You know what? I’m not done. I’m not done.
The following is not an apologist post, before that little thought pops up, it is, instead, meant to give some perspectives. You can agree, you can not agree, I care not.
“Sephiroth is a war criminal because he killed people in a war.” No. No, that’s not how that works. People are killed in war. That’s how that works. “Yeah, but like.. He did it really goodly and killed lots--” Doesn’t matter. “But the people he was killing were just trying to defend--” Yeah, that happens a lot in war. Now, if he, say, gathered a group of civilian Wutaians into a trench and ordered his men to shoot every single one of them while they screamed and tried to claw their way out of said trench, NOW we’re dealing with some war crimes. But we have no evidence he did that. And, yes, I am referencing an actual thing military has done in real life.
Now, I don’t like war. I’d like to think most people don’t like war. I especially don’t like wars fought over dumb ass shit like, “We want to use the land you’re on for resources and you won’t let us, soooo... :)” But, hey, that’s history for you. Whether it was thousands of years ago or right the fuck now. But you can’t just go throwing the term ‘war criminal’ around when it’s not fucking applicable. You can comprehend the horrors of war and acknowledge the situation is fucked up without using the phrase ‘war criminal.’ To me, going, “Zack was a war criminal because he followed orders and took out enemy combatants in an enemy Fort, which is an accepted target for war,” is honestly dulling the accepted amount of violence for regular ass war. That shit is allowed. That isn’t a crime.
“Sephiroth torched Cloud’s hometown. That is unforgivable.” Yeah. Yeah, that was a crime. It wasn’t a war crime because he didn’t do it for war reasons, he just did a regular ass crime. And there’s no excusing it. Even if you wanted to go the ~crime of passion~ route, like... Mmm, no. Anyway, I bring this part up because... Most people see this act of violence for what it is and appropriately respond with horror, disgust, rage at the injustice of it. “WHY would you do that?!” Even when you can see the why of it, you’re still--generally--like, “Bruh. Too far.”
What people don’t often do is look at the shit Avalanche pulls and react in kind.
“Yeah, but they’re the good guys.” I do not care. They are terrorists. And I don’t care that Remake tried to shift blame for the reactor explosions from Avalanche proper onto Shinra by going, “Well, technically, Shinra pushed the final button, so--” ORIGINALLY, Avalanche blew the fuck up two whole reactors, which damaged a substantial chunk of the city around each reactor, and killed people. People in the nearby sectors, asleep in their beds or walking along the streets, fucking died. And Avalanche was okay with that. They were so okay with that they were going to do it all the other times needed to stop Midgar for good. “Yeah, but the Planet--” DON’T CARE.
Your heroes, same as the villain, are a-okay with taking some lives to get what they want. To me, there is no moral high ground here. Now, as the game goes on, methods change and character growth happens and some guilt starts to set in a little bit, but... Don’t say Sephiroth is evil because he killed innocent people, and that’s it, and then just let Avalanche’s sins float under the radar because, “Well, they’re the good guys, so.”
If I do not require fans of the heroes to preface any show of love they have for them with, “I know they killed people, but--” Then I should also not be required to say, “I know Sephiroth/the Remnants/the Turks killed people, but--”
Love the characters you love. Hate the characters you hate. Do not assume someone’s morality or worth based on which character they like or don’t like. And, for the love of god, stop throwing around phrases like ‘war criminal’ and worse to justify to somebody else why you don’t like a character. You can just not like the damn character without diluting the meaning of words!
End rant.
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Okay if you haven't yet, and you have Netflix/Paramount+, consider giving "School Spirits" a chance.
It looks like a silly little cheesy teenage ghosts show, I put it on for background noise, and then got totally engrossed in the mystery. It's VERY well written, very well filmed, the mystery was GREAT and the payoff at the end is also great.
One of the things majorly lacking in shows I've recently tried to watch is that they try to do a twist/reveal at the end that comes out of nowhere. They don't want you to guess what they're doing. This show doesn't do that. This show wants you to guess. They give you seven different mysteries and enough clues to guess (most of) what is going on, so that when you get the final puzzle piece to any given mystery, it feels GREAT.
The story premise is this: a teenager in hs wakes up as a ghost in the hs, and doesn't remember how she died, and with the help of the other ghosts, tries to solve the mystery of her own death.
Simple premise. BEAUTIFULLY executed. Not all of the questions that arise get answered, but the main one (what she doesn't remember) gets solved by the end of the season, leaving the "why/how and what comes next" to be carried to the next season. It does a cliffhanger RIGHT. But now I desperately want to see the second season (which I believe has been approved, so it's a matter of waiting).
So pretty please, if you're looking for something to do and a great, engaging lil mystery to watch, consider! School Spirits!!
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right side of my spread for @kazumajizine ! (see left side here)
y0-era real estate agent!Kiryu and 80's!Goromi at The Grand. it's no secret that I love Goromi, and the idea for the dual images came from me being assigned y0 and not being able to choose between drawing "regular" Majima and my favorite of his alter egos~
below is the back that I whipped up for the physical prints- the mods had the fun idea to print them playing card sized and 2-sided and I tried my best to model something like a Bicycle card deck.
i am by no means a graphic designer, but i had a lot of fun executing this concept and am still so happy with the way this turned out :^]
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