Hojo

Isrieal stands in front of Hojo with her arms crossed over her chest, head tilted to look off to the side as she chews on her inner cheek. “You know Professor..?” She thinks. What did she feel about him? What did she really feel? Without anything in the way, her fear of what he’d do, the games he’s played to make her think what he wanted her to think. No. This was all her. She finally turns her gaze to him with a shake of her head.  “I hate you. I really despise you Professor. Everything you did to me, everything you have taken from me. You made sure I never had a life beyond the one you wanted. You kept me here like some cage you can always watch over, to use me for your own benefit. But what about me?! What...about...me.” 

“I can’t stand you, Professor. I can’t stand what you have become...but. Part of me cares about you, oh yes. Very foolishly cares, because if it weren’t for you I’d be dead. I’d be dead, I’d be weak. But everything you’ve done to me? Made me strong....all I had to do was realize that I could do whatever I want with that. Make my own choices, and not just leave it all up to you. Not to let you control every little thing about my life.” She takes a step closer and lowers her arms.

“I learned everything from you, Professor. I’m everything you wanted me to be. Intelligent...” She tips her head. “Powerful...” She lifts careful fingers to adjust his tie and lifts her gaze to look him straight in the eye. “Perfect.” She smirks but the smile soon turns bittersweet.

“You may have designed me, but I’m in control now and I get to decide what happens.” She leans in to whisper sharp breath against his ear. “I get to do...whatever I want.” 

Blade

“You annoy me. Not just because you are small, or an experiment. No. You annoy me because you have no will of your own. You cannot think for yourself. You....are just a program, at the mercy of whatever you’re creator wants you to do.” She says with a grin. “I’ve been there. I know. But at least I’ve had my own thoughts, my own desires. I feel it’s pointless to even speak to you because you’re only going to register what you are programmed to look for. Isn’t that right?” She paces around him.

we got Tsao. a warm welcome back to the exploration of Sly’s rogues gallery after we faced a cottdamn mask and a misdirect of a villain. it wasn’t the first time we faced a supposedly regal (Rajan) egomaniac (Dimitri) with mystical powers (Mz Ruby), but it felt fresh. first of all, he was a fucking rooster. the only other time we got to see roosters was when we running away from them and their bombs in Down Home Cooking. so here comes along this pompous prick who, if you have a soul, really gets under your skin because you find out via the Panda King, that the crime he’s committing is counterfeit and fraud- no wait. uh... an illegal spice operation... ? nah. the crime he’s committing is MF FORCED MARRIAGE to an ABDUCTED. WOMAN. jesus.

so within the first few minutes of playing A Cold Alliance it’s established that Tsao’s a downright horrible person. a real jerk. what ensues? SP wastes absolutely no time in shining a spotlight on this guy’s ego. we have Sly and Bentley talking to him in person during the first few missions and Tsao really displays what kind of a person he is. he also seems kinda dumb. like not stupid dumb, but kinda like lost within his own trail of thought, like too concentrated on himself. plot-twist: he’s not. he’s actually a fucking mastermind who breaks into the safehouse and violates our childhood’s sense of warmth when looking at the gang chilling and feeling at home when in the tiny confines of the safehouse. yea, nope. Tsao destroys that. he steals Bentley’s laptop and heads out into his bamboo retreat, where we soon receive one of two - yes, one of two - bossfights. and it is a doozy. personally, even though i’ve played the game a thousand times, i could never really get the aerial combat down until after a few tries. and when i actually got it down, the bossfight changed format and turned into me trying to run away from those cottdamn dragon heads. throughout this painful process, we get some really rich lines from Tsao, who’s obsessed with bloodlines and family and stuff. that’s all just great. fast-forward to the end of the level where we raid the guy’s treasury and destroy his estate. this gives any player great satisfaction, truly. anticipating the climax pays off because Tsao goes ahead and summons a fucking dragon. what. last time we saw something this massive was Mz Ruby’s swamp beast. this time, we get to fight it. the bossfight’s enjoyability comes from the fact that it has you running around searching for firework launchers as well. awesome. what happens next? well, it turns out that Carmelita gets some action as well. after roaming that hub in the freezing cold (and chasing Sly in a downright amazing mission A Battery of Peril wow) she’s the one who ultimately takes down Tsao by shockpistol-ing his nuts off. excellent.

however, when talking about Sly’s villains, Tsao rarely comes to mind. why? that’s probably because more than half of the satisfaction we get out of beating this guy comes from him being a complete and utter misogynist. at a young age we didn’t really get the gravity of the situation. we didn’t really get what forcing Jing King to marry him meant or why he specifically targetted Penelope when unleashing his dragon. and since our childhood, the number of assholes in the world has certainly increased. now we get it.

it’s also worth pointing out that SP went out of their way to create a memorable episode here. this is the first time we get two locations for a single level. we have an introduction and then the actual level. not gonna lie, getting to the Panda King by having all the members of the gang contribute in one way or another is lowkey one of my favourite moments from the entire game. we get to revisit the Panda King boss fight as well, which, despite it’s extremely low difficulty, is great and a nice callback to Sly 1. speaking of callbacks, we also retrieve the van during this episode, even though that mission is despicably bad. the mixture of callbacks and the two major hubs really sticks with the player. grand.

Isrieal chews on her lip as she looks towards the ground. What was the purpose of hiding or denying it because now he was asking. What was this? She understood, because she needed to know too. Why was she so afraid of this emotion, what about it told her to run when all she wanted to do was stay? All she ever wanted was to stay when he was around. But she could see how it must look, that she must be playing a game or that he was just another distraction, but neither of those were true and she hoped he didn’t think that. Yet the way she danced around the subject could be quite confusing. She knew that, but she was terrified to admit it. Or maybe he knew, he knew and he just wanted her to fucking say it, to stop hiding every damn thing that she felt. 

Carefully she raises her eyes, scanning over his suit all the way up to those deep, dark eyes. Everything about him was perfect, for her. Not just how attractive he was or how playful he could be but he knew how to handle her. He could handle her, and he never showed her fear. He could do what most could not, he could calm her to her senses and make her see all hidden truths. And despite all of those qualities, he just got her. 

And that face before her now, those big puppy eyes begging her for an answer and how could she not? Those puppy eyes were her absolute weakness. She stares at him for a moment but then exhales a long held in breath with a sigh to her words. “Okay..” Her fingers curl through the collar of his coat. He should know how she feels, he should know.

Oh boy you asked for it with this one. Someone actually wants to hear me talk about him?? I've been limited to having 15mins per day to talk about him in my discord by friends. Jokingly of course xD I think <<. Anyway! Let me get to this.

So my opinions on him. I honestly think he's one of the best villains I've ever seen. He's done SO much. It honestly boggles my mind to actually sit back and think how many people's lives have been affected by this man. Like, you could literally play the 3 degrees of Kevin Bacon game with him no joke. Everyone knows someone whose life has been fucked up by Hojo at some point and...I LOVE it. 

I've always loved villains and I love Sci-Fi and he's sort of both themes with the weird alien experiments and what not and labs have always been so cool to me. Not to mention his personality is perfect for the role that he plays. Like god damn. I've never seen it done so perfect before. He just gives zero fucks about what anyone thinks and he's always in control. He's so damn good at being manipulative. You have to admit its impressive how long he's survived without anyone killing him for his horrible things and the reason for that is?? He knows how to be in control of every situation and how to manipulate EVERYONE in just the right way. You have to admit that's impressive as hell. I'm so glad the remake added so much more of him so we could see this too, and I hope it continues to add more of him because he's sorta of a major thing to the whole plot! We wouldn't even have FF7 if it wasn't for him after all. Yeah, he'll always be my favorite.

(This got super long so Im putting the rest under a cut but all you out there might find it interesting so feel free to click and read)

Anyway! Let me get to Isrieal's opinion on him. I wrote up something like that already here in this post, but I feel that no matter how many times I write about it I can always explain it better so I don't mind how many times I have to do it. 

Isrieal's opinions/existence with the Professor is probably the most toxic thing I've ever seen in my life and sometimes I question what the hell I'm even writing. Lol. Of course she used to absolutely hate him at first with how he experimented on her and wouldn't let her go and all that. She's got a damn strong spirit and personality though and honestly I think he's the only one that can manage to control her to some degree. So it sort of works. She tends to drive people crazy but she can't drive crazy what already IS crazy.

As much as I used to not admit it I do think she developed some sort of Stockholm Syndrome (among other psychological syndromes) due to her only knowing that life and how much he's absolutely gotten into her head and manipulated her over the years. She thinks shes 'fine'. She'll say shes fine, but she's really not fucking fine at all and she's so damn delusional at this point that she'll never see that. 

She still holds hatred for him on some degree that she's swallowed waaay down like she does with most of her negative emotions. Yet she's also developed a need of him, an obsession and drive to be noticed. I really don't think she could survive on her own because she's been so used to him telling her what to do or having everything taken care of for her at ShinRa and the labs, but that's besides the point. She literally thinks she needs him to survive and he's probably instilled this in her so she wouldn't run over the years.

She also thinks she owes him her life since he had saved hers. He brought her back to health after she had fallen in mako, only to experiment on her of course, but she'd still be dead without him so now she keeps him alive in turn. If anything will set her off to hell and back its' anyone that threatens Hojo or says anything bad about him and if she deems you as a threat to him she'll probably fucking destroy you....or your mind at least. She's more someone whose going to torture you until you break unless you're right there with a sword ready to take him down, then she just might have to kill. That's rare. Obviously.

She's also got this sick obsession that she needs to be perfect and she needs his attention. She's seen what happens to failures and she never wants to become that. He also used this to manipulate the hell out of her. A good way to reign her back in if she's too out of control is him threatening to cast her out or call her imperfect. It really gets to her but that's what psychology does. She also goes to no ends to get his attention whether it be good or bad. Praise is always best but if his attention is on other things she'll sometimes purposely piss him off, so even if he's hurting her that's still a good thing because at least his attention is on HER and its sort of ...disgusting lol. She always wants to be the best she always wants to be perfect and she always wants to be the favorite experiment.

She'll defend everything he does even if she's hurt or broken over it. She's so twisted she even sees him as some type of God figure, he does create life after all, with just his hands alone. She's really just out of her goddamn mind an a crazy psychotic mess and it's all his fault. (As Lady Gaga's 'Monster' goes; he really ate her brain.) But she's also crazy intelligent and that's scary too.

She's only known him her whole life since she lost memories prior to the accident so naturally she's adapted a lot of his traits. She's just as sly and manipulative but sometimes to a scarier degree. She even knows how best to work him to some degree as well but he won't always tolerate her shit and even though she could wipe him out if she really wanted he always manages to get the upper hand on her. 

Now she doesn't always agree with what he does and that's a massive internal struggle. There are others she doesn't want to see hurt and there's times she'll freak out and throw up over things. Like Chadley...she hated he used a child for an experiment and half blames herself for not stopping him. When something sets her off she feels everything she once swallowed and ignore and all those emotions sort of spill out all at once throwing her into these psychotic fits of emotion. 

She's also really damn loyal so I guess that's why he trusts her so much and appointed her to assistant director. He only trusts her with all those dirty lies and secrets to help handle the department and the public so that he doesn't have to waste his time. I feel that covers MOST of it because this could go on forever.

If any Hojo remotely finds this interesting they just need to DM the hell out of me and not be afraid of me adapting to a plot. Like GEEZ. 

Anyway hope you got what you asked for! LOL.

Oh shit I forgot to mention ShinRA!!!

It's her home and the only one she's ever know. She may not like everyone it or agree with all things but she chooses to ignore those. She's more loyal just to the labs but she does like the building. She's sort of learned how to work the system and others around her to her favor, especially since she has a bigger role in the company now. There's a lot of strange rumors that go around about her but she likes it. She likes to let people think what they want to think because that way no one ever knows the truth or what she can really pull off. She also loves to make deals to get what she wants and often provides a fair trade at that. Please play with this concept!

O-oh well, I just want to point out before I start that if anyone doesn't see their name on this list it doesn't mean I don’t enjoy seeing your posts as well.  I just may not interact as much to know a whole lot about you :)

@gyahahahaha -  Somehow he always manages to make me laugh and I love that. It’s always nice to see people who are able to have fun with their characters and a genuinely great sense of humor which we all need in times like these. It’s a fun blog to watch and always brings light to the day.

@animus-inspire - One of my favorite writers ever, not only do I enjoy writing with them but I also love to see anything they post about their character. There’s always great detail and I always love learning more about this Reeve. He has a great portrayal and is always so sweet to anyone who interacts with him. And yes thank you for making me find a character that I completely used to overlook as interesting and now one of my favs!

@cinderella-gurei - Not many people play Chadley but here he is played to a ‘T’. I also love seeing their thoughts and HC’s of Chadley since they didn’t give us much story in the game. He also makes me so sad all the time! But yes, another great writer.

@thefirstthaumaturge - She’s my sis and she’s an amazing artist. I always love seeing her art and learning more about her OC. She also has a great sense of humor too and I enjoy reading her writing and seeing what she gets up to.

@hnmgr - They always draw really adorable pictures of Hojo! xD And I really like their art.

Send me a ★ and I’ll bold what applies to your muse.

((Feel free to add your own. Have fun~ ))

I like you / I hate you / I dislike you/ I love you / You are family / I would take a bullet for you / I would shoot you / I would lie to your face / I would say something cruel to you on purpose / I would say something cruel to you accidentally  / I would cheat on you / I would physically hurt you / You annoy me/ You amuse me / I’d laugh at you / I’d laugh with you / I’d manipulate you / You scare me / You confuse me / I wish I knew you better / I trust you / I don’t trust you / You inspire me / I consider you an equal / You are beneath me / You’re better than me / I would trust you with my life / I think you’re mean / I think you’re petty / I think you’re childish / I think you’re smart / I think you’re stupid / I think you’re a bad person / I think you’re a good person / I’m not sure what kind of person you are / I wish you would listen to me / I want to make you proud / I wish you would notice me / I want to impress you / I would hurt other people for you / I’m not sure how to make you happy / I’m a bad influence on you / You deserve better than me / We make a great team / I’d have a one night stand with you / I’d have a relationship with you / I would marry you / I fantasize about our life together / I would trust you with my most treasured belonging / I would tell you my darkest secrets / You disgust me / You intimidate me / I hope I intimidate you / I’d hug you / I’d let you hug me  / I’m scared of losing you / I don’t think you like me / I want to be better for you / I respect you / I don’t respect you / You’re my mentor / You’re my friend / You’re my best friend / I have a crush on you / I could easily watch you die / I’d get drunk with you / I’d party with you / I’d comfort you / I’d prank you / I’d spike your drink(//with something weird im sure) / I’d act behind your back / I’d abandon you / I’d hurt you to get what I want / I would choose my happiness over yours / I would choose your happiness over mine / I despise how much I care for you / I need you / I’m dependent on you / I don’t know what I’d do without you / I’m scared of you leaving me / I’d give my life for you / You frustrate me / I’d call for you in a time of need / I would protect you / I’d visit you in hospital / I’d carry you if you were hurt / I’d feel guilty if I hurt you / I’d let you be near me when I am vulnerable / I’d ignore a phone call from you / I’d call you at 3am / I’d break you out of jail / I’d get angry at you / I would shout at you / You’re too loud / You’re too quiet / You’re too sensitive / You can’t take a joke / You embarrass me / I feel nothing for you / You’re reckless / You’re bossy / You bore me / I would ask your advice / I would blame you for something I did / I would cry in your arms / You have the power to hurt me more than anyone else /

VIII: Strength - Describe how your muse handles trauma.

Isrieal handles trauma either by stuffing it down and trying to pretend it didn’t happen, or also by creating her own stories over the situation. If she reworks what happened or ‘why’ in her mind then it isn’t as bad as it was. She can almost make Hojo sound like he’s helped her or cares about her, even when she knows the truth, but in reality he’s just as much a monster as everyone see’s him as and uses her for his benefit. Her whole life she knows has been dealing been stuck at the labs with him and thus creating a fantasy to make it sound better is better than the truth and reality of it all. If she convinces herself to believe something then it must be true.