#he's not The Kind Of Hero That Is Self Sacrificing specifically. but like. he is a hero. just like if you look at what he does. he is.

[theouger]

see you could say as much as you like that luffys dream isn't gonna be heroic bc he's not a hero or w/e. but luffy always does heroic shit Constantly. even if he wouldn't consider it heroic himself it's probably going to be some incredibly admirable shit. you can't take luffy at face value when he says that like. just look at him. boy's a hero innit

[banamine-bananime]

meets an encouraging, patient, fatherly commanding officer that chooses tucker specifically for an assignment and takes him under his wing. he’s actually a secret operative for a sinister military project recruiting tucker as a target practice guinea pig orchestrating the next couple years of his life to be a lie.

meets an alien that tells tucker he’ll help him fulfill the quest he’s the legendary hero of. he chestbursts him and steals a getaway vehicle given upon the “end” of the quest.

meets some weird computer program programmed by the culture the prophecy came from, pretty much the only remaining source of information about this “quest” that’s upended his life. it’s actually the ai of the freelancer trying to kill him and kidnap and use his kid to end the great war… uh, with slavery of the alien species

meets one of his best friends, an acquired taste and kind of an ass, but they give each other as good as they get and they’re a team. she leaves them to make the plan to capture junior and use him to enslave his species succeed. and tucker feels like can’t even be mad about it without feeling guilty because in her mind she was sacrificing herself and junior to save humankind from a losing war for survival, and immediately after he thinks she fucking dies and takes his kid with her!! they were friends and then for a few minutes they were almost enemies because she did the worst thing for the best reasons and then that’s it!!! how do you even grieve and process that. apparently tucker opted for watching reservoir dogs instead of therapy and i can’t blame him. that’s not the sort of grief you can find a self-help book for. HELLO I’VE BEEN SCREAMING FOR YEARS. never over it they make me insane.

meet some humans on the desert dig-team, charismatic down-to-earth soldier guys. breath of fresh air after he’s been stuck for months in complicated political situations with a species that has just recently decided to perhaps not kill all humans, as a reluctant religious figurehead in diplomatic corps that i’m sure just loved his way with words and women. bet he made a lot of friends there. the dig team kills them all except him and he proceeds to spend the next months in a psychological thriller slash survival horror.

meet church again. church leaves again (and then again) and tucker’s left furiously picking up the pieces of blue team with caboose and some blond guy they rescued from the pound. we needn’t talk about that blond guy and whether tucker knows he both set up and hit the Original Church Killswitch lest tucker doesn’t know and hears us because i think he doesn’t need that extra complication in his life tbqh.

meets a charismatic mercenary with a rough exterior, but a heart of gold, right when tucker and caboose have lost all of blue team’s charismatic mercenaries and/or assholes with a rough exterior but a heart of gold. he. well. he stabs him in the back, guys. you know. i can’t get more on-the-nose than that.

meets church again. he seems like maybe he kind of gets that he was an ass and won’t go off killing himself this time. immediately after reconciling he sees the siren call of martyrdom and kills himself instantly after simulating several ways it could go very, very extremely badly for tucker, not even counting the previous evidence from how this went for some blond guy (sorry i’m committed to just calling him some blond guy in this post now for no reason except that i think it’s a mildly funny bit).

meets church someone else who’s been fucked over by project freelancer. he’s been manipulating them to get close enough to freezermurder their friends and implicate them in terrorism charges.

meets yet another young stray asshole with Issues and a heart of gold who needs some guidance, maybe someone he can be the kind of a leader he wishes he could have been to green team. she also stabs him again.

at some point we have to let tucker just start stabbing people. like a lot of people. i don’t think he’d enjoy a villain arc once he realizes that’s what’s happening but he deserves the sheer free joy and clarity of just solving problems with pure simple stabbing before he comes to that realization.

[lunarblazes]

while i’m xmen posting i do have to mention that post-secret wars 2 arcs of xmen are absolutely insane. they’re really dark, with tons of character darkest hours and breakdowns, and specifically the way they explore kurt’s insecurities and character flaws are just so incredible?

like first he pushes amanda away because he’s having a crisis of faith in everything he believes and he can’t believe she would want to be with him for real, without manipulating him or any kind of ulterior motive. he nearly gets lost in murderworld trying to chase a heroic fantasy, because everything is so much simpler in a fairy tale, while amanda has to deal with the fallout of his callous words. when his team returns from san francisco, he’s forced to be serious again, and he immediately overcompensates, trying to be as daring and bold as he once was, to the point of recklessness—he tries to teleport nimrod, against storm’s advice and all the information they know about nimrod being able to learn from prior attacks, and loses his teleportation for a few days, is chased by a mob, and has to be tracked down and rescued by kitty and piotr.

then, while he’s still incredibly weak from that, to the point of fainting on logan when he teleports to say hi, he chooses to go on the x-men’s mission to rescue the morlocks from hunters that have been ravaging their tunnels. he intentionally overtaxes himself to get rid of one of the hunters, who has been incapacitating the rest of the team, and gets critically wounded by riptide due to his overtaxation and strain on already present wounds he sustained due to his recklessness.

kurt is unable to stop playing the hero. when he doubts his role in the x-men, he becomes reckless and self-destructive, falling back on his idealized vision of a heroic individual, the movies he watched as a child. because it’s so much easier to just get hurt making sure nobody else is—because then, you never have to think about all the hurt you’re causing others. he was raised as a performer, so it’s no wonder he immediately reverts to bravado when he’s cornered. none of the wounds he took were his teammates’ faults—in fact, ororo and logan explicitly told him to stop pushing himself so he could heal—and they didn’t need to do it (at least, not the first one, which would have made the second injury a nonissue). and he’s the x-men’s field medic with banshee in retirement. his self-sacrificing joyride actively puts the others in danger—nobody else thinks to check piotr for wounds after the morlock fight and it nearly kills him when he shifts from his metal form. i just think about him. like a lot. it’s really a wonderful execution of a common character flaw that gets overlooked—because selflessness is good, right?

not when people rely on you. not when it’s destructive.

this flaw is also partially why he’s not a good leader of the x-men—but i could write a whole different post on that so i’ll leave it here for now. i will explode. thanks

[see-arcane]

Everything is happening so much in today's entry and while the Bloofer Lady bloofing all over the place is meant to be the co-star of the show, alongside the Great Document Exchange of Vampire Lore between Mina and Van Helsing--or, specifically, Mina entrusting Van Helsing with her husband's private diary and a desperate hope that she can trust this man with this and her own turmoil over the subject and that of Lucy--listening to the @re-dracula version kind of veered my focus off track. Hearing the dialogue in action will do that.

And now I'm left fitfully, unhappily re-chewing on some of Van Helsing's least sparkling attributes in the novel. Not the worst! Those are coming, and all of them still very much well-meaning! But the well-meaning does not take away from the fact that a lot of his commentary has and will continue to make me want to grind my teeth into dust.

Now, does the narrative manage to take all his benign sexism/secret keeping from those who need info is best! bullshit in its very sharp teeth and ragdoll it mercilessly with The Consequences of Acting Like This are Very High, Actually repercussions? Yes.

Do I hope with every fiber of my being that, when Certain Events happen, and Van Helsing has to contend with--

SPOILERS BELOW

Jonathan going full ice cold Fuck You, Fuck This, Fuck God for letting this happen and then burning her for it, come October 3rd,

and Mina being the one to take the brain reins of the operation out of his hands,

and Jonathan Blowing Right the Fuck Up at the old man for saying Mina has to come along with him to Castle fucking Dracula, with zero explanation, assuming everyone will just go along with this decision sans explanation, complete with Jonathan cementing himself as Not One of Van Helsing's Ducklings if he, like God, does not start pulling some sound logic and results out of his ass right this fucking second,

--that the Re: Dracula audio hammers home that VH is not only a flawed character rather than the Mega Genius Does-No-Wrong Scholar Vampire Hunter Hero, but has to reconcile with the Harkers existing outside the mold that we'll have come to find the Suitor Squad locking into (and that the Harkers themselves very very grudgingly squeezed into for a time, grating against every minute of it) because the Harkers do in fact have equal or greater intel/ability on their side than he does.

I don't say any of this to crap on the character of Van Helsing. He's honestly a great vessel for all the pluses and minuses of the Elder Generation That Means Well, But Fumbles Details. The man is genuinely self-sacrificing and earnest in all his efforts to help these young people he barely knows, and then works with the tools and people he has on hand to try and root out an unthinkable supernatural peril before it can start drinking the whole country into the grave. We'll see in much later chapters how down he is to throw himself and his life on the line to give someone else better odds. And even if it's only by (still period-accurate sexist) inches, he does learn a little better eventually.

...But god damn, does his quirky sexist/secret keeper/Follow My Orders No Questions Asked, Silly Incapable-of-Understanding Children mannerisms need their fucking teeth kicked in. I sincerely pray that Isabel Young and Ben Galpin get to deliver on flipping the table in audio drama format with all the thematic tune bells and whistles they deserve when the time comes.

[wetcatspellcaster]

7 and 8 for the Tav asks. :D and congrats on the thesis!

Thank you for the questions! Sorry for the long answer!

7. Describe their arc. How would a player help resolve it? What choices can be made? Can your Tav be turned down a dark path, or pulled to a lighter one?

So I thought about this a lot, the Good Ending for Rosalie is she's Just A Person, the Bad Ending is that she volunteers to become the mindflayer at the Orpheus decision for ENTIRELY THE WRONG REASONS (feeling like a liability, believing it's the only way to cure her mental illness, seeing herself as the weak link in the group, being depressed, etc. - this ending bought to you by me staring at that decision screen for an hour KNOWING she'd turn herself into a mindflayer in a heartbeat but feeling physically ill over her logic behind that decision). This is the 'exalted mind' ending.

So there is a bad path for her, but it's one bought about by being self-sacrificing to the point of absolute idiocy and self destruction. I think that Tav literally swerves her away from it by teaching her to be a little selfish and to value herself lmao. Literally the opposite of most of the other companions, and kind of what I wish you could teach Wyll in his storyline tbh!

Her arc would be her just generally being over-emotional and reckless, with lots of camp chats about morality in Act 1 (I would probably double down on the tropes that fandoms hate in female characters a la Katara in Avatar the Last Airbender just for the lols). I want her ending Act 1 feeling like a trite 'heart of the group', ridiculous Mary Sue, she talks to you a lot about how you're feeling, are you ok? Borderline annoying tbh, but with the EA Halsin Effect of "oh, you're the companion who's nicest to me!!". Then in Act 1/2 depending on approval she does something utterly stupid, like run into a fight alone unprompted (death to a wizard), or possibly have Ethel specific dialogue that pisses Ethel off if she's in your party, and the player starts thinking "god this girl is a bit weird and reckless and stupid at times actually", and calling her out on it gets the illithid tadpole as anxiety med drop.

Act 3, you start meeting people from her past (bonus comedy route for if you just enabled all her behaviour at this point to be nice to her and get her approval bc then the illithid tadpole drop happens here). Larroakan is like "aren't you that mousy little scribe who completed those commissions for me?", you can find Threnn, possibly did an infernal translation for Gortash (not canon just for story tie-in)???? and they're all like "who the fuck are you? why are you so different now". There would be a confrontation about lying about who she is, a camp conversation about the pressure they face as the 'heroes of Baldur's Gate" and how she feels inadequate. And then in the conversation with Threnn, and the final Orpheus conversation, Tav can encourage Rose to have an actually healthy relationship with her emotions and not see her every choice as a failing actually. Then you unlock real Rose personality and a final decision where she doesn't try and throw herself on her sword.

8. After Act 3, what does their life look like? What are they talking about at the reunion party?

Good ending Rosalie has rebuilt her relationships with her family, she's back at the Watchful Order but getting all their backlog of heroic deeds retroactively converted into a wizard qualification, and unromanced she'll mention that she's either considering going on secondment to Avernus or helping Halsin in the Shadowlands/feywild as her practical project for the final part of her grade. She will have visited every single companion in the six months (Wyll/Karlach as a projection). She will mention going to tea weekly with Gale given that she's fast-tracking wizardry/he needs a friend group and practice at being a normie and they live in the same city. She will name drop being friends with Tara very smugly.

Bad ending Rosalie is a mindflayer and will talk about the magic she's capable of and the power she's unlocking, now she's no longer letting emotion cloud her judgement. You can ask her about her parents and if she's gotten back in touch and she says, "oh, right. I used to have those."

tav ask game! :)

[nightmarist]

more zevwyll propaganda:

Wyll is the Blade of Frontiers and of course will help anyone he can. he grew up in a city surrounded by stories of essentially fairytales that were real, heroes and villains, his own father is a hero who now leads a city guard, Wyll must absolutely love to think about the Flaming Fist as heroes and protectors.

Zevlor is a commander of the Hellriders, another infamous group of city guard who are known to have actually gone into Hell to fight devils alongside an angel (Zariel). While this event was before Zevlor's time, it is the factor in their infamy and many people in Elturel grow up being Horse People(tm) because they want to get an upper hand in trying to join the riders. He is an older man in position of power over the very kind of fairytale hero knights Wyll grew up with.

Zevlor passes no judgements to anyone, or at the least is very smooth about not making his judgements known. He is very pragmatic and straight forward as an experienced commanding officer and as a Paladin, even without an oath, he takes on the tieflings as his charges to aid them with a deep sense of community - who else will help them if not their own kind?

Wyll goes out of his way to help the tieflings. I also HC that he had likely hoped to find his father among them, since Ulder was sent to Elturel and thus descended into Avernus with the purpose of Baldur's Gate being left to defend itself.

I LOVE the idea that Wyll, exile of Baldur's Gate, is helping the tiefling exiles from Elturel. From one exile to another. Unwanted by the people they thought would care the most.

They are both deeply earnest and have strong resolve over helping others to the point of self-sacrifice and martyr complex.

Wyll being good at helping children, he was so gentle with Umi and the other kids and even wants his own someday.

Zevlor was specifically worried about the children in the attack, which is a fair concern for anyone, and while we can sit here all day about the ifs and buts of removed or changed content, I want to point out he used to be a school teacher before he was changed to a Hellrider. I like to imagine his retirement from soldiering begin one he can have his own school in Baldur's Gate, especially for the disparaged or underprivileged. If they have children together they would have the sweetest, caring, protective fathers.

Wyll is basically a prince of Baldur's Gate. please imagine a Prince x Knight dynamic between them. Fiercely loyal. A devil-touched prince with a "devilkin" at his side for the haters.

Zevlor being a much older man and closer to Wyll's father's age would probably make Ulder even more mad. <3

Finding calm, solace, and comfort in each other after having to bear the burdens of their exile, putting aside themselves for the sake of others, sacrificing so much to save and help people, and with each other they can finally just Be.

Being enthralled!

Wyll tricked by Mizora to give up his own soul as a teenager to save another child, being forced to make a horrible decision that rended his exile, and again by Mizora to nearly kill an innocent tiefling - Karlach - and upon refusing to harm an innocent he was punished, forced to undergo painful transformation, the utter humiliation and the extreme lack of of autonomy and trauma to his becoming a fiend. He would rather undergo mutilation and harm and punishment than hurt the innocent.

Zevlor is a tiefling. But he’s an old tiefling. He didn’t undergo the transformation but it was barely a generation before him, his own parents probably, that thousands or more were forced undergo change at Asmodeus’ hand in dnd lore. The book about the event is by his bedroll. He was forced to break his Hellrider oath of serving Elturel when Elturel exiled him and it thus broke his paladin oath. A part of him was lost, hollowed out. And he was tricked by the Absolute, believing the one thing that could make him whole was within his grasp, that if he succumbed to being its thrall then his people could be spared.

[lucky-clover-gazette]

How do you think Volo would interact with the FSA boys?

oh YAY thank you for this ask >:)

i'm going to mostly answer this with both the manga characterizations and my personal characterizations in fics (in my fics they're adults, not related or clones, shadow and vio are characterized how i like them, etc.)

i'll do the easy ones first. i think in general, volo would dislike the four links on principle for being the goddess's chosen heroes. obviously. either volo is jealous, or just overall resentful and uncomfortable with the entire situation post-game.

he would almost certainly keep up the fake merchant act with green, blue, red, and zelda. privately, hero stuff aside, he would have a neutral tolerance for them, kind of how i imagine he feels about most of the people in hisui. not particularly interested or attached, and oftentimes annoyed, but mostly just not paying them much mind at all. he's got more important things to think about.

conceptually, i think that volo would vibe with manga shadow's entire premise. he would relate to shadow in his dealings with vaati and ganon (giratina), but he would disagree with shadow sacrificing himself to save the heroes. volo would have tried to dethrone ganon in shadow's position, not destroy him, and he wouldn't have cared about helping the other links or princess.

i don't think volo would have any strong feelings about the shadow i write in my fic. my shadow doesn't actually have a very big ego or god complex or anything, he's usually characterized as desiring attention and belonging more than any kind of power. the subversion of his dynamic with vio, in my writing especially, is that shadow is a pretty chill guy with conventional moral values, and vio is... vio. if shadow was to be assigned a role in a story based on who he is alone, he would be the hero, not the villain. a strange and theatrical hero, but a hero all the same.

volo is strange and theatrical too, and i do think a core aspect of his character is his desire for attention and belonging. however, he wants to acquire those things in a very different way from the shadow i write, and he does not possess conventionally heroic qualities at all. so much of the volo we see in the game is an intentional deception, which means we don't actually know a lot for sure about his true self. however, based on his mask-off moments and the way he went about his plan and constructing his fake persona, i don't think "fixing" him as a villain would work in the same way as "fixing" shadow typically does/did in the manga and my fics.

volo would fucking despise manga vio. specifically, he would hate the fact that vio does ultimately attempt to break the mirror and abandon shadow, and that he (and the others, but specifically vio) reform link at the end. a couple reasons for his hatred of the character:

he'd really like vio from the forest scene to the confrontation at the volcano. he'd probably be like "holy shit this is the realest bitch i've ever read, fuck being a hero, let this theatrical nerd go apeshit with the evil demon"

but then he'd basically flip his perspective when vio fakes killing green and continues to lie to shadow. volo says in the game that he resents the way the world is unfair and causes pain--i think it's safe to assume that some part of that is due to the way other people have treated him in the past. i can definitely see volo relating to shadow's attachment and trust of vio, and the sort of high he got from having vio on his team. the devotion of it all. so to see this heroic character balance his conflicted interests and ultimately choose his destined responsibilities over the stuff he'd gotten up to with shadow, would piss volo off. after all, volo is the guy who got so engrossed in his unique hyperfixation, and doing it in his own way, that he chose to work retail part-time instead of joining the survey corps under people who thought they knew better. the man genuinely believed that he could do a better job being god, than god itself. he'd see the way manga vio enjoyed being around shadow, and doing non-heroic shit, and then the way vio eventually kinda just gave up and lost that part of himself, and hate it.

volo would feel less hatred, but not much else, about most of my fanfic vios. especially in the fics that are mostly just ab ship stuff with shadow, i don't think he'd give a shit. i don't really see volo as a person who thinks often about romance, given the fact that his only real friend is a sentient egg. he would hate my vios less, because i don't think i have written a single fic in which vio ended up exactly how he did in the manga, but he'd still kind of just be like whatever about him.

corruption but it's unchill au vio could probably give volo an existential crisis. that vio has crazy beef with god, but his solution isn't to defeat and subjugate god and then become god himself--instead, he and his friends tell god that her creations could do better, and then use the power she gave them to banish her from the realm entirely.

i don't think volo ever considered that an option during his storyline, because he was so convinced that the world wasn't worth saving, and he had no one truly on his side. like, it must have been so deeply isolating for him, to share his true self with no other human beings at all. vio in cbiuc has shadow, and as i repeat multiple times in the fic's prose, it matters. i think volo would be a little jealous of that. maybe if volo had been less of a misanthropic freak and teamed up with some people, he could have found himself in a world worth living in, with people who understood and loved him. one of the fic's main themes is "misery loves company," and volo spent his story both very miserable and very alone. so maybe seeing vio's arc in cbiuc would make a post-canon volo realize that it's the company he's really missing.

(maybe eventually i'll tackle that in a fic about volo, but i'm still kinda detoxing from the process of writing cbiuc even like months later. that shit tormented me.)

[unfortunately-obsessed]

I'm obsessed with the logistics of the Spider-Society so here goes nothing

My hc is that Miguel dethroned his father. I don't think Tyler Stone would willingly give Alchemax to Miguel, and wouldn't put him on his will either.

But all that equipment we see in the movie is expensive, even for 2099 where they have an orbital lift and flying cars. The size of the building alone must be a fortune, after all, it is New York.

So, Miguel probably dethroned his father and got Alchemax, and that's where his money came from. SS building might been listened as a subsidiary of Alchemax with a bunch of classified projects no one (private sector or otherwise) dares to bat an eye.

Now the fun parts!

We have not only humans on the societies but also all kinds of sentients species. A T-Rex, a pork, cats, and even Lego! Do you think he recruited one by one? Oh, so many types of bathrooms...

Miguel had to design a DTD (that's what I call their "watches", Dimension Travel Device) for each of them, to deal with their specific molecular vibarations. Or maybe he lets Layla do it while he deals with other things? I can't take the image of my head of Lego Peter waiting for his DTD, watching a 3d printer work on it like the hand of the creator, and he's star-struck.

Having to make a full battery of exams when the physiology is different, to make sure the DTD works like it should but also that they are capable of taking the strain of travelling across the multiverse.

There's probably an infirmary somewhere that most resembles a hospital. Fully equipped. Employing nurses and physiotherapist and every type of doctor in every type of speciality.

A rotatory shift with Spider Doctors from different realities, and Layla tries not too overwork them but still all of them with a headache for having to deal with not only a bunch of injured self-sacrificing heroes but!! Different anatomies!!

Do you think non-human Spiders have to bring medical encyclopedias with them?

Spider Scientist (and medical doctors too) that are so glad and excited to finally have resources to use, but still need to go through Miguel and get their researches approved (it's hard for him to say a no tbh, he's a scientist too after all)

Physics and engineering and biologist and all kinds of scientist

Mechanic workshops. All kinds of different technologies interacting more and more. The SS equipment improving with each passing day because of Spiders from universes that are further in the timeline sharing their advanced tech.

It's so many departments to have. Logistics and TI and Security. Do you think it has a daycare? Teams that deal with holes in the multiverse (like that one in Mumbattam), the Strike Force itself, which probably is divided in squadrons with its leaders. And– so many people

Soooo much food. Spiders are constantly refueling. It's insane. And SS probably caters to all kind of tastes, nutrition necessities and allergies too. Spider Chef working overtime.

Probably has some temporary dorms. It has therapy offices!

Do you think Miguel would pay the workforce? He looks like he would want to pay, even those that are working part-time.

Probably gives them something valuable instead of actual currency, something they can exchange for currency and may be universal but not hard to find, like diamonds.

And Layla? She's a Supercomputer not only running SS but probably managing Alchemax too, not to say being Miguel's personal assistant and still giving support to any Spider that summons her (like Jess in that scene with Gwen)

Underground the building there are levels and levels, floor to celling with servers and servers and processors for her.

I don't think it would be all – in the tech sense – free 24/7 access, though. There's a limit there to prevent Heroes from spending too much time there, or from getting gadgets that they could bring to their home and accidentally (by butterfly effect or even directly) prevent a Canon event.

Even the infirmary probably only deals with heroes that got injured on missions, too. Again, to prevent a Canon event from not happening. It probably doesn't treat the common cold.

Oh, gosh- can you imagine if there's an epidemic of a powerful cold that knocks out them? Can you imagine the headache of coming up with a vaccine????

[morsking]

literally most people who watch the ufotable anime first and hate shirou change their perspective about him when they read the vn and i can think of a specific scene contrasted between mediums where this can happen, namely the one where shirou is kidnapped by caster and archer has to go save his ass. the anime makes it look like shirou is this stubborn idiot refusing to admit he’s way in over his head too proud to be helped by a dude he doesn’t like in an effort to be funny. it fails to address an important bit of nuance in his inner world where it’s not just that he doesn’t wanna be helped by a guy he doesn’t like. it’s that he’s a shell of a person constantly throwing away his self-worth in an act of penance for the lives he couldn’t save as a literal child surviving a catastrophe. shirou is fucking terrified of archer getting killed for his sake so he’s telling him “no just leave me to die don’t you get it i can’t let you get hurt to save me that’s just wrong i’m not supposed to come out of this alive”.

but of course archer understands that kind of self-sacrificing nonsense never helped anyone because he lived it as emiya shirou himself. but archer is also so caught up in his self-loathing his natural helpful disposition to help and instruct shirou is kneecapped by that very same predilection for self-destructive penance. that archer is a shirou who is older does not mean he’s a shirou who’s got his shit together and assuming that archer is righteous in his hatred is a mistake people make over and over because the one thing they all miss is archer is trying to commit time-space suicide by killing one of his younger selves. and uh. suicide is bad. very bad. he just doesn’t know what else to do because no one ever told him what “better” looks like and he was in no state of mind to accept it until it killed him.

shirou gets mad that archer thinks along the same lines as caster and it’s not just that archer plays dirty that shirou gets mad at, it’s that archer is a person full of contradictions that says “well, i like to avoid conflict” but also says “avoiding conflict also means pragmatically allowing some people who have done nothing wrong to die”. to shirou that’s the most outrageous thing he’s ever heard. a hero of justice doesn’t sacrifice people. a hero of justice helps everyone equally but that is also mired by the contradiction that a hero of justice needs an evil to fight, so a hero of justice cannot save the evil lest they become evil themselves which is a whole other deal saved for heaven’s feel. and don’t you... agree with that? it’s quite simple. you should help people you can. people who have done nothing wrong don’t deserve to die. a world that treats the opposite as a matter of fact with no protest just isn’t a world that’s okay.

so you’ve got a kid who hates himself but wants to help everyone around him. a kid full of guilt over something he way out of his control who by chance survived when others died because he was too scared and injured and powerless to help anyone. is that really hateful? is this a person you should be mad at? or are you gonna tell me you were right about everything at 17 and weren’t wrestling with emotions surrounding your self image that as an adult you can see yourself going “whoa, i really wish someone would’ve told me it didn’t have to be like that. if they had i could’ve tried to like myself a little more”. or maybe that’s still not you and your adolescence wasn’t so bad. but it was somebody. and that is emiya shirou.

but i want to reassure you it’s not that you can’t find the way he thinks of himself frustrating. another person’s self-loathing can definitely be frustrating. but it’s about not letting your frustration blind you to the change that takes place in his perspective throughout the story. it’s the narrative of growing from a boy who wants to save everyone in self-sacrificing atonement to a man who wants to save others simply because it’s the right thing to do and that ideal is beautiful in and of itself. that there will be tears, that there will be hardships... that’s not what’s important. what’s important is that his ideal is borrowed yet sincere. an ideal that did not come from him yet can be made his all the same. if you’ve ever been inspired to do anything by someone else, then that’s a point you can use to relate.

and maybe despite it all that’s just not really your cup of tea. in which case uh. sorry. this is our protag. the story is about him. no engaging with that world without engaging with him because all the characters are also reflected by him. maybe try revolutionary girl utena instead?

[theasterous09]

its ninja-o-clock! A couple of asks/q for a bored bud if you want them ;D

Did you ever want an episode with specific scenario/trope in the show?

Did you have any ideas for another villain for Randy to battle?

If you have to choose: would you prefer Randy giving up his ninja mantle early in a self-sacrificing moment or him holding on until he is in a risk of being corrupted?

Any ideas about Randy's family?

First Ninja: blorbo or meh? if blorbo: any headcanons about him?

;D

THANK YOU ANON, I AM SO HAPPY WITH THESE QUESTIONS I CAN JUST KISS YOU

Did you ever want an episode with a specific scenario/trope in the show?

Yes! I have a lot of scenarios/tropes in my mind (and drafts) that I wish were in the show. Some of the scenarios and tropes were us finally seeing more First Ninja dad moments when Randy is feeling down or Randy and Howard going to the future and help the current ninja of that time (like the time travel episode, but the future-).

Did you have any ideas for another villain for Randy to battle?

Honestly? Yeah, I've always wanted to see Randy fight Howard as an actual monster (not like the soupsicles one, but like a stank'd one). We never got that, but that's fine! If we're talking about like an actual villain, like main antagonist kind of villain, then I've always wondered what if Randy gets sent into the future, only to find out that the current ninja of norrisville was THE villain. That would have been such a twist!

If you have to choose: would you prefer Randy giving up his ninja mantle early in a self-sacrificing moment or him holding on until he is in a risk of being corrupted?

This question made me remember an old fanfiction that had a chokehold on me. Anyone who knows "Randy Cunningham: Shadow of the Future" by not-a-cop on FF.net? Yeah, that's the one that reminded me of this question. To answer it, I would prefer if he gave up the mantle. Sure, it's a cliche choice and almost every hero chooses it, but this is Randy Cunningham we're talking about here. He is literally chosen as the ninja because his heart is pure, and it was stated multiple times (in and out of the show) that he is the best Ninja in the past 800 years (and he's just in his freshman year too)! I'm pretty sure he would choose to give up his title rather than let it corrupt and turn him into something that he's fighting against.

... Unless he becomes super evil then the Ninja of the future has to go back in time to stop Evil!Randy from turning his past-self into an evil version of himself too, which leads to a war between the two Randy's and becomes one of the greatest battles in Norrisville history—

Any ideas about Randy's family?

Yeah! I actually wrote a few headcanons about them and posted it, like, yesterday! But now I can talk about it more:

- Mrs. Cunningham is Althea Kaida Cunningham (Half-Japanese, half-Filipino (I made a mistake in my first hc post where I wrote that it was his dad that was the half-half)). Mr. Cunningham is Calin Cunningham (Pure American).

- They work at the same job (which takes up most of their time).

- They spend time with Randy once a day as a sort of family day and Randy relishes on that day a lot.

- Randy and Calin share the same love for music and video games, while Randy and Althea share the same love for meditating and volleyball (because I hc that Randy's fav sport is volleyball).

First Ninja: blorbo or meh? if blorbo: any headcanons about him?

ABSOLUTE BLORBO! And yes to headcanons!

- Outside of the Ninja suit, his name is Yuto Norisu. He was born in Norrisville with the rest of his brothers.

- When we first met him in the time travel episode, he was a 31-year-old ninja.

- He had a wife and a son, forever lost in time (no spoilers for this first, because I want to rant about it in a different post).

- He was a master of controlling his emotions. When the Sorcerer was still out and chaos can happen easily, he was taught by his older brothers how to control his emotions with ease so that he wouldn't be stank'd like the innocent people.

- When Randy goes inside the Nomicon, First Ninja would show himself to him on ocassion (rarer times Randy had seen him without the mask). During those times, he would help Randy in his ninja training and learning the new life lesson the Nomicon has for him.

- Randy sometimes calls him "Finja" despite the numerous times he told him not to.

- Finja sees Randy as a son (AND YOU CANNOT CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE).

- He hates the smell of smoke (from a trauma experience or he just really doesn't like the smell of it idk), which is why the smokebombs smell like farts rather than actual smoke.

THESE QUESTIONS WERE AWESOME!!! Thank you so much for them, Anon!!! If anyone has more, don't be shy to tell me about them! I would love to talk about this show more ahhhh

[invinciblerodent]

64 for any/all of your characters!!

64. What Tarot Card best represents your Tav?

Oh, I'm almost ashamed of how long I spent looking into this lol- I tried to work mainly off the Antonella Castelli "Art Nouveau" tarot deck (which is the one I have), but that booklet is very tied to those specific illustrations, so I kinda tried to go sorta off those, but also kinda interpret the cards myself lol (I'm, uh. not good at it, but it's fun!)

Iona Raedir: The Devil

Maybe not in the most traditional sense, but in the booklet I have sums up the meaning of this card as "magnetism, sensuality, magic, deceits, allurements, fascination, and suggestion", which I think is very apt for Iona- she is, at the end of the day, a straight-up dangerously charismatic person, who is also very deliberate about controlling people's perceptions of her.

Being a sorceress just coming into her power, not only is instinct generally just a big part of her relationship with magic, she is also overall a pretty magnetic personality, and while not evil, she was... probably closer to becoming a villain than even she would think. atm I'm kinda fascinated by just how close: like really, examining her a bit, it would have taken very small nudges in the wrong direction early on for her to go at a completely different angle with her character arc, and I could have easily seen her shifting from a more neutral/good-alignment to a straight-up evil one. Like this was already a period of upheaval in her life, and had she not been thrust into the position she is in as the "leader" of this band, it would have easily led her down an entirely different path.

I like to kinda credit Karlach and Gale with keeping her on a good path long enough for her to realize that she can relax, that she doesn't have to play her cards so close to her chest that even she forgets what they are, and that she can allow herself to be vulnerable. (she and Astarion in a relationship is really the one-eyed leading the blind, kinda. They are sort of two sides of the same coin who are very similar but also opposite, which, honestly kind of just makes me all the more fascinated with them lol.)

Arvid Trygg: 9 of Wands

My booklet's summary is a little weird on this one, but as far as I'm aware, this card mostly symbolizes perseverance, courage, and an ongoing struggle- which, as a war cleric, is kind of Arvid's bread and butter lol. His story overall is about sort of an inner conflict that's both moral and religious, and this... constant, ongoing struggle between what is right and what is fair. His character arc sort of boils down to him... learning to distinguish between duty, need, and justice, and essentially learning to put himself and his own wants and needs first.

He's a seasoned warrior right from the beginning, somewhat weary and worn like the man on the card, a mercenary-priest in a way, and as a worshiper of Tempus, tenacity and honor in combat are some of the values that he holds the most dear. His belief, it's sort of a deification of a struggle, which can... really easily become self-destructive. (I mean, had he not played the hero, I think he could have even evaded capture by the mind flayers.)

It really seems like Gale is overall just a very positive force in my characters' lives, because his love is pretty much the main thing that got Arvid out of that "holy struggle" mindset and into his own skin lol.

Petyr Wildbrook - 8 of Cups

He's not as detailed a character as the other two just yet (I'm only a couple hours into his playthrough lol), but I already know that the central theme for Petyr's game is going to be disappointment, and him learning to go against his immediate kneejerk response of withdrawal and escapism by just... trying one more time. He's kind of holding up a thematic mirror to Arvid in that that guy needed to learn how to let things go and give up being so damn righteous and self-sacrificing all the damn time, while Petyr needs to learn how to stand up for something, and not to hit the bricks at the first sign of hardship.

As much as I have of his backstory is basically that he is the son of druids and was raised in a Circle, but he is without magic himself, so rather than staying and trying to learn or finding another avenue to make himself "useful" to his community, he just... left. Abandoned everything. Rather than facing his feelings of inadequacy, he chose to become sort of that "lone ranger" archetype, just deal with the loss and the bitterness that left in his heart, and live in a way where he only ever had to answer to himself.

I think for him, act 2 is going to be a pivotal moment of character growth. Like, the Petyr from the beginning of the game would not stand by Shadowheart and support her as her world crumbles around her, but by that point, he's probably done enough growing to not run away at the first genuine human emotion???

Thank you for this question, I went entirely too deep into it lol!

[izanyas]

Hello! I noticed you said you're currently engrossed in FMA 🤭 it's also one of my all time favorites anime 🥰

If you don't mind, can you say what personally draws you to it and what are your thoughts on your favorite characters? (In case these 2 aren't your favorites, can you mention what you think about Ed and Roy? Not as a pairing :)) just them individually)

Sorry for being so specific in an ask 😅

Hope you have a great day! 🤗💫

hello!!!

fma has been my favorite manga since i was a kid i'm really attached to it 😭 me and a couple friends decided to rewatch the CoS movie together and we both fell down the deep end and have been obsessively rereading and rewatching everything since then. i'm having so much fun i luv fma...

i think what really drew me in was edward himself tbh! he is such a unique protagonist, and especially at the time he was the odd one out among shounen heros—not naive and untalented meant for eternal nekketsu powerups but a boy who had always been frighteningly smart and had gone thru extremely traumatic events and whose goal as a hero wasn't to become The Best at his craft or to save the world but to fix a mistake he had already made.

i was (still am) very attached to him being disabled and how the story manages to include all that this entails (chronic pain, reduced mobility, special needs...) while at the same time engaging in really cool prosthetic design and functions and without ever making it demeaning or pithy toward amputees. arakawa was an absolute genius for how she went about ed's disability.

ed is just such a GOOD character. flamboyant and flawed and unflinchingly moral. self-sacrificing and self-hating but with a drive and devotion to overcome everything. he's a truly unforgettable character and he is insanely enticing as a protagonist in a story like fma, where every plot point is carefully connected to the overall story... like a transmutation circle in and of itself. icarus fell as his wings melted but ed keeps standing back up even with a whole leg missing, even after facing his own punishment for trying to play god. he is loud and bad-tempered and hilarious and his character design is awesome and that would've been enough to make him a fav for me but when u add in his generosity and kindness, which are so painfully obvious despite the prickly exterior, he's Ultimate Fav material. my blorbo my meow meow.

that his personal story is all about love for his brother and trying to fix the terrible mistake he made and which he will forever blame himself for (even tho everyone around him knows that he was only 11 at the time, and it's a miracle he managed to save alphonse at all, and doesn't think he deserves to hate himself for it) is just... it's good ok. it's a wonderful story with a wonderful conclusion. it suits him, his personality, perfectly. edward elric is a marvel of a protagonist.

damn it's hard for me to pick other fav characters bc i love everyone so much. i love izumi and ling and greed (both versions lmao) a lot... and scar and hawkeye and hughes... its too hard to pick.

roy mustang is definitely up there in the fav list tho. it's a bit funny because usually i wouldn't be much into him as a character bc his whole shtick is pretty much "i committed genocide but i feel bad about it" but he managed to have enough personality and flair to make himself vital to the story and extremely enticing too. it helps that everyone in fma has so much chemistry together, so his team has a lot of charisma. if mustang had been alone or even with just hawkeye or hughes i don't think he would've been nearly as interesting to me. i do think the story should've gone a bit deeper with his goals bc people tend to forget that he doesn't just want to become fuhrer, he wants to disestablish the military state altogether and make it so war criminals (including himself) can be tried legally. his ultimate goal can be seen as very selfish in that way—he wants to be made to face justice. and to the end he's not reluctant to use every tool at his disposal, including marcoh's last philosopher's stone from ishval to heal himself... that's the sort of plot point that leaves you feeling a bit sick and makes him into a character worth his weight in salt.

it's cool to put his choices next to ed's. like ed literally refused to use his deadbeat dad's philosopher's stone, which was made from people from 400 yrs ago that he never knew and who would've been dead anyway and whom hohenheim actually talked to in depth, to save alphonse; instead he sacrificed his most precious passion. and he refused to use kimblee's philosopher's stone when he almost died in baschool—instead he used his own damn lifespan to heal himself just enough not to die lmao. meanwhile, mustang, even while expressing reservations and acknowledging all that it means, used a stone made from the lives of the people he personally massacred. he is what you can genuinely call a morally grey character and that doesn't change thru the story. and i like that.

also he's funny

[via-rant]

Comfort character Leo Valdez sounds (starting with aus) because I can't draw and I have no motivation to actually learn:

Gaea: This latest little game of yours. Thank the Gods it's over. Did you have fun? Did you get everything out of your system?

Leo: I-

Gaea: Good, good. Everyone is so relieved. Welcome home Leo.

-----------

Leo: You guys have no idea what it's like. She knows what a shitty person I am but she still smiles at me.

-----------

Leo as a kid sensing something wrong: Where are you going?

Some guy who took him in: Ah..... Just on a little trip.

Leo: [name redacted]? Will I ever see you again?

The guy: Sure you will kid. Sure you will.

Leo wanting to believe it: Well then. Goodbye [name redacted]. I'll miss you.

The guy: Goodbye.

------------

Percy: THAT'S ENOUGH!! GIVE US BACK OUR FRIEND!! OR ELSE!!

Leo: Now isn't. This. INTERESTING?!

(Be informed that these are all different aus I came up with and they're not well thought out. At all. Also that was the last one.)

--------------

Frank: You didn't tell me they were part of a gang!!

Leo: What difference does that make?

Frank: What diff- They're dangerous!

Leo: I. Was part of a gang.

(After meeting with one of Leo's old friends.)

--------------

Piper: It's not your fault.

Leo: I know. I mean I know, but I don't always know y'know? Like sometimes there's a tiny voice in the back of my head that goes "Hey, everyone hates you and they're not wrong to feel that way."

(This can be applied to literally any situation he was in.)

--------------

Leo: I sacrificed a ton and tried to be a good kid.

Some asshole: What have you ever sacrificed?

Leo: Everything. I gave up everything to be a good kid.

Asshole: Oh please. You died because you wanted to be a hero.

Leo: I'm not talking about my death, I'm talking about my life! I gave up my whole! LIFE!!

--------------

Terra (11): You're my best friend Leo! Cause I'm special! A-and you're special-

Leo (11): WE'RE NOT SPECIAL!!

Leo: Don't you get it?! We'll never be one of them, we're freaks! We're not special Terra!! It's just something your mom told you to make you feel better about yourself because you CAME OUT WRONG!!!

(Like everyone else I made up a lot of stuff Leo went through while he was on the run.)

----------------

Leo: Why would I make them so uncomfortable?

Hazel: It probably has to do with your reputation.

Leo, smirking: I have a reputation?

Hazel: They see your fire, how much you can control it, it's....

Leo frowning: Freaky?

Leo, setting his hands on fire: Do you think I'm freaky?

------------------

A voice: Do you blame yourself?

Leo:...... What?

Voice: Well it's quiet common in this situation for a patient to feel a kind of... Guilt.

Leo: What situation?

Eidolon, showing itself: The accident.

--------------------

Percy: No your wrong, she loves you.

Leo rolling his eyes: No that's where you're wrong. They act like they love you. They act like they'll be there forever. Then one day they make you pack up all your things and kick you out and leave a 12 year old orphan to fend for himself!!

(Leo meeting Percy's mom and stepdad for the first time. I specifically chose this situation because of what the original audio was.)

---------------------

Piper: I think you'll get it some day.

Leo: Get what?

Piper: Love silly.

Leo: Well what if I don't want a partner?

Piper: Who said anything about a partner? Love comes in all shapes, sizes, and forms darling, self-love being one of them. It's a hard one to get at, that's for sure but once you have it, it's certainly nice to have.

(Aroace Leo Valdez my beloved.)

[plotbunnsies]

YOU! Do you read bnha fanfics?

Great! You're gonna love this idea!

Aizawa who knows of Izuku's existence because izu is a vigilant/quirkless hero/just in his class like normal and he's worried cause zuku radiates Not OK™️ energy 24/7, and izuku obviously knows about Eraserhead cause he's a NERD (obviously eraser is his favourite hero and you can try prying this from my dead cold hands)

So, exactly one week after meeting, izuku, my traumatised insomniac boy, is in his New kitchen in his Very New apartment, grabbing a drink that may-or-may-not be coffee, when he suddenly feels someone watching. He looks at the kitchen window and FuCKING CHOKES cause ErAserHeAd Is WaTChIng HiM FrOm AcRoSs ThE StReEt!

Meanwhile Aizawa just wanted his before-patrol coffee while thinking about what to do about the problem child who's a bit too self-sacrificing for his liking when suddenly he sees movement from the apartment across the street and he looks and wait problem child? HOly Shit he's choking is he ok??

And izuku is just casually coughing his lungs out feeling like he wants all might to detroit smash him like omg why did he have to choke in front of The eraserhead

WAIT I just had aother idea! What if aizawa is suspicious of this kid who somehow knows of his existence when he's an underground hero and supposed to be unknown? He doesnt even share his hero name with the peopel he helps!

(Aizawa doesn't know of the many forums and group chats that are specifically for underground hero, nor does he know a a very specific chat that's called "Eraser sightings" that has picture of a wild eraserhead in his natural habitat, stories from the many people he saved, memes, and very weird facts hizashi loves to add that no one really believes but are too damn funny the admins didn't want to ban him from the chat

Aizawa will forever be confused about why peopel randomly flag him down to give him anything cat related, from keychains to catnip)

Anyway, so aizawa is kind of paranoid and very sus of midori, then he looks outside of his window and FUCK This kid is stalking him and now he knows where he lives what's he gonna do with this information?

And then izuku sees him and looks like he just saw the devil and aizawa is looking at the very startled teen who's trying not to die choking and...yeah there's no way th kid knew

Idk i just want them as neighbours and i want to see their reactions, especially zuzu's reaction

[docgold13]

365 Marvel Comics Paper Cut-Out SuperHeroes - One Hero, Every Day, All Year…

Supporting Character Supplemental - Caliban

The Mutant known only as Caliban  possesses the ability to psionically sense the presence of other Mutants within a 25-mile radius of himself.  Once Caliban is able to detect the ‘scent’ of another Mutant he can track them over vast distances.  Like many Mutants, Caliban X-gene additionally led to physiological differences.  His skin is a chalk white color with gaunt features and large, protruding yellow eyes.  

Unable to ‘pass’ as human, Caliban was forced to live on the run, steering clear of a public that largely feared and hated him.  In his young adulthood he was happened upon the fellow Mutant, Callisto.  Callisto recruited Caliban to her cause, utilizing his tracking abilities to locate other Mutants whom she ultimately organized into the underground community known as the Morlocks.

These Morlocks made a home for themselves in the vast network of sewers and subway tracks below the isle of Manhattan.  And Caliban finally found the sense of family and belonging that had so eluded him.  The Morlock became refuge for all those Mutants who had been rejected by society due to their appearance or the nature of their powers.  And for this these Morlock came to resent the surface dwellers, the humans and those Mutants who were able to ‘pass’ as human.  

With his tracking abilities, Caliban was one of the few Morlocks who ventured to the surface world so to seek out any Mutant who may be in need of the sanctuary the Morlocks offered.  

While Caliban found acceptance among The Morlocks, he still longed for many of the things in life denied him.  In specific he wished for a beautiful partner who would love him and he could care for.  During an encounter with members of the X-Men, young Kitty Pryde showed kindness toward him and Caliban misinterpreted this as something deeper.  Later, when the Morlocks battled the X-Men, Caliban abducted Kitty.  Kitty had been sickened by the Morlock known as Plague and Caliban kept her in his personal quarters trying to nurse her back to health.  

After Storm defeated Callisto in combat and became the de facto leader of The Morlocks, Caliban was forced to free Kitty.  In the end Caliban decided that Kitty’s happiness and wellbeing were more important than abating his loneliness.  

Following the Mutant Massacre event wherein a majority of The Morlocks were slaughtered by Mister Sinister’s Marauders, Caliban ended up a member of X-Factor, using his Mutant tracking abilities to help the team seek out Mutants who were being endangered.  

Caliban was despondent over the loss of so many of his friends and his inability to do anything about it.  When he saw the way in which the Mutant Apocalypse had transformed Angel into the powerful Archangel, Caliban approached Apocalypse asking to be similarly empowered; hoping that it would enable him to better protect his loved ones in the future.      

Apocalypse accepted Caliban’s request and transformed the Mutant into his ‘Hellhound.’  Caliban’s physique was greatly enhanced in strength and size, with sharpened claws and teeth.  Although now stronger, the transformation also left him more savage, primal and easily manipulated into doing Apocalypse’s evil bidding.  

Following Apocalypse’s eventual defeat, Caliban became a member of Cable’s X-Force.  He fought well at Cable’s side yet ended up perishing in battle against The Reavers, sacrificing himself to save his teammate, Warpath.  

Caliban was later resurrected on the Mutant Island of Krakoa, once more resembling his former self.  

The character has appeared in two of the Fox Films X-Men movies, portrayed by actor Tómas Lemarquis in X-Men: Apocalypse and by actor Stephan Merchant in Logan.  Caliban first appeared in the pages of The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #148 (1981).  

[vriskasapotheosis]

I havent really talked about it but i do absolutely feel for the beta kids all just. realizing the full scope of what their conflict actually means and how each of them are growing up way faster than they should for it. Like rose is the easiest example to pin down because as she kept progressing through the worlds she ended up seeing the endgame and was contacted by eldritch gods to save them from the end of the universe because the threat was so great to the point where rose is casually talking about planning her own suicide mission not to mention that her solo progress meant that she ended up realizing what needs to be done first which is why shes at the center of planning all their moves

but then you have things like dave having been told by his future self that he’s being trusted by his future selves to become someone worthy of being said future selves to the point that when he learns of his brothers death he flat out says that he wishes he could mourn him but the threat that bec noir presents is simply too great at the moment to take any kind of breather and that they Have to stay on track to fixing everything

and then you have jade who, for a good chunk of the story, was sleeping and having fun on prospit wanting to introduce her friends to it one day. she was dreaming for most of the story but when the chips fell down she sacrificed herself to save john and when she came back had a panic attack because dying was really fucking scary and she doesnt want to do this anymore. more than that, jade in the enter animatic ended up shooting bec and inadvertently made noir stronger. one of the markers of children growing up is literally the death of their pets and even more so when she says goodbye to it to revive her dream self

and john. literally at the center of the narrative told by everyone at every point how important he is and that Hes The Hero and that the people he cares about are secondary to him. cries when he received his birthday letter a few feet away from jades corpse. the one desire john has specifically voiced throughout this whole ordeal so far is wanting to see his dad. more than anything the process of ascending not only requiring the death of one of their lives but specifically that they have to die while sleeping. literally growing up by losing their ability to dream.