randominstance

These two fairies basically had a scene early on where they were trying to pressure Erika to become a Precure quickly and it clicked for me - ohhh so THAT'S where Shaft got Kyubey from. When you realize Heartcatch was on air at the same time as Madoka Magica was in animation/development.... well, it makes Madoka's riffs on fairy/mascot chars seem a little more pointed in hindsight. Of course Kyubey is also clearly a riff on Luna being a pushy pushy cat on Usagi and practically bullying her into becoming Sailor Moon. But in particular, Heartcatch's fairies have the same kind of white body, beady eyes, clingy vibes thing, and the other fairy (whose name eludes me at the moment) has an 'eyes staring directly into the screen' moment in an early Heartcatch eyecatch. I could imagine SHAFT looking to Heartcatch for bits and bobs of magical girl trope.|

(June me updating May me: Actually Gen Uroboshi is on record as saying he didn't watch Heartcatch until after finishing Madoka's script, and then he thought he had a 'bad heart' because of it, lol)

I don’t really care for May 4th as Star Wars Day because it wasn’t really a Big Thing until 2013 (wikipedia entry not withstanding) when Disney took over the franchise and moved to make it a commercial shopping holiday akin to a nerd-level Black Friday.

I’m not down with extravagant consumption that benefits corporate bottom lines by hijacking people’s genuine feelings and chaining them to service of capital. I am not a fan of ‘nerd consumption’ in general. Way too much environmental damage from plastic bits and bobs.

But I do get it, it’s a Fun Thing and we are in desperate need of Fun Things in this grey shit dystopia we’re all now forced to continue operating in.

So for me I choose to make May 4th about celebrating Carrie Fisher. #glitterforSpaceMom and all that.

Cure Wing so far is the strongest attempt to subvert the form as far as Toei’s cash cow goes anyway - he’s a literal soft boi, and doesn’t easily slot into expected cliches for male characters like ‘the genki one’, ’ the mysterious third party outsider’ or 'the aggressive one’. He’s been more useful to the team already than Tuxedo Kamen ever really was, without being pressed into a love interest slot in any way.

I know Toei only really let the writers get away with it because he’s not human, but actually a magic bird that can take human form, so there’s still some plausible deniability there. See, they’re not REALLY making a male cure see, they’re making a mascot Cure, which the series has been a bit more comfortable toying with in previous seasons. See also: Laura in Tropical Rouge basically taking on both the mascot and deuteragonist role while being distinctly Not Human To Start With.

This is also why the jokes about Cure Kabaton are running wild with this series, and not with some of its predecessor villains; we’ve already established animaloids that shape-shift in-verse, so it doesn’t feel like a huge leap for a series that’s poking at the edges to take it just that one step further.

But Toei is being kind of careful and keeps hedging its bets. They can’t afford to lose their young-kid audience or piss off the parents that buy all the accessories.

Wing’s main power of subversion is being a different model of masculinity, as he is reaching toward being 'the prince’ for baby Ellee. (uh oh, says the Utena fan in me, but if Precure was ever gonna go there it would have done it in Go Princess where the reference was explicitly drawn)

And honestly I think that’s a good model for young boys to have to play with, the potential pitfalls of the Dios archetype not withstanding. That kind of problem is for adults to deal with, after all. Let young boys be soft bois if they want, I guess is my point, and in that sense Wing is modeling a comforting alternative to being the rowdy hero.

At least he’s not going down the path of Griffith or Gilbert, lol.

so I’m working real hard to banish the cop in my brain, and I think I’m pretty good on that at this point, in all sincerity. I don’t have the will, energy, time or patience to bother with policing others; I have my own problems that need much more thought and attention, and I don’t understand why others can’t take a live and let live attitude equally. I am not compelled by any faith structure to proseltyze or try to convert (unless it’s a tv show I like lol). I’m not down for arguing with anyone over their beliefs; if it’s not in alignment with mine I block or scroll past.

What I did not expect and am currently having trouble with is the capitalist in my brain that swooped in - partially fueled by a lifetime of hearing my mother lecture me that ‘the money is there, you just have to find a way to interest people to get it’ (note: she has not achieved this in the entire time I’ve known her either)

I’m so tired of hearing this narrative inside myself. Feeling like 'if I can’t make something that can make a profit, it’s not worth even trying’. This is especially frustrating right now as I am feeling myself wanting very much to transition away from my current employment and find some other way to support myself - something more sustainable, more fitting of my values and less exhausting. So I think: well, writing. It’s about the only skill I have that could be marketable in even the vaguest sense. I’m 50: nobody is going to want me in their office soon, if they don’t now.

But the fact is writing doesn’t make money. Go ask the published authors on here how hard they have to struggle still - even the name brand authors.

I used to write fanfic. I gave that up for various reasons, including some trauma. But fanfic was the only thing I wrote that people ever cared about. So the capitalist in my head is like: you’re Old and you’re going to STARVE if you don’t start PRODUCING and make it VALUABLE CONTENT.

It’s so, so fucking frustrating. And it’s wrecking me as a person. the fear is there, it’s real, and it hurts.

To say that I love BGC is not to say that I don’t also note its flaws.

It does have a serious case of Women Being Written By Men sometimes. There’s a painful lack of solidarity inside the group at times:

A) the group generally perceives Priss as the ‘bad girl’ and doesn’t immediately support her actions or decisions. Nene calling her 'apewoman’ in ep 8, Sylia being guilted into sending out a rescue team in ep 1 when Priss is late (again) in reporting in. They bend over backwards in ep 3 to try and womansplain to Priss that it’s NOT about her even though the whole mission is absolutely one of vengeance.

B) there are some painful conversations in episode 8 which mar an otherwise fine episode with 'diet talk’. Even taking into account the Hard Suits likely have to be bodyfitted down to millimeters, Priss and Linna team up to harass Nene about her weight gain - of an entire centimeter oh no - and the whole group combines to pick on Nene for not being able to fight at even a 'normal girl level’. We know that Linna and Priss’s laughter hurts, because it comes up again in Nene’s mind when she sits down to have a piece of cake. This kinda thing is sort of death to team cohesion…

“Leave it to Sylia to sacrifice Nene,” Priss says in episode 4, and she ain’t wrong. How Nene has been set up to fail isn’t fully addressed in the original 8, but it’s pretty obvious that her suit is below grade, her weapons are inadequate, Sylia isn’t forcing her up to the team’s fighting standard, and that her abilities are meant for backstage work - so why do they keep pulling her up front with the combat team? And then mocking her for not being good at it? This makes me question Sylia’s leadership abilities (and it’s not the only time I’ve had questions about her judgement)

There’s also some implied size-shaming going on in episode 4, when Priss complains that the skirt she borrowed from Linna 'bags’ and then they refuse to complete a conversation about their clothing sizes because Linna takes offense at the implication Priss is smaller than she is.

C) Although the group generally talks out their missions as a whole first before deciding on their course of action, there’s a sense that the characters aren’t as much friends as they are co-workers. Linna and Priss do hang out in episode 4 - with some interesting suggestive implications - and we know that Linna and Nene both go to Priss’ concerts on and off based on ep 5. Based on potential timing issues, I’m sure that Nene probably can’t interact with the others as often because of work being the mole inside ADP.

I’m not saying they need to be in each other’s faces 24/7 but the way their interactions are usually structured definitely adds to the vibe of 'we’re just here doing this thing for now, we’re not together in it’. I guess YMMV as to whether that’s a good thing or not, but the closest contemporaneous analogue also running in '86 are the Dirty Pair, another 'girl mercenary’ group, and they’re written as bickering friends/sisters with a fairly close relationship.

D) Linna kind of gets the short end of the characterization stick, being mostly written as concerned about status (“I want to trade in my car and get new clothes”. “Who cares about art?”) although the Irene/Vision subplot does do a lot to lift her and give her some extra focus, and the show heavily implies she’s at least bi-curious. “If I were a guy I’d make a pass at you, no sweat.” She’s also bossy toward Priss in episodes 3 and 4 in a way that implies the group kind of tends to punch down at each other depending on who’s in the room. Though you could also call her exchanges with Priss the fond exasperation of someone who’s tired of their friend’s constant drama. For the record, Priss does the same thing to Nene right after Linna does it to her. “Girl, all you think about is eating.” They pull the same stuff on each other in ep 5 when they get together at Hot Legs and meet Sylvie.

I dunno, this is all just brain dump. I don’t expect an 80’s series to be up to modern ideas - that would be silly and ahistorical - but I definitely think about it in the context of what I wish to see more of now and want to see less of going forward. That’s where I think that Women Being Written by Men comes into play, because the focus is more on tearing each other down - catty behavior, a bad group dynamic.

Women CAN be our own worst enemies, too - there’s no doubt about that. We’re good at tearing each other down. But given the context of the team I’d want to see more internal coherency and more internal support. More recognition of oppression as being existent on multiple planes at once, and maybe not treating each other like crap in the off hours and then expecting a clean, cohesive fighting unit in a crisis.

Waiting until episode 8 to actually address the Nene 'combat problem’ (and then in some ways actually making it worse with the off-field bullying being explicitly called out) is low-key frustrating.

Now, I’m a Priss girl myself, the other characters are less on my mind most of the time, and Priss obviously gets the lion’s share of screentime as the 'face’ of the group. But yeah, if Mackie can operate very comfortably as a support character that comes in during pinches or does a good job of hacking himself, why isn’t Nene just stationed with him like, 99% of the time? Is Sylia worried her little brother is gonna get too handsy with Nene or something?

Also, yeah, if Nene’s presence on the field were expressed as her suit being a signal-jammer/scramble, that would immediately make her more useful, but her suit would need to be beefed up EVEN MORE to counter this since the 'white mage’ role needs stronger defense, and the other three are all too busy to protect her while being in aggressive combat roles. I mean, at minimum, Nene should be going out wrapped in a Motoslave, at least, on top of her normal suit, if she’s performing code functions.

Like, why was LINNA the one that was brought forward in ep 6 to wreck Largo’s beam satellite and Nene was in support mode? That should 100% have been reversed, unless they’re arguing Nene isn’t strong enough to hold the weapon in place while it fires - but that’s the Motoslave’s job, right? Nene’s suit wings opening up was super cool and why didn’t we see more of THAT? Anyway.

My initial thought of fixing this would have been to combine the Mackie and Nene characters into one: making Nene not only the group hacker but also the backup suit-fixer and support coder (which could make her VERY useful on the field when the others are constantly getting their suits crushed/mangled/damaged) - but then you kind of have to give up the ADP mole role, right?

By I dunno ep 6 you can argue that Leon could take over the 'mole’ role inside ADP since he’s fully onboard with the Sabers anyway. So there’s other ways to structure the existing characters for the same value or better.

This is the kind of thinking I would hope enters into a reboot process - says she who’s been waiting 30 goddamn years for someone to wake up and remember this franchise exists and not fuck it up. I am not a fan of Crash or 2040, LOL.

Let’s also remember that there are actually, in reality, Mafia-adjacent scooter gangs in Naples - bambini del Diavolo  (lol!) that have active members as young as 12 years old. As recent as 2018. 

Spare me the ‘he’s an innocent caught up in a bad system’ stuff. Spare me that Giorno’s physical age somehow makes him some kind of tender child. Spare me that idea that he isn’t fully capable of controlling men by force to get what he wants. He’s a deeply grey-morals fusion of the righteous passions of Jonathan and the cold smouldering ambitions of DIO.

Also there was a great note in the tags in the original post that i want to elevate reminding everyone that Giorno took advantage of Koichi to steal and hawk his luggage and then helped himself to a nice cup of coffee afterward. Just because he ‘felt bad’ about it afterward doesn’t change the fact he did it. Actions speak louder than words. 

Now, I love Giorno; he’s my favorite Jojo, and part 5 is my favorite part. He’s self-sacrificing, and deeply committed to the causes HE believes in. At heart he’s not the kind of evil that ends up causing mothers to become vampires and devour their own children, or perverting good men into drooling, mindless monsters. He’s not the kind of evil that bites the faces off dogs and then goes looking for women to violate. He’s not an Angelo; he’s not an early-vampire-stage Dio. 

But he IS a criminal and a gangster, and his ‘ideals’ don’t change that his actions are murderous, occasionally paranoid (watch how he doesn’t eat and note what he says in episode 20) and ruthless to the point of savagery. 

He’s not going to sit there in the throne of Passione and shake and cry over the terrible things he’s done. He’s going to do more terrible things to enact his will, until His Goals are met. Which coincidentally happens to overlap with ‘maybe make Naples 20% less shitty, and continue to destabilize any power structure that I don’t control already until I do control it’. 

Is there peace for Giorno after becoming Don Giovanna? Absolutely not. He’ll face opposition on every level, on every front. It’ll be too much for him; he’ll do stupid things out of frustration or panic that make it worse; he’ll recover and continue on. And with the power he has, it’ll be incredibly hard (not impossible, just hard) to unseat him. Long may he reign, for all the discontent it will bring him.

What DO we know about Sigma, pre-Maverickism? What’s actually AVAILABLE in the text? Not conjecture or headcanon, or spinoff mangas or light novels or whatever, but just plain text? In the games and their manuals?

Now, I’m going to womanfully ignore that there are segments of the fanbase that STILL argue about whether “Dr. Cain’s Journal” in the US first manual for X1 is even canon and just look at what each manual says. Also whatever might come out of the X Official Complete Works, which is the best we have IN ENGLISH as far as staff commentary on the characters.

I am also IGNORING Maverick Hunter X because that was intended as a series-regenerating reboot, and as such, takes the original canon and throws it out the window in favor of an incomplete revision that alters the universe in some places. Since the line never continued, it’s basically a non-canon AU. So I’m not counting Day of Sigma or whatever the MHX in-game text or manual says either. Original games only, here.

X1 manual:
Feb 16th: the reploid named Sigma has assigned to lead the Hunters. Sigma is one of the most intelligent androids I’ve created and contains my latest circuit designs. His systems should be immune to any problems.“ (where have we heard THIS before geeeeeeee)

"May 16th: it’s been two months since Sigma took control of the Maverick Hunters and he and his hunters have been able to prevent any further injury to the populations. Everyone is starting to breathe a little easier…”

“June 4th: My worst nightmare has come true. Sigma went maverick today and took most of the other Hunters with him. His motives are unclear, but it seems that he ‘decided’ humans are inferior and limiting the growth of the Reploids. For that reason, he decided all humans should be eradicated…”

X1 in-game speech
(X fights through the rest of the fortress and finds Sigma in a tower with a large wolf Mechaniloid.)

Sigma: Welcome! I see you managed to get here by yourself. Very impressive! I could destroy you, but I would not rob my pet of that pleasure. He knows how to deal with betrayers. Should you live, I will be waiting for you. Don’t disappoint me X!

(Sigma orders Velguarder to destroy X, but X defeats it. Velguarder explodes as Sigma reappears.)

Sigma: Excellent job, X! I see why Zero counted on you. You are almost as good a hunter as I was. But, the time of your destruction has arrived! You shall regret ever having defied me!

Sigma: No!!! It’s not possible! I’m a Reploid! I can’t be destroyed by you! Why, X?! Why have you done this to us?! Without the humans, my Reploid brothers could have ushered in a new age…..

(Wolf Sigma explodes just as X teleports out of the room.)

Mega Man X Complete Works, page 9:
“The way we made Wily, there was a side to him that you couldn’t really hate. Sigma, however, we created to be an 'absolute evil” kind of character. His story goes along the line of 'he was manufactured to be pure good, but somehow turned out this way’, which lends a certain 'unforeseen error’ feel to his very existence.“ (inafune)

That’s seriously all the staff has to say about him in the entire book, except for a tiny blurb at the back of the book at page 90 where they echo ’suddenly, he led the Reploids into a rebellion’.

X2 manual: Sigma isn’t even mentioned in the enemies page.
X3 manual: Same again.
X4 manual: Same again.
X5 manual: Still nothing.
X6 manual: Nope.
X7 manual: Who’s Sigma again?
X8 manual: Not here either. (I had to download this one, too lazy to get out my physical copy; couldn’t find an easy accessible copy online)

Honestly. For a main series villain the amount we actually know about his character beyond RAR I AM EVIL GUY NOW is… comical.

’Somehow, he became a Bad Guy’. Cripes. Love that 'we think the gamers should fill it in themselves’ 90’s Capcom mentality…

This is going to need a part 2, because I have to look at the scripts for X4 and X5, but I haven’t had time to do it yet and this thing is long enough already :)