#but a man with a tragic backstory is a man with a tragic backstory

[infizero]

hilarious that this is my first spoiler post i know. but genuinely the amount of spotlight stobotnik, and just stone in general, got in this movie is INSANE. like in the first movie stone was just there to be eggman's lackey. second movie we had the bits of stone making the latte art and the maid outfit and shit, but he was still primarily eggman's lackey.

BUT HERE? they deadass made stone's love for this man a prominent plot point that was taken like 100% seriously. like you aren't really meant to laugh at stone in this movie, you are supposed to feel REALLY FUCKING BAD FOR HIM. AND I DID!!!!!!! I WAS DESPONDENT!!!!!

and like, THEY KILLED OFF EGGMAN IN THIS MOVIE, and almost the entirety of his final monologue, his SENDOFF in these films, WAS HIM TALKING TO STONE AND ACKNOWLEDGING THEIR BOND LIKE????????? do you understand how crazy that is.

like obviously it's meant to pass the torch to stone so he can be the big bad in the next film, but even outside of that, them making eggman's arc and character overall CULMINATE in him sending a farewell message to stone and stone crying over it and shit???? like the evolution of stone's character and their dynamic in general from the first film to now is CRAZY and im actually so insane about it.

we're finally getting main villain stone, with a tragic backstory of losing robotnik to boot, and i could NOT BE HAPPIER

[forgivenpunishment]

Pleased to see that this bandit captain (he's so civil for a bandit, what gives?) sees reason in his words, Wolfwood backs down. He gives Vash a displeased look with lowered eyelids and cinched brows, but first begins by addressing their friend(?). "Before you ask, no, I didn't know anything about this place. Not exactly part of the circle that gets to know things, if you catch my drift. Not my choice."

He doesn't want to reveal any tragic backstory to a stranger (God, has he even told Vash about any of it? Everything he knows is probably by observation...), Wolfwood figures the man is smart enough to know what that means. He's one of them. He could've been one of these people farmed for parts, but God decided to bless him with making him his special golden boy. Him and his stupid S-tier genetics, or whatever. His parents really missed out on raising a bonafide progeny—wherever those assholes are. Instead, he's a plaything for scientists who really, really enjoy plucking at his insides and watching his body function while he's alive and awake—that sort of thing.

"Spikey, you said yourself that fixing the Plants is gonna take a lot outta you. I'm not gonna let you do that alone down here," Wolfwood gestures with a nod of his head towards the Captain, "Captain over here's got at least twenty guys up top. It's not like they can leave the place in the sandstorm, and probably half of 'em are still healthy because they ran. The ones that we shoved into rooms and closets have gotta be wakin' up by now too, and they've got radios."

He looks at the radio on his hip and shrugs, "Well, most of 'em anyway."

Shaking his head, Wolfwood puts a firm hand on Vash's shoulder and gives him a gentle gaze behind his semi-opaque glasses, "I'm a big boy, I can handle some gore. Did you forget who I am or what?"

The Captain sneered, but ultimately conceded; while he did share the opinion that the sniveling little prick deserved a good beating just on principle at this point, pride be damned, the duo clearly had some idea what they were doing...

... well. Sort of. Vash looked a few dozen iles away; staring out at the group rather than actually looking at anyone. But blue eyes quickly sharpened when Wolfwood asks what their next move is. Much as part of him had wanted to ask for a minute, Wolfwood was focused, so he should be, too-- they needed a plan of action right now, not him... being distant and mopey.

That didn't mean he had any clue of what the next step should be, though. They needed to help the Plants, but reducing the energy output meant that they were... most likely going to end up discovering just where those samples were being kept, and what had ultimately become of them in the past eight months of inactivity. Eight months wasn't long enough to do any sort of permanent damage in stasis... at least, not in cold sleep. This, though...

That was another thought Vash would quickly discard. He didn't have any idea and he didn't want to put too much energy into speculating at this point-- if it came to that, it came to that. End of story.

They don't get the option to stop moving and bow out, now. They have to help the Plants. He has to help the Plants--

"... there shouldn't be anyone left to sneak up on us, so you two should do a final sweep of the upper facility." he said, looking at Ashton, then at the Captain, and, finally, at Wolfwood. The blond looked... tired. Guilty. Sounded it, too-- "I can go check the last room here by myself. It'll probably just be empty cells, but if those holding tubes are in there, I'd really prefer if only one of us had to see it."

[randomthefox]

I don't like how paramount got rid of Maria's disability in Sonic 3.

...... Yeah I guess it does qualify as a disability doesn't it? It is implied to be a neurodegenerative disease and all.

The movie creators probably decided to cut any mention of Maria having a terminal illness from the story because it's "redundant" considering "she dies from something completely unrelated to her disease anyway." I figure that was the logic behind the decision. That also combined with the fact that they changed Shadows backstory so that he isn't a creation of Gerald Robotnik anymore.

These of course completely changes the entire nature of Shadow and Maria's relationship and Shadows devotion to her. In the games, Shadow was LITERALLY created FOR Maria. He would not exist without her, her tragic situation is what brought about Shadows creation. This makes his complete and total devotion to her dying wish, even if that wish isn't necessarily what he personally wants or believes in, make perfect sense.

It also has a lot of thematic impact going for it that Maria was this saintly figure who filled Shadows heart with love and hope and was a bottomless fount of positivity and optimism DESPITE the fact she was doomed to die at a tragically young age from an illness that was slowly robbing her of her bodily autonomy. And the fact she was killed by the hands of man, her life cut even more short than it already was, makes her final message to bring hope to humanity and give people a chance to be happy even more impactful. Maria was robbed, Maria was dealt a bad hand, and frankly nobody would have blamed her for being bitter and resentful. But instead Maria was very willing to forgive the world, and that wish for a better life for everyone else is all the more powerful as a result.

The movie really just completely drops the ball by changing all of that. Maria wasn't going to die, she had her whole life ahead of her - that DOESN'T make her death "more tragic" it makes it less impactful. She died of a random accident, there's no meaning or purpose to it anymore. Her relationship with Shadow is a lot more hollow, they met due to sheer happenstance, there wasn't even a REASON for Maria to have been at the fucking secret base she just is. Maria and Shadow only knew each other for what, a few months? Maximum? They were just acquaintances, and Shadows angst comes from being sad uwu because he's an alien and not from THE PURPOSE OF HIS VERY EXISTENCE IN THE FIRST PLACE BEING A POINTLESS FAILURE. Shadows GENOCIDAL RAGE against all of humanity really doesn't make ANY SENSE in the movie, especially since HE KNOWS Maria WOULDN'T HAVE WANTED him to KILL EVERYBODY. It's SUCH a stupid shallow motivation that he's talked out of it by a SINGLE FUCKING CONVERSATION, that's how fucking stupid it was that Shadow was ride or die on plan genocide for the entire movie.

Maria doesn't even get any final words in the fucking movie.

Fucking. Fuck ass stupid fucking movie.

[thesnazzysharky]

Ranking the specimens based on how tragic they are (1/2)

Been excitingly waiting to do this one. As you can see from the title, we will be ranking the specimens based on how tragic they are. There will be a total of 25 specimens included in this list. Part 1 will be featuring the first 13 and part 2 will feature the other 12. The unknown specimens are excluded since the game doesn't really offer us anything substantial when it comes to their backstories (aside from White Face since he came from a different game, but I haven't played said game yet). Specimen 1 is also excluded because... well... take a grand guess.

How did I go about this ranking exactly? Well, for each specimen I created bullet points for both how they could garner sympathy or lose sympathy from the player. Then I created a tier list and started arranging them from the least sympathetic to the most sympathetic. Taking account of the notes I wrote, what makes this specimen tragic from my own eyes and morals, the hints and implications at something deeper, how detailed some of their backstories go, ect. So that's how I'm going about this. Of course, this is all my own opinion and I'm sure some will disagree with some of my takes or change some placements, which is fine. This list is entirely subjective and if you disagree with something, I would like to hear why. Now let's dive in.

25. Ghost Cow

To nobody's surprise I'm sure, Ghost Cow is at the very bottom of the list for one simple reason: He's pure and utter evil at its core. Ghost Cow is one of the most interesting creatures in the game because unlike a lot of the others we get to directly see the aftermath of what he did. The hospital is not only in a clearly fucked up state when we arrive there, but what we see and what we read are pretty gruesome and gory.

He possessed a bunch of doctors and nurses, forced them to kill their patients, later making them forget how they killed their patients so they can live with the guilt of having done something they didn't do, drove one patient to suicide, most likely killed and experimented on literal infants; and overall has caused a lot of death, pain, suffering, and psychological torture and trauma within the hospital. Even after the hospital is completely brought to ruin, he still finds a way to cause agony within the building. It's implied that most, if not, all of the monsters that we see in the DLC aren't actually in control of their own actions. The cow just used to them to try to attack the player. Like possessing the Body Bag in the morgue or possessing the Hanged Man. The latter clearly being in distress about the whole thing and just wanting his suffering to end. There's also the creation born from his experimentation on an infant rotting down in a basement while presumably being in pain from its state, the guard being a mindless husk and slave to a living virus that I assume is a creation from the cow, and whatever is going on in this room

All of this out of pure and utter sadism it seems with no real end goal. All of this while he wears a twisted smile on his face, clearly enjoying what he's doing. The game makes it clear that there's no sympathy to gain from him.

Yeah... this thing just fucking sucks.

24. Beef Demon

The Beef Demon is similar to Ghost Cow in that the dude is just evil. For starters, he manipulated a business owner looking to save their own restaurant and used said restaurant to his advantage to control others.

He made mind manipulating burgers that basically broke the mind of whoever ate it. Either causing them to order excessive amounts of food or becoming overly violent and aggressive. These burgers are also implied to cause strange nightmares, which is definitely not fun to deal with.

That's already bad enough, but then there's also the fact that he's a very violent entity as stated by CAT-DOS. Kidnapping, possibly torturing, and killing his victims in his own dimension; throwing their remains out a few days later once he gets bored. But the nightmare doesn't even end there for his victims, as he just straight up takes and keeps their souls. Presumably taking these souls down to the pits of Hell or making them succumb to a fate just as bad. He also may or may not have targeted children judging by some hints in the play area. He's clearly made out to be sadistic and enjoys what he's doing. As seen in his death sequence where he lets the protagonist approach HIM instead of the other way around with wide open arms and his taunting reversed lines.

Yeah get this mf out of here.

23. The Clown

The clown is strange in that he doesn't do any harm to the player. He's completely harmless, but doesn't mean he isn't bad. He was a spirit that was summoned from... somewhere... in order to make the dolls of the dollhouse happy. Only for that to backfire due to the dolls being scared shitless by whatever this thing is.

Nobody knows what his deal is, but what we do know is that the clown does seem to have some sort of sadism. He seems aware of how much he scares others and takes pleasure in doing so. Sporting a wide grin on his face, getting closer to the player whenever they turn their back, and occasionally laughing to himself.

No sympathy to gain here either.

22. Bekka

Finally. We're starting to come across some specimens that are a bit less asshole-y. Aside from obviously being inspired by Rebecca Black, not much is known about Bekka herself. We don't how she was created, what her motives are, or if she's worthy of sympathy or not.

The best we can get out of her is her behavior and appearance. Bekka first makes her debut in Karamari Hospital where she decided to steal a page out of Taker's book by catching the player off guard through tricking them into walking down a seemingly endless hallway. She appears again in Endless Mode where she has a very unique mechanic. Instead of chasing behind you like a lot of the other specimens, Bekka instead appears directly in front of you. Popping behind the door that you were planning on going through. Once again, her main way of attacking is catching the player off guard. Leading to some very frustrating chases or loses as many players have expressed.

With her behavior and the constant smile on her face, you could say that Bekka is mischievous or a bit of a trickster in terms of personality. Seemingly having some fun in tricking others and judging by the blood on her hands and dress, she has killed at least one other person. If there's at least one tragic element to her, it's that she was most likely human before she turned into what she is now. Most likely a nurse who worked at the hospital. This isn't confirmed of course, but the main motif with the monsters in Karamari Hospital is that they all are very clearly supposed to resemble humans unlike the specimens prior which were more varied in creatures and designs. Ghost Cow is the exception to this because he's intentionally supposed to stand out and be the outlier. Following this logic, I don't see why Bekka wouldn't have previously been human like all the others. We don't know how she became what she is, but considering all the batshit insane stuff Ghost Cow did, her demise probably wasn't pleasant. And as mentioned earlier, there's a chance that she's simply possessed like the other monsters and isn't in control of her actions.

A lot of things about Bekka are ambiguous or left in the air. And what little we can get out of her imply that she isn't the most well meaning entity. So she gets placed here.

21. Frenzy

Frenzy's death screen implies that she has some sadism within her. Being one of the only specimens in the game to express her sheer excitement of being able to kill and make the player suffer through the use of exclamation marks.

"Frenzied torment, distorted Mind! Blood to spill, bones to grind! The flesh it takes for time to wind Eye for eye makes all turn blind"

At the same time though, she only attacks the player if they don't take care of the doll they're holding. Implying that she has a close relationship to the dolls and cares about their well being.

She also has a very human appearance. A human being that seems to have been burnt from head to toe somehow by the looks of it. So there's some implications there.

Similar to Bekka, not much is known about Frenzy, but what we do have implies she isn't all bad and that there may be some sort of sad story with her origins.

20. Bab

Okay. So here's where things start getting interesting. Bab does have a detailed backstory... to a certain extent.

The problem is trying to figure out WHO Bab is supposed to be. The notes in her locale tell a clear story. Some dumb dumbs in a cult are worshipping some mysterious entity, they fuck up a ritual by sacrificing a girl who wasn't a virgin, said entity becomes pissed at them and their fates are left unknown.

Most assume that Bab is supposed to be the "Mother" entity that is described in the notes. However, one can also easily think that Bab is supposed to be impure girl who was sacrificed. The creature that we currently see being the aftermath of what happened to her after the sacrifice. Or maybe Bab is just supposed to be one of the many entities that Mother sent down to kill the cult members?

It's intentionally ambiguous and her ranking can easily change depending on what you personally believe in. She could be ranked higher if you believe that she was the impure girl. A girl who most likely did nothing wrong and later became a monster. She could be ranked lower if you believe that she was Mother. The notes paint Mother to be a demonic entity of sorts, which obviously isn't good.

There's no concrete answer. So Bab will be placed here.

19. The Mansion Within a Mansion

Should this mansion even count as a living entity? Well... yes actually!

As CAT-DOS states, the "mansion" was born after a massacre or tragedy took place within it. Turning the once regular and ordinary mansion into a paranormal entity. What was this tragedy? We're not sure. Perhaps it has something to do with the skeletons that we can find in this room.

Or maybe it has something to do with this guy hanging by a noose.

Or maybe it's both or a multitude of things. We know that tragedy can be a powerful force within the SJSM universe. For example, ghosts can be born from someone succumbing to a tragic enough fate. So whatever tragic thing happened, it was enough to turn a whole entire building into a paranormal entity. So it must have been REALLY fucked up and gruesome for the victims who were here previously. Not to mention that it's implied in one of the notes in Specimen 12 that the souls of these people are still in the mansion. As the Vlogger/Old Man states that he can hear "movement and voices" below him. So they aren't even able to be at peace.

So what about the mansion itself? It does have some irredeemable qualities to it. Such as purposefully driving its victims insane through psychological torment, leading to their possession and violent behavior, only for it to choose another host when it comes across one and thus killing the last host in the process. Creating a vicious cycle.

Easy to say that the mansion is evil and sadistic, but it's hard to say really considering that it was created from a tragedy. Is it doing this because it's actually evil or is it more so instinct?

Well, if we want to go down the route of the voicelines that hear from the Old Man actually being from the thoughts of the mansion instead of the Old Man himself, then it is implied it possess some form of sapience. One line in particular paints an interesting picture.

"I'm so lonely..."

Looking at this simple line in the context of it being spoken from the mansion, it implies some things.

The mansion is an entity born from tragedy. It never asked to be alive and it most likely lives a sad and miserable existence. It's always looking for a host to attach itself to. For what end goal exactly? Well, maybe it simply has to do with loneliness. The mansion feels lonely and bored and so it tries to have some fun by possessing whoever steps within it. Having a host to latch itself to, only to later use said host in a game of cat and mouse for the other poor soul that wanders into the mansion, said soul then kills the host out of paranoia, becomes the current host, and the cycle repeats. The mansion is a trickster and manipulator. It gives its victims the illusion that they have any chance to escape. Giving them hiding spots. Making the host seem dumb by not making much of an effort to look for the victims. When it reality? That person was already dead the moment that they stepped through the door of the mansion. It draws out these games of cat and mouse because it sadistically takes pleasure from doing so. It's bored. It's lonely. It's miserable. It was born from tragedy after all.

Doesn't excuse its actions obviously, but it lives a pretty sad existence. Both it and the many victims of the tragedy that created it.

So when the Protagonist comes along and is about to become one of the few or perhaps the only one able to escape Specimen 12? The mist in the mansion becomes green.

The color green symbolizing peace, growth, renewal, healing, and some other positive things that could work for this scene. Mostly likely representing the souls inside of the mansion having hope. Hope that the Protagonist will be able to make out it out alive. That maybe, just maybe, the cycle will be put to an end.

Of course, this is all going heavily into theory and speculation territory. Perhaps too much so. Hence why Specimen 12 is only here and not more higher. A lot of stuff about it is up to interpretation and not outright confirmed. It's all still very interesting to think about nonetheless.

18. The Siren

The siren seems like a typical monster at first. The notes in her locale first describe how she kills whales from the inside out to feast on them. Sad and gruesome for the whales, but nothing outright horrible. Maybe she's just doing what she has to do to survive.

Later notes then describe how she killed the staff of the whale researching facility. Purposefully flooding the facility and luring people to their deaths via her singing voice. Manipulating others into going into the sweeping waves.

None of this is great, but CAT-DOS does tell us something interesting about her that garners sympathy. It states that she is a lost soul who tragically died during the "Deluge" as it puts it. A deluge being a severe and overwhelming flood and often they're associated with mythical floods. Which deluge is being referred to specifically, whether it be Noah's Flood or some other mythical flood, is left vague. What matters most though is that she was once a regular human being who tragically died during one of these floods.

If there's one thing to know about floods is that they can be utterly horrifying. Even if you never personally experienced one, just simply looking up images or footage of them will tell you just how scary these natural disasters can be. Massive waves of water suddenly rushing towards you, causing severe damage and destruction in its path, and causing many deaths in the process. Considering that the Siren died during a mythical flood, which are notoriously bad and severe, and even CAT-DOS outright states that she died "tragically", tells you that her death was a horrific one. A fate most likely filled with nothing but sheer paranoia and fear before she passed away. Doesn't excuse her actions later in her life, but you do feel bad about what she has previously went through.

Ultimately the Siren doesn't have a very detailed origin and not much is known about who she was before she died. Which does bring her down a bit. We have enough backstory however that gives us a sad perspective on the Siren.

17. Ben the Merchant

Ben's story is a straightforward yet sad one. A merchant who wanted to put a smile on others faces with his puppets. The puppets in question being looked at fondly and proudly by him considering he calls them his "children".

Due to some jealous shopkeepers however, he would have all his puppets thrown in the river. Putting him in a panic and accidentally drowning himself while attempting to save them. The merchant beginning to drown due to his devotion to his puppets was not the plan the townspeople had in mind. They could've easily saved him.

But instead they let him drown to death due to their own bitterness. What was originally supposed to be an attempt to sabotage another man's business became involuntary manslaughter. A man lost his life for basically no good reason. The result of this? A monster who would kidnap and kill the children of the town. The children who once loved and enjoyed the puppets that the merchant sold started to become puppets themselves.

The monster in question being Ben. But why? Why is he doing this? Well, there's his death screen in the main game.

For awhile, I took this death screen as Ben having a blue and orange morality of sorts. He thinks he's doing you a favor by turning you into a puppet. You don't have to deal with the burden of having to make a choice if you don't have any choices at all. He kidnapped, killed, and turned children into puppets as a strange way of helping them after realizing how cruel and cold the world was after his death. To make them less miserable and more happy.

That's what I thought at first, but then I thought about it some more and realized... no. Ben is just a fucked up dude.

For starters, unlike a lot specimens that are either devoid of personality or have some semblance to it hinted at through vague text or sparse voice lines, Ben is unique in that he shows most of his personality through body language and expressions. Making him the most expressive character in the whole game and thus easier to read on what his deal is.

His ingame poses depict him as taunting and even sadistic. It's made clear by the constant smile on his face that never changes, but it's also clear by some his poses showing him trying to act casual, comically and poorly trying to hide his needle, or extending his hand towards the player; as if trying to beckon them. Not to mention the audible laughing that can be heard in his death screen and occasionally whenever he moves. Further hinting at his twisted nature.

As you can see above, his face will occasionally turn into an angry and aggressive one. Although it could simply just be him showing frustration, it could also be him trying to further scare or intimidate the player.

The disturbing thing about all of this is that he's most likely fully self aware of what he's doing. As his death screen in Dollhouse implies.

This death screen is less vague and more clear. He outright states why he killed the children of his town. No sugar coating, no excuses, no signs of being under some odd delusional goal. He just spills the beans. His "children" drowned so he took the children away from the townspeople as payback. An eye for an eye as they say. He even goes into some disturbing detail about how the children were killed. Silencing them, sewing their bodies up, and drilling out their eyes.

Now the death screen in the main game has become all the more unnerving. Ben is simply trying to manipulate you into thinking that turning into a puppet isn't all bad, but in reality he just wants to turn you into a puppet as replacement for the ones he lost the day he died. You're his plaything and nothing more.

We have a very interesting case on our hands. Ben has a pretty detailed backstory that paints him as this poor and tragic guy who just wanted to make people happy and suffered a depressing death for no good reason due to some assholes. Meanwhile ingame he comes across as this petty, sick, and twisted prick who takes pleasure in tormenting the player and most likely took pleasure in killing those poor kids as well. Having full self awareness of what he was doing, but not caring about in the end. All of that shit, presumably not even because of the loss of his life, but because of some puppets...

You could make the argument that Ben was probably not the most mentally stable individual if his first reaction to losing some puppets was to go on a child murdering spree. He is referred to as a "strange" merchant in the notes and he calls his puppets his "children" and thought that they were "drowning". Going as far as to think his lifeless wooden puppets are in anyway comparable to living, breathing, and human children and that those actual living children should be replacements for his "children".

It's hard to say though. Ben could have also easily been a well meaning, awesome, and chill dude. But the day he drowned, lost his puppets, and saw how truly horrible the world can be to even the most kind hearted people, made something snap within him. The Lucifer Effect. Sometimes all it takes is one bad day and Ben had a really REALLY bad day.

Still a sick and twisted fuck who painfully killed children, but one that you can't help but feel bad for and somewhat understand why he took the path he did.

16. Ringu

At first glance you think Ringu would be placed more lower on the list. The notes in her locale don't really tell us anything about her, her voicelines aren't too noteworthy, and her death screen was... just seen as weird by most people.

Not a whole lot to her it seems. Just another murder monster as most people probably thought. Until you find out about what Kira said about her under one of their posts on Deviantart.

Now everything makes sense and is pretty easy to explain.

Ringu isn't a malicious spirit by any means. She doesn't want to harm you and in fact wants the exact opposite. She wants to protect you and keep you safe. Presumably after she died through unknown circumstances, she became completely delusional. Searching for children to keep "safe". Safe in her belly. Safe from the dangerous outside world. After all, her baby was completely safe there until it popped out of it.

Most of her victims being from school makes a lot of sense in this context. Because that was where all of the vulnerable kids were. To Ringu, those kids were in danger.

Ringu becomes very tragic figure now. Losing an infant, especially one that you've always wanted, is a horrific and damaging thing to go through. As someone who would love to have a kid or two in the future, I can't even imagine how much emotional and psychological damage I would go through if I ever experienced that. It would probably fuck me for a long time. Perhaps for the rest of my life even. Picturing a once human Ringu reacting to something like that is just awful.

The fact that she doesn't even realize what she's doing is wrong and is killing the children she wants to protect in the process is as disturbing as it is sad. She's clearly a caring and empathetic motherly figure. She just goes about it in a completely wrong way.

Hell! This is even alluded to with her original theme! Breakfast Was Too Early (which you can listen to here). Compared to the other chase themes in the game, this one doesn't really feel give off the vibes of "Oh shit! Something's coming after me!" or anything intense or dreadful. It sounds... peaceful and comforting? Like a lullaby that would play for a young child getting ready to go to sleep. That's what it sounds like.

As some have pointed out, the theme sounds like Ringu is trying to calm the player down. As if the theme itself is trying to say "Don't panic. Don't run away. Don't be scared. I won't hurt you. It will be over soon." This makes sense because again, Ringu doesn't want to actually harm the player.

So Ringu is pretty easy to sympathize with. She has killed kids which is always awful, but she isn't aware of what she's doing, so how much can you blame her really? That said, considering that she is outright not malicious unlike the previous specimens we ranked so far and the severity of what she went through to cause her to behave how she does now; shouldn't she be more higher on the list?

Well... there's one problem.

This bitch.

So Ringu received a new form in Endless Mode and she's a bit... different. What do I mean by that? What I mean is that Endless Mode Ringu feels like a separate character almost.

The whole "I don't want to actually harm you" motif with the original Ringu has been ridden of and instead the "I literally want to eat you" motif gets more focus. Endless Mode Ringu is depicted as a more vicious entity that is starving and desperate for a meal. This is made evident by the much more intense and definitely not soothing chase theme, the visible blood dripping out of her mouth, and her second form where she sprouts multiple arms. Unhinging her jaw beyond human capabilities and showing some sharp teeth.

She's also depicted as a more malicious entity in general. With her Endless Mode form having a visible smile with a gleeful expression in her eyes compared to her more neutral faced and bug eyed original counterpart.

Doesn't exactly help that we also see Endless Mode Ringu in the Hellgate chase and she basically gives the player the middle finger by putting a curse on them after she gets absorbed by the Hellgate. Which roughly translates to "I will curse you" or "You will be cursed". Like damn. Salty about being sent to Hell much?

This is where we have to go back to the comment that Kira made on Deviantart and look at the wording they use. They did state they wanted Ringu's backstory to be about her having her baby killed and then going on to search for children to keep safe. Keyword: wanted. Past tense wording here.

So Ringu's backstory must have been changed a bit. To what extent? We don't know really. Maybe the whole baby being killed thing is still canon to her backstory. Maybe both forms coexisting can make some sort of sense if you put your mind to it. At the end of the day, clearly some things were changed to make her be depicted so differently as we see in Endless Mode.

I could go on a whole rant about what exactly Kira changed about Ringu. Why both her forms were given scan lines on their HD models, why Endless Mode Ringu suddenly introduced a motif having to do with TV's despite such a thing never being hinted at before, why Breakfast Was Too Early was changed to Breakfast Was Too Late, ect. And overall just trying to figure out what tf her deal is. But that can be its own separate post.

To sum it up, trying to figure out where to place Ringu on this list was confusing because trying to figure out what her deal is and what's canon and what's not is headache inducing. It's just a whole entire mess. So she gets placed here. Although out of all the specimens here, I feel like her placement is most likely to change at one point or another

I'm sorry for failing you @chenxisolos. I really wanted to put your girlie up higher, but y'all need to figure something out because she's a mess right now/j.

15. The Worm Eel

Who's a good eel! You are! You are!

Ah man this poor thing. So this was a creature made to be a killing machine similar to Subject 5, only to end up being a passive. At the very least, it was kept as a pet around GL Labs, only to later be abandoned. Through unknown means, the Parasite ended up inside it and later bursts through its skull, killing it in the process.

There's not a whole lot to this eel other than that, but I imagine that it was pretty sad and lonely when the facility was abandoned and later was in a lot of pain when the Parasite entered it's body. That's unconfirmed though.

Still, although short lived, it's sad to see this peaceful little guy go. He was a good boy who did nothing wrong.

14. The Security Guard

Once a regular guard of Karamari Hospital who later became infected by the virus in the hospital and turned a deformed and controllable husk.

Similar to the Eel Worm, there's not much to this guy, but we can sympathize with him nonetheless. Similar to Bekka, considering that it was Ghost Cow causing havoc in the hospital, his death was probably a horrific and sad one. The virus that infected him most likely didn't take over his body immediately and who knows what horrors he witnessed when going through that process. Deadly viruses of any kind can definitely be a horrifying thing.

13. The Walls of Flesh

Another specimen that I struggled with figuring out where to put on this list. Because here's the thing with the Wall of Flesh. It's intentionally cryptic and not really a character in a traditional sense. It's supposed to represent trauma or repressed aspects. An entity that doesn't physically attack you, but mentally attacks you.

Nothing really implies that it has any personality, goals, outright malice, or full sapience. It's just... a thing. An idea. Not an actual being that exists. So how do you rank something like that? Well, we can rank what the specimen is trying to tell us. That being that there's something wrong with our protagonist.

Without going too much into unconfirmed theory territory, the threshold of consciousness and the scenes with the White Cat basically tell us that there's more to the protagonist we play as in SJSM than one would think. We can make many sorts of theories and interpretations as to what's the deal with the protagonist. That's the whole point of Specimen 7. It's intentionally interpretive. One thing is clear though, our protagonist is broken. Considering the fact that the Wall of Flesh literally one shots us when we make physical contact with it? It definitely brings some worrying implications.

Specimen 7 gives us a look into who exactly we're playing as and although a lot of it is vague and cryptic, hence why it isn't higher on the list, it does tell a tragic story. A tragic story that you yourself can make your own interpretation of.

Conclusion to part 1

I think that's a nice place to end this on for now. Part 2 will (hopefully) be completed before the end of this week! Once that comes out, as I stated before, I'll be ranking the rest of the specimens and then I'll state any closing thoughts I have. In any case, I'll see you when part 2 comes out and I hope you have a snazzy day!

[maxwell-grant]

It works so well as The Last Heavy Scene, the last thing we ever see him do, which is the same thing he usually does: undercut the big man action moments he is expected to have by simply taking the smart option out of them.

He is a Big Strong Action Hero Man and this is not even played for laughs, he is the real deal and recognized as such - but like you said, that's not the story he's at. He can do legitimately impressive big physical things, but we never see them. The giant bear he fistfights is defeated offscreen. The mountain he moves was made of styrofoam. He and his family are perpetually on the run from a tragic backstory saga, but his family has largely moved on from it and wants him to do so. He's almost dissappointed, pouting with his arms crossed like a baby, when he learns they have been killing and torturing evil men without him all along. The one time he does get a big climactic revenge fight with a big evil opposite supervillain, he defeats the man without issue, then said man gets the upperhand by cheating, and then Medic has to cheat back so Heavy can one-shot him with a sneak attack.

Heavy does have big impressive accomplishments under his belt - but that's not what Team Fortress 2 is about, so those aren't what we see him do. Instead we're always watching him in frustrating stoopid adventures that waste his time and keep denying him the warrior moments he's always ready for. As far as personal character climaxes go, he got his big dramatic morally-righteous fight against an Evil Man in Issue 6, and not only did he not get to avenge Doktor, but he didn't need to - Doktor somehow came back and solved the problem by being weird and handing Heavy a baby baboon to look after. So instead Issue 7 ends Heavy with him solving a routine gag problem the way he prefers to solve these routine gag problems: paying them to fuck off and leave him alone.

Born to slaughter evil men by the hundreds, forced to play beleaguered babysitter. He can deal with it, yes, he can navigate these problems and he gets how the world works, and it's for the better since what he wants first and foremost is to provide for his family - but it will never not be annoying and unsatisfying to him on some level. And so the last Heavy scene is just what Heavy's life is like, and will always be like, ever since he joined the team.

Thanks to @maxwell-grant for pointing this one out

[luminique]

kissing harumasa means keeping your hands on his face and never letting them go down to his neck. he’d even hold them there with his own hands, a silent plea to not touch the mark left by the serum.

he didn’t lash out at you the first (and only) time you unintentionally touched it. instead, he pulled away immediately, the fear in his eyes mixed with his shaky breaths as he’s trying to control himself. he could see his own reflection in your worried eyes, seeing hallucinations of him turning into an ethereal. your hands went to hold his, you could feel him quivering as he shook his head at you. he didn’t mean to ruin the mood, he didn’t want to become a monster. he isn’t a monster but this irrational fear was eating him up whole that it even put your relationship on the line.

“i’m sorry, i didn’t realize what i had done,” your voice was clear as always, guiding him back to the current moment. the reflection of him in your eyes returned to normal but you had a regretful look in your gaze. your thumb rubbed over the back of his hand, reminding him that you were still there. “i love you,” you mumbled out to him, so soft, so quiet. that was all he needed to hear. he knew it was an honest mistake and not intentional on your end, maybe he overreacted. he brought your hands up to his mouth, placing soft kisses on your knuckles. the hands that unknowingly triggered his fight or flight mode, were the same hands that caressed him so gently every time. in between his kisses, he’d say his own ‘i love you’ and ‘i’m sorry’s to try and reassure you of his sudden reaction. he wasn’t deserving of your love, you shouldn’t be the victim of his past, but you stay with him regardless. overcoming it all while holding hands, one kiss at a time.

[slightlyartist]

Alex Hirsch did this to every character but McGucket was his personal punching bag for real

[licollisa]

In which they have a conversation.

(Bonus below)

Chara calling Frisk 'partner' will always hold a special place in my heart.

[quwyou]

ep. 11

bro this is about school why u powerscaling academic ability

bro really went "oh wait shit this anime is set in a school these are my 'friends' not my henchmen"

bro why are u doing that to that homeless man do u have a fetish for that or smth????

random ass prep school principal has the fucking national government on its knees

bro can fucking convert people to his undead thralls with just 3 minutes of small talk doctors HATE him

"lemme phrase this really weirdly just so it fits this overarching theme that i should have no knowledge of"

damn dude got humbled-KARMA U RUINED THE MOOD!!!

koro sensei u are such a goofy bitch i love u

NOOO THE TRAGIC BACKSTORY AUGH

bro imagine going to school and all the other classes were staring at u saying "kill without mercy" U COULD PROBABLY MAKE A FUCKING LEGAL CASE AGAINST THE PRINCIPAL ABOUT FAVORITISM

"we dont play cool we play quick and dirty" BASED

bro why u talking about partial credit like its ichor

dude they putting shit on this test for junior high students that i aint even learning in college what the FUCK

wait koro sensei how did u know the exact shift in the power dnamic in A class

fuckitwhynotASSASSINATIN CLASSROOM LIVEBLOG GO!!!!

everyone please skip this if u havent seen bc there spoilers!!!!!!!! its a good show fuck you go watch it!!!!!!!!

ep. 0 but ive seen it before so i spoil some later (like final episode later) stuff right off the bat

godd it been like a year since ive last seen this but i used to rewatch it every few months lol. started thinking about how the fact that koro-sensei has a beam attack feels like an ass pull bc it is but its still well-written despite that (similar to other thing his tentacles can do, he's had no reason to use it before, established reason for hiding abilities) and now i just wanna re-watch the show again bc its been too long tbh

[paintedcrows]

Love this guy. The Gucket...

Also I was messing around with the colours and I kind of love these.

[beelxebub]

i totally get why people make the captain a military man or ex-military in modern AUs because it makes sense but i personally believe he would simply be one of those middle aged autistic men whose special interest is wwii military vehicles

[sovamurka]

YEAH, THANK YOU, FORTICHE, I NEEDED MORE OF THIS

SEXY CROP TOP MUSCLES OUT EKKO LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOO

[nfcv-saltmine]

I don't want to spoil your fun, but seriously? THIS is your favorite screenshot of the show? THIS is the big moment that makes you like their dynamic? It says a lot. Sorry but I'm going to be mean. It's nothing personal, I just so happen to have a very different opinion from yours.

Let me re-contextualize: Trevor just told Sypha and Alucard his tragic backstory. How he was a kid when his family got killed by the very people they were trying to protect. He spent his entire life after that, alone. No one to help him survive. He had to do it all himself, and due to this extremely difficult life, he became a rude alcoholic. But a rude alcoholic who still ended up going out of his way to help people. He doesn't know Sypha nor Alucard, and yet, he still brings them to the ruins of his childhood home, a place you can guess he doesn't visit often! And he leads them to his family's most precious secret. Centuries worth of knowledge and artefacts. This is an ENORMOUS deal. He's ready to go as far as expose his own vulnerability and risk to compromise what is left of his family's legacy, for the sake of saving people.

And what is the first thing Alucard does?

This. He insults Trevor's entire lineage. He insults his dead family to his fucking face. He sees the treasures accumulated and used to save innocents for centuries, wich was hidden behind a magic seal because of how precious it is... and he shits on it. KNOWING how damaged Trevor is after losing the same fucking family he is insulting with no remorse. And it's supposed to be quirky and funny because Alucard is Traumatized? TREVOR IS TOO. And do I have to remind everyone that Alucard himself commented on "having more of a childhood than him"? He knows what he's doing.

And the worst part is: Trevor is being incredibly calm here. He doesn't throw a punch, he doesn't scream, he just whispers to Alucard to shut up after he has been nothing but condescending to his whole bloodline, which honestly must be pretty triggering to Trevor so kudos to him for not getting more violent! But the MOMENT he stands up for himself because Alucard just can't stop spitting on him and everyone he ever loved and everything he and his family ever worked on, Sypha stops him. Trevor is shown to be in the wrong. Trevor is the one who needs to grow up and ignore his bully. He needs to be the better man. Friendly reminder that the worst thing Trevor did to Alucard was joking about Dracula teaching bloodletting to Lisa.

And that's not all! After Trevor did all this for the sake of saving the world, Alucard dares to call him, behind his back, "unreliable". AND HE ADDS MORE TO IT by calling him "emotionnally damaged" as well, because apparently that's something he should be ashamed of! Ah, but yes, it's actually funny because you see, he too is emotionnally damaged and probably projecting and scared and doesn't know how to deal with his own trauma... well I don't give a single shit because the cunt never once apologizes. We don't see him, at the end of the show, telling Trevor "btw I'm glad you're alive and so sorry for being a cunt to you back then", no. We don't see him express one bit of regret for his past behavior. In fact, not only does he make the handmade dolls of his "friends" say awful shit that shows how he's really seeing them, but he also look at himself in the mirror one day, see how dirty he is... and immediately compares himself to Trevor, showing us one more time what he thinks of his "friend".

And the term "friend" is way too big for whatever the trio has going on. The whole show severely lacks scenes of them actually bonding. We're offered a dynamic, and we're just supposed to go with it and accept that they are friends now, when they don't spend ONE moment actually growing closer as a group. It's worse, actually - we see them curse at each other and shittalk to each other... and THAT is what we're meant to see as bonding! The "eat shit and die" is a perfect example of that because Alucard and Trevor are still strangers to each other, yet they laugh at them cursing at each other as you would with your bestie. Except it works with your bestie, because you know each other very well. They don't. They did not earn that laugh. But it did establish very well that we were going to get fed an hostile dynamic between them and that we are just supposed to believe they are friends now. Despite not having any scene showing us that hey, they actually work together! They can talk nicely to each other sometimes! They care about each other! They respect each other!

And we're supposed to believe they are super important to each other? Please explain to me when, between the moment Alucard started to call Trevor's family "mentally ill hoarders", and the moment they killed Dracula, did they suddenly grow so close Trevor would give the man who has been insulting his entire legacy, said legacy?? (Especially if you think they spent two weeks being annoyed at each other.) It can be funny to see characters have banter and being overall nuisances to each other (granted character A doesn't literally shit on Character's B dead relatives!)... But unless they are supposed to be foes, you need to balance it with actual bonding moments. With actual moments of them being good to each other, to show they care. NFCV doesn't do that. And I can't for the life of me comprehend HOW are we supposed to be super happy and hyped for their reunion in s4, when it wasn't earned one bit! It was the OPPOSITE of earned! (The Arikado + Trevor reunion in Grimoire of Souls was way more impactful and heartwarming)

This is it, my favorite screenshot in the whole show.

It perfectly encapsulates their entire dynamic as a trio in the early seasons.

Sypha, she's just so sick of everybody's shit. They haven't been a group for more than two weeks at this point, and yet all she's heard from the boys are death threats and insults with a side of sarcasm. She has kicked one or both of them out of the wagon on more than one occasion.

Trevor, he's specifically sick of Alucard's shit. He's used to being the one who gives everyone else the shit. How the turn tables.

Alucard, he's learning what trauma is, and he's not taking it well. Better to entertain himself by giving Trevor record breaking amounts of shit than to reflect on his own suffering in any way, at least until the war is over.

[moghedien]

This really was the moment when we knew Kassandra was the best girl around tho

[pownicmania5000]

Her name is Tech and her last name is Nikki

[nono-uwu]

Lighterrrrrrrrrr

I need him carnally