#i think they're setting up a mastermind arc!!!

[thatgayoctopus]

I JUST FINISHED FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD AND I'M GENUINELY SO EXCITED FOR THE NEXT SEASON I ADORE THAT FUCKING SHOW IT'S GENUINELY SO AMAZING I'M GOING TO BLOW SOMEONE UP I LOVE HOW SLOW EVERYONE'S DEVELOPMENT IS IT'S KIND OF INSANE I'M GOING TO BLOW SOMEONE UP OH MY GOD

Hiding spoiler-y thoughts in the tags

[fangirlingpuggle]

Bleach fic prompt/AU (though mostly Aishin) where after his plans started but before the turn the pendulum arc Aizen knows there will decades before his plans can go further so as he can't do anything and everything is already set in motion in the background he creates an illusionary personality to take control so he doesn't have to go through the motions and a total innocent version will just make his alibi's easier and no one will suspect him once he takes back over.

So for decades there's an Aizen who is actually good and gets along with people having friends and not just on surface level and caring for people, and he is of course head of heels for Shinji (No megalomania or layers upon layers of denial). Shinji is of course so very confused and very deep in denial that he is also smitten because he knows Aizen is evil and panning something and a liar and he doesn't know what he's planning and why he's acting odd, but he can't trust him. He keep s reminding himself of this constantly (it doesn't always work)

And everything is going fine until the original personality under the 'illusion' starts to try and take control back except this good Aizen isn't just an illusion the complete hypnosis created a real personality a real person. He's not letting the other take back control, he's trying to fight back.

Except he's acting different now trying to fight a megalomaniac, evil mastermind personality trying to get control and Shinji can tell somethings up only he pushes aside his worry and goes into 'See still evil, he's planning something he's a liar he's lying about something, he's never been different'. This creates an opening for the original Aizen who can point out how Shinji has never seen either of them as different he still thinks he;s evil he doesn't see you he just sees me.

Original Aizen is able to take back over and... no one notices everyone see's there's something a bit off but he seems fine it's ok, and Shinji of course is convincing himself that he was right Aizen is liar whatever that was was a trick, even if a part of him doesn't believe it and knows somethings off.

Then 3 options

Angtsy option: Everything happens as canon and it's only years later when somehow through Urahara experiment bullshit they realize 2 different Aizen's... by the time they confront they're faced with realization when original Aizen took back over the new personality was destroyed.

Angst with happy ending option: When Aizen gets the hogyoku, it realizes oh two people in here finds the remnants of the other personality that's been locked away by Aizen and is like 'hey what do you want?'. Cue other version splitting from Aizen with own body in middle of fight and everyone is confused. Then the angst that no one realized he was different or saw the change and all the mistrust. Also in denial pinning Shinji. (More angst potential if the other Aizen had been aware the entire time seeing everything but unable to take nay control)

More funny version: When Aizen is tuning them in Vizards he decides to reveal about what happened cue Shinji crisis but also 'Oh thank the soul king i'm not in love with this evil son of a bitch ok I can stop repressing feelings' and then after they escape the plan is 'kick evil Aizen's ass get our friend back'. When they show up to the battle Shinji has flowers, chocolates and a card saying 'Sorry I didn't realize your evil other self took back over' with chappy on it. (He also has a ring because he's been pining for years, the others tried to take it off hi because fucking hell man let the man have a day... and probably a therapy session or two first)

Sorry if this is dumb I am so very tired.

[the-owl-tree]

reading the star excerpt (link here)

i quite like the prologue. i like curlfeather taunting splashtail, i like his insecurity being exacerbated. i think it actually hammers in how young and out of his depth he is

which....sucks the rest of the books portray him as this manipulative mastermind. he's much more fun of a villain when you can see him scrambling for power (and losing it)

which makes the whole riverclan as poor victims kind of suck. icewing rightfully calls out her clanmates for being cowards for uh- *checks notes* using mothwing as target practice?? sorry we're going over the top evil i see. anyways, my point is....yeah, riverclan IS complicit in this, they DO have a choice to say no. splashtail doesn't even have enforcers like brokenstar and tigerstar did, it's literally just one guy - heck the warriors themselves are the enforcers.

fear becomes a limp excuse at this point. you guys gotta unionize or something.

i think the book is really struggling to make splashtail's NO MISS OHKO X9999 ULTRAKILL ATTACK an actual credible attack. look i get it they think he has nine lives, but the three of them could take on a teen i believe it.

i think because this arc won't acknowledge that riverclan is complicit in letting this fester, that they wanted this kind of leadership, it makes him fall flat. how much scarier would it be, more gray it would be, difficult, and so and so on if the clan rallied behind their leader because of the prior events? i get it, they're playing into the fear angle, but there NEEDS to be some more willing participants or this doesn't work.

the closest we get is this exchange but like. guys. the gathering exchange was stupid as hell.

also, you'd think every brit was the worst dog owner in the world LMAO these boys are screaming and straining on their leash while the owners chatting away. every dog in brit is some cat mauling beast i guess.

i was so ready for repetitive "why should we do X??" let's fight about it for the next few pages that it was a fucking relief that cloverfoot was just "yep bring them in!". fucking uh flashbacks from bramblestar's leadership lmao

the phrasing on this made me snick. "behaved so badly" makes it sound like she was kind of unruly, not plotted to overthrow her leader lmao

i dont wanna nitpick, i am actually enjoying that the plot is moving and that things are happening but like....minor waste of a shadowclan pov. you'd think with how often they like to make references to past events, sunbeam being a shadowclan cat could absolutely come in handy in this situation (considering they once had nightheart explain shadowclan history to a shadowclan cat) but when she wonders if riverclan can ever repair itself, it really doesn't come up. idk, i guess i think she could've had a more optimistic perspective but ultimately it really isn't the biggest of deals.

uh oh guys something ELSE happened?? wanna know what happens??? well go buy IVYPOOL'S HEART ONLY FOR 25.99 AVAILABLE NOW AT RETAIL OUTLETS CLOSEST TO YOU. BUY NOW BUY NOW BUY NOW BUY NOW. DON'T YOU WANNA KNOW WHERE ICEWING IS GOING???? OOOH BUY OUR BOOKS!

Oooh the Gathering trap is actually good, ignoring how a lot of them get thrown the idiot ball a little bit to make it work. I figured it out quickly (even though this arc loves having shit happen offscreen), it's nice to see some trickery for once! only real drawback is the books once again going "what did splashstar do to riverclan??" as if he's mind controlling them. I'm gonna actually hold out on hope that this is a set up to Frostpaw realizing her Clanmates haven't been mind controlled or whatever, they're doing this because they want to, because splashstar's ideals appeal to them after everything.

it probably won't happen but i wanna hold out hope.

tentatively interested! preparing for status quo disappointment!

[bastionbibi]

Okay, hear me out. I think we really underestimate Conan/Shinichi's ruthlessness. This man draws the line at murder and torture but that's his ONLY line.

He's a very mission-oriented man, a gentle person at heart but if he has to trick his own allies into thinking they're being chased by death itself or if he has to cut up a dead body and scatter them around a cemetery one eyeball at a time he would do it if he really has to. I mean he'd feel guilty, but he WILL do it.

He's developing his own sets of morals and it might not be as clean-cut as it used to be but I think it's a good lesson to learn, seeing the monsters that he's up against and the monsters he has to collaborate with whether he wants to or not; Kazami for example, he was so casual in telling Curaçao that he'd beat the information out of her if he has to, (and because he wants to.)

"I'll torture you as much as I can," As much as you want? As much as you can get away with? Okay, Yuuya.

Conan burned down Rikumichi's corpse to a crisp so he could safe Akai, a former Organization member who must have done horrible things in the past, yet Conan cares for him nonetheless. He's approached by individuals who somehow, in some way, believe wholeheartedly that this young kid has what it takes, even someone as rigid and skeptical as Kuroda.

Furuya literally framed Kogoro for domestic terrorism just so he can get Conan to do what he wanted because he knows the kid always gets the job done. Hell, he entrusted him with his life once when he had a damn bomb around his neck. He used him and yet Conan still had the capacity to forgive him.

I like Conan's character because he has a solid but complex personality that isn't immune to change and influence. He's such a good man at heart but how far will a good man go? Me personally, I want a character focused arc where he's forced to grow but that'll be too much I suppose. Well, Shinichi's only 17 so let's just see what he's capable of in 10 years. (And how much therapy he needs at that point aha)

Yeah, I just think he's neat and I'm so proud of my little mastermind.

[sophiapixel45]

I don't get all the Sonia hate

I know there's a lot of criticism raised against the sdr2 survivors (a lot of which I feel isn't really fair), but most of it is against Sonia.

Admittedly, her character arc isn't near comparable to Fuyuhiko or Hajime but I think its kind of close to Akane's. Likewise, why would you say that Sonia didn't get a character arc when Kazuichi is right there.

I'm gonna talk about him first because sometimes he annoys me. Sometimes.

Kazuichi has some of the clearest character flaws out of everyone, the only people who are more clearly flawed are Fuyuhiko, Nagito, and Hiyoko. They all have this addressed several times in the narrative, even if they don't fully develop from it in the end. Kazuichi doesn't even really have it acknowledged by the narrative. It's been a while since I've played his FTEs, but a key part of that is that he's got trust issues and he's a coward. He's still a coward at the end, but I don't care too much about that. What's worse is that he still can't trust others.

At times, it's suggested that he outgrows his trust issues, with how clingy he can be with Fuyuhiko and Hajime. Yet, he'll still turn on either of them at the drop of a hat. Kazuichi suspects Fuyuhiko a lot during the fifth trial, and very openly voices that without hesitation. He still doesn't trust him.

Still he spends more time with Hajime throughout the story and turns on him far more often. Not only does he accuse him of being the traitor constantly in chapter four due to the advice of someone he knows he shouldn't trust, but he clearly still thinks this until the beginning of chapter five.

The two worst cases of this that go unaddressed is trial five (again) and chapter six. Of the cast, he's the only one to immediately blame Chiaki for being the traitor, accusing her of tricking them. The others are only willing to believe she's the traitor because they trust her first and foremost. Not him. He takes it and runs without to doubt the entirety of Chiaki's character.

Again, this would be fine if he ever grew from it.

Yet, not only does no one really care about it, but he does it again in chapter six. When Hajime's accused of being the mastermind, he's the first to accuse him of tricking them. In contrast, Sonia says that she doesn't want any last minute plot twists (I'll come back to this later). He doesn't apologise for being so sceptical and everyone just knows this is how Kazuichi is at his core.

He comes out of chapter six having being the same person he was in chapter one, just having cried a little more.

Now onto Sonia.

Sonia is relatively actively compared to most other characters. She sets up the get together between the girls in chapter 2, trying to bond with them all in the way that no one else has really been doing in Imposter's absence. She's more upset than most others for Mahiru's death and seems to feel more guilt and responsibility for that. It seems those feelings directly lead into her being more active during the investigation and later contributing a good amount of evidence in the trial.

Even if she's not as active in chapter three and four, there's still substance for her here.

I always liked how the connection between her and Gundham felt real. They're both kind of dweebs who get a chance to bond over their shared interests, especially since they are each somewhat different from the rest of the cast. Obviously Gundham speaks in a way that no one else does and people generally don't take him seriously because of it, but Sonia's a foreigner who doesn't really understand the culture that she's in. What's more, she's never been treated normally even in her home country. Kazuichi pushes that narrative of her difference; Gundham doesn't care. The romance is cute without being too over the top.

Kazuichi never has any meaningful relationship with another character (that isn't entirely one sided). He's the only survivor who doesn't do so and thus loses the chances for emotion.

Sonia's actual character development doesn't start until the end of chapter four and well into chapter five. I think this is more so because of the cast I think that Sonia's more down to earth in the fact that her character flaws aren't glaringly obvious. She's overly emotional to the point that it inhibits her ability to act in a rational way, but this only becomes clear as the game continues and she actually becomes closer to the others. She defends Gundham, but she also is the only one to defend Nagito in trial 4 because she - in one way another - has faith in his character.

It starts with not just Gundham's sacrifice but the reason that he did it. Gundham believed in living.

Sonia doesn't just cry over Gundham, but she takes what he said to her to heart. Like Fuyuhiko, she takes what the person she loved thought seriously. She carried Gundham's wishes for her survival and everyone else's through into chapter five and refuses to give up as a result. Even when the others do, she doesn't just follow what they think but is trying to outsmart Nagito. Even if she fails, she keeps going. Her lack of faith in Kazuichi's more aggressive solution makes her use her own intelligence and the logical people she can trust (Hajime) to continue taking matters into her own hands without undermining the decision of the others.

But still, despite her efforts, she's still flawed by the end of chapter five. She, along with the others, fails to stop Nagito. She struggles against Chiaki's confession more than anyone else.

In chapter six, she's grown since the start of the game. When Hajime is accused of being the mastermind, although she's unwilling to believe such a thing, she's no longer too emotional to even consider the idea. She's grown, but not quite enough yet; she wants to cling onto a fake image of the past than the future. Gundham told her to keep living and so did Chiaki but, for a moment, she wants to see them both again. She still has her overly emotional mannerisms, but the influence of Chiaki and Hajime in the end pushes her to overcome it, just as she grew throughout the story to be capable of.

Although pretty subtle, her choice at the end is one of the most meaningful to her overall journey.

I thinks there's one final thing to be said in that she came to Hope's Peak, in a way, to hone her talents and become queen. But, instead, at the end, she's left with no kingdom to inherit by the time she's grown up enough to be capable of it. I think she's another testament to a character being more than a talent; choosing themselves over talents, just like Hajime. She grew into her own person in the end independent of everything she had come from.

Anyways, she's definitely worthy of having survived the game. And, for the record, I still like Soda.

[tinfoilhatsss]

Naomi is actually an antagonist

Most people have different theories about Naomi from BSD, so I thought I'd put my opinion in.

First off, Naomi is NOT an author like the rest of the BSD cast. Her namesake comes from Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's novel 'Naomi'. I'm going to be speculating about the connection between the novel and the BSD character, but I actually haven't read the novel myself. I'm taking my information from the summary.

The two members of the Armed Detective Agency without an author's namesake are Naomi and Haruno. (As seen down below)

Both are characters from the novel 'Naomi'. I'm just going to be focusing on Naomi for now, as she plays a bigger role in the novel and in the BSD plot, so I have a better understanding of the character.

Anyways. Naomi and Tanizaki's relationship has never really made sense to me. Asagiri is known for humanising his characters and making sure that all of them have motives, even some antagonists. For example...

Mori, although as asshole of a character, has an overarching need for the greater good. Although he has made some pretty hurtful decisions to get there, it's with a 'good' cause in mind

Fitzgerald wanted the book to revive his daughter to try and piece back together his family by improving his sick wive's mental state

I know this doesn't really apply to Fyodor and Fukuchi, but I have no doubt that by the end of the arc, their actions will have some sort of reasoning to them.

So WHY did he write Naomi and Tanizaki into some sort of seemingly incestuous relationship? Either or both of the scenarios below could explain their actions:

They're faking their romantic intentions

They're fake siblings

It still doesn't answer the question of what their relationship adds to the plot. It could be written with the intention of humour in the end, but Asagiri has stated in an interview that he's a fan of Chekhov’s Gun (the principle that all elements of a story are essential), which means he most likely wrote their relationship with a specific intention.

If Naomi holds a similar characterisation to the novel she is from, then her relationship with Tanizaki might not be as caring as it is made out to be.

In the novel, the character Naomi is actually the antagonist. The protagonist is an older man who becomes obsessed with Naomi and her Westernised personality. (Note: the book is set in post ww2 when America took part in the colonisation of Japan and thus became a large part of the culture there.)

The protagonist, a salaryman named Jōji, plans to gradually groom 15-year-old Naomi when they meet at a cafe. Her true nature is revealed to be incredibly manipulative. She eventually reverses the power imbalance and Jōji ends up completely submitting to her every whim.

This makes me question her role in the plot of BSD. Especially now that we actually haven't seen her in a long time (the entire Decay of Angels arc). Most BSD characters are based on the protagonists of their novels (Oba Yozo and Dazai), if not the author themselves.

Naomi being represented by the Antagonist makes me wonder if she is in fact a threat to Tanizaki. I would say that she is an ability, but Dazai has touched her before, so it's been confirmed she isn't. Could she be made by the book? Is she controlling Tanizaki, a mastermind in disguise? I think there must be more to her character than we see, or else Asagiri wouldn't have written her in.

she looks kind of sinister in the manga yknowww...

[poggieking3]

ALRIGHT. i have some things to say about today's smg4 movie! i want to talk about mr. puzzles. even though he was defeated in the end, i have a whole entire redemption arc for him, so hear me out. spoilers under the cut!

smg4 and the crew decide to bring him back (somehow LOL) and together, everyone works to redeem him by assigning him mundane activities to foster some teamwork and a passive relationship with the crew. mr puzzles finds it frustrating, humiliating, debilitating to his once flawless reputation, but he is not allowed to hurt or kill. that would be very mean!

whenever he fumbles something, 4 scolds him like a mother and he's so embarrassed about it. everyone works together to change mr puzzles for the better, trying to teach him that he doesn't need everything to be perfect (a lesson 3 taught to 4 in IGBP) and mr puzzles finds reassurance in this and eventually puts effort towards proving himself redeemable.

and the crew set up a reward system with mr puzzles! for every chore he gets done, and if he's a good boy to others, he gets a star! and this doesn't stop at just 5, mr puzzles will get more stars! they still reassure mr puzzles that he doesn't need to be perfect. he can try his best and even if it isn't perfect, he still gets a star for his efforts, teaching him that it's okay to mess up or have an error in judgement. it does not take away his stars. but they're still firm in reminding him that he isn't the mastermind anymore.

i am extremely fond of villain redemption AUs. i think mr puzzles could deserve one, as a treat!

[kugisakiss]

Anyone else think that a lot of the parents in detective Conan aren't good parents and straight up leave their children most of the time? Especially with Heizo punching his minor son hard enough to make him bleed and manipulating Conan and him into a dangerous situation and agasa and Conan's parents also most likely traumatized him with the whole "black organization" stunt. Makes me glad they're overseas most of the time..

for real, i don't think there's one set of "good" parents in this show.. well, not one with enough screen time anyway...

i'm just going to ramble about yuusaku for a bit below

also like, the story itself doesn't make space for good parents. it's part of the conceit of the show- good parents would not encourage their teenage kids to poke around murder scenes, good police officers won't just let random members of the public get close to any crime scene with an active investigation, especially not random teenagers. but it happens here because it has to happen for "famous high school detective kudou shinichi" to exist.

Yukiko and Yuusaku can't just arrive back to help Shinichi solve everything because Yuusaku is basically a better Shinichi and this is Shinichi's story. The good parent thing to do in this case is to whisk Shinichi off to safety and contacting the police or the PSB or w/e (I'm sure Yuusaku has people he trusts 100% there). But that doesn't give a chance for Shinichi to shine. Shinichi has to be the main driving force of the story because he was created to be the cool genius main character all the kids/teens reading the manga would admire.

It's "cool" how characters like Shinichi and Heiji have so much independence from their parents and how they're so smart they can solve things most other adults can't. Yuusaku and Heizo being around all the time cramps their style because their existence on a case will always end up highlighting their childs' flaws as detectives.

Since Yuusaku was made to be the pinnacle of detective prowess, he only has a role in the endgame. since the series was being written more as an evergreen murder mystery story, there's no point for him to hang around for however long Gosho wants the story to go on for. he'd just end up doing nothing most of the time and steal Shinichi's spotlight as the "mastermind" in the black org arcs.

Yuusaku (and Heizo I guess) are more like goals Shinichi and Heiji want to reach and surpass. Yuusaku is like the big leagues and Shinichi (other than beating the Black Org and getting his body back) aims to be a better detectice than his dad and I suspect Heiji feels the same way to his. I think the series would end with Shinichi reaching at least the same level as his dad.

[nokingsonlyfooles]

The Dark Secret of Kung Fu Panda, Part 2...

...if you're coming from a place of Western tropes and values, you need to read Shifu as a shitty teacher, or the story doesn't scan.

Oh, and also a shitty parent, a shitty student of kung fu, and a shitty student of Buddhism.

(Sorry, little dude.)

I've already unpacked the teacher part, but all these things are a result of trying to write a story set in China, that both Chinese and Western audiences will understand. They did very well! But there's always a few folks who aren't able to keep up with a complex read like this - and they don't go, "Oh well, this story wasn't for me," they get mad at the characters and the writers.

So! Let's talk more about kung fu, Buddhism, child development, tropes and subversions - and whether that shiny piece of paper Tai Lung was after actually meant something or was just an elaborate troll.

I like to go to TVTropes and read the Headscratchers. For a storyteller like me, it's like playing Narrative Minesweeper. Let's see, did anyone have trouble with this plot point? (click) Ah, not too bad. What about this one? (click)

(Check that link! This is the page for Kung Fu Panda 2! People are really upset about this!)

KABOOM! Oh, man. Okay. Let's plant a flag in that and try to figure out why it blew up so bad.

Something I've seen across stories is that audiences have a really hard time noticing that they are being lied to when characters or narrators say one thing and do another. I think it's a mirage coughed up by the suspension of disbelief required to consume a story in the first place. We see a lot of villains who are supposed to be criminal masterminds, yet to make the plot go they have to behave like utter idiots. We're willing to put up with that, as long as it seems like they're supposed to be brilliant in-universe.

Then Rian Johnson throws a character like Miles Bron at us. The whole point of Miles is we're supposed to roll with the "in-universe mastermind" tropes, but only up to a point. The message of the film rests on the audience's ability to snap out of it, pick up their critical thinking skills and go, "Yeah, this guy never did one smart thing. Just a lot of audacious things, because he's too sheltered and dumb to understand the consequences."

But if you check the Headscrachers for Glass Onion (and if you care to look at any right-wing critiques of the film), you'll find a lot of people groping for reasons Miles is smart, actually. Maybe Blanc just called him dumb to get a rise out of him! Maybe he's smart socially but dumb with business! Or vice-versa! Maybe the film is badly-written!

No, he is very dumb. Truly. And I don't think the film is badly-written. But some people just blow right trough a sign reading "STOP RIGHT HERE, THIS TROPE IS BEING SUBVERTED, THE DETOUR IS THIS WAY" stagger off the path, and wind up dead in a ditch. Metaphorically speaking.

The above Troper - who is upset by Tai Lung's lack of a redemption arc, while expecting a nuanced story where the bad guys aren't all bad - has failed to detect a nuanced story where the good guys aren't all good.

In China, audiences need a stop sign that reads "Actually, the brilliant teacher is still learning and can do even better." This isn't too jarring, especially given the relationship between Oogway and Shifu. Shifu admits Oogway is a better teacher than him, and smarter than him. Even when he doesn't understand the lesson and loses hope of ever understanding it, he doesn't blame the turtle, he blames himself for just not getting it, and prepares to clean up his mess the best way he knows how. For his part, Oogway was clearly trying to get some hard lessons into Shifu's head - up to and including, "You don't actually need me to guide you down the path, you need to start looking around and trying to understand it for yourself..."

"Bye-eeee!"

Oogway is teaching in accordance with Theravada Buddhism, which is basically the philosophical equivalent of trying to get the dog to notice you've dropped the bacon on the ground and he's not gonna get anything by sniffing your fingers.

Tai Lung's return is an emergency situation, and if Shifu's not careful he'll be trying to reach enlightenment from the Spirit Realm (which does seem doable, given that Oogway continues to train and meditate himself). So Oogway leaves Shifu a $50, says, "You will have to find bacon without me," and buggers off. Permanently. And you know what? After three films, it works!

"Ah, you have finally mastered your Pride. Never stop learning, my most stubborn student!"

On the other hand, a Western audience has much less patience for jerk-ass teachers - and while they do have experience with Trickster mentors, it's much harder for them to see where Oogway is coming from, and why he nopes out instead of just being honest when it's important! They need a much bigger stop sign that says, "SHIFU IS ACTUALLY A SLOW STUDENT AND A BAD TEACHER AND OOGWAY HAS BEEN DESPERATELY TRYING, AND FAILING, TO CORRECT THIS PROBLEM FOR DECADES." But that's unnecessary and nonsensical in China. What we ended up with is much more subtle and open to interpretation. Some people decided to interpret it as, "Oogway's a troll, Shifu's an idiot, Tai Lung got a raw deal, nobody ever admits any of this, and this movie is stupid."

It's true, nobody ever gets called a troll or an idiot - that would be incredibly disrespectful in China, so that's a nonstarter - so you have to draw your own conclusions based on what they do. We see Shifu having a lot of difficulty in picking up what Oogway is laying down. He trusts Oogway implicity and knows there is always some kind of wisdom being imparted, but he gets impatient and tries to speed up the lesson, or he grabs for the most obvious interpretation and runs, or he just gives up and falls back to something he understands a little better.

Like when he gets sick of waiting for Oogway to blow out the candles and get to the point and he douses all of them with a cool move. Oogway is modeling the behaviour he'd like to see - Shifu really needs to slow down and learn patience. But Shifu responds as if the lesson is, "My Master needs help blowing out candles!" which is just silly, but he's going too fast and not paying attention.

Now watch Po listen to Oogway... and watch Oogway listen to Po! Oogay doesn't run in and go, "We don't have time for this! Tai Lung's coming! Get your shit together!" He lets Po set the pace, reflects back his feelings, and offers a little nudge. Which Po absorbs and thinks about at his own pace, instead of pushing to understand everything as fast as possible right now. Ideally, that's how it should go, but with Shifu this approach has about as much impact as boinking croutons off a brick wall.

So it's not too difficult to imagine that Shifu let his pride get the better of him in educating Tai Lung, while ignoring multiple nudges from his own teacher, because he was just too focused on his ultimate goal and going too fast.

In this case, his ultimate goal was a shiny piece of paper his Master rolled up and stuck in a cool-looking temple, all to give some future student a nudge to help them understand, "Self-worth isn't earned or bestowed in this way, it is intrinsic." And Shifu focused on proving his worth as a teacher by trying to turn out a student who was worthy of the scroll!

"Son, I am beginning to suspect you just ain't right in the head."

How can a friend and teacher manage this without stepping off the path of Theravada Buddhism, which a Chinese audience will recognize and expect to remain consistent? The only thing to do is back off, give your student some room to screw up, and nudge him again when he's open to listening.

Unfortunately, that took a very long time. Decades. In the meantime, Tai Lung grew up expecting to make his father proud by earning the scroll.

"What do you MEAN I spent my whole life training and I'm STILL NOT GOOD ENOUGH?"

There is something that I was taught explicitly, because I learned how to teach preschoolers: it is super easy to get kids to believe your love is conditional and dependent on their ability to get good grades and perform. Like, you can swear up and down that you love your child no matter what, but if you lose your shit and take them to Disneyland when they make Student of the Month, the kid is going to draw their own conclusions. You know how Tai Lung complains about how hard Shifu drove him to train? You can do that with praise just as easily as with discipline. More easily, sometimes.

In China, that's a perfectly acceptable way to teach a child, no further explanation necessary. In the West, not so much, but the writers can't hit us over the head with how wrong it is because in China, it's fine. So we have to watch and pay attention to how they act.

In the flashbacks, we never see Shifu being anything but loving and supportive, even when Tai Lung rips off a piece of his moustache and causes him obvious pain.

We never see the leopard boy eat all of his dad's bamboo furniture and cause a freakout (presumably followed by apologies on both sides). Young Shifu seems to have two modes of parenting and teaching: "I'm proud of you" and "Wow! Great job! I'm extra proud of you!" the second of which is reserved for punching and kicking real good. If that's all his dad seems to want from him, and the solution to every problem is to train harder and punch and kick better, it's possible Tai Lung's first experience with real failure is not getting the Dragon Scroll. You know, the thing his dad named him after.

His lack of experience with failure is evident in his reaction; he has no emotional maturity, he's like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum. Shifu taught him how to punch and kick real good, and did not teach him how to deal with failure, frustration, and a lack of outside validation. That's because Shifu himself is super bad at all those things!

Kung fu is not just punching and kicking and going as hard as you can, it is listening and adapting and approaching situations with open-minded humility. When Shifu rolls up and presents his first student like an art project to be graded, Oogway knows he done messed up. All he can do is nudge them away from a lesson neither one of them is ready to learn yet, and back off.

"Ultimately, my stubborn student, this is my failure, but I'm not sure how to resolve this situation. And your kid is a ticking time bomb, do you not even see that?"

Unfortunately, Shifu's flawed teaching method has resulted in a student who knows nothing but punching and kicking, so all he can do is punch and kick. Real good. "Laying waste" to the village was a late add, to help the audience understand how badly Tai Lung melted down, but it makes perfect sense in this context. If he's not getting the validation he needs for his skill, he'll beat up the whole Valley trying to prove he's the best. And when he gets back to the Jade Palace, no, somehow he has still not punched and kicked hard enough to get what he's after, so he tries to beat up the people standing in his way. Maybe that's how you prove yourself worthy of the scroll!

Alas, it was not. And with a student too misguided and dangerous to teach - yet who still might be able to learn, and help Shifu learn - pausing his rampage for a few decades to allow Shifu some more time to get a clue was the best option Oogway had.

Thank heaven for plot devices!

It turns out, Shifu is capable of improving, through immense pain and suffering. After his failure with Tai Lung, Shifu's despair leads him to fall face first into teaching Tigress with Oogway's method...

...That is, at least he backs off and lets her learn she's going to get no validation from the outside, so she stops looking for it. That's enough to keep her from having a total meltdown when she doesn't get what she wants - it's not a betrayal, it's just par for the course. She goes off by herself, because she's learned to solve her own damn problems (as have the rest of the Five, who follow her), and she almost gets them all killed, 'cos Shifu still doesn't know how to teach humility.

It takes him a few movies - he expects to learn everything through hard work and suffering and so, inevitably, he does.

Just to hammer home how badly Shifu messed up, and how fundamentally flawed Tai Lung's understanding of kung fu is, when Po just hands him the scroll, Tai Lung doesn't get it.

Po is a Mahayana Buddhist. He always tries to enlighten his enemies. When they make it clear they're not ready for it, he'll do what he can to keep them from screwing up everyone else's chance to learn.

So Tai Lung gets yeeted direct to the Spirit Realm. But, it is possible to keep learning in the Spirit Realm, as Oogway and Kai show us in the third film. We just don't see Tai Lung again until the animated series, 'cos no matter how cute he is, he's not the protagonist.

Also, I think the writers can't help but noticed how badly Tai Lung's arc landed with some audience members. There is no good way to address that in under two hours of film. Look how long it took me to unpack it in text!

In the end, the Dragon Scroll isn't meant to be useless, or an elaborate troll from a Trickster archetype. It's a nudge in the right direction. For Po and Shifu, once they slowed down and thought about it, it landed. Tai Lung just wasn't there yet, and showing him that the scroll was nothing but a shiny piece of paper wouldn't have gotten him there, no matter when it happened. But respect to the Dragon Warrior for trying, that's just how he rolls. He's not wrong to try, but Oogway's also not wrong about enlightenment not being a thing to teach.

That's why ya boi gets Oogway's staff, and Shifu ends the film series still needing a little more time to learn.

[snowyfrostshadows]

Wind Spoilers under the cut

Well.

That was certainly a book.

The prologue was kinda funny with Splashtail deciding to reject the nine lives from Starclan and using Curlfeather's choice to receive them as one of his reasons to kill her making him one of the stupidest villains in the series.

They can do as they always have and give a leader their nine lives regardless of that cat's actual morality or actually do something interesting for once and refuse to enable an antagonist.

He gets ahold of all this power but one good hit or sickness and he's dead. Alright. Great planning skills there bud.

But then I realized that Splashtail's decision frees Starclan from having to make that choice.

This way they can stay the wise (yet somewhat powerless) spirit cats the clans can turn to for guidance.

Speaking of Starclan giving out lives, I hate how everyone knows Nightpelt's story despite it never actually being public knowledge. Hell I don't think Fireheart found out and he figured out everyone's secrets.

But no. Since readers know every single trivia bit and history of the clans, the cats get to as well which is so....boring.

It takes out some of the awe and way histories can be changed and retold to fit certain narratives or having characters actually do some digging and discovering things out for themselves.

I know this is primarily a series for children but Erins I am begging you, give your target audience some credit. Kids are smarter than most people give them credit for and actually you know. Enjoy a good mystery here and there.

Another thing that was frustrating to read was having cats ask permission to move the plot along or sit around in a circle discussing stuff and judging each other for it. I. Can kinda see what the Erins are trying to do; make things more of a group decision and have older characters/past povs part of the story but man. In actuality, it just makes things drag on and characters flatter.

I miss the days when cats could sneak out and move the plot on their own and show off their own initiative. With Nightheart and Sunbeam waiting around for permission it just. Makes them feel...... incompetent? Like they literally can't do anything with being told to?? And this makes their chapters a slight pain to go through because nothing really important happens in them or they're just there to observe Frostpaw 's plot and comment on it I guess.

On another tangent, I. have no idea what they're doing with this arc's villains.

The first few books set them up as cunning and clever cats whose strengths are in being subtle but now... they're kinda all over the place.

Curlfeather was the mastermind but apparently just. Did this all on a whim because her mate died and picked a random apprentice to share her plans with but couldn't bother keeping up a pretense of even pretend respect around him and just. Spoke down to him. Okay

Berryheart wasn't happy over the new rule allowing cats to swap clans and was willing to start up a evil book club and set up a sort of rebellion of sorts but then....they just...don't really follow through with that? She gets exiled, curses out the clans, and then....joins a clan she hated to the point of accepting a co-leader ship position from an unstable teenager openly stating his plans to attack her former clan and she's just okay with it because I guess she's just.......an unreasonable woman...

Alright.

And then there's Splashtail.

On one hand, I'm a lil disappointed on how far off the deep end he's gone but absolutely fascinated at the decline in his mental state.

He got his power.

He exiled Frostpaw.

Managed to convince nearly every cat around the lake she's the insane liar and then.

He just. Loses it.

Makes his clan fight each other with claws out, doesn't bother to allow the camp to be cleaned, kills his own deputy and appoints a cat who by all logic, would maybe be the first to kill him given the opportunity as deputy and he's portrayed as the biggest threat to the clans.

Him. One, singular cat that the leaders of the other clans know only has one life.

That any one of them could kill proving to Riverclan that Splashtail wasn't approved by Starclan and was actually lying about Frostpaw.

But no. We get yet another book with everyone sitting around talking about what should be done and why they can't and basically holding Tigerheart back by his tail to keep him from cutting this arc's runtime in half.

The poor man sees the problem, has a solution, wants to end problems before they impact literally everyone in yet another clan wide war but gets called the Real Villain for most the arc by everyone.

Frostpaw and Tigerheart are the real MVPs of this arc in terms of story and literally keeping me invested in this thing.

[tobiasdrake]

A body has been discovered! 3-1 Investigation begins. And I despise this investigation with every fiber of my being.

And now we get to the thing that most hinders my enjoyment of 3-1: The part where the game didn't just take the cool new protag that I was enjoying playing away from me, but did so by fucking gaslighting me for thirty hours. Screw you, 3-1.

Because it's obvious. It's fucking obvious that Kaede couldn't have killed Rantaro, from the moment you first see the crime scene.

I caught Kaede taking the ball. I missed Kaede setting up the track. And then I caught Kaede dropping the ball in the vent. So I had two out of three of the pieces for the attempt. I was genuinely scared that she might be the killer. But I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw this, because one look at this crime scene and you know it can't be her.

It's the blood that's the problem.

For Kaede to be the killer, Rantaro would need to be struck in the top of the head. This would cause him to fall backwards and spray blood on the floor.

Instead, Rantaro was struck in the back of the head, falling forwards and spraying blood on the bookshelves in an upwards arc that climbs higher than the tops of anyone's heads. It is physically impossible for Kaede's dropped shot put ball to have created this scene.

It's okay. Kaede isn't the true killer. She's the decoy, setting up for the reveal of the true killer.

...

This, right here, is a big part of why I loathe this case. In 1-5, the Mastermind fabricates a false murder. But over the course of the case, it becomes clear that there's something nefarious going on here, to the point that Kyoko even outright calls it a trap.

The Mastermind pins you into a corner, but you're able to survive it and come right back in 1-6 to keep sifting the facts and ultimately nail her for it. 1-5's facts are clearly wrong but the wrongness comes through over the course of the trial and it segues directly into confronting the real truth immediately after.

3-1 opens with that case and then solves it incorrectly on purpose. It won't be revisited for another 30-40 hours. They wrote a bad mystery, solved it wrong on purpose, took away the cool and interesting protag we were playing as to replace her with another boring sadboy, and then told us, "No, YOU were wrong for seeing the obvious truth in front of you!"

While fully intending to go back and sheepishly admit that yeah, we were right, they were gaslighting us by writing badly on purpose and then killing off Kaede for no reason at all. The mean-spirited bait-and-switch is not made better by the knowledge that Kaede only died so the game could lie poorly about the facts of the case that are plainly visible in front of our eyes. (And to make Shuichi feel sad.)

And that's the point, really. It's supposed to piss you off. It's written badly on purpose because the central theme is about whether a truth that's a lie is a lie that's truthier when the truthiest lie is the truth. They're trying to be clever by creating a mystery where a pleasant lie is a better alternative than the truth but also that truth is a lie concealing a greater truth behind a lie of an even greater truth.

They're telling a bad story on purpose and patting themselves on the back about how smart they're being. It's thematic. But it's still just a standard case of "We think this person did it, but actually this other person did it." We just never get to that "other person" step until way later in the game because the characters here are a cavalcade of fuck-ups. No matter how smart it thinks it's being, it's still a bad mystery solved wrong on purpose.

3-6 is the salt in the wound of 3-1, in a game that wears open contempt for the brand, its characters, and the very concept of the mystery genre itself on its sleeve.

[llatimeria]

"oc ask memes that are plot-focused somehow" i don't know of any like that but !!! i would love to hear the plot of your story and more about your ocs if you feel like sharing ^w^

AH HI i meant to answer this like 4 times now and kept getting distracted with. Things. so here's the gist:

a supervillain announces he's after a set of magical macguffins, but in truth he doesn't really care and just wants to keep an eye on his little brother, a new superhero around town (unaware his brother's a villain). his partner in crime/literal romantic partner is the one actually after the macguffins and is using his partner's influence to get them so he can Take Over The World!™️. the supervillain, his partner, and their henchmen have to get the macguffins, while the heroes scramble to stop them... until they realize they're all in over their heads and suddenly have to switch sides and work together when aforementioned partner shuns the supervillain and Takes Over The World!™️ himself. will good prevail!? or will evil be evilly evil forever!? find out next time on-

anyways here's the pepesilvia.jpg version:

a supervillain, The Mastermind, discovers the existence of a set of 7 magical macguffins* that, when combined, would give him the power to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!™️. However, they're scattered in different places all over Earth, so he sics a gaggle of his finest henchmen on a few of the distant macguffins while he and his partner in crime/boyfriend, Rayzre Blayde**, maneuver to capture the ones closer to home. However, the truth is that Rayzre is the one who really wants to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!™️, he's just clinging to Mastermind's power as a bridge to get there. Mastermind's real motive is just to be close to and protect his little brother, who just moved into town to become the superhero Lammergeier.

(Sidenote: Rayzre, Mastermind, and Lammergeier are all from the same Evil Top Secret Government Genetic Experiment Lab and are human-animal hybrids. These experiments also happened to give some [but not all] of the resulting hybrids superpowers. Mastermind and Lammergeier were smuggled out as little kids and raised as siblings, while Rayzre escaped on his own a decade or so later, it's a whole thing. it's a recurring bit that this lab just has the shittiest security and most of their experiments have just escaped or been freed as a result, lol)

a few weeks after their plan first commences, rayzre unexpectedly gets a visit from his teenage son, Gray. Rayzre genuinely didn't know Gray existed until he just shows up on his doorstep, but they have the same superpowers (shapeshifting into dragons), basically confirming their relationship immediately. From then on, Rayzre purports that his motive is to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!™️ for his kid. This is a lie that he himself believes - he really does want to provide for Gray but we all know he started this whole thing without Gray even being a factor in his mind. Gray immediately thinks he's the coolest dad EVER, but he is also a child and all of his other father figures have been shitty step-dads, so he doesn't exactly have the highest standards. He's just jazzed that his REAL DAD buys him BEER and shows him R-RATED MOVIES and it's AWESOME

MEANWHILE the henchmen are off doing their own thing for the most part. They know of the ultimate TAKE OVER THE WORLD!™️ plot, but don't realize how serious their bosses are about it, or just how dangerous the macguffins they're after really are. they're the ones doing most of the action-adventure heavy lifting, going globetrotting and dungeoncrawling and such. i'm being the least specific here because this group's arc is currently in the most nebulous state of development where like half of them are fleshed out characters and the other half are still two dimensional and don't have agency yet,

The exception to this are the two supervillains-turned-henchmen, Frostbite and Wildfire, which MM recruited personally into his inner circle due to their impressive rap sheet and because he knows the two of them are also from the same lab he was born in (see. it's a whole thing). guess what their powers are. guess. it's not at all obvious. this makes it sound like i have a clever subversion up my sleeve but i don't they're literally just ice and fire respectively

Rayzre was always vaguely shitty (in fact he's Mastermind's high school ex and the rest of MM's family kind of hates him), but he gets more clearly shitty the more powerful he gets. He's a deeply egotistical, arrogant person who thinks he's the protagonist of this story. MM gradually becomes disillusioned with him after befriending Frostbite and Wildfire, who actually treat him with respect, especially once they start pointing out to him what a douche Rayzre can be. (unsurprisingly, fb, wf, and mm end up in a poly situationship.)

MM finally decides that Rayzre's crossed a line when they go to heist a macguffin and Rayzre secretly brings a live firearm to the affair and points it at Lammergeier, who obviously shows up to stop them. When Rayzre puts his finger on the trigger, MM reflexively pushes him, and ends up making him accidentally shoot and ultimately kill a completely innocent bystander. this is traumatic for all involved. mastermind officially disavows him (and dumps him), but this just leads to Rayzre getting all of the macguffins for himself and finally being able to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!™️

Rayzre tries to get Gray to follow in his footsteps to become another manaical god-king while the entire rest of the cast turns on him - heroes and villains working hand-in-hand to take this motherfucker down. i won't spoil what actually happens here because i think it's cool lmao

(*the working name i have for the macguffins is Anima Crystals, but i'm not completely sold on that yet. a little too chaos emeraldy for my taste)

(**this is a dumb edgy name on purpose. He's had it kicking around as a pseudonym since his myspace days)

[funishment-time]

1, 5, 6, 7, 13!!

1. What was your first exposure to Danganronpa?

answered here! ʕ ᵔᴥᵔ ʔ

5. Which character would you hypothetically die for?

Sakura, Mukuro, and Miu (though i don't think Miu would be remotely grateful. that is fine)

6. Do you have a fan character? Tell us about them!

i am working on a Fangan so i have...lots, actually. still in the conceptual stage, but i have the overall plot and characters molded together. it's a weird setting but one i am extremely passionate about

7. You get the chance to reassign five characters new talents. Who do you choose, and which new talents do they get?

more Talent Swap AUs:

Sonia as the SHSL WRITER who got famous via writing novels about royalty. she now fully believes she is a conglomerate of her OCs and will politely correct you and tell you she's the SHSL Princess if you say otherwise. not at all like Himiko, though: she's got the same cheery, determined personality as regular Sonia, she's just our friend with a Delusion now

Chihiro as the SHSL BIKER GANG LEADER because it'd be so so silly if the biggest kid delinquent on the block was this tiny little nonbinary baby with squishable cheeks. he rules the Streets through Sheer Sweetness. turns out that's all most people need

Toko as the SHSL LUCKY STUDENT, Nagito vers. much the same, except she explains all her trauma away by saying that it's building up to something Very Lucky. coming to HPA? no no, that's a Little Lucky. now marrying Byakuya...she believes that is a Very Lucky Thing. (then in UDG, she realizes Komaru is her Lucky Thing. it's very romantic and homosexual)

Kokichi as the SHSL PRINCE. same concept but now he is the ruler of a small country of 10,000 people that no one's ever heard of. it is so Evil tho. nee hee hee

Kirumi as the SHSL HOPE because Kodaka himself said she could do anything. what if she was the HPA Arc mastermind? or their Kamukura? Kirumi Tojo Kirumi Tojo yas queen!!!

13. What is your OTP?

Sakuraoi, Tokomaru, and Irumatsu. however, i'm really only iffy about splitting up Tokomaru: they are the franchise lesbians for me (yes, even over Sakuraoi, since Sakura does not live in the "main" timeline). otherwise with my other OTPs i like content that features them in other pairs, as long as they're happy, even if i don't necessarily seek that content out. (ex: a big fan of Hina x Kyoko in the main timeline after Sakura unfortunately Exits Stage Death. and Miu, well, i just want someone to treat her well while also not letting themselves get stomped-on)

[kaurwreck]

What characters/references do you hope to see in a possible Order of the clock tower arc of what do you think Agatha will be like? Based on the few appearances she has I think she’ll be a MoriDazaiFyodirSasaki type but you know.

Kafka Asagiri, by his own admission, draws inspiration for his characters from their namesakes' works and lives:

I draw inspiration not only from the author themselves, but also from their works. I like to look at particular scenes from those works of literature to then come up with the character [for my story]. For example, if we take Fyodor and look at this character, he is completely different [than the real-life author]. He has absolutely no similarities to Dostoevsky. I took inspiration from Dostoevsky's book, The Brothers Karamazov, in which there is a scene where Ivan has a conversation with the devil. I based Fyodor off of this.

I've noticed that his Western characters tend to resemble more closely their namesakes' works than their namesakes' lives. Which isn't to say the Japanese characters do not also borrow from the namesakes' works (they do, prolifically; I can cite the source material for much of Dazai's more iconic dialogue).

But in addition to Fyodor, who Asagiri acknowledged above more closely resembles a character than the author himself, Francis resembles Jay Gatsby; Louisa resembles Jo March; Steinbeck resembles Tom Joad; HP Lovecraft resembles Cthulu; Bram Stoker resembles Dracula— etc.

To some degree, the distinction isn't especially meaningful. Scott Fitzgerald, for example, clearly drew from himself and Zelda for Jay and Daisy, even using quotes from Zelda for some of Daisy's dialogue. Further, I'm sure my impression that the Japanese characters more closely resemble their authors might be related to the popularity of autobiographical fiction in modern Japan. And there are, of course, exceptions (such as Ranpo).

All of the above to say: I'm almost certain that most of Agatha Christie's personality is drawn from Judge Wargrave from And Then There Were None rather than the author herself, who preferred to project a more understated, self effacing presence. (Although, bsd!Agatha's title is a reference to Dame Agatha Christie's, and her reclusiveness could be modeled after irl!Agatha too.)

I'm not sure how familiar the fandom is with Wargrave; I studied And Then There Were None in middle school, but I don't know if it's still commonly taught or not. He's decisive, commanding, cold, calculating, and deeply sadistic. He acts as the narrative's detective, judge, jury, and executioner but only as a pretense for satisfying his own self-admitted lust to kill. He claims he only desires to murder the guilty, but he also appoints himself the moral arbiter of guilt and meters out suffering relative to the degree to which he's decided the others are guilty.

It's nakedly apparent that he is not interested in justice but in pageantry. He curates the setting and plays with the others like they're dolls, or more aptly, like he's a well-fed outdoor cat and they're the local bird population. In that sense, he isn't like any of the characters you mention above. He's a mastermind like them, sure, but he lacks Mori and Dazai's self awareness and insight, and Fyodor and Sasaki's ideological passion. There is nothing he seeks to protect, like Mori and Dazai, nor any institutions he seeks to destroy, like Fyodor. While he wants you to think he's avenging unpunished crimes like Sasaki, the justice he delivers is more arbitrary.

He just wants blood and artistry, but he also wants moral authority over those he deems beneath him even though he knows he isn't innocent. I think we've already seen that in bsd!Agatha. In Dead Apple, she sits in her ornate throne and, with serenity and pleasure, informs Ango that she will destroy Yokohama at dawn. She has her perfunctory justification (to stop the spread of Shibusawa's fog), but her eagerness, projected authority (over a foreign government, no less), imprecision (bombing the entire city rather than seeking to subdue or execute the perpetrating skill user), and method of execution (launching a convicted skill user to suicide bomb the city) speak to her bloodlust and sadism. When Shibusawa is killed and her attack is recalled, she openly pouts because she was looking forward to the destruction.

Quite frankly, I'm not convinced Agatha would make a compelling primary antagonist. She doesn't have any interest in Yokohama absent the opportunity to enact mass murder from a distance, and only if there's some national security justification, however superficial. She's modeled after a mastermind, but her position is too high, and her sights too macro to make use of Judge Wargrave's detailed pageantry.

The One Order may be enough to coax her attention, but again, her attention is too impersonal, and her sadism is too broad for the relationship-based conflicts on which bsd is built. She will not engage directly if she does engage, but by proxy. It's interesting to watch Fyodor and Dazai play their hybrid 4D chess-Go game because of their chemistry and understanding of themselves through the other. Agatha will not descend from her literal and figurative tower to meet them on any meaningful interpersonal level; Judge Wargrave certainly doesn't. Instead, she works best as a specter over Yokohama; an existential threat from a more powerful foreign power.

There are more than a few reasons to involve her more in the plot, but not on her own; there would need to be another, more intimate antagonist for bsd's structure to work. That said, I would love a secondary conflict based on foreign policy and statecraft; I thrive there, and I've been so hungry for more information about the bsd universe's distribution of powers and interests. Maybe a foreign conflict will erupt and new characters who can match Agatha's level of state power will be introduced because of the One Order; or Ango's treason; or the sudden global spread of vampirism that crippled several national governments; or the leggy calamity that was just extrajudicially released from imprisonment by a 10 y/o to whom he's now loyal; or the internationally notorious political assassin Mori is hiding in his basement; or the prior collapse of Standard Island; or Chuuya's mass murder of MANY foreign military guards in Meursault ft. his feral poses for the camera; or the destruction of what seems to be the most prominent if not only prison equipped to contain skill users given they transported Russian and Japanese nationals to its location off the coast of France; or the assassination of the general of the one world army the United Nations just formed and now can't dissolve; or that said general was assassinated within, like, a day of his appointment by someone who should not be under public scrutiny given he previously assassinated multiple Japanese leaders; or any number of recent canon events.

So, there's certainly fertile ground for a higher level conflict, and Agatha might work if set against other, similarly positioned state actors, but I'm not sure how interested in or equipped Asagiri is to write political intrigue. Or where the international community and Mushitaro should even begin re: addressing what just happened.

Notwithstanding any of the above, I do hope bsd!Agatha has a much younger trophy husband just like her namesake.

[danglovely]

Is there any rhyme or reason to how the deaths are portrayed in the Future Arc opening? I have theories.

Kyoko being hung seems like a reference to her leaning into her NG code. Most hangings aren't voluntary and her "death" wasn't either. She did choose Makoto over herself. Why all the extra blood though? ALSO YOUR BLOOD IS SUPPOSED TO BE PURPLE.

Asahina's stab to the belly is foreshadowing Monaca's trick. It wants you to believe it's real. That one is easy.

Sonosuke dies by NG Code in a betrayal to Ruruka. He appears to be getting set on fire in the opening. I've seen speculation to this referencing Jesus's and Joan of Arc's martyrdoms. This one is tenuous other than being crucified on a giant metal cross because, blacksmith.

Seiko is impaled by a lot of hypodermic needles. She's the Ultimate Pharmacist. Moving on.

Sakakura is cut in half and there isn't any blood. Really clear: he's being killed by Munakata's katana. Less clear: maybe there's some foreshadowing to his impending amputation.

Tengan is wrapped up in wiring and appears to be getting electrocuted. I dunno Mr. Mastermind, is that a hint that you're pulling Monokuma's strings? I doubt it.

Ruruka is frozen and shattered to pieces. She's kind of a complicated character and she ends up choosing her own life over those of her best friend and the person she loves. She dies trying to convince herself that she's going to be fine and that it's going to be easy to replace what she has lost. The poet in me wants to make some connections to the coldness of her actions or how she has to break herself by the end of the game, but it could equally just be random.

Bandai appears to be covered in blood, though my first instinct was it's actually indicating blood poisoning because he's the first one to go out via NG Code. I really do think that's what it was aiming for.

Gekkogahara is cut in half vertically. There is no blood and she appears to be hollow. I've always assumed this is to foreshadow that Monaca is posing as her.

Yasuhiro is wrapped in thorny vines. He's an interesting inclusion because he's the only one that doesn't actually participate in Monokuma Hunter despite being included in the opener.

Chisa looks like her wrist is cut and there are boxcutters in the background. Obviously this indicates her suicide and it isn't surprising as the dark realization of DR3 is that she was lost a long time before anybody ever knew she was. The interesting thing is that her blood looks like it's coming from the bangle, which could be because her actions aren't really her fault.

Gozu is wrapped in chains. I think this is meant to invoke his actual death, despite it being chains instead of cables.

Mitarai is impaled by arrows. He survives the series, so this one is curious. The only reference to arrows through the rest of Danganronpa is in Mukuro's trial in Trigger Happy Havoc. Byakuya speculates that they were tied together with duct tape and used as a blunt object to knock her out. I've seen it posed that this is a reference to Tengan's chuusen and shows that he's being targeted. I heavily doubt it.

Koichi is wrapped up at his wrists, thighs, and ankles. A bandage is covering his eyes and mouth. He sacrifices himself to save Kyoko by triggering his NG Code. It seems like his hat, tie, shoes, and flask are bagged up. I like to think that's because Kyoko is present for his death, as she would be the only one focused on preserving evidence.

Last off we get Munakata and Makoto shooting themselves in the head. They're paired because they represent the directions the Future Foundation can go and their suicides are an obvious clue to the true nature of the killer in Monokuma Hunter.

[lionheartedmusings]

hey i thought your post about the moral glorification of natalie is super interesting. but what do you think about the moral glorification of lottie? by the show and the fans? the ending of s1 set her up to be this ominous figure, only for season 2 to humanize her at every turn and emphasize her good intentions. i have mixed feelings because while i do love lottie's arc this season, i can't help but wonder if we were robbed of a more morally grey lottie

thanks for enjoying the post! it had been driving me a bit insane but i'm glad it resonated! as for lottie… oh boy, buckle in because this is going to probably be long and a hard one to answer.

from the fandom's perspective, i have spent a lot of time watching the yellowjackets reddit and tumblr seems to be a lot more sympathetic to lottie's character than the sub — over there, lottie is as bad as the devil and she's a massive evil mastermind which… i vehemently disagree with. i will even go as far as to disagree that she was ever really set up to be anything other than she is: she's a teenage girl doing her best to help people keep hope, and she fully believes that her reverence and submission to the wilderness is actively doing good, so she keeps doing it.

the show has done a brilliant job with humanising every character enough that they're all (at least to me) deeply understandable and relatable in both their good moments and their bad — i'll use misty as an example for a moment. misty isn't all there before the crash and she's clearly desensitised to violence to an extent, but her destroying the black box? i understand that. i don't agree with it, but i can 1000% understand how an isolated teen got a glimpse of friendship and acceptance, and wanted to keep it going for a bit longer. in misty's mind, maybe it would take them a bit longer to be rescued (a couple weeks vs a few days) because people were looking for them —she was completely unaware of the consequences of her actions. i understand misty's actions, she just didn't think of what the ramifications of them could be... like lottie.

lottie, a mentally ill completely neglected teen, goes into the wilderness and communes (or believes she does at least) with something bigger than herself and starts listening and appeasing it... and it starts "rewarding" them, so she keeps going. she's helping, it's helping, so she pulls as many people in as she can because the more they pay respects to this entity, the bigger the chance of them surviving. she's just doing her best to help — by the time she realises that she's been made into a prophet and is being deified, it's too late to turn back, and she ultimately passes (or tries to, i definitely don't think it'll stick) the power off to someone else who she hopes will do a better job.

but the interesting thing is, her actions directly lead to the escalation of violence and the ritualisation of their survival — it's her faith that leads the others down the rabbit hole and regardless of good intentions, she actively starts a religion that ends up being one of cannibalism and blood. how do you analyse the morality of it? i think teen lottie herself would see herself as a villain, if her suicidal ideation and martyr complex are anything to go by.

adult lottie is, i think, set up to be a lot more morally grey by the show — she's pulled back into this way of thinking by travis, and she spirals further when natalie arrives at the compound (the cult-like society she created to try and help people, the same way she couldn't help her friends twenty years ago, because lottie's a character about cycles more than anything else). she's the one who suggests a submission to the wilderness again, it's her actions that lead to the hunt and to natalie's death, but in the end in her delusion she thinks it will all have been for a good reason (keeping van alive, which is a whole other can of worms i don't have time to unpack).

when did lottie go from a teenager horrified by the consequences of her actions, to a grown woman who sees death as vindication? in the wilderness it was a coping mechanism, but adult lottie is fully aware that the line between the wilderness and their actions is very blurred — when did that happen?

i think seasons 3 forward are going to have us see a much more morally grey lottie, but up until now i think her characterisation makes a lot of sense because it establishes intention vs. consequence very very well, and it allows us to do what the girls couldn't do in the 90s — see lottie matthews as a person and not some prophet or messiah, so we can now see how the well-meaning and kind go down the rabbit hole of fanaticism to the point of seeing death as a bargaining chip they can actively play all to justify the horrors they've caused so far.

her characterisation is about the deterioration of lottie's character and thinking, and you have to rise characters up to let them fall. now, i support all her rights and her wrongs but by god, is lottie a wildly interesting character with a lot more layers and thought than she's usually given.

i'm so sorry this turned into... this.