#love how you stylized him so much op!

[selfshippinglover]

AAAAAAAA OMG OMG I'M MAKING HIM BLUSH?? IM- HES-

"I heard you talking Shit about me"

[syoddeye]

kinktober - day 30 - sex pollen

nikolai x f!reader | 1.3k words cw: dubcon because sex pollen, mean nikolai, that line is the only line featuring ‘daddy’ apologies, we love italics, dirty talk, piv a/n: he makes me unwell. russian language bits are stylized with italics and strike-through: example summary: nik is so selfless. banner by @/cafekitsune | kinktober list

“Come on then, princess. Show Daddy how much you need this."

“Do not call yourself that, do not call me that.”

“Apologies, it’s the compound—“

“It is not. You’re fucking fine.”

Straddling Nikolai, you shudder, feeling yourself dripping onto him. The product of a manufactured and unnatural surge of arousal seeping into his thatch of dark hair. Grasping his cock with one hand and planting the other on his chest, you bite your lip hard as it slips through your folds.

“Christ,“ he chokes. “On with it already.”

“I can’t—My hands are shaking.”

Fucking bastard.

You grit your teeth, finally notching the tip to your hole. It’s a tight fit, practically a negotiation with your sopping albeit neglected cunt. Of course, it’s just your luck that some mysterious glitter bomb-esque chemical cloud is the thing to end your months-long dry spell.

The sensation is overwhelming—tight, hot, and unbelievably wet—and you hiss a string of curses, watching Nik’s jaw clench so hard you think he might crack a tooth.

The vein at his temple pulses and color fills his cheeks. His eyes narrow to slits the further you sink down, and his mouth, which never smiles for you, curls in a mean smirk.

When Price paired you with Nikolai for this op, you wanted to protest. To tell him you barely stomach Nik’s company on a good day. The man hates you, and lets you know it every chance he gets. He’s never uttered a word of thanks or praise in your direction. All you are is the weak link, the rookie, and a pain in his ass.

An unprepared one, too. You’re still kicking yourself for forgetting your gas mask while gearing up. You could’ve sworn you had it. Price shouldn’t have allowed you to board without it. Nikolai chewed you out as you fumbled your scarf over your nose and mouth, his deep voice booming from the cockpit as the exposed chemical billowed into your face. He used his native tongue, but you didn’t need a translator to get the gist. In the end, the fabric hadn’t been enough, it burrowed into your mouth and sinuses, absorbing quickly through the sensitive membranes. Nik was forced to ground thirty minutes outside your rendezvous point to prevent further exposure, and due to the interesting effects of the powder. The onset of which was rapid. 

As to what you inhaled, the compound is a mystery for the moment. One second, you were a little dizzy but fine, the next, yowling like a cat in heat. You writhed in your jumpseat, clawing at the steel wall, trying to catch the seatbelt strap just right against your clit. You listened to Nikolai barking at someone over comms, another burst of expletives, and the resigned sigh as he unbuckled and hauled you to the floor.

Which led you here, poised to ride him to hell and back. You, naked as the day you were born, thanking the powers at be for your IUD, and Nik, fully clothed with his gas mask discarded beside his head.

“Your cunt’s like a tap. Might need to secure some of this for future use with prettier women.”

“Shut up!”

On the heels of your anger, raw, visceral need scrapes your throat in a whine. Rocking your hips, you take him as deep as you can, struggling with the loss of finesse you normally pride yourself on. Nikolai mutters, his hands sliding from your thighs to your hips, bringing you down to meet a buck. You groan, wincing as his cock rams in the rest of the way. Glaring, you rake your nails uselessly over his shirt, hoping the pressure conveys your distaste. Bad enough he’s the man ‘taking one for the team’—he doesn’t need to assume charge.

“It’s either we fuck, or your fever worsens, you go crazy, organs fail…”

“You? Me fuck you?”

“Oh, your brain must be going already. Come on. Would you really rather die than fuck me, darling?”

Heat and synthetic lust propel your movements after that, driving you to ride him at as frenzied a pace as your body allows. You think it must be part adrenaline, from booking it out of the lab to the helicopter, and partly your internal systems fighting the chem-based intruders. You’re not a doctor, not a medic���you simply choose to believe the comfort your brain extends. Lay the blame at the feet of an unnamed psycho of a scientist who clearly needed to get laid.

Sweat gathers at your forehead, and streams down your back and limbs in sheets. A sheen coats your exposed skin, heat hugging you from the inside out.

Your eyes flutter open at the removal of one of Nikolai’s hands. He rips the velcro of a glove with his teeth, then pries it off his hand by a fingertip. He flings it away, then reaches, taking a greedy handful of a tit.

“Yes, yes.”

Nik squeezes and hums, brows knitting as you slow to grind, bending to push further into his palm. “I suppose these are decent.” He grunts as you wind up again. 

“Better than decent. You g-got lucky.” 

He pinches your nipple before groping its twin. “That so?”

“Wouldn’t be on top of you, ah, if it wasn’t for some, f-fuck, fucking aphrodisiac shit. I hate you.”

You can tell he wants to flip you the moment you utter the words. His mouth twitches like it does on poker night. Mind scrambled and syrupy, your hand swiftly finds his neck with a flash of clarity, cupping his jaw and forcing his head up. A flicker of surprise passes over his features, and sweat sticks your fingers in place.

He snarls, a filthy laugh rasping from his throat. “If it were up to me, you wouldn’t be on top at all. I’d take you on your hands and knees, darling. Fuck you like the bitch you are.”

Nik drops his hands from your chest, slotting it over the bend of your thigh to stretch a rough thumb to your clit. He digs his fingers in hard enough to bruise and yanks you down to meet his sudden, annoyingly precise thrusts.

“You’d like that, yes? Ah, I think you would.” He pants, his snide facade giving way to something raw and unbridled. “Come on, you crazy bitch. Take your medicine.”

If your life didn’t seem dependent on coming, you’d knock his teeth out.

Sparks shoot down your spine to join the heat coiling in your gut, narrowing your focus to his playing with your clit and the battering of his cock. The remaining clarity you possess chases off unhelpful questions as to how long the compound lasts or how much of this is you and not it.

“Fuck, Nik, fuckfuckfuck—”

Your body joins your voice in its stutters, jolting over him as your orgasm rips through. Your hands fist his shirt, holding on for dear life as he continues, uncaring about your sensitivity, and the little yips his cock punches from your mouth. He comes with a curse, his face screwed up in an almost angry expression. When his eyes eventually open, he stares, chest heaving. The gold in his chain glints in the dimming light from outside.

He swallows, and you watch his throat bob. There’s a question in the notch of his neck.

Instead of prompting him, you pull off with a wince and shakily rise with your fever and artificial lust abated.

“This never happened.” 

“You’re welcome for saving your life.”

“Yeah, you’re a real martyr.”

Nik just breathily chuckles. By the time he shuffles to the cockpit, you’re dressed and checking the shipment’s containers a third time. 

As he passes, you ask over your shoulder, “Did you mean it? The, ah, hands and knees...Have you…thought about this before?”

He drops into his seat and reaches for his headset in the copilot’s seat. He shoots you a smug smile. “Why? You want to bark for me, darling?”

Fucking bastard.

[noirvette]

main 3! gaming headcanons!!

i missed kennys birthday because of my college classes wtf happy belated bday to kenny

a little off topic for the post but ive been playing around with the idea of making a band smau (after hours by 777bambi is so good every update got me at the edge of my seat) and ive primarily been focusing on that as of late so my next few posts might just be headcanons

Stan, Kyle, and Kenny and gaming with their s/o!! cw: implied nsfw on kenny's part

♡ STAN MARSH

Thinks it's great to game together, an easy way for you guys to bond and have fun!!

He kind of likes the more nostalgic games, like super mario bros for the wii (this made me look up the game to confirm it's age and it was made in 2009 wtf??)

Let's you be player 1 but the catch is that he gets to be luigi

Stan prefers playing games on the wii (and switch) and or the ps4/ps5. He's a console kind of guy.

Prefers playing video games at your house and he'll even bring the necessary consoles over if needed just because if his dad sees you two playing he's going to whine to Stan about joining in.

Aside from nostalgic games he's also an action game multiplayer fan, lot of games he has is stylized to be fit for multiple people, so think of games like "It Takes Two" or even the multiplayer parts of Pokemon SWSH / Pokemon SV.

If you're a more single player kind of person, he definitely doesn't mind watching you play while cuddling. Would probably fall asleep watching you play.

I could see him playing Stardew Valley co-op with you if you convince him, but doesn't enjoy the whole farming thing too much

He marries Abigail in retaliation for making him play it with you. (Marry Shane and he will IMMEDIATELY divorce Abigail and beg you to marry him)

He still definitely plays multiplayer pc games with his friends, but sees no real joy in playing it by himself (think like valorant or league)

HOWEVER, if you want to play those games with him? Total tryhard but the really bad kind of tryhard.

Considering he only plays these games with Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman and doesn't play it on his own time he kinda sucks lol.

Screams "YOU'RE BAD" into his mic when he actually downs someone. Screams "WHAT THE FUCK" if he gets downed that Sharon comes in running like "Stan are you okay?!"

He gets so frustrated when he dies that he starts literally pouting. Let him get the final kill if it's just you two against one.

Insta-locks on Sage just to heal you only in game

"Sage heal? Sage heal?" -your poor other teammates

You carry him in these games tbh.

♡ KYLE BROFLOVSKI

Unlike Stan, Kyle loves games like valorant, league, etc. He gets to let out his rage easily by winning

When he loses everyone in South Park knows, he's so mad. However he rarely loses so South Park is safe.

Out of his friends he's for sure got the most amount of kills and wins.

Screams "LETS GOOOOO" when he wins LMFAO. Then gives you a victory kiss.

FPS games is Kyle's specialty. He's def an omen main or something.

If FPS isn't your thing or if you're not good at it Kyle gets it. If you're willing he'll show you how to play (and how to get good fast) however just don't play with him, if you're lagging behind (even if you're new) he's so annoyed, but never mad.

Is willing to play other games with you 100%. Also thinks it's great to game together, even if your guys' gaming genres don't match he's willing to play what you like.

Mario Kart is your guys' go to. You always win against him which leaves Kyle in shock so he often demands rematches.

Ike joins with you guys sometimes and you both initially let Ike win. Ike gets mad though because he wants you both to play equally with him, so when you play fairly he still wins because Ike is just that guy.

Kyle is more of a pc gamer than anything, but if console is up to bat he's an xbox guy. Still is a fps guy on console but it's all single player.

HATES fortnite lol. Doesn't get the hype over it at all, he thinks the mechanics are stupid and won't play it. Might if you beg him to but.. you so owe him.

Is more of the guy that prefers you to watch as he plays, however has no issue if you want to take over playing and he watches, he makes you guys snacks to have while you play.

Avid minecrafter tbh, played it mainly for Ike but then got addicted. So now he makes you play it with him too. He's definitely the "miner". Goes all out on making sure you both have the best armor and weapons. Has a shit ton of diamonds so he made you a diamond shovel for the hell of it even though it's a dumb thing to waste diamonds on. Made you a pink wool heart behind your house when you were gone.

Also an avid tile matcher (think candy crush), begs you constantly for lives. Please give him lives he gives the MEANEST puppy dog eyes.

♡ KENNY MCCORMICK

AVID HORROR GAME ENJOYER LOL

Literally any type of horror game is his go to game. Also likes those RPG horror games (think like ib, the witch's house, misao)

Sets you up by saving right before a jumpscare and then has you come over to play it with him and then you get to experience the jumpscare.

Late night horror game playing with Kenny <3 where you two just play roblox horror games all night, sometimes he puts in the comedic horror ones just so you guys can laugh at how bad it is.

He borrowed Outlast from Cartman to play on your console and you still have nightmares.

"Don't worry baby, nothing can get you when I'm here!" "What if you're NOT here though :(" and then cue him as Mysterion for the next 3 weeks to protect you.

Demands to be princess peach or rosalina in any mario game you guys play. If only one of them is an option and you take that character he will refuse to talk to you until you give up the character

Is also another minecraft enjoyer but likes scaring you with Herobrine LOL and that one scary jukebox disc.

"(Y/N)...." "What Ken?" "Herobrine is outside our door rn" (Y/N) left the game

He also likes watching you play games. Lays down with his head in your lap watching you play.

Kenny prefers multiplayer games that aren't limited to just two players only multiplayer. Only because Karen can play the game with you two then.

If you do happen to playing a two player only multiplayer game and Karen wants to join he lets her take over for him.

Kenny also loves puzzle like games (think like escape room games or keep talking and no one explodes).

Really he just loves seeing your face get all frustrated when playing these kinds of games. He rarely gets frustrated with things like these because he manages to somehow always figure it out, but doesn't say anything just to watch you get annoyed.

If you start getting really frustrated at the game and he notices, he does one of three things; he takes the controller or your phone away and turns on a new game, he actually solves it to spare your sanity, or he saves the game and helps take your mind off of the game and onto something else.

[the-s1lly-corner]

*blows up your wall* the horror writer reader gave me an idea! what about jeff the killer x horror writer!reader? :3

Jeff the killer x horror writer!reader

OOOHOHOHO this ones gonna be fun! Please fix my wall :(

Notes: Reader is GN

CWs: canon typical violence

Books arent really his thing but you might be able to win him over with the content you create!

He takes his work very... seriously.. so if he spots any inconsistencies or stuff that simply isnt possible hes going to point it out, you might not even have to ask

Now dont get him wrong he loves stylized and exaggerated stuff, but if you're aiming for something more realistic he can give you some pointers

Hes not very.. verbally praising.. but he does let you know he thinks you did good!

Open to letting you ask him questions, and it's likely that if you ask him something he doesnt have an answer for he might.. go experiment.. and see what happens

Quick warning he WILL go into deep detail about how a human body reacts and how long it'll remain alive after getting stabbed twenty seven times- same with most other.. hypothetical injuries

Slow reader so if you ask him to proof read or if he reads the finished product for fun it's going to take some time- generally struggles with reading as well as generally not having much time to sit down and read a novel

^not because hes dumb but because his brain struggles <\3

Flattered if you make a character based off of him

He has to refrain from making said character OP...

[surlifen]

guide to surlis sonas

aka an excuse to Poast Images and drone on because I love to do that!

current main sona I think and closest to a truesona: this otter guy who remains unnamed because all the names that are my name have already been used at this point LMAO

art by nepeteaa and by me! I'd honestly draw him more often if he weren't hard to draw? surli was easy because. Fox. (and Generic Thin whereas my body type is, while still pretty thin, specific in a way that's hard for me to draw) and honestly I enjoy drawing him more oTL.... otters are super hard to stylize cutely + in a way that looks Like Me... surli does not look Like Me teebeehaiche

surli fennec surlifen main sona of the past and still like... kind of me it's complicated

imbages by jilf and vhsdruid

i kinda ended up disconnecting from his Design as a Whole and the alt palette didn't really fix it but nonetheless he's never leaving my possession. it's weird cause my brain can really only connect fully to one character per Thing/Setting as a Sona who is Me so ever since splitting off into otter I don't feel FULLY connected to either the way I once did to surli :( but I am experimenting with having multiple sonas and maybe ill try that thing people do where they also do sonas for different Aspects of themselves so I don't just have an army of Normal Nice Blonds

pokesona: liam

art by me, cicadaghost, me

not much 2 say he is me pokemonned! he's much Smaller Cuter than I am and I really enjoy his simple design + imagining him in the pokemon world :3 like what berries he'd like best and what specific cities/landmarks he hangs out at... hiking in ilex forest and visiting the national park yk

lee: bunny....sona....?

art by me, purrker

he was a bit of an experiment in "CAN I have more than one fursona?" and also "CAN I make a sona who isn't Exactly Like Me?" i've always seen people whose sonas have Supernatural Elements and been like how can you do that. I respect it so much but if EYE am a normal human person how can I connect to something with strange abilities and qualities. and I still couldn't go so far as like... my friend whose sona is an honest to god several stories tall kaiju with a backstory and shit, but lee has supernatural luck and a connection to/control of storms/lightning because that's sick and awesome and cool. and also glows and has cool antlers when he wants. he's not as me as the others but he's there and he's not... NOT me?

fucking... willie dustice, silver city "self-insert" joke guy

unfortunately I DO love his stupid ass. you know how sometimes in a comic or animated show there'll be some obscure reference to one of the creators or someone on the team like as a gag that goes over most people's heads well he's supposed to be that. his appearance is me at my worst (needs haircut + shave) and he has the OP superpower of putting people in pocket dimensions of altered reality he controls entirely but he ONLY uses it to make stupid filler bottle episodes like They All Have To Play Softball or Beach Episode or whatever. represents my oft-abused ability as a creator to Put Those Guys in a Situation. he's not so much a sona (cause if I made a silver city sona it would be genuine not this greasy freak) but he sure is Representative of Me.

horse: horse

i was challenged to make a horsesona. I don't plan to do anything with him but kept him around because I liked his design. someday I might make a more natural horse sona for in case I ever joined some kind of equine rp setting or some shit equivalent but for now my sparklehorse

spinxynsona: coast

art by capricorne, me, me

coasty woasty... made for the nephfei world for the spinxyn closed species. first closed species sona ive ever had and i think hes neat! nephfei is such a well designed world that is really conducive to stories and characters influencing each other's arcs but coast is just some guy he's just there. he just lives there and minds his own business. (he has no gifts or curses so nothing really requiring a Story) but maybe i should get him some Friends at least maybe i can have a sona who has Story OC Friends from other people and still be like yes thats me if i was friends with everybody's ocs

dnd character who was based on me: august

art by me, thembodino

it was suggested since I have a very hard time being In Character (i get so self conscious) that I start with a character similar to myself! so august is incredibly Just Me FR. if i were to go on an adventure i would be bad at it and terrified. his campaign is suspended due to Life but i accidentally, due to knowing nothing, picked a pretty OP blend of stats that has made him bizarrely competent (not like. the best in the party or anything but he really can hold his own and once like critted twice and turned invisible and flew and killed a dragon) and honestly that's hilarious and I like it for him

that's it! the rest of my characters are just characters not sonas though I still love them dearly, some of them even more than some of my sonas i won't name names though ty if you made it this far. i love to Talk

[worldweary-walker]

Hot damn, this is incredible. Great work, OP!

I love how you've stylized the background in both versions of this piece. The green swirls create a more grounded, but dreamlike feeling whereas the white space seems final, permanent. I'd comment on the cursive but my ability to read it is tragic.

The use of the- flame, maybe? The aura? In any case- the orange and gold is really cool. I like how it emphasizes his hand and his eyes, and the way it augments the tension in his stance. It curls in a really nice way.

That's another thing, the stance! It looks like his jacket is billowing, but you can see from the set of his mouth and the sort of grimace on his face that he's focused, despite whatever's pushing him back. He's On It, whatever It is in this context. (If it's recreating a scene from the game, I'm not there yet.)

His arm is braced in a way I really like too, even if I couldn't tell you exactly why. He's determined. You can see he's holding steady, and- finger on the trigger- he's fired. I don't know what he's aiming at, but he is determined not to miss. (I get the feeling that, even if he regrets taking the shot, he does not plan to apologize.)

All in all, this is a really neat piece of work and I'm glad you decided to share it. I'm going to drop a follow and, though I may not comment so extensively on your other work (I rarely do), I hope you know how much I'm thinking about it.

Warning: this is my first time using tumblr and i have no idea what the fuck I'm doing. So, yeah, heads-up for that! Anyway, Kim kitsuragi my beloved

[itsclydebitches]

Related to the topic of underdeveloped deaths in RWBY. I think the only death after Volume 3 that has been dealt with with some kind of weight, we saw it happen completely on screen and affect other characters in the next volume, was Clover death and we know how was handled.

I was about to start this answer with, "Yeah, at least RWBY showed us his death on screen, rather than leaving it ambiguous by cutting away," but then I remembered the confusion in the fandom when Clover was shown across from Winter in the Definitely Not Dead ward, rather than a morgue. And on the one hand I get it. Fans aren't wrong for thinking that getting stabbed straight through the chest with a sword and then going limp as Qrow sky screams is as obvious a death as anyone can manage... for a normal show. But RWBY is the show that brought Penny back, that healed Weiss, that has characters like Ironwood who somehow lost half their body and lived to tell the tale. If he can survive that, presumably with time between injury and medical treatment, why not Clover? He's living in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy show where characters can be frozen solid, pushed off a cliff, and wake up totally fine weeks later. Taken from that perspective, it's not hard to understand why fans followed the thread RWBY was potentially dropping by putting him in a hospital bed, face uncovered.

Then we've got all the reasons why people wanted Clover to live in the first place: the incredibly stupid way he went down, his budding relationship with Qrow, the Ace Ops being underdeveloped as a whole, a lack of interest in Qrow's revenge plot-line, and some pockets (such as mine) wanting to keep someone around who doesn't think Ironwood is a bigger threat than Salem herself. Given that Clover's death was arguably unsatisfying, the instinct is to wish that he's not dead so that, hopefully, things will be more satisfying moving forward. (Excluding, of course, those who just aren't a fan of the character and were happy to see him gone, no matter how he left. I can understand that lol.) The impact of Clover's death amounted to something, sure, but nothing that made much sense. Qrow blames the wrong person before dropping that with a single speech from Robyn, one that shows a highly biased view of Clover even after he's gone. Harriet decides to drop a bomb on a city of innocents because she, apparently, was in love with him, despite never demonstrating that in Volume 7. Everyone else? They don't care.

Honestly, I think Clover's death had the most comparative impact because 1. His death was conveyed in a shocking style that, notably, is reminiscent of Yang losing her arm. Volume 8 tries very hard to recapture the success of Volume 3. 2. His death was an iffy move that for many edged too close to Bury Your Gays for comfort, even if it was never technically that. 3. Fans were aware of everything above and the frustration of it all caused an influx of interest. Just not, you know, happy interest.

But again, it's a comparative low bar. Is a shocking, stylized, on screen death that leads to random outcomes better than Ironwood's ambiguous death after the downfall of his character, or Penny's assisted suicide after having her android identity stripped from her, or Vine blowing himself up after the show did nothing to develop him? Probably, but that's not much consolation when you're hoping for so much more.

[iloveyoutotype-moonandback]

CW: gore, abuse and rape mentions.

So I recently played the original Tsukihime visual novel (it’s being remade so I might as well check out the original right?) and I wanted to talk about some of my general impressions and thoughts on it. 

TL;DR for people who don’t wanna read any spoilers (or if you just don’t wanna read through my long-ass post): I thought it was good and there were lot of aspects and themes that I found interesting. I did have problems with certain aspects of it however, and I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone since it’s really violent and...well just see the CW for yourself. But if none of that deters you, then I think it’s worth checking out!

So, like I said above the cut, I enjoyed it overall. The story was interesting, with the focus being on vampires and some more information on the church for example (fate tends to focus more on the grail war, so other aspects of the Nasuverse are inevitably glossed over or not mentioned at all). This also had a psychological horror aspect, with Shiki having dreams where he kills people just to give one example. But then there are certain indications that what he’s seeing is real, leading him to believe that he could be unconsciously killing people. And he doesn’t WANT to see these dreams, he actually hates them to the point that there are a few scenes where he straight up avoids going to sleep altogether. The problem is that he has no idea how to stop seeing them, or even what’s happening to him. Also other characters often hide stuff from him or lie for his “protection”, so that really only adds to the uncertainty (this dude kinda gets gaslit a lot, come to think of it). 

I remember seeing some people say that the artwork for this vn isn’t as good as what you get in fsn, which makes sense given that it’s older and thus earlier in Takeuchi’s art career. And I can see what they mean, but there’s legit some good CG’s in this one. Also it does this interesting thing where instead of drawn backgrounds, it has real life pictures that have been edited/stylized. I can’t quite articulate it, but it gives the vn a different vibe that really works for it imo. I like it.

In terms of characters, I gotta say that Hisui was one of my favorites. I guess I just kinda relate to her in a weird way. She’s quiet, isn’t super expressive (or at least it seems that way initially), and doesn’t like being touched. I used to be like that (I’m still like that sometimes but I’ve gotten a lot better), though obviously she has....very different reasons for being that way. But at that point my brain had already gone “that one” with her.

Speaking of Hisui, I really like Kohaku too. If we’re comparing Nasu’s works here, I feel like she’s kind of comparable to Sakura. Mostly in a thematic sense, seeing as how she’s someone who appears normal enough but there’s a lot brewing beneath the surface that we don’t fully see until her route (and by that I mean she suffered sexual abuse from Shiki and Akiha’s father when she was a child). I don’t want to compare them too much tho, since they are different characters at the end of the day. It’s just something of a common thread I noticed. Though with Kohaku, you do actually get a glimpse into what her deal is in Hisui’s route (mainly in the epilogue), which then leads right into Kohaku’s route. 

Outside of the two maids, Arcueid was another favorite of mine (if Hisui is my favorite, I’d say Arc is a close second) because she looks elegant at first but then you realize she’s a fuckin dork the moment she opens her mouth (and I love her for it). Ciel was cool too, and it was interesting to have a member of the church who’s more sympathetic than Kirei Ketamine over there (though as her route reveals, the church is still kinda fucked). I liked Akiha as well. It was really interesting seeing her develop across the 3 “far side of the moon” routes. At first you think she’s normal then op, turns out she’s part vampire and is actually pretty fucking powerful! That said, I did have a few problems with her route...

...which leads me into one of my criticisms of this vn. Akiha’s route was my least favorite out of the 5. Again, and I cannot stress this enough, it is not because of Akiha herself. Akiha good and cool. The issue here is Akiha and Shiki...basically fall in love and also fuck at one point. Did I mention that Akiha is Shiki’s little sister? Because she is. “Well Shiki was adopted so it’s not technically incest” don’t make me tap the sign:

Like yeah, I know “romance happens between Shiki and the main heroin of the route” is a common thread here but I’d like it if they made just one exception. Sibling relationships are good too, you don’t need to resort to romance. 

And, well, now that it’s been brought up already: this vn has sex scenes! And they were just as bad as I expected! I did read through one or two, but after that I just started either skimming through them or skipping entirely. A lot of them don’t really effect the story much (except for like, one which is actually kinda important) so most of them aren’t really worth it unless you just want to laugh at the weird lines. Not a big deal but I felt like it was worth mentioning at least.

Moving on, Tsukihime did have some problematic elements outside of the whole incest thing. Fate/Stay Night had its own issues and obviously Tsukihime will have them too. Tbf to Nasu, he did say he later regretted some of the stuff he wrote in this early period. It’s good that he’s grown as a person and a writer, because looking back there are definitely a few lines here that are really fucking bad. One that stuck out to me was this line from Arcueid’s route where Shiki is arguing with Ciel and then he just suddenly says something along the lines of, “if you try to stop me from going, I’ll rape you right here”. It’s right the fuck out of nowhere too. And like, the reasoning was that he could barely walk at that point so he just came up with some super threatening thing to say, but it was just really unnecessary. 

Actually, I think the same could be said about some of the sexual violence depicted. Like, there’s a whole recurring thing where Shiki will just suddenly get possessed to murder someone (because his vampire step-brother basically lives in his mind rent-free) and he mentions the arousal he gets from doing so. At several points he even acts on these impulses, and winds up getting hard and cumming as he cuts someone up into pieces. It’s...really fucking weird and I’m not sure what it adds by being there. It adds a creep factor for sure, but ig it’s a question of how necessary it actually is. Some of it is integral to the story, as is the case with...certain aspects of the Arcueid and Kohaku routes for example. So don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying remove it entirely, I’m just questioning some of the extra stuff that doesn’t seem totally necessary to me.

So all in all, while I did have some problems with it, Tsukihime isn’t bad by any means. Like I said before, I think it was good overall and I enjoyed it.  You can acknowledge the problematic elements of something, but still otherwise like it. But yeah, certainly not for everyone, but still worth playing in 2021 I think.

[generalasshattery]

MK Movie Thoughts and Reflections

It’s been a few days since I watched it, and it’s all had time to settle in my brain. Who wants a tangent?

So, I guess I should start with the like biggest issue. Cole. Like I get he was only put in the movie because the studio insisted, and I feel like a little bit of the resentment for having to do that is obvious by just how bland a character he is. If they had to have him, they could’ve at least made him a little more fun to watch. Like, you had the opportunity to make a new Mortal Kombat character, some of the most deliciously and wonderfully over the top and charismatic fighting game characters out there... like why didn’t they make any effort to justify his existence on screen? Want to give us an everyman that can be used to introduce the world to the public? Do it, make him an audience proxy. Use some wit and charm to make people feel like he represents how they’d act in that scenario. I’ve seen this done to absolutely beautiful effect, my favorite example is actually a short horror film on YouTube called Downstairs. Lean into the batshit insanity you’re introducing in the form of mortal kombat. This role is historically handled by Johnny Cage, but he’s a celebrity rich boy, how would Joe down the block honestly handle this shit? Would he be stressed the fuck out and anxious? Or riding high getting to live out an ultimate power fantasy? That’s what would’ve been fun to explore with a new character IMO.

With that out of the way, I’m not going to belabor all the things I didn’t enjoy. Because well, it’s obvious. Jobbers irritate me, like what the fuck was that they did with Reiko? Did not like. Killing a clearly post burns Kabal in a fire? Like that just upset me. And all the weird lore building choices were just that... fucking weird. They do not need to be super heroes. They do not need to awaken super powers. Tech based abilities make it more interesting against the more supernaturally influenced characters. Genre bending has always been a feature and not a bug in MK. The game was supposed to be a Jean Claude Van Damme game, it was supposed to be all these different genres of movies coming together to fight the Van Damme, in a manor of speaking. Taking away the absolutely fun part of the story where special ops, a celebrity, and monks team up with a god to fight ninjas, a sorcerer, criminal empires, and monsters, is like missing the forest for the trees with the franchise. And I just can’t even go into Shang Tsung. I just can’t. I like Chin Han, he plays assholes very well, but Shang Tsung is a special kind of asshole. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa just set the bar so high with how much intellectualism he brings to the lines. He can drop them in such a smart sounding way that it makes you feel like he’s three steps ahead of you. There’s something so obviously manipulative and toying in his vibe (god the best part of MK11 is him, I’ll fight people on this, he fucking stole that shit for me) that it makes him feel instantly threatening. Immediately you know this is a man you Should Not Fuck with. I need that from Shang Tsung, or I don’t even really feel like you should bother bringing him to screen.

But despite all that, I did actually enjoy the experience of watching the movie, admittedly because I expected not to like any of it, so there were quite a few pleasant surprises. The gore and fight scenes were so perfectly stylized with the excessive blood and choreography, showing off the characters fatalities and famous moves... yes feed me that fan service. Feed it to me.

And while I don’t love all the casting (Reiko and Shang Tsung for example), some of it was pure perfection. Kano, Jax and Sonya? Story was... A Choice but loved the actors and what they brought to the characters. Also, like Lui Kang being cast with just the prettiest actor made me very happy. Pretty boy Lui Kang can hang, especially with his belt/slash floating in the wind. I was here for that.

Holy god damn hell, Joe Taslim, what the fuck dude? You made all my Bi-Han fantasies and dreams a reality. Like god damn, I could feel the depth he was bringing to the role even if the script didn’t let him explore it. I seriously hope we get so much more from him because got damn. I was so pleased with his performance. Holy shit not to mention the ice effects, his Katara moment of stopping the rain and then wrecking the shit out of a street is the kind of raw destructive power that canon has always hinted he has but hasn’t really shown us. He’s so often relegated to being a jobber, and MK is so especially bad at telling you a character is powerful but not showing it. Oh boy the movie showed it. Not just him either, I felt a real sense of power from a few players, and that was deeply satisfying.

Also like Kabal? For as much as his death pissed me off, damn did they nail his vibe. I think we’d all rather have good guy Kabal (which would’ve been a more interesting story with Kano on both sides the fence [and I DO NOT have the energy to write the dissertation I have for that weird ass choice]) but I really thought they got the bad guy him just right. Side note: My sister watched it with me and just adored him, she loved his fight scenes and kept asking me who he was and telling me how damn cool he seemed. And I do agree. His fighting scene was so damn good. The way they handle his choreography and effects made him look every bit the intimidating opponent he is, even if he didn’t actually win. Very good work there.

Hanzo has some promise here, but man did they cock tease us with those trailers. Didn’t even toss a handy j for our troubles. I will say, assuming they do make another film (and that is a big assumption) I am cautiously optimistic about where it could be heading. The actor really didn’t get enough time to explore the part, but Scorpion has the potential to be fascinating and I feel like him and Sub Zero getting their own film properly could really give me some satisfying story telling in Mortal Kombat’s biggest rivalry.

Over all? Not super satisfying for the dedicated fans. Wouldn’t really recommend it if you don’t Stan Bi-Han specifically. But if you set your expectations as low as possible, you may find some fun in it the way I did.

[koyacyi-vode]

I don’t know Blackout??? Tell everything?? (Please)

Okay so i spent an HOUR earlier on this post cause i was so excited but tumblr GLITCHED and i lost all of it! but Blackout is worth it cause i love him. i decided to take the time to watch the episode he's in to refresh my thoughts about him too! Also sorry in advance for the terrible photos. I have no idea how to screenshot D*sney+ so I had to take them on my phone ;A;

---

So! Blackout doesn't have much info about him because he appeared in one (1) episode of TCW (Season 2 Episode 16 "Cat and Mouse"). He doesn’t even have a canon CC designation which is sad.

The episode follows the 501st and 212th facing Admiral Trench and a Separatist blockade over Christophsis. The blockade is making it impossible to provide relief to Bail Organa and the Republic forces on the planet below.

The 212th and Obi-Wan arrive to assist the 501st, and form a plan to get past the blockade using a prototype stealth cruiser, an IPV-2C Stealth Corvette equipped with an experimental cloaking capability (I believe it's the only ship of its kind during the Clone Wars because it was insanely expensive to build and maintain, but much later Grand Moff Tarkin commissions a vessel with these specs as his personal cruiser).

This ship is crewed by Blackout and the Special Operations squad he commands. Whether his squad is part of the 212th or worked with them just for this mission is unclear (I'd say as specialists they are on-call as needed, similar to the Bad Batch).

Spec Ops Clones specialize in various stealth missions (not to be confused with Covert Ops Clones from legends who basically do the Republic’s dirty work which is a post for another time maybe. Also not to be confused with Shadow Troopers or Republic Commandos who had somewhat similar jobs.) They have advanced gear and kit that enhances their senses (I’m guessing it’s something to do with the blocky parts on the sides of their helmets).

Commander Blackout is shown to be very calm and collected and can take literally any crazy plan that Skywalker comes up with and make it happen. Originally, their mission was to sneak past the blockade to provide relief, but Skywalker ended up going full-offensive - something which Blackout seemed to have predicted would happen. It implies that he’s worked with Skywalker before.

Blackout’s interactions with rookie Spark (CT-1284) show a bit of what his personality is like. He’s a good mentor to a newcomer on a dangerous mission. From his wiki:

Blackout positioned the rookie's station across from his, so that he could keep track of his progress.

He also takes the opportunity to assure Spark that things will be okay when Spark gets nervous, and seems like the steady rock to the morale of his squad, they can count on him to get them through. And like, just look at this quote from his wiki:

He was a stern, yet compassionate commanding officer who took Spark under his wing with a watchful eye.

He shows visible concern for the safety of his men and is relieved when their ship narrowly avoids a spread of laserfire thanks to Anakin and his pilot. He also looks over at Spark to check that he is okay which I think is ridiculously cute. After the mission, Blackout congratulates Spark and offers him a full position on his crew. 

Blackout also has Jaig eyes, which are the stylized markings on his helmet that represent the Mandalorian shriek-hawk. They’re given as a battle honor awarded for bravery. Other clones we see with Jaig eyes are famously Captain Rex as well as Fordo (if you count the 2003 Clone Wars but you can pry Fordo from my cold dead fingers I love him). Jaig eyes are always stylized differently, and Blackout’s are considerably different from Rex’s (his are the angular markings on either side of that cool-ass mohawk design). We don’t know how he received them, but it shows that he is both a highly competent and skilled soldier (my Jaig eyes headcanon equates them to the Medal of Honor in the US Military, usually given for an act of valor that often involves saving many lives.) 

Anyways! That’s as much as I can really say for canon information about Blackout! But he deserves lotsa love. I mean. Just look at these spec ops dorks. They’re great.

[beautifulterriblequeen]

Impressions from TTM

Spoilers, spoilers everywhere. Just a big bulleted list of thoughts as I read through the graphic novel. Not a lot of detail included, so it’ll make a lot more sense if you’ve already read it yourself!

looks like Moonshadow elves cross the arms of the dead... when they have a body to bury

it’s nice to see that Rayla imagines Runaan with all his shirts, the way she last saw him

kinda looks like Rayla changed into her jammies right on her bed and dumped her clothes on that little table. maybe she’s afraid of letting the few things she actually possesses out of her sight

listen we get one little panel of Opeli in here and it’s great

Soren’s cape smacking Callum in the face, 10/10

Lujanne’s appearance out of nowhere, along with Allen’s is just adorable, she’s so sparkly. And also she can apparently just turn totally invisible with an illusion spell? Even at a new moon? Probably because of the Nexus I guess

Lujanne’s “Big strong man with big strong feelings.” She and Runaan have exactly the same type and I support them

Allen’s face when Lujanne says it aches to miss Phoe-Phoe

Callum eating off Rayla’s plate and wondering how Lujanne suspected they were a couple, hmmm

Soren and Allen bonding

Rayla warning Lujanne about hand disguises, as if that was something Runaan made very sure she knew

Rayla’s cute chaos grin when Callum’s Aspiro spell goes off is my favorite pic of her in this whole graphic novel

Lujanne’s “Oh.” afterward is my fave pic of her, too, she does not seem to handle reality well!

Bait’s tongue will never get old

Lujanne’s whole speech during Phoe-Phoe’s rebirth ritual is so touching and beautiful, my heart

Lujanne putting the newborn Moon Phoenix into Ezran’s hands, like she knows he’ll have the best connection with her

Callum’s tears as he reminds Rayla that Runaan killed Harrow, he’s trying to move on, but it hurts

Rayla’s self-soothing behavior when she has her second nightmare in the book--she must have these most every night :((((

the big symbol on the Moon Temple doors looks like a stylized Moon staff, like it’s a building for mages

Lujanne saying Rayla might not want or need the truth right after Callum mentions Runaan’s name to her, he sassily asks about her husbands and she turns it into a compliment

Callum’s big reaction to the moon opals is adorable. The only other one he’s seen was part of a pair of treasured gifts between long-time spouses, so it kinda looks like he’s all “uhh we just started dating”

also Ethari must’ve made cute metal swirly covers for the pair he and Runaan wore, since these two are undecorated--maybe he got his from Lujanne?

listen Lujanne is a hoot and all but she’s both an ally and an antagonist. Her actions are trustworthy but her advice is generally terrible. It’s an interesting parallel to how Runaan says a lot with his actions too, but he talks a lot less than Lujanne

Rayla yeeting herself into a fight just to ask Soren for a talk is 10/10 Moonshadow assassin goals

but her hood is up when she’s lurking in the trees--she might not have known where she’d find Soren and was anticipating something less fun on the feels-o-meter

Rayla in the mud again. Soren keeps making people fall in the mud

Allen’s grumpy squiggle

Callum, I love you, but you have no respect for moon opals. It’s like they wronged you in a previous life or something

that dancing elf has very long hair and shoulder pauldrons, and they start off dancing with six kneeling, watching, hooded elves around them--Moon Druids wore hoods even before they were assassins. Considering what Lujanne said about why the portal was sometimes opened, maybe those six kneeling elves are waiting under their emotion-hiding hoods to farewell a loved one who’s recently died?

can’t tell for sure but maybe the elf is dancing along the lines in the stone like they mark patterns for ritual dances, which would be the bomb

Soren and Rayla’s conversation is pretty wrenching. Seeing Soren have to struggle with what he did because it’s tangled up with Viren is rough because as a Crownguard it should just have been his duty to defend his king and he’d have nothing to feel weird about

Rayla dissociating herself from the term “assassins” and Soren dissociating from calling Viren “my father” in the same conversation is 10/10 excellent growth

Soren must know what happens to prisoners his dad gets a hold of, even if he doesn’t know the details :(((

“we captured him” and “Viren took him” seem to be talking about the Crownguard and Viren, not the brodigies and Viren

Rayla having a wooden sword at the end of the day bc she played swordfighting with Allen and Soren all day long

the panel where Rayla doesn’t say anything at all after telling Callum that she asked Soren about Runaan actually says so much, you can hear it

every time Lujanne’s white lies idea gets repeated, things get worse

Allen’s reading glasses, there must be one optician in the human village and he caters to soft kindly gentlemen of a certain age

in the moon phase montage, baby Phoe-Phoe is flying next to Ezran after one week at the Nexus. Maybe he’s paying her back by helping her learn to fly after she helped him teach Zym how to fly! Did they bond as tightly as Ezran did with Zym? I support Ezran just bonding with the most powerful flying creatures in all the land.

the irony of Callum using Lujanne’s tactics against her is amazing, but really the white lies thing is a giant ball of chaos in this story and it does not play favorites

Bait on the stone pillar during rebuilding

all the noises the Moonhenge makes are 10/10

Rayla dancing with Callum even though there’s almost no chance she’s ever done that dance before

Lujanne’s pupils going white, that is a cool effect, what’s it mean?

the black moon in the pink sky is so spooky! Is it just me or does the color scheme here kinda vibe like the space outside Aaravos’s library?

the smoky assassin squad, 10/10 creep factor, I love it

the lightning being a literal crack of doom with “CRAK-DOOM” as Katolis Castle appears, “echoes of thunder” indeed, very nice

Lujanne being mad but she can’t decide if it’s at Callum or herself

when she says pulling Rayla out now will leave her soul on one side and her body a husk. After the Insta live stream last night where we learned that soulfang serpents are Moon primal creatures, that’s... super interesting

smoky assassins go tssh in the rain like they’re still hot from being cremated, thanks I hate it

Andromeda finds Rayla first and seems closest/most aggressive so I wonder why she might hate Rayla more than the others

the assassins’ wrist bindings have gone red but they’re still attached and seem to trap the souls where they are. But all they need to be free is to perceive that Rayla completed their task, even though we know otherwise. So... would that work for killing any target? If you’re certain that you did it, does your binding fall off even if you’re wrong? eyes Pip

this must not be the actual afterlife since the spirits kind of mist up toward the moon and vanish, it’s more like a lobby, no one stays here unless they get stuck

portaling around just by shouting at villains, excellent

Rayla literally dropping a sword at the sight of the pod Viren’s in, yeah, it’s that creepy, I agree

Viren’s eyes are so black I think they’re Aaravos’s. I got a whole headcanon on Good Viren and Evil Viren for S4 now, wow

Phoe-Phoe pulling out a feather for Callum, awww my heart! This is why Ezran had to come, to bond with her so together they could save Callum and Rayla, it’s so sweet

so these humans are from the Storm Spire battle, bc that’s the Storm Spire behind Rayla and Callum on p108, with the rune-written arch. Did they die hating Rayla and Callum from the battle? Did they even know Rayla was up there? Or is pod Viren/Aaravos actually making them attack out of hatred for Viren’s death? One of these is definitely creepier and more awesome

Rayla’s confidence that Callum can and will boost her at the right moment with his magic, my heart, I love battle couples

that one panel that mirrors the Ghost Feather key art, hhhhhh

Rayla being the better swimmer, such precious irony, thanks Runaan

them holding hands and swimming upward together on the full-page panel is blessed

Lujanne pulling Rayla out of the lake with both arms gives me feels bc my grandma saved my life once

Lujanne being super soft over Rayllum, she is indeed a hopeless romantic

Rayla says “gone” about her parents and Runaan, and that’s the word Ethari used too, and I’m suddenly wondering if Ethari reached right into that pool and has always known that the lotus is half-submerged and if the sword he’s been making is for himself

I’m so glad Rayla told Callum what she saw of Viren

Rayla deceiving Callum and heading into danger alone because his life is more valuable to her than her own is exactly what Runaan did for her the night of the full moon in Katolis. I’m leaning toward her having thought this over and doing it on purpose bc she believes it’s a sign of deepest love--that Runaan’s actions and Lujanne’s words match up in her head, so she thinks it’s the right thing to do bc the mage and the assassin agree. Alas, Callum doesn’t understand the Moon arcanum yet, so he will have a different opinion. That mage and that assassin do not agree!

Rayla’s cloak has that Moon Temple symbol on its back. Is it Lujanne’s cloak? Any Moonshadow who sees it will probably know where she got it and who helped her. That could be fun!

[joezworld]

Story time!

Here’s what I love about this fight scene - it’s that this Asian guy is immediately ready to kick ass the moment that Tom Cruise and Superman start going after him. Like this guy is literally a nobody. He has no other role in this story except that he’s there. This guy was out on a night at the club and when he gets jumped by Superman and Ethan Hunt he doesn’t scream, or shout, or ask what is going on, he just immediately throws hands and totally wipes the floor with them. Like, he must know that there’s somebody after him, and he is ready to fight to the death at the drop of a hat. Maybe he’s Yakuza?

Maybe like, he’s some Yakuza guy who’s taking the night off from being Japanese organized crime in *checks notes* France for some reason and just wants to go to the club with his homies, and he goes to the bathroom while his buddy is out partying and just doesn’t come back. 

And after a while, like 20 minutes, his friend starts to wonder “Where did Yang go? Did he fall into the toilet or something?” Because Yang expects that someone might want him dead, but this is Japanese organized crime - some sort of formal notice is supposed to be given if they’re gonna put out a hit on you. So his buddy thinks nothing is wrong until he goes into the bathroom and finds it just destroyed - and Yang is GONE - because Superman called in the CIA cleanup squad once they left, so they’ve presumably already come in and dumped the body in the Seine or something just so nobody panics at the disco because they found a dead guy in the bathroom. 

So Yang’s buddy goes off to his boss and tells them that Yang is dead - he has to be - there was blood and the bathroom is destroyed and everything, and Yang isn’t answering his phone. And obviously nobody knows what the fuck actually happened, so these French Yakuza guys are sitting around, racking their fucking brains trying to figure out who the fuck would have that much dishonor to kill Yang and not even leave a note or a reason, and eventually they figure out - “ah! It must be Rival Gang Number 1!” 

So naturally there’s this outlandish and John Wickian series of gang fights as Yang’s gang just absolutely destroys this unsuspecting other gang that they think killed their buddy, led of course by Yang’s friend, who is totally going through some ‘John Wick tracking down the guy who killed his dog’ moments. This ends when Yang’s buddy is standing over the leader of the Rival Gang after some unimaginably bloody battle in some stylized location that is strangely like a Japanese palace but in Metropolitan France (because fuck you). They both know that at best, only one of them is getting out of this alive, and Yang’s buddy knows he should just ice the bastard and do the ritual yell that gets his friend into French Yakuza sto-vo-kor or whatever. 

But he has to know

“Why did you do it?” 

And the other guy spits out a mouthful of blood and maybe a tooth and goes “I should be asking you the same question - why did you attack us? We were at peace.”

And Yang’s buddy goes “We were, until you killed Yang”

“What? No we didn’t. Why would we do that?” and this old Yakuza boss is a man of honor, even to his enemies. If he says he didn’t do something he means it. He does. Not. lie. Ever.

And so the two of them just sit there for a minute and absorb the information that this whole gang war was in error. Of course, being the sly and conniving French Yakuza leaders they are, it never occurs to them that Yang got killed because Tom Cruise couldn’t figure out what his target looked like and grabbed the wrong guy, so they wrack their brains and eventually realize - ‘it’s a false flag operation. If we kill ourselves, Rival Gang #3 can take both of our places without jeopardizing their own operation. 

So naturally another bloody gang war goes on, this time with Yang’s Gang and Rival Gang Number 1 both fighting against Rival Gang #3. Again, a series of increasingly elaborate samurai gang battles take place across most of France (because this is in France - why? Fuck you) as these gangs try to avenge Yang. And again, they slaughter their way through the entire gang organization before finally realizing that no, Rival Gang #3 had nothing to do with this either. So they put their heads together and think about what might have happened and come to the conclusion that maybe it's a different gang - one made of actual French people and not a statistically improbable number of Japanese expats. 

And so they go to the French gang - who basically stops them at the door and says ‘we know why you’re doing this, and we went through our entire rolodex of People We Know and nobody did anything to Yang or knows who did - the only person we don’t know about is this one guy who we fired six months ago for being too crazy and if He Did This it wasn’t on Us. 

So the three gangs go okay, and take the little rolodex card and go looking for this crazy person that the French gang fired, and they find him, and they ask him what happened, and he says that he has no idea either, but he goes to that club too and knows that they have secret recording tech there so that they can blackmail their evil customers if they ever need to. 

So all of the upper management of these three gangs finish slapping themselves upside the head for forgetting something as simple as ‘pull the security tapes’ and they go and they intimidate the club owners to let them see the footage from the night this happened. They’re looking but it’s slow going, until one of the club’s security guards, who is standing right there - because they’re looking at everything inside the security room, says that he knows who Yang is - and it turns out that he moonlights as club security but his day job is at the local morgue, and he says that the Gendarmerie fished Yang’s body out of the Seine the day he died - whoever did it was sloppy and dumped him at low tide so he didn’t hit the water, otherwise they’d have never found him. 

So now these gangs are wondering what the fuck actually happened to Yang, because if someone dumped him in the river they clearly were hiding the body, not trying to make a statement, which is what Franco-Japanese Yakuza groups are all about - because they totally live for Drama. So it clearly wasn’t anyone they knew or anyone that knew them. 

To make things even more confusing they finally get the footage of Yang, and there’s not a clear idea of what happened, because Yang went in, then other people went in, then more people went in, then most of the people left. Then two guys walk in, followed by a bunch of drunks - who leave before the two guys do. Yang hasn’t left yet, but then a woman runs into the men’s bathroom, before leaving with the two guys who came in before - and they look beat up. Then a bunch of janitors go in and then leave - these are presumably the body clean-up crew, but who is everyone else? 

“What the fuck does this mean?” The gangsters say to themselves. Clearly the beat up guys are the ones that did it, but who the fuck are they? Nobody has any idea who they are, so they decide to trace these guys through the club to see where they came from and where they went. 

And now things go from unusual to downright weird, because the guys who killed Yang and the girl they left the bathroom with then go into the private area of the club, one of them picks up a girl at the bar, and then all four of them proceed to murderize like 7 guys who are trying to attack them before walking out of the club and into the night. Following the tapes of the two men back before they killed Yang reveals that they entered the club through the roof. VIA PARACHUTE. 

Who are these people? And what did Yang have to do with it? 

Finally the penny drops - oh shit, Yang was killed by the CIA. Because only the Americans are that crazy.

Now they’re panicking, running around trying to figure out if they’ve got a leak or a snitch or if this was a lucky hit and they’ve got nothing. No ideas, no clue. Why did this happen? 

Eventually someone calms down enough to burn a few favors at the US embassy and runs facial recognition. One of the guys comes back as CIA and since then he’s died so no luck. The women aren’t American, and then the other guy comes back as some random DMV worker in the United States. “Ethan Hunt”. 

Clearly this is some kind of cover - he has to be CIA too. 

So now these gangs have to try and figure out how the hell they’re going to kill a CIA agent without getting caught - because revenge/honor/sunk cost fallacy. They put their heads together and brainstorm a few ideas. Eventually they come to the master plan of: ‘grab him off the street and beat him to death’.

Smash cut to like 4 months later and they actually manage to grab Ethan Hunt off the streets of Durban or Nairobi or some other place where he’s doing some sort of op, and they get him back to a safehouse and just beat the crap out of him. Curiously he has no idea who they are or why they’re asking about Yang. This infuriates them until someone bashes him upside the head with a club and his skin peels off, revealing that it’s actually some British guy wearing a scarily good mask and a voice changer. 

Now everyone is panicking - Clearly Hunt is onto them - he had a double and everything - he knows. What does he know? How does he know? Who is he going after? All questions. No answers.

 So they go back and make another brilliant  plan to kill him again - this time they’re gonna do it right and just fucking bumrush the guy - kinda like the raid area 51 thing - he can’t stop all of us.

Meanwhile, Ethan Hunt and Vhing Rhames are losing their goddamn minds after Benji gets taken and brutally murdered by parties unknown. Seriously. They ran the plate on the car that grabbed him and it was rented to a Japanese tourist. This doesn’t mean anything. Who wanted Ethan Dead? Why? Who knows? Ethan is losing it because he thinks that he just got another member of his team killed again - because Ethan Hunt must suffer - and they obviously thought that Benji was him. 

Cut to Benji's funeral in England and it’s the standard dramatic part of the movie where Ethan is saying that he can’t work with another partner and he needs some time, yada yada yada. (Oh btw, this is like in the middle of Mission Impossible 12 or 19 or something. These Yakuza guys have been doing this all offscreen and we only see them yank Benji and then later find his body. From the movie’s perspective nobody has any idea what in the blessed fuck is going on.) 

So then we cut to Ethan sitting in his rental car, and it’s the standard dramatic scene of him silently screaming and pounding on the steering wheel of the car as he has a breakdown. But then, without the shot changing - the windows of the car suddenly fill up with angry Asian faces - it’s like a zombie movie, but with Yakuza - Ethan gets ripped from the car by dozens of angry gang members and we just see them beat him to a bloody paste while the camera is still inside the car. Arms and legs occasionally appear, but we don’t see the true horrors that the angry gangsters inflict upon him.

Credits roll - this is the end of the movie

Post credits scene cut to Vhing Rhames walking up to Ethan’s car later, as like the crime scene techs are there - Ethan’s dead, and it was bloody - he’s stabbed through the heart with a katana that then pinned him to the car door for fuck’s sake. And written in blood on the car is a message in Japanese - ‘He killed Yang, so we killed him.’ 

Nobody has any idea what this means. 

End of Mission Impossible series. 

[lucent-roase]

YOU HAVE DEFINITELY IMPROVED.

i have a list of reasons.

before i say anything though, i don’t want it to seem like i’m critiquing your work at all!! i’m mostly self taught and i have minimal art education, but i just want to let you know how much you have IMPROVED!!

you have better learned how hair works. in your earliest drawing, Hunter’s hair is a tad bit messy, it looks like you were trying to go for what direction it was in but due to the art style being heavily, well, flat and stylized, the strands didn’t fit. in your second most recent, Hunter’s hair is simple, you likely outgrew what i previously mentioned. in your recent drawing, however, your style needed more detail—where the few but yet present hair strands were necessary in.

learning how the neck works. in the earliest drawing, the neck would have been extremely long (which of course can just be a style, however due to your understanding later on that is shown in your newer art and because it was hidden by the hood of his cloak, i’m assuming it wasn’t intended) in comparison to the head and body. in your latest version, Hunter’s neck is proportional to the rest of him. also, it has a slight curve on both sides, rather than being parallel

ARMS AND SHOULDERS!!! in my opinion, one of the hardest and most important things to learn is how a shoulder works when you’re drawing because it’s so easy to mess it up. lots of times, beginner artists will draw the torso, and then draw two lines coming out of it. again, this can be stylized, but anatomically speaking, that would be very awkward to possess. i don’t see the shoulders directly in the first two drawings, but i can infer that the oldest’s shoulders are lower than where the cloak falls off from. the second oldest’s shows a better understanding of shoulder placement and has more 3d elements, something that a body IS, but i want to express how much i love the newest drawing’s arms: the foreshortening. the way Hunter’s right arm is coming towards the camera and it LOOKS like that. the way his right shoulder comes out more than his left EVEN THOUGH typically it would be shorter in our perspective BECAUSE he’s reaching out. meanwhile, his left arm is pulled ever so slightly forward as his arm is in a dynamic position, whereas the older art shows nothing of it. it is so important to have different elements being shown because it brings the whole drawing together and SHOWS how much you know. it’s like writing a book report. simply, if you don’t read the book and just look up chapter summaries, you won’t have the details that are important to your understanding.

OKAY. there are obviously more things i could go on and on about, but i don’t want to bore you. you HAVE improved, op. by a TON. everything you now know that you didn’t two years ago shows!! keep drawing!! i’d love to see a redraw next year.

REDRAW :D!!

I can't tell if I improved or if my old art style was better. The first one is from today, the second is july 12, 2023 and the last one is from December 2022 (?)

[astraguardian]

Fair Game Parallels

Since there’s still debate over whether Clover and Qrow were meant to be romantically-coded, I’ve decided to make a list of the times that Fair Game paralleled either a) scenes that the fandom largely considers flirt or romantic-coded, or b) scenes between pairings that are either romantic in-canon or heavily implied. Note that this doesn’t cover every interaction in detail, since it’s focused on the parallels specifically.

In animation, every small detail matters. Someone chose to include that expression, to have the character make that gesture, or to frame a show in a certain way. CRWBY is aware of this. We’ve even heard about some of the small changes they made to scenes this volume to ensure the proper tone came across. So, for this analysis, all of those small details are, no pun intended, fair game.

(TW for blood and death)

1) Lucky you

In volume 4, we had a scene where a waitress very clearly flirts with Qrow. She winks at him, we get a joke about his semblance, and he grins back at her. Pretty straightforward, which is what makes it a great scene to parallel.

Here we have Clover saying the same “lucky you” line as the waitress, also accompanied by a wink. Right before this line, he also gives Qrow a look that’s suspiciously similar to Qrow’s reaction to the waitress. We also know from Kim Newman, who worked as an animator for RWBY up to Volume 7 Episode 9, that CRWBY were well aware of this parallel, with Kim even making a joke about the implications.

Even ignoring the obvious parallel, the line comes across as flirtatious. While some people have suggested it was a bit of banter between friends, Qrow and Clover weren’t friends at this point. In fact, it had been established to both the audience and Clover that Qrow wasn’t all that excited to be working with him.

There was no friendship between the two at this point and suggesting that the wink was an act of friendship largely misses the context of the interaction.

2) Staring

RWBY’s particularly fond of using the eyes to add subtext for both Bumbleby and Fair Game, to the point that this parallel is just the first of three involving character’s eyes. This Fair Game scene, while not focusing on Qrow’s eyes, uses his gaze to add subtext. The first thing to note is that Qrow didn’t need to be in this shot. He has no dialogue in this exchange, he’s really only there for Clover. In this shot, Clover explains how Ace-Ops are picked to perfectly complement each other. And, as we were shown previously, Clover is the only Ace-Op without a partner. Qrow’s in the scene to indicate that he’s the perfect complement for Clover. It’s also worth pointing out that despite having started off cold towards Clover in the previous episode, so likely no more than an hour before in-universe, Qrow gazes warmly at Clover not once, but three times during this shot, while also mirroring Clover’s stance the entire time.

3) Reacting to a compliment

In episode 3, we see Blake reacting to Yang complimenting her arm by putting a hand behind her head bashfully. Only two episodes later, we see Qrow do the same movement upon receiving a compliment from Clover. Qrow’s reaction didn’t need to mirror Blake’s. There are other ways they could have had him react, but they chose to parallel a character receiving a compliment from their romantic interest.

4) Truck scene

We have two scenes in the back of a truck where we get to see characters having quiet, but important conversations. Our scene with Bumbleby shows the couple trying to figure out what they think is right, while our scene with Fair Game has Qrow talk about his sobriety for the first time and get a much needed compliment from Clover. These scenes show the characters in their most open state, with Blake questioning if Yang and her had done the right thing in dealing with Adam, and Qrow getting the chance to discuss his feelings about everything that’s happened in the past volume or so.

5) Banter

Two scenes of lighthearted banter, and the first of several parallels to the scene in volume 6 where Blake leaves Yang to take out the radar.

6) Staring after the other looks away

We’re back to eyes again, this time looking at how characters’ stares tend to linger on their love interest, even after the other turns away. The Bumbleby scene has some good shots of this, but it’s a personal favorite of Qrow’s. Volume 7 makes a point to show us how often Qrow stares at Clover even when Clover’s turned away, and how it almost always tends to last several seconds longer than it needs to. Episode 8 stands out, with Qrow not only watching Clover walk away after their banter, but continuing to stare at the door he had gone through even after it was closed. He only looks away after being spoken to by a waiter. Seeing as prolonged gazes, both in-universe and outside of it, are associated with love, it sends strong implications.

7) Fond Looks

The last parallel to the volume 6 Bumbleby scene is especially strong. Yang’s expression as she watches Blake, who she clearly cares deeply for, walk away, is practically identical to Qrow’s after he watches Clover show off for him. RWBY has already established this expression as one of warmth and love, and they chose to put it on Qrow for his moment with Clover.

8) Even the villains see it

When the Bees fight Adam, there’s a moment where he looks between them before remarking on their relationship. In the fight against Tyrian, we watch Tyrian, who had previously been focused on Qrow, look over at Clover and then back to Qrow, before moving to attack Clover. The scene clearly establishes that it’s Clover he’s looking at, as Clover is in the center of the light while Robyn is off to the side, and while Robyn barely moves, Clover is seen adjusting his weapon and turning to face Tyrian. We’ve already established that Tyrian is a serial killer and Qrow’s the victim who got away, so why would Tyrian change targets and give Qrow that look? Tyrian’s decided that the best way to hurt Qrow would be instead to hurt Clover.

9) Tyrian/Adam fight

Two dynamic shots of characters attacking a villain who personally wronged by, followed by a shot of their partner helping them deal the blow. While Clover isn’t also attacking in this case, he’s the one holding Tyrian in place so that Qrow can deal the blow.

10) Art style of violent scene

This art style is only used twice in the show proper (once in the Black trailer), and both cases involve someone watching their partner suffer brutal violence at their expense. It’s worth pointing out that Qrow is actually much more emphasized in his scene than Blake is in hers, even though Blake’s scene features her abuser hurting her love interest. Blake could even be missed in her scene, with her silhouette not standing out much with the position she’s in. Qrow, on the other hand, has almost as much focus as Clover and Tyrian. The scene is capturing both Clover’s death and Qrow’s despair as he watches helplessly.

11) Mementos

We take a quick break from Bumbleby parallels for an extremely strong Arkos parallel. In volume 7 episode 3, we get a shot of Jaune holding the fabric from Pyrrha’s sash in his hands. Ten episodes later, we get the same shot, except now it’s Qrow with Clover’s pin. It’s a particularly easy callback to pick up on, seeing as it’s framed the same way. Qrow’s mourning is shown to mirror Jaune mourning Pyrrha, his canon love interest.

12) Fear of growing close to someone

It’ll be just like Beacon again. Following the events of volume 3, Blake separates herself from the rest of the group, believing she’s no longer worthy of anyone’s love. In the next volume she explains, “Everyone thinks they can help me, but they can’t. You saw Ilia last night and she’s not even the worst! No. No more. They’re better off without me. I made my choices and I’ll deal with the consequences because they belong to me.” That sounds painfully familiar to another character who watched someone they cared for get hurt in a stylized scene which they blamed themself for. Blake runs, feeling like she brings harm to those she’s close to. From Blake’s perspective, volume 3 proved her worst fears to be true. Now we’re at volume 7 and Qrow’s in the same situation. He’s separated himself from the group, choosing to go into custody instead of finding his nieces, and he clearly blames himself for what has happened. And in time, Qrow might get to parallel Blake’s recovery.

Feel free to add any parallels you think I missed, but please refrain from arguing on this post. I’m looking to share evidence, not to debate.

[89tczier]

the losers and their tumblr blogs

ik there’s already a billion hcs out there but none coming from my niche hellbrain soooo

richie (tttrashmouth)

his blog is one big ADHD mess, he has a new interest every few weeks and his blog changes accordingly, though there are several common ones 

he never seems to lose many followers for it though

his original posts are funny enough that people put up with it

he’s that user that you start following out of genuine interest and then realise that you’ve already rbed a lot of their popular posts and you’re like

oh shit, i know this fool

he has tags dedicated to each of his friends, they’re usually filled with shitposts or one of their Big Interests 

eddie has two tags, one he knows about, one he doesn’t, and gets mad at richie for not telling him who the tag is for 

the one he doesn’t is full of really gay shit

stan (corvid-company)

stan’s blog started out as a big vent but it was starting to get Unhealthy™ so they switched up their content 

stan knows about richie’s secret tag for eddie and constantly gives richie shit for it like they vague posts about it all the time to get under richie’s skin

‘the intricate rituals of creating a seperate LoveCore tag for the best friend ur pining for....... like the richard siken of it all.......’ ‘THIS IS BIPHOBIA STAN’

it’s 70% bird watching stuff, 20% posts for mike, 9% vaguing about richie’s gay shit, 1% abt being nb (because i fucking CAN ok)

they also have a pretty impressive following, some of it is due to being mutuals with richie, but a lot of it is due to the Wholesome Bird Content

its a surprise to them but they get so damn happy when they receive asks and stuff about their favourite bird watching spots or how to distinguish between different subspecies 

‘i dont know who this guy is, nor do i have a particular interest in birds, but what kind of fucking person would i be if i DIDN’T follow them?’

their tag for mike is pretty cute too, usually its just FarmCore but Romantic stuff they finds, other times its little thoughts they has about them

bev (marsh-makes)

initially set up to advertise her store and products 

she makes things like pins and sew on patches that are really fucking good

she gains a pretty big following from that, people like her stuff and she has a really good quality track record

richie models for her sometimes and everyone kinda loves it

she has a lot of stuff about ethical fashion and makes a lot of posts about the problems with the fashion and clothing industries (eg fast fashion and sizeism)

she also has some quality shitposts

‘i dissociated for like five hours one night and woke up with the best skirt i’ve ever pleated and a top to go with it. my power is unmatched’  ‘op are you ok????’   ‘ye i got a kickass outfit why wouldn’t i be’

eddie (kaprisun)

his blog is pretty simple: things he’s interested in, whatever his friends tag him in, and roasting the shit out of richie

‘tttrashmouth will never be content because he knows im funnier than him’   ‘ur not wrong, eds’

a lot of richie’s popular posts are shittalk between the two of them

he also gets into a lot of discourse because he’s feisty like that, usually about comics or comic book movies

‘imagine thinking marvel is better than dc based on 3 movies’

yes he’s a dc fanboy

he’s not as anti-marvel as he can come across he just really doesn’t get the hype around it 

he Also has a secret romance tag for richie and its half stuff of his own, half rbed from Richie’s Secret Eddie Posts unknowingly (and a bit of bens)

he tags them with ‘mood’ and it gives richie a heart attack each time

mike (hearth-and-heart)

farm core!!! original farm core content fresh from the oven!!

he takes photos around his farm and posts them and ohhh everyone loves them

same energy as stan’s blog (he has a lot of photos of them and the two of them together as well)

he also writes important dates down as well as books he likes

a Solid shitpost now and then but it’s mostly Pure and Wholesome content

people love his photography and unfortunately it gets stolen a lot but other aesthetic blogs but he doesn’t mind so much

he also is the only loser other than bev with an actual Impressive theme: it’s sleek and really fits the vibe

though every now and again he’ll rb one of richie or bev’s shitposts just for a little variety 

bill (deadbrgh)

he posts horror stuff (both from other people as well as his own art/writing) and little bit of vent/rant stuff

his rants are about tropes in horror he hates (eg: ableism and other general bigotry)

his vents are usually about grief or trauma, and he keeps them properly tagged and under a cut

his horror stuff too, he makes sure to keep everything tagged properly and has a link to the tag list in his description 

he sometimes makes a Spicy addition to richie’s posts, and people are like ‘wait why does this Super Serious and Talented creator follow that goblin??’ 

he also rbs a lot of ben’s stuff, people think they’re the same person for a hot minute because ben also writes and draws, but their styles and aesthetics are totally different 

‘people thinking me and eggboy are the same person is really flattering but unfortunately im nowhere near as ripped as he is’ ‘luv u bb’

then people think they’re dating, but also think the one of them is dating bev

they never clear it up

ben (eggboy)

all of his poetry and drawings 

he also makes a lot of lovecore posts that are definitely not for beverly at All

his a few of his poems get really popular so he kinda blows up a bit and he is Unsure How To Handle it

his first haiku for bev is his most popular like people go crazy for it

where his drawings are more stylized, bill’s are more realistic and gritty

people always think he’s straight tho and he’s like ‘could a straight person do this??’ *proceeds to capture the Essence of adoration and devotion*

bev rbs every one of his original posts and hypes him tf up, they collab on a few things and bev puts some of his Iconic lines on patches

the january embers line,,,,,,, people lose it

a lot of his stuff ends up in mike, richie, eddie and stan’s respective Love tags which he finds Perfect

he writes a poem about richie and eddie’s obliviousness and they’re both just like ‘god i wish that were me,,,,,, sounds familiar tho,,,,,,’ 

[anneapocalypse]

RWBY 7.03 - 7.04

I had every intention of making an episode post every week and boy let me tell you time just gets away sometimes. So I'm going to do my best to catch up this week! I've seen up to episode 6, but four episodes is a lot to cover all at once, so I'm going to try and cover two at a time.

I’m trying to keep all spoilers under a cut as a courtesy. If you reblog with added commentary, please use a readmore so I can reblog it back without spoiling my followers.

Big disclaimer, I kinda drifted from RWBY for a few years before getting back into it in volume 6, and I do not know the lore for this universe nearly as well as I know RvB. This is a reaction post, not hard meta, and I will probably get something wrong. Feel free to correct me, but bear all that in mind. 

Anyway, let’s get into it!

I've come to really enjoy how much aerial combat is a thing in this universe. In hindsight, Ozpin's landing strategy test for the first years makes a lot more sense when you realize that this is just a common thing in aura-based combat and everyone's probably been studying it for years already by the time they arrive at Beacon. (All except poor cheater Jaune, and I have a new theory about him but that will be another post.)

Yang and Blake's awkward flirting is very adorable and I love them a lot.

Weiss mentions that aura can protect you from the cold and is pretty vital for being outdoors in this region, which really makes me wonder what happens if someone gets their aura drained while fighting in the cold.

In Episode 3 we get to spend some more time with Ironwood's Ace Ops. It's immediately curious to me that there are five of them, not four, yet they're shown off in the intro in the same stylized silhouette as as the other teams.

This divergence from the conventions of the universe is kind of a big deal. Everything in RWBY comes in fours. Teams of heroes. Teams of villains. Kingdoms. Schools. Relics. Maidens. A team of five is weird. Also, I don't think their names make an acronym. At least I haven't been able come up with anything from CHEMV.

So I do think it means something that the Ace Ops don't fit the in-universe rules of a team. Because they're also... kind of patronizing and obnoxious, honestly. I don't mind most of the individual characters, in fact I pretty much like all of them on their own (with the possible exception of Clover who I'm less fond of), but collectively they're really patronizing to RWBY and JNR. Even Ironwood recognizes how much they've done, and formally!

But the Ace Ops... well, honestly, they seem really good at making other people feel bad. Especially Qrow. You could interpret Qrow's reaction to Clover's semblance effectively cancelling his out in multiple ways, it's true, but he doesn't exactly strike me as... happy.

We're told that the Ace Ops are handpicked to complement one another. But Harriet also goes out of her way to tell Team RWBY—and by extension the audience—that this is a job, not friendship to them. Ruby seems deflated by this; Yang looks startled, then annoyed; Blake looks angry; Weiss just looks stoic, like she disapproves but knows better than to say so.

And this, I think, is why the Ace Ops are here. They're here to fail. Theyre the test bed for Ironwood telling the world about Salem. They have no stake in the fight but the job—it's not personal for them the way it is for Teams RWBY and JNR, for Qrow. They're a squad, but not friends—not quite even a team.

And that's why they're going to fail, and possibly die. Not saying I want the characters to die, but everything about them seems set up for a fall to me, from their cocky attitudes to their contrast with Team RWBY to them being the first Ironwood has entrusted with Ozpin's secrets.

I physically recoiled when Jacques Schnee appeared onscreen. I don't know how to feel about the fact that Ironwood is leveraging martial law against Jacques and I'm rooting for Ironwood. I mean, it's Jacques Schnee, so I'd root for just about anyone against him, but still. Jimmy. Please. I don't like being on the side of martial law! It's not a good look!

Weiss confronting her father honestly gave me chills. It's such a powerful scene. Not just Weiss staring down her abuser but her friends at her back, and Blake especially taking her hand—that felt like a big deal, like a gesture of solidarity from one survivor to another. And Weiss calling them her "family." All the body language is so well-animated, including when Jacques finally walks away and Weiss's shoulders drop, letting down her defenses, knowing she's safe again. You can feel what it took for her to face him. The whole scene is so good.

And once again, it hammers home that difference between the Ace Ops and Team RWBY. Not just teammates, not even just friends, but family.

I would also like to point out Oscar's presence in the JNR team silhouette in the intro, further supporting my theory that Oscar will eventually be joining Team JNR as their fourth member, becoming Team ORNJ. :)

The graduation, humble as it is, is another gesture of good faith from Ironwood. He believes they deserve it—and aso that they can help Atlas. He got them a cake. Ironwood is, I think, making a lot of mistakes and some that threaten to come back to bite him hard. But I agree with Blake that his heart is in the right place. I just hope something convinces him to listen to reason before it's too late.

Ren seems to be getting annoyed with Nora. Twice is a pattern. At the time of watching I wasn't really sure what was going on there, but something sure was. (More on that in the next post.)

I really enjoyed the Qrow and Ruby talk; it was sweet, and very fatherly. Qrow has always felt like another parent to Ruby to me. I know there are some theories about Qrow being her biological father; to me, that part doesn't matter at all. And I do ship STRQ as a complicated poly situation, big time, but the important thing here is how much Qrow loves her.

We learn a little something about Summer here. It's been established that she left on a mission and never returned, and is presumed dead. Now we know that mission might have been something not even Oz knew about. Qrow himself doesn't know. "She was always the best of us," he says, with such fondness.

It is sweet seeing the characters relax for a little bit and have fun. Yang pranking Penny with her arm was a delight.

And we learn that Watts knows Jacques, because of course he does. Sounds like he faked his death when he turned from Atlas security and joined Salem.

A big thing I'm noticing with this volume is what feels like Rooster Teeth trying to show us that they understand systemic oppression better than they did in like, volume 2. And I do think they've come a long way. There is definitely still some of that cartoon racism against Faunus that we saw in early episodes, but we're definitely seeing more acknowledgment that anti-Faunus racism isn't simply a few isolated mean people being mean.

This volume is also really pushing the class divide between Mantle and the city of Atlas... which will come up more in the next two episodes.