#but I love mastermind characters

[fuu9266]

I just need to yell about this moment here.

Millie, my girl Mills, bff, absolute queen! She was gonna keep looking at Blitz until he closed his eyes, she wasn’t gonna let him feel alone in this, not ever again. She couldn’t hold his hand, but she could give him the comfort of eye contact until the end, and my gosh, she’s so strong for that! (Not shitting on Moxxie and Loona here! Their not wanting to look is totally valid! Totally a normal response to such a thing!)

You can tell how thankful Blitz is to have someone to look at in the eyes one last time, as he says that he loves his found family. I just love how she wasn’t gonna let him ever go alone, she gave him the only comfort she could from where she was chained, and he appreciated that, so, so much! It’s all over his face here. (Imo)

[floofballsammy]

When he goes like

:>

>:>

[rin-solo]

I love. LOVE. Get In the Water

It's one of the objectively best songs in the musical; I will die on this hill.

Poseidon was always, despite being pretty much the main antagonist of EPIC, a really underdeveloped character in my opinion. He just needed a little more nuance, and the fact that one (+ kind of one more) song managed to add so much to his characterization pretty much exclusively through subtext and implications is incredibly impressive writing. Because it did!

At the start, he's yet again playing games with Odysseus, the way he did in Ruthlessness. In both songs, he could kill him easily at any point, yet he chooses not to for the sake of playing games. In Ruthlessness, this becomes his own hubris as it leads to Odysseus escaping.

If you listen closely, at the start of GITW he already sounds slightly different. He's still trying to keep up this "God of Ruthlessness" front that he's so proud of, but he's no longer more or less carefree the way he was in Ruthlessness. He's been obsessing over this feud for ten years, and even if he would never admit it, it's actually clear just from his voice that he really is tired of it too. Not in the sense of it emotionally draining him the way it probably does Odysseus, but in the sense that it's a bother, a loose end in his life, a book that he finally wants to slam shut.

But he still has a reputation to uphold, and he still cannot close this book until Odysseus is dead, so he keeps up the game. Instead of just killing him, he's taunting him to kill himself. He might associate the idea of just striking him down with a sort of loss, like then he'd have to get his hands dirty. Then he's rambling about killing his people, his family. He's provoking Odysseus on purpose, likely trying to get him to snap back, to hate and fear him the way that Poseidon would think any mortal who has consumed this much of his time should. In his eyes, Odysseus deserves nothing less than to curse him with his last breath as his "darkest moment," the god who became the bane of his life.

And Odysseus replies, of all things, with ... sympathy.

Honestly, I don't blame Poseidon for being speechless for three full seconds. He literally just threatened to gauge Telemachus' eyes out the way Odysseus did with Polyphemus, and this absolute madlad of a man replies with an acknowledgment that he (might have) caused Poseidon pain too.

Now, I don't really think Poseidon was particularly hurt over Polyphemus' loss, or hurting in any way in that moment (if he were, I highly doubt he'd still be playing games, and he would've mentioned his son as opposed to speaking about his reputation.) But just the fact that Odysseus acknowledges that he might be hurting too is probably something Poseidon hasn't heard in ... who knows how long? His family is the Olympians. I don't think I have to say more.

It's actually more of a genuine apology than Odysseus' explanation in Ruthlessness ... (even though that was also a perfectly fine apology by Greek standards, as far as I'm aware.) Now he doesn't say "sorry" because he's still not sorry for hurting Polyphemus, since he still needed to do that in order to escape. But he expresses regret over the pain he caused in a more genuine way than ever.

I am convinced that Poseidon is utterly unfamiliar with sympathy or mercy. He's lived by his "Ruthlessness is mercy" motto for centuries, and he doesn't know anything else. No one would try to teach him something different. The other gods all live by this logic, even if he's the most vocal about it considering he seems to have made it his whole personality. Mortals wouldn't dare to question Poseidon in the first place. And barely anyone would be willing to treat someone with kindness who is in turn treating everyone around them with ruthlessness.

It's very likely that Poseidon hasn't encountered anyone like this until Odysseus. Ruthlessness is simply how he treats people and also how he expects to be treated back. The fact that Odysseus doesn't, the fact that instead of hating, fearing, or cursing him, he acknowledges that they have both hurt each other and that it doesn't lead anywhere to still pursue vengeance, must have triggered Poseidon in an unprecedented way.

To him, this was probably the most outrageous thing Odysseus could have said in that moment. And it throws him off so much that he is genuinely speechless, and then simply replies, "I can't." ... his most genuine-sounding line in the whole musical.

I cannot stress enough how much it threw me off to hear this line; in the best way imaginable, it doesn't sound like Poseidon. It sounds almost vulnerable. Almost human. Because he is genuinely at a loss so much that he forgets to put up his "wrathful god" facade for just one second. Standing ovation to Steven Rodriguez for his whole performance, but especially this part.

And then Odysseus goes all out to say something even more outrageous: "Maybe you could learn to forgive?"

... Which is when Poseidon snaps.

Kind of understandable, honestly. There's this mortal whom he has likely fantasized about seeing pleading, hate-filled, and terrified, cowering before him for ten years now ... telling him that he ought to learn something. Even hijacking his own motif and his instrument in order to turn it on its head, "defile" it if you will.

This f*cking mortal pr*ck took his own "Ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves" catchphrase and turned it into forgiveness ... Of course, Poseidon is no longer hesitating; of course, he is no longer concerned with getting his hands dirty or not. He yells "DIE!" and unleashes his ultimate move (which is really overkill for simply killing a mortal if you think about it) ... But he does it anyway because this time he genuinely means it.

... That, and I am also convinced he jumps to that in order to simply shut Odysseus up, fearing what he might do or think if he lets him go on. Because you cannot tell me that Odysseus didn't actually reach him for just one moment. He was far too thrown off guard, far too vulnerable in that one second. That moment of kindness did something to him, and he hated it. He also probably didn't trust himself to be able to keep listening to Odysseus speak like that. So, he abandons his (still very technically feasible!) blackmail/intimidation and just straight-up kills him.

This simple exchange (my favorite moment in the whole musical, actually) tells us so much about both of these characters that it makes me want to skitter and squeal in excitement.

Here is Odysseus—the very same one whom Poseidon specifically tried to teach ruthlessness—becoming the first person in a long time to offer him sympathy despite how Poseidon himself showed him nothing but ruthlessness. And then one song later, here is Odysseus showing him the consequences of not accepting said sympathy.

Six Hundred Strike and what Odysseus does to Poseidon would've not hit the same, in my opinion, if he hadn't made this offer, if he hadn't given Poseidon this way out, even if no one watching genuinely expected it to work (probably not even Odysseus himself.)

Six Hundred Strike is not Odysseus exacting vengeance If GITW proved anything about Odysseus, it's that he does not want vengeance. He wants all of the hatred and pain to be over, to the point where he is willing to let go of, and I am inclined to say forgive Poseidon for what he's done to him. Six Hundred Strike is simply Odysseus teaching him this lesson that Poseidon couldn't have learned in any other way, because he has proven in GITW that he genuinely does not speak any language besides that of ruthlessness (more on that in this essay!)

It's just the perfect representation of how Odysseus has now finally learned the balance between mercy and ruthlessness, which seems to be the core theme of the musical: Both have their time and place; one simply has to be willing to act in both ways and know when to use either. No one extreme is the solution. I am genuinely exhilarated that Odysseus finally seemed to have figured out that it's been both all along.

[communistdragon]

Shout out to Delta and the Bannermen. Shout out to Paradise Towers. Shout out to the Seventh Doctor getting to be silly for a bit, which only emphasises his character arc. Seven not playing the spoons any more, as mentioned in the Master audio, isn't interesting or sad if you never see Seven get to just be silly in the first place.

[miss-allsundays]

if you criticize stolas for his ignorance towards his privilege, then you should do the same when it comes to bee and ozzie— and i think mastermind did a fantastic job in proving that.

i know many of us were happy that the two sins came to blitzø’s defense… but did they really? yes, they voted in favor of hearing him out, and tried to speak for him, but they didn’t really put that much effort in, especially considering it’s someone they know who’s getting executed.

i have mentioned this a couple of days ago, but the real reason as to why blitz survived is because the court didn’t really care to find the real truth being the crime.

they just wanted a scapegoat to punish, and in that case blitzø, the lower class hellborn who tried to climb the hierarchy, was the easiest option. that’s why stolas’ ‘confession’ worked so well, despite being so vague, and so, so clearly made up. (he even used fake words !!! lol)

the trial was a lot of hearsay— they didn’t have concrete proof of IMP using the grimoire, or of committing any other crime. which means that anyone of a higher status could have said anything even slightly convincing and it might have saved blitzø AND stolas at the same time.

let me give you an example: since (as i said before) there is no proof of the grimoire being in the hands of IMP, asmodeus could have claimed they had actually been using one of his crystals the whole time. and the crystals was ON BLITZØ’S ARM!!!! which meant, that whatever andrealphus said after, would have been either:

a) him accusing a sin of lying!!! someone of higher status than himself!!

b) it wouldn’t have hold a candle against real, physical proof of the claims of said sin

but he didn’t do that, because blitzø was not worth it. and i’m not trying to demonize ozzie, but if it were fizzarolli, this trial wouldn’t have even started. the same thing could be said for bee and vortex.

asmodeus and bee, like the other sins and royals, prefer maintaining their status and cordiality with their peers rather than fight for someone that, at the end of the day, is not a central piece of their lives.

fighting would mean risking their comforts and privilege, and it is a concept so foreign to them, who have lived their entire lives like that, that it doesn’t even come up as a possibility to do more than the bare fucking minimum.

because have you seen what happened to stolas?

why would they risk losing their powers and status for someone they’re not close with?

(even though this trial is clearly rigged against him. even though a demon is going to lose his life, even though a daughter is losing her father.)

being complacent benefits them more than speaking up, and despite being marginally better than most royals, they still don’t care to show empathy to those that aren’t like them—even if they’re doing subconsciously.

[poisned]

Well I haven't been physically on here in a while (love my queue) so here's a simple Octavia I drew 'cause I love her and she deserves so much better

[loonatics-b1gf4n]

I like Vassago.

He is a good spanish boy. I like gay parrots.

Also, meme isn't mine. I found on Twitter.

[lightprkdraws]

They're like besties frfr :3

[theadhddimsenion]

you know ever since mastermind the blitzø antis seems to have had to rehash his previous “sins”.

At first it all was “he doesn’t care about anyone but himself”, “he adopted Loona so he could force her to love him!”, ”he yelled at my waifs/husbando and that makes him evil!!”, “he was mean to poor whittle moxxie boxxie!”, “he made Loona burn owls which she could easily not done!!”, “he stole from my succuwife!”, “he’s literally a rapist!!”, “he makes excuses!” Blah blah blah blah blah!! Yeessh!! But now they are constantly having to bring up his old sins and create straw men to make their nonsense work. Because when he put himself on that chopping block he proved that he cared more for his found family more than any of these people probably care for anyone in their life!!

Now I know that the internet isn’t the best place for a civil discussion this is especially true of Reddit but just yesterday I saw someone get 2000 upvotes for calling people hypocrites for supposedly “ignoring” blitz’s stalking of m&m in favor of emberlynns stalking of him! And contrary to what some people think I don’t believe that m&m need any kind of “karmic justice” on him in the slightest!! He saved their fucking lives this episode I think he’s got a lot more good karma than people give him credit for. Fortunately the Redditor in question was rightfully flames for their bad take which goes to show that no website is a monolith.

We all know that blitz’s greatest flaw is his self hatred but I would argue that self awareness is his greatest virtue. You can’t really blame yourself for everything and make it make sense in your head without knowing who and what you are on a very deep level. Contrary to what some people think he has never once tried to deflect blame from himself even in apology your he said “everyone is shitty” that obviously includes himself and no he’s not trying to deflect blame from himself he’s asking “why me specifically?” To which veroskia doesn’t answer but instead insults him and speaking of veroskia. It should be plainly obvious to everyone with an iota of media literacy that veroskia was not helping anyone with those parties of hers she was just prolonging their supposed suffering by dragging them into her bad coping mechanism and causing them to never move on just like her. If she doesn’t want to forgive than fine but at less than forget!! Blitz is always the first to take responsibility even for things that aren’t his fault this is made crystal clear in mastermind where he volunteered for the chopping block and took advantage of the fact that he big red bitch was never going to hear them out. Blitz’s greatest “crime” is daring to be something more than a worthless little circus imp who’s value is determined by everyone but himself. And to me that makes him a working class and neurodivergent hero.

[citricjoy]

tell me why kyles character on veronica mars has the most bizarre fucking villians wiki entry… you’re telling me he did all THAT… while looking like THAT?……

[impsandstars]

Oh....oh my. Hello sir.

[blissfulstatic]

in stars and time is a repressed bastard plot

[lunarharp]

when an obsessed orufrey person plays ace attorney for the first time in a while

[m1ckeyb3rry]

me rn because all of the tik tok bllk fans hate nagi

[ravaging-angel]

ur angle and ur davil

[marimeeko]

Small dream that the supposed popularity poll movie about the most popular character(bakugou)was coming out and there was a literal trailer

I think it was after UA and after Bakugou starts professional work. Pretty sure he was working with Jeanist maybe as a sidekick. Or maybe he's about to debut as an independent hero so the world is watching him, so to speak.

The villain looked like a literal shape-shifting type, and had taken to shifting specifically as Bakugou(Dynamight), and causing trouble.

So now Bakugou has to deal with someone who is trying to tear down his status, who's committing crimes in his name, and has to reclaim his image, maybe?

I think, bc 1, there can be no Katsuki Bakugou arc without Izuku, 2, I would like to see Izuku do some cool things while he is Quirkless, and 3, Izuku would take SPECIAL offense to someone imitating/slandering/framing Katsuki and his image, Izuku would become involved in this somehow.

If it's Pre-support suit, he could be kind of an undercover or spy to help Katsuki fight back, get info, and catch the villain...if it's after that 8 yr reveal of the support suit... well, we could see him back in full action. Even his debut.

I'm thinking of this super cool shot of him grinning as he shifts into the suit, ready to go.

(Though I gotta say I like the idea of him not having the suit yet and doing some cool stuff anyway, using more of his brains than powers!!)