#if he wasn’t in a story that handwaved and made excuses for the abuse he suffered at the hands of his loved ones bc it was

[ardentpoop]

they literally had no clue what a special and one-of-a-kind character they had on their hands

leagues above the rest of this show’s characters in terms of emotional depth

[cannibalisticskittles]

Fans wanted a V route that's why we got a V route both him and Saeran weren't meant to be dateable in the first place

yeah that’s definitely the impression i got. hell, that’s why i started the saeran fic in the first place; i figured they didn’t plan to ever make a route for him, so i’d make one.

tbh tho i... think that v’s route straight up shouldn’t have been done. when you design a character around the central concept of How Absolutely Shit At Romance He Is, how he obsesses over a particular view of love to the point that he encourages unhealthy, violent behavior and enables massive harm (A CULT) for years, how he happily loses his eyesight for love because he thinks it’s a noble sacrifice, when he defends that love and that person with his dying death (“rika did nothing wrong” is a direct quote) and shows no sign of changing that mindset... you shouldn’t cave and make him a route because fans want it. all of those reasons why he’s Bad To Date are still there! they’re fundamental problems!

people who really wanted a v route.... well, not all of them, i know, but from the way so. so so many v stans talk about it. it’s like they looked at v and rika and thought “well, this utter shitshow only happened because rika was a crazy bitch. it’s all her fault. v was just her victim, an innocent martyr who did nothing wrong, or if he did something wrong, it’s only because she forced his hand. if she wasn’t in the equation, everything would have been fine. i bet if /I/ dated him, it would all work out great! he definitely would form a healthy relationship with ME!’ (never mind the fact that years before the story started, he not only knew about but had contacts in an incredibly dangerous and influential spy agency, and he shoved an abused 11-year-old into their arms, forcing him to cut ties with his brother and making him live in even more danger than he’d already been in. that’s totally logical behavior, right? that’s not intentionally endangering a child in the most unnecessary and bafflingly dramatic way possible, right? there’s no way that’s going to still be a problem when rika’s out of the picture, right? she had nothing to do with that batshit decision but it’s still totally her fault somehow, v DEFINITELY won’t do anything like that again!)

and, like, i’ve never been sure how aware of v’s problems the writer(s) for v’s route are, but it’s still THERE in his route. it hangs over everything. it’s almost funny; v’s route seems to me to seesaw between ‘yeah, this guy is totally dateable! there’s no problems at all, once we just... sweep them under a rug and never address them! pfft, his actions are toooootally heroic! it’s justifiable to let the kid he was supposed to protect die in a fiery blast because he’s been too useless to act for years, right?? yeah! let’s just not think about the implications! it’s fine!’ and in other places it comes off more like ‘is this what you want?? huh?? you want to date the sadsack obsessed with his girlfriend to the point that he helps a cult thrive and doesn’t stop it from kidnapping or drugging people?? that’s your idea of a good time?? well fine, TAKE IT’

his route feels Weird. and uncomfortable. and i don’t understand fans wanting a route for him but — while i think v fans OUGHT to have picked up on his penchant for nonsensical, harmful behavior, yknow, maybe they thought cheritz would... actually deal with these issues fully instead of vaguely acknowledging some faults and never resolving them? so — i definitely don’t understand cheritz going ahead and writing a route for him when he’s... him. because that weirdness and that discomfort and all the problems in his route stem from the fact that V Is A Miserable Little Man Who Fixates On Love To A Frightening Degree And Who Is Willing To Enable And Sometimes Personally Do Heinous Things. as a writer sometimes you’ve gotta say “sorry to disappoint, but no. have a nice day!”

it’s something that was a bit of a relief in saeran’s after end. the narrative very much embraces how shit v’s current AND past behavior has been. This Man Is Not Someone Who Forms Healthy Relationships, it says. all the stuff with the RFA mourning who they THOUGHT v (and rika) were — especially the scenes focused on jumin — make it clear that even his platonic relationships have huge problems. they’re based on massive lies! and he’s willing to betray their trust and throw them away for the sake of his Romanticized Love! it still doesn’t make up my mind about what the writer(s) behind v’s route thought about him bc damn, there was Too Much handwaving going on, but hey! circling back to how they presented his behavior in the main story/secret end! that’s awesome!

(and to contrast with v a bit, saeran is... traumatized and has shitty coping mechanisms and is willing to go extremely far for his cult and has years of brainwashing to undo, BUT. as a kid initially coerced into this situation, and then as a brainwashed adult who fully bought into the lies he was told and thought everything he/the cult did was to help people in desperate need, yes, he has made shit decisions, but it’s nowhere near the level of things that v or rika have done. he didn’t have the agency to make informed decisions! he was a kid! he was kidnapped! unlike them, he had no basis of comparison to say “hmm. maybe this is fucked up.” v DID have that, and he has no goddamn excuse for allowing saeran to be kidnapped, or drugged, or mint eye to thrive and do that to dozens if not hundreds of other people, For Love. so saeran has potential for a route! he needs therapy and he needs to be out of mint eye and his dad needs to be behind bars or 6 feet under so saeran doesn’t have to live in fear, but. i view him as Capable Of Healthy Relationships Eventually. moreso than v, anyway.

so while saeran’s route is a hot mess and i will Always bring up how shit it is to whip out the ‘wacky mental illness that has no basis in reality and is written just to maximize drama, never mind that it’s hugely insulting to those who actually deal with what they’re flanderizing AND that it contradicts all his characterization previously [unless they’re saying that saeran in the main routes/secret end ALWAYS went through that ~merging of split personalities~ before we see him on screen, bc his characterizations had already been a good mix of both personas]’ idea, the INTENT of the route seems more grounded than v’s; it’s about 50% ‘you wanted edgy, so we’ll give you edgy’ and 50% ‘well, this is as good a place as any to expand a little bit on the character growth alluded to in the secret end and go over a few more aspects of how he’s going to have to come to terms with how much of what he believed was a lie and reconcile with his brother.’ it’s also a weird route, and it clashes against some things that were previously established, but from what i remember, the route was at least internally consistent.

...even so, they should not have done saeran’s route the way they did. if they couldn’t come up with any ideas for a route that didn’t involve ‘jekyll and hyde suddenly!’ they just shouldn’t have done a route for him, either.)

[coll2mitts]

#65 Beauty and the Beast (2017)

I’m burning through my Disney+ subscription, and instead of this forever cursing my drafts section until I work my way through the other lower movies on this list, you’re getting this one now.

Beauty and the Beast was my favorite Disney movie as a child.  Belle was smart, she read a lot, and she was a bit of an outcast, which were my only identifiers as a wee lass (other than being obnoxious and constantly having tangled hair).  I'm going to bet that this movie is the reason so many girls my age went through a Paris phase in their tween years.  I did take 3 years of high school French that I have almost no memory of.  

The original's animation is gorgeous, the songs by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman are iconic, and the romance between two people who learn how to trust and support each other... it's probably the reason why I've stayed in terrible relationships for way too long.  My father took me to see this movie in theaters when I was 6, and it is the first movie I remember crying during out of sadness.  There I was, while the Beast was dying, trying to hide the fact tears were streaming down my face because I didn't want my dad to see I was crying and not take me to see another movie again.  When they adapted it for Broadway, I listened to that soundtrack over and over...  "Home" was my favorite song, and the end still makes me cry like a 6-year-old.  It's perfect.

I had attempted to watch this remake once before.  I hated it so much I started drinking, and then peaced out so hard when Lumiere started moving that I had to watch Moana to normalize myself.  Visually, this movie is what happens when the Uncanny Valley turns into the fucking Grand Canyon.  Little did I know that this movie gets worse... much worse... as it goes on, and that Stephen Chbosky, the author and director of The Perks of Being a Wallflower made it this way.  A man who wrote one of my most beloved novels and movie adaptations helped in creating this narrative monstrosity, and that, out of all of this, was the deepest cut of all.

I'm not rehashing the plot, because I have too much to say about why this remake shouldn't exist, and I’m going to guess you’ve either seen the movie or are familiar with this almost 300-year-old story.  It took the source material and just murdered it in its attempts to update it.  I'm going to start positive and work toward the biggest issue I had with it, because I'm currently writing angry and that never turns out well for me.

Things I liked:

This may be controversial, but I did like Josh Gad's performance as LeFou.  I'm not saying what LeFou did made any sense (he suddenly was upset Gaston was making things up again?), but as an actor, Josh Gad was working with what he had, and I think he owned it.

Chip's introduction to Maurice - I actually paused the movie because I was laughing so hard.

The piano playing the funeral march when it tackled LeFou.

When Mrs. Potts said Chip smelled good when he turned back into a little boy.  It was a cute little detail.

The guillotine joke in "Be Our Guest" and the Les Miserables barricade reference.

I actually thought Cogsworth was adorable for being a CGI nightmare.  I don't know how much of my opinion of this was influenced by the voice of Ian McKellan.

I really liked the costumes, except for Belle's gown, which was definitely a downgrade.  Micarah articulated the issues with it perfectly.

Celine Dion singing the credits song was a nice homage to her cover of "Beauty and the Beast", although it sucks she's associated with this nightmare of a remake.

Little quibbles:

Whatever they did to Emma Watson’s voice made her sound like a robot.

Almost all the CGI, especially the Beast, was completely unsettling.  The wardrobe was the worst of it, holy shit.

They went out of their way to explain plot holes like "Why don't the villagers remember the castle?" or “Why is it snowing when it looks like the middle of summer in the village?” or "How did Belle get the Beast up on that horse?" when none of that really matters to the overall narrative.

The reaction to Belle teaching a little girl how to read was unbelievably eye-roll inducing.  Lindsay Ellis' video on this is so fucking good, watch it now - You don't have to read the rest of my ramblings if you do. #beastforshe

Ariana Grande slurring her way through "Beauty and the Beast".

It was nice to see Maurice updated from a manic inventor to a level-headed, sweet, competent, reserved man who treats his daughter like an equal.  Clock-maker Maurice that actually takes care of Belle reads better to me, and I like how they had him wander into the garden to get a rose for her - it's a nice callback to the original story.  The problem with doing this, however, is it negates the "crazy old Maurice" narrative that plays heavily into why the villagers don't believe his tale of the Beast in the first place.  If Kevin Kline, a put-together man (up until this point), wandered into the tavern looking disheveled and conveying a story about his daughter being kidnapped, I'd be like, "Shit, Maurice, what did you see?!".  But instead, the story goes out of its way to put him at the mercy of Gaston, and shoehorn in an attempted murder plot to really turn everyone against him - it's bizarre.

Medium quibbles:

Gaston went from being a well-liked, athletically inclined dude to a literal predator and murderer.  Belle was a beautiful status symbol in the original movie, but she becomes literal game to Gaston in the remake, as he refers to her as prey, or something to be hunted.  When Maurice gets in-between him and Belle, Gaston punches him in the face and leaves him out in the forest to be eaten by wolves?!  What does this add to the story?!  Gaston wasn't right for Belle because he wasn't kind and didn't intellectually stimulate her, but that nuance is wasted on the remake, turning him into a full-blown vengeful villain that will literally kill Belle's family to get what he wants.

The first time Belle is brought to her room, there is this long panning shot showing off how nice it is, and she comments, in wonder, how she thinks its beautiful.  They had the fucking nerve to play “Home” in the background of this scene, completely ignoring the original context of the song is sadness and despair.  But go off, I guess...

The Big Enchilada:

This is where my notes went from eh????? to WHAT THE FUCK, so be prepared.  How someone with enough emotional maturity to write Perks can make the Beast into such an abusive asshole is so fucking beyond me, I'm still trying to process it.

Beauty and the Beast is a romance at heart, which you would never know by watching this movie, as Belle and the Beast have so little chemistry it's painful.  This might be because the Beast is abusive to Belle at every turn in the beginning, making the pivot from enemies to lovers so completely unbelievable it's shocking.  The remake is already at a deficit as the CGI Beast is terrifying, in contrast with the cartoon, which has the ability to make the Beast cuddly with big eyes and an expressive face.  But they still decide to take all of the Beast's inner conflict out of the remake, remove his agency completely out of the relationship with Belle, and make him supremely unlikable in every interaction they have together.

There are a few scenes that illustrate this, starting with the dinner invitation scene:

In the original, the Beast sees the pain he's inflicted by pulling Belle away from her father, and offers her a tour of the castle and a bedroom instead of a prison cell.  He also invites her to dine with him, although he could have gone about it wayyyy better.  He confides in his staff that she is beautiful, and he realizes she can break the spell, but he doesn't know how to appeal to her.  His staff give him tips on how to be charming and not so intimidating.  He is receptive, but overwhelmed, because he hasn't had to interact with any other human in years.  When he discovers she doesn't plan on eating with him, his anger takes over because she refused his hospitality, and he's a king, so how dare she?  The staff try to help him appear genteel, cause again, HE expressed interest in being appealing to her.  When this doesn't immediately work, he throws a massive tantrum and tells them not to feed her.  When he looks at Belle later in the mirror, he hears the direct result of his actions as Belle is ranting to the wardrobe.  He laments she'll never see him as a human because his actions have pushed her away.

In the remake, it's not the Beast’s idea to give Belle a room, or to invite her to dinner - it is his staff's intervening that puts him in that situation in the first place.  He doesn't even want to get to know her because she's a daughter of a thief, and that's somehow below his current social status of recluse animal/human hybrid.  His staff persuade him to give Belle a chance as they're all invested in breaking the spell because they'll turn into furniture if they don't!  They give him tips to manipulate her into opening the door, he tries it, it fails spectacularly, he gets angry and he leaves - but not before calling his staff idiots...  I appreciate he's not as physically violent in this version, but he just acts like he couldn’t be bothered with Belle.  He does spy on her from the mirror, but she looks bewildered.  He doesn't know if she's lonely, or missing her father, or what...  There's no indication that how he treated her in that moment has pushed her further away.  Then he just stares at the rose like, "Well, shit, this ticking time bomb is still ticking!".  It's completely self-focused.

Oh, and then Mrs. Potts tries to handwave the Beast’s behavior away with, "People say a lot of things in anger.  It is our choice whether or not to listen," which, excuse me, WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCK DOES THAT MEAN?!  You are in charge of how to interpret someone's actions, and you could just choose to ignore when they are being abusive??  I CAN'T.  She also tries to gaslight Belle into seeing how great the Beast is when Belle has had zero positive interactions with the dude since she's been there.  The wardrobe brings it up in the original, but this is after he's offered Belle a room and invited her to dinner himself, not by his staff...

The west wing scene and the Beast turning into less of a dick:

In the original, the Beast himself tells Belle not to go to the west wing.  Her curiosity brings her there, because she wants to understand more about him and what he is hiding.  She's invading his space knowing full well that she is invading his space.  When she is discovered, she's about to fuck around with something that is literally tied with the Beast's livelihood.  His anger is disproportionate, but justified, and you see that he immediately regrets his reaction after she runs away from him.  That’s why he goes after her.  Belle watches him risk his life to save her even though she broke a promise to him, so she decides to repay the favor by bringing him back.  They fight while she's trying to clean his wound, and they're both right in their perspectives, but the Beast acknowledges that yes, his temper got the best of him - he realized that the moment she bolted.  Belle then rewards his selfless act by thanking him, which sets his entire transformation in motion.  

He gives her the library because he expresses interest in doing something to make her happy, and he vocalizes he's falling in love with her.  He's delighted by her reaction.  During the ballroom scene, the way he looks at her, you can see he absolutely adores her.  He asks, "Are you happy here with me?" because he loves her, and her well-being is the most important thing.

In the remake, the staff tell Belle not to got to the west wing because it's a storage area.  She wanders over there anyway, for whatever fucking reason, and takes a glance at the rose behind the glass.  The Beast finds her looking at it and gets mad at her, even though he never told her not to visit him in the west wing, and she didn't fuck around with the rose.  When she runs away, he doesn't even look like he cares.  There is no reason for him to go after her, and there is no reason for her to help him back to the castle other than the plot told them to do it.  She doesn't help him with his wounds, and the staff are the ones to thank her for returning him.  She even asks the staff why the fuck they care about him, because he's such an asshole.  They justify his behavior because he had a cruel father, and damn themselves to his fate because they didn't stop a literal monarch from raising his son.  Belle continues to take care of him because she pities him?  He repays her kindness by insulting her taste in literature.

He doesn't even show her the library because he knows she likes books, he does it because he wants her to read "better" books.  Then he makes one joke about not reading Greek and THAT IS WHAT MAKES BELLE SWOON.  THE FUCKING GREEK BOOK JOKE.  I mean, I sort of get it, I fell in love with my ex because he made a bread pun, but he hadn't been continually abusive to me up until that point.  Belle starts to read out loud to him, and that's supposed to be the event that incentives the Beast to be better?  Even while Belle is singing about how much he's changed (he hasn't), he throws a boulder of snow in her face. The cherry on top of this sundae is his stoic question after they dance, "It's foolish, I suppose, for a creature like me to hope that one day he might earn your affection?" which not only sounds like complement fishing, it is primarily motivated by breaking the curse!  Only after she gives an indifferent answer does he ask if she'd be happy at the castle.

Oh god, and the death scene is cut off in the middle because we have to watch 2 minutes of the staff members permanently turning into furniture, which, like, I wouldn't think they'd want to castrate the emotional climax of the movie, but this whole thing is an exercise on how to fuck something already good up.

This movie fails so spectacularly at this basic love story, I can't begin to justify its existence.  I wouldn't recommend this to anybody.  If you want to watch new Alan Menkin content, watch Galavant, because this movie just pissed me off.

It was bold of Disney to end it with a beastiality joke, though.

[wiseabsol]

WA Reviews “Dominion” by Aurelia le, Chapter 13: A Start

Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6383825/13/Dominion

Summary: For the Fire Nation royal siblings, love has always warred with hate. But neither the outward accomplishment of peace nor Azula’s defeat have brought the respite Zuko expected. Will his sister’s plans answer this, or only destroy them both?

Content Warnings: This story contains discussions and depictions of child abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and incest. This story also explores the idea that Zuko’s redemption arc (and his unlearning of abuse) is not as complete as the show suggested, and that Azula is not a sociopath (with the story having a lot of sympathy for her). If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, I would strongly recommend steering clear of this story and my reviews of it.  

Note: Because these were originally posted as chapter reviews/commentaries, I will often be talking to the author in them (though sometimes I will also snarkily address the characters). While I’ve also tried not to spoil later events in the story in these reviews, I would strongly recommend reading through chapter 28 before reading these, just to be safe.

Now on to chapter 13!

CHAPTER 13: A START

Alright, on to chapter thirteen. Before I begin, since there have been some people in the comments expressing interest in my full reviews, they can be found at: wiseabsol (dot) tumblr (dot) com (slash) tagged (slash) dominion (percent sign) 20by (percent sign) 20aurelia (percent sign) 20le. I might also run the idea of setting up a forum for “Dominion” by Aurelia. That way, you all would have someplace to read my reviews on this website, as well as discuss the story with each other outside of the reviews section.

 On to the review. Zuko has slept past sunrise, which may be an indication of how bad a shape he’s in, since firebenders are supposed to rise with the sun (Azula, note, still rose with the sun while hospitalized). But he managed to sleep the night through without nightmares, which is progress for him. Turns out he’s achieved that by drinking a sedating tea left by Iroh.

 “The old man had even gone do far as to pretend Mai told him, to try to get Zuko to talk. It was the kind of thing Azula would do.”—Iroh and Azula are both cunning, strategic thinkers, which may be part of why she makes Iroh uncomfortable. She probably reminds him of himself when he was younger. If she’d been a boy, it’s possible that he might have tried to take Azula under his wing…but given that she was a girl, and thus had gender roles that she was supposed to conform to (hence him giving her a doll), he didn’t. That and Ozai snapped her up quickly, with Iroh soon afterwards writing her off as Ozai’s “creature.” But I wouldn’t be surprised if we later find out that part of why Iroh considered her so dangerous was because she reminded him of his younger self, rather than Ozai.

 Apparently Zuko blew up at Iroh for the deception, and said some things he shouldn’t have. Old habits die hard.

 “What his uncle couldn’t know was that there was no help for what he did.”—Yeah, sleeping with your sister is not something you can take back.

 Zuko has some manservants in the room with him, who offer him fruit, foot washing, and hot towels, which he doesn’t accept. What even is the point of being royalty if you can’t enjoy some nice things, Zuko? Though you probably don’t think you deserve nice things. As the manservants go about getting him ready, Zuko has this pleasant memory of Mai: “Mai used to put his hair up for him, when she woke at the same time as Zuko. She wasn’t much good with hair, in truth, but that hardly mattered. More often than not, it was just thinly veiled foreplay”—So they were a genuinely sweet couple at one point.

 But then it’s time to go to Squicktown: “But when he tried to recall those mornings now, it was his sister’s slim fingers that raked through his hair, her mouth that he tasted, the warmth of her skin—“—That’s gross, buddy. While we could chalk this up to being a sign of his continued obsession with Azula, it could also be a sign of trauma. Good memories triggering associations that trigger bad memories. If he was wanking off to the memory of Azula, then I’d say it was an obsession thing. As it is, it’s causing him distress, so trauma seems more likely.

 “A memory made all the more painful by having to wonder how much of that Azula did at their father’s command, those years he abused her under the guise of training….”—Sadly, I think Ozai does believe it was training. Though this is also the dude who believes that suffering is instructive.

 “With such dark thoughts as he had for company, he barely noticed the comings and goings of the palace staff anymore.”—Losing your situational awareness is not good, Zuko. Especially when you know there are people who aren’t happy with your reign.

 “Uncle thought it started shortly after Zuko was banished. She would have been eleven.”—Ugh. That is vile. Though I suspect that Ozai was grooming her before then.

 Ozai is dying from his burns. While I’m inclined to say “Good riddance,” if he dies, it means that Zuko will have committed patricide, which will cause a public outcry and earn him more enemies. Also, Azula will never forgive him for it.

 “The man lived to plague him, he knew.”—Ozai is absolutely that spiteful.

 “He remembered asking Iroh if his banishment might have been planned. If his father might have sent him away just to do that to Azula, to remove the last family member she might have turned to for defense, the last witness to his crimes. He remembered the look his uncle gave him then, when he said they may never know.”—I think it’s probable that Ozai was looking for an excuse to get rid of Zuko, just like he did with Mai and Ty Lee. He wanted to isolate Azula, but he also wanted to get Zuko out of the picture so he could make Azula first in line for the throne.

 That being said, I don’t think Ozai believed that Azula would turn to Zuko for help. The siblings were already poisoned against each other back then. I think the look Iroh gave Zuko wasn’t because he knew the answer to the question—it was because he knew that it wouldn’t have mattered whether Zuko was there or not. Ozai would have done this to Azula anyway, and given how careful they were to hide it, I don’t think Zuko would have noticed that something was wrong until the abortion. I doubt that Iroh would have noticed either, since he was so focused on Zuko. While the idea of, “If I was there, I could have done something!” is a comforting one, it’s also naïve on Zuko’s part. He was a child then, too. And given Zuko’s disposition at that age—to confront evil head on, without thinking through the potential consequences—he probably would have ended up in a much worse position than he did in canon. He would have been a security risk to Ozai—a security risk that can’t lie well. No, I think Zuko being there would have resulted in disaster. Iroh, on the other hand, might have been able to figure out a quiet solution. But he wasn’t there, and so the possibility passed.

 Iroh, in any case, left after receiving a letter from Rai, without telling Zuko the contents of said letter. Iroh says this is so Zuko can have plausible deniability, but because Zuko is in bad mental shape, he’s slipping into some paranoia about it—paranoia rather like Azula’s at the end of the series. He’s unkempt, he can’t sleep, he is wracked with self-hatred and guilt (Azula was, too, though her mind expressed it through Ursa’s hallucination). If he starts banishing people, it will probably start rumors that madness runs in the family.

 “He wondered if his uncle began to mistrust him around Azula. If he knew what you did, he would never trust you with her again, he reminded himself.”—Which would be fair of him, Zuko. But Iroh is too convinced of your goodness to suspect that you would hurt her intentionally. He was ready to handwave away you killing her as an act of self-defense.

 “And Mai would not receive the old general at her parents’ house, sparking rumors she had left the palace to avoid him, rather than her husband.”—I think because Mai knows that Iroh will side with Zuko in a conflict, and that’s not something that she wants to deal with right now. I do not blame her.

 Zuko continues to contemplate Iroh’s visit, sliding into self-pity as he thinks of how tired Iroh must be getting of him: “[Iroh] was probably just as relieved to go as Zuko was to see him away….”

 “‘It isn’t fair,’ [ . . . ] That one mistake with Azula should poison the only healthy, loving relationship he had with any blood relative. It wasn’t fair.”—Zuko thinks this, but he’s the one who is pushing Iroh away. I think he could have told Iroh a portion of the truth—that he and Azula argued, that he got angry and intentionally hurt her, and that he feels horrible about it now. I think that would shake Iroh’s faith in Zuko, but I think he would still be supportive, and would understand, finally, that Zuko still has lingering behavioral problems from Ozai’s abuse that need to be worked through. It might have opened up some routes to healing faster…though I daresay that Mai wouldn’t have been pleased with Zuko giving his uncle a sanitized version of the truth.

 Zuko’s chamberlain comes in, with a list of what sounds like some very important meetings that Zuko should go to, but Zuko has other plans for his day. He’ll still keep the meeting with the “Advisory Board for the Reformation of Asylums,” which Zuko created sometime in the last few weeks. For now, though, Zuko is going to see Mai and Lu Ten.

 We transition to Iroh meeting with Rai. Apparently, Iroh recruited her after her banishment from the Fire Nation. Rai catches Iroh up on how her time with Azula went, but feels that she could have done more for Azula. Iroh interrupts her by placing a hand on her knee—weird choice there, Iroh—and says that it was for the best that she didn’t reveal that she knew who Azula was, because, “‘She might even have killed you.’”

 Rai, though, has more faith in Azula than Iroh does: “‘No.’ The cook shook her head, surprising Iroh. ‘She makes threats when she’s under duress. And she certainly knows how to sell them [ . . . ] But she never struck me as particularly bloodthirsty, either then or now. She would avoid unnecessary violence, if only to keep a low profile.’”—Thank you, Rai!

 Rai, bless her, also dismisses Iroh’s question of whether the wounds could have been self-inflicted. I see why he would ask this, given the self-harm Azula committed in the asylum, but it does make it clear that he hasn’t seen her any time recently, after she started getting better. He then wonders if maybe the asylum had been mistreating her and covered up the signs, since his visits were announced in advance and he only ever saw her from a distance.

 Then he wonders if Zuko was the one who injured Azula—ding, ding, Iroh, you are correct! “It would go a long way toward explaining his obvious guilt, and Zuko had always been given to emotional excesses.”—No kidding. In regards to the burn, he thinks, “He could not see what purpose it had served, except to hurt her…”—CORRECT AGAIN!

 Rai, meanwhile, wonders about Azula being sent to the asylum. She thought that Azula might have been jailed or banished by Zuko instead. This ticks Iroh off: “Her brother showed her compassion,” he insists, but Rai is not convinced, since the workers at the asylum might have hurt Azula. When she expresses that, Iroh responds hotly, “‘He knew naught of this, woman,’” and breathes out flames. I’m not fond of him calling her “woman” here, because when men do that, it’s often meant to be dismissive or demeaning. The show of flames is also not cool of him. Control yourself, Iroh.

 Rai isn’t impressed by him and plans to leave, but Iroh has more questions. He asks what happened to the man who assaulted Azula, and Rai responds: “‘Dead,’ Rai told the woodplank floor, her voice barely breaking a whisper when she crossed white arms under her ample bust.”—Why are you noticing the size of her breasts, Iroh? But also, this does seem hard for Rai to talk about.

 Iroh assumes Azula killed the guy, but Rai corrects him, telling him that she did it herself. “The woman raised her eyes to his, and Iroh was reminded uncannily of his missing sister-in-law.” Oh, I hope that Ursa kills Ozai. I feel like it’s improbable that that will happen, but I want it. Also, the phrase “silk hiding steel” comes to mind here, both for Rai and Ursa.

 Rai discusses her reasons for killing Lee—both to give Azula a measure of protection and for justice—and how her own husband, Shou, abused her. “If she had been abused, of course this cook would look coldly on what she likely viewed as excuses for the abuse of Azula. Her own husband probably made her parrot lines like that, that it was an accident, she did it to herself….”—As much as I obviously empathize with Azula, I should point out that there is, theoretically, some danger in Rai doing the same. If Azula had continued to behave abusively towards others, Rai’s empathy for Azula’s suffering might have made her inclined to excuse Azula’s actions, much like Iroh currently does for Zuko. And if she’s excusing those actions, then she might have been caught off guard and hurt by Azula during their time together.

 That being said, in this case, Rai’s empathy is refreshing, and also lends itself to a more accurate reading of Azula’s character than Iroh has. Iroh, very confused by this point, asks Rai why she would go to such lengths to help his niece. As it turns out, Rai worked in the kitchens at the palace, while her husband was an imperial firebender. She couldn’t accuse him of abuse or get away from him, but when Azula started banishing people, Rai was banished before he was—and so she managed to escape and stay ahead of him all of this time.

 “‘Rai,’ he said quietly, a little concerned for her sanity at this point, ‘you must know she didn’t mean to help you. She banished her servants because she was crazy, not out if any altruistic urge.’”—It rubs me the wrong way that Iroh thinks that Rai might be crazy. There’s a part of me that wants to throw at him, “You only think that because you’ve never known what it’s like to be helpless,” but I know that’s not true. It’s not like Azulon was compassionate to Iroh or cared about his emotional needs, and losing Lu Ten would definitely have made Iroh feel helpless. Still, this grates on me, possibly because Iroh is a very privileged man and hasn’t faced the same hardships as Rai. I feel like Ursa would understand Rai, though. I don’t know if they would get along—somehow, I doubt it, since Rai has faith in Azula and Ursa does not—but I’d love to see a conversation between them someday.

 Much to Iroh’s discomfort, Rai talks about how the palace staff knew that Ozai was mistreating Azula, and hints that there were rumors about the sexual abuse, too: “Those years Prince Zuko was banished, her father kept her so close [ . . . ] She turned up all manner of strange injuries [ . . . ] and even disappeared for a week once. There were some as said he killed her. And those were the least of the rumors. [ . . . ] There was something…wrong there. [ . . . ] Everyone knew it. And no one did anything. [ . . . ] Not even me.”

 When Iroh points out that Ozai was the Fire Lord and there was nothing that she could have done, Rai is not consoled: “‘And she was a piece of work,’ Rai finished bluntly, holding his gaze. ‘I know. She was also a child, with no one to treat her like one. I thought I might be someone to look out for her, even years too late’”—God, it’s so nice to hear someone point out that no matter how cruel Azula was, she was a kid and didn’t deserve what happened to her. It’s so good to see someone want to look out for her and help her. I’ve never thought that Rai could have been an inspiration for Tam, but she’s hitting the same points, even if she’s a very different person. I wish we had more of Rai in this, but I suspect her role in the story is done by the end of this chapter.

 As their conversation winds down, Iroh reassures Rai that she did help Azula and pays her for the information. Rai urges him to help Azula, even if Azula pushes him away. “‘She really seems to hate you,’” Rai says, and I think that’s due to, A.) Ozai turning Azula against Iroh, B.) Iroh’s claim of killing the last dragon, C.) Iroh sending Azula gifts that catered more towards who Ursa wanted her to be, rather than who Azula wanted to be, and D.) Iroh choosing Zuko and telling Zuko to confront Azula and take her crown from her. Iroh says his goal is to help Azula, but he inwardly admits that he’s not sure how.

 We shift back to Zuko, who is just arriving at Mai’s place. Mai’s uncle, the warden from the Boiling Rock, is there, and isn’t happy to see Zuko. He escorts Zuko in, and there is a brief exchange with Mai’s parents, during which her mother seems to imply that Mai’s uncle better not mess things up with the Fire Lord. Once the rest of the family is gone, Tsutomu quickly establishes that if it weren’t for Mai, he’d gut Zuko, because Mai has told him everything.

 I’m not sure this was a wise call on Mai’s part—the more people who know a secret, the harder it is to keep—but I understand why she did it. She knows that her uncle is loyal to her. She knows that he doesn’t like Zuko. It would feel safe to go to him with this. That and he has contacts who could help her.

 “Zuko was glad Mai had him to support her through this. But the warden would have done his utmost to poison her against him”—You did that yourself, Zuko.

 “But then, a man who lays with his sister and tries to kill his father, what would you know about [family]?”—Woof, yeah, Zuko is a walking Greek tragedy. I’m curious about what Hu Xin did to be considered an equivalent.

 “And I’m not sure that’s something I can allow in my niece’s life, regardless of her wishes.”—Fair, but you can’t support Mai if you’re executed for committing treason and regicide, Tsutomu.

 Zuko asks if Mai’s parents know, but Tsutomu dismisses the idea: “‘They still think you fucked that waterbender.’” I am slightly amused by the confusion there, but not amused by the warden calling Katara a “nubile little savage” right afterwards. Gross and racist, Tsutomu.

 “Zuko could only stare at him, sick with the realization that Mai’s parents suspected he cheated on her, even if they didn’t know with whom. And they still treated Zuko better than their daughter.”—More evidence that monarchies and patriarchies are terrible. The warden acknowledges that, saying that Mai’s parents expect this sort of thing from a noble husband, and that they think that Mai should suck it up and make sure her son’s and her family’s futures are secure, rather than let her hurt feelings get in the way. Which the warden thinks is bullshit, and as much as I don’t like him, I agree with him.

 “‘Be the man that she deserves,’” he tells Zuko, and I’m like, “You tell him, Scary Warden.”

 Zuko goes to find Mai, who is still wearing her crown. “She wouldn’t if she meant to desert him, would she?”—Dude, she earned that. I wouldn’t give it up without a fight either. Like, I don’t like monarchies, and I’d set up a council if someone gave me a crown…but like hell if I’m giving up that crown! It’s shiny!

 Mai has been waiting for him to approach her to talk. I don’t know if I’m supposed to find the bed exchange amusing, but—Mai, come on. The bed needed to go. How could you sleep in it again knowing that Azula was raped and impregnated there? No, let it burn. Throw some oil on it while you’re at it. There’s bad juju in that mattress. I don’t think making Lu Ten in that bed erased the aura of squick. Though also, Zuko, you should have offered her a different bed. Come on, my dude.

 “‘Really?’ Mai sprang like the jaws of a trap snapping closed. ‘So you were thinking of me the whole time you were with her?’”—Yikes!

 Mai continues to press him on why he slept with Azula, with him getting “unaccountable angry that she wouldn’t just accept his explanation.” She doesn’t buy that the fight spun out of control, though that was a part of what happened. But that isn’t why it happened. Zuko reveals the ugly truth of it: “‘She made me so angry [ . . . ] I just lost control.’”—Meaning that Zuko didn’t have sex with Azula because he loved her. He did it to punish her.

 Mai then asks why Azula would sleep with Zuko, and Zuko tries to explain that it’s because Ozai abused Azula. Mai isn’t convinced by this—maybe she thinks that this is some kind of Morgana plot on Azula’s part—and doesn’t believe that Ozai would admit to the abuse, either.

 “‘He just let it slip, in a moment of anger!’” Zuko says, to which Mai responds, “‘Really? Because that sounds a lot more like you.’”—Yes. Yes, Mai, Zuko and Ozai are very similar people. Similar explosive angers, similar self-centered natures, similar disregard for Azula’s personhood. Yes, you got it in one, even if you don’t realize it yet.

 “‘You’re a fool if you think it ever happened.’”—This is so ugly. Mai, don’t be this person. Don’t be the person who thinks that the rape victim is lying.

 “‘Because I know Azula, I know how she thinks [ . . . ] She makes you feel sorry for her, you give her want she wants. You let her bend again when she starved herself, maybe you’ll give her a royal pardon when it turns out Daddy fu—’”—Mai, I don’t think you’ve ever understood Azula. Not really. Right now, you sound like all of the Azula-haters out there, who see Azula as a conniving snake, rather than a deeply troubled girl. And honestly, when did Azula ever act weak to try to get what she wanted? And why would she want this story to be spreading about her? It will make everyone look at her differently. At best, they’ll pity her; at worst, they’ll find a way to blame her for what happened, or say that it served her right, even though she was a child.

 Zuko raises a hand to strike Mai at this point, almost adding wife-beater to his sin list, but Mai intercepts him and tries to kiss and come onto him. When Zuko pushes her away, Mai asks him why he didn’t push Azula away, too—which HE SHOULD HAVE. Which he had opportunities to do! But he didn’t and he doesn’t know why.

 Mai has a theory, though: “‘It wasn’t just the fight. You wanted her. You lusted after her. Your own sister. [ . . . ] You act like you caught some disease that impaired your judgement. [ . . . ] But people don’t do what you did without feeling that way for a long time. And you never said a word to me.”—I think Mai is correct here, though this doesn’t touch on how his resentment towards and his desire to dominate Azula pushed him over the edge. I also want to sit her down and say, “He didn’t know, so he couldn’t have told you,” because I don’t think that Zuko knew on a conscious level what he felt for Azula, besides anger. Also, Mai, would him telling you have made it better, somehow?

 “‘You would never talk about her! I had no one I could talk to about her—’”—Ty Lee is glaring at you from the other side of the planet, Zuko.

 Mai accuses Zuko of raping Azula, which he denies, but Mai asserts what I’ve been saying for chapters now: “‘If she was crazy, how could she give consent?’”—Thank you, Mai! Thank you for calling him out on this!

 Mai wants to play the blame game, either having Azula or Zuko be entirely at fault for what happened. It’s not that simple, though. The truest answer here is probably Ozai—he’s the one who messed both of his children up—but at the same time, Zuko was in full control of his actions, unlike Azula. So we can’t and shouldn’t absolve him of responsibility.

 As Mai starts to cry, Zuko tries to hug her, but she pushes him away. “‘I want my husband [ . . . ] I want the man who would never do this! I want the man I trusted!’”—This reflects the pain that people feel when they find out that one of their loved ones has abused someone, except without the denial that usually comes with it. It feels impossible to reconcile the person you thought you knew and cared about with who they’ve been revealed to be. As much as I don’t like how Mai demonizes Azula, I understand and feel for her here.

 Zuko asks if this means that she won’t come back, but she clarifies that she will, with some conditions. After all, there’s Lu Ten to think of. “‘He asks for you every day.’ A tear dripped from her chin, and watching this, Zuko needed a moment to realize she was talking about their son.’”—Dude, think more about your son! You barely seem to!

 Mai’s conditions are reasonable: Talk to her before telling their son about what’s going on. Give her her own quarters. Don’t come into them unless she summons him. Keep her in the loop about the search for Azula. She’ll probably have more requests in the future, but this is a good start.

 We switch over to Aang and Katara, who are visiting Bumi in Omashu. Bumi captured Azula at one point and she escaped, which is what the pair are here to discuss with him. We get the detail that there are now bounty hunters looking for Azula, and that the people of the Fire Nation aren’t thrilled with the search.

 “[Aang] began to realize that he was not these people’s hero. He wondered if Azula might be.”—Honestly, Aang? Yeah, she is. Their princess is the youngest firebender master in centuries, she has blue fire (which could be seen as a sign of Agni’s blessing), and she conquered Ba Sing Se with only two comrades, after their most famous general failed to. Iroh and Zuko are also, technically, traitors to the Fire Nation, since they defected and helped overthrow the king. This isn’t even touching on the dismantling of the Fire Nation’s military, the trials against many of the Fire Nation’s nobles and generals, or the massive amounts of reparations that Zuko has given to the other countries. Are these things, in the broader sense, justified? Of course. The Fire Nation’s imperialist regime brought 100 years of suffering to the world, suffering that is still fresh for the other countries. But from the perspective of the people of the Fire Nation, this looks like a deep betrayal from their leaders. The fact that the economy is tanking and the crops aren’t good must look like further signs that Zuko is bringing disaster onto the realm. Of course the people would look up to Azula instead. She brought them glory. Zuko is forcing them to feel shame. It’s little wonder that they prefer her to him.

 Moving on. Bumi is apparently 117 years old now. I know that Kyoshi lived to 230, but this is still wild to me. It’s also wild that Bumi became the king of Omashu, considering that he was a commoner and is still illiterate. Not that there’s anything wrong with either of those things—I think that compassion is a much more important quality in a leader, and Bumi has that in spades—but I’m surprised that the Earth Kingdom allowed it. I have to assume his prodigious earthbending was part of what elevated him. I bet there’s a whole story there, which we’ll sadly never see.

 Katara is offended to learn that Bumi shared a meal with Azula, but Bumi reminds her that he shared a meal with them, too, when they were prisoners. “It’s the little things that count, you know, Aang [ . . . ] Never forget that.”—Bumi knows how important kindness is, and probably suspects how little of it Azula has been shown in her life.

 Bumi doesn’t buy that Azula is crazy and dismisses the danger she poses if angered: “‘Oh, all Fire Nation people are like that’”—Which is too much of a generalization for my tastes. He thinks that Iroh might be an exception, but given that Iroh breathed out flames at the suggestion that Zuko put Azula into an abusive environment, I’m not convinced.

 When Bumi compares Azula to her “prince” brother, Aang worries that he might be going senile, but Bumi gently corrects him. They then get back to business—Bumi reveals that Azula stowed away in a cargo caravan and was caught by inspectors when she fell asleep. Aang is surprised by this, but Bumi reminds him that Azula was sick during her stay in Omashu. Azula was with Bumi for two days—god, I would have loved to see that—before he let her go. Aang and Katara are shocked and ask why. Bumi confides that he’s worried that Azula’s capture and death will lead to war, since Zuko threatened as much.

 Aang and Katara don’t believe Bumi at first, with Aang going so far as to say, “‘He wouldn’t endanger [the peace] for personal concerns.’”—I’m sorry, Aang, but have you met Zuko? Family is super important to him, even if that family is dysfunctional. Katara understands, since she’s the girl who went on a revenge quest to murder her mother’s killer, but only stopped when she realized that the killer wasn’t worth damaging her soul over. But if Sokka’s life was on the line, you better believe that she would start a war for him. Katara is just as ruled by her emotions as Zuko is, and just as inclined toward dramatic gestures. Aang’s own culture works against him somewhat here, since it emphasizes the communal over blood relations (which are functionally erased, though there must have been someone keeping records of who was related to who, to avoid accidental incest). It makes it difficult for him to grasp how deep a bond with a family member can go, even one who you have a bad relationship with. Zuko and Azula are parts of each other’s identity, difficult though that is for both of them to accept.

 Bumi points out that the Earth Kingdom is part of why he didn’t turn Azula over to the Fire Nation or Aang—the Earth Kingdom is more of a collection of countries in a trench-coat, rather than a single, organized government. If Omashu defied the wishes of Ba Sing Se by turning Azula over to safety, rather than to them, the people of Omashu would pay the price. We also learn that since Bumi outed himself as a White Lotus member, he hasn’t had access to privileged information, like Azula’s trial in absentia.

 Regardless of who catches Azula, though, the Earth Kingdom sees it as a win. Either they catch and kill her and restore their honor, or Zuko shelters her from them and they can start a war over it—a war which would help them seize Fire Nation resources and recover from the occupation. Zuko has, apparently, suspended reparations to them.

 Bumi adds that a war with the Earth Kingdom would be extremely difficult to fight: “‘A continent this vast supplies almost unlimited troops, and plenty of places to hide private armies. And our chain of command is more convoluted than the 52nd Earth King’s family tree.’” The technological gap between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom has also been closing since the war ended, and with the Fire Nation’s military gutted, it would be challenge for them to get an edge on the Earth Kingdom again. Overall, our heroes are in a bind, but there’s still time for them to find a way out of it. Until Azula is captured, that is—that will force the issue.

 At this point, some letters arrive. The Gaang, thinking that Azula went to Kyoshi Island to recruit Ty Lee, are relieved that Ty Le “refused.” In truth, Ty Lee would have gone with Azula, but Azula told her no, because she understands the pain that she caused Ty Lee by forcing her to choose between her friends, and doesn’t want to do that again. Zuko tells them that he’s going to Kyoshi Island himself to ask questions, and that they shouldn’t waste the trip, which they accept…but Aang is starting to feel like he can’t trust Zuko, which troubles him.

 We cut to Zuko as he arrives on the island. It turns out that Kaede actually bought that Azula and Ty Lee were fighting, and gave Ty Lee some light work to cheer her up. Zuko thinks that maybe Azula told Ty Lee everything and that’s why she’s not acting like herself. I wish that Azula had told Ty Lee, since it would be good for her to have someone in her corner who knows what happened from her perspective. But I understand why Azula didn’t say anything—it’s a memory that causes her shame, she’s used to keeping stuff like this a secret, Ty Lee might have let it slip to someone else, and it would have driven a wedge between Ty Lee and her other friends, something Azula is being careful not to do. But even so, I wish Azula had someone who knew and was supporting her in the aftermath, rather than her carrying it on her shoulders alone. But Azula isn’t used to accepting help from others, especially with things that are this sensitive.

 When Ty Lee and Zuko meet, Ty Lee says that she didn’t think that Zuko would want to see her, and Zuko contradicts this with, “‘We’re friends, aren’t we?’” I don’t think that is true, given how Zuko thinks about her and how dismissive he’s been to her in the past. Zuko tries to apologize for that, but Ty Lee is more upset about how he’s treated Azula than with how he’s treated her. Zuko gets to the point: he wants information about Azula, such as why she was crying. Ty Lee refuses to give him that info because it’s personal to Azula, which tells us that Ty Lee wouldn’t have shared what happened to Azula if Azula had told her.

 When Zuko says that he’s just trying to help Azula, Ty Lee calls bullshit. “‘You’re just trying to help yourself! She never would have ran if she thought there was any chance of you ever letting her out! But you never saw her; you wouldn’t even answer her letters! [ . . . ] Even I could tell you just dropped her there to forget about her—”—So true, Ty Lee. Especially the part about him never seeing her, which works on both a literal and figurative level.

 “‘I never forgot!” Zuko insists, but this is actually more damning. It suggests that he kept Azula there so he would always know where she was and have control over her life.

 “‘You never helped her, either [ . . . ] I know she didn’t always treat you right. I know, because she hurt me too. [ . . . ] But that’s not all she was. She’s not a monster. [ . . . ] She feels remorse, and she can repay kindness with kindness. She’s just—seen so little of that, I don’t know if she knows what it looks like anymore.’”—Clearly Ty Lee dumped most of her character creation points into Wisdom (and Dexterity). She might not be cunning, but she understands people, Azula included, much better than most of the other characters do. She has a lot of empathy, which I deeply appreciate.

 Interrupting their conversation, though, June the bounty hunter storms into the clearing, with her shirsu paralyzing Ty Lee with a lash of its tongue. And that brings us to the end of another chapter! As always, thank you for the read, Aurelia!

 Sincerely,

WiseAbsol  

[tastes-like-ciel]

>By all accounts, he shouldn’t still care for his father the way he does, but that’s a topic for another time (and one I will happily go into, if anyone likes).

Sure! 

Gonna put a warning message before my answer on this, though. Everyone be advised the topics I’m going to discuss are uncomfortable as the subject is about Ryoken’s relationship (or lack thereof) with his father, who abused not only other children but his own as well and before anyone says “Ryoken was never abused!” 

Yes. 

He was. 

Just not in the same way as the other six.

Abuse takes different forms and just because something isn’t physical or doesn’t leave marks on someone’s body, doesn’t mean it’s not abuse.

But yes. Big warning ahead of my thoughts. Just in case someone would rather not read it. Also spoilers for the whole series. There’s some screenshots in here. Otherwise, carry on.

So Dr. Kogami is a horrible, awful person. We all know this. Not only did he kidnap and experiment on six, six-year-old children for six long months, but he allowed his only child to discover these experiments and showed no kind of remorse for his actions at any point in the series. There was only the one time, just before his death, where he admitted to not doing anything fatherly for Ryoken. Just that one hot second of maybe regret and considering how he immediately jumps into the “But the world needs you.” drivel, he’s only making excuses and I don’t believe he actually regrets how he treated Ryoken all that much.

And that’s it. A whole lot of nothing that only really enforced how much of a terrible person Dr. Kogami is. It wasn’t a redemption (even if perhaps Ryoken himself might have seen it as a sort of apology from a father to his son). It wasn’t even one of YGO’s handwaved or half-assed attempts at a villain redemption. He just was never redeemed and things are fine like that because honestly, I don’t believe there’s anything they could have done or could still do to redeem that man. VRAINS continually condemns Dr. Kogami for his actions in one form or another and goes through great pains to express that Ryoken is not at fault for anything his father has done. If anything, he’s a victim and this is YGO so it’s not going to go that deeply into it, but VRAINS has gone surprisingly deep into this subject as well as with the six kids considering it’s, at its core, a card game anime meant to promote cards. And honestly, the later time slot the show was given makes total sense because it’s not so much the graphic depictions of torn-off limbs or avatar corpses it shows, but the entire subject of abuse and learning to heal and overcome it. VRAINS’ theme is “taking a step forward” and it shines through in this sense because while it is a card game anime, it very much is a story about abuse survivors and characters with deep depression finding themselves and learning how to live despite their trauma.

The abuse of the six Lost Incident children is easy to see and understand, but there are other characters such as Ryoken, Aoi, Shoichi, etc. that are suffering through depression for various reasons. Ryoken grew up with essentially no one. All he had was his father. We don’t know what happened to his mother. It’s possible she died during childbirth or died before Ryoken was old enough to remember her and thus could be a catalyst to setting Dr. Kogami on the path to try manufacturing immortality. It’s also possible that Ryoken was a test tube baby and as much as I hate to think it, it’s also possible the mother just left. Unless the show tells us directly one day, we’ll never know. Regardless, Dr. Kogami was Ryoken’s only parent–his only role model–and a parent is God in the eyes of a child. His father was his whole world and he loved his father very dearly. He had no reason to believe, at such a young age, that his father was capable of physically hurting someone. That’s just not something children think about until it actually happens.

And then, of course, it does happen.

Ryoken brings home a friend one day. That friend is Yusaku. Dr. Kogami, I’m assuming, used Ryoken to lure Yusaku to him. Can’t say about the others because no one except Yusaku has given any indication that they remember meeting a tiny white marshmallow with a deck of Duel Monsters cards, but it’s possible. However, it’s odd that he would only choose to speak with Yusaku and no one else, so I’m thinking this was either a one-time case or he could only get in contact with Yusaku’s cell. But the fact is he and Yusaku meet and Ryoken takes him home. Maybe they played for a little while and I imagine they probably did. Dr. Kogami was after child duelists, specifically, since he believed dueling was the best way for the developing Ignis to understand human behaviour and a young child would still be in the development phase/easier to study, making his experiments have better results overall. So he’d probably want proof they knew how to duel first. What better way than to let his son have a playmate before taking them away? He could have witnessed the other kids dueling or, considering he had assistants to help him with this, they also could have helped in the kidnapping.

His father was so obsessed with the idea of creating humanity’s successors that he kidnapped and tortured six children for months and months and he used his only child to get at least one of them. His eight-year-old son, who didn’t understand what was going on. His eight-year-old son, who had no reason to believe his father could do evil. His eight-year-old-son, who he claimed to never want involved but did absolutely nothing to prevent Ryoken from finding–and hearing!! Ryoken heard them screaming!!–the experiments he was performing on those kids. He starved them, electrocuted them, left them in cold, lonely rooms where they slowly began to lose hope and inched closer and closer to death.

And those kids absolutely would have died had Ryoken not blown the whistle on the whole thing.

Think about it. Dr. Kogami kidnapped these children to use them for experiments. Test subjects gathered in such a way do not typically have happy endings. Dr. Kogami would not have let them go. He would have kept them in those rooms until they died, until they gave up. He couldn’t risk the kids going back and telling the authorities and having all his research taken away from him. They were only there for six months because Ryoken made it end. The only child that might have survived, in the end, would have probably been Spectre. Yusaku was giving up, Jin was being tortured with false hope by Lightning and withdrawing from everything, and can’t say about the others. Miyu kept thinking of Aoi and how much she wanted to see her again and that kept her going, but we don’t know how long she could have lasted. Maybe she would have survived alongside Spectre, though. So at the most, two of the six would have survived.

But the point is, Dr. Kogami is a bad person. Ryoken has every reason to not care for him. He was neglected, manipulated, used. And his father didn’t care. He kept doing it. He kept using him and manipulating him into thinking he had anything to do with this whole mess. Now Ryoken has done some bad things himself. He tried to nuke the entire network in a suicide mission, which was part following his father’s orders and part his guilt complex surfacing. His father was going to let this happen, too. He didn’t care if Ryoken lived or died so long as the Ignis were also dead in the process. Dr. Kogami is truly, truly an awful person. 

But like I said before, a parent is a child’s whole world and Dr. Kogami was all Ryoken had. Even though he was manipulated and neglected and never even tried to deny these things when his father spoke of causing him to suffer, he still stayed by his side. He kept quiet and suffered in alone. He shouldn’t have had to deal with that. He could have chosen to leave his father and no one would blame him, but a point I want to make here is Ryoken choosing to stay with his father despite all he’s done is both him not wanting to abandon his only father out of guilt he’s being a bad son and a classic example of a victim defending their abuser. It’s even more complicated when that abuser is a parent. Ryoken was very young and wasn’t physically abused, but I think you already know where I’m going with this because I kept mentioning it. Neglect and manipulation and grooming to be a martyr for killing the Ignis. Ryoken was a means to an end for Dr. Kogami and Ryoken was willing to die for him if it meant his father was paying attention to him finally. Of course, even then, it was all about the Ignis. Nothing Ryoken ever did to please him made him be fatherly.

He says, in front of his own child. Who he has no qualms about letting die along with the Ignis with the Tower of Hanoi plan he hatched.

That must have hurt an awful lot. Ryoken didn’t deserve any of this. He was done very, very wrong by his father, who never gave a shit about him. Dr. Kogami doesn’t deserve to have him as a son, but I understand why Ryoken stuck with him. He wanted his attention, he wanted his love, he wanted to be important in his father’s life, and I’m sorry, Ryoken, honey, that you never got it.

[myfandomrambles]

An Analysis of Villianey

( This is Part 1b, Part 1a here)

Section II: Tragic Backstories

This is another super common way to make villains sympathetic. Giving someone a terrible childhood is a short cut to make someone feel bad for someone. Tragic backstories are super common and sometimes making the villains the most compelling character in really good ways. Both to make the characters truly a person who is empathetic or just understandable. There are three ways I think this can be done really well.

You can make them a redeemed character like Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender), Megamind (Megamind) or Peridot (Steven Universe).

An anti-hero/grey characters who don’t join the light side but acts heroically but on their own code. Wade Wilson (Deadpool), Dexter Morgan (Dexter), Punisher (Marvel), Harley Quinn (DC)  or Don Vito Corleone (The Godfather)  

A  bad guy who remains bad at the end, we know why they are bad but aren’t ever fixed. EX: Merrin Meredith (Septimus Heap), Morgana (BBC Merlin), Voldemort (Harry Potter),  Bane (DC), Or Davros (Doctor Who)

One important thing about writing these stories is to be done right you do have to choose the end game. How the character acts in relationships during the story changes which outcome is compelling and even feels possible. Things to consider:  rather they have any guiding belief system if this backstory includes trauma how the heal from that, their relationship to the power system, and how much they change their actions to move towards saying sorry and becoming better. Not every character is written in a way where a character can become better, or even should. The Diamonds (Steven Universe) keep having their characterization, actions, back story, and relationships altered leaving a confused story arc. The Diamonds are also on a list of characters who should not be redeemed because of the severity of their actions. They are written as space fascists no matter how sad they are it’s problematic to pretend the trauma of a dead love excuses attempted genocide.

A revolting part of this trend is tragedy porn. Stories of violence, poverty, mental illness, child abuse, disability, domestic abuse or sexual assault are exploited for shock value and making money from real pain. This is used to create a reason for a character to be broken or evil. A cheap gritty story of how our villain got there instead of writing an interesting motivation or taking into account the cultural and psychological damage of associating trauma and mental health with villainy. This also plays into the trope of mental illness being dangerous or a problem of morality. If it’s just because they are too broken you can kiss it away and fixing the trauma fixes the problem of horrible acts of violence.  If you do write traumatic backstories as motivation for their actions have the behaviours actually track with trauma. Catra’s (She-Ra 2018)  trauma is inherently tied to her motivation as the villain and essentially to her role as the deuteragonist of the narrative. But they show how and why this trauma matters, and choose to display the abuse in a way that while explicit and horrific isn’t exploitive and the refrain from showing realistic physical abuse that too clearly mirrors real life trauma. Her narrative of becoming the antagonist makes sense with her history of indoctrination, betrayal, fear of violence, and psychological trauma. It mirrors the narrative of the hero as well throwing off their primary abuser in both instances making it possible for this story to not demonize trauma. Another important thing to keep in mind when writing these kinds of narratives is to do research and represent any mental illness at least mostly accurately.

Another frustration is when people use these backstories to form a “well they could never have done/known better” and therefore they did nothing wrong mindset. This an oversimplified reading of good storytelling and the reading for poorly written characters. The idea that no one could ever know better is used in defence of characters like Kylo Ren (Star Wars), Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender), Billy Hargrove (Stranger Things), Draco Malfoy (Harry Potter). However this excuse really only extends so far it tracks best with children when we see them alter perspective when exposed to other ideas and when the behaviours mirror what was done to them. Abuse and trauma don’t always make angry violent people and the majority of people who do become angry hurt people but not murders. Then you do have indoctrination but there is a reason the Nuremberg defence doesn’t excuse everything.

This excuse also falls apart somewhat when you can point to another character [or real life person] in the same or similar situation who did change. This whole way of viewing things become an exercise in letting people who have hurt others go without their actions analyzed and without being held responsible. In a literary analysis standpoint it’s lazy and in reality, it is dangerous to do this with anyone who was hurt in the past. Empathy and understanding are always important, understanding why people end up where they do is key to life. Some people do horrific things with no trauma, and who did know better searching for a sympathetic reason doesn’t help make things better. And even more so those who have been abused or manipulated and did wrong should be helped to work through trauma and learn to understand and change from they have done in the past not have all of their behaviour excused with a handwave. People shouldn’t be taught that abuse forgives abusing, later on, they should know they never deserve to be treated poorly and they can’t love abusers better.  And of course, this is often applied enviable around factors like race, gender, power level and perceived hotness.

Anti Heros I think are criminally underrated wanting them to either be good or be bad. We romanticize the ones we should see as good [usually hot people] or demonize the ones it’s easier to see as all bad. Anti-heroic characters are hard because the lines differentiate these from redeemed people and real villains are connected to personal morality. But making them black and white is rationalizing when they make choices that are truly harmful as part of their “good” actions. Making them all bad strips the way they are often societal outsiders and the way they learned in the stories to move and act in life. This is the grey morality people claim to want in characters, and claim to see in their faves but people don’t appreciate it when they happen.

Constant manipulation of tragic backstory to say a character didn't really do anything bad, or they deserve redemption excuse also strips away truly tragic stories like the life of Inspector Javert (Les Miserables). Fall from grace stories can be really interesting like Walter White (Breaking Bad) or Harvey Dent (DC). Because sometimes life does eat someone up and they can’t find it in themselves to act in a different manner. Tragic stories are still okay, villains aren’t always going to be the good guys because they are meant to be just that villains. That is how they were written and how the best fit in stories and tell the story wanting to be shared. Sometimes villains made to many choices to hurt other people to be capable of total transformation to hero. These characters can still be three dimensional and interesting but they aren’t people who “done nothing wrong”. They did do something wrong and in the story that is fine, it’s what works in the narrative. Not every person can be healed with forgiveness and a hug.

The concept that Deserving redemption is tied to how sad their life was before but it isn't, it's based on the actions they do during the story.  a careful narrative that shows the path a person took to get the right place, the ways they changed and what influenced it is much more important. Let's use Tony Stark (Marvel) most of Iron Man 1 and iron man 2 are dedicated to him trying to be a better person, to use his remaining life to make the world better and atone for his wrongs. Tony Stark starts off as an unrepentant war criminal allowing the way he was groomed to ignore harm and gain power as an excuse to never address any of what he did was harmful. He drowned his trauma with addictions, shallow relationships. Yes, his trauma as a kid and during the narrative are driving pieces but why he is so heroic, why his phoenix narrative is one of the best in history is the choices he makes with what to do with that pain, he uses it to be earth's greatest defender. You do have some snapshot redemption stories that are good namely Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (Star Wars) but I think [save the ret-cond Anakin force ghost] this wasn't so much meant to be proving he is a good person, but just acknowledging that no one is truly dark or light side. Anakin’s life is more told as a Shakespearean fall from grace, but even if this arc comes out of nowhere it works because the actions are narratively and thematically done correctly.

People who are obsessed with redemption also often don’t do a real analysis of societal structures, cultural history or context. It’s not that they really are deconstructing societal factors, or understand trauma, mental health or what really causes crime and antisocial behaviour when they try and justify via trauma and no other choice. I think starting to create and analyse content on a wider more holistic standpoint would be a good exercise to apply empathy to real-life crimes of desperation, end the killer = crazy myth, and stop letting people blame hate crimes on white kids being bullied.

[other posts on this topic: Zuko and good redemption arcs, trauma and justification of violence, Catra, Adora & trauma part 1 & 2, the diamonds still suck ]

[goforwardgreenwriter-blog]

The Worm Reads: The Assassin’s Blade, Ch 28-29

A great way to start your first year in college is reading shitty YA novels.

We open up with Celery and some other assassins helping Ilias and the Master.

A few sniffs revealed that the wine had been laced with a small amount of gloriella, just enough to paralyze him, not kill him. (...) How had he not noticed it before he drank? Perhaps he wasn’t as humble as he seemed; perhaps he’d been arrogant enough to believe that he was safe here.

I am going to lose my shit. I am actually going to go insane.

You didn’t fucking notice either Celery you goddamn waste of space piece of shit!!!!!!! You were drugged the same as him, you don’t get to act all high and mighty!!!!! Fuck you, Celery. I was considering snarking the rest of the series but Jesus Christ this is actually making me fucking exhausted to the point where I don’t know if I can handle it.

The next few pages do that shitty thing where each scene is only a sentence or two long and they have to use the scene indicator a million times and it looks fucking ugly. Look at this.

Shit’s ugly, man. Anyways, Celery lets Ansel go even though she murdered innocent people and generally fucked everything up because of reasons, I suppose.

The Master calls Celery into his room later to talk (yeah, he can talk now) to her about how poor Ansel lost her family. Yeah, still doesn’t justify her murdering Mikhail and other people who considered her their friends.

He walked to a latticework hutch, as if he were giving her the time to regain her composure, and pulled out a letter. By the time he returned to her, Celaena’s eyes were clear. “When you give this to your master, hold your head high.” She took the letter. Her recommendation.

I wish the Master was in a better book, he truly deserves it.

He also gives Celery a bunch of gold to help pay off her debts, and even though I hate Celery and she doesn’t deserve it, the Master is too pure, too good for this world?

Sunlight gleamed on the gold inside, reflecting through the room like light on water. All that gold … and the piece of Spidersilk the merchant had given her … she couldn’t think of the possibilities that wealth would open to her, not right now. “When you give your master his letter, also give him this. And tell him that in the Red Desert, we do not abuse our disciples.

I think I stan him now? Yeah, I stan a minor character whose never gonna appear again. That’s how shitty the cast is in this book.

With that, that brings this shitty, shitty story to a close. I hate this one the most so far; horrible writing, horrible characters, Celery continues to grow even more unlikable, and there wasn’t even any Sammy in there to cling onto. Let’s just start the next one.

The next story is called The Assassin and the Underworld. Ow the edge.

The cavernous entrance hall of the Assassins’ Keep was silent as Celaena Sardothien stalked across the marble floor, a letter clutched between her fingers.

And we’re starting off with another Celery POV. Joy. At least The Healer short story allowed us tiny breaks with Yrene. Will I ever get my beloved Sammy POV?

So Celery marches into Arobynn’s study and tosses the letter at him, growing immediately pissy when he doesn’t open it.

She looked at the exquisite red carpet beneath her feet. Someone had done a splendid job of getting all the blood out. How much of the blood on the carpet had been hers—and how much of it had belonged to Sam Cortland, her rival and co-conspirator in the destruction of Arobynn’s slave agreement?

Good lord SJM, we know who Sammy is, stop info dumping us about shit we already know.

“If I could take back that night, Celaena, I would.” He leaned over the edge of the desk, his hands now forming fists.

So Arobynn pulls the abuse shtick of apologizing again and again for abusing Celery, and I hope to god she isn’t stupid enough to fall for it.

“Every day,” he went on. “Every day since you left, I’ve gone to the temple of Kiva to pray for forgiveness.” She might have snorted at the idea of the King of the Assassins kneeling before a statue of the God of Atonement, but his words were so raw. Was it possible that he actually regretted what he had done?

I swear to fucking god if I have to read Celery forgiving her abuser and handwaving his abuse away I am actually going to Kermit

Father, brother, lover—he’d never really declared himself any of them. Certainly not the lover part, though if Celaena had been another sort of girl, and if Arobynn had raised her differently, perhaps it might have come to that. He loved her like family, yet he put her in the most dangerous positions. He nurtured and educated her, yet he’d obliterated her innocence the first time he’d made her end a life. He’d given her everything, but he’d also taken everything away.

I am actually cringing so hard right now this is a major Yikes. Regardless of how many presents he buys you or if he acts nice sometimes, he’s still an abuser! He still beat the shit out of you and threatened to kick you out of your home if you didn’t get what he wanted!

So yeah Celery decides “oh well I’m not telling him about the gold I have and my plans to leave him” so fuck the Mute Master for giving you all that gold, I guess? Fuck you, Celery, just fuck you.

“Benzo Doneval is coming to Rifthold,” Arobynn said. Celaena cocked her head. She’d heard of Doneval—he was an immensely powerful businessman from Melisande, a country far to the southwest, and one of Adarlan’s newer conquests

Another boring fucker like Lord Berick who probably won’t even make an appearance? Seems likely.

Doneval is friends with a queen of Melisande that surrendered her crown to the King of Adarlan and he’s here to discuss building a trading road to help get some wealth rolling in Melisande.

Doneval also wants to set up a slavery trade in Adarlan, so Arobynn has been hired to take him out. Great. More of using slaves to prop Celery up, I see.

She was beginning to see where this was going. Doneval was practically wrapped in a ribbon for her. All she had to do was find out what time the meeting would take place, learn his defenses, and figure out a way around them.

I cannot wait to see how she fucks up this supposedly easy mission.

And even though there was no excuse in this world for what he had done, Arobynn was all she had. The history that lay between them, dark and twisted and full of secrets, was forged by more than just gold. And if she left him, if she paid off her debts right now and never saw him again …

Yeah, you read that right. Celery forgives her abuser because he raised her. Holy fuck, this is very uncomfortable for personal reasons I’m not going to get into, but just because someone raises you doesn’t mean you owe them shit. Fucking hell, SJM, do you know how humans function? Do you read your own shitty novels before you send them off to be printed?

Celery peaces out of there after lowkey forgiving her abuser which is. sjkhakdhkadhjk.

A passing servant bowed his head, eyes averted. Everyone who worked here knew more or less who she was, and would keep her identity secret on pain of death

But like??? Just???? Why?? Why is this a thing why why why why.

She clenched her hands into fists and was about to whirl and stomp back down the stairs to tell Arobynn that she was leaving and that he no longer owned her, when someone stepped into the elegantly appointed hall. Sam Cortland.

THERE HE IS THERE’S MY BOY THERE’S MY BOY

I missed Sammy so much holy shit, I can’t believe I’m actually excited to read this book for once. Sammy deserves such a better series.

No missing limbs, no limp, no indication of anything haunting him. His chestnut hair had gotten a little longer, but it suited him. And he was tan—gloriously tan, as if he’d spent the whole summer basking in the sun.

I’m so happy in fact, I barely did more than roll my eyes at the tanning thing. Sammy is here and he’s not maimed or harmed! No doubt that’ll change by the end for Celery’s angst but let me have this while it lasts.

“Are you hurt?” Sam asked quietly, taking another step closer. It took her a moment to realize that his imagination had probably taken him to a far, far worse place when she said someone had held a blade to her throat.

Please tell me that wasn’t a casual reference to sexual assault. Please tell me.

He was now looking more closely at her, at the almost invisible white line along her cheek—another gift from Ansel—at her hands, at everything. His lean, muscled body tensed. His chest had gotten broader, too.

I love how Sammy was implied to be an average sized dude until SJM decided Celery needs to thirst for him, and then BAM instant broad shouldered buff hottie. This series is so fucking ridiculous we are reaching Twilight levels.

“Sam!” a dark-haired, green-eyed young woman chided, laughter on her lips. “There you—” The girl’s eyes met Celaena’s. Celaena stopped smiling as she recognized her.

Oh great, more fucking girl hate. Listen, I’m not gonna pretend all women are perfect delicate angels who do nothing wrong and that all women get along 100% of the time but I’m sick and tired of all girls in YA not getting along. Why can’t girls just... be friends? Be civil and kind to one another? You know, how it mostly is in real life?

“Lysandra,” Celaena echoed. She’d met Lysandra when they were both ten, and in the seven years that they’d known each other, Celaena couldn’t recall a time when she didn’t want to beat in the girl’s face with a brick.

Oh great, it’s Lysandra to boot. Those who read my E0S know she was a decent character, certainly one who deserved better than to be a love interest for Assdion. Can’t wait for Celery to slut shame her a million times in this novel!

Apparently Lysandra and Celery cat fight all the time and one time Lysandra stole a fan from Celery so she beat the shit out of her. Lovely.

“[Arobynn] invited your future clients here?” “Oh, no.” Lysandra giggled. “This is just for me and the girls. And Clarisse, of course.” She used her madam’s name, too, like a weapon, a word meant to crush and dominate—a word that whispered: I am more important than you; I have more influence than you; I am everything and you are nothing.

Literally nothing that Lysandra said implied any of that, but go off on how important you supposedly are, Celery. She doesn’t have the brain power to comprehend people’s lives don’t revolve around her.

Lysandra lifted her chin, looking down her delicately freckled nose at Celaena. “My Bidding is in six days. They expect me to break all the records.” Celaena had seen a few young courtesans go through the Bidding process—girls trained until they were seventeen, when their virginity was sold to the highest bidder.

I know shit like this happened in real life, but the fact that Lysandra is excited about it is.... bleh. I already know SJM is gonna be super fucking tasteless about serious topics like this.

“Sam,” Lysandra went on, putting a slender hand on his arm, “has been so helpful with making sure all the preparations are ready for my Bidding party.” Celaena was surprised at the swiftness of her desire to rip that hand right off Lysandra’s wrist. Just because he sympathized with the courtesans didn’t mean he had to be so … friendly with them.

Oh, fuck you, Celery. Just because you have a crush on Sammy doesn’t mean he owes you shit. If he wants to be with Lysandra, that’s his right and he has no obligations to return your feelings!!! But no, use it as an excuse to slut shame Lysandra. You fucking piece of shit.

Though Lysandra’s virginity was unquestionable—it had to be—there were plenty of other things that she could still do. Things that she might have done with Sam …

This fucking bitch I swear to god.

1. Way to slut shame and portray it as a good thing if the girl “‘deserves it”“, SJM!

2. So what if Sammy and Lysandra had sex with each other? Sammy has no obligation to like you back or save himself for you. Jesus fucking christ.

Celery runs off to have a cry and literally nobody gives a shit. The end.

[sage-nebula]

2, 3, 5 and 14 for pokemon asks!

2.) What in-game battle was the hardest?

Okay, so like everyone else who experienced the original Gen II games, I was also scarred by Whitney’s miltank as a child, because it was way worse in the original GSC than it was in the HGSS remakes. But that said, as much as I do love Whitney, she has been dethroned …

… by fucking Ghetsis and his HACKED AF HYDREIGON.

You have no idea, NO IDEA, how many tries it took me to beat that motherfucking, cheating-ass hydreigon. No idea!!! I actually had to leave the Castle to go train and then come back because that bastard dragon was too much of an issue. I imagine Ghestis and N just sitting there in awkward silence, waiting for me to return, all because Ghetsis’ hydreigon—which shouldn’t even be a hydreigon yet, mind you, that’s why I’m calling it hacked—is too much of a goddamn beast to die, and yet keeps wiping out my team without restraint. It kind of killed how epic the ending was a bit since I had to pause the ending to go train a bit more, but what can you do. 

Lusamine’s clefable was also a little bastard in her final battle in Gen VII, but that just dragged the battle out, I didn’t have to try it again. Ghetsis definitely takes the cake on this one.

3.) Is the idea of catching them all/completing your Pokedex overwhelming?

No, it just doesn’t feel worth it.

I completed the ‘dex back in Gen I, because I thought I was going to get Togepi or something if I did. In my defense, I was eight or nine years old, and the internet wasn’t as prolific yet. Rumors flew everywhere, and while I knew some of them were fake (no matter how hard we tried, we could not move that fucking truck), there were others I still believed, because I wanted to believe them. So I believed that if I completed my ‘dex with all 151 pokémon I would get a ticket to the Grandfather Canyon from the anime to get Togepi, or would just be given a Togepi, or whatever other prize, I didn’t know. I expected something significant nonetheless. So using my brother’s Game Boy and both my Red Version and my Blue Version (along with my brother’s Game Shark for Mew—look, we didn’t have a lot of options back then, my dad laughed in my face when I asked him if he would let me skip school and then drive me to California or New York to attend one of the Mew giveaway events), I completed my PokéDex and proudly took it to Game Freak in-game …

… only to be given a bloody certificate. 

I raged. I raged so hard. And I vowed on that day to never waste my time completing the ‘dex ever again. And to this day I haven’t. I kind of wanted to in AlphaSapphire since the ‘dex nav made capturing pokémon fun once more, but I still didn’t and, in all honesty, I’m just not motivated. I don’t shiny hunt, so the Shiny Charm is useless to me. It’s not proper motivation. Game Freak needs to give me a real reason to want to complete the ‘dex before I’ll do it again. I don’t know what that motivation is yet, but we’ll see. (Probably more story content, but who knows how they’d implement that.)

So yeah, it’s not overwhelming, it’s just not worth it. When Game Freak gives me a reason to care, I’ll do it again. Until then … nah.

5.) The biggest Pokemon-related disappointment

I love Pokémon to the point where I consider it a lifestyle choice rather than a fandom, but honestly, we could be here all day with all the times it has disappointed me. A brief list of examples:

The aforementioned certificate for ‘dex completion in Gen I;

Not giving the U.S. the GS Ball / Celebi event in Gen II (like, we had giveaway events for Celebi in Gen II like the Mew ones, but I don’t think they gave you the GS Ball to take to the shrine—but then again, I could be wrong, because once again they were only in California and New York and thus I, a ten-year-old, couldn’t go);

The U.S. PokéCenter only being in New York (though now it’s a Nintendo World building, rather than a PokéCenter);

The GS Ball not amounting to anything in the anime. Ditto for the Ho-Oh subplot from the OS, and basically all the other subplots the OS introduced and then promptly dropped and forgot about;

Pokémon Origins. Just, the whole thing. The art is ugly, Origins!Red is so incompetent it’s a wonder he knows how to breathe, and so on and so forth;

MOVIE 20. From not actually being a proper anniversary movie, to spitting all over Ash’s and Pikachu’s relationship while simultaneously claiming to champion it (“I wanted Ash to once again be a normal ten-year-old boy who casually says abusive stuff when losing a battle—” HE WOULD NEVER, AND ESPECIALLY NOT TO PIKACHU, HOW DARE YOU—), it’s basically the biggest disappointment to ever exist;

Alan’s trauma being COMPLETELY swept under the rug and forgotten about after XYZ044 (like, XYZ044 and everything that came before it was perfect, but after that? DISOWNED, not canon in my eyes, et cetera);

Gladion having barely any plot involvement in Sun/Moon, and not being included in the climax at all even though it’s his fucking family;

Lusamine’s severe child abuse being handwaved and excused because she’s a woman in both the games and the fandom. The worst abusers in my life have been women, and so the fact that everyone wants to handwave Lusamine’s abuse, give her a happy ending, et cetera really bothers me. The fact that Ghetsis doesn’t get nearly the same apologism (not that he should, he definitely SHOULD NOT) is what tells me that it’s an issue of sexism rather than just abuser apologism / villain apologism, and again, I’m bothered by it;

Ride Pokémon being introduced in Gen VII, but you can’t use your own pokémon, but instead have to use loaner pokémon that you call to you. I already have my own charizard and lapras, so the fact that I have to borrow some strange charizard and lapras to fly around is insulting to the ones I have on my team. Fuck you and your stupid laws, Alola.

I could probably go on, but this is a taster. Like, honestly, again, I love this series more than any other, it’s a lifestyle choice and not just a fandom—but that’s why I’m critical of it. I hold it to certain standards because I love it so much, and I’m not afraid to express when it upsets me. This is a small sampling of the times it has. Trust me, there are more.

14.) Your most and least favorite professors

As far as the games go, my favorite professor is hands down Professor Burnet. She not only has the most interesting field in all of the games (she specializes in multiverse theory, how cool is that?!), but I also love everything about her design. She’s gorgeous. The fact that she also didn’t have a bigger role in the plot, and that we instead had to put up with Kukui’s annoying ass for the entire game, is yet another complaint I have about the Gen VII games.

Least favorite in the games, meanwhile, is prooooobably Cedric Juniper, because I hate the way he overshadowed Professor Juniper all throughout the Gen V games. She is to date our only primary female professor, and yet they just had to say that she inherited her practice from her father. Not only that, but he had to keep showing up and explaining things in lieu of letting her do it, which isn’t something that any other professor had to experience. So while I don’t have anything against Cedric himself, as a character, I am still bitter about the way that Juniper was treated as a result of his inclusion.

As far as the anime goes, Professor Sycamore is obviously hands down my favorite, because he is the best dad, especially for Alan. ♥ Best dad in the best family, I love him.

And least favorite in the anime is … hmm, probably Professor Ivy. She seemed sort of spaced out and not with it the entire time, and plus there was whatever she did to Brock to traumatize him every time her name is brought up … I would assume she just rejected him, but then again, we’re never told, so … :/ Yeah, Professor Ivy is probably my least favorite in the anime thus far.

[tigerlover16-uk]

Final Thoughts on The Shadow Dragons Saga. Dragon Ball’s lowest point.

You know, it’s kind of strange. The reason I started re-watching GT is because I thought I was going to enjoy it. I liked it just fine as a kid. I’ve always been one of those people who thinks fans have been way too harsh on it over the years, and it’s really not that bad. I expected to come out of this saying “It’s not just bad. It’s okay, sorta” and with plenty of nice things to say.

Instead I hate it. Like, I legitimately despise GT. And that’s weird, because when I was on the Baby Saga I thought I was having fun, aside from all the many things wrong with that. Super 17 made me need to take a break because my God, that was a chore. But I thought the Shadow Dragons Saga was going to be another good saga outside of it’s ending, because that’s what I always thought it was as a kid.

Who would have thought it would actually be terrible.

Let me make this clear once again. If anyone reading this like’s GT and this saga in particular... there is nothing wrong with that. Your opinion is valid to you and you deserve to enjoy it. Don’t read this if you want that enjoyment thrown into question. Because I don’t like it, and in fact I think this is the worst Dragon Ball story ever told outside of Dragon Ball Evolution and Episode of Bardock. And I will not pull any punches in explaining why.

The saga actually started off fairly good, the shadow dragons initial introduction as they spread across the earth was terrifying and the general idea of the dragon balls being corrupted and becoming a group of evil dragons bent on destruction is a tantalizing concept that seems tailor made to be the final Dragon Ball story and end the series on the perfect note... and then we meet Haze Shenron, and he gets hurt by some rubble falling on his foot. And it becomes clear this is all going to be really unsatisfying.

One problem I have with the shadow dragons is the set-up... THEY MAKE NO SENSE! So, apparently the dragon balls actually absorb a fair amount of negative energy every time they’re used, and that energy dissipates over a century, so they’re only supposed to be used once every hundred years because if they’re overused the dragon balls will crack and summon these evil shadow dragons that have the power to destroy the world or even the universe...

how and why? No seriously, how does this make any sense from an in universe perspective? Why would Kami design his dragon balls to take in so much negative energy and create planet destroying monsters? He was the guardian of the earth, and he gave humanity the dragon balls to help the planet recover after King Piccolo’s rampage and encourage them to do wonderful things with them. It was only later on that he came to regard humanity as selfish and greedy, and he got over himself after meeting Goku. WHY would he willingly create something that could destroy the planet he swore to protect and possibly the universe? The implications for his character here are just as disgusting as with the black star dragon balls.

Or is it the Namekians that decided that dragon balls should operate this way? I seriously can’t imagine the supposed peace loving Namekians would be stupid and reckless enough to design their magical wish orbs with such a glaring design flaw. They gave Porunga the ability to grant 3 wishes at once, and had those be prizes for contests they held. How come THEY never had to deal with this nonsense?

Or did they? Because according to Old Kai, this thing with the Shadow Dragons? IT’S HAPPENED BEFORE! A planet has supposedly been destroyed by something like the shadow dragons in the distant past. And it’s NEVER explained how, when, why, whatever! What was this event and how did it happen?

Did the Namekians have another planet that got destroyed by shadow dragons when they overdid it with their wishing before and they had to move to Namek? Did they give a set of Dragon Balls to some other race? If so, not only does that not make much sense given the namekians attitude about the dragon balls when they were introduced, but it would make them all look like idiots! Or did another race create their own Dragon Balls? Because if so that’s horse hockey and devalues both the concept of the dragon balls and the Namekians uniqueness in their ability to create them.

That whole incident they mention raises a barrage of questions that never get answered. But most of all... WHY WOULD THE NAMEKIANS DESIGN DRAGON BALLS WITH SUCH A FLAW!? Why did they never do anything to stop something like the Shadow Dragons from happening when they’re shown as being to alter their dragon balls? Or if they did with their own dragon balls, why did they never tell Dende how to fix that fault with the earth’s dragon balls? Why did they never warn our heroes about the dangers of overusing the Dragon Balls? Why did Old Kai never bring them up when he had the chance considering how angry he gets at the Z fighters when the Shadow Dragons are born? Why did King Kai never bring up that this could happened when he’s had Kami use the Dragon Balls to grant his own wish before? Why was all of this information apparently never relevant until now when it’s all too late and none of the characters who should know this was a possibility ever did anything to stop this disaster from happening? WHY WHY WHY?

The entire aspect of the Shadow Dragons been born from all that negative build up makes no sense given the logic and events of the previous two series. I get the meta commentary at play in how the dragon balls are an over used deus-ex-machina, make everything better again plot device throughout the series, but this idea that the Shadow Dragons came about as Karma for Goku and friends “Abusing” the balls makes no sense. Like Goku brings up at one point, almost every wish we’ve seen get made in the series was for a good cause. And the earth, nay the entire universe wouldn’t exist right now if the characters didn’t have the balls  handy. Their wishes were selfless, they’re exactly the sort of things Kami WANTED people to wish for when he made the darn things. Why would he set it up so that not only would people be punished for doing that, but that the one Shadow Dragon that’s so noble that he’s borderline good to start out and pulls a full on face turn later is the dragon formed from the one entirely SELFISH wish in the entire series? I get what they were going for thematically, but both from a logical standpoint and even thematically, nothing about the logic applied to the Shadow Dragons makes a darn lick of sense.

How are these things so powerful anyway? Shenron was easily killed by King Piccolo, who while he’s a great villain let’s be honest, is an absolute creampuff compared to every major villain of Z and isn’t even a millionth as powerful as Majin Buu, who at this point in GT should be able to be one-shot by SSJ4 Goku. Shenron’s power had a number of limits, and he was useless at stopping anyone that was stronger than Kami. Who would have gotten his butt kicked by a saibaman. And without kicking it’s butt beforehand like Yamcha did. I legitimately can’t believe that the dragon balls are capable of becoming beings as powerful as the Shadow Dragons are presented simply by storing up a bunch of negative energy. And don’t give me the excuse of “It’s magic, we don’t have to explain it” Because NO! You DO have to explain it! You’re not allowed to pull a stunt like this and never explain yourself outside of a brief handwave.

And if the fact that this saga is built on an even bigger, completely illogical contrivance than the Black Star balls wasn’t a problem, the presentation of the Shadow Dragons makes them an insulting waste of an idea outright.

The first Shadow dragon looks like a deformed frog and is a complete wimp, only getting an advantage over our heroes because of a cheap gimmick and because Goku and Pan didn’t just kill him straight away, and the two are healed in a contrived manned so they can finish the guy off anti-climactically. The second Shadow Dragon literally loses because it starts to rain. Oceanus Shenron is the only one of the first four dragons to actually be okay, but she feels like she would fit in more as a one off villain than as one of the final bosses of all of Dragon Ball. Then the fourth shadow dragon starts off looking like a big mole rather than a dragon and has a personality that seems more comic relief villain than anything, and while he does get threatening in the second episode he’s in, he loses in the STUPIDEST manner possible by outright sabotaging himself.

These guys come off as pathetic and incompetent. The Shadow Dragons should have been terrifying. This saga, and GT as a whole, was meant to be the grand finale to all of Dragon Ball. These are the final villains... and they feel like antagonists ripped out of old, cheap Saturday morning cartoons! They’re a joke at worst, and they quickly feel irrelevant once the last two Shadow Dragons are introduced and it feels like the story actually starts there, making them feel entirely pointless!!

Speaking of, Nuova Shenron is the only good character out of the lot. He’s an amazing idea for a character, the embodiment of the Four Star dragon Ball giving him a personal connection to Goku. His powers make him a believable threat and he puts on a good fight, and he actually has a sense of honour and his interactions with Goku were great. He was actually interesting to watch... which makes it disappointing that he also doesn’t get nearly as much screentime as he deserves to fully utilize his characters potential to the fullest. Especially when they did briefly bring him back and that in the most frustratingly stupid and ill-explained manner possible. So that just makes me want to slap my forehead.

To be fair Eis Shenron is a decent villain too, being intimidating and interesting in his own right for how sinister and underhanded he is and how he plays off Nuova, so props there, but he’s not around very long and he and Nuova are quickly killed off to make way for Syn/Omega Shenron... who’s dull.

Honestly, if you’re going to have a character be the final villain in a franchise that includes such awesome and delightfully memorable villains as King Piccolo, Frieza and Cell... you really should go all out. And Syn Shenron actually does start out very intimidating, he has a cool design and he’s very threatening and a real powerhouse with some good dialogue between him and Goku... and then everything goes to heck with him halfway through the episodes he’s featured in, because after the Gogeta episode frustrated me beyond all belief, I started to find him extremely tedious and boring.

The problem is, Omega Shenron has no personality or character. He’s just generically evil, he has no interesting quirks or personality traits. Frieza, Cell and Buu all had charm and personality to them, even if they weren’t the deepest and most complex characters. Omega Shenron though? He’s only got sheer power and intimidation on his side, so he’d need to rely on being cool and the fight with him being amazing... and the fight starts out good, but once Vegeta shows up and declares he and Goku should fuse, it becomes infuriatingly tedious with one awful, head-bangingly annoying contrivance after another packed with no end of stupid moments, topped off by the method Omega Shenron is defeated being EXTREMELY forced and annoying. I already made several posts detailing the worst of these episodes, so I’ll just link them here to not repeat myself pointlessly:

http://tigerlover16-uk.tumblr.com/post/158242242114/unpopular-opinion-im-sure-but

http://tigerlover16-uk.tumblr.com/post/158274497694/gt-episode-62

http://tigerlover16-uk.tumblr.com/post/158276790249/gt-goku-is-a-gary-stu

Needless to say though, the final half of this saga is AWFUL! And Omega Shenron himself becomes a tedious, boring, lackluster villain that pales in comparison to the awesome baddies that came before him. Just like the whole lot of these stupid dragons. The entire second half of the saga is badly paced, the fights are badly done and full of stupidity.

We get an entire episode that interrupts the fight between Nuova Shenron and Goku to flash back to everything that happened to Vegeta in Z... despite the fact that the show doesn’t do anything to explain things to anyone who hasn’t watched the previous two series before now and throughout the show it just assumes the viewers have watched Dragon Ball and Z and would know what they’re talking about for the most part. The saga doesn’t take Vegeta’s character in any new or interesting directions, it’s just same old same old characterisation and him becoming a super saiyan 4 to try and catch up to Goku and help him out... which outside of Gogeta he’s not actually helpful at all and just gets his butt handed to him repeatedly by both Omega and briefly Nuova Shenron. So he doesn’t even get to be cool despite getting the then ultimate super saiyan transformation. Why’d we waste so much time recapping his character arc then? If you didn’t offer a proper explanation to who Piccolo was when he showed briefly in the Baby Saga and then later to die, then why extensively recap Vegeta’s character when at this point anybody still watching GT would have been fans who know this stuff?

No one gets to do anything besides Goku! Everyone just stands around, makes comments, looks worried, and gets slapped aside by Omega Shenron without putting up anything resembling a fight. The Z fighters didn’t even contribute to the universal spirit bomb, for crying out loud! Even Pan, who the show still seems to want to pretend is the secondary main character, is only really useful against Oceanus Shenron, and even then Goku probably could have won without her if she’d just powered up.

This entire saga was built on contrivances, pathetically tedious and uninteresting villains, and stupid, stupid, STUPID moments and nonsensical ideas and plot holes that just leave me feeling completely unsatisfied and sorry I even thought about watching it. This thing is stupid and thoroughly unentertaining.

And do you want to know why this is so bad? Why all of that makes this the worst saga in Dragon Ball history? Because this was meant to be the end!

In Japan, GT aired literally a week after Dragon Ball Z ended. With Toriyama having no involvement outside of character designs and the name of the show, Toei made GT to be the final chapter of the Dragon Ball story. The Shadow Dragons Saga was meant to be the grand finale to the entire franchise. Yes, today we know that only the manga is truly canon, that’s what the fandom mostly agrees on. But people who were following the anime as it was airing and just the anime wouldn’t know that. The people who were desperate to see what happened next after Z’s ending weren’t going to immediately argue semantics. People in the West watching GT right after Z ended weren’t going to wonder that when information and the debates on what’s canon weren’t anywhere close to clear cut, and still fully aren’t today. And it’s not like it made much of a difference to Toei’s mindset making the series at the time.

GT was made to be the definitive ending of the story of Dragon Ball... and they blew it in EVERY CONCEIVABLE WAY! First they said “Screw you” to everything Toriyama set up with EoZ by tossing Uub and the majority of the supporting cast to the wayside, regressing the story right back to the beginning by having a rehash of the Pilaf saga, only IN SPACE and a lot more boring and unengaging. They derailed Pan into an annoying, unlikeable brat who does get more sympathetic after the first saga, but as I explained in my Baby Saga review was still a COMPLETE WASTE of a character in every other way. They turned Goku back into a kid in a pathetic attempt at pandering. And then when they realized this didn’t work, they desperately tried to correct this by making a saga more in tone with Z. Which was marginally good, but that still had a ton of bad and mishandled elements that made the derailment of the Dragon Ball stories natural progression all the worse.

Then they made a saga where the premise was a dollar store knock-off of Fusion Reborn, except horrible and boring and which made the few villains they actually did bother to bring back look pathetic or like complete jokes, especially Frieza and Cell. And by extension the supporting cast, worse than the last saga but not quite as bad as the shadow dragons saga did. And just for added measure, they also made sure to destroy any potential to be had with the idea of bringing back Android 17 for a dumb, stupidly designed try-hard fusion villain with a MUCH blander personality and have him be killed off in the most mean spirited manner possible without even really capitalizing on the potential drama of the situation. Oh also, let’s treat krillin as more of a prop to move the story along rather than an actual character. Not that we didn’t just reduce him to a random joke the last time we bothered to acknowledge his existence or anything.

And THEN they end it with THIS insulting, pathetic, ill-conceived, BORING AND ANNOYING MESS of a Saga with one of the WORST handled climaxes the franchise has ever seen. It even feels like this saga was just ripping off elements of the Buu Saga, but making them horrible and not putting in the same effort that originally made them work there. As if they’re admitting that Toriyama’s ending for the series was perfectly fine already, but they’re going to take a dump on it anyway by completely derailing everything he’d set up with his stories epilogue, tell their own garbage stories, and then do their own take on the ending that they want to play up as the REAL one so they can take all the credit for concluding the franchise. it really does feel just that pretentious. Especially with that final episode.

Because my God, I’ve wanted to rage on this since I started watching GT again. This is the one thing about this show I’ve genuinely hated since I was a kid and didn’t understand what quality storytelling even was. I don’t care what anyone has to say. I don’t care about the excuses for why this is truly the best ending for the franchise. Because in my humble opinion:

THE ENDING TO GT IS HORRIBLE!!!

So, after all of that nonsense I’ve already ragged on about this saga and especially the last half of it, Shenron suddenly shows up, revives Goku after he seemingly passes on, and then uses his final wish to restore the earth, declaring that he’s going to leave the earth for an unspecified amount of time because of all this mess and humanity needs to learn to get along without the Dragon Balls... and then Goku just randomly decided to leave with him, never to be seen again...

(Shakes with barely suppressed rage, and then takes a deep breath).

This ending makes no sense. So, the one time outside of complaining about people taking too long to make their wishes that Shenron decides to have any autonomy, it’s to basically go “Screw this, I’m outta here”? WHY!

Okay, I get why, the explanation he gives makes enough sense in context. But like I’ve raged on, the entire thing with negative energy building up in the balls and the Shadow Dragons makes NO sense in regards to the previous series internal logic and the actual purpose of the dragon balls. So after this contrived mess, how does Shenron get to decide he doesn’t get to be summoned anymore? He’s never shown this level of freedom before, he was created to serve a purpose and he should be under Dende’s authority now since Dende revived him after Kami merged with Piccolo. He’s not a free spirit as far as we’ve ever seen, he’s an asset used for the planets betterment and defense that as far as we’ve seen is under the authority of his creator. Him just going off into parts unknown so suddenly is just head scratching.

But I guess this isn’t my real issue with the ending. I could ultimately buy this if this really was meant to be the ending of Dragon Ball as a whole, so why not give the Dragon and the series name sakes a send off too while we’re at it. No, my problem is GOKU!

What the HECK, man? So after Shenron declares he’s leaving, Goku, without even a moments hesitation or any consideration to his actions, and after everything else that’s happened and after his family and friends had just been terrified they’d lost him... just hops on Shenron’s head and decides to leave earth to go train, never to be seen again?

What’s the matter with you, Goku! He doesn’t even give a proper goodbye to his confused family. He just mentions to Vegeta that he’s responsible for looking after Earth now, says “Bye everybody” and then he and Shenron just leave??? and the only people he actually gives a reasonable length goodbye to are Krillin, Master Roshi, Turtle and Piccolo... WHAT?!

And yeah, Goku leaves the planet inexplicably and never comes back as long as everyone who knows and loves him except Pan is dead and buried! He only briefly shows up a hundred years so Pan can glimpse him at a tournament where his and Vegeta’s great, great grandchildren are fighting, but then when she tries to meet up with him Goku just vanishes, letting her believe she was just seeing things and then just disappear again as we get a flashback sequence of Dragon Balls history, a narration about how “Thus ends the story of Dragon Ball” and Goku hovering away on the nimbus while saying “‘Til we meet again, guys!”

...

...

... Goku, you inconsiderate, absent minded, oblivious, self-centered, selfish, stupid, ignorant, hypocritical, scatter brained, JACKA##!

WHAT THE *BLEEP* WAS THAT ABOUT! You know, I despite all the discourse about “Oh, Goku’s a bad father!” or “He’s a selfish idiot who only cares about training and keeps abandoning his family!” Because that’s straight up NOT TRUE. But whatever anyone wants to argue about this ending. Whatever anyone wants to bring up in his defense, there is objectively no justification or argument against this instance. This time, it is an objective fact. In this ending, Goku ABANDONED HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS! On a moments notice and with no consideration to what he was doing! With no explanation! And never came back! For the sake of training and going on an adventure, or at least that’s what we assume, he never does properly explain himself or what is even the deal here! And when he finally comes back briefly he doesn’t even offer a hello and some comforting words to his last living “Loved” one. Just walking out on her again. What... what is even the heck.

This and the fact that he spent five years training with Uub where he apparently never bother to visit his family or never let them know how he was doing, despite the fact that from all we see they were apparently just on the Lookout for a good chunk of that time, pretty much justifies the idea that Goku is a deadbeat that’s willing to abandon his family and friends at the drop of a hat just to pursue his own interests.

At least when he went to train with Uub at the end of Z, he had a decent enough reason since he was slowly getting older and earth needed a new protector for when he was gone, and he promised to come back and visit his loved ones whenever he could. And we can easily interpret they’d visit him since he wouldn’t have gone all that far. It was sudden, rushed, a little confusing of why Uub was the choice for successor when Goten and Pan were right there and could have been handled better. But it was a believable progression for his character at that point given all his experiences and ended on an open ended, but ultimately optimistic note.

This... this is contrived, last minute nonsense that I cannot conceivably believe Goku would ever do. At least not like this. The guy just up and leaves. No hugging his wife goodbye. No last words for his children or granddaughter. No words of encouragement for his student Majuub (Also, why the heck did you waste FIVE YEARS of your life on this kid while leaving your family in the dark about where you were and when/if you were ever coming back if you’re NOW going to turn around and tell Vegeta you want him to defend the earth in your absence while Majuub is RIGHT OVER THERE! Glad you have so much faith in him, you little prick!). No reminiscing over things with his first friend Bulma, who’s instead left to do that herself.

He just reminisces about “The good old days” with his best friend and mentor and has a quick sparring match with Krillin before vanishing on them. And then goes to see Piccolo, the guy who got stranded in hell due to the illogical contrivance that is the black star dragon balls and Goku’s actions, and instead of explaining to King Yenma WHY Piccolo went on a mock rampage in Otherworld and vouch for his friend to get him out of hell, which he sounds like he’s not enjoying being there and the ogres seem to just be content using him as a body guard for crowd control, he just says “Yeah, I’m leaving now, hope they bail you out of here someday, dude” And then vanishes on him too. I know that was meant to be a hopeful note in context, but the way I just describe it is how it really FEELS like it plays out when you stop and think about it.

This ENTIRE ending makes NO LOGICAL SENSE from a storytelling or character standpoint. It paints Goku’s character in a very uncomfortable light and ends with a future where every character we know an love is dead, and the only one left alive is the annoying brat from this show that the majority of fans HATED! How is THAT a good ending!

Honestly, it’s even worse when GT seems to go out of it’s way to glorify Goku and paint him as this “Ultimate heroic” type. The nuance of his character slowly fades away the longer this series goes on for, and he just gets characterized more and more as a generic “Noble hero” type of character, and I still SWEAR this show is where people get the Superman comparisons from when there are points, especially when confronting the fourth shadow dragon where he just prattles on and on about things like “Killing is wrong”, where he went on about it to the extent that it became pandering. he only acts close to his normal self in the Baby Saga, otherwise in the first saga he’s mostly a blander version of his kid self, in the Super 17 saga he’s a pale reflection of his Z self minus several important character flaws and traits. And then in this final saga, he’s just a full on GARY STU throughout that then pulls a stunt like abandoning everyone he ever knew and loved for no good reason.

It’s made all the worse show constantly glorifies him. They downplay his negative qualities unless it’s something for comedic purposes and try to present him as this super pure, noble hearted hero type that’s all about doing good and saving people. They make such a big point throughout the show about how much Goku cares about the earth, how important it is to him and how much he cares about his family and loved ones. So it just comes off as all the more jarring, hypocritical, disgustingly selfish and NONSENSICAL when he just up and leaves the way he does without even a moments hesitation on explanation, or sympathy to his confused family who were just grieving for him after all the horrible things that had just happened. Chichi doesn’t even realize he’s leaving, she stops to comment about what she was going to make him for dinner, for Christ’s sake! Only Vegeta and then later Pan realizes what’s really going on, and they’re not happy about it.

His deciding to leave also comes off as irresponsible. Because, after the show had continuously made the supporting cast increasingly pathetic and irrelevant in actually contributing to saving the day, Gohan outright acknowledges before the fight with Omega Shenron that Goku’s the only one who ever seems capable of doing anything useful when the worlds in danger... and Goku pretty much nods and goes along with that. And between Vegeta’s ineptitude in the fight and everyone else constantly failing in their efforts to help and being irrelevant throughout the show, it legitimately feels like the show is making it an explicit truth that no one but Goku is capable of saving the world from all the threats it faces... and then he just leaves and tells Vegeta he can fend for himself? After the show acknowledges that little annoying tend without doing anything to disprove the idea? Wow Goku, you care so much...

then again, that wasn’t the only time the show tried to pull an inappropriately jerkish move with him. Since after the aforementioned incident with the fourth Shadow Dragon, Goku proceeded to pull a horribly jerkish move when, after Pan had been absorbed by the shadow dragon, suffered excruciating pain after Goku was nearly forced to kill her, and she was left battered... he dangled it’s dragon ball in front of her face as she was regaining consciousness and joked that it was the dragon getting ready to absorb her again, terrifying Pan just for a laugh... when realistically, such an incident would have left any normal person with a SEVERE case of PTSD and doing something like that would have probably triggered her, resulting in a possibly fatal heart attack considering the damage she’d already took! WHAT THE F###, YOU LITTLE S###!!

And again, THIS little idiot is still frequently glorified, being the only character that gets to do anything useful and the show treats him as this all living, perfect hero. The narration at the end even says that he’s going away so that he’ll return when the earth has need of him again, painting his actions here as noble and Goku like he’s some mystical, King Arthur-esque hero who’s destiny it is to always save the world and he pretty much exists only to be the hero of the universe.

Except that misses the POINT of what kind of a hero Goku is. He doesn’t choose to be a hero. He’s not some destined hero of legend born for the sole purpose of being this biblical saviour. He’s not space monkey Jesus. He started out as just some good natured alien kid who just happened to always be in the right place at the right time.

Adventure literally found him when Bulma drove into him one day looking for his Dragon Ball. He kept stumbling into conflicts when he was just doing his own thing in the Original Dragon Ball. Sure he was always happy to offer  help to people he saw were in trouble, because he was a good person but he never once sought out conflict. Trouble found him, and he was just doing what he fought was right or defending his family and friends, doing good along the way. He was happy to just live peacefully with his wife and child after beating Piccolo Jr.

He had other motivations like a lust for battle, which caused him to make risky, sometimes selfish or just reckless decisions that, while they often worked out for the best in the long run, could have ended badly and make Goku seem questionable. But he always realized when he’d made a mistake and tried his best to fix it afterwards. He detested people doing evil things, and while he’d try to minimalize collateral damage and would occasionally lecture villains on their heinous actions and call them out, he never did it while talking like he’s some sort of paragon on truth and justice. Outside of the dub’s “Hope of the universe” speech, but I agree outside of that and some minor instances the dub didn’t change his personality TOO much.

Goku was a kind and loving person and he’d gladly save the earth where he could, but it wasn’t his job. He never acted or treated himself like some traditional hero type, and the show and manga never pretended he was. He was just always there because situations lead him to the point where he’d have to get involved in conflicts and he’d do his best to prepare and overcome them and help whoever he sees is in trouble, while still trying to have a life outside of that, occasionally persuing his own interests which mostly revolved around fighting and martial arts anyway.

Goku is a very realistically written kind of hero. He’s grounded, and that’s part of what makes him great.

That ending and a lot of GT’s treatment of him seems to want to fill him with this sense of grandeur and mysticism and this whole destiny, higher calling thing, despite the fact that goes against his prior portrayals and the ending of Z. It misses the point of his attempts to pass the torch to Gohan and then later Uub at EoZ. Goku didn’t intend to always be the when the earth needed him. He realized his mortality and while he’d never intended it, he came to understand that the earth frequently depended on him and it would need someone else to do so when he was gone. Thus, training a successor. So as well as making him look like a complete inconsiderate, reckless a-hold, the ending also completely derails the entire direction Toriyama intended for the character just to put Goku on a pedestal above everyone else, with the implication that no one CAN be a hero because that’s HIS job, now and forever. Which is nonsense and disrespectful to all the other characters that actually did meaningfully contribute to saving the world before. Way to miss the point. I guess that’s why they call it Goku Time, huh?

What a load. This series completely derails Goku’s character by the end after first turning him into a bland Gary Stu and outright makes me want to punch him at the end despite the fact that he’s usually my favourite character.

And that and everything else I’ve mentioned is why I know hate GT. It misses so much of the point of Dragon Ball. It breaks the story, 3/4 if not more of it is unenjoyable for me, it arrogantly tried to position itself as the true finale to this legendary franchise while completely missing the point of the story and completely destroying the set-up left to it by Toriyama for an actual proper continuation. And it does so while having the most unsatisfying, frustrating, badly written final saga possible that just feels like it spits on the legacy of everything that came before it.

I could go on, but I’m getting sick of writing this, I don’t want to save this for tomorrow or whenever since I already said I’d get this written up today and I don’t want to go back on that. It’s getting late and I have other things to do. There’s a lot more I could elaborate on, and maybe I will in future posts. But I think I’ve made my point.

Gt is bad. It derails the story, does insulting and despicable things to many of it’s characters, especially Piccolo, Buu, Kami, Pan, Uub, 17 and Goku. It presents us with unsatisfying, boring, and STUPID stories with only one marginally above average story that’s still full of holes. It destroys potential for so many characters and ideas for more stories, with an ending that closes the door on any kind of continuation, or at least one featuring our main character. It tired to pass itself off as the grand finale, but spat in the face of Dragon ball, Toriyama and every fan that had been following Dragon Ball all the way to the end. All while trying to present itself as good and seemingly wanting to pat itself on the back for doing what Toriyama did with his ending, only better by going several steps further. Failing because of it’s terrible context and writing.

If GT were canon, it would outright BREAK the story of Dragon Ball, and make so much of what came before feel like it was all for nothing in the grand scheme of things where it was all leading to, especially with that ending. And no, the fact that we’re know firmly decided on the fact that it’s not and the show is practically irrelevant does NOT make any of that any better. Because it’s still true within the context of this show.

I’m getting tired. I don’t know what else to say. Maybe I’ll write more again, maybe I won’t. I definitely don’t want to go back and watch this show again any time soon, that’s for sure.

If you like it, good. But please, don’t try to argue with me over GT. I will not budge with these opinions. This is how I feel, and nothing will change my mind. I won’t keep ranting about it unless I’m pressed to. I don’t want to force my views on anyone else and I respect the opinions of others who like this show. I’m happy that there are fans that love this series and find joy in it, really. Even if I don’t agree with people on things, it makes me happy to see people enjoying themselves regardless of what others think of a product. I love the Star Wars prequels and Scrappy Doo and the 3D Sonic games, after all.

But i stand by my case. Dragon Ball GT is awful. Possibly one of the worst things to ever be done with the franchise. And without a doubt, the worst ending the series could have asked for. And boy, am I glad we have Super, because whatever it’s faults, it proves that we can and will have more shows, more stories with Dragon Ball and these characters. GT didn’t end that potential. It doesn’t matter. Thank you, Toriyama.

And, after several months between watching and mulling things over, those are my final thoughts on Dragon Ball GT.

@kairi-yajuu Oh right, I believe I promised to link you this? Hope this jumbled mess and that reply I left yesterday help make it clearer. I have an ask about why I like Super more if you want me to link my answer to that to you when I get to it eventually?

[sounknownvoid]

" #not to sound like a broken record but the fact that the writers treated him like shit adds a layer to his narrative#like if he wasn’t saddled with his particular role within the restrictions of his particular universe I wonder whether he would’ve spoken#to as many sad freaks like me as he did#if he wasn’t written thru a misogynistic lens for a misogynistic audience his story may have been significantly less tragic#if he wasn’t in a story that viewed mental illness and addiction as moral failures.#if he wasn’t in a story that ultimately believed in Us vs Them and in the inherent Rightness of the nuclear family#if he wasn’t in a story that handwaved and made excuses for the abuse he suffered at the hands of his loved ones bc it was#merely a consequence of him straying from the Mission#thee singular male character that I’ll tell you is a woman and mean it in the sense that you CANNOT engage meaningfully with him without#acknowledging that his central conflicts and his defining traits and the way the fandom at large treats him are all tied up in#traditional expectations for female characters#he’s relatable if you’re a misunderstood woman and if you’re queer and if you’re a 2nd gen american#if you’ve felt lonely your whole life and if you feel like you never fit anywhere#an actually perfect character to me few others can compare"

they literally had no clue what a special and one-of-a-kind character they had on their hands

leagues above the rest of this show’s characters in terms of emotional depth