#it's not an attack on viewers that needs to be 'justified'

[neosatsuma]

the izzy obituary going around on twitter is. i’m sorry. the funniest thing i’ve ever seen

[menofprogress]

Random thoughts:

i dont think viktor was entirely gone. I do think what we see of him in s2 act 2 was mostly the hexcore making decisions and talking to ppl (at the very least heavily influencing him), but hes definitely still in there. Also his "soul" is still entirely himself, as far as i can tell.

this makes me wonder if sky is really sky's soul or either some part of viktor's soul that has split off or a manifestation of the hexcore.

if viktor isnt entirely gone yet, why did jayce feel like he needed to kill him, instead of trying to talk to him? There are multiple theories about this: he saw the future, he was stuck in a timeloop or he is also posessed by something (the arcane OR viktor) and he feels like this is the only choice he has.

the thing is, jayce killing viktor isnt actually whats confusing me. Viktor was absolutely leading a cult that was doomed to fail and the hexcore was probably going to take him over entirely. I get that jayce (probably) has a justification for killing viktor, however drastic that may be.

What IS confusing me is the WAY jayce killed him and the way he acted around him. If he, after hundreds of timeloops, finally broke down and accepted that killing viktor is the only way, he would be absolutely distraught, upset, maybe in tears. From the moment viktor started speaking to jayce through salo, jayce was aggressive and downright hateful. Hes immediately antagonising viktor and provoking him. Also one thing hes upset about "i thought you were done with [...] me" happened before any timeloop or vision in the hexcore. Another thing thats really bothering me is that hes not going to viktor after he shot him? Hes not more sad afterwards, hes not distraught about how he just killed his best friend, honestly the most upset we see him is when he sees viktor for the first time.

So we know jayce is having visions when looking at viktor and his followers, the question is: how true are these visions? Bc to jayce his visions fully justify killing viktor, his followers, wreaking havok on the community and hes not even visibly sorry about it. Bc to us, the viewer, viktor and his followers seem definitely off, but not worthy of murder (yet).

What did he see that so fully killed all affection he has towards viktor? Does he think VIKTOR kept him trapped in the hexcore?? Is he even in his right mind rn?

Also, it really looks like viktor (or the hexcore if its controlling viktor) didnt expect to get attacked by jayce. He invited jayce, but it wasnt to lure him in or to invite him to fight. Viktor wasnt expecting to get attacked, he looked shocked! Makes me think that he wasnt going to do anything to jayce either and he definitely didnt have anything to do with keeping jayce, ekko and heimerdinger locked up. He WANTED jayce by his side.

Raaahhh, much to think about...

[tocomplainfriend]

It feels less like you want to address a real life problem to characters, but more like you want to have another of your characters you constantly baby and want others to fangirl over.

TW: Rape, SA, Racism, Stereotyping, Homophobia, Acephobia, Arophobia.

The representations of topics in media DOES affect real people.

Fiction can affect reality.

Let's start easy, Jaws. This goes back to Hazbin I promise.

"Since the release of Jaws in 1975, the world has witnessed a staggering decline of 71% in shark and ray populations, and around 100 million sharks are killed each year." (including multiple practices of mass hunting sharks in competition)

Both Steven Spielberg and the original writer Peter Benchley regret the movie and book. It's a big reason of the shark treatment, when it started by old fishermen worrying about shark biting people in the beaches they made money of.

Even if you aren't a shark killer yourself, a lot of things you believe of sharks are untrue myths that come from making sharks "evil" human killer animals. Sharks cannot smell blood from miles away, that's not even how water works, the particles of blood need to enter their nostrils. Sharks are not man eaters, they attack other prey animals before human. Shark attacks are extremely rare, even if they happen they are not justifiable to kill all sharks.

Sharks actually have personalities they can fit in, they are smart and recognize people and boats- and form positive relationships with people. They can even like getting pet by people.

Other level to represent other thing sin media that affects reality we can address Queer, representation as a topic.

I hope it is not a surprise for you... possible non-straight, non-cis person reading this. That the constant representation of gay man as kid predator is a problem. They used old commercial (PSA) to spread negative views of gay man. Media is used to spread messages and affect its viewer. This is, there are cartoons created by Jehovah witness (or similar religions) to spread their beliefs and teach to their children in an easy, digestible way.

Same with the amount of straight woman that went off to read shitty yaoi manga and fetishy gay wattpad stories, and went to sexualize and diminish queer men. Constantly making gay man's personality into bottom or top (uke and seme shit). I witness this irl, others have too.

Same with shitty men that view Lesbians as a porn machine for men, cause "monkey brain like woman, lesbian = two women". Which happens in general and adult media. All of these are EASY examples.

Another one which turns out many people don't think about. Having your representation of an AroAce character (on purpose or not) be the psychopath with no feelings. Associating the not being romantically or sexually to means you have no heart, to be abnormal, by then a psychopath. An abuse or serial killer.

Fiction does affect reality-

A racist film, 'Birth of the nation' Revived the KKK and let to all the discrimination, and the homicide of black people of centuries ahead.

-

Coming back around, how you treat the topic of SA, and r-pe- affects the real world. You would think someone who wrote that, had in mind on how that affects people in real life. Didn't you want to represent victims of SA/R-pe that are sex workers and male?

Reducing the r-pist, pimp, trafficker character to an air head to treat as silly is crazy to do. Specially as... oh idk... the creator? Both this and the tweet of the voice actor calling Val "Bubbles Coded" is so crazy. The character is also not deep enough by itself, it's pretty much Stupid and a R-pist sex trafficker. The tweet below Viv's fucking kills me too.

The fact Val is shown to be air head stupid doesn't delete he backed Angel (and by being a sex trafficker and a pimp, and him licking charlie that means he has multiple victims) into a corner and under his control. Too then abuse of him in many different ways. Manipulations are not only done by Super mastermind people, and representing it in such way diminished, affects people who have being manipulated and actually try to question if they have being or not. Manipulators can be normal, average people, they usually are not obvious. Even if Val is openly a shitty person that's really obvious, it doesn't detract from him being manipulative to people. The scene where Val threatens him in chains that is manipulation, his text messages are manipulation (even if you think it is too obvious to be successful).

How you represent SA/R-PE, and its perpetrators, do affect real life.

Going around and having your "serious R-pe episode", to then go in other episodes or the other series you are writing to make r-pe/sa jokes is terrible. For the person that directed the whole scene of poison to NOT be r-pe/sa victim (said by themselves) with a r-pe fetish with this character's in specific, to directed in the most graphic way possible is awful. To go around babying your r-pist character is crazy.

Hope you understand that this doesn't mean not treating any topic at all. Creators should be awere on how they treat topics and the scenarios they create with them, too. People and viewers need to also put their brain to understand the media they consume. But you can't always put all blame only on the viewers of a series, if media is messy is a fault of the media. You can criticize both.

You need to acknowledge Valentino is indeed a terrible person, You don't need to delete his actions or the weight of them.

I also just know that a lot of Val fans just like him to draw him in r-pe art and get their fetishized gay ship. Cause that's what they are into. You won't even do that with a woman, because you are into your fucked up fetishized gay porn from wattpad you never left behind.

If you like him, FUCK IT, just please take his abuse seriously. Don't default your entire usage, and view of the character to be 'uwufied' fandom stuff, please.

I hate how the topic has being treated, in and out of the show. I'm a victim, and I'm hurt by how these things are treated and knowing how it affects others. Even in things I haven't watched! Don't make the argument don't like it? Just don't watch it. The movies from the video of SA of men being a joke, many I haven't watch- that still affects over all. It's still a problem and it's disheartening.

Also have this:

[ghost-oftheriver]

alr i’ve had this simmering inside me for a while and i need to let it out.

hot take here, but stella’s haters are wayy worse than her fans. like… what moral high ground are you trying to stand on here. it’s fiction.

look i don’t even like stella. she sucks, and personally i want to know WHY she sucks, and the last post i made about her, i got multiple keyboard warriors in my comments yelling, it doesn’t need justification! she can just suck! for once we don’t have to think about why we hate a character! wanting depth for stella is pointless, she can never be redeemed! we have enough stella sympathizers! stop acting like her treatment of stolas is anything other than abuse! this can’t be solved with a tragic backstory!

since when does knowing someone’s reasons for being the way they are automatically make them less shitty? if they continue to do bad things, then their past doesn’t justify them. but that doesn’t fucking mean that we as viewers can’t be curious about it. contemplating and discussing that shit is just part of the fun for a lot of fans.

and when i got those comments, i was. baffled. because that is so incredibly mild. if that’s bad, then i dread to think of how people treat anyone who actually likes her. because GODDAMN do people act like that is a sin worse than actually committing those acts against a real human in real life.

does vivziepop have to add another line to the warning in the beginning of every episode?

“the following cartoon contains graphic violence, strong language, sexual themes, flashing lights, as well as rampant demon horniness. nobody was hurt in the making of this show, because all characters are fictional, meaning they are not real. they cannot be hurt because they are not real. you should not attack real people over the actions of fictional people. so yes, it’s intended for mature audiences.”

i need you to read this part very carefully. it’s fine if you prefer simple antagonists. it’s fine that you want her to be easy to hate. i am not saying there’s anything wrong with that. if that’s what you’re hoping for, great! that’s literally okay. it’s not what i personally prefer but that is not the point of this post.

i’m saying that tossing around words like “sympathizing with abusers” about fans who are literally talking about a collection of pixels on a screen… is fucked up. prioritizing the well-beings of stolas and octavia over those of your fellow hellaverse fans is abhorrent behavior. because.. once again… unlike your fellow fans, stolas and octavia are not real. that is an extreme overreaction and it is HARMING real people. stop that. for the love of god.

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders Viewers' Choice #30 B: Sodom's Beast/Draco

great news everyone! life stopped kicking my ass quite as hard, so we’re back and better than ever! or at least, more employed than ever. still, that means Grailfinders is back on the menu, and to celebrate we’re solving that little tie we left off with by making both of them!

next on the chopping block is Sodom’s Beast a.k.a. Draco, the nero that never was, and never could be. I really don’t get why people thought making Maxwell’s Demon would be hard, I swear like half the roster explicitly can’t exist in a standard fate timeline, what makes him special?

anyways, gripes aside, she’s a Rune Knight Fighter to sneak in a rapid shift in perspective during her ascensions, as well as a Shadow Sorcerer to make dragons pop out of every which where while also making her wildly hard to whittle down.

check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Species and Background

I really wanted to make draco a tiefling for the horns, but we have to account for both forms of draco so that severely limits our options with going full 2024, and you never go full 2024. so with that, we’re going with Custom Lineage. this way, you get +2 Charisma to continue to exist no matter what the universe says, as well as Darkvision to clown on those pathetic humans, and the Crusher feat for +1 Strength as well as the ability to push any creature you hit with bludgeoning damage with no saves needed, and if you deal critical bludgeoning damage, everyone can pile on and get advantage on their attacks against the poor son-of-a-gun until your next turn.

Draco doesn’t do melee too often in her animations, but when she does she’s either using a giant flaming magichand or she’s a 7’ tall dommy mommy, so either way throwing her weight around is justified.

and of course, we’re using the variant Noble background for History and Intimidation proficiency.

Ability Scores

in order for draco to exist at all, her Charisma has to be pretty high, so let’s start there. after that, grab some Strength- you might not use melee often in FGO, but D&D’s another beast altogether. also we need it for multiclassing. after that is Constitution. you don’t die easy, that’s kind of why you’re here.

I mean that’s why everyone’s here, but you know what I mean.

your Dexterity is barely positive if you’re using the standard array, you’re either blasting people with magic or you’re wearing armor, either way we don’t care about getting hit too much. this means your Intelligence is a bit low- just because you probably had access to greater learning doesn’t mean you had to use it- and we’re dumping Wisdom. Nero’s wisdom was never high, and you are a walking impossibility, which can’t be good for your common sense.

Class Levels

1. Fighter 1: as I said earlier we need that sweet, sweet platemail, which means we need to start here. as a fighter you get proficiency in Strength and Constitution saves, as well as Animal Handling and Athletics. you might be a terrifying hellbeast now, but you’re still nero. I’m sure you’re even better at “handling” lions now.

first level fighters also get a Fighting Style, and while your sword is great you use it one-handed, so you get the Dueling style for +2 damage to all attacks made with a single one-handed weapon. also your Second Wind lets you heal yourself as a bonus action.

2. Fighter 2: second level fighters get an Action Surge once per short rest, letting you take two actions in one turn with no restrictions. yes, this is one of the few options in the game to cast two leveled spells in one turn, don’t let it go to your head.

3. Fighter 3: at third level you can finally become a Rune Knight, giving us one of the two options available for your golden grail ability. yeah, it turns out there’s very few ways to pretend to help your enemies while actually sabotaging them, that’s probably a little cerebral for WotC. I am of course, talking about Rune Carving. every long rest you can carve a rune into a weapon, armor, shield, jewelry, or other hand-held object. while holding or wearing those objects, you and only you can get a cool bonus, but you can also invoke the rune once per short rest for an extra special bonus regardless of where the rune is. so this is all a roundabout way of saying you can add say, a Fire rune to someone’s armor, feed them a story about how it doubles your proficiency with tools while holding it, and then when you fight them you can invoke it to stick them in chains, which is the closest we could come to stunning them like the actual skill.

yes, it’s all very tortured, but at least you can also use the Cloud rune to get advantage on all sleight of hand and deception checks, and redirect peoples’ attacks so they hit their allies, corrupting them for all of five seconds with grail mud.

the bigger (literally) reason we’re here is for Giant’s Might, which lets you grow to large as a bonus action. the rules might say you take up a 10’x10’x10’ cube now, but that’s just what being 6’1” is like. you need a lot of legroom. you also get advantage on strength checks and saves, and you deal an extra d6 once per turn when you hit with a weapon attack. you can reach third ascension proficiency times a day.

4. Fighter 4: fourth level fighters get their very first Ability Score Improvement, and we’re getting a twofer today thanks to rounding up your Strength and Charisma. more hitting, more spells, what’s not to love?

5. Fighter 5: for our final fighter level, you can fling a flurry of fisticuffs at your foes thanks to Extra Attack. it’s an extra attack, just like the title says. you may notice doubling down is a theme of this build.

6. Sorcerer 1: bouncing over to sorcerer nets you some Spells, which you cast using your Charisma. you’ve got your filler cantrips like True Strike and Blade Ward, as well as your actually useful stuff like Control Flames and Green-Flame Blade. we’re going for something of a diet paladin build this go-around, all the classic smites with none of the holiness.

but we also need some dragonfire, which is why we’re picking up Burning Hands as well, plus Mage Armor for your lower ascensions.

but that’s not all! Shadow magic sorcerers also get Eyes of the Dark, an extra-strength darkvision that comes with a free copy of Darkness in two more levels. you can cast this one with just sorcery points if you want to see through it.

you also get Strength of the Grave, letting you make a charisma save to avoid reaching 0 HP once per day, unless you drop to a critical hit or radiant damage. I wouldn’t worry overmuch about holy knights though, we’ll have… other ways of dealing with them.

7. Sorcerer 2: second level sorcerers get a Font of Magic, which is just an extra spell slot right now but we can use the points for other stuff later. also you can cast Absorb Elements now, because aside from your fire rune this is the only way to get fire on your sword for a bit.

8. Sorcerer 3: third level sorcerers get to use their sorcerer points for fun stuff like Extended and Empowered spells. the former doubles the duration of the spells and the latter lets you reroll some of the damage dice to stoke your flames even higher!

that will really help your accuracy with spells like Crown of Madness, which makes a cool crown for an enemy that also forces them to attack a random nearby creature each turn. checks and balances, y’know.

9. Sorcerer 4: fourth level sorcerers also get an ASI, and Durable is the only halfway decent constitution bonus feat left that doesn’t require another feat first, so now your constitution is higher and you roll slightly better with your hit dice- essentially if you roll below your constitution score, you can act as though you rolled that 2 instead. which isn’t great, but sorcerer hit dice are teeny, so it’ll get some use.

you can also cast Message for the chaldea-standard communicator, and you get Flame Blade! this makes a one-handed sword that probably doesn’t count for your dueling bonus but it’s stronger than a greatsword and it’s fire!

10. Sorcerer 5: at fifth level you get Magical Guidance, letting you spend sorcery points to re-roll a failed skill check. it’s not quite regular nero’s imperial privilege, but it can be helpful. and with the advent of third level spells, you get the one actual rigged present you can give an enemy, Haste! it doubles the target’s movement speed, adds extra AC, gives them advantage on dexterity saves, and they get an extra turn to boot!

obviously it would be a lot more directly useful on your party, but when you end the spell the affected person loses a turn. you can stop concentrating on a spell whenever you want.

11. Sorcerer 6: at level six, shadow sorcerers can summon a Hound of Ill Omen, a mini-dire wolf, a.k.a. our very first dragon! it can also knock people around and it gets advantage when attacking things with friends around, it also relentlessly targets a single person, passing through objects in a beeline to them, until they’re dead!

you can’t kool-aid man your way through walls just yet, but you can use Ashardalon’s Stride to keep up, and deal damage at the same time.

12. Sorcerer 7: seventh level sorcerers get fourth level spells like Banishment. if your target fails their charisma save you can slap them back to whatever heaven they came from, and if you keep concentration for a full minute they have to stay there.

13. Sorcerer 8: use your next ASI to become an Elemental Adept, letting your fire-based spells ignore resistances, and you can bump any 1 rolled up to a 2. if we’re going all-in on one element, it had better be hot.

you also get a more permanent solution to your holy people problem with Gate Seal, to prevent those sorts of summons in a 30’ cube for a full day. screw gods, deliver until nero that which is nero’s.

14. Sorcerer 9: ninth level sorcerers get fifth level spells, so we can finally summon an actual dragon. or at least we can Summon Draconic Spirit. for up to an hour, you can make a dragon that’ll fight on your side, but like most modern summoning spells it’s very undertuned. it has less HP than you do, for one. still, a dragon is a dragon!

15. Sorcerer 10: tenth level sorcerers get another kind of metamagic, like Heightened. this forces a target to reroll their save against your spell, which given your biggest get-out-of-divine-punishment-free card is a save or suck spell, that will be seeing a lot of use.

you can also cast Friends partly because I was running out of cantrip ideas, but ignore that because you also get Bigby’s Hand! Whether it’s baby draco’s big slapper or the mouth of a dragon, you can reflavor this baby in plenty of ways, so have fun and go wild.

16. Sorcerer 11: eleventh level sorcerers get sixth level spells, and to be honest I’m sick of trying to copy draco’s skills or bio stuff, let’s get some damage and some animations. Sunbeam is a giant freakin’ laser that can blind enemies, and you can keep shooting lasers out for up to a minute after casting.

17. Sorcerer 12: with our last ASI, you can get the Gift of the Chromatic Dragon for some diet smites, adding a d4 of fire damage to your sword for a minute once a day. you can also react to give yourself resistance to an elemental damage type proficiency times a day.

18. Sorcerer 13: we’re also getting to our final spells, starting with our seventh level spell Draconic Transformation. for a minute after casting, you get especially beastly, gaining blindsight, a breath weapon, and wings. it’s not as fast as teleportation, but it’s a lot more flexible.

19. Sorcerer 14: but we’re not done just yet! we still get one more shadow goody, Shadow Walk. as a bonus action you can teleport from one shadow to another, because walking is for peasants.

20. Sorcerer 15: at our final level, you get your truly final spell, Sunburst. it sucks that at the very end they swap out fire for radiant, but this is still a massive fireball, and I won’t say no to a massive fireball.

Pros & Cons:

Pros:

with access to plate mail, a decent amount of HP, and plenty of resistances, you are pretty tough for a gish. the winner is whoever survives the fight, so survivability is never a bad addition to a build.

with long-term damage bonuses from dueling, giant’s might, chromatic gifts, and so on, you have plenty of consistent damage. with action surge and high-level damage spells, you also have some burst damage. and since you can do both, you have plenty of flexibility when it comes to how you fight. some times slow and steady wins the race, sometimes you have to beat someone down before they escape with a macguffin, and you can help with both.

with flight, teleportation, and boosted speed, you can get around easily and always be in an advantageous position. and with crusher, that position is usually “next to a cliff”. you can play merry hell with enemy positioning, and just being around you is a stage hazard.

Cons:

fire. about a tenth of the enemies in D&D are straight-up immune to fire, so even with elemental adept there’s a decent chance you’ll have almost zero magical damage in some fights. even without direct damage you have some options though…

unfortunately your options are save or suck spells, which are very powerful when they work, which is why a good chunk of the game is dedicated to making sure they don’t. banishment and crown of madness can change the course of a fight if they hit, but that’s a big if.

you have a little bit of everything, but you excel at nothing. you have no capped stats, your HP is good but not great, you have some control spells but not a lot of concentration, and you have damage spells but they’re all one type. but at least you’ll always have something to do, unlike some people.

[ultimatefartwizard]

EARTHSPARK MESSAGES AND SUBTEXT THATS NOT EVEN SUBTEXT

It's been a while since I have posted as I've been busy with finals, but I saw a post that absolutely made me spur a headache with just how utterly fatuous of a take I saw on Transformers Earthspark and the messages it sends.

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT USE THIS POST TO ATTACK OR HARASS ANYONE, THIS IS ONLINE DISCUSSION OF A WORK OF MEDIA.

THIS ALSO COVERS SPOILERS FOR SEASON 1 OF EARTHSPARK, IF YOU WISH TO AVOID SUCH A TOPIC PLEASE REDIRECT YOURSELF.

@monocle-teacup Won't repost your post as the way tumblr reposts works would have everything funnel onto your account, but I'll be pinging you and I did screenshot your post for viewer's context:

I have ALOT to talk about here, while also being completely in shock and disbelief how you end up BELEIVING THE SIDE THAT IS A GENOCIDAL LUNATIC WHO SEES THE TRANSFORMERS AS SUBHUMAN AND A DISEASE ON THE EARTH??? AND IS WILLING TO FULL ASS MURDER AND MUTILATE PEOPLE? From here any * you may see is likely a footnote mark to check details I put at the end for clarity. If I miss something, let me know and I will clarify.

Before I get into the meat of dissecting your clearly ill-informed and definitely not thoroughly thought out post, I need to get something out of the way because I believe you'll use this as a means of shielding yourself from incoming critique: It's okay to like and enjoy characters who are clearly bad people. There is a CLEAR difference between enjoying a fictional character and agreeing with whatever they might do or say. I enjoy many bad and morally reprehensible characters, including Mandroid/Doctor Meridian, but that doesn't mean I agree with them or don't find their actions and ideas deplorable. If you find yourself agreeing with someone who sees another group of people* as being subhuman or a danger to society you need to reconsider your ideologies and thought processes. Like ASAP.

Okay onto the actual deconstruction of your statements, why they are blatantly lacking a thorough reading of the messages in Earthspark, or even lead into uncomfortably ignorant territories both with Transformers and very real-life, human related things.

As a first point, you state that you hope this show re-examines the fact that hatred towards another group of people (even if they are fictional) automatically makes them a terrible person, and bring up the statement that the show makes GHOST's detainment of transformers look "cartoonishly evil" but does absolutely nothing to address Dr.Meridian's statements of transformers being dangerous.

Yes. Yes it ABSOLUTELY DOES address that throughout the entire show. In fact, the whole season is literally about deconstructing the notion that BOTH Dr.Meridian's and GHOST's ideals and methods are harmful if not downright discriminatory towards transformers as a whole.

GHOST's method of control is a guise under the US government by detaining any transformer they deem as "a threat", this can even mean autobots or non-aligned transformers who don't want to join their organization or are just doing their own thing. They will willingly classify them all as "Decepticons" to justify their inhumane treatment of them. This is paralleling how humans will stereotype and conflate other groups of people, as being all associated with one singular event or organization of people that is seen as bad or a danger to society* and use that stereotyped ideal to weaponize it against them and justify harming them in multiple ways; which is what Dr.Meridian ALSO DOES THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE SHOW. Dr.Meridian is a scientist that literally works with and is a huge provider of technology to GHOST, he literally works with them and experiments on the detained transformers. You can't say "oh GHOST bad Dr.Mer not so bad" when he's LITERALLY PART OF GHOST AND YOU CANNOT SEPARATE THEM. HE IS EXTREME AND OUTSPOKEN ABOUT HIS HATRED THROUGHOUT THE SHOW AND ACTIVELY IS SHOWN TO BE ENTIRLEY IN THE WRONG BOTH IDEOLOGICALLY AND ACTION WISE. You clearly have not watched with a critical eye if you think they never address his points or somehow he is right about something. He never is and it shows just how harmful his mentality is. You don't even need words spoken out loud to know he's ALREADY HEINOUSLY WRONG AND BIGOTED.

Why should the show, one that shows transformers having to battle against racist and xenophobic hatred towards them from humans, re-examine that relationship? People are being discriminatory to people they don't like, and to them it doesn't matter if they are decepticon or not; they're all the same and dangerous in their eyes. Yes, there was a war brought onto earth's soil from pure happenstance of where the Ark and members of the two named groups had landed, and yes it was bloody and many lives were lost like any war is. Should the war, as well as atrocious acts of violence by a few and the circumstance that which the birth and type of being transformers are deem all transformers as dangerous? OBVIOUSLY FUCKING NOT. That's literally stereotyping. That's what Dr.Meridian is doing. He's literally grouped them all into one conglomerate in his head and sees them all as pests to be exterminated.

The transformers are both immigrants and refugees of war that had lasted thousands of millions of years and a desperate attempt to find any source of energon because they would STARVE TO DEATH IF THEY DIDN'T AND RESOURCES WERE DANGEROUSLY SCARCE ON CYBERTRON. They are thousands of lightyears away from home in a place that doesn't have the cultures they are familiar with and structures built for them which accommodates their needs. And to add onto it, most were never originally outfitted with guns and shit. They had to ARM THEMSELVES TO PROTECT AGAINST ATTACKS. JUST BECAUSE YOU SEE A GUN POP OUT OF THEIR BODY DOESN'T MEAN THEY ARE BUILT LIKE THAT NOR DOES IT MEAN THEY ARE AUTOMATICALLY ALL DANGEROUS. The only ones who are theoretically "built for war/violence" are war-frames like seekers, but they didn't even CHOOSE THAT LIFE OR WANT IT! THEY ARE COLD CONSTRUCTED* AND LITERALLY ENSLAVED INTO BEING CANON FODDER FOR WHATEVER SKERMISH THEY ARE DEEMED NEEDED FOR. Starscream wasn't even a warrior before this, he was just some nerd ass scientist. Cold constructed bots and War-frames are already deemed subhuman by other transformers. The entire war that you see is a continual millions of years struggle which the origins are in a fight against their own horrible systematic oppressions to try and bring freedom and put an end to the horrible reign back on Cybertron. How does them being robot organisms displaced by ongoing war, a continual brutal and bloody struggle for freedom back at home, and dangerous resource scarcity make them any more dangerous than your average person? And the "they are robots/walking death machines" argument doesn't count because you're only seeing them from a nonhuman lense in that case. Take off those nuts and bolts covered glasses and think of how this would be if they were all humans instead. The visuals of only seeing them for their robotics are blocking your ability to view this group as simply a mirroring of humans in nonhuman bodies. Humans are just as dangerous and ostracizing as them. Literally humans slaughter other humans frequently; bring upon hatred and obscene actions onto one another with or without robotic attachments and aid of machines. Just because the transformers are robotic extraterrestrials who are "different biologically/mechanically" makes it no different from the dehumanization and other forms of racism and xenophobia. Transformers are literally just... humans in a robot shell. You can't argue against this at all because most if not all have human forms, ALL of them have human minds, and just happen to come from a planet they need to be insanely large sized on, as well as already pre-armed due to conflict that they have escaped from.

The whole story of Earthspark is LITERALLY about the experiences of the Terrans; first generation descendants of immigrant refugees navigating the struggles that come with being just that. They make whole episodes surrounding their feelings of alienation and their struggle to have a place in the world, their culture and history and who they are. They want to feel they belong and feel they have a place in this world and be seen just as human and belonging as their human family. Their government and the world around them alienates them and treats them sub-humanly despite them being just as human, flaws and all, as us. Since I'm praddling on about this topic, did you even ABSORB ANY OF THE EPISODES HOME PART 1 AND 2???? IT'S ABOUT THIS TOPIC AND TEACHES HOW THIS MENTALITY OF TREATING THE TRANSFORMERS AS SUBHUMAN ALIENS THAT NEED TO GO AWAY OR NEED TO BE CLASSIFIED AS DANGEROUS/A INVASIVE "SPECIES" THAT NEEDS TO BE REMOVED IS BAD. IT SHOWS THE RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA THAT ESPECIALLY COMES WITH BEING CHILDREN OF IMMIGRANTS AND THE ISOLATION THEY FACE.

Please, I heavily implore you to go back and watch them. You somehow miss the entire point of the show and ESPECIALLY this episode. Many episodes cover different points of their existence as first gen children and the reality that the transformers have to face in general while being refugees on a planet with others being hostile and degrading to them but this particular episode is the one that tackles the points I make in this post the most. It may not go super deep into it due to forced time constraints and other executive nonsense that makes it harder to go into more detail but it still covers the topic very well.

Humans getting nipped at the heels for being bigoted towards transformers isn't some "ouugh you can't think the decepticons did bad things" type of nonsense and I absolutely hate the "oh because you can't be bigoted towards a group of people it means you suddenly can't criticize the actions of someone who happens to be someone of that group" mentality you seem to be concocting out of thin air. It's them associating the entire race of transformers as all bad, unbelonging or worthy of being seen as dangerous and to be wary around them or like they need to not be on earth and "go back where they came from". You go between "decepticons" and "transformers" interchangeably and seem to do exactly as the show heeds against heavily; conglomerating the actions of a FEW to encompass the overall worthiness of a WHOLE POPULATION OF PEOPLE.

Doctor Meridian is wrong and genuinely evil and disturbing with how he treats them and him seeing them as dangerous and a pest needing to be eradicated nor should any of his views be agreed upon, no matter how much you may try to defend him. There's more I could add but for simplicity's sake but that's what I mainly will state. The rest of clarity can be discussed in the comments.

I'm not sure whether your lack of understanding of the show and its messaging you are discussing or your love for one of the major villains is clouding your judgement, but please read EVERYTHING here to its fullest extent. Nothing here is intended as an attack on your character (if you're somehow seeing it that way) but as a heavy critique of your views on this show and how you are analyzing things. I might sound like I'm yapping to yap or "it's not that deep", but it literally is. The show and it's writing make it a big point and I will refuse to accept any iteration of "you're making a mountain out of a molehill" type statements. If you have any questions or comments you're free to bring them up.

-With confusion and annoyance, Wizard.

-Footnotes- *By group of people, I refer to sapient (human minded) beings who are grouped by either race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexuality, disability, etc. By this classification, Transformers are considered a group of people; even if they are "nonhuman" *If you are somehow seriously confused or appalled by me pointing out real world racism and xenophobia as parallels to what is being done by GHOST, Dr. Meridian, and your average run of the mill civilian, you need to reread absolutely everything. Racism and xenophobia are a huge talking point in the show and I refuse to retract this statement. *Cold Constructed means the transformer was made in a factory, more often than not to be a worker slave for whoever is demanding they be produced. Two characters off the top of my head who are cold constructed is Starscream and Megatron.

[nfcv-saltmine]

Lads, a personal question. Is attempted genocide really that bad if you put the blame on the victims who are wayyyyyyy less powerful than you and who your wife has dedicated her entire life to save?

NFCV fans who genuinely think Dracula was even just a tiny bit justified in his genocide need to get a grip.

First off: Dracula never said anything about "killing them if they don't leave town in one year". People who say this seem to think "oh, if the people had left, Dracula wouldn't have killed them!", wich I call bullshit on. Here is what he's REALLY saying:

You know what he's REALLY telling them here? When you pay just a little bit attention to his words...? "Make peace with your God and hide, because in one year, I'll kill your entire region". He NEVER limited his genocide to the town (in fact, it'll quickly become clear he intends on killing more people than the Wallachians), and he NEVER promised not to kill any of those people. IN FACT.... Here's what happens RIGHT AFTER he lefts:

A meteor shower. A rain of fire. He literally attacked the whole town after telling them he'll be back in one year to kill their entire race, and let's not pretend there is no way those giant fire balls did not kill a single person. Actually, it might have even killed or hurt people who WEREN'T even at the witch trial! It definitely made significant damage to the town, and who knows how many had to suffer from the cold and the rain and the insecurity that comes with having it's home even partially destroyed. Home that, by the way, might be the only one they have. Because blaming the victims for not leaving is easy, but maybe it doesn't make them any less victims and MAYBE they didn't have anywhere else to go?? They built their entire lives here, their community, their entire businesses! If they leave, they'll have nothing. And with the Church by their side, probably spending the whole year reassuring them, they really didn't know any better.

Beside, just because WE, the viewers, the humans living in the 21st century with unlimited knowledge at our finger tips (that, granted, not everyone takes advantage of.), with science being more advanced and us believing less and less in the Divine and not relying exclusively on our local people for informations, and are more aware of the world in general, can tell Lisa was good, doesn't mean the people in the show did. The people in the show who grew up religious and were told Lisa's death was God's will (as the Archbishop later says). The people in the show who don't have the knowledge on Lisa that WE do.

They were led to believe that witches are horrible people who will hurt them, but that the Church will protect them from. They were taught to rely on the Church and on God, and trust them to protect them. They were taught to fear. And visibly, they were taught that science is evil, too (we'll pass on the historical accuracy). So from their perspective, they had no reason to believe Lisa was a good person, and all the reasons to believe she was a threat. And that's without assuming that some people could've been on her side, but the fear of getting rejected by their peers, or being accused of being accomplices and burned to death as well, prevented them from acting. We're social creatures, remember? Whether you like it or not, we are influenced by others around us. We all love to believe that "if this horrible thing was happening in front of me, I would act against it", but the truth is, most of us wouldn't. Because things are way more complicated than just believing strongly in something. That's why, in real life, when people DO act and go against the majority to protect someone, it's heroic and incredible and we praise it. It takes a LOT of guts to do something like that. So fuck off with your victim blaming.

Beside, even if it was true. Even if Dracula REALLY DID say he was giving the people one year to apologize or show remorse or whatever. Here what Dracula says once in private:

He would have lied to the people, then.

One year is not just some arbitrary time Dracula decided on on the spot to give a chance to his future victims. One year is the time he needs to build an army to destroy them all. Had most, if not all people left town before he comes back, he would have still destroyed it and then went on to destroy the rest of the country and probably the world, since the human race doesn't stop at just Wallachia.

But not only does he intend on killing children and people who weren't even at the witch trials, and people who didn't even know Lisa existed, and said himself he hates humans and Lisa was "the only reason for him to tolerate human life" (because needing to eat is not enough I guess)... season 2 does the wonderful oopsie of implying that his whole army is made of people he killed, or had people kill for him. :) Because, even though here the implication is that the army would be composed of pre-existing demons he just summoned somehow (and the way they all fall down from the sky a little later in the episode would confirm it), in S2, we are introduced to Isaac and Hector. Isaac and Hector who Dracula seeked himself for help to, quite literally, build his army. Isaac and Hector who are shown to need fresh corpses to create night creatures from. :) So you can shut up with that genocide apologism rhethoric, as your "he did nothing wrong tbh" blorbo literally spent the next year causing death and pain just to be able to cause even MORE death and pain because 1 (one) woman died. But it's justified! Because he liked that 1 woman! Forget about how she herself NEVER EVER wanted him to kill her entire specie for her, forget about how HIS OWN SON tried to stop him despite the 1 woman being his own mother. He was sad! :( And he let the humans of Targoviste live for one more year, at least! That's nice, right? :(

I'll finish this post by talking about Dracula coming back to do what he said he was going to do.

Now that's funny, because I think this is part of the reason why there's people genuinely thinking that Dracula was somewhat justified in his genocide, because the people were mean and stupid you know... but it still doesn't justify shit.

Let's make one thing clear: The way Dracula says it, you'd think people are celebrating the day they killed Lisa because they think her death was funny or something. Because they think her death was so important that it was worth celebrating a year later (and, from Dracula's perspective, it's a bit understandable that he'd think that).

Except, when you listen to what the Archbishop said prior to Dracula coming back, they're actually celebrating the fact that they are still alive. It's clear from the Archbishop's words that him and his church have complete control over the people, that they convinced them Dracula lied to them, that they were safe, going as far as organizing a little party about the fact they were right and are still alive after one year... wich is particularly telling since you need time to organize such festivities. They had no reason to think they were going to be fine on the day of Dracula's return, but the Archbishop's ego coupled to his own beliefs made him convinced nothing would happen, so much he convinced the rest of the town as well. As he said himself, he has served the people for 20 years... of course they're going to trust him, who they see and listen to everyday and share faith in God with, and even rely on to teach them more about Him and how to serve Him, rather than who they have been convinced was the Devil. Of course those very religious people are going to prefer believing that God watches over and protects them, than believing the Devil's words.

So, if Dracula really think they are celebrating Lisa's death - wich is what fans defending him definitely think -... he's wrong, but it's understandable how he'd come to this conclusion. Then, he CONFIRMS to us, and announces to the whole town the REAL reason why he gave them one year: to build his army. At this point if you still think it was out of the kindness of his heart, you're an idiot. Or too young to be watching the show.

Then, he ends with "You had your chance". Wich people who defend him interpret as him hammering down that he gave them time to be sorry and show some respect and remorse to him and his wife, wich might or might not have been the intent... except it doesn't make sense, as Dracula never asked that of these people. He's not telling them they had a chance to be better, and they ruined it... he's telling them they had a chance to run away and hide, and make peace with their God (wich yeah they probably didn't since they were convinced they weren't going to die), and they ruined it. Too bad for them, they could have had a chance if they chose to flee rather than celebrate, but nope! Now they're going to die. I mean, they were going to die anyway, but maybe they would have had a better chance at survival if they fled, lol!

And I can't believe I have to say this, but you OBVIOUSLY SHOULDN'T BE AGREEING WITH DRACULA. Yes, from his point of view, people are shitty and stupid and deserve death for it! But YOU shouldn't be looking at these people who relied on a man, who represented their God, for safety, and who have been manipulated by him, and say they deserved to be killed for being dumb and scared! You shouldn't look at Dracula, who's ready to kill EVERYONE no matter their relationship with Lisa and their age, and think he has any kind of point!! Dracula killed people BEFORE Lisa! He is ready to doom his own specie by killing her's because a small group of people killed her! He's ignoring her wishes and everything she ever stood for because of one bad group and the group who witnessed her death! YES, OBVIOUSLY YES, attempted genocide is bad! And even without destroying the whole human race, he still killed thousands and thousands of people before he was ultimately defeated! He killed before Lisa, and he killed after her. You're supposed to understand him, that's why the show makes him a little sympathetic. But you're not supposed to excuse him, and even less to side with him! Learn nuances, please!

Knowing all that, I can't help but see people who genuinely defend Dracula as people with a moral superiority complex (or whatever it's called). They see the people Dracula kills, and think "I wouldn't have done what those people did. I would have been better. I would have made better choices." Then proceed to excuse Dracula for his actions because, obviously, if those people didn't do what THEY would have done, what seems so OBVIOUS from the comfort of their bed, then they were kinda asking for the consequences. They deserved to die. Well, I'm sorry to tell you all, but you are no better than those people. The fact you have empathy for a genocidal monster but not for his helpless victims does NOT make you a better, more reasonable person.

And the problem is, this kind of logic is not just used for fiction. The moment some major or devastating event is shared on the internet or the news, or whenever horrible past historical events are being discussed, you'll have people go "if I had been there-" "if it had been me-" "well why did the victims do that-" to ultimately move the blame away from the Bad Guy, put it on the victim(s) and claim they're superior somehow. Which happens to be a way to reassure themselves that X would have had and will never happen to them, or that they would handle the situation better, because they're so much more clever!

You're not. You're not more clever. You're human and you'll make mistakes and when you are DIRECTLY affected by X event and have no way of knowing the future, you WILL chose the wrong actions sometimes. You WILL be affected by your emotions. You WILL put yourself in danger without knowing it. People do that all the time. And you WILL be affected by the world and the people around you, whether you realize it or not, whether you want it or not. So be kind, because even if it's a fiction here, the logic you're using to blame the victims are the same used in the real world. Stop justifying the actions of the villain because he is sad. You don't have to defend him to like his character or to feel a little bad for him. Embrace the fact you love a villainous bastard who doesn't know how to handle grief, it's way more fun than making up excuses for him.

TLDR; Genocide bad and you're an idiot if you think Dracula had a point.

[spxdyr]

i see a lot of 9-1-1 fans (justifiably) hate the parents of 9-1-1 and the show trying to give them a redemption arc, and while i can see where you are ALL coming from and don't think you're wrong, i just see it a little different.

(this is coming from someone who currently isn't speaking with their parents for the most part and doesn't think that'll change anytime soon):

i don't see it as redemption. i don't see it as the writers asking us as viewers to forgive their (buckley or diaz) parents. i don't even think its the characters themselves trying to forgive their parents. i think its two (parent/child) groups of adults doing what they can to rectify their relationships for the sake of either another person or their own future relationships.

the buckleys for example. i don't think buck has forgiven (or the writers have asked us to forgive on behalf of behalf of buck) his parents. i think he is trying to move forward with his future relationships without the weight of the anger he has for his parents on him. i also think its his (and maddie's) choice/desire for jee-yun to have grandparents. the understanding/hope (while sour) that they will (try) to be better for her than they were for either of them. the therapy (for all parties) was just the way to rectify that, to get to a point where it was easier to be in a room together. not for their sake, but for jee's.

the diaz's are similar. i don't think eddie believes (or even needs) his relationship with his parents to be perfect. i don't think he needs them to change completely. or expected it. i think he's doing what he can to rectify his relationship with them for chris. because he does everything for chris (at least for what he thinks chris needs) its is fatal flaw. he kept that door open so that chris would have a safe space outside of him. so that chris was never isolated in their relationship. much like eddie (probably) was in his with his own parents.

i think what many view as redemption is just adults doing what they can to be best for their child(children), for themselves. i think its understanding that your found family is those you rely on, your born family is those that someone else might. its understanding that their relationships with their parents isn't the end all be all when it comes to the fact that their parents, like them, are people. people who will have an affect on someone else, someone probably close to them.

buck, maddie, eddie, and even chim, know what its like to only have their parents and no one else that loves them unconditionally, that they can run to when their parents just aren't good enough. none of them want to do that to their respective children. they want all of them to have a safe space outside of them, even if their parents weren't that for them. but they also know who their parents are, they want their children to know that its a choice. they (the children) will have the chance to choose their family too, just a lot earlier on.

anyway sorry for my rant. im in ZERO way trying to attack anyone who sees it as redemption and i understand why you hate it. im just yk trying to offer a different perspective.

[depressed-teacup-inc]

It’s the way derision is a legitimately awful episode for me

Hello, Hey, how y’all doing, I’m still grieving Luka, And it’s time for another miraculous episode review!

And lord I fucking hate this one!!!

So Marinette and Adrien go on pool date, and Marinette keeps having panic attacks over it, until she’s almost akumatized and has to dig deep in memory lane to not get Akumatized (and this is where the majority of this episode takes place)

So. I hate this with all my heart! This motherfucking show. Really just said “yeah guys, so all of Marinette’s creepy stalker behavior? Yeah guys it’s Chloe and Kim’s fault she’s like this it’s trauma and therefore she’s fine!”

…so let’s unpack this.

With Chloe, this is nothing new, the show keeps demonizing her and taking away from any nuance or chance she has at redemption, and the show needs us to some reason believe that Chloe (and Lila) is worse then the little abusive father terrorist in this show! Because they are probably planning on making her the next Lila in the show as Lila becomes Hawkmoth!

To the fucking point they decided to take her bullying from random mean comments and hun on a sit in season one, To fucking roaches in lockers and panic attacks!

And before you ask, no I don’t believe that every single character needs to be redeemed and complex (some people really do just suck) but the show takes that to an extremist degree! The show needs viewers to believe Chloe is more evil then literal monarch because if she got a redemption or had dimension (as she had in season 2) marinette by comparison looks awful and creepy!

To put a long analysis short, I don’t hate Chloe for being bitchy because I think everyone should be complex, I hate her for being bitchy because the show only does this to make marinette look like a saint in comparison, to the point that they will make child abusers look better then her, just so marinette can stay “the good guy”.

Now for Kim… THIS MOTHERFUCKING SHOW!!!

“Oh yeah kids ever wondered why marinette broke into Adrien’s house, harassed him, sniffed him, stole his schedule and personally belongings and information, hurt anyone that was a rival to her, broke into his house on multiple occasions, and literally got so many people akumatize from her selfish behavior? It’s because she was traumatized by Kim, who’s suddenly cruel, and it’s all Chloe’s fault!”

ThIS SHOW. LITERALLY BLAMED EVERY SINGLE WRING THING MARINETTE EVER DID (WHICH INCLUDES LITERAL LAWS BEING BROKEN AND SOME SHIT THATS ON CHLOES LEVEL OF BAD) ON “Yeah guys she has trauma PTSD, it’s all Chloe’s fault hehe”

And it’s just… so fucking upsetting!

Not only did the show demonize Kim (and everyone is just fucking buying it) out of nowhere to be this asshole (this is not the misguided himbo I know and love and I fucking hate it) the show basically erased every mistake marinette ever made under the guise of trauma, when it’s so fucking unfair and biased!

Like, by the show’s logic, if Marinette is justified for all the literal crimes she committed because of trauma, why not Chloe? You can easily just argue that her mom not being there is justification to committing literal crimes!

But the show won’t do that, because Marinette needs to be the good guy and can’t be wrong.

The show had to literally demonize and change characters entirely (boy in Lila episodes and specifically this episode) just to absolve marinette of any fault, and it’s just bad writing!!! The show doesn’t want to admit that marinette is frankly an awful person and will morph the plot around her to prove it!

Because reality is? Shit isn’t black and white! Even if marinette had this awful experience (which I will not minimize) it doesn’t justify the constant hurting and awful things she did to others, just like Chloe’s extremely bad childhood doesn’t justify her hurting and bullying others!

The show yet again just demonized and morphed the plot and characters to justify marinette, in order to make sure she’s always good and always in the right, so that they don’t have to change anything about the story, so they can drag on this show forever to make lots of money.

And frankly? I’m fucking tired of it.

(Also Adrien is officially nothing more then love interest, he’s out-of-character threatening murder on Kim because “marinette deserves people will kill for herrrr”)

[donkeys-waffles]

(This is so long, but it almost wraps up my thoughts on the most recent chapter. You've been warned. This is also in no way trying to justify AFO's current actions, I'm just over-analyzing the demon baby's childhood and how that turned into the adult demon we see today :>)

Something else I found interesting about the leaks. Baby AFO is killing people, I'm assuming for reasons of survival, either from those people being threats or they have something he needs.

But something that's really been on my mind lately is a child's perspective on death.

Children learn to love and fear different concepts by parental figures in their life, or adults in general really. It's like a pack complex, they see others react a certain way to their environment and learn how to react as a result. Children really learn how to human from other adults, which deeply shapes their view of themselves and the world around them.

But another concept that is taught to children is the concept of death... Children learn that mortality exists, and that it is something to be afraid of... By adults...

But two orphans that raised themselves in an apocalyptical society, from what we can tell from birth, they didn't have adults around to teach them anything, let alone that people do die and that it's a bad thing. At least they didn't have that during some of their most pivotal developmental years.

We see AFO as a monster, a child born evil, but for 1. We see this from a what could be considered the most unreliable narrator. 2. We don't see how he started killing, what made him start? The scenes we've seen thus far could be the first murders, but do we have evidence that it really was.

Baby Afo is so young at this point that his idea of death is a very limited one. Normally, we really start to process death and what it truly means at around 10, maybe. But he's very young here. It's possible he was attacked and so he attacked until the threat stopped moving. He was so young he may not have ever truly understood the gravity of what he had done until he grew older and was desensitized to it. Or maybe he was a hungry child with his feeble brother, who didn't know how to get any food. He wasn't given any help from the adults, possibly even paralleling Tenko. But he saw adults attacking other adults and getting food as a result. So, he followed their lead, like a child would mimic a parent, and he got a reward for him and his brother, food. Children have a large pleasure/pain complex, if their needs aren't met, they are often impatient until they receive what they want or need and can't emotionally regulate like adults can (another thing taught to them by adults). He doesn't understand that he is killing these people, he just knows he needs to stop them as a threat (either to protect him and his brother or feed him and his brother,) make sure they stop moving so they can't hurt him. It's also possible he wants to steal their quirks, something flashy, another part of the reward complex in his brain and his barely contained kleptomania.) And mind you, much of this is talking about normal human children... Not children with meta-abilities which are looking more like parasitic diseases with each new update. (Diseases that control the host and deeply influences their actions, mannerisms, and behavior. Also, something I will probably go on another rant about, let's be honest.)

Another interesting thing is this is from AFO's point of view. And all I've been seeing is that "AFO was born evil," or commenting on how horrifying AFO looked like as a child.

If this is how All for One sees himself... Well, that makes sense why he's such a damn bastard today. Not even as an infant did, he give himself the grace of looking like a normal child. We, the viewer is meant to see him as evil from birth, because that is how AFO sees himself. It's so interesting because one could even argue that AFO isn't happy, doesn't view himself as someone who has a heart or compassion. It's like because the villain in the comic book reminded him of himself, he's modeled himself to be like the villain, someone without care, someone who doesn't love. With Yoichi's death, we get a panel of the original shock, the remorse, and that progresses to the blank, empty, look in his eyes with tears falling down his face. He's always seen himself as the villain and refuses to recognize that he is indeed human. Which obviously from a DFO perspective makes sense in a truly heartbreaking way.

But I just can't get over how he views himself, it's creepy, unsettling, almost like he's afraid of himself. Like he views himself in the way his own victims view him. But someone who I always imagined views himself like a god, who's always in the right (he does believe he's always right,) I was expecting more emphasis on everything he did for his brother, the nicer clothes, he didn't look malnourished while AFO did, things like that. Or maybe a normal looking child (or hell even an unrealistically majestic child, or something.) the parts of himself that showed power, without the unexplained murder we got. I was expecting an attempt to prove how he was in the right, how he was trying to protect his brother. Emphasize the anger he still feels at losing him. But no, from what I can tell it's mainly the evil things he's done, with a small glimpse of them reading together. It lacks the depth, like he wants to appear flat instead of completely multidimensional. And honestly, that's IF he's being honest, which in and of itself is unlikely. But with how he's illustrated himself, you can look at it two ways, it's even more likely that he'd start a family, or it's less likely, because he was born evil and all he's cares about is possessing OFA/his bother. His backstory just gives me the vibe that he WANTS you to believe the second. Like he WANTS you to believe he's not human, and could never have a son, or at the least never care for any child he'd have.

He's trying too hard to prove how evil he is, how almost incapable of care or remorse he is. I'm skeptical.

But honestly, I think if this little story of his is true then... I think he should be locked in a museum. Looking at who he is, how he views himself and the world, illustrates the Dawn of Quirks in a way no Hero History book could. He was raised by a society that hated him for his quirk, honestly like most villains in BNHA.

[angelfirstclass]

Damn, I guess I was a Magneto apologist. Is it me or did the writers make me do it?

Ok, Ok I wrote a rant about how I was disappointed in the X-men and was seemingly Team Magneto, but I have come to realize that it was a step too far if it is leading to planet wide destruction and poles reversing and nuclear fallout and etc etc. If it's THAT extreme, then yes I walk back my blank support of Magneto, but I am still on Magneto's side as to feeling he was right and wondering where the line in the sand is.

Also, me having these feelings is the writers fault- they made Magneto sympathetic and wrote the story line to specifically get people to be on the fence with Magneto and not have him be a cut and dried bad guy. He adopts the X-men, walks Xavier's path at times unwillingly, and was even tempered even during the trial or after Storm lost her powers. He might have been able to be reasoned after Genosha, too, but being kidnapped, tortured, and his fellow mutants threatened by Prime Sentinels was too much.

In the X-men movies, Magneto is less sympathetic because he hurts innocent humans and sometimes neutral and innocent mutants as well in the name of his cause. In the first movie, he almost kills Rogue in the name of Mutant supremacy. It's despicable. That's where the X-men draw the line and are justified in being against him. Even knowing his past and the reasons for the way he is, readers and the audience can not condone him choosing violence. But in this version, it's different- the writers chose to make Magneto an anti-hero and set up his eventual choice as either inevitable or even justified. The previous episode had a character claim "Magneto was right" and made many viewers feel that way, too.

In this version, Magnus is not a monster. He may have doomed the planet, but he offers the X-men sanctuary and a choice. Where I find myself disappointed in the X-men is the way they don't lead a search party to find Magneto before the Sentinel/EMP incident, don't offer any gratitude to being saved by Magneto from the Sentinels, and instantly goes into attack mode. Like I realize what he did was wrong, but as a team member you would think there would be some misgivings or hesitation based on friendship and respect, but no it's immediately Oh, yeah I knew you were awful the entire time and good riddance.

I am waiting to see the next episode and the finale and hope there are things in there to make things make sense, but right now I'm just confused. I realize the world is complex and has grey areas, but I honestly would have been more satisfied if Magneto was a straight up bad guy and met his end or if Bastion was the only bad guy and though they didn't agree on everything worked as a team. This story line currently is one where Magneto is not bad nor good, is meant to be somewhat sympathetic, but in the end if I have it correctly completely extreme and genocidal. It breaks up the X-men and causes a schism when they need to be strong together and is morally confusing for the viewer. Not sure one episode is enough to tie everything together, but I shall wait and see.

[real-life-senshi]

10 (Mostly) Spoiler-Free Reasons to Watch Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon 2003 Live Action

A countdown to the 20th anniversary of Act 1 air date!

Reason 5: The captivating story!

Ultimately, I would say the live-action stayed true to the essence and intention of the original source material when concerning the Dark Kingdom arc.

I’m choosing to use the word “essence” though, because it is also factual that in multiple aspects, the story does diverge from its source material, but with the intention of further amping up the stakes and angst for drama, and possibly even pulling in elements from story arcs beyond the manga’s Dark Kingdom arc into the one season we (sadly) only have.

Sometimes those differences could be due to limitations of CGI and execution methods in real-life filming, while others could be due to updating the content to appeal to the newer generations of viewers in the early 2000s.

Regardless of what's faithful or not faithful to original source material, I think PGSM did really well striking a balance of making it a kid’s show, and also adding some complexities to appeal to viewers who were kids or teenagers that grew up reading the manga or watching the '90s anime, who would be in their late teens or adulthood or even parenthood by the time the live-action aired.

Warning: Going forward these series of posts will contain minor spoilers to introduce some live-action only elements. It will only be at the introductory level though!

Staying true and delving deeper into source materials

Personally, I can’t speak much to the ’90s anime, but I can confirm the live-action pulls many elements from the manga source material where possible. Here are just a few:

Introducing the Sailor Senshi!

The story of how Usagi and Ami discovered their Senshi power largely follows the same story, while Rei and Makoto's intro episodes heavily reference the original manga chapter and use the same theme behind the attacks that lead to them accessing their transformation. There's no magic bus to whisk victims away in Rei's case, and there's no wedding dress ghost story in Makoto's, probably due to the feasibility of recreating those scenes.

The Forbidden Love & the Past Life lore

The live-action definitely deep-dived into the 'forbidden love' concept when it came to Usagi and Mamoru, and further created a whole complexity of the storyline to justify WHY it's forbidden. In the manga/anime, it felt like the idea of their forbidden love was purely political and mostly glossed over since the past life kingdoms were dead, but in the live-action, there were actual stakes and consequences to consider even for the present.

And the ABSOLUTE MOST AMAZING THING and by far my favourite twist to the live-action storyline is they actually ventured into exploring the impact of making teenagers soldiers of war! There is actually ample screen time and dialogues AND monologues dedicated for us to see individual Senshi AND the team together grappling with the pros and cons and exploring both extreme sides of the need to follow the past life mission to avert tragedy regardless of the sacrifices made, versus the necessity of making one's choice and finding ways to live in the present in spite of the past life lore! Do they support Usagi's and Mamoru's love for each other or not???? Do they know for sure whether their love WILL cause misfortune again or not or can they trust Usagi to know what she's doing????? FASCINATING AND ANGSTY STUFF RIGHT THERE!

Rei’s Personality

More as an FYI, but Rei’s personality is much more similar to the manga Rei’s personality, instead of ‘90s anime Rei. More cool beauty and calm, less aggressively hotheaded and abrasive. And very importantly, NOT boy-crazy.

New, original dramatic elements

On the other hand, here are some live-action exclusive dramatic elements that I'd like to highlight:

Aino Minako the idol

Even many who haven't watched the series would have heard about how Minako's character is drastically changed in the live-action. Indeed, Minako is an acclaimed teenage idol and singer with best-selling songs in the show!

It's basically as if the live-action screenwriter pulled in the Outer Senshi elements from the Mugen arc into Minako's character: she's famous, experienced, and serious. Minako has full access to past life knowledge and is ultimately mission-driven like Haruka and Michiru are in the Mugen arc, which causes some of her decisions to maybe not be as morally white as we'd expect her to be (I think her costume style of white and black is a nice nod to the idea of her double life and her sense of moral).

Now, that's not to say live-action Minako is completely a new character, you can certainly see manga/anime Minako's character traits here and there if you pay attention - pun-loving, prank-loving, mischievous. For god's sake, the girl named her album Venus, and one of her most iconic songs is called C'est La Vie, which sounds exactly like "Sailor V" pronounced in Japanese. Just imagine this girl playing a vigilante life, and having a chuckle every time she sings her best-selling song that basically announces her identity to the world and no one realizes. lmao

Basically, Minako's character embodies the extreme result of what happens if a teenager is burdened with all the knowledge of the Past Life war and has the weight on her shoulders while working alone.

If you can get past Minako's changed character setting in the live-action, you'll find there are still plenty of Dark Kingdom arc manga/anime Minako elements in there, just some more exaggerated while others are more subtle. (Coz to be fair, Minako didn't start becoming Usagi's twin until after the Dark Kingdom arc.) And her relationship with Artemis is absolutely heartwarming to see in the live-action.

Who's in the wrong? Who's an ally, and who's not?

While our Senshi team is clearly the heroine, and the Dark Kingdom the villains, the live-action takes a more interesting take on what's considered "good" versus "evil", and more importantly, who's in the wrong on how things ended badly in the past life. Who is actually the person the Senshi needs to protect the world from? And that drives the story into a direction that is more complex than what you'll ever find in manga or anime, and certain characters react accordingly and act more grey than black or white - from both the heroine side and the villain side!

Shitennou & Endymion

Something we didn't really get to see as much in the manga and anime, while we know who the Shitennou are, we don't really see the Shitennou and Mamoru interacting until after they... became their name-sake rocks (okay, technically, GEMS). And we don't get many hints on what their past live relationships were, so for many years fans have taken to pen/paper/tablets/keyboard and filled the gaps with their amazing imagination and creative work instead.

In the live-action, we get a much more expansive and interesting take in seeing the Shitennou - technically still under the Dark Kingdom's influence, interact with Mamoru as they all grapple with what happened in the past life.

How would the prince's ex-guardians act seeing their master again? How would Mamoru react? Choosing to accept his responsibility for his past life or not? After all, they had such fond memories of arm-wrestling each other! (Spoiler alert: Nephrite won.) :P

I must once again emphasize that I love what they did with the Shitennou's characters and gave each of them a different story trajectory. They are written so well they pull at your heartstrings!

If you want some canon-material for writing the Shitennou in the age of Elysion Kingdom, definitely give the live-action a go!

Power up! The Senshi Needs Training

Because the live-action only gets one arc, there's no room for us to see the Senshi team (conveniently) get upgraded transformation like they do in each arc in manga or anime. Instead, the live-action takes a different, and I dare say, a more realistic approach, where the Senshi learns that their initial access to their transformation isn't the full access to their powers as they expected. They are put through some legit, and some questionable training of the body, mind and spirit, and each of them has to overcome something within themselves across the series to access their power!

This approach highlights and solidifies each Senshi's strengths AND ties in really well into the girls' character development throughout the series. As well, it makes it feel like the Senshi did have to put in work to get strong and gain access to their power, instead of relying on the plot to get them new powers at the right opportune time, seemingly out of the blue.

Remember: THEY ARE IN SCHOOL!

Yep, sometimes in the manga and in the anime, it's so easy for us to forget that the Senshi are kids in school when they are in the thick of a crisis or fighting evil. Somehow, it always seems quite clean and convenient that the Senshi could separate their school life and their heroine life, doesn't it? How the responsible adults in the world may wonder... "Gosh, where did that kid go in the middle of [insert context]????" Or for a fellow peer in school to wonder - "How the hell did this random group of girls come together like an odd band?"

The live-action takes time to make room for some reality checks in their episodic storylines to explore all the different repercussions our heroine's double (or triple) life has on their normal life, and with that ties in personable and relevant topics and themes into their episodic plots:

Family relationship

Peer relationship

Romantic relationships

Moments that remind everyone how awkward and tough it is to be a teenager.

The toll of lying through your teeth to keep a secret, etc

I cannot emphasize enough that the screenwriting is superb in the series! Not one thing is referenced only once and left out the window, everything that happened builds up into a moment of learning or lasting impact for our characters!

To people who've not watched the live-action, PLEASE GIVE IT A CHANCE! At least give it 6 episodes, and you'll probably be hooked!

You can watch the subbed versions of the series at:

Miss Dream Fansubs

Sea of Serenity Fansubs

The series is also on other online streaming sites, but be cautious to only visit them with good adware and firewall installed.

6 days till the 20th anniversary of Act 1 air date!

Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |

[museofreverie]

Chapter 01 ⋆ The Girl Who Knew

WAYS OF FREEDOM┊Pairing: Eren Jaeger x Modern Fem!Reader ┊2nd POV

In which a chronically online Gen Z that went through the pandemic goes to the Attack on Titan Universe and tries her very best to change the ending with an "I can fix him" mentality.

⋆ CHAPTER WORD COUNT: 1.3k words

⋆ WARNINGS: manga spoilers

⋆ A/N: Hope this chapter hits close to what you felt after reading the last manga chapter <3

⬅ prev chapter ┊ next chapter ➡

𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏.

“EREN TURNED INTO a what?!”

          You blurted out in disbelief, the thought of it only processing now in your brain.

          An ache was starting to form so deep in your stomach as you took in the bittersweet feeling after reading Chapter 139; the last chapter of the Attack on Titan series. Your lips trembled more at the continuous hurricane of emotions you felt towards the final chapter.

          Burying your head into the pillow that was in between your hands, squishing it tightly just to muffle your voice from being heard by your family. You raised your head to wipe your tears with the sleeve of your shirt, "Get it together, Y/N. It's just a drawing, shit, don't cry."

          Your eyes were already swollen from the tears that kept on spilling out non-stop, making it harder for you to continue reading the next manga panel because of your blurry vision.

          "Don't cry, don't cry. You idiot, it's just a fucking drawing." You kept repeating the words to yourself even if it was hard to do as you were already having a hard time breathing from breaking down over the last chapter of the manga.

          "Did Eren really just turn into a bird?" you pondered. “Or is it just some type of symbolism?"

          Confusion had now masked your face as you were beginning to have a whole conversation with the air about your thoughts over the ending—which was probably absurd to others. You were left with a lot of questions unanswered by the author, that's why.

          Because as much as you loved the series wholeheartedly, it felt like everything from the last chapter was rushed. But you were aware of having a tragic ending from the story due to the author hinting about it in one of his interviews you've read, but it was like he did a lot of characters dirty when he admitted that he couldn't express well what he wanted to show to the readers. And you felt so frustrated with every revelation that was unfolded to the viewers.

          "This doesn't even make any sense — No, shit, don't cry."

          You had witnessed so many side characters being brutally killed by titans or by devils disguised in the faces of humans from the last season and you felt devastated about their fate. And Eren was also willing to turn into a devil just to save the people he loved.

          But after reading Chapter 139, it's as if all the decisions he made were useless. Everything he did to achieve freedom went to waste and you were puzzled about it and felt like there were a lot of plot holes that still needed to be filled. You were even more baffled when Armin thanked Eren for destroying a huge part of humanity during their talk in the paths. You felt like his reason behind activating the gruesome rumbling to defeat his enemies and kill innocent lives from hatred wasn't justifiable.

          Just because he wanted to do it? That is so messed up. He deserves an Oscar award for that acting during the table scene though, you thought. The poor boy didn't even know if what he was doing was right. You didn't know if Eren kept a facade all this time or not, just so he could move forward until the end. Perhaps it is because he wanted his friends to live a peaceful life free from the horrors of war and suffering.

          Eren Jaeger, the boy who had sought freedom all this time was just a slave to the idea of achieving it. That the very person who always kept on moving forward for freedom was the least free of them all.

          How ironic, you thought.

          You had spent a lot of random days over-analyzing every small detail from each episode that was allegedly said to be a piece of information in foreshadowing that'll be put together for the most hyped ending of the series. You've even found yourself wasting a lot of time reading tons of well-thought-out theories and videos by other fans if you weren't busy studying. And now you didn't know what to feel about it.

          You constantly fanned your face with your hand, while also hiccupping from being overwhelmed by these strong emotions that clouded you. Taking a slow deep breath, you brought your focus back towards your laptop that was sitting in your lap now that was containing the very reason why you were crying in the first place.

          You felt like a clown since you told yourself that you were only supposed to have a small break from doing your piled homework for online classes—which didn't work out well as it turned into a longer one when you were scrolling through your timeline on Twitter and saw the hashtags that were trending which contained the spoilers about the much-awaited ending of Attack on Titan by the anime community.

          Deciding to check it out as you couldn't contain your excitement—but here you were, an hour later, feeling empty inside after all that reading. What you have read just now was tormenting your heart in the worst possible way, as every sob that escaped your lips made the ache in your chest keep on tightening.

          "This is still so sad, what the hell," you muttered, your voice croaking from all that crying. But all of a sudden, a small tender smile crept its way up to your face when a panel from the last chapter engraved itself in your head. It was the only thing that left you crying in awestruck at how beautiful and well-crafted it was.

          "At least, Levi's alive."

          You knew anime wasn't deep to begin within the eyes of those who don't dare to watch it, but man, this one was affecting you after all that emotional rollercoaster ride the anime series had offered. You bit your lower lip as you grab your phone beside you to check on the time. The screen from your phone opened and the light from it illuminated, reflecting on your face.

          1:40 am, it showed.

          A deep sigh escaped your lips. You were about to pull another all-nighter again just to finish your school activities for an online school. Days spent at home tend to blur and you see yourself doing the same old and messy routine. Sometimes you get a couple of hours of relief from the little things that kept you sane while staying inside your room all day, but there was always this constant pit of anxiety in your stomach and running through your veins.

          And you felt like you just have no control over it anymore making you feel drained. You didn't even know if it was worth it to keep on going and work hard for a future you weren't even sure you'd have. You just couldn't find the energy to do anything anymore. You were just so lost and couldn't figure out what to do with your life. But you had to keep on moving forward.

          It's for the grades. You can do this. Your mind started to drift back to the manga panels again as you reminisced about them, and a smile made its way to your face before you continued to study.

          With the thought that one of your favorite series has now come to an end, you brought your right hand to your heart—doing the salute from Attack on Titan to show your gratitude towards the show and author.

          "Shinzou wo Sasageyo!"

          You whisper-shouted the Japanese version, as your chest was now swelling with pride and nostalgia for a country from a story that doesn't even exist. But they were right. No matter what the ending of the journey might turn out, all good things must come to an end. And you knew Attack on Titan was going down in history.

To be continued . . .

⬅ prev chapter ┊ next chapter ➡

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group E Round 4: Shiki vs Vampire in the Garden

#E6: Shiki

Vampires and humans cannot coexist in a small town

#E8: Vampire in the Garden

Lesbian vampire & human go on road trip to escape the horrors

#E6: Shiki

Summary:

Life is idyllic and unassuming in the small town of Sotoba, a simple place where everyone knows everyone. However, tragedy strikes when Megumi Shimizu, a young girl with high aspirations, unexpectedly passes away from an unnamed illness. Over the torrid summer months, as more unexplained deaths crop up around the village, the town's doctor—Toshio Ozaki—begins to suspect that something more sinister than a mere disease is at play.

Toshio teams up with Natsuno Yuuki, an apathetic and aloof teenager, and siblings Kaori and Akira Tanaka, two of Megumi's friends, to unravel the dark mystery behind the deaths in Sotoba. With their combined efforts, the investigation leads them toward an eerie secret pertaining to the new family in the Kanemasa mansion.

Propaganda:

Shiki is a horror story about vampires. They need to feed on humans in order to live. They’re a threat to society. We’re all afraid of them. Except it’s not, actually, because Shiki is a horror story about genocide. The vampires and the village are fundamentally at odds: one cannot survive without the complete annihilation of the other. Conflict is inevitable. Conflict is completely justified, in the eyes of both groups. Conflict is still terrifying. Shiki though, is actually a horror story about human nature. You have little choice about whether you end up a human or a vampire. You, dear viewer, and capable of inflicting unimaginable violence and misery, and you will think yourself completely justified. You’re only trying to protect yourself, aren’t you?

Trigger Warnings: Cannibalism, Emotional Abuse, Genocide, Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore, Self-Harm, Suicide

#E8: Vampire in the Garden

Summary:

During a winter long ago, near-immortal vampires began plaguing the world. As their population grew at an astounding rate, they promptly threw humanity off its place at the top of the food chain. Desperate to avoid extinction, the surviving humans concentrated in their last safe haven—a small city surrounded by an enormous wall. There, they have waged war against the vampires for many years.

In the midst of a particularly brutal attack by the vampires, a human soldier named Momo encounters Fiine, the queen of their enemies. After seeing her try to save Momo's best friend from a rampaging vampire, Momo follows Fiine back to her house. It is there Momo connects with Fiine over their love for music and desire to escape the fighting.

Pursuing that goal of escape, the two decide to journey toward a supposed paradise where humans and vampires coexist—despite being uncertain of its existence. However, Momo and Fiine are being targeted by both races, who they must first evade if they hope to reach their destination in one piece.

Propaganda:

This anime came out a year ago, but I literally never heard of it until earlier this summer because Netflix had it. You guys are SLEEPING on such a good series—it’s 6 episodes so it’s short, but it feels like a whole single film. The voice acting is so fun, the music slaps, the animation goes HARD during fight scenes, and it’s just so so good. The art style is pretty, and the scenery makes me lose my mind, it’s SO pretty. I need to write an essay one day about how VitG uses music to carry the story because wow that is 🛐🛐🛐 Also there’s a goofy looking dog named Connie that continuously appears and serves no purpose in the plot. Love that

Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore, Racism, Self-Harm.

Child abuse & emotional abuse for Momo’s complicated relationship with her mother. Also emotional abuse for Fine’s past traumas and current strained relationship with other vampires.

This is a vampire anime, so there’s a lot of blood and fighting. There’s also a drug introduced in ep1 that mutates a vampire horribly.

Racism is human-versus-vampire shenanigans.

Self-harm for a scene where a human attempts to feed a vampire and for drug usage as mentioned above.

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form with your revisions, and I’ll consider adapting those changes.

New: Starting round 5, screenshots will be included in the poll post. You can submit screenshots through the form linked above, or through here, via ask or dm.

Guidelines in submitting screenshots:

No NSFW or spoilery images.

Pick some good images please. Don’t send any blurry or pixelated ones.

You may send up to 9 screenshots, but not all may be used.

[skellybonesandtrees]

Building off your "small business defense" post, I also think it's funny when people say stuff like "they don't need to do what the fans want" because like, they're a business. The very base of what they're doing is selling products (videos, merch, Patreon, streaming subscriptions apparently) to customers (us, the viewers, the fans). And like, imagine the backlash if say, Netflix stopped listening to what their audience wanted by for example canceling very popular shows after one season and- oh wait <- It's already proven that you kind of need to listen to your customers to be able to sell your products, and now that Watcher so badly wants us to pay (with money -- because we were already paying with at the very least watching through their ads and selling our data to Google, and at most paying literal money for their merch, tours and Patreon) they should be doing something the audience at the very least wants to pay for. They're not, so they're getting backlash and it is very much justified (the backlash, not some of the absolutely nasty personal attacks on Steven, Shane, Ryan, or any of their loved ones/employees. They're not bound to us completely, but they are kind of reliant on us to give them money so they kind of do need to at least listen to what we want and some of our concerns...

They bungled it. At face value there's nothing wrong with wanting things for your business. But they put the burden of it all on their audience in a bit of a jerk move. I also agree with people who said they misunderstand their fans. Realizing your goals don't mesh with your audience's expectations also doesn't have to be a tragedy. Over time they could eventually build the audience they wanted. It's normal for audiences to change. Some people grow out of your content but you gain others too. It could have happened organically, over time. I feel like they tried to speedrun it.

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders Viewers' Choice #16: Richard the Lionheart

Today on Grailfinders, we’re building the crusader king of Fate/Strange Fake, Richard the first, a.k.a. Richard the Lionheart. Richie rich is a Champion like Artoria, since he needs to be able to almost copy her noble phantasm, but he also dips into Cleric to summon his knights, Fighter for some extra swordplay skillz, as well as the Duelist Archetype to draw whatever he wields quickly and effectively.

check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

Ancestry & Background

okay, okay, no funny business with ancestries this time. Richard the first is a bonified Skilled Human, even if he has blue blood. with this, he gets a boost in any two stats like Strength and Charisma, and he gets his riding skill early thanks to a free training in Nature, which also gets bumped up for free at level 5. beyond that, his Natural Skill gives him training in two more skills of your choice like Diplomacy and Athletics. Richard’s kind of good at everything, so expect a lot of spread.

at level five, Richard can Sense Allies within 60’ of you as long as they’re not hiding from you. you won’t know exactly where they are, but finding them is also a lot easier.

at level nine you become Multitalented, which is where that Fighter dedication I mentioned earlier came from. by that point you’re proficient in both athletics and acrobatics, so you learn Deception instead.

at level 13 your Advanced General Training gives you another general feat of level 7 or lower. if there’s something you really want by this point feel free to grab it, but I’m saying it’s for Powerful Leap. it feels like every servant can hop around like a frog on crack.

finally at level 17 your Heroic Presence bolsters nearby allies with zealous conviction. they get temporary HP, a bonus against mental effects, and you can make them do whatever you want, as long as it doesn’t clash with their morals too badly.

of course your background is a Noble, giving you a boost in Intelligence and Constitution, as well as training in Society and Heraldry Lore, and on top of that, you gain Courtly Graces, allowing you to use society to make an impression on other nobles.

Class Levels

1. getting the proficiencies out of the way, on top of the ones already mentioned you’re trained in Perception, Religion, Reflex saves, your Class DC, Unarmed, Simple, and Martial Weapons, all Armor, Survival, and Stealth immediately, and you learn Intimidation, Medicine, Performance, and Thievery as you get smarter. that last one might not sound kingly, but you have to remember he was british first. he’s also an expert in Fortitude and Will saves.

as for the actual fun stuff, your Key Ability is Strength, and you start off with an Ability Boost in Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, and Charisma. you also take on your deity’s domain, Family. I can’t really justify that domain flavor-wise, but mechanically you keep your allies buffed, and family is great at that. your Soothing Words are a devotion spell you can cast once per day, or you can recharge it by spending some time doing good deeds and the like. with it, you can give an ally a +1 bonus to all will saves, plus an additional +1 against emotion effects, for a round. this can also counteract a current emotional effect on that target.

as a Paladin, you have to follow the Tenets of Good, which don’t do too much mechanically but bind you flavor-wise to the side of justice and all that nonsense. this gives you the Lay on Hands devotion spell as well as a second devotion casting per day, and you can make a Retributive Strike as a reaction. this simultaneously gives an ally getting hit resistance to the attack’s damage and allows you to get a hit in on whoever caused it if they’re in range.

you also get trained in another skill here for some reason, so grab Crafting, why not. you’re also trained in Divine Spells, though it doesn’t matter much for our build.

finally, you can Shield Block, if you ever feel like carrying one of those around.

2. at your second level you can take a Vengeful Oath against evil creatures, binding you to defeating them if there’s a good chance of success. you did fight the king of england before becoming him. die a hero or become a villain and all that. this allows you to lay on hands on enemies who have hurt innocents or good allies as if they were undead, causing it to deal damage instead of healing it. it’ll be a while until your sword is properly set up. so this will have to do for now.

you’re also popular enough to have the Eyes of the City on your target, allowing you to use diplomacy and society to track creatures in towns and villages.

you also get the duelist dedication this level since you’re not wise enough to be a cleric yet. for now, that means you can quick draw as an action, drawing and attacking in the same move.

3. at level three you can stick a Divine Ally in your blade, allowing you to add a free property rune to one of your weapons at the start of your day. you can pick between disrupting (good against undead), ghost touch (its in the name), returning (if you like throwing stuff), or shifting (if you’re indecisive). you also get the critical specialization of that weapon, which for a sword means the target becomes flat footed for a round. that being said you can technically turn any weapon into your “Excalibur”, so feel free to… branch out.

speaking of diversifying, your Untrained Improvisation lets you add half your level to untrained skill checks, so you can do a lot more than you’d think. you’re also better in Athletics.

4. at level four your Aura of Courage can buff up your allies and keep them from being frightened. when that happens, the condition value is reduced, and you also reduce the frightened value of nearby allies at the end of your turn.

while we’re not going as hard in the paint for a horse as we did with some of the riders, sabers still have that Bonded Animal we gotta get, so now you can spend seven days with a regular animal, and if you pass a nature check they’ll bond with you and become permanently helpful, unless you fuck it up.

you can also only have one bonded animal at a time. can’t have a repeat of your last campaign, right?

finally, you can issue a Duelist’s Challenge as an action, turning one enemy into your dueling opponent. until they are defeated, they run away, or the encounter ends, any one-handed attack you hit them with deals extra damage, at the cost of you dealing less damage to other creatures. that’s why you have to learn delegation. not yet though.

5. at level five your Ability Boost boosts your Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, and Wisdom. you’re also better at Diplomacy now, go wild. finally, your Weapon Expertise makes you an expert in most kinds of weapons.

6. At level six, you can Smite Evil by spending an action to deal extra damage against a particular evil foe. if that foe attacks one of your allies, the duration of this effect continues into their next turn, ad infinitum.

You may also Glad-Hand new allies by making an impression on them immediately at a small penalty. If you fail, you can still try again with your normal impression roll after a minute of conversation.

Finally, you can use your Dueling Parry as an action to give yourself more AC while wielding a one-handed weapon.

7. At level seven your Armor Expertise will protect you just a bit more, and you’ll also gain the specialization effects of medium and heavy armor.

While we still haven’t been able to summon your knights yet, you can at least be sure your minions are doing a good job if you’re a Hireling Manager, giving all your hirelings a +2 bonus to all skill checks.

We’ll also increase your proficiency with Religion while we’re here, and give you a Weapon Specialization for extra damage with weapons you’re more proficient with.

8. at level eight your Advanced Deity’s Domain lets you teach your knights some Unity, giving you a third devotion point and letting you use your reaction so each ally within 30’ of you can choose between using their own saving throw modifier or yours. paladins have pretty good magic defense, so yours is usually the better option.

you can also Rapid Mantel now to climb easier. this level’s a bit slow, aside from the new spell.

just kidding, because now you’re a Cleric thanks to your new dedication! since you’re already “trained” in “religion” and all that, you get proficiency in Acrobatics and Arcana instead. you learn a couple cantrips now, but to be honest we’re entirely just here for the summons.

9. level nine is actually pretty slow. you get Champion Expertise to help you defend your pokemon title easier, as well as a Divine Smite to deal damage over time to whoever you hit with your retribution.

you’re also now better at Fortitude and Reflex saves, as well as Religion.

10. at level 10 you get another Ability Boost in Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma.

Excalibur gets a little more shiny this level thanks to your Radiant Blade Spirit giving you more options to pick from for your weapon runes. now you’ve unlocked flaming, which deals persistent damage; and Axiomatic , which deals extra damage against chaotic enemies. you also don’t have to roll damage when you score a critical hit either, just take the average damage for each die. (you technically get the Holy rune as well to fit Pathfinder Richard, but Fate Richard is actually lawful neutral, so I’m leaving it off the list. no not that Lawful Neutral.)

you can also say a Battle Prayer as an action, dealing damage of your alignment to an enemy of your choice. it’s not massive, and you can only use this once per day per enemy, but the damage triples when you become legendary in religion, so that’s cool.

you also learn Basic Cleric Spellcasting, which doesn’t get you the slots needed to summon celestials yet. baby steps. if you really want something to do here, you could pick up Animate Dead, if you don’t mind your Richard being a lot creepier than the original. Maybe this is the FGO arcade Richard? anyway, the base version of the spell doesn’t do much, but for your second level slot you can summon a Skeletal Soldier, so that’s pretty knight-ish.

11. at level 11, your Alertness and Divine Will increases the proficiency of your Perception and Will saves respectively, and you can choose to Exalt your allies when you make a retributive strike, getting them in on the fun. since you kind of always have Excalibur on you, you’ll need some Incredible Investiture to free up some attunement slots.

you’re also better at Heraldry Lore now. why not?

12. at level 12 Excalibur becomes a Blade of Justice, letting you spend two actions to smite an enemy who’s attacked an ally or innocent before. the attack deals extra damage against the evil, and regardless of their typing you can turn all that damage into good. as a paladin, you can also add to it any and all effects you’d normally get from your paladin reaction to boot!

if you’d rather play on defense, you can gain a Sacred Defense once per hour by making a rather high religion check. if you succeed, you gain temporary HP for a minute.

you also get Expert Cleric Spellcasting this level, so you’ve got high enough spell slots to Summon Celestials! pretty much anything with “Archon” in the name (aside from a Lantern Archon) can make for a good stand-in. You could also use Summon Axiom if you want to stick more on the lawful flavoring side of things, but almost everything from there is either a demon or something you can get from the Celestial list.

13. your next level’s a bit of a cooldown as usual, it’s mostly just getting better at what you already know: Armor and Weapon Mastery, plus a boost in Intimidation. is it the army of angels? I bet it’s the army of angels.

14. at level 14 you get the only reason we took a vengeful oath at all, the Aura of Vengeance. now when you call on your allies to gang up on something thanks to your Retributive Strike, they take less of a penalty for following your lead. considering how much of this build is about helping the party, this is right in line.

what’s not is letting you Consult the Spirits. though when you think about it, the grail grants you information about where the war is taking place, and the grail is pretty much one big spirit, right? yeah, that’s what we’re going with here.

you’ve also got your fighter archetype from your ancestry now, so let’s pick up the United Assault. it’s a flourish attack that lets you make a strike with a damage bonus for each other creature that’s hit it since its last turn. since you can use your gang-up command at will, this will almost always be a +4 bonus.

15. we’re now ¾ through this build, so you know what that means! that’s right, it’s another Ability Boost! this time, grab some Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, and Charisma.

you also have A Home in Every Port, mostly thanks to you waging war-sized tantrums about the fact that you didn’t before. yeah we’re truly on the cutting edge of political theory here on Grailfinders: “The Crusades: Not That Great”.

anyways, you’ve got a Greater Weapon Specialization for more damage with everything you’re good with, and speaking of being good with stuff, more Intimidation, go nuts.

16. at level sixteen you can stop all that painful thinking and become an Instrument of Zeal- whenever you crit with your retributive strike, you deal an extra die of damage and take away the target’s next action.

you can also force your foes to beat a Terrified Retreat for a round if you critically demoralize ones that are lower-level than you.

finally, if you ever do find a shield now you can form a Shield Wall with your knights. with this, you can spend a reaction when you and another ally have your shield up to give the two of you cover.

17. at level 17, your Champion Mastery makes you a master in, yes, champion-ing. you also get Legendary Armor and a boost in Religion. still not sure if crusaders are good at this whole “religion” thing, but boy howdy are they enthusiastic.

18. at level 18 you can Expand Aura for a round, doubling the length of one of your auras. you can only have one doubled at a time so you’ll have to choose between your aura of courage or vengeance.

you’ve also been in the field long enough to make an Assured Identification. even if you get something wrong, it won’t be disastrous.

finally, your Master Cleric Spellcasting lets you upcast your summons! you get a seventh level slot now, and an eighth level slot at level 20.

19. for our penultimate level, you can Quick Climb since I’m running out of stuff to give you. you also gain the Hero’s Defiance devotion spell, so now you have a guts! finally, bump up your Athletics so you can quick climb in the first place.

20. for your final level, Ability Boost your Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom. you also gain your third and final aura, the Aura of Unbreakable Virtue. with this, all evil creatures get a -1 penalty to all checks and DCs against your allies, or they get a -2 if they fall under your Oath of Vengeance.

you’re also religious enough to receive Divine Guidance, allowing you to spend 10 minutes reading the bible to get an answer to all of life’s problems if you pass a religion check.

finally, we pick up an advanced maneuver from the fighter archetype so you can Cut from the Air any ranged attacks coming your way. I’ll be honest I haven’t read Fate/Strange Fake, blame Nasu for never localizing anything, so everything I know comes from the wiki. so this is the only thing I know with 100% certainty Richard actually does in the book, everything else was interpolated from his skill descriptions. though tbf that’s how most of my builds work anyway.

oh right the actual mechanics of the feat: you get a +4 AC bonus against a ranged attack by spending your reaction slapping it out of the sky.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

I think I may have ended up making Richard’s Excalibur stronger than Artoria’s actually, especially if we count the damage caused by everyone else getting a hit in on a regular basis. Artoria’s got you beat on range though.

he’s really supportive of the party, protecting them from mind control and saving them from attacks. plus he literally brings the party with him thanks to summons!

thanks to being at least trained in almost everything, your skills can really pay the bills, giving you plenty of options outside of combat.

Cons:

while being a paladin can make you great at defeating evil, your tenets mean you have to defeat whatever evil you come across if you think you can handle it. great for your DM’s plot, terrible for actually living that long. most champions at least only have to worry about dragons, or undead, but you just picked anything evil, so good luck with that!

your exalted retributive strike eats up the whole party’s reactions. you’d better hope you don’t need anything counterspelled in the next round if you plan on going all out. also, as I found out 90% of the way through this build, summons don’t get reactionsat all, so your knights can’t actually fight with you as well as they should.

Yeah, let’s bring up range again. while you certainly have options if you’re willing to play fast and loose with the character thanks to smart summoning or using other cleric spells, those will run out real damn fast, leaving you with very little to fight flying enemies with. thank goodness you’re not a dragon slayer.