#and theyre not SUPPOSED to be super interesting villains

[235uranium]

maaaan maruki is such a great villain and in a game that initially didn't have well written villains

[numberonetacostan]

hey guys welcome back to disney channel its shrimpy and-

sorry im going crazy hAHAHSHSH

au where taco wasn't actually programmed to betray anyone and/or steal the million or anything (just stay as her silly little s1 self) but uhh something something cobs meddling with mephone4 code something something pokes around with the contestants' code n'stuff and accidentally-on-purpose changing up some of their behaviours and one of which being the taco becomes evil and british thing

the whole thing is revealed 1. when knife & suitcase face cobs and he's like " of course im invested in inanimate insanity i literally edited like tacos and some of the other's code so it could get interesting because cmon mephone could never do that to his contestants he just cant think big " and theyre like What The Fuck 2. insert scene post-finale (after the Cobs Death Scene) where taco asks mephone why he made her this way (Evil and Traitorous) and he goes like ???? but i didnt ??????? and suitcase and/or knife (hes not.hesnot a ghost shut. if he was alive he'd do it lets be so real) are like sooo about that..... and she is Devastated. her entire life got ruined because of Corn

optional scene where mepad (you already know how i feel about him. shhh. i love tacopad. let me have this) and/or mic have to comfort her because She Can't Believe It

Hi Shrimpy!!^^ Welcome back, and thank you for sending in an ask!! :]

OUGH Cobs meddling with their code is such a neat one!!! Taco getting her code meddled with in general is super interesting, whether it's Cobs for added drama or Mephone because he wanted a twisty twist villain as whoever ended up taking 2nd place. I think it would be neat if Taco was chosen specifically because Cobs found her original personality obnoxious, echoing how Mephone4 would call her annoying when she survived eliminations during season 1.

Cobs using her as an example for Knife and Suitcase would be so fucked. I love it. Especially with Knife being close with Pickle and Mic, and having seen Taco fall apart quite recently. Mephone's response is pretty funny though ngl. "Why did you make me so awful?" "I didn't do that you were supposed to be silly I got no clue what went wrong." Knife and Suitcase awkwardly telling her and Taco's just. Silence. Okay. She will be jumping off the crappy cliff now no more of this shit girl is DONE. Yeah she would be incredibly upset, devastated, heartbroken, angry, so many fucking feelings. She had been so happy. She could've stayed so happy.

The comfort is NOT optional actually. I think Taco might need to be watched after this just in case she might hurt herself. Testy might be working on MeLife/Mepple stuff to try and create a new recovery system, I'm begging you to indulge in the angst of her trying to bring her old personality back. She at least knows a thing or two about tech, and if there's one thing we know about Taco it's that if she decides she wants something it's pretty dang hard to stop her from getting it. And there's so much potential here too!! She gets caught trying to more or less erase her current self? ANGST. She succeeds in doing so and now the Taco that Mic and Mepad knew and cared for deeply is gone, and Pickle is faced with the Taco who was his dumb, loyal friend again? Who doesn't remember anything that happened after she lost? *explodes*

[bearloonz]

Thinking abt trolls 3 and why it picked up so much traction compared 2 the other 2 movies. Like technological advancements aside I think the main thing is just the character lineup.

Movie one was mostly branch and poppy. All the kidnapped trolls operated as One entity really so it’s not like u could particularly??? Care about them too much. Bridget and Gristle were really really fun but the villain wasn’t anything particularly special or noteworthy judging by just how little people. Talk about her. OH and also creek was there (literally forgor im rereading this for typos and adding this now) but like. Oh no the guy who showed up for like 5 minutes is a Bad guy and im supposed to care about the quest to save him mostly just because theyre telling the audience they should care because Poppy cares . But theres just not a lot of setup (and Creeks just not that. Interesting?)

Second movie had considerably More bangers and was definitely going in the right direction character wise. But it had the Opposite problem with wayyy too many guys that were really interesting and not a lot of time to do anything with them. You get King Trollex’s intro, Biggie, Cooper and Prince D and their parents, Delta Dawn, and Allll the bounty hunter trolls, PLUS Barb and the rock trolls. Barb was definitely a prime example of a major upgrade from the movies, having a villain that the audience actually vibed with and u could Tell by fan reactions I think. (Parb sweep) But there was just. Sooo so much, on top of the lore dump and a plot that you really had to get cool with really quick to get invested in. theres a bunch of new trolls and these strings that are definitely super important promise (lie)

The third one feels like they finally like. Know what theyre doing. With their own universe. No big lore dumps, theres not even any Explanation for what Mount Rageous is, they just introduce you to it and the Rageons with confidence thru Velvet and Veneer and expect you to get it. Plus, theres still a lot of characters, but theyre much more tangibly connected now. All the brozone brothers are well established and have preestablished relationships with each Other so even if we dont get much time with them it doesn’t feel like theyre that out of place. It still requires some suspension of disbelief vis a vis “Branch had Four super secret brothers hes Never mentioned,” but they make it work and frankly, the set-up is a lot more easier to get invested in than “secret magical strings that Invented Magic I Guess.”

And with Brozone and Viva theres a connection To the main characters rather than just being tag-alongs for tag-alongs sake. They’ve all got their own niches to make them individually compelling but theres a connecting thread here so they still feel like they’re a part of the story. And they’re all there to do something!! And then Velvet and Veneer of course continue the vibe that Barb had of being villains with enough screen time and personality that you like them As characters and arent just viewing them as The Plot Obstacle. Which is cool i think. Overall i just think the third movie felt a Lot more confident to do what the fuck ever and thats Really good.

[lazaruspiss]

Hi, I wanted to know if you've read Red Hood: The Hill and if so I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!

I liked issue 0 but my enjoyment kind of teetered off with issue 1 & 2

i dont read n52 but i gave it a go just for u <3 under the cut is a bit of a "brief" live read. TLDR: it's good, but it seriously does stop being about jason very quickly. if you read issue 0 and get really invested in dana then i think you'll like it, if not, then issue 0 is still a good read with great art.

Issue 0: some little timeline/canon details throw me off, but thats to be expected for any n52 story. the art is fantastic, and the shoe thing is so real. i still have no clue why sneakerheads are the way they are lmao. again, the art is phenomenal so far. Croc my beloved <3<3 i like how it's clear that Jason picked up on the secret identities pretty quickly, but its not really told to us so much as gestured towards via innuendo.

also, denise is pretty. i love her earrings in the diner scene. she also just kind of says what I've been thinking, that there's a risk to an independent neighbor watch the same as there is for any vigilante crime fighter. not just for the vigilantes safety, but for the safety of the people theyre supposed to protect as well. both sisters are justified in their position and i think it's a really well done conflict. it also manages to keep jason involved in the middle without making it just feel awkward or taking away from the importance of dana and denise.

"Batman swings on rooftops. I work the streets." <3 jason cool. and back to our main bad, i love how clearly image obsessed he is. it's done in a way that feels super believable too, like you could really meet a guy that insecure and egotistical lmao.

ohhhh and this is interesting. they're leaning into a family themeing, and the references to bruce make me feel like they're setting up a mending between those two. it's a bit... i have trouble with that. i don't think a mended relationship between bruce and jason is necessarily the best story direction for all their history. but The Hill so far is doing a positive light Jason-Bruce relationship better than most things ive read. It makes sense to have him be sentimental about his father when he has to stop a vigilante from killing. the end sort of, i guess i can call it a villain twist? I like it.

though the nods towards bruce make me uneasy. thats a very difficult relationship to balance, and its feels like its very much going to skew a certain way rather than falling into that "its complicated" territory that i like.

Issue 1: murder grandma! very jarring very cool. the writing still isn't bad but i think it might be a problem of issue 0 being so strong that the after feels lackluster. the writing is a bit more on the nose, and more emotional/character related aspects fall to the wayside for the action parts.

Issue 2: oh. ew. splicing a makeout scene with narration about an uninvolved man's life falling apart. i saw someone say it ended up being more about dana than jason, and im really starting to see what they meant with this issue. it's not the worst thing in the world, but it's understandable to be disappointed by that. the writing is also just gradually starting to lag. i havent checked, but if this is the same writer as issue 0 then im tempted to say it mightve been a crunch time problem.

back to the actual story, jason is less the main character and more taking the role of a mentor figure for dana. it keeps getting less and less about jason and more and more noticeable that it is less and less about jason.

Issue 3: croc <3<3<3 and yeah this series really stops having much to do with jason. we learn which vigilantes the neighborhood watch would smash tho, lol.

there's even references to the fact that jason plans on moving back towards batman's parts of gotham, like this is not a series about him at all after issue 0. i thought they were setting up development of bruce and jason's relationship, but there were really just setting up an excuse for jason to leave. "This is your bad guy, Dana. And I told you. I'm not staying." this series is 100% meant to set up dana as a bigger character. I feel conflicted about it, bc obviously that's not what people are necessarily expecting/hoping for when they pick up something titled Red Hood. but how else can you try and introduce a successful new character? I know dana isn't entirely new, but it's incredibly difficult to give a foothold to characters that haven't been around for long enough. i think that's partially a side effect of how DC operates, and just a result of general familiarity bias.

anyways. issue 3 ends with batman showing up. i don't think I'll be checking back for future issues.

[lion-buddy]

THE WONDERFUL PRETTY CURE MOVIE CAME OUT?!?!?!?!

yeah i saw!!!

everyone over at bird site [derogatory] was posting abt it lol. i didnt realize it was gonna happen so soon.

some stuff was revealed that i want to mention, but to avoid spoiling ppl itll be under the cut

while i havent been watching wonderful actively, i have been keeping track of it from the sidelines and asking friends their opinions on it. seems silly and fun! the villains and conflict seem interesting too, and i find it funny that no one seems to trust the unicorn thing lol. aside from general character dynamics thats about the extent of my knowledge on the series. im planning on checking out the movie once its up on sites, which who knows when thatll happen. i think its scheduled for international release by the end of october but idk if thats accurate to the US. bleh.

the one thing i was looking forward to with wonderful was seeing what they were going to do with daifuku. i know the theory was mid season cure, but now i think everyones confused?? it seems like he and satoru are getting some sort of role in the movie, but im unsure if theyre supposed to be precure. i wont lie, their designs dont really feel like precure outfits. something feels missing when i look at them, especially when put next to the others. maybe theyre too simple? idk. i do like their hats tho, and daifuku's civilian outfit is cute. but maybe theyll grow on me, or maybe theyll just be movie exclusive. we'll just have to wait and see

im also very interested in seeing what they do with the 3D aspect, i think its a medium that will tie in well with the video game theme. ive watched all stars memories, and that movie has some super cool 3D animation. im hoping they can do something fun like that again.

prediction, when i do watch the movie i think im gonna end up liking natsuki lol. idk what her role is supposed to be exactly, she may just end up being one note. but i really like her design, the mask is so gender.

[blackgumball]

why don't u like arcane

alright i guess i am talking about it today.

so when I first watched arcane, I actually did like it. I thought it was cute, but I had problems with it that have only grown until they've eclipsed any positive feelings I have towards the show.

the politics of the show is sort of the Main Reason I hate it. There's this underdeveloped city where the kids don't get to see the sunlight. vi and jinx's parents were violently killed by enforcers, this doesn't seem like something that doesnt happen all the time. viktor spent his childhood in the undercity breathing fumes that would later give him a terminal illness. enforcers (theyre literally called enforcers) come down just to enforce violent laws that were not at all made with the interests of the people in the undercity in mind. and they present the conflict between the undercity and the topside like it's a both sides issue. characters like Jayce and Caitlyn should be seen as outright villains but they're not portrayed that way at all.

speaking of jayce and caitlyn fuck those nerds they make me so mad. jayce discovers this amazing magic and proceeds to sell out immediately. He becomes politician who uses his power to further abuse the people of the undercity, uses the magic to make overpowered weapons to crush the undercity. whatever watch this scene

fuck him. and he's one of the protagonists.

CAITLYN PISSES ME OFFFFFFFFFFFF. Shes sort of emblematic of the whole problem of the show to me. the identifying symptom of this disease. the largest genital wart that makes you realise youve got HPV. so caitlyn feels very stifled by her mother at a young age. her mother is a wealthy politician who is super concerned with image. So what does she do to escape this life beneath her mother's thumb? she joins the police force that her mother controls, and then whines about it. she's stupid! that's dumb. and when she goes to the undercity shes so shocked by how horrible life is down there, that's willful ignorance. she thinks that if they bring the hextech to the surface will solve any problems like they wont use it to keep shitting on the undercity. further fucking stupidity. and then she starts hanging out with Vi (least interesting yuri ever they just talk and hang out in the rain can i say this?) and you can tell that the story is angling to make her make Vi sympathetic to police officers until Vi eventually becomes one.

Here's my problem with that. Vi's parents were killed by enforcers, enforcers stopped Vi from taking her little sister away from that lanky groomer, enforcers locked Vi up for the rest of her childhood and kept her in a prison where she got the shit kicked out of her on the reg. They strangled her city and ruined her life THREE TIMES, but the show wants me to believe she would not only fall in love with one of these enforcers, but would become one herself! it's horrific!

I hate it because its presenting this world where I'm supposed to root for both sides of this conflict. It's copaganda. BAD copaganda at that.

And then there's the structure. I didn't catch it at first but a twitter moot of mine made a pretty good point in this tweet

There are aspects I like though. Ekko is a fun character, as is Jinx. There's some cool designs. great gowns, beautiful gowns. but mostly I'm just tired of hearing people sucking that show's dick (i go to art school theyre SLOBBERING on that show i have to hear about it all the time.)

Anyway TLDR:

[artical3237]

gonna throw my own 2 cents into this discussion because its quite intriguing

the tonal shift between s1-2 and s4-5 was so jarring even with s3 supposed to be acting as a buffer/transition. i love the observation with merlin's trajectory getting more and more narrow as the show goes on until he has no other option than to blindly believe that things will get better and that the golden age of albion will come about. while i dont think a psychological horror of the implications of being trapped in a prophecy and having things be predetermined for you fits with what the writers wanted, it would've explored some really interesting themes and would probably better expand on merlin, morgana, and mordred (i call them the m&m&m trio in a my head). one of the things i dislike the most about merlin is that its a tragedy yet the show never treated itself like one before s5. the whole point with tragedies is that you know that it will end badly and us the audience are invested to see how it plays out. yet, time and time again kilgarrah and merlin keep on reminding us of the optimistic prophecy. in a way, it properly hurts us because we are taken on the same hopeful belief as merlin and we experience it being torn from us the same way he did. but at the same time, that approach takes away the dramatic irony and the suspense which are essential parts of a tragedy.

i absolutely despise the way morgana's motivation against arthur is because she believes that she deserves the crown and throne to camelot instead like?? i get that the writers had to give her an unsympathetic motivation as a villain but that doesnt make any sense whatsoever. she has never shown any interest in ruling throughout s1-2 and for the first half of s3 but suddenly when she finds out shes actually uthers biological daughter she feels entitled to the throne for some reason? i understand any and all growth of her hatred for uther because of that but certainly not the entitlement. while i doubt it was deliberate or intentional, it frames her as the stereotype of a hysterical woman and i just. dont like that. in general, the feminism in the show is extremely surface level and lacking but i dont want to get super out of topic here by yapping about my girl gwen and how she deserved better. in the earlier seasons, morgana is depicted as someone who has a clear moral compass and who believes in justice and righteousness according to said compass. she is compassionate to everyone except uther which makes it even more jarring at the start of s3 when she returns and doesnt have even an ounce of empathy towards any of the main cast, not even gwen whos wellbeing was one of the things morgana cared for the most. while it definitely would not have helped with the show's issue with feminism, i would've rather seen morgana being forced into becoming more radical in her approach if the writers truly wanted to make her parallel uther and merlin. i want it to be further emphasized that she is a product of her circumstances. would it strip her of agency even more? yeah, sort of, im not saying this is the best solution, just my personal thoughts, but i do think it would make her seem less hysterical and also less like a stereotypical karen. as for her motivation, i have absolutely no idea how its possible to fix that while still making her a villain. generally, you can make her a righteous villain, one who believes that they are just and doing acts for a proper cause but i dont know how to give her a specific motivation. make magic accepted is obvious so like. she would try to murder supporters of the magic ban/people who villainize magic??? i dont know but im not here to fix this show's problemsss. plus, that would make her fundamentally indistinguishable from merlin which i guess you can make that the entire point? that theyre both forced to take extreme measures for their cause which is/includes making magic accepted. that would make the main difference is that merlin is on arthurs side and morgana isnt. but that would make merlin appear worse than morgana because he's actively supporting the rulers that are enforcing the magic ban because ultimately his loyalty to arthur goes above his other wants. it makes an even deeper moral dilemma which while intriguing, is very hard to trudge through. though if we circle back to merlin being a tragedy, i feel it is kinda possible to navigate even if its difficult.

anyways i actually really like fact that gaius didnt die as i feel that its so unfair that part of arthur's development as he becomes king is that he doesnt have to rule alone because he has gwen, merlin, and his knights meanwhile merlin remains mostly alone in his journey especially after lance dies. merlin 👏 needs 👏 a 👏 support 👏 system 👏 and im glad that gaius, despite his flaws and fuckups (esp with morgana in s2 like srsly dude) was able to stay a reliable and steady presence for merlin. weirdly enough, i feel that his role and relationship with merlin in the later seasons is much healthier compared to the one back in s1 and 2 and it makes sense. gaius too goes through character development and learns to abandon cowardice disguised as caution for the people he loves and if he died any earlier than season 3, that character development couldnt be put to use and wouldve actually been a waste. though, if we're looking at merlin through the lens that it is a tragedy, then the death of gaius can very much be part of merlins downfall. in any case, i will not take gaius slander im sorry guys i like him too much however i do accept gaius criticism i feel like thats fair.

anywaysss kilgarrah. i do like the observation that the writers at first wrote him to have self-serving motivations and that they changed him to be wiseman communicator of prophecies. it cements him in my mind as a true neutral which makes sense. he's not benevolent towards merlin but he is willing to help him out outside of his own interests. i still like gaius over him but thats just bias

Jumping in on the Merlin thing for a second and his awful, upsetting character arc from beginning to end... like I fully get where the bootlicker accusation is coming from, but I do think the show is actually like borderline horror if you start taking the destiny thing into consideration. My personal view of Merlin as a character is that he comes to Camelot in s1 completely unaware of what he's stepping into. Truly unprepared to come to The Anti Magic Capital that Classism and Genocide Built and witness a public execution within the first 5 minutes. His WHOLE deal in s1 is him like dangerously stepping into situations he doesn't fully understand because the social rules governing them are so nonsensical to him.

But by the time s2 starts he is Very Aware of how much Camelot is actively a terrible place for him to be and also he is in some deep and frightening level bound to that place and to Arthur. He is genuinely desperate to get out in s2 (he's a little angry and reckless throughout) and every attempt he makes to go against Destiny* ends in tragedy. Freya is the biggest example, but (wait sorry this in the back of s1) I also think a lot about how Will was pushing him to go against the grain only to get killed saving Arthur's life and to have Merlin's own mother tell him he belongs at Arthur's side NEXT TO WILL'S FUNERAL PYRE. It's a really scary moment if you concede that some element of Fate is at play and is working to keep Merlin in place.

Anyway, anyway I think by the end of s2 Merlin has been forced to accept "his place" (he betrays Morgana and is so furious that he acts out and let's Kilgarrah loose which I mean a lot of people probably died right??) so you get him being more cheerful in s3 because he is has to be happy right? He can't ever leave so he Has to believe in the prophecy and Arthur. It's a sunk cost thing, right? People have died for this. Merlin is killing people over it.. Morgana is lost forever. So it HAS to be leading to something beautiful. Merlin will keep supporting this regime because The Future will be better (undefined when or how and who cares that Arthur never really gets better). And the end is s3 is so hopeful and Merlin probably really believes it's all coming together at that Round Table they are really on the edge of something and then... and then.

Well Lancelot dies. And Uther dies in the worst possible way. And Arthur never, EVER gets better. And Merlin's world gets smaller and smaller and his ability to imagine anything but the path he's been stuck on forever goes away completely. And in the end the only thing THE ONLY THING he has is Arthur's life. Arthur staying alive, the thing which will mysteriously lead to the perfect future that makes all the previoys atrocities ok, is the only thing he can believe in. He will sacrifice anything and anybody for that one fact. It is the entire crux of his tenuous personhood.

Sorry I'm getting carried away here and not even talking about Fate very much here, but like it is absolutely chilling to get to the last episode and have Merlin confront Kilgarrah** over the fact that Albion did not in fact happen and have his answer be roughly "all has happened as it was meant to, this has been the story the entire time, you've done everything you were meant to". And so of course Merlin is going to spend the next millenia still on the same path, still forced to wait for The Promised Future to make good.

AND LIKE TO BE CLEAR its all bad writing. Genuinely, the first half of the show did not set up the back half. The writers were going for something in s4 and s5 entirely beyond their means. The politics of the show were abysmal (see: never knowing how to handle the genocide or fucking picking a side with Uther) and ultimately the writers were too in love with the status quo to tell a functional story. Like I am not in anyway suggesting that Merlin's relationship to fate and possible lack of conplete free will is something they did on purpose (if only because I'm never convinced the show fully understood how bad Merlin's situation was... one too many jokes where the knights played keep the food away from him, you know?) but I do think it's a necessary talking point to see what does happen to Merlin or to others in the first two series when he makes these attempts to act outside of his circumscribed role (like his attempt to free Morgana from Camelot that gets a lot of Druids killed).

*On the topic of Destiny I do think the show plays coy on how much of what happened was truly inevitable, but ultimately the viewer is meant to believe that Mordred and Morgana's fall and Arthur's death were all things that could not be changed because that's Arthurian Legend and also because, well, everyone starts to look pretty indefensible if Morgana wasn't always going to turn into a "villain" (as dubious as the politics of positioning her as such are). (Though actually I do think one thing that people let slide when people talk about Morgana is YES she correctly wanted to kill Uther and those who supported the magical genocide, BUT ALSO she was ultimately unable to break away from her class allegiance as a noble woman who believed she was entitled to a hereditary crown. Those two causes were inseparable for her. THAT'S why people kept telling her she took after Uther so much.) So anyway I think it's valid to say that if Merlin could have brought himself to completely ignore Gaius and Kilgarrah in s2 then maybe Morgana wouldn't have gone evil, but well. The show (for the much worse) simply wasn't built that way in-universe or out of universe (because, again, the politics of bbc Merlin Are stunningly awful).

**Kilgarrah has the avatar of Fate is also such an interesting question. I think the first two series kind of play with he idea that Kilgarrah is, well, certainly self-serving and looking for vengeance and that possibly he is misleading Merlin to that end. But then the show doesn't really do anything with that idea and in his subsequent appearances has Merlin treat Kilgarrah's advice and wisdom with complete good faith (though in-universe this is obviously partly the result of his never to be resolved grief over the sudden and violent loss of his father and becoming the last dragonlord). So I do think the writers intention with him by the end of the show is, unlike Gaius***, that he really was a mentor/wiseman figure for Merlin and was Truthfully communicating the prophecies.

***Gaius can go kick rocks truly. He is so terrible and like I get why Merlin feels like he's the only permanent, stable (parental) relationship in his life (I love you Hunith! I'm so sorry the show hates mothers!!!!) but genuinely Gaius should have died by the end of s3 at the latest this is LITERALLY Hero's Journey 101 to have the mentor/parent die. If we're taking my No Free Will Conspiracy Theory at face value then the fact that Gaius didn't die is all the proof you need that he was toxic to Merlin's well being and development of self hood outside of the prophecy.

Ok ok. I'm done for now, but literally I am always down to talk bbc Merlin, I am so upset about it all the time.

HI!! Okay I had to reopen my laptop in order to answer this because the mobile app was shitting itself lmao. Let me go point by point here because you said a lot of compelling stuff

your destiny + sunk cost fallacy theory is really interesting, and i really wish the showrunners/writers had realized this for themselves--and if they did, actualized it in the writing of the show. that would have been so interesting if we had gotten true moments from Merlin of him regretting where he has gotten to in life to that degree. god if only bbc merlin was actually a psychological horror about how you can't avoid your fate that's been predetermined for you. honestly if bbc merlin had grappled with predeterminism at all beyond a shallow skim of the surface of the idea it would have been 10 times more interesting

"Though actually I do think one thing that people let slide when people talk about Morgana is YES she correctly wanted to kill Uther and those who supported the magical genocide, BUT ALSO she was ultimately unable to break away from her class allegiance as a noble woman who believed she was entitled to a hereditary crown. Those two causes were inseparable for her. THAT'S why people kept telling her she took after Uther so much." <- this is actually incredibly true and honestly i do think it is a side effect of the show refusing to grapple with class dynamics as a whole because it lets the audience ignore it as well unless you're purposefully thinking about it, though i do still think her arc is what a previous anon said: the stereotype of someone who's Too Radical and Goes Too Far, and i'm not a fan of that at all. I'm not saying you're saying her arc isn't that, but it's just so badly written like you said 😭

"but genuinely Gaius should have died by the end of s3 at the latest this is LITERALLY Hero's Journey 101 to have the mentor/parent die. If we're taking my No Free Will Conspiracy Theory at face value then the fact that Gaius didn't die is all the proof you need that he was toxic to Merlin's well being and development of self hood outside of the prophecy." <- WHAT I'M FUCKING SAYING!!! Gaius should have died and it's a crime he didn't!!!!

Anyways overall I find your fate conspiracy theory to be super compelling and it has a lot of implications i didn't consider... ugh if only Merlin (and the writers of the show) had like an ounce more of self awareness and then it would have truly been horrifying for him to realize the cycle he's stuck in... ugh we could've had it all.

[sarada-best-girl]

I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO NOT THINK ABOUT HANDS OF TIME SEASON……the temporal whip is Stuck in my head, and I love time travel as a Thing okay it’s like my fav thing ever. also the twins were one of my fav villains, theyre so funny and so good and KRUX DISGUISING HIMSELF AS MR. SUNDERS AND INTER… I forgot the word but Yeah man! that was so!!!!! good!!!!!! i love everything about it. the two super incompetent vermillion soliders and MACHIA i love her so much and SO????? UPSET????? AT WHAT THEY DID TO HER IN THE END LIKE WTF HANDS OF TIME also zane ZANEEEEE that scene where pixal is off line and he looses Borg’s signal and like has a break down and goes down to his knees is Everything to me!!!!!!!!!!! also um????? the smith sibs this season??????? THEY R ROCKING IT!!!!!!!!!!! i absolutely am in love with that scene where Kai has his arms crossed and is like hmm. hmmmm. and has that expression as nya tries to say something about how she’s not looking for the samurai x or isn’t going go to the samurai x hideout IDK I FORGET THE EXACT DIALOGUE but it’s. in my head. i Love them. also Kai fjjfjfjf just punching everything on the bounty because he’s Angy because parents which OH NY GOD I RRWAKIN AM LOVINNNN THE WHOLE KAI AND PARENTS STORYLINE SO MUCH TJIS SEASON!!!!!!!!!! like the way he mulls over it????? the way he first can’t BELIEVE IT the stamp of his father on the helmets WHEN HE REALISES THEY R STILL ALIVE— yes yes yes yes yEs like also I have to say it’s so v interesting how nya who barely knows them because !!!!!!! She was only three when they went missing but she still believes in them she doesn’t think they were working for krux or acronix I FIND THIS SO FACINATING and ok listen I get time travel in shows don’t go complete ham which is an ABSOLUTELY WASTE like cmonnnnnn don’t tell me they go into the time vortex and the past and they don’t do SOMETHING WITH THIS so! incredibly! disappointing! like cmon while they cant Show themselves at least have them interact with them, idk! LIKE MAN IF IT WAS LLOYD…. GOING BACK… 40 YEARS…. SEEING HIS FATHER. man! also just gjfjfjfjfjfb i would have loved to see the choas too. also I CANT BELIEVE IN THE BEGINNING OF S8 they really went. really made jay say “we could look diff and not know it” WHICH IS SO FUNJY TO ME also I know it’s supposed to be a throwaway line but IM THINKING ABOUT IT and wondering what exactly could have caused that in time because um……freckles+looks are like just? apart of? genes? HOW CAN TIME CHANGE GENES this show is so funny but I guess Lloyd’s green eyes can be explained by time idk something something the green legacy anyways WHAT IF MAYA AND RAY WHERE ACTUALLY WORKING FOR THE TWINS i think it would be highly interesting!!!!! and facinating!!!!! and SO GOOD for that betrayal when nya and Kai realise it like idk why exactly they would have but we can work it also I sincerely absolutely am in love with that scene where everyone is celebrating by that o mean Cole jay and Zane playing around with the time blade as the smith sibs kai and nya ARE DOING THEIR OWN THING and jfjfjfjfjf i think it was jay? makes a comment about it or smth it’s Everything to me. also PLS i cant deal with Cole jay and Zane help they really don’t learn and I don’t want them to anyways yeah have fun playing with the time blade fjfjfjjff them seeing if they can slow down their collision and just. stabbing it everywhere is SO INCREDIBLY FUNNY TO ME god i love them so mucb also in the beginning? where they r all fighting to see who fights the mysterious samurai warrior and the DICE and the way they r all fjfjfjjfjf r like me me me! while cole tackles jay in the background and the dice lands on zane and everyone is like that was so rigged and the fact that JFKFKKFKF Kai and Zane are immediately puted(? is that the word) out while they rush in to fight and it turns out they all need to fight anyways I FRWAKIN LOVE THEM SO MUCH…. there is so much in this season that’s so v good that I love so v much like yEAH the fact they didn’t utilise the whole time thing is so!!!! very!!!! disappointing

to me!!!!!! but over all, the season was Everything to me. KIKE GOD I WANTBTO REWATCH IT AGAIN………

[teslacoils-and-hubris]

What is the general public view of the heroes and villains?

So heros can be split up into two groups- official licensed heros and vigilantes. Licensed heros work through a couple various organizations throughout the world (but mainly one, it's really taking the world by storm!) And are generally pretty well liked! They have huge public relations departments and sponsor deals and whatnot to make sure the public likes them and feels they need heros to stay safe. I'm very much taking inspiration from mha's whole heros are if the police were celebrities thing here, the most popular heros are generally either older heros with senority and brand recognition, or newer upstarts with their hero company backing their debute. Large showy fights are ideal, but heros are generally meant to minimize property damage and injuries. But- well, it's not always avoidable is it? So it's quickly brushed under the rug with a new gossip story or someone popular coming out of retirement. A bit of damage is well worth all the good they do, right?

Vigilantes, on the other hand, are generally portrayed as a public enemy. Perhaps not quick on the same scale as villains, they are generally doing good of course, but the media still points out how dangerous an unregistered vigilante without proper hero training can be. They tend to take public blame for official missions going wrong or having lots of damage- it would have worked out if it weren't for those no good wannabes getting in the real heros way! Conversely, vigilantes are much more popular in, well, groups who have reason to not trust the police. Marginalized groups recognize that some guy doing this for no recognition are much more likely to actually have the people's best interest at heart than someone working for a global corporate police force. That isn't to say all vigilantes are angels, but there tends to be more solidarity between marginalized communities and their local vigilantes.

Villains... are interesting! They're dangerous criminals for sure, and the media certainly portrays them as such. But there's definitely a sort of... tendency to treat them as something of a wrestling heel (I think that's the term for the bad guy?)? You're definitely not supposed to like them, but people do tend to love hating the flashier, funner villains :) which is to say nothing of the romanticization of villains that happens lol. Think those dark mafia romance stories but with super villains. The fandom culture around heros and villains is very fun, from people keeping stats like it's sportball to full on tumblr fandom where people make fake accounts pretending to be popular heros and villains and discourse about the ethics of shipping heros (does it count as rpf if it's their hero persona?? It's not like theyre shipping the actual people behind the masks!)

[orgyofthedamned]

i’ve always thought it’d be interesting to have an avatar that uses their powers to be a tyrant, followed by an arc where they grow and have to reconcile being a villain with the fact theyre supposed to be a saviour for humanity. i doubt m&b could do anything super introspective but i dunno. we’ll see...

[wewringmagicfromtheordinary]

#it’s about the fact that people don’t understand that the name captain america is ironic lmfao#like yeah disabled poor jewish (queer) man is jacked up by the government in a quasi-eugenics secret experiment to get a soldier#and still they can’t control him bc you can’t erase what made him worthy to begin with (collective care and fighting to protect people)#lmfao like even the writers of the MCU don’t quite understand how progressive his views are as a character (typical)#what does it mean to be a hero?? well to steve it means fighting against bullies and that includes the american government# like sorry he could have been literally any random man given super powers instead of someone marginalized lmfao he's FOR THE PEOPLE#and waking up POST military industrial complex coming from a period where it was incredibly shameful not to be able to/want to serve#and the juxtaposition between the promise of “america” and america's reality like#is exactly the point of it all ESP since the context of him wanting to enlist is hard to grasp in this day and age like he's being truthful#he's not some trigger-excited skinny dude like he's upset at the systems that tell him the ONLY way to make a difference#is to do this ONE THING and then he literally can't bc he's disabled and no matter how much he wants to they won't let him#when literally all his life hes been told he can't do things and now his friends r deployed he can't serve like his father#and they just won't take him seriously like he's fighting people in the movie theater just bc he wants to make a difference however small#and then he does get the body and the Masculinity in order to get into the room they wouldn't let him in and immediately its like wait lol#they wont even take a stand like they said they would lmfao guess i'm gonna do it anyway#the entire character is based on the disillusionment of oh wait they said my country was fighting for its citizens but that's not true @ al#they lied thats just the propaganda but then HE'S supposed to be propaganda and hes fighting for the people like thats the WHOLE POINT

#and cap exists in the space between what america could be and what it is lmfao no coincidence theyre the villain#(or at least fight what hes trying to do) in ALL of his movies literally from even before he got the serum#like his heroes journey is about learning to listen to his own morals and heart again like he comes out of the ice#and is lost in this disillusionment and what it means for the world to shift around you#but its all about like no actually you were right in the beginning you weren't naive you were right about the world and what matters#and learning to come back to that like ill say it every day he doesn't get bucky back until the War Machine collapses around them#and that means a return to self he's not becoming a better person to be a hero he's returning to himself to become one#which when the self he has to return to is the one that was marginalized and still trying to make a difference#like yeah that means his arc isn't really about being wrong and learning from it but that's much more interesting to me#steve rogers#like why do you think cap 1 is a tragedy and cap 2 is not its a full circle which cap 3 was supposed to finish but they hate him so LMFAO via cowboyidiot

People think I'm joking when I say Steve is right all the time in the MCU, but I'm so serious. Sorry he just has great morals, and sticks to them I guess? A character flaw doesn't have to be detrimental to those around him. If anything, his flaw as a character negatively impacts himself, but not overly so. His personality is a net-positive on the world.

Steve doesn't have any ethical lessons to learn in his storyline. His hero journey is different, and I think that confuses a lot of people when understanding his character.

[sluttytartaglia]

ey yo seth! do you recommend the new fire emblem game? bc i ADORE FE but ive seen absolutely nobody talking about it so i have like. no reference from people who actually LIKE FE playing it, its just dudebros bitching bc "eww a new fire emblem and the protag is toothpaste lmaoooo" which is NOT helpful. also about your fic: dont feel bad, you write from PASSION as it SHOULD BE, grammar be DAMNED

thank you for your comment about my writing, it means a lot!! im glad u think so!

anyways, here is my Honest Opinion(tm) about Engage (under a cut bc its long):

yes, there are many unhelpful biased comments about the designs, the life sim aspects, and the story. ive seen the fucking "lolol toothpaste haha COLGATE heehee PEPSI lmao" joke over and over again with no end in sight. its not that funny anymore, guys.

BUT

to me, as a fire emblem fan (mind you, my first game was path of radiance when i was in ???middle school??? but the first fe game i FINISHED was awakening, when i was about 16 or 17), i think that Engage is fine as it is. :) the gameplay is what REALLY matters in a game, and the gameplay is VERY fun and challenging, so if nothing else, i'd recommend it for its unique playstyle. the story is kind of a rehash of awakening, with some details swapped out, and to me, the writing is actually sliiiiightly better here than in awakening. if you like awakening: great!!! you'll like the story in this game too! its a bit more in-depth, and the villains are focused on much more than in awakening, which i personally appreciate.

alear, the protagonist, reminds me a lot of robin, in that: they make their OWN choices, NOT the player's choice. for instance, in the first few minutes of the game, they decide to RUN from enemies instead of fight! they want to protect their stewards, vander and framme+clanne. i thought that was interesting. so far (and im almost finished with the game), i havent had a prompt about what i, the player, want to do in regards to a story beat. alear does the decision-making for you. even robin had a few player-driven choices to make, but not alear. alear is their own character. which is nice!!!

as for the life sim stuff, its very limited. the somniel is almost entirely optional. you can s support, but only alear can s support, and even then, NOT all of them are romantic in nature (see: pandreo and ivy, who both have romantic endings with alear regardless of their gender). if you choose, you can build and grind supports. the support convos arent always interesting, similar to awakening or fates, but they are cute and serve a purpose. but all that i just mentioned in this paragraph is not integral to the story AT ALL.

the story. the story is good, with some twists and turns here and there! we are supposed to get more characters and a new story option in wave 4 of the dlc (i am unsure when that is coming out!), and so the story might deepen with that dlc option. right now im doing a vanilla run with no dlc and ive been enjoying it thus far.

in short, im not DONE with the game, but i am REALLY enjoying myself so far. the battles are engaging (lol) and challenging (ive died on some skirmishes before :P), and i LOVE the characters, even if theyre not super deep. i hope the game has a satisfying ending and i suspect the replay value will be amazing, with all the unlockable classes there are :)!

id recommend you play it if youre a fan of fe, even if youre not crazy about the designs or the story. of course i cant dictate how others feel, but i actually enjoyed myself very much and remember to HAVE FUN and NOT CARE what ANYONE else thinks !!

[strangestcase]

Genuine question, which jokers do you think are the most well written. I’m just getting into Batman and it’d be nice to hear a perspective that recognizes particular nuance due to a certain amount of insight that comes with being queer

Okay!

Disclaimer: I don’t read comics. I’m a fake fan. /hj but seriously I haven’t read many Batman comics (yet) so I’ll try to just... sum it up v quickly, with my (somewhat limited) opinions on th matter:

-Lego Batman Movie: personally the best Joker. Well written, very VERY queer coded, and light hearted, but still evil. I love his design. This Joker is the Joker that has rescued the trope of the queer coded villain but this time in a more positive light. He’s a trickster, and we’re supposed to be annoyed at him, not scared of him. Annoyed in a cute endearing way. Otherwise I’d say this Joker is written to be a caricature of the OG character in a way that children can understand, so the movie didn’t try to be overly convoluted about his relationship with Batman, and they just straight up said, yup it’s gay

-Dark Night: While the queer coding (and the humor, mostly) is a bit lost in translation, all the “Batman completes me fuhuhuhu” moments are a very good summary of what makes the character such a great villain. Also he’s TERRIFYING. Great acting (RIP Heath Ledger) and great writing. If you want a more serious, less clownish take on the Joker, this one makes it right.

-Killing Joke: very very edgy and fucked up, but also a very good character study. The point of the Joker is that he doesn’t have a meaningful backstory- he’s just a murder clown. His backstory just happened to him. And the Killing Joke makes a very good job at exploiting it. Does h even remember it? did it even happen? unreliable narrator, flashbacks, monologues- it’s a very good Joker. Otherwise the story is a bit meh (and it fridged Barbara, boo!). Read the comic- the movie adaptation sucks ass.

-any animated jokers, really, will be VERY well written, mostly because animation is (wrongly) seen as child only media. Animated jokers don’t rely on murder so much to be scary, to the point they’re even WORSE, which is pretty good in my opinion. any joker voiced by Mark Hamill is going to be a treat. Check out the Batman animated series Joker, who is a piece of shit in every conceivable way and freezes his victims with neurotoxin, or the 2004 Matsuda show Joker, who is literally a feral clown.

-the Lego DC supervillains game Joker is also very fun, and a wonderful tribute to the character’s history too. And he’s semi-decent to Harley which is pretty sweet. Also voiced by Mark Hamill! meanwhile the TellTale Games Joker is... Well, a VERY canon divergent take on the character, but he’s super interesting, offers a neat spin on the concept of the Joker, and is very very very gay for Bruce.

-1966 Show Joker. Yes, this Joker is, while dangerous in-universe, a comedic character, but bear with me. When your shitty tv show makes the Riddler (who at the time was a bottom of the barrel D-lister) be cooler and scarier than the Joker, you know theyre doing something right- which doesn’t mean Romero’s mustached joker isn’t also scary. His laugh is very haunting and overall? I like the idea of the Joker as a trickster type villain that constantly tries new crimes just because he’s bored.

-Arkhamaniacs: this comic is adorable and super sweet, so give it a try. A young bruce Wayne lives with his parents opposite an apartment building called Arkham. Bruce admires its inhabitants colorful clothes and eccentric lifestyle, and the most colorful of them all, a mysterious smiling man in a purple suit, teaches little Bruce the wonders of friendship and imagination and being extremely gay. no, really, a popular reading of the book is that Arkham is a queer housing project and Bruce is a closeted little kid. this Joker is funny as hell, weird as hell, and very very wholesome at times. Hell, he’s friends with all the other villains for once. And Jonathan changes his name to Steve.

[jubberry]

oohkay let's go tua with those ship asks: fiveya, horrance and alluther.

thanks el i love you

Send me a ship and I'll answer three questions based on if I ship it or not.

fiveya obvs i ship this since this is 90% of my tua drawings lol

1. ill wait ill wait (to be the one) by georgiestauffenberg made me ship it cause holy fuck dude. I dont know if i ship them romantically when i saw them onscreen cause first of all, age difference is kinda weird lmao. Second, they dont rlly interact much outside literally the first couple of eps. But he was so soft for her, and i felt like they had so much unexplored history.

so i looked at fanfics cause i was wondering if ppl still ship it, then i liked the description of this one so i gave it a go.

Basically the premise is that vanya dates a much older man who seems to know a lot about her. And it was amazingly in character and just provided their characters some depth that u wouldnt find outside of a romantic relationship between them. (The implication of five pining while she doesnt know who he is, their missed chances when he time travelled, fives missed chances of living and having a 'normal' life bec of his own hubris, vanyas insecurity and being able to open up bec shes with someone whos known her since childhood). Its so sweet and thats how i was like, oh yep i can do so much more with these two, and what has kept me interested in drawing them etc.

2. My favourite things are the shippers cause i made some friends in the fandom who are super cool and supportive! I dont get super involved in fandoms and usually just watch from afar so finding people to talk to and muck around with in this tiny fandom is super cool 😭

Though thats not to say I havent come across some bad apples in this fandom and things that I dont like. I think thats the importance of carving out a place for yourself and ur friends in fandom tho.

Another thing I like about the ship itself, i just like the grumpy person whos soft for one person trope. Its so cute. I like all the little clues in canon on how their relationship as kids is quite warm, which is interesting cause five is basically the star student and he can be quite cold vs vanya who is the black sheep of the family.

I also like how five likes her powers even when she caused the apocalypse he spent the majority of his life in lol. Like its a popular hc that five is just a wife guy and i love that.

I see vanya as the type who has a lot of love to give, and she sometimes has unrealistic expectations of what her partner can give. Betrayal and lies really angers her, but also when her partner cannot meet her expectations of love she gets very upset bec its also an indication of how shes not good enough, or not loveable enough to be able to have this in the relationship (her insecurity means every failing always comes back to her, even if its out of her control).

I feel like five would be a level-headed person enough in the relationship to not be afraid to say 'vanya ur being stupid' (ie. the s2 confrontation lmao). Also, five's personality means she will never have to doubt his actions bec she knows hes the type who will not give u the moment of the day if hes not interested.

Not to mention they also have the whole apocalypse vs. saviour, hero/villain thing. Theres just a lot to explore!

3. I probably have several. But mostly I dont mind five being a dick to vanya bec first, even if the appeal is hes soft to her hes already kind of a dick in canon lmao. Also, vanya isnt a child. Shes grown and she can handle petty af things like five telling her shes not good at cooking lol. I also dont mind it cause I feel like people are getting too afraid to write... conflict for fear or portraying an abusive relationship or smth. Like, chill. Conflict is fine, resolving it is how u get a story. However in saying that, nobody should be obligated to write any way unless you want to! Fanfic is for comfort so if what your doing is making u happy then its good enough!

horrance which i also ship but i love the platonic and romantic relationship equally:

1. I came in tua in general not shipping anything so Im honestly not sure. I do remember someone doing a meta before s2 came out that was basically how ben acted weird when klaus summoned dave in s1 that made me go 👀 Otherwise, tua s2 rlly made me like them cause tua FED horrance shippers. Like..... the fact that klaus didnt want ben to leave him, and ben knows thats why he stayed 😢 or the fact that klaus was all over him for some reason???? Somebody also mentioned gay ben once and I resonate with that deeply. Like i get that jill exists but i resonate with gay ben deeply.

2. I love their bickering, theyre so cute together. I just like ben being angry bec hes self aware that hes got both shit and amazing taste. Shit bec he cant believes he likes Klaus (and also amazing also bec Klaus). I think the idea of them being kind of underdogs, theyre not rlly leader types and dont want to be, helps them bond together even in platonic horrance. They're both down to earth, and even tho they can annoy each other, they also know if they want a space to feel comfortable its with each other. Theyre not pressured by rivalry over leadership, or any sort of competition.

I love the idea that even tho ben is like klaus's ''conscience'', hes also down for chaos and bitchy. I feel like klaus rlly enabled that side of him, its not exactly a good thing but its p funny lol

3. I know some people think their dynamic is unhealthy but i dont care lol

alluther. So id say i dont ship this, mostly due to the fact that im not invested? Just like all tua ships so far I rlly came out not wanting anything but platonic relationships cause I feel tua doesnt do romance very well. With alluther, theyre so cute but im not super invested in either of their chars so they havent stuck for me. I appreciate seeing them and talking about them tho, and I'm def open to exploring them further.

1. I think tua canon romances are just so lackluster 😔 Idk who writes the romances but I was just like 'nice' but afterwards I dont really think about them. I love their dance scene and the message behind it! Otherwise, theyre sweet like most of the tua romances but im not super invested, same with all the non canon ships.

2. I really feel like tua needs to decide on what their relationship is. Like, just say its incest or not and stick with it 👀 Or if you wanna support it or not, just make up ur mind. I think I would've liked it better if I found the characters more interesting. Allison especially I feel like suffers from the fact that tua just doesn't want to make her ''mean''. They want to make her supportive and are less interested in making her flawed (ie. she should've had a conflict with Vanya in s2, but the writers didnt want to write the girls fighting which is stupid imo and not what that conflict is about).

In regards to Alluther, the scene where Allison gets annoyed at Luther for sleeping with someone else felt out of line. Like, how are you marrying other people and moving on but Luther isn't allowed to? But honestly, I don't mind if they actually just acknowledge it and make it a deliberate part of Allison's trait that Allison can expect a certain loyalty automatically from other people (which can tie in to her childhood being a star, and the rumour).

Luther is a big simp for Allison, which is sweet, but at the same time it would be nice to have him explore himself for a bit, and who he is outside of the academy. Then maybe they can rekindle their relationship again as new people and see where they go from there.

3. I don't hate them, but they're ok. I'm not super invested in them, just like all the tua canon romance. But I wouldn't mind making content for them if I were a bit more invested in their characters. I love their dance scene in s1 and I feel like its super a underrated portrayal of what their relationship is meant to be. I know no one talks about it but it's just such a great scene, and I'm pretty sure the choreographer was into interpretive dance? The scene had a lot of meaning that I don't see people dig around with.

Essentially I'm pretty sure the fairy lights are obviously a throwback to their childhood together, spending time outside of Reggie. So the dance scene kind of symbolized that pocket of space they made for each other in their life (even if theyre far away, or with other people, they will always have that space for each other).

The way they danced was more like playfighting than dancing, which means their relationship isn't sensual. It's more ''pure'', and romantic. Its basically two kids rekindling their love as adults. I also think this is a response to the incest, cause in s1 tua klaus literally said that 'thank god Regg is not their real father' right before Allison and Luther meet lmao. So its kinda like saying Allison x Luther isnt supposed to be 'ohh step sibling hot' but two people who experienced the same trauma as kids and finding comfort with each other (and rekindling that love after many years).

[thewanderingmask]

episode concepts bc why not.

-

episodes usually involve the squad getting some experimental tech from HQ or from C that theyre supposed to use in evil plans and misusing it

they get a ray gun that changes people's personalities. super powerful concept. they use it on the manager to change them from serious to free-spirited

this predictably leads to disaster. sure the paperwork goes undone and their plans go from basic to nonsensical to nonexistent, but the real crime is that HQ calls and the manager isnt there to cover their asses. and if they dont get their shit together he'll get replaced by someone who will actually make them Do Work

but the manager doesnt wanna change back because of all the stress. so he zaps B to make him go from frivolous and dramatic to serious

theres an extended sequence thats just everybody fighting over the gun and zapping each other

eventually we briefly touch upon the question of "would it actually be better to just leave things different" but A goes NOPE NOPE NOPE I HATE IT and smashes the gun turning everybody back to normal

-

i think an interesting episode would be them meeting a paragon protagonist hero. a superman kinda personality who is just kind to everybody and none of the bad guys can stand it but they are forced by circumstance to keep being in the person's company

and we get some conversations that poke at some of the backstories and underlying reasons the baddie squad are the way they are but not in a way that makes a lot of real progress or anything, we're just getting a little perspective on things

and they all are made super uncomfortable by the introspection this guy causes and the emotional sincerity and kindness offered to them and they keep losing their shit about it

eventually he moves on and theyre all like thank FUCK

-

i think the goons get powered up from recognising their strengths when fighting the big villain and it makes crimes too easy afterward. and it unsettles them because now random townsfolk cant kick their asses

so its boring

so they write in to the good guys because maybe now they can get their own nemesis and have street cred

(their manager goes WHY DID YOU DO THAT but its too late now)

the heroes are like "sounds fake" and send their own embarassment to check it out

the good guy who shows up is a gullible and oblivious person who causes more problems than they solve

and so the baddies keep having to do things like stop people from dying in fires the good guy accidentally starts without noticing. sothe good guy thinks THEYRE good guys and says great work team

theyre like NO WE;RE THE VILLAINS DAMMIT

and the hero's just like gasp what!!! -sees them catch a falling baby- aw you kidders :)

i think this culminates in a situation where an actual hero shows up- maybe an ascended rando from town - and the failhero thinks theyre a bad guy and fights them

and the bad guys are like NO!!!!! OUR GOOD GUY OPTION and have to prevent the failhero from accidentally genuinely killing this person

and finally are just like YES YES WE'RE GOOD GUYS WE;RE ARRESTING THE BAD GUY NOW PLEASE LEAVE

so he does and the heroes get a report that no its fine the town has some great heroes :)

-

i think the core to this that the baddies don't ever stop being selfish but do still slowly develop as people. they have issues that make their own lives worse and they act on these malignantly. rather than internalise morality, they gradually learn from the natural consequences of being shitty people. and for all their many many many shortcomings they still manage to eventually care about something other than themselves - each other. and it makes their lives better.

so yeah

brain dump time

the other morning i accidentally workshopped a cartoon story concept

i already have too many story concepts

i have no plans to do anything with it

i am putting it here now

-

THE PREMISE: Cartoon bad guy squad. Team rocket style Evil organization. we focus on a branch office made of embarrassments who are extra bad at this

They wanna prove themselves to the big boss and the rest of the organization. (Extra big team rocket energy there) They’re in some unimportant outpost in a random city and they get no support. Their base is some crappy hole. They never even meet the heroes.

Team is 2-3 squad members who are fucking goons and a middle manager who actually has some skills and takes things seriously

Goon A "Audrey": feral.

Goon B "Basilisk": fancy.

Goon C "Clint": mad scientist

The manager seems competent because he’s serious but actually isn’t super good at being in charge. gets easily wound up, that kind of thing

They get cartoon tools and ray guns and mostly fuck up with them or use them on each other

Squad starts with 2-3 goons then they gain a new one later

The new one is a nepo baby who really wants to be evil and got shoved out here because like the others they’re a goddamn embarrassment and this is a way to keep them out of trouble

Turns out they’re actually really good at being Evil with a capital E. something no one else on this squad has the stomach for

I think a season arc would be the nepo baby coming in and getting razzed by the og squad who are relishing the power of seniority until they get shown up. then they want the new guy gone. Then nepo baby reveals they’re actually Evil beyond cartoon goon squad boundaries and stage a coup on the manager. The goons follow along because well this new guy IS real competent so they’re finally gonna get recognized and respected and also nepo baby scares them

But it turns out none of the goons have the stomach to do something like murder a kid when ordered to, and they realize oh no with a competent boss they have to do real work, and really maybe they just liked screwing around and posturing the way things were before

So they have to team up with a washed up good guy to save their imprisoned manager and take down their genuinely evil new boss

Washed up good guy is one of those characters who betrayed the good guy team but lived to regret it so now he hides out here in nowhere town and depressions his way through the days

Lives in a run down trailer, avoids human contact, still gets some hate when he’s occasionally recognized

Anyway the baddies go to him because they decide they need a good guy to fight a real villain and he’s all there is within bus fare distance

They get him on board with helping by being idiots who will clearly die without help

Also he wants an act of redemption because he lost everything by betraying his original team and now he just really wants people to stop hating him

So he tells them how villains usually fuck up: by having plans with poor logistics or by getting emotionally involved and not thinking logically. ...These are both things our main character goons do, but the new villain doesn’t. So the only other thing villains do that leads to their downfall is underestimate their opponents. Usually some kind of power of friendship thing because villains don’t have friends. The protagonists try the power of friendship in a test run. It doesn’t work.

Ex hero eventually has an epiphany that yes these people suck at everything they're typically ASKED to do, but they have weird unique strengths in specific areas. So it’s about using those. like the power of hair care and makeup can be used to make disguises, feral brute strength can work if aimed at the right wall to break down.

They make a plan to rescue their old manager using these tactic and despite looking like a disaster it actually goes as planned. They get him out. Originally they are just planning on running away forever now but the manager, who incidentally has real injuries from his imprisonment, says there’s a worse plan happening that’ll kill the whole town for Real

And the team is originally still going to run away actually

But for ENTIRELY SELFISH REASONS they eventually realize how much they don’t want that to happen

Goon A is territorial, goon B’s arbitrary personal code is offended, manager has a bone to pick and a chip on their shoulder, and the ex hero still wants to do something that’ll get him back in with the heroes

So they make their plan and it’s one of those situations where it seems like it’s working right up until they reach the macguffin at which point the bars drop and the lights come on to show the villain, who has correctly estimated all of them. And He let them get this far because he thought it would be funny

you know, to crush them

and i think the third goon, mad scientist goon C, was the most ambitious and seemingly the most reasonable. and when the villain mutiny'd on the manager, C was the one who bowed their head and joined him

so the villain totally monologues about how he correctly summed up everyone and their critical faults, because again, it's fun to crush these people. and how the villain didnt want them to just run away and live, because then he couldnt kill them in front of C. because C still cares about the others. so he fed the manager info on his plan and let them break the guy out. and now hes gonna kill everybody with his macguffin plan and he knows C wont do anything to stop it, because they're too selfish to defy him. and the villain just wanted to hurt them all one more time before killing them (except C, whose reward for betraying his team is to live having watched them die)

anyway so then C shoots the villain with a gun

then theres a showdown and at the climax all the goons unite, and some kinda thing happens where theres a glimmer of power that flows through them and protects them from a fatal blow, and no one except the ex good guy notices the and goes "wait, is that-" and then the manager punches the villain in the face

then the superweapon laser death beam is about to go off and while theyre arguing over where to point it they accidentally set it to blow up the building theyre in

so everybody books it and the last thing the villain does, as he's left to bleed out on the floor of an exploding building, is stare up in disbelief and then just start laughing at the absurdity as the whole place goes up

in the epilogue, the team manage to fucking lie about everything that happened to the main office. this flies at the exact same time as their stuff was happening the heroes attacked and defeated the high council so now the power structure is in shambles

so they basically get told "whatever just stay there and dont cause any trouble"

so as far as theyre concerned its back to business as usual, which is all they wanted in the first place

pushing over old ladies and kidnapping small dogs

stealing candy from a literal baby

getting their asses beat by literally any given random citizen

stealing things

getting wacky machinery and misusing it

everybody just agrees unspokenly to pretend nothing happened with C

the manager is back in charge and wants the ex hero to help them. ex hero says no way i only helped because i wanted the good guys to want me again. but also he keeps getting roped in from then on. the goons just start Showing Up at his place and raiding his fridge

-

so yeah

[aprito]

hello <3 since i got these asks at the same time i decided to combine my thoughts on them in this post. yet another annoying sjw essay from yours truly on this blog 

before i get into these i think i need to preface why im like. i guess overly hyperfocused on a certain unproblematic base (same age au / platonic canon) for them and avoid the ped0philic content like the plague lol

tw for pedophilia ment, rape ment if that makes you squicky. ALSO THIS IS LONG AND RAMBLY

as i’ve mentioned a couple times already, ive been into the ship since i was 12, back when it was very very common to not only post untagged (nsfw) canonverse content of the two in writing and in drawing but also non con and the like, so you can imagine how bad my first impression online was. thinking back on it ...as a child i found it disturbing but didnt really register how problematic it really was?? (i know, but i also lived in the middle of nowhere and had no one explain this to me) 

skip to 2014 aka me coming back to naruto at 17ish and i had kinda become hyper aware of the fact that there was an increasing amount of people online who had come forward with explaining how fictional problematic content, mostly pedophilia, had been used to groom them into starting relationships with adullts. it was also a time where a lot of people didnt believe these victims, not registering how common it was for minors to be online friends with adults who had no boundaries and no qualms exposing them such content. not gonna get into my personal life here but i was lucky to not having gone through this myself. like... it kinda was my first time truly realising how fiction can EASILY be used to manipulate others irl (and yes i will not argue this, if you dont think fictional media can form and manipulate people’s opinions on attitudes, countries, cultures and virtues, pick up a book about the effects of propaganda media at least once please) 

i, being young, still liking the dynamic but not really the romance, would point this out here and there in the fandom and get into fights with grown adults in their mid 20s who assumed i automatically hated the ship(s) and tried to restrict their freedom of speech or whatever, heard everything from the “age of consent doesnt exist in naruto” to the “sasori looks like a child what does it matter” despite people clearly playing on him being older and experienced. it made me so upset that people were just consuming all this content uncritically and exposing children to it tbh?? not really just sos but a lot of minor/adult ships in naruto in general. and thats where i sat down and thought, i do not want to be a grown adult talking down to children that point out how unsafe the fandom is. theyre absolutely right in drawing these boundaries and calling out adults who defend the uncritical consumption and creation of this content. i do not want to consume or create content that predators could use to groom minors, and i absolutely do want to let younger people in fandom know that i am respecting their comfort zones and want them to have a safe and fun experience. after all, naruto is not an adult show and i think a lot of people forget that!!!! i am not perfect in that regard but its something that i, at the age of 23, am very passionate about and strive towards to.

and i guess thats where same age au was born for me and i have been sticking to it ever since. 

so finally we can move to the first question 

aside from the fact that we both dont like canon sos, i dont think it would work out even if i wasnt prejudiced to it anyways. in all honesty, 35 year old canon sasori is not a redeemable character to me, given the fact that he’s easily amongst the cruelest villains in naruto (torturing and killing and taxiderming people for his own fun personal gain, never for a goal that served anyone but himself. how do you redeem having over 300 corpses in your backpack that you felt absolutely no remorse for killing). sasori was legit one of the only cruel villains that didnt had someone else pull the strings, which sends a clear message on kishi’s part, who absolutely loves to redeem villains LOL.

being that old, he obviously had already been very manifested in what he believed in, even if it was shakey, to the point where the first crack in that world view (sakura and chiyo protecting each other) immediately had him give up on his life all together. that, in my opinion, is not a man who’s going to know what healthy relationships would look like, regardless of it being romantic or not. 35 year old sasori to me has the same appeal as an expired can of tuna and he’s probably very happy 6 feet under. he’s supposed to be a failed gaara in that sense that he had no one to look out for him and therefore was never going to experience anything but a bad ending in life. its fine that hes dead honestly, it wraps up his short character development the best IMO.

adding to that, seriously, sakura was obviously interested in knowing why he was that way, and called him out for being seriously fucked in the head, but it’s weird to me that people assume she had any interest in actively rehabilitating him, let alone starting a serious romantic relationship with him. sakura who’s not only very, uhm, immature and straight forward when it comes to her romantic viewpoints also, as a big bootlicker, wouldnt soil her standing in the village by starting anything with a disgraced and far too gone criminal like sasori. shipping that version of sasori with sakura intimately is still going to set her up for a huge power imbalance that would be difficult to handle imo, even if she was the one in the fight ultimately exerting her power over him. i would still look at it and think damn she deserves better than having to play therapist for man like that lol.

additionally, even if you ignored all of this, you cant really ignore that sasori had already known her as a child, and that had been his first and most impactful impression of her. i dont think that sasori would look at 35 year old sakura and see her as a grown woman and not the little green girl she was in the fight. plus, you easily fall into predatory comparison territory between the “childish” and “womanly” and i have seen way too often in fic just being boiled down to her now being fuckable. a lot of of ships do this and i would just like to remind yall thats it not normal for adults to want to start relationships with children they have seen grown up or known as a child when they themselves were fully grown adults. therefore, maybe if sakura hadnt met sasori before it would be less of a problem? but that also obviously defeats the point of the dynamic and the reason he died in the first place. so yeah, it sounds kind of doomed especially if you were to make it romantic. 

WHICH BRINGS ME TO THE SECOND QUESTION

let me preface this that im not fundamentally against age gaps, even if im not super interested in it. after all, colorblind had a 5 yr age gap (with sakura being 21), even if, say, i wrote similar fics today i probably would make it smaller lol. i think it can be handled well if both parties have enough life experience to deal with it, and the author is cautious of where the age gap starts, i think a 10+ year age gap would be fine in a scenario where the younger party (i guess sakura) was at least 25-27ish, meaning she has completed most of her most formative life stages and probably had been in relationships before, meaning she would be able to handle it without having to fear a huge power imbalance. the older the younger party is the less the age gap is going to matter tbh .TsukiHoshino and AngelOfDeath10 both handle age gaps in their fics really well imo, so i do not mind reading about them.

unfortunately, a lot of people in this fandom think making sakura barely "”””legal””””” (18, not even 20 which is hilarious to me because the source material is obviously japanese) because they both cannot stand her being past her “prime years” of being young fertile and fuckable to much older men as well as thinking a 20 year old is automatically old enough to handle that type of relationship. ive seen a lot of unironic takes that believe it will absolve them of callout posts if they throw around age of consent and “shes 18 now suckers!!!” enough lmfao. absolutely hilarious. aging a minor up without aging the adult down seriously reeks of predatory “cant wait until youre 18″ narratives and thats why i find it similarly disturbing as straight up pedo shipping.

ultimately, sasosaku is and will always be a inherently problematic ship in canon, which is why i think it should always be handled a little more responsibly in fandom spaces, ignoring or outright excusing the main problem factor, which is sasori, isnt going to convince anyone that the dynamic in itself is well written and interesting enough to explore in aus, like giving sasori the redemption most of us wanted him to have by aging him down to a point in time where he was still realistically going to allow being positively influenced, similar to gaara. 

so really, what i think is well handled age gap and how most people handle age gap in the naruto fandom are two different worlds at times lol 

tl;dr

canon shippers have never been anything but gross when i was younger and i didnt wanna be like that, even if youre “smart”enough to differenate, actual creeps dont really care and might use your content to blur the lines, sasori isnt rly redeemable so romantic canonverse realistically wouldnt make much sense and is still iffy, age gaps are fine if they are handled well, but given that the dynamic doesnt really need the age gap to still work im not that invested on making that an essential part of my shipping experience.  

thank you for reading and hope this makes sense!