Character Analysis - Blog Posts

Stoppppp! I swear, every time I mention rewatching the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series with my father, I come back with some wild revelation thanks to his uncanny television-watching skills. Seriously, this man is either psychic or just way too good at predicting plot twists. And the best (worst?) part is, he always gets this smug, “I know something you don’t know” grin.

So, when we hit season five—the one that is kinda the lost season that not even all the hardcore Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fans have seen—he was absolutely certain he knew a big twist that was coming. He was practically vibrating with excitement, and I finally caved and asked him what he thought was going to happen.

And what he said? Ten times better than what we actually got.

Okay, so you know how Leonardo mirrors the real Oroku Saki in the flashbacks and how he eventually returns as a demon? My father thought Leonardo was going to become a demon himself to defeat Demon Shredder and save his brothers.

Let me repeat that: Leonardo, our honorable, calm, reassuring blue turtle, becoming a literal demon.

Like, okay. Leonardo fans of all Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle iterations? We live for horrible, soul-crushing angst, right? But this? This right here? I am chewing on fiber glass right now. I did not know I needed this concept until now, but suddenly, I NEED it.

Character Analysis: Max and Lumpy

Hey guys. With more gameplay videos coming in of This Time It’s Virtual, I wanted to take some time with it to try and pinpoint when does Max change his views about Lumpy canonically. Spoilers under the cut:

Now I don’t have any screenshots yet, but I will quote from what I remember.

At the beginning, Max saw Lumpy as a random being he and Sam found during a case that is conveniently the only one who can use a rocket launcher. When they defeat the monster, Sam gets the idea of recruiting Lumpy while Max groans and begs Sam not to.

Throughout the game, Max constantly insults Lumpy, being sarcastic and telling them to “suck it”. When Sam asks why he’s like this, he replies:

“I’m like a Silverback, Sam. I lash out at anyone who encroaches at my territory. Also, Lumpy sucks raw eggs.”

There are rare compliments he does every now and then such as calling them “Kid” and such, but he quickly says “but I still hate you”, “sort of”, and what not. There’s a part where Max gets possessed by a demon and when he gets saved, his first words were in disbelief: “Did Lumpy just save my immortal soul?” It seemed genuine, but then he goes back to being sarcastic.

When the main story really begins, It gets interesting. Sam gets kidnapped and Max immediately gets depressed/separation anxiety. When he sees Lumpy, he demands them to act and help him get Sam. Although he knows that Sam’s alive and he does go back to joking, he‘s still worried about Sam and does everything to get back to him. When Max and Lumpy disguise themselves to break in, it seems like everything is back to goofy normal for a Sam and Max adventure.

But I think the turn happens is when everyone gets back from the Nanoverse and the final boss appears. For the first part, Max and Lumpy are working together. Max gives instructions and encouragement:

“Remember your training, Lumpy! … (whispering) God, I can’t believe I said that in public.”

At one point, he even calls Lumpy “Junior” like Sam does.

But I think the moment that Max’s views of Lumpy changes is when he grows into a giant and saves Sam and Lumpy. After he stuffs the boss into the portal, he kneels and offers his paw to Lumpy, Lumpy climbs on and Max is like “Going up?” As he stands up and brings Lumpy to the portal. When Lumpy starts shooting and solving puzzles, Max is surprisingly patient. He gives Lumpy his gun, he jokes as he’s lifting them up, and he holds still even when he’s complaining and cursing about puzzles and Sam tries to calm him down.

But I think the moment his view changes of Lumpy happens when Lumpy solves the puzzle and Max is like:

“You better get yourself down before you get kilt!” as he’s lowering Lumpy back down.

Throughout the giant Max sequence, he is gentle, smiling, and he doesn’t want Lumpy killed. And I’m like 🥺😭

Giant Max and Tiny Lumpy are friends.

Recently I’ve been going back through BSD to do some analysis and I was thinking about Atsushi as the tiger, and what the tiger symbolizes.

I think the tiger is a good allegory for Atsushi’s views on himself as a person. And hear me out:

At the start of the story, Atsushi fears the tiger, but he also seems to hold some spite towards it due to it being the cause of him getting kicked out of the orphanage.

But then we learn that Atsushi is the tiger, and Atsushi himself feels terrible about it. There is suddenly no separation between himself and the tiger in his mind. They are one and the same, and he is just as responsible for everything as the tiger is. He hates the tiger, he doesn’t trust it, and he doesn’t understand it.

And he is the tiger.

It’s kinda common knowledge that Atsushi hates himself, nor does he trust himself, and that is reflected in the fact that the tiger is shown to be an uncontrollable, bloodthirsty creature. It does nothing good for anyone; just as Atsushi thinks he himself does nothing good or useful for anyone.

I’d also like to mention the fact that during chapter/episode one (1), when Atsushi is revealed as the tiger, Dazai is the one to stop it with his ability, and I think that’s an excellent little nod to how it is through Dazai (and by extension the rest of the ADA) that Atsushi is able to begin to trust himself more, and have more value in himself as a person.

Of course later on, Atsushi does make peace with the tiger, and it’s such a powerful moment because it’s not just Atsushi reconciling with the tiger, it’s Atsushi reconciling with himself as well. And I think it shows his growth as a character just fantastically.

I’m open to hearing the thoughts of others as well of course :]

ali "gi-hun's angel" abdul was sang-woo's angel, too.

not in the same way, of course.

...

to sang-woo, ali was this wide-eyed, clueless foreigner who was far too kind to be talking to someone like him. he's thankful for the simplest things, while sang-woo strives for perfection to the point of killing him. he said he lived in ansan. he says he'll walk. how can he say that? expecting sang-woo to what, let him? yes, sure, he can't really spare the money, but the idea of this relatively-puppy-looking guy wandering the streets until he finds his way home is not something he needs on his conscience at this time. so he gives him the money, and tells him to stop calling him that damn honorific. there's no need for that. when they get back to the games, ali's back. sang-woo makes a mental note of his strength when gi-hun points it out. he was willing to risk his life for others, too. those are good traits for an ally. sang-woo can make up for any lack of knowledge that might arise. they're a perfect team, when he thinks about it (oh, he'll end up thinking about it alright).

...

after the fight—when they were all banded together like a real team—they now sit to recover. ali looks embarrassed when he mistakes gi-hun's (their) hometown as his name. sang-woo asks for his, because he's a good ally friend. sang-woo hasn't had a friend in years. something about being in debt and going through depressive episode after depressive episode and not being able to look anyone you know in the eyes because how could you? after failing that badly? how could you?

it doesn't hurt like that when ali looks at him. sure, he feels the normal amount of guilt. ali thinks he's pretty kind for that move at the convenience store. he isn't; he knows he isn't. but ali doesn't look at him like gi-hun looks at him, like he's hung every star in the damn universe. ali thinks like that about anyone who treats him like a human. it hurts less, knowing that. sang-woo knows that in order for him to win, ali will have to die. everyone will have to die. he'll worry about that later.

... while they're on a night shift, ali shares his food with him. he's still thinking about the bus fare. why? he's already eaten. there's no reason for ali to starve. he splits it, though, because he doesn't want to refuse for another time.

ssajangnim. ssajangnim. ssajangnim. no one else ever corrects him. sang-woo doesn't know why. it's uncomfortable. he smiles when ali calls him hyung. he doesn't remember the last time he's smiled like this. a genuine smile. it quickly wipes off his face. he's here for money. of course, so is sang-woo. but sang-woo's here for his mom, mainly. he doesn't know why he was stupid enough to use her in his rabbit hole of debt. too late to lament that now. is ali here for his parents?

ali is a parent. he's got a kid. one. a one year old. sang-woo's going to vomit, his eyes prick with tears. he doesn't cry though, he never does. there's no way someone this... good is ever going to make it out of here. he's only taken out of his thoughts when ali asks him the same.

his reason sounds kind of pathetic now. he says it's about money, too.

...

the next game is duo-based. it's a no-brainer. ali's kind enough to look over at gi-hun. sang-woo needs to win. ali needs to win. they could do this.

the rules of the game are explained. sang-woo can't. he can't do this. he's not going to die.

ali's kindness isn't a virtue anymore. it's a liability. the clock is ticking. his flaws get glaringly bright like this. how do you not know what an even number is? sang-woo explains as patiently as he can. how is he winning. sang-woo was the intelligent one, wasn't he? he was the one who went to business school. hell, this is a guessing game. how the hell is ali winning? it's just like his debt. he's failing. he's failing at the one thing he's supposed to be good at. ali must be cheating. he has to be. sang-woo can't be failing again. he can't fail again.

the clock is ticking. sang-woo feels sick to his stomach. he begs, he pleads, he... he's looking at rocks. he turns to ali. he has a plan.

... "player 199, eliminated." sang-woo feels like he's being compressed by a machine. he breathes out and everything aches. he keeps walking. ... sang-woo's eating alone. funny, how most of his meals would be by ali's side. shared with him. shared with a friend. but friends come and go. he only knew ali for a couple days. it's not that special, he thinks.

his hands are shaking. ... he's fucking outraged at that husband. how could he not go on, huh? didn't he love his wife? didn't he care about her? how could he sit there, knowing her corpse is somewhere out there where he can't even retrieve it. he wants to give up the money? he wants to make her worthless? he grabs that man by the collar and gives him a piece of his mind. that night, he thinks about ali. really thinks about it. fuck, he was such a bastard. that man had a wife, a kid... things he'll never have. things he took away from him. kind, naive ali. he had more heart than sang-woo ever had, that's for sure. deserved more too. an angel, he remembers gi-hun saying. well, he doesn't have ali anymore. he tore those wings out when he betrayed him. he doesn't need an angel, in here. he needs to survive. he'll do whatever it takes. he can't fuck up now. he couldn't before, either. but not now. not after what he's done. ... player 069 is hanging from the metal frame, lifeless. was it what he said? no time to dwell on it, he thinks to himself, swallowing the feeling of guilt that blooms in his chest.

Togruta Marking Headcanons (Evolutionary and Epigenetic)

Okay, so the question is:

Do you think togruta markings are purely genetic or partly genetic and partly influenced by the environment?

e.g. a stressful adolescence leads to more complex markings/breakage

This conversation was had in large part on discord with @atagotiak and @dracothulhu.

Keep reading

(Let me just yap about this show for a bit. In this essay, I will—)

Ok, so basically I’m just gonna start off by saying that the show isn’t that bad. The earlier seasons were my favorite. I genuinely thought the show was gonna be about Harley Quinn, trying to make it in the world after her break up with The Joker with the help of her crew and stuff, and that did kind of happen… but then the crew split up😭

My idea for what was gonna happen was that Harley was gonna want to join the Legion of doom because she wanted to prove to The Joker, her crew and others, but most of all herself that she is more than who others think of her. And she eventually succeeds, but it turns out she doesn’t really need it cause she has her crew and it would be like a ‘found family’ type of thing. Like, it would be an ensemble cast, but it would mainly be focused on Harley.

And even when Harley and Ivy got together, the rest of the main cast wouldn’t be sidelined, and they would all have separate motivations and we’d get character development on all of them and stuff like that, cause to be honest, I’m glad that in the earlier seasons, we kind of got to see the main cast’s dynamic with the other characters in the crew.

For example, let’s just deviate to talking about the best character in the show for a little bit, if you will. Clayface had motivations of dreaming to be an actor and stuff, he had flaws….you know, all that. I honestly kind of like his character a bit in the later seasons, but I kind of want to see him be more than just the comic relief. Like I wanna see his backstory and stuff, I want to see him interact with Harley and Ivy more.

Cause in Batman: the animated series, he had a backstory. (Look guys I know this is a different version of Clayface, but hear me out.) This specific version of Clayface is Matt Hagan, right? Matt Hagan in the original comics as far as I know was a detective or something. Basil Karlo, another version of Clayface is an actor. The animated series basically kind of combined the two to create this version of Clayface who is Matt Hagan, but he happens to be an actor instead of a detective. But the point is I kinda wish Clayface in Harley Quinn kinda just like added some depth to his character. Not just him, but I genuinely want to see each character like grow and stuff. Now let’s talk about an episode that changed me.

The ‘Icons Only’ episode (Season 4, Episode 3) definitely made me see Clayface in a different light (in a good way kind of). So basically throughout the show, we see him, struggling to be an actor and stuff and make it into stardom. And that’s his motivation throughout the whole entire show because he sees himself as a performer above all else.

And he eventually succeeds, honestly good for him.

But throughout the episode, the fame CLEARLY has gotten into his head. His ego has gotten high, he’s very pretentious….you know, the whole shebang. so the episode is about Harley and Ivy going to Las Vegas and they want to get tickets to his show and stuff right? But a lady named Ramona tells them that the tickets are all sold out (remember her, that is a surprise tool that’ll help us later). And so they try to find ways to get tickets to his show for some reason. And then Clayface shows up and he’s like “Oh I’ll see you at tonight’s show, I assume, unless you don’t have tickets.” And Ivy just lies and says they do annd she’s very specific about the seats too and he’s like “Splendid! I’ll see you at tonight’s show in those…exact. Seats.” The thing is….Clayface, who is usually terrible at his disguises, is actually Ramona so he KNOWS that they don’t have tickets. And later in the episode, it is shown that he does indeed have extra tickets, but he just doesn’t give it to them. Based on everyone’s past mistreatment of him in the earlier seasons, I’m glad he finally grew a spine and stood up for himself.

(Like, look at that smug face, he knows what he’s doing😭)

And I honestly kinda love his dynamic with Poison Ivy. I’mma be honest like they have a kind of beef in this episode, but then it just straight up disappears in the season 5 finale. Like they even had a FIGHT SCENE!🤩 (I’m glad we got to see Clayface fight for once cause holy shit) Cause in the musical episode, they didn’t interact at all. Poison Ivy only showed up at the musical to support Harley and Frank. But then when Clayface and Poison Ivy actually interact again in the finale, it’s like nothing ever happened. I honestly kind of loved their dynamic in the earlier seasons. It’s giving Asta and Harry in Resident Alien. The only part of the ‘Icons Only’ episode that I did not like was the fact that we didn’t actually get to see Clayface‘s show💀

But the thing about Clayface’s acting is that we slowly start to see him improve a little bit. Cause like….those who have seen the show… kinda know how bad he is. He’s good at replicating people’s physical appearance, yes. But his over the top attitude just makes people realize that it’s not actually the person he’s trying to disguise himself as. Also, his teeth is a dead giveaway. But with Harley and Ivy, not recognizing that Ramona is actually him develops a little bit of his character in the sense his acting improved a little bit. Till we get to season five where he disguises himself as Perry White. Honestly, when it came to his snarky attitude in ‘Icons Only’ where he thinks he’s better than everyone and stuff… we never see him act that way ever again. All the character development that made him NOT act that way anymore..Happened off screen, I assume. And now he’s bankrupt and no longer as famous as he used to be… he’s back the same way he was before just worse. He’s just used for comic relief now. Like, IS HIS DAUGHTER ANNIE FROM THE COMICS EVEN CANON?! Cause if she were, I wanna see an episode where they bond because she clearly hates him and I want to see them go on a ‘Goofy Movie-esque’ adventure. I want to see him have some character development. Not just him, but the other characters too. I just brought him up as an example because he is my favorite.

But my whole entire point is that I feel like the show would’ve been a little bit better if HarlIvy wasn’t the main focus, new characters like the bat family would be introduced in later seasons, after the rest of the main cast got character depth and backstory and we got to see their individual dynamics and the characters would be fleshed out and stuff, and Joker wouldn’t forget that Bruce Wayne is Batman.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. That is all.

Do you think Harry would swear or has sworn? Such a niche question, but trying to realistic write him swearing is such a mixed basket. On the one hand, I don't really picture him doing it, even under extreme distress. But I can also imagine him letting out a light swear if he's having a bad day and has a minor inconvenience

I 100% believe Harry swears. This post ended up being a little longer since I kinda went off and detailed how a bunch of characters in HP swear, not just Harry.

Sometimes, characters are shown to "swear" on page:

“Blimey,” said Ron weakly. (CoS)

“Blimey, it is!” said Ron quietly (OotP)

“What in the name of Merlin are you doing?” said Ron (OotP)

“Why the hell,” panted Ron (DH)

“I’ll join you when hell freezes over,” said Neville. (DH)

“Merlin’s beard,” Moody [Barty] whispered (GoF)

“Merlin’s beard,” said Mr. Weasley wonderingly (OotP)

“Harry, what the hell’s going on?” asked Bill (DH)

“Blasted thing,” Snape was saying. (PS)

("Blimey" and "blasted" are here since they were considered mild swear words when they became part of the language like "gosh" and "darn". "Merlin's beard" is kinda like saying "Jesus Christ" which was also considered a mild swear, even if no one really considers most of the above swears by today's standards).

The above is done when the swears are (very) light and something that you could print in a children's book. But sometimes, characters swearing is censored in the books:

Dean swore loudly. (CoS)

Thankfully, Snape sneezed at almost exactly the moment Ron swore. (CoS)

Ron dropped several boxes, swore, and made a rude hand gesture at Fred that was unfortunately spotted by Mrs. Weasley, who had chosen that moment to appear. (HBP)

and Lee swore so badly that Professor McGonagall tried to tug the magical megaphone away from him (PoA)

The lift clattered into view and they hurried inside. Every time it stopped Mr. Weasley cursed furiously and pummelled the number nine button. (OotP)

When that happens, I assume the swears are ones JKR couldn't get away with in a children's/YA book series. Like: "fuck" or "shit".

(Molly calling Bellatrix "bitch" is the only harsher swear word not censored in the books)

When Harry swears, it's sometimes not censored:

“She doesn’t love me,” said Harry at once. “She doesn’t give a damn — ” (OotP)

“And he didn’t think my mother was worth a damn either,” said Harry (HBP)

“Why not?” asked Harry. “Let’s get rid of the damn thing, it’s been months — ” (DH)

“Where the hell have you been?” Harry shouted. (DH)

But often enough, Harry's cursing is censored:

Harry swore under his breath (OotP)

Harry swore and turned away. (OotP)

Harry swore at the top of his voice, spinning on the spot to see where Mundungus had gone. (HBP)

Harry swore. Someone screamed. (HBP)

So, to me, this suggests Harry says "fuck" or British stuff like "sod off". He 100% does use harsher swears, and it's in character for him to do so. He swears under his breath when shit goes badly or he finds himself in a situation he really doesn't want to be in. He swears loudly when Mandungus escapes him, so when he's really angry, he can go and shout a proper F-bomb. Let Harry say "fuck", his life sucks and he deserves it.

Ron also swears sometimes harsher swears than "hell" or "bloody hell" but he does so more rarely than Harry and when things are really bad. Usually, he goes for lighter stuff like: "Merlin", "hell", or "blimey".

Hermione doesn't swear except for the "Merlin's pants" comment in DH which was clearly meant to be "Merlin's balls" but JKR got censored by her editors and one time she says "damn" in DH. Hermione doesn't even use light swears like "Merlin", "damn" or "hell". She, just, doesn't swear until DH, and even then only twice. Like, her most extreme for the majority of the books is going: "oh my", "oh my god", or "oh my goodness". Hermione is the only member in the Golden Trio that doesn't swear:

“Oh, my — ” Hermione grabbed Harry’s arm. (PoA)

“Oh my goodness,” said Hermione suddenly (PoA)

“Oh gosh, I forgot!” said Hermione (OotP)

“Oh my ...” Harry heard Hermione squeal, terrified, beside him. (OotP)

“Today?” shrieked Hermione. “Today? But why didn’t you — oh my God — you should have said — ” (HBP)

“Oh my — !” shrieked Hermione, as she and Ron caught up with Harry (DH)

I went a bit off track, but theses are some characters and how they swear that I found while searching this:

Harry, Dean & Lee: swear in profanities that need to be censored ("fuck", "shit", "sodding hell") often and sprinkle lighter swears ("hell", "damn") in there. Harry uses "damn" relatively often.

Ron, the twins, Bill & Arthur: use mostly light swears ("hell", "bloody", "blasted") but use some harsher swears ("fuck", "shit") when needed (and Molly isn't looking).

(I assume Ginny is in this above category too, but I only found her saying "damn" once)

Neville, Dumbledore, Hagrid & Snape (at least, when we see him): use only light swears such as "hell", "blasted" or "Merlin" and its derivatives.

Molly: Doesn't really swear except that one time (calling Bellatrix a bitch).

Hermione & Luna: never use profanities unless really at their limit. Don't even use light swears or "Merlin" and its derivatives. Hermione says: "oh my god" or "oh my goodness", Luna says: "oh, no".

Lupin doesn't swear anywhere on-page either.

Surprisingly I couldn't find any mention of Sirius swearing, not even light stuff (like "Merlin's beard"). I guess he really was raised to have proper manners. Or maybe he's actively censoring himself in front of Harry to be a good rule model.

The only favor the Dursleys ever did for Harry...

Make no mistake, the Dursleys are terrible people and unquestionably abusers. 

But the one favor they did for Harry was never pretend as though they loved  him. Vernon and Petunia made it very clear: You are not a part of this family. We don’t like you and never will.

They didn’t try to frame their abuse as “for Harry’s own good.” They didn’t try to make Harry believe that he could earn their love through good behavior. They didn’t tell him they loved him just as much as they loved Dudley, then subtly treat him like shit. 

They were honest. And that honesty allowed Harry to put some emotional distance between himself and the Dursleys, even before Hogwarts. Because if the Dursleys don’t like him, then he didn’t have to like them.

Instead of vying for the Dursleys’ affection, Harry basically snarks his way through childhood, relishing in his status as an outsider. His early descriptions of the Dursleys are practically dripping with razor-sharp snark about their appearances and foibles. He finds comfort in the knowledge that a) he dislikes the Dursleys as much as they dislike him, and b) he alone sees these cartoonishly awful people for who they are.

Thinking about how we’ve never once seen Hunter fighting at full strength and power in toh.

You need to remember this dude has been trained his entire life to serve as an elite soldier under the emperor. Belos wouldn’t have made him his right hand man and eventual coven head after Lilith left if he wasn’t capable of handling himself, anyone who might seek to harm the emperor or anyone else of importance, dangerous monsters and demons, and capturing powerful wild witches.

I mean, think about all the specifics of his job and training that he’s mentioned. He had to have been really freaking tough and talented to have been able to make it through all that.

And we never once get to see what he’s truly capable of.

In Seperate Tides, Hunter doesn’t see Luz or Eda as any sort of threat. He knows they’re both powerless. He’s clearly relaxed and toying with them. He’s confident that he has the upper hand and isn’t worrying about having to handle a couple of troublesome criminals.

Hunting Palismen takes place late at night. He was expecting this to be a quick and easy in and out mission. It’s understandable that he would be tired this late. And again, you have to remember that he still doesn’t view Luz as any sort of threat. He’s annoyed by her and gets caught off guard because he wasn’t expecting her to be any sort of challenge to handle.

Plus he was just in a crash and doesn’t even have his staff the majority of the episode, but is still able to easily keep up with Luz. And he willingly goes along with her afterwards so that he can get the palismen quicker and then dispose of Luz.

By the time he fights Kiki, he’s been running around all night and clearly just wants this mission to be over with. Kiki has been shown to be a pretty powerful person fighting wise, and even though she’s barely conscious, Hunter bests her fairly quickly. It wasn’t something that was really that hard for him.

Then comes to Eclipse Lake. By the time he and Amity fight, he’s exhausted, just had a mental breakdown, and fighting on an unfamiliar staff. Mental breakdowns like this leave people feeling super drained and burnt out, but he still gives Amity a pretty good run for her money.

I believe he would have easily won if not for the events in the episode leading up to the fight. I mean, he was literally just involved in a mine cart chase before he got to the lake.

In Any Sport in a Storm, other characters clearly point out the fact that he’s very talented at what he does. But he doesn’t exert full effort. He’s trying to recruit teens and play a sport.

In Labyrinth Runners, he’s dealing with the impacts and trauma from Hollow Mind. This dude has just learned that everything he thought he ever knew was a complete lie. He knows the man he once saw as his uncle wants him dead. He’s terrified. All he ever had to do before was follow orders, but now it’s up to him to make decisions and he has no idea what to do, where to go, or who to turn to. All he knows is that he has to stay as far away from Belos as possible.

All of this is clearly mentally and physically draining him. But even at this weak point, he’s able to push through and get to Gus when several other scouts and a literal coven head could not.

Again in Clouds On the Horizon, he’s still terrified and dealing with everything that happened. He’s still not in a good head space.

In King’s Tide, he’s been in yet another crash and is being effected by the draining spell. But he’s still able to push through and fight Belos, holding up fairly well, when everyone else with a sigil can barely even move.

It wasn’t even him fighting in Thanks to Them. That was just Belos using his body. But still, an argument can be made. He’s able to push through Belos’s possession after being rusty on fighting and all of his training for literal months. Belos was clearly trying to hurt Hunter when possessing him and didn’t care whether he lived or died. Hunter pushes through in minutes.

When Belos possessed Raine, he didn’t want to hurt them. He needed a body and to sustain Raine as long as he could. Raine has been trapped as a puppet, but they haven’t been conscious for months. If they were freed from puppet form, then they’d still be as used to fighting as before they were enslaved into a dreamless sleep.

Belos even comments on how powerful Raine is, but it still takes them a lot longer to push through his control than Hunter did. They did also have to push through Collector’s, but there’s still a point to be made.

In For the Future, again Hunter is still rusty, in painful grief, having to deal with all of his worst traumas coming back, and now has no magic at all. He figures out he’s able to use it later on, but it’s only ever that one spell.

This brings me back to my main point. In all of these instances, Hunter has either been tired, burnt out, in mental distress, just previously dealing with another physically taxing event, not really trying or having to use effort, rusty from lack of practice, using unfamiliar magic, or a combination of those. I believe that if we ever got to see him fight in his prime—with a staff and magic that he was used to, in a mostly stable emotional state, physically rested or not just previously having to deal with another taxing event, and with all of his training in tact and not out of practice—then we would see just how powerful and terrifying of a foe he could have really been.

We can love the person he has turned out to be without whitewashing the crappy things he has done

Guys, I know Darius is cool, but can we please stop victim-blaming Hunter and acting like the way even the good adults in his life treated him is NBD?

‘Cause I keep seeing a lot of “okay Darius was mean to Hunter at first, but Hunter was a brat who got the job because of nepotism, so…” comments.

And look, I really think people in general are hugely underestimating just how badly Hunter was screwed over not just by Belos but by *ALL* the adults around him.

1) Let’s start by establishing something first: Hunter was never a brat to anybody in the castle.

Now, to be clear, even IF Hunter had been a brat, people 30 years older than him should still have not made his bad situation worse. If there are two people, and one of them is an adult while the other is a kid, the adult is supposed to keep their cool even if the kid acts out. You can punch up but you can’t punch down.

But that point is moot because all the evidence we have points at Hunter being a little nerd who adored the adults around him and was desperate to please them.

Exhibit #1: Dana’s official art, where Hunter freaks out over being slightly less overworked because it will make Lilith hate him. Even with the mask, you can tell he has a frantic expression.

Exhibit #2: the Hunter’s Palisman Observation stream, when Hunter has a question and is looking for an answer, he reaches out to the Coven Heads to ask them. He sees them as wise and knowledgeable, and wants to learn from them. That makes it extra hurtful that “Darius ignored me, as per usual. Eberwolf hissed at me, also as per usual.”

Exhibit #3: in ASIAS, we learn that Hunter genuinely loves rules and authority. Does that sound like somebody who’d disrespect an adult in charge?

Exhibit #4: pretty much the entirety of ASIAS. The whole reason Hunter went to Hexside is because an adult who technically ranks below him gave him an order.

There is a grand total of TWO examples in the series where Hunter talks back to an adult.

The first one is when he sees Kikimora again after she tried to murder him.

Note that he never tells Belos what she did, even though he didn’t realise that she had recognised him by his burnt hair, so he thought that she had actually bought his “travellers found me” story and wouldn’t be able to respond to his accusations with any of her own. He could have easily thrown her under the bus, and actively chose not to, even after she almost killed him.

The second one is in ASIAS, where an angry Hunter confronts the Coven Heads after they rescheduled the meeting behind his back, right after they physically pushed him aside hard enough to almost make him fall and walked away smirking at his misery.

Note that, immediately after, he looks like this. Arguing with the Coven Heads makes him miserable. He doesn’t want to fight them. He’d much rather ask “how high” when they say “jump.” But they still casually assault him.

They all knew that Belos had given him the order to leads the meeting. And they knew that Belos is a control freak who is infamous for his lack of mercy. They knew that Belos would see their decision to reschedule as Hunter’s fault, even though they did it behind his back.

If you think he was being arrogant or whatever here, I want you to look me straight in the eyes and tell me that if your coworkers screwed you over in front of your infamously vicious boss and walked away smirking while pretending they can’t see you and literally pushing you around, you would totally keep your cool.

2) The nepotism excuse also doesn’t work.

Nepotism is supposed to make your life easier.

Hunter is a child covered in scars with huge eyebags and absolutely no social life whatsoever who rolls over and shows his neck the second an authority figure expresses any displeasure with him.

It’s plain to see that getting Belos’ “special treatment” is harming him.

Hunter eventually does pull out the “Belos’ nephew” card, in an attempt to get Darius to back off.

But by this point, he:

- knows he has disappointed Belos, something that he fears more than death (as per Eclipse Lake)

- has been assaulted by the other Coven Heads…

- …who added insult to injury by pretending they couldn’t see him, really rubbing it in that they find him worthless

- and then Darius, a man twice his size and thrice his age, grabbed him, spun him around, and stole his clothes

Tl:dr: Hunter is not acting entitled here, he is acting *cornered*. He is lashing out because he is scared, and like any scared kid he is calling out to his “dad.”

And the moment Darius tells him that he has to earn his position as Golden Guard, Hunter immediately agrees to do anything. There is no entitlement there, only a desperate desire to be good enough.

3) On the Boiling Isles, a half-a-witch is at best a social outcast and at worst a target.

For starters, a half-a-witch can’t get an education. You have to be able to perform spells to be allowed to go to school.

Granted this is for Amity’s advanced class, but the idea is that you have to get there eventually, even if it takes you much longer than the gifted students. In order to go to Hexside, you must at least have the potential to use magic.

Before Luz came into the scene, glyphs were a forbidden knowledge that had been lost for hundreds of years. Add in that palismen are close to extinction, and there is simply no way for a half-a-witch to do magic.

So, you can’t go to school. But can you at least get a job?

Ah. No.

Eda gets robbed in public by an officer of the law, in plain view of a huge crowd, and their reaction boils down to “sucks to be powerless.”

A half-a-witch essentially has no rights. They are not treated as citizens. It’s completely legal to ban them from essential functions and to refuse them pay for their labor.

If Eda had not found the Selkiedomus’ treasure, she and her family would have starved.

The discrimination against magicless creatures is so bad that even Hooty, arguably the nicest character in the show, still expresses scorn for them.

Hunter wasn’t exaggerating in the slightest here.

Being magicless is basically the BI equivalent of being disabled in a society that actively favours eugenics.

 4) So, what did Darius do that was so bad?

Now, before anybody takes this post as Darius bashing, I want to bring up why he did it.

- Darius was clearly traumatised by the death of his mentor…

- …who not only died, but also died in circumstances that must have been highly suspicious at best, so that Darius never even got proper closure and has been living with that open wound for years…

- …in addition to the fact that Darius is extremely protecting of his loved ones, so that he must have felt the urge to protect the memory and legacy of his mentor…

- …and that’s made ten times more painful if the replacement, who acts like the antithesis of everything his beloved mentor stood for, looks almost exactly like his mentor.

Can you imagine the grief is somebody you love with all your heart dies, and then some time later they appear to come back as an insult to everything they were?

So, I’m not denying that Darius had his own reasons here, nor am I arguing that he is a terrible person.

In case you don’t know, I like Darius so much I wrote a meta titled “Why Darius is a much better person than Fandom gives him credit for.” I like the guy, okay?

Nevertheless, he almost caused irreparable damage.

One of the reasons Hunter is so desperately loyal to Belos, is that Belos is the only one who never looked down on him for his lack of magic.

Now of course the bitter irony here is that Belos is racist against witches.

But Hunter didn’t know that.

All Hunter knew was that every person he ever met thought he was worthless for the way he was born, *except* for Belos, who said he was special.

And what does Darius do? He goes and reinforces Hunter’s belief that nobody but Belos will ever accept him.

Now, we know that Darius wasn’t really talking about magic there. We don’t know if all grimwalkers lack magic or just Hunter, but either way, later context clues indicate that he was talking about “strength of heart” or something like that.

Nevertheless, he most definitely came across like he was saying that Hunter has no place in the EC because he has no magic.

And Darius is not stupid. He had to know what he sounded like. And he didn’t bother correcting Hunter’s assumption, let him believe that the problem with him were the circumstances of his birth.

Why did Hunter befriend the Emerald Entrails? Because he accidentally stepped on a griffon’s tail. It was sheer dumb luck. If Hunter had put his foot a couple of inches aside, he never would have met Willow.

If not for a single stroke of extraordinarily unlikely good luck, Hunter would have gone back to the castle more convinced than ever that Belos was the only person in the world who could ever give a damn about him, the only one Hunter could ever love and trust.

Darius’ words would have driven him even further into the grasp of his abuser.

This is on top of the fact that Hunter canonically reaches out many times to Darius and Eberwolf over the years, and they always responded by giving him the silent treatment. Again, “Darius ignored me as per usual, Eberwolf hissed at me also as per usual.” How can they blame him for being an ignorant fanatic, if they have systematically rebuffed any and all of his attempts to talk to the only people in the castle who are not Belos’ stooges?

And on top of the fact that “you always do as you are told” is one hell of a line to give a kid *who gets blades thrown at his face* if he says a single word Belos doesn’t like. Hunter’s devotion to Belos is also his shield from violent beatings. If Hunter ever acted “rebellious” to Belos, Belos wouldn’t just send him to his room without dinner.

5) Has Darius changed?

Duh.

6) So what’s the problem?

Remember when people were like “Amity is doing right by Willow now, but she still needs to apologise”?

And when people were like “Alador has finally started walking in the right direction towards eventually becoming a decent father for his kids, but the first step was admitting that he treated them horribly”?

As far as I know, nobody was like “Amity is cool now so there is no need for her to say sorry to Willow, and Willow kind of sucked anyway” or like “Alador is cool now so wtf does Amity have to bitch about and move his hand away, just hug it out and ignore the past”?

What this whole tl;dr essay boils down to, is that S3 needs to have a scene where the good adults in Hunter’s life acknowledge that they did him dirty, without excuses and without victim blaming.

That’s all.

I've thought about this way too much so I think I'll just dump every single intelligent thought I've had in my life here. There's three main ideas that I have regarding this and you could really just pick and choose the ones you agree with most, choose one that makes the most sense, or say that they all happen at the same time. I'm just a rando on the internet. You don't have to pick up what I'm putting down.

Okay, first things first, the most obvious answer is that there's probably just been a whole lot of chaos going on since the Calamity first emerged 100 years before the events of BOTW and far beyond TOTK. The entire kingdom was decimated by the Calamity and most of Hyrule wasn't able to properly rebuild until the end of BOTW when Calamity Ganon's influence was sealed/destroyed. During this time, I'm pretty sure most people either thought Zelda was dead (don't trust me on this, I don't really remember for sure) or knew that she'd sealed herself inside Hyrule Castle but at that point, there isn't much they can do to recover her. Formalizing her title as a queen probably wasn't their priority or even much of a possibility until she returned. And that brings me to my second point.

So not only was it kind of impossible or at least not worth it to change Zelda's title during the Calamity but I also think there would have been bigger priorities after she returned. This is probably the closest to your theory, in which there's just been so much going on between BOTW and TOTK that no one's really been that concerned with Zelda becoming the official queen. In this new post-Calamity Hyrule, it's very likely that people just accept Zelda as some sort of a leader figure regardless of her title not only because she's the last of the living royal bloodline but she also basically saved them all by sealing Ganon. Between that level of respect and the fact that there's so much rebuilding and healing to do across Hyrule, I think it makes sense that everyone's got enough on their plates right now without dealing with authority figure dilemmas.

The last point is probably the most important one to me and it's that Zelda probably doesn't want to be so tied up in royalty and titles anymore. We can see in the flashbacks in BOTW that she clearly grew up her entire life not being given a choice in accepting her predestined fate. This fate essentially had two facets: being the next Princess Zelda in a long, long, long, line of descendants of the goddess, and being able to seal the Calamity Ganon. It isn't too much of a stretch to assume that she sees those two things as very tightly connected traumas. And after sealing Ganon, she's free. She is heavily implied in TOTK to be living as normal of a life as possible in Hateno. For the first time in her life, she has the freedom to be whoever she wants to be and do whatever she wants to do.

So yeah, I'd like to think that Zelda chooses to keep her old title not out of fear of responsibility but simply out of respect for the past and also chooses not to be Hyrule's queen because she knows that Hyrule is different now. She's changed and grown as a character and her role in leading Hyrule has also grown as the people she leads have changed over the 100 years she was stuck in Hyrule Castle. She will forever be 'Princess Zelda' to some people and 'just Zelda' to others and I think it's beautiful that she gets that second choice to live her life the way she wants to live it.

can anyone who knows the lore better tell me why (at least in the botw/totk era) princess zelda is still princess when technically she should be queen since king rhoam's death or does the ascension of royalty in this universe's monarchy different i'm genuinely curious

(i mean, i suppose, the events of botw and then totk might have been the reason why she isn't queen yet)

(also, on a completely different note, tell me why i saw someone on twt say that, and i quote, "link canon wise is christian")

im scared to ask how you feel about lottie as a character

i have a very complicated relationship with lottie and ive been DYINGGG to talking about her because shes more interesting than shauna can ever dream of being. SHE'S the complex female character we need more of.

okay so to preface: i have multiple scales for character appreciation in my mind. there's writing (how well they're characterized and their role as a narrative decive), personality (how much i would fw them as people), action defendability (self explanatory, how willing i am to ride for their defense), and treatment in the fandom (how contrarian i wanna be)

yall know how it is yapping under the cut

lottie. ohhh boy.

writing: oh no notes. 10/10 she is one of the most fascinating characters in the show. her setup and descent is so well done, and her motivations are beyond complex, like you have her trying to do the best for everyone, but also her whole "the wilderness will choose" mindset. she contrasts herself in the yummiest ways possible. her role in the story is absolutely the most relevant and important for the narrative to progress the way it does. as a character, shes's so well done it makes me wish that i could be objective about the whole thing

personality: unfortunately im not able to enjoy characters simply from a robot analysis objective scale. lottie's personality is -while interesting- absolutely INFURIATING to watch. i personally cant stand characters that i call "progress blockers". she repeatedly forces her belief system (deep psychosis) onto the rest of the team, at the expense of escape or actual rational thought. this is where i have to admit: i root for morally sound, logical characters especially in shows like this. "but you can't watch the cannibalism show and complain about the cannibalism" first off. who said im complaining about the cannibalism. im just complaining that shes tormenting my favs (ben, travis, akilah, nat). i do like that she plays a complicated role as the group's mediator, except her mind is so warped, she does an awful job at it (drugging travis, letting shauna beat her up, deluding her followers). i think that shows how much she cares for these people deep down, and i can respect that. more on that later in ther actions section.

actions: so lottie, like i mentioned earlier, has a really interesting internal conflict of wanting to do whats best for as many of the team as she can, while also not being against sacrificing them for the wilderness's mercy. she very much believes that the ends justify the means. however. i can't ever look past her scenes on doomcoming. and im hoping that the people who made it this far aren't illiterate fucking troglodytes who want to debate on what actually happened to travis that night. because it was s/a, actually, it was attempted gang rape and then attempted ritualistic murder. "you cant watch the murder show and hold it against the murderers" we all know damn well that thats not what was most upsetting about that scene, and im allowed to hold certain crimes over eachother in terms of severity. and quite frankly i just cant bring myself to like a character who engaged -ACTIVELY LED AND RATIONALIZED- in that. lottie's whole schtick is that she just doesnt fucking understand or respect boundaries, literally and metaphorically. moving on from doomcoming, she's weird and culty about shauna's baby, which shauna has full right to be freaked out and pissed about. she becomes the leader of the group in s2 and then can't make proper decisions. she lets shauna almost beat her to death instead of trying to mediate the situation rationally, setting up shauna's vengeful nature we see in s3. thats something i could talk about for hours, how shes partially responsible for the shauna we all know and hate. her drugging travis and akilah is a page straight out of misty's handbook, and i dont think i have to explain why it's wrong. her killing edwin?? denying them all escape, causing a chain reaction with shauna and tai also staying behind??? that elevated my blood pressure to a level dangerous to my health. i cannot stand progress blockers. yes, i know she thinks everything she does is right. that doesn't make me (a rational bystander) like her actions any more. again, there are rational people in the show, so im just gravitated towards them sorry guys.

fandom: lottie has two types of people rooting for her in the fandom. theres the "omg my lord and savior she can do no wrong" group and the "omg crazy ass schizo mental illness queen" group and neither of them get her. she's flawed. but her flaws shouldn't all be attributed to dehumanizing conversations about her mental illness. let's not forget that she was a 17 year old going cold turkey on antipsychotics after living the last decade on them, in a situation that's beyond stressful, mind you. no fucking wonder she turned out that way. whatever. i feel like there arent a lot of her fans who recognize the absolute gray nuance in her character. or maybe im just on tiktok too much and everyone on there is fucking rotted beyond belief.

conclusion: i love her. i hate her. im neutral. she scares me. i blame her for all the problems out there and she's doing her best. that's the point

guh

i think PB is like an inversion of Ash.

Ash sells Marceline's most precious item (Hambo) for his own gain

Bubblegum sacrifices something she values deeply (her rock shirt) to get Hambo back for Marceline

Ash uses Magic to change Marceline Mentally, removing something (her memories) for his own gain

PB uses Science to change Marceline Physically, removing something (the vampire juice) for Marceline

Ash is a Misogynist

PB is a Certified Woman Lover

PLEASEE TALK ABOUT MARCY AND FERN PARALLELS I NEED TO KNOW WHAT YOU MEANN

ok so the main thing that made me notice it was the "red starved episode", the whole thing where marceline didn't want to hurt anyone but her nature as a vampire forced her to because she needed to feed

so we have fern. he's a hero, he doesn't want to hurt anyone. but he messes up all the time. and eventually gives in to his cursed nature from the grass demon because it's exhausting to fight it.

and they're both kinda haunted. like the grass demon & the vampire king hallucination things

and also i think their conditions (the grass demon, vampirism) are a little bit disability coded. especially mentally for fern, he tries to do one thing and ends up doing something completely different.

also their transformation scenes are the same genre of disturbing to me. humanity taken against their will

i hope this is coherent. i can also talk about a couple fern and PB similarities maybe

thinking about PB finally having a natural weapon, something she can rely on when everything and everyone else has been taken from her. something that can buy her time while she thinks of a plan.

only for it to constantly fail or backfire.

and turn her into a laughing stock

and even once she's mastered it, it still manages to not be very helpful

and just reinforcing her belief that she can't do anything right on her own

The classic games are

so funny Sonic was SO ANGRY the ENTIRE TIME

look at his concept art this guy came out of the womb with a stink eye

His standing animation is actually smiling in Sonic 3 & Knuckles maybe he had secret character development

Okej, naprawdę miło widzieć, że Trolle nie przekonały się do Jima po jednej walce. Tak, kilka osób było na jego przyjęciu, ale market wciąż nie jest do niego pozytywnie nastawiony.

Also. Vendel. Kiedy wcześniej oglądałam serial, jego pomoc Jimowi w 2 sezonie była dla mnie trochę OOC. Vendel w końcu był tak bardzo przeciwko wcześniej, prawda? Zdawał się nie lubić Jima, prawda?

Ale podczas re-watchu zrozumiałam, że Vendel zawsze był taki. Vendel mógł nie lubić Jima, nie lubić, że człowiek jest Łowcą Trolli, nawet nie lubić zmian, które ze sobą przyniósł. Ale co się dla niego najbardziej liczyło to Trollmarket.

Kiedy Jim zaczął opowiadać o moście i Zmiennokształtnych (i oh, ludzie, naprawdę nie lubię tego tłumaczenia, ale napiszę o tym w osobnym poście) Vendel jest jedynym, który wykazuje jakiekolwiek zainteresowanie mimo, że wyraźnie zaznacza, że Bliny ma długą historię wierzenia w absurdalne teorie spiskowe. Ponieważ most to wielkie zagrożenie dla Targowiska, a jeśli ktoś go buduje, to trzeba coś z tym zrobić.

Ale całe spotkanie odbyło się bardzo prywatnie. Kiedy ekipa przyprowadziła Not-Ernique do targowiska, to wtedy pojawił się problem. Bo nie ważne co się dzieje, panika nikomu nie pomoże. Panika rozpoczęłaby się nie ważne co, ale z Jimem jako Łowcą nie było nic co mogłoby trolle uspokoić. Jim był człowiekiem, był dzieckiem, był niedoświadczony i nie miał nawet jakichś porządnych umiejętności walki. Nie miał nawet zaufania ludzi. To, że amulet go wybrał nic nie zmieniało. Jim nie miał nawet zaufania trolli, żeby kogokolwiek uspokoić, nawet jeśli nie mógłby poprzeć słów umiejętnościami.

Więc Vendel robił wszystko, żeby powstrzymać panikę. Jeśli nikt się o niczym nie dowie, jeśli nikt nie będzie o niczym mówić, to przynajmniej będzie spokój, prawda? Jeśli coś się dzieje, panika będzie tylko przeszkadzać, jeśli nic się nie dzieje, to będzie niepotrzebna. W ten sposób działa przeciwko protagonistom, którzy chcą ujawnić co się dzieje, żeby mieszkańcy byli przygotowani.

Ale co się zmienia pomiędzy początkiem sezonu pierwszego, a połową drugiego? Status Jima.

Jim zrobił rzeczy, których żaden inny Łowca Trolli nie zrobił. Jego metody działania okazały się sprawdzać, kiedy pokonał Bulara, zabójcę co najmniej kilku Łowców, w tym jednego z najwybitniejszych - Kanjigara. Pokonał Angora, który ukradł duszę przynajmniej kilkunastu innych Łowców. Uratował Trollmarket więcej niż raz, zyskał zaufanie trolli, udowodnił, że może ich chronić, że może osiągnąć niemożliwe.

W tym momencie Jim był najlepszą linią obrony, jeśli coś by się stało i jeśli Gunmar naprawdę by wrócił. Nie dość, że Jim był sprawdzony, to jeszcze mogłoby nie być czasu, żeby wyszkolić nowego Łowcę.

Więc oczywiście, że Vendel stanie po jego stronie podczas konfliktu w drugim sezonie. W końcu chce tego, co najlepsze dla Targowiska.

O ludzie, czuję się nostalgicznie widząc Bully!Streva i Kind-of-Bully!Draal. Technicznie wciąż jestem nastolatką. Nie powinnam czuć się nostalgicznie XD

Skoro już przy tym, mały Draal rant.

Draal miał naprawdę dobry arc. Nie zaczął jako zwykły bully, który wyżywa się na słabszym dla przyjemności, upustu czy żeby odreagować. Jim odziedziczył jedną z najważniejszych, jeśli nie najważniejszą rzecz, jaką kiedykolwiek posiadał ojciec Draala i nawet nie wiedział co z nią zrobić. Nawet nie był trollem. A później dowiadujemy się, że Kanjigar odciął się od swojego syna kiedy został Łowcą Trolli. Możliwe, że amulet i to dziedzictwo to jedyne, co Draal mógł mieć po latach, jeśli nie dekadach.

Draal chciał kontynuować dziedzictwo swojego ojca. Uważał, że ma taką rację, przywilej i obowiązek z urodzenia. Musiał się nauczyć, że nie zawsze może dostać czego chce, że amulet sam wybiera jaki rodzaj Łowcy jest najbardziej potrzebny.

W czasie trwania serialu Draal pokazuje się jako bardzo honorowy. Zależy mu na składanych obietnicach i przestrzeganiu pewnego kodeksu. Ponieważ Jim go oszczędził, postanawia ochronić jego dom i matkę, a później nawet próbuje mu pomóc. Nie tylko uczy go walczyć mieczem i pomaga trenować ale też daje mu rad (jak złe by one nie były)

Draal zbliża się do naszej ekipy, staje się bliższy zarówno z ludźmi jak i z trollami z main cast. Po tym kiedy jest kontrolowany, naprawdę przeżywa to, że ich zaatakował, kiedy nie mógł nawet kontrolować własnego ciała. A na koniec oddaje życie za Jima, osobę którą tak... no... pogardzał, na początku. Z tą śmiercią mam osobny problem, do czego dojdę przy trzecim sezonie pewnie, ale dammit, ludzie, czemu-

A później... to wszystko jest wyrzucone w błoto. Dowiadujemy się, że, ugh, Draal brał udział w bitwie o Most Ściętej Głowy (ugh) o czym nikt z jakiegoś powodu do tej pory nie wspomniał, mimo, że Bliky i Aaaaghr też tam byli. (i z jakiegoś powodu nie było tam Kanjigara, który powinien być starszy niż Draal, bo jest jego ojcem i wielkim wojownikiem, ale nope, nie pokazujmy go, nie wspominajmy go, kim jest Kanjigar, never heard of him) Killahead to miejsce gdzie walczyła pierwsza Trollhunter. A po niej były ich jeszcze co najmniej dziesiątki.

A Draal widział ich wszystkich. Początek jego arku opiera się na tym, że Draal jest zdesperowany i chce przejąć dziedzictwo swojego ojca. Uważa to za swoje prawo z urodzenia. Nie jestem w stanie uwierzyć, że ktokolwiek, po tym jak znał i walczył (mniej więcej) u boku pierwszej Trollhunter, widział przez stulecia jak amulet przechodzi z rąk do rąk, między praktycznie randomowymi trollami, strzelałby takiego focha o to, że nie został wybrany po swoim ojcu.

Zamiast na kogoś aroganckiego, ale jednocześnie w żałobie i pragnącego dorównać tak naprawdę niemożliwym standardom, Draal wychodzi na dziecinnego, zadufanego w sobie i w pewnym stopniu także na beksę.

Jego ark stracił sporo swojego impaktu i emocjonalnego bagażu.

A co najgorsze nie dostaliśmy absolutnie nic w zamian. Absolutnie. Nic. Draal został poświęcony dla dwóch 10-sekundowych cameo, w sezonie w którym go zabito i w Wizards. (oh, Wizards, do tego bajzlu też dojdziemy)

Tak czy inaczej. 1000-letni Draal? Thanks, I hate it.

Koniec rantu. Wracam do oglądania.

Ace to jedna z najbardziej tragicznych postaci w One Piece.

Jego matka zginęła przy porodzie, za co obwiniał się całe życie. Jego adoptowany dziadek nie mógł się nim zajmować przez swoją pracę. Jego jedynymi opiekunami/wzorami podczas dorastania byli górscy bandyci. Górscy. Bandyci.

Jedyne co słyszał o swoim ojcu to przekleństwa i najgorsze rzeczy. Ludzie powtarzali mu, że Roger jest demonem i żadne jego dziecko nie powinno się urodzić, tylko dlatego, że byłoby z nim spokrewnione. I nikt nigdy nie powiedział mu nic innego. Jego dziadek unikał odpowiedzi, kiedy został spytany, a jego opiekunowie nazywali go potworem.

Osobiście podejrzewam, że to drugie miało więcej wspólnego z faktem, że 10-latek był w stanie w pojedynkę upolować wiele większe od siebie zwierzęta i przynosił obiad dla kilkunastu bandytów, niż z jego ojcem, ale Ace to najpewniej odczytywał trochę inaczej…

To wszystko sprawiło, że w pewnym momencie Ace zaczął nienawidzić swojego ojca, a przez to także siebie. Kwestionował swoje istnienie, do końca życia uważał się za niezasługującego na czyjąkolwiek miłość. Sam siebie uważał za potwora. Ace nigdy nie był w stanie pokochać czy zaakceptować sam siebie.

Ace spędził całe życie, próbując wyjść z cienia swojego ojca, pokazać się światu jako ktoś zupełnie inny. Ironicznie wręcz i przypadkowo Ace wziął przynajmniej część dziedzictwa, z którym się urodził, na swoje barki. Został (nie)sławnym piratem, dokładnie jak Roger. Próbował walczyć z Białobrodym, bez skutku, tak jak wcześniej Roger. A na koniec zajął pozycję jako Dowódca Drugiej Dywizji Białobrodego… która była wolna tylko dlatego, że Oden dołączył do Rogera (czym chciałabym się dokładniej zająć kiedy indziej, bo to odkrycie pokazuje samego Białobrodego w dość… dwuznacznym świetle). No i oddał życie za Luffy’ego… który jest następcą Rogera. W ten czy inny sposób Roger i jego dziedzictwo zawsze plątały się w życie Ace’a.

Ale co dla mnie jest najbardziej ironiczne i tragiczne… to to, że cały ten ból, nienawiść i cierpienie Ace’a… nie miały powodu. Ace nigdy nie nienawidził Rogera z prostego powodu: nie znał go. A wszystko, co Ace słyszał o swoim ojcu, też nie było od ludzi, którzy go znali. To nie były złowieszcze historie, które Garp (czy jakikolwiek marine, który z Rogerem walczył) opowiedział, żeby zrobić z Rogera potwora, okrutne i bolesne przeżycia kogoś, kogo Roger zaatakował czy komu wybił najbliższych. To nie były historie jego bezpośrednich wrogów, rywali czy przyjaciół, ludzi, którzy go znali. Wszystko, co Ace wiedział o Rogerze, pochodziło od ludzi, którzy go nigdy nie spotkali, którzy najpewniej nie znali nawet nikogo, kto go gdzieś przelotnie widział. Te historie i słowa pochodziły od ludzi, którzy czytali o Rogerze z gazet.

Gazet pełnych naciągnięć, cenzury i propagandy, gdzie historie pochodzące z raportów i od ludzi są przepisywane, zmieniane, całe fragmenty pomijane, pokazywane tylko z jednej perspektywy. Widzieliśmy jak propaganda i gazety w One Piece działają, było nam to pokazane na przykładzie Luffy’ego. Po tych wszystkich artykułach o Impel Down i Enies Lobby ktoś naprawdę wierzy, że ludzie na East Blue nie będą uciekać na widok Słomianego Kapelusza Daj-Mi-Mięso-A-Będę-Ryzykował-Dla-Ciebie-Życiem Luffy’ego?

Ale czy ktokolwiek kiedyś próbował to w ogóle Ace’owi uświadomić? Nie. Nikt nie próbował mu powiedzieć, kim naprawdę był Roger ani dlaczego to, co piszą w gazetach, nie powinno być traktowane jako absolutna prawda. Za problemy Ace’a i jego cierpienie najbardziej odpowiedzialni są dorośli w jego życiu, którzy wiedzieli o jego problemach, znali Rogera i siedzieli cicho.

Odpowiedzialny jest Garp, który znał Rogera od lat, jeszcze zanim ktokolwiek widział w nim tego potwora, kogokolwiek więcej niż zwykłego pirata, jak setka innych. Wiemy, że nawet kiedyś współpracowali. A jednak nie odezwał się ani słowem.

Odpowiedzialny jest Białobrody, o którym wiemy, że przynajmniej do śmierci Rogera, miał z nim wyjątkowo pozytywną relację, jak na dwie osoby, które słyną z tego, że chciały się nawzajem zabić. Ich załogi mimo ciągłych walk nie miały problemów z piciem razem lub wymienianiem się łupami. Roger i Białobrody nie mieli większego problemu z piciem ze sobą, przynajmniej pod koniec życia Rogera. A mimo to Białobrody nie powiedział nic.

My znamy Rogera, widzieliśmy wspomnienia o nim. Czytaliśmy, jak różnie się o nim wypowiadają zależnie od tego, kto mówi. I z tego co wiemy, nieważne czego Roger by nie postanowił zrobić, na pewno nie będzie gorszy niż niektórzy piraci, których widzieliśmy… Znaczy… Big Mom dosłownie zabiła własne dziecko, więc raczej gorzej już się nie da… Em, racja, Wano. Więc uważam mój argument za udowodniony. I nie ma mowy, żeby Roger był gorszy niż Tenryuubito. Krótko mówiąc, Roger jest tylko człowiekiem, który robił lepsze i gorsze rzeczy.

Uważam, że skonfrontowanie Ace’a z tym wszystkim byłoby dość ciekawe. To coś zupełnie innego niż obraz Rogera, który ma w swojej głowie, tak różnego, że miałby problem je ze sobą połączyć. A to może pomogłoby też Ace’owi z jego problemami.

Żałuję tylko, że fandom nie robi tego zbyt często (z tego co wiem przynajmniej, tak jest). Zamiast tego ludzie uznają nienawiść Ace’a za “uzasadnioną” i udają, że nie ma z Rogerem nic wspólnego, a Roger, ojciec Ace’a staje się kompletnie odrębnym bytem od Rogera, Króla Piratów, ex-kapitana i idola Luffy’ego.

It bother me so much that people misunderstand sayaka miki's descent into madness in madoka magica. She doesnt become a witch "just because of a boy." Sayaka is a character who ties all her self worth into being in service of others. We can see this right from the start with her idolization of mami and everything that she was. She saw mami as this "perfect hero" even though mami i would say is mentally the weakest of the holy quintet. In the timelines where mami finds out about the incubator's true goals she always immediately breaks and goes crazy, trying to kill the other girls in her own twisted way of trying to "save them". Instead of seeing the fragile person that mami was, sayaka instead sort of treats her as a martyr, a goal to achieve. We continue on to sayaka's magical girl wish. Instead of wishing for something for herself, she instead sells her soul for the sake of kyousuke. Then when he starts dating hitomi she spirals not because she's sad about the rejection but because she feels replaced in his life, that he doesn't need or want her around anymore. Then she throws herself into her magical girl work not seeing that she's harming herself because she justifies it with "well im saving people that means what im doing is a good thing." She doesn't see that she's becoming more sloppy, more ruthless until its too late. It's only in the end when she turns into a witch that her story gets resolved.

Sayaka Miki is an incredibly sad character to me. While her actions have the illusion of being selfless and "for the greater good" she is actually incredibly selfishly motivated. Everything she does is in service of wanting praise and admiration from the people she cares about. If she helps kyousuke he'll appreciate her and love her, if she becomes a hero she'll receive praise and admiration for being a good person. This is why it is important that of all people it was kyoko that fought sayaka in the end. To homura, sayaka is someone to be saved. To mami, sayaka is her sweet apprentice/younger sister figure. To madoka, sayaka is her energetic and happy go lucky friend. Kyoko is the only one who from the start called sayaka out on her bullshit, seeing straight through her. And at the end, kyoko is the one who truly accepts sayaka. Sayaka as the witch Oktavia von Seckendorff is stated multiple times in official material to be "looking for love." In the end it it kyoko who gives her that love. Even when sayaka has lost her humanity it is kyoko who accepts her for the entirety of who sayaka is with all of her selfishness and desires. She is the one who sees what sayaka has become and stays together with her till both of their ends. Kyoko choosing to die with sayaka is her saying "I'm here for you, i know all of you, and I will love you regardless."

Though the Hamato clan in Rise is often more openly affectionate than past iterations I’ve noticed that the amount that each family member actually says the words ‘I love you’ actually differs for each family member.

Mikey: I’ll say it again, I love you guys

Leo: We did it!

Mikey: Love you dad!

Splinter: My sons, you know I love you, but you only remember lessons when you learn them the hard way

Splinter: We are not giving them the evil teapot, we are going to save my beloved sons!

Throughout the series Mikey & Splinter are the ones who tell their family that they love them the most, often either staying it in their everyday life or having it come up in conversation. They’re the ones that most easily say ‘I love you’ because it’s a simple fact to them, they do love their family why shouldn’t they say it?

Raph: Tests are easy, it’s answers that are hard 

Donnie: I love you so much! Let’s do it!

Leo: We learned a valuable something about never something-ing you alone again

Raph: Aww I love you guys!

In contrast to Mikey & Splinter, Raph & Donnie are the ones who use the words ‘I love you’ the least out of the family because they have other ways of showing their family that they love them, Donnie shows his love for his family through his inventions & Raph shows his love for his family by protecting them & keeping them safe.

Donnie & Raph save the words ‘I love you’ for moments where they’re particularly excited or touched such as when Raph gives Donnie the go-ahead to use an untested invention because he believes in Donnie’s inventions enough to think, even untested it will help or when Leo promises Raph they won’t leave him alone again, even taking care to not say the word ‘leave’ because he knows the word is upsetting to Raph.

Leo: I love you guys!

Leo on the other hand is firmly in the middle, he says the words ‘I love you’ more than Donnie & Raph, but he’s not as able to simply say it in everyday conversation the way Mikey & Splinter are.

In fact Leo seems to save the words ‘I love you’ for situations where he feels as though something is wrong & he feels as though he’s let down or upset his family in someway.

Leo: Raphael, I love you my brother but you do tend to fail in big moments.

Leo: Raph, you know I love you but people don’t focus on punctuation when they’re stuck in concrete

Leo: Donnie, you gotta stop this! I love you and your gaming is hurting me!

Leo: Okay Señor Hueso, my beloved brother Donatello and I had a bit of a spat

Raph is the person Leo typically says ‘I love you’ to the most & he usually says it when he’s pointing out a flaw in his older brother’s plans, it’s Leo’s way of saying even when he’s telling Raph something isn’t going to work he still loves him.

The second person Leo says ‘I love you’ to the most is Donnie & it’s usually reserved for when they are fighting such as in episode The Purple Game when Leo thought that Donnie was still controlling the robot that was attacking them & during the episode The Hidden City Job where after Leo has an argument with Donnie he primarily refers to Donnie as his ‘beloved brother’.

Leo: I love you

Splinter: No!

It seems as though Leo reserves the words ‘I love you’ for when he feels as though he’s upset a family member, either by disagreeing with them or getting into a fight with them & combining this with the fact that in the episode ‘Flushed But Never Forgotten’ when Leo thinks he might loose his family forever, the last thing he wants to say to them is how much he loves them, ‘I love you’ might be the words that Leo says when he thinks he’s done something that would make him loose his family.

When Leo says ‘I love you’ what he’s really saying is ‘I love you, please don’t be mad at me, please don’t be upset with me,’ ect

no one here to talk about how raph’s sense of self-preservation vs self-sacrifice is directly tied to how it affects the safety of his family and i resent that

leo gets dropped off a building, raph all but throws himself after him to catch him, no real plan, just desperation.  shadow of evil, he sees they’re way outnumbered, he literally picks his entire family up and runs.

battle nexus new york he posts himself over donnie as a personal shield against shredder

shreddy or not, not only is he the second mvp of the initial brawling (gram gram is of course biggest mvp) putting it all on the line THROWING HIMSELF at shredder, saving bacon left and right with like zero regard for his own safety. he then has to buckle down and make the choice to get his brothers to safety TWICE while leaving people behind in the span of a couple of minutes, and he looks so absolutely torn up about it

in the movie, he’s the one who sees them getting their butts handed to them in the first kraang showdown and calls for the retreat/escape pods! and then he puts himself on the line saving leo’s life, getting hurt in the process, then getting leo out safely and being captured in the process.

and i think it’s so interesting that like. when he knows his family made it home safe in one piece, when he’s alone in enemy hands and sister kraang is straight up like “let’s kill him already he won’t tell you anything,” raph is just like. “yeah, she’s right.” no trying to stall for time or argue back. 

like his sense of self-preservation and i think overall worth really is SO so directly tied to his family’s safety. which makes it hurt even harder to see his mind and autonomy get violated and used to hurt them imo

Leo likes to talk, it’s part of being the face man & his role as a strategist that can manipulate situations to be in his favour but because he likes to talk there are certain words that can act as tells for his behaviour 

“Spill the beans Leo! Every time you say ‘indubitably’ I know you’re up to something”

In Bug Busters we learn that Leo says ‘indubitably’ when he’s trying to hide something but Leo also has another word that’s indicative to his true mood.

Ninjocity.

There are two prominent times where Leo uses the word Ninjocity.

Donnie: I don’t know how much longer we can keep this up, he’s crushing us!

Leo: Really? ‘Cause I thought my overall ninjocity was totally working

Raph: So what if I say he- that word a lot. It’s a good word. We need to be that word.

Leo: Relax Raph. We’ve got this hero thing wired. I mean, our ninjocity is off the charts

The two times Leo uses the word Ninjocity is in Many Unhappy Returns when he’s fighting the Shredder & at the start of the Movie.

Leo likes to make jokes when he’s stressed he admits to it in the very first episode saying it’s ‘how he copes’ & people have discussed that the reason Leo is making so many jokes at the start of the movie might be because he’s stressed about the idea of having just been made leader & is trying to make Raph take the role back. 

Leo using the word ‘ninjocity’ at the start of the movie is just proof of how stressed he was at the idea of being leader because the only other time he ever really uses that word is when his family is fighting a beast-like Shredder for the first time.

When people think of Leo in the episode Many Unhappy Returns they mostly think about how he was able to outmanoeuvre Big Mamma & how he knew his families strengths so well he was able to state exactly how they were able to hold off the Shredder while he & Splinter were at the Battle Nexus, but Leo’s attitude at the start of Many Unhappy Returns is perhaps the closest he’s ever acted in the show to how he acts at the start of the movie.

Meaning that at the start of Many Unhappy Returns his humour is cranked up to 11 & it appears like he isn’t taking anything seriously.

Leo: Thanks for doing the dirty work for us big up Shreddy!

Splinter: Not now Blue!

Leo: What? I thought a nickname might give us a nice repport.

Leo: One & Oh baby!

Leo: Going to need to make a two & Oh T-Shirt after this!

Leo: Oh Cheater! Don’t think we’re letting you keep those!

Raph: This is serious stuff Leo! Would you shore up our right flank already!

Leo: What? Mid-battle banter’s my thing like how your’s is saying words like flank

Leo likes to make quips in battle but the only times, he makes joke after joke, are the start of the movie & the start of the episode Many Unhappy Return or to put in other words the time he was trying to get out of being leader & the time his family was fighting Shredder for the first time.

People seem to think Leo had every thing under control the entirety Many Unhappy Returns because of how expertly he outmanoeuvred Big Mamma but he was only able to think of a plan involving Big Mamma /after/ Splinter suggested going to her. Before that he spends the start of the episode making joke after joke but whenever his families attention is off him

He’s terrified.

The fact that Leo’s actions at the start of the movie & the start of the episode Many Unhappy Returns are comparable means that the idea of being leader was as terrifying to Leo as fighting a beast-like Shredder.

And this is further evidenced by them being the only two real times Leo uses the word ‘ninjocity’, if Leo is stressed & scared he’s making joke after joke, appearing to not take anything seriously & the word ‘ninjocity’ makes an appearance in his vocabulary.

Leo likes to talk to try & distract others from his true feelings & intentions but he has tells.

If he says ‘indubitably’, he’s trying to hide something. If he says ‘ninjocity’ he’s stressed out & scared & is one bad event away from a panic attack.

we as a fandom completely glossed over this, *I* MANAGED TO COMPLETELY NOT NOTICE THIS BUT LOOK. TERU BACKSTORY PEEK

this is so sad... back then he was probably just like kou, not wanting to see supernaturals as inhumane monsters but if he doesn't do that he won't be able to protect his only family 😭😭

looking at the panel, it seems that the supernatural and the girl were probably friends but (maybe like mitsuba?) the supernatural tried to harm the girl and so teru had to kill them while hearing both the girl pleading and crying and the supernatural apologizing... even if he was persuaded for a moment he couldn't have gone along with it because he has a job to finish.

Teru's way of thinking is a DEFENSE MECHANISM. If he doesn't see supernaturals as inhumane beings, then he won't be able to protect his family. If he doesn't work hard enough, Kou would start doubting, Tiara might get taken to be trained as an exorcist.

His way of thinking isn't out of hatred, it's deep-rooted fear.

(And he himself probably hasn't realized it.)

I find it intriguing that Obanai is tasked with the accuracy of sword swinging training, considering that one of his eyes doesn't work well. I'd like to think that, aside from Kaburamaru's help, his instincts and senses are honed very well.

We can take into account of his past too, when he was always being monitored by the snake demon without him seeing her so his danger alert senses probably being heightened from there on. It's also amazing that after everything he went through, he doesn't despise snakes or scaly animals but instead decided to take it as a symbol of him.

or we can take that as him studying about snakes because he wants to be as prepared as possible if encountering another snake-themed demon (also to take better care of Kaburamaru) which then makes him fascinated over it and practices his attacks based on the snake's movements.

(Can this be taken as a form of disability? The concept of disabled slayers is something that can be explored, like Gyomei's blindness doesn't hinder him from being the strongest slayer and Sanemi's colour blindness -- that can impair a person's ability to read and interpret various diagrams and graphics -- doesn't let him stop from doing whatever the heck he wants or Uzui with his lack of one arm and still be able to perform flawlessly.)

Stanley Pines is basically holding onto the teenaged version of his brother.

That connection is strong enough that it only took two words to get him to drive all the way up to Oregon and then spend three decades trying to bring Ford back. That kind of dedication, that kind of inextinguishable hope, is astounding, and it is not the behavior of someone who blames Ford for closing the window on him, not at all.

So why, then, does Stan care so much? Because to him, Ford is just about the coolest person to exist. Not just because he's astoundingly smart and capable, but also because he was the only person who really cared about him.

There's a lot of talk about suspected physical abuse in the Pines household for the twins growing up, but I think there was a lot of neglect too. I think Ford and Stan really only had each other as kids. That is an intense connection.

For Ford, that connection terrifies him. Because Ford does not want to be that boy. That boy was scared and that boy got knocked around and had to hide behind his twin. That boy was weak and Stanford Pines is not weak, Stanford Pines is special and important and he's going to show the whole goddamn world.

But for Stan... that connection is the only thing that proves he was worth anything. So if his relationship with Ford isn't salvageable...

then is he worth anything at all?