#even if he's a total shitbag I'm probably gonna love him

[zmediaoutlet]

hello love <3 happy wincest wednesday!! do you have a favourite canon wincest dynamic shift? there are many times in the show where something happens that dramatically changes the relationship they have/how they look at it, and i'm wondering which one you find the most compelling. it doesn't have to literally be one moment-- eg. mine is the transition from s9 -> s10 where sam watches dean die and then dives HARD into curing the MOC after s9, where he's so deliciously withholding.

happy wincest wednesday!! we're back from the wincest wars! <333

goddamn, that's such a good answer I wish I could immediately steal it, haha -- especially with how mostly-unspoken it is. I'd also pull in there the thing that starts to happen in late s9, probably around the AAAA episode, where Sam starts to really notice what he said has done to Dean's mindset and is getting quietly worried, but can't actually -- say anything. Delish :pinchy fingers emoji:

There's a couple of faaantastic dynamic shifts -- after John dies and they have their rebel/loyalist flip; the thing that rots through s4 where pity and fear almost ruin everything; the thing in s3 where Sam really realizes what's about to slip through his fingers and starts to get wild. Season 6! Season 8! so much!!!

but for my heart-home I think I should pick s11, and very specifically this thing that happens in the kind of middle of that season where Dean seems to actually fully accept Sam's protectiveness, and it finally feels like the most equal version of the partnership. Sam did a horrific thing to save Dean's morality -- not even his life, which is kind of a cheap product, but to get back the Dean he recognized and loved -- and he says he'd do it again (with a little sop to 'and that has to change' -- lol, lmao. good luck with that, darling). Meanwhile Dean, who has indeed been a horrible shitbag for a while there, and still obv is in his Dean era of 'I'm the worst person who's ever lived' -- buuut Sam saved him, and brought him back from the brink, and proved maybe that there was something worth saving, as a result. Sam's got pretty good taste, after all. Dean's got another black mark on his soul with Amara's obsession looming over him, and Sam's got a fearful Lucifer-based worry crawling up his back, but -- something about the dynamic settles, and heals something that had been broken since that s9 moment you reference. Shit, it balances something that had been spinning a little wrong since s5, s2, since they were kids, probably. It becomes clear that this is a truly, thoroughly equal partnership, and that's something that... really hadn't been fully clear, all this time.

The specific moment I keep thinking of is the bit at the end of Love Hurts where Dean feels able to admit that his 'deepest desire' was Amara, and Sam accepts it completely without judgment, and then assures Dean that he'll do whatever he needs to do to help if Dean can't manage. Dean accepts it, even if he's embarrassed. That's just -- different. For so many years the Winchesters have been on this rocking see-saw, one of them in the dirt and one of them heroic and saving his brother. It used to be a joke. "Another season of Supernatural? Which one of them is gonna betray the other/die this year?" s11 represents a total break with that past into: they are a team. One of them can be weak and the other will understand and shore them up on the crippled side until they're whole again, and it's--fine. No shame and no worry that the partnership will be broken or weakened as a result. It's the fullest representation of the marriage that was gestured at in s8 -- tested, almost broken, repaired, now an alloy much stronger than steel.

There is a reason s11 is my favorite.

[tacky-optic]

Had a question about who our favorite Zenigata partner is in a server I'm in and now I can't stop thinking about them. Tis the zaza sickness.

anyway here's literally all of the characters Zenigata's been partnered with that i could find (within reason). if anyone wants to elaborate on any of these guys (cough yata cough) please feel free to go absolutely ham. *(obligatory spoiler warning for a whole lotta lupin specials, waow-- notably zenigata keibu since that's probably the most unwatched of everything i cover. but if youre here im guessing youre as unfortunately well-versed as i am so LETS FRIGGIN GET INTO IT)

Starting off nice n' mellow. I'm pretty neutral on Yata, tbh. I just think he's neat and it's easy enough to write him and not much else. I've rambled about him being a stand-in for the viewer before, but overall i just don't have all that many thoughts on the guy (seriously someone please do yata). ironic considering he's hands-down the most prevalent sidekick to date, but alas. head remains empty.

MARIYA. Mariya my girlie oh how i love thee. finally, someone with a Gimmick on par with Mr. my-sword-can-cut-anything. Plus she's super sweet and smart and sharp and just an all-around endearing character. AND SHE'S DIFFERENT!! she's tagging along with Zenigata of her OWN FREE WILL like gurl what are you THINKING. there isn't a shred of coherent interview material to draw from this man, especially about Lupin. The dynamic they end up developing is on point, though!! Zenigata's initial total miscall of it aside, It's just plain ol' wholesome. If Yata's his surrogate son than Mariya's obviously his daughter. No shot in hell they don't at least keep in contact after the special's done. plus her snapping a pic of him every time he eats shit is peak comedy journalism

MOTHAFUCKIN' MELON COP!! an absolutely magical reefer-smokin' shitbag, especially in the edgy Tokyopop translation. He's a great foil to our otherwise serious(ly neurotic) manga Zenigata. Not to mention the combative potential with a down the line Melon.... ough. A more toned-down "newer part"-esque Zeni getting slapped with an extremely smug and insistent reminder of his angstlord past is such a delicious concept to me. i will be using this guy extensively in that exact way one of these days-- he's too fun not to.

a bit of a sidenote but i've gotta point fingers at gray jacket again (can't recommend it enough) for having my favorite melon depiction in fic; walther recently had him show up in their fic secondhand vanity as well (which i also can't recommend enough), so needless to say i think he has some fun potential.

Sakuraba and Kunikida from the live-action show get honorable mentions, obviously. They're both so different yet learn so much from Zenigata all the same. As far as reacting to the inspector goes, they're the ideal Yatas (again i am so so sorry yata-- surely someone will do you justice). Even though they aren't technically "new" to the force they're new to the Zenigata Shenanigans, and that is where the entertainment factor is. Sakuraba's the traditionalist keibu method-doubter whereas Kunikida's this mousey blue around the gills fella, and over their respective case file appearances, they both gain faith in/learn confidence from Zenigata, respectively. It really is a great bit of development to watch play out.

I'm gonna count The Guys��️ as a collective group/formless mass with maybe one of the Guyest of Guys as Zenigata's right hand Guy, like that one dude in Cagliostro. Apparently the name he's given in one of the dubs is Sam?? That's neat. Sam's neat. for anyone interested in some homework, here's the link to the highly informative lupin forum thread i found that out from: [x]

But yeah the Guys! Right from the start, Zenigata having this army of inexplicably and absurdly loyal cops was always a fun trope and i love to see 'em whenever they show up. I had this idea ages ago for this fake documentary-style miniseries based around them-- all the usual Lupin nonsense goes on in the background while we get a peek at the typically unseen shenanigans happening on the law-bearing side. Getting assigned to the lupin taskforce is probably seen as some kind of punishment, but that just makes the camaraderie all the more tight-knit. There'd be some behind-the-scenes Zenigata/how he interacts with them, what they get up to on their own whack case assignments when they're in a Lupin sighting lull.... hell maybe we even learn why they're all so damn loyal to this one supposedly hyper-independent guy. I think it'd be fun but maybe that's just the Zenigata hopeful in me. Surely he's capable of building some semblance of rapport with the fine group of folks he drags around the world with him....

Let's just rip the band-aid off-- I dislike Oscar with a burning passion. which is weird, right? because i like Melon Cop, the dude who's totally cool with straight-up cold-blooded judge/jury/executioner-style murder. I dunno dude the obsessive daddy kink simping's just too feckin' weird for me. i checked the hell out so fast. If the goal was to make Oscar extremely disquieting, they friggin' did it. Granted he was written to be a bit whack from the start, and getting raised(?)/mentored by THAT Zenigata would irreversibly mess anyone up. I get that the fucked up-ness is part of the appeal, but man. How anyone can gravitate towards Oscar without heavily modifying his whole deal escapes me.

I've seen him written tolerably in fic maybe... twice? He's in gray jacket (there it is again!) and SMRO (needs no introduction nor explanation), so obligatory kudos to anyone who can wrangle [gestures vaguely at all of that].

Vicky though. Vicky Flannigan from Island of Assassins is so goddamn funny. Still can't believe they took one of the most badass Zenigata character designs and actively went out of their way to make him bedridden. I've seen folks call him "Proto-Yata" and. Yeah. Can't argue. He's a glorified babysitter, if anything, and the only reason he's even remotely effective is because he (accidentally) broke both of Zenigata's legs. Funniest shit istg

ICPO LADIES!!! They're cute. Designs could be better but it's Babylon yknow. Despite being an admittedly fun romp, the special has its obvious.... uh. issues. product of its time and all that. iykyk. anyway LADIES. They're competent. They take No Shit from Zenigata. The random little crush that comes out of nowhere between Chinjao and Goemon is cute as hell. Plus, I've seen some pretty rockin' fandom redesigns floating around.... wouldn't mind in the slightest if they made a comeback.

I'm gonna lump all of the Betrayers into one category: Emily O'Brien from Angel Tactics, Kazami from Fuma Conspiracy, and Terry Crown from Alcatraz Connection. Never expected the "Zenigata's partner is the bad guy!!1" trope would be so prevalent, but it tracks in retrospect. It's a neat enough idea-- bummer they never seemed to nail it down, though.

The only reason O'Brien is so predictable is because she's so goddamn unlikable. There's hardly any screentime of them working together and in every single scene, the incompetency just feels so blatantly intentional its almost offensive lmao. Zero surprise in the slightest when she showed her true colors-- just mild annoyance, which tracks for the whole special tbh. Only worthwhile parts are the beginning and the end, and absolutely none of that has anything to to with O'Brien.

Kazami just has that chump secondary villain face y'know. Again, a bit on the nose how obnoxiously dorkish he is-- but them playing up him putting on his glasses so Fujiko can recognize him got a little laugh outta me, ngl. He served his purpose, plain and simple.

I'll never know whether Crown was predictable or not because I stumbled across ""Evil Columbo"" before I watched Alcatraz, but despite the spoiler I can at least say he isn't lame as shit. Pre-reveal, he's probably the closest we'll get to a taste of what Melon might be like in modern Lupin media. He's your run-of-the-mill corrupt sleazebag detective-- steals evidence, generally doesn't give a fuck, takes cheap jabs at Zenigata-- but their final standoff is what puts him above Kazami for me. Just a real melodramatic overdramatic moment of Zenigata Zenigata-ing his heart out.

Welcome to the ELDERLY MEN CATEGORY, OORAH. The old guy from Twilight Gemini, Kogoro Akechi from the pilot, and George McFly from First Contact. I could track down Gemini old guy's name, but I hand-to-god couldn't care less. The only worth a damn thing Gemini's given me is that one jigzeni screenshot, so we're just gonna move on to the next two.

Not much of Akechi, huh. He only shows up in the pilot and doesn't do anything of note besides be someone for Lupin to disguise himself as. Dare i say Goemon was a more effective ally to Zenigata than Akechi...? yeah sure, why not. Goemon's a zeni sidekick. i'll die on that hill. anyway I believe he's also a reference to a pre-existing character...? like Lupin, Goemon, and Zenigata are. All in all its probably for the best that he didn't make it to part 1.

Finally, the only old guy that actually has aspects to talk about. I actually really like McFly and the role he plays in First Contact; it isn't Zenigata learning from whoever his partner may be, but McFly learning from Zenigata. He's a jaded, on-the-verge-of-retirement type that thinks he's seen all the force has to offer, but here comes this young (is he considered "young" in this?? early, maybe) freak-ass foreigner cop with a vendetta he's practically frothing at the mouth to rectify. Neither of them are exactly enthused to be working together, but McFly sticks around anyway and learns to see past a lot of Zenigata's first impression baggage; the tenacity, the passion, the genuineness of it all. Not only does he want to make real change, but the crazy bastard can actually friggin' do it. ...Or at the very least make a sizable dent.

Zenigata sincerely adheres to the idea of what a cop's supposed to be, fundamentally, and not what a "cop" actually is, as a vague collective occupational concept. Zenigata has a genuine effect on McFly-- enough to make him just the slightest bit less soured by the end of it all. It's a nice sentiment; that no matter where you are in life, ideas can still change. It's a small arc that flies beneath the radar of everything else, but i noticed it. I FRIGGIN' NOTICED IT, MAN

tl;dr Zenigata's a lonely guy, sure, but he doesn't have to be.

That should cover all of the significant parts/specials/movies, but if i missed anyone (any notable episodes? manga?) lemme know. Either way, it's nice finally having 'em all in one place.

[kwaggysshardmindemporium]

Okay so all my fellow Arcane fans Riot uploaded a cinematic that seems to simultaneously be a preview for the next show and for League's next ranked season. (To be clear, this is not any kind of announcement for the next show's release date.) Even without any concrete news it's still pretty hype.

For some reason I've decided to do a breakdown of the characters in here for people with less familiarity with this nonsense than me below the break:

First and foremost I really like most of the redesigns. Most. Not gonna lie I hate what they did to Vlad but also Vlad sucks so who cares. Everything else, aces I love it.

Bit of a primer on Noxus as a setting: think ancient Rome if they had the aesthetics of the barbarians who *sacked* ancient Rome. They bill themselves as a true meritocracy where you get by on your own strength and wit or you fucking die. This has exactly all the problems you immediately just thought of with that philosophy. Riot keeps trying to make them a nuanced counterbalance to their in-setting rival nation Demacia, but can't seem to escape the pull of how bad guy coded everything about them was when the game first came out.

First character to appear is Mel. I'm not recapping Mel. If you're reading this, it's probably because you like Arcane and know who the fuck Mel is. She rules, moving on.

Couple of characters who appear in more detail further in. We'll get to them.

That dude with the huge fuckoff axe is Darius. Higher-up in the Noxian military. Boring as shit. This trailer is literally the coolest he's ever been in anything they've done with him and he's only kinda interesting here. He has a brother who is roughly eight gazillion times more fun to talk about but does not appear in this trailer. He's (Darius) basically the stereotypical square-jawed slab of meat hero, if such a guy was from a place run by shitbags incentivizing shitbaggery.

The dude he's fighting? That's Trundle. Not from Noxus, but the neighboring country of Freljord. He's king of the trolls, and also a servant/thrall/pawn of one of the ladies vying for power over that region. He's a brute and a villain and words cannot describe my seething contempt for the retcons that occurred to *make* him a brute and a villain but that's its own post.

That lady dancing in a mask then busting out some knives? That's Katarina. She's the daughter of a major Noxian noble who was assassinated, and she's on a vengeance quest to find his killer and return the favor. She has an on-again off-again thing with a character not in this trailer who acts as Darius's foil, a bodyguard/minion also not appearing named Talon, and a sister who's half snake. I literally do not know what the present lore reason for the sister being a snake is these days because I know it's been retconned and I haven't checked.

The spider lady she's fighting? That's Elise. I *think* she's a member of the Black Rose (mentioned in Arcane S2 but not fleshed out much) but don't quote me. Her whole thing is luring nobles who want a piece of that action off to their deaths when she does all sorts of evil sacrifices with them.

And lastly, we have Vladimir and LeBlanc. Vlad looks like a vampire but very explicitly isn't. He's a blood mage. Which is a totally different thing. Totally different. 100% not the same thing. He just looks talks dresses and acts like Count Dracula for fun and because it's kind of on vibe with the whole blood magic thing. (I'm making fun of them not making him a vampire in setting, but not exaggerating.) He works for LeBlanc.

And LeBlanc. She's a master manipulator and illusionist, head of the Black Rose. Honestly, she doesn't have a ton a of development beyond "she effectively rules Noxus from the shadows with an army of altar egos she can illusion herself into." So I cannot fucking wait to see what they do with her. Like, right before Arcane S2 dropped a buddy of mine asked me what I'd want them to do next and my number one answer WAS "a Game of Thrones-y drama in Noxus with LeBlanc as either a main protagonist or a main antagonist." This is exactly what I wanted. My personal hype is through the fucking roof.

[indigoire]

Alright, let's check the transcript for the next Magnus Archives episode before I listen...

Oh worm?

OH, WORM???