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yandere-daydreams · 4 years ago

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God please can I get anything with Rook hunting down his escaped darling? This man has a thing for chasing you down you cannot convince mo otherwise

I’ve been meaning to write a special headcanon/scenario post about Pomefiore to celebrate the release of Chapter Five, but,,, this’ll have to do, for now. I’m doing a disservice to the best dorm, but hopefully, some Rook content will delay by inevitable shame.

Title: The Hunt.

TW: Violence, Kidnapping, Strong Predator/Prey Themes, Implied Stalking, and Mentions of Death.

You really used to think Rook was just on the extravagant side.

That’s how it’d seemed when he first introduced himself, dropping to one knee and pressing his hand to his chest, declaring something loud enough and incoherent enough to draw the eye of every onlooker within earshot. Some of his actions were questionable, his gaze often leaning towards the unnerving side, but you’d never thought he was villainous, he hadn’t seemed to want to do harm. He meant mischief, as far as you could tell. He didn’t try to hide the way he watched the more particular members of the student body, but he never took anything beyond a picture. He never made a secret of his fondness for you, but his affection was a fleeting thing - he’d said as much himself a dozen different times. You figured Rook would move long as soon as something newer and shinier came along. You thought he was just having fun.

You supposed you weren’t wrong. He had been having fun. He was still having fun.

It just wasn’t fun for you, anymore.

“Mon cœur,” Rook called, the familiar term of endearment stretching into something twisted, something perverse as it echoed through the lifeless woods. The forest surrounding the Pomefiore dormitory was always dark, always daze-like, always horrid, but tonight, it felt especially misleading, as if the trees themselves were uprooting and rearranging to guide you in any direction but the one that’d lead you away from your hunter. That’s what he was now, really, your hunter. Rook had a way of making his prey feel like pets, of making you feel like a partner rather than another trophy for him to decapitate and mount on his wall, but all of those blissful lies and domestic fantasies had dissolved into thin air the moment you slipped out of your chains and threw yourself out of that elegant, stained-glass window of his. It’d been a stupid move, in hindsight, you were only doing damage to yourself and giving him a blood-trail to follow, but a lifetime of picking crystalline shards out of your skin would be less agonizing than another minute spent in his captivity. You just wished his footsteps hadn’t fallen in-tempo with yours so quickly.

“You really should come out, (Y/n).” His voice was calm, projected with the all the tranquil serenity of a man who already knew he’d won. It wasn’t close, it wasn’t deafening, but the fact that you could hear him at all was damning. It meant he’d be able to hear you, too, even if you had no plans to announce yourself so blatantly. “I know you love your games, and I do want to play with you, but staying up so late is bad for your skin, no? And you must be so tired, dear. If you put an end to this silly show of defiance now, I may even let you sleep in my bed, rather than the cage where you belong.”

You didn’t respond - you wouldn’t have, even if you hadn’t been hiding. Pushing forward, you drove yourself to run faster, to escape both his cage and his bed. There was a clearing in your path, a spot where the leaf-canopy broke apart and the ground grew barren, harsh moonlight seeping in like an unwanted thought, but you skirted around it, following its borders until you found the spot where the foliage was at its thickest. You didn’t think as you forced yourself into the narrow space between branches and trunks and vines with so many thorns, you had to wonder if you’d die of blood loss before Rook got a chance to wring your neck himself, only pressing a hand over your mouth and doing your best to control your panting. You just had to stay put for a minute. You just had to give him time to move on. Then, you’d be able to circle back and beat on every door in Pomefiore until someone recognized you as the student who’d gone missing weeks ago. Then, you’d be safe.

Rook, on the other hand, had no reason to tuck himself away. He stepped into the large clearing without hesitation, letting out a long, labored sigh as he idly glanced towards his surroundings. He must’ve begun his chase as soon as he noticed you’d gotten out, his intricate wardrobe cut down to little more than a black shirt and an insulated, camouflage jacket, both doing leagues more to block out the biting cold than the simple button-down shirt you’d been given to wear. He hadn’t had time to choose a proper weapon, either. Rook preferred traditional bows, the kind without cogs or cables to alleviate the tension of the draw, but he was carrying a simplistic compound bow tonight, made for efficiency and speed rather than enjoyment. Made for maiming his target, rather than indulging them in their rebellion, an arrow already knocked and ready to be drawn back at the first hint of an opening. “Perhaps I should call you mon ange, instead, considering you’re so eager to fly away.” Another sigh, this one accompanied by a graceful turn on his heel and a smooth survey of the forest. His eyesight was good, but it couldn’t be that good. You could barely see your hand in front of your face, where the shadows were their deepest. “Wouldn’t it be easier to come out on your own? You know how much I hate having to drag you home.”

Liar. That dirty, filthy liar. He’d already dragged you away from Night Raven, he’d already dragged you away from your classmates and your family and your friends, and all because he was under some deluded, pathetic notion that he’d only be able to love you - truly love you - if he nailed you to the ground, first. His gaze wandered, he was the one who couldn’t be trusted to keep his promises. He’d just wanted to ensure you’d still be there, waiting for him with open arms, when he got back from all his many expeditions. He’d imprisoned you, and he’d delighted in it, reveled in the joy that came with a source of companionship he’d be able to bleed dry. He was only unamused now that you’d refused to let him cut you open.

You could feel your cheeks begin to flush in anger, your nails curling into your palms, but that did little to stop Rook from going on. Always going on, never stopping. You hadn’t realized how much you hated the sound of his voice until you’d been forced to listen. “I’ll admit, I’ve been busy, lately. Have I been neglecting you?” He laughed, the sound airy, non-commital. As if it suddenly didn’t matter if you came out, as if he suddenly didn’t care. “This is childish, is it not? I mean, I never thought you would stoop so low just to buy for my attention.”

It was so little, it was nothing, just a shift of your weight in the barest hint of a reaction, but dried leaves and twigs seemed to crack under your feet as if you’d thrown your biggest tantrum yet. You reacted immediately, scrambling to free yourself from your constrictive hiding place, but Rook was so fast, he was so ready. It was all you could do to catch a glimpse of his bow as he took aim, your efforts to escape from his line of fire turning out all-but futile. You pressed yourself against the nearest trunk, but in the end, he was the one who faltered, his arrow barely grazing your bicep, cutting through your sleeve but only leaving a thin, red line in your skin, the shallowest wound he’d ever inflicted. You allowed yourself to smile, you allowed yourself to laugh, but Rook didn’t move to fire again, only slinging his bow over his shoulder, slotting it into place as if he wouldn’t need to use it again. Not on you, anyway.

“You really should come out,” He said, one more time. “These kinds of things tend to get rather ugly when they’re not given the proper treatment.”

For a moment, you didn’t know what he meant, but before you could gather up the confidence to ask, something sharp and frigid pounded through your injured arm, stretching from your fingertips to your shoulders, and out of reflex, you glanced towards the cut. A pale, lilac fluid was smeared across your skin, dripping from the small wound, the color so faint, you hadn’t noticed it before. The same shade of purple that coated his arrowhead, even after it’d buried itself in the ground.

Oh.

That made sense. For Rook, at least.

You hardly tried to resist it, your body buckling under its own weight, crumbling until you were little more than a mass of stained clothes and writhing limbs, every part of you contorted in agony so vivid and bright, the darkness seemed to dissolve, kept at a faithful distance by an unmoving wall of white-hot pain. It was relentless, it was ruthless, and it only got worse as Rook’s calloused hands took hold of your tense form, lifting you off the ground and pulling you against his chest, cradling you as gently and as tortuously as he could. His hum was liked a needle to your ears, the click of his tongue as fatal as a dagger to the back of your neck, but even then, you knew it wouldn’t kill you. No, no, that’d ruin Rook’s fun. That’d be too merciful for him. That’d be too kind.

And to think, you’d almost forgotten the flare your hunter was capable of.

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scratchface · 6 years ago

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Ryoken and Playmaker’s Identity

Anon asked: “Hope it’s okay to ask. I find your analysis very interesting. How do you think Ryoken felt when he learned about Playmaker’s identity? What of his feelings when Yusaku told him they lived in the same world? And the recent development between him and Yusaku. Despite being rivals, Yusaku still sees him as his special person. How do you think Ryoken copes with that?”

Sorry this took so long! Let’s right down to it!

So at first, Revolver really didn’t care who Playmaker is, whether he managed to do what they couldn’t or not. He thought Playmaker was just another person that had a grudge against the Knights of Hanoi, because there are apparently quite a lot. And considering that most of the organization was just a means to an end, Ryoken felt like Playmaker and whatever he held against them was unimportant. Ryoken is always keeping the bigger picture in mind at this point; he’ll do whatever it takes to destroy the Ignis, no matter who gets hurt. The grievances of other people can’t compare with the big bad threat against humanity!

But as the duels go on, he gets more interested. Right up until Yusaku says “three things”.

Rev gasps then. As far as I know, this is the first moment we see Revolver have such a genuine reaction to anything since closing the Cyberse. Before this, it was all smirks and mocking and disregard. He’s caught off-guard, and you can see it on his face. He goes through a lot of emotions: surprise, disbelief, dismay, and then anger.

He seems betrayed. Even jumps to the assumption that Playmaker is helping SOL, even when he has evidence to the contrary. He’s angry and irrational in this moment, like he’s been hurt. More than his loss, this is what seems to hurt him most. Playmaker “choosing” SOL over him. Revolver perceives this as a sort of rejection, and feels wronged by it. Playmaker, as some nobody, hating Hanoi and “helping” SOL didn’t bother him in the slightest. But Playmaker, as the child he saved, hating Hanoi hits Ryoken hard.

When Kogami interferes, he snaps out of it. He recollects himself, and gets back into character as “Revolver”. Here we see Ryoken’s faith in “fate” kicking back in, and he retreats, knowing that this isn’t the end of the matter.

Upon his return, we see Ryoken scowling in the hall. He’s failed, lost an arm, and someone important to him has turned against him. This is the first time we’ve ever seen Revolver look so frustrated outside of the duel with Playmaker. He didn’t even make this kind of troubled expression when the Ignis they’d been hunting for ten years was captured by an enemy.

Kogami is right about Ryoken being shaken by the mention of the incident, but he seems to think that it is just because Yusaku is one of the victims, not a particular victim. It doesn’t seem like Kogami knows about his son talking with Yusaku during the incident. This may seem like a small detail, but it does suggest that Ryoken has been hiding everything in regards to his relationship with one of the test subjects from his father since the beginning. For someone who admires is father as much as Ryoken, who even compares his father to the gods, that Ryoken feels he needs to hide this tells us a lot about its relevance to his “mistake”: ending the Hanoi Project. Ryoken doesn’t want to bring up the victims, or at least one particular victim, around his father. We’ll get back to that later.

Meanwhile, Ryoken still seems to be in shock. His initial anger and betrayal givens way to doubt and disbelief. It seems rather like he doesn’t want to just accept it, but the evidence is right there and he can’t ignore it. He stands there processing it, taken aback by this turn of events. It’s pretty clear that Ryoken never saw this coming. Maybe because he reached out to Yusaku, or because Spectre came back, but either way, it doesn’t look like Ryoken was prepared for Yusaku to ever come back and challenge them. Who knows what he thought and hoped Yusaku was doing instead, but is seems he never even once considered the possibility.

But once he does process it and accept, Ryoken almost seems…okay with it? Not exactly resigned, not exactly glad, but he accepts it thoroughly. I believe what he feels from then on is a sort of kinship with Yusaku. Yusaku hasn’t been able to move on from what happened in their childhood either, Yusaku is still fighting, Yusaku can’t and won’t forget what happened—all those things seem very important to Ryoken.

Ryoken maybe even appreciates it, is grateful Yusaku hasn’t moved on. I think for Ryoken, Yusaku is proof that he’s not alone either. The two of them share a destiny. Ryoken clings to his father’s expectations of him, to be the savior of humanity, but every “hero” needs a “villain”, and I think part of Ryoken was relieved to find one in Yusaku. No doubt, this emotion intersected with Yusaku’s confession about living in the same world, because Ryoken knows all about feeling like you can only walk one path forward, about feeling isolated and trapped.

He uses his faith in destiny to cope with Yusaku being Playmaker, his “arch nemesis”, and he uses Playmaker to cope with what he sees as his “destiny”. The two feed into each other as Ryoken tries to keep himself together in the face of what the future holds, resulting in the obsession we see for the rest of the series.

The Knights of Hanoi have two plans to save humanity:

Plan A: Find Playmaker, take back the Dark Ignis, locate the Cyberse, and destroy it. Vyra makes the Another Virus to lure Playmaker out, the Generals all get comatized and trapped in the network (and they actually do uncover Playmaker’s identity, but we’ll get to that.)

Plan B: Nuke the Internet with the Tower, destroying the Cyberse and everything else.

They only need one plan to work, and Ryoken favors Plan A for all the wrong reasons.

If the program activated, Kogami would be a dead man all over again. But it seems like Ryoken was already resigned to this, as his main concern is not the impending death of his father or the thousands of others being placed in the line of fire, but finding Playmaker, the child from all the way back then. That in and of itself reveals a lot of the depth behind Ryoken’s feelings about Playmaker. However you chose to interpret the nature of those feelings, I think a good word for them is: all-consuming. Revolver is right when he pegs it as an obsession. He’s desperate to find the one from ten years ago again, just like Yusaku is.

Ryoken wants to settle things with Playmaker, but that doesn’t require knowing his identity. In fact, those two things never intersect in the first season at all: even after learning Yusaku’s identity, it’s not like Ryoken uses it to get him to duel him. He doesn’t do anything with it at all. They seem to be entirely separate goals that just regard the same person. He wants to know who the child from back then is. He wants to defeat Playmaker.

Moving on to the final identity reveal, we have the Smile.

I made a post ages back about this scene and the implications it had both on its original airing and in hindsight post S1. And I think the conclusion I came to then is still on point: Ryoken doesn’t smile because he intends to use Yusaku’s identity to defeat the Ignis, he smiles because he final knows who Playmaker, the sixth test subject, really is. His curiosity is satisfied.

Is he happy to see that the child he saved had a chance to grow up? I think so. The smile above seems to say “Well damn, it really is you” or something along those lines. Triumphant, I suppose.

He goes down to Kusanagi’s truck and looks at them, monitors his enemies even though it nets him no information on them, or at least, no information he ever uses against them.

Did Ryoken go all the way down, just to see them? Based on the evidence, that’s the only assumption that can be made.

At this time, Plan A could have been a complete success, and the Tower would never have needed to activate at all, if Ryoken just used Yusaku’s identity like everyone intended for him to. His family could be saved, and no one else would have to get hurt, except for Yusaku.

Problem being, after his initial reaction of dismay, Ryoken almost seems pleased that Yusaku has come back. And they still haven’t settled things. Once more, we have to acknowledge that Ryoken’s desire to duel Playmaker was completely separate from his desire to know his identity, even if he never verbally drew a distinction between the two. The two goals never intersected at all, but all the others (and us the viewers) just assumed they did.

Ryoken even acknowledges how messed up his priorities have become, but he still can’t overcome it.

But with the identity loose end finally tied up, Ryoken can focus on the Tower of Hanoi. Before he found out Playmaker was one of the victims, his father was the one asking for more time.

Afterwards, its Ryoken asking to delay.

Going with Plan B, they ditched Plan A, even though they had everything they needed to make it a success. But of course, Ryoken hides this from his father, blatantly lying to his face about knowing Playmaker’s identity. At this moment, whether he understood it or not, Ryoken essentially chose Yusaku over his father. Between Yusaku and Kogami, Ryoken pretty much decided which one of them was going to live and which one was going to die with this lie. Had he told the truth, Kogami would not need to sacrifice himself for their plan, no matter how accepting of his own impending death he was.

Just like ten years before, when Ryoken unwittingly chose the six children over his father, he makes the same decision all over again, but for drastically different reasons. And once more, he regrets it when his father is killed all over again, as he finally comes to understand that his actions once more have consequences on his family.

He despairs, and decides to make it right by killing Yusaku, Ai, and himself.

The Tower of Hanoi duel is Ryoken’s lowest moment. He’s going to kill everyone he cares about for his father’s mission and as his “punishment” for once more betraying his father’s expectations of him.

And then Yusaku saves his life. His father is dead, the Tower failed, and there’s nothing he or anyone else can do about it. Ryoken takes months, seemingly, to pull himself back together from this blow, and at the end of it, his feelings about Yusaku are even more complicated. Ryoken has always had the tendency to blame himself before he blames others, so it’s not surprising he doesn’t seem to blame Yusaku for Kogami’s death.

Their relationship changes a lot in the wake of Ryoken’s return. As the only remaining leader of Hanoi and the one entrusted with stopping the actually very dangerous Ignis, he’s finally managed to fix his priorities. Instead of living like his life is on a timer and he has to duel Playmaker now, he is able to focus on the matter at hand and wait for a better time to take on his “fated enemy”. And even more so, he seems to have no intentions of putting either of their lives on the line over a conflict between them again. Rather than struggle further to prove to himself that he doesn’t care about the six victims, Ryoken seems to have finally accepted that their lives matter to him, and that there’s nothing wrong with that. He’s no longer trying to deny that he cares, and instead trying to navigate the best way to show it (as opposed to denying it and denying it until his whole family is “dead” and things have spiraled massively out of control). He doesn’t alway succeed, nor does he always show it gracefully, as the “duel” with Takeru showed, but he’s trying. Those aren’t easy emotions to navigate, and it’s not always easy to say the right thing to people that are hurting or do right by them, but Ryoken isn’t just taking responsibility for his mistakes anymore. He’s trying to take responsibility for his own emotions and the role he played, good or bad, in the six victim’s lives. He found out about Windy’s Origin, he was apparently monitoring Jin’s facility, he created a program to protect Yusaku. Ryoken knows he’s invested in the victims.

Ryoken is really bad at Emotions, as the first season made abundantly clear, and caring about people. His father really messed him up, and the repercussions of that still linger in his behavior. But he’s taking care not to put others at risk anymore, he’s trying to navigate complex priorities better.

Of course, he’s not going to let others know that so easily. Ryoken is proud, and still very much intends to defeat Playmaker, and he’s taken steps to make sure Yusaku understands that. Instead of giving Yusaku false hope that he’s given up on destroying Ai by, Ryoken is up front about what comes after.

To Yusaku’s face Ryoken acts rather condescending and disdainful, but behind Yusaku’s back he acts like this what talking about Yusaku:

He still holds Yusaku in the highest regard: he talks about Yusaku with more respect and admiration than he does with anyone, even his father. He believes in Yusaku, and seemingly, in their destiny.

Ryoken does care, and he has changed, but he’s not done changing yet. He’s far from the desperate teenager that almost got thousands of people killed he was in the season 1 finale. He’s not trying to hurt anyone anymore, and knows it. He has resolved the conflict of interest that drove everything off the rails before and sent him to the brink: having to defeat Playmaker but so obviously not wanting to endanger Yusaku further.

Don’t get me wrong, he very much still regards Yusaku as his final obstacle. I think what Ryoken really seeks in regards to Yusaku is closure on everything that happened with his father and the Hanoi Project. Yusaku/Playmaker is the result of his mistakes, a representation and embodiment of everything he regrets. Both a dangerous enemy and a powerful ally of his own making, which is why Ryoken thinks he’s the one that must fight Playmaker. Only by either accepting Yusaku or defeating him will Ryoken ever really be able to move past his guilt and regrets.

...This got so long I don’t even know if I answered the question anymore...my head is swimming with screenshots of alien cyber terrorist boy...

#yugioh vrains #vrains #ryoken kogami #kogami ryoken #ygo #vrainalysis

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readingwebcomics · 6 years ago

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Analyzing Questionable Content: Pages 151-200

High school bully or not, I’d like to reiterate the fact that Dora’s presence is so terrifying that it can repel a trained government agent. That’s a level of badass we should all strive to be.

…I mean like, don’t actually beat people up and steal their cigarettes, lung cancer is bad. But still!

Before getting into things, I’d like to open with a little bit of bookkeeping: First, as was pointed out to me by at least two different people, I COMPLETELY misread #123 – it was Marten who was helping Steve out on a date, not the other way around. This was completely my bad, so I personally retract everything I said about Jeph’s timescale.

Secondly, on my point on Dora’s identity crisis, user Scarlet Manuka had this to say:

For the time frame of Dora's goth phase, I think that Jeph is actually trying to present this as a genuine identity crisis for Dora - but it's also likely one that's been a long time building up. She's probably been becoming increasingly disenchanted with it for the last couple of years, and given that Raven complains that she's missed fifteen or so meetings, it looks like she's already subconsciously let it go quite some time in the past. I think we're seeing more the conscious realisation of a process that's already happened. In many ways that's what an identity crisis is: the realisation that the slow incremental changes we all experience every day have added up into something big while you weren't looking, and that something you thought was part of you really isn't any more.

That’s a perfectly fair point and one I didn’t consider. Thanks for bringing this up, under this light the time frame of Dora’s realization and her gradual shift into a different identity over the course of the next few comics makes perfect sense.

Finally, it was pointed out to me by Marco on the QC Forums that it’s only fair to link to the comic itself in these posts. While I had figured it was really simple to find the comic for whoever’s reading it considering it’s one of the biggest, longest running webcomics out there, they do have a point that I at least owe it to supply links to the site in these posts. So from now on, the dumb intro blurb to each of my posts will hyperlink to the first comic in the batch I’ll be talking about. That way, you can read along with the analysis if you so wish. Cool? Cool.

Now with that all out of the way, let’s move on to the analysis. Agent Turing has nope’d out and Dora saw herself out, letting Marten know that if he buys her dinner she’ll call it even.

This is a weird case of me totally getting WHY Jeph’s going this particular direction – he needs Marten and Faye at an ice cream shop to reveal a bit more about Faye’s backstory, which we’ll be touching on a bit later – but the particular setup for doing this feels… off. This right here reads like a textbook case of a writer going “Fuck, how do I get these characters to do XYZ…” and this being the best solution they could come up with. What’s worse about this is that only a few panels later, Jeph offers a much better alternative:

Literally all he had to do was have Faye be the one to bring this up: Instead of the panel with Marten blatantly asking “So THAT happened, what do you want to do now?” have Faye be the one to bring up that Marten owes her a little something for helping out with the situation, he brings up the ice cream parlor and then the rest of the comic goes on as normal. This may sound pedantic, but it’s a case where just a slight change in wording makes all the difference between sounding contrived and sounding natural.

I have… issues with this comic.

On one hand, Faye is opening up more about her past. A small, innocuous thing spurred her on to open up a little more to Marten, the reminder cracking her mask and showing just how much trauma she’s really containing within. You can tell this is more than just “bringing back memories” – his death had a profound impact on her, there’s something she’s not wanting to bring up or discuss but is being partially dragged to the surface. This is good character writing, and an amazing step in Faye’s character arc. It spurs curiosity, sparks intrigue, makes you WANT to keep reading to see the next time Faye’s mask cracks because you want to see what she’s hiding underneath it.

On the other hand… there’s no nice way to say this – at this point, Jeph is not talented enough at drawing to portray this from an imagery standpoint. The faces are too stiff, the expressions to stock. Faye doesn’t look like tears are escaping from her despite her best efforts to keep a straight face, she looks like she’s mildly disinterested and a blue line to represent tears was drawn on top of her face. Writing can take you far, but the thing about comics is that the written word is only half of the story. Anything you sell with words, you need to also be able to sell with expressions, with physicality and staging.

I’m not an expert in art – not by a LONG shot, I couldn’t draw a comic to save my life – so I can’t exactly offer any advice on how he could’ve made this work better. I’m at least glad to say that with time Jeph came to improve his artistic style, making moments like this feel a lot more natural down the road. He eventually gets comfortable enough with his drawings that he’s able to tell a story using JUST body language, which is admirable. Clearly, we’re not there yet… and unfortunately, it hurts the mood that this comic is trying to sell.

After a week of guest comics, we continue the story with Faye sharing stories about her childhood with Marten, showing just how comfortable she’s become around him that she feels at ease sharing details about her past she likely wouldn’t share otherwise.

Oh, and we’ve got some revelations about Marten’s past here. The Thanksgiving comic where he talks about how his family drives him crazy is starting to make more sense now, isn’t it?

Here, we see three things displayed. First, the fraction used in Marten’s dialogue instead of just saying “half”. I… don’t get why that is. It makes me irrationally angry though. I’m aware that’s fully on me.

Second, this serves to showcase both Marten’s blasé attitude about his strange upbringing and offer potentially an expiation as to why he seems so passive about everything. I’ve offered up the idea in a previous post that when he goes out and makes a choice, it’s enough to completely shift his entire world, so that may have served to encourage him not to not want to rock the boat and keep his head low. This, however, might serve as an alternative explanation, or at least another piece of the puzzle – growing up in a… let’s call it “untraditional” household where his parents were clearly quite open about what they were doing with his son, the fact that Marten grew up to be rather milquetoast serves to make a certain degree of sense.

Third, Marten’s being sassy. I like when Marten’s sassy. As I said, his character kind of… devolves in later comics, so seeing him have a spine enough to throw this out is always fun to read. Plus, it also serves to showcase how comfortable the two of them are with each other that Marten can sling this stuff out without fear of retaliation.

Setup...

The next day, Faye’s leaving for work when a surprise visitor comes to their door.

Marten’s comment always makes me laugh. This comic in general is just hilarious, from Amanda – Faye’s sister’s name is Amanda by the way – triple bomb thrown right into Faye’s lap to Faye’s 404 error to Marten not even missing a beat in his reaction to what’s going on in front of him.

Honestly, I’m with Marten here. And once again, I’m afraid I have to point out the fact that Jeph isn’t quite talented at drawing facial expressions yet ruins the punchline to Faye’s joke in the last panel. At least the writing serves to keep the humor going strong, and don’t mistake me here – these next few comics are gut busters. I fucking love the chaos Amanda causes by just stepping into their lives.

Oh yeah, I guess I should talk about Amanda now, shouldn’t I? Well, uh. Hm. She’s a Lesbian. And she’s a bit of a troublemaker. And like a little bit of a ditz?

…yeah that’s literally all I can think to describe her as. Cut me a little bit of slack here though, at the time of writing we’re on page 4010 and I’d be genuinely surprised if Amanda was in more than 50 pages total. The only real significant things I can think to say about her as a character is how what she says and does serves to inform Faye’s character.

Like right here – we can see the whole “doesn’t plan much further than the very next step you’re about to take” mentality runs in Faye’s family. Also, Jeph’s trying different angles out! Good on him, even little changes like this can serve to make the action feel at least slightly more dynamic!

“Clitoriste” is an amazing word and I hope to find a way to work it into at least one conversation before I die.

Amanda hangs around the coffee shop, swapping sex stories with Dora as Faye desperately tries to claw her own eardrums until Marten comes along. And as I’m saying this, I realize with hindsight that Dora’s being super cool right now, not only letting her loiter around her business but also realizing she was kicked out of her house at least in part because of her sexuality and so is letting her know “Hey, fucking girls is AWESOME, right?” to keep her mind off current events. The more I talk about Dora, the cooler she gets, seriously.

“Aerodynamically curvaceous” is another amazing phrase, this one great enough that Jeph eventually made it into a T-shirt. Seeing as I have as many curves on me as a string bean does, there’s no way I could get away with wearing it myself, but the fact that the shirt exists makes me a little happier to be alive.

Anyway, this comic goes on to show that despite the circumstances, Amanda is taking this rather well all things considered, and Faye has faith that given some time to sit with the information their mom will come around… Also that Faye was a damn good student, which might go on to explain how she was able to absorb so much information about guitars when her ex rambled on about them so much – she just retains information THAT well.

This comic… raises a LOT of questions. The last comic involves characters from another webcomic entirely, making this a fun little Easter Egg/crossover sort of deal. That being said, this raises a LOT of questions about the continuity of QC. Does it take place within the universe of Diesel Sweeties? Or does Diesel Sweeties exist within the universe of QC? The fact that we have a humanoid robot here – does that serve to shed a light on AI development in the QC universe? Did Jeph consider what AI development there would be at this point in writing? I assume not, as thus far the only intelligent devices are Anthro PCs. Is Clango an Anthro PC? Is he a prototype of a more advanced synthetic?

These are questions that were never intended for me to ask, aren’t they? Yeah. That’s what I figured. Considering the fact that Amanda has a girlfriend is canon, and the following phone conversation on the next page is canon as well, the best way to rationalize this is to just pretend that last panel doesn’t exist. Remove it entirely, and this strip fits in perfectly with QC’s established continuity and universe thus far.

Unless you REALLY want to find a way to fit Diesel Sweeties into QC’s universe, which I suppose wouldn’t be that difficult considering it’s a non-plot focused gag-a-day comic, but that’s entirely up to you.

Oh, and speaking of the conversation the two have over the phone:

Credit where it’s due, Dora’s expression on the first two panels is clearly different from the standard set of facial expressions Jeph usually puts on everyone. It’s always nice to see some experimentation! And here’s another situation where Amanda’s main purpose is to drive forward Faye’s character – here we get another hint of something that happened in her past, confirmation that she hasn’t dated anyone in a long time and some kind of source of a reason why she hadn’t. The scar on her chest, the death of her father, the lack of a love life stemming from some event… pieces to the Faye puzzle are falling into place, but we still don’t have everything. We’re given just enough to inspire further curiosity though, which – and I know I’ve said this a hundred times before, but I will say it a hundred times again – is good character writing.

…all that said, I sincerely hope that phone was shock proof. I don’t think her Mom’s exactly going to be in the mood to get her a new one.

Considering Amanda stole her credit card and all, I don’t blame their mom for being furious at her. That said, it’s nice to see that it didn’t take long at all for her to calm down and want to talk things over.

And here, we have specific confirmation that there was a set of “circumstances” that led Faye to want to leave home and move up here. Another piece of the Faye mystery falls into place.

Amanda’s immediately heading off to the airport to return home, leaving Marten and Faye to reel in the wake of an… I’d say it’s fair to call it an intense day.

HAH! If you haven’t read all the way through QC, you don’t understand why that’s so funny in hindsight. Trust me, give it another few hundred comics and it’ll make sense. God, I wonder if that specific reference was intentional on Jeph’s part, or if he just likes Vespas? Then again… he IS an anime buff, it’s entirely possible both events stem from FLCL.

Oh hey, there’s that pink Anthro PC again. We saw them back at the LANPark. Haven’t added them to the character list though since we don’t even know their name, but it seems like Pintsize has friends and a life off-panel. Good for him! I do wonder what ends up happening to these guys later though… Most likely they all just drift apart and move on with their lives.

...Why am I so sad all of a sudden?

And here we see an example of the two of them openly flirting with each other, dipped deep in sarcasm of course but that’s just how these two roll. Their inter-personal relationship has progressed really well and at a nice, natural pace so far. At this rate, something should be coming to a head very soon – either one or the both of them need to acknowledge the fact that they’re getting closer, or something’s going to happen that will throw a monkey wrench into the dance they’re performing.

Ugh. I’m coming to hate whenever Marten says “What do you want to do now?” Maybe it’s just me, I’m willing to accept I’m reading too much into this, but whenever he says that all I hear in my head is Jeph going “I can’t think of a more natural way to transition into this next scene so I’ll have Marten ask this question to push the scene forward.” It just feels like bad storytelling to me, it really does.

Now, I need you to hold onto your seats right now, because what you’re about to read next might just be the greatest comic you’ve ever read in your life. The mere act of seeing this may very well knock you out of your seat. Are you ready for this? I don’t think you are – I don’t think ANY of us are. Brace yourselves.

My man, Jimbo! And yes, he is officially called Jimbo now, so we’ll be changing the name in the character stats screen at the end of this post. And this man, this absolute LEGEND, is living the dream – quitting his blue-collar job to pursue his passion in writing! He’s worked hard to get where he is in life, and now that he’s here, the fruits of his labor are paying off! As a commercial electrician who’s writing on the side, I strive to be like Jimbo one day. God bless you, you absolute PINNACLE of human achievement!

I can’t NOT show off more Jimbo comics, he’s just that great. Also, Faye’s drunken antics are fucking hilarious.

Credit where it’s due to Faye for not only helping Jimbo out with his writing but also doing it as a completely on-the-spot Haiku, while totally piss drunk. Not even going to lie, that takes talent.

Faye’s willingness to engage in behavior like this raises… questions. Questions that I’m not entirely comfortable asking right now considering the author’s own past with alcohol. I’ll touch more on it when we reach the batch of comics 501-550, I’m going to need more time to prepare myself to talk about it in a way that’s as respectful as possible.

And finally… the moment of truth. When long-time readers of QC remember the Pre-500 era, there are two things that come to our mind: The actual conversation that happens at issue 500 that marks the transitional phase of QC into the kind of webcomic it is today… and the headbutt-crotch-vomit comic.

Behold.

I’m not even going to try offering commentary here. Absolutely nothing I could say can be better than what you just witnessed in this comic.

This page right here… it has an interesting dynamic between its first and last panels. Panel one, again, Jeph takes the time to make a new facial expression for Faye as she’s waking up, one that looks nice and works with the dialogue to communicate how she’s feeling. And then in the last panel… well, I don’t think it’s exactly controversial to say that her face in the last panel doesn’t communicate the confusion and rage she’s supposed to be feeling as expressed in the dialogue, is it? Jeph is getting there, his artistry is clearly evolving, but he’s not quite talented enough to pull it all off quite yet. Still, little improvements should be applauded!

And here we get another character confirming suspicions raised back in #172, that being Faye clearly has some relationship hangups stemming from something happening in her past. This raises some concerns considering their more flirtatious behavior around each other and their developing inter-personal relationship. At this point, SOMETHING has to happen to inspire a reaction or change out of one of the two, or they may very well find themselves trapped in stagnation… keep that in mind for a little while longer. On the art side of things, something to note that I just realized… Steve has a shine in his eyes to make them look more natural and full of life, but Marten’s doesn’t. Is there any particular reason for this? And why am I noticing it just now? Actually looking back a few comics, the “shine in the eyes” detail only started with #186… again, in all characters except Marten. Is there a significant reason for this? Or is it just a detail that’s easier to do with the shades of color in people’s eyes except for Marten’s for whatever reason? I don’t have an answer, but it’s something to keep in mind at least while we watch the art evolve.

Also, one more thing?

Either Marten’s a liar, or Faye’s ass is just THAT good that it converted him. My money’s on the latter, considering people routinely talk about how baller Faye’s ass is.

Yes, I did just use the word “baller” unironically. No, I don’t have any shame, thanks for asking.

…payoff.

And again with the fucking contraction thing… It’s not subtle if other characters are pointing it out! I know, I’m the only person willing to die on this hill, and I KNOW it’s long-passed and nobody’s concerned about it anymore, but it genuinely bothers me! This is a stupid character traits that… bah, I’m not going to repeat myself again. On a lighter note, this particular comic showcases how much better Jeph’s gotten at drawing faces. It’s not much, but it’s better than the stock expressions that most characters usually wear, and you can see some subtle actions and thoughts expressed in the way Dora or Faye’s eyebrows move, in which direction their eyes are facing… it’s nice stuff.

I won’t show everything in these next three comics, but I wanted to showcase this series of events at least because this is some good character writing that says a lot about both Steve and the new girl Jeph introduces.

Setup…

Payoff…

…and subversion of expectations.

Sorry Marten, but I’m with Steve here 100%. That was clever, well-played, and EXTREMELY hot all at once. It’s too bad we don’t end up seeing much of Ellen after this because she has SUCH a strong established introduction.

And what fortunate timing – we have another collection of guest comics, which ends RIGHT at #200:

And here we go – the spark of conflict in the relationship dynamic between Marten and Faye that I predicted we needed. How’s Faye going to deal with this? How’s Marten going to deal with this? What if on this date it turns out he’s actually, seriously interested in Dora? Would this push Faye to action? She’s made it clear, at least to the people around her, that she’s not interested in pursuing something with Marten… so what if someone made her put her money where her mouth is? Well, we’ll find out one way or another come the next batch of comics.

While we’re still talking about this batch however, let’s do our usual deal of comparing the art shift between the first and the last comics in the batch:

This is a clear-cut example of a lot of small, subtle tweaks happening over the course of a long enough period of time making a clear, distinct difference. The biggest change, of course, being the faces of everyone as I’ve been bringing up all throughout this post – everyone looks so much more EXPRESSIVE. You can get a proper read on someone’s mood based on just how they look alone now, and I find that super impressive… admittedly, it also makes me wish that Jeph could/would re-do the ice cream comic in this newer art style to properly capture the expression on Faye’s face that he wanted to capture, but you know. Would’ve, could’ve, should’ve.

So what did I think of this batch of comics so far? Personally, I think it’s the best batch yet – the best improvement in art, the most introduced on Faye’s character, the best sarcasm from Marten… a LOT was improved in this batch, and that deserves praise. I like where the plot is going, I want to know more about Faye, and I am hooked on the will they/won’t they story, especially with the newer developments in the complexities of their relationship web coming into play.

All that said, let’s take a look at the data analysis for this particular batch:

Marten: 34/50 – 68%

Faye: 33/50 – 66%

Dora: 12/50 – 24%

Amanda: 12/50 – 24%

Steve: 6/50 – 12%

Pintsize: 5/50 – 10%

Jimbo: 3/50 – 6%

Ellen: 3/50 – 6%

Turing: 1/50 – 2%

Grand Total:

Marten: 166/200 – 83%

Faye: 163/200 – 81.5%

Dora: 51/200 – 25.5%

Pintsize: 50/200 – 25%

Steve: 22/200 – 11%

Amanda: 12/200 – 6%

Sara: 7/200 – 3.5%

Jimbo: 5/200 – 2.5%

Turing: 4/200 – 2%

Raven: 3/200 – 1.5%

Ellen: 3/200 – 1.5%

Scott: 2/200 – 1%

Miéville: 1/200 – 0.5%

Ell: 1/200 – 0.5%

Do note that in this last batch, 12 of the 50 were non-canon guest comics, so I didn’t count any characters showing up in any of them. Either way, it looks like Amanda was in enough comics to create a barrier in the stats between main and major supporting characters and minor characters as far as amount of time they’ve shown up in the comic goes. I don’t know if anyone else finds that as interesting as I do, I just think it’s neat.

In any case, tune in next week for the exciting conclusion to the double-date story! And a trip to the hospital!

…the two things aren’t related, I swear. See you then.

#Questionable Content #Faye #Marten #Pintsize #Dora #Steve #Long-Form Analysis #Analysis

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gascon-en-exil · 7 years ago

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The Top Ten Women of Fire Emblem (As Written by a Gay Man)

#7 - Celica

I… I’m afraid I know little of kingdoms or the scope of rule. But I have people I wish to protect. Both here and elsewhere. I wish for this by my will alone. For my own happiness. Is that resolve enough?

In hindsight I believe it’s safe to say that we were expecting too much of Celica. As irritating as it may be that FE has never had a (non-Avatar) female lord who has not been left compromised by her game’s narrative in some way, to hope that the remake of one of the more casually misogynistic games in the series would deliver on that point seems entirely too optimistic. Sure, FE15 doubled down on the misogyny in new and unexpected ways, but it’s Gaiden that sends Alm off to clash against the armies of an invading nation while leaving Celica to fuss about with bandits and cultists, and that relegates her and her entire army to the damsel(s) in distress position for almost all of Act 5. Towards the end of the game especially Alm and Celica feel less like deuterotagonists on equal footing than Eirika and Ephraim or even Ike and Micaiah (or Micaiah+Yune, anyway) and more like a Marth-esque protagonist and a supportive character along the lines of Caeda or Nyna. In FE2 Celica wasn’t being slapped around by her roleplaying brother or voluntarily brainwashed by a villain who’s somehow less trustworthy than Garon, but what I’m saying is that the material for that type of expansion was already much in evidence.

Now that all the much-analyzed negatives are out of the way, let’s talk about what works about Celica. She and Alm benefit from being realized characters on a level superseding that of anyone else in the series to date, from their voice acting to their Avatar-esque PoV during base conversations and most story events to their running commentary on the varied locales they visit and all the curiosities (and cats) the player cares to click on. While I’m not going to pretend that I’m invested enough in either character to fully distinguish their voices as point-and-click-adventure protagonists - about all I’ve got is that Alm is kind of dumb and enjoys bad puns, whereas Celica is a bit snobbish and a teetotaler but it’s not like anyone can drink in this game anyway - it’s nonetheless an endearing addition.

That doesn’t make up for the lack of balance in their story roles, but as mentioned above the writers were fighting a battle they’d already half lost in trying to make Celica’s goals as impactful as Alm’s...or as logical, as anyone who labels Celica a hypocrite based on her fight with Alm after Act 2 will attest (Celica’s half of the story is less of a pacifist route than Conquest - which reflects worse on Conquest than on this game, frankly, but still). Even so, it’s remarkable that even in the blatantly sexist pre-GBA era Celica is given the agency to go on a quest of her own and character-specific motivations to back up that agency. I’ll be going into this more in a later ranking, but I do enjoy the ways in which FE depicts its (pseudo-Catholic) faiths, and that’s clearly present in FE15 with Celica the convent priory girl and her actually meaningful devotion to a female deity who appears not unlike a fantastic rendering of the Mother of Christ. Imagine: if Jedah hadn’t been such a mustache-twirling caricature we might have gotten some serious comparative theology and a philosophical consideration of the series-wide problem of dragons going insane. Are we ever going to see this series consider an option for its constantly ailing dragons that isn’t death or the vaguely-explained dragonstones? Not in a remake, that’s for sure.

Celica also comes with an appreciable amount of political nuance: she’s a royal incognito who manages to be both sharply critical of her father and willing to assume his throne for the good of her people, and this despite the fact that she has an older brother in the remake. It may be amusing to contemplate the cracky situation of Alm needing to bone Conrad for the good of Valentia, but this retcon of Zofia’s rules of succession allows Celica to come off looking better in the end - certainly more so than women like Julia or Eirika who are in similar positions but are unable to be recognized as rulers in their own right. Progress, yay. Except Act 4 and 5 still play out as they do, and then Alm’s legacy becomes the new name of their united kingdom (and also Walhart), while’s Celica’s is...the Mila Tree, I guess?

Ah, well. Celica’s got her glaring issues, but I still like her regardless.

#Fire Emblem #Celica #Fire Emblem Gaiden #Shadows of Valentia #FE15

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monicaannemarzoucamarmolino · 5 years ago

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truth.

2017 -

ex-girl-person gets kicked out of my boyfriend, Andreas, restaurant (my suggestion) - I also saw the surveillance footage.

the next day, curious of why this girl is obsessed with contacting this family - I go to ask her face to face :

I pull up a person's work, as soon as I park about two minutes pass and it so happens that person comes outside. she sees me through my car window - her mouth drops to the pavement. I get out of my car and say “hey can I talk to you?” person then wants to go inside and I tell her & I quote “it’s not like I’m going to do anything to you” but person insists on going inside then to which she tells me I’m welcome to come in and we walk down a hallway to another co-worker. I then tell her who I am and throw her past in her face then I was asked to leave so I left.

she then calls the cops to which she claims I jumped out from behind her car and began to try and fight her, she then somehow got me to go inside and I lunged at her and left.

after speaking with officer Pinnell ( waiving my own rights), he said the incident was way clearer after speaking with me. basically, her story didn’t add up and after me telling him step by step my faults it was clear about what faults were hers and the case was dismissed. side note: one of the questions officer Pinnell asked when he came out to her work was, “was it a bad break up to cause that reaction” (for her to have gotten kicked out) she replies no but in reality, she basically cheated twice (lied about it) got caught which followed in drama; that’s her definition of a good break up? (Andrea also tried breaking up with this girl on multiple occasions and honestly he was not faithful to her quite a few times with several girls throughout the “relationship” from what I saw/read)

five months later, my boyfriend proposes to me! coincidentally a week later person resurfaces claiming I was begging to fight her and jumping out and going all sorts of crazy on a yelp review for the restaurant she was kicked out of (yelp themselves continuously had to keep taking down her review & flagged her account) and so then we sent her a cease and desist in the mail which led to her sending me a restraining order.

which, yes, we went to court.

now we’re in court, and she is getting interrogated by my attorney and all of sudden she remembers what happened, she admits that I did ask to talk to her and that then we went inside and I told her to stop trying to insert herself in someone's life who wants nothing to do with her. a customer came in and I left and that was it. no mention of anyone trying to fight/threaten her & so so so very different from her statements/documents vs what she just said under oath in court. she got sent home with a restraining order that day. (disclosure: apparently someone put shit in this persons mailbox one time and as a horrible defense she tried to use that on the stand I guess because I told her to watch for her mail lady & as she was talking about the shit in her mailbox she got interrupted and shut down because it simply had nothing to do with me and then the judge yelled at her to stop talking because she wouldn’t shut up as he was trying to talk lolol I was dying of laughter on the inside, anyway whoever put shit in her mailbox is the real MVP) and there is no statute of limitations for perjury in the state of South Carolina.

also after I had confronted this girl she shared an old photo of Andrea and his deceased grandfather, captioning it: “we miss ya, frank” so grossed out by this & in my opinion 100x more vile than my actions. just goes to show true color in all shades.

the beginning of 2014 person tries speaking to Andrea at the making of the Ishmael mural downtown, he refused to associate (you would think someone would get the hint after being blatantly ignored) then she stalked Andrea down at his own restaurant, during work by knocking on the door followed by cornering him and begging to be “art friends” as well as continuously tagging him in pictures via Instagram and trying to sell drugs to his little sister (which she later got arrested for)- all while dating the guy she cheated with. not to mention she kept sharing older post of andrea and his family, leading up to her tantrum - a contradiction to say the least.

I will also mention this same summer (2017) she bullied this girl that used to host with me at renatos for separate issues, person was tagging this girls place of work with drama and told this girl she shouldn’t step foot back in Spartanburg again, “for her sake”; then trying to accuse a local artist of purposely littering (they once called her out for her bullshit) she also accused one of these same artists of “threatening her with violence” (sound familiar) because she kept purposely vandalizing work around town. this same artist said that she got kicked out of every bar in town and was trying to get with him/kept pushing herself on to him while she was still with the guy she cheated on Andrea with. side note: some birdie told me she harassed a girl once and was tracking her address down and people had to tell her to stop being so immature/creating drama/harassing the girl. - obvi harassment/not leaving someone alone when they have washed their hands clean of her seems to be a very consistent pattern of behavior with person.

screenshots on screenshots on screenshots. #exposed

in conclusion, I do not regret telling her to move on to her face and in hindsight, she had to make up a reason/situation because she didn’t like what I said to her. (i guess a yelp review posted via Facebook was “revenge” lmao & it surely did not keep people from eating at the restaurant, in fact, some of her “friends” came to eat shortly after AND told me I was awesome! obviously, person was mad enough to manipulate the incident. person shoulda just took the hint back at the graffiti wall)

p.s. is it weird or sad how this person recently (dec2019) tags her friend in old pictures of Andreas' dad, Renato? & more. those screenshots most definitely have been received and saved.

only goes to show :)

can i just say that i confronted this girl because she was harassing andrea (him being a guy) would probably have had way sooner or worse consequences given if it was vice versa! she was the one that brought it to light for all her social media followers, which got several peoples attention of her antics of which she continued to act out even after all the drama had subsided. (several people came to me about this person lol)

plan executed - success!

i have SO much more to say about this, but until then -

i would be embarrassed at this point,‬ ‪but to each their own bb - ‬‪all that is, is negative energy‬ ‪& THAT, you may keep and carry all to yourself! 💥💛 enjoy‬

#spartanburg #spartanburgsc #cityofspartanburg #downtownspartanburg #onespartanburg #SMILEspartanburg

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