, and why not toss him in there, if only to get a complete set of movie baddies? But it looks like he got shafted again. I mean, they could still put him in as DLC, and I would think they'd just about have to. I mean, they probably want to do lots of DLC characters like with Xenoverse 2, but they already put so many characters in the base game, so who's left? They could do Cell Max, and some Daima characters, toss in some OG Dragon Ball and more Tournament of Power guys, but it's weird that we're even talking about this when there's a Z-Movie guy they've never used.

Like, imagine if Metal Cooler never got to be in any of these games. Everybody else, but for some reason Metal Cooler just never shows up. Movie 5 Cooler's there, and so is his final form, but no Metal Cooler, no explanation given. That'd be weird, right? After a while you'd wonder why that is. I mean, Cooler's henchmen have made it into some of the games. There's room for Metal Cooler, so why wouldn't they use it?

I think it's widely understood that Movie 11 is one of the worst, if not the worst of the DBZ movies. But I've never really seen anyone actively hating on it. It's more forgettable than offensive, and yet, Bio-Broly's exclusion from the games makes me wonder if that movie did more damage to the brand than I've ever known. Like, maybe it performed very poorly, or there's a lot of hard feelings over that production, so everyone at Toei just keeps the character as obscure as possible. I mean, they put him in the Dokkan and DBH games, but you never see like ads for that. Maybe they're worried that putting Bio-Broly in one of these roster reveal trailers would be so offensive to fans that it would hurt the sales? That seems pretty far-fetched, but that's where my mind goes on this.

Most likely, they just don't put him in because there's so little interest in the character, and there's always someone else they can stick in the game instead. I think there's a very real case to be made for adding in more Tournament of Power characters. If they put the whole Universe 10 team in a DLC pack before Bio-Broly, I'd be like "Yeah, that makes sense."

I just wonder where the bottom is. How big does the roster have to get before Bio-Broly becomes the next best choice for a new addition? 184 isn't the answer, but what about 200? 250? 300? When does it just get down to Bio-Broly and like... Shu wearing his fake Goku disguise?

I mean, obviously Fake Goku should be added before Bio-Broly. Look at this guy. He's great.

[sketchy-the-changeling]

Megatron gets the best moments in that movie. There's a bit of a trend in Western animation where revolutionary characters are villainized to promote a pro-status quo narrative that privileged people are enamored with, do you think this is the case? I personally only think it's like 5-10% true for this movie. I don't wanna sound like a centrist, but I kinda feel like both Optimus and Megatron make good points. Tho seeing Megatron dealing with Sentinel was pure satisfaction. What do you think?

This was what I mentioned earlier when I said there was something I wanted to marinate on with the film: does Megatron fall into that trap of making a villain that has so much of a point that you're questioning why they are even framed as a villain to begin with?

The conclusion I've come to is "no." Here's why.

Note, I will be referring to Orion/Optimus and D/Megatron as both of their given names depending on what part of the story I am discussing.

Also spoilers.

The moment Sentinel is revealed to be a fraud, there is no ambiguity that he needs to be dealt with. Sentinel is the real villain, and the film does not let up on that. Neither Orion nor the film itself ever suggest that Sentinel can be negotiated with or reasoned with. ALL of the protagonists are in agreement that he needs to be rid of because Sentinel sold out his people and manufactured a need for a lower class of Transformers, and the movie ends with the heroes eliminating the need to mine for energon, thus eliminating that need for a lower class, so the film is DEFINITELY not pro-status quo.

While there is one moment where Optimus tells Megatron not to kill Sentinel, it is only AFTER Sentinel is exposed as a fraud and the public knows the truth. I still wish Optimus didn't play the whole "this doesn't make us better than him" card cause his actual argument is "it's over. We already beat him. Our job is done."

And the movie still gives Megatron the satisfaction of killing Sentinel anyway and exacting his retribution even though he (Megatron) is ultimately exiled, so he isn't robbed of his rightful closure.

I think the movie does a good job of showing that the problem with D/Megatron's praxis isn't the fact that he is pro-retribution. It's that he has no long-term plan for the people, and a revolution has to be about the people. D's focus on self can be noted from the beginning of the movie. He often thinks about the consequences of things, but only as far as how they can harm him and his only friend, Orion, which isn't inherently evil so you don't really clock it.

Conversely, Orion is always thinking about uplifting the people, but at first his approach to that ideal is very unrefined and somewhat self-serving. However, you can see him refining his worldview in real time and realizing that it takes a communal effort to bring about change, rather than appealing to the current powers that be. The writers did their best to work around the fact that the maguffin is literally called the Matrix of Leadership to get this point across and while it's not perfect, I think it does its job.

All this being said, it's been less than 24 hours since I've seen the movie, so there may likely be some blind spots in my analysis, so my thoughts are subject to change, but that's where I'm currently at, as of this posting.

[thedevildeer]

People I’d like to know better

Thanks for tagging me lovely @mare-sanguis 💖

I’m not that interesting to get to know actually hehe, the last time I played this was like 3 years ago? 🫨

okay well let’s begin 🧑🏻‍🦯‍➡️

Last Song: “You don’t belong here” by Jeon Sejin from Black Out OST album. I’m a sucker for instrumental music, Korean dramas do have really nice instrumental soundtracks 👍🏻

Favorite Color: Black and Purple (and nude colors). Black is just perfect, I once wanted to dye my room all black but it didn’t work out haha. I like wearing all black or black & white, I feel confident and I think it suits me best, and purple I just LOVE different shades of purple because it gives me a sense of power, tho I don’t wear the color much but even my phone case is purple rn.

Last Book: Umm the last book I read must be, “A good girl’s guide to murder” one day after hitting the gym I stopped by the bookstore and it caught my eye, then I sat at the cafe nearby, started reading and couldn’t put it down, there’s a murder going on and after five years a high school girl decides to reveal the truth behind it. *yes I am a sucker for mystery thriller books/movies* I totally recommend the series, I’m reading the second book rn.

Last Movie: “Hijack 1971 2024”. In one word HEARTBREAKING. I couldn’t stop crying in the end. And “The Crow 2024” I like movies with dark themes, and crows are one of my favorite animals, such clever creatures 👌🏻 I used a line of the movie in my recent fic hehe

Last TV-Show: I just finished watching the last episode of “Doubt” a not surprisingly mystery drama. But I didn’t enjoy it as much? I mean the story was ok but it could be better if wrapped up in 6 eps instead of 12, a little bit hard to get through but the cinematography kept me going, loved it👌🏻 *beside thriller-mystery dramas you can fool me with dope cinematography😺*

Also I’m currently watching Go Jun’s “Oh my baby” his character is so boyfriend material istg and his outfits 👌🏻 thanks to costume department

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: I like all flavors, anything tasty is okay with me, but for me spicy is always first choice 🤤 I am allergic to it and my arms itch when I eat too much of it but will that stop me? HELL NO!

Relationship Status: In a longterm relationship with Leon S. Kennedy, Thank you very much (in delululand) other than that single, I love my own company more than anyone’s.

Last Thing I Googled: sounds boring but here we go, gold nanoparticles’ color 👁️👄👁️ um well I’m a masters student and I have to do research a lot so..

Current Obsession: Well as you can see by the state of my blog, Black Out.

Once in a year I get obsessed with a fictional couple and they ruin my life for that year and also stay at the back of my mind for my whole life (yes I haven’t forgotten about my other babies)

Looking Forward To: I wanna finish reading “If we were villains” it’s been sitting in my library for how long I don’t know T~T

Also I want to get through my fic drafts, at this point I don’t even know if anyone reads them, but I don’t wanna get discouraged. I just wanna get the ideas out of my mind and It’s kind of a practice for me, to gradually get better at writing hehe 🙌🏻

Well it seems we’ve reached the end, again thank you so much for tagging me @mare-sanguis 💖

I won’t tag anyone, since the people I currently interact with must’ve been tagged beforehand 😅

I enjoyed this~ ^^

I’ll drop some pretty shots of Go Jun’s drama as a thank you 😸🫶🏻

[laststandx3]

That idea the anon talked about sounds like The Wizard of Oz. If the movie WISH had revealed that King Magnifico was just a magician who hoarded magic items, yet had no real magic of his own, would you want him to work alone, or would he have an assistant or two like Mysterio?

confession time i didn't see far from home.

but for what i get from the movie mysterio and co were trying to have a sort of revenge on stark who didn't appreciate them enough. it's not a bad set up but i don't see something like that fitting for Magnifico's character.

first because magnifico is already in a position of power, he's not trying to have revenge or get more famous. he's already a the top. second because if we want to keep enough of Magnifico's original characterization having a team is the opposite of him, at least not a team he can trust on. If i have to parallel Magnifico to another villain who uses magic and has an assistant it would be Tzekel-Kan from the road to el dorado.

if magnifico didn't have his powers seems also likely that he would send others to do the hard work for him (collecting magical items...). he doesn't seem like the character who puts a lot of effort when he can delegate. Magnifico would use his assistant/assistants as pawns and/or as ingredients when needed.

i don't think the magic items hoarder set up works well with an assistant(s) who knows magnifico isn't all-powerful and helps him fool the people of rosa. mostly because such character would've no motivation to help magnifico like that. the assistant could be the queen, she helps him to maintain the status quo and keep herself in power.

but if you want an assistant(s) who isn't the queen you have to give them a pretty strong motivation to have them lie to the kingdom AND to not betray magnifico (if the magic comes from external source there's no reason they couldn't be king themselves). and the motivation could be love, or devotion or fear but still needs to be a strong one.

personally for how i see magnifico's character (who lied even to his wife) it seems more fitting that if he has an assistant(s) he would lie and manipulate them. tell them the magic items he owns he actually keeps them to protect the kingdom etc. they follow and obey the king because they think it's the right thing to do. also in canon magnifico is paranoid about facing a stronger magic and he HAS magic. he wouldn't risk to have his secret out. (nevermind he spilled everything about the wishes to Asha the moment he met her, but that was just bad writing imo, an excuse to set the movie in motion as fast as possible)

[mha-grievances]

I wanted to say that Izuku attainting OFA was a good idea, because Izuku's quirkless nature should have helped him understand Hero society in a different light unlike his classmates with few exceptions (Shouji, Shoto, etc.) who take the status quo for granted. But Hori can't stop whitewashing Bakugo's actions towards Izuku, this never gets explored to Izuku's detriment. Not to mention AM past being quirkless, how much did OFA warp his perspective before Izuku reminded him again about the true meaning of being a hero.

If I had my way, I would have Izuku have little to no struggle mastering OFA, of course build up his strength overtime. But Izuku would be the OverDog, someone powerless thrusted with an immense power. Kind of like One Punch Man only more dramatic because a teenager with mental issues and heroic nature effectively has the power of Superman. Now Izuku would have to ask himself some serious questions about what kind of hero he wants to be and why. Does fighting as a hero mean upholding hero society for all its flaws or does it need to be teared down for something better. How much is a hero still a hero before he is a vigilante or even a revolutionary? Which should be a good lesson for kids and young adults reading this story, because it's not enough to covet an important position of power like Naruto wanting to be Hokage, Luffy being the Pirate King or being Number 1 hero but what are you going to do after attainting this position? They need to understand the burden of responsibility rather then putting a fancy title on their resume.

But Hori wasted this opportunity by having Izuku as the fake underdog, struggling with mastering OFA as his main focus in the story. Izuku spent his time worried about mastering OFA rather then thinking about the flaws and ways to fix things. Its also a waste of world building potential because if Izuku is self-reflective like he supposed to be, then he could have been sympathizing with villains or view certain heroes as no different than bullies like at his middle school. Suddenly what was once black and white has become grey, even All-Might can't give him any good answers because the Hero Society he has built is the legacy that he fought so hard for and doesn't see anything wrong with it yet. We could have disagreements between Izuku and All-Might about these issues and what kind of purpose should OFA be about before and after AFO was revealed to be alive and ready for revenge.

This is why I hate the Quirkless Hero Izuku stories because the way Hero society is structured, it would never have allowed for Izuku to succeed in the first place. Eraserhead would have expelled him, schools would firmly reject him and people would just laugh at him for being arrogant to think he could provide any value in the field besides his smarts which could be suited elsewhere.

A quirkless Izuku would require a change of personality and plot armor for him to prevail. These stories become all about the Struggle rather then how twisted and unfair the system. Even compensating with technology devalues Izuku's character because he loves studying quirks! It makes him a great leader helping him bulid teams for the right scenario and placing value in everyone's quirk no matter how useless or villainous it may be. Having technology to compete with quirks would become impossible without changing the setting entirely.

A quirkless Izuku would also seem self-centered at this point because yes he wants to be a hero, but he could be a Police officer or firefighter to satisfy his heroic impulses. It could even be a point in the original story, which is partly why i think many people still feel that frustrated about this subject because Hori failed or was reluctant to explore this topic with Izuku and covers for Bakugo's BS. Man I sound like a broken record, it always leads back to Bakugo lol.

I definitely agree with the first half.

With the second half, I think a quirkless hero would definitely work, but you’d also have to place limits on what can be achieved. As a hero, Izuku would be street level. Think Batman, DareDevil, and Punisher. He wouldn’t go after people that can shatter buildings with a punch. He’d go after people running drug cartels and involved with gang activity. About 85% of people in the MHA world would die to some bloke with a gun, so have him fight those people instead of the ones that can’t. He doesn’t have to be a line light hero because that was never his goal to begin with. He just wanted to help people. He can also use technology to fight people since the tech in MHA is extremely advanced, but keep in mind that Izuku doesn’t have the funds to create all the things he might want to, so he’d have to stick with some more basic stuff until he can afford the materials to build something better.

[lenteur]

random thoughts about strong girl nam soon, episode five (pt 1)

(read more because i always get carried away lol and this post might contain spoilers)

hopefully nam soon will be more efficient at being discreet. Even though i don't count on it

i just realized there are eleven episodes left after i finish this one so i kind of understand why it took some time to introduce the villain and develop the story.

I still can't believe the chief of the diu team put the dr*g in his mouth. I think the writers decided to do that because when the chief d1es, the charges against doogo will be heavier and he'll be incriminated for longer. But anyway, it still doesn't make sense that someone who's worked for such a long time in a diu team went and made a rookie mistake, especially given the fact that the whole team saw the effects it had on the two victims of said dr*g. Talk about lack of creativity. I would've understood if he went to the hospital to, let's say, visit a family member and then they gave him the fatal mask. That would have made a lot more sense a lot but no, they chose something so stupid even a rookie would have thought before doing such a thing. Oh and let's not forget how hee sik told him SECONDS BEFORE how the drug works. Talk about impulsive thoughts.

Sorry i'm very disappointed by such reckless behaviour from someone who should know better.

I know i've said nam soon is doing a terrible job at laying on the down low but i do appreciate her enthusiasm. She has lead a pure life, rid of bad intentions so she is adamant on catching the villain and stopping the k1lling of so many victims.

Hee sik being stunned by her super powers is hilarious. He's seen it before but he doesn't know the extent of it. By the end of the drama, he'll just be so impressed he'll become numb to it.

The bells ringing whenever his heart flutters over nam soon.

Nam soon running with hee sik in her arms adds a lot of fun to this moment. He's already become numb to it.

The veins on the ryu si o's arms and back. He's the first experiment of his own drug. I don't know how the makeup/vfx artists did it but it's a really good job. The veins don't look fake.

I'm sorry but hwang geum ju is so badass and elegant at the same time. How does she do that? And the fact she's riding a motorcycle? She's catwoman!!!

who's following hwang geum ju? It's the guy who gave her the opulentia card.

I'm wondering why she revealed her identity so quickly. I mean it could have been dangerous. But we don't know if she gave her identity when signing up to the opulentia site. Or did she need to create an account? Anyway if I were her, I would've kept my helmet on. Would have worked better for the undercover mission.

The vice chairman of opulentia, i wonder if it's his real voice because it sounds like one of those voices you hear when taking a TOEIC exam for example. It just threw me off. Also it looks like they asked him to speak very slowly and to articulate every word when talking in english. I don't know but it's weird. It doesn't sound natural is what I'm trying to say. If that's really how the man speaks, i would like to apologize.

Hwang geum ju's smile when she understood she shares the same goals as the opulentia vc. She finally found someone of "elite" status who wants to do good and not just keep earning money and keeping it to themselves. And i think that's a very beautiful thing to see that she's no longer alone in her quest to make the world a better place. She really found someone she wants to associate herself with.

Cute! They're now officially a team.

Hee sik using any excuse to be with nam soon. We know what you're trying to do. I just appreciate all the little details the show gives us to drop hints that they're going to be a couple by the end of the drama.

Talking about hwang geum dong, they chose the perfect actor to play him because he has this tired look on his face already and he mastered the art of using it to his advantage.

Ever since she literally fell on top of hee sik, nam soon's heart doesn't have as much space for her kpop idols. Accurate representation of kpop stans when they get a real life partner lmao

[fragments-of-despair]

Finished chapter 4. I'll keep my thoughts brief. Don't worry. They're mostly positives this time.

Of course, trying to keep it vague enough, but spoilers ahead.

First, the positives.

This was by far the most interesting mystery out of the entire game. The intricacies, the careful planning, the mastermind reveal. All of it worked perfectly. Even when I figured out where it was going, I was still surprised and impressed with the overall solution.

Also, Vivia Twilight?

BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY

I adored his development this chapter and loved how his Forte and personal convictions and worldview influenced the investigation. I can't really describe anything about it without spoiling too much, but like, damn, he's worth the $60 price tag. I can see why the one side NPC fell in love. Vivia is just AMAZING.

Also, this was probably Shinigami's best outing. She was still her usual self, but she also met her match in Vivia, and the overall story really started getting to her in a way the other cases didn't. So when the culprit reveal happened and she reaped the soul, it made sense why it went the way it did. And I found myself getting a bit emotional over this culprit along with all the detectives.

That being said, I'm still rather disappointed in the lack of true comradery between Yuma and the other detectives, as well as the lack of character conflict between the Nocturnal Detective Agency and the Peacekeepers. Most of the characters still feel like they're just kind of there, especially the villains. And that leaves everything feeling rather bare bones without even scraps to nibble on.

It might sound weird, but I think what hinders this game is the fact that you don't really interact with anyone outside of the main mystery and the Gab mechanic, and that mechanic is easy to pass over if you don't find all the statues and don't actively go out of your way to find them all. If they had made Kanai World more of an open box to explore like, say, a Legend of Zelda or Assassin's Creed game, where you unlock certain cases and interact with certain characters based on certain conditions and are encouraged to explore the world, I think I would have found the emotional core of this chapter more hard hitting.

Give me side quests where you go undercover with Desuhiko more and master a relationship meter or something similar.

Give me side quests where you and Halara take on cold cases and you work on paying off your debt to them you incur in chapter 2.

Go on more adventures with Fubuki to unlock certain districts in Kanai Ward and learn more about the outside world.

Give me lore based adventures with Yakou and Vivia, who are supposed to have this strong bond based on the emotional core of this chapter.

And make it so that your choices can affect how you go through the Mystery Labyrinth in the main story chapter. Have the Master Detectives come with you and actually have them help more with the investigations in there because as it stands, the only ones who really justified being there were Vivia and Halara, but that had to do more with the story rather than the gameplay.

I really, really want to love this game, but overall it feels empty. It easily could have been an 80-120 hour game if given the time and resources, and I feel like it would be all the better for it.

Hopefully chapter 5 sticks the landing because from my understanding, it's the final chapter, and I'm really hoping that it keeps improving where chapter 4 left us.

Overall, if I had to rank all of the chapters so far from best to worst, it'd look something like this:

Chapter 4: The Imperfect Insider

Chapter 2: A Silent Curtain Call

Chapter 0 and Prologue: Massacre on the Amaterasu Express/the WDO vs Amaterasu Corperation

Chapter 1: The Nail Man Killings

Chapter 3: No Longer a Detective (Chapter 3 curse lives on)

To be honest, I think I would have gladly waited another two or three years for Rain Code if it were filled with more than what we got.

As of right now, the only reasons I would say to get this game as is would be because of Yuma, Halara, Vivia, and the music. Otherwise, it might be better to wait until it's on sale.

Here's hoping chapter 5 stays on the upward trajectory and sticks the landing.

[ashitomarisu]

Final Thoughts: Kill la Kill

(Dead serious: the fucking screencap feature crashed right before I started watching this and refused to take anything. Instead, here's a gif already found around this site that sums up my feelings of not even getting one cap.)

Prepare yourselves, I need to unload a LOT of...thoughts without spoiling a screwton of shockers. First off, let's scratch the surface a bit; touch upon the summary I read.

"Ryuko Matoi arrives at Honnouji Academy to find the person responsible for killing her father; oh, and she's wielding the other half of the scissors used in the murder".

Okay, sounds simple enough, except Trigger and Production I.G. are known for BLOWING PEOPLE'S MINDS with near-stellar animation (99.9% mainly are within standards of the director) and damn good writing [watch Ghost in the Shell FFS; you'll understand why].

Thus, they were not kidding when the animation staff went all out: I MEAN FULL ON NAKED AMBITION to stay true to the manga; even if it means they had to push boundaries to bring you....NEAR R-RATED OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT with BALLS-TO-THE-WALL comedic effects that I am still trying to wrap in my head.

(For example, take Mako's gag.)

-----

NGL, the story was unexpected. For most of the first half, it seemed like typical "rise the rank" plot, although Episode 4 was....literal chef's kiss.

-----

(HEAR ME OUT! THIS EPISODE HAD ME LOSING MY HEAD WITH HOW IT STARTS OUT AS ABSURD AND UNUSUAL AS "GET YOUR ASS TO THE SCHOOL BEFORE THE BELL RINGS OR PERISH", except the bitch (Maiko) on the left kills me.

That's not me FFS.

They got Marina Inoue to voice her.

She's fucking insane with all these traps.

She IS a trap.

Every other episode involving a club did not hit as hard as this one. I can laugh my ass off just seeing the gifs all over again. Also, Ryuko in her jammies is hilarious).

-----

Moving on past the first half, Episodes 7-19 starts to ramp up the pacing a bit, seeing more of Ryuko and Mako's growth happening. I was actually getting interested in knowing the lore behind this until "the ball dropped".

[THIS NEXT SECTION REVEALS A HUGE SPOILER AND CONTROVERSY. IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS ANIME, DO NOT CONTINUE READING THIS POST.]

Let's talk about the final 6 episodes, which blew my mind in terms of plot twist (or plot torsion is what I should say because it was WAY more complicated yet so damn clever how crazy the direction went in two episodes).

For most of the season, I considered Ryuko and Satsuki as not sisters despite thinking they could be, but how it was revealed left me floored. In fact, Ragyo has got to be one of the best-written villains with the worst intentions to ever grace an animated series.

Around episode 18-19, the origin behind Life Fibers was revealed by Ragyo, when she wanted to use it for the purpose of erasing humanity, controlling the Earth's population. To go deeper, she actually tried to infuse these fibers on her own daughter, Satsuki, when she was a year old. This didn't work; therefore, she tried again on her next daughter shortly after birth, who is revealed to be Ryuko.

When that experiment failed, Ragyo assumed she died, so the baby was disposed of as if the poor thing was worthless trash.

[Side note: Listen, I may be pro-choice, but that...that was cringing as hell.]

Not only was that a plot twist, but Satsuki and her clan basically pulling a "psyche" move; turning against her own mother was freaking ambitious. Yes, it impressed me tenfold.

The final arc left me questioning the phrase "Clothes make the man".

This whole damn series had this theme behind "society", "social status", "hierarchy", and other related topics. It's obvious when you watch the first half how the rich are standing at the pinnacle of this massive territory while the slums are at the base of the so-called "mountain" I guess.

-----

I do want to mention another moment that solidifies just how vile Ragyo really is: IMPLIED INCESTUAL ACTS AMONG HER DAUGHTERS.

Not very many scenes were shown of Ragyo performing such lewd acts towards Satsuki but it was still enough to make me punch the bitch in the face. This makes her even more damning when she pulls this stunt on Ryuko during the "Junketsu phase".

Oh, and don't get me started with the supposed THIRD daughter.

(Let's just....move on before I go on a rant about this prick.)

------

As for everything else, the music seemed decent, although I do like the 2nd OP and ED more than the 1st. That 2nd ED though; Mako clones everywhere, they be hunting me down.

The cast was entertaining for the most part (Correction: she means Ami Koshimizu). Okay fine, this was Koshimizu's peak and I will not take no for an answer. You can suck it.

Overall, I wish I would have watched this long ago because BOY I REALLY SLEPT ON THIS GEM. The ending was baffling (with how Ragyo was like "screw this I'm out") yet satisifying (watch the credits damn it and look at MakoRyuko fanservice I did not even ask for).

Oh, speaking of that ending:

BITCH CUT HER HAIR.

It's not even 2015 yet and she prevented Dia Kurosawa from being a Satsuki clone.

----------

Enough talk. This was worth the decade-long wait. Great pacing, crazy direction, enjoyable scenes, badass high-octane action, superb animation, comedy that would leave your lungs scarred from overexertion, a heck of a lot of absurd fanservice that may force you to look away and mature themes that make you question humanity itself are plentiful reasons to check this out.

(Crunchyroll still has this available but not necessarily recommended since capitalism is making life hard right now to even consider this option. If you're lucky to find it the swashbuckling way, kudos to you!)

----------------------------------

With that, thank you for reading this lengthy post. Hopefully, you enjoyed my lil' spat. Before revealing next month's watch, there is one bit of news I must share to y'all.

It has come to my attention as of late that my personal journey as an aunt is going to become way more complicated. For the past several months, my older sister has kept her pregnancy a secret until late July. She didn't even know she was so far into it; but months of missed cycles had proven that point.

My role as an aunt has been a literal pain; dealing with an older, disabled autistic nephew and a younger, learning impaired nephew with their fathers absent from their lives who have no idea about the new brother arriving. Not to mention, to have three nephews from three different fathers just paints such an odd picture; considering some people out there would consider that a negative stigma.

What is even more shocking is how soon the due date is. Originally, my mom and I were hoping she was only in her first trimester; predicting April 2024. However, last week, my sister is actually about 32 weeks in. This doesn't give us a lot of time to prepare since we're going through a lot of financial hardship with the inflation and the state of capitalism at this time.

Thus, she is expecting on September 21, 2023; it is uncertain if her current boyfriend, who is the father, will be involved.

(Aside from the obvious meme, I am still in utter shock of how sudden this is and with my own life going through changes of its own, my mental health is taking a rough turn. So, there may be some revisions starting in October with the remaining anime watches; more information to be revealed sometime next month).

As for September, there will be a separate announcement for that coming within the next couple of days. Be sure to stay tuned for the reveal. Until next time, here's to the rest of the summer; stay hydrated, stay safe, and don't end up like these two down here.

[sweetcloverheart]

I can see where you two are coming from, and want to agree - but I feel this is forgetting:

Marinette in a later episode justifying (not acknowledging what she did was wrong, but arguing for it instead) the stalking by saying it "was for love" when Kagami points it out instead of just admitting that it was messed up/wrong (not helped by the writers having Kagami agree with her on the love part, but at least both state she's making a change)

The episode not just trying to justify the stalking but also (indirectly) all of Marinette's less savory jealously-fueled moments (Like how awful she was to Kagami in "Animaestro" and "Ikari Gozen" and initially going after Lila in "Volpina" because of her trying to cozy up to Adrien before the whole stolen grimoire thing (plus the immoral liar with multiple identities reveal)) with the "It's just trauma so it's not her fault" excuse.

The episode retroactively making Marinette's sillier stalker fangirl/overplanning moments also trauma and therefore also trying to justifying them because the writers have now made it that various castmember have either been helping her engage in these bad behaviors (thereby enabling Marinette's apparently negative trauma responses) or flat out retraumatizing her when pushing her out of her comfortzones in regards to Adrien.

This line right here:

That doesn't sound like not using your trauma to excuse your behavior; In fact, it sounds a lot like what the episode just claimed Chloe (and her fans) was doing that's apparently bad and invalidates her excuses - Blaming another person for your actions and not taking responsibility for yourself

Like, I can see how the episode could have been about Marinette realizing she has trauma with bullying that's causing bad behaviors and resolving to better herself (and all while comparing Chloe going through similar but choosing to continue with her negative coping mechanisms) - but it didn't do that. Instead, it made itself about how everything bad in the MLB universe and Marinette's life is all Chloe's fault because she's a monster with a pitch black heart and we must all think this or else we're just dumb naive idiots like Rose and Kim; oh and you can never criticize Marinette's for anything bad she does ever because she's a trauma victim now and anything bad she does/has done is excused with that and the same goes for everyone else! Even the villains get that excuse (except Chloe - who is, again, the source of all evil in the world. All her trauma isn't real/valid so you can criticize her all you like).

In their pursuit to deny Chloe her victim status and invalidate any trauma she had shown onscreen, the writers (very unintentionally) did the same to Marinette and the entire episode's premise; all because they cared more about "winning" against their imaginary critics than how they were damaging Marinette's character with this plotline. This could have been a good episode to help reflect on Marinette's growth as a character and how she's trying to break free of those bad habits she indulged in in the previous seasons, but instead they focused on clapping back at Chloe stan/Marinette salt tweets and trying to get their audience to hate what basically amounts to a very minor antag (especially in the grand scheme of the things going on in S5)

Since the finale is just around the corner, complete with a whole mountain of salt, I wanna throw one last salt before the tsunami.

I will never find it not ironic that this line basically saying your circumstances doesn't excuse your behavior, DURING an episode excusing someone's behavior because they have some circumstances.

Anyway, I'll see you all in the finale. I hope you all stay sane after that.

[thyandrawrites]

I wonder if people realize that the reason why the League was allowed to exist for as long as it did without violent suppression from the HPSC is only because of the threat of the noumu

So. We know from Nagant's backstory that anything capable of shaking up the status quo was quickly and covertly executed without much fanfare:

In fact, the Commission was so indiscriminate in applying that rule that both villains and heroes are said to have died under her rifle.

The reason why not even heroes were exempt from this ruthless retribution is simple. The Commission, as an institution born to regulate the spreading phenomenon of vigilantism and the chaos that follows, wasn't created with the purpose of administering justice, but rather to do just that: regulating society. They're not cops. They're an odd mix between politicians and spin doctors. On one hand, their official role is that of overseeing heroics as a whole—issuing hero licenses, coordinating pro heroes, analyzing and administering the data that goes into the hero rankings, that sort of thing. But on the other hand, their less official and more prominent role is that of puppet masters of the hero narrative. They feed a favourable (for the heroes, that is) interpretation of events to the media, and have done so for years, in order to protect the citizens' faith in the status quo.

This is why, for example, the truth of who Nagant actually killed to get thrown into jail isn't public knowledge. Letting the citizens know that she'd offed the Commission President would raise question. People would wonder why a fairly beloved heroine would turn against the institution that trained her. They'd want to know the motive behind the murder of such a prominent figure in the industry. In other words, revealing any specifics would not only expose their internal disputes to the public eye, but also, and most importantly, instill doubt.

That's what it always boils down to. The Commission exists for one purpose: protecting the hero system from anything that might make it crumble—be it doubt, social unrest, and last but not least the worst case scenarios themselves, mistrust for heroes and the reign of terror of villains.

The current arc gives us a bit more insight into that. What happens when the citizens stop trusting heroes as protectors? And what happens when villains shake up the population so much that hope and faith in things ever getting better starts to sound like a child's tale? Lawlessness is what happens. A second coming of the vigilantism era, where untrained and unregulated civilians take matters into their own hands to feel less vulnerable, to retain some control in the face of such uncertainty.

So we come full circle: all of this is why the Commission acted around the law so much, and sent Nagant against anyone who so much as thought of endangering the status quo, corrupted heroes included:

Prehemptive killing for the greater good was not above them, either. Nagant says it best: it's a system with two sides to it. The "good" side, the glorious one that gets the spotlight, made of heroes as saviors and cool fighters who protect people from the bad guys... And then the dark side, the ugly truth that for such neat labels to exist, anything blurring the lines or threatening that artificial peace had to be violently shot in the head for appearances sake. So much so, that even "starting to talk about it" is considered a life sentence.

Enter the League.

This is where things get interesting, because the Lov seems to challenge everything I just went over, at least on the surface.

If it's true that even voicing discontent about the current state of things warrants a quick and covert execution... how come Shigaraki&co could merrily call themselves The League of Villains and put out a whole Manifesto of Everything Wrong with the Hero System without getting their throats cut by a featherblade two days later?

At face value, it might seem like such suppression methods are a thing of the past. They were true once, but now things aren't as dire as they used to be.

Except... This isn't true. It's become a lot subtler than a gun-themed heroine shooting people in the head, true, but... *gestures at Hawks and Twice's subplot* this is still very much a thing. Twice was killed for the threat his quirk at full power posed to hero society.

He wasn't arrested and thrown into Tartarus. He was murdered on the spot for the crime of possessing a dangerous quirk. Not even using it. Possessing it. It couldn't get more obvious if it tried: it's a blantant parallel to Nagant executing that guy above. Again, not for the crime of acting on his subversive ploys. But for discussing them.

Let me clarify that I'm not digging this back up to spark another debate on Ethics and Choices. This fandom has seen enough essays on that already. I'm bringing up the example of Twice specifically because Twice was killed by Hawks, a Commission operative, on Commission's orders. This is significant because it's meant to say more about the institution that regulates heroics more than it does about the victim of their brainwashing.

It's an established unspoken rule that heroes don't kill. The story goes above and beyond to state this. No matter how vile villains are, under normal circumstances they're always captured alive. Take for example All For One. He's arguably much more dangerous than Twice. While it's true that Twice's quirk could potentially overthrow an army and thus throw the nation into chaos, the more doubles he makes, the frailer they become. His strength lies purely in numbers, but a single skilled pro hero was enough to overpower him and render him harmless. AFO, on the other hand, has his finger in every pie and doesn't just rely on a quirk (or five or a dozen) to be dangerous. He has a network of loyal henchmen, he has enough charisma to draw followers to him, and his power extends beyond Japan. It reaches all the way across the ocean and into America. He's feared on a woldwide scale. Yet, he wasn't assassinated on the spot. He was thrown into Tartarus, despite how clear it's now become that keeping him alive was a huge faux pas for the heroes. So why did they?

The reason is simple. It was All Might who brought him in, and not the Commission. We know that they too had their eyes on him,

and it's not hard to guess what Nagant was asked to do if she were to find him. But All Might is no hired gun, and he doesn't answer directly to the HPSC. Thus, AFO got to live, unlike anyone else the Commission deems "a threat."

Now, while Hawks has less of a double life than Nagant, he's still expected to carry out orders for what the Commission decides is the greater good. Just like his predecessor. Since he was taken in as her replacement, the truth of the matter is that he inherited her role as the Hand of the Commission. He handles their dirty laundry, oftentimes against his will,

because it is "necessary" to bring peace.

The only real difference between them is that unlike Nagant, his talents lie more in the reconnaissance and intel gathering fields, so we don't see him act as a hired assassin more than that single time. Yet, I want to underline that the spying he does is still on Commission's orders, and as such, it is instrumental to the Commission's agenda as much as Nagant's assassinations. Besides, the fact that Hawks struck to kill despite his private desire to save Twice further emphasizes that the HPSC hasn't changed overnight simply because their President changed. When an individual becomes too dangerous, too much of a threat to what they've built, the killing order can still be issued—and it has been.

But over time, their need for manifacturing an illusion of peace lessened. I'm not sure how Kaina's and Toshinori's timelines intersect since we aren't given clear ages for either... But... with All Might's rise to the top, organized crime took a beating and dropped at historic lows. As such, I assume there were less and less potential threats to the status quo, and society thrived in actual peace without a need for the Commission to kill people in the shadows.

In fact, organized crime is so outdated that when Shigaraki comes around and starts recruiting allies, what he gathers is a bunch of uncoordinated small fries.

As usual Viz phrases things with zero sympathy for the villains and waters it down to "kicked around" but both the og Japanese and the official Italian translation here say "oppressed". These 72 people followed Shigaraki because they felt the allure of lashing out at hero society. It was a suicide expedition, attacking a school packed with pros, but they still did it. All of them except Shigaraki and Kurogiri were apprehended, with most of them swiftly defeated by a bunch of high school freshmen. We could go as far as calling this first attempt at a villain group disorganized crime.

So between Nagant's and All Might's combined efforts, people who are dissatisfied with hero society have all but stopped gathering together to express those complaints, or to plan an effective way to change things. Either by choice or by force.

This of course doesn't mean society naturally evolved into something everyone's satisfied with. We know from many characters' backstories that despite the front as an utopia, hero society is not devoid of flaws. Inequality and discrimination run rampant, and with them, an anti-establishment sentiment from all those people oppressed or overlooked by it. But by the current point in the story, when the League is officially created, the Commission successfully achieved their goal: making those sociopolitical fringes of the population so small and quiet—as opposed to the all-encompassing faith in heroism—that they've basically become irrelevant. A minority that still exists, but that can be silenced easily with the iron fist of the law if need be.

But then the League went and ruined that. They not only succeeded at spreading fear amongst the population, but they've also exposed all the cracks in the system, rendering it vulnerable. Where fear festers, doubt seeps in. And we've seen what happened when the League was left to grow stronger and stronger. They've eventually gotten strong enough to level cities alone, and they've put enough of a dent in that faith that civilians don't trust heroes by default anymore.

So why are they still breathing? Why did the Commission take the risk of letting them be, allowing them to gather more and more allies and cement themselves as the rulers of the underworld until they became strong enough to potentially destroy the hero system itself?

The noumu. I'm telling you, it's because of the noumu.

No, but seriously. It's really because, at least at first, the League was a relatively small fry, compared to the threat of bioengineered superhumans. Shigaraki didn't leave enough of an impression on the police working on the case to suggest they believed he would make it far. They labeled him an unstable manchild, someone more fearsome on accounts of his ability to just throw noumu at problems than because he was fearsome himself. The only serious threat the League posed at USJ was thanks to that single noumu. Then there's Hosu, and Shigaraki only appears to unleash several weaker, white ones to wreack havoc.

By then, the Commission starts taking an interest in the Lov. We are told that Hawks was supposed to take part in the Kamino raid,

but didn't because he couldn't make it on time.

But interestingly, they also hint that this entire operation was rushed. Storming the place before they could get more intel on the League and on the noumu wasn't the plan. But a student was kidnapped under the pros' noses, and the school was in hot waters with the media for it.

Now, let's consider for a moment UA's status. As one of the most important hero schools in the country, and as the sole one that televises its sport festival every year as a big spectacle on par with the Olympics, UA has both prestige and power. Probably more than other schools, in fact, considering they're always everyone's first choice both when it comes to enrolling in it and when pros needs interns and manpower to thicken their ranks. UA is the dream of many starry eyed kids who hope to make it big in the industry.

Yet, all that prestige and status doesn't stop them from becoming a target for public blame. The fact that the media put the school under scrutiny for how they handled the crisis at training camp is not just bad press for the school. It's also bad press for heroes in general because UA is widely regarded as the pinnacle of the hero industry. They train the best students to become top of the food chain once they reach pro. There's a reason why Bakugou, obsessed with being the best, wanted to enroll in UA and not, say, Shiketsu. UA's name itself is a pun on the Japanese word for "hero" (UA, read as Yuuei, is eiyuu, hero, backwards).

So a failure of the school is a failure that is capable of shaking the trust in heroism itself. And that's precisely what worries the Commission.

After all, we know from later arcs that they don't actually care about endagering students at all. In fact, they're perfectly fine letting kids be on the frontlines of a war without even informing their parents of where their kids are being sent to. So, to tie this back to the question by the journalist above, the Commission isn't interested in reassuring the families of their students that the kids are fine. All they care about is what they've always cared about: spinning a narrative where faith in heroes is justified by results. Since heroes always return from a mission with a victory in the bag, the trust that the public puts in them, and thus the HPSC by association, is well-placed and needs not be questioned.

So when the attack on training camp happens and the heroes face one of their first real losses—26 wounded, 1 kidnapped—the Commission scrambles to fix this PR disaster. Despite the sparse intelligence they have on the League, and despite their own reticence, they greenlight the Kamino raid anyway. They think that what they have is enough to sate the angry media into trusting them again. They'll rescue the kid and thus save face. And if in the process they can apprehend the League and destroy a noumu lab all at once? Even better. But publicly, it's for the kid.

Except, it turns out that the lab was a decoy, and not the original place where the noumu come from. It was planted there as a distraction, or possibly as a storage unit for Shigaraki to use freely, but disposing of it doesn't neutralize the threat of the noumu science itself. And indeed, AFO'S appearance soon after proves just that. He comes with more monsters in tow, and has his own teleporting quirk to move them around. Basically, AFO was playing two moves ahead of the HPSC. And I think Kamino is where the Commission finally realized that, too.

So what do they do next? They show us their real agenda for the first time and plant a mole in the League's ranks.

The primary goal of Hawks' infiltration was always that of finding out the true location of Ujiko's lab. Getting close enough to the League to better get the jump on them when they're vulnerable was only secondary. The proof is that the raid only gets a green light when Twice makes the mistake of mentioning the hospital to Hawks.

And Hawks dutifully relays it to the Commission. Thanks to this intel, they track down the clinic, send an undercover agent, snap a pic of one of the little noumu, and deduce that's where the secret, underground villain lair was all along. And the operation—which is notably issued by the HPSC itself, which entrust it to Endvr—is a go.

And you know what's even more telling? That once Ujiko is safely in hero custody and can no longer make minions for AFO... All the pro heros finally get the authorization to kill the League on sight.

So yeah. That was a really roundabout way of saying that the times where the Commission assassinates its enemies in cold blood are far from over. The League were just lucky to have AFO behind them to buy them time. But eventually, even that ran out, because the HPSC is not, and has never been, sunshine and rainbows and second chances

[kittydemon9000]

The Beginning of Heatstroke, aka Red's Villain Origin

* crashes down from the ceiling * I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED ONE OF MY 5+ CURRENT WRITING PROJECTS! BEHOLD, A WRITTEN VERSION OF THE 'Red's Villain Origin AU', also known as RVO / Heatstroke AU

To summarize the AU for SPBNR for those that don't now it: 

“Who'd be the biggest conspiracy theorist out of the M!Ninja? The one who drinks 5 hour energy at 3am and spits off the craziest theories and then actually gets it right but nobody gives the theory any merit because the rest of the theories are too crazy?”

The answer: Red / M!Kai

Red: Okay hear me out: Smith is actually an alternative version of one of us sent here from another dimension.

The other M!Ninja: You’re just saying that because Smith’s cool and you want him to be your counterpart

Based on the M!ninja making red cork boards trying to figure out ‘What Is Up With Smith’: Red gets increasingly accurate and nobody will believe him (all pre shogun reveal) and he eventually snaps and takes up a secret villain persona to fight Shogun like 'if they won't believe me I'll do it myself' and it gets awkward when he accidentally does too much damage and catches not only Shogun's attention like planned, but also the rest of the Ninjaforce, and now he has to keep his own identity a secret

So, without further ado, I present... Heatstroke

------------

Red blamed the 5-hour energy coffee blend at 3:00am for this.

It was no surprise that between ‘Operation: What’s Going on with Smith’ & the sudden appearance of Shogun that the resident Bounty red-stringed ‘joke’ cork-board doubled in size and seriousness. It also was no surprise that Red had a corner all to himself and that his theories were… in the words of the others, ‘wildly inaccurate and implausible’.

But this time, he was sure he’d gotten it right.

Smith is Shogun sent here from another continent/planet/dimension with the goal of protecting Ninjago City.

The latest string of laughs and scoffs at his theory was the last straw. He’d show them. He’d prove it!

Which was why he was currently standing on the roof of a noodle house, awkwardly adjusting the spare motorcycle helmet he’d ‘borrowed’ from Nya and painted black and orangey-yellow (red had seemed too obvious). He’d exchanged his Ninjaforce outfit for a soot-burned cross between a bomber jacket and a leather jacket. Down his back jutted a row of flames like the spines of a monster, courtesy of one of Nya & Jay’s unfinished inventions Red had modified- surely nothing bad would come of that!

For tonight, the Red Ninja was off-duty. For tonight, it was Heatstroke’s turn.

He fiddled with one of the weapons he’d ‘lent out’ from Master Wu. It resembled a small arm canon, like a smaller version of the Ultimate Weapon. The plaque under its post had read ‘Elemental Focuser’, which, in cryptic Wu speak, probably translated to ‘you can use an elemental power like something out of Avatar: The Last Airbender’. So far he’d only figured out how to activate a focused jet of fire. Well, at least it was on brand. He hoped it would help him catch Shogun’s attention so he could unmask him.

He’d tried confronting Smith at school, of course. But there were only so many ways of saying ‘are you the new vigilante helping the ninjas’, and Smith has a genuine talent for dancing around the topic. Red could confront him with the name Shogun to get a proper reaction, but that would mean explaining how he knew the name and outing himself as the Red Ninja.

So fake villainy really was the only way.

His plan was to use the Elemental Focuser to cause some minor petty damage, just enough to attract the new vigilante. Perhaps set a trash can on fire, block an alleyway with rocks (if he figured out how to change the setting from fire to earth), small things that could easily be repaired.

Of course, plans were never actually stuck to. One way or another, something was always improvised.

Red’s improvisation just happened to involve him accidentally setting the entire alleyway on fire.

He’d only been aiming for one dumpster, honest! And maybe he’d spotted a couple fliers for a SoG meeting on the ground and happened to burn those too. And a newspaper article blaming Lloyd for the recent Garmadon attack, again. And an article about those ‘Damn Ninja Menaces’ by a S. Sonah Sameson. And-

Okay, so maybe Red had aimed the fire at a few small targets. But just a few! And with good reason and good care, but…

Well, fire liked to burn. Give it enough kindle and it’ll continue to grow, stretching like reaching branches towards each other to join in a massive bonfire. 

So now the entire alleyway was on fire, and Red was panicking. 

He’d luckily chosen an abandoned part of town near the beaches where Shogun sightings seemed most frequent, but with the stupid Elemental Focuser not switching from fire mode to water mode or ice mode or something that didn’t have the potential to burn Ninjago City to the ground, Red had no way of stopping the flames.

And more flames meant more destruction which meant a bigger audience.

Which was why his previously muted comm suddenly flared to life, the only warning Red had before Nya’s water strider mech slid around the corner.

Red scrambled onto a roof as the mech drove past, spraying water at the bonfire to dose it. His sigh of relief was just as quickly dosed as Lloyd’s voice came over the comms; “Status, Grey?”

“Flames are out,” Nya replied. “Pursing the joker that set it ablaze.”

Uh oh. Red took off across the roof, leaping from building to building. Tiles creaked, pebbled and dust scattering underfoot. The sounds of the mech’s engine roaring behind him echoed through alleyways below to create the illusion the mech was everywhere at once. 

As the chase grew on, more mechs started to join in. Red ducked into a narrow avenue to avoid Zane’s tank, then under a cafe overhang to throw off Jay and Lloyd. His heart hammered in his chest and he groaned, filling the inside of the motorcycle helmet with steam. Saying this was going ‘bad’ would be the understatement of the century. 

What had he been thinking? Oh wait: he hadn’t. Seriously? ‘Oh I’ll just pretend to be a villain real quick, that should get Shogun’s attention and not the attention of literally my entire team of fellow ninjas!’ Stupid, impulsive, this was why everyone was always calling the red ninja the ‘hothead’ when he really tried not to be- Lloyd’s voice over the comms snapped him from his thoughts. “I can’t catch them! It’s like they know our every move!”

Red winced as he climbed up a banister and leapt from balcony to balcony. Sorry, Lloyd. 

He didn’t miss how the others asked Nya where Red was. And how she made up excuses the others bought so easily- granted, he’d told those excuses to his sister before setting his plan into motion, but still, ouch. They acted like he was simply being at best too busy and at worst lazy and selfish.

He just wanted them to know the truth! Why couldn’t they at least try to believe him when-

Of course, that was when Shogun dropped out of the sky and tackled him.

Red shouted with surprise as he tumbled down from the second floor, slamming into a few softer bags of garbage to break his fall before rolling and slamming into the unforgiving concrete. A crack formed in his vision as the visor of his motorbike helmet smacked into the concrete ground. One of the fire jets on his back sputtered and sparked, sending a thin wisp of smoke into the air.

Shogun pinned his wrists to the ground and growled. “Who are you?”

Red tried to break free, agony turning his muscles and bones to fire with the movement after his fall, but the vigilante was too strong. Damn, how often did this guy train?

“Who am I?” Red said, a nervous tinge to his voice. He quickly smoothed it over with faked confidence. “Who are you? Who are all of us, really?”

Shogun narrowed his eyes behind his hood. “Did Garmadon send you? Or someone else?”

Red sputtered. Really, the nerve! Garmadon? The thought turned his insides to disgusting mud. “Nobody sent me!”

“Then why are you here?” Shogun spat.

“Why am I here?” Why was he here again? Oh right, the bright idea on how to reveal that Shogun was Smith. “It’s, uh… a valid reason! That I don’t have to tell you!” He tried for a villainous laugh. Stay in character, don’t blow your cover, you got this!

Shogun was unimpressed. “Nearly burning down my home was a valid reason?”

“Well, I wasn’t trying to set everything on- wait, WHAT?” Uh oh. “You LIVE here?”

Now it was Shogun’s turn to look uncomfortable, though the expression was quickly wiped from his face. “Nothing wrong with this district.” 

Red nodded. “‘Course not. Uh, sorry about that… wasn’t my intention, I swear.”

Shoot, he could hear Jay’s jet getting closer. He had to get out of here, but Shogun, annoyingly, didn’t seem to be in the mood to simply let him go. “Then what is your intention?”

“Well, for starters, it’s getting out of here. This really isn’t going to plan and I’d rather just be home right now, or even inventing a time machine like in that book ‘Hands of Time’ to slap my past self in the face for even thinking about this stupid idea in the first place-“

Jay wasn’t the only one that could ramble under pressure, it seemed.

Shogun leaned closer. “What idea?”

Red shrugged as best he could with how he was pinned to the ground. “Well, for starters, I just wanted to prove to my friends that you’re Smith, and things just kinda escalated from-”

The words were out of his mouth before he realized what he said. 

Shogun lurched back, letting go of him. His eyes betrayed a kaleidoscope of emotions; surprise, worry, suspicious, hurt, fear, realization. 

“…Kai?”

Well, f!ck.

“I-“

Red was about to badly attempt to bullsh!t his way out of his identity reveal before it suddenly dawned on him that Shogun had not denied his theory. 

Which meant Shogun was Smith.

And it also meant Smith instantly recognized him as Kai, which, considering his disguise, was aptly concerning. Sure, he was the first one in his group of friends people would think to do something this extreme but give him some credit! Zane was a regular detective, he’d do the same if it meant answers! Or, well, at least something similar. And Nya could be an adrenaline seeker. And Lloyd- well, maybe not Lloyd. Or Jay, either. Cole had his head just enough on his shoulders that he probably wouldn’t do this either.

But come on, instantly guessing it?

Well, at least Smith/Shogun didn’t know Kai was the Red Ninja. That would be a catastrophe.

Right. Back to the current catastrophe at hand.

Shogun- Smith- still had a look as if he’d been slapped, and Red hated it. He hadn’t meant to hurt his friend. Shogun… Shogun hadn’t wanted them to find out his identity. And then Red had gone and done it, just to prove that he could be the smart one, or a leader, or the protector so they didn’t get hurt, or literally anything but just the ‘hotheaded one’. 

…And he’d done it in the most hotheaded, impulsive way possible.

He really was an idiot.

The cracked helmet hid the look on his face, a twisted mess of distraught and shame. But it didn’t help hide how he took stumbled to his feet and away from Smith, nervous that any second he’d spill another mistake and mess up again, like how he always freaking messed up on everything. Don’t pick this fight, interject there instead, no, not there, idiot, there, FMS why are you so useless-

Focus, focus.

Lloyd’s voice, sharp in the intercom and full of static from his tumble, snapped him from his thoughts. “Anyone got eyes on the arsonist?”

Red caught Smith’s eye as he raised his hand to his own communicator. He was so screwed, so busted, so doomed… Smith would report it, and the others would know, and they’d think he was just messing around in an alleyway with some stolen devices and weapons out of curiosity or rage, - and-

“None yet, still looking.”

…What?

Smith stared at him, gaze searching. He looked shaken, more so than Red- who’d just taken a fall from a second story, mind you, it was a miracle he wasn’t more injured than a couple small scrapes and some future bruises-, yet everything from the set of his jaw to the softening of his furrowed brows suggested a change in emotions. Well, not quite change; more like repress and replace.

“You wanted to prove yourself, didn’t you.”

Red flushed, hand instinctually clamping into a tight fist at his side. The still-working fire jets on his back ignited without him pressing any buttons; faulty activation from the fall or something. 

Palms up and hands raised, Smith silently asked to defuse the situation. “Didn’t mean it as an insult. This wasn’t about venting some anger, was it.”

Red’s lack of response only confirmed it. Smith continued. “I won’t say anything about this if you don’t tell anyone my identity. Deal? I know finding it out was important to you, but-“

“Deal,” Red interrupted. Guilt ate away at his core, like a wave of water dousing a candle. “Smith, I-“ He swallowed hard and stared at the alley floor. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… to…”

Smith’s hand was suddenly on his shoulder and he flinched before relaxing as Smith didn’t move further, nor did the grip tighten. “I’m a little hurt, you’re right. But I’m not mad. And I won’t tell the others, so you can relax. But you better get out of here and get yourself an alibi. We can talk at school or something.”

Wow, he was handling this rather calmly. Red was struck by the sudden memory of- what did Jay call the word? Right. Compartmentalizing. That… wasn’t healthy. But at the roar of Lloyd’s mech somewhere nearby, he didn’t comment further. Instead, he shot Smith a grateful nod and ran down the alley, sticking to the shadows and blind spots of the flying mechs and the tight alleyways where the land mechs couldn’t reach him. 

When he got home, miraculously without further incident (though Shogun leading the others on a wild goose chase over the comms certainly helped there), he ditched the outfit in a bag hidden beneath a loose floorboard in the shed. He’d return the weapon to Master Wu’s ship later, and… well, hope Nya never searched for the missing supplies. There wasn’t a way of fixing it without involving her or Jay, and neither was an option.

Heatstroke was back off duty, and so was the Red Ninja.

For now, he could just be Kai Smith. And there wasn’t any issue with that.

…

Right?

—————

yooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

THIS IS AMAZING REHJJGFHDESFXJVZ

and ah yes, good ol trauma and compartmentalizing, we love to see it