#i know she is in her villain era or whatever but this is so funny to me

[isabellaofparma]

Coronation Street | 2021.07.09.

[thebisexualwreckoning]

Look, i dislike grace as much as the next louis de pointe du lac lover but I do think that a lot of the hate she receives is underserved. Y'all seem to think she was the villainous woman using louis and his fucked up sense of duty towards his family in order to live lavishly and then throwing him aside when he isn't useful anymore or because he reveals himself to be a 'homosexual'.

Like, idk what show we were all watching, but grace has never shown herself to be a homophobe. She's always staunchly supported Louis and whatever fun she makes of loustat's relationship ('is that a new kind of white' etc etc) is just teasing in a way that is obviously familiar to both of them, a kind of sibling bond. She even very cordially asks him to bring lestat over for dinner! She recognises his relationship with lestat, if not in words so much but at least in her actions.

Even after louis' is turning she does not turn him away when he attempts to reach like mama du lac. Louis turns up 'half a season' later, completely abandoning his family to seemingly get together with a white boy immediately after their brother (because yes, paul was not just louis' brother but grace's as well) committed suicide on her wedding day. she doesn't even judge his obvious supernatural changes and says 'he looks good', which we can also assume is reference to him being with lestat!!!

(I also find it funny how people don't extend the same amount of grace they do to any of the other characters to the character literally named Grace but that's neither here nor there.)

even when he turns up at her house after not being their for the twins birth, she invites him and leaves her kid in his care, showing that she obviously trusts him. she only got mad when he actively put her baby's life in danger by leaving the kid crying on the floor, something i feel she's very much in the right to feel like - because ya know, her kid could have DIED? babies are very fragile creatures, she dont know louis did it so he would not 'eat the baby', all she know is that her big brother endangered the life of her child.

and then he shows up at their mama's funeral looking like he don't even care along with lestat, who broke their family apart along with a young girl he claims is his daughter? that wasnt homophobia that was her being afraid for claudia because, remembering the baby on the floor scene, louis does not have the best track record with children and she still knows next to nothing about lestat but she does know (living in jim crow era south) that a white man is in no way equipped to deal with the problems of a young black girl.

I dont really have nothing to say about the coffin because that was kinda a bitch move but she obviously knows there something wrong with louis given he hadnt aged in like a decade or sommin now and she was probably protecting him from people figuring out he ldpdl in the future and lynching him for not only being black but the 'devil' or something.

anyway leave my girl grace alone she aint done nothing to deserve your shit

[lambergeier]

2024 comics post

broooooooooooo. what the fuck HAPPENED.

the actual cause of all this: i read some really funny fic by ao3 user deadchannelradio, then i got emma to watch some old teen titans with me, then we watched the under the red hood movie, then i read some more fanfiction, almost entirely bad, then i caved and checked what the public library had available to borrow comics-wise. which turned out to be a lot. and then i bought the DCU subscription. and now here we are. this is going to be in approximately chrono order, and there will be no bolded recommendations. read only what big 2 comics you can justify to god.

tom taylor's nightwing, vols. 1-5 (issues 78-105 i think) plus fear state. my first foray back into big 2 comics since my mcu-era marvel situation in high school and college. haha, these are kinda cute, i thought. simplistic, but the art is gorgeous, i said. i would be happy to buy these as floppies at my local store, i theorized. like some kind of idiot. like some kind of naive child.

batman/superman: world's finest, #1-ongoing. waid and mora just too fucking good. i love nonsense, and to put nonsense in my mouth. would actually consider buying the first volume as a tpb it's so fun except for the massive, classically racist, unforced L of making another culture's normal nuanced folk hero (ne'zha) into a demon from hell for just like, no reason. hello? also love mark waid just doing whatever the fuck he wants with the kingdom come continuity. it's his house. no one can stop him. still reading this one as new issues go up on DCU.

world's finest: teen titans, #1-6. loved this also. i also haven't read any og teen titans (emma read all of pre-crisis NTT while i was reading nightwing, so the early children remain firmly in her realm of expertise) but she also agreed that it was cute. waid is just fun. like what are we supposed to do.

shazam 2023, #1-6. see above re: waid and his powers. big shout out to dan mora, as ever, but BIIIIIG shout out to colorist alejandro sanchez, who i truly think made this arc. girl those WATERCOLOR EFFECTS!!

robin 2021, #1-17. read this and super sons at about the same time, officially dipping my toe into the damian waters. solid, loved the issue of all the other robins chasing after him, him and dick love each other for REAL. i also like his little goth girlfriend, and his manga habit. felt like a kinda ham-fisted attempt to give damian his own story without being willing to set him up with his own status quo, a la bludhaven, but what can you do.

super sons, #1-16. children's comics for sure, but with a surprising amount of blood in them? wasn't quite certain of the marketing angle on that, but i LOVED jon and damian they are BABIES. i also like every time clark is like, my son, please, never listen to damian. his father is a lunatic. for sure never listen to his father either. that was cute. shame this was cut so short lmao.

tim drake: robin, #1-6. offensively, offensively bad. i didn't even really know tim yet but this was like. please christ in heaven gay people have to be worthier of better comics than this.

batgirl 2000, #1-37. i know this is widely-loved, but it actually didn't get me until like #12 or so? if that? i love cass, but the art was rough for me, and it couldn't carry me for the early non-verbal comics. her shit with shiva was great tho. cass you are fully insane my girl

under the red hood and lost days. ICONIC!! JASON TODD MY RATIONAL KING!!!

robins: being robin. did not like this. trite. also did not like dick's manbun: a real issue.

batman: year one. oughhhhh what if the classics are good actually. and unfortunately. mazzucchelli and lewis are so fucking good, like lewis in particular..... what even is left to be said. the art alone is Just That Good. also bruce wayne and jim gordon are kissing with tongue for real

robin: year one. mmmmmm good. dick grayson your problems. also i still love harvey dent. possibly my favorite batman villain. symptom of having watched a lot of batman begins/read my one random copy of the long halloween an extensive number of times as a teen

batgirl: year one. had some great moments, but did not like it nearly as much as robin y1. i do think this is due to the sexism. i like when babs punched infant dick in the solar plexus tho!

batman: urban legends - specifically the cheer arc with jason. i really liked this but i'm not sure i'll feel the same in a year or so. i think this was a pretty deft way to get jason to drop lethal violence without betraying his own justified belief in the power of lethal violence (rational king), and thus bring him back into the family fold, but of course bringing him back into the fold is itself a fraught project, and his character as a whole is so uncertain (as i understand) since the new 52 so like. i think it did what it was trying to do quite well (and i loved how insane bruce appeared! compared to jason!) but should it have been trying to do all that? an open question!

devin grayson's gotham knights, #1-24. WELL AS IT WOULD HAPPEN THESE ARE MAYBE THE BEST BATCOMICS I READ ALL YEAR. listen i am so aware of devin grayson's many sins. but these are the original "what does it mean for bruce to have all these fucking teenagers" comics, and, so far in my reading, they remain the undisputed best. everyone's just been rehashing her since, and it hasn't been nearly as good. she's got the touch (profound fandom-aligned insanities)

batman: murderer/fugitive. put an order in for the recently-released 1100 page $125 omnibus just this afternoon. It's Good.

robin vol 1: reborn (tim drake). idk the exact issues on this, collects tim's first few post-tlpod batman issues, plus his first miniseries. tim drake by god do i care you.

lmao okay the post editor is starting to lag like a motherfucker. posting this then putting the next half in a reblog

[eliotquillon]

alex rider for the ask game :3

my favourite female character:

wow there’s just so many women in this series i can’t possibly choose! jk lmao.

for me it is sabina. my diva, my queen, the only character to consistently call alex on his shit and point out that for all his protests he keeps agreeing to do ‘one more mission’….i will never understand why people hate her (other than misogyny lmfao). i will forever be mad about that weird era of crocodile tears—never say die where ahorz turned her into a bit of a wet wipe because skeleton key/eagle strike sabina is so funny and headstrong and willing to give as good as she gets. i think she is one of the most realistic characters in the series (pun name aside) and her refusing to believe alex in eagle strike doesn’t make her evil or a fake friend…it makes her a teenage girl who was being gaslit by an intelligence agency. from sabina’s perspective the story is basically a horror movie: her best friend is being blackmailed and forced into putting his life at risk over and over, and there’s nothing she can do. there was never anything she could do. he chose danger and adventure over wanting to stay safe with her and her family and there was never any point in trying to change his mind because he is always going to be a little bit out of reach. i love her, and i think she balances alex out so well. forever mad that the tv adaptation didn’t have the foresight to realise that introducing kyra (who i love btw don’t get it twisted) and keeping her as a series regular was going to create some balancing issues with sabina, so they just turned tv sabina into a spineless caricature of all her worst traits because they didn’t need to worry about making her likeable like they did with kyra. book sabina i will love you forever.

my favourite male character:

am i allowed to say ‘the ghost of john rider that is perpetually haunting the narrative’. because to be clear it is the ghost of john rider that is perpetually haunting the narrative.

in all seriousness this is so difficult…i genuinely do love whatever the fuck is going on with the unreliable portrait of john that gets drawn throughout the series, but given that his only real appearance is in russian roulette (a book so filled with continuity errors/unreliable narration that for my own sanity i HAVE to assume that yassen is deliberately lying in at least parts of it) i don’t know if he sincerely counts as a ‘character’. although for what it’s worth i do fundamentally think that whoever john really was, he wasn’t a cut and dry ‘good person’ like we keep being TOLD to believe (too much contradiction going on with him for that).

it’s probably either general sarov OR alex himself. general sarov is cut and dry my favourite villain, is in my favourite book, and i could talk about his decision to shoot himself instead of alex (when sarov was 100% on the edge of victory!) forever. he’s such a tragic figure and i always find myself wishing that we’d gotten more villains like him…characters who genuinely weren’t cut-and-dry evil, whose motivations were actually kind of reasonable apart from the fact that the endgame/means to get to it were all wrong. but since i’m probably gonna talk a lot about skeleton key anyway i’ll put a pin in that. ALEX in the meantime…i love him so much. i love his smug one-liners, i love his fits of bad temper, i love that he never does what he’s told. and i also love how wistful he is. there’s a lot of moments, especially in the earlier books, where it’s clear that alex was actually already pretty fucked up from the simple fact of not knowing his parents. he’s been grappling with that big gnawing question of ‘who am i, really’ for a long time. he has so much guilt and shame. killing is for grown-ups and he’s still a child. i never really got into any of the other ‘teen spy’ novels when i was a kid and i think the reason why i latched onto alex rider specifically is because he is such a good protagonist. as an adult he is still so interesting because it becomes so much clearer how scared and insecure he is a lot of the time. i love him.

my favourite book/season/etc:

my fave season of the show is s1 fyi. ANYWAY.

as previously mentioned my fave book in the series is skeleton key. it is so many things. it’s a coming of age story. it’s a reverse whodunnit. it’s a story about grief. it is so, so uniquely of its time. alex continuously tries and fails at playing happy families (the pleasures, troy and turner, sarov) and never quite hits any of the right notes in any of them because he doesn’t know what it would look like. sarov would rather burn the world than admit that he sent his son to die in a useless proxy war and that it was his fault. it is the last book that was published before the war on terror started in earnest. i know it doesn’t really add to any of the overarcing stuff going on (no scorpia and no rider family drama) and nor does it have many of the other popular elements of the series (again, no scorpia and no rider family, but also no k-unit, no yassen, no julius, barely any whump, alex is basically beaten fair and square by sarov at every term) so i know this is probably an unpopular opinion. but there’s something so gentle about it. it’s so heartbreaking. it’s the point of no return - this is the first time alex chooses to do mi6 a favour instead of strictly being blackmailed into it. sarov killing himself even though he’s on the precipice of victory just because alex has made it explicitly clear that he will never be his son, that he can’t ever really turn back the clock, just fucking guts me. i don’t think this is necessarily the best-constructed book in the series (scorpia is, objectively, the best IMO), but it is my favourite.

also the american edition is totally different to every other edition and features a completely different version of the cia scenes, primarily to make the special agents more sympathetic and less like they fucking hate a child. which is just so cool. i mean the censorship stuff isn’t cool but the difference in editions is fascinating.

my fave episode (if it’s a tv show):

i can’t remember if it’s ep7 or 8 of season 3 but the tv show’s take on what happened at albert bridge. that episode. it was so, so good. i cannot imagine a better way to film it. i loved the interspersing of present with past and they cast john rider SO fucking well. i have a lot of mixed feelings about season 3 (i thought the decision to veer right back into being very book accurate after doing a pretty good job of making it explicitly clear that this was a retelling/its own distinct spin was…confusing) but that episode was perfect. i also really like s1ep8 (because i’m obsessed with kyra).

my fave cast member:

if we’re talking about the show again: marli siu as kyra. she is so fucking cool. and also adding kyra to the show, for all it opened up a can of worms, was the best thing guy burt ever did. i adore kyra so much.

if we’re using cast member to mean ‘recurring main character who isn’t one of my two named favourites’: i have a bit of a soft spot for crawley. i have no idea why, but something about him consistently being described as looking like a second-rate private school teacher forever tickles me. he’s just some guy but he cracks me up for some reason.

my favourite ship:

across the whole AR multiverse of madness, it is probably alex/kyra. i blame them for my sudden het ship renaissance tbh. i was rooting for them like i have never rooted for any heterosexual couple before (although arguably neither of them are het LOL). i think i fainted when they finally kissed in s3.

but if we’re doing book-only (since most of my answers have skewed that way)…hmm. i think i will have a forever fondness for sabina and alex’s invisible string thing they have going on. not friends not lovers but a secret third thing. i also like the toxic yaoi of john/yassen a lot because the fuck is going on THERE. i don’t fuck with alex/yassen because it personally icks me, but like i very much see the vision of yassen recreating the dynamic he had with john but with alex (and the roles reversed). john/yassen most toxic mentorship of all time spread the word.

a character i’d die defending:

sabina pleasure lol. i have in fact made some very snippy posts in the past because like…listen. obviously you are allowed to dislike her. you can dislike any character for any reason. but she has been DISPROPORTIONATELY hated on by the AR fandom. it is pure misogyny. her existence is not ‘getting in the way’ of making any other alex ship canon because sabina/alex isn’t even canon! claiming you dislike her because of ahorz’s bad/inconsistent writing is fair but you cannot say that and then, at the same time, praise the likes of ben daniels (whose identity has been swapped multiple times as a result of bad writing) as your fave character. she reacts badly to the truth in eagle strike but this was not her fault! she was being gaslit! if alex forgave her then i think maybe the fandom can let this go! she is one of the only shreds of normality left in his life and one of her chief functions is to call out alex’s shit and serve as a reality check to him. she did nothing wrong for REAL!!

a character i just can’t sympathise with:

i think it goes without saying that we’re not really meant to sympathise with a lot of these characters, so let me be controversial: mrs jones!!!!

like listen. i’m sorry to hear your kids got kidnapped yeah i actually am like obviously i’m gonna be upset about that innit yeah and tulip you know the only thing is yeah is that no-one can force me to be your mate or anything yeah and i don’t want to be mates wiv you alright? i know mrs jones is meant to be the ‘softer’ option to blunt. i know we are meant to believe, especially in the reboots, that she is better than him. but she isn’t. she talks a big game about how making alex work for them is wrong and that she’s against it, but she is never willing to put her money where her mouth is. she’s the one to goad alex into going to cairo in scorpia rising. in a lot of ways, i think her softer coating makes her a lot more insidious than blunt. this is one of the reasons i kind of went off the tv show towards the end: they made show!jones WAY too nice and sympathetic, and that’s just not who she is.

and don’t get it twisted: i think she’s fascinating. i love her character and her different faces are so, so interesting in a series that tends to stick women in the whore or mother box respectively. but i do not sympathise with her. i like her character, but i don’t like HER.

a character i grew to love:

am i allowed to say sabina again. because it is, genuinely, sabina. it took me YEARS to come around on her and then when i finally did it it was so worth it. but maybe i can’t say sabina for three different answers LOL.

this is genuinely a difficult question because there are a lot of characters in this series that i don’t LIKE but i LOVE in the sense that i find them interesting. i think jack has genuinely grown on me over the years, mostly as a result of the secret weapon short stories. it didn’t seem like it when i first read the series as a kid, but she’s so young, and she is functionally helpless—she wants to look after alex, but she’s an illegal immigrant with no blood relation to him, who at best is another way for mi6 to exploit him and at worst is a way for scorpia to exploit him. i have a lot more sympathy and respect for her now. and on a similar (yet wildly different) note: i hate ian rider, but he has slowly grown into the alex rider character i think about the most. what the fuck was up with him. what was up with him and john. did he know what he was doing when he raised alex to be a child soldier? is there a reason why yassen killed him but spared alex despite both of them being john’s blood relatives? i’m just so!!!

my anti otp:

sorry guys…it is yalex, i’m afraid. like i said: i can see the vision, but i can’t personally get past them meeting when alex is 14 and yassen is in his 30s. even in aus where they meet as adults i still get squicked out. honestly wish i could get over my aversion to it (at least a little) because i have read some FANTASTIC fics that had background yalex rumblings and i’m almost definitely depriving myself of a bunch of amazing fic by not really being willing to read anything where they’re at the forefront, but it’s just not for me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[ecargmura]

Dandadan Episode 6 Review - Pink Haired Narcissist

The hunt for Okarun’s balls continue. All Turbo Granny gives out is that the balls are coated in gold. Little do they know, one of them is nearby…in the possession of Aira Shiratori, who has a bad case of main character syndrome. On top of that, there is a ghost in a red dress wandering about in school.

While the episode is about the ball hunting, it’s also giving insight to Aira as a character. To summarize, she’s a narcissist with main character syndrome. She believes she is the chosen one because she’s so beautiful that a golden ball she picked up blessed her with supernatural powers. Because of the ball, she is able to see a ‘demon wing’ sprouting from Momo’s back (actually her psychic hands) and a lady in a red dress out in the soccer field. It’s hilarious how her narcissism deludes her so much that she doesn’t believe she’s crazy and her friends are hesitant to call her so. Because she thinks Momo is a demon, she even spread rumors around that Momo sleeps with anyone. She’s clearly an infuriating character, but it’s sort of entertaining to see how much more deluded she can get.

Although she believed the rumors she spread didn’t get any traction, they actually did. One dude in Okarun’s class asked him to introduce her to him, believing she was easy, but Okarun put him in his place. While he does get jittery thinking she’s cute, it’s nice that he stands up for her.

I think the highlight of the episode was definitely Turbo Granny going to school with Okarun. A cat in a bag tagging along the bespectacled main character to school? Is this Persona 5? Turbo Granny was hilarious in this episode because she’s just tagging along because she was curious about school life in the modern era. She eats sandwiches and even steals Momo’s friend Muko’s phone just to look up who Acrobatic Silky is. That’s seriously the funniest part of the episode. Turbo Granny is out of date and did complain about it before, so her trying to modernize herself by looking up her fellow youkai online is so cute yet so funny.

Anyways, Acrobatic Silky is the main antagonist for this arc. She has been haunting Aira because she’s obsessed with wanting this girl to call her mother. I wonder if she’s obsessed with motherless girls or just has a obsessive attachment towards Aira because she saw her spirit and called her mom. Whatever it may be, her motives are clearly maternal but psychotic. She’s also a formidable foe because she can swallow her opponents as she swallowed the three humans before spitting them back out thanks to the fire in that cross-shaped lighter.

Dandadan’s penchant for high quality casting continues with Kikuko Inoue playing Acrobatic Silky. I think it’s been a while since I last heard her voice a villain. She may be known for voicing sweet, kind motherly characters, but I really like her deeper voice when voicing villains or very strong-willed women. If you watch Dandadan in English, she is voiced by Amber Lee Connors, another great voice actress who has a versatile voice. Ayane Sakura still does a good job with voicing Aira. Her English voice actress Lisa Reimold is someone I’m not familiar with, but she does a great job too!

Given how Okarun is able to transform due to Turbo Granny’s curse, it makes me wonder if Acrobatic Silky will curse Aira or give her powers to transform like him. I can’t wait to see how this will be resolved next episode. What are your thoughts on this episode?

[reblog-house]

A New Sort of Civilization

Written for the @mcyt-rarepair-exchange, my gift for @feyscape! Wc: 13,680 (this is a long one, beware) Ship: EMF/Evbo/Seawatt AO3: Here! Parkour Civilization had changed a lot over a year, but there were some changes that needed to made.

Parkour Civilization changed for the better since the new Champion rose up and Evbo moved the ranks to Parkour God. The changes Evbo had installed when he occupied the throne were by all accounts better than what they had before, but the Master-born Champion took the reins in a satisfying way.

Currently, there was a parkour tournament going on at the Parkour Arena. A no-stakes tournament where everyone, regardless of their parkour, level could attend and even participate in to celebrate the one year anniversary of this new reign, both of the Master-born Champion and Evbo’s ascension, as well as to commemorate all those who couldn’t come back from the attack at parkour civilization. A new era of parkour had started and the Master Champion, upon endless bugging from his divine companion, decided to host said tournament. A friendly free-for-all with a great variety of blocks to choose from.

Everyone was cheering and howling at someone attempting a one-block downwards diagonal backwards 360, and all hell broke loose when she achieved it. 

“Good thing this is no-stakes, huh?” Evbo nudged the Champion with his elbow, as he hovered by his throne. “Else, you’d probably be overthrown about now.”

As he spoke, her opponent tried to build a harder course and was prepping himself for the jumps.

“Don’t say stuff like that, bro. If she’s truly better at parkour than me, there’s nothing stopping her from challenging me in the future…” He leveled Evbo with a glance. “Or trying for the God position itself.”

The opponent did the whole course without falling, but it wasn’t enough. He got dealt damage and the structures disappeared.

Evbo started stuttering and shaking his head from side to side. “Now who’s being rash? Oh forget it.”

The Champion smiled. It was so funny to get a reaction from Evbo.

“You’re right, anyway.” Evbo said, resigned, and sat on the armrest of the throne. “Let’s just keep watching.”

They watched as the girl remained at the arena and the guy poofed and respawned at the no-stakes-tournament bed, letting somebody else in. 

“I will admit, she shows potential. Wouldn’t mind getting replaced by someone like her.”

Evbo’s head swung to him with his jaw wide open. “No way! Don’t joke about that! Only i can joke about those things!”

Next thing they know, the girl failed too many consecutive jumps and poofed outside the stage. She was pouting and sat on the bed, like claiming it for herself. Evbo chuckled and turned to face the Champion.

But his face… His eyes were trained somewhere in the distance. Focused like nothing else mattered on the stage. Evbo started asking him what was wrong, but a flurry of wind picked up in a circle. Those on the stage looked around with shock in their eyes, unaffected by the wind. Everyone else cowered down into their seats, covering their heads. Everyone’s hair and clothes were whipping wildly. Evbo tried reaching for his parkour god powers trying to find how to stop whatever was happening, but all his powers were parkour-related and thus useless for going against a natural phenomenon, if that counted as such. He couldn’t do anything.

“Bro, stand up!” he yelled to his companion, but he was sitting still. Too still. If this was something like the parkour villain, Evbo wanted them to be ready for action. So why was he not moving? He punched him. “Earth to my bro, stand up!”

“Something’s wrong,” is all he could say. 

Evbo was starting to grow exasperated. "Yes and if you don't move—”

“No… We need to stay, Evbo. I feel like we need to stay.”

As much as his heart was pounding to tear his companion off his seat and dismissing the competition to evacuate everyone, and his skin was itching to go out there and Parkour battle against the forces of nature, he trusted in his partner's calling too much.

Oh, this was all going to go horribly.

The thought had barely manifested and everything changed. Thunder striked the center of the arena somehow missing the opponents by a vertical trapdoor's-breadth. And like one of Seawatt's potion attacks, everything turned dark.

The silence was deafening. Evbo couldn't move.

Suddenly, thunder striked in the center, barely missing the two opponents. Everything turned dark for a second. A few seconds of uncertainty as to what could’ve possibly happened. It was all silent for a good moment, and then the light came back. 

—

Where am I?

Seawatt’s head hurt like nothing he’d ever felt before. It pierced through him, and trying to open his eyes only made it worse. The light was like a bomb to his retinas. The noise around him was just as unbearable. Shrieking and a shrill in his ears that just wouldn’t shut up. His hands tried to swallow all his senses by pressing all around his head, but nothing worked. The throbbing kept going and there was little his pressing around was helping.

The noise did subside, if only a little. 

That is, until somebody yelled his name right into his ear.

“Seawatt!”

He jumped back in surprise, eyes wide open and his hands clutching onto his ears. He turned to face the intruder to his senses.

“Sheesh, did you have to do that?” He said through gritted teeth. The light was too intense still, so he narrowed his eyes and tried to make out the shape that had so awfully assaulted his poor ear. From between his dark eyelashes, a blob of peach and yellow, surrounded on the bottom and top by a bunch of black, white and green lines, greeted him. To its side was a blob of darkness. He narrowed his eyes further and focused on the figure in front of him. 

The image slowly became clear and against his best judgement, he opened his eyes fully. It hurt his head a little, but he had to get used to it eventually. “Evbo?” And that master friend of his that they’d captured. He never caught his name. “What are you doing here?”

“What am I- You were dead!” He looked around. “Although all the others here were dead too, but you get what I mean. You all died due to the Parkour Villain!”

“We did?” Seawatt’s head hurt trying to picture what he could last remember. It was a bright day, the sun reflecting off of the sand below him. He’d just betrayed Evbo’s trust and done everything in his power to let the ‘Villain of Parkour’ escape so his people could be avenged. He’d done everything right and then- the Parkour Villain turned to him. Turned on him.

He’d tried to run, but a force pulled at his legs, his body. He was stuck and all he could do was accept the challenge and accept his fate.

He never should’ve betrayed Evbo’s trust.

“Oh, right,” he said nonchalantly, trying to keep the hurt from the betrayal — both betrayals — off his face. “Doesn’t that mean you two are dead too?” He crossed his arms. “So I don’t see why you’re so confused. As far as I know, death has always been pretty linear, and if he managed to escape, taking so many down as you said, it’s no doubt you would be included in the bunch as well.”

The thought of that tugged at his chest.

“Seawatt,” the man at Evbo’s side spoke. The deepness of his voice made him turn immediately, caught off guard. He forgot how deep it was.

“What?” He turned his chin up and switched his weight to one leg. A strand of hair fell down on one of his eyes and he shook it away.

“Look down.”

Seawatt rolled his eyes. Were they really trying to bring him down to their level? But there was little he could gather if he didn’t play along. He brought his head back down and stared directly into the eyes of Evbo’s friend.

“No. I mean literally look down. Look at our feet.”

“Weirdos,” he said, but complied, if only because curiosity was starting to bite at him, and–

Black boots. Diamond boots. Evbo’s boots were made of netherite, and his friend’s…

“Woah, woah, woah, what is going on!” Last time they’d seen them, Evbo was wearing the boots of his people, and his ‘friend’ was in his Master attire. What… happened? It couldn’t be that… “What about the- what happened to-”

“The Parkour Villain?” The friend — seriously, he needed a name for him, or he would start calling him some abbreviated form of ‘Evbo’s Master Friend’ - or would it be Champion now? His head was starting to hurt again — said. “Evbo did a quick work of him.”

“It wasn’t easy,” Evbo intercepted, “but I got these sick boots and the previous Parkour God’s blessings so I could finish him off. Now I am Parkour, guiding the new and stellar Champion to my side to do great things for Parkour Civilization and everyone lived happily ever after, the end.” He finished his monologue with a flourish and Seawatt was starting to feel sick.

“Except for everyone who until now seemed to have died forever because of the Parkour Villain you set free.” Evbo’s M… oh whatever, EMF’s- EMF… was that right? It should probably be ECF instead, but that sounded bad. EMF’s eyes bore into him.

This was… wrong. So wrong. The Parkour Villain was meant to win, but- he was glad he didn’t. His head was throbbing again, harder than before, and acid burned up his throat. His feet couldn’t support his weight anymore, tumbling where he stood. 

He doubled over and let go.

—

Seawatt came to himself somewhere without any noise. His mouth stunk and his stomach complained at him for being empty. Seawatt groaned and grimaced, unsure what had happened, and pushed himself off the ground with his hands. His back creaked as he stood, and his muscles contorted and stretched. Once up, his whole body asked to be stretched, and he gave it what it wanted. 

The flavor in his mouth was starting to become unbearable. Seriously, what happened? He looked around himself and—

The middle of a platform surrounded by grandstands. Fully empty except for himself — but that wasn’t the case before. Too many people, too much noise. Everything had hurt and he–

Ah.

Oh, gross. Seawatt frowned and looked at the void — world — below. Well, at least it wasn’t anything he’d have to deal with. Nothing that could be linked back to him and that was the important part.

But there were a lot of people. They saw him. They must have, unless they were all too focused on their own troubles. How embarrassing, truly.

“I see you’re awake now.”

Seawatt froze up and turned around with a controlled smile, projecting a confident version of himself. “Ah, I didn’t see you there, uh… New Champion.”

“I figured that out.” His eyes seemed to be… smaller, now. Did the man have eyelids? That seemed obvious now, but to be honest, Seawatt had never seen him open his mouth either. He wasn’t even sure he had a mouth, so anything could go.

They stared at each other in silence, and Seawatt wondered if he looked as unkempt as he felt. His hair was sticking to him in all the wrong places and his robes were creased in a way he’d never let others see in any other context. But he couldn’t let on to how much he hated being seen this way. He had to make do with what he had.

“So… are you just gonna stare at me in silence?” Seawatt cocked his head, a hand on hips.

“Evbo trusts you, for some reason. I don’t understand why, but I trust his judgement. You’re on thin ice, Seawatt. I haven’t forgotten your part in all this.”

He rolled his eyes. “Sure, sure, blame me for all the evils of the world.” He took a decisive step forward and pointed at the other’s chest. “All I wanted-” He poked at EMF’s chest. “-was to bring justice to my people.” He looked up at him with narrowed eyes. “Not like you would understand.” And he stepped back. 

EMF looked at him with an unreadable expression. Nothing about that man was ever readable. Before Seawatt was ready for it, EMF turned around and started walking away.

“Wait! Where are you going?”

“Leaving you at it. Not like I’d understand.”

Seawatt stared at him go and looked to the side, the sound of his footfalls a constant rhythm. He hugged himself tightly and looked back up. 'EMF’ was preparing to jump off the platform and onto the grandstands.

“Hey, um. You mentioned Evbo?”

EMF stopped in place. “Yes. Why do you ask?”

Seawatt's skin itched. Oh how he hated to do this. Made him feel weak. He rubbed at his arm. “Could… could you take me to him for a second?” 

EMF didn't respond for a second. Seawatt was avoiding EMF with his gaze, but he still felt observed.

EMF sighed. “He'll be disappointed if he hears you wanted to come with and I told you no. I know he looked very casual back there, but he has many questions for you. Come on, now. Follow me.”

—

You were hoping your meeting with Seawatt would go better than it did. The parkour over to the top of the world wasn't hard, considering you were the current Champion, but Seawatt wasn’t too keen on following your lead.

“Are you sure I should follow you up there?” 

“Is something wrong?”

“Well…” he looked at the way up. “I don’t see anything, for one.”

“Just follow my lead.”

Seawatt stared at you long and hard.

“And if I do get up there, what then? Would I become a challenger to the throne as well? Because I would manage to do the seemingly impossible in parkour.” He crossed his arms. He looked like he wanted to say something else but he stayed quiet. His brow was furrowed looking at the high walls.

“You think you’re going to fall?”

“That doesn’t matter. Just get him down here, alright?”

You decided not to fight him on it. Besides, it would be best to have a moment with Evbo to explain the situation to him before Seawatt got there. You just hoped this wouldn’t backfire on both of you.

—

“Oh! You’re here again! What… happened with Seawatt?”

“He’s downstairs. Feared he’d fall, though he wouldn’t admit it. He’s a bit pissy, so don’t expect him to collaborate much.”

“Well…” Evbo dragged his words. “He did just come back from the dead. You’d be like that too, if you found out you’ve been dead for a while.”

You sighed. "Maybe so. Just warning you so it doesn't catch you off-guard.”

Evbo smiled and walked up to you. He laid his arm across his shoulder. “Always looking out for me. Don't you worry your head, I can handle myself.” He then looked at you sincerely. "But… thank you.” He walked over to the cliff and brought out a water bucket, then looked behind him. “Hey, aren't you coming?”

You looked at him for a second. You wanted to accompany him, and his face showed how he wanted you to follow him. But you knew whatever conversation they were going to have was best left to themselves, without the pressure of a third party in there. Let alone one whose dislike for the other was mutual.

“You know, I think I'm going to sit this one out. You have fun with your conversation. If you need me, I'll be up here.”

Evbo furrowed his eyebrows and opened his mouth to complain, but he looked at you for a moment longer and let out the tension in his shoulders.

“Well, if you say so… Be back in a moment.” And he jumped down.

You couldn't help but feel you should've followed him, but too late for that now. You sat on your champion throne and waited.

—

Evbo did a perfect MLG water bucket clutch and landed right in front of Seawatt. Seawatt didn't last a second before speaking up.

“So, you came down, your…”  he looked him up and down, “majesty.”

“Oh, come on now, no need for titles. I’m just a regular person like you and my partner and-”

The words he said didn’t match his body language. He was clearly proud of the title and preening. Seawatt smirked. So Evbo didn't catch his sarcasm. That didn’t surprise him. 

“Your so-called ‘partner’ is the Parkour Champion, and I’m from a forgotten layer. Are you sure we’re good points of comparison for ‘regular people’?”

Evbo ignored the jibe. “So…” he started saying with a forced grin. “Your layer, huh?”

He narrowed his eyes. “What about it?” he said cautiously, as a threat. 

Suddenly, Evbo’s grin faded. His teeth were still showing in a grimace. Seawatt crossed his arms.

“You betrayed me.” He made direct eye contact. “I thought you were my friend.” And then, “I mean, we weren’t friends at first, and I was ready to attack you with a parkour battle at any point because I didn’t trust you, and in the end, I shouldn’t have trusted you,” he rambled on. But then, he turned serious again. His voice lost the rambling tone of before. “Because you… helped the Parkour Villain. But then… your last words. If you did feel that way, why did you do it?”

So this was happening. He tightened his grip against himself. “You already know about my people. I think that’s enough explanation.”

“You could’ve told me. Why go behind our backs?”

He deflated and looked behind Evbo, to the infinite horizon. “You already pointed out how I only had the clues for each Disc because I was given them. I wouldn’t have been able to do anything if not for my contacts. I wasn’t willing to jeopardize that.”

It was only silent for a moment, but then Evbo spoke up. “And now… you’re back, somehow. You all are.”

Seawatt perked up. “My layer. Is it…”

Evbo grimaced. “I haven’t figured out how to do that yet. Trust me, I’ve tried!” He rushed to add. “But hey, maybe now that we have you…”

Seawatt narrowed his eyes. “Did you try, really?”

“I… may have given up eventually. But really, I tried! I have no idea how to access those things, and the Old Man is long gone, so the only person who may know how to reverse it–”

“He wouldn’t have helped in the first place. He’s the sole reason it all happened.”

Evbo shook his head in resolution. “Yes, but if he saw I defeated the Parkour Villain, he’d agree to help.”

A headache was starting to flare up again on the sides of his head, and Seawatt brought his hand to the source of the pain, shoulders tensing.

“Let’s just… leave it for now. I can’t deal with this right now.”

Evbo seemed unsure. And like always, he vocalized it. “If you say so…”

Seawatt needed some time alone. He needed space. “Do I still own my house?” he asked dazedly. 

Evbo shrugged with a slight smile. “I think you’ll find that you do.”

—

Evbo seemed to appear everywhere he looked. He was often jumping around, offering challenges for players wanting to get better at parkour. Never teaching them, but leaving a trail of blocks where he went. He often left items not even Seawatt knew how to use in Parkour, possibly so the person could figure it out on their own. He was still confused about the boat he found in the middle of nowhere. 

Evbo was far from being a distant god, like the previous one had been. And after the day he was missing, a new person ranked up. Most people only knew of him from legends, only very few managed to see him, and even less people managed to interact with him in any real capacity. 

Evbo was different, in that regard. 

He was much too prone to showing off. It’s like he was allergic to being anything but the center of attention. No surprises there. It would be more shocking if he suddenly disappeared from public eye and stopped interjecting in people’s day-to-day lives.

His Champion Friend didn’t often follow suit.

Despite implying in his conversation with Evbo that they’d see each other again, Seawatt was relieved to find he didn’t take that as an invitation to run up to him whenever. He was sure it must be costing him a lot of self-restraint, or maybe a few words from his friend, but as long as Seawatt maintained his distance, he only caught glimpses or evidence of his presence from far away.

A part of him was glad for that, but he had to get moving at some point.

—

The city was unrecognizable from how he once knew it. He spent days just getting used to the new paths and structures all around. He was surprised his house stood as he knew it at first, considering nothing else was the same, but then he remembered what Evbo had told him the last time they met. Of course he’d be behind it.

But it had been a few days already, since then. Wandering the streets had already lost its splendor and he began to get bored. The Champion hadn’t come down in a couple days either, so there was little he could do on that front. All he could do was wait, and waiting was starting to get on his nerves.

His previous job was repetitive, but it at least was something, and it was always fun to figure out where a new member might fall and seal their fates. Sadly, with the restructuring of both the city and… political everything, it no longer stood. 

His job wouldn’t even make sense under the new political system.

Despite his initial reluctance, he found himself in front of the job assignment dispenser. 

—

Seawatt held his head on his hand, elbows on the desk, as he waited for people to come in.

It’d been very slow, and he was wondering why he even bothered picking up a job if he was going to get something as boring as… do nothing all day. He sighed through his nose and looked at the ceiling.

From the distance, he heard some chatter approaching.

“Yeah, he just came down!”

“Really? I don’t believe you.”

“Come on, he was just over by the town center.”

“What would he even be doing here, though? It’s weird, he never shows up but then he appears for no reason.”

“Beats me! Now come quicker, before they leave!”

“I’m going!”

And the voices fully vanished.

His attention was fully peaked now. If they were talking about who he thought they were—

This was the chance he was waiting for. 

He couldn’t care less about his job for the day, anyway.

—

There they were. The Parkour Champion and Evbo, acting as a barrier between his friend and the people trying to approach them in large groups. Interesting, Seawatt thought as he came closer. Despite being the Parkour God, Evbo thought the people would be more interested in seeing the Champion. Maybe that was the case, given how much Evbo made his presence felt in Parkour Civilization, but Seawatt still noted it down. 

The friend was clearly uncomfortable, even from afar. He was still, oddly quiet, and trying to look nowhere, after making the mistake of sweeping his glance around the mass of people. Direct eye contact, the easiest way to get unwanted attention. Evbo was jumping around him trying to distract everyone, and it worked, to a certain degree. Apparently, the novelty of the Parkour God had long dissipated, but some of it remained. The Champion said something to Evbo, but Seawatt couldn’t hear it over the sound of people asking to be challenged in a Parkour Battle, some even insisting on it not having friendly fire. Some were willing to die just to have the privilege of fighting against the Champion or God, even if dying was completely unnecessary in all regards.

Seawatt considered the scene for a moment longer before he decided to approach. They clearly needed his help, and if it would soften the pair’s opinions on him, Seawatt was willing to try it out. 

“So…” He approached the group and nudged some people off – the unfortunate fell off, others simply jumped away with his intrusion and tried to insult him, but he simply rolled his eyes and ignored them. “I see that the Parkour Champion has decided to grace us with his presence.”

“Oh, it’s you again.”

The people surrounding the pair all turned to look at Seawatt. 

“Yes, I did say I’d have to speak to you before, didn’t I?” Seawatt lied through his teeth. He never told that to ‘EMF’, but to Evbo instead. Still, he was giving them a lifeline, and he hoped the Champion would take it. 

EMF looked confused at first, but they caught on to Seawatt’s expectant expression and agreed.

“Ah, yes. You had some… things to clear up.” 

Evbo also took the sign and spoke up. “You heard the Champion! He has matters to attend to! It was nice to see all of you, but he has to get going now.”

The people didn’t move at first, but Seawatt stared at individuals directly until they got a move on.

Once the last person had left, EMF visibly relaxed. Or they did, until Seawatt cleared his throat, and their eyes jumped to him. It was like the Champion had completely forgotten his existence for a second. 

“Right, you came here. Why?”

“Oh, I thought I could lend a hand, you know? You were looking a bit crowded there, weren’t you? I did you a favor, for all you should care.”

“Nothing is ever just a favor with you.” EMF glared.

“Ouch,” Seawatt said with a heavy dose of irony. “Do you really think I’m like that? I would never. I just saw you were in trouble and decided to help. I can’t imagine how it feels being swarmed with people when you want to be left alone.”

EMF glared at Seawatt, while the corner of Seawatt’s mouth tilted upwards. They stared at each other, until Evbo interrupted.

“We should… probably not be in the middle of the street as we talk.”

“You’re right,” EMF said while still looking at Seawatt, and then dragged his eyes away, looking in a new direction. It was the Parkour Temple. “Let’s go,” he said, and started jumping. Evbo and Seawatt got a move on.

“So,” Evbo said, to break the tension. “You finally got your bearings, right? It’s… been a while already.” 

“Yes, yes,” he said dismissively, then corrected himself. “Yes, actually. Everything has… changed.”

“For the better!” Evbo interjected. “You know, I miss the green buildings and the Evbo theming, and my partner here did have a hard time figuring out the command blocks unlike me…”

“Hey.”

“But once he got the hang of it, not gonna lie, I think he’s handling it better than I did. I was not made to be a Champion, too many responsibilities and decision-making.” He pointedly looked at his friend, who hadn’t slowed down and was a block ahead of them, and smiled wider. “This guy’s much better at it than me… once he gets out of his mindset of following orders. Did everything without my input!”

He shook his head with his eyes closed, seemingly to himself.

“And… how long ago did this… new regime start?” Seawatt said slowly, hoping not too much time had passed.

“New regime,” Evbo repeated. “Not sure about that title. Does every new Parkour Champion count as a different regime?”

EMF ignored Evbo’s question, and despite not looking back, Seawatt felt him glaring at him as he next spoke. “The ‘new regime’ started right after Evbo defeated the Parkour Villain and he ascended. That was over a year ago already.”

“You, and everyone else, came back on the one year celebration, actually.” Evbo added, and looked down. “It’s been… hard providing a new house for everyone who came back, but my partner’s been hard at work doing that.”

… Is that the reason EMF rarely left the last layer of Parkour Civilization? Where were the people that came back staying before he gave everyone a home?

… Wait, wait no.

“Wait, hold on a second.” He dug his heels on the dirt block and shook his head. “You mean to tell me I’ve been gone for a year?”

“Yes.”

Seawatt felt the grass block under him breaking. He stammered and hid it with a dry smile.

They were already in front of the parkour temple. 

“Right, well, what are you waiting for? If you think you can fool me, you might as well leave while you’re at it.” He jerked his head toward the structure.

Evbo froze. EMF seemed unimpressed.

“Beats me. Evbo, let’s go.”

Evbo’s eyes were wide, mouth slightly agape. EMF started leaving, but they stayed in place. “We didn’t- why would we-” He shook his head. “Look, I’m trying to be understanding here, but you’re really,” he stressed the last word, “making it hard for me, you know?”

Seawatt started fidgeting with his hand like it was a stress cube. “So you think I’ll just accept that blindly? Maybe I misjudged you, Evbo.”

His words stopped even EMF. Evbo’s eyes narrowed and he made both hands into fists. “Hey, don’t try that. What do you think you’re doing? I’m giving you a second chance when Parkour G- me knows I shouldn’t.” 

Seawatt stayed silent, unmoving. After a moment, “What are you two waiting for? I already told you to leave.”

Evbo opened his mouth, eyes searching for something to say, but he shut it and groaned. “Fine. But I don’t understand what your ‘master plan’ here is. You’re just pushing away someone who could understand.” He started walking, EMF wasted no time following. “Goodbye for now.”

Seawatt hummed in response and stayed in place until the pair were at the bottom of the invisible way up. Evbo looked back one last time, but Seawatt didn’t move. And then, they were going up, jumping on block by invisible block. Seawatt tracked their movements with his eyes.

—

Legs crossed, sitting on the sides of his feet as his torso laid on the floor of his house, Seawatt brought pen to paper and contemplated the drawing, supported by his straightened left arm and right forearm. Sheets of papers sprawled in front of him, each personally lined vertically and horizontally into a grid – the first few were done with precision, but the later ones were less and less straight. Fine drawings turned into scribbles and then discarded. He brought his pen to his mouth, supporting his weight on his elbow rather than forearm, and chewed the cap. No, that wasn’t right either. Another crossed out line and he groaned and pushed himself back, his back hitting the frame of his bed as he fell backwards. It stung a bit. This was getting nowhere. How was he meant to get any progress done when he couldn’t even remember everything? Only a few pieces he was sure of, but not much. 

Thankfully, it was enough to practice, so at least he wouldn’t spend most of the day in an uncomfortable position trying to make sense of something to no avail.

Resolved, he uncrossed his legs and helped himself up with the frame of the bed, and all his muscles screamed in response. Clearly, being in an uncomfortable position for large periods of time wasn’t his greatest idea. His first step shot a spike through his back, and he fell on his bed, legs still on the floor. This was getting ridiculous. Of all times… 

He took in a breath. 

No. He wasn’t going to let this win against him. He waited until the sting subsided and he straightened his back, groaning as he did so. Slowly, all his muscles set back into place, tension leaving his body. He felt good enough now not to fall as soon as he stepped out the door.

As he approached the door, he took a glance at his compact ice mirror and stopped in his tracks. His hair was going everywhere, his clothes were wrinkled, his face looked like it had seen better days. He couldn’t go out like that.

—

Seawatt found his way to the practice grounds without much trouble. It helps that in his days of rest, he’d done his best to mentally map out where everything lay. He stood at the entrance, just to the side of the arena, until the last person inside left. He didn’t need anyone in there to pick up on what he was practicing. 

Setting foot inside, he realized just how big the place was now, in comparison to its previous state. A bunch of blocks in a variety of places littered the trees and ground. They truly were doing their hardest to improve their skills. He spied some fences, ice blocks, a few end rods as well.

So maybe nobody would suspect him, then. 

He set to work.

Those few jumps were engrained in his memory now, from how much he’d drawn them over and over again.

No one had gone inside since he started building the course, so he grew determined. He stared at the jumps and prepared himself for it. Once on the first rod, he knew it was going to be easy. Just a simple–

His foot landed on the rod and his muscles seized. He slipped and for a second, imagined he was over the void, about to fall down into Parkour Jail. If he fell, he’d never get anywhere. He’d be stuck forever trying to–

He landed ungracefully on his rear. The moment he was just in and the reality of the situation hit him- he could only stay sitting there as he processed his situation. Nothing bad had happened. He was fine. It was only a mistake his body made, and a practice run.

If he fell so early on in the easy and clear jumps…

He frowned. He didn’t like that thought.

“Woah, that was a dumb fall.”

The voice shook him from his daze. His heart rate picked up again in panic as he looked up at the source of the voice. Evbo was standing there, looking at him with an amused expression, although not outwardly smiling. “Do you need help?”

Seawatt scoffed and used the tree to his side as support to stand up. “No, thank you. I’m fine. I just slipped.”

“If you say so…” Evbo said, but he stayed in place. 

Seawatt’s skin pricked, as he walked to the beginning of the course. He had no choice but to do the course now. If he left, Evbo would start to suspect something. He had to come off as transparent as possible. So he walked to the start again and jumped. 

After each jump, he crouched, setting his center of balance in the middle to avoid slipping again. Unfortunately, his body wasn’t liking the very sudden movements between crouching and running into a jump, and as he prepared to stand up and take a turn, he fell face-down into the grass. Air escaped his lungs and he stayed immobile. That hurt. Without moving his body too much, he reached into his pockets and took out a golden carrot and used his hands to slowly push himself back up.

“Okay, being honest, I was just teasing then, but you’re clearly having a bad time down there.”

Seawatt rolled his eyes and sat up. Evbo was in front of him again. 

“I’m just rusty. That’s all.” He narrowed his eyes.

“Well, good thing you decided to be rusty in here, then! You don’t want to be sent down to the lower layers!”

“Wh–”

Evbo looked at him strangely. “Oh, didn’t I tell you? People have infinite tries now to get better. That’s the first change I implemented when I got into power, and my partner liked it, so he kept it. If you don’t clutch on the way down, that is.”

That calmed Seawatt down. So it wouldn’t be practically game over if he were to fall. Still not ideal, but…

“But really, you probably shouldn’t be jumping right now. I don’t know what happened to you, but that seems like a nasty wall.” He whistled. “Good thing no one else saw you. That would be very embarrassing. Good thing it was only me.”

Evbo was acting like the previous exchange from the day before had never happened. It twisted something inside him.

“Why are you telling me this?”

Evbo looked at him like he was stupid. “Because I’m here to encourage people to parkour to their heart’s content, and you clearly aren’t having fun.” He then jumped the end rods and sat on the tree, legs dangling from the top. 

Seawatt had to crawl away to still be able to see him. Normally, it would be embarrassing to be sitting on grass in the middle of a public space, looking up at someone, but for a moment, he didn’t care.

“I don’t know why you’re trying to learn when you’re clearly hurt, but hey, if you wanna keep going, I can’t stop you! I just don’t think you’re going to get any results like that.”

Seawatt looked down at his legs, but he was looking nowhere.

“How did you…” He looked up. “How did you become the Parkour God? You mentioned something about defeating the Parkour Villain and ascending, but…”

Evbo pursed his lips and looked to the sky with his arms crossed. Seawatt wondered how the sky looked without the layer of darkness everyone but Evbo and EMF saw. Was it like in his home?

“I thought I was gonna lose. The Parkour Villain challenged me to a race, but my side was incomplete. I had no way to win. So I looked at the void and jumped.”

Seawatt shook awake. He was already awake, but the words made him more aware of his surroundings than before. The blades of grass under his palms felt grounding as he hung onto them. 

“You just… jumped? You gave up? But all the time I’ve known you, you—”

Evbo shrugged. “It was all I could do. I was gonna lose anyway.” He grinned. “And I’d rather lose in a dramatic way than just stand there, you understand.”

Seawatt did, in a way. Strange to think about that. He shrunk into himself. His last words to Evbo… 

“And then…”

“Well, the Parkour God intervened, said it was time I took his place instead and gave me his sick powers. Winning was easier afterwards. I just… became Parkour.”

Seawatt hummed. “So you’ve never failed a jump after that?”

“Nope.”

Seawatt stared far and deep into the branches Evbo was sitting on. It would be so easy to prove him wrong. He reached for an end rod in his inventory and–

“Woah! Careful, there!” Evbo gracefully jumped from the tree and landed on the grass. 

Seawatt wasn’t even close enough to move a single branch, even with the help of the end rod. Even if he had been below the tree, he still would’ve had to stand up in order to budge it. It was like Evbo had read his mind. Seawatt frowned and didn’t meet his gaze. 

“Well, I guess that’s my cue to leave. Just be careful about your jumps. Make sure you’ve got a grip on the block before going for another jump, and really, did nobody teach you to take it easy when your back hurts? I’d tell you to go home and rest, but your safest bet is probably staying here for a while.”

“I can still do long jumps, Evbo. There’s a reason I managed to get here. It’s just the sudden stopping and crouching and jumping that messed me up. I know how to parkour.”

Evbo grinned in embarrassment. “Right. Didn’t mean to imply you couldn’t! I mean, you’re a Parkour Master for a reason. A Parkour… Fighter?”

Seawatt tensed. Evbo seemed to pick up on that.

“Aaaanyway. Good luck with your parkour. You’ll get it soon, I just know it.”

Evbo didn’t wait before walking away. Seawatt followed him with his gaze and had to twist around to see him jump off the park. After a moment, the tension faded away and a smile creeped into his face. He chuckled and stared distantly, until he saw his parkour course again. A new hollow feeling creeped into his chest as he looked at the end rods, one after the other. The determination he once felt dragged him down now.

��—

“You took your time,” you said when you felt Evbo materialize behind you. He used to do that to make you jump at first, but you quickly became accustomed to it, to sensing his presence even if no one else did. 

“I wanted to head down while I was at it. Visit some people I once knew, in the lower layers.”

“So, how’s the betrayer doing?”

Evbo started pacing behind you. You couldn’t turn around because you were sitting on your throne, looking at the aerial view of the city and trying to gauge what a group of people were doing. They seemed to be daring each other to make a jump, but it wasn’t a proper parkour challenge. You narrowed your eyes to get a proper view of the group and—

Well, there goes one person to the bottom. Their friends moved in a way that looked like laughing. One of them crouched until they were on four inside the block and brought their hands to their face to, you assume, yell down to their friend. They wouldn’t be able to hear. It would be some time until their friend managed to get back up to their rank, but they didn’t seem to mind.

“He doesn’t seem malicious.” Evbo finally said. “He’s still a bit on edge, but he’s not really causing anybody problems.” He then laughed. “Well, maybe except for himself.”

You turned your head, but of course, you could still not see Evbo. “What do you mean?”

“He’s straining himself, no clue why.”

You hummed. It’s true that more people have been doing their best to progress in their parkour abilities since Evbo showed them there’s many ways to push oneself, but Seawatt didn’t seem like the kind of person to push his abilities for no reason. If he was straining himself, it must be for something. You kept those thoughts to yourself. You knew Evbo would try to dissuade you from thinking that, but you have no idea why. You’ve never known Seawatt personally, but he was an instrumental piece of the puzzle for the Champion and Villain you opposed. He was not just a cog in the machine, but the motor that kept the faulty machine running until it broke. Evbo was so willing to forgive him, but you still remembered how it felt to be trapped over that void, a parkour jump away from losing his life, your own determination to not end the fight, to not claim defeat, that kept you from succumbing. When Evbo helped you with the little blocks he had, you thought you wouldn’t be able to make it, but the relief that washed over you once you finally made contact with the ground… You still remember Evbo’s grin at that moment. You were still shaken from the whole ordeal and couldn’t possibly imagine where you would end up a mere days after that. 

But Seawatt… You truly didn’t comprehend why Evbo was so willing to not only reintroduce him into society, but try to get close to him.

Your thoughts had overtaken your vision so much that you didn’t notice when Evbo had walked right next to you. 

“You should probably talk to him,” he said like it meant nothing. Like it was just as easy as that.

“Quit joking, bro,” you said. You knew Evbo enough to know he wasn’t joking.

“What?” he took on a joking tone. “You think he’s going to break the block under you? I don’t think he cares that much about becoming the Champion, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

You took a moment to think. Why did Evbo say that? 

“I wasn’t worried about that before. Should I be?”

“Nah, I already told you not to worry.”

That wasn’t a proper answer. “What makes you think he doesn’t want it, anyway? He’s not said anything about his motivations. For all you know, he wants to change the status quo.”

Evbo walked up to the command blocks and sat on top of one like he had no care in the world. Being in this position really fit him. Just seeing him… it made you feel free, even as your mind tried to work around the problems that may arise, even as you need to constantly progress at the same speed as everyone else now, if you wanted your skills not to fall to the wayside, even despite all that, Evbo helped you feel free, like parkour for its own sake really is something to strive for. He was a source of inspiration when you were tasked with helping him defeat the Evil Champion, but now, even though he literally ranked above you in a way much greater than you to the Masters, you’d never felt as equal to another person as you did then. Despite the jokes Evbo always sent, he meant none of them. He always looked up at you, pushed you to become better, to strive for more.

And at that moment, Evbo was staring at you like something wasn’t making much sense.

“Would that be a bad thing?” He suddenly said. “I mean, we changed the status quo multiple times already, haven’t we? We even provided a way up for everyone to participate in that one tournament. That’s breaking the status quo, right?” He jumped down. “And before that, you helped me defeat the Evil Champion, which had become the status quo by then.”

“Y- yes.” You thought you knew where he was going. “But he took the Old Man’s throne.”

“And when I tried to give it back to him, he refused.” Evbo continued. “It’s just a cycle of breaking what we’re used to and letting change happen. The first thing I did basically broke the whole premise of Parkour Civilization up to that point.”

“The Parkour Villain also tried to change everything. And he did - he defeated so many people…”

“And we rebuilt, and now they’re all back. We can change stuff if needed. I don’t know what you’re thinking Seawatt would do, but I don’t think something comparable to the Parkour Villain is gonna happen. He was clearly in it for his own sake, not for the Villain itself.”

“And do you know what he was in it for?”

Evbo stopped. “I can’t say that for him. You two should talk.”

“No. No way. I’ve already had enough of that man to last me the whole month.” 

Evbo walked over to the cliff and glanced back. “Okay, if that’s your decision.” 

You eyed the water bucket now in his hand. “Where are you going?”

“Lower levels.” He looked out to the world. “Not sure where yet, I’ll see where I fall.” He turned back to look at you one last time. “If you need anything…”

You shook your head. “No need.”

“Great! Be back, uh… at some point.” And off he went.

His body quickly disappeared from sight, and left you with your thoughts. 

You were going to have to do that, weren’t you?

—

Seawatt had given Evbo’s suggestion actual consideration, and he felt much better for it. Soon after he’d left, Seawatt started packing his blocks. Normally, people left their courses laid out in the open for others to also try them out, but there was nothing against getting them back, and Seawatt would rather not have to go through the hassle of explaining what he was trying to learn, or… whatever else may happen if those were found.

He stayed the rest of the day in his home sleeping, and by the time he went out the next day, his body was feeling much better.

Instead of going straight to the practice area, though, he went to the plaza – one of the many places that didn’t exist beforehand. That was something the original layer, or the versions before, had been missing — places to simply exist. There were, of course, recreational parkour courses, but at least here, there were proper places to sit and, Parkour God apparently not forbid, talk to one another without the risk of falling. He wasn’t sure what he was there to do, but he needed the fresh air, and maybe watching people would give him some sort of inspiration he was missing. He wasn’t sure how that would happen, or if it even would, but he just needed any excuse.

The plaza was tastefully black in the center and spiraling out into white at the sidelines, a beautiful glass parkour in the middle. Large trees surrounded the perimeter. 

His eyes were fixated on a person trying the challenge. Spiral and spiral, the person’s foot barely connected to the glass panes before they were off onto the next. Up in a spiral, visible from every angle. Seawatt let himself be hypnotized for just a moment by the movements. 

Was it that simple?

His thoughts were interrupted by a distant figure falling from the parkour temple, and disappearing into thin air. Huh, so that’s how Evbo got around everywhere. He’d never thought about it before, the fact that he could disappear and supposedly show up somewhere else at will. Seemed convenient.

Evbo had left to whoever knew where, meaning, his so-called ‘partner’ was up there. Seawatt looked up to the top of the temple, unable to see anything past the usual. Just a layer that hid it from sight.

A layer. Of course. Even if– it wouldn’t… he’d… but would that mean that… no. No.

Seawatt clutched his robes and shut his eyes. So much for trying to organize his thoughts. This had been a bad idea, but for once, he wasn’t sure what part of everything he was talking about. It was all just… wrong.

Before he could finish his gathering thoughts, someone stood next to his seat. Seawatt wanted to tell them off to leave him alone, but when he turned around to say that… he stopped with his mouth wide open. 

The Champion was just standing there, except, he wasn’t wearing his Champion boots.

Clever. That way he wouldn’t be harassed. But why–

“What are you doing here?” he finally said. 

EMF kept watching the person go up the parkour spire. “I assume the same thing as you.”

“Uh, no, you’re clearly standing next to me for a reason. I came here to think. You have a whole layer to yourself so you can think.”

EMF straightened their back. Seawatt knew he was pushing him, but in all fairness, all he wanted was to be left alone at that moment. EMF, by their mere presence next to him, was pushing his buttons in turn. Anyone would be. 

“What do you want?”

Seawatt was taken aback. “What do you mean ‘what do I want’? You’re the one who suddenly approached me.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Seawatt made a display of rolling his eyes and sitting back on the bench. He stretched his arms up in the air to exaggerate the movement, his head following suit. After a moment of holding it, he dropped his arms behind the backrest and let his head drop too. He was looking up into the foliage of a tree, sunlight falling from between the gaps.

“All I want…” he said, dragging his words. “Is to fix a mess that no one else dared fix in the time I was gone.”

Seawatt was still facing upwards, but at the silence that followed, he turned his eyes to the side. The Champion was looking away still, but he felt that under the white eyes of his, he was eying him back. 

“And that mess is…”

That’s it. Seawatt sprung back into place and pushed himself off the bench. Once he was on the same eye level to him, he said, “Look, I don’t have to explain myself to you. You clearly don’t want to help with what actually matters. You’re just in it for… for power? For whatever. I bet you don’t really care to listen to the people.”

“You really think that?”

At that moment, Seawatt noticed the people closest to them in the park turn glances their way. They were both keeping their voices low enough not to become the center of attention, but it wasn’t enough to dissuade the most curious people. 

“Tell me in what way the Evil Champion listened to anything anyone wanted out of Parkour Civilization. And yet, you did his bidding, you were his pawn. I don’t think you’re one to talk.”

“Maybe I had my reasons. You don’t know me.”

Apparently, he pushed just the right button with that phrase. EMF exhaled with clearly contained rage and closed their eyes. “Evbo said the same. But if you’re so secretive about it, I don’t think you have real reasons for it. You just want to feel like you have control over others.”

Seawatt scoffed and raked his fingers through his hair. “Really? Is that what you truly think?” He started walking towards him, and stopped once they were one block apart. “You honestly think that everything I’ve done so far has been to have power over everyone else?” He laughed. “You really don’t pay attention to your surroundings, do you?”

EMF tilted his head upwards in response. 

“Tell me,” he continued. “Tell me what is missing in the world and maybe then I’ll admit you have spatial awareness.”

“Missing in the world?”

“I’ll wait. Think.”

A crowd was starting to gather around them, although far enough away not to feel trapped.

EMF shook their head. “You’re not making any sense.”

That was the final straw for Seawatt. “Fine! Fine. Keep living in your perfect bubble, oh dear Champion. Keep walking around in false gold boots and continuing living like you always have, in a world where obviously I am the one who’s wrong. Go ahead, go back to your throne, Champion. I’m sure the people will love you for it.”

Murmurs started to spread through the group once he mentioned the Champion. Those uninterested in what was going on now came closer. Someone in the group spoke loudly, “Wait, is that the Champion?”

Seawatt turned to face them with a pulled grin. “Oh, yes. He’s just wearing different shoes to mix in, aren’t you, Champion?” He glanced back at him.

EMF’s hands were turned into fists, but they stayed quiet. Their eyes never left Seawatt’s face.

Seawatt hummed. “Well, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go now.” He spoke to the people, “If you want to talk to your dear ruler, you can right here! I’m sure he won’t mind to hear how all of you want him to beat you in parkour. Go ahead, come right up!”

Glances were shared among the group, until some brave people took a step forward. Soon, some lines were made. Seawatt walked between the lines and someone went and took his place. He couldn’t just end it there, so Seawatt turned around one last time to look at EMF, and the other hadn’t stopped looking at him. The random person had started talking, but nothing in his expression showed EMF cared at all about what they had to say. 

Seawatt smiled to himself as he left.

—

You feel like an idiot for deciding it would be a good idea to do what Evbo thought was best. You had to disentangle yourself from a mob of people who just wouldn’t leave you alone, and by the end of it, of course, Seawatt was nowhere to be found. You looked down at your shoes and sighed. But those things he said, they got you wondering, even for just a second.

What was he talking about? What was the thing missing?

Or was that just a tactic to get you to lower your guard? 

You didn’t like this. But you liked what was being implied with his words even less.

As you went back ‘home’, something itched the back of your head. Something that needed to come out, but it was just under the surface.

—

Evbo hadn’t been gone for such a long time in a good while. You were used to him disappearing every few days for a mere day or two, but the third day had come and gone and he hadn’t yet made his presence clear. 

Could he be in danger?

Surely, because he’s the Parkour God, nothing could’ve happened to him, but the doubt sticked in your mind. 

The last conversation you had with Seawatt came back with a vengeance. He seemed ready to do anything in that moment of anger, and you would be none the wiser if you simply stayed in your tower the whole time through. For once, something he said, you actually agreed with. You couldn’t be hiding away in your bubble waiting for Evbo to appear. If anything had happened and you’d done nothing, you’d feel like you’d betrayed him. When you disappeared, he did everything to get you back in safety, and even ensured with his help that you would become even better at parkour than you ever were before that. He would definitely be against you saying that you owed your current position because of him, after joking about it, but it would still be unfair to everyone if you did nothing.

But even beyond that, even beyond the help he’s given you and how he’s sacrificed for you, you couldn’t imagine a life without your partner at your side.

Everything decided, you went down and set for the first place you could think of.

Seawatt’s house.

—

The place stuck out like a sore thumb after all the remodelling that went on in the layer, but Evbo was insistent that at least for now, until he was able to get used to the new environment, at least that would stay the same.

You pointed out how the other people who came back didn’t get to keep their previous commodities, but Evbo reminded you that those who disappeared still had people they cared about. They could get used to the changes much more easily, but Seawatt…

Seawatt was isolated, always in his schemes. Evbo didn’t say that, but you filled in the gaps. It would be a bigger risk for everyone if he was thrusted into an unfamiliar place with nothing recognizable about it. There was always a chance that he would break under the pressure and try to come back with an army to overthrow them, causing… whatever he was looking for. It didn’t seem to be chaos. His way of presenting himself went against that idea wholly, and he sure seemed open to maintaining some sort of order in his acts. 

All that to say, finding his house among the other buildings was easy.

This time, you not only changed you boots to fit in better, but removed your crown. That had always been part of your ensemble, nothing you gained upon becoming Champion, but if there was anything you could change to be as unrecognizable at a glance, you would take it. If those who had seen you remembered your appearance beyond the shoes, then you would never be able to get anywhere.

So far, nothing had happened, in the city, and you were glad for that. So when you found yourself in front of his place, you went up the spiral staircase near it and dropped down. 

This was it.

You knocked on the door.

—

Seawatt knocked his head against the bed frame. He was again sitting on the floor mapping out the routes and writing in a separate sheet what could possibly be needed to accomplish his goal, because getting up there was just one part of the plan. He clearly had not learned his lesson from the other day, but he excused it with the fact that he wouldn’t be doing any extraneous activity that day. Surely in that case, he should be free to be as uncomfortable as he needed to be for his brainstorming. 

Those plans were completely pushed out the block gap when a sudden knock on the door brought him to the present, in the most violent, yet not pvp, way possible.

“Augh, that hurt…” he rubbed his head. What did they want of him? No one had knocked on his door before. Was it some sort of ‘welcome back’ jumpwagon? Kind of late, and too many people to go through, if that were the case. Were there some secret parkour taxes he hadn’t paid because he didn’t know about them?

As he thought of these possibilities, he yelled, “Coming!” and stumbled to the door, still rubbing his head. The world wasn’t straight and his vision blacked out for a moment, but once it came back, just a moment later, the door was suddenly in front of him.

He was reaching towards it, and he paused. 

He’d been an idiot letting them know he was home. The most likely person, or persons, behind the door were a much, much worse option than those he’d, in his dizzy imagination, had thought of. Now that his mind was straight, he could see that much clearly, but he’d already taken long enough and they would think he was doing something bad. But he couldn’t let them see the insides either.

Just in cue, they knocked on the door again. 

In a panic, Seawatt opened the door, and exited in an instant.

It was only the Champion, no Evbo in sight. And by the look of their expression, they were not expecting him to come out like that. Their eyes were fully wide, and they backed away into the wall when Seawatt all but rammed into them in order to get out. If Seawatt had been dizzy before from a knock on the door, surprise, and his head against the wall, EMF was dizzy from their own knock on the door, surprise, and their head against the wall.

Maybe they were not so different, after all.

Scratch that. It was most deserved that he’d experience that if Seawatt had to as well.

He let the Champion come back from the shock patiently. He made it seem like he was impatient, rapidly tapping his foot against the floor, but internally, Seawatt knew that speaking now, as EMF tried to orient himself, would result in nothing positive. 

Besides, he knew how it felt to be rushed when all that had just happened to you.

The wait only lasted for a moment, and EMF came back to himself at once. And he was angry.

“What- why did you do that?”

“Sorry,” Seawatt replied. “You gave me the same shock, so an eye for an eye.”

“That’s not the point of that phrase. It’s not even the full phrase.”

Seawatt shrugged, and EMF seemed to be debating with himself internally before he got the resolve to speak.

“Evbo. Where is he?”

Evbo? Huh. Seawatt had thought it strange that EMF had come down without his so-called partner like that. Sure, he’d met him a few days ago alone, but Seawatt had just seen Evbo jump down somewhere else.

Either way, he did notice his disappearance from the picture, but… he didn’t think there was an actual problem behind it. 

“What happened to him?”

Even if Seawatt didn’t know how to feel about the whole situation, with very conflicting emotions when he thought of everything that had happened and his involvement with it, about Evbo’s part in everything… he didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. Not really.

He must’ve let his worry come through in his words — embarrassing — for EMF didn’t jump to accuse him immediately. They hesitated for just a second. 

“You… you obviously know where he is,” he continued, but his voice was slightly trembling. A sign of weakness. Seawatt could try to exploit this, but what would he gain? He needed to get rid of all suspicion his way, because he wasn’t responsible for this whole mess, but lay it on too thick and he’d get another problem on his plate.

“No, I don’t. This is the first time I’m hearing about it.”

“Then let me see your house. Surely, if there’s no hints to where he is in there, you’d be fine with letting me in.”

He scoffed. “Of course not. I’m not obliged to let you in because you think I did something I didn’t. It’s my own house, and you’re coming at me with baseless accusations.” He said practically. Tried to seem reasonable, and not at all like he was actually hiding anything from him.

Good thing, then, that he would react the same way had he had nothing to hide. 

“Besides, what would I be able to do to someone who can appear and disappear at will? I know some parkour tricks, but nothing to control a god, and those tricks would require him not be able to fight back, which we already know he can do perfectly well.” He tilted his head. “So? Is that enough proof for you? Even if I wanted to do anything to him, which I don’t want to, there’s nothing I could do.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you don’t want to have this conversation inside your house. That would be way more private, you know?”

Seawatt rolled his eyes. “It’s my house. I don’t want just about anyone be able to get in. It’s my stuff, it’s my bedding, it’s my own privacy, not yours to walk around in.”

EMF finally dropped it. Seawatt waited for him to say something next, but he was out of words now, so he continued. “Why do you think I’m responsible for whatever happened? Could he not be… I don’t know, in his own space?”

“That… could be possible, but he rarely takes this long. Usually, he doesn’t like being alone in there for too long. Always ends up coming around to bother me or start something elsewhere. Even then, he’s not usually this late to show up home.”

That last word pulled a grin on Seawatt’s face. “Home, huh? So up there with him is your home?” 

EMF furrowed his brow — he had one, which Seawatt could only see now that he was this close to him, and after having to decipher his facial expressions from what little could be seen through the seemingly featureless void of his skin.

“Of course,” he said like it was obvious. “He’s my partner.” He grew silent again, then, “wait, did you think we meant ‘partner’ in the ‘work partner’ way?”

Seawatt’s brain short-circuited. Oh. Ohh… so, huh.

“Ah, I see.”

EMF looked at him in shock, and then, something happened. The sound of air coming from him, not a hapless sigh but… 

His shoulders started to shake. 

He was laughing. 

The image of the Champion, who up to this moment Seawatt had only seen serious, angry, dismayed, vengeful, annoyed, breaking apart by a simple laugh was enough to shock Seawatt into laughing himself. The conversation itself wasn’t even that funny, but the more it went on for, the harder it was for Seawatt to control himself. It started as a light chuckle in response, then he was properly laughing, and EMF’s laughter brought him back whenever he managed to compose himself for a moment. 

This… all of this was so ridiculous. Seawatt was getting dizzy again from a lack of oxygen and he rested his body against the building so he wouldn’t accidentally fall off. Now wouldn’t that be ridiculous? Thinking of it, replacing himself with EMF, brought it back fully. It hurt now. His face, his stomach, he couldn’t breathe, and his face was burning.

That went on for longer than probably was reasonable. Nothing about this was reasonable. He was with the partner of Evbo who he never got along with, after having an argument with him, laughing together endlessly after he made a senseless comment. All while Evbo was, apparently, missing.

That thought sobered him up immediately. 

EMF didn’t notice at first. Seawatt was now fully straightened looking the middle distance. Eventually, EMF caught onto his silence and he looked up. Seawatt saw through the corner of his eye how he remembered himself and stood up straight as well. Neither of them spoke, the air growing thicker and more awkward the longer it went on for. He couldn’t believe he just… did that. A new feeling of embarrassment broke through the seriousness, got a hold of his chest, and it spread to his face. Once again, his face burned, but this time, not in a good way. Oh he hated this.

He shut his eyes to drive the shame away and exclaimed, “So.” He opened his eyes. “Evbo.” He forced himself to look back at EMF, although his face was still warm from before. Seeing the Champion worried for his partner was enough to finally slow his heart down and help the blood off his face. “Is there anything he did before leaving? Something that you remember?”

EMF looked away. “We were… talking.”

Seawatt eyed him. “Just talking?”

He nodded. “He said he was going to the lower levels. Said he’d be back at some point.”

Seawatt’s eyes forcibly shined. “There we go!” he said with false optimism. “Case close, he’s still there.”

“Sure…” EMF said, “but usually what he means by that is ‘don’t expect me by sundown, I’ll be back tomorrow’.”

Seawatt exhaled and looked up to the sky, shoulders dropped. “What were you talking about before that, then? Because unless you think he somehow got overpowered by a Parkour Noob or Pro, there must be a reason in that conversation why he’s gone.”

EMF grew quiet. “Wouldn’t that be… uncharacteristic of him? He’d know I’d get worried, would he?”

Seawatt shrugged, and fell back on the wall. “I don’t know, you know him more than I do.” A glimmer appeared in his eye as he thought about that. He eyed him with a side smile. “Way more personally than me, of course.”

EMF made a guttural sound, broken off. They stumbled over their syllables, and Seawatt didn’t need to feel their face to know it must be burning. 

Seawatt’s chest felt lighter, out of nowhere. It started getting to his head. A laugh escaped his chest, he couldn’t control it.

Glancing back at EMF, he got lost in the pure white of his eyes. Somehow, despite not having any discernible pupil, Seawatt could tell the way his eyes were searching from side to side. It looked nice. 

Seawatt’s face started to get warm again.

No. Once again, he forced whatever that was down and closed his eyes. The darkness would help him clear his mind. “So, yes,” he said after remembering where he left off. “Your conversation. He must’ve said something before that… that could be a clue…” His heart was still beating harder than he’d like. He swallowed. “As to where he is.”

There was a small moment of silence in which Seawatt realized how quiet the world was as soon as one wasn’t moving around. Unless you had your head in the game, or were talking, or otherwise near people who were moving around constantly, the world was completely quiet.

That had never bothered him before.

It did now. 

“We were talking about- change.”

That didn’t seem right. Something about the way he said that didn’t seem right, like he’d changed his mind at the last second. 

Seawatt played along. “What about change?”

“Whether it’s good. In what ways it can be good, or… or harmful. What can be done about it, one way or the other. What… what do you think?”

That seemed like a trap, if Seawatt had ever seen one, but he couldn’t lie about this. He didn’t want to lie about this.

“It’s necessary, isn’t it? In some forms, at least. I’d say you two have definitely changed how things work around here, have you not? This place is unrecognizable from a year back, and even more so from before. Some changes are necessary.”

“And some are bad.”

Flashes of the Old Man appeared on his mind. His face of determination. The way his life changed radically because of it. 

“Yes,” his voice turned grave. “Yes, some are.”

Silence took a hold of them again, more serious this time, with none of the awkwardness from before. Seawatt breathed in.

He didn’t want to do this. Everything about his life up to this point told him that if he revealed his cards way too soon, to the wrong person, everything he’d worked towards would crumble down like your course after a missed jump on a Parkour Battle. 

But… it was now, or he might never get the chance to explain. And now… it wouldn’t feel right to follow through with the plan without-

“You two have- you’ve changed a lot of things but-” It was hard to get the words out. “You’re missing something, and you don’t even consider it for a moment, even when I hint at it, you just… pretend it’s not there, like it doesn’t exist. You’ve done everything no one has specifically asked for, but the one thing-” the longer he spoke, the harsher his words came out. They burned their way through his throat and out into the world. “The one change that everyone would benefit from, the whole reason why I-”

“I… don’t understand what you’re saying.”

“My layer. The ‘secret’, the ‘hidden’ layer of Parkour Civilization. The whole reason Evbo became a god and you the Champion.” He gritted his teeth. “It’s like it doesn’t matter to you.”

He clawed at his arms in the form of a hug. Rage seared under the surface, ready to boil.

—

Seawatt’s words pierced you in place. You tried to form words, but they all felt inadequate. 

Why hadn’t you done anything?

It’s true you simply weren’t able to figure out the way to bring it back, you and Evbo both tried to do it once, but everything from that encounter had still been fresh. It seemed like opening the civilization up for an attack, because surely, if the Parkour Villain still had followers on the other side, who knew if bringing the layer back would overthrow the peace you’d managed to find yourselves in.

Peace in your own world, giving second chances to everyone who fell, making parkour something to strive for rather than a mere form of living. 

In contrast to the discontent in that layer, the world still unrelenting to whoever fell into the void — even more than this side ever was, since at least parkour prison had been a thing before the second chances rolled around.

You had improved your own lives and to anyone who could directly benefit from the system as it was, but you never deeply considered the implications from what happened over there. It was like… it never existed.

Maybe you hadn’t changed Parkour Civilization as much as you had previously thought.

You didn’t fix a system, not fully. Not at all, and Seawatt was proof of that.

You stayed in silence long enough for Seawatt to shake his head. “Even now…”

He looked… defeated. You hurried to get your ideas in order, before he walked away.

“Is… no, forget that. You’re… right.”

Seawatt’s demeanor seemed to change at once. As soon as the words left your mouth, Seawatt stood straight and turned to you with wide, furrowed, eyes. His chest inflated as if to say something, his mouth opening as well. There was hope in his eyes as he searched your face for any lies. 

There was a moment in which that changed. His face lost its shine, his mouth turned into bared teeth, pushing his lower eyelids up and his brows closer together. 

“That’s it?” he said with a bite. “That’s… all you have to say to that?”

The spotlight was on you now. Like hundreds of eyes were watching you, judging your every decision up to this point. You swallowed. “No… you’re right, we should’ve… we should’ve figured it out by now,” you said, “but we didn’t. We didn’t see a way to do it, so we left it alone. Focused on what was right in front of us and…” You shook your head. “We didn’t consider it as we should’ve. That’s… that’s something we have to work on.” 

“You will.” Seawatt said with no room for questions, and took a step closer to you, then another. “You will figure it out or I’ll be forced to take it into my own hands, and I don’t think either of you want that.”

You walked back as he approached. Every step brought you closer to the void beneath, and you only noticed when half your step felt the emptiness below. At that moment, Seawatt finished talking, and more importantly, finished walking. As you processed his words, he stepped back, giving you space to breathe again. You, of course, had your water bucket handy, so there was no real threat to your safety, but the message was very clear.

You considered acknowledging the threat.

“If you did, though. If that was the case, what… do you have in mind?”

Seawatt looked at you strangely, like he hadn’t anticipated that response, and honestly, you hadn’t either.

“I… I’ve thought about it. I don’t know exactly how yet, but… I’m working on it. I already have some ideas, I just need to see if they’d work.”

That response… made sense, in a way, but it still wasn’t exactly what you were expecting. He was working on it. 

You were about to ask something that might as well break all the progress you’d made at that moment, but you had to know.

“Is that what you’re hiding in there?”

As expected, he froze. His eyes went dark. “Why do you think I’m hiding something in there?”

“Because… you’ve already admitted you have plans in place, and your reaction really isn’t doing you any favors right now.”

Seawatt looked to the door and back to you. “Don’t make me regret this.”

You nodded.

He opened the door, and the two of you walked inside.

—

“Well, that’s enough catching up now,” Evbo said from his perch on the table. “I’ve had fun, but I think I should get going now.”

His previous neighbor of the Pro layer nodded slowly. “Uh, but you were- you were very insistent on staying until… right now.”

“Yeah, but I think that’s enough now.”

“What… do you mean by that?”

Evbo jumped down the table and hopped over to the entrance. “I had to stay until I didn’t anymore.” He looked behind him. “Oh, if you want to level up to become a Master, do it while it’s still easy!”

His pro neighbor smiled in bemusement. “I… don’t understand you, Evbo. But I’m fine here. Uh, good luck?”

Evbo hummed. “I will!” then he disappeared after crossing the door.

The Pro player stood confused by the way Evbo left- as easily as he entered the first time around.

He hummed and went on with his day.

—

His partner and Seawatt were on the floor of Seawatt’s house looking over a bunch of papers when he found them. 

“There you are!”

Both jumped in sync, hitting themselves against the bed frame. He surprised his partner again, that was new. He grinned at seeing that. 

Seawatt was still rubbing his head, muttering something about ‘why that kept on happening’ when his partner stood up and in very few long steps reached Evbo.

“You… are an absolute…”

“But, did you talk?”

He stared at him, his gears clearly turning.

“You worried me so we’d talk?”

“Woah, woah, woah!” Evbo took a step back. “It was never my intention to worry you. I just thought, hey, if I’m here, they’re only going to keep making things worse, so…”

His partner turned around slightly, met Seawatt’s eyes and said, “excuse me for a moment.” He walked to the other side of the house as Evbo looked at him with a grin, and a resounding shout was heard throughout the building. Maybe outside as well. Definitely outside as well. Seawatt looked directly into Evbo’s eyes with worry. That was something

“Are they…”

His partner walked back into the visible portion of the room. They made eye contact for a moment, and they let out a weary laugh.

“Of course that’s what you were doing. Should’ve seen it coming.” He sat down on the floor again, like he’d been before Evbo appeared in the room, and brought a sheet of paper closer to him. Seawatt’s eyes stayed on Evbo for a moment longer as he slowly turned his head to the sheet of paper in his partner’s hand, then his eyes turned fully, focused on something his partner was pointing at. 

Evbo’s smile grew soft. 

“Are you just gonna stand there?” His partner looked up expectantly. 

“No,” he said, his voice brimming with affection. “No, I’m going.” 

He walked over to the pair and settled snugly at Seawatt’s side, hugged by the wall. Seawatt stared at him for a moment, and Evbo leaned forward to inspect what was written down. Silence lasted for only a moment, until Evbo said something about the plans. Seawatt started explaining after a beat, and they went back to their previous rhythm.

Evbo’s heart felt content, and looking at the other two, he knew they were too.

[athena14044]

Hi I've been reading a lot of early Avengers comics for Hawkeye. long post below.

Tales of Suspense #57, 60, 64: He's so funny. He literally decided to become a superhero bc he was jealous of Iron Man and then he met Natasha and was like "well, time to do whatever she says ig, even if that does mean trying to kill Iron Man" he's down bad for her instantly. same though.

idk here's some random notes I took starting with Avengers #16:

I love when a superhero shows up and attacks another superhero and is then like "actually lets be friends I want to join your team" like how does that keep working for them

it was honestly kind of a dick move for Hank, Tony, and Jan to all decide to take a vacation while Steve was stuck in the jungle without a clue what was going on and leave him in charge of a bunch of ex-villain rebellious teenagers

Clint is just constantly like "why does captain america get to be in charge he doesn't have any powers" as if he doesn't also not have any powers

#19: flashback Clint in his fringe jacket era. they should let him wear fringe jackets again

Clint disliked Steve on sight and it's so funny to me lol he's so mean <3 Over-rated has-been! Steve can't resist arguing back though, he immediately loses all his dignity around Clint (Avengers v1 #21)

I just KNOW Steve must have had the WORST headaches putting up with these people

#24: Something I find so interesting is that when Ravonna is injured and they don't find out what happens to her, it's like. she may actually be dead. there's not really an expectation that characters come back from the dead, so there's more of a seriousness to the ending, if that makes sense. Like if the story were written today there would be this expectation that Ravonna would come back, or that she didn't actually die bc you didn't see the body, but bc this was written in 1965 there's more of a cliffhanger like the last you see of her she's dying so maybe she does actually die. like i was not expecting so serious of a tone i feel like it gives more weight to the story idk it's cool

Obsessed with this. (Avengers v1 #25)

I'm not going to lie, I think Wanda's crush on Steve is kind of cute. like I absolutely do not think anything should come of it but I think it reads well as the sort of unattainable, one-sided crush a teenager eventually grows out of.

✨character development✨ (Avengers v1 #20, Avengers v1 #31)

#37: Clint is like "yeah, Natasha just threatened to kill this guy but I still want her to be an Avenger so I better not tell the others" and once again he is so real for that

#40: Pietro explains that he'd do anything for Wanda and he cares so much for her safety bc of the persecution they've faced their entire lives and Clint's inner thoughts are like "I understand too bc I would have done anything for Natasha... before she betrayed me 😒" READ THE ROOM MAN anyway I love stupid romance drama like this... like... she betrayed him.... not really but he doesn't know that

Wait then he's immediately like "no matter where she is or what she's done, I'll find her and then we can be together forever 🥰" Clint Barton really said i will risk it all for morally questionable women

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!! THAT'S HIS BUDDY!! (Avengers v1 #40)

Clint is really truly obsessed with Steve omg his every thought after Steve quits is "I wish Cap was here" and "the Avengers are through without Cap" He literally ignores Natasha because he's too busy thinking about how Steve quit 😭

Annual #2: They end up fighting the original Avengers due to time travel shenanigans which means Clint gets a rematch with Iron Man and he just so happens to have arrows that eat through metal. My takeaway here is that Clint has been planning since Tales of Suspense how he would take down Iron Man if he ever got the chance again.

This is probably a coloring error, but WHAT is he wearing (Avengers v1 #62)

Clint: "I bet they can tell I've been working out." Teenage girls: "WHAT is he wearing?" (Avengers v1 #74)

Obsessed with this. (Avengers v1 #76)

Clint has a giant teacup that he drinks out of as Goliath. It's bigger than Jarvis' head.

I just realized that because League of Comic Geeks counts appearances of different identities separately all of these comics I'm reading where Clint is Goliath aren't counting towards the Hawkeye total. Right now he's stuck at #11 of my most read characters, right behind Batman 😔 Literally if those 30 issues as Goliath counted he could overtake Batman. This is devastating.

Apparently T'Challa has been busy bonding with Daredevil? ...which could mean nothing (Avengers v1 #82)

Get his ass Wanda. I'm all for character development and also feminism but I wish they'd still let him be an asshole sometimes. Also I was pleasantly surprised that this issue didn't end with the women learning the error of their ways or realizing they were going about feminism wrong. Yeah, maybe the Liberators will make a comeback. So true. (Avengers v1 #83)

[gamesception]

What do I want from Batgirl (2024)?

It's a bit late to be posting this, since the first issue is out and everyone but me has already read it, but yeah, Cassandra Cain has a new solo Batgirl title, afaik an ongoing, not a miniseries. And yes, I will be picking it up and following along to post my comments on it, even if comments on the first issue will be a bit late as I try to decide whether and how much of post-reboot Cass's existing backlog I want to refresh myself on before starting this book proper. But I can post a wish list I suppose, and people who already know better can enjoy the dramatic irony.

I'm a big fan of old school Cass, and by that I don't just mean pre-reboot, or before the end Batgirl (2000), but specifically during the run of that book's initial creative team. I have complaints about that team - failing to follow through on some wonderfully set up character arcs, an art style that started almost perfect and slowly drifted in a direction that wasn't worse art, but that imo didn't serve the book as well. failing to consider what Cass meant as a prominent Asian or Disabled hero, which resulted into the book blundering into some negative tropes and over-correcting in ways that blundered in new directions. However, for all my minor complaints, that team absolutely nailed the core of an extremely compelling character and an extremely compelling storytelling style.

You might think that means I want to see a continuity reversion to Cass's pre-reboot history. I do not.

First of all, IMO there's a ton of baggage that comes with that history that I just don't want to see again. The Dragon Lady villain arc. Black-Bat - I know this era of Cass has fans, I'm not trying to pick fights, but it wasn't my thing and imo would be a needless complication now. Lazara. Road Hog. The flanderized, one dimensional, store brand Deathstroke version of David Cain. As much as I'm a huge fan of the original take on David Cain, over time his character got shallower and less compelling until it got to the point in Batgirl (2008) that imo he subtracted from, rather than contributing to, Cass's depth as a character. Reboot David Cain from B&RE is at least so breathless a non-entity that he has the good grace to not matter.

literally who?

Post reboot Cass may not have as much that I liked, but she has way less that I don't like (at least less that I've read, which is admittedly not all that much), so I'd rather her new creative team build on what she has rather than throw it away in an attempt to turn back the clock.

Post-reboot Cassandra Cain is her own character, with her own history and stories and relationships. She has her own fans, who I'm sure care as much about her as I care about old school Cass. I refuse to be the kind of cliche nostalgia-poisoned middle aged comic fan who thinks kids funny-books should cater to my old ass and demands anything new be brushed aside to try to restore whatever status quo is enshrined in the amber of my own youthful memories. That's exactly the sort of sentiment that saw Cassandra's character destroyed, sidelined, and retconned out of existence for years in the first place, the sentiment that was willing to throw away Barbara Gordon as Oracle to try to wind the clock back on Killing Joke. 2000 was 24 years ago.

So I DON'T want the original version of Cassandra's continuity restored.

That said, I WOULD like her current continuity clarified a bit, as it's kind of hard to square the Cass in recent Detective Comics with the Cass in rebirth era Detective Comics with the Cass in Batgirls with the Cass in Birds of Prey. How old exactly is she? What level of language proficiency does she have these days? And because I want clarity, I ESPECIALLY don't want the new book to coyly imply old continuity is restored while leaving it up to the reader's imagination what exactly that includes or how much if anything of her reboot history remains.

....

While I don't want the return of original Cass's history, I do very much want the return of original Cass's storytelling style.

The Puckett/Scott era of Batgirl (2000) was characterized by a particular storytelling style:

Each issue tells a complete story. They'll often reference or touch on longer ongoing serialized narratives or advance developing character arcs and dynamics, and obviously on occasion there'll be tie ins to other books or bigger, multi issue stories, as a treat, but if you pick up a random issue of the run the odds are you should get at least some sort of story with a satisfying conclusion. Obviously I'm willing to relax this for the first issue or two as I expect a bigger story to kick things off, but if you look back at Batgirl (2000) #1, they were still able to tell a complete story with the 'MERC' thug, showing us the course of Cassandra's life in the process.

Those stories all either directly or indirectly reinforce Cassandra's core character themes, motivations, and relationships, including:

guilt - the burden of it, the value and shortcomings of acts of penance, questioning whether repentance can be real or how much it even matters if it is. How characters respond to it - pretending it's something else as Bruce does with his Vengeance, or trying to hide it in shame and isolating yourself in a cage of lies and secrets as Cass initially does, or drowning it in alcohol and nostalgia and regret as og David Cain did. The different ways guilt can shape a person - making Bruce hard and distant, making young Cass gentle and empathetic.

interpersonal drama - specifically the kind of dysfunctional relationships that come from people who deeply and genuinely care about each other but whose individual flaws and failures interact in ways that sometimes fail to help each other or actively hurt each other or sometimes even make each other worse. When and how these relationships can be salvaged and when they need to be severed - if that's even really possible.

humanity and human connections - Not just fraught familial bonds, but brief moments of human empathy that transcend language. Small acts of anonymous kindness or sacrifice, the support and love of people who care - no matter how flawed they may be. The idea that despite the weight of guilt and turmoil and suffering there's and underlying goodness in humanity that's worth defending. That every human being from the best of us to the worst is an individual person with their own lives and motivations and interiority. No faceless goons! Even background extras should have unique faces and identifying details.

Sombre tone - As you might expect from a character whose founding motivation is bottomless guilt and penance to the point of self destruction, whose relationships with the people who love her most are too often defined by the ways they fail and hurt each other, Batgirl (2000) was, overall a bit of a downer. Not dark, not grim, never ever gross or grisly, but more often than not sad. Or at best bittersweet. And I do want some of that tone back for Cassandra's solo book. Birds of Prey is too wholesome for me. I want angst, I want brooding... or not even brooding, dwelling. I want tragedy. I want inescapable truths that bind and burden rather than setting anyone free. I want those tiny points of human connection and empathy to be bright stars standing out in a long, dark night.

show don't tell - Cassandra's stories should be told in a way that leans on the panel art rather than narration. I know this is a reductive writing advice cliche that doesn't fit all stories and characters, but it IS critical to stories with THIS character. Even if she can talk just fine now, Cassandra should still be a character of actions more than words. Critically, don't *tell* me what she's feeling with blunt narration, *show* it on her face. I don't care if Cass's costume has a full face mask, shrink-wrap that thing to show her expressions anyway. I'm here for the character drama, not realistic fabric physics. Pick a lead artist based on their ability to do expressions, not fight scenes, and pick a lead Writer whose willing to trust the artist and the reader enough to let go.

no shock twists. Build character and narrative arcs, lay groundwork, foreshadow plot points, hammer core themes. The biggest gut punches should grow so naturally out of those well established themes and character dynamics that they feel inevitable. They should hang over Cassandra's (and the reader's) head right like the Sword of Damocles, or like a time bomb ticking down in plain view with no way to disarm it. Like Cass trying to hide the fact she killed a man from Bruce while Bruce tries to deny it ever happened and you just know a major confrontation is coming when that bubble of lies and denial burst (granted that conflict never really did come, BUT STILL), or the promised battle with Shiva. Or the falling out with Barbara (granted that one came way later than it should have to the point of feeling a bit out of the blue). Or the falling out with Stephanie over Cass valuing her as a friend but never really respecting her as an ally. Or David Cain finally making a move against Bruce for taking his daughter.

Small but serious stakes - Keep the stakes personal and emotional rather than large scale and physical. Cass shouldn't be fighting to save the world, a fight with no tension because she can't lose because we already have solicits for next month's DC comics. She should be fighting to save one man, to give a deathrow inmate one more night to live, to stop one boy's desperate father from making a mistake that could mean he never sees his son again. Stakes woth real tension because Cass can and does sometimes fail, and add the weight of those failures to the guilt that drives her.

street level perspective - few to no scenery-chewing costumed or super-powered antagonists, minimal supernatural or science fiction elements that might distract from the human element. The focus of the story should be tight and personal and human. Most of the criminals Cass deals with are far beneath her skill level, which makes most fight scenes short and punchy, leaving more book space for the juicy character stuff, and makes the rarer occasions when she does have to fight a super villain or a martial artist who's actually on her level more special and memorable.

That last point is probably less possible for modern Cass than for old school Cass, due to modern Cass's history being tied up in various super hero teams and their typical genre-crossing shenanigans, and of all the points its the one I'm most willing to sacrifice IF it means building on the relationships and connections that New Cass has built over that time.

Which I guess brings me to my specific requests. Entirely apart from the broader story telling stuff, if I had to list specific things I'd want to see from this book, it would be particular characters returning to build on some of Cass's relationship dynamics with them.

Shiva we already know will be there from issue one, which fits with the more significant roll new-Cass's mother has played in her story in the absence of any version of David Cain worth speaking of.

Barbara yes, though that relationship at least in theory /should/ be more a focus over in Birds of Prey, and I'll leave my dissatisfaction with Cass's depiction in that book for some other post.

Bruce, of course. I absolutely don't want a return to the Black-Bat or even the Bludhaven days when Cassandra was essentially on her own. Her relationships - both the supportive and the destructive - are the core of her character, and none more so than with Bruce, on both fronts. To that point, I don't want to see Wayne Family Adventures Bruce here either. Save that well adjusted self reflective good father in touch with his feelings to the point of being a downright parody of Bruce Wayne (one that I love, mind you, WFA is good) for fan fics and web toons. I want to see a Cassandra so devoted to Bruce that it's overtly unhealthy, like she has 'sacrifice myself in his name' on a dead man's switch. And I want a Bruce who, despite deeply and genuinely caring about Cassandra, either willfully ignores or outright exploits that impulse in ways that make the reader want to reach into the panel and wring his thick stupid neck.

But those are, or at least should be, just the obvious ones. If I had to pick a few maybe less obvious characters and relationships that I want this new ongoing to build on they would be...

Stephanie. This should be just as obvious as Bruce or Shiva, but I'm more than a bit worried here? I will be big mad if Stephanie isn't at least a regular supporting character in this book, and I'd have been a lot happier if she were a co-star or alternating lead. It's not a matter of shipping, either. These characters are best friends, and their friendship on the page is reflected by a shared bond between fandoms that stood together while their faves were both being put down and cast aside by DC editorial. I will not have Stephanie Brown and her fans disrespected yet again, especially not for the sake of propping up any version of Cass as better or more important or more worthy.

Clay Face. Iirc he's back to being a villain? if so that makes him a perfect candidate for the sort of emotionally fraught interpersonal drama mentioned above, even if he's a weird and distractingly unrealistic supervillain. Cass promised to be there to punch him if he ever strayed from the path - a new-Cass moment that was incredibly true to the spirit and character of original-Cass. Have her make good on that promise! Or maybe she already did - I'm not super familiar with current Cass's continuity, but even if she has this seems like a connection worth bringing back.

Harper Row. As far as I know DC's done fuck all with her since Batman and Robin Eternal? I could be wrong again, though, and please correct me if I am. Admittedly there's a Sci-fi bent to Harper that goes against the last point above, but it's more than worth the exception. Harper Row was a close friend from the moment this new Cass was introduced AND as the daughter of the woman new-Cass killed, Harper's mere presence in the book would open up the door to bring back, focus in, and really dwell on that core theme of guilt I was talking about. Plus the Drama of Cass's devotion to Bruce vs. Harper's disillusion with him. Just a ton of room for emotional tension and angst. Just please, PLEASE don't let her randomly show up as a villain. That would be dumb and bad and only recall the time DC tried that garbage with Cass herself. No Shock Twists!

Xanthe Zhou. A more recent connection, and one that again violates the last rule in the 'story style' list above, this time for their supernatural abilities. But I would like to see the new book let Cassandra build more of a cultural connection to her Chinese heritage, and that's not something I can see coming from her mother. That heritage is however a core part of Xanthe's character concept, and I think they worked together well in the recent Spirit World miniseries. I don't think Xanthe is part of any other current titles - though do please correct me if I'm missing something - and if not then I at least would be happy to have them as a Batgirl regular, supernatural elements not withstanding.

[neonscandal]

If you were asked who is the better antagonist in JJK or BNHA, who would they be? I found some similar ask that asked, "who is better antagonists between Kenjaku, Toji or Sukuna"? And what I think about is the antagonist in BNHA are cool, too.... What do you think?

I can't tell if this is a comparative question of JJK vs BNHA or just generally the best of both soooo I'll try to answer to the best of my interpretation.

⚠️ There's a spoiler warning for the below, I'm just riding the struggle bus today so assume spoilers through recent chapters.

Jujutsu Kaisen

🏆 Best Antagonist: Kenjaku

The Competition

Don't get me wrong, Mahito and Toji are certified demons too but their impact on the story is not as expansive. Admittedly, this is kind of silly considering Toji and his justified denouncement of jujutsu culture is precisely what creates the chasm that informs the greater conflicts we're currently in the midst of. Personally, I think Toji will make one more comeback on the side of the good guys, somehow. It's not outside of the realm of possibility and, based on spoilers around Chapter 236, he's been potentially alluded to as some sort of insurance. Who else's father could Gojo have been talking about unless Jin is still alive?

Regarding Mahito, I think an interesting insight into his character is buried in one of the light novels. He mentions it in the fight with Yuji to a degree to in that he's a mirror of humanity. He rampages as he sees violence in the world. But when encountered by a human at peace, he, too, found peace and his interest piqued. Ultimately, Mahito was a knife in the heart that just kept twisting but he was nothing more than a rabid dog interested in seeing what kind of curse Yuji's turmoil might bring about. How many times could he rend his soul without laying a finger on him.

Kenjaku, however, is insidious in the fact that his power spans millennia and I don't think we've seen the full exposition of his impact. With his ability to commandeer bodies, he did whatever he wanted throughout history using the bodies of countless people and why? Sick curiosity. There's no rhyme, no reason, he just wants to see how big of a clusterfuck he can make of the world and, so far, we've only seen a few of the ripples of that. He is both unpredictable and, yet, exceptionally cunning and resourceful. Who knows how many back alley deals he made with the reincarnated sorcerers. How many other cursed paintings, artifacts or vessels he forged that haven't revealed themselves. Where Toji and Mahito kinda allowed themselves to fly off the handle, Kenjaku is playing a long game of chess. I've considered whether Geto was doomed by the narrative and, I think we'll find that Kenjaku was a part of what pushed Geto to his ultimate defect to better line up his next body. Scarily, Kenjaku had the time and means to plot where that possibility isn't that far off.

Sukuna, similarly cunning, is the villain of the story with all the traditional markers of being the big bad and, seemingly, unredeemable but Kenjaku effectively could have put the whole course of events into action a thousand years ago. I also always think its funny that Gojo randomly rattles off facts from other eras/periods. I don't know that that isn't by design either.

My Hero Academia

🏆 Best Antagonist: Dabi

The Competition

I think we've seen the resolution of Toga's story and, as far as antagonists go, she added a degree of mayhem on the final battlefield when, in mourning Twice, she let forth his Sad Man's Parade. While she has the quintessential recipe of being cast aside, misunderstood and vilified on the basis of her quirk (see also: Spinner and Shigaraki), I think she more served as a device for character development or a parallel to Deku. Having found acceptance with Ochako, her current status is unknown.

Spinner really had a big moment at the hospital but namely as a pawn for AFO. He kind of waffled around, wringing his hands over whether LOV was true to Stain's vision before choosing to follow Shigaraki. But his lack of resolve coupled with a forced power up ultimately fumbles what could have been a huge win for the LOV at the hospital. Actually, Spinner probably could have been utilized better but his story was overshadowed by Shoji coming into his own. Maybe his purpose was really just to be the real time example of someone wanting to do the right thing, ending up on the wrong side, having so many opportunities to do better but sacrificing that path for whatever acceptance he found with the League.

Shigaraki is an obvious choice for villain but, we can see how tenuous his connection to villainy is. He, like the other members of the LOV, are ultimately the product of never having someone reach out a hand to help but I think we're getting closer to Deku untangling the knot of his trauma and it'll be what frees him of the grasp AFO has on him. Further, while Shigaraki was ultimately dubbed the prodigal successor of AFO, his struggle to enact a grand scheme to unite the League and the Paranormal Liberation Front, I think, is more indicative of what we've noted to be a really immature mindset. He's no diabolical genius.

Which leads me to the best antagonist, in my opinion. Ain't no vengeance like that of Touya MF Todoroki. In addition to burying the lede of his identity for so long just to build up to one magnificent, triumphant dance, Dabi's origin story is so zesty. Born into the pinnacle Haves of quirk society, he was on track to follow in Endeavor's footsteps only to have so many odds stacked against him. The right quirk but incompatible with his body. Still, he wasn't deterred and his similarly obsessive commitment to besting All Might for Enji causes him to self destruct. He winds up in AFO's clutches. Found and rehabilitated by Garaki, he dips without so much as a name only to resurface years later. Still a phantom. Still guided by his twisted need to make his father just as miserable as he was when he found out he was not sought after despite the years that passed. Not only that but, spoiler for the big Shiggy Showdown (chapter number escapes me), but he is unaffected by the reconciliation of his family. Unbothered by their pleas or the fact that he'd burned through his own skin, nerves, pain receptors, organs. He is possessed by his need to wreak havoc and he cries tears of blood to boot. This doesn't undermine the tragedy of his origin story - his stolen birthright, the inequities of what should have been his given his quirk and tenacity, the fact that at the height of his power he can't help but cry. Just like the rest of the League of Villains, he is just the product of a family who did not adequately support or care for him and a society that cast him aside. He just also happens to have grander schemes at play, the exposition of which provided a more comprehensive understanding of hero society and its failures which was Shigaraki's desire all along to shift the whole paradigm. What sets Dabi apart from other antagonists, in my opinion, is that there really aren't villains in MHA. Just people waiting to be moved by how earnest Deku is or rehabilitated by their own recognizance. This is as it applies to Stain, Gentle Criminal, La Brava, Lady Nagant and even Overhaul (so I won't bother going into them individually). But Dabi stays 10 toes down on his commitment to madness. I'm still uncertain whether his charred corpse will actually see redemption but it stands to be seen.

All For One is of course the irredeemable demon lord and I'm not sure the power of friendship is going to affect anything there.

Winner Take All

Best Antagonist: Kenjaku. This largely stems from my belief that, despite his death in recent chapters, we're going to get additional exposition into his depraved dealings or another layer of his plans that lays in wait and is ready to devastate us all. The possibilities there are endless with the way the story oscillates from present to past.

Bonus, Best Villain: Gege Akutami. They know what they did.

[pyrrhicraven]

I love your TMNT fics too! Can you galk about all of your TMNT ships please? 🥺

Fic name followed by the pairings as currently, my three fics have three very different versions of these characters lol

Last Knight Saki/Raphael: Saki has always been one of my favorite villains, and it's almost difficult not to see the goofy guy from the 87 series. But In some versions of TMNT Saki is a cold-hearted monster and in Last Knight, he isn't a good guy, Saki is a mobster, he is a killer, and more importantly he is a human being. He has feelings, and for the most part, he knows some of the things he does are really fucked up. Raphael is very much a ninja capable of killing, but he's also the heart of his family. If anything Saki's bringing the true ninja out of Raphael even while they're falling deeper into a romantic relationship. This is also probably the closest I'll get to writing a soulmate fic for TMNT 😂 I enjoy writing these two interactions because there is so much I can do with them, they both are very versatile characters. Mikey/Tiger Claw: I wanted to try out this pairing as I hadn't written for Tiger Claw before and toeing the line between enemies and not enemies has always been something I'm fond of writing. These two might not stay in a relationship but they'll have fun while they are in it lol Bebop/Rocksteady: Funny to say but this is one of my OTP's, you just don't get Bebop without Rocksteady, and the same in reverse. I hadn't written for them before and I really wanted to at least hint at it as they aren't the main pairing or even the secondary lol Hamato Yoshi/Tang Shen: A Canon Pairing but one I'll keep because it is tragic and Splinter is really messed up from her death, it's fun to write different ways she died, and also how much everyone involved regretted her dying so needlessly.

Pac-Man Mikey/Delisha: Delisha is an OC of mine that I made for Mikey to fall in love with. De is my first attempt at a trans character and a romantic partner for Mikey! She's funny and adores Mikey, she also works for Shredder as a receptionist and sometimes as a medic. That actually doesn't bother Mikey that she works for the enemy because he adores her. Of course, if she worked against him and his brothers that would certainly start an argument and a possible breakup for these two. Donatello/Saki: The Main pairing for Pac-Man. They are going to hurt each other, Both of them are really messed up Donnie having gone through a situation that really made him switch up his game and Saki just being the normal paranoid bastard that he can be lol Of course their differences are going to start arguments and Saki isn't just going to allow Donnie to control whatever their wacky relationship is and Donnie isn't going to give up power that easily. Casey/Raphael: Not my usual cup of tea, but I don't mind occasionally writing pairs that I wouldn't normally, and I also got the idea because someone asked me if Donnie's with Saki who's Raph with lol They are best friends so it's easy to transition that into a more romantic relationship. They still do all their normal stuff, but now they also cuddle on the couch to watch movies-kiss, etc. Leo/Rocksteady/Bebop: I was learning about terminology and QPR caught my attention. I'd already planned for Rocksteady/Bebop for this fic but adding Leo in a Queer platonic relationship with them had all the guys dating lol April/Venus: I was researching and was reminded once again that Venus was a thing and I should add her coming back into the guy's lives after having been away for a while. Pairing her off with April gave me Casey/Raph vibes and I liked that so I added it in, Not sure If I'll write this paring again after this fic but I'll have fun exploring their dynamic in the fic.

Nova Saki/Raphael: The Saki in this is a much better person than he is in Last Knight and Pac-Man. He's also really messed up from a long possession and learning how to live in a new era. Raphael in this is learning what it's like to be stabbed in the back by 'friends'. They begin to trust each other and eventually grow romantic feelings for each other. Now when the family finds out well that's going to be fun to write lol

[tothetoonandback]

PV post cause i have to learn to post what i want girl🙁. Hello tumblr omg!

Main sillies down yonder to be so fr… YES i’ve been silly abt one guy YES i can be silly abt his relationships (female friends). Colleen cruiser and ethan earle friendship my beloved y’all are crazy. Seen each pther at ur worst phases (7th grade and beyond)

Also in the read below i’m yapping just so ur aware girls

Just like talking abt my guys… first ref w Lawrence specifically! He’s so funny to me idc. Was sort of a sidekick/ally to Sierra’s mom, and his whole thing was just being rlly fast LMAO. Speedster if u will… he managed to run himself into the future and at some point during Sierra’s Bplt era ran himself back and just retired as soon as he found Paige, one of the last living ppl in his family besides ppl out of state. He’s living comfortably to say the least!!! Paige also is good friends w Leah and Sierra!

Ellie oohh… lovingly married to Cal and a proud choir teacher fr! Loves her students a ridiculous amnt! Her shtick is being able to control certain parts of ppl, which she’s still working towards LMAO, but she mainly sticks to vocal cords, eardrums and parts of the brain related to speech. She managed to let herself go crazy w her voice without hurting anything and has a craaazy range LMAAOO.

T.V. and Carmen…. Carmen specifically is a menace on her blog, which she purely posts abt the latest hero/villain news, including drama shit and general news happening. T.V. is her little sidekick and manages to get whatever info they need, though she has a very easy time doing it on her own. Cam also runs the yearbook club and does the same damn thing with her own school. T.V. is much more chill and aspires to be a big comic artist, very much taking inspo from ppl like the Blaukers :-)). They also have a secret dream of hosting some sort of television segment or show LOL.

The Blaukers… both retired from being comic artist/writers interchangeably but Chris is more seen from his art and Bobby’s more seen from his writing. They met from both starting comic series abt Carolina’s Bolt, and eventually started to make the series together, making probably the most memorable series of any real-time hero. They sort of got the trend of it going as well, but at some point retired due to realizing that it was a bit immoral to treat heroes that way LMAO. They’ve been lenient on speaking on the issue seeing how more modern heroes act but are still very invested in the comic industry, even if they aren’t directly in it. Definitely caught in what’s going on and know everything happening with everyone

Kyra and Sean yaaayy! Not much to say abt them, but Sean is Sierra’s step brother and the both of them have always had a big influence on both Sierra and Luka. Mostly Luka when he was still with the family!

Chief Frye is just funny i just like thinking abt her sometimes

CAL colleen beloved thing oh my god. Lovingly married to Ellie!!! Local artist as hell, has worked w abt every medium u can think of and has sold her work to plenty of art shows and fairs. Def knows her craft. Also a good ally for heroes and villains alike, tho mostly villains LMAO, because she can get her say abt just anything. She gets her shit together for a good price fr. Also a childhood friend to Ethan, they’re silly!:-) type to get picked the hell up by her large wife and her large friend

Also for the doodles: mayzie go crazy i need to post abt her more. And cal having tats just makes me soooo so crazy!

Girlcode w the pads i love sierra and e’s relationship, even pre-everything. They’re so

[flower-boi16]

A new era of Disney TVA is upon us...let's talk about that.

So recently the finale to The Owl House titled Watching and Dreaming aired on April 8th, not only is it the end of that show, but was also the end story-driven serialized era of Disney TVA. In this post I'm going to discuss my thoughts on this current era of Disney TVA we're in and my thoughts on each of the shows in it. Note that for most of these shows, this going to be just my first impressions on each of them based on how much of each of them I've seen. So...let's begin.

Big City Greens

In this current era of Disney Channel we've been getting more episodic shows, these shows still have continuity character development and some major status quo changes, but they aren't super story-driven like shows such as The Owl House or Ducktales 2017. Big City Greens is the first of these. Big City Greens follows the misadventures Cricket Green, a mischievous country boy whose family moves into the big city. The main appeal of the show is to see whatever hilarious chaos the green family can unintentionally cause.

The show currently has three seasons with a fourth season coming next month and a movie coming out next year. I've seen a lot of episodes of Big City Greens whenever the show pops up on Disney Channel and this show is pretty great! I like Cricket as a protagonist; he's a mischievous little shit but a little shit that still cares about his friends and family. Most of the other greens family is cool too. This show is also really funny, from the episodes I've watched I laughed a lot while watching it. I'm not saying much about this show because I'm planning on making a review on it, hopefully, I can watch all of the first three seasons before season 4 comes out, but for now, my thoughts on this show are pretty positive so far!

The Ghost and Molly Mcgee

This is the second show of this new era of Disney Channel. The Ghost and Molly Mcgee follows an upbeat and optimistic 13-year old girl named Molly Mcgee, whose family moves into Brighton. However, turns out their house is already a home, a home to a ghost named Scratch, and Molly and Scratch become best friends over the course of season 1. That was probably a bad description of the show's synopsis but ehh whatever. The show has two seasons so far with the second season still airing. This is another show that I'm planning on making a review on so I'm not gonna say much about it here, however, I also quite like this one.

I think Molly is a good protagonist; she's funny she's likable and is always willing to help anybody out and wants to en-happify the word. I always kind of like overly optimistic female characters and Molly is one of them. Scratch is great too, his development is decent and he's just pretty funny. Again, I'm planning on making a review of this show soon so I'm not going to say much about it here, but The Ghost and Molly Mcgee is a fun cute little show.

Hamster and Gretal

So...I don't know if I could have much to say about this show. Created by the same guys who made Phineas and Ferb, Hamster, and Gretal is a show about a superhero girl named Gretal and her superhero animal sidekick Gretal. Oh, and she has an older brother too. I don't really think I have much to say about this one, since I've only seen one episode. It was the episode that had that one villain who can talk to onions. Based on the one episode I've seen...it looks fine. I'm not a huge fan of the voice acting, idk it just sounds weird to me, and the animation doesn't really look that great, but it also doesn't look terrible. The characters seemed ok and the jokes were kinda funny. Hamster and Gretal looks like a fine show, I know it isn't fair to judge something based on one episode, but this is a first impressions kind of post for each show, not a review so ya. Anyway, this show looks fine, but I'm not really interested in reviewing it.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur

I already made an entire review of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur before so I'm not going to repeat my thoughts on the show here. So I'm just going to say, I LOVE this series. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur follows 13-year-old Lunella Layfatte and her best friend Casey. One day when rebuilding a portal that a scientist left the blue prints for, she opens the portal and a giant dinosaur named Devil comes through the portal, from there they become a superhero crime-fighting duo Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. Again, I already made a review of this show before, so just to recap; I absolutely LOVE this show. I love Lunella as a protagonist, I love Casey and Devil, I love the songs, I LOVE the animation, I LOVE the finale, everything about this show is amazing on every single front. This is easily my favorite Disney show of all time and my favorite show to come out from this current era so far. Again, if you want to see my full detailed thoughts on the show, go check out my review of it. Suffice to say this show is AWESOME!

Kiff

Kiff is a show about an anthropomorphic squirrel named Kiff, and the show revolves around her adventures with her best rabbit friend Barry in their town. Of the few episodes I've seen of Kiff, it looks like a fun show. It's pretty funny and I like the characters and some of the songs. Don't have much to say about Kiff other than it's a pretty fun show.

Haily's On It!

Haily's On It is a show about a girl named Haily who doesn't really like trying out new things. But one day a scientist from the future comes and says that Haily needs to complete every single thing on this list or else the world will end. Haily's On It looks decent based on the episodes of it I've seen. Haily is a likable enough protagonist and Scott is fine, I'm not a huge fan of the art style and animation though...it just looks kinda of stiff. Don't have much to say about this one either, it looks like a decent 7/10 based on what I've seen.

Upcoming shows

There are a few shows that are going to be released soon. First there's...Primos, the show that caused quite a bit of controversy when the theme song dropped due to its racist depictions of Mexicans, and the creator's response to that controversy. I'm not gonna go into much detail about the drama aside from that, but I don't really think I have much interest in this one. The character designs suck and I don't really know if the premise really interests me. Maybe I'll review it when it comes out in 2024, but this still doesn't look that exciting.

I also heard that there's an upcoming Darkwing Duck reboot coming soon so that's cool and Phenias and Ferb is getting a revival for seasons 5&6.

Conclusion & Overall Thoughts

So what are my overall thoughts on this era of Disney TVA? Well, I'd say it's pretty good so far. Sure, most of them are very episodic and slice-of-life but I think that's ok, not every show needs to be story-driven or that stuff. The new shows we've been getting have still been pretty good, I'd say that of all the big three networks (CN and Nickelodeon) Disney Channel is the only one that did remotely well during the 2010s and early 2020s. This channel is still able to create consistently good to great shows to this day, and that's certainly an accomplishment when you look at the current states of CN and Nickelodeon right now. So in conclusion...this era of Disney TVA is pretty good and I'm looking forward to whatever new shows are gonna come out. So...bye.

[piracytheorist]

Which Disney movie do you consider overrated? (Pixar counts)

Peter Pan from 1953. And I'm gonna choose violence here. Skip this post if this is your favourite film.

The most glaring problem with that film is of course the racist depiction of Native American tribes. Sadly, a film can be technically well made while also being racist, so it's not the racism part that makes me think that this film sucks from an entire film making standpoint.

It's the depiction of Hook, and to an extent, Peter Pan. In the original story, Peter Pan represents childhood, but also immaturity, while Hook represents adulthood and all the shit that follows it. While Hook is more of a villainous character, he's not the villain of the story, while Peter Pan is not the absolute hero protagonist and paragon of virtue of the story. He's also pretty fucked up. Pan and Hook are symbols, and of opposite sides to boot, and that's why they're antagonists in the story. Wendy is a character, learning about both and in the end pretty much choosing neither.

So Disney took that and turned it into a black-and-white hero vs villain story while forgetting that the original is about Wendy learning what growing up is all about.

Hook is turned into a caricature of a villain while also being mocked for having a very legitimate fear of an animal that wants to eat him. I don't know, maybe it's because I don't have childhood nostalgia for this film, I first watched it when I was like 14 and I was like dafuq did I just watch. Like I was legitimately cringing and feeling bad that Hook was being made fun of. Phobias and trauma-related fears are no laughing matter.

And look - I'm not saying you can't have a villain who is comical. Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians, which came out a few years after Peter Pan, is also a comical villain... but she's not a ridicule. Roger may make a song mocking her, but it's more of a dark humor song going like "She's the devil and she will eat you alive O_O but not really" while Peter Pan went like "LOL Hook is afraid of an animal that ate his hand and now wants to eat the rest of him he's such a coward LOL!" And no, I don't think it's fair to see a man who's willing to kill children in cold blood and to try and bring him down by laughing at a very rational fear he has. If it was used as a weapon against him and taken seriously - like the Lost Boys or Pan calling upon the crocodile so that Hook will panic and they can escape - it would have been a cool, albeit a little dark (though not too dark for Disney, especially for that era) idea, though not uncalled for compared to what Hook does. But no they just lol about it. It's hideous.

And in general I find that version of Pan unlikable, super annoying and an immature brat - which is funny because that's what Pan is supposed to be in the original story! He's meant to present to Wendy the "bad" sides of staying a kid forever. But Disney just presents him as a hero who learns from his mistakes like NO BITCH the whole point is that Pan doesn't grow up! He doesn't grow more mature and he's NOWHERE near being a person to look up to.

I agree that it's an iconic film but when you actually tear it down it's insulting to people with phobias and/or traumas, poorly translated from the source material, shallow as fuck, and also racist. 0/10 probably the only good thing that came out of it was whatever money the mouse decided to give to Great Ormond Street Hospital for using the rights to Peter and Wendy. (If you don't know what that is, J. M. Barrie, the author of the book and original theater play, gave the rights to the aforementioned hospital so any production getting the rights to make any production of it would essentially pay the hospital, which is a cool af idea. I think that right-holding reached its end a couple years ago and lo and behold what did the mouse do? A live action Peter Pan film :)

[sherrymagic]

For the QL asks: 5, 18 & 20. Thank you! 💜💜

thank you so much Jane for these, had a lot of fun (especially with number 18, was hoping someone would ask for that one aaaaa) 🩷

5. Who is the Asian ql villain you most love to hate?

one of the very few villains that i actually hate, and i love to hate him because he makes sense, he feels like he's well written, nuanced in his story villain nature, and that's what makes the hate so strong and real. i can see what he's doing and why and he still manages to surprise me with his behavior while still totally seeing where it's coming from, so i can hate him for the reasons i love to hate on a character for. also Mek is hot and funny which helps with the love part of this hdbsnsm

18. You get to pick a side character from two different qls to put in a show as a main pairing--who are you choosing and what kind of story is it?

had at least 4 options here but i'll keep the others in case anyone else asks for this question and i choose to go with a gl crackship that's totally not based on the way my souls craves for a CiizeEarn pairing in a lesbian romcom

SOOOO i would love for Charoen to finally get rid of Ton's obnoxious presence and go to a college fair where surprise suprise there's this girl that she initially mistakes for her friend's sister Alpha because they look so much alike (always hated the doppelganger trope but this is different because i say so) but quickly realizes it's not her. Charoen wants to choose a practical major or maybe religious/esoteric related one with the thought of following up her own family's footsteps but finds it hard to leave the art stand being somewhat enchanted by Fai's presence. the two of them end up talking at the end of the fair and Charoen expresses interest in the art major despite never taking it into proper consideration before. time goes by and she doesn't really see Fai again but she keeps often resurfacing in her mind until she starts college herself and despoite going for some other faculty she still chose the same university just because she wanted to geta chance to see her again. they actually do meet again and Fai is very busy with third year stuff and always tired but still manages to give her her support every time they meet. Charoen ends up signing up for some art related club that Fai is hosting at university, they spend more and more time together for some project related to decorating the uni or making a mural or something, the point is whatever this club is doing should lead to the gl version of the Elu (Skam France) paint scene. for reference, this is what i'm talking about:

lesbians making out covered in paint, can you imagine that?? no clear idea about the conflict but canon 23.5 told us Charoen is in the bi/pan spectrum while Fai so far had no indication reguarding not being straight, so there could be either family drama or gay crisis involved. all i know it's romcom shaped with some angsty but not too heavy parts, girls being pretty criers, fights on empty streets at night, almost breakup, and super happy ending. meaningful cameos of 23.5 and We Are characters are well accepted in this imaginary show.

20. We are retelling your favorite Asian ql from the POV of a side character--who is taking over the story and what do they have to say about the mains?

this one is hard because i don't even know which one my fave would be? the one i would ove the most to be retold in another character's perspective would be Only Friends but i wouldn't call that one a fave of mine lmao. so of the ones within my faves list... Not Me would be interesting from my favorite bitch boy Todd's pov, for the way the show was built i've always felt like they could have showed and say more about him. a ToddBlack past romance that the main characters from the original show never knew about would also fit. the novel isn't really helping with forming an idea here because reading that one revealed that the show surprisingly did a lot of things better queer erasure aside so... i'm leaving this at that bsdsnskd

— Asian QL Ask Game ♡

[mahou-furbies]

Closing thoughts on Futari wa Precure Splash Star

(spoilers)

I had heard that this was better than you'd expect and that turned out to be the case, and I'd say it's the best out of the early Precure era.

Let’s start with the best stuff: Michiru and Kaoru were great. It’s always great to have some darker and edgier characters hanging out with the heroes, when usually it’s the samey team of besties who are all friends with each other. They have a fairly unique role in the story as well and get the most interesting drama of the season. And the Wiki calls them Cures, I didn’t know the are also considered Cures! Granted their designs are really boring but I suppose that balances out Saki and Mai’s Cure designs being bad at the opposite end of the spectrum.

Overall the villain generals were really solid this time around, with memorable designs and personalities and some fun interactions between each other. But unquestionably the best out of them was Kintolesky, who was simply amazing. I already like Kabaton in Hirogaru for being honourable and Kintolesky also does that, with the addition of being really funny. And he’s polite to the Precure, civilians and even the cat!

Speaking of the cat, he would already have been excellent just based on his design (just a regular cat that is huge) but then they give him a powerup and a really deep voice and let him land a hit on the final boss. Incredible. He’s really high on my Precure mascot tier list despite not even being a real mascot, and certainly beats the actual mascots of the season (who were only slightly less annoying than Futari Wa’s)

Then there’s the actual main characters, who were... fine, I even liked Saki even when I usually tend to dislike friendly cheerful heroines. It’s probably that they’re better as one half of an equal pair, instead of being the centerpiece of a team. And she has a really cute smile! Meanwhile Mai was alright and I have to appreciate a fellow artist, but I don’t have strong feelings about her.

Since the villain side was so strong, Saki and Mai ended up feeling somewhat lacking in comparison. Michiru and Kaoru have a personal connection with the villains, go through a huge amount of character development, have to grapple with changing loyalty against their creator and deciding what to do when they learn that they will also die when the Big Bad is killed, and are the only ones to get new forms for the grand finale. Meanwhile Saki and Mai are pretty standard good guys and didn’t even change all that much through the journey.

Another thing that was a bit of an issue for me was how incompetent the villains are and don’t get any closer to their goal for like 95% of the season. Granted every season has the identical structure, the villains send out monsters of the week for a year and only pose a serious threat in the mid-season climax and finale, like for example it’s not like the bad guys have gotten anything out of their attempts at kidnapping Ellee in Hirogaru either. But this time the villains’ situation gets actively worse through the season, they start with having captured all magical springs, and the Cures reclaim one any time they kill one of the generals. It doesn’t change anything about the plot, but I still prefer the season where the villains gather Bad Vibes every episode or whatever.

Minor complaints aside this ended up being a pretty solid season indeed. I really appreciate it having an actual theme which worked pretty well, and the finale was satisfying and there was some really good music too. 

[spongebobafettywap]

I wish this xmen era was more crack than whatever we got because at least it would have been funny. might be a me problem but all those rewritings were completely unnecessary and hurt so many characters, good guys and villains alike. I don't recognize sinister or apocalypse anymore and I don't know what the fuck they pulled with destiny but I was indifferent to her before and now I don't wanna read anymore about her because it's so static and boring yet it gets shoved into any and everything that's related or not to her so you can't even avoid it

On a side note, there's something I've noticed to the added backstory they gave to apocalypse and I can't unsee it.

So he was apparently the ruler of an ancient mutant civilization located on an island in the middle of the ocean until he went to war with powerful magic users, a war which ended with his kingdom being sealed away in a hell like dimension, leaving his people to constantly fight for their lives there while he looked for a solution against those beings as well as a way to bring his kingdom back to earth.

... Isn't that azazel's backstory? Like beat for beat? They just gave apocalypse a wife but like this chunk of lore, she came out of nowhere. Am I hallucinating because if not I'm legit speechless

Yeah thats why I stopped buying the comics back in 2015 it just felt like there was a lot of character assasination done for the Maximoffs it was for the sake of the crappy MCU movies but the other X-men character also just suffered due to a bunch of rewrites and forced drama. Honestly Marvel as a whole has a real problem with writers who just have contempt for their audience and love to troll them that kinda spiteful relationship between the creators and fans is so toxic and there's only a few creators there that do not participate in this behaviour at Marvel.

We have talked on my blog before how this weird Destiny fanclub has somehow come about in recent years with her rabid fans accusing fans of all kinds of things if they don't like her. Its very weird, in the majority of the decade I was a fan of X-men I had barely heard anyone talk about her at all because in all honesty she was never a major character she was just a supporting character for Mystique. For all the hate Azazel gets from these types he had at least been talked about by fans and haters alike and had a memorable role in the films.

It's very weird because as much as DC does stupid things I never get the impression that the creators there just love to annoy their audience. I get more of the impression that the changes they make is an attempt to appeal to more people which I can at least respect in some regard.

Hmmm I recall Apocalypse's old backstory had him as an Egyptian Ruler but nothing about a war with magic users and then being sealed away just that he was put to sleep in a Escophagus. This new one does seem to rip off a lot of Azazel's backstory so thats really weird.