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popculturebuffet · 10 months ago

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Transformers More than Meets the Eye Retrospective: Intermission: Robots in Disguise Season 1 Retrospective (Patreon Review for Brotoman.EXE)

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to my More than Meets the Eye retrospective. Kinda. For those of you just joining us for the past two years i've been doing a retrospective of the Transformers comic More than Meets the Eye, one of my faviorite comics ever. While it is as a patreon review i've been more than happy to and in december we hit the end of season 1.

So now.. we're in a weird in between place, as season 1 for MTMTE is over.. but we still have a big crossover event left. And to judge said event fairly.... I realzied I had to go back and re-read Robots in Disguise to properly gage said event.

Yeah i've never been a huge fan of the 2012 comic Robots in Disguise. See I first read RiD AFTER More than Meets the Eye, having loved what I could read of MTMTE and wanting more. This... wasn't the right mindset in hindsight as the two works are completely diffrent beasts: MTMTE is about a found family of disfunctional robots trying to move on from war, making quips, and dealing with their trauma. It is a LOT of things I love in fiction: a bunch of misfits who don't really fit into the society their a part of, clever jokes, spectacular world building, and minor characters given their day in the sun. It feels at times like the book was made for me, down to repadeatly homaging one of my faviorite covers of all time. It was easy to love it and it only grows as I dig into it.

RID in contrast.. is an attempt at a morally grey prestige drama that on paper is about the sacrifices and compromises the autobtos make trying to rebuild cybertron, and in practice is about a weak willed useless jackass, his jackbooted best friend, a well meaning non combatant who means well but also is judgey as fuck, and Starscream, who easily outmanuvers them because a sock full of quarters with googly eyes on it could out manuver them. Wheeljack and Blur are also there and they are delightful but not used nearly enough . I gave the book an honest chance and was badly disapointed, and I gave it a second chance despite utterly dreading this.. and was once again disapointed. RiD is just not very good.

Now i'll give some caveats: the book DOES get better in season 2, with a fresh cast and premise that work decently. It's not on MTMTE"s level.. but I respect writer John Barber and IDW for seeing what they fucked up and course correcting. Barber's work isn't my forte, but the guy isn't terrible an does have his fans for a reason, I just prefer More than Meets the Eye and Windblade more, with Windblade being a second, much more succesful stab at IDW doing an intrigue on cybertron book, one i'll defintely cover at some point. It helps Windblade got most of the standouts from this book as supporting cast, but it's genuinely good and worth your time. None of this makes season 1 GOOD, by any stretch, but I wanted to get it out of the way that YES the series gets better. But you can also largely skip season 1 or read the wiki without loosing much for either RiD Season 2 or Windblade.

That being said.. Season 1 is a mess. It wasn't that pleasant to re read despite it's bright spots and it took a while to get through, an utter chore to slog through this one. One of the only bright sides is it taught me I CAN review a whole series in one post again.. just probably in smaller doses than my last attempt with new teen titans, which was great but just about killed me. So other series I dislike like All New All Diffrent X-Men, Dan Slott's fantastic four or Jason Aaron's avengers are now more within my grasp to actually tear apart at some point.

For now though let's focus on THIS disapointing series, see why it is and also talk a lot about how much this version of Bumblbee sucks and this version of Starscream fucking slaps.

Do You Have Any Clue What Happens Now?

Like more than Meets the Eye, Robots in Disguise kicks off with the Death of Optimus Prime, a one shot setting up both series and dealing with the aftermath of Chaos, the big event that ended the previous era of IDW and allowed a soft reset for this one.

So as a quick recap since it's been a long time since I tackled this issue: The War is Over. At long lost the Autobots defeated the evil forces of the decpitcons after all of them were combined by an elder god into one giant deciptigod and Megatron disappeared after hyjacking it.

The problem is what comes next which is a great hook and part of what makes MTMTE works: the war is over.. but unlike most transformers stories that get to end the war, we see what happens now everyones free.

The Autobots take command.. but it's not going wella s Optimus Prime finds out: the planet has reverted to a primal state and thousands of civlians, dubbed nails by the autobots and something the nails aren't fond of, have arrived and the vast majority of them want the Autobots to fuck off their planet.

The Nails.. are one of the biggest wasted opportunities of Robots in Disguise. The IDEA is good: a bunch of bots who either fled one of the two sides or managed to opt out entirely return and aren't happy with the planet or military leadership. It's a concept with a lot of depth as on the one hand the autobots have a point

While the Nails had every right to nope out of a war they were tired of, the Autobots fought long hard and lost a lot to get to this point and blaming them for something that's objectively not their fault, the planet going bonkers, isn't remotely fair. On the other.. the nails have every right ot want the planet back and to want a part in it, and to want leadership that isn't just the autobots.

The problem is the conflict is handeled with the subtley of a sledgehammer and thus BOTH sides come off as assholes: The Autobots make up an embarassing faction name for them, push them around and Prowl goes into a creepy tirade about how this isn't "Their" planet and they didn't fight in the war and later sics the deciptcons on them afte rthey agree to get explosives put in their brains.

The Nails Meanwhile spend the start of the sreies, especially the death of optimus prime bitching at the autobots, treating them as facists, and treating them all like they were complicit in the senates corruption, which only gets more galling after season 1 of MTMTE as most were fully against it.. they just couldn't do anything about it. Neither could you guys. It dosen't help they HANG OPTIMUS PRIME IN EFFIGY for the crime of STAYING AROUND ON A PLANET HE JUST SAVED.

The lack of nuance makes me just.. not care about most of both sides: The Autobots come off like their trying to consolidate power and remain in charge because they feel owed it, while the Nails blame them for everything. We COULD have had a good story abotu trying to perserve the past while acknowldging it's flaws and making a better present, but instead it's just the nails either whining or making entirely valid points that the autobots, mostly prowl, try to police brutality away because they can't accept they shoudlnt' be running things.

In the middle of all this Perciptor examines the matrix and finds a map, with Drift seeing it as a map to the mythical knights of cybertron and wanting to go on a quest to find it. Rodimus agrees, while Bee wants them to stay here and be miserable dammit because he is. While on paper Rodimus is running away from his problems in practice.. he defintely is but makes a valid point: Why SHOULD he stay on a planet that doesn't want him. And when Ultra Magnus joins with them, he makes a valid point: finding the knights could find something to fix cybertron. While Rodimus' hopes finding the knights will fix everything is a pipe dream, those are Rodders faviorite kind, their not wrong to want to find a solution that isn't just "Try and make this work" and forcing people who genuinely dont' WANT to help you to do what you say isn't healthy. This isn't a war for all time: it's just a disagremeent about what you want to do now your free of the war.

Optimus ends their squabble by giving them each half the matrix and fucking off, deciding to shed his former mane and his planet. The Lost Light leave despite Bumblebee's bitch crying.. and then seemingly blow up.

And this is where RiD begins, our cast is barely holding Cybertron together, aren't adressing their problem and now they assume the lost light is dead. So what does this add up to?

Okay TECHNICALLY this isn't true: Bumblebee sets up a state funeral for the bots, which is Starscream's first big platform to worm his way into high command, and Wheeljack brings him up once... but really you could take this subplot out and replace the big shindig with something else and nothing would change.

In contrast the messy takeoff... is VITAL to More Than Meets The Eye: the explosion it causes sends a good chunk of lost lighters to the planet bellow, brings skids on board when they investigate the planet, and brings the sparkeater on board to set those up for much later. And that's not even getting into how the opening arc of season 2 follows up on it, which i'll save for when we get there. Here.. they just sorta assume their friends are dead, don't bother investigating or thinking that MAYBE a ship with a quantum engine did some weird shit. It's to the point that when Optimus is told during his sub plot, his response... is to not remotely buy Rodimus could be killed that easy and assume they'll find them eventually. Which.. they do.

There's also just.. legistics. I know this is a pair of comics about giant robots, science isn't strictly followed nor should it be. But if the lost light exploded.. there would be debris. And they HAVE plenty of ships. Someone could investigate. If the Nails think the autobots REALLY commited this sort of execution, as their said to outright suspect including their rep in the main cast metalhawk, then .. why would NONE of the thousands of bots with functioning space ships look into it. Or the deciptcons once their brain explode chips are turned off. It feels like an excuse to just have the two not interact.. which they already had being out of range and with Blaster spending the season getting coms up and running again.

Anyways the series proper mostly follows Autobot high command as they try to run this planet/prevent anyone else from doing so. Like the lost light exploision this is a possibly intresting hook... that's utterly bungled. They do do things with it.. but they don't do them well. And the best way to get into that is with the characters starting with their supreme leader

Bumblebee: He's Tried Nothing and He's All Out of Ideas

The idea of Bumblebee being forced to take charge of the autobots is a great one. Tranformers has gone to this well three times i'm aware of, and it's a concept worth exploring taking what's essentially the team's kid brother and forcing him to take the throne and see if he can make it.

IDW's last attempt before this wasn't great, with Bee making a deal with the goverment that backfired horribly, and generally acomplishing nothing. So trying AGAIN.. was a smart move. It was worth a second try.

Unfortunately... Barber entirely bungled that second attempt. Bumblebee is TECHNICALLY leader of cybertron.. but really dosen't try to lead. He lets prowl do whatever he wants and whatever prowl wants is usually some form of police brutality, he argues with metal hawk but tends not to have an argument other than "the autobots aren't all bad mkay" or "All decipticons deciptisuck", and he overworks poor sweet Wheeljack, fostering all their super science shit on him and being mad when the guy is doing work of his own. It's VERY transparent in every scene he's in Bumblebee wants peace with the Nails not because it's the right thing.. but simply so the autobots can hold onto the planet. While the Nails are often written as overreacting assholes, as the book goes on they mellow out and most of their actions are entirely... justifable. Their horrified Prowl put bombs in the decipticons brains, they don't want police brutality, they want to actually elect a leader.

Every move Bee makes is to keep himself in charge despite not having a single fucking idea what he's doing. I could buy him as a leader if he tried.. leading: Tried finding homes for the Nails, making actual negotations with the decpticons, send out a party to go tame the primal planet so they can expand iacon , actually hammer out a government. There's a LOT to building a whole new world after a war, it's the reason Hamilton got an entire, incredibly gripping act out of all the nation building. But instead RiD just ignores the intresting idea of rebuilding cybertron's goverment and how it governs itself from scratch and just focuses on Bee whining or various things that happen for the plot. And by doing so it makes Bumblbee and those loyal to him come off like power grabbing assholes who care more about being appricated for fighting the war and less about making a better world to live in or even making the world LIVEABLE.

What makes this so galling though is how the narrative treats bee: characters talk about his "great vision" failed or say he might win the election. That last part is Prowl/Bombshell playing Bee, more on that in a minute, but most of the cast talks his ass up when really he's just a guy way in over his head, which could be intresting to explore.. but they just.. DON'T. Instead we just follow a bland dithering jackass as he fucks up till eventually someone smarter, with more charisma and an actual plan takes his place. But before we can get to them.. let's talk about the most punchable face in Autobot high command

Fuck Prowl

Yeah I tried to make a clever title here, I really did.. but most attempts lead to a storm of profanity as I genuinely detest this version of Prowl. And as a reminder like bumblebee it's JUST the IDW comics version. Animated Prowl slaps. Prowl's G1 deisgn is great. I'm sure there are other prowls who don't suck all joy out of a page when they show up or are the poster boy for why we need police reform despite doing a police on a whole other planet. I"d like to meet them. But this prowl is one of my least faviorite characters in fiction. In fact I can't bleivei I didn't add him to my jjall before now.

Welcome Home Prick!

Now I will give one caveat to this character: Part of the problem is the multitude of writers: James Roberts, who wanted Prowl for his cast, wrote prowl as a giant asshole who could never let the war go and got two people killed with his overlord scheme. Nick Roche wrote prowl as a scheming asshole who paranoidly plots. And tha'ts not even getting into his asshole characterization in books BEFORE this era.

John Barber.. dosen't walk either of these back, but wants Prowl to be a complex symapthetic figure, someone who is a calculating draconian asshole.. but who was driven there by his betryal by spike in the previous ongoing, and who badly WANTS to do the right thing. The problem is rather than make prowl a layered intresting character.. he instead comes off as an asshat who constantly tries to justify the horrible shit he does as "for the greater good"

It's not helped that Prowl's first scenes in this era leave a truly terrible first impression: The first things we see from prowl are

Him bitching about the nails and being absolutely LIVID at their suggestion the autobots leave the planet, not because it's a stupid unfair suggestion, but because he feels OWED the planet and was also once nearly one himself.

Conscripting the Decipticons into his own private army he uses to try and supress a riot from the Nails, instead making it ten times worse and only not getting anyone killed because Optimus steps in.

In MTMTE, trying to convince Chromedome to stay so he can use his ex boyfriend to do mnemosurgery, something Chromedome VERY much dosen't want to do, mocking his current boyfriend and then flipping a table like a petulant teenager when Chromedome walks out on his ass.

Using Arcee as his own personal hit squad , having her assitnate ratbat then trying to act like he didn't ask her to do that.

It's.. nigh impossible to come back form all of that and Prowl really dosen't. He spends the season brainwashed by Bombshell, in part thanks to trying to blackmail Chromedome and forgetting "oh yeah he can do mind things to me".. and NO ONE notices. He's horrified by that fact, but it's VERY telling that the only action of his that was hintingly out of character.. was telling bumblebee he could win the election. GENUINELY supporting his friend instead of trying to talk over him... is something that was a HINT he was brainwashed and the only thing people felt off. Said brainwashing also feels like it came out of nowhere, with not the slightest hint, and feels like a way to soft reset the character... which then fails as he spends season 2 once again out of his head... and once again in a way that isn't remotely out of character. I don't blame prowl for what he did under bombshell for most of the sries, he was brainwashed. But it's DAMMING that he did enough in ONE VOLUME before being hypnotized to earn my ire. More than Meets the Eye dosen't HELP nad IS a diffrent writer.. but even under Barber he's just the worst and I don't look forward to seeing more of him during Dark Cybertron and beyond. I DO look forward to seeing him hurled off a cliff.

All Hail Starscream:

Taking a break from pure, unyielding rage for a second, let's talk about something the book does right. I may be giving John Barber a LOT of crap this review.. but I can't deny he writes the best Starscream. There are other great starscreams from the hilarously over the top unsubtle 84 version, to the compitent but still hilarously shady animated verison and i'm sure i'll only find more as I watch more shows. Starscream rocks. But this one takes all that and asks a question: What happens when you take Starscream out of war and put him where his lying and scheming are an asset and his bad past is a non factor if he can lie hard enough: Politics.

While the autobots drown post war, trying to find their place.. Star scream swims like a majestic dolphin. Granted he's a Majestic Dolphin who still gets shit on a lot as it's starscream and everyone knows not to trust him and he has to work hard for his schemes for the most part... but he's still FAR more at home here than he ever was trying to usurp megatron. With the Decpticons, might made right: Megatron was on top because he was a great tactician, sure, but he was also capable of kicking anyone's ass who dared defy him, and had a death squad just for making a gruesome example out of anyone who betrays or tries to leave the cause. While Starscream was strong he couldn't muslce out megs or the various destructive douchebags he hired.

In contrast on Cybertron post war... he simply has to outthink and outspeak his opponents, who even if they weren't mostly fuck ups, still aren't really public speakers. Starscream first weasles his way into command with a few simple moves: He goes to the autobots in good faith, which they rightfully don't buy, tells them about a planned false flag attack by ratbat.. then once he's foiled, steps onto the stage at the funeral the attack was taking place at and boldly offer shimself as a formerish decipticon representive. While Bee never trusts the guy, for good damn reason, from that point on it simply dosen't matter: he's in the room where it happens. And often.. he's somehow the voice of reason. He's always got an angle... but it dosen't change the fact he's right or he gives Metalhawk someone to back him up. Not only that some of the bonds he forms are genuine. Metalhawk genuinely warms up to screamer and Wheeljack is the only one to try and make amends, to the point that after my boy gets horribly injured, Starscream makes sure he's getting healed and genuinely feels bad the poor guy got hurt.

On top of that once the media is restored for iacon, Starscream plays to the cameras, with his biggest play since stepping on stage coming in the annual: The Autobots find a titan in the desert while looking for lost comrades, trying to keep starscream out of it as Bee is deathly aware finding them would be some very easy bipartisan points for Screamer. Screamer shows up anyway... and when Prowl's croney keeps a gun traind on him and metalhawk, Screamer easily turns the situation on them: He invites a TON of Nails to watch and essentially make it so if he gets shot, it's over for the autobots, then goes down himself. It's here he gets a stroke of pure luck: The titan they've found... deems Starscream as some kind of chosen one. This isn't necessarily a good thing long term... but it does mean a lot especailly to the religious. Now normally this would mean nothing or months of trying to find proof.. but because Screamer's crowd crawled down to witness the titan once it was safe.. they all heard it.

At this point.. Starscream's basically won. The only genuine compettion he'd have in an open election is metalhawk, but either way the Autobots have basically lost control and all that's left is to wait for the elections. Sadly for Screamer he soon has a no good very bad day as Megatron comes back and Starscream spends the next arc as a hostage after going to rant at his former boss, with Megatron not remotely interested in compromise.

That said Starscream has survivied being humilaited plenty and while the Autobots are autobusy dealing with Megatron and the decpeticons, not to mention prowl combining with devestator, Starscream reminds us who he is: He kills Metalhawk, later being genuinely regretful.. but acknowledging Metalhawk was, genuinely, the only thing in his way. He was the only oponent in his rise to power left: Megatron was dealt with, the autobots had shot themselves in the foot 87 times, he feels terrible about what he did.. but killing Metalhawk looses him a friend and someone who belivied in him.. but gains him a Martyr. In the aftermath Screamer basically declares himself LEADER OF THE DECPTEICONS.. ER CYBERTRON, everyone backs him and he gets rid of most of his major opposition by casting out anyone who won't revoke their faction. A few autobots like Blurr stay behind... but msot of the cast we know are cast into the wildnerness and it's their own damn fault.

We get one last issue with Screamer , a spotlight that shows this job will be hard as while speeching got him INTO the job, he has to solve actual problems. Three Monologues is the best issue of season 1 as Starscream rants at megatron in stasis, reflects to Metalhawk's corpse and genuinely opens up to an injured in stasis wheeljack. Not only that Starscream also gets his own starscream, Beast Wars Faviorite rattrap. I'm mixed on this version of him: the character is very well written, being a slimy weasel whose looking for an angle and who gets rid of a local altruist for star scream by framing the guy. It creates an intresting relationship too as Starscream recognizes the behavior of his own.. and takes Rattrap into his administration. As Screamer perfectly puts it the guy Rattrap framed.. was a liablity. He liked star scream, genuinely belivied in the titans... but as Starscream brilliantly puts it altrusim.. is unpredictable. Rattrap on the other hand is who Screamer used to be before he became god emperor of cybertron starscream the first: he can not only deal with that, but it gives him a minon.

Before we leave Screamer I also just want to say.. I fucking love that he put on the crown from transformers the movie. I've always loed that he just... had to have a little crown for himself and that even if this version is less of a joke, he's still starscream enough to need a crown. It's also a striking visual in this context: Starscream is in control of cybertron. Primus help us.

Metalhawk: Don't Let him Be Misunderstood

For any longtime fans of this series or MTMTE, this section is probably going to be controversial but on second read.. I didn't hate Metalhawk. He's still obnoxious at first, he is the one saying "oh well you should piss off the planet you just fought hard to save from a giant Decipticon monster god man". It's easy to hate him as he's constantly telling our heroes they shoudl fuck off.

Yet on reread.. him doing that is WHY he's entertaining. See when I first read the books it was a few years ago. When I can't remember, my memory catches a lot of things but some things are lost to the enternal bog that is the back of my head, but it was before 2020.. and thus before George Floyd's untimely murder. As a result a lot of what the autobots do read diffrentlY: what they did ALWAYS came off as awful: even when the protestors are slamming the doors down, sending out jackbooted thugs is NEVER a good look, and the way Prowl talks about nails and treats them as second class citzens for simply wanting a voice is ... all kinds of chilling. Prowl sees himself as a police officer, and he certainly is.. but the worst kind, the kind most are who will gladly do shady shit to persue what they think is justice and oppress civlians because their "above them. "

So while said realizations about policing and the various police beatings of innocnet protestors made Prowl somehow even worse.. they made Metalhawk better as a LOT of what he's asking.. comes off more resonable. His wanting the decpticons free was kinda bonkers to me when i first raed it.. but now I entirely get that maybe putting bombs in defeated enemy combatants is you know.. a war crime. If you really want to put decitpcons who are dangerous away.. use a jail. Give them a trial. It's not great but putting them int what's basically a gheto that also oused to be a gun is horrible.

Metalhawk simply wants a voice and change for his people. He grows out of throwing the autobots out, being far more willing to work with them than they are with him and making plenty of valid points. He evolves as a character from a whiny asshole who disrpescts the autobots to seeing them as fuckups.. but ones who, prowl aside, are GENUINELY trying, with Bee planning to basically let Metalhawk takeover after the big fight at the end of season 1 before Starscream put some holes in that plan and also metalhawk. He's often the only person speaking up for a bunch of people who greatly outnumber the people in charge yet have to listen to thir bullshit, something that's become more and mor erelevant as congress fucks up more and more . It's hard to boo him when he's right: the autobots probably SHOUDLN'T be running the planet. They shoudln't leave, but they shoudln't be in charge. They shoudlnt be using deciptcons as easy soldiers and shoudln't keep the bombs in their heads now their vastly outnumbered. He's the voice of reason in a calvlcade of jackasses and a schemeing asshole. He's still annoying at times.. but it's really hard to hate a guy who grows out of his most annoying traits and ends the comic betrayed by the most obvious cantidate, something he only didn't see coming.. because he genuinely thought his friend had changed.

Wheeljack and the Rest: Robots in Disguise has a large cast, but most of the best players are off to the side, Starscream excluded. So let's talk about them.

My easy faviorite is one I wish Roberts had gotten like he wanted, the man the myth, Wheeljack. now I like Wheeljack in general due to his design, a nice faceplate, a unique head, it helps him stand out among the standard faces most autobots have.

Wheeljack seems to be one of the few Autobots genuinely trying for a better tommorow: he tries to make peace with starscream, and is frequently working on other projects before bee yells at him for not being avaliable to put out all his fires. He's kind, considerate and also a genuius, getting a nice moment in the sun when he sneaks into a decipticon ship and fidns out their up to some shit, then escapes the horde. I mean Metalhawk DOES save him in the end, but the fact he did most of this himself and gets both of them out himself is impressive. Wheeljack sadly just dosen't appear a ton and ends the season getting his head crushed by megatron. He does come back during season 2 and quickly becomes besties with Windblade, something we'll get to eventually, so good for him.

Blurr is a close third in the characters I like and is the only one of the autobots to really explore the ideas MTMTE was, the idea of "what do you do with your life next". Blurr does help out at first but his mounting frustration with prowl leads to him noping out, only helping out to try and find Ironhide. He decides to open a bar, much like Swerve , and his is a nicely diffrent joint: while Swerves is basically the cheers of transformer,s a place to forget your worries, hang with pals and get into hyjinks, Macadams, a regular location in most transformers place is that.. but also a melting pot, as Blurr soon makes a bunch of former decepticon friends including Sky Byte, a nail who has a great outfit, with him gladly defending his patrons with his good buddy jazz, whose barely in this comic for some reason despite, as always, being fucking great.

Next up is Ironhide. Ironhide does get a pretty meaty roll, as his recent ressurection has convinced him he's immortal and he's getting flashes of a possible future.. .one where the autobots are gon by cybertron thrives. Naturally everyone assumes he needs help instead of you know.. remembering that they followed the matrix for so long because it had robot magic or the giant stygian being made out of a dark god and 80 decepticons they just fought a month ago. What i'm saying is "I can see the fuuuuuuttttttreeee" isn't that farfetched at this point. So Ironhide goes to explore the wilderness with my boys the dinobots who sadly are all kinda douchey here.. but they still kick plenty of ass. The group disappears for a while after a signal drives my dino boys mad... but naturally they show up just in time to be the calvary in the finale. Ironhide is great.. they just don't really focus on him and I wish they did. Same with the dinobots.

Finally out of the ones who actually do stuff we have Arcee. Arcee... is a lot to unpack despite her short screentime. If you'll recall, and if you don't i'm so sorry for reminding you, Simon Furman's approach to the most prominent female transformer.. was to make it so she was FORCED to become female by a mad scientest, a tonedeaf, transphobic take brought about because Simon Furman hates the very idea Cybertronians have a concept of gender.. despite writing male prounouns into this continuity, thus showing they do just .. all male.

So how did Barber tackle this transphobic mess Simon Furman had saddled him and other writers with?

Yeah he just straight up ignored tha tpart for the first 21 issues. Arcee does mention killing Jhiaxus, the mad scientest in question, again, and again and again, but otherwise as far as RiD is concerned, Arcee is just an autobot who was tortured a lot by Jihaxius and who Prowl uses as his hit squad. She gleefully agrees to this... but it's clear she has no real sense of purpose. She DOES get a well done spotlight issue after the Autobots are cast out, with her wondering if the endless violence is worth it and deciding to join the autobots, wether they want her or not. It's a BETTER characterizfation than Furman's, a person with clear trauma trying to find out "what now"... but that big black cloud of "I done a transphobia because I hate them girl robots" hangs over it. It's an elephant in the room no one wants to talk about. I don't FULLY fault barber for it as IDW could've wanted him not to and it was a subject that would need a through, out in the open exploration. IDW was clearly willing as they supported Chromedome and Rewind and would continue to support out and out queerness in this franchise, Barber just wasn't ready yet and thus kept Arcee out of focus. He'd TRY to deal with this later at least but it's still super uncomfortable for now.

Decepticon wise.. they don't really get to do much till the season finale of sorts: they mostly stand around in a gun barrel and plot. Ratbat, one of my faviorite casettes of Soundwaves, is very prominent, trying to weasle his way into power early on.. but then Prowl goes and kills him and i'm sad. Soundwave , my boy, does fuck all till the build up to dark cybertron while Shockwave is in the shadows preparing said event , mostly done in optimus primes subplot. It's a real waste too as having more deciptcons actually try to reform or at least integrate into society would be neat, instead their just mostly canon fodder after a whil ewith a subplot about one seeing what prowl did going nowhere.

So speaking of Prime

The Thrilling Tales of Orion Pax

I haven't mentiond it till now but RiD has it's own isolated subplot ala the scavengers, just one that only lasts this season. Optimus left after the one shot and while he calls himself orion pax as does this segment... i'm just calling him Optimus like everyone else: Optimus goes on his own thrilling space adventures with his crew of Garnak, an ork like alien, Wheelie, who met garnak while stuck on a planet where time was constantly in flux and is still traumatized from it and Hardhead, a minor character turned Optimus buddy.

The trio had captured Jhiaxus, the mad science guy but got some criptic info. Jhiaxus quickly breaks free and while Optimus intended to just soft retire, he can't deny the danger he or his apprentice turned master Shockwave presents, and thus teams up with this motely crew. The adventures are only across three issue but each is fun, the characterrs ar eintresting if underdevleoped and i'ts neat to see Optimus like this: Grappling with his past, unsure of his future, and unwilling to be Optimus again despite everything pulling him toward it. His characterization also takes a nice turn as he was a minor prick in the return of optimus, calling the circle of light a cult. Douchebags yes, cult no.

There's really.. not much to say here anyalis wwise: these adventures are well done and I wish they were the main focus, and clearly Barber agreed as Optimus takes over next season, if sadly not bringin most of these guys with him.

THey are vital for the build up to Dark Cybertron, with Jhiaxus and his goons being Shockwaves main minons and hinting at his mission.. which Shockwave happily outlines in a spotlight later.. well happy isn't an emotion he experinces but he still outlines it: He's been seeding 13 powerful ores, tying in previous things like super energon and such, and the final and 13th one.. is ressurection, bringing people back under his control. His plans feel vauge in theis build up, but involve jhiaxus taking a titan right to cybertron, the ores, and beating up soundwave, with Prime persuing.

The only complaint I really have is the art, which isn't bad, it's just dark, cold , and muted, and not really my forte, working better to represent the dark universe during the crossover. It's not bad it's just hard to make out the visuals at times is all.

So with that we have one last bit of pre-crossover buisnes sto attend to

THe Old Man's Back Again

I did mention Megatron came back right? Because he did. And since he has a big roll to play in the crossover and in MTMTE season 2, let's talk about where Megs has been. Megs was left half dead after becoming a giant pile of decpticons, coming back towards the end of season 1, having what's essnetially the season finale early and the rest of the issues are spotlights dealing with the aftermath.

Bumblebee's reaction is exactly what you'd expect

I mean it's not unwaranted: it's megatron. He was a walking death machine and a brilliant strategist. It's not wrong to expect that even shambling and half dead he's plotting something.. because that's EXACTLY what he was doing. Bee DOES decide to spare him for a trial after being talked into it, but reluctantly and with Megatron guarded to hell. Unfortuantely.. the person in charge of his security is prowl who has a bit of a brain bug at the moment, having taken out omega supreme.

Yeah turns out a LOT of the seasons events were Megatron

The field driving people into rages was him, bombshell was working for megs the whole time, and Shockwave was working with him.. if only till it was convient enough to bail and go work on his own scheme. It's a MILD stretch and I wish it'd been se tup better.. but like Starscream it's hard NOT to enjoy Meg's presence: he brings a genuine threat and meanace, pinning our heroess to the wall and barely being beaten. He's not as layered as he was about to become... but he's still a clever villian who scoffs at Starscream's bitch crying, not WANTING a compromised cybertron but an empire. He ends up loosing but barely does, having still caused a ton of damage and left enough of a gaping woom for Screamer to take the crown. While this Megs is pretty simplistic, he still serves as a good foundation for what's next: a man who genuinely THINKS he's doing the right thing and that peace really is possible if you throw away those pesky civil liberties and his plan and near victory underline HOW dangeorus he is, why the lost light needs to nerf him to put him on board... and why Cybertron will BADLY need his help in the mess to come.

So that was Robots in Disguise and this review.. was difficult to say the least. It's not a great book but it has flecks of greatness in it and later seasons of this side of transformers and other series would pick up on that

Next Time in March: DARK CYBERTRON BEGINS. Bumlbee and the Bumblefucks try to protect a cyberton that hates and fears them, Rodimus goes into a stygian hole in space time, and Shockwave's plan hopefully makes sense.

#transformers #optimus prime #idw #robots in disguise #prowl #bumblebee #wheeljack #megatron #starscream #meatalhawk #blurr #arcee

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sneak-a-cat · 1 year ago

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fucking. miraculous au where chloe got sent to a damned private school. like that shit fucks you up - speaking from experience - and is where she should have fucking gone like girly is the mayors child why is she there. why. it makes no sense. not saying that children of people of import cannot be sent to public schools but judging by the Everything about Andre and Audrey she shouldn't have ended up in a public school.

like i'm sorry but i truly believe she and some of the other characters should have gone to private schools and then there would be that fucked up rivalry between schools that happens - [redacted] die please. your not better at hockey or rugby than us. your rancid (not really but its funny to get so heated) - and like the friendships people have across schools... fr they are so funny.

bonus points if they go to an all girls school paired with an all boys school. wdym i'm speaking from experience and projecting? of course i am.

but back to the original point. WHY IS SHE THERE. people explain it in fics like her dad was making a public statement being like "wow guys the public school system i fund and help organise is so good i sent my daughter to it" BUT NO ONE WITH HIS MONEY WOULD DO THAT BECAUSE A LOT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE UNDERFUNDED

like i get that thomas astruc was just wanting to put "bitchy rich girl with powerful parents" in there as a trope but like.. buddy please... think it through.... i know thats asking a lot when talking about this man but pls

miraculous would be ten times funnier if they were all at a private school and were forced to wear uniforms and got weird fucking assemblies about breaking the uniform "individuality is for after school girls!" - quote directly from my old headmistress

like genuinely with fashion as a core theme in miraculous it would be so much funnier if they had to wear uniforms, and on non uniform day - generally charity work, pay to not wear uniform money goes somewhere good, it works well - everyone would go buck wild except for Adrien who in my heart he would escape in a hoodie and joggers

Alix would have the exact same hair and probably more piercings, i'm sorry i don't make the rules every year has at least one person who looks like that and we love them for that (yes she would go to the private school IN THE WIKI IT SAYS SHE LIVES IN THE LOUVRE WHY DOES SHE LIVE THERE THATS A FUCKING MUSEUM)

wait. never mind. Juleka and Alix are dyed hair solidarity girlies for realsies, plus in my head Juleka has fire makeup and nails which are amazing for the goth aestehtic but don't really go with the uniform but She Sticks To It. she is committed

oh and Luka my beloved weirdo who doesn't seem to go to school, yess they would be there Jagged pays child support in droves for Luka which is also used to pay for Juleka to go (they aren't twins to me don't talk to me. Luka is older and they are half siblings ok. )

maybe i'll just fucking write this who knows. idk how the french school system works, never mind the private school one but i damn well could figure it out

plus from my experience, private schools have extensive grounds with just enough upkeep to be fancy but not enough to block the view of the fucking road like so its kind of funny like what were you going for

which could be a banger place for an akuma attack which isnt - yknow - the Eiffel tower. again.

objectively sending a bunch of them to poncy schools would do fuck all, however, its a really funny alternate universe to create... this minor change would fuck up the timeline because i'm in charge and bored

i don't know what this turned into. to be frank with you i think this idea is just actually so fucking funny so i'm going to stick with it who knows where that will take me

also, objectively, this is the funniest continuity error to focus on in miraculous

#note to regular followeres: idk what the fuck happened to me but this is being written in my head now so like ignore this IG #i may never mention this again tho so #rambles #writing rambles #miraculous ladybug #chloe bourgeois #adrien agreste #alix kubdel #juleka couffaine #luka couffaine #fuck it we ball this is happening #no one wil llike this but thats ok its for me only

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hellishradio · 9 months ago

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ooc blog

one of my lovely followers sent me a question through dms on how i grew my account, so here are some simple tips on how i grew my account! keep in mind these are personal advice and you aren't mandated to follow these.

1. simplicity and readability !

— make your layout simple and readable! this bit is especially important if you want to make your account disability-friendly for those with reading disabilities or neurodivergent struggles. too much fonts or decorations can make the eye struggle to read.

— i personally find it difficult to approach/read, and sometimes even intimidating when it's overly decorated. mostly because i feel like it's a bit too pretty for my league. so keep it simple and approachable! yes you can still make it pretty, but i'd say keep the fonts at low and just not exceed it. (mad respect for who do take their time on aesthetics though, i almost wish i had half the aesthetic eye some of you have!)

— i think this is the most important factor of what makes your blog attractive. i know people shouldn't judge by covers but it is undeniably true that people judge the blog by their layout. so think of it as some sort of.. marketing strategy?

2. consistency !

— obviously though, this is not necessary and honestly, at this point, my layout isn't very simple itself HAHA

— keep your account consistent! similar layouts for all your posts, not only does it do less strain on the reader's brain but it also works as some sort of mascot. for example, a lot of my followers can tell it's my blog by just seeing my image layout. so make it recognizable!

3. character portrayal !

— this is an advice for those who don't know how to get into character! keep in mind i am no roleplay veteran or writing professional.

— look at clips or wikis of your character and analyze them! do they have a specific speech pattern? any words they say a lot? any dialects? what's their background? what setting are they from? write it down and keep it in mind as you write your character. can you hear it in their voice.

though please don't push yourself down if your blog doesn't grow as fast as mine did, because i had a plus factor of playing a popular character. good luck everyone!! feel free to send me your askblogs in dms and i might just start interacting through my priv!

#hellishradio!ooc

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beevean · 11 months ago

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The more I rewatch the show, the more I notice how it's in this in-between state regarding its lore. It takes the base elements from the Wiki, but it doesn't understand the context, and it creates more holes than necessary.

It's the most evident with Dracula and the Devil Forgemasters, and rewatching S3 made me notice yet another consequence of this.

So I complained enough about the scene where Lenore manipulates Hector in his cell, because it's just a repeat of what Carmilla did one month prior: Dracula stupid, we'll give you what you want. I also complained how... sterile this emotional manipulation is. But there's another thing:

Lenore: What was Dracula going to give you? Hector: I… I don't understand the question. Lenore: You were helping build an army for Dracula. You were advising him. He was going to kill all the humans… Hector: I didn't know that. I didn't understand that until later.

Lenore: What was he going to give you for doing this work that he lied to you about? What was your reward for serving a man who lied about his intents? Hector: Ach. I-I assumed I would live outside whatever enclosures were placed around the remaining humans.

Maybe it's because I'm knee deep in the MF manga, and as of this writing I finished re-translating Hector's big breakdown about how he's afraid like there is no place for him, how he couldn't live with his own parents, how the Castle no longer stands, and how he fears that Rosaly and the others will eventually realize that he's just an abomination... but I realized that the script has been warped so that Hector couldn't give the simplest answer:

"Dracula gave me a home and appreciation."

That's it. This is Hector's "reward". By all means, this trait was kept from mangas to show: Hector and Isaac have been shunned by humanity, and Dracula was the first person who ever showed them kindness, so this is why they're loyal to him. Sure, Lenore could have still protested against this ("That's it? All of this work, just for the right to live?"), but it would have been consistent with with previously established, and maybe even a poignant way to show that Hector really craves for little more than love, which would have even explained, as horrible as it is, why Lenore thought to resort to sex to tie him down. (instead he keeps begging for new shoes in a comical manner, which instead makes him come off as childish :\)

... and then I realized, well, actually no. The trait wasn't kept.

This is, once again, a result of a simple change in lore. In the mangas, Hector and Isaac go to Dracula, in one version explicitly when they were young boys, and the three have a relationship of Lord and knights. The knights offer their services, the promise to study dark magic and train to be efficient fighters, and the Lord in return gives them a home, a place where they won't be hated for how they were born. It's in theory a more equal relationship, even if tinged with the emotional dependency of the boys.

In short: there is no "reward" for participating in the mission of mass slaughter. It was their duty, as Dracula's knights. It was what expected from them after he so generously allowed them to live.

Of course, this makes Hector's betrayal more poignant: he decided that his own safety was less important than the simple principle that not all humans deserve to die.

As I pointed out multiple times, in the show it's Dracula who goes to the two men to "hire" them. And it's no longer a relationship of Lord and knights: it's just... boss and workers. And when you think about it, yes, Dracula doesn't really offer them anything, he just went to them like "wife died, i want to kill all humans, come with me". Isaac accepted only because he's a fanatic who also would like the human race to die out. Hector... Hector just goes along with Dracula's half-hearted suggestion. He was doing fine in his little house in Rhodes. He didn't need Dracula, and Dracula clearly didn't need him, judging by how the two barely register each other's existence. Most importantly, Hector didn't really care about his plan, he just thought "yeah sure why not".

And this is a recurring theme, Hector going "yeah sure why not" to everything happening to him. Even at the very end, when Isaac stops his quest to resurrect Dracula, something he worked on for one month and a half, and he just gives up after a few words. I keep being more and more appalled by the complete lack of agency of this character, way beyond what intended.

(I will forever die on the hill that, contrary to popular belief that N!Hector is motivated by a deep need for love and that justifies all of his mistakes, game Hector displays this trait far more prominently and coherently, even if it's just implied.)

Another thing I noticed that ties with this above point but more generally: the show makes the point multiple times, through Carmilla, Lenore and the Captain, that Hector and Isaac would have been eventually involved in Dracula's genocide as humans. Isaac seemingly realized this and made peace with it, Hector never put 2 and 2 together because of course he didn't. To me, this smacks of the writer pointing out a plot hole in the original story... that simply isn't there, much like Flynn coming up with a whole philosophical debate on "why doesn't Sonic kill Eggman?" ignoring the simple answer "because Eggman is good at running away". In this case, the mangas make it clear: Hector and Isaac are not simple humans. They were born cursed, and have been infused with Dracula's magic. Hector has a whole crisis over whether he's a human or a demon. Of course Dracula wouldn't sacrifice his elite soldiers, that he basically made, for the sake of his slaughter!

Now I can already hear the argument that adaptations don't have to be 1:1, and some changes are bound to happen or don't matter that much. The reason I'm spending so many words about this, aside for my personal preference for the original themes, is that the original story worked just fine. These changes are actively damaging! They do nothing but raise more questions, create more holes to be patched... and most importantly, it makes the characters look bad. Dracula comes off as stupid for how wishy-washy he is with Hector, lying to him and not showing him a hint of respect, which always makes me wonder why did he bother to hire him. Hector comes off as weak and stupid, doing so much for no tangible reason, and this alone is the reason why his entire arc in the show is basically "other villains play him like a fiddle". Even Isaac is weird here, as the show tries to conciliate him being a mindlessly loyal servant of Dracula with the two being friends, leading to a very awkward relationship where they speak like equals in one scene and Isaac worships the guy like a God in another.

Changes are fine if they actually fix a problem of the original story, or are at least innocuous. Not because you didn't understand the assignment, and then you pretend to be smart about it.

#anti netflixvania #we watched only one episode yesterday #there was little to say except well all of this #i didn't want to make a long reblog in case i want to add more

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knightobreath · 9 months ago

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Very unfinished II Homestuck au, species and caste assignments. notes under cut

also for the uninitiated, you can read about the different species on the hs wiki pages and judge from that

TROLLS - HUMANS - CHERUBS - FIRST GUARDIANS - HORRORTERRORS - CARAPACIANS - DENIZENS - CONSORTS - UNDERLINGS - SPRITES - LEPRECHAUNS

I mostly assigned castes based on the color of the characters with a few exceptions. (colorless characters got to be put in spots based on what I think)

s1 all trolls, s2 all humans (except for yin-yang), and s3 is a mixed bag (how fun!)

most assignments were just Vibes honestly. except for the more specific ones

i dont want to classpect SAVE ME FROM THE CLASSPECT DEMONS !!!!!

i think the meta parallel between steve cobs and betty crocker/the condesce is funny. im leaning into it

accidental transgender oops

cherub was an obvious choice for yin-yang (*i take a long drag from my (candy) cigarette* society would be so beautiful if we didnt have the evil alter trope) but I think they wouldn't function like normal cherubs. my obsession with canon compliance (to ii in this case) makes me want to keep them both alive. no one side domination. they are evenly matched and fuse, staying together into adulthood

IK paper would work as a cherub and is more mechanically similar but i have my limits and also I Don't Want To

i'm not quite sure how i want to age everyone. in homestuck all the players were 13-16 and I don't know how it would work without dumb teens playing the apocalypse game. putting a pin in that

the shimmers being horrorterrors (which is the only correct choice within canon species and i am taking no criticisms) makes s2ep14 funnier. the baby you were taking care of is actually the spawn of the elder gods and now you have eldritch horrors at your door asking for their kid back

the floor being a denizen you see my vision. You See It (i have so much logistical work to do here)

I'm going to make a bunch of the side characters carapacians i just didnt feel like listing them all out. Lol. i have 5 million missing assignments

I think all the meeple tech 4s onwards would not use caste colors. is this because i didn't want to deal with it? Maybe. yes

i have nothing to say on the first guardians you can figure that one out yourself. actually no you can ask. but i love being mysterious

You will notice there's no box. that's because of the deep lore and impactful implications of i dont care enough

also @trolling-pip hi (please tell me if you want to be @'d in further au upd8s as well)

#inanimatestuck #<- that's what we're calling it #edit: apparently someone already took that au name but they havent updated it since 2017 MINE NOW #inanimate insanity #osc #knightext

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sonicshipbattles · 1 year ago

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How to handle Crossover Ships (from now on)?

NOTE: This is a longer post with a poll at the bottom. It will also affect all the tournaments going forward, not just the Knuckles one This has been something that's been on my mind for a while. Crossover ships are harmless fun, but the fact is that I'm not familiar with the source material for most of the ones that get submitted here. Which sometimes leads to backlash when folks point out something I didn't know, like "Hey, this goes against that character's canon sexuality!" or "That character is ___ age!" Now, I know some things can be solved by a quick wiki check, but not all of that information is on hand. As much as I'm loathe to bring it up, with the Mario drama from last time Mario's age isn't listed anywhere on the wikia, which I'd checked before including him, only to be met with people saying "How could you not know he's in his mid-twenties! That's common knowledge!" But the fact is... I didn't know! I haven't played Mario games (not even the Sonic crossover ones) and he wasn't part of my childhood at all. Maybe it is common knowledge, but it wasn't to me Now, obviously that was all solved by some kind people who saw I wasn't trying to be weird about it and linked me to some articles that had information the wikia did not. After that, he was omitted and we carried on. But it would be helpful to know all this stuff before I start setting up the brackets This is where you folks come in. You know the source materials of your crossovers better than I do. While I tend to just do a quick wiki check, you all know the websites and articles to help provide better information This is the long setup to explain why I think how I've been handling crossover ships here needs to change. Here are the options that I can see right now: 1. Allow crossover ships + keep going as we have been - This is where I take submissions on good faith and do a small amount of wiki checking on my own to determine if the ship should be included

2. Allow crossover ships + make a post featuring all of them prior to the bracket so people can say if there are any problems - This is my preferred method. It'll save a lot of time doing them all together at the end of the submissions period in one batch and will mean we can get to the actual brackets quicker. I also find people are more helpful in explaining reasons why something should/shouldn't be included than just voting yes or no on a poll 3. Stop allowing crossover ships - This one kind of sucks, but it would solve the problem. If I was judging this based on just the Sonic and Amy tournaments, I would've leaned more towards this one, since in both of those tournaments crossover ships would get knocked out as soon as they went up against in-universe ships. But the Eggman tournament was the outlier where crossover ships not only did very well, but the whole tournament was won by a crossover ship. Now, I do think that has a lot to do with the appeal of shipping Eggman with other villains that just isn't there with most of the other cast. But even so, everyone deserves a chance. Also, it wouldn't seem fair on crossover fans to cut them out of the fun completely ANYWAY, with that big long post done, here's the poll:

#Poll Notes #knuckles ship battles

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felikatze · 1 year ago

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Hey, regarding the if fire emblem humans and dragons are evolutionarily close:

I'm very sure it's mentioned in at least one fire emblem game or manual or something that the wyverns evolved from dragons who didn't get the sickness or choose to become manaketes so either where i got that from is wrong or the in-game history books have it wrong or something.

Also, wouldn't that mean that the beast races are in the same boat?

(Please don't interpret this as me saying you're wrong or being accusatory im not sure how to word this but i'm just curious)

according to the good wiki, it MAYYY be the case that some archanean wyverns are actually degenerated dragons that refused to become manaketes, though i can't judge the certainty of that statement without playing the archanea games myself (which i seriously should do, goddamn), but in lore of games after that, you don't really see any relation at all

like games taking place in other worlds have manaketes and degeneration to some extent, but the relation between manaketes and wyverns in those is not specified iirc? like elibe, fates, lythos, magvel, tellius, you get it. lore is the same for a lot of things but old archanea lore isn't the be all end all of everything.

tldr i cant really judge that without going through every single game ever. probably shadow dragon and mystery.

¯_(ツ)_/¯

i would say the beast races are in the same boat, yeah! there's no reason for them not to be, after all. somebody also brought them up in the tags, and it's a good thought.

if ye olde humans were capable of shifting their forms to become dragons, who's to say they didn't shift to look like other animals, too? the wolfskin make the most sense here, as wolves and humans developed symbiosis pretty early, but the other species like taguel and kitsune also amount to "turn into a Huge Thing to punch your enemies dead."

it's funny to think that ye olde humans were just like. predisposed. to change into other stuff. maybe like four different human settlements all figured out the magic shapeshifting trick independantly and just kinda winged it. looking at the laguz specifically here lmao

it's cool to think abt for sure.

now i'm thinking abt how the various beastpeople tend to keep animal features in human form as well. maybe some features got "stuck", so to speak. or we go to ro-botany's theory of sexual selection that if u turn into a huge beast whenever, the more animal your human features the sexier you are. maybe shapeshifting affects gene expression. who knows. (the feli speculative biology special: bring up epigenetics again)

....i mean. just look at monsterfuckers.

all around i am integrating this into my headcanons bcuz it's generally just funny as hell. those dragons are apes.

#Feli gets asked #fire emblem #grima studies

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greatwyrmgold · 6 months ago

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Thoughts on One Piece's Water 7 Arc

In this arc, the Straw Hat crew starts to fall apart as the Going Merry is deemed unseaworthy and Nico Robin is accused of trying to kill the island's beloved mayor.

Spoilers follow.

I suspect this arc read differently to kids in 2004 than adults in 2024. Kids are more likely to take a story at its word and worry that the Straw Hats might actually abandon some of their friends, and haven't heard people talk about the Going Merry's dramatic sacrifice or how Robin continues to be a major character.

While my foreknowledge (and general trope savvy) robbed that part of the plot of its tension, that foreknowledge also added tension where it probably wouldn't have been in 2004.

Oh crap, it's that guy from Kaiser's AMV!

Anyone who ends up fighting Luffy on relatively even terms that late in the story must be a big deal. There's no way he's an ordinary foreman!

Of course, by focusing so much on Rob Lucci I was completely blindsided by the revelation that nearly all of Mr. Iceberg's top employees were working with him. And the revelation that Robin was working with the World Government that wanted her dead. I don't want to pretend I saw all the twists coming.

Mr. Iceberg spent years with Lucci and the others, only for them to turn out to have always planned to betray him. Robin spent mere weeks with Luffy and the others, only for her "betrayal" to be insubstantial. She threw the Straw Hats under the bus so they wouldn't get hit with a train.

This "compare and contrast" feels like it must serve some thematic point, but I'm not sure what. Why was Robin ultimately more trustworthy than Lucci? Is Luffy just a better judge of character? Feels incomplete. Maybe this will receive a resolution on Enies Lobby.

At a couple points, this arc reminds us readers that pirates are generally separated from polite society. Franky points out that the Straw Hats have no legal protections from things people do to them, because they're pirates who commit piracy. So are the Seven Warlords and Four Emperors, but I'm sure the World Government has a good reason for not prosecuting them.

Time to change gears. Assuming trains have gears to change.

The sea train is a neat worldbuilding detail. Ever since the first time I read about log poses and navigation on the Grand Line, I've wondered how the World Government or any other entity could possibly exert influence over an area where travel is so inconvenient and one-direction. Something like the sea train would make that a lot more plausible!

Shame that it's a one-or-two-of-a-kind machine built by an inimitable genius. That kind of thing bugs me. Innovations aren't made by inimitable geniuses; they're made by generations of passionate but mostly average people yes-anding each other's successful ideas. There's no reason Tom couldn't have taught Mr. Iceberg or Franky how the sea train works. Heck, they helped Tom build the first sea trains, they should be able to figure out how it works and how to build a new one!

The wiki says that the Water 7 arc ends in chapter 374 and Enies Lobby begins in 375, despite the Straw Hats leaving Water 7 for Enies Lobby in chapters 365 and 366.

Water 7 is a cool city! Cools aesthetics, unique transport, fears of rising sea levels are quite relatable these days.

I wonder why the Agua Laguna was so bad this year. Something specific to be revealed in the future? Generally rising severity of AL events? Plot device?

Franky seems...fine. I like his backstory better than his present-day story, though.

The gag of Zolo navigating so badly he somehow got stuck in a smokestack was pretty absurd. Nami needs to get an adult-sized child leash for him.

I checked the wiki, and apparently none of CP9's special techniques are actually related to haki? Weird, since two or three of them seem a lot like what I've heard about armament haki.

I found this page funny.

"There's no way the water will reach that far." Three panels later: "Oh no! The water reached that far!"

This arc needed more Robin.

FYI, I haven't done random-arc-thoughts about prior arcs because I didn't think about doing so. So don't look for them.

#one piece #random thoughts

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spidey-bie · 1 year ago

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(Don't know if my first ask sent, tumblr is broken) I'm doing the research and draft for the Analysis, and I was going through spider-geddon again and the opening scene where they show the white-washed Hobie? It's actually kinda Highkey racist in the most ignorant way possible. What I'm talking about, for reference;

Didn't catch it? Neither did I until I realized he was white-washed to hell. Let me be very clear about a couple things first. In new york's justice system, Cops aren't paid by the amount of times they work, they're paid by the amount of arrests. This means that high amounts of people go forward into the justice system in false charges, but here's the fucking kicker, there's so much going in during the 2010s that it was recorded to be a 2 year wait period for anyone to even be able to get a trial because they didn't have enough judges for the amount of people being turned in. So, they'd sit in jail cells for 2 years. Yes, alot of it was also targeting black people because *of course* so that's plenty of bullshit right there. That's 2 years of trauma in an environment that makes violence incredibly common. People who experience violence are twice as less likely to fight back the next time that they get in a situation. This entire line is fucking bullshit because nobody who understands the harm that experiences violence (WHICH HOBIE HAS, HE'S HOMELESS IN NEW YORK. MAKE NO DOUBT ABOUT THAT) would brag about it because it makes them sick. Then, you see they white-washed his character to hell. It's giving 1800s Enslavers "We can't set them free, because if we do that they'll kill random people in the street like the native americans! We have to keep them in cages!" Because the only people who will tell you someone takes pride by breaking someone down and making them feel worthless, by killing someone in a high public event where children can see it and live with life-long issues, is someone with little regard to their own person and others. They're straight up portraying this goddamn character as a sociopath. The white-washed character, who was made by a black person and was black before they stripped away his culture and color. So, I'm taking out this entire fucking section of material from my reading list to review in the analysis, and this is why. I love this character a bit too much to do this to the motherfucker. The entire team who wrote this was white. All 53 of them.

You bring up a good point. When I originally read that page I just chuckled and moved on because I didn't know enough about Hobie's character to see the issue. But now that you point this out it does seem like they pretty much just made him trigger happy.

I don't know the context behind this panel but I highly doubt murder is going to be his first option when it comes to solving his problems. Especially with the amount of emotional turmoil that he went through after he did kill the President. Just sitting there going, "I killed the president don't think that I won't kill the Inheritors too," don't get me wrong as you said before he doesn't feel any guilt behind killing Osborn however there was history there that built up to that. (And even then it wasn't premeditated either.)

Hi, I read the wiki about the Inheritors. Adding on to that last paragraph. From what I'm understanding they already had previously dealt with the Inheritors so that they could bring harm to anyone anymore. Why in the world would Hobie be like, "Even though we've already solved the problem ws should still kill them." I understand your rage now.

They literally took a character that's rightfully emotional and angry from having to fight for his life for a number of years under a fascist regime and somehow spun that into a character that's full of murderous intent whose first thought is always going to be we should just kill them. I ju-

Sigh

I'm just gonna end it here before I get too mad. I just can't right now.

#the entire time i was just yelling at my phone #and sighing #HOW DO YOU EVEN #siiiiiiiiigh #hobie brown #comic hobie brown #comic hobie #jay webs words #my fuzzy friends [🕷️]

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julia-bunncat · 2 years ago

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Oh no, she found tier-lists again | DRV3 version

❗WARNINGS❗: huge text, some negative opinions and spoilers !!!

Well…. Happy new year of Rabbit, ahah! 🐇🎄 I went missing again for a while ;) But it doesn’t matter, because despite all the difficulties and festive fuss, all these weeks I continued to play DRV3 – my progress reached the beginning of the 4th chapter since the last post... And oww, if you only knew how much I love a full-fledged playthrough, how many emotions have been received, how many thoughts..! It was to be expected that no Wiki, fan's articles freetime- or other events would replace this experience. And of course, the kind of information that I’ve been posting about myself a long time ago, and that (because of my love for such stuff) also included all the Danganronpa characters Tier Lists, became… a little bit irrelevant ^^” So now, in order to avoid any misunderstandings and to make my position clear to all passers-by, I decided to update the V3 related tier lists!

1st category, which has finally become more definite for me – female characters:

What was my problem? Well, I treated all DRV3 girls (except Kirumi and Tsumugi) in a sort of same-neutral way with a slight negative shade, but now I know how I feel about them.

First of all, I want to clarify one thing: although in the orange group all the girls seem to be in the same position, in fact, for me personally, they are located in TOP3 xD In other words, after Kirumi, my favorite girl is Tenko. I like Tenko more than I like Miu. But also I like Miu more than Kaede.

Yes, perhaps someone would find such a clear distribution odd, if not wrong… But I didn't signed the orange tier that way for no reason. I have clear reasons to «underestimate and compare» each of them. Everyone has some shortcomings that repels me more or less, so… OK, just read it, I’ll go right-left:

Kaede Akamatsu. Ooh, I'm like walking on thin ice right now, judging her in some way, because I’ve seen from the very beginning HOW MUCH 90% of DRV3 fans love her and how upset they are that she never managed to become the main character…

But, you know, I’m not upset and I’m not afraid to talk about it. Her action in the first chapter only strengthened my belief that Shuichi is in the right place. Yeah, I understand why Kaede can be loved. I also like her energy, enthusiasm, companionship, liveliness, positivity, belief in the best, the ability to quickly get it together and not give up (in this regard, she's similar to Kaito, and Kaito is my favorite male character)… And I’ve often heard the phrase like «Yes, Kaede has her faults – and that’s fine, it makes her just like real people». But you know, it’s one thing to love a character DESPITE the fact that they does wrong things in the canon… When, in the case of Akamatsu, she seems to me to be loved for EXACTLY what she did. I mean- come ooon, by the murder attempt she betrayed not only Shuichi, not only all her friends (who prefer to see through rose-colored glasses), but herself first and foremost! By saying «I believe in you», she still succumbed to the selfish desire to "save everyone", although Shuichi's plan COULD'VE worked in theory – and without any victims that Monokuma needs so much for his killing game. Kaede is considered strong, but I don't see a drop of strength, not a bit of heroism in her wilfulness "for others", cause all this time she could confess, tell about her concerns to the same Shuichi, but chose to remain silent, fearing that «no one would want to be friends with a murderer» (selfishness again) and wishing at trial to figure out who's Mastermind in some unknown way. Overall, this foolish hasty action makes her interesting, right – everything would be okay if we stopped here… But I just can’t understand why she remains a heroine worthy of such blind compassion for so many people! 😩 She took on too much responsibility by agreeing to be the heart of the group, didn't handle with it, and on top of that, finally left it all on the shoulders of the survivors by making them promise her an unsustainable thing. For me, Kaede is a weak, insecure person who has pave the road to Hell with good intentions – and to some extent she admits it, saying repeatedly that she’s not really such a good motivator and that she’s highly susceptible to positive reactions from others.

Simply speaking, I like Kaede, but I can’t forgive her completely for the way she treated everyone (and Shuichi in particular) + I’m annoyed by the fact that the rest fandom are see her in the wrong light (we should take Kokichi’s assessment as an example – it has always been quite fair). It would be nice if Kaede could stay a survivor and go through a good arc of self-consciousness, admitting her mistakes and complexes. And also, to be honest, sometimes I’m both laughing and annoying by some of her carelessness / excessive curiosity, which she mostly exhibits in FTE's with her classmates (with Kibo, for example).

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The next one is Miu. Weeell here, the reason that prevents me from fully loving her is obvious (perhaps) :’D But let’s start with her merits (in my view).

First, how Miu combines incredible self-confidence + rudeness with blatant cowardice when you just give her the slightest resistance – it's both amusing and interesting phenomenon. Seriously, she is a MASTER of giving funny (and often inappropriate) comments that will relieve any atmosphere! 😄 Plus I cannot fail to acknowledge how talented she is and how valuable her ingenuity is. And this intuitive ability to guess the right culprits based only on inner certainty… (if only she could find impenetrable arguments, she'd be truly golden-mind, ahah!)

However, it’s time to name the chief characteristic that pushes me away from her. That’s her vulgarity.

Don’t think anything wrong, these horny jokes and comments are mostly harmless. I wouldn’t mind saying something like that in a joke too xD But Miu's FTEs and Love Suit event… There’s a certain hyperbolic overkill here. DR scriptwriters EXTREMELY love to hyperbolize everything and in almost 100% of cases it leaves a negative impression. You just want to erase it from the memory forever. So, honestly, if it was a little less vulgar, I wouldn’t be so picky. For good, Miu could have opened up as a character even better (although I haven’t gotten to her death) and she, with that emotional jumps, needs psychotherapy (like almost any Danganronpa's child). I hope her true fans took care of that, yeap..~

✎﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏

And finally Tenko 💚 Honestly, I didn’t expect she’d end up being my second favorite girl :0 thought I’d be completely neutral… But she’s wonderful. Really. Sincere, devoted, heartfelt and generous, bold and cheerful – a real lifelike fountain of energy!

The shortcomings that were embedded in her just for meme (it’s pretty obvious if you look at most of her sprites) even all together are no match with the shortcomings I don’t like about Kaede and Miu. On the contrary, the fact that her misandry and excessive attachment to Himiko are imposed on the player – exactly allows me to ignore them against the backdrop of adequacy, which she demonstrates most often. Misandry generally seems to me insignificant, because at certain times she felt sympathy / respect for both Shuichi and Kaito (who is considered the most manly man). Yeah, she can be fiery, she can be weird and she even got really clingy to Himiko, regardless of her personal boundaries, but until her own death Tenko was in a continuous personal movement. She is another character who has earned a longer life, but was just unlucky… in every possible way.

Meanwhile, I’m getting to the yellow category!

It’s ironic that here I put the girls who remained among the few survivors, and they’re supposed to have plenty of time for me to like they, yeah..? ^^”

But no, I’m definitely gonna be a little biased. This is the case when the first impression turned out to be so negative that there is hardly exists anything to block it. At most, my attitude towards them will develop into completely neutral… And I’ll be brief, ok.

Himiko seemed to me either boring (due to her slowness, passivity, immobility and completely childish way of thinking) or completely useless (for exactly the same reasons) from the start. She is morally weak, easily susceptible to stress and manipulation. Yes, later she's rehabilitated; she grows over herself, becoming a little more active and emotional, but that only happens after Tenko’s death.

And Maki. Maki I like much more than Yumeno – she might well be in the same category as Tenko/Kaede/Miu. Most of the time, she means well. Her story is worthy of sympathy. But the character and personality… So prickly, cold and detached... Even after «Kaito’s therapy» reinforced by Shuichi’s help and belief in the second trial, she keeps. leaving. her crude. insensitive. comments. like she’s the only sane person who knows everything.

Yes, I understand that transformation/adaptation requires more time and it would be so much weirder, if she become a sweetie-deary in just a couple of days… But really, she can be neutral or at least a little empathic-respectful, while staying true to herself! I even read an article in which the author complained that Maki's crush on Kaito had ruined her personality. And even though I haven’t gotten to chapter five where their relationship (Maki's crush) blossoms, I can partially agree. In both her and Himiko's cases, characters development occurs mainly due to the influence/death of another character = a potential lover that doesn’t seem right to me. Anyway, if my first impression changes, I’ll let you know.

The last one – gray category (I remind you that it doesn't mean full-fledged hatred!)

Tsumugi and Angie… Okey, first of all, Angie went down a great deal in my eyes after chapter three. REALLY. A LOT.

Earlier, based only on fanworks, I thought - well, she's funny. Strange, silly, a little creepy, but in general, she seems amusing and pleasant, maybe she's even a sunshine..? But NO. Not for me, at least. I had no idea how manipulative, selfish, thoughtless and – I'm not afraid of that word – insensitive person she really is, that (as it turns out from her FTEs) just got used to getting away with anything, because she’s a preacher. Her way of recruiting a new student into the student council sect just underlines just how dangerous she could be – and those who think it’s cute actually fall into her trap :'^

But really, she either scared me or simply annoyed. Especially with that habit of changing decisions on the go, contradict any logic, and hiding her own desires/intentions behind the mask of the divine's dictates. I’ve seen theories that she’s actually brilliant, and all her decisions were to the benefit of her classmates, but I don’t really understand what makes its authors think like that. She always acted to please herself. And only.

My reaction to Tsumugi is less intense perhaps. First of all, I don’t like her because she’s a Mastermind, and I treat all Masterminds equally. Their philosophy and way of "having fun" are simply not close and incomprehensible to me. Second, she’s creepy too. I am repelled by her artificiality, her feigned "ordinariness" and affectedness with which she maintains this label in herself. I’m afraid to imagine what happens when her mask falls.

And now… Yes, it turns out that this post will almost half of my (I underline) personal opinion about female characters, ahah!

But that’s because I love ALL the male characters in DRV3. No exceptions. Just the different shades of my love – and that’s what I reflect on the tier-list о/ Adoration, maternal love, tenderness, compassion, respect… I can’t even highlight what I don’t like in someone of them, 'cause all of them are dorks and the sweetest one!! No offence, the heart wants what it wants! 💞

Which means, finally, I can show you a huge (and a last, I promise, aphph) list of my feelings about this or that pairings!

I don’t want to go into too much detail here and to be too much negative either, so I'll explain only those positions that are important or/and funny.

First of all, I’ve had a big change of heart about Angie, so it's about pairings with her too. I’ll start with the so-called «traffic light» that in my eyes almost broke into pieces. Seriously, they were always drawn by such faitful, sweet besties… I'm almost disappointed. What healthy friendship is possible in a Himiko/Angie relationship, when Yonaga only used Yumeno’s weaknesses without conscience, trolled her on her own show and imposed illusions?? What friendship is possible between Tenko/Angie, if Chabashira was starting to literally fear Yonaga’s permissiveness at the end + never adhered to her principles and ideas (and Angie was indifferent to her most of the time)??

Only Tenko/Himiko are stand out from this circle of bewilderment. I still haven’t figured it out, that's right. For now I’m inclined to think that it’s a bad idea – Tenko’s energy was not combined with Himiko’s impenetrable passivity from the very beginning, BUT! they’d have a chance if Tenko was still alive and Himiko kept trying to understand her (and Chabashira, in turn, would reduce the rush on her).

Next, Shinnaga, i.e. Angie/Korekiyo… *sighs* Honestly, despite their location in a more neutral category «I don’t know why most people think it’s a good idea» – I’m starting to treat them more like to NOTP. Yeah, I realize, a lot of people think they’re pretty similar. They are both creepy, to some extent connected with occultism, with culture; they have the opposite kinda sun/moon aesthetics and character's dynamic, but… Ship Korekiyo with a manipulative, spoiled girl, who is accustomed to sectarian power and that all her wishes are fulfilled without bickering..? Are you serious..? It’s literally the same as pushing him against his sister’s figure again 😣 Sorry, Shinnaga's fans, but this is a decision I can never understand .-.

And now to a more positive stuff! o/

(because by the time I explain why Saimatsu isn’t working either, Tumblr is clearly not ready yet ahah ;))

The platonic has changed a bit..~ I've basically added the category «good friends only» and quite seriously consider that many of these pairs of students are able to become friends. Especially I was pleased with some intersections between Gonta and Kiyo | Kibo and Kiyo, because Shinguji clearly lacks someone to share his interests (in addition to Rantaro and Shuichi).

But why Gonta and Kibo exactly? Well,

Korekiyo’s quite capable of teaching Gonta to be a gentleman from a cultural point of view

Gonta can always be interested in stories about bugs, and all Kiyo wants is a heareth disciple/listener

Kibo is interested in Japanese/Asian culture + all human aspects, in which Korekiyo is generally the main expert. [Yes, it may be difficult for Shinguji at first because of the slight robophobic prejudices, but he’ll get over it just by thinking about what a Kibo is really a delightful product of human labor!]

Of the girls, Kirumi and Tenko were included in the category of besties, as those whose personalities Kiyo most admired.

Kirumi herself finds Kiyo admirable (just read her thoughts about him on the Official Relationship Chart) + they are matched with temperament, love of similar aesthetics + she possesses such devoted, caring, "maternal" nature.

While with Tenko, as paradoxical as it is… Kiyo could discuss similar problems. This cloudy subject with inc*st and unhealthy attachment to a certain person… I feel like they could understand each other a little.

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Kaede, for some reason, became the queen of the lesbian party for me XDD But really, she pays a lot of attention to girls at first acquaintance – she called Tenko cute, Tsumugi sexy (and get under her skirt), was kneeling before Miu (although they bickered each other a lot and measured by breast size lol). I just think it’s kinda fun!

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And almost all pairings with Kokichi turned out either self-destructive or destroying the world xD With Angie and Tsumugi in particular, they would have made the apocalypse; and Miu, Tenko, Maki, Kiyo and Rantaro, in my opinion, will gladly line up "ready to rip off Ouma’s head" line. That's just the way he is..:-) Hard to understand, units can handle it 😅

But that’s where I stop! As you may have noticed, I REALLY love DRV3 cast 😊😅 Tier-lists are just the beginning – next I would like to present my thoughts about Chapter 3 and Korekiyo’s role in it..;) That's the subject when I can’t be stopped... thanks for your attention and until next time, ehehe! ~

oh, and my askbox is always open!! see ya ✨

#danganronpa #danganronpa killing harmony #my opinion #tier list #drv3 #ship opinions #character opinions #drv3 gals #kaede akamatsu #miu iruma #tenko chabashira #angie yonaga #himiko yumeno #maki harukawa #korekiyo shinguji #tsumugi shirogane #I hope I’ve expressed my thoughts quite correctly at least I tried ^^"

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nayvwriter · 19 days ago

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For the fandom ask game: Kingdom Hearts, knock yourself out

UHHHHHHHH

(contains a couple of negative opinions and a bunch of positive ones, I don't think there are any real spoilers?)

To elaborate, for those unaware: my Kingdom Hearts knowledge consists of: The First Game and The Wiki. So I am not confident in anything beyond the first game, not that that has stopped my brain latching onto certain things. Also, I have been very deliberately hiding in a corner from the fandom at least until the above has changed, so I don't know what people think.

Still, I'll give it a shot! I'll be talking about the first game rather than the series, though it might be hard as there aren't that many plot-relevant characters.

The first character I first fell in love with: Riku Riku Riku Riku. I'd heard some vaguely interesting things about him, so he'd piqued my interest, but after I actually met him I fell in love with him for completely different reasons. He's so interesting, I love him.

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Probably Kairi? She kinda annoyed me at first, but so did Riku (the destiny islands part of the game was weird and felt like it was trying to be a romance anime, I was not impressed). But when she showed up later, I immediately got attached.

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: The character I love that everyone else hates: See above "I have no idea what anyone else thinks".

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: ...I expected to have an answer for this, something along the lines of "sounded interesting, wasn't", but I can't actually think of one?

The character I’d want to be like: (visibly resisting talking about SHC because NO-ONE IS A BIRD) uh. I admire Riku's determination.

The character I’d slap: I'm annoyed at Mickey, so maybe him? There's not much reason for this, though. Either that or, y'know, Ansem, but that's the obvious answer.

A pairing that I love: Not romantically, but Riku and Sora and Kairi as best friends. friendship! I have a bunch of thoughts on them as friends pre-canon.

A pairing that I despise: ...I know I said I try not to hate things, and this is entirely personal, I'm not judging just yelling at clouds leave now if you don't want to hear, but...

Riku and Sora or Kairi romantically, mostly because it feels like it's diminishing Riku's character. He has this absolute friend devotion, and making it into romantic devotion (especially towards only one of them) just feels wrong. And don't get me started on all three of them together, that just feels like you're ignoring the fact that Riku has a stronger devotion than Sora (even though it probably shouldn't feel like that) (and YES HE DOES I WILL FIGHT YOU ON THIS please don't actually fight me I am going back in my corner now goodbye)

...I have strong feelings about Riku.

#nayv original #ask game #thank you for the ask!#always open for more #kingdom hearts

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akai-anna · 8 months ago

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Your life is gonna be changed when you learn that Ace of Base are a nazi band lol

I wish I was joking...

Great music though!

Firstly: hello there!

Secondly: thank you for the information! In the grand scheme of things, however, I don't think it changes much for me.

Before I get my head bitten off though, I would like to say, that at this point in my life, I'm quite used to the... I guess, we could call it "culture" in a way, being "this person/creator has bad views/did something problematic/disgusting/etc".

A couple thoughts I have on this:

I have ever only listened to some of their older music. My father used to like Ace of Base, so thanks to his influence I grew up with it to a degree. (I honestly thought they disbanded/don't create anymore, but after a quick search, apparently Wiki says otherwise). Thus, that is the only thing I know about them, and don't feel educated on the matter to judge this fact. Does this apply to all members? Or just some/one? (I don't even know how many people are in Ace of Base.) And to what extent? Also does it mean the people affected still share the same views? Or like every human, they changed over the years to a degree? Who am I to judge someone I haven't seen/heard enough of?

Also does this mean, that any media (be it music, art, movies/shows, books, anything) created by someone with certain views are to be ignored/hated/disregarded/judged/etc? Does that negate what feelings I have attached to that particular media? What if I grew up with something that I loved very much, that even changed and shaped me in some meaningful way, had a lasting affect, to later on learn the very creator is misogynistic/bigoted/transphobic/etc? Will it change the fact that somehow I was shaped by or enjoyed something they created? Does it apply to not only the original creator but also transformative works too?

I admit, I rarely pay for the music I listen to. So it's not like I give them any support financially. *shrugs* Crude that might sound, but alas.

Lastly: I'm tired. I'm tired of finger pointing, tired of the disease that are humans, tired of all the evil and horrible in our world. I try to embrace what I enjoy, in my privacy (and possibly with some friends and family at times). I feel too old to care about certain things, and engage with something that has the potential to make me feel bad, sad, upset angry and so on, when I can choose otherwise. I have so little time as is, to do the things I find joy in, or that are important to me. In conclusion, to return to the first point, this matter is not something I feel I should dig into, look further in. Am I educated on this matter? No. Do I want to be educated on this matter, sacrifice what little time I have on this? No.

Will I still enjoy some of Ace of Base songs? Yes, because I associate some pleasant memories with them, or just simply like the lyrics or the beat of them.

Am I evil/bad for this view? Perhaps some might think so. Some might not. Am I selfish for this? Definitely, as humans are inherently selfish. (Being kind can be selfish: as in you usually feel nice, when you are kind to someone and especially when they appreciate it. We cannot view the world from an outside point of view, nor from a completely objective one. The most we can do is try.) But I ask: who are they, to judge a random stranger and her views?

Again, thank you for your ask; it has been a while since I got something in my inbox, and it definitely made my brain whirr on this Sunday afternoon! I truly appreciate the brain stimulation! Also, apologies for the word vomit, oops... I also hope you have a lovely time, dear!

#asks #anon #la junk talks #sorry this ended up much longer than i planned #also i don't mean to sound offensive. or at least it was not intended?#i didn't even know i had so many thoughts on this #sorry for spouting philosophy adjacent thoughts lmao #sorry for this wall of text #but i certainly enjoyed it in a way #now it's time for me to go and get the next (and hopefully last) round of laundry in the washing machine

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sofoulandfairaday · 2 years ago

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How do you think Delphi felt about Narcissa?

I think she could possibly be the only person she could hate more than Harry

Dear Anon, I fear I cannot really answer this question with lots of stone-cold canon facts, simply because Delphi's characterization is so lacking. It makes so little sense it gives me a headache just thinking about it.

First of all, people have to understand that Delphi is a minor character in a play. This in itself means that she would have little psychological complexity, even if the play were the best written ever (which it is certainly not). The play would have had to be entirely about her to do her justice, especially since she is a new character in a world of extremely complex ones, and has to be built from the ground up.

With this being said, if we were to take at face value what is written on the page, and how she is characterized there, yes, Narcissa probably would qualify as the person she hated the most. I've read CC a long time ago, but I seem to recall that Delphi only seems obsessed with her father, only naming her mother once. We don't know how she would have felt about her (and some explicitly characterize Delphi with a big Oedipus complex in fanfiction, or in open competition with her mother as the Dark Lord's "favourite", which I cannot really judge as unrealistic because, again, we don't know anything about her) so I will not presume that she would punish Narcissa for betraying Bellatrix.

What seems absurd to me is that during the play we are never informed of Lucius and Narcissa's death in extremely suspicious circumstances. We know she was powerful, we know she can be sneaky, Lucius and Cissy aren't in their prime... I don't know why she wouldn't exact revenge on them for betraying her father and causing his death. We know that she was born at Malfoy Manor "shortly before the Battle of Hogwarts", whatever that means, and Euphemia Rowle only took her in because she was offered gold. Whose gold?! Rodolphus'? There is no way minister Shacklebolt didn't seize the assets of the Lestrange family after the second fall of the Dark Lord seeing as, this time around, He had made enemies of the goblins as well. So it had to be the Malfoys'. Draco was also home for the Easter holidays in 1998 and I have no idea how they hid his baby cousin from him but whatever. But Lucius and Narcissa must have known.

This raises some very chilling questions. Narcissa might have hated Bellatrix at this point, Lucius and Draco felt even less love for her, and all three loathed the Dark Lord - but would they go as far as to abandon an innocent child? Maybe. It shocks me, seeing how protective they are of each other, but maybe that's just for immediate family. Just imagine how Lucius and Narcissa's trial at the end of the war would have gone if they had been found harbouring the Dark Lord's child. Also, all three of them were present at the end of the Battle of Hogwarts and I doubt they just allowed them to leave. The one that did disapparate away was Rodolphus (since most Death Eaters fled) and at this point, it seems reasonable he kidnapped the baby and brought her to Rowle for her own protection. Alright, fine. But did Narcissa really never visit her? Assure herself that the girl was happy and healthy? No, she just threw money at her and kept her out of her mind. That is cause for resentment enough for me, and I wish that it had been highlighted more in the actual play.

You see, the thing that I hated most about Delphi wasn't that she was evil. It was that she was evil for no reason at all. It says on her wiki that she inherited traits from her parents and that she was "cruel, sadistic, violent, manipulative, dominant, obsessive and cunning (it can also be said that she was talented and intelligent.) However, she had also inherited both her parents' explosive temper, blowing up whenever things didn't go her way." - First of all, already the fact that her only positive traits are in parentheses irritates me because it truly shows the black and white approach this play had to all its characters, coming from an author who had previously written that "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters, we all have both light and dark inside of ourselves, what matters is the part we choose to act on". This play basically tells us: "Delphi is evil because her parents were Voldemort and Bellatrix, who were evil". Now. I call bullshit on this. Science is still divided on this, but most of the time we inherit traits from our parents because of nurture, not nature. Evil isn't always born, it's made. And even when it is born, we always have the capacity to choose something different.

Delphi never knew her parents. How is it possible that she was so much like them? Was it because she grew up allegedly abuse and, in any case, loveless? Fine, but say it. Why does Harry mock her in the end? Why, when confronted with a young woman crying and desperate because she just wanted to meet her father and be with him, does he tell her off cruelly and basically say "you'll rot in Azkaban"? Where is the understanding, the compassion? Even before knowing that she's killed someone Harry's reaction to Voldemort having a daughter is "no, no, no". But why??? Voldemort's not around to teach her. And by the way, even though researching your parents and your origin is natural, she has nothing of Voldemort. She never met him. She doesn't know him. Who told her tales of his greatness? Euphemia? Rodolphus? It surely wasn't fucking Narcissa.

And by the way, what was Narcissa even thinking? If Rodolphus knew about the prophecy, why didn't she? (And don't even get me started on that joke of a prophecy itself). And if she did, why didn't she inform anyone? She certainly didn't want the return of the Dark Lord. Why didn't she raise her sister's child, teaching her love and morals, while telling her that yes, she did betray her parents, but only because they were bad people and murderers? FUCKING LIE, CISSY, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE. Tell her that stupid lie that everyone believes, that Voldemort couldn't love and so he wouldn't love her. That Bellatrix never showed interest in her. When Rodolphus shows up, she's more likely to think he's mad. Or better yet, do the right thing and tell her the truth. And apologise. Pretend you're sad you orphaned this child, but that you did it for a greater cause.

But the thing is, the Malfoys didn't have a good cause. They never stopped believing in blood supremacy and they disliked Astoria because she taught Scorpius that Muggle-borns and purebloods weren't different. They didn't betray Voldemort because he was a psychopath, they did it to save their own skin. Which of course wouldn't bode well with Delphi.

Maybe the play should have emphasized that by allowing another child to grow up loveless and estranged, lonely and scorned by everyone, just as Tom Riddle had, they created another monster.

((Also, just an additional note but since the only thing that changed in the alternate timeline was Cedric killing Neville, who then couldn't kill Nagini in the Battle of Hogwarts, it stands to reason that they still betrayed Voldemort. So why is fucking Draco Head of Magical Law Enforcement? Voldemort would have killed him in front of Lucius and Narcissa to make them pay. Whatever.))

They treat her with contempt, all of them, and it's not just because she's a murderer. Harry and the gang hate her for being Voldemort's child, which is incredibly out of character for all of them. She kills an irrelevant character to give them enough justification to throw her into Azkaban, which makes no sense. Why didn't she stun him? "Well, because she thought she was going to permanently change the timeline anyway". That's no excuse! Another thing this play gets horribly wrong (not just with Delphi, but also Albus and Scorpius) is that, just because the deaths the characters cause get undone, doesn't mean they're not real. Those were real people. And killing a person in real life is not that easy. If that was Delphi's first murder (since there's no suggestion that it wasn't), it could have not been that easy. And Delphi was not a psychopath, so it doesn't make sense as to why she would do it so nonchalantly. She shows empathy during the play. She loves her father (maybe? or maybe is just obsessed by what he represents and by the life she could have lived? do you know? I DON'T BECAUSE SHE'S SO BADLY WRITTEN).

Anyways, I just realized that I wrote a horribly long post ranting about stuff you didn't even ask me about, so I'll just end it here. What I'll say is that we better take Delphi as a cookie-cut cartoon villain, whose parents are who they are because it adds to the shock value. Because if we start poking at the inconsistencies in her character and that of those surrounding her the extremely fragile logic on which The Cursed Child stands on starts crumbling. If we were to analyse her more deeply, we'd find that this is a poor girl whose only fault was being born in the wrong family and that her aunt Narcissa is the one who ruined her life, carelessly abandoning her and leaving her to a lonely childhood, possibly prey of wronged death eater's delusions of grandeur and "what-could-have-been-if"s. All because she couldn't love a child she made an orphan.

#narcissa malfoy #delphini riddle #delphini diggory #the cursed child #lucius malfoy #draco malfoy #bellatrix lestrange #lord voldemort #rodolphus lestrange #harry potter #harry potter meta #hp meta #analyses #asks #rants

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