#you being a genius does not give you an excuse to know who the villain is off vibe alone

[oifaaa]

So like is it just me or does it seem like genius level characters are hard for some writers to write a lot of times they seem to fall into the same pit falls of either making the genius character clairvoyant or just dumbing down everyone else in the entire world

[egg-emperor]

It's unfortunate how people have forgotten how cool Eggman is lately. Like he isn't some innocent old man, or a soft wholesome dad, or goofy harmless clown, he hasn't been at any point in the games. He's genuinely super cool and badass but it's being downplayed in favor of presenting him as some silly harmless docile domestic old man

I genuinely see him reduced to things like "silly angry dad" in those posts about summarizing Sonic characters for example- and despite it being a joke (one that really misunderstands his character), it does seem it's all the majority of fandom sees him as now. It's sad when you want to appreciate the cool stuff but nobody around you seems to like it or care

Now he's mostly treated like he's just a guy who doesn't really want to be evil and is actually innocent or excusable, or wants to be a villain but he's hardly one and is just very silly and not a threat at all (that's Boom Egg not game Egg), or is just A Dad to all the characters and an uncharacteristically perfect one at that. But man I just like him as he is in game

He's a villainous egotistical scientific genius, a dangerous destructive diabolical world conquering threat! He has dark intentions and builds epic machines, has thrilling intense violent fights with enemies, is selfish, threatening and murderous, commits world shattering atrocities, enjoys being terrible and causing trouble!

One of the ways he's most entertaining is through all the crazy diabolical shit he does! He's responsible for tons of the coolest moments in the series and many of the stories wouldn't even happen without him and his schemes! A lot of his charm and charisma is in the way he thrives as a villain with his showmanship, dramatics, and passion

His determination to keep trying to reach his goals and not let anyone stop him is a strength and admirable, it's not something he needs to give up and become good and sit around doing nothing like in Frontiers forever. His agency, security, and genuine confidence in himself and is villain is great and he doesn't need to lose it

Both his creativity and how fucked up he is shows in his awesome destructive robots, weapons, and dangerous theme parks and that makes it so fun and fascinating. His qualities and what makes him entertaining and admirable are all in his villainy, showing not in silly cute harmless ways but thrilling entertaining badass ways which is great

The way he's selfish, manipulative, dangerous, and lethal makes him an exciting threat and results in shocking and impactful moments in the series when other characters are affected by his harmful actions. It also makes him and his mind interesting to dig into and explore to understand his mindset and what makes him tick too

He wants to conquer the world, make everything about him with the entire world changed and built in his superior image with his logo on everything, and rule a glorious empire full of crazy creative deadly theme parks and robots, where everybody is forced to worship and serve. And he'll raise hell and cause mass amounts of destruction to get it

He builds dangerous destructive violent robots and traps poor critters inside and theme parks designed to kill you that throws you off the coasters, tries to wipe out cities, blows up government facilities, blows up half the moon and threatens to destroy the world next, holds people hostage sometimes with a gun to head, literally broke the world apart, and awakens terrifying eldritch horror monsters to use in his plans and will fight to the death to accomplish his goals and much much more

THAT'S COOL AS FUCK

It makes me more sad than angry that this isn't recognized, appreciated, and explored by more fans and people don't get that. I just want to find more people who enjoy this and are fascinated by this and want to talk about and explore this as much as I do but most people hardly ever really give it much thought. I only know a very small amount of people who actually talk about what Eggman does in the games at all, even though everything he does is badass and exciting and deserves so much more attention

Eggman is FUCKING AWESOME and I'm always going to emphasize and appreciate that here 💜🥚

[crispywizardtale]

GMMTV 2025 RANKING (MY OPINION)

WU The Series

SKYNANI SERIES!?!?!?!? HECK YEAH. It's quite obvious that this plot trailer was rushed as there is only one scene in it. Either way it is going to be amazing because SkyNani is in it and because it has fantasy elements in it as well as red string so this being a BL is high possibility.

Imina SkyNani. Imina NaniSky.

Melody of Secrets

My ForceBook got another series in my favorite genre. I grew up on criminal series so having my absolute favorite actors play in one is something I will never get over. The plot looks incredible and the acting in it was amazing. I am so glad they got a great director and I am so glad they got something so different from their usual roles. I will never get over the fact that this and original work and that the CEO himself asked for ForceBook to act in this series l.

Ticket to Heaven

THAILAND IS DOUNG A SERIES ABOUT MY RELIGION?!?!?! EXCUSE ME?!?! I'm excited!! I am sure they will make us villains, but it's GeminiFourth, so I might forgive them even if they do. Everything else looks great especially the church they are in and the robes that the priest is wearing. I'm excited about it.

Dare You To Death

My boys JoongDunk keep on delivering. Enemies to lovers?!?! AS DETECTIVES NO LESS!! I love myself some good murder mystery. I loved the push and pull dynamic in the trailer and i love the roles they will have.

My Romance Scammer

What do you mean Ohm got paired with Fluke?!? A different Fluke, but Fluke nonetheless. And JuniorMark?!?! Win win for me. I loved Ohm since UWMA came out and I watched his series so I have to watch this one as well. Plot wise I think it one of the best ones he had (UWMA and Room 609 deserve to be mentioned). I love how different the story it. Usually they make fake marriages, but not scam ones so I am so in for it. I just find it very interesting and I want to know how they will play it out.

Memoir of Rati

PERIOD DRAMA!!!!!! WITH GREATINN!!!!!! I love I Feel You Linger In The Air and this has some very nice similarities with it. The plot is very interesting and wonder how they will pull it out since it is their first period series.

Girl Rules

What in the female only friends was that?!?! Yes to the mess give me more!! I love how messy they are making this years series and this one probably takes the crown.

Only Friends Dream On

MESS. That's is it. Boston showing up in the trailer just signals what kind of mess it will be. JossGawin I'm super excited for you.

Whale Store XOXO

MilkLove? Yes please. Finally something cute. Everything else is either a mess or a murder mystery so this will fit well in between.

Me and Thee

Not a huge PondPhuwin stan but damn does this look good. I love mafia stories so this too fits my taste perfectly. I am already in love with the tattoo Pond will have. Very interesting and I will definitely watch it.

A Dog and a Plane

I'm for anything TayNew have for me especially a BL. It will be interesting to watch. Tay acting like an asshole while New is desperate to save his relationship. Also caption and flight attendant relationship?! Genius.

Magic of Prophecy

GMMTV HIRED THE SIGN DIRECTOR?!?! WTF GMMTV!!! I am more excited for the director than the series because it's all I can focus on at the moment.

Mu-Tu-Luv

Interesting concept and will definitely watch few of the stories while probably skip the other ones

Head 2 Head

Another enemies to lovers with forced proximity! I do love me some enemies to lovers. Looks good and looks promising but we shall see.

Cats For Cash

Will just say CATS. (as a huge cat person)

Burnout Syndrome

Finally a love triangle series with some red flags in it.

Love You Teacher

What the heck if this plot?! Am I the only one who finds this super weird???

That Summer

Controversial but here i am.

Boys in Love

Not interested. That trailer gave me nothing sorry.

The Love of Siam: The Musical

Nope I don't like musicals.

[horizon-verizon]

What do you think of this post:

https://at.tumblr.com/bbygirl-aemond/when-villainizing-alicent-backfires-or-how/onaosayifzd6

I agree that Rhaenyra is smarter than people think, but I think that post sort of excuses how cruel Alicent was to order Rhaenyra’s baby brought to her. Also, two things can be true at the same time. Rhaenyra did ruin Alicent’s plan but she also really didn’t trust Alicent with her child because Alicent had been spreading rumors about Rhaenyra’s kids for years. Rhaenyra looked uncomfortable when Alicent took the baby from Viserys when they were in Alicent’s bedroom. She literally turned her head towards her with a worried and tense expression her face. What do you think?

A)

I agree with your points and I agree with the writer in that Rhaenyra was attempting and succeeding in making Alicent look horrible/worse by going with her son herself -- her "malicious compliance".

When OP says:

So many people claim that Rhaenyra was only acting here out of fear for her children, which does succeed in making Alicent look bad, but misses the genius of what Rhaenyra's actually doing.

AND

Rhaenyra does not go with Joffrey because she genuinely thinks Alicent will physically hurt him. At this point in time, pre-Driftmark, Alicent has literally never done anything to suggest she would physically harm a child, let alone a newborn. Stop acting like Alicent was planning on smothering him with a pillow or something equally ridiculous. It's not in Alicent's character (she's quite passive when it comes to violence), and Rhaenyra also doesn't have any information to suggest this.

I think they are not saying that Rhaenyra has no real fear of Alicent, but that the fear isn't in Alicent actually harming the infant. I however agree that OP doesn't acknowledge that the fear is there (however well-managed or "small") and that the fear is from Alicent targeting her children in the first place.

But to give the benefit of the doubt, I think that just from what I saw in the post, the point of the post was to explain the political maneuvering both women did rather than the emotional inspiration for doing those moves. To just talk about how politically capable Rhaenyra is against the "politically stupid" allegations. This could go either way reducing Alicent's evil and Rhaenyra's justifications to plot against Alicent or making people finally notice and acknowledge Rhaenyra's ability to critically think and come up with strategies sooner rather than later.

Depends on which direction the writer goes with their language, and OP only wants to discuss the maneuvering while also telling us that Alicent purposefully targeted Rhaenyra in that episode. It's enough to assume OP is advocating for Rhaenyra and her feelings, but, again, is deciding on focusing on her political brain. OP seems to acknowledge how cruel Alicent was being: "Alicent wanted Rhaenyra to come away from this looking like a shameful harlot" AND "Alicent was trying to make a power play here; she was trying to rub it in the court's faces that Rhaenyra was repeatedly having children via an affair."

However, it would make OP's post stronger if they mentioned the context since it reveals how Rhaenyra would have done many things like this during the 10 years in the jump cut. That's my criticism.

B)

Funny enough, I also read the scene in which OP says it. It makes sense especially with Rhaenyra making Viserys focus more on treachery in the 7th episode -- episode 6 lets us know, you know? I also like how the writer includes the fact that Rhaenyra took Laenor with her to make that image of her sons' legitimacy, making that image of unity against Alicent's trying to make Rhaenyra seem like a disobedient, unfit heir/unruly woman.

Excerpt from OP's post:

Alicent wanted Rhaenyra to come away from this looking like a shameful harlot, but Rhaenyra turned the tables and came away from this seeming like a hero and a dutiful stepdaughter who bravely endured the pain Alicent forced on her, while simultaneously making Alicent seem evil and unreasonable. This is a calculated political move to shift blame onto Alicent and to paint her as crazy. And from the reactions we get as Rhaenyra walks to and from Alicent's chambers, I think she succeeds.

There's one other example where I think Rhaenyra plays the game of politics against Alicent and wins, and where a lot of fans ignore Rhaenyra's intelligence in favor of trying to make Alicent look as bad as possible. It's the scene where Rhaenyra suggests the betrothal of Jacaerys and Helaena, which I'll talk about eventually since I got an ask about it. But basically: Rhaenyra made a proposal that she knew would look good on the surface but that she knew Alicent couldn't accept without endangering her children, ensuring that when Alicent turned it down she would look bitter and crazy.

And we see it here (the script):

Lord Caswell: (on the stairs) Princess, Ser Laenor, it is a privilege to be amongst the first to congratulate you.

Rhaenyra: Thank you, Lord Caswell.

Lord Caswell: If I may be of any service...

Rhaenyra: The day may yet come, my lord.

[...]

Alicent: Princess. Rhaenyra! You should be resting after your labors. Rhaenyra: I have no doubt that you would prefer that, Your Grace. Alicent: You must sit. Talya, fetch a cushion for the Princess. Rhaenyra: There's no need. Alicent: Nonsense. We'll finish this later.

Rhaenyra is openly suggesting Alicent is trying something now and will try something in the future.

She, of course, looked more than "uncomfortable" and there's a specific context for why. She's lived with Alicent on her case for 10 years.

@theroguewyrm says it HERE:

no, but she demanded a fragile, freshly out of the womb-newborn to be brought to her IMMEDIATELY knowing that 1. newborns are extremely vulnerable to germs and shouldn’t get exposed for at least 1-2 days and 2. demanded to separate a mother from her child RIGHT AFTER giving birth.

While these people would not know about germs, they would know that newborns are fragile, especially knowing and experiencing infant mortality. We have Alysanne, Alyssa Velaryon, and Aemma Arryn alone to refer to. Alicent was a terrible person for that. In another post, I say similarly:

Why publicly order for the freshly-born infant in front of the entire court if not to publicly and tacitly announce that you think something is wrong with that infant? Alicent – a mother herself – is well aware of how worried, anxious, and attached a mother can get to her infant after birth and she still decides to do what she does…and it’s clear that it’s happened before, so was she actually surprised that Rhaenyra came with the baby? Why not let Rhaenyra have a few more moments alone with her new child and in real rest after putting herself through that pain to deliver it? (Because she was seeking to take advantage of Rhaenyra’s state). Plus, even if this is a medieval-modeled world, people did and would know that freshly-born infants need to be handled carefully and not so exposed to so many different elements too soon. Newborns are understood to be delicate.

[scoups4lyfe]

What did Hana tell you, George? Please don't do something you'll regret?!!!!! now look at what you've done?

Scoups, I know someone who doesn't really like George, they feel like he's been forgiven for all his shadiness all too quickly for their taste, don't get me wrong, I agree with that sentiment, but I'm eh to him :p

Honestly though—he didn’t even wait that long before going to see his father. Imagine he waited like 30 minutes before making his way over there. (Too bad it was 30 minutes too late.) 

It just makes it all the more tragic because it shows that George put everything—EVERYTHING— bad that his father has done to him on the backburner, sucked it up, and went to see him before he died one last time. He likely had things he wanted to say, but ESP. things that he wanted to hear. 

But he couldn’t do it right away because his emotions were still too high, so he built himself up to go see him; but when he did, it was too late. And it was only a few minutes, too. 

(Now onto the other part of this ask :D ) 

I don’t think George has been forgiven for his shadiness too quickly at all tbh.

Though I can see how it comes across that way.

My logic really just revolves around George’s Igarashi SIMP card. Episode 13 was the first time he actually admired someone —Ikki, and episode 18 the first time he apologized to someone—also Ikki. 

Everyone else was pretty much “whatever” to him, but when it comes to the shadiness, let’s examine: 

(1) Gave a fked up Daiji the driver ← → It ended up working out in the end.

(And Ikki was lied to about it so who knows how much they know about that, other than Daiji.) 

(2) Everything he did to Hiromi ← → Showed (in the episode where Hiromi got shot off a cliff) that he at least wanted Hiromi to hate him / blame him / leave his position (and thereby not have to fight anymore).

He also apologized to the Igarashi’s for being soooo….shady as sh*t LOL, like ten episodes later. 

I know I stated this before but George (much like his own father, RIP) has a tendency to rely on masks when he’s vulnerable.

In particular, the mask that gives him the most control —which for him, is being a villain. AKA — The shady scientist with loose to no morals. 

George does this even when it feeds into the negative perception of himself because he feels a general lack of control from his circumstances, so at least he can be in-control of how people view him

(as by being an a$$hole). 

It’s a trauma response.

George never had any control over his life, that’s why he’s such a little prick.

(Not that this excuses him BEING a little prick <333. Fr turned Hiromi into a granddaddy.) 

 In the beginning we see him working for Akaishi and this can be for many reasons but most likely Akaishi was taking advantage of a vulnerable George and getting him to “take up his father’s legacy” mixed with George’s inner demon actually being his father’s.

We’ve seen Akaishi do his cult propaganda on people in similar situations; Oltecca —(abusive household, made to feel like a freak, Akaishi called him a genius and ‘special’ boy instead of treating him like how everyone else did)  and 

Daiji —isolated and out of control because of “killing” his inner demon. Can’t see right from wrong, becomes obsessed with “doing the right thing” and makes that his identity, driving him to an identity crisis 🤝🤝 Akaishi seeks him out after beating him and convinces him that siding with Giff is “the right thing.” 

Time and time again we’ve seen that bastard a$$ sea-faring mfer manipulate people in vulnerable states into doing insanely bad things. 

Likewise, in episode 26 —we saw just how little of control George had in Fenix, because when he objected to giving Kagerou the stamp, Akaishi grabbed him by the collar.  

Even when he helped Oltecca jack up the DEMONS driver, he was being held hostage, mixed with his father’s demon / ‘legacy’ (literally the last thing Masumi worked on before he ‘died’)

PLUS

being vulnerable = George going extra hard into his “bastard personality.”

It’s what he falls back on, time and time again. 

We saw him do it just before his father died, he put all of himself into his science

(he’s a ‘shady scientist,’ remember?)

and he likened his father to a “frail old man” or something like that. 

He did this because again, it plays into that villain persona he falls back on when he’s vulnerable, and—

(2) because by calling his dad that, it separates his father into a different category, now he’s a “frail old man” instead of his “father.”

This is another way George handles trauma —by distancing himself from it / the people. 

Right. 

Anyways, we haven’t actually seen George be truly super shady-shady. We’ve seen him be a manipulative, secretive liar.  We’ve seen his reactions to confrontation (laughter, going full villain bastard), we’ve seen him be ruthless (Hiromi), and we’ve seen him consistently distance himself from others. 

Ikki was always his exception. 

Like, we can’t forget the actual good George did as well —creating the drivers, helping with upgrades, making it so Hana doesn’t die, apologizing to Ikki and worrying about his overall health, trying to help himself in the fight but deciding instead to help others fight instead; apologizing to Hiromi and not expecting forgiveness, etc. etc. etc. 

I think the bad he’s shown is far outclassed by his neutrality and then the good acts he’s done to make up for being an evil bastard. 

Besides, Ikki forgives too easily because he doesn’t care about his own well-being, and he needs to use George in order to have power / keep transforming, ergo it makes sense that he stayed amiable with George even after the whole Hiromi situation, and then once George apologized Ikki was instant to forgive because that’s a pretty big thing for George to do, and in Ikki’s experience, he’s only done that when he’s been genuine. 

Daiji forgave him because he really just wanted to pick a fight with Akaishi LOL!!!! 

And Sakura wasn’t really too deep into the gossip / the drama, so she was never close enough with George to feel really slighted by what he did to Hiromi. At least not enough to condemn him completely for it. 

And the Igarashi’s just LOVE pushing things under the rug and pretending it's all okay hahahahaha, so their forgiveness came off very natural to me. 

ANYWAYS — I love George’s character <333 because I’ve always wanted to put him in a little soda bottle and shake it up like a maraca; Or  to put him into a little jar to study like a bug. 

[tobiasdrake]

Final Thoughts on Iron Man 3

You know. I've defended Killian for a long time. Not from accusations of Asian whitewashing because he definitely did that and there's no excusing it. But his goals. His ambitions. His plan. I've defended him from people who say he's a weak and shallow villain.

I realize now that it wasn't actually Killian I liked. Killian sucks. I just liked the scheme. I thought the scheme was pretty cool. I still think the scheme is pretty cool, even if it does brush up uncomfortably against 9/11 Trutherism.

I don't like Killian. I like A.I.M. I like Extremis. I like the Mandarin's broadcasts. I like the investigation and gradual uncovering of A.I.M.'s dirty laundry. I like the big fights with Brandt and Savin. I like the huge House Party blowout at the end with the President on the line.

I like the movie. Killian's just the cost of admission. And he didn't have to be. This movie could have worked just as well with a better villain, whether that be Maya or a more accurate portrayal of the Mandarin.

Iron Man 3 gives us a rare glimpse at a title superhero actually fighting crime. Tony gets invested in the Mandarin because one of his bombings injures Happy, then does investigative work, follows leads, and unwravels the Mandarin's true plan.

It's some good down-to-earth superheroing. There is so much to like here.

But there's also a lot to dislike. Rhodey gets screwed, getting to spend almost none of the action in his suit.

Pepper gets screwed even harder, with trailers that promise she'll be suiting up at last only for it to be a brief moment. She does get superpowers and get to take down Killian, but then immediately loses those powers. And that's after spending the entire film up to that point being reduced to a pretty toy for Tony and Killian to bicker over like ten-year-old boys.

And I'd be remiss not to mention that the only Asian character in the film, a film about the fucking Mandarin, is Trevor Slattery.

And Tony? This movie can't decide what it wants his journey to be about. It wants to talk about his PTSD from New York. But that's not a topic that connects to Killian in any way. So he just gets over it halfway through the film before setting out to confront A.I.M. It's super disappointing.

The main thing it wants to talk about is a fairly common superhero topic: Who is truly the hero? The man or his powers? Is Iron Man the suit, or is it Tony?

But Tony Stark is a weird character to try and have this conversation about. He doesn't have powers. He built his suit with his own genius intellect. Take it away from him and what do you have left? You have the guy who built the suit. And he can just make another suit. What the hell even is this question?

We already know who Tony is when he doesn't have a suit. He's the guy in the cave with the box of scraps who built the Mk. I. The film spends a lot of time on this question and it feels like time wasted.

And it still doesn't connect to Killian. So Tony and Killian just fight over Pepper.

This movie is divisive, and that is a reputation well earned. I'm generally more positive on it than others (though this watch did sink it in my eyes a bit). But there are a lot of valid criticisms to be levied here.

[nightwhispcrs]

tucker mccall ( young & the restless , alexander skarsgård fc ) ; 45 years old ; uses he/him ; is not aware that he is not from washington dc ; been stuck here for ~ a year . non magical.

death tw , car crash tw , cheating tw , alcohol tw

listen , when this brat popped up in my fav soap opera i hated him and thought there was no way i would get attached and now ... here i am . who am i if not a collector of messy chaotic neutral muses ?

tucker is a playful , sarcastic , manipulative , romantic , brilliant , selfish , charming , poised , quick-witted , boat-rocking , bear-poking , aloof guy who just knows exactly what to say to get under everyone's skin at precisely the right time .

tucker mccall has a checkered past to say the least ?? some might describe him as a con man , others as a business genius , others as a professional homewrecker , and some might just call him a cold hearted villain . for the most part , tucker chills and kind of does his own thing . he absolutely loves gossip and jumping in uninvited or providing unsolicited advice , but his efforts are generally so smooth that you won't realize a snake has entered the garden until you've been bitten by it - and then , you'll likely never forgive him .

he's got quite the reputation around town , but he takes it in stride with a smile and sarcastic quip , even throwing out random quotes from buddha when others get annoyed by him ( he once spent a year at a buddhist temple after nearly dying in a car crash and being in a coma so ... take from that what you will . )

personally , i think there is a heart and some good in him somewhere , but you'll just have to dig a lil deep to find it . maybe real deep . speaking of deep , if you want to bond with him just hand him a bottle of top tier liquor and ponder the cosmos or engage in spiritual , intimate , deep conversation and he'll be all ears . as long as he's not in one of his whiny self pity party moods .

in washington , tucker works as an art curator / director for the hirshhorn art museum . gives him an excuse to wear turtlenecks , which he loves .

[vetinarivimesy]

Ooh rather love the Addamses additions. Morticia taking things so very literally at times is not one I'd have noticed by myself! (Though saddened by the usual attitudes to women shining through the fandom take on them...)

Continuing with the stargate mention from earlier and running with it. My own takes on the leads from the three shows -

Stargate SG-1 seconding Sam Carter. Yes yesss. Again in such a way that a significant chunk of the fandom Does Not Like Her, with the usual excuse that she's 'cold' blah blah. When, Sam is a relatively personable excitable geek and a half who'd happily infodump about her latest project at you for hours, but would happily parallel play projects in the same space for hours too. (See multiple incidents of her doing just that in her lab and in the field, and the prolonged time she worked on her motorbike with Walter.) When she gets the chance to make a not affected by chain of command issues, female friend in the form of Vala Sam seems to jump on the chance to show her non-Earthling bestie all her favourite Earth things. Not least because Vala doesn't mind the awkwardness in the slightest. Doesn't seem to care much about hierarchies, except when it gets stupid/in the way of science/what's right/wrong.

She always seems equally at home in her own company as well as happy to hang out with her chosen friends. The sciencey tendencies extend to being a bit of an infamous pool-shark at the local bar.

Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard

I know I know I'm supposed to say Rodney McKay... Eh... Personally he hits too many of all of the worst stereotypes of Genius Therefore an Ass but it's Okay Because Genius trope for me to want him in the autistic character category. (Given the way the character gradually very transparently morphs from sexual harrasser villain of the week in SG-1. To interestingly flawed arse who's trying to do better in SGA whose own ego keeps tripping him up with a severe case of Main Character Syndrome. To can do no wrong gets the beautiful girl, and gets all the plaudits in a very self-insert style way come SGA season 5... Nope bit too aware of the behind the scenes stuff at play to want to give the character more analysis. I'm afraid I put him on the Sheldon Cooper end of the spectrum where if he is accidental representation he's borderline offensive stereotypical representation.)

Sheppard on the other hand? He's just continually an awkward bundle of humanity in just about every respect yet he's a respected leader with a strong sense of right/wrong (albeit one that doesn't necessarily match anyone else's idea of right/wrong...). His jokes can come across poorly. He can usually be found awkwardly slouched in a corner of a scene. Never quite works out when it's okay to talk back to superiors/not, has distinct issues with rules and authority figures that make rules that make no sense.

The perpetual awkward slouch, standing or sitting. 'Childish' hobbies, lots of them. The subtle implied very into sciencey/geeky things but hiding it characterisation (that eventually gets forgotten because of the aforementioned McKay Show issues). Sheppard's utter awkwardness with his own family. The way that even his very best friends who love and appreciate him very much say to his face he has no social skills and he agrees with them whilst awkwardly failing to have a heart to heart.

The few times we get to see him just hang out, he seems to appreciate just... sitting in a room with the other person doing separate activities/wanting to do activities rather than chatting. Happy to go off hiking or surfing for hours. Innapropriate reactions to dressing downs, flirting at innapropriate moments/never quite seeming to know what to do with flirting when it happens.

The way a hell of a lot of the hypnosis/related sci-fi gubbins just never seems to quite work on him the same way it does for everyone else. The way even parallel world Sheppard is also an awkward lump of a man who doesn't quite seem to know how to stand up straight or where to put his hands who has issues with authority figures strutting around. (Huh, unlike parallel Rodneys who all seem much more personable than OG-Rodney.)

Stargate Universe, Nick Rush, Dale Volker, Adam Brody, Lisa Park

Though I get most would probably say Eli - I personally view Eli as far too savvy of actual social interactions to dump him here, most of his awkwardness seems to stem from poor socialisation due to the personal circumstances with his mom that had him staying at home instead of finishing uni/his relative perceived youth/outsider status compared to the rest of the cast which he overcomes very quickly? (The teen drama on Earth episode with the fun Janelle Monae cameo doesn't count, the social weirdness there is because all the other characters are the horrible 1% political class, who mistakenly think he is too, and the love triangle plot that thankfully gets dropped fairly quickly.)

The established Science Team and Rush on the other hand? The Science Team, Brody and Volker especially, seem to do that rather neurodivergent friendship group thing of just sticking together to the scorn of everybody else who don't like that the 'weirdos' are all hanging out together. (This one comes from firsthand in hindsight, 'oh huh, wait we're all neurodivergent?' experience.)

Volker never does manage to stand up for himself against the military characters, even when he arguably should preferring to fade into the background with Brody. Even when they've spent so long in each other's pockets they can't stand the sight of each other the two have an impenetrable shorthand to outsiders, including jokes at innapropriate moments (including an incident of word repetition that's clearly gone on for... a while) to amuse each other to much scorn.

Volker struggles to open up with people about anything personal - to such an extent that he doesn't disclose a very serious medical condition until it requires an organ transplant.

Brody's favourite thing to do outside of the work is try and perfect his still. The social benefits of making the only booze on ship seem to be secondary to the hobby itself. AU!Time travel Brody (if it counts as an AU when it's the same universe) got fixated on the idea of Doctor Rush coming back to save them all to such an extent that he accidentally founded a religion about the idea. Just like Volker he's constantly a bit awkward with everyone outside the science-team group, and looked upon with no little amount of exasperated lack of patience by the non-science team members. Even though as one of the few engineers he's essential crew.

Doctor Park gets to be awkward and bubbly and brilliant, with innapropriate interjections, and tends to run off on long infodumps about her favourite topics/ramble into utterly unrelated topics that are only tangentially related to the initial discussion - frequently morbid tangents too. She doesn't seem to quite understand, or perhaps care, that sleeping with most of the ship might get awkward socially (which I love for her) and again mostly chooses to hang out with the science crew. She cares so much about the expansion of the hydroponics project that she risks her own life, and gets badly injured trying to rescue as many of the plants as possible.

Rush? Just doesn't seem to quite get how to be personable, and it doesn't seem to entirely be grief related. Many of the guy's repeated attempts to reach out to other members of the crew/bond with people get mis-read as manipulative/untrue and rebuffed, even pre his great big selfish Inciting Incident; shanghaing everybody on Icarus Base to Destiny.

He gets so caught up in his projects the social niceties go out of the window frequently, to constant tellings off/social repercussions, yet it keeps happening. Rush forgets to sleep, eat, and wash when caught up in a project. (And on Destiny there's so many projects...) Yet he's indespensible enough on the tech side of things that despite the resentment/wish to replace him, they can't. (Young tried to murder him, the time he was missing presumed dead, ended poorly for everyone with the ship in a worse state than pre-the stranding/murder attempt. Though Rush did take Chloe under his wing afterwards.)

The character backstory which all too often goes ignored in favour of fanon 'posh bastard because British' implies some degree of academic hyperfixation in play - given the whole very working class Glasgow docks, very obsessed with mathematics, scholarship to Oxford University (which would not have actually been required in this era pre-Thatcher and subsequently Blair taking away free uni in the UK but shh it's canon) whilst also working a job, and Rush shows a marked preference for his own company.

He displays that trait a lot of the world's top mathematicians describe of maths being music and vice versa. Which, probably how Rush first met/bonded with his musician wife. We also get to see the project he subsumed his grief into as she was dying, hyperfixating on this new task to avoid the emotions.

Yet he also very clearly gives a damn, despite understandable repeated rebuffs he goes out of his way to keep the crew safe/stand up for people when he stops trying and failing to be manipulative and sees things as unjust. His attempts at manipulation are transparent enough to be embarassing, so his genuine awkward efforts here tend to get viewed with suspicion. Yet on the occasions the non-science team members do take the time to actually talk to/listen to the guy? They get reasonable responses, almost as if shouting hate at a person isn't the way to get them to do what you want...

(Fascinating character, and a great foil to military leader Everett Young. The deliberate clash at the centre of canon here does tend to make it a Team Young v Team Rush marmite situation on the fandom side of things!)

Honorable mention to Ronald Greer here - canon-wise he's got a definite case of C-PTSD with all the sad longterm effects that implies. But his very strong sense of right and wrong (often to his own detriment, both in the chain of command sense punching a colonel, and the willingness to give an acquaintance at most a whole kidney), willingness to follow the rules even when they're seemingly stupid because they're the rules, and slow to earn but once earnt utter loyalty and willingness to hang around the science team do make me wonder about the character. Not to mention the very quick way he put together a flamethrower with duct tape and hope, completely overlooking everyone else's prolonged reaction of stunned incredulity in his excitement at the fun cool thing he'd gotten to work. Unfortunately for much of the show's early run Greer is your stereotypical angry black sergeant character - but by S2 he's showing signs of getting up to three dimensional and interesting... and oh no the show got cancelled.

All right, new game for fellow autistics: Reblog with your spicy autistic headcanons!

No “Sherlock Holmes” or “the dude from Fantastic Beasts”, I want the ones that you never say because you know that you’ll probably have to spend a million years explaining it to even other ND people and the thought exhausts you.

Mine is absolutely Caroline from The Vampire Diaries

[admirableadmiranda]

Debts and balances: or how much does one man have to pay over the course of his life?

Good morning everyone! Today we’re going to be talking about debts, and why Jiang Cheng needs to shut the fuck up on debts because he is the one in the wrong pretty much the entire time.

Let’s start by acknowledging that I am not of this culture so I may perhaps state a thing or two wrong, but I also have several functioning brain cells to rub together and I pay attention so I will probably be more right than most of the “hot takes” I see on why Jiang Cheng is not actually in the wrong here. Because he is. He so is.

So, debts. First of all, there are multiple levels and layers of debts and to whom do you owe them too. So let’s start with the first one where the story is subtle about it and yet both Jiang Cheng and Madam Yu are in the wrong. We know that Cangse Sanren saved Jiang Fengmian’s life at one point when they were young. Life debts are big. To only be alive because of someone else’s actions is a debt that it is possible you will never be able to pay back. There are multiple stories of otherwise good people protecting the obvious villain because they owe that.

Jiang Fengmian’s only way of being able to pay back that debt after Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze die is to take care of their child and raise him how they would have. I.E, as a cultivator. This is not a debt that Wei Wuxian owes to the Jiangs. It is quite literally, the least of what Jiang Fengmian owes him and his parents to do.

Jiang Cheng cannot claim that Wei Wuxian owes them for his life. He is wrong. 

Next debt that even Jiang Cheng does not try to claim, only his ever so pleasant stans, the fucking dogs. The fucking dogs that he does not actually give a fuck about. 

Wei Wuxian does not ask anyone to do anything about the dogs. He is not in a mental state to. He is in a state of triggered phobia where his brain literally goes into run away screaming mode. This is also not funny and Jiang Cheng is a jackass for making fun of it whenever it happens. Jiang Fengmian is the one who decides that it’s better for the dogs to go. Even though Jiang Cheng is upset, he does not actually hold this as a lingering grudge against Wei Wuxian. He lets it the fuck go. And even if he didn’t, the resentment and anger should be aimed at the person who actually made a decision about it. Not Wei Wuxian. He does not give one singular fuck about his dogs later on. Let the fucking dogs go.

Third off: The Fall of Lotus Pier. There are different levels of blame that we can lay on this. Wei Wuxian is not close to responsible for this. Jiang Cheng knows this and elects to blame him anyway.

The first people we can lay the blame on the fall of Lotus Pier is the Wens, who came with ships, warriors, Wang Lingjiao to rile up the notoriously short tempered asshole Madam Yu, and Wen Zhuliu the Core-Melting Hand. They came prepared for battle and they got what they wanted. Madam Yu is the second one we can lay the blame on, for deciding to attack and demean Wang Lingjiao, not for making her do anything she didn’t want to do, because holy hell did she want to whip Wei Wuxian until he couldn’t move and leapt at the chance to do such a thing, but because Wang Lingjiao is a servant who was elevated by her lover and Madam Yu is a classist asshole. This is the only reason she flips out. Wei Wuxian did nothing wrong. Wei Wuxian does not have the blood of Lotus Pier on his hands, he is tied to Jiang Cheng and told to protect him at the cost of his life, a debt he does not owe. 

The four debt he attempts to claim, the only one that might be considered to have some teeth if it weren’t for how much Wei Wuxian gives him back almost immediately. Jiang Cheng goes to distract the Wens from Wei Wuxian and ends up getting captured and losing his golden core. So first off, in this world a golden core is a lot to lose, I won’t deny that. But, first off, Wei Wuxian is only in danger because after being whipped a lot, then strangled, then having to run after Jiang Cheng multiple times because he would rather go die at Lotus Pier than listen to either of his parents and escape, he still goes into town to get them something to eat because otherwise Jiang Cheng would rather lie on the ground and die. Fucking great sect leadership there, huh Jiang Cheng? But yes, Jiang Cheng sees the Wens, sees them notice Wei Wuxian, goes off to distract them and then gets captured and loses his golden core.

Now we’re getting to some of the debts that Jiang Cheng owes and refuses to pay back, because that’s definitely going to get him far in this world. Wei Wuxian in his panic and attempt to find Jiang Cheng, finds Wen Ning, who after some struggles manages to convince him that he can sneak in and get Jiang Cheng back out. In addition, he also retrieves the bodies of Madam Yu and Jiang Fengmian. This is huge. Jiang Cheng now owes him both a life debt for again, saving his life at great cost to his own: Wen Ning is literally committing treason here, and also for restoring the lost honor of not being able to bury his parents properly. Wen Ning gives them a proper burial and later after the war he is able to lie them to rest in the Ancestors Hall so their spirits will be at peace and he will have fulfilled his fillial duties. By all means, the debt he owes Wen Ning in particular is so great that he should have taken in every Wen in those camps and sheltered them because it is as close as he will ever get to repaying that debt. And that’s just Wen Ning!

The next debt he owes and refuses to pay is to Wen Qing, a genius doctor and respected by Wen Ruohan, who uses the prestige and skills she has to protect both him and Wei Wuxian in at this point enemy territory when they are being actively searched for, being the new sect leader and head disciple of Yunmeng Jiang. She hides them and then later uses her skills to give him a new golden core so that he can go and fight back against his people, revitalizing his clan and eradicating hers. This is another debt that could only really be paid back by protecting her people if she came to him. He owes her literally his life, his power and his people.

The third debt he owes and refuses to pay is to Wei Wuxian, who more than overbalances the scales back in his favor by giving him his golden core. He pays his chance at immortality, his power, his strength, his cultivation, everything that he has to his name so that Jiang Cheng won’t starve himself to death over losing his core. In addition, he tells Jiang Cheng that this comes from a once in a lifetime favor from his mother’s master so even before when he didn’t know about the core, this is still a massive, massive debt, a limitless one time favor from an immortal that he uses Wei Wuxian’s chance to get and never actually thanks him. So at this point, his own golden core as a debt starts to seem a little hollow. Either way, it’s been repaid. An action you do in service of someone else is not a weapon you get to hold over their heads for multiple lives.

Moving on! The next debt he would like to claim is that Wei Wuxian apparently has no right to do things he does not approve of. Excuse me? Is he now a computer program that crashed? What the fuck Jiang Wanyin? Wei Wuxian has less rank than him, although Jiang Cheng is so high rank in this society that he only shares his rank with three other people and there’s no one above him so it would be very hard for him to not be, but he is still a person, with his own thoughts, wishes, dreams, hopes and beliefs. He is not an extension of your hand, to make your clan look good and stand behind you as a hammer to smash on people. Wen Qing goes to Wei Wuxian to ask for help for finding her brother, her people because they are literally being tortured to death. This is a debt that by all means, Jiang Cheng should be repaying. See that part where Wen Ning committed treason to help him and restore his family’s honor? See that part where Wen Qing literally gave him the ability to go back to war against her family? This is the point where anyone with honor would recognize this is the only thing I can do. I will throw myself on my sword if I must, but I must repay this debt to them. There is nothing less I can do. But Jiang Cheng has only the honor of a mangy cur and ignores this, and when Wei Wuxian goes to fulfill this debt, he tells him to stop. To him, his multiple life debts are an inconvience to shoving his nose so far up Jin Guangshan’s ass that he’s tasting what he had for dinner that day.

The next debt that he would like to claim is the death of his brother in law. This is a debt that Wei Wuxian would owe to specific people. This debt is to Jiang Yanli, Jin Guangshan and Jin Ling, one of whom is wanting to forgive it, one who is too small to decide at the time, and one who straight up does not give a fuck beyond advancing his power. Jiang Cheng is not one of these people. His sister is fine, she’s not his concern anymore, she’s a part of the Jin sect. The only reason why he died is that Jiang Cheng decided the best way to repay his debt to Wei Wuxian was to throw a temper tantrum and declare him an enemy to everyone, ripping out every support from under his feet. Regardless, Jiang Cheng is an asshole and does not get to claim this debt.

The final one of Wei Wuxian’s first life that he keeps hurling at him is the death of his sister...the death of his sister who chose to leap between Wei Wuxian and a sword. The death of his sister at a battle that broke out because Jiang Cheng has been with Jin Guangshan whipping the cultivation world into a frenzy against the Wens and Wei Wuxian because of power and jealousy. The battle that would have not happened if they’d left them alone. Jiang Cheng has been to the burial mounds. He has seen the farmers, he has seen the baby there. He has decided that rather than do anything to repay these various deaths, he will kill them on other people’s swords instead. Because he is also a coward and won’t pick fights he can’t win. In addition he likes to steal Yanli’s agency, she’s the one who chose to come, she’s the one who chose to get in the way and she doesn’t die with regrets. And she is not his debt to claim. Again, the one who actually gets to claim this death that Wei Wuxian is not responsible for is Jin Ling, who actually shapes up and decides that it doesn’t matter, he doesn’t blame Wei Wuxian for it. He forgives him his role in that space and moves the fuck on, unlike a certain sir stabby grape mcwhipinnoencts.

And then Wei Wuxian dies and any debts he may have still owed to Jiang Cheng, not that there were any, die with him. Jiang Cheng has no claim on him, he was not part of his sect, they were not brothers in any way, indeed Jiang Cheng called him his enemy. Even most people with far more real grudges at this point would let it go. Wei Wuxian is so dead that no one can find his soul, no matter how hard they look. He comes back to life and reaps the rewards of his actions, finding new allies, getting the chance to actually interact with Jin Ling and make his apologies, and in the end, settle down to a peaceful life with an adoring husband and nothing left to be repaid. If there is still a debt he owes, it is only to Mo Xuanyu, who gave up his entire cycle of life to let Wei Wuxian reincarnate early with his memories, a sacrifice he only asked for repayment in the death of his family. He may owe more still, but that is all Mo Xuanyu wanted from him in repayment for this great sacrifice. The cultivation world is in the wrong when they’re trying to persecute him again for the actions of his previous life, he owes them nothing anymore. The debts he carries towards Jin Ling are the ones he chooses to take on, feeling guilty that he grew up without his parents due to the world’s general actions and also no one else taking responsibility for how far things fell. 

That is what Jiang Cheng finally realizes in the temple, crouched on the floor and sobbing like a spoiled child over the golden core sacrifice. Is that he is in the wrong and has been in the wrong the whole time. That there is nothing he can hold onto, no debt that Wei Wuxian ever owed him that he could demand to be paid. He built it all up in his head as he left his honor, his family and his dignity in the wake of his arrogance. And it’s a painful thing to realize, the consequences of your decisions, but all he can do is live with his own ruined reputation, his own loneliness and the fact that no one wants to be around him. He’s blacklisted by multiple matchmakers, his disciples are more like thugs, Wei Wuxian chooses every opportunity to get away from him and even Jin Ling likes him less and less over the course of the book, not forgetting that he seems to prefer Jin Guangyao to begin with as he actually talks to him sometimes and doesn’t hit him. Jiang Cheng refusing to pay his debts gives him exactly what a debt deserter deserves. No one has a reason to trust him. The one bit of positive character growth he does is giving up and not trying to reel him back in by telling him of the sacrifice. At this point, all it would be is just him trying to get another debt he cannot hold because it is long since repaid, never quite made up for what they gave him to make up for it, and worthless in the face of Wei Wuxian’s new life. Wei Wuxian owes him nothing and never has.

Also, just to tally up the relationship between Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng on things given between the two of them, Jiang Cheng gives him: a lot of whinging on how unfair it is that Wei Wuxian is a prodigy, and a one time immediately regretted and held over his head sacrifice of a golden core. Whereas Wei Wuxian gives him: many lessons on how to be a kinder person that he ignores, the patience and tolerance of his stinkbug attitude, his love, his affection, his fucking golden core, his reputation, his blood, his livelihood, taking over his debts, trying to keep any of his actions from reflecting on the Jiangs even though if Jiang Cheng had repaid any of the debts he owed, there would have been no problems because if the Jin’s did decide to attack, Wei Wuxian would fight back and he can level battle fields on his own, his honor, his relationships, and even his life in the end, because if Wei Wuxian had ever turned on him like he claimed, he would have been a bloody smeared spot on the ground. And Jiang Cheng gobbles this all up and demands more with Wei Wuxian’s blood and tears dribbling from his mouth. 

Would you give that much for someone who doesn’t treat you well? Would you find that a reasonable price to pay for someone who demeans you at every opportunity, who tells you you deserve your misfortunes and that no one likes you? Why are you surprised that in the end Wei Wuxian would rather walk away with people who care about him, why he gives up, leaves any opportunity for anything in Jiang Cheng’s hands. Wei Wuxian has given more than any person should for almost nothing. It is a sign of triumph and victory, of recognizing his own worth and value in the world and who he wants to be with, that he leaves, that he walks away with his head held high. He owes Jiang Cheng nothing, and Jiang Cheng will just have to fucking live with that.

[ratsoh-writes]

Go kart competition for all the skeletons! Let's raise the stakes and say they were dragged to the event regardless. Enemies can be at opposite ends of the starting line. Who is flat out refusing to race. Who wins the top 5. Who gets last place and who creates a pile up? (Or anything similar)

Lol, the only guys who would opt out are the horror papyri. Noir and willow really don’t want to f*ck up their backs from this and unless there’s a go cart out there that can house 7’11 basil, he’s gonna politely decline. They’ll play cheerleader though.

If this ever happened, I bet it’d be at a barrier festival. I can see the guys running into some of each other and declaring a war between skeletons lol

Sans: he’s a big weenie that’s allergic to pain. The second it looks like someone is going to crash into him, he’s shortcutting out of the cart. Abandon ship!

Papyrus: remember how edge doesn’t really like papyrus that much? Well it’s not fair that edge is friends with sans and not him! So papyrus has declared that him and edge are teaming up for this race! You can’t escape friendship edge!!!

Star: he tried to tell lilac you maybe sit this one out. Lilac refused and accused Star of babying him. Now they are mortal enemies for the day. The first race lilac friggin made Star drive into a ditch lol. The second race Star flipped lilacs kart. Now Jupiter is sacrificing his win ti drive between those two

Honey: he’s a big weenie who doesn’t have the blessing of shortcuts. After getting wiped out the first race, honey plays injured and hangs out with the horrors the next races

Red: oak keeps getting lost on the track and red ends up going after him. They take a detour and have a nice country road drive instead lol

Edge: for some reason sans annoying little brother insists that they team up for these races. Naturally edge betrays him the first round. But papyrus’s face made him feel bad so he plays nice the next two. Mission accomplished papyrus

Mal: he nearly fought with cash over the black and silver kart. Mal won naturally, and he uses the high from his victory to secure first place in all three races. Mal is really good at drifting

Cash: he wanted the black and silver one so bad but his stupid brother had the same idea. So cash ends up with the neon orange kart. He has a fun time causing a pile up in every race with bruiser

Oak: he somehow got off track the first race and went down a deserted country road. Red followed him and they decide to dusty and have a nice cruise instead

Charm: when cash and bruiser cause the pile up, he wound up squashed underneath butch, boss, snipe and the undynes. They were super worried about him even though he insisted he was fine and forced a pouting charm to sit the next two races out.

Sugar: he was also in the pile up, but boss saved his butt by pulling him on top of himself before sugar could tumble with his kart. Sugar spends the rest of the day swooning over his hero

Pop: he gets second place in all three races. Pop isn’t as skilled as mal, but he uses his small size to pick up speed

Rhythm: he was smart. Rhythm could see that bloodthirsty look in bruisers eye and decided to linger in the back. He helps clean up the pile up of the first race lol

Pluto: he actually gets third on the first race. Pluto was inherent in the back but when he saw the pile up, he panicked and floated himself above the others along with his kart. Nobody disputed it lol

Jupiter: with Star and lilac at war, Jupiter decides it’s his personal duty to make sure they don’t kill each other. Normally this is papyrus’s job, but he’s hanging off of edge for some weird reason.

Lord: he ends up sharing a kart with wine. Partly because they have an odd number of guys racing with the undynes, and also because wine doesn’t care about the race and takes them off track to go get Starbucks instead lol. They come back an hour late with some frappes

Mutt: he saves coffee from the pile up by pulling him into his kart and rolling off track. But they both killed their karts in the process, so coffee texts his brother to get him some coffee. They wind up chilling with basil and watching the show

Wine: he was already planning on ditching, but coffee wanted Starbucks so now wine has an excuse

Coffee: dude mutt is his knight in shining armor today. Coffee is super pissed at cash and bruiser right now and is already planning his revenge. Maybe a glitter bomb…

G: for once he’s glad his brother is such a snob. Green wanted his help first at the fairs stand. Greens practice had a display for scholarships for monster and half breed medical students but one of the volunteers bailed. G probably would’ve broken an arm in that race. He’s brittle

Green: he’s much to busy at his practices display to join the go kart race. Not that he would want to anyways. He winds up finding boss later and healing the crack in his arm he earned from saving sugar

Peaches: the farm bros are also out of the race. They have their farmers market section to take care of

Rancher: he’s gonna be pissed when he hears he missed the pile up

Snipe: he knew letting butch convince him to join was a bad idea. With all these enemies in one place snipe could just feel that someone will escalate. After his own little brother caused that first pile up, he plays injured like honey and sneaks off to hang out with the farm bros

Bruiser: he’s the villain of today lol. And for once, bruiser isn’t getting revenge on another skeleton. This time he’s targeting tempest. She had him in a thirty minute headlock yesterday and was still gloating. When the race started, bruiser looked her in the eye and promised that he’d make sure she wound even cross half the track. He delivered

Butch: he does get lucky enough to get third in the last race. Technically he tied for third with Star and lilac. But he still had fun. Butch isn’t even mad at being the near bottom of a pile up that first round

Boss: he’s rather protective of sugar so when he saw him about you be dragged under another kart, boss acted out of instinct. He pulls him out of the way but suffers a small crack on his arm for the trouble. He had bayou didn’t even notice till green healed him later. He has a pretty high pain tolerance

Ace: he also saw that look in bruisers eye and feeling generous, ace decides to share a kart with slim. He knows his brother will pop away at the first sign of trouble. Ace doesn’t even have to go through the effort of shortcutting himself! Genius lol

Slim: like sans, the second he sees danger he shortcuts out. And since ace was in the kart with him, he takes his brother along for the ride.

Rust: he hangs back and avoids the destruction of the first race. Then rust spends the rest of the festival wondering where red and oak went

Lilac: he is SICK AND TIRED of Star treating him like he’s brittle. So lilac gives his younger counterpart a hard time during the races. Star forgets, lilac might not be as fast, but he’s a lot bigger. It just takes a tap from him for starts cart to spin off track. After that it’s game on lol

[mk-wizard]

Big Hero 6 The Series: It could have been better

Hello, friends. Today, I will be analyzing a TV series based on a movie that I fell in love with for its colourful themes, deep plot, compelling characters, great CGI and memorable messages. Before I get into it, I want to take a moment to say that I have quit doing videos. They are too big of a pain in the petunia to make and I write better than I speak, so I will stick to writing essays, reviews and more. Anyway, onto the analysis.

All I can say about Big Hero 6 the series is that it had a great concept, it presented some great ideas and tried hard to be a cartoon of the times, but it could have and should have been a lot better. The show’s downfall all centers around trying too hard to be kid friendly which makes the shame sting all the more because Big Hero 6 was already kid friendly even with its dark themes, sharp edges and intelligent writing. If anything, even the brightest kid friendly cartoons (Steven Universe, She-Ra, etc.) had those things and actually benefitted from them. By needlessly trying too hard, character development got scrapped, the edges were all smoothed out, storytelling was subpar, the humour was too silly and the executive meddling in the end produced a dismal final season. However, I don’t want this analysis to be one lengthy negative rant about how awful the series was because in its defense, awful is an unfair word. It did have potential and ideas which are worth carrying over to a reboot that I hope will be done someday in the future. Also, we should root for a reboot because Big Hero 6 would not be the first story that needs it before striking gold. Just look at how many times Spider-Man was rebooted in film before MCU found the version that worked. Anyway, I will list all the things in Big Hero 6 that could have been better in my opinion;

1- Go easy on the laughs and be more generous with the action. - I love adding comedy to my own writing because I think a good sense of humour makes everything better, but Big Hero 6 is not a stand up comedy routine. It is a superhero story where we expect action, suspense and life or death situations that are to be taken seriously first. The comedy should be for relief and with the right timing. Also, the chibi cutscenes and having characters act like fools aren’t funny. Ren and Stimpy are the exception not the standard and their way of making you laugh doesn’t fit an action series. In a show as big as Big Hero 6, real life physics and danger matters.

2- Make the villains menacing and gritty. - I admit that after having a movie villain like Yokai who was the stuff of nightmares, it is going to be a challenging act to follow, but it was obvious that the writers were trying especially with some villains who could have easily gone into some dark relatable territory. For example, Mr. Sparkles (the gentleman in the photo above) embodies social media and Internet personalities. Right off the bat, you have a long list of things which embody the dark side of that like scams, fraud, using social media to dox or harass, driving people to suicide, online predators, the Internet personalities being very depressed people in real life, and much more horrifying things. When you stop and look at it, Mr. Sparkles even looks like the Joker which hints how dark and scary he could have been if the stops were removed. The same goes for enemies like Hardlight who embodies online gaming, Liv with cloning, Obake an amoral and insane scientist, and Trina and Noodle Burger Boy (more on him later) being evil robots. Globby especially should have been painted and written in much darker colours rather being played off for laughs because he has many parallels with Clay Face. The only two villains who I can say were supposed to be campy, charming and comical were Baron Von Steamer and Supersonic Sue because they were a satire of the Adam West style villains.

The rest of them needed to be dark and threatening including Mr. Sparkles. In fact, I would love a rebooted version of Mr. Sparkles who gives me the heebie-jeebies. Going back to Noodle Burger Boy, I must confess that I was actually excited when I heard that he was going to be the main villain of the final season because I thought he was going to fulfill his master’s final wish and as a reminder, Noodle Burger Boy was based on a super robot for military purposes.

It would have been fantastic if Noodle Burger Boy was upgraded into a full military war machine with a new threatening look. For that, I think all of the villains deserve to be rebooted and have their full potential unlocked for better or for worse.

3- A show about geniuses merits genius level art quality. - I am usually forgiving towards art styles, but in the case of Big Hero 6, the oversimplified style with minimal details and lack of textures did not suit the show. The characters blend in with the background which makes them look flat and the special effects were extremely dulled down. I also know for a fact that Disney can do a lot better than this because I saw how superbly Tangled the Series was drawn.

You can see and almost feel the difference in quality, the number of layers and level of detail between the two styles. I think there was no excuse Big Hero 6 was not done in the same style and at the same level if not better as Tangled.

3- Don’t dumb down or flanderize amazing characters. - I absolutely detest it when characters are flanderized because it makes them one dimensional and grating. For example, Go Go is tough as nails and extremely calm, but she is not cold or hesitant towards helping her friends. She doesn’t require very special episodes for us to know that. If anything, the movie version of Go Go reminded me a lot of Garnet in how she deconstructed the broody character. She isn’t cold or emotionless. Just calm and mature. Another good example was how Honey Lemon was rewritten to be overly positive to the point of toxicity, naïve and oblivious with a juvenile obsession with stickers. Then you have poor Fred who was rewritten to be an incompetent fool. The spark that makes Big Hero 6 shine is that they are a team of geniuses meaning they are all intelligent. Even Fred is genius in his own way just not a scientific one. He has a vivid imagination, he is resourceful and can get himself out of tight spots. Please, don’t turn characters into dummies especially if their intelligence is a part of them. It doesn’t make them better or funnier. It ruins them.

4- Tadashi needs closure and honour. - I am all for Hiro making peace with the loss of his brother, but Tadashi is to the Big Hero 6 team what Uncle Ben was to Spider-Man. His loss was the catalyst if not the reason. He should never be forgotten. Moreover, there was never any true closure to him especially with the possibility that he may still be alive up in the air. After all, like Callaghan, his body was never found and it turned out that Callaghan was still alive.

With that said, who is to say that Tadashi was not secretly still alive and just hiding or being hidden? This is something that Disney really needed to clear up if not for the fans, then at least as a service to such an important character. Never just forget about them.

5- The format can only be episodic with a deep plots, continuity and character development. - Random episodes with a mere monster of the day is an outdated format which doesn’t fit Big Hero 6′s modern and bright setting. In seasons 1 and 2, when the episodes were plot heavy with character development, the series shined brightest. It also helped move the story along, but with the final season, plot was removed, closure was abandoned or poorly written if any was given, and characters were disallowed from growing. A good example at how plot and character development could have made this series and its characters better was the relationship between Hiro and Megan. Would it have truly survived or would they have broken up?

Would Richardson Mole have eventually lost interest in his obsession with besting and bullying Fred or would his obsession consume him compelling him to become a super villain? I do see quite a few similarities between Mole and Reverse Flash.

Then you have Karmi who is in my opinion, the biggest wild card of the bunch. She was intentionally introduced as an arrogant, prickly and unlikable yet complex character who rivaled Hiro bitterly.

Yet had a huge crush on his alter ego and as time went on, started to grow up and even form a friendship with Hiro. What would have happened further down the road with her? Would she have become a super hero herself? Or maybe even another love interest for Hiro kind of like how Black Cat is for Spider-Man?

Is Obake really gone?

What does the future hold Diana (Liv’s clone), Liv herself or the Sycorax the genetics company?

Is Alistair Krei going to become an ally to Big Hero 6 or an antagonist? There is also the issue at how little we know about the other Big Hero 6 characters other than Fred, Hiro and Baymax. What are Honey Lemon, Wasabi and Go Go’s backstories? These questions matter and while not every mystery can be solved, leaving none of them solved is lazy writing.

6- Executives, kindly stay out of the writing and any other part of the creative process. - I’m sorry, execs, but there is no nice way to say it. History itself proves that every time executives got involved in the creative process of any media, it got worse not better. Leave the writing to the creative team and the execs should only handle the legal stuff. Please. We understand that TV is a business, but writing itself is not. It is an art which you just don’t have a talent for. Let the creative people do their thing with the freedom necessary and you do your thing, deal? Deal.

7- Focus on Hiro and Baymax. - The are the main characters so keep them at the heart of the series no matter what happens around them. That is all I can say.

And that sums up all the things that could have made Big Hero 6 the series better, but this is all just my opinion. What is yours?

PS: I am well aware that the Big Hero 6 series is being retconned because a new series called Baymax is in the works as well as the long awaited sequel to the first movie. I am looking forward to both with an open mind. PPS: I also am aware that some people liked this show the way it was including the art style and I am cool with that. An analysis for art that includes cartoons is never right or wrong. It is solely based on opinion. I may have thought this series could have been better, but there are people who make arguments that it could have been worse.

[poepoe-thebunny]

I need a batfam AU where they all get caught Doing Weird Things (That Could Potentially Expose their Secret Identities TM).

Except the default answer to all of their weird shit, that they give the media, is "I'm from Gotham. What do you expect?"

And it works

Because it's Gotham, and Gotham is a weird fucking place ok? People gotta survive. And when your go to heroes are a broody furry who dresses as a bat, and all of his genius underage birdlings who wore WAY too much yellow, Jesus they looked like traffic lights, to fight a maniacal clown, a man obsessed with riddles, and a giant screeching manbat you do what you gotta do.

So the eldest Wayne kid gets caught walking on his hands a few stories up of the GCPD? The kid was an acrobat who's probably using his police work as an excuse to visit home. Really, this is Gotham, leave the kid alone to go visit his dad.

Some random intern gets a video of CEO Drake-Wayne pouring redbull into his morning coffee while ranting about how Ivy's plants "Literally forced us to reroute traffic! I mean-this is GOTHAM! We are a CITY DO YOU KNOW WHAT REROUTING TRAFFIC DOES TO EVERYONE'S WORK SCHEDULES I BARELY SLEPT AS IT IS BECAUSE OF YOUR GIANT MAN EATING TURNIPS??!!" Followed by ungodly screeching? This is Gotham and teenagers don't get enough sleep as it is, and really Ivy should have known what a bitch rerouting traffic is. People gotta work, so Tim is really just being a whole mood tbh.

And as time goes on they just start doing more and more ridiculous things, but the excuse works E V E R Y T I M E. EVERY TIME.

The Wayne's attend some random technology showcase charity auction and some rich a-hole says his TecHnOLoGy makes his line of new commercially available cars theft-resistant? Jason gets caught on camera spitting facts about corporations choosing cost over quality at the dude while he climbs on stage and proceeds to not only break into the car, but hot wire it with an old iPod in front of the whole crowd. But really, he's from Gotham, and if you're gonna MAKE something then these rich guys need to be more honest about their products ok? They shouldn't be duping the public and selling junk.

Damian's class is having a school trip to the zoo or something, and the penguin decided to take over the Arctic Animals exhibit and hold people hostage? Photos on the front of the newspaper show Damian racing after a terrified penguin with a broken broom handle as a diy sword, protecting the seals and Arctic foxes from the man's reign of terror. But really, Damian tells them, he's from Gotham, of course his father believes it best for him to learn self defense, and those poor animals didn't deserve the penguin.

Cass not-so-accidentally making a visiting mayoral candidate from another city spill coffee on himself on live TV after moving so silently he didn't notice Cass was there? I'm from Gotham. Tim casually mentioning he's read the thesis of some scientist-turned-supervillain and critiquing it and forwarding it to said villain and complaining when they "Can't take constructive criticism"? I'm from Gotham. Duke walking around in a t-shirt with a Robin design on the front and a "Not Dead Robin's Club" in the back? I'm from Gotham. Getting caught in a bank heist as a civilian so Jason and Damian just start nailing the dudes in the nuts no holds barred? I'm from Gotham.

It becomes the default explanation for all the weird stuff the Wayne family does. It becomes a trending tag on social media every time one of them does something remotely eye catching.

It become a Tik Tok challenge of gothamites playing out all the weird things they do and see every day like "Walking around with a cheat sheet of riddle answers in case I get kidnapped or some shiz. Why? I'm from Gotham" *Cue close up of riddler on a large tv screen while being held hostage*

Or "Showing your friends how to sew so they can make pockets for their dresses! With the help of some awesome ladies! Why? We're from Gotham, and we all agree dresses need pockets." *Camera pans to Catwoman and Batgirl with needle and thread

Or even "Was pretending I was a Broadway actress and got into a duet with my fav person ever! Why? We're from Gotham!" *Shows video of the Red Hood singing with a girl for the Into The Woods opening song*

And Bruce. Poor, long-suffering Bruce who has been tagged online in every video of his boys going viral, who now has a professional sounding statement outline for media releases of his kids doing weird and dangerous shit that was ran through his lawyers, who has had to sit through justice league meetings while Hal and Barry crow when another round of #imfromgotham hits the internet, is at his wits end. Seriously, he's pretty sure either Alfred or Jason have a collage of all of the dumb newspaper headlines that have made circulation recently.

[skylarmoon71]

Reverse Flash x Reader- Oneshot (Flash)

Dealing with this yellow suit wearing maniac was not how you thought you’d spend the night. As an ex citizen from Central city, you knew just about every villain that came out of the tragedy of the explosion. Every day a new one seems to arise, and since you liked having all your body parts as they were, you stayed caught up with the news.

That’s why you’d left the place for some much needed peace. 

Rockstone was quiet, and still pretty populated. It wasn’t that far away from Central City either, so you could still visit your family every now and then.

“You seem awfully calm for someone being threatened."

The dark haired male raised his vibrating hand, hoping to urge at least some kind of reaction. After being brought back and wiped from existence so many times, this time around he’d just been looking to have a little fun. Chasing Barry around was starting to get redundant. And then he supposed the hero had his own problems to deal with right about now.

He planned to stay as low key as possible until he could figure out what his next move was. So kidnapping an unsuspecting victim and forcing them to provide him shelter seemed like the best way to go.

“Not gonna lie, scared the shit outta me when you appeared out of that little portal. Really thought I dodged a bullet leaving CC. Just my luck.” you grumble. Sipping at your coffee, you adjusted your bag strap. “Sorry old man, got a job to get to so if you’ll excuse me.” you walk around him. It was already dark, and since you had a night shift at the university today, you really weren’t in the mood for this.

Your hair is taken with the whip of the wind, and it feels like a blink. Drink discarded on the ground, you stare in shock. He has you pinned to the wall, snare on his face, blue eyes emitting so much raw agitation. “I’d advise against mocking me.”

He’s started to vibrate, the red light overtaking his eyes.

“It’s not wise to test me.”

The echoing of his voice would bring any person to their knees in fear. The look in your eyes shifts from shock to annoyance. Your free hand is hanging at the side of your waist. You raise your palm, and he looks down just as a blue light shoots out. He’s gone once again, obviously not anticipating this. No longer forced up on the wall, you shrug your shoulders, straightening your shirt that was ruffled.

Eobard is now standing at a distance, intrigued. He halts his speed for a second to observe you. He’s positive he has no recollection of you. Being the evil genius that he is, he’s pretty much recorded all the villain metas in Central City. All those years travelling through time also played a big part in it. So why does he have no profile on you?

“Who are you?” He narrows his eyes, and all you provide is a smirk.

“I think you mean what.” You open both your palms, and your eyes are now emitting the same glow as your hands.

“Great.”

What in the world did he get himself into. He really had a knack for picking bad situations.

~Three Months Later~

“I could have just. “ He makes a hand motion, and you don't need to even guess what he means. This guy. You'd just been telling him about your experience yesterday with one of your peers.

“Now now, don’t make me put you to sleep again Bardy-poo. “ You could tell from his facial expression that the name was anything but desired.

“How long do you intend to keep me hostage?” you scoffed at his statement.

“Hostage, I’d like to think of it as a gracious service to society. “

Eobard was still glaring in your direction.

Running into you that night was such terrible luck on his part. He really thought he’d be lucky this time around, but he was dead wrong. You were unlike anything or one he’d ever met. Certainly not a meta. Since you weren’t exactly forthcoming about your origin, there wasn’t much to go on. What he did know is that every time he attempted to do something even remotely evil, you knew about it.

His powers also had very little effect on you. Trying on many occasions to drill a hand through your chest with no luck. You had him mentally and physically subdued. What’s even worse is he was trying to avoid time travelling, cause that would catch Barry’s attention, and the prospect of the male finding him was even less appealing. With nowhere to go, and you keeping him on a tight watch, his only option was to stick around.

It wasn’t like he was completely stranded. He had means to get by for moments like this. With his abilities he could take whatever he wanted without so much as a flinch. You apparently didn’t care much for his little adventures as long as no one got dead. For all intents and purposes, he was a free man, minus the unnamed being keeping him on a leash.

“I can feel you plotting from all the way over here. Something you’d like to share with the class?”

“Will you remove the bind?” He asked. You click your tongue.

“You know I can’t do that. Evil villain and all. I wouldn't sleep very well if I knew you were out there impaling civilians. “

His eyes were still marking you, and you shifted, brows knitting.

“Well...I’m gonna go because that look is a bit off putting.”

Moving to pick up your cup of coffee and head for the door, you’re once again trapped between the speedster and the wall. You’re about to give him another snarky retort, but you become a little distracted by how deliciously rosy his lips are.

You divert your eyes quickly before your mind can stray any further. He doesn’t speak for a moment, and for a second you almost think he’s trapped in the same haze you are. He’d obviously prepared something diabolical to say, but like some of your most recent interactions, his usual malicious intent is missing.

“So, you're gonna say something or are you trying to relive some Korean drama scene."

He blinks, then takes notice of the position. You’re a bit confused at the lost look on his face. If you didn’t know any better you would have said he didn’t intend to do that. Taking a step back, the coldness returns to his eyes, and just like that he takes off. You release a breath.

“It’s getting harder.”

This little ploy was becoming difficult to keep up. If he ever figured it out you’re not sure what his reaction will be. Your reason for doing this has greatly changed from the beginning.

~~~~~~

The little mental battle has been going on all day.

You could barely focus on anything even when you were teaching your criminology class. That night walking to your door, you felt heavy. Not just from the secret you were keeping from Eobard, but also the feelings you’d lectured yourself not to grow.

The dark haired male is not a good man. You keep telling yourself that. But you’d hope that these months being around you would change that. He hadn’t hurt anyone since his arrival. You honestly thought that you could change him for the better. Opening the door, you step in. The area is silent, and it sort of makes you a tad bit suspicious.

“Eo-”

“Good evening.” You jump, glaring in his direction as you push the door close. He’s sitting on the couch casually like he didn’t just scare the shit out of you.

“Geez don’t do that!!”

He’s once again strutting that stupid smirk.

“It’s uncomfortable isn’t it, when things happen that we have no control over. Surprises.” you squint.

“Why do I feel like that has some alternate meaning."

He’s dressed in dark clothing, glasses perched on his nose. Everything about his body language tells you something is up. With his attention now fixed on you, the bag in your hand is placed on the counter. You’re preparing for anything. As you’ve realized Eobard is very unpredictable.

“I’m done playing your game, release me at once. “

Trying not to pay much mind to his request, you walk past him.

“Come on, we've been at this for months. I can’t let you go on a rampage. Innocent lives and all. If you really wanna blame someone then blame yourself. What are the odds that out of all of the people here you decided to grab me right?” you laugh, but you don’t receive any in return.

“You’re under the impression that this is a game.”

Eobard knows there’s no harm he can inflict on your body, doesn’t mean his actions don’t make you nervous. He approaches slowly, but with purpose. With your back now to the fridge, you try to move to an area where you won’t feel as trapped. Eobard in no way allows this. His hands press into the cool surface of the fridge.

“Y-You know this fetish you seem to have with pushing me against stuff is getting kind of old.” Who were you kidding, shit was driving you mad.

“You can’t keep me here.”

There was no humor in his voice. Just flat out hostility. Yet he wasn’t emitting the anger you knew he had inside. Just because he couldn’t kill you didn’t mean he couldn’t hurt you. You’re positive he’s realized that by now. The prospect of him leaving, somehow it caused an ache in your heart. Eyes connected, it was impossible for you not to look so vulnerable.

“I-If you really want to leave then just go.” you willed your body not to shake, but it was becoming difficult to even keep your tears at bay. “Are you toying with me?” He clenched his fist.

You shook your head, lowering your eyes. Why did you have to feel guilty for keeping the truth from him. The guy wasn’t exactly an upstanding citizen. “I’m not. You can leave Eobard. “

His eyes grew a little wide at the information. 

“I’m not a witch, or a metahuman. I’m just a mutant.” you state. 

“It’s how I’m able to produce barriers like the one I placed on you. It can only be sustained for a maximum of three weeks. It’s taken me years to get to that point of control. You just assumed I always had the barrier up after a month, and I never corrected you because I was trying to keep people safe.”

That wasn’t your only reason.

This entire time he’d been trying to solve your mystery when the answer was right in front of him. It still made no sense. Why didn’t he leave?

“The only reason you’re still here is because you want to be.” Eobard took a step back.

“That can’t be right, why would I want to be stuck in this wretched town.”

All you offer is a smile. At the back of your mind you hope it’s because he’s grown closer to you than he wants to admit.

“I’ve been wondering the same for weeks now. “

You aren’t sure what else can be said. Thankfully you haven’t started breaking down. You sort of want him to leave so you can have the privacy to do so. You take a breath, forcing a confident smile on your face. “Well the cat’s out of the bag so I guess this is goodbye. Just because I can’t hold you doesn’t mean I won’t know when you’re causing mayhem. Better not fall back to your old ways.”

You refuse to look him in the eye, so you have no idea what kind of expression he’s wearing.

Eobard steps forward and grabs your arm.

“Wha-” your swept right off your feet, and you grunt when your back suddenly comes in contact with the softness of your mattress. Eobard is hovering over your body, and you realize he’s just taken you into the bedroom without so much as an explanation. Not just that, but the hunger behind those dark rimmed glasses is enough to turn you into putty.

“W-What are you doing!!”

“Testing a theory.”

“The fu-” His lips collide with yours and your eyebrows shoot up. If you had expected something, it wasn’t this. His entire body is now pressed into you. You’ve held your breath, whimpering.

This is bad, wrong even. His hands are pressed into the mattress, as he shows no signs of moving, or slowing down. His lips are moving eagerly against yours, and at some point your body has started to respond. You reach up, grabbing a fistful of his black shirt, forcing him closer. Your kisses are desperate now, and raw. One of his hands lands on your thigh, trailing up your leg. Because you’re wearing a dress, you can feel his palm against your skin. You moan, and he takes full advantage, slipping his tongue in.

“So good..”

He tastes amazing. His kisses are even more incredible. If you never came up for air that would be too soon. Eobard parts for the breath you are both in need of. Sapphire orbs have changed to navy, and it elects another needy moan from you. His hand is still on your thigh, caressing the skin teasingly. He’s so close to where you need him the most. Eobard takes pleasure in your soft cries. Now it all makes sense. The reason behind your need to keep him there, his apparent unconscious reluctance to leave you.

“Delicious.”

He licks his lips, pulling off his glasses and tossing them overhead.

“I hope you understand what you’ve gotten yourself into. “ You gulp.

Did you?

His lips hover over yours and the logical part of your brain has vanished. You lean up to connect, but he’s keeping you at a distance with that stupidly sexy smirk on his face."

”It appears I’m the one who has you bind now. “

What an unusual turn of events.

Not that you’re complaining.

[dontcallmecarrie]

Replying to the commenter of this snippet, who said:

oh i love it when a normaly controlled character just has a moment to let loose and everyone around them, that only know them in some variation of "placid" know shit will go down now ^^ also is there a hint of friendship with victor or are they just professional aquainted? thanks for the snippet

.

Friend, you hit the nail on the head of why I wrote it. 

This AU’s Justin is normally very self-controlled, sometimes almost to a fault— because for so long he’s been used to “being the bigger man” and “setting an example” [sure, most of the times he chose it because the actual adults were busy being overgrown toddlers], but that also means that when he loses it...

Well. As you saw, it’s not pretty. 

Also because while he normally leans hard on the ‘affable’ part of ‘affable villain’ in most of the installments of this AU, so a rare instance of him losing his temper is hopefully a good reminder of exactly what alignment he is. 

aka writing villain protagonists isn’t easy for me, if I don’t check myself they turn into anti-villains instead...which was not the goal of this thought exercise

As for his dynamic with Victor von Doom: in an earlier part, I mentioned they were childhood friends, kinda. They went to the same boarding school and were study buddies and had the weirdest friendship just about anyone could’ve thought of— barring Justin’s frenemies-slash-rivals-slash-idek-anymore dynamic with Tony— and didn’t even know each other’s names until after Victor got pulled out of boarding school because of reasons related to his country’s destabilization [his family had a lot of pull in Latveria and kept him abroad as much as possible for safety reasons, but when things really started to hit the fan they couldn’t afford to split their assets anymore].

Next time Justin saw his closest-thing-to-an-actual childhood friend’s name, it was on a request from a group who wanted to buy Hammer weapons for reasons relating to the bloody civil war going on.

Had Justin not recognized the name, the proposal would’ve been rejected; Victor’s group was technically classified as insurgents because they didn’t have official government backing [...because good luck getting anything of the sort in the middle of a civil war with multiple factions going on] and the political situation was, as analysts called it, a Tire Fire™ at best. 

So. 

Getting involved was risky at best and long story short, yeah, Justin may or may not have broken quite a few national and international laws to get Victor the weapons he needed.

After all, Victor was a relative unknown; a budding warlord whose motivations and goals were uncertain, and in retrospect, a handful of childhood memories was an incredibly risky gamble.

But it paid off.

And that’s the kicker, isn’t it?

If not for those first few shipments, Victor’s group would have just been one of the many that got wiped out. Because towards the end, they were reusing as much ammo as they could, some of their guns were Frankensteined abominations that were as liable to blow up in their faces as they were to shoot but it’s not like they had any better options, not as the fighting escalated and more and more factions tried to take advantage of any and every perceived weaknesses.

Instead, however, Victor von Doom became a national hero as Latveria went from ‘somewhere between Somalia and Yemen’ in terms of stability, straight to a Wakanda-esque powerhouse. 

probably not a great comparison, but a) both are super isolationist, b) industrialized powerhouses, and c) have a single leader

And now, Victor von Doom is the leader of a country that did a 180 on par with... quite a few historical precedents that make a lot of people very uncomfortable with the parallels. 

Latveria’s taken seriously at the international level, it has to be. Victor is hailed as a genius and dictator and everything in between, scion of one of its oldest families and with diplomatic immunity with just about any country he can name.

The man who has it all— and remembers how he got there.

If not for those first few shipments...

Victor von Doom owes Justin Hammer more than he can name. 

So, so much more, because part of Victor had never really expected to see the end of the fighting, let alone live to oversee his home country’s rebuilding.

His strange childhood friend became a kingmaker sometime when the world wasn’t looking, and it’s a secret the two of them will take to their graves.

So if Justin has an idea? Well, he’ll listen. 

It’s the least he can do.

.

...aka hopefully that gives you a better idea of their dynamic? 

That was the first time Justin really got his hands dirty: a risky gamble based off the world’s [second-]weirdest childhood friendship, but it paid off so well the CIA actually came calling asking for why he was on first-name terms with Latveria’s dictator and he had to explain they used to know each other in boarding school and were just now catching up.

For the record, Tony is incredibly jealous when he first gets wind of their friendship because excuse you, he was the one who knew Justin since they were kids! So what if they’re rivals, he was there first!!! 

To the point where someone probably ends up side-eyeing him and asking if he and Justin were exes, because Tony keeps going ‘what does he have that I don’t?’ because Justin’s been spending all his time with Victor now that he’s in town for the UN summit and dammit, they’d had plans.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

(Accidental 150 Follower Special) IOTA's Top 10 Worst Episodes of Miraculous Ladybug (Part 1)

If you saw one of my earlier posts, an anon asked what my favorite and least favorite episodes of Miraculous Ladybug were. So, I decided to make a little list explaining the best and worst this show has to offer.

A few quick ground rules here. I'm not going to list any episodes I had previously talked about in some of my other posts. This includes “Kung Food”, “Animaestro”, “Syren”, “Reflekdoll”, “Chameleon”, and most of the episodes relating to Chloe's “damnation arc” that Astruc planned since he first created the character (“Despair Bear”, “Queen Wasp”, “Malediktator” and “Battle of the Miraculous”). Also, I'm not counting the specials, mainly because aren't listed as episodes, and because I don't want to talk about them.

Other than that, anything goes, so let's get things started with the worst list.

These are the Top 10 Worst Episodes of Miraculous Ladybug (in my personal opinion because your opinion is also valid)

#10: Stormy Weather 2

“Stormy Weather” was the very first episode of the show, and it really made a good impression on new viewers. So naturally, when it was announced that Stormy Weather would return, fans were excited. Then when the episode aired, Hawkmoth gave her even more powers, including the power to create a volcano big enough to potentially knock the planet out of orbit when it erupts. So Ladybug and Cat Noir have no choice but to stop the villain once again.

What does this plot lead to?

Yep, this episode is nothing more than a clip show. I understand that clip shows and bottle episodes are a necessary evil, but why would you set up something this awesome with a fan-favorite Akuma like Stormy Weather, and then not even bother to show it?

This episode is yet another attempt at showing that the show totally has character development. The whole reason Aurore is Akumatized into Stormy Weather again is because Chloe says that people can't change because Astruc (who was one of the four people writing this episode) is determined to make you hate this teenage girl more than the main villain of the show.

So of course, everyone spends most of the episode talking about how much they've changed, which is represented through clips of past episodes that do a horrible job at actually conveying any development.

According to Marinette, Adrien has “become a friend she can talk to about anything, except when it comes to her feelings for him”. Ah yes, you can tell they're friends by the fact that they barely hang out together, much less share a conversation because the writers are going to drag out the whole “Marinette stammering in front of Adrien” until they get tired of it. So basically, never.

All Alya and Nino talk about is how Ladybug helped them become a couple, and become superheroes, even though neither of those are actually related to character development. Though that is a fitting metaphor for the way both of their personalities have basically devolved to “the couple”.

Chloe talks about how nicer she's gotten, while footage of her doing awful things is played. I wonder who wrote that part in...

Even Ladybug and Cat Noir talk about how much they've grown and how stronger they've gotten, as opposed to focusing on STOPPING ANOTHER ICE AGE FROM HAPPENING. How can Hawkmoth even think this will get him the Miraculous? Yeah, sure I guess he can get them from the frozen corpses of our heroes, but what then? He still doomed humanity, and I don't think he can reverse the damage like Ladybug.

Towards the end, the clip show becomes slightly interesting, as Adrien mentions an unsigned card he got for Valentine's Day in “Dark Cupid”, and how similar the handwriting looks to Marinette's.

Does this lead to Adrien figuring out Marinette has feelings for him? Is the sky bright red? Both of these questions have the same answer.

Yeah, out of nowhere, Adrien just mentions Luka, who wasn't mentioned at all in this episode, and immediately thinks Marinette is in love with him. And that's how the episode ends.

I put this at the bottom of the list because I don't think it's completely fair to judge clip shows, but even some clip shows at least try to put in some effort and justify the clips, like what The Legend of Korra and some seasons of Power Rangers did. And the fact that the whole point of the episode is a poor excuse to claim that there's character development in the show only makes it even more infuriating.

Oh my God, this is only Number 10...

#9: Oblivio

While I already talked about “Cat Blanc”, this episode shares a similar theme as that episode: Giving viewers what they've wanted for three seasons, Marinette and Adrien finally learning each other's identity and starting a romantic relationship... only for the reset button to be once again slammed, making the entire episode pointless.

The only difference is that unlike in “Cat Blanc”, where there was an actual love confession that made sense, here, Marinette and Adrien find out the other's identity when they get their memories wiped by the Akuma of the week, Oblivio.

From then on, it's just fanservice. Instead of actually developing the relationship between Marinette and Adrien, the writers just decide to cram an entire episode worth of Adrienette content into a single episode just to tide fans over. Marinette and Adrien seriously fall in love despite only knowing each other for like, an hour at most. And the fact that the writers undo all the romantic progress of the episode makes it come across as pointless.

But the ending is what really cements this episode's spot on the list. As soon as Oblivio is defeated, Alya takes a picture of Ladybug and Cat Noir kissing without their consent and then rubs it in Ladybug's face.

Even though Ladybug doesn't know the circumstances (she has no memory of the events of the episode), this was still an invasion of her privacy, and she looks horrified by the picture that Alya is obviously going to post on her blog.

And of course, Cat Noir is more than happy to see it, ignoring how Ladybug feels and claims that they'd make a great couple. Because everyone knows good couples are formed by someone gaslighting the other into going out with them.

But wait, it gets better! In the next scene, we learn that Alya and Nino were akumatized into Oblivio... because they were caught in an embarrassing situation by their peers.

Alya: Remember when we visited Montparnasse Tower? Well, we went and hid to play Super Penguino, but Ms. Bustier caught us, and...

Nino: And you guys made fun of us for playing that game, saying it wasn't our age and all.

Alya: We were totally embarrassed at getting caught.

This was my thought process when I first heard Alya and Nino's explanation.

How can Alya claim to take a compromising picture of Ladybug, ignore how she feels, and not realize the similarity from when she and Nino were akumatized? This is what completely killed Alya for me in canon. This was the point where I couldn't care less if Marinette was friends with her or not. Sure, there are still fanfics, but those actually portray her with some kind of conscious. So to summarize, Fanon Alya is awesome, but I hope Canon Alya's 4G plan runs out.

This episode is just forgettable, but the ending made things worse. Apart from, I guess the action scenes and some funny jokes, this episode has no redeeming qualities. Like, literally the best thing to come from this episode was @miraculouscontent​‘s LadyBugOut AU, as it actually addressed the hypocrisy of Alya's character, among other problematic aspects of the show.

#8: Oni-Chan

Just a heads up, most of the episodes on this list are from Season 3. Just want to give you an idea of what to expect.

This episode is about Lila tricking Adrien into helping with her homework, when she is only doing it to get closer to Adrien. Marinette tries to spy on the two and stop Lila from hurting Adrien... even though she knows Adrien is aware that Lila is a liar, and is visibly uncomfortable around her.

And because the episode spends so much time on Marinette following Adrien and Lila, the buildup to Kagami getting akumatized is incredibly rushed. Seriously, she gets a single line of dialogue before she gets akumatized, and the motive is ridiculous too. Lila sends a picture of her forcing a kiss on Adrien, and Kagami immediately bursts into tears at the sight of it.

But wait, it gets better! When Kagami is akumatized into Oni-Chan (the writers know that's a term used for males in Japan, right?), she turns into a psycho hellbent on killing Lila because “Adrien doesn't deserve her”. Most of her dialogue is her saying how much she loves Adrien, making her come across as, for lack of a better word, a yandere.

This episode just destroys Kagami's character, making her as unlikable as Katie Killjoy in the process. If it wasn't for “Ikari Gozen” actually treating her like a human being (obviously Astruc's planned character development from the beginning), I'd completely hate her.

It also shows how much of an evil genius Lila is, as she has the brilliant idea to convince Oni-Chan to kill the only person capable of saving her from the Akuma's wrath. And this somehow gives Hawkmoth the idea to forge an alliance with Lila. It's also another reason why I believe in Darwinism.

This episode is low on the list because it does have a few redeeming qualities, like Lila facing consequences for lying, however brief they may be, and it has a great character moment with Adrien realizing on his own how terrible Lila really is, a far cry from what he was like in “Chameleon”.

Other than that, it's pretty bad, and still deserves a spot on this list.

#7: Antibug

HA! I said MOST of the episodes involving Chloe's “Damnation Arc” wouldn't be on this list, but not ALL OF THEM, so this one counts! Take that, convoluted rules I made up for some reason!

What was I talking about again? Oh right, “Antibug”. Oh crap, “Antibug”...

This is one of of several episodes in Miraculous Ladybug that really should have been a two-parter. It tries to be daring and includes two Akumas in one episode, but both of them are poorly executed.

An invisibly entity starts harassing Chloe, so Ladybug and Cat Noir start an investigation. It turns out to be Chloe's lackey Sabrina, who was akumatized after a falling out between the two. Well, I say “falling out” lightly, because what actually happened was that Chloe and Sabrina were cosplaying as Ladybug and Cat Noir, Chloe pretended to be the real deal while crashing an interview with Jagged Stone before Sabrina accidentally blew her cover, causing Chloe to be humiliated on TV and end her “friendship” with Sabrina.

Ladybug learns this from Chloe's butler, while Chloe never mentions the incident. So when Ladybug and Cat Noir engage the Akuma, Ladybug ignores Chloe's advice on where the corrupted object, naturally not trusting her judgment. And this is portrayed as a bad thing.

This episode is the start of a long-running trend in Miraculous Ladybug: Marinette needing to learn a lesson, while Adrien/Cat Noir is the one to help teach that lesson.

Chloe did nothing to help, only made things worse, and lied about why Sabrina got akumatized. It's kind of obvious why Ladybug wouldn't trust her word. The whole point of The Boy Who Cried Wolf wasn't to trust the liar after all.

But if that was all the episode did, it wouldn't be on the list, because now, the narrative wants to make the audience feel bad for Chloe before she gets akumatized into Antibug... who is just a lazy palette swap because new character models are expensive.

This part of the episode isn't nearly as bad as the first half, but like “Oni-Chan”, Chloe's akumatization is incredibly rushed, and we don't really get a chance to sympathize with her before she goes full Antibug.

Even Antibug herself isn't that interesting of a villain. The whole idea of an evil doppelganger is that they're a perfect match for the hero, but we only see Ladybug and Antibug fight for a few seconds, while Cat Noir does most of the fighting with her while Marinette's Kwami recharges. I like that Ladybug and Cat Noir show their teamwork to defeat Antibug, but I feel it would have been more interesting to see Ladybug and Antibug duke it out before Cat Noir helps turn the tide.

Again, this episode really needed to be a two-parter to better expand on the story presented here, because it had a really interesting premise. I'd personally read the version of “Antibug” in @justanotherpersonsuniverse​‘s “The Adventures of Panthera Noire” (an AU fanfic where shy girl Juleka gets the Cat Miraculous instead of Adrien). Not only does it have two separate chapters for Vanisher and Antibug, it also does a good job of setting Chloe on an actual redemption arc, unlike Astruc's “damnation arc”.

#6: The Puppeteer 2

As much as I've ragged on Adrien/Cat Noir in some of my other posts (and will continue to do so in this list), that doesn't mean I think Marinette has problems too, and this episode is a prime example.

Marinette and Adrien go to a wax statue museum with their friends (and Manon), but because of a poor choice of words by Nino, Adrien thinks that Marinette hates him. So he does something that everyone loves, practical jokes.

Adrien seriously thinks that pranking Marinette will improve her opinion of him. Even the prank is ridiculous, pretending to be a wax statue to make her laugh. And it leads to... Oh God... This is easily the contender for one of the worst moments in the entire show. Marinette goes up to the statue and... gets close to it. Yes, we, the audience know that this isn't a statue, but putting that aside, just look at what Marinette does to the “statue” (AUTHOR’S NOTE: I made a gif from the episode, but it wouldn’t go through, so I recommend you check out the episode and watch the statue scene for yourself if you don’t value your sanity). Even Adrien, as dense as he can be, is a little unsettled by what Marinette does.

If the scene was about Marinette talking about her feelings for Adrien, I'd be more lenient on it, but this? This is just uncomfortable to watch.

Even the dialogue makes Marinette sound incredibly creepy.

Marinette: Wow... it looks so... real. The wax is nearly as hot as skin. It even smells exactly like him...! Oh, beautiful statue of Adrien, your wax is so soft! Your yak hair is silky. Your eyes are so green. Oh, shall I be a statue, too! Everything would be so much easier. Why haven't we been molded together in the plaster of destiny? Marble to marble, wax lips against wax lips, entwined for eternity...

I think Gilbert Gottfried said it best.

This scene alone put this episode on the list, and the Akuma doesn't make it better. I really liked “The Puppeteer”, and I thought her ability to control past Akuma victims was incredibly fun to watch. And when she returns to take control of the wax statues of past Akumas they... don't use their powers (with the exception), and serve as cannon fodder for Ladybug and Cat Noir to plow through, making the return of the villain very underwhelming.

Even the end where Adrien tells Marinette that he is in love with someone and only sees her as a friend. This should devastate Marinette, but in the next scene, thanks to some fortune cookie nonsense from Tikki, she's still unsure about her relationship with Adrien, and that's how the episode ends. Seriously. Because just need to keep the status quo consistent, right? It's not like Marinette doubting her crush on Adrien and worrying that she's just wasted her time would have been interesting to see, right? Play that happy ending theme already!

Of all the episodes on this list, this is the one I was dreading talking about the most because of some of the moments here. And yet, there are still episodes that are worse than this one...

Here’s Part 2

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #173: Sherlock Holmes

Yes we’re going out of order, but I have a very good reason for this! ...Well, not really. We were already in the geniuses section, and any excuse to not think about summer while it’s still 40 degrees out is one I’m going to take.

Anyway, today we’re making the man famous for discombobulation, Sherlock Holmes! Track down mysteries, show up everyone else in the party, and kick ass with Baritsu. Easy stuff.

Check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

Next up: Chaldea’s other resident genius.

Race and Background

There are some theories about Sherlock’s race, but for simplicity’s sake we’ll call you a Variant Human, giving you +1 Dexterity and Wisdom. You also get Sleight of Hand proficiency for some close-up detective work, and the Keen Mind feat, giving you +1 Wisdom, the ability to always point north, perfect time telling, and the ability to recall anything from the last month in-game, a.k.a. the DM’s nightmare.

You know a lot yourself, but you also know how to build and maintain an archive, so the closest background to match would be the Cloistered Scholar background, giving you proficiency in Nature and Religion. Arcana and history would suit you better, but I’ve got something in mind for that, and good things come to those who wait.

Ability Scores

As you’d probably expect, your Wisdom and Intelligence are pretty freaking high. You are Sherlock Holmes after all. You’re pretty strong, but the reason you’re so scary in a fight is because of your technique, so we’re going with Dexterity here instead. You snort cocaine like it’s going out of style, so your Constitution has to be able to keep up. This does mean your Strength is a bit low, but you’re practically an anime protagonist, there are some things we just can’t get in a balanced build. Finally, dump Charisma. Half the reason you drag Guda along on your cases is to talk people out of thinking you’re the murderer, honestly it’s kind of embarrassing.

Class Levels

1. Rogue 1: You’re a skilled guy, and rogues get skills for days. You get proficiencies in Dexterity and Intelligence saves, as well as four skills- Deception for disguises, and Insight, Investigation, and Perception for cases and clue-catching. You also get Expertise in two skills, doubling their proficiency bonus. Right off the bat I’d suggest Insight and Investigation so you can hopefully get to the bottom of things quickly. Foiling a plan at the last second is thrilling and all, but utterly shutting down a villain is so satisfying.

To help with that, you can use a Sneak Attack once per turn if you’re using a ranged or finesse weapon and either have advantage against a target or a friend within 5′ of them. You also learn Thieves’ Cant, it’s a language that will be especially helpful when you have to navigate the criminal underbelly of a city.

2. Monk 1:None of that was Baritsu though, so we’re bouncing over to monk for some Martial Arts. You can use Dexterity instead of Strength on monk weapons (this does not make them finesse), and spending an action to attack with one also lets you make an unarmed attack as a bonus action. Your unarmed and monk weapon attacks also do at least a 1d4 of damage.

You also get Unarmored Defense, making your AC 10 plus your dexterity modifier plus your wisdom modifier. I don’t care how hot it looks, that corset isn’t armor.

3. Cleric 1: Last multiclass, I swear. Since you can literally make clues appear like magic, we kinda need a bit of magic. Clerics get Spells that they cast and prepare using their Wisdom, which you might have noticed is becoming a pretty important ability for you.

If you want clues, you’ll need knowledge, at least enough to know that the Knowledge domain can help with that. At first level you gain the Blessings of Knowledge, making you proficient in History and Arcana and doubling those proficiencies as well (hey, see what I said about waiting?).

You get three cantrips for joining the clergy, Light gives you some of those cool magnifying spotlights you carry around, Thaumaturgy for some parlor tricks, and Guidance for when you really have to focus.

For first level spells, Command gives you a basic command spell, and Identify teaches you all about the magic affecting an item or creature. Normally that would be more of a research montage, but some times you’re in a hurry. 

As far as actually prepared spells go, anything with “Detect” in the name is a good pick.

4. Rogue 2: Now that we’ve got our spread, let’s build some of these classes up. Second level rogues can make Cunning Actions, Dashing, Disengaging, or Hiding as a bonus action. If you already spent your action rifling through someone’s files and they’re about to burst into the room, you’ll thank me.

5. Rogue 3: There’s really only two possible picks for your subclass, and we’re saving the Mastermind for Moriarty. As an Inquisitive, you have an Ear for Deceit, giving your Insight rolls a minimum of 8 on the die. On top of that, your Eye for Detail lets you make Perception and Investigation checks as a bonus action, further speeding up the process. On top of that, your Insightful Fighting uses your bonus action to make an Insight check versus a creature’s Deception check. On a success, you don’t need advantage to make sneak attacks against that creature for up to a minute. Finally, your Steady Aim uses your bonus action to get advantage on an attack if you don’t move that turn. I’d just use your insightful fighting, but your rival might push you to your limit.

This is a lot of stuff to do on your bonus action, and it’s only going to get worse from here.

6. Monk 2: Back at the school of Baritsu, you gain Ki Points that you can spend to make two unarmed attacks, dodge, disengage, or dash as a bonus action. Doing either of the latter two also doubles your jump distance for the turn. You also gain Unarmored Movement, increasing your movement speed by 10 feet while not wearing armor.

7. Monk 3: We need the most technique in the fewest levels, so that means we’re turning to the Way of the Open Hand once more. Your Open Hand Technique gives extra benefits to your flurry of blows. On each hit, the creature either can’t take reactions for a round, must succeed on a dexterity save or be knocked prone, or must make a strength save or be pushed 15′ away.

You can also Deflect Missiles as your reaction, catching an incoming attack and reducing its damage, possibly sending it back at the enemy if you bring it down to 0.

8. Monk 4: Our first Ability Score Improvement will instead be used to make you Observant, bumping up your Wisdom by 1, giving you +5 to passive perception and investigation, and allowing you to read lips. You can also Slow Fall as a reaction to take less fall damage. Hey, any help to survive the Reichenbach is well appreciated.

9. Rogue 4: Back in rogue now, your second ASI is going towards your Dexterity for stronger and more effective attacks, as well as a higher AC. 17′s pretty good for a corset.

10. Rogue 5: Fifth level rogues get an Uncanny Dodge, allowing you to react to an incoming attack and halve the damage. 

11. Cleric 2: You didn’t think we forgot about this one, did you? Knowledge clerics get two Channel Divinity options each short rest. Turn Undead is your bog standard option, or you can gain the Knowledge of the Ages, spending an action to gain proficiency in one skill or tool for 10 minutes. Protagonist powers, activate!

12. Cleric 3: Third level cleric, second level spells. Suggestion is a more open ended command spell, and Augury is more “telling the future” than deduction. That being said, you do get Calm Emotions to keep your cool, as well as Find Traps, Locate Object, and Zone of Truth. 

13. Rogue 6: You know I’m a sucker for quadrupling things, so for this round of Expertise double up on History and Perception. You’re good at everything, but especially current events.

14. Rogue 7: At this level you get the powerful Evasion feature, turning your failed dexterity saves to avoid damage into successes and successes into no damage at all.

15. Rogue 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Intelligence. It’s a shame we had to wait this long for it, but better late than never.

16. Rogue 9: Your Steady Eye gives you advantage on perception and investigation checks as long as you’re moving at half speed. Unless your DM’s really keen on mapping out rp situations, this is pretty much permanent advantage.

17. Rogue 10: Another ASI, another bump to Intelligence. Does it really do anything? Probably not, but you can feel smug about it regardless.

18. Rogue 11: Your Reliable Talent means you skill rolls are always 10 or greater on checks you’re proficient with. And thanks to your knowledge of the ages, you can be proficient in just about anything.

19. Rogue 12: Use your last ASI to max out your Wisdom for more AC, stronger spells, and more skilled Baritsu.

20. Rogue 13: Your capstone ability is your Unerring Eye, an action to sense illusions, shapechangers, and the like around you. You can sense something’s off, but will have to investigate yourself. You can use this a number of times per long rest equal to your wisdom modifier.

Pros

Your minimum rolls in Insight and Investigation are 27 and 26 respectively, making you an ace detective. Your ability to root out lies, plus your photographic memory, will make any mystery you play through a breeze. (You the player still have to connect the dots, though.) Also, literally being able to see through illusions is a big plus.

Maxed out wisdom also means your open hand techniques are as strong as possible, giving you a good amount of battlefield control to beat down enemies and push them around.

Knowledge of the Ages plus Reliable Talent equals you being really good at everything when you need to be, and you’re much faster a switching things up than Hundred Personas. 

Cons

Since we only splashed into monk, your baritsu isn’t that great an option for damage. It also comes with the caveat that you can’t use your sneak attack unarmed, so you will have to carry the murder weapon around with you.

Despite being a melee fighter, your hp is pretty low, making straight confrontations a bad idea.

We really wanted Unerring Eye, but as a consequence we could only get a couple levels of the other classes. This means your ki points and spell slots are rather limited. But I mean, you’re Sherlock freaking Holmes, you’ll know when you need to use them and when you don’t.