#tera doesn't like guy either

[dronebiscuitbat]

Oil is Thicker Then Blood (Part 49)

Even with the confirmation that this was in fact not Doll, and just some dude who worked with N, she didn't immediately relax the spines on her tail or take her hands off Tera. He was still a sudden intruder, and she still felt incredibly vulnerable from earlier, her core still fluttering and feeling a little numb.

“What do you want?” She snapped, and Guys eyes seemed to trail up her tail, the head was pointed at him, dripping it's acidic venom onto the floor. With the rest of the spines creating the equivalent of a barbed wire fence around both her and Tera.

“Uhm- I uh.” Guy stammered, loosing all semblance of the words he was about to say, red stained his cheeks as a warped smile took over his face.

Was he? Blushing? Over what? Her tail? Her spines? Didn't he know both of those were aggressively aimed at him?

She lifted a brow and put a hand on her hip before slowly relaxing the spines on her tail and back, moving it back to it's place behind her. The hell was this drones deal.

Without her hands protecting her, Tera was able to actually look at the new drone, she squinted at him, observing him. He was wearing a black t-shirt with a white windbreaker, it was baggy and too big for him. He also wore a dark grey pair of sports shorts and red sneakers. A red and white cap adorned his head.

“I'm so-so sorry about barging in unannounced! I just came by to uh, talk to N.” He finally managed to spit out, tousling his own light brown hair out of nervousness.

With a sigh, Uzi stepped out of the doorway to let the young man inside, closing the door with her tail behind him, Tera continued to stare at him with a suspicious glare.

Uzi turned towards the closed bedroom door. A hand to the side of her mouth.

“N! Someones here to see you!” She yelled out to her boyfriend. Only to get a “Just a second!” back.

“Uh… hey there, little one.” While Uzi was turned away, Tera still focused on the newest drone in the room. To the point that the drone felt he needed to speak to the toddler who he had caught the attention of.

Tera's glare got more intense, less suspicious, more hostile. A low growl escaped her mouth and she gripped tighter onto her mother, not that Uzi noticed.

Guy gulped and decided to lean against the center countertop, the ones in the middle of kitchens with a sink, and looked away from the strangely cranky toddler.

A moment later N opened the door to the bedroom, his coat finally completely buttoned but his hat absent, he was rubbing the side of his neck where Uzi's fangs had dug slightly into his casing and left small indents. Normally, his system would just repair it, but for whatever reason the marks weren't being flagged as damage, and thus, were still plainly visible.

Then his eyes landed on Guy. And the disassembly drones tail shot up to attention, his eyes narrowed, and something territorial and possessive rose into his core.

“Guy? What are you doing here?” He asked, there was no audible aggression, not yet. But seeing Guy in his home, next to Uzi and Tera triggered his instincts majorly.

Intruder, fight him. Show him who's boss. He can't be in here. This is your nest. He needs to leave.

He shook off those thoughts, even as his tail swayed like a cat getting annoyed.

“Wanted to talk to you. ‘Bout what I said?” Guy looked sheepish, getting the feeling he was very much not welcome here.

“And it couldn't wait until work tomorrow?” N asked, closing the distance to stand directly in front of the drone, his back was board straight, making him as tall as possible and loom over the rather average height of Guy like a rather scary dog.

“Hal sent me to apologize… to both you, and your girl… in person.”

“She has a name.” N barely contained the growl that accompanied that, but couldn't quite conceal the venom dripping from it.

“R-right. Uzi.” He gave a small wary smile to the woman in question, but her expression just seemed proud of her boyfriend, smirking at his attitude.

“I'm s-sorry about what I said, about… uh Uzi. To both of you, calling someone names is uncalled for.” Guy didn't meet either of thier eyes, instead finding the floor more interesting. Uzi crossed her arms, N didn't really look like he believed him.

“What did you call me?” Uzi asked, he voice didn't betray any emotion to the untrained ear but to N? Oh, she was upset, probably already was upset at an unwelcome visitor but even more so now.

“W-what?” Guy blinked, sweat beginning to bead on the inside of his visor. His focus on Uzi again, his eyes drifted to her tail again, which was still looking at him. And another red blush took over his face.

Something that N caught. And absolutely did not like. His clenched his fist hard to avoid switching into his claws and his eye twitched against his will.

He didn't know what was going on, or why he was being so territorial, but it was probably best he didn't say anything to the offending drone right now.

“People have called me a lot over the years. Bitch, Scitzo, Trash, Freak.” She explained nonchalantly, each word making N's fist unclench as he winced. Guy seemed to wince only at the last one.

“You winced. You called me a freak. Right?” She picked up on it immediately, giving him no room to say anything or defend himself, and took a few steps towards him after handing off Tera to N, Guy looked trapped, something that made him both gulp in nervousness and the flush on his visor grow brighter.

“I'm sorry. Yes, I-I did. I don't really think that though, I was j-just repeating stuff!” He put his hands up in a placating gesture, mostly aimed towards Uzi rather then N.

“Right. Sure, totally not just saying that because now I'm in front of you with a tail dripping acid.” Sarcasm dripped from her mouth, she was now close enough to touch him, her finger pointed at him as a small growl escaped her mouth, and at the mention of the tail Guy gave a small, seemingly unconscious smile.

“It's… acid?” He questioned, almost like he was excited by that prospect, and Uzi immediately took several steps back from him, catching his tone.

“I mean! No! No of course not! I'm being genuine!” He seemed to catch himself, backing up a bit himself before clearing his throat, sticking his hand in his pocket, pulling out a small, unwrapped toy.

“I even brought a peace offering! It's a toy for the little one!”

The toy was obnoxiously red, plastic, and the cheapest thing one could possibly get for a toddler. It was in the shape of a lizard.

He quickly closed the distance between himself and N holding Tera, possibly assuming that was a safer option then handing it to Uzi, he brought the toy up to Tera's face and-

Chomp!

Tera lunged forward and caught two of his fingers in her mouth, biting down with all the force she could. Guy screamed, dropping the toy and immediately ripping his hand away, cradling the injury.

Tera had broken his casing an astounding feat considering her teeth lacked any fangs, and oil was oozing out of several points, said oil also stained Tera's mouth, witch was unsettling in its own right, but the next one was more so.

Tera said her next two new words.

“Bad man! Bad man!”

Next ->

[nfcv-saltmine]

To christen this blog, how about you compile your top 10 reasons NFCV should not be watched either as an adaptation or its own thing? :3c

Only ten? I have like. 40, at least. But oh well! I'll be happy to provide with ten, for a start. ❤️

(Warning for mentions of SA and death)

Reason number 10: The characters all suck, in one way or another. The only ones I have some sympathy for is Hector who was never given the chance to evolve, and was forced to be a victim the whole show, and Trevor, who is never taken seriously and is mostly there to be mocked by those who are supposed to be his friends.

The others? Dracula is a joke who can't keep his own men in line. He has to wait for a #girlboss to enter and insult his wife to his face. He spends most of his screentime being a poor little meow meow, gaslighting everyone into thinking he deserved the happy ending he got. Isaac is boring and his "deep arc" really is just inconsistent and a bad version of game!Hector's arc. Lenore is. Lenore. :) Going from a manipulative villain to a poor little meow meow so fast it's ridiculous. The lesbian vampires just exist to be lesbians and pretend the plot is more deep and complex than it is.... it's not enough to have good ideas. You need to execute them properly.

Concerning Nocturne? Only the girl who was kidnapped and used as Erzsebet's juice box has my compassion. Everyone else sucks, from Maria being twitter personnified, to Annette being a cunt who gets a pass because she's black. Tera doesn't do shit to defend her own children when Annette insults them right in front of her. Edouard is there for cheap drama. The Abbot Emmanuel's logic for why he does what he does doesn't make any sense. Erzsebet has no charisma and is a cheap replacement for the villain Dracula should have been (not to mention her plan is stupid because we saw vampires being touched by sunlight with no problem on multiple occasions. :) And Olrox literally went to met his future bf in plain daylight. Clearly the sun musn't be THAT much of a problem). Olrox and his bf are there to be gay. And Juste... Juste deserves his own post for how dirty they did him. Richter isn't THAT bad compared to the rest of the cast, but I do not care for him (except when he gets shit on for no reason), he's just a cheap mix of Trevor and Game!Richter. And Drolta is Game!Isaac with boobs. Would be cool if Game!Isaac wasn't constantly shat on by NFCV fans, the same who love Drolta. :)

Reason number 9: You like representation in your media? NFCV sucks at it. They have: man who gets raped by both a man and a woman, two lesbians who exist just to be lesbians and could very well be written out of the plot, two gay men with a rushed relationship who share very little screentime together (four scenes and the first one is them meeting) yet we are supposed to be affected by their romance, one man who is implied to have a bf so vaguely that most people probably have missed the one hint there was of it, and lesbian main villain who uses a random woman as a juice box and potentially is mindcontrolling her (would be hot if said villain had any charisma and random woman was more than a fridge)

Reason number 8: Character developments are either bad, meh, or inexistant. Isaac goes from ordering his night creatures to kill every survivor at the end of an episode, to build them graves and rebuild the town and pretend to be so deep and nice and caring for said innocents and future people of this town in the next. Hector started a nice guy trying to live in peace, has lived as a nice guy trying to live in peace while getting mocked and shit on and used and abused by everyone, and ended as a nice guy trying to live in peace but now in a Castle and with one finger less. I guess Trevor is less of a drunkard than before (but it's not like we saw him drink THAT much before). Lenore's development is not much of a development than it is the writers trying to convince us she was always sweet and tragic and Good Deep Down and make us forget her evil doings...

Reason number 7: There's lots of ACTUAL anime out there with prettier animation, if that's what you like. Or you could. Play the games. ❤️

Reason number 6: The couples are bad. Sypha is rude and never showed any interest or appreciation for Trevor's own interests or findings. They don't have an actual spark, despite "cute" moments here and there. The moment Sypha asked Trevor to travel with her just made me question what she saw in him considering now she's been treating him (also the moment she decides to nickname Trevor as "Treffy" is embarrassing more than cute. Doesn't help that it's the same moment where she pulled him aside to scold HIM for getting mad and defending himself against Alucard's bullying). They lack a proper build-up, because the show loves doing things offscreen and expecting us to go along with it, but they NEED to be together because they NEED to have sex because they NEED to have children even though they completely destroyed the reason why.

Alucard and Greta. Haha. Oh Alucard and Greta. You'll see in reason number 1 the biggest reason why Greta sucks big sweaty balls, but one of them is that she's just a generic girlboss. Her and Alucard are not an official couple, but considering the parellel they made with Draculisa at some point (Alucard bowing to welcome her in his home, like Dracula bowed to Lisa to welcome her in his lab), and her line "lucky you have me to run your life for you now", I think it's implied. And I do not buy it. :) (They both suck anyway, so who cares)

Richter and Annette DEFINITELY have NO chemistry at ALL. Annette spends most of her time HATING Richter, who is only, along with everyone else, trying to help her. And when they finally see each other again after multiple episodes of being away from each other, during wich everytime Annette mentions Richter it's to insult him, when dares to pretend she was worried for him and they have a little "cute" scene together...? NO. THEY DID NOT EARN IT. THEY BARELY SHOWED ANY INTEREST IN EACH OTHER BEFORE RICHTER DISAPPEARS, ANNETTE SEEMS TO DESPISE HIM MORE THAN ANYTHING. And one of the worst things is that thinking of HER, a woman he JUST met and who just kept insulting him, that Richter unlocked his powers??? I CALL BULLSHIT. YOU CANNOT RUSH THINGS TO THIS DEGREE, NO.

I ain't talking about the two gay couples because there's literally nothing to say. The lesbians are supposed to be cute and the gays are supposed to be hot. It's just fetishization at this point.

Reason number 5: Female characters are either fridged or girlbosses. That's it. Don't expect much variety here. Because apparently to be a woman you have to either shut up and die, or be super strong and rude. (Or be a BDSM mommy. :))

Reason number 4: CHURCH BAD mentality with no nuance. Because it's so cool and edgy. And that works for both shows. :)

Reason number 3: The villains sucks too, when you have your brain turned on. You might like the ideas or the designs (though Erzebet Sun Thundercat's design is so awful i can't understand why anyone would like it. Also Carmilla is ugly guys?? Her head melts into her hair, come on), maybe a scene here and there, but when it comes to the execution? Urgh. I already talked about Dracula being a poor little meow meow, but what I can add that him and Isaac are fucking stupid for going with Carmilla's plan. Isaac is fucking stupid for blaming Hector and going after him. And Carmilla is fucking stupid for treating Hector the way she did when he wasn't intending to go against her before she makes him her prisoner and beats him up.

Reason number 2: Play the games. The themes and ideas taken from them are bastardized and done poorly in the show, when they're not straight up ditched.

Isaac's arc? Game!Hector's but more inconsistent and pretentious. Trevor and his family being rejected and hated by the people? Castlevania 3 (and this fear and dislike of them won't end until centuries later, with Simon). Dracula welcoming Isaac and Hector and making them his generals? He did so in CoD and they were literal children seeking a home, wich he helped and shared his own essence with. Not two random dudes who happen to have powers of their own. Alucard vs Dracula and the tragedy of blood fighting blood? Symphony of the Night but way too early

Alucard literally steals Trevor's spot as the main character and the one who is supposed to kill Dracula first, wich is a MAJOR part of the games and the CV universe, completely taking away the Belmonts' purpose as the only ones capable of defeating Dracula. It was completely unnecessary, too, if what they wanted was family angst, as Alucard could have simply been about to stake his father, but because of his love for him, would have been unable to give the final blow. Leading to Trevor giving the final blow himself, so his "friend" wouldn't have to go through the pain of doing it himself, thus keeping the Belmonts' unfortunate purpose intact and still making for a poignant father/son tragedy. But no, they just had to make Alucard the MC and make him destroy the core of the games they are supposed to adapt, on top of making him a cunt.

Oh, and this idea of Dracula being the literal Lord of Darkness? Not just any vampire, but the most powerful of them, a straight-up demon, respected and feared by all creatures of the night, who has multiple terrific forms and cannot be killed by any weapon... other than the Vampire Killer? Out the window! Now we're SUPPOSED to think he's big and scary and dangerous, but he can be killed with a piece of wood and no one respects him! Barely fear him! Not even Death, who is supposed to be his closest confidant and most devoted servant, is now an entity that uses him in the dark and don't hold any respect for him. Pathetic.

There's no respect to the source material. The VK means nothing now, wich is coherent with the fact that Belmonts mean nothing now, because Dracula means nothing now and nothing is near as epic as it is in the games. Nothing that makes "Castlevania" Castlevania matters anymore, it's just bullshit, and chances are, what you like from the show you will prefer in the games.

Reason number 1: It handles trauma and sexual assault like the purest shit.

It's something to not give a shit about Trevor's trauma wich happened offscreen. It's another to treat the trauma the characters go through RIGHT IN FRONT OF US like it's nothing.

As much of a cunt Alucard is, I cannot excuse the way his case with Sumi and Taka was handle. Forget how their reasoning for betraying Alucard was shit and the way they decided to go at it was unnecessary. The fact is, they tricked Alucard with sex. Giving him the deepest kind of affection sexual creatures can share, making him so very vulnerable, making him believe he was loved and not alone anymore... only to betray him. Forcing Alucard to kill them before they kill him. It's a truly traumatizing experience that can easily lead to the victim struggling to trust anyone, on top of having a very complicated relationship with their own body from then on.

How does NFCV handles that? It makes Alucard piss on the corpses of his old friends, then have him tell his story to a random #girlboss who jumps on the occasion to make a joke out of it, comparing this very obvious sexual assault and betrayal of his trust with her willingly sleeping with a married man.

Funnily enough, Hector was going through the same thing at the same time! He has been manipulated and seduced by Lenore. She's the only one who treated him decently (because Carmilla is supposed to be a smart bitch who can trick Dracula and his court, but not smart enough to understand that physically assaulting Hector and letting him rot in a cell naked with only molded bread for food and freezing water thrown at him to wash is a bad idea.), the only one who talked to him, offered him gifts such as books, a bed, a desk. She worked her way into his heart until he fell for her and "willingly" had sex with her... and then, in this crucial moment, where Hector was at his most vulnerable, she stabbed him in the back. Made him her slave with a magic ring. Then went on to say "Shh, the real people are talking" to him when she talks about her brilliant plan to her sisters, and then going "i gave you what you always needed. i made you into my pet." when Hector expresses his horror and pain about the situation.

At the end of s3, there was absolutely no doubt that Lenore was an evil, two-faced villain. And there was hope that Hector would go back at her when he pensively looked into a fire, a parallel to when he burned down his home with his parents inside, and foreshadowing for chaos to come... but nope! Next season, he makes sex jokes with Lenore like we're supposed to believe they share chemistry, and he PROTECTS her from Isaac, and let her die on her own terms because she could not handle to be trapped in the same kind of life she tried to trap Hector in! And Hector's sexual assault is only mentioned ONCE, so Lenore can go "oh shush, you were having fun". :)

Actually, it's not that NFCV handles sexual assault and trauma badly. It's that it does not believe men can go through them, clearly. It uses very heavy topic for cheap drama and nothing else. Lenore did not need to have sex with Hector and trap him with a magic ring for her plan, not any more than Sumi and Taka needed to fuck Alucard if all they needed to do was use some magic object on him to trap him. Ellis just wanted something he could masturbate to. And THAT is supposed to be the Peak Adaptation Of All Time? Seriously?

Oh you also have Richter's trauma. They literally gave him a mom just to fridge her and use that for a little bit of drama that only really matters ONCE, when Richter runs away from Olrox in the dungeon, and Annette hates him for it... but then he quickly gets over this years-long trauma and next time he sees Olrox, it's as if he's just another vampire. It's not as bad as Alucard and Hector's cases, granted, but it's ridiculous. A clear case of bad writing who feels the need to rush things.

SO YEAH. Plenty of things wrong here, and plenty more to come. ❤️ I can't possibly tell them all in just one post. It wouldn't be fun. 🥰

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

Stumbled upon your master list of SW meta you wrote, and enjoyed reading through some of them, especially the ones that examined and defended the jedi order. I point to the jedi order in particular because when you pointed out that the number of jedi in the galaxy are proportionally smaller compared to a planet with a population in the trillions, it reminded me of a bad take regarding the order (which is conflated with the whole "the jedi are actually the bad guys" in SW): that the jedi are eugenicists because their adoption of force sensitive children. This never sat right with me given that the jedi never seemed the type to be concerned with propagating their numbers in some form of "purity" (genetic or force sensitivity wise). Any chance you can gleam into the nitty-gritty of this take's unsavory implications?

OOf, that's an old ask, and that reminds me that I really need to update that masterlist 😅 (and me saying that is an even older draft, oops 😂)

Okay, the idea of the Jedi being *eugenicists* is SO out of left field that I feel like it doesn't even deserve to be really addressed so much as mocked, because words mean things.

To be quite fair, I don't think I've ever seen anybody seriously use that word. (It may very well have happened tho, I just can't remember somebody seriously making the claim and sticking to it.) Even the infamous KT rant (see below) doesn't call them that - the extremely weird and frankly absurd take is that they embody supremacist ideas and that people who are into them believe there is such a thing as an inherently superior person. She does use the word "Nazi" (just wow), but I don't think she was going for the eugenics part, just the run of the mill white supremacy theories. People on both sides of the argument may have misquoted/misinterpreted her on that though.

(Seriously woman, why were you even writing for Star Wars?! YOU DIDN'T EVEN LIKE IT!)

Now, eugenics? (This post is so weird to write, I can't even) ⇊

It is LAUGHABLE to use it in relation to the Jedi Order, because as you accurately put it, the Jedi just aren't interested in... making babies.

Do they force their members to procreate, even artificially? Absolutely not.

Are they seeking to improve the Order by only taking in the healthiest, strongest, most powerful children? No. They were ready to reject Anakin, for one thing.

Are they studying how to arrange reproduction in the rest of the galactic population? No.

Is there a ban on non-Jedi Force sensitives having children of their own? No. Are they forced or even strongly encouraged to have children of their own? No.

Do Jedi control who Force-sensitives are allowed to have children with? No.

Do Jedi test for Force-sensitivity and keep records of it? Yes. But they don't seem to keep genealogies - there's nothing that says the list in the Holocron is a permanent one either - rather, the way it's phrased and the way there's only babies on it, names are probably erased eventually. And the purpose of the list has nothing to do with increasing the occurence of Force-sensitivity.

Are non-Jedi Force sensitives forced by law to give up their kids? No.

Do Jedi automatically take in Force-sensitive children anyway? No. Bardotta and Dathomir are right there and nobody's bothering them.

Is the Order ableist? No. We even see plenty of disabled Jedi and nobody is throwing them out. (Amputees like Anakin and elderly people like Yoda and Tera Sinube, for starters. Also Prosset Dibs, or Tahl in Legends).

The Force isn't even proven to be reliably 'transmissible' from one generation to the next - the Force 'being strong' in particular families may just as easily be for more spiritual reasons depending on how you want to look at it. Because, you know, Star Wars isn't all literal.

IT'S JUST SO DUMB.

NOTHING ABOUT HOW THE ORDER WORKS HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH WHAT THAT WORD MEANS.

(I'm sorry I'm not dissing you for the ask I just don't get how anybody could ever have said that 😂😭)

[doubleddenden]

So I had a realization. Yeah I'm not shutting up about Unova yet, moving on to DD's Theory Corner.

In the event we get a Legends Unova or similar, I'm pretty damn sure Charizard could be the fire type starter, or at least get a variant or new form.

"Oh but it has enough forms" and? Charizard is Game Freak's favorite little nepo baby. He even got a new model way ahead of the other Kanto starters again recently.

This is what makes me think so:

This is the thing: someone at Game Freak has been going back through the Unova games for even the slightest bit of text or reference- evidence is the way you encounter Meloetta with the Sepia Filter on your camera in Indigo Disk, a reference to the guy in that Castelia cafe that says he saw Meloetta in "sepia tone memories." Another thing is the near 1 to 1 mapping of the pokemon reserve from BW2 that matches a location in the Canyon Biome, where you can find a shiny Haxorus in BW or a Stellar Haxorus in Blueberry Academy- further proof they are fine combing the games for references at this point.

If we're simply theorizing and speculating, I think that drawbridge might be a pretty likely description to draw inspiration from. Much like how Archaludon draws inspiration from the Sky Arrow Bridge connecting Pinwheel Forest to Castelia.

Here's another thing: the bridge is redder than your average Charizard, more of a Charmeleon color. In addition, it's referred to as such for its "beauty and elegance."

I understand beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but elegance? Charizard doesn't strike me as beautiful or elegant, more like powerful, cool, and ferocious. Something like that description could fit something like Serperior better, imo.

Now mind you I'm not one of those people that are like "THIS NPC SAID SHE WANTED A PINK POKEMON WITH FLOWER PATTERNS IN GEN 1!!!! THEY WERE HINTING AT MUNNA FOR 5 GENERATIONS!!!!" or "THERE'S TERA CRYSTALS IN DRIFTVEIL! THEY WERE HINTING FOR 15 YEARS!!!!" because let's be honest, GF does NOT plan that far back. Maybe 4 years at best.

BUT.

It is entirely reasonable to speculate that, in accordance to the knowledge that they are actively looking back at the Unova games for the slightest details, Charizard COULD have another new form, either in the form of a Legends Starter variant or a similar case to Blood Moon Ursaluna. If I had to guess, maybe the form of an Eastern dragon akin to Shenlong? Those are beautiful and elegant to some extent.

Of course this is just pure speculation. But, let's say on Pokémon day, or even next November or January of 2025 or something: If we see Unova and Charmander in the same location, well pick up the phone cuz I will have called it.

[danwhobrowses]

One Piece SBS Vol 105 Thoughts

The spoilers have been flowing out for SBS 105, and with it a bunch more info to digest. So let's talk about some key points.

Spoilers for the SBS (which also has Wano spoilers)

Starting with the big one:

Zoro's bloodline

I see a lot of people upset or mad that Zoro's family tree was put in an SBS, but honestly I don't think it matters. The Wano chapters were already pretty blatant about the fact that Zoro is a descendant of Ryuma and there's more to his likeness to Ushimaru than the prior SBS confirming that he's not his dad. All you really get from the SBS is the bits in the middle; Ushimaru is his great uncle, his sister Furiko married a swordsman around Shimotsuki village, Roronoa Pinzoro, who bore Zoro's father, Roronoa Arashi. Arashi died fighting pirates, but interestingly married a 'Tera', a Bandit's daughter, who died of illness.

Honestly though, I think there's still more to it. The fact that Zoro didn't initially grow up in Shimotsuki village must mean that his mother resided somewhere else, was Zoro a bandit kid? Is his maternal grandfather still alive? What pirates did Arashi die fighting against? There still feels like there's some stuff less obvious Oda could potentially unpack.

Side Note: Tashigi Reminder to people that this does not confirm that Tashigi is a Shimotsuki either, despite some people's efforts to spin it that way. Yes 25 people left Wano and only 10 founded Shimotsuki village (which was already a village but renamed) but that does not mean they were all Shimotsuki, Miyatomo the craftsman was also a part of that group after all, plus there will be people in service of the clan (like Orochi was to Yasuie, even though he wasn't a Shimotsuki). In addition, it's worth noting that the village was established by defeating bandits, some simply may not have made it out alive. Overall her former likeness to Kuina may be something, but it also may not, nothing about her is confirmed yet.

Chopper vs SMILEs

So while many were disappointed to hear that there was nothing Chopper could do to fix the people suffering from the defective SMILEs, it always made sense to me. For one, the after-effect is not a disease or virus, so it doesn't quite undo his goal (people just expect Chopper's goal to be completed in Wano when it's convenient?). Secondly, SMILEs are fake Devil Fruits, so people are really expecting Chopper to undo a Devil Fruit effect? That's a bit much.

I feel like people expected too much from this because of how easily Chopper could counter Queen's Plague Rounds, but even this was beyond his capability.

Kurozumi Tama

I mean, this was obvious right? She has purple hair, how many other characters in Wano have the same hair colour as Orochi? The key thing though was Oda clarifying the also-obvious matter of Hiyori's parting words to Orochi being specifically for Orochi himself. Tama is a Kurozumi, but she isn't going to be subjected to the same harassment, especially since she partook in defeating Orochi and Kaido too, plus she has an army of SMILE users at her disposal and also the only ones who really know she's a Kurozumi would be Hitetsu/Sukiyaki (who was fine about raising her) and herself, and she would have the wherewithal to keep it to herself anyway.

Others

On the less unpackable side of things there was art of Yamato as an Oiran to satiate the thirst traps, of course in this case Yamato probably wouldn't be identifying as Oden if he was an Oiran.

Green Bull and Black Horse (the criminal investigation guy) had their design inspirations revealed, they are indeed very accurate.

And Oda very expertly danced around Sanji's eyebrows changing due to the Raid Suit effects, so there will probably be more to Sanji's biology to look into later.

Post-Reverse Mountain crew know some of what happened during the sagas before they joined, by asking those who were there if they were willing to tell, which makes sense, not too necessary but it also explains why Franky and Robin didn't know about Laboon in Thriller Bark.

Also alongside Sora, Warrior of the Sea, Oda revealed that the other popular picture books are; 'Fire Dog' (A dog on fire), 'Pokeemon' (maybe Pokémon hinted but image is more Doraemon), Monkey Ball (Dragon Ball, has a monkey with an axe flying the nimbus), and 'Marco-San' (which is just a girl, I was half expecting just Marco or a Pineapple, dunno the reference).

[jazzpostsrandomthings]

My introduction to FFXIV

Hey, after posting the thing about the stress test server a few weeks ago, I got an idea to try and go down the memory lane, trying to recall everything that had happened during the time I've spent playing Final Fantasy XIV. I hope that someone would find my story and experiences interesting. After all, I found out that I enjoyed seeing other people's reactions to the game itself as well.

But in order to tell my story, I have to start somewhere. And I can't find a better way to do so than to tell you how I learnt of the game in the first place.

Not sure when exactly did it start, but I remember my friend mentioning that he was playing FFXIV during Summer this year, I think. I wasn't too interested, after all I had prior experience with MMORPGs like Aion, Tera, Black Desert, ArchAge and even that Digimon Masters Online or whatever was it called, and I didn't go further than level 30 in any of them (which meant I was playing for less than a month or a month and a half at max for Aion (the 2010 version prior to becoming the cash shop simulator with no story) and Digimon Masters). Why was I trying so many MMOs out in the first place? Well, my mom is actually into MMOs herself so I was visiting the titles she was playing as well (minus Digimon Masters) to help her and just find a title I would like, but it never clicked so I thought that maybe I wasn't into online gaming in the first place.

So when I heard that my friend was playing an MMORPG that was also a part of a franchise I didn't know much about, I kinda wanted to join... but I hesitated, knowing that it would probably end the same way as it did for five other titles I've listed above.

Fast-forward to the beginning of September 2023, September 2nd to be presice, when I saw some hentai-loving douche from a Russian Megaman Discord server saying how much the old gaming and MMOs sucked in comparison to perverted gachas he was playing with and how the critically-acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV was actually trash. Needless to say, the guy was banned for posting hentai there. But either way, what he said about FFXIV was actually a good advertisement for the game so I remembered what my friend was saying and decided to reach out to him, saying I am willing to give it a shot. I did mention that I might not stay for too long here due to my track record with MMORPGs, but he said it was fine and that I can leave if it doesn't light up the spark in me in a month. He then made a group DM with a friend of his who actually was a person I saw on a different server a few years ago so that was neat.

I made a SquareEnix account that same evening, downloaded the game and then logged into the Free Trial for the first time, getting hit with this game's version of Prelude (even though I wasn't a fan or FF series, I knew the tune) and feeling a sense of tranquility, staying on the screen for a few minutes and continuing to listen to it while fiddling with settings.

I watched the opening cinematic (it was great but I was wondering if the game even had Japanese voice acting because I like playing games and hearing their original language, be it English, Japanese or something else, just a personal preference) and got to the character creator. I was looking at the races, finding a liking to exactly the three of them -- cat-eared people with furry tails known as Miqo'te, tall and slender horned people named Au Ra and short child-like folk with long ears by the name of Lalafell.

Also I was struggling a lot with trying to read most of the race's names at first. It took me at least a few weeks to memorize them even.

At first, I wanted to make Axl as a cat boy here, thinking that I probably won't stick for long anyway (and I did make him in the game later, I still have his preset saved), but I decided to actually choose the race none of my friends picked up (one was a Miqo'te, other was an Au Ra), so I went for a lalafell and made my boy Pi from ROCKMAN ZERO - Chapter: AXL here to the best of my ability. One of the two friends was certainly really happy I chose a potato according to her messages when I had announced it :D

After getting freaked out by the game asking what my deity was (picked Oschon because Pi has a thing for exploring and learning new stuff about the world), I decided to pick the Healer class, before getting told not to do that because it would make early combat really annoying, and then my friend told me I can go for Arcanist since it would become a Healer class at level 30. Needless to say, I went for the book, then chose the Atomos server because my friends were there (ping wasn't bad here at all, even though everything tends to freeze rarely due to my internet provider screwing me over) and thus had set my eyes towards the seaside jewel of Eorzea -- Limsa Lominsa...

I didn't know there was a different opening for each of the city-states at that time so I had some flashbacks to ArchAge when my character, Pi Peataan (I REALLY didn't think much while giving the character a name), but then we had actually arrived to the city and... I realized I underestimated my PC with the potato graphics settings I had supposedly set for it. Those bushes took me out of it for a moment.

So, I arrived to Limsa, fixed the graphics, met Baderon Tenfingers (still giggling at that name), took notes that pirate speak is indeed quite hard for me to read quickly, then went to the main plaza with giant aetherite where I was met by my friends, the self-proclaimed 'emo catboy' Miqo'te Summoner/Scholar and an immensely tall black-scaled Auri Dark Knight. They greeted me, which made me feel all shy because before that I've only seen these people as 2D avatars and text messages, and now they could ran around me and kinda interact with me... ahem. One of them added me to the friends list (other couldn't, he was still in Free Trial), and then went their own ways while I had one hour left before the bed to explore the city.

I didn't know yet that you don't need to do yellow quests so i just picked up all the quests that were available in Limsa before proceeding with the main quest. I was getting lost in this giant city A LOT, which was the result of me having what I call "topographical cretinism", but I was... enjoying it. I ended the day without setting a foot outside the starting area, but I was looking forward towards tomorrow to explore some more, drifting to sleep while the main menu theme kept ringing in my head, accompanying me into my dreams...

Hope you enjoyed this entry. I will try to continue this series. I had a lot of fun remembering the details of the first day of FFXIV for me and what was I feeling during it all. Playing through it again with my friends that cannot play FFXIV or don't want to sink so much time into an MMO, and looking through the backlog of messages and screenshots in Discord I left while going through all of that certainly helped to assemble these memories back in a proper order.

Next Entry >>

[kourabiedes]

I would love to hear more about Robin, specifically :3 Gimme deets, please!

Oh yeah I guess I should do that

In an out of universe sense, Robin is my particular brand of Juliana. I designed her to fit the experience I had with Scarlet... which basically involved me poking my nose into every. single. corner. of Paldea. She's a hiker, backpacker, and budding photographer, because all those things are what I spent the entirety of my playthrough doing. I think I got like forty hours in before I finally was convinced to stop fucking around and go for the non-Path of Legends badges. A lot of the DLC I did as wing-sister to @the-starkindler, who was playing Violet, and we developed a lengthy headcanon winding the two versions together using our respective characters -- you know, like an Emerald version. This bit is key because it means there are two bike-dragons running around Paldea and the Academy, instead of being represented by one fruit, is more of a basket of them. (Insert jokes here.)

I'm going to put a cut here, because I have a lot to say about my silly girl. Beware all who enter here, for there are OC headcanons afoot.

In-universe, Robin is an established student at the Naruva academy, in her second year, arriving sometime after the Team Star dust-up. She is Kalosian, from somewhere in the vague area of Anistar City (if you don't remember your Kalos locations, that's the place with the big red sundial). She's an introvert who grew up in a family of extroverts, and, as you can imagine, that need for a moment of peace fueled her early interest in backpacking. This got markedly worse when the little sisters started arriving. She has five younger sisters, all between the ages of eight and four at the time of her second year. For context, she's going on sixteen at that point.

(I love my little sister dearly, but she alone was almost enough to send me howling into the wilderness. Five of those? Yeah, Robin's a backpacking pro for a reason.)

At ten (because that's such a sane age to do this), Robin's mom nudged her out the door to do the traditional Kalos Gym circuit. Robin came home from that with a level 100 Espurr, several memory cards' worth of pictures of Kalos, and like, two badges. Her mom wasn't overly surprised.

This is kinda how Robin is. She doesn't want to be a powerful Trainer for the sake of being powerful. She makes herself strong so that she can easily do whatever it is she actually wants to do, which is See All The Things. She's not real worried about whether those Things are supposed to be Off-Limits or not, either. So, as you can imagine, she's fascinated by the stories of the mysterious and/or off-limits places of the world. Cerulean Cave. Mount Silver. Mirage Island. The Great Crater of Paldea.

So when her mom suggests Naruva Academy for her, well, she leaps at the chance. Mom figures hey, her kid may be a little odd, but she clearly has a way with Pokemon, and she's sharp, so send the kid to a good school and see what develops. Robin, on the other hand, is plotting her first Great Crater expedition within seconds of the conversation.

Does this mean she's in and out of the Great Crater a lot? Well, not really, though it's not for lack of trying. The Great Crater really is hard to get into without a flying Pokemon at the very least, and the strength of the wild Pokemon there is considerable. She never gets very far in before having to turn back for simple survival. Nevertheless, she's determined to see the bottom of it someday. (Also she does have to attend classes, which cuts into her exploring time severely. Gotta keep dem grades up or mom might pull her home! The grades net her a Tera Orb though, so hell yeah.)

One question that could be asked is, did she know the Paldea Pals before, since she's an established student? Well, yes and no. She knows of Arven, because the poor guy is utterly overshadowed at this point by his shitlord parents. She knows of Nemona -- there probably isn't anyone in the school who doesn't, to be utterly fair. She doesn't really have any opinion on either. They run in different circles, and the most she's interacted with either is whenever Nemona pounced on her looking for a battle. (Yes, she accepted. No, she never won!)

So how does she get pulled into the Scarlet story? Well, one weekend, while she was out chilling with her Pokemon in the wilds of Paldea, there was a really loud sonicboom overhead, and a few minutes later, a tired-looking red lizard Pokemon walked into her campsite. Like most people, she assumed he was a rare breed of Cyclizar at first, because who expects an ancient legendary Pokemon to just waltz into your life and ask for a sandwich? He's injured, but not badly, and she has the brilliant idea to take him back to the Academy with her and see if the teachers can help. She cuts her picnic short and does just that. No problem, right? Nothing life changing about that.

As you have no doubt guessed, the sonicboom was Miraidon fleeing the crater after being attacked by his nasty counterpart. Koraidon, in this melded universe, was brought over as well before <redacted>, and he and the Miraidon actually bonded and are buddies. When Mirai ran for his life, Kori tried to follow, but he's not as fast and had to land. (Miraidon has that jet butt, after all.)

From here, she gets enmeshed in the Scarlet and Violet storylines -- or, well, some of them anyway. The storylines are divided between her and Mirai's rider Alanna. They sort of swap between player one and player two frequently. Robin was involved the most with the DLC stories and Starfall Street. She was the one Ogerpon chose as a partner (maybe it was all that little sister experience!), and she ended up with Chien-Pao out of the four Treasures. (This is not quite as cool as it sounds. Pao just wants to PLAY. All the fuckin time.)

Let's see, what else. Oh, she has a massive crush on Perrin (unrequited), and though she starts out wanting to shove Carmine into the river, they bond over time and Robin kiiiinda thinks she's cute. (Does this count as Carmine x Juliana shipping? Probably not lmao)

Tl;dr, my Scarlet character is pretty fun.

[divergent-paths]

Got a couple of posts in colour for the story coming up, and they're taking a while to get through (this is probably gonna' be the norm with full colour work, sorry all) so here's another filler post while you wait. And in both flavours, even! although lbr, uva is clearly the superior school here, the purple uniform doesn't make my eyes bleed lmao

If you recognise these guys, great! If you know their type specialties, very cool! If you know their names, then you can hang with me. :D For those that don't know them, they're the NPC Team that joins you when you take on Tera Raids with less than a full party of players. I've grown to like them a lot once I noticed that the NPCs that join you weren't randomly generated, and are instead consistent recurring characters. I've also already started to come up with headcanons and personality quirks, and judging by the uh, ...commentary, I've seen around online, I feel like I may be the team's first and only fan :'D They're defo' gonna' be showing up a bunch in the Alex/Violet story side regardless though, because I think they're a lot of fun.

As for why I even have them drawn out in a big line up though, a big thing for me personally while drawing is that I have an almost incessant need to be consistent, which demands accuracy, which means I need ref, looooots of ref. And when I can't get clear key art, model pics, swatches, etc, I make my own ref. Oftentimes, I'll make my own refs anyway just so that I have an easy and consistent swatch base to pick from. These guys fall under that need for ref, because obviously they don't have key art, and they don't wander around town either, but they're unique enough in my book to warrant drawing. :3

[4th-d-slipped]

i know im (checks watch) 4 months late to the party but guys hear me out,

(rambling & theory under cut)

MASSIVE DISCLAIMER: I have not played either DLC, so all my plot knowledge is secondhand from Bulbapedia. I know that's absolutely insane to say before I present a theory, but I'd rather have the chance to play the DLCs myself before I watch any playthroughs so Bulbapedia summaries are my best bet. So if I've missed some crucial make or break evidence, hopefully you'll understand why! This is just for fun anyways ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

••••••••••

Let's start with Delta & Holon lore. Delta Pokemon are Pokemon mutated by electromagnetic waves from Holon Research Tower, which also causes fully evolved Delta Pokemon to be dual Metal (equiv. to Steel) type. The Holon Research Tower itself utilizes the natural magnetism of the Holon region, as well as a mysterious energy emitted from power spots around the region.

Obviously, that doesn't quite line up with Tera lore. Terastallization was born from crystals made of Terastal energy, which affect nearby Pokemon and cause them to Terastallize. These crystals were unconsciously created by a hibernating Terapagos, a Pokemon made of Terastal energy itself.

But now I'd like to bring your attention to EX Crystal Guardians, which presents us with a remote island inhabited by Delta (plus normal & ☆) Pokemon, far from Holon City but still within the Holon region. This island naturally grows crystals with special powers.

Those powers appear to be able to prevent use of Poke-Powers/Poke-Bodies (equiv. to abilities) (Cessation Crystal), prevent attack damage & effects (Holon Circle, Mysterious Shard), and change energy & Pokemon to Colorless (equiv. to Normal & certain Flying) type (Crystal Beach, Crystal Shard).

Now, Terastallization can also affect abilities (Adaptability & type-changers) and moves (type-changers, plus STAB & base power increases). Most obviously, it can also change Pokemon & move types.

So, I'd like to present my theory that the Holon region's mysterious energy and Terastal energy are one and the same.

I propose the EX Crystal Guardians island has another Terapagos that survived extinction hibernating on it, causing Terastal energy crystals to grow. The Holon region's natural magnetism (and later, the Holon Research Tower's electromagnetism) affects the Terastal energy, forming a unique new energy that gathers across the Holon region in power spots, even where crystals don't grow. This energy affects Pokemon in a different way than normal Terastal energy, and is part of the reason why fully evolved Delta Pokemon are half Metal type, as well as why they don't crystallize or form Tera Jewels.

With this theory, there's also the possibility that the Holon region could be close to Paldea. The set EX Dragon Frontiers introduces more islands to the Holon region, these ones also more distant. Because of this distance, the islands are unaffected by the Holon Research Tower's electronagnetic waves. Despite this, natural Delta Pokemon somehow reside on them.

If those islands were sandwiched (ha) between the Holon and Paldea regions just right, they could be getting just enough Terastal energy from both Terapagos and just enough magnetism from the Holon mainland to affect that Terastal energy, and be able to form natural Delta Pokemon without Terastal energy crystals growing or fully evolved Delta Pokemon becoming half Metal type.

••••••••••

That's pretty much all I have to say! Delta Pokemon are one of my favorite weird little Pokemon variants, even if Terastallization, convergent species, and regional forms likely killed any chance of them coming back. However, Delta Pokemon and EX Crystal Guardians were acknowledged as recently as 2021 in the Celebrations set with a promotional Delta Mimikyu card, so I'll keep holding out some form of hope we'll get to see them again!

[jekinabox]

@mapalsyrup

You haven't finished Scarlet yet but fuck it imma tell you shit and just try to leave out as many spoilers as I can because DLC bois

-Basically: Riddler Khu (well known pokemon game data-miner and teaser) posted stuff about the DLC having some pretty cool mechanics

-RK says something about the hexagon w/ eyes on tera jewels having to do w/ the third legendary

-RK talks about mega evolution being different from z-moves, dynamaxing & terastallizing in a way that seems to suggest that the difference it that all are caused by pokemon except mega evolutions

-You know how Paldea is Spain? The connecting area between Spain + France appears in maps in-game but cant be accessed in game.

People assume that this is where the dlc will take place.

Kalos is based on France, and also doesn't contain that area, so its not off-limits to use/make

-The thing many people assume to be linked the third legendary, mentioned in the scarlet/violet book and some lab entries, has a hexagonal pattern and/or shape

People have theorized that this could point to Zygarde (Kalos legendary)

No one else has mentioned this (as far as I know) somehow but the image in the scarlet/violet book does kinda have a Zygarde-ish shape

the letter amount it has in the name in the lab is 1 off, but it may have some different nick-name or the letter amount might not just fully correspond, since the scarlet/violet book has that issues. People are thinking it might get a mega-evo w/ a 6 letter name but idk

-someone talked about how Area Zero has the same initials as the guy behind the story of X&Y, and RK responded with a reference to the guy's floette that was in the code but never the game., which may or may not have to do with floette and/or AZ being in the dlc

That guy's evil scheme was apparently a giant crystal cannon

Floettes can be spotted in Area Zero

-Delphox (a Kalos starter's final evo) is once of the pokemon I saw was going to be transferable to S/V from Home in 2023

-Diance & Carbink (crystal pokemon w/ links to Kalos) will also be transferable

-2023 will be the 10th anniversary of X & Y coming out in 2013

-Dex entry of Roaring Moon (Scarlet Paradox Salamence) references mega salamence

-While the first impression I got was that the hexagon legendary was behind the paradoxes, if Zygarde is in the game, it may be under control or trying to stop the paradoxes(bcuz order pokemon) and would be helped during the game

Perhaps Zygarde cells could be found around the world like roaming gimmighoul

-I really wanna see Yveltal, the LIFE DRAINING pokemon that can WIPE OUT AN ENTIRE FOREST, in an open world game. Imagine the dystopia.

-Volcanion's (Kalos legendary that people have been complaining didn't get to do anything) move was removed/replaced for S/V pokemon.

It does look very mechanical.

-Paldea is mentioned "defending against neighboring countries" or smthn similar in the history, and a war was mentioned in Kalos lore

-This could just be for profit & loving Charizard's sake but the OP Tera Raid Charizard might be a secret teaser (since its one of the few pokemon with 2 mega evos)

-idk exactly what this means, but Geeta's final pokemon has been laughed at bcuz its meant to be a set-up pokemon for the beginning of battles, but its the species you need to farm in order to get the Tera Blast TM & is found deep in Area Zero, which is specifically called out by the game (idr who, but Penny and/or Arven ask about wtf it is) + RK also mentioned her as an option when he made a poll about who people thought would be the dlc villian

-Another option was Heath; he has a cyclizar(like how Miraidon + Koraidon are paradox cyclizar) and with the lore+theories so far, it kinda makes sense but not really so idk this either

-also may or may not do anything- but the scarlet book has a drawing of a paradox pokemon that looks like a mix between Suicune, Raiku, & Entei, and the violet one is a mix between Virizon, Coballion & Terakion. The book claims it was drawn by one of the explorers based on paradox pokemon because the ones they saw inspired him, but idk, some of the current knowledge and theories (that I can't say bcuz spoilers) may suggest not

edit: the war mentioned in Kalos was stopped w/ the ultimate weapon crystal cannon that AZ brings back, and Area Zero is also called Ground Zero(area below/above an exploding nuke), so the post about "THEY NUKED MADRID" might've been right

[getmemymicroscope]

I spent the whole movie looking forward to Rajkummar Rao (stupid "special thanks to Rajkummar Rao" screen before the movie had even began), and when we do get him, it's such a heavily makeupped (makeup'd? makeup'ed?) version that you can barely recognize him. I was then hoping he'd make a guest appearance at the end, but that didn't happen either.

Speaking of guest appearances, Deepika ... like, don't get me wrong. I love the song. But it's so odd - like, it is an 'item song' of sorts, but nothing you can dance to so she's just there walking around on stage? Weird. But again, good song. At least the movie had that going for it - between Raabta, Ik Vaari, and Main Tera Boyfriend (relegated to 'end credit' throw-in status), the music was nice. Raabta is good, of course, but not as good as Raabta (any of the versions, really) from Agent Vinod. But that's just a minor grumble.

Actual not nice thoughts: 'jungle trap'. I was expecting some sort of, you know, traps or threatening stuff. Instead we just got a messed up race which coincided with him having multiple opportunities to remove her clothing bit-by-bit, almost like that song from Baahubali. Like, she's a princess or queen or something, out to protect her village from being destroyed - and they turn it into a "win this race, but also avoid having this guy take all your clothes off in the process." Pathetic on both aspects - just call it a race, if that is all it is going to be. And I know this is a romance story, but the ending of that race was also just very ... dumb/corny. Expected, but still dumb/corny.

Also, they were doing pretty well right up until the end - when it turns into classic Bollywood and this guy becomes "you can't be marrying him instead of me" and forcefully holds her against her will and demands an explanation, no accepting that maybe she had moved on. I mean, we all know she hadn't and why she was doing what she was, but still. Like, he pulled the same move the bad guy had by holding her against her will. (Though, I guess, to some extent, he's been doing that from the time they first met; I mean, just look at that ridiculous break-up sequence where he's pretty much just running her life for her.) ... Actually, the more I think about it now, the more I just really don't like his character. Like, he's funny and charming, but also like ... obsessive. Controlling. Forceful. To a fault.

I thought the first half dragged a bit, though I guess they needed to build up some sort of relationship between people who have only known each other for a short period of time, so fine, pass. It seems like it'll pick up at the 'intermission,' when he issues a "kill him" command - but that just leads to one quick, one-sided fight; then there's that ridiculous flashback (is she underwater the whole time?; and how is she remembering scenes that she wasn't even present for?) with the stupid 'jungle trap' - I think that whole sequence, focused entirely on a warrior who, instead of trying to win the stupid race, is semi-focused on removing excess clothing - really turned me off of the movie. After that point, it was just sorta waiting for the end. And then his character turning into a 'why not me' guy just compounded that. Thankfully, the movie ended not much later.

Varun Sharma doesn't get much screen time, but at least he is recognizable. Not much opportunity to bring forth much humor though, and the random bits they do try really seemed to fall flat, unfortunately.

Reincarnation movies seem to fall flat in general, partially I feel because it's the same story over and over again. Not that I know exactly how to change that - it is sort of a problem when you're turning to that type of story - but it's always the same thing. I think that movie Ek Paheli Leela switched it up a bit (though I haven't seen it) by making the reincarnate 'good' guy be the previous 'bad' guy, but the relationship still ends up being between the old time lovers. Because that's what it always is. Only other story that comes to mind is Makkhi, which really went against the grain - but that also is what made it so much fun (also, it was just a crazy fun story; but the difference from typical reincarnation stories definitely helped). And Raabta, like most other such stories, fails to be very different. Even the "only one of them remembers" thing isn't exactly new - but even if it was, it wouldn't really add much.

That's not to say it was a bad movie - it most definitely wasn't - but between the turn-offs I mentioned above and the familiarity/predictability, it doesn't really bring much to the plate as a good movie either.

[getmemymicroscope]

It's not good, not really ... but it's not "the worst" either. Which is saying something, because considering the last Arbaaz Khan film I saw was Tera Intezaar, I had very, very low hopes for this one (also, the reviews weren't great).

I mean - so, the cops are complete assholes, especially in the first half of this movie. Sure, maybe they have to be to get someone to confess to murder, but like ... any confession gotten there would clearly just have been so that they would stop literally torturing her. And, I mean, that's what happens. Sort of.

But then, he also confesses. So the police have to entertain his story as well. And there's multiple other suspects as well, but given their limited screen time, you know that either 1) they're not involved or 2) they're going to pull an unexciting 36 Chinatown level 'it was the butler' twist on us.

And then we get the final explanation - where the overly aggressive cop tells us "oh, I already knew because I had found the murder weapon, and I was just trying to determine whether I should bring the murderer to trial or let them go" and it's just like ... what was the point of all that? It's not his job to determine the why, or the guilty, or the sentence - that's literally what the court is there for. But no, he decides to play judge, jury, and non-executioner, determining that the motive was good and the now-deceased was a 'bad guy' and therefore it doesn't matter that he was murdered. ... That's not how it works, dude.

Unfortunately, and this will be spoilers but I don't think it matters because 1) no one reads this and 2) no one will watch this, but the two actors who give the most compelling performances are Mukul Dev as the evil/creepy/disgusting/horrible neighbor, whose story is told entirely in flashback because he's the victim of the murder (and don't get me wrong - he is NOT a good person in any sense of the imagination), and Mahek Chahal, the possible seductress for whom we get multiple differing backstories but no real answer because she too is, before our story begins, it turns out, dead. Manjari Fadnnis gets to play scared for a little bit, in love for a little bit, and then scared again - but her role is sort of sidelined after the first half. And Ashmit Patel alternates between 'here' and 'not here' but also sort of takes a backseat to the others.

The movie title (translated to 'not guilty') sort of ruins the ending of the movie, to some extent, and the final twist is something you see coming simply because of the lack of characters that are given real screen time: 2 of 5 are dead, 1 is the cop (though I guess they could've twisted it and somehow made him the killer thru some unrelated act, but ... since I'm writing this, clearly they didn't), and 2 are the 'lead' (or, at least, living) accused couple. There's plenty of other suspects who show up for a scene or two to have a reason to seem guilty, but - honestly, as soon as you've met everyone, it's down to like 3 real options. And then they find one of them - unfortunately, the one who was a reasonably well-played character - dead.

You know - if she'd spent a bit less time gloating about her success and, then, after the gloating almost came back to bite her, talking about her success, maybe she wouldn't have ended up dead.

Oh, also - that scene where Robin runs from the cops and then Arbaaz punches him: the editing there is miserable, because it's so obviously fake and out-of-sync that you just sort of have to laugh at how ridiculous it is.

I did much like Mahek Chahal's role/character in this.