#because he believes mc killed these people FOR him. so its clearly not a manipulation of her causing her to kill | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

hamliet · 5 years ago

Note

Who are your top 10 female villains? And your top ten male villains? Thank you!

Oooooh. Well, in this list I am including antagonists (people I see as conflicted/not committed to like, the bad side, if there even is a bad side, but basically oppose the protagonist at some point). Also, they are in no particular order:

Female Villains:

Cersei Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire)

She's sympathetic enough so that we understand how she came to be the way she is, yet terrifying and depraved enough that we fear for the characters around her. I don't think that's an easy balance to strike for a character: if you make them likable it's hard to keep audiences from rooting for them, but the balance is struck perfectly with Cersei.

Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

As @aspoonofsugar wrote recently on Azula, I think she is a fantastic female villain. I think she is sympathetic despite her actions, and I wish the story had explored her redemption, which was clearly hinted.

Claudia (The Dragon Prince)

The first three seasons have kind of been Claudia's fall. While as a whole I don't think TDP is very well-written, I do think that Claudia, Viren, and Soren's family dynamic is a polished gem of writing that literally carries the story. I fully expect to see redemption for Claudia down the line, but not until she spirals further and further. At the end of season 3, Claudia resorts to killing someone to save her father's life when she has nothing and no one else left, and she makes this choice after her brother Soren (now redeemed himself) chooses to kill their father in front of Claudia, devastating her. Their choices are clear parallels and both are somewhat negative, somewhat sympathetic. Soren can't kill his past: he has to live with it, and Claudia can't cling to the past: she has to let it go.

Delores Umbridge (Harry Potter)

She is awful and I hate her, but you're also supposed to hate her. Her comeuppance is hilarious ad perfect, and just--I think she's a fantastic villain because she reminds every single one of us of an albeit exaggerated version of a teacher we all know.

Karren von Rosewald (Tokyo Ghoul:re)

Karren is TG:re's best written character in my opinion. Her tragic arc takes place throughout the first three arcs, which imo is also the highest point in the series. Karren just wanted to be loved, and if she had to die, at least she got to die as herself.

Nora (Noragami)

Nora! The reason I read Noragami is pretty much for Nora and her redemption arc. The fandom hates her for... reasons, but she's always been primed for redemption. Her name is in the title (which yes also refers to Yato, etc.) She's important. I wrote a few metas on Nora, notably here.

Enoshima Junko (Danganronpa)

Despair. It's fun to find a character who is, well, just plain fun, but who is also bored, despairing, cruel, and terrifying. She's unique and a brillaint character.

Toga Himiko (Boku no Hero Academia)

I'm not the first one to say that Toga is BNHA's best written female character, but I do agree that she is. She, like Junko, is fun and interesting, and she has an arc that is compelling. Her actions directly move the plot; she’s bloodthirsty and yet uniquely empathetic and compassionate.

Yoshimura Eto (Tokyo Ghoul)

Eto's backstory and her motivations were fascinating. She was one of the most complex characters in the entire story, and despite the fact that you understood why her father gave her up, you also understood her pain and justified anger at his doing so. She perfectly illustrated the divide between human and ghoul.

Male Villains:

Shigaraki Tomura (Boku no Hero Academia)

BNHA's best-written male character, imo. His backstory and the current chapters that focus on him are extremely well-done, thematic and full of character development, and detailed artistically. He gets so much focus that I can tell he's important to Horikoshi, and I'm excited to see where he goes.

Dabi (Boku no Hero Academia)

I'll admit there's a lot missing here. Namely, we don't know his identity for certain, but it seems basically certain that he's Todoroki Touya; however, we still don't have his backstory. Still, his fury at the presumed father who destroyed his family and yet has the audacity to be a "symbol of hope" is fascinating to me, and I'm excited to see how he develops as well. (Both Shigaraki and Dabi seem primed for some kind of redemption).

Adult Trio: Illumi Zoldyck, Hisoka Morow, Chrollo Lucilfer (Hunter x Hunter)

Am I counting these three as one so that I can get extra characters? Of course I am. In all honesty I really think all three of these antagonists are really well done, sympathetic and/or likable. They're the shadows of the three MCs they foil: for Illumi, Killua, for Hisoka, Gon, and for Chrollo, Kurapika. They represent the traits the three protagonists (sorry Leorio) don't want to acknowledge in themselves, and therefore their encounters with their shadows are particularly thematic and powerful. Also, one doesn't usually kill their shadow, but instead integrates with it, so I highly doubt the three of them will be killed by their respective protagonist.

Meruem (Hunter x Hunter)

Yes, again, HxH. It has great antagonists. But Meruem's development is literally one of the most powerful I've ever read about. I don't know anyone who starts his story not loathing him, hoping he dies, and then by the end of it, ebfore you've even realized it's happening, you're crying for him and Komugi. His arc explores human nature at its finest, most horrific, and ultimately most beautiful.

Furuta Nimura (Tokyo Ghoul:re)

Furuta's a fantastic villain whom I wish got a better ending (not even redeemed really, but just... something more). He was so damaged by the system of an unfair world that he made it his life goal to become the villain and burn the system down, destroy it no matter what it took--and also hoped to destroy himself in the process, as he was born knowing he would die young and longed for it. I wish he had been forced to live.

Mori Ougai (Bungo Stray Dogs)

Mori's utilitarianism is chilling. He's not exactly unlikable, despite being absolutely morally repugnant, and the Beast AU from Asagiri himself shows us that Mori is certainly capable of a positive life and positive change; however, within the canonical story, I don't see that for him. He's been set up IMO as the final boss of the series, and his habit of targeting the most vulnerable (especially children) to control people is almost certainly going to bite Dazai in the ass eventually.

Eren Jaeger (Shingeki no Kyojin)

I can't believe I'm writing this. I don't know what to call Eren: he's the protagonist, and he's sunk to becoming the final boss. While it's possible he, like Furuta and like Lelouch of Code Geass, is playing the villain, I really hope not, as I think the themes are much more powerful if Eren sincerely believes what he proclaims to believe. He's a kid who has always wanted to fight for freedom and for the people around him, and now we're seeing the dark side of those traits, wherein he's destroying the world via genocide to save the people close to him. He's driven by fear and by anger at the cruelty and unfairness of the world, and he's forgotten the beauty of it. I hope Mikasa can remind him before the end.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Bungo Stray Dogs)

MY BOY. Look if a character is named after my very favorite real-life author, I must stan. But actually I do think Fyodor is well written and a master manipulator. He's modeled after my favorite character in all of fiction, Dostoyesvky's Demons' Alexei Kirillov. He really seems to want human connection, to live, and has forgotten that empathy is an important and necessary part of both of those. I hope--and think it is likely given BSD's prolific redemption arcs--that he will remember eventually.

Lee Yut-Lung (Banana Fish)

Again,, he's less a villain than an antagonist. Like Ash, the main character, he is a teenage boy betrayed by the people who were supposed to protect him and abused his whole entire life. He's driven by a desperate need to be loved and jealousy that Ash is loved while he is not. His ending, when Sing finally tells him he will in fact be staying by Yut-Lung's side and will help Yut-Lung redeem himself, "because you're in pain... your soul's bleeding, even now" is literally the perfect ending for him.

Jin Guangyao (Mo Dao Zu Shi)

I've written a lot on Jin Guangyao, but he's a walking tragedy. He ties with Wei Wuxian, the protagonist, as my favorite, and the reason is because they are two sides of the same coin--in fact, they're the same side of the same coin. They're not very different, and the fact that he finally at least got empathy in the end and was able to push the person he loved most to safety because of that--well. Brb time to cry.

#ask hamliet #long post #villains #lists #faves #Anonymous

64 notes · View notes

aspoonofsugar · 5 years ago

Note

With all of the forest metaphors that are in the recent chapters, what do you think about the lost girls ova(mikasa's part) where eren takes mikasa into the forest and teaches her to not be afarid of it? And what do you think about zeke in ch 113 trying to escape the forest but levi is stopping and dragging him back in? . i wonder if all of the forests in the series just got extra meta meanings. I would love to hear your thoughts you always write meta beautifully. Have an amazing week!

Hello anon!

Thank you for the nice words!

I have talked a little about the use of the forest in the female titan arc here and I have mentioned it also about Sasha and Mikasa’s arc here and here.

In short, I think that the forest has a symbolic meaning both in the female titan arc and especially in Mikasa’s backstory and side story, while I am not sure it has any kind of special meaning when it comes to Zeke and Levi even if I guess a metaphorical interpretation is still possible.

As far as Levi and Zeke are concerned, the fact that they fight each other in a forest can very well be seen as a symbolic way to highlight how they are both still far from finding a positive resolution to their inner conflicts. I have discussed briefly their fight here:

Finally the chapter has Zeke mentioning the fact that he and Levi can’t trust each other and the caption at the end mentions again this concept aka that even the people who can’t understand each other have each one their own reasons. Basically, at the root of Zeke and Levi’s conflict (and at the root of the whole conflict btw Paradis and the world tbh) there is the inability/unwillingness to communicate. Zeke won’t share his true intentions and even if he did there is no guarantee that Levi will hear him out since he has not gotten over his hate for Zeke. Chapters 112 and 113 are called respectively “Ignorance” and “Violence”. They can be considered as the two flaws of respectively Zeke and Levi and at the same time they are connected to the strong points of both characters. Zeke is one of the smartest and most knowledgable characters of the series, but he also fails to understand others and misreads them. Levi on the other hand is one of the strongest characters, but he is also extremely violent. At the same time he is one of the most good willed and empathetic. They are two paradoxes and probably no matter how intelligent or how strong they are, they won’t be able to reach their objectives without showing empathy, exactly like the whole world will crumble if the people will keep refusing to understand each other.

An interesting point of the fight between Levi and Zeke is that the both of them understimate each other. On one hand Zeke understimates Levi’s determination to kill his comrades in order to fulfill his duty. It is as Levi says, Zeke has no idea of how many people the SC sacrificed in order to arrive where they are and by brushing off their sacrifices he is showing a lack of respect for the people of Paradis. This is made clear also by him basically calling them naive in his speech since they have no idea of how the world works. Levi easily preventing him from escaping by showing his initial assumption to be wrong proves how flawed Zeke’s vision of others is. On the other hand Levi understimates Zeke’s determination to sacrifice himself in order to realize an ideal. Levi wants to believe that Zeke is completely inhuman and that he is a monster. He understimates Zeke’s determination and this is why he ends up hurt.

In short, they are both stuck in a frame of mind where they can not really understand their enemy fully despite the fact that the two of them have both grasped some traits of the other person. For example, Zeke has noticed how caring Levi is to his comrades, while Levi has grasped how manipulative and cruel Zeke can be. However, these traits are not all there is to them and each one of them refuses that the other could be more. Because of this, it is fitting that their fight happens in a forest aka a place which Mr Braus’s lines link to violence and confusion. Both Zeke and Levi display a high degree of violence and the inability to see the situation clearly (and in that arc we have two chapters called respectively Ignorance and Violence).

Generally speaking, a forest is a place symbolic of the “id” and of the subconscious. It is a place where things are not clearly visible and where monsters and strange creatures hide in waiting. In fairy tales and formative stories it is often a place the MC has to enter in order to grow by overcoming its obstacles. I would say that in snk the forest has a similar meaning and this is clear in both the Female Titan arc and in Mikasa’s (and Sasha’s) backstory.

Let’s start with the Female Titan arc. That arc is the arc where the MC go outside for the first time. The beginning of the series makes clear that going outside is something dangerous, but also necessary. This is true for the society of the walls and for the story itself, but also symbolically for the characters who have to leave their comfort zones and to face the ��unknown” in order to grow up. That said, the experience of going outside is also highly traumatic and the obstacles the characters meet are difficult to face alone. This is why they need mentor figures like Erwin for Armin and Levi for Mikasa and Eren. The Female Titan arc is after all when these characters are properly introduced and their role as mentors is quickly established. As a matter of fact Armin shows admiration for Erwin and praises him, while Levi ends up saving both Mikasa and Eren and he gives them both advice. It is not by chance that the most important action happens in a forest. This setting has in the FTA a very similar role to the one it usually has in fairy tales. It is a dangerous place full of monsters (the titans) the characters have to enter in order to face their own limits. In the forest we see both Eren and Mikasa coming to terms with their inability to save the people they love and with the difficulties of choosing (trusting others or trusting one-self? And again saving a loved one or killing the enemy?). They do so through facing again a strong enemy aka Annie who is a mirror to both Eren and Mikasa.

Levi’s role in bringing both Eren and Mikasa out from the forest is interesting as well when we think about Mr Braus’s claims that it is the adults’s duty to guide the children out from the forest. We see Levi giving in to hate and immediately after he loses his whole squad. However, he is able to stop Mikasa from doing the same just a little later. At the same time, Annie aka the other kid who is lost in the forest is left alone crying. She has no-one who can guide her outside.

In short, I think that the symbolic role of the forest in the FTA fits perfectly with Mr Braus’s metaphor.

I would say that the forest’s role in Mikasa’s lost girl story fits as well and shows how thematically the story is doing a partial inversion (even if it is probably more correct to say that in the past we were lacking a more complete perspective). I will be quoting myself from one of the metas linked above:

The forest is a place symbolic of Mikasa’s childhood:

And at the same time it underlines a difference between Mikasa and her two friends which is mostly shown in her spinoff story:

For both Eren and Armin the outside (represented by the ocean especially for Armin) is a symbol of freedom and it is something which calls them. Whereas for Mikasa the outside is something mysterious, but also scary. It takes the symbolic shape of a wood which in fairy-tales is a place where the child meets the monsters aka metaphors for formative challenges they have to undergo. In short, while Armin and Eren are excited by the unknown, Mikasa is scared by it.

Mikasa’s childhood world was little, but she was sheltered there and happy. However, in order to grow, she would have had to leave it one day.

As for now, I would add to the above description of how the three MCs perceive the outside this ulterior difference between Eren and Armin i.e. that Armin identifies the outside with the ocean and what is beyond it, while Eren is more interested in the “act” of going outside and of overcoming established limits. This is also why Eren in Mikasa’s dream immediately suggests to go through the forest. It is not really the place itself which interests Eren (after all it is a place he has already explored), but rather it is the idea of making Mikasa go outside from her comfort zone. It is the pleasure of doing something which has been prohibited by adults. Mikasa’s parents told her not to go in the forest and Eren tells her she is not her parents and that she should start thinking with her own head. This is what Eren symbolizes within the first part of the narrative. He inspires people to go against the flow and to think with their own heads. He highlights how it is important to go outside and to overcome limits which are artificial and unjust. The first part of the manga says that “entering the forest is something which must be done even if it is scary”.

This is true also for Mr Braus and Sasha:

One of the reasons why Mr Braus has Sasha join the military is that she can face her fears and grow that way. Sasha has to cross the forest and to go out by herself if she wants to grow.

I would say that right now the characters have all entered the forest and have been struggling with its obstacles and “monsters”. The problem is how to finally escape it. As a matter of fact in fairy tales the characters do not stay stuck in the forest, but are able to go out. If they don’t, it means that they have not completely grown. So, the current chapters put more focus on the limits of what Eren represents. He was able to enter the forest and to bring others along, but it is not sure he knows how to properly leave this giant forest. He seems determined to go deeper and deeper in the woods and the others must choose between following him and staying stuck or searching for another way out.

In conclusion, I would like to highlight once again the relationships between the three main characters and the outside. To do so, I will quote some parts from this post and other parts from this one.

-Armin idealizes the outside world to the point of being naive about it. This is also made clear in the chapter called Volunteers:

Armin’s chapter is called Volunteers and the focus is on the people coming from the outside world and making Armin and the others discover how rich the world is. This is Armin’s dream becoming true. However, he sees that Eren is not excited about it even if that is supposed to have been Eren’s dream as well. All in all, Armin’s chapter is about how he and Eren see the outside world differently. Armin sees it as a possibility, while Eren sees it as a threath. Armin is curious about it and wants to explore it, while Eren is cynical and wants to protect his home.

-Mikasa used to see the outside world with fear and she is the character mostly linked to the concept of home. Deep down she wants to recreate her childhood comfort zone, but she can’t. This is also why her chapter is called Demons of the Island:

Mikasa’s chapter is instead called Devils of the Island and the focus is on Eren’s double nature. Of course we are still shown Mikasa’s family exploring the outside world and Eren is clearly shown not as excited as the others. However, the thing Mikasa focuses on is the fact that Eren has and has always had violent traits Mikasa chose to ignore. However, he also keeps having kinder traits and deep down he keeps being a person who wishes to be loved and understood.

In other words:

Armin focuses on the good side of otherness, while Mikasa focuses on the darkest sides of the familiar.

This is interesting because it makes clear that Armin and Mikasa are somehow complementary both in regards to Eren and to the series as well. To Eren, Armin represents the dream of the outside world, while Mikasa represents home. They are two halves of Eren and this is why he treasures the both of them. In the past, I theorized Armin would have gone to talk with MArley, while Mikasa would have gone to Hizuru at one point. I now wonder if maybe their complementarity will be explored by having Armin stay in Paradis, so that he can help solving the chaotic situation the island is in, while Mikasa establishes a contact with the world throuh Hizuru. I think it might fit the two characters. On one hand Armin has been too idealistic towards the outside world and him helping to solve the situation on Paradis would mean he has gained a more mature understanding of the relationships with “the other”. On the other hand Mikasa leaving her home as she has been already asked to do by Kyomi might work for her growth in a more self-reliant person. That said, things could turn out very differently, so take this as simple ramblings.

Let’s now focus on Eren.

-As stated above, I think that Eren is interested in overcoming limits and barriers. I think this is well symbolized by him literally destroying the walls in the most recent chapters. He has obtained what he wanted in the beginning and has reached the outside world, but this is not enough for him. He is not even a little bit excited. What he needs is another barrier to fight.

All in all, it is interesting that his relationships with Armin and Mikasa might become inverted as well when compared to how they used to be in the beginning:

The whole scene is interesting. As a matter of fact Eren is in his home with his mother and Mikasa. He feels safe and warm and doesn’t want to go outside. However, Armin manages to remind him of freedom and of their dream of going outside.

I think that this scene is pretty symbolic of what Armin and Mikasa represent for Eren. which is also what @echo-from-the-void writes about here.

Mikasa is home and family (and she is inside the house with Eren’s mother), while Armin is the dream of the outside world (and he is outside the house).

This is also why Mikasa fails to get through Eren in that situation. It is because Eren needed the drive of going outside and to escape his comfort zone. However, right now things could be reversed.

Armin had always thought that he understood Eren better than anyone else because they both shared a dream. However, he is starting to understand him less and less, while Mikasa has shown that she is getting better and better into understanding him.

Similarly, the dream of the outside world has been wasted for Eren whose mind is full of Grisha’s cruel memories. He seems much more concerned about protecting his home and his loved ones and this might be why he asked Mikasa for warmth in chapter 123. It is because she has always symbolized that warmth for him.

In short, I would not be surprised if the scene we have in the chapter called Wound and in the ones following it were to be reversed at some point in the near future.

In summary, I think that at the beginning of the story it was important for the characters to enter the forest and to face it directly, but right now they should have become strong enough to leave it and if they do not they will die and never grow up.

Thank you for the ask and enjoy the holidays if you celebrate!

#snk #snk meta #ema #levi ackerman #zeke yeager #asksfullofsugar #anonymous #sweet anon

28 notes · View notes

madrut16 · 6 years ago

Text

Day 10: Love Always Wins

A/N: I’ve had this one in the works for a while, it was the fic that I first started when I wanted to expand on MC’s Bloodkeeper powers and it’s where a lot of the ideas blossomed. I debated on whether or not to do a part 1 to this and have this be a little later in the month but, I think that it works best on its own and it fits really well with this prompt so, I’m posting it now! It will also give me more time to start a possible new ACOR AU series (only possible because I like to bite off more than I can chew and promise things I end up not doing) that has been floating in my brain for some time now.

I also want to start writing for a side Bloodbound pairing I have (Kamilah and Lily *cough cough*) so let me know if you’d be into that or if I’m the only one who thinks they have really good potential chemistry.

Bottom line, hopefully, you enjoy this idealized, not canon version of how Isabel defeats Gaius and turns the damsel in distress narrative on its head.

Book/pairing: Bloodbound (Adrian x MC)

Rating: PG-13 (some violence)

Summary: After Gaius has taken Adrian prisoner, both physically and mentally, and injured their friends, it’s up to Isabel to rescue Adrian and end things once and for all.

@kinda-iconic @choicesjulychallenge @endlesshero1122 @jlpplays1 @desiree-0816 @choicesfannatalie @krishu213 @choices97 @riseandshinelittleblossom @brightpinkpeppercorn @ladykateofhousebeaumont @tabithacarlisle @ella-raines

"Adrian!" Isabel's scream was earth-shattering, making the decaying temple walls vibrate.

The man in question didn't respond to her pleas, or even those of Kamilah seriously injured on the floor behind them. And yet, his beautiful features continued to twist in anguish as he fought with every ounce of strength to restrain himself, the ultimate struggle between good and evil.

This was the last thing he wanted in the entire world.

But the force that compelled him was too strong, his mind held hostage as he slowly inched towards her. The sharp dagger he held glinted in the dimly lit room. Behind him, the man pulling the strings grinned, clearly amused by the struggle.

"There's no use in trying Isabel," Gaius proclaimed. "You can't fight who you truly are inside. I knew all along he would come back to me, embrace his dark side. Throw away his weakness for the frail mortals like you, our unequals. This is who Adrian is, bloodthirsty, cold-hearted. A killer at heart."

She shut her eyes tightly, knowing deep down that his words are all lies. She had memories to prove it and after the endless amounts of training, she could now easily call up the ones she wants.

"Ab uno disce omnes," she whispered, her voice so quiet that no one else could make out what she was saying.

All at once, the memories came to her at once. First, she saw Adrian Turning Lily, even though it put him in incredible danger and she noticed something she didn’t catch in the moment: the self-sacrificing desire in his eyes. It wasn't just for her despite what he told her afterward, he had wanted to save Lily on his own ever since he had rushed inside the apartment. All Isabel had done was give him the permission he needed to disregard the rules in his way.

This faded into the next scene and she once again saw the confederate soldiers who he didn't want to kill, despite all that they stood for. The fact that they were human was enough for him. Finally, she recalled the first memory she had seen, back at the cabin 238 years ago. How he was so ready to suffer, to join his family in painful death than take another life.

All of this confirmed what she already knew in her heart, the belief impossibly rooted now. Her eyes snapped back open and she gave the monster a heated glare. She shook her head, uttering the word she said to fully enter this mysterious and complicated world.

“No.”

Gaius's scoff was deafening, his intimidating gaze drilling into her. "You humans are so naïve. I guess I’ll just have to prove it to you then,” he threatened.

"You’ll prove nothing," she retorted, raising her chin high in defiance. “I know the truth.”

Isabel turned her attention away from him, back to his former soldier, and her gaze immediately softened to one of anguish. Then, she made a quick decision. Her most impulsive one of all.

She ran toward him, much to the horror of her friends scattered like ragdolls behind her.

"Isabel? What are you doing?" Jax demanded, before hissing in pain as the deep gash on his side continued to slowly heal.

She ignored them, stopping just shy of the dagger’s blade pointed directly at her. All of her attention, her energy was on Adrian. She wanted to touch him, to hold him tightly, but even in her emotional state, a shred of rationality remained. She knew that she couldn't just yet. She could only reach out with her words. Luckily, the art of rhetoric had been a strength of hers for a while now, especially when she became passionate about whatever cause she decided to fight for.

"Adrian, listen to me,” she begged. “You can fight this! I know this isn’t you, that you don't want to hurt me!"

With a chuckle, Gaius held his hand out, causing Adrian to stiffen despite his best efforts and a look of calculating coldness to appear. "Are you so sure of that...poppet?"

Just as he forced Adrian to lunge at her, she grabbed the blade, disregarding the shooting pain in her hand. This caused Gaius to lose his concentration just enough to get Adrian to hesitate, once again frozen like a living statue.

"No! How did you—?” the Second son growled in astonishment.

The heightened powers had gone to his head a while ago, the narcissism more extreme than ever.

On the ground, Kamilah responded, her voice strained by her body’s intense effort to repair itself. "You underestimated her."

Isabel smiled briefly, grateful for the confidence of the person who once had a much different view of her. She only hoped that she was as capable as the senior vampire believed.

"You're wrong about him Gaius." Her stare burned into the vampire king's, unwavering. "Yes, he's made mistakes in the past, caused pain and bloodshed. I've seen that with my own eyes. But I also know that he did it because you taught him to. That you manipulated him, made him think that he didn't have another option. But, guess what? When he had the freedom to decide what he wanted, we all know what he chose!"

She paused to catch her breath, and she looked at Adrian who was still eyeing her, possessed with evil. But, there was one difference. He was listening to her. And so, she pressed on knowing that eventually, she would breakthrough.

"He chose to create a different, better option,” she continued, her words laced with raw emotion. “To use his power to help people, not harm them. He was brave enough to change the status quo when he knew it was wrong. And ever since he's been using his mistakes and regret to create a better world. Because unlike you, he’s refused to use his pain as an excuse to hate innocent people. That’s why he’s a good person!"

His expression remained unchanged and her heart started to break, as she knew that she would soon run out of time.

"Isabel," Kamilah pleaded, her tone wavering in sorrow for her adopted brother. "It's okay, you've done all you can. Get away while you're still able to!"

She shook her head, her stubborn determination at its height. "I can’t! He needs me. I'd rather die than give up fighting."

She had done this before, let her heart fly too close to the sun like Icarus. The last time, it almost killed her, she was lucky to be caught mid freefall. But this time, this time would be different. She knew the look in someone's eyes who actually wanted to hurt her. It was in Derek's all those nights ago. And now it was all over Gaius's smoldering red stare.

But not in Adrian's.

Despite the hardened exterior, she saw in his brown irises the complete opposite. That's what made her cling on for dear life to the small shred of strength she had left.

"Isabel, look out!" she heard Lily cry and she noticed Gaius clenching his fist just in time.

As he compelled Adrian forward, she readied herself and used her natural power to once again grab onto the blade, holding it inches away from her. She knew how to use the fright she felt instead of letting it consume her. This time, she was gonna fight until her last breath. As she pushed back, she started to lose hope and desperation set in.

"Snap out of it, I'm begging you!" she cried, tears welling in her eyes. "Because I love you and I can't lose you to him! So please, just come back to me!"

Almost as soon as the words left her lips, he stopped in his tracks, allowing the dagger to clatter to the ground, much to Gaius's horror.

"Impossible," he exclaimed furiously as her palms dripped blood onto the stone floor.

"Do you really—?” Adrian questioned before the horrible pain of recognition came over him about what almost transpired. “Oh God, I could’ve…”

She stared at him in shock before she gasped in relief. "Adrian! Thank god!"

As she moved towards him, the reunion was cut painfully short as Gaius unleashed his fury and Adrian found himself on his knees, writhing in pain. "That is what traitors like you deserve!"

"No!" Isabel screamed as she watched him suffer helplessly.

Gaius turned his attention to The Bloodkeeper in front of him. At first, he had found her stubbornness amusing, but now it was nothing but a thorn in his side.

"Now Isabel, I was going to spare you after all your precious friends died. But now...now I think I'll have to do away with you first...and let them watch."

"No...not Isabel!" Adrian let out a strangled plea.

"Hush you pathetic weakling!"

Gaius gave him another sharp flick of his wrist, turning his progeny’s blood into a living furnace and sending him to the hard floor. He did this all while keeping his menacing stare on his main target. "Now, try to stop me, mortal," he told her, an overly confident look in his eyes.

Isabel should have been terrified. If four vampires, including Kamilah who was the best of the best, couldn't stand a chance against him, how could she? But, she wasn’t, because she was his one undoing. It was in her DNA, her genes, her long and convoluted family history. It would be up to her, just like it was up to her line since the very beginning.

A strange exhilaration coursed through her knowing that the moment she had been training for was here. Yes, there was fear in the mix as well, she wasn’t quite fully proficient, but she knew enough to be a sizeable opponent. She had already demonstrated that when assisting Kamilah in dispatching Priya to gain access to the temple. She looked back at Jax, who had helped her with everything. He gave her an encouraging nod and that was the last push she needed.

Isabel scrutinized her enemy, his hungry eyes the only testament to the restraint being held. He obviously wanted her to make the first move. But, she wasn’t inclined to give him what he wanted. Especially that.

Instead, she crossed her arms, not taking her eyes off of his for one second. "I don't think you really want to fight me."

"Why not? You're nothing sweetheart. I'll be able to kill you easily."

She couldn’t stop the smirk from appearing on her face. "Then why haven't you? Why are you hesitating? It could be your love of drawing things out. Making your victims suffer until you bleed them dry. Just like you did to Adrian and Kamilah, to their families. But, I don't think that's it this time. I think...I think you're scared. Because you know that you’re just as human as I am. Something you’ve come to resent.”

"Me, afraid of you? Why that is preposterous," he laughed tilting his devilishly handsome face at her.

But, her eyesight was impeccable, and she noticed the slight quivering of his lips. The slight shaking of his hand.

"Is it?" she quipped. "Then I guess...you won't mind if I recite a little Latin for you then."

Behind her, she heard Adrian's confused murmur. He was the only one who didn't know about her abilities. Kamilah and Lily found out first hand in the earlier fight with Priya. But he was still in here, being held captive.

Gaius's eyes widened in alarm.

"No...it cannot be…you...can't know the truth!"

"What’s the matter Gaius? If you're so powerful, why are you so terrified of a frail little Bloodkeeper? Maybe because I’ve found out what you’ve tried to keep hidden. The truth about us, what we were born to do. I think they call it…destiny? But, why should you care if you’re unstoppable? If that’s so, then come and prove it."

Her goading had its desired effect, and, in a flash, he stood and dove towards her. But, he wasn’t fast enough.

"Ab origine, ab antiquo, ab aeterno!” From the original, from the ancient, from the eternal.

She shouted the enchantment just in time.

Instantly she began to glow, golden lines forming on her skin, flickering, churning with untapped potential. The energy, it consumed her and the room around her.

With a smile, she reached out to the discarded dagger a few feet from her. Concentrating on it, it soon rose from the ground and flew into her now cut free palm.

Gaius paused momentarily, not believing his eyes. "No…NO!"

He soon became livid and with a roar, he resumed his charge, but Isabel was quick to meet it.

Instead of backing up, she ran towards him at lightning speed.

Leaping over him, she dodged his attack and landed safely on the ground several feet away from him only slightly winded.

She smiled triumphantly now radiating adrenaline and confidence. "You're going to have to do better than that.”

Everyone on the floor looked at her in pure astonishment.

Then, her weapon clashed with his as the two began to spar.

They met each other stroke for stroke and blow for blow to the amazement of their audience around them as Isabel remembered the techniques Jax had taught her. When to press and when to dodge. To use the strengths of her body and the weaknesses of his to her advantage.

Then, Gaius managed to knock the sword from her hands and tried to tackle her to the ground.

However, he only managed to get her on her knees before she recovered, using her increased strength to resist further.

She knew she wouldn’t be able to hold him back forever, but her fast mind promptly calculated her next move. There were two powers she hadn’t used outside training yet—the most important ones. She just needed to be able to give herself enough time to do it.

He started to gain traction and she heard the frantic exclamations of her friends behind her. She closed her eyes, letting them give her strength. She wouldn't let them down.

Gritting her teeth, she bared down resisting the mental pull Gaius was giving her, trying to cloud her head.

Finally, she was able to push him off of her enough to crawl out underneath.

As she got to her feet, she didn't wait for a response, positioning her hands at her sides. "Lux ex tenebris!"

Instantly, streaks of lightning started to erupt from her palms, causing a bright light to fill the darkened temple. She gaped at her hands, this being the first time it had worked at the first try.

Gaius charged at her and she shot a bolt at him, and he slowed, the hot electricity charring his body. "Aghhhhhh!"

As he kept attacking, she used a mix of combat techniques and electricity attacks to hold him back.

But, she knew he wouldn’t give up, that's not what someone like him did, who saw himself as invincible.

He switched from a physical fight to a mental one. "Is that seriously all you have?" he taunted, his voice strained from the zaps of electricity. "You're just like them. Too fragile, too emotional to kill me."

This infuriated Isabel more than ever. She shut her eyes tightly as another series of images ran through her. Only these memories were all hers. Every time she was called too emotional, too stubborn, not good enough. So much that at one time she believed them. But now, she knew exactly how wrong they were, how strong she was, with or without her abilities.

Opening her eyes, she put her hands together and the electricity grew to form a glowing ball of plasma. She would show him that having emotions, choosing to love was so much more powerful than hate.

Taking a step back, she wound up and hurled the ball at him as hard as she could, and it plowed into him in seconds and it sent him to the ground hard, the heated energy immobilizing him in a fit of painful seizures.

"No... you can't...stop me," he hissed.

As he tried to sit up she was there in seconds, pinning him to the stone. "Don't speak," she ordered, holding him down now that she was draining him of his strength.

He gave her a sickening grin, still trying to weasel his way into her mind. "You're not going to...back out, are you? Just like your...sensitive little...Adrian did? As much as I... tried to get him to see...his true potential...his glory I never...managed to get...the lowly, submissive human out of him. He—”"I said stop talking."

She snapped, cutting him off by pressing a charged hand against him.

"He's not the weak one, you are! And yes, usually I believe in mercy. In being the bigger person. But for those like you and your accolades—Jameson, Vega, Priya—who do nothing but manipulate, and hurt, and abuse...there's nothing I want more."

As she went into her suit pocket, Gaius geared up for one more attack.

He grabbed the side of her neck with his one free hand and squeezed tightly, and she gasped loosening her hold on him. This allowed him to flip on top of her once more.

But, even black spots started to tinge her vision and her lungs burned from lack of oxygen, she was prepared.

As the pain laced through her, she pulled out the gleaming wooden stake, it's bark illustrious and white. The streaks of energy in her hand immediately ran through it. Then, she noticed that his last-ditch effort had left his chest completely exposed.

Checkmate.

"You...forgot...one thing," she growled, wincing from his fingers pressed tightly against her throat.

"What's that?"

The stake’s glowed, illuminating her stoic expression.

"Not even Rheya was invincible."

Isabel's voice was commanding as she used both hands to shove the weapon deep into his heart causing a ripple of black and red smoke to cascade and a crack of thunder to sound/.

The force caused a massive bolt of electricity to run through him. She watched as his eyes briefly widened and he howled in pain. He sizzled then crumbled into smoking ash on top of her, covering her in the greyish white substance.

Isabel remained frozen for a moment, her body shaking from the weight of what she had just done. Then, reality started to sink in. "He...he's gone," she stammered in disbelief. "It’s really over."

Swallowing, she looked down at the still crackling oak in her hand and she set it down remembering that she had to turn off her dormant powers.

"Ab origine, ab antiquo, ab aeterno."

This time, the light dissipated, and the energy retracted from her hands, leaving behind red burn marks. They would heal eventually, she needed the other set of words without the chant on. The temple darkened once more, the only light coming from the moon's peeking through. She stood and turned to face everyone behind her who were all in various states of shock and awe.

Her gaze immediately found Adrian’s and she blinked back tears as the thought of almost losing him overwhelmed her. She rushed to his side in seconds and as soon as he worked himself into a sitting position, she was in his arms.

“Isabel.” His labored breathing was a musical sound to her ears.

She pressed him to her tightly. “Thank god you’re okay,” she exclaimed.

“He almost got to me,” he muttered and when she pulled back enough to see his face, it was full of guilt. “I almost hurt you. I’m so sorry. If I had actually done something…I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself.”

She shushed him with a kiss. “Hey, you don’t have to apologize, you had no choice. He was literally controlling you, Adrian. I knew that I would get through eventually, that you would come back. I just wasn’t sure if I’d have enough time.”

He reached up to brush a stray lock of hair that had fallen out of place and his hand lingered on the side of her chin and she saw a certain urgency on his face.

“What you said, say it again,” he demanded. “So, I know that you really meant it.”

She didn’t need to ask which words which he meant, she already knew.

Countless times she had planned elaborate scenarios for when she would actually say them, and they wouldn’t be just thoughts in her brain. For them to slip out in the heat of the moment was not one of them.

But, they had come out easier than she ever thought they would.

Peering into his eyes now, all of the fears that he wouldn’t feel the same and the challenges were too great dissipated. Because that same uncertainty was staring right back at her. And all of a sudden, she realized that this was perfect because of how natural it was.

Biting her lip, Isabel repeated her earlier declaration. “I love you, and that means all of you. Even the dark and broken parts. Everything.”

The look he gave her was of raw, unfiltered emotion. “Isabel…I love you too. I didn’t think that I could feel this way about someone again. But you walked in and ended up proving me wrong.”

And that’s when she knew that everything would be worth it, that somehow, they would defy the odds and find a way to be together for eternity, whether it was on her timeline or his.

She was brought out of their moment when he suddenly let out a groan and she remembered that he and their friends were still injured. Their natural healing would take some time from lack of energy and severity of the damage inflicted. But, with her help, it would be just like new. Isabel gasped and slowly untangled herself from him.

Her work as a Bloodkeeper wasn’t over yet work. “Sorry, there’s still one more thing I need to do. For everyone,” she said elusively.

As much as she wanted to help Adrian first, he wasn’t the person she needed to heal most. That was the person who Gaius made sure to hurt most of all. His former queen.

Following her gaze, Adrian gave her a tired smile. “Go. Whatever it is, I can wait for it.”

With a nod, she quickly ran to Kamilah’s side, who was trying to remain calm against the pain she clearly felt.

"Let me help with that," Isabel murmured crouching down beside the CEO. When she moved her hand over her abdomen, the vampire pulled away slightly before she could make contact, stiffening.

"Isabel, what are you—?”

With all of the abuse Gaius had given her, which was now coming back to the surface, the Bloodkeeper wasn’t slighted or panicked.

She responded with a gentle smile. “I’m not going to hurt you, I promise. It’s just another power of mine. Do you trust me?”

Kamilah hesitated, her shimmering brown eyes full of apprehension. Then, after a minute, she relaxed and nodded wearily. “I do.”

Isabel delicately grasped the bottom of the white dress shirt. “I need to lift this up, is that okay?” She received a confused nod.

She pushed the fabric up to reveal bare skin and the deep wounds struggling to close themselves up. Getting her hand ready, she continued to talk through the procedure to give Kamilah time to adjust to each step.

“I’m going to have to touch it with my hand in order for this to work, I’ll be as gentle as possible.”

The other woman simply looked at her curiously as she slowly lowered her two hands onto the gash, she felt her breathe in sharply on instinct before easing once more.

Isabel closed her eyes, willing herself to remember what her grandmother had taught her a few weeks earlier.

She pressed down softly putting some weight into her palms and recited the phrase needed. “Sana lucem vitae.”

Instantly she felt a tingling warmth spread down from her chest all the way to her fingertips. That’s when she knew that she had said it right. She counted the necessary fifteen seconds she needed to maintain contact before she opened her eyes.

A sigh of relief escaped her lips when she saw the soft pale-yellow glow radiating underneath her hands. She slowly lifted them away to reveal the now perfectly smooth skin where the lacerations should have been. The light retreated almost immediately, and her hands had healed from the electricity as well.

“My heaven’s…,” Kamilah whispered in awe. Slowly she sat up and groaned, the soreness from the connection of muscles and skin still being felt. “That was…thank you.”

Isabel smiled at her sincerely. “You’re welcome. You deserve kindness and love too you know.”

Jax was the next of the vampires she went to. "You...you did good kid," he stammered, still incredibly weakened.

"Yeah, you did!" Lily exclaimed, before wincing hard. "Sorry, it just really freaking hurts."

Isabel shook her head. “I know, but hold tight. It won’t in a minute.”

She made fast work of mending both of them.

“You know, I really love having you as my best friend, especially now that you can shoot lightning bolts,” Lily told her after she was finished with her.

“Me too Lil. I’ve never said this to you out loud but, you saved me you know.”

The gamer furrowed her brows at her. “How?”

A tiny pang of sadness pooled in Isabel realizing just how unappreciated her friend must have been by others. “After I left Derek, Alyssa was my only friend who I’d hadn’t pushed away, and then she moved to Massachusetts and I was here alone. And you welcomed me with open arms, no questions asked. I needed that more than you’ll ever know.”

“Isabel! Now you’re making me cry. You know how much I hate that.” Lily crushed her into a tight hug. “Now go, save your prince charming over there.”

The assistant smiled and made her way back to Adrian. When she said the enchantment this time, she kept her eyes open so that she could watch the process unfold completely.

“I’m guessing that this is what you and Ginny were up to while in Paris?” he asked her.

Sheepishly she nodded. “Yeah and then Jax helped me with the training once we left. I’m sorry I kept it from you, but Ginny insisted, said you were too overprotective to let me go through with it. I was going to tell you soon but then you got kidnapped so, that wasn’t exactly possible.”

“Eh, she’s probably right. I’m not mad about it though, you did what you needed to do.”

Good as new, he slowly worked himself up from the concrete as the others did the same.

“You owe me and Jax after all the loose ends are dealt with,” she quipped as the five of them walked out into the dark New York streets, still as lively as ever.

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Oh? And why is that?”

Jax let out a scoff and Isabel gave him an incredulous look. “The bet remember? After we visited the Louvre. We were right, love always wins.”

The memory flooded back to him now. “That’s right. With everything that’s happened since I forgot all about it. What do I have to do to repay?”

Isabel locked eyes with Jax and they both shrugged as a euphoric feeling coursed through her veins, making her light as air. Peace, at least for now was accomplished and that was a satisfying thought.

With a smile, she replied in a sing-song voice. “I don’t know yet, you’ll just have to wait and see.”

#playchoices #choices stories you play #choices july challenge #bloodbound #bloodbound 2 #adrian x mc #adrian x isabel #adrian raines #kamilah sayeed #jax matsuo #lily spencer #gaius augustine #trigger warning: violence

49 notes · View notes

horrorbutgay · 7 years ago

Text

NDRV3 Demo Analysis w/ Full Game Spoilers!

(My friend Elfi/Apri made this and jesus fuck shes a fucking genius please love her)

First off, let me mention that I immediately went into sleuthing mode while I was playing the demo for about 4h (both English and Japanese), because I'm aware that even DR demos have a decent difficulty level to its case writing (judging by suspicion not necessarily incriminating Hifumi The Harmless in the demo until the manga came into the picture with the full story) and this demo seemed too easy if you don't give it some proper thought like most of the unspoiled fandom is still not used to doing. From what I managed to piece together with the clues shattered throughout the demo and based on the knowledge of the full game's content, I'm convinced Naegi is the correct culprit vote like we all thought, BUT (huge but) paying attention and giving it some thought grant you the speculation that he could've actually had an accomplice outside of the protagonist room. And that accomplice is no less than the scheming mastermind of the game: Shirogane Shirogane Tsumukweeeen. (Yes, that Despair Arc dub meme never gets old) Let me start my explanation with the clarification that this demo is clearly another in-universe promotional method for V3 like the Maki, Kaito and Ki-Bo poster. It's like a popular show treating its fanbase with the kind of sneak peek preview to let them know what to expect. I also want to clarify that people were indeed able to enter the protagonist room before the gym announcement, because how else would you explain Tojo being able to clean the whole dormitory? This leads me to the conclusion that Tojo likely got her hands onto a master key from Monokuma with Tsumugi's aid and she locked the doors of all the rooms after cleaning them. Yes, Hoshi was there too, but so was Yumeno for a bit and that still doesn't mean they entered the dormitory later. Considering how Ultimate Dedication Kirumi is able to afford wasting time on introducing herself if she was supposedly in the middle of cleaning when you just arrive at the dorm, it's quite safe to assume the job was already done at that point and that is why the protag room is already locked if you do try to open it before going to the gym. In fact, all the rooms are locked. Kaede clearly was the last student to wake up, and Tsumugi being the only one with the ability to confirm Kirumi's alibi - despite Hoshi and Yumeno presumably being at the dorm as well - is a major hint that the clean-up was pretty much done waaay before you awoke, got past all the other students from the AV Room onwards to the dorm, and finally listened to the introduction of those three. I say three because I honestly think Yumeno was in the kitchen at first and only appeared in the dorms once the body discovery announcement was made. Anyway, Kirumi obviously locked the doors for safety and privacy measures once the clean-up was done. I believe Hagakure's "corpse" was already in Kaede's bathroom at this point, and here's why Tojo probably neglected to inspect and clean ALL of the bathrooms: As someone who comes off on the surface as a trustworthy and supportive person, not to mention that she acts as a huge fan of a maid's work, Kirumi is inclined to believe her if Tsumugi simply insists for example that Monokuma told her that all the bathrooms were taken extra care of to be spotless. As I've established, there is no breathing room for the player after the gym announcement, so Tsumugi had to be the only character present while Kirumi was cleaning the dormitory. Because she simply admires Kirumi's work as a maid due to how much of a geek she is, so she had to keep watching and this doesn't seem suspicious to you at all without fullgame spoilers because they always made Tsumugi out to be a bland motherly "heart on her sleeve" nerd type of girl. It is entirely understandable that Tsumugi - as the MM getting her lifetime dream of a writer debut on TDR come true - wants the killing game to start as fast as possible, and this is emphasized in the full game by how she gives them a two days time limit right off the bat to commit a murder or else they'll all be mass murdered. In the full game, this doesn't work out so well and she doesn't like how Kaede gets so well along with Amami in that bonus scene (explaining why Kaede believes in his innocence to be the MM in Case 1) without even knowing about his impressive SHSL Survivor status as the only survivor of V2. And Rantarou also turns out to be better at nail painting than the Ultimate Cosplayer thanks to living with twelve sisters at home, making her outraged with jealousy. To push her over the edge, time is running out and a mass execution would be a boring and way too quick end for the season, which would affect the ratings. She can't allow that, so she goes with the two characters she passionately dislikes so far to get them out of the picture and continue the show. Arguably, she would've even been fine with any vote that wasn't her because the MM being executed would also end the show too early. Kaede and Saihara were the prime suspects, so even though she framed Kaede for also trying her hardest to expose her due to the same reasoning and she conveniently set a death trap with a similar method to how she decided to kill Rantarou (remember, the heavy iron balls were in the warehouse available for anyone to grab), Saihara would have been fine too. Kaede works better though, because she is legitimately convinced of her guilt. Shadowing her as the demo first culprit is a nice nod to the full version and it makes perfect sense in context, and I'll explain why right now. No, sadly enough, there are no chances of that but that info is (preferably?) not spread through the fandom and only on the wiki. Turns out that when you enter Amami's research faculty, you discover a recording of himself before the memory manipulation process (there's a vast difference with that and brainwashing :')) in which he reveals that he is from the previous killing game and he was the only survivor there. That likely makes him more worthy of the SHSL Survivor status in the fanbase's eyes. Especially Tsumugi lmao She's a full-on critic Anyway, I liked clearing that up for the people here, but now onwards. I'm almost 100% sure that Kirumi would vaguely hint towards this exchange of words happening between her and Tsumugi if the player voluntarily approaches her after she decides to stay behind with Hajime, but that's something I'd have to check with a replay. Hajime and Makoto actually being in the demo/in-universe preview episode is also a great treat to hardcore fan Tsumugi. Especially Makoto, the protagonist of her favorite cast. We already established before that Tsumugi is going back to the original and she wanted to recreate the DR1 cast & killing game whilst simultaneously criticizing the flaws of her favorite game/season (the reality tv killing game started with reboots of the original fictional material with real actors, as evidenced by the collage sequence if you manage to read through all of them.)(edited) I initially thought of them possibly being Tsumugi's cosplays, but that ended up being too far-fetched for my taste and some of the 53 seasons do involve aforementioned reboots of originally fictional source material. It's just a little too fastly skipped on in the collage for the most part after the first ten entries.(edited) And just who from the cast do you think even Tsumugi would detest despite being a DR1 stan? That's right: Yasuhiro Hagakure. This passionate hatred is even further emphasized by there not being a Hagakure parallel in her fanfiction. She likes her casts well-rounded. But that doesn't explain the revealed fake death at the end, so let me continue my theory. Tsumugi invited Hajime, Makoto and Hagakure along to the live preview of her writing and acting debut on Team Danganronpa. Because she arranged the perfect protagonist who's like no other and ideal to keep milking the series, on top of that that person is also female, the actors for the OC leads (who obviously also survived in their portion of a reality tv killing game to stay faithful to the omnipresent motto of keeping the MCs alive, despite the vast differences in the rest of the survivor sets for DR1 and 2 which I'll tackle in a bit) are brought back to their roles to guide Kaede and introduce the nostalgia Tsumugi is going to include in the upcoming season. Ah, and before anyone comes up with a "Rantarou" rebuttal for the sake of completing the DR1 parallel, keep in mind that his personality mainly stems from the previous season and there are some characters (like Gonta) that even Kodaka admitted he has never written before because Tsumugi managed to give a sense of uniqueness to the cast.(edited) And the remaining students also managed to drift apart from the character arcs she so thoroughly planned for them, but that's meta for another day. Remember the "fake" AU leaks that I eventually explained to be V3's version of the (either tv or game) outcome for the events for 1 and 2 in their universe? Well, Hagakure dies in that. Probably also the first victim, explaining Monokuma's fourth wall breaking comment that this is actually his second time dying. It's a double-sided statement that you won't catch up on if you haven't practically finished the game. His character was basically recycled with a look-alike actor in order to fool the audience with that pretense of Danganronpa just being a cool TV show (more on that in that ending meta I plan to discuss here some time) - I assume they do this with all previews of new seasons once the audience started doing some digging on the real people behind their beloved characters or perhaps the real names were initially not even included in the credits (like when they did the reboots) until they started with new storylines to not run out of ideas, keep profiting and take the thrill a step further) - and because he therefore wouldn't have experience with acting like Hagakure, Tsumugi left him out of the preview until it was time for his body discovery. Being the comic relief character he is supposed to be, Hagakure's actor was fortunate to be able to be used as a fake death with the plot convenience of Ultimate Detective not entering the crime scene in the demo. All this clearly explains the black screen ending scenario where the returning characters all wonder if their acting was good, and Hagakure suddenly rushing in to reveal it was a fake death. TDR is teasing and deceiving you, the unspoiled viewer anticipating their announced renewal for another season, because deception is what it's all about with V3's Truth vs Lies theme. A neat manner to let the world know what to expect. TDR probably also uses these previews to test the results of the memory manipulation used on the cast and the audience's reaction on seeing this cast in action. The company wants to know if Tsumugi's adjustments are sufficient or if there's anything left to mold their personalities for in order to appeal the whole cast to the audience, explaining the pleasant surprises like Tenko initially being hyped up as the discourse character yet actually being the most morally good female of the cast. Seriously, the best part about V3 is that it all (even the promotion) comes full-circle if you give it some proper thought. The entry is filled with a never-ending cycle of full-circle moments which are able to blow your mind when you finally connect that cycle. Spoiling, fourth-wall-breaking game promotion before the game is even out. It's incredible how far they planned ahead, honestly Anyway, let's continue. There's some necessary details left to make the full picture. So basically, Tsumugi arranged this whole scenario with the three of them, and considering how safe it is to assume how passionately Tsumugi despises Hagakure, they might as well have even had to resort to a compromise to give Hagakure's nobody actor a planned fake death as long as Tsumugi makes sure nobody enters the protagonist room. The fake crime scene they set up must not be exposed. There's obviously frozen blood bags in TDR's various morgues from all the reality tv killing games, so they used the dead Hagakure's blood to shroud the new actor in. This is all done to make the timing so fresh and in case they cannot prevent the Ultimate Detective from investigating the crime scene. Saihara would definitely catch up on fake blood, after all. You can supply blood in a fresh manner by sustaining them in frozen blood bags. Common scientific knowledge. And it makes sense to supply their blood because TDR started these behind-the-scenes kidnappings and schemes up with running out of ideas and the reality TV reboots of their original source material. No way would the ratings - which are so important to them because they're making a good living off of this show and it can't end in their eyes - stay unaffected by a simple reboot, hence the new survivor sets that I will headcanon as being part of the TV reboot from now on. This indicates that they kept the strengths of the original entries, but they twisted the story of the games like we already were informed of by Tsumugi. They're greedy and huge perfectionists, so those previously fictional characters really had to be brought to life. That's where the development of the futuristic technology comes in. More on TDR specifically in my ending meta though! :P Well then, let's further detail how this off-screen plan worked so well in case the realization is not hitting someone yet. The knife is actually just twisted in a gaping hole from his shirt being stabbed in his abdomen non-fatally, so I suppose it makes sense that it looks so real once he plays dead and they add real blood on him. Implying that the fandom or the in-universe audience will spend that much doubt to it with how legit it looks, but Saihara definitely would inspect the corpse more as it's his duty. It's a huge plot convenience that Saihara does not bother to do so, likely because he's already made up his mind on who the culprit is like all of us did from the start: Naegi Makoto. And while he is not exactly wrong, he's dense to the major foreshadowing of an accomplice due to a lack of evidence. A nice mirror to the real first case. Tsumugi truly is a master puppeteer, and I still view her as a controlfreak because the term means that she is obsessed with maintaining her control of something. And that is emphasized in the game multiple times once Monodam, Angie and Korekiyo turn the planned pattern for the killing game around in chapter 3 and so onwards. Back to the demo: after the preparation process is done, Hagakure is left alone in the bathroom waiting for his scene to act like a corpse, not allowed to make a noise.(edited) Tsumugi and Makoto split up; former approaches Kirumi to start cleaning as soon as possible (probably convincing Monokuma to give the SHSL Maid a master key) in order to avoid anyone meeting Hagakure; the latter goes to check on Kaede in the AV Room in order to continue the plan "smoothly" as he mentions later in the class trial. Wanna know why he had to part ways with Kaede when all the students are demanded to go to the gym? It's simple when you've gotten this far. Since Tsumugi cannot possibly ignore this order from Monokuma and come out of the shadows with her real personality, Makoto is the one who needs to proceed with the last phase of the plan: splashing the actor playing dead in freshly kept blood from the frozen blood bag for his original predecessor. Hagakura is the one who got the kitchen knife and might as well have been the one to non-fatally stab himself, but that's just a small detail and it makes sense that the cast without the detective (thus inexperienced with murder cases) would legitimately assume his death to be for real just upon the sight of a drenched murder weapon and the excessive amount of fresh blood.(edited) And this is exactly why the blood confirms the time of death being a few minutes ago when they were all at the gym. Lastly, this also explains Makoto's hair dropping at the crime scene. Stuff like that commonly happens, especially when you're in a rush and they probably had to fake a convincing struggle in the short period of time they had. He was obviously able to access the room because he was the first one to receive the keys due to likely being the only person not to be infected with sleeping gas alongside Hagakure.(edited) I can't connect where Hajime's part comes in though, so maybe he wasn't involved - which I can understand cuz a fangirl prefers cooperating and interacting with her favorites - or perhaps his only contribution was (unknowingly of Tsumugi's elaborate scheme) aiding Tsumugi and Kirumi with his confidence and experience in order to convince Monokuma to hand over that master key for the maid to do her job. I really believe Hajime's actor was kept in the dark because unlike a personified Naegi, the personified Hajime wouldn't be lured to a route as corrupt as the former took by being willing to do anything to keep living off of TDR's unquestionably high salary if you survive AND return to the show. No, this actor only thought he was hired again for nostalgia's sake, because that's what we all assumed as well. And Hajime was the most intended as a returning lead to guide Kaede on the road of leading her group and passing the leadership onto her, despite not being her instructor like Naegi but that's all according to plan, of course. This is my demo headcanon. This is my conclusive interpretation of the demo

#ndrv3 spoilers #drv3

4 notes · View notes

chaikat · 8 years ago

Text

On Liyang

I read a post on Liyang a few days ago and started writing this in response, and then it just kinda grew into a ‘here are all my feelings on Liyang’ kinda post :D

Shout-out to the discord chat for the Liyang discussion a while back which helped firm up a lot of points here o/ All the quoted parts below are from Chapter 1 (my bad, it should be Chapter 5) and Chapter 26 of the novel, as translated by apurpleblob.

Note that this post mentions rape.

Let’s start right at the beginning. What was Liyang like before her marriage? We see a hint of it in the flashback with the Dowager Empress; Liyang’s cheerful and smiling, and has not a hint of suspicion when her mother asks her to drink the wine. The novel elaborates a bit more:

He had no memory of the Princess Liyang of the past, who was bright and lively with a fiery nature, and who would compete with the princes whenever they went hunting. He only had memories of his mother’s quiet laments to herself when he complained to her about his Aunt Liyang being too cold and unapproachable.

So Liyang had been “bright and lively, with a fiery nature”, which sounds nothing like the reserved Liyang we see at the start of the show. It’s obvious what caused her to change and this part from the novel describes it well.

“Regardless of how strong a woman is, she is still just a woman at the end of the day. Some things that are inconsequential to men are enough of a blow to destroy the will of a woman. If Nihuang already has someone she likes, this blow will be even stronger. It’ll make her feel that who she marries and what type of life she will lead in the future are all inconsequential…”

“There is a type of wine in the Palace called ‘Coils of Passion’. It has the effect of inducing hallucination and sexual desire with just one cup. If a woman drinks it, she will mistake the man next to her as the person she dearly loves and longs for. Urged by the effects of the drug, she will take the initiative and beg to be embraced. She does not know about the existence of such a wine, so even when she sobers afterwards, she will believe that it was her weak will that led to her misconduct while being intoxicated. She furthermore cannot be angry at the man since she was the one who took the initiative.”

Qing si rao isn’t just an aphrodisiac, it makes the person who consumes it think that they’re with the person they love. It’s rape with an extra layer of mindfuckery because, under the influence of the drug, she wanted it.

Another important point to consider it’s highly unlikely for someone of her rank (princess, the emperor’s younger sister) to remain single past the usual marriage age at that time, so Liyang’s probably, what, 16? 18 at a stretch, at that point in time.

She would have grown up fairly sheltered, she would likely have been told all her life that her marriage, when it comes, would be arranged and would be for the good of the country. And then she meets the love of her life and he’s someone she would not be allowed to marry. Young Liyang, with her fiery nature, would have been willing to defy her family to be with him. She would have known they would be angry but surely she could never have guessed that her own mother would be complicit in planning her rape to stop her. And then her prince had to escape back to his own country and Liyang was left on her own.

“Ashamed and in despair, that feeling really is worse than death. But death had always been the most difficult affair throughout the ages. If she dies then, she will die without dignity. From then on, no matter how many unspoken words are hidden in her heart, it would be impossible for her to say them. If a trusted person comes forward then to advise her while she is feeling at loss, how could she have any energy to struggle or to refuse? She is only able to have others manipulate her as they wish…” Princess Liyang’s tone slowly changed as she reached towards the end of her speech. From her tragic sorrow, even the densest man would be able to see that what she spoke of was her own feelings, carved deep in her heart.“

Who could she turn to when her own mother, who’s also dowager empress, had a hand in it? I can’t imagine the emperor taking her side, he would have been far more concerned with avoiding a scandal and protecting the imperial family’s reputation (he might even have given his tacit approval beforehand). The emperor’s consorts? How many of them had any choice in their own marriage? Her sisters? There’s only Jinyang that we know of and at that point, she would have married Lin Xie and may not even be living in the palace. (Also we don’t know how close they are.) Anyone she could have told would have to consider the power balance in court, their allegiances and the consequences to not just them but also to their families.

Another thing I wonder about is whether the dowager empress would have told her about the wine right away. How long did Liyang have to struggle with her doubts and guilt until she finally found out the truth?

In the novel, there’s one part where the emperor’s daughter, Jingning (she was written out of the drama), was betrothed to the Nan Chu prince. She protested against it because she was in love with someone else, a low-ranking soldier. But there was no one she could turn too, all the consorts took turns to persuade her to accept her fate. In the end, Jingning was resigned to her fate.

I imagine that’s what Liyang would have been told too. And for her, she might not even be able to bring herself to speak about her rape and tell those people what kind of man they are advising her to marry.

There’s a theory that Xie Yu had found out about Liyang’s affair with the Nan Chu envoy and used the information to blackmail the dowager empress. I think it’s very likely considering Xie Yu how ambitious and ruthless Xie Yu is, and in the flash back, the dowager empress looked fearful while Xie Yu was triumphant. There’s also a theory that this method was chosen because it was the surest way to get Liyang to submit; Liyang was the type who would rather have the whole land know about her relationship with the Nan Chu envoy rather than be forced to marry someone else.

Liyang and Xie Yu’s marriage is described in the novel as below.

Everyone in the capital with some years to their names could clearly remember the grand occasion of the Princess’s marriage that stirred up the city. The couple who gazed upon the commoners atop the Phoenix Building could be accurately described as a hero and a beauty. Twenty-four years flew by, and the couple remains attentive and loving. They reared three sons and one daughter, all of whom are intelligent and respectful. This was the perfect model family in everyone’s eyes.

What was the truth? What did it matter? To Liyang, the truth and her rank had no value, she could no longer believe in them and they could not protect her. Jingrui was her only reason for living and from the day he was born, she had to carry the secret of his birth with her. Should she have told the Zhuos the truth? She could not have known how the Zhuos would retaliate and she knew firsthand how ruthless Xie Yu could be (and even then, she doesn’t know how much more ruthless he would be). Had fighting for the truth done anything for her? And who could she tell? She was completely isolated as Xie Yu’s wife. And maybe only 17 years of age.

This lie became harder to reveal with time. At the start, she had just given birth and there was already an assassination attempt on her barely day-old baby; her primary goal would be to protect her baby with everything she had. Later on, she would see the Xies and the Zhuos becoming closer, their children growing up together, the secret seemingly buried forever. How could she tell the truth then? She might have thought that she could never return their baby to them but at least she could share hers and she would not bring them further grief. Was it fair to them? No, but had the world been fair to her? (This is not better than them not knowing the truth nor does it justify it, but that is another whole essay on its own especially in the context of LYB.)

We don’t know what their marriage was like in the years before the start of the canon timeline. We can only guess by how no one suspected anything was amiss, by how easily Xie Yu capitulated when reminded of the rape and when Liyang held a knife to her own throat, and by how Liyang dealt with the fallout from Jingrui’s birthday party, that all this guilt, grief, fear and anger may have been buried deep within her for more than half her life, but they never went away.

As for her relationship with Xie Yu, it’s really fascinating and can’t be easily summed up with just ‘hatred’ or ‘resignation’ or ‘Stockholm Syndrome’. Liyang’s readiness to protect his name and legacy by asking him to kill himself, Xie Yu’s “I have always loved you”, their final parting... there’s just so much emotion in their scenes together, so much left unsaid (and perhaps there’s nothing left for them to say to each other).

Several years after her marriage, the Chiyan case happened. Liyang might or might not have her suspicions re: Xie Yu’s role in it but it’s certain that she would have seen many ministers speak out for Prince Qi and the Lins and she would have seem them all killed for it, entire families wiped out by the emperor’s wrath and paranoia.

To her, nothing good ever came out of standing up for the truth and seeking justice. We see a bit of her fear in the part after she read Xie Yu’s letter with Jingrui later on in the story.

But she was not entirely broken. When Consort Jing told her that someone in the palace harem is planning to use qing si rao on Nihuang, she tried to prevent it. She would have known that Xie Bi and Xie Yu were involved in the fight for the throne and preventing either side’s plans would be risky to her family. When she failed to tell Nihuang about it, she approached MCS and talked about this extremely painful and private bit of her past to someone who is a complete stranger to her so that she can prevent Nihuang from facing the same pain she went through.

And while she did succeed in preventing the same thing from happening to Nihuang, she would also have heard about how Consort Yue and the Crown Prince were punished for trying to drug Nihuang, how Prince Yu was rewarded for his role in preventing it, and how MCS is rumoured to be helping Prince Yu. From her POV, she would see how truth and justice is just another weapon to be used in court politics.

A few months later, during Jingrui’s birthday party, all secrets were revealed in just one night, all old wounds reopened. I think this would have been freeing for Liyang because finally, she no longer had to carry this secret with her and it was only by reopening them could the wounds finally begin to heal. But she also lost her daughter. And to her, it would seem like everything was orchestrated just so that Prince Yu can take a step closer to the throne.

When she read Xie Yu’s letter, she knew that the Sword of Damocles once again hung over her family. Is it any surprise that she would be wary upon seeing MCS there when she handed the letter to Jingyan? Is it any surprise that she would try to guarantee her children’s safety when they were all she had left, when they were likely her sole reason for living?

But in the end, she could put aside her personal losses and see that this wasn’t just part of the political game. For years she had been silent and resigned to whatever the fates threw at her but she found her spirit again when she agreed to what Jingyan and MCS asked of her. She was so brave and so strong when she condemned Xie Yu in front of everyone and the emperor’s wrath represented the power that had ripped everything from her. She was finally doing what she had never been able to do, to speak the truth and demand justice, and she did it not for herself, but for those who could no longer speak.

I love love love her smile right before she crashes the emperor’s birthday party <3

#nirvana in fire #nif meta #liyang

143 notes · View notes

aspoonofsugar · 5 years ago

Note

I know this might be weird but can you pinpoint what Eren actual plan is actually is? I still don't believe his declaration and i'm sure there is more that meets the eye. Can you give any other probability of what his real plan is judging from his character before his POV was shut off. Can you also include how the role of Kruger memory and advise to Grisha helped shaped the current Eren since I see a lot of similarities between the two in this final arc

The same dude btw. Do you have any theory on why Eren set up PATHS discord to declare his goal. Don't get me wrong but so far Eren intention has been presented as noble even though his method and goal isn't. The intention we have gotten from other character POV btw is to protect his friends and Paradise. What then do Eren benefit from monologuing like a stereotypical villain before unleashing his plan? He isn't the type to instill fear into people before killing them. That's OOC for him

The wall titans will take days or even weeks before they realistically reach the shores of Marley. Maybe it cause of bias but if I want to commit a genocide with something as slow as the wall titan, I will cut off flow of information so that they will meet their doom by surprise. Also thanks to him announcing his goal, he has helped clear indecisiveness for any Paradisians that's opposed to that outcome. Did he really expect Armin to sit still and allow him after what he pulled in 112?

Lastly, in Eren memory shard. We saw a shard of the fez boy whom he was looking at the last night. The general consensus among the fandom is that Eren decided for the genocide after what transpired in the meeting but if Eren really went out of his way to meet that boy after he ditched the SC, that kind of puts a dent in his genocide plan cause that shard looks to pure with the hand placed on shoulder and the whole body language. Sorry for rambling too much. I know it kind of makes other

characters development pointless if Eren isn't genuine. But it's just like saying Mikasa character development when Eren died is pointless cause Eren came back alive. I don't know if I make sense

One question, I want to ask about Kruger word on the wall " you have to complete your mission if you want to save Mikasa, Armin and everyone". Are we supposed to ignore that line or is it retconned or what? Many of the analysis I see base off of post timeskip Eren with no POV and ignoring established themes. I just see a lot of theory about big bad Eren and I can't help but wonder considering the scene was emphasized by both Grisha and Kruger. I feel like something is missing

Hello anons!

These asks can be answered together. I am also sorry for the wait since it has been a while since I have received them.

I have talked about Eren here and in particular I have said this:

Finally, when it comes to Eren’s future development, I currently see two possibilities.

a) Either we are given more information through Historia and his POV and this new information can modify the reading of Eren’s actions up until now.

b) He will grow and develop because of the actions of the other characters exactly like them will grow because of his current ones.

I think that point a and b which describe two possible ways in which Eren can gain future development lead to two different machro-theories I see going around.

1) Eren plans to turn himself into humaniy’s enemy, so that humanity can join hands, fight him and overcome their struggle in the meantime.

2) Eren’s wish to protect his home and loved ones coupled with his future memories led him to think that destroying the world is the only way he can ensure Paradis safet and so he is doing so even if he knows it is wrong.

I call them “machro-theories” because they can be interpreted in numerous ways and each one has a different nuance and a different spin to it. I am also sure that other explanations could be found, but, as for now, they are the two I find more plausible.

They can both make sense under certain conditions and I think they are the two ones that would have the more foreshadowing if proven true.

Now, let’s address some points you make against theory 2 and in favor of theory 1.

1) The boy with the fez. I don’t think him appearing in Eren’s memories disproves nor proves anything. Him appearing in Eren’s memories shows how much important was that night for Eren himself. It is the last night he spends with the people he loves before leaving them and starting to act coldly towards them. What is more, the child is a person who reminds Eren of his past self since he is a victim of war and a refugee like he was. Because of this, it makes sense that Eren was such impressed by the child since he represents both his past self and how people outside and inside the walls are the same.

As a matter of fact even if Eren is indeed doing what he seems to be doing it does not mean that he does not realize its gravity (different from the Jeagersists). He clearly does. That is why he cries after seeing the child. It is because he realizes he will die together with other people when he activates the Rumbling. Or at least the hapter implies this.

Alternatively, in case theory 1 is correct, Eren crying might simply be because he is somehow giving up on his past and possibly on his future since he knows he needs to sacrifice himself.

2) Eren’s speech to the world Eldians.

As the first anon said in their asks, it might be a trick Eren is using to stage himself as the only true monster in order to unite the world against him.

Alternatively, someone (whose name I don’t remember, so tell me if yuou know) noticed that the Founding Titan powers seem to work without specific restrictions. So, for example, when Eren ordered that all the hardening had to become undone, not only the walls, but also Reiner and Annie resented of the effect of Eren’s order. So, Eren might have wanted to announce his plan only on the Eldians of Paradis, but ended up bradcasting to all the world Eldians. That said, I don’t find the theory that convincing even if it is interesting simply because Eren’s words seem to be directed to all Eldians.

3) Eren as an antagonist being against the themes.

To this I disagree. As a matter of fact a way to explore a theme is to have the MC have a tragic arc which embodies the opposite of a story themes. Because of this, having Eren who wants freedom ending up representing freedom’s opposite can be an effective way to explore the theme of “freedom”. If anything Eren manipulating everyone, so that things go according to his plan is something which risks not to fit with the idea of freedom. As a matter of fact, having a single character giving “freedom” to others through manipulation seems kind of hypocritical. That said, there could be ways in which theory 1 can be proven true without this happening. So we’ll see.

4) Kruger’s words. I have talked about Kruger’s words here:

He might be doing it because he has seen Kruger mentioning to Grisha that if he learns to use this power correctly he can save Mikasa, Armin and everyone else. All in all, just this hope might be enough for him to push forward in a confused hell despite the fact he has only partial information and that he might very well mess up in the process.

In short, the panel of Kruger mentioning Armin and Mikasa is clearly important and I think that that panel together with the one of Mikasa in chapter one have still to be explained and will be in the future. What is more, I think they are connected to the Attack Titan piower somehow.

When it comes to Kruger’s words it is possible that, as I say above, Eren is also animated by them in doing what he is doing. As a matter of fact being told by my future self that doing something will save the lives of people I love might be a reason good enough to do whatever I am told. I also think we might see Eren sending himself this message in future chapters.

In conclusion, both theories 1 and 2 are still possible. They have both positive and negative aspects to them.

For example, having theory 1 be true would make difficult to understand why Eren could not simply tell the others about it. Why did he have to risk the destruction of the world hoping that a bunch of people who could have died countless times would join together and stop him against all odds? This is something which seriously needs to be addressed not to make the whole situation ridiculous and it can be addressed either by adding plot-points which make Eren’s choices understandable or by clearly showing that Eren was wrong not to tell others.

At the same time, for theory 2 to be true there is the need to find a convincing reason why both Historia and Eren’s POV have been hidden from us up until now. If Eren wants to destroy the world and that is, why have we not been shown his pov and why is there still mystery about a meeting between him and Historia? Similarly, there is the fact that it makes no sense for Eren to have told Floche his plan and not people he truly cared about. As a matter of fact even if he wants to destroy the world, why should he want a group like the Jeagersists rule over Paradis considering they are a threath to people like Hange and Levi he cares about?

All in all, why is he pushing Armin and Mikasa and the others away? No matter what theory is true, it must address this point.

These are my two cents as per now.

Have a great day!

#snk #asksfullofsugar #anonymous

7 notes · View notes