#target achieved!!!

[queermania]

It is not enough for me to watch your spn Bastille amv. I want to crumple it up and shove it in my mouth. I want to consume it.

sprinkle some rosemary on it. it'll help bring out the other flavors.

[sclappin]

Man whose definition of "monster" is extremely flexible.

[mulchwave]

trans mascs see anime men that look like this and go insane

[froschli96]

You know what, fuck it, I have to speak my truth! (this is gonna be a rant, so anyone who actually likes assassin's creed revelations and/or the secret crusade, be warned or maybe don't read this at all)

remember how altaïr talks to king richard at the end of ac1, and richard is like "[humans] come into the world kicking and screaming, violent and unstable. it is what we are. we cannot help ourselves."? and how altaïr answers "no. we are what we choose to be." and how that ACTUALLY has meaning bc he himself was "violent and unstable" at the beginning of the game but he has learned and is now CHOOSING to be a better person who cares about others and humanity at large? remember how his calmness and gentleness was something that he ACQUIRED over the course of the story?

and remember how in revelations they then suddenly had a PRE-AC1 altaïr say about the first of his targets "no man should pass from this world without knowing some kindness." and be all wise and calm and collected during a nice little chat with al mualim, who suddenly acts all fatherly? (like, this is suddenly supposed to be a positive relationship? what??)

also, during the confession the target says to altair: "you put too much faith in the hearts of men, altaïr. [...] humans are weak, base, and petty." and altaïr answers: "no. our creed is evidence to the contrary." KJASJFJDKL???? like, it’s almost insulting how close this exchange is to the one with richard. you know, the one that was actually earned after a whole game of character development. like WTF??? cool congrats now that development means nothing. like, apparently that was just altaïr reverting BACK to being the exemplary assassin who understands and believes in the creed that he was apparently just born as. (i also hate how having a young inexperienced altaïr saying this implies that altaïr's faith in humanity is a sign of naivete instead of a sign of the wisdom he has gained after being confronted with counter arguments for a whole game, and also something that distinguishes the assassins from the templars who use humanity's supposed wickedness to justify controlling them like in AC1, but whatever)

altaïr’s development in AC1 mattered BECAUSE he is not NATURALLY a good person, it actually said something about humanity's capacity for both bad AND good and how humans don't have to be forced to be good through mind control bc they can by their own free will choose to be better when taught how and when allowed the freedom to grow. but no. apparently altaïr has just always been calm, wise and gentle. and he just sort of forgot about that during AC1 bc…. ? bc of adha?? bc of abbas???

oh don’t get me started on the whole abbas thing. (it doesnt even make sense that abbas is so hung up about his father and "his family’s honor", like what about the whole point of al mualim not allowing parents to be close to their children bc it would make them weak? like, my dude, you’re not supposed to HAVE any family aside from the brotherhood)

they used the throwaway character that had like 5 lines and made him into altaïr’s main antagonist in revelations… like, abbas wasn’t supposed to be this ONE dude who had personal beef with altaïr, he was just supposed to show how while altaïr’s revered by many, a lot of his brothers also hate him, bc 1) altaïr is a shitty person at this point and 2) bc there’s no real feeling of community and family in this version of the brotherhood, but just a pervasive sense of competition and jealousy — these assassins don’t care about their goal of safeguarding humanity bc they’re too hung up on petty squabbles and divided by rivalries (you know, the things that made malik hate altaïr even before solomon’s temple and that he overcomes in the end which enables him to forgive and to reconcile with altaïr so they can work together and stop al mualim? (you ever just think about "we are one. as we share the glory of our victories, so too should we share the pain of our defeat. in this way we grow closer. we grow stronger." and cry? bc i do. all the time. malik, the man that you are))

and now abbas is altaïr’s childhood best friend turned lifelong enemy?? like, bowden bent over backwards to come up with an explanation for why altaïr is an arrogant ass at the beginning of AC1, when the explanation is right there: he was raised to kill without asking questions and was constantly praised for how good he is at murder, which resulted in him becoming arrogant and disregarding human life. like, it doesn’t have to be some shakespearean family feud type shit. and guess what, this "simple" explanation actually plays into the story’s themes, who’da thunk!

(like, abbas might not have been a "fleshed out" character in AC1, but he had a specific function and now that function is gone. mr bowden, mr mcdevitt, you know characters are allowed to simply exist to tell us something about their worlds and the systems they live in and sometimes that’s more important and also more interesting than having every single character have a detailed backstory to explain all their behaviors, right?)

with all of this revelations loses all nuance in regards to the levantine brotherhood and also the creed in general. like, altaïr being a master assassin at the beginning despite being a terrible person and not actually understanding the creed is a criticism of the brotherhood and the creed itself. like, it said something about the order that someone like altaïr was able to get that high in rank, simply bc he's good at killing, which also tells us what is considered important in the al mualim era assassin order. when you make altaïr’s arrogance the result of his personal conflicts instead of how we was raised by a brotherhood that only valued one's ability to kill, you lose that characterization of the assassin order itself!

and by suddenly making al mualim a semi good "father figure" you also downplay his manipulation of not only altaïr but all those under his care. (altaïr says something about al mualim being "as a father" to him exactly twice in the codex, but he doesn’t mean by that that he WAS a father to him, what he means is that he was the CLOSEST THING he had bc HE DID NOT HAVE PARENTS, not because his mother died in childbirth and his father was executed when he was young btw, BUT BECAUSE IT WASN’T ALLOWED, like his parents actually lived but weren’t allowed to be close to him, he says he came to view al mualim’s "weak and dishonest" love as enough and even better BECAUSE HE HAD NOTHING ELSE, BECAUSE AL MUALIM ISOLATED HIS ASSASSINS FROM THEIR FAMILIES. al mualim "loved" him bc he was good at killing people for him! hm, i wonder if this could be trying to say anything about cults and indoctrination and the inherent contradiction in fighting for peace and free will by taking children away from their parents and raising them to become killers?? like, altaïr wasn't ~the special orphan boy~ taken in by al mualim bc his father died a hero's death, it was "the way of the order" to have al mualim be the closest thing to a parental figure for everyone to ensure absolute loyalty! altaïr saying al mualim was like his father is not supposed to make you go "oh, he must have actually been a good guy for altaïr to consider him a father", it should make you go "oh that's kinda fucked up that he considers the dude who made him into a killing machine and who manipulated him a sort of father figure"!)

and then in revelations they suddenly portray that relationship as positive and healthy??? like, it would be one thing to give it some nuance by delving into the psychology behind al mualim’s "love" and maybe showing how al mualim did care about altair in a complicated, fraught sort of way (like, you know, there’s a lot of interesting things you could say about al mualim at several points addressing altaïr as "my child" in AC1 and how that parallels Garnier referring to the people he drugged and abused as his "children", and what that says about how the templars view the people who they say they want to save and in whose best interests they supposedly act (in any case, al mualim doesn’t use that phrase because he has any real parental feelings but rather to patronize and to invalidate any objections, like in a "mother knows best" way))

but they even fucking DARE to parallel that relationship with that of altaïr and darim in revelations, by having the reflection in the puddle of darim hugging altaïr showing altaïr hugging al mualim…. like their relationship wasn’t inherently abusive but just tragically cut short because al mualim was just "corrupted by the apple"… like WHAT???? so it’s not the very real problems like grooming, manipulation and indoctrination and the hierarchical structure of the brotherhood itself (all of which are antithetical to the assassin ideology), it was just the evil apple all along. great. that’s DEFINITELY a lot more interesting.

god im sorry i really dont want to spread negativity but this is driving me INSANE. like, somebody please tell me im not crazy bc i feel like somehow most of the fandom is in agreement that revelations and the secret crusade have better storytelling and characterization than ac1.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, can we talk about how, even IF we completely ignore AC1 and treat revelations altaïr as his own character…. the narrative still doesn’t really work?

basically, the whole point of his story in rev is that "he gave his whole life to the brotherhood", this obsession led to him not using his time with his family which has him ending up dying alone in a dark library and this in turn makes ezio reevaluate his life choices…. except. he doesn’t? neglect? his family? or whatever? like, his devotion to the assassins is sort of painted as this tragic flaw that leads to a lonely death bc it supposedly comes at the cost of his family, but… his wife has joined the assassins, (at least) one of his sons is in the brotherhood and even when he goes to protect the assassins against the mongols, he takes his family with him (except for the son who stays behind bc he has a family of his own and who, ironically, ends up dying bc of that)… like, you can’t describe altaïr as a good husband and father in the database and have his son tell him that "everything that is good in me began with you, father" when they say goodbye, and then want to make us believe that he put his family behind the brotherhood and that that is a character flaw that leads to his tragedy.

because you HAVE to have a character’s tragedy be the result of a character flaw. like. that is how tragedies work. otherwise it just becomes tragedy for the sake of tragedy which is… boring bc it has no purpose. and we know it is SUPPOSED to have purpose bc ezIO FUCKING QUITS BEING AN ASSASSIN AFTER WITNESSING IT!

it’s like they want to have their cake and eat it, too — they didn’t want to actually make altaïr a bad husband/father, but still wanted to make his life a tragedy where he loses his family which is why instead they outsource all responsibility to abbas who now has to be the reason for ALL the deaths.

like, they try to make at least maria’s death kind of sort of the result of altaïr’s rashness or whatever but like… these guys KILLED THEIR SON and TOLD HIM THAT ALTAÏR HAD ORDERED HIS DEATH. like, altaïr losing it in response to that is not rash, it’s fucking logical and justified! if anything the scene made me angry at maria for trying to stop him. like, GIRL, he was YOUR son too??? but god forbid we give female characters actual real emotions, she has to fill the role of "voice of reason who dies for altaïr’s man pain" i fucking guess.

like, it’s this weird mix where his tragedy is simultaneously painted as his own fault but also not really bc abbas is the one responsible for all the shit that happens. it just… it just doesn’t really go together.

the only way to make his story make sense narratively and to give it actual purpose is by looking at it in the context of ezio’s story, bc the things he sees in altaïr’s memories are supposed to be a revelation (ha!) to ezio specifically. and i guess that’s maybe the crux of it all — altaïr’s story in revelations was conceived of first and foremost to support ezio’s story and development. which is probably also why many people maybe don’t notice bc, having skipped ac1 and started with ac2, the majority of people mostly care only about ezio and only really appreciate altaïr’s story in as far as it serves to push ezio forward. (tho i’ve also seen a few people say that ezio is also written kind of weird in rev, but i’ve never really been an ezio girly myself so i can’t speak to the truth of that)

like, altaïr dying alone in the library doesn’t really have to make sense for his character, i guess, bc it’s only really supposed to be a cautionary tale for ezio.

so, i guess, for once, they actually had a MAN dying for another man’s character development, which is pretty woke actually. ubisoft, i take everything back jksdsfjhgdsahfhsdhfghfdsgjhsdgjh

[haunted-xander]

Something something kh2 Sora's outfit being primarily dark colors despite being associated with light and Riku's outfit being primarily light colors despite being associated with darkness

[pinkeoni]

Let’s examine the effect NINA actually had on El

This is branch off of this post I made about El’s superhero/monster dichotomy. tl;dr El’s internal conflict boils down to her belief that she is either a monster or a superhero, she can’t accept herself as being neither.

I feel like it’s a misconception that NINA has resolved El of this internal conflict, that she has now independence and realized that she is neither a hero nor a monster, just herself.

But I beg the question— did she really?

It was actually Brenner, the man of the hour, who gave El the speech about there being no such thing as superheroes and monsters.

(I feel like this joke has been made before, but it’s just so easy 😂)

Papa is telling El to confront the demons of her past, that she is more complex than she gives herself credit for.

But El does not take this lesson to heart, instead we have this confrontation between here in Papa in 4x08—

I do think that El realizing that she isn’t a monster and that she is a victim of her environment is a good thing. El has used violence in the past because it is what she was taught and what she was pushed to do. So, this is at least a step in the right direction.

But the problem is, El has not resolved her core issue, which is her dualistic way of thinking.

El doesn’t take the lesson that there are no heroes and monsters, but rather takes the monster label from herself and sticks it onto Papa. And don’t get me wrong, Papa has done terrible and unforgivable things. But the fact that El continues to have this hero and monster mindset means that there is still a conflict that needs to be resolved going forward.

When El went into NINA, she went in with the mindset that it was going to make her a superhero.

So El’s personal goal isn’t really to remedy her way of thinking, but actually to become a superhero and and erase this monster label that she has on herself, influenced partially by these visions of the massacre that she keeps recieving. She believed that she killed all those kids herself. After her talk with Papa it seems like she’s going to confront these demons head on, but what NINA actually ends up telling her is that she didn’t kill all of those kids and that she was the one who actually punished the killer by unlocking a new power and sending him to a different dimension.

Papa tries to tell her that she was the one who released him from his prison, but El combats by saying that Papa’s actions are what pushed One to do so in the first place. Now El is correct in her assessment of Papa’s abuse and the effect it had on both her and One, but again this isn’t El facing her inner conflict and rather deflecting it.

And the one who calls her out on this is another antagonist—

So El went into her fight with Vecna thinking she can win, because she is the superhero and she’s done it before and thinks she can do it again (See: “If you touch her again, I will kill you again”) and when she loses she blames herself, which Byler calls out—

El isn’t able to see her successes, the small sliver of hope she was able to offer in the darkness because she is too caught up in her way of thinking. But another thing is, El doesn’t really have something to fall back on— this is all she knows. She was raised to use violence and be a weapon, and she can either use that to be a monster, or use it to be a hero. If she can’t be the hero or the monster, then who is she?

[catadromously]

your blog’s vibe is Going to the Natural History Museum on a Rainy Day with a Yellow Umbrella with Frogs On It

[didnt-hear-cold-as-you-live]

.

[shiraishi--kanade]

Wow illiterate prsk fans rly do be speaking nonsense again. So sorry u have to see this 😔

Thank you Keri. This is Rough

(slight Righteous Anger and hater behaviour ahead)

The worst part of it is that it's only partially people who are genuinely clueless or are bad at reading comprehension, but a much, much larger part of the fandom that I've seen is just genuinely hateful and spiteful towards VBS right now. Like you would only see this level of hatred towards K-pop groups, I swear. And most of those people are WxS fans being upset that since VBS took up the colorfes spot the Tsukasa event will likely not be a limited. Like! Holy fuck! People! What's wrong with you! This is genuinely crossing the line at this point, especially calling actual VBS fans for "having it too good". Get a grip. It's a gacha game. You'll live.

Being upset at the timing and the lim set is fair enough, I am too. I'm not excited for Kohane to have two back to back lims, I'm not excited about the precedent it sets especially after promises of trying to balance it out (Kohane is one of the more popular characters on JP, so it's obviously a favouritism thing). I'm not excited about two focus events that got a lim set back to back either. But it's important for VBS, this is a three years old arc ender! Of course it's gonna be a lim set! Of course it's a Giga comm! Why aren't we excited over a producer who consistently made great songs for VBS being commissioned if it's basically a guarantee for an important song in game being good and in their style?

Why are we calling it bad writing! Oh my god! It's been 3 years! It's been 3 years in universe! It's not too soon by any measure, but I'm double not taking it seriously from the very same people (I checked. Not naming names though) who called VBS "too drawn out with the same unchanging goal that's already too boring" before! You can't complain about them achieving the said goal and then moving on, pick a goddamn side.

I think I'm going to step away after some time because I was so excited but peoples endless complaining about everything kinda ruined it for me and I don't want to not feel excited about something I've cheered on for my oshis to achieve actually happening. Some of y'all just hate any unit besides WxS and N25 and it shows.

[artekai]

Those are her vibes

[delicatepointofview]

absolutely obsessed with the fact the most repeated part of the bty behind the scenes video is where bebe is on that couch looking hot

[10-dutchies-12-bicycles]

my poor little meow meow 😔

[againwhy]

Achievements Unlocked: Virgins

[finding-my-truth]

[peachlit]

made a new overwatch account so i can shit on new people as widow

[celestialtrolls]

I do enjoy aelynn as a character a lot for many reasons but also she has organically and slowly gotten stronger and more abilities over time

I still remember her getting absolutely wrecked by. So many trolls growing up. Just in straight fights that she would have no issue with now

But also it doesn't feel silly to rp her like it does with queen of hearts sometimes because she doesn't normally use her full strength. She isn't scheming or have any big plans. She's just. Trying to exist

Can she pull a wall down without really trying? Yeah. Is she going to without a reason? No. She's not actively malicious or destructive it's just a passive side effect sometimes