#to protect his position

[magnecalliope]

Branzy is not some innocent waif by any means, but I feel like everyone misunderstands the ways in which he matches Clown’s freak. Particularly, they want to subvert what they view as the architypical dynamic between Branzy and Clown without any real regard to how Branzy's personality actually meshes with Clown's. They recognize that Clown’s intimidation of Branzy is surface level, but don’t seem to grasp what’s going on below that to give Branzy his own edge over Clown.

Branzy is a homicidal maniac in his own right, and certainly has aspirations of being the kind of murder machine that Clown is, but he just does not have the fighting skill to back it up, nor was he a particularly skilled engineer when he first joined Lifesteal. At his core, Branzy is a coward. He gravitates towards whichever player or team he thinks is going to protect him, and he'll stroke their ego to get in their good graces. He gets by on his charisma and charm.

Clown, despite having a clear advantage over Branzy, still frequently comes across as uncomfortable with Branzy's attention, while also craving it and seeking it out. He's also a deeply reserved individual. Even when he's emoting he's still very quiet and even tempered. He plays his cards close to his chest. He's a loner. He has his reputation in part because he's unreadable and intimidating. He was coming off of a season where he hadn't died a single time. He’s an unstoppable force without an immovable object.

So here's the scenario: You're a stoic assassin. Usually you like to work alone. Other people slow you down. But you want revenge and you want to execute it in a particular manner that just happens to be outside of your wheelhouse. You have to team up with someone, and it just so happens you know someone with passable talent and a common enemy. You can tell he's afraid of you, and he should be, because he can't even beat Spepticle in a fight, how would he ever take on you?

But he's also... strangely affectionate. You box him in and he lets you, even as he's shaking with fright. You flirt and he flirts back. You're used to letting your reputation speak for itself, but here he is singing your praises to anyone who will listen. He puts all the credit for the collaboration on you, and downplays his own contribution. He sticks around even after you've exacted your revenge, and he still has nothing but good things to say about you, no matter how much you push and prod and scare and tease.

The fundamental difference between Branzy and Clown is vulnerability. Branzy has had no choice but to embrace his, while Clown has done everything in his power to excise it from himself entirely. Branzy allows himself to have big emotions and Clown barely speaks above a whisper at any given moment. When it comes to a fight, of course there isn’t much that can scare Minecraft’s Deadliest Assassin. But Clown has no idea how to navigate emotions, while emotions are Branzy’s greatest asset. People relate to Branzy, they trust him, and he uses it to manipulate them right into their traps. He can trick others’ emotionally as easily as Clown can cut them down with his sword. His relationship with Clown was made on the foundation of betrayal; he sacrificed his alliance with Vitalasy for Clown's protection. It was more important to him to stay on Clown's good side than remain loyal to his previous team, and this is because he felt, with 100% certainty, that Clown offered him more than Vitalasy did. And Vitalasy never saw it coming. 

That’s what makes Branzy so terrifying to Clown. Because he trusts Branzy. He lets his guard down around Branzy. He lets himself be vulnerable with Branzy. What if Branzy’s just manipulating him too? Or worse. 

What if he’s not?

[the-force-awakens]

Still not used to this life or death situation stuff. That's good, 'cause I'm not either. You never get used to it.

[s0fter-sin]

god the way ghost’s voice drops when he tells soap, “you’ll need to improvise to survive”

before that, everything he says is steady but when he acknowledges that soap’ll have to do something outside his skill set, something he intimately knows to be difficult, his voice wavers. he does the same when he says, “welcome to guerrilla warfare”; it’s sombre and serious in a way he doesn’t act for the rest of the mission. if you read into it enough, he almost sounds apologetic; like he knows exactly what soap’s about to go through and wishes he didn’t have to

he keeps soap going; poking at him and making jokes, giving him tips and asking about his progress. he never lets him stop and take a second to think bc he knows the moment he does is the moment it'll all hit him; the betrayal, the pain, the fear, the deaths, all of it will drown him and if that happens, soap won't make it

he needs him to be a soldier through and through and he knows this is one of the worst kinds of battlefields you could end up on

and the only times he slips is when he acknowledges that fact

it happens again when he says, "tryin' to get you here alive and in one piece". his jovial dark humour facade drops for just a moment when he has to face the potential reality of losing soap. then he tries to pick it back up again with, "one of us has to survive to tell the tale"; completely discounting himself as a survivor to try and rally soap and make him think it’s all down to him

and soap does the same thing

when he's calling out for ghost on the radio, he's tentative, testing the frequency, then when he doesn’t get a response, he grows desperate; "ghost, this is 7-1, do you copy?"

then when ghost answers, he smooths out his voice; he hides the pain, the fear, and no matter what response you give to ghost asking if he’s injured, soap brushes it off (“i’m good”, “what’s the difference?”, “i’m not a medic”). soap decides it’s in ghost’s best interest to hide the extent of his injuries

he doesn’t know where ghost is, if he’s secure, if he has any weapons; he doesn’t even know if he’s in las almas until he says, “there’s a church, i’m headed to it”. for all he knows, he could’ve run in the complete opposite direction. if ghost knows he’s hurt, then his attention would be split between his own survival and soap’s

and soap, who lets himself be poked and prodded towards the church, needs to hide his own doubts. maybe he needs ghost to believe he'll make it so he himself can believe it ("what are my odds?" "don't make me bet against you", "think i'll live that long?" "probably not")

he all but begs ghost to tell him he'll get through it and if he knows just how bad off he is, maybe he'll change his mind. maybe he'll think he won't make it to the church

maybe he'll leave him alone for good

"you injured?"

"i’m good"

"let's find out how good you are"

[edwinisms]

it’s actually so wild to me that this fairly quirky YA type show gave both of its main characters deaths that can, in one way or another, solidly be considered hate crimes. they were both flat out murdered as a result of being A) gay and effeminate or B) brown (south asian, specifically) and you could argue whether or not those kids thought of it that way in the moment or whatever but the bottom line is that they would not have been in the situations that killed them if they weren’t of their respective minorities. like legitimately that is a ballsy choice for this kind of netflix show, let alone for the two Main Characters, and i respect it big time

[casually-eat-my-soul]

Fanfic idea?? So this is set idk season 1/2 end of season ish?? Like maybe during the summer when Erica and Boyd are missing and stiles and Derek randomly get closer. Sometime where stiles and Derek weren’t really trusting each other.

So one day while patrolling Derek comes across stiles in the woods and at first he’s angry as hell. What the fuck does this dumbass kid think he’s doing on Derek’s territory, especially after digging up his sister and getting him arrested. He’s about the storm over there and yell at him when he’s hears stiles talking, at first he’s annoyed — does the kid never shut up— when he stops dead because it sound like stiles is talking to his mom and he’s crying.

Stiles misses his mother, he and his dad don’t really talk to her anymore. Stiles only goes to her grave site on her birthday; it’s cold and lifeless and nothing like her. So when he wants to talk to her, he goes deep into the preserve where his mother use to take him. It feels more like her, even more so than home. And after all the shit he’s been through through the past year it’s good to talk to her. He talks about Scott getting bite, maybe having to cut off Derek’s arm, being kidnapped by Peter and thinking he was going to die. He tells her about helping kill Peter and whether or not that makes him bad person, especially how the other reason he felt bad was that he was killing Derek’s uncle.

Derek was going to leave or that’s what he told himself but he couldn’t make himself move. Maybe it was the shock of hearing what had happened to stiles, or the fact that stiles somewhat seemed to care about him. The more he listened to stiles talk the more angry and guilty he became. He didn’t know that stiles was also kidnapped by Gerard, or that Erica and Boyd were in the basement with him. Finally the feeling of guilt over ways his anger and he leaves stiles alone. Unfortunately, this incident also sets Derek off because as an alpha, he’s protect his pack and he’s failed. So he start “checking” (stalking) up on stiles.

Anyway I’m thinking this is what starts the summer of Derek and stiles being closer. Maybe Derek hears stiles talk about him in a positive light that makes him change his perspective on Stiles.

Plus you could have some really cute scenes where like everyone is looking for stiles after something bad happens and Derek finds him at the spot.

Stiles bringing Derek to meet his mom.

Plus it could be a creature stiles au, like selkie stiles au, where the spot in the preserve that he goes is a lake that him and his mother used to swim in. Maybe water carries memories or something.

Or magic stiles who talks to the trees like his mother used to or Fae stiles who he’s actually sitting in a fairy ring and it’s his mothers ring and that why it feels like her.

Just thought it would be sweet. Derek proposing to stiles in the very same location.

[azelmaandeponine]

Ford overestimated his brother's social skills and charisma, thinking that this alone would allow Stan to survive on his own out there. Also, Stan screamed that he didn't need Ford or anyone when he was driving away from home and Ford probably believed that Stan was cutting him from his life by saying that. And the fact that, from Ford's perspective, Stan never tried to contact him again (we know that this is not true but Ford don't) just made this seem true.

Also, if someone didn't desevered Stan was Filbrick. Stan spent over ten years homeless, in poverty, going in and out of prison and getting into trouble with bad groups of people because of Filbrick's decision of kicking him out of home. Stan could have easily died or been seriously hurt in that span of time, under those conditions and that would be Filbrick's fault not Ford's fault.

Yes, tbh. On both accounts.

Ford probably did think Stan'd be fine because of his social skills and charisma. And with caller ID not being a thing, Ford would have no idea Stan did call him during that time, but hung up without saying anything.

And yes, Ford is not the villain here. Filbrick is.

[weirdoldmanhoho]

I'm pretty sure I've said this before but the reason my Elrics & Roy relationship tag is "Roy is a dad" is NOT because I see their dynamic as adopted dad and kids or think it's particularly parental

it's because the idea of Roy willingly saddling himself with two chaos-prone teenagers and ultimately making himself the closest thing to their guardian (outside of Pinako who is mostly unaware of what they're doing at any given time) while being so completely unprepared for and annoyed by is so funny to me

my guy, you did this to yourself

you encouraged a minor to join the military, put him under your command, and then failed to be heartless enough to NOT care about his wellbeing, you forced the role of guardian on yourself

my elrics & riza tag is "riza is a mom" because riza is a Mom

[maomango-doodle]

Dumping all my old Strike Hawk art here

These 3 pages are titled "Lost and Found". It's not rly related to any particular event in the story (it's just the aftermath of a mission here) But i'd probably situate it after chapter 8 with the whole Camu ordeal. I wanted to show how Kamui has found people that accept him and care for him while Camu is left behind, living through Kamui

[withthewindinherfootsteps]

Another direct contrast between Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao, within the same chapter group (Hatred):

(EXR)

MDZS is so good…

(Bonus, this quote too:)

(It explicitly lays out the different paths they chose, even among limited options — Jin Guangyao chose the former, Wei Wuxian chose the latter)

Explicit parallels I love you

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

What actually broke me about chapter 104 of the manga is that when Mina was about to die, she didn't say she was captain of the Third Division of the Defense Corps.

No, she apologized for not being capable of doing it alone (exterminating all kaijus) and for being a sorry excuse of a vice-commander to Kafka.

It's so telling that everyone wanted to reach Mina because she was their goal (be like her, work with her, open a path for her, surpass her), but all that time Mina was waiting for the boy that wanted to be by her side, no further or behind. Right beside her. The cold persona was a deflection because she was so scared, so traumatized. She was the freaking face of the Defense Corps, the hero all admired, she had to be perfect, undefeatable, she couldn't allow anyone to die on her battlefield.

Doesn't it remind you of Kikoru trying to be the perfect kaiju killing machine? Of Reno trying to be the most powerful ever to protect Kafka?

Mina's last words were almost "I don't want to die alone, Kafka".

There's a point where the prodigies of the Defense Corps stop being people and start being weapons themselves. When all that matters are numbers of drivesuit strength or the impact of their fight or whatever. There's a point where you're leading the rookies to sacrifice themselves to the cause and be in the spotlight, even if for a brief moment.

But Kafka is the changing factor.

He tells them to fall back. He protects them and uses himself as a shield for them. Kafka can be the first person in their lives that is not trying to steal the fame from them, just trying to support them, to save them, to stand by their side.

Kafka makes them realize the value of their own lives. He doesn't make them feel bad for needing help, he makes it seem natural. Even like they are doing him a favor for waiting for him, for allowing him to help. In truth, Kafka would have aspired to be anyone's hero and see everyone as incredibly cool. Human connection, friendship, camaraderie, call it whatever you want but you're gonna root for the loser guy and want him by your side.

Mina has a lot of issues she hides in order to not trouble anyone else, but before Kafka joined the Defense Corps, no one saw her as who she truly is. Just Mina. Not Captain Ashiro, not a prodigy, those are parts of her that Kafka adores, but yet she's Mina. Just Mina.

The girl with unrealistic expectations. The girl that cried because her calico cat died on a kaiju attack. The girl that would make fun of Kafka, but would feel reassured by his words. Deep inside, she's still Kafka's vice-commander, she's waiting for him to lead them, to support her, to run with her, to tell her that they can win, they can do it, everything will be okay.

He'll always keep going to play that role for her.

[dykedvonte]

I think it’s so ironic that the Pony Express escapes a lot if not all blame in discussion. I can’t even say I am excused from it but it’s just how hard people circle back to the characters alone without considering the environment they were made to be in.

Why would they design a ship where only two of the rooms lock? Not the bathroom? Not the sleeping quarters? We assume that all the companies in the universe are this shallow and careless to their workers but we explicitly know the Pony Express in extra vile. They are fed processed slop pack they can’t even really cook and the ration of those pack is meager at best. They hired and made people with a plethora of conflicting demeanors and beliefs work together on a mission where cohesion is important if not an outright necessity and punish them for not being happy about it. There’s no social protocols, not chain of command other than Captain’s word/choice and the only way to enforce that is with a literal firearm. They don’t allow them to celebrate freely and even took away leisure activities that would make them less stir crazy. They are only allowed a few hours of sleep despite their being no other real responsibilities or work on the ship, no matter the position or its importance. With any crew, with any level of synergy, this was a powder keg waiting for a spark.

I’m not saying characters that made mistakes didn’t make huge ones, but I think part of the horror is that at least for some (this is targeting Jimathan) those mistakes are partly made by a force of the hand. There’s a running theme of lack of choice and being forced into something and the very nature of how The Pony Express expected them to function plays a big part.

[dacquoisettes]

midas

[general-cyno]

today in more zolu thoughts: yet another thing I find fascinating about zoro and luffy's relationship, which I believe the LA managed to capture pretty well despite the differences between it and the og source material, is that while zoro's capacity for loyalty and devotion where luffy's concerned are insane (the all-encompassing, heartfelt, lay down my life and dreams for you, follow you until death or the very end of everything kind of crazy), they're not entirely unconditional per se. the condition here being that he has to measure up to zoro's standards - that luffy has to prove himself a man worthy of following.

there are plenty examples of this in the manga, but I'll stick to where it and opla intersect. so manga!zoro pretty much stands firm with this condition when he agrees to follow luffy, warning him about not getting in the way of zoro's dream right away. opla zoro is a lot more reluctant to join in comparison, and he just seemingly goes along with the whole thing in a more "might as well" manner; even so, there's these few subtle moments where you can see him being struck awe by luffy's faith in himself/his dream (the dinner at kaya's) and showing exactly why he's a "different" kind of pirate (ie freeing the folks from orange town).

still, the most pivotal moment is zoro's fight with mihawk in both cases. this is where luffy has to really prove himself to zoro, for the first time. because talk of dreams and promises and not hindering them is nice and all, but can luffy really stand by what he says when push comes to shove? when the life of someone he cares about is on the line? and man. the answer is yes.

in the manga, by stopping johnny and yosaku from intervening and refusing to do so himself as well, even though he was deeply upset by zoro getting hurt, luffy proved he wouldn't go back on his word nor betray zoro's trust and the faith he had placed in him. in a similar fashion, opla luffy letting zoro go ahead with the duel despite his own apprehension/doubts and nami questioning both of their choices, is what finally led to zoro recognizing him as his captain out loud and accepting his role as a first mate.

I just think it's interesting that these two kind of make each other walk on a tightrope. only the world's greatest swordsman can stand by the pirate king's side. the pirate king can have the world's greatest swordsman by his side, if he proves himself worthy of it. but the best part? for me, it's that zoro and luffy are able to challenge one another this way (or set the bar that high) because they absolutely believe the other can rise up to it and beyond.

[stardust-falling]

One thing about Shen Jiu that is really sad to me is that despite everything he’s been through and everything he’s become, despite how he acts and how he treats others, at the end of the day there’s still a little part of him that wants to do good.

Impulsively, he still tries to save people. Obviously with Yue Qi’s case that could be contributed to the attachment between them, but even with Liu Qingge— both when fighting the well ghost and in his (failed) attempt to save Liu Qingge from qi deviation. This is someone he hates, who he ambushed multiple times, who he has threatened with death over and over again, and yet when it comes down to a split-second decision, Shen Jiu still chooses to save him.

From what he says and how he acts normally, it’s easy to say that he doesn’t care about anyone, and certainly isn’t protective. And for the most part that’s probably true!! But when he has to make a split-second decision— let someone he loathes die or help him— he still tries to save them.

Until he fails, and Liu Qingge dies.

I think that impulse just about went away entirely after that point.

[stupidrant]

kratos greek lovers that hate any ounce of norse era: KRATOS IS THE BEST AND HE DESERVES TO KILL EVERYBODY FOR HIS SUFFERING

Freya haters (?): SHE CANT KILL KRATOS BECAUSE IT WAS HER FAULT SHES A BAD MOTHER AND A SHIT CHARACTER BECAUSE OF HER CRIMES AND SHE DESERVES TO DIE BY THE HANDS OF ODIN AND KRATOS

[kurithedweeb]

I just learned why Shad hates Irene in canon and knowing what I do now about everyone’s favorite the Matron, I can say with my whole heart,

What the hell, Irene