#i have no expectations of the kidnapping plotline

[movementsofmylife]

oh qmin is truly lovely. kidnap is maybe the hurt/comfort show of my dreams.

[braidwoods]

reusing serafine for wren is exactly the kind of expected laziness pb always resorts to. i dont think its fair to compare the asset recycling to tyrils family or imturas mom though because yknow. theyre not humans. of course editing an existing sprite wouldve been the same amount of work to just make a brand new one for entirely different races

[arminsumi]

Saw this and thought... Mafia AU Gojo & Geto 👀

Share a piece of your juicy brain thoughts please, I'm collecting all the scraps 😗

PRETTY THING LIKE YOU.

𝐆. 𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐔 — 五条悟 ⋅ 𝐆. 𝐒𝐔𝐆𝐔𝐑𝐔 — 夏油傑

NOTE: OH TO BE IN THAT CAR 🛐 anyways, these are just... messy ideas pls forgive me!! 🥲 idk how to write for mafia stuff but i adore the idea sm i wanted to say a lil smth about it

WARNINGS — fem reader, you're Toji's daughter, err mafia stuff warning idk?? implied kidnapping, implied light use of violence, Geto calling u nicknames (sweetheart, baby, etc), i made Gojo a meanie for some reason oops, some vague semblance of a plotline lol

🍒 𝐉𝐚𝐲 — サクランボ ⋅ 𝐑𝐞𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐬/𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐭 !

Your dad is Toji Fushiguro, he sits on a big throne in this business. Everyone knows him, everyone's scared of him — why wouldn't they be? Except for these two particular men... who consider themselves the strongest 🙄 Big, big severely inflated egos they've got.

Toji hired Nanami to be the loyal bodyguard for his precious daughter. Why? Well, to put it simply — these two men are looking to take revenge on him with you as their playing card.

Geto and Gojo are on the hunt one night for you, and you fall right into their palms. Usually the black car with tinted windows has Nanami behind the wheel, ready to drive you home after a night out. But one night it's those two.

The drive is silent and uneasy. Gojo is flicking his gaze up at the rearview mirror to check you out with those piercing blue eyes of his. Geto is talking to you in a sickeningly saccharine sultry voice, nicknaming you sweetheart, princess, love, baby, etc... and trying his best to keep you calm with simple small-talk.

Gojo? He's more intimidating than his friend behind the wheel. He will not stop eyeing you out, even when you three end up in some fancy penthouse. You blink up at him innocently, it almost makes his heart lurch — he's wondering how such a pretty face came from such a bastard.

Whatever Toji did to them in the past, they were still seething over. Seems their idea of a revenge plot involved you. But you had no idea what to expect. They didn't have intent to hurt you — well, subtract Gojo pulling and pushing you around like a ragdoll when you weren't compliant enough. But Geto always scolded him.

In fact, Geto calmed the both of you so nicely. He put on water to boil and languidly stirred tea in the kitchen. It was surreal and bizarre in some way.

"Sweetheart, we're gonna be transparent with you. We're just keeping you here for a little while to get your dad's attention. You're gonna be treated like a princess, so don't you worry — " he lifted you by the chin so you had to look up at him, "A pretty thing like you isn't in trouble with us."

Gojo scoffed. He had his arms folded. Legs crossed. Spine slacked against the couch.

"Don't mind him, princess. He's just grumpy — your old man wasn't very kind to him in his youth." Geto explained super vaguely.

Gojo chuckled, "Yeah, you're damn right he wasn't kind to me. Sonofabitch wasted me."

"Well she had nothing to do with that, Satoru, so treat her good."

He grumbled in reluctant agreement. But the second Geto was out of sight, when Gojo led you to your bedroom, he entrapped you between two arms and practically pinned you to the wall.

"Listen — princess — " he mockingly impersonated Geto, "You keep those lips shut or I will shut them for you." he threatened, breathe fanning your face.

Well, it was hard to keep your lips shut. A week later, you woke up and went into the kitchen to find Gojo with a bloodstain in his white hair, Geto with a crimson splatter across his cheek, and a gun resting on the table that towered with green stacks of money. You didn't dare ask what was going on. You just looked at them until they said something from themselves.

"Don't worry." Geto's serene smile caught your worried gaze, "Just business, angel."

"What exactly-" you began, but Gojo gave you a sharp look and Geto immediately cut you off.

" — ah-ah, baby. We've already talked about this." he cooed. His smile had the vaguest sinister twist to it, "Keep that pretty mouth shut. No asking questions."

© 𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐢 𝐃𝐎 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐋 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈'𝐕𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄.

[kurigohan0909]

Rewatching Link Click: Easter eggs in your noodle soup?

So I've just finished watching both seasons of Link Click/Shíguāng Dàilǐ-rén, which means that obviously I'm watching it all over again. What did you expect me to do, sit around waiting for Bridon arc while the Bilibili official account taunts us with replays??

Besides, Link Click is one of those dishes that is best served twice. The early episodes are packed with hints and foreshadowing that only become clear once you've gotten up to date, so I've made it my mission to catch 'em all.

You don't say.

It's well known that certain early mini-arcs (for instance Chen Xiao's basketball match, and Doudou's kidnapping) have implications for the larger plotline or at least contain important exposition/character insights that the story would not feel complete without. There are also several that get written off as filler, or are generally considered to not have any purpose beyond familiarising the audience with the characters and setup, and lulling you into a false sense of comfort before everything goes to shit. Episode 2: Secret Recipe, AKA the Noodle Lesbians episode, beloved as it is, tends to fall into the second category.

Or does it?

On a rewatch, I still don't think it does anything to advance the main plot. We don't even really know where it fits into the timeline, because we're never told what day it is and Lu Guang's watch is never shown on screen (I'll get around to a longer analysis of this another day). However, I'm instead inclined to believe that it's one of the most important episodes in the show - if not THE most important - because it's essentially an allegory for the story of Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang, and gives you a bird's eye view of how the relationship between them is going to develop - which, as you know, is what the show is all about. And the fact that it's not situated in a specific time, in a show that cares heavily about timeline construction, makes it better.

The episode starts with this quote from German photographer August Sander, who believed that, through photography, he could reveal the characteristic traits of people. "The portrait is your mirror. It's you." It's pretty explicit, when you think about it. This episode is a mirror of the entire series, specifically of its protagonists.

Moving on. The episode's storyline is quite simple: two college "roommates" start a noodle shop together, and as time passes, they drift apart and eventually fall out as their priorities change. Yu Xia, the business-oriented one between them, wants to get hold of the secret ingredient used by Lin Zhen, to whose cooking the shop attributes its success. Does Yu Xia really want to steal the secret recipe? Or is it just one of the many things that the quieter Lin Zhen keeps hidden from her that she desperately wants to know, along with everything that went wrong between them? Your guess is as good as mine. Either way, there are lots of indirect parallels between Xialin of the noodle shop and Shiguang of the photo studio, even if for now they're very distinct individuals with their own personalities and struggles. It does, however, give some indication of what's to come.

This question isn't purely rhetorical, as we find out in the very next arc, where Cheng Xiaoshi has a fight with Lu Guang over letting his client's loved ones perish in the Wenchuan earthquake. Even if they eventually come to a consensus, they have fundamentally different life philosophies and approach their missions in very different ways. Cheng Xiaoshi is a hyperempathetic idealist who keeps trying to use his forays back into the past to fix his clients' personal problems, while Lu Guang remains utterly indifferent and staunchly against interfering, even in life-or-death situations. Which turns out to be a facade, because we later learn that he's just as much of a meddler as Cheng Xiaoshi - except he's focused on a singular, selfish goal, which is to keep Cheng Xiaoshi alive at any cost.

Let's go back to the noodle shop. After ten years of running the business together, it becomes clear that the ladies' aspirations are no longer compatible. Yu Xia has big plans for the shop. She wants to broaden their customer base - for profit, of course, but also so that more people can be made happy by the chance to taste their noodles. Lin Zhen's dreams, however, are on a smaller scale - perhaps only on a personal scale. Throughout the episode, it seems that she only really cares about making noodles for one person.

Sound familiar?

At the risk of digressing, it needs to be said that Yu Xia and Lin Zhen are absolutely very much a WLW couple. This isn't bait, it's elegant and really quite unsubtle queercoding that says 'to hell with censorship' loud and clear. Honeymoon jokes, the taxi driver assuming Lin Zhen had fought with her husband, and Lin Zhen's very bold attempts at flirting... we see you.

More to the point of this post, I think it's important to point out that Lin Zhen does not actually care for too many people other than Yu Xia. She's all worn out from making noodles for customers, but she forgets all about that when it's time to make a bowl for Yu Xia. She also keeps her special ingredient - which is one of the secrets she shares with Yu Xia, as we find out - highly guarded. She's never going to let these pesky reporters in on something so intimate.

Why is this important? Because, as it turns out, the episode's storyline - and Lin Zhen's motives - are all about saving Yu Xia.

We learn that the secret ingredient is a local specialty from Yu Xia's hometown. Lin Zhen has been using it for years, keeping the taste of home alive while Yu Xia's drifted further and further from home to the point where she can no longer remember where the ingredient came from. At the end of it all, when Yu Xia returns home, she finds Lin Zhen there waiting for her. Lin Zhen, mind you, does not hail from the same town. The girls met in college. It's home to her simply because it's Yu Xia's home.

This comes directly after a pilot episode that establishes the contrast between urban isolation and rural/familial warmth, through Emma's eyes, and in a show that continually reinforces the concept of longing for home and loved ones. By forcing Yu Xia to reevaluate her priorities, Lin Zhen manages to bring her back home - which is a place that includes herself.

Perhaps it's too early to say. But to me, it's a pretty neat thematic parallel of Lu Guang's solo quest to save Cheng Xiaoshi from death; which is intertwined with a greater goal of giving Cheng Xiaoshi a home, one that is safe and secure and surrounds him with those that love him and are there to stay.

But in the process of achieving this, one of his biggest obstacles is Cheng Xiaoshi himself - his insistence on interfering with the timeline so that Lu Guang can't predict events with certainty, his objections to the way Lu Guang does things, and the definite resistance Lu Guang will come up against if Cheng Xiaoshi learns about his plan. Pretty much every minor mission they undertake is a rehash of the same argument; Cheng Xiaoshi wants to use their combined powers to make a difference to other people's lives, and Lu Guang just has one goal in mind which means that he's going to ignore absolutely everyone else.

Notice how Yu Xia's looking to the future, while Lin Zhen's dream is to go back to a point in the past? Neat.

And when they finally part ways because it's clear Yu Xia is not going to support Lin Zhen's goal? Yu Xia asks her where she's going to go after they part ways, and Lin Zhen says:

I wonder where we've heard that before.

And if you need any more proof that this episode is in fact intended to be a mirror, do consider:

Their seating positions are mirrored too. Yeeeeaaaaaahhhh.

In conclusion: if this allegory is to be believed, then trust that Lu Guang will eventually succeed in his mission and Cheng Xiaoshi will find his way home to him. It'll happen, guys. In the meantime, at least our beloved noodle ladies will be living a peaceful life out in the countryside.

Since I don't know how to shut up and this website seems to be giving me infinite space to yap, let me include some more details about this episode that I found cool. There are so many.

Lin Zhen and Lu Guang are both shown while this line is being said. What with all that the fragrant flowers represent, it makes you think about what these characters' best memories might be and how much they treasure them.

This is such a tiny detail that you'd almost definitely miss it on the first watch, and it seems insignificant - until it isn't. When Cheng Xiaoshi hops into the girls' picture taken during their college days, he screws up and suggests they'd be better off dabbling in tech stuff like apps or intelligent management than running a noodle shop. Lu Guang makes him quickly eat his words, but they seem to have still struck a chord with Yu Xia - because later we see that she works over years to integrate an intelligent supply chain management system into their business. In fact, one of the reasons for Lin Zhen to alienate herself from the business is because she feels like it's gotten too techy and lost its human touch. Not really fair considering it was her own idea, is it?

I mean. This is probably a stretch. Digitization is pretty inevitable for big businesses nowadays, so Yu Xia, being as enterprising as she is, might have gone for it whether Lin Zhen suggested it or not. But it's interesting to think that it might be Cheng Xiaoshi's tiny alteration of the past that unfurled outwards like a hurricane from the beating of a butterfly's wing and catalysed their falling out. Especially because these kinds of bootstrap phenomena very much occur in later episodes and are a core feature of Link Click's time travel model.

Some suspicious behaviour on Lu Guang's part. He's quite certain there are no useful clues in the last picture Yu Xia and Lin Zhen took in front of their shop, despite it being the only one taken by Lin Zhen (seriously! you could go to her house, look through her phone, the possibilities are endless!) and the fact that this is the photo Cheng Xiaoshi did end up solving the mystery in, thanks to the ticket stubs he found in her purse (see?) Secondly, they outright miss a picture in the envelope - the most important picture of all which would have given them the answer right away, since this was when the fragrant flowers were first used. Not your best work, Lu Guang.

...or is it? Lu Guang is pretty meticulous, and it's unlike him to slip up in such obvious ways. He's also skilled at slipping things back into envelopes when he doesn't want them to be seen, as we know. Could it be that he didn't want Cheng Xiaoshi to solve the mystery? But why? Maybe it's metaphorical, like so much else of this episode: he doesn't want Cheng Xiaoshi to uncover his true intentions. The fact that all this is ultimately for his sake.

Interestingly, Lu Guang was very dejected at the idea of them seemingly being out of luck - they'd tried so many times and failed to fulfill the mission. Was he, perhaps, thinking about another mission he'd hate to fail? Anyway, it falls to Cheng Xiaoshi to cheer him up and give him hope for another try, which he accepts, with a small but genuine smile. My heart.

If you've scrolled this far, I'm glad you enjoyed my ramblings! I must say I don't know much about how Tumblr works so apologies if I mess up on formatting or tags, but I'll probably get the hang of it soon enough. I'll also probably end up enjoying Tumblr more than Twitter since it allows me unfettered yap space and won't feed my writing to the machine (yet). It's late and I should probably stop stop thinking bout it around now... but look forward to more random ramblings and thank you for reading!

[remembrancer-of-heresy]

Sin and Holy

Summary: Lorgar wants revenge on Guilliman, but ends up becoming obsessed with his lover, deifying her.

Lorgar Aurelian/fem!Reader (Roboute Guilliman/fem!Reader background)

Warnings: yandere, obsession, possessive behavior, kidnapping, religious kink, foot fetish, voyeurism

Author's note: Blame our mind worms of "lorgar foot worship plotline".

Word count: 2017

Song: Pet Shop Boys - It's a Sin

Everything I've ever done Everything I ever do Every place I've ever been Everywhere I'm going to It's a sin

The end of the perfect city marked the beginning of a new and better world. But not one world, city or even house is built in a short time. Everything requires time and human will. Lorgar Aurelian understood this while he was looking for answers to his questions.

And even with the acquisition of true faith in Chaos, he knew that victory would only come with time. He wouldn't be able to defeat the Emperor right away. Bring the gifts of the four gods to the Galaxy. Just like he won’t be able to get you right away.

You immediately caught his attention. Roboute Guilliman's personal remembrancer, whom he took with him everywhere. The sightless would say that the mortal girl is too talented. Envious people would laugh at the fact that the primarch of the Ultramarines turned arrogant. But Lorgar knew who you were. Chaos told him.

Lover of Roboute Guilliman. A secret that his brother kept from everyone. Even from the Emperor. If Lorgar had been quick to anger, he would have told the primarchs about you. Would separate two lonely souls. But he did not dare to do this. It wasn't time yet. But soon he would make his brother grieve and suffer. He would have destroyed what was dearest to his heart, as he did with the Monarchy.

“I read your poems,” you carefully strike up a conversation with the primarch, clasping your hands. Your look is innocent and full of sincere kindness. Not admiration or awe, no. You saw him. His soul. - “They are wonderful. In truth, your poems calmed me in hard times.”

You don't flatter or mock him. Lorgar doesn’t need to glance around the room to understand that you approached him yourself. Without Guilliman's knowledge. The bastard who dared to smile at Aurenlian when he was forced to kneel humiliatingly. Anger almost covers the man, but your embarrassed smile dispels the rage like wind blows away fog.

"Thank you." - The primarch smiles softly, fascinated by your gentle influence. “The next time we meet, I will bring you a new work that no one has seen yet. I'm sure it will change the entire Imperium."

Aurelian was above mortals, he was a primarch and the chosen one of Chaos. And yet he was wrong. He could never hurt you. Because he loved you. Stronger than Roboute. Tighter. More furious. Almost to the point of obsession, consuming his soul.

You were beautiful. Your smooth movements were like a soft wind, and your voice was like the whisper of leaves. A soft, gentle light emanated from your soul. Like a ray of sunshine on the water. Your kindness and sincerity of words were like music or scripture. How can he wish evil upon such a beautiful and divine being?

And how can someone not notice your beauty? Not to value and treat as if you are worth nothing? But his brother exceeded all expectations. Through the warp, Lorgar watched as Roboute spent time with you like ordinary mortals. You talked heart to heart, laughed and sometimes even argued. And on special evenings, the man would please you while you gave yourself to him without reserve.

Your body bent on the silk like a reed in the wind, your skin covered in hot sweat. You moaned muffledly, holding onto the headboard with force. Lorgar couldn’t take his eyes off the sight, absorbing your figure, desperately trying not to look at Guilliman’s head between your legs.

While you two indulged in sin, Aurelian, with the help of the forces of Chaos, watched over you. Insatiably and greedily, feeding the laughing Prince of Pleasure with his torments. It seemed to the man that he would make a sound as soon as you opened your mouth in a pre-orgasmic state... but the miracle ended when Guilliman decided to stop and looked at your irritated face with a smile.

“You did this again! I beg you, please, one day finish it!” - you giggle and throw a pillow at the primarch, unable to be angry with him for long. Roboute defends himself from the attack with his hand and shrugs. His eyes sparkle with merriment and his smile is self-confident.

“Can’t help it. I love teasing you too much.”

Roboute leans on you with his whole body, and you continue to laugh into his chest, hugging his warm body tightly. Not noticing Lorgar's bestial gaze, full of black rage. But he could do nothing but continue to watch as Guilliman began to enter your holy gates.

It wasn't enough! You deserved better. Real worship, not primitive sentimentality. And Lorgar was eager to show you this. Longed to touch. Inhale the smell of your hair, feel your sweat and tears on your tongue. Feel the warm skin under his palms. Hear quiet moans.

He wanted you to let him love you. Wanted you command him to praise you, deify you and worship you. And he wanted you to beg him for ascension until you both burned in the fire of desire.

But you don't. After all, you are a kind and beautiful girl, whose soul barely casts a shadow in the Immaterium. But bright as a ray of sunshine, which he want to touch. You are too innocent and pure to turn your attention to a primarch mired in the mud. And so he has to act on his own.

Horus's betrayal came like thunder from a clear sky. What a pity for Guilliman that it was at this time that you decided to visit your family and went to your home world on the ship of the Rogue Trader. Lorgar kindly provided you with protection, assuring you that you would be safe on Fidelitas Lex.

And it was true. You weren't in any danger. Lorgal had enough strength to protect and hide you from all the horrors of the Galaxy. And to his delight, he has enough time to spend time alone with you. This is still a relatively calm time for now. To know you. To feel. To open.

“I heard about what happened on Khur. - you stammer, your eyes turned to the floor, full of regret. - I'm sorry. It's horrible. What you went through and how the poor people suffered. Roba- Lord Guilliman did not want to do this, he was following orders.”

“Let what is past remain in the past. I hold no grudge against my father and brother. - the primarch whispered half-truths like an insidious snake. Still, he was grateful to the fall of the Monarchy for leading him to the real truth. - And I don’t want you to be sad. This is between me and Roboute. It has nothing to do with you.”

You look up at him and Lorgar can hardly contain a sigh of admiration. Surprisingly, you, unlike most mortals, were not amazed by his greatness. However, this had the opposite effect. It was Urizen who was amazed by you.

“You are very kind.” - you smile softly, like a mother, seeing the child’s face for the first time. - “Even in this dark time, I am grateful to meet you. I will never forget this moment.”

And although you may now shake with fear at the sight of the primarch and the Word Bearers, Lorgar knew that everything would change. He believed that you would rediscover your love for him. Unfortunately, he had to use... force after the Drop Site Massacre. You were not a prisoner, but you will still have to be kept locked up for some time. For your own good.

He can’t help but admire your beauty, your radiant soul. How you are in only a white nightgown (Lorgar got rid of all the clothes with Ultramarines colors) after walking around the room, run onto the red silk bed. How your pure image merges with sinful chambers.

The man smiles softly and approaches you, forcefully squeezing a basin of clean water in his hands. He has waited so long for this day when you can become his. When a primarch can touch the greatness of a mortal girl.

“Lorgar,” you say his name quietly, trying to calm him down. But the man just clenches his teeth, feeling like everything in his lower abdomen is filled with sinful lead. - “P-please, don’t do this. I’m sure Roboute will forgive you, you are brothers after all.”

You no longer call him Lord Guilliman. You're still in love with him. What a shame. It's making his teeth hurt. But Lorgar, with tenacity worthy of a primarch, continues to smile at you, kneeling. He doesn't want to scare you even more. You are tender and fragile, he must take care of your holiness.

“The floor is dirty, and you walk on it completely barefoot,” - he himself took the shoes from you. A sharp impulse that the primarch himself did not understand. - “Please, let me wash your beautiful feet with clean water.”

His voice gradually becomes lower from the dark secret desire and you, whining, sit down at the very edge, dangling your legs. And like a righteous soul, you try not to tremble or make sounds as the primarch lifts your skirt, all the way to your knees, which he kisses in turn.

Lorgar sighs heavily, fighting the temptation to lick your whole legs. But he still takes your foot and gently massages it in the water. Alas, this action only inflames the furious heat within him. Those little feet, dainty heels and tiny toes. An absolutely exquisite and elegant piece of art. He is so absorbed in what he is doing that he almost doesn’t hear your voice.

“Please let me go. F-For him, duty comes first. H-he will protect Terra.” - you sob from the way Lorgar squeezed your limb. - “Roboute will not look for me, Lorgar. He won’t.”

The world freezes and even the Immaterium trembles from the overabundance of the primarch’s feelings. How terrible agony and destructive rage gives way to peace. Calmness. By grace. And it's all because of you.

"Yes. He won't save you." - his gentle words, designed to calm you down, only make you more sad. And the primarch cannot help but admire your suffering as a righteous martyr. Which only plunges him deeper into sin. - “And this is his greatest mistake.”

Lorgar carefully brings your washed foot to his mouth and kisses the tip of your toe Before wrapping his mouth around it, sucking gently with moan. His mouth filled with saliva, and a shiver of excitement and awe ran through his body at the fact that he was able to touch you. To your wonderful feet that carried you through this mortal world. He was ready to kiss every piece of ground you walked on.

But instead, filled with your blessing, he gently kisses your foot, licking and biting. Every toe of yours, every vein line on your skin. Lorgar bites your ankle lightly and foreign blood seeps onto his tongue. Tastes like heaven.

The primarch looks up at you pleadingly, studying your face, wet with tears. Is this a vision of the future, a trick of the eye, or is your soul shining brighter than usual? He didn't know. But Lorgar was sure that he saw a halo above your head, which his brother stubbornly did not notice, treating you like an ordinary mortal woman. But Lorgar is different. He won't allow you to be treated like that.

He was and will be a sinner. He was always blamed for everything. But you gave him hope. And he will fully thank you for the healing that you brought to his soul. He will put you on a pedestal above the rest of the world. After all, this is exactly what you deserve. You just don't know yet.

The words fall from his bloodied lips so quietly that they are almost inaudible. But you hear. You can’t help but hear and you cry, choking with tears. Praying for help from all the saints from the books you have read, denying that you became one of them for the primarch who kidnapped you.

“Let me worship you.”

[genericpuff]

Whats your opinion on the design of morpheus and rachel's representation of a trans character?

I think her design is a lot better now than when it was first introduced, though I'm not really falling on either side of the arguments regarding her design and whether or not it's poor representation because I can see and agree with arguments from either side.

I think representation of all body types in the spectrum of gender identity is important and so it's not necessarily "wrong" for her to have the body type or design she has. Again, her design was a little rough in the beginning, but it's gotten a lot better and I have a lot more appreciation for it now.

That said, I also understand and agree with the criticism of Rachel's intentions in writing Morpheus as a trans character, because she is yet another example of Rachel taking a character who wasn't strongly affiliated with queer rep and randomly turning them into queer rep while erasing the LGBTQ+ qualities of characters who are commonly expected to be so, like Eros, Artemis, Apollo, etc. It feels a little tone deaf and makes it feel more forced rather than genuine.

And while I'm not at all against the concept of transfem Morpheus on its own (they're the god of dreams so there's a lot you can have fun with there!), it's just hard to have good faith in her being written as a "trans representation" character when Rachel literally removed and replaced all of Aphrodite's LGBTQ+ children (including Hermaphroditus, who was literally intersex) and has fridged just about every queer character in LO up until this point. Even Morpheus herself has been fridged recently with the whole "getting kidnapped/possessed by Kronos" plotline. At the end of the day every LGBTQ+ character in the story is forcefully rewritten into gods who weren't traditionally LGBTQ+ , while removing / erasing the ones who were, and all of them are still having to make room for the main toxic heterocis couple who are literally the most boring part of their own story (ノ_<。)

[swan2swan]

The biggest problem with Dominion is the dichotomy of Maisie's plotline with regards to motherhood, and the way both plots revolve around it from wholly opposite perspectives while never actually clashing.

Her plot starts off simply enough: she's angsting about not being a real person, Claire's trying to protect her, and Maisie spits at her with the "You're not my mother!" line right before she's kidnapped.

This is a classic Finding Nemo setup, which Claire takes to with gusto: she calls on favors, slips into seedy markets, fights a crime boss, eludes raptors, jumps out of a plane, and crawls through a forest to get the girl she calls her daughter back. Most stories would show this as a trial: ye olde "GASP! My parents love me!" story.

But the fact that Claire has no obligation to bring Maisie back is never challenged. Soyona doesn't bother with asking or playing the role of the tempting serpent instilling doubt; the closest the movie comes to that is Franklin giving her the "I told you this would happen" speech. It's all taken for granted, which is...okay, because we have already established who Claire is, but that's not the problem.

The problem comes with the other half of the story: Maisie mopes to Wu about how she's just a close, and Wu immediately points out how no, she was conceived and carried in a human womb just like everyone else! And he calls Charlotte "your mother".

And Maisie goes "Is that my mother?"

And when she meets Ellie, Dr. Sattler is somehow fully aware of who Maisie's REAL MOTHER, the one who created her and who she looks like, is, and gushes about how great of a eugen--person she was. Every single time Maisie talks about "her mother" with the people around her, the word is referring to Charlotte Lockwood, the woman who birthed her.

Meanwhile, that Claire woman is crawling into a slimy pond to get away from a twenty-foot-tall Kreugersaurus because she wants to get Maisie away from kidnappers.

Of course, Maisie runs back to her and yells "Those are my parents!", but there's still something missing there. Claire's side of the story is all about her powering through, risking her life time and time again to track down her daughter...but there's never really a moment between them later. Maisie even posits the "So I was just an experiment to her..." plotline that has been seen before, but even that's immediately refuted.

The movie's not wrong for avoiding the cliches and the oft-used tropes of foster motherhood, but it doesn't really break any new ground, either. Obviously, people can have more than one mom, but there's something of an imbalanced focus on Charlotte as Maisie's mother in the Maisie and Jurassic Park plotline, while Claire in the Jurassic World plotline is doing all the expected Mom Stuff.

I can't wholly express what's bothering me about it, maybe I'm overthinking it, but it...doesn't quite sit right with me.

[imprettysureicanhearyou]

okay I had the strangest experience because I watched the first 3 episodes and went "this is great! a little silly but thats to be expected, no where near as bad as season 3" and then the last 3 episodes happened !! anyways

thoughts/take aways :

ty for letting them say fuck

aidan gallagher get out of the writers room and get a girlfriend

baby shark, seriously, that was at least 4 years ago

lila character assasination is CRAZY omg. she would never?? do anything with five 😭 her and five have hated eachother this entire time no matter how many years they were in a train station she would not get w his dusty ass

I dont understand how this happened except somehow aidan got leverage with the plot bc the GREENHOUSE?? SHOTS??? ARE LIKE IDENTICAL?? TO HIS WEIRD INSTAGRAM SELF INSERT FIC?? i hate this boy, get ur hands off my tua

also generally the way they have Lila act abt her family??? idk it feels like such a bland plotline to make her and diego hate being parents

the chubby jokes about diego are also crazy

the fives scene was so cringey 😭 i see what u were going for but it literally just gave citadel of ricks it was not good, and the rain man joke.

the plotline of klaus getting kidnapped was genuinely crazy to toss in there and play for jokes, they only acted like it was serious when the guy threatened allison like no he has been sex trafficking the hargreeves on screen for an entire episode

also while klaus being really paranoid of dying without his powers COULD have been a good plot line I feel like they did not do it well and it just ended up feeling like promoting his addiction

that goop ending was really weird, why'd they get gooped, what if they all died normally no goop involved, they window breaking shot was cool just have that massive monster kick their asses why goop

why did they imply Viktor is like treating all the women in town badly in the first episode 😭 viktor has NEVER acted like this. like please let trans men be GOOD men it doesnt men them girly to not treat women like shit

they act like sloan died and then never elaborated on it???

please explore why raymond left allison and fire aidan gallagher

klaus immediately going for the dog tags was actually rlly sweet almost cried

the two seconds of young apocalypse five were the best moments of the whole season

plot holes bc i was gonna be nice but you did this to yourself :

why is everyone calling it marigold like its not just random thing harlan came up with

"power up" THIS IS NOT WHAT ANY OF UR POWERS LOOKED LIKE UNTIL RN WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING

and fives jumps are purple??? for the reason of ??? ??? why??

and WHY THE HELL DOES LILA HAVE LaZER EYES. ALL THEIR POWERS ARE LIKE THEIRS BUT SLIGHTLY DIF/MORE POWERFUL AND SHES JUST GOT LAZER EYES 😭

why were lila and five living like they were in the apocalypse in that train station when they clearly could pop up and time travel around??? like go up take a shower, time travel to sometime with stores, buy some meat, why are you hunting rats, theres literally a deli in there

also they were in there for SEVEN YEARS and never saw another five until the last episode????

I also really heavily doubt it would take five 7+ years to figure out the train system

also the way allison pours the marigold directly into klaus' wound and it just works 😭 how does it work both by drinking it AND ALSO BY POURING IT DIRECTLY IN A MANS GUNSOHT WOULD

what? was going on w Sy Grossman ?? did we ever figure that out?? did they just kill him off and leave us wondering?? why did he say he was Jennifers dad? was he actually with the Keepers? was he just working for Abigail?? no fucking clue

one of the hargreeves (i think luther) called bens death the jennifer incident in s3,,,, but they did not know the girls name and also allegedly had their memories wiped???? okay,,,

also i thought sparrow ben KNEW jennifer already cuz he had her name in his journal or whatever?? but now he doesn't???

why was she in the squid 😭 ?

honestly im sure theres more ive forgotton but omg, that was not good 😭

[yannisdesk]

Arcane: Is it Copaganda?

I talked about this a bit on twitter, but I will type it up here and elaborate (we all know twt is not the place for longform content anyway). My main argument for Arcane being copaganda isn't due to the existence of Caitvi being Enforcers in season 2, it mainly has to do with Marcus, and how his contribution to the narrative is handled.

Arcane makes it pretty clear from the jump that Marcus is corrupt; he was more than willing to use excessive force against Zaunites who posed no threat to him early in Act 1, foregoes due process to strike a deal with an up and coming crime lord to take down four kids, one of which is possibly an age that's not even in the double-digits, then kidnaps a 15 year-old Vi, and throws her into Stillwater, a notoriously horrifying prison, indefinitely (life sentence) with no trial or records - all done so he could allegedly keep her "safe" (more on this later).

Marcus is then showed not only continuing to uphold his end of the deal with Silco, which includes allowing shimmer to spread throughout the Undercity, but also directly benefitting from it, becoming sheriff in seven years or less. He shows some resentment over this, but nothing to the point of actually going out of his way to do the right thing or change his situation. He dies, in a show of overt police brutality, trying to kill Caitlyn and Ekko for trying to negotiate peace for Zaun and justice for Silco's actions.

And what happens afterwards in regards to the greater implications this could have for the narrative addressing state violence and corruption, and how it's maintained through organizations like law enforcement? Absolutely nothing.

You would think Marcus, the literal sheriff, being involved in high-level conspiracy, corruption, and who knows what else, would be a wakeup call to people like Caitlyn who are Enforcers but are supposedly in it for altruistic reasons; and also possibly to the council and Piltover overall - "Hey, there's a serious issue with our law enforcement if the sheriff of all people could turn out like that. Maybe we should clean house?" I'm no fool, I didn't expect Arcane to do a police abolishment plotline because that would be a one-way ticket to getting review bombed by rabid "anti-woke" dudebros who never cared about the show anyway; but the Enforcers are not challenged or elaborated on in the slightest in season 2, if anything they get worse.

Caitlyn knows that Marcus, her boss, was corrupt, imprisoned her girlfriend indefinitely when she was just a teenager, and got away with it Scott-free. Had it not been for Jinx's bridge attack in S1E7, Marcus would've killed her, Ekko, and Vi who'd ran back to try and save them. And he more than likely would've gotten away with that too. But we never see her ponder this at all, not even in season 1.

We're shown Enforcers being horrible throughout first season. The warden, who is an Enforcer, brags about how many times he's brutalized Vi. We're shown Enforcers slamming a Zaunite through glass windows for responding with being called a slur with spitting on their boots, we're shown in the "Enemy" music video that Enforcers slammed young Vi and Powder against gates for random searches and how humiliating that is.

But come season 2? All of that is washed away. I thought they were going to do something with how willing the Enforcers were to use the Grey, but no, not even that's addressed after Act 1. No one from Caitlyn's strike team ever faces consequences for that. Maddie dies because she betrayed Caitlyn, and Loris is killed in the midst of battle against Noxus, but neither of those scenarios has anything to do with their willingness to comply with wielding gas weaponry against an entire population of people. Maddie spying on Caitlyn for Ambessa is treated as a greater crime than her actions in Zaun. Vi has the audacity of going around calling other people traitors as if she also did not comply and defend it. Same goes for Caitlyn, Loris, and Steb.

And as for the rest of season 2, we get glimpses of the Enforcers rounding up Zaunites and participating in martial law, which was brutal on the Undercity, but again, it's never given any narrative weight the way it was in season 1. Come time for the main characters to fight off the new Big Bad™️(Ambessa + Noxus and Viktor) all of a sudden the Enforcers are shown mostly in positive or humorous lights. Gert, who has spent most of season 2 rebelling against them because of their heightened tyranny under Caitlyn, is all of a sudden willing to join them and die wearing their uniform just because one of them behaved like a human for half-a-second. The show ends with Caitlyn and Vi being active members on the force, and that's where it ends.

I believe Marcus is mentioned possibly once in act 1 of season 2 (I'm not rewatching to confirm), but other than that his entire influence is dropped, which is just strange and unrealistic, and is a lost opportunity for Arcane to address this topic beyond the surface. You would think someone like Caitlyn or even Vi, or hell, anyone would at least attempt to use his story as inspiration for a reformist angle, but no, we didn't even get that. Marcus is relegated to a "one bad apple" cliche, which is when cops who get caught up with corruption or brutality are treated as outliers within the system, not reflections of the systems deeper problems; which you'd think with Marcus, being the sheriff, would mean the writers would take advantage of that, but no they don't. The other half to that "one bad apple" saying is "spoils the whole bunch" - there were definitely plenty of Enforcers who were either complicit, just like him, or even worse. But the writers abolished that for whatever reason and gave us this whitewashed slop of a plot with the Enforcers which was equal parts insulting and dissatisfactory. Treating Marcus as "one bad apple" is copaganda, full stop, and that affected the rest of the story. The Enforcers have not even attempted to reform at all; they've just wrecked even more havoc on Zaun and got away with it, and characters who'd you would expect to have something to say about that don't because the writers desperately want you to forget about this aspect of the story because it clashes with their "the devil you know"-centric finale.

[lindsaylemons29]

8b potential storylines??

1) jee is taken instead of or in addition to maddie

2) ravi and buck(and maybe Maddie?) talk about childhood cancer from their different perspectives

3) real estate Ravi helps bathena with house

4) eddie talks to Michael about coming out later in life after having been married with kid(s)

5) madney baby is named Joy or something relating to Kevin

6) Diaz parents shit talk Shannon/buck/Eddie in front of Eddie and/or Christopher or they overhear it and one or both of them go off on the Diaz parents(bonus points if Eddie blurts out feelings while defending buck)

7) buck moves out of the loft and into casa Diaz and when he walks back inside after Eddie drives away he is walking through the house there are montages of all the buck+diazes moments and he sits on the couch or goes into Chris's room and breaks

8) Eddie's parents are gatekeeping chris/discouraging his return(screening/blocking calls without telling either party so they both think the other doesn't want to talk, doubling down on how Eddies mistake is unforgivable etc)

9) Chris brings up hotshots

10) either on way to Texas or right after Eddie gets there either a) kidnapping or b) buck nde happens and he's called because he's a) person not there that they'd inform first or b) buck's medical POA (bc after the buckley parents fiasco w/ lightning and he's going to have taken extra steps to prevent them from doing anything) and Eddie either immediately turns around or if he's almost there/there he grabs Chris and they get on the first flight back leaving their stuff in texas

11) buck moves into casa diaz AND bathena move into loft

12) tia Pepa and abuela get on Eddie's ass about buck

13) buck does something extraordinarily stupid on a call(a la crane climbing during sniper) bc he can't cope with Eddie not there

14) buck depressed in bed like he was pre-tsunami bc Eddie isn't there and he gets yanked out of bed by Maddie and told spend a day with jee and that's when the Maddie chloroform happens

15) 118 still calling Ravi probie

16) Eddie noticing the parallels between him letting Chris go bc it's what he needed even though he didn't like it and buck letting Eddie go for the same reasons

17) buck abandonment issues in general, "when will my husband return from war"

18) somebody finds out about the will, bonus points if it's the Diaz parents and Eddie goes off on them

19) Maddie full name drop during kidnapping plot(bc she said that it was her birth certificate name so harshly implying that she didn't go by anything else or changed it, ex. Magdalena, Matilda)

20) another emergency vehicle gets destroyed/breaks

21) Diaz sisters make an appearance

22) Eddie NDE on way to Texas and the will gets invoked so Chris comes back(bonus points if buck is also Eddie's POA)

23) Buck going to bathena bc those are his parents and he's *really* not coping with Eddie being gone

24) Eddie Bobby Catholic guilt and values heart to heart

25) Buck/Eddie NDE has montage of the two of them together and "tomorrow isn't promised" and "you don't find it you make it" feelings realization

26) Buck gets a pet(bc sob stories has animal shelter) bonus points if it's one of ostark's dogs

27) Eddie h2h with Chris/coming out bc after coming back to Texas and having talked with father Brian he remembers his first crush/codependent friendship with a guy which his parents homophobia'd out of him(bonus points if tia Pepa or abuela are the ones to remind him about this and how his parents metaphorically beat it out of him)

28) Buck is sad and Ravi thinks they're divorced

29) something happens to buck and Chim and/or maddie are like "I can't lose another brother"

30) I saw something somewhere about Taylor maybe coming back and if she did she'd help with the serial killer plotline a la treasure hunt

henren plotlines with Mara and Denny were pretty prominent so not expecting much hen focused stuff in 8b

Idk what the fuck is going to happen with the Dr odyssey crossover(apparently it's casino week and it's involving the vault so throwback to those 2 911 plotlines and Athena is only confirmed character so far) but it's happening same day as 8x11(holy mother of god)

A) Max and/or the captain are gonna be besties with Bobby

B) whoever ends up kidnapped is taken on the boat

C) Bobby and chef lady exchange recipes

D) buck and Eddie poker night 2 electric boogaloo

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Dangancember 2024 - Danganronpa Top 24 Class Trials: Number 20 Danganronpa V3 Case 5

//You guys don't know how much it hurts to have this one down so low.

//This trial is honestly, overall, EXTREMELY good. It has a good plotline, a good investigation, a good cast of characters, and is overall just very very engaging.

//So yeah, we're kind of out of the territory for trials that I consider to be straight up bad.

//But regardless, Case 5 of Danganronpa V3 is something I view very critically, despite the leaps and bounds it takes as a case. Here's why.

//As I did with my last post, let's go over everything that happens in this case, and then I'll start to pick it apart.

//So in the build up to this case, shortly following Gonta and Miu's deaths as part of a scheme masterminded by Kokichi, tensions among the group are as high as they ever have been. And they skyrocket when Kokichi not only reveals that the world outside the academy is in ruin, but that he's the one who masterminded everything, and proves it by controlling the now pilot-less Exisals, and kidnaps Kaito, locking him in the Exisal hanger.

//A few things happen between here and there during the chapter, but eventually, everybody remaining agrees to rally together and break into the hanger to rescue Kaito and confront Kokichi. But when they manage to break in, they find somebody's dead body crushed under a hydraulic press.

//The body in the hydraulic press is crushed beyond recognition, leaving only some blood splatter and remnants of Kaito's coat, implying that he may be the victim. However, it's not as simple as that.

//Clues like the electromagnetic barrier and discrepancies in the blood evidence suggest something deeper, and the group realizes that Kokichi may have staged certain aspects of the crime, but he might not even be the killer. It gets overcomplicated when somebody shows up to the trial piloting the Exisal, but due to being concealed in the hatch, it's unclear who it is, be it Kokichi or Kaito.

//Eventually though, the trial keeps going and it's discovered that Kokichi devised an elaborate plan to end the killing game. He and Kaito staged his own death to trick Monokuma into halting the game, by making it so there is no known perpetrator. What actually happened, and what got discovered, is that Kaito was forced to kill Kokichi in a mercy killing to ensure the plan succeeded, as Kokichi was gravely injured and dying thanks to being shot with a poisonous dart; with Kokichi exploiting Kaito's nature to get him on his side.

//Everybody in the trial, including Monokuma, goes back and forth with this case, until finally, Kaito emerges from the Exisal, and Kokichi's plan ultimately fails. Kaito is executed, but he dies of his ongoing illness before the execution could finish, and as a result, the execution is interrupted, technically meaning the students beat Monokuma and ruined the killing game after all.

//I know I don't make it completely easy to understand, but even if I had tried to put it more simply than this, this trial is still a clusterfuck.

//But in short, what you're trying to tell me is that the true circumstances behind this trial comes about as a result of the most erratic character in the game going crazy, and everyone agreeing they need to be stopped. They are met with a death as they go to confront him, but it turns out the character in question deliberately crafts this death to be an impossible mystery, which the other characters believe is done merely to screw them over. In reality, however, it is intended to use the trial system as a weapon for the character's personal gain.

//Yeah, I don't think I need to sugarcoat it. This is, beat for beat, the EXACT same as Case 5 of Danganronpa 2.

//Okay, the mystery is different, and the stuff that happens as a result of the mystery turns out differently, but come on! It's VERY CLEARLY the same structure!

//And unfortunately, it's not nearly as effective, because not only do I expect there to be some fuckery as a result of experiencing Game 2 Case 5, but the mystery itself is NOWHERE NEAR as difficult to figure out.

//One thing that made Case 5 of DR2 so damn brilliant is because literally anybody could have been the killer, and there was absolutely no surefire way to figure out who it could be. Even before the twist with the fire grenades was discovered, at least every character is accused at least once.

//For this case, the killer can be one of two people: Kaito or Kokichi. The other characters ARE suspected, but it's kind of pointless because you KNOW none of them could have crushed the body under the press, which is clearly the cause of death.

//And in a situation where it's supposed to screw with you, you're automatically under the assumption that Kokichi planned a ruse where HE is killed and not the actual killer, because you know that's EXACTLY what he would do.

//The problem with Kokichi compared to Nagito is that despite his overwhelming dominance deriding from the chaos he causes, Kokichi eventually becomes predictable.

//It's far more threatening dealing with Nagito because he rarely ever hides how he feels about things. When he likes something, he does crazy things for it, when he hates something, he shows it.

//But with Kokichi, you immediately take every action he does with a grain of salt, and you automatically assume that if he makes a claim, he probably means the opposite. And in this case, the setup where Kokichi and Kaito orchestrate the "perfect crime" and make it appear that one of them is the victim relies on the premise that they are trying to deceive the participants. However, by the time of the trial, the clues and circumstances strongly hint at the truth.

//Especially since it renders Kaito's plotline of being sick moot. They spend so much time covering it from Chapters 3 through 5 that it's one of those one's that they can't just brush to the wayside because they feel like it.

//Kokichi’s ruse as the mastermind could have been a compelling twist, but it's resolved too quickly and doesn't significantly impact the trial. While it raises tension briefly, the revelation that Kokichi is not the mastermind comes without much surprise or stakes for the larger narrative.

//And the trial really reflects on all these problems because the answers are often apparent, yet the game still demands a lot of steps to confirm them. The pacing of the trial drags on in sections where the we're already supposed to understand the core mystery.

//Also, I don't know if this is just me, and it's weird because these are genuinely two of my favourite characters in the entire series, but Kokichi and Kaito are, honestly, a really uninteresting victim/killer duo.

//While his actions in this case show his willingness to sacrifice himself for a greater purpose, the convoluted way Kokichi goes about it has very little emotional impact. Largely because his motivations and the extent of his manipulations are left somewhat ambiguous, and doesn't really give his character arc a lot of closure. Especially considering something that happens in Case 6 of the game, but we'll get to that in a little bit.

//As for Kaito, his noble sacrifice is meant to evoke strong emotions, but his victory feels...contrived. The trial’s resolution emphasizes Kaito’s moral "win" over Monokuma, but the convoluted nature of the crime, as well as how it...kind of doesn't change anything.

//And that, to me, makes this trial feel like a genuine waste of time! Chapter 5 of Danganronpa 2 not only resolved Nagito's plotline with a bang, but it was also the trial that revealed the full extent of why the Killing Game is happening, how and why Chiaki was the traitor, and wraps up a lot of the ongoing mysteries nicely. It also helps to segway into Trial 6, which...is another issue.

//I forewent mentioning this when I covered Case 6, because I wanted to save it for this one where the point would be more relevant, but there's one aspect about the trial that comes after this one that heavily ruins the emotional impact for me.

//And that's the idea that's hinted at, where Tsumugi as the Mastermind KNEW EVERYTHING Kokichi was going to do, because she had wrote it in the story as part of his character.

//Which makes absolutely EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN THIS CASE COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY POINTLESS!

//If Tsumugi knew these events would unfold, it completely undermines the organic feel of the trial, almost ruins Kokichi's entire character arc.

//Now, as mentioned before, it's unclear whether Tsumugi was saying that to save face, or if she meant it genuinely, because most of her confessions and statements during the trial have no grounds upon which she builds them. But in the case where she is telling the truth about this...

//...That's really fucking uncool!

//I hated when Junko did this in Case 6 of Danganronpa 1 too, but with Junko, it's a little more believable, and it doesn't completely ruin my opinion of the trial, because Case 5 was already supposed to be a shitty stand in for a case and not an actual case itself. But this is an actual case, and one that has a lot of emotional weight behind it, so what the actual hell was the point if this was all true?

//I mean, I guess that's kind of the idea that you're supposed to question what all of this bullshit was for if Tsumugi already had all of this written out, but then that just makes Trial 6 way more complicated, and...yeah, I don't think it's worth talking about any more than this.

//In general, the outcome of this trial is predictable even though it's supposed to be complex, Kokichi's mastermind bluff and his plan is underwhelming, the trial is mentally frustrating because it's so easy, Kaito and Kokichi BOTH suffer from missed potential, and Chapter 6 effectively renders the entire thing pointless anyway. And that is why I generally dislike this trial.

//But for the record, as I implied at the beginning, despite all this, and the structural overlap with Case 5 of the previous game, this case still manages to stand out in several ways.

//What truly sets this trial apart is its unprecedented twist that sets it apart from not just Case 5 of DR2, but every other trial in the series. Not only is the culprit unknown, but the VICTIM'S identity is also a mystery.

//As easy as it is to figure out, this is pretty unique, and it's emphasized with the exisal occupant’s alternating impersonations of Kokichi and Kaito keep the students, and the audience,guessing.

//But for me, the highlight of this complexity is the impact on the trial system itself.

//Kokichi’s use of an electrobomb in the hangar disables Monokuma’s surveillance, meaning not only do the students not know who the killer and victim are, or what happened, but MONOKUMA, the series' typically OMNIPOTENT antagonist, is COMPLETELY in the dark about what transpired!

This moment of vulnerability for Monokuma is both shocking and kinda funny, as he is now forced to JOIN the trial discussion, instead of simply oversee it, and collaborate with the students to solve the case. The sheer novelty of teaming up with the main villain to unravel the mystery underscores the trial's unique brilliance.

//And what I do like is despite how hollow Kaito and Kokichi's "victory" felt, one thing that this trial does do well with the concept of trying to screw Monokuma and the Killing Game over is itraises questions about what it means to "win" in a killing game.

//Kaito’s decision to sacrifice himself ensured Kokichi could not be used as a pawn by Monokuma, while Kokichi’s role showed that even his manipulative tendencies were rooted in a desire to defeat the system.

//Some killers and victims in the Danganronpa, with people like Peko and Gundham being stand out examples, do commit these murders for reasons other than simple bloodlust, but in general, for most of the cases in the series, motives are more black-and-white. But compared to them this one really tends to make you think about the nature of sacrifice and resistance.

//Kaito and Kokichi being the one's who ultimately made this work by working together is also very interesting, even though Kokichi kind of lured Kaito into doing it.

//The trial represents the climax of their very intriguing relationships as a wannabe hero and a wannabe villain. Throughout the game, Kokichi's cunning pragmatism and Kaito's uncomplicated optimism butt heads SEVERAL times, but in this instance, they collaborate to develop a scheme that goes against the grain. The joint sacrifice that they make really shows the pinnacle of their character arcs. Kaito is shown to a loyal and righteous person who is willing to sacrifice everything if it means stopping the killing game and protecting his friends, while Kokichi is similarly ready to die in order to achieve his objectives of weakening Monokuma and being the trickster that he was always destined to be.

//And I love this for them.

//And then Kaito's execution. Despite my own issues with it, this trial and this execution made for a satisfying enough conclusion. Kaito’s final moments, where he faces death with dignity and defiance, shows just how much he meant his rambles about his unwavering belief in hope and humanity. His refusal to let Monokuma win elevates his sacrifice to one of the most memorable in the series.

//But yeah, that's about all I have to say on this one.

//Case 5 of V3 gets points for being emotional, ambitious, and thematic, but ultimately, it is one of the lesser trials for me. Largely due to how it's relevance is ruined due to dialogue in the case that immediately succeeds it, combined with its parallels to Game 2’s Case 5.

//While this trial had the potential to rank very highly, these issues prevent it from reaching that level. As sad as it is to say.

[marianadecarlos]

What is Aguila Roja? Is it a show or a movie? Because in your posts you ranted about Aguila Roja's portrayal of Mariana.

Is there TV shows and Movies about her aside from that? I feel like Habsburgs in 17th century was often ignore by media because I don't see shows about them. There is Versailles series though if your interested.

"Águila Roja" is a Spanish adventure television series set in 17th-century Spain. Produced by Globomedia for Televisión Española, it aired on La 1 from 2009 to 2016 and has earned its status as one of the channel's most successful shows, with broadcasting rights sold in multiple countries. I must express my strong dissatisfaction with the portrayal of Mariana, as it is historically inaccurate and misleading. While I recognize that the show is a work of historical fiction, it is essential to accurately depict real-life individuals, especially lesser-known historical figures. The portrayal of Mariana as vain, selfish, and promiscuous—engaging in an affair with the fictional character Cardinal Mendoza. This plotline creates a distortion of her character. In reality, Mariana was a devoted wife, loving mother, intelligent, strong, loyal, dutiful, strict, tactile, and pious. These traits are glaringly absent from her depiction in the series. Although some scenes show her as a caring mother and wife, particularly when she comforts Felipe, these moments are far too few and are overshadowed by their frequent conflicts. Shows like this must uphold historical integrity, as misrepresentation can lead to widespread misconceptions.

Beware my friend as the worst is yet to come, I stumbled upon this video on YouTube. To those who are curious to watch this scene, it features graphic content.

There is more than one scene but I refuse to post the links because as you can see this one is already terrible. The other scenes just featured her getting kidnapped, tortured, tying her to a tree, and lifting her up in the air.

I was mortified upon witnessing it! The need to showcase the character getting tortured and almost burnt at the stake! I do not understand the reason or context of this scene at all! This scene is not only inaccurate and degrading, but It is also an insult to her name, real-life experiences, and legacy.

Apart from her portrayal, her costumes were as expected inaccurate, The outfits that Lucía Eliana Sánchez wore in the series, in my opinion, did not fit the way of dressing at the time. Both the exaggerated neckline and the shapes of the silhouette did not correspond to the attire worn at that time, and even more so, by such a leading figure.

In Spain, women did wear a neckline, as we can see in some paintings, but a plunging neckline would not have been common for the queen herself. The feminine style of the dress at the time was the so-called guardainfante, a huge frame in the shape of an inverted basket on which the basquiña (skirt) was placed. The bodice or sayo was tight, between the fabric and the lining there was a rubberized cardboard that literally crushed the chest. According to the historian Maribel Bandrés: “… it was so hard and flat that the body lost its natural shape. To give it even more rigidity, it had two whalebones coming down to a point in front: the busc .” The neckline was covered with a striking collar called a valona cariñana with a beautiful decoration of pleats called abanillos. This type of collar was very flattering and a large brooch was placed in its center.

Diego Velázquez. Mariana of Austria. Detail of head. Circa 1652. Prado Museum. Madrid.

Eliana Sánchez is characterized as Mariana of Austria.

In this particular scene, I noticed Mariana's dress. I've seen that dress before in other Spanish shows and on Pinterest, which led me to believe they recycled this costume. While I appreciate when costumes are reused in different shows, in this case, the setting is in the year 1660, as they discuss Maria Theresa's upcoming marriage and mention that Margarita and Prospero are present. They look completely different from their historical counterparts.

Yes, apart from Aguila Roja, She was featured briefly in documentaries such as Memoria de Espana and Habsburgs heimliche Herrscherinnen- Auf fremden Thronen

I agree with you this century is often ignored by the media or the ones that usually don't get that much attention even though their stories are good and interesting. My favorite portrayal of her, Is the Memoria de Espana's Mariana, The costumes and mannerisms are perfect.

[markantonys]

fuck it, proposing an s3 episode-by-episode structure even though we barely have any info to go off of, because i'm bored and yearning for s3 news. can't wait to see how wrong this ends up being! i can't emphasize enough how much this is just me completely inventing structure ideas because, for real, we barely know ANYTHING yet, so do not latch onto anything i say here.

we know 4 episode titles so far, so i've included those.

3x01: to race the shadow

A-plot: the gang in falme

lots of relationship-building between various dynamics, especially rand & elayne (just friendship with Crush Hints for now) and nynaeve & lan (ring scene maybe)

rand and egwene's final breakup

mat's luck established during a gambling scene

mat goes through the doorway in turak's room of curiosities, is told to go to tanchico, gets his marriage prophecy & medallion & ashandarei, and gets cpr from rand

elayne and nynaeve learn something about liandrin that points them towards tanchico

rand decides to go to the waste and egwene does too after speaking with amys in her dreams, and perrin goes with them because he has no other plans as of yet

B-plot: aes sedai politics, catch up with siuan, catch up with liandrin

3x02: a question of crimson

i'd always hoped this would be a caemlyn episode, and the title points to that imo!! perfect title for elaida's intro episode, and red is andor's color as well.

so, A-plot: rand, egwene, perrin, et al pass through caemlyn on their way to the waste

egwene has been tasked by elayne with delivering a letter to her family; rand insists on coming with her; they trespass in the caemlyn palace and meet gawyn, galad, morgase, and elaida

i don't expect a forsaken here just yet, i think it's important to see Normal Morgase and Normal Caemlyn first so that we have a contrast later once they ARE under forsaken control.

perrin hears rumors of trouble in the two rivers and decides to split off from the group to investigate, with loial, bain, and chiad accompanying him

the rest of the group reaches the waste at the end of the episode

B-plot: nynaeve, elayne, and mat arrive in tanchico (they split off from the others in falme and go straight there, no caemlyn trip for them)

C-plot: more white tower stuff

3x03

A-plot: rand in rhuidean + general intro to the waste (rand's focal episode)

B-plot: perrin arrives in the two rivers and gets situated

C-plot: continued tanchico shenanigans, maybe they run into thom and/or min and/or tuon (who is undercover for reasons) if they didn't already in 3x02. my guess is min has been kidnapped out of cairhien by liandrin, who knows min figured out she's black ajah and doesn't want her to snitch, so maybe at some point in the early episodes there's a plotline of mat, elayne, and nynaeve rescuing min from the black ajah, and after that point min joins their scooby gang (because she's got a personal vendetta against liandrin now and also she wants to re-earn mat's trust and prove herself).

an alleged leak puts mat, thom, and min all in tanchico, so that's why i have them in this plotline. it's also why i have tuon in this plotline, as i can't think of a strong reason to move mat from the waste to tanchico if not to incorporate elements of the ebou dar trip and have him meet tuon who is filling an egeanin-type role.

3x04

A-plot: nynaeve encounters moghedien in TAR and almost dies but is saved by birgitte, whom elayne saves by bonding her as a warder (this whole sequence is the midseason climax at the end of the episode)

mat gets into some kind of shenanigan with tuon and they grow closer, but neither knows the other's true identity

B-plot: elaida, gawyn, and galad reach the white tower and start investigating elayne's disappearance and clashing with siuan

C-plots: the waste gang doing their thing, learning about aiel ways, developing avirand, etc; perrin doing his thing in the two rivers, meeting faile if he hasn't already

i could also easily switch 3x03 and 3x04 so that 3x04 is the rhuidean episode. just depends if they throw rand right into it like TSR does or if we get a General Waste Intro episode before sending him off to rhuidean. but based on a combination of leaks, we do just about know that the glass columns visions are during block 2 (eps3/4).

3x05

A-plot: perrin in the two rivers, maybe digging more into the whitecloaks, padan fain, laila trauma, luc/slayer, wolves & TAR, relationship with faile, etc. (potentially his focal episode)

B-plot: cold rocks hold stuff for the waste gang

C-plot: continued tanchico shenanigans; continued white tower politics

3x06

A-plot: alcair dal, asmodean identity reveal & capture

B-plot: some kind of tanchico conclusion. maybe this is when tuon finds out some of her new buddies can channel (and possibly even that sul'dam, and she herself, can channel) and heads back to the seanchan with Much To Think About. maybe the black ajah make their exit from the season to shift full focus onto Final Boss Moggy.

C-plots: perrin prepping for battle; continued white tower politics

3x07: goldeneyes

A-plot: perrin defending the two rivers (perrin's focal episode, unless it's instead an earlier one that's less about a major battle and more about his internal life as a character)

B-plot: tower coup? i'm very unsure where in the season to place this, i could see it at any point in episodes 6, 7, or 8. kinda doubt it would happen earlier than ep6 because i'm not sure if that would allow us enough time to build up to it, especially since major coup players like elaida and gawyn are being introduced for the very first time this season so we need decent time with them before shit goes down (plus, it just naturally feels like a Late Season Climactic Event). the head writer of 1x06 & 2x07 (aes-sedai-heavy episodes) being the head writer of 3x08 could potentially indicate that the coup happens in 3x08, but she is also an executive producer so it's not like aes sedai politics is The Only Thing she knows about.

C-plots: the waste gang travels back to the wetlands, rand learns from asmodean; tanchico crew takes a sea folk ship to the eastern part of the continent (same city where waste gang is headed)

3x08: he who comes with the dawn

A-plot: the climax of the waste crew's plotline, potentially a battle in cairhien or tear, but that may cause Battle Fatigue if 3x07 has just had a big battle. maybe this could point towards their destination being tear and them taking the stone in somewhat more of an infiltration operation like in TDR, as opposed to the more traditional battle for cairhien in TFOH? just to mix things up a bit with perrin's traditional battle in the prior episode.

okay yeah i'm leaning towards tear, plus there was the leaked alleged sammael audition script (i trust no audition scripts after the phony gawyn one from s2 lmao) where the person he's talking to is demanding to know where "it" is. so my vision is that sammael's sitting comfy in tear, rand & co launch an infiltration operation to take the stone, rand finds sammael and demands to know callandor's whereabouts, and sammael ultimately flees to continue causing trouble in a new location in s4.

A-plot part 2: the tanchico crew gets involved with the infiltration operation, and nynaeve battles & defeats moghedien AND breaks her block (if she hasn't already, that could be a good Early Win to include around ep5-6 ish)

after all this stuff is done, there is a Final Final confrontation with moiraine and lanfear getting yeeted through the doorway; nynaeve bonds lan straightaway rather than his bond going on a noncon detour to alanna

post-battle checkin with perrin, but not a ton of time with him in this episode

final stinger: our buddy tuon from tanchico is shown dressed to the seanchan nines and being addressed as the daughter of the nine moons. gasp, mat's fated wife is our buddy tuon from tanchico, who is in fact a high-ranking seanchan noble! dun dun dun!!!!!

elephant in the room: "emily, why are you having rand in the wetlands for 3x08 when an episode called 'he who comes with the dawn' would obviously be about alcair dal?" listen, i know, but i typed up this whole post before i found out about that episode title and was too attached to it to change it lmao plus, i genuinely can't think of enough for rand & co to do in the waste for 6 entire episodes. i could see an argument that they chose this episode title as a general "yeah that's a baller title for a season finale about rand coming into his own in a big moment" rather than as a specific "this episode focuses on rand coming into his own in a strictly-aiel-related way" (see: 2x07 just being about general political shenanigans rather than literal daes dae'mar). rand pulling callandor from the stone while surrounded by his aiel followers could still be a "he who comes with the dawn" moment, okay!

so i will leave this post as is, but if indeed 3x08 only takes us up to alcair dal (and the moiraine & lanfear yeeting which i think will be this episode no matter what), that actually doesn't change my structure too much. basically it'd just be slowing down both the waste & tanchico crew's plotlines and having their climaxes be still in the waste & tanchico respectively, and then we can do a travel timeskip between seasons and have s4 open with the waste crew taking tear or cairhien and the tanchico crew meeting up with them there. i do strongly believe that mat, elayne, and nynaeve will join up with rand & co for s4 and skip their whole salidar/ebou dar detours, because that positions mat to form the band and have his Dragon's General storyline in s4, positions elayne to spend time with rand and aviendha and potentially join rand in retaking caemlyn and then just stay there to start her succession, and positions nynaeve to spend time with lan in the immediate aftermath of moiraine's "death" and then join up with elayne's or rand's future storyline. for these 3, salidar & ebou dar are filler sidequests rather than Main Story storylines imo and it could be quite efficient to cut those out and just distribute the handful of Main Story elements from them into other Main Story storylines.

[crossedsabers10s]

Hi! just read charnal house floor and adored it-- the dramatic irony, the tension, the rising horror; liz calling damon young which is so terrible because she's right he always will be and yet he absolutely isn't.... art.

I did want to ask, how do you think something similar would go down when they are closer, when liz knows damon's a vampire, when they are both a bit more traumatized, when liz has once tortured damon herself and he's forgiven her that?? like if it were around season 3 or so. I ask mostly because I just really love it when people feel sorry for damon shjddk anyway you're an amazing writer and happy new year !

fjkl;adfdsalfkj thank you!

hm, later in the show when they're friends/she knows? Well, the same story line (her showing him the storage room, perhaps even as a show of reconciliation? her showing a vampire the secret stuff?) relies on Liz forgetting she knows about Augustine or just not considering it important so it remains as status quo until that moment and Damon finds out. He is. Less likely to attack her? Probably--tho we all know how Damon deals with sudden strong emotions-- and she'd realize that this is personal to him, even making the leap that he was involved w Augustine at one point. Which would possibly result in her prying a few horrific details out of him--he's sharing them to shock her into not asking more, she's staying calm and treating him like a victim, falling back on her training, which he does notice and switches to telling her he already took revenge, bc he wants her to see him as villain instead of victim, maybe which spawns her researching the Whitmore family and all of his victims perhaps even preventing him from killing Aaron's aunt bc she's like 'does it make you feel better? does revenge help? this woman never hurt you.' and he's all 'it makes me feel better' but then through the power of friendship he's forced to confront the fact that revenge is ultimately empty/isn't going to bring back Enzo or absolve Damon's role in his 'death' and Liz convinces him that tearing apart the organization and dragging the non-supernatural shady shit to light is a better vengeance than random murder of people who are like. Innocent of the original crime and Dr. Whitmore isn't even alive to care that his family is being hunted down. Tearing down his legacy tho? the college and program and all that? Ruining his name and memory? That's where it's at. So they do that, discover Enzo, and bam. Of course, then Liz has to convince Enzo not to kill Aaron/Aaron's aunt. She could probably call them even for her getting the ball rolling on his rescue as long as he doesn't go after them and instead focus on Wes. They drag Enzo back to Mystic and suddenly, amongst the Original Plotline, they have to deal with Damon's... ex? friend? ex friend? no one is sure. Liz and Damon are keeping quiet. Enzo is too busy being free to answer questions.

OR

she now knows vampires feel and think as people do, remembers Augustine exists and guiltily goes out of her way to check in with them--maybe to convince herself that the vampire they have is a bad one and therefore deserves it? and instead finds. Well. Enzo. when she tries to dig further, she's either shut down or they try to silence her. So she starts... going about it the legal way. Do you have a permit for that? Oh hey I noticed you ordered a bunch of medical supplies. Where did that go? Throws the book at them until they Do Something about it and gets kidnapped so Augustine can figure out why she's making trouble/maybe they even found out about Caroline and threatened her. Liz, drawing her gun: Frankenstein wannabes say what? Whatever, point is, she rescues Enzo, brings him back to Mystic and goes hey maybe I should ask Damon for help? Maybe this guy would feel more comfortable with another vampire. Damon, walking into the room because Liz asked him to help her with something: this isn't the last thing i expected but only because i didn't expect it at all. Enzo: *kill bill sirens*

[mercymermaid]

just finished the supercut and oh my god

okay

um obvious spoilers this isn't my live reaction this is my coping rant

tldr: watch the fnaf musical and all of its installments. it is so SO worth it.

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED.

bonnie's narration speech about death was the best foreshadowing i've ever seen, holy shit

finally they explained madpat's hand thing... he killed off "afton" so cawthon could take over the new location oh my god

the entire afton family is dead now technically liz really did round it out

i expected glitch's death to be more climactic but it was satisfying that he died because he told her "lmao you nearly killed me womp womp" and expected her to do nothing with that information.... he deserved the car treatment

liz beating up baby was insane work though ig this is a lesson about human nature, elizabeth "humans are violent" afton

im glad all the loose ends were tied up, and set the stage for the main musical (RAISIN PIZZAAAAAAAA AND PUPPET UBER DRIVER, PUUURPLEEE GUYYY‼️‼️, and angry springtrap), and the minor-keyed baby i love you for the credits was HORRIBLE WHY

my only complaint is vanny and her plotline, they didn't even include monster in your head (along with blood and tears, but ig it'd fuck with the pacing), so she showed up, and immediately died, with no explanation which kinda pissed me off. she went all "oh yeah i'll defeat glitchtrap by getting into his head" and gave liz the tldr of his history, but then was soloed immediately? she got two really interesting lines from glitchtrap ("is that what you're here to do? save me?" and [you never should've come back] "that makes two of us.") LIKE???? expand please???? like yeah he has a toxic grudge but whatever (this is fuel for my impossible glitchtrap redemption fic) but basically vanny was treated as a plot device and that's it which is pretty sad

THE PUPPET AS WELL they have no lore in any musical except for beating up springtrap 💀💀

it was so awesome, so so super awesome and wonderful and im glad i finally got around to watching it, but both liz and baby dying was crazy, i need to watch the bloopers and then the original musical and then the bloopers for that and then the bloopers for all the installments and then rewatch the supercut and then rinse and repeat rinse and repeat i am going insane

tldr, matpat is an amazing villain, the amount of diversion from the og fnaf is genuinely so amazing to watch unfold, the actors are so so skilled in bringing the characters to life, and i'll miss this series but im glad it ended on such a well-rounded note that ties straiiightttt back to the beginning

justice for blood and tears and monster in your head though

EDIT: WATCHED THE CREDITS

THE KIDNAPPED CHILD WAS THE CRYING CHILD?????? MADPAT STOLE 'CAWTHON' FROM THE INSPECTOR???????????

[brave-little-pauper]

https://www.tumblr.com/brave-little-pauper/714711313069244416/what-if-kamek-was-successful-in-kidnapping-baby I love this AU idea but how about an AU where the bros grew up separately? How would that affect the game and movie events if they grew up separately but met again as adults with this strange feeling they know each other?

Apologies for the delay. Now that the comic is done, we can begin!

(Strap in, folks. This is gonna be a long one)

In my take of the Mario Bros origin story, game and movie elements are combined, so I'd imagine the separation would occur at the end of Yoshi's Island. The divergence starts when Kamek does not take defeat lightly and decides to try kidnapping the babies just one more time.

The stork is on its way to deliver the twins, and Baby Mario peeks out from the cloth. Suddenly, he sees Kamek flying towards them. Without Yoshi to help him this time, Baby Mario makes a choice.

He leaps off.

Having gone through a dangerous journey to save Baby Luigi, he is willing to become a prisoner if it means his brother's safety. And it works. By the time Kamek sees and catches the baby, the stork has already escaped with the other. Kamek begrudgingly accepts that he can only get one child and hopes keeping them separated will be enough to stop the divination.

I don't know if the bros' parents were expecting twins, but if it were the case, they would be devasted that one is gone. They shelter Luigi as a result. Growing up, Luigi tries avoiding trouble whenever he can. If he gets bullied, he stays quiet. Perhaps he was told about a twin, but he wouldn't bring the subject up for worry of upsetting his parents.

On Mario's side, this becomes Minion AU adjacent as he grows up training to serve Bowser. The difference here is that without someone close to hold him back, Mario, or rather "Red", is more impulsive and bullheaded, constantly trying to prove himself worthy much to his fellow soldiers' chagrin. Being the sole human in the Koopa Troop, he feels lonely (not that he'd ever admit it).

Years go by and we cut to Luigi ending up in the Mushroom Kingdom (how he got there is a spoiler for my Origin Story plotline). He is absolutely lost. When he makes it to the village, he asks where he is and accidentally bumps into the toads and their property, making a scene that gets him taken to the castle by guards for questioning. Luckily, Peach doesn't see Luigi as a threat and says he can stay the night and she'll send a guide to take him back to the city in the morning.

However, news of a mysterious human spreads to Bowser's castle. This upsets Kamek in particular for reasons he refuses to explain. Hoping this could get on his King's good graces, Red sneaks out and searches for this human to capture them.

As Peach shows Luigi around the Kingdom, Red dashes for him, ready to strike with his hammer. Just like with Wario in the latest comic, Luigi's hat is what throws Red off. He becomes so focused on it that he doesn't register Luigi cowering and completely misses his shot, fumbling onto the ground. He shakes it off and the two look face to face. Red feels a tear going down his cheek and his heart aches, baffling him. He runs off without a word.

"Do you know him?" Asks Peach, pulling Luigi up. "No, but he looked at me like I was familiar.." Luigi feels a tug at his heart too, though he interprets it as being homesick. Since this would-be assailant was masked, Luigi doesn't notice the resemblance.

Seeing that he's targeted by Bowser's army, Peach decides to train Luigi on the obstacle course, taking him on her journey for aid.

For failing his mission and making his presence known to the enemies, Red dares not to return to the Troop and face punishment. He goes into hiding, believing he can redeem himself by learning the heroes' plan and reporting back. He follows them and observes Luigi from afar, looking for whatever makes him so special and, more importantly, why he teared up at the sight of him.

In reminiscent of the campfire scene, I picture Luigi looking out into the sky, the others having fallen asleep. This is where Red comes in, threatening to attack his sleeping companions unless he answers this one question:

"Where did you get that hat?"

"I-I was born with it…?" Luigi sheepishly answers.

"Mock me all you want, but I don't think Lord Bowser would be pleased."

"What do you want from me? I'm not a warrior. I never even met this Bowser guy. How am I a threat?"

"Exactly! While it'd be fun to see, what point is there in him curbstomping you just like that? At least learn how to put up a fight!"

Red offers to teach Luigi a quick lesson in hand-to-hand combat. Maybe he even lets him hold his hammer, which Luigi proves to be a natural at since he's part of the wrecking crew.

For a moment, it seemed less like enemies quarreling and more like a boy teaching his little bro how to stand up to a bully and that heartache comes back…

Aaaand that's where I left off. At the moment, neither know the truth about each other. Maybe in terms of the movie, Luigi accepts the deal in fighting DK with his new skills, which would make the hidden Red facepalm…which would then prompt him to question why he cares all of a sudden.

Anyone is free to add their own take or build off of what I wrote. I don't know if I'll make this its own AU, but I had a lot of fun brainstorming this concept.

Thanks for reading!