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my-name-is-jefferooni · 1 year ago

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I desperately need to sleep but THERE ARE SO MANY LITTLE DETAILS HERE THAT I HAVE THE URGE TO TOUCH UPON AND I WILL NOT REST UNTIL I DO JUST THAT SO STRAP IN EVERYBODY IM GOING GAME THEORY MODE

So for the first image, which is already gruesome on its own, is the bit where Amy quickly explains what happened to Cream’s mother in issue 22. (One of my personal favorites) And… Yeah. What happened is extremely deep!

Cream is a 6-year-old child, or in my head canon she’s like. 9. Still very young though, so we’ll go with 9. And this young, impressionable 9-year-old girl who previously had just been living her life peacefully before the Metal Virus, just watched her own mother die right in front of her eyes. Vanilla, Cheese, and Chocola were the only people Cream knew outside of the people in her village before meeting Sonic, and she’s been with them her whole entire life. Vanilla has cared for Cream her whole life, gave her food, a home, but most importantly, gave her love. Vanilla loved Cream unconditionally. She held the young rabbit up when she had no more strength to stand, helped her through so much in her life, and did everything that a mother could do a more!

And then she was gone. Just like that. While protecting the very person that she loved with all her heart. And on top of that, Cheese and Chocola were gone as well. No one in her family was left. It was just Cream. All alone.

When passing by Sonic, she hardly even greets him. Just gives him a small, depressed “H’lo Mr. Sonic.” Her eyes are devoid of any emotion, all the joy sucked right out of her voice. She’s just a husk of who she used to be.

And it is genuinely all Sonic!s fault. (More on that later)

The next image, with Metal and Sonic later in the comic, there isn’t really too much for me to say. Sonic is exhausted, he can barely stand on his own two feet, (Again. More on this later) and he is heavily infected with the Metal Virus. Metal is literally his only hope in this moment. Bro can hardly even speak by the way, and yet somehow, Metal fully understands. And when he does help Sonic, it’s at the cost of what little autonomy he had left.

I think this scene is important because while Metal is doing all this because Eggman told him to, us Sonic fans know better. Metal didn’t help Sonic up because it was part of the mission. If it was, Metal would have continued beating up the Zombots and he would’ve waited for Sonic to speak up. But instead, he listens closely to what Sonic has to say and ignores the other Zombots, focusing entirely on Sonic’s needs. It’s a very very small step and won’t get him anywhere for a WHILE, (Mostly because Sega demands he stays evil) but it’s still a step. So for now, we just have to wait until we get the Good Metal ending. 😭

The next scene is Sonic mulling over everything that’s happened. Everything that he’s indirectly caused. Sonic at this point in the comic has finally met up with Eggman for the very first time since his defeat a few months prior, and one of the first things the doctor does is mock Sonic for being infected. He mocks Sonic’s naivety, mocks the way the rodent wants him to be good, mocks the blue blur’s sense of justice, mocks his entire worldview. And naturally, that pisses Sonic off.

Because Sonic just spent weeks trying to justify letting Mr. Tinker live. He has been telling people this entire fucking time that Eggman was good now and that he would never do anything nefarious again. When the Metal Virus hit, the denial started setting in. Because while all the signs pointed right at Eggman’s mustache, there were hardly any of the obvious signs that it was truly him. Trouble started arising in the villages and Sonic chalked it up to Rough and Tumble just getting their hands on old tech, when deep down he knew what was really going on. And when he saw Eggman’s newest flagship parading around cities and towns like he owned the world, (Which he actually very literally did) something cracked in his resolve. Sonic had to admit that Eggman was back to his nefarious deeds once again, but he just… He couldn’t.

So when everything starts going wrong. When Eggman finally tells Sonic straight up that he will never go back to his life as Mr. Tinker. When he outright tells Sonic to his face that this was all his plan the entire time…

When Sonic is all alone, transforming into a Zombot, Tail’s device broken, his entire moral compass shattered within a matter of minutes… He finally allows himself to admit he was wrong.

Before he fully succumbs to his misery and guilt though, he thinks of his friends. He thinks of everything that could’ve been if he had just done something right for once! And he ZOOMS off into the night, the Metal Virus flaking behind him as he runs, his thoughts going just as fast as he is, telling him that he was wrong, and…! He starts to slow down. Because it’s been… How long? A week? 2 weeks? Who’s keeping count, even? And he’s been on his feet this entire time, never giving himself a break, never stopping to even take a nap longer than a few minutes, not having any proper rest since before this whole debacle began…! Everything hurts. His brain, his body, his heart! It all hurts so fucking much, and all he wants is for all of this to end. But he started it, so he has to be the one to end it.

Okay that was way more dramatic than intended to let’s just move on shall we?

BOOM. INSERT ANOTHER SONIC MORAL DILEMMA HERE FROM THE EXACT SAME ISSUE BUT FROM A WHOLE TEN MINUTES PRIOR WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Hoo boy, this is another relatively short one. I basically already covered a majority of Sonic”s moral issues above, but basically what’s happening here is Sonic is finally letting the weight of everything sink in. He knows he fucked up, so he’s at this point just straight up treading on eggshells. All Sonic wants to do is the right thing, but at this point he doesn’t even know what the “Right thing” even is anymore. He spent so long thinking that giving people second or third chances was the right thing, but due to what he sees literally right in front of him… That contradicts that very statement now, doesn’t it?

Sonic no longer knows what the “Right thing” is anymore, and it’s confusing him. If it weren’t for him spotting Eggman in the next panel, our boy would’ve been left standing there for ages mulling over what to do. He’s so exhausted, so out of it, so utterly lost, that he can’t even do the one thing he’s been doing his whole life: Run.

And it’s eating him up inside.

And here is the moment where I unfortunately have to cut things short. It is 11:30 in the pm right now and I have school in the morning and I still got a ton I gotta do before I go to bed so I’ll continue sometime tomorrow, if my brain will allow me. Thanks so much for reading this gigantic wall of text, hope you somehow enjoyed, love you lots, have a great day/night, and bye-bye!

beautifully painful IDW moments that I could talk about for AGES.

(aka I miss the metal virus saga)

#Despite how late it is rn and how tired I am this was so much fun to do I love over-analyzing the tiniest of details bro it’s so fun #you just show me an image of Sonic the hedgehog and depending on the time of day I’ll either say “Haha funny hedgehog go brrrrrr”#Or I’ll say “This bitch can hold so much goddamn trauma in him it isn’t even fucking funny anymore” and then I’ll go on a 20 minute rant #god all of these scenes make me want to chew on a brick #SO. PAINFUL #ARGH.#sonic's expressions in the last two pics #<——- Previous tags #blog/ask stuff #angst

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haleigh-sloth · 2 years ago

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Do you believe in the theory that Tenko was born quirkless and was given his quirk by AFO while Deku was born with a quirk and quirk was stolen at a young age? I know the latter sounds kind of far fetch, but it's a weird theory I have while on the other hand I do actually believe Tenko was born quirkless. Do you think Tenko and Izuku will both lose their quirk at the end?

Gonna say a Hard No to the Izuku being born with a quirk and it being stolen. Nothing substantiates that and it contributes absolutely nothing to Izuku's arc thematically or sensibly. I mean, in any way whatsoever, it adds nothing. So no I'm definitely not sold on that one.

But I'm gonna say that while I was on the fence about it for a long time before, I now am convinced Tenko was born quirkless and given decay.

I have one main reason backing up the idea that he was indeed born with it, but it's not enough to trump the reasons I think he was quirkless. So I'll just put it at the very end.

I was always on the fence about it because it could honestly turn out either way. If he had been born with decay, well, that sucks. It all still happened the way it did. If he wasn't and AFO gave it to him, then that sucks even MORE and adds more fuel to the fire. But either way, the story with Shigaraki would have played out to the same ending regardless.

But now I do really think we will find out that Tenko was given decay.

I say this because I always found it weird that in MVA it was pointed out that he didn't have a quirk. I feel like if he was really born with decay and there was nothing more to it, there wouldn't have been any need to make it A Thing that he was quirkless beyond the age expected to gain a quirk. Kotaro could have just said "no heroes no ifs ands or buts" regardless of quirk, like he did with everyone else in the family, and it didn't necessarily have to be a thing worth mentioning that he had no quirk at the time. I know that's like, nitpicky, but things are done intentionally in a story.

And then of course the mysterious man in the hat that dropped Tenko off at home at the beginning of his flashbacks, and then that same man in the hat picking up Touya's burnt body (who we know is AFO) in chapter 350--further tying AFO to his hobby of watching, manipulating, and eventually kidnapping of vulnerable kids.

Then even more--parallels to the MC. There are a few parallels already, and their stories don't parallel perfectly because they're meant to intertwine rather than run parallel, but this only adds more to it.

Then this is where I'm less keen to rely on the anime, but can't ignore a detail that it gave us--Tenko's eyes and hair. I always thought he just had naturally red eyes, and then his hair turned white from stress (yes I know it doesn't work fast that way but this is anime). But--I like the theory @helga-grinduil has about how when the decay quirk activated, that's what changed his eye and hair color. I mean I guess in bnha land, anyone who manifests a quirk could and would change appearance. But again, there is other evidence to support that his appearance changed because of a quirk that he was not born with. His eyes were originally gray, then changed to red. My biggest hold up with this though is that we are relying on the anime for this detail--and at that, season 5 of all seasons. Where I really am not sure if I should trust any detail they put in at all, honestly. But I don't want to ignore it. It's possible that's a clue. It's not like we would know by reading the manga.

Now I'm gonna walk into strictly prediction territory meaning I can't cite canon for this, where I can't say this is for sure a thing but something I definitely think is going to happen, very very likely so. Izuku seeing Tenko's memories. At first it was just a desired idea, a fanfic idea. But this is bnha, where fanfic ideas become canon quite often. And it just so happens that as things play out more and more, this idea seems more and more plausible and likely. For so many reasons that would make this post longer than necessary--but the main one being that this is literally the best way for us, Izuku, and Tenko both to discover where decay came from. Revisiting the memories once again, and seeing something that Tenko may have shut out before but Izuku sees it when he gets in there. Again--an idea and a prediction, can't say for sure this will happen. But it feels likely, at this point.

The biggest reason I think it wouldn't be that AFO gave him decay is strictly to disprove Redestro's take that quirk affects personality and makes someone act a certain way. He accuses Shigaraki of being destructive because of his quirk. Shigaraki retaining his quirk, having been born with his quirk, but still proving that he isn't destructive in nature would hold up as a powerful idea. "My quirk doesn't define me". And him having to learn to live with decay and everything that comes with that would hold up in the end as a good message. Great, yeah! But also the idea that he's destructive in nature can be disproved just as easily by showing that he never had that quirk in the first place, never wanted to hurt anybody initially. Not as powerful a message on the quirk front (cuz like, whoever had decay isn't inherently destructive you know?) but I am not entirely sure that this little detail is necessary in disproving that he's a destruction incarnate.

The entire thing with the Shimuras will disprove that he's a destruction incarnate and all will be well. But that's just me keeping my mind open to the possibilities.

Also, idk if Shigaraki will end up quirkless, but I'm convinced Izuku will. I'd like them both to tbh. But whether they both do, or one of them does, or neither of them does, isn't a deal breaker for me.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #anonymous #bnha asks #shigaraki tomura #shimura tenko #long post sorry alshdg;kjasg

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alirhi · 3 years ago

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okay. let's do this shit.

Guess what, bitches? Mama bear's back and angry all over again. Remember when I said I might dive into a ragepost about how Bucky's treated after completing the one about Loki? This is it. This is the post. Welcome to fucking Thunderdome.

I will actually try to keep it civil. No promises, but I'll try. and I will not be accepting "constructive criticism" about my rage. Just so we're clear.

Got it? Good. Let's dive in.

In case you don't want to read the whole thing (I know I get wordy) here's what this whole post will boil down to: BUCKY NEVER HAD A FUCKING CHOICE. NEVER. NOT ONCE IN HIS ENTIRE ADULT LIFE.

Now, quick reminder: I don't read comics. I know nothing about Bucky's comic canon, except what Sebastian liked to bring up as often as possible during TWS/CW promotions: at some point, Bucky boned Nat. XD Since Bucky only exists as a Marvel property, I won't be bitching about other source material being disrespected like I did with Loki. This is all MCU, my dudes. And honestly? That's enough, because though we don't see nearly enough of Bucky for my liking, we do manage to get a rich, deep backstory to him in the material we're given, partly thanks to better writing in the early days of the MCU, and partly thanks to Sebastian Stan's phenomenal acting. Unlike the writers of the Loki series, Seb knows how to show, not tell. And gods, what stories those eyes show...

Let's start with the army. In an old post illustrating what an absolute BAMF Bucky Barnes truly is, I mistakenly said he enlisted, and a kind soul educated me on the incredible attention to detail Marvel used to pay - in this case, Bucky's ID number. 32557038. As this kind, eagle-eyed soul pointed out to me, the first two digits of that number - 32 - signify that Bucky was drafted, specifically from the NY, NJ, DE area (that last part is rather obvious, as Bucky and Steve are from Brooklyn lol). Bucky didn't choose to go to war. He was drafted. He was forced to fight, or go to prison.

Bucky was born in 1917, which means - again, as someone pointed out to me a while back - he came of age during the Great Depression. As a child, he would likely have seen his parents living comfortably and able to shower each other and him and his sister with gifts and fun memories, and then POOF. Stock market crashes when he's only 12-years-old, and life becomes brutal and painful. He manages to have some fun with his best friend Steve, and spends his teens/early 20s chasing girls and keeping his stupid, stubborn, tiny friend from getting beaten to death.

Steve constantly has something to prove. He's absolutely got what my mom always called "little man's disease", and Bucky's just doing his best not to roll his eyes too much at this asthmatic chihuahua constantly trying to beat up Tibetan mastiffs. While Steve keeps lying on his enlistment forms (an actual crime) trying again and again to get into the army and prove what a badass he is (definitely not), Bucky's had enough trauma and upheaval in his life and he just wants his stupid friend to calm tf down and live. Enjoy the fact that he doesn't have to go to war and get his limbs blown off.

And then he gets fucking drafted. This sweet, resigned realist who knows exactly how dangerous the war really is, is forced to put on a uniform and go fight strangers alongside other strangers thousands of miles from everything he knows. And on his last night of freedom, when he just wants to hang out with his friend, see some cool gadgets, and dance with a pretty girl, his stupid angry chihuahua friend feels the need to lie and try to enlist again.

Okay. Gotta get back on track. Ragepost about mistreatment of Bucky, not how much Steve annoys me. Sorry. Anyway...

Bucky's drafted, accepts his shitty lot with a brave smile, and is shipped off to Europe, where he is captured by HYDRA and presumed by the Allies to be KIA. Instead, he's strapped down, tortured, and given the HYDRA version of the super serum against his will. Steve rescues him, and Bucky knows he can't leave his idiot friend to his own devices to get his head blown off, so he dives right back into the fray. And then he falls off a cliff, loses most of his left arm, and is declared dead...again. This one's pretty damn valid, though lol. Without the serum no one knew he'd been shot up with, there is no way he would have survived that fall.

Here is where Bucky's story gets truly heartbreaking: His autonomy, his ability to consent is stripped from him through electroshock torture/brainwashing. The trigger words are conditioned into him during this process, and boom. Ten words in Russian, and Bucky Barnes is gone. Even the confused, hurting shadow of him is gone, leaving only a perfectly obedient killing machine, with Bucky's pretty face. He's strong as all hell, though, so they can't keep him fully under their control for long, not without more torture, when the disorientation of being fucking frozen wears off on longer missions.

I cannot stress this point enough, guys: Bucky. Had. No. Choice. Not like the draft, where his choices (go and get shot at, refuse and go to jail, or dodge and run to Canada) just suck. No, he literally didn't have a choice. He had his ability to choose stripped from him. If that's too complex a concept to really sink in, try this: His brain was fucking raped. Repeatedly. For decades. Nothing the Winter Soldier ever did was Bucky's fault. Nothing. Ever. Not remotely, no matter how you fucking slice it. Bucky is not an assassin. I almost said "not a killer", but he was a soldier, and a sharpshooter. He definitely killed when he was himself, but that was in a war, not a series of assassinations.

So far, imo, so good. This is just a rundown of Bucky's pre-show backstory. I don't love what he had to suffer, but I do love how it was treated in the movies. People were afraid of him, but when they knew the whole situation, Steve, Nat, and Sam rallied behind him. Natasha had plenty of reason to want the Winter Soldier dead; he'd tried to kill her multiple times and almost succeeded. Sam had no reason to help Bucky at all; he didn't know him, didn't trust him, and again, TWS had tried to kill him. But he stood by Steve, and when Bucky showed the clear difference between himself and TWS, Sam stood by him, too, and fought alongside him.

And it's very realistic, imo, that Tony didn't give a single fuck that Bucky had no choice. He watched this man murder both of his parents on tape. If TWS had killed my dad and I saw proof of it, I'd try to kill Bucky, too. Grief wins out over logic. Most emotions usually do. And that's a very important point we're going to come back to in a few minutes.

Bucky was really only in like ten minutes at most of IW and Endgame, and for multiple reasons I hate those movies, so I'm just gonna skip them, kay? Kay. On to the main event!

Here's where I get pissed off. Even if I didn't have an unhealthy attachment to this character, or the depth of appreciation for his tragic backstory that I do, the lack of continuity between the movies and the show alone would still piss me off. It always does. Don't even get me started on Joss "Continuity? What continuity?" Whedon and his (iconic, but flawed) shows. Ahem. Back on track...

Let me just get one little thing out of the way real quick: I fucking LOVE The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I love it. This show amazed me when I first watched it, and I still love it after many more viewings lol. I have only ever watched it all the way through without skipping over as much John Walker shit as possible the one time lol but I love how Sam and Bucky interact, and I fucking adore how Sam's arc was treated. I just wish they'd show the same care and attention to Bucky.

Because what they did to Bucky in this show is a fucking travesty. There was a tiny ray of hope in the pilot, when he called out Dr. Bitchface for being a terrible shrink. I thought that would be the start of him realizing he needed to find someone else and ignore the damaging shit that woman was telling him. But...nope. No such luck.

The show really had a strong start, I'll give it that. We see Bucky having nightmares of his time as TWS and struggling to hide how his traumatic memories are affecting him as he tries to live in the world again. He befriends the father of one of HYDRA's victims, which can't be good for Bucky (and we're shown it's definitely not when he sees the shrine in Yori's home to his late son) but it's sweet, how he's trying to connect and reach out to someone who's hurting and lonely.

They drop the ball a little with the whole... Bucky can hack a fucking car, but can't figure out Tinder thing. Had they just run with the fandom interpretation of the tiger photos line, that it shows that Bucky is bi and left it at that, I'd have been okay with it (and no, that is not because I ship Sam/Bucky. it's because Bucky is and always has been a certified nerd who loves technology and has consistently shown very little issue learning to use new gadgets). The outdated flip phone he handed his terrible court-mandated shrink was a burner; I liked that theory when I read it, especially since it's the only time we see him even holding a phone that old lol. This all could have fit the "Bucky is a sassy bisexual nerd" narrative and it'd be okay. Instead, the director was like "NOOOOOO that line was just to show how old he is and how he can't figure out all this newfangled technology!" Woman, you had him remotely driving someone else's vehicle with a tablet. That is NOT a man who can't figure out a damn smart phone!

But that's just a minor annoyance. What fills me with absolute rage is how everyone - not just the shitty therapist who lashes out at and purposely triggers her traumatized patients, but EVERYONE - Sam, Zemo, people who should fucking know better ALL treat him like he's a psychopath and a ticking time bomb. Like he chose to take the serum and he chose to kill for HYDRA, and he's just seen the error of his ways. *barf*

Bucky in the movies is established to be a victim, through and through. His guilt over what he was forced to do is natural, and that he sees himself as a monster makes sense... but that doesn't mean it's correct. The one and only thing I ever liked about Steve Rogers is at least he got it. He pointed out that none of it was Bucky's fault, he tried to show him that he was worth saving. That's the other reason I refuse to talk about Endgame. This post will get a WHOLE LOT LONGER and a lot fucking angrier if I open that door.

Zemo supposedly knows everything about HYDRA and super soldiers... So why does he treat Bucky like he's a corrupt serial killer? (this, for the record, is why I don't like Zemo) Why does he never point out that Bucky was given the serum against his will, or that his actions, when he had control of them, proved that he was never corrupted? Bucky never wanted to become superhuman. Bucky didn't even want to fucking fight!

Sam, despite constantly resisting the label, is shown very clearly to be Bucky's friend. By episode 3, he cares. He worries about how Bucky is getting lumped in with the other super soldiers in Zemo's speech... But he never really defends him. He says "what about Bucky?" but he doesn't point out that Bucky's a good man, he's fought so hard to help people, he does everything he can to avoid killing... And that fucking speech in episode 5. I was with him on "you gotta stop looking to other people to tell you who you are." I was like "YEAH! Tell him, Sam! Bucky, you're WORTH SAVING, boo! Your value does not hinge on someone else's opinion of you!" And then... Sam dropped the ball.

He not only continued the disturbing pattern of victim-blaming in this show, and in Marvel/Disney properties in general, but he gave really dangerously bad advice! No one in their right mind, mental health professional or no, would EVER tell a traumatized former assassin (whether he was responsible for his actions or not) to go confront his victims' families out of the blue with no warning and no one to mediate and keep things from going to shit. Yori already knew his son had been murdered because he was in the "wrong place, wrong time." How is it being "of service" to tell him you're the one who killed him?! Remember how I said Tony's reaction to learning the full truth about his parents' deaths was valid and would be an important point later? Hi! Welcome to later. THAT is the natural reaction to facing the man who murdered your loved one(s). And even if Yori didn't get angry and lash out, HOW IS IT "HELPING" HIM OR BRINGING HIM "CLOSURE" TO KNOW THAT HIS FRIEND KILLED HIS FUCKING SON?!?!?! This man befriended him, bonded with him, watched him grieve... And now he's learning this is the man who caused all his pain and heartache to begin with? That is so toxic and psycho I just... I can't even... UGH.

And then there's the equally toxic and damaging "deeply traumatized person just needed a stern talking to and a hug to be ALL BETTER AGAIN" ending. I loved seeing Bucky happy and socializing, but it was too soon, and it was unearned. And it sends a fucking awful message to people actually struggling with PTSD, and to their loved ones who don't know how to help them. Heaping more blame on them and then hugging it out is NOT helpful!

This show could have been damn near perfect with just two changes. That's all. Just two. 1) Someone, anyone, bringing up the reasons why Bucky was never a villain in his presence. Someone being in his corner and reminding him, like Steve did, that it wasn't his fault and he's not going to "snap". 2) More time devoted to Bucky's healing. Actual fucking healing, not the shit they tried to pass off as a magic fix-all. He can have his happy barbecue moment, just don't frame it as "everything's great now!" Healing isn't linear, and there will be both good days and bad. Some of the most fragile people in the world have the brightest smiles.

If we get a season 2, which this amazing show absolutely deserves, and they address this stuff, all will be forgiven in my book. Expanding on his story and his journey toward healing will help to reframe that "happily ever after" garbage as something more realistic. But as it stands now... Fuck Marvel.

#fan rant #ragepost #long post #bucky barnes #mcu #captain america #the first avenger #the winter soldier #civil war #tfatws #mcu spoilers #stop victim blaming #victim not villain #never a fucking villain #bucky deserved better #fuck marvel #fuck disney

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kemendin · 3 years ago

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More and more I’m feeling like I want to try RPing with my SWTOR characters, but I’m also rather hesitant, for a number of reasons.

One, just in general because I’m shy of strangers and always afraid of new roleplay experiences haaaa. Yeah I’m a wimp around people I don’t know. And it’s been so long since I put myself out there in a general roleplay community.

But also I’m like, uncertain of how this might work for SWTOR specifically. Certainly not everyone has their OCs following or even tied to the canon stories, but I’m sure a lot of people do. Like, I can’t separate Cas from a lot of the Knight story, or from the Alliance, but then in RP you’d end up with every other person having their character as the Alliance Commander, yeah? And then it gets into what romances people have for their characters and alllll this other stuff. I dunno if people just ignore that sort of thing for the sake of RP, but that seems cumbersome, you can’t do that for every little conflicting detail. Maybe you just need to find people whose character stories can mesh with your own? I really don’t know.

I don’t even know if I’m actually ASKING this stuff, I’m just sort of braining aloud here (that’s how shy I am of interacting with people, kinda sucks as a roleplayer lol). I’m just really invested in these boys of mine and I love thinking about them and writing them, in my head if not actually on paper all the time. So in theory I think RP would be interesting to dabble in, just in practise I might end up stressed out. Dunno really!

#swtor #kem rambles #it is late and my brain go brr

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tenok · 8 months ago

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@di-42 ok I was going to just write short reply saying that it's already too long and I'm sorry that I derailed your post in different direction, it wasn't my intention, but again it went out of hand lol

Now, I don't want to argue about details and theories and "what author hinted" there. It doesen't matter, because in the end it all boils down to how we characterisze Aziraphale and even more to what things have grave meaning for us, and not plot points. For exaple, I'm absolutely not bothered by Aziraphale's offer to make Crowley an angel: I can see several reasons for it and I don't think most offers can be disrespectful if it's just an offer you can refuse. For example, I get triggered when someone offer to involve third parties to solve my problems. I have valid reasons for it: I have unfortunate experiences and don't want to risk to be in debt to someone I don't know well. Most people, when they offer it to me, means well, so I try not to snap at them. Sometimes people close to me offer it, and then I *do* snap, unproportionally so, because you should've know better!! but stll by offering this they are not meaning disrespect, and sometimes they really do imply good solution I can't accept because of my trauma. I see this argument more in this way: at one side Aziraphale makes offer that makes sense to him (even if he knows that Crowley would hate being an angel, and we have no actual scenes of them discussing it, aren't we? — sometimes you can pick the thing you hate because you will have something from it! like, Crowley also hates children being killed but he had this idea in season 1, all by himself!), and Crowley, being hurt, blows up instead of calmly saing "no, I don't want it, there's why, and what we can do instead". No one really at fault, etc etc. Or with heavens being good/bad: I can argue that there's a big difference between "I know there's no good in heavens" and "I CAN make some good in heavens". So, when you see that "he won't say it because of character growth in season 1", I'll say that it's actually makes a lot of sense for him to say exactly that (now, I do feel that he was somewhat forced to take position, especially so soon, but it was *choise he made*, and the one he can consider beneficial to them both, the world and humanity).

Now, the glory of fandom is that we can all interpretations we want, and even after season 3 came out and some things would become canon and some won't, we still can say "nah, I choose to ignore it and live with my opinion" (I do this with whole season 2 sometimes lol). So you can see it your way, I can see it my way and we won't argue our way to truth. But, speaking personally, it's just a little lonely being in the point where only people that agree that Aziraphale could've mean what he said also the same people that insist that he's monster for making this choises, and people that defend Aziraphale mostly goes from the place where they insist that he actually lied and never meant even one thing in final fifteen, because, again, things he can mean interprented as... well, I won't say that someone in this corner would call him a monster, but your own argumants are about how this words would mean he regressed in his recovery or disrespected Crowley, etc. Like, very not favorable to his character, you see (and that's where it gets into my own personal territory!! Reading most metas suck so bad!! lol).

I don't thnink that Gaiman is a lazy author and I do thing that honest interpersonal/ideological conflict makes more sense for the story, but I'm trying to believe that if Gaiman will took the lying liar route, he will execute it in much more nuanced manner than I usually see in fandom, and I probably would like it! But this version of Aziraphale will be dear to me anyway.

Ok. *rolls her sleeves* You want face value? *rubs her hands* I'll give you face value.

Crowley hates his plants.

He shouts at them, belittles them and k*lls them. He says horrible things to them and the fact that he k*lls the plants off screen is no reason for us to doubt that he does. Because we trust his words in that particular scene. His behaviour throughout both seasons, especially season 2 where the only thing he takes with him from his former flat are the plants, is absolutely irrelevant of course.

Crowley thinks Aziraphale is stupid or that he is an idiot. If he says so in situations of stress, in situations where the context suggests he's desperate for the angel to see things his way the context is just irrelevant, because he says that Aziraphale is an idiot. If the rest of the series shows us that he trusts Aziraphale and his intelligence greatly, that's irrelevant because in a couple of scenes he said that Aziraphale is an idiot.

If Crowley had gone to Alpha Centauri he WOULDN'T EVEN HAVE THOUGHT about Aziraphale. That's what he said, so it must be true.

Crowley actually wanted Muriel to arrest him because he's a demon. That's what he said, so it's exactly what he meant. That the unfolding of the story suggests that was a trick to get to heaven is irrelevant.

In Rome Crowley was an aardvark. Obviously.

Aziraphale is just an angel Crowley knows. Exactly like Sandalphon.

Crowley clearly wanted to k*ll Job's children. The whole goats-turned-into-crows thingy? Irrelevant.

I'm sure that if you take Aziraohale's words towards Crowley during the final fifteen at face value you'll agree with me that everything else in the show is to be taken at face value.

I invite everyone to come up with more examples.

#I typed this same arguments so many times already I feel like I should just. save it #and copy-paste #no offence op I'm really glad to talk!

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haha-what-if-jk-unless · 4 years ago

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If I Rewrote RWBY

First of all, I hate that most of the Faunus characters we see, especially the ones with the most screen time, are all white/white passing. I get that Remnant isn’t meant to have the same views and systems of race as real life but I still think it wouldn’t hurt to add more characters of color

I also think it sucks that Faunus can only have one animal trait. That’s more of me thinking that character design can be way more creative and fun than anything else though if I’m being honest

So on those two notes, I’d make both Blake and Velvet brown skinned and also give Blake a cat tail.

I’d love for Neon to be dark-skinned for honestly no other reason other than bright, neon colors looking absolutely fantastic on dark skinned women

Sun I’d prefer to stay on the lighter side since his Faunus trait is literally a monkey tail but I still think it wouldn’t hurt to give him a little bit of melanin instead of them being so pale

I think Marrow should also have wolf ears instead of just a tail.

Plus, it may be a bit on the nose, but I don’t understand how they literally named a character Fox and didn’t make him a fox Faunus. I’m not sure if I prefer him having a fox tail or ears or both but I just think he should be a Faunus in general

I personally really like the theory of Tyrian having bad eyesight just as scorpions in real life do so I think that should be his second Faunus trait

Moving away from the Faunus for now, I wanna talk about the Ace Ops and how CRWBY went wrong with them

Don’t get me wrong, their turning against Mantle was very well written and logical. My one and only problem is that the antagonistic, classist cops/military soldiers are basically all characters of color.

For a storyline like that, they should all be white since that only goes to further prove their ignorance and inherent bias against the impoverished and dispriveleged people of Mantle.

Sorta keeping the topic but also moving on to a new point, I feel like it was a missed opportunity to have none of the Ace Ops defect and decide to aid RWBY+ORNJ+Qrow in their mission

That being said, I think both Clover and Marrow should have been the ones to go against Ironwood and the Ace Ops.

Clover, aside from obvious reasons concerning CRWBY’s horrible treatment of mlm characters, was written with very clear foreshadowing of turning against Ironwood in favor of Qrow and the kids. I don’t feel the need to go into detail since many others have already (and much better then I ever could) but if you’d like to read meta posts about it I’d direct you to @lady-byleth or @fairgame-is-canon .

Marrow was also pretty widely speculated as being the one to leave the Ace Ops as far as I’ve seen in the fandom. As much as I love him, I was very displeased with how he was written. I won’t lie and say there aren’t “pick me” model minorities who would rather defend their oppressors than fight alongside their community but I don’t feel that was the best characterization they could’ve given Marrow. I’d have much preferred his story to be about a dark skinned Faunus growing up in a heavily racist society who very earnestly wants to help make change happen. Maybe they could’ve written him as still being naive and thinking his acceptance into the Ace Ops is making much more of a difference than it really is, but as whole, he shouldn’t have been as against Robyn and pro Ironwood and Atlas’ legal system as he was. I think Ironwood declaring martial law could have been the perfect moment for Marrow to decide that he had to get more directly involved if he really wanted to see change happen

Moving further on and going more into relationships because I won’t lie to you, I am in love with so many RWBY ships it’s not even funny.

Just as a forewarning in case y’all wanna just skip any of this but I’m gonna be talking specifically about: Bumbleby, Renora, Emercury, Fair Game, and Taiyang’s relationships with both Raven and Summer.

Now I love everything about Bumbleby and the way it’s written, I just want them to be more upfront with it. I want them to showcase it as obviously as they do with Ren and Nora. I understand that narratively speaking, Blake and Yang aren’t 100% ready to be together yet, and they probably won’t be until the tail end of the series unfortunately. But I don’t see why they can’t add more moments into the show. Yeah I love their deep moments that are meant to be analyzed but I also want cheesy gays flirting and blushing all over each other. Again, I won’t disagree or say I don’t like the pacing of Blake and Yang’s relationship development but at this point, it’s starting to feel like queer baiting. They’re just gonna keep reeling us in with “Oh next volume, they’ll be an official thing for sure!!” and then we get little more than small moments that aren’t explicitly romantic unless you take the time to analyze it

I honestly have very few complaints about how Ren and Nora’s relationship is shown and how it’s progressed thus far. The only things I’d change are 1) Nora is a trans woman and 2) Their disagreements in volume 7 are brought up and addressed more seriously. I mean, I feel like they showed them disagreeing once or twice and then dropped it as if their stances on Ironwood’s wasn’t a serious issue that they were arguing over. I wouldn’t take out the kiss scene or the Neo disguising herself as Nora scene but I think there should have been more content of Ren and Nora not getting along in volume 7 so both moments are much more impactful as reminders that Nora and Ren do love each other in spite of everything that’s going on

Now I’ll be honest, I know there’s been absolutely zero evidence from the series to suggest that Emerald and Mercury are meant to have some sort of romantic relationship but I am not immune to the villains being in love and working to be redeemed together trope. I don’t have any serious changes I’d make to their writing thus far since I think it’s a bit too early to really talk about their possible redemption arcs and relationship dynamic, but I would include more scenes where they are able to sit down and talk. I mean they are both still very young adults who were abused as children so it’s a pretty big miss for there to be little to no canon scenes of them showing how well they understand each other or how they look out for one another in small ways as they stumble into unknown and dangerous territory the further they get pulled into Salem’s inner circle

I’ll start off with the obvious for Fair Game, Clover’s death was absolutely terrible writing and blatant queer baiting/bury your gay’s. As I already said, I feel that Clover should have defected from Ironwood and gone on to help Qrow and fight alongside the kids (along with Marrow). It just makes no sense to include all the buildup and potential for development only to knock it straight down the way that they did. I honestly don’t even know how they expect to have Qrow come back from this and ever be a well functioning person again after that. If it were up to me, Clover never would have tried to arrest Qrow and would have instead almost immediately disobeyed Ironwood upon hearing him plan to declare martial law. He would have gone with Qrow to find all the kids and help them escape without being arrested

Now as for Taiyang and his relationships with Summer and Raven. First off I think it’s shitty of CRWBY to craft such an intricate background and then almost never give the character at the center of it any screen time or exploration. I mean we know that Taiyang lost his two wives and is sad about it and that’s about it. They never talk about what his relationship with either of the women were like or specifics on how they each ended. I mean what was Raven and Tai’s relationship actually like before everything went to shit, how/when did it start, when did it start to deteriorate, how did she really feel about Yang and starting a family with Tai? Why do none of these questions have so much as a fraction of an answer? And as for Summer, how much time went between Raven’s abandonment and Summer and Tai getting together? Was it a serious relationship or just a hookup that went wrong and then they decided to just roll with it (I ask this with all seriousness because once again, we don’t have a clear cut answer for this). We don’t even know exactly at what age Yang and Ruby were when Summer disappeared and if you ask me, that’s bad writing, especially if two of the titular characters are largely driven by their strained relationships with their parents

There’s definitely more stuff I can think of later but I’m tired right now and this post feels long enough already so I’m leaving it here for now.

Also, if there’s specific things y’all want me to talk about in RWBY and how/whether I’d change it or not, then feel free to send asks and I’ll answer them asap

#maya’s at it again #rwby #rwby rewrite #rewrite

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threewaysdivided · 5 years ago

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I saw your conversation about Sam Manson. I was talking to Imekitty about this, but I’ve noticed a few things that (sort of) make Sam’s relationship with her parents seem more like teen-drama than actual hardship. If you look closely, she’s got a lot in common with them: outspoken political-activism, possible shared-interest in vintage clothes, and no shame in saying they don’t like certain people. Also, after the Fentons, they were the first to volunteer to use the Ecto-Skeleton, risks and all.

(In reference to this post.)

It’s been a little while since I rewatched DP so I’m not well-placed to do a detail-analysis implication-breakdown right now, but yeah - that fits with the overall impression I remember getting. To me they came across as being sort of old fashioned set-in-their-ways conservative and snooty, and maybe a bit too Pleasantville - but more often in the way of parents who do genuinely want good things for her and to be able to be proud of her despite not really understanding her interests, choices or friends and being very bad at expressing it. Plus she seems to have her grandmother fully in her corner a lot of the time.

I really wish that the writers had committed to one or the other; either making it clear that Sam’s martyr/ persecution complex is mostly just regular self-inflicted teen-drama BS and giving her an arc addressing it, OR fleshing out the idea that she faces a lot of judgement/ pressure/ control/ nonacceptance in her home life and that her negative traits are a bi-product of defensive/ coping mechanisms resulting from that strained dynamic, rather treating things with Roger Rabbit Rules.

(Which isn’t to say that a person can’t have similar interests/ personality traits to, and positive interactions with, their parents while still having a strained, broken or even abusive relationship with them on a deeper level, but the show never really goes hard enough in either direction to make it work.)

As mentioned the last post, this is kind of a consistent pattern across DP - the writers tend go with the low-effort first answer for whatever is Funny or Awesome or Convenient in the moment rather than putting in the work to find a solution that’s consistent with the characterisation, themes and world-lore overall. There’s enough internal contradiction in the show that I don’t think it’s actually possible to take every canon detail as canon without fundamentally breaking things. And in some ways that’s kind of cool; it makes the series more open to interpretation, and trying to distinguish authorial intent from authorial incompetence and come up with theories that account for as many pieces of canon as possible is really satisfying. But, you know, it’s also kind of bad writing in general.

I think the thing that bothers me about Sam’s characterisation in particular is that - where it tends to be more obviously out-of-character when it shows up in other places - there’s a pattern to the inconsistency with how the writers handle Sam:

Throughout the series there’s a double standard in how Sam sees herself/ seems to expects others to act, compared to her own behaviour:

Despite being pro-pacifism she’s okay with smacking Tucker and encouraging Danny to destroy the trucks she doesn’t like

Sam values self-expression and is a feminist, but derides other girls for wanting to express themselves in a conventionally feminine way

Sam doesn’t like being forced to conform to others’ values but is okay with forcing others to conform to hers

Despite being anti-consumerist she shows very little discomfort at, or awareness of, her lavish home life and material belongings

She encourages Danny to take the moral high ground towards his bullies but has no problem antagonising and getting into petty verbal spats with Paulina herself

Sam stalks Danny and his love interest out of jealousy/ protectiveness but threatens to end their friendship when he does the same

In Mystery Meat, when Danny tries to express his discomfort/ anxiety, Sam hijacks the conversation to complain about her own parents instead of listening.

In One of a Kind Sam photographs Danny and Tucker hugging in their sleep, without their knowledge, with the stated intent of putting it in the yearbook, then uses it to blackmail them into silence.

Side note: this joke is also tacky on a meta-level because it boils down to “male intimacy ha ha toxic masculinity no homo amiright?“ Would have been nice if show didn’t use low-key sexist humour as much as it did.

Instead of expressing that she’s hurt by Danny’s “pretty girls” comment in Parental Bonding, Sam retaliates by pushing him to ask Paulina out - a move she knows will most likely result in him getting publicly shut down and humiliated.

Then, after getting the result she wanted, she comes over to gloat and insults Paulina, rather than dropping it now that her point’s been made, which is what ultimately sets off the episode’s subplot.

In Memory Blank Sam permanently physically alters Phantom’s appearance to better suit her tastes while he’s not in a position to understand or give informed consent, then lies when Danny notices and asks about it later.

To be clear this definitely isn’t the be-all-and-end-all of her character and it’s not there 100% of the time - there are plenty of moments when she is loyal and generous and helpful and sincerely kind and where her stubbornness comes in handy. But it’s the aggregate pattern of all these small instances that drives a crack through the foundation of her character integrity; producing this insidious undercurrent alternate-reading of Sam as someone who, at a deep level, just doesn’t respect or recognise that the emotional needs, pains, opinions, autonomy and boundaries of others are as real and valid as her own, and who responds to criticism with passive-aggressive hostility.

Again, I think that’s why people are so quick to point out that line from Phantom Planet, even though we all know the episode was a complete mess. None of the examples above are particularly bad in isolation - you can’t really point at any one of them and say “oh no, bad girl” without sounding like you’re making a mountain out of molehill and irrationally hating on her just to hate on her. It’s an uncomfortable slowburn pattern of subtle micro-transgressions that accumulates across the series - a “you might not notice it but your brain did”. And it makes sense that it would be the worst-written episode that amplifies and brings that regular bad-writing undercurrent close enough to the surface for people to consciously recognise and use it to articulate those frustrations.

To wit: Not because it’s most telling of her character but because it’s most telling of the specific bad writing that regularly hurts her character.

And again, from a storytelling point of view, it’s okay for Sam to have flaws. She’s a teenager! She’s learning. She’s allowed to be egocentric and self-important and do things that aren’t the best at times. It’s okay if these are her character weaknesses and a source of conflict with the rest of the cast. But again, for that to be satisfying something really should have come of it. It would have been nice if the writers were willing to have any self-awareness about these flaws being flaws that a person should recognise and grow past in order to have healthy relationships with others. But they didn’t - because it’s easier to keep her as she is - to the point that they’ll actively bend the narrative to roll back or skip over moments that would have necessitated that growth. So, even though they call attention to her flaws, the writers end up rewarding and enabling them instead of letting her learn.

And again, this isn’t meant to hate on Sam. Hanlon’s Razor in full effect: it’s clearly a result of authorial/editorial incompetence rather than deliberate malice. I know this isn’t the intended interpretation.

My preferred reading of Sam Manson is that she’s a Rosa Hubermann/ Hermione Granger/ YJS1 Artemis Crock-type character. Someone who’s passionate and forceful and maybe a bit abrasive and hard to love at a glance, but whose core nature is compassionate and sincerely kind and loyal-to-the-death for the people they value. I wish I could 100% like her without caveats; to be able to say that even if I don’t agree with her flaws I can at least understand that they’re a valid product of the life she lives, that they make her who she is and that she’s trying her best to be a good person who will get better despite them.

But I can’t because the writers don’t give her that. They’re always prioritising other things over the integrity of her character. They don’t give her background enough time and context to make her negative traits feel resonant with it (because that would take time away from the Wicked Cool Radical Ghost-Fighting Superhero Action™) and the framing and plotting doesn’t give her chances to recognise or grow past them (because that would mean character development and those negative traits are an easy source of cheap conflict). The writers just don’t seem to care all that much about Sam - her actual character, who she is, how she came to be that way, what she wants or how her negative traits would actually play against Danny and the others.

And that sucks. Because she has a lot of potential to be a well-rounded and great character. I’ve seen plenty of fics that seize that potential and roll with those gaps and the result is very good. I wish I could like her canon depiction without feeling like I have to actively ignore a bunch of latent behavioural red flags as the price of entry.

She deserved better.

#Danny Phantom #Sam Manson #Character Writing #Character Analysis #I'm also going to cop to the fact that this part of Sam gets to me personally #because it mimics some of my experiences with emotionally abusive relatives #feeling really uneasy and uncomfortable and upset but not being able to articulate what they're doing that makes you feel that way #and wondering if maybe it's your fault and you're just reading into things too much and you're bad for not defending them #until they do something really egregious and suddenly it's like 'oh' 'OH' 'OH SH*T THAT'S NOT OKAY'#And then you look back and see all the little red flags and from then on you can never un-see them #One of the reasons I only like fanon!AmethystOcean is I can see how badly things are likely to go when Danny's flaws meet these problems #Danny's canon flaws are ones that make him particularly susceptible to emotional abuse #and they accidentally wrote canon!Sam with a lot of latent proto-abusive red flags #they both need character development to work as a couple #but this is Danny Phantom and I guess we're chumps from expecting that #anonymous #3WD answers

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randomnameless · 1 year ago

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Edel's reaction to her allies's quirks is...

Pretty mild, when it comes to dealing with Bernadetta, but iirc when Linhardt opens their support chain with "I have a new theory about crests and relics that contradict the CoS's version" she quicky shuts him, calling his theories "meaningless blabber".

Maybe he could have discovered the real "secret" behind relics and revealed the plot!

Oh well,

The Emperor Class is so... well, when you compare it to Dimitri and Claude who can solo armies, Edel is supposed to have a lot of def and res? But it doesn't really work.

I've heard a lot of people reclass her to wyvern classes, because her canonical classes suck so much lol. Just you wait until you see the exclusive class skill, iirc, it's something that gives you res+4 when you wait.

Given what happens in the next chapter, sending the brunt of the army towards the capital while the BESF targets Cornelia is a good "decoy" tactic - but I'm pretty sure the Imperial Army sent to the capital was destroyed (since they are fighting both Rhea AND Dimitri!).

Too bad for them, I guess.

Lysithea in this route is... well, you could have expected another reaction learning that the Empire was in cahoots with the people who ruined her life and turned her siblings in, hm, whatever they were turned into before dying, but no. She's happy to be trusted by Edel, and she's going to fight Cornelia. Please ignore how she might have conflicted feelings for fighting with the Empire that used Cornelia'n'pals tech and bioweapons, or have conflicted feelings for fighting for the Empire (they are the ones who sent the "dark mages" to Ordelia, lore wise, after the Hyrm story!). That kool aid must be something really really strong!

Felix's descent to, well, "boarness" is dramatic in CF lol, it feels like he joins the Empire on an emo whim (fuck Dimitri, fuck Dad, fuck Faerghus) and now he tries way too hard not to regret it...

Granted, even if Felix's negative character development is really interesting in CF, Ingrid being here explains more or less why in 3 Nopes, the devs said "stop" and made every BL unrecruitable (save for Ashe and Mercedes), because quite frankly, it doesn't make any sense for those characters (Ingrid, Sylvain, Felix, Annette, etc etc) to ditch the Kingdom when it's being invaded. CF tries to wash it with "Byleth sensei uwu" but it doesn't cut it.

Ah, the unfamous portrait scene! CF in a nutshell, being tone deaf about what your allies and your protagonists are doing, vs the "enemy side", preparing to be invaded and fighting for their lives.

The tone deafness is even more jarring when you realise people you were supposed to be attached too died (Randolph and Ladislava?) last month, but now we're back on drawing and blushing around the avatar. For comparison, if you killed Seteth'n'Flayn, Rhea loses it (even if, as the weeb i am, I still find Inoue's performance more interesting, she's angry, she sounds broken and somehow crying?). So while Rhea is spiralling in her worst nightmare, during the exploration scene (after revealing the plan to strike down the Agarthans!), Edel draws your portrait.

Oh well, it's still not on par with Raphael's "I wonder what's for dinner" during GW's last map when he engages the final boss (I am barely exaggerating), but we're close.

The Insurrection of the Southern Church is more detailed in a book in Nopes, but basically, House Varley back then had two kids, one kid was supposed to inherit the House and the other the Ministry of Religion, Southern Church supported one over the other, one of the kids lost and the Southern Church was kicked out.

Caspar's supports with Shamir and Petra could have been much more interesting, but we're definitely not talking about death tolls in possible supports that can be unlocked in CF lol. For a good Caspar support, if you have the occasion on other PT, I'd suggest to get the one he has with Catherine (that is unavailable on CF!)

Funny to see some people apparently being resentful that Arianrhod became part of the Kingdom when it was built with Adrestia's "tech and money", especially in the route where you are set on demolishing Nabateans and the CoS, who helped create Adrestia (and gave crests to your characters!). I swear it started off as a joke, but the Adrestian Double Standard (TM) is real ^^

Indeed, Cornelia has no lines against Edel, but her end quote is directed to her, even if the lolcalisation lolcalised :

She sorts of praise Edel for having turned against them and made a plot she couldn't anticipate. I guess she's a fair player, and gives praise where it's due? Kuddos to her?

The Agarthans nuking Arianrhod is supposed to be a warning shot - but as I've said on a previous post, CF's plot armor is thicker than an atomic bunker so...

Let's say the Agarthans don't nuke the BESF at the end of the route, or don't even nuke Enbarr at the end CF, when their goal is achieved, and without the excuse of the plot armor, I really can't see why this never happened.

Oh well. Just CF things!

For the next chapter, you have two alternate endings, depending if you kill someone within a certain turncount or not. And Rhea cosplays!

Staring the Kingdom half of CF!

The standout point is obviously the interplay regarding Arianrhod. Taking it is part of a strategy to attack Fhirdiad in a pincer maneuver, but a side goal is killing Cornelia, who Edelgard and Hubert know is an Agarthan. The whole thing is cloaked in plausible deniability and doubletalk, but Arundel pretty much immediately retaliates by dropping javelins of light onto Arianrhod as a warning. Of course, Edie then proceeds to lie and claim the church did it. Woof.

As a side note, there was a lot of supports this chapter because I went to the monastery a few times and ate a bunch of meals. I don't care too much for the Black Eagles, so I didn't have too many impressions (though some pairings seem to work better than others imo), but one interesting thing is that Edelgard is... hm, more patient that I would necessarily give her credit for?

I know people say they admire her drive and determination, but given her nonsense and unfounded goals, I never really saw those as positives. However, I have to say her self-control is quite impressive. She really can keep a straight face through anything (only giving actual emotional reactions to Byleth once she's very comfortable with them) - compare to Claude quite easily losing his cool and getting defensive if something hits too close to home. But she also keeps a very even keel when dealing with the Black Eagles' "quirks." In particular, she's quite calm in regard to Bernadetta's nonsense in a way that is quite humanizing.

It's not anything deep, but I did find it interesting.

Live blogging:

Hum... the way they go "we're marching to Fhirdiad!... except we're not! we're going to Arianrhod!" really feels like they realized they needed to squeeze in at least one more chapter to pad out the route. Edelgard's promotion to Emperor class also feels very random.

In-universe, we're sending most of the army toward the capital, while our little group goes to assault a famous fortress. Somehow. How are we even reaching it...

Hubert and Edie know about Cornelia having a "weapon" (Titanus, as we see later).

Lysithea is touched at being trusted with this secret plan (as part of the strike force) and says she's now fully into Edie's cool aid. Petra likes surprise tactics. Leonie... does not. She slips up and calls it cowardly lol.

Felix insists he's totally cool with betraying his homeland and his family, he'll kill his king, his father and the goddess, you just watch... but his sword feels heavy u.u

Ingrid says she's... not cool with being a traitor everyone who ever loved her, but you see, she must because uh Byleth said so and she trust Byleth (and their C rank in lances or whatever it was).

Sylvain is thinking about Dimitri and wants to train. He's mentioned before that he's afraid he'll get killed in battle, as well as the rest of us.

Dimitri is called the Tempest King because there's nothing left in his wake, like after a storm.

Edelgard has locked herself in her room. She also painted a portrait of Byleth. Sure, ok.

120 years ago, the Southern Church in the empire "had a massive insurrection" and the bishop who participated was exiled by the emperor. Boy, the Empire sure has a lot of insurrections, huh?

Bernie has decided she wants to travel and draw pictures of (cute carnivorous) plants she sees.

Caspar's supports with Petra and Shamir both bring up his feelings of guilt about his father's and the empire's war and the human toll of that. It's... kind of something that both of them seem to mostly sidestep the issue in the end.

I think the quest to get the dark merchant to appear on this route only gives you... Brigid and bandit battalions, so the Morfis battalion being linked to it on SS was just a coincidence, I guess.

Arianrhod is a fortress city that was built about 400 years ago. It was built by the Empire (using their "money and technology") against the Kingdom, I guess during their independence war. However, the head of House Rowe betrayed the empire and sided with the kingdom, making it change hands right before its completion. It has not fallen since. It's called the Silver Maiden due to its beautiful white walls.

Cornelia brought some Titanus with her, along with dark mages and... Gwendal. She tells the Titanus(es?) to go ahead and kill Kingdom troops too.

Doesn't seem to be any special dialogue for Cornelia vs Edelgard.

Immediately after we beat up Cornelia, Arundel comes over lol. Lots of double talk between him and Edelgard but the main point is that, per the paralogue, Edelgard is beginning to act more impudently toward the Agarthans, since she is gaining more and more power and getting closer to her goal (after which, they're next on the chopping block). This includes intentionally targeting Cornelia while still maintaining deniability about how she totes didn't know Cornelia was an Agarthan mole.

btw, the fact that I know we do not have a section for fighting the Agarthans on this route is high-key ridiculous, given the buildup.

The Agarthans nuke Arianrhod as a warning, though that's uh... quite pointless, honestly. Based on Hubert's panicked reaction and Edelgard's obvious surprise, they did not know this was a thing.

However, they had previously investigated Aillel and thought it was the goddess's doing. They know better now... but that won't stop them from blaming it on the church anyway!

The scene of Edelgard calmly lying to the crew is amazing as a contrast. I haven't seen whatever equivalent there is on AM, but iirc VW had a pretty direct parallel where Claude explains stuff to the team. It had the usual Church Bad issues, but that's at least his honest perspective and not... flat lying. This route is really just lies all the way down.

#kyogre-blue #remember how she's apparently fighting against the church because they distort history? But she is doing the same right now?#if that route took itself seriously it could have been the best route of the game #like imagine a real bad ending #idk if you played Baten Kaitos #but at the midpoint of the game you have a 'twist' where it feels like the player lost #I loved it!#Rhea's descent to madness is painful to watch but moreover hear bcs #Inoue really plays the 'your actions broke her' angle #sure she's angry #but she's also desperate and upset and grieves #i remember during my only run of CF Edel in her canon class was a deadweight #maybe a i was rng screwed but Ferdie was a better tank and he had mobility #FE16

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 3 Easter Eggs & References

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This Star Trek: Discovery article contains spoilers for Season 3, Episode 3. Read our review of the episode here.

As the USS Discovery starts to explore the galaxy in Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, the first stop is, understandably, to check-in on how the Planet Earth is doing. Unlike Battlestar Galactica searching for Earth forever, Discovery decided to get the whole Earth thing out of the way right away. In Episode 3, “People of Earth,” the crew returns to the home planet of the Federation and learns things are not remotely similar to how they left it.

Along the way, “People of Earth” references a long-running TNG-Douglas Adams joke, a quip from Kirk in The Wrath of Khan, a famous DS9-era alien species, and more!

700 years after we left…

Burnham’s opening narration fills in new details we previously didn’t get about the Burn, including the idea that prior to the Burn, about “700 years after we left, dilithium reserves dried up.” This means that around the year 2957 or so, the Federation was “trialing alternative warp drive designs.” We don’t know much about the 30th century in the existing Trek canon, other than Daniels from Enterprise had knowledge about that era. To put it in perspective, this time period would still be 500 years in the future for Star Trek: Picard. The idea of the Federation trying to change the way warp drive operates vaguely references the TNG episode “Force of Nature.”

When Burnham talks about being a courier, someone hands her a sliver containing the Starfleet registry NCC-4774. We don’t know what ship this belongs to, but it seems like this is a visual joke which references the long, and intentional inside joke about using the number 47 (or 74) throughout all of Trek which began around TNG Season 4. There are literally hundreds of appearances of the numbers 47 or 74 throughout the franchise, so many that there is actually a “47 project” devoted to finding all the occurrences of 47 throughout the franchise.

The origin of the joke references the number 42 from Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. In that novel, “42” ends up being the answer to “the life, the universe, and everything.” Burnham is searching for similarly vague answers in this montage. In the ‘90s, “47” became the “42” of Star Trek canon, and Rick Berman joked once that 47 was “42, adjusted for inflation.” The number “47” is also an Easter egg of sorts for alums from Pomona College, sprinkled throughout TV and film history.

Terralysium and Burnham’s mom

Burnham tells Saru that during the year she’s spent in this future, she’s connected the planet Terralsyium and that “they had never heard of my mom.” This references Season 2 of Discovery in which we learned Burnham’s mother, Gabrielle Burnham transported humans from the 21st Century to a planet called Terralysium in the Beta Quadrant. In theory, Terralysium was supposed to be the tether location where Burnham and the USS Discovery ended-up. In “Perpetual Infinity” Burnham’s mom was sucked into a time vortex, which, in theory, could have deposited her into the future version of Terralysium. So far, though, that’s not the case.

Captain Saru

Saru is promoted to captain in this episode. This is a long time coming for Saru. He’s been a First Officer for two captains thus far, Captain Lorca and Captain Pike. And, in the Discovery novel Desperate Hours, Saru was upset that Burnham was promoted to First Officer over him prior to the Battle of the Binary Stars. This 2017 book by David Mack is slightly non-canonical, but it did establish Detmer’s first name as Keyla, and doubled-down on Number One’s name as Una. Anyway, the point is, Saru has been working for a long time to become Captain.

DOT-7 Bots

We briefly see the outside of Discovery’s hull being repaired by DOT-7 robots. We first saw these little bots in “Such Sweet Sorrow” in Season 2, when they emerged from the Enterprise and effected some repairs. One of these bots, of course, was the star of the Short Treks episode “Ephraim and Dot.”

“Galavanting”

Georgiou mentions that Book has been “galavanting through space with Michael.” This could be a reference to The Wrath of Khan in which Kirk says, “galavanting around the cosmos is a game for the young.”

Saturn

Although the planet Saturn is famous to us here on Earth — not counting the opening credits for Star Trek: The Next Generation Seasons 1 and 2 — this is seemingly only the fourth time Saturn has appeared during an episode or movie of Star Trek. Previously, Saturn appeared in the TNG episodes “The Best of Both Worlds,” and “The First Duty.” In Star Trek (2009) Saturn appears when the Enterprise hides near Titan.

“One aye”

When Booker sarcastically says “aye, aye” commander, to Burnham, she replies, “One ‘aye,’ we’re not pirates.” This might reference the original TNG episode “Lower Decks,” in which Riker tells Lavelle that “One aye is sufficient acknowledgment, Ensign.”

Georgiou pretends to be an Admiral

When the Discovery is inspected by the Earth ships, Georgiou dons an Admiral’s uniform to “make it believable.” This is the second time Mirror Geogoiu has worn a Starfleet uniform even though she is not really in Starfleet. The first time was in Discovery Season 1 when she was authorized to impersonate Prime Georgiou to lead the mission against the Klingon homeworld.

Generational ship

Saru’s cover story for why the USS Discovery is still in operation in 3188 is the idea that they are a generational ship and are crewed by their own ancestors. This concept actually occurs in the Enterprise episode “E²,” where the crew of the NX-01 meets an alternate version of the ship crewed by their descendants.

Synthehol

Book is furious to discover he’s not drinking actual booze, but instead, synthehol. To be clear, in Trek canon, synthehol can get you drunk, but mostly if you’re an alien or a former Borg. In the TNG episode “Relics,” Scotty complained about having to drink synthehol in Ten Forward

Quantum torpedoes

It’s briefly mentioned the Wen’s raiders have “quantum torpedoes.” This tech was first mentioned in Star Trek: First Contact, which, at the time, made it very new.

Starfleet does not fire first!

After Georgiou suggests Saru take swift and aggressive action, Saru remonstrates her by saying “Starfleet does not fire first.” He’s actually quoting… Georgiou in the very first episode of Star Trek: Discovery. Though, in that case, the Georgiou who said “Starfleet doesn’t fire first” was the Prime Universe Captain Georgiou, not the Mirror Universe Georgiou who we’re more familiar with.

Titan

After it’s revealed that Wen (Christopher Heyerdahl) is actually a human, we also learn that he’s from the Titan. In real life, Titan is the largest moon of Saturn, and, unlike most moons, boasts an atmosphere. Trek canon has mentioned Titan a bunch. In “The First Duty,” Wesley was training near Titan, and again, in Star Trek (2009), Chekov hid the Enterprise behind Titan.

Adira’s revelation

We learn very quickly that Adira (Blu del Barrio) is a human joined with a Trill; specifically a symbiont called “Tal.” Burnham and Sura discuss their general ignorance of Trill symbionts, but Saru tells Burnham everything he knows about the Trill comes from the “Sphere Data.” This references the giant alien sphere Discovery encountered in the Season 2 episode “An Obol for Charon.”

The fact that Burnham and Saru don’t know much about Trill symbionts makes sense. It’s not clear that in the 2250s that the Trill were open about being a joined species, but by the time of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine the Federation obviously learned about them. In fact, in the first TNG episode “The Host,” a human, Will Riker, was joined with a Trill. But, Burnham and Saru wouldn’t know about that because it would have been in their future back in 2257, and certainly, the Sphere didn’t know about that either.

Captain Georgiou’s telescope

Saru unpacks Captain Georgiou’s telescope and puts it up in his new ready room. This telescope was presumably salvaged from the USS Shenzhou and given to Michael Burnham as part of Georgiou’s will in “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not For the Lamb’s Cry.” But, after that, Burnham gave it to Saru instead. Saru and Burnham both used this telescope for practical purposes in the first Discovery episode ever, “The Vulcan Hello.”

Discovery Season 3’s Latest Twist is Straight Out Of Star Trek: Insurrection

By Ryan Britt

Did Star Trek: Discovery Just Tease the Michelle Yeoh Section 31 Spinoff?

By Ryan Britt

Which Quadrant?

Burnham says that Book has “a fresh start, in a new quadrant.” We know Earth is located in the Alpha Quadrant, which seems to imply Book and Burnham were previously operating in the Beta Quadrant.

Starfleet Academy and Picard’s favorite giant tree

Although Starfleet is no longer operational on Earth, the crew visits the grounds of Starfleet Academy in San Francisco. There, they find what seems to maybe be a huge elm tree. If so, this tree was actually referenced by Jean-Luc Picard in the TNG episodes “The Drumhead” and “The Game.” In theory, if this is supposed to be the same tree, it was tended by Boothby in the 24th Century which would imply it existed at least 100 years before that, in the mid 23rd Century, too.

Golden Gate Bridge

The final shot of the episode pans out to show the 32nd Century version of the Golden Gate Bridge. The last time we saw this bridge chronologically, was in Star Trek: Picard in 2399. Though, prior to that, the bridge had been partially destroyed in the Dominion War in the 2370s. That is if you believe Changelings are real…

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Star Trek: Discovery airs new episodes on Thursdays on CBS All Access.

The post Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 3 Easter Eggs & References appeared first on Den of Geek.

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nonipsduck · 6 years ago

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Hey fellas, I’m back again with our Indruck- oriented server, Eggnostic! I’m Alexander, and 1/3rd of the mod team, but more importantly, I’m here to say that we will be accepting members again for a short period of time! Details under the cut.

We’re friendly, chatty folks- if you’re not interested fast-paced convos we probably aren’t for you! We do our best to keep things fresh and active, but as a result of such, have found it necessary to implement several rules. I ask you read over them before you decide if this server is for you or not.

1) Be Cool

1A) This includes respecting these creators. Don’t say anything you wouldn’t say to their face, both in terms of subject and tone. The language you use conveys a different meaning (ie saying ‘griffin goofed that a little vs berating him) and that matters.

1B) Going off of the above point, we have decided to ban hypothetical “maybe whys” regarding late episodes. While often well-meaning in giving them credit for not being perfect-content producing machines, it does not change the fact that theories are for characters, not real people.

1C) We also have decided to ban anxiety-ridden “What-ifs” regarding on why episodes may be delayed: if it is causing you serious emotional distress, it belongs in vent (however if the conversation spirals into people spouting off what-ifs we will intervene).

2) c'mooooooon

2A) We discourage hyper-analysis of TAZ as it is simply put, not built or meant for that and will not stand up to such analysis, which can be a big downer on a server about loving TAZ. There is no actual prohibition on such conversations… for the time being.

2B) Our stance on art/fic shaming is as follows: If it falls under obama's second amendment, such as whitewashing tones or features, conflicts with LGBT/ND/POC canon or headcanons (bearing in mind lots of folks are projecting their own real-life struggles), or the content is so horrifically awful (:remyvore:), you're fine. Direct attacks on the arts style, quality, and general artistry will not be tolerated.

id like to make sure everyones actually reading these to some extent, so please tell me your favorite amnesty character n why when you ask to join!

2C) Related to the aforementioned headcanons, there will be little tolerance for "but why"-ing POC,ND, and LGBT headcanons. It is also unnecessary to insert that you disagree with someone else's headcanon on such topics. Serious, genuine discussion is fine.

2D) Minimum server age is 14, Maximum 25. Please do not invite anyone to the server without privately asking a moderator. Public requests will be ignored and/ or deleted.

2E) We want to highlight everyone art fairly, so #art-and-stuff has a 5 minute (ish) cooldown between art posts. We just ask you wait five or so minutes before posting your art after someone else.

2F) Please be conscientious in both vent channels. Obviously ‘mood’, ‘same’, ‘kin’ ‘f’, ect are entirely inappropriate and won't be tolerated, longer messages with the same message (‘yea i’ve been there sucks man, oh yeah me too, ect) are equally unwelcome. Overly dismissive, Overly aggressive, or condescending (in nature or tone) solutions are also not appropriate.(edited)

3) nice.

3A) We love goofs and japes, and for this we have #really-wild-shit . For serious and horny NSFW discussion, we have exactly no channel because we don’t want it here. At all. Thanks.

4) We'd like to keep a deeply connected server, and in that case it does not make sense to have everything fall under the mods jurisdiction. If you find something to be in poor taste or in violation of OMA, simply respond with an :eye: emoji. If you need immediate action, or would like a mod to address a situation in any way, simply shoot us a ping.(edited)

5) Blacklist content. Not to be discussed or mentioned in any context. DM mod to add.

- Drug Use

- Alcohol

- Self Harm

- Suicidal Ideation + Threats

It is worth noting that these are rules for members already within the server, who have already established that they have many hc’s, theories, ect in common. While we cannot ask, much less enforce the following, know the following going in:

> Duck content is all presumed Trans unless stated otherwise… although if you feel the need to state otherwise you probably won’t enjoy the server anyways.

> George is the result of a 3+ hour debate over voice call and is the collective child of not only Indrid and Duck, but our server as a whole. He was and continues to be something we bond over. I’m not saying you gotta know all the lore (because good lord I dont even know it all) but realistically you’ll wanna at least enjoy the little raccoon king we’ve created.

> The rules are clear about NSFW content, but to elaborate on an area in particular: this server is Indruck and Barclane oriented. Chatter of other, conflicting ships isn’t… restricted, but folks are allowed to nip and tease ya. The exceptions only being age gap content (Duck/Pidge, Duck/Leo, Duck/Ned, basically anything around a 20+ age difference. ) and Anyone x Beacon content (he’s a sword with a mouth, and we know you aren’t thinking of him whispering sweet nothings).

> That being said we loooove a good goof. There are several running jokes and recurring topics that may make you uncomfortable, including but not limited to: vore, oviposition, piss, monster and robot fuckers, ect. They’re 110% ironic, but do occasionally spill out of the wild-shit channel for the sake of us being funny bastards.

if you’d like to join, reply to this post, do NOT dm me. im busy this week and it lets the other mods help out too.

We’ll be accepting 10 new folks, and its not super first come first serve. If you join and find that we aren’t for you, no worries: we do not have public exit messages. Thanks for reading!

#im also going to bed rn?#taz #taz amnesty

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geek-patient-zero · 5 years ago

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Prologue (Part 2)

Or: Your Clan Sucks

Blood War: Masquerade of the Red Dead Trilogy Volume 1

Father Naples claims that the Methuselahs were the ones who instituted the Masquerade. Not really true in canon, but let’s go with it for now. The Kindred realized that if humanity continued knowing that they existed, they’ll overwhelm them with sheer numbers and wipe them out. Under the Masquerade, Kindred had to hide their true natures and the existence of vampires in general from humans, on penalty of death. And it worked. Despite being fed on by them for over two thousand years, humanity forgot the existence of vampires after a few centuries, remembering them only as myths and legends. Now relatively safe, the Methuselahs sired more vampires, who sired more and so on, and in secret, apparently gained control of the world from the shadows.

Since one vampire could in theory create infinite more vampires, Reuben asks why, if all this is true, the earth isn’t overrun with vampires. Father Naples tells him about the Six Traditions, which the Masquerade is one of. He doesn’t go into detail, so here’s a link if you’re curious. The relevant Tradition is the third one, which says a vampire can’t sire another vampire unless daddy an elder vampire gives permission. If you played Bloodlines, this may sound familiar. Father Naples claims that the elder vampires keep the number of vampires low. Apparently the rule is one vampire for “tens of thousands of humans.” Given the different vampire factions this probably isn’t followed exactly worldwide. The point is vampires control their populations so they don’t overpopulate and wipe out their main food source. Keeping populations low also means that newer kindred generations can’t grow more numerous than the older ones and, well, you know. That’s left unsaid by the third Tradition.

Reuben’s next question is how kindred maintain their influence over the world when they can’t do anything when the sun’s up. Father Naples explains ghouls to him, and here there might be some divergence from modern canon.

You know Renfield from Dracula? A ghoul’s basically that. They’re humans that a vampire regularly feeds their own blood to, but whose blood isn’t drained out first so they don’t turn into vampires themselves. They stop aging and gets some enhanced strength, survivability, and other goodies as long as they get their fix. In exchange for their free will, that is. A ghoul becomes utterly devoted to their master, doing anything for them even if the ghoul hates their master, like an unholy combination of a stalker, junkie, and slave. It’s a really shitty thing to do to someone.

Father Naples doesn’t mention that bit about losing their free will. He just thinks they’re traitors and devil worshipers. Thing is, I don’t think it’s just Naples being an unreliable narrator. Throughout the book, except for maybe one instance, it isn’t brought up, and ghouls come across more like regular people who just knowingly work for vampires in exchange for their blood. There’s some mention of possession, like his ghoul or her ghoul, but if they’re still stalker-junkie-slaves in this story it doesn’t come across. The writing is very expository even after the prologue, so believe me, you’d notice if that was how ghouls were supposed to work here.

Reuben then asks about the Camarilla and the Sabbat. Now we get to talk about everyone’s favorite V:TM subject: factions and clans. First he discusses the Camarilla, and the seven clans (at the time) that makes up the bulk of it. Father Naples seems to define the sects more by their opinion on the Antediluvians as a threat than their structure or how they operate.

“The Camarilla believe that the Antediluvians met the Final Death when the Second City was destroyed. They feel that the basic threat to the Kindred comes from the possibility that mankind someday might learn that vampires are real. The Masquerade governs their actions. They are the traditionalists among Caine’s decendants.”

He goes on to define the clans in the Camarilla.

“The Ventrue are power mongers, the unofficial leaders of the sect.”

Eat the rich before the rich eat you. Naples summed it up well enough: they’re old money aristocratic fucks who believe they’re meant to be leaders of vampirekind, and thus are most likely to be Princes, the guys in charge of a city. They’re famous for the Dominate discipline, a group of powers that allow them to force others to obey their commands.

One interesting thing about the Ventrue that doesn’t get covered in this book is their clan curse. They can only drink the blood of certain kinds of people. In Bloodlines, this translated to a Ventrue character being unable to feed from hobos and prostitutes without barfing it back up half the time. Think of some snooty rich New Englander turning his nose up at a Happy Meal. In the tabletop, this preference tends to be more specific. Sometimes very specific, like that same snooty rich New Englander absolutely loving Burger King but not being able to eat anything else. Sometimes, a little too specific.

There’s this Ventrue guy in the lore, Jan Pieterzoon... I’m probably gonna get shit for this since he’s a character in the popular Clan Wars novels. Janny Boy here can only drink the blood of rape victims.

Uh huh. Wasn’t kidding when I said that this franchise can get try-hard edgy.

TVtropes’ V:TM character page lists Jan as a Nice Guy, but also mentions under Kick the Dog that he once had to arrange for someone to get raped in order to survive. This might be more on TVtropes being full of fucked up contributors, but still. In the recent V5 of the tabletop, a change was made that Ventrue can feed from people other than their preference, though they won’t get as much “nourishment” from it. Sounds like it helps avoid situations like Jan. Who’s dead now, by the way. Final Death dead. That helps.

“The Toreador are involved in the arts.”

Father Naples doesn’t seem to be all that interested in the Toreador as that’s all he says about them. Commonly rich socialite types, if the Prince of a city isn’t a Ventrue, chances are they’re a Toreador. They’re big into art, yeah, but they’re also the clan that works the closest with humans and are obsessed with beauty. So obsessed that they can be distracted by something they find beautiful, ignoring anything else until they can either muster the willpower to tear their eyes away or, more likely, one of their friends drags their pretty ass away from the shiny thing.

Their art, by the way? Fucking sucks. Toreador are terrible artists. There’s a neat reason for this; when they’re Embraced, become vampires, they’re said to lose much of their passion and creative spark. That, and they’re emotionally and artistically stunted to the era they were Embraced in no matter how long they live; something that’s apparently inspired by Anne Rice vampires. Their love and obsession with what they find beautiful is a way for them to hold on to their humanity, and art is in service to that. It’s beautifully tragic.

Not that your character is going to care when they have to deal with Vampire Squidward showing off Bold and Brash Belongs in the Trash. You can’t say anything about it either, because that Toreador is probably powerful enough that they can have either you or someone you love killed. You’re not even safe if you’re playing a Toreador because even Toreador don’t like other Toreador art. As with humans, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and what’s considered beautiful varies from one Toreador to another. So they shit on each other’s work and call each other poseurs.

There’s maybe three Toreador in the book, and they’re all background characters. Only one of them gets a line or two of dialogue. I get the feeling Robert Weinberg wasn’t a big Toreador fan.

“The Tremere are a line of vampire wizards...”

Insert What We Do In the Shadows quote here.

“...who rose to prominence in the Middle Ages.”

Unlike the most of the other clans, the Tremere didn’t originate from an Antediluvian. The original ones were mages, members of the now technically extinct House Tremere led by Lord Tremere, who turned themselves into vampires with magic in order to obtain immortality. They lost all their cool powers in the change, so they had to invent blood magic, which they call Thaumatergy. It’s both a specific Discipline (vampire power) and a general term for blood magic.

You might be wondering, if they became vampires via magic and didn’t come from an Antediluvian, wouldn’t that mean there are fourteen clans, not thirteen? Well, one of he original thirteen clans were the Salubri. They were the healer class among vampires and were dedicated to finding a certain kind of enlightenment. Y’know, to make the Tremere look like extra big pricks for what they’re about to do to them. Lord Tremere, now a vampire, finds and diablerizes (more on that another time) the Salubri Antediluvian, and then Clan Tremere wiped out most of the Salubri. So now they’re one of the thirteen clans.

While they never wiped out another clan, this screwing over of the Salubri was part of a trend with the Tremere. The magic potion, spell, or whatever they used that turned them into vampires in the first place? Made by experimenting on vampires. They also created Gargoyles by performing blood magic rituals on unwilling vampires from other clans. So, despite a propaganda campaign advertising that no, really, the Salubri had it coming, and the fact that they gained legitimacy as a clan and became a part of the Camarilla, other vampires generally hate the shit out of the Tremere and don’t trust them even remotely.

We’ll be seeing the Tremere in more depth later in the story, including this book’s interpetation of the ritual that turned them into vampires.

“The Nosferatu are monstrously ugly because their leader was cursed by Caine. A few of their fourth-generation progeny are rumored to be grotesque monsters, known as the Nictuku.”

Ah, the Nosferatu. Everyone loves the Nosferatu. Like Father Naples says, they’re all horribly deformed; so ugly that even being seen by humans risks breaking the Masquerade since they’re obviously not human. That curse Naples mentioned? The Nosferatu Antediluvian was a vain pretty boy to rival a Toreador, so for his part in killing the Second Generation and destroying Enoch, Caine cursed him and all future Nosferatu generations with ugliness.

(He actually cursed all thirteen Antediluvians for what they did, hence the clan curses.)

Why does everyone love the Nosferatu? Couple of reasons from what I’ve seen. They’re ugly as hell and generally have to live in the sewers, and while they’ve learned to live with that they’re not really happy about it. On top of that other clans find them repulsive and don’t like being around them. Loneliness, pathos, angst; this is crack to fandom.

I imagine they’re also fun to design. The standard look for them is Orlok-like, but lore says that each Nosferatu’s deformity is unique. I haven’t tried designing one, but as a wannabe artist I can see the appeal. Just don’t wuss out and make “hot” Nosferatu.

Speaking of, there’s the monster fuckers in fandom. In this post-Shape of Water world, it’ll take more than looking like Count Orlok and a few lumps to make someone unfuckably ugly. And even if they are, I’ve seen people lust over werewolves, the deathclaws from the Fallout games, all kinds of weird crap. There’s surely someone out there for your lonely Nosferatu.

Oh, and they’re the smart guy of the vampire clans. You know how when people talk about playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Ghostbusters on the playground as kids, and which characters they’d play as? And how there’s always those people who’d say they always picked Donatello or Egon because they were the smart gadget guys who made all their toyetic gear, unlike their dumber friends who stuck with boring old Leonardo and Venkman? That’s the Nosferatu. They don’t really invent anything, but some of them are hackers. They’re also spymasters, using their hacker skills and Obfuscate discipline (turning invisible, mostly) to obtain information others can’t, making them an indispensible part of the Camarilla, or whatever group a Nosferatu is part of.

Finally, as a culture, Nosferatu are the most likely to stick together and look out for each other, united by their shared experiences of having to hide in the shadows and pisswater in order to not break the masquerade and being direspected by the other clans. Nosferatu can scheme and plot like every other vampire in the setting, but at least for survival’s sake, if you’re playing a Nosferatu, you don’t have to worry about your fellow uglies stabbing you in the back (most of the time). Outside the clan, I imagine this trait can easily transfer over to a coterie (V:TM’s word for party) or an OC’s friends.

Yeah, Nosferatu are these angsty, fun to draw, unconventional looking but bangable hackermen that know the Meaning of Friendship and who you can feel sorry for. But there’s another side to the Nosferatu. Fandom looks at these appealing traits, maybe a bit too shallowly, and risk over-glorifying them and missing out on their darker side.

Like I’ve said several times, Nosferatu are ugly, deformed. A lot of them develop a complex over this, along with a strong hatred and jealousy of beautiful people. One thing Nosferatu like to do is find mortals who are stuck up and egotistical about their looks, turn them into Nosferatu, and let their newly grotesque appearance serve as an eternal karmic life lesson. Whether the formerly pretty person was actually a stuck up jerk guilty of vanity or if their sire imagined it is a matter of opinion. Hell, some don’t care about teaching a lesson, embracing beautiful people purely out of jealousy and spite. They have a word for these victims: Cleopatras, named after the villain from Freaks, not the Egyptian queen. It’s like their version of “Chad”, except as the name implies, these poor newly deformed people are usually women.

Am I implying what I think I’m implying? Yep! Your favorite clan is made up partly of proto-incels!

On a lighter note, their differing opinions on beauty make the Nosferatu and Toreador natural enemies... if they’re NPCs. Player characters will be BFFs.

“The Malkavians are tricksters, seemingly mad, but probably more cunning than most imagine.”

The V:TM fandom’s other favorite clan. I don’t have to explain Malkavians to you, do I? Even if you’ve never played Bloodlines I bet you’ve heard people talking about the Malkavian playthrough of the game. At least the part where you can yell at a stop sign?

Malkavians are the “crazy” clan. Said in a more respectful way, they’re the clan whose embrace gives them a form of mental illness, either a real one or a more supernatural one, if they didn’t have one already. These guys are probably the hardest to roleplay well, because there’s a thin line between a respectful portrayal of a mentally ill person living their unlife the best they can and a character Jhonen Vasquez would create if he was phoning it in. You’d better do your homework if you want to roleplay a Malkavian or else you’re gonna annoy your friends and look like an insensitive dick.

There’s a term for a Malkavian character who acts in an early 2000′s monkey cheese lol random humor way, but c’mon, you already know what it is. That’s it for Malkavians for now. There’s only one Malkavian side character in this book so I don’t feel like going too in depth with them. Besides, I already wasted too many words on the incels. Just keep the “more cunning than most imagine” bit in mind. Oh, and they have a power that can make people around them go mad, usually in the Malkavian’s favor. That’s pretty rad.

Now that the fan favorites are out of the way, let’s get to the boring clans.

“The Brujah are rebellious in nature...”

That’s all Naples says about the Brujah. Even the writer can’t think of anything interesting to say about them.

Alright, seriously, Brujah tend to be rebels and activists, very passionate about their beliefs and strive for social change. I’m not sure whether becoming vampires makes them that way. The White Wolf wiki says that they’re compelled to go against the status quo, but I’ve heard people argue that’s just the kind of person a Brujah tends to embrace. Either way, they do develop very short tempers. Gameplay-wise in both the tabletop and Bloodlines, they tend to “frenzy” more easily than other clans, meaning they lose control of their vampiric urges and try to kill/drain the closest person available, masquerade and consequences be damned.

I feel a little bad about calling the Brujah boring. Especially nowadays with fascism on the rise and climate change about to kill us all, it’s easy to empathize with rebellious activist characters and find them relatable, even if they aren’t as flashy as the pretty people, the ugly people, and the crazy people. It’s their powers that’re a little dull. Ventrue have Dominate. Nosferatu have Obfuscate. Tremere have blood fucking magic. But despite their clan name, Brujah aren’t magic. Their powers just enhance their physical abilities, allowing them to boost their strength and move faster. You know that RPG joke about how wizards get more god-like power when they level up but warriors just hit harder? That’s the Brujah. Okay, they also have Presence, which makes them more charismatic, scarier, more convincing, and other things that helps with roleplaying a street justice dispensing rebel. And one other power I can mention, but we’ll leave that for later...

In a way, the Brujah are the closest V:TM has to a default clan. If you’re playing a game where you have no choice of which clan your character belonged to, you’d likely be a Brujah. Luckily, unlike the Ultramarines over in Warhammer 40K, the Brujah don’t really steal any of the spotlight from the other clans, so they’re not intolerable.

“...while the Gangrel, master shapechangers, maintain close ties with the gypsies and werewolves,”

Wolverine from X-Men, you know him? Give him shapeshifting powers and that’s a Gangrel. This Clan is for those who want to roleplay a werewolf but aren’t playing Werewolf: The Apocalypse for some reason. Their biggest claim to fame is that Beckett, one of the most popular recurring characters in the franchise, is one. Problem is, he’s supposed to be a subversion of how one of them typically acts, a wandering scholar instead of some guy who hangs with his pack in the woods, so he’s not doing them much favors. There's only one minor Gangrel character in Blood War, so I apologize for glossing over them.

You probably want me to talk about a certain word Naples just said here. I could say that it’s characterization, that since Naples is some old European prick he’s prejudiced against Roma and calls them whatever he wants. More of that unrelialbe narratorness. He also said Gangrel are close with werewolves when werewolves will attack them on sight like any other vampire, which helps with that interpretation. But this is the early 90′s, and V:TM had an entire clan that was based on negative Roma stereotypes. So...

Reuben sipped his Coke and said nothing. He had come to listen, not to comment.

I’m pointing this quote out because he comments two paragraphs later. Father Naples moves onto the Sabbat.

“The Sabbat are the rebels of the Kindred. My Order considers them the more dangerous of the two sects. Two major clans, the Lasombra and the Tzimisce rule the order. Most other clans are represented by small groups of rebels known as Antitribu.”

The franchise likes to point out that the Camarilla aren’t the “vampire good guys”, but the Sabbat are undoubtedly vampire bad guys. They believe that vampires shouldn’t have to hide behind a masquerade, that they should be the masters of the world with humans as their cattle and slaves. They usually ignore the Masquerade, and use big obvious Masquerade breaking as a tactic against the Camarilla, who have to clean up after their mess. Since the Masquerade exists because humans will curb stomp them if they ever found out they existed, this also makes the Sabbat the stupid sect in this case.

The Lasombra are like eviler Ventrue, but with cool shadow powers, a fetish for Catholic symbolism, and being the only clan to do the “having no reflections” thing. Oh, and they’re social darwinists. One of their methods for picking out potential new Lasombras is to utterly ruin a prospect’s life. Make their business fail, kill their family, frame them for something terrible, cancel their favorite shows. If they don’t break down after all that, congratulations, you’re now a vampire! If they’re not an utter sociopath and do, then the Lasombra just leave them in the ruins of their life without them ever knowing why the hell any of that happened. So yeah, they’re jerks.

And the Tzimisce? Quick, whose your favorite comic book villain? If you said “mid-2000′s Black Mask”, then congratulations! You’re a teenage boy, and also a potential Tzimisce player.

There is one “redeeming” thing about the Sabbat. While the Camarilla deny the existence and threat of the Antidiluvians...

“Leaders of the Sabbat firmly maintain that the third generation lives and that they are secretly manipulating their descendants for reasons of their own.” The priest’s voice sank very low. “They fear an approaching Armageddon that they call Gehenna. A time when the Antediluvians will rise to take control of the Kindred. The Sabbot suspect that the third generation plan to devour their descendants.”

Gehenna is an important part of the setting. It’s another thing I’ll explain more about later, but the Sabbat are right to worry about it. It almost makes up for their dumbass social policies and the whole “chaotic evil” thing.

Reuben comments (told you) about how the longer a vampire lives, the more potent the blood they drink has to be. Third and fourth generation Kindred would only be able to feed on other Kindred. This backs up the “third generation’s gonna wake up and eat everyone” theory. After Naples’ confirmation about this, Reuben immediately changes the subject and asks about the four remaining independent clans.

“There are the Ravnos, a society of outcasts and drifters,”

These guys are the Roma stereotypes I mentioned earlier. Their clan weakness is that they’re addicted to crime! Or at least some personal vice. Someone at White Wolf must have figured out how this looked, so they fixed it by, um, having their Antediluvian wake up and kill all but about a hundred of them... I mean, it worked for the Squats over in Warhammer 40K, but...

“Then the Assamites, an Order of Assassins, much feared even among their own kind, [sic] The Followers of Set worship a long-dormant third-generation Egyptian horror, the embodiment of that land’s ancient evil.”

I don’t know much about these two clans. There’s a couple of Assamite characters in this book, but no one from the Followers of Set.

“And last, we must not forget the Giovanni, another fairly new clan, who are preoccupied with two subjects - death and money.”

The Giovanni have a big part in this story so we’ll get to them when they show up. Also, wow, they sure made these last four the ethnic stereotype clans.

Satisfied with this new info on the Clans, though “unsure about their interactions”, Reuben moves on.

The young man’s bright blue eyes burned with an intense inner fire. “What is the Jyhad?” he asked.

Father Naples was feeling very strange. Yet he felt that he had to answer. It was extremely important to himself and the Society of Leopold that he answer Reuben’s every question. Extremely important.

Reuben may not be a vampire, but it looks like he pulled some sort of mind whammy on Father Naples. Not sure why he had to, though. I can’t think of a reason why Naples’ would explain all the other stuff of his own free will but not this subject.

The Jyhad’s a legend among Kindred, that the fourth generation is manipulating their descendants as pawns in a game where they play against each other for complete control of the world. Some say that the fourth generation is actually being manipulated by the Antediluvians, the true players of the game. The nature of Kindred society and politics makes finding the truth difficult.

“The world of the Kindred is filled with treachery and deceit. Remember, Lucifer (here he goes with the devil stuff again), their patron, is the Father of Lies. Wheels spin within wheels within wheels. None other than the Antediluvians, if they actually survive, know the truth.”

“On that subject,” said Reuben, “you might be mistaken.”

Signaling for the check, Reuben asks if there’s anything else he should know about the Kindred, such as “the Inconnu” and “the recent disturbances in Russia and Peru.” Father Naples doesn’t know about any of that, and when asked why he asks, Reuben says he was “Just confirming a few of [his] own suspicions.” Father Naples has told him everything he wanted to know, so Reuben pays the waiter and prepares to leave. Time for the prologue’s big finish.

“The young man rose to his feet. ‘No need to get up. I can see myself to the door. Thank you, for your time, Father Naples. I appreciate the information you have given me, though I think your views concerning the devil tint your narration slightly. That’s always been a problem with the Inquisition. You worry too much about demons and too little about evil. I’m sorry, but you can’t be permitted to describe our conversation to anyone. Especially to your superiors in the Society of Leopold. May God grant you peace.’

None of the five Society of Leopold agents stationed in the restaurant noticed Reuben leave. Nor could they remember anything at all about his appearance. When rewound, the audiotape from the directional microphone was found to be completely blank. And none of the technicians working the post could recall a word of the conversation they supposedly recorded.

Father Naples remained unmoving at the table until fifteen minutes passed and a curious waiter came over to see if anything was wrong. To his horror, he discovered that the priest was dead.

According to a secret report prepared by a team of investigators, Father Naples had died from a massive heart attack. One suffered by the priest a few minutes after sitting down at noon. No one could explain, nor even attempt to answer, how a dead man managed to drink two bottles of wine. The black attache case found beneath the table was empty.”

I hope Reuben at least didn’t take back the money he payed his bill with. Reality warping or no, he still ate there and should pay them.

Seriously though, this was a great prologue. It explains enough about the setting to help you follow along with the rest of the story, but doesn’t explain everything and ends on a great mystery. Rereading this helped me remember why I liked the setting so much as a kid, even if I poke fun at it now. Vampire societies might not seem like the most original idea, but back then when I thought of vampire stories, I thought of a single vampire with a cape and widow’s peak sneaking into peoples homes to drink their blood, and the closest thing to mystery, court intrigue, and games of thrones were the humans trying to figure out how to stop that one vampire. V:TM introduced me to a type of story and concepts I’d never read before, and not just about fictional monsters. That’s more a credit to the original tabletop than just Bloodwar, but this book was still my gateway to the setting. Sometimes even schlock can have meaning to someone, I guess.

#vampire the masquerade #vtm #world of darkness #vtmb #vampire: the masquerade #blood war

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