#awesomaximus-world

[incorrect-vrains-quotes]

Specter: You’re so naive Blue Angel.

You see the good in everybody, even when it’s not there.

You’re living a fantasy. There is no Easter Bunny, there is no Tooth Fairy and there is no Queen of England!

[raayllum]

Do you think Erzan has read the letter that Harrow left for Callum? It would be neat way to explore how he feels about himself and leadership as a concept.

Oh I think so! We see Ezran hold the letter in 3x02 with the unbroken seal (which means Callum passed it down to him) and I also think that's part of why Ezran refuses a regent and decides it Has to be him, much in the way that Harrow decided that He had to be the one to pay for his own mistakes. Being king for Ez and Harrow is very much synonymous with taking accountability/responsibility (even if that's difficult or flawed sometimes in how they do so) and I think we can see that in how Ezran decides to simultaneously honour his father's wishes in Breaking the Cycle but also knowing he has to be better than his father, too: "I just wish Dad was here; he'd know what to do, you know?" (2x03) -> "So I've decided that I don't have to be the king my father was. My father made choices to keep fighting battles that started hundreds of years before he was born. To punish kids for crimes their parents committed. I don't want to be that kind of king."

[padawanlost]

E aí,tudo bem? If there is a post episode III meeting between Rex and Cody,anything that you would like to see?

Oiees, tudo bem e vc?

I don’t think it would go well, at all. I mean, after ROTS Cody ‘joined’ the Empire, training the next generation of stormtroopers. In a way, he was training the people hunting down Rex and his friends. so any meeting between them would be influenced by that. 

Cody was never a ‘true believer’ but, as a clone, he didn’t have any choice because he didn’t have any rights. When the Republic became the Empire, Cody automatically began serving the Empire like he was trained (or programmed) to do. knowing that, one could assume that Cody remained as loyal, hardworking and committed as he was during the war and that would mean he wouldn’t put personal feelings over his duty. 

So, if we are talking about a scenario where Cody and Rex bump into each other, I can see Cody trying to capture Rex as easily as I see Cody being torn by it. 

On the other hand, we have Rex who was much more aware of what really happened during the war and has a better understanding how shitty the clones situation truly was. That’s why I don’t see Rex being antagonistic towards Cody, even if he’s being attacked/hunted by him. I believe Rex would know better than to hate his brother for being a slave.

After the initial shock, I can also see Rex trying to argue with Cody in an attempt to save himself and his brother from the Empire. Might be just wishful thinking, but I like to think Rex would be able to eventually convince his brother to leave.  

Idk, I just hate when the clones don’t get the happy ending they rightfully deserved. Everyone talks about how traumatic Order 66 was for the Jedi, but can you imagine how horrifying it was for the clones? Don’t get me wrong, I love rex with all my heart. He’s my favorite. But I don’t like how part of the fandom puts him on  pedestal for not killing any jedi. tThe clones who didn’t manage to break out of their programming were Palpatine’s victims too and don’t deserve to be vilified by the fandom. 

The fact Cody tried to kill Obi-wan shouldn’t be used to punish him, not when he didn’t have any choice. Cody deserves agency and, sadly, Rex was the only one who would be able (and willing) to offer him freedom.

That’s why even though I believe their initial meeting could potentially go very, very wrong, I still want to believe that Rex wouldn’t give up on his brother and would do everything in his power to save him.

[busta-of-the-day]

Are you gonna say who is the Busta of the year?

Probably not. There’s been too many to pick from, and that’s just counting the ones mentioned on this blog. In addition, I feel like if I did a poll, the results would likely get skewed towards a single candidate (example: If Ajit Pai was on the hypothetical poll, I’m pretty convinced almost everyone would vote for him).

[askhankpymandjanetvandyne]

[raayllum]

Any thoughts about the Crow Lord? I feel the series is building up to something with him, but I can't guess what that is.

The Crow Lord exists mostly as a gimmick character (i.e. for the Crow Master to be continually promoted and also a bit bumbling). However, given that they both exist in universe to deliver messages and "don't shoot the messenger" is a common turn of phrase, I could see Crow Master dying or almost dying at some point - after all, if you get inside Katolis castle and don't want anyone to know, removing the person who's job it is to handle news going inside and out would be pretty good in the short term.

I could also see them just always continuing the bit though, kinda like with Barius the baker - sometimes you just need comic relief characters

[incorrect-vrains-quotes]

Ai:You can't lock us up like this!Let me go! What about my Miranda rights? You're suppose to say I have right to remain silent! Nobody said I have the right to remain silent!

Playmaker: Ai,you HAVE the right to remain silent. What you lack is the capacity.

[lilyhoshikawa]

@awesomaximus-world acting as though Aoi's loss is in any way comparable to Go's is ridiculous. It's not simply the fact that she lost that bothers me, it's HOW she lost and WHO she lost to.

I actually do note in the OP that Aoi is the only one who loses to a minor villain. So, to elaborate: Aoi having a loss isn't inherently a bad thing, we all know Yusaku is gonna be the one to defeat Revolver. But Aoi's duel has several noteworthy distinctions from Go's.

For one, it's a personal stakes duel, against a character she absolutely deserves to defeat. Specter is shown to respect Yusaku and Go, yet he repeatedly mocks Aoi. He was the one to initially brainwash her. Throughout the duel, he mocks and talks down to her. He's also established to be a foil to her in the duel. They had similarly difficult childhoods and have a connection to the same storybook, but Aoi (a hero character) found hope in it while Specter (a villain) only found envy and despair. Even his deck is built as an exact counter to hers. In no case that this has happened to Yugioh characters has a villain with this kind of setup actually won that I can think of. It's deeply insulting. To top it all off, Aoi is thrown on her face and knocked unconscious. Compare that to Go's final moments for a second. As she disappears, the focus is not on Aoi, but Akira. It's HIM who's imprisoned and suffering as he watches Aoi disappear. He gets the focus in her final moments. And that's to ignore that even before this we have the nasty plant boy standing over her body continuing to mock her.

Go's duel against Revolver is the polar opposite. Revolver respects Go's spirit, saying "I don't hate passionate people like you". Go is thrown off by Mirror Force, yet even after that he bounces back and forces Revolver to reveal his secret weapon, Borrelsword, which he even notes is impressive. Even Go's motivations are opposite Aoi's- while Aoi has decided to fight for others, he explains that he has chosen to start fighting for his own pride. In the end, he is upright as he vanishes, smiling proudly as he gives his tearful farewell to Playmaker. The focus is on him.

Yusaku doesn't even get to see Aoi's duel, he can only speculate as to how she lost. There's no opportunity for her to earn anyone's respect because the only one around is a guy who looks down on her.

Go's loss to the main villain of the season is in no way on the level of Aoi being defeated by his lackey.

Aoi Zaizen & Misogyny

The characterization Aoi is given in Vrains isn’t exactly subtle about how it wants to frame her, but I’ve had a fair share of ppl try to say the writing isn’t misogynistic, and so to prove my argument here, I just figured I’d go beat by beat in her character arc and see what it points to.

Aoi is a character defined by her helplessness. Before we even meet her, she is made helpless. From the very beginning her struggle is about her brother trying to watch out for her because he’s worried she’ll get hurt- this isn’t inherently a bad setup for a conflict or a character arc, I’m not say saying it is. But it’s already starting Aoi off in a position where she is being protected, and any attempt to break out of that is considered selfish. We are expected to understand early on that Aoi is putting herself in circumstances she cannot handle by getting involved in the plot. And it shows. Before she even gets her first duel, Aoi is brainwashed. That’s a new record, even amongst Yugioh girls.

The duel with Playmaker is, itself, fine. It’s pretty well written and it allows the potential for future growth on Aoi’s part. But it’d be wrong not to note that it’s this situation that reinforces her helplessness and puts her in coma #1. Aoi is being controlled and is reliant on Playmaker to defeat her, and later, to save her. Her consciousness is wagered in the duel against Revolver, yet it always seems strange that it is. Yusaku’s motivation for fighting Revolver is absolutely not about Aoi, it’s about his revenge. Aoi is an afterthought. He’s not dueling Revolver to save her, it’s her needing to be saved that gave him the opportunity to duel Revolver. They have enough tension at play by this point to make Aoi’s involvement irrelevant, the only contribution it offers is the occasional shot of Akira watching the duel.

I’m gonna mainly gloss over the duel against the A.I. and Akira vs Yusaku aside from noting a few things. Aoi defeating the AI is fine, it gives her a decent win. It’s mostly a result of being on Playmaker’s side, and it’s not really a significant opponent, but it’s a meaningful win if it establishes a new character shift. Which I’ll go on to establish it doesn’t do. Aoi reaching out to Playmaker and wanting to know his story would also be meaningful and relevant if it went anywhere, but 50 episodes later she still doesn’t know Playmaker’s identity and had to be given another connection to the lost incident bc her relation to Yusaku was that weak.

So in any case. Aoi awakens from coma #1 and is determined not to be weak anymore, and decides to fight for the sake of others in her duel against Vaira. This is the ONLY relevant win she ever gets, and the one everyone seems to love to parade around as if it proves the rest of her losses don’t count, or that I’d be the misogynistic one for ignoring this win. This is ignoring, however, that this duel was part of a series of duels building up Aoi, Yusaku, and Go as they ALL got their own respective Knight of Hanoi to defeat in order to bump up their characters. Go and Aoi hadn’t done much by this point, and if they were meant to be Playmaker’s partners, they needed something additional to build them up. This one win can’t be counted as any more significant than Go’s win against Doctor Genome or Yusaku’s win against Faust. I like these episodes, I like the way Aoi is written in them and I LOVE that she gets to be the hero. But it’s disingenuous to imply this single instance of winning dismisses the following assault of bad writing.

As part of her decision to fight for others, Aoi sympathizes with and even tries to save Specter, who by all means she should have every right to hate. In a twist of backwards development, he gets to win, so that he can have a hastily-constructed reason to duel Playmaker instead, making her the only one to lose to a minor villain out of the party. This duel is riddled with Bad Stuff so much so that I don’t even feel a real need to touch on it. The main thing of note though is that the annoying plant man’s arrogance comes from the fact that he sees everything coming, nothing surprises him. He gets to be in control the whole time, guiding Aoi along as he mocks her. She is helpless from the beginning of this duel. Whether or not you’d like to claim Specter specifically is a well written character is it’s own argument, but necessary in that conversation is the note that any development he gains is at the expense of Aoi. She is an expense in this duel, a sacrifice to give Yusaku one more big opponent before Revolver. Enter coma #2. The Tower of Hanoi arc ends and everyone comes back.

Season 2 is when all the character transformations happen, and for Aoi, each one is just a big neon sign of her imposed weakness.

Blue Angel becomes Blue Girl. This is meant to be a big moment on Aoi’s decision to fight in a new way and improve herself. She talks abt improving her deck and becoming stronger. In the episode literally titled “Blue Girl’s First Duel” she loses to Soulburner and does not duel again before her second transformation.

This strange, confusing and ultimately pointless transformation doesn’t last long, as soon enough she encounters Aqua and suddenly remembers Miyu.

Enter Blue Maiden. NOW we’re supposed to understand that Aoi has ACTUALLY matured, for real this time, we promise. Now she’s fighting for her childhood friend’s consciousness, she has the plot-armor of an Ignis, and a new deck. She is framed alongside Takeru and Yusaku as a main protagonist. She’s even being called a victim of the Lost Incident now, albeit secondhand. It seems that while she was put through the wringer, she’s at least finally been given the chance to shine.

Several Yusaku, Takeru, and Blood Shepard duels later, Blue Maiden finally gets her first duel. A speed duel against Haru. She wins. Hooray, she beat a relevant character, and all it took was a completely new deck and 2 transformations! Sarcasm aside, she naturally couldn’t lose here. You can imagine Marincess debuting only for its user to immediately be killed off again, and to top it all off, this is before the killing game of late season 2 begins. They’re saving the deaths for that. But on the bright side, Aoi gets a win to show off her new deck and new resolve, and it has the handy side effects of taking care of Haru and giving slight motivation to Bohman.

But now Bohman is here, and he has to defeat literally everyone except Playmaker so we can have their 5th duel. Aoi is, of course, the first to duel him. He wagers the data for Miyu’s consciousness in much the same way Revolver wagered Aoi’s. Even with plot armor though, Aoi has to lose. Does it make narrative sense? Oh, sure. Can’t have the big bad lose on the first big match. But if that’s where your analysis stops, you aren’t trying to think critically at all.

You have to understand the implications of these repeated losses. Aoi is given new resolve each time only to have it ripped away, and a random new motivation is thrust upon her as the plot demands it. She loses so Playmaker can clean up the villain she failed to beat.

And that is, of course, without even bothering to ask why Miyu has to be in a coma at all, why Ema loses so much and is being sidelined now. Whatever happened To Queen, after Go lost? The very few girls Vrains has bothered to write have very little agency. Aoi may get the spotlight among them, but she is highlighted only to be the designated loser, the one who tries her best and always falls short to show how dangerous the threat is. Whatever this may do to her psyche can be worked out by thrusting a new character motivation onto her. Next arc she’ll once again care about becoming stronger, for the sake of some new arbitrary thing. She’ll always be attempting to grow, with no success.

It’s also worth noting that much of Aoi’s suffering is to serve Akira’s very lukewarm character arc. And you can ask yourself why Aoi has to fight for her brother always, or later on her childhood friend, when Yusaku gets to fight for himself. Aoi is almost always fighting for the sake of someone else, but the answer is simply that this is a byproduct of what Aoi has had to become. Continually fighting for herself is redundant if she can’t win the way Yusaku does. She needs a new reason to reignite her flames of passion so that her drive to get better won’t go out. Yet it will always fall short, each and every time.

Aoi’s character is defined by helplessness and desperation as she struggles against forces that have already decided she is worthy neither of victory nor even basic respect.

[incorrect-vrains-quotes]

You fool, I have 70 alternative accounts!

Aoi, probably

[incorrect-vrains-quotes]

Studies show owning a ladder is more dangerous that a loaded gun.That’s why I own ten guns,just in case some fool tries to sneak in here with a ladder.

Ryoken Kogami, probably

[incorrect-vrains-quotes]

What does Soulburner mind room looks like?

I feel like it would look like a Pokémon Gym; specifically fire type, let’s be real. or maybe the same vibes as an arc v era action duel field. that kind of funky, energetic get things done kind of vibe. fun splashes of paint (maybe like streaks of fire) on the primarily white walls. I wanna think there are lion dog statues in it;;; one of them having a red orb/markings like Flame. Its well lit and probably has posters on the wall with symbolised versions of characters like Playmaker, Blue Angel, Go Onizuka. he might also have a poster with his parents but its faded, a lot more abstract than the others

[incorrect-vrains-quotes]

Pandor x Ai

them!!!

their duel was so fun but rip Topologina Nabee, I really thought that we’d eventually get it added to the anime

they have such a fun chemistry. rival AIs on the other side of the war. you could even turn it into a dashing rogue/sheltered princess scenario and spice in the fact that Ryoken would loathe Pandor being romanced by Ai omg

i feel like Pandor ships are criminally underrated and ignored; like I am a stalwart proponent for Ai/Pandor and even Ryoken/Pandor as well as complete crack like Kyoko/Pandor and Aqua/Pandor (gotta get those femslashes happening, you know?) but, if I am being, completely honest, I think Ai/Pandor is the best combination because again. Dashing Rogue/Sheltered Princess. It’s *chef’s kiss*

and their canon banter is so good and there’s something, I can only describe as, sexy about the fact that Ai can’t touch her physically because of Pandor’s programming and I think there would be such an interesting story of free will and aritficial intelligence and deciding things for one’s self in the grand 100k canon compliant slowburn epic of their love

gosh these two are so good and I like maybe see art of them once every couple of blue moons but I think they deserve more attention, like, please? pretty please with bumblebees on top?

anyways I think these two should be in love, Pandor very earnestly, and Ai, very cheekily

- Mod Playmaker

[padawanlost]

George Lucas for the character breakdown

How I feel about thischaracter: tbh, Inever cared much for him until Disney screwed him over. I mean, I never hatedhim or anything like it but I never put him on a pedestal and called him my godlike some fans either. But Disney somehow managed to make me respect his integrityas a storyteller and filmmaker, and that (kind of) endeared him to me. Say whatyou want about the guy but I’ve to say I do respect the fact he did theprequels exactly how he wanted to make them (instead of doing what he believedthe fans wanted to see) and how he kept pushing the technology forward bytrying new things, instead of “safe” things.

All the people I shipromantically with this character: his wife?

My non-romantic OTP forthis character: hisfamily?

My unpopular opinionabout this character:read above.

One thing I wish wouldhappen / had happened with this character in canon: He shouldn’t have sold star wars. Hugemistake.

GIVE ME ACHARACTER and I’ll break their ass down

[incorrect-vrains-quotes]

Shoichi: Oh good Lord. Didn’t anybody here build ships in bottles when they were boys?

Spectre: I did not play with toys.

Earth: I was never a boy.

[silence]

Takeru: I did.

Shoichi: Thank you, Takeru.

[padawanlost]

Jango Fett 1,5,7 pls

1) Something this character is truly proud of: his mandalorian upbringing. 5) A cherished personal belonging: his armor. 7) This character’s favorite character: Joe from A Fistful of Dollars.

Send me a character and a number and I’ll tell you my headcanons for:

[incorrect-vrains-quotes]

Queen: Kogami never told you what happened to your mother…

Revolver: He told me enough! He told me you killed her.

Queen: No... I am your mother.

Revolver: No, no…that’s not true, that’s impossible!

Queen: Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

Revolver: Noooo! No!