#guess that means I’m a child murderer sympathizer /s

[doriandrifting]

I bring a certain kind of “well actually I’m bisexual” vibe that “gay mike truthers are inherently biphobic” accusers don’t really like.

[leamy-world]

Some afterthoughts on The Devil Judge (spoilers for all the drama!)

Hello everyone! I hope you’re doing well!!

I wanted to write my thoughts after the finale aired because ep. 13-14 made me a mess and were too nerve-wracking! After these two episodes, i only wanted the week to go by fast to see how the finale unfolded (but at the same time, this drama entertained me sm i didn’t want it to end haha).

Watching this drama each week and reading your reactions and thoughts made me enjoy it even more, i’m glad i came back on tumblr! It was a really nice ride (more like an emotional rollercoaster haha)! It motivated me to write my thoughts and analyses on fictions i watched in the future, especially My Mister and Beyond Evil!! I forgot how much fun it was to do that and putting my thoughts into words gave me a little closure to my watch haha

These are just some afterthoughts & personal interpretations i had and were maybe probably already discussed, but i couldn’t get them out of my head haha

See you around and take care!!!

THE CAST. It left a strong impression on me and i can’t see other actors playing their respective roles!

—   Yohan portrayed by Ji Sung … i have no words, this devil judge left me speechless! His character, to his Devilish Smile (and hollow laugh in front of CKH and his son, or Gaon), his variating voice intonations (like damn, he’s a living ASMR like Lee Sung Kyung), his held back emotions and touch-starved and even desperate touches when it came to Elijah and Gaon, to his rage and unhinged moments! 

I winced seeing him contort in pain when Sunah revealed Elijah accidentally lit the church fire, and the two times he hugged Elijah totally destroyed me. His last scene with Gaon showed how gazes & micro-expressions alone could convey unspoken words as strongly. I’m weak for these kinds of scenes, My Mister for example did it and killed me haha

For this post, i rewatched some scenes and damn, Elijah and Yohan’s support of Gaon after Soohyun’s death was really emotional …

(They had no business in making Gaon have this kind of dream, those german scissors left a ... strong impression on him haha)

—   Kim Min Jung’s depiction of Sunah’s was hauntingly beautiful, a femme fatale who kept a broken child deep inside (and at the same time surfacing on her manners and personality) and a strong businesswoman. It’s a fascinating character i loved hating as a villain but still sympathized with. The scene where she murdered the former foundation’s president sent me chills down my spine (i still have her shot of her, sitting at his bureau and manipulating his speech video)! 

The melancholy slipping through her facade when she visited the mansion the first time in a while, as well as her devastation in front of the President’s scheme, by the young girl’s bed at the hospital were memorable. The tension between her and Yohan was incredible: they both managed to keep a very disturbing but enthralling aura, tangled with nostalgia at the same time each time they met.

(Looking at her reflection is a recurring pattern for Sunah’s character, i found this shot above interesting, divided in the two ends of the mirror, as if her self can’t be found on the other side anymore)  

—   This was the first time i saw a drama with Jin Young and i really loved his playing! Never thought I’d say one day i enjoyed someone’s tears and rage on screen, but his crying scenes stuck with me, especially in the prison yard and the last episode (he deserves therapy after all he went through, really) … And his letter to Elijah … (i’m glad nobody harshly revealed the truth to her, i’m really glad!)

I loved to see how his gaze evolved through this journey with Yohan. His endearment to Soohyun, Elijah and Yohan was very precious ;; Even though Yohan was the one who was first seen feeling lonely, Gaon’s loneliness since his parents’ death slipped through his seemingly fine world, i found that interesting! (And on a lighter note, i’ll always remember the truth behind Mrs. Ji’s cooking, Gaon’s epic reaction, and the pure comedy she gets to own a healthy food shop thanks to Yohan!!) 

I also enjoyed his supportive friendship with Jinjoo!!

—   Park Gyu Young’s acting was also on point! It’s really too bad she didn’t get more screen time because i wanted to know more about Soohyun!! I felt robbed haha, because when TDJ began airing, they introduced her as one of the ‘main’ characters of this story ;; The scene when she was on CKH’s suicide scene really left a mark on me + when she was confronting Yohan, especially after she took Elijah out!

—   Elijah. Just Elijah, our best girl!!! Apparently it’s one of Jeon Chae Eun’s first roles, she did so well!! Along with Ji Sung and Jin Young, she gave a whole new definition to the Domestic Scenes, i swear. These scenes will keep a special place in my heart for a long time! Her adorable smile and cheekiness were a refresher in this show!

(They could change TDJ’s concept in a second season and make us a domestic slice of life series, i wouldn’t mind AT ALL! Take my money!!)

Seeing her complicated relationship with her uncle unfold before us deeply moved me. The complete loneliness she silently depicted moving to her bed in the wheelchair, after Gaon left the mansion was heart-wrenching. And also the scenes after Soohyun’s death, hurting with Yohan seeing Gaon’s pain (the way she spoke her worry for the two of them, Yohan couldn’t let the words out properly to Gaon).

—   CKH’s character, played by Jang Young Nam, was amazing. Her acting already shattered me when i watched Nobody Knows! Her cold gaze, her harsh tone, she was badass i have to admit! 

The narcissistic rage was well depicted in her character, and even though i get where many’s opinions on her death come from (i share it too sometimes, but i feel it more for Sunah), i found this final decision fitting to the character, especially if you look how she treated her own son (each hold felt like a grip from rage eg. in ep. 3, as she maybe felt her son was the cause of her demise).

(HUGE SPOILERS FOR BEYOND EVIL BELOW!!!!) 

She reminded me of HKH’s ending: seeing his path to success was crushed with no way out of it except death on his own accord (in his eyes, because it was his absolute life aim, every single being, to his own wife and son, and means, even bending the justice independence, were his expendable ways to pave his path), HJW’s father was set on suicide before his son barged in. 

(Funnily enough, the filming spot for CKH’s house is the same for HKH’s house haha)

—   And also … Lawyer don’t-worry-i’ll-get-you-out-on-probation Ko deserves a round of applause for the best lawyer he is hahaha

THE STORY’S DEVELOPMENTS (AND SCRIPT). I feel like this story could very well have been developed on 20+ episodes! Even if i know some scenes in a script are sometimes (bound to be) cut in the drama, TDJ’s script leaks make me feel there was SO much more to be told, and so much more to explain some plot events in the airing drama!

Because the story was ambitious, both character and plot(twists which give you whiplash)-driven (and also the filming context with the pandemic), i feel like some choices were made.

The lines of thought about justice and the drama’s attempts at its ‘true’ definition are not lost on me. It was really interesting!

On a side note (there will be many, bear with me haha), the symbolic behind the app’s name, DIKE, which i’m pretty sure (correct me if i’m wrong, i only have some very rough basics in korean haha) is the korean romanization of Nikè, or in ancient greek Νίκη, the greek divinity of Victory ( ‘ㄴ’ in korean sounds like an ’n’ but its pronounciation is more abrupt/brisker, to the point of what could be sounding to ears like a ‘d’).

Nikè is most of the time represented as an attribute to other greek divinities who also embody the victory eg. Zeus or Athena, thus seen as a bestower of victory (in any domain, be it war, games = interestingly enough, the live court is set in a colosseum-like room, arts, …)  to the humanity on behalf of these gods (Nikè sometimes stands in her palm as an attribute of Athena, like the owl or the helmet). But sometimes Nikè was also revered an independent protective divinity.

Nikè is represented as a winged divinity in a long robe, flying above the victorious, assisting the humans in their works/challenges eg. handing them a laurel crown as a sign of victory, or a helmet, etc. Its mostly known representation is the Winged Victory of Samothrace (or The Nike of Samothrace) sculpture in the Louvre. The brand Nike also used it in its logo.

It calls back to Yohan’s line: « I make sure i win before the game starts », and in fact, since the beginning, unbeknownst to everybody witnessing the trials and participating to them, the app was his way to win. It foreshadows the ending of the story, Yohan finally taking down the foundation. It also adds to his god/devil image: he assumes the role of the intermediary/abyss of the « gods » (the Justice), taking in all the hubris of the society in order to bring the justice (well, guess we could say it put some hold to the cycle of the powerful culminating to chaos?) back, in some sort of catharsis through DIKE.

It might be a stretch, but Nikè’s winged representation could be found on Gaon’s tattoo (at first to me, it looked like a phoenix/winged angel, which symbolizes a ‘reincarnation’/new beginning for Yohan finding peace, a second chance to his past and Elijah thanks to Gaon & Gaon finding a new world even if his first crumbled ie. his parents and Soohyun’s death and professor Min’s betrayal).

(The whole virus plot by the end of the story made me feel a little uncomfortable given the actual context and the conspiracy theories that are spreading, but it wasn’t used carelessly and served the commentary of the powerful and how far they would go, i think? That said, a fiction, especially a dystopia like this, stays a fiction but when they used it, it gave me a forced laugh haha)

Now, if someone gets to translate some script bits, i’m really looking forward to:

K’s backstory!!!!!

Isaac and Yohan’s past!!!!

More about Elijah!!

Where’s the cat???

What was the script saying for Gaon and Yohan’s confrontation in ep. 12? When Yohan faced the window, waking up from a nightmare after Gaon left?

ABOUT SOOHYUN’S BACKSTORY. (Now, this will get long, i’m sorry but i needed to let my thoughts out haha) The drama introduced her as one of the four main characters with Gaon, Yohan and Sunah. I had so many expectations for her character! Especially from the three scenes we got of her:

➔ In the first episode, we see her save a young girl in the street from two men, looking up at the poster « A safe Korea will be realized from now on. »: it was a great introduction to the blatant lie of the ‘safe’ dystopian world that was being created in the story. It also showed how Soohyun felt in front of this insecure world. A side note, but seeing her hug the young girl like that reminded me the hugs she gave Gaon: she wanted to protect him from this unjust world with all her might (especially the scene in the restaurant where she hugs him). ➔ Her two confrontations with Juk Chang! ➔ Her dilemma and emotional turmoil when she erases Gaon’s presence in CKH’s office.

She was portrayed in the story as Gaon’s pillar since his parents’ tragic death and his moral compass. She’s the lawful citizen, despite feeling helpless to the world’s changes, who hopes it could be saved as long as the rule of law is preserved by everyone, and this begins by respecting it themselves. 

But she was not standing around and i kind of regret this was not shown more in the story: she kept doing her best in the « system », fighting from the inside the injustice hoping the little changes could make a difference someday. Because she couldn’t take Yohan’s path, in no way: the system/the law must be respected for it to be sustained. And i’m glad they addressed this point in the drama: Yohan chose to take on the role nobody wanted or even dared to assume, knowing fully well he became a criminal the second he began his plans (just as lawyer Ko said he was no longer a lawyer once he sided with him). 

This must not be glorified, nor vilified. As he said, it was a choice he decided to make. She mirrors his choices to some extent and i would have loved to see more of their interactions or her thoughts about that! And how she worked through the system to change things, her vision of the justice. They showed us the flashback of her career choice in high school, and it could have been interesting to learn more about her! 

A backstory about her saving the youth and meeting Sunah by accident would have been very interesting (given Sunah knew all about her since the beginning and ordered to kill her). Their meeting wouldn’t have foreshadowed Sunah’s plans, quite the opposite, and it would have given more ‘substance’ to her plans. We were robbed of this relationship haha! 

And of course, seeing her side with Yohan & Gaon for a short while (because seeing her team up with them all along the way could’ve been a little ooc) would have been dope. Her arresting Juk Chang while the two of them stop the gang was the closest thing we had to their teamwork ;;

Among the drama’s main focuses (the self-pity of the powerful and the never-ending cycle of their greed, the power displays it ensues which come in many forms in the system’s game), the conception of justice was developed all along the drama. It would have been really interesting to see whether Soohyun’s conception of justice could have changed in her own way!

And professor Min’s potential manipulation of Soohyun!!! Some scenes on their interactions could have been nice to see and explain why she focused solely on Yohan, the only side of the whole story she knew! Her reporting to the professor about her investigation (and him feeling she got too close to the truth) would have made sense because, as she saw Gaon growing apart from her as he was getting closer to the Kangs (especially since she saw him interact with Elijah when they invited her to the café, like Sunah saw how Gaon fit in their family at the dinner scene), she would’ve wanted to protect him without him knowing because she knew it’d have hurt him. It could have paralleled Gaon’s reports on Yohan to the professor at the beginning of the drama. And that could have explained (aside from the whole love triangle dynamics they had) her reluctance to tell Gaon Yohan was the one who told her his whereabouts when he was in danger in ep. 13 ; this scene also was one of the only moments addressing the lack of communication in their relationship. Seeing her feeling confused over Yohan could have been interesting!

(This also got me wondering whether in the script, Yohan’s injury was ever addressed.)

Also, i’m curious about her family, if the script mentions something about them: did they know Gaon?

About the loveline between Gaon and Soohyun: while the friendship could have stayed as is (it already felt pretty genuine in my opinion and strong friendships also deserve to be portrayed in stories), i’m convinced this drama wanted to set Gaon as the center of a subtext love & morality triangle between Soohyun and Yohan (and K and Sunah on Yohan’s part). I think i would’ve appreciated Gaon and Soohyun’s loveline so much more if they developed it more! And it had to develop in the very same episode she died: apart from the confession and kiss scene (i’m curious about the scene’s description in the script), the flashback of their moments, seen from Gaon’s pov, came just right in to ‘explain’ it! 

Of course it wasn’t the main focus of the story and there was already so much happening, but their new relationship development and her death almost had no impact on me even if it was set as a turning point for Gaon (and K for Yohan, as a cement to their respective decision to fight the system and how they would do it), and it made me really really sad! Of course it was a plot device (and i now wonder what would’ve happened if she or K wasn’t dead), but if it was bound to happen, the emotional impact was lessened!

Jinjoo’s character development and her relationship with Sunah happened really really fast, and i wonder how the script describes it!

Sunah’s involvement with the juvenile care center!!!  Her scene at the hospital left me really sad.

(Also, on the love plot, Gaon and Yohan jealousy bits weren’t used later as an expression of their envy towards the other’s status/life/etc. and were actually directed to people outside ie. Sunah/K/Soohyun in the plot, which makes me think they really wanted to set it as a love triangle!)

ABOUT SUNAH’S DEATH. I feel really really conflicted on this point. Her story was a parallel to CKH (and of course Yohan, i’ll talk about it below): two women — coming from totally opposite backgrounds — climbing their way up by their own means in this power circle. And despite all their accomplishments unnoticed (because they were the ones seeing through their plans while the others were mainly seen tearing each other into pieces), they could still be ruthlessly ejected from this world any day, part of it because they were belittled as women all the same, and chose to end her life on her own accord, still having agency over it. 

As someone else pointed it out, it also acts as a « poetic » retribution for her murder of Soohyun and K. BUT her exiting the scene in some other way staying alive could have contrasted with CKH’s suicide (especially since she overthrew the president who was the only one on her side getting in her way and even killed him in the end). Especially in a show that deals about how the justice can be carried out!

Of course, Yohan and Sunah were a foil to each other in their respective fights and traumatic past: the drama showed us how having someone to reach out to and protect (Elijah, Isaac and Gaon to Yohan ; Soohyun, Yohan and Elijah to Gaon) can become a driving force. Sunah, despite thinking this could be a weakness, also longed for companionship (from Yohan mainly, but also from Jaehee), and had no one to stop her crossing the line and preserve her from herself and the world. At least someone hearing her story, staying by her side and trying to understand her. 

Each time she said ‘can you be a little nicer to me?’ to Yohan made me feel for her (and also that one call with Jaehee), it was the only cries of loneliness she silently let out!

On a totally random note, i would have loved to see her interact more with Gaon (especially by the end of ep. 15, when Yohan was arrested)!

The story gladly didn’t end Yohan’s traumatic past and growth in death, but what about Sunah? In any case, Sunah was a really good and complex character, i enjoyed her character!

What about Jaehee? How did she react to Sunah’s death???

What about CKH’s family after her death???

I would have loved to hear more about Sunah’s plans as well! Scenes where she would play with Gaon for example (in Yohan’s presence or not, like at the photoshoot)! 

(This comment above foreshadowed, along with the dinner scene in ep. 11, she used him all along!)

Her involvement behind the scenes was only exposed in ep. 15 but i wanted to know more about her (motivations aside from her focus on Yohan, what did she plan to do before finding out a look-alike to Isaac, ...)! Given the elements in the plot, i get the idea she planned this whole business with the foundation first to reach the top and wanted to bring Yohan up with her (eg. leading the foundation or becoming the president) or down without her along the way, because she wanted his companionship. Maybe the script expands on it more? Did she really believe in the Dream Home project? Because as we saw her speech in the juvenile care center and her strong reaction to the youth being harmed in these schemes, i believe she kinda wanted to protect them as the best revenge on her past, because nobody could do it for her?  

THE ENDING SCENE. The ending was pretty good and didn’t give us an all-out tragedy, so i’m really glad! I still can’t believe Gaon was ready to blow his life away once he learnt Yohan’s death AND wanted to die with him (falsely) realizing Yohan wouldn’t change his mind, dead set on his decision (no pun intended!). And Yohan’s reaction to this ............... Now, their last scene is left to the viewers’ interpretation, but it felt to me like a new beginning to Yohan and Gaon’s relationship! As it was already said by many people on tumblr, Yohan wasn’t sure if Gaon would still be by his side despite it all, and he didn’t expect Gaon to feel this way. They’ll definitely meet again, it’s a promise of more in the future (especially Yohan’s nod, on the verge of tears and Gaon’s two relieved/endeared smiles, full of forgiveness). Gaon will join his new world once he’s done or they’ll come back to him once Elijah’s recovered.

And this game of hide and seek/hunt reflected their relationship development: Yohan felt unattainable at first, but he chased after him in the maze that was his devilish game, symbolized by the crowd, chasing him motivated by his suspicion, curiosity, anger and hate, disbelief and disappointment, empathy, worry, affection, desperation and love, until he finally reached him and they understood each other among all the crowd, living metaphorically in the same time, facing each other on the same (ground) level.

(A scene in the first episode, Gaon seeing a maze of Yohan’s reflections, maybe symbolizing he could not see through his facade in the beginning, being an enigma to him at first sight ; the choice of the reflections in the mirrors through the drama is interesting and reflects the story: depending on the angles, a story can hold as many meanings as there are points of view, the complete image surfacing once everybody’s story is told)

(Just like how, in ep. 4, Yohan shows Gaon the wicked system right under their noses, Gaon’s enraged and confused gaze directed right at Yohan after they all block his view by clinking glasses ; Yohan hoped he would understand what lies beneath but Gaon understands it fully through his own past in ep. 7-8)

(The crowd is cleared from their/our view in the final scene, leaving the two of them facing each other without any obstacle/reflection on their path)

Gaon kept Yohan’s watch all the time even in moments of doubt, sorrow and rage (the best PPL in drama history so far haha), Yohan finally got to Gaon and entered his world as Soohyun did, reaching out when he needed it the most, to stop him doing something he would regret deeply. It was symbolized by the scar he got on his left hand from preventing Gaon from stabbing him (that’s also why he caresses his scar in a bittersweet way, lost in thoughts, reminding him of their last meeting).

As @i-guess-it-rains said + according to the BTS’ editing (it passed off as a joke but i can’t erase it from my brain now haha),  the way the scene where Yohan defused Gaon’s bomb was framed looked at the same time like Yohan was also carefully handling Gaon’s heart (the bomb countdown clock radiating a red glow on his chest), on the verge of exploding. Now i have The Nights lyrics in my head haha (« My heart is going back to you, i just don’t know »)

On another note, i realized that in ep. 12, after Gaon left, he’s seen trying to call Soohyun in order to reach for her since their last confrontation, but right before, his finger glides over his contact, hesitating on Yohan’s contact before choosing to call Soohyun.

While in ep. 8, he only reaches out to Soohyun after his breakdown in the prison yard (without thinking to call Yohan because he was in the core of his doubts and pain at that time and needed space to reflect on all the events):

And it parallels to Sunah attempting to reach out to Jaehee in her loneliness at the top, hesitating before deciding to call her.

Now i hope TDJ will be on Netflix! It’d be very nice to get to watch the drama in high quality and have more people to see it!

I heard it got a webtoon adaptation so i also look forward to it once it will be translated!

A SECOND SEASON? When i first saw the ending, i thought it got wrapped up nicely and didn’t « need » another season, but it also left some parts open and laid out a new background for further developments (the system repeats itself but in another form, Yohan leaves the scene with his signature smile, maybe up to something else again, saying metaphorically or irl to Gaon he’ll come back if he doesn’t do well), kinda like Stranger/Forest of Secrets s1 or The Guest ending (the corruption doesn’t end there). I also heard it got high viewing rates in SK, so maybe it will be taken into account? And well, i’ll miss the cast so i would welcome the idea haha

THE SOUNDTRACK. The whole OST was stellar (and their titles are on point really!)! Getting to hear it without voices or noise over and with my headphones on made me realize it was even more beautiful! Because I Have You, Warmth That Melts Loneliness and If Only… are the end of me (especially If Only aaaaaaa)! Don’t get me started on Enemy of Truth’s title to the OST playing for the church fire because it’s devastating ;;;

If Only’s title … It leaves us filling in the blank space, the dots to Gaon’s thoughts when he learns about Yohan’s past and how it impacts him to this day.

The 4 songs were amazing (there’s also Different from the Outside but i still didn’t get its lyrics). Tempest was definitely etched in my mind as TDJ’s main theme haha And The Nights was my favorite!  

➔ Tempest was Yohan’s iconic theme and depicted his lonely path to revenge after the tragic events in his life, and his (fated) encounter with Gaon, how deeply it will change him in this journey in ways he didn’t expect. It perfectly introduces (with Chet Faker and Flume’s Drop the game) and concludes the drama!

➔ What you gonna do was THE revenge epic song making everyone revel in the ‘bad guys’ despair and Yohan’s badass moves! 

➔ The Nights felt like it was both Yohan and Gaon’s theme and Gaon’s sorrow after Soohyun’s death: at first i thought it was only Yohan’s, but his revenge and the last episodes proved me wrong! The song’s lyrics mirrored themselves (‘my/your night shines on you/me’), as if a complete understanding between Yohan and Gaon was found on their dark road. Yohan’s night shines on Gaon: Yohan’s broken past and all his misunderstood or hidden sides, his dedication to Elijah. Yohan’s rage (almost wrath since the biblical and god symbolism are there haha) and desire to take the inique system down waked Gaon’s own rage, buried deep inside, and made him move forward too. Gaon’s night shines on Yohan: all the time he spent with the Kangs, Gaon’s deep empathy and understanding, helping him reconnect with his niece, their dinners at night, his rage exploding when the truth about his parents was revealed, his desperation on the last two episodes (in ep. 15, seeing Gaon’s realization everything was a lie and Yohan was innocent, and in ep. 16, Gaon wanting to die by his side). Gaon’s night also shined on Soohyun, who wanted to protect him with all she got each time she saw him crumbling down.

There was still light on their dark road (which looks like a callback to Nightmare’s lyrics, « Save me from myself / Save me from this darkness that has lost its light »).

➔ Nightmare felt like it was Yohan and Sunah’s theme. When it last played when Sunah’s death happened on screen, it left me speechless (and if i remember correctly, the ‘save me from myself’ bit was played right when she shot herself … o u c h)!

[i-like-plan-m]

If youre still taking prompts!! Someone releases the diary of the yiling patriarch to the masses, and it becomes something like a diary of anne frank equivalent. Opinions are changed.

Instead of being oblivious about his feelings, wwx knows that he likes lwj but never does anything about it bc he’s accepted that lwj will never like him back or that he’ll never be good enough to for him. (more in next ch!)

[Posted to Ao3: weariness follows, and the infinite ache] 

Necessity, they said, was the mother of invention. 

Nie Huaisang disagreed. Genius was the root of invention, and his friend had been proof of that. Necessity was the mother of revenge. Of retribution. 

Da-ge would have said justice. 

Da-ge was not here anymore. 

Nie Huaisang was all alone now, left with nothing but a role that had been meant for great men like his father and brother. 

His father, assassinated by a man so evil he’d barely been human by the end of the war.  

His brother, murdered by a monster of a different making. One they’d trusted, let into their home and treated like family. One who still smiled at Nie Huaisang and thought him too blind to see the looming, broad-shouldered shadow that stalked its killer’s steps. 

His brother’s spirit always felt closest when Jin Guangyao was near. Even death could not stop Nie Mingjue’s overprotective hovering, it seemed. Somehow that hurt worse. 

Necessity was the mother of revenge and genius the root of invention, whether that meant talismans or planning the downfall of a monster. Nie Huaisang was not a genius. 

But Wei Wuxian had been. Before his own brutal death, anyway. Even when sequestered away in a place of nightmares, he’d been constantly creating. 

Creating, and inventing, and filling dozens of notebooks with his usual disorganized ramblings. The notebooks had been seized by the Jins after the siege of the Burial Mounds. They didn’t notice when a handful went missing from their stores, snuck out of Lanling by a resentful servant with light fingers and a grudge against Jin Guangyao. He’d been easily bought off by a stranger in the city who’d never shown his face. 

“He really was a genius,” Nie Huaisang mused, flipping through one of his dead friend’s journals in the solitude of his own personal library. 

A scoff. “Demonic cultivation is demonic cultivation.” 

“Not all of it is demonic,” he argued. “Just parts of it.” 

He looked at the contents and reconsidered. “Actually, most of it is about farming and child raising and Lan Wangji. No wonder the Jins were so pissed.” Their treasure had turned out to be worthless, after all. 

This particular journal of Wei Wuxian’s had six pages straight of complaints about Wen Qing bullying him into sleeping and eating. Lan Wangji was mentioned no less than eighty seven times. There were rabbits and a child planted next to radishes and dozens of lotus roots doodled all over the pages. A few lines of writing had been lazily scratched out-- by the looks of it, Wei Wuxian had started writing all his characters upside down and backwards. It was right before the whining about Wen Qing stabbing him to make him sleep, which suddenly made a lot more sense. 

Nie Huaisang now owned eight of Wei Wuxian’s journals, relics of a young man who’d thrown his own life away for Wens, of all things. No surprise. He’d always had his own sense of justice. 

“Justice?” His brother’s voice was full of incredulous disbelief. “A-Sang, he killed thousands.” 

Nie Huaisang’s mouth twisted stubbornly. “They attacked him first,” he muttered. 

“Oh, that’s what you’re going with? ‘They started it’?” 

“Well, they did.” 

The only response was Nie Mingjue grumbling under his breath. The familiarity of it made Nie Huaisang smile, but it was the contents of the next page that made him laugh aloud. 

I don’t know why I keep wishing Lan Zhan was here. He’d hate this place. Just think: all the resentful energy everywhere, and Hanguang-Jun farming with the rest of us! Haha can you imagine? 

Ah. Trouble is, I can imagine. He was my soulmate. Or at least I thought so.

> That’s gay. 

Wen Qing!! Stop it!! Get your own journal!! 

> You left it open on top of my medicines. You are clearly at fault. 

You--!! I didn’t leave it there, I dropped it there when you STABBED ME with your damned needles!

> Don’t get all defensive just because I saw your love letters to Lan Wangji. 

LOVE LETTERS?! You are the WORST, and I can’t believe-- wait, why am I writing this when I can just come yell at you instead?

> I dare you :) 

(Don’t do it, Wei-gongzi!)

WEN NING, YOU TOO?! BETRAYAL ON ALL SIDES

“At least he had them, this time around,” Nie Huaisang said with a tired sigh. “What a terrible place to live.” 

“Stop sympathizing with the enemy.” 

“No,” Nie Huaisang said blithely. “Besides, he’s not the enemy. He’s dead.” For now.

“What do you mean, for now?” Nie Mingjue asked warily. 

“Just some thoughts, da-ge, nothing to worry about.” He subtly tucked another journal under his cushion so it was out of sight. That one had been far more illuminating. Something for later-- for the beginning of the endgame. 

A long silence while he read, and then... “You haven’t painted anything in months.” 

“I’m too busy for those things.” 

“You love those things.” 

“I love you more.” Nie Huaisang paused, staring hard at the blurry page in front of him. “There’s no joy in anything anymore.” 

“That can’t be true.” 

“It is,” he snapped, abruptly furious. “How can I care about painting when you’re dead? How can I remember what happiness is when I’m all alone?”

“You aren’t all alone.” 

“You are dead!” Nie Huaisang screamed, flinging the journal aside and shooting to his feet. His face was wet and his breath trembling, tears burning in his throat. “You left me. You are gone, and now I have no one. Not a single soul left in this god forsaken world; no one cares about me! I’m left with no family but your sworn brothers-- one who killed you, and the other who handed him the weapon to do it!” He whirled around to throw his brush against the wall, leaving a smear of black ink. “You are dead, and I am not, and there’s nothing I can do about it except kill the man who killed you.”

Silence. And then… 

“S-Sect Leader?” A hesitant knock at the door. “Are you alright? Who are you talking to?” 

Nie Huaisang swiped his eyes clear of tears and found an empty room. His heart lurched as reality returned. As the pain and grief and despair found him again.

“Just to myself, I guess,” he said distantly, unable to tear his eyes away from the place he’d imagined his brother to be. A ghost or a memory, he didn’t know. It didn’t matter either way. His brother was gone. 

“I’m fine. Leave me.” 

“Yes, Sect Leader.” Soft footsteps leading away, and then he was left with ringing silence and a hollow room. 

“He’s gone,” Nie Huaisang repeated shakily. A reminder he needed, as much as it hurt to say aloud.  “Da-ge is dead.” 

He stared into the candle’s flame until his eyes burned. His brother was dead and he was alone. There was little he could do about it… except get revenge for his brother’s soul. 

Nie Huaisang was not a genius. He was something better, something that would make his complex plans succeed: he was Nie Mingjue’s beloved little brother, whom no one considered a threat. They would never see him coming, would never realize his role or ruthlessness until his revenge was complete. 

Jin Guangyao would die for his crimes. Nie Huaisang would make sure of it. 

He sat back down. Took a breath before digging out the most important journal, and started taking notes. Nie Huaisang plotted with meticulous care long into the night, until his eyes drifted shut against his will. He staggered to his bed, sleep-drunk and heartsore, and collapsed onto it, too numb to bother dragging the blankets up the bed. 

He was on the verge of sleep when the blankets draped gently over his body. “Thank you, da-ge,” he said sleepily, and drifted off as a hand brushed the hair from his face with utmost care. 

[echodrops]

People aren't as mad at Dabi because he is also disabled and mentally ill and while his behavior is problematic he isn't working to reduce the rights of his friends or people like them because of their mental/physical differences. It's like how black rappers can use the N-word and still be celebrated by other black people.1/2

I wouldn’t normally respond to something like this, but you’ve caught me in a terrible mood, so I’m sorry, buddy, but…

That Dabi is disabled, I’ll give you. But where has there been a shred of evidence that he’s mentally ill? Isn’t this just a fan extrapolation based on the assumption that he was abused as a child, something which hasn’t been confirmed at all in the story? Why is it okay to judge Dabi based on his assumed past, while making the opposite assumption for Geten, whose past we know EVEN LESS about? 

“…he isn’t working to reduce the rights of his friends or people like them…”

Geten isn’t working to reduce the rights of her friends either? She’s explicitly promoting and working hard to ensure her friends have the rights she wants them to have, namely the ability to use their powers freely, something which she–and the MLA–saw as a fundamental human right which was being oppressed.

Dabi is a literal terrorist working with a group whose goal is explicitly to DESTROY ALL OF PEACEFUL SOCIETY. By their very existence, the League of Villains works to reduce the rights of innocent people and spread their own dogma of heroism’s failings. I know we like to perceive them as oppressed because the story tells us directly we should sympathize with the villains, but they are STILL FUCKING VILLAINS, not helpless little victims that need to be protected.

I mean like, are you really, REALLY trying to argue that being a quirk supremacist is a worse crime than being an active MASS MURDERER???

Couldn’t you at least have argued that Geten kills people too, instead of taking the most bizarre route you possibly could?

“and other fan reactions to her (while also likely fueled by shipping and even sexism) are still reasonable.”

My dude. My guy. Y I K E S.

Thanks for telling me what is and isn’t okay to bring up on my own blog, I guess?

Like, I appreciate that you seem to mostly agree with the idea that the hate is influenced by shipping, but the message you’re sending here is exactly the double standard I was trying to point out in my post.

Because Dabi has become the fandom’s uwu precious abused baby, he (and Shigaraki) are completely forgiven no matter what they do; fans are willing to write off every evil action they take as a result of “those horrible adults who hurt them”–I say this an eager villain stan who loves Shigaraki and Dabi more than any other characters in this manga: a tragic past doesn’t excuse you from responsibility for your current crimes. Shigaraki (and likely Dabi) were manipulated and abused, BUT THEY’RE STILL BAD GUYS who have done terrible things to people who absolutely didn’t deserve it, on purpose.

It’s not woke to dismiss someone’s deliberate bad choices just because of their tragic past or physical circumstances; Dabi is not ANY less evil or less “problematic” than Geten just because he is disabled. And yet–because of the double standard of Geten being an attractive young female character who could threaten existing ships–she is treated as if she’s completely unforgivable for her crimes, even when her on-screen crimes are lesser than the male characters AND even when we have no idea what kind of tragic past she herself might have had.

Why is Geten expected to be a good person while Dabi literally gets away with murder?

The hate she’s receiving is FAR disproportionate to the crimes she’s committed, and it is motivated primarily by fandom bias toward good-looking male characters, shipping, and sexism.

It’s fucking gross, fam.

[askaceattorney]

(Pictures in Letter)

Dear Trearoos,

Co-Mod: My preferred method is to group Mod letters together and post them when there’s a large enough number of them (or when it’s been a long time since they were posted), while posting letters to characters from the queue, which takes roughly a month.  You can let us know if you’d rather have us answer either kind of letter at a specific time, of course.

Dear Anonymous,

Co-Mod: It depends -- if we’re talking about the ones who committed murder, I’d go with Ini Miney.  Her motive -- keeping the illusion that she was her deceased sister going -- was one of the most tragic ones I can imagine.  However, if we’re just talking about those involved in crimes, I’d definitely go with Tahrust Inmee.  Sympathizing with someone who was willing to frame Maya for murder (who’s already been through that three times) isn’t easy, but he saw it as the only way to protect his wife and unborn child, even sacrificing his own life in the process.  I doubt if I’d have made the same decision if I were in his situation (and hopefully I’ll never find out), but I do have to admire that level of commitment to one’s family.

Mod Kristoph: Probably Geiru from Spirit of Justice. Simply because of her traumatic problems. Plus, it’s sad to see a cute person like her fall from grace.

Dear skibot99,

Co-Mod: That gag was started here on the blog, with this letter.  Like Phoenix said, American euphemisms go way over her head.

Dear Anonymous,

Co-Mod: I’m with you there.  I’m sure she can take it, but she’s a human being like the rest of us, so let’s treat her with some respect, shall we?

Plus I’m running out of witty retorts for her.

(Previous Letter)

Dear Anonymous,

Co-Mod: Mostly because Mod Maya used them, and she hasn’t been on the blog for a while.  I prefer to stick with the regular-sized 3D sprites.

(Previous Post)

Dear M.,

Co-Mod: What can I say?  Love’s a strange thing, and Ace Attorney’s full of strange people.

Mod Kristoph: You know what they say.

Dear skibot99 again,

Co-Mod: Thanks for your concern, but what’s so horrible about getting the lore wrong every now and then?  When that happens, we just make some quick fixes, then let it go and move on.  No big deal.

Dear Starry,

Co-Mod: Thanks a bunch, and right back at you!

I loved Turnabout Revolution myself, for a number of reasons: it introduced us to Apollo’s father (and his biological father, for a few brief moments), it gave us one of the most clever plot twists in the series (Dhurke being dead and channeled by Maya from the episode’s beginning), and it gave Apollo a chance to become a hero who brings down a cartoonishly evil dictator and serve up some justice, Apollo-style.  Not to mention it pitted two of the series’ most iconic characters against each other in a court of law.

Speaking of which, while I enjoyed seeing the first civil trial in an Ace Attorney game, I felt like it did the same thing as The Stolen Turnabout in T&T -- it starts out being about something other than murder, buuuuut somebody ends up getting killed anyway.  And in this case, it was all because of a selfish politician who didn’t get what he wanted.  I mean, seriously?

I also couldn’t help but wonder how Phoenix got roped into to doing things against his will just to protect Maya again.  True, he’d just rescued her from being convicted of murder, but could he not at least be honest with his most trusted subordinate instead of facing him in court without an explanation?  I might be overthinking it, but it seemed a little far-fetched to me.

The second case was also enjoyable because of how much hinged on it -- the Defiant Dragons’ cause, Dhurke’s reputation, Rayfa’s self-confidence, Nahyuta’s conscience, the fate of a whole nation, etc.  And how could it get any better than an exposing a monarch for the delusional dictator she is?

Not to mention it was the first time Apollo and Phoenix had to do their jobs at gunpoint.  Even after playing through every other game before SoJ, I still wasn’t prepared to see that happen.

But in any case (no pun intended), I thoroughly enjoyed how Turnabout Revolution progressed, and how it brought Apollo’s unofficial trilogy to a satisfying conclusion.

Apart from him being separated from the WAA, that is.  That was just too sad.

And finally, as you may have guessed if you know anything about my thoughts toward Athena, I’m with you all the way on having a little more story for her in a future game.  I understand her playing a smaller part in a game that centers on Apollo’s growth as a lawyer, but the girl’s got some serious potential.

Dear Christianthepupbot,

Co-Mod: You know, that’s a great idea.  Generally speaking, your best bet is to send holiday-themed letters at least 2 months in advance of the holiday.  I wish I could be more specific, but that should guarantee your letter being answered in time for the holiday.  Also, as mentioned above, you can always request that your letter be answered on a specific day, and we’ll try to squeeze it in on that day.

Hey, that means it’s a great time to send Easter-themed letters, doesn’t it?

Dear Vera Long,

Co-Mod: Thanks for letting us know!  It’s a big help knowing which letter is being referenced instead of having to guess.  And thank you for contributing with your letters to the Ace Attorney crew!

Dear Ali S. Fakenamington,

Co-Mod: Nah, that’s a legitimate complaint.  I just decided to answer them all in a row since it’s pretty rare that someone sends that many at once (plus I have to admit I’m kind of partial to those comics).  I’ll spread them out a little next time so we can have some more variety within a single day.  Thanks for asking!

-The Mods

[kinetic-elaboration]

January 27: Thoughts on The 100 2x09, Remember Me

...For some reason I was really angry at the beginning of this? Also there’s a lot of Lxa bashing. Sorry. And some Clarke criticism but in the latter case, I mean it well.

Also this is really long whoops.

*

So...I miss when killing off main characters was a big deal and people actually reacted to it.

I truly cannot take Lxa seriously I’m sorry. I don’t find her... intimidating at all.

I’ve already complained repeatedly about her complete bad faith deal making at every turn so I won’t go into it again but nevertheless, here she is, again, moving the goal posts of the negotiation. ‘I’ll withdraw my army if you cure the Reapers. No, if you give up your friend. No, if you give me his body.’ Clarke should have double crossed her immediately.

Also I know that I ultimately did think it was reasonable for Finn to face Grounder justice (except insofar as that justice was itself morally untenable--that is, the Torture Porn) but now that he’s dead, I think there’s no real moral argument to be made that the Grounders deserve his body. I understand their traditions, which in fact I found quite moving when I first watched this ep, but surely his people have, or could make up, some traditions for his burial also. He is still their friend. This seems like little more than an excuse to be cruel. And Clarke’s so fucking broken she just goes with it. It’s truly awful. I mean she’s doing the only thing she can do I guess but it’s laughable that she sounds as if she has any sort of upper hand, you’re getting played bitch.

(Yeah I know, Lxa is being ‘groundbreaking’ and ‘revolutionary’ by even semi-accepting capital punishment without torture and taking his body is a way of appeasing her harder line advisers but like cry me a river--she’s either the all powerful commander or she’s fucking not.)

“We want the same things.” Lol if you wanted the same things you would have stuck to the original deal. No I’m not over this at all I guess.

I also still can’t get over how Clarke has literally never earned true leadership in the eyes of her own people and yet she continues to be randomly viewed as a leader by the Grounders and thus retains pretty much full de facto control over her own people’s power structure.

Also Kane shut the fuck up. I completely forgot about this but they really did put him through an off-screen 180 where all of a sudden Lxa is a God to him and can literally do nothing wrong and to this day we have never been given an explanation how that came to be. Guess it’s easier to tell not show huh?!?

ALSO I get we’re suppose to see a sort of racism-corollary to lines like “I don’t think they know what peace is” like obviously this rubs one the wrong way automatically. But Abby’s not really wrong. And despite what Kane thinks, Lxa has given, again, NO indication at all that she is interested in peace. She has given a lot of indications that she wants to do whatever she can to wring as much from the Sky People as she can without giving anything in return and hey we’re only halfway through the season and she’s already psychologically broken Clarke (also the only person she acknowledges as the leader even though she is not, cannot emphasize this enough, the leader of anything... and thus the only person L really has to break) and sunk-cost-fallacy-ed her into submission. Now that Finn is dead Clarke would cut off her own tit to make Lxa happy because anything else is “letting him die in vain.”

...Why am I so angry lol?

I understand the positions of both Clarke and Raven in this scene, which is fucking brutal, but I sympathize more with Raven. Clarke’s basically just a messenger, but what the Grounders are demanding is (I know I already said it) cruel, and cruel to Raven above all. And Clarke is almost all business. I think that’s what she needs to be for herself but it’s not helpful to the situation.

Anyway here are my faves in Mount Weather. It’s almost hard to watch these scenes because I want to, like, memorize them. Partially for the C/M story and partially just because. Today’s adventure is getting to a radio to send a message to the Ark-wide channel, which is a term for a thing that exists. Also I forgot how snarky everyone / Miller was to Maya. Which, I get. But--are they not thinking about how her own people have experimented on her? Like she is expendable to them, this is just a known fact at this time. So yes, there is a real risk to her, Nathan.

“Oh, is that all?” / “No--there’s more.” Monty’s so one-track he didn’t even hear the sarcasm. I love him.

“Their army has been getting their ass kicked by Mount Weather forever.” Bellamy speaking the truth. Do they need the alliance, or do they just need the Grounders to back the fuck off from attacking them? (Spoiler: they do not need the alliance.)

Ah Bellarke, always quick to reassure each other. Blindly, even.

“Since I don’t take orders from you, I’m going to need a better reason” is one of my favorite lines, and underrated. Finally someone reminding Clarke she’s not actually in charge of everyone and everything all the time. (I realize this sounds like I dislike Clarke. I don’t. I just find certain traits of hers frustrating. But this just makes her a good character.) Also you can see that, rather like her moment with Raven, she falls back on being business like and direct and issuing orders to avoid talking about feelings or breaking apart.

The United States War Room survives the apocalypse.

I’m sorry but it’s ridiculous to think that Lxa invented the concept of an alliance lol.

I guess Clarke needs to go all in on the alliance because of Finn, but... I also think this is part of who she is. Her sense of practicality outweighs any human desire to hold a grudge, and I think she assumes a level of practicality in others too, automatically, such that she underestimates wariness in others. Like Bellamy and Gustus and everyone is right to be uncertain about this literally hours-old alliance--not even an official alliance, since L’s latest demand hasn’t technically been met!--and Clarke’s like ‘yeah I’ll sleep next to people who would have killed me six hours ago np!’ because now that she’s in, she’s in. She’s neither angry nor afraid.

Linctavia like “Google Earth, always taking pictures.”

Is Lincoln wearing Ark clothes?

I know Raven is made to look kind of wan and sunken and sad but yet this scene where she’s being disarmed is honestly like peak hotness for me and I don’t know why. I like my women sullen and covered in knives?

Interesting how allegedly only the warriors knew English and yet Lxa’s big announcement re: get in line with me or die is made in English. Just going to point out yet again what a big mistake that throwaway S1 line is.

What a sad life to lead, where random declarations followed by “or death” have to form the entirety of your belief system “Don’t be upset that your wife and child are dead...or I’ll beat you to a pulp.” I truly don’t understand how we were ever supposed to get in line with this society as sympathetic or interesting. So much so that they get a whole prequel I guess???

I’d rather have a Mount Weather prequel except not really, don’t ruin it for me.

I love Miller’s canonical insane superhuman strength. This is a trait often overlooked in fics.

The usual comment on Mount Weather scenes: I love all of it.

The thing is that if everyone were on board with the funeral ceremony, it is touching. Murderer and murdered together, and the people who’ve been hurt, on both sides, saying goodbye as a group. It’s just that Clarke’s people were coerced into this--they weren’t convinced it would be a fitting ceremony, just told ‘well this is how it is and if you don’t like it, we could perhaps... KILL YOU?”

Is this a new revelation that Mount Weather crashed the Exodus ship (still a really satisfying belated explanation imo)? Or did we know that because, unlike Monty et al, we knew about the jamming signals already? Can’t remember.

You can see how L came to believe what she believes but nevertheless this is bad advice lol. “Don’t care about other people.” Okay, I’ll just stop doing that then.

Mmmm, a feast in a subway station. Delicious. Fucking full pig head as the centerpiece. Very DC.

Kane (handing over pure space moonshine probably): Just don’t drink too much of it. Clarke (five minutes later): Guzzles whole bottle at once. #partygriff is officially canon.

Waiting until tomorrow to start the war? Procrastinators. Clarke didn’t kill Finn for this.

I love Certified Dramatic Ho Bellamy knocking the cup out of Clarke’s hand even though she had made no move whatsoever to drink it.

“When you plunged your knife into the heart of the boy you loved, did you not wish that it was mine.” Lxa, also a certified Dramatic Ho.

Clarke kinda deserved to be punched in the face given that it wouldn’t actually make sense for Raven to try to poison Lxa--and make Finn’s death mean nothing? And put them all in danger in enemy territory? Nonsense. Nevertheless it’s hard not to feel bad for her when she follows this accusation up with a psychotic break.

Hmmm, do I think Abby turning in Jake was the same as Clarke killing Finn? Not really. She didn’t directly kill Jake, that was Jaha, and Jaha is who Clarke should really be mad at. That said, I don’t think she was really saving anyone in the direct way Clarke was. So, apples and oranges. Crazy awkward moment to bring it up, though lol. “Oh Clarke, you’ll feel better eventually--remember that time I killed your Dad? I got over that! Wait--does talking about your dead father upset you? That’s a surprise!” Nevertheless I appreciate major actions having consequences as that’s a semi-rarity on this show.

Monty Green: hero.

“Lxa needs this alliance as much as we do.” - True, if she intends to get her people out of MW. “She’s shown herself to be flexible.” - Not true. She’s given the bare minimum of concessions. Kane, please crawl back out of her colon for like 5 seconds, get some air.

Interesting that Raven and Bellamy are chilling near each other. I wonder what they were discussing. Tbh Bellamy’s feelings on everything in this episode are rather opaque. Other than understanding why Clarke mercy-killed Finn and being skeptical of the alliance.

“Kill one person and destroy the alliance” is literally only merciful because the default in this society is “kill everyone all the time for any reason.” Like, I guess??? That’s mercy by comparison?? But forgive me if I am not moved to admiration.

“This time justice will be done” says the woman who used the barest sliver of evidence to decide that a random person was guilty so she could have a public execution. A public execution to replace the other public execution, in fact, not to avenge a death because Gustus isn’t dead. (Yet.)

Kane’s really okay with letting Raven be tortured to death, huh? Gah he’s fucking annoying.

Bellarke: Crime Solving Duo. That’s some satisfying teamwork. Clarke figures out how the scheme worked. Bellamy figures out who’s behind the scheme. With all the evidence put together, the motive becomes clear. (Honesty, they should have been suspicious that the poison not only didn’t kill Gustus, it barely harmed him lol.)

Check out all the Department of Homeland Security stuff on Monty’s computer. This is perhaps Dante’s log in? There’s a set of “personal” files too. And a set of President’s Office files, which one would assume not everyone would have.

Anyway, I have a Thing for tense sequences of hackers...hacking.

When I first watched this season I was often so tense my whole body hurt and it’s mostly because of MW scenes like this one where Monty is caught. Like aaaaah it still gets me. He almost makes it... and then almost makes it again, with his silly little salute... (Never forget that he is A Dork.)

On the one hand, Raven being tortured and then seeing Gustus tortured to death allows her to see why Clarke killing Finn was an act of mercy, to forgive her, and to move on, so the narrative can continue with them as allies and nominal friends. And it works, basically. But I also think there’s something to the theory that they were never the same, that the wound never really healed.

I’m sorry but Octavia’s face when Clarke’s like “Yeah B, you’re expendable, go get yourself killed, have a map!!” is hilarious. Like, he’s just said that Gustus doing anything for Lxa made sense, and Octavia responded with “Look at the thanks he got” which seems to me like She Knows and then 5 seconds later Bellamy is basically thrown away by the person we all know he’d do anything for... I mean the face is fair. Also this is Bellamy’s idea and it’s a good idea and so he was right before and Clarke is also right now, but it’s still so... annoying.... like “okay, I’m done caring about you lol bye.”

And Raven’s just totally confused. It’s been a damn long day I guess.

Why are they all such fucking hotties? It’s hard to pay attention to “the plot.”

So the ashes Abby tries to give to Clarke are the same ashes, perhaps, that Jasper scatters in S3? This vial looks smaller. Why did she not immediately give them to Raven? That would seem to be the obvious thing to do.

And here we see Clarke, under L’s direct influence, becoming Increasingly Insufferable. I love her but this is obviously supposed to be her descent into the abyss: she treats her friends like little expendable minions, she turns her back on Finn’s memory, and then she ends the episode by dramatically walking into a dark room in slow motion to creepy chamber music. I mean this is the hero’s fall guys!! That’s what it always was!!!

If only they’d handled Bellamy’s hero’s fall in 3A, and Clarke’s rise again in 3B, as well.

That ending is a straight up horror movie thanks that’s why this is my favorite season.

[pyropsychiccollector]

So, to explain - this is the Danganronpa characters from Trigger Happy Havoc, listed from my favorite to least favorite. I'll go ahead and explain my rationale, a bit.

Starting with the F rank, Hagakure.... He's just useless as hell. A comic relief character that somehow managed to make it out of that shitstorm alive, and he's just not a very deep, amazing character. He's easy to panic and confuse - hell, at the start, he was so convinced the school was pulling an elaborate prank on them... despite all the signs to the contrary. And his talent of fortunetelling.... even the average of his predictions being right (30% at most, 20% at least) is pretty piss poor. Celes set him up as her scapegoat, and while that is kinda sad for him, it kinda loses its effect when you consider he begged for you (Naegi) to donate your organs on the cheap so that he could sell them on the black market so that he wouldn't need to dip into his own life savings to pay off a debt to the yakuza.

.... Like I said, not that great of a character, and I'm super annoyed out of everyone, he was one of the survivors. XD

Moving onto E rank... Fukawa's a little better off than Hagakure. She's a super downer to talk to, and will not hesitate to insult you to your face (unless you're Togami), but she's a learned girl and she made some contributions to the story, though they be few and far in-between, in my opinion. Her obsession with Togami is annoying, though, and like Hagakure she dragged out the trials at times because of her insistence on certain culprits (like Naegi, in trial 1).But.... still better than Hagakure, honestly. Her talent's hell of a lot more useful than Hagakure's, too - not to mention her growth in later games and anime.

Rank D.... Yamada just seemed so flat (an otaku to the bone), and Leon just didn't have much time for you to get to know him. You could tell he was a lady's man, a skirt chaser, and he let the life-or-death situation with Maizono get to him... But Leon did show, at least marginally, that he did have a love for his talent; he just didn't care for all the formal, traditional stuff like shaving his hair off. And Yamada... Well, he was used and thrown away by Celes; what sets him apart from Hagakure is he was actually stabbed in the back by her, and he didn't try harvesting your organs to repay a debt that was totally and completely on him for scamming the wrong people.

.... So yeah, Yamada and Leon are somewhat more sympathetic characters, but they're either flat or just didn't have enough time to flesh out.

Rank C... Ishimaru kinda started out boring with his by-the-books attitude and obsession with studying, but you could appreciate his struggle with effort vs genius - geniuses have to work, too, but in some respects they can make it look pretty easy. Having to work from the bottom up is admirable. Plus, you kinda felt bad for how he lost his best friend in trial 2.... On the surface that looked a bit fast for a friendship to blossom between two people of seeming clashing personalities, but when you consider they all had their memories wiped.... It's not that crazy; on an instinctual level, they were still probably pretty good friends, which is why they gravitated to one another again (that's just my thoughts; we don't know a lot about the time they spent at Hope's Peak pre-Tragedy).

Togami started as a prick and elite snob.... Not to mention how he toyed with trial 2 for kicks. It was nice seeing him eat humble pie in trial 4...And though he sent you to your death in trial 5, he had some development toward the end of the game. .... A little. What probably raised him to C for me was his characterization in the second game and the Danganronpa 3 anime.... Still a bit stuck-up, but he'd bonded with everyone in his own way~

Fujisaki.... You just gotta feel sorry for the kid. Had a weakling complex for much of his life, and it only seemed to get better when he got in high school.... A nice, loyal friend, and inventor of Alter Ego, who survived into the second game.... Bummer that he was the fourth one to die.

B rank... I suppose Genocider/Genocide Jill was just a fun, kooky character. No qualms about murdering, and she had a loyalty streak in her (not just for Togami, but Komaru, too). Plus, it was kinda neat her memories of the Tragedy were used to help solve the last trial of the first game. That's just me.

Asahina.... She was a chirpy, sappy, loyal girl. Bit of an airhead at times, but she made contributions to the story. She'd probably be higher if she didn't try to screw everyone over in trial 4, but that was mostly Monokuma's fault for the planted fake suicide note, so not too many demerits against her.

Kyoko... definitely one of the most useful characters, had a backstory, and all-around nice girl, if not a tad awkward because of not interacting with others much. Similar to Asahina, she'd probably be higher up there if it wasn't for how she screwed Naegi over, in trial 5... I get the desperation of surviving no matter what (to solve all the mysteries), and it being a setup from Monokuma again, but her betrayal still kinda chafed. If Alter Ego hadn't saved Naegi, I probably would have downright hated her.... XD I suppose she loses a few more points for being mostly reserved and stuck in her detective work.... But overall, she's a cool character.  

A rank... Junko surpasses Kyoko merely because she's a Joker-esque character. You still gotta hate her for being the root cause of all the misery, but the cray-cray kinda softens the blow. .... It's kind of like how the executions in Danganronpa can be funny, yet dark when you really think about them. And if you didn't have Junko, well, there wouldn't be any Monokuma.... and he can be even more Joker-esque, despite "just" being a mascot. XD

S rank.... Mondo was a meathead, and a jerk for punching your lights out in the first chapter, but he could be a real softie and loyal as hell. His guilt for causing his brother's death makes him easy to sympathize with, and his character flaw of easily losing his temper makes him pretty human. He didn't like murdering Fujisaki, and he was man enough to try and conceal Fujisaki's gender because it was something Fujisaki confided to him in good faith. A tragic character overall, but you're not annoyed by all the tragedy, like you can be with some characters (leers at Jellal from Fairy Tail).

Sakura is in a similar state. She's more level-headed than Mondo, but she can still get angry, and she had strong enough willpower to take her own life rather than murder one of her friends - and do it in a way that can make it clear so that the class trial doesn't drag on. Monokuma threw a wrench into that, of course, but it was still her intent to make it easy for her friends to live on. Her backstory with the man she loves, someone she acknowledges as stronger than her in spite of him currently fighting an illness, was pretty interesting, too.

SS rank.... Makoto's a pretty great protagonist - probably my favorite in the Dangan series. The "I'm ordinary to the cliché degree" routine can be off-putting, but he's got a strong spirit, and.... he's just a nice guy. Probably to the point of being TOO nice, and I guess that makes him a human character I can relate with... If he had even one selfish bone in his body, he probably could have gotten Sayaka to outright say she loves him, in the game. But because of circumstances, and because he thinks Sayaka is too high register for him (even though she's "interested" in him), he doesn't take the initiative and confess to her. Naegi just keeps bouncing back despite getting betrayed again and again.... Hagakure, Sayaka, Leon, Mondo, Celes, Asahina, Kyoko.... Naegi just keeps bouncing back~

And considering how I've talked about betrayals so far, you'd probably be surprised Celes is so high up there. But still, I find her to be a pretty down-to-earth character, a Queen of Liars, and a dreamer of dreams. She can be bratty, like when Yamada didn't make her "royal" milk tea, but I find her rage-induced states to be funny.... She's shrewd and cunning (save for trial 3), and I just kinda like how Naegi wormed his way into her heart, being the first of their classmates to reach "C-rank" in her hierarchy. Hell, she even joked about being pregnant with Naegi's child in that last free time with her.... You don't see any other girl doin' that in the series. XD

And finally, SSS rank.... the heavenly tier~

Mukuro's a badass and an adorable waifu rolled into one. Danganronpa 3 didn't do her much favor with her obsession to please Junko, but I do think she was loyal to a fault in that regard - otherwise, Junko wouldn't have done nearly as much damage as she had. The Danganronpa IF storyline, while fanmade, did a nice job of showing how Makoto could have affected her, and fleshed out her character pretty nicely. I still like her being a bit of a goober, being flustered at times, but I also like the badass side of her.... Not to mention her potential fierce loyalty to Naegi, if they'd had more time to interact....

And Sayaka, well.... XD I know a lot of people don't like her, but I definitely think she has more depth to her than most people give her credit for. I mean, think about how much emotion she showed in that first chapter - showed especially to Naegi of all people. If she wanted to hide her distress, her fears, why confide in him at all? If she was really plotting murder all along, why'd it take until the motive videos to "see" that potential for murder in her? She remarked how not talking to Naegi in middle school was one of her biggest regrets.... And isn't that a bit risqué for an idol to do? To reveal she has regrets at all? Japanese idols are supposed to be bubbly and love everybody, but she was pretty candid with Naegi in regards to what she thought about Mondo, after he volunteered Naegi to go find Monokuma's "motive". Sayaka betrayed Naegi, that's a fact; but it wasn't from the onset, and she most certainly didn't do it easily and without an ounce of regret in her heart. I suppose one thing for me that makes Sayaka's betrayal different from Celes and Kirigiri's betrayals is the fact she left behind evidence to absolve Naegi, to point to who really killed her (she even remembered what Naegi said about how to open his bathroom door). And what's more, she was conflicted enough that it led to her death at all. Kirigiri showed remorse over throwing Naegi under the bus, but only after the fact, and only made reparations after Alter Ego miraculously saved him. Sayaka's heart hadn't completely been in it when she betrayed Naegi, and that's something I liked; because it showed that, despite doing such a horrible thing, she cared about him. She betrayed him in a way that wouldn't physically hurt or kill him, and she hadn't intended dying on him, either; she didn't know about the class trial, and therefore didn't know she was endangering all of her classmates, including Naegi. It's very likely that had she succeeded in her murder of Leon, she would have confessed right away so that Naegi could live. For Sayaka, Makoto was a precious friend that reminded her that people can do nice things for others without any intent of getting anything in return. She loved his kindness, and was flattered he saw her as an idol worthy of worship.... despite how she confessed she'd done "bad things" to reach the top of the industry. Who knows what occurred back in their pre-Tragedy days.... The possibility for a relationship was quite high, considering how close they got to each other in chapter 1. That's just my thoughts, though.

[honeylikewords]

(P1) The pilgrim thing got me really disappointed!! Because they LITERALLY SAID!!! HE WAS GONNA BE FIGHTING A*T-RIGHT PEOPLE THIS SEASON!!!! I feel like this is a big let down to a lot of the people who were looking forward to frank, a character who is commonly misconstrued as an a*t-right figure himself to deny that once and for all, namely the fans who belong to minority groups (myself included) as well as the issue with the last I know they were doing it as a little easter egg by

(P2) recreating that one image from the comics but they could have put it in a better situation because a)those criminals were in fact rather young and the fact that the perfectly fit the "thug" stereotype is iffy at BEST. Because it also brings up something that was talked about in luke cage/defenders (a character I mcfrikken love) that black boys who are just trying to feed their family end up getting killed/beaten within an inch of their life meanwhile the white vigilante gets off free

(P3) (I know I'm writing a lot I apologize but m feeling heated ab thjs) because truly they looked roughly the same age as Amy. I will say I enjoyed his brotherly jokes with curtis (shout out to that man for dealing with his dumbass and not killing him for all the stress he causes him akdjsk) and the times he showed true care and softness (ie ACTUAL FRANK CHARACTERIZATION) towards amy. Im also iffy about the fact that he let a guy who peddles child porn go? S2 of dd he killed a dude doing that

Okay, first of all, don’t worry about apologizing, it’s TOTALLY fine to be heated about this. The media we consume is reflective of the thoughts and beliefs of the people creating it, and can influence the thoughts and beliefs of the people consuming it. As such, we SHOULD be heated about the content we see and create; it has impact and influence, and it matters that we call out issues when we see them, and remain intensely scrutinous of what we’re being shown. No need to be ashamed of that.

Second, I’m going to answer each point or comment made here in list format, just to try and keep things organized. Because it’d be really easy for me to spin out and start ranting, and I want to keep this cohesive and legible.

1) The letting Pilgrim live thing was just... so unimaginably stupid. They talked about him being a major antagonist and yet he played no important role in the series at all. From a functional, story-based level, the entire Pilgrim-Schultzes plot needed to be cut. It was convoluted, unnecessary, and wasteful, while also managing to be confusing and just flat out boring. Pilgrim wasn’t even an interesting character! He was just a waste of screentime! The two plots of Billy and Pilgrim were always fighting for attention, and it distracted from the linear progression of the show.

But on a more fundamental and moral level, it was also just... so, so bad to display him as an alt-r*ght neo-N*zi and just... let him live. As if he had an excuse. As if he was “equitable” to Frank because his weird little Christian fundamentalist wife died and he had two kids (off topic, but Lemuel is a horrible name).  As if I was supposed to feel bad for him. As if I was supposed to sympathize with him, pity him. I don’t. And if I, a pacifist, soft-hearted, “forgiveness freely given” girl wouldn’t pity him, why on earth would a man like Frank?

It’s ridiculous. It’s shameful. Any piece of media that tries to “humanize” N*zis in a way where they are portrayed as sympathetic and “just people following orders” is disgusting. A N*zi chooses hate. A N*zi chooses bigotry. There is no mistake there, no human folly. That is choice and it is unforgivable. Pilgrim deserved to die, and that’s all I have to say about it.

2) I recognized that as a scene from the comics, an icon of Punisher-ing, but... You’re really, really right, and that’s something that worries me about Punisher and its fanbase. I’ve been stepping away from Punisher because I think it’s starting to cross the line into that territory; white vigilantism is, in many ways, a dangerous game to play, and when we start to romanticize white men with guns taking the law into their own hands and mowing down “thugs” (who, you are right to say, are usually just poor POC who are trying to make ends meet), we start walking a razor thin line.

Frank Castle in DD S2 was... different. This new Frank, this Punisher Frank? I don’t like him. And I don’t like what he stands for. Not anymore.

And I think the issue is that people like the idea of this big, bad white man with the guns calling all the shots, literal and metaphorical. And that scares me. Frank Castle is supposed to protect these infringed people, supposed to protect the downtrodden and oppressed. When he becomes a symbol and tool of that oppression, things get ugly, and things go wrong.

We can’t just excuse the inherent issues in something like Punisher just because we like Jon. I know I can’t. I have to ask these questions because they matter, and because it matters to me and to hundreds of thousands of other people who have to live with the fact that there is a chance that they could be shot down like that for no reason other than because someone decides their life doesn’t matter as much as, let’s say, a white one.

I know it sucks to bring politics into something we enjoy, but it also sucks that people have to deal with the real-life consequences of these issues. And it sucks that people see this show and idealize it, romanticize it, idolize the violence and the wickedness and the idea that they should be able to hold the scales of justice on their own and decide who matters based on their own personal whims.

The race discussion is very real with Punisher, and it’s a discussion we need to be having. We need to look at this critically and we need to see that, yes, there’s some very, very bad problems and some glaring issues. And we need to be honest about that, preferences all set aside.

3) Curtis Hoyle is a f*cking saint and deserves a break. He deserves it. (Also, what is going on with the show that they? Seemed to forget he has a prosthetic? He was leaping around and doing all manner of stunts as if he had both legs. Like... guys.)

4) Dad Frank was the only good thing about this season. Fight me.

5) The child p*rn thing upset me, too. I guess we’re supposed to infer that Frank is “growing” and not just killing whomever he pleases, and supposed to infer that he listens to Amy and wants to please her and not upset her, but... then he, like, murders anyone anytime anywhere after that. It seemed like they only showed the “growth” away from the urge to kill when it suited them, and it seems it only suited with regards to some of the lowest, most disgusting people ever.

Like, Frank takes the shot and kills Billy without even letting Billy say his final, dying words (which seemed to be an apology in the making?), but holds back from killing Pilgrim just because Pilgrim said “wait” and “I have sons”? Bullshit. Pilgrim and that child p*rn man should have died. End of discussion.

In the end, I guess I’d sum it up this way: Punisher season two lacks conviction. It wants to present the argument that things with Frank are complicated, but complicated just ends up coming across as nonsensical. Nothing about the show makes sense, there is no clear character development, every action is seemingly at random, and the plot is jumbled. The show can’t stick to anything without changing its mind, retconning itself into nothingness.

But worse yet are the implications of this jumbled mess; humanizing N*zis and white s*premacists, advocating the brutal violence of a white man with a gun as his own lawless lawmaker, and just a sort of devil-may-care attitude about what it means to be someone with power and exerting that over people who don’t stand a chance.

I have a lot of complaints, but I think, mostly, I’m just disappointed and sad. Frank deserves better than this. We deserve better than this.

We deserve heroes who will fight for what’s right. This Frank seemed to hardly know what on earth it was he was fighting for. And that makes me really, really frustrated.

(D/o/n’t r/e/b/lo/g, I don’t wanna get into any discourse, thnx)

[knightofbalance-13]

Welcome to Reality

http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/165307951521/is-remnant-stupid

How many times are we gonna go over this?

First, let’s do the big stuff.

Almost all of which will bite you in the ass.

All abusers should not exist. They shouldn’t exist in the real world, but the reason they shouldn’t exist in Remnant is because abuse breeds resentment, fear, sadness, and hurt. Emotions that we are told would attract grimm. Why would an abuser do this if the risk of a giant murder bird coming in to eat you is likely?

Because Grimm would hunt down the people being abused and the abusers are psychopaths so they aren’t a target. Likewise, why should they abuse someone when they could get killed in their sleep? because human beings and our reality isn’t rational so why should Remannt be any more rational than our world?

Racism shouldn’t exist. Much like abusers, it really shouldn’t exist in the real world, but in this world, racism would breed resentment, fear, sadness, envy, and hatred. Why do that if doing that to an entire minority race would cause a giant armored gorilla to come by and rip you in half Mortal Kombat style?

Why would you devalue someone because of their skin color in real life? Because you’re irrational and things like that don’t apply to irrational people.

Shrinks should be more valued than Hunters. I mean, it would be better to PREVENT the grimm from coming in the first place with some good psychology rather than having a bunch of glorified exterminators kill them off? What, do these guys not understand what attracts grimm? I’d rather have my emotional issues be solved rather than have it build up so that a two-headed snake can try to digest me.

Because Grimm are only ATTRACTED to negative emotions and they’ll still attack people. Not to mention Shrinks don’t always work and people won’t always admit to having problems or needing a shrink despite the emotional problems this will cause because PEOPLE ARE NOT RATIONAL, especially the people you are explaining.

Now for the little stuff.

Which will bit you the ass even moreso. Yes, it is possible.

Cardin would have been morally right if he had just outed Jaune from the beginning. Jaune’s lack of experience and competence is not only putting himself in danger, but his whole team as well. I don’t give a shit if he’s a “Good Tactician™” or whatever, but Jaune’s lack of combat abilities would get him and his team killed sooner rather than later. Instead, Cardin bullies Jaune, which leads me back to my rant on how this would breed resentment yadda yadda yadda You know the drill by now

Of course: Everyone not Jaune right, Jaune wrong. Excluding the fact that the same can be said for Ruby and her reckelssness and her immaturity and her lack of experience and amplified by her sister Yang being around as well as her uncle and especially her father constantly worrying about them being killed like SUmmer but I don’t hear you saying that at any point.

Jaune is in the wrong for melting that stuff down to upgrade himself. Instead of going to my usual tirade though, I have a screenshot of how I perceived Jaune’s actions that’s from another post of mine here.

I also have a post I cvan reference (http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/163800343229/i-hate-jaune) proving any opinion you have on Jaune is disbarred due to bias against him personally and any opinion on any male characters disbarred due to sexism.

Follow-up Question: Why does nobody think about Pyrrha’s parents?

Because if they are so stupid to have lost all of their daughter’s stuff while she was gone, so selfish they sold it or so blind they didn’t think to keep anything then they don’t really deserve it.

Qrow calls his own niece either “a Liar, Crazy, or both” when she was tricked into kneecapping Mercury. Real Uncle of the year material there, Qrow. What’s next? - You use your other niece as bait for a deadly agent of Salem - Oh wait that actually happened. Why are the adults all assholes in this world?

A. He was stating teh proof that was there and there is no otehr rational explanation.

AndB. He clearly didn’t know about Tyrian. Although has a dick so it should be obvious you would try to portray as bad.

Ironwood doesn’t take Weiss into child custody. He’s seen what pressure Weiss is under in her own home. Winter has surely told him about what Jacques does to them to keep the family under his thumb. Why doesn’t he take action? - He has two seats on the council, it shouldn’t take that long, and considering that child abuse might breed negative emotions… Well, you saw my comments about abuse earlier in this post.

Except Jacques is the richest man in Mistral and there is nothing saying that Ironwood has authority over child services and if he failed, Weiss’ abuse gets worse. Also, how does Ironwood know? He has never been in the same room as when Weiss and Jacques talk, Jacques is subtly abusive in public and people don’t exactly talk upfront about this.

Ozluminati sends the drunkard whose semblance is BAD LUCK to guard a person of importance. Was Ozpin TRYING to get Amber killed? I mean, you can’t have a person with super speed to guard Amber so that if she gets in trouble, the guard can rush in to save them? You can’t have a sniper keep watch from a distance, and pick off opponents who would kill her? Why the drunkard whose semblance is the causation of bad luck to those around him?

A. Because Glynda is teaching in one of the most, Ozpin is running a school, Ironwood is running a school AND a miltary and Leo is runn9ing a school. Qrow literally has the most time.

B. Who is this person with super speed? Can they be trusted? Are they stronger than Qrow? Can a sniper be trusted and would a sniper be effective due to Aura? See, you don’t answer YOUR questions.

C. Wow Dudeblade, I thought you were critical bt you’ll take Qrow haing bad luck at face value when any evidence for this is cirtcumstantial at best? ALmost like you only do it to bitch about it.

Winter should have taken Weiss away from Jacques. Winter knows full well what her father can and will do to Weiss. Why doesn’t SHE take Weiss away from Jacques? She’s got the power to do so! She’s a legal adult, she has a high rank in the military, she can afford Weiss’ living expenses! Why can’t Winter help out her sister? Is she selfish or something?

Because Jacques is richer, more powerful in a legal systemn, could manipulate Winter since he also abused her and Winter has nio proof. You know, like how child abuse works in real life.

Why didn’t Ilia just pass “Color Change” as her semblance? - It probably wouldn’t have been that hard,and she could have offhandedly mentioned that maybe, a faunus once saved her life once when she was younger so that she could have an excuse to sympathize with them? - This makes no sense at all as to why she couldn’t have kept her cover better. For a chameleon, she does an awful job of blending in.

No, you just don’t pay attention: You cannot accidentally activate a Semblence and Illa’s color change is inherent in CHAMELOENS as a sign of EMOTION: This shit isn’t a Quirk, stop acting like it is.

Why do Raven and Qrow play the Pronoun Game? All Qrow had to say was either “Yes” or “No” to Raven’s question,and she would have answered his. But no. Mr. “I’m using my niece as bait” has to try to take the moral high ground over Raven and lecture her about ‘family’ and crap. While, y’know, USING RUBY AS BAIT!

A. You’re lying and trying to paint a MASS MURDERER as a good guy.

B. Raven was also dancing around teh subject and used her own daughter as leverage and unlike you, I can provide proof in the fact that Raven never visits Yang, outright spat in her face and only pressed Yang when she could be used to control Qrow.

C. So...why aren’t you criticizing Raven for mass murdering people and abusing her daughter? Let me guess: She has a vagina and thus your sexist ass ignores her.

RNJR doesn’t take any kind of transport to Mistral because of reasons. Despite the fact that they’re trying to get to Mistral ASAP to warn them. And since Ren and Nora decided to NOT say something like “Hey, this place is dangerous, we should find a different way around or get through as quick as we can.” Then they waste a bunch of minutes against the Nucklevee. With his stupid noodle arms, and ability to make buildings and other structures relocate themselves. Maybe that’s how it killed other, more experienced hunters. Whenever one of them found cover, Nucky would use it’s structure relocation powers and make that cover disappear.

A. https://youtu.be/IZKpkzPIRlw?t=16m42s

B. Trama nor is it shown that the Nucklevee was near by until it was heading towards Kuroyuri and they were informed about the Nucklevee.

C. ANy proof it can do that? Becuase not only is this a baseless accusation, this has no point in what you are saying. Of course, peopel could give you teh benefit of the doubt...but between your apparent sexism and you’re lying: It’s safe to assume you said this because the writer’s are male and you wanna put in Ad Hominin.

Salem only sends one goon after the dreaded “Silver-Eyed Warrior.” She has a guy who gave her a tough time when all he was doing was stalling, a person who can alter one’s perception, a bunch of other fighters, and an army of grimm at her beck and call. Goddamn villain stupidity.

A. Gee, not like they killed those so called “dreaded” warriors before...

https://youtu.be/IZKpkzPIRlw?t=3m45s

Huh, almost like you ignore facts to suit your narrative.

B.  What other fighters? Mercury and Emerald would be fucked against RNJR due to their new abilities, everyone else is doing their own work: What “fighters” are you referring to? And the Grimm? Why not wlak up to Ozpin and his allies and say “HERE”S THE TRHEAT I’M TRYING TO ELIMINATE”?

C. Yeah...this is just like getting a hold of the world’s most powerful warrior, having her in the palm of your hand and the  not doing anything Oh wait, Korra did that. ALl the fucking time. And I do believe that in Storm Hawks, Piper has let t5he main villianess go due to their bonds before.Yeah, almost like youy are setting an unaturally high bar for RWBY.

Darwin. Award.

Every single person in Remnant is gunning for a Darwin Award. Like, only our ‘main’ protagonists are somewhat smart, and even then, Blake thinks that just putting on a disguise is going to distract from the fact that she shares the same last name as a previous WF leader.

Everyone on Remnant is an idiot.

Just like our world where the examples you pull exist here. And whil;e you can point at Grimm, I can point at Dust and Aura and the three would counterbalance each other. So Remnant is no more unrealistic than our world with the same flaws and the same actions. ALmost like humans can’t remove themselves from their own experiences and being is the ENTIRE POINT OF A SHOW.

God, no wonder you suck at writing: You’re too obsessed with faulty logic.

Either that, or the writers are making this up as they go along. But that would be insulting the original writers. And we can’t be critical of people who are ‘trying.’

Yeah, lying and being sexist and being bias and setting unnatural high standards and ignoring facts is not being critical. My proof: This entire post.

[ruleandruinrpg]

CONGRATULATIONS, FOX!

You have been accepted for the role of RHEA TERESHKIN . Admin Rosey: This was an incredibly unfair thing to do -- choosing Rhea. Both applications were so close, so cruelly close, that I spent a good 30 minutes just looking from one to the other helplessly. The tie breaker came from the most unusual places. It actually came from the plot points, after I read them over for the umpteenth time. Yours, Fox, just kept on pulling me back. I think it was this line here: Born to be extraordinary, but ultimately she bloomed something lackluster. There. That was my Rhea in a single sentence. When it comes down to it, she is unextraordinary. But upon that foundation, ruination can build its home. Although this decision was incredibly difficult, I am pleased to welcome you to Ruile & Ruin! You have 24 HOURS to send in your account. Also, remember to look at the CHECKLIST. Welcome to Ravka!

OUT OF CHARACTER ALIAS: Fox PREFERRED PRONOUNS: She / Her AGE: 21 TIMEZONE & ACTIVITY LEVEL: EST / With university at a pause, I’ve definitely got a lot of time on my hands to be dedicating to activity so, muse-willing, I should be able to crank out replies everyday or so. The only inhibitors would, of course, be work and travel, but even those shouldn’t keep from the dash for long. However, when school does resume for me, my schedule might be subject to change, but I should able to keep myself active and posting regardless. TRIGGERS: OMITTED.

CURRENT/PAST ACCOUNTS:

ecravcn 

haleroth

hlevett

IN CHARACTER DESIRED CHARACTER: Rhea Tereshkin WHAT DREW YOU TO THIS CHARACTER?

Honestly, I adore a scorned character; I’m always drawn to the feral ones, to derided hearts, I think I always will be. Though, of course, I tried to make myself go for a ‘good’ one this time around, thought it might a nice change of pace. Until, that is, Rhea happened. Volchitsa — she-wolf draped in sheep skin, disguising the lethal edges of her mouth with saltwater tears and a close-lipped smile. Gadyuka, l'vitsa, medveditsa. All things savage and brutal come to mind, and she’s definitely the one in the bestiary with the deadliest bite, a saccharine kiss to preface. I’m in love with the façade, most especially the complexity and depth behind it. Rhea isn’t the villain, not the hero either; there’s a lot of moral ambiguity that I’m drawn to, and that I’d love to pull apart. I want to know the dimension of her character, to understand her capacity for humility and hubris, her ethics and their constitution. Then, I guess with a minor in criminology, it’s only natural that I want to peel back the infinity of her: to discover what raw brutality lay buried there, and the surprising humanity. I don’t think Rhea is without conscience, as she’s not without ambition, but I do believe it has the capacity and tendency to be self-serving. She had marred herself with sacrifice and shame for so long — excessively long, and there were too many fragments of her being which had been lost in practice of subservience, by the hands of others. This, the face she betrays to the court: fragile avian with the broken wing, made cavernous by the absences left in her heart and in soul, missing pieces of herself as children missing teeth – gap-toothed and yet, cheery still. Little do they understand that she has fashioned herself into granite, into gunpowder and gasoline in those places left hollow once, that she had filled them with a ferocity unchallenged. Little do they understand that she is in violent possession of all her teeth and more ( that she might have a pyro’s too, if he broke well enough ). A child cultivated into a quiet, hateful vendetta; a girl, and later, a woman with something to prove, I sympathize with the archetype of her character. Morality, isn’t it meant to be subjective? Does murder in defense of dignity and pride echo inhumanity? Rhea’s the sort that brings about a lot of questions, and ultimately, at the end of my rambling, that’s what drew me to her. Her ambiguity, her mystery. I’d love a chance to get my hands on her!

WHAT FUTURE PLOT IDEAS DID YOU HAVE IN MIND? NATURE V. NURTURE

Born to be extraordinary, but ultimately she bloomed something lackluster. Indistinguishable in a manner which encouraged disdain and fostered shame, she was not, by any means, presented to her parents — to the world, in the way in which she had been desired. Then, later — bred to be demure, to epitomize the saying: ‘be seen, yet not heard’, but she defied this expectation as well. Just beneath her clenched fists, the crescent moon indentations of her palms, lay a phoenix. Her heart had nurtured a firebird, wings tucked close and searing her at their heated proximity, until she unfurled their greatness and hurled flame down on her enemies: loud, unabashedly ( though she had been raised to be the very opposite ). Routinely, she defied expectation — laughing when she was meant to cry, screaming out when she was told to quiet herself. Had her existence been shaped around her stubbornness? Would something else be born out of her now that her vendetta has been satisfied, met with the price of blood which it demanded? Certainly, Rhea has the capacity to surprise, lingering just beneath that veil of mourning with a cheshire grin hooked on her lips and ambition hardening at her heart, with curiosity mingling somewhere there as well and a hope to be better than she is. All she needs is a push. 

UNTIL YOU HAVE NO SHELTER BUT ME

She knows the game, playing two steps behind but being five — ten moves ahead, they all know it: the quiet predators, whom the halls keep like a secret until they’ve struck, crooning their names as the hunt is picked from their teeth. Rhea understands its guidelines, and its players next. Aleksander Morozova. From one wicked thing to the next, she knows he has the capacity to raze and ruin, perhaps to rule. Is the desire there, however? That much, she finds shrouded by uncertainty and the misdirection of purposefully reconstructed intent. What she does see, though, is the violent undertone of the Ravkan court on the opposite end of the spectrum, the threat in every smiling word. It’s in their nature there to savage each other for the opportunity to rise, even the ones with their wings tucked in, feigning injury. But she’ll be damned if she be left to the wolves, as had once been the intent of her marriage. He knows she keeps close, herding him toward the edge with the snap of her jaws at his feet, his heart. To see her teeth and to defy her still, however, she has half a mind to latch onto his neck. Luka may doubt her in it, but she has been more than gentle in coaxing him into submission. Protect me, service me. If he continues to attempt escape, she will have no other option but to be cruel — and he would not like her then. Rhea has been practiced in ripping people from what they love; she will not hesitate to do it again. 

I BURN, AND I RISE

Millennia of scorn, of disdain and ridicule have rested at her shoulders, broken and healed her back in grotesque ways, but she rages still. No longer, though, does she rage silently. She will burn until all has tasted her flame and reeled back at its ash, the bitterness which breaks on their lips as a result of her fury. Ah, how they said she would not amount to much, passing her off to the first thing with teeth that they found in the hopes it might devour her, but she would defy them all. No longer can she be the daughter, plain and useless as the dirt stepped upon, not when she has been reborn. Rhea Tereshkin, no man’s daughter and though the law argues her this, no man’s wife either. The world had made a monster of her, and she’d show it what she could do with her teeth — devouring the world from its summit, and tearing down the court one scaffold at a time. She would rise, as all phoenixes do: gloriously, terribly. But would that be in benefit to the court, or would it serve an impediment? She supposes, she’ll decide that as the game progresses — one move at a time.

WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO HAVE YOUR CHARACTER DIE?:

In some capacities, yes — in others, no. Rhea’s definitely a very complex character, capable of much deception and wisdom and elusion, and I think to outright say that I can see her dying isn’t something I’m able to do. Could I see her falling victim to her ambition, her short sightedness in underestimating others? Certainly. Though, I don’t think Rhea will be an easy foe to fell by any means — if that makes sense.

IN DEPTH IN CHARACTER PARA SAMPLE(S):

Strange, the unsettling twist of fate — slow, prolonged, and beginning with minutiae. Rhea Tereshkin, changed within her first, gasping breaths and the stretch of her small, insignificant hands towards bodies which cringed away from her. Maybe she would have been soft, if she had been held a moment longer to her mother’s breast, if the effort of her had not felt wasted by the woman who eagerly passed her off into another’s arms. Perhaps there would have been a flowering of innocence — the blossoming of it, if she had not been so violently exposed to the fact that she had been unextraordinary, or was seen to be so. There was no childhood, a disheartening lack of ignorance which she had been due and robbed of. Knowledge made her heart ache, and so she had cringed away from it, and they called her all the more stupid and useless for it. The ‘what ifs’ of her existence haunted her, an invisible thing she felt watching her in the dark, razing its hands over her body and whispering menacingly in her ear. They held her mother just as captive, and her father as well — spearing Rhea with the disdain of their collective gaze; the pair of them were a single glare, narrow-eyed and saturated with disappointment, focused on their daughter. Vermillion tablecloth knotted in her unsteady hands, a barrier from the unrelenting rage her fingers could imprint upon her palms, she kept her head down to avoid the scavenging looks. Though, her ears could not escape the onslaught — worthless, useless; the word blended together in common suffix: less. Less than, they told her, but she silently demanded that they find a fury that matched hers, a fire that scorched as horribly. But never aloud, no words were ever spoken in opposition. Hers was a silent hatred, kindled by the curses and jinxes held, the hands busied with slamming doors and clenching tight rather than hitting, scratching. Although, they were never silent, were they? When did her parents not assault her with disgustingly determined insult? Only in talk of business, of course, the both of them dragons with hold of golden hoards — the money they coveted, it was their singular pride. And their worthless daughter had sought to double it once, until she realized their lacking recognition once more. She had poured words into her head until savaged by migraines and headaches, danced until her feet grew bloody and sore, but it was all for want. Want of approval she would never receive. But only for one more night would she endure, she assured herself, fingers curling around the silver chill of her knife, slowly — learning it as a lover’s body, the text of a book. She’d known the weight of a gun once, but never this, the featherlight feel of a weapon in her hands when fueled by anger. The gun had been so quick, bucking into her shoulder with a bite in repayment for its service, stabbing a bird from flight in the time it had taken her to blink. Part of her believed this dagger she used in retribution would not be so swift, and part of her revelled in that. She’d practiced the tears, the aura of mourning, and she’d even deigned to make her companion — one who had once aided her against her mother and father, the villain of this narrative. Servants were subject to the whim of the nobles they served, wasn’t that right? “Goodnight,” she murmured — so meek, so submissive as she pushed off from the table, chair scraping as she rose ( as she would continue to: rise ). And as she went, she knew better than to kiss the crown of her father’s head as she passed, to squeeze her mother’s delicate hands with an adoring smile. They mourned her absence not, and that was something they would have in common. Red-streaked and vengeful, she emerged from their room that night gasping for breath as in birth, three bodies in her wake and serenity passed over her eyes. Her spine straightened, gaze unapologetic and set ahead as she screamed, and screamed. They thought she cried out in terror, her skirts splattered and hands run with blood, but it had been a battle cry she’d echoed that night. It caught in the halls of her home, which she had absorbed in her family’s death, along with their beloved wealth, exalting the freedom she found in that murder, the cauterization of a festering wound. The hearth had gone cold, but she was made anew from the flickering embers. Rebirth. No longer was she a wounded thing, a dove flapping its wings hopelessly. She was a phoenix, a firebird swathed in terrible flame; her very presence threatened ruination. Fire, to her, was cleansing. “Your family, to lose them must have been horrific. All the support of mine goes to you, Rhea.” Each sentiment mimicked something of the other, as her tears and quivering lip. She made it look a struggle, those months she forced herself to mourn, as was expected of her, but there was no mistake in that a burden had been lifted from her in that death. She flourished at court for it, a sun soaked rose with thorns lethal in pointed end. Never so lovely, nor graceful as some had been before her but she knew people and their fickle natures. She knew them as she knew practice of manipulation, with her with soft edged smile and gentle eyes, camouflaging the sinister look that lay just beyond. “Thank you, for your sympathies. What would I do without your support?” A rhetorical question, for she already knew: she would burn, and she would rise.

CHARACTER HEADCANONS: EDUCATION: It was, in no capacity, of ease to her. Not only scarred by knowledge, of her supposed inadequacy and stupidity, she also found herself struggling to decipher the words laid before her. As though they sought to spite her, to offer support towards the sentiments of her family in underestimating her, the words seemed to deliberately puzzle her. Disguising themselves with others of similar appearance, moving about the page from one spot to the next, it was irrefutably true that education did not offer itself up to her. Rhea took the knowledge with fair effort, the sweat and blood of hard labor — all the better for it. INTELLECT: For all the texts she assaulted with feral desire for knowledge, she gleaned a piece of history, its legend and lore — she learnt the culture of a thousand people, and the languages of a thousand more. By no means did this subsequent intellect surpass any other, however — it merely serviced Rhea in sharpening her talons, her diamond mind against all else, and especially within the court. A palace of so many varying peoples, a conglomerate of nations, it was no disadvantage to her to understand the customs of another culture, the honorifics and tendencies. Consistently, they were utilized in furthering her influence and establishing alliances, in staying one step ahead as had become habit to her and sabotaging those who rose against her. TALENTS: She may not have been the beautiful messiah of their palace, nor the sharp intellectual, but there were many things which Rhea Tereshkin was not. Would she fret over them, obsessing over her shortcomings as her mother and father had? No, never. She had her own talents, the secret aptitudes she withheld — the sort which could bring a world to its knees, if she only wished it. The capacity to deceive, as she so often did with her butterfly touches and demure smiles. More than this, she had become an unparalleled strategist — one had to be, to murder. As much as she read tomes, her gaze ripped into maps and battle plans. She knew of all the great generals, the inglorious criminals and she carried them in every move she made. The most devastating of them, however? The ease with which she could be met with affection, the sheer charisma which she possessed, and had to own in order to have alluded suspicion and disdain for so long. No matter her mephistophelian heart, she would be adored — loved, deified, worshipped. But was it not too late for that now? She wondered. EXTRAS: I have a mockblog for Rhea here, and any creations made by me will be in the tag here. ANYTHING ELSE? OMITTED.

[nightmareonfilmstreet]

[Review] THE HOUSEMAID is a Haunting Tale of Love and Revenge

I’m not a learned man. That’s why I love watching films that send me to the internet to devour as much information as possible about the circumstances surrounding the movie. There’s nothing better than watching a film then falling down a Wikipedia rabbit-hole for the rest of the night. The Housemaid, written and directed by Derek Nguyen in his feature film debut, is exactly one of those films. One whose richly textured visuals and bloody historical setting create a story that needs nothing from the supernatural to make it terrifying.

Set in 1953 when Vietnam was under French colonial rule, The Housemaid follows an orphaned girl named Linh (Kate Nhung) as she cold-calls a rubber plantation looking for work as a, you guessed it, housemaid. This plantation has been the site of extreme brutality and murder, both at the hands of the colonizers and the native Vietnamese workers. This has earned the home and grounds a reputation for being haunted. Linh is a brave young woman, however, whose only fear comes from the sky in the form of falling bombs. During her short stay at the plantation, she manages to fall in love with the French landowner, Captain Sebastien Laurent (Jean-Michel Richaud). Pretty sweet, right? Well, this act of seduction awakens something from the Captain’s past, and it is out for blood.

Linh arrives at the estate, barefoot and bloody, after walking 40 kilometers in the pouring rain. While she should have been turned away like the vagrant she is, this plantation has a hard time keeping their workers due to the rumors of spooky ghosts that abound. She is reluctantly brought on as a housemaid and quickly sets to taking care of the home. All the while, she hears crying coming from empty rooms and catches a black sprite fluttering about the upstairs hallway. When the Captain returns from battle, shot in the stomach by the resistance and nearly dead, his cook decides to use “Eastern Medicine” (aka witchcraft) to save his life. It does the trick, but it also raises the ghost of the Captain’s dead wife, a woman driven mad by loneliness who then decided to drown their infant child and herself. As the bodies begin to stack up, it’s only a matter of time until the vengeful spirit finds her husband and Linh and attempts to exact her revenge.

The Housemaid is such a beautifully shot film, it immediately draws comparisons to other romantic horror films such as Crimson Peak, A Ghost Story and Hitchcock’s Rebecca. The cinematography from Sam Chase thrusts you directly into the lush green of the Vietnamese countryside. The stark, limbless rubber tree trunks are shrouded in mist, making them look like lonesome fingers reaching up to grasp an eternal companion. The ghosts of former workers that inhabit the forest are almost ethereal in the way they stalk the living, making it sometimes difficult to distinguish them from the roiling fog. Every frame of this film is beautifully shot and dressed by production designer Jose Mari Pamintuan, so much so that the film was a huge box office hit when originally released in 2016.

The scares in The Housemaid are few and far between. There are a few conventional jump and stalking scares that forced me to watch the screen through my fingers, but the majority of the film relies on atmosphere and tension to cause unease in the viewer. This tension is broken too often, however, by the love story unfolding between Linh and Sebastien. Just when the spirits in the forest begin to do their worst and the visage of the former Mrs. Laurent starts to slash and chop, we are treated to a ten-minute meet-cute involving Sebastien teaching Linh to drive a car or inviting her to eat dinner with him. Some films can find this balance, but unfortunately for The Housemaid, these romantic scenes run too long. Then, after a kiss or frolic between our two lovebirds, Nguyen picks right back up with the menace surrounding their home and relationship. It makes it feel like you’re watching two completely different films, inter-spliced in a way that prohibits you from getting completely invested in either.

The true horror in this film lies not with the spooky ghosts, but rather with the true historical villainy perpetrated by the colonizers and their Vietnamese sympathizers during the First Indochina War. We see glimpses of the groundskeeper Mr. Chau (Kien An) as he keeps things running within the plantation. He acts with such brutality and disdain towards his fellow Vietnamese workers that he freely admits to chaining them up to starve and whipping them to death for trying to run away. He, because of the station given to him by the French landowners, loses all sense of his Vietnamese heritage. He no longer sees his fellow countrymen as his equals, instead he calls them “ingrates” and beats them for the slightest of infractions. This is a horror that often happened in colonized countries, where the masters gave favor to some so that they would keep the others in line. They turned loyal countrymen into informants ready to even turn in their family members for the smallest amount of thanks from the plantation owners. The Housemaid really focused on this dark side of colonized life, and in the meantime showed us that the true terrors are found inside the living, not the dead.

All in all, The Housemaid is a gorgeous romantic horror film that tries to pack a little too much into its quick 105 minute run time. Director Derek Nguyen didn’t re-invent the wheel with his scares, in fact most of the film is blood-less and tame, but he did inject some real-life horror into the story. This forced the uninformed like myself to try to educate ourselves about what life was like in Vietnam before the start of the great war. Unfortunately for the film, it jumped back and forth between romance and horror too often, and was unable to find a balance and pace that allowed the viewer to invest in the story. This means that by the time the film finds it’s way to its fantastic twist ending, you have a hard time caring about any of the characters involved.

2.5/4 Eberts

  The film is currently being written into an American remake by Oscar-Winner Geoffrey S. Fletcher (Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire), which will hopefully bring these themes of colonization and the dehumanization of workers and slaves to an American audience.You can catch The Housemaid on VOD in most television markets in the U.S. and Canada.

Check out the film and let us know what you think in our Official Facebook Group. Keep an eye on Nightmare on Film Street as we will be covering the progress made with the American remake of the film.

The post [Review] THE HOUSEMAID is a Haunting Tale of Love and Revenge appeared first on Nightmare on Film Street - Horror Movie Podcast, News and Reviews.

from WordPress https://nofspodcast.com/review-housemaid-haunting-tale-love-revenge/ via IFTTT