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slightly-nerdy-rambles · 4 months ago

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Robstar Week Day 5: Romance and Roller Coasters (Prompt: Date)

Admittedly, this is probably the combined-prompt fic that most loosely follows this year's prompt. I'm originally from Central Florida and pretty much grew up going to theme parks, so I really had fun with this one, which was originally based off of last year's day 2 prompt of "Carnival/Amusement Park". I based the theme park the Titans visit here off of the Disney and Universal parks, especially Islands of Adventure's Jurassic Park area (as if that won't be obvious to anyone familiar with it, lol). Ironically, despite the presence of a raptor-themed roller coaster in this fic, I haven't been on IoA's Velocicoaster (it opened shortly after I moved out of state, and I haven't gotten a chance to visit the park since then) and I had in fact forgotten the coaster existed when I first got the idea.

Romance and Roller Coasters

It was a pleasant surprise for Robin whenever he could get Starfire excited over something new.

Of course, “surprise” hadn’t always been quite the right word. He still remembered a few years back when just about everything on Earth was new to her. Starfire was as curious as she was optimistic, and quite nearly as impulsive when it came to casual outings, so she had a habit of diving headlong into everything from team sports to sandwiches.

But as time passed, more of the unknown had become known and things that were once strange and magical became normal. And while Starfire never lost her zeal for life, it was sometimes easy to forget the sheer enthusiasm with which she approached new experiences.

When she first set foot in the Adventure Studios theme park, that enthusiasm came roaring back.

“It’s like we are in another world!” she marveled aloud, lifting a foot off of the ground and turning every which way to take in all the sights at once.

Robin grinned as he cast an only slightly more subdued gaze around. “Yeah, that’s the idea.”

Adventure Studios was one of those big amusement parks that had whole sections themed after different movies and the like. The other Titans had been needling Robin to schedule a day trip ever since he had, as Beast Boy put it, “rediscovered his fun side” in Tokyo. Now, all five of them were gawping up at the stylized buildings, decor and rides that drew the gaze every which way.

“Ooh, ooh!” Beast Boy practically shrieked, shaking Cyborg’s arm in his excitement. “It’s the Kraken Whirlpool ride from Terrors of the Deep! Let’s go, last one there’s kraken chow!”

Robin frowned thoughtfully. “Maybe we should wait to see what everyone – and he’s already gone.” Cyborg had run off as well, leaving him standing in the middle of the shop-lined central street that Adventure Studios had named “Hollywood Road” with Raven and Starfire.

Raven shrugged. “They’re big kids, they’ll be fine. Even if the word ‘kid’ applies more than it should.”

Robin rubbed the back of his head, still frowning a little. “Yeah, I guess they can do their own thing and just call us when they want to meet back up.”

Starfire, meanwhile, had busied herself looking over a map of the park. “Oh!” she cried, pointing out one of the map regions in particular. “This area is styled after that dinosaur movie we watched last year.”

Robin craned his head to look. “Yeah, that’s a pretty popular franchise so I’m not surprised. Do you want to check it out?”

At Starfire’s enthusiastic nod, he turned to Raven. “You coming?”

Raven shrugged again. “Maybe later. I actually wanted to check out the Wizard Barry land before it gets too crowded.” She spared a moment to scowl at the small flood of people that was already starting to pour into the park, despite the fact that they’d arrived shortly after it opened for the day.

Robin nodded and took Starfire by the hand. “Okay then, call us if you want to meet up later!”

*******

While he felt a little guilty admitting it, Robin was kind of glad that the team had split up. He enjoyed spending time with all of his friends, of course, and he still hoped that once they all had their fill of running off to the first thing that grabbed their attention, they’d at least get to meet up for lunch or something. But for the moment, he got to focus on letting Starfire’s sheer enthusiasm for everything infect him.

“Oh!” she cried out again, lifting a few feet off the ground to inspect a looming Allosaurus animatronic. “Fascinating. It’s so lifeli–”

The animatronic suddenly moved to face her and leaned forward with a gaping, tooth-filled maw and a screeching roar playing out over its speakers. Starfire squeaked and flew back down to duck behind Robin.

Robin himself had admittedly taken a startled step back at the dinosaur’s sudden threat, but then he craned his head to fix her with a playfully teasing smirk. “What are you hiding behind me for? You’re the one with the starbolts.”

Starfire huffed and settled her feet on the ground. “Perhaps, but I doubt the owners of the park would appreciate me damaging their lifelike robots.”

Robin chuckled. “Fair enough.”

The two of them continued on down the path, marveling at the thick jungle-like landscape pressing in around them and the Mesozoic facsimiles dotted throughout the foliage. They took their time, pointing out familiar dinosaurs, trying to remember which of the forms they’d seen Beast Boy take in training and battle, and reminiscing on their favorite parts of the movie it was all built to resemble. It was like an impromptu date, and Robin was enjoying every moment of it.

Starfire squeaked again – in delight this time – when the path turned to reveal a looming building that resembled the movie’s infamous dinosaur lab. She lifted off the ground curiously to approach its doors, but before she could make her way in, something else caught her eye.

“I do not recall that from the movie,” she said, cocking her head thoughtfully at the big sign for a coaster that proudly identified it as “Raptor Pack Attack!”

Robin smiled. “It’s still an amusement park, so even the themed areas have roller coasters and other rides. They just have to be more abstract about the theme – like, if I remember it right this one’s all about speed, so it feels like you’re being chased by the raptors.”

Starfire’s eyes widened in understanding. “Oh, so it is a ride! Is it like the roller coaster at the pier?”

Robin’s smile widened into an anticipatory grin. “Sort of, but that's kind of a small and simple one compared to what the big parks can do. Want to try it out?”

Starfire nodded enthusiastically, a grin overtaking her own face as she caught on to his knowing excitement. She thoroughly enjoyed all of the rides at the pierside park back in Jump, and he could tell she was eager for a chance to experience something like that on a grander scale.

It had been ages since Robin had gotten to ride a big steel coaster, so he matched her energy as the two of them ran up to join the queue. Luckily it was still early enough in the day that the wait time hadn’t gotten excessive, so it wasn’t very long before they could see the start of the ride looming up before them. Starfire leaned over the railing to watch the ride attendants and mechanisms at work, as enraptured by the process of loading and unloading riders as she had been by everything else.

Robin let out a contented little sigh and leaned onto the railing as well. “You know, I’ve kind of missed this.”

Starfire blinked and gave him a questioning look. “Missed what? The roller coasters?”

Robin flinched a little, heat crawling up his cheeks – he hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “No. I mean, yeah, a little, but uh… I was talking more about seeing you get excited over new stuff.”

Starfire blinked again and tilted her head. “You think I have lost some of my enthusiasm over time?”

Robin shook his head. “Oh, not at all! It’s just… Well, there’s kind of something magical about experiencing something for the first time, and you are the best example of that I’ve ever seen. It’s great that you’re more familiar and comfortable with Earth now, but I also like how you get when you’re trying new things, you know? It’s like… it gives me a fresh appreciation for those things, if that makes any sense.”

Starfire hummed in thought for a moment, letting her gaze drift back to the roller coaster entrance. Finally, she smiled again, and Robin could swear it not only reached her eyes but made them sparkle.

“Well, I still maintain that Earth is full of amazing things to discover,” she said. “And I do not believe I will run out of such discoveries anytime soon. Perhaps we can experience some of them together?”

Shooting a meaningful glance at where the line had shuffled forward while she spoke, drawing enticingly close to the coaster, she held out a hand to him. “Such as, for example, a roller coaster that I believe you referred to as being ‘all about speed?’”

Robin smiled back and wordlessly took her hand in his, and as they approached the front of the line, the adrenaline of anticipation for the thrill ride wasn’t the only reason for the tingling rush just beneath his skin.

#Teen Titans #Robin #Starfire #robstar #robstarweek #writing #prompt #fanfiction #drat now I want to go to a theme park again #an impromptu theme park date is still a date right?#sounds like my kind of date tbh

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alpaca-clouds · 1 month ago

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Digimon Tamers: The Card Game Thing Was Genius

Yes, I am still feeling like rambling about Digimon, because my hyperfixation on this has opened up again, and hey, what do I have encyclopedic knowledge of this franchise for, if not to ramble on hours about it?

Back when Digimon Tamers released, a lot of people were butthurt about it. While the fandom in general seems to have come around to the season by now, back in the day a lot of folks hated that it was no longer based in the Digimon Adventure timeline, and more so that Digimon was in fact a fictional franchise in this new world.

And while Digimon Adventure back in the day was welcomed by western fandom as "is this a copy-cat of Pokémon?" (no, it is not, it is just that back at the time Japanese companies had somehow decided that "it is now the time of monster stuff" - given that monster franchises were already a thing before this in terms of games), Digimon Tamers with the Card Game mechanic was welcomed with by: "This is like Yu-Gi-Oh!"

Even though Digimon Tamers is nothing like Yu-Gi-Oh!, given that the characters generally do not really play the card game much on screen, let alone having tournaments as a core aspect of the show.

I think that even today, some people still feel a bit weird about the inclusion of the Card Game, because it was just very obviously merchandising included in the show.

However... I will very much argue that this was a genius move - and is mainly responsible for Digimon Tamers getting the kind of quality writing that it has.

While a lot of western fan got introduced to Digimon as the anime first and foremost, it very much was always a merchandise advertisement in form of an anime. Sure, the stories were always super fun, but the main reason that Bandai financed an anime of this scale was to use it as advertisement for the Digimon merchandise they were releasing.

If you go through interviews (or talk to some of the writers yourself), you will however learn that this lead to a lot of issues. This is a general thing with several Bandai/Toei merchandise franchises (like Ojamajo Doremi or PreCure). Basically the writers were always pushed to give more focus onto the merchandise, bring in new forms for Digimon (to have as merchandise) and new mechanics (for merchandise). As I said, same happened with a lot of the Magical Girls stuff, where basically the same was true.

And ironically... This is very much why the idea to include the Card Game was so genius. Because no, this idea did not come from Bandai or the producers, but from Konaka. And he was very much able to play this out as a trump card (badum-tss) whenever producers tried to get him to adjust the rather dark direction. Because he was like: "Oh, but we have so much direct merchandise tie-ins!" And it worked rather well, from what we can see.

It also protected the season from having additional stuff forced into it for merchandise purposes. And yeah. I am rather glad that this decision was made. Not only because I love card games.

#digimon #digimon tamers #digimon card game #digimon meta

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tdoong15 · 9 months ago

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Little!Yuqi. Cg!Soyeon.

Warnings: none

Wall art

Yuqi was sitting on the floor playing with her bunny toy, Gigi, whilst she was being supervised by Soyeon so she didn't do anything to hurt herself. After some time, Yuqi was getting bored of just simply playing with Gigi, she noticed how there was a pack of crayons just a few inches away from her as well as a blank wall, a lightbulb went off in her head about what she was wanting to do next.

The little giggled and shuffled over to where the crayons were, when she eventually got her hands on them she went to the nearest wall to draw on them. Soyeon quickly stepped in and she took the crayons out of Yuqi's hands. “You can't draw on the wall, baby.” Her tone was gentle to let Yuqi know that she wasn't going to be in trouble. Yuqi didn't like the fact that she couldn't draw the walls, she wanted to be the new Vincent van Gogh, so she immediately tried grabbing for the crayons.

“It's okay, Yuqi, I'll give you the crayons back but here you can have a coloring book too.” Soyeon quickly grabs a random coloring book and she hands both items to Yuqi, who immediately calms down once she has hold of them. Yuqi smiles contently while she crawls to the middle of the room, where she then lays on her stomach with Gigi under her arms to help her with coloring in the pages in whatever way she felt was necessary.

Soyeon sat on the couch and she watched Yuqi carefully, occasionally Yuqi would go up to Soyeon, with the widest grin in the world, to show her caregiver what she colored in. “Woah, that's really good, baby. You're so talented!” Soyeon would praise Yuqi with every drawing she colored. Yuqi would then rip the page out of the book and place it on Soyeon's lap. “pwace it on f'idge.” Yuqi repeatedly told Soyeon whenever she went over.

After 10 minutes Soyeon realized that she had to start preparing lunch for everyone, so she decided to trust Yuqi to not be tempted with the idea of drawing on the walls since she was distracted by the coloring book. Soyeon grabs the papers that were on her lap and she uses a magnet to place them all on the refrigerator, which now looked like an art gallery itself because it was covered in all of the drawings that the girls did whenever they regressed, she then starts making lunch for everyone.

Yuqi lasted for an extra five minutes before she noticed that she could now get away with drawing on the white walls. The little grins in a mischievous way when she crawled over to the wall. She then grabs a yellow crayon to start her drawing, Yuqi would turn her head in the direction of the kitchen so she knew that Soyeon wasn't looking at her.

Soyeon finished making everyone's own individual lunches and she called for the girls to come for it, so while Soojin, Shuhua, Minnie and Miyeon all went to sit at the table to enjoy their lunch that Soyeon so graciously prepared, Soyeon went to collect Yuqi from the living room.

“Yuqi what did you do?” Soyeon asks in a slightly frustrated but gentle tone. Yuqi turned around and she simply smiled and moved out of the way to show her drawing which just looked like a bunch of rectangles and a face. “It's ‘bee, Mama!” She was referring to the transformer called Bumblebee, which was her favourite one out of the franchise, she even had a Bumblebee mask in her room.

“Uh-huh I see that, baby, and it looks really good. But what did I say about drawing on the wall?” Soyeon walked closer and she got a response of a pout and a whine from the regressed girl. “Mmm… not to do it on the wall.” Yuqi looks at her drawing before continuing “But I t'ink it wooks weally pwetty!” Soyeon nods her head and she notices how large the Bumblebee was, and if she was honest she didn't want to take ages removing the drawing especially since she just spent a good chunk of time making lunch which made her slightly tired.

In the end, Soyeon ended up leaving the drawing on the wall since she knew that it was more important to feed Yuqi instead of removing a drawing that the little one was very passionate about. She just hoped that it didn't result in anyone else wanting to draw on the walls because of it.

Hello, how is everyone? I know that Soojin left (G)I-DLE but I'm still OT6 at heart plus it's only a brief mention. What's your opinion on (G)I-DLE'S new album 2? I love it especially the MV for revenge because of how good the acting was.

#gidle agere #gidle #little!yuqi #cg!soyeon #yuqi #soyeon #sfw agere #sfw caregiver #Spotify

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juliedrawz · 2 years ago

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🌼 Big Info/Update on my "Coco" Book 🌼

So it's almost been a year ...

Wow! What a journey so far! I wanted to take my time to talk to you "every dear one of you who loves my art and follows me" for a bit. Now, this will be a long post so keep that in mind!

I cannot remember a year in which I went through so many changes. I grew a lot mentally and I learned a lot. When I first watched Coco, I didn't know at all what kind of impact it will have on me. I know it did for a whole lot many more than just me. It's not just a movie, it's something that moved my heart in depths I cannot explain. Look, the only movie franchise who ever was able to impact me that deeply was Lord of the Rings/Hobbit, but then Coco came along and well ... Héctor! ... and Ernesto.

But talking about Héctor in every little detail possible is planned for another post. There is so much! And Ernesto even more. Ernesto is actually (has actually) been my biggest surprise this year 🤯 And let me tell you why for a little because this is a important part of this whole post!

Villains. We all know what a villain is. When I first saw Ernesto, I was instantly drawn to his charmful personality. I love mexico! I love mexicans, (they happen to be one of the funniest, kindest and most temperamental ones I ever came across and they understand how to celebrate life and death!) At first, we only see what Ernesto can do without knowing anything just yet. I was blown! Let me get this down, he's a musícan with a inrcedible voice (I have an opera education background so I connect to his trained voice), he's a actor, a showman, he's a phenomenal horseback rider and he's handsome! I don't need to tell you about the punch in the guts you end up having later!

Oh, yes! Something I would say! Seriously! I do act like that whenever I am burning for something! *cough* snowflakes quite recently! It was late and my boss only had 1 client left and it started snowing big flakes and I went full child excited mood "think Ernesto and fireworks" until they hit me with their "Augh, snow! Cold, wet, annoying!" And then I literally turned into this cinematic drama queen telling them about nostalgia and the spirit of christmas! *laugh* Their faces 😆 Bah humbug! Truly!

Can you imagine Ernesto in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge? I can! 😆 Héctor, Ceci and Imelda as the 3 spirits of christmas. Yes sir! I want that for christmas! *cough* aaand I'm rambling! I was talking about my book ... yes ... back to that!

Anyway! Moving on! I've told you before that as an INFP personality it's in my nature anyway to think and feel myself deeper into things (whatever they are) and I need about 2 or 3 rows to analyze and solidifying my opinion. That's what happened with Ernesto. Yes, at first I was "heck this guy!" Mildly said, I did not like Ernesto. One. Bit. I was mad and I, for the first few moments, labled him as a villain too! But then I rewatched and rewatched and rewatched Coco and I analyzed Ernesto. And after I went "wait a dang minute!" I realized, no, this man is certainly not your typical "Bad guy!" And after my Dad "an ex-soldier and chef prison guard" confirmed my analysis, I started researching and studying on human behavior, trauma (PTSD) and especially psyche! Now, I wanted to do this anyway because of Héctor and Imelda but it played into my hands with Ernesto. But it also flipped my whole opinion of him. It is a canon fact, that Héctor and Ernesto grew up together and were like brothers to each other and I had the statement, that Ernesto isn't proud of what he's done. Oh boy did that flip tables for me! Because guess what! A true villian is evil, period. You don't go thinking about any redemption because they are that far gone! And a truly rotten, evil soul does not regret their actions or deeds, they are perfectly fine and content with them. I would love to share my whole Sherlock Holmes �� action I did on Ernesto with you but I can't because that would def. spoil everything that is to come!

Ok, this whole Ernesto case has changed and impacted my book! And not only that. The longer I wrote, I got back my grammar and writing skills (after not truly writing for years!) I improved and only after months and then going back to the first half of my book, I realized that many things weren't the way I wanted them anymore. The plot was now solid (wasn't at first) some age/timeline aspects changed! I tweaked some things! Grammar too. And that means I will need to go over my whole first bunch of chapters eventually!

Now I really know where my book is heading! From beginning to end! I now have the silver lining! That also means, the Title of my book has changed! But I will change it in time, not just yet!

The thing with Ceci 👓

Honestly, when I first included Ceci in my book, I, just like with many things, as I mentioned, had no idea what to do with her! I knew I wanted her in, because of that one scene! She instantly had me with her sassy attitude. And since it was pretty clear that she and Héctor knew each other and that she's been helping him not only once, I knew that there had to be a connection. And so I went with it. But that was still raw and not well thought through. That came fairly quickly though! And by now, Ceci is, next to Imelda one of the main characters! She plays a big role and she will be very important for the future!

My Book - Not just any other Fanfic

I know that everyone has their own opinion, view of things and headcanons. This is mine! But while it is my headcanon, I had the goal from the moment I sat down and decided "I'm going to do this!" To make my book feel as canon as possible. I knew I didn't just want to create yet another "great" fanfiction, I wanted to create something that is way more than just that. Something that could give huge Coco fans like me something back. Something that has an impact, something that shares what I have in my heart at least a little! I wanted to do something that hasn't been done before! And for once, I dedicated myself to it, no matter how long it will take, I will finish it! Oof, didn't that sound like something Héctor would say?

This thing has become my baby! 😂

I wanted to stay "true" to each character, stay in line and make readers go "yep, that's how it all happened" I wanted the characters to stay real and authentic. I didn't want to change them or make them do things that would fall out of their character. I knew I wanted my book to circle around Héctor mainly but the longer I worked on it, the more I understood that Ernesto, Ceci and Imelda are just as much of a part of Héctor! And developing their story, they became a huge part.

I wanted and still want to bring emotions across as if you'd feel them! I also knew and now I know even more, that my book is "in no way" for children! It is in everyway for us adults, for teens at least! Because I go deeper and touch on topics that are scary, painful, harsh and dark. You'll see that even more in chapters to come!

Conclusion ❗️

Since it's a real book I am working on, I realized that it is pretty normal that some chapters take weeks, sometimes even months to write. I understood that it's ok to take my time! And if it ends up taking me 2 or 3 years to finish it. I stopped feeling guilty when I cannot post new content fast enough because it just takes a lot of time and effort. And besides my passions, life happens and continues. Work happens to be exhausting sometimes, not all weekends end up being a free-time for me. And there are family gatherings, normal things to do, as plain as grocery shopping. And recently, christmas. But I appreciate every time I get to work on my book and my art!

So, yes, I had to get to this conclution on my own. While it is clear for others. And that has everything to do with my personality. I love pleasing people and making people happy. And by all means, I love love love what I do! If I could I would double my arms and work on more tings faster! Sometimes I wish I could stay home and work on my hobbies only but that isn't going to happen for me.

So at that point. I want to say "Thank you!" AGAIN! For all you guys who have been sticking around so far! For all the kind words! I hope you'll stick around for the next year/years to come and keep Coco alive!

🌼 Coco is timeless 🌼

It is so much more than just bringing across a deep important message! It has earned itself a very special place in my heart! It has caused me to pick up writing again, and it made me pick up my guitar and finally learn it! I will finish telling Héctor's story! And Ernesto's along with it! And I am no longer scared if some might end up hating it or calling me crazy for it! Because, like Héctor said, then I am, un poco loco! And I want to be nothing else!

#coco 2017 #pixar coco #coco hector #héctor rivera #coco characters #ernesto de la cruz #coco imelda #imelda rivera #coco headcanon #coco ceci #coco ernesto #writing my book #coco

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stormxpadme · 2 years ago

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for the wip ask game, i can’t pick. so just tell me something about one of them that you’re really proud of

WIP tag game

I can always rely on some people on my dash to cheer me up <3. All the X-Men stuff I'm currently working on is still in early stages and I tend to be more proud of works in their entirety, so I think I'd like to talk a bit about my She-Ra project, not least because once I'm done with Weathered II, I think I want to go back to that, and some people on my dash (looking at you @kintatsujo :D) have been interested in it occasionally.

Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with the Netflix Princesses of Power show since I hate it. Not gonna elaborate on that. I've dealt with anti hate for that fact before so anyone reads this and feels like pissing me off in my inbox: You're 4 years too late, move on.

Nah, what I'm doing with “Terra Exit” is basically translate the original She-Ra series into an adult setting and try to finish that series and Adora's story in that old Filmation verse. I'm starting with the events of “The Secret of the Sword” and write myself along the actual series episodes (not writing them but adding missing scenes and quickly brush over/mention what's happening in them), and after the last franchise episode, I move the series on to what the creators could never get around to do. Meaning, writing out the Rebellion's last stand against the Horde. That's a monster project where we're easily talking a million words once more, so depending on how burnt out I am by the point I get there, I'll have to see how to go from there. The vague idea is to get Adora home to Eternia then where she belongs finally, give her a bit of soft time before Horde Prime moves the war there and He-Man and her have to work together to defeat him once and for all. So that would be de definite ending of that huge project. I'll see in 10 years or so if I ever got there, I guess :D.

What motivates me for this is that She-Ra has been my childhood heroine, saving my life in years of bullying in school, that the series was my first anchor when I got on the internet and learned how to handle online life and got my first friends in oversee fandoms, and the wish to translate one of my favorite childhood series into a mature setting. For a child's series, this franchise has some surprisingly, chilling themes like child soldiers, separation, making the hard choice between family and duty, fighting fascism, defecting from the army, brainwashing etc. This whole franchise has great potential to be a gripping, gritty sci fi/fantasy stories for adults when translated into a mature style, so that's what I want to do (In a way, the more recent He-Man comics did this in some alternate universe already when they pulled She-Ra in, with Adora being a still brainwashed killing machine, so I'm not far off the mark or original here). I'm not pulling any punches here; this is going full drama and Explicit rated in terms of violence and a little bit of romance. And honestly, whenever I think about it, I am very excited and have to stifle back all that impatience to remember, one big project at a time. But I definitely never get tired talking about it :D.

That said, here's a little snippet (no rating) from the current series part where I stopped writing before diving back into Tolkien and X-Men. Takes place at the end of the canon episode "Bow's Farewell".

***

"Thank you." It wasn't until she remembered how to breathe again that she realized she'd slumped down on the floor, on her knees, Swift Wind's soft nose reassuringly nudging her back. "I'm okay. I'd better fly to Bright Moon Castle right away."

"Everything's fine there. Just a few ruined walls, half-collapsed ceilings, and overturned furniture. No one has been seriously hurt. No casualties," Light Hope ridded her off her worst concern. "Stay for a moment. I can sense you're upset."

She-Ra did, mostly because she remembered Light Hope's request to spend time here as often as possible, even if she didn't need anything. To spend time with him. That way, she didn't have to face the next interrogation right away, either. "I'll be fine. There hasn't been much time to rest recently. And even less to be with the ones I love. No wonder everyone thinks I need therapy when they hardly see me."

"Don't be angry with your brother and friends for worrying about you, She-Ra." Of course, she didn't need to reveal the details of her anger to Light Hope first. It would have surprised her if he hadn't known exactly what this was about.

At least that gave her a chance to ask him something she hadn't been able to get out of her mind since that conversation not exactly overheard by accident. "Is Adam right, Light Hope? Do I need to remember?"

"I can't make that decision for you, She-Ra." Light Hope's form melted back into its usual shape, that massive column, as if he wanted to pull back from her a bit. "Your soul would be shaken to the core, that much is for sure."

"So you know what happened back then," she found, wearily rubbing over her elbow where a slight twinge had started to throb, something she usually only felt when the weather changed. Something she had always blamed on some old muscle damage until now, from her constant training battles in the Fright Zone. Except that her medical records on Eternia knew better. Everyone seemed to know better than she did, which particularly bad encounter in her youth had left her with multiple broken bones, and apparently something even worse. Only nobody wanted to talk to her about it. And still She-Ra didn't know if that wasn't for the best.

"I wish I didn't, believe me. But there aren't many secrets you can keep from me," Light Hope explained with a distinctly sad tone. "Very little of this planet's past or present is hidden from me in general. That is my curse, as yours is the brokenness of your heart. The future, however, I can only predict extremely vaguely. All I know is that Hordak wants to hurt Adora very badly, and that you must take care of yourself."

She-Ra nodded briefly. "To know that, I don't need to remember something that my subconsciousness has obviously decided I'm better off without. I'll wait and see. For now."

"If you change your mind, I'm here for you." Light Hope said goodbye with the usual respectful flicker in his silhouette before retreating back into his pool.

- Terra Exit: SHOW THE WIND HOW TO FLY (#5)

#sometimes stormy gets asked things #xmen-blue #classicsheraorheman #you can pry these series from my cold dead hands #thanks for the smile <3

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carinalastimosa · 5 months ago

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Will the Bachelor Franchise Give Asians Their Flowers?

I was a latecomer to The Bachelor franchise. It was the first year of COVID, we’d gotten past the lockdown stage but it meant that new scripted content had dried up. So naturally, my husband and I turned to the backlog of Bachelor episodes on streaming services to keep the drama alive and well. That’s how it works, right? Either way, we were hooked and took enjoyment in watching every bloated episode of “starting to fall in love”-isms.

I think part of our viewing enjoyment was being detached from the real time drama that unfolds between each week of an episode’s release. We could speculate in our own little bubble how serious Greg was about Katie or if Becca regretted not choosing Blake. Reality dating shows have long struggled with addressing social media. Should they focus on what was presented during the show or touch on the narrative created outside of the show on social media? It’s a tricky balancing act. Just ask Vanessa Lachey after the season 4 reunion of Love is Blind. The Bachelor franchise, which includes The Bachelorette; Bachelor in Paradise; The Golden Bachelor; and soon to be The Golden Bachelorette iteration to air this fall, is no exception to this. In fact, The Bachelor franchise first piqued my interest when Season 13 Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay published her article on being the first black person to lead the franchise and the challenges and failed expectations that came with that. This coincided with the surfacing of photos of Season 25 Bachelor contestant Rachel Kirkconnell attending an Antebellum-themed party. At that time, The Bachelor was airing Season 25 with Matt James, their first black man to lead the franchise. I followed these headlines loosely as it made the pop culture news rounds but I still brushed off the show, thinking that it was something not worth investing in, as ultimately, this was a dating show by white people, made for white people.

Cut to March 2024, and I have now become well versed in the Bachelor universe, having now watched 8 Bachelor seasons and 10 Bachelorette seasons. I have my favorite contestants (Gabby Windey), favorite seasons (Tayshia Adams’s half of The Bachelorette), and honestly look forward to whenever Jesse Palmer pops up to do some hosting. I had found my trashy T.V. , my guilty pleasure, the thing I can turn on to turn off my brain. It was supposed to just be something I could watch and that’s it. But to be a part of Bachelor Nation is more than that.

Bachelor Nation is known to dig. No matter how beloved or trivial a contestant, they will find something that could move the dial in a devastating way. Some of it hilarious, like Season 28 Bachelor contestant, Daisy Kent, being a part of a music video, featuring the poetic lyrics of “I think I’m better and I don’t give a f*ck now / So you can lick on my sack suck my nuts now / That ain’t no fossil, oh bitch this a bust down / I feel alright ain’t dark like the sundown”. While some are worth discussing like Season 19 Bachelorette contestant Erich Schwer dressing up as Jimi Hendrix in blackface for a Halloween party; which the show ultimately ignored during their finale because Schwer ended up being Gabby Windey’s choice and the show needed their happy ending since co-Bachelorette lead Rachel Recchia’s choice ended up cheating before they could even air the finale. While not ultimately a part of the show, I do view it as supplemental material that either enhances or informs my viewing. Bachelor Nation has done my research for me so that I don’t have to. But there’s only so much I can consume. I’m not one to engage in the comments, whether it’s reading them or writing them. Whatever Bachelor Nation has found, I get nice little summaries of it from my favorite recaps such as The Ringer’s podcast Bachelor Party and YouTube channel Bachelor Fantake.

The latest season to air this year, Season 28 of The Bachelor starring Joey Graziadei seemed to reignite Bachelor Nation’s love for their leads. Off the heels of the very successful debut of The Golden Bachelor, despite the fallout of Gerry Turner post the show’s airing, Bachelor producers capitalized on the moment and it seemed that everyone fell in love with Graziadei. Heck, I did too! I mean the emotional intelligence and the way he looks at you! With all eyes on the bachelor, it meant that close attention was also paid to the Bachelor contestants. Nothing too disparaging was found, with the exception of the already mentioned Kent music video, but that’s more unfortunately hilarious than damning. Instead, the discourse came well into the season, when fan favorite, Maria Georgas asked Graziadei for a moment to speak to him privately just as the final 3 rose ceremony was about to begin, and when Goergas came back to join the rest of the women, fellow contestant Rachel Nance asked, “What was that about?”. Out of context, this seems like a simple enough question, and even watching the moment play out, there was nothing to clock. In fact, what I found to be slightly irritating was Georgas’s response to Nance, “I’ll tell you one day.” But Bachelor Nation perceived this differently. Immediately attacking Nance, not necessarily for what she did (ask a question), but for who she was (half Black/half Filipino). I don’t gotta say it but this is where I mention that Goergas is a white woman. Call me biased but Nance was my favorite contestant on Season 28 of The Bachelor. Sure, partly because she’s Filipino, but she also seemed like a really cool, chill, no fuss kind of gal. As down to earth as a person can be considering they decided to be on a reality T.V. show. The kind of woman I want to be. When she made it all the way to hometowns, I was fist pumping over her teaching Graziadei how to greet her parents with mano po and her saying she likes the fattier parts of the lechon. This was exposure to a culture for a viewership that is predominately white. I was thrilled! So it saddened me when the Women Tell All aired with a segment where host Jesse Palmer discusses the racist comments fired at Nance over social media. Hearing her repeat what had been slurred at her reinforced to me that Bachelor Nation still isn’t accepting of a black lead and is not ready for an Asian lead. This show that I love to indulge in, will continue to be ruled by whiteness.

So to my surprise, and most likely disappointment of Bachelor Nation, Jesse Palmer announced the next lead of The Bachelorette, Vietnamese-American Season 28 Bachelor contestant Jenn Tran as the franchise’s first ever Asian-American lead. It’s been made public that Tran was not the first pick (Maria Georgas), nor was she even the second (Daisy Kent). This is also reinforced by the casting of Tran’s men, predominantly virtually white men with just one Asian man. While Tran does not have to date a fellow Asian, it shows how little Bachelor producers have thought this through. Pre-casting under the assumption that surely one of the 2 fan favorites from the top 3 will say, “yes” but then having to pivot to a contestant who placed fifth and focusing on the historic casting of it all to try and gain brownie points worries me.

I must admit, I was also skeptical of Tran’s casting and I felt guilty over that. Shouldn’t I have been thrilled that there was meaningful representation for a show that caters to whiteness? But I was placing unrealistic expectations on Tran that I wouldn’t have any other lead. Watching her Bachelorette announcement segment started out on a high that quickly deflated as Tran failed to meet what my expectations were for Asian representation. In a quick effort to make Jenn relatable, producers went with the “Fun Jenn” angle where she’s just a gal who wants to have a good time and will ask for shots to get the party started. To me, it came off as someone not ready to take on the responsibility of being the first Asian-American to lead this franchise. It’s always tough to be the first in something where barriers need to be broken. You need to be so many things for a marginalized group of people that contains a multitude of perspectives and values. By already dismissing Tran as not my type of Asian, I missed sight on what she was trying to achieve and move forward for the Asian American community. I projected my own baggage of having to prove myself in white spaces. She doesn’t have to be all the things, she just has to be herself, which looking back at that announcement segment, she already was doing. That in of itself is progress. We can also let loose, have a good time, and also still bear the weight and responsibility of what it means to be an Asian-American, a child of immigrant parents, a woman of color, and more all at the same time.

Tran has mentioned in interviews, “I just never saw herself as a main character.” A sentiment that I connect to deeply. Growing up in the 90’s, there wasn’t much Asian representation in the television or movies I watched. And now, as an adult, trying to carve my spot in acting, I’m constantly trying to prove to casting that I’m worth it. That I can be that person you cast as your lead because my voice is worth hearing.

Tran will now do the same as The Bachelorette premieres tonight. Like the many Bachelorette leads before her, her journey of love begins as she meets the men and hands out roses until the final rose that leads to engagement. She’s going to do it her way and America will watch every week, captivated by the choices she’ll make.

Bring on the Jenn-ergy. 🌹

#bachelor nation #the bachelorette #asian representation #reality tv #the bachelor #dating show #dating #asian woman

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queen0fm0nsterz · 2 years ago

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This post resonates with me spiritually but I would like to add my own two cents on it

What gets me about them is the fact that they are, all in all, completely opposite to one another, both design, personality and "role-in-the-narrative" wise.

RCG is mostly identified by warm tones and colors. Her brown hair, yellow raincoat, bright red bow tie, all of this leading back to her relatively "warm" personality. She's not necessarely the goody two shoes the fandom makes her out to be, but she's possibly the most altruistic of the Little Nights protagonists. Whenever the occasion presents itself where she has to chose whether or not to help someone, she almost always lends a hand - only exception being when she was chased by the Butler and closed the door on Six. Even then, though, she later goes out of her way to risk her life to help Six when she's being chased. Hell, I'd argue the reason she got chased by the Pretender in the first place is because she hesitated for that brief moment when she heard her cry. Like, she didn't make a noise or anything: she just stopped and stared. This doesn't happen with the other two antagonists, so I'm assuming the Pretender's tears were what moved her enough to not immediately dip.

The Pretender on the other hand is the exact opposite. Identifiable by her cool tones, like the greens and blues she wears and the white hair, she is overall much more "pointy" in appearence and personality. She's abrasive, spoiled, aggressive in her ways, everything you'd expect her to be considering her position. But, she's also unbearably lonely. Nobody around her is there because they want to be: the Butler and thr Craftsman are merely doing their job, the children are turned into dolls and also try to escape all the time, I doubt the Nomes ever approach her considering her attitude... Being alone because you're unwanted might even be worse than isolation due to outside forces. Not knowing what a genuine friendship looks like because you never experienced one is... just sad. Even though she is far more privileged than her counterpart, I think she more than any other antagonist in this franchise is the product of an environment that never really cared. If this was any other genre, the Pretender would be the most redeemable of the villains.

The reason why I brought up that RCG stops when she hears the Pretender cry is because, in another setting (maybe where kids don't get killed for starters🙄), that same gesture could have been the beginning of a turning point.

On one hand you have the Pretender, crying her eyes out about the miserable life she lives as a consequence of powers she didn't ask for, and on the other you have RCG, who has been trying to escape this horrid place only to be met with the tears of someone she shouldn't care about.

But how can she turn such a genuine display away? And how could the Pretender, who is initially standoffish and aggressive as she normally would be, reject the first ever display of concern for her well-being?

Idk man I'm just rambling at this point but this is to say I am Normal about them

Rcg and The Pretender is the ship ever for me. They’re both doomed by the narrative they love each other they’ve tried to kill each other their a scrawny street rat and rich aristocrat they die together one lives in the others walls their medusa and her girlfriend their both scared preteens their

#little nightmares #rcg #the pretender #IM SORRY FOR GOING OFF. IM SORRY #i just love them so much #GRRRRR

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barbiewritesstuff · 2 years ago

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There's a don draper x reader tag????? SPRINTS

AHHHHHH I love that fanboy and star wars detail 😍 bet trivia is coming out of everybody's ears by now amd they're so sick and tired of the constant references xD rooster was totally doing that panicked eyebrow raise and Bob the cutie lil babie just wanted to disappear in his chair.

UNFFFF !!!! And it's not like Beau didn't take out his pent up frustration the same day at home whooooo boy can he hold onto his anger and of course he remembers that Hondo most likely saw the picture and he had to have a punishment lined up for that separately there's no way you're getting off the hook for that lip stunt soon.

So NATURALLY you're sore and covered in marks the next day and ok so maybe someone notices and pokes fun (it would be Hangman tho wouldn't it) and you're sleepy so Mav totally kicks your ass in dogfiting and now your sore and humiliated ass is doing pushups while having to listen to Hangman's incessant spiel and Beau just happens to pass by and hear it and ooooohhhh idk what happens after but I'm betting it'd be a delicious mixture of a possessive and smug AF Admiral 😏

So, sorry for the late response, I don’t tumblr too much at work because the app eats my data BUT now I’m on HOLIDAYS!!!! I am free to think about the thots you send me!!

So, Fanboy and Star Wars is not the love story you think it is. He has a strange relationship with the franchise in that he likes the films, he LOVES the universe but he doesn’t actually believe the films should have been about Leia, Luke and Han, or even Anakin, Padme and Obi Wan (DO NOT talk about the sequels) but about the millions of other more interesting characters like Salacious B. Crumb, Yaddle or even Temiri Blagg… Anyway, it’s best not to ask him about it because he will talk your ear off.

Rooster was ABSOLUTELY doing the panicked eyebrow raise!!! That boy was trying to calculate an escape plan the second he saw the Admiral’s entire demeanour change!

Now Bob, Bobby boy, took the T-Rex approach from Jurassic Park. He was standing as still as he could manage, as if Cyclone was going to simply forget he existed if he didn’t move.

Now Beau doesn’t actually make it home with you. He has the key to an empty ensign dorm and bends you over the desk right there in one of the rooms. Not because he’s angry, necessarily, but because his fingers seem to automatically pull up the picture whenever he unlocks his phone and by five pm when you’re both done for the day Beau is HORNY. He wants you and he wants you now.

But yes, you’re right, after that he punishes you twice, once because he wants you to get the message and then once more when Hondo sends him an email about something happening on base and he’s reminded that your picture was seen by someone else. By the end of the evening, you can no longer talk and you certainly cannot walk. In fact, when you make it out of Cyclone’s bed in the morning your legs are still shaky and you have to hold yourself up against the wall when you shower.

Okay, so I know you said someone would make a comment during dogfighting but consider this: it happens during the dogfight football scene. Because Beau is a very possessive man and that means he absolutely marks you up!!! You’re covered in hickeys and you’re pretty sure there’s a handprint on your ass from where he spanked you!!

So obviously when you get to the beach for dogfight football someone is bound to notice. Now Hangman is the obvious choice but actually I think he keeps his mouth shut, ESPECIALLY when he notices Beau next to Mav and he sees Cyclone’s eyes fixed on you with a little smug grin on his face.

No, I think it’s either Bob (because our little Angel thinks you might have gotten hurt (or he pretends, because he knows what you’ve been up to, just not who with and he likes to stir shit and cause chaos)) or maybe Fanboy… But can you imagine Hondo’s face? Because he’s refereeing the game!! He’s there!!! And he’s seen your everything pop up on the Admiral’s phone and now he’s seeing you all marked up, claimed and with a fucking handprint on your butt cheek!!! He is going to pass out!!!

I love this all so much!!! Thank you for your brain!

#fanfic #top gun fanfiction #top gun maverick #top gun x reader #fanfiction #original fic #asks #cyclone x reader #cyclone #beau cyclone simpson #beau simpson x reader #beau simpson

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ninjapotatohead · 3 years ago

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SONIC & Dr. EGGMAN: An Analysis of Their Dynamic and Character

It shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone, but I've been a Sonic fan for pretty much my entire life. I've played pretty much all of the games front-to-end, watched the many adaptations of said games, and even read some of the comics whenever I could. It's also no secret that this franchise has a very dedicated and passionate fan-base (for better or worse), and it's a thing of wonder to behold that some members of the community have their talents recognized by the team that brought the blue hedgehog's fame into the stratosphere.

...that being said, it always comes as an eyebrow-raiser that, despite being so fixated on the details of the Sonic franchise, the one thing that's always being misrepresented (not just in fan-made works, but now in official media as well) is the dynamic shared between the titular protagonist and his archenemy.

It doesn't take a genius to realize that the interactions and dynamic between the main protagonist and antagonist (sometimes plural) can make or break a product. Especially when the subjects are as iconic in the world of fiction as Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Eggman. Which begs the question of why do so many people misunderstand Sonic and Eggman's animosity, much less the core of their characters? How did I even reach such a conclusion to make such a bold accusation? Well, let's find out (assuming the title didn't make you lose interest, that is)!

Sonic the Hedgehog, as the world already knows, is a speeding blue dude with attitude who's always on the search for his next big adventure. He's not the kind of guy would have the patience to stay tied down anywhere; he's always on the move. You know, like the wind. Sonic never takes oppression and injustice lying down, standing up for those who can't stand up for themselves. He's an unequivocally good guy at the end of the day, but he lives his life doing what he thinks is the right thing to do; to hell with the consequences or what anybody else has to say about it.

Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik (with an optional pompous trilling of the R's) is a mad genius bent on world domination, hatching (pardon the pun) an array of schemes to build an empire/theme park/race track/etc in his own image with himself as the sole ruler. He's an absurdly intelligent man, and he knows it... and he wants the entire world to have this etched into their collective skulls. Considering that this guy can and has made machines that can very well achieve just that and generally cares not for the lives of innocent bystanders, that's probably not a good thing.

Pretty basic rundown of the characters so far. Nothing too complex or hard to understand. But, then we have the whole reason I even wrote this dumb essay in the first place; the amount of misconceptions surrounding these two and the extent of their life-long animosity.

Let's start with...

"Dr. Eggman isn't actually that bad of a guy deep down."

This may actually hold true to certain animated iterations of the character (Like Sonic X or Sonic Boom, depending on who you ask), but as far as the games/main canon is concerned, Eggman is still a bastard at the end of the day. He's a villain, one of the most iconic villains in the video game medium (up there with the likes of Super Mario's Koopa King Bowser and Street Fighter's M. Bison). A villain has no need to be deep and complicated in order to be effective.

Not to mention that he tends to treat his own robots like crap more often than not; especially when they spectacularly fail at a job that the doc himself has assigned them to. Matter of fact, for as much as the fandom loves to believe that Eggman treats Metal Sonic like a son thanks to the Archie/IDW Comics... the actual games showcase that this couldn't really be any further from the truth. Eggman's even straight-up just abandoned Metal quite a few times in the series when it benefited him (and only him).

Sentiments towards the game in question aside, Eggman literally just abandoned Metal on Little Planet after the events of Sonic CD, and Eggman only really brings him back purely out of convenience. Eggman doesn't really care about Metal Sonic as a sentient being with wants and aspirations; as far as Eggman's concerned, Metal is designed to be a killing machine. Metal is just the best at his job, and that's quite literally the only reason why Metal is ever given any special treatment or congrats compared to, say, Orbot & Cubot. Hell, whenever Metal shows any insubordination towards his master, Eggman either just abandons him, punishes him offscreen, or probably both.

And remember how I said earlier that Eggman is always hatching plans to achieve his goal of taking over the world, and that he doesn't really care who gets caught in the crossfire?

Yeeeeeeaaahh... That was NOT an exaggeration. Eggman's completely willing to throw countless innocent lives under the bus for his own ends, and without remorse. He more often than not just shrugs off the damage he (regularly) causes, and simply moves on to another crazy scheme. Has Eggman saved the world before? Well, yes. There have been a few times where he'll begrudgingly join forces with Sonic and friends to save their world... but again, it's always for Eggman's own self-interest. As Eggman himself has succinctly said...

Dr. Eggman already has quite a body count anyhow, and he doesn't care; as far as Eggman's concerned, what's a few more barrages of missiles into very heavily populated areas gonna hurt? Certainly not him.

And then, there's the supposed "smoking gun" people often use to support their argument. That being the ending of Sonic Adventure 2. After Shadow's... "Disney Death", Sonic and the gang (and Eggman) all have a moment of reflection once everything's said and done. Eggman himself expressing disappointment that his grandfather, Professor Gerald, had planned to destroy humanity. Sometimes, this is accompanied by Eggman being appalled that his old man also made a deal with Black Doom in 2005's Shadow The Hedgehog.

This argument falls apart for a number of reasons. The main reason being that Eggman himself has done so much worse than this. I mean, the sort of callous things he would do just for his own ends (aka the aforementioned nonchalant attitude towards the lives of countless innocents) are far beyond the scumminess of an old man who just wanted to save his dying granddaughter. That, and Eggman himself hasn't shown any signs of being all that affected by these revelations anyhow. By the time Sonic Battle rolls around (which obviously takes place after ShTH), Eggman's pretty much remained completely unchanged. Because he ultimately doesn't care. Moving on.

"Eggman is completely incapable of forming a solid plan."

This is, by far, one of the most flat-out untrue things I've heard regarding Eggman as a character, especially from a writer on an officially licensed SEGA product who should know better. It seems to me that every single example people use to support this... miss the point/context of each plan entirely. Even when Eggman's schemes don't always work out exactly as planned, Eggman is perfectly capable of adapting to a situation and turning the tide in his favor despite what Ian Flynn thinks. I'm so tempted be a complete smart-ass, just saying that the mere existence of Sonic Forces completely slaps this claim in the face, and leave it at that... but, I might as well address the more common examples of this argument (aka Ian Flynn's statements) rapid-fire;

1) "He blows up the Master Emerald to release Chaos just to feed him more Chaos Emeralds. He doesn't know what's its going to do, aside from giving it more power that he'll assume will be able to control. And we all saw how that went."

Yes he does? The man's read the stone tablets cover-to-cover; Eggman even blurts out that Chaos transforming was predicted by said stone monuments. Plus, even in the event that Chaos would've gotten out of control (which did happen), Eggman himself built a second Egg Carrier because he did consider the possibility! True, it didn't work against Perfect Chaos, but the fact remains that Eggman had a contingency plan. We saw how it went. Did you?

2) "He throws a missile into the heart of Station Square and went to manually detonate it because it didn't explode on impact. Didn't really think how far ahead that was gonna go!"

...yeah, this claim's bogus. This was Eggman's Plan B. You can choose to ignore gameplay/story segregation and say that Eggman's interference in the Chaos 6 fight was what put Chaos out of commission... and that simply wouldn't be a convincing argument because I can use that same logic and say that Eggman suicide-diving at Sonic in the Egg Viper fight was a highly effective move against him (still turning the situation into his favor).

3) "He single-handedly tears through G.U.N. facilities to grab Project Shadow, and he has no idea what it is. He just knows is a thing that he wants."

Okay, I never once thought SA2's plot was all that special, and even I know this is completely misinformed. Eggman storms Prison Island to procure Project Shadow because he had read documents about it in Gerald's diary (which literally has the old man goading whoever reads it to release Shadow into the world; Rouge herself surmises this). Eggman stumbling across Gerald's notes is what piqued his curiosity. Did we play the same game, per chance?

4) "Sonic Unleashed, he blows up the planet and throws Sonic and the Emeralds through the airlocks, except, oops, he needed those!"

Except, actually, no he didn't; he still was able to make his plan work just fine without them. Again, turning the situation around to work in his own favor; rolling with the punches and adapting to the situation.

5) "So no, Eggman never-ever has a solid plan. It's always a big execution, but he never settles on the details."

That's a funny way of saying you think that, because Eggman's plans tend to fail due to not being psychic enough to account for every possible scenario, Eggman himself is completely incapable of cognitive function. You know it's bad when even TVTropes calls you out on missing this much. Again, games like Sonic Forces exist.

"The Sonic franchise would be much more interesting if Eggman were replaced as the main villain by Mephiles/Scourge/Insert Evil Hedgehog OC here"

HahahahaHA, no. No, it wouldn't. What're you on about?

Really, what makes Eggman so effective as a villain is that the doc isn't some deity with otherworldly powers (Sonic 3 notwithstanding), nor is he a talking animal like Sonic or the rest of his friends. He's just a (relatively) normal human, and the only thing resembling a super-power that he has, apart from his absurd intellect, is his uncanny ability to cheat death. the series just can't really function without these two at each other's throats. Meta-textually, it's because Eggman's basically the Joker to Sonic's Batman. Whether the fanbase and Ian Flynn wants to accept it or not, Eggman's the main antagonist of the franchise, and like the titular hero, he's not going anywhere until the series actually comes to an end (which is not very likely to happen with a long-running franchise like Sonic). And, to steal an example from my GF, "Why watch/produce an entire Tom & Jerry series if you could only have Tom OR Jerry in it?"

"Sonic is all about giving second chances. This is why he never has it in him to out-and-out kill characters like Eggman or even Metal Sonic."

One of the more annoying ones I've seen. Just playing through the Storybook series alone is proof enough that Sonic is definitely not above ending a villain's life if he deems it necessary. And, believe it or not, he actually does more often than not. Biggest examples of this being characters like Void, Erazor Djinn, "King Arthur", and even Merlina.

Void was a lonely soul wandering the realm of Maginaryworld (yes, I know; dumb name). The dude was causing all sorts of trouble for this newfound dreamworld, to the point where Lumina was dead-set on making sure Void is dealt with. Sonic, in this case, did indeed have the power and the means to end Void's life; he could've done it... but (along with Amy, Knuckles and Tails) chose not to, as Void's very existence is necessary for Maginaryworld to keep itself running. As it turns out, Void is an entity born from negative emotions like sadness, emptiness, all that jazz. These negative emotions are exactly what cause dreams to occur in the first place (or at the very least, strengthens people's dreams), which in turn, keeps Maginaryworld around. Meaning that if Void is taken out of the equation, that means no more Maginaryworld. It eventually also turns out that Illumina was never kidnapped (nor was she even in any danger), as Lumina & Void are the two halves that compose Illumina. So, Sonic choosing to not kill Void here is a matter of necessity and pragmatism rather than any sort of blind "compassion".

Erazor Djinn, to put it simply, was a complete bastard through and through. He was a constant thorn in Sonic's side all throughout Secret Rings (both figuratively and literally). With how much of his dialogue is spent just taunting/belittling Sonic and Shahra, and with how little regard he treats Shahra with when she takes the bullet for Sonic (much like the hedgehog did for her at the beginning of the game), I can safely say that Sonic most certainly would've killed Erazor Djinn in a heartbeat if Erazor himself wasn't... y'know, literally immortal. Even that aside, he also still needed Erazor to grant Sonic's wishes with the lamp Erazor used to be bound to (and normally, I'd go into a tangent on how little sense this makes in context because it's Maekawa, but this essay is already getting long in the tooth).

Never mind the fact that Sonic was perfectly willing to violently de-horn the Mist Dragon (aka, the very first boss of Black Knight) and was not only perfectly fine with it, but also brags to Merlina about it; can we also bring up the fact that Sonic spends the entire game finding a way to kill "King Arthur", and has absolutely no reservations against attempting to slice a clearly depressed teenage girl into ribbons.

Contrary to popular belief, Sonic's never shown mercy to Eggman whatsoever. That whole Mr. Tinker fiasco in the IDW-verse might have been a perfectly fine exception because the Eggster legitimately (or maybe not-so?) did have amnesia, and punishing a once-evil man when he doesn't even remember a thing was quite a moral dilemma... but then, Sonic's negligence makes matters worse than they actually are. Sonic choosing to just let Metal Sonic go was a dumb decision any way you slice it because Sonic should've known that Metal Sonic is just as ruthless to the bone (or AI, I guess) with or without Eggman in the picture. Even if you want to argue that Starline was the one who threw a wrench in things, Sonic's still at fault here because he himself promised he would stop by Windmill Village regularly to check on Mr. Tinker. He apparently never lived up to his promise (which is already bad for a character like Sonic).

Frankly, the reason why Eggman continues to survive his scuffles with Sonic and friends isn't because they have some moral code against killing each other; Sonic and Eggman have attempted to do so multiple times. The actual reason (or reasons) being that Eggman has specialized in cheating death; he always come out relatively unscathed from scenarios that should've killed him millions of times over. And the reason why Sonic allows Eggman to concoct more of his schemes isn't because he's some "diet Spider-Man in a hedgehog suit", as much as I like to make the joke. It's never been that Sonic has never once attempted to kill Eggman before, because he most certainly has tried multiple times. It's actually because Sonic is a thrill-seeker who is just so confident in himself that he can handle anything the doc can possibly throw his way... because he always does.

I'm probably going to get crucified for this, but I'm just glad I finally got this out of my system.

#sonic series #sonic the hedgehog #dr eggman #sonic characters #character analysis

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blu-joons · 4 years ago

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DATING SEVENTEEN A⇴Z HEADCANON ⇴ Hansol Vernon Chwe

A ⇴ AFFECTION

Vernon is a big fan of affection, he’s big on cuddles and loves to hold your hand at any opportunity that he can. Affection is a good distraction for him when he wants to focus on something else, often focusing on your hands instead.

B ⇴ BEFORE DATING

You’d met by sheer coincidence when you accidentally walked into the wrong room on your first day at Pledis. Luckily, Vernon was on hand to lead you back into the right direction, but not before he’d also slipped his number into your pocket, just in case you ended up getting lost again and needed him to help you out.

C ⇴ CONFESSION

Confessing to you left Vernon terrified for quite some time, for a while you’d sensed that something had been off with him whenever the two of you met up. You tried to push it to one side, but eventually, on one evening together, you just had to ask him what was going on. The plan that he did have to confess was thrown out of the window as he told you there and then what had been really going on in his mind.

D ⇴ DATES

Your dates are often spent watching movies, either at the dorm or the theatre. You know all too well how much Vernon loves franchises, and with that, the two of you have a lot of movie marathons. You’ll be bundled underneath your duvets all day with plenty of snacks in between you both whilst you watch whatever Vernon has usually chosen. Even if he’s watched the movies a thousand times before, he’ll never say no to watching it again, especially now he’s got you for company to join him too.

E ⇴ EXPERIENCE

The whole dating experience made Vernon very nervous, he was worried about putting his foot wrong or making a mistake. It took him a while to really feel comfortable around you and trust in himself too to do the right thing. He put a lot of thought into even the smallest things that he did, and even though there were times when he was easy going, he never wanted that to be mistaken as not caring. If anything, Vernon cared too much about making sure that his first relationship was as perfect as he hoped.

F ⇴ FIGHTING

Arguments between the two of you weren’t very common, these were the times when Vernon’s easy-going personality really came to the forefront. If you had a grumble or complaint, he’d listen and work on it, still with a smile on his face. It takes a tremendous lot for you to push his buttons to a point where he wants to argue with you. There are times when he feels like he has to bite his tongue, but he acknowledges that arguing is natural between couples, and that he’s far from perfect. Once you’ve told him what the problem is, he’ll never fail to fix it right away so the two of you can move on.

G ⇴ GETTING TO KNOW HIS FAMILY

You were welcomed very quickly into his family, especially by his sister. She loved having another girl around who could wind Vernon up which certainly helped with integrating you into the family. As happy as Vernon was to see the two of you getting along, he was still bitter that the two of you constantly teased him.

H ⇴ HOME

The two of you spent a lot of time in his room at the dorm, enjoying your own space. Vernon wasn’t huge on finding a place of your own just yet, but as soon as you’d begin to weigh up a few options about what you could do in the future, he’d definitely be open to starting to do a bit of house hunting with you.

I ⇴ “I LOVE YOU”

You were the first to say, ‘I love you,’ when Vernon returned from his first tour. You never imagined that home could become such a quite place, but not having him around really took you by surprise. As soon as you saw him, you just couldn’t help but blurt those three little words out before Vernon even had the chance to say, ‘I’m home!’

J ⇴ JEALOUSY

Being jealous wasn’t something that Vernon tended to experience, he trusted a lot in people, and most of all, in you. The biggest sign you’d normally get when something wasn’t quite right, would be his smile dropping. He would never say anything to anyone, but as soon as the two of you are alone and you ask him what’s going on, he’ll tell you, and you, only. It’s not something he likes in himself, and he tries hard to brush any situations that make him jealous aside like they’re nothing. But he’s human, and he knows there are times when jealousy can’t be helped.

K ⇴ KIDS

Starting a family was something Vernon often thought about when he was with you. Whenever the two of you began to talk about the future, his mind would naturally wonder to begin to think about children. It was a topic that he was very nervous to bring up around you, because if you started talking about children, Vernon wouldn’t be able to stop, he’d surprise you often by how well planned out his future was.

L ⇴ LAUGHTER

If there’s one person around you who can be guaranteed to always be wearing a smile, it’s Vernon. If you ever see him without a smile, then you know something’s wrong. He knows he’s cute too, and aegyo is definitely a good friend of his when he wants to try and put a smile on your face. He loves to joke around and make the most out of his time with you, and best of all, he loves ticklish. If Vernon is ever not smiling, your hands will be attacking his waist in an instant as you know it’s the best solution. He’ll try and fight you off, but he’ll be too lost in his laughter to even try and be able to put up just a bit of a fight.

M ⇴ MISSING

Being on the road is hard for him, whilst he’ll wear a smile around every single member of the crew and the team, his eyes will often tell a different story. There’ll be plenty of moments where he’ll end up drifting out of conversation because he finds himself thinking about you, and not paying attention to what he’s being told. Whilst the boys will never make him feel bad about missing you, they’ll often encourage him to go and ring you if he needs it. They know that he wants to protect the group when he misses you, but as with so many other things, he’s human, and he can’t keep up the smile forever, even if he wants too.

N ⇴ NICKNAMES

You’ll often shorten his name to ‘vern,’ when you want him, if he ever hears you call him ‘Vernon,’ then he’ll be pretty certain that he’s done something wrong. His full name is usually only ever used when you’re angry at him.

O ⇴ OBSESSION

He’s obsessed with your hands, his favourite time is when they’re drawing patterns around his body which he can focus on, to forget about the outside world.

P ⇴ PDA

Affection in public isn’t something that Vernon does often, he’ll often get incredibly shy, even if he’s just holding your hand. He’ll often find himself being put in articles with blushed cheeks because a pap has photographed a photo of the two of you, he just can’t help but getting incredibly flushed when he’s around you.

Q ⇴ QUESTIONS

He can be quite a deep thinker at times, so he’ll often ask you questions to get yourselves into pretty deep discussions. The topics are often very random, but Vernon loves unfolding them and exploring so much about them too.

R ⇴ RANDOM FACTS

Having family split between South Korea and America is hard for him, he barely ever has the time to visit them. Whenever he gets a break in his schedule, the two of you end up playing a game of rock, paper, scissors to decide which members of his family you’ll visit that time. He can never choose between the two sides, so he much prefers to leave it to fate to see where the two of you end up travelling to.

S ⇴ SEX

He’ll often get very shy during intimacy, the close proximity between the two of you will make his heart flutter uncontrollably. Vernon will love when he can feel your hands around his body, they’re always very warm and comforting to him. It’s often a very romantic time, Vernon puts a lot of thought into things, he’s not one for a quick fix, he likes to take his time and make sure that it’s always special for you.

T ⇴ TEXTS

Throughout the day you’ll often receive texts from Vernon just to see how you are. His mind will often wonder to you whenever he has a moment free, and so naturally, he’ll text you too to let you know you’re in his thoughts.

U ⇴ UNIVERSE

Even though everyone knows him as the cute member of the group, even the rest of the members have never seen Vernon as shy as he is when he’s around you. He just can’t help but get nervous whenever he’s around you.

V ⇴ VACATION

If there’s ever free time, then it will be spent visiting family. When the two of you aren’t visiting either side of his family, you’ll be visiting your own. Vernon makes sure to make time for your family too whenever he has free time, he wants you to see your loves ones just as much as he wants to go and see his own.

W ⇴ WHINING

Vernon isn’t someone that will whine, if he wants your attention then he’ll usually just go very quiet and not be able to meet your eye.

X ⇴ XXXXX

Just like his hugs, his kisses are very frequent too. Whenever he looks away from you because he’s getting shy, you’ll be right beside him, kissing against his red cheeks until he looks at you again. If he refuses, you’ll throw in a few tickles too until he’s kissing you back. Kisses from you are definitely a weakness for Vernon, no matter how shy, mad, unhappy, or moody he is, just a couple of kisses from you will do the trick and brighten the mood.

Y ⇴ YOU

You were his weakness; he was completely infatuated with you.

Z ⇴ ZZZ

Together you’d always fall asleep close together, he’d often be the big spoon as he liked to hold you against his chest and be the one to keep you safe. For you, falling asleep over his heart is always a comfort too.

---

Masterlist

#seventeen #seventeen imagine #vernon #vernon imagine #hansol vernon chwe #hansol vernon chwe imagine #seventeen reaction #seventeen scenario #seventeen vernon #seventeen drabble #seventeen one shot #seventeen fluff #vernon scenario #vernon reaction #vernon one shot #vernon drabble #vernon fluff #kpop #kpop imagine

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 4 years ago

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Lila Rossi: I’d Say She’s a Good Villain, but Then I’d Be Lying (300 Follower Special)

Deception and cunning are easily two of the most important traits an antagonist could have. It shows that even if they don't have the strength to overcome obstacles, their wit is more than enough. This kind of trait is why characters like Lex Luthor, David Xanatos, and Princess Azula are so beloved, simply because of how intelligent they can be as villains and pose a real threat to the heroes.

It's clear that the Miraculous Ladybug writers want Lila to be seen as this, but the writing seriously fails to back that claim up.

Easily one of the most controversial characters in Miraculous Ladybug is Lila, mainly for the writing surrounding her. But there was a time where she was actually more of an ambiguous character, mainly for the lack of screentime she had until Season 3. But unfortunately, the more appearances she's had have painted a very poor portrait of an antagonist.

Lila's Tragic and Sympathetic Motivation for Hating Ladybug

Lila's first appearance was at the tail end of Season 1, “Volpina”. She was a new transfer student from Italy, and quickly made friends with a lot of her classmates for the lies she told, including being friends with Ladybug (which Alya blindly believed without doing any research like any excellent journalist). But because of how close she was getting to Adrien, Marinette, in a rare act of selfishness, transforms into Ladybug just to chew out Lila for lying about knowing her, humiliating her in front of Adrien. And this is the only motivation we get for what Lila does afterwards.

I'm not saying that it's wrong for Lila to get upset at Ladybug for doing this, and I like the moment of weakness Marinette has, but this is literally the only explanation we get for Lila deciding to side with Hawkmoth, a literal terrorist. As much as I hated the way the arc turned out, I could still understand Chloe siding with Hawkmoth, as it was clear that Hawkmoth was manipulating her and taking advantage of her ego. Lila? Ladybug's mean to her one time, and that inspires her to conspire with a complete stranger who brainwashes people to attack the city, which endangers innocent people and causes God knows how much in collateral damage if not for Miraculous Ladybug fixing everything.

I just don't get how a single negative interaction with someone is enough to conspire with a literal supervillain. Even in Season 3, when Marinette and Lila truly became enemies, it was because she risked exposing all the lies she told, which could damage her reputation. Sure, it's petty, but it makes sense for Lila to want to keep up the illusion. If she was simply an antagonist to Marinette in her civilian life like Chloe was before “Miracle Queen” , I'd be fine with that, but the writers clearly want her to be seen as on the same level of evil as Hawkmoth. I'll get into why that doesn't work later on.

Why Lila is an Excellent Liar

In my Master Fu analysis, I had pointed out that despite all the flaws he had, the narrative insisted on portraying him as an incredibly wise mentor. The same problem applies for Lila as well. We're supposed to see Lila as an expert manipulator and liar, but her lies are insultingly obvious. She always claims to be friends with celebrities and does all these awesome things, and in an age where we can have almost any question answered thanks to the internet, nobody ever stops to question her.

It's even more frustrating when you hear Lila talk about saving Jagged Stone's cat, when Jagged Stone is established to be very fond of Marinette (evidentially more than his own daughter), and nobody ever points that out. I think if Lila's lies were more stories about her travels around the world than outright lies about real people, it could have worked. It'd still be hard to believe, but it's something.

But this is a problem with writing shows aimed at children. As much as we hate writers who need to spell out things to kids, sometimes, they just don't understand some of the media they consume. Seriously, I never got this joke in SpongeBob as a kid, and I can't believe Nickelodeon actually approved this.

youtube

So the dilemma when writing a show with children in mind is finding that sweet spot between assuming your audience can figure it out, but not being too vague in your details. It's even harder when you need to find a way to convey the fact that someone is lying without being too obvious. Unfortunately, the show clearly fails to do that

Okay, this is going to sound like an incredibly weird thing to cite, and I only know about it because I used to know someone who was a huge fan of the franchise, but the movie Monster High: Friday Night Frights does a better job of subtly explaining to the audience that a character is lying. Please, just hear me out.

The movie follows the main characters competing in their high school's roller derby for the season after everyone on the usual team gets injured, and the championship match is against another school whose team tends to cheat to win matches. How they manage to do this without getting caught is anyone's guess. While the main characters are practicing, their coach, Clawd, notices a spy for the enemy team taking video of them to study their moves. In response, he calls over one of the athletes, Operetta, to chew her out for her showboating attitude. In reality, he's alerting her to the spy. Only using facial expressions, he clues her, and by extension, the audience, in on the fact that they know what the opposing team is trying to do.

This soon leads to Operetta pretending to tell the enemy team about their secret plan for the championship match, which was really an attempt to outsmart them to gain the advantage in the final stretch. The brilliance of this is how the audience is informed of this with no dialogue, and there's no scene afterwards spelling it out for those who don't get it. It manages to convey deception without being too obvious that Clawd and Operetta are being deceitful.

I think if there were more subtle hints to show the audience Lila was lying, she would be seen in a better light. As it is, Lila's lies are just pathetic, and it's ridiculous that everyone believes her. Which leads me to...

Lila, the Master Manipulator

I once read a Star Trek: Voyager fanfic that poked fun at the series by claiming that the reason a lot of the dumber episodes like “Threshold” and “Twisted” happened was because one of the crew members was an alien who unintentionally produced mood altering pheromones, with Captain Janeway actually realizing they were all high because of said pheromones, while two of the unaffected crew members were wondering what the hell they were doing before they found out the cause. Why do I bring this up? Sometimes, it feels like Lila is an unintentional parallel to the alien in that story.

Like so many characters, it's clear the show desperately wants the audience to view Lila in a certain way, but her actions do very little to actually back up that claim. When she's not using lies to tell stories about so many famous people she knows like her uncle who works for Nintendo, Lila is using strategies to manipulate everyone that are so obviously deceptive, the Thermians could pick up on them. Everyone and their mother knows how ridiculous a lot of what Lila does in episodes like “Chameleon” and “Ladybug” are, and I've talked about them before, so I'll try to be quick.

First off, as someone who had access to accommodations through high school and has had assistance in college so far, there is no way in hell that Ms. Bustier should take Lila's tinnitus at face value in “Chameleon”. If a student has a disability that could interfere with the education process, physical or developmental, not only does the school have to evaluate their performance, and determine if they're eligible for an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, but her teachers would have to be notified in the first place. As her primary educator, Ms. Bustier would be part of the team to oversee Lila's IEP and determine what accommodations she needs to help her learn better with her tinnitus and arthritis. But because the writers don't know what Google is, they just ignore it, assume that Lila can just say she has a disability, and have everyone believe it. Even when Eric Cartman pretended to be disabled to compete in the Special Olympics, he put in more effort to look the part, even if he looked like a caricature.

Then there's the fact that that in “Chameleon”, everyone just believes Lila when she says Marinette stole her grandmother's necklace when not only is said necklace from the Agreste line of jewelry, but Alya, who is Rena Rouge, can't pick up on the fact that it's a fake. All she does to justify these lies is come up with a sob story about how nobody believes her, yet nobody ever tries to defend Marinette except Alya one time, and it was after she got expelled.

Or what about in “Oni-Chan”, where Lila thinks having Kagami kill Ladybug while claiming she'll back away from Adrien is a good idea? Let's say Oni-Chan does kill Ladybug or at least take away her Miraculous, what then? We know Lila wouldn't go through with this promise, and as soon as Kagami sees her harassing Adrien, she'll be ripe for akumatization again. Overall, not a great plan.

And yet somehow, this last example is what made her worthy enough to become one of Hawkmoth's most trusted agents. I'm just going to say it: Lila is not a good fit for the power of illusion. Whenever she's Volpina or Chameleon, she always goes out of her way to make a big show instead of being subtle with her deceptions. “Chameleon” is the worst offender, as even though Lila gets the power to shapeshift into someone else, instead of being discreet and cornering people into kissing them and gaining their appearance, she just runs around to get Ladybug's attention instead of being subtle. Even Felix had the bright idea to pretend to be Adrien to catch Ladybug off guard. How do you lose to something that happened in “Felix”?

Despite all of these screw-ups, we're still supposed to see her as this master of deception worthy of allying with Hawkmoth in both his supervillain and civilian form, when really, she's a terrible liar on the schoolyard and on the battlefield.

Why Lila is an Important Character

In the grand scheme of things, Lila just isn't as important of a character that the show loves to parade her around as. She's nothing more than a plot device used to raise the stakes in an episode, given how much reality seems to bend over just to accommodate for her lies. Even when the show alludes to her being part of bigger things, like her deal with Adrien, or her rivalry with Marinette, they don't even go anywhere.

She just feels pointless when you remember Astruc's brilliant idea to force Chloe into being the final Akuma for the season while Lila isn't even mentioned once. She only really makes appearances whenever the writers feel like it, which is why it’s hard to take her seriously. Why should I take this character seriously as a threat if the writers refuse to take her seriously as a threat? Why build Lila up as a big threat and not give her a major role in the finale? Why even include her in the show in the first place when you could show Chloe being more manipulative to fill in the plots Lila plays a big part in?

As of the time I am writing this analysis, four episodes of Season 4 have aired, three of them have been about lies or deception, and Lila hasn't been mentioned at all. It honestly seems like she won't appear unless the writers need a easy way to drive up the conflict, so they can justify it by saying that Lila's “superpower” of lying is more powerful than the common sense of everyone else.

I'm sorry this post was shorter than the last one, but compared to Master Fu, there's not that much to say about Lila that I haven't already said. Even the show barely gives her any attention, so it's hard for me to really find a lot to talk about.

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un2-verse · 4 years ago

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BILLY — Kim Taehyung (3)

Synopsis: News of a Sadistic Serial Killer nicknamed “Jigsaw” is spreading around town like wildfire… the nickname stemming from the puzzle piece he cuts from every victim’s body. No one knows who he’ll trap next but in a town full of delinquents and criminals, it could never be you. Right?

Pairing: yandere!Taehyung x f!reader

genre: angst, horror, weirdly some fluff lol

Warnings: dark themes, yandere, stalking, manipulation, conditioning, mentions of abuse, suicidal ideations/attempts, self harm, murder, depictions of torture etc (basically its gorey and fucked up), angel trap, etc stabbing and guns. do not read if triggered!!!!

wordcount: 2.2k

taglist: @yes-sol-not-soul @yoongiofmine

a/n: pt 3 is here!! honestly i wasnt expecting this amount of support as i’ve never published my writing before so thank u sm ♡ i was inspired to write this one night and i had no idea where it’d go or anything but i’m happy with the way its turning out :D fun fact abt me, i’ve been obsessed w the franchise since i was little and i actually have 2 saw tattoos, one of billy and one above saying “cherish your life” since that’s pretty much the motto of saw :) and i have quite the collection of saw/billy items so why not turn my fav horror film into a fucked up love story! let me know if u would like to be added to the taglist and pls enjoy reading^^ feel free to send me asks abt the series or anything u want~ i love hearing from u guys!! :D ps— taehyung and the reader dont have much interaction in this part,, theyll definitely be more of them together in part 4 :) unedited so pls excuse any mistakes!! tysm <33 and remember these are fictional characters and do not represent bts personally in any way!!

series masterlist

part one part two

The headlines constantly named the Jigsaw Killer, Billy. The somewhat eerie little doll that had a face as white as a Calla Lily with spirals on it’s cheeks as red as the blood that was shed during the tests. Billy was always dressed in a little black suit with a red bowtie and he was (most of the time) situated on a squeaky battered tricycle. Attached was always a tape that read “play me” and when the subjects did, a chilling voice— one that could make even the world's worst predators shiver with terror— would echo around the room.

Everyone knew that a doll clearly wasn’t responsible, yet they gave it the name Billy in hopes to somewhat humanise the face that instilled panic— they did not want to live in fear.

It was the only face behind the killings.

But this time, there was a different subject stuck in the test and Billy had made sure there was no way for them to survive.

“How are you scared of heights? You’re practically a giant yourself!”

“Just because I’m tall doesn’t mean I can’t be scared of heights Y/Nie.”

You had no idea how long had passed since Taehyung had turned up at the garage, you were too busy chatting away squeezed into the kitchen while your Dad, Yoongi and Hobi worked on the cars in the shop. If anyone could hear you both, they would think you’d known eachother since childhood— the playful jokes and light touches exaggerated that.

You’d only known him for a few hours really, if you added the time spent with him on the first day and now. It hadn’t seemed like all those weeks ago that you first met, he had a familiar presence, as though you had known him for years compared to the hours.

“I just wouldn’t imagine you to be scared of anything Taehyung… you seem so confident and fearless.”

You saw the way Taehyung looked at you. His eyes flashed with understanding.

“I did have my fears back then, much like yours.”

“What do you mean?” you had a rough idea on what he meant but you needed him to voice it.

A deep inhale and the words flowed from his lips before he could stop it, “The fear of living. I had been through some stuff you know, growing up. My mum was working a lot and my dad was an alcoholic, he was so fucking possessive and wouldn’t let her go anywhere without kicking off. It was a fucking shitshow and so toxic. This one time though, I’d pretended that I’d gone to school and waited outside the front door. It didn’t take long before I heard shit getting smashed and my dad shouting.” Taehyung was telling the truth only, he left out the part where he was also as possessive, if not more, than his father. Well, let's say… obsessive. “I just ran in the house and saw my dad towering over my mum and I don’t remember what happened but, I do remember my mum crying and my dad disappeared.”

Now Taehyung was lying through his teeth. He remembered clearly, almost like it was yesterday. He smashed the nearest bottle, pulled his mother away from the monster that scared her and stabbed him. Not just once, not twice but thirty-seven times. Hence the thirty seven tattoo on the palm of his right hand (the one he’d actually killed his father with). There was only Taehyung who knew what it meant, he counted every single time the broken glass pierced his father’s body, he counted with a smile on his face and a chuckle in his throat.

You were at a loss for words. Your mouth gaped in shock, eyes wide and your brain scrambled for the right thing to say. You reached over and grabbed his hand, interlacing your fingers. His thumb running back and forth along your hand. “I’m sorry, I can’t imagine what that must’ve been like.” There was no way you could relate, your mother and father were happy and in love. They had the ideal relationship, one you wished for yourself. You could empathise though.

“You don’t need to be sorry baby, it’s in the past and I’ve moved on from it. I was like you though, poisoned by the roots that keep you on the ground even though you wanted nothing more than to break free and be no longer.” A silence fell over you both before Taehyung uttered, “I wasn’t successful with my attempt so now I’m here to help you.”

Warmth spread throughout your body, a smile graced your features as you no longer felt alone.

You had a completely different idea to what those words actually meant.

It was nearing the evening when Taehyung’s car had been fixed. Yoongi popped his head in the kitchen to tell him but stopped himself so as to not interrupt the scene before him. You were laughing along to whatever Taehyung was babbling about with your hand resting on his bicep, with that look in your eyes that he hadn’t seen for years. Yoongi felt himself smile as he saw you hanging onto Taehyung's every word.

For the first time in forever, you looked alive.

Yoongi cleared his throat which drew yours and Taehyung’s attention, “Sorry to interrupt guys. We’ve finished with your car so whenever you’re ready we’ll be outside.” The infamous gummy smile overtook his features, you felt yourself beam in return.

“Thanks man! I’ll be like, five minutes.”

Yoongi nodded his head in reply and swiftly left the room.

You’d taken Tae’s hand into yours, playing with the array of rings that occupied his fingers. Solemn thoughts overtook, am I not gonna see him again? Was this, whatever this is, over before it had even begun? Your eyes stayed on his hand as you turned it over and traced your finger over the inked ‘thirty seven’ on his palm. “What does this mean?”

Taehyung didn’t think twice before he practically beamed out, “It’s my lucky number.”

The difference was, it wasn’t really his lucky number… although he did see it that way. It was the number that had stayed with him. It was something he was proud of, whenever he looked at the hand that killed his father, his chest filled with pride and a joyous feeling overtook his senses. It was his first murder. Something he relished in and thus, created the onslaught of Jigsaw killings. He targeted a certain type— those whose sins would lock them up forever if they were ever found out. Racists, murderers, rapists, drug dealers, con-men. Authoritative figures who abused their power. He even went as far as subjecting suicidal people.

You see, things aren’t sequential. Good doesn’t lead to good, nor bad to bad. People who steal, don’t get caught, they live the good life. Others lie, cheat and get elected.

Some people would call it karma but Taehyung, he called it justice.

He’d started this with one thing on his mind— those that don’t appreciate life do not deserve it.

Whenever a serial killer was on the loose, the press did what they always did. They gave them a nickname. While the public had named the doll Billy. The actual killer was named ‘Jigsaw’.

This stemmed from the jigsaw piece that was cut from the victims skin, no one knew why he was doing it or what it even stood for.

It did have a meaning although unknown to the public.

The jigsaw piece that was cut from the subjects was only ever meant to be a symbol that that subject was missing something. A vital piece of the human puzzle. The survival instinct.

After all, until a person is faced with death, it’s impossible to tell whether they have what it takes to survive.

Across town an underground abandoned warehouse, was where the next subject had found themselves.

They were suspended in the air, their feet merely dangling above the ground. The putrid smell of death lingered in every crevice, the sound of rats scurrying along the concrete floor filled their ears just as they began to stir awake.

A pain in their ribs was the overwhelming factor to them finally coming around. When they groggily opened their eyes, they were paralised with fear due to the scene in front of them.

A doll sat a few feet ahead, perched upon a tricycle. Adorned with a black suit and a red bowtie. A slow red light flashed in his eyes.

Billy.

Before the subject could even register how, when or why they found themselves trapped in a test, footsteps echoed behind them. The subject called out, “Help! Please, somebody help! I shouldn’t be here!”

A tsk reached their ears, as a disembodied voice replied, “Trust me, no one can hear you. Scream all you like. You’d just be wasting your breath, you may as well cherish it before it's gone.”

With hairs stood on end, the subject stilled. “What do you want from me?”

“I don’t want anything from you.” The man's footsteps grew louder. “I’m here to serve justice, that’s all.”

The man rounded the subject, settling in their view with only his cloaked back visible while he tended to the little doll. He touched Billy delicately—like he was a little child that he loved dearly. He combed his gloved hand through the doll's black hair and eventually pulled his fingers from the tresses to pat his head gently.

“You fucking psycho! Let me go!”

He couldn’t help but laugh at that which only infuriated the subject more causing them to shake in anger, a movement they soon ceased when they realised something was penetrating their ribs.

“I’d be very careful if I was you, we wouldn’t want you hurting yourself now… would we?” The cloaked figure spun around. An angry glint to his eye.

“What the fuck, you’re fucking crazy. Let me out, this isn’t right!” The subject tried their hardest to swing their legs, to somehow kick the man who’d imprisoned them.

“I think you’ll find it is right. You’re unworthy of the body you possess.” He inched closer, “see, when someone purposely intends to harm others, they lose their right to life.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

The man arched a brow as he replied, “Don’t play dumb. You know exactly what I’m talking about.” He felt like it was a game of cat and mouse except, he was a tiger and his subject, was the tiniest prey to mankind. “But, let me remind you! Since you can’t get your thick fucking head to work. You’re a liar, a cheater and an abuser. That ring any bells?”

The subject's face dropped.

“Ah, I see by your expression you know exactly what I’m talking about! Glad to see we’re on the same page.” He shrugged his cloak off placing it to the side of the doll. “I want to play a game.”

“What game? This isn’t a fucking game! You’re sick in the head you fucking cunt!”

The atmosphere shifted, the man remained calm while the subject went ballistic.

“What is this? What fucking game?”

“You feel the machine that’s currently occupying your ribs? Well, in about ten minutes that’s going to rip you apart. I’m proud to say that trap is my baby. I’ve been working on it especially for you! How nice is that?” he reached out to tug at the subject’s legs, tormenting them like a cat would a mouse. “Anyway, as my beautiful angel trap will rip you apart, my darling little friend Billy over here,” the subject followed the direction the man's hand pointed, “is going to match your face with the ugliness of your soul.”

“Fuck, fuck this! How do I stop it? Tell me how I fucking stop it!”

A boxy grin overtook the man's face, laughter poured from his mouth as he leaned over and slapped the subject’s leg. “This is a special game.”

“Who are you? What do you mean by ‘special game’?”

He raised himself so he stood tall and grabbed a knife from his pocket, “I’m the man you call Jigsaw.” He traced the tip of the knife along the subject’s ankle, “and when I say a special game… I mean you can’t get out.” While the subject was screaming in realisation, Taehyung walked back for his cloak, hung it over his shoulder and stalked off back the way he came. He sent one last smile to the subject as he rounded them and within the blink of an eye, he gripped the knife and slashed the subject’s achilles.

A chilling scream pierced the eerie atmosphere, the subject couldn’t string words together. Abundances of anxiety, terror and pure panic took reign of their body. Taehyung grabbed the injured muscles and forced his gloved fingers in as he gripped and twisted them, “That’s for Y/N.”

Taehyung had pressed the timer before he cut the subject’s tendons. He grabbed the tape from his pocket and threw it on the ground and with a chuckle he shouted, “Game over!”

Before he reached the end of the hallway, he heard the gunshots pierce his subjects face followed by the sound of the angel trap, even this far away Taehyung heard every crack of the ribs and the noise of the body being tore apart.

Without looking back, Taehyung rounded the corner and slammed the door shut.

He’d chosen the Angel trap for the irony, the subject that was currently hanging from the ceiling was no angel. They were a fucked up, evil, waste of space. Taehyung had done the world a favour, he’d done you a favour.

That got him thinking, how much blood would you shed in order to stay alive?

[a/n: who do we think was in the trap???👀]

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shihalyfie · 4 years ago

Text

A meta and analysis on Yagami Taichi

Being the face of Adventure and arguably the rest of the franchise, Taichi has the honor of being an important figure in the realm of shounen anime overall, which has the unfortunate side effect of very often being described with things that don’t actually match him at all -- the way people often talk about him (especially mainstream press) tends to portray him like a stereotypical shounen hero who charges aggressively into everything and is hot-blooded all of the time. That’s not...quite on the mark.

I think “impulsive” is certainly a correct way to describe him, but in a very different way than one might think -- and, in fact, Taichi is much more of a multifaceted character than he’s often pigeonholed as. How? Well, let’s talk about it!

Taichi in Adventure

The main reason it’s probably incorrect to call Taichi “hot-blooded” by nature is that, in actuality, he is far more often too chill than otherwise. It’s not that he aggressively charges into everything without any rhyme or reason! Rather, it’s more like he takes everything very easily and has a “don’t worry about it!” attitude.

In fact, I think our friend the Animation Chronicle explains it better than I can:

If he doesn’t know/understand something, he acts while he tries to figure it out...

So in other words, rather than our conventional version of “being impulsive” meaning beelining to the most aggressive possible action, rather, it’s more like “the first thing that pops into his head” -- even if it’s a fairly easygoing or relatively harmless-seeming solution, he just goes for it because it sounds like it’ll work and he doesn’t see any reason why not.

That said, it’s also made abundantly clear by multiple sources that his ideas do come with some kind of consideration:

From the Animation Chronicle: “He appears to move with reckless abandon, but he actually does take in his surroundings and he takes good care of his juniors in the soccer club.”

From the Adventure novels: “Taichi treated everyone without discrimination, as equals. That attitude of his didn’t change, even towards Koushiro. If Taichi hadn’t invited him, Koushiro was sure that he would have never gone to summer camp.”

Sora and Koushirou even back this up personally in Adventure episode 16, when Koushirou points out that Taichi had always been kind to his juniors, and Sora recalls an incident when he’d foregone an opportunity to score a goal because he’d known Sora was more likely to pull it off successfully.

So in other words, Taichi is, fundamentally speaking, not someone who does things for personal glory, but does want to work for other people’s sake. It’s just that, in trying to carry that out, he has a tendency to default to the first thing that pops into his head. Or in other words, Taichi’s primary way of thinking is “act first and figure out the details later” -- and this has both good and bad things about it.

Firstly, the fact that Taichi has such an “action-first” philosophy means that he’s capable of acting very practically in situations when others would freeze up. A very good example of this is Adventure episode 21; after angsting for half an episode considering quitting the fighting and enjoying his life at home, the moment he realizes that everyone else will be in danger if he leaves everyone be, he immediately instinctively steps in to help everyone. It’s not necessarily that Taichi doesn’t feel the stress or danger of fighting; it’s just that when he sees the practical impact of people he cares about getting hurt in front of him, all bets are off, because he needs to help people now.

The second thing is that, as Koushirou points out, he’s very kind to his juniors, and people in general -- he doesn’t really pay much mind to things like seniority, and is more concerned about treating everyone in accordance to their practical capabilities. This means that he’s someone who has a certain sense of charisma, especially since he’s appreciative of people’s abilities.

This is best indicated in Adventure episode 28, when two important things about Taichi are brought to the forefront:

Taichi’s natural charisma and ability to appeal to people makes him someone good at “bringing people together” -- indicated by the fact that the group hadn’t taken long to completely fall apart after he’d momentarily departed in Adventure episode 20, but came back together after he’d rallied them. The Adventure kids, coming from rather different social circles and backgrounds, were not originally the type to stay together or be particularly tight with each other by default, and so, during the first half of the series when they still had ways to go in terms of having any kind of meaningful bond with each other, they were unconsciously dependent on the charismatic Taichi to keep them together.

Taichi is a “natural leader” in every sense -- “leader” meaning not only someone who pushes people forward, but also someone who recognizes others’ abilities and is willing to delegate rather than trying to do everything by himself. This was briefly demonstrated in Sora’s Adventure episode 16 flashback when she remembers that Taichi willingly gave up the opportunity for a goal when he understood she could do it better (it’s reflected in his soccer position, too), but also here in Adventure episode 28, he gives the task of solving the card puzzle to Koushirou because he (correctly) determines that Koushirou, not himself, is best equipped to do the job. Also note that the episode makes clear that everyone agrees to it specifically because Taichi appointed him to the position -- much like how “understanding everyone’s abilities and delegating properly” is an important and necessary skill for a leader, everyone trusts Taichi to make that decision, and therefore trusts in Koushirou because he was appointed by said well-informed decision.

So those are the good things about him. What about the drawbacks?

The first is that Taichi is, unfortunately, a little emotionally insensitive. He doesn’t mean badly, of course -- you can’t deny that his penchant for teasing or trolling people makes him quite a fun person to be around -- but he tends to lack a bit of emotional insight and is prone to crossing the line with his remarks. Again, this is a symptom of him being too chill about things at times; he tends to react with “what’s the big deal?!” -- a statement that one should absolutely not say when arguing with someone, and which tends to get Taichi in hot water, especially with Yamato.

While the trope of “the shounen hero and the cool rival often having friction” is quite common in anime like this, Adventure’s play on it is actually quite different from how it would usually be played elsewhere. In most other shounen anime, this kind of relationship would have to do with something like the hot-blooded protagonist wanting to charge in and the cool-headed person wanting to be more “rational” about it, but in Adventure, Taichi and Yamato are pit against each other due to reasons that have to do with emotions. Yamato, contrary to what his character archetype might suggest, is someone who’s openly passionate and emotional, and is also someone who goes out of his way to care about others and their welfare -- so he often gets into fights with Taichi because he perceives Taichi to be insensitive and not putting sufficient thought into the others.

Yamato’s reactions are certainly extreme -- Adventure episodes 9 very clearly depicts him as the one losing control of his emotions and escalating the argument with Taichi to a full-on fight, whereas Taichi wanted him to calm down -- but he’s not fundamentally wrong in that this is an aspect Taichi needs to improve about, because it is true that Taichi tends to take the first suggestion of “what’ll get something done” that pops into his head, but also has a problem of vastly underestimating how dangerous things might be.

Again -- and this is very important to stress -- it’s not that he doesn’t care about others, and it’s not that he’s unaware of the dangers around him or the potential for repercussions! As Sora says in Adventure episode 16, he is conscientious of his surroundings and aware of potential risks. He has always put thought into his actions, and he doesn’t just charge into things with no rhyme or reason. He just has an abysmally poor sense of judgment, because he’s so naturally chill that he thinks “it’ll be fine, don’t worry!” -- and thus starts stubbornly locking down on what he wants to do because he’s so sure it’ll be fine and that everyone (usually Yamato) is overreacting.

If you want a specific example about Taichi’s tendency to misjudge: in Adventure episode 9, Taichi and Yamato get in a fight when Yamato perceives Taichi as too insensitive about Takeru’s potential welfare, which weirds Taichi out because Yamato’s being awfully overprotective. On its face, it might seem hypocritical because we later find out in Adventure episode 48 that Taichi is just as overprotective of his own sister, but it’s important to note that in the relevant episode, Taichi states that he has to go out of his way because Hikari continually fails to vocalize whenever she’s hurt or in pain. This implies that Taichi sees Takeru as someone who’s clearly capable of taking care of himself because he expresses himself better (and thus, Taichi doesn’t understand why Yamato has to go out of his way for him). Indeed, Takeru ends up latching onto Taichi because he sees him as treating him with the independence that Yamato won’t -- but Takeru has his own very deep-seated emotional issues that he just happens to be very good at hiding, and while Taichi is certainly always looking out for Takeru, he never seemed to have become aware of this problem.

This difficulty in judgment leads into a certain pattern of behavior that Taichi exhibits that only comes up in very specific situations, but is so consistently depicted that it’s basically an inherent trait of his: what I call the “Yagami Taichi stress response”.

Taichi is the kind of selfless person who prioritizes others’ welfare over himself, and there are times when it will often fall into almost self-destructive levels. (This is a trait he actually shares with his sister, although the two of them naturally deal with it in very different ways.) His first priority is “helping everyone”, and especially “helping anyone who’s in trouble” (especially when it’s happening right in front of him). Which means that whenever he feels that others are depending on him for something, he ends up often taking too much responsibility for everyone’s welfare, and starts cracking under the pressure.

Because Taichi is the kind of person who prioritizes “action first” and figuring things out as they go along, this means that his reaction to stress is basically becoming a completely unfocused mess. Or, in other words, he lets the thought of but we have to do something!! completely consume his head, methodology be damned, and he starts panicking and doing everything in every which way to get it done, to the point he starts lashing out at others or becoming an emotional wreck because of the stress. The first time we see this is Adventure episode 16, where, being the only one with a working Crest and feeling that he and Agumon have the responsibility of protecting everyone, starts pushing himself and Agumon to carry everyone’s burdens, resulting in everything going wrong and the dark evolution to SkullGreymon at the end of the episode.

Again: It’s important to remember that, even at his “worst”, Taichi’s main priority is helping and protecting others, which means that his way of responding to that stress is basically determining that he’ll take all of the responsibility onto himself. That involves things like forcing himself to “work harder for everyone’s sake”, or becoming dangerously self-sacrificial, or at least allowing himself to become an emotional wreck because as much as he knows better, his one strongest thought is always we have to do something!!

Taichi exhibits more of this behavior in Adventure episodes 48 and 49, to the point he gets unusually aggressive with Koushirou (which is also explicitly pointed out as him not acting like his usual self) once he starts panicking about Hikari’s welfare. Again, note that all of this stems from we have to do something!! -- he basically starts panicking because despite Koushirou clearly doing the best he can, once things start going south, it’s just not enough.

So, speaking of things going south: because Taichi often misjudges situations, whenever things go wrong, he takes it badly. This is someone whose first course of action is to “act first and work it out as we go along,” but the number one thing he can’t stand is seeing other people get hurt, and so when other people do get hurt because of the consequences, Taichi shuts down -- for instance, when he learns that his ploy to attempt to get Greymon to evolve ended up hurting Koromon and everyone around him in Adventure episodes 16-17, and when his taking the Digital World too lightly (taking Koushirou’s explanation of it being “like a game world” at too much face value) ends up getting Sora in trouble and his own life in danger.

Which leads to a certain degree of irony: Taichi’s behavior isn’t normally out of solely recklessness -- mainly really poor judgment and a tendency to underestimate things -- but when he does slip up and start having to deal with consequences, he does become reckless. But because this recklessness is out of a desire to “not let anyone else get hurt”, it results in him being reckless specifically with his own welfare -- he’s the kind of person who “takes too much responsibility onto himself”, and his way of responding to the issues of “someone might get hurt” and “but we have to do something!!” means that he, by default, responds to everything with “okay, then I’ll be the one who gets hurt!” Or in other words, his solution to preventing other casualties while still doing something to help others involves becoming dangerously self-sacrificial. Because in the end, Taichi is the kind of person who hates seeing people being in trouble or hurt in front of him, and his instinct is to always protect people, no matter what.

But, again: Taichi’s way of “action first” is not a fundamentally bad thing -- remember, Adventure episode 21 established very well that this trait of his is very good for bringing him out of his biggest bouts of hesitation, because he has a very practical understanding of the need to fight in order to prevent more casualties. This is especially because the final arc of Adventure deals heavily with the concept of “collateral damage”, or the question of how to handle fighting to save people, when people are inevitably hurt (or, in this case, dying) in the process.

Yamato accuses Taichi in Adventure episode 43 of not being conscientious enough about the friends they’ve lost in the process, but once Yamato succumbs to his resentment and personal beefs and starts selfishly picking a fight with Taichi in Adventure episode 44-45, Taichi indicates that he is keeping his fallen friends in mind -- it’s just that, to him, not continuing the fight is an insult to everything they’d died for (especially because, indeed, more people will get hurt if they don’t do something).

And, ultimately, in Adventure episode 50, Taichi does conclude that Yamato, Jou, and Mimi are right about one thing: while he’s always been right about them needing to do something, they do at least need to be careful about how they go about it so that they don’t incur more sacrifices along the way. Fortunately, Taichi is a soccer captain and perfectly capable of quickly coming up with a suitable plan on the fly (he even cites it in this episode, and in fact had already demonstrated an ability to come up with tactics when necessary back in Adventure episode 20) -- it’s not that he’s never been able to do flexible thinking, it’s just that his natural tendency to be “too chill’ about things and overestimate the efficacy of the first thing that popped into his head was something he needed to learn to think through a little harder.

And so, the final episodes of Adventure indicate him finally starting to tap into his capacity for that -- thus truly becoming the definition of the Adventure group’s “leader”.

Taichi after Adventure

We learn in Our War Game! that Taichi still has a bit of a way to go in terms of the “emotional sensitivity” part, most notably when Taichi starts getting defensive when he accidentally disrupts the computer connection, and Koushirou (most likely correctly) pinpoints this insensitivity as the likely reason he and Sora got into a nasty fight prior to the events of the movie. In fact, while Taichi already clearly had some shades of this in Adventure, when his “teasing” of others or stepping over their boundaries could sometimes go a little too far, it’s especially indicated here that Taichi is very, very bad at dispute resolution, because he keeps trying to deflect blame for his own actions and indirectly accuses Sora of being the irrational one in regards to their argument. (Again, for anyone entangled in a dispute with a friend: “dismissing the other person’s feelings” and going for the ad hominem, instead of at the very least acknowledging them in the process of making your point, is the number one worst way to handle this.)

Of course, Taichi wouldn’t have gotten this far if he didn’t have the natural charisma to compensate -- again, he’s fundamentally someone who cares about other people and attends to them. But, unfortunately, he’s still bad at knowing how to deal with other people’s emotions and learning to deal with them with proper empathy...

...So, in fact, it’s striking that the Taichi we initially meet in 02 is someone who, most of the time, seems to come off as very mature and put-together. The fact that he so willingly turned over his goggles to Daisuke at the beginning of the episode is a really huge deal, frankly -- even if you don’t subscribe to the theory that there’s any major sentimental backstory to it a la V-Tamer, that’s still an item he’s kept on him since he was a tiny child and clearly must have a huge amount of attachment to, yet he immediately handed it over to Daisuke the moment he felt Daisuke was worthy of it.

It’s actually quite a bit of a swerve for those of us used to the more “playful” Taichi who sometimes took things way too lightly, but it’s also important to realize that this is the Taichi that Daisuke and his friends see. This is especially in light of the fact that Daisuke starts off the series with a very severe inability to be assertive, so Taichi, who’s always been naturally assertive from the get-go (almost too much sometimes), is everything he is not, and therefore admires.

Taichi is still Taichi, which means that he’s still subject to the Yagami Taichi stress response, and he gets very close to blowing up angrily at the others when they show up late. But unlike how he had a whole train of being rather out of control when emotionally compromised in Adventure episodes 48-49, he gets himself together fairly quickly and admits that he also didn’t want to force everyone to come if they didn’t want to (to the point where he had even thought about going alone with Hikari in the worst-case scenario -- again, note the tendency for self-sacrifice and putting responsibility on himself).

We also see him about to lapse into it again at the end of the episode, when he freezes up because he’s not sure about what to do in regards to the potential of hurting Agumon in the process of getting him back -- but Yamato manages to get him back on his feet, rather literally, and with a punch to the face.

This punch tends to be really often misinterpreted as if violence is just a fact of life when it comes to Taichi and Yamato, but it is very, very important to understand the context behind this scene and how it differs from the two’s relationship in Adventure. Whenever the two fought back in Adventure, it would be a very vicious argument with the two genuinely angry at each other, and with Yamato accusing Taichi of being insensitive and thus becoming hostile and resentful towards him. In this scene, however, Yamato has become conscientious of Taichi’s own feelings and reasons for hesitating. This is evidenced by the fact he only does a single punch and holds out his hand to Taichi right after -- said punch was strictly meant as one meant to snap him back to reality, and Yamato holds out that hand knowing that Taichi will not take it as anger or resentment, but rather “I did this because you needed something to get you back into focus, I know you also know this and won’t take it as an insult, and I understand your feelings and want to help you.”

It’s important in establishing the level of deep trust Taichi and Yamato have where they understand each other’s positions now without fighting over it -- the two of them even point out in the next episode that the reason they can get away with this is because of how much worse they used to go through before, but now, the two of them treat each other with mutual sympathy, understanding, and support, and devoid of condescension whatsoever. And because of that, Taichi is able to “snap out” of his hesitation much more quickly than he would three years prior, because now he has Yamato’s emotional support, and Yamato even frames the situation in a way the “we have to do something!!” Taichi would understand: if they don’t do something, Agumon will continue to be the Kaiser’s slave destroying everything that he himself would never want to see destroyed, and even if they end up accidentally losing him in the process, it would arguably be a bigger mercy to him than it would to let him continue in this state. It’s all very practical reasoning that works best with Taichi’s way of thinking, and because of that, they’re able to push forward into the events of the next episode.

But just because he’s become more mature doesn’t mean he’s lost his characteristic charisma or ability to be playful or a tease -- after all, Taichi has always had a penchant for a bit of a smug personality, sometimes even bordering on the petulant. This especially comes out when he’s with Agumon, but, really, Taichi is a person who really likes fun.

On another interesting note, however, Taichi sends Sora off in 02 episode 38 when he’s very heavily implied to have caught on that Sora is about to confess to Yamato, and pushes her on without giving her grief for it. Regardless of whether you subscribe to the theory that Taichi has his own unresolved feelings in the situation, the important part is that he understood that this was a grave enough situation for Sora that this did not merit teasing her or insensitively poking into her feelings on it -- in other words, it’s a huge contrast to Adventure episode 26 when he was clearly at a loss on how to deal with her when she was emotionally compromised, and Agumon and Gabumon commented that he wasn’t as mature as Yamato in dealing with this.

But now, Taichi is much more capable of showing actual empathy for others and understanding when it’s the time to hold back on the teasing or potential insensitivity, and for that, Agumon compliments him on the same maturity he’d failed to express three years prior.

By the time we get to Kizuna, the fact that Taichi is one of the lead protagonists is for obvious meta reasons (he’s the protagonist of Adventure, after all), but it also makes sense that a movie centered around the millennial existential crisis -- and, specifically, the issue of career uncertainty -- would have him as a major player in it. Remembering that Taichi is fundamentally the kind of person who operates as “act first, deal with it later,” it makes perfect sense that the terrifying pressure of dealing with something as vague and uncertain as career pressure would be something that Taichi would continually put off. Again, Taichi is a very practical-minded person who usually works best with things that are clearly happening in front of him, so “wide-ranging” things are things he plays badly with.

Despite Taichi being very clearly depicted as “out of it” for this movie, at the very least, certain fundamental personality traits of his haven’t gone away -- for one, he’s still one of the most expressive characters in the movie (to the point many a fan has commented on his jackpot of facial expressions) in terms of petulance, sometimes getting a little defensive, and driving poor Koushirou a little nuts with his tendency to be reckless with electronics. He also gets a bit cocky during the battle with Eosmon, which, again, tracks with his tendency to do that every so often (and to be fair to him, everyone was guilty of severely underestimating Eosmon at the time, so it’s not like this was a major miscalculation on Taichi’s part).

Moreover, much like in 02, Taichi and Yamato are understanding of each other’s feelings to the extent that Yamato is the first person Taichi calls to dump his feelings about his existential crisis over. Even though they’re still prone to some mild bickering at the beginning of the movie, they immediately go back on high-fiving terms right after, so it’s a very far cry from the time back in Adventure when Yamato would look down on Taichi for being insensitive.

But here, we have this one line that basically represents the source of all of the problems Taichi ends up going through in this movie, including the reason for his loss of Agumon: Taichi is trying to “force” himself to become an independent person, and in the process is pushing Agumon away, and, on a more metaphorical level, his own self.

Taichi moved out of his parents’ house under the pretense of not burdening his family, but Hikari’s comment about their mother wanting him to drop by indicates that it’s not likely they necessarily wanted him to move out -- and despite that, Taichi is miserable in his daily routine of walking back and forth from school and working at a part-time job and eating convenience store food. He’s clearly lonely, yet he won’t allow Agumon into his room (it’s stated that his visit midway into the movie is his first time here). He keeps his old goggles and Digivice, yet he shuts it in a drawer and only opens the drawer to stare at it from time to time, and when Agumon finally does visit and finds his AVs, Taichi freaks out and pins it as an “adult thing” before he finds himself in the awkward situation of basically gatekeeping his own partner with a societal standard he doesn’t even understand.

I should point out that the AVs are not strictly porn, if you want to be really technical about it; it’s “gravure” videos, involving a cosplayer dressing up in sexy/high-exposure outfits and striking suggestive poses, but it’s not actually explicit porn. Moreover, a toned-down version of this scene exists in the Shueisha Mirai version of the novel, where the issue is not about AVs but rather the fact that Taichi only has alcohol in his fridge -- absolutely nothing non-alcoholic, despite how impractical this is -- because “[he’s] an adult, after all.” So the point of this scene is that Taichi’s being performative, or in other words trying to do Adult Things because That’s What Adults Do. And since a Digimon partner is representative of the inner self, and especially established in 02 to have relevance to one’s “less dignified and more childish dreams”, Taichi looking down on Agumon, i.e. looking down on himself, becomes the reason why he ends up losing him at the end of this movie.

As things get worse for Taichi and the crisis escalates, we actually get another glimpse of the Yagami Taichi stress response -- Yamato confronts him on whether he’s okay with going in to save all of the Eosmon victims despite knowing what’ll happen to their partners. Taichi, frantically (Hanae Natsuki’s voice acting really sells it here), has an emotional outburst and professes that, no, of course he’s not, but, again: they have to do something!! Because in the end, Taichi is a selfless person who understands that bad things are happening to people now, and the important thing is saving them now and dealing with the consequences once that’s done with, and even Yamato admits that, as much as he hates it, this is the correct answer.

Taichi does, unfortunately, lose Agumon at the end of the movie, but there are multiple indications he’s already on his way to getting him back, given that Taichi’s starting to address all of the problems he was neck deep in at the start of the movie. In the middle of the movie, after having shut his goggles in the drawer all of this time and only pulling it out whenever he was depressed, he decides to embrace the courage they initially symbolized and puts them back on his neck, and when we reach the climax of the movie, he uses Hikari’s old whistle to wake everyone up. This needs to be distinguished from all of the “nostalgia” everyone else had been drowning themselves in by looping themselves eternally in old memories from a desire to never move on from them; symbolically speaking, Taichi’s blowing of the whistle represents acknowledging the important things in your past, and making productive use of them to move onto the future, rather than the unhealthy reactions of either drowning eternally in nostalgia, or performatively shutting everything out about your past in a bid to reach some arbitrary standard of adulthood.

Hence, Taichi’s thesis -- the one he had failed to write at the beginning of the movie -- is only filled out once Taichi embraces that past version of himself, because his thesis summary is about reflection on his past experiences, and making use of those to think about how to apply them to the future.

This is, obviously, intended as a lead-up to the 02 epilogue in which Taichi becomes an ambassador -- or in other words, someone who indeed specializes in “bringing humans and Digimon together” and offering proposals on how they can coexist in the future. Agumon, of course, is an important part of this job (look at his suit and bowtie!), instead of Taichi shutting him out and treating him like someone who doesn’t belong in his adult life.

Of the careers depicted in the epilogue, Taichi’s is the most “furthest-reaching”, since, as a diplomat, he has influence over a pretty huge range of things, which fits with Taichi’s tendency to shoot for some pretty high things -- and, also, conceptually, it works well with what we’ve always known since Adventure to be Taichi’s true specialties as a “leader”: having the charisma and understanding to bring people from different places together, and to lead them all forward.

#digimon #digimon adventure #digimon adventure 02 #digimon adventure last evolution kizuna #kizuna spoilers #yagami taichi #taichi yagami #shihameta

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