#this is why you don't bring back old protagonist

[acebender]

The more I read about Life is Strange: Double Exposure the more pissed off I get

[sugar-grigri]

CSM #190 : Celebrating imminent death : a strange concept

I think this chapter is about how disconnected words can be from reality, or rather how important, even crucial, they can be, just as they are disconnected.

I don't think this chapter is anti-climax. In fact, I think the opposite, as it explains how humans and devils came naturally to cooperate : when a devil's power manages to turn against him.

The contract is an absolute for devils and humans. And now you may be thinking that it's still disappointing, that it's all come to an end with a sort of truce through words. What if there's more to it than that ?

When the deal is that none of the parties will have to fight.. What does this mean? That the fight is over, yes, but what else ?

For me, it mean that our protagonists will no longer fight old age, it means an early death for Yoshida and eternal youth, or even a new death for Denji and Asa.

It's not good to see old age remain in its own world, because the deal is to no longer have the chance to grow old.

Because the control demon has no particular animosity, at worst a kind of curiosity.

And yet the deal is that everyone stays in their own world.

But if the demon of old age has managed to extricate itself from its own world, that doesn't mean the feasting protagonists haven't trapped themselves.

When Yoshida and Fumiko say that life is back to normal when they see a group of humans slaughtering a chainsaw wannabe, it's clear that their words are disconnected from reality.

And I think that everything in this chapter is to be taken in an offbeat sense.

Take a long, hard look at what's being shown

Why, for example, did you have the demon of aging experience nothingness and then have pochita appear ?

Because he is symbolically the devil of existence that brings us out of nothingness.

Just as the chapter is titled To Their Respective Worlds its own world, so it's clear from the chainsaw wannabe that this is hardly the case, with the fire demon wreaking havoc.

Normality is therefore the interaction between the devils and humans, not the fact that they live in different worlds.

The contract between our protagonists and the devil of aging is therefore abnormal.

They may have escaped immortality

But they joined a mortality that may be far crueler

what if Professor of Yoshida's theory of respective worlds doesn't work? what if, in reality, even if the bear and the human remain in their respective worlds, the bodycount can increase.

[c-schroed]

Why Not Watch Some Movies Set in 2025?

Another new year has just begun, and I love to start it with a look back to how some people years ago envisioned this specific year to be (just like last year). So, I'll share with you my list of movies set in the year of 2025, based on this gorgeous Wikipedia list.

Of course, some of the movies listed there don't provide much of a vision, because they're set just a few years in the future. So, I'll focus on movies that are at least ten years old, reducing my Get Ready For '25 watchlist to 11 entries. Future me will edit this post, adding a quick review to each film after I've watched it. So, let's have a look at the movies, after the cut.

Endgame (Original title: Bronx Lotta Finale). The oldest entry in the list comes from 1983, and it shows us a run-of-the-mill post-apocalyptic New York. Seemingly, some nuclear war has happened (around 1990, as a clever Wikipedia writer deduces based on the technology shown in the film), leaving a wasteland filled with scavengers and telepathic mutants. Oh, and hunters and gladiators who fight to death for a TV show called Endgame. A Boy And His Dog meets The Running Man, as it seems. One could start worse, I guess, though the writer/director worked under a pseudonym for this, which I admit is not the best of omens. PS: I usually look at places like Youtube and Dailymotion if someone uploaded some of the older flicks, and on this lil quest I among others found a German dubbed version with Hungarian voice-over of this originally Italian flick. So if you happen to understand Hungarian (I don't), have fun with this truly pan-european edition! Wow. I admit that this flick was a better start than I anticipated. It's still not great, but the first third is very entertaining, with some nicely choreographed fights. Very wrestling-esque, very sweet. However, then all of a sudden the whole gladiator fight TV show stuff ends, and instead we get some "Bring these guys to this place" plot instead. Entertaining The Running Man ripoff becomes less entertaining Mad Max 2 ripoff. 5 out of 10 points. Oh, and I solved the riddle of the director's pseudonym: He usually made smut films, so I guess he did not want to confuse his smut film fans by putting his smut film persona into the credits of this relatively non-smut production.

Future Hunters. A movie from 1986, and yet another post-apocalyptic world. Some rebel group search for the Spear of Destiny, which allows them to travel back in time. So, I'm afraid most of the film will not happen in 2025, but 39 years earlier, where the Spear has to be reunited with its shaft (the Shaft of Destiny, I guess?) to break its curse. Or so. Raiders of the Lost Ark seems to meet Terminator, here. And we even have Robert Patrick in one of his first leading roles, five years before becoming a real Terminator. I am indeed disappointed by how little a role the year 2025 plays. The Guy From The Future even dies within the first ten minutes, and afterwards it's The Adventures of I-Wanna-Be-an-Anthropologist-One-Day And Her Boyfriend Who Will Later Play The T-1000. Poor female protagonist hardly passes the Sexy Lamp Test – The plot needs her exactly one (1) time, and this is in fact the number an actual lamp is needed for the plot, too! I admit, though, that the final third of this wild ride is a bit entertaining. Still, a movie that makes you rethink your new year's traditions. 3 out of 10 points.

Futuresport. This one is from 1998, and it was made directly for TV. The eponymous sport of the year 2025 is a mix of basketball, baseball and hockey that uses hoverboards and rollerblades, and it is used as a less lethal alternative for gang warfare. Specifically, this sport shall be used to decide who will rule over the Hawaiian Islands. When looking at this synopsis, I can't stop thinking about one of my favourite movies, the 1975 sci-fi classic Rollerball. Rollerball is set in the year of 2018, so maybe I can spin me some head canon that has Futuresport developing from Rollerball. We'll see. Nevermind that head canon dream of mine, this has nothing in common with Rollerball. It's quite entertaining, though, I'll give it that. Of the 2025 visions so far, this one is the first to show a bit of imagination, with Borg camera operators and President Chelsea. Nice. And even a Beyond Belief moment. I liked movies for less. 6 out of 10 points.

Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision. A 2003 direct-to-video sequel to the Jean-Claude Van Damme flick of 1994. Timecop part one was set in 2004, and 21 years later, in the sequel, some guy is sent to Berlin of the past. To kill Hitler. Oh my. This could be quite the ride. I think I watched part one when I was young, but I can't remember much. So maybe this year is a good opportunity for a rewatch of this Van Damme flick - though I don't think it will be needed to understand part two. The double feature DVD box is cheap to get, so we'll see. Part one is indeed not needed to understand part two. But one scene in part one makes part two quite hilarious, so I don't regret watching both. Due to quite some mangling with the timeline, however, there's not much to learn about the year of 2025. Except that we have tazers that can fry someone's brain. And that Tesla Cybertrucks kinda exist for more than 20 years already. Quite the dystopia. Oh, and at one point they indicate that all the time crimes have their court hearings and judgements before a Time Cop is sent back in time to in fact arrest the convict. Which makes sense. They're time travelers, they can get back and grab the guy whenever they want. Why not get all the the paperwork done beforehand? It still is at best a mildly entertaining flick, that most of the time looks like an okay-ish TV episode. 5 out of 10 points.

Negadon, the Monster from Mars. A 2005 animated kaiju short film from Japan, wherein a mars mission brings some monster back to earth. Which of course has to be fought with some huge robot. Sounds okay, and we're talking about 25 minutes to spend. So why not. Aww. That one was quite lovely. I mean, the character animations were straight from the Uncanny Valley, and the story was pure cliché. But it has these clumsy indie production vibes that you don't get to see very often these days. Plus, we learn that in this version of 2025 we went to the mars to start terraforming it. With nuclear weapons that melt the poles. Get nuked, Mars! 6 out of 10 points.

Repo Men. A 2010 film that shows us a 2025 where bio-mechanical organs are rented to people in need. If they can't afford the organs any more, well, the repossession is quite bloody. So basically it's 2008's Repo! The Genetic Opera, but without the cool singing. I watched this movie when it was in cinemas, and it was okayish. So, time for a rewatch. Well. Obviously the story is a bit too optimistic regarding the 2025 state of bioengineering. On the other hand, a huge and expensive organ retrieval system is so stupid that any current supermarket's self-service checkout would easily outsmart it. Oh. And I totally forgot that this flick copies not only Repo! The Genetic Opera, but also Terry Gilliam's marvellous Brazil. If this is done deliberately, though, then it's not done well, unfortunately. Which is a terrible pity. And it's even more of a pity how Repo Men starts as a razor-sharp satire that takes cutthroat capitalism word for word, and ends as a run of-the-mill action flick whose ending betrays the biting social commentary of the exposition. 6 out of 10 points. Well, at least the Repo Men DVD has some nice extras.

Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City. Some Japanese superhero flick from 2010, of course it's a sequel to a film called Zebraman, from 2004, wherein a teacher starts to fight crime in the costume of his childhood TV hero. The sequel is set 15 years after part one (so yes, Zebraman 2 is produced in the year that Zebraman 1 is set in), and Tokyo is renamed to Zebra City and now has a "Zebra Time", a daily period of five minutes where all crime is legal, but presumed criminals will be attacked by the "Zebra Police". This could be hilarious, The Purge on speed (before the first part of The Purge even existed!), but I'll keep my expectations low. And I'll try to watch part one first, because Zebraman 2 seems to use a lot of its characters.

Pacific Rim. A 2013 instant classic. In 2025, giant kaijus must be fought with giant mechas (just as in Negadon; see above). Gosh, I love this one, but spouse hasn't seen it yet. And is highly sceptical. But when if not this year should one give this a try, right?

Hot Tub Time Machine 2. Four guys are sent ten years into the future by the eponymous bathing device, to find someone who tried to kill one of them. I absolutely did not like the first part, so I really feel tempted to skip this.

Mountains May Depart. A 2015 Chinese drama spanning a time from 1999 to 2025. The synopsis is full of love-triangles and family drama, so I don't suspect much of a vision of the future. Plus, it seems to be rather hard to get, so maybe I'll skip this one, too.

Ten Years. Also from 2015, this movie from Hong Kong speculates about what the semi-autonomous Hong Kong will be in ten years from then, with human rights and freedoms gradually diminishing as the influence of the Chinese government increases. I'm very curious about this one!

[naehja]

ok ok imagine (prompt svsss, free for adoption)

The ending is here. The wedding BingQiu is about to happen.

Except the system decides to be a bitch.

[User! Congratulation. Congratulation. Congratulation.]

"What?"

[You reach the more or less happy ending. \(^o^)/)

"more or less?"

[It could have been better User :/]

"so why do you want"

[You have succeeded to the quest. You did what you need to did]

"And?"

[You can return home now =)]

"WHAT?"

[I lied when i said you were dead in your world, to force you stay. Sorry User ^^" In fact only three hours have passed in your world, you have just passed out.]

"What do you mean?"

[You can return home. Horray \^o^/]

"But what will happen here?"

[The body will be given back to his rightful owner! =)]

"Wait…This scum will have everything i won?"

[So rude user >_< you have seen his past]

"but he doesn't love Binghe"

[The world doesn't turn around the protagonist.]

"he doesn't love Binghe"

[That's not my problem user!!]

"But i made a life here! I want to stay!"

[That body has never been your, User.]

"He killed Liu Qingge in the original"

[Nope :P He didn't]

"But the wedding. I want to stay here. Please."

[So user is happy to take the life of someone else?]

"And what about Airplane?"

[Author was here since the birth of his body, it has always been his body!]

"I refuse!!"

[Not my problem User! è_é]

"I don't want!"

[Fine user, then you'll not remember!]

And Shen Yuan wakes up in his old room, after have apparently passed out because he had eat bad food.

Meanwhile.

Shen Jiu wakes up. His memories are fuzzy. He panicks when he sees someone in his bed. REALLY panicks.

"Shizun?"

IT'S ONE OF HIS STUDENTS oOo?

LUO BINGHE (EWWW)?

Wait…Luo Binghe wasn't 14?

Everyone panicks because he has years of memories who vanished? He has some flashs but doesn't say it.

Binghe thinks that he wedding should still happen. "he will have his memories back at a point!"

Cang Qiong is like "NO? He doesn't remember being in love with you!"

Binghe tries to win over Shen Qingqiu again, brings back medicals things against amnesia, but the poor guy is kinda traumatized, doesn't feel safe in his home, feels dirty because he feels his body has been used against his will to do some...things…he runs to Liu Qingge and asks him "WTF is happening Shidi?"

Strangely he remembers saving Lu Qingge.

And thinks that Qingge = safety

Liu Qingge is really annoyed to see Shen Jiu being harceled like that.

Everyone remember that Shen Qingqiu seemed have changed after this QI deviation years ago, seemed to lose memories, and now he seems have those memories back but not the ones from the time where he was different?

so what if it was really a possession? But he could use his sword!

Binghe doesn't take it well. And all his attempts are not well receveid by Shen Jiu. Who doesn't feel safe with him.

At a point, a mysterious aterfact from demon world reveals that Shen Jiu's soul was "asleep" for all those years since this famous QI deviation. So that "something" take over for all this time. Something who knows things and used it to pretend being him.

Liu Qingge: I KNEW IT (wait it means that Shen QingQiu would have really saved me if it had been him?)

Yue Qingyuan: I'm sorry Luo Binghe but then…the wedding can't happen.

Binghe doesn't take it well. And tries a lot of thing. but Cang Qiong is now very protective of Shen Jiu. And whatever Binghe does, Shen Jiu stays the same. And becomes close of Liu Qingge.

Shang Qinghua:what the fuck system?

[Don't worry author, you'll stay in this world =)]

"it's not what i mean"

[Everyone deserves a happy ending]

"it's Binghe who will have not one now"

[we'll not always have what we want!]

Later

Shang Qinghua: my king, don't you think that Binghe became unstable?

Mobei-Jun: *sarcastic* ho REALLY? it's a fucking nightmare!

Shang Qinghua: Do you know about this plant who, when made into a certain potion, can turn someone into a baby while erasing all his memories? So they can start over a new life?

Mobei-Jun:

Mobei-Jun: interesting.

Few weeks later, Cang Qiong receives the new that Luo Binghe has been turned into a baby during a experiment.

Cang Qiong: WTF?

Shen Jiu: I fucking warn you, i'm not taking him as disciple AGAIN!

Liu Qingge: Yeah he stays away of our sect! (and of Shen Qingqiu)

Shang Qinghua: that was…weird!

[Author! Congratulation. Congratulation. Congratulation. Now that's a happy ending. Binghe can have a better childhood]

Shang Qinghua:

[That's your son, take your responsabilities!]

Shang Qinghua: Keeping him away of my scum son i guess :/ I can find him good parents. Mobei-jun can take care of him i guess. And what about Cumcumber bro?

[back in his world ^^]

"…Yes i knows that but..."

[celtrist]

I really want to see a more fucked up version of Charlie in canon. Like, okay, I am a die-hard for sweet bubbly girls in media. But I always see how some people make Charlie actually, oh I dunno... demonic? And it's so refreshing for her type of character. I could honestly see her having low empathy (and we kinda see this with how she handled Angel's situation or even Vaggie's nervousness about taking control on an activity). An exploration of that trait (if it was intended) would be interesting to see for a protagonist, especially when her main goal is about helping others. I would love to see her actually have a level of difficulty in understanding others' feelings from the other residents, sinners, and even her father.

But give her a fucked up side. Not a "she gets more power when she's angey uwu", but a "oh, she's a little fucked in the head". It would give so much to her character that she just doesn't have.

@/murmurmurena (don't wanna bother them so slash there we go) has some fun ideas with Charlie. I highly encourage people to check their stuff out! So many fun dark ideas with her character while also still keeping to her canon personality pretty well! Personally, I think Charlie being a bit more naive to her own messed up traits would work best but her also being aware of these traits can make for some interesting character for her.

THIS FIC, "A Game Between You and I". RIGHT HERE WITH THE FIRST CHAPTER. A bit of spoil for the fic here: but I love how they handled Charlie’s absolute ignorance as to why the idea of Russian roulette is horrifying to Angel Dust. It doesn't feel like her being intentionally malicious or aware that she's the odd man out here. This is also a pretty old fic going by only the pilot, but the point still stands that it was such a fun take for her character!

Charlie is one of my favorite characters in the show in part of the POTENTIAL she could have as being the most bubbly sweetheart character while also being the most messed up character in the show. I can't say I have strong confidence with the show's writing and fully expect them to stick with Charlie being the "nice girl but oh no, don't get her angry or she gets scarwy". Which isn't bad for a character mind you, there's just so much more potential to Charlie outside of that trope, especially when you get into the theories of her either being a doll, Roo's biological daughter, or what have you. And for the MAIN CHARACTER of the show, it would be not only interesting but also bring the spotlight back to her.

There's really no question that the side characters steal the show, particularly all the male characters. If I'm honest, Charlie does not feel like she gets a lot of love from the show itself when she's supposed to be the main character. She feels far more flat compared to the rest of the characters (again, the male cast in this "female-lead" show has more depth than most of the female cast currently. I wouldn't be pointing this tidbit concerning the genders of characters if it weren't for the fact Viv defended Helluva's lack of development with their female cast by saying "Hazbin is a female-lead show and Helluva is a male-lead" and Hazbin ended up with it not feeling female lead (to me) and the male cast just completely stealing the show. I don't normally care about gender stuff, especially since I do personally lean interest towards male characters. But using one show as a defense for poor development of the female characters, and then that show not really holding up with no very interesting well-developed feeling female characters irritates me. It's just very clear that these shows don't seem to care much about the female cast :/)

If you like how Charlie is written that's totally fine. PERSONALLY, I just think they're missing so much opportunity with her character by just making her the standard female character type. I honestly don't have a lot of faith they'll actually do something with Charlie's character though. She's a pretty static character in S1 being the same from start to end. Not changing or learning anything to create any development. What does the end of season Charlie do that start of season Charlie wouldn't do? Fight back? Because we see with the pilot (which is the “first episode”) that Charlie does fight people if pushed like with Katie Killjoy and even Valentino. Static characters can work in media depending on the show or their role. But Charlie is the MC of a show about “bettering one's self”. So to have her as a static with not a lot of strong dilemmas for herself (like we see with Angel Husk Al and even Vox) seems silly. Plus, considering Hazbin is telling a whole story and it's not a fun episodic thing, characters are expected to grow on some level. Or else, what was the point of their hero's journey?

[amuseoffyre]

Since insomnia is kicking my arse of late, I naturally tilted into the thoughts about the nature of the 3-act structure and why S2 of OFMD may have felt off and incomplete to a lot of people.

I am fully in agreement that we lost a lot of valuable time with only 8 episodes and a lot of it did feel rushed, but for the amount of story and set-up and growth and development they needed to fit into 4 hours of television, they did astonishing things.

DJenks has said from the very start that this is a story that has been planned out to take 3 seasons. It's literally a 3-act play and we are currently right in the middle of the worst part of that timeline according to every traditional 3-act structure.

Act one/season one is self-explanatory. Like New Hope in the Star Wars Trilogy or Fellowship of the Ring, this is the set-up. We're introduced to our protagonists and antagonists, the relationships are given a foundation.

The beginning is Stede's journey to becoming a real boy. The inciting incident, the one that actually pushes his change beyond "playing pirates" is meeting Ed. The second thoughts come together in episode 8/9 after his confrontations with Jack and Chauncey and episode 10 is the climax.

Act 2/season 2 is never going to be as smooth and simple as act 1/s1. A big part of the A2/S2 job is set up for A3/S3 and this is what we're seeing and why a lot of story threads seem to have been left dangling.

Again, to call back to Empire Strikes Back and The Two Towers, the structure is much the same: the original batch of people are divided and scattered, the big enemy from A1/S1 is looming, new allies make themselves known. In SW, this meant the introduction of Lando and Yoda as allies plus the hint of the Emperor lurking in the background. In LotR, we have the Rohirrim, Gondor and the Ents as allies and the expansion of Sauron's forces in Helm's Deep, Osgiliath and the winged wraiths.

There's a clear trajectory following the A2/S2 structure:

obstacle 1 - the crews separated and struggling

obstacle 2 - the end of episode 2 and the repercussions of his actions

twist - just when things start to settle, the Ned Low situation happen and Stede kills for the first time

obstacle 3 - Ed's struggle with his identity leading to him leaving

disaster - Ricky's assault on the Republic

crisis - do-or-die battle because they have no other choice

climax - the last 15 minutes of ep. 8 live here.

As with SW and LotR, there's an ending, but weighted with the knowledge of a story that is meant to continue. Each of those act 2 films end with the heroes still aware of the looming threat, some of them heading out on new missions, and some of them resting and healing. There's brief pause, brief respite, a moment to take a breath.

We have all the characters in place now and the battle-lines have been drawn. Luke still needs to confront Vader (I see you, impending Ed and Hornigold confrontation), Frodo still needs to destroy the ring, Aragorn still needs to lead the army against the Black Gate, the second Death Star is still hanging in the sky.

I'm so excited to see what S3 brings because we have so many arcs ready to go: Zheng's vengeance trip, the inevitable enforced out-of-retirement arc for Ed and Stede, Hornigold, Ricky trying to maintain his tenuous control of the republic given how many of his people were killed when the crew escaped, the pirate rebellion gathering forces.

Also how often do we get shows/films where the supporting cast are given this much storyline? We have a named/speaking-role cast of upwards of 15 central characters. That is a staggering amount of people to work with, when most shows would only focus on the leads and a couple of their friends. Six is the average for most TV shows, while comedies can inch higher because ensembles, but most ensembles don't get as much as our crew did.

I know a lot of people aren't happy about Izzy's death. I know I would have liked to see him a lot more, because he's such a grumpy old bitch and I love him and him affectionately roasting Ed and Stede would have made my entire month. But I'm also aware that narratively, as a figurehead of the old ways of piracy and "we were Blackbeard", it was a symbolic death as well - a sign of the death of the old ways of piracy and of Blackbeard as was.

(Also, they Obi-Wanned him. I'm not over that. Gave him the "if you strike me down I will become more powerful" speech. I'm just... guys, your star wars nerdery is showing XD)

So while it was flawed in places and pacing, given the scale of the story they're telling, the number of pieces and characters they had in play, and the arcs they have been setting up while also still keeping the humour, I am giving a standing ovation for a remarkable piece of work.

[pyroclastic727]

The Marvels is being scathed by critics, and that's a good thing.

I finally saw The Marvels today. I'm a bit late to the party, so all I saw about the movie was the teaser at the end of Ms Marvel, and way too many critical reviews of it.

Now, obviously on Tumblr you find the good reviews, like, the cats outnumbering the white men and how Kamala Khan is, like, basically all of us. But in person, I've had someone tell me that it's bad because Rotten Tomatoes rates it 43%, which-- besides wondering why anyone would listen to Rotten Tomatoes, I'd have to wonder why the website would give it such a low rating. The easy answer is that the Tomatoes review committee is populated by white men, who, upon having no one to relate to, react badly to the movie. But I think there's more to it.

The Marvels is a revolution. Through its character-driven writing and brazen exploration of morality, it rewrites the superhero formula completely, by questioning what exactly it means to be a superhero.

The Marvels was directed by Nia DaCosta, an award-winning Harlem native and creative visionary whose approach to this film was to define these characters as humans, not as superheroes. Her approach to heroism directly addresses that the idea that a hero is not always right. A hero, DaCosta claims, is "someone who's trying their best with the information and tools they have at the time. They'll always get it wrong." Carol Danvers's arc directly addresses this, as the resolution of her subplot involves her re-igniting the sun that she snuffed out. Her heroic act is to undo the damage that she wrought.

When compared to old Marvel, this message just doesn't come through. In WandaVision, Wanda's grief is for a family that was killed by the Avengers. Yet, she is painted as a villain, even as she searches for a happy home, even as she at one point joins the Avengers. The Avengers cannot undo what they did, and don't really try. They defeat the big bad, sacrifice their lives, but nothing brings back Wanda's family. Nothing undoes that war. No one searches for Wanda after the event, to try to help her with her grief, except for Monica, and she's working against orders. Their heroics are militant, but while they excel at destruction, they leave the people they hurt in the dust.

This antiheroic plot of old Marvel is precisely what appealed to so many American audiences. Their protagonists are: a rich corporation, a super-soldier, a privileged teenager, a scientist who makes weapons, an ex-convict, a man born into godlike power, and I'm sure there are others but I don't actually care that much... (these would be iron man, captain america, peter parker spiderman, hulk, antman, thor, and etc). All these archetypes appeal to American ideals that the wealthy would sympathize with. They claim that there are people who are inherently bad and seek the power that they have, in the way that a poor person might want a job that a wealthy person wants their child to secure. They claim that it is their business to save those which cannot save themselves, and use this to get involved in wars that are not theirs, and beat up badguys whose backstory they have no way of knowing-- and they punch before they stop and listen.

They are cops in every sense of the word. The responsibility of the vigilante is to defend against evil, but part of that responsibility is to figure out who exactly is evil and who is in need of help.

The Marvels creates a team that tries to distinguish evil from good, and delves into the grey area between them. The final battle between Carol Danvers and Dar-benn has the superhero pinning the grey-haired antagonist to the ground as she begs for, then demands, that Carol fix what she damaged. Monica urges her to listen. Through this, The Marvels argues that a hero does not always beat up the bad guy and fight against unrelenting evil, but that a hero can be wrong, and that a hero can reconsider. It's kindness in the way that is revolutionary, where it's much easier to choose cruelty.

The fact that the movie is getting torn apart by critics, then, is not just because it is a "girls movie" or it doesn't have a strong white man for the white male viewer to sympathize with. The Marvels cannot appeal to Marvel fans because it rewrites the genre itself. It takes a film series whose purpose was to depict the struggles of cops, of the wealthy, of people with too much power who are trying to learn how to responsibly wield it, but don't. And it gives that power to people who have watched superheroes try and fail, who are slowly learning to be better heroes than the ones before them.

The next generation is a critique of the last, a group trying not to make the mistakes of the chosen ones that came before them, and as such, the movie exists to critique the movies that came before it. Therefore, a viewer of Marvel who would positively review it, due to sympathizing with the previous heroes and enjoying the power fantasy, would dislike it out of its existence being critical and contradictory to the films they like themselves.

The Marvels is not for Marvel fans-- at least, not those who saw the Avengers as purely heroes. Instead, the film reaches out to people who would have been against the old Avengers, who want a story that dismantles the unquestioned idealism of superheroes and writes about people trying to protect their communities and the people they care about.

So, let the critics complain. The MCU is shedding its roots as a pro-cop and pro-colonialism power fantasy, and evolving into an exploration of what it means to be a true hero.

[dg-outlaw]

Why No Love for Red Hood: The Hill?

I think it's all in the marketing and about what's being delivered versus what readers expected.

So I almost made this post on a reblog, but I didn't want to overwhelm that thread. Plus, I'm not sure if people get mad when someone does a long reblog on their short OG post? Anyway, the point of that post was that Issue 3 of 'Red Hood: The Hill' came out and no one's really talking about it, especially Jason/Red Hood fans.

I think the biggest problem (IMO) with this series is that someone wanted to write a story about The Hill and some new characters (which is fine), but like the 'Batman: The Hill' comic (which I think this series is sort of a sequel to), it's banking off a known character, Red Hood, to be it's selling point. "Come for the Red Hood, but stay for these other characters and their story." All fine and good, but a little deceptive when the marketing leans more toward it being a Red Hood (and new 'Outlaw' friends) story rather than one where Jason is a random guest star.

Series description:

In Gotham City’s early days, The Hill was one of Gotham City’s most dangerous neighborhoods, one that required the residents to band together to keep themselves safe when the police – and sometimes even Batman – wouldn’t. Now, as the Hill finds itself gentrifying, old habits die hard as the vigilante known only as Strike works with her team to keep the town safe—but she’s not alone. Jason Todd, one of the Hill’s newest residents, is more than happy to don the visage of Red Hood to help Strike keep his new home safe. But a new villain is emerging from the shadows. Will Red Hood, Strike and the Hill’s small militia of vigilantes be able to keep their home safe?

And this brings me back to the marketing and advertising of this series, especially versus the Batman: The Hill comic.

Obviously we can see the artistic parallels between these two covers (above). Overall, good job and nice throwback, but... there's a major difference. These two are not similar.

The first cover has "THE HILL" in bold, prominent text and Batman is in the background. This says that Batman is part of the story, but he seems secondary to whatever's going on in the foreground, which is mostly true to the story.

The second cover has "RED HOOD" prominent in the title with "The Hill" as secondary and smaller. Jason is also front and center with Batman looming behind him (who only just showed up at the end of issue 3. There's only two more issues left). The character of Strike, our new protagonist and The Hill's main hero, is down at the bottom and barely in-frame, further suggesting it's more about Jason (and maybe Batman) than The Hill or other characters. Again, clever marketing and nice design nod to the original cover, but deceptive when it comes to the series content. I don't necessarily blame the cover artist here as they might've been given a different brief on what the story was about and I get the fun throwback to the old Hill cover, but these covers are almost reversed in terms of Bat-character prominence.

In the original, Batman was more intertwined in that comic's story than Jason is in his series, which further adds to the audience letdown. If anything, this series needed to go with the coffee shop musician strategy: play a bunch of cover songs to win over the crowd and then slip in your original music (OCs) here and there. Once you have your audience hooked, go all out with your original stuff and then throw in 'Wonderwall' just for kicks and to keep them invested.

Ultimately, I think the biggest problem of this series is pacing and balance. The series needs more Jason to allow readers time to invest in the new characters, but as those new characters develop through their interactions with him THEN Jason can fade back as a partner character or just random character who comes in to help out. As it is, he's a guest star in series called, 'RED HOOD: the hill' with most of Jason's actions being 'day-in-the-life' stuff or a random action panel or two.

If anything, I think Red Hood #51 and #52 did a better job of establishing Jason as a main player, but also working alongside a new hero (Strike) and citizens of The Hill in solving a case. The covers above also display a more balanced composition and preview of what you're getting. Yes, you're reading a Red Hood comic, but there will be some other significant characters playing in this sandbox that you should care about and watch out for.

Sadly, I think the untrue message DC will take away from this series if it doesn't do well is that: (1) Jason is NOT an instant seller so let's shelf him because he couldn't carry this series (that he's barely in), and (2) readers don't like these new characters (most of which are BIPOC and/or LGBTQ), so let's ditch them and do more Batman stuff. 🤦‍♂️

And that's unfortunate because I think there's potential here had this series been executed in a better way. I see where the writer wanted to go with these new characters and they actually seem like an interesting and cozy bunch, but I feel like I'm stepping into an already established found family/friend group, but I don't really know them and I'm the outsider. So eventually I'll find a random distracted moment to quietly say bye to my friend Jason and slip out before anyone notices... like the socially awkward introvert that I am.

[rivalsforlife]

pardon me if you’re tired of discussing this but. we know aa7 is on capcom’s radar on some level. and now they’ve rereleased every game right?? they’ve finally run out of backlog material after almost yearly releases since 2019…. Not to put the clown wig and nose back on too early but do you think we’ll actually get news about, or get to see, aa7 next year?

Never tired of discussing this!! This is right around the time of year where I'd be preparing to make my yearly AA7 Speculation Post anyway so this is great timing. (TGS, my enemy, is approaching.)

So just to make sure everyone's on the same page, here's a quick recap of where we're currently at:

In November 2020 we got internal Capcom leaks which included a calendar from 2019 with the roadmap for the AA series the next couple of years. This included:

DGS1&2 collection, which I did not think was going to happen ever, releasing April-June 2021

AA7, releasing around October-December 2021, right around the 20th anniversary.

Through late 2019-mid 2022, reconsider porting 456

We got DGS1&2 (a bit later than in the plan, but by like a month), we got the 456 ports, we got bonus AAI ports, we have nothing for AA7 nearly three years after it was supposed to come out. The pandemic is an obvious feature that could contribute to its delay, but at this point with 456 ports out I think we can safely say that this was not the only cause.

Some other things that may or may not be contributing to AA7's delay include:

Yamazaki, the previous main writer for 5&6 and the AAIs, left Capcom in 2020. If he was involved in AA7 at all, that could throw a wrench into things, but I recall hearing he intended AA6 to be his last AA game (I AM STRUGGLING TO FIND THE SOURCE THOUGH SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME), so I don't think this contributed very much. It does, however, mean that we're unsure about who the next main writer is - depending on what Takumi's up to or if they had to bring someone new on, there could be complications related to that.

I think TGAA did way better than anyone expected, which I covered in this post. It's possible that this could have shifted Capcom's priorities to porting more old games / porting to all modern consoles. It may have made people at Capcom think "damn everyone loves Takumi" so they tried to lure him back to AA7, and I have no idea how well that would have gone or if Takumi is even interested in continuing mainline AA right now. (I do think this at least contributed to the Ghost Trick ports.)

In my first ever AA7 speculation post I talked about how the ending of AA6 kind of wrote them into a corner re: how to continue with the series and which protagonist to use. I still stand by that argument even if a lot of that post aged badly.

Console ports! Previously new AA games were for whichever Nintendo handheld is out now (GBA, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS). But now that the series is doing really well on all consoles, they may have decided to try to make their next mainline entry on all consoles, which would take more development time. Adding to this is that the Switch is near the end of its lifecycle with the Switch 2 (or whatever the successor will be) being announced soon - meaning that, if AA7 is coming out soon, Capcom is in the position of "do we try to squeeze this into the end of the Switch's lifecycle" (which, I'll need to find sources for this, is speculated to be some of the reasons behind why AAI2 and DGS2 sold badly when they were first released, and they can't make the same mistake thrice... right...?) or "do we try to time it with the release of the Switch 2"?

Also, a lot of this depends on how far AA7 was into development whenever it was derailed. If it was derailed from the pandemic, then according to the calendar, it would likely have still been in the prototype stage. It may be early enough that they would have had to start from scratch whenever they picked it up again. I don't work in the gaming industry so I have no idea how long it takes them to make a game or how easy it would be from what stage they're in.

One thing we can compare to is some of the comments about the recent AAI ports: in this interview, Shunsuke Nishida, the producer of the AAI collection, says that development on the collection began in 2022. He also mentions that this began once development on 456 was concluded. This leads me to believe that (contrary to my previous assumptions) 456 and AAIC were not developed concurrently (or if so, had very minimal overlap), and that the process of upscaling graphics, porting, and localization took them... about a year, maybe? So that takes time, even without taking into consideration how long it would take to come up with a new idea + write the script + the bulk of the programming that would have to be done that isn't considered with porting + probably way more than I can think of because again I do not work in the gaming industry.

There's also the question of why 456 and AAIC weren't developed concurrently. The calendar from 2020 shows that TGAA and AA7 were meant to be developed at least somewhat concurrently, and the staff from TGAA would eventually merge into working on AA7. Once again, we don't know what happened to the staff that were supposed to be working on AA7. It's possible pandemic complications meant they got shuffled onto other projects. It's possible the AA-related team is smaller now than it was in 2020, so they only have enough people to work on one project at a time. It's also possible that there's a team that was working on ports, and a team that was working on a new game, and now the "port team" is freed up to work on the "new game team".

Either way though, pretty much every interview with the staff for the 456 or AAI ports are all saying "look forward to the future of the series", which is definitely Corporate Speak, but unless they're bringing the ports of the Layton crossover (fingers crossed) that can only mean one thing. (AAI anime?) Plus, like I've discussed in this post, AA is having fantastic sales in general. They've seemingly either hired a new social media manager or changed the strategy so there is much more engagement on twitter. And AA is getting on bigger and bigger announcements - though AA trilogy ports were announced at TGS (at an AA-specific panel), TGAA duology ports were announced unceremoniously on twitter. Afterwards, 456 ports got announced at the Capcom Showcase during Summer Game Fest. And now AAI collection got announced at a Nintendo Direct, which I imagine is even more expensive, so the series must be going in a good direction for them to think that's worth it!

That's a lot of rambling for me to say I definitely think it's coming.

When are we going to see it though!!

Coming up in September is my eternal enemy Tokyo Game Show. Since AAI collection is being released at the beginning of September... it might be a bit too soon to announce a new game, but who knows. They might think it's profitable to ride the hype they're building now for AAI collection to announce a new game. Or they might let it sit for a while.

With AAIC getting announced at a Direct, I'm thinking they'll want to make AA7's announcement a) big and b) global. AA6 was announced in Famitsu, but the problem with that is that it's a mostly Japanese audience, and some interviews have been talking about how AA's global audience is particularly contributing to how big it is right now. So I'm expecting AA's next announcement to be at something major and something that will get attention from overseas audiences.

If they have been working on AA7 concurrently -- and honestly I do think there has at least been some progress on it since 2019 -- we could definitely see an announcement within the next year. I was also saying this in 2020, though, so don't take my word for it. There's been two year gaps between ports up until the AAI collection, and they seemed pretty proud about releasing 456 and AAI in the same year, so... maybe they'll want to keep it going and announce AA7 within the next year, especially if they'll have a longer announcement -> release period than they normally would for ports.

Potential candidates include:

Tokyo Game Show: As previously stated, it's very close to the AAIC release, so I don't think it's the best timing for it. I would not want my favorite AA game overshadowed by whatever the hell they're going to do with AA7. Likelihood: depends on how fast they want to follow up on the hype.

The Game Awards: is the next major gaming event, but that's already massive in terms of the type of games that get announced there, and it's expensive! Nintendo Direct is one thing since AA has always been a Nintendo-first series, but I don't think it's big enough to justify putting in a Game Awards ad. and I already have my clown wig on for persona 6 there. Likelihood: pretty low tbh

Next Year's Summer Game Fest-related Shows: I think this is the most likely, considering both the 456 collection and the AAI collection were announced around this time. For AA7 I'd say a Nintendo Direct to get lots of eyes on it, especially if AAIC sales pay off. Likelihood: pretty high!

Which leads me into my wildcard answer:

Switch 2 Announcement Stream: If Capcom decides to go in and make AA7 one of the first games for whatever the switch successor would be, it could be announced here. I regret to admit that I am a very bad gamer and only like two things, and therefore have not ever been present for one of these things to know how many games get announced as launch games for a new console, but, like, it's possible.

In the above scenario, I'm not necessarily saying that AA7 would be a Switch 2 exclusive - because I think that would be stupid after so much of the support they've gotten from the ports has been from playstation and steam - but I am definitely the kind of person who would buy a console for one video game. Shoutout to me buying a switch in part anticipating that aa7 would come out on it and that is not looking likely

Anyways, that's my speculation!! Reminder that this is mostly uninformed and that I have no knowledge of anything related to sales or marketing or video game development, and as a result of that, I have been wrong (aside from the one time I accurately predicted AAI ports as a joke) for four consecutive years.

[maretinelli]

I THOUGHT IT WAS YOU

Jake Peralta X fem!reader

Summary: In which, y/n goes on a mission alone, things go wrong and Jake thinks his "best friend" has been murdered.

Words: 3.5K+

Warnings: Criminals, angst, mentions of blood, gunshots, detective missions, protagonists in love, best friends to lovers, happy and cute ending.

Author: Always warning, English is not my first language. I apologize for any mistakes that may occur in the story. And secondly, you can go to my profile and request stories from me, Just see which characters are on my masterlist and ask via chat or question box

Y/s: Surname

MASTERLIST

The weather in New York was starting to cool down, the leaves on the trees had all fallen in the fall, bringing a carpet of yellow, orange and brown colors.

"Hi" Y/n happily approaches Jake, who had just gotten out of the car.

"Hi, honey." He smiles all goofy.

"I brought it for you." The detective holds out a cup of coffee. "I walked from home and stopped at our favorite coffee shop."

"Thank you- Wait, what?!" He asks indignantly.

"I said I stopped by our favorite coffee shop," Y/n says naturally.

"No, before!"

"Ah, I said I came on foot," she says, entering the police station.

"Why?"

"My car is in the shop, and my bike has a flat tire."

"Oh, you're kidding." He throws his head back, walking alongside his friend and coworker. "Why didn't you tell me? I was going to pick you up! It's freezing to walk here. Not to mention how dangerous it is."

"Oh, you're kidding." He throws his head back, walking alongside his friend and coworker. "Why didn't you tell me? I was going to pick you up! It's freezing to walk here. Not to mention how dangerous it is."

"No, Jakie," he says softly, pressing the button for the elevator. "You live on the other side of town. You'd waste a lot of time coming to get me. Don't worry about it."

"I wouldn't waste any time!" Jake grimaces and lets Y/n enter the elevator first. "I could just pick you up, no complaints," he says seriously, and Y/n smiles.

"Tell me the truth, Jake. You would totally go without complaining just because you would be able to show off your new car on the streets of New York." Y/n smiles sideways, looking at Peralta.

Jake wrinkles his nose and smiles.

"Okay, one point for you! But that's not entirely true. You come before my car." He says seriously and the detective smiles. "No jokes now. After shift I'll take you home."

Y/n smiles.

"Okay, Detective Peralta." She walks closer to him and whispers in his ear, just to tease her best friend.

Jake tries not to show that he had closed his eyes, but Y/n notices.

"SERIOUSLY! I SAW YOU ROLL YOUR EYES WITH PLEASURE" Y/n jokes, patting her friend on the shoulder.

"What?? No!!" Jake says in alarm, sipping the first sip of his coffee, as the elevator opens. "Oh my God, my favorite!" He changes the subject.

Y/n, who was following right behind him, smiled.

"Of course, I know my best friend's taste," with that said, she walks past him and enters the enclosure.

Jake watches her walk to her desk.

"Best friend?" Boyle says to Jake. "You haven't told her yet-"

"Holy crap Boyle, I just got here!" Jake grumbles, but the whole squad hears.

"Excellent!!" Terry gets up. "I have news about the 51-BC case that everyone will be happy to hear."

"THIS!!" Jake and y/n scream loudly, clapping their hands together, while the squad looks at them. "Sorry," they reply together.

Jake and y/n had worked on this case for about 10 months and had no progress, and of course, what Terry said was really good news.

With everyone in the squad gathered in the meeting room, and Holt present, the Sergeant began to talk about the case.

"As we know, the criminal Jean had fled abroad. But everything indicates that he is back in New York. His drug supplier was caught with one of Jean's old henchmen. I asked Amy and Rosa to follow them last afternoon in the park and found some clues about where they might be."

"Detective Diaz and I, we found evidence that Jean was hiding in the old abandoned Benny's pizzeria. Because it's a bigger place with more floors"

"No, not at Berry's!" Y/n exclaims disappointedly.

Jake sighs sadly too.

"Something wrong, Y/N?" Holt asks.

"No, no, Captain. It's just that Y/n and I used Benny's as a refuge from our families when we were kids" Jake says and Y/n agrees, sitting in the next chair, with Peralta's feet in her lap.

"You guys grew up together?" Holt asks in surprise.

"Me, Gina and Jake"

"There's something I didn't know about Peralta."

Jake opens his arms and smiles victoriously.

"Okay, back to the point. I'm sending detectives so they can investigate how we can break into the place and arrest Jean." Terry says, flipping through the spreadsheet. "Okay, Amy and Rosa stayed here to review the old information. Boyle will be in charge of the signal from the devices. Y/N will drive Jake to the location and stay in the car, in case the plan goes wrong. Jake, you go in!"

"TRY!"

"NO!"

Everyone looks at Y/n, because her scream is louder than Jake's.

"What do you mean, no?"

"No, Sergeant. Let me go investigate the hideout. Not to brag, but I've been on this case longer than Jake has." She turns and smiles at her friend.

"Stay in your lane, I've been on this case for 10 months." He looks the woman up and down.

"Yeah, but y/s is the one who initially took the case. How many months ago? Like, 5 months earlier than you." Rosa turns and smiles victoriously.

"Damn..." Peralta mutters.

"Thank you so much, Rosa" y/n winks at her friend and she gives a small smile.

"Are you sure you can handle it? If something unexpected happens, you'll have to fight or run."

"Seriously, look at me. With this body here I can put anyone on the ground!" She stands up and shows off the muscles that were clearly invisible.

"Tell me this, Miss Weakling. On Saturday at your house, you couldn't even open a jar of pickles by yourself. You had to ask for my help." Jake throws it in her face, approaching Y/n and smiling.

"Uuuh, what did you do at her house?" Boyle asks, smirking at Jake.

"SHUT UP, CHARLES" Y/n and Jake yell together.

"Well, if Y/N says she can handle it. You can give her the job." Holt says. "If you need anything, I'll be in my office.

He leaves and leaves Jake angry.

"Damn. What am I going to do in that case?" He asks and Terry smiles.

"Simple, you'll stay here and lead Y/n to the places where the criminals aren't, based on security camera images"

Jake pretends to slide off the chair, taking his feet off his friend's lap.

"Cry, but cry quietly so you don't bother me" y/n teases, passing by him and going to change her clothes to pretend she was a mere tourist.

After each of the detectives were at their stations with the case, the journey began.

Jake had lent the car so that y/n could go to the place without raising suspicion.

"For Jake to lend his car, he has to be very much in love" Amy says and Rosa smiles looking at him.

"Total. They looked at his little face when y/n thanked him with a 'thank you, my dear'. He almost exploded" Diaz comments and the people start to scream in euphoria.

"Don't you have anything else to do?" Jake ignores them, asking a question.

"No. We're waiting for you to send us the images from the cameras and turn on the devices so communicate with y/n and start work."

"Oh, right." Jake straightens up in his chair and starts working on the computer. "Detective Y/n, are you listening?" Peralta asks through the microphone that was connected to Y/n's headset.

"Listening in, Detective. Almost there."

"Okay. Guys, Detective S/n said he's close to the location, you can start working" he says and everyone starts doing everything they can to make sure y/n doesn't get caught.

After Y/n parked the car and got out to sneak into Jean's hideout, she passed on information to the detectives at the police station.

"Jake. I went into Benny's. No sign of any drug dealers, apparently."

"So? Just like when we were little?" Jake asks, but the captain listens.

"JAKE!"

"Sorry sir!" He says seriously. "Y/n...?"

"Exactly as we left it. I even bumped into that stove we had built to roast that piece of chicken you brought. Untouched."

"That's it!!" Jake gets a little excited in joy.

"Did she find anything?" Rosa asks curiously.

"No, but the stove we made when we were younger is still there" Jake sends a jewel with his hand and Diaz rolls his eyes.

"Jake, Jake, Jake!!" Y/n speaks quickly and Jake presses the headphones to hear more.

"Tell the squad that I found traces of a package of marijuana, the same ones we found months ago," she says, already putting gloves on her hands to pick up the evidence.

Jake informs the squad of the entire process that y/n had achieved. While Amy was already taking notes.

"I just spotted Jean, he has three goons behind him and I spotted a few more upstairs. Let Terry and Bolt know I'm aborting the mission."

"Okay, be careful." Jake takes care of y/n. "Sergeant!! S/n spotted Jean, but she's coming back here because there are a lot of henchmen there."

"Correct, let us know that with the evidence and information she gave, it is more than enough for us to enter with the entire squad," Sergeant Jefford explains.

"Honey, the sergeant asked-..."

"JAKE, I THINK I'M BEING STALLED." She whispers into the microphone, which makes the sound loud in the police station.

The squad stands on alert, ready to rush out and get her.

"Calm down Y/n, everything's going to be okay" Jake tries to calm the woman who was surrounded by criminals.

"Jake, they're really chasing me." The detective hears y/n's shoes making noise as she runs. "Jakie I--" they end up losing connection with the detective who was in action.

"Y/n?? Y/N??" Jake yells into the microphone and then looks at the squad who were in shock.

"We've lost connection," Boyle says and they don't know what to do.

"Let's go after her," Jake says, already grabbing his coat.

"No, we can't go," Sergeant says. "I know she's in danger, but if we go there, we could all die. They probably recognized her from last time."

"Sergeant! I need to go after her!"

"I ALREADY SAID NO!" Terry shouts, making everyone in the squad jump. "The best thing to do now is to send another police station there. Jean and the henchmen know us and this can only make things worse for y/n."

With that, Rosa starts dialing the nearest police station, reporting the unexpected event that happened on their mission and asking for help.

Meanwhile, Boyle and Terry began to calm Jake down, making him not leave the police station.

Until they start hearing a shrill noise coming from Y/n's microphone. Jake quickly runs to the table so he can talk to her.

"Hey, hey, honey! Y/N talk to us." Jake yells into his microphone.

However, the only thing the squad hears are three gunshots, someone falling to the ground and the loud noise again.

Jake falls into his chair in shock, disconnecting the connection between his and the detective's devices, while not really knowing who those shots were from.

"Oh my God." He says, staring at a fixed point, tears already threatening to fall.

The entire squad was left speechless. No one knew if those shots came from the gun that y/n had taken or from Jean's henchmen.

"What now?" Amy asks Terry desperately.

"Wait for news from the other police station," the sergeant says, sitting in the chair and placing his hands on his face.

Jake just looks at him with tears falling silently and stands up.

"If y/n is dead. It's your fault" Jake says through gritted teeth and points his finger at the Sergeant.

•••••••••••••••••••••

50 minutes had passed, no sign of y/n at the police station, no messages from her and no sign of the other police station finding her there.

"I'M TALKING. IF THEY SHOT AT HER IT'S THE SERGEANT'S FAULT" Jake, who had already been upset for a few minutes, began to scream even more.

"JAKE STOP IT" Boyle says, as Holt holds Peralta from behind so he doesn't jump on Terry.

Meanwhile, the rest of the squad was calling all the police stations looking for news about the group member.

With the sound of the elevator opening unexpectedly, squad 99 looks in the direction and sees y/n coming out with someone handcuffed.

"Oh my!" Jake sighs in relief.

Everyone was shocked when a bloodied detective entered the pen and placed Jean inside the temporary prison.

"I got this piece of shit!" She throws him into the cell and runs her hand over the large cut on his lips.

"Damn..." She whispers.

Holt releases Jake without any reaction, which was also — common. Leaving Peralta to run towards y/n.

"Jake..." Y/n whispers.

"Honey, you're all hurt. Come on, let's fix this." Jake takes Y/n out of the room and takes her to the file room, which was calmer and more refreshing.

Y/n walks the whole way in silence, and sits at a table, while watching Jake take a first aid kit out of the closet.

"For God's sake, Y/n. With those three shots, I thought you were dead." The brunette says, approaching Y/n with cotton and alcohol to clean her skin.

"Sorry, I was trying to get in touch with you guys- Aawww Jake!!" She whines as she feels the alcohol clean her wounds.

"Sorry, honey," he says softly, making her smile at the tone of his voice.

"It's okay. The worst is over."

"Could you tell me what happened there?" Jake asks quietly, now cleaning the wound on her forehead.

"When I warned that I was being chased, Jean's three henchmen came at me, making my wiretap fall off. Luckily, I managed to throw them to the ground. However, Jean came after me, I tried to fight him, but I failed. The shots came from his gun, but the shots ended up going upwards, so I managed to knock him down and arrest him." Y/n summarizes what had happened.

"I thought the sound of someone falling was someone falling dead." Jake says and uses the cotton to clean the wound on the woman's lips. "...and I thought it was you." He looks at her woman's eyes.

"Sorry... I couldn't text or anything, my phone was broken. And the bug too. Sorry to worry you guys, Jake."

"You worried ME. I thought I was going to lose you forever. Do you know the despair that ran through my veins when I heard those shots and didn't know who they were?" Jake lets the tears fall, making Y/n cry silently too. "I really thought I was going to lose you today. And I don't want that, ever." He wipes the woman's lips and looks at her intently.

"You love me, don't you?"

Jake smiles awkwardly.

"Sure, I'm your best friend"

"Jake, no." Y/n smiles and then says seriously. "You love me romantically."

Jake is silent. Because that really was true.

Damn, that was so true.

"I've noticed it in the last few years. The way you show it is clear, just not to me until Amy said the way you look at me. The flirting, the unnoticed glances..."

"Y/n, no"

"Yes. After all, you wouldn't be staring at my mouth and with your hand lightly squeezing my thigh if you weren't in love with me," she says jokingly and they laugh.

"Okay, young lady. You win, I'm so in love with you. I've loved you since we were 15 and it hurt so much not to be able to tell you this secret. And the thought of losing you today, without ever having had you, broke my heart into so many pieces. Damn, Y/N. I love you so much!" He smiles with tears.

"For your information. I love you romantically too." She smiles and closes the gap between them. Sealing their lips in a kiss they had been waiting for over a decade for. A passionate kiss, but at the same time hungry for what they had lost over the years.

"The squad is asking how you are- OH, I'M SORRY, I CAME TO SEE HOW YOU ARE!" Amy says, desperate after catching Peralta and Y/N kissing.

Jake steps away from y/n smiling, trying to hide it by looking at the files. Y/n hides a smile.

"I'm fine, Amy. It was just superficial cuts, Jake's taking care of them for me." Y/n says, holding back a smile.

"Oh yeah, taking care." Santiago raises his eyebrows and smiles. "I'll let the squad know that you'll be up soon and that you're okay."

Y/n nods.

Before leaving, Amy turns to y/n and smiles, showing a jewel with her fingers while whispering. "That's it, good job. Finally."

Y/n rolls her eyes and Jake turns back to her.

"I know she did something while I wasn't looking, what did she say?" He asks smiling, approaching y/n and placing his hands on her thighs again.

Y/n laughed.

"She whispered 'Well done' and 'finally.'" The detective smiles.

Jake laughs.

"For her to talk like that, it's because you've really been in love with me for a long time." He jokes, making her roll her eyes and smile.

"A long time ago." Y/n smiles, approaching Peralta's lips again. "Ask Gina, she knows exactly the day I told her I was in love with you."

"And of course she knows, she keeps everything"

"Yeah" Y/n chuckles into Jake's lips.

"Now come here, I haven't finished kissing my new girlfriend and future wife's lips." Jake says, making y/n smile big and press her lips against his.

[writingdungeon-inactive]

Love Letters

Elliott SDV Oneshot

Sitting in his usual seat at the Saloon, Elliott smiled as he watched over the usual patrons going about their conversations and games of pool. He was glad he had moved to this small, sleepy town. It had woken up recently, the people coming alive again with the swell of new energy. It was all thanks to the new Farmer. They had moved in a while ago, and nobody had expected them to pull so much of the town's weight after their grandfather's passing. But they had, and everyone was so grateful for them. Fixing the community center and kicking the corporate leeches of Joja out. The new movie theater brings in new faces now and again, boosting the community even more.

“Hey, good evening, Farmer!” He heard Gus call, waking him up from his people-watching thoughts. Looking over, he smiled, seeing the Farmer walk in and put up their hat on the rack. “Evening, Gus. How's today going?” Elliott smiled, listening to Gus and the Farmer talk about their days. He couldn't help but find them interesting, how they pushed through every day with the same confidence and strength. They had become the rock of the community. If you needed something, they would have it. If you needed someone to listen, their door was always open. The Farmer was someone to be inspired by, and inspired Elliott was.

Seeing the Farmer looking around for a spot to sit, he mindlessly raised his hand a bit and waved to them. The slight crinkle of their eyes and nose, the way they smiled at him as they noticed his invitation, made his heart rate rise. “Hello, Elliott, how's the book coming along?” The Farmer asked as they sat down, their mug of beer clinking softly on the tabletop as they settled into their seat. “It's proceeding as fluidly as setting kindling ablaze with oil,” he sighed into his wine glass, closing his eyes slightly. “That just means it's blazing with glory, right?” He chuckled with them, finding it amusing that they could always find the glass half full when others saw it half empty. “That is one way of looking at it, yes,” Elliott said with a smile, pushing some stray hairs out of his face.

"Why don't you tell me more about the plot? You know I love a good romance," the Farmer encouraged, leaning forward with genuine interest. Elliott's eyes sparkled with a mix of enthusiasm and nervousness. "Well, it's set in a small coastal town, much like ours. The protagonist, a young woman named Elara, inherits an old bookstore from her late grandmother. As she restores it, she discovers a series of love letters hidden within the pages of an old book.” He was embarrassed to admit he might have used the Farmer's tale to help shape his in a way, but their story was one for the ages in his mind.

"Love letters?" The Farmer interjected, eyebrows raised in curiosity. "Yes, love letters," Elliott nodded, his excitement growing. "Each letter tells a piece of a love story that spanned decades, full of longing, separation, and serendipitous reunions.” The Farmer smiled, nodding at his explanation. "Well, I guess you would be good at sending love letters; you do have a way with words.” He couldn't help the blush that tickled his cheeks. “Oh no, I haven't sent any; I've practiced for the book though,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck shyly.

“Ooooh, who are you writing to? An ex? Someone you know?” A small gasp and smirk formed on the Farmer's lips. “Is it someone I know?” They asked, looking like the curious cat before they got caught, but he was the mouse staring down the cat about to get caught. How could he tactfully say he had a small stack now of written love letters, written out to them? Lengthy poems expressing his yearning, letters categorizing all his desires, heartfelt love letters written with deep emotion, all made for them. “You could say you know them,” he danced around the question, his eyes looking to the side as he hid behind his wine glass. “Come on, Elliott, you did ask for help with the book genre. I could help hook you up with them.” His heart and chest squeezed tight at the Farmer's offering to help set him up with his love letter recipient, not knowing it was themselves meant to receive the letters.

"Ah, well, you see, it's all for artistic purposes. I wanted to capture the essence of genuine affection and longing in written form. It's all purely artistic, I assure you," Elliott stammered as he took a sip of his wine, hoping his explanation would suffice, all the while grappling with the realization that his feelings were intricately woven into every word penned.

“Uhu huh… And I just arrived in Pelican Town today,” Elliotte couldn't help but smile at their sarcastic comeback. “Elliott, if you like someone, you should let them know. You are a great guy.” Their sincere tone and soft smile threatened to drive him mad. They were right. They deserved to know, and who knows, it could help the flow return to his writing.

“Well, Farmer… It's you…” Elliott said, looking at his reflection in his near-empty stemware, his eyes slowly raising to look at the Farmer. Their red cheeks and slightly widened eyes made him slink back a bit, scared he had been too bold, stepping over a line not meant to be crossed.

“Me… And you've never sent them? Elliott…” The Farmer's voice was almost a whisper, but the growing smile on their lips showed their excitement. “I… I didn't know how you would feel,” Elliott said softly, his own smile forming on his face, his fears calming down. “Well, I want to see them. Come on, show me.” Elliott watched as the Farmer downed their drink and held out their hand. Taking a moment to understand the request, Elliott gladly took the Farmer's hand, leading them to the beach. “What kind of letters are they? The sappy ones?” Elliott couldn't help but see the coy cat smirk crawling back on their face as they looked up at him. “Naughty ones?” His face turned red as he laughed, shaking his head. “I'll let you read them, find out for yourself, how about that,” he said, teasing them back, his turn to smirk at the Farmer's blushing face.

As they walked along the sandy shore, the cool ocean breeze tousled their hair, adding an extra layer of intimacy to their exchange. Elliott couldn't help but feel a surge of affection for the Farmer beside him, their laughter echoing against the backdrop of crashing waves. The Farmer squeezed his hand gently, a silent reassurance that washed away any lingering doubts Elliott might have had. With each step, the weight of uncertainty lifted, replaced by a growing anticipation.

Unlocking the door of his home with a sense of excitement, Elliott led the Farmer into his cozy abode. Reaching under his bed, he pulled out a bundle of letters tied with a ribbon. Sitting beside the Farmer, he carefully untied the bundle, revealing a collection of handwritten notes neatly folded within. "These are… special to me," Elliott confessed, his voice tinged with vulnerability as he handed the letters to the Farmer. "They're a reflection of my feelings… for you."

The Farmer's eyes softened as they took the letters into their hands, their gaze shifting between the pages and Elliott's earnest expression. With a gentle smile, they began to read, each word resonating deeply within their heart.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky in shades of pink and orange, Elliott and the Farmer sat together in a comfortable silence, surrounded by the echoes of their shared laughter and the promise of new beginnings.

[haunting-jane]

Aang's grief

From the first time I've watched Avatar: The Last Airbender, I've always been really attached to Aang's character and deeply sympathized with his pain. One of the reasons for that, I muse, is the show's bittersweet ending that always made me sad. Sure, Ozai was defeated, Zuko is the new firelord, and all peoples are in peace at last. But when one looks at the cheering crowd, no airbenders are found.

Aang is the only person dressed in orange and yellow amidst a sea of red, green, and blue. He succeeded in his mission of uniting everyone, but there is no way of bringing back or fixing what was done a hundred years prior. And this aspect in specific, I think, is where lies one of Aang's most stinging pain: nobody but him knows what the Air Nation genocide represents.

Nobody truly understands him, because they simply aren't old enough to grieve in the same capacity as him. Toph, Sokka, Zuko, Suki and especially Katara are all amazing, empathetic and kind friends and companions, and they are definitely essential parts of his grief journey. But they just don't. get. it.

Katara and Sokka lost their mother to Fire Nation colonialism, Toph was disinherited and forsaken by her parents, and Zuko's traumas don't even have to be mentioned. However, and I believe this extends to the audience as well, they cannot wrap their minds around a loss as big as that. And in my opinion, that is why so many fans tend to gloss over Aang's trauma or not interpret correctly some of his trauma responses.

Aang lost everything. And everyone. He lost his childhood friends, his home, his old toys, his clothes, his favorite culinary recipes, his parental figures, his books, his drawings, his bed. The Air Nation people weren't just eliminated, their culture, poetry, history, art, cuisine, fashion, ALL of it was erased. And as Aang slept for a hundred years, time went on and took anyone who could remember the Air Nation as it once was.

Although the rest of the Gaang suffered a lot, their pain can still be understood and felt by other people who went through similar situations. Aang, however, is alone. Nobody can really understand what it feels like: to be the only survivor of a genocide, with no home to go back to and suddenly awake in a world strange and hostile to you. At 12, to top it all.

This kind of pain, of rushed trauma causes immense disassociation, and I think Aang didn't even process what actually happened until like season two. Maybe even later. How could he? He woke up and the weight of saving the whole world was thrown onto his shoulders. How could a child, at the same time as all of that was happening, truly comprehend that they are responsible for bringing back an entire nation and culture? That's why I think he was so cheerful and generally happy in the first two seasons, he hadn't actually understood what had happened.

The pain, nevertheless, was there. Maybe Aang didn't truly comprehend that he was the only survivor of a genocide and what was at stake, but he did grieve for his people. And boy, he was angry.

I'm not a psychologist, but I consider that Aang was lost in a haze of anger and denial after he found out what had happened. And, to be honest, I really liked to see those moments when anger came out. It felt cathartic, it felt like something he was entitled to. Don't get me wrong, I fell in love with him as a protagonist precisely because he's a sweetie and a cutie pie. And he definitely deserves to be happy and silly as any normal child. But sometimes I feel like his anger is not really understood, maybe not even by himself.

He wasn't angry just at Fire Nation, he was angry at the Airbender elders who forced him into fulfilling his role as avatar at 12, he was angry at Gyatso for not defending him (or as he erroneously thought), but most importantly, Aang was angry at himself. He was the avatar after all, why did he run and abandon his people to die?

Being a child who did not have time or the means to properly grieve, and was also going through immense pressure, self-blame surely did a number on him and his mental health. Of course he would give up on learning firebending after he accidentally burned Katara. There was no way Aang would ever accept being remotely similar to those who took everything from him (and who took Katara's mom).

Of course he would be initially salty and angry at the people living in the old Air temple, they were acting as if the airbenders never existed in the first place, at least that's how he saw it. He was right there! Maybe his culture was dead, but his tradition still deserved some respect! Still deserved a place in the world! Still deserved to be remembered!

Of course he would be angry at EVERYONE when Appa was captured. He loved Momo deeply, but the lemur wasn't there with him while it all was happening a hundred years ago. Appa was the only one who saw everything, who had lost as much as him. Losing Appa was like losing his last connection, his last piece of the Air Nation. Of course he would be unfair, grieving children do tend to act irrational in moments of anger, especially when they feel isolated from everybody else. It couldn't have been any different, really.

And honestly, I think those issues persisted into his very adulthood. Naturally, losing absolutely everything might be something one never gets over, but considering that Aang never went to therapy and never resolved his internal conflicts and understood his grief, it all persisted.

And obviously he wasn't a very good father. Aang spent his entire life trying to fix what could never be mended, trying to make up for the time he was away in the iceberg, trying to convince himself that he wasn't a failure.

It might be an unpopular opinion, but I do believe he and Katara kept trying until they got an Airbender, and I do not think it would be out of character. Some Aang defenders try really hard to state that he wasn't a bad father. But guys, there's no escaping facts: it's almost impossible to conciliate being the avatar and the responsibilities that come with it with being a good parent.

Of course he would try to repopulate the Air Nation if he never really got over the belief that he was responsible for its destruction in the first place. I know, when studying with that guru, Aang seemingly understandood that he couldn't keep blaming himself for something that he was never in control, but I don't think this kind of conviction can be so easily internalized. Especially when you're blinded by such poignant and isolating grief.

So he favored Tenzin. How could he bring his culture back if he didn't prioritize his little Airbender's upbringing? I wanna make it clear, though, that although I understand why Aang was the way that he was, I'm not justifying his actions. Bumi and Kya were after all emotionally neglected by their father, and that was also not fair.

But, in the end, grief rarely is. Grief kept Aang from truly participating in his two eldest children' childhoods and from seeing that his legacy wouldn't lie on just bringing the Airbenders back.

And I think grief also clouded Aang's eyes with guilt as he realized he could never give Tenzin what was given to him. His tattoo ceremony must have been so sad for Aang, as there was probably only himself, Tenzin, Katara, Bumi and Kya present. The elders were gone, the sky bison were gone, the instruments, the music, the speeches. The richness and culture. He could never give that to Tenzin.

This too, I believe, is also a huge pain Aang carried. The pain of the certainty that no matter what he did, no matter how hard he tried on teaching Tenzin everything he knew, of trying to recuperate as much as humanly possible, the Air Nation he knew would never come back. He could find new Air acolytes, discover a new species of sky bison, sew their clothes as accurately as he could...The Air Nation technically would return, when Tenzin had children.

And he did, and Korra opened the portal and suddenly there were dozens of airbenders. But it would never be the same. They would never have the privilege that other nations had, of revisiting their own past, of having their history documented and culture preserved. No. That Air Nation would die with Aang, and there was nothing he could do to prevent it.

And due to the amount of pressure he put on himself, there was no way he wouldn't pass it on to Tenzin. Can you guys imagine how he felt after Aang passed? Now, he was the one responsible for the Air Nation, and he knew damn well that he was supposed to do it knowing he'd never be as good as Aang. He'd have to find a way to preserve tradition while never actually having known it. To fulfill his father's role and essentially, be him.

Tenzin's pains and traumas are certainly ignored too and deserve a post of their own, tbh. He most definitely compared himself to Aang all the time, and even though he spent most of his childhood with his father, I don't think it was necessarily easy.

Anyway. I'm not really sure how to conclude this. I don't consider Aang an ultimately tragic figure, he did live a happy life alongside his wife and his friends. But I don't think he ever stopped grieving. After all, he wasn't living in usual conditions prior avatars lived in. He had to take on so much responsibility, to grow up so fast, to witness so much chaos and death, only at 12.

In his soul, Aang was a gentle spirit, as Yangchen cleverly put, and a good person, in the raw sense of the word. It just wasn't fair. All that he went through.

Maybe there really isn't a moral of the story or a lesson here. Maybe things are just unfair and not fixable.

So yeah, although Avatar: The Last Airbender technically had a good ending, I can't help feeling blue every time it ends. Because I know Aang, my favorite character of the verse, never really, truly got a happy ending himself. And because I know he'd have to live the rest of his life carrying that pain and that grief.

It brings me a little comfort, however, of thinking that perhaps Aang was watching Jinora's tattoo ceremony. That he was seeing all those airbenders and he was seeing his little granddaughter becoming a master. And that maybe he smiled.

And that maybe, at last, he forgave himself.

[polaris-stuff]

Hey Noffy again

These last three episodes. Honestly I am still in shock.

As someone that was in the middel all the time. Right now at least the fandom seems United in being pissed (at what part certainly different, but i don't see anyone really liking this arc)

Right now...I don't think I gather my thoughts enough to say anything about the track the celestial family's arcs are going. Just that I am disappointed.

I am trying to find a way they can safe this arc.

Wich lies with that last but in the mgafs episode. The 'this all feels very orgistrated, moon losing his mind. Killing bloodmoon'. Or something along those lines.

If based on that. There is a sort of 'virus' reveal that some people have been speculating. I want something else to happen.

It still needs to hurt. That earth and lunar gave up on moon. Like it's the virus that made it all so quick and violent? (If that's what they are going for)

But still keep that part of the angst? I dunno. Something along those lines (still don't want old moon back without new moon. Answering for whats going in or the family trying to help. )

Gosh and I hate that sun wasn't here. People saying he needs to make a decision and then he isn't here?

I am afraid of next episode and what they are gonna tell sun. Sun is gonna be so utterly broken.

Uugh I think I am gonna join everyone in the fanfic reading.

I am still holding a sliver of hope they can fix this.

Or more I WANT THE SHOW TO FIX THIS.

I have not been in this community long. (Got introduced just around when Bloodmoon came back. ( A little before that))

I have not interacted with people much except in comments on ao3. Or asks where I can be on anon as I can't use my main. Or in the comments of threads.

But the people have been kind to me. Even if I held a different opinion. I've seen the joy this show gave. The art that it creates. And I am scared this arc is gonna destroy all that. Because people lose motivation because of this arc.

I really really hope not.

I hope the show brings it back. I hope they can do something. Even if for right now it feels like shit.

-noffy

I missed your asks, Noffy 🥺💖

Tbh I had no idea people were speculating about a virus until yesterday, and honestly, if it all ends up being about a virus (or the Ruin virus on Moon) I'll still be so upset. Because I won't be able to stop thinking about how Moon changed a little, became more aggressive and his family abandoned him at the first "No, I don't want help."

This whole arc only confirms the worst fears of all Moons: they will never be loved. They will always be the bad guys. << Which is btw what New Moon feared and talked to Earth about in therapy.

This arc feels rushed, gross, and not only did destroy the family, Moon's entire development was thrown in the trash. They butchered Moon's character. How are they going to fix this? Why tarnish the name of one of the show's protagonists so badly? Someone they're going to need later?

And you know what I hate more than everything? Sun doesn't know anything about what's going on. Puppet went, told him "you have to make a decision", Sun couldn't do it and Puppet went and sent Moon into space. Without authorization from Sun. And I hope Sun is really upset about it in the next episode.

Oh! And by the way! Earth comparing Moon to the creator felt like a stab in the back. The creator is a horrendous being who killed children for his own benefit, who does horrible experiments, and who planned and killed many people. New Moon has never killed anyone, New Moon was always helping his family, New Moon bought a house so Sun could have a place to relax, New Moon helped make Earth's new body with love, New Moon was so concerned about Lunar's well-being (when Eclipse came back) that he asked for and helped build a bodyguard for him.

New Moon was there ALL THE TIME for everyone.

But no one was for him.

I propose that the entire fandom pretend that this arc never happened :3 💖

[themattress]

The Evolution of Yu-Gi-Oh! Villainy

Thinking back on this post from @ultraericthered, It's interesting to note that Kazuki Takahashi developed in how he wrote villains as the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga progressed.

Let's look at how he initially wrote villains, shall we?

They're all the same type of one-dimensional, psychotic, horrible person. It gets old fast.

We then get a pair of two-parters with a slight step up.

Kaiba and Hirutani respectively are still one-dimensional, psychotic, horrible people, but they actually feel dangerous. Yami Yugi has been owning every other shmuck with relative ease; he honestly came off as more frightening than they did! Kaiba and Hirutani, meanwhile, show a more calculating and intelligent side to them that allows them to pose a genuine threat.

Then there's Takahashi's first attempt at a "Big Bad": Shadi.

And Takahashi himself has admitted that he sucked. He tried so hard to make him mysterious that he just ended up being confusing and bland, with no charisma or even an identifiable motive for antagonizing Yugi and his friends. Takahashi himself hadn't actually thought of any concrete plans for Shadi or the story's lore beyond vague details at this point, so much of how Shadi is presented here and the things he does end up feeling contradictory to how the narrative develops later. So after this failure, Takahashi went back to making one-note assholes before bringing back one of the best of them and elevating him to Big Bad status.

Now with the first name of Seto, Kaiba worked beautifully as a Big Bad since he had a clear motivation, established history with the protagonist, and we already knew he was a threat, with the new additions of just how rich and skilled at games he is plus a backstory explaining why he is the way he is cementing him as the series' best villain to date without question.

However, he was still lacking a key element: charisma.

"What?", you may be saying, "The Hell do you mean; Kaiba's super charismatic!"

Kaiba post-Mind Crush is super charismatic, yes. He's even charismatic in the 1998 Toei anime adaptation, where he has green hair and is more of a classy, scheming supervillain.

But originally?

He can pretend to be charismatic, particularly when he's playing for a crowd, but otherwise Kaiba is still the same charmless thug as before, and the actions he takes in this arc reach truly vile territory. Again, he's a wonderfully effective villain, but it's not because you love to hate him - you just hate him and want to see him brought down. You don't enjoy his villainy.

Once again, the arc is followed up by a few more one-off forgettable baddies, although at the end of that run we get Hirutani making a return appearance, now with a ratty sidekick named Nezumi who I feel like more could have been done with. And after that, he finally debuted.

Yami Bakura, while a step down from Kaiba in DEATH-T in terms of scale (feeling more akin to Kaiba in his debut two-parter instead), was when Takahashi finally managed to crack the charisma code. Yes, he's a psychotic asshole, but he carries himself with such conviction, schemes and plays games in such a meticulous way, and has such a sense of theatrical flamboyance and gallows humor that it's impossible not to be entertained by his twisted Dungeon Master antics. And unlike Shadi, he is mysterious the right way; you can tell there's a lot more to him that you don't know yet, but the arc foreshadows much of it impeccably, and as he goes on to be the main overarching antagonist of the whole series it's great to see him only become more dangerous until he successfully pays off all of his long-term planning.

And then...

Maximiilion J. Pegasus (Pegasus J. Crawford in the Japanese version) is the apotheosis of Takahashi learning to write villains. Like Shadi, he has crucial and mysterious ties to the overarching narrative, but like Yami Bakura it's done correctly. Like Kaiba, he's a large-scale corporate rich guy whom Yugi and his friends must fight through a dangerous game tournament to reach after he does something bad to Grandpa Moto, all while he monitors everything from his stronghold, and at the very end fully reveals a tragic backstory that explains but does not excuse him. Like Yami Bakura, he is insanely charismatic and you enjoy watching him even when he's doing the most dastardly things. And to take things a step further, he is directly connected to all of those prior Big Bads: he got his Millennium Eye from Shadi personally, he is colluding with Kaiba Corp which only became possible because Yami Yugi defeated and Mind Crushed Kaiba in DEATH-T, and he ends up killed by Yami Bakura!

I won't be talking about Mr. Clown, because ultimately he's just a decoy while Yami Bakura, under the guise of being an ally now, makes crucial progress in his big overarching evil plan.

Then we get the disappointment that is Marik Ishtar.

No, not that Marik Ishtar! He's actually great! A slight step down from Pegasus but a major step up from Mr. Clown, Marik is a different sort of villain: a distant, shadowy evil mastermind behind a criminal organization engaged in a conspiracy across Domino City. Marik is threatening, charismatic, and interesting: increasingly so as we learn his backstory, discover his blood ties to Ishizu, and see him enter a deliciously sinister alliance with Yami Bakura.

But then...

Not only does Yami Marik come out of nowhere, but his character can be summed up here:

Now, these kinds of crazy, evil-for-evil's-sake, "I wanna destroy everything" villains can be done well. But I'm sorry, I just don't think Takahashi knew how to do so. Yami Marik is boring. He's not remotely charming or engaging in his vile villainy, he is overpowered to an irritating degree, and he only serves to further complicate and elongate what was already a very complicated and elongated story arc. It feels like Takahashi was going to carry Marik all the way through but then gave him such a dark and sad backstory that he felt sorry for him and wanted to redeem him, but couldn't think of a viable way without inventing this even eviler alternate personality to serve as a scapegoat. So I am absolutely not a fan of Yami Marik....

...in the original manga.

Yes, for all that the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime adaptation screws up, it can sometimes fluke into improving on the source material, and Yami Marik is one of the biggest examples. Animation and voice-acting single-handedly change him from a boring villain to a wonderfully entertaining one; devouring the scenery and coming off more feral monster than serial killer.

Finally, we have Zorc Necrophades and Akhenaden.

Zorc is the standard Final Boss villain who has been built up to for a long time, and he serves that role very well. But Akhenaden is where the real interest lies. He's essentially Takahashi writing a Shakespearean tragic villain: a complex man both loathsome and pitiable, whose understandable desires and conflicting emotions lead him down a dark path that ends with him losing his humanity and becoming a hollow vessel for Zorc's soul, fueled only by hatred. Additionally, he has deep connections to all prior Big Bads and to Yami Yugi himself. He is worthy of Ultimate Villain status (which the Duel Monsters anime sadly took away from him).

My ranking of the manga's Big Bads: Shadi < Mr. Clown < Yami Marik < Marik < Kaiba < Zorc/Akhenaden < Bakura < Pegasus (would've been Kaiba < Marik if not for Yami Marik).

[destinygoldenstar]

Worst ways to describe Ninjago to people

(Let me know if I should turn this into a series, or if you come up with any)

(These are all jokes)

"This is a show about how plastic makes tornadoes"

"That's Jay, the blue guy. His special power is screaming at the very top of is lungs"

"That's Kai. He's an anime protagonist. His special power is getting sidelined in everything he's ever been involved with"

"That's Cole. Best hair. No criticism" (Quote my GF)

"Society hates and torments a ten year old because he's a brat"

“See, his father is a tired old man who wants to be a better father, it’s hard when you’re an evil terrorist trying to turn the world into your personal zombie land”

"And then the child slipped on ice and fell into a snake pit, and then he was a KING"

"So there's this purple snake. He eats purple snakes. That's how you know he's a good friend"

"Also there's a pink ninja. Yeah. We don't talk about pinkie no no no no no-"

"He's always wondered who he was on the inside... turns out he's a bunch of wires"

"If he could get someone to fall in love with him, the curse would be broken. But who could ever learn to love a snake?"

"His dad didn't say NO MUSIC, he said YES MUSIC, ONLY MUSIC"

"So they have the devil himself living in their boat, and they all think he's a really good neighbor who wouldn't try to kill them while they're sleeping. Except for this one guy who is suspicious. What a hypocrite he is, am I right?"

"Do I save the entire world or do I have this one child? I'm gonna save the child, c'mere child"

"'No destiny, I AM the Green Ninja' 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-'"

"And then the emo child became god"

"So he died. Then he died. And then he died again."

"A machine told her that cheating was okay"

"To save her life, he gave her a piece of his heart. Literally"

"And then they were yeeted into space"

"The Flash is in this show"

"You know how they say the cake is a lie? Wrong. It's the noodles"

"The best way to make things right with your friend is to try to strike them with lightning"

"I must fulfill my daddy's wishes to start up the evil empire-but wait, why is this fire boy so pretty? I think I'll side with him"

"Dude was drunk on power holding a stick, don’t worry he’s fine, they just had to slap him with a jet”

"He was born a devil in a human's body. Then he became a devil. Then he became human again. Then he became a snake. Then he became a dead person. Then the devil again."

"Dead people are deadly allergic to water"

"What do you do when you don't know what to do with a character? MURDER THEM... and then bring them back as a ghost. Problem solved"

"A thousand year old genie wants to marry a teenage girl"

"You ever heard of Romeo and Juliet? Well Jay just said NOPE"

"A young boy became the father of an elderly man"

"Oh Lloyd, if only there was someone out there who loved you"

"And then his dad was brought back from hell to drag him along"

"They didn't die, they were transported to the middle of nowhere"

"A child grew up with his four dads, and then became thousands of years older than said four dads and tried to become a counselor to their rocky marriage"

"Cole fell into the void"

(Come up with your own when reblogging)

[sorenblr]

So I’ve seen some Japanese tweets where they talk about the Buddhist+Gnostic associations of SMTV. Nothing major but that that Murakumo(Tehom as well) uses the same Dharmchakra mudra as Seraph in DDS. Another one believes Lucifer might be a stand in for Kokuzo Bosatsu as well due to being the Buddha associated with the Morning Star and how good old Lord of Chaos “transcended” beyond being a mere god, demon, or Nahobino.

Both the vanilla release and Vengeance are definitely playing with the theme of Buddhistic transcendence- it's perhaps the reason that Goko/Amitabha is the one to shepherd you onto the Throne. I think the paradisical Pure Land sect is an awkward association for that role, but, you know, he's a very crowd-pleasing Buddha. It's also why this metaphysical cycle is the "Mandala System", as a very stupidly-named echo of Nocturne's womb world.

This team loves to harp on the Morning Star shit so much that I don't even think bringing Kokuzo into the mix is that much of a stretch; even if it wasn't literally the intended parallel, Lucifer certainly plays the intermediary Bodhisattva role, rejecting the Throne and waiting to usher the protagonist into a more complete transcendence.

The Dharmachakra mudra is a very on the nose signifier, in light of all that. It's also a thing that looks cool to do before your big sword attack. Bringing it back for Tehom is slightly silly in a vaccuum, but it's consistent with the previously implied dharmic interpretation of Abrahamic religion. Make of that what you will, though.