#Exam Analysis

[hc24news]

UPSC CSE Prelims 2025: पहली शिफ्ट का पेपर हुआ संपन्न, जानें कैसा रहा GS-1!

UPSC CSE Prelims 2025 की पहली शिफ्ट की परीक्षा आज सुबह सफलतापूर्वक पूरी हो गई है. देश के हजारों परीक्षा केंद्रों पर लाखों उम्मीदवारों ने इस प्रतिष्ठित परीक्षा में भाग लिया. यह परीक्षा देश की सबसे कठिन परीक्षाओं में से एक मानी जाती है, जिसके जरिए IAS, IPS और IFS जैसी केंद्रीय सेवाओं में नियुक्तियां की जाती हैं. छात्रों की प्रारंभिक प्रतिक्रिया: मॉडरेट रहा पेपर परीक्षा खत्म होने के बाद…

[sorcerersandskillusers]

I want to talk about one of the most terrifying and interesting bsd characters who almost no fan remembers.

This character nearly tore down the ADA without ever getting involved herself, yet the entire fandom has ignored her because of her terrible anime adaptation.

Who am I talking about?

Nobuko Sasaki

If you haven't read Dazai Osamu's Entrance Exam, then you probably don't even know who this character is, in the anime she is watered down to the lovesick girlfriend of an actual villain, and you probably dismissed her immediately. But in the light novel, we get to see how dangerous and cunning she really is, to the point she nearly gets the better of Dazai and almost causes the ADA to be shut down. (Fukuzawa says he would have closed the agency if they hadn't caught her)

In terms of intelligence I'd put her on the same level as Mori, just slightly below the super human genius characters i.e. Dazai, Fyodor and Ranpo

The Azure Apostle

For those who don't remember, Sasaki was the Azure Apostle, a mysterious figure who challenged the agency with several horrifying cases, which would all lead to mass casualties if the agency failed to stop them. These were; uncovering an underground organ smuggling operation (which the agency failed to stop and which massively hurt their reputation) stopping a bombing of Yokohama port which could have killed hundreds of people, and preventing a commercial aeroplane from crashing into the city (this was not included in the anime)

Each of the people, who committed these crimes, had no Idea they were being manipulated and thought it was their own idea the whole time. There was no evidence that anyone else had been involved at all, and the agency had no way to connect her to any of the crimes. And she even makes the genius move of framing Dazai, the mysterious new member with suspicious knowledge of the underworld and a hidden past, as the true culprit.

In fact, she only made one mistake, challenging Dazai. If Dazai had been basically anyone else, they would have been cornered and arrested, but since Dazai's mind works on a level even master strategists can't imagine, he was able to turn the tables on her.

But even after Dazai sees through her plans, the ADA still has to act exactly the way she wants them too and stop the plane crash. Even when they know they're being manipulated, they still have to do exactly what she wanted.

Finally, after Dazai and Kunikida confront her and get her to admit to being behind all those crimes, even then they are powerless to stop her.

Even after being involved with so many massive crimes, Sasaki herself hadn't done anything illegal, so within the law the ADA is completely powerless to stop her.

They can't arrest her, and if they try then the agency will be put in even more danger as will many innocent lives. She has completely trapped the ADA, and even Dazai in a choice to follow the law and let her go or take justice into their own hands and prove they will stoop as low as she did.

In the end, there she has them in a perfect deadlock, let her continue her mission, or kill her themselves. Both are bad outcomes for the ADA.

In the end, Dazai has her killed by using a third party (Rokuzo) to shoot her, so the agency can't be blamed for her murder, though this ends her plans it deeply scars Kunikida and shakes his resolve in his ideals.

The trauma from this event still haunts Kunikida to this day, we see that when he is affected by Q's curse, Sasaki is who he sees.

So thats the Azure Apostle, a terrifying master mind who nearly brought down the Armed Detective Agency, but now lets look at the other side of this character.

Nobuko Sasaki Herself

We know several things about Sasaki as a character and her history from the light novel. That she was a brilliant criminal psychologist and was internationally recognised despite being so young

,that she was the ex-lover of the Azure King and the real mastermind behind his plans, and that she had very little motivation of her own.

That's not meant to be an insult to the character, she says herself that she never really had much direction in life, even with her incredible intelligence she never really had anything she wanted to achieve.

But the Azure King was the opposite, he had powerful drive and strong ideals, he wanted to punish criminals who couldn't be touched by the law and when he failed to change the law as a bureaucrat, she offered him an alternative.

A very important thing here is that neither of them were manipulating or forcing the other into this path, as far as we see they genuinely loved each other, each providing something the other couldn't, Sasaki her mind and the Azure King his drive.

When the Azure king died, Sasaki had no path of her own to follow, so she simply kept following his, even though she doesn't seem to have really cared about his cause.

All of this creates a very unique character, you can't say she was driven by revenge, because she wasn't really driven at all. It's more like she was running on momentum, she had chosen a path to follow and could not stop even though there was nothing pushing her down it any more.

She's a perfect antithesis of Kunikida and was the best possible villain a light novel about him could have had.

A man who brings his ideals into reality with his own hands against a woman who uses others to enforce ideals that were never hers to begin with.

Anyway, I made this because Sasaki is criminally underrated in this fandom, If you haven't read "Dazai Osamu's Entrance Exam" I highly recommend it, I've only put a tiny fraction of the amazing story here.

[sluglore]

Explaining The Iterator's Purpose (And Why They Weren't Made to Circumvent The Echoes)

Alright, I know there's already been a few posts like this out there, like this older one from @halvedforest, and this recent one from @noizepushr, which are both good posts, but I've been meaning to touch up and cross-post my own older misconceptions post from reddit for a while now, and provide a deeper, more expanded analysis as to why this misconception exists and explain what's actually going on, so here it finally is haha I'll also be using the term 'Benefactor' instead of 'Ancient', if people are confused about that, I intend to make a post about it eventually ^^

( If you're confused on who out there even believes this, this idea originated from Rain World YouTube lore videos, long before Downpour was ever a thing! It is unfortunately still quite prominent on there... but it's definitely getting better :3 )

This misconception stems from misreading the singular pearl to ever mention the echoes, being the Bright Red farm arrays pearl, so let me begin by attaching the specific section below:

“There were some horror stories though... That if your ego was big enough, not even the Void Fluid could entirely cross you out, and a faint echo of your pompousness would grandiosely haunt the premises forever. So even when the Void Fluid baths became cheaper, some would still starve and drink the bitter tea.” (Bright red Farm Arrays pearl dialogue)

Note the specific usage of “some” here. Echoes weren't presented as an issue significant to re-center Benefactor society around, (let alone build the iterators for) but as some horror stories which only "some" people (likely on the fringes of society) would believe in. Nowhere are we given anything that alludes to the existence of Echoes being regarded as a societal problem to address, much less have anything to do with the Iterators.

Additionally, although we know for a fact that echoes do exist, its fairly possible that most of Benefactor society didn't, as LTTM doesn't even know what they are either, regarding them as nothing more than superstition. On the very next line, LTTM confirms that the void baths continued all the same, while again mentioning that "some" would still choose to abstain from them, and drink the bitter tea.

Then what’s the purpose of the iterators if they weren't created to circumvent the echoes? What is The Big Problem that they are even trying to solve in the first place? Well, both FP, LTTM, and the Exterior colored pearl dialogue spell the answer out for you. In fact, it's the first thing FP even tells you!

“The good news first. In a way, I am what you are searching for. Me and my kind have as our purpose to solve that very oscillating claustrophobia in the chests of you and countless others. A strange charity - you the unknowing recipient, I the reluctant gift. The noble benefactors? Gone.” (Five Pebbles dialogue to Survivor) (Monk's version also hits similar notes)

Five pebbles introduces himself as a “reluctant gift," with his purpose being "to solve that very oscillating claustrophobia in the chests of you and countless others," meaning to solve the cycles for everyone and everything else.

If you bring Looks to the Moon a neuron, she has the chance to repeat the same exact explanation to you.

"We were supposed to help everyone, you know. Everything. That was our purpose: a great gift to the lesser beings of the world. When facing our inability to do so, we all reacted differently. Many with madness.”

FP, LTTM, and the rest of their kind were created to serve the rest of the world in finding a method of total mass ascension, of ending the cycle entirely for everyone.... and everything. Not only including the fauna of the world, like the slugcat, but the bedrock, microbes and even gases, as explicitly stated in this snippet from the Exterior pearl dialogue below:

“The Moral Argument: Five Pebbles is our Creation, and we have Parental Obligations towards him. As an Iterator, he is also a Gift of Charity from Us to The World (unable to reach Enlightenment by itself - being composed mostly of Rock, Gas, dull witted Bugs and Microbes - and towards which We thus have Obligations)” (Pale Green Exterior pearl dialogue)

Here we have the Benefactors define it very clearly, that as an iterator, Five Pebbles is a "Gift of Charity from Us to The World." It's important to note that many misinterpret the next section in parentheses as being about FP himself, but if it were, it would be the only time FP is ever referred to as “it”. What's really being described is the world, “unable to reach enlightenment by itself, being composed mostly of rock, gas, dull witted bugs and microbes” The world is unable to reach Enlightenment on it's own and therefore, that's why the iterators were created. (Also- when you think about it, the description of "being composed of rock, gas, and dull witted microbes" doesn't even really fit FP's description lol)

Quick but necessary tangent, the concept of non-living things being apart of the cycle is a little confusing, and tricky to quickly answer without going deep into cycle lore discussion, (I have an entire post in drafts dedicated to clearing this up) but it's actually incredibly important for understanding what The Great Problem is! To shed some light, it's not that non-living matter are able to somehow comprehend the cycles, but that the entire physical world itself is actually an intrinsic part of the cycles.

If you leave a stone on the ground, and come back some time later, it's covered in dust. This happens everywhere, and over several lifetimes of creatures such as you, the ground slowly builds upwards. So why doesn't the ground collide with the sky? Because far down, under the very very old layers of the earth, the rock is being dissolved or removed. The entity which does this is known as the Void Sea. If you drill far enough into the earth you begin encountering a substance called Void Fluid. The deeper you go, the less rock and more Void Fluid. It's believed that there is a point where the rock completely gives way - below that would be the Void Sea. When that stone you placed on the ground has finally done its time in the sediments, it meets the Void Fluid and is dissolved, leaving the physical world. (Teal Subterranean pearl dialogue)

There's a reason that 'Cycles' is always plural in Rain World, because there's multiple of them! Organic life is in cycles, the physical bedrock of the world is in cycles, even the very concept of civilization is in cycles. In order to ascend everything, that means ascending not only all living things, but the entire physical universe itself! That's what the Great Problem really is :D (Also technicallyyy it's only ever referred to as "the big problem" and not "the great problem", the latter term stems entirely from the community but it's whatever i just wanted to quickly mention that. great problem definitely sounds cooler LOL)

In conclusion, Iterators are described as "Gifts to the World" not once, not twice, but three entire times throughout base game Rain World's dialogue, one from FP, one from LTTM, and one from the Benefactors. Rain World lore holds many unanswered, purposefully ambiguous questions, but the Iterator's purpose is not one of them!

If you're confused/interested in analysis of the Benefactor's motivations and perspectives on Ascension, I made a post a little while back containing my thoughts right here :)

[district3autism-moved]

did anyone else get the impression that wellie from sotr was a victim of child abuse? of course, the behaviour of a child facing imminent death and suffering would probably be pretty similar to the behaviour of a child who had been abused, but a few things made me think that suzanne wrote her that way on purpose.

first of all, wellie "recoils" as haymitch approaches her to give her his lunchbox after hers was taken by the careers. again, very normal for any child in her circumstances, but more indicative of something deeper when read with other evidence.

she immediately apologizes for the district 6 chariot hurting louella, which was obviously not their fault. she also thanks haymitch for not blaming them. apologizing needlessly and assuming that they will be blamed are both noted behaviours in child abuse victims, especially the latter.

before haymitch goes on for his interview, he promises wellie despite what he might say in the interview, he would never betray the newcomers. he specifically says, "i will never hurt you, okay?" this phrasing is very deliberate, especially since during his interview he never even implies that he would attack or betray the newcomers. wellie claims that she knows, and her eyes are "full of trust". through the lens of my interpretation, this can be taken as wellie clinging to a kind protector that she's never had before.

while her behaviour in the arena can't be taken as any indicator of how she is outside the arena, because she's literally starving to death, her extreme insistence that haymitch doesn't leave her could line up with the rest of my evidence. has she been abandoned, neglected, or left alone before? her immediate assumption is that maysilee abandoned the newcomers, not that she got separated from them by accident. wellie is smart enough to realize this and seems to be a good judge of character; perhaps her assumption was influenced by past neglect.

finally, a couple comparisons can be drawn between wellie and lou lou, who we know was tortured and abused at the hands of the capitol. they are both very thin, prone to intensity, and quiet. while none of these things actually indicate that wellie was abused, the comparison itself matters. it reinforces the idea that these little girls share similarities, and have potentially suffered in similar ways.

also: wellie comes from district 6, which is implied to be suffering from a morphling/opiate epidemic. it is not a far reach to say that her guardian could have been an addict, and consequently an unstable, neglectful, or abusive caregiver.

[starrynightarchive]

i think it's fucked up and foul that during situations he feels trapped or unsafe, oikawa doesn't have a fight or flight or freeze reflex. to be specific, he does have a fight reflex, but it doesn't involve fighting by himself. if he thinks he's unsafe or trapped or in danger, he turns to iwaizumi.

during the last set of the second seijoh v karasuno official match, you can see oikawa beginning to crack when karasuno bridges the gap and makes the score 16-16. his next toss goes to iwaizumi, because he knows his iwa-chan will be there. he knows his palm will connect with the ball. when he loses his footing, he reaches out his hand, blindly trusting iwaizumi will pick him up. and he does. everytime, he does.

kageyama mentions once that iwaizumi and oikawa are always in sync, both by body and mind. and it's true because even when they're on the court, they're not the ace and the setter. they are iwaizumi and oikawa. iwa-chan and shittykawa. oikawa knows iwaizumi's favorite beetle and the flex of his wrist when he spikes. iwaizumi knows oikawa's real smile from his fake one and he knows the number of milk bread packets he eats per week (too many) and that's just the thing, isn't it? even in court, they're not just players. this is a dance that only they know the steps to, a kingdom that has always been theirs to rule. how beautiful it is, to know the sound of his footfalls without looking, to know the exact place he's going to set to in a court of 6 players without hesitation, with full certainty.

during the final point, oikawa sets the ball to iwaizumi. he could've chosen the person closest to him. he could've crafted his toss so masterfully that no one can see whats coming. but he chose to get it to iwaizumi at the other end of the court. it doesn't matter if his set isn't perfect or clean. it doesn't matter, because it's set to iwaizumi and that's enough. he knows he will take care if the rest.

and the thing is, the thing is, right, i firmly believe that in that moment if he chose to set to someone else, it wouldn't have been as beautiful and perfect as it was when he set to iwaizumi. there's something about knowing someone like the back of your hand and being aware of the beat of their heart more than your own that brings that kind of perfection. when oikawa reaches out, iwaizumi always reaches back. he knows iwaizumi will do everything he can to spike the ball.

and just like that he is 7 again with a scratched knee crying for iwa-chan to carry him even when he's not by his side. but he screams for him because he knows with absolute certainty that he will come. he will help. he is not alone.

the final set of his official high school career goes to iwaizumi, loud and proud. he points to him before he sets. he tells the court to watch. watch me. because he is certain that when it's him and iwaizumi, they're invincible. he wants the world to know of his worthless pride. he wants the world to know who he is proud of.

and just like that he is 7 again, screaming "iwa-chan!" in hopes his best friend will find him.

and he does. he does.

[starlightshadowsworld]

I made a post a while back about how each member of the Agency embodies a part of Fukuzawa.

And I feel for Dazai it’s his trust.

And nothing rings more true to me on that than Dazai letting both his partners shoot him. Chuuya in Mersault and Kunikida during his entrance exam.

In both instances it’s part of Dazai’s plan to deceive someone else.

But try as he might he can’t deceive his partners. Kunikida knew something was up and cornered him on it. And Chuuya was cornered and followed through anyway.

In both instances Dazai tells them it’s okay. It’s in a goading, teasing way but none of that takes away from how genuine that statement is.

Dazai trusts that when Chuuya shoots him that his ability was stop the bullet before the moment of impact.

Dazai trusts that when Kunikida shoots him that it he would use a bullet made from his ability which would vanish the moment it touched him.

In a situation where Dazai can’t convey what he means outright he has to trust that they both will act in a certain way.

Chuuya who yes he’s been partners with for 3 years but then hasn’t seen for another 4. Kunikida who he has known for maybe a week.

And trusts them both without question.

And yeah we can argue about whether or not Chuuya or Kunikida would have actually killed him. Chuuya I highly doubt given everything going on and Kunikida may have been told too, but he would follow his ideals.

But I don’t think that matters.

Because either way in those moments they hold Dazai’s life in their hands because he trusts them with it. They would not be holding that gun if Dazai didn’t trust them with it.

And it goes both ways.

Chuuya wouldn’t be in Mersault pretending to be Fyodors puppet if he didn’t trust Dazai. Entrance exam or not Kunikida would not be working this case relying on Dazai’s input if he didn’t trust Dazai’s input.

It’s the same way Fukuzawa knew Kunikida was okay before Fukuchi told him. Why he trusted that gun to Kunikida. Why he set up that meeting with Mori about an alliance after Atsushi proposed it.

Dazai wouldn’t be where he is, wouldn’t be the person that he is if he didn’t have that kind of faith in other people. And if people didn’t share that same faith in him.

It’s what marks him more than his intellect and his strange and bizarre…everything.

I mean he tells Fyodor himself that the difference between us is that I have allies and you can’t trust anyone you can’t control.

[somerset-gasoline]

This probably doesn’t deserve such a long post but i really wanted to talk about

the red lighting in all eyes on nigel

I think this is the only case that anything other than the plot made me really fall in love with a longform. Don’t get me wrong, the story is fantastic and everything from Luke’s naive newbie cop to Sam and AJ’s ride-or-die dynamic duo is such a joy to see. But just… the lighting. It feels like all the stars aligned just to create one of the most visually pleasing and appropriate atmosphere for any longform ever.

All eyes on Nigel is a crime thriller at heart. A menacing mastermind as the big bad, unsuccessful sting (sting) operations, our heros getting trapped in the belly of the beast. All of this is accentuated by the harsh red lighting. You can clearly see everything going on on stage, but the stark contrast between the actors’ generally black clothing and the glaring red curtains gives you the feeling that everybody is shrouded in darkness - like we’re under the streetlights in the middle of the night or squinting at a lone lightbulb in the deepest recesses of a villain’s lair.

It literally looks like a camera filter that only catches reds and blacks. Look at the way the red almost spills onto AJ’s shoulders, how their hair glows at the areas where they are thinnest… or in AJ’s case, a literal crimson halo.

But the greatest beneficiary of this setup is, of course, Luke. I’m not sure how much they coordinated their outfits with the lighting in mind but my god everything about his style in this show was absolutely perfect.

His blonde hair is completely dyed scarlet in the right angle, his glasses adds to the unnatural hues on his face. He actually looks ethereal in this particular photo. The way so much red highlights his profile also fits with how Nigel corrupts the clueless Andrew into basically a cocaine-snorting attack dog.

The best part, however, is his outfit: a green-tinged shirt and bright red trousers.

Green and red are complementary colours, meaning the highest colour contrast is achieved when they are used as backlights for each other. Every moment Luke was on camera I would stare at how the red stains the shirt fabric, the colour contract is mesmerising and reminds me of those amazing colour study paintings you see online.

The red trousers have the completly opposite effect - the red lighting is completely reflected into our eyes, making the trousers the brightest piece of clothing and draws our eyes towards it. Probably coincidental, but with the significance it plays in the final scene, it was the perfect choice for this play.

I have no idea how I managed to write this much about a lighting choice but the artist trapped in my brain demanded this post to be made. If you’re still here, thank you, have a funny Tom screenshot I stumbled upon while collecting resources

(They’re the same picture)

[starlingstalk]

Post Seabound nya because she cannot help but feel connected to all that is living and it‘s tearing her apart. The world yearns for her. It needs her. It consumes her.

[bisclavret]

like many who have suffered at the hands of bbc merlin before me, i recently indulged in a thought experiment in which i outlined my own version of seasons 3-5 that stay thematically and tonally in line with the show (except they're less fucking stupid). but then i quickly realized that focusing on details is pointless: all you need is to solve the one Big Problem the show has, and the rest will follow. the problem in question? ✨morgana✨

i like the first two seasons. s1 achieves what it sets out to do and has fun while doing it, and s2, while flawed, sets up a ton of potential that the following seasons unfortunately squander, beginning with the insidious season 3. you can only distract me with cute knights and goblins and fart jokes for so long before i start seeing through you, evil, evil season of television.

my hypothesis is that if the writers had crafted s3 morgana into anything more sympathetic than a violent half-alive poltergeist that can never be reasoned with because she's suddenly terminally off her rocker, everything would've fallen into place. a sympathetic morgana would've made real, valid arguments against uther (and arthur) that wouldn't just be the ramblings of a woman possessed. her betrayal of arthur would have stemmed from her feeling increasingly morally superior to him because of his complacency in the face of their father's tyranny. under morgause's guidance she would stop believing that arthur is capable of change, and the whole point would be that she might actually be right. arthur would have to actively try and prove her wrong, instead of getting praised for doing the bare minimum because the bar is on the floor.

furthermore, morgana's prophetic dream about arthur and gwen becoming king and queen and her decision to prevent this however she can is a direct parallel to merlin learning about that same prophecy and making it happen by any means necessary. merlin's desires about his and arthur's futures are subtextually fueled by gay love and devotion, so why couldn't morgana's be? why couldn't she properly express her bitterness that arthur gets to be with gwen in a way she can't "took gwen away" from her, instead of suddenly declaring that gwen is nothing more than a servant, after two seasons of demonstrating again and again that she loves, values, and respects gwen more than anyone else in that godforsaken castle?

following this, an angry and emotionally volatile but still sensible morgana asking gwen to stay by her side during the coup of the castle in the s3 finale and gwen going behind her back to help arthur and the knights would've hurt like a bitch. double-sided betrayal! gwen having a real plot! the proper beginnings of a toxic yuri that would shape a generation!

then there's the utter hubris of having morgana shoot arrows at the same civilians she worried herself sick over for 2 seasons — even morgan, her medieval counterpart that was rooted in every sexist trope in existence, doesn't just go around killing senselessly but instead has (often petty!) personal vendettas against gwen, arthur, and the knights. morgana had every right to be sick of the pretensions around chivalry in camelot (she was always quick to mock it, even in s1), and to lash out at the knights and soldiers after years of feeling powerless in a castle full of armed men that blindly followed her oppressor. the show conveniently forgets that morgana was victimized as a woman as well as a sorcerer those first 2 seasons.

but like i said, this is not just about morgana. allowing her to remain a real and multifaceted character even as she betrays everyone in pursuit of her ambitions would've given the rest of the core four more interesting conflict to work with: merlin because he would have to experience real consequences to his actions, arthur because he would watch his sister go against his father (and his knights, and his birthright) and experience some actual internal dilemmas about it, and gwen because she would be forced to choose between morgana and arthur without the pretense that it's an obvious or easy choice for her to make.

even morgause and gaius would come off more interesting as mentors: neither one inherently evil or inherently good, both jaded by events that happened before our protagonists were even born, both heavily influencing morgana and merlin into fulfilling roles that they think are appropriate, but that morgana and merlin may not have chosen for themselves had they not been under their care.

you get the gist. if the show followed its own setup, morgana's mistakes wouldn't lie in cheap and senseless acts of violence but in alienating the people she loves because she is too hurt and jaded to trust them. meanwhile, everybody else would feel guilt over "failing" her and yet they would be too caught up in their own (sometimes flawed!) beliefs of right and wrong to truly see her point of view.

arthur would convince himself it was sorcery that corrupted her. merlin would know that isn't true but he wouldn't be able to argue without confessing everything, which is the defining conflict between him and morgana and it's cheapened when she's just an evil witch caricature and merlin is framed as inherently virtuous in contrast. gwen, too, would become a more active participant in her own life by choosing arthur over morgana and choosing to rule camelot with him instead of just waiting politely to see where things go.

and, of course, uther's downfall and death would be quick, final, and completely earned — when and why did the show even decide he of all people was the sympathetic villain, anyway?

lastly, and perhaps controversially, i think morgana should've learned merlin's true identity by season 4. her being the first of the main characters to find out makes perfect sense considering their shared history and their interconnected and mirrored arcs. even the show seems to agree, considering she does find out a little before arthur. but the narrative itself tried pointing flashing neon arrows towards this way earlier — there is a whole entire episode in s4 where merlin being emrys is repeatedly spelled out for morgana and she still isn't allowed to see it. that episode makes her look like the stupidest person to ever live, which is pretty funny im not gonna lie, but also another frustrating thing in the endless string of frustrating things that make up this show.

morgana learning that merlin has magic would've transformed the source of merlin's anxiety from a crippling fear of being outed someday to the crippling fear of knowing she could out him at any moment. this would make him want to beat her to the punch (perhaps he'd consider killing her for a minute and decide against it because she isn't a cartoonishly insane evil person in my version of events) and maybe he would even feel some tentative excitement at the idea of coming clean, now that it seems inevitable. after all, he always intended to tell arthur eventually! and i think gaius would have to admit outright that he does not want merlin to tell arthur he has magic because he, gaius, simply cannot risk such a gamble. it would be so interesting to see gaius and merlin clash and disagree once it becomes obvious that it's not merlin that isn't ready for the reveal, it's gaius. delicious!

with morgana's knowledge looming, things would inevitably spiral into a magic reveal by the end of season 4. i picture this season as an absolute mess of miscommunication between everyone at camelot, which is, y'know, canon. growing increasingly cunning and vengeful, morgana would use this tension to her advantage, destabilizing the court from the outside while she creates alliances with other sorcerers outside of camelot (instead of living alone in a hovel for no reason — morgana le fay i'm sorry i'm so sorry they gave you agravaine instead of your all-female entourage oh my god).

and here's where the events would change beyond recognition (aka here's where the meta becomes the fanfic i refuse to write). picture it with me: a militia of sorcerers infiltrates camelot and arthur and gwen have to set aside their differences (assuming gwen kissing lancelot and arthur overreacting happens, which it should) for the good of the kingdom as well as for love. picture high priestess morgana in her element, side by side with a bunch of misfit sorcerers that aren't so easily vilified, chopping down camelot's soldiers and knights and assuredly making their way to the newly-minted king.

then, just as it starts to seem that all hope is lost, in swoops merlin (the actual merlin, not his old fart disguise) on dragonback (kilgharrah hates morgana so much i know his sexist ass would stoop to anything to stop her)!!! imagine merlin showing off the extent of his powers in front of everyone and preventing the sorcerers from getting any further, declaring loud and clear that camelot is protected by him, by emrys. imagine that display of power alone being enough to send everyone home.

imagine the loyalties clearly drawn: merlin on arthur's side, morgana on the sorcerers'. imagine arthur, feeling confused and betrayed by everyone at this point, banishing merlin despite everything he's done for him in the angstiest, most emotionally dysregulated scene the show had ever put to screen. imagine merlin starting season 5 free at last but very lonesome, an embittered dragonlord like his father. imagine the absolute mess camelot would become without him, even with gwen — now queen guinevere — there to pick up the slack. imagine arthur actually earning merlin back, finally growing into his role as king as he does so. imagine the reunion.

all this and more could've been not just possible but inevitable if morgana was allowed to remain a complex character that is neither inherently good nor inherently evil: it was undeniably the biased and one-note treatment of morgana's downfall by the writers that set the precedent for literally everything else that happened after merlin chose to poison her. the show wouldn't have even had to jeopardize its tone or the monster-of-the-week vibe, all it would've had to do is admit that even the "good guys" are capable of mistakes and what makes them good is the ability to feel remorse and change for the better. (as opposed to uther, who was miles beyond redemption since way before the pilot and deserved to lose everything and die alone. OBVIOUSLY???)

in a world where morgana remains multifaceted and sympathetic, mordred would get a better arc as well, so if we really wanted to, we could still end on the same tragic note that the show ended on. with so much harm inflicted onto so many innocent people by the pendragons for so long (including mordred and the many druids and sorcerers that raised him), it could realistically end up being a little too late for anything more than one shining glimpse of king arthur and the sorcerer merlin's short-lived golden age before fate catches up to them. glimpsing that reality just to immediately lose it would've been far more satisfying and far more tragic than whatever the writers thought they were doing with all that pointless carrot-dangling.

and finally, an ending in line with morgana's new and improved arc. in this version, rather than bleeding out on the forest floor alone, she would channel the morgan le fay we know from the legends: sobered up by the reality of her brother dying, she would use her high priestess status (and perhaps also her pendragon status) to be granted passage over to avalon alongside arthur on the boat — a one-way ride — just to make sure he gets there safely. this is her penance for the harm she has caused, the same way arthur's penance is to die and leave the true ruler of camelot (gwen) behind to achieve everything he was too slow and indecisive to build while he still had time.

merlin's penance, then, would be to stay behind and watch them cross over without him, waiting and waiting and waiting until they come back or until he can finally join them. which is a bit fucking harsh if i'm honest, so i'd at least make it slightly more faithful to the legends by having him return as an old man and letting him take a long nap under a tree by the shore, his body slowly enveloped by vines like the cobwebbed fisher king in 3x08, never fully sure if he's dreaming or if there really are strange shapes fading in and out of the fog over the lake. still tragic, but nevertheless a little more open-ended and whimsical than [TRUCK NOISES] THE END!

[faguettism]

shit. i forgot i have a really important exam tomorrow... (fuck you french people)

yeah i should definitely watch another mike wheeler gay analysis video.

[babygurlaura]

CHUNIN EXAMS

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THE WRITTEN EXAM • Team 7

Real talk did team seven actually pass the exam? Some would argue well sakura got all the questions correct and she knew the information. Or the fact both sasuke and sakura saw the truth behind the exam. But in my opinion Team seven as a whole failed but let me explain my reasoning.

The written exam is essentially testing ninjas on their ability to gather and relay information. A vital skill that a ninja needs, out of everyone only Sasuke was able to successfully execute this skill. Sasuke has always shown to be the most observant of the group and his ability to skillfully cheat aka gather information shows how he’s somewhat the perfect ninja.

Whereas with naruto and sakura they weren’t able to execute this portion of the test. While yes sakura was able to answer these difficulty questions but its not what she was being tested on, and with naruto he didn’t have the proper education nor knowledge to truly understand what was the exams purpose.

Naruto unlike sasuke is the complete opposite of what a ninja should be like, naruto is way to honest for his own good but its due to the isolation he endured leading him to cling to honesty, guts and loud perseverance which counterintuitive to what a ninja is meant to be

Now if the exam was strictly based on gathering information sasuke would pass with flying colors but we also should keep in mind how sharing this information with your teammates is also vital. This is where sasuke fail but also sakura. Both of them realizing the main purpose of the exam is to cheat and not get caught but don’t realize they’re supposed to relay this information onto their teammates.

We see team guy who masterfully is able to not only gather information but also share with each other. While yes team guy has been working together for a year now we can look at team 10, if i’m not mistaken ino was the one gathering and sharing information to her teammates. Now team seven isn’t the only team that fails this part but we’re primarily focusing on them since they’re our main characters.

What I do think the exam showed was that sakura would make a skilled leader, her ability to deduce the solution with the information she already has is commendable. she’s intelligent and would make a skill strategist.

When I mentioned the whole naruto not having proper education I say this because it’s clear alot of what they learn is taught through their clan rather than the schools. The school mainly focuses on the basics but then again we don’t go much in detail about what they truly learn other than history, the girls learning about undercover work and so on.

Sasuke is a great example of this while he had his family for a short while he learnt a lot from them which is what makes him the most skilled out of team seven. Sakura we don’t know much about her there’s a possibility she’s from a civilian clan a less known or simply a civilian family, most of what she’s taught she gathers from school so it makes sense why she’s more book smart.

Naruto had neither, naruto didn’t have much of the support that either of them got. Sakura had ino who helped her develop and understand things she did not which helped build her confidence over time (she’d also have the resources from teachers and so on seeing how she’s not hated unlike naruto). Sasuke had his family who taught him and trained him.

Sasuke was indeed the most prepared for the chunin but he was still in over his head. Team seven as a whole was not prepared nor ready for the exam especially given how little kakashi trained them or took them on missions that actually challenged them. Also their team work just sucked overall. Team seven doesn’t work as a unit they work on individual basis and it’s something I feel like doesn’t improve as the series goes on.

What the series needed is an arc before the chunin exams which truly shows that team seven has grown an actual bond and can work as a team. Showing they’ve grown but still childish cause they’re still kids they don’t need to grow up fast. Which then leads to the chunin exams where they are a bit more prepared and can finally take on more.

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• { this is only my opinion feel free to disagree but just be cool about it } •

I honestly wanna try and expand more on my thoughts but english is such a hard language….

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[rosquinn]

the fact that I cannot find any YouTube videos/articles discussing gender themes (in depth) in Demian upsets me greatly. im considering taking matters into my own hands (<- has never completed a project ever in her life)

skgjsjsjf I get you I wish people looked more into it because there's a lot to talk about... Dont get me wrong it's nice to see people discuss how stupidly homoerotic the whole thing is because it's true but I wish there was more discussion about the themes around gender, specially surrounding Frau Eva? An idealized representation of motherhood, who shows up at the end of the journey and makes you feel safe and secured and on top of that is as androgynous as her kid?? How Sinclair associates motherhood and specially femininity with the world of light since childhood???? How the guy who's supposed to represent the duality of the two worlds has being androgynous as one of his main features???Whatever this was??

Theres a lot of "bro you gotta fuse with a woman" and "this woman represents your fate and inner self" stuff going around Sinclair and religious meaning aside the way femininity and masculinity are treated separately + the (bad) relationship Sinclair has with masculinity and masculine roles like fatherhood is so interesting. Theres something Big going on in here.

[sorcerersandskillusers]

Dazai and Odasaku have a fascinating connection I never noticed before, their views on killing for justice.

Dazai Osamu's entrance exam

He looked far off into the distance. “The phrase ‘seeking justice’ is a weapon. Once it hurts the weak, it can no longer be a force of good. This justice the Azure King sought was what killed Sasaki.”

The untold origins of the armed detective agency

“Justice,” said the hit man. “I can understand killing for money or because you hated someone, but they’re killing for justice. I don’t want to get involved with a group like that. After they’re done killing for their justice, they’ll only continue to kill. They’ll just stop caring who they’re killing.”

It's very interesting that two characters who both have no issue with killing people and have killed hundreds themselves see the incredible danger of "killing for justice"

Killing for greed, killing for revenge, killing for boredom... all of these are personal things, they stay focused on the person who's doing the killing, but if you kill because you think it's right, then you will seek out more people to kill unendingly "Their religion is heresy", "Their whole country is evil", "They don't respect my authority" and soon even people who have done nothing wrong are killed because "they could be a threat later"

The moment you justify killing, you can never stop, there will always be more criminals who deserve to die, and soon it won't matter if they deserved it or not.

[hanzajesthanza]

They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. Regis’ eyes are jet-black. Onyx-black, dark as the darkest night, the purest night.

Because he is a vampire.

The eyes are the windows to the soul, and there is darkness and nothingness in there, a pleasant black void of murmurs and whispers that tickle the back of the head and make the eyelids heavy, that calms instantly, that evaporates fear, hate, love, pain. Makes one fall into…

Nothingness.

The soul lives on after the body has disintegrated into dust. The soul persists after death. What is death? What is a soul? And to a vampire? What can they be?

Dandelion witnessed the ghosts, visions of his friends, Geralt’s company, pushing the boat off upon Loch Eskalott. He saw three. Three, where there should have stood four. Alongside Milva’s braid, Cahir’s strength, Angoulême’s small hands, there should have been another. But there was only…

Nothingness.

This has happened before. This happened when they crossed the Jaruga, before Milva cut her braid. When their company was scoped out, felt out long-range magic—through the psyche of a dear friend. But where five stood, only four were seen. Because from such a magical scan, a vampire will not show up. Four humans, and where a vampire stands…

Nothingness.

[starlightshadowsworld]

So the Azure King went down the path he did because he lost faith in his own ideals.

…That’s why every time someone faces Kunikida it’s not enough for them to simply fight him.

But try to break him.

By calling his ideals nothing but empty words that aren’t even worth the pages that they’re written on.

To make him lose faith.

Fuck that’s so good.

That’s such a good detail that persists in every fight that Kunikida is in. And why he is constantly having to prove what and why he follows his ideals.

Ranpo says it himself in the Cannibalism arc “Kunikida you are the strongest and most virtuous of us in the Agency. It’s why the enemy tried to break you first.”

Which they did by having a child die in-front of him…Just like they have in this moment.

Because after the possibility of losing Fukuzwa the next worst thing for the Agency would be for Kunikida to lose faith in himself.

Lest he follow that same path.

But despite their similarities Kunikida will never be the Azure King because his friends will never let him lose himself like that.

Ranpo won’t let him rot. Dazai will be at his side. Yosano will come to his aid in time. Atsushi will show him there’s always a way. Fukuzwas will remind him why he chose him etc.

Kunikida’s ideals are the Agency itself and as long as the Agency believes in him, then he will always have faith in himself.

And so through all that darkness and despair that floods the world around him, Kunikida’s eyes have always remained bright.

[stormyrainyday]

How to Read MFB Like a Professor: Chapter 3

Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires

Key concepts: Vampires (and sometimes other monsters!) in works symbolize a variety of evils-- especially exploitation, corruption, and violation of autonomy.

What's this? Read the series intro post.

I'm sure I don't have to spell out why Lightning L Drago-- a bey that explicitly feeds off the negative emotions of its opponent in order to make itself stronger-- is the topic of an essay on vampires in media. It doesn't really get more on-the-nose than this. Truth be told, I wracked my brains for ages trying to find a more subversive answer to the question of "Who are the vampires in MFB?" but it feels wrong to cover this topic and not talk about L Drago and Ryuga. What I've landed on is the expansion from L Drago itself to the important figures of the Dark Nebula as a whole: L Drago, Ryuga, and Doji, and the characters who fell victim to the organization.

(I did also consider Reiji, but for the sake of brevity I will save discussion on him for another essay. His theming doesn't fit as neatly into the points being made here today).

Luckily, there is more to the metaphor than immediately meets the eye. The goal of this essay isn't so much to prove that the Dark Nebula represents vampirism, but rather to view it with this lens and explore the implications for the characters involved.

Foster in his book describes several facets that make up the literary vampire, similar to the components of the archetypal quest I discuss in chapter 1. Necessarily, there must be:

A (usually alluring) figure, representing some kind of corrupt value. This is our vampire

A victim for the vampire to feed off of

Within the story, the following things must happen:

Stripping of the victim's vitality

Continuing/enhancing the life of the "vampire"

The destruction of the victim

With these in mind, we can examine the Dark Nebula and its victims in the context of vampirism.

The Alluring Figure

There's a reason Dracula and other famous vampires have been described in their respective media as deeply attractive; in order to seduce a victim into falling into their traps, vampires must have some sort of draw. L Drago's allure is clear from the start: from the very beginning of its history, L Drago has drawn in bladers with the promise of near-godly power, one that can win wars and manipulate nature itself. Doji describes this briefly with Ryuga's introduction, and Ryo goes into further depth towards the end of the season.

Like a vampire or other monster, the power is supernatural, otherworldly. L Drago literally is born of a star fragment that comes from the sky, and these origins play a role in its mystique. This mysteriousness then increases its draw-- people are attracted to the unknown even if they fear it, and L Drago is no exception. Though L Drago is ultimately created by humans, its basis is a power that humans didn't fully understand but are nevertheless enchanted by and use for nefarious purposes.

This extreme and unadulterated power is, of course, very corrupt and the show makes that extremely clear. The power is derived from negative emotions and thus inherently thrives on discord-- it can't coexist with peaceful times. That is why it was sealed away, and why legends warned against it. However, the temptation for power and control is too great, and that's why L Drago appears again and again through history. Doji even explicitly says "Whoever controls the extraordinary power of beys controls the very fate of the world itself" when monologuing during L Drago Awakens!

Similarly, Ryuga himself is cloaked in mystique for nearly the entirety of MFB; in Metal Fusion, we know very little about his past, his motivations (aside from the simple goal of wanting to be strong), or even his personality beyond his arrogance. This, combined with being the primary antagonist in season 1 and one of the canonically strongest bladers in the series, has made him a fan favorite.

Even Doji has a sort of charismatic appeal to him. He presents characters with a vision and promises it to them if they join his cause. For most recruits, this involves the promise of the power to beat Gingka (the main exception is Yu, and he is promised exciting battles and strong opponents. Thematically it actually makes sense that Yu is the only one of the Dark Nebula bladers to leave and join Gingka's side, as he is the only one is is not seduced by the power of raw strength, and has motivations far more pure than the other members-- that is, the joy of blading). Doji is also well dressed, well spoken, and careful about appearances; all these things draw characters towards him and make them trust him enough to join his cause. To join Doji is to make a deal with a devil in disguise, but the Dark Nebula recruits have no way to know this until it is too late.

Together, Doji, Ryuga, and L Drago all have a distinct appeal to them that draws people in; that being said, they are the villains of the show and very clearly represent the corrupting nature of power. They value power above all, and don't care who they hurt in the process of acquiring it. I'll speak later on the nuances of L Drago's influence vs the innate nature of the characters, but for now, consider them as one unit.

The Victim

A monster must have a victim, and the Dark Nebula and L Drago are no exception. Like a vampire, L Drago feeds off of the power and strength of its opponent, and once defeated, leaves them as a husk of their former selves-- drained, exhausted, and unable to do much of anything. In literature, the victims of vampires are usually young, innocent, and typically female; this is because vampires are often commentaries on exploitation and power imbalance. These themes run clearly through Metal Fusion as well.

The show depicts in no uncertain terms what happens to those who fall for the Dark Nebula's allure. Their strength is taken indiscriminately as fuel for Ryuga and L Drago, and Doji facilitates the destruction with a smile on his face. We see this with Tobio, Tetsuya, Dan, Reiki, and the Kumade brothers in The Dragon's Punishment.

This display of power is shown to Yu (and Ryutaro) specifically, and though Yu isn't one of the people to be directly 'consumed' by L Drago, he fits the bill well for a vampire's victim-- young, naive, and caught up in things he doesn't understand. And despite not being a direct victim of L Drago, he doesn't walk away from his close contact with corruption unscathed; when he escapes the Dark Nebula, he is rife with physical injury, deep seated fear and despair, and his bey itself is badly damaged (which is significant as the state of a bey is closely in line with that of the blader's spirit. This is why Poison Serpent's physical chip damage is so detrimental for its opponent's mental states).

Apart from the Dark Nebula bladers, there are 3 characters who fight Ryuga directly during the Battle Bladers tournament: Hikaru, Tsubasa, and Kyoya. The degree of their post-battle psychological impact is interestingly in line with how much they align with the archetype of a classic vampire's victim.

I'll start with Kyoya, as he is the farthest removed. Kyoya is no stranger to conflict and he, like many of the Dark Nebula bladers, is driven by the desire to beat Gingka. However, his lust for power is addressed early on in the season when he has a brush with Doji himself; during those episodes, he's driven by an obsessive need to destroy Gingka. It's only when he undergoes personal growth during that battle do his motivations crucially shift-- at the end of the episode, he no longer sees Gingka as an opponent to destroy, but instead a rival to aid in their mutual growth. By then, his character growth arc is actually mostly complete (even if his power continues to increase). The Kyoya who goes to battle Ryuga is self assured and can no means be described as innocent or helpless; he is the one who ends up putting up the strongest fight of the three (it's implied that their strength is equal; the only reason Ryuga wins in the end is because L Drago begins to take over). This is why, when we see him again in Metal Masters, he bears no real evidence of the dark power's effect. It's honestly a stretch to call him a victim at all, especially when compared to Tsubasa and Hikaru.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have Hikaru, who aligns far most closely with the archetypal victim. At first glance, Hikaru and Kyoya are similar in nature if not in actual power. Hikaru is also headstrong, passionate, and by no means helpless-- no one who made it into Battle Bladers is weak, and from her introductory episode Hikaru is a force to be feared.

Well. Or so we're meant to think.

I apologize for straying from the voice of an objective analyst for a second. I need you to believe me when I say it really really pains me to say what I'm about to say. Hikaru's fall off is genuinely one of the most upsetting things about this show to me. I love her and her character and goddammit she deserved better even if her fate makes sense thematically.

Hikaru isn't weak, but she is almost immediately outclassed after her initial win against Kenta. Kenta himself is the one to beat her in the very next episode. After that point, Hikaru does not win a single other on-screen battle for the rest of the season. For god's sake she even loses against Teru, a character who exists for like 5 episodes max.

Thus it comes as no surprise that, of all of Ryuga's opponents (after the Dark Nebula lackeys of course), she is the weakest.

It's also easy to miss Hikaru's innocence at first glance; after all, she has an intentionally cold and no-nonsense demeanor to hide her true feelings. It's only when Hikaru is training alone that the audience gets a real look at her motivations, and they are shockingly sweet. Her pursuit of strength is in service of her mother's dying wish. She made a promise as a child, and it is that childlike innocence and belief that drives her forward.

Like others, she also wants to be the best in the world, and she is willing to fight indiscriminately to get there (we see this when she is willing to fight Kenta posing as Gingka-- she doesn't care that he's just a kid, only that he is strong and defeating him will bring her closer to her goal). But beneath it all is the little girl who made the promise to her dying mother.

Unfortunately for Hikaru, this innocence further primes her to be the victim in our vampire's tale.

There is also discussion to be had on the fact that the only girl to enter Battle Bladers is the one to suffer the worst at the hands of Ryuga and L Drago. Whether or not this was intentional, the fact remains that she was sent crashing through the stadium, rendered helpless for the rest of the season (as were Kyoya and Tsubasa, but because Hikaru battles first she is out for the most episodes), and subsequently suffers such trauma from the ordeal that she gives up blading together. She isn't even given a chance to fight back before Ryuga defeats her with overwhelming strength and consumes her spirit. This could be read as an allegory for assault (and the underlying theme of sexual exploitation is seen often in literary works on vampires), but in an effort to keep the essay minimally triggering I won't speak further on this.

Tsubasa's case is a little trickier as it lies somewhere in between Kyoya and Hikaru. He's an exception to the other Dark Nebula bladers as he only joined in order to extract information on behalf of the WBBA. He wouldn't be blamed for dropping out of Battle Bladers altogether, and only battles Ryuga in a noble (if borderline self-sacrificing) move to ensure that others aren't hurt after what happened to Hikaru. Despite being a spy, he's an honest and level-headed person at heart, and battles with a cool rationality different from most others. Despite this, he is also severely victimized following the battle against L Drago. Why?

Tsubasa's backstory and personality is explored more in the second season with his descent into darkness, but we learn his own heart houses two key things that allow him to fall victim to the allure of power: a deep-seated insecurity about letting down those he cares about, and an lasting bitterness at people who are able to get ahead using underhanded methods. The dark power within him sells itself as a means to rise beyond these perceived weaknesses, and it's a struggle that lasts for much of the season.

(sorry for the lack of subtitles the subbed version for Metal Masters just isn't available even with VPN for some reason and the auto-generated ones are incomprehensible)

These insecurities are shown to stem from his childhood, and the dark power taking advantage of this is what leads to his unwinding throughout the course of Metal Masters. His arc is to reconcile the conflicting parts of his personality, but as far as his interaction with Ryuga is concerned, the damage is done. It doesn't help that Ryuga is also able to overwhelm him with strength; though Tsubasa puts up a better fight than Hikaru, it is still no question that Ryuga is stronger.

If Hikaru's spirit is broken completely and Kyoya's is functionally unscathed, Tsubasa's can be argued to have fractured during this battle, and the exploration into his psyche later on also shows how he overcomes this trauma and is stronger after the fact.

All of Ryuga and L Drago's victims suffer in different ways but the thing they all have in common is this: at the end of their battle, they are defeated and their spirits used to make L Drago stronger. Just as a vampire drinks blood from its victim to replenish its life, L Drago uses others' spirits as fuel to increase its own power.

There are two victims I have yet to talk about though: Doji, and Ryuga himself.

Doji is simply a victim to the power he helped create. In his devotion to Ryuga's rise to power, he forgot about the very thing he told Yu: under the Emperor, all others are equal. He thought because of his position as a loyal servant, he would be spared and he and Ryuga would rise to the top together. However, Ryuga discards him the second he stops being useful and shows weakness. It is poetic justice to see the very power Doji weaponized and directly nurtured be the thing that defeated him in the end. It plays right into the central theme as well-- that unchecked power is a corrupting force that spares no one.

(The three dragons and Doji's helpless posture here mirrors that of Hikaru in her battle-- another neat detail that really hammers in the karmic nature of Doji's demise).

Ryuga's case differs from Doji, though. Unlike Doji, Ryuga was the one actually wielding L Drago and therefore directly suffering the corrupting force of the dark power contained within. We know that L Drago takes the negativity of a person and amplifies it, and we see this change happen in Ryuga as the season goes on. When he steals the bey with Doji, he is arrogant, yes, but does not have a god complex. He is also callous and mean, but not cruel until he gets his hands on the bey itself. When he first picks up the crystal, he explicitly says that he's aware of the power sucking him in and even looks alarmed, but his desire for power causes him to take the bey anyway.

By the end of his battle with Ryo, he's already condescending Ryo for being too weak to fight against him. When he sees Gingka in L Drago Awakens! he intentionally insults Ryo to Gingka's face as a cruel way to provoke him. By the time Battle Bladers happens, he truly believes himself to be infallible.

In fact, he plays so neatly into L Drago's hands that it's only when he's in danger of losing to Kyoya do we realize that Ryuga isn't fully in control. In fact, Ryuga himself is consumed by L Drago before the match with Kyoya even ends. Again, in a scene that hauntingly mirrors Hikaru's, his own bey deems him too weak and turns on him. Just as Ryuga had discarded everyone weaker than him up until this point (including Doji), L Drago decided that Ryuga was too weak to continue, and pushes him aside, taking his power and his body to continue fighting in the name of world domination. It happens so suddenly that everyone, including Kyoya, Gingka, and his friends can only watch on in horror as it happens. They don't comprehend it until the final battle with Gingka, but this was the moment that Ryuga was lost and L Drago had fully taken control.

It's a clear violation of Ryuga's autonomy. It's unclear if Ryuga is aware of what's going on-- I'd argue that he is, as he has not fully changed into the monstrous form we see in the following episode, and even when he has transformed, Gingka is able to get through to him. L Drago consuming Ryuga and assuming control of his body is even more disturbing when recalling that a bey is supposed to be a blader's partner; this makes it clear that L Drago held the cards all along, and the relationship between it and Ryuga was never equal. To L Drago, Ryuga was always a means to an end. In other words, a thing to be used.

Kyoya's defeat is the most gruesome because he is L Drago's victim, not Ryuga's. If there was ever any doubt as to this fact, the animation makes it clear: Ryuga no longer appears human, and it's a head of L Drago that pierces Kyoya's chest and drains his energy.

Ryuga, for all his cruelty and pride, was not the type of person to hurt a fellow blader in the way that happens to Kyoya. In the end, he fell victim to L Drago just as much as the rest of them, and that is why it is so important that Ryuga also be saved in the final episode.

It's bitter irony that Ryuga says this line, when the real trap all along was L Drago's promise of power. Ryuga's arrogance causes him to fall for it hook, line, and sinker.

With the final two victims in mind, the thematic narrative is complete. Everyone who comes into contact with Lightning L Drago suffers for it. It draws people in with its mystique and the promise of strength, and then hungrily consumes the spirits of every blader it meets-- including its own master-- in order to make itself stronger. Lightning L Drago represents the simultaneously attractive and corrupting nature of extreme power. It's a force of destruction, and left devastation in its wake. It is a very small, very evil, left spinning little vampire.

Thanks for reading as always! I haven't yet looked ahead at the next chapter-- I try not to read them until I've finished the previous analysis. I hope this one was worth the wait. My personal life is busy as always but I love this little side hobby so much.

Want to read more? Chapter 1 Chapter 2