#what the fuck kinda disproportionate retribution......

[hayleysstark]

imagine finding out somebody cheated on a test in freshman year of high school when they were still a dumb teenager and deciding they deserve to see all their friends and family die right in front of them as punishment. anyway thats basically what the time ghost did to the kid in danny phantom.

[blue-rose-soul]

Love ur au!!! You have so many interesting thoughts I just adore reading everything you’ve posted!

You’ve already established that Alastor would have exactly zero interest in any sort of bond with his dearly detested sperm donor but I was curious as to what you thought on whether Lucifer would want a relationship with Alastor? How would he approach that?

Hey, much appreciated! Honestly, with the first post I expected it to be a weird niche AU no one besides me would enjoy. I'm really glad you and others are enjoying it and I'm enjoying you guys' questions!

I do think Lucifer would want to try forming a relationship with his long lost son (that feels so weird to type, imagine how weird it would be for Lucifer to say the phrase aloud, lol). From what we've seen of him, he seems like a loving and sweet man who adores his family, even if he's not always the best at expressing that love. I think if he found out he had a kid out there, no matter who that kid was, he'd want to form some kind of relationship with them. Of course, Alastor being Alastor complicates things quite a bit.

They didn't exactly make a great first impression on one another, on top of which Lucifer harbors a lot of guilt for leaving Nicaise to raise a child alone, and Alastor to grow up without a father. Especially when he learns what happened to Nicaise later. Lucifer thinks it's his fault Alastor is the way he is, which... kinda sorta fair? Alastor definitely had an unstable childhood which certainly played a part in Alastor growing to become an unstable adult. That being said, ultimately there were a lot of outside factors contributing to that instability, and at the end of the day, Alastor's choices were his own.

I go with the 'Dexter-like moral code' interpretation of Alastor's murder targets. But I also think there was a fair amount of disproportionate retribution. A man who beats his wife definitely deserves to get beat back and then divorced, but not butchered like an animal. Granted, the culture being what it was at the time, it's doubtful Alastor's targets would have faced any other kind of retribution than what he gave them.

All this to say that Alastor feels perfectly justified in the horrible things he's done, and Lucifer blames himself for Alastor becoming this warped, vengeful person.

Lucifer's attempts to get close to Alastor are horribly, painfully awkward. Remember how he answered Charlie's phone call with, "Heeeeeeeey, bitch!"

Yeah.

He tries, he really does, but a lot of the times Alastor just shuts him down before he can even open his mouth. So he tries going to Charlie for help.

"Ooooof, see, here's the thing, dad... I want to help, I really do! But I'm trying to do this thing where I'm more respectful of other people's boundaries. I mean, I'd love to see you and Alastor getting along! But if he doesn't want to talk with you, I'm not going to force it? As long as you guys aren't fighting? I'm sorry."

And that's as far as Lucifer gets with Charlie. So he tries talking to Niffty and Husk, the two people in the hotel who know Alastor best. Niffty is... sweet, but not entirely helpful. Husk gives what advice he can, but he's got his own chip on his shoulder regarding Alastor, understandably.

"Look, Alastor's a mean son of a bitch who lives to make my life more of a hell than it already is. He's fucked in the head. Always has been. You might as well cut your losses."

That's disheartening to say the least.

I do want there to be a happy-ish end where reconciliation happens. But it would take a loooooooot of time and patience on Lucifer's part. Especially with Alastor making an active effort not to get close with anyone at the hotel.

[thenixkat]

Dragon Horror thoughts

There’s just so many different creatures with different abilities that fall under the umbrella of ‘Dragon’ that you could have so much fun with in any speculative fiction setting. Its actually really sad to see them restricted to the ‘dragon rider’s companion’ and ‘the last of their kind b/c the age of magic is dying’ kind of [action/]fantasy plots.

There’s few exceptions I can list off the top of my head but why haven’t we had another post apocalypse movie where dragons ended the world ala Reign of Fire? Or just schlocky B-Horror  monster flicks like Basilisk: The Serpent King? Or even a scifi/thriller mini series of dragons appearing from the depths of the ocean causing all kinds of mysterious events and catastrophic environmental disasters like Surface?

Things about dragons that lend well to horror:

Appearance

So you’re probably thinking, “Ah yes a dragon. A firebreathing flying lizard!”. Or depending on your background, “Ah, yes a dragon. A mystical serpent associated with water!”

The firebreathing lizard thing is mostly just the modern popculture dragon which is like the modern popculture werewolf or vampire a far less diverse and interesting than their older and less mainstream counterparts. And frankly most of the well known popculture dragons don’t even get to be lizards, just a vaguely lizard-ish approximation built out of mammalian anatomy covered in scales and not even in a fun way.

Dragons can be right up the alley for monster designs horror wise b/c you could quite literally get away with calling anything a dragon if you put enough oomph in it. Even if it might be kinda silly, its perfectly fine to be kinda silly. Silly does not negate horrifying when done well.

- Serpents- a lot of the oldest dragon stories have the dragon as big fucked up powerful snake (eel, or worm). Honestly an earthworm big enough to eat people is far more terrifying than folks give credit to.

- Monster birds- More than a few dragons are described or called ‘birds’. Just, very wrong birds. And honestly birds would be used for horror more b/c birds are really fucking weird and brutal in general.

- Chimeras- Now this is the best part b/c many dragons are described/depicted as being a mishmash of various animal parts. Typically consisting of parts of predators and ‘vermin’ (or in cases where dragons aren’t meant to be elder terror spawns of Satan, mixups of revered/respected animals). It wouldn’t be hard to make it work for a scifi setting. And its just ripe for horror where you can go the more magical/supernatural route.

- Humanoids- you are in no way restricted to only beastly looking dragons. From Typhon and Echidna to Coatlicue to mermaids to the Snake king, sometimes dragons are nothing like what you’d think upon hearing the word dragon.

- Plants- there’s more than a few dragon-plant connections. From dragons that become trees when they die to strange vegetation that resembles and acts like dragons.

Abilities

Listen, firebreathing isn’t even the wildest things dragons can do. I’m not even gonna list everything.

- Flight- dragons don’t need wings to fly. And that’s not just an Asian dragon thing. Dragons don’t have to obey the laws of physics. 

- Weather control- Dragons can cause storms and tornadoes and earthquakes and all manner of other natural disasters. And that’s not just an Asian dragon thing.

- Astral projection- yes. that is a thing some dragons can do. Sometimes they do it to control the weather.

- The Swarm- Some dragons could control snakes or fishes or birds. And honestly birds should be played for horror more often.

- Shapeshifting- a pretty common dragon ability. Not just transforming into different creatures but also into inanimate objects, vegetation, land formations, water, and such.

- Poison- most old school European dragons are known for being just fuck off walking wasteland level poisonous

- Hypnosis- looking at the eyes and/or face of a dragon can put people into a hypnotic state where they may freeze or walk into the dragon’s mouth.

- Deadly Gaze- remember the basilisk and the gorgons? Yeah, dragons that can murder shit with a look. Nowadays the basilisk and cockatrice turn bitches into stone, older version had shit just drop dead. Even older and it was just b/c shit was just that poisonous all a bitch had to do was look in yer direction.

- Horrible Visage- sometimes bitches just died from even looking at a dragon. A different version of the basilisk, didn’t have to look at you at all. You just had to see it.

- Seduction- sometimes dragons were extremely sexy. Sometimes that’s from the shapeshifting.

- Magic- Yeah. Yeah. Just general magic. Dragons can do shit like cast curses or give blessings.

- Indestructability- Dragons are very very hard to kill. 

Behavior

Things that can also work well for horror is just the way the things act and what they want. Just a little bit of stuff.

- Intelligence- Dragons can be as smart or smarter than humans. This is from a lot of different places. Being hunted by an aggressive wild animal is a different experience to being hunted by a human who wants to kill you is a different experience to being hunted down by an eldritch monstrosity with supernatural powers and the ability to plan.

- Feast and Famine- A good number of the more monster dragons are the sorts that spend a long time sleeping or dormant, waking periodically to cause havoc and fill their belly before going back to sleep.

- Blood drinking- Dragons that hunt people down to drink their blood is a thing.

- The Collection- Dragons like to collect things. Either hordes of great wealth that they do nothing with or just things they like. Who’s to say a dragon couldn’t collect maidens, not to eat, but just b/c they like collecting them and put them in a pit until they get moldy.

- Thirsty- sometimes dragons be horny my dudes. (tho apparently thy do make great spouses so long as you respect their boundaries)

- Disproportionate Retribution- demolished villages and burned countrysides all for the theft of a single cup. Being cheated resulting in the flooding of an entire province. 

- Guardians- the protectors of caves and bodies of water.

[vivithefolle]

Love isn’t a Deus Ex Machina thing, it’s literally the core theme of the series, hence why Love Magic exists

Love Magic is never a concept at any time in the series. It’s only about “Lily Potter’s spell”. But what’s so special about Lily Potter? What’s so great about her? She did the thing any halfway decent mother would do for their child: she gave her life for them. Molly would’ve done it for any of her sons. Narcissa would have done it for Draco. Mrs Granger the nonentity would have done it for her daughter had she not been lobotomized instead. Lily Potter’s sacrifice isn’t anything special. It’s only special because Rowling decided so, because the Plot needed it to be.

Love isn’t a Deus Ex Machina thing? Then how come Quirrel conveniently burned to death at Harry’s hands? How come Harry had to live at Privet Drive because reasons so he could be abused so naive readers like you could feel very sorry for the poor widdle orphan and pat themselves on the back because wow, aren’t you special for feeling sorry for the poor widdle orphan?

And I didn’t misunderstand Harry. I literally explained him to you

If you don’t like him, I don’t care. Just stop giving his uniqueness to other characters

And you literally showed me exactly why you don’t understand him.

Harry’s superpower isn’t teh special uniqueness of his luuuurve, or the absolute pure pureness of his heart, it’s that he has FRIENDS. Friends who’d die for him, friends who’d sacrifice themselves for him, friends who’d do anything for him. THAT’S the power of love, not some bullshit ~special pure pureness of the heart of Harry Christ our lord and savior~. Harry isn’’t unfailingly kind or uniquely loving or whatever the shit. Harry is a run-of-the-mill teenager who has such obscene luck I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he was conceived under the influence of Lucky Potion.

You just showed me you’re a member of the Church of Harry Christ and I’m not interested in joining. Dear God I thought I was too attached to fictional characters but wow am I glad I’m not at your level.

Also one more thing: “tortured” someone?

Sure. A painful stunner is DEF torture (that’s legit all his Crucio did; it acted as a painful stunner. It threw Carrow backwards and hurt him while it did. Crucio isn’t even close to that when performed properly)

............ you... you fucking little hypocrite.

You filthy, lying, little bitch cunt of a fucking hypocrite.

Remember when I said the next person who’d try to lie to me to pity poor wee widdle Hawwy would be sorry? You pathetic little piece of shit. If you’re so in luuurve with your precious cuntfuck of a camera archetype you’d accept EVERYTHING about him, wouldn’t you? Haha, but noooo. “Oh wee poor Hawwy only used a painful stunner :)))))))” you fucking little bitch. Oh you accuse ME of trying to “make Hawwy not special :(((” but you... YOU... Hahahaha sorry everyone. I have a slight aversion to people blatantly trying to gaslight me. You may find me getting a little bit angry if you happen to trod on this trigger of mine.

Let’s see that again shall we? Open your eyes and your chakras, bitch, we’re going for a ride.

“It’s not a case of what you’ll permit, Minerva McGonagall. You time’s over. It’s us what’s in charge here now, and you’ll back me up or you’ll pay the price.” And he spat in her face. Harry pulled the Cloak off himself, raised his wand, and said, “You shouldn’t have done that.” As Amycus spun around, Harry shouted, “Crucio!” The Death Eater was lifted off his feet. He writhed through the air like a drowning man, thrashing and howling in pain, and then, with a crunch and a shattering of glass, he smashed into the front of a bookcase and crumpled, insensible, to the floor. “I see what Bellatrix meant,” said Harry, the blood thundering through his brain, “you need to really mean it.” - Deathly Hallows

If I could reach through my screen to force you to look at the relevant bits, I would. And I’d also slap you in passing. Yknow, just so you think twice before being a stinking fucking hypocrite again in the future.

Now, let’s do some actual literary analysis that isn’t your ~wah hawwy puwe of heawt luuurrrve~ diarrhea you’re still trying to paint my poor innocent blog with.

Now let’s see that PaInFuL sTuNnEr in detail:

He writhed through the air like a drowning man, thrashing and howling in pain 

In bold so you can see it very well. Admire the curve of each letter, the angles and the lines. And most of all, interpret the meaning of each and every word. Watch how he’s compared to “a drowning man”, do you know how excruciatingly painful and distressing it is to drown? How the air fills your lungs as you claw desperately for the surface, trying to find something to cling to, anything, the feeling of your lungs filling with this foreign substance you cannot spit back out? The feeling of fading away as all your oxygen is consumed by the futility of your hopeless flailing, your muscles losing their strength, your panic dulling as you slip into unconsciousness and water claims yet another victim...

Of course, drowning people don’t thrash and howl in pain. Because all they’re focused on is trying to BREATHE. But Amycus’ focus isn’t on trying to breathe. Amycus is only focus on Harry’s Crucio and the pain it’s bringing him.

But sure Anon. A pAiNfUl StUnNeR. Fuck you.

and then, with a crunch and a shattering of glass 

Now I’m aware Dummywood has made you believe that glass can be traversed easy without any consequences but real glass doesn’t work like that. Real glass takes some force to shatter. Real glass shatters into hundreds of tiny pieces that embed themselves into your flesh and skin, kinda like... oh! Kinda like that glass chandelier that fell on Hermione, once. After she herself was Crucio’d if I remember well. Hmm, by whom exactly, I have it on the tip of my tongue...

“I see what Bellatrix meant,” 

Ah yes. By the woman who tortured to insanity Neville’s parents and whom Harry is literally acknowledging as having taught him this particular lesson.

Harry himself is TELLING US HE LISTENED TO BELLATRIX’S ADVICE. ON FUCKING TORTURING PEOPLE. But “a PaInFuL sTuNnEr He’S aN oRpHaN :’‘‘(((((”. Fuck off. Fuck off, Anon. Fuck off and learn to fucking read.

Ah but I got ahead of myself! We’re not even CLOSE to the point!

he smashed into the front of a bookcase and crumpled, insensible, to the floor 

So Amycus gets tortured - or, as Anon astutely put it, pAiNfUl StUnNeR - smashes through a sheet of glass, and gets knocked out.

Hmm. Now if Harry just took out a knife and brought it to Carrow’s neck, he’d be worthy of being called Bellatrix’s faithful apprentice.

And now I’m gonna quote one of my Quora answers again because my followers deserve better than to see me completely lose my mind at some anonymous cowardly cunt trying to lie to my fucking face.

On the topic of Harry’s Crucios:

This could mean that Harry is scarily proficient at casting Crucio, that Amycus has low pain tolerance or that he was knocked out when he fell, but regardless of the meaning, IT’S NOT GOOD. EVEN IF IT’S A DEATH EATER, EVEN IF HE PROBABLY DESERVES COMEUPPANCE - IT’S NOT HARRY’S JOB TO GIVE OUT SAID COMEUPPANCE.

(Like, can I please remind everyone that Harry is supposed to be the Jesus Christ of his story? In the Bible we never have Jesus Christ torturing the pharisees or any of those who didn’t believe in him. Just… you’re telling me Jesus “Peace and Love” Christ would torture people… what the hell, Joanne?)

“I see what Bellatrix meant,” said Harry, the blood thundering through his brain, “you need to really mean it.”

…………………….. Um. Harry, what the fuck are you doing???! He’s taken Bellatrix’s advice! He actually relates to the insane sadistic terrorist! He is capable of using a curse that literally requires sadism to work!

(Again, when someone tells me “Jesus Christ”, “sadism” isn’t the first word that would come to my mind.)

At least there’s some sort of reaction. “the blood thundering through his brain”. But that’s a very… nondescriptive reaction. Is it the “adrenaline pumping in my veins” blood? Is it the “holy shit what have I done” blood? Is it the “I could get used to this” blood?

We don’t know. We’ll never know.

Alright, skipping to the part that interests us -

She struggled to pull herself together. “Potter, that was foolish!”

Eh, I’d have said “tactically unsound” (what if Amycus wasn’t knocked out), “monstrous” (that’s Bellatrix’s favourite curse you’re using, Harry), “insane” (re: Bellatrix), but yeah, I guess “foolish” would also cover it.

“He spat at you,” said Harry.

Ever heard of Disproportionate Retribution, Harry? A few fascists regimes all over the world were especially fond of it.

Then I’m skipping over the one thing that causes the most outrage because I’ll go back to it soon, just let me finish with this:

“[…] but don’t you realize — ?” “Yeah, I do,” Harry assured her. Somehow her panic steadied him.

I guess we can imagine that McGee is saying “don’t you realize what you’ve just done?”

Harry “assures” her he realizes. Harry knows. Harry has just used the literal goddamn Torture Curse and he’s totally cool with it. Or, if he was uncool with it, now he’s cool with it. Because “her panic steadied him”. So seeing McGonagall panic makes Harry think “yeah, using Crucio was the right thing to do”.

Well then! Onwards then, Dark Lord Potter! First it’s just one Crucio, then it’s just three, then it’s just one little murder of one lowly little naysayer, then it’s only a little more murder…

And now we’ll go back a smidge, because how are we supposed to react?

How are we supposed to reconcile the idea of Harry, who’s supposed to save us all through his Power of Love, with the Harry that has just tortured a man into inconsciousness?

Even if that man was a Death Eater, Harry is supposed to be the Christ-like figure. He’s supposed to be love and forgiveness incarnate. Heck, not a hundred pages later he’ll offer forgiveness to freaking Voldemort! He forgives Draco Malfoy, he forgives Albus Dumbledore, he forgives Severus Snape!

So how do we reconcile Harry Potter The Forgiver with Harry Potter The Torturer? Tell us, O Author! Tell us how to navigate the murky, twisted depths of human morality!!

“Potter, I — that was very — very gallant of you — […]”

…

…………………

………………………………………………

That was… gallant?

Gallant?

Wait, doesn’t gallantry imply some form of honor?

As in, not taking your opponent by surprise -

Harry pulled the Cloak off himself, raised his wand…

As in, facing your opponent head-on instead of hitting them in the back -

As Amycus spun around, Harry shouted…

As in, not torturing your opponent???

He writhed through the air like a drowning man, thrashing and howling in pain

That’s… unless the definition has changed, nothing about this is gallant…

Let me just -

(of a man) polite and kind towards women, especially when in public

showing no fear of dangerous or difficult things

Alright, so, Amycus isn’t a woman, so Harry can’t, by definition, be “gallant” to him.

Still, being “polite and kind” to a woman didn’t involve “torturing someone who disrespected her”, last time I checked. Punching an asshole harrassing her, definitely *pats Ron*, but torturing that asshole… no, just no.

And well, I guess casting Cruciatus is a difficult thing to do… and Harry didn’t seem very afraid to do it… that’s not supposed to be a good thing, but apparently, now it is…?

What made that

As Amycus spun around, Harry shouted, “Crucio!”

more gallant than

“What else did you take, what else? ANSWER ME! CRUCIO!”

After all, they’re the exact same thing. Torture. Inflicting tremendous pain upon someone for the heck of it.

Why do people lose their heads over Harry using Crucio, when they seem to neglect the fact that Draco Malfoy cast it?

Well, easy enough - Draco Malfoy is an evil little cockroach. The guy wished death upon people, he bragged about the fact that his Daddy dearest was a terrorist who killed people. It’s not too surprising that an evil little cockroach like him would find it acceptable to torture someone he considers “not human”, isn’t it?

What’s more surprising however, is that the hero, Harry Potter, who has been subjected to the Torture Curse, whose only use of the Torture Curse previously was when he felt distress and pain unlike any other, that Harry Potter whom is supposed to be a hero and some sort of role model, would actually manage to use said Torture Curse even though it requires real sadism to actually work.

And what’s even worse is that Harry Potter casts that curse, that literal Torture Curse, and instead of being rightly horrified, instead of being terrified by the boy’s use of such a heinous spell, instead of saying “alright Harry, you’re not doing this again, ever, right?”, instead…

Instead McGonagall calls Harry “gallant”, instead of telling him off for using such a curse. She briefly calls him “foolish”, but it doesn’t register, really, since she ends up calling him “gallant”.

That’s what angers people. That the Torture Curse is the most horrible, awful thing you can do to people… unless you’re Harry Potter, in which case it is a little “foolish”, but mostly “gallant”.

......................

But of course, little Anon over here isn’t angered. Because little Anon is a faithful devoted member of the Church of Harry Christ Our Lord And Saviour. Little Anon can say enormities like A pAiNfUl StUnNeR and believe it with the whole force of their little Anon heart, because uwu Hawwy speshul orphan pure lurve uwu.

Little Anon, please get the fuck out of my blog and never, ever come back. I’m sure this arrangement will be beneficial for everyone involved.

[reflectionsofacreator]

Me too, Ziio, me too. Call him out. 

I like the first shot, actually, showing his hidden blade. Up till now I was kinda waffling if he had a second blade or not, because I hadn’t seen it, either in combat or a cutscene. I find it really interesting that his right blade is on a bracer that goes over his coat, while his left bracer is actually on the inside of his coat and more “hidden”. I thought at first that maybe the left blade was only clipping to be on the inside of his coat, but I went back and looked, and like, no it’s firmly hidden on the inside. I really wonder at the significance of that, both in universe/character and out of it. 

Admittedly I’m kinda grasping at half formed straws of like... Haytham wants to have an actual hidden blade, so people don’t know he’s armed, even if he takes off his right bracer. There could also be some meta significance because like, his loyalties are called into question, but that doesn’t exactly track. So I’m just sitting here scratching my head over it. It feels significant in a way that I can’t really articulate, but I also feel like I’m just reading too much into it. 

God Haytham like. You get called a cock robin (which, according to this 1811 vulgar dictionary, means a soft fellow) once and suddenly that gives you leave to beat up a whole tavern? The game mechanics say that Haytham kills them, even though you’re only fighting with fists, which like. That’s a serious disproportionate retribution. Even if Haytham didn’t kill them, why didn’t he just... walk away? 

[squints] Is it because there’s a pretty woman with you, and you feel like you have to defend your honor? Is it that heteronormative bullshit? Is it? 

I was actually talking to my lovely friend @barbariccia (who is British, and my resident go to of “hey what the fuck”) about all this, because I said “Haytham is quickly becoming more disturbing to me by the hour” and explained what had happened, and they said “That’s just being British lmao”. They said they had seen fights break out over similar insults, or hell, even less, but only in pubs or bar environments, even though it’s not something that happens often in their experience. So like, maybe this isn’t as big of an overreaction as I think, but ... idk man. 

[spooksbot]

okay so i’ve played around with all of the XL characters in DW8 so i feel like i can tier them relative to each other, and i wanna talk a little about each one

this’ll probably get quite lengthy, so i’ll put it under a cut

5 - Zhu Ran

holy shit do i hate this kid so much. i’ve been waiting for him to debut in the series as a playable character for so long ‘cause he’s so instrumental in the latter Wu stages as part of their strategies

but fucking hell do i despise playing as him, or even having him around. his EX weapon in gimmicky as fuck and it’s another i can throw onto the pile of “ranged weapons that SUCK” alongside the crossbow and the standard bow

his design bothers me bc he just looks like Lu Xun’s edgier alter ego, and his personality began to grate on me immediately

fix this, KOEI

4 - Chen Gong 

another character i find to be annoying, but mostly just his voice, tbh. his design is pretty solid, and i find his personality to be interesting, and having an ambitious character join Lu Bu’s roster of battle hardened warriors is pretty damn cool

his EX weapon is interesting, and i enjoy using it, but it severely lacks in damage for the most part. i do enjoy the summon mechanic a lot though, and a hell of a lot more than how Cao Cao or Lu Xun’s shadow clone thingies function

he’s basically a punching bag that wants to rule the world and that’s fine

3 - Fa Zheng

arranging the top 3 was actually pretty difficult as i really like all three of them, but i’m gonna have to put Fa Zheng in 3rd

i really like the voice acting and personality for this guy. like, really really. he’s the sort of person who takes “eye for an eye” too seriously, and probably isn’t above dishing out incredibly disproportionate retribution, and honestly? Shu needs someone like this instead of everyone having Justice Boners™ and being compelled to do the right thing at every moment

it makes him stand out amongst a bland crowd, basically, and i appreciate that.

his EX weapon is very gimmicky and suffers from criminally low damage, but i do like it for what it is. with some tinkering in Ambition Mode with the Blacksmith, i could probably pull his damage up to par and have a lot of fun with his moveset, so i’m considering doing it just to try it out on some harder levels/difficulties

2 - Yu Jin

this guy. this guy.

voice acting and design? top notch. he really sells the whole “dedicated lawman” but with that cold and ruthless edge that makes him stand out compared to someone like say, Cao Ren

he also has a lot of appearances in various story mode battles as an NPC, which let me see a lot more of him than pretty much anyone else out of the new additions

his EX weapon is easily one of my favourites in the entire game, with it gaining the Slash element on Charge 1 after you play the attack chain minigame three times - which is a lot less tedious than it sounds, i swear 

i actually use it with pretty much every Whirlwind character, and will probably use it with more than just those once i unlock the War Trident skill and everyone gets access to the Whirlwind effect

all in all, great character and a great addition to Wei’s already exceptional roster

1 - Lu Lingqi

yeah yeah yeah i get it, the only girl out of the 5 is my favourite. call me biased or just a massive lesbian, whatever. Lingqi is fucking cool and she’s the best new addition to the roster. fight me.

giving Lu Bu’s daughter playable status was awesome, because i remember me and my friend used to talk about her being like, a “secret character” that you could unlock if you did some really specific stuff in DW4. i can’t remember where we even heard about her, but still.

she picks up Lu Bu’s old weapon from DW6 with an updated moveset as her EX weapon, and it’s one of my favourite weapons alongside the War Trident. i use it on pretty much everyone without impunity because i love it so much

her design is pretty great, even if she does suffer from the thigh high stiletto boots trap, but that’s my only real issue with it.

she’s portrayed as Lu Bu Lite™ - incredibly strong, but actually has a personality outside of her strength - and she adds an extra dimension to him as well, making him a retroactively better character

i’m kinda pissed that she’s basically nonexistent in the hypothetical Lu Bu route, especially when if you play her in those stages on Free Mode, she actually has specific dialogue that can’t be triggered by anyone else, but i made her my main officer in Ambition Mode to compensate so i’m over it

in short, delete Zhu Ran, the rest are at the very least alright

[voltkaizer]

Good-bye... TV-Tropes.

Well... It’s official now.

I’ve been permanently banned from TV-Tropes.org because the mods just couldn’t handle the fact that they had committed a terrible mistake, and that they inflicted disproportionate retribution and great emotional pain upon someone that didn’t deserve it.

And yet... I feel extremely happy, fulfilled, and justified, because despite the mod-team’s best efforts to try to cover their asses and hide the truth behind the backstabbing-shit they did by patronizing me, ignoring me and censoring me, I’ve archived the evidence of their shenanigans so their injustice isn’t lost in the sands of time.

This is the post that got me banned:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13037797990A10271500&page=1320#32986

This is the stuff the mods tried to censor in order to “save face”:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=5cma6iojg5o27puhulc24sje&page=575#14354 ... and these are the censored posts (those which appears a blanked posts “written” by TrollPost from troll post crusher) whose bitting truth they couldn’t handle:

[POST #14373 & POST #14354]

These are the two only posts I couldn’t save before the mods censored the whole thing... but they basically boiled down to:

*POST #14373: Me offering a sincere apology and recognizing my mistake, while humbly and politely requesting the reinstatement of my wiki-editing privileges.

*POST #14354: Me reacting, after receiving a notification that I had a new private message... which I COULDN’T read at ALL, because the mods had disabled my ability to even read&write private messages too.

[POST #14373]

@Fighteer: In that case, there's nothing to worry about, I can 200% guarantee that... I might have said some things that could be misconstrued as me having high-suicidal tendencies, but that was just me being hyperbolic due to the high amount of stress and emotional turmoil I was going through during those days.

Think about this: Can you really blame me for being slightly overblown considering that a very close and important person in my life died very recently?! ... we all at home are coping with that grief the best we can, but even the best armor can be dented by the sheer day-to-day stress (it isn't the “brunt/size” of the problems, but their “recurrence” what wears you out...) that is bound to come your way when dealing with these kind of events.

Besides, I ALREADY AM under professional and constant psychological and psychiatric treatment, (I've been so for 1 or 2 years already, I can't accurately remember right now) and I always make sure to take my medicines. So all things considered, there's nothing to worry about... doubly so since what I want reinstated is JUST the wiki-edit privilege.

As I see it, you (the mod team) is just running out of arguments and "carte-blanches" to deflect my polite and humble petition... unless you want to go ad-hominem and say: "No! We hate you guts for being a persistent and (strangely) clever smartass that's strangely good at debating... for some unholy reason!". (which is kinda obnoxious, but NOT a crime/ban-worthy-offense) The "danger" you're trying to keep users away from doesn't exist; you're judging me with incomplete data and without being fully aware of the true story and extend of the circumstances. (I reiterate, you didn't know I already was under professional and constant psychological and psychiatric treatment, just to name an important fact you gleeful omitted)

I have to reiterate: After 7+ years of service as an always vigilant, constructive, diligent and proactive wiki-editor, it would only be fair for you to concede me that one little indulgence... refusing to do so would only cast light on you being arrogant petty authority-abusing jerks with zero empathy, that refuse to see the whole picture before hastily judging exacting swift and disproportionate “retribution” upon a person who isn't a true danger at all... but a just folk whom had a very bad day, and a small emotional lapsus because of it.

You don't even need to take my word for it... ask the folks back at the Thread that caused my downfall, and you'll see none of them truly considered me a danger... obnoxious, maybe... most definitely... but not a danger. Truth be told, and despite the events that triggered all this, they all just showed that they had good faith in me, and they were sincerely trying to help me get through this difficult stage of grief... and then the Supermods came flying-by, and friggin' ruined everything by pouring more metaphorical gasoline into the metaphorical fire. Good grief, man... good grief, indeed.

PS. Please, stop sending me Private Messages, because I can't read them at all, folks. [my PM privilege was disabled too] (-_-)U Do you even read, broseph(s)?

[POST #14374]

Just a small addendum: As of now, and despite stepping away from the TV-Tropes' user community aspect, I’m NOT cutting human interaction, folks... That would be just silly! I already have plenty of outlets for interation with a lot of (potentially) awesome human beings.

The one thing those don't have, is the ability to reinstate my wiki-edit privilege... which is what this whole fight is about, in the end. My love for this wiki and its wealth of content and valuable information exceeds my grieves with its user community and trigger-ban happy mods

[POST #14377]

...There are only two ways this ordeal is going to end up:

1.- You accede to fulfill my humble, sincere and reasonable request; I regain my wiki edit privileges; you atone for the horrible mistake and emotional damage you inflicted upon me. (banning/silencing the guy that was feeling horrible because he perceived he was constantly castaway, ignored and silenced... your blindness to the whole irony of the situation doesn't cease to amuse me) We leave in good terms, and I return to silently editing the wiki while establishing no personal contact with any of the users, so you won't have to deal with me "contaminating" your precious forums ever again.

2.- You TRULY ban me for good in order to silence me... proving in the process that I was right all along; that you're a bunch of petty short-sighted prejudiced authority-abusing team of mods with zero empathy.

I win one way or the the other... but while the first options leads to all of us leaving in good terms as reasonable adults whom managed to find a reasonable compromise to a delicate situation, the second one just leaves you looking like a bunch of jackasses whom caused a lot of harm to an innocent person... a person that's going to continue his life somewhere else, but that will always be bitter with you, because you ruined something that was so dear and precious to him.

[POST #14378]

...So, I'll ask once again... and I'll ask as many times as necessary... because I won't stay silent, either until justice is done or until my voice is forever drowned by your kill-switches / censorship...

Tell me: What is going to be?

[POST #14379]

I promise... No, I SWEAR upon the immortal soul of my dear grandfather: I'm not going to fucking kill myself just because of a dumb and insensitive mistake done for a bunch bunch of petty, short-sighted, antipathetic mods.

I'm WAAAAAAY stronger than that, you condescending fools. I'm the only one that's allowed to look down upon me... not you, nor anyone else.

...And so it ends... And yet, despite this story having a “tragic“ end, I’m really satisfied and at peace with how it turned out, and even (not so) humbly proud, because things happened exactly as I predicted...

They played dirty and laid very obvious trap that I could see a mile away coming, and then they got “salty”/indignant when I called their shenanigans/bullshit, and exposed them as the scum they are.

The lies, duplicity, petty attitude and total lack of empathy of the mods was captured for posterity, and I walk away knowing I OWNED them so hard, that they had to delete The Truth in order to desperately try cover their assess. Censorship is the tool of the coward, weak and stupid. So much for the Streisand Effect, eh guys?!

In my country, there’s a saying that has become a very important axiom in my life-philosophy:

“La Verdad no peca, pero incomoda.” (translates from Spanish to “The Truth doesn’t sin, yet it (always) stings”)

Looks like truth’s sting really was too much for them to handle! HA HA HA HA HAH! (^_^) Farewell TV-Tropes! I’m glad I got to leave on my own terms, and with no regrets.

Important Update, April 25th 2017:  Unlike those shitty TV-Tropes' mods, I’m not going to censor/retroactively-edit my own words and say I never wrote: “I'm WAAAAAAY stronger than that, you condescending fools. I'm the only one that's allowed to look down upon me... not you, nor anyone else.”

INSTEAD, what I’m going to say it that those words are NOT what I’ll believe-in any longer; rather, what I’ll believe-in is:

-“I'm WAAAAAAY stronger than what you, condescending fools, might ever think; and no one in this world (SPECIALLY me) is going to tell me otherwise! From now on, I’ll believe in my own strength instead of doubting it all the time. I won’t EVER allow for anyone to look down upon me!”

[timewaster19]

4 months hold, but fuck it I’ll share it. 

ON APRIL 24, a group of Syrian women bundled themselves and their children into a car and attempted to flee the small town of Tabqa, outside of Raqqa. In recent months the sleepy principality had become the site of raging battles between Islamic State militants and U.S.-backed proxy forces, waging a campaign to drive ISIS from the country. Packed into the fleeing car were 11 people, including eight members of the al-Aish family: three women between the ages of 23 and 40, and five children, the youngest one just 6 months old.

The al-Aish family’s flight from a warzone was similar to millions of other desperate journeys made by Syrian civilians over the past six years. But they would not make it to safety. As they fled Tabqa, their car was hit by an airstrike, reportedly carried out by the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. All 11 people were killed in the strike, in what local reports described as a “massacre.”

“A U.S.-led coalition warplane targeted heavy machine guns at civilians trying to flee the city of Al-Tabaqa, which is witnessing heavy clashes between gunmen,” reported the local anti-ISIS activist group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently. The air raid led to “the death of a whole family.” Following the attack, photos of the young children from the al-Aish family circulated widely on social media and local news sites, including pictures of 3-year-old Abdul Salam and 6-month-old Ali.

Photos shared on social media showed 6-month-old Abdul Salam al-Aish and 3-year-old Ali al-Aish, who were killed in a U.S. airstrike near the town of Tabqa.

The strike that killed the al-Aish family was just one of an estimated 9,029 strikes carried out by the U.S.-led coalition in Syria since 2014. The independent monitoring group Airwars estimates that coalition strikes in Syria and Iraq over the past several years have killed between 3,681 and 5,849 civilians, compounding the suffering of people who have already endured years of civil war. In recent months, local media have reported a steady stream of airstrikes that have hit civilian targets, including several particularly egregious strikes on packed schools and mosques.

But worse days for civilians in northern Syria could still be ahead, as the United States and its allies prepare for a terminal offensive against Raqqa — the last urban stronghold of ISIS and the capital of its deteriorating proto-state.

“Rarely a day goes by now when we don’t see three or four civilian casualty incidents attributed to coalition airstrikes around Raqqa,” Airwars director Chris Woods told The Intercept. “All of the local monitoring groups are now reporting that the coalition is killing more civilians than Russia on a regular basis.”

And when Woods refers to the coalition in Syria, he is largely referring to the United States. Based on announcements from U.S. Central Command, Airwars estimates that the overwhelming majority of coalition strikes have come from U.S. warplanes.

But in contrast to Iraq, where the coalition is providing air support for local forces fighting to retake the city of Mosul, there has been little public attention paid to the air campaign in Syria. “We have been killing a lot of civilians in and around Raqqa for quite some time now, yet these incidents are rarely admitted by the coalition and there is almost no interest from international media,” Woods says. “We have to question where the empathy is for the local population.”

A chart from Airwars showing the proportion of airstrikes in Syria carried out by the United States in comparison with its coalition allies.

Screenshot: airwars.org

During the Syrian revolution, Raqqa briefly became a center of

civic activism

after locals expelled government forces from the city in 2013. But the power vacuum that followed the government’s retreat led to months of vicious infighting between loosely knit Free Syrian Army fighters and extremist groups. By 2014, the Islamic State had begun to assert its control over the city, assassinating rivals, conducting public executions, and declaring Raqqa the capital of its newly formed theocracy.

Today as many as 200,000 civilians are believed to remain trapped in Raqqa. In recent weeks, gruesome videos have emerged of people being killed by ISIS fighters as they attempted to flee the city, along with reports of deaths caused by coalition airstrikes. Last week, 16 civilians were allegedly killed in one airstrike that hit the village of al-Baruda, west of Raqqa. The dead in that strike reportedly included a woman, her five children, and several couples — people whom local activists said had been refugees from fighting in other parts of Syria.

Kinda Haddad, a Syria analyst with Airwars, told The Intercept that there has been a significant increase in civilian casualty incidents caused by coalition airstrikes since January. A disproportionate number of those killed have also reportedly been women and children. Families have been killed while bunkering down in their homes or making last-ditch attempts to drive to safety. “A lot of the civilians left in ISIS territories are the most desperate. Anyone with money and means has already left, while the ones who have remained until today had no other option,” Haddad said.

The airstrikes, as well as alleged atrocities carried out by U.S. allies, have embittered some Syrian activists toward the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State campaign, including those who have spent years documenting the abuses of both ISIS and the Assad government.

“We saw the same thing in Aleppo when the Russians were bombing the city. There were daily massacres for a couple of months before the city fell that angered many people there, among both the moderate groups and the non-moderate groups,” Haddad says. In an interview on CBS News “Face the Nation” this Sunday, Secretary of Defense James Mattis said that the United States had shifted toward “annihilation tactics” in its fight with ISIS militants, as the battle moves toward its final phase.

But as the U.S. accelerates its strikes, the situation for civilians has become bleaker. “Maybe [the coalition] saw what Russia did in its campaign and decided that it had worked,” said Haddad, reflecting on the spiking death toll in recent months.

Meanwhile, the ground campaign against ISIS in northern Syria is currently being led by a U.S.-armed proxy group, the Syrian Democratic Forces, which includes the Kurdish People’s Protection Units as one of its major component forces. In recent weeks the SDF has reportedly begun preparations for a final assault against Raqqa, one that may end up being as bloody as the Iraqi military effort in Mosul. Recent reports have revealed that U.S. ground forces are taking a direct role in the Raqqa campaign, providing artillery support for local forces.

Given past precedent, military experts say that once the ground battle moves into the city of Raqqa itself, the risk to innocent people is likely to increase significantly. Faced with grinding urban conflict, U.S.-backed troops will likely call in air support to hit ISIS positions, a risky prospect in a city still inhabited by hundreds of thousands of civilians. This has been the case in Mosul, where civilians have been trapped in heavy fighting in the dense old city. This week, Centcom admitted that one of its strikes in Mosul had killed 105 civilians, but blamed an ISIS booby-trap for the scale of the explosion.

“Anytime you have urban military operations, avoiding civilian casualties inevitably becomes harder,” says Jay Morse, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel judge advocate and senior military adviser at the Center for Civilians in Conflict. “You have to operate under the assumption that there are civilians everywhere in the city, especially in an operation where the ultimate goal is to liberate these civilians from ISIS.”

Foreign Policy recently reported that the U.S. military will no longer confirm which nation is responsibility for civilian deaths caused by coalition airstrikes. Centcom began taking responsibility for civilian casualties from its strikes in 2015 (though with numbers far lower than those given by outside reports). Its allies, however, including France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Australia, have pressured Centcom to stop specifying which country carried out which strike. This move will likely make the air campaign in Iraq and Syria more resistant to public scrutiny, making it even harder for civilians to obtain recognition or recompense for harm.

Although airstrikes may be seen as a way to defeat terrorists more quickly, Morse says that civilian protection cannot be considered a secondary concern in a conflict being driven in part by a cycle of retributive violence. “You have tactical and operational victories when you are trying to secure cities and buildings, but part of defeating ISIS and similar groups is about not giving them opportunities to recruit more fighters,” he says, citing the impact on public opinion when civilians are killed in U.S. military operations.

Thanks to camera phones and social media, the deadly consequences of U.S. military operations are indeed being recorded, shared, and watched around the world on an unprecedented scale. But while civilian deaths are regularly reported in local media outlets in the Middle East, they are seldom reported in detail by international media.

“Civilian harm and the damage that these types of conflicts cause is always underreported and is always underemphasized,” Morse says. “But these are the people who are suffering the most, frankly from both sides.”