#who can forget movies like Gung-Ho

[gonzodangerfeels]

How about we have you do an hour and fifty nine minutes special for starters

[chaosmax]

On the whole “does Kaiba die / stay or get stuck in the afterlife?” thing

I never thought Kaiba doesn't get back from the ending of DSoD. Yeah, I know there was the ~untested~ tech that was mentioned but honestly it seemed more like a line thrown in for possible sequel bait or just for the sake of open-endedness/vauge storytelling style a la many Japanese story telling (re: my essay on that). 

And from a character point, no, I don't think there's any way in hell that Seto would gamble the chances of permanently orphaning Mokuba again. No matter how much tunnel vision he got for his goal (and no matter how grieved he was. And I hate it that people spin it to pit the headcanoned romantic love between him and Atem against his canonical love of Mokuba and it's the possible and unconfirmed romo love that “wins”. 

[I am NOT trying to bash on pride here, I actually quite enjoy that ship when work is put into it and all the nuance and complexity isn't sucked out of it for quick hurt/comfort or just turned into a glorified/romanticized toxic love horny fest]. But even if it was confirmed canon, stop pitting romo love against platonic love and have one come out as the "winner" mmkay? There's already enough damaging amatonormativity ingrained in society ok thanks.

Grief makes you do wild things, sure and everyone reacts to grief differently. But Seto has never been a gambler and I don't think after all the character development he's been though he would risk his relationship with Mokuba like that (this is taking consideration of how technically this is the manga continuity Kaiba who has done Death T and all that and messed up pretty bad with Mokuba before). I just don't think he'd run off to see/challenge/get closure from Atem and ditch his precious little brother behind with great odds that he would never see him again. Not after all the times he’s put his life on the line to protect Mokuba.

I've always thought he comes back. It just may have a cost and may not be a straight shot there and back. I think the ~untested~ tech means he doesn't know how long it will take or how much stress it puts on the user, a la the purple particles eating away at Kaiba in the post credit scene that seem to be threatening to send him back to his own dimension (again DIMENSION it's not a time machine). No, I don't think it's anything crazy like YEARS pass before he gets back. I think a couple of weeks at most. And no, I don't think Mokuba was crying and begging Seto to not have this goal in the first place. Mokuba is quite gung-ho the entire movie about getting and defending the puzzle. Hell, he headbutts Diva off the puzzle container when Mokuba had no way to know if he'd land safely or just die. He interrogates Diva to try and get the puzzle piece. He closes up the shop for Yugi and says a happy hi before the tournament. That seems far from someone who wants Seto to just let it go.

This is a bit more on the speculation side for canon hates digging into Mokuba’s feelings much sadly, but I think Mokuba has his own sense of unfinished business with Atem as well which plays a part in his motivation to help this goal. Atem is also someone he had bonded with on some level. He and Yugi were one of the first people to help him, ever, that wasn't Seto. They aided him in Duelist Kingdom. Then again in the Legendary Heroes arc when he had no one else to turn too. He seemed so...surprised in both cases. Clearly someone who's not used to being able to ask for help, much like Seto. 

But now this person is gone. One of the few people Mokuba felt he could go to if he had a problem or needed to ask for help. I can easily see Mokuba thinking, “how come he cared enough to help me all those times but not say goodbye?” (though again, we don’t know exactly what happened there, if the Kaiba brothers were unable to contact or of the main crew literally just didn’t call them up, so I’m in no way trying to assign blame here, but I could see how this is how Mokuba would see it and feel about it).

 I think Mokuba misses him too, or at the very least misses him as someone he can depend on and place his trust in. The following may be a bit of a stretch on evidence for I don't know who writes the lines for Duel Links, but if you challenge Yami Yugi as DSOD Mokuba and win, his expression is sad, saying, “You thought you could run from Seto without one last Duel?" I think Mokuba certainly sees the departure hurt Seto, but I also think it hurt him. I think he’s also trying to say, ‘You thought you could run from us without saying bye?’

So no, I don't think Kaiba runs off to Atem's afterlife forever for whatever reason ship or no ship and ditches everyone and everything (don’t forget KC and Kaibaland, his life’s dream pride and joy) behind in the living dimension. I don't think he fails to get back. While the prospect of something going wrong or the tech failing is an immensely interesting fic/AU/etc idea to play around with or such because of the added mysteriousness (or because it's edgy and dark or whatnot I feel like that’s how the theory Kaiba dies really gained it’s first traction lol) I don't think that's what happened. I think it may take some more time than expected, perhaps have some magical cost that the soft magic system didn't really specify (such as having a set number of uses or something until whatever remnant power in the cube runs out, be physically straining, etc.) 

But I will never believe Seto gambled the chance of possibly orphaning Mokuba. That's my interpretation.

____

[Note: I’m not here to argue, of course you can have a different headcanon or reading of the events to DSoD, these are just my thoughts, with the textual evidence to back up my thought process.]

[themonotonysyndrome]

Chaos Horizon

Part 6 of the ‘Successors of the Future’ is out! Man, next week is already the new year... what a year this has been! Anyway, I don’t have a lot of things to say today so let’s get right to it! Oh, and have a happy holiday everyone!! 

Let us never forget that this whole series begin because of the amazing @tri3tri and her equally amazing fics and galaxy brain. If you haven’t check out her blog yet, then please do! I’m such a sucker for family drama and yandere characters and her blog continues to feed me whenever work stresses me out. 

-

A year has passed in Twisted Wonderland. More importantly, for the students in Night Raven College. 

Renata has learned quite a few important things just this one, short year. Yes, she needed allies for the time when her father finally discover her presence here in Night Raven College, but she never expected to honestly care and dare she admits it, love Hoyle and Rex. 

They were nothing like the friends she made in her old school back at the other world. She noticed their true personalities underneath the surface with each passing days. Underneath his sarcasm, gung-ho attitude and sly tongue, Hoyle Trappola is someone who cares deeply for those who managed to see through him; see past his defences. Renata felt blessed to be his close friend after a night the three of them shared in her bedroom, just playing games and watching movies on his laptop. In a rare window of honestly after Renata explains about her family life and circumstances, Hoyle repaid her honesty by admitting that he wish that he could be a better son to his Dad. Being a single father is tough and despite doing his best to shield him from the hardships and struggles, Hoyle overheard one night when his Dad is talking to his grandparents on the phone. How they urged him to consider marrying a woman so he could have someone to support him and Hoyle in the house. 

This was when he was still a child.

Renata didn’t offer sweet, comforting words. She knows that all Hoyle wanted was to vent, so he let him talk while tucking her head on his shoulder and pressed close to his side. She listens because that was Hoyle needed. 

Rex is the total opposite of Hoyle, yet just as bright and amazing in his own way. Underneath his serious demeanours, resting bitch face and volatile impulses, Rex Spade is actually an insightful and gentle-hearted boy who looks out for Renata and Hoyle even when it’s unwarranted. Though it’s quite easy for them to persuade him to join in their shenanigans with a few teasing words and in Hoyle’s case, a challenge. 

Never had Renata enjoyed her school life with friends like these! 

The other important thing - or realisation - that Renata discovered is that her Mama’s friends always kept her in their thoughts. 

Though Hoyle’s Dad gobsmacked expression when he brought her to his home for Winter’s Break was, uh, an experience. To put it very mildly. 

Renata originally planned to return home via the same spell that Headmaster Crowley used all those years ago to send Mama and her siblings back to her world during Winter’s Break. But while Hoyle, Rex and her were hanging out and playing cards in Heartslabyul’s main lounge, Hoyle brought up in mid conversation that his Dad offered their home to stay if she had no way to go during the holiday. 

“You’ve been talking about me to your Dad?” Renata had asked, folding her cards on the table. It sucks to learned that she’s terrible at poker and she pouts whenever Hoyle snickered at another bad hand on her. “Or have you been complaining about me?” 

Beside him, Rex stares down at the cards in his hands, hard. As if they hold the answers to the universe. Around them, the other Heartslabyul students gave their table a wide berth, though there were a few brave souls that greeted Renata when they came over to tease Hoyle. 

Renata happily introduces herself to them as a show of appreciation. 

“A bit of both. Mostly complaining when we had to clean the Hall of Mirrors.” Hoyle easily admits without a shame. He gathered all their cards into a deck and shuffled them. “Anyway, you down? My Dad seems to know your Mum so he offered our place to stay if you don’t have any plans.” 

Ace trappola, one of Mama’s best friend that she mentioned before. Renata would like to see just what kind of man he is. 

With a nod, Renata reply, “If it’s no trouble then, yeah. I’d like to hang out at your place for Winter’s Break. I’ve never been to the Rose Kingdom before.” 

And we’re now back to the present - where Renata and Ace are hanging out at his home; both waiting for Rex to show up with his Dad. 

It’s the last day before they had to returned to Night Raven College. 

“Have you met Rex’s Dad before, Hoyle?.” Renata asked, her eyes glued to the TV as she munches her bowl of cereals. They could hear his Dad walking about upstairs. 

“Have I met him before? Dude, he’s my godfather.” Hoyle scoffed, scarfing down the last bits of his own cereal before placing the empty bowl on the coffee table in front of them. A simple breakfast while watching the morning cartoons are the best. “Rex got his stick-up-the-ass attitude from his Dad.” 

“Ah. So he’s super strict?” Renata guessed. 

“More like serious, but he’s actually silly.” Hoyle amended. “He and my old man love to argue literally about anything and everything. They’re weird like that.” 

Renata just hums. She’ll get to meet him soon enough. Upstairs, his dad hollered at him to clean up so they could go out as soon as the Spade arrives. While the Trappola are getting ready, Renata gathered the dirty dishes from their breakfast and went to the kitchen to wash them. 

Mama always told her to be on her best behaviour if she’s under someone else’s house. 

Just as she puts the last bowl away, she heard heavy footsteps - heavier than Hoyle’s - coming from behind. 

“You really didn’t have to clean the dishes, you know. Usually Hoyle does it before we go out every Sunday.” Said Ace, leaning against the wall. 

“It’s not trouble at all, Mr. Trappola.” Renata assured him. She dry her arms by blowing hot air onto them before turning around to face her Mama’s best friend. “It’s nice that you finally look at me, instead of my horns.” 

“A-Ah, you noticed that?” Ace stammers, abashed that he wasn’t as subtle as he thought. 

“It’s cool, Mr. Trappola. I get that a lot at school too.” Renata admits easily. She’s gotten annoyed at him tip-toeing around ever since Hoyle introduces her. It was obvious that he has questions; it just that he doesn’t know how to ask them. 

Scrambling to salvage the situations, Ace took a moment to exhale harshly before he decides to be his honest self. “It was rude of me, yeah? We all didn’t know what to think when your mother just... disappeared one day and then suddenly, my kid brought back her own kid who just so happen to look like the King of the Valley of Thorns...” He trailed off and then he regards Renata with a severe expression. “What happened your mother, Renata-chan?” 

“It’s a long story, Mr. Trappola.” Renata said instead, smiling ruefully. “And I don’t want to ruin our day. Can I tell you and everyone what happened to Mama and us later tonight?” 

“Sure, kiddo... Is it alright for me to called you that?” 

“Mm-hmm! So what are we doing today, Me. Trappola?” 

It was nice to see the ice chip away from Ace little by little, now that the man sees past her appearance. While waiting for the Spade to arrive, Renata had a lot of fun chatting and laughing with Hoyle and his Dad, now that there’s no awkwardness lingering between them. Ace didn’t waste any time telling the teenagers all the trouble her Mama and him got into at Night Raven College and hearing the life that Mama had before Father kidnapped her was a blessing to hear. 

Judging from Ace’s story, it sounded like her Mama had a lot of people who truly loves her. It’s good to hear it. 

The buzzing of the doorbell interrupted Ace mid ranting how it was Deuce who often got them all in trouble - not him! - and MC never seem to realised that and no one back him up. His reminiscent were put on hold when Hoyle went up to usher the Spades in. 

Deuce Spade immediately blanked out, mouth slack-jawed the moment Renata waves hello to him. He looks as if he just saw a ghost. 

“Yeah, I know how it looks like.” Ace interjects when Deuce couldn’t stop spluttering and stammering, his eyes kept switching to Ace and then at Renata...and then back to his best friend. Ace just clap his shoulders in a comforting manner. Meanwhile, Rex ducked underneath the two men to scurried over where Hoyle and Ace are seated. He squeezes himself in between them to show them the new café that just open up in the Rose Kingdom through his phone. 

Once Ace managed to stressed out to Deuce that Renata will explain hers and MC’s story later in the evening, they all head out to town. 

“You said that you’ve never been to the Rose Kingdom before, Renata?” Rex asked out loud for the others’ benefit. The town nearby to the Trappola house is bustling with life today. “Then there’s so many things you gotta check out! Do you like desserts? What kind of desserts do you like? Have you ever tried ice-cream cake before?” 

“Easy there, Rex. You’re going to overwhelm the poor girl.” Deuce lightly scolded his son. His eyes linger a little too long at Renata before he caught himself and jerk away. “A-Anyway, how about we all walk around first and see what catches Renata-chan’s attention.” 

“Sounds like a plan, Mr. Spade!” Renata internally wondered if all of Mama’s friends would react this way when she introduces herself to them. 

That entire day, the Spade and Trappola played the perfect hosts to her. As they brought her to one shops after the other, chill out at the park after lunch and regale how the Queen of Hearts used to govern her kingdom, Renata found herself comparing the Country of Thorns to the Rose Kingdoms with every little things that she saw. Everything is so bright and... open here. The sun is shining down on them and everywhere they go, humans occupied the land but Renata did notice a few beastmen going about with their lives. It was nice to truly witness the world outside of Night Raven College and the Valley of Thorns. 

Hoyle and Rex made sure they kept close to Renata, shielding her with their bodies when strangers stare at her a little too long for their liking and would usher her into a shop or café to distract her from their curious stares. They weren’t subtle about it, but she is touched that they care about her that much. 

Renata is beginning to understand why Mama always talk so fondly about their Dads. 

After dinner, everyone returned to the Trappola’s house so Renata could finally explain herself. The living room is packed full and it reminded Renata of her siblings and Mama crowding in front of the TV to watch a movie. 

“Did Mama ever told you guys that while she was at Night Raven College, she met Father at night?” 

“Father... so your... Dad... really is...” Ace began, but unsure how to even continue but Renata save him the trouble with a nod. 

“Malleus Draconia. Mama said he’s a pretty big deal during his time at the school, being one of the top 5 strongest Magician in this world and all...” 

Hoyle scoffed. “Understatement, Renata. He’s the strongest Magician in all of Twisted Wonderland now. The number 1.” He explains. 

Well. Renata wonders how her little sister would react to this when she tells her later. 

Renata then continue on with the story. “Mama explained that they were friends and that in the beginning, everything was fine. But in the end, their story completely went off the train tracks.” 

And so, for the rest of the evening, Renata did her best to explain what had happened to Mama as honest as possible. They love Mama and so they deserve the truth. 

She told them everything that Mama had told her and her siblings. Of Mama’s friendship with Malleus Draconia and how what looked like a happy ending turned horribly wrong when her Father was consumed with the horror that one day he would outlive his wife and one and only dear friend. His intense love, possessiveness and obsession with her and their children blinded him to everything else - to the point that he kept their Mama and them in a gilded cage. 

Renata kept her dislike over Bellatrix to herself when she explains how they managed to escape from the castle on the eve of her Father’s second wedding. In the end, it was thanks to Headmaster Crowley that they could live freely in the other world. 

Until the Ebony Carriage came to pick her up and now, here they are.

Renata watches her audience did their best absorb the information overload.

“I never thought...” Ace muttered, distressed. His bit his lower lip, thinking hard. “I never thought that Malleus Draconia had MC all along... what a fucked up situation!” 

Deuce is troubled as well. “Poor Prefect... to think the Malleus Draconia fell in love with her... No wonder we couldn’t find her!” 

Beside him, Rex nods furiously while Hoyle is already growing bored of this conversation. “It sucks, but it sounds like your Mum is pretty badass for a magicless human. I mean, being able to escape from the most powerful Magician ever in Twisted Wonderland? The King of all dark Fae? Kudos to her.” Hoyle interjects. “So, what’s gonna happen now? You said that your Dad is crazy possessive over you guys, so I very much doubt it if he’s not looking for you guys. Even until now.” 

Finally! They’re getting to the good parts. 

And so with a curious smile, Renata asks, “Funny that you mentioned that. Do you guy know what Sebek Zigvolt is up to these days?” 

-

Night Raven College’s Entrance Ceremony is always a big event on this island every year. 

He was one of the main characters last year - of the many that was addressed by the Mirror of Darkness - but as a Second Year student, he’s standing among the rest of the older Savanaclaw students now. Scenting the newly sorted First Year cubs and waiting for the whole thing to wrap up already. 

At the centre of the chamber, the headmaster continues to called out names to step forward and face the Mirror of Darkness. 

Amber Leech, Aeacus Shroud, Felix Felmier... the ceremony goes on. 

“Psst! Bakari!” A voice suddenly whisper. 

Bakari turn his head to the side and there’s Renata with her ceremony robes’ hood up, beaming at him. She’s standing away from her Diasomnia mates, a good space between her and the crowd at the back that no one seems to pay her any attention. 

Bakari slips away from the rest of the Savanaclaw students in favour of walking towards her. 

“How’s the fresh meats?” Was the first thing that Renata asked him.

“Some of them look promising.” Bakari admits. “More predators than preys so far.” 

“Oooh, Savanaclaw’s hierarchy is so harsh.” Renata reply a bit absentmindedly. Bakari notices that her green eyes are scanning the room and the crowds around them. Looking for someone. Something unpleasant churns in his stomach but he resolutely ignores it. “Are you gunning for the Dorm Leader’s position?” She wondered.  

Bakari scoffed, his tail flicking irritably just at the mere thought. Unlike his Dad, he has no lofty ambitions to secure a powerful position for himself. “Savanaclaw is governed by the laws of the strong eating the weak. You have to be the strongest in order to be the Dorm Leader and I have better things to do than watching over my dorm members.” 

Like figuring out how to appease his Dad after he told him to stay away from the lizard bastard’s whelp during Winter’s Break. Regardless of her surname. 

As if he’s going to do that though. He wants to fully unravel the mysteries of Renata MC/S. For the time being, she’s the most interesting creature in Night Raven College. 

“Sounds tough.” Renata murmurs. “Well, it’s a good thing that you don’t want to be a Dorm Leader! Otherwise your workload would take you away from me.” 

Bakari just hums. Already gotten used to her offhanded flirting. 

The two of them watch in the background as the group of First Year students gradually thinned out. The headmaster’s loud voice carried to the back of the chamber. 

“... Sherrie MC/S, please step forward!” 

Murmurs erupted when said student pulled down her hood, a pair of black horns is clear for all to see. 

Bakari glance to his side to see Renata beaming. “You were looking for your sister?” 

“Something like that! It’s so nice when everything is coming together, don’t you think?” Renata chuckles, pleased with herself for some odd reason. It just made Bakari more and more intrigue. 

And the uncomfortable feeling within him vanish just like that. 

“...Octavinelle!” 

The murmurs now turn into confused whispers and fingers are pointing as they all watch Renata’s little sister melded into the crowd of new Octavinelle students. Some of the students nearby even glance behind to stare at Renata and when she cocked an eyebrow at them, they quickly turn away. 

“Octavinelle? Did the Mirror made a mistake?”

“I thought only merfolks are sorted into Octavinelle.” 

“Those horns looks just like her’s. There’s no way she’s a merfolk!”

“Maybe her magic is not as strong to be sorted to Diasomnia?”

The students of Night Raven College sure love to gossip, Renata couldn’t help but internally mused. Even worse than those back in her old school. 

“Guess you’re planning to catch up with her after the ceremony?” Bakari assumed, casting a sideway glance to gauge her expressions. 

“I’ll meet up with her tomorrow, after she settles in for the night.” Renata answered. “There’s no need to rush. We have lots of time to prepare for the future.” 

-

Ok! I think I did ok with this oneshot. Editing, was as usual, a bit tedious but the power of Miku’s songs prevail and I manage to push this through! Hope you guys have a wonderful holiday. 

[seeingdoublesu]

I couldn’t help myself >.< I’m joining the AU Train!!! So, this is my Seeing Double!AU.  Instead of having one kid, Rose had twins! One inherited her gem and the other did not. As a result.... we found out who Rose really was much faster.

This’ll be a Slice of Life comic that updates sporadically! I am totally gung ho on comic suggestions! Now, onto the explanation.

With one diamond Steven and one human Steven, everything pretty much stays the same, except now there’s double! Human Steven learned to fight so he could accompany his twin on missions. They hate being apart for too long, so they both moved in with the Crystal Gems, making Steven an honorary Gem even though his twin had it.

They’re both named Steven!!! Because in a beautiful string of crazy Rose genius, this unexpected turn of events made her go “We decided on one boy name and one girl name, and so ONE BOY NAME WE SHALL HAVE!” And of course Greg was to happy to argue. Because, ya know, Twins!! Exciting!! To keep it from getting confusing, They usually refer to Human Steven as “Steven” and Pink as “Steve” or sometimes “Pink”, but he doesn’t like that, and he HATES being called Rose. Things get ugly when you call him Rose. Pearl is pretty much the only one who uses “Pink” and only because she forgets he’s not her.

Pearl kinda freaked out when she first saw the boys, and the whole “Rose is diamond thing” is pretty much settled. Pearl and Steve don’t hang out much... 

Steven is 100% human, aside from a few quirks. Pink Steven on the other hand.... He’s more Gem than not. He glows, he’s pretty much mastered his diamond powers since he got them farther back, and he will do anything to keep Steven safe. Pink can still fuse with humans though, due to his small, but still human side. The two siblings are practically inseparable, though they are practically opposites as far as personality goes.

If you’re curious about anything, ASK!! PLEASE!! I am ECSTATIC about this and would gratefully draw things for this AU. Ask question, request an interaction, and though I started this time line at SUF I’m cool with questions from the movie, the main series, or SUF.  I’ll be posting stuff from this on here often probably cause i like it. :) 

The tag for this is #Seeing Double AU If you guys make stuff too! 

Bonus:

[oveliagirlhaditright]

I’m half-awake, so now might not be the best time to do this. But I’m doing it, anyway. I’m trying to think of all the Sora and Kairi parallels in Kingdom Hearts. And if you guys have any that I missed, be sure to add them here:)

But there’s Sora and Kairi drawing giving each other paopus. 

And how Kairi’s journey through the secret place at the end of KH1 is just like Sora’s at the end of KH2.

Actually, Kairi’s journey in the cave at the end of KH1 is also a bit like Sora’s movements in there at the start of KH1, too.

And credit goes to this one video that used to be on YouTube for pointing some of these out (like this one), but the camera movement when Sora is first surrounded by Heartless in KH1 (zooming in), is the same one that’s used when Kairi’s first surrounded by Heartless in KH2. 1:12-1:13 of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPPYDk8Qmf4 compared with this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taZudWzTxwg (1:28-1:29)

There’s also the fact that Kairi gets her Keyblade like Sora got Riku’s (that later became his). There’s all this darkness around him, and then a light and Sora has Riku’s Keyblade (later his) via the “Delivery Boy Principle). Kairi’s surrounded by darkness--Heartless--and there’s a light, and Riku has her Keyblade (via the Delivery Boy Principle), but since Kairi’s right beside him... Riku’s easily to give her Keyblade back to her.

Sora and Kairi are both dog piled by Heartless when they see each other again in KH2.

Sora and Kairi, in KH2, both refer to the other as someone who means more to them than anything. Sora says this to Saïx when he asks him, “Is she that important to you?” and Sora replies, “Yeah, more than anything.” And Saïx says to Kairi: “I’ll take you to see Sora... you don’t want that?” Kairi - “I do. More than anything. But not with you around!”

Sora has a line in KH2 where he says, “Kairi, where are you?” I think it’s when he’s in the Realm of Darkness after Maleficent saves him. And Kairi also says “Sora, where are you?” when Xemnas pulls him into a fight at a fake Memory’s Skyscraper or something.

Usually, Sora says “Riku! Kairi!”, but there are actually a few moments in KH2 where he instead says, “Kairi! Riku!”, and Kairi always goes, “Sora! Riku!” in KH2.

Both Sora and Kairi say “what is this place?” when they reach Betwixt and Between in KH2.

There’s a shot of Sora’s feet at the edge of the water in a text bubble scene in Chain of Memories (when he’s on Destiny Islands), that matches Kairi’s feet at the water at the beginning of KH1. Likewise, we see Kairi’s feet touching the turf during her first scene in KH2 (when she’s about to send Sora her letter). And we see Sora’s feet touching the ocean at the Dark Margin at the end of KH2 (when he’s about to get her letter).

Some could argue that Sora meeting Naminé and Kairi meeting Roxas are similar.

TV Tropes talks about how Kairi’s attempted journey (in KH2) to find someone dear to her that she doesn’t fully remember, is like Sora’s quest to find Naminé (who Sora was basically brainwashed into thinking was Kairi) in CoM.

There’s the fact that Kairi, like Sora, is the only Other who’s ever wanted to save their Nobody. They also wanted each other’s Nobody to be saved, too.

Neither Sora nor Kairi were chosen to be Keyblade wielders. Sora wasn’t chosen at all, and Aqua chose Kairi by accident.

Kairi, in Re:Mind, waking up when Sora calls her name, reminds me of when Sora “wakes up”, when Kairi pulls him out of the darkness by calling his name in KH1.

Kairi catching Sora in KH3 is like when he caught her at the end of KH1.

Kairi has now gone to sleep for a year like Sora did. And Kairi’s doing it to get Sora back, and he did that to at least get his memories of her back: because he didn’t want to live without them.

I think Sora telling Kairi he’ll give her “a hint” about his name in KH2, is a reference on how Kairi would be like “I guess I can give you a hint” about where Sora could find things on the Island in KH1.

Them both getting stopped by Xemnas in Re:Mind is a parallel.

Kairi sitting where Sora usually does on the paopu tree at the end of KHIII is a parallel.

Their hugs are sort of parallels to each other. In KH1, Sora hugs Kairi and she doesn’t hug him back (because of her shock). In KH2, Kairi hugs Sora and he at first doesn’t hug her back because he’s all surprised and guilty feeling. And since you could argue that Kairi at first is more enthusiastic about their hug in KH2 (since Sora doesn’t think he deserves it), Sora’s the one hyped to see Kairi from the get-go in Re:Mind (partly because she was asleep at first). And then they sort of reach for each other at the same time. But before that, in KH3, when Sora’s saving Kairi from Terranort, he’s the one hugging her again, while it takes her a minute to respond.

Sora saving Kairi at the end of KH3 has shades of, “She did this for me. I’m going to do the same for her.” Especially since both are acts of true love.

This one may not be intentional... but Kairi taking Sora aback with some of her words on the dock in KH1, may be called back when Kairi’s confused by Sora at first in Re:Mind. Sora - “Kairi, are you ready for this?” Kairi - “Huh? ...Yes.”

Kairi’s now on an adventure to save Sora, like he’s always been for her.

Likewise, Kairi’s now in the Final World trying to find Sora--seemingly succeeding--like he earlier was for her.

And there maaaaaaay, in Melody of Memory, being a parallel to Sora finding Kairi’s heart fragments in Re:Mind. Is Kairi sending Sora hear heart fragments so she can track his location and find him or something? We’ll see.

You could arguably say how they both wanted to see other worlds, but were less gung-ho about it than Riku was and always want to come home, really.

Edit: Perhaps both of them forgiven Axel for his kidnapping Kairi. And how they forgave Riku and both held his hand in KH2? Them both being best friends with Riku (and Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka). They both forgive Isa, too.

And oh! When they’re both nodding at Riku, that he has friends like them.

Edit 2: Them both having temporarily forgotten each other because of memory shenanigans, but them still remembering each other, deep down or trying to hold onto the memory of the other hard.

Edit 3: The two of them having Nobodies. And the parallel scene of Roxas returning to Sora and Naminé returning to Kairi at the end of KH2.

Edit 4: And while not a scene, Kairi having her paopu fruit in the Re:Mind menu art parallels Sora having his in the KH3 menu art. Sora and Kairi in crowns in KH3 art for him and Melody of Memory art for her.

Edit 5: Sora wielding Kairi’s lucky charm on his Keyblade when he uses Oathkeeper, and Kairi’s Keyblade has a king chess piece on it--connected by a red thread--that represents Sora. Also, a paopu.

Edit 6: Kairi in Re:Mind having attacks that look a lot like Sora’s.

Edit 7: How could I forget the “Wherever you go, I’m always with you” parallel? -sobs-

Edit 8: Sora and Kairi--in the KH3 opening movie--Sora nor Kairi summoning their Keyblade against Master Xehanort until Riku, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy show up.

Edit 9: Sora and Kairi smiling at each other, and Roxas and Naminé smiling at each other through them.

Edit 10: Sora and Kairi both throwing their fists into the air when they think they’ve defeated Xemnas.

Edit 11: Sora and Kairi pretty much have the same personality, tbh.

Edit 12: Both of them seeing Xion.

Edit 13: This probably wasn’t intentional... but Kairi and Naminé holding hands, and Sora and Roxas holding hands. And both Sora and Kairi holding Naminé’s hand.

Edit 14: Kairi leading Donald and Goofy for five seconds in KH1, like Sora usually leads them.

Edit 15: Merlin and Yen Sid teaching Kairi like they did Sora.

Edit 16: Sora and Kairi’s friendships with Hayner, Pence, and Olette.

Edit 17: The Restoration Committee looking after Sora, and then looking after Kairi for a little bit in KH1.

Edit 18: Ansem Seeker of Darkness, Xemnas, and Master Xehanort treating both Sora and Kairi like crap.

Edit 19: Sora of course helps protect Ven and Aqua. But Kairi does too, in KH3, when she tells them not to go on a suicide mission.

Edit 20: Sora and Kairi--and many of the other people she meets--is what keeps Aqua from giving up.

Edit 21: Sora now believes in Kairi, like she always has in him.

Edit 22: A really minor thing, but they’re both also friends with Mickey, of course. They both also know Pluto... and arguably Jiminy, and maybe the Fairy Godmother now?

Edit 23: Them drawing each other’s faces when they were young!

Edit 24: This is more a thing they have in common, but they arguably both dance. That, and the fact they both wear necklaces.

Edit 25: The getting separated and reaching for each other thing.

Edit 26: They’ve both sent kingstagram posts to each other now:)

Edit 27: According to Riku, they’re both lazy.

Edit 28: Kairi maybe remembers everything Sora does from his first journey. And is now maybe learning all of his memories in Melody of Memory, and other people’s too?

Edit 29: They have a similar stance when the stars are returning to the sky at the end of KH1.

Edit 30: Kairi has the same battle stance as Sora. 

Edit 30.5--more art stuff--Kairi, on the KH3 cover, is holding her Keyblade like Sora did in that one KH1 image.

Edit 31: Sort of these shots of them at 1:22-1:23 in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZWhr7Bmv50.

Edit 32: Sora and arguably Kairi both saw Riku get locked behind the Door.

Edit 33: Probably not really a parallel, but Kairi doesn’t run towards Sora--as he runs towards her--at the end of KHII. But in the KHIII opening that recreated that event, she does.

Edit 34: Probably not really a parallel, tbh, but Kairi flipping her hair after she fights for the first time and showing off towards Sora, could be like him showing-off(?) in coming to help her and Axel in KHIII.

Edit 35: In Melody of Memory, is Kairi seeing Sora’s memory and he seeing hers?

Edit 36: In the Melody of Memory trailer, when Kairi says things are far from over because Sora was dead, reminds me of when Mickey says “it’s finally over”, but Sora says “no” because Kairi’s dead.

Edit 37: Sora and Kairi both raising their head in the KHII openings.

Edit 38: Some of the poetry in KH may be some of Sora’s writing to Kairi, like she writes to him?

[fandom-rants]

Carol Is NOTHING Like Tony (aka Yet Another Reason To Hate the MCU Fandom)

So many people are acting as if Carol Danvers, as a character, is exactly like Tony Stark, and I just cannot fathom that.

Carol Danvers is actually arrogant. Like, she actually says the fight with Thanos will go well because she's there. (Then just... leaves, lol, because “others need help,” like, the others needing help need help with sociopolitical structures and/or anarchy; they don’t need help punching things into destruction, so really the writers just needed their Deus Ex Machina out of the way until things looked properly hopeless.) Her words literally undermine everyone else in order to toot her own horn. Tony, meanwhile, calls himself “a man in a can” and has so many self-hatred issues entire movies have been based around them.

She shows neither intelligence nor wisdom. Oh, she’s got all the gung-ho spunk a ‘strong female character’ could ask for, but her strength lies not in planning or logic or preparation, but in punching things. That is literally her superpower: she got into an accident and can now punch things really hard.

Actually, let’s bring that one up, too. Her powers were literally just given to her. You want to compare her to Tony when she was handed her powers gift-wrapped? Like, her whole “came into her power” moment was her allowing herself to get angry. I get the metaphor - ‘women needn’t be quiet and demure! A woman’s power isn’t in her silent obeisance, but in her autonomy!’ And you know, if that was all you took it to be, that would be fine. But once you start saying she’s just like Tony or, worse, Tony’s replacement, don’t be surprised when I start cutting every last part of her down to size. Being handed your powers is nothing like earning them through your own hard work, and on that, Tony bests her in every way.

She wasn’t imperfect or in need of training. In fact, her training only slowed her down! While Dr. Strange needed training, Thor needed to learn better morals, and Tony needed to invent bigger and better suits, she just needs to be... herself! And voila! She needs nothing! (And to all those who want to talk about her being in the military, yeah, so? Doctor Strange was a brilliant neurosurgeon; that doesn’t mean there was nothing he needed to learn. Thor was in the military; he still needed to learn to be worthy. And let’s not forget Carol’s arrogance - so Tony and Thor and Strange needed to learn humility, but not her, huh? I haven’t seen this level of ‘perfect as-is’ hand-waving since Steve miraculously became an amazing person/fighter the instant he got the serum.)

The biggest sin of all is this: Carol Danvers’ weaknesses are non-existent. No, really. Give me a weakness of hers. Now, does that “weakness” impede her? Or is it simply a “quirk” that actually shows how much better she is than the average person? Yeah. Exactly. She’s perfect. Not in the fandom-erasing way where she has flaws and they are summarily ignored, but in the actual “created with no flaws” kind of way. Because even her flaws are treated as if they are heroic. She’s arrogant? No! She’s confident in herself! What a strong woman! She needs no man! Girl power!1! No great intellect? She’s smart enough! A strong, capable woman is certainly smart! You can tell because her competency is always great, whether there’s ever an explanation for her perfection or not! Just. There’s no way to explain her perfection; she’s just always everything she needs to be. Always.

As for fandom’s bullshit...

Don’t get me started on how she gets to work for the Air Force and be lauded by fandom while Tony arms those in the military like her and gets lambasted.

Don’t get me started on her “immortality,” which equates to an excuse to keep the female character pretty and youthful even after twenty supposed years.

Don’t get me started on how she fails to save people and arrives too late and doesn’t carry that on her shoulders, but fandom expects Tony to just ‘know better’ and ‘do better,’ whether he’s canonically tried to prepare or not.

Don’t get me started on how she gets used and manipulated by the baddies into hurting and even killing a bunch of innocents, but gets a free pass, both canonically and by fandom, when Tony constantly has his mistakes shoved in his face. Tony’s desire for redemption gets dangled in front of his face like a carrot while Carol just walks around, free as a bird.

Don’t get me started on how she gets open acceptance from literally everyone, even her old enemies who knew she’d killed several of their allies, when Tony has to work tooth and nail to be treated like dirt.

THAT SAID. Yes, I thought the “girl power” in the Captain Marvel movie was ham-fisted and oftentimes cringeworthy. I’m a feminist, and I don’t need that level of in-your-face “female sass” that painted the movie a nasty sheen. That “you’re Carol Danvers” speech from her friend had me actually cringing in second-hand embarrassment, for the characters, for the actors, for the writers themselves. But I was able to enjoy it overall. (Not as much as Wonder Woman, but still.) It was okay. But the idea that she’s like Tony? That she fills his shoes? That she, as a couple of idiots have said, is a better character than him? Bitch, please. She’s mediocre at best, a Deus Ex Machina button at worst. Let’s not pretend her movie breaks any ground, or that her character is even three-dimensional.

She’s boring. Of the characters remaining, the only one even interesting enough to carry the MCU past Endgame is Spider-Man. And this is coming from a Doctor Strange fan.

Let’s just put it this way: if there’s no room for growth - if there was never any room for growth to begin with - then there’s no way the character will be great enough to equate with Tony Stark, who grew scene by scene, movie by movie. And there’s no way in hell a character who isn’t as great as Tony Stark could ever hope to carry the weight that such a character has created.

[parasocialpod]

Our Favorite Villains - Transcript

Follow along with the episode here if you’d like to!

Alex: If you haven't heard about Anchor, it's the easiest way to make a podcast. Let me explain. It's free, there's creation tools that allow you to record and edit your podcast right from your phone or  computer, and Anchor will distribute your podcast for you, so it can be heard on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and many more.

You can even make money from your podcast with no minimum listenership. It's everything that you need to make a podcast in one place. So download the free Anchor app, or go to anchor.fm to get started.

Alex: Hi,  I'm Alex

Nick: And I'm Nick.

Alex: And this is Ice Cream Parasocial, a podcast that covers as many different topics as there are flavors of ice cream. Today, we'll be talking about our favorite villains in media.

Nick: I want to start out by apologizing. If I sound like shit, I have a little bit of a cold.

Alex: Yeah, just a little bit.

Nick: We've been putting off recording for a couple of days, because I didn't want to record with a sick voice, but it has not gone away. So.

Alex: Yeah, this is about as good as it's been in a minute.

Nick: I'm sorry. We all have to deal with it. Uh

Alex: Yeah, this was after me putting enough Vick's Vaporub on you to like, drive every animal in the house to like, go away.

Yeah.

Nick: Yeah, if you don't follow me on Twitter, I posted some pictures of the dogs hiding their noses.

Alex: Yeah. They, uh, that was a lie, actually. They didn't leave. They just, um, buried their  whole faces in the blankets. Cause they were just like, "I'm not going to get up. But I'm sure not happy about what's happening right now."

Nick: Yeah. Winston is a rough Collie and he's got his nose-- from the very top of his head all the way to the tip of his nose is 12 inches long, and he buried his nose all the way up to his little eyeballs under a blanket to get away from the Vick's smell, but like, didn't leave the bed that I was laying on.

So, well, he's not he's, you know, he's just really pretty. He's not very smart.

Alex: Yeah. He's just really loyal. He didn't want to leave your side during this trying time.

He's very loyal to a fault.

He'll do whatever it takes.

Nick: I'm pretty sure he's laying down just on the other side of this door to make sure that we're not dying.

Alex: Yeah, he's a good boy. He does his best every day. Oh goodness.

Nick: Uh, but yeah, uh, speaking of social media: on Instagram, by the time this episode is up, there will also be a picture on Instagram and Twitter for the official podcast. That is the best piece of art I have ever made in my life.

Alex: Oh yeah. It's a real delight.

Nick: And it has everything to do with this podcast. It's promotional for this episode and I love it. Please go check it out. I don't care if you follow us on--

Alex: This is a call to action to look at this picture only.

Nick: Yes. And, uh, if you're listening to us on a platform that you don't usually listen to us on because we're not on a whole lot, hopefully soon we'll be on everything.

But as of right now, we're on Anchor, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Radio Public, and YouTube. So hopefully we'll be on Apple Podcasts soon, and then we'll start begging you to go and review us there.

Yes.

They have like, weeks to months of a waiting list because so many people are starting podcasts.

Alex: Yeah. Like I know of at least like three or four people that are starting podcasts like right now.

Nick: Yeah. Well, and the information that I had seen was even older about it, you know, taking a long time to get set up on Apple Podcasts, because so many people are starting podcasts and I'm like, I think that information was pre-quarantine. So I can't imagine how long it will take for us to get there, but hopefully it'll be soon. So.

Alex: Like, I'm pretty sure that these microphones that we're recording on were considered like, essential by Amazon as well, because we got them in like 24 hours.

Nick: Mhmm.

Alex: So podcasting is a very accessible thing to do at the moment.

Nick: Absolutely.

Alex: Oh, goodness. Especially with Anchor--

Nick: Especially with Anchor!

Alex: It's the easiest way to make a podcast!

Nick: Which you already heard our ad for the beginning of this.

Legitimately, lots of love to Anchor. It's made it really easy to do this.

Yeah, no joke. Uh, I love you Anchor.

Alex: Thanks, Anchor.

Nick: I would probably kill for you, but please don't read that in a court of law.

Alex: [Laughs]

Nick: Anyways. Uh, talking about villains.

Alex: So, speaking of villains.

Nick: [Laughs]

Speaking of villains, like me, who would kill.

Alex: [Laughs]

For anchor.fm.

Both: [Laughing]

Alex: Oh no. Are we going to be the first podcast to ever have an Anchor sponsorship revoked?

Nick: Eh, probably not the first.

Alex: Yeah. That's fair. Just one of them.

Nick: [Laughs]

Yeah. We'll be one of many, I'm sure.

Alex: One of many.

Nick: Um, so villains.

Alex: So villains.

Nick: [laughs] I think we have a lot of crossover in our favorite villains.

Alex: Probably.

Nick: Um, but I guess first let's talk about what makes a good villain.

Alex: Yes.

Nick: Because this is something that we talk about a lot. We'll pause a show in the middle and just be like, "I love them". Just like, "I love how well that scene was written" and like, "all of the meaning behind that".

Alex: Yeah. Oh my God.

Nick: I guess some previous context that may or may not be needed is about how we met and started dating.

Because we met at this, um, youth hangout for queer kids, and we had kind of, we-- we'd been like, kind of hanging out, but not really, um, because we were in the same groups together. And then we started talking about movies and cartoons, and realized that we had both wanted to go to college for film.

Alex: [Chuckles]

Nick: I think at that point I'd already dropped out, but you were still gung-ho to be going to school for film, and we were just like--

Alex: Oh yeah.

Nick: Oh, we're both going to school for film.

Alex: Oh yeah. Like you had dropped out of film school. I was not yet in film school, and I was on the precipice of dropping out of film school.

Both: [Laughing]

Alex: Truly a match made in heaven. I'm pretty sure the way that I picked you up was that I was like, "Oh yeah, I want your phone number, so that maybe we can work on a project sometime."

Nick: Oh yeah, that's right. It was doing this specifically like, oh you know, so we can like talk about movies and stuff.

Alex: So we can talk about movies.

Nick: Like, you know, maybe talk about getting into a project together. And now we've been married for almost two years, and we're finally starting a project, and it's not a movie.

Alex: Yeah.

Both: [Laughing]

Nick: We've been in a relationship for five years.

Alex: Yeah.

Nick: Almost.

Alex: Oh, god.

Nick: Yeah, we're like less than a month away from, from that. I'm just like, yeah. That's basically it now.

Alex: Yeah, pretty much.

Nick: Time is an illusion.

Alex: Yeah, pretty much.

Nick: So we like to talk about movies. We like to talk about cartoons. We like to talk about media in general, and we are awful to watch movies and TV shows with, because we will pause, and just talk for a half hour, and then play again, and totally forget where we were.

Alex: Insufferable.

Nick: ADHD is fun.

Alex: Oh yeah, absolutely. Like yesterday I think-- or no, day before yesterday-- we've been watching Korra, and, um, we like paused it like 10 minutes before the end of an episode or something and then just didn't finish it until the following day, during which we watched like seven more minutes of that same episode, paused it and then almost didn't finish it until I was like, "Oh no! We never finished that episode!"

Nick: Yeah, because we were just so into talking about the characters and, um, the villains and the anti heroes and all of that stuff. And I think that that one we're having a lot of trouble watching, just because if you don't know, the legend of Korra is a spinoff series of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and it follows what happens after the characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender have grown up and died off and it's about the whole next generation. So we have a lot to say.

Alex: So much.

Nick: And I think that we also have a lot to say about what other people have to say about it. So we'll just get like five minutes in and like something will happen.

And I'm just like, Oh my God, did you see that article where somebody said, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then we'll just go for like 20 minutes. I was just like, Oh, what were we doing?

Alex: Just shit talking avatar clickbait.

Nick: Yeah.

Alex: But what makes a good villain?

Nick: What makes a good villain? I feel like that's a really, really hard question to answer, because depending on the story, I feel different things make a good villain.

Alex: Right.

Nick: You know, I, something, another question that I put for like a-a conversation starter is does a good villain mean that they're are sympathetic villain? In some stories: yes. They need to be sympathetic for that to be brightening, any kind of, you know, without us just blowing them off.

Alex: Right.

Nick: But in other stories, I feel like if they were sympathetic, Then the protagonist would just kind of get blown off because it's like, Oh, well, I don't know. You know?

Alex: Yeah. Yeah, like I feel like it's almost relational to the protagonist in a certain kind of way where it's like, Oh, you know, I definitely have like my pieces of media where it's like the characters themselves aren't super deep.

Um, and like, I can absolutely admit that where it's just like, Oh yeah, like, I liked this villain because they look cool and they have a good time, but the protagonists in those pieces of media also tend to be a little bit flat.

Um, and I think that that's totally fine, but then like the villains that tend to be in the media that I like that is uh, more like complex. That's also how the protagonists are, is like, there's a lot of nuance to them.

Nick: Right.

Alex: Um, so I think you really have it like spot on there. It's just like what, what's the rest of the tone, like?

Nick: Right. You know? 'Cause one of the villains that I have on here is Count Olaf as one of my favorite villains-

Alex: Oooh, yes!

Nick: -Because he's not sympathetic. You want to throat punch him.

Alex: Oh, he sucks.

Nick: And just like move on with your life, you know, but he still has a-a symbolism and he's the main villain of that story. But by no means, is he the only villain in that story, you know, And he just reminds me of such a classic villain that is evil for one reason, and one reason only. And that is his own personal gain.

Alex: Yes.

Nick: You know?

Alex: Yes. And I kind of liked that you put them on there too, because I feel like with Count Olaf, he's definitely like a character with a lot of depth, but not out of like any sort of like a sympathetic or like deep backstory thing, but just because there's so much intrigue around him. And, uh, just that, it's just like, how does he do the shit that he does, you know?

Nick: Right. Well, and I think that he's a really, really great villain too, because of what he means to the story, you know? You've got these brilliant, genius children that are surrounded by idiot adults.

Alex: Oh yeah.

Nick: You know, and having the tragic backstory that I have, you know, I have definitely had it where, when I was a kid, I would try to talk to an adult about another adult doing something bad.

And while they might be able to be like "Oh yeah, like that is bad" after a while of talking.

Alex: Yeah.

Nick: When the person would go through and do it again, they'd be like "Oh no, they're, they're different." Or like "That's not them." And, you know, Count Olaf, shows it in a very goofy way with his different get-ups and like all of this stuff, but watching it, you know, definitely kind of triggered memories, but not in like a, not in the like bad triggered, you know, but it was kind of like, it definitely made me think of like how apt of a-a character that is, you know, for these kids.

I-I am by no means comparing myself to those children who are absolute geniuses, but it's definitely, I can imagine being a kid or being below 18-

Alex: yeah.

Nick: -And watching that and being like, yeah, it's so obvious, you know, and I definitely would love to see what parents watching that think about that. You know? I-I wonder how many conversations it started or how many thoughts it started about believing your kids, even when it doesn't seem super obvious to you that this person is bad or like that this person is finding different ways around things to hurt your kid.

Alex: Right.

Nick: But it's like put it in such a goofy way that's like really entertaining to watch. [laughs] And so I'm just like, that's, I just love Count Olaf as a villain because he starts so many conversations.

Alex: God, yeah. That is such a good point.

Nick: So I guess that's for me, that's what-that's kind of the thread between all of my favorite villains is that they start really good conversations.

Alex: Oh my gosh. I feel like that is such a good way of hitting the nail on the head with this kind of thing. I feel like sometimes a good villain is almost representational. Um, I feel like on the surface Count Olaf is, uh, sort of one of the goofiest, two dimensional villains that you can think of,

Nick: Right.

Alex: But he definitely is like one of the best villains that I can think of for that exact reason, especially for children who do grow up with a lot of like trauma and that kind of nature, and like grow up in like the system, how hard it is for kids in general to bring cases against like adults in their lives.

Um, yeah, God, that is such a good point. I really love that.

Nick: Right. And I really love that, like, until you start thinking of it that way, you probably don't think of him as being that great of a villain, you know, even putting him on here. He was one of the last ones that I added to my list and I quote,

"putting him next to the others it's hard to see him being on the same level and perhaps he's not, but I just, I just have to give love to a villain that is so classic,"

but, you know, actually talking it through beyond the couple of notes that I put down, I'm like, Yeah, no, he is a fucking fantastic villain,

Alex: Right? Like pretty S tier, you know, like not necessarily like a sympathetic villain or something or somebody that you would like want to hang out with, but like very classically, like-

Nick: Just Grade-A bad guy.

Alex: Just good, good, bad guy.

Nick: [laughs] Alright, you want to talk about one of yours?

Alex: Sure thing!

Nick: I feel like we talked about Olaf for three years.

Alex: Absolutely. Cause I would love to follow up on that one with sort of my analog for that: um, another person that I don't find super sympathetic. Uh, but I do find to be a pretty good villain, which is The Handler from The Umbrella Academy.

Which, um, I'm trying to figure out how much to talk about her.

I'm going to try and stay away from plot as much as possible.

Nick: Good luck.

Alex: Um, just for people that haven't watched season two yet.

Right.

But just like, I feel like she's also someone that is so representational of like literal systems.

Nick: Right!

Alex: Um, and also someone that has put so much of herself into the establishment and like so much faith into it that it's kind of like consumed her in this way that she kind of genuinely thinks that she's doing the thing that she's supposed to be doing, that's like better for everyone. Um, and season two it's a little bit, uh, kind of on the fence about that one, but especially in like season one and early season two, I love a good villain that mirrors people that you might meet.

Nick: Right, absolutely.

Alex: Like, Oh, we love a good bad boss [laughs]

Nick: Yeah, she definitely was just kind of in season one, a big stand in for just like the world's shittiest boss that, you know, will actually slit your throat if you don't get things done on time.

But I think that even still in season two, she holds some of that capitalism propaganda kind of thing of she loses her position and, and really loses her identity and is willing to do whatever it takes to not only get her position back, but go even further. And I feel like that's really, I hate to say apt again, but apt for how capitalism kind of makes us all be.

Alex: Yeah!

Nick: You have to work as hard as you can to get all the way up the ranks. And you know, you slip up once, maybe twice and you're demoted and everything goes downhill and you either find a way to deal with that or you don't. And. You, you know, you spiral. And I think that there's so much, especially in the United States where we are, there's this really intense correlation between your job and your identity?

Alex: Yes!

Nick: I feel like, especially since we got married, whenever I talk about you. Just cause you know, you come up more in conversations because people like to call you my other half. And like, that's one of the first things that comes up after I tell people your name is "what do they do?" And it's really hard to have hobbies outside of a job.

Alex: Exactly.

Nick: Especially, in the generation that we're in. If you do have a hobby outside of a job, you're trying to make it become your job.

Alex: Exactly.

Nick: And I feel like that's a lot kind of how she seemed to be, was just this, her identity was very, very intertwined with her job. And so it, to her, it must've felt like her identity got stripped away.

And then she was like, okay, well, I don't like that powerlessness. So I'm going to flip it around.

Alex: Exactly, exactly. And like, that's something that I think is so interesting with the whole commission and that I love so much that originally that was just kind of like a funny kind of gag about the show during- I'm gonna talk a little bit about season one since it's been out for a minute.

Nick: Yeah, it's been out for over a year.

Alex: And I just think it's so interesting seeing someone like Hazel compared to like the handler, um, when it comes to like when your job starts to turn against you. And just kind of, especially with the handler, what I thought was so interesting about her, especially like hearing you talk about it. Um, the flip in season two makes a lot of sense to me because of the way that capitalism is talked about is like this huge, like meritocracy and just sort of like, Oh, you're supposed to get what you work for.

And like, you know, this like thing happens to her and, uh, she expects to be welcomed back and she made this huge, like sacrifice for the commission and to just kind of deal with what she dealt with. Then it's like, of course, she's going to kind of, have a reaction to it. And it's really interesting seeing the ways that different people react to things like that, because I feel like that's a very much a moment where either it radicalizes you or you like latch on harder ever until the establishment.

And she kind of did both.

Nick: Yeah. Somehow she did both in all of the worst ways,

Alex: Literally.

Nick: And talking about things now, 'cause we hadn't really gotten into this conversation too, too much because we wanted to have this conversation on the podcast.

Alex: Yes.

Nick: And until this conversation, I didn't sympathize with her at all.

I was just like, yeah, I know she's 100% bad. Like, well, nobody is a hundred percent bad. She's like 99% bad. And so I really don't sympathize with her, but thinking of it and talking like this now, I'm like well, you know what, actually,

Alex: right.

Nick: You know, if I had a job and I had to leave for reasons and I came back and they were like, Oh yeah, you're demoted. I would be pissed. I would lose my ever loving mind!

Alex: Oh yeah.

Nick: I wouldn't go to the links that she does, but that's because in, uh, in our universe, jail exists

Alex: [laughs]

Nick: and I don't want to go there!

Alex: Would not like to go to real jail.

Nick: Would not like to go to real jail! [laughs]

Alex: Oh gosh. So that was definitely my, a big one for me was the handler. I have a lot of feelings about her.

Nick: Right? Since we're on the umbrella Academy, do you want to go to your other one?

Alex: Yes. We just finished up watching it. So that's why I have so many from them.

Nick: Yeah, a lot of these favorite villains, uh, I've mentioned in the previous episode that I have a bad memory and I'm probably going to mention it in every episode because I have a bad memory.

Uh, But a lot of these are shows that I just watched so they're my favorite villains right now. In two months, they'll be different. And probably two months ago they were totally different. Um, a lot of these shows are just shows that we recently watched. And if I was able to unlock all of my memory, they would probably be completely different, you know?

So. Don't come at me for my favorite villains. Don't be like, how could you not talk about XYZ villain? They're the best one that was ever made.

Alex: Right? Like, I'm just like, I've consumed so much media in my lifetime. I don't know.

Nick: I've consumed so much media in the last couple of months.

Alex: Yeah.

Nick: What else was I supposed to do?

Alex: Right?

Nick: I'm not going outside.

Alex: [laughs] Right. No. Yeah. I'm absolutely the same. Like so many of mine are things that I've watched recently. So grain of salt, but, um, one of my favorite recent villi-villians, uh, one of my favorite recent villians is Vanya Hargreeves. [laughs]

Oh my God. I live and die for Vanya Hargreeves.

Nick: That one, we really probably shouldn't get too much into what happens in season two, because if we talk about anything about season two, it'll be a spoiler.

Alex: I can and will cry.

Both: [laugh]

Alex: That's a promise and a threat. [laughs]

Nick: But, at this point, if you haven't seen season one, I just I'm so sorry at this point, like that's your bad.

It was one of, it's been in the top 10 on Netflix for forever. Season one came out over a year ago. I'm sorry. Go watch it before we ruin it. Just pause this, leave, come back. We'll be waiting. Okay. Are you back now? Let's talk about Vanya Hargreaves.

Alex: Let's talk about her. She's the best.

Nick: [laughs]

Alex: Oh my God. I love her so much because like I love a good heel turn so much.

Um, and I think they did it really well with her, um, because I love that they don't pull any fucking punches. Um, like the stuff that she does is pretty heinous, but also I love that they don't shy away from the fact that like, pretty much at every turn when things go wrong with her, the obvious option, and the thing that pretty much all of the siblings and everyone, like, even not the siblings agrees, is like the best intervention is like rehabilitation. Um, and like just fucking talking to her and being nice to her. And I love it when a show. Is willing to not just be like, Oh yeah, this person became a villain, but you're still supposed to like them.

So the most they're going to do is like kind of shove someone a little bit. Like, no, she like. I dunno, she like kills people like multiple people. And like, one of them is like a nice old man, like, you know,

Nick: a nice old monkey

Alex: a nice old monkey, like he's adorable and she just like- Oh, it's brutal. But like, At pretty much every turn, you still sympathize with her because of the way that they play out what she's going through.

I don't know if that's a thing that everyone sympathizes with, but I definitely do.

Nick: Yeah, absolutely. Like for me the first time that I watched it through, when it first came out, I didn't see any of it coming the second time I knew it was coming and I still was like, "Oh my God, that's right!" And even the third time when I finally like watched it with you, I knew! I just watched it like a week before.

Alex: Right.

Nick: And I was just like, Oh, my God. I forgot already.

Alex: That's cold.

Nick: But again, with my personal tragic backstory, I get it, man. If I had those powers, I get it. I would snap. You know again, please don't play this episode in a court of law.

Both: [laugh]

Alex: After I have snapped, please don't-

Nick: After I have snapped. Uh, can somebody please go through and scrub this episode from the internet? [laughs]

Um, but, you know, with having all of her memories erased from her childhood and having them all come rushing back at once and also then, you know, turning around and asking your family for forgiveness, for the bad things that you've done since realizing that, that you didn't have any of these memories as a kid.

And. You know, after having been manipulated and "dealing" with said manipulator, uh, and coming back to like beg for forgiveness and like talk. And having them lock you up because they're scared of you. I would have snapped. I would have snapped so much sooner, probably, you know,

Alex: Oh my God. I ooh that whole scene, I- just like ask Nick. I was dying because like, Oh my God, The whole, like fact that the, um, the little like jail cell thing that she's in is like soundproofed, killed me because it really. I feel like did extra, just in the fact that, uh, like everyone, except for Luther basically was on the side of like, "Hey, no, she's our sister. We need to let her out and talk to her because she's still our sister." And like, she cries at bugs dying. Like, are you kidding me? Like she was going through something, but like, she can't hear any of that. All she sees is people yelling and she's like in a little cage.  

Nick: Right. She can't hear any of that.

And also at the end, all of them decide to side with Luther anyways, you know, they're not happy about it, but they leave her in there. So, you know, she can't understand that they ha- they were arguing for her and that, you know, Luther kind of overpowered them. But I also think that it's really funny because in that scene, that was the most, um, diplomatic argument that they'd had all season, you know, like Diego almost killed Luther in episode one, but if you'll notice he didn't draw a weapon at all in that episode against Luther-

Alex: Rude!

Nick: -Like suddenly they're just talking?

Alex: [scoffs] Bad timing.

Nick: Right. You know? So like, of course she's gonna snap. And so I feel like she is an incredibly sympathetic villain.  And I love her and I just... [chuckles]

Alex: Right, I just feel like it's so masterful that you can make a villain that's like that sympathetic and also like, so distructive.

Nick: Just absolutely brutal.

Alex: Just so brutal. Oh my God. I love her so much. And I feel like this is a good introduction to what. I talk about as my, you know, how some people have like, um, fantasy football leagues?

Nick: Yeah. [laughs]

Alex: I have a uh, fantasy DBT group. Um, because- [laughs] I am a big fan of dialectical behavior therapy. And, um, I'm not going to give like a whole thing on that, but basically like for those who don't know, uh, it's a therapy that's largely geared towards people who have been through like, traumatic situations.

And a lot of the time, uh, when we're watching a piece of media, I'll do the, like, pausing it to talk for like half an hour thing, except I'll like, pause it and I'll turn to Nick and I'll be like, I have a new person that I want to invite to my fantasy DBT group. [both laugh] And Vanya is definitely in the fantasy DBT group.

Nick: Oh yeah. Absolutely.

Alex: Along with several others on this list you will meet soon.

Nick: Yeah. I think a couple on my list too. You're just like, come on, man. Come on.

Alex: You're invited. I believe in you.

Nick: Yeah. I think that a couple that you really want to be in your DBT group... Some that kind of started your fantasy DBT group where Zuko and Azula.

Alex: Yes!

Nick: And I think that it's really funny because on my list I have Azula. And on yours you have Zuko,

Alex: I sure do.

Nick: Uh, just since we've been talking about yours for a minute, I'll I'll go ahead and talk about Azula.

Alex: Hell yeah.

Nick: Uh, she's very arguably a sympathetic villain.

Alex: Yes!

Nick: And I think that following up after Vanya, I can't say that Vanya is simpathetic, and Azula's not, you know, you know, she has some very serious, very obvious mental health issues, you know, in the last couple of episodes, there's a point where even Zuko kind of is like, Oh, she's kind of lost it. And, I love that because he acts like it's so minimal how much she's lost it. And meanwhile, she's like over there, like sweating and panting and she's got the most fucked up haircut. Cause she gave herself- [laughs]

Alex: She has like the full like breakdown bangs and everything. Like we've all been there.

Nick: [laughs] Right, um, and I feel like with those two, it brings up a very intense conversation about nature versus nurture because they're siblings, they were raised by the same parents, you know, they both had the same mom, the same dad.

And so I feel like it's easy to say, Oh, well, Zukos nature is to be a good guy. And that's why he ended up a good guy. And Azula his nature is just to be uh, crazy, I guess, but. I feel like it's still a lot: nurture because Zuko had such a more intense, close relationship with his mother who was the nice one.  And it seemed like Azula had a lot more of a relationship with her father who was an asshole.

Alex: Right.

Nick: And, you know, that's not saying that, Oh, well, if you have a mother figure in your life, then you're just going to turn out to be a good guy. And you know, if you more only have a father figure, then you're just going to be a little asshole. That's not it. The characters were-

Alex: Yeah. Absolutely.

Nick: You know, down to the point of like Zuko and Azula's grandpa on their mom's side-or their great grandpa on their mom's side was avatar Roku. So like she was meant to be their good half and the dad was meant to come from the bad half: big, huge air quotes on good and bad, but, you know, uh, And something else with Azula that I definitely can kind of relate to is that she was born a prodigy.

Alex: Yeah!

Nick: And that's something that got mentioned is, you know, at first, when she was young, she didn't have to work for her fire bending skills, she just had them. And, you know, as someone who was the smart kid, when I was younger and like got put into all of these like big, smart kid classes and saw the other kids that got put into the big smart kid classes, you kind of go one of two ways where either like you start pushing yourself to insanity, to continue being the smart kid and the prodigy, and like still be seen as perfect because you've been kind of bestowed with this perfect-ness and, you know, everybody sees from you and you feel you have to keep up; or you get totally overloaded and give up, I got totally overloaded and gave up. Azula got obsessed with that perfection because she was so young.

Alex: Yeah.

Nick: When she got, uh, You know, when she was already being told, Oh, you're a prodigy. You did it perfectly like you're so much better than your older brother. And, you know, so I think that following that path of perfection definitely led her to having that breakdown, you know, and not being able to have genuine friends.

Because she was so obsessed with being seen as like the most perfect and the most powerful, you know, especially with her dad being, being in, wanting to be the most powerful man in the world. How do you follow that up?

Alex: Exactly.

Nick: Especially with your brother being an outcast and totally banished and like, you know, seen as a loser, you have to work so hard for people to not think that you're going down that same path as your stinky little brother, you know?

Both: [laugh]

Alex: Exactly. Yeah. And I feel like even like, from the perspective of like, you know, when she kind of goes off the rails as well, and just kind of thinking about the things that sorta lead up to that and like the family dynamics and all of that, and just like. How much- I don't know. I found a lot of like sympathy with her and like her family dynamics, especially with Zuko where like in their own way- like, you can very much tell that, like, she just kinda wants to have like a family, but she doesn't totally know what that is supposed to look like in a lot of ways. Like, not like she just wants that, but like, I feel like in a lot of ways she does want that. It was just like, "you should come back and live with us."

But like she doesn't, she's a really classic example, I feel like, of people use the tools that they have in order to navigate their lives and like the things that she's been shown her whole life have been, you know, like manipulation and just like shows of force and things. So it's like in order to get like love, which is something and like, Being able to be around like her brother again, like she does all these things that like, as we're watching it for the first time, we're just like, Oh God, like that's so shitty.

And it is shitty, but it's like, kind of thinking about it again. And like seeing her, especially in like season three, like ah, damn , this is just sort of what she knows how to do. And she might not even totally know she's doing it.

Nick: Right. You know, because, with the adults that she had in her life, especially with her and Zuko's mom leaving when she did, I mean, not that she had a choice. Zuko had a lot more time with their mom who was the good one, but then Azula was so much younger. I think that there, I think there's a point where she talks about like, not even remembering what their mom looks like.

Alex: I want to say so.

Nick: You know, so of course, like all she knows is her crazy ass dad and her crazy ass grandpa.

And she knows that her dad killed her grandpa to get power, you know, and seeing him get that power through brute force and through manipulation. How else is she supposed to, you know, go about? And I think that Zuko then in the beginning definitely shows that same, but he's so blessed with having his uncle Iroh to guide him and show him that that's not how it's done, but Azula doesn't get that.

And it's, it's really easy to sympathize her thinking sympathize with her. Thinking about those specific things, but I feel like it's also really hard because she did have opportunities to, fix that and-and be able to think critically about things. And she just chose not to. And I, and I don't know, i-it's one of those things where like, it's just hard, you know,

Alex: Mhmm.

Nick: Like I understand why she did everything that she did. But then there's just so much to me, that's like, come on you could've just...

Alex: Right. Like, come on, man.

Nick: You know, like your friends turned against you to join the other side. Like that could have been your opportunity, man. And it's like for the show, I'm so glad that they didn't then have her turn around and be the good guy because that would have been so annoying if every single bad guy who was like, Oh, actually it's time for my redemption arc now.

Alex: I'm radio rebel! [ laughs]

Nick: I'm radio rebel! I'm lemonade mouth! [laughs] But just thinking about like, if she were a real person, I'm like, come on, man. You could have.

Alex: Right. Absolutely.

Nick: I'm just like, you're going to continue to be on the side that everyone that it seems like you do love and care about in your own way is against?

Alex: Like, I feel like she reminds me a lot in that very same way of, um, like kind of what we're talking about with the handler of just like, what happens when the thing that, you know, Kind of turns against you and is like destabilized and it's just like, do you like cling on for dear life or do you like jump ship?

And it's just like, God does she cling on for dear life!

Nick: Oh, she clings on for dear life. Meanwhile, Zuko, you know, jumped ship and realizes that, uh, there's better things for him to do then try to please his father and family, and like,

Alex: yeah,

Nick: the sweet, awkward boy,

Alex: My sweet, sweet boy, God, I love him so much. [Nick laughs]

Oh my goodness. Like it's so funny because I'm just like, do all of the villains that I like come in twos and like follow a pattern because now I'm just like, yeah. So I like the handler and Vanya and then it was just like, yeah. And then Azula and Zuko. And I'm just like, yeah. So then you have the one that's like very establishment and kind of like loses it.

And then you have the one that like, kind of, uh, [laughs] Is that is like very sympathetic and, um, I'm very proud of them for going as hard as they did. Uh, but it still manages to remain sympathetic [both laugh] like that's something that I also really appreciate with them writing Zuko is that like, he didn't really go to being like on Aang's side until ,  like way towards the end. Um, despite the amount of times during the show that you're like, okay, this is the time I'm so ready. It's all happening. It's gonna happen. Um, but it doesn't, and it's always so frustrating, but again, it's one of those things where I'm kinda like glad that they waited until it made the most sense, because again, it's like you live your whole life, just kind of knowing this one thing and just kind of in pursuit of this singular goal, that your brain is just kind of structured around it.

And like, that's another thing that I love so much that like, while I was watching it, I was like, Oh, that's kind of like, Interesting that they did that, but the more I think about it, um, the more I appreciate it is like the whole like, breakdown that he has.

Nick: right where he like gets really sick?

Alex: Yeah, where he gets really sick and just kind of is like- I think he's like passed out even, or just like dang near for like several days, because of just like this moral decision.

Like, you know, I feel like that's something that I'm really glad that they gave him credit for. Um, and I feel like also kind of speaks to maybe some of why Azula didn't like defect or like why things like hit her as hard as they did. It was just sort of like how much this family has like told them that the things that they are doing is like the right way to be, that it's just like being physically ill, you know?

Nick: Right, absolutely.

Alex: And I'm just like, man, I love this 'lil guy so much and just kind of like watching him learn to navigate the world is so fascinating. And he's just such a teen.

Nick: Right?

Alex: I love villains that you can just very much see the aspects of them beyond, um, like what makes them like a villain. He's very much a teen boy. I love that about him so much.

Nick: Yeah. I think that that's something else that makes him a really, really good villain, and then hero, is that being young adults, I feel like- being young adults that have done not great things ourselves, like not as bad as them,

Alex: [chuckles] yeah

Nick: But you know, like, being a teenager and just wanting to be accepted and just wanting love and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And being willing to do whatever that takes and just following what your parents and like older people have told you is like how things are, and then starting to get older and realizing that that's not how it has to be, you know. And I feel like it really strikes a chord, you know, thinking about Zuko and then thinking about growing through your teens and like young adult stages of like everything that you do and everything that you think and say is dictated by authority figures in your life. And then kind of moving on to having less and less of those authority figures being authority figures, you know, even if they're still there. Kind of starting to be able to think for yourself and realize things and it really can make you physically sick to kind of make that change, you know? And for real humans, that change is really, really slow. For him, that kind of like s- that switch flipped really fast.

And so that sickness really got him.

Alex: Absolutely.

Nick: Yeah. I think that it's really incredible to watch it and see this like thing that I know that I've gone through. And I feel like a lot of people have gone through with, you know, growing up and getting a little bit older. I say that like, I'm super old, but like-

Alex: Ancient.

Nick: -Getting into the more, like getting into your early twenties and like. Really finally becoming an adult, even though there's never a point where you like really are an adult.

Alex: Yes.

Nick: I keep thinking every year, like this is the year somebody that like, people are gonna see me as an adult, but then everybody else also gets a year older and they're like, Oh no, no, no, no, no, honey, you're still a baby, and I'm like, shit!  [laughs]

Alex: Oh my god [laughs]

Nick: But,you know, I don't know. [laughs]

Alex: That is so real. Like the only people that see you as an adult are like teenagers.

Nick: Right.

Alex: And it's just like "oh man, still?"

Nick: Right and I'm just like your babies though! [both laugh]  Um, but just watching that and it feels very real that he got sick and it, it I'm really glad that that was there. [chuckles]

Alex: Mhmm. Big, agree.

Nick: You know, it's really almost frustrating when villains don't have that kind of like big averse reaction when they have a redemption arc where they're just like, "I'm cool now!"

Alex: No, it's cool now though.

Nick: Oh, no, we're good. We're good, actually,

Alex: actually I'm cool now.

Nick: [laughs] So speaking of villains that turn around-that just kind of like all of a sudden they're like fine now.

Alex: Surprise!

Nick: Surprise! I would love to talk about the diamonds from Steven universe. I, they are some of the most controversial villains.

Alex: Yeah.

Nick: But I love them all four of them [Alex chuckles] because, the reason that they're so controversial is because it's so easy to make them a stand-in for whatever you want them to be.

Alex: It really is.

Nick: And that's why I love them, you know, and for me, they always represented family. And to me that meant that always like meant something really deep because. [chuckles] Having my tragic backstory [Alex laughs] and having like, I didn't have great parents and they reminded me so much of that kind of thing of, you know, the pivotal episode when white diamond tries to pull pink diamond out of Steven, you know, and is like screaming and crying about how his name isn't Steven, it's Pink. He'll always be Pink, no matter what he tries to do. And like talking about how he's being silly for acting like this and talking about, uh, how he's acting like a spoiled child and like how she's so over all of his tantrums while she's throwing a huge tantrum.

Alex: Literal tantrum,

Nick: A literal tantrum. And I, I, I know that he has like that perfect line that I can't remember now, and I should have looked it up, but of just like "Oh, well, If I'm a spoiled little brat, that's throwing a tantrum then, uh, what are you?" I think that it is really frustrating that their redemption just kind of flipped like that really fast, but also it was very obvious that the show was coming to a close.

Alex: [chuckles] Yeah...

Nick: So I don't know that they could have done it any slower, but I think that it's also one of those things where. They realized all of the harm that they'd done. And so I think that making that flip was really still pretty realistic. And really necessary that it had to, it had to happen. And I think that it's also really easy to say that it happened super, super fast because we ha- we got that time skip and I don't know, it's just... and I, I love them as villains, even because after their redemption, they're still fucking awful, but they're trying, and they have to be reminded because I know you haven't seen the last, er-because  I know that you watched the movie, but I don't, you haven't seen any of Steven universe future. Um, right?

Alex: I don't believe so, no.

Nick: Yeah. Uh, in the, or I can't remember if it's a movie or if it's Steven universe future, but they're still like slipping up and like calling him Pink and like, you know, and, calling other gems "lower life forms" still. And, but  I think that it was really important to show that because they needed to grow.

And I think that that was some criticism that they got was that they flipped so fast that they didn't actually like grow. And then the show writers were just like, Oh, well just, just fucking wait a second. [both laugh] I love that they were able to make up and kind of fix things, but still show that they were growing and changing and they were still learning.

I also really love what they did with their redemption and forgiveness arc, where they let Steven still, you know, kind of talk to them and teach them and be civil with them without just kind of giving into their every whim and, you know, being overly nice to them in the name of forgiveness, because that is definitely something that I've seen in like different villain redemption tropes before is like, " Oh, well all is forgiven. We're good." And it's like, uh, all might be forgiven, but we are not good.

Alex: We are certainly not good.

Nick: And the diamonds having this idea of like, "Oh, we're forgiven and everything's good." And having Steven say "no, you're mostly forgiven. But we're not good. You still have a lot to learn and a lot to work on." And I think that that's really, really important to have a kid's show.

Alex: Yes, especially in the context of like, kind of talking about those sorts of relationships is like, I think a lot of the time where like inclined to give people a pass  just for trying. [chuckles]

Nick: Right.

Alex: When it's like, you know, people should still be held accountable, even if it's like also being gentle. You know, even if it's like, I do care about you and I want you to do better. And that's why I am challenging you instead of just being like, Oh yeah, that's just how it is sometimes anyways, the past is the past, that's water under the bridge, goodbye! You know?

Nick: Right. Just like. Ah yeah, like you're still saying kind of crappy stuff, but like, you know, you're not like actually killing people anymore, so it's fine.

Alex: So I'm pretty sure we're good actually. [both laugh]

Nick: But yeah, I, I love them because they can stand in for so much because like, you know, for the people where it, they don't see them as like being stand-ins for fam- for shitty family members, they do see them as like politicians or capitalism or society at large. And I think that that's what makes them so great is that no matter what you see them as they still piss you off.

Alex: [laughs] That is so real.

Nick: Y'know, and even with pink diamond, like so far, we've only really talked about the other three, but like pink diamond is an incredible villain, because you, even after you learn about her being a villain, there's still so much of you that loves her because you've known her as this - as Rose this whole time. And this, this idealized different version of her that had changed.

So it's really easy to be like, Oh no, but like, That's Rose she's changed. She's different, but like there's still all of these moments and full episodes that show that like, even though she had grown and changed, there was so much that she still needed to do to grow and change into like being the best version of herself that she could be.

Alex: Right.

Nick: Which was Steven, you know, and I saw a theory a while back about it that was talking about that, about how her realizing that she needed to grow and change made her Rose, and then realizing that she had grown and changed as much as she could as Rose is what made her decide to have Steven and like become part of Steven because she'd done all that she could as, you know, what she was.

And that is such an incredible redemption, you know, for her, while also still being able to understand that there was never really a point where she was the good guy.

Alex: Right. Exactly.

Nick: You know, and they go into it in Steven Universe Future, where Steven has to deal with a lot of that stuff where it's like, he spent his whole life thinking that he was the good guy and being the good guy that it kind of came back to bite him in the ass, you know, as he got older and like starting to actually have to deal with things and kind of becoming the villain in his own story. And I just, ah I love it so much. [laughs]

Alex: Oh my Gosh.

Nick: Even though people wanna like, not love it. I'm just, I do. [both laugh]

Alex: Oh man, I really need to watch Steven Universe Future now cause that sounds really good.

Nick: I think that everybody should watch it, but yeah, like all of the Diamonds are such good villains because even with Pink, you know, just like with Azula you can understand where a lot of her anger and issues stemmed from. And even though you wish over and over again, that she would just fucking learn and do better, you can see where she just can't.

Alex: Right, where it's just like ingrained.

Nick: Right, where it's just so ingrained that like, pretty much the only thing that she can do is  completely change into a different person, you know? And it's just, I love it. I love it. I love it. [both laugh]

Alex: Hell yeah.

Nick: I think that that's about all I can say about the diamonds right now.

Alex: That's so good.

Nick: Cause it's been, it's been a while since I've seen Steven Universe, so it's not fresh on my mind, but I know that I love them as villains.

Alex: Exactly, yeah. Just like one of those things where it's just like, "I don't know exactly how I feel, but I know that it's positive." [laughs]

Nick: Right, I absolutely should have used this episode as a reason to go back and binge watch everything.

Alex: [laughs] I'm doing research for the podcast.

Nick: Right. And I definitely did go back and kind of like do quote unquote "research" for this, uh, for some stuff but I thought that I would just kind of, for some reason, I thought that I would just kind of like remember more stuff as I went and I just didn't.

Alex: Imagine having a working memory.

Nick: Imagine.  

Alex: Oh, gosh.

Nick: But yeah, you've got two that I am very excited to talk about.

Alex: Oh yeah, I sure do. Because I have, um, everyone's favorite icy boy. [laughs]

Nick: Everyone's favorite villain that is awful at being a villain.

Alex: He's real bad at it. Like I-- [laughs]-- um, the Ice Cream-- "Ice Cream"...?

Nick: The Ice Cream!

Alex: The Ice Cream Parasocial.

Nick: Welcome to our podcast, The Ice Cream, and--

Alex: The Ice Cream-- Ice Cream Parasocial is very bad at being a villain. [laughs]

I started to say at being a podcast. I hope we're not that bad at being a podcast yet.

Nick: I mean, we're only at episode two, so we're kind of bad at being a podcast.

Alex: Yeah. Like it hasn't happened.

Nick: Episode two is always bad at being a podcast.

Alex: But, uh, but yeah, no, the Ice King ,  from Adventure Time, Simon Petrikov. I love, I love him so much. Cause like, talk about a fucking 2D villain that ended up becoming extremely 3D while also still managing to be extremely 2D.

Nick: Right.

Alex: Oh my gosh. Um, like the first few episodes where you start to kind of figure out like who he is. And like, his backstory are so interesting because I feel like a lot of the things that I think are so fascinating about him are sort of like, I don't know. It like really makes you think a lot about like personality, I guess, and just brains and what makes us... us.

Nick: Mhmm.

Alex: And just like the amount of times that people will have interactions with him , who  know him as Simon and like knew him, before he was the Ice King, who kind of like want that from him. And like, he can't really give that to them. And it's like frustrating for everyone involved.

Nick: Right.

Alex: And it's just so like interesting to kind of see those interactions happen. And just kind of like... when I was watching through Adventure Time and a lot of these episodes, uh, for the first time, going into my tragic backstory ever so slightly--

Both: [Laughing]

Alex: Uh, just dealing with a lot of mental health stuff, for myself and for just like some people in my life, it really was like cathartic, I guess, uh, to just sort of see a character that felt so representational of just the sort of like, not knowing who  someone very familiar is.  And almost then coming back around to like, love the new person anyways.

Nick: Absolutely.

Alex: Which I think is something that I do really appreciate a lot about adventure time. Is that in the end, like, you know, it doesn't really end up with him, like going back and like becoming Simon, like it's just like, no, I, one of my favorite quotes that I wish I knew off the top of my head, but.

Towards the end of adventure time, one of the later like ice King episodes, there's something in there that's something like, "I'm the ice King and I'm worthy of love too."  and it just really like hit because it's just like, you know, when I was watching through the first few episodes, where you like, kind of figure out his backstory, I remember having a lot of like, emotions about it and just the sort of like, Oh man, you know, like dealing with mental health and like kind of this loss of a sense of self, or like sense of like other people that I knew in my life.

Um, And just kind of being like, man, I really want to get that back. Like, it really sucks that that's gone forever. And then like kind of going through a bunch of emotional acts in my own personal tragic backstory TM, um, and then ending up as an adult watching like some of the finale episodes of adventure time and like seeing this little moment happen where he kind of gets away from this, like, you know, sort of like two dimensional, silly villain kind of thing that he does to just be like, Hey, no, like I'm a person also. And you can also like me, you know?

Nick: Right, absolutely.

Alex: I'm my own guy. [laughs]

It's something about that just really hit was just like, no, there's things to love about this too. I also just love on the surface, um, just with him, how much he just, wants affection and like how much that changed over the course of the series and how at the beginning it was very much like, Oh, it was like this creepy old man towards-

Nick: just stealing princesses.

Alex: [laughing] Yeah. Like just stealing princesses and then over the course of the series, just sort of becoming just like, he just wants some pals. He just wants friends.

Nick: Right, and

Alex: just

Nick: kind of figuring out that the companionship that he thought that he wanted with the princesses, he was able to find it in other places with just having friends.

Alex: Right.

Nick: I feel like that's something that people genuinely go through, is you know, thinking that they, really want this relationship, this romantic relationship with people, but, in reality, all they really want and need is like a couple of good friends, a couple of good pals.

Alex: [laughs] Right. And like, that's one of the things that I love a lot about adventure time too, is that I feel like it's a show that very much kind of grew with its audience. Um, and just kind of even using that as an example, and thinking about like, you know, when you're growing up and you're a preteen to like a young teenager and everything is about like, Oh, you gotta date.

And like, you have to find a partner, or something, um, partner feels like a weird term. Cause I started to say like boyfriend or girlfriend, but like, you know, gender neutral something, find someone to date, I guess. Um, and that's like the whole thing that you do, and then just kind of like growing up and being like, Oh, I can get this from other places. I feel like that's so much, like a lot of the tone in the show is just sort of like, just kind of growing up with the people that grew up with it, um, until I kinda came to a close and they did so many satisfying things, with the ice King in like the final season.

And I'm just like, man, if you haven't finished adventure time, then you should really finish adventure time. Cause it's amazing.

Nick: Right, I really want to go through and rewatch it now because-

Alex: Same!

Nick: I vaguely like, I, I know what you're saying and I know that I've like, I know that I've seen it and I know that I know the story, but like I don't have a whole lot to add because I it's been so long since I've seen it like to the point that I believe that if I watched it, it would be like the first time again,

Alex: No, yeah, same.

Nick: So I'm just like-

Alex: It's been a few years.

Nick: Yeah. I'm was just like, I should definitely rewatch that.

Alex: Yeah, like, I feel like that honestly just speaks to how much it hit me uh that this is like my one memory, like the one, my one brain cell is just clinging desperately to the ice King from like, I don't know, 2018 or whatever.

Nick: Absolutely.

Alex: [laughs]  But yeah, that was one of my big boys that I really wanted to get to one of my cartoon boys. I'm realizing now how many of mine are very mental health oriented. [laughs]

Nick: Well, I mean, that makes sense. Like, I know that I kind of talked shit about people being defined by their jobs in the beginning, but your job is in mental health and like, [ laughs]

Alex: Yeah, like it's something that I'm passionate about and I feel like I would be passionate about, even if it weren't my job. Um, but yeah, and like, that's definitely a part of the lens that I used to look at media and it shows.

Nick: Right.

Alex: Because my other big boy that I really wanted to talk about today is, from a little show that I feel like doesn't get enough love, and it should get more

Nick: Nowhere near enough love.

Alex: It's amazing. Um, if you haven't watched Kipo on Netflix. I forget what the full title is. I always just call it Kipo

Nick: uh, Kipo and the age of wonder beasts?

Alex: I believe so. Yeah.

Nick: Something like that, but I mean, you can find it just by looking up Kipo. Nothing else is called Kipo.

Alex: Yeah. Like, um, it's a really, really, really good show, and it has a villain that actively made me mad when I started to like him.

Nick: Oh yeah. Same, and I knew, cause I watched it before you watched it. And then we were watching it together and I knew it was going to piss you off when you started to like him, because in the first, like half of the season, it was just very much like, yeah, fuck this guy. I want nothing to do with this guy. Get him off the show. I hate him so much, but I knew the twist that was coming and I was like, you are going to be so mad.

Alex: Get them out of my fucking sight.

Nick: Right. They're just like, Oh, this guy sucks. And I'm like little do you know, he sucks AND he has a tragic backstory.

Alex: Yes. And you're going to love him. [laughs]

Oh my gosh. Scarlemagne, I- oh my God. He also very much follows my theme of villains that I adore when they frustrate me, because they don't, um, know, how to be good. Or like when you, think that they're going to, uh, I know that there's like a term. A term for like, whatever the opposite of a heel turn is, but I don't, I guess like redemption arc.

But like, when you think they're going to have a redemption arc and then they kind of like psych you out with it.

Nick: Right. Because they just don't, you can like, see that they just don't comprehend.

Alex: Right. Like they're just not quite there yet. And like, that's something that they do with Zuko, I feel-

that's something they do with Zuko a few times that made me real mad every time, but I'm also glad that they did it. And it's something that they did with Scarlamagne that I was like, Oh my God, I can't believe that they're doing this. That's amazing. And then they [laughs]  and then they faked us out and I was like, Yeah, that's fair. [laughs]

Nick: Right.

Alex: That makes sense, because it makes so much sense for his character. Um, just because so much of what goes on with him is very, again, like the tools that you're given to navigate the world are the ones that you use to navigate the world.

Nick: Absolutely. You know, and when it starts to get into his tragic backstory and right before it kind of shows why he starts thinking the way that he does it's so just, it's so sad because you get to watch him kind of have that mental break and that kind of mental shift of, you know, being really trusting of everything around him, to realizing that the only way that he's going to be able to survive in this world is by being a villain and by being a total asshole and, you know, and the way that the show does it by showing him years after being said asshole, it's just like, ah, man, like, why is he like that?

And then they show you why he's like that. And you're like, I mean-

[both laugh]

-fair that's fair, but I don't like it

Alex: [laughs] That is so true. Like, honestly, just the fact that like walking away from like the episode where you start to figure everything out and I'm just like, you know, a lot of the time I keep coming at things from, uh,

I really like going on the like, am I the asshole? subreddit and I just keep being like, everyone sucks here [laughs] you know, um, and it's just so wild with him, like how he was very much another person where it's like, he does a lot of really awful shit, but like, while he's doing it, you're still just like, no, yeah that's fair. [laughs]

Nick: Right. You know, I feel like it's not too much of a spoiler to say that, you know, he does start to really care for Kipo. She's the main character. And everybody loves her. Like, you know, he starts to really care for her and there's things that she asks of him that he genuinely tries to do. But he's been in this mindset for so long that he just can't.

Really, uh, he thinks that what he's doing is good and to us and, you know, to the other characters, it's so obvious that what he's doing is not good, but he genuinely thinks that he's showing affection at this point, because that's all the affection that he's known for the last like half or more of his life, you know?

Alex: Yeah. And like, it's so interesting with their relationship too, because it reminds me a lot of like the, um, uh, concept in like, Learning in psychology of have like assimilation and accommodation, um, well, where it's basically just like adapting the world around you to like fit your existing worldview when you get new information, versus adapting your worldview when given new information.

And I think that's so much of what makes the bait and switch like really like hit with that whole sequence is that you. I think that it's like, Oh yeah, you see the, you know, he knows that Kipo is good. And like, that means that he's like learned in that his worldview is changing and you know, it doesn't necessarily work like that off the bat, especially when you're dealing with somebody that has that much going on and has had to navigate the world that much with just like so much going against him, I guess, um, that then to see that it was more of a situation of just like, Oh no, this one person is good.

Nick: Right?

Alex: No, everyone else still sucks. But this one person is good.  My love language is murder.

Both: [laugh]

Nick: God. I know that we are not popular enough to get somebody to animate a bit, but all I want is for somebodyto animate my love language is murder.

Alex: My love language is murder!

Nick: Like, somebody who's got like little heart eyes and then like they say murder, like a knife shows up. [both laugh]  Oh, that would be so funny.

Alex: Oh my God. Just like, add that to like the five love languages.

Um, in order I'd say that I'm usually kind of a gift giver, but outside of that, I do, I do really like murder. [laughs]

Nick: Oh my God.

Alex: Oh, God. [ laughs]

Nick: All right. And this has been Ice Cream Parasocial! [laughs]

Alex: Do not read this in a court of law [laughs]

Nick: but do follow us on Twitter and Instagram @parasocialpod and on, and subscribe to our YouTube channel, uh, Ice Cream Parasocial, and hopefully soon I'll be able to tell you to give us a good rating on iTunes.

Alex: Yeah!

Nick: We'll see ya next week!

Alex: Please. Apple podcasts. Notice us. [both laugh] I'm begging you.

Nick: apple senpai notice me. [laughter, followed by outro song]

[wolfiefics]

To all the fans of Steve Rogers who persist that Steve was in the right during Civil War, consider this:

Your argument that after the events of Winter Soldier he lost faith in the US government, why did he stay? Why did he not renounce his US citizenship and try elsewhere? He likely had enough ties with another country, either of familial origin or one he helped liberate during WWII, to do so. Why did he stay? Why did he continue being an Avenger? Living by US society rules put in place and maintained by the government he no longer believed in? If you can answer that in a logical way that isn't knee-jerk high-mindedness, I'll concede it.

If he was right to go against the Accords because "they stifled his freedom" then you are advocating the same mindset of the people taking guns into government buildings in an attempt to terrorize officials into not wearing protective gear designed to save the lives of themselves, their family and their fellow citizens AS IS IN THE US CONSTITUTION CHARTER. Or you are the one calling the police on someone for doing something you don't like, lying about it to make it wrong when that person was doing nothing wrong to begin with? You just didn't like them for some reason, they have to go away. FREEDOM is not a gift. It's not a thing that everyone has. EVER. Not even in the US at the time of the American Revolution. Freedom is a CONCEPT, an ideal to reach for. A utopian dream. The very nature of human civilization NEGATES freedom by its very existence. You want "freedom"? I can rob, rape, murder, enslave, and destroy everything I want to because I'm FREE to do so! No one can tell me what to do! You're the victim? Not my problem! Maybe you should be bigger, meaner, carry a bigger weapon or have more people in your side. FREEDOM is ANARCHY, lawlessness, and disrespecting others wants and needs for whatever you want to have withoutrestrictionsof moral conscience instilled by society (i.e. laws and government).

Society, civilization, has rules for a reason. So that shit DOESN'T happen. You don't follow the rules? You're a criminal. Since the Law Codes of Hammurabi its been this way (before that, those are just the first known written laws). Rules can be amended, recodified, or completely rewritten as your society and culture expands intellectually, technologically or in accordance of getting along with another culture different from yours. They aren't concrete (I was going to say "written in stone but some actually were...aforementioned Hammurabi law codes for example).

But to argue that Steve Rogers was right to IGNORE the rules and laws and do whatever he wanted because he was "betrayed" by the government is ignorant, elitist bullshit. He had NO RIGHT to do that. Attempt to dissuade, argue down or compromise, yes, definitely. But give it the middle finger and stomp off in a snit and do whatever HE thinks is right? He's no longer a law-abiding citizen who has EARNED the rights of his society. He has turned his back on them. I'm not saying the Accords were right (though they had a strong argument for it) but everyone tried to tell him "do this now, we'll wiggle it around til it's more acceptable. If not, they are going to ram it down our throats or throw us in a dark dank corner and forget we're there". But noooo! Steve was too good for that! The petty concerns of almost the entire world is not his problem! HE knows better than ANYONE what's right and what's wrong! Fuck them! He was not interested in compromise, trying to work a deal, nothing. He saw it as oppression and done! And that's how all of you who say he's in the right feel too. 112 out of 128 countries have no RIGHT to feel threatened! What's their problem anyway? It’s not like the Avengers destroyed an entire country! Oh wait.. well it's just some backwater Eastern bloc country, no big loss. And part of South Africa. And an entire floor of visiting humanitarian and diplomat workers. No big deal. The UN should just suck it up. Steve knows what he's doing.

All governments have laws a person doesn't like. Nature of the beast. You might get away with bending it on occasion, depending what it is. But if your actions breaking it means ending the lives of others or compromising/destroying their property or culture because "I'm right, you're wrong"? Bigotry. Elitism. Holier than thou. Entire civilizations have vanished for that and we know little to nothing about them because that attitude meant no one cared to note it. Those civilizations could have cures for, I don't know, CANCER!!? (Medicine Man with Sean Connery is awesome. You should watch it).

The first rule EVERY writer learns when writing about sentient beings is there are good things and there are FLAWS. There is no such thing as perfect. If you have a perfect person who can do no wrong, makes no mistakes, just rolls through life getting everything they want without effort...why would you want that? It's boring. It's unrealistic. Why is this persistent idea that everything Steve does is right and just and morally incorruptible? Sounds like some asshole that needs a bullet in the brain before he decides to kill ME for getting in his way. Most of you don't write him in your own fics that way. Why on EARTH do you think he's perfect in the movie verse? Is he not fictional? Is he not a character in a story? Is he somehow exempt in the movies of all writing conventions?

Civil War is easily the worst of the MCU movies. The potholes are so large you can hyper drive the Deathstar through them. Too many to go into here. That's a whole nother rant. But this movie is the basis of this fan idea that Steve can do no wrong and anyone who opposed or argued with him are immoral, arrogant and oppressive...or government doormats. REALLY?! It's obvious Steve trusts NO ONE. Not Sam, whose life he continually puts in danger with very little remorse. Nat, who has been at his side since two weeks after he woke in the 21st century, fought aliens, was on an elite task force with (two in fact), etc ad nauseum but since she DARED to disagree with him, she's obviously not to be trusted. And he was hyper focused on two things:Bucky and Peggy. Peggy, he moped and brooded over, punishing himself for a trick of Fate. FOR YEARS. And Bucky, who was such an obvious distraction that Hydra knew it was a HUGE weak spot and CONTINUALLY used it against him at the expense of other people's lives that Steve apparently didn't give two shits about or even attempted to modify that weakness. How many legitimate, under cover S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were exposed world-wide when Nat laid bare every record of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Not even a flicker of remorse from Steve. Made this big patriotic speech to the Triskellian but not one single mention at all in the planning of those people. None. Cannon fodder. So sad, too bad, ah well! Gotta save Bucky!! Same in Civil War. Steve headed that op in Africa. He ordered and helped gather the Intel on Crossbones and his gang. He made the plan, placed an unstable high-powered individual ALONE in the field with Nat telling her what to do over an ear piece (and Wanda blew her off), as soon as Crossbones blew Steve's strategy, he went gung-ho through a major, heavily populated marketplace, confronted the enemy, IMMEDIATELY got compromised by the word "Bucky" and allowed Crossbones to set off a suicide vest. If Wanda hadn't been there, Steve and that entire block would have been decimated. Wanda did her best, but she was not up to snuff and lives were lost anyway. Did Steve show remorse? No. He brooded that Rumlow said "Bucky and I was 16 again". He told Wanda essentially that it's regrettable but not to worry about it. Those dead people due to his hard-on to get Rumlow? All those lives of diplomats and humanitarian workers gone? No big whoop. Sad but you know, Steve's perfect so they just had to die. He willingly and uncaringly put people in harm's way that got them killed that with a cool head and better planning (or compromise with others ideas) could have been avoided. That's the making of a sociopath. A monster. NOT someone who should be in charge of an elite team that defeated an ALIEN INVASION HEADED BY A GOD.

Think about this. I loved the Winter Soldier. I think it's in my top 5 MCU movies. Other than the exposure of who knows how many legitimate S.HI.E.L.D agents who may have been in the middle of stopping child slavery rings or something, it's an excellent film. Civil War? Garbage. Utter garbage. Trash. They had a good plot, the Hydra super soldiers, that could have been action packed, exposed Bucky's whereabouts, had a big fight scene, had Tony learning Steve had been omitting how his parents died and still had Zemo taken down and the Avengers break up. Set it up even. Those soldiers were shot off screen as this confusing red herring. Why even mention them if you're just going to shoot them off-screen like an afterthought? Hmm. I should write that. I may have too, if someone hasn't done it already. If so, DM me the link?

But get away from this "Steve Rogers can't be wrong cuz he's Captain America" schtick. Bad enough Civil War turned him into a callous, selfish tool. Don't make the situation worse for him.

I love my Stucky, don't get me wrong. I'll die on this ship. But Civil War is NOT the Steve Rogers characterization you need to be advocating as the ideal. In that movie, he's an asshole and if Peggy or 1930s Bucky knew what he'd done, they'd have BOTH punched him. Maybe more than once. And withheld his dessert at dinner.

I'm just saying.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Kasumi/Hamuko Parallel post

I mean I’m not saying Kasumi is Hamuko reincarnated in Minato’s timeline, but I feel like it’s a very good possibility (considering MT’s lore and as well as possibly Persona’s). I mean again, it’d be REALLY SEXY if I was proven wrong with Adult!Hamuko showing up in P5S! REALLY SEXY ATLUS! ;w; (just watch and see me be right with both P5R and P5S, let’s hope not cause that’s giving me a headache just thinking about it haha ;w;). Anyway, this is mostly going to be a parallel post between Kasumi and Hamuko, both really freaking shallow to “hey those are some key character traits!” kinda stuff. I’ll organize it from newest release/info to oldest. So starting with PQ2 (prior to that I will open to why it’s perfect timing out of universe) and then P3P (during which I’ll talk about why the timing in universe is perfect too).

There will be spoilers of P5R BUT ONLY ones from a stream, which showed the first like 10 min of the game (the spoiler is that it confirms when a specific scene happens in game). There will be PQ2 spoilers tho so like....yeah 8U

(lowkey been trying to finish this since Cinderella’s announcement but better late than never and I wanted to at least get most of it done before P5S’ possible trailer tonight 8U)

Under the cut cause length and pics~!

So before with start with PQ2, I should say why this is perfect timing out of universe. PQ2 has just released, Hamuko is in the public’s head. Not only that but she was as important to the game as the main-main case (aka P5). Now would be the perfect time to release a new character who looks the same and has the same importance. I mean this wouldn’t be the first time they did it, they first did it with Arena-PQ1-Ultimax, with PQ1 having secret answers to Arena, and Ultimax later reaffirming these answers (I’ll keep it vague for those who have yet to play the, as I like to call it, “The Yasogami Labyrinth Trilogy.”) It could be that PQ2 was actually our Arena in a possible trilogy (with P5R being the PQ1 and P5S being our Ultimax, that’s just a theory tho, it could just be that this is a duology too 8U). But yeah this is why it feels like perfect timing if they wanted to make this twist. Now onto PQ2

PQ2 (might add more later):

Were to start is the real question, I’m kinda just going to list of things with pictures showing them. I’ll try to keep everything numbered to make it easier.

1) Both apparently first appear in the first arc which stars Kamoshida (Kasumi is stated to not introduce herself during that time, but we can still find her). Kasumi is around for Kamoshida, Hamuko is around with Kamoshidaaaaaman.

      a) Coincidentally enough, there is a little girl that appears in Kamoshidaaaaman’s trailer that looks A LOT like Kasumi. (which I dunno might also symbolize Hamuko, speculation on my end but I felt the female dinosaur kind of symbolized Yosukesaurus that we actually see in the movie so maybe it’s a parallel maybe not but I wanted to throw it out there), also if Kasumi’s life is anything like Cinderella (and trailer girl’s dad is dead from that impact), that means Hamu/Kasumi/Trailer girl both have their dads possibly not being around anymore:

2) Both technically have a magical girl connection, Kasumi mostly from her transformation and what the devs said....but Hamuko said something really interesting concerning the PT and Magical Girls:

3) (P5R first 10 min stream spoiler) Both are introduced into these two games via showing off how great fighters they are (even tho that’s not Kasumi’s chronological introduction to the audience because of the cold open, but it’s the first time we see her and it’s our first impression of her). 

4) I don’t care if I’ll repeat this below in the P3P thing, but yet again but PQ2 hinted at Hamuko’s big appitite again:

5) Hamuko’s Ult Persona, both in P3P (tho it’s not shown in the credits) and in PQ2 is Messiah. Considering she’s a savior, and Kasumi’s relationship with magical girls (who usually are the “saviors”).....shallow I know but there. 8U

6) A big one, PQ2 actually hints at reincarnation, it’s just a throwaway line but....it’s not the first time Persona’s had a throwaway line and then it ends up coming true (sometimes it’s happenstance and sometimes it’s on purpose). (I should also note, reincarnation is a big part of MT, it’s even in the title, so it’s def not something that’s off the table). And the reason I’m including this is because, it kinda hints that even if Hamuko is reincarnated Kasumi, they’d kinda still have their own identity and be a different person. 

7) Lastly (for now probably), Hamuko and Kasumi both end up “joining”/working with the PT at some point. I mean so does the rest of P3/4, but they really try to make Hamuko feel included, and she feels extra gung-ho about the whole thief thing. It’s a shallow/small one but I should include it anyway.

(the reason I might add more later is because I’m re-going through PQ2 to see if I pick up anything else, anyway onto P3P~!)

P3P:

Before listing their similarities, I want to explain what I meant by the timing being perfect for in-universe. The reason being, if Hamuko died around 1999, she’d probably be reincarnated into someone who was born around 2000, and people roughly in 2000 (minus the first 4 months) are....guess what? 1st years during P5 (Futaba and Yusuke have late birthdays fun fact). And considering Kasumi is a first year~! Yeah it’s perfect timing if they wanted to pull a reincarnation card. 

1) They.....they have the same face..... I’M NOT JOKING THEY HAVE THE SAME FACE! It’s not the hair style it’s the face man! ;w; Rough same eye shape and face shape (sadly their portraits usually have their faces not being the same portfolio but this is the closest we have):

2) The both have red eyes (which also look brown in some lighting). (I know some people want to say Hamuko has auburn hair for some gd reason even tho it’s pretty brown in a lot of artwork, but since that’s close to red and Kasumi has red hair like bonus points it seems if auburn is also a correct answer XP)

3) Both of their portraits like to have their eyes looking to the left (their perspective)/right (our perspective) area (the angle of their face differs tho):

4) Both have been said to be big eaters. Like Atlus is freaking advertising this about Kasumi like crazy man, but Hamuko has food and her big appetite tied to a loooooot of different events with P3P. Like Hamu being a hungry girl and loving her food is a very iconic trait to her (ironically it’s not really done to death in PQ2 unlike Chie’s meat or Aki’s protein klfjsadl;fja). 

5) Both have red as a main theme (like red eyes, red ribbon, red shoes/headphones 8U). It’s shallow but important!

6) Shallow but interesting thing I notice, there’s a lot of key design similarities between Fem!Orpheus and Kasumi’s PT outfit and Cinderella. The biggest being the vine embroidery and the same heart design. There’s also the fact Fem!Orpheus Picaro also has red hair and a black headpiece similar to Kasumi who has red hair (all the time) but a black ribbon, also both have a similar flower connected to them (red gloves and black fingers, former for Kasumi and the latter for Cindy, but I don’t think it’s as important as the heart/vine/flower similarity). 8U Other than that I’ll just show it in the picture below:

7) This one is part of a popular theory with Kasumi, and will possibly be debunked after P5R’s release but I do want to throw it out there. If the theory that Kasumi gets hit by a car in the rain (possibly during the fireworks festival), well..... That means they both have ties to car accidents. Just described what  might be Kasumi’s. Hamuko survived one 10 years prior to P3, and there’s two that happen in two separate events (she saves Yukari from a crazy driver almost hitting them), and I iirc Theo saves Hamu from a crazy driver). 

8) They have similar designed shoes (tho the promo art of Kasumi her shoes are different from the teaser so I dunno if it still counts) But it’s worth  mentioning since Atlus went out of their way to keep Yusuke’s shoes as a reference to the past Persona game school he was supposed to be a part of before they made Kosei (god I’m so sorry for that word salad, no I won’t fix it at least not now)...btw Yusuke’s are stated to be in reference to P3 it’s stated in the art book:

9) Kasumi’s maid outfit is much closer to P3′s(and P4) than it is to P5′s (aka the traditional black and white as opposed to P5′s red and white), it’s just odd that it’s not also red 8U:

10) Uhhhh this (I don’t care we’re look for the smallest details! >:D DX ;w; also I’m ok really I’m ok 8U ;w; orz):

11) Last thing, but interestingly enough they both are known to jump really high. It’s not stated as a big thing for Hamuko, you just see it in her critical and that’s pretty much it. But it is a big defining moment for Kasumi (remember she jumps high to get a kid’s balloon). They also both like to twist and twirl in the air (tho Hamu is just designated to her critical). Shallow I know but I want to throw it out there. 8U:

Seriously look at that air time!

I might add more to this section, because I feel like I’m forgetting something but flksdajf;akf I want to get this out. Before I end it I do want to add a few not completely related Hamu parallels (but I can still loop back around cause my mental gymnastics are top notch! Probably even better than Kasumi’s! 8U). First is Minato parallels, which via PQ2 we find out that he and Hamu are “basically the same person.” The similarities is that he and Kasumi both have the same type of sword, and both of their Personas have the same skin (I think Male!Orpheus’ face is the only “real part” and thus both have the same kind of skin), and OT and Cindy technically both have blue eyes. 8U Small but I wanted to mention those 3 things. The other is Mitsuru, fun fact between Hamu/Minty/Mitsuru/Kasumi they all seem to be honor students (or can be, Hamu/Minty it’s up to the player). But I now a lot of people think Kasumi’s red hair and it also being wavy remind them of Mitsuru more, almost like a sister? Kinda like:

RIP to Hamuko, the cockblock sister zone destroyed us all that day. We stand with you girl. 😔✊✊

So yeah I dunno how else to end it. They just have a lot of similarities ok? And some of them are very distinct design features. Of course, again, it’d be really sexy of you to prove me wrong with Adult!Hamuko in P5S Atlus. ;) Be really sexy of you to stop ignoring Hammy and P1/2 characters~! Oh it’d be such a shame if I was proven wrong and those two things happened instead. Oh whatever shall I do~! 8U

[bluerosesburnblue]

Your Jacob’s Character by @hufflepunk-asfrick and (spiritually) MC Character Challenge by @cptaincarswell (neither of whom will actually be tagged because the ship sailed on these months ago and I don’t want to clutter their notifications)

Rules: Make a collage of characters that summarize what you headcanon your MC’s brother, Jacob to be like! Tag who you want to see do this

and

Rules: Choose five characters (movie or tv show) that represent your MC/ MC’s different layers.

So uhhhhhhhhhh... here’s the thing. I was tagged in the Jacob Character Challenge by @wilhelminafujita and indirectly by @batgirl-87 a long ass time ago. I was also tagged by @batgirl-87 in the MC Character Challenge but I don’t... watch enough TV or movies to actually do that one all the way! So I’ve gone ahead and merged the two challenges into just a collage of five characters for both of them

Explanations for the choices below!

We’re going clockwise from the top of each collage

Jacob Caradoc Dwyn

Ephemer (Kingdom Hearts series)

I made a direct comparison a long time ago, but tell me if this is familiar: an overly curious boy goes missing while investigating a huge conspiracy and you spend most of the prequel mobile game he stars in hunting his ghosting ass down while he occasionally sends you vision messages

The similarities go way beyond just their roles, though. Ephemer is a big conspiracy theorist who hates not knowing things and will do whatever it takes to hunt down the truth

Most people thought he was absolutely crazy, as you do when someone tells you that they think you’re all secretly being sent into holographic simulations when you go on missions (but he was also totally right)

He’s also notoriously overconfident in combat. You meet Ephemer because he decided to take on a monster way stronger than he was and got seriously hurt. But at least he’s self-aware enough to admit it (but also... is really gung-ho about fighting things in the current arc...)

He’s a genuinely nice guy but not above needling people to get the information he wants from them

Loyal as hell to the people he cares about and protective of them. Like, he really doesn’t know your Avatar all that well but still rushes out onto a battlefield to save you and volunteers himself to go on a potentially deadly mission with you just so that you won’t have to go alone

...buuuuuuut he’s not above going off on his own without telling anyone in an attempt to keep them “safe” and then getting into serious trouble for it

Is currently having a panic attack because he was placed in charge of a gang of teenagers and has to be The Responsible One™ but clearly hates it, which is what I imagine Jacob would do if you ever made him a leader in any capacity

Messy hair and an adorable smile

Honestly it’d be easier to list the things that Jacob and Ephemer don’t have in common. I didn’t intentionally base Jacob off of him but I won’t deny that a lot of Ephemer probably influenced Jacob’s character

Sokka (Avatar the Last Airbender)

Sokka’s on here mostly due to his relationship with his little sister, Katara. Jacob’s relationship with Seren is a very strong mirror to the Southern Water Tribe siblings

He’s really smart, but because he’s also very goofy a lot of people tend to overlook just how much creativity and ingenuity he brings to the table

No, Sokka’s seriously one of the smartest members of the cast. There’s a reason they call him “the ideas guy.” He knows when to get serious and break out the logic and reason. It’s never stopped him from being a loud, boisterous goofball, though

Cursed by the universe to a lifetime of misfortune

Sokka is very loyal and protective to his younger sister, but because she’s generally more emotionally measured it comes across like she’s taking care of him. And he knows that and really loves her for it, but it just makes him want to take care of her more, since that should be his job

They bicker a lot, but in the end they’re completely inseparable

Ellie (Up)

A bit of an unorthodox choice, but Ellie really is the physical embodiment of Jacob’s excitement to travel and Hufflepuff hard-working nature in a lot of ways

Ellie has huge dreams of exploring distant lands and she goes at it with such gusto that it’s completely infectious

Some people would argue that it’s overwhelming, but Ellie doesn’t really care about their opinion. She’s doing it for her own satisfaction!

When she falls in love with Carl, her goal changes to having both of them go on the trip together in much the same way that Jacob would really prefer traveling with his precious little sister, Seren, than by himself because they’re a team

She saves up her whole life for this trip. She never once gives up on it entirely. Despite the setbacks, despite the fact that she passed away before ever even accomplishing her goal, she was always working towards that great adventure

Sherlock Holmes (Ace Attorney Series - The Great Ace Attorney/Dai Gyakuten Saiban)

I am... so glad that I didn’t make this until after the fan translation for DGS came out because hoooooooo boy does Ace Attorney Sherlock give me mad Jacob Dwyn vibes

(I was always going to make Jacob a huge Sherlock Holmes fan so this worked out way too perfectly)

Ace Attorney Sherlock is legitimately very perceptive and good at picking up on minute details, but because he’s so overzealous about his detective work he has a tendency to jump to conclusions a little too fast and usually ends up having to be redirected by his more calm partner

Once you get him on the right track, though, he’s an unstoppable crime-solving machine (with the bonus ability of being really damn good at sleight-of-hand stuff)

He’s also hugely eccentric. Would Jacob Dwyn just hang from the wall by a hook while wearing an expensive tiara for the hell of it during an investigation? Ooooooh yes

Jacob’s a lot less wildly inaccurate, though, because he does genuinely want to solve the crimes to the best of his ability

I am absolutely certain that Jacob wouldn’t hesitate to tell everyone he knows about all of the mysteries he’s solved with his sister because guys. Guys it was so cool. Yes, I am THE Jacob Dwyn of the Dwyn Detective Agency please pay attention to my cool job

Sherlock is a Good Dad and Jacob is a Good Brother. Case Closed.

Ant-Man/Scott Lang (Marvel Cinematic Universe - Ant Man)

By this point you should be seeing a pattern. Smart, creative guy who’s also pretty goofy who has a younger female character that he loves greatly

Scott, though, isn’t above doing a lot of really sneaky stuff and taking unscrupulous jobs to get to his (admittedly pretty noble) goals. He adds that slight bit of moral edge we were missing from the Jacob equation. Not much, but some

Like I just think of the scene where Scott uses a bunch of creative methods to break into Pym’s house. Methods that require a lot of knowledge of security systems and science

He also does not let the rules stop him from doing what he thinks is right. It’s how he ended up in prison in the first place

Jacob Dwyn would unironically get very excited about a “Time Heist” and you can’t convince me otherwise

Also, the snark and quips. Can’t forget that Jacob’s an incorrigible sarcastic doofus

What can I say? Scott’s undying loyalty to his daughter matches Jacob’s undying loyalty for his sister perfectly

(We are all very lucky that Jacob wants to solve crimes because he would be way too good at doing crimes)

Seren Aisling Dwyn

Saoirse (Song of the Sea)

It wouldn’t have been right to make this list without including one of the characters that inspired Jacob and Seren in the first place and Seren fit Saoirse better than Jacob fit her brother, Ben

Song of the Sea is an Irish film about the two kids of a Selkie mother and a human father, who hides their heritage from them when their mother disappears (note: Jacob and Seren’s mom does not disappear). This hidden heritage causes Saoirse a lot of physical problems (i.e. rendering her mute, making her physically grow weaker the longer she’s apart from her seal’s coat), just like Seren’s hidden Siren heritage causes her to completely fail to address her additional needs that leads to a lot of unintentional illness in her Hogwarts years

Ben and Saoirse have to try and get back home so that Saoirse can sing the Song of the Sea and sent the Fair Folk home. That’s where I got the idea for Jacob and Seren to go wandering off alone as kids and encountering a bunch of magical creatures during their adventures from

Ben totally hated Saoirse until later in the movie, which inspired Jacob hating Seren after she’s born but warming up to her in a few months

Personality-wise, Saoirse may look sweet and quiet, but she’s a huge ball of sass. It’s just easy to miss because she only conveys it in her facial expressions, which is something that Seren’s always done, too

She also doesn’t follow their grandmother’s rules well. She’ll go along with things to a point, but the second she doesn’t agree she’ll strike off on her own and get it done by herself despite how tiny she is

(A lot of younger!Seren was inspired by Saoirse)

When given the opportunity to leave with the Faeries and her mother, she chooses to stay behind with her brother and father because she loves them, and while Seren isn’t fond of either of her parents, she would stay behind for Jacob

Yew Geneolgia (Bravely Second)

Okay... look, I promise that I didn’t just base Seren off of Yew because I made her before finishing Bravely Second but...

Playing Bravely Second was an experience after making Seren

So my boy Yew Geneolgia is the youngest member of a noble and prestigious house, was never expecting to inherit it because he had an older (half-)brother so he went to magic school and ended up being, like, the smartest student there, to the point where they had to give him a secret special ranking on the school ranking system because he was tooooo smart at magic (*cough* Seren singlehandedly winning the House Cup every year *cough*)

Of course their father doesn’t want to let Yew’s brother inherit anything because he’s not a pureblood noble (and the Dwyn siblings aren’t pureblood wizards). Yew’s brother disappears hunting down a sword in order to earn his way back into the family

Yew goes hunting the sword down to try and bring his brother home and surprise surprise it’s CURSED

(The Geneolgia siblings are not a perfect match to the Dwyn siblings but there are a LOT of similar elements there)

After his brother goes missing again after finding Yew with the cursed sword, Yew decides that he’s just going to try and be his older brother by taking up his place as a swordsman despite sucking at it. In Year 4, Seren decides that everyone just wants Jacob and not her, so she starts modeling herself after him more until she can’t keep it up anymore in late Year 5

So a small, young magic nerd who’s extremely awkward in social situations whose story revolves around a missing older brother that they attempt to emulate, unsuccessfully

Also, Yew is the one making all of the Bestiary entries. He’s clearly got an interest in Zoological stuff and he’s a very good artist since he does all of the illustrations in there, too

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (How to Train Your Dragon Series)

Hey speaking of Zoology did you know that Seren was into Magizoology and is very good at befriending creatures? It’s true!

Seren in her early years at Hogwarts is very similar to Hiccup from the first film. She’s shy, but undeniably witty and sarcastic. Her self-confidence is extremely low because she keeps getting compared to more successful family members. Her strengths come from her intelligence and being able to look at things from angles others might not, like extending empathy to creatures that most would hate

She’d never be able to hurt a dragon like Toothless come on. He’s too cute. Too sweet

As she gets older she still matches up with Hiccup, though. He finds himself being thrust into a leadership position and having to adjust, but doing so gracefully and with emotional maturity in much the same way that Seren steps up to lead the Cursed Vault crew when she needs to

You have to be pretty fearless to step up to a dragon that could bite your head off and then learn to fly on it, and when it comes down to it Seren is just as fearless in anything that is not a social interaction

I’m sorry, did I just hear SELF-SACRIFICIAL TENDENCIES? Why yes, yes I do believe that I did

And Hiccup will never, ever give up on Toothless no matter what. No matter what the dragon does (or is forced to do in the second film). Just like Seren will never give up on Jacob. No matter the cost

Ema Skye (Ace Attorney Series - Apollo Justice)

I know that Ema was in Spirit of Justice, too, but I don’t know anything about that one so I’m only covering her appearances chronologically up to Apollo Justice

I didn’t realize until watching someone’s blind playthrough of Apollo Justice recently just how much Seren was like Ema

So Ema starts off strong already as A Very Devoted Little Sister who absolutely refuses to believe that her older sister is guilty of a crime despite her sister confessing to it

(She ended up being right and her sister was blackmailed into covering it up which was honestly my default situation for the Dwyn siblings before the Portrait Vault chapter came out. Ema’s sister was being blackmailed with evidence that could implicate Ema with murder, Jacob would have been blackmailed with Seren’s safety. Which is still true, I suppose, but we’ll see how this holds up later)

She’s very passionate about forensic science in the same way that I imagine Seren can be in her own interests like Magizoology and later on the development of forensic magic

Almost a decade later, though, and Ema is... super jaded and grouchy. She’s sarcastic and kinda rude, but lights up again if you get her talking about her interests

She also doesn’t have her dream job but is instead... a detective. though Seren’s a lot more content as a detective than Ema is because she’s got Jacob and a license to do creature-related cases

But just the progression from the innocent kid to the jaded adult detective is... such a good match that I just had to put Ema in here

Katara (Avatar the Last Airbender)

And just like Jacob had Sokka, Seren gets Katara to round it off

There might be something to be said about the Southern Water Tribe siblings and the Dwyn Siblings both being linked to water as an element

I already covered a lot of this in Jacob’s section, but they have a similar dynamic

Katara is a Mom Friend extraordinaire who obsessively takes care of everyone in the group, even when it’s not her place to. A lot of them find it overbearing sometimes

While she’s generally fairly mature and level-headed, when she gets mad she gets absolutely furious and cannot be stopped until she’s satisfied

“You can’t knock me down!” is such an iconic line and very much embodies Seren’s stubbornness and determination to get back up and keep trying no matter what

She loves her brother. She’s not above criticizing him or the occasional jab, but she also knows when to give him credit for the incredibly smart things that he does. Nobody will defend him quite as hard as she will when she has to

The lovable, goofy, intelligent, protective older brother and the equally intelligent, mature, caring, stubborn younger sister. There’s no better way to describe the Dwyn Siblings than that

[klanced]

soooooo i was late on asking for the second movie but i call dibs for whenever ur organized enough to infodump it: What Happens In The /Third/ Movie Katie Klanced?

I meant to post this last year but then I got suspended and forgot smh -_-

Anyway it’s been almost a year, so here are a few links to refresh your memory on the masterpiece that is my Despicable Me au. In fact, here’s the tag because I love this au.

In my correct opinion, the third DM movie is definitely the weakest in the franchise, and I pretty much ignored its canon plot and wrote my own. So sorry if there’s a few loose-ends/plot-holes. But this is a Despicable Me au, I am beholden to no gods, no rules.

Roughly a year has passed since the events of the second movie. Coran and Alfor have finally gotten together (they’re either dating or married, I haven’t decided yet). Allura is away at college because I have way too many characters on my hands and I have to sideline out of necessity. Sorry, Allura.

The movie opens up with the entire family getting ready for an award ceremony at the AVL happening that night. It’s about as hectic a scene as you can imagine. Lance is running around without a shirt on. Pidge is wearing three shirts. One is her pajama top, the second is Lance’s aforementioned missing shirt. No one has any idea where the third shirt came from.

When suddenly, the phone rings!

Krolia picks it up, paying only 1/3 attention to the person on the line before she yells that it’s for Coran. Coran limps over, half a chewed shoe in his hand, the other half still on his foot. His right eyebrow is smoking. He is, understandably, a little terse when he shouts to be heard over the background din into the phone.

The screen diagonally bisects, to show Coran on the phone and… Shiro on the other side of the line!

Shiro introduces himself as the new CPS worker assigned to Lance/Hunk/Pidge’s case. Coran immediately has a heart attack and runs to his soundproofed study, slamming the door behind him as Shiro continues to just. Awkwardly talk on the phone lol.

Coran, internally: oh shit oh shit oh FUCK oh shit why now why nowwww oh lord is he calling to take away the kids? is he going to take away my BABIES??

Shiro: sorry for the late phone call sir, i meant to call earlier but i dropped my phone in a puddle and- i mean! the life of a cps worker is just packed hahahahahahahahahaah (WHY are you still laughing you IDIOT) ha-ahem! anyway. i’m the new cps worker, have i mentioned that yet? because i am. it’s just that, after we realized that the kids’ last foster home and agent let a supervillain just walk out with them - uh, no offense, sir! i just meant that, well, supervillains are generally understood to be bad- not to imply that you’re evil of course! Haha of Course Not, even though you were Literally voted the world’s most evil and accomplished supervillain several years in a row, but! That’s neither here nor there. Of course. :)

DM!Verse Shiro is a bit of a nervous doof but he also has a spine of steel when it comes to kids and making sure their living situations are safe. And he is very skeptical of Coran and his parenting skills, which is honestly pretty reasonable considering he’s an outsider looking in. 

I mean, someone who was arguably the world’s greatest villain suddenly deciding to move to suburbia with his three (stolen) adopted kids does… seem like a bit of a stretch. And pretty sus lmfao.

Coran and Shiro eventually stutter their way into a productive conversation and arrange for Shiro to conduct a home visit/other CPS survey stuff very soon. Coran politely bids Shiro farewell, hangs up the phone, and has a panic attack because suddenly it feels like all his worse fears are coming true. Because the other shoe has finally dropped.

Life has been so kind to Coran lately, between his loving marriage and his lovable kids. It’s sad to say, but he’d half-expected something like this to happen for a while. Because people like him don’t deserve this kind of uninterrupted happiness.

Alfor quietly knocks on the door and takes in the scene before him. Coran reaches out, and he immediately rolls to his husband’s side.

Coran collapses against him and catches him up to speed. There’s a pause as Alfor pauses, absorbs, and digest the information, before he starts making calming shushing noises.

Insert Supportive Spouse Speech. Alfor reminds Coran that, for all he’s done in the past, he has damn well earned his present life. Alfor can attest to that, as can Krolia and, most importantly, their children. 

It also doesn’t hurt that the internationally recognized Anti-Villain League is both a sponsor of and willing to provide a character reference for Coran. That counts for something, and Coran finally calms down.

This is what we in the writing business like to call “foreshadowing” :)

Scene cut to the AVL award ceremony. Krolia and Coran are both being recognized for their incredible heroics from the past year, etc etc, blah blah blah. Their speeches are very true to their character.

At the end of it, Kolivan goes up and stage and announces he’s retiring. Krolia, who knew this was happening in advance and fully expects to be named as his replacement, starts checking her lipstick in her hand mirror- only for Kolivan to introduce a ‘Commander Hira’ to the crowds.

FML, this is exactly the plot to the Spongebob Squarepants movie.

The entire Wimbleton Smythe-Altea Family freeze, mid-applause. Hunk awkwardly puts away his ‘CONGRATULATIONS KROLIA!!!!!!!!’ banner. Krolia shatters her hand mirror in her fist.

Within her first month, Hira makes some dramatic changes to the AVL. One of which is the agency’s complete separation from anything having to do with villains, including its rehabilitation program.

“Once a villain always a villain” essentially. Hira insists that villains are simply too evil to ever truly become good again, and that so-called “former” criminals are simply biding their time until they can enact their revenge.

As a result, Coran is fired. Alfor protests Hira’s decision, and resigns out of solidarity. Krolia calls Hira a bitch and is also fired.

The kids are ecstatic that their dads + aunt are home 24/7 now. Krolia is less pleased. She’s been an active agent for more than half her life, so this sudden and forced turn for domesticity has her clawing at the walls.

One of the sub-plots is Alfor trying to convince Coran to become a superhero, “just like the old times.” (Coran: Love, I was literally your supervillain arch-nemesis).

Coran is hesitant, because 1) He still has low self-value and doesn’t see himself as a hero, and 2) He’s perfectly content to mooch off his billionaire boyfriend and spend his time as a stay-at-home dad.

To take their mind off their sudden unemployedness, Coran and Alfor throw themselves into preparing for Shiro’s house visit. This mainly entails Alfor calming Coran down from an anxiety attack every other hour. 

There is a lot of tension in the house.

And then, like magic! An invitation to the biggest supervillain symposium of the year appears, because villain mailing lists are especially evil and refuse to take Coran off their register even though he literally arrests villains for a living.

“So you’re telling me,” Krolia says, and Coran instinctively inches for the door. “That you’ve had an opening into the world’s biggest villain convention, this entire time, and you didn’t tell anyone?”

“W-e-ll,” Coran stutters, slapping blindly behind him for the doorknob, “It just didn’t seem very fair, you know? To ambush them like that, all because of their lazy office workers. That’s not very good sport.”

Krolia and Alfor try to convince Coran that he should go. Krolia is convinced this is the in they need to reclaim their jobs; they’ll infiltrate the Supervillain Symposium, arrest all the biggest bads, call the AVL, rub it in Hira’s face, take a selfie while she’s sobbing in the background, celebrate as the masses drag Hira to the guillotine-

Coran: Krolia I love you, I really do. But you have issues.

Krolia: I happen to be perfectly adjusted for someone in my situation.

Coran is still hmming and hawwing because, now that he doesn’t have to fight villains for a living, he quite likes Not Being In Constant Danger. But then Krolia reminds him that he is both unemployed AND now blacklisted by the AVL, two things which might very well doom him in the eyes of Shiro (and the rest of CPS). He needs to do this if he wants his job back and, therefore, keep his kids.

(…. At some point, Coran shaves off his mustache in a stress-filled attempt at appearing as a better guardian, but no one recognizes him so he has to wear a fake mustache for the rest of the movie)

Coran of course is immediately super gung-ho for this plan and declares they’re leaving ASAP.

The kids of course are raring to go, the adults are vehemently hell no to that idea, and in the ensuing argument everyone forgets that Shiro is coming today. 

A series of events thus follows, which can be summarized as:

The adults say that the kids can’t come.

The kids decide that yes, in fact, kids can come and plan accordingly.

The kids are preparing to tail after the adults (after waiting a reasonable amount of time of course (this isn’t their first rodeo) in their own modified plane when they hear what sounds like their babysitter, the Reformed Lotor, coming around the corner.

The kids immediately go into attack mode only to realize, after the dust has settled, that they’ve actually knocked out Shiro.

In their infinite pre-teen wisdom, the kids decide to stick with the plan and load Shiro into their equivalent trunk and take off.

A few moments later, Lotor finally arrives, looks up from his phone, realizes there are no kids to be watched, and shrugs and goes home.

The scene cuts to Shiro groggily stumbling out of the corner the kids have stashed the plane in, only to realize, to his absolute horror, that he’s on an island filled with Supervillains attending a Supervillain Convention.

Hunk: Man… I feel like we forgot something.

*Shiro screaming in the distance*

For brevity’s sake I’ll cut off here, but just know that this is only the FIRST THIRD (IF EVEN THAT) of the movie. I am absolutely off the CHAINS. I still haven’t even introduced Keith yet. I love this au.

[thehollowprince]

Tony Stark & the Accords

I've had this theory for a while now, and I've been debating on putting it up because I figured we moved past the whole debate of the Accords and how they infringed upon basic human rights and that everyone realized how horrible they were, especially considering their chief endorsers among the Avengers (Tony, Rhodey and Vision) all broke them at some point.

Turns out, I was wrong, and there are still people who think the Accords were the right thing to do, and that in and if itself is a pretty scary thought.

But let's get into this.

Putting aside the whole issue of RDJ forcing himself into more movies after his contract ran out, both for a paycheck and because apparently he's That Bitch™, what could possibly have drawn Tony Stark out of retirement... again? Because let's not forget, people, that by the end of AGE OF ULTRON, he had retired twice. So aside from the fact that he, and the producers, shoved him into a movie that wasn't his and that didn't need him for their original plot, what could cause Tony to put himself back on the active duty list?

The Accords themselves.

Let us not forget that he arrived at the compound with Thaddeus Ross, meaning they were in contact prior to that stupid speech when Ross talks down at all the Avengers. No confirmation, but its heavily implied by Tony's uncharacteristic silence during that scene that he already knew about the Accords, and that's very telling about his motivation for this entire movie.

Why was he so adamant that they sign away their freedoms to a shadowy international government council that determined whether or not they got to go outside? (Completely ignoring, of course, that Team Cap had just outed S.H.I.E.L.D as Hydra not two years prior.)

One could argue and say that he was guilt tripped into it by being confronted with Charlie Spencer's mother after his little B.A.R.F. sequence, but I think there's more to it than that. I think it has something to do with who the Accords targets specifically.

Enhanced.

Tony Stark is not enhanced. Nor is at least half the Team, so I found it kind of weird that the people most vocal about signing the Accords (Tony, Nat, Rhodey) were not Enhanced themselves. But, then again, isn't that always how it is? The people that aren't really affected by a law are the ones that advocate most strongly for it? I just rewatched that movie yesterday, and it kickstarted all these ideas in my brain.

Tony Stark wanted the rest of the Avengers, specifically Steve and Wanda, to sign those Accords because it would "put them in check". Not from any collateral damage done in the field, but for his own sake. Stark, more than any other character, is defined by his ego. He needs to feel the most important, the most needed (check out his whole schtick in AoU when he told no one about Ultron). That is his defining characteristic.

For over a year after the events in Sokovia, the Avengers have been going on missions without him, and not once did they need him for anything. Now, for someone who is ruled by his ego, that must be quite a blow. But then Lagos happened, and the Accords shortly thereafter, and he saw an opportunity to put the rest of the Team "in their place", as it were.

As many of us have pointed out in regards to this particular movie, and as I've already mentioned, Tony Stark is not an enhanced individual. He's not. He's a rich guy in a fancy armored suit. If he wants out, all he has to do is take off the suit and that's it. The Accords stop there for him. But for people like Steve and Wanda, that isn't the end. By signing those Accords, they would have signed away their freedoms for the rest of their lives, constantly monitored and low jacked while having their DNA on file (which Ross had been chomping at the bit to make more super soldiers for years now).

All of this is my rather long winded attempt at explaining that I personally think Tony put so much pressure on Steve and the others to sign the Accords because he's jealous.

Think about it.

All the way back to when Tony and Steve first met and he point blank said to Steve "everything special about you came out of a bottle." We know that Tony feels that he's lived in Steve's shadow all his life, but that moment was very telling. When people are jealous, or cornered, or intimidated, they lash out, either physically or verbally. This was Tony lashing out verbally because he felt inadequate next to the legendary Captain America. And that's why he was so gung-ho for those documents. Steve and Wanda (and the other enhanced individuals) can do everything he can do as Iron Man, but without a suit. They're always on, they always have their powers and he has to stop and put on his armor before he can do anything.

I think that's also why he was constantly trying to make the suits faster and easier to assemble for him, eventually succeeding with his nanotech suit thanks to Wakanda opening its borders and sharing its tech with the world.

TL;DR - Tony was such a strong supporter of the Accords because he felt insecure next to the Enhanced members of the Team and felt that this was a way for him to be relevant again until he decided he had enough and could just take the suit off and retire, something any enhanced person wouldn't be able to do.

[bonesingerofyme-loc]

Endgame is a movie about payoffs

An incomplete list of all the great ‘payoffs’ in this movie.

Hulk’s character arc/story is resolved offscreen and Hulk as a character is killed off. Shh no tears, only Banner now.

Loki’s death was meaningless

Thor’s character arc/story wasn’t even regressed, it was reset

Tony and Nebula’s relationship went nowhere

Vision’s body was shoved in a closet for five years I guess

Doctor Strange’s 14 million futures and 1 solution relied on a fucking rat

The main six avengers never got to be on screen fighting together

Natasha was killed off and her death is barely mentioned

Red Skull’s presence was revealed to simply be the writers going wOuLdN’t iT Be CoOl rather than having any deeper meaning or reason for it. Boy would it have made sense for the Avengers to maybe talk to the Stonekeeper since they know next to fuck all about the infinity stones. Or maybe resolve the whole ‘Steve and Red Skull’ thing, because it’s not like that was formative conflict for Steve Rogers.

Loki’s death was seriously fucking meaningless

Rocket sort of just existed. What did he do? Nothing. Who did he interact with? Barely anyone.

Gamora’s character arc/story is reset to a blank slate because she is a new person.

Drax’s whole reason for living was revenge and to strike back at Thanos. Never see Drax in Endgame except as part of the exhaustively long checklist of ‘HEY LOOK X PERSON IS HERE’

Clint going on a murderspree doesn’t matter at all except to give a reason why he isn’t in the first part of the movie. It has no bearing on the events and no one ever speaks to Clint about it. He doesn’t even act any differently from the mostly serious and broody Clint of the previous films. There isn’t even any tension about him coming back, Nat just says ‘Hi Clint come back’ and he’s like ‘k’.

Peter Quill, who I don’t even like, has only a single scene in the movie where his entire growth as a character and relationship with Gamora is reduced to stupid physical humor and a joke.

Carol Danvers was pointless. She exists to save Tony and Nebula, which Thor could’ve done with bifrost and to blow up Sanctuary, which could’ve been done far more interestingly. And yet the movie tried to weave her in pretty well by making her part of Natasha’s galactic avengers and then...did nothing with that idea. Was it too hard to consider maybe she shows up with whats left of NovaCorps or some Kree battleships?

Thanos proves that he was jobbing hard in Infinity War. What’s that, Thanos without any infinity stones could easily beat Tony in Mk85, Thor with both his weapons and Steve Rogers? I guess the entire fight on Titan was him just pissing around. It steals all the weight and strength that Infinity War gave the Avengers by showing that Thanos could’ve squashed any of them at any time and was never actually in danger.

‘Stark. You’re not the only one cursed with knowledge.’ What does that mean? Why does Thanos seem to respect him? Fucking who knows, since we see that in the past Thanos only vaguely knew about the Avengers and thought they were dumb nerds. I guess he read about Tony underneath a Snapple lid. 

Back to Natasha’s death - she dies and the movie decides it needs to focus on fucking Bruce of all people, when she and Steve had become very close friends over the past seven years, and from the implications Steve was the only one that actually kept in contact with her post-Snap when the Avengers all retired or fucked off. Fucking Bruce. 

Hey while we’re here, let’s keep up with Steve and his relationships. How about the fact he and Bucky never reunite on screen? How about the fact that all we have gotten between Steve and Bucky since Steve got his best friend back was what, three lines total between Infinity War and Endgame? 

Or how about Steve and Sam! You know, Sam the therapist that helped break Steve out of his shell. Sam the loyal friend who stood by Steve through thick and thin. Sam, who kind of was Steve’s first ‘real’ friend in the modern day. Sam, who only shows up at the end so old Steve who abandoned his friends can chuck him a shield. No reunion. No real meaningful moment. Just hey I’m old take my shield.

Or Steve and Wanda! Did you guys forget that the secret Avengers adopted her? How they were kind of like a family for that time after Civil War, with Steve the Dad and Natasha the Mom and Wanda their adopted weird magical girl? You know, how they took Wanda under their wing and started teaching her and treating her like a real person? Guess they did forget!

What about Valkyrie too, by the way. Valkyrie who spent a thousand years as a cynical drunk and then Thor helped her out of her self-loathing funk in Ragnarok. And then she I guess just said ‘sucks to be you’ and didn’t even try to help him? Or how about that Thor just kind of chucks her the throne like a party favor. Not even like he recognized she earned it or anything, Thor just said ‘hey, fuck my responsibilities I want to go be a failure in space, so take my job lmao’. Nice. I hate Ragnarok with a passion, but for fuck’s sake. 

Nidavellir. Establishes that Eitri is the last of the dwarven forgemasters left, and still has all his knowledge and skill. And that he forged the Gauntlet. And the plans for the Gauntlet are still there. Clearly, that means Tony should just whip together a nanite gauntlet in his basement overnight.

Carol Danvers and Nick Fury. You know, how Captain Marvel set them up as good friends, and then she allegedly shows up wanting to know where he is. Oops. That didn’t make the cut. Or her seeing Fury again after so many years. Double oops. Shit, this is even from the stinger of the last movie these yucks wrote, and they couldn’t even do it. Again - like Gagnarok and others, Cpt. Marvel is not even a movie I liked but COME ON NOW.

The intelligence/wisdom of the infinity stones. The space stone ‘judged’ Red Skull and cast him out. The soul stone has a ‘certain wisdom’. Ultron was made from the intelligence that lurked in the mind stone. Vision was linked to all the other stones and could sense almost a distress from each other stone as Thanos claimed them. NVM, stones destroyed lmao.

Infinity War went out of it’s way to make visually striking and different battle sequences and pulled out all the stops to really showcase powers. We got to see smart and interesting uses of all the stones during the battle on titan. Thanos actually had a wizard duel with Strange, showing that he is so much more than just a brute brawler. He blended caster and bruiser seemlessly. The color palatte was bright and arid, full of reds and oranges and blues and greens, well lit and extremely well choreographed. Tony showcases the amazing functionality of his Mk50 experimental armor. The battle at Avengers compound is dark, a color palette of grey, dark grey, light grey, and brown-grey. The choreography of the fight consisted of ‘surround Thanos and hit him with sticks’. We saw none of the MK85 suit. You know. The LAST suit Tony Stark would ever make. We saw none of Stormbreaker or Mjolnir’s power in Thor’s hands, only the most basic ‘fwoosh lightning’ from when Steve holds it. Where was Thor and his flying, his glowing eyes, Mjolnir-as-a-character that was present in all his fights in the past? Where was Steve’s mixed martial arts and his really acrobatic and distinct fighting style? Where was Tony constantly pulling new weapons and tricks out of his suit? The final fight of the Infinity Saga with the big three, and it’s as inspiring as a mid-aughties superhero duel. Just kind of slamming together and grunting. (I guess all the good fight choreographers were stolen by Alita)

‘I can do this all day’. The iconic line of Steve Rogers in the MCU, a touchstone for his character that is emblematic of his entire life and his drive, that says in six syllables the sum total meaning of what it is to be Captain America. Is played As A Joke.

Pepper Potts, whose character and relationship with Tony Stark to date can be summed up succinctly as ‘Tony no’ while he shouts ‘TONY YES’ now totally agrees with Tony and is all gung-ho about him deciding to risk his life, his daughter’s life, their lives, and the fucking universe to go a-time-travelling. What.

Steven Strange, whose movie was about him struggling to become a sorcerer and let go of his past and his preconceptions as well as the Ancient One seeing potential in him despite his roughness is shown to all be a charade. She actually knew all along he was going to be an OG badass and is so enamored with him that she’s willing to hand away the infinity stone she and her order have protected for millennia at the simple mention of his name.

Acausal time travel. Instead of enriching the previous movies by seamlessly blending into them for the time heist, Endgame goes out of it’s way to say ‘HAHA YEAH NO, THIS IS A BRANCHING TIMELINE’ so when you watch Dark World, Avengers, etc, there’s no intrigue of like ‘oh man, such and such is going on just around the corner’ because they so thoroughly bungled time travel and everything we saw in Endgame breaks the timelines. I can’t believe JK Rowling did a better job creating consistent and coherent time travel that carried narrative weight and tension in a children’s book.

Undoing the snap. All the speculation and theory about how, why, when, what, and it turns out all you have to do is just snap to bring everyone back and then act like the intervening five years of social decay and collapse never happened. 

Theodore Ross is very specifically shown in Infinity War to be the Secretary of State. Hm. A character who’s always been an antagonist, always against the avengers...in a high ranking government position...right before 50% of the population is dusted...right, yeah, nothing. Not the President after the snap. 

The snap itself. Smash cut to 5 years later, show some quick flybys and pay a bit of lip service to ‘oh yeah things are bad’ but that’s it. Don’t investigate it. Don’t show us how bad things are. Don’t explore it. In fact, everything seems pretty ok. People are still playing Fortnite five years later and cheerfully dabbing and taking selfies, so it’s all good right? Not like half of all life vanished instantly over night and the world is supposed to be falling apart. Nah.

Tony Stark’s death. Did he die to bring back the universe? Did he die to save his friends? Did he die to save his daughter or his family? Nope, he killed himself to kill the already beaten Thanos and his final words were all about himself. bUt ThE cAlLbAcK

Thanos. Killed off. Replaced by a cartoon villain version of himself. The Thanos that is the main antagonist that the Avengers beat? Not the Thanos who we got to know and who starred as the center of Infinity War.

Nebula. Best character in the film. Has no conclusion. No catharsis or reaction to Thanos’ death.

Groot. Split second shot of him and Rocket. No reunion.

Groot, again, and the rest of the Guardians. No chance to see Rocket’s reaction to the realization his entire family is gone or the effect it has on him. What was that scene in Infinity War? “Me? I got a lot to lose. I got a lot.” No relevance.

Stormbreaker. Major plotpoint of Infinity War. OP axe forged by Thor nearly sacrificing his life to a star. Yeets through a blast from a full-stone gauntlet. Is just a beatstick in Endgame, does nothing.

Infinity stones, again. Infinity War made them front and center, showing their many uses and delving deeper into the lore of them. Endgame makes them paperweights that can only snap.

I could go on and on and on. This is just off the top of my head, right now. Payoffs? I guess if you count the writers violently elbowing you in the ribs and shouting HEY ITS THAT SCENE FROM THAT OTHER MOVIE like you’re a drooling idiot as a ‘payoff’ it’s ripe with them, but actual meaningful payoff for a decade of characters and storytelling? Hah. No.

Edit: I will continue to update this as I think of/recall more examples

[pulp-diction]

The Pokémon universe has seen a number of renderings over the years, but we've never seen one quite like "Detective Pikachu."

Obviously the movie is based on the game of the same name. And yet, "Detective Pikachu" the film manages to create something wholly unlike any Poké-property we've seen before -- yes, the Pokemon are vividly rendered, but so are many of the other aesthetics. The same care that brings every hair follicle to life on Pikachu's body (so realistic it's easy to forget a time when you might've thought that Pikachu was not a hairy creature) also brings pops of rain-soaked neon, or dynamic countryside that hides dangerous secrets.

It helps propel the movie's "noir but for kids and their Pokémon" plot along: Tim (Justice Smith) and his partner Detective Pikachu, are looking for Tim's police detective father, who went missing around the same time Pikachu lost his memory.

The film is exactly the kind of marriage of silly and serious that you'd expect with a logline like that, with the duo encountering everyone from idealistic tycoon who believes that Pokémon and humans can live together (Bill Nighy), and an unpaid journalism intern who thinks there's more to sniff out in the underbelly of Ryme City (Kathryn Newton).

Winding a seedy mystery within all of this earns "Detective Pikachu" some comparisons to "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" which also melded cartoon and human characters trying to untangle a web of lies. Though that film is a bit more connected to reality, it's hard to knock "Detective Pikachu" for staying focused on having fun with all its Poké-players.

After all, it's got a wealth of material to pull from, a whole world to build out. And beyond a few flashier call-outs to the greater Pokémon universe, it's fairly entry level, allowing fans and non-fans alike to let the narrative pull them along.

And unlike other movies released this weekend, "Detective Pikachu" is rarely there to goad your emotions along. Just twice does the music really swell and let Tim (Justice Smith) and his partner, Detective Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds) take an emotional beat and cry.

Beyond that it's having fun flexing its players in ways they know best -- whether that's a PG-appropriate version of Reynolds' motor-mouthed act, Newton and her Psyduck being utterly gung-ho even when they're a bit flustered, or letting Nighy put mendacious, Shakespearean spins on words like "Pikachu."

Sure, it's not perfectly tight, nor is the dialogue always inspiring (Tim and Pikachu are always there to explain what we just saw, for better or worse). But the mystery at the core of the film is fun, and has a knowing edge to it about just how ludicrous it would be to take this whole thing too seriously. It's just the right concoction of understanding the stakes without forgetting the laughability of noir around Pikachu as a detective.

Plenty of dramatic reveals are in store, but rather than dumping on what is "predictable" or not (already a boring concept that often takes for granted any fun the film), it's more apt to say that the conspiracy has many moving parts that allow Tim and Pikachu to stay right on top of, like a rolling log.

And ultimately the mystery doesn't matter as much as the friends they made along the way; "Detective Pikachu" is at its most fun when it's got a hit of madcap comedy and a strand of mystery guiding the way, but its adept ability to balance all the things it has going isn't nothing. At the very least, it's charming to watch a Pokémon universe come to life, without letting all the Poké-madness keep it from being a universal watch.

[braincoins]

StarladinStarladinStarladinStarladinSTARLADIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(( O_O Might I suggest switching to decaf, Anon(s)?))

He kept glancing at the window. She pretended not to notice it the first couple of times, but finally she paused the movie. “What is it?”

“Hmm? What’s what?” he asked.

“What’s going on outside the window that’s so distracting?” 

“Nothing.”

“Then why do you keep looking at it?” His hesitation was all the answer she needed. “Takashi, please. Just… just a little longer.”

He sighed. “I don’t want you to go back before you’re ready, but…”

“I’m kind of surprised you’re so gung-ho about hero-ing.”

“Well, yeah, why wouldn’t I be? Helping people in the most badass way ever?”

She laughed. “Oh, so it’s being a badass that’s important to you?”

“And helping people!” he insisted. “Helping people is very important.”

“So long as you do it like a badass.”

“Well… Anyway, Starlight’s more badass than Paladin is.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely. I’ve always thought so. That Starlight was a badass, anyway. I mean, hello, super strength? All those cool gadgets?! So awesome.”

“You’re just using me for my gadgets,” she pouted.

“And the strong arms, don’t forget those. Also the miles of legs…”

“You can stop now.”

“And the smile.”

“Takashi.”

“And that a-…” Before he could finish that, she clapped a hand over his mouth.

“STOP,” she said, giggling. “Besides, your butt’s better.”

He shook his head and, muffledly from behind her hand, insisted, “That’s a lie.”

“You look absolutely amazing in your costume,” she said, pulling her hand away. “Sometimes I’d get distracted staring.”

“Really?”

“You don’t believe me? I was sure you caught me checking you out a couple of times.”

“I… thought maybe you were, but then convinced myself you weren’t.”

She sighed and shook her head. “Idiot.”

“You, too.”

“Yes, we both were,” she agreed. “But, you know, if you’re really interested in cool gadgets…”

He perked up. “Yeah?” 

“Maybe come help me shop for one?”

He deflated. “What do you mean ‘shop for’? I thought Coran made your tech.”

“This isn’t Altean tech. It’s just… something you mentioned the other night… when we were together… I’ve been thinking about it, but I don’t know exactly what to… or even how to begin…”

That took him a bit to remember and his face lit up with a whole different kind of joy when he did. He was fully distracted from going out now, that was for sure.

She wasn’t lying; he’d brought up something he enjoyed and she wanted to be able to provide it for him. She wasn’t sure how to go about it, and so she wanted his help. That was all true. But she also was playing that card now because she knew it would draw him away from wanting to be out on the streets, throwing himself in harm’s way again.

She rose and headed for her laptop, and he trailed after her obediently, enthralled by what was being offered (even if it wouldn’t be tonight). “Do you have any recommendations for where to start? I, uh… I mean, I’ve never… so…” She cleared her throat and wished her blush would go away as easily.

“I know a good site,” he promised. “Go to…”

She typed in the URL he gave her and focused on this. She didn’t want to think about going out any more than she wanted him doing it. She didn’t want to face the fear of losing him again. Not yet. Better to be distracted.

----------------

She knew she ought to be focusing on getting out her last two assistants, but the arm was intriguing. An entire arm. 

Her body was gone, vaporized in the blast, just as everyone assumed. No one knew that her quintessence and consciousness - her “soul” if you wanted to put it that way - remained. But if her body and those of her assistants had been destroyed by the released energy, why hadn’t this arm? 

None of them recognized it, so it didn’t seem to belong to any of them. It didn’t look like hers, either. It looked like a man’s arm, but beyond that, she couldn’t tell anything about it. 

She went to the internet to look up the blast incident. Blah blah blah demonstration blah blah blah Dr. King blah blah… Wait. THERE. 

The loss of life might have been much worse had it not been for the actions of Takashi Shirogane, a reporter from The Daily World, who hurried to get everyone else out before the blast. He was wounded in the process, and is recovering at…

Wounded? Wounded how? Did he, perchance, lose an arm?

Out of curiosity, she brought up the prosthetic study. Before the demonstration, she’d been using quintessence - small amounts, mostly from volunteers - to power the new prosthetics she was making. The study shouldn’t have shut down just because she was no longer around to run it, and the prosthetics had already been infused…

She clicked on participants, then did a find. She didn’t have to get any farther than “Shiro-” before it returned a single file.

117-9875 Shirogane, Takashi

Dr. Honerva King clicked open the file and smiled.

{The Adventures of Starlight & Paladin}

[terrayoung]

A Delicate Balance

A @dctvsecretsanta fic for @drnathanielheywood, who asked for: team legends stealing Christmas presents through time and Nate/Mick. It’s in Nate’s 2nd person p.o.v.

Fic is under the cut - I hope you enjoy!

"Pleeeeeeeaaaaaassssseeee?" Ray asks, holding out a bowl full of paper slips. "Wally and Mick already agreed - though Mick might've just done it to get me to leave him alone - and I'm sure the others will, too!" He widens his eyes. "I'd really appreciate it! Secret Santa is just the kind of bonding activity we need right now!"

You sigh. Damn those puppy-dog eyes. "Okay, fine. But you owe me an Indiana Jones marathon. And I mean all the movies - even Crystal Skull."

"That's fair."

Ray thrusts the bowl even closer to you. You close your eyes, pray that you get someone easy to shop for, and rummage around in the bowl for your lucky slip. Fingers on your free hand crossed, you unfold the paper. In scrawled black writing is two words and an emoji, "Mick Rory :)". Ray's looking at you expectantly, so you force a smile on your face.

"Didn't get myself, buddy, so I guess that's good," you say. 

"Yep!" Ray beams. "Oh, and before I forget - Mick suggested being able to steal the gifts. Long as you don't take it/them from the less fortunate, it's fair game." He pulls you into a brief, one-armed hug. "Thanks, Nate!"

You watch as Ray leaves your room, then finally let the smile slip off your face. "What the fuck do I do now? Um, Gideon?"

"Yes, Dr. Heywood?" Gideon asks.

"Any ideas on what I could get Mick for the Secret Santa?"

"I'm afraid Dr. Palmer requested that I not give anyone advice about their giftees." She almost sounds regretful. "He said it would be considered cheating."

"Gee, thanks a lot," you mutter.

"You're welcome!"

"Damn AI."

"I heard that," Gideon warns. 

You throw up your hands in frustration and flop onto your bed. After a few seconds, you roll over so you can scream into a pillow. You roll over again a few seconds after that since the lack of oxygen is getting to your head. 

What on Earth could you possibly get - or steal - for Mick? You put too little effort into this and he'll burn you to a crisp, but putting too much effort in would be like a neon sign telling him about your crush. Anything fire-related is too obvious and you know nothing about what he'd need for crime. It's probably too soon to give Mick a new rat and he could just fabricate himself some beer. What does he even like to do?

...Wait. You vaguely remember Mick being super gung-ho about vampires - he was even reading a special edition copy of Dracula. Maybe that's something you can work with. 

 XxXx

  You knock on Sara's door the next day. It takes a few seconds for her to open it, by which point you're already rocking back and forth on your heels. 

"Can I help you?" Sara asks, rubbing at her eyes. 

You nod. "Mind if I borrow the jump ship for a few hours? I think I know what to get my Secret Santa."

"Promise to never wake me up at..." She grabs your wrist, drags it towards her, and checks the time on your watch. "At 6AM ever again?"

"What if there's a life-threatening emergency?"

"If it's before 9AM, I don't care."

"Then, yes, I promise," you say, giving Sara a mock solute.

Sara releases your wrist and waves you away. "Fine. Go. Have fun shopping or stealing or what-the-fuck-ever. I'm going back to sleep."

"Sleep -" You're cut off by Sara sliding the door shut on you- "well." You run a hand through your hair. "Next stop, late nineteenth century." A few steps towards the jump ship remind you that you're still wearing your slippers. "After a trip to the fabrication room."

 XxXx

 You're barely out of the fabrication room - and still trying to fix your tie - when you run into Mick. Literally. Your forehead slams right into his chin. You stumble back, clutching your head, while he just stands there like a brick wall. A very well-muscled brick wall...

You shake your head - causing it to ache some more - to get your brain back on track. Mick raises an eyebrow. 

"You okay there, Pretty?" Mick asks. His gravelly voice rattles through your bones. "Sounded like you hit me pretty hard."

You rub your forehead one last time, then let your arm drop. "Think I'm gonna have one hell of a headache, but I'll live. How are you��not in any pain?"

"I am." Mick shrugs. "But I've lived through worse." He stops, stares at your chest, and then rolls his eyes. You have two seconds to blink before Mick's closer than you'd ever hoped he'd get. 

"Umm, Mick?" You'll swear on every bible in the country that your voice didn't just crack. "What's goin' on?"

"Fixing your stupid tie," Mick mutters. 

There's a spark each time his hands brush against your chest. Mick's face is so close to yours and it takes every bit of your willpower to not lean in for a kiss. You don't even realize that you were holding your breath until Mick steps back and it all rushes out of you. 

Mick smirks, proud of his handiwork. "There ya go." He looks you up and down. "Where're you going? Didn't think we had a mission today."

"We - we don't," you reply. "I'm going to go get my Secret Santa's gift." You run a hand through your hair. "No idea how Ray managed to convince all of us to do that, by the way."

Mick just grunts and shrugs. 

"Anyway, um, I'm going to go do that -" you gesture vaguely in the direction of the jump ship -"and I'll see you later?"

"...Sure." Mick steps around you and heads down the hallway. He calls over his shoulder, "Long as you don't get yourself killed."

You're not sure if Mick thinks you're likely to, or if this is his own way of showing concern. It's been a couple of years since you met him and you're no closer to having him figured out. Luckily, you've always been a fan of mysteries. Not as much as histories, but -

You shake your head. Now is really not the time for your train of thought to run off the tracks. You give yourself a few seconds to remember Mick's closeness, then return to heading off to the jump ship. You've got a gift to track down. 

 XxXx

 "Why couldn't this have been a normal trip to Ye Olde Bookshoppe?" You mutter. "Oh, wait, normal flew out the window once I stepped onboard a freaking timeship!" 

"Be quiet!" Van Helsing - Abigail Van Helsing - hisses. "Unless you want the vampire to get us!" 

You hold up your hands, then mime zipping your mouth shut. Van Helsing just frowns before turning to look out of the alleyway. 

You'd started out going to buy an original copy of Dracula for Mick, planning on getting it signed by Bram Stoker himself. But then a fucking vampire had literally crashed the party! Then Van Helsing followed it through, announced she would take care of the beast, and then chased after it. You'd declared your intention to help, and well, here you are now. Somewhere in the middle you've managed to figure out that Dracula was loosely based on a true story. Very loosely, if Van Helsing being named Abigail instead of Abraham and the vampire not having much in the way of sentience are any indication. 

"It's coming," Van Helsing whispers. "You distract it with your "powers"-" how is she able to sound like she's miming air quotes a century before they were a thing?- "and then I'll stab it in the chest. Is that understood?" 

You nod, then steel up. Van Helsing's eyes widen. As soon as you hear the vampire scuffle past, you step out of the alleyway. The sun gleams off of your silver skin and attracts the vampire's attention. You slowly back away to lure it closer and closer to Van Helsing. Once you've moved far enough, you give her a thumbs-up. 

Van Helsing may not recognize the gesture, but she knows a signal when she sees one and jumps towards the vampire. There's a bit of a struggle - most of which is on the vampire's end - and then it's over as soon as it began. Van Helsing brushes the dust off her knife. 

"Thank you," Van Helsing says after a moment. "That would have been a lot more difficult without your help."

You shrug before de-steeling. "No problem. Mind if I ask you a question?"

"I suppose I owe you that much. What is it?"

"Do you know where I could find Bram Stoker?" You hold up the now slightly battered copy of Dracula. "I've got a book for him to sign."

 XxXx

 Bram Stoker looks from you, to Dracula, and then back to you. "You want me to write a dedication to someone I've never even heard of?"

"Yes, please," you answer. "He's a huge fan - uh, admirer - of your writing, and would greatly appreciate your signing the book. I'm planning on giving it to him for Christmas."

"A rare thing for two unrelated men to do," Stoker replies, "but not an unappreciated one. What is your young man's name?"

"He's not young - or mine - but -" You take a breath- "Mick Rory."

Stoker nods. He thinks for a moment, dips his pen in an inkwell, and jots down a few words. "Here you go, Dr. Heywood." Stoker pushes the book back to you. "I hope Mr. Rory takes to this gift."

"Thank you so much, Mr. Stoker!" You barely glance at the dedication before snapping the book shut. "I have to get going, but it was very nice to meet you!"

"Same to you."

 XxXx

 The next person you literally run into is Zari, as you're exiting the jump ship. It affects her more than you, but neither of you get too hurt. Which is great - you still have a lingering headache from your encounter with Mick. 

"Thanks for that," Zari snarks. "Long as you're here, though - any ideas on what to get Hunter? I've only met the man twice, so I'm kinda at a loss."

You snort. "That's a first." You sober up at Zari's withering glare. "Um, I didn't really know 'im too well either. Think I remember someone mentioning he's really into Wild West stuff? That and antiques."

"So shop for you, but lean towards cowboy crap," Zari summarizes. "Got it." She gestures to the jump ship. "Just leaving or just returning?"

"Returning." You step out of Zari's way. "Go right ahead." Before she can get too far, you hold up Dracula and add, "For Mick - what do you think? It's an original copy and it's signed."

Zari shrugs. "He should like it. May even get you that kiss you want."

"Kiss? Why would I want a -" You slump. "How'd you know?"

"You're nowhere near as subtle as you think you are," Zari answers. "Surprised he hasn't noticed - I'm aromantic and I picked up on it ages ago." She hangs in the doorway. "Good luck, though."

"Thank -" Zari shuts the door- "you." You run a hand through your hair. "Why does that keep happening to me?"

 XxXx

 Ray knocks on your door just as you're putting stuffing the last of the tissue paper into the bag containing Mick's gift. You tell him to let himself in, then scribble a note on the to/from sticker. Hopefully your handwriting isn't too distinctive. 

You sit up, expecting Ray to start info-dumping about some new science fact or his latest project, but he's pacing silently instead. It takes about five minutes for concern to override just letting him be. 

"Uh, Ray?" You begin. "You okay there, buddy?"

Ray hesitates before shaking his head. He then leans against the closest wall. 

"What's up? Do you need some paper to write on?"

"Nah," Ray answers. "Just figuring out what to say - I'm not non-verbal atm." He sighs. "Um, I already got my Secret Santa's gift, but... ButIwasthinkingofgettingNoraagifttoo."

You stand up and rest a hand on Ray's shoulder. "I'm totally here for you, but would you mind repeating that for me? My ears can't process your words when you're speaking at a hundred miles an hour."

"Sorry. I said I was thinking of getting Nora a gift, too," Ray confesses. "But I don't know where she is, how to get it to her if I did, or if she even celebrates Christmas. Or how she'd react." Ray smiles sheepishly. "Y'know, with her being a former bad guy and all."

"Yeah, I had the same problem with Mick."

Ray jerks his head up so quickly, you fling your hand out in shock. You can feel a blush spreading across your cheeks.

"Okay, if you agree to ignore the implications there, I'll agree to ignore you implying that you still have a thing for Nora," you say. 

"Fine by me." Ray smiles. "For what it's worth, I think Mick likes you back. I mean, he does call you "Pretty"."

You shrug. "Thinking I'm hot doesn't equal feelings, but thanks. And good luck with Nora. I don't think she's the best person to crush on, but you do you, Ray." You smirk. "Or her." Ray jokingly punches you in the arm. "Hey!" 

"So, assuming I find Nora, you think I should get her something?" Ray asks. 

"Yeah, man. You could always pass it off as a "just because" gift if she's not a Christmas person." 

Ray pulls you into a brief hug. "Thank you for the advice and friendly ear." 

"No problemo."

Ray shakes his head, still smiling, and exits your room. He gives you a wave as the door closes.

 XxXx 

 A few days later, it's finally the moment of truth. Or to put it less dramatically - the day you all exchange your Secret Santa gifts. The result of you shoving in the tissue paper is a bag that's a little messy and half-hazard looking, but you feel it's appropriate. There's more to it than its rough exterior - just like Mick. 

You're the first one on the bridge. You place your gift by the center console and then pour yourself a drink. Maybe it'll help calm your nerves. 

"Great idea, Pretty." Mick's rumbling voice makes you jump - you hadn't heard him approach. Thankfully the glass didn't spill any more than a couple of drops. Mick brushes past you to pour himself... something. You're too busy trying not to shudder from that brief moment of contact. 

"Hey, um, Mick," you finally reply. "Have any trouble finding a gift?"

Mick shrugs. "Wrapping it was the worst part. Ended up just shoving it into a box."

"Yeah, I -"

Whatever you were about to say next is cut off by a deluge of Legends flooding onto the bridge. Several different conversations overlap as people try to put their gifts by the console without tripping over each other. You decide to find a comfortable spot to sit before all the good ones are taken. To your surprise, Mick grabs the one next to you. 

"So, who wants to go first?" Ray asks, once everyone has settled down. 

Sara nods at him. "It was your idea." 

Ray stammers and protests for a bit, but gives in once everyone starts chanting his name. He picks up a small, thin present that has dark blue wrapping paper with silver atoms. Ray tears through the paper less gently than expected to reveal a frame with a photo inside. It's a candid shot of him and a brunette woman - Anna, maybe - sitting on a park bench somewhere and laughing. Ray hastily wipes away a few tears. 

"Thank you," he begins, "whoever, um -"

Rip raises a hand. "I always wished there were more photos of Miranda and myself after she..." he clears his throat. "I hope it's alright that I-"

Before Rip can finish his sentence, Ray all but tackles him with a hug. Rip awkwardly pats his back for a bit, then gently pulls back. 

The rest of the gifts are less emotionally fraught, though no less meaningful. Ava receives two photos - one of her and Sara and one of her with the team - and a hug from Ray. Wally opens an awkwardly wrapped meditation fountain from Ava and gives Sara a set of throwing knives. Sara gives Zari a blanket with various video game symbols and characters, and Zari in turn gives Rip a hat and book from the Old West. Only you and Mick are left, which grants you both significant looks from everyone else. 

"Guess it's pretty obvious who yours is from," you joke to Mick. He grunts and goes to pick up one of the two remaining gifts. 

Your heart is in your throat as Mick carefully pulls out the tissue paper. He frowns at what's inside, but it smooths out once he picks up Dracula. 

"Original edition?" Mick murmurs. "Nice."

You swallow hard. "Look inside the front cover."

Mick does so, his eyebrows lifting as he reads whatever message Stoker left him. "Huh. Thanks, Nate."

Hearing someone call you by your first name usually doesn't send butterflies fluttering in your stomach, but your thing for Mick isn't that usual to begin with. 

"My turn, then." You stand up, grab the sole remaining box, and settle back down in your spot. 

The box is wrapped in simple silver paper and topped with a red bow. You stick the bow to your shirt before unwrapping the gift. First in the box is a photo of Harrison Ford in full Indiana Jones gear, complete with jacket. Underneath that, carefully folded up, is the exact same jacket in surprisingly good condition. 

"Is this -? Did you -?" You're at a loss for words. 

Mick avoids your gaze. "Stole it off the set. I added the picture so you could tell it's the same one."

"Thank you so much." Before you can stop yourself, you pull Mick into the best sideways hug you can manage. Your skin tingles all over when you finally let go, which almost distracts you from noticing that Mick's cheeks are a bit red. Huh. 

Sara pulls you from your thoughts by tapping something - a pen? - against a whisky bottle. "Now that the presents are done with, let's get drunk!"

Most of the team cheers and makes a beeline for the drink cart. Ray switches on some music after clarifying that it's secular Christmas/winter-themed songs only. Mick stands up and nods towards the drinks. 

"You want anything?" Mick asks. 

'A kiss' is what you want to say. What actually comes out of your mouth is, "Not right now. Thanks, though."

Mick grunts in the affirmative before leaving you alone to stew. Which lasts all of five seconds due to Wally zooming over to capture the newly open spot. 

"Y'know, I could get some mistletoe over here without Mick noticing," Wally whispers. "Wouldn't even take two seconds." 

You shake your head. "And make Mick mad at the both of us? Nah. I've known him for this long without him making good on his threats. A little longer would be nice."

Wally face palms, then leaves without saying anything more. He rushes back and - sue enough, there's a mistletoe hanging above where you're sitting. You roll your eyes and go to take it down. Unfortunately, tearing it off causes you to fall back from the amount of force you'd used. You're caught by strong arms before you can hit the ground. 

You look up to find that Mick's your timely rescuer - hero, a part of you whispers - and hastily right yourself on your own two feet. "Uh, thanks, Mick."

"What was that about?" Mick raises an eyebrow. "You shouldn't be drunk already."

"I'm not! It's just -"

"Just...?"

"Wally was trying to play a prank on us," you explain, "and I nearly fell over trying to get it down." You hold up the mistletoe and feel a blush start to spread across your face. "Funny, right?"

"What's funny? You nearly cracking your head open?" Mick asks. 

"No, um, uh-" you look down at the floor- "Wally thinking that making us kiss was a good idea for a prank. I mean, the idea of you and me -"

Mick catches your chin in his hand, tilting it up so your gazes meet. "'S not that bad an idea, actually."

"What - You - I -"

Before you can embarrass yourself even further, Mick pulls you into a kiss. You freeze for a moment, then surge forward to deepen it. Your hands settle on Mick's waist to tug him even closer. 

And then someone wolf-whistles. 

Mick sighs into your mouth, then gently pushes you away. "Should prob'ly continue this where we can have some privacy."

"My room's good," you reply. "Much closer than yours." You can't resist giving Mick another kiss. 

"Works for me, Pretty." Mick steps even farther back, then gestures to the nearest door. The two of you all but run out as you try to ignore all the teasing from the rest of the group. Sara shouts out to not do anything she wouldn't do. Like that's even that long of a list. 

...Which may have been the point. 

 XxXx 

 "Wait," you say, once you and Mick are finally in your room, "hang on a second, okay?"

Mick frowns but complies. "Y'not want to do this anymore?"

"For now?" You nod. "For now. It's just -" You run a hand through your hair. "I don't know if we're on the same page here, or if you even like me or anything."

"Would I kiss you if I didn't like you?" Mick asks.

"I mean, like me, like me. I mean -" moment of truth, here- "I'm in love with you. Have been for a while. Even when I was with Amaya, I think I felt something like that for you." Your eyes widen. "Not that I didn't love Amaya! It was just... both of you, I guess. Amaya and I were just starting to talk about it right before she, um, left." You pause to take a breath. "If you don't feel the same, that's fine, but - I don't want to do a friends with benefits thing if you don't. I don't think my heart could take it." It's a while before you can meet Mick's gaze. "So, that's where I'm at. How 'bout you?"

Mick folds his arms. "I'm not good at this feelings crap, but..." He sighs, then waves a hand around. "I feel the same. I think. 'm willing to give it a chance, anyway. Is that enough?"

"Yeah." You smile broadly. "Yeah, it is."

Mick shakes his head fondly - for him, at least - and then pulls you into another kiss.