#would make for a really good and really hatable antagonist

[pianokantzart]

I would absolutely love it if they make Wario a dark parallel to Mario motivation wise in the movies. Whereas Mario in the first film wanted to stop being treated as a joke for his short size and wanted to be seen as a hero, Wario’s motivation would be a dark mirror to that in that he wants to be seen as less of a joke and wants to be a hero only through greedy and selfish means and just wants all the fame that comes with it.

Oh yeah! And the idea of Wario being a "dark parallel" lines up with my headcanon that Mario is too occupied with helping people and working alongside his brother to focus on making money, and Luigi is mostly the one keeping the business side of things running. Mario doesn't care about "force majeure" or a "right of first refusal." The sentence "overseen by a business lawyer" makes him want to gag. He's just wants to fix pipes at a rate lower class people can afford.

Meanwhile, Wario is a shrewd business man whose one hinderance is his desire to take shortcuts. I can see a plot playing out where Wario starts "Super Wario Bros. Plumbing," and it becomes a bully business similar to what the Scapelli Plumbing/Construction Company was in the 1993 movie.

[paragonrobits]

I'm watching a three-hour long retrospective/summary of Immortal Hulk. I write these words at the 35 minutes mark and, my goodness, it's messed up. The One Below All is really one of the scariest villains in comics that I saw recently.

oh that's very good to hear! I would love to hear more in depth thoughts on what you think of Immortal Hulk once you've seen more of it, and I would be glad to give my own thoughts as well. Not only is Immortal Hulk just about my single favorite Hulk work since Planet Hulk and a major influence on my particular vibe for Bruce Banner and the Hulk system overall, but it is a tremendously complex and ambigious work that is well suited for analysis.

The One Below All is a very interesting entity in that its absolutely a Cosmic Horror story antagonist, and yet it has a lot of unsettling elements going on around it that FEELS more malevolent on a fundamental level, even if its mostly a force than a specific being in its own right. It can be VERY difficult to make this kind of character interesting or compelling, but the horror it leaves in its wake creates that interest, as those wounded by it can only plead 'WHY'?'. All it can say, is that with these hands it breaks, and with this mouth it howls, and it is left to the reader to contemplate how eerily similar this is to the Hulk, and how further he has to fall if the Hulk succumbs to hurting who he is by giving into his desire to lash out.

It also works very well because, in the Hulk In Hell arc, the OBA specifically is personified by Brian Banner, who is a vERY human antagonist, and a deeply unsettling one because of how real he is. Even in consideration for him being back from the dead multiple times (and there's something to say about how abuse and trauma resurface, and he just won't stop coming back), his actual character here is unsettlingly real. He's a self-pitying abuser who constantly blames everyone else for the things he did, refuses even years after his death to acknowledge that he ever did anything wrong. Often while its an effective tactic to contrast a more abstract villain with a very hatable down to earth one, it can be difficult to have the bigger but less understandable villain seem important but by having Brian effectively be OBA's mouth piece in a lot of ways in this arc, it works very well towards resolving that issue.

I think i might consider this the Lich Problem; in Adventure Time fandom, a frequent criticism of the recurring end-game antagonist the Lich was people saying he wasn't relatable, or difficult to write because he was hard to understand, and some people insisted he was a flat character, and I contend that he is a tremendously interesting one; he's profoundly alien and monstrous. (Also i have to love an arc where a triumphant moment is the slow build up towards analyzing what a devil might be, as a positive, and the Devil Hulk being both gruesome and heroic as he effectively says that since destroying the world is HIS job, he's not about to let anyone scab on his bit.)

[h-pelessly]

September 13, 2024

Tim is a dumbass FR. I'm so done with that MF. How is he so dumb like he's so one track minded on what HE needs instead of thinking on what WE should do. I get that he's busy and he only has a few days off, but like he really goes "this is what I need to do, fuck you and US. If you want to do something, you think/plan of it yourself." And how am I supposed to be okay with that? Am I supposed to wait on hand and feet for him to make up his mind? It's like he doesn't value me or my time at all.

Books I read this month;

Twisted Love by Ana Huang (6/10) I only read it for the hype and wanted to like it so badly because the fmc is a BIPOC character. Boy was I wrong. This was literally a wattpad story of a sunshine goody two shoes falling for a dangerous and rich boy. I didn't see the appeal in Alex, the MMC at all. Ava, the FMC, was boring. The plot had so many twist and turns like I just wanted it to be over. How could it be so long when there is literally nothing going on like pls.

Shutout by Mari Loyal (7.3/10) This was an ARC I couldn't complete on time, but I still got to it. It's a friends to lovers book which already isn't my fave trope first off, but the thing that threw me off more is the fact that the characters fell out of contact after being best friends for so long, but connected for the book, but I felt no chemistry. Like where is the banter? And I don't think the steamy kisses worked for this specific story like I feel like it should've been a fade to black moment because like why are we doing heated kissing in college and that's it? There's nothing wrong with it, but it felt super unrealistic while they were super horny young adults. Also, the author kept trying to force us to think Olivia's hot like I get and appreciate that Brooklyn, the mmc, is jealous and thinks she's smoking, but like what do we actually know about her other than the fact that she's edgy and has super short black hair?

Out on a Limb by Hannah Bonam-Young (8/10) This book is cute-- I enjoyed it sm. I'm not a big fan of one night stands or pregnancy tropes, but this one is so cute. Win, the fmc, didn't go through the sickness like in other books. Obviously she does behind the scenes, but the main point of the book is that she falls in love with the baby daddy, who has been in love with her since the beginning. He didn't push for more because he was scared she didn't want to, but he's there for her with open arms.

No Summer Hotter than You by Cee Yang (9/10) This book is so cute. Cuter than the first book, definitely. I knew Anthony would be an amazing guy, and that is true-- I love Anthony so much. I didn't love Shoua because her character didn't have the most dimension, but Anthony is my true love. And the spice was A LOT. I can't complain, but there was A LOT like was it enough??? Cee was so good by writing such hatable characters and the antagonists were so hatable. I loved this sm.

All the Lies by Nicola Sanders (7/10) I enjoyed this. I liked it more, but it was confusing to me as an audiobook. The scene shifts from and to the past and present, but I didn't even know so. That's what I didn't like. BUT I did love how the book pulled me in. It's the Silent Patient, but quicker pace. I also lowkey liked the fact that a WOMAN is the fmc and was the killer.

[anna12o]

You know what? It just hit me who would make the PERFECT Count Olaf. Tim Curry. Think about it, these producers seem to be dead set on casting the big name as the villain, and who the hell doesn't know Tim Curry, if not by name then at least by role. He did the naration for the audiobooks and the video game so he's already associated with the series, and he can play an enjoyably hatable villain.

Jim Carrey and Neil Patrick Harrison just don't make good villains because they're hard to hate, but Tim Curry doesn't have that problem, he's entertaining to watch and it isn't jarring to see him act the asshole because we don't always see him as a protagonist. And as far as looking the part is concerned? With this series that isn't really much of an argument, you SAW what they did to Harrison the amount of makeup these people were willing to shell out for could make anyone look like Count Olaf, and as we've seen from past roles he's used to working with child actors as an antagonist. I'm just saying the man would've been perfect, and I'm starting to think even I would be able to make a better adaptation than these supposed professionals.

[drtwit]

RWBY and the Shades of EEEEEEVIL!

Villains aren’t exactly uncommon, in fact, you could say they’re a constant thorn in the side of reality that only exist to make a story complicated. They hurt our favorite characters, monologue a second too long, spout threatening one-liners they probably spent weeks in front of the mirror preparing, and sometimes they even have the audacity to have sympathetic qualities just to mess with us even more. In short, they’re a bit rude. However, we’re not here to talk about the sympathetic and redeemable qualities of our nefarious opposition. No comebacks here. No, we’re here to discuss the bushy mustache twirlers, the little Hitler youths, whiny brats and the candy thieves who have a pronounced hatred of puppies.

With pure evil characters who are there to break the story over their knees and practice their maniacal laughter, it’s often that writers forget to incorporate the character’s motivation, or at least fear the mention of that motivation. See, I find that many people find it hard to recognize that even for the most insane and cartoony of bastards, there is a reasoning, however twisted, behind their actions. The Joker commits crimes to spark chaos, push Batman to question his moral code and prove life is just one big joke. Darth Sidious wants to control the entire Galaxy and believe that nothing can be allowed to surpass him, not even his legacy. Zamasu wants to fulfill his image of a perfect universe and see’s Mortals as a stain upon reality. Prince Lacroix wants a bigger dick... Oh yeah, and something about fearing super powered Asians and the apocalypse, but I think he’s just racist. They have motivations and their actions are fueled by how they reason they can achieve their goals.

In RWBY, we have our fair share of evil ice cream flavors. Power hungry Fem Fatal? Darwin’s Edgy Fangirl? Sinster Overlord shrouded in mystery? Extremist swallowed by his hatred? Mustaches? We have them all, so feel free to choose your poison. But the one I want to talk about to illustrate this trend is the most pure evil of the bunch: Jac-ass Schnee.

This blight upon the good name of a bitching stache has been a point of apathy for me in the show, both as a character who always managed to feel like a background character forced to be an antagonist and as poorly done part of Weiss’s arc. He’s the best example of what happen when you need a character to always be a villain, no matter the scene, no matter the context, he always has to be hatable and pathetic to make sure you still hate him. This leads to a rather inconsistent character.

There’s a previous point of contention the fandom had with his post-volume 3 portrayal, where both in the way Weiss acts and how he’s mentioned prior to volume 4, there seems to be a disconnect to the abusive corporate worm we’d eventually meet. In the first three seasons, he and his company is something that Weiss clearly tried to emulate, something Weiss seemed to take enough pride in to be such a snob about it, something that Weiss goes out of her way to defend against accusations from Blake. You get the idea that Weiss’s father is harsh, distant and negligent, but that he’s still someone Weiss seems to hold a little affection for. Go to volume 4 and the way the two interact make it suddenly makes prior Weiss moments rather questionable, she seems suddenly very clear about how much she doesn’t like him, he’s very obvious with how much of a dirt bag he is and the everything we learn about the SDC and Atlas elite in general make it hard to think Weiss wouldn’t have agreed with Blake back in volume 1. Hell, I found it odd how Winter back in volume 3 cared about Weiss not returning her abusive father’s calls, you’d think Winter would be like “Yeah, fuck ‘em.”

But okay, maybe it’s just some subtleties missed, Jacques is the straight up corporate sleazebag, doing anything he can to get that payday. He has money, and he knows how to use it, dominating the market and knowing which shortcuts to take to move things in his favor. Now, let’s strip away these elements to the concrete core of the the type of evil Jac is. His evil is one of apathy towards morals in the face of greed. He wants money and power, and doesn’t care what he has to do to get it. He’s a good business man who’s worked his way up the ladder. This worked for volume 4, he uses Weiss as a symbol of sympathy towards future buyers at a party, he pretends to care about the fall of Beacon to look good and slaps Weiss when she starts to threaten that with her antics.

And then here comes volume 7 to take him down in the lamest way possible. We have the build up: Weiss running away, the songs about her wanting to break free, the whole motivation of bringing the SDC back to it’s former glory, the fear of having to return to Atlas on her own, ect. He’s her personal villain and as such you’d expect her returning home after he’s had two volumes to build up his already substantial power during a crisis where his business is needed more than ever, he’d take on a rather daunting role as secondary antagonist to Watts and Tyrian. Our first scene with him in volume 7 tells us the answer.

He storms in, easily loses his cool, is revealed that no one really likes him, Ironwood makes it clear he has very little power here, he’s unable to do anything other than throw petty insults at Weiss and immediately he’s stopped being the corporate bastard he’s supposed to be. This continues with the rest of the volume with him, where the writing seems to make him multiple villains at the same time and reduce him to Watts’s mindless flunkie who could have been replaced by any character. His actions don’t connect to his motivation and situation, there’s nothing that makes me believe that he actually reasoned that this would advance his goals.

He’s a ruthless business man who brought the SDC from poultry earnings to a global monopoly. But he doesn’t have one lick of charisma or cunning to the point he thinks taking away people’s jobs will get them to support him rather than hate him.

His company is constantly facing controversies, accusations and attacks with apparently everyone hating him. But he has shit security and isn’t the least bit paranoid of bugs from potential journalists in his house.

He wants money, power and security. But goes along with Watt’s plans that clearly weaken Atlas’s defenses and isn’t suspicious at all at Watts wanting admin access to Mantle’s entire system with no attempt at insurance in case the clearly suspicious mad man doesn’t stab him in the back.

He doesn’t care about Weiss at all, she’s simply a means to an end, even disowning Winter for joining the military. But he still let Weiss attend Beacon, went back to get Weiss from Beacon when he had Jac 2.0 on standby to be his heir.

He’s a man who’s been in the game of feeding people bullshit for years to justify his bad deeds. But he immediately crumbles the moment he’s accused of anything.

He wants to sweep all accusations of unfair labor practices under the rug so they don’t damage his business. But apparently he allowed faunus to get branded with his logo.

On and on it goes, where his motivation is thrown away because “He’s evil, he doesn’t need a reason to do bad things.”. Joker wants to push Batman over the edge, thus he creates a situation that fucks with Batman’s moral code. Sidious wants to crush the Galaxy’s hope, so he constructs a symbol of fear big enough that it can be seen looming overhead from the planet below. Zamasu wants to purge the universe, so he takes the body of the man who embodies the ‘sins’ of mortals and travels to another timeline to make sure the much more powerful Gods and Zeno can’t interfere with his plans. La Fuckwad knows that everyone is looking for an excuse to get rid of him and knows the apocalypse might be coming, so he manipulates a fledgling vampire to get him the sarcophagus of an ancient vampire so he can absorb that refine ‘87 vintage blood wine and become powerful enough to survive.

You can see how they reason they need to do the things they do to achieve their goal. What connects A to B. The only way Jac’s action sync up with his motivation is if he is such a profound moron that Weiss besting him means nothing. “Wow, you beat the illiterate kid at reading, well done.”

As I stated earlier, Jac is viewed strictly as a bastard, strictly as Weiss’s antagonist, in every scene the show has to push in our faces that he’s the bad guy and that Weiss is superior to him. He never gains an advantage over Weiss, or puts Weiss in a difficult situation, he never has a real chance in this story. He is there to be arrested by Weiss. Every scene changes him to be the villain it needs for him to be for us to hate him the most. So, in some he will be calm and composed to frustrate us, while others he’ll be made to yell like a petulant child to make him pathetic and other’s he’ll just be stroking his mustache. His first confrontation with her ends with him getting slapped down and humiliated, then he’s just a yes man who does what Watts tells him to do with no thought or agency, then Weiss just walks into his party, get’s handed victory on a silver platter and arrests him.

That’s it. You got your ice cream flavors, and all of them can be pretty good on their own. However, if you get a bunch of them, stick them in a bowl and then just take a few bites and leave ‘em out in the sun, all you’re gonna get is regular intervals of a muddy looking puddle that eventually becomes grey sludge.

[lotus-mirage]

episode 26 + 27 liveblog

(still not watching intro b/c spoilers)

Who’s this guy? (Su She) That seemed pretty accusatory.

Suspicious at the amount of flattery

So you can just start a clan like that. Huh.

Wait, ‘teenage hero’? Are they still teenagers? Explains some things, but. Yikes.

Oh dear he’s got his flute in hand already

And now we see where the ominous music is leading

I guess this other Jin disciple is taking Wen Chao’s vacated place as ‘blunt and hatable antagonist’

There he is! Didn’t expect wwx to be making this kind of rescue.

Aaaand he’s back to not emoting much

Asking after Wen Ning directly? Hmm.

Poor bean

Oh wow that was absolutely not the right depth for that bow

Ohhhhhh boy. The arguing and threatening could probably be swept under the rug with some finesse, but... challenging all the clan leaders to stop him from killing almost definitely cannot be. Jeez.

Well. I’d assume that it’d be extremely difficult to salvage his reputation after that.

Oh jeez

Between this and the fact that we’ve seen his corpse in episode 2, I’m not feeling good about Wen Ning’s chances.

No yeah I think he’s dead unless his ghost power kick in

Eef. That disregard from his father probably cost wwx any bits of Meng Yao’s regard.

I’m glad they’re acknowledging that he was right at least

They’re being made of work even in this weather?

I am genuinely distraught right now

They’re accusing the old lady and the child she was carrying of being cultivators!?

Is this all of them!???

Like, the entirety of the Wen clan remnants?

Oh god

They’re literally wading through the bodies

fuck

Oh my god

I forget what that pouch is. Did we know?

meant for testing for what

Oh god they’re even killing the survivors

Welp, these guys are dead

(Whoops, they forgot to make his hair look wet. Unless it magically dried)

Oh he’s crying

And here comes the necromancy I guess

He’s not being puppeted!?

Is that from his ghost disease thing?

How does she know that?

What was that???? He called another name and he stopped?

What was that?

And a lone survivor to tell the tale

Oh there are some survivors

Are there enough horses for that?

Is that the ending music!!?

Ahhhhhhh

fuck okay next one

- episode 27 -

I had to do stuff between watching the episodes, but I’m right back to being sad now

Wait, how can he save Wen Ning? I guess I’m not fully clear on his status in terms of life or death

:,(

Okay these last handful of scenes have been incredible to watch - very cinematic

Ahhhhhhh

He’s crying

I wonder where they’ll go?

Oh that’s ominous bird calls

Wait

Is this the Burial Mounds?? Why would he lead them here?

Was there a time skip or did WWX just move incredibly fast????

Also wow that’s some framing going on

I don’t think there were even 50 survivors left, actually

This entire exchange between clan leaders just has me going >:( at the screen the entire time

The Jin leader is trying to turn Jiang Chang against him. I can’t believe this. >:/

I hate this guy so much

Mianmian go!!!

Awww. She shouldn’t have had to secede, but I guess that’s sexism and politics.

>:(

>:(

I hate him so much

Thank you! Stand up for yourself!

He’s still doing what the Jin leader wants, which sucks, but at least we don’t have to listen to that anymore.

Is LWJ helping Mianmian? Please?

‘No association with evil’ ouch

His father’s lesson?

What! I want to know about his parents!!!

Tragedy?

Jin Zixuan is really indecisive, haha. Although I guess it’s probably warranted given current family tensions

He’s worried, which is sweet, but also like. No. She’s going.

How many song variations are there???

Is that Wen Ning under the talismans?? What’re they doing?

Where did she get the food from?

Awww! Whatever they’re doing is working, then?

Wow, how did they get the place up and running so fast? It didn’t look like there was any living greenery.

Awwww his interactions with the kid (Yuan?) are adorable

He tells him he’s gonna plant him and the kid goes right over and sits down in the dirt

Okay I wasn’t liking this episode at all beforehand but this kind of makes up for it

He’s helping bury himself!!

Pfft, Wen Qing

Of course he brute-forces his way through the barriers

:(

Awww

He’s living in a cave??

Cutting in the middle of a conversation again

End notes:

I am disappointed with everyone who was at that conference except Mianmian and maybe LWJ. Jiang Chang is on thin ice.

I am very glad that he actually went to see things for himself, but a little wary of him misinterpreting anything. Or getting manipulated.

I’m also glad that Jin Zixuan is starting to figure out how to talk to Jiang Yanli, but disappointed in him for not standing up for Mianmian. Also slightly confused over the fact that Jiang Yanli seems to have stayed in Carp Tower?

I really hated all the politics talk. It wasn’t even interesting, just characters I hate needling the ones I like. Unpleasant.

Interested to see whatever’s happening with LWJ. We seem to be heading towards getting more backstory on him, which is nice.

There is tension between all of the characters that I like and I hate it. (Romantic tension is, naturally, not a part of this category)

I’m glad that Wen Ning is getting resurrected in a different manner than the usual zombies. It’s interesting, and I wonder if there’s any way it could be replicated? Probably not (at least in canon).

WWX started a village! It’s adorable and I love it and I am supremely worried for its livelihood. He also seems to be doing much better there, honestly.

[mori-sketchbook]

What did you think of Lorenzo? Do you think he was overhyped, under, hatable in a good or bad way or OP? With him now out of the story, do you have any hopes for a new main antagonist that is besides the war?

i am SO glad he’s gone, i think he was an interesting “mini boss” but i really did not enjoy him as a character, if he had been the main antagonist for any longer I would have gotten so very bored of him, honestly knowing that he was intended to escape during the battle he died in that would have put me over the point of being completely bored of him.The fact he died during the live game allowed me to enjoy him more than i would’ve otherwise, the return of the missing charatcers, all the guest characters that lead to it really brought the most out of that arc, if Lorenzo had carried on outside of that arc i’d just…. he just doesn’t interest me and I dont feel like the Oni aspect added anything oddly enough, i usually love those reveals but it just didn’t add any shock or interest this time around. Maybe because the fandom figured it out the day he aired but who knows.as for who i want next hmm… i honestly hope they team never directly becomes involved in the war, im really enjoying the fact they are just civilians trying to make some money and fix their messed up lives. There’s obviously got to be a Drow/Krik coming up who will do what they can to get the dodecohedron but i honestly hope the M9 side with them in some way, see the Empire as the bigger threat, it’d be nice to see the Drow portrayed in a more sympathetic light for a change and i think these characters will be able to relate enough to do so

[takaraphoenix]

Phoe’s Book Report - City of Bones, pages 281-308

Warning: The following report is rated S for Salty. The author is tired and cranky after those two chapters.

I marvel at the fact that we got through two whole chapters without any cat-comparisons for Jace. That’s new.

So, we left off when our protagonists were at the hotel with the vampires to save Simon the rat, just as werewolves barged in.

Well, that was a giant let-down.

Omnious threats that cause the main characters to instantly flee even though, as I suspect, staying and learning more might have been more beneficial.

Clary and Jace literally riding off into the sunset on a flying bike really makes me crave Jalec getting flying bikes on the show though. Like. I now need this, I physically need this to happen.

Moving on to the two only things about these chapters that I actually liked.

Small quote from the books that I posted earlier, about Jimon and a spongebath, including Simon calling Jace “handsome”. Yes. I am 100% behind my Jimon content. I find it wildly unrealistic that Simon would joke in that manner with Jace, considering their track-record so far in the book, but I will not complain about my ships having moments in canon.

Other thing I liked; Alec.

He hasn’t done... much in this book so far. One could also say “nothing” and it wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration, really. It was cute how him and Jace fawned over the flying bikes, but that was kind of it.

Him getting all up in Clary’s face and telling her off? Gold. Pure gold.

Protective!Alec is my favorite Alec anyway.

But him telling Clary off after she’s gotten everything on a golden platter without as much as a “thank you” - seriously, she is so entitled and such a brat about everything, demanding everyone’s help and comfort and attention as though they ought to cater to her every whim. But that Alec is the one gathering up the guts to tell her that she’s the cause for all their problems was so nice, because I think if I were a Lightwood, I’d have been fed up with that chick for A While at that point and especially so after she now dragged Jace off toward a vampire den. And now has the audacity to claim that Jace would have gone either way. Uhm, sorry? He only went because you got your best friend turned into a rat by not paying the least bit attention to where he was and then you got him stolen right out of your backpack by a vampire. Jace went with you to protect your sorry, defenseless ass and you, once again, didn’t muster a “thank you”. As you contiue since day one.

Now, let me continue on with a quote from the book;

She could see how she was hurting him, and it made her glad. Someone else ought to be in pain for a change. - page 300, Clary about Alec

Can someone, anyone really, explain to me why the author is trying so very hard to make the reader hate the main character?

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with a despicable, hatable character. Those are, in fact, very important. Not everything is rainbows and unicorns. Characters like Valentine or Camille or Aldertree actually improve the story, because it gives you antagonists that you can just plainly hate, without remorse.

But it should not be your protagonist. Why would you antagonize your main character?

If someone asks me why I keep calling book!Clary a petty, vindictive bitch, I will direct them to this very quote. She literally just wants to see Alec in pain for the sake of ”not just her hurting anymore”.

The more I read of this book, the more I love the show, to be honest. What they changed is amazing and good and pure. Show!Clary would never do shit like that. Show!Clary is a protagonist. Even when she fails and does something dumb, she does it while thinking she’s doing the right thing.

Book!Clary only does what is best for Clary, she is selfish, self-absorbed, petty, mean, entitled, spiteful and vindictive. I feel like every time I write about her, I add more negative adjectives to it, because the author keeps making her more despicable.

And finally, when someone calls her out on being an entitled, selfish brat who doesn’t care about risking the lives of others as long as it helps her, she has to personally attack Alec just to hurt him, just so someone else would hurt.

Why would you do that? Literally, among the very many questions I have about the world and the characters and all things considered, if there was only one question I could ask the author and get an answer for, it would be this. Why would you make your own main character from whose POV you tell your story to be such an utter cunt?

Before I’m bursting a blood-vessel here, lemme move on to the thing that definitely bothers me the most so far.

“I don’t get it,” she said. “Jace is a Nephilim.” - page 299

No. No, no, no, no, no.

He is not. He is a Nephil. He is not a Nephilim. He is a Nephil.

This... This enrages me on a ridiculous level. Now, repeat after me:

It is one Cherub, but two Cherubim.

It’s one Seraph, but three Seraphim.

It’s one Malakh, but four Malakhim.

Do you see a pattern here? Do you?!

This is as if Rick Riordan had written things like, I don’t know...

Percy saying; “And this is Blackjack, he’s my pegasi.”

Grover saying; “This is Juniper my girlfriend, she’s a Dryades.”

Tyson saying; “Rainbow is my hippocampi.”

If you borrow a word from a foreign language, you can, you even should in such mythological cases such as Clare and Riordan do. But if you only borrow the plural and stubbornly use it for singular, it mainly just makes you look very dumb, really. Like, seriously. Imagine someone talking about “one cati”, you’d snort.

It’s just... It’s something that rubs me the wrong way. Like. A lot. Really, you should hear me rant about Grimm’s abuse of my mother tongue (no, you shouldn’t, it ain’t pretty, believe me).

Yeah, no. All done. Just, you know, I’ll blatantly refuse her abuse of the plural word Nephilim for a singular Nephil. If you see me use Nephil in my stories, assume that I did so with a very salty and bitter thought directed at Cassandra Clare.

[someoneintheshadow456]

VC2 you clever bastard... you made levelling up and promotion CHARACTER wise and not class wise like the first game. This means I can’t just drag my 10 favourite guys into battle and leave everyone else on the bench. I actually have to... *gasp* CHANGE MY ROSTER PERIODICALLY TO HAVE A BALANCED SQUAD! Oh the humanity!

Also there is WAY too much branching now. Snipers have become an offshoot of Scouts, they split Shocktroopers and Engineers for no apparent reason, they made Mortarers a separate class and I have absolutely no clue what Armour Techs do and at this point I’m too afraid to ask. But they DID buff Lancers and Engineers so they’re no longer one-trick ponies, so there’s that. 

You apparently have to also actually USE the characters to get their story events. Wow they REALLY want you to use every character and are pulling out all the stops to make you do so. 

Asshole Federation Ambassador from VC1 is back, and this time he’s pally-pally with the revolutionaries. And the revolutionary leaders - who are all father, son, and daughter, have varying opinions on how to deal with him. They all agree he’s a POS but can’t decide whether to out-gambit him or just shoot him. But wait... where’s their mother? Maybe the leader’s wife was killed by a Darcsen... and THAT’S why he made Fantasy Nazis? It’s a piss-poor excuse but it would still explain some things. AND it looks like Maxie’s Cheap Imitation Valkyria Tech has gone out to the public, because the revolutionaries are using that as their weapon of choice. 

And OF COURSE, the resident Mean Girl Julianna is racist. Zeri is such a major tsundere that he even tried to make standing up for Avan against this prejudiced bitch look like an insult. She’s not even the good kind of hatable that you feel motivated to win and wipe the smirk off her face. She’s just... uncomfortable to watch because no mean girls act THIS bad in real life.  She’s more like a Disney Channel bully than a realistic one. Which means she’s going to turn good eventually. 

Speaking of Zeri I developed a HC for him. It’s such a relief that there’s no love triangle in this game, but I can’t help but wonder about Zeri sometimes. I know this game was made in 2011, and there’s no way this would be the case. But I have a very strong suspicion that Zeri is gay. His whole deal with Avan seems to give off a VERY telling amount of rainbow flags. 

Him being too loud during a test is a really flimsy reason to continuously be antagonistic to him. And his insults are oddly defensive and forced, almost like he’s TRYING to hate him. 

In the same scene he accidentally let slip he has a choking kink (his comment about “asphyxiation sounding somewhat appealing” in context to Cosette holding her breath. IS2G I did a double take when I heard it). 

He CLAIMS to hate Avan and see him as a joke but still hangs around him. He constantly insults everything he does, but in the end still believes in him. Even the way he insults Avan seems to be to motivate him rather than in actual malice. AND, to top it off, he doesn’t act this way with ANYONE ELSE. He seems to treat everyone else, especially girls, like they don’t exist but constantly bites back at Avan. 

When Avan asks his motives, he says “it’s none of your business”, but there’s a subtext of “I want you to break my shell so I will tell you” and it’s evident from his again, defensiveness and tone. 

He’s very possessive of him. When Avan gets friendly with girls, Zeri doesn’t so much as bat an eye. But when Avan talks to other boys... his behaviour can only be described as that of the dog in the manger. 

What if Darcsen culture is violently homophobic, as opposed to slightly more accepting Gallian culture? This would give the Darcsens some depth, as real-life cultures are never perfect, all of them have some toxic elements. And in real life, some cultures are more tolerant of LGBT than others. Zeri is also 17, the age when most young people begin questioning their sexual orientation.

Perhaps... even though he came on recommendation... he wasn’t at Lanseal by choice. Maybe his parents forced him to go to there to “make him a real man.” Or worse... he DID choose to go to Lanseal because the alternative was conversion therapy. Or perhaps his parents didn’t figure out he was gay yet, but he did, and thought himself that military training would turn him straight. 

This would make his situation worse. Gallians hate him for being a Darcsen, and Darcsens hate him for being gay. The only people who accepted him are Avan and Cosette. But in Zeri’s mind, if Avan ever found out about such “inappropriate feelings”... he would surely abandon him too. So Avan could never know... and the only way he could never know... was if Zeri pretended to hate him. 

AGAIN, the game would never do this. But I will die on this hill as it shakes things up and gives Zeri and the Darcsens some nuance. Knowing the game however, they will pair up Zeri with some random girl he has no chemistry with. Or perhaps not pair him at all. Who knows. 

VC 2 Log 1:

VC1 was such an emotional journey for me to play that I just had to play VC2 and make a log for it like I did with VC1.

I got PPSPP to work on my computer and now VC2 is ready to go and...

It’s a MASSIVE downgrade compared to VC1. I mean in technical terms I expected that. I mean what is the capacity of the PSP compared to the capacity of the Switch/PS4/PC? Not much. It’s not the graphics and specs that are the issue.

It’s the story and difficulty. I mean, remember how relieved I was that VC1’s protagonists, save Isara were in their 20s and 30s instead of dumbass teenagers? Which meant I could relate to them a lot more and they (mostly) didn’t behave like a bunch of idiots? And if they DID act like idiots they got over it pretty quickly?

Well now, VC2’s protagonists ARE dumbass teenagers, specifically dumbass high schoolers. So now we have ALL the high school cliches. The determined hero guy, the cute girl best friend, the cold and cocky male friend who has a love triangle with the hero and the cute girl, the mean girl who thinks she’s better than everyone, the school newspaper hound, the quiet book smart girl, the jock, etc, etc. I noticed one of the characters was Edy’s sister, but other than that my squad is nothing special. We even had Avan pull the “oh no I’m late for school!” Cliche that should have died in the 2000s but this game was made in 2011!!

We basically went from Fantasy WW2, to bootleg Fire Emblem Three Houses pre-Timeskip. Except without ANY of the uniqueness that FE3H had.

And also they changed things up in gameplay? They made it so only engineers can use Ragnaid and that only Scouts can use grenades? And they removed Snipers and replaced them with Armour Tech? Like why? What was wrong with Snipers? And why nerf engineers while simultaneously buffing them? Engineers were already kind of sucky in VC1. And they made it so once a soldier goes down they’re down for THREE missions?! Not just the next turn?! Seriously?! Also apparently you’re allowed to change your Squad’s classes just like FE3H?! I have a very strong suspicion FE3H copied this game at this point...

The only good thing about this so far is the tutorials are MUCH more dumbed down and simplified compared to VC1... which would have been useful in VC1 when I was a total newbie running through Mill Plaza screaming as I tried to avoid getting mowed down by tanks. Now however they’re just a nuisance.

I really hope things pick up with the story and we get out of Kawaii Animu Saved by the Bell to the REAL war. Like there’s a whole mystery about how Avan’s brother died and the school won’t tell him and Fantasy Nazis are now coming to wreak havoc because Cordelia confessed to her lineage. Like that’s all cool stuff and I wished we focused on THAT. I don’t give a shit about Avan and his friends getting bullied by the mean girls and pissing off his teachers.

As for characters I like? These are all kids... so it’s hard to get that invested in them. Zari (I think that’s his name but I just call him glasses boy) I like the most and I probably would have crushed on him when I was in high school. And I do like the teacher character, he’s kind of handsome and even calls the kids slackers to their face(?!), but... that’s it really. Also the teacher was a sniper in EW2?! Bitch where?? He wasn’t in my- maybe he was in Faldio’s division, which is why I never saw him... And the drill instructor is back but he’s nicer?

I even saw Welkin and Alicia in the opening, maybe they’ll come back for a bonus mission to show these kids what’s up. Hopefully they do...

[mattsmoviewatchingworld]

Opinion of the Week (May. 1‒5, 2018): Avengers | Infinity War (2018) <8>

It should be said that this movie contains a shocking plot device that probably ranks among the biggest plot twists in cinematic history, like as big as the twists from The Sixth Sense, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and others. This review is a non-revealing spoiler-free review. It really feels like everything has been leading up to this. This is the 19th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in its 10 year evolution, averaging almost 2 movies per year. It's been a pretty up-and-down roller-coaster saga in quality, with some of the movies better than others, but the producers and writers overseeing the whole unfolding really have made a point to show that they know what they've been doing. And this one has the biggest ensemble cast of them all; it looked like it was making itself out to be the end-all be-all include-all wide-encompassing story; however, there are two significant MCU characters who don't appear in this one; at this time I won't say which ones. And this is not really the end of the Marvel Cinematic saga. It looks a little like a finale story, but really there's no end in sight, and there's no telling very specifically what's happening after this episode. But here we are, with Avengers | Infinity War (I'm using a vertical line mark in place of a colon here, for fun, because that's how the end-credit title screen punctuates it). Of all the important and unimportant episodes that came before, the ones that most made me excited about this one were Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Both of these movies included significant discussion about the Infinity Stones, and a lot of other movies included some objects or artifacts that had close connection to the Infinity Stones. I've wanted the Guardians of the Galaxy to meet the Avengers for a while, assuming that several past movies could have included a cross-over scene, but this is the movie that most promised that to happen, and it's good episode for that to happen in. The first and second Avengers movies and the first Guardians movie included the villain Thanos in minor roles, in a way that built up to him being a major villain and maybe front-and-center star of this third Avengers movie. And what a villain he is. From his first appearance in the end credits of The Avengers, he looked like a major baddie. And now, as of 2018, he has entered the top 10 best (evillest, hatable, antagonistic) bad guys of all of cinematic history, and he has become the best bad guy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever. The movie is fun, the characters have a lot of interactions, there's good humor, music, special effects, makeup/hairstyling, costuming, etc., and let me talk about some of those for a moment. The humor is fun, mostly in the first part of the story, though the humor diminishes as the serious and important twist-involving content comes up at the end (which might be somewhat divisive to the fans). The music by Alan Silvestri is good, and the end credit music is probably something that really needs to be absorbed and appreciated. The Spider-Man suit worn by young Peter Parker just might be the coolest suit the character has ever worn. I didn't really expect that I would like this one as much as I liked the high-excelling best MCU episode, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and I don't, but this is my third-favorite in the entire saga. Take an infinity sign, turn it sideways, and that’s my rating.