#because he has a long ass path to get to his boss fight >:(

[stoshasaurus]

I DID IT !!! I p-ranked the first act of ultrakill for the first time, and made it to minos' boss fight!! :D

[salvagesmha]

Altering the Final War's Battlefields

With the series done, one of the few things that took me until now to get to was basically a bit of a revamp of the Second War battlefields.

The problem with them in the long run for me is that, LOV members aside, there was just...no other major villain established in those fields to really give a shit about or really have a sense of dread about.

One of the major differences between the 1st and 2nd War is that, regardless of how you feel about the results of the 1st War, waltzing into it you understood that the Villains were very credible, established threats.

The League of Villains and their upgraded powers, the MLA top brass and knowing what havoc just one of them could do, the High End Nomus that lay in waitin production thanks to Ujiko, Gigantomachia being a living disaster, 100K soldiers who we know should be on par with regular Heroes from training and have put the LOV on the backfoot. YMMV on how the 1st War turned out, but walking in there was some solid anticaption and intrigue in how these elements would be used....

The Second War does not have that. Why? Because Horikoshi kinda just...gutted the PLF and didn't reaaaaaaallly bring suitable, built-up replacements for them?

High Ends that have personality and can think? Nope, back to just the dumbass Nomus who are just rampaging monsters...that's it.

The PLF soldiers? Literally just 100 people now and, even then, the jailbreakers they got to replace them are just...well, nothing, like I talked about here.

The top brass of the LOV/PLF? Most who could provide interesting fights or intrigue were taken away for just Skeptic...whose regulated back 'hackerman' only.

Replacing them are either AFO's Assassins or Advisors who are just ether not developed at all or just came in too late, beaten too quick and used too little to care about. Thus, it really makes them feel totally irrelevent to the other stuff going around during the war.

For all the talk of the Heroes being at a disadvantage, it certainly did not feel so with just...6 of the bad guys out of a hundred or so people would really care about.. As such, my list below is basically having major Villains take the spots of the Jailbreakers/Advisors as 'Bosses' of their fields so as to give each place a solid Villain to get invested in. In addition, also adding in more returning Villains to help make each place to feel 'alive' in a sense.

If you wanna see how I'd use the Advisors, for the most part (there's a few changes here), look here.

Central Hospital:

This is the most blatant change I feel works for the story better is Trumpet being the ‘Boss’ (or well, one of the Bosses) of Central Hospital. One of the issues in the that battle came about from Disgustus being shoved into two contradictory roles. The first, up until the midway through the battle, is an advocate of mutants that seemed to be genuinely hurt and bitter from the discrimination he’s implied to have gotten (as evidence by his scar)...except then we get to the second half. Which has his internal thoughts filled with how the PLF were just using the mob they gathered as tools and makes him just cartoonishly corrupt. 

Instead of him being forced into both, I think a good idea would have been for Trumpet to take the reigns as the corrupt leader, acting as a false sympathizer for the Heteromorphs, and Disgustus to remain as a genuine, if disdainful extremist. It gives a mook of the PLF more depth since it reminds the audience that a lot of the Villains walked down the path due to rough lives, and allows for their still to be a scummy Villain still to stop. Heck, I feel using Trumpet as the Boss also just makes some of the plot feel more coherent, since he can use his Quirk to not only boost the mob, but make them too frenzied up to really listen or notice something being off (like Spinner clearly being out of it due to the additional Quirks) or notice him clearly covering his ass.

In this case, it’s Shoji and Koda beating Trumpet that could allow for the mob splinter to really begin and stall, with the pig guy’s group merely being the final blow to crack the facade for good. As for Disgustus and the rest of Spinner’s crew, they can be defeated right before they could enter the hospital. Something that hurts Shoji and the others badly enough that the mob genuinely could have killed them if not for pig guy. Heck, to help with this option, I also raise Chimera from movie 2 to return, acting as extra muscle for the crowd and, given his own experience being discriminated against, be another pillar of change get the crowd motivated. While Shoji loses the first encounter against Chimera, this second time, he barely manages to defeat him and is in danger of being killed when help arrives.

On a minor note, more of the USJ crew returns, mainly the Heteromorphic side as well, perhaps trying to spread the idea that, from the beginning, the League of Villains was just trying to raise awareness and change…even though that was very much not the case XD

Boss: Spinner, Trumpet

Jailbreaker: Chimera

Advisors: Spinner’s Advisors

Return: Steel Bulwark, Invisible Wall, Chomper, Greedy Gaping Jaw

Okuto Island

Given this is Toga’s battlefield, there’s not quite too many changes I’d make here. I think the most blatant that could be done is make Moonfish, whose acting as the ‘Jailbreaker’ for the Okuto Villains, more prominent. If Kunieda and Gashly are allowed to wipe out or fend off multiple Heroes, than a guy whose supposed to be on par with them should really be allowed to cut loose and be more of a massive thorn for their side. Plus, since I also think League members should at least get at least a significant send-off, I think Tsu being the one to take him down would be a good way of giving her something major to do. In this case, Tsu uses her wits and camouflage to bait Moon into being more careless with his attacks. Something that leads to him leaving himself open to being stunned by her poison mucus before being knocked out.

Another change I’d make is including Eleph from the High Ends on this battlefield. I think it’d hit the point home how much of a gamble splitting hte Villains up from each other was, as there was always a chance one Villain could have a real advantage wherever they got sent to. In this case, Eleph’s quirk allowed him to suck in water to make fierce hydro attacks at his foes. 

On a lesser note, I’m also for Hanzo Suiden/USJ water thug to add to his mayhem since it should have been high priority for that water fucker to at do something threatening given that battlefield was his advantage. Perhaps’s he’s teaming up with Eleph to help boost the Nomu’s attacks? 

Likewise, for the Advisors section, I’m all for Toga having her #1 Advisor at the scene to help add to the pressure of Okuto.

Boss: Toga

Jailbreaker: Moonfish

Return: Hanzo Suiden, Minotaurus

Nomu: Eleph

Advisors: Toga’s #1 Advisor 

Kamino Ward:

Given that the purpose of this place is that it doesn’t have any Major Jailbreakers, only real major tweak I would make for this is that Ribby replaces the NHE here. I think it’d be fitting if the High End assigned to Dabi was also an ax-crazy killer Nomu that wouldn’t give a shit to being set on fire and is just enjoying the chaos of the War. SImilar to the anime, Ida’s attacks with Ribby, alongside someone like Burnin, are what eventually gets him to go down.

Honestly, I’d probably include Starservant and Ending since both were Dabi’s grunts during the EA arc, and it’d be nice for them to assist their boss once more. Plus, both fit the theme of being crazed Villains unconcerned for their lives, like the other two above as well. Not that I think they’d be a major help, but it’d give some familiar faces the audience would recognize and help care more about the battlefields beyond just the final Boss taking up a major focus.

Boss: Dabi

Nomu: Ribby

Return: Starservant, Ending, Sharkyonara (RIP poor bastard), One-Eyed Green Dragon, Sickle Claw

Advisor: Dabi’s 1st ranker

Jaku Ruins:

To take the place of Skully of the Jaku Ruins battlefield, I raise you Geten. Honestly, I think this is the most natural choice as the Face of Jaku Ruins given how Skully shares Geten’s ‘Quirk Makes Right’ mindset and I think it’d hit more for Mina trying to reason with Geten about how both were fighting for their fallen mentors (in this case Re-Destro) than her trying to resonate with a character who hasn’t really been given his due at all. It’d especially hit harder given RD is basically Geten’s Dad too, so ice boy’s attempts at freeing Machia is coming from a placed of enraged love like Mina had.

As the Jailbreaker of Jaku, I raise Slice as being the sort, mostly to act as a villain against Mina, and would be in a similarm indset to geten about trying to avenge a loss loved one + getting payback on Mina while she was at it since it was her acid that cost her the first fight.

Likewise, in this case, all three of Geten’s Advisors + Dabi’s #2, will be at Jaku. Skully is there to work with Bindi Girl into creating gas that’ll keep their forces safe. Geten’s #3 can probably utter his mammonist line from overhearing about the Heroes plot, and be apart from the first wave of the Jaku villain forces to intercept the Heroes (before being taking out fairly easily - he’s No. 3 for a reason after all). As for Geten’s #1…well, he’’ likely just be there for Geten to bounce ideas off and defend the Commander against enemy attacks.

Now, on the returning Villain side, I’m surprised Giant Villain wasn’t brought back to rematch Mt. Lady. He’ll not be as strong as her, but he can keep her busy after she stomped through a good number of their guys. And, like in canon, Sludge Villain can stay and do his thing. Also, as apart of the first wave, Teruo’s here…to probably be one-shot immediately again, but he will be there XD

Boss: Geten

Jailbreaker: Slice

Return: Sludge Villain, Giant Villain, Teruo Hazakashi (Naked Guy), Axer, Stitched Giant

Advisors: Geten’s Advisors, Dabi’s #2 Advisor

Troy Parking Lot

Now this is one of the trickier locations since it’s pretty just one of the ‘spares’ of the battle. But, ultimately, I think it can work to be something even more meaningful than in canon. In this case, I want Mr. Compress to be left behind here. The support of the League faceing off against pretty much the spares of the Heroes trying to mop up the last of the resistance. Plus, it’s not like Compress doesn’t have a Hero of his own he has beef with. Aoyama was the reason his plan to capture both Bakugo and Tokoyami went screwy, and given Aoyama comes from a rich family that his ancestors would have likely stolen from, well…there’s a lot fun you can have between these two brawling out.

The way I see it, Kunieda makes his plants like in canon, and thanks to Compress’ mask, (alongside several other Villains still remaining that do wear masks of their own or maybe even just Kunieda has control over who he turns into plants) Compress is able to go back to his tree hopping shtick like in the training camp arc and show off his own stealth abilities again. Able to gradually whittle down the Heroes by taking advantage of the foliage to turn those who aren’t plant turned into marbles.

Since there are no Nomu here, the lesser Villains will be made of minor villain gangs, those like Cider House to Team Resvoir Dogs. Stragglers that are really only lasting as long due to Kunieda’s cover and will likely go down after Aoyama/Hagakure’s combo attack.

Boss: Mr. Compress

Jailbreaker: Kunieda

Return:Cider House, Blade Villain/Street Thieves, Reservoir Dogs, Gorilla, Spike

Advisors: Compress #3,

Takoba Stadium:

Honestly, this might sound weird, but Skeptic honestly could have taken Gashly’s place. Gashly’s whole thing is that he spawns minions to outlast others while he himself is in a safe location…

Kinda like Skeptic’s Quirk…or Twice’s…or Toga with Twice’s Quirk (Horikoshi didn’t spend much time on Gashly’s power, let’s be real…). If the main boss of Takoba is just a summoner, than just let Skeptic be badass and not only hack UA’s systems, but also fuck people up via his henchmen too? Heck, you don’t even have to do much to explain how he can do both without issue.

Have him hide somewhere during the chaos…or alternatively? Bring back the Shie Hassaikai guy, Tengai, Barrier and allow Skeptic to camp with in. As for how he can use his set-up at all, have AFO’s spies implant a virus that allows Skeptic access to UA’s systems so that he can safely work his magic in peace…at least up until La Brava stops him. As for how he can fight so well, perhaps have a chapter detailing Skeptic actually bothering to improve his Quirk so that he doesn’t need to use much to create puppets thats can do simple commands, and with access to Detnerat support items, he can effectively spawn more infinitely.

That’s how you can explain Skeptic outlasting the others for so long. At least, up until Tengai is knocked out by Tokage and Kamikiri via the Warp Gate. Thus, shutting down the barrier to allow Skeptic and any remaining Villains to be wiped out. 

Of course, there’s also the issue of the likes of Ketsubutsu’s deal with Skeptic being overturned, though I think a good way to handle that is to have them also at Takoba trying to take Skeptic’s forces down. In this case, a good midtier Villain that can give them a challenge is Deidoro Sakaki and Katsukame. Sakaki’s Sloshed and Katsukame’s energy drain are being a real nuisance in preventing the Heroes from getting to Skeptic, so it’s up to Ketsubetsu to stop them. In this case, Shindo and Nakagame take down Sakaki, while Ms. Joke and those other two guys beat Katsukame. Thus, freeing up more space to focus on the nerdy fuck who needs to get out of the barrier. 

As for any other side Villains to go along with Skeptic, I’m all for including the likes of the Carmine Advisors that made it out, beyond Toga’s 1st ranker. So Toga #3 and Skeptic’s #3. As for Gashly, he can still work as the main muscle, albeit with a revamped Quirk? Perhaps his Baby Tree quirk is more on the psychological side of things that make Skeptic’s puppets even more of a hassle to fight against? Nomu for Takoba will be Chubs to add to the whole theme of ‘this place is chalk full of tanky, long-distance, support fuckers who won’t fight directly’ which is just bound to get on the Takoba Heroes nervesXD

Main Boss: Skeptic

Jailbreaker: Gashly (with a revamped Quirk, probably something rhyme-based to help Skeptic’s puppets out)

Return: Tengai, Katsukame, Sakaki - Shie Hassaikai. Needle Hair, Martial Hair

PLF:  Skeptic #3/Toga’s #3

Nomu: Chubs

UA Shelters

Always thought this was more of a shame that there wasn’t really any proper fights here. Yeah, I know the idea is ‘oh, we can’t let the Villains in’ but c’moooon! It’s the final fight - let them be more of a threat by a few breaking in, causing the Heroes on the inside to try to stop them.

Let Mustard return to spray his gas to help weaken the Heroes defenses, which allows him to get a rematch with Kendo and Tetsu again! Let Mimic get smuggled into UA to take control of the damn thing after Skeptic failed! Have the remaining yakuza work with the saboteurs, acting as their guardsman while they try to bring UA down and it’s a race against time to really stop them. Hell, let Mummy return to use his powers to turn the machinery against the Heroes and have them work hard as Hell to stop him!!

How did they get in? IDK, let one of the saboteurs have a Quirk that let’s them be dollar tree version of Mr. Compress, or maybe they snuck in, if only barely. Heck, maybe after Kurogiri is freed, AFO placed the data for inside of UA and the team meant to rampage in it (thanks to the spies) inside of Shiggy’s mask and Kurogiri warped the taskforce in after the factl There are ways to go about it to make it work. Just allow people like Kaminari and Momo to get more to do than off-screen deal with Twice copies!!! 

But, with that in mind, every location needs a boss of some sort, right?...So why not have the one in charge of such operations be Giran? Have him sneak into UA via his muddle Quirk and make him the director of sabotage for the Villain forces, something he’d be proud to do since he’d want revenge for Twice's death. As for how he doesn’t get folded instantly when found out, if you don’t want to have him unguarded, you can have him use his/Detenerat’s support items to hold off Heroes long enough to make some play happen for his side. I just think it’d be a fitting way to end his story trying to payback the man who saved his life instead of just…not existing after a while.

Boss: Giran

League: Mustard

Jailbreaker: Mummy

Shie Hassaikai: Chronostasis, Mimic, Nemoto, Garbage Trio

PLF: Saboteurs (Tajima, Mihaera, and three people no one cares about)

Gunga Villa

Last, but not least, we got the Gunga battlefield…which is very much due for an uplift. Seriously, the battlefield against the Demon Lord should not have been so damn barren like in canon. Even the Nomus that got sent with him, who were giving everyone else so much trouble, went down likes chumps. So…how to correct it?

Simple! Make it the powerhouse buffet with all the heaviest of hitters being sent there. Woman and her analytical skills mixed with her bloodlust? She’s there to kick ass like the rampaging beast queen that she is, and ensure that the the Heroes really don’t get that much of a break while AFO is wrapped up fighting Team Endeavor in the skies.

Rappa of the Eight Bullets rampaging through the battlefield, knocking out people clean up until Kirishima arrives on Machia - then the rematch of a lifetime could occur!!! I will never stop harping on this, I truly believe we should have gotten a Kirishima and Rappa rematch in the Final War, and its a WASTE Rappa/none of the yakuza besides Overhaul returned!!!

Toxic Chainsaw, the name-dropped foe that All Might whooped back in the 1st chapter and could have probably been a neat callback? Add in Dreadlock Jailbreaker having a spike quirk and the threat from a living pincushion and toxic waste shoots the threat level way up. These guys I’ld probably leave as a deal opponents for the Shiketsu side of things, to give them some form of meaningful foe to clear out before taking on AFO.

Finally, the name-dropped Sanctum and the rest of the Twice Squad serving as, well not really AFO back-up, but general mook rallying nonetheless so the battlefield for this affair is a bit more of semi-organized affair for the Villains instead of a huge mosh pit where they got wiped out so easily.

Boss: AFO

Jailbreaker: Toxic Chainsaw, Dreadlock Jailbreaker

Nomu: Woman

Advisors: Sanctum & other Twice Advisors

Return: Rappa, Habit Headgear, Tesla, Victor

-

Ultimately, this was how I'd split them up! I tried to give each battlefield someone related to the League or who we have seen could be a credible match for the Heroes.

ALso saw fit to give an expalnation as to why some are here and others elsewhere...or not here at all.

Why isn't Re-Destro here?

Because I think the idea of Redestro going down fighting allow the PLF to escape is actually a good idea and could have lead to more development for his top brass, with the post-war showing how each of them are trying to carry on the organization's will. Geten's furious and preparing his Quirk more, Skeptic is actually training to defend himself and other better, Trumpet is channeling his inner Usopp and just lying to every straggler he finds to bolster their forces.

Why is the Shie Hassakai helping AFO?

Mutual benefit. The SH wants Overhaul back, AFO can free him if they win. Also, in Rappa's case, he just wants to brawl so he's imediately on board.

Why only Movie 2 villains on-board?

Because they're the only movie villains that are both in Japan, and not arrested internationally. I mean, I could have tried to incldue Wolfram and his dudes, if I wanted? But if I do ever make a pitch for a new Dark Deku Jailbreaker arc, I'd rather save him for that.

Aaaaaand, that's that?

Regardless, this is pretty much just a thought experiment on my part so hope you got some enjoyment from it!! Think I could have done any of these battlefields better?

[writercole]

Dangerous Distraction

Summary: A secret mission. A formal gala. Two agents that hate each other. What could go wrong?

Words: 2105

Warnings: Suggestive dancing, Jake Seresin as a secret agent.

Credits: @princessmisery666 for beta reading this, @ryebecca for being the absolute best hype woman and twin that I could ask for. My ride or dies 💕

A/N: This has been in my drafts for a bit now. I found it when I found the other Jake story and…it was finished too. I hope you enjoy.

The mission couldn’t be worse. Not only was she paired with her worst enemy, they had to make everyone believe that they were a couple on their honeymoon, madly in love with one another. She was a skilled agent, one of the best, but even she had no idea how they would be able to pull it off.

Jake Seresin, code name Hangman, had made his feelings abundantly clear from the moment they were introduced. He thought little of her, making demeaning comments about her abilities, her skills, and her training. Though, he claimed, it was never because she was a woman. 

He dismissed every idea or strategy she proposed, often tearing them down publicly, causing a fight that only ended when one of their bosses intervened. He walked away smug, calm, collected while she was visibly seething. On multiple occasions her colleagues pointed out where he wormed his way under her skin, undermined her confidence, and worst of all, she let it affect her; it was then that she decided she hated Jake Seresin.

They had been at the hotel undercover for three days, playing the perfect couple in public, barely speaking behind the room’s closed door. She was grateful for the foresight of the planners to book a suite with a closed off bedroom. She took it over quickly, citing the need for privacy to dress and prepare.

Jake balked at first, whether out of true opposition or the need to be contrary she didn’t know. Regardless, his choice was removed as soon as she slid the doors shut.

Night three happened to be the night of the gala that they had been sent to infiltrate. She was getting dressed, ignoring the way Jake continued to give updates on the time through the closed door. As her lipstick glided across her bottom lip, a knock echoed through her suite.

“How long can it possibly take to get ready?” Jake sassed, “the gala started half an hour ago.”

“Beauty takes time, Hangman,” she replied.

“There isn’t enough time in the day to make you as beautiful as some of the women I’ve seen here,” he muttered under his breath, fidgeting with his watch before he called, “just…hurry up.”

“Why don’t you pull the stick out of your ass and head down to the bar. I’ll meet you there.”

“Fine. But I will handle this without you if you don’t hurry.”

She let out a sigh of relief when the door slammed shut, taking a moment to enjoy the silence before she had to go downstairs to the stuffy ballroom and pretend to be madly in love with a man she detested, one that also despised her.

Jake had been down in the ballroom for ten minutes and had already spotted their target and devised a plan to complete their mission. When another ten minutes had passed with no appearance from his partner, he felt an uneasiness settle in the pit of his stomach. He rested his glass of scotch on the bar and allowed his eyes to sweep over the room again before he went searching for her.

The sounds echoing off of the walls faded to nothing and Jake followed the way everyone’s heads had turned to the door. He stood up straighter while his jaw fell, his gaze raking up and down the body of his partner scanning the crowd.

A blinding smile spit her face in two and she began moving across the room, every gaze following her path.

Jake’s ears picked up the middle of a chord change and realized that the music and conversation hadn’t actually stopped; his senses blocked them out when he caught sight of his partner. Seeing her in a different environment, a formal setting, sparked a reckoning that had not previously crossed his mind.

The beauty that radiated from her stirred a warmth and giddiness in his chest, one that intensified with every step she took towards him. Her smile faded to a smirk and his heart skipped a beat. Jake became intensely aware that in the last minute or two he hadn’t needed to act like the doting newlyweds they were supposed to be. 

She was stopped by a man with wavy hair and a mustache before she could make it to Jake’s corner of the bar. He felt an anger rising up as the man brushed a strand of hair back, caressing her bare shoulder as her hand covered her giggle. An unfamiliar sensation washed over him and he abandoned his drink, stalking over with his shoulders back and his chest puffed out. 

His arm slipped around her waist as he made it to his date. He pressed a kiss to her temple, cooing, “there you are gorgeous.” His eyes focused on the way she looked up at him, wishing for half a second the desire he saw there was real. “I was beginning to think I’d have to come find you. Actually, I was counting on it. Finding you locked up in our room with alternative plans for the evening.”

“And just who are you?” the mustached man asked, ire and disdain lacing his tone.

“I’m her husband,” Jake answered as his grip on her waist tightened, his fingertips digging into her soft hips. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, I need to make sure my wife knows how beautiful she looks tonight.”

Jake pulled her away to the dance floor, twirling her into his chest as he slipped his hand in hers.

“That was far from subtle, Hangman,” she mumbled quietly.

“Aren’t I supposed to be playing the doting husband?”

“The doting husband doesn’t have to be insanely jealous and try to mark his territory in front of a room full of strangers,” she countered, a smirk crossing her lips as her brows rose in challenge.

“When you look the way you do tonight, any husband would want to mark his territory, doting or not,” he replied sincerely, dipping her low as the song ended.

Her eyes searched his face for a sign, for something, for anything that might clue her in to his actual thoughts. All she found was a softness lingering in his slight smile, a hunger in the narrow eyes that flitted down from her eyes to her lips.

The tempo shifted as a new song began and he pulled her upright, stopping her when she tried to leave the dance floor.

“Jake, I can’t dance to this,” she hissed as he spun her around, pulling her back flush to his chest.

“I can,” he muttered against her neck, sending shivers up her spine. “Follow my lead.” His right foot slipped between hers and kicked them apart, a smirk dancing on his face at the gasp she tried to hide.

Jake led her in a tango, twirling and dipping her, his hands wandering over her body as they moved across the dance floor. She followed his lead fluently, her moves becoming second nature as she leaned into the trust she had for the partner who was surprising her this evening.

A heat built between them, the fire in their eyes as passionate as ever, spreading throughout their bodies with every touch, every glance, every whiff of their scent. By the end of the dance, when Jake had their chests pressed against each other, their panting breaths mingling millimeters from their faces, he could no longer hide the fact that he was attracted to her tonight. The evidence was pressed tightly into her hips.

“Seresin,” she hissed under her breath as his hands gripped her tightly. The crowd around them applauded wildly, all eyes she could see focused on them in the middle of the dance floor.

“Do you trust me?” he whispered, his eyes darting between hers anxiously.

She waited a beat before nodding slightly, feeling the tension in his shoulders release. 

“Just a second, then.” His hand slid up her back, pressing between her shoulder blades, holding her tighter as his head dipped to her ear. “I have eyes on the target.”

“I’m assuming my six,” she muttered back with a grin.

“He’s at the bar. You step out onto the terrace and block that exit.”

“And let you get all the credit? I don’t -”

“Do you trust me?” he repeated. His grip loosened when she nodded and he led her off the dance floor, pressing a kiss to her temple as they reached the balcony doors. She stepped out of the door and he turned to the bar, letting out a curse as his eyes widened.

The mark had vanished.

The breeze sent shivers up her spine. The entire situation had her on edge. Hangman had a reputation for leaving his partners high and dry and taking all the credit for the mission himself. The soft click of footsteps prompted her to release a tense breath, her shoulders relaxing as she turned. “Jake, I thought -”

She stopped short when she saw their mark, his face adorned with a dark grin. 

“I’m sorry to disappoint. But I must say, you look beautiful this evening,” the mark said as he buttoned his jacket. 

Two additional men materialized from the shadows and advanced towards her, causing her to take steps backwards. Her heart thudded in her chest and her breathing became labored, gasping for oxygen to fill lungs that fought expansion. There had been no training for a situation where you’re being approached directly on a balcony. 

A piece of tape covered her mouth and a black bag draped over her head before she could scream.

The mark disappeared. Jake swore under his breath as he scanned the room again fruitlessly. There was no sign of him anywhere. His eyes widened and he darted for the balcony door. His stomach fell to the floor as he stepped out onto an empty terrace, the lingering smell of her perfume the only sign she had ever been there.

“Shit,” he swore while he pulled out his phone. “Shit fuck fuck shit.” 

Dialing a contact, he paced frantically across the small space, counting the steps he took back and forth. One, two, three, four, turn. 

“Control.”

“Fucking finally,” Jake barked into the phone. “I need extraction for myself and the location on my partner.”

“I’ll need approval from your mission leader for those,” the tech on the other end of the phone explained. 

“No, what you need to do is find her. I think she was taken by the mark.”

Agonizing minutes passed while he waited on hold with control. The sound of a helicopter landing on the rooftop next door drowned out the response of control and spurred Jake into motion. In one swift motion, he climbed onto the iron railing and jumped to the neighboring building, his shoulder taking the brunt of the landing and propelling him into a roll. Pulling his pistol from his holster, he approached the chopper, finding that the occupants had evacuated and left the pilot.

He raised his weapon and stepped into view. “You’re flying me now.” 

The pilot looked at him and shrugged, flipping a few switches and handing over a headset as Jake settled into the front seat. “Where to?”

Jake only had an inkling of where the mark would have taken her, and barely a guess as to what they were driving but he had to do something, anything. If he didn’t…well he refused to think about the possibilities.

The duct tape over her mouth chafed as she wiggled her lips, trying to loosen the tape enough to moisten the area and get the tape off. The zip ties they placed around her wrists cut deeply as she shifted. She took deep breaths to counter the rising panic in her chest; she had been trained for this. She knew what to do.

“You really shouldn’t struggle so much. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

She couldn’t tell which of her abductors had decided to comment on her escape attempts, but he was on her left. The black cloth they had placed over her face was melting the meticulous makeup she applied before the gala and it pissed her off that she didn’t even get a picture before it was all ruined. Defeated, she slumped back against the seat, her shoulders squeezed between two of the giant men that had taken her hostage.

Her mind reeled with details from her training, what to do, when to do it. She had been in dangerous situations before but this time, something was preventing her from acting. 

This time, she was the collateral. This time, she was relying on someone else to rescue her. And that was terrifying. 

[moongothic]

You remember how in Ms Goldenweek's cover story, we get to see how the former Baroque Works agents have all beated up the other cellmates they had (not just in the mens' cells but also womens')

The way Daz is sitting on top of one of the prisoners, as if he was sitting on a throne or something, it definitely makes it look like he at least participated in the fight that took place, right

It just makes me wonder, did Crocodile himself participate in the cell fight, or did Daz handle it all on his own?

Like even with the Seastone cuffs Crocodile's hook alone should give him the most unfair advantage in a prison fight imaginable, so you'd think he'd be more than capable of defending himself if he felt like it. But also, considdering he didn't feel like even escaping prison... was he even in the mood for a fight? Like I don't think Crocodile would just allow some random, weak-ass pirates to beat his ass without a fight, but also... I can't help but to wonder... (Look you tell me what kind of a mental state Crocodile was in after his 4 year long plan to take over a country was foiled by a kid in flip flops)

Is it possible Daz took out all those other prisoners by himself (without Crocodile nor Mr 4 assisting him), either to make sure his boss didn't have to waste his strenght on them, or... did he maybe deal with the other prisoners to... protect Crocodile? Like the former would be straight forward manly man anime loyalty, nothing worth making a deepdive for, this is One Piece we get the trope. But isn't the latter option also plausible? 'Cause. Like. Daz was loyal enough to Crocodile to willingly go to Impel Fucking Down with his former boss whom he had only known for like a day or two at this point (I mean IDK how long it took for the BW members to get shipped to this Marine Base from Alabasta but you know what I mean). If some random criminals wanted to pick a fight with Crocodile in prison and he just seemed like he didn't feel like dealing with it, if Daz's was down to go to Impel Down with Croc, then would he not be willing to defend the man too??

Regardless, it just raises the question of... why? Why did Daz choose stay with Crocodile, despite Baroque Works failing so hard? Why did he choose to become loyal to such a cruel, horrible man?

Sad thing is, because we don't really know much about Daz, there isn't actually that much to go off-of to properly speculate here. But we do know Daz once dreamt of becoming a superhero! The irony of course being that not only he became a terrifying murder man, but also that he seems to lack that "superhero quality" of being... easily approachable, friendly, warm? Like he is a man of steel, but he's not The Man of Steel, you get me? But Daz's dream does tell us something interesting though; that deep inside, even if he doesn't show it at all, he might like the idea of being a hero? Like the concept of being a hero and saving people may have appealed to him, right? Because that's what being a hero is about, the heroic ideals of upholding peace and justice (and looking cool while doing it)

And arguably that idea still appeals to Daz. Even if he's frowning, deep inside he was enjoying the superhero costume Ms Goldenweek created, even if he can't admit it.

But in One Piece, the idea of being a "hero of justice" has quite different connotations than in our world. After all, the Marines are meant to embody that very idea, just in a far less cool, romantic way. We know the World Government is extremely corrupt, we know of the atrocities the Marines have and are willing to commit in the name of their so-called "justice".

So while it's entirely plausible Daz might've fallen "out of love" with his dream simply because his life just... lead him down a different path, and he didn't seem to have the right personality for it anyways... Knowing the WG, isn't it also possible Daz could have become kind of... jaded, knowing the "real life heroes" of his world aren't that cool, and don't actually stand for the ideals he may have looked up to?

And then he finds himself working for a man who seemingly wants to overthrow that very same corrupt Government?

[nightswithkookmin]

All members are using IG to promote their solo projects, album, brand ambassador…etc. I admire JK who prefers genuine interaction with fans, he did not forget how BTS stood out from other idols and established connection with fans. I love him for that. But still, he has ‘jobs’, deleting his IG account and saying he is not going to use it anyways seem to suggest that no solo projects will be released in the near future… He has strong brand power and influence, if he has no ‘brand ambassador’ contract yet, it means he turned down all the offers. What do you think he is planning? Is he happy?

Is that shade I detect?

What do you mean he prefers genuine interaction with fans? And I'm sorry, who don't?? Gworl😩

I think you trynnna gaslight yourself romanticing this as some sort of heroic deed born out of the goodness of his heart 💀

Realistically speaking, IG is just an alternative platform for reaching a much more narrow, targeted fanbase. It's a much better platform for engaging with fans compared to weverse which is still in its early development stages and only recently rolled out lives.

Jungkook himself said he wished it had options to add fans during lives and chat with them- a feature that IG already has.

While it's easier to see his actual brand power on IG, the same cannot be said for weverse cos you know he his posting to not just his fans but other members' fans as well. It's OT7 up in weverse. Not JKK.

And let's not forget both he and Tae were the first members who hoped on to IG and enthusiastically posted on there acting all giddy as if they just got out of hybe jail and were finally free.

If you want a member who dragged his feet out there it was this one right here. He's your hero.

He is the king OT7 kumbaya gang leader. He said it himself he didn't even know what he was to post on there and for the longest time he was posting nufin.

So just because Jungkook deletes IG on a whim does not make him no damn OT7 simp. Stop. I love you but I will fight you to the death on this one- and maybe chase you with a pitch fork in the afterlife too🥴

Because, didn't I make posts about how he seemed eager to embark on his solo path way before they announced their solo careers? He literally let it slip in an interview how he couldn't wait to try a solo stage and then backtracked talking about how he didn't mean to say he wanted to go solo.

Was he a genuine fan interaction boss then when he was posting Tae and all those stories and IG live??

Bombastic side eye.

you have to recommend me a good Jimin Y/N fanfic with a lot of smut for getting me worked up over this. Actually make that two. You nice, keep going 🤭💜

With the second part of your ask, I really don't know. All I've heard him say is he has a lot of free time and that he wishes it could stay that way for a while.

I think he and V already have their albums done. They might have been the first few members to work on theirs. I mean some of their songs were incorporated into OT7 songs if I remember right. Tae had a whole ass English song ready to go.

Jk is an artist. His band mates are busy with solo projects they won't be available for no OT7 music projects until later in the future when they conclude their military service.

And I don't think he is quitting music or retiring from music so soon so.....

If he has all that free time and doesn't want to do solo projects then he better get his ass shipped off to military and get it over with. Gotta yank the bandaid off real fast and it won't hurt.

I don't know why people are buying this whole "I deleted it cos I don't use it story." You genuinely believe that's why he deleted IG?💀

B--bcos he doesn't use it????? Okay now

I know we joke about how bts deletes Twitter if they haven't used it in a long while but he took that quite literally didn't he?

If you're not using it, delete the app from your phone and forget about it. You don't delete your account. Jimin wasn't using the app either- I didn't see him delete his account🥴

Personally, I was worried having separate accounts would lead to unnecessary rivalry and competition with fans pitting them against eachother and making fun of who has the least followers.

Then there's this whole thing with the algorithms and analytics that would have you obsessing over likes comments views and impressions. It can mess with your head.

But then I assumed, that was something they all might have thought through before setting up those accounts.

They knew the risks and they took it. Says a lot about all of them. This is a journey they had collectively agreed to embark on. So if Jungkook is taking himself out, let's not take this lightly. Let's assume there's a sound tangible reason behind it other than redundancy and inactivity.

Then someone said he deleted it because he was angry with fans- listen yea, if Jungkook is mad at fans YOU'LL KNOW. Lmho.

he wouldn't be out here on weverse showing yall his snores while lowkey calling yall out for being crazay.

He and his man finna pack off these streets and disappear on yall for months when yall push a button with your ghettory.

That's not his MO. It just isn't but to each their own.

It's crazy town. There's room for all of us.

And if he's clinging on to yall it's usually a sign he's isolating in his real life. (Not saying he is clinging to the fans, there isn't much interaction at odd hours to back this up- yet.)

But I do wonder where all his alleged girlfriends at💀

Yall come get your man.

I know his boyfriend is busy preparing for an album release and his crime partner- na see where Tae at too cos I see him on IG but dude staying silent on JK's public fuckups Activities. Come get him Tae

Is Jungkook happy?

I don't know hun.

It could be he turned down all offers or now is not the right time to announce those deals. Probably because they haven't been finalized or he hasn't found a brand he wants to work with.

As part if BTS, he has worked with brands in the past and so I'm sure he has a fair idea of which brands suit him best.

He did dreamers for Fifa inspite of protests about Qatar. Sets the tone doesn't it?

I won't lie though, that's a lot of money he just pissed away deleting that account. And guess who gets a cut of that money by deciding which brands he works with? 😶😶😶😶

HYBE. HE JUST SCREWED OVER HYBE💀

I really hope he knows what he is doing.

But your ask makes me curious about something- I'm not sure I want to address that here. Especially the part you said he has no contract yet- I doubt it but if it's true then I would wonder if he's perceived "social risk" is a factor. That would break my heart you know?

I know some brands tend to Stay away from certain Celebrities for fear they might be too controversial due to their lifestyle or even sexuality. I didn't say this but because I think of Jikook as queer men I tend to stress myself over these things a lot.

For Jungkook I imagine people writing to companies threatening to boycott their products if they take him on. I overthink- I do that. Leave me alone.

It's why I was so excited for Jimin and Dior.

I'm anxiously waiting for Jungkook to announce his ambassadorship so I can finally breathe- like imagine these men are not actually gay and for years I stress myself out worrying their sexuality impacts their lives

That's just wild🥴

I also wonder if they see a major difference between using joint accounts and Solo accounts. They have the freedom to post whatever they want subject to company rules and third person contract terms but I wonder if they are seeing the same commercial success as before.

Commercializing their brand can be a bit overwhelming for them I think. But Jimin is the cautious type and I know he ponders over decisions and choices a lot before he makes them.

It's Jungkook I worry about sometimes. I just hope he's not overwhelmed by the whole thing.

I don't know what Jungkook is planning and I hope to god he is happy and healthy cos I just- I can't. If he's not I can't 😭

This is not my month. I am in a fragile state of mind because this is Jikooks most vulnerable month to me. Jimin's album is coming, Jungkook is jungkooking- lord keep the ship afloat. We ain't want no trouble.

I try to think happy thoughts

Jimin's album is a success

Jungkook is fine- even if he's not sire hang on tight I can only worry about one ship captain at a time😩

I suspend all concerns about Jungkook to after Jimin's successful album launch😌

Now who's coming with me to convince Jungkook we need his account to promote Jimin's album?😩

[bokettochild]

Legend vs Sky, who would win?

Okay, this has been lingering in my ask box for a bit because my golly gosh, I'm not sure what it was meant for.

Like, there are so many ways you could compare them, but for the sake of my sanity (and orientation) I'm going to just say you're asking about who would win in a fight.

So!

Both Legend and Sky have training under the Master Sword's spirit. Obviously, Sky was in a knight's academy for an unspecified amount of his life, but he also had Fi teach him how to be a hero who could kill a god. And yeah, Sky killed a literal god, so we have that weighing in for him.

Now, Legend was taught some skills of being a knight by his uncle, but only right before the man died. if you go with Manga lore though, his grandfather has also attempted to teach him their heritage and the ways of their family line of knights. On top of this though, I would like to point out that Legend spent nearly his first adventure with hardly any training, but he is, cannonically, capable of hearing Fi, so it's likely she gave him a lot of help too, since the hero before him kinda died without her aid (to be fair, he had Navi, and two blue ladies screaming at him would have been too muc for him).

So both have training. Sky's training as a knight is iffy though, since the only thing Skyloftain knights needed to do was fight aerially. Still, he knows how to weild a blade. Granted, Legend's is also iffy, as he was, quite frankly, a terrible student.

Experience wise, Sky had a long and arduous adventure that relied heavily on his skills with a blade.

Legend has had six adventures, but typically speaking, he was using a lot of weapons that were not swords during the main journeys, and most of his actual sword fighting skills were only employed with boss fights.

Sky killed Demise.

Legend killed Ganon.

Now, Demise is clearly the greater foe, being a god, but I would like to throw out, before I break down a fight between these two, that by Legend's time, Ganon was an immortal being with infinite power per the Triforce, so... kinda of bordering god-hood. All of Legend's adventures have also focused on saving deity's, or their avatars, so that would imply that he is someone powerful enough to fight things that a literal goddess cannot handle.

Sky, however, has done the same.

Now, if they were to fight each other, we'd have an interesting situation before us. According to JoJo, Sky is the most skilled swordsman in the group, and he's scary fast and scary skilled. Legend is not nearly as skilled as Sky, or graceful, but the vet does have more experience, meaning he'd be less likely to really fight Sky head on in an honest to goodness battle. Legend's style, most likely, would be more defensive and evasive, since that's what works best when playing his games: avoid being in the path of destruction, and dart in to strike a blow right as your opponent is recovering from attacking you.

Sky is also much larger than Legend, and probably a great deal stronger; Sky can run around carrying a tower of pumpkins and Legend needs a power bracelet to pick up clay pots. Legend does have speed on his side, but take that away and his chances go down.

I'd say in a fight, Sky would definitely win. If they were using swords. If limited to blade alone, Sky would just have to slow Legend down, and then he could take him outr quite easily.

That said, in a fight were Legend has full access to his arsenal, there's a good chance he would win. He's better skilled with multiple weapons, and with the use of his items, he could hamper movement, create barriers, and even turn himself intangible for short periods of time to avoid heavy blows (magic cape). Granted full use of his arsenal, and with Legend adaptiveness in battle and resourcefulness, he could manage, with a lot of effort, to take Sky down.

In a one on one, mano y mano fight though, with only basic tools, Legend is getting his ass handed to him.

Lets not forget though, Sky would compliment him regardless. In case you haven't noticed, Legend is his best friend in the chain, or so far anyway, so if these two fought, yeah, they'd give their best. They're both competitive power-houses, but Sky is a good sport (most of the time) so he'd play nice after the fight is over, and we've seen that Legend isn't incapable of showing his respect for another's skill either.

[atamascolily]

Lily liveblogs: Thunderbolt Fantasy 4x07, "The Terminus of the Demonic Path"

Well, that escalated quickly.

Chao Feng and her party get their asses kicked by some ordinary demon goons... only for the camera to pivot to them standing around looking confused as Lin Xue Ya appears. Another victory for the Enigmatic Gale, everyone!

Lin recognizes Chao Feng and decides to keep her around as a potentially useful pawn--everyone else can come, too, I guess. Meanwhile, Chao Feng demands that he kowtow to her, but once Lin reveals he's seen Lang recently, she'd follow him anywhere.

meanwhile, Azi is lounging around at home on his Brooding Couch (where did he get the furniture, Lang and Spider trashed everything) drinking wine and video chatting with Xing Hai

Xing Hai wants to know what's going to happen in the future given all of the scheming, and Azi's like, "hahaha, no, can't be bothered"

also it turns out that something weird happened to Azi as a result of meddling with space-time and he lost all his memories up to a certain point (~200 years ago) and has no idea how he got here and no desire to do anything, so he advises Xing Hai to tone it down with the drugs demonic magic, lololol.

the only thing that makes Azi happy anymore is drinking tormenting Lang, lolsob

this supports my theory that Azi doesn't care if Lang kills him as long as he fucks shit up in the process/breaks everything

all this is to say: the Madoka Magica vibes intensify

elsewhere in the Demon Realm, Covid Safety Protocols and Megamind are having a nice banquet together.... and unlike Ansarto's banquet, the food actually looks pretty good?

how does Covid Safety Protocols even drink with her mask on is one of this show's greatest mysteries

but it doesn't matter because they're both abruptly murdered from behind!

Cut to Spider and Wasp yelling at each other for "accidentally" killing their allies, lololol

they take the seals, but THEN Xing Hai shows up with a steel chair a scrying mirror and banishes them to the Shadow Realm because it's one thing if Lang kills a noble (he's a demon and her boss says it's okay) but she can't allow ordinary humans to get Ideas.

all of this happens in like three minutes, btw, and it's a lot.

wish we'd gotten a full season 5 and an extra episode in S4 so this could be less rushed, sob.

meanwhile, Lang drinks the Dubious-Looking Potion that Ansarto gives him over Ling Ya's sensible objections, which is supposed to transform him from caterpillar to butterfly. I thought this was a metaphor, but then after he coughs up the requisite blood, Lang gets rolled up in a silk cocoon, so actually that was entirely literal.

is he gonna wake up with insect legs now

... anyway, Lang has to confront his Inner Demons, which turn out to be important people from his past like Shang and Tian Ming telling him he sucks.

weirdly, no sign of his mom, though - bet they're saving that for the next episode

also that final shot where he passes out on top of his own reflection... poetic cinema

In the Wasteland of Spirits, Shang Bu Huan whips out the broken magic sword that You Qing used to fight Lou Zhen Jie back in s2 (making this the most unexpected callback/cameo EVER) and takes advantage of its innate attraction to demonic energy to hover in mid-air and yeet himself into the abyss leading to the demon realm

Shang Bu Huan: "I'm Mary Poppins, y'all!"

also that little somersault he does... this show is delightfully Extra

Dan Fei and Juan Can Yun are just gonna wait there for him to come back, I guess?

anyway, the preview for the next episode shows Shang reuniting with Tian Ming and Chao Feng going into a glowing green square portal, which makes me think that Lin is going to find out her dad's true identity this way, hahahaha.

[hypaalicious]

Reclamation Algorithm, aka Passenger gets his lick back

I kinda like writing my opinions on AK side modes no one asked for, even tho this is late asf!

The tutorial for the mode sucks really bad. Skip that shit, nothing they tell you in there is how you’ll actually play 😭 That being said, I’m gonna write this assuming you’ve at least gotten the basic gist of the mode; if I break down every detail this post would be 30 pages long, and uh…

I did not like RA until I was almost done with it, lol. The grind is TERRIBLE in the beginning which is most of the problem.

BUT! I do believe it has promise as long as all the kinks are worked out; RA is def a “beta” mode and it shows. 🥴

Build your base.

This is where the grind will almost murder you. 🥲You can do this by farming for materials in Resource nodes or by cheesing the Construction Grid. If you choose the latter route, what you’ll want to do is do enough in multiple runs to get Construction Points (how many map nodes you visit, constructs you build, raids you defeat, food you make and feed your Operators adds up). Then you quit before your home base gets destroyed, go to the Road of Prosperity and focus on activating the entire second row. That will give you a total of 30 Wood, 15 Stone, and 6 Iron at the start of each run.

Then from there, all you have to do is make a Crabbie Pump, farm enough water to make a barrier or two, place them in your Headquarters, quit the run. Rinse and repeat until you have a nigh-impenetrable fortress.

The things you should focus on crafting for your base:

Firm Platform II

Urban Style Barrier II

Fortification II

Trap Net Launcher II

Level 3 anything isn’t worth the mats. Level 2 is most important for the Barriers as it gives them camouflage. Trap Nets will be your saving grace if you build yourself an Ifrit lane.

Note: due to a bug, any ranged Operator you place on a Firm Platform cannot be healed. But they also will take no damage unless the platform they’re standing on is destroyed. Also, Angelina’s passive can heal your damaged constructs, but only if you have her set on S1.

Don’t have a great mind for path-building? No problem; here’s a basic layout from a Chinese dude on Billibilli to copy:

What this does is force enemies to go the absolute longest way around to get to your HQ. This gives you time to set up your Operators at a choke point to nuke.

Choke point should look (roughly) like this:

2. Hop around nodes.

Once your base layout is built, you can switch to making Monitoring Tower II. Take and place two of those in any node to make it a Sentry that allows you to reveal up to two extra nodes in every direction around the node you’re in. This will open up the map real fast if you plan for it!

The only useless node to waste an Act on is the Conflict Node. I literally only go in them to make them Sentries if they’re in a good spot on the map and exit right out.

3. Only fight Raids at your base.

Intercepting raids in other nodes is risky because you’ll be dealing with weather debuffs and randomized stage layouts. Fight em on your turf.

Note: you can always quit the run before a Construct is destroyed and it’ll be preserved in your next one. Yay!

4. Fast-Redeploys are king.

The only time I used a “real” squad was when I had to defend my HQ in raids, lol! Anything else? I brought Texalt, Yalter, Skadi, Nearlter and that was enough to handle 99% of RA outside of base raids. The 1% are the Mountain Pass and No Man’s Land nodes. For those, I just added Mlynar 😂

5. The Lost Zhayedan boss can be cheesed with Dollkeepers.

His gimmick sucks ass, and he’s just a stat stick 😭 But basically Spalter can trickle him down because switching between forms doesn’t trigger his healing.

Note: Camouflage doesn’t protect you from his retaliation strike even if you’re not blocking him. He straight up is like

6. Can’t trigger certain endings? You may have to discard tokens.

This pissed me off because it’s not intuitive, LOL! You can get the first ending by just surviving past day 12 and beating the last Raid boss. You get the second ending by talking to Old Isin at the market, him mentioning a treasure, then coming across the Treasure Hunter randomly in a stage and picking up a Treasure Map. In order to get the third ending, you have to throw away the tokens you got from the Treasure Hunter (you gotta do this before you start a new run; it resets the storyline this way) and basically avoid talking to Old Isin first. You also have to already have completed Manticore’s side questline.

And when I say randomly? Yeah I mean RNG is gonna have you thinking you fucked up somehow. Pick the wrong dialogue option? Welp gotta wait for another random encounter to try again. Passenger ain’t show up? Keep doing runs and going into random nodes until he decides to Grace you with his presence. It’s just kinda a mess 😭

7. Making food is fun, but also not necessary to win battles unless your squad is severely under-powered.

I beat the first two end bosses without even knowing how to make dishes LMAO! The third I also will say I don’t think I needed them, but I loaded up my squad anyway just in case and I also wanted to see what the dishes actually DID. Now mind you, I’m pretty much running this mode with 6 stars exclusively so YMMV. It’s an end-game side mode in beta no less, so playing RA with an undeveloped roster is going to be a Bad Time.

That being said, after awhile I focused on making dishes for specific core operators just to make things easier. Any dish that decreases SP costs, I gave to my vanguards so I can immediately start printing DP for raid defense. Any dish that reduces redeploy time I gave to Nearlter so I can use her s2 as I believe god intended LOL! The Festive Feast that gives an Operator camouflage and an attack boost, I shoved down Mlynar’s throat so he can just park at those Mountain Pass sentinel constructs and wreck them (and everything else around him) without being targeted.

8. Build the Transregional Communication Station as soon as you are done with your base layout.

Please don’t try and find those elusive invisible “emergency exits” in Conflict Nodes or whatever, it’s a waste of time and doesn’t do what the tutorial claims it does. 😩 Building this construct is what’s gonna allow you to bail on day 9 (or 6 if you upgrade it) with like 15 items if you upgraded the Construction tree well enough. I use this to carry over rare Dishes I made or Monitoring Towers to a new run so I start with a great advantage and don’t have to start from 0 crafting. Once I brought over 15 towers and just opened up the whole map by like day 4 by creating sentries EVERYWHERE I could LOL.

Final notes:

The mode has promise, so if they bring it back later like IS I just hope HG polishes it up. But uh… I actually have no idea who the player is supposed to be in this story LOL! There’s no replay value once you beat all the endings, and there’s no point in going to all the nodes after triggering the events you need unless you just wanna beat enemies up. Base building could be much more fun if they allowed Constructs to be moved around and not just destroyed. Some folks live by creating Support machines to help farm mats faster, but I literally never even bothered with it past the tutorial. Most of the Constructs offered you do not need. Iron shouldn’t be as much of a pain to find/farm as it is. The map previews are so useless idek why they bothered, what’s a big black box gone do for me? 😭

The raids were fun, tho. They’re front loaded as hell but once you get your bottleneck of pain organized it’s simple enough! The exploding spider one I obliterated with ranged units only, the Crystal golem rush I utilized Surtr and just about every medic/healing defender I had in my roster LMAO! Ending bosses were mostly tanked by Hoshi, covered by Shining, and obliterated via Mlynar and Ifrit in the cross fire. Manticore becomes an OP beast due to her token that increases her ASPD for perma slow on S1.

But I will say this: I gotta stan Passenger for literally not giving one shit about what he destroys in order to get his lick back. He played the long game! Don’t ever make an enemy out of that man he ain’t got shit to lose and he’ll make you suffer 😭

[pyro-madder]

Coucou! So for the ask game :

1.Favorite boss fight? 28.Least favorite boss fight?

4.Favorite weapon? 19.Favorite Old Hunter?

24.What do you think of Cainhurst?

25.Upper Cathedral Ward Y/N (je déteste cet endroit du démon 💀 j'ai legit perdu toute ma lucidité la première fois. 20-30 points!!!)

39.Hot takes on any Bloodborne lore?

Coucouuu :} let's get to it... it got long because I can't help but ramble, so I put it under a readmore :')

1. Favorite boss fight ? Micolaaash i am a bad no good fromsofter and prefer gimmick bosses over hit-and-roll-and-pray LOL

But really, between the chase, the insane OST (it's my favorite in the game, really), and his voicelines over it all... it's such An Atmosphere !! The downside is that once you've figured a) which path to follow and b) that he won't Call Beyond you if you stay close to him, it becomes terribly short and easy 😔 this said I'm obligated to say that I did not go in fully blind, so I understand those who struggled, and remember witnessing my brother raging as the man jumped into yet another mirror 😅

Special mention to when he starts monologuing just as you're about to pick up an item in his arena. *mashes X*

28. Least favorite boss ? Celestial Emmissaries. ON S'EMMERDE

They're not *difficult*, but they still hit hard and will get you if you're not careful. Music is nice, of course, but not particularly memorable to me. Glorified mobs... though I understand it's probably on purpose, given what lies after them. X)

4. Favorite weapon ? Tough one ! I love the concept of trick weapons as a whole, seeing the mechanisms and hearing the satisfying click when they change shape. There are several that stand out for different reasons, but no overall favorite :

Saw Spear : simple yet deadly efficient, I picked it up on my first playthrough and never put it down. But aesthetically, that's not quite it...

Threaded Cane : i'm a simple person. whip sexy. looks twice as badass when said whip is made of tiny blades chained together. extremely satisfying to hit several enemies mobbing you in one hit, and beautiful when you infuse it with an element.

Stake Driver, Whirligig Saw : i don't use them a lot (the former especially is tricky) but i adore their design and brutality. i tell you, i'm a Powder Keg at heart...

19. Favorite Old Hunter ? depends on how you define those ;

overall, if Djura counts, he wins by default of being my favorite character for many reasons : cool design, cool dialogue, cool weapons, very reasonable motives. i love how collected he is in all his interactions, he's seen it all and knows his stuff. also "uncommonly kind but dreadfully foolish" my kind of man fr /joke

if we're referring to hunters of Gehrman's era, then Simon. his hobo swag and needless dramatics have bewitched me body and soul. cool weapon also :)

if we're talking about summons : again Gascoigne wins by default of being my second favorite character (for less noble and nuanced reasons than Djura - he's just hot and badass). Closely followed by Damian for saving my ass against Ebrietas and the myriad of headcanons his title and gear alone enable.

24. What do you think of Cainhurst ? Welcome to the house of fun /sarcasm

The scenery's cool, the level and boss are... bearable once you've grown acquainted with them, but I don't like the Vilebloods (I say this light-heartedly), so meh tier overall. Stylish clothes and weapons though. 👀

25. Upper Cathedral Ward Y/N ? Yeah no. Pain 🤝

I also lost quite the insight here on my first run, and those damned buffed werewolves... for a boring boss and then a horribly hard one, for a chalice and a revival spot for a character i don't particularly want to do anything with...

The atmosphere is great tho. Loved the werewolves crashing in and swinging on the chandelier. Also, Damian is here. 🙏

39. Any hot takes on Bloodborne lore ? I'm just gonna repaste my "older sister rant" (which i had to dig up my archive thanks to tungle's super functional search function, and has since been pacified by Katy's theory that the girl in question was dead before the game started, thank you again for putting my soul to rest)

vraiment les premiers jours dans leur tag c'était je deviene fol.exe

[klonoadreams]

Is scarnoa gonna do all 3 paths? Of so which ones does she prioritize?

Oooh, that's actually an interesting question -let me go on a long ass rambling because this is all relevant (I'm honest i'm totally normal about this lmao)

So the thing about this, is that the most OPTIMAL path, is to go in a specific order based on levels.

Katy is the first one you should typically start with, before trekking over yonder to the east.

Scarnoa doesn't have any specific priority beyond the Gym Badges (though do keep in mind that she DOES get distracted often, so oops), but uhh, I will be tweaking things so that she ends up having more reason why she keeps going all over the place. She went first with Katy after taking a detour and ending up in the marsh that Arven found her at (because she was looking for FLAMIGO), because he was looking for a Pokemon to take down Klawf - he can't fight them with a Skwovet, lmao, but then got a call for Arven afterwards (since he was training up that Shellder he caught), and decided "OKAY!!!" and boom, Titan down. Checks map "Oh, gym is near, let's go!!"

by the by, in case anyone needs a confirmation of where you can catch Shellder:

You can find some in the area by that marsh where Flamigo like to pop up. How did Scarnoa end up there so early???

girlbossed (backwards jump LETS GOO jk jk) too hard and ended up someplace she wasn't supposed to be so early (Arven isn't supposed to be there, but obviously, we have to admit that he has SOME badges to ensure that the Pokemon he catches don't start disobeying him - some of them DO give him issues, but it's not so bad as it WOULD"VE been WITHOUT the badges. I like to think of these things as being strength checks that make POkemon go "yeah, I'm down following you, let's go kick ass")

Wins another badge, gets a call from Arven AGAIN, who is most likely far too eager by now, because something changed with his Mabosstiff, so Scarnoa is ON THE WAY (forgetting that she can mcfucking call a taxi vhfelkjbvklfb), anyways Arven's just "what the fuck, that was like five days ago, WHERE WERE YOU I THOUGHT YOU DIED"

(an exaggeration, but it's concerning that she wasn't answering his texts. First thinks its his rotom being a brat - no, Scarnoa just spoils her Rotom too much)

(but also, Arven has LITERALLY had to fish her out of the mud when their paths crossed in that marsh - literally just saw her fall face first like SPLAT, while her Koraidon watches with a guilty look on their face - he now questions her self preservation skills)

because her Rotom kept leaving her phone to eat food - they got distracted by Mesagoza food on the way back to the west gate. Also Scarnoa keeps forgetting she has a dorm, so it's the outdoors life for most of them (They OBVIOUSLY have rest stops scattered throughout the place, around the Pokemon Centers, where you can shower and just wash clothes vhejkvhf jSHHHH)

anyways after ghosting Arven for five days straight, BOOM, big birdy down and then Cassiopeia, getting impatient because every so often, they check on Scarnoa, and she's like...either eating dirt because she SUCKS at stopping on Koraidon or just GETTING DISTRACTED BY FOOD, GOD DAMN HOW MUCH DO YOU EAT.

And just, "You're by this Team Star Base, if you want access to your social media accounts to continue shitposting your misadventures, you got a week to kick that boss's ass"

Scarnoa: Lmao, okay.

She goes over a week anyways because she kept getting distracted and sleeping in. But she still makes it to the base. Cassiopeia has to try harder after that, because now that she KNOWS Scarnoa's Rotom Phone is like SUPER casual after getting spoiled to all hell, she needs to try different tactics. Like "no more wifi for you if you don't make it here - don't make me do it"

and while Scarnoa WOULD forget, her Rotom Phone won't and will start picking up the pace lmaooo.

Anyways Cassiopeia has to literally REMIND Scarnoa that there is a Team Star base by one of the fly points she has registered to her phone, and tells her to use it "PLEASE, for your own sake too."

Anyways that's Scarnoa's first experience with the Squawkabilly Taxi and while unpleasant, she got to pet the birds :V

And while going straight to Mela WOULD be her top priority, Scarnoa got distracted, lost (literally cannot read a fucking map) and ended up in Levincia, where she's all "oh hey, a gym."

Cassiopeia (*cough*Penny*cough) eating ramen in her room, just catching up on anime, when she gets notifications that Iono is streaming another Gym Battle and WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

anyways badge get, Scarnoa's getting popular, with Cassiopeia immediately seeing some red flags and QUICKLY moderating her followers on SIGHT. (SHE NEEDS SCARNOA DAMMIT)

Anyways Clive's the one who drags Scarnoa to Mela that time. Which is hilarious. But also, "Please, I beg of you - TAKE HER TO THIS BASE. She keeps getting LOST."

And oops, Cassiopeia's a little late there, because Clavell was out and about, and after seeing Scarnoa get her third gym badge, after taking down Giacomo, he's like "alright you, that's enough hooky for you. Time to go back to school."

Cassiopeia wondering why they don't just give Scarnoa the equivalent of zoom classes that she's taking. Anyways, as soon as Scarnoa is mcfucking done with her remedial classes, and stuff, her ass is back to Mela and that is REALLY when Arven calls up again, so TIME TO TAKE DOWN A WORM.

And the hilarious thing is, Scarnoa was going to book it IMMEDIATELY to Atticus, but Cassiopeia went "HELL NO, GET ANOTEHR BADGE - idk, Kofu or some shit. Atticus will literally kick your teeth in."

meanwhile Nemona's just dropping by every so often for a battle, somewhat intrigued that Scarnoa is taking the recommended path instead of doing what she did, and strong arming her way through everything and that's how Kofu was her second badge right after Katy...and how Larry ended up as her third badge. :V (she got Brassius and Iono afterwards, and somehow, by chance, she corrected her path with Ryme, Tulip, and Grusha after getting a tip from Geeta, seeing as she has HEARD from Larry about his unconventional challenger)

Nemona: You sure do know your stuff about the recommended path!!

Scarnoa: The what.

(fun fact, I ended up in Tulip's area completely by chance after I was on a fucking around and collecting items spree and oop)

Anyways, again - Scarnoa's priority is badges, but she keeps getting yanked from one place to the next. Eventually, she does start prioritizing Titans at some point, but she then uses her badges to ensure she's strong enough to go into areas that were giving her difficulty...after some "gentle persuasion" from Cassiopeia too, helping her out in that sense because Scarnoa is NOWHERE near ready to take on any of the bosses after Atticus.

(keep in mind, Scarnoa rarely loses, and when she loses, she usually gets her shit kicked in if it's against Wild Pokemon, like Koraidon HAS had to pick her up and GTFO out of there)

(even Arven has to convince her otherwise, since they got their shit kicked in by Tatsugiri and Dondozo)

(he is still very touched that she wants to help him, but his heart honestly can't take anymore risks after one of them NEARLY drowned - Tatsugiri/Dondozo is a deadly duo :V)

[treetownconfessions]

ok yay theres a lot i have so i apologize if its long or autistic. so its called "dawn of fire" (on ao3) which roughly translates to "the beginning of destruction". at first it was only gonna revolve around flippy being the Dragonborn but I thought that was not engaging enough so I expanded it to include every single character and two OCs from my best friend and my girlfriend. it starts off with flippy being on the battlefield and beinf shot down and he wakes up in the helgen dungeon. creative I know. anywaysz he goes to riverwood and he meets up w cuddles, giggles, toothy, and petunia. these four are basically inseparable because they all attend the college of winterhold together. but at a certain point when flippy needs to lead a peace treaty between the imperials, stormcloaks, and the greybeards, it turns out that toothy and petunia actually fight for the opposite sides of the war. splendid leads the stormcloaks and splendont leads the imperials. so from that point forward, toothy and petunia absolutely hate each other and it caused cuddles and giggles to become sick of all of this shit (because toothy/cuddles and giggles/petunia besties). cuddles leaves the college and ends up joining the dawnguard (vampire hunters) and giggles also leaves the college but she joins the volkihar clan (a group of vampires). petunia and toothy end up staying at the college only because flippy becomes the arch-mage because sniffles tried to absolutely demolish the college. yeah anyways he joins the dawnguard afterwards and reunites with his old friend lammy (who basically plays serana in this story) and cuddles/giggles end up meeting again, which eventually leads to splendont declaring war on splendid and flippy has to get that checked out. also flippy meets up with mouse at one point too (the kapow trio was split up due to personal paths) and he finds out sneaky joined the thieves guild. so after the whole college of winterhold stuff plays out and before he joins the dawnguard, flippy goes to check out the thieves guild, which is led by shifty, and he sees sneaky but apparently he's too much of a boss ass bitch to talk to flippy instantly. so yeah lifty also participates in the thieves guild but he regrets it deep down and eventually blows up on his brother for all the horrible shit. mole is an assassin from the dark brotherhood (short lived lmao) who tries to kill flippy but it obviously doesn't work. so flippy has to find out why this is happening, which leads to him murdering the lady at the orphanage in riften. he's kidnapped by flaky, who is the leader of the dark brotherhood, and yeah I'm sure most people know how this plays out. once all of this is over, he has to handle the first dragonborn absolutely demolishing everything in an attempt to take control of the dragons yadayadayada he travels to apocrypha to meet this "first dragonborn" and oh my! it's the tiger general! so he basically gets (verbally) roasted beyond means before being kicked out of the realm. and ya he has to figure that out. i have a lot more details about who fights for what side of the civil war and about the dark brotherhood and each character but idk if anyone wanna hear. thanks for coming to my ted talk

.

[auncyen]

this is a snippet from when "Whistling Past Your Grave" was going to have a 5+1 format; this would've been KO #3 for Ryuji.

-

Ryuji is so glad he isn't the first one to get laid flat on his ass in front of Queen.  That dubious distinction goes to Yusuke, who takes Makoto's alarm and concern in his usual unflappable stride, which just gets her more worked up that they've blindly put their trust in "magic and the Metaverse".  "What if it doesn't heal everything?  What about head trauma?" she asks, and Ren doesn't say anything but just makes a little half-nod, like he's been thinking about this the entire damn time, which...explains a lot of why he gets wound up every time someone eats dirt.  Makoto starts talking battle strategy, both offensive and defensive, and Ryuji's strategy up until now has mostly been "hit it" and "hit it harder", but he does his best to listen to her.  Because honestly, now that he gets a little better where she's coming from, and after seeing her awakening and that Persona, Queen's kind of a badass.  And she actually thinks he's good at fighting!  If he gets better, maybe she'll be even more impressed.

Plus, yeah, getting knocked out sucks.  So they've all got good reason to listen to her.  Their coordination was already getting pretty good after two Palaces, but Makoto helps them figure out ways to push it even further.  Small improvements, but just like how shaving seconds off a time can take a runner to regionals, small improvements make fights seem way easier.

...There's only so much strategy can do for a huge metal ball spinning straight at you, though.  The best strategy is just "run out of the path", and when that creepy fly Kaneshiro's turned into can still somehow turn it in a flash, even that doesn't do much--

Ryuji knew he was going to get hit hard, so when he snaps back to consciousness he barely sees that Yusuke's the one he's gotta thank before he pushes himself off the floor, grabs his rod and beelines back to Ren's side.  They smack that stupid fly down, take his Treasure, and get out into the real world.  There's such a fuss about getting Monamona out of the street before he's run over and then smuggling a pricy-looking briefcase past Boss that Ryuji doesn't even think about the fight for a long time, so he stares blankly at Ren when the guy asks both him and Makoto if they're feeling okay, only catching on when she starts to answer.  Right, she'd gotten knocked around by that Piggytron thing too.

"Well, now that I've experienced it for myself...  It's not something I care to repeat, but I really do feel fine now," Makoto says, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.  "A bit more sore than usual, but that's all.  I assume it's the same for you, Ryuji?"

"Yeah, it's whatever," he says with a shrug, except that gets a grimace from Morgana of all people.

"Do not be careless just because I can patch you up."

[archtroop]

To answer some of your points.

1. Yes, the show has darker tones in writing and aesthetics. They shoot off with Dick as a Gotham person in Detroit, and the first arc surrounds Rachel and is accordingly very gothic in nature. Seasons vary in color and saturation according to the general main 2-3 plot lines. There are always numerous plots going on.

2. The language: the creators wanted to remove all possible confusion as to the fact that THIS version has NO TEEN written in it. It's brutal, psychology scarring, and has no business to be associated with a children's show.

3. Glen has been chosen as an homage to Adam West. Also, Titans has a different setting, with ages skipped up for what they were going for. In the iteration, Bruce was already older when he took in Dick. That means a much more disillusioned Bruce, a harsher, more bitter Batman. And accordingly, more violent. From this starting point on, you need to accept that this is a Crapsack World.

Also, EVERYONE thought that he looked more like an Alfred casting. BUT, he proves to be a very interesting Bruce all on his own. Wait till you see him in a fight.

4. Because it is edgy. Also, it tried to deliver a Black Label kind of feel, so if you tune out everything else and think that, you are reading a Black Label DC comicbook but in Live Action form, you might get it. As long as it's your thing. Another thing it tried to deliver was a grounded yet comic accurate narrative and atmosphere. It did pretty well with that, actually. The next Big Boss to try that and SUCCEED was The Batman by Reeves. Yes, they hold similarities. No, they aren't comparable.

5. The show plays off of a LOT of subtext. In Jason's case, he has been introduced into the narrative and then railed by narrative up to his unfortunate and inevitable demise. Everything said about Jason needs to be taken as information from an unreliable narrator, aka, Dick.

Ok, now.

Titans is NOT for everyone. It has some real ass huge plot holes. Except the holes resemble comicbook type of holes. You should NOT expect from it total coherence. It literally acts like a comicbook.

On its best side, you have it addressing very serious and distressing questions like children in danger, BAD ADULTS, child abuse, child soldiers, PTSD (it takes its sweet time with it too), addiction, suicidal ideation and more.

One of its strongest suits is the casting, the psychological angle it takes, the costumes (that rock your socks) and FANTASTIC fight choreography (some of the best on the small screen you'll ever see).

It gave us a VERY scary Deathstroke and a very grueling interpretation to some of the more obscure DC stuff. It backpiloted the Doom Patrol. It has a refreshing balance between male and female characters and casting diversity (look it up).

As for the production. First season was truncated and the finale got shoved into the S2 start out. Covid ate up much of the time afterwards. It was a tough one.

The cast were very dedicated and friendly and in all the accounts of backstage and BTS seem to have had a blast.

If you want to watch it, you need to scrape clean all of your predispositions and any expectations, and let it do its own thing.

The series is a wild ride, an emotional whiplash and an eyecandy. The characters have their own paths to travel and the series wraps it all up POSITIVELY. This series ENDS. All get closure.

It gets crazy, delusional, fun, FUNNY, whack, sexy frightening, and what have you.

It's not for everyone, but whoever IT IS FOR, will MOST DEFINITELY ENJOY IT.

Is it Good?

Question for the batfans. Is the TV show Titans good?

I remember the outrage of "Fuck Batman" when the first trailer came out

Because I want to take peak but I don't know if i want to waste my time because, and this based on some clips I have watched:

Why does everything look dark?

Why is everyone cussing every five seconds? I don't want to be the language police but dropping f bombs in every dialogue is too much.

I can't in no way shape or form see Ian Glenn as Bruce Wayne. The sandy blonde hair reminds me of a early design Bob Kane, the creator had for Batman. And is too old for Bruce, specially during the time of the story where Jason is his Robin. He was in his 30's, Ian Glenn is 50 something. Maybe the role of Alfred would fit him a little better.

Why does everything look edgy? I remember in the late 2010's there was this trend on tv shows where they would be violent as possible and "dark". Yes, a show can have dark elements but I also belive that there should be a freaking balance.

Why do I feel that they just focus on Jason Todd's worst traits, like his anger and temper? Jason Todd is more than that. He protects the kids of Crime Alley and loves Austen and other classic literature.

[theomnicode]

How would you describe saitamas morality? I've seen him placed all over the moral "scale" when the topic comes up (though i cant say i understand the "lower" placements), so I'm interested in others thoughts on it

I'd say Saitama is a person with high morally good values and integrity.

Warning: long ass meta ahead about morality.

--

One of the ways Saitama's morality and his values are illustrated is in the dream which Saitama has, directly after Beefcake basically killed thousands of people and he did not bat an eye, because he was losing his capacity to empathize with people. Then he squished his own brother and Saitama again, did not bat an eye. On the contrary, he found malicious humour in it instead.

This fact started to bother him when he realized what was happening to him.

After he recalled the time when he started out as a hero and Beefcake incident, it subconsciously bothered him so much it manifested as dream where 70% of the population had died and someone he knew more closely had also died, because he had just been callous and feeling like he failed to act on his high sense of moral virtues and deserving some kind of punishment. Practically a Lucid dream based on his intuition alone that something was wrong. Not only that, but I believe it was his subconscious also showing him that even if he let go of his inhibitions and showed some actual emotions, his emotions would not steer him wrong towards his goal of being a protector, something he is afraid of.

And wouldn't you know, the first thing he did was punt the subterranean boss in the head. Then he went out and saved Genos.

This feeling of caring for people a lot and yet failing to act on his high moral virtues that he demands of himself once again rears it's head in the Saitama vs Garou fight where Saitama dumps his virtues in the trashbin, to not kill other humans by choosing to serious punch Garou.

The moral ambiguity moment comes from the fact that we do not actually know the outcome of the serious punch squared. We also have Blast as an example who's first priority was to get everyone else to safety, as a neat little counterpoint to Saitama's actions in the heat of the moment when he wasn't thinking clearly anymore.

Saitama acknowledges this wanting to punch Garou to smithereens as a moral failure on this part. Yet letting Garou just go around free is also not morally correct thing to do because he basically murdered people and would continue down that same path, so it is a moral dilemma for Saitama who has high sense of moral values.

It is further moral dilemma that he ends up destroying Jupiter and I.O when he tries to stop Garou though, one that he does not have a good justification for, because he was showing off with little care at that point. He was relying on his ability to show superiority to make him back down, but they did intentionally destroy the moon and Jupiter.

"For the greater good" is a slippery slope.

But the facts that he can question whether or not he is morally right or wrong and is highly critical of himself, is what makes him truly a high moral person in the end. If one never questions themselves, their sense of right and wrong and remains rigid in their interpretation without considering the circumstances, then sense of morality can end up becoming very black and white. More rigidness can mean less empathy if morality is cut and dry.

Saitama is always trying to improve himself as a person too, this includes his sense of morality. So in this sense, his moral code may change and/or improve when new evidence emerges.

True morality is not bound by ethics either, because someone can violate ethics all the time while thinking they are morally correct in doing so.

Saitama does not let societal rules, ethics, determine his sense of right and wrong. Ethics are a social construct that people often follow, such as law and culture and in this case, the ethics of killing monsters in world of OPM, but Saitama follows his moral compass without being bound by the expectations of the society he lives in and what is considered ethically acceptable and unacceptable.

Not to say he's ethical or unethical just because ethics and morals are different. Ethics and morality often go hand in hand, but distinction has to be made.

So when it comes to moral values that Saitama has, they are very high moral values. He's far from flawless, but he's always trying to do the right thing based on his set of moral values.

One of the ways to evaluate the person's type of moral values and integrity is when they uphold said values even when nobody is looking or holding them back.

Saitama has all the power to just get what he wants like punch the soda machine, even a little bit, just to get the soda he wanted, grab all the cash he wants when the car got wrecked and nobody would know. He would never have to be poor again. He has all the power in the world to do whatever he wants and infinite growth potential to boot and nobody would be able to oppose him.

But he won't. What he chooses to do instead is pick up litter and save a little kid held hostage. That would make him a morally good aligned person with high integrity.

--

Saitama at his core, believes in the good of people and that everyone can change if given the chance to do so, like he himself always strives to change himself to be a better person.

Which is one of the reasons why when Saitama thought he had Garou figured out, that Godrou dealt Moral injury on him.

Among other kinds of mental injuries he suffered like high emotional damage. Saitama was already moderately to highly stressed from everything that had happened before that and was relying on his dominant cognitive function, introverted intuition, to get him through the Garou fight as a stress reaction.

It was a Full KO in that sense.

Moral injury is defined as harm that is done to an individual when their most deeply held beliefs and values are violated.

Saitama could not believe that Garou could have done something as heinous as kill other people in cruel blood, just to taunt him and make him give his all because he instantly understood the motive behind it. That is the dark side of the personality type, capacity of understanding even if someone acts in completely heinous ways.

His willpower to maintain his self-control was already in shambles from the personal hell of MA arc, when he let Garou feel his negative emotions behind his carefully controlled mask. Saitama probably does not handle stress well at all.

(Which I've yet to make a meta about how well it's crafted to specifically destroy his willpower over maintaining his self-control)

(In a more direct translation basically saying "You did this for this, right?" You got exactly the kind of reaction you wanted Garou, are you not entertained?)

Saitama believing in this human ability to change, to be morally good, is what he believes cost him everything, so to the trashbin it went and what makes it such a great moral ambiguous moment that it seemed that he would have destroyed the Earth on the same go. Because him lashing out was such a poorly planned out, impulsive act that he did not exactly think it through that Garou would also punch him back and it would endanger earth.

Chances are, it would not have if it was just his own punch, but what he let go is belief in himself to be a morally upstanding person. That it is pointless if he tries to be morally righteous and caring individual because ironically that got people killed and instead he was being callous when he tried to care more.

In this, it would seem that he then put all his remaining care in doing right by Garou, at least, to make sure that at least one person makes it out from this mess and believing in this one person to change back into the person they used to be.

And maybe trying to redeem himself at the same time, that he could be excused for his own lapse of control, if he held tight to this belief. Losing control is not worth it.

The quirk of this personality is that in right situations, they can logically justify anything.

If he does not believe in that, his core value that humans can inherently change to be better, then he would lose his sense of self.

It was Genos' belief in him being able to be a hero, that allowed Saitama to still keep a grip on himself and his values. Because Saitama no longer truly believed in his own values that he had just thrown away, like his lack of belief in his heroism would mean his clothes would shred instantly, he needed the core as memento to remind him of those values. To remind him why he's a hero.

Maybe he could do one last thing correctly at least, while keeping himself in control over his emotions.

(Chances are he actually changed his mind about letting himself loose here, because he was reminded of his values. Huh.)

--

This belief in humans ability to change, even if at first they seem to be merciless and understanding the motives when someone takes a more morally questionable action can be observed when Saitama for instance, chastises Genos weakly when Genos suddenly blasted away house of evolution without making sure that there wasn't any humans occupying the upper floors and Saitama is floored by Genos suddenly doing that.

Genos never presented himself as irredeemably merciless, in Saitamas moral opinion though. What genos did was wrong because there could have been human casualties, but he understood the motive behind suddenly incinerating the entire house because they were also bad guys sending mutants to attack people and after them specifically. So they were the aggressors first and Genos and Saitama were defending themselves. Hero association had nothing bad to say about Genos code of conduct either and probably won't.

Genos wants to eliminate evil just as bad as Saitama wants to, but chances are, Saitama's only awakening sense of humanity like emotions and morals after the warning that he was losing himself entirely, allowed him to shrug off genos' blatant disregard for ethics and possible lost human lives there as casualities in his quest to exterminate evil, when it turned out that the baddies were probably hiding underground and no actual human lives were lost.

When Genos no longer disregards other human lives as potential casualties, including his own, Saitama commends him for it. His disciple has come around to understand Saitama's deeply entrenched moral code.

--

On the moral scale? I would say Saitama ranks high on the moral scale, all things considered.

It took a loss of a very close loved one, the loss of everything he owns, being responsible for allowing someone go against his core values of murdering people, damaging the planet he lives on and highly stressfull situation in general and lowered amount of self-control, to make him re-evaluate his values and let go of his inhibitions.

It is a moral failure he has yet to own up to because he does not remember it, yet, though it was something that never ended up happening and he "redeemed" himself for it by traveling backwards with the help from Garou to deny the causality of his lack of action and action taken.

But even when he has literally nothing left and no reason to even exist, he ultimately, still tries to uphold the one last and most important moral value he has; not taking a life unless he has to.

It is a thing that he already suffers from emotionally, because his morality regarding killing monsters does not line up with the ethics of the Hero association and them killing monsters, because some monsters used to be human. One of the reasons why being a hero did not line up with what he thought it would be; helping people and defeating evil and this will probably become more and more apparent.

But the theme seems to be that he would strive to do the right thing. Within his capabilities and within his knowledge.

What he deems as morally right and wrong though, that may change if he gets more emotionally invested and his emotions and his full empathy makes a return and he may even make some morally questionable decisions based on feelings alone. For better...and for worse if he regards it as moral failure on his part to actually take care of and save every single person. To be an ideal hero.

No doubt he will get morally tested from time to time however and we'll see how sound his moral judgement remains.

[lover-of-whatever]

One thing I love when writing characters is figuring out how they act around different people and why. Not just as a character study but as an analysis of their role in the story. I've been cleaning up the draft for a Sqsq rewrite, and I've come to realize that I've had to write Daroach differently from how I normally approach him. When writing Daroach I'll think of Lupin the 3rd because he's a more lighthearted silly take on the gentleman thief trope often accompanied by other criminals (well, it depends on the adaptation sometimes Lupin is just a massive ass). Because Lupin tends to be the protagonist, we the audience get to see him struggle and work to obtain his goals. He is still chivalrous and polite as a gentleman should be, but while he's mysterious to the public of his universe, the viewers at home know what he's really like. It's satisfying watch him work to earn his status on his many wacky adventures. Contrast this with most depictions of Carmen Sandiego, who tends to be the antagonist of the story. (I assume the recent Netflix show doesn't fall under this I haven't watched it yet) Sandiego is a mysterious figure who audience insert protags have to find with their basic geography knowledge. Sandiego is supposed to be this elusive figure who no matter how many times it seems like she's captured for good, she finds a way to escape. Her insane ability to steal anything and always escape when caught adds to the sense of wonder. But when the kid playing the game or watching the show figures out the answers to just where in the world she is, it feels all the more rewarding to have found someone as talented and cool as Sandiego, even if she escapes eventually (tbf she has to in a long running series). Now imagine if their roles were switched, if a protagonist Lupin never struggled he wouldn't be as fun to watch. If the antagonist Sandiego was caught struggling to steal a crown, then outsmarting her wouldn't feel nearly as satisfying. Yes they both are classic examples of the gentle(wo)man thief trope, but these tropes are still executed very differently because the characters serve very different purposes in their stories. Daroach currently in the series is just another one of Kirby's many friends, recent title Star Allies and his presence in that big steampunk themed merchline that happened a couple years ago seemed to think so. But in Squeak Squad he was the antagonist, a mysterious figure with mysterious motivations who Kirby crossed paths with multiple times before the (kinda) final showdown in his boss fight. Daroach was similar to Meta Knight as he appeared in Adventure in a... well a meta sense. But Daroach's role of main antagonist is stolen by Patrick Star last minute, and by the end of the game he and his gang apologize to Kirby for all the trouble they've caused. Daroach's little redemption seemed to be set up for future appearances. He would show up again in spin off title Mass Attack, where he is not the protagonist so much as the exposition fairy, and he dumps 300 goddamn lines of dialogue helping out Kirby(s) during their adventure. Daroach has been placed in "good enough guy" status and the once mysterious criminal is now just a dude casually talking about how much he loves his mouse gang and that time he went searching for treasure as a kid. He has taken a wildly different tone, but that's because of different circumstances. At first Kirby/the player were his enemy, and now Kirby is his buddy he feels like helping out and is comfortable making small talk with. Daroach himself says “I’ve always been a big fan of underdogs. I guess that’s why I’m helping you out.” Years later in Star Allies he is playable in Guest Star mode, where he and the player have to solve puzzles and battle baddies. He briefly becomes the protagonist and all that comes with it, even if it's all done through gameplay. When I think of the character I think of how his Mass Attack dialogue characterized him, but in the process of drafting out a Sqsq comic adaptation (I never finish any big projects don't expect anything to come out of this) I've had to cut out sections from his pov, not just for the sake of pacing but because that would ruin the cool and mysterious persona he's supposed to have in this particular story. He is still the same guy that would joke about love-me-nots in regards to giant man-eating plants, but only if he sees you as friend rather that foe. In reality he's been tackled by many different writers and this is just me trying to justify the differences, but it's still intriguing nonetheless analyzing how different roles in a story emphasize different parts of a character.

[bjorgar]

Ok so I’m going to dive head first into one of my favorite character(s) arcs, namely that of White Glint (also heads up this mf LONG)

Ok let me set the stage a bit, given how obscure of a franchise Armored Core is (barring the AC6 announcement). Basically you play as a mech pilot (usually known as either Ravens or Lynxes). Our story will start in Armored Core 4, with a Raven known as Anatolia’s Mercenary. It should also be noted that in AC4 countries have been made illegal, and corporations rule the globe. Corporate rule is absolute, except with two cases: The Colony of Aspina, who is able to stave off direct corporate influence due to their advanced research, and Anatolia, who employs a mercenary (you) to pull in money for the whole ass region. Throughout the events of AC4 you meet a fellow Lynx named Joshua O’Brien, pilot of White Glint.

(Here’s the bitch)

Joshua acts as a sort of rival to the player, as he shares the same motives as the player. Remember the other colony, Aspina? Well they also need someone to fight in order to keep the lights on. Joshua develops a sort of friendship with the player over this shared goal, but it’s this shared drive that pits the two against each other.

One of the corporations, Omer Science, has gotten the upper hand over Aspina, and gives Joshua an ultimatum: either burn Anatolia to the ground, or we will burn Aspina. At the beginning of the fight Joshua doesn’t even have a monologue, simply saying “Hey. I guess there's little need for words…”. As the player kills Joshua, he thanks them, admitting that this was probably the best outcome.

Fast forward to Armored Core: For Answer. 10 years have passed since the events of 4, and you now play as a new pilot known as Strayed. Anatolia’s Mercenary hasn’t vanished from the picture though, as they have taken up the mantle of White and are now fully dedicated to fighting against the corporations. And also they’re now sporting one of the coolest goddamn mechs ever made, like look at this thing.

Anyway through the course of ACFA’s branching plot Strayed is given the choice of either siding with White Glint or fighting against them. Both fights are difficult, and White Glint is taken out of action (although it’s implied in one of the art books that they survived). If the player does side with White Glint they are rewarded with that kickass mech.

Fast forward(last time) to Armored Core Verdict Day, which takes place a long, long, long time after the events of ACFA’s bad ending (we’re skipping ACV for this btw). Most of ACVD’s plot isn’t relevant to this story, until you get to the final boss. You see, the final boss of ACVD is this merc named J, who is just a little bit crazy, and he is in this new super mech called the v/N-WGIX which looks like this

Hey wait a minute

That uh, that looks like a heavily modified white glint doesn’t it. Well that's because it is, as v/N-WGIX stands for verdict/Next-White Glint mk.9. Now how does this fucker have it? Well so remember how I said that ACVD took place after the bad ending. Yeah in that ending Strayed (you) straight up kills everyone living in these flying corporate cities (long story), taking more lives than any other person in human history. And in order to get this ending you need to first side with White Glint.

What makes the progression of White Glint so interesting to me is the degradation of what Joshua fought for. J is a not so subtle antithesis of Joshua, his only motive is to kill for the sake of killing.

The man openly revels in conflict, and admits that he couldn’t survive in a world of peace. Joshua on the other hand only fights for what he believes in, and is broken when that leads him down a dark path. When the mantle passes to Anitolia’s mercenary the goal shifts from “protect my home” to “destroy the corporations”, still noble, but now more aggressive & dangerous. When Strayed takes the mantle the goal shifts again to “destroy everyone who benefits from corporate rule”(assuming you go down the mega murder route). And by the time it makes its way to J there is no more White Glint, only a designation, only a war machine.

I do want to finish this off with a few last things about the music that I couldn’t fit anywhere else. So Anitolia’s mercenary’s theme in AC4 is “Panther”, which shares its melody with Joshua’s boss theme “Fall”. When you side with White Glint in ACFA the song “Remember” plays, and its main melody mirrors Falls’, its notes ascending where the other’s, well, fell. Remember also has lyrics (incomprehensible as they may be) centering around the worry of losing oneself in conflict. These lyrics are faded and distorted however, and are even drowned out by religious prayer of all things. Lastly is J’s Theme “Mechanized Memories”. MM is a direct remix of Remember, its most notable difference is that the lyrics about losing oneself and being afraid of what you’ve become are now more clear and prominent, while the prayer comes in only at the very end.

So anyway yeah that was white glint

That uh, that went on a bit long than I expected. Tried to shorten it down where I could but AC is one of those things that I’m really passionate about so uh, we’re here now. Regardless I look forward to your retaliatory Homestuck bombardment. :)

I should note I know literally nothing about homestuck other than megalovania is there

perhaps