#machiavillian characters

[lovely-cherubs]

Kurapika's Thoughts About Haruka:

"Haruka is a complex and multidimensional individual like all humans, but even then, anything she does sends chills down my spine. She appears to be calm, collected, and sweet to those she despises, but I know that deep down she wants nothing more than to shoot a bullet into their heads, and inject them with poison till they're rotting inside out. Her vindictiveness, and her ability to hide it extremely well, is what makes her the worst person to get on your bad side."

"Another thing about Haruka that I personally don't like and disturbs me is how she so listlessly is able to harm others and lie.

Why isn't she utterly disgusted like I am when I have to kill or hurt someone? She laughed at me when I asked this and said that I should've picked a different agency to work in if I was that icky about having to kill. I didn't know whether I was shocked or disturbed with her response. I was about to argue until she added on saying:

"You can't work in or for the Mafia and not kill anyone, Kurapika. It just doesn't work that way. If you knew anything about the mafia, then you'd know that u were bound to catch a body at some point. Working here requires mental and even emotional desensitization, something that I've developed due to being repeatedly backstabbed and betrayed by multiple people in my life—most of those people being intimate partners and even now former friends."

I didn't say anything after that because I knew that she was right. But still, they way she said it sounds like she's done this before. It makes me think of the spiders."

[followmetoyourdoom]

I have now watched Megamind Rules! and have been pleasantly surprised...

I usually do my reviews as a good first bad last but since there's so little bad, let's start with that this time.

Megamind and Roxanne's relationship and the insistence on friends grates a little, it's not the worst thing in the world, but I could use some more soft looks or touches, they were dating! They saved the city together! That counts for something!

Only other negative thing is that ep1 has some of the lack luster writing from the new film and goes hard on the 'oh look an older generation all person who doesn't know tech' when Megamind is a technical genius. Him not knowing the internet? Sure fine though they're supposed to be buying their Tesla coils and blinky dials from a warehouse in Romania, how if not online? But the insistence at him not knowing what a TV is when he has a bunch in his lair as monitors, idk, didn't like that aspect.

Now then for the good.

The quips are really on it, the writing once it settles into 'this is the scenario we have' is really enjoyable and compelling. Machiavillian is so good, the whole game being an elaborate set up was such good writing. Bringing back the Binkey, as a source of power, yes please. Megamind's backstory being that he accidentally killed him? Excellent, love that for the blue idiot, very in character.

Speaking of Megamind being in character, oh my god was he. He was amazingly chaotic and insane and a nice mixture of genius and incompetent. The body swap ep with him running the city was astounding. Hats off to the new voice actors, they really managed to let you know that this was Megamind looking like Roxanne and Roxanne looking like Megamind.

Roxanne came into her own, I'm not happy with *how* they got to her being the mayor, but she is killing it in the role she's been handed. Her dealing with Megamind and Christina bickering is an excellent call back to her having to deal with Megamind and Metro Man quipping back and forth. The cake baking scene was hilarious. I do wish she had been involved more in the investigation side of things, and I do wonder if that's why they gave her the role as mayor, so there's an excuse for her being so busy and no longer a nosy reporter. So that a certain someone else can share the spotlight.

Speaking of that certain someone, Keiko started to grow on me as her push for social media eased off and she became more of an apprentice and a member of the team. I think having a kid who looks up to Megamind but who isn't perfect and struggles to find her place in the world fits in really well with the rest of the cast. Just, let her be that rather than an annoying social media star.

Minion is perfect and has never done anything wrong ever. Except change his name, but we're ignoring that. (Though more on that later).

The Doom Syndicate in this was very good as their antics were more background or focused to one or two eps, it let them breathe as characters and showed them being competent at times, and useless at others. An excellent balance for Megamind's old team.

Overall, when the writers were saying 'this is the story we've been wanting to tell for a long long time' and I saw the film I went 'no, surely not, surely this isn't the story that has been swimming around in your head for 15 years' and it's bc it's not. It is very clearly the build up to ep8 that is the focus. The big show down, the big game across the city, the gaslighting the entire city into believing that Megamind has returned to villainy, that excellent and compelling writing is the core of Megamind and is exactly what I was hoping for. I just wish they had had more time to think about exactly how they wanted to get there instead of crowbarring it in.

To me, they shouldn't have started with a film, they should have done a star wars style summary of this is where we're at now along the lines of "After a long life of villainy, Megamind is now the hero of Metro City. After two long days hard at work as this new hero, Megamind's old team, the Doom Syndicate returns... With the city in chaos, Roxanne takes a step away from the TV camera to the Metro City white house to become the new mayor, while a young internet savvy tween called Keiko joins Megamind's team in the hopes of becoming a superhero herself one day. We return as Megamind is, once again, getting his blue butt kicked." And then cut to the end of the film and have that as ep 1.

No nonsense with Minion leaving, again, or if he does, have it be over something new! Maybe include the name change but in a compelling way such as.

Mn: Sir, I've been thinking-

MM: Now now Minion, I do the thinking around here

Mn: I know Sir, you're very good at it Sir. But I- I don't think I want to be called Minion anymore...

MM: Don't want- but... That was the name my mother gave you, your name is one of the few things we have left from home...

Mn: ...I know, Sir, but, I don't want to be just a minion anymore- I'm not just a minion anymore! I'm your friend! I've been thinking about this long and hard and-

MM: well clearly you haven't thought long enough!!! How could you throw away your name like that? If mother had given me a name I...

Mn: I'm sorry Sir, I don't want to throw away such a gift. It just doesn't suit me anymore...

MM: well... Well, maybe, maybe we don't suit each other right now...

Mn: Okay Sir, I'll give you time to think about it.

And then have him working in the donut shop, and hey maybe the donut guy has called him Buddy. Have Roxanne talk to Megamind about how names define who we are and if he wants a new name, he should be able to pick out a new name. Make it a queer analogy! Have Megamind realise his mistake and talk to Minion about it, like:

MM: Mi- hello, old friend.

Mn: Previous Sir!

MM: Previous- oh, oh I see.

Mr Donut: Hey Buddy! Nice to see you settling in.

MM: Buddy?

Mn: My new name... It's not... Ideal, but I'm trying it out.

MM: Oh. Well. I'll leave you to try out new names then...

Mn: Sir, wait! You didn't let me finish what I wanted to say earlier. I don't want just any new name, I'm asking you to give me a new name, a name I can be proud of! If the name comes from you, doesn't that still come from home?

MM: I... I suppose it does old friend! No! Ol'Chum. Do you like that name? Chum?

Mn: it's perfect!

And like then it has sentimental value, Minion leaving has a point! It has new character growth! It's about growing and learning and changing and adapting and how sometimes you have to let the past go, no matter how sentimental it may be, to move on to the future. I might write this fic.

Anyway! I got very off track. My point is that, the end result of the new Megamind stuff is amazing, I love it, and I am excited to see where they go to next and for the love of everything - Dreamworks, give the team more money and more time! The next installment should be a new movie, now is the time for a proper movie budget, the set up is there now!

[ahfucknuggets567]

Part 2 to the Megamind Swap Au, Ah Shit here we go again.

Part 2 to my silly little swap au for Megamind. Getting a little bit conversational with dealing with the dealing of sequel characters. But hey rewrites exist and I guess you could call it a rewrite.

Keiko Morita <--> Dude Monkey

I most certainly will not do the other side characters in the sequel. But Dude Monkey is the only container I can see for Keiko. The young super powered kid does not interest me at all. Dude Monkey has potential to be a younger yet more kinder version of himself while Keiko is older and a villain for like one episode. Thinking about Swapped!Keiko reminds me of Fantasy Creed's redesign video where she was kinda of a catfish who lured Rich kids to be her friend and then beat them up for their money or something like that. Swapped!Dude Monkey is a little gremlin but he's got them puppy eyes so you really can't say no to him, would you?

And here's where the swaps get... interesting because I'm not doing the normal two way swap thing. Because we're dealing with the new gen doom Syndicate and only the doom Syndicate. Which gives us an odd number of characters here. So I'm doing a circle/pentagon of swaps for this au.

Staring with...

Machiavillian -> Lady Doppler

If I'm going to be swapping Roxanne with Megamind might- I'm repeating my words. Anyways as I was saying, putting Lady Doppler in Machiavillian's role is such a good choice. She's already connected to Roxanne and she needs to be a charming and dangerous villain and without that stupid latex umbrella ass dress of hers. Seriously who decided to put her in that. You already had good concepts why change it???

That besides the point. I'm also swapping their powers around, so Lady Doppler getting... whatever the fuck Machiavillian's powers were.

Lady Doppler -> Lord Nighty-Knight

Lord Nighty-Knight -> Pierre Pressure

Pierre Pressure -> Behemoth

Behemoth -> Machiavillian

These swaps can all be reasoned away with two reasons, one, I thought they would be fun, and two, most of them were swaps I did in a previous post. It was just about the four original new doom Syndicate receiving different powers than their owns once they got them back. I ended up really liking most of the swaps I did because honestly what's more interesting? A knight made of living darkness, a mine that hypnotizes you, and a living magna creature done to death, or a knight that controls the weather and believes them self to be a demigod, a dashing rouge covered by the darkness and uses the night to his advantage, and an ancient stone being that uses hypnosis to build a cult?

Of course there's also Machiavillian with Behemoth's powers. It was the only swap left but I really liked the idea. Imagine a devilish Machiavillian dressed in all black and reds welding a pitchfork that holds his power. Plus I like to think that Swapped!Machiavillian is Swapped!Megamind's Lady Doppler.

That power swap idea lended itself to the Swapped! New gen Doom Syndicate being a bit different than the other swaps but I really loved the ideas I came up with. They retained most of their personalities traits but with new powers and roles that make them a whole lot more interesting.

The last part is coming soon with the last group of the original Doom Syndicate. I can't leave them behind, they're my blorbos. My glup shittos.