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strwbmei · 10 months ago

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Matchup Event

Matchup for: @woman-simp

Matchups: Elysia, Lisa, Kokomi

Contains: maybe ooc, fluff, nsfw, alcohol consumption (lisa), mommy kink (lisa), impact play (lisa), whipping (lisa), tentacles (kokomi), guided masturbation (elysia), phone sex (elysia), underwater date (kokomi), possessive sex (kokomi), cunningilus (kokomi), marking (kokomi), dacryphilia (kokomi)

A/N: So, so sorry for taking so long! I think this is the longest thing I've written. I hope you like it!

Elysia

╰┈➤ SFW ;

: ̗̀➛ You two are so different, yet so similar at the same time! You complete each other's flaws in all of the best ways, and neither of you can imagine a life without the other.

: ̗̀➛ As much as Elysia wants to wrap herself around you and cling to you at any chance, she's very understanding with your boundaries when it comes to that sort of stuff. Besides, it'll only make your shows of affection that much more meaningful— or so, Elysia says.

: ̗̀➛ She'll definitely be holding your hand 24/7, though! Elysia would either drag you to every interesting thing she sees (mostly boutiques and small food stalls on the street) or squeeze your hand tightly if you're getting overwhelmed by crowds or loud noises.

: ̗̀➛ Elysia doesn't mind when you act "mean" to her. She can easily see through what you're doing, and in fact, she thinks it's cute! She'll act all dramatically hurt, but that's really only one of her many ways to "trick" you into giving her a kiss to make up for what you did.

: ̗̀➛ Whenever you're talking about your interests, Elysia is torn. She just can't decide if she should learn about them to match your enthusiasm or stay uninformed because you are extremely attractive in her eyes whenever you're explaining something you're passionate about.

Dates with Elysia are... spontaneous, to say the least. Most of the time, neither of you are prepared nor do you have anything planned. You and Elysia are just walking aimlessly, stopping across anything that piques your interest.

: ̗̀➛ You don't need to worry about cuddles— Elysia will gladly provide as much of them as you want, and more! She was a bit shy about it when you two first started dating, but now, you've accepted your fate as her personal pillow to hug, lay on, and hold as much as she wishes.

Even on your first date, you were only spending time together as usual before the elf suddenly asked you out. You had no time to prepare, but you would never refuse her. "Ooh, look! I didn't know they had such a cozy cafe in this part of the city!" Elysia suddenly exclaimed, hurriedly speed-walking to what seemed to be a small, homey coffee bar with your hand in hers. Before she can even reach the cafe, she's already talking about going there for your next date until she spots a small stall on the side of the road offering tarot card readings. And then someone selling animal balloons. And then a cute cat. It doesn't take much time until you're getting dragged from place to place. Elysia is like a small kid walking into a store with all of the toys they could only ever dream of, and you have to admit, seeing her all excited has your heart racing and blood rushing to your cheeks.

It's like she's seeing the world for the first time. And it is when she's with you— your presence somehow makes the world that much more of a positive and colorful place in her eyes. Normally, you'd be tired out of your mind from running around so much— and frankly, this is probably the most you've walked in a single day— but Elysia somehow manages to make even the most draining and mundane things enjoyable. You can't imagine wanting to spend your life with anyone else.

╰┈➤ NSFW ;

: ̗̀➛ Elysia is surprisingly more on the vanilla side. Sex for her is more about being vulnerable and open and showing your love for each other. Still, that doesn't mean she doesn't have any kinks.

: ̗̀➛ She's mostly into overstimulating and/or edging, whether she's the one receiving or giving. Being able to give and take away her partner's pleasure as she wishes gives her such a power trip. You're just so cute, all teary-eyed as you beg her to make you cum like you know she can easily do.

: ̗̀➛ Elysia isn't cruel at all, though! Sure, being edged for hours on end might burn, but she somehow makes the orgasm you'll feel by the end of it make all of it worth it.

: ̗̀➛ On that note, Elysia isn't much of a fan of rough sex. She wants to feel loved and safe during it, and she wants the same for you as well. The last thing she'd want is to hurt her precious sweetheart. Light choking and slapping are definitely on the table, though.

: ̗̀➛ Oh, and if you happen to mention that you'd let her use you any way she wants? Good luck because there's no way Elysia would have any need to masturbate when she has such a pretty girl willing to service her on those nights when she wants you most.

: ̗̀➛ Expect endless praise while you're having sex. You're just so beautiful and pretty and gorgeous in her eyes, and Elysia just can't shut up about it! It's not even a conscious decision— she's merely saying whatever comes to her mind.

For the first time in your relationship, Elysia is away. Far, far away.

Her job had an emergency and required her to travel for a week. It took many "fights" (aka Elysia refusing to leave your side, even going as far as to offer to somehow fit you inside of her suitcase), but you finally managed to convince her that what she wanted just wasn't possible.

It's only a week, after all. You've survived a decade or two being single; one week away from your lover isn't going to kill you. Or so, that was what you thought. As much as you didn't want to admit it, you had gotten used to her beaming smile greeting you first thing in the morning. Your days don't seem complete without her by your side. You were missing her. Badly. Hearing her voice only made you miss her touch even more, and the elf was quick to pick up on that. What you had intended to be an innocent phone call quickly turned into Elysia telling you with her voice smooth as honey how to finger yourself. "That's it, pretty girl... You're doing so well for me, aren't you?" You nod, even though you're aware that Elysia can't see with the camera's position. As your fingers start speeding up, she can tell you're close to orgasm. "Turn the phone up, hm? Let me see your face as you cum." As your facial expression contorted with pleasure, Elysia wouldn't want anything more than to come home right this second and give you orgasm after orgasm. Being able to make you cum without even touching you might just be her proudest achievement. "I miss you so bad, baby... I'll make it up to you ten- no, a hundredfold when I get home." She sighs. With most people, you'd think this would be an exaggeration, but Elysia isn't just "most people." She's completely serious, and you know that she's more than capable of fulfilling that promise. Just a few more days. A few more days, and you'll be able to spend as much time together as you want. After all, you missed her too.

Lisa

╰┈➤ SFW ;

: ̗̀➛ This librarian thinks you're the cutest little thing in the world, and she doesn't hide it in the least. Your walk? Lovely. Your sneeze? Adorable. Your eyes? Absolutely delightful.

: ̗̀➛ Lisa isn't crazy for cuddles, but whenever the two of you sleep in the same bed, she's the type to pull you back in for them as soon as you try to get up. If you're a morning person, that's too bad because you don't have any choice but to stay huddled up with her until she eventually decides to wake up.

: ̗̀➛ She calls you a bunch of terms of endearment, mostly using "cutie," "sweetheart," or "darling." At first, this was only Lisa's way of showing her love, but after seeing your flustered reactions, she practically abuses these just to see you blush. She knows the effect she has on you and she takes full advantage of it.

: ̗̀➛ Whatever you're interested in, Lisa is knowledgeable about. She'll easily match how fast you're talking, as she's also just as excited as you are. Conversations where she can talk about these niche topics are rare, and it can't get much better than having them with her favorite person.

: ̗̀➛ Afternoon tea is Lisa's way of rewarding herself with a few minutes of leisure, and she always has them alone. Her inviting you to join her is basically her telling you that just you being there is enough to put her at ease. She'll often play with your hair, running her fingers through your scalp while reading a book.

: ̗̀➛ Lisa prefers to keep her desk mostly clean other than a some books and a tea set, but over time it's gotten filled with all the little gifts and trinkets you've given her. Now there are flowers that she takes very good care of and a framed picture of you two that she can't help but smile at.

Being the more quiet and introverted type, Mondstadt's library seemed to be the perfect place to relax. There are little to no people, and occasionally, you could hear who you assumed to be the librarian humming almost inaudibly from the restricted section.

Whether you're into reading or not, there was nothing quite like listening to the soft voice of this mystery woman. It was hauntingly beautiful, as was her appearance itself.

Lisa was attracted to you, and she made that obvious with every chance she got. It didn't take long before she just decided to outright ask you out to dinner.

You were curious where she'd take you as there aren't many options in Mondstadt, but you didn't expect her to invite you to her house. Most of all, you didn't expect her to take you there as soon as you said yes, but hey, it's not like you have anything better to do anyway. At least, nothing better than having dinner with such a gorgeous woman. Her house is almost as elegant as she is with the classy, yet also cozy furniture along with the relaxing ambient lighting. It's not very organized, but she keeps it clean. The whole place, down to the smell (which was very good, by the way) just screamed Lisa. She'd do mostly everything by herself like lighting the candles and setting up the table, but she'd gladly accept help for the more complicated and time-consuming tasks like cooking. The food is great, and the atmosphere is romantic. You're honestly surprised since Lisa doesn't seem to be the type to put this much effort into dates. Or anything, for that matter. Even her table manners are perfect down to the smallest details. "The night is long. Allow me to use this time to get to know you better, sweetheart." Lisa smiles, pouring you a glass of finely aged wine. As you see your own reflection in the glass, you get the feeling that tonight is going to change the direction of your life.

╰┈➤ NSFW ;

: ̗̀➛ Oh, she's freaky freaky. Instead of asking what she's into, it'd be better to ask what she isn't. She's dominant both during sex and outside of it.

: ̗̀➛ Lisa can be gentle, especially if it's your first time, but if she knows that you can take it then you will take it. Expect to wake up with your body littered with whip marks and hickeys. She generally tries to avoid spots that often show, though.

: ̗̀➛ She'll combine the dirtiest words with the sweetest voice, teasing you for being so filthy and desperate while calling you her sweet angel. She loves seeing your mind turn into mush from the mixture of praise and degradation.

: ̗̀➛ Has a huge mommy kink. Calling Lisa that is a surefire way to get her to bring you to the bedroom and fuck you. Or any surface and location works, really. She's not picky.

: ̗̀➛ Doesn't use strap-ons much. Lisa thinks they're a hassle to put on. She's more than capable of making you squirt with a few careful movements of her tongue and fingers anyway. If anything, she'd much rather use a double-ended dildo or make a strap using her electro vision.

: ̗̀➛ She's an absolute god at aftercare. Massages, refreshments, a fresh bath... anything you can think of, Lisa is prepared to provide, especially after a particularly rough session. You somehow end up feeling lighter and more energized than you did before having sex.

"Already so wet for me, and we haven't even gotten started yet." Lisa chuckles darkly, whipping your ass. The pain makes you yelp and arch your back even more.

As much as you want to grip the sheets, your hands are bound together tightly behind your back. All you can do is squirm and whine helplessly in Lisa's grasp, and you love it. She knows that you do.

"Yeah? You enjoy being a filthy whore for Mommy?" Soft hands gently rub over the spot she had just whipped almost apologetically, until she harshly slaps the same area.

Her free hand grabs onto your hips, and you hear electricity crackling behind you. You don't have to look to know what she's going to do next.

"Do you want it inside of you?" Lisa asks, her tone almost mocking. It's more of an order rather than a question, really. She already knows what your answer is going to be, she just wants to make you beg for it.

"Please, Mommy... I swear I'll be your good girl, so plea- mmpf...!" Your words turn into a moan as you feel the tip rub against your clit, electricity coursing throughout your whole body.

"So cute when you beg all nice for me..." Lisa coos. Her strap is warm and big, the electro making it feel as if it were vibrating as it bullies itself inside of you.

"You know that Mommy can't resist cute little bunnies like you."

Kokomi

╰┈➤ SFW ;

: ̗̀➛ You two are the type of couple to generally just enjoy each other's company, no matter what you're doing. There's no need for words, just your mere presence is enough to provide her with respite.

: ̗̀➛ That said, Kokomi shoulders a lot of responsibility as both the Divine Priestess and supreme leader of Watatsumi Island, often leading to her spending an ungodly amount of hours working. She's very apologetic about not being able to spend much time with you, and she appreciates it a lot whenever you visit her in her office. You often end up massaging her shoulders as she takes a much-needed break.

: ̗̀➛ If Kokomi has the time, she'd much rather take a stroll through Watatsumi Island with you. Taking in the beautiful scenery and clearing her mind with you by her side is no doubt her favorite way to relax after a hard day's work.

: ̗̀➛ Like you, she's not big on PDA in public— just for different reasons. Kokomi is aware that she may have enemies lurking in the shadows even after the Shogun's Vision Hunt Decree, and she doesn't want her beloved to get hurt because of her selfishness.

: ̗̀➛ If you're feeling down or tired, Kokomi would make little water replicas of your favorite animals and sea creatures. Sometimes, she'll even make them do little tricks to cheer you up. It's hard to control her vision so precisely, but it's all worth it once she sees your eyes light up again.

: ̗̀➛ The biggest reason why Kokomi fell in love with you was because you don't put her on a pedestal like everybody else. They always expect her to be able to do mostly anything when in reality, she's just a normal girl. Her hands also shake whenever she's about to give a speech, and she also sometimes feels like giving up whenever she sees the pile of work on her desk. It's only with you that she can be vulnerable because only you see her for who she truly is.

"Lian," Kokomi called out to you, rubbing a pattern of soothing circles onto the back of your hand. "Don't worry. Everything will be alright." Her voice gives you the courage to open your eyes once more, and you're met by the sight of all of the sea creatures you thought you'd only be able to dream of seeing this close. The whole experience was like something from a fairy tale with how magical it was.

Kokomi loves listening to you talk about the things you're passionate about! She's always eagerly paying attention and taking note of everything you say, already thinking of date and gift ideas. Hence why she had this idea for your first date. As Kokomi stepped into the water, it separated and diverged as if to make way for her. "Shall we?" She turned to face you, offering her hand. You don't know what you were expecting when she asked to meet by the shore, but it wasn't this. Still, you believed in Kokomi. You always have and you always will. The smile she wore at this moment was different from all the forced ones during those business meetings you know she loathed. It was a smile that, without any words, told you only one thing: "Trust me." You take her hand. The water formed a bubble around the two of you as she led you further into the sea. It didn't take long until the two of you were completely underwater.

You take a deep breath, squeezing your eyes shut. Honestly, you were scared, but as long as you had Kokomi by your side, you knew that you'd be safe. She wouldn't let you come to harm.

Bioluminescent jellyfish lit up the waters. Sunlight shone through the surface of the sea, its light dispersing to make everything look that much more beautiful. Resplendent corals decorate the sea floor beneath you. Soon after, a school of the most colorful fish you've seen started swimming circles around you two. The bubble you were in felt like it was in a different world, and with how you felt like this moment was the only thing that mattered, it may as well have been. Kokomi takes out a pearl necklace and speaks, her voice filled with utmost devotion and love, "Will you give me a chance to make you happy, my dearest?"

╰┈➤ NSFW ;

: ̗̀➛ Dominant switch, mostly tops. Sex with her is always about intimacy and/or claiming each other rather than just for pleasure, though that's also a big part of it. She's the definition of the phrase "treat her like a princess, fuck her like a whore."

: ̗̀➛ Lots of kissing and hand holding during it. It doesn't exactly give the two of you more pleasure per se, but she finds her hands seeking out yours to intertwine fingers. Both of you are much better at communicating through actions than words, anyway.

: ̗̀➛ If you make her jealous, you better start praying to Orobashi that you'll keep your ability to walk. Kokomi knows very well what the limits of humans are, and she's more than capable of bringing you to its very edge. This woman might look cute, but she is not to be underestimated.

: ̗̀➛ Tentacles. For everything. Restraints? Yes. Gags? Sure. Penetration? As long as you're up to it. She's particularly into tying you up with them: tight enough so you can't get away, but loose enough so she can still watch you struggle helplessly.

: ̗̀➛ She's probably the most sadistic out of everyone on this list. Kokomi doesn't want to hurt you physically, but whether she's topping or not, she'll edge or overstimulate you to the point you're crying for mercy. Seeing tears run down that pretty face of yours just does something to her.

Slimy, translucent tentacles wrap themselves around your arms and legs, effectively immobilizing you. For some reason, the grip they have on you feels... rougher than usual.

Kokomi walks towards you with a smile, but it's neither warm nor inviting. If anything, it was similar to a predator looking down upon its prey. Sensing something was off, you were about to ask when a tentacle covers your mouth.

"Shh... I'm sorry, my love, but I need this." Your legs are spread involuntarily, and she brings herself face to face with your weeping cunt. A messy mixture of kisses and bites are left along your thighs before she dives her tongue head first into your folds, lapping you up like a starved man.

You want so badly to close your legs, but you can't. You can't even moan her name. You can't do anything. All you can do is let out muffled moans and cry as you're helplessly brought to orgasm after orgasm.

Really, she feels bad for this. Kokomi trusts you, but she just needs to convince herself that you're hers. That only she can make you squirt until you genuinely feel like you're going to pass out if you cum one more time.

That doesn't mean she doesn't enjoy it, though.

#strwb event #strwb smut #strwb fluff #honkai impact #genshin impact #smut #x reader #elysia x reader #elysia smut #lisa x reader #lisa smut #kokomi x reader #kokomi smut

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loving-family-poll · 2 days ago

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Welcome to the 2nd annual Ultimate Incest Tournament!

Heeeeeeere are our matchups for this year! (Some disclaimers: I swear to GOD that spn v homestuck in round 1 is just what the generator put and I left it like that because I thought it was funny as fuck. I also swear that samjohn was the most popular spn ship submitted which surprised me too ok don't go accusing me of leaving deanjohn out on purpose. Anyway.) These 32 lucky ships will get to chance to fight for the prize!

Accepting propaganda for any of these ships, drop your argument for your favs in my inbox within the next few days and it can make it onto the poll! Polls open sometime soon idk I'm busy. I guess tomorrow hopefully I want to get this thing going before Christmas because that would be funny. I also guess I should start with Jesus' branch lmao

I'm so sorry if your ship didn't make it, I really appreciate all the submissions. Happy shipping!

#incest poll #tournament polls #tumblr polls

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exyrpf · 9 months ago

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Exyblr Dashboard Simulator based on what I personally see on sportsblr:

2/?

📜 realexyblog

haiku because exy is back:

GOD, why are my teams

SO fucking bad at exy?

FUCK this FUCKING sport.

#and i watch sports for why? entertainment? no way

243 notes

♛ queen-of-exy

I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG! KEVIN DAY IS A QUEEN SHES LITERALLY A QUEEN ITS ON HER FACE

💃fox-me-up follow

queen on the court, pillow princess on the mattress amiright

♛ queen-of-exy

ive never felt more understood, I am kissing you w tongue

#marry me tumblr user fox me up

411 notes

🌞 blonde-jeremy-knox

i'm just gonna say it. i know we're all thinking it. jeremy knox eats ass like it's his JOB.

👁 jean-mor-uhoh

babe literally no one was thinking that but i'm proud of you for speaking your truth

#we're friends but what cost. when all u talk about is jeremy knox eating ass.

31 notes

🧚 goalie-stan

#dan wilds #psu

205 notes

🌄 softkevinday follow

He lived. He served cunt. He died. He was Resurrected. Served more cunt.

#kevin day

605 notes

👸🏻 kevindazed follow

absolutely busted a fucking nut watching kevin day switch hands like that oh my god my nut was so forceful it created a new dimension.

🏳️‍🌈 gay4stickball follow

hey can i join you in that dimension

👸🏻 kevindazed follow

Sure, just bring some snacks or something

🏳️‍🌈 gay4stickball follow

hell yeah!!!!!!

#thanks youre the best do you like doritos?

197 notes

😎 foxyknoxy

the best exy team in the nation is a LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGE how many of those students even go to the games when your school is full of artists and theater kids. your student section must be wACK

😎 foxyknoxy

*sorry, 2nd best exy team in the nation

#fuck you theater kids!!!!!!!! can't even appreciate a good sport !!!!! anyway go trojans

99 notes

🙈 ittybittyminny follow

Andrew Minyard should get a little bite and chew. As a reward. Maybe a small gnaw. nomnomnom Maaaaaybe as a treat he can rip a throat out, but only if he's really really good

#only if he's REALLY GOOD and maybe tests negative for rabies but whatever you can't win em all

126 notes

🏳️‍🌈 gay4stickball follow

favourite exy rarepair????

☀️ usctrojanny

ACTUALLY !!!!! was thinking about this earlier and while ive never seen anyone talk about it.......aaron minyard and neil josten would be 👀 kinda cute???

🏳️‍🌈 gay4stickball follow

omg wait why have I never thought about guys before!!!!!!!! noooo why did you say this, i can totally see it!!!!!! Neil would probably have to lean down to kiss aaron 🥺 do u think he has ever had to lean down to kiss someone 😭

☀️ usctrojanny

And obviously, u know me, im always here for a striker/backliner matchup

🏳️‍🌈 gay4stickball follow

this is all i'm going to think about for the rest of my life now, thanks, fuck you

139 notes

👅 nastyneiljosten

I want to put neil josten in a jar and shake the jar so violently he turns into sludge and then pour a drop of that sludge on to a petri dish so I can see what kind of bacteria he produces.

🦩 exyonmymind follow

what happens to the rest of the sludge?

👅 nastyneiljosten

*sluuuuuuurp* *swallowing sounds* *sluuuurp* *gargle gargle* *more swallowing sounds* yummy yummy in my tummy

487 notes

🐋 sexyexy

headcannon that neil josten is so feral bc andrew bit him and gave him rabies so now he's a literal rabid dog

👢exyinaphonebooth follow

You can't make headcannons about real people don't be freaks

🐋 sexyexy

exy players aren't real they're my little dolls that I can put into any situations I want and you can't stop me

#thanks anyway did u know andrew minyard gave neil josten rabies

143 notes

🧸 mreow-bearcats-mreow

ARE THOSE REFS FUCKING BLIND ????????!

#exy lb

👨🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻 talk-exy-to-me

Kiss cams are only acceptable during sporting events if they zoom in on two players

🗣️ jeremyknoxes follow

ok but what if they're wearing a face mask

👨🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻 talk-exy-to-me

smash your cages together obviously, don't be a pussy #love wins

🗣️ jeremyknoxes follow

fair enough

890 notes

🌸 softexy

Andrew and Aaron Minyard

#exy #andrew minyard #aaron minyard #palmetto foxes #psu #web weave #poetry

2,040 notes

#all for the game #neil josten #kevin day #andrew minyard #aaron minyard #aftg #andreil #dan wilds #jeremy knox #once again the web weave is the most accurate part of this post #👍#exyblr

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rewrittenmha · 4 months ago

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Final Exams Arc

Okay, let's get into this.

Izuku Midoriya & Katsuki Bakugou vs All Might:

I know, I know. Just hear me out, okay?

I was absolutely going to change this matchup (@nutzgunray-lvt had brought up Momo and Izuku vs Midnight and I really loved that idea). But I did say before that some of Aizawa's worst tendencies would still be around. He thinks Izuku and Bakugou's relationship is because of both of them not being able to cooperate. This is the opportunity to teach him a well-deserved lesson.

So, I would say most things go the same. Bakugou is being a bitch uncooperative and making things harder. But once Bakugou punches him, Izuku starts to contemplate a lot.

Logically, he knows that while All Might is focused on Bakugou, he could escape. Bakugou wouldn't let All Might ignore him and he could use the cover of the smoke from the debris and Bakugou's gauntlets.

But it feels so... unheroic. He isn't supposed to run and leave his teammate behind. A true hero would stand and fight, even while facing certain death. He's not sure he could abandon his ally, it feels cowardly. Especially because Bakugou could be seriously hurt as All Might wasn't going easy on them.

Part of him argues that Bakugou wouldn't care if he was the one being beat to a pulp.

Ironically, it's Yaoyorozu who comes to mind. Izuku knows the two of them are very different, but he really does admire her rationality and planning. She would make the argument that coming back with reinforcements isn't leaving a teammate behind, it's presenting an opportunity to save them.

Izuku doesn't think he would actually be able to do this in a real situation. He wants to save people, he wants to make people smile. Has he ever made Bakugou smile?

But this isn't a real situation, is it? Maybe just this once, he didn't have to intervene.

Izuku turns around and runs for the exit, successfully escaping while Bakugou is fighting All Might alone like an idiot.

He tries to ignore the guilt he feels at what he's done and wonders if All Might is disappointed in him.

Momo Yaoyorozu & Shoto Todoroki vs Eraserhead

Honestly, as far as this fight goes, it's one of my favorites of this arc. I feel like the characterization for both of them is pretty good. They both play off one another really well.

However, the way I've had it set up, Yaoyorozu had been learning to think on her feet. So, obviously, I have to continue with that.

Unintentionally, Todoroki tries to brush Yaoyorozu aside because he thinks he can handle it without causing her harm. He admires her intelligence and proficiency with her quirk, but thinks that he could probably mange to apprehend Aizawa on his own.

Yaoyorozu vehemently protests. She acknowledges that she has hesitated before, but that this was different than the Sports Festival. She knows that she can do better if he gives her the chance.

Todoroki is taken back by this and doesn't notice Aizawa suspended from the rafters. But Yaoyorozu does out of the corner of her eye. She moves him out of the way and creates a pipe that Aizawa's capture scarf wraps around.

She can't hesitate here, she needs to act quickly. She releases the pipe and the force drives it towards Aizawa. He dodges it easily, but he was momentarily distracted which gave Yaoyorozu and Todoroki time to hide and regroup.

Once they're out of his sight, Todoroki apologizes. He tells her that he wasn't trying to make her feel inadequate, he just wasn't used to relying on others. He tells her that he thinks that she's very capable and has a high opinion of her, which was why he voted for her for class representative. He tells her he'd ready to listen to whatever plan she has.

Yaoyorozu is genuinely touched and accepts his apology. She admits that she understands how it's hard to connect and work with others and has trouble with coming off as unfriendly and unapproachable and tends to overthink too much. She actually talks about Izuku and Uraraka and how she's somewhat jealous of them because they're able to act without thinking.

So the two of them make a plan.

Yaoyorozu "ambushes" Aizawa with a smoke bomb. This doesn't work because his goggles allow him to see heat signatures (my own addition, I feel like it makes sense). She attacks him with a staff she made. She knows that she's outclassed, but manages to defend against his blows. She isn't thinking, she's fighting on instinct and she's actually managing to hold her own.

But Aizawa is more skilled and experienced. He knocks her down and captures her with his scarf. But suddenly he can't move. He looks down and sees that his feet are frozen to the ground. He turns around to attempt to find Todoroki and negate his quirk when a handcuff is clasped around his wrist.

It had been a diversion.

Yaoyorozu managed to free herself by cutting through his scarf with a dagger and cuffed him when he was focused on finding Todoroki.

(Yaoyorozu leans balance between planning and taking action while Todoroki learns how to rely on others and seem them as equals. Yay character development)

Ochako Uraraka & Yuga Aoyama vs Thirteen:

I'm keeping this mostly the same, but without Aoyama's teasing. But instead of Uraraka being embarrassed and letting go, she asks Aoyama to use his laser to momentarily blind Thirteen the minute she lets go. He does so, and Uraraka allows herself to be sucked in and propelled at Thirteen, where she takes them (referring to Thirteen neutrally because her gender hasn't been revealed at this point) down and cuffs them while they can't see.

I think I'll be keeping every other match the same. EXCEPT for Mineta and Sero versus Midnight, Sero doesn't take the fall for Mineta and Mineta falls victim to his own weakness. It's Sero who saves him and carries him to the exit.

(I changed this because I'm going to give Mineta a little bit of growth and reflection. Having him lose here means that his perversion isn't only gross, it's hindering his work as a hero and he needs to do better)

After the exam, Aizawa commends Izuku (in private) for thinking logically for once, but questions why he would leave his teammate behind because it seems unlike him. Izuku confesses that he tried to plan and work with Bakugou, but he simply wasn't listening. He figured he could save both their grades if he successfully escaped.

He feels guilty even as he says this. How can he call himself a hero if he left his teammate to suffer at the hands of a villain?

Even if it was Bakugou.

Aizawa thinks about what he's being told for a long time. He knows that Bakugou has been violent with Izuku. He had assumed that they were rivals who couldn't get along, which was why he had paired them together. He had noticed that All Might looked like he wanted to protest this arrangement, but hadn't.

All this time, he had thought Izuku was part of the problem. But there was a bruise on the kid's cheek even though he hadn't sustained any injuries from All Might. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened.

And suddenly he feels guilty for not nipping this in the bud sooner.

Aizawa tells Izuku not to worry about it and that he had done the right thing. Then, he goes to confront All Might. He asks All Might what the real nature of Izuku and Bakugou's relationship is. All Might doesn't want to tell Aizawa for three reasons: a) it was Izuku's business not his, b) he didn't want Aizawa to accuse him of favoritism again and give Izuku and even harder time, and c) he didn't have the full truth himself, just speculation.

(I initially wrote this to be an argument, but I feel like All Might probably wouldn't argue with Aizawa. Plus, he feels guilty about not addressing this sooner)

Aizawa feels like an asshole (he is), but decides that he's going to try to do better by Izuku and all of his students.

RESULTS:

Yuga Aoyama: PASS

Mina Ashido: FAIL

Tsuyu Asui: PASS

Tenya Iida: PASS

Ochako Uraraka: PASS

Mashirao Ojiro: PASS

Denki Kaminari: FAIL

Eijiro Kirishima: FAIL

Koji Koda: PASS

Rikido Sato: FAIL

Mezo Shoji: PASS

Kyoka Jirou: PASS

Hanta Sero: PASS

Fumikage Tokoyami: PASS

Shoto Todoroki: PASS

Toru Hagakure: PASS

Katsuki Bakugou: FAIL

Izuku Midoriya: PASS

Minrou Mineta: FAIL

Momo Yaoyorozu: PASS

Bakugou is pissed when the results are announced. He rages, demanding to know why worthless Deku passed and he didn't. Izuku is also shocked (and guilty, because he had assumed escaping would secure both their grades. He wouldn't have done it if he had known Kacchan would fail too!). But Aizawa silences Bakugou with a nasty glare.

He reprimands Bakugou, telling him he had warned him about acting irresponsibly. Not only had he refused to cooperate and put himself in unnecessary danger, but he had assaulted his teammate. Aizawa bluntly tells him that a strong quirk isn't everything and that he can't act however he wants and still get his way in life. Reality would force him to face more severe consequences unless he gets his act together.

(Despite this, Izuku still feels like he should have failed too. He had abandoned his teammate, wasn't that the opposite of being heroic?)

Aizawa announces that everyone will be going to the training camps (there was no logical ruse because that shit is dumb and canon Aizawa doesn't know any other ways to teach).

While gathering allies to form the League of Villains, Tomura is introduced to two candidates: Himiko Toga and someone who introduces himself as Dabi. They both sought the League out because of Stain.

(Also, I just confirmed that Dabi did not have a notable record prior to joining the LOV. Keep that in mind)

This pisses Tomura off. He hates Stain for turning him down and doesn't understand his ideals. Society was wrong and heroes were two-faced liars who perpetuated it. Why not wipe out everything? Why not destroy it all? He expresses this to the new candidates.

Dabi rolls his eyes and calls Tomura an idiot without a real cause. He doesn't care about what or who gets destroyed, but he admires Stain because he spoke out against false heroes. He claims that false heroes are the real blunder on society and if they can be purged, humanity might get their shit together.

Toga doesn't talk about false heroes, but she does want a world where everyone can be accepted no matter what he quirk is. She wants to be herself and have people to accept and care about her. She felt a kinship with Stain because of the similarities in their quirks and thought that the League would accept her because of this.

Tomura is frustrated because he doesn't understand what the hell these people are talking about. He tries to kill them and they go to defend themselves only for Kurogiri to intervene. He tells Tomura that he needs all the forces he can get and that maybe he should actually listen to what these two have to say.

Grumbling, he goes to the mall to clear his head.

This happens to be when 1A also goes to the mall to prepare for the training camps. Izuku, Iida, Uraraka, Tsu, and Yaoyorozu form a small group as they look for things to buy. Yaoyorozu's made an itinerary and hands everyone a list of basic necessities. The girls break off from the boys, wanting to see if they can find more comfortable clothes to wear.

Iida expresses his gratitude to Izuku, not for saving him, but for showing him what it means to be a hero. Izuku blushes and stutters, telling Iida he really doesn't need to thank him. Especially because he doesn't think he did the right thing during the final exam. He confesses what happened to Iida and that he feels like he betrayed his morals.

But Iida assures him that he didn't do anything wrong. Bakugou was risking both their grades and was never in any actual danger. Izuku says that even so he should have tried harder. Iida's quiet for a moment, then asks Izuku how he feels about Bakugou.

Izuku is confused by the question. He admires Bakugou's strength and dedication. What more is there? Why is Iida asking him this?

But before he can say that, a hooded figure shows up and starts touching Izuku (stranger danger) while expressing how much of a fan he was. He goes on and on about how he was so cool during the Sports Festival and facing Stain (chronic yapper). Both Izuku and Tenya are tense, especially when the stranger reveals that he didn't think they would meet again.

They both realize at the same time that the man is Tomura Shigaraki, the one who led the attack on the USJ.

Iida immediately moves to do... something (attack? Call for help? He doesn't know!) only to watch with horror as Shigaraki's fingers close around Izuku's neck, leaving his middle finger off him.

Shigaraki tells both of them to calm down unless they want Izuku to die. But Izuku assures Iida that it doesn't matter if he dies, he just wants him to stop Shigaraki. If he makes a scene, the heroes will show up. However, Shigaraki tells them that he'll kill everyone he can before the heroes get there if either of them draw any attention. Iida wasn't planning on risking it anyway.

Shigaraki tells them that the Hero Killer is bugging him. Both of them are confused; they assumed that Stain was working with him. Shigaraki tells them that wasn't the case and that he's jealous of all the attention Stain is getting. He doesn't understand the difference between them.

Iida asks what Shigaraki's goal is. He hates Stain, but he knows that Stain had a goal. One that might not have been as baseless as he originally thought. His brother, who he had thought was a virtuous, noble hero had done something wrong. If he was right about Tensei, wasn't it possible that he was right about all of them?

Shigaraki answers that he wants to destroy everything.

Izuku says that's why he isn't getting any attention. He had been thinking a lot about Todoroki and what he had told him about Endeavor. If the #2 hero was that bad, what were other heroes getting away with? How much did society overlook about someone just because they were strong? It's hard for him to admit through his admiration for heroes, but he thinks Stain made some sort of sense. He tells Shigaraki that Stain had a goal and a reason for doing things, while Shigaraki causes destruction for no reason. Izuku doesn't agree with what Stain does, but his ideals make some sort of sense.

Izuku tells Shigaraki that he suspects that Stain wants to fix things about society and that correlates to killing false heroes. He doesn't understand how quite yet, but he assumes him and All Might were spared because they put others first. They were "true heroes," according to Stain.

(He really doesn't feel like a true hero after what happened in the final exam. He feels like a fake)

Shigaraki thinks about his answer. He thinks about what Toga and Dabi said. He knew society was wrong, Sensei had always told him that. But he had always said the answer was destroying it and Tomura had always agreed.

But fixing it? He doesn't understand the point of that. Tomura had never fixed anything in his life. He had always just destroyed and killed whatever irked him, whatever made him angry. And Sensei had encouraged it. He's a villain and he had never denied that. He doesn't want to fix anything.

He just wants to destroy it.

Didn't he?

But Stain's goals seemed to get attention. He could use that to his advantage. Then everyone would have to pay attention to him. He could make Stain's followers his own. Starting with those two fools who followed him so devoutly.

The girls return. Uraraka and Yaoyorozu ask who their friend is, but Tsu instantly realizes who it is. She had been a second away from dying at his hand. She could never forget that face. She freezes, which makes the other two girls realize something is wrong. They demand that Shigaraki let go of Izuku.

Shigaraki chuckles and does as they say. He thanks Izuku and Iida for the help and leaves, warning them not to follow. Izuku asks what All For One is after, to which Shigaraki replies he has no idea. He then tells Izuku to worry about himself because he'll kill him next time they meet.

Once he's gone, Uraraka frantically asks what happened and if they're alright while Yaoyorozu tends to Tsu who's gone pale. Uraraka calls the police while Iida tries to shake Izuku who's unresponsive.

He can't bring himself to respond to his friends. All he can think about is how he was going to stop Shigaraki and All For One before they can hurt more people

Notes:

Aizawa redemption anyone?? He's going to be a better teacher from here on out. Still an asshole, but his goal is going to be actively working to improve his students. Letting Bakugou's behavior go unchecked to where he felt comfortable attacking his teammate was the wake-up call he needed

I intentionally didn't have All Might talk to Izuku. He's still grappling with his own views about heroics at the moment and he suspects that Bakugou is a bully, so it doesn't occur to him that Izuku might thing he was disappointed in him. They're both really bad communicators

It was a weird choice on Horikoshi's part to make Sero pay for Mineta's shortcomings. He could have used this to address Mineta's actions, instead he more or less rewards it. Feels like something he does a lot with Mineta (he also did it during the JTA), which is part of the reason why he's so hated

I swear Uraraka is so much more enjoyable as a character when you take away her crush on Izuku. Rewriting this damn story is reigniting my love for her

So, Shigaraki. What I'm doing here is trying to a) give him agency and b) have him overcome AFO's manipulations. Shigaraki's hatred of heroes and society comes from AFO taking advantage of what happened that night he killed his family. These aren't Shigaraki's real feelings, he doesn't have enough agency to have real feelings at this point. My changes here were to a) give him a real goal and b) show that he and Izuku are kind of coming to terms with the same thing. That's also why I steered away from him wanting to kill All Might, I want their interaction to be driven away from their mentors. They're kind of coming to the same conclusions, but on opposite spectrums

I kept Iida around because I wanted him to also reflect on Stain and Tensei. Also, he's a good friend

I know it might feel OOC to have Izuku leave Bakugou. I felt weird writing it. But this is supposed to be representative of a few things. Izuku's views are changing and evolving. He's being affected by the people around him, most noticeably Momo who's kind of his opposite here. He knew he wasn't ready to fight All Might and knew it was pointless to get Bakugou to cooperate. He was thinking objectively and allowed himself to do so because it was a school assignment and not real life (he wouldn't be able to do this in a real situation). It also isn't a coincidence that this happened after Bakugou punched him. He's coming to terms with how much Bakugou's treatment has affected him over the years. After all that's happened- his friends' and All Might's concerns- Izuku is beginning to separate himself from Bakugou, even if he hasn't realized it yet. This is actually what Iida was going to suggest was happening before Shigaraki showed up

Dabi is way closer to being morally ambiguous than an outright villain here. I mean, in my opinion, that's how he was originally. Him and Toga are both following Stain's ideals more closely, although Toga doesn't really understand them to the same extent (I noticed that Shigaraki seemed to assume that Toga didn't actually care about Stain's goals despite admiring him but didn't include Dabi in that. It implies that his goals always aligned more closely with what Stain wanted. Horikoshi why did you ruin him)

#mha rewrite #bnha critical #mha critical #anti bakugou katsuki #aizawa critical #izuku deserves better #long post

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hotvintagepoll · 10 months ago

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Welcome to the HOT AND VINTAGE MOVIE STARS tournament! We are now finished with the Hot & Vintage Men Tournament; The Hot & Vintage Movie Women Tournament is ongoing. Submissions for hot vintage women are now closed, but we are accepting propaganda for those already in the bracket.

Round 1 of the Hot & Vintage Women Tournament began with 540 hot women in prelims. Round 1 starts Saturday, March 2nd, with posts going up over several days. All polls—including ongoing polls, previous rounds, old tournaments, the various shadow brackets, and fun mini polls—can be found in the #hotvintagepoll tag. Every poll in the Hot & Vintage Women Tournament will be tagged with the hot woman in it if you need to search for a hot woman in particular.

FAQs:

“Where is [my favorite hot woman]?” It depends. Are all the Round 1 polls up yet? Have you checked all the polls in the tag? Have you done a tag search for her? If you still haven’t found her, either nobody submitted her or she did not fit the criteria of being a movie woman from 1910-1970.

“Can I still submit hot women?” No, the submission window has closed. Please do not send in women you wish had made it into the bracket. I can’t do anything with those asks and they just make me sad.

“I have additional propaganda for the hot women!” Great! Send me an ask or reblog the poll and add your propaganda to it. If you see a separate post that relates to your hot woman, like a fancam or a gifset, you can tag me in it. I don’t boost all the propaganda I see or receive, but I try to boost the best of the best.

If you’re submitting propaganda for your hot lady, I don’t accept propaganda that’s from beyond the end of this tournament’s era (ie don’t send me pics of them from before 1910 or after 1970). I also don’t accept propaganda of TV appearances unless it’s clearly a cameo where they’re playing themselves. If you have a TON of photos to submit, please send a few asks instead of one long one. I watch every video I receive so I can add trigger warnings, so please don't send long videos—I don't have time to review them.

I don’t post or boost negative propaganda about any hot woman. If you really hate that a certain hot woman is winning, send me positive propaganda for their hot opponent. If you think a hot woman shouldn’t even be included in the tournaments because of scummy things she did in her lifetime, please read my take on it here.

If I see repetitive, trolling, and/or bigoted remarks in the comments, I may block you from this bracket. If you want to point out a hot woman’s flaws or misdemeanors, that’s fine, but if I see consistent bad-faith trolling, you will be blocked.

The views expressed in the propaganda are not my own. I don’t submit my own propaganda, and I don’t change what’s submitted beyond fixing spelling mistakes. If you hate a poll bio or a pic, let me know and send me something I can use instead. Thoughtless bitching will get blocked.

"Where are the hot men?" Most of them are in the shadow realm! Toshiro Mifune was crowned the winner of the Hot & Vintage Men Tournament, and the rest were banished where the sun never shines. You can find all the round 1 matchups here (thank you @markwatnae!), or you can search the archive by tag to find out more about what happened to all the different hot men.

"Why didn't my propaganda make it into the poll post?" Either I couldn't open the link, or there was so much submitted I could only pick a few. Because this tournament is so much bigger than the Hot & Vintage Men one, I'm limiting propaganda to 5 pics per hot lady for Round 1. I know, a bummer! I have to do it this way to keep myself sane. If you have a photo you really want the world to see, follow the propaganda guidelines above.

“My FAQ isn’t on here :(” send me an ask! I love hearing from you guys—just please check these basics first.

Thank you for being here! Enjoy the tournament.

#ladies 1 #new masterpost!#this has some new guidelines so please give it a skim #housekeeping

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elyvorg · 1 year ago

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Kieran Part 1: It’s All About Strength

I’m a longtime Pokémon fan who happily plays through every mainline game, but I’ve never been more than mildly fond of the occasional character here and there, because Pokémon isn’t much for deep and nuanced character writing. Then I played The Teal Mask DLC and came out of it with many, many Feelings and Thoughts about Kieran – enough so that it warrants a full, juicy analysis about all of his subtleties and issues. I never expected I’d write one of these character analysis rambles of mine on a Pokémon character of all things, but here we are. Colour me surprised and impressed.

For anyone reading this in the future: this was written before The Indigo Disk came out and therefore only talks about the events of The Teal Mask. Assuming The Indigo Disk doesn’t completely drop the ball on the best character-writing job that mainline Pokémon has ever done (please; please don’t), there will probably be a Part 2 to this analysis coming in a few months. (Aaaaand here it is! But you should read this one first, of course.)

(I’ll be referring to the player character as “you” here for ease of wording, but rest assured, this doesn’t mean I’m accusing you the reader of any of the questionable ways the player character treats Kieran. I was also very annoyed at being forced to lie to him, believe me.)

His weakness, and your strength

Kieran is a kid gripped with a crushing sense of inferiority and weakness. We don’t see all of where this came from, although we get a pretty good idea of part of it – his sister. So many times when Kieran tries to protest against things and assert himself, Carmine snaps back at him for doing so. Over time, that kind of thing would have made him feel like he’s wrong for trying to stand up for himself, leading to him letting people walk all over him. I don’t want to give Carmine’s behaviour all of the blame for Kieran’s issues, though, because there’s bound to be more to it than that. I expect some of it also came from him being bullied and outcast during his time at Blueberry Academy – I hope The Indigo Disk gives us glimpses into what Kieran’s life there was like before all this.

As a result of feeling so weak and inferior, Kieran admires and idolises people he sees as strong. This becomes clear early on with how much he looks up to you just for being able to beat his sister, someone else he also sees as strong. Apparently, he couldn’t stop raving about how cool you were and how he wanted to battle you all evening back at home.

He doesn’t want you to know that, though, based on his protest when Carmine comes out and tells you so. Kieran's probably rather embarrassed for you to hear how much he idolises you, after all. He also seems to think his request for a battle would be annoying and a bother – he says “You don’t mind?” in surprise when you accept, even though asking people for battles is supposed to be just what trainers do. Why would a strong trainer like you want to waste your time battling someone weak like him?

Kieran’s comment in the battle if you land a super effective move is also very telling: “Oof, ehehe… I guess I got a lot of weaknesses…” He tries to play it off as light-hearted, but, hm, that sure is A Way for a rival character to comment on you knowing about type matchups. And he most certainly does not seem to agree with his sister when she says he’s almost as strong as her.

(Fun fact: the game actually lets you lose the first battle with each sibling while still continuing the story. If you lose to Kieran in that first battle, he assumes you were holding back against him, as if that’s the only reason he’d ever be able to beat anyone. Perhaps he’s experienced people holding back against him out of pity before – maybe Carmine used to?)

He's flustered when Carmine partners him up with you, too, even though you’re the only option that he has at least a vague rapport with now – he’s still assuming someone cool like you wouldn’t want to waste any more of your time on him than you have to. Kieran worries he’ll “get in your way” if he sticks with you, so he hangs back and stays well out of your way instead. It’s a cute way for the game to justify him not actually following you around in the gameplay even though he’s supposed to be following you according to the plot, but it also just makes perfect sense for Kieran’s character. This is a kid who constantly tries to take up as little space as possible because he’s convinced that nobody wants him around. And it’s important that he seems to feel especially this way towards the people he looks up to (with the exception of Carmine, because she’s family and he spends most of his time with her already).

Then there’s the scene where he meets Koraidon/Miraidon. At first, I assumed it was there to introduce Kieran to our lizardbike friend because they’d be relevant later somehow. But they’re not! So the only reason this scene exists at all is for the purpose of illustrating to Kieran that, in his words, “you’re special”. You are A Protagonist, capable of befriending super special, rare, strong Pokémon with ease. (Just like a certain other special legendary Pokémon you’ll be meeting soon, how about that.)

Admiring the ogre

So, as you begin the trip to visit the signboards about Kitakami’s legend, Kieran starts to open up about how much he likes the ogre. Perhaps he feels safe telling you, because you’re an outsider and won’t frown upon him for it like the locals are prone to do. He probably gets that from them a lot and has learned not to bring up the ogre in town – another thing that makes him feel left out.

Even so, Kieran starts from the angle of “it’s so strong and cool because it won one-on-three”, since that’s a more acceptable reason to like the ogre that doesn’t question the validity of the legend, and is less personal to his issues. If you agree with him that the ogre sounds cool before he’s explained why he thinks so, he responds with “I knew you’d get it!” – you, who’s also really strong and cool, would obviously recognise that same strength in the ogre right away, right?

If you’re sceptical at first instead, he stresses that “it was all alone!” and still managed to hold its own – the more personal side of the reason he likes the ogre coming out just a little. By the second signboard, Kieran’s gotten a bit more comfortable with you, enough to start touching on that more deliberately. He mentions that it’s shunned, and that he likes its strength because he admires that and wishes he could be that strong himself.

Then he invites you to see the ogre’s den, something completely unrelated to the purpose of the school trip, because he trusts you enough to feel sure that you’ll get what he’s trying to illustrate about the ogre there. He points out that it seems like a lonely, miserable place to live, and that he’d happily let the ogre stay at his house if it wanted. He’s not quite explicitly saying so, but Kieran clearly empathises with the ogre because he relates to that kind of loneliness. Though he doesn’t want to outright say that the legend is wrong and the ogre isn’t actually the bad guy – maybe he’s got backlash from the villagers before for suggesting it – he's got to believe that to be the case.

(I’ve seen one or two people suggest that Kieran fawning over the supposed bad guy in the legend is an early hint to his potential for darkness, but I really don’t think that’s it. There’s plenty of reason for Kieran to relate to and see the sympathetic side of the ogre in the story due to his own status as a social outcast, without it needing to be a case of “he just likes bad guys because he’s Edgy”.)

Later, at the festival, Kieran has a quiet chuckle to himself when Carmine’s talking about the Loyal Three being heroes, and says it’s funny that she doesn’t know anything about the ogre. Then he conspicuously changes the subject when she implies that it’s just that he likes edgy bad guys, because that’s not it – but at least now he has someone who does get it. Carmine mentions later that she feels Kieran is trying to one-up her about the ogre, and maybe this is true. Perhaps this is one small way in which he can privately feel superior to his sister, because he’s more right than her, or than anyone in the village, about the ogre’s true nature. And while that’s more due to luck and a large helping of projecting his own issues onto it than out of any genuine inside knowledge of the truth, Kieran is the one person who understands the ogre best.

Or, at least, he understands it best… for the most part. Because there is one very key way in which Kieran is actually thoroughly wrong about what Ogerpon is truly like.

Misunderstanding the ogre

This begins to be apparent at the second signboard, when Kieran’s gushing about the ogre’s coolness and says “it didn’t even care when everyone shunned it”. From meeting Ogerpon later, we know that this is patently not true about her – she’s terrified of humans because of how they see her, so really she hates being shunned! But Kieran doesn’t imagine that to be the case about her, even though he empathises with her presumed loneliness and is basically projecting his own onto her. He sees the ogre as somebody who is shunned and alone, like he is, but who, unlike him, is strong enough to not let it get to them. Someone in the same bad situation as him, but with strength that he only wishes he could have to deal with it.

In that same conversation at the second signboard, Kieran then goes on to talk about how his sister always does everything for him, and he’d like to become stronger and more independent and reliable. And, “then, just maybe… I could be that ogre’s friend.” As if he doesn’t think he’d deserve to be Ogerpon’s friend unless he was already strong, just like she is.

He mentions a couple of times that he comes to the Dreaded Den a lot but has never once seen the ogre, which might seem a little strange at first. Obviously Ogerpon kept well hidden from him because she’s scared of humans – but, did Kieran never try to call out to her? To tell her that he’s not afraid of her, that he admires her strength and she must be lonely and hey, maybe they could be friends? If he had, then surely over time, Ogerpon would have grown to trust him and shown herself – so apparently, Kieran never did try to call out to her in an attempt to befriend her. Because he felt he wasn’t worthy of her friendship, not when he’s so weak, so inferior to someone as strong and cool as her. (A lot like how he wouldn’t have had the courage to tell you how much he admired you, if his sister hadn’t blurted it out for him.)

While you’re visiting the den with him, Kieran assumes that “a powerful ogre like that would only show up if it heard some kinda battle”, leading to him challenging you again. Since he admires the ogre for its strength, he’s assuming that the ogre also values strength just as much if not more than he does, which really isn’t necessarily true about Ogerpon!

During the battle, Kieran says he’ll “put up a good fight” this time. Which is to say, he still feels so thoroughly outclassed by you that he isn’t remotely expecting or even trying to win – he just wants to at least not go down quite as pitifully as last time, not when he’s potentially being watched by his idol the ogre. And when he loses (the game requires you to win this and all future battles against him), he laments how he’s ever going to be able to beat you, and then he muses, “If the ogre saw that battle, I’m sure it’d be thinking, ‘That kid’s got some real strength…’” He is assuming that Ogerpon would like you, far more than she’d ever like him, because of how strong you are. This is very important.

(As it happens, Ogerpon was secretly watching that battle, but as for whether she’s actually thinking what Kieran imagines she is about your strength – who knows?)

Friendship! Or is it…?

By the end of the den visit, Kieran has just enough confidence to invite you to the Festival of Masks, and to his own house to get ready to go together, which there’s no way he’d have been able to do at the start of the day. He’s so surprised but thrilled to hear that you consider yourself his friend – based on that and his grandparents’ reactions, you’re likely the first friend he’s ever made, which would not be surprising. It’s lovely watching this shy but sweet kid actually smiling and feeling comfortable around you and happy to have someone he can call a friend for the first time ever. And GHHHH it is so painful in hindsight knowing where things are headed.

Even with you calling yourself his friend, though, Kieran still feels inferior to you. He dejectedly offers to give you his mask for the festival when you find yourself without one, even though it’s the ogre mask, his favourite, his thing – because he instinctively feels that if anyone should be the one who gets left out, it should be him, like always, and not you.

The whole time, Kieran’s bound to be feeling thoroughly insecure about this new friendship. The idea that he’s actually made a friend, and not least someone as cool as you, likely feels far too good to be true, more than he deserves, and I suspect he might be constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. When he mentions to Carmine that you’re coming to the festival with him, her response is vaguely evasive, and Kieran responds to that in a very prickly, defensive way. It reads to me like he thinks Carmine is jealous of him befriending you before her, and that he’s afraid she might try to take you away from him as a result. Whether that’s actually true or not isn’t really the point (I think Carmine might indeed be a little jealous, but she would not do something that deliberately malicious) – what matters is that Kieran believes this may be the case and is liable to view all further interactions with you and Carmine in that light.

Then, at the festival, Carmine pressures Kieran into playing Ogre Oustin’ even though he doesn’t really want to. She’s probably doing this in an attempt to encourage him to have fun, but since he doesn’t find it fun (because he doesn't like this game where he's pretend-killing the ogre!), it’d be easy for him to feel like she only did it because she wanted him out of the way so she could hang out with you. And it’s while Kieran’s doing that that you and Carmine meet Ogerpon without him. Of course, that’s nothing but pure unlucky bad timing – Carmine had no idea Ogerpon was about to show up – but from Kieran’s point of view, with his obvious history of being maliciously left out of things by others, it’s easy for him to feel like there was some deliberate element to it.

At first he doesn’t know it has anything to do with Ogerpon, though. But still, when he gets back from Ogre Oustin’ and asks what you two were up to, Carmine abruptly shuts you up before you can speak and is blatantly hiding something – which Kieran takes to mean that you were laughing at him behind his back. That’s something else he must get a lot, for him to be automatically assuming it’s happening here. Really not so far off from his fear that his sister’s going to try and take you away from him, either.

Carmine’s lie isn’t done out of any malice – she is genuinely trying to protect her brother from feeling bad over being left out of meeting Ogerpon – but she sure is doing so in a way that’s going to make him feel even worse over being left out on purpose once he realises the truth. Carmine does care about her brother in theory, but this girl has zero social brain cells. And we the player are forced to play along with the lie whether we want to or not, which awkwardly turns our player-insert character into a very specific kind of character who would do so. I guess they either also have zero social brain cells, or they’re kind of a doormat who’s swayed by a forceful personality like Carmine’s. This part is frustrating, but I have to accept it because of the delightful things it does to Kieran’s arc, which really is the important part here.

Learning of the lie

The next morning, it seems like Kieran’s largely managed to brush off the weird bit last night where you and his sister were maybe laughing at him behind his back, because he greets you with a smile, ready to go see the last signboard. And then Carmine… forcefully demands that he finds somewhere else to be, because you’ve got business with her. Kieran protests that it’s not fair that you’ve been spending all your time with her lately – score two for his fear that she’s trying to take you away from him – and when she snaps back at his protest like always, he runs off.

But he doesn’t run off that far, because he stays close enough to listen in on the conversation. The discussion of Ogerpon’s story goes on for long enough – and takes long enough to get to the important part – that Kieran pretty much has to have stayed to eavesdrop on purpose, which is a little sketchy of him. Still, I can’t blame him all that much, what with his background of being mistreated, and the way Carmine’s behaviour gives him ample reason to be afraid there’s something going on here – of course he’d have wanted to know for sure. Perhaps he was even trying to hope that listening in would prove that you’re not actually hiding something bad from him and he was just being paranoid.

Except that actually, it turns out the truth is so much worse than Kieran had feared. Never mind just laughing at him – you and Carmine met the ogre without him and then hid it from him as if he didn’t even deserve to know. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, it then turns out that he was right all along about the ogre being a good guy, and his own grandpa didn’t even think it was worth telling him that, and now you’re still just going to keep lying to him about it all and leaving him in the dark.

(Really, I have to side-eye their grandpa a lot more than Carmine here, because he’s a grown dang adult and has so much less excuse. He says he’ll tell Kieran the truth “when the time is right”, but what does that even mean? The “right time” would be right now! Heck, it should have been the moment he realised that Kieran had already intuited the truth!)

And all this being lied to and shunned and left out of things (like always) stings even more for Kieran because it’s coming from someone he’d thought was his friend. He’d actually dared to hope that someone – and not just anyone, someone really cool and strong – actually wanted to be friends with him? Of course that was too good to be true. Why would someone as cool and strong as you have ever wanted to befriend a weak loser like him, anyway? (After all, cool strong people only ever want to be friends with other cool strong people; that’s how it works, right?)

Probing about the lie

The correct thing for Kieran to do with this situation would have been to simply come right out and confront you about the lie. But of course he doesn’t have the courage to do that. He’s far too used to being shot down whenever he tries to assert and stand up for himself (no thanks to Carmine). And since he only learned about this because he was eavesdropping, it’s easy for him to imagine having that turned against him, and the whole situation being treated like he’s the one in the wrong for doing that.

Still, it seems like Kieran might want to at least indirectly give you the opportunity to tell him the truth. He heads off to the village shop to act like he was there the whole time, and then casually asks you what you were talking about back there. He’s maybe trying to hope that you don’t really want to lie to him and only got swept up into doing so by his sister’s forcefulness, and that you’ll tell him everything now that she’s not here, because, you said you were his friend, right? Later on, too, at the third signboard, the way Kieran brings up that his family is descended from the mask maker feels suspiciously relevant, as if he only thought to do so because he overheard the story and is trying to give you a chance to go, “Hey, speaking of that mask maker, actually…”

But no. It sure seems like you’re very deliberately choosing to keep him in the dark. As such, he’s bound to be feeling extra small and awkward at the signboard, just wanting to “get this over with” and be done spending time with you, because you clearly don’t want to waste any more of your time with him than you have to, right? The awkwardness of the third signboard photo, with Kieran obviously not wanting to be there, and your character’s very strained thumbs-up, is heartbreaking in comparison to how cute and happy the first two were.

During the conversation there, Kieran mentions the ogre being alone and treated like an outcast in a way that is very clearly also talking about how you and Carmine are treating him right now. The game pointedly lingers on his response to your comment, regardless of which dialogue option you choose. If you agree that that sounds awful, he says, “You think so too, huh?” – you think that it’s bad to treat someone that way, and yet, you sure are treating him that way anyway. If you instead mutter an awkward apology, Kieran asks, “For what?” This could read like he’s calling you out for not being able to admit to what you should be apologising for, but actually, I’m not sure that’s it. It could also be him genuinely asking that, because he doesn’t realise you need to apologise for anything. Hold this thought, I’ll go into it more in a bit.

It's because he’s weak

The other thing that happens at the third signboard is Kieran challenging you to another battle. He doesn’t really explain why, but I suspect he’s hoping that if he wins and proves his strength to you, you might just tell him the truth, or at least it’ll give him the courage to confront you about your lie. This is the first battle in which he says he wants to win and is actively trying and hoping to do so, rather than just accepting his loss before he’s even started. His optimism is pretty fragile, though, as he laments “it wasn’t supposed to go like this” if you hit him super-effectively, and “why does it have to be like this?” when he’s down to his last Pokémon.

But of course, he loses, just like he must secretly have been expecting to all along (how could he ever beat someone as strong as you?). And so he concludes, “it’s all ‘cause I’m too weak” – not just losing the battle, but everything. Why he’s always left out and shunned by everyone, why you lied to him and went behind his back about something you knew was important to him – it’s because he’s weak. He was battling you to try and prove that he’s stronger, strong enough to deserve better than that… but of course he isn’t.

A particularly important little subtlety is that he mutters “That’s why I…” – because it would have been easy to expect this line to say “you” instead. That you lied to him and shunned him because he’s weak, that it’s your fault for choosing to treat someone weak like this. But Kieran isn’t framing it that way. He’s thinking of it as his fault, simply for being weak, and that’s why he will always inevitably be treated like crap by everyone around him. As if that’s nobody else’s fault for choosing to do that, but simply the natural way of things when someone’s weak. As if he deserves this for being weak.

(So: what are you sorry for? You shouldn’t be sorry for anything; it’s his fault, isn’t it? Someone as strong and perfect as you could never be conflicted or in the wrong.)

By the end of this signboard visit, Kieran’s leaving on his own, saying that he’s got to get stronger with his Pokémon. All of this is happening because he’s weak, so he needs to be stronger – and apparently, that means “strength in Pokémon battling”. In reality, even if he did become the best battler out there, that wouldn’t necessarily make him any better at standing up for himself in social situations or being independent and reliable in other ways, but he’s very much conflating the different kinds of strength. This probably has a lot to do with his schooling at Blueberry Academy, which teaches Pokémon battling, leaving him overly focused on battling strength as the only kind of strength that matters. Perhaps he was picked on at school because he wasn’t very good at the battling classes, which wouldn’t have helped. I hope we see some glimpses of this in The Indigo Disk.

And on the topic of Kieran fixating on getting stronger at Pokémon battling: his Furret is never seen in his team again after this point. It was one of the first two Pokémon he used against you, so it’s presumably one of his closest Pokémon partners, which makes it heartbreaking that he ditches it from his team because, clearly, it’s too weak. Even worse, he’s inflicting being left out and shunned on someone else – someone he probably cared about – precisely because it’s weak. That’s just what happens to people who are weak, right? Guh. Poor Furret.

Outburst at Loyalty Plaza

Kieran most likely spends the next 24 hours alternating between fervently training as hard as he can, and stewing in his feelings of loneliness and rejection and betrayal. His grandpa mentions that he spent that night in his room after not even eating dinner, which, yeah, when he’s sharing a house with two of the people who are lying to him, not surprising. Oof. And more than just pain and betrayal, he’s got to be feeling so much anger, anger which he’s never been able to truly express, because every time he tries to stand up for himself he always gets shot down – but that only makes the suppressed anger worse.

The correct thing to do would have been for Kieran to confront everyone calmly about the lie as soon as he became aware of it. But because he couldn’t just do that, his resentment festered inside of him with no real outlet, until finally it becomes unbearable and explodes out of him and he has to do something to express it, no matter how questionable. So he steals the Teal Mask and runs off with it.

I don’t think Kieran actually has much of an idea of what he’s going to do with the mask. The one logical thing would have been to give it back to Ogerpon himself, but that can’t be his intent, because he doesn’t go anywhere near her den with it. And I highly doubt he’s planning to break it or anything like that, since he’d never do something that’d hurt Ogerpon. Really, I think he just wants you and Carmine to notice and acknowledge what he’s going through and what you’ve done to him – and if he steals the mask, you’re going to have to confront him to get it back.

He heads to Loyalty Plaza in particular because he’s conflating his own situation with Ogerpon’s. In amongst his pain and anger at the way he’s being treated, he’d have also been feeling a lot of anger at the injustice of how Ogerpon was and is treated, because he was right all along that she was never the bad guy, but she’s shunned undeservedly while the “Loyal” Three are lauded as heroes. Even though this outburst from Kieran is really all about his own situation, he makes it about Ogerpon first, because that’s easier for him to openly be angry about. He only brings up his own treatment as a comparison to how Ogerpon is treated like an outcast, as if the only way he can frame it as wrong in his head is by comparing it to something that’s definitely wrong. (After all, he deserves to be shunned because he’s weak – but Ogerpon didn’t deserve any of it, because she’s so much stronger!)

During Kieran’s outburst, Carmine blurts out an apology on realising that she’s hurt him – but Kieran basically just ignores it and continues to vent. Which tells us something interesting: that Kieran never did this out of any attempt to get you and Carmine to apologise for lying to him. If he’d wanted that, he’d have reacted in some way when Carmine did just that. So I think, in keeping with Kieran’s belief that all this is his fault for being weak, he doesn’t actually think you two need to apologise for anything. He’s lashing out because he’s angry and in pain and doesn’t know how else to deal with it, but he’s not consciously thinking that you and Carmine are in the wrong.

He’s also still holding onto the idea that you and Carmine were just laughing at him behind his back, which is of course not true, but when Carmine tries to say that, Kieran snaps back that she’s a liar. Given that she undeniably has lied to him about one very important thing, of course Kieran would find it easy to believe that she could be lying to him about anything and he can’t trust any reassurance she gives him. This poor kid must have such a history of being mistreated and patronised by others to jump to assuming things like this.

Lashing out with a battle

Then Kieran challenges you to another battle, promising to give back the mask if you win. Since there’s no way he is truly expecting to be able to beat you, this means that he never really intended to keep the mask forever. But he also doesn’t just want to seem like some weak pushover who’ll roll over and give in as soon as he’s confronted, so he at least wants to make you fight him for it. And based on his line at the beginning of the battle – “I know this isn’t right, but… I can’t just hand over the mask to you!” – he doesn’t want to just give up one of Ogerpon’s possessions so easily to someone who treated him like an outcast the same way those villagers back then treated Ogerpon.

Really, I think the battle – and the notably forceful way he asks for it, unlike the previous times – just comes a lot from Kieran’s anger, and his need to externalise it somehow. He even insists that he needs this battle, if you’re hesitant about accepting the challenge. There’s probably a part of him that wants to lash out with physical violence, maybe punch you or something, but he knows that’s wrong and that it’d look pathetically impotent of him anyway even if he tried. Happily, this world has a socially-accepted form of violence-by-proxy instead, so Pokémon battle it is!

As for the battle itself, Kieran’s switched up his team some more, removing Furret as previously mentioned, and adding two new members instead of just one like the previous times – but the Cramorant he uses here doesn’t stick around either. This is less sad to me than Furret, though, because he wouldn’t have been very close to it. Cramorant may even have been taken onto the team with the condition of “I’m trying out new team members to see who’s strong enough”, at which point ditching it is less of a betrayal and more of it simply failing a job interview.

(Meanwhile, the other newcomer, Gligar, clearly impressed Kieran a lot with its strength, as it becomes his ace for the final fight. Fitting that his ace there is not a long-time partner, but one obtained only after he began to fixate on getting stronger.)

He’s also more openly determined to win (despite his suppressed conviction that he could never beat you), and remains more optimistic than before even when things aren’t going so well for him. In fact, this is the only battle in which Kieran has lines for hitting you with a super effective move or a critical hit. That said, he’s still a little insecure, based on an optional line: “I need to get this right… I’m gonna make sure to give the right commands!” which tells us that he feels like his losses are his fault for making mistakes and choosing the wrong moves, rather than blaming his Pokémon for not being strong enough. He also has an absolutely great comment in this battle if you land a critical hit, which I have to highlight: “What can’t you do? You’re like the hero in a story…” It’s purely luck, but despite that, he’s seeing you as this impossibly perfect hero that he could never ever measure up to, and this delights me.

Losing the battle just seems to make Kieran’s frustration at his own inferiority even worse, to the point that he does indulge in some physical violence, towards the shrine. Which is as pathetic as he must have been expecting, and should in theory have been harmless enough. (Of course, it appears that this is what somehow resurrects the Lousy Three, but there is no way Kieran expected or wanted that to happen, so he can’t be blamed for that.) Then he gives the mask back, just as he promised he would, and (ignoring another attempt by Carmine to apologise – again, this was never about that to him) he runs off back home.

So I find it really hard to condemn Kieran for… any of his actions here? Sure, he stole the mask, but he didn’t do anything bad with it and gave it back just fine (and must have always been intending to). All he was doing was lashing out – unhealthily, but basically harmlessly – over the really very callous way you and Carmine had been treating him. And if he hadn’t done this, you two would probably never have told him the truth about Ogerpon, and he’d have remained out of the loop and never met her at all! That would have been awful!

And yet: making you and Carmine bring him into the loop about Ogerpon and getting the chance to meet her is also not something Kieran was aiming for here. Just before leaving in a sulk, he says, “Say hi to the ogre for me” – which means that he never expected to get to meet it himself. He is still, even by the end of this confrontation, labouring under the belief that you and Carmine don’t want him there with Ogerpon and that he doesn’t deserve to meet her at all.

Apologies, and a lack thereof

After you rescue Ogerpon from being bullied by the resurrected Lousy Three, Carmine shows up with Kieran in tow. Apparently she found him moping around at home and dragged him here to apologise to you about his stunt with the mask. Which, yes, does warrant an apology – but what really frustrates me about this part is that Carmine doesn’t apologise for what you and she did wrong. Sure, she blurted out a couple of cut-off apologies back at Loyalty Plaza, but those never had the intended effect when Kieran was in no emotional state to accept them. Here and now, he’s calmed down enough that he would be able to take on board an apology… but Carmine doesn’t give one. It’s possible that she already apologised at home before bringing him here, but if she’d done that, then she really ought to have got you to also apologise for lying to him, and she doesn’t – so I can only assume that didn’t happen. And you the player can choose to apologise to Kieran here anyway, but since it’s optional, it’s not given nearly the attention it deserves.

Since Kieran never gets a proper apology while he’s in a state to listen, it means he never actually ends up internalising the fact that you were in the wrong to lie to him and he didn’t deserve to be treated that way. Which would have been a really, really important thing for him to realise! As it is, he continues to quietly assume that all of this is his fault for being weak, with nobody to tell him that this way of thinking is flawed.

It's frustrating, but I do kind of get it, from Carmine at least, because she’s also a pretty flawed person. Her deal seems to be that she’s only able to be emotionally sincere in uncontrolled outbursts when she’s worked up, and when she’s calm she covers up her true feelings with bossiness and vanity. Which makes her not at all capable of apologising to Kieran when he’s in a calm enough state to be capable of registering it. These siblings’ issues do not mesh well. Still, here’s hoping that Carmine’s able to self-reflect enough to acknowledge her partial responsibility for Kieran’s suffering by the end of The Indigo Disk.

She does seem to realise her mistake here enough to make a point of trying to include Kieran in their Ogerpon adventures from here on out, at least. But it’s too little too late in terms of how Kieran views things. He seems to have assumed that Carmine dragged him here only to apologise, and not to properly meet Ogerpon or be involved in helping her out, because he expresses surprise when Carmine casually includes him as part of the Mask Retrieval Squad. He was expecting to be shunned and left out as always – what do you mean, she wants him there?

Meeting Ogerpon

The only interaction Kieran was expecting to have with Ogerpon here was giving the fixed-up mask back to her, because he wanted to be the one to do so – but she shies away from him when he offers it. Carmine comments that she’s probably scared of new people, and this is likely the truth, but Kieran’s silent response suggests that he’s not necessarily agreeing with that assessment. Remember, from earlier: Kieran is convinced that Ogerpon values strength. And he’s so used to being shunned by others, especially strong people, because he’s weak. It would be very, very easy for him to come to the irrational conclusion that the reason Ogerpon refuses him is because of his weakness, even though his sister’s suggesting something else.

Despite Kieran’s key misconceptions about Ogerpon’s values, he does continue to understand her better than most people in certain ways. When you try to head into town with her, Kieran’s the one to point out that she’s probably afraid to go in because of the way she’s been treated by the townspeople. He also comments that she’ll feel safe going to retrieve the masks from the Three as long as she’s with you. He empathises with that insecurity and social anxiety enough that, seeing it from Ogerpon in person, he can instinctively see that’s the case about her too.

And yet… seeing Ogerpon’s fear, and understanding that she’s scared of being shunned just like him (which he previously said the ogre didn’t care at all about!), doesn’t actually change the part of Kieran that is also irrationally convinced that she only cares about strength. There’s no moment in which he seems to be re-evaluating Ogerpon or realising anything new about her upon seeing her being afraid. The part where she’s shy and afraid, and the part where she’s strong and cool and therefore values strength in others, manage to be separate enough in his mind that he never actually cross-references them to realise that one of these surely can’t be as true as he thinks it is. So his false conviction that things are about strength to Ogerpon still remains, unchallenged.

Staying behind

Then, even though Carmine is making an active point of trying to include him, Kieran… chooses not to come with you on the mission to retrieve the masks. This is despite the fact that this’d be his best chance to spend time with Ogerpon and hopefully get her to warm up to him, which you’d think would be his priority when he’s quietly hoping to maybe have the chance to become her partner.

But even though it would be a logical choice for Kieran to come with them, it makes perfect sense to me why he doesn’t. As far as he sees things, you and Carmine are way stronger than him and already have the fights against the Three covered – he’d be nothing but a useless third wheel hanging back, only there out of Carmine’s pity for him and not because he’s needed. And in terms of Ogerpon, Kieran is the kid who visited her den countless times but never had the courage to call out to her and ask to be friends. Of course he knows he wouldn’t have the confidence to actually try and get closer to Ogerpon, especially not when she’s already got someone she likes (someone who’s strong while he’s weak, which is clearly what matters to her, right). He knows he’ll just spend the whole time watching Ogerpon obviously like you way more than him while not being able to do a thing about it, and it’ll just make him feel even more jealous and left out.

(Trust me, as someone with social anxiety who spent a lot of my childhood being low-key outcasted by my so-called friend groups, I get it. When you’ve lived like that, integrating yourself with new people can feel downright impossible, no matter how much you may want it.)

So Kieran doesn’t come on the mission – but it’s not like he just uselessly sulks around, either. He spends the time doing something else to help Ogerpon, something neither you nor Carmine seemingly thought needed to be done: telling the town the truth that she was never a bad guy. Because of course Kieran understands best just how hard it is for Ogerpon to be shunned and outcast by everyone, and of course he has some Strong Feelings that people deserve to be told the truth, hmm I wonder where that might have come from. This task is really difficult and scary for him, too, because he hates talking to people – but he does it anyway, for Ogerpon’s sake! What a brave lad!

(I’ve seen people side-eye the fact that the villagers accept the truth and turn around their view of Ogerpon so easily, but honestly it doesn’t seem unreasonable to me. I get the mask maker way back when being persecuted because the villagers of the time saw Ogerpon kill the Three and made assumptions, but, like, it’s been generations. All of the witnesses who had that emotional gut reaction to the fight are long dead. Most of the people alive today didn’t even truly believe the story of the ogre was real until the Loyal Three showed up – they just thought it was a fun folktale that gives their village some unique culture. So for them to be told “hey, the ogre is real, but also the story’s backwards and the ogre’s actually the good guy”… so what? I was always sceptical of Grandpa’s conviction that the truth must never be told to the village (because… people will get angry that they were lied to? So therefore you should just keep lying to them so they never find out they have something to be angry about? Yes, great tactic, it worked so well on Kieran). Kieran basically just went and proved that there really was nothing to be worried about all along and the people should have been told the truth ages ago.)

His final chance to be strong

So now we reach the end, where Ogerpon makes it clear that she wants to stay with you, and… and even though he must have seen this coming, Kieran can’t accept it happening without trying to fight against it.

This isn’t even really about Kieran wanting Ogerpon’s friendship in and of itself. It’s more about what the concept of being partners with Ogerpon means to him. This whole time, he’s been obsessed with the ogre, and yet only letting himself imagine that maybe one day when he’s stronger, he could be its friend. He’s fixated on the idea of befriending Ogerpon as something that will mean he’s strong and no longer alone and everything is good now. Obviously this is extremely irrational and not necessarily true nor the sole way to fix his problems, but that’s how things are in Kieran’s head.

And so, with recent events making him feel even more weak and outcast than ever, you being effortlessly strong and cool enough to befriend Ogerpon on top of everything else feels to Kieran like it’s about to take away his one chance to turn things around, forever. Of course he can’t just let that happen without at least trying to have things his way. He says right at the beginning of the battle: “I know you’re probably a better trainer for Ogerpon, but I… I…” – and he can’t even voice the end of that sentence. He can’t put into words why he feels like he needs to become Ogerpon’s partner even though he knows he's being selfish and she’d be better off with you, because it’s not based in any conscious logic and is all just one big subconscious irrational mess of his issues and inferiority complex.

I’ve seen a lot of people condemn Kieran for this part, saying that he’s ignoring Ogerpon’s wishes because he’s planning to force her to join him whether she wants to or not if he wins. However, I firmly disagree that Kieran has any such thing in mind here. Remember, he’s still labouring under the misconception that what Ogerpon cares about most is strength. He thinks she likes you so much because you’re so strong (remember the previous time he battled you in front of the den, where he commented that the ogre must be thinking how strong you are if it’d seen that?), and that she refused the mask from him that one time because he’s weak. So Kieran has convinced himself that if he can prove himself to be stronger than you, by defeating you in a battle while Ogerpon’s watching, then she’ll naturally choose him to be her trainer over you. Right?

When Carmine says that he has to consider Ogerpon’s feelings, Kieran’s simply silent for a moment before saying “…I want to battle anyway.” He’s not denying that Ogerpon’s choice is what matters – he just believes, or is at least trying to believe, that her choice will be determined by this battle. And of course he doesn’t say anything like “Ogerpon will choose me if I’m stronger than you”, because – well, perhaps because a lot of this is also subconscious enough that he can’t articulate it, but even if any of it was conscious, he knows it’d sound stupid. Especially the part where he’d be talking like it’s possible for him to beat you, because deep down, he still completely convinced that’s impossible.

Plus, nowhere in this does Kieran bring up the fact that he told the village the truth about Ogerpon as a point in his favour for why she might choose him – which supports that it’s not about any kind of friendly gestures to him and he’s convinced she’ll make her decision entirely based on strength. (And it also proves that he did that out of a genuine desire to help Ogerpon, without any ulterior motives of trying to get her to like him!)

Just before the battle, he says: “Whoever wins gets to be Ogerpon’s partner… So don’t… don’t you dare hold back!” – making a point of demanding you don’t hold back, even though you might think he’d want any advantage he can get towards supposedly winning Ogerpon’s favour. But this makes perfect sense when you realise what this is about to Kieran. He believes that Ogerpon will choose (and deserves to choose) whichever of you is the strongest, and this battle won’t actually prove that if he only wins because you were holding back against him.

Kieran also thanks you for not holding back when you land your first super effective hit, which I enjoy. He’s so used to being patronised and seen as weak and pathetic, so he’s actually glad that you’re taking him seriously and viewing him as a legitimate opponent.

And, hey, he is! His team is pretty stacked: a full six Pokémon with solid movesets, and even strategic held items (at least in the postgame version). Assuming you’re not over-levelled, it’s quite a challenging fight, as it should be. Kieran is trying so, so hard to be strong enough, because this poor kid has convinced himself that all of his problems and pain are due to him being weak, and he is so desperate to fix that by proving himself even stronger than you, strong enough to win Ogerpon’s favour.

When he loses, he just crumples, and it’s heartbreaking. Kieran had so much more riding on this battle than just befriending Ogerpon – this was what felt like his one and only chance to stamp out the part of him that feels crushingly inferior and like he deserves to be treated like dirt. Guhhh.

And of course the first thing out of his mouth is, “Figures.” His inferiority complex runs so deep that, no matter how hard he’d trained and how genuinely really good his team had grown, he never truly believed that he ever had a chance at beating someone as cool and strong as you. He was just desperately trying to convince himself that he at least had a shot, because he couldn’t bear to give up without trying.

I really wish you could tell Kieran how good he was in this battle! It truly is impressive how much better he’s grown at battling since the first one, in such a short space of time, too. Just because he’s not quite as strong as you doesn’t mean he’s weak, not by a long shot. But nobody tells him any such thing, so Kieran continues to view things in that irrationally all-or-nothing way. He lost, so he's weak, end of.

Then he has to stand there and watch you battle Ogerpon in order to catch her. Before all of this happened, Kieran would have been so stoked to see his hero the ogre showing off just how cool and strong she is – and hey, her powers really are pretty awesome to behold! But here, despite the amazing spectacle in front of him, Kieran just looks supremely awkward. Like he doesn’t feel like he deserves to be here. Like he doesn’t even have the right to get to see Ogerpon’s full strength in all its glory. You’re the only one who’s strong enough to have earned this.

He does make one possible comment during the battle, if you land a critical hit on Ogerpon: “You really are good… I’m no match.” Which is a bit excessive, considering that really anyone is capable of critting Ogerpon if they get lucky – but apparently Kieran’s thoughts during this battle are still incredibly hung up on just how strong you are and how he’ll never be able to measure up to you. This goes to show that his issues at this point have shifted to be more about you than about Ogerpon. Which tracks, since his admiration for the ogre was never quite about Ogerpon herself and was more about what her strength represented to him – and now you’ve come along and given him an even bigger example of impossibly cool strength, in a much more painful way.

Once you’ve captured Ogerpon, Kieran manages to awkwardly congratulate you on it – hey, he’s doing his best not to be a sore loser! – laments once again why he can’t be like you, and then runs off. No doubt he’s feeling a huge heap of uncontainable painful emotions that he does not want to show in front of you or Carmine and needs to go let out in private. This kid is Not Okay.

So, in summary: Kieran comes out of all this with the message that all of his pain and suffering and loneliness is his fault because he’s still too weak, and he will only ever be strong enough to put all that behind him once he’s stronger than you. And to do that, he needs to get so, so much stronger, almost impossibly so, no matter what he has to do to achieve it. I’m sure this will be Just Fine leading into The Indigo Disk. (: (: (:

And one last thing: the game doesn’t let this happen, but if Kieran had won that final battle against you, I believe things might actually have turned out better. Because let’s face it, Ogerpon would probably still have chosen to go with you anyway, and if she had, Kieran would have been forced to face the fact that it was never actually about strength to her. It wouldn’t even be that hard for him to understand that, given that he’d already noticed the indications that she was scared of being shunned by the townspeople and that she liked you because you made her feel safe. This would help Kieran recontextualise things a little and stop focusing so unhealthily on gaining more battling strength as the One Thing that will solve all his problems. He still wouldn’t exactly be suddenly fixed and happy, but… things wouldn’t be quite so bad, at least. Alas, you are Too Protagonist to lose and let that happen.

#pokemon #pokemon scarlet and violet #pokemon sv #kieran pokemon #pokemon kieran #the teal mask #the hidden treasure of area zero #ogerpon #pokemon carmine #character analysis #my buttons #ramble #kieran did nothing wrong #he is just a suffering kid with bad coping mechanisms #because nobody has taught him healthy ones

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