#it was absolute ass. he's the most broken character why would they do that to me

[artemismoorea03]

DP x DC Prompt: I Couldn't Just Let Him Die

So one thing I don't think is touched on enough is the fact that Danny never wanted to be a hero. Like, yeah, we all know he didn't want o be a hero and he makes a joke about it but when we actually think about it this was a life he choose because nobody else was there to help. The main reason?

He didn't want people to get hurt.

Something Batman would relate to.

Now, while I love the idea of Danny absolutely beating the shit out of Joker or any villain who absolutely deserves to have their shit rocked by a kid who is only 5'5" and weighs at most 120 pounds, when we actually think about Danny's character what's more likely? Again, no hate to any of the people who do those fics, keep it up, I love seeing Joker get his just deserts.

But hear me out.

Warnings for fighting, violence, and DC typical weapons.

There was a new meta in Gotham and he was driving Bruce crazy. This kid showed up out of the blue with absolutely no information on him anywhere online or otherwise with tech so outdated not even Oracle could hack it. The only thing Bruce knew about the kid was that he called himself 'Phantom' and that he was a teenager around 14 years old.

Other than that the kid had been a pain in the ass.

Muggings? Phantom took care of it by saving the person then lecturing the person until a Bat or police showed up then literally vanished.

Fires? Phantom would fly in and out of burning buildings repeatedly with no care for his own safety. No mask, no fire protection, nothing but the thin suit he wore.

Kidnappings? Don't worry, Phantom had it handled long before Batman could even get the call to help! EVEN WHEN IT WAS ONE OF HIS OWN KIDS WHO GOT KIDNAPPED!

Granted, Phantom never got in the way of a fight but the amount of evidence that was lost due to what he was doing and how he was doing it was inconvenient. Fingerprints got wiped, evidence of what started fires were covered in an unmeltable ice, kidnappers took off the second their captive was freed and were practically untraceable after that.

It wasn't until a massive Arkham breakout that he actually got to properly meet the kid. Every prisoner had broken out and the city plunged into madness as heroes ran around like chickens with their heads cut off. Villains against heroes, criminals verse vigilantes, villains verses criminals - it was a madhouse.

Batman could hardly keep track of it all but when one of Penguin's men threw a bomb into a crowd and it landed near Joker's feet there was a long silence. It was like the city had fallen silent all around him as Batman tried to get to the bomb.

Joker was a villain.

Joker had hurt his family, killed millions of innocents including his own son, but he was sick. He didn't deserve to die.

Apparently Phantom agreed because he flew faster than Batman could track him shoving Joker away from the bomb before encasing the bomb in ice.

"Hey! What's the big idea shovin' me, bub?!" Joker said, seemingly forgetting about the bomb that was still in the kids hand. Joker walked right up to Phantom, glaring down at the shorter male who just looked at him. "Think you're some kind of hero?!"

Phantom blinked, "I feel like answering that is a trap."

Joker grabbed Phantom by the front of his shirt, "A funny guy, huh? Think you can out joke the Joker?"

"Again. That feels like a trap. I'm not trying to do anything, Clowny. But I wasn't about to let you die."

Joker glared, "Why?"

Phantom slipped out of Joker's hands somehow, much to Joker's confusion. "Because that's not who I am. Criminal or not, I'm not going to let you die if I can protect you."

"Who says I need protection?"

Phantom held up the bomb again with a deadpan look. "Lucky guess." He said, then suddenly noticed something to his right. "Oh, gotta go. Later Clowny."

"IT'S JOKER!" Joker shouted after Phantom as he flew away. "Batman! Teach your baby bats some manners!"

"He's not mine, Joker." Batman said, marching over, grabbing Joker's wrists and cuffing them behind his back.

Not yet anyway. But with a mentality like that... maybe this pain in the ass could learn a thing or two from a Bat.

[cenorii]

I love Chriskers very much, so I needed a logical explanation for how they could be together again... English is not my native language, so there may be error rates in the text.

AU - SHARDS OF OBSIDIAN

I like to see a character completely fall when he loses everything he had. When his whole existence loses any meaning, and he becomes an empty place. I like to imagine if the character can handle it, or will he prefers oblivion.

He may have come out of shit before, but the total fall that destroyed him as a person is a new experience. Miraculously escaping death once again - which path would you choose? Resurrect again and keep doing things what will not work the third and fifth time? Something you don't see the point of anymore. Or will you try not to step on a rake? New way?

The rose-colored glasses you've been wearing all your life were broken. Lowered from heaven to earth. Ego is stuffed deep in the ass. There is nothing left of your personality, you do not see any value in yourself. You are nobody. And what will you do?

----

March 7, 2009. Chris finished with his sworn enemy, but this information was not reliable, because he made such conclusions knowing only his own truth. He saw it with his own eyes, but did not check. And now he will think so most of his life.

 But Wesker survived. Once in the past, he was proud of himself that he escaped death thanks to a prototype virus. But right now, he only wanted to die like a real loser. But he was stopped by Oswell E. Spencer 's words, spoken to him a couple of years ago.

 -You're the last one from "project W"

 He lost everything, even himself. Everything he believed in was drowned in lava. Nothing made sense, not even his own life. Although, he could not even take an ordinary step towards death, because he was lying exhausted on a piece of land in the middle of lava. Burnt, but unfortunately alive. He no longer felt superior. And anyway... has he ever won? Only Sergei Vladimir, right?

 Uroboros that got into his body during the final battle with Chris and Sheva cannot withstand high temperatures. Therefore, it was burned out of his body, which regenerated with the remnants of his strength thanks to the prototype virus. But even this power had a limit, because after two extra injections made by Chris, the prototype weakened and practically fell asleep in his body, depriving Wesker of his abilities. His body was fighting for life, but his mind did not want to live at all. Helpless, he could not even call himself a shadow of his former self.

Having lost all his strength, he realized how far he was from the God he considered himself to be. It was painful to realize. Weakness, never seen before, so unfamiliar, destroyed the remnants of personality inside his head.

 And the thought came up again.

 -You're the last one from "project W"

 The thought that he was the only one of his kind, the last one, pierced his head and tormented him.

Is there no one left?

He killed Spencer with his own hand, and the rest of the project members died from the prototype virus. But something inside him did not allow him to complete this story.

 Why do you live in the world now?

 His entire body was destroyed from a disorderly regeneration that was only an echo of the previous one. Over time, it also left him. The prototype, finally falling asleep, endowed Wesker with unprecedented side effects, which had previously been restrained by proper injections. Feeling them, he even remembered Lisa Trevor, over whom he no longer wanted to joke. He felt inferior to her. The most insignificant thing in the world.

And so, with an absolutely empty head and hatred for his insignificance, he rises to what is left of his legs. Perhaps his tenacity is the only good quality. He won't be as lucky as he is now. There was nothing more to lose, where would a new page of life take him now?

 His right arm moved erratically as he limped towards the fallen plane, and the remains of his left arm only dangled painfully. Wesker himself did not realize where the parts of his body were and did not immediately discover that something was missing.

"Auto... topagnosia...and alien hand syndrome?"

His head was damaged, but did not stop analyzing. Obsessive analysis, without a single outside thought. However, the damage doesn't the result of the battle, it was caused by regeneration. The prototype has always destroyed weak organisms and now its carrier was the weakest.

What keeps him alive? The thought that if he dies, he won't leave anything behind? Or this disgustingly burning self-hatred? A sense of value because he's the last one? Or maybe... a huge interest, where does it all lead?

 His body was so disfigured that by all parameters it should not have existed in the world of the living. How amazingly he seized on his existence.

"Trust no one" was his motto. In this form, Wesker could not call for help from someone who worked for him. If he wanted to survive now, he could not allow himself to be finished off like a dog knocked down on the road. Therefore, he had to keep his life a secret from everyone.

A clear line has been drawn between this Wesker and the past, because his personality has suffered incredibly.

 If the prototype virus once influenced his psychology, distancing him from everything human, now, freed from the influence of this virus, Wesker resembled an amoeba, because everything in which he was limited is now available again and very much atrophied. Even the desire for revenge did not seethe in him, because allowing himself such an emotion and not experiencing agony was a luxury for him.

 It could have been a redemption story, of which there are quite a few. But this person is not one of those who admit their mistakes. (Now he rather considers himself a mistake.) He not one of those who adequately understands morality, ethics. And what he did cannot be redeemed. This is a story about the complete destruction of man, about how he creates himself anew.

 Did he have a sense of the value of his own life? Probably, he will not spend any more seconds, from the ones given to him by fate, on useless or impossible plans. Because he is the last one.

Now, when his body is working to the limit, he cannot get up on the same rake.

What is its purpose? Survival for the first time. He will return to one of his bunkers, which no one knows about, and lock himself up in solitude.

 It always seemed strange and very limited to me that Alex, trying to create a new body for herself, turned to biology, and not to robotics. Perhaps she would have been more successful if she combined several directions. It is logical that the new Wesker would try something new to help himself, if he's not senile. Therefore, in this situation, he would combine biology and technology. But where does he get the details, even if we imagine that he understands it now? The answer is simple: a new life - a new personality. For starters, he needs equipment. Activity on his accounts would attract the attention of BSAA, so the account he uses must be corporate. It won't be suspicious. Rats are fleeing from the TRICELL ship and withdrawing money?

 When his body regains its working capacity, its next goal will be... nothing unusual. Nothing grandiose. He will become the real embodiment of neutrality, lost in his basement away from everyone. Until he reassembles himself. The fact is that it is not so easy to come up with a new goal in life when your previous goal, which you dreamed about for years, was trampled down, turned into nothing. They showed how imperfect your goal is and how naive you are. Therefore, the best plan for him now is not to have clear goals.

 The side effects that the dying prototype gave him inside may well be incurable. Because of Alien Hand Syndrome, he now and then performs actions that he has not control. And because of autotopagnosia, he has great difficulty perceiving the location of parts of his own body, at first he could not distinguish an arm from a leg, and an eye from a nose. If he were a sentimental person and if he considered himself guilty of something, he would consider it a punishment for everything he had done, but he did not think about it at all. Now he thought exclusively with tasks, logic, because the slightest emotionality caused a severe headache.

Sometimes he suffers from amnesia and loses any information from his mind before that battle in the volcano. He also often forgets this event.

He endlessly writes diaries when memory is restored, so as not to forget anything. In order not to forget that he represented something and perhaps even respected himself.

 Once.

 But not now.

 If Chris had seen him in such a state, he would have laughed, looking at how pathetic he was. He fancied himself a God, but in the end, what did he turn into? In a freak, suffering from senile and an inferiority complex.

 He decided to direct all his knowledge and available information to something that would not be useless than all his previous plans. After all, he no longer spends the allotted seconds on nonsense, right? He needs something reliable.

 On behalf of his fictitious identity, he will contact the BSAA and other organizations, try to cooperate, leaking his data accumulated over many years to everyone. Somewhere he will be listed as an "anonymous informant". However, it was he who gave the information to Chris in 2017. Helping his killer and enemy to... what? As if his damaged brain is trying in every way to signal that they are not finished. He is drawn to a painful past in which he was almost destroyed physically, and completely destroyed as a person.

 Sometimes the prototype virus woke up in his body and regenerated, which prompted Wesker to think that he could still restore his crippled body. To some extent. So he took the remnants of PG67A/W injections from his stash just to try.

It is unlikely that he will be able to visit the Underground Garden in such a state in order to come up with something better from the progenitor virus. And he has no desire to return to the past, he no longer wanted to be tied to a needle. He chose a more practical option – prostheses.

 The PG67A/W caused his body to regenerate by regrowing the destroyed tissue. But this effect was very weak, so it gradually slowed down until it practically stopped. The flesh still, even after 12 years, continues to recover. It slowly grows on top of the prostheses, and the bones, in turn, merge with the prostheses, destroying them. The whole process leaves a lot of scars. Even the damaged head was restored, but the side effects remained with him.

 After many years, he will have to give up prosthetics, because the body will restore itself. And he would have to come up with something else, but he would obviously have a lot of time for that. He has a long life ahead of him. Aging is unlikely to be stronger than the prototype virus.

 I think, closer to 2021, Wesker and Chris will still meet. Not by chance. Chris at first does not recognize in him the one whom he thought he killed 12 years ago. And when he realizes who is standing in front of him, then... However, that's another story.

There is a new danger ahead and it is better to keep enemies closer to yourself, suddenly they will be useful?

- You're pitiful.

- You pity me, Chris?

- No, and I will make sure that you live as long as possible in this world, because life is the best punishment for you right now.

[ghoulfuckersincorporated]

If I have to deal with brain rot about this absolutely awful man, so do y'all! Really looking forward to playing Dead Money so I can torture you with more.

Dean Domino (Fallout: New Vegas, Dead Money DLC) NSFW Headcanons

Is the King of Swing good in bed? Complicated question; he's too selfish to say that he is with any confidence. It depends on the day, frankly. He was a massive slut back in his prime, and he's perfectly well acquainted with how to show you a good time when the two of you are in bed together. Whether or not he cares enough in that moment to bother to make you cum is an entirely different matter. There are days he wants to show off, wants to hear you tell him how good he is, but there are also plenty of days where he'll happily use your body to jerk himself off and won't think for a second about your pleasure beyond what it'll do for him. On days like that, he wants you wet/stretched enough to take him, but that's all he cares about.

I've discussed this with folks a bit in replies on other posts, but I think it's very worth elaborating on: he would be so fun to dominate. He'd be the world's most petulant, bratty sub, and so confident that you wouldn't be able to break him, that he'll stay cool and in control of the situation, no problem. However, he's sorely mistaken. Dean Domino is a brat who was made to be broken. Tie his ass up and beat him a bit. Edge him until he literally cries. He insists he won't beg; prove him wrong. It's the sweetest sight you've ever taken in. I've never met a single character who needs to have his cock slapped like a million times more than him. And honestly, I think if you gave him the full routine and then treated him completely neutrally over the proceeding few days, as if nothing had even happened, he'd beg then, too, desperate to experience what you made him feel again...though not without a lot of petulant bitching first. How dare you act like you can drag him around by his prick, just because you absolutely can if you do it right...?!

Any ongoing relationship with Dean is going to be a constant power struggle. As insecure as he obviously is, he's forever rearing to "put you in your place" in a litany of ways; talking down to you, insulting you flippantly, all the nonsense you see from him when you interact with him in-game. If you don't push back at him (or show him where his place is, per the previous point), he will absolutely walk all over you, including sexually. Maybe that's what you're into. He doesn't really care all that much as long as he's getting whatever he wants out of you.

Biter. Always has been. Used to get a kick outta fucking actors and actresses and just covering them in bite marks and bruises that would be incredibly difficult to cover with makeup, because he likes attention and he's possessive, even of toys he doesn't particularly want to play with anymore.

Almost never takes off those goddamn sunglasses (because, in my mind, he thinks they make him harder to read...plus, he has super light-colored eyes, and once he's traveling the desert, he's constantly blinded by the sun), but one of the rare times you can guarantee he'll remove them is when you're giving him head. He wants to be able to see every detail of you worshiping him with your lips and tongue.

Obviously he's big into degradation, which is clear in the way he speaks to you, about you and others. He can, however, be persuaded to be rather sweet (though still entirely self-aggrandizing) when he's in a good mood. He'll tell you how gorgeous you look...on his cock. What a pretty voice you have...why don't you sing for him some more so he can hear how good he makes you feel? Every compliment also has to basically be a positive comment to himself, as well.

Leg and ass man. He makes some comments about Vera that hint at this, but he's not usually quite so tactful about it. Will openly grope you in public, both to embarrass you a bit and because he doesn't care enough to hold back when he feels like touching you.

Really enjoys a giving you a good cum facial. He finds it just the right mix of disgusting, dominating, and possessive. If he can find a way to force you to keep his cum on your face, he will. Even better if someone else sees you that way.

[aihoshiino]

chapter 162 thoughts!

Chapters Since The 143 Kiss Happened And Went Entirely Unacknowledged And Unaddressed Count: 19

Aqua Hoshigan Status: uh oh, gamers

damn they dragged his ass right to hell, huh

I was perhaps overly optimistic in expecting an immediate resolution to last chapter's setup. It's becoming increasingly clear that this handful of chapters covering the Aqua-Hikaru confrontation are intended to be read in one go but because I am pedantic I will continue to review them one by one <3 This chapter very much has all the same issues as the previous chapter without quite as many of the things I liked pulling it up, but Mengo's art is back to going absolutely crazy and I got to see 2.5 new panels of Hoshino Ai so who can say whether it was a good or bad chapter.

Like last time, we're starting with Hikaru again and… basically everything I said I didn't like about this handling of him is still the case but with this almost definitely being his final appearance with no more opportunities to explain anything about him, it really sucks that the note we seem to be ending on is just "damn, bitch be crazy". Given that Tsukuyomi mentioned his previously 'noble soul' last chapter, I was really hoping we might get some sort of flashback or Hikaru POV giving some proper context to his actions but all we got this chapter was him being like "ughh i miss ai. GOD i love killing people" which is, uh, underwhelming as a final note for an antagonist like Hikaru to go out on, to say the least

The thing is, I didn't need or expect Hikaru to be totes 100% an innocent bean or anything like that (ch109 looms large), but if he was going to be the final boss like this, I wanted his antagonism to come from somewhere, to have any kind of connecting thread with the story's themes or to at least tell us interesting things about him both in coming to understand where his behavior came from and why he went down this path. But we don't know anything about Hikaru, really - we know facts about his life but as person and a character in a story, our image of him is shockingly unclear. As far as the story seems to be concerned, he came into existence as an 11yo boy being abused by Airi, blipped out of reality when Ai broke up with him and then idk digivolved back into society into a guy from a yandere otome game when Ai died. Like, how in god's name did Hikaru go from the boy we see being broken up with as a teenager to… whatever the fuck this is? How did he start killing? Why? What is it about killing that makes him feel Ai's supposed presence? And most importantly - why does he pursue killing Ruby as his means of achieving this when the narrative is doing everything it can to convince us she's Ai 2.0 and therefore a living person in whom Hikaru should be able to feel Ai's presence the most strongly since her death? Hello? Can anyone hear me????

We don't get textual answers to any of that - hell, we don't even really have any textual confirmation that he is actually serial killer, despite it being something I guess we're supposed to assume at this point?? Like, whatever happened to Aqua seemingly crediting Yura's death to Nino's involvement? What happened to Aqua saying that Hikaru being the mastermind made no sense? Like, I guess he was right, but jesus

Even things I can take the time to try and infer (which, see last review's discussions on Inferring Things) just make me feel like I'm doing the work the story should have done in terms of trying to get his character to cohere. As it stands, Hikaru isn't in opposition to Aqua because he has harmful beliefs or behaviours born from his participation in society that stem from or are in conversation with the story's wider themes, but because he has one very specific unhinged belief totally disconnected from reality focused on one specific person and manifesting in such a way that caused him to just be Ontologically Evil And Broken.

And it's not like this would even be hard to do! Hikaru is literally, explicitly an affluent and powerful person in the entertainment industry despite being someone who was broken by abuse perpetuated by those very systems of power. Why not lean into that? Why not examine the ways in which Hikaru and Ai converged in their experiences of abuse - Ai able to truly sever the chain and begin healing while Hikaru ends up making Airi's mistakes and enacting abuse and control on people with less power than him to try and regain agency and dignity?

Ryosuke (even post retcon) and ch154 Hikaru work so well because their specific beliefs about Ai reflect real world misogyny and parasocialism that are rife in the entertainment industry (and even outside of it) so they're able to contribute to the story's wider themes pretty well. But as of this chapter, Hikaru's stated beliefs about killing and apparent overall worldview are so fucking detached from reality and so lacking any foundation or grounding in textual events or theming that it doesn't even feel like an exaggeration of real world issues to a logical conclusion like Ryosuke does. He just feels like a cartoon character.

Not only is this shallow in general and really a huge wet fart of an ending for a character who has been built up for 4 actual years and 150 chapters of manga, it's also just bizarrely inconsistent. There's no proper connecting thread in the text between the seemingly emotionally disarmed and remorseful Hikaru of 154-5 and fucking joker slenderman ass here. The story spent so long making Hikaru deeply and viscerally sympathetic through exploring his history of abuse and exploitation mirroring Ai's that I'm not sure of what the point of that was in terms of authorial intent if we were always gonna end at this point of "you are Ontologically Evil and must die". Movie Arc backstory Hikaru flows quite naturally into 153-5 Hikaru but these specific beliefs and fixations on killing almost feel like they popped up from nowhere to force this confrontation to happen.

Ultimately, despite being given ample opportunity to do so, it just kind of feels like Akasaka just kind of lost interest in trying to develop Hikaru into a fully fleshed out and coherent character. We get flashes and teases of what could have come together into a fascinating and compelling antagonist but he ultimately fails to evolve past a vague sketch of a character, full of unconnected ideas and loose threads. In the end, Hikaru is only ever a cipher for the story to enact tragedy through with no real interest in his own feelings and interiority in relation to it - not even his own.

To scooch back a bit into the chapter, I will say that him being dragged down specifically by Gorou is interesting, especially since he seems to have returned to his scary ass Tokyo Blade rage ghost form. This seems to represent Gorou and his rage being sort of 'exorcised' from Aqua now his revenge is complete (as I theorized might happen last week) - his memories and existence obviously live on in Aqua (F… FOR NOW…..) but as a character in a narrative, this feels like a fine enough place to leave him.

Anyway, speaking of Aqua! How ya doing, champ?

that bad, huh

The back half of this chapter revolves around giving Aqua some emotional resolution of his own and even though I've been kicking and biting to get some Aqua introspection for so long now, this one left me feeling pretty cold. After all this time of floating around the 'why' of his reincarnation, the answer we're finally given is….. just that Aqua was reborn to be Ruby's guard dog lol.

The idea that the twins were specifically reborn to be together has been imo pretty obvious for a good long while and I think it's a perfectly fine idea on paper, but this framing of it just kind of falls flat to me. I don't like that it positions Aqua's rebirth not as a second chance for him to love and be loved in a way he wasn't able to as Gorou, a gift from Tsukuyomi to two people who showed her a selfless, thoughtless kindness but as just yet more of the story using other characters and their stories to try and prop up Ruby or imbue her with more importance in a way that I think feels forced and does the characters who are used in this manner a huge disservice. I'm sure we could conclude that this is just Aqua's feelings on the matter and I really, really hope that Tsukuyomi fishes him out and gives him a slap while yelling YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO LIVE FOR YOURSELF AND BE HAPPY IDIOT or something next chapter, but the extremely warm framing this is all given makes me think this is something the narrative both agrees with and approves of and as an Aqua enjoyer I just kind of hate that for him.

I also have to say that like… it doesn't not make sense for the story's finale and this aspect of the reincarnation plot to center Ruby specifically. She is one half of the titular Oshi no Kos and at least hypothetically the co-protagonist of the story. But suddenly making her the answer and central turning axis of basically the biggest ongoing mystery in the story like this feels kind of jarring when Akasaka spent a solid half of this entire manga not really doing her justice. This attempt to tug on our heartstrings via flashbacks to the twins' childhood also doesn't really do anything for me because as cute as it is, it's just disconnected flashbacks to brand new events in their childhood we never saw or heard about before. And it's weird because it's not like we don't have in-story examples of Aqua being over protective of Ruby, so why not flashback to those?

Idk. It's hard for me to articulate why this left me feeling kind of cold, but it feels like a symptom of this being part of an ending that Akasaka set in stone too early on and hasn't compromised for he way the character dynamics and story that made it onto paper have shifted and changed in ways that don't one hundred percent line up with the ending he wanted. If the twins' relationship was going to be this important to the ending and be so central to Aqua's existence as a character, I wish we'd spent more time on it. One of the major critiques of OnK that people had from like chapter 12 onwards that I still agree with is that Aqua and Ruby's relationship doesn't feel like a close knit connection between two people who grew up together for 1X+ years, and that continuing issue makes it kind of hard for me to feel the warm and fuzzy sibling feels right now. Which sucks because I LOVE the Hoshino family trio and I love Aqua and Ruby's family dynamic when we actually get to see it - their chapter of interlude and some of the scenes in their home in early OnK are some of my fave parts of the story for that exact reason. But this just kind of whiffed for me.

It also isn't lost on me that Ai is basically absent from these flashbacks despite them primarily taking part in the part of the twins' childhood they spent with her. I get that the idea was to focus specifically on Aqua and Ruby's dynamic there but it still feels kind of…

I've already written a short essay on this topic as it pertained to the initial reveal of Tsukuyomi's role in AQRB's reincarnation and the TL;DR of that post is that early in the series, Ai is centered as a character of as much significance to the reincarnation plot as Gorou/Aqua and Sarina/Ruby are, with the togetherness of the Hoshino family as a trio and Ai specifically as Aqua and Ruby's mother being emphasized as having a great deal of meaning and importance. But this chapter doubles down on essentially erasing her as a figure of weight and consequence in the twin's reincarnation in a way that is both inconsistent and just kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Like… I'm sorry, but given how much of Ai's character revolves around her being the victim of exploitation, of objectification, sexual and otherwise, of being forced to warp herself to response to the filthy desires thrust on her by the people around her, it's really just gross and a huge misstep for her to be reduced to a convenient walking uterus. It is yet another example of Ai being reduced to just a stepping stone in Ruby's narrative and part of a pattern in this regard I've come to really dislike. Framed like this, Ai's own act of bravery and love in giving not just herself but Sarina and Gorou the family all three of them were denied all their lives is now nothing more than a vessel for Sarina's wish fulfillment. As you can imagine, I kind of hate this too!!

Depending on if volume 16 follows 14 and 15's trend of being 11 chapters long instead of 10, vol16 will end on either 162 or 163 - based on how 162 ends, my guess is that this is our volume ender so I'm curious to see what form 163 will take - straightforward continuation of this scene or focus switch to other characters to maintain suspense? I guess we'll see in THREE FUCKING WEEKS……. Akasaka i swear to god……………………….

sidebar but tsukuyomi just out here floating is kind of wild. what happened to 'it's a normal child's body' ya little twerp?

[serotonins-stuff]

"Bend over f'me?" | K.bakugo

~ slight nsfw

♡︎ Sypnosis: In which you ask your boyfriend for some fashion advice on Facetime but he can't handle the heat.

♡︎ F! Reader

♡︎ Mdni

♡︎ Aged up characters ofc

(Lowkey feel like Bakugo would actually give good fashion advice.)

Mina invited you to a night out with the girls but you had absolutely no idea what to wear. The only other option you had was to facetime your boyfriend Bakugo for some advice.

"How do I look Katsu?" you asked standing in front of the camera. Currently you were wearing the sleeveless black turtleneck that Bakugo chose. It was really short and squeezed you in all the right places. What Katsuki loved about it most is that it had an open back.

He didn't want to help you do this because he knew he wouldn't be able to conatin himself.

"Why are you so pretty woman?" He groaned in frustration causing you to giggle at him. "Do you really have t'go?"

You knew he was getting hot and bothered, you would help him through the screen if it wasn't going to result in you being late.

"Yes I do" you said pulling out your makeuo bag "What, do you have something better in mind?"

"Yeah I do, and it's better than some lame party" he scoffed.

"And what would that be?"

"For starters, you could come over to my place so we can watch a movie. Then halfway through, I'll put my hand on your thigh and we'll start making out and shit then suddenly,my face will be between your soft and sweet-."

"Kat" you warned him with a giggle "behave"

He shrugged his shoulders. "How can I when you're lookin so pretty?"

"Stop being a horndog and help me pick shoes." You wagged your finger at the screen.

"Black boots obliviously, and those nice see through stockings you've got"

You collected the items he listed and appeared in front of the camera one more time and he let out a satisfied hum.

"It's missin somethin" he raises a brow, looking intensely at his screen. "Lemme see the back?"

You do as you were told and turn around, facing your backside to the camera.

"Bend over f'me?"

"Kat you better no-"

"Stop yappin and do it, I wanna see something"

You sighed and shook your head with a scoff, bending over to reveal the black tights that you wore underneath.

"Baby what's the point of this" you shrugged your shoulders dramatically.

"Just wanna make sure no one will be able to sneak a peak" he took a bite of the snack he was eating, letting out a little huff of laughter "And I also just wanted to stare at your ass"

"Why am I suprised" you stood upright taking the phone over to your vanity table to ally makeup. "What lipstick color should I choose?"

"Red" he said with no hesitation at all. To you he was just helping you choose a lipstick color but to him it meant so much more. He so desperately wanted to see that red lipstick smugged all over his chest and shoulders while you beg him to go faster. Your beautiful sounds making his mind go haywire. Maybe he could even-

"You still there?" you cut off his lewd thoughts when you heard him go quiet and his breathing pattern changed.

"Yeah I am" he paused immediately, realizing that he had been palming himself through his sweatpants the whole time. The big bulge that formed was definitely hard for him to ignore. His balls were aching and it hurt to move them.

He'd have to take the longest shower on earth.

"Were you touching yourself just now?" You mused.

"And what if I was?"

"Ok here's a deal, after you fetch me from the party how about we go back to your place and have some fun?"

He whinned impatiently from the other side "Only if you promise not to get drunk"

"I promise"

"If sense the tinest bit of drunk from ya, I'm sending your ass to sleep got it?"

"I get it Katsuki"

He was still shifting uncomfortablly just watching you get ready, you hips swaying whenever you stood up and your bare back asking to be broken.

When you were finally done he couldn't help but let a sigh of relief escape him.

"I'll see you later ok?" You blew a kiss to him and he caught it

"Call me when you're done, and make to take your pepperspray" he said

He knew your were fully capable of taking care of yourself. Which is why he trusted you going out. He's seen you kick ass first hand and he wasn't disappointed.

"Don't miss me too much" you teased once more.

"Already am" he sighed and the call ended.

This was going to be a long night.

Thank you for the support!!

Requests are open!!

[mothmanssweetsucculentass]

Jason The Toymaker Headcanons

The grind never stops fr fr. Sorry for disappearing I had summer classes and then a certain triangle demon from a kid’s show is took up most of my attention and creativity, and now I’m in regular classes and silly goofy video games have taken up my attention and creativity when I’m not slaving over my art projects for school. Teehee. Oops!

Jason has been another underrated character in this fandom imo, and I especially love love love LOVE characters who just get so obsessed with shit. I can’t remember if it was canon or fanon about him, but I love the fact he gets so possessive of his friends to the point where he kills the competition. And also the friend. Because the best friend to have is one you have complete control over, right?

Anyways.

Cis man? WRONG.

Like you’re gonna look at Jason and tell me that motherfucker has only ever used he/him pronouns? Bro is an eccentric Toymaker ffs

Jason uses any pronouns. Even the ones that don’t exist. Bro collects that shit like Pokemon cards

Hey remember LJ? Yeah Jason made him

I mean hello??? Sentient toy clown? That’s right up Jason’s alley

Jason has also made other clown characters, like Candy Pop

Jason is also one of the few inhabitants that straight up doesn’t need to eat food. Ever

Much like Nina, no one’s really sure what he is, they just know its immortal like everyone else and insanely hard to kill

Most people also avoid them or go out of their way to not get emotionally close to him for super obvious reasons

Like. They’ve all seen her workshop. Every week he comes back with a new human he’s lied to and whisked off their feet with some bullshit fantasy and within the next few days they’ve made a doll of the poor guy

Jason technically isn’t even allowed to do that, humans aren’t allowed to know of the existence of the manor or Slenderman or literally anything that goes on there, but does Jason care? Absolutely not

Slenderman tried getting on her ass about it once, and by some miracle Jason was able to talk themselves out of punishment

Besides making morbid people dolls, Jason of course also makes random other toys. Almost all of them are sentient or are able to think and comprehend speech

Jason uses Mr. Glutton (the snake) as not only a chair, but a garbage disposal as well. Need to get rid of body parts? Give to the snake. It’s like a black hole in there

So y’know how Anne and Eyeless Jack are the go-to doctors of the residency? Jason is the fix it guy for anything that’s not biological

Torn clothing? Jason can sew it up for ya

Gun/chainsaw/mechanical weapon is jammed? Jason has a fix for it

Broken trinket from your room? Jason somehow has already made an exact copy of it for this specific occasion

You could count on one hand the things Jason doesn’t know how to fix

And still despite being the repairperson no one usually sticks around long enough to chat

You’d think with how delusionally clingy this mf is that it would be a problem but surprisingly no

There’s a reason why xe specifically only targets humans

Like? Humans as a species are so easy to manipulate? And are leagues more fun to torture and scare than her fellow serial killer roommates

Similarly to how the others make bets on what weird item Helen can use as a murder weapon, they also make bets on how fast Jason’s next victim gets dollified

So far the record is a single day because somehow one girl had the balls to pull an 80s horror protagonist and stabbed Jason with their own fabric shears

She didn’t get far. Obviously. What’d you expect from an entire mansion crawling with murderous entities. LJ accidentally clotheslined the girl while reaching between doorways for something

Everyone on the third floor then got to bear witness to Jason dragging her back to his workshop by her ankles. Using the same fabric shears. The carpet is still stained from how much she bled. I’m pretty sure one of her fingernails is still lodged in the wall, too

While they don’t share a studio/workshop, Jason and Helen often use a lot of the same crafting materials. They have a mutual relationship where if one of them goes out, they return with something both of them ran out of recently

Beyond that they literally never speak to each other, and they both like it that way

Jason is way too eccentric for Helen to be able to stomach for longer than an hour, and Helen is too particular with so many different things that it gets on Jason’s nerves

One of the few people that does stick around Jason often is Ann

Obviously there’s the underlying factor that Ann literally owes her current life to Jason, but even outside of that stipulation, Ann finds them pleasant to hang around

Unlike Jason’s other doll experiments and creations, Ann is the only one that came with sentience already attached. Saved Jason the hassle of having to create an entire consciousness network from scratch

Like damn, vengeance is one hell of a powerful force, enough so that once Ann was put back together by Jason, she was up and functioning practically immediately

The two aren’t inseparable per se, and definitely don’t see each other as anything more than friends (Ann moreso than Jason), but you can often find them in the same room interacting

Jason, like many of the others, adore Sally to an unnerving degree. It seems as if everyone, no matter how much they dislike kids or ghosts or humans or whatever else Sally counts as, feels a supernaturally strong urge to protect the kid. Jason is one of the few seen with her constantly

Yeah go figure the Toymaker likes to appease the child

But seriously it’s a little freaky how Sally has this effect on so many people. Someone should look into that

While it’s one of the most recent additions to the household, Jason is one of the oldest entities within the group.

Like hello bro was around in the late 1800s, Jason has peepaw bragging rights

With that comes the stipulation that Jason hates modern technology. The newest thing they own is a sewing machine from the 70s

I think it’s pretty obvious that because of his peepaw status, + the fact Jason thrives off unhealthy obsessive friendships, a lot of the younger residents hate her, and vice versa

Is friends/close with: Sally, Ann, Nina, and LJ

Is neutral about: Jane, EJ, Kagekao, Helen, and Slenderman

Doesn’t get along with/hates: BEN/Ben, Jeff, Clockwork, Puppeteer, Liu, Masky, and Hoody

Ben is practically the antithesis of Jason. Modern tech manipulator vs old fashioned old timey manipulator

If those two somehow end up in the same room it’s ON SIGHT

Nina and Jason are constantly bitching and gossiping about anything and everything under the sun. Somehow someone who’s besties with Jason’s rival is also besties with Jason. Nina is just that talented, apparently

Ofc they also bond over fashion. Who do you think makes most of Nina’s batshit insane wardrobe pieces?

Puppeteer annoys the hell out of Jason. That, and he keeps trying to steal and manipulate all the dolls Jason makes. Rude.

Jason is the only one allowed to destroy xer own work. If it catches you fucking with any of the dolls, thrown away or otherwise, you can kiss your existence goodbye because Jason will make it her life’s mission to see to it you never have peace again

Tries not to be in their true/corrupted form too often considering how rotted his arms get in that state. The skin flakes off and everything, and it’s really inconvenient when you’re trying to work on fine craftsmanship and your own rotten black flesh keeps falling into your paint or some shit

Not exactly the easiest thing to control though. The more emotionally volatile Jason is, the more likely you’re gonna see him at his worst

[xerith-42]

The second turning point

@cinnamontoastcroonch I hope you're happy.

I've been taking a critical eye to every episode of Minecraft Diaries as I rewatch it. And I mean writing upwards of entire essays about single episodes. As you saw with episode 65. Part of why I've been doing this is to see where things truly went wrong with this show. The early episodes were better than I remembered, but I know for a fact there was an entire falling apart that happened between the utter quality that is an episode like say episode 58, and well... Season 3.

Obviously episode 65 was the turning point, but that was just the inciting incident. All the problems in MCD ultimately come down to the love triangle and how poorly it was handled. And the next major step was in episode 77. Episode 77 is an episode that is mostly spent on minimal character interactions at the wolf tribe after the gang finally gets back there with Logan and everyone else. Aphmau spends most of the episode building a boat, and then getting distracted from building her boat.

Until she decides to go check on the Nether Portal. It's broken, like when she last saw it, but Laurance is standing in front of it. I need to emphasize something. Up until this point, we've gotten very few conversations where Laurance brings up being a Shadow Knight. He usually diverts these conversations, or they get diverted by others, so we've gotten very few personal insights into a Shadow Knights existence. This is one of the first real times that we get a deeper look at how this condition has effected Laurance.

And y'know what? I'm just gonna give you a quote from my video essay on this. A nice little teaser. As a treat :)

His mind has sort of been rewired to put himself before others, even if he’s naturally a very selfless person. Which is a real slap in the face when you remember most Shadow Knights are guards, who are encouraged to be selfless. His heart still loves dearly and he is still the same selfless fool who threw his life away to save Aphmau, but his mind is telling him to be more selfish, take what he wants without regard for others. Laurance is actively fighting these thoughts all the time, but he worries that one day he might give in and… He says he never wants his heart to forget Aphmau, even if his mind tells him otherwise.

This. This hurts me. It's quality Laurance content. It's a great moment of Laurance proving one of his greatest strengths and weaknesses. How emotionally vulnerable he is. It makes him easy to hurt. It means he'll actually express it. He's struggled to talk about being a Shadow Knight, but now he's able to.

Imagine if episode 65 let him see the fear of killing Aphmau before this.

And just as Laurance says that absolutely heartbreaking line, GUESS WHO HAS TO MOSEY HIS SORRY ASS INTO THE ROOM?! Garroth just waltzs in there and interrupts this incredibly private conversation that he just happened to be listening to. Now, I will say, there is a way to justify this that I will accept, but I know without a doubt the writers didn't intend this.

The only way this works is if Garroth is listening to this conversation because he's scared of leaving Aph and Laurance alone in case Laurance decides to just... Kill her. But then he feels bad. But that would probably make him walk away out of guilt.

So yeah this doesn't make sense. For Garroth. At all. Why is he so scared of Laurance and Aphmau literally having one conversation? Well, it's the answer it always is. The love triangle. They've shown before that they are willing to disregard basic logic, only to prove that they know the details of this logic in a later episode. In Episode 65 they disregard Garroth's fears around his family, and then center an entire conversation around it in Episode 68.

But wait, it gets worse. Because Garroth knows for a fact that Aphmau and Laurance having an emotional conversation won't likely lead to any romance.

BECAUSE HE SAW LAURANCE CONFESS TO APHMAU 24 EPISODES AGO AND SAW HER REJECT HIM!!

There were seven weeks in between these episodes!! Idk how long it takes to make an episode of MCD, but I imagine episodes are written in major arcs at a time. How did they forget what happened IN THE LAST MAJOR ARC OF THE SHOW?! Because. Love triangle. Because Jesson don't care about the characters they previously wrote, they care about these characters fulfilling an already existing trope they liked in something before. They don't care how this dynamic might change because of their own characters, just that they go through the motions.

So Garroth interrupts this conversation. Laurance gets snippy and tells Garroth to fess up or else he might "sweep her off her feet first." And that's a red flag for Laurance. Good job writers. And let's be clear, I don't disagree with characters maybe being shitty, as long as it doesn't contradict previous characterization. Like this does.

The writers forgot that Garroth saw Laurance's confession. They forgot that Laurance took rejection on the chin. They forgot that Laurance literally said "I'm just happy to be in your life." Did they forget about Laurance's entire confession?! Do the writers think that went away when he stopped being blind?!

...

Oh fuck... Did... Did Laurance only accept rejection because he didn't think he was good enough to be with her when he was blind? Is that what they're trying to say? I... I really hope that isn't. And yet I wouldn't be surprised. Just completely and utterly disappointed.

That took a turn I didnt like. I don't know how to end this now.

[whumpbug]

whumperless whump event day 19: the whump morning after! @whumperless-whump-event

tending to injuries / domestic hurt comfort / “let's check the bandages, okay?”

see this post for character information!

caretaker: Simon

whumpee: Archie

guys. it's here. i can't explain why but i think this is my favorite simon and archie fic i've written and i literally wrote it the week after i made them so PLS ENJOY!!

༶•┈┈୨♡୧┈┈•༶

“Ow ow ow! Fuck!”

“Easy, easy! Jeez Archie, relax, would you? Are you trying to run a marathon or something?”

“I have to pee!”

Simon pinched the bridge of his nose and huffed.

“We’ll take it slow. The last thing we need is you popping a stitch because you're rushing it. That cut was a pain in the ass to suture.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever. Just help me? Please?”

Simon sighed.

Patrol nights were always rough on Archie. At least during the fights, he was always too hopped up on adrenaline to notice how injured he really was, and he usually conked out before Simon finished patching him up.

The mornings, however, were unrelenting. 

Every ache, bruise, slash and sprain from the night before now made itself very apparent, and Archie wasn’t able to ignore it.

As for this particular night, it had been a pretty rough fight between Archie and some lackies from a well-known drug operation he had been trying to dismantle. They were dosed on strength enhancers that rivaled Archie’s own abilities, and while he came out on top, it definitely wasn’t an easy fight.

Now, he was sporting a black eye, several broken ribs, a knife wound to the gut, a sprained ankle, a mild concussion, and a mosaic of bruises all over his body.

Rough night indeed.

“Alright, let’s get you up then,” Simon bent down and wrapped his arm under Archie’s. Archie braced as Simon started to guide him up, grunting sharply when they started to move from the couch.

“Go slower.”

“And here I thought you were about to piss yourself.”

“Just go!”

He grit his teeth against the all-consuming jolt of pain that overtook his body. God, the morning after really did suck.

“Alright alright, almost there..” Simon soothed, taking a bit more of his weight. “Just a little more..”

After a ridiculous amount of time, they were both finally standing. Archie was heavily favoring his left ankle as he began his hobble to the bathroom door with Simon’s help. Every step was agony.

“Alright, I’ll be fine from here,” He stated with a wince. He waved Simon away from the hallway, but Simon.. didn’t move.

“Nuh uh. No way. The last time I left you on your own, you fell and cracked your head on the bathtub. I’m waiting right here in the hall.”

“Ew, no! That’s weird! Go away!”

“It’s only weird because you’re making it weird. You forget I’m literally in school to do this for a living. This is strictly professional.”

“Whatever. Weirdo.”

“Strictly. Professional.”

Archie shot Simon a weak scowl as he shut the restroom door behind him.

Simon waited awkwardly for a few moments before he heard a zip, a flush, and the whoosh of the faucet. 

Archie merged from the bathroom, looking absolutely unsteady on his wobbling legs. He was just about to pitch forward when Simon closed the distance between them, slipping an arm around Archie’s waist. “Alright. Back to the couch we go.”

It took another eternity, but finally, Archie was lying down again, significantly paler than when he had started. 

“This sucks.” He whined, breathing deeply through his nose as the aftershocks of pain reverberated through his bones.

“Yeah, well, maybe you should think about that before you try to take on six guys that are three times your size,” Simon retorted, replacing the ice pack on Archie’s ribs. “That was the most stupid thing I’ve seen you do in a while, and I’ve seen you do some pretty stupid things.”

Archie would have crossed his arms indignantly if he could.

“You should have seen the other guys..” He muttered under his breath, rather childishly.

Still, despite his banter, the way sweat was beading on Archie’s brow and the way his face was void of all color was not lost on Simon.

“Hey, let’s check those bandages, okay? I think you might have popped a stitch after all.”

“I did not. I would know.”

“You absolutely wouldn’t. Lift your shirt.”

Archie rolled his eyes and slowly lifted the fabric to reveal… a bright red stain on the gauze.

He didn’t have to look at Simon to know the kind of smirk he was sporting.

Simon made quick work of replacing the suture and re-wrapping the wound. His hands worked deftly and with a practiced manner that Archie found himself feeling.. saddened by. He couldn’t quite explain it. It was more of the realization that Simon had been doing this for a while, enough that it was second nature, and Archie had done.. well, nearly nothing for him. He had yet to repay him for his undying generosity.

“Simon..” He began. His voice faltered the slightest bit. “Do you.. ever get tired of.. this.” He motioned vaguely to himself.

At the sudden change in conversation, a mixture of anger, hurt, and surprise flashed across Simon’s face. 

“What do you mean?”

“I just mean.. well..” Archie swallowed the lump in his throat and averted his gaze. “This can’t be fun for you. You come back from classes, from work, probably exhausted, and have to deal with me. I just.. I don’t want you to think you have to do it. I’ll be fine on my own if you don't want to. You’ve taught me enough that I--”

“Archie. Look at me.”

Archie drew his gaze up and met Simon’s unwavering eyes. 

“Listen to me. I don’t ever want you to think I am just dealing with you. I do this because I genuinely want to. Nobody is forcing me, I’m doing it because you deserve it. Archie, I know I don’t say it a lot, but you do so much to help others,” He said breathlessly, taking Archie hand and holding it tightly. “You deserve someone that will do the same for you.”

Suddenly, Archie found himself scrubbing viciously at traitorous tears that spilled over. Before he could say anything else, Simon pulled him into an embrace. It was the kind of hug that cradles every part of your soul, every part of your being.

He wept openly in Simon’s arms.

“You’re stuck with me, whether you like it or not,” He hummed, rubbing Archie’s back and pulling away slowly.

“So you’d better start learning how to dodge.”

༶•┈┈୨♡୧┈┈•༶

[vimesbootstheory]

CK S6 Pt1 Thoughts

Do we still call this "the cut" or did we leave that behind on LJ? Anyway the thoughts are under the cut. I haven't looked at anyone else's thoughts yet, no idea whether this is echo chamber stuff or if I watched a different show than the rest of you.

Overall I honestly had a blast, I'm probably gonna talk more here about stuff I disliked but that's because positive stuff kept me glued to the screen while negative stuff sent me to vent in the notes doc I had open in another window lol

Eagle Fang was Johnny's thing, not an extension of Kreese's Cobra Kai, and I was so angry at the show for not understanding that that I burst into tears

I continue to think that the big cast is spreading character work too thin, such that most characters were either made much less interesting than they have been in previous seasons (e.g. Daniel, Miguel) or were given too little time with the character work they had (e.g. Robby, Kenny) or both.

Characters I made particular note of who are now boring: Daniel, Amanda, Sam, Hawk.

I was surprised in particular how Daniel was given virtually no character work other than this token Miyagi thing. I prefer when Daniel's a bitch. Daniel being The Reasonable One is incredibly boring.

We kinda got slutty gi back? In hallucination form? Briefly?

This was a hard realization: I don't think I ship Daniel/Johnny in these episodes. I'm still absolutely bonkers for them in previous seasons (1-4 mostly) and in the fandom sphere but honestly I wanted Johnny away from Daniel most of the time in s6e1-5. I found it really off-putting how much Daniel was trying to change Johnny into someone he's not.

Fave new character was Kwon. Enjoyably silly. I like his anime hair.

Delighted that Jarmen baby is a girl, even more delighted that the topic of the baby was pretty backgrounded, didn't spend a lot of time on it.

I am filled with incandescent rage that they neutered SamTory; it was weird rooting for Johnny's terrible strategies to make them frenemies instead of friends. But it looks like they're not quite done yet so I'm gonna cool my heels on this point.

Team Captain nepo babies lol. I would be so pissed if I were any of the other Miyagi-Do students.

Loved Johnny championing his female students. In an ideal world I would not have had a little voice at the back of my head wishing he'd spend the same kind of quality time with Robby (How about some Robby time? Robby? Robby now? Johnny and Robby?); nevertheless for what it was, I still really like Johnny supporting Devon and (to a lesser extent) Tory. Meanwhile Daniel over here in his sexist era I guess, ok. Like he really only wanted to send his daughter and no other girls.

Peyton List is the part-season's MVP, obviously obviously. She was so great. Kicked ass, kicked acting's ass. Tory was probably the meatiest character of the season, too, though that's not saying a ton.

My worst fears were not realized re: Johnny's character. He still isn't the fully-realized guy he was in early seasons, but relative to other characters, he's having a pretty OK season IMO. Knock on wood.

I was unexpectedly all riled up on Anthony's behalf. Why does he HAVE to get into karate? Why does he have to be Daniel 2.0? At least this was addressed textually.

So pissed on Kenny's behalf. Justice for Kenny. He deserved one of the top 6 spots. He got poo pants instead. Jesus Christ.

Loved the Lawrence vs Barnes fight, very metal, excellent choreo, love watching Zabka move. I would bet the cobros are lighting up at having an answer on that particular head-to-head.

This has been a running thing with Cobra Kai for a while, but I'm not even sure how I as an audience member was supposed to see Johnny's current teaching style? Honestly I loved his day of blended-style lessons. Obviously broken glass in the koi pond is not a great idea. But like. Jesus Christ, Daniel, katas HAVE STRIKES. WHAT DO YOU EVEN WANT.

Did they really just write Chozen out without any goodbyes? :(((

Daniel's ego flare-up and "I'm the boss" moment, contender for only interesting aspect to his character in these five eps. Hell yea hell yea. Show some goddamn teeth Daniel LaRusso.

One thing I think CK excels at and has always excelled at is keeping the stakes up for tournament-style fights, such that more often than not, I can't tell just through narrative signposting who's going to win. Robby vs Miguel in particular was a nail-biter. I did a full-body arm-pump when Robby won. Though the stakes were weird because it's not as someone can't win in Barcelona if they're not a captain? That was confusing and makes me think it's going to be their way of doling out successes across the main four kids. Like Robby and Sam for the captains, and then Miguel will win, presumably Tory too when she flip-flops back to team good guys again.

Interesting acting/directing/writing (idk which) choice during Robby vs Miguel, Johnny visibly rooting for Robby.

I love that Johnny brought up losing his mum when Tory's mum died, but I really hope they get the chance to bond over it at some point.

The fuckin magic jewel bottle cap got me so bad. Resourceful DIY toys is poor person realness and it was so cute and heartbreaking.

It's weird that new!CK got into the tournament because it's clearly not really the same dojo, so they haven't really qualified.

I'm so pumped about Kreese being the main villain. That was true before the season began and I still feel that way.

I'm excited for part 2!

[homoerotic-shonen-rival-showdown]

Round Two Match Eight: Sasuke and Naruto (Naruto) vs Gojo and Geto (Jujutsu Kaisen)

why should you vote for them?

Sasuke and Naruto (autoqualified but still got 4 submissions):

duh

Idk I don’t go here I just wanna help them for all the tumblr girlies

because of every single crazy quote they’ve said

Gojo and Geto (3):

uh…divorced. i love them

STSG ESSAY TIME >:)))))) Warning for Jujutsu Kaisen anime/manga spoilers ahead! I had to explain deep dark depths of the story to prove that they deserve to win the crown. Here I go. Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru (also known as Satosugu or simply stsg) deserve to win the crown for the following reasons. Please bear with me throughout this whole essay because I am unequivocally insane about them. First of all let’s get into the rivalry side of things.

In high school, Gojo was an absolute menace. The first time Gojo and Geto met, the latter hated the former because he was annoying, rude, and arrogant. Now eventually they became best friends, but you see, their rivalry returned when Geto was exiled from the school because they had a stark disagreement in moral ideologies, which resulted in a dramatic breakup in front of a KFC (yes, this is actually canon). Gojo was supposed to execute Geto because he did some Bad Things (that we don’t need to get into right now) but as Geto walked away he said (paraphrased) “Go ahead and kill me. There’s meaning to that.” And My Lord is that a line. So for the next ten years of their lives, these two were separated, now on opposite sides, now each others’ enemies. Eventually this came to a climax when Geto declared war on Gojo, but before we get to that, let’s pause for a second, and talk about the meaning behind this all. I’ll try to make this part quick because without restraint this would become excessively long. So technically, Gojo and Geto’s breakup directly caused the plot of Jujutsu Kaisen to unfold. If they hadn’t broken up, then Geto wouldn’t have declared war and then died. If they hadn’t broken up, Geto’s body wouldn’t have been possessed; his body wouldn’t have, completely against his will, trapped Gojo in a prison, as Geto sat back helpless, unable to do anything to stop his best friend from being sealed *by his own hands*. Every single other tragic event that happened in Jujutsu Kaisen would not have happened, because, assuming you have never watched/read Jujutsu Kaisen, no, Gojo and Geto are not the main characters, and the whole rest of the cast was affected by this event. Yes, this homoerotic rivalry breakup is the very Big Bang for Jujutsu Kaisen, because if it didn’t happen, Jujutsu Kaisen wouldn’t have the incredible plot that it has. Butterfly Effect at its finest. Anyway, now that their rivalry is out of the way, I will now get into their homoeroticism.

My first piece of evidence for their homoeroticism is that… it’s in the name. Both of their first names start with “s” and end with “ru”. Both of their last names start with “g” and end with “o”. And both of their full names have the same amount of syllables. There is no possible way that this wasn’t done on purpose to get the point across that they are literal soulmates. Do I sound insane yet? In addition, Gojo called Geto, and I quote, “my one and only”. Now if that isn’t some fruit ass shit then idk what is. And now the most damning evidence of homoness, comes when Geto died by Gojo’s side. This was after the war that Geto declared on Gojo, and Geto ended up on the losing side. Even though they had been rivals for ten long years, they still had an important and heartfelt history together, so as Gojo walked over to his dying best friend, Geto smiled, glad to see not only an old friend, but the most important person in his life, for the last time. Gojo’s last words to Geto as he died were NEVER REVEALED. Only very very few producers of the anime know the words. They will be released soon but for now we don’t know. But it was confirmed that his last words were THREE WORDS. Now I don’t wanna put any words in Gojo’s mouth but the most obvious theory here is that he said “I love you” as his best friend and rival of 10+ years died by his side. This is even further affirmed when, after hearing those three words, Geto BLUSHED, SMILED (as he was in the process of bleeding out!) and described the words as (paraphrased) “embarrassing words that they had never said to each other before”. IT’S BARELY SUBTEXT AT THIS POINT YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THEY’RE GAY AS HELL!

Now before this gets any longer I will cut myself off here. Thank you for coming to my way-too-long Ted Talk about these stupid ass anime men who have been plaguing my mind for months, I hope you take my submission into consideration! I don’t expect them to win but I’m just happy I get to aggressively type an essay about them in this google form :D

[moonsidesong]

just caught up with Your Turn To Die and absolutely adored it the whole way through. it goes unbelievably hard. calling it Danganronpa But Good feels like an insult. but like... yeah what if danganronpa was good? or rather. game that makes me wish danganronpa was good.

it really keeps you on your toes the Entire time, which is why i ended up saving like......... every five to ten minutes, most times. i would say the only slower part is the minigames during chapter 2? but, i thought those were fun, and they were still broken up by plot important stuff, so i really didnt mind.

ive heard the game had a soundtrack release on CD a few years ago, but i cant seem to find much information about it? much less any resell listings. how sad... i love cd...

i wanna talk more in depth from here on out so spoilers under the cut! warning thoughts very disjointed. and i havent seen absolutely Everything the game has to offer yet (havent done any of the side stories, we'll do them soon probably) so if my takes are disproven by anything ive yet to see please do not tell me htank you

first off OHHH MY GODDDD THIS GAME IS SO MUCH LESS CREEPY ABOUT THE MINORS AND ITS SUCH A BREATH OF FRESH AIR COMPARED TO DANGANRONPA. its not perfect, of course, i do not entirely love the jokes(???) about keiji (known grown adult man) going on dates with sara (known teenage girl), but like, this game does not make me feel gross all the time? thank u nankidai for not making your teacher character with a close relationship with one of his former students a groomer! the bare minimum! im gonna hit kodaka with a stick this should not be a point in the game's favor.

anyway! ended chapter 2 with Reko and Sou (shin) alive, ended chapter 3 having lost Reko .. . :( shes my favorite... i was so sad... ranmaru we're not friends anymore/.... you suck... you killed my best girl... we um, did make a grand total of 175 save files though, so at some point me and the friend i played with are gonna go back and scrub through anything and everything that we missed. maybe after we do the side stories though, not sure yet. reko yabusame i swear to god i will crawl into the screen and kill ranmaru myself for you. i will save you. i love you so much mwah

for years ive only known midori as The Guy That Kids On Danganronpa Discourse Instagram Put Overdramatic Yet Also Somehow Extremely Haphazard Trigger Warnings on every post that included him, so i was really excited to meet him. and boy he did not disappoint this guys NUTS!!! HES CRAZAY!!!!!!!! he has such a perfectly striking look about him. i love how he almost never stops looking straight at you, and how his suit is stark black so it obscures a lot of his shape when he's in the dark, its so cool. they absolutely nailed the atmosphere whenever you're around this guy.

but the first jumpscare when he like reaches out at you from the coffin just kinda made me laugh. me when i get you

also, if you're this far in to care about my opinions on games you probably know that i am Known Danganronpa V3 Hater. i think in particular Kokichi Ouma is way too good of a character for how dogwater the game's actual plot is, and Shin Tsukimi, while not being the same, obviously, scratches that itch of a guy trapped in a death game that spends all his time lying and living under a persona because he's afraid of dying perfectly While Being In A Game That Doesnt Make Me Feel Like Eating Sheet Metal . i love this dude and his ugly several clashing colors outfit. he wants my ass like mega dead right now but thats not important surely

also, i think its sweet that joe and sara are just best friends and they rarely ever even entertain the idea that they had romantic feelings for each other. i think its extra sweet and tragic that joe was able to tell sara he loved her in the end, meaning it as his best friend. and the way the game completely ceases showing you flashbacks of him after that point and just lets the image of the hallucinations replace his actual memory overtime is so good and haunting. this doubled down by the way her memory of him is completely locked up as soon as she starts trying to actually remember the way he really was, its so good.

i think thats all i have to say for now, but umm!!! really really good im excited to go back and fill in the gaps i missed. especially regarding kanna becasue i have a lot of theories about her that i hope im on the right track about #lol. but even if i dont i want to see her i miss her. yaay!!! i love when video games are good. i love you video games.

ill probably make more posts down the line with more thoughts after i let them marinade in my brain for a while... mostly when i have thoughts ive been sending them to the friend im playing with so we can discuss theories together LOL

[opinated-user]

SPOILERS for Across The Spider-Verse below, specifically the ending of it, people who have not seen the movie keep scrolling

It's really funny that Lily thinks people wouldn't like Hunter if he was black because fandom has lost their collective minds over Universe 42 Miles Morales aka The Prowler. There's redemption fic, there's fic shipping him with all kinds of people, there's reader x miles 42, there's cosplay, there's angsty fic where people sympathize with him, there's roleplaying blogs, fan made merch, fanart, fan edits, "Miles G. Morales needs a hug" is an AO3 tag, there's fic for him in multiple languages and the movie hasn't even been out for that long, he's got fan-made playlists...

Lily took over a decade to write one black character but that reluctance to sympathize with black people is far, FAR from a universal trait. Most people, upon seeing how dead inside alternate universe Miles is after losing his dad, instantly sympathized with him because it's so obvious that loss has just broken him. The flat affect, the thousand-yard stare, the refusal to empathize with others - this kid is very clearly not coping with loss well. Fandom response has been almost totally positive and caring. He's a teenage boy so adult fans are very "this poor kid" and teenagers are very "you don't understand, he's making bad choices but he's not a bad/irredeemable person". I have rarely seen people this united in wanting a character to be alright but even people who aren't super into him have said that they don't want him to die or get hurt in Beyond The Spider-Verse because, much as he presents a threat to our hero, he's a victim or circumstances and a product of his environment.

Even people who don't want him to have a redemption arc really applaud the ATSV team for writing a black villain with the same complexity, full backstory and depth as they do black heroes. Even people who want to see Spider-Man Miles kick Prowler Miles' ass do not dislike the angsty teen on the wrong side. Being black is not an automatically disliked or unlikeable trait.

Her saying "if Hunter was black, you'd dislike him" is not just wrong, it's the actual opposite of what we're seeing in fandom right now. When handed an angsty black boy we all instantly decided we wanted to protect him even as we gushed over how cool he is.

Lily's statement is projection. It says a lot more about her than it does about fandom, because she says that as if sympathizing with a black character is a rare thing in her mind.

And yeah, Lily, that is rare... for you. The rest of us aren't racist like that.

and you know why that is... simply put, because the spiderverse is a well written movie. it's a movie that treat it's characters with a lot of care and sympathy, so we as the audience can sympathize with them. being able to do that with most of the cast as black characters is not only to be expected, but just the norm. people like complex characters that aren't just one single note. LO literally can't understand that when she wants characters to be like that, she's in the minority. more people will always prefer a character that goes through arcs (both positive and negative), that evolves, that changes, than one that remains static. she absolutely can't grapple with that fact. i already explained before that there would be other issues, thematically speaking, if hunter was black so it was actually a good thing that he isn't and how much better those themes are represented by having Luz to be black too. but if the only difference of him was his race, literally nothing else about how he is written and treated by the narrative, the fandom would love him just the same. the only difference is that LO would then go out of her way to try to argue about how much better the show would be if he were a underage lesbian too. her misconceptions about fandom is what happens when you only have an skewed notion about fandom racism from a singular black person. by only learning through stitch and not any of the other black fans that have spoken about the subject, LO has come out with the idea that fandom is all inherently racist all the time and black characters (because we know she doesn't care about any other race) never receive any kind of attention, ever. so the best way to combat racism... is just to dislike white characters harder. which i hope i don't have to explain how useless that is. if the questions are, does fandom racism exist? have black character being treated unfairly compared with white ones? has fandom gone out of their way to treat not only characters, but also non white cast members, in cruel ways that didn't deserve at all? all of that is yes and that has been ignored for way too long. we also ignored for way too long how many times this racism came from the canon itself, by sidelining POC character with great potential (Finn, Poe and even Rose are example of this) or never given them a chance to shine at all. but things are getting better, precisely because of works like the spiderverse, and because black characters are being put at the front and center for more diverse stories that people are connecting to. this, this is how you actually combat fandom racism.

and all LO has to say is how much she hates this movie tried to be too artistic.

[bengiyo]

The Eighth Sense Eps 7 & 8 Stray Thoughts

Last week, things came to a head as Jae Won started to crack. He decided to run away to the beach with Ji Hyun in a (likely) highly medicated state. Many cute things happened, that I firmly believe were real before Ji Hyun seems to have drowned. I'm certain he's going to live, because it would be unsatisfying for four episodes if he didn't.

Episode 7

Well this use of silence at the beginning is rather crushing.

While I respect the disappointment that their club has been cancelled because of the accident, these seniors are quite heartless. Tae Hyung and Eun Ji.... It's on sight.

Oh, Jae Won, please don't project onto this broken camera. The blurry face out was nice though.

Jae Won came out of his fuzziness just enough to punch Tae Hyung in the face. HIT HIM AGAIN! HIT HIM FOR ME, TOO!

Can someone please not make Jae Won's actions about them for one conversation with him, holy shit.

Did she really just kiss him? Me and her about to beef like Kim and Sheego.

17 minutes and they're just now affirming that Ji Hyun is actually alive.

I like Joon Pyo trying to keep the atmosphere light.

The boss is always a favorite.

I like that Sassy!Ji Hyun still knows how to express gratitude.

FRIENDSHIP STAR!!

Unsurprised to learn that Jae Won stayed by Ji Hyun until he came to consciousness.

The Gang Goes Has Their First Cocktails

I love Ji Hyun and his gay little lamp.

If they had shown Jae Won in bed next to Eun Ji I would have been so sad.

I get why Jae Won is shutting Ji Hyun out, but I wish he'd tell Ji Hyun why.

This was such a quiet episode that the credits feel especially melancholy.

Thinking about how gray and dark Jae Won's world is, but we kept seeing Ji Hyun in bright sunlight.

Episode 8

I loved this boy's Hedwig presentation.

This man said walk a mile in these Louboutin's.

Loving Ji Hyun and his unbothered era.

Sweet relief: the intro music is back.

Ope! Bit Na is not immune to the shade!

They finally see each other and Eun Ji has to be pissy about it. Jae Won does not seem well at all

Tae Hyung is the most pathetic waste of a man we've had in a while. He is the most bitchless man I've ever seen in BL.

Jae Won finally shows signs of life listening to Ji Hyun talk about their relationship.

Tae Hyung is graceless even in defeat. He is terribly unattractive and definitely smells bad.

I love Joon Pyo again. I love when best friends get mad that they weren't told about the romance.

I like how action-oriented Joon Pyo is. He provides additional context about Jae Won at the hospital, and wants to know what steps Ji Hyun is going to take about his crush. Love Ji Hyun's determination to get Jae Won back.

Joon Pyo is the best. Immediately switching from jealous of Ae Ri to excited at the new bonding potential.

MY BOY JI HYUN HANDED EUN JI HER ASS!!

Yes, Boss!! Tell these kids to just go for it!

Ji Hyun is quickly becoming one of my favorite gay characters of all time. I like when the younger character refuses to let the older one run away from what they have.

I get why Jae Won is doing this, but I'm not sure what knocks him out of this.

Absolutely incredible episodes of television. After such a desaturated episode 7, there was so much life and color in episode 8. Ji Hyun's skin looked so rich in the final scene. You can feel how assured he is of his feelings and what he wants. Eun Ji and Tae Hyung better not feature next week except to get dunked on one final time.

[anniefelis]

Tears of the Kingdom is a year old now, and I keep seeing posts about it, about how there are already fond memories, of how people want the special merch that's come out...

...meanwhile I'm still here thinking of how I'd do a fix-it fic to rectify that mess of a plot. I did it for Twilight Princess (which I am still turning into final drafts), but TP can't hold a candle to Tears of the Kingdom, which is a sequel that ignored most of the canon from the first game. I may have posted this somewhere already, but I ought to post it again in case I forget everything. I apologize if I posted this before.

First fix: Link and Zelda are a couple, a would-be-married-if-Hateno-had-common-law couple, a sexually active couple to the point where Zelda had to take steps to avoid having children too early.

Second fix: Rauru, Sonya and Ganondorf are from an alternative Hyrule where Hylia never came to help the humans, so their population was absolutely decimated by the demon tribe, and they were saved from extinction by the Zonai (hence the shrines where Rauru sealed demons). Zelda is not descended from Rauru and Sonya any more than the other Hylians, because thousands of years is a long ass time to trace bloodlines. There's a lot of multiverse BS mixed in with the time travel BS. The reason nobody knows who Link is, is because Link does not exist in this alternative Hyrule. That Link died 100 years ago, the Shrine of Resurrection was never discovered, and this Zelda eventually sealed Calamity Ganon by herself.

Third fix: ...except, some people do know Link, and remember his timeline. It's two parallel universes mashed together, so people like Sidon, the Deku Tree and Purah remember it, but others do not. Something happened to the Zelda of this universe, which is why people are looking for her. Meanwhile, the alternative universe characters do not know some familiar characters like Kass.

Fourth fix: Link's hand talks, and Rauru is an annoying companion. Imagine having a king in your hand, giving unwanted advice all the time. At least Fi was polite about it. Rauru does not realize who Link is at first, and then is baffled by the changes to the world.

Fifth fix: the Master Sword itself tells Link to plunk it in that temporal whatsahoosit in the Temple of Time, thinking it would fix it, and bang boom it zips back into time. Meanwhile, the Sheikah slate always stays with Link, and gets corrupted and broken by Ganondorf's gross purple haze.

Sixth fix: There are no Dragon Tears littered around the world that have been there for thousands of years. There are two: the one you first encounter with Impa, which gives a vague point of view of Ganondorf and his Gerudo army attacking Hyrule (the memories are first-person), and then the second one where Link sees a bunch of images from the past and Zelda's dragonification, all from her point of view. He knows it's her because he hears her speaking and sees her hands. They are shed at two moments in the game where Link gets close enough to the Light Dragon to see that it's not like Dinraal, Naydra or Farosh.

Seventh fix: The three dragons of the golden goddesses are not from the alternative Hyrule, and think everything is messed up. They insist that the Zonai ruins Link keeps finding are nothing like the Zonai they know. They're the same race, but the technology is completely different, like something advanced the Zonai rapidly in the one timeline.

Eighth fix: The Sheikah tech is there mixed in with Zonai ruins. It confuses the fuck out of both universes. For some reason, the Sheikah stuff does not work anymore, which confounds the hell out of Purah and Robbie.

Ninth fix: Some of the Sheikah are from either universe, but all of the Yiga are from Link's universe.

Tenth fix: The ancient sage spirits are not still around, and they do not explain what happened in the past (Rauru does). We just get new sages in the form of the New Champions, and the Spirit Stones (not Secret Stones, fuck that name) choose them. The new sages use their new powers to help Link get through the mass of Malice (not Gloom!) that blocks him from getting to Ganondorf.

Eleventh fix: Link and Zelda aren't fixed by the Recall spell, because that's kind of out of left field and Sonya's spirit is long gone anyway (and I do not like using game mechanics as plot points). They're fixed by Link's innate time magic, the time magic he always had as his Champion's Power, and they are returned to their proper timeline (as well as the alt Zelda) as well. This is all done with some help from the Spirit Stone of Time, but also due to the Triforce of Courage, which awakens. And that brings us to the final point...

Final fix: the Triforce is in this story. You can't tell me that the crest of the Hyrulean Kingdom survived all this time along with the Hyrule dynasty, yet nobody understands it's symbolism. You can't tell me that Zelda's "sacred power" wasn't just the Triforce of Wisdom. Sorry, I don't buy it.

[riwooga]

that bailey post is pure copium

It does have a healthy amount of denial I am not shy or ashamed about that 👀

But at the same time, I do not base my thoughts on nothing, I base it his dialogue and scenes partnered with a bit of psychology! And you know what I'll take this chance to ramble even more because I always have thoughts on DOL characters and their complexity

I am in no way shape or form saying that Bailey is thinking sunshine and rainbows and the stereotypical loving sighs everytime he thinks of PC-- quite the opposite 👀

I think, no matter what situation, you're literally not getting any cute loving relationship with Bailey, I think that man is too far broken, too guarded, too self-isolated. He'd not really allow it for himself, and if he did... It'd probably be deeply toxic and controlling. Because that's... What he knows.

I think the whole thing is, Bailey doesn't want a weakness. He doesn't want to have any of that kind of feelings (frankly he seems to try to be detached from feelings in general), and I think even /realizing/ having any sort of feelings like that would infuriate him to no end, he'd internalize it and it'd eat him up inside.

And with that being said, I do genuinely think he does have a soft spot for the PC. Again, not a cutesy "Oh I love PC so much!!" absolutely fucking not. And sure, you could say it's only because PC brings in the most money,,, but I think it's more than that.

I've already listed a few of my reasons in my previous Bailey post, but honestly even if we just look at personality...

I think the two big archetypes of PC-personality is the Defiant who looks Bailey in the eyes without fear, isn't scared of him, fights back, refuses to conform, and protects the others. A pain in his ass, a thorn that won't be pricked.

Or, the neutral-to-submissive type, who does as asked, helps everyone around the Orphanage, helps everyone around town, tries to keep hope and stay strong especially for the younger orphans. Someone i could see make him almost even more bitter.

And honestly... this is PURE speculation, because we don't know canonically Bailey's past yet... But I could straight up see that some of Bailey's speculated soft spot could come from seeing some of his younger self in the PC, maybe before the bitterness overtook him, before he became this hard shell that knew that the only way to ignore his own misery was at least captilazing on others, that the world would remain broken regardless of what he did.

Or maybe the version of himself he wished he could have been.

I am however simply speculating it could be something like that!! because genuinely psychologically pretty much no one turns out like him, without being deeply broken themselves.

But no to get back on the Bailey x PC dynamic

We know that everytime Bailey has shown these moments I've called attention to, they're almost immediately followed up by coldness.

Oh he came running because you screamed in the bathroom? Congrats you got slapped for wasting his time when there's nothing there. You managed to seduce him and make him admit he doesn't want you to leave? Yeah no you got shoved off him and kicked out of his office as soon as he was thinking rationally again.

-- and it's like that with everything when it comes to Bailey. Which is exact why I'll say again, Bailey is in no shape or form a lovesick puppy, and I don't think he realistically ever would be even if my speculated soft spot ever turned into something more. That man has stunted his emotions as what I would assume to be a survival instinct, recognized that emotions = weakness. Having people close = weakness.

But instead of continuously rambling on,, I'll sum it up and say that my conclusion is, that Bailey is a complex character there isn't a simple "Oh he's in love with the PC" or "Oh he doesn't care about anyone ever at all", it's much more complex than that. Just like I think a LOT of DOL characters are complex, which is part of why I love the game so much.

People definitely don't have to agree with me, and can absolutely say I'm in denial I'll accept that because even if it's denial I still love him 🤧

[0rinthered]

I am so passionate about Orin, like no it isn't fair she doesn't ever get the chance and Durge doesn't help her or care after the fact. Ironically what Orin did saved everyone and got Durge freedom if they chose it. The fact that all you can really do is insult her or call her stupid besides the "you've been abused and used option" which is a high roll to even convince her is so sad. I don't like mocking her knowing the whole context and why she's doing what she is. It's not a choice really. It feels wrong to me. She's a victim of so much abuse and grooming from all these awful men. I mean Saravok is a creepy ass misogynist who r worded Orin's sister/mom and people mock her about that in way that's really messed up.

The only person who even seems to show a bit of empathy or at least understanding of her is Minthara when she is a big victim of her. Orin punishes people because she's punished by Bhaal, I saw people post the dev notes the tragic context they should have made clear in the game. That she would have even tried to resist Bhaal before and when she did she got killed for it. In a fucked up way Minthara is the closest thing to showing her "love" or at least care, like I know it's not love but just someone like not being horrible to her or looking down on her for existing. She even says they had similar situations and upbringings so you save her that kind of fate. She said she saw herself reflected in Orin broken too. Sad about all the content they didn't give us because I know they said they wanted more Orin/Minthara stuff but I think ti deserved more than a few lines.

Orin's father is literally a child r*pist and apparently has a line where he says he likes her the same way he does her mom? LIKE WTF? and wants her to make babies with durge? I don't know if it is confirmed if he assaulted her or not but he obviously would if he wanted. He shows a lot of hate like he didn't effect what happened if he's mad about what Orin did to Durge. Felt so horrible killing her in the scene after you tell her the truth because she's totally a slave in body then too. It broke my heart. I don't like that they didn't make her background more of the forefront and just let people see her as this crazy one unless you think about her or find tidbits. She felt like a throwaway to me when she's so tragic and she's just mocked and hated by everyone. I hate abused children/women being painted as "crazy psychos" to make fun of. She's severely mentally ill. Ketheric is not a more sympathetic character, he chose to do all he did. Gortash is given more dignity and choice than her. I think Ketheric and his performance are overrated honestly, he just got more screentime and got to be more fleshed out so they say he's better. That's why people go "orin is just an unhinged boring murderhobo" SHE AND AZULA DESERVED SO MUCH BETTER

Yeah it's pretty frustrating - a lot is implied with her but man you really have to look for it, which a lot of people don't bother to do. Orin in my opinion is the most interesting of the three.

I know the general opinion seems to sway to Ketheric, and I really like him, but I think it's pretty ah... shallow? For lack of a better word. Maybe surface level? Like it's very straight forward in my opinion, which doesn't mean it's any less than Orin or Gortash but I think it's easier to absorb if that makes sense?

Whereas with both Orin and Gortash you really need to sniff around, Orin especially. Minthara is the companion she is attached to, as Gortash is Karlach (While it seems like the only connection Ketheric has to the camp is Shadowheart, but that's through Dame Aylin and Isobel strangely enough. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. But he has an entire act to himself so...). But with Minthara, she is so so so easy to miss and thoughtlessly slaughter (ironically enough) so that's a whole bunch of Orin content absolutely nuked off of the bat.

So I suppose the bizarre pacing is to blame for Orin and Gortash kinda farting around, and Orin not being treated fairly compared to how the fandom treats durge. Again, quite "fitting" I guess. Orin doesn't get that privilege of pity and a chance at life whereas Durge gets two chances. The first being actually having a life outside of the temple, and the second being the tadpole. Why? Idk.

I don't even want a redemption for Orin. I think the choice should be there, and I think the choice should be made by her. Only her.

My ideal world would be Orin can escape, stay (what we currently have), or escape in her own little Orin way. To elaborate on that... I think Orin should be able to continue slaughtering people, but I think she should do it for herself. Not for Bhaal, not for the temple. But because SHE wants to. I do however think the ""novelty"" of that for her would vanish pretty quickly once there's no unholy purpose to it, but that's just part of the growth I guess. So she rejects Bhaal, and skitters away into the shadows. She isn't going to have a character arc in like a week and dye her hair white - despite Shadowheart and Orin's similarities - I unfortunately think it'll take a lot lot lot longer and might never happen.

Still, the main point is that she has a choice, something she has been devoid of her entire life. What she chooses to do with that is up to her and that's the beauty of it.

I could go on and on and on about it and how she should actually be given lots of choices but that would just be me rambling even more than I already am LMFAO

Anyway, Orin I love you pookie boobookeys, remember that there's more to life than pleasing someone who never seems to want to please you.