#AND IT WAS SO CATHARTIC IT WAS BEAUTIFUL

[falesiastuff]

Yes, let's burn everything down Emmrich, especially in these days. 😤💥🔥

[saltpepperbeard]

listening to rhys talk about ofmd's cancellation on that podcast has me like

[cloudbends]

After about a week of pacing in circles in complete insanity and awe of the storytelling and characters writing in this update and in amphoreus's story as a whole, I managed to sort some of my thoughts in regards to this story's beautiful approach to metanarratives, the implementation and subversion of the classic tragedy, and specifically the emphasis on the indomitable human spirit.

From a writing perspective, it would be very easy to have phainon completely lose himself after 33 million cycles. To go down a corrupted path because of, and in spite of, what he initially believed in. This is exactly the perspective lygus embodies - the perspective of an enjoyer of tragedies, someone who ravenously devours the suffering of others as his form of relishing in destruction . But the beautiful thing about phainon's character and his story is that he subverts these narrative expectations, embodied by lygus and experienced by us as an audience - he refuses to give in to a tragic faith. He goes down a horrific path but refuses to lose sight of himself and his goal, etching - or probably scorching - what set him on his journey deep into his heart. With every cycle he completes, starting with the four-millionth cycle, he has to live with the harrowing reality of remembering the losses of every single one of his comrades as he stands by and watches, along with the horrifying guilt of being in charge of those deaths as khaslana. But for this precise reason, he won't let this story, this prophecy, this program, to unfold as planned, as expected, or as hard-coded. And that's what makes him phainon, the ideal tragic hero - and never an antagonist.

This spin on the chosen hero is a classical device often used, but i find its execution very compelling - where phainon inflicts on himself the fate of a sacrifice. Through the most painful way possible, phainon managed to wrestle lygus for control of the story - and reshapes its meaning, passing the torch on to the trailblazer. He's essentially tied to his narrative role by his own self, while completely redefining it in his own hands. phainon's character manages, in a single patch, to reframe the entire narrative we've seen so far in what is an excellent play at foreshadowing and subversion, hence completely redefining the meaning of the prophecy by his own acts of agency against the mechanism he's stuck in. The prophecy foretells that the world will get reshaped by kephale's memories, And phainon both proves this fact true and also subverts its original meaning on a groundbreaking level, and for all the most terrible of reasons. Phainon quite literally continuously reshapes the world through his memories by resetting the story constantly. Revisiting his memories constantly. His memories are the only thing preventing his crumbling world from destruction and the horrific entity of irontomb from unleashing. Those memories, however, are always riddled with his trauma, fury, loss, and his own bloodstained hands. Through his own terrible self-inflicted loop, phainon reframes the narrative on both a textual and meta-textual level.

It's so ironic and so self contradictory, and that's the reason it works so well. The more phainon destroys, the more his guilt accumulates and grounds him to his original, utterly selfless cause, despite seemingly betraying it at every turn. and that's a testament of just how much he was meant for this horrific role - despite seeing himself as unworthy, having stained his hands for the sake of what is effectively a futile endeavor of stalling - the only reason he's pushing himself forward to such extremes is because his hate is fueled by his intense love of others and complete disregard of himself - quite literally parting ways with his hero within every cycle to let go of the hesitation that could cause him to waver. Its such an awful paradox. The selfless hero abandons his heroism in order to become an even more selfless hero through acts of destruction. To save others, he must forsake his self, and for that end he has to retain his core of selflessness which defines him as a hero. And that goal drives him both opposite to his ideals and also proves his ideals more than anything ever could. As hyacine says - he has never lived for himself, and with this self-inflicted timeloop, he's doomed himself to never be able to live for himself, making his line in the trailer which he aims at aglaea terribly ironic - "it wouldn't be bad to live for yourself".

This sort of oxymoron plays on phainons painful and honestly brilliantly executed duality between frailty and durability. He's incredibly empathetic, emotionally frail, honest and genuine. and it's precisely that sensitivity that turns into the fuel of rage - it's the essence of the destruction he embodies, because it is first of all fueled by his love. It allows him to endure. As we see in the animated short's end, in essence, phainon is somehow that same little dreamy eyed boy who wanted to protect everyone around him.

It's why I think it is honestly so much more satisfying that phainon hasn't gone through a proper corruption arc. His power lies in being able to retain that spark of idealism and core of selflessness at the service of those he loves, however faint and regardless of how much he must burn himself to keep it alive. In this way he truly embodies the indomitable human spirit. But in the name of selflessness. He's changed so much and yet as he says: he endured. He's still phainon. And that's so much more satisfying than the alternative.

That's the central thesis amphoreus's story has embodied until now - about how tragedies are impactful only insofar as they are meaningful. and lives gain meaning from within these tragedies - in the face of the futility embodied by the destruction, persistence turns into agency, and finally, changes the story from within.

[missingn000]

hey all! i wrote a what-if character study & action fic for if king fought sanji instead of zoro during the raid on onigashima. i'd really love if you gave it a read! thanks so much!

link

playlist

happy reading!

[pumpkinthistle]

Old sketch of a scene from @mahpotatoequeen ‘s fic Capture the Sun.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27906205

[davaloonie]

Got inspired to write for ORV so here’s a snippet of a fic im working on that kinda works on its own :)

Change is Not an Instance

(Spoilers for the Dark Castle arc ahead)

The first time the innocuous thought made its way into his mind, he was too busy using the last of his strength to shove his sword into Kim Dokja’s stomach to give it any time to process.

He’s beautiful.

It wasn’t an unusual line of thought. He’d always believed Kim Dokja to be attractive—long lashes, silken hair, slim waist—but there wasn’t anything more to it other than an appreciation of aesthetics. He’d found it strange when the other incarnations of Seoul had given him the title “Ugliest King,” but he figured it must’ve come down to preference or jealousy.

It was, however, the first time he meant it beyond just physical features.

Wings sprouted from Kim Dokja’s back, torn from the party members attempts to keep him grounded. Horns curved alongside his head, just as red as the blood dripping down his sword. Black veins crawled up his neck, framing his face and highlighting the strange red glow within his eyes. But what truly stood out—what forced that little innocuous thought to pierce his mind—was Kim Dokja’s smile. It was small and wrinkled from pain at the edges; blood coated his lips like a hellish gloss. But beyond it all, it was satisfied. As if his death were a job well done. It didn’t reach his eyes, clouded by pain and blood dripping from his lashes, but it did reach Yoo Joonghyuk. Its grip was as soft as the smile but as strong as its owners will to sacrifice anything and everything for the sake of the company.

A part of him—no, a majority of him—was furious with Kim Dokja. He’d had it all planned; was ready to regress knowing Kim Dokja could lead their companions to the end. But he should’ve known that fool would have something up his sleeve, he’d always been strangely adamant about keeping Yoo Joonghyuk alive in this turn. In doing so, he’d left his friends and his newfound incarnation behind with only the fragile promise that he’d somehow come back.

And yet, as an end more final than death pulled Kim Dokja apart at the seams, he looked to Yoo Joonghyuk and offered that satisfied smile.

“Let’s meet again, Yoo Joonghyuk.”

Despite its connotations, the statement felt final, a conclusion to the uniquely singular story that was Kim Dokja. In that, he’d felt a sense of understanding so deep and so piercing, he’d almost forgotten the rest of the company’s presence.

To regress meant to have hope even in the face of finality—and as a regressor, he’d come accustomed to this relationship between hope and hopelessness. They were the supposed angel and demon upon his shoulders as he awoke in his next turn, louder than even the noisiest of constellations.

He realized then, as Kim Dokja’s very being was stripped from arms, piece by piece—line by line—that Kim Dokja had wanted to stay, he wanted to come back. Despite being faced with the constellations’ wrath, Kim Dokja had hope in the face of hopelessness. And that was more beautiful than any physical feature he could imagine.

Kim Dokja told him once to stay; to continue this life despite his perceived failures because life had no value when death became constant and meaningless.

I want to tell him to stay. That if I must continue this turn to preserve the value of life then he must preserve the value of his life by staying.

[sotc]

I now understand the Clair Obscur tiktoks/reels about starting a boss fight and having to pause for a second just to jam out to the music. Just went against Goblu and WHAT AN ABSOLUTE BOP. Honestly the whole OST is so damn good though!

[shannonsketches]

he's so important to me

[fangswbenefits]

Not many songs stir so many emotions within me as this one. Having been hurt by someone you truly adore, only to realise later (days, weeks, months... years) that there's still a part of you that holds good for them. And that, sometimes, the weight of it can almost crush you. It doesn't make sense, does it? It shouldn't make sense. If someone cuts through you so deep, scarring you for life... why do you still carry any goodness for them?

[goatsandgangsters]

I finished A Power Unbound and now I'm having a happy little sob about it and feeling many Big Emotions that I'm incoherently blubbering about and only managing to express as a joyfully tearful "it was beautiful"

[kumokumiko]

[ghostbeam]

Yan nanami where his whole thing is seeing how far ur willing to let him go before u can’t take it and stop loving him while ur thing is how much resistance from u can he take before he stops loving u

[sotc]

I've been a jayvik fan since the beginning and when it came to the finale, I don't know what I was fucking expecting but it was not that. Never felt so vindicated by a ship in my life LMFAO. the grip that ending has on me... truly shooketh

[the-lark-ascending69]

Robin is canonically an obsessive, jealous and resentful person and I say that in the best way possible. She resented Steve for years because he was popular and had a high social status despite being stupid and an asshole, and because the girl she loved looked at him instead of her. She says it herself, she said the words "i was so obsessed with you" to Steve. Because she was jealous and she resented him. Maybe now she knows him better, has become his best friend, has come to love him in their own unique way. But I think that, if he got the girl she loved (her girl) it would drive her insane, because this time, there's an element of betrayal too.

[londonhalcyon]

Finally read Our Wives Under The Sea.

I’m gonna go lie down now.

[mercurieux]

btw when I was last in paris I saw my first Rossetti in person and what’s more it was my favourite painting of his. Such a shock and such beauty that tears just streamed down my face, like real big dollops Ghibli style