#i hope our villain gets to act other roles too the more out there the better
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
no-i-will-not-shut-up · 5 months ago
Text
intresting setting in i want to be a big baddie. the isekaid person has to act out multiple roles to make sure the predetermined storyline happens. he starts playing the villain but becomes the female lead to fix the storyline.
at the same time the hero can read minds in the form of text bubbles, so he knows his villainous brother is Up To Something but doesnt know hes isekaid
0 notes
imaginariumwanderer · 3 months ago
Text
So I finished the latest story...
Tumblr media
This is pretty horrifying from a cookie's perspective. One of cookiekind's main forms of happiness is their ability to express their various colorful flavors/personality. I suppose it's the same thing as tripping a living human of their sentient and individuality. Ego death. Leaving behind hollow flesh
We be committing unspeakable crimes against nature with this one✨
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
We be crumbling our colleagues while slowly losing our mind with this one✨
On another note, "eyecing" make its glorious return. I have no memory of it being used before the Mystic Flour update. Can anyone point out the other times it was used, if there's any?
Tumblr media
????!!!!! OMG HIIII
MORE CJ PAWLIKOWSKI VOICE ACTING YES YES YES
Tumblr media
Don't do it, don't give me hope...
I know he's the last to be released u don't need to tease me like that
Tumblr media
So the other-space here clearly refer to the Dark side of the Moon, right? Is there any other-space I don't know about? Also, I guess this confirmed Shadow Milk is the only one able to do this astral projection thing. On one hand, it increases his chance of appearing a bit more before his own update, on the other hand, we most likely won't see the other Beasts having any talking-role any time soon
Tumblr media Tumblr media
The implications here...
So the Beasts may likely have their own voices of their Light just like the Ancients does. And "Soul Jam"... Without an (s), Shadow Milk is specifically referring to his Soul Jam here, I can't believe my headcanon of the Light of Deceit/Knowledge whispering things to him is becoming true
It's a thing unique to Shadow Milk and not the other Beasts too. Interesting how both the voices of the Light of Truth and Deceit operate differently from the other Lights' (referring to the theory that the Light of Truth have never make an actual appearance since all instances of it in-game were all Shadow Milk's disguise)
Tumblr media
... Clownage. Whelp! time to integrate that into my daily vocabulary!
Tumblr media
Alright, so we got confirmation Smilk is not only aware of Dark Enchantress' plans but he's actively helping her out. Whenever he's oblivious to her other, secret plans (stealing the Beasts' Soul Jams) or he's aware and already have a counter measures to it though, is still up in the air.
My money is on the latter. Shadow Milk have shown time and time again he's way more knowledgeable than he let on. The way Dark Enchantress was depicted in his previous "play" does show us a certain level of... Appreciation(?) but who's to say he actually trusts her? It really does feel like a "I rub your back if you rub mine and then we'll backstab each other" kind of deal. Now I'm curious about the other Beasts' opinions on Dark Enchantress as well.
Where's Dark Enchantress anyways? We haven't seen her make any on-screen appearance in a while. I, um, I missed her a lot actually. I missed the diabolical meema
Tumblr media
Laughing at Wind Archer cookie repeatedly telling Smilk to stfu from the moment they've met. He's saying what we've all been thinking
Also laughing at Shadow Milk basically only here to make cryptic riddles and mocks our Wind Archer. He really does have nothing better to do lol
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Yeah that's right, FRIENDSHIP will save the day!
For real tho, tons of intriguing implications about the Ultimate Cookie with this one. I gotta mulls over them for awhile...
Tumblr media Tumblr media
GUYS NEW SMILK'S SPRITE JUST DROPPED
HE'S ROLLING HIS EYES. HE'S SO DONE I'M DEAD
Tumblr media
"In conclusion, this changed nothing!"
Kidding, kidding! I was getting real worried for Wind Archer there despite knowing full-well it's not crk's style to let something happen to a character unless they're a minor villain or an elderly *grinding my teeth trying not to bring up Elder Faerie again oops too late-*
The unexpected yet sweet moment of empathy Wind Archer have toward the Ultimate Cookie combined with the stunning animation toward the end were definitely my favorite part of this little adventure. Although I half-expected for him to have his magical girl transformation like White Lily and Dark Cacao right then and there-
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
"Beast-Yeast EP 5 coming soon to theaters near you! Remember to stay tuned, mkay? Okie dokie? Pinkie promiseee?"
114 notes · View notes
yubnubforhire · 1 year ago
Text
I’ve seen a lot of people decry criticism of the rwrb movie as simply either homophobic or anti-cringe, with the statement ‘let queer people have our cringe rom-coms’ a common defense. This idea is flawed for many reasons, not least of which being that this movie is like… barely queer. Sure it’s about a queer couple, but that’s about where it stops.
First off there’s the blatant bi erasure, with no discussion of Nora’s sexuality, no June/Nora/Pez, the word bisexual only being used once or twice in the whole movie, etc. Second off is the complete lack of queer education or community: where is Alex learning about the gay lib movement and feeling like he understands something new, deep within himself? Where is Henry talking about his role amongst the erased queer figures of the past? Where are the crowds supporting both of them, in the US and the UK? (the scene at buckingham where you don’t even see the crowd felt so cheap) Where was Amy’s role as queer elder and protector? Where was Luna, and Alex’s realization as to why he looked up to him so much and why his betrayal hurt so bad? Where was Alex realizing he and Liam had actually ‘had a thing’ when they were younger, and reconnecting with him as someone who can fully be himself? Where was all the support when they got outed? Where the fuck was Catherine? Where were Bea and Catherine fighting for them during the confrontation at buckingham? Movie!firstprince feel so isolated and without community, which is just SO not the world CMQ created in the book.
More broadly, the movie just felt so shallow. I completely understand the need for adaptation and translation to a new medium, but so many of the things they changed either lower the stakes or remove them entirely. Bea is a non-character, with no depth or backstory. Nora only exists to tell Alex to fuck Henry. Pez gets all of one line in the entire movie. June does not exist, which should completely change things because Alex does not act like the only/eldest child of the POTUS. We never really see the emails and a lot of them are adapted to onscreen dialogue, so what exactly was leaked? Why are they called the Waterloo letters? No one watching the movie alone will know. Who leaked them? I figure the movie implies it was Miguel, but then why have Richards be a character at all? CMQ was making a point with the Richards/Luna story, and the movie having a new side character as the “villain” is just… so disappointing. We don’t see any of the scenes of Henry acknowledging how fucked up the monarchy is (other than a few throwaway jokes), the comparison to the Empire, any of the Bea storyline, or him trying to avoid military service and renounce his royal inheritance, so the one line towards the end when movie!Henry has an outburst about the monarchy being antiquated is just completely unearned and comes out of nowhere.
They kept the line where Oscar tells Alex that ‘sometimes you just have to jump and hope it’s not a cliff’ but it’s now completely devoid of the context— that line is about Oscar telling Alex he doesn’t regret getting together with Ellen, no matter how it ended. It doesn’t work the same if Oscar and Ellen are still happily married! (Justice for Leo also tbh)
In the confrontation at Buckingham, the king (don’t get me started on the things they changed to avoid comparisons to queen liz) still suggests to Henry that they should claim the leaks are deepfakes and deny it, but Alex already gave the live televised speech in the movie timeline! It’s out already! The entire scene with the king honestly just does not work if Alex has already made the speech. Also side note, there’s absolutely no way in turbohell that Alex would make that speech without talking to Henry first.
There’s so much more I could talk about, from more script shenanigans to the Pip of it all, but this is honestly already way too long. All I want to say now is that it’s obviously everyone’s prerogative to like a movie or not, and nothing anyone else says should change the way you personally feel about a piece of art. That does not mean, however, that any criticism of said art is incorrect or unwarranted. You can like something and still acknowledge its flaws. And no, cringiness is not this movie’s main flaw.
261 notes · View notes
modernday-orpheus · 1 year ago
Text
Okay, hear me out. If Tim idolized Batman instead of Robin, Bruce would be dead.
Disclaimer: I am not perfect and don't know everything there is to know about comics! Some shit here may be accidentally based on fanon rather than canon! Please be nice!
Tim, of course, respects and looks up to Batman. Bruce is his mentor and his father, so it's safe to assume he loves him as well. But his Hero™ is and always has been Robin, Dick at first but especially Jason judging by the timeline. Most people in Gotham view Robin as an addendum, an extra, nothing more than a kid sidekick. They’re disappointed if her shows up without Batman, and question his abilities. Tim’s hero worship combined with his knowledge of their identities, in this case, allows him to see things as they truly are. For Tim, Robin is a light in the dark, a balancing act with Batman, not his sidekick but his partner. He’s a necessary part of the Dynamic Duo because while Batman represents Justice, Robin represents this Hope for a better future. Sure, he’s just a kid; by all accounts he shouldn’t even be out there fighting, but maybe, if he is, no other kids won’t have to fight as hard just to survive. He represents the soul of Gotham, underneath the criminality and corruption; a city full of people, tough-as-nails, saying “No, fuck you, this is our city” despite the constant danger. He represents the people who come together in times of crisis, who help out their neighbors when each new disaster strikes. He’s trained in martial arts, of course, and he’s a skilled fighter, but Robin’s primary job is always the safety of civilians. He’s the one that gets scared little kids out of a burning building while Batman keeps the villain of the week busy, the one who stays behind with SA victims walks them home because Batman is too much for those things. He uses fear where Robin uses kindness, compassion, and love.
Tim sees this. So, when Robin dies and Batman is getting rougher, more violent, more careless, he notices. He notices that Bruce is picking bigger fights than he can handle, taking hits he could dodge, breaking four ribs instead of two, barely making it back to the manor each night. If he idolized Bruce, at this point, he would trust him the way the rest of Gotham does. He would assume it was a rough patch, and Bruce would recover, and that Batman would always save the day. He would see a solitary hero, the way Batman wants to be seen. He wouldn’t think it necessary to reach out to Dick for help, and even if he did he would think Nightwing would be enough help. He wouldn’t understand the importance of the Robin mantle, the specific role that needs to be filled. Nightwing can represent a lot of things; fluidity, positive change, and freedom come to mind immediately, but there's no world where Nightwing represents Gotham and Hope the same way Robin does. He can’t serve the same purpose anymore, not in that uniform. Bruce would die at Two-Face’s hands in that very first arc, I have not a single doubt in my mind.
Then, as Tim comes back to Gotham post-training and actually starts to help out, it’s common for him to be the conscience. He falls easily into the role of Robin, the role that makes him protector of the innocent. He’s not like Jason, raised by these streets in a very different way, though I wouldn’t say either is better or worse. Where Jason struggled and had to fight, out there each night pre-Bruce out of necessity rather than choice. He knows all the best hiding spots and back-alleys because it kept him alive. He chooses to be Robin because he needed a hero and wants to be that for other people. Tim chose those streets, and he chose them for Robin. He knows the best hiding spots because they put him closer to the action, because he raised himself on all those cold nights alone on rooftops with his camera. He knows the back-alleys because they made him faster, made it so his little kid legs could keep up with his hero so he wouldn’t miss a moment. He lives for Gotham nights, for the thrill of seeing everything, getting to know everything. He chooses to be Robin because where his parents failed to teach him how to be a good person, Robin stepped up. He bases his morals off of watching Robin help people, and because he’s a kid he assumes that it’s normal to behave with altruistic intentions and prioritize others.
There’s a point to be made here, briefly, about how this lends itself to Tim’s self-worth issues and insecurities. If his job is to assist, supplement, guide, and fill in the blanks when Batman fails, he doesn’t have the option of failure. He expects that how he does his job, as long as the job gets done, doesn’t matter because he doesn’t view himself as the hero. He never views himself as a main character in his own story; he truly thinks he’s doing what anyone else in his position would gladly do. This is why he overworks himself, why he’s known for living, for lack of a better term “like a goddamn ninja turtle”. It’s why he’s always Robin or Red Robin or even his public persona Timothy Drake-Wayne but rarely Just Tim. Very few people get to see Just Tim, normal Tim, because if they’re seeing that then he’s not doing his job.
All of these factors lead to Tim’s conclusion that if no one else can get Batman out of this state, least of all Batman himself, of course the next logical conclusion is that it’s his responsibility to step up and do the job. Furthermore, it’s only because he idolized Robin that he can fill the role properly because his relationship to Bruce, especially in the beginning, is nothing like Dick and Jason’s relationships with Bruce. He’s not his kid, doesn’t bring Robin’s joy and hope home, so instead he has to work twice as hard in the field to keep Bruce away from the edge. He’s the first of the Robins to view himself as Batman’s protector rather than the other way around, and he’s the only one who Bruce acknowledges when he tries to fill that role. Bruce accepts it when Tim manages him, reorganizes his files, forces him into the medbay, even when he very occasionally goes as far as to outright scold him rather than just pressure him to make the right choices. He’s given an inch and takes a mile, because he believes (rightfully, in my opinion) that if he doesn't then all hope is lost. And Bruce allows him to help, to guide, as much as he’s willing to because he’s not his kid first. He’s Robin first.
This mentality carries over to the Red Robin arc, where Tim spends an entire year chasing after Bruce to save him. He does it alone, and although he asks for help he doesn’t actually expect it. Furthermore, because his morals are based off of Robin in his infinite altruism rather than Batman with his rigid rules, he doesn’t mind working with Ra’s al Ghul. He doesn’t mind betraying Ra’s by killing his men, by blowing up his bases. He doesn’t tell Bruce about it to protect Bruce from having another murderer under his roof, and because he doesn’t think it matters enough. Bruce isn’t surprised when Tim is the one to save him. I believe he would have been if any other Robin had shown up. He and Dick have had a strained relationship for years, he and Jason aren’t even on speaking terms, Stephanie was so often full of rage at him throughout her run as Robin and is dead at the time, and he doesn’t even really have a relationship with Damian. Aside from all of that, he’s assumed dead. He can’t assume the Justice League will spend their time saving a dead man. And yet, despite all of that, he isn’t surprised when Tim is the one to pull him out of the time stream. He’s disoriented, sure, and a little surprised it was possible for him to be saved at all, and he even wants to hear about how he figured it out, but his doubt is never placed on the fact that Tim would be the one to understand and tear the world apart to bring him home.
I believe this also helps to explain Tim’s struggle with letting go of the Robin mantle, outside of the fact that he was the first to have the choice to move on taken away from him. If he’s always been Robin first, always felt the weight of that on his shoulders, what is he supposed to do when his very identity is stripped away right as he loses everyone who got to really know him as Just Tim? How is he supposed to cope with having to reconstruct his own idea of who he is with no one around to remind him? Humans are social creatures. We learn and grow with and because of each other. He’s encouraged by Dick to grow quickly out of Robin to fill a new role, which is a nice sentiment from Dick’s own point of view, but he’s lacking a sturdy foundation. Not because it’s not actually there, or because he lacks personality or morals, but because he truly views himself and all of his good decisions as just what anybody would do and what Robin is supposed to do. He doesn’t consider that following these morals makes them his, makes them the building blocks for wherever he goes next, he considers them to be traits of a character he no longer plays; a purpose he no longer serves.
(This is the second time I've posted this, so if you see another version that's why!)
168 notes · View notes
glorianamultistan · 1 year ago
Text
Requested by @haocovr :- Ok so hiii. I would like to request a top Lee Jongsuk x bottom male reader. The reader is also a famous actor and they act as a psycho couple in the film "v.i.p". And in one scene in the early beginning things start to get kinda hot in the bts and they hook up frequently after that and are in a relationship. They are a super hot couple.
A Jongsuk request! Yas! I am sorry it took so much time; I hope this is up to the mark. I had never really watched that movie before but I watched it to write this.
Tumblr media
I do not own the pic.
Y/n was the glamorous villain of the industry, often his role won over the leads of the project he was involved in. There were times his character, no matter how evil, bigoted, and irredeemable, was not killed off in the drama/movie or given a merciless ending because the whole viewership was mesmerised by the charms with which he played that character.
He never had many fighting scenes, being petite he was always given the role of the strategist of the crime.
For Jongsuk this role was a new experience altogether. He had to practice a lot to get the facial expressions and tone of his voice right. Y/n, his partner in the film was doing great, so much so that often during the filming process Jongsuk had to reel back and remember that this is the same guy who brought homemade cupcakes and tea for the crew.
There was something so beguiling about those lips, eyes, and slithery hand movements that y/n's character did as his partner that Jongsuk was going insane with all the phantom touches that he felt running through his body late after the end of the shootings.
One day during the shooting of a brutal torture scene, Jongsuk was having trouble getting into the expressions as y/n, who came to support his fellow actors as he was not in the scene being shot, was wearing a satin shirt which was a bit too deep cut and all the glory of his body was on display for Jongsuk to have obsessive thoughts over.
After the shoot ended Jongsuk slipped away to meet y/n and found him sitting in his van with the gate open, sipping on what was most probably a milkshake.
'Ah! Hyung, what are you doing here!?' 'The shoot is over so I thought we could go out and have dinner somewhere nice.' Jongsuk's lowered gaze, trying to not look too deep into y/n's shirt made the younger blush. There has been a bit of tension between them since they did a makeout scene, it was shot too perfectly on the first try and since then, the other person has been craving more.
It is hard to forget the arms y/n felt around his waist under the sheets during the shoot, Jongsuk did not have to do it but he dipped them lower as if on instincts, and y/n arranged his legs around elder's waistband hands around his neck as easily as if wearing a familiar jacket.
Jongsuk, on the other hand, would have lost a bit of control if there weren't cameras around them.
'Let me inform my manager; he left just now to buy water.' 'You can wait here, I will bring my car; just give me a minute.'
While waiting for Jongsuk to come by y/n's manager returned with the water bottle and the actor informed him about leaving with Jongsuk.
'Should we prepare ourselves for dating articles?' 'Hyung! Why are you doing this!?' Y/n tried not to blush. 'Well, our pretty little guy has been hanging out with his partner from the movie, and anyone with eyes can not look at the scene you both shot in bed and say it was acting.' 'You have been reading too many fanfics again hyung. I asked you to start reading classics right?' 'Please y/n, I will continue later; here comes your date.'
Jongsuk got out of his car and opened the gate for y/n. 'Hi there, Jongsuk, I will be leaving him in your care tonight; please take him to his house before midnight; he has a shoot tomorrow.' 'Do not worry hyung, I will take good care of him.' 'Hello!? I am sitting right here, I have my own mind and voice? I WILL GO BACK WHEN I WANT!' 'Hyung, let's go, I am hungry.'
Jongsuk drove them to his house, and y/n was hot; he was not ready to step into the elder's house like this. Yet, here he was, sitting at the dining table having dinner with Jongsuk, in his house.
After dinner, both the actors were standing on the balcony and enjoying the view of the city. There was a comfortable silence between them.
'I should drive you back. You have a shoot tomorrow.' 'Let it be, I will get a cab; you should rest; you worked the whole day hyung.' 'I am completely fine to drive you back, really, let's go.' In the hall, as Jongsuk was putting on his jacket y/n blurted out without thinking 'What if I do not want to go back?' 'Oh... Then you can very well stay y/n; you should have just said that, I will show you the guest room, come.'
'No, I mean.' Y/n went closer to Jongsuk and held his jacket while looking down, 'I mean, I want to be with you, here.' 'I won't go away anywhere, y/n.' 'Hyung!' Y/n while stomping his foot and looking up to lock his lips with Jongsuk.
Jongsuk dropped the keys he was holding and put his arm around y/n's waist and a hand behind his head. The kiss deepened, Jongsuk easily entered the younger's mouth, and their tongues slid upon each other, then he started sucking so hard on the younger's tongue and lower lip that y/n moaned and lost his balance.
They were on the floor, y/n's legs spread, Jongsuk's breath and taste lingering in his mouth. 'That... was intense hah!' 'Fuck! Baby! I am not ready to let you go yet, can we please continue?' 'Yes, please yes hyung!'
They shifted to Jongsuk's bedroom, and through the night, y/n was pushed to his limits. He never knew how big the elder was and his rough, intense thrusts and bites all over the body, and the grips, literal kneading of skin, Jongsuk left no pleasure untouched.
The shoot the next day was canceled on the accords of y/n not feeling well. In reality, he was still in bed around 2pm, with Jongsuk all over him, playing with the marks he left.
When he reached his home his manager was already there. 'So?' 'Don't worry, we won't let it slip.' Y/n said as he flopped himself on the sofa. 'Yes! Finally! It was so bland to be your manager from the start. I was too free. I wanted you to have a life but you just never listened to me. Wow, I should treat Jongsuk.' 'What do you mean it was bland being my manager!? I gave you no drama to worry about hyung.' 'But hun, I NEEDED DRAMA!' 'Honestly hyung, I am tired, let me sleep then we will order something nice; you should rest too.'
After that night y/n and Jongsuk had been going to each other's house regularly to spend time together after shoots and they even went on a vacation after the shooting was wrapped up.
Soon, through the grapevine, many industry insiders got to know about two of the hottest actors being in a relationship and they were attending parties and events together. As the news broke out, it was supported by the agencies and that was the first time y/n had to face the hate train of antis.
Well, it did not bother him as so many of them got a legal notice from his and Jongsuk's company that they became famous as the 'no-nonsense couple' of the industry.
P.S.:- If you liked it, you can support me by buying me a coffee; link's on my page.
147 notes · View notes
tobyfoxmademeascaly · 4 months ago
Text
Dawntrail Postscript: What Do I Think Of It All, Anyways?
So, in the order of “whatever comes to my head first:
1. The new zones: the Yok Tural zones? No notes, they’re beautiful. The only complaint I can come up with is that upper Yak T’el might look a bit too similar to Kozama’uka. Xak Tural is, similarly, very distinct and nice to look at! (Even when its ugly on purpose i.e. Heritage Found)
Living Memory on the other hand… the thematic weight of it being shut down and all the lights going out are undeniable, but I really wish that the shut down state was less uniform. Why is everything made of electrope, with the exact same texture on most of the floors? The volcano island and the nature island still look decent while still holding that thematic weight, so they’d be decent middle grounds to look to. The water island in particular though suffers IMMENSELY from the depowered state just being like. The same few monochromatic electrope textures repeated across a large area.
2. The dungeons: despite only having one death across all the dungeons, hoo BOY was I feeling that increased difficulty. I had a great deal of fun with it, but I do wonder if this is quite the right move, since I’ve seen other people suffer a lot.
On the presentation level though, they’re pretty good! Some great setpieces, especially in Alexandria. Oh god, Alexandria. The gimmick of us running through basically the same place between each boss, as the beautiful Disney-Fantasyland town is reduced to ruins in apocalyptic lightning, is fantastic. And the creepy, mechanical voice getting more and more incoherent as Sphene erases her memories is such a great touch.
3. The scions: honestly. Hot take. I think the twins should have sat this one out. They’re very cute. I know. And its unbelievable for me, the number one leveilleur twins stan, to come to this conclusion. I know.
… But, well. How much do they do, really? Krile is obviously finally promoted to main character, G’raha is there to be Sphene’s character foil, Thancred and Urianger are there to be our rivals and aid Koana in his character development, and Y’shtola MUST enter the plot whenever a hint of the topic of the reflections come up. Estinien’s current role is perfect in its absurdity and I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Yeah, they say they’re here to gain experiences and knowledge that could help in the Garlemald restoration, but, well. Do they really? We don’t hear much of their opinions on how plot events inspire them. Maybe this will change in the patches. I hope so. As it currently stands, the twins feel like they’re in the sour spot between background character and main character.
Zoraal Ja: his post-heel-turn design is SUCH a glow-down. His first design is decked in shining gold and bold green and orange accents and it makes SUCH a good palette against his blue scales. To say nothing of that voluminous feathered crown. So it feels disappointing that he was changed to just various shades of purple with usb sticks stuck to his head.
He made a good enough villain for the second act, but there’s just a bit missing from his character to really make it a Great instead of the Pretty Good it is. Namely, why did he have Gulool Ja? (And also how. He’s the only mamool ja we see in all of Alexandria. My bets are still on either “mamool ja can do parthenogenesis” or “some mad science cloning”). Its a big question that I’m surprised we don’t already have an answer to.
Queen Sphene: This woman has caused me physical harm and I’m only joking a little bit. When I first got into Heritage Found, I was so suspicious of her that I managed to give myself nausea. And to see everybody in the Outskirts seem so happy, despite their entire world being replaced by a dystopian-looking lightning-blasted landscape well within living memory…
Well, I felt like I was going nuts.
(Maybe that’s Alisaie’s ultimate role in the expansion. To make me feel less like I was being gaslit.)
I’m… still not sure what to make of her, actually. She’s obviously quite similar to Emet-Selch and Meteion in terms of story role. Maybe a bit too similar. (We even have the opportunity to make a BACK IN THE DAYS OF PARADISE joke again.) It feels like she tries and fails to meet those lofty standards rather than getting to stand on her own as an antagonist.
Wuk Lamat: oh that’s The Big One, isn’t it. Opinions seem very mixed. Sometimes for understandable reasons, often for absolutely bullshit ones. As for where I stand?
I like her! I was admittedly charmed at first because she reminded me of my own cat, Spooky (she’s got big ol’ eyes, a bigger stomach, and, initially, a fraidy-cat disposition). Her Power Of Friendship antics are great, her exuberance and earnestness charm me, and her and Namikka’s scene in Living Memory legit got me tearing up. She’s silly, she’s pretty, I love her.
Closing thoughts: I won’t lie. This expansion doesn’t live up to the shadowbringers/endwalker duology for me. But, like, of course it doesn’t. I didn’t expect it to. The last two expansions were lightning-in-a-bottle levels of blow-me-away! Nobody bats a hundred, and I think this is a decent enough start to the next major arc. Though there’s one thing bugging me majorly. The first half of the expansion, we have so much focus on the cultures of Tural. How they work together, how important it is to preserve them and their histories. Then, in the second half, we have a whole town subsumed by Alexandria’s displacement via dimensional fusion, needing to change rapidly to not perish in the lightning-blasted landscape. They’ve changed massively, but nobody seems to care. Everyone just says that all the changes made to the town were willing, and that’s the end of it.
Meanwhile, Solution Nine shows no signs of adopting any aspects of the Turalis’ culture except maybe that bit of environmental graffiti depicting a two-headed mamool ja. There’s not even cyber-future taco shops.
i’m praying that this gets expanded on in sidequests and the patches, because otherwise that feels like a BIG thematic hole.
… wait hold on we went the whole expansion without krile teasing alphinaud about her getting to be a pictomancer instead of him. 0/10 (joke)
16 notes · View notes
otherworldseekers · 2 years ago
Text
Pandaemonium thoughts: Themis (and those other guys too I guess)
Oops almost forgot to put this under a read more. 
Tumblr media
/L;KND;FOLAIJKWENR;KLGIJB;KWEJURBG
They really fed us a Themis Feast, didn’t they?
But across the board the character development that culminated in this patch was just astounding. Even more so because Themis, Lahabrea and Erichthonios are not just long dead characters. In this patch they are facsimiles of long dead characters. Technically, there is no character growth possible. And yet throughout the quests our understanding of those characters grows leaps and bounds. 
Tumblr media
Lahabrea who we knew previously only as a cackling madman has gone through several transformations along the course of Pandaemonium. From respected leader but terrible father to a man who made mistakes because of a tainted love and denies himself in an attempt to prevent further errors, to a man who acknowledges and accepts his failures and strives to move forward. This Lahabrea we meet in the end has finally embraced Erichthonios and his role as father, but fully admits that duty to the star comes before everything. 
Tumblr media
Unlike Emet-Selch, he is not at all surprised to hear about what he becomes as an Ascian. He has no illusions about how far he would go for his duty. Perhaps that is why as Ascians, Emet-Selch and Lahabrea seem to have disliked each other. Emet maintains the fiction that what he is doing is noble because he is doing it for his people. Lahabrea knows perfectly well what he is doing is evil, but willingly walks the path in the name of his duty to the star because that is what he has sworn to do. 
I think it’s so interesting and appropriate how, as opposed to Emet-Selch and Elidibus, they didn’t go the route of making Lahabrea very sympathetic. While, naturally, he’s not a villain in Pandaemonium, he embraces the reality of his villainy without regrets. It’s a fascinating take and I think it helps to balance out what they did with the other Unsundered. 
Tumblr media
Erichthonios. I had no idea when we met him how he would ultimately impact me. He’s just this guy when you first meet him. Then he’s this guy with daddy issues. Then he’s this guy with mommy issues. And it’s not until this patch that you get to learn how he truly came into his own. 
That moment when he faces Athena is so good, perfectly showcasing how Erich has learned to accept himself and has found what is really important to him. He grew so much throughout Pandaemonium and it’s in large part to what a difference the WoL made to him. How the WoL inspired him. 
Tumblr media
It was the WoL who he looked to, who gave him the strength to find himself and his true family. And it’s the WoL who he is thinking of at the end of everything. It’s moments like this, when the game shows us the difference that our characters make in the lives of others, that I think make FFXIV really special. 
Tumblr media
Themis. There’s so much I want to say about Themis. First, omg SE thank you so much for my life for giving him voice acting. Non MSQ quests NEVER get voice acting and they did it anyway. I was screaming. I love his voice so much. (Note: I play with Japanese voices and he’s voiced by possibly my absolute favorite seiyuu: Ishida Akira.) His voice is so perfect. I love it. 
Ok so, Themis. OMG. I am just in awe. The writing for his character has always been good, but this patch just blew me away. Right away you can feel that things are off. His speech and mannerisms are not quite what they were in the first two tiers. And we learn this is because Athena took his memories from the aetherial sea after his death. And though, as he later tells us, all memories but those of Pandaemonium are hazy, he is still a Themis who has experienced those things and those experiences are part of him. This is such a truly unique version of him. Because he is, mostly, his Pandaemonium, pre-Sundering self. He has his youth and the feelings of those times, hope for the future, in addition to love and responsibility for his people and the Convocation. But he’s also the Elidibus we came into conflict with. He knows what’s going to happen to him. He knows who we really are. And I was absolutely mesmerized by how well they conveyed all these nuanced in his mannerisms, actions and dialogue. 
And it’s actually a really neat way to solve the problem of Elidbus’ soul being spent in EW to send up to Elpis. Which suggested that there would be no cohesive Elidibus soul ever again. But here we have Athena basically gathering the fragments of his soul together from the Aetherial Sea and doing a good job of it too. 
Tumblr media
The fight. It was absolute perfection. The beauty of the Convocation room. Themis’ true transformation. THE MUSIC. I have been listening to Fleeting Moment non-stop (I am listening to it now) and I could make a whole post just talking about it. It is probably my favorite version of the Amaurot theme now. The emotion in it. *clenches fist* AHHHH it’s so good.
After the fight, Themis admits that it is his interest in the WoL and the desire to know their nature that Athena exploited to bring him under her sway. This is curious since personally I didn’t get that impression from him in the previous tiers. I’m sure he was curious about us, but I never felt as though this was a driving desire in him, the way it clearly is with Ananaseios Themis. No, I think this is something that comes, at least in part, from the Elidibus we in the future. 
Other highlights:
Tumblr media
HE’S GOING TO CHERISH EVERY MOMENT WITH US. And I perish.
Tumblr media
A reminder that Themis is a badass. Enough to be recognized and respected by all 13 other members of the Convocation. 
And naturally: 
Tumblr media
This whole scene was incredible. I love that it’s just him and us. I love that they allow us to be sad about him fading away. That he clearly wants to tell us these things. Wants us to understand that our relationship has purpose and meaning. That he can be content to have played his part in the salvation of the star and his soul can be at rest. 
Every single line of this scene is packed with emotion and meaning. (I absolutely cried.) But what comes after is even more packed with potential significance.
Tumblr media
How fascinating, the truths that dwell at the edge of sleep. 
The course of history is set by its victors. It is immutable. And yet...
Should this star continue upon its path...
Look... The light...
This is most certainly a set up for 7.0 and I am FOAMING AT THE MOUTH TO KNOW MORE. WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN TO THE STAR?? At the end there, is that Themis being reincarnated?? ARE WE GOING TO GET TO MEET REINCARNATED THEMIS?? 
I imagine that would upset a lot of people who are tired of Ancients and Ascians and want them all gone, but fuck those people. If anyone deserves a second chance, surely it must be Themis. He gave so much and got nothing but suffering for it. 
But the possibility also raises some interesting questions about what an Unsundered reincarnated into the Source would be like. 
I feel like I could easily say more but this is already long enough. Anyway, Pandaemonium was amazing. 
83 notes · View notes
regallibellbright · 2 years ago
Text
Okay so that post about tragedies in video games bounced off some neurons and my thinking yesterday about Dragon Quest Builders 2, and a thought finally cohered there, so let’s talk about Dragon Quest Builders 2 and dramatic irony with our BFF, the God of Destruction!
Okay. So Dragon Quest Builders 2 works off the setup of Dragon Quest 2, where a cult of monsters called the Children of Hargon (named for their high priest) are menacing humanity. It’s mentioned, literally once or twice before the final battle, that Hargon is specifically trying to bring about the coming of his evil god Malroth, who he summons as the final boss of the game. This is about all the characterization and build-up Malroth gets, and his design is an evil six-legged dragon with a big skull necklace. He’s not very memorable. But, since he’s a god of DESTRUCTION specifically, it fits really nicely into the idea of Dragon Quest Builders. Builders in this series are tied to any act of crafting and creation - making a house is building, but so is making medicine or cooking. Farming is an aspect of building, outlawed under monster rule along with the rest, because these acts are tied specifically to humanity. The premise of the game is bringing hope back to the world by reintroducing humans to the art of making things. So Builders 2 establishes that destruction is therefore something heavily associated with monsters and monster culture, and as a builder, you represent their opposite. The game starts with Hargon already defeated and a straggling ship of monsters kidnapping you (an apprentice Builder) and some other villagers to execute you in revenge for the cult, Hargon, and the Master of Destruction’s demise.
And then, this is not a spoiler, it makes that Master of Destruction your best friend.
The tutorial of the game has you trying to fix the ship before it sinks in a storm (because good, devout monsters can’t build, but if the ship sinks, they drown too.) It fails, and you wake up on a desert island with a strange young man named Malroth. He has amnesia and likes breaking things and fighting. He tags along after you for almost the entire game. If you destroy a certain kind of block so you can use it, he’ll break more just like it. If you attack a monster that’s not inherently hostile for their item drops, he’ll go out and fight more slimes. He’s stronger and tougher than you as the PC, and most importantly, he draws aggro for the hostile monsters. Mechanically, a lot of the weaknesses of the first game are addressed just by giving you this buddy NPC to help with combat and resource gathering. Since the actual player character is silent, Malroth also fills the traditional role of “companion character who reacts and repeats your presumed reactions so the developers don’t write dialogue for the Player Insert”. When you achieve something, like leveling up or completing a significant build, the two of you high-five. He’s always there, and the player is happy for it rather than annoyed.
And, at least in the English version (the Japanese version apparently uses an alternate kana reading of his name for NPC Malroth that could, conceivably, be an actual person’s name rather than the one used for the boss, but since the game establishes pretty quickly that Malroth has ominous dreams and sometimes hears a voice no one else can who talks about how he’ll awaken soon - and I think even calls him by his title outright, at least in English - I don’t think it’s left much of a mystery in the original, either, especially as the game makes sure to drop the evil god’s name early for anyone who didn’t play DQ2,) the mystery is not “Who is Malroth.” We all know he’s clearly the Master of Destruction reborn. Maybe the English localization could have nicknamed him “Mal”, but frankly I doubt it would have been convincing. They got saddled with one of the most Transparently A Fantasy Villain names imaginable, but honestly even if there WAS supposed to be a genuine mystery around Malroth, I think they lucked out here because I think it works better this way.
The characters don’t know what we do. The game establishes that only the higher-ups of Hargon’s cult know the True Name of the Master of Destruction. It’s dramatic irony, and it’s great. We know that eventually the truth will come out and the Master of Destruction part will almost certainly be reborn, because this is a video game, but we’ve gotten attached to our Destruction God BFF. Again, he makes the game better mechanically just by existing. When there’s inevitably a section where the two of you get separated, shortly before the internal reveal, you REALLY miss his presence. We don’t want to fight him, and we don’t want him to be subsumed by his evil god alterego. But as we get more skilled at building, he gets more skilled at destroying. We know we’re tied onto this log that’s about to go over a waterfall, and we are powerless to stop it, and knowing that he’s the final boss does nothing to stop us from getting attached. I love this. It’s great.
It also helps that the game has an actual mystery, one that it doesn’t start dropping heavy hints about early on. You know that the Children of Hargon were defeated and their leaders are dead, so how have you ended up in an archipelago where they still have control over the land and have subjugated humans? The answer here is genuinely a cool reveal, and plays into a neat little sequence from DQ2. I like it. THAT mystery is framed as a mystery, given just enough hints it still makes sense on replay while not being telegraphed. But I really do think it’s better in this case that we know who Malroth is, because it lets us feel that dread as the game progresses and we’re still getting attached to him anyway.
In conclusion: Dragon Quest Builders 2. I love it. It was my game of the year in 2019 and it was what finally got me to start writing a little again when there were a few lingering plot threads I wanted addressed, and then the game gave a free update that addressed them! I am happy.
130 notes · View notes
mya-valentine · 1 month ago
Note
What if Mr. Compress was dating Carmilla Carmine from Hazbin Hotel?
Headcanon: Mr. Compress Dating Carmllia Carmine
A/N: I had no idea what I was doing when writing this but I hope you like it😂 This made me wanna rewatch Hazbin Hotel
Tumblr media
HEAR ME OUT. Mr. Compress plans a date night where he takes Carmilla to a high-stakes, underground auction for rare artifacts and high-end antiques. He uses his quirk to steal items from right under the auctioneer’s nose while they’re on display, turning it into a thrilling show for Carmilla.
She’s delighted, watching with amusement as Mr. Compress slips his prizes away in plain sight. But she’s not content to sit on the sidelines—she insists on getting involved, using her speed and strength to distract any guards who might get too close. Together, they pull off the heist as a power couple, each playing their role flawlessly.
Carmilla likes to remind him that she’s just as captivating and unpredictable as he is, if not more. They’d constantly challenge each other, testing limits and keeping their relationship exciting, like a never-ending chess game where neither of them truly “loses.”
Mr. Compress finds out about a new weapon prototype that could be a threat to them both and proposes a heist to Carmilla. He’d outline a complex plan using his misdirection abilities, while Carmilla brings a fierce approach, suggesting they simply “take what’s ours” with brute force.
They reach a compromise by combining their strategies: Mr. Compress will act as a decoy, creating diversions and illusions, while Carmilla unleashes her powers to intimidate and subdue anyone who gets in their way. This blend of careful planning and Carmilla’s raw strength makes them a deadly duo.
In private, Mr. Compress might drop his performative demeanor slightly, enjoying moments where they’re alone and can just be themselves. He appreciates Carmilla’s boldness and how she doesn’t flinch in the face of danger, while Carmilla enjoys the mystery he brings, fascinated by his control over his quirk and his polished charisma.
For Mr. Compress, he might reveal some of the struggles he’s faced as a villain, and Carmilla would admire his resilience, sharing her own ambition to rise above her current place. These moments would be rare, but they’d deepen their bond.
When they’re cornered by enemies—maybe heroes or demons from Hell—Carmilla gets protective, her vampiric instincts flaring up to shield Mr. Compress. She might unleash a terrifying display of her strength and speed, warning their opponents to back off.
Mr. Compress would use this opportunity to support her, creating distractions with illusions and disappearing valuable items that could otherwise be used against them. Their teamwork in combat would be seamless, each knowing when to support or take the lead. This balance of power solidifies their loyalty to each other.
After a particularly successful night, Mr. Compress might compliment Carmilla on her prowess, praising her strength and style. She’d brush it off at first, maybe rolling her eyes, but deep down, she’d love the admiration.
Carmilla would return the favor by boosting his ego too, telling him how no one else could pull off such a flawless performance. The two would thrive off of each other’s compliments, forming a connection based on mutual respect and admiration for each other’s unique strengths.
.
.
.
Masterlist
Tumblr media
4 notes · View notes
morievna · 1 year ago
Text
BSD 108 – Will DoA arc be like Avengers Infinity War & Endgame?
Hello~~~
Omg this chapter was sooo delicious – me Fyodor stan having time of my life xD His performance and his final words mocking Sigma was 10000/10 – he is truly fascinating and complex villain, I love him xD
OK, let’s get serious XDD
For some time I was wondering how Asagiri intends to finish this arc... Everything indicate that it will end soon, but at the same time given how OP Fukuchi and Fyodor are in their respective fields – some deus ex machina for ADA to win would be unsatisfactory to me honestly. Initially I thought that Bram or Aku will take over and regain control of all vampires and stop Fukuchi, but… after this chapter looks like there is no time for that xD
So I think DOA’s plan won’t be stopped at all, but they will achieve what they want just like Thanos in Avengers Infinity War.
Tumblr media
By this I mean that DOA will succeed and create temporary reality – first using One Order to destabilize current world and then using the Book to create new one without abilities. Symbolically, destruction and rebirth always go hand in hand and you can’t have one without another.
Then we will get time skip and Endgame equivalent – our characters living in new world and getting that something is wrong and need to be changed. Maybe reality without abilities would not be so peaceful, who would have guessed that xD Also maybe there will be some rip-off effect of changing reality or some enemy will appear, who guards canon timeline xD Possibilities are endless – it just depends on what Asagiri has in mind and what story he wants to tell.
After all, the core of the story is that abilities are not source of evil and are just part of everyone’s self as projection of fear/greed/anger/and so on. Though world without abilities would be tempting to some characters, which abilities were partly source of suffering - like to Atsushi, who was hesitating whether DOA plan should be stopped. But still, negative traits are still part of everybody and they just need to be balanced by good ones and choices to be better person.
Tumblr media
Other random thoughts related to chapter:
Fyodor’s seizure to words ‘help me’ didn’t look fake and it reminded me of how N tried to take control of Verlaine in SB. But I guess it was just temporary and Fyodor regained control and used it to fool Sigma. Ofc it can be that he faked all - we will see if there is more to it or not. Btw I still believe that Fyodor’s backstory is akin to Verlaine or Chuuya – that he was tampered artificially by military to get powerful ability and he started to resent world and abilities because of that. Personality disorder would be indeed cliché and it was already done once in 55 Minutes LN, so I hope that Asagiri has something more interesting for Fyodor in store.
Gogol where are you 👀 I wonder if he is author of the note and that he simply wanted to sabotage Fyodor xD he is character with much potential, I hope he wasn’t just in this arc to set up duel between Dazai and Fyodor in this arc
Me Bram confusion😵 previous chapter pretty set up Bram rejecting passivity and trying to fight for Aya’s future. But this one kinda backed out of this, so I am not really sure where his arc is leading to for now xD but maybe some heroic act later on
Tumblr media
Though depending on how things will go - self-sacrifice will suit Fukuchi or Mori too as a way to undo their wrongdoings. Again, possibilities are endless.
Fukuzawa’s state – still I would say it is 50/50 given how healing abilities work whether Asagiri needs character to live or not. Nonetheless, I was expecting his death for a while and it is more plausible option for story sake – Ranpo just needs some character development and Asagiri often use mentor’s death for that. Imo Kunikida as next ADA director was red herring and Ranpo fits better for that role given Agency’s orgin.
Btw i don’t think Sigma will die.
Ofc, it is just speculation and I am not 100% sure that story will go that way, since BSD tends to be so unpredictable. But imo Asagiri didn’t recently mention for no reason that he was inspired by Avengers and that ideally he wants one more season for anime too xD
Thanks for reading and have a nice day 💖💖
22 notes · View notes
number1villainstan · 8 months ago
Note
Ok, so, I have a random question and it’s something that’s been bugging me for a while but I don’t know how to go about figuring it out so I decided I’d ask you cos I know it’s something you can probably know more about.
Would you say that from a meta standpoint, that Doktor Blutwurst is a good character? Like, his canonical backstory and how he is as a villain and such, would you say he’s a good character? Not likeable but well written/well executed I suppose.
Take your time answering this, there’s no rush.
Hmm, that is a good question. I'm not sure if I'd say he's a well-fleshed out character, especially because a lot of the tropes surrounding his backstory are kind of overused for cheap sympathy plays and because we see very little of him, but I'd definitely say he's the most character lmao
Okay, so--Blutwurst's role in the story is as an antagonist, obviously, but we can get more specific than that. The main emotions that Blutwurst's depiction in-game are meant to evoke are disgust and hatred; outside the diary entries that insinuate he was raised in an abusive household, he's never presented as sympathetic or kind or fair or with any sort of redeeming quality. The game gives him no charisma, not like Hax. To this end, the game not only shows him engaging in undeniably harmful acts and conduct, but also uses a variety of common (fatphobic, ableist, probably racist too) tropes to establish him as a "gross villain" right off the bat. I won't get into them right now, but I will say that these tropes seem to convince the average player to hate and be disgusted by Blutwurst pretty quickly.
(It bears saying right now that you and I, Horizon, are not average players/viewers--we're living a lot of the things those bigoted tropes are based on and know that That's Not How It Works, and we can use ourselves and our life experience as reference to figure out what's going on inside Blutwurst's head. In other words, he's more sympathetic to us than he is to the average viewer because we share certain traits with him.)
In the sense of doing what he's supposed to do, providing a Hate Sink for the player, then yeah he does a pretty good job for the average player, even though the designers used bigoted tropes to do it. In the sense of being well-fleshed-out or realistic, not so much--but then again, as a general rule, Hate Sinks generally aren't very well-fleshed-out, because knowing a character's backstory tends to make the average player hate them less. I hope that answers the question?
4 notes · View notes
beatricehawthorne · 3 months ago
Note
Hey! It’s me again! I notice you like Code Geass too!
Actually in my Narnian/Ransom Trilogy fanfiction multiverse and I have a reimagined Code Geass AU as well
Code Geass: Lelouch of The Knighthood which is mostly inspired by Prince Caspian
It exists as an alternate earth which like the D.Gray-Man world shares a singularity which is The Birth,Death, and Resurrection of Christ which redeemed all worlds
In it Suzaku was framed for his parents assassination and his memories rewritten as a child, this was the work along other political figures throughout the world getting assassinated(including Marianne along with Lelia and Empress Tianzi’s parents) in a satanic conspiracy of The Geass Order lead by Vincent(insert Freemason joke here) under their service to “The Usurper of Geass” who’s implied to be Satan/Tash/The Bent One
Soon this leads to Charles own death when he regrets what he’s done and finds out about Mary’s death being part of the cults plan and is about to tell the public and Schnizel taking over with a satanic mockery of Geass with the aid of V.V. to continue the scheme
Here Aslan/Christ appears as cloaked and masked figure “The Master of Geass” son of “The Infinite One” and through whom “The Geass Specter” proceed through
And the Keeper of Space Time is the Oyarsa of this world if your familiar with The Ransom/Space Trilogy
Geass in this case is the configuration of “Deep Magic” of This World and given how C’s world works, it can kinda be how the communion of Saints manifests itself in this world and tragedy befalls only to those who try to bend it to their will rather than submitting to the Master, kinda was inspired by The Magician’s Nephew
Basically Lelouch and Co make better choices(there’s still drama and conflict mind you!) and their major goal is to get Nunally seated as Empress and stop The Ragnarok Connection which is far more demonic in this AU
I’m just thinking how Aslan would get to Lelouch, Suzaku, and Kaplan with their bitterness and sorrows. Lelouch definitely needs work with the wounds of betrayal, and hoo boy is Jesus not unfamiliar with betrayal and suffering
That's a lot information to digest so I took my time thinking and answering this ask. I must say you put a lot of mind and efforts into this fanfiction of yours. Such enthusiasm is admirable, so keep up with it and don't let what I share next be a guide to your brainstorming and world-building. I believe one remains a better judge for one's own writing, for good or for bad.
I have zero knowledge on the Ransom Trilogy, so little can I contribute on details related to it. I do love Code Geass, though; so I can share a bit.
In my opinion, Code Geass is a story about the battle of philosophy and ideologies which ends with the triumph of the protagonist's, Lelouch's, idea, which bears the closest resemblance to Christianity. Unlike his father Charles or his brother Schneizel, Lelouch chooses the role of a villain to be slain instead of the role of God (funny, as the Son shows Himself to us not as the dominating Lord, but chose to follow the will of the Father to be the sacrificial Lamb to take away the sin of the world). He offers himself as a sacrifice to give the world a chance to embrace the future and puts his trust in people's perserving wish for happiness, and death is also his way of atonement. Despite all his lies and faults, Lelouch is quite a romanticist who never gives up his belief in hope and dreams, who treasures his loved ones, who, to quote Chesterton, "hate it [the world] enough to change it, and yet love it enough to think it worth changing." For such a character, I don't think it's hard for our Lord to reach to his heart. The only issue is whether he will accept our Lord's will, which asks him to entrust everything to the Divine Mercy.
Suzaku is the obstinate one here. While I also love him as dearly as I love Lelouch, after losing Euphemia, he acts like a jerk (partly justified), and only after committing the irreversible crime of robbing the lives of over 10 mil people that he accepts Lelouch's method and wholeheartedly works with him for the greater good. Still, I understand why Suzaku stubbornly clings to his idea, and he's right in thinking that the ends cannot justify the means; though frankly I think his means are also controversial and contradicting to this particular belief. Anyway, how God touch his heart depends on at which point Suzaku is at that time (the naive suicidal boy before meeting Euphy, the man full of anger and resentment after her death and betrayal to Lelouch, or the massacrer of millions).
Lelouch and Suzaku make the best choices with what they have to deliver a good story; not necessarily the wisest, but most appropriate given their personalities and surrounding circumstances. Now the thing with stories and fanfiction is that I love them because while they are somewhat similar to the real world, they need a bit of naiveté and idealization to let everything fall into its place and bring about the wanted outcome. You have chosen the hard task of bringing God to your fantasy universe as the only thing equal with such experience is our real life, which will last till the Day of Judgment. Best to quote Tolkien here:
“... Actually I am a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat’— though it contains (and in legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory.”
(JRR Tolkien, Letters, 255)
I object to the idea of a masked and cloaked figure. That reduces Jesus Christ to a mere symbol while unlike Zero, He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, the Word in flesh and blood. To have Him hide behind any kind of mantle seems tasteless and defies His nature.
I'm also not comfortable with the idea of Lelouch doing his best to put Nunnally on the throne. While she is more than capable, I doubt Lelouch would place such a heavy burden on his dearest sister's shoulders. It's one thing that the situation forces him to let that happen or her to take on the responsibility by herself; it's totally another thing for him to treat it as his original goal. Lelouch loves Nunnally too much to do that.
Hope you find my answer helpful.
2 notes · View notes
bird-inacage · 2 years ago
Text
Tumblr media
So this show had the making to be something really decent but veered off-track pretty sharpish. If you don’t mind hearing some constructive criticism, please read on. I want to find out if others felt the same way.
Tumblr media
The story follows Uea and King’s navigation from being bed friends (aka friends with benefits) to being a bonafide couple. The overwhelming feeling I felt after watching this series is that there was a ‘let’s include everything’ mentality. The writing lacked cohesive focus and restraint in what plot points would best serve the telling of this story.
One example of the shaky writing is the poor use of conflict. There is no clear objective in why certain conflicts are included. We get multiple villains to the same effect whose only purpose is to pile anguish onto our lead and little else: Uea’s mother, stepfather, ex-boyfriend and boss all come across as caricatures with no distinction or redeemable qualities to speak of. When such components are used all too frequently, they feel less consequential - thus drastically reducing suspense, stakes, and emotional investment from the viewer. No depth results in no impact.
Episode 9 was particularly guilty of this and I’ll use this as a case study. It opens with Uea’s stepfather being arrested (this is quickly set up at the end of episode 8) and is not referenced again. Then a colleague confesses their love for Uea, which sets up a potential love rival for King. We’ve never seen him even interact with Uea before so it feels completely out of the blue. This poses no threat because we know Uea will turn him down for this very reason. Surprise, surprise, he does. Then we see King’s mother display disapproval of King/Uea’s relationship. Other than just one brief, prickly confrontation - by her next appearance - she quickly accepts Uea.
Quality over quantity is the key lesson here. Be selective. Ensure your story beats are set up and fleshed out with enough breathing room, delivered with a satisfying payoff, rather than throwing everything in and hoping something sticks. If you are ever in doubt if a scene is superfluous, always ask the why. Why include this? Does it add value (to either the story and/or characters)? Bed Friend had me questioning this a lot.
I like the nod to blood testing that both Uea and King get done after their first night together. I give kudos whenever a show makes the effort to feature and normalise concerns around sexual health.
Tumblr media
Main Leads: Despite suffering a huge amount of hardship, Uea is a surprisingly put together human being. He knows what he wants but is reasonable when he needs to be. I really enjoyed Uea’s confidence in his sexuality. He knows his own allure and how to harness that power. King can be downright sweet and charming but sadly didn’t have a strong sense of his own personhood. There was little backstory or context given to help you understand him as a individual and his motivations outside of Uea, which left me confused sometimes as to his decision-making. As the other main lead, I’m extremely disappointed by how badly his characterisation was handled. For example Uea coins him as a playboy, but we never see evidence of King excessively flirting with other people. We need to understand why Uea perceives him so negatively, to act as a comparison for when Uea changes his opinion later on. Show, don’t just tell. Overall, it’s their situation which develops (their relationship status) rather than their characters. They are more or less the same people they were at the beginning, just together.
Other: As the series unfolds mostly around Uea’s point of view, the remaining cast do get a raw deal. Give your secondary characters more to do than just be there. Please. More creative decisions could have been made in how these smaller characters could have played into the narrative (such as Jade, Uea’s sister or King’s parents), so that their roles don’t feel relegated to being background noise.
Tumblr media
Acting Performance: I did fall in love with Net and James as the series progressed. They have incredibly fiery and exhilarating chemistry which translates especially well in their love scenes. They manage to balance heat with incredible levels of tenderness. I would even argue that as soon as they have any physical interaction on screen, that’s when the show comes alive. They are very adept at creating sexual tension, that’s for sure. It’s the dialogue driven moments that tend to be a bit hit and miss (but I think editing has a big part to play in this). You can tell these two are still newcomers and aren’t quite as layered in their acting abilities yet but that’s understandable. Net has a habit of doing a lot of heavy breathing when he’s conveying anxiety or worry. This can be remedied with more coaching and better direction. Note: I did also watch some of their acting in 'Catch me Baby' for context. Net has noticeably improved since then but James actually felt more natural in his performance in that series than here.
Pairing Rating: [HOT + TENDER] If you want to get hot under the collar, and still maintain softness, this two have got you covered. Sizzling sensuality in buckets.
Tumblr media
For a show that clearly has high production values, this is where the series really suffers. A myriad of issues become apparent beneath the show’s glossy exterior, and the biggest sin here is it detracts from the actor’s efforts. I really do feel for the cast because production didn’t do them justice.
Editing: There are some very odd editing choices across the board.
Excessive uses of slow motion in places where it doesn’t belong. Some border on absurd (I laughed out loud during the first NC scene *above* where King somersaults onto Uea’s lap). I don’t know about you, but kung-fu matrix style choreography is not warranted in love scenes.
Sound-mixing choices can completely kill the mood. I cringed during the cat NC scene when comedic ‘yowls (meows)’ played in the background. Just why?
Instances where conflicting shifts in mood would take place within a single scene, particularly in how music was used. This would cause me tonal whiplash.
Flashbacks are superfluously added into scenes we saw only moments ago, occupying precious run time.
The passage of space and time can feel abrupt and therefore jarring. Establishing scenes need to be better utilised to anchor the viewer in the where and when things are taking place.
Fans have noticed really lovely scenes that were cut short or completely. No clear reasoning as to what made the cut/uncut versions or not at all.
Ultimately, the show feels like its trying far too hard to be distinctive, which can discredit the gravity of the scenes or draw your attention away from the performances. Now believe it or not, I can see what they were going for (cue sultry music video with dramatic quick cuts). I’ll credit that many of the shots and way they use camera work is certainly eye-catching and fresh. But flashiness for the sake of it is not a good thing if it adversely impacts pacing or comprehension of the narrative. Some editing styles only work best in short form rather than in a series, which is a trap they fell into here. It made the direction feel clumsy, lacking consistency and finesse - a kid in a candy store discovering PowerPoint transitions for the first time.
Styling: I do love the styling and palette of this series. All the costumes and environments looked really beautiful and rich - from our two leads’ apartments to their design office. They successfully manifested a more mature feeling to the series overall.
>>>
FINAL THOUGHTS: Now don’t get me wrong, I have grown to love this pairing. I think they have fantastic potential, and this is why the production issues irk me so damn much, because it spoils what could have been. If you’re willing to ignore the more glaring problems, there are some lovely moments sprinkled in there. I personally found the issues increasingly distracting as the series went on, causing me to skip portions. But why I saw this through was because I could tell Net and James tried their best with what they were given. If less time had been spent on stylistic choices, and more energy on Net and James’ acting, we might have a different story. I still believe they are a very promising partnership that could flourish with a better script, and I pray that ‘Love Upon a Time’ showcases them better.
Tumblr media
(Disclaimer: These are just my own opinions. It goes without saying that one still can enjoy a show for all its successes as well as recognising its shortcomings.)
41 notes · View notes
thenextcelestialchapter · 2 years ago
Text
An Idea for Croods 3??
Even though they’re probably already working on it lol.
So I find myself thinking about that concept art for Croods 2 and the scrapped characters. I’ve thought since the beginning that I wished something could have been done with the designs. I’ve been mulling an idea about it tonight for some reason so here goes:
Croods and Croods 2 were funny as heck and if they made a third film of course the focus would still need to be on comedy. However! I feel like if the Croods 3 were to end the whole shebang, and it probably should, then it should be the most daring of the Croods movies, with the most to say and, well, just “goes there”. 
The first Croods movie actually briefly touched upon a few of these kinds of issues but I think they need to really tackle them head on in a final film. What am I talking about some of you might wonder? Abuse. Of course though none of our main players would commit such acts, so we need a new family with these problems. And I think I know just the one!
Tumblr media
Croods is in need of a proper, hate-able villain... And I think this guy should be him.
Tumblr media
They probably originally designed him as more the bumbling/overbearing but ultimately loving/caring and well-meaning type dad like Grug is supposed to be. However, since Grug already fills that role, I think this guy would be better suited as a villain/the dark combination of Grug’s strength and Phil’s intelligence and need for perfectionism. Like he might get along with both dads at first bc he has things in common with both, but eventually he gives off the vibes as being the kind of guy who expects what he thinks of to be as perfection/idealism, or else. His own general appearance gives off this vibe, but then you look at the art of his potential wife...
Tumblr media
This woman... Bugs me so dang much. XD;;; Like the art itself is cute, she looks fun and fun to draw, but she looks so disgustingly perfect for a cavewoman, and she especially looks out of place as a Croods cavewoman. But I think that could be what possibly elevates this character and makes it make sense. Maybe there’s a reason she looks and acts so unnaturally “perfect”. Maybe it’s bc it’s what her husband demands of her, and her perfection reflects her fear of her imperfections ever being seen...
After all, the caveman stereotype we tend to think of is a much more violent type of man. Grug himself taps into this violence when he thinks he needs to protect his family, but I just can’t stop thinking about that “joke” Gran made about her father essentially tearing her apart from her true love and actually SELLING her to another mate. THAT’S FKIN CANON LIKE DAMN. So why not have at least one villainous caveman type character? Why not have one jerk who is willing to pull his wife by the hair and order her around who the others eventually have to square up against as a true family?
Tumblr media
Also I feel like this girl...
Tumblr media
And this one were probably meant to be sisters, maybe...? They look too unlike each other to be the same character I think, but I also think that’s what they should do with her. Like the first image is who she is forced to be at first by her dad, making her into a mini version of her mother who he also molds through intimidation. But the second image could be closer to what she really wants to look like/looks like by the end. Cavegirl BFFs are great but what about a whole Cavegirl Posse, dude!
Also speaking of Gran, if this third story were to focus more on issues like these, I feel like it would only be fair to go back to Gran’s issues too. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still have just a lil fun with it lol...
Like I’m thinking it would be hilarious if Gran just casually mentions something horrifying happening to her in her youth like she did that one time at the dinner table, and she’s laughing it off at first, but then Hope/Dawn or Eep/Thunk or someone casually remarks to her, “Wow Gran, that actually sounds really awful! If that happened to me I’d probably be traumatized for life!”
At which point it slowly dawns on Gran how messed up it actually was. She slowly starts to sob. It gets SUPER massively uncomfortably awkward while she’s crying, all the other characters look really unsure what do to at first... Finally, one of them reaches over and gives Gran one or two quick pats on the back, and she immediately stops sobbing and exclaims in her normal voice, “ALRIGHT, I’M OVER THAT! I’M TOO OLD TO BE TRAUMATIZED! GIMME MORE FOOD!” XD
38 notes · View notes
modernday-orpheus · 1 year ago
Text
Okay, hear me out. If Tim idolized Batman instead of Robin, Bruce would be dead.
(long post under the cut!)
Disclaimer: I am not perfect and don't know everything there is to know about comics! Some shit here may be accidentally based on fanon rather than canon! Please be nice!
Tim, of course, respects and looks up to Batman. Bruce is his mentor and his father, so it's safe to assume he loves him as well. But his Hero™ is and always has been Robin, Dick at first but especially Jason judging by the timeline. Most people in Gotham view Robin as an addendum, an extra, nothing more than a kid sidekick. They’re disappointed if her shows up without Batman, and question his abilities. Tim’s hero worship combined with his knowledge of their identities, in this case, allows him to see things as they truly are. For Tim, Robin is a light in the dark, a balancing act with Batman, not his sidekick but his partner. He’s a necessary part of the Dynamic Duo because while Batman represents Justice, Robin represents this Hope for a better future. Sure, he’s just a kid; by all accounts he shouldn’t even be out there fighting, but maybe, if he is, no other kids won’t have to fight as hard just to survive. He represents the soul of Gotham, underneath the criminality and corruption; a city full of people, tough-as-nails, saying “No, fuck you, this is our city” despite the constant danger. He represents the people who come together in times of crisis, who help out their neighbors when each new disaster strikes. He’s trained in martial arts, of course, and he’s a skilled fighter, but Robin’s primary job is always the safety of civilians. He’s the one that gets scared little kids out of a burning building while Batman keeps the villain of the week busy, the one who stays behind with SA victims walks them home because Batman is too much for those things. He uses fear where Robin uses kindness, compassion, and love.
Tim sees this. So, when Robin dies and Batman is getting rougher, more violent, more careless, he notices. He notices that Bruce is picking bigger fights than he can handle, taking hits he could dodge, breaking four ribs instead of two, barely making it back to the manor each night. If he idolized Bruce, at this point, he would trust him the way the rest of Gotham does. He would assume it was a rough patch, and Bruce would recover, and that Batman would always save the day. He would see a solitary hero, the way Batman wants to be seen. He wouldn’t think it necessary to reach out to Dick for help, and even if he did he would think Nightwing would be enough help. He wouldn’t understand the importance of the Robin mantle, the specific role that needs to be filled. Nightwing can represent a lot of things; fluidity, positive change, and freedom come to mind immediately, but there's no world where Nightwing represents Gotham and Hope the same way Robin does. He can’t serve the same purpose anymore, not in that uniform. Bruce would die at Two-Face’s hands in that very first arc, I have not a single doubt in my mind.
Then, as Tim comes back to Gotham post-training and actually starts to help out, it’s common for him to be the conscience. He falls easily into the role of Robin, the role that makes him protector of the innocent. He’s not like Jason, raised by these streets in a very different way, though I wouldn’t say either is better or worse. Where Jason struggled and had to fight, out there each night pre-Bruce out of necessity rather than choice. He knows all the best hiding spots and back-alleys because it kept him alive. He chooses to be Robin because he needed a hero and wants to be that for other people. Tim chose those streets, and he chose them for Robin. He knows the best hiding spots because they put him closer to the action, because he raised himself on all those cold nights alone on rooftops with his camera. He knows the back-alleys because they made him faster, made it so his little kid legs could keep up with his hero so he wouldn’t miss a moment. He lives for Gotham nights, for the thrill of seeing everything, getting to know everything. He chooses to be Robin because where his parents failed to teach him how to be a good person, Robin stepped up. He bases his morals off of watching Robin help people, and because he’s a kid he assumes that it’s normal to behave with altruistic intentions and prioritize others.
There’s a point to be made here, briefly, about how this lends itself to Tim’s self-worth issues and insecurities. If his job is to assist, supplement, guide, and fill in the blanks when Batman fails, he doesn’t have the option of failure. He expects that how he does his job, as long as the job gets done, doesn’t matter because he doesn’t view himself as the hero. He never views himself as a main character in his own story; he truly thinks he’s doing what anyone else in his position would gladly do. This is why he overworks himself, why he’s known for living, for lack of a better term “like a goddamn ninja turtle”. It’s why he’s always Robin or Red Robin or even his public persona Timothy Drake-Wayne but rarely Just Tim. Very few people get to see Just Tim, normal Tim, because if they’re seeing that then he’s not doing his job.
All of these factors lead to Tim’s conclusion that if no one else can get Batman out of this state, least of all Batman himself, of course the next logical conclusion is that it’s his responsibility to step up and do the job. Furthermore, it’s only because he idolized Robin that he can fill the role properly because his relationship to Bruce, especially in the beginning, is nothing like Dick and Jason’s relationships with Bruce. He’s not his kid, doesn’t bring Robin’s joy and hope home, so instead he has to work twice as hard in the field to keep Bruce away from the edge. He’s the first of the Robins to view himself as Batman’s protector rather than the other way around, and he’s the only one who Bruce acknowledges when he tries to fill that role. Bruce accepts it when Tim manages him, reorganizes his files, forces him into the medbay, even when he very occasionally goes as far as to outright scold him rather than just pressure him to make the right choices. He’s given an inch and takes a mile, because he believes (rightfully, in my opinion) that if he doesn't then all hope is lost. And Bruce allows him to help, to guide, as much as he’s willing to because he’s not his kid first. He’s Robin first.
This mentality carries over to the Red Robin arc, where Tim spends an entire year chasing after Bruce to save him. He does it alone, and although he asks for help he doesn’t actually expect it. Furthermore, because his morals are based off of Robin in his infinite altruism rather than Batman with his rigid rules, he doesn’t mind working with Ra’s al Ghul. He doesn’t mind betraying Ra’s by killing his men, by blowing up his bases. He doesn’t tell Bruce about it to protect Bruce from having another murderer under his roof, and because he doesn’t think it matters enough. Bruce isn’t surprised when Tim is the one to save him. I believe he would have been if any other Robin had shown up. He and Dick have had a strained relationship for years, he and Jason aren’t even on speaking terms, Stephanie was so often full of rage at him throughout her run as Robin and is dead at the time, and he doesn’t even really have a relationship with Damian. Aside from all of that, he’s assumed dead. He can’t assume the Justice League will spend their time saving a dead man. And yet, despite all of that, he isn’t surprised when Tim is the one to pull him out of the time stream. He’s disoriented, sure, and a little surprised it was possible for him to be saved at all, and he even wants to hear about how he figured it out, but his doubt is never placed on the fact that Tim would be the one to understand and tear the world apart to bring him home.
I believe this also helps to explain Tim’s struggle with letting go of the Robin mantle, outside of the fact that he was the first to have the choice to move on taken away from him. If he’s always been Robin first, always felt the weight of that on his shoulders, what is he supposed to do when his very identity is stripped away right as he loses everyone who got to really know him as Just Tim? How is he supposed to cope with having to reconstruct his own idea of who he is with no one around to remind him? Humans are social creatures. We learn and grow with and because of each other. He’s encouraged by Dick to grow quickly out of Robin to fill a new role, which is a nice sentiment from Dick’s own point of view, but he’s lacking a sturdy foundation. Not because it’s not actually there, or because he lacks personality or morals, but because he truly views himself and all of his good decisions as just what anybody would do and what Robin is supposed to do. He doesn’t consider that following these morals makes them his, makes them the building blocks for wherever he goes next, he considers them to be traits of a character he no longer plays; a purpose he no longer serves.
31 notes · View notes
shera-dnd · 1 year ago
Text
LET'S GO! IT'S TOGACHAKO WEEK!
After my severe burnout I thought doing little short stories like these might be the best way to ease me back into writing
Don't expect me to do all the prompts or even to be on time with most of them, but I'll still try my best.
Anyways today's prompt is: Role Swap
What could possibly lead Uraraka to become a villain? Well, pro hero in the making, Toga Himiko, is gonna do all she can to find out!
Enjoy!
@togachakoweekoffical
Professor Kurogiri had warned her to expect anything from villains. They could look like anything, act like anything, and have any kind of power. Thinking you know what to expect from a villain was a quick way to get yourself in serious trouble.
Up until now it meant being ready to deal with giant weirdos with exposed brains, and messed up quirks.
That Toga knew how to deal with. 
As a colossal weirdo herself, she was used to that kind of stuff. A part of her even thought of the villains as “her people”, but that was exactly why she joined UA in the first place. People who don’t fit the mold always get shoved to the fringes, but she was gonna be a beacon of hope for weirdos all over japan. 
She was gonna be a hero damn it!
Wait! Where was she again? Right! - Toga was ready to face messed up monsters, what she wasn’t ready for was for a villain to be… pink .
Or kind.
Or really, really pretty.
Even her name was pretty! Uraraka Ochako.
It was so unfair.
Toga first ran into her during her class’s little camping trip - more like training trip . Ochako had jumped them along with the rest of the League, though Toga had only ran into her way later,  the both of them real messed up from all the fighting.
She could still remember it. Her beautiful round cheeks, the soft curves of her body. And the sight of her blood - that beautiful, gorgeous, delicious red - dripping from the cut on her forehead, and the wide eyes of someone hopped up on adrenaline.
-It was love at first sight.
That was another thing she wasn’t prepared for, falling head over heels for a villain.
But how could she not?
It went beyond just Toga’s usual thing for blood. Uraraka was just too adorable, too sweet, too driven. 
Yeah , she was a villain, and she’d fought Toga a bunch of times, but she wasn’t a bad person.
She never seemed to want to hurt anyone - come on, she even saved Toga and her friends before. There was no way she was a bad guy, right?
So why did she work for the League of Villains? 
It didn’t make sense. She was so caring and gentle all the time… 
Why did she just stand there and let them do all those awful things?
That’s what Toga didn’t understand. 
She had to find out why the girl she was so smitten for would ever join the bad guys.
~~~
“Wait!” Toga called as she chased the girl down an alley, “I just want to talk!”
“Well, I don’t wanna talk to you!” Uraraka shouted, twisting around and slapping the gravity out of a dumpster, sending it flying towards Toga.
Toga jumped over it and landed on the other side with a roll, maintaining as much of her forward momentum as she could.
“Please!” Toga pleaded, “I wanna help you!”
She chased Uraraka past another curve before a tremor sent her tumbling to the ground.
No! She couldn’t lose her - she pushed herself up and continued the chase. 
The ground shook again, stronger than before, and then again, and that’s when realization hit her full in the face.
They weren’t getting stronger, they were getting closer - Oh crap, they were getting closer!
The lumbering form of Gigantomachia stomped past them, barely even pausing to shove the entire building out of its path, and straight towards the running duo.
Chunks of debris fell towards them like a meteor shower ready to reduce them to chunky tomato sauce, just to be held up by a single gentle hand. 
Uraraka held an entire building -  the entire building! Every piece! - over their heads with the same casualness of someone keeping the rain out of their eyes.
Had Toga mentioned she was smitten? 
Because oh, wow was she in love right now.
“Stop that, hero,” Uraraka spoke over her shoulder, her voice distant, “don’t you have people to save?”
Toga blinked, her brain currently too busy to formulate words. - Because Ochako was just standing there with her back to her. She wasn’t trying to defend herself, or running, or anything. She trusted Toga not to try and arrest her.
Wait. 
Ochako asked her a question, and it sounded serious. 
She should answer her.
“That’s why I’m here!” Toga announced, “to save you!”
That made Uraraka look at her, and the conflict in those beautiful eyes was palpable.
“Save me?”
It did sound a bit silly, when Uraraka was the one who saved her, but when did Toga care about being silly?
“Yeah!” she insisted, “I know you don’t wanna hurt people. Why else would you save me like that? You wanna be a hero too, don’t you?”
“A hero, huh?” Uraraka muttered, and Toga knew she had made a mistake.
Toga’s blood rushed in her ears as Ochako’s open palm shot out for her chest, barely jumping aside in time.
“You’re right, I want to protect people, I want to save lives,” Uraraka answered, swinging for her again, “but I would never be a hero!”
Toga jumped backwards, flipping over a piece of debris, and placing the weightless piece of concrete between her and her assailant– No! She would never think of Ochako like that…
“You think every hero really cares about the people they’re meant to watch over? You think hero society even tries to save lives!?” Uraraka shouted, throwing the lump of concrete at her like it was a frisbee. “So many people die every day! So many people go hungry, and no one gives a damn! Because as long as we have heroes standing tall over us, then we can pretend that it’s all okay!”
She charged Toga, every grab she managed to dodge followed by a flying chunk of concrete.
No matter how fast she dodged around each blow, Ochako refused to let up.
And the entire time Toga refused to fight back.
“And when we have to break the rules to save those we love, what do they do!? They call us villains , they put us in jail! Because they only care about that! About putting villains behind bars! No one cares why a kid would have to steal food and clothes in the first place!” she cried, genuine tears floating in zero gravity as she continued to push forwards. “Because they’re the villain!”
This time Uraraka managed to grab her by the wrist, quickly pinning her to the ground.
With a quick swipe she grabbed one of Toga’s syringes, and plunged it down .
“I do,” Toga whispered, and Uraraka froze mere inches away from stabbing Toga’s neck, “I care. I want to know why! I want to fix things! I don’t want you to become a monster, Ochako-chan! Please, let me help you!”
Uraraka’s hand trembled as the syringe slipped from her fingers.
All around them the building began to fall, gravity bleeding back in as rubble landed everywhere …
Everywhere except on top of them.
She looked away, and wiped her tears.
“Then you’re the only hero worth saving, Himiko,” Uraraka spoke as she stood up.
For a moment Toga dared to hope. - Please let Ochako listen to her! Let things turn out okay, just this once!
“Thank you, Himiko, for caring.” Uraraka leaned close and planted a kiss on Toga’s cheek, lifting her off her feet as gravity left her.
 ��-What?
With a palm to her chest Uraraka pushed her away, Toga thrashing in the air as she realized what had happened.
“Wait! Ochako! Please!” Toga begged, but Uraraka simply turned away.
“Don’t follow me again,” she answered, “for your own good.”
And just like that, she walked away, and Toga could do nothing to stop her.
8 notes · View notes