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cieloclercs · 1 year ago

Note

Eternal life

Oscar piastri x russian figure skater

the ice queen — oscar piastri

pairing. oscar piastri x russian figure skater!reader

face claim. alina zagitova

warnings. swearing, google translate russian (im sorry), look guys i know the winter olympics were last year but for the sake of this they’re this year ok ?? 🙏 i used pictures from oscar’s sprint podium in spa for singaore (which obviously isn’t accurate plz overlook it hehe)

author’s note. hello anon! i hope you enjoy this, sorry it took so long ❤️

requests are still open for my 1k event! send something in if you’d like <3

liked by oscarpiastri and 76,264 others

yourusername swipe for a fail 🥴

view all comments…

yourfriend1 pleased to announce i got said fail on video ☺️

yourusername if you ever show that to anyone i’ll smother you in your sleep.

yourfriend1 wow 😃

yourfriend2 i feel like one of those aesthetic skater pinterest girls in the second picture

yourusername we definitely pulled off the pinterest girlie vibes 👍👍

yourcoach очень продуктивная сессия! 👍 / very productive session !

yourusername я знаю точно 😃 / i know right

username yourcoach i’m sensing some sarcasm 🤔

username no shit sherlock 🙄

username MY FAV TRIO IS BACKKKK

username girllll are you competing at the winter olympics ?? i won’t take no for an answer btw you better be there. 🔪

yourusername in that case yes !!! 😀

username olympic champion 🔜

yourusername 😉

username hold up what’s oscar doing here? 🤨

username who tf is oscar

username oscar piastri, he’s a formula 1 driver for mclaren

username and he’s lurking in MY WIFE’S likes?? get tf out of here he drives cars in circles for a living 😭😭

username can you blame him tho y/n’s this total badass skating GODDESS and he’s just a silly little aussie like ofc he’s infatuated with her 😒😒😒

username guys all he did was like her post no need to create an entire backstory out of it 😭 they’re both highly successful sportspeople so they probably just mix in the same circles from time to time 🤷‍♀️

username boo you’re ruining my fun 🙄

username МОЯ ЛЕДЯНАЯ КОРОЛЕВА 🩵 / MY ICE QUEEN

username word on the street is oscar’s liking this girlie’s post 🤔🤔 now i just have to figure out who she is 😃

username girl u can’t be serious 😭

username how do u not know who y/n is are you living under a rock

username no?? should i know who she is?? 😭

username erm YES

username i simultaneously love and hate how this oscar dude has liked ONE y/n post and suddenly all the f1 fangirls have appeared 😭 go find a hobby plz i beg you x

username jokes on you, stalking potentially new f1 wags IS our hobby

username that’s quite possibly the saddest thing i’ve ever read

username as both an f1 and a skating fan, OSCAR GIRLIES I BEG YOU PLEASE DONT DRAG Y/N INTO THIS IK HOW CRAZY Y’ALL CAN GET

username babe what are they gonna do 😭 she’s y/n y/l/n she has like universal immunity from haters lol

username you’re clearly not an f1 fan and it SHOWS 😭😭

username sweetie i’ve watched the f1 girlies single handedly DESTROY relationships do not underestimate them

username ^^ does anyone know if they’re being dramatic or not??

username long-time f1 fan here !! trust me, they’re not.

liked by yourusername and 23,815 others

oscarpiastri Ready to shine in Singapore 🇸🇬🤩

view all comments…

username LET’S GOOO OSCAR

username podium loading…

username i’ve got £50 riding on you getting a podium don’t let me down 💪💪

username so this is oscar piastri… 🤨

username uh oh the skater girls have arrived 😨

username *y/n girls

username no one gets into y/n’s inner circle without our approval first 🤭

username and you called US sad 😭

username how the fuck is this guy expecting to be able to pull a queen like y/n 😭😭

username seriously he looks so silly 🥴

username guys he only liked her post they probably don’t even know each other 🙄 stop making drama out of nothing jeez

username yikes someone sounds jealous…

username he looks goofy, next please 😒

yourfriend1 literally what i said smh

username PHAHAHA WHAT

username girl 😭

username i hate to break it to you oscar, the y/n girls are never going to accept you x

username yeah sorry babe, you’re just not worthy of our ice queen 😘

username the way y/n’s literally a thousand leagues above him 😔😔 the pain of being a badass bitch 🥲

username BACK OFF FROM MY WIFE Y/N YOU DONT DESERVE HER

username y’all are crazy what 😭

username imagine thinking THIS GUY stands a chance with the hottest woman alive and future olympic champion 😭😭 i’d be so embarrassed 😭

username he looks like a capybara tf

username STOP PHAHAHHA WHY DO I SEE IT

username lmao if y/n and oscar ever do end up dating he’s not going to live this down 😭

landonorris oscarpiastri since when did you become enemy number 1 to the ice skating community

oscarpiastri 🤷‍♀️

username LANDO OH MY GOD 😭

username PHAHAHHAA HE KNOWS THEY BOTH KNOW

username poor oscar getting dragged by the most intense fandom on earth 😭

yourusername 🧡

oscarpiastri 😊👑

username WOAH WOAH WOAH

username THEYRE INTERACTING OMG EVERYONE STAY CALM

username EXCUSE ME THE CROWN EMOJI?? HES ACKNOWLEDGING THE QUEEN AS HE SHOULD

username no.

username this can’t be happening

username oscarpiastri LEAVE MY WIFE ALONE BITCH 🤺🤺

username y/n you’ve just made everything so much worse 😭

yourusername

replies:

oscarpiastri cute cap, where’d you get it?

↳ yourusername this weird australian guy gave it to me. idk i would have preferred a number 4 🤷‍♀️

↳ oscarpiastri you sure? i heard number 81’s the favourite for a podium this week 😏

↳ yourusername we’ll see 🙃

liked by yourusername and 50,367 others

oscarpiastri First ever F1 podium 🧡 Let’s keep them coming 😉

view all comments…

username YES OSCARRRRR

username my driver 🧡🫶

username LEGEND 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺

landonorris congrats mate! the extra motivation did you some good 😉

oscarpiastri it sure did :)

username excuse me? 🤨

username lando. what do u know.

username i bet this has something to do with y/n

username girl bffr 🙄

username LANDO I JUST WANNA TALK (tell me what u know rn.) 🔫🔫

mclaren Doing us proud 🥹🧡

*oscarpiastri liked this comment

username best rookie since hamilton button >>>

*liked by yourusername and 5,217 others

carlitosalcarazz Congratulations, amigo! 😁

oscarpiastri Thanks mate! 😊😊

username AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE

username the y/n girlies have been real quiet so far 🤨

username they’re finally realising oscar isn’t just some nobody 😭

username he might not be a nobody but one podium still doesn’t make him good enough 🥰

username y’all are psycho i swear 😭

yourfriend1 ok maybeee he’s not that bad 🙄🙄

*yourusername liked this comment

username omg the y/f/n seal of approval ??? ITS HAPPENING

username calm down nothing’s happened yet 😭 as far as we know they’re not even friends lmao let alone dating

username girl did you even see y/n’s story she was literally in the mclaren garage repping oscar’s merch 😭😭

yourusername incredible 🧡

oscarpiastri Thank you for your support today 🧡 Hope you liked the cap 😊

username wait hold on a second OSCAR GAVE HER THAT CAP???

username HES GIVING HER HIS MERCH NOW??

username oh they DEFINITELY into each other 😏

username oscar’s such a simp oh my god she turns up to one race and he’s giving her his merch 😭😭 what a dork

username i mean it’s y/n y/l/n can you blame him 🤷‍♀️

username i fear we’ve lost her y/n nation 😔

username as much as it pains me to say it i think you might be right 🥲

username i just can’t believe we’ve lost her to a guy who drives in circles for a living 🙄

username doesn’t y/n skate in circles? the shade works both ways honey 😚

liked by oscarpiastri and 90,712 others

yourusername thank you for having me mclaren 🥰 and congratulations to oscarpiastri on your first f1 podium !! i had a blast 🧡🧡

view all comments…

mclaren Glad to have you on board, champ 🧡 See you again soon 😉

*yourusername liked this comment

landonorris you do know oscar’s not the only mclaren driver right 😃

yourusername the only mclaren driver with a podium this week though 🙃

oscarpiastri Thank you Y/N 😊🧡

yourusername 🫶

comments on this post have been limited.

months later…

oscarpiastri

replies:

landonorris ice queen? 🤨

↳ oscarpiastri of course

↳ landonorris simp.

yourusername

replies:

oscarpiastri ouch ☹️

↳ yourusername just telling you what you need to hear, babe ☺️

liked by oscarpiastri and 112,678 others

yourusername олимпийский чемпион! после стольких лет упорной работы я не могу поверить, что эта мечта наконец-то осуществилась 🥹 я хочу поблагодарить многих людей, которые помогли мне достичь этого: моего тренера, моих товарищей по команде, мою семью. я бы не справилась без каждого из вас! 🤍

olympic champion! after all the years of hard work, i can’t believe this dream has finally come true 🥹 there are so many people i want to thank for helping me get to this point: my coach, my teammates, my family. i couldn’t have done this without any of you! 🤍

i also want to thank my boyfriend and number one supporter oscarpiastri for putting up with me these last few months of prep 😭 i don’t know what i would have done without you 🥹 love you baby ❤️

…

oscarpiastri congratulations, my love 🩷 i’m so proud of you 😘

yourusername 💗💗

comments on this post have been limited.

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twinsarekeepers · 5 months ago

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I’m curious as to your honest thoughts on the show? Like I love pjo and all but the show was a bit of a let down writing wise. There’s always the point of “it’s an adaptation, not a carbon copy” like yes but this new writing isn’t exemplary better than the book just because it’s rewritten by the author himself

I think the show is well-written not because Rick is attached to it, but because I actually like the way the writers are approaching adapting the source material. I have a lot of issues with the original books in terms of writing quality because frankly speaking, I don’t think Rick is a very good writer. He has a lot of interesting things in those books that he never explores or drops within the first two and this fandom gives him and the books too much credit imo.

This is why I’m not very moved when people try to ascribe meaning to a certain scene or choice he made in the books to get mad at the show for changing. As an example, one of the main things people were upset about was the kids “knowing everything” in the show when they were getting tricked left and right in the book. Many posts were dedicated to how the book version is superior because it illustrates how they’re just twelve years old kids so of course they’ll make mistakes and get tricked by monsters.

That’s a perfectly fine interpretation but I was twelve years old when I first read tlt and I was able to anticipate almost every single trap, despite being pretty gullible and naive at that age. My knowledge of Greek mythology consisted of Disney’s Hercules, maybe two Google searches, and my second grade teacher’s reading of the kid friendly version of the Odyssey. No where near the level of Percy who’d been learning for a whole year in an established class on the topic with Chiron or Grover who was literally a satry born into the world or Annabeth, who spent the majority of her life dedicated to studying specifically quests and Greek mythology and was also on the run fighting monsters for a good portion of her childhood. Like twelve year olds can be dumb but those three stumbling into every trap was asking me to suspend my disbelief too far. I remember being upset that they weren’t able to figure it out because it was obvious that Rick wasn’t making that choice to show any personality flaws or character dynamics (because he would’ve had them learn and grow but they never did they just kept being not smart), he just wasn’t able to figure out a way for them to fall into those traps organically so he had to dumb them down.

I think the show was able to get across the characters’ childishness without compromising their established backstories. Yes, Annabeth knew it was Medusa right away because that makes sense for a kid who has experience with running into monsters. But, she still acted very much like a child in her interactions with her (and throughout the episode and season). She lashed out and called her a liar and wouldn’t listen to her side of the story because it painted her mother in a bad light. That’s peak twelve year old behavior.

Yes, Percy figured out Kronos was behind everything, but it makes sense because Percy knows Greek mythology and where Kronos resides. He still very much acts like a child when he asks Hades to give him back his mom in exchange for nothing because it’s the right thing to do.

There are dozens of examples like this for a lot of complaints of the show. And this is not me saying that the show is perfect: every single show has flaws. For me, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the dialogue or the exposition dumping. It didn’t hinder my enjoyment though because I don’t think it was egregious (and wrt the exposition dumping, I expected it because the book did it and there’s really no way to “show not tell” Greek myths). I also didn’t like that we didn’t get to really see the huge clashes between Zeus and Poseidon in the weather (we got references to it through news reports but I would’ve liked something more). I was able to look past it because I really liked the storytelling and the themes the show was pulling out of the original source material.

I loved Medusa-Sally parallels and Medusa-Annabeth parallels. I loved the juxtaposition of Pan’s quest to manifest density. I loved Percy and Annabeth’s opposite trajectory in respect to their relationships with their godly parents. I loved exploring Sally’s choice to send Percy to school instead of camp. I loved explicitly coding Annabeth as autistic. I loved Luke’s backstory being brought earlier into the story. I loved the deadline passing and Poseidon surrendering to save Percy. I loved Persues-Andromeda and percabeth parallels. I loved fleshing Grover out. I loved glory vs home seeking being the central theme of the show.

And lastly, I was able to understand that with a limited number of episodes and run time (due to the nature of child labor laws!), they did the best they could and I feel like they did a pretty good job for a first season.

These are not ALL of my thoughts on the show because that would be a very long post. I gave one detailed example of why I think the show succeeded in something the fandom tries to ascribe the books and it was like three paragraphs lol. Anyway this is not the post to try and convince me that the show is bad for whatever reason you have cooked up. I’m not going to change my mind and I doubt I’ll change yours. Here’s to a season 2 that builds on a solid season 1!

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leupagus · 2 years ago

Text

I was pleasantly surprised to see Trent’s return at the start of the episode, because his ending struck me as a definitive one. Were you also surprised to have a bigger role this season? I found out that Trent would be featuring more in season three in between seasons one and two. You see, I had a really interesting thing happen with this role. After I finished my very first scene in the first season, I was walking through the car park and Jason stopped me and said, “Hey, it’s really good to have you onboard. I love what you’re doing with Trent.” And we had a three-minute conversation that changed the course of my career and Trent’s life.

Well, now I have to hear about this conversation. I said to him that I felt the reason Trent was the way he was has to do with his father. He had a dad who really wanted him to be a manly man and be sporty, but Trent wasn’t that guy. So he hit the library and donned intellect as his shield and armor. Jason was looking at me sort of mystified, and he said, “Hey, I’m going to tell you something. This whole show is about bad dads.” And I said, “Really?” And he said, “Yeah. The reason Ted is the way he is is because his father committed suicide and he decided to embrace life and adopt that positive attitude.” And I was like, “Oh, wow. Well, this is really resonating with Trent as well.” And then I said, “I think he’s bored of sports journalism. There’s more in there. He’s not living the life he wants to live.” Jason just nodded and went, “Okay, yeah, great.” And that was it. It sparked something that was maybe already in Jason and it certainly fanned the flames for what’s going to happen in season three.

There’s a moment in the season-one episode “Trent Crimm: The Independent” when Trent is tasked with basically eviscerating Ted in the press. Of course, that’s not what happens at all because he realizes he’s dealing with somebody quite special and unique. During that scene in the Indian restaurant, Ted says something that blows Trent’s heart open: “It’s not about the winning and losing, it’s about these boys becoming the best versions of themselves both on and off the pitch, and it ain’t always easy, especially if they’ve had a tough childhood.” That spoke directly to me with Trent’s backstory. As a boy, he’d always wanted to hear something like that. He’s now looking at this extraordinary father figure, which really does change Trent’s perspective and sends him on a journey in the background.

[please click on the link for more of the interview, including the fact that Lance did in fact flinch like a motherfucker every time Roy yelled at him]

#ted lasso #trent crimm #mcLOSING IT #JAMES LANCE LITERALLY CHARMING HIS WAY INTO A BIGGER ROLE #also the daddy issues #just - chef's kiss #I just need to go lie down this whole article is a lot #trent crimm: independent of the independent #believe mothereffers

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camryn-haitani · 1 year ago

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Hello everything is fine? If requests are still open can I request headcanon (barou, rin and bachira: separate) falling in love with the female reader who also plays football? Thank you in advance.

AH YES OFCCC

all requests are appreciated and this is my first one ever so I thank you a million times<3

BlueLock Boys falling in love with another football player

Rin Itoshi, Barou Shoei, and Bachira Meguru (separate) x football player reader

the title is pretty self explanatory so yeah<3

TW: cursing, sae slander, biting in Rins(not sexually or violently, just in a playing way), alcohol mention in barou's(none is consumed),

all characters are aged up and adults

these are going to be very long bc of the backstory of how y'all meet. so please bear with me. they may be ooc and I apologize. these brackets [ ] are little notes from me, just so y'all know

lowercase intended

Rin Itoshi

Rin got forced to go to a women's football game because Isagi's best friend is on the team (you). Isagi physically dragged rin through security, in the concession stand line, and into their seats. Rin didn't even know who he was rooting for.

"hey dip shit." Rin asked. "what's up man?" he answered, not looking at rin, waiting for you to come out to the field. "who's team are we rooting for exactly?" he said with his monotone voice. "(whatever team you choose). they wear (whatever color) and (whatever color)." Isagi said. Rin only nodded and waited for the game to start.

he got startled when Isagi immediately stood up and started screaming your name when you came out on the field. Rin didn't even bother and only looked up at the jumbotron. you had your resting bitch face that weirdly attracted him to you. not romantically, but you definitely intrigued him. he put his phone down and started paying attention to the game, well he payed attention to you. you were the striker for your team so he was definitely paying attention to you.

Rins eyes were trained on your figure the entire game. he cheered (not as loud as Isagi did) when you scored a goal, he internally celebrated whenever you took back the ball, and he definitely payed attention when you came on the screen.

after the game was over, your team had won so Isagi excitedly dragged Rin to where you and your team was back at the locker room. you gave him access to the locker room since he's your bestie.

"y/n!! congratulations!!!" he let go of Rin and tackled you in a suffocating hug. "omg hi isa." you look over to his friend. "who's this?" you pointed to rin. your eyes widen when you realize something. you pulled Isagi off of you and ran over to rin.

you grab his shoulders and shake him. "oh my god oh my god oh my god. you're rin itoshi! you're literally sae's brother, I know y'all hate each other but holy shit! I'm besties with your brother but I know you're the better brother. and I'm rambling on and on because I'm nervous because I'm literally obsessed with you and your plays on the field. I've studied how you play and I just have to say youre absolutely amazing. this is actually a dream come true. I'm so ha-" you get cut off by Isagi. "oh my god y/n, shut up!" he pulls you away from rin.

"no it's ok, I surprisingly enjoyed that." Rin looks confused. "I'm sorry, when I meet people I look up to, I get super nervous and I can't stop saying what's on my mind. just like I'm doing right now. I'm so so sorry, I've looked up to you since the beginning of my career. and I ju-" "y/n! you're doing it again" Isagi interrupts.

"you... you look up to me?" Rin asks. you nod aggressively. "also sorry for shaking you." you apologize. Rin motions his hands for you to give him your phone. your eyes widen and your mouth drops. you start to mouth words but no sounds come out. you nod before running to get your phone from your bag.

"wow Rin you got yourself a fan." Isagi wraps his arm around rins shoulder. "did you know about this?" he asks. "maybe I did.... maybe I didn't" Isagi looks at rin. "it's also why I wanted to bring you to one of her games. she wasn't kidding about studying your plays. she's stayed up countless nights looking at your strategies and plays. she has pages and pages of her and your plays combined" he says.

Rin feels proud of himself for some reason. you, of all people, are a huge fan of him. he didn't think he was anything special. but when he hears you say those things to him, he felt more confident in himself. he internally smiled to himself.

he sees you run back to him and he pulls out his phone. "holy fuck, wait till I brag to sae about this. I'm sooooo gonna make fun of him for this." you were so nervous you absolutely could not contain your excitement. "uhm brb, imma go run around the field for a few minutes. haha...." you sprint off to the field while Isagi follows after you.

Rin soon follows Isagi after putting your phone in his pocket so it won't get lost. he can faintly hear you yell, "I did it! I win in life!" with your arms up in the air. Rin saw you run up back to him at full speed and he braced for impact. you jumped in his arms while he caught you and held his face in your hands. "you are my inspiration for this career and I'll never be able to thank you enough." you quietly tell him. Rin slightly softens when he hears your words.

you get down and he gives you back your phone. "y/n we have to go but I'll see you later tonight right?" Isagi yells. "yes! I'll make your room." you say back. you see Rin and Isagi leave the locker room and you open your phone to see rins contact

Rin(the obviously better brother✌️)

you smiled and hugged your phone.

time skip

you and Rin have talked a lot since y'all first met. like every day. good morning and good night texts, training texts, 3am texts, and all around everything texts. Isagi teases you both because of it, but neither of y'all care. Rin enjoys your company and you enjoy his, what's so wrong with that?

one thing

he has caught major feelings for you. he even changed your name in his phone to have a heart next to it. and it's the "<3" heart too. he's down bad. he's come to Isagi multiple times asking what you like, don't like, your favorite restaurant, snacks, movies and TV shows, e v e r y t h i n g.

he wanted to make sure he wouldn't upset you by saying the wrong thing or hanging out at a place that you don't like. he constantly pestered Isagi to make sure he wouldn't fuck it up.

Rin wanted to see you again (even though y'all hung out yesterday). surprisingly enough, he's never stayed the night at your house. so you took it into your own hands and texted him.

you: hey rinnie rin rinnnnn

rinnie rinnie :3: yes?

you: I have come to realize that you've never stayed the night at my place. sooooooooooo

rinnie rinnie :3: lemme guess.

rinnie rinnie :3: you want me to stay the night?

you: [LOUDLY CORRECT BUZZER NOISE]

rinnie rinnie :3: I'll be over in 20

you: YAY ILL BE WAITING

you put down your phone and cleaned up a bit, even though Rin said he didn't care if your house is clean or not, he's there for you and not your house.

you called Isagi and told him all the details.

you: "isagiiiiiii I'm so nervous... Rin staying the night tonight."

Isagi: "ok.... and?"

you: "HES NEVER STAYED THE NIGHT BEFORE."

Isagi: "woah there, calm down. I know you're like in love with him in more ways than one, but pookie calm down. just.... be yourself."

you: "wow thanks for that cringe shit. that helps nothing!"

you heard the door bell ring and you get all excited but nervous at the same time.

you: "he's here! I'll tell you what happens when he leaves. bye isaaaa-" you hang up the phone

you throw your phone on the couch and open the door. rin has his backpack on with his stuff. 'hes so cute.' you say to yourself. "am I just gonna stay outside while you stare at me or are you gonna let me in?" he laughs a bit. "oh shit, yeah come in." you move out of the way

he sets his stuff down and plops onto your couch, stomach first. you flop on top of his back. he can easily push you off but chooses not to.

"whatcha wanna watch? or are you hungry? i can door dash?" you spurt out all the options. "I'm ok for now, but thank you. we can watch attack on titan if you want." he suggests. "season 3?" you ask excitingly [this is my favorite season, I watch it all the time :D] "always" he answers. he pushes you off his back and you land in the floor.

before he got to your house, you moved your coffee table and set down a few blankets and pillows. so you sat between his legs on the floor while he's on the couch. you wrap your arms around his legs and pull them closer to you.

"ow! you bitch!" he laughs. you bit his leg. not hard enough to cause damage, but enough to hurt. he pulled his legs up to sit criss cross. you pick yourself up and flop in top of him, going limp. "get off of me, you're not a lap dog." he smiles. "nah it's comfy here." you respond.

he pushes you off yet again and you land on the floor. you place your chin on his legs and look up at him. his gaze at you softens as he stares into your eyes. this bolt of confidence runs through him and he kisses your forehead. he stands up and goes to your kitchen. your mouth wide open as you follow him.

"what was that?!" you ask

"what was what?" he innocently says

"you know damn well what that was."

"oh you mean this?" he turns around and kisses you again but on your lips. his hands on each side of your face and your arms around his neck. "I like this" you say in between kisses. "I'm glad you do." "hey rin?" you pull back. "hm?" "i love you." "i love you too."

Barou Shoei

barou and Raichi coincidentally won tickets to the women's football match this weekend and so they decided to go together cause why not. they get there and wait for the game to start. they introduced all the players and they start the match.

of course your team won cause your teammates are bad bitches. and wow, another coincidence, the tickets included a meet and greet with the team. barou and raichi ask staff members where the meet and greet was because they don't know where the hell to go. they follow the directions and find the others waiting for the team to come out. they stand in the back of the line and wait.

"hey man, uhm I'm actually a huge fan on y/n's so this is actually a big deal for me. so I apologize if I get nervous or freak out..." raichi admits. "nah man youre cool. I don't even know anyone on the team so you can help me. i honestly don't care, I just came to see their strategies." barou stuffs his hands in his pockets and looks around.

your team comes out and sits at the tables for the meeting. the line moves slowly and Raichi gets more jittery and shaky as he gets closer to you. "dude calm down, it's not like youre meeting the president of the United States." barou says. "dude shut up! she's amazing, she's set records, man!" raichi shoots back. barou just rolls his eyes and continues to wait.

they finally get to your table and you flash them a smile. "hi guys, it's nice to meet y'all." you hold out your hand for them to shake. raichi nervously takes your hand and shakes it. barou keeps his hands in his pockets. "aren't you... Barou Shoei?" you point your sharpie at him, "and your Jingo Raichi, correct?" you point your sharpie at Raichi. raichi's eyes widen in shock. "you.... know who we are?!" he yells. "yeah! i remember y'all from BlueLock! y'all were amazing." you compliment. "he's the fangirl here," Barou points to Raichi, "he's been freaking out ever since we got in line. going on and on about how your plays are so cool and your record setting skills." "Barou!!" he slaps his arm. "it's ok, I appreciate it." you look around in case anyone is looking as you lean in. "I'll give both of y'all my number in case y'all have any questions." you wink at them.

you write your number down on an autograph sheet and give each of them one. "dude....." raichi never taking his eyes off of the paper. "hey man, nice job. you got her numberrrrr" Barou teases him. "so did you!" he yells. "come on man, let's go home." barous doesn't want to admit it, but he had a fun time.

time skip

barou gets home and actually debates on whether to texts you. he's got nothing better to do so why not.

you: hey

y/n(that football player): oh hi :)

you: I'm bored

y/n(that football player): I'm actually surprised you texted

you: whys that

y/n(that football player): idk thought you wouldn't text me. I heard you didn't know who I was lol

you: yeah I had no idea until fanboy said something

y/n(that football player): I figured, you didn't seem that intrigued when we met. soooo, since you're bored, whatcha wanna do?

you: ion know that's why I texted you.

y/n(that football player): idea timeeeee. everyday, we have to ask each other one question and the other has to answer.

you: wtv sure

you: favorite food

y/n(that football player): (your favorite food), wby??

you: (whatever you think fits him)

y/n(that football player): oooh cool

y/n(that football player): I have training tomorrow so imma have to go to bed. text you tomorrow, goodnight:p

you: same, goodnight

time skip

the texting went on for months. he's asked you multiple times to help him train and of course you helped him, and Raichi too. sometimes all three of y'all have practice together. raichi has asked you hundreds of questions and you've answered all of them of course.

barou has taken a certain liking to you. he doesn't mind when you text him outta no where or when y'all hang out outside of practice.

y/n❤️: shoeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

you: yes y/n?

y/n❤️: whatcha doinnnnnn

you: absolutely nothing, you?

y/n❤️: good, I'm coming over

you: you have no idea where I live dumbass

y/n❤️: then gimme your address >:(

you: fine (address)

y/n❤️: be there in a fewwww

he started panicking. what if his house isn't clean enough? what if you don't like his house? what if his house smells weird? all the questions running through his head while he's picking up the tiniest of clutter around his home. he doesn't know why he's doing it but he's worried about what you think... of.. him...

he drops everything in his arms. "shit" he realizes. "I like.. no, fuck! I'm in love with her. what? no! yes? but how? I mean, I get excited when she texts, I get sad when she loses her games, I feel comfort when we hang out, but that doesn't mean I lover her." he stands still for a few seconds. "fuck" he sighs. "I do love her..." he picks his stuff back up and continues to clean.

after he's done, he hears a car pull up. his heart pounds in his ears and his hands gets shaky. he hears the car turn off and the door slams shut. with ever step he hears, his heart pounds in his head.

he shoots up and opens the door before you have a chance to knock. your hand was halfway up to knock but he opened the door. "hi Shoei!" he moves out of the way to let you in. you set your keys down on the counter and take off your hoodie. you sit nervously in one of the chairs and wait for him to say something.

"uhm are you hungry?... or thirsty?" he asks. "water please." you respond. his body softens when he hears her voice. he walks to the kitchen and gets her drink. he hears her phone ring and looks at her. "oh it's Raichi. I'm gonna take this." you point to your phone. "you can go upstairs or the other room if you want." he tells her. you (unknowingly) walk to his room and answer the call. he finishes getting your drink and sets it on the counter.

he sits on the couch and waits for you to be done. 'ah shit I forgot to get the charger Nagi let me borrow. I'll set it on the table so I can give it to him tomorrow.' he says to himself. he walks to his room and opens the door.

"yes Raichi I know. I'm just so nervous around him..." you speak while your back is turned to him. "i just... I don't know if he feels the same way. he's so.. handsome and caring and sweet. i love everything about him, jin. i love him. and I'll say it a million times. I'm in love with bar...ou" you turn around to face him, jaw slacked open. "uhh.. I'm sorry. I'll go if you want me to. i understand if you feel uncomfortable around me now and-" "shut the fuck up." he walks over to where you stand and kisses you. you don't know how to react, you're frozen. 'is this happening? am I drunk? no, I can't be, I've had zero alcohol." you think to yourself.

"no stupid this isn't a dream. i love you too, stupid" he says, pulling you in for another kiss.

Bachira Meguru

back in bachira's BlueLock days, you were their supervisor. you know, monitoring their health, how they're doing, how they're performing, all that. you don't know how but you became particularly close with bachira without even noticing. you would make up stuff just to see team z play, or slip out of a meeting to watch him practice. he never showed off in front of you because who cares what others think of him. bachira taught you how to play the game and dribble just like him too. but once BlueLock was over, y'all lost contact.

over the years, he continued football. he constantly watches games, specifically (the team you play for). he went to their home games, he collected their merch, he even bought collectable cards, but there's one card he takes every where in his wallet. and it's your card. he thought she was so cool with her tricks, plays and strats [he forgot who you were].

bachira, of course, bought tickets for your next home game. so when the time came, he packed what he needed and set off to the stadium.

bachira always buys the expensive tickets too. he got that money money. so when he hears that y'all were having a meet and greet after the game, he just had to buy them.

bachira sat in his seat and waited for the game.

lil time skip to the middle of the game

he was watching you ever so closely and he remembers this thought every time he watches your games.

'her dribbling looks so familiar.'

time skip

the game was over and he was so excited since y'all won. he quickly ran out of his seat and head to where the meet was.

bachira groaned when he saw the big ass line, but it was all worth it to me you. he steps excitedly when he takes a few steps closer in the line, not being able to contain his excitement. you're his inspiration for continuing his football career.

finally, it was bachira's turn. you flash him your warmest smile, "hi, I'm y/n." you held out your hand. he immediately shook your hand.

your eyes widen as you immediately stood up and put your hands in the table, making your teammates stare at you and Bachira startled. you leaned in closer to his face, inches from his. bachira got flustered by this and his cheeks turning a bright pink. you're eyes widen even more in realization.

"oh my god!! bachira!!" you yell, hopping over the table and smother him in a hug. he immediately returns it but he's confused as to why and how you know his name. "it's me! y/n, from BlueLock! i was y'all's supervisor. megs, you inspired me to take in football and go into a professional career." you hold his face.

it takes him a lil bit to place you in the correct spot in his memory but he figures it out. "holy shit! y/n hi!" he hugs you. you wrap your arms around him, tightening every second.

you sit back down and sign whatever he wants you to sign. you secretly slide him your number, not wanting the other fans to see and you go back to signing autographs and taking pictures.

time skip

[I apologize for all the time skips :(]

he almost immediately texts you once he got home.

you: HI Y/N

the best football player💪: HELLO BACHIRA

you: DID YOU GET HOME SAFE?

the best football player💪: YES I DID THANK YOU

those kinds of texts went on for a good while. you both enjoyed them and always though about each other. you offered for him to come practice at your teams field when no one was there so he can practice with you and he can teach you more stuff he's learned since BlueLock.

these practices went on for a long while. sometimes until 2:00 am or later. but neither one of you cared, y'all were having fun and thats all that mattered to you.

bachira always loved these practices. it's a chance to get closer to you. his stomach would always erupt in butterflies when you invited him to practice and he never knew why. he always got that lovesick puppy look in his eyes when you show him a trick you learned. and again, he never knew why he would feel like that, but it was only with you

a few months have pasted since you've reunited with bachira and you've loved it. it was around 1:40 am and you invited bachira to yet another field practice, just y'all two. he was dribbling up the field while you were trying to steal the ball back. he ran upfield and you got closer. he tried to fake you out but you accidentally tripped him. he landed in his back and you fell but caught yourself with your arms. palms all grassy, knees hurting from the fall, bachira's ass hurt when he fell, but none of that mattered to y'all because you were staring into each other's eyes. not wanting to look away, you picked yourself up.

"I think we're good for today. I'll get our stuff..." you turned away. bachira just laid there staring. he didn't want you to get up, or leave. he heard your footsteps and that knocked him out of his trance.

you were about to walk off the field when you heard quick and fast footsteps. "y/n!" he yelled running up from behind you. "bachi-!" his lips crashed onto yours. you dropped all your stuff just to wrap your arms around his neck.

"I didn't know you felt the same way megs." you smiled against his lips. "I'm glad I showed you then."

"I love you, y/n"

"I love you too, megs"

#x reader #blue lock #bluelock x reader #bluelock x you #bachira meguru #bachira x reader #rin itoshi #rin itoshi x reader #shoei barou x reader #shoei barou #barou shouei #barou x reader

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ndrv3expert1 · 18 days ago

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Why Tenko Chabashira is a Great Character pt. 1: Tenko’s Backstory and Personality

Another essay excerpt because that did better than I expected last time and I'm suprised people actually want to read my stuff.

Tenko Chabashira is an over-hated character in the fandom with people before the game even came out criticizing her and hoping that she died.

Now this is not everyone’s opinion.

I've seen many people praise Tenko, but it’s a widely accepted opinion that she sucks, ranking near the bottom on a lot of people’s tier lists and having people post on every social media platform how much they hate her.

I love Tenko.

She is my favorite character in NDRV3 and right now my favorite character of all time.

With the game already in its eight anniversary I thought, what a better time than ever to fulfill my civic duty as a Tenko fan and explain why she is a great character and doesn’t deserve nearly all the hate she’s gotten.

Backstory

One of the main reasons people hate Tenko is her hatred of men.

I would like to lessen this to dislike because Tenko shows multiple times in the game that she does not hate men and there are also reasons behind her sentiments.

Tenko took her master's teachings very seriously; he was like a father figure to her (which makes sense especially since her parents abandoned her), and she was adamant about mastering neo-aikido.

Tenko is also really gullible.

It's why she believes Himiko can do real magic, so she would believe her master wholeheartedly when he tells her that interactions with men would weaken her.

It's similar to a child being told by their parents that if they are good Santa will give them gifts.

Another factor contributing to Tenko’s dislike of men would be her crime fighting which not only adds to her childlike nature but gives more of a reason to her so-called “man-hating.”

In one of Tenko’s ftes with Shuichi, she says:

“As practitioners of Neo-Aikido, Master and I… are also heroes of justice! Master and I wear masks to disguise ourselves! We serve to save, whether it is day or night! We do everything! Help an old woman carry her belongings… Help a child cross the street…Oh, yeah! I caught a thief the other day! We also punish degenerates who cheat and bring divine justice to gropers on trains. And even help girls who just had tough break-ups!”

Even though those don’t seem like the best reasons to “hate” a whole gender overshadowed by being hurt by men emotionally or physically.

If you think about it, it’s not the worst reason either, Tenko was just a kid and her master filled her head with misconceptions and stereotypes about men.

(In the end, he was just trying to protect but there are many more ways to go about it.)

Of course, Tenko didn’t have to believe it, but by being exposed to bad men on the streets when she and her master were fighting crime, and not having many interactions with good men, you can start to see where she comes from.

She’s just like a kid who never grew out of the boys' cooties phase (with a little more trauma), and as a kid, she wasn’t taught that all men aren’t bad, she wasn’t shown that all men aren’t bad, and she wasn’t exposed to the idea either.

I don’t think we should blame Tenko for something really out of her control.

Children are very impressionable that's why they're easy targets (well them and elderly people).

Their frontal lobes aren't fully developed so they don't think critically plus when your a kid small and vulnerable you tend to look to your parents for safety and guidance.

Imagine yourself in Tenko’s shoes. The man who is basically a father figure to her tells her all these misconceptions about men—and that they will stop her from fully mastering Neo-Aikido, something she has dedicated years to. With her low self-esteem, she likely already believes she isn’t good enough.

(While most of her self-esteem issues seem to be tied to her physical abilities, strength could play a role in that too. )

Wouldn’t that make you dislike them?

Then when he takes her out and she sees the men doing exactly what her master told her that they would do it would not only prove that her masters teachings are true it would solidify that hatred.

Now at the beginning of this section I said that Tenko doesn’t hate men but now I’m saying she does?

I believe Tenko had bad teachings and exposure that made her man hatred reasonable.

I don't think Tenko hates the whole male species as she says she does but if you're a man who hurts women Tenko is going to hate you with a burning passion an important distinction I need to make.

Tenko’s backstory isn’t perfect I’ll admit that but based on how she interacts with men during the game and how she acts overall bad exposure and teachings are a fine reason.

Personality

She’s rather boisterous and is like a ball of energy and can be overbearing to other students especially Himiko since how she acts with other students (not just the boys) is not “normal” per se (but no one in this game is normal) many people chalk it up to her just being annoying.

Still, I would like to add something else that may be a factor in her upbringing which I know I have already discussed.

Still, Tenko grew up in a temple with priests she was sent there when she was very young (there isn’t a specific age but many suspect five to six) so we can assume that she didn’t have a lot of interaction with kids her age (especially boys) with the only time interacting with people probably being people going in the temples for religious purposes or the people she saved while fighting crime.

A person’s upbringing especially if it’s bad or not normal can influence how someone acts just take Maki Harukawa, for example, she grew up in an orphanage and was trained to be an assassin during the game when Shuichi and Kaito are fighting she makes Shuichi watch her teaching Kaito to assemble and disassemble a crossbow so that they can make up, and when Kaito is kidnapped she reverts to the only thing she knows and tries to kill Kokichi.

Or Gonta Gokuhara who was raised in the forest by wolves doing odd things like not wearing shoes, lacking general cultural knowledge, getting suddenly controlled by strong emotions and having trouble with language.

So it makes sense for Tenko to act strangely and lack strong social skills, given her isolation from kids her age when she was young.

Unlike someone who has been interacting with others their entire life, starting from kindergarten, her experiences have been limited.

Or you can just say it’s her lack of understanding social cues and she’s neurodivergent coded.

...

Tenko, while claiming she hates men, gets along fine with them and shows them support. Some of these scenes include:

Joining Kaito’s strategy meeting

Telling Shuichi not to be too hard on himself after Kaede’s death

Yelling at Kokichi when he makes fun of Shuichi without his hat

Promising to avenge Rantaro and Ryoma’s deaths

Complementing Gonta for being calm and reasonable after Kirumi accuses him

Feeling bad after flipping Shuichi over her shoulder and carrying him back to her room

Allowing Shuichi to participate in Aikido with her

Telling Shuichi he needs to gain more confidence in himself.

She is also lovely and caring, volunteering to protect all of the girls, placing herself at risk alongside Kaito and Gonta to save Kaede from her execution, and her friendship with Himiko, in which she tries to help her overcome her emotional suppression, demonstrates her compassion for others.

She is one of the most vocal characters when it comes to opposing the killing game they were imprisoned in, and she is always willing to offer assistance or emotional support.

Tenko has a wonderful personality. Her deep emotional core, supportive persona, and childlike thinking are qualities that I and many others can identify with.

These qualities, in my opinion, dampen the hatred of her "male-hating" mentality in some aspects and make her a charming character.

Tenko's development

While having many ‘annoying/ undesirable’ traits Tenko eventually does have character development.

The main one is her dislike of men. I've already discussed that this dislike doesn’t seem genuine because, since the beginning of the game, she’s been having friendly, kindhearted interactions with men but taking that out of account Tenko does develop from the beginning of the game to her death.

Tenko’s journey reveals layers of her personality, showcasing how bad experiences shape beliefs and attitudes.

And how a good experience can turn it all around for the better even if her transformation is not entirely linear and overshadowed by other major characters (Shuichi Maki and Himiko.)

In her Free Time Events (FTEs) with Shuichi, she is very mean to him.

Nicest thing she says is that he can improve himself through Neo Aikido and become a good man like her master.

However, the interactions in her FTEs specifically with Shuichi amplify her disdain for men making it seem worse than it is in the game.

Despite all this she still she moments of genuine growth realizing that not all men are as bad as the ones her master told her about and the one she saw while crime-fighting through her experiences with Shuichi and the other men in the game she slowly but surely alters her perspective, and the journey leads her to form a friendship--though some would say acquaintanceship--with Shuichi (a man 😱.)

It’s a shift for her from her initial male-hating persona as she learns to accept that not every man is as bad as she was taught to believe by her master.

I could go on but this is getting long so in Part 2 I'll delve deeper into Tenko’s character arc and development in chapter 3.

#danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #tenko chabashira #i'm so normal about her

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zuko-always-lies · 10 months ago

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What was, in your opinion, Avatar's biggest mistake in writing?

That's a tough question, in part because ATLA is an extremely successful show. If they had fixed some of the flaws that I perceive in their narrative, perhaps they would have been less successful. Certainly the show's Zuko woobification and Iroh hagiography contributed to the popularity of the show, yet I hate those.

That being said, I think we can narrow this down to a few options:

Zuko's lack of clear development or arc in Book 2. I think this really damaged his overall arc a lot and made it so that Book 3 had to be too jammed. But again, most fans really love Zuko's arc, so what can we say?

Iroh and the entire Order of White Lotus being written like they were. But again, fans love "War Santa," so what can we say?

Azula being demonized to the degree she was. She was ultimately clearly intended as a sympathetic character by the writers, yet most of the fandom went away with the impression that she "a demon in human form." The unfortunate thing is that you would need to change only a handful of scenes to make her look much more sympathetic, so the writers really screwed up there.

Adding on the #3, allowing Azula to clearly express her motives would have been great.

There's generally an extreme lack of female benders in the show, which is really unfortunate and easily fixable.

The entire series finale is a massive, massive mess which would require a lot surgery to make sense and not make just about every character look terrible. You could write an entire long post about it.

Writing Suki like they did. It's very clear they never figured out a backstory or wrote a character treatment for her, and she's extremely thin for amount of screentime they give her.

This is a personal indulgence and not really a writing issue per say, but I would have loved to see more interactions between Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee.

You asked for one single issue and I gave you eight. Hopefully that satisfies you, even though I didn't quite answer your question.

#ATLA #atla critical #avatar the last airbender #writing issues #Azula

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jesncin · 8 months ago

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I’m curious since the two of you are such big Martian Manhunter fans, what was y’all’s first exposure to the character and what got you so interested in him?

OOH YEA MY MARTIAN ORIGIN STORY TIME!!

So we both grew up with the DCAU's version of J'onn- Carl Lumbly did such an endearing performance as the character that I always look back on Martian Manhunter fondly. But it wasn't until we were assigned in class to reimagine DC characters as if we were hired by DC that we really started liking the character. We were tasked with making a Justice League short comic, with rebooted designs and origin stories. The story naturally gravitated to being about Batman and Martian Manhunter.

When reimagining J'onn, we looked at his origin and were surprised to learn he had a twin brother! Reading Ma'alefa'ak's backstory our response was "oh, so he's a disabled martian?" and changed the Martians' backstory to be about the two of them escaping Mars together. That only got to show up in one panel in the Justice League comic, but long after the assignment was done we kept thinking about that origin story. We read up on more Martian Manhunter comics and were frustrated that something that felt like such an obvious way to improve both characters hadn't been done before.

Years later as I'm wrapping up my graphic novel projects I ended up back on tumblr after the many twidder-apocalypses and was touched to find people still asking about our version of J'onn in our asks. It reignited our dormant fixation to what you see now! We finally got to draw the Sons of Mars origin story, and now it's sprawled into this whole jl remix AU. Drawing all this stuff is such a nice break from the capitalism grind of work and just lets me go loose haha. Much of my love for Martian Manhunter is his untapped potential! How to write J'onn in a way that stands out from Superman, Batman and the Justice League, acknowledge and play into the unique aspects of his character, all that jazz. It's become the Professional Comic Artist's version of playing with action figures.

#askjesncin #martian manhunter is interesting to me in how you can take the character in an incredible direction if you're brave enough #to break away from staple parts of his lore that are keeping the character from reaching his potential #he can bring such an unique dimension and perspective as a hero- i relate to him a lot as the more “othering” alien yknow #genuinely believe he's worthy of 4th pillar status if more effort was put into him

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tzilatza · 1 year ago

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NATLA Review - spoilers

Woke up today still feeling annoyed after finished the Netflix ATLA remake last night, and I think I've figured out the core reason.

It's the fact that: If they had held truer to the original source material, we could have had a truly great show. I disagree with those calling it a complete disaster. The acting was good, great in some cases. The effects were very well done, the bending looked about as good as it can in a live action media. The scenery was lovely.

But what happened in the writer's room?! The way they just reveal all the back stories up front EVERY TIME is honestly insulting to the audience. It's like they're so terrified that smartphone culture has made the public so accustomed to instant gratification that they have no faith we will stick around and keep watching if they make us wait for anything.

They're also clearly terrified of complexity. One of my biggest gripes with this remake is Jet's story. They completely took out his plans to murder a whole town of innocents in order to get a few enemy soldiers. Now, Jet isn't my favorite character, but his story is so important. Because it is real. The world is full of people who have been so brought down by injustice that they lose their sense of right and wrong, and we need to see that on screen. If Jet is too complex for them, how will they handle Ba Sing Se in the second season.

This goes along the same lines as removing Sokka's sexist moments. They felt they had to do it to make him more 'likable.' Yet the writers themselves went full sexist on Katara's character. They've taken out so much of her spark, her righteous and justified anger, and they've done it because even in 2024, people expect women to be more passive to be palatable. Enough people have already commented on them removing Aang's choice to run away. Heaven forbid the main character not be an absolute paragon. Did y'all notice that they even made Hahn likable? Hahn?! What reason do you have for making Hahn likable Netflix?! His role in the narrative is to be an example of toxic masculinity that is clearly the bad choice compared to Sokka who has learned and grown out of his own.

Don't even get me started with what they're doing with the fire nation family, I'm not ready to tackle that. In general, I have no problem with Azula getting a little more backstory and humanizing, but why season 1? Throwing in all these extra scenes just sacrifices screen-time where they could've actually fleshed out the real season one plots instead of rushing through things at breakneck pace. (ex: Aang escaping Zuko's ship in about 2 minutes flat)

At the end of the day, the scenes I most enjoyed were those that held true to the original like the Blue Spirit sequences. They could've easily done more of this, held onto the important plot points and even more important character complexity, while maturing it for an adult audience. I'm not disagreeing with every change they made. Go ahead and take out the silly Nickelodeon gags, add cussing and more realistic violence to get your mainstream viewers. Go ahead. They could've easily made a darker more mature version of the show and still held onto all the old fans in my opinion. But claiming that you're making a 'more mature' version and then removing the complexity and subtlety because they didn't think viewers could handle it...

What makes me most sad is that there are a lot of people who will experience ATLA for the first time through this show. There are a lot of adults who are not willing to watch original ATLA because they refuse to acknowledge an animated series can be anything other than a kid's show. Those people will watch this and think it's the real deal, and that just makes me sad.

If you've read this far, a very sincere thank you for listening to my rant. If you're an OG fan who enjoyed it, I have no problem with you. It was a fun watch, I was just hoping for more. If you are a new viewer who has never seen ATLA before, I sincerely want to hear your opinions. Is it a great show to someone who isn't holding it against the context of the original? And do you plan to watch the original now?

#natla #natla spoilers #live action atla #live action avatar #netflix avatar #netflix avatar review #avatar the last airbender #atla

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bookdragon-shenanigans · 6 months ago

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I just read the fourth wing bonus chapter and MAN. I knew I wasn't Xaden's biggest fan before but MAN. I honestly don't even know how they ruined a character with so much potential is beyond my understanding???? Xaden is straight up unlikable in the chapter. So many issues in the chapter.

[Caution: Listen, I love Xaden, truly. But he really makes me want to beat him up I'm sorry]

Opinions so far: (Warning: This is not Xaden-friendly I might be a major bitch for 80% 😭)

The chapter felt kind of unnecessary?? Like even if it was a cash grab (which I agree but that's not the point rn) did we really need a bonus chapter that's just the same chapter but just rewritten with some occasional Xaden comments? We could've gotten a new interaction but noooo

With the amount of obsessing talking Xaden does about Dain, you'd think Dain was the one he has a crush on. No because stop this you're literally doing the same thing you accuse everyone of doing to you. "Everyone judges the marked kids just because of what our parents did 🥺🥺👉👈" ISN'T THAT WHAT YOU'RE DOING RIGHT NOW??? Why are you being such a pissy bitch over the fact that he thinks you're bad for her when you literally agree???. [Coherent me update: In hindsight Xaden going out of his way to annoy Dain for entertainment is hilarious not gonna lie. Still think he was being a bitch tho]

The Imogen was missing plotline. Seriously? "Imogen was sick"?? They could just be like oh no she wiped everyone's memories so they don't remember because there is zero canon connection in her being sick. Also the fandom was spot on 💅. To be fair, I can excuse this one.

Xaden's "strategy". Why are we acting like battle strategy is a multiple choice question with one answer??? Where is the common sense?? Where is the individuality??? Where is the originality???

I just noticed this now but WHY IS THE CONTINENT THEY LIVE IN LITERALLY CALLED The Continent???? WHY ARE THEY ACTING LIKE THEY LIVE ALONE IN THE WORLD HELP

FINALLY Emery's last name

Okay I actually like passively possessive simp Xaden because let's be fr he's not noticing anyone other than Violet. He's really acting like the stupid hormonal emo 23 year old he his and I love him for that.

Xaden not understanding sibling dynamics is top tier I love this. Like this man is standing there so confused like 🧍‍♂️.

Highkey confused at the Lewellen part because I'm pretty sure they were fostered by Lindell?? Either this is shitty writing or a case of an unreliable narrator. Who knows. Not me.

SGAEYL. THAT'S IT. 🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐

"Violet would get over her sister's death eventually" CALM TF DOWN SIR. This is a civilized conversation. Okay but like someone needs to tell these people that murder doesn't solve everything. It's not even the best form of revenge 😭😭😭

I need more backstory on the Cygnis flier drama. Why only that province??? How come other provinces are safe??

"Wasn't my choice," I shrug. Lying is easy, except when it comes to Violet. I haven't quite figured that one out yet. Excuse me what

Okay, I know this is OS buildup but why were the wards down???

"Was it us?" LIAM. MY SWEET BABY BOY ILY YOU'RE THE BEST.

Okay I just realized now that Dain only name drops Rhiannon, Ridoc and Sawyer when he mentions the first years and man how did I not notice that before-

Lots of suspicious stuff. Lots.

IT HAS COME TO MY NOTICE THAT THERE IS A VERY HIGH AMOUNT OF MIRA DYING MENTIONED IN THE CHAPTER AND I DO NOT LIKE IT AT ALL

The bottom line is that I've read too much fanfiction and set my standards too high 😭😭

Anyways stan Liam my sweet summer child 🛐🛐

Update: I just came back from my exam and took a look at what I wrote here and help why was 5am me so salty 😭😭

#I wrote this on 4 hours of sleep before an exam ignore my saltiness #I might get canceled for this tbh why do I make such controversial posts #listen I love fw I really do but I also think it's a bad book in terms of fantasy #pls dont cancel me #fourth wing #fourth wing bonus chapter #xaden riorson #violet sorrengail

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delurkr · 5 months ago

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A barely-edited ramble as I try to figure out stuff about David and other 1692 folks

Under cut because boy those paragraphs got long

I was never a fan of how David is called a farmer in the subtitles before we learn his name, because with all the other type of people it took (and takes) to make a town just calling him a farmer with ultimately no textual backing comes off as rather uncreative or uninformed, as if someone just assumed that of course he would be a farmer because it's ye olden days and nobody did anything else (not an uncommon perception but super dumb). Of course it's possible that there was more thought behind it, but still there were plenty of positions available in towns like Salem and Andover in their time; craftspeople of all kinds and storekeepers and merchants of varying scope are some basic ones (also I've seen it said that the prior increase of business and trading in the area is considered to be a contributing factor to the societal instability that fed the witch trials, not that I'm going to fact check right now or give a citation for that). He's also only 20 years old, and under normal circumstances he's not likely to be a landowner yet so calling him a farmer in his own right is less believable, but it's certainly not a given that the Miltons' circumstances are normal so that's less important.

Now thinking about the museum, there's a mannequin dressed in David's clothes and it's set up at some sort of work table or piece of machinery, and I have no clue what it is but someone on reddit once suggested that it looked a little like a potter's wheel, which seems to be as good a guess as anything. So I've always liked the idea that David was trained as a potter but never progressed in that occupation before he turned to farming for some reason.

So in the interest of filling in backstory for the 1600s characters, because I'm woefully deficient in that department and grasping at anything, an idea I'm considering is that the father of Tabitha, David, and Mary was a potter who was training David in the business, but then when the mother Martha Milton was taken in the Commencement Day Massacre in 1690, when Tabitha was 20 years old, Mr. Milton couldn't deal and left to buy milk as they say and hasn't been heard of since (not to make it all dramatic but if he up and disappeared from LH town with no news from any of surrounding town near or far it leaves an open question with a good amount of potential answers). That would have left Tabitha as the head of household she appears to be, and there might naturally be debts to settle on top of a sudden loss of income with Mr. Milton gone which might have taken the pottery business and the associated livelihood off their hands one way or another, so the Miltons hired themselves to the Lamberts in whatever arrangement best made sense and lived and worked on the Lamberts' farm by 1692.

That gives David his farmer label, and the other side of it is that the Lamberts would have needed someone like him around, because while I know Strong Farmer Joseph is an appealing idea I lean towards the doubles sharing each other's physical capabilities beyond just physical likeness, and farming takes truckloads of stamina but even adrenaline couldn't give John a whole lot of that (I mean let's be real, John is normal in that situation and the others are generally abnormal in their ability to do that much running around for an entire night with barely any effect, but that's a tangent). John also seems to have some concern about his heart, whether there's an actual medical reason behind that idk, so that may be a thing for Joseph too. So I imagine Joseph needed to take a step back from the heavy work on their property and David was needed to take that place, and of course there's plenty for Tabitha and Mary to do as well.

So yeah, that's what I'm considering to give background to the idea of the Miltons working for the Lamberts, which was the one part I'm solid on. If anybody has other ideas I'm lowkey desperate to hear them lol

#ramblings #david milton #tabitha milton #mary milton #joseph lambert #amy lambert #the dark pictures anthology #little hope

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kainagant · 8 months ago

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i'm sure someone has already talked and theorized about this at length, but i just want to point out a minor detail that was never expanded on during lady nagant's arc. in her backstory, before she accepted to offer from the hero commission to work for them, her right elbow is wrapped in what appear to be bandages. her right elbow is where her rifle quirk extends from.

it looks like she mainly wears the elbow wrap when in public, around other people, or at least in school (left image), but takes them off when alone and/or in her own house (right image).

i think there's two main conclusions to be drawn from this. the first, that she wears the elbow wrap as a kind of support gear, possibly to help her control her quirk better like with aoyama's belt. it's not too far fetched to surmise that she might have had difficulty with her quirk as a younger child.

however, i'm going to argue with myself here and say that knowing what we know about "rifle", i don't really see how she would have a problem in the same way that eri or aoyama do. long story short, if that is what it's for, it seems unnecessary. moreover, going with the aoyama precedent, he never takes his belt off. because it's a real and actual possibility that his quirk will misfire involuntarily. whether he's at his parents house, inside the dorm, or alone in his room, he still wears his belt. so the fact that kaina felt safe taking off when she's alone would suggest that it's not actually a support item for her quirk.

i've seen some fans bring up that its illegal to purchase or possess a gun in japan. but i mostly dismissed this thought, although interesting to think about, because as strict as japanese gun control laws are, it's also illegal to set off explosives, and that never affected or stopped bakugou.

but now i'm thinking that perhaps it did impact kaina. if she's not wearing an elbow wrap for her own or others' safety (because, as i established, it seems unnecessary), then she may be wearing it for others' peace of mind.

which brings up a whole slew of possibilities for her pre-hpsc backstory. because there's plenty of examples of kids with destructive and/or weapon-related quirks that don't seem to get the same treatment. so there must be something specific to kaina that prompted her to wrap her quirk up whenever she goes outside. was she bullied? ostracized? simply told by an authority figure that it's "safer this way" and never questioned it?

this gives an extra layer of weight to kaina's motive to becoming a hero. because the hero commission came to her and said that the power which she, if not outright bullied for, was at least strongly discouraged from having, could be used for the better of society.

from the very start, she was defined by her weaponhood. the hero commission merely took a weapon which people were afraid of and made it into something to be admired as well. and most importantly, something that can be used. kaina took the opportunity to use her weaponhood for the benefit of others, after being raised under the assumption that her quirk was dangerous and meant for hurting others. and how did that end up, but exactly as everyone had always told her it would?

kaina tsutsumi was always doomed to be either feared as a weapon, or used as a weapon.

#lady nagant #bnha #mha #tsutsumi kaina #kaina tsutsumi #meta

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wordrage · 1 year ago

Note

Hi! So I was going through your snape tag (btw sorry for the million notifications you probably got), and I noticed you weren’t very much a fan way back on the early days of your blog. Feel free to completely ignore this if you don’t feel like answering (it is truly none of my business), but I’m always fond of hearing people’s “how I came to like this character” or “why I changed my mind about this character” stories and I was wondering what yours was :)

Hiii! Thanks for the ask! (No worries on the notification spam lol) and I appreciate that you reached out!

Yes! I think he was one of the characters I had the most difficulty empathizing with because I had such a strong, emotional reaction to him. Especially after OotP forward. He's divisive! (Also looking back through my Snape tag has me internally cringing a bit with how little grace I extended to the poor guy...ah well. With age/maturity comes wisdom...? D: )

I'm ngl, after reviewing some of the earlier posts, my immediate reaction is to delete them as my opinions have definitely changed, but maybe it's good to leave it as a record of my evolving mindset towards the character? lol

Ok, so what changed?

Well, it certainly helps I'm now closer to adult Snape's age from Book 1 than Harry's age when I was first reading the HP series as it was being published. I didn't give much thought to Snape beyond he was a mean teacher and a bully, for the first four books at least.

I got into the HP fandom around when GoF had been released so I was discovering plenty of fanfic and fan meta. Snape was one of the more ... well ... fans reactions to him that liked him or even wrote him sexually with the cast confused middle-school me, to be honest. I was more interested in the child characters than the adults, so I was vaguely aware of how he was portrayed in fandom but didn't really engage.

This changed after OotP was released, and we finally got some explicit Severus Snape backstory and history with the Occlumency lessons. I had a really an emotional reaction to SWM and some of the memories we got a glimpse of. I was empathetic and not completely surprised to learn Snape was from an abusive home, that he had possible trauma and issues that explained his actions and why he was so cold and angry. Like Harry, I was really disappointed in how his father and Sirius treated Snape. There's just no excuse for how they sought him out to pick on him for fun. I was on Harry's side with confronting Sirius and Lupin about how his dad and they acted.

Also, I read everything with shipper eyes, and immediately felt there was more to Severus and Lily's relationship beyond her just coming over and reacting to James actions lol. They called Jily a crack!ship but it looks like they were validated in the end lol.

However what really made me emotionally react with anger was that we are basically being shown that Severus knows what it's like to be a scared child being abused and tormented by authority figures and other children, but he does it to his students?? I could not understand his actions at a time but I would get genuinely angry when I did think about it. To child me, this felt like a betrayal, both for a fictional character and when actual people did this. Looking back I was reacting so strongly due to my own personal experience with trauma in the home and with authority figures abusing children.

I recall not caring much about him in HBP or DH. I was much more upset with Sirius' death than Dumbledore's, so Snape's "betrayal" was just not something I recall reacting emotionally to. In DH, I definitely remember reading his memories and just feeling irritated with him. To me, he was a guy with trauma and emotional issues, sure, but I felt his behavior towards Harry, Hermione, and Neville was not excused for me. At most I felt begrudging respect for him and acknowledged he was not a completely terrible person. Harry naming one of his son's after him felt so bizarre, and I just could not understand why Harry wanted to honor him. Forgive him, sure I could understand Harry doing that, but naming his child after Snape just left me feeling confused. I could not understand how Snape could have loved Lily so much, but treated her son like he did.

I know I'm basically rambling, but it really has been a journey. :P

When I grew out of HP and the fandom after DH was published, I never gave much thought to him or his circumstances until I (unexpectedly) returned to the HP fandom last summer. I reread all of the books as an adult and I had the life experience and maturity to understand that:

A) Snape was funny! A lot funnier than I remember.

B) His actions throughout the book were too subtle for teenage me, but they made me really question my previous feelings for the character.

C) Everyone Dumbledore was kind of terrible to him!

I read a lot of really well written meta on the characters and HP. Specifically I think it was @pet-genius posts on reddit I found that really helped me put my thoughts and feelings regarding HP, primarily Harry, in order. And I can't help but compare and contrast Harry and Severus as characters and how they each approach their trauma and grief.

@ashesandhackles metas on Snape was also really helpful in highlighting the examples in the text that showed how Snape's actions sometimes directly contradict with what he said, especially to Harry. He's always presenting himself as this cold and controlled person, disparaging emotional reactions and connections. Yet he's one of the most emotionally reactive characters in the series next to Harry!

I was able to see clearer a lot of things I liked about him. That he's an incredibly skilled and hardworking person. That he cares very deeply for people he does allow himself to have feelings for and connections to. That he was scared, so scared, probably all the time after Voldemort's return to power, but he never wavered in his determination to continue to show up and fulfill his duty. Him making the Vow with Narcissa to try to protect Draco. The incredible pain he must have been in when he used the Killing Curse on Dumbledore, the one person left that knew everything about him and still valued him. That he dies keeping silent about the Elder Wand ownership, protecting Draco from becoming Voldemort's next target.

I also viewed his relationship with Lily as so much more complex than unrequited love. There's a meta out there (I will edit this post and link it if I find it again) that argues Snape wasn't really in love with Lily, and that "Always" quote is so much deeper than a romantic, or sexual, type of feelings for her. I think it argues that Snape elevated Lily to a symbol of Good, or at least used her memory to guide him on morality. I felt so much more respect for the guy that he had dedicated his life as penance, basically, for betraying his once-best friend once more.

This is getting long, I hope this wasn't too much. I have changed my feelings on how Severus treated Harry and the other kids close to him in that year's class. Looking at how he acts to others and comparing to how he acts with Harry, I now now I feel Harry was a very specific trigger for Severus and he showed Harry and Harry's potions class a side of him that he generally did not show to anyone else. This is just my personal interpretation based on how other adults, from Dumbledore to even Lupin, and kids speak of Snape as a professor and seem to think Harry is just exaggerating that Snape hates him. When, no, Snape really is projecting his hate and rage and grief about James and Lily onto Harry and he does actually hate the kid. Which, it's probably easier for Severus to think he hates Harry rather than hates himself.

I could keep going but I will stop here for now. I hope that answers the question? But feel free to chat more :) I hope you don't mind I responded with a blog post, I can take it down if you would rather it be answered privately lol.

I suppose the tl;dr version is that Snape makes me angry because he makes me feel things about myself that I don't like, but with age and reading other people's thoughts on the character has definitely made me come around to they guy!

#severus snape #hp meta #hp

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andrewwtca · 2 years ago

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the Aubrey problem (or how Omori's writing failed her)

Also available to read on Archive of our Own.

I really like video games. If the fanfiction, theory posts, and occasional essays weren’t enough, here’s me saying it—I really like video games! They’re a conversation between writing, art, music, and human interaction, between the player, the game, and the characters in them. Of course, not all games have all of that, some being only text-based, some being lifeless wastelands, but whatever they end up choosing to work with, they often do something amazing.

Sunny is one of my favorite protagonists in any realm of media—video game, movie, book—and he genuinely changed the way I view the world. Not just him, but the entire world built around him, Headspace and its charming inhabitants and the wondrous sights and music, the creative bosses that leave so much insight, the beautiful overworld that is Faraway and a nostalgic look into what we leave behind, and what we return to.

So that’s why I’m so disappointed I don’t like Aubrey.

This game blew my mind away when I first saw it—my first experience with the game wasn’t even my own playthrough, but sitting through a 20-hour longplay!—and I lost so many hours of sleep twisting and turning and trying to make peace with the grief it left me feeling. And after finishing, I realized that its flaws were plenty, but not enough to drag me out of my enjoyment. But Aubrey? Aubrey didn’t make me feel the way I knew she was supposed to.

That frustrated me, especially as I became a bigger and bigger fan of the game. I had no qualms about liking her archetype, the feminine bully with a tragic backstory, and yet I do with her.

As someone who craves literary analysis and in-depth looks into every media I consume, I just needed to know: what made me dislike Aubrey?

And after over two years of being a fan of the game, I’ve finally figured it out: it’s a good mixture of 1) lack of explanation, 2) rushed self-awareness, and 3) lackluster narrative choices. And I’ve found the words I needed to explain these concepts, so please join me on my messy journey to understanding what went wrong with Aubrey.

preface

If you’re an Aubrey apologist, this essay is not for you. I’ve heard plenty of arguments about why Aubrey was actually in the right, not limited to “Basil deserved it,” and, “Aubrey was hurting too,” so I’d like to begin by stating that Aubrey was a bully very clearly.

Rejecting the notion that she actively harmed others is rejecting a core component of understanding her character. Before we dive into her character and how the writing failed her character arc, I would like us all to be on the same page: she physically, verbally, and socially bullied Basil. It was not Basil’s fault, and it will never be a victim’s fault to get bullied. She is not the victim of her own crime, just like how Sunny is not the victim of Mari’s death, and Basil is not the victim of Mari’s hanging. We, as the player, are to recognize their responsibilities in their actions. The same must be extended to Aubrey.

Some people feel the need to deny this aspect of her character to justify her actions and/or justify liking her. Firstly, the purpose of this essay isn’t to villainize anyone for liking Aubrey. I’m simply analyzing what was attempted with her character and why it didn’t strike a chord with me and so many others. Secondly, as Kel wisely said, “Just because you did something bad, doesn't make you a bad person.” I’m not here to say that Aubrey is a bad person—no, nobody in Omori is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and labeling characters as such is taking away the nuance they possess. And I’m certainly not saying liking a character who did something bad makes you bad, either!

Liking Aubrey is in no way a problem (which makes me a tad bit sad that I need to clarify), and I’ll even go as far as to say kudos to you, but if you bend and twist to stop her from holding any responsibility for her actions, that’s when problems arise. Basil is a fictional character and won’t care if you think it was his fault he was bullied, but for the people around you who may have been in similar positions to him?

And lastly, I want to say that if you cite sexism as the reason people don’t like Aubrey… actually, this is the perfect transition into the analysis.

gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss

Femme bullies are not a new phenomenon. Perhaps it’s the break from the stereotypical sweet feminine girl that makes them so fascinating, using their femininity to not sing to animals or wish for a man, but pull down others and advance their status.

I, for one, adore the femme bully trope. Especially if they’re one who used to be extremely kind and underwent some sort of ‘fall from grace’ that led to a bastardization. But, as for all bullies, if they are left without a proper backstory and motivation, I’m turned off from them. Most humans are not mean just because they can be but rather are products of how they were raised. When these causes are ignored, the trope falls flat, and instead of being a good reconstruction, it’s a flat stereotype.

The best way to analyze this is by comparing Aubrey’s character to good examples of femme bullies in the past. Specifically, I’m picking my favorites: Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion, Nanami from Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Sophie from The School for Good and Evil. I’m going to do a quick (and a bit sarcastic) overview of their characters in their respective media, but a quick warning for suicide in Asuka’s overview, and animal cruelty in Nanami’s.

Asuka is a pilot for one of the mechas, the Evangelion, and she always thought of herself as better than everyone. Well, of course, she would: she studied hard, worked harder than everyone around her, and she’s just naturally talented. And yet, she’s still always threatened by others and how they can ruin her status. Specifically, for the course of the show, she targets Shinji—he’s this nobody from nowhere who could suddenly pilot an Eva, while she had to fight her whole life to get here! How is that fair? And what has that asshole been through anyway? Did he have to see his mother’s corpse after she committed suicide as a small child? Did he fight for his mother’s love his entire life just for her to kill herself? Does he have to fight for male attention just so he isn’t thrown aside? No, of course not! So how is any of it fair?

Nanami is the sister to the wonderful student body president Touga, and she wants nothing more than his attention. And with her being the youngest of the cast, one cannot be mad at her for not understanding the severity of violence and finality of death, so her anger as a small child with a kitten whom Touga adored is also understandable. One simply cannot be mad at her for drowning it. So, of course, you cannot blame her for wanting to punish the ever-elusive Anthy and Utena, who Touga has become fixated on. What does Anthy or Utena have that Nanami doesn’t? They’re stupid girls, not Touga’s sister. No matter what, Nanami is going to win her brother’s affection (and in her pursuit, ignore how horribly he’s been manipulating her the entire time).

And Sophie is the Witch of Woods Beyond, capable of powerful spells beyond the imagination, from a place that few know of. And she wants nothing more than for her own fairy-tale ending—why do all the princesses around her get princes and castles and beautiful dresses, and she’s doomed to being hideous and alone for the rest of her life? Who decided that for her? She’s beautiful, after all, so she should be a princess! It doesn’t matter who stands in the way of her happily ever after; especially not if it’s Agatha, her lifelong best friend. No matter what, Sophie will not end up like her mother who died all alone, with her husband forgetting her and moving on. Sophie will be loved, no matter who she has to hurt.

What do they all have in common? Firstly, they’re all girls. As stated, femme bullies are different from masc bullies, especially as they reveal aspects of femininity and womanhood in general that many people—see, a male audience—will neglect to face, and overall uncover sexism that's still present in both media and society. Secondly, they’re all bullies, and they targeted someone in particular who they saw as detrimental to their happiness. And thirdly, they all had specific upbringings that conditioned them to have their ‘falls from grace’. What is this third, unidentified thing?

Mommy issues!

(Sorry, I know Nanami technically has a brother complex, but I just wanted to say mommy issues.)

A pattern has been developed with all of these girls. They all start fairly, what one can call, ‘feminine’ or at least, per standard stereotypes. They’re gentle and sweet and shine when needed. And they all have a ‘fall from grace’—a moment, or sequence of moments, that leads them to reject traditional femininity and embrace a more vengeful version of it. And a final moment, where they are faced with their opposite, who represents all that they do not have.

Asuka was sweet and kind and bubbly until her mother killed herself. After that, she dedicated herself to her studies and getting adult male attention through means of the over-sexualization of herself. And then, she began to bully Shinji.

Sophie was sweet and kind and bright until her mother died. After that, she idolized her mother’s false display of femininity and became obsessed with becoming a princess. And then, at the School for Evil, she began to bully Agatha.

Nanami was assumedly sweet—she deviates from this pattern slightly, being built off assumptions of a good past rather than showcases—until she was brought into this family and became obsessed with her brother and was manipulated by him. After that, she became desperate for his attention, fighting any other who could take it. And then, she began to bully Utena (and Anthy.)

While Nanami does deviate from this pattern, they all have clear origins. They were not bullies from the start. As aforementioned, in the face of an adversary, the majority of people do not turn to hurting one another. Something in their pasts, their ‘falls from grace’, was the foundation of their actions, what led them to believe what they were doing was okay. It’s not justification—it's a much-needed explanation. After all, if you do not understand, how can you empathize?

Still, you may fail to see my point. The game has lots of hints of Aubrey’s troubled upbringing. And that’s exactly what the problem is. These girls have clear origins while Aubrey’s is muddled.

Of course, I don’t expect Omori to have spoon-fed me details of her past. You can put the pieces together by walking through her home and seeing bottles laid on the ground. But, even in a game dependent on nuance and having the player put certain things together, it’s better to leave things out directly rather than to work a way around.

To build up a good femme bully, we need a good origin story. What happened to her that made her turn to violence? Why should we care? We know Aubrey probably had a troubled childhood. But the game doesn’t supply enough. It leaves too much to fill in the blanks. I know that Asuka saw her mother’s corpse, I know that Sophie was forced into a misogynistic viewpoint upon her mother’s death, and I know that Nanami was manipulated to hell and back. I know what these girls have been through so I know why they ended up walking their paths.

But the game simply doesn’t reveal enough about Aubrey. Fan speculation is not enough. Canon interpretation should not be confused with fan interpretation—according to the fans, Aubrey’s father is a deadbeat, and her mother is an abusive, neglectful alcoholic. According to the game? Aubrey’s dad is “strict”, and her house is an absolute disaster. The house is one of the biggest clues as to Aubrey’s childhood, and while some may praise this as ‘showing and not telling’, the game never tries to make workarounds for the other characters (which I will dig deeper into later). I can assume what happened in her house but it’s not my job to find ways to empathize with the character; that is the story’s job.

This is the first of Omori’s three sins and we haven’t even scratched the surface.

actions speak more than words, or something like that

I recently saw a post that I thought would make a good intro for this section. It’s an apologist post for Aubrey, discussing how the game did treat her with just enough harshness—that because she’s been beating herself up, because she’s suffered a public breakdown, because it took kindness to help her heal, it’s proof of her regret. There’s some good Basil blaming in there too, with a strange turn saying that she refused to leave Basil’s house because of her willingness to turn over a new leaf. And it ends with a weird claim that she was a “good person all along,” (implying an argument otherwise), but I’m not here to rat on that post.

Despite how frustrated the post made me, I am inclined to agree. It’s black-and-white to state that Aubrey didn’t change at all. If you compare her first Faraway appearance to her final scenes, she’s a completely different person. Which would've been nice if the change didn’t take two scenes.

Much like how I compared Aubrey’s backstory to that of other femme bullies, I’m going to compare Aubrey’s redemption to that of my favorite redemption story in all of media: Riku from Kingdom Hearts (the fact that I’m so in touch with his story may also explain some of my disappointment with Aubrey’s).

Riku starts off his journey on Destiny Islands. He’s always wondered what lies beyond his small home and dreamed of taking a sailboat with his best friends, Sora and Kairi. However, jealousy is an awful thing—Sora and Kairi are close. And it seems that Riku has been hearing about how they’re thinking of leaving him behind. So, he does what any teenager dealing with larger-than-life feelings does: he gives in to the magical Darkness and effectively kills everyone on the islands, separating him, Sora, and Kairi (don’t worry—everyone comes back.)

By the end of the game, he’s come to his senses, but it takes a lot of time. He fights with Sora a lot because he just knows, deep down, that he’s right and Sora is wrong, and if Sora would just listen…but no. Sora keeps abandoning him. So he has to work through that and all the feelings that accompany those abandonment issues, he has to work through the question of “What is even making me want to kill my best friend, anyway?”, and he has to work through “Wait…can I kill my best friend?” So, it takes a lot of time for him to get to his senses.

And then, he goes through hell. Literally and metaphorically. He dedicates himself wholly to making up for what he did. How? Well, he first identifies what he did wrong—he separated from his friends, he gave in to his jealousy, and he submerged his home in Darkness. He apologizes for it directly—although he doesn’t have a chance to speak with Sora right away, he's constantly apologizing for the fact that he gave in to the Darkness, so much that it became a running gag to some fans. He put up distance—he didn’t feel like he was owed forgiveness right away (or at all, but that’s a different matter) and didn’t stick at Sora’s side to wait for his best friend to forgive him. He worked hard to show that he’s changed—it would be a much longer essay if I attempted to explain the lengths he went through, but it’s not limited to allowing himself to be possessed, going to literal Hell, forcing himself into isolation, and enduring multiple handicapping injuries.

Long story short? He really, really tries to make it up to Sora. And when he and Sora finally talk (it took three years in real life, took perhaps a year in the game), Sora doesn’t even hesitate to forgive his friend…though it may be in part to Sora just being Sora. Nevertheless, Riku had earned that forgiveness.

And then, after that, Riku continues to give himself hell! He never stops to sweep what he did under the rug. It’s a part of him, after all, an ugly past but his past nonetheless. It does not define him but it cannot be forgotten, otherwise, he hasn't learned anything at all.

Deep breath. We talked a lot about Kingdom Hearts in an Omori essay. But it’s important to understand the sheer depth put into his redemption: identification, distance, and work.

What’s most frustrating about Aubrey’s arc is that fragments of this good writing exist, but that’s what they are: fragments. I would like it to be stated for the record that everything I explained for Riku’s arc wasn’t me creating speculation based on what the games said. It’s what the games literally came out and said. Aubrey however…

Identification—she apologizes to Sunny, Kel, and Hero by saying “I’m sorry, guys… I’ve been acting like such a jerk.” While I may give her grief for the usage of the word ‘jerk’ when perhaps a stronger, more evocative term would’ve done a better job, it’s certainly better than what she said in front of Basil’s door: "I just wanted to say that… I’m sorry for the way I’ve been treating you.” Completely separating herself from the issue at hand.

Distance—none. She's immediately reintroduced to her old friend group, at a rate that ended up giving me whiplash the first time around. The question, “What about the Hooligans?” is never brought up, and things are back to how they always were, with no problems at all.

Work—Aubrey stayed the night at Basil’s house, wanting to make sure he was safe. To which, if you end up getting the neutral ending, you get the most insightful message of Aubrey’s arc (which is technically non-canon): “I'm so sorry, Basil. Please forgive me…” If getting the good or bad ending, her staying the night meant literally nothing, as Sunny’s fight took the reins.

These are fragments of a character arc. These are fragments of good characterization. While I praise Omori for how often it appears realistic, this kind of exponential growth simply isn’t. In what world, does someone who’s been bullying someone for four years, take less than two days to realize she’s been a bully and decide to change the entire course of her life?

While I could rat on Aubrey, this isn’t her problem. This is the game misreading what makes a good redemption. Redemption means work. It means effort. It is not a character simply changing their ways. Those characters feel cheap and empty—there’s a reason, after all, why the majority of fans always characterize Aubrey as the mean girl she’s shown to be when she first appeared in fan works. It’s because the ‘new’ Aubrey, the Aubrey buried under layers of hurt, hasn’t earned the right to exist.

The Riku I love in Kingdom Hearts III has earned the right to be angsty and gay and happy and his new self because he’s put in 17 years' worth of effort to become that person. It’s beautiful, it’s inspiring, it’s hopeful—you can make a mistake and go past it. It doesn’t define you. You can be forgiven. You can have hurt and have been hurt and still be worthy of love and loving.

The Aubrey at the end of Omori has not earned the right to be there, simply put. She’s the product of lazy, or ignorant writing, and it feels harsh to type out, but there’s no other way to describe it. Her self-awareness happened too quickly. She passes by Sunny’s house every day, sees Kel playing basketball every day, and could freely visit Mari’s grave whenever she wants—there were four years for her to change who she was. If Kel wasn’t able to give up his toxic positivity until the bitter end of the neutral ending, it’s quite hard to believe that a few hours of just talking made her change her ways. Especially considering that the Hooligans were characterized as her new, accepting friends, who love her and hear her out.

And again, the best fragment of an arc that could’ve been appears in the neutral ending! While it was not directly Aubrey’s actions that led Basil to take his life, it’s very impactful to see her begin to blame herself. It’s not right for her to blame herself—but that’s perhaps the only scene in the entire game where I really sympathized with her. It’s the only scene in the entire game where I truly saw that she wanted to change.

A quick note I wanted to pull out before finishing: the inclusion of the Hooligans. They were, again, fragments of an amazing arc. While they could’ve been a good way to show how kind Aubrey still is, they are thrown aside and mainly included in scenes where Aubrey is still being a bully. It’s in content outside of the game (see: Aubrey birthday comic) that they contrast Aubrey’s harsh exterior and show her sweet insides. But no, they’re underdeveloped and unutilized to make Aubrey’s arc feel doable.

There seems to be a very clear culprit to both this and the femme bully problem, and a solution that should’ve been considered more deeply.

rome wasn’t built in a day

There’s a loud rumor in the Omori fandom that Omori was originally supposed to take place over ten days rather than three days. While I’m not sure how much merit this rumor has, the fact that it exists leads me to my ultimate point:

Omori should’ve been longer.

Specifically, Omori should’ve taken place over a longer period.

EDIT: Before we continue, I just had an excellent conversation with a friend ( /ᐠ ._. ᐟ\ﾉ ). This solution only applies to if one is unwilling to change Aubrey's core character; essentially, the extent of her bullying. By making her someone who goes out of her way to torment Basil, significant screen time is going to be needed to properly unpack all that's been given. Making the base game ten days is only my opinion of the best choice, but there are other ways to solve this. However, the best course of action would be to change the extent of Aubrey's bullying on Basil—in other words, changing how Aubrey's anger presents itself.

For example, she would simply hold a grudge over what she believed was Basil destroying the photos, being extremely passive aggressive towards him. It would make a reconciliation between her and Basil, much, much more doable as well, perhaps him seeking her out in the first place in a peaceful manner to look for the photos. The lake scene could be an emotional explosion for her, perhaps finding out Basil just gave the photo album to Sunny, who is literally about to leave, and then pushes him into the lake. Then, the reflection she has next would fit what has tonally been established, seeming doable. She had, after all, been on good terms with Basil, even if for a little while.

By ‘lackluster narrative choices’, I am referring literally to the belief that Omori should not have been a game that took place in three days. I’m not here to argue about the game's mechanics—should Headspace have been that long? What is the point of a world created to serve as escapism, which should be fleeting moments of happiness, when it ends up being longer than the real world?—as much as I’m here to argue that this is a flaw of the game’s writing as opposed to a game design standpoint.

I’m not going to pretend I know how to make a video game. I’m enthusiastic about them, I follow their development and creation, and I strive to learn as much as I can about the ones that are dear to me, but I’m not going to pretend I know the first thing about making a video game. Omori’s development is one of the most infamous parts of its legacy, and the notion of extending the game would’ve only been another strain on the extended period between its announcement and its final release.

But, I know how to tell a story. Or, at the very least, I know what makes a good story. Now, the three days format of the game serves its other protagonists amazingly.

Sunny, whose arc mainly develops through the interfering ideas established in the real world and the ones previously established in Headspace, doesn’t need an extended time in the real world. His story takes place in his dreams, and the foundations of Headspace are already extremely insecure, based on the idea of covering up the truth. But when faced with a separate truth in reality, despite only a brief exposure, the lies created to protect Headspace fall apart. So Sunny’s arc does not depend on how long he spent in the real world.

Kel and Hero, on the other hand, have a very small arc. They are not flat and are very much dynamic when you compare how they started and how they ended up. However, the majority of their arc had taken place off-screen. The majority of their characterization does not occur through direct interaction with Sunny—we don’t learn about Hero’s depression because of him having a breakdown, but rather Kel discussing it. And in that same scene, we learn about Kel’s toxic positivity and the strain it’s taking on him, rather than through the game. This recontextualization is perfect for Kel and Hero. The change that occurred after Mari’s death is not easily seen by Sunny, and through it being slowly revealed instead, we learn the nature of their changes. Nonetheless, their changes occurred after Mari’s death and another change will occur most likely after the revelation of the truth—either way, their character arcs do not depend on the length of the three days. No amount of time would’ve changed them without Sunny revealing the truth (and as aforementioned, Sunny’s time was well spent in Headspace).

And finally, Basil. He's in the same boat as Kel and Hero, having an arc that occurs entirely off-screen. The difference is, however, the amount of emphasis the game puts on what happened to him as opposed to a few cutscenes with the brothers (though it is understandable, given his role as the game’s deuteragonist). His arc is a downward spiral, from an already unstable boy to an insecure mess who becomes obsessed with the sole idea of keeping his best friend safe. While it’s a progression of who he used to be, it’s development nonetheless, and it also happens off-screen. Given Basil’s fragile mindset, furthermore, the appearance of Sunny suddenly was enough to throw him off, given he was already planning on taking his own life. His rapid spiral into an even worse mess which leads to the fight between him and Sunny, therefore, is understandable. And, similarly to Kel and Hero, his real change will only occur after Sunny reveals the truth. Basil’s character development does not at all depend on how long the game would be.

The simple fact is that the other characters do not go through a drastic change on the days that Sunny comes out, and Sunny’s change was fueled by the existence of Headspace, not by the real world. The game taking place in three days does not affect the others. That is good storytelling. Using the game’s time frame to properly convey their arcs having occurred off-screen.

Aubrey, however, is not subject to that same praise. Her arc occurs on screen—while she descended to becoming a bully after Mari’s death, the arc we the viewer are supposed to acknowledge is her redemption. And three days just isn’t enough time.

The last two problems I covered, a lack of detailed backstory and a general lack of redeeming actions, lie in the same problem: the game went past those scenes far too quickly, as though Aubrey’s redemption is not essential to understanding her. It’s as though the game is trying to place importance on relationships and the joys of rekindling, rather than having to actually rekindle a relationship, having to put in the work. If the game had been slightly longer, Aubrey’s story could’ve been dealt with in a far more effective manner.

I am not Omocat, nor am I a part of the development team. I do not have the ideal solution for what could’ve been. I do, however, have a few ideas that I’d like you, my audience, to consider. How much do you think the game would’ve changed if it was ten days instead of three?

As already explained, Sunny, Kel, Hero, and Basil would not have had any significant difference if the game took place longer. Perhaps, there would’ve been a more natural awkwardness present that accompanies talking to someone for the first time in four years, but aside from that, the events of the game would’ve just taken longer.

Aubrey, however, would’ve had some actual thinking time. Her fight in the church would be her turning point, and her then isolation would feel like she had time to think things over. For a few days, Aubrey would have to be absent, and given the impression she left on the players, this absence would be heavily felt. It would be her return so much more effective, especially if she returns as someone who is unsteady due to their actions.

For the next few days, leading up to Aubrey deciding to stay the night at Basil’s house, we have the chance to know and forgive her better—perhaps, similar to Kel talking to Sunny about Hero’s depression, Aubrey can explain what it was like growing up in her household. Not as a defense, but as an explanation. She would do things with the rest of the group, and she would at a more natural rate, be integrated once again. And not just anything! She would actively help them with whatever the ten days would have to offer, and it would show that she is hurting over her actions.

And, finally, when she would decide to stay at Basil’s house, it wouldn’t feel like the game was just trying to have the cast together for one last moment, but it would feel like she’s trying to bridge the gap of all the hurt she created. When she would go to Basil’s door, it wouldn’t feel like the game was just trying to convince us to forget about her actions, but it would feel like she’s reflected and attempted a new leaf. And hopefully, the game would offer a more heartfelt apology, given more context and material to work with.

Four years of bullying can’t go away in ten days. But that’s not what the game was trying to argue in the first place—it wasn’t fully erasing Aubrey’s action, but trying to create the stepping stone for a way back. But the three days poorly argued her case, with a rushed and lacking version of redemption, and it made her ‘final character’ feel poor.

At the very least, ten days would have allowed the audience to empathize and begin to understand her. And, more importantly, it would’ve made sense that she understood the weight of her actions. And the Aubrey she became, whoever that girl would be?

She would’ve been so, so loved.

a little love in our lives

This has been on my mind for an awful lot of time. Sunny, as aforementioned, is one of my favorite characters of all time (if not my favorite), but the entire cast has a spot in my heart and is very dear to me. That includes Aubrey, but she benefits from association, which hurts me—I hate when girls in media are defined by their relationships with other guys. I wanted to get to the heart of why I couldn’t get her to stand on her own.

To summarize: Aubrey’s character was criminally mismanaged. Instead of it being a hopeful story of redemption, someone finally breaking the cycle of abuse and breaking free of her toxic household, seeking forgiveness by taking an active part in Basil’s healing, she is let off too quickly and makes all her further scenes feel twice as empty. The ideal solution would have been to have the game take place over a larger period, rather than a rushed three days, to allow the audience to empathize and relate to her.

Aubrey apologists truly astound me. I find so many flaws in her writing, and yet other people manage to see those flaws as perfections. I see people making very absurd, ableist arguments, and it makes me question the humanity of many fans, but I’ve always been intrigued by how many different perspectives there are surrounding her. I’ve seen some who relate to her because they were bullies or because they’ve been abandoned by others; so some valid reasons, and others very concerning. But it’s telling how our own experiences make us relate to different characters and help us understand why someone stands in the places they do.

…do you see what I did there? I started talking about relating backgrounds and how that benefits our understanding and— yeah, I suppose you understand, if you got this far (almost 6k words, you should be proud of yourself). If you’re still unfazed and believe that Aubrey’s writing was splendid, all the power to your fannish behaviors. But if I’ve opened your eyes a bit as to the flaws in her writing or if I’ve been able to explain your dislike of her, then I’m glad. It’s important to discuss things that didn’t stick the way they were meant to so that we can do better and we can learn.

Omori’s writing failed Aubrey. Some fans took that as a challenge. I’ve said before that canon interpretation should be separate from fanon interpretation, but I’d have to be heartless (Kingdom Hearts pun intended) to say that many fan’s interpretations didn’t get me to feel with her. I think Aubrey could’ve been brilliant, and while Omori didn’t fully capture that, a lot of fans did. So to everyone who makes art, whether it’s a drawing, a written work, a video, a song, an edit, or whatever, thank you for sharing it. Thank you for telling your stories.

I feel like writing these analysis pieces without connecting them to our own life experiences is pointless. So, to everyone else, please tell your stories. Tell your stories of redemption and love and forgiveness, because that’s what Aubrey’s story was meant to be about, and that’s what we all need in this world. Tell your stories, no matter what they are, because that is what ties us all together. We are made of stories and we return to them. We learn from them and we become better people. We become kinder—and we could all use a little more kindness in the world.

Thanks for reading!

#omori #omori meta #omori analysis #aubrey omori #media analysis #meta essay #literary analysis is my special interest #andrew's essays

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