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physalian · 8 months ago

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Segway Characters (Or when your protagonist knows jack about the story)

This is the protagonist of a sci-fi or fantasy world, generally a nobody who gets dragged in either by circumstance or by being the long-lost-something prophesied to save the realm. They know absolutely nothing about the plot, the other characters, the magic system, or the new world, the audience proxy that asks all the questions on the audience’s behalf.

I call them Segways (read; not segue) because they look dumb and you ride their ass through the narrative.

This is a very, very broad concept for a protagonist, everybody from a superhero origin story to Harry Potter, as opposed to a character like James Bond, an expert in their craft and a *seasoned protagonist*.

Segways usually aren’t a problem… until it becomes rather painfully obvious that they only exist to be the audience proxy to ask those questions, when another character could and should be the protagonist because they’re far more interesting, usually because the protagonist is way less cool and active in the plot than their constituents. Or, they’re a perfectly fine character, but the exposition dumping to them is sloppy and unrefined.

The difference between just a protagonist and a Segway is how smoothly they integrate into that story.

So.

—

Inception

I love this movie. It has inspired so much of my writing.

Ariadne is a poster child of Segway characters. Aside from the villain, Mal, she’s the only woman in the cast, and though Dom (DiCaprio) is the hero, Ariadne is his protege, the audience vector through which all the world mechanics and important backstory stuff is told. Every other character already knows how dream heists work and who Mal is, so explaining redundant information between experts would look weird—enter the Segway, Ariadne.

For what it’s worth, she’s not useless otherwise. She’s the new ‘architect,’ she builds the mazes the rest of the team runs through and is the innocent cinnamon roll dragged into problems that Dom created. Her name could not be a more heavy-handed symbol.

She’s active in the story and her perspective foils against Dom’s well enough, but Inception is a movie with layers and an infamous amount of necessary exposition to understand the story. Someone has to be there to ask all the questions the audience has. Ariadne unfortunately gets the lion’s share, instead of the script figuring out how to weave more of it into the interactions of the other characters. They spent so much time on the complex narrative it’s like they forgot about a layman audience and threw her in too late for a seamless integration.

—

Netflix’s The Old Guard is better than it should be, given its budget. I didn’t read the comic it was based on and have no idea if Nile’s character is the same in the original, but she’s another Segway with only one reason for existing in the plot otherwise: Andy’s got to pass the torch to someone.

Yes she comes to save them in the end and yes, her advantage in the story is being unknown to the villains, but she’s there, in this version of the story, so the other four heroes can info-dump to her about all manner of things from how immortality works to their backstories to the setup for the sequel the movie never got.

I just rewatched it recently and if the script just had two or three passes to tackle the exposition problem, it could have off-loaded some of the burden onto other characters, or better told it through action, and not just info-dumpy monologues. When the movie came out I remember a critic I like commenting that it could have been a more interesting story if it had been told from the sympathetic villain’s perspective (Not Dudley’s). As in, if he was on a mission with all his conspiracy-level research and dedication to track these people down, throwing out his own theories for them to then correct or something.

Like this, the story is just waiting for Nile to ask the right questions. Nothing is volunteered freely without Nile directly asking for it, because it runs into the same problem as Inception: Every other character already knows everything, and they wouldn’t exposit to each other.

—

A lot of isekai anime also do this. I’ve tried getting into older, tentpole shows like Sailor Moon and Bleach and Yu Yu Hakusho and I don’t know what it is about anime pilot episodes, even modern ones but particularly the old ones, the exposition dumping is atrocious. To the point where it feels like they all know it and are like “listen just bear with us and we’ll get this done fast and sloppy and get to the good stuff later”.

I just can’t. I think I made it 15 minutes into Bleach before noping out of there years ago.

—

Obviously all these movies and shows have their fans, but if you’re a writer struggling with exposition or noticed this trend like me, here’s some suggestions to avoid the need to info-dump, assuming you do want to keep your Segway.

Try not to give all the exposition questions to one character, and don’t wait for that character to ask, out-of-character on behalf of the audience, what’s going on in the story. Instead, let it flow more naturally in conversation and let the more experienced characters brainstorm with each other, or let the protagonist uncover some of this information actively on their own through other means, for variety’s sake.

Figure out a reason why these questions are necessary to the story in this moment. Why is the hero asking now, as opposed to any other time? You can also let the hero draw their own conclusions and have the other characters correct their misassumptions, feeding that information in a more natural way.

Give the hero more to do in the story beyond being the exposition vehicle right from the start. I don’t care if they’re the chosen one and the plot just falls into their lap, why are they the chosen one?

Spread out the exposition to come only when it’s necessary. Front-loading it can tarnish the immersion and overwhelm the audience, especially if it’s complex, or if there’s a lot of it. You can pepper it all the way through the story if you want.

If you really want to front-load it, you can go to the extremes and slap in a prologue or meta-narrative dump that’s fun and entertaining from a third person omniscient perspective. First thing that comes to mind is the opening 2D scene from Kung Fu Panda that covers a lot of ground. Go ham.

None of these characters are bad, I just think with a few more rounds of revisions and forethought, they could have been integrated better into their stories.

#writing #writing advice #writing a book #writing resources #writing tips #writing tools #writeblr #character design #fantasy #sci fi #exposition #infodump

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professionalranter31 · 10 months ago

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So I mentioned in a previous post how Overwatch has a lot of factions that aren’t expanded upon a lot, so I’ve got a list of my top five that are currently represented and my top five that I wish got representation

We’ll start with the ones that currently have representation

Number five is Oasis, represented by Moira who is their Minister of Genetics however we do know in lore that there are other ministers so they could be playable in the future or someone else who works within Oasis

In the same vein as Oasis at Number four we got the Atlantic Arcology which is represented by Lifeweaver. It’s a similar place to Oasis where many great minds live in order to try and further research in various fields and I just feel like both of them should have more representation given the significance they most likely have with advancements in the Overwatch Universe

Number Three is Blackwatch, we only know of four of them and one them also doubles as representation for Overwatch. I want to know more about the black ops of Overwatch, like, did they have a tank?

Number two is the MEKA Squad, with what we know of them in lore is surprisingly little and I’m gonna be honest the vibes I’ve gotten from the lore is that D.Va does most of the work and I want to be proven wrong about that. Plus, the Genshin are meant to be this big threat but it’s hard to take it as a threat when we are only able to see the capabilities of one of Korea’s defenders

And at Number One, the Inti Tribe because why the absolute FUCK is Illari labeled as its only defender!? No seriously, she is fucking 18 why is she treated in lore as her tribe’s only defender. If she was their tribe’s only sun warrior that’s a different thing but she’s working with others to defend their tribe but the Sun Warriors made up the bulk of the defenses so at least then it still gives to the tragedy of her explosion while not leaving the literal eighteen year old as the only defender of an entire giant tribe I want an explanation Blizzard!!! I will crawl into your office like a demon possessed and tear through whatever lore books you have in there to find my answers give them to me!!!

On to the factions that don’t have representation within Overwatch that I feel should have it

At Number five we got the Hashimoto. They’re meant to Kiriko’s main enemy and as of the recent Hanzo short story his as well but they just feel like a dime a dozen goons from what we have seen. Like how Null Sector began to feel like more of a threat after Ramattra was added I feel like the Hashimoto would be seen as more dangerous if we actually got a hero to represent them

At Number Four, the Gwishin. Sort of the same story like with the Hashimoto except we do have some idea of what they are capable of, no what I want a hero to represent them for is how they happened in the first place and how they are able to adapt like they do

At Number three the Wastelanders of Australia, they’re the outcasts of the junkers and what Junker Queen used to be when she was exiled. It shows a new perspective on the Australian Wasteland that’s different from the Junkers

At Number two we got the UN. Look, given how big of a deal the UN is in the larger story of Overwatch I just feel like having a hero to represent them would be pretty good in terms of lore and generally either a character who is morally grey or a villain

At Number one we have the God AI. We currently know the names of four God AI, Anubis, Chernobog, Xibalba, and Macaria. Given the massive importance the God AI have in the lore of Overwatch I’m genuinely surprised that not one of them has been made into a playable hero. I’m also kinda impressed that Blizzard hasn’t released a hero that is just them taking a god from mythology and translating that into an FPS. Anyway, given the various purposes the AI had there’s plenty of ways to design their kits around it and there have been hints that some of the God AI achieved some level of Sentience such as Chernobog’s lore. So yeah, I want them represented in game

#overwatch #overwatch 2 #overwatch moira #lifeweaver #d.va #illari #kiriko kamori #hanzo shimada #junker queen

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warrioreowynofrohan · 2 years ago

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It’s been nearly a month since I read The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England and I’ve had this post in my head for most of that time, but I finally have leisure to write it down. I may have forgotten or misremembered some stuff.

The book is definitely engaging with a lot of the recent discourse around policing, in some obvious and some less obvious ways. I never fully bought into the protagonist’s temporary characterization of himself as a ‘heroic cop’, and didn’t feel that the book bought into it either - it felt from the start like a story with a deeply flawed protagonist who was going to need to grow beyond his past attitudes and assumptions. I did assume that he’d bought the ‘universe’ he was in rather than hiding in it, so that was a surprise.

The characterization of Ryan and its subversion - the initial presentation of him as an ideal hero, followed by the revelations that he’s both a pretty crappy friend and doesn’t care about the people of the medieval-universe - is the most direct way the book deals with cops, since he’s the one cop character who appears in it, but I don’t think it’s the most important way the book engages with the topic. The most important way doesn’t openly mention cops at all.

Near the climax, John realizes that the way organized crime operates is by making people feel weak, powerless; by saying, ‘you have only the power I give you, and the second I take that away, you are nothing’. The crime boss kept John around as an example for that reason. And then, crucially, with Sefawynn’s story it explicitly connects that to Woden and says: he is behaving in the same way. He is sending the message of, ‘you aren’t obedient enough, unquestioning enough, to deserve my protection,’ and leading people like Sefawynn into deception because deception is the only way they can square their support for him with his actions. And at the climax, Sefawynn rejects both that and Woden. In short, the story turns around and says to the reader: look at the way the organized crime boss is acting. What other authorities, ones with social power and status and legitimacy, are in fact behaving in the same way? Which ones are ruling by force and fear, saying that that they’re the only thing that can protect you and give you security, and justifying their actions by saying any of their victims just weren’t good enough, just weren’t obedient enough, compliant enough?

In additionto this, there’s a thread running through the story of what I’ll call the redemptive power of vulnerability and weakness. John comes into the ‘parallel universe’ with virtually no knowledge and no power, and as a result is reliant on the people he meets. This leads to him getting to know them, to value them, to understand them and become friends with them and see them as equals. Ryan, in contrast, comes into the ‘parallel universe’ with all his knowledge and resources intact and is able to recruit the locals - in fact this means he’s still reliant on them, but it doesn’t feel that way to him: to him they’re not equals much less friends, they’re subordinates or tools. As a result, John values and cares about them and Ryan doesn’t. When you’re trained and conditioned and empowered to regard everyone you work around as enemies, tools, or bystanders, you’re not going to end up treating them as equals. You can only treat them as equals if you’re willing and able to be vulnerable to them. It’s why a lot of things in society - not only policing - won’t work right without a shift away from saving/fixing/protecting people to accompanying them, to letting them say “I need X and I want to do Y about it” and people - social workers, teachers, health professionals, child welfare workers - saying “What can I do to help?” rather than saying “I need you to do X, Y, and Z, and I will give you A, B, and C.” There are limits - medical professionals know more about medicine than laypeople do, and if someone says they need herbs to cure their cancer they can be (literally) dead wrong - but working with people rather than to or for them means you’re treating both themselves and yourself more as people rather than positions. Policing’s a heavier version of a similar thing, because avoid vulnerability at all costs is so deeply embedded in its culture. And that’s the reverse of what should be. Anyone whom society gives a gun to needs to be more, not less, willing to be vulnerable, precisely because the power they’ve been given makes others vulnerable to them.

A final thing that stands out in the books that ties in with similar social themes - very openly! - is the way characters from ‘our’ timeline are encouraged to think about those from ‘parallel universes’. There are a host of ways that could have been used to describe the fact that people from ‘our’ timeline can enter the medieval timelines and not vice versa. The choice of describing it as ‘people from these other timeles are less real’ is very much deliberate! It’s a choice that lets them say ‘these people’s lives don’t matter’ - or at least, don’t matter as much as ours. And that’s the narrative that Ryan buys into, and John rejects. (By the way, the satirical send-up of superficial corporate social responsibility in the Handbook excerpts is A+. Buy a bracelet! Feel virtuous! Don’t think about the fact that yes, this is absolutely imperialism!)

#brandon sanderson #ssp2 #politics #policing #black lives matter #year of sanderson #sanderson secret project 2 #ssp2 spoilers #the frugal wizard’s handbook for surviving medieval england

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brianlesshetaliawritings · 2 years ago

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HI I LOVE YOU the Allies with a crush hcs you wrote are so cute I adore how you characterize everyone 😭 would you please do the SFW alphabet (from your pinned post) with America? Thank you so much :D

America SFW Alphabet

note: OMG THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!1!!! I LOVE YOU TOO SWEET ANON THANK YOUS O MUCH (i'm sorry this took me so long)

Affection: How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?

He's very openly affectionate with you, completely shameless when he kisses you in public. He compliments anything good he notices about you and always says he loves you, but he also likes hanging out with you at his favorite places.

Best friend: What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?

Tbh Alfred just saw you and decided to have a conversation with you, this could be anywhere while anything is happening. He's a very playful friend, he really likes playing sports or video games with you.

Cuddles: Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?

Most definitely he would. He likes if your head lays on his chest while he hold you with one arm, it makes him feel like he can protect you. Also he just seems like the type to rest on his back to me.

Domestic: Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?

He can make scrambled eggs or toast, but thats the farthest his chef skills stretch. Cleaning isn't for him either since he always ends up breaking something on accident. He wants to wait until he can do those things to settle down, if he does. He's fine either way.

Ending: If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?

He'd wait for a good time then tell you he doesn't think this is working out, he probably didn't think of what exactly to say beforehand so it probably took him a good minute to finally explain his feeling.

Fiance(e): How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?

Not the wildest about marriage, he'd do it if you want though. You can also do it almost whenever, he doesn't care too much as long as he knows you love eachother. Probably wouldn't marry you like a year into the relationship though.

Gentle: How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?

He's nice and not too rough with you, but he's certainly not gentle either. Expect plently of excited hugs when you two see achother. He does care when you feel bad but he mostly just tries to distract you, unless he can fix it, then he'll gladly be your hero.

Hugs: Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?

Hugs you a lot, doesn't even think about it either. He's naturally an affectionate partner and love's hugs. He just kinda squeezes you for 7 to 30 seconds and probably gives you a few little kisses too if you're up for that.

I love you: How fast do they say the L-word?

Depends a bit on how your relationship started, longest it will take is a month into you guys being together.

Jealousy: How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?

He gets pretty jealous every once in a while. Dislikes when you spend too much time with other people, also doesn’t like it at all when other guys (or girls) talk to you like they’re into you. Definitely a hugger when jealous, if it’s bad enough he’ll mention that you two are together.

Kisses: What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?

Loves to kiss you. He gives lots of excited kisses on the lips and cheek (mostly lips). His kisses aren’t all too rough though even if they’re fast, they’re always sweet.

Little one: How are they around children?

He's... alright. He's not the worst, but good is an overstatement. He likes to play with them until he's accidentally too rough and they start crying. He doesn't handle the moody ones well, but shy ones dont work either. Would not change diapers if its a baby, or do anything important in general. 3.5/10 with kids imo.

Morning: How are mornings spent with them?

Shakes you awake because he doesn't wanna be the only one awake. Thinks mornings are better when he drags you along with him to get IHOP once you two are ready, but at least he pays so thats a plus. Likes to go to the park afterwards so he can walk with you and start a race back to the car when done.

Night: How are nights spent with them?

He watches a movie before bed, won't force you to partake but will beg every time. After that he does the nightly rituals and struggles to choose a position to sleep in for about 20 minutes, then remembers something he wanted to look up and talks to you about it. Falls asleep midway through reading about it. You'd assume this would be annoying, but it grows on you.

Open: When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?

A lot of people assume he's an open person but he does have things he keeps to himself. Doesn't do it all at once, just brings it up every once in awhile or if something reminds him of it. Doesn't linger on it too long, but you do start to learn his life story and whatnot the longer the relationship goes on.

Patience: How easily angered are they?

Not too easily angered. Some things can get to him though after awhile but after being frustrated for about five hours he forgives you. Can be pretty petty every once in awhile though.

Quizzes: How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?

Remembers about 70% of what you say, he tries to listen so he can get an idea of what gifts you'd like or to hear your interests. If he hears your impressed about something you saw, he might try it himself. Doesn't remember everything you say though, especially if you tell it while he's busy. Sometimes you say "hey, remember when i told you- (blah blah blah)?" and he'll lie that he does, then pretend to know all about the subject.

Remember: What is their favorite moment in your relationship?

Definitely something stupid. Either the time he snuck a (live) snake into a glass jar in the kitchen while you were in there or when he got you to come with him to a horror escape room and you two were chased by a man in a clown costume.

Security: How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?

He'd protect you if you're in any danger, without much thought really. He is the hero so it makes sense. He doesn't get protective over too many things that aren't dangerous though, like you having other friends who are guys or anything like that. Doesn't like it if people hit on you though, not like he'll cause a scene or anything but he certainly won't allow it to pass by.

Try: How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?

GIANT show off. Sometimes, though. Sometimes he'll just drive around with you while listening to music, or he'll take you to mcdonalds. Don't be shocked if he takes you on a luxury cruise for your fourth anniversary though. Also a fan of road trips to major spots in the USA with side trips to things like the salt and pepper shaker museum, or the biggest cowboy hat. LOVES day trips even if nothing special is happening though, expect one a week.

Ugly: What would be some bad habits of theirs?

Wore axe body spray at some point. Lasted two days until someone (you don't know who) had a talk with him about it. Depending on your opinion his fast food eating, and eating out very often in general might get annoying. Always pounds himself with cologne, sometimes multiple ones at once so he smells like a walking scent store. Would have a whole closet for 4th of july stuff, and sometimes brings the stuff out even when its not a partiotic holiday. Oh, also he has his flag on his boxers so look forward to seeing that if you look at the laundry.

Vanity: How concerned are they with their looks?

Pretty shameless. He likes to wear really stupid stuff out and about to get stares since he thinks its funny. Does put some attention to what he wears though, especially if he feels its important. He likes to think he dresses good for the most part though.

Whole: Would they feel incomplete without you?

He does think you're really important, but incomplete isn't what he'd describe. He thinks of you two as not only dating, but also best friends. He does miss you though when you two are apart, but he doesn't think about you all the time either. Never think of it as you not not being valuable to him though.

Xtra: A random headcanon for them.

Cooks barbecue every damn weekend, every other week theres a pool party with it too. Since his house definitely has a pool. People there are a mix of complete strangers and close friends of his you never met before. Be prepared for that.

Yuck: What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?

He's pretty open to various types of people, he doesn't like people who argue a lot though. Doesn't like extremely negative people either, especially if it brings everyone else down too. Of course, people who are sad or not overly positive in general are fine, he actually tries to help them feel better. Doesn't like the idea of someone who dominates his life either, he wants to be able to do things without being dragged down by his partner.

Zzz: What is a sleep habits of theirs?

Snores, noticeably but not too badly. Sleep talks too. Moves around. Always close to you though, will not ever leave ur side. Even if it means your being pulled with him if he falls off the side of the bed, which has happened before. Was funny to him, but not you.

#aph america x reader #hetalia #hetalia x reader #aph america #hws america #hws america x reader #america x reader #hetalia america

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driftingballoons · 1 year ago

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For the character thing you just reblogged: Grovyle from EoS or Gengar from Red/Blue Rescue Team

I never played Red/Blue Rescue Team, so not too familiar with the gremlin, so Grovyle it is >:)

favorite thing about them

God just. Oh my god. Everything? In all seriousness, I think it’s how kindhearted he is (when he’s not beating the shit out of people anyway). The way he reunites with Hero, just to realize they’re still lost to him, that they’ll ALWAYS be lost to him, even if they weren’t going to disappear at the end of it all. The way he sees how he was unintentionally replaced by Partner, yet still treats them both with the utmost kindness. He doesn’t hold a grudge against Partner, or harbor any hard feelings; his best friend found someone who is always looking out for them, and he’s genuinely happy for them. It just breaks my heart every time.

least favorite thing about them

I get that he’s on a strict timeline, and that he’s probably running on pure adrenaline, but his attack first ask questions later approach is really…not conducive to the mission. That and beating up children aren’t a good look on him.

favorite line

Gonna have to go with the ICONIC lines from the cave scene in SE5, where he talks about how what you accomplish in life is more important than how long you get. That speech was honestly life changing.

brOTP

Hero and Partner. They are all friends. The first thing he did when coming back from not existing was to let them know he and the rest of the future were alive ;0;

OTP

Celebi and Dusknoir. Polycule of all time

nOTP

I guess anyone other than Celebi/Dusknoir? I don’t really see him shipped with anyone else. He doesn’t really interact with anyone else either, unless he’s beating them up or getting attacked :(

random headcanon

He feels generally unwell in the future because being a grass type in a world of perpetual darkness sucks. The first time he experienced real sunlight in the past is eye-opening, not only for its beauty, but also for how healthy it makes him feel. He never realized he could feel so good.

unpopular opinion

I’ve heard various ideas of the nature of his relationship to Hero, and my personal take is that he was their pokemon in the traditional trainer-pokemon style. Specifically, I feel like Hero would’ve had him from when they were quite young, but that he’s probably at least a little younger.

song i associate with them

Entropy by End of Silence has some lyrics that really resonate with him I feel. I can especially imagine it while they’re fighting Primal Dialga in the future.

favorite picture of them

I always loved this photo of him from the loading screen. The colors, the composition, it’s just perfect <3

#lizavet #thanks for the ask!#Grovyle is THE character of all time #I have been insane abt him since 2009

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talenlee · 1 year ago

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How To Be: Sothe Pathofradiance (In 4e D&D)

In How To Be we’re going to look at a variety of characters from Not D&D and conceptualise how you might go about making a version of that character in the form of D&D that matters on this blog, D&D 4th Edition. Our guidelines are as follows:

This is going to be a brief rundown of ways to make a character that ‘feels’ like the source character

This isn’t meant to be comprehensive or authoritative but as a creative exercise

While not every character can work immediately out of the box, the aim is to make sure they have a character ‘feel’ as soon as possible

The character has to have the ‘feeling’ of the character by at least midway through Heroic

When building characters in 4th Edition it’s worth remembering that there are a lot of different ways to do the same basic thing. This isn’t going to be comprehensive, or even particularly fleshed out, and instead give you some places to start when you want to make something.

Another thing to remember is that 4e characters tend to be more about collected interactions of groups of things – it’s not that you get a build with specific rules about what you have to take, and when, and why, like you’re lockpicking your way through a design in the hopes of getting an overlap eventually. Character building is about packages, not programs, and we’ll talk about some packages and reference them going forwards.

Who are we looking at this month? Well, since this series was started off by Hilda from Three Houses, it seems positively rude on my part to not reach once more to the Fire Emblem well, with its wonderfully varied names and … embarrassingly limited mechanical scope.

Let’s look at a character from a Gamecube game about fighting a dragon, or a god, or the black knight, or something.

Examining Sothe

Setting aside the way he shows up in any other ‘this relates to Fire Emblem’ media like Fire Emblem Heroes, Sothe is present in two games: Fire Emblem: Pool of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. After doing extensive research into the Fire Emblem franchise, and built an extensive understanding of the game’s existing lore and general play fantasy, I have gathered information about the importance of this plot-vital character. As best I can tell, there’s no actual reason to care that much about keeping Sothe around. He’s the second thief you get in a game where you don’t need any thieves. In Path of Radiance, Sothe is there to set up his appearance in the second game, where I understand he’s much cooler. Poor guy got it rough.

Know what is cool though about Fire Emblem? It has a bunch of systemic information about the character. At a glance, I can tell that Sothe has a starting strength of 5, but a skill of 7 and a speed of 11. These are not the same stats as you’d see in D&D but you can interrogate what they’re meant to represent.

Sothe’s strength adds to his physical damage, but his skill and speed improve his critical hit rate. Critical hit rates aren’t something you can do a lot with in 4e D&D, but that’s still a sign that this character might not be the most powerful, aggressive fighter, not someone who can deadlift things, but thanks to his ability to hit things at the right time and the right place, he can do a lot of damage. Sothe doesn’t have any meaningful magical ability, and it doesn’t improve that well.

Also, in terms of what he does badly, he doesn’t have good defense or resistance, and those things don’t improve much either. In Radiant Dawn, he gets to be more or less the same thing, but moreso, with a special skill for dealing more damage to shapeshifting monsters. All of this mechanically indicates pretty much what you’d expect at the idea of a ‘sly thief’.

Alright, then, Sothe is a thief, mobile, able to engage in fights but not an individual who can pick up a horse and throw it. Light armour seems obvious, since that would be good for mobility, and he uses knives. All this stuff is covered pretty conveniently in most of our optional builds, so there’s no concern there.

Sothe’s beast-stalking seems… kind of hard to do anything with. That can be covered in D&D with silvered weapons, which are low priority in my opinion.

Glossary Note: Conventionally, the term used in D&D for this mechanical package is race. This is the typical term, and in most conversations about this game system, the term you’re going to wind up using is race. For backwards compatibility and searchability, I am including this passage here. The term I use for this player option is heritage.

Light armour, some strength (if you can spare it), good dexterity (so picking a class and heritage that amplify those options), and skills that let you sneak around and steal things.

I mean I’m not going to lie to you, I started thinking ‘this guy is just a thief, right?’ and I’m not wrong. An added challenge for Sothe, though, is the question of how do you add variety to a build for a character who at his heart is a game piece designed to slot into the spot of ‘a thief’?

Idea 1: The Rogue

Well duh.

Idea 2: The Ranger

If you like the idea of being a sneaky damage dealer like Sothe, but for some reason, you dont’ want to be ‘a thief’ – I mean why, how, what is it about Sothe that pulls your attention here, I do not get it – another good option is the Ranger. Rangers can be built with a lot of dexterity, and with attacks that use Dexterity to attack people. The best Ranger attack, Twin Strike, is a good example too, where you can (say) throw a pair of daggers at someone’s face with your knives. The skillset mostly lines up too and you can use themes to pick up more skills that fit your vision of this thiefy character. Amn is a good one – it gives you Streetwise and Thievery, which

I mean

Sothe is a Thief. You probably want Thievery, right?

Idea 3: The Warlord

Alright, now I know I’m pushing towards the edges, but bear with me here.

Sothe does not ‘heal’ people in Forced Femblem. Healing in that game is a very specific mechanic that works a particular way. But there is a build of the Warlord that cares about making opportunities and not making its own attacks.

The idea is a ‘Lazy Warlord.’ Fire Emblem is a game where units sometimes spend turn after turn not attacking and just waiting for things to engage you. You can, in fact, just idle on a map but be there, necessarily, because of some plot reason or another. I’ve watched enough Firey Wirey Emblemy Wemblemy to know that the core of the game is very much often about parking plot-relevant characters where they can’t be accidentally critted to death by randoms and turning the map into a kill box.

For that, I would suggest, a lazy warlord. Sothe is there, but Sothe isn’t there to fight. Sothe is there to enable your fighting, and to take advantage of opportunities.

In just heroic, you can do this with the following powers as you level up:

Commander’s Strike (At Will)

Direct the Strike (At Will)

Overwhelming Force Trap (Encounter)

Powerful Warning (Encounter)

Friendly Fire (Encounter)

Destructive Surprise

Scent of Victory

With this power layout, you literally don’t need to be able to attack on your own at all. You can even take Fey Beast Tamer as your theme, and have a pet that can do your opportunity attacks or granted attacks. This is a build that doesn’t need any magical weapons at all, and that’s pretty wild!

Junk Drawer

Within the limits of a martial, non-magical character type that is lightly armoured, Sothe pretty much taps it out and reaches his goal immediately. Once you’re willing to expand a little bit, the Avenger becomes immediately obvious as an option for a weapon-wielding character that isn’t high strength, and cares about light armour and mobility. If you’re willing to allow some arcane magic into your Sothe’s life, you could also turn to the Skald, wielding a knife and letting people heal themselves while you attack around them.

I’ve talked about it before, but some characters line up obviously in what they do and how they do it. The trick then is to look for the next thing.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Fire Emblem #How to Be #Dungeons &amp; Dragons #Games

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moonstone27ls · 2 years ago

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What is CBR’s Problem?

Forgive the minor rant or vent moment? Will delete later.

To those that don’t know CBR, is a comic website. It’ll cover movies/tv shows, etc as well. But just writing this cause lately ... I’m getting kinda miffed at how they’re complaining about Spiderman’s love life.

Before someone gives me “its their opinion/respect it” crap I get it. But I also have an opinion so I’m just letting it out.

For I wanna say two months. They’ve been kinda dumping on Spidey/MJ’s relationship. And I’m not trying to start a shipping war. Depending on whom, I can be a multishipper. Heck I love reading AUs where Spidey is married to Gwen/or even Black Cat. But since there’s a new storyline (not getting into that, comics are drama lol), where they are split.

That part doesn’t bother me. Its comics, they always find a reason to break up a couple. So that the hero doesn’t seem old to the audience I guess. I mean this isn’t even the first time they’ve been split. So again its not news to me.

Whats been getting on my nerves is that they been dumping on Mary Jane like she was the weakest character to the storyline. One article was basically dumping on her/and writing that Gwen Stacy was the ideal choice. That compared to Gwen, MJ was never good enough.

Now they wrote an article of how they want them permanently split. Because Spidey is apparently in DESPERATE need of a new girl.

Again the split isn’t new. It doesn’t even bother me if Peter dates other women, he’s done it before. Whats bothering me is that CBR feels the need to dump on MJ like she’s in the way. I haven’t seen them do this to Scott/Jean Grey. Or even Scott/Emma (that I know offf). This wasn’t done when She Hulk is dating (I dunno who she dates a lot I don’t read that comic).

And I find it hypocritical that they wrote how Gwen was better. But then I wanna say two weeks before that article they wrote how Gwen/Peter had issues and were apparently a doomed relationship.

Another reason it annoys me is that I feel in minimizes Mary Jane as character. Maybe depending on the writer(or even movie) she’s not handled well. But over the years Marvel has done its best to improve her as a character. She’s just as important as Gwen is (was. I dunno not getting into that either). Just cause she’s not a rocket scientist or whatever, doesn’t mean she’s worthless. I’m not gonna write a big article on her importance. But I have seen other accounts who have done it. And its made me see she’s important.

Not to mention I don’t know why they wanna rush Spidey so much 8B. Why aren’t they rushing Wolverine? Or tons of other heroes. I dunno it annoys me a little. Plus I’ll be honest whats the rush? They probably do have someone planned just take your damn time and wait 8B.

#minor vent #will delete later #spiderman #mary jane watson #cbr

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grwvy-rwby · 2 months ago

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This got long so I’m just reblogging now. First things first. It doesn’t matter whether Jaune or anyone else from RWBYNR could beat Coco or Velvet or any of the villains in a one on one fight. Whether Coco or Velvet have enough combat skills to graduate already is also irrelevant. Being a Huntsman/Huntress isn’t just about combat prowess and the circumstances in which RWBJNR graduated are unique to them. I think your premise, that it matters whether Jaune can 1v1 anyone (other than Flint as it’s been pointed out) ditches looking at them being licensed as a narrative choice with thematic and in-world reasons for happening in favour of … power levels.

I think there’s 3 ways to look at RWBYJNR getting their licenses:

Are RWBYJNR ready to be licensed? (Yes.)

Why would Ironwood give them licenses? (They’ve proven helpful allies against Salem already.)

What does this do for the narrative? (Getting a huntress/huntsman license is not as special as previously believed.)

Are RWBYJNR ready to be licensed?

Yes. The series goes out of its way volumes 4-6 to show how much that RWBYJNR have grown in combat since Beacon. Ruby can carry people using her semblance, Weiss is much better at summoning, Jaune discovered his semblance etc. Notably, in v6, RWBYJNR are directly compared to two professional huntsmen, Dee and Dudley. Could any of RWBYJNR 1v1 either of them (or could either of them 1v1 any of the show’s antagonists)? I don’t know, but RWBYJNR certainly act like better huntsmen/huntresses. The second important way that RWBYJNR prove themselves is their willingness to fight against impossible odds (particularly highlighted in the apathy arc and their time in Argus).

Why would Ironwood give them licenses?

They made it to Haven, fought Cinder and co., secured the relic, and brought it to Atlas. They have already proven themselves as capable allies against Salem and Ironwood is looking for allies. There is more they can learn and do with licenses (especially for Ironwood) than they can by going back to school. And if you wouldn’t send them back to school (which you might! I wouldn’t though) then there is no point in withholding the license. You brought up the mines and I think it a) makes sense for Ironwood to give them licenses if he is going to have them support his special operatives in military missions. It would be a bit weird for students from a non-operational school to do that. And b) the Ace-Ops should be doing the heavy lifting. They’re the elite of the elite. They should be better than freshly licensed huntresses.

What does this do for the narrative?

Has the title of huntsman been watered down? Yes. Is this a bad thing? No. Huntsman and huntresses are held up as an ideal, heroic fighter on Remnant, but things are more complicated than that. Dee and Dudley are a clear example that being a professional huntsman is in itself not necessarily that impressive. Qrow has lost ⅔ of his fights with Tyrion and is still undoubtedly a skilled fighter and professional huntsman. RWBYJNR getting their asses kicked sometimes by people who are absolutely beyond graduate level huntresses/huntsman (even if those people aren’t huntsman themselves) is not indicative that they don’t deserve a license. Ruby (and honestly Jaune, too) putting immense pressure on herself to be this fairy tale type hero that is idealized as a huntress is shown to be horribly detrimental. In volume 9, Weiss even says that the best huntsman failed sometimes, but were still kind and good. They have licenses now. They still have more to learn. They can still fail. Getting a license and it not being this monumental moment that means that RWBYJNR are too skilled to get their asses kicked anymore is the point.

My Hottest RWBY Take:

Vol 7 spoilers

Jaune shouldn’t have gotten his huntsman license.

All he did was attend less than a year of school, walk for a few months, fight some random Grimm and be there when some bad guys did stuff. Thats not enough to believe that he should be a huntsman when Coco and Velvet and shit were left with nothing after Beacon fell. Coco would rock his shit from episode 1.

Tbh, none of them were really ready but i guess its easier to have your allies be licensed so whatever, but Jaune Arc has never won a 1 v 1 with anyone in his life. He completely relies on his team and would be killed immediately if left by himself to go fight crime. And everyone else actually finished combat school before they got to Beacon. Soooo?..

Name one villian that Jaune could actually win against. Your silence is deafening.

#rwby #ruby rose #jaune arc #rwby analysis

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babuis · 3 years ago

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Bakugo + Todoroki + Midoriya + Sero + Kirishima + Kaminari + Iida and kid headcannons I have because I just do and they're correct because they just are.

Bakugo: Has girls. He just does and he's protective as shit. He wears a pink tutu while wearing a black tank top that shows off his buff ass arms. His hair is in messy pigtails with sparkly hairclips and a crown that his baby put on him. He sits on a tiny chair and plays tea party with his little girl and Mr. Elephant. Does his girl's hair. Calls his baby girl princess and s p o i l s her. He lets his friends’ kids play with his girl but that’s only because they won’t stop pestering him about it. Otherwise, he would lock her up and keep her away from his friends’ icky kids- Kaminari’s kids specifically- he doesn’t want his sweet girl to start playing bad pranks. Always grumbles about the class 1-A’s occasional family get togethers but brings his daughter anyway because he wants her to have friends with parents he knows so he can intimidate them.

Todoroki: Has a twins because I said so. One girl one guy. The guy is quiet and a little awkward just like him. I can see his little boy with a bowl cut in a turtleneck, trying to act like his dad. His little girl is much more outgoing and smiley. His children are opposites just like his quirk. His son tries to tell his twin what to do and makes her cry, only for Todoroki to pat her on the head to comfort her and tell his son it's not nice to make girls cry. Uses their names but name the twins matching/related names. Matching outfits with all 3 of them. He actually wants his kids to be friends with Class 1-A’s kids. However, his kids have inherited his introvert personality and aren’t as interested in making friends. Plus, they think all the other kids are so loud. They go anyway to make their dad happy.

Midoriya: Has girls like Bakugo (thank god, because Bakugo would kill Midoriya if he had a son that tried to put moves on his princess). Raises a little bit of a nerd- her barbie dolls are always either heroes or scientists. Spoils the shit out of his girl. Is a little heartbroken when she tells him All Might isn't her favorite hero- but melts when she tells him that her favorite hero is Deku instead. Gives his baby stuffed animals she can hug when he can't. Calls her sweetheart. Wears matching stickers with his kid :') Of course he wants his baby to be friends with everyone else’s! Because he didn’t have many friends growing up, he thinks its important for them to have many childhood friends. Everything turned ended up okay with him and Bakugo!

Sero: Has girls but kick ass, athletic af girls. They’re always at the park hanging and flipping off the monkey bars to show off. His girls are strong and won’t take shit from any guy- their dad told them that! I’m seeing gymnast and track daughters. He goes to all their games unless it’s a hero emergency. He definitely uses his hero status to endorse their teams and outshine the other team. Another dad that calls his kids matching nicknames. I’m thinking something like Jelly and Bean so whenever he wants both of their attention he calls out ‘Jellybean.’ He’s proud of his girls whenever they kick some rude boy’s ass on the playground. Both he and his kids like going to the Class 1-A family gatherings because there’s always some sort of competition going on and they’re competitive. They have matching bikes and bike/run/skate/blade together.

Kirishima: Has boys. They’re gentleman, they really are- that is when they’re not being roudy. Like Sero’s girls, Kirishima’s sons are super competitive and athletic too. Their dad has their dream physique. I’m seeing soccer and wrestling boys for Kirishima. However, they refuse to ever lay a finger on a girl- until Sero’s girls kick their ass. Then it’s war and they all have a wrestling match on sight. Otherwise, they treat every girl like a queen and defend them because that’s what their dad taught them to do. Use their athleticism to kick the ass of other guys who are being bullies. Gets really mad when people make fun of Sero’s girls for being athletic so they kick their ass. Kirishima loves training with them but love having rest days even more when they all kick back and watch videos of crimson riot or just sports in general. Kirishima definitely lets his boys test their wrestling moves on him. Kirishima likes to meal plan with his boys and go to sports game with them- buying the matching jerseys.

Kaminari: Has a girl who's older and a boy who's younger. The girl has a s t r o n g sense of responsibility and teaches the boy how to treat women. Kaminari loves teasing his little girl either way- pinching her cheeks, making fun of her, messing up her hair my adding electricity to make it stand up. His daugher thinks he’s an idiot and is hotheaded, but she cherishes these moments. His little boy is actually quite mellow compared to his sister and his dad- someone has to be in the family. However, he’s secretly very cunning and sneaky. Puts salt in his dad’s coffee because he thinks its funny. Gives his kids matching nicknames but it’s something stupid like mayo and ketchup. Family prank wars and video game nights all the way. He may act aloof with them most of the time but he’s a very doting and serious father underneath it all. Once, a kid poked fun at the streak in his daughter’s hair and he almost popped a blood vessel. Instead, he roasted the shit out of the

Iida: Triplets. 2 girls and a guy. His girls are actually quite mischievous and cunning while his son is more mellowed out. His girls like to make fun of his son quite a lot- teasing him about his crushes and asking to dress him up and do his make up like a doll. Iida tries to tell them to knock it off but the girls just don’t listen- that and he finds it a little amusing. He pats his son on his back and tells him to endure it. He’s quite strict on academics and all his kids are overachievers. However- he never makes them feel like they are not enough and compliments their efforts rather than their results. Very proud of all his kids’ achievements. I feel like his triplets definitely play music and are a little trio of a band. One of his daughters plays piano, one plays flute, and his son plays violin. Cries at every recital because Iida is emotional. However, his kids are also very good at running (of course) and they also like being on student government. Iida has knowledge nights where he passes on his wisdom to his kids. They barely listen and end up tackling him and playing heroes and monsters- he’s the monster. Family professional portraits all the way and they have tons of family albums.

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ursie · 3 years ago

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I know there is racism within the Dick/Kory relationship as well, but why is Dick/Babs racist towards Dick?

Ok so I’m on mobile so I don’t have like panels ect. But in summary (also this is not against the characters ect) : you cannot remove Babs being a white woman and Dick being a moc especially when their characterization was adapted and changed for the ship.

.(mostly modern) Babs was infantized and often removed of any wrongdoing her and her character can do-this is a bad thing. She’s not an innocent naive white woman constantly wronged by Dick (this is important to her being compared to Kory). She’s not always in the right. She used to be quite mean and cold and that’s ok!! Sometimes women aren’t saints. But recently her character is falling more and more into the girl next door archetype. The writing almost entirely takes away any accountability from Babs. It’s important to stress that in the instances Dick wronged her were ooc and done hand in hand with him being written as a moc-him “cheating”/being a player was not his characterization until that happened-his race cannot be removed from the relationship. Many of his faults are directly ties to the writers bigotry. Todays Babs (who all will argue is ooc and weak compared to bop Babs and I’m not denying that but she is part of the issue of the ship-she exists because of it) is perfect and her perfection hinges on Kory and Dicks failures (both of which have racial undertones). She’s competent when Dicks incompetent (which aside from being like. Objectively bad writing he has a decade of hero work on her-undeniably has misogynistic and ableist tones as well). She’s virtuous where Dick and Korys not, she’s waiting and pining whilst Dick is portrayed as “dabbling” with an “exotic” purely sexual fling but will ultimately return to her (which is bad for multiple reasons). Modern Babs in the ship dynamic hinges on being a white woman in a love triangle with two poc-there is no fault in her in the relationship or character and any and all flaws are because of Dick or Kory-who either wronged her or failed her time and time again. Now there’s no denying how misogyny plays into this, or ableism (but it must be stressed that Dick is a Disabled man as well so her being a disabled woman does not remove any accountability here). At the end of the day she’s a white woman propped up against characters of color (in multiple dynamics from Dick and Kory, to Cass as bg, ect). Now I will say that DC seems to be considering making her Black as she’s being played by a Black woman in the dccu and has been voiced by one for years-her being a woc would remove a lot of the harmful dynamics at play.

Dick in his time being retconned as a moc (which coincides with the ship ect) cannot be removed from its current writing : once he was competent and “virtuous” (very much in love with one and only one person at a time. Not “slutty” *yes I know slutty isn’t a bad thing) now he is quite frankly portrayed as a dumbass incapable of thinking forward five minutes, incapable of settling on one woman, and constantly wronging Babs/being undeserving of her-it needs to be stressed here that his status as a survivor and how dc treated his s/a cannot be divorced from the ship either. Dick does not need a baby sitter. Babs competence and “goodness” should not come at the expense of retconned flaws. Dick is not w/o fault in their relationship and I would never say that-there have been many moments of minor to major ableist “microaggressions” in their dating during bop/now however given the way Babs treats Dick (a brown, lower class, Disabled man as well) I would say they’re about even in terms of biased writing. Dicks competence and character being frankly insulted for white characters is not new-while the case is strongest in Taylor’s current run in regards to Babs and Tim, it pops up often with Bruce and Jason (who yes is atm a canonically white man). His sexualization and the retroactive hypersexualization of his relationship with Kory vs the retroactive well. Canon of his relationship with Babs well. You quite obviously cannot remove race there. (This is not a commentary on the writing of Kory/their relationship which is obv a whole other essay that frankly I’m not the best person for). Where their relationship is “clean and wholesome” Dick and Korys isn’t when quite frankly if I were to compare their iconic runs (bop vs ntt) frankly Dick and Kory come out on top in terms of frankly. Everything. Modern DickBabs represents a lot of regression for the characters from their competence, to their age (Babs used to be much older), to their morals, but what it does the most is portray what is fundamentally a able bodied white woman who is magically better and more virtuous, and most often victimized by her less competent, less moral, harmful, peers that textually are stated to not deserve her. There’s kinda an awkward racial undertone to the whole ship and their writing rn like. You kinda can’t remove it the writing wouldn’t be the same if Dick was white or Babs was a woc-and again that’s barely touching it in the context of how it’s used and portrayed to (wrongly) insult and demean Kory and their relationship (and quite frankly Dicks relationships with multiple other woc like Shawn, Helena, or Beatrice)

This is just like off the top of my head and not written perfectly if anyone has anything to add or clarify ect feel free to in the comments or on the post idc. This is ok to reblog as long as you are normal about it (hate Taylor and that run) and understand I literally love all the characters involved

In summary of the summary

#this is long sorry #also not phrased perfectly I’m sick rn #asks #anon #anti dickbabs #kinda??#I babble #ok to reblog no clowning #dickbabs #dick grayson #barbara gordon

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vastly-fixated-devotee-667 · 6 months ago

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god this one was so long and i again do not feel compelled to lend them notes but if they get to share their opinion i can share my opinion on their opinion 😋 as any mature adult would do /lh

starting off with claims of having “played through it multiple times” so they’re “qualified to say it blows”… and yet — spoiler alert — being clearly ignorant to important parts of canon, including character names. but anyway

it is completely a you problem if you aren’t compelled by the characters. Jesse’s character is molded by how you play them, so their character is dependent on you. Petra is badass and her arc incredibly written, especially in season 2. Lukas is a lovable sweetheart. Ivor is a mysterious-villain-turned-silly-old man. Jack is a tough adventurer with a devastating backstory. Radar is the ingenue who starts out squeamish and blossoms into a brave, selfless hero. the Admins are beautifully written with heartbreaking backstories. and that’s not to mention all of the smaller characters that are so goofy, endearing, or even completely hateable. in any case, if you let them, all of the characters will make you feel something when they intend to.

i think it’s pretty well-established that folks don’t often go out at night. in the first episode, when they have to chase Reuben into the forest, Jesse gets really nervous when night falls. on the other hand, we know that places like Beacontown are probably kept well-lit at night so that mobs won’t spawn and are closed off from the outside boundaries so none of them can come from the outside in. i think even places like EnderCon were arranged as such. as for combat, all of the characters seem to have at least some decent ability to combat monsters. and Jesse never acts like they’ve never seen a creeper before. and it’s never established that nobody but Petra knows how to craft a pickaxe?

it’s actually a very important part of the first episode that Petra did, in fact, provide the Ocelots with a nether star. it isn’t specified how she got it. perhaps she traded somebody else for it. perhaps she did spawn and kill a Wither for it. not every aspect of the game has to be explained and spoonfed to the player. especially this — Petra was supposed to be viewed as cool and mysterious. we weren’t meant to know her methods.

also, i would presume that not everyone is doing what she does because they have different personalities and preferences. similar to how real people play minecraft. some people like to focus on the creative building aspects like Lukas. some people like messing around with redstone like Olivia. and some people do like to go face crazy monsters and explore dangerous places like Petra. and Jesse does express how impressed they are about the life Petra leads!

(what i mentioned before… Ivor was a huge character and if you played the game so many times how could you not remember his name 😭 it’s just very hard to take criticism seriously when it’s clear op might not exactly know what they’re talking about)

the Command Block was found by Soren, not Ivor. it isn’t explained how he found it, nor does it have to be — like i said, not every aspect of everything has to be tied up in a neat little bow. come up with it yourself if you need an explanation lol. Soren misused the Command Block by creating a legacy for the Order of the Stone that didn’t really exist otherwise, and as soon as their legend was sealed, he put its use up for good. he knew it was too dangerous for any one person to have control of. Ivor stole it from him — but Ivor didn’t have bad intentions, either. he only wanted to expose the OotS for what they were: fakes. he didn’t want to become a god. and the Command Block wasn’t just a power source for the Witherstorm; it was sort of like its heart and its brain, yes, but it is what created the Witherstorm. it wouldn’t have been a Witherstorm without it; it would’ve just been a normal Wither.

i just… don’t really know what they’re on about here. when is anybody clueless to how the universe works? Jesse and their friends don’t know everything, of course, but how could they? they haven’t been all around the world and experienced every aspect of the universe. and it was established that only one thing could kill the Witherstorm: Ivor’s specially-crafted enchantment. nothing else made a dent on the Command Block, not even the F-Bomb. i don’t think any of the basic minecraft actions could’ve helped.

the mcsm team was actually comprised mainly of minecraft fans! especially one of the lead writers, Eric Stirpe; he worked hard to keep the game faithful to minecraft. and if the criterion for a “cash grab” is simply a game based off of popular media, then i guess that’s all telltale ever made lol

anyway idc if you don’t like the game but can you STOP maintagging your “criticism” posts. we fans who look for content under those tags don’t want to see people just hating on the things we love

guys i think we are celebrating mcsm a little too close to the sun… people are starting to invade our tags with half-baked criticism…

#mcsm #minecraft story mode

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science-lings · 3 years ago

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Hero’s Spirit Things

AKA, things that all holders of the Hero’s Spirit have in common because of it.

1. Sleepy: ALL LINK’S ARE INERENTLY SLEEPY, nap time is very important and it’s not their fault, the hero’s spirit is literally just like that.

2. Sword: the hero’s spirit makes any little guy absolutely frighteningly good with swords. It is canon that in BOTW, Link kicked ass when he was a fuckin baby so it’s not hard to assume that the rest of them just had a natural talent for stabbing. Most of them were kids when their games took place and they could all absolutely kick ass as pre-teens. This is not normal so I’m attributing it to the hero’s spirit.

3. Stronk: Sure, some of them need items and whatever but as a general baseline, they’re all just a little stronger than they look. They can pick up rocks and statues and weapons that they really shouldn’t be able to. In Wind Waker Link can literally pick up statues and other characters that are about the same size as he is, like this kid is freakishly strong.

4. Green: Idk they just all like green. it’s not always just a tradition thing, they just like the color an abnormal amount. You know how some people are with certain colors (like purple or black, aka me) that’s how the Link’s are with green. It’s a personality trait gifted to them personally by the hero’s spirit.

5. Gender: not a single one of these bitches is cis. Every incarnation exudes androgyny, but specific identities differ each time. Some of them are transmasc, some are enbies, some are fluid, the point is that the hero’s spirit strictly prevents them from being cis.

6. RBF: all of their resting faces are varying degrees of grumpiness. Some look more pissed off than others but they all have the big downturned angular eyebrows and a little bit of a frown when they’re really just chilling.

7. Emotional Constipation: none of them know how to healthily cope with the trauma that comes with saving the world so they just shut all of their feelings in until they die. Some are a bit better at this but all of them have the problem of keeping all their feelings locked up tight so that no one will know that there is anything wrong. This is bad and they all need therapy. This also leads to mutism which each of them has a form of. I’m pretty sure that the only voice lines Link has ever had was in WW when he says ‘COME ON!’ and ‘MEOW’ and that is all. Some have fairies to speak for them or are merely implied to speak but never in cutscenes or important moments. Most of the time it’s mentioned is just that he’s oddly quiet but in botw its stated to be more of an anxiety thing.

8. Stupid: The hero’s spirit is reckless and heavily prone to solving problems with violence. Bravery often crosses the line into astounding idiocy. This is a good thing. If Link was too smart he would be too powerful. He’s good with little puzzles and battle techniques but he can’t to math. Ganon would win if he made his keys to his big lairs a division problem. However Ganon is also stupid and this is why Link always (not always) wins.

9. Oblivious: specifically in the ways of romance, I mean this guy can get princesses to fall in love with him over several lifetimes but not once has he recognized this as the case. He has been proposed to by fish princesses on two separate occasions and in two very separate lifetimes and both times he kinda just... went with it. Either that or the Hero’s Spirit is also on the AroAce spectrum which is also very valid and good. I just like the idea that he’s a total heartthrob and is completely unaware of it. So many npcs acknowledge that he is hot but he’s too busy catching bugs and eating dirt.

10. Nature: Even the incantations of Link that aren’t literally raised by trees or can turn into animals, all of them have a fun little connection to nature. Even HW Link talks to fairy’s and would probably enjoy a nap in the middle of a forest. They see and speak to nature spirits and have a slight eldritch quality to them that give them an air of strange and abnormal, but in like a wild divine way. They’re all a little more in tune with the world of animals and plants and they can command the winds and control lightning and sometimes its so easy to see how they’re more than just human.

feel free to add more 💚💚💚💚💚💚

#Linked universe #its not directly mentioned but it was what i was thinking about while making this post #legend of zelda #loz breath of the wild #botw #wind waker #ocarina of time #hyrule warriors #link #loz link #loz

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linkspooky · 4 years ago

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Eren Jaeger’s Final Words

So there are many people unimpressed with the final statement given by Eren’s character, either finding it inconsistent with the build up to this point, or too ambiguous a motivation for trampling all over the world. I’m not really here to talk about the quality of the story, whether it was good or bad, because I don’t really care. However, I think it’s fascinating what the text is trying to say about Eren’s character and his motivation.

This is why, “I don’t know, shrug” is both an answer and not an answer to why Eren did what he did in the end. For making my point in this analysis, I’ll be talking about Eren’s character from Marley on showing both the Eren that appeared before Reiner, the one that talked to Zeke, and finally the one Armin saw are all the same person.

1. And Now for Something Completely Different

Before I even begin though, let’s talk about something entirely different. My favorite episode of Doctor Who is from the 4th Doctor Era, entitled “Genesis of the Daleks” first broadcast around 1975. What makes this episode my favorite episode is both the premise, and the question it asks. If you haven’t watched Doctor Who the basic premise is the main character is a time traveler who can go everywhere and everywhen in the universe. One of his common enemies is the Daleks, a race whose goal is to kill everything else in the universe. The Time Lords order the Doctor to go back in time to the era the daleks were created, and prevent their creation in order to prevent every person they would eventually kill.

He goes do the Dalek homeworld, and meets the scientist who created them Davros. Eventually, the doctor fails enough that he’s not able to prevent their creation, but he could, wipe them out when they were just newly born children and completely innocent. The doctor decides not to kill them right then because that would be a pre-emptive genocide, and the Doctor is a pacifist. When Davros witnesses him making this choice it prompts this conversation one of my favorite in all of television. The link to the clip is here if you’re interested. [Source.]

Davros: "Now, future errors will be come victories. You have changed the future of the universe, Doctor." Doctor: "I have betrayed the future. Davros, for the last time, consider what you're doing. Stop the development of the Daleks." Davros: "Impossible. It is beyond my control. The workshops are already fully automated to produce the Dalek machines." Doctor: "It's not the machines, it's the minds of the creatures inside them. Minds that you created. They are totally evil." Davros: "Evil? No. No, I will not accept that. They are conditioned simply to survive. They can survive by becoming the dominant species. When all other life forms are suppressed, when the Daleks are the supreme rules of the universe, then you will have peace. Wars will end. They are the power not of evil, but of good." Doctor:"Davros, if you had created a virus in your laboratory, something contagious and infectious that killed on contact, a virus that would destroy all other forms of life, would you allow its use?" Davros: "It is an interesting conjecture." Doctor: "Would you do it?" Davros: "The only living thing, a microscopic organism reigning supreme... A fascinating idea. Doctor: "But, would you do it?" Davros: "Yes... yes..." [ Davros raises a hand as if holding the metaphorical capsule.]

Davros: "To hold in my hand a capsule that contains such power, to know that life and death on such a scale was my choice. To know that the tiny pressure of my thumb, enough to break the glass, would end everything... Yes, I would do it! That power would set me above the gods!

Davros’ motivations seem at first brush look one-note and evil, just another mad scientist playing god. However, what makes the conversation great is the context it takes place in. Here is the choice offered to the doctor, kill a race that he knows will go on to make war and kill innocents in the future in their infancy before they have done anything wrong, or don’t kill them and ensure the future you know will happen.

The Doctor isn’t saying that his choice is the right one. He’s not saying he’s doing good by choosing not to slaughter an innocent race. He’s saying, he can’t bring himself to make that choice. In that situation he chooses not to choose, because it would be against his pacifist believes to choose either way. Which Davros at first, takes to mean the Doctor siding with him. However, when they begin to debate it, notice how they’re not talking about what is the philosophically correct choice to do. The doctor hammers in this point, would you do it? Would you do it? After getting Davros to admit that yes, he would do it, his motivation becomes much clearer, he doesn’t actually care whether his actions result in a good thing or a bad thing, he simply wanted to be the one who got to choose.

What does Davros want? The power that surpasses a normal human being’s ability to choose. Davros himself is basically written to be pure evil, but his desire itself is a little more complex. Davros is a person lacking in agency, if you tear him away from his support system he’ll die within thirty seconds. He designs what he believes is the perfect race capable of conqueringthe universe which are reflections of him. They’re soft little squid creatures in mechanical shells which are inpenetrable. Davros himself cannot seize that power, he is inferior because he’s attached to the life support system (in his own mind), so the power he wants instead is the power to make the choice to unleash them upon the world.

If the Doctor by failing to make that impossible choice in the situation, by not wanting to even hold the capsule in his hands and have that ability to choose remains a man, then Davros chooses to throw away his humanity (which he ties to his inferiority and weakness) and becomes a god instead. To tie my long tangent which just shows how much of a geek I am back to Eren, Eren’s choice wasn’t actually about bringing a good result or a bad one at all. He simply wanted to choose. People who are lacking for agency, who feel powerless and inferior to tend to grasp for it. They try to fix external circumstances instead of internally facing what is within them, because they can’t bear to face it (hence the complex about being inferior in the first place).

People often compare Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul to Eren because their stated motivation bears some resemblance “we were doing this all to protect our friends”, however, it’s important to grasp that Kaneki and Eren are liars and unreliable narrators both. Their stated motivation isn’t necessarily true. I don’t think the final chapter is as clear as it could have been in nailing down the finer points of this, but Eren does in fact change his stated motivation from “I was doing it all to set up you as heroes of the world” to “I would have done it anyway even if you didn’t come to stop me” to “I don’t know. I just wanted to.” So, the fact that Eren will directly lie about his motivation and try to rationalize his actions and even switch stories in the space of one conversation is at least established.

So to bring the comparison back to Kaneki, both Eren and Kaneki lie about their external motivations that they are doing this for their friends when really they act because of unacknowledged internal motivators. They are secretly selfish, while presenting their actions as some kind of great sacrifice they’re making for the sake of others. The deepest we ever dig into Kaneki’s head he makes this statement.

I’m going to do something that will make everyone love me. Good, bad, it could be anything. After that, I wanna die heroically!

Eren and Kaneki aren’t the same because they’re brave people who fight for their friends, it’s because internally they’re pathetic and unlovable. They’re so starved for agency and attention that they’ll do anything for it, and they just don’t care about the consequences for their actions. Kaneki also, later on in the manga engages in mass slaughter for once again what is a pretty bad reason. It’s not to protect someone or for the sake of someone else. It’s because he’s lonely and wants comfort.

Kaneki doesn’t care about what he’s doing or the consequences of his actions, he’s desperate and wants to do what will immediately gratify him in the moment. He doesn’t even realize what he’s doing will unleash mass slaughter and have greater consequences because he’s not thinking about that.

Compare this to the doctor’s choice. The doctor knows the direct result of his actions, if he does not abort the daleks he will fail to prevent the deaths of innocent people. Knowing those consequences he says he still won’t make the choice because he believes his pacifist principles are something he won’t bend on. Kaneki, and Eren both have on principles, or no reasons. They just do whatever in the moment, and make up a reason after the fact. For Touka, For his friends, because he wanted to, because of freedom, because why not?

Kaneki and Eren can construct no good reason for their actions, and no principles behind their actions, because unlike the doctor, they don’t have a developed enough and they’re not capable of making measured choices. They steal away agency because they’ve been deprived of it, they want the feeling of power and control that comes with making the choice, but they don’t want the responsibility for it. The doctor knows if he doesn’t choose to wipe out the Daleks he’s responsible for that choice, but can’t bring himself to kill. His actions are pacifistic. However, Eren and Kaneki choose to kill in the same situation, and their actions inevitably cause the conflict to accelerate. The Doctor remains a man, Kaneki and Eren do not.

What kind of person would want to become a god anyway?

A person pathetically, incapable of feeling alright as a human being.

That’s why Kaneki and Eren make the choice to become monsters, because they’re incapable of living with themselves, or their actions as people. Either way they can’t live with it, hence why, Kaneki’s stated motivation is I’ll make everyone love me and then I’ll just die. Hence why the person who is making this statment is a childish version of him.

There is no good reason for what Eren does. That sounds like a cop-out answer after making you read all this long, but what is a good reason for killing people? This is a lot of rambling but I hope I’ve at least established that Eren’s internal reasonings make no sense, his internal mechanisms at least do. The reason he doesn’t come up with a reason is because he didn’t actually care about the result of his actions, he just wanted to be in the position to choose. He wanted absolute agency because he was denied agency like a child, and as a forever stunted child, he never grew up to realize that most people in the whole world eventually make compromises and live on with sadness instead of getting to do whatever they want.

Words that Eren was told again and again but failed to listen to. He’s not the only person that suffers in the world. He’s not the only person that’s lost people. He’s not the all-suffering protagonist of reality, he’s just one personin the greater scheme of things. However, the ability to compromise like that. To realize that other people exist besides you, that they have feelings separate from yours, that you are not the protagonist of reality is what an adult does, and what Eren can’t do. It’s easier to become god apparently, throw his whole life away as a child soldier making the ultimate sacrifice then just try growing up.

What’s the point of writing a character with such a pathetic motivvation? It’s because it’s human.

To badly misquote Jung, most people assume they are nice people when really they are in fact jerks. The reasons can be very complex, but sometimes it’s just as simple as not being able to look past your own ego and understand people feel differently than you do. Eren cannot accept other people, whether they be his friends, the comrades he’s fought with this entire time, the adults trying to guide him, he is just so incapable of accepting them that he regresses into a child making selfish demands of the world. It seems inhuman but imagine Eren in a completely different setting. What if Eren were just a shut-in? Just a teenager who didn’t leave his room. A fundamental ability to accept other people would sabotage all his other attempts to grow up and leave his room, and he’d choose to remain a child forever. The stakes are different, the situation is different, but the internal mechanisms are unmistakably human.

2. All Erens is the Same

Okay, here’s where I actually try to prove that Eren’s character arc is consistent with the story. What was revealed in 139 at all wasn’t a 180, and wasn’t a reveal that secretly Eren had good intentions all along. He never had good motivations, or selfless one. From beginning to end he was a selfish child, and his reasoning was always that of a stunted individual unable to understand the feelings of others but placing his own feelings as far more important.

What Eren does in 139 is rationalizing and changing his answer, which he has done several times before that point anyway, and is therefore consistent with his behavior up until that point. It’s important to acknowledge that Eren models himself, not after Grisha, but rather Eren Kruger. The foil to Grisha and the reaction to Grisha’s bad parenting is Zeke. The person who Eren makes similiar choices to is Kruger says the reason he picked Grisha is the eyes he possessed in childhood.

The thing about Kruger is, textually, Kruger fucking sucks. He says it himself. He claims he was doing it for the sake of helping others, and yet, all he ever felt like he was doing, was torturing people, and throwing them to the dogs. He kept saying he had good motivations, but his actions were repeated brutal violence, over and over again. He contributed more to the conflict than he helped to resolve it.

At the end of his life, Kruger says once again he doesn’t believe what he’s done has changed anything, and doesn’t believe he himself hs changed. He’s still the child with hatred in his eyes. His reason for passing it onto Grisha is because he knew Grisha wouldn’t grow up either, and would keep that inside of him. Kruger failed to grow, Grisha failed to grow, in a way that mattered, in time to make an actual change. They only ever made things worse, and that is, the model we are supposed to parallel Eren to.

Now this is at the same time that the Attack Titan’s future vision powers are shown to us. The question a lot of people are asking is if Eren had free will in his choice, or he was fated to make that choce all along. The answer is. No. Nope. Nope. Nope. Not at all. The fact that Eren was destined to do it, is yet another excuse, the like seventh change of motivation that Eren gives us. “I saw it happen in the future so I did everything I could to make it happen, but I didn’t think I had a choice this was the only way to make you guys hero,” Eren says, and then five seconds later. “I didn’t know what would happen , I probably would have done it anyway even if I knew you guys were all going to die and fail to stop me.”

Eren is once again making excuses, and avoiding all kinds of responsibility. If he is the chosen one, if his actions are controlled by fate, if he’s a god, if he’s a devil, he is not human and therefore he is not responsible. Eren wants the power to decide the fate for the world, but will do anything but accept responsibility for that choice. Eren wants to be Eren the bloody conqueror, but he’s not even self-aware enough to see himself as a bad person he can’t even own that so when confronted on his actions he reduces himself back to a child, and evades responsibility. Eren’s own motivation, his stated motivation is for no reason, however, the reasons he avoids the guilt like this are complex in their mechanisms as I wrote about above. The simple question is if Eren saw this future why did he not try to stop it? The simple answer is because he did not want to.

There are a million and one excuses Eren has for why he thought the future could be avoided, but his actions tell a different story. He didn’t lift a finger to try. He spent the next four years making rationalizations for what he eventually would do. I will now establish, Eren was actually given several oppurtunities to stop, and then he just did not stop.

In the Reiner and Eren scene while Tybur is speaking in the background, Eren is offered a choice. Quite literally, Tybur is narrating the same story that Eren wants to set up. Become the devil that tried to destroy the world, so the heroes (his friends) will defeat him. He’s given the chance to be genuine and talk things out with Reiner and what does he choose.

He chooses to accelerate. He could have stopped. Remember how Reiner was practically begging him to talk things out? Not only that but Eren sees that Reiner’s stated motivations for doing what he did were, completely fake, just rationalizations made up in the moment.

Eren is presented with the reality of who he really is, a child who hates himself, who wants to kill himself rather than take responsibility for his actions, and he chooses the narrative Tybur offers him. Rather than be hismelf, stop the story here, he chooses to move the story forward.And the conflict accelerates when they could have reconciled. Not because there was no other choice, Reiner was begging, crying, and holding Eren’s hand at the same time asking for peace and forgiveness but because Eren chose to accelerate the conflict.

Eren’s choices are always that of an accelerationist. When given the oppurtunity to stop, he chooses instead, to always make the conflict worse. That is, the result of Eren’s myriad of choices made throughout the arc. Everything is worse now, and more people are dead. Nothing good is achieved through these means because Eren wasn’t trying for good. Eren didn’t care about good results, he just wanted to be doing something. Easier to be an all powerful demon, than a powerless child which is what he sees Reiner as in the moment.

The only time I believe that Eren was putting on an act was when speaking with Mikasa and Armin. The rest of it wasn’t acts, it was just who Eren is, who he sees himself to be. The thing is most people don’t read Eren’s kind of behavior, constant masculine posturing, war mongering, accelerating the conflict, throwing himself into fighting, as childish and toxic when it is. The point of Eren’s masculinity is it’s a performance. Reiner crying and begging in front of Eren is embarrassing and pathetic yes, but it’s also how he felt in that moment, it’s a human vulnerability. Whereas, Eren’s outer persona is entirely empty of love and vulernability, of every emotion besides anger, and violence. However, because it’s empty, he just acts, empty... Great wording there I know. Eren when posturing in front of others basically has no personality. He is just guy who fights.

Eren performs the role of a ruthless soldier in front of others, because it prevents him from being vulnerable. Remember who Eren is posturing in front of, Reiner, and then later Zeke. What were they doing? They were both at the moment trying to appeal to his human side, Reiner by crying and begging for forgiveness a show of vulnerability, and Zeke by tryig to show Eren what their father did to them was wrong.

Calls for violence, posturing, warmongering and rhetoric, Eren’s every response when Zeke tries to examine his humanity. Eren insists over and over again, you see I’m not actually a human being. It was impossible for father to reach me because I was simply born that way. However, the kind of person Eren pretends to be is empty, someone incapable of feeling anything. The only way he knows how to be strong, is to simply not have feelings, to deny all human emotion and become something else and that’s just lame. We also know, that Eren himself is not like that because he contradicts his stated motivation that the only reason he killed those slavers was for the concept of freedom itself when he takes too long trying to look at Mikasa.

Eren denies himself empathy, he denies himself udnerstanding, and therefore no one will ever see his emotional wounds. That way, he can be invulenerable forever, but at the same time he denies MIkasa and Armin.

We return again to the motif of the story. It’s the same repeated image, someone tells Eren to stop, Eren says that it must not stop, the story must continue.

Both of Eren’s foils and family members,Zeke and Grisha tell Eren to stop this. That they do not want this. The whole world yells at Eren to stop, and he does not stop. Stopping would mean, accepting some measure of helplessness so Eren does not stop.

To be honest, what Eren says in 131 is far more telling than literally any of the excuses he came up with in 139 which is why I think it should be interpreted not as the final word on Eren’s character but rather, showing what his waffling actually looks like to an outside observer - not heroic at all but rather pathetic.

Eren’s childish desire to be this powerful, to stand up above everyone like a god while ignoring the suffering of the world around him - is pretty telling enough of Eren’s true motivations that he needs no further elaboration. Eren does not become god for the sake of his friends, he does not do it because he thinks it will make the world a better place, he does it because of childish delusions of grandeur and his inability to let go of his childish feelings of entitlement. The world isn’t the way he wants it to be and he can’t comrpomise with that in any way. Eren is more like a caricature of the most petty person on earth when you put it that way, but this is... a fictional story. Thematically Eren is a good example why ideals are ideals, and people are in fact, people, ulitmately very disappointing and falling short of those idealse. So once again moving past this.

Eren, you can literally just stop. Eren is basically given every choice in the world to stop, everyone else in the story tells him to, and he just doesn’t. The author does go to a painstaking extent to show that Eren in fact could have stopped. Every single time he is given the oppurtunity to stop he instead chooses to accelerate the conflict.

It is interesting to show the one time Eren actually did stop though. It wasn’t for Mikasa, it was Mikasa’s decision.

When Eren puts the decision on someone else, he can stop. Eren has feelings for Mikasa, but rather than confessing to her he makes her speak up about what her feelings are, even when everyone around him just, straight up tells him.

Why is he capable of stopping when it’s someone else’s choice? In those cases, Eren succesfully avoids responsibility. When he makes the decision to run away in the possible alternate reality he’s doing what Mikasa wanted.

The other time is when he decides to accept the result of whatever Mikasa decides. In both cases, Eren rather than accept responsibility for his actions and the results of his actions, just, puts it all on Mikasa.

Is he doing this for Mikasa’s sake? To set Mikasa up as the hero of the world? No, he can’t even face Mikasa and explain himself or his feelings. Eren makes the choices to... put the ultimate decision on Mikasa, and run away without explaining himself because, that’s easier than taking repsonsibility for his choices. Every choice Eren makes, is to either make the conflict worse, because stirring the pot makes him feel powerful and in control, or throw control away to someonee else or some other reason (predestination whatnot) because he can’t bear the responsibility of what he’s doing. He wants to kill a bunch of people, but like... he doesn’t want to feel like a bad person about it (hence the excuse, he was doing it for his friends and yet later in the same conversation him saying that if he had killed his friends and they failed he still would have done it anyway).

Therein lies the rub. Eren is not doing this for his friends, because he takes the one path that is guaranteed to take him out of their lives. He doesn’t do it for Mikasa because he does the one thing guaranteed to destroy her.

I love this girl so much, that I created this elaborate scenario where the only way she could save the world was to horribly behead me, the one family member left from her childhood after she spent her entire life trying to protect me from fear of losing her family - yeah that sounds completely insane.

It is meant to be. Eren is thinking jack all about what his friends are feeling. His feelings for Mikasa, his desire to keep her safe and away from everything else trump everything even the idea that his love might be returned. He loves at Mikasa. He’s not in love with her, he’s projecting his love upon her. “Why didn’t he just tell her about his feelings if he secretly loved her all this time?” the point was, he couldn’t. Eren’s ego isn’t developed enough to love another person, that requires actually caring about their feelings which Eren doesn’t do to well.

There’s a reason Eren and Mikasa’s connection keeps lingering back to the small kindness they showed each other as childhood,it’s because literally despite spending their entire lives growing up together, their connection hasn’t grown at all since then, because they can’t grown.

At the end of the series however, Mikasa makes the opposite coice of Eren. If Eren’s choice has been to remain a selfish child all this time, to make other people suffer rather than face his own hurt feelings. Mikasa makes the choice of selflessness, to grow up, beyond the child who loved Eren into the adult who knows that even if you love people, one day you might lose them.

Eren’s choices only ever make the conflict worse. Mikasa’s choice finally stopped the conflict that Eren kept accelerating. It didn’t save the world, it saved the world from Eren.

I think it’s important to remember that Eren didn’t see what MIkasa was going to do, that her actions were going to end up breaking the curse. He literally had no idea what was going to happena fter the massacre, all he saw was the massacre and decided to do what he could to bring it about.

“I did all of this for you guy.”

Backtracking, five seconds later, and making excuses it all would have happened anyway.

It’s the same behavior consistently shown throughout. Eren could have stopped. Eren did not stop. Afterwards, Eren wants to reconcile the guilt and believe that his motives were good, when his actions were the actions of a bad person. It’s the same as Reiner’s crying and begging after years of guilt and failure to reconcile his acitons with who he is. Eren can’t understand why he did what he did, he just knows he did it, and he can’t accept responsibility for any of it. So that’s why Eren throws the choice away.

Eren can’t understand his father’s words, because in the end, being born, living his life, growing up, falling in love, making friends, losing some of those friends, growing older, getting weaker, all of those things are things Eren doesn’t want to do. Eren begins his life with “You were born into this world, you’re free to live hwoever you want” and ends his life wishing he was never born, and that’s the utlimate tragedy of his character arc. Not that it was inevitable he would eventually do these things, but beause it wasn’t and Eren chose to do them anyway instead of choosing literally anything else. Therefore, despite claiming Mikasa and Armin as the reason behind all of his actions, they weren’t, because he was inacapable of making the simple choice to be with them and grow up with them which is all they ever wanted from him.

#eren yaeger #eren jaeger #reiner braun #grisha jaeger #zeke jaeger #attack on titan #aot meta #attack on titan meta #aot 139 #aot 139 spoilers #attack on titan spoilers #aot spoilers #snk meta #snk theory

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granny-griffin · 11 months ago

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Freddy I’ve been thinking about this all day.

(Major spoilers for both bnha and the httyd books ahead!)

So first off, when I thought about it for five seconds I realized that these two are actually very similar. They’re both the bully character in a story for kids/teenagers with many installments, they both want to be a hero, and they’re both incredibly gifted in a way that the society they were born into applauds. They both use a nickname for the main character that means “useless” and they both keep getting shown up by the main character in situations where by all rights they figure they should have come out on top. Both of them, despite everything, aren’t hated by the main character of their series. Both have a redemption arc, eventually siding with the main character instead of antagonizing him, and both of them die a hero.

But what’s weird to me is that these many similarities caught me totally by surprise. In fact, it almost seemed counter intuitive to me to compare them, because they feel so different in my mind—despite what they have in common, there have a few key differences that really impact their impression on me.

1) I like Bakugou way more than Snotlout. This is less a point in my analysis and more a statement of my bias before I really get going.

2) Bakugou is a deuteragonist, while Snotlout is an antagonist, so their narrative framing is different. To be fair, it looks pretty similar at first, since Bakugou is set up to look like an antagonist. Mostly, this means that Bakugou gets more screentime.

3) Snoutlout is three years older than Hiccup, while Bakugou is only three months older than Midoriya. I think one of the books mentions that Snotlout remembers a world without Hiccup, when everyone looked at him as the heir of the Hooligan tribe, and he misses it. He’s spent the rest of his life trying to get that world back. And when he bullies Hiccup, he has an additional advantage due to his life experience and size. In contrast, Bakugou and Midoriya are the same age. Its unlikely that they remember not knowing the other person.

4) Bakugou and Midoriya share a common goal, while Snotlout and Hiccup don’t. Bakugou and Midoriya both want to be a hero like All Might, while Hiccup explicitly does not want to be a hero—he just keeps getting forced into it. So Midoriya admires Bakugou because he shares qualities with All Might, a person he wants to be like. In contrast, I don’t think Hiccup really cares that Snotlout is a perfect viking hero—he’s annoyed with the very concept of viking heroes. I don’t think he begrudges Snotlout his skill, but he also doesn’t have a reason to want to be friends with him.

5) Bakugou and Midoriya used to be friends, while Snotlout has hated Hiccup ever since he was born. This one kind of follows from the last two points: Bakugou and Midoriya are the same age and have the same interests, so they really hit it off as young children. It wasn’t until later that things soured between them—and even though he spends the first part of the series avoiding Bakugou, it seems like Midoriya wishes he could get that relationship back. (I can’t see Hiccup automatically telling Snotlout a big important secret because he thought Snotlout would be upset by not knowing it the way Midoriya caved and told Bakugou about OFA in season one.)

Snotlout on the other hand sees Hiccup as the person who is keeping his dream of being the heir from him simply by existing. He’s had nothing but hatred for Hiccup since he was born. And Hiccup might not hate Snotlout, but I don’t think he particularly wants to be friends with him either—his best friend is Fishlegs. They don’t have anything in common, and there’s an age gap. Mostly, I think Hiccup wants Snotlout to leave him alone.

6) Snotlout’s environment is constantly reinforcing his behavior. His peers and his teachers tell him that his way of approaching being a hero is correct, and that Hiccup’s is wrong. None of his teachers or classmates really stop him from bullying Hiccup (that I can remember. Thuggary does it at least once, but he’s form another tribe). It’s like he never leaves Aldera.

Bakugou starts out in this kind of situation, but U.A. is totally different. His peers there tell him that his attitude is dumb and that he should be less of a jerk. His teachers reprimand him for letting his anger get in the way of his performance. And Bakugou cares enough about being a hero to listen to them.

7) Bakugou knows Midoriya better than Snotlout knows Hiccup.

Specifically, Snotlout thinks Hiccup is pathetic and could never be a viking hero, while Bakugou thinks that by all rights Midoriya should be pathetic and shouldn’t be able to become a hero. And yet, despite everything that the worldview he’s been taught tells him, Bakugou recognizes qualities of All Might in Midoriya—specifically, qualities that he himself doesn’t (yet) have. That’s why he gets so mad at him after Midoriya tries to help him out of the creek. He saw his own weakness in Midoriya’s strength and didn’t want to acknowledge it. It’s also why he threatens Midoriya in episode one—when everyone else is laughing at Midoriya for attempting to get into U.A., Bakugou tells him that he had better not apply. Why try to keep him from it if he didn’t have a chance of making it in?

In contrast, Snotlout seems completely unaware of most of Hiccup exploits. He doesn’t seem to find any value in the many languages Hiccup speaks, or the way he can talk himself out of a situation or come up with a fiendishly clever plan. He was there when Hiccup saved the tribe in book one, and probably when Hiccup won the swimming race, and maybe some other situations, I’m not totally sure—but none of this seems to change his opinion of Hiccup at all.

8) Snotlout doesn’t care how he achieves his goal, while Bakugou thinks any reward is worthless if he didn’t earn it. I think it’s in book two—Snotlout picks up the stormblade (I think that’s what it was) and holds it over his head and looks really cool, and everyone gets really excited because he looks cool, and Hiccup and Fishlegs are in the background going, “Oh for Pete’s sake, he didn’t even do anything!!”

Bakugou wanted to reject his sports festival medal, even though he won it fairly, because Todoroki threw the final fight.

9) Building off the last point, Snotlout compromised on his dream/his principles in order to make Hiccup’s life worse, while Bakugou gave up on making Midoriya’s life worse in order to follow his dream/principles. When Hiccup is born the heir instead of Snotlout, Snotlout starts doing everything in his power to get rid of Hiccup. When the Witch told Snotlout about Hiccup’s slavemark, he was sure to reveal it in front of everyone. He ended up betraying his own tribe to gain power with Alvin and the Witch—this is what ultimately leads to his breakdown in the scene shown above—Snotlout’s people reject him for his treachery, and he comes to realize too late that he isn’t the viking hero he wanted to be.

In contrast, when Shigaraki offers Bakugou an easier way to gain power, Bakugou rejects him without even thinking about it. When Bakugou finds out that All Might gave his quirk to Midoriya, he concludes that Midoriya must have something that he doesn’t, since All Might wouldn’t make a wrong decision, and he volunteers to keep the secret of OFA.

This is what really interested me—I started imagining the other character’s reaction in the other story. What if Snotlout cared so much about fate and the true viking way that when the Witch told him about the slavemark he went ��I don’t see what that has to do with trial by combat” and ignored her. What if he tracked Hiccup down after Hiccup won the sword fighting competition in book nine and challenged him to a duel specifically so that he could see what fate thought was so heroic about Hiccup, and then afterward declared that since fate had chosen him he’d better be a good king. On the other hand, what if Bakugou accepted Shigaraki’s offer and/or told everyone the secret of OFA in an effort to persuade the world that he would be a better wielder of it. The arcs for each character totally change if you flip this one ordering of priorities.

10) Snotlout only reconciles with Hiccup after he’s exhausted literally every other option and can’t think of a reason to go on. Bakugou realizes on his own that trying to make things right with Midoriya is the correct course of action and just does it, without being forced, because he realizes he was wrong.

11) Snotlout dies and stays dead, while Bakugou comes back. This has more to do with the kind of story they’re in than their actual characters, I think. The httyd books have a very OT vibe—they have reoccurring archetypes who bring hope of salvation for the world, but nobody ever quite manages to accomplish it. The series ends sort of hoping that somebody will show up with an answer later.

In contrast, bnha has incredibly strong church age vibes. The characters are fully convinced that they know what the answer is—they just have to learn to embody it. They have to stir each other up in pursuit of that goal.

I’m sure none of this was in the mind of either author, but it fits to me that bnha wouldn’t require death in the path to redemption. Death has already been defeated. Everything sad is coming untrue.

Also, Snotlout belongs to a fading world—the age of viking heroes is over. The age of heroes in bnha doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

Anyway, that’s either more than you were asking for or exactly what you wanted.

This part always kills me everytime I read it, just everything about snotlout culminates in this moment, 11 books worth of resentment of corrupting hatred of hiccup and himself god....

(full quote under cut)

#bnha #httyd books #cw christ #bnha manga #bnha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #httyd books spoilers #my fanworks #bnha meta #httyd books meta #long post

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