#even tho the characters will act like there’s higher stakes then there actually is | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

limelocked · 2 years ago

Text

Under this read more is a more or less directly transcribed account of my recent thoughts about sword art online, this post is not meant for you, you my dear followers may read and enjoy it if that is your fancy but i post this bible length ass thing for my own flurishment

Day 1 of my crazed discord ramblings

Thinking about how Sao could’ve been such a good piece of media if it 1 looked at actual game design 2 went for less angst and went more in the vein of actually exploring the trauma that they dust the characters with, like it’s there in the text very obviously but they don’t really punch into it which is a shame

Like it’s a meme at this point that kirito in real life will pull for a sword like he did in game but if the show had taken its time with the themes it’s presenting then the implications of that is actually so interesting

Like you’re locked in a vr mmorpg between like age 14-16 where if you die you die, if you become a soldier in that time it’s not at all unthinkable that you’ll start reaching for a weapon that kept you alive in an active war zone for two years even if the weapon is very much not real

If Sao was made for adults instead of being a very marketable shonen property it could’ve gotten critical acclaim honestly

Make the first half of Sao into at least a full season or double season (12-24 episodes) then do the same with the alfheim arc but focus more on the trauma of the survivors and less on the incest love story

Sao deserved to be good Looks at sao I can fix it

Imagine filler episodes that focus on side characters that are coping by acting like npcs or going Deep into the character they were supposed to play because it is an rpg after all

Oh if only sao and log horizon could combine, log horizon actually doing the game building even tho it’s stupid and contrived if you look under the hood as I did but which has a game and an interesting tech tree idea plus saos high stakes and trauma caused by wizard hubris

Four days later, my brain still has worms, status: sleep deprived

Thinks about sao Imagine if it was good I can fix him

There’s so many interesting ideas you could look into with a “people are trapped in a game where if they die they die irl too” setting and Sao did none of them

Did you know that world of Warcraft has been the subject of epidemiological study? There was a literal plague due to a bug with one of the bosses and a pet became an asymptomatique carrier that spread it to the wider population

How many hackers do you think played sao on launch or entered after the news came out that it was a death game

Do you think players would make a police force to hunt hackers down? Do you think players would see them as gods because they have command access?

Sao the series did not take advantage of the religious opportunity that comes with such a stressful situation as living in sao the game

Rhymes and songs would become common to remember the timing of combos and during two years it might escalate to a belief that you Have to do certain things for shit to work or for a crit to happen

Orphans are canon to sao There are orphanages and its barely brought up How do the children cope? How are the children protected? Are they taught specific things by guilds that look after them?

What is the real class divide between lower and higher floors, how do they see each other, the communities that thrive on the 1-5th floors of people who don’t want to die and thus stick to the towns like it’s the thing to do

Less people will move as more levels are cleared so the 35th levels town must feel like a ghost town except for npcs and what amounts to war veterans

I can fix sao

Is there a cult that venerate kayaba akihiko as the creator of the game because their lives were just That Shit, abuse victims who are conflicted yet thankful that in this world they are free of the abuse, workers so stressed and depressed that their life might’ve been on the line and now they’re in this game

Heres a thing ive heard

I’ve heard, and I can’t remember where from, that if you put an adult in a child avatar thru something like vr there is a decent chance that the adult will (consciously or otherwise) exhibiting child like behaviour

What does that mean for sao as a roleplaying game

I know that there was that whole thing with the mirror that copies how you look irl but that’s fucking bullshit not everyone would’ve done that

So imagine exploring someone who made a loli character Or someone who’s character is of the opposite sex

Someone who was cis but wanted to rp as another gender and thought hey this is fun and the mirror is still in my inventory And transes their gender

Sao had so much fucking potential

i. Can. Fix. Him

Even on a character level if sao just let kirito be emotional at all and explored his mental state we could look at how this nerd was relatively fine until he was the lone survivor of a slaughter and decided that if he was gonna die he was gonna do it alone and not make it anyone else’s problem because forming a party did not end well for him

Like kirito has so much trauma and we are exploring none of it

There must be speedrunners in Sao, it wouldn’t look the same and they’d be found usually on the lower levels but people who either don’t care for their lives or got complacent after over levelling and are now trying to set time records for who can kill which strong mob the fastest

Speedrunners being sought after on the higher levels for certain raids but them rarely being accepted because so much is up to chance on the upper levels in comparison to rigorously studied monsters in the first dungeons

If you think for a second that scientific study would stop in Sao you are wrong

There are people who were therapists irl who might choose to help others, there are people who document and categorise monsters, there are people who look for and document the games shortcomings

AKA

Glitch scientists

No game is without fault and considering the outside response to sao there’s not a huge hope that they could just Roll Out a bug fix update considering half the company is in jail

So there are people who have gone out of bounds There are even people who survived

Thinks about politics in sao Thinks about a strong guild going down to the lower levels

Thinks about how they accidentally invent feudalism because they just want to chill for a bit and they keep their senses sharp by killing monsters on the town periphery thus keeping the town safe and suddenly they’re collecting taxes

Thinks about the game story that we never get to hear about because saos plot doesn’t require sao the game to have a storyline But its an rpg so it must right?

Thinks about lore historians who try to figure out if there’s some better way to beat monsters hidden in the lore, lore historians who accidentally turn into priests after drinking too much and suffering too much trauma

Thinking about the expressions that must spawn because of sao, survivors avoiding worlds like dying or game over, some calling death to be fried because that would’ve been their death irl, “youre fried” being something like its over or youre dead

Depending on circles an in joke might’ve gone outside the group and ended up making it impossible for some people to go back to normal society Because someone accidentally said “you’re fired” instead And it caught on Because it’s more comfortable to say than death or fried or other fatal words, you’re just fired

Expressions around being weaponless, talking about people that won’t wear obvious weapons as if they’re naive or careless, or on the upper floors, dangerously competent

I think there kinda has to be discrimination, the obvious one is player vs npc, but later on people who use poison weapons or people who make poisons being seen in a negative light but still being needed because tick damage is an amazing tool but also poison makers being seen as a shifty lot

There must be “foreign” areas in Sao where people who jumped on the Japanese server/ bought the game even tho they weren’t Japanese live in small communities with more or less contact with people who they might not even share language with Like an english district

A cosmetic item that on certain levels denotes you as a translator, someone with good enough English skill that they can help you translate between guilds or find wonkly translation differences in the game between the japanese and other language versions

What happens to people in Sao who adopt one of the orphans, who for a good amount of time is taking care of this child either out of goodness or want of a child of their own

The parents knowing that this probably won’t last forever, yet what happens when they’re free The child waking up irl and missing their parents, but the irl parents are right there

The parents maybe not even knowing each other’s real life names so they only meet up after individually finding their child because kids are careless with personal info The parents are under 25, the kid helped keep them sane, the real life parents feel conflicted

If Sao as a property of media wasn’t about “what weird mmo will kirito solve problems for this time” and instead just the same time in eizenwald (I think that’s the arcs name (it’s called einklad)) but from different peoples povs as they’re forced to live their lives thatd be cool

Actually on the note of found family, what about players who get into relationships with npcs and survive til the end, widowed because the game brought their family with it

Beloved pets and items that hold value because it’s the only thing they had that made them happy for two hellish years but it’s all bits and when Sao is shut down there’s the bittersweet feeling of being free but your entire life went with the hell that brought it

Sao is a living tragedy not because people die but because they live and they survive and they adapt and then when it’s all over they have to deal with the aftermath

And that is not what the show focused on at all

All the angst was in the “people die when they are killed” not the “all the happiness I’ve achieved here may be gone in a heartbeat if the admins finally lets us out and I don’t know if I will be happy or sad” There is a different untapped potential existentialism of Sao and by god I’m prying the pipe open

Imagine the laws Would the players consider a player killing an npc as murder? Maybe language evolves Player on player murder will always be PK, player on npc is now murder, when the survivors enter the real world again they have to relearn that the victims of murder are real people, not just victims of PK

I can fix him, but only in broad strokes cuz writing actual chapters and not outlines is Hard and drawing comics is even harder (that’s why you make it a light novel ig)

The final day, less than 24 hours ago

thought about another sao thing that wouldve been so interesting if they thought to bring it up

theres this huge deal made about there only being 10k copies of the game, huge lines to get it

ignoring the common argument that that many players is way too few like, not all the people who bought they game wouldve played it at launch, people have shit to do and prior engagements

so the people who narrowly avoided being saod now have a death game copy under their name and thus we need to think about what law enforcement does

once the news come out about the deaths i think law enforcement would force game stores who sold the game to cough up the regestry of who games were sold to for the sake of public safety what with a particularily long blackout being able to kill a Lot of people

before the law comes knocking theres probably people whos thrown the game away, there might be people who bought it for someone else and dont have it anymore, but what were interested in

is people who Sold It

because doubtlessly there are people who for some reason would want to get saod

imagine if you will; you live on floor 10, life has been hell the past month, you have to fight for survival at every turn

and you hear a rumour just a rumour

that someone spawned in on floor one a week ago, fresh avatar, fresh person, spawning in for the first time

w h y

the paranoia caused by someone who willingly would enter the death game, for what fucking reason?? for evil??? because delutions of grandeour??? or imagine someone who disconnected entirely from the internet to avoid spoilers and managed to enter the game after launch but before the cops came, someone who has to learn all the information about sao being a death game from the starter town residents

In my theoretical Sao clone the game is made by an eccentric billionaire who thinks he can get away with death game crimes because he can buy the law and the game is made as a social experiment which means it has more than just combat mechanics as it’s focus

Due to the existence of glitch scientists and large number of players who don’t want to risk death by mobs there’s a relatively large market for farmers

Why did I mention farming and glitches in the same message?

Potato war

In this theoretical clone there’s not an endless amount of skills like in sao because what the fuck But there is a submission system to which you can suggest a new skill and if the ai that runs the suggestion box thinks it fits the perimeters set by the creators to avoid new skills being completely busted, it’ll make the skill or pass it along to the billionaires minions who more or less are living large off unethical money trying to bug fix while players are online

This, theoretically, would benefit combat the most would you not think? But too many options and suddenly your tool belt is cluttered and if you try to fine tune a skill it’ll be spit out as the closest similar skill so you can’t just change a skill by +1 damage and have a new skill so the combat skills are pretty standardised at this point

However comma

If your tool belt is infinitely big and you are getting your kick from something that’s not conventionally dangerous, like picking fruits, then you can start to exploit the faults in the ai and create some absolutely bonkers skills all for that extra seed or faster harvesting time

I want to add the idea of log horizon that game food tastes horrible unless it’s prepared by a player and that’s why there’s such a market for people to make food

harvests dont follow a standard year and the calendar in the game is probably different to reflect this (some plants grow in a week, some in a month or two at most, never the full fucking Thing that our fields take) which would make it fun when people come back and they have to relearn the year

a follower of mine gave me a good idea that im gonna steal for the farmers, instead of aincrads big ass floating layer cake of a castle i want each level to be its own floating island (pov steals from hypixel to avoid making an open world or invisible walls)

now theoretically you could get to one island from the other physically but that is NOT intended, you're intended to teleport at specific places that only start working after the major dungeon is clear

however comma

something not being intended has not stopped anyone before, especially in a game with glitch scientists

for our purposes we wont be talking about the amount of people whove passed away into the void of forever falling or how someone with a flying mount managed to save themself once and in the process figured out that they forgot to put a killing box in the void so you could fall forever (however if you stop falling you get all the built up fall damage and get fucking annihilated)

we will be talking about loading zones

because housing is a must in mmorpgs and yes its possible to own a house in town and yes theres multiple instances of the same house so theoretically you and your crush could not only live in the same apartement complex but the same fucking half mansion

but in a game with farming there also needs to be farmable land and if that was allowed in the monster hunting wilderness itd cause some problems so theres private or guild owned islands that can be bought basically from the games land god and thats where you can farm and set up houses

you can have more than one of these but due to costs the highest number seen is three and thats still fucking outragious to pay for

now

what is an enterprising young gamer supposed to do with little space and much need for produce?

you see the floating islands arent horizontal, theyre a bit all over the place, but the farming islands are smaller and off a bit from one of the main level islands, its obvious that theres nothing on them because you can look down on them and theyre just there for continuity basically, thats where the farm islands are but thats not the instance of the islands where your farm is (re: you can fly to the mining island manually from the main one in hypixel but when you get there its all set dressing because youre not on the right instance of the area)

notice how i said you can look down on them? and notice how i said that flying mounts are a thing earlier?

thru a lot of testing and a very safe clip out of bounds, people start being able to go to those islands and because of a quirk of area classification these arent wilderness or town, these are still a farm, but everyone can use the land that can get there

pov you say you have to go check on the farm by which you mean you have to teleport up to level 17 specifically and clip out of bounds with a specific mount and pet equipped so you dont die of the fall damage as you fall down onto the farm island without touching the invisible walls seperating it from the main island

“now lime” you say “why dont the devs patch this out?“

because its a social experiment and suddenly theres public farm land that doesnt cause the problems of farms in the wilderness area and also has a very select pool of people to study because only certain people have the right things for getting there

So I’m thinking about the level design of this hypothetical Sao clone and thinking about if the climate should make sense or not (higher/lower islands having colder environments vs climate based on other things like themes or game lore) but this ties into farming again I fooled you because if there’s 100 floors like in sao then it might be divided in 3-5 parts or something and I thought hey what if at every new boundary there’s a new farming area because of the different climate (like on the highest farming island is the only place you can grow fields of low gravity fruits used in levitation potions)

1: plains 2: desert 3: mediterranean 4: jungle 5: cold

I’d be tempted to switch desert and mediterranean since desert to greece is a pretty big climate leap in difficulty (going down) but it could be pirate themed so it’s all good

Thinking about the Shonen Protagonist of this hypothetical clone who would with the power of friendship and this gun I found finally beat the game and free everyone inside I want him to wake up with gray hairs from stress

#sao ramblings #id pity my friends for having to deal with me but three of them thought my ideas were good so this is on them

6 notes · View notes

deonideatta · 4 years ago

Text

Alright it's Vincenzo and fire meta time! I dont know if this is super obvious and I'm just repeating what everyone's already picked up on, but Solar's version of Adrenaline gave me the push I needed to write down my thoughts (Italian version >>> tho imo) so here goes. I apologize in advance for the length sflds this is my thoughts straight to the page so it went on for a while :')

We associate Vincenzo with fire almost from the first episode. From the get go, the first major thing we see Vincenzo do is burn down a vineyard, pretty nonchalantly. Then we establish his habit of fiddling with lighters, and to round it off he blows up Paolo's car. The fire imagery is there from the beginning. When he loses his temper he's fiery, he fights fire with fire, his birthday is on bonfire night, it's a pretty clear link. Yet, interestingly enough, as we get to know more about his character, it appears like he is mostly a very level-headed person when it comes to high stakes conflict, as seen in the court scenes and in scenes like the ones where he threatens Choi Myung Hee. In fact, his cool-headedness is one of the things Cha Young lists as one of his charms in ep8. He doesn't come off as hot-blooded as quickly as a character like Father Kim in The Fiery Priest, for example.

Besides the times when he's just annoyed angry over things like being robbed or the drama with Geumga plaza, we see him get seriously angry only over the emotions from seeing his mom (he yells at her, he lights a cigarette) over Hong Yu Chan's insistence on pursuing Babel despite the danger (he raises his voice on multiple occasions), and over the death of HYC (he throws a wine glass and then he has syringes stuck in JHS's pillow and he organizes the warehouse arson). Note how most of these things are accompanied by some use of a lighter (more on that later). Yet, times when he yells and cusses in Italian aside, in doing most of these things he's not very visibly aggressive? If you get what I mean. He's still almost cold/mechanical in the way he goes about it. Like the result of his anger is an inevitability; if you light a lighter you start a fire. This is seen when he gets angry over the vineyard owner's attitude (he doesn't lose his cool, he just burns down the vineyard) and Paolo's attempted assassination of him (he shoots the assassins calmly, he blows up Paolo's car and threatens him, he leaves italy). Even the actual act of the Babel arson isn't very fiery on Vincenzo's part.

The thing about Vincenzo though is that, much like the lighters which he constantly opens and closes without lighting, most of the time he's not always very openly fiery. As mentioned above the only times we see Vincenzo actually light a lighter are when he's truly angry. He opens and closes them to calm down, but occasionally instead of calming down he lights the lighter, and he burns down a vineyard or lights a cigarette. He says in ep 2 that being weak and feeling helpless make him angry, and perhaps that's why opening and closing a lighter helps him calm down, because it reminds him that he can do something, he can light the lighter if he chooses to.

A lot of his anger/bitterness goes back to him being abandoned by his mother, and we see that it's still a big deal for him because some of only times we see him lose a grip on his anger and have outbursts of emotion are in scenes related to his mom (when he comes to tell her no one will come visit her now, when she doesn't want to get treatment, early on when he's in the courtroom for her case). We see that momentary crack in his level-headed personality when it comes to his mom, and the cracks get larger the worse her condition gets. (I wonder how it will go if she dies? It seems like she might. Perhaps that'll push him over the edge). Being someone who doesn't like feeling helpless, the scenes where he's angry about his mom become all the more impactful because there's nothing he can do, he can light the lighter but all he can do with that light is light a cigarette. Notably we also see him get emotionally angry/agitated worrying over Hong Yu Chan's perseverance in fighting Babel, perhaps since he also comes to see HYC as a mentor/father figure. He was helpless again, he couldn't do anything to help his mother's sentence and he couldn't do anything to stop HYC and his eventual death. In all this we see that there is a marked contrast between fiery emotionally engaged angry Vincenzo and cool-headed business minded angry Vincenzo. The more dangerous of the two is arguably cool-headed angry Vincenzo, because this is the mode he enters after the initial burst of emotional anger, after which he hatches and executes another high stakes plan.

Which brings me back to Adrenaline. The lyric about wanting to leave so as not to cause hurt is there in both versions, but in english it's "Fire, rising up (to) higher, I'm burning up it's dire, I don't wanna hurt you so leave" (According to this translation of the Italian version the equivalent part in that one is "The fire (is) rising upwards, I'm burning slowly, Please leave me, I don't want to hurt you", more or less the same thing). At this point we're aware that Vincenzo has a lot of unresolved internal anger, but we aren't clear on the full extent of it yet. He effectively hides it behind smooth words and well thought out plans, but that doesn't change the fact that he's "burning up" with all that pent up anger (over his mother mostly, and now also over Babel to an extent), which is also "rising up" as he's reminded of his past and faces new challenges. It's only a matter of time until he hits burnout, or an explosion of some kind. If you think of it like a water balloon (idk i'm bad at coming up with metaphors), over time more and more things (abandonement issues, having to kill so many people, having to leave italy, frustrations surrounding the tenants, BabelTM, the death of Hong Yu Chan, meeting his mother again, hearing the truth about his mother's case first hand, his mother potentially dying, and so on) fill it up until bANG, it's too much and it bursts. Pent up anger is a ticking time bomb, and it's anyone's guess when he'll stop clicking the lighter open and shut and set the world on fire again. We'll either have Vincenzo overcome and learn to let go of his anger, or we'll get to see him truly snap and cause some real damage to his status as a non-fugitive and/or his relationships. Maybe some combination of both.

Interestingly though, we haven't seen him get directly really angry at Cha Young before, though they were very passive agressive in the earlier eps. This shows a difference in the way he sees her now and the way he saw Hong Yu Chan, she's willing to get her hands dirty and so even though they're still fighting the same Babel he's not as worried about her safety because she's a lot like him. And yet, assuming that Adrenaline is from Vincenzo's POV and the person he doesn't want to hurt is Cha Young, we can infer that Vincenzo knows full well the potential danger of his pent up anger, and that he cares enough about Cha Young to want to still keep a certain distance from her so as not to hurt her in the event that said anger leads to bigger trouble/more illegal high stakes plans/things she wouldn't approve of i.e hurting or killing people. We see that he is drawn to her (very obviously), and that he likes her (VERY OBVIOUSLY), but he doesn't want to burn her, hence scenes like the "villains don't deserve to love/love requires qualifications" scene. Fire can warm people, it can be a force for 'good' (for example, the revenge on Babel for its victims and Cha Young via the arson), but it can also destroy people. It looks like it is definitely eating away at Vincenzo, and he doesn't want the fire consuming him to burn those close to him.

He's done things that may or may not haunt him, and he may not deem himself worthy of love because of those things, but deep down I do think he wants to be loved, to have a home, to let go of his anger and be allowed to live without it. His initial plan was to get filthy rich and then run away, but like the monk said, unless he faces his anger, it'll follow him wherever he goes. Forests burn down and regrow naturally, but unnatural forest fires are hella destructive, it's all about how he handles his anger. Harness it and overcome it, or let it control him and eventually destroy him. Rn it looks like it torments him but he uses it to his advantage, as a driving force, but how sustainable is that? Each of the arsons are preceded by gasoline, what will serve as Vincenzo's gasoline and what will be the spark that sets him alight? Will Cha Young be the bucket of water that settles Vincenzo's flames, or will she be the bucket of gasoline that burns him to the ground? We'll just have to wait and see.

Pls interact it took me like a week to write all this :')

#if i've missed anything lmk #my schoolwork watching me neglect it to write this like 🧍‍♂️#doesn this count as eng lit work #yes it does #vincenzo #tvn kdrama #tvn vincenzo #kdrama meta #vincenzo meta #vincenzo kdrama #vincenzo cassano #hong cha young #kdrama

83 notes · View notes

weirdlyfitting · 2 years ago

Text

Okay so yesterday i watched love and thunder and i think it's okay (and yes definitely way better than mom)

Spoilers btw

I think it has a tone problem tho, i like the comedy stuff there should be less jokes in this one

Gorr is amazing as a villain holy shit, the time he appears when he's already corrupted i got chills down my spine! The camera works are *chef kiss

But....

With him being the villain, back to the tone problem i think that's what made this story didn't turn well. Gorr literally wanted to eradicate ALL GODS, that's probably the highest stake in every thor movie ever had.

And gotta admit, i'm thinking a lot to moon knight's story. As in i tried to search for the connections yk but i'll talk abt this later

I feel like there should be some infinity war element kind of tone in here, it's not that in the end the gang's supposed to loose tho but make it as if they're actually going to loose

When gorr almost got to the eternity i feel a bit dissapointed cause yea i knew he'll change his mind/heart or prob not succeeded

Compare this in ragnarok tho, i feel like the stakes with hela was much bigger/higher cause ragnarok pretty much showed a lot of the damages hela has done to the gang from act 1

The screaming goats ruined the scene when the gang just arrived in shadow-realm-planet(???) sorry i forgot the name lmao, anyway i love the goats in other scenes but i hate them in here only, cause seriously it didn't match the gloomy, dark, corrupted tone of the place itself

And i miss loki being in here, i get that the loki that thor knew is gone-actually-gone but i wish there's more of him talking about his bro :(

Aight moving on to stuff that i liked about the movie :

MOON KNIGHT IN THE MARVEL INTRO. I REPEAT MOON KNIGHT IN THE MARVEL INTRO AAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! This is the actual reason i want to watch love and thunder lmao, i'm afraid if this is the first yet last time i'm able to see mk in the big screen of this year so yeah

i love the dynamic between the gang tho, and the shenanigans between thor and guardians aweee!!

the kids getting thor's power just pure awesomeness aaaaaaaa!!!!

Val and jane being such awesome sisters in here hehe, i love their energy 🥺

The battle in shadow-realm-planet. JUST LOOK AT THOSE CINEMATOGRAPHY HOLY SHIT!!!

Gorr. Yea only gorr because he's that cool as villain seriously, no other words can explain how i love his character so much

The "just look at the eyes of people that you loved" line aweee, peter's looking at the other guardians and my heart really melted

Mjolnir and stormbreaker lmaooooo, i feel like strombreaker should meet dr strange's cloak???? The chaos from these two omg

Okay now that's sorta everything now i wanna talk about the moon knight connections

When gorr said he'll kill all the gods OH SHIT I'M WORRIED FOR KHONSHU 😔😭

He's a bad as a god and just a pigeon w angry issue yeah but- BUT goddamn i'm actually worried????? Not to mention with jake now serving him so.....the moon bois are technically not safe either SHIT-

Okay maybe they are safe actually? Cause khonshu's the one that'll die

Anyway anyway

Does this makes the whole ammit & harrow trying to eradicate the bad ones POINTLESS in moon knight? Maybe???

Like imagine gorr arrives on earth while ammit vs khonsu stuff is happening, THEY'RE BIG AND WHAT'S HE GONNA DO HUH???? Then even if he's able to kill ammit (and khonshu) this only makes moon knight's journey more pointless and i hate it! A nobody (on mk's perspective) just popped out and finished what marc, steven and layla were trying to do what the hell- >:(

Luckily gorr haven't kill the enneads yet tho, but still this bothered me

Oh and yk we could've had jake joining the gang to kill this god butcher right? Like come onnn (ignore me i'm desperate for more mk lmao)

And- AND

If gorr ever meets harrow i think they would've had a very interesting convo. Harrow is a fanatic while Gorr is a non-beliver, just imagine how clashed these two would be holy shit!!!

Amd I think there's a line that said "eradicating" and all i could think about was harrow, he too was trying to eradicate something tho

#thor love and thunder #also #moon knight #mcu

6 notes · View notes

harrowscore · 3 years ago

Note

you’ve helped me realized that much of what i’ve been praising as ETL is in fact rivals to lovers… and that there are actually a lot of meaningful distinctions between the two relationships!! my conclusion is that both are good but for different reasons.

(sorry for the late reply, anon!)

you're welcome! ❤️ i've not written extensively about the etl Discoursé so i'm not sure which posts of mine helped you specifically but maybe it was something i've reblogged? anyway yes, both can be quite good for different reasons. at the end of the day they're just labels; i do think that the (imo legitimate) rise of the ~it's not etl if they didn't try to kill each other at least once!~ arguments is due to the pressing criticism that actual etl romances get when they do appear in media, see "it's abuse!!1!!" etc. when nope, it's just a fictional trope where two characters are ideologically opposed in every way, they belong to warring factions so of course they'd literally cross swords with each other, and often there's at least one kidnapping/torture/murder attempt. they're enemies, and that what's enemies do, they do not quarrel about rival sport teams or whatever lmao. of course if you (general you) can't handle it that's okay, to each one their own etc., but you can't cry about ~aBuSe when... i mean, that's literally the trope, dude. it often (but not necessarily) crosses with villlain/hero ships, so at least half of the pair has committed some kind of atrocity (good! 😈 lmao). it's not and will never be a 1:1 copy of our reality, and it's not meant to be read as such. of course people throwing knives at each other or whatever irl is not romantic or cute but we're talking about fiction and fictional worlds governed by very different rules than ours. it's a fantasy, a playground where you can make your imaginary dolls act out sceneries that irl are as highly improbable as dragons or magical rings of doom, and that's the point. it's very obvious tbh, i can't believe that even needs to be said, and yet some people don't seem to grasp it.

i also saw some descriptions of rivals to lovers which i don't agree with. there is a difference between rtl or etl and belligerent sexual tension; usually the latter involves two characters who are on the same side but for some reason they dislike each other, so it may turn into a hate/love thing. but rtl implies that, you know, they're rivals, so they're competing over something - i already mentioned opposing sport teams, for example. i'm currently writing a rtl chess au for my otp (which in canon is something like belligerent sexual tension + bad first impression thing a la darcy/lizzie) while in the past i've extensively written about people literally trying to gut each other (and there's at least some torture in it 😌) so i'm familiar with the difference between the two tropes. they're both fun to write but yes, the rtl story seems very tame in comparison with my usual Problematique shit lmao, tho i love writing it because it touches upon other themes, motifs, and tropes i'm in love with.

i think a lot depends on the tone and goals of the story. in a more mundane setting that deals with everyday life and not stakes higher than the empire building it's a bit more difficult to make people who attempt to slice each other's throats fall in love; fantasy&co. implicitly requires a suspension of disbelief - things are way larger than real life, and often this kind of romance shapes the land of these fictional worlds, as both represents different sides of the conflict that in a doylistic way is the basic foundation for these worlds' very existence. it's a bit daunting to imagine the same dynamic in, idk, an austenian-like setting lol, that's why for austen's standards lizzie and darcy are Peak etl when in fact they're extremely vanilla.

#asks #anon #enemies to lovers

4 notes · View notes

staysuki · 3 years ago

Text

squid game episode 7 reactions:

1) oh nvm ali’s dead :D

2) GO HWANG. HIDE WITH YOUR LIFE

3) I KNEW NO.212 WASN’T DEAD. WE DIDN’T SEE HER DIE. SHE’S ALIVE. i hate that i’m right, i don’t like her character trope. the sad part is, if gihun didn’t partner with 001, he’ll prolly still be alive (but i think he’s alive, i’m suspicious of his character and also, we got a confirmed kill from ali and jiyeong but not him).

4) front man speaking always gets me, idk why.

5) “i always put down the receiver the other way” omfg i cannot with this guy. he is so intimidating but also kinda goofy. apparently he’s not even one of the VIPs??? he answers to higher ups still? i cannot take this “antagonist” seriously at all.

6) istg if hwang gets hurt i will riot. mr. mask head is smart though.

7) HWANG ISTG YOU’RE PLAYING WITH FIRE BUT OMG CLUTCH WITH THE BODY THAT HE DISPOSED OF

8) the husband and wife :((( honestly if that was me, i would rather just die as well but i know how hard that must’ve been ugh

9) idk why hwang had to leave his id with the body. even with water bloating, they couldn’t have been THAT alike right. but idk, i trust my man hwang.

10) as much as it hurts, i’m not siding with no.69 on this one :(((( narrative-wise, he chose to go back to that place with his wife and nobody else were with someone that important with the game so even if people were close in-game, there really weren’t that much of a personal bond. still sad though, maybe i’m just a bit detached because i’m watching it from a critical perspective. sangwoo is cold but he’s 100% right. no.69 and his wife was alright with joining but now that the stakes turned against them, suddenly it’s time to stop, it’s also unfair for the people who died and also the people who worked hard to get this far idk.

11) THE MASKS LOOK SO GOOFY I CANT— and also am i missing smth here??? i feel like im missing a point bc they build sm center around the masks so it should amount to smth mindblowing but it’s just so meh(???) like, i don’t care to know about these people bc we haven’t seen them at all nor have we learned anything from them. it’s not like the reveal of the BBEG main antagonist in Alice in Borderland where it’s surprising because spoilers: we’ve seen her before alongside the others and it was unexpected. But idk, maybe it’s yet to be revealed.

12) this black mask guy seems so small as time goes on. he’s made to be this cunning head but he’s still just a pawn all along to whoever the “host” is 😭. i’m guessing no.001 is the host or smth idk, he’s sus. JAJWHSHAHAS I CANT LET GO OF NO.001 ISTG THERES SMTH THERE

13) so much buildup for the next game omo 😭 i’m feeling tense. “the games in korea are the best” so it’s held all over the world eh 👀 this reminds me of Cabin in the Woods actually

14) the acting from the VIPs are so goofy i cannot. i saw the no.069 ending coming from a mile away :((( so tragic, but i understand.

15) apparently mr. deoksu 101 is the “muscle” but why does he always look like he’s about to cry 😭😭 like i get he has his scaredy cat moments (alot) but whenever the camera pans to him it’s like he’s a second away from tearing up.

16) the VIP lounge looks so cozy, i would love to cuddle with someone and watch a movie on a big screen while munching on a nice charcuterie board, preferably said movie isn’t some gorefest.

now that i think about it, this also reminds me of a manga i read a while back named Suicide Island (i think????) basically the premise is that “no-chance” people (basically people in debt, criminals, etc.) are sent to an island to die or fend for themselves, that’s the whole premise. ngl i forgot most of it because it’s been a long time ago so that was probably a crass summary so i’ll probably check it out again.

17) another physical game(????) these seem interesting tho, new numbers and whatnot.

18) i am so sick of that running 69 joke already 😀

19) mr. hwang you’re doing so well. please come out of this alive. ily bb

20) i would choose 7. it’s my lucky number too. istg if no.7 dies immediately, i will riot.

21) THE VIP’s DIALOGUE ARE SO CHOPPY(?????) like its so bad????? it keeps throwing me off 😭 not just the lines and the delivery but the pacing as well? it’s like there’s this millisecond of pause between each line as if behind the scenes, someone has to tell them “it’s your line now”- or idk, maybe i’m overthinking it but i hate these guys sm, and not just because they’re scummy people 😀

22) the pain of being indecisive lmfao. i personally am good at making decisions (kinda). ok no.96, go off, you make the decision for gihun.

23) ok this game i can’t—

24) honestly, i’d like to keep mr. hwang all to myself too

25) so being last is the best position huh 👀

26) my man is doing the math on the probability of his death. this is a man i can stan. goodbye though. what a good way to go honestly, what a champ.

27) in this game, i would probably get clammy feet and slip and fall and die even if i get the correct tile. honestly i’d probably lose balance and fall to my death. i can’t even jump that far.

28) oh wow they’re playing chess now, kinda. i think that’s how you play chess right. you push people.

29) is gihun cracking the code 🤔🤔🤔. oh lmfao he just forgot. i thought he was having an epiphany 😭

30) no.101 is next now. idk if he lives this one but honestly there’s a saying in our country that goes “mahirap patayin ang masamang damo” which just directly translates to “weeds (bad grass) are hard to kill” which means “bad people are hard to kill” so like 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

31) “you’re all mine” I WANNA SAY THAT TO MR. HWANG TOO. “please take me somewhere we can be alone” MR. HWANG SAY THAT TO ME TOO BUT DONT KILL ME

32) mr. black mask guy i feel like is catching onto the suspicion, mr. hwang was a bit too risky on this one.

33) mr. hwang you’re so pretty. marry me. THE ENGLISH. I CANT. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH OMFG. HE’S TOO MUCH. he pulled out a gun and suddenly i’m 🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️

34) ooooopppp no.101 and no.212 face off!!! i love this!!! i knew they’d face off together but i didn’t think they’d do it as enemies. e2l honestly, i stan. ok maybe i like no.212 now. what an honorable woman in the end.

35) THEY DIED TOGETHER. MAYBE IT WASNT OUT OF LOVE BUT I SAW IT COMING. I LOVE THAT HONESTLY.

36) i knew there would be someone who knows glass.

37) THEY TURNED OFF THE LIGHT, WHAT A BUNCH OF SCUMBAGS 😭😭😭. the sound hint, gihun will probably use the marble to check the sound so they all survive and then he’ll be like “no.001 saved me” or smth. idk.

38) somebody make the VIPs stop talking 😀

39) oh he did use the marble. cant he just knock on the glass idk 😭😭😭

40) MR. HWANG YOU’RE SO HANDSOME

41) SANG WOO YOU COLD BLOODED MURDERER. but it had to be done. we all know what this man is capable of 💔💔💔

42) why did ya’ll have to explode the glass, that’s just rude 😭 also what a weirdly placed slowmo, so unnecessary 😭

43) mr. hwang i’m counting on you

#ash squid

0 notes

angel-thoughts-dump · 2 years ago

Text

So since I binge-watched 2 out of 3 seasons while in a flare... differences vs similarities:

Similarities:

well I already said the obvious, but still talking about the protagonist: he also traveled in the past with a group of evil vampires but later broke away from them-but not completely-, and he tried to kill "his master/maker" bc he was trying to control him and killing people. He also has reclusive and suicidal tendencies and acts as a badass but can be too bossy, too dramatic, and go off on his own to solve everything by himself instead of trusting people, the typical brooding action hero trope.He is also conventionally handsome, originally from Europe, he uses modern stylish clothes, he likes classical music and painting(he is worst at it than angel but hey he plays the piano) and of course yeah he killed a lot and turned some people along the years into vampires (tho it didn't go well) and he is guilty about that, trying to compensate by only drinking animal blood and helping people

there's a lot of small jokes of the type: haha they don't know I'm a vampire. "I'm more of a night person myself...*wink*" etc

the need for blood is treated as an addiction

he acquired a lot of knowledge along the years, reads a lot and speaks various languages. He is also immune to normal human injures, he has super speed, smell, hearing and strength, and can be killed by decapitation, fire, stakes or the sun. He can eat, but apparently it tastes so bad to him he tries not to.

He would like to be human, and he misses the sun, but ultimately uses his powers a lot to fight for good

he also has a big old convertible, lol

the setting is also in a big city mostly at night

his most important interactions occur with two characters. One is his detective partner -another older white man that acts as a comic relief but its also pretty competent in his own way-people in charge told them the first ep that they needed to work together, even if they are very different, and they eventually become fond of each other. And second, this other young and very intelligent woman, also a coworker of them, that knows his secret and acts a lot as a confidant and as a positive conscience to him. And yeah it looks like she becomes the love interest.

theres also a supernatural club/bar for vampires who try to keep a low profile and the vampire running it sometimes helps him

The amount of whiteness in the show is very much similar, except that by the time they introduce Gunn in this show they introduce an asian woman as the captain.

Differences:

he is an actual cop (BOOO! also how? doesn't the police require you to do things in daylight even if you falsify all your records somehow and you say you are allergic to sunlight? literally how does he pass) it is weird because besides this the show takes a more "realistic" classic cop show approach. There's no rich lore of demons and monsters, no secret supernatural world outside of vampires. Because of this, a lot of the show takes place at the police station, so the cast includes more officers and their captain. And the episodic bad guy are usually human killers acing on their own. There's no mayor season bad antagonist.

there is WAY less comedy and queerness, no found family trope, but theres no weird incest mysoginist plot here! weeee :)

this vampire is way older, he is 800 years old, and the vampires in this show are more overpowered than the ones in the buffyverse. They fly! they shake off injuries more quickly, they don't need permission to enter houses, and they can hypnotize people. But the most notorious difference, I think, is in the lore of souls and the theme of destiny and good versus evil. As I said this show takes a more realistic approach, they never mention higher powers, prophesies, destinies, etc and what appears to make the vampires evil is the high of power + the sudden urge to drink blood,those are apparently so strong and difficult to control, it instantly corrupts the person, but it looks like behind all of that the soul or spirit or conscience that the buffyverse insist its gone with vampires, in this show doesn't change, its just behind all of that. So the protagonist never commits unnecessary acts of evil just for fun, he never calls the murders "art" like Angelous did, so once he decides to break away from the manipulation of the older actually evil vampire, and he learns to control those urges and help people, the guilt is not as strong, his self-esteem is better, and he never distances from society the way Angel did, meaning he never acts as socially awkward or lonely as Angel does, and! theres no love making related curse(outside of the I'm afraid of being so horny I'm going to bite you). Plus the motivation its different, angel wants to become "good" to be "redeemed" above getting a normal life, but this protagonist just wants to be human and keep his normal life, and for him that includes being generally nice and helping people, but he is not that obsessed with morality or a grand purpose.

A very interesting aspect is that his friend, the very intelligent woman he works with and knows his secret, is helping him become mortal through science! meaning there really is no metaphysical aspect for vampires here, they treat it as an infection, with her treatments he starts to feel pain, be able to tolerate the sun and crucifixes a little longer, and even see himself in the mirror sometimes

more details include: the hearts of vampires do work but waaaaay slower aaaand no bumpy face :(

Now that was just the general concept of the story, what happens in the actual show is that the format is SO episodic it neglects character growth, you do have some episodes that explore the characters, and every episode includes a flashback of the protagonist to a situation that happened to him long ago and somehow relates to what's currently happening, but in the long run ???? it felt like they didn't have a plan, and there's no big climatic ending or beginning in the seasons, those eps could be in any order, that's not a bad thing I'm simply not used to it, so I was like: wait that's it?.

-Spoilers-

The things that grab you in the long run are "will he ever turn back to human and keep living with this identity as a cop, will he be found out and have to run or will he die trying?" and maybe also the romantic tension with his friend. But in my opinion it doesn't explore any of that nearly enough and in the end when they actually do, in a tragic way, it feels out of place, not earned somehow in the story.

I didn't see the last season complete bc apparently there was a big budget cut, they didn't want to pay a lot of the actors enough, so they left, including fan favorites, for example his partner for 2 seasons! they killed them off in a random plane crash, off camera, and just ???? NO. And they quickly try to replace them with other hotter new characters, that hey, I'm sure they are cool in their own way, but I can argue the character of the detective partner -Schanke- was so charismatic! more than the actual protagonist even! I'm guessing because of the actor himself, and it shows if you see their wiki pages 30 years later, John Kapelos did have a more successful career than the guy who was playing the protagonist

I also found an article talking about how badly received was the ending because of how anticlimactic tragic and out of character it was... sad. At least Angel's ending, as open-ended and tragic as it was, made more sense. This show had amazing potential, interesting characters, and I had fun watching the episodes, but yeah I'm just sad it ended that way.

you are shitting me in canada there was a tv show about a detective vampire that tried to help people to compensate for his past crimes and it ended just before buffy started? asdfasdsadf

#angel btvs #forever knight #ats #this is so long ohmygod but I needed to get it ou of my chest

2 notes · View notes

schistcity · 7 years ago

Text

My very rambling and long rewrite notes to improve Beyond the Wall feat. my undying love for benjen and ~Themes~:

The banter at the beginning was very good, but let Gendry, Jon, and the hound talk about Arya. they all love that girl and she’s back! act like it!!

they all had really unique but close relationships with her and i feel like that’s something they’d bond over.

speaking of Arya. in my ideal world this season is going to end with Arya and Sansa killing Littlefinger, having been playing him the entire time.

in this scenario, you don’t have to make it explicit that Sansa and Arya are working together, but make it more clear that Littlefinger is listening or just that he really enjoys what’s happening.

it looks like he suggests to Sansa that she get Brienne to kill Arya. make that clearer, so that when Sansa sends Brienne away we go “??? somethings up ???”

also have Sansa react way more strongly to the faces. they’re faces?? oh my god.

don’t back out of bi Tormund, that was stellar.

keep all of the stuff Tormund says about Mance and bending the knee. not being stubborn and protecting those who follow you is a big theme for Jon this season. emphasize it.

introduce Benjen into the fray WAY earlier. maybe the squad can’t handle the polar bear or that first wave of walkers, and Benjen comes riding in to save them.

that way you can build more of a relationship between him and Jon. Jon’s basically the only dude who still cares about him. create emotional stakes. have them speak to each other. please.

Gendry leaves and sends a raven but we still don’t see any scenes of Dany at Dragonstone. because we don’t know if Dany’s coming there’s higher stakes.

when Dany arrives its a surprise. we didn’t know if she’d come so it’s shocking and feels very similar to BOB (nice parallels!).

i needed Tormund’s reaction to seeing a fucking dragon and i was cheated, so jot that down.

pretty much the same shit happens, Viserion dies, but Dany reacts much more strongly, make her reckless and emotional. maybe she makes a run at the night king but fails.

make it WAY CLEARER that Jon is staying behind to give them time to escape. Jon is self-sacrificial and stubborn. if you want him and Dany to have an emotional connection, have her be vocally upset at this! have her demand he comes back, have him vocally say to leave without him!

YOU HAVE TO WRITE DIALOGUE, DAVID

(Dany leaves because she smart tho)

have Benjen stay with Jon as he holds off the wights (emotional impact isn’t hard guys!!!) maybe they both get dunked, and Benjen pulls them out of the water.

dany and the boys are flying back to the wall. dany is vERY SAD PLEASE LET HER BE SAD ABOUT VISERION.

but hold up she notices! Rhaegal is gone?!

because 👏 rhaegal 👏 went 👏 back 👏 for 👏 jon 👏 snoooow 👏

not even joking i was so sure this would happen.

this isn’t a “reveal” of his heritage but it’s a delivery on the hints they’ve been building all season. it’s creates connectivity and emphasizes that this plot line is important. it can’t be something they just throw in for a wink and a nod, especially with only 7 episodes left in the entire show.

Benjen dies giving Jon time to escape, and make it explicit that he believes his “purpose” to protect his family. he’s an old generation of Stark protecting the new generation.

this is a return to Jon’s theme and the lesson he has to learn. sometimes it’s more important to lose one battle and survive than be stubborn, die, and lose everything.

ALSO BENJEN’S DEATH WOULD ACTUALLY HAVE WEIGHT TO IT BECAUSE WE’VE HAD AN EPISODE TO KNOW HIM.

if you wanna be a real sneaky bitch. have Benjen say something that hints at Lyanna.

*benjen taking one last look at jon* “You really do look just like her...”

shit that’s good!??... let me write this, d&d.

the thematic honeypot that is Jon being saved by his stark uncle and a dragon named after his f a t h e r

this sets up a scenario where Dany would stay at the wall more realistically. sure she obvs like Jon but there’s no reason for her to stand on top of Eastwatch and wait for him to come back, she probably thinks hes dead. its more realistic if she’s waiting for Rhaegal.

when Jon and Rhaegal return its a surprise and she’s super happy.

and ya we probably get that whole scene where she sees his scars bc tbh i kinda liked that.

there NEEDS TO BE A SCENE where we see her dealing with Viserion’s death. Maybe she’s sitting on top of the wall alone with Rhaegal and Drogon and just has a hard cry. she defo needs one.

this season is full of strategic loses for her, and she handles those okay, but it would be interesting if a personal loss like this really really affected her and we got to see that.

d&d’s episode was really heavy on Jon stuff and sure she cares about him, but we should focus on how the loss of Viserion affects her first, it’s more central to her character.

then we can rock that scene with Jon. it can go about the same way, she tells him she’ll fight alongside him, and he bends the knee.

it makes sense in character.

Dany is fuelled by revenge which we saw blossoming by ACTUALLY SEEING HER REACTIONS TO WHAT HAPPENED, AAHHHH.

Jon now knows Dany believes in his cause and he trusts her. it’s a culmination of the lesson he’s been learning this season and in this episode of bending the knee for a greater purpose.

if you’re going to do dramatic irony and fanservice you’ve got to do it right so have Dany talk about how Rhaegal went back for Jon on its own.

last episode had Dany noticing the weird way Drogon didn’t try to kill Jon. Having an acknowledgement of Rhaegal being weird is a natural progression of this ~mystery~

“why’d my dragon go back for you?” “wait, i thought you sent him” “😐“

rhaegal: *looks into the camera and winks*

It raises a new lot conflict and mystery for these characters. which is good.

go back to dragonstone in this episode, if you’re gonna teleport just fucking own it.

here is where Dany has her conversations with Tyrion from earlier and they’re pretty much the same, they just focus on the aftermath of her decision to leave Dragonstone rather than the lead up to it. we see them deal with the consequences and that’s what their arguments are about.

have Dany say all the stuff about not being able to stand by and do nothing here. Have her attempt to justify her decision to herself, make i seem like a victory - albeit a hollow one.

then immediately follow that scene with zombie Viserion and you’re set.

and give the boys hats up north its so cold, they’re so cold give them hats you monsters.

in conclusion hire me.

#im sorry this is so long #but i like it #im putting it under a read more so you can ignore how deep in the game of thrones shit i am

1 note · View note