#and its due to their upbringing that they end up developing similarity

[shakingparadigm]

It's a bit silly that found it unlikely for Luka and Till to be the final match back then. The more that I thought about it, the more it made sense. Sure, Luka and Ivan are incredibly similar in terms of personality and image, but in terms of circumstance Luka and Till are opposite sides of the same coin. I really couldn't envision a better matchup.

[snowbriar]

Caseys Questions (oh boy its a long one)

So I'm curious why this is a thing.

look at those two.

That almond shaped face and square ears are unmistakable. There's a difference in skin tone and eye shape (but I think for the eyes it's more a design choice because of his glasses/making a character appear younger on case's behalf)

And don't even try to say that's an accident when the rottmnt human characters face shapes have as much range as this-

(on a side note holy moly Rise did a good job portraying different face shapes but still making the characters cohesive)

I've seen people headcanon that the Casey's aren't blood related and she found junior in the trash abandoned somewhere, but I find that hard to believe because he's a lot like his mom in more ways than one. He might be a little quieter but he has her spunk that's for sure. Hair color/consistency, eye shape, ear shape... Too similar for me to buy into them not being related.

Now, considering the end of the world was upon them this makes more sense in ways given that Cass wouldn't necessarily have time to become pregnant and have a kid. I'm chalking that up to the cartoon logic of 'heroes always have time to have kids'. The apocalypse is upon us but I'm gonna go have a kid brb has been done before (looking at you Fire Emblem Awakening.)

I've also seen headcanons that Casey Jr is a clone or artificial child made with Lou Jitsu's DNA which is... something. It raises a lot of questions, mostly being 'why?' It would make sense if Cass got together with one of the turtles and wanted to have a kid but, idk how she would get pure human DNA when all the living Hamatos are mutants. Likewise, the writers stated in a post that they weren't going to do cross species romance so that's probably not the canon explanation.

Again, DNA baby would work even if they had intended for the kid to be April and Cass's kid. But that still raises the question of where did those distinct Hamato Yoshi traits come from. April might be the turtles' sister, but it's not biological.

But be that as it may I'm convinced Casey has Hamato blood, and it's either by his dad or his mom. So having said all that and leaving the floor open for anyone to interpret this information as they will here's my theory.

I think Cassandra is Splinter's niece, and I think the writers were intentionally going to develop an arc where we discover that she's related to him.

Essentially my theory goes like this: Atsuko, Splinter's mom, ended up divorced from his dad for some reason or other. I'm thinking the conflict might have been related to her duties and perhaps some disagreements about the 'Hamato way'.

The dad ended up getting custody of one of their kids (Idk how custody/divorce works in Japan at that time period so this is probably inaccurate) And I think through the years the dad taught Splinter's sibling to strive for perfection and one-up their brother in every way possible. Which, since in their teen years Yoshi as somewhat of a layabout, wouldn't have been very hard.

Anyways that led to a sibling rivalry of sorts where they didn't speak to each other or had a rocky relationship. (It could be that they just grew apart and adopted different lifestyles due to living in different households. Doesn't have to be aggressive rivalry. They might not even ever seen each other again idk you decide.)

In the end, Splinter's brother/sister wound up with Cassandra and, motivated for perfection by her father, instilled that lifestyle in their daughter. I don't think Cassandra's upbringing was very kind to her and I think her parents required a lot given how aggressive she can be about obtaining perfection.

So why do I think that it's Cass's DNA and not the casey's father who's related to them?

SO GLAD YOU ASKED!

First of all, something Cassandra says stick out to me. Something along the lines of 'every clan I've applied to I've gotten accepted into' in the Always Be Brownies episode. This implies that she didn't join the Foot Clan first, but they MIGHT have been her ultimate goal all along, idk. But it doesn't seem like she has any birth of blood connection that way. Theoretically she could be a distant relative tracing back to the Shredder and his clan which would make her genealogically connected to the Hamato clan but I feel like that's a stretch, especially considering what the Foot Clan is now... Run by two seemingly random flame heads and various power-hungry recruits.

Another thing I want to point out in 'Always Be Brownies' is Casey's connection to Splinter. He spends about an equal portion of his time acting as encouragement to both her and April in this episode, and it could be read as him simply acting as a mediator in their currently antagonistic relationship. But I feel like it's more than that.

Just consider this: What was it that finally pushed Cassandra to denounce the Shredder? She had doubts the entire time she was under his command, but the thing that did it for her, the thing that finally convinced her to let go, was Splinter.

He didn't stop believing in her until the end (clearly she'd never been given that chance) but I think it hits more in the feels if you take into account then possibility that this is her uncle there about to have his soul extracted for the Shredder.

Now I want to acknowledge that I've seen perfectly logical theories that Cass is actually Splinter's daughter from a one-night fling and while I think that is absolutely within the realms of possibility, I think that her personality, and likewise upbringing, indicates a family who held very strict values. So probably NOT dating a superstar if I had to guess.

Now as for why I think the turtles and Cass have 'cousins vibes' I want to find some pics but the episode How To Make Enemies and Bend People To Your Will gives me that headcanon the most. My favorite part is when she encounters the turtles and decides to distract them, which just ends up with her chasing Raph around like a feral cat and wrestling them while they kind of make fun of her.

Then afterwards, they hear a commotion going on outside and everyone stops fighting and decides to go and investigate. And Casey just... Goes with them. She just follows them like a lil confused puppy and if it wasn't for Draxum grabbing her idk what she would've done. Actually she seems to but heads with Raph a lot....

I'm saying I feel like they recognized a kinship with each other in a way, and I wish we could've seen more of that. Can you imagine Donnie and Casey in a room full of explosives? Or Leo lying to her about an initiation rite for the Hamato clan and getting her to do whatever he wants? How about Raph and her finding a similar sensitive side in each other behind all the aggression?

These are just some of my ideas. Idk if they'll make it into the Rise Revised project or not but if they don't I'd like to make a Cousin Casey AU fic someday.

BUT LISTEN

You know the biggest thing that makes me want this to be real is that it makes the Cass Apocalyptic Series even more canon, BECAUSE THE TURTLES ARE ALL LITERALLY CASEY'S UNCLES!

Yeah that's about it. Sorry for being so long and complicated. Have a nice day <3

[twig-tea]

Love For Love's Sake Marketing vs Reality

I cannot get over how misleading the description of this show was compared to its actual execution of the first two episodes. This will be pretty spoiler-free if you are reading to decide whether to give the show a try!

The summary: "Twenty-nine-year-old Tae Myung Ha experiences a bewildering twist of fate when suddenly finds himself transported into a fictional online game where he inhabits the body of a ninteen-year-old character. Soon, Tae Myung Ha embarks on a quest within the virtual world to bring happiness to a character named Cha Yeo Woon. Despite his humble upbringing, Cha Yeo Woon has managed to excel in the national track and field championships, maintaining a remarkable reputation among his peers due to his handsome looks and athletic physique."

What I had taken away from that description that had made me wary: The importance of the age gap; lying to a character to fake affection in order to win a game.

None of the original description is a lie, but the emphasis is all wrong and it excludes some key details that make this show so good.

First: The character MyungHa is tasked to make happy is not just any character; he's the character in a novel MyungHa has just read, and he's the character that he says he identified with most (and who he was rooting for and was annnoyed got a sad storyline and ending). So when he's going up to YeoWoon expressing affection, it's genuine. He really does already know and like this guy. That's a HUGE difference for me, and it changes his mission from a Big Lie into a personal mission. The thing I like most about this show is the heart. The fact that MyungHa genuinely wanting YeoWoon to be happy is (it seems) the triggering event that transports him into the game, not a bewildering twist of fate but a direct response to his articulated wish, is a key part of that heart!

Second: Myung Ha is not out here as a 19-year-old trying to seduce YeoWoon, he wants him to be happy because he sees in YeoWoon similarities to who he was in his teens. The thing that has MyungHa most excited about being 19 again is his grandmother still being alive. The age gap is only a thing in how MyungHa is treating YeoWoon like he's a little kid, which annoys the hell out of YeoWoon because his character is only 1 year older.

Finally: YeoWoon has no friends. It seems true that he's famous on campus and that he has fans (e.g. KyungHoon's sister) but they don't approach him and it doesn't prevent people from hating him. This description makes him sound like a popular guy.

The description on MDL also includes this paragraph: "Cheon Sang Won hails from an affluent family and becomes emotionally entangled with Tae Myung Ha. His involvement adds complexity to the developing relationship between Tae Myung Ha and Cha Yeo Woon. Ahn Kyung Hoon, introverted and reserved, supports and assists Tae Myung Ha on his mission within the virtual world."

We haven't enough of SangWon to draw conclusions yet, but based on the failures of the original description to capture any of the the things I love about the show while highlighting issues that don't (to date) actually exist in the show, I'm going to reserve judgment and assume this is also misleading. It would be pretty antithetical to the very heart of the show that's being set up if Myung Ha, through his actions, caused a different character (SangWon) to become the sad second lead. I'll be really interested to see how this goes and how/if this show will address this issue.

TL;DR: The marketing material: Age gap romance with a Big Lie The actual show: video game isekai granting an earnest protagonist a chance to create a fix-it AU for his favourite sad side character.

Anyway. Glad the show turned out to be so off from the marketing material because this is way better!

[lunas-otome-blog]

Luna's Review: Steam Prison

Official Summary:

There are two kinds of people: the rulers and the ruled. The Heights are a gorgeous utopia. The Depths, a filthy industrial wasteland. Our heroine, raised in the Heights, has nothing but contempt for those below. Now an observation mission requires her to descend into that world, and the gears of fate have begun to turn.

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Luna's Rating

Plot: 8/10

Gameplay: 10/10

Characters: 9/10

Art: 9/10

Overall: 9/10

Luna's Fave Character: Adage

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Luna's Thoughts (Spoiler Free)

With deceptively simple characters and a basic but powerful message, Steam Prison is largely a game about classism.

You play as Cyrus Tistella, a mid-tier noble who lives in "The Heights," a raised platform in the sky that literally separates the high born from the "garbage" down below in "The Depths," where prisoners are sent. The metaphor is obvious.

Family lineage is closely guarded in The Heights, and marriages are assigned by the government. Going against one's chosen marriage means a permanent trip to The Depths.

Police officer Cyrus (pronounced kee-rus) is a straightforward protagonist who acts before she thinks. Her black and white judgments make her come across as somewhat cold, but she has a strong sense of justice and isn't afraid to defend what she believes is right, even if that means picking fights with those more powerful than her. She's also a big dork who, due to her pampered upbringing, doesn't understand love, sex or anything of the sort.

I actually disagree with the official summary in that Cyrus doesn't seem to have contempt for the people in The Depths. She sees the squalor they're living in and immediately decides something is wrong.

Naturally, her sense of justice gets her into trouble, and she ends up spending more time in The Depths. It soon becomes apparent that classism exists even there, as the former high born prisoners believe themselves to be more special than those outside of their prison city.

This game has striking similarities to Olympia Soiree, though Steam Prison was released quite a bit earlier. The journey of the high born protagonist is the same as she spends time in the underworld and learns that the rigid class system is unjust. Both Cyrus and Olympia must check their privilege and grapple with the expansion of their naive worldviews.

Probably my biggest gripe about this game is the infantilization of Cyrus. She's treated like a kid sometimes as her older male love interests have to explain where babies come from. It does make sense, because there's no internet here, so how would she know? But it did feel a little icky sometimes.

Some of her partners also make fun of her for not knowing how to do basic chores, but I had less of a problem with this, as she was wealthy in the Heights and wouldn't have been taught. Besides, she makes up for her uselessness in the home by being a badass with a sword.

Politics plays a huge part in this game, and the routes are well-paced, with a few unpredictable twists here and there. There are sometimes multiple endings that could be considered "good" in routes, despite fairly different outcomes. Nothing ends perfectly and there is bittersweetness in every outcome.

Due to its age, slightly antiquated art style and simple premise, I didn't have high hopes for Steam Prison. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked it. Despite its obvious message, the worldbuilding and characters charmed me. It's one of the better written games I've played.

Please find my thoughts on each route below in the order I played them.

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Eltcreed Route (Spoilers)

I really didn't like Eltcreed at first. He seemed to hire Cyrus as his bodyguard just to be eye candy, forced her to wear a skirt and flirted with her to the point of making her uncomfortable. He even kisses her unexpectedly, which I guess was supposed to be romantic but just came across as icky. It was too early in the route for me to believe he had actually developed feelings for her and wasn't just playing around.

But as the route continues, it becomes apparent that this proud man who represents his territory is actually really fucking exhausted. He has a regal persona, but, as his employee Ulrik says, he plays the role of politician at the expense of his own happiness. He sacrificed his own soul to support his people. He flirts to make people happy and smooth over political negotiations, but it makes him feel empty. Turning on the charm is now his default and he can't let his guard down.

Eltcreed is used to being adored superficially, but he's never met someone like Cyrus before, who not only doesn't respond to flirting but also doesn't understand what romantic love is. Cyrus felt a bit childish during some scenes, but I had to remind myself that she comes from a world where romance is not valued, and marriage is all about preserving bloodlines. It makes sense she'd have no idea what to do when being courted.

As soon as he decides he likes her, Eltcreed tells her, and keeps telling her, and eventually I, like Cyrus, realized he was serious. It seems like he's being sleazy, just as when he's flirting with other women, but in actuality, he's just not embarrassed about his feelings at all. As he says in the route, he's able to say such things exactly because they are not embarrassing to him. He does get embarrassed when Cyrus flirts back though, which I loved.

The absolute best scene in this route is when Eltcreed is teaching Cyrus about the symbolism of kiss placement, and Cyrus kisses his cheek and just shouts "Affection!" Elt plays it cool but completely loses his shit as soon as he leaves the room. Suuuuper cute!!!

Eltcreed's route starts out very slow, as piece by piece we learn about his past and how he accidentally became the hope of the people. Things escalate quickly when Cyrus' old police partner Fin appears with a warped personality — which I was thrilled to see, because Fin was such a basic bitch character in the common route lol.

Finally, Eltcreed is tasked with a suicide mission that will almost certainly end in his destruction for the good of his territory. We get a really nice scene where Eltcreed finally breaks down and admits that he doesn't want to die, which was ultimately what made me decide I liked him. He's been holding so much in to protect his city, and the only reason he was never honest with Cyrus was because he knew she'd try to stop him. The angst is palpable and I am HERE for it.

The best ending is supposed to be the one in which Cyrus convinces Eltcreed not to go on the suicide mission at all, but I also really liked the ending where they do go and escape anyway. There's also a bad ending if you choose to let Fin live as opposed to killing him, so you get punished for being a good person, which is hilarious.

Another great part of this route is Eltcreed bantering with Ulrik, who admires Eltcreed and is willing to follow him, even when they butt heads. He's a little abrasive but more or less supportive of Cyrus, and he also tells off Eltcreed when he's being a jerk.

I was pleasantly surprised with this route and how much I liked Eltcreed. I still don't love how flirty he is, but I can forgive him because he's ultimately a very good bean who just wants what's best for his community.

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Ines Route (Spoilers)

I didn't interact much with Ines during my first playthrough, so I didn't think much of him at first. He seems nice, but you have to keep reminding yourself that he largely seems that way compared to his horrible boss and the other Hounds. Ultimately he's still just the kindest of the schoolyard bullies.

Ines is a result of his upbringing. Raised as a poor farmer, he carries sympathy for the poor people of the city but keeps his head down, neither furthering violence (unless ordered to) nor stopping it. He thinks Cyrus is a fool for stepping in so much, but he definitely admires her, too.

On his route, we learn the reason Ines tolerates the wicked behavior of his boss, Hounds leader Sachsen, is because he wants desperately to return to the heights and investigate the murder of his police partner. He's willing to sacrifice others to do it.

Unlike on Eltcreed's route, in which Elt is assaulting her with romance to the point where she can't even think, Cyrus has more breathing room here to sit with her emotions. She comes to the conclusion that she loves Ines on her own. It was slow paced and lovely.

Fin is less batshit in this route, possibly because he hasn't been tortured as long or perhaps because he doesn't see Ines as a romantic rival. He's less involved as well. Instead, you get a nice little backstory on the Hounds' previous leader, and even a little of Sachsen's past and why he rules with an iron fist.

Also, surprisingly, you learn the culprit behind Cyrus' parents murder and their motivations, and also the identity of the police officer who inspired Cyrus to become one in the first place. It made this route feel really rounded, like everything's come full circle. I figured that stuff would be saved for the true ending but it felt like it fit on Ines' route.

I did think the resolution was a little convenient, but it was a nice way to leave it off, with Ines and Cyrus returning to the Sanctuary District to rebuild the Hounds — kinder this time.

My one huge gripe with this route is that Cyrus dramatically cuts her hair short during a cutscene. Then we see her sprite later from Ines' perspective and her hair is significantly longer than she cut it. Then in another CG, her hair is back to super short. It would have taken like two seconds to adjust the sprite to have shorter hair lol.

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Adage Route (spoilers)

Doctor character Adage is the pretty classic deadpan intellectual archetype. He reminded me of Kyoya from OHSHC. He pretends to be coldhearted, but he actually cares about people a lot. He doesn't charge people who can't afford it for his medical services, and it weighs on him when people die, despite claiming he's used to it.

Adage's main storyline is that he wants to find his father and ask him why he abandoned their family. His father, also a doctor, turns out to be more or less Dr. Frankenstein, aiming to recreate his lost love by piecing together corpses.

This route is one of the darker ones, exposing the ugly side of the Heights. They didn't super go into it, but it's implied that babies that are born outside of the government ordered pairings, or that exhibit undesirable traits, are sent to a facility to be euthanized and disposed of. Nobody really talks about this again, even in the finale route, so I think it should have been given more attention.

Adage's father learned Cyrus has special blood from (what I thought was) a throwaway line in the common route, and he wants her blood for his baby monster, causing him to request that she gets sent down from the Heights. He's also the reason Fin goes crazy, because he wants to use him as his corpse collector.

I liked how this route connects to Cyrus, but it does leave me wondering why Adage's father doesn't appear more on other routes. One would think his desire for her blood would be relevant regardless of who Cyrus is pursuing. I also thought the ending was a little rushed. A lot happens but we don't get to linger on it for long.

I like characters like Adage a lot, but I do wish he floundered more. Cyrus is only able to make him blush a handful of times. He also only admits he loves her during a low point for her, presumably to convince her to live. And then in the after-ending, we find out their relationship has actually regressed after a year and they're not even really a couple.

Of course, they do talk it out, and Adage admits he's been holding back, which was cute. But he's not at all embarrassed about it, so there's no floundering, which was kind of a bummer. Still, Adage telling Cyrus that he "really will fuck her this time" and Cyrus basically replying "yeah, okay, that's fine" was both extremely in character for this idiot couple and super funny.

Overall, Adage was my fave character and I loved him a lot.

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Ulrik Route (Spoilers)

I knew Ulrik would be one of my favorite characters as soon as I met him. He's the tsundere, of course, but he's also more blushy than average, and he's the same age as Cyrus so he comes across as less mature than the other love interests. It adds up to the perfect Inuyasha-Kagome dynamic of idiot teenagers falling in love.

Just like in Eltcreed's route, Ulrik and Eltcreed prove to be good friends despite their atypical relationship. As Ulrik is supportive of Cyrus' relationship with Eltcreed, Elt plays the wingman here, immediately deciding to ship Ulrik and Cyrus as soon as Ulrik shows the tiniest bit of interest. I love a healthy male friendship.

Ulrik tries really hard not to care about Cyrus, to the point where when he accidentally endangers her, he just sort of lets it happen, though he does save her when given the opportunity. His resistance to being friendly with her makes this route a slow burn.

Unfortunately, it's too slow for them to make any progress, so when they get together, the route is already over, and we don't get to see them as an idiot couple at all. We don't even really get to see Cyrus fall for Ulrik, he just kinda decides they're together.

What this route lacks in romance, however, it makes up for in story. There's a ton of amazing worldbuilding and lore in this route. We finally get to learn why The Heights exist in the first place. Ulrik's route ties heavily into Yune's route, so I recommend playing them consecutively.

Ulrik's route was the first where I was annoyed due to the protagonist not asking questions, which is something I complain about a lot in other games. Namely I was upset because there is a GIANT FUCKING CUBE in Ulrik's hideout, which ends up being extremely plot relevant, and Cyrus just does NOT notice it or ask about it at all. This is one of those things where the artists probably included it in the background so they wouldn't have to illustrate multiple rooms or angles, but it left me asking wtf was going on until it was addressed lol.

While I was disappointed in the romance aspect of this route, it was a good one to build on the overall world of the game. I wish we got to see more blushy Ulrik, but his innocent take on romance was super sweet, and I think he and Cyrus make a nice couple.

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Yune Route (Spoilers)

Saint Yune is over 400 years old, and unfortunately his route is exactly what you'd expect from an immortal being — he wants to die, and he wants Cyrus to kill him. I wasn't thrilled with this premise because I find it super overdone, but I did end up liking Yune as a character.

Yune is so very damaged from watching everyone around him die, to the point where he is numb to it. He turns to Cyrus, the "murderer," and entrusts her with killing him because she must be so coldblooded. This confused me a bit, because at the start of the route, we have a scene where Yune is questioning the process that led to her arrest. It was weird to cut to him hiring Cyrus for her "violent" nature when he was already doubting her guilt in the first place.

This was the first route where I felt like things were getting convoluted. Yune's immortality comes from a magical talking stone inside of him, who claims to be the sentient god of minerals or something like that. Initially it wants Yune to use his knowledge of minerals to impress the might of minerals onto the world...I think? But after Yune becomes immortal, that entire plotline goes away, and Yune doesn't do anything related to minerals in 400 years.

One would think the magic stone would be angered by this, as it's kept him immortal for that long, but no, it literally never talks to him again until he starts falling in love with Cyrus. The stone claims to be in love with Yune, but refuses to keep him alive if he loves another. I don't understand why we needed this weird thing about minerals if love was going to be the main issue lol.

I did like Yune's attachment to Cyrus, though. She initially is awkward around him because he's basically her god, but becomes more casual with him as he reveals more of himself. If Cyrus fails to impress him enough, he straight up kills her lol.

As she realizes he's just a human in a bad situation, she starts to treat him as such, endearing herself to him. Eventually, he becomes delighted that she makes him feel things, good or bad.

The "good" ending is already pretty sad, with Saint Yune becoming mortal once more, acknowledging that he will probably not live that long due to his weakened heart — but on top of that, there are two semi-good endings that are both really sad. This was the first and only route that made me cry.

Overall, it was another solid route that adds nicely to the lore of this game.

One note, though. Yune spends part of this route looking for info on a guy named Arcenclimb, and we have a random police officer named Senkabolt Arc. Yet, the two are not connected in any way in this or any other route. In fact, Arc doesn't play any sort of role in any of the routes. Why was he even a sprite? Weird.

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Fin Route (Spoilers)

When I found out Fin was the final love interest in Steam Prison, I was really surprised. He's such a simp for Cyrus in the common route that I figured he'd be one of the earlier, simpler routes.

He appears in most of the other routes, even playing a prominent role in some. Nearly every route has at least one bad ending in which Fin kills Cyrus, or they die together. Often she kills him over the course of a route, or he dies to protect her. The game makes it very clear that, while his psyche is ruined from his time with the Hounds, his sole focus has and will always be Cyrus. I began hoping for a world where he could be happy.

Fin's route flips the narrative of the other routes, as Fin takes the blame for Cyrus' crime and becomes a prisoner, and Cyrus is instead sent to become a Hounds officer. It was a fun reversal, having seen the opposite so many times.

While his yandere nature comes out most after he's tortured by the Hounds, I figured he might be less Cyrus-obsessed in his own route where that doesn't happen. But he proves himself to be just as infatuated pre-torture, although he's definitely not as creepy. Fin is willing to throw his entire life away for Cyrus, first offering to help hide the evidence of her "crime," and then taking the blame for it himself. Dude's in deep, lol.

Plotwise, this route actually contains very little. There's no lore or new characters or information to meet here. It's just Fin without the influence of The Heights' crazy laws or a broken spirit from The Hounds. We get to see him at his most natural, his feelings for Cyrus unrestrained. It's hard not to like him after everything he's been through in the other routes.

If this route had been one of the earlier ones, I would have been supremely disappointed. Basically nothing happens. Fin gets sent to the sanctuary district, Cyrus becomes a Hound, they meet, they escape, and they live happily under Eltcreed's care. There isn't any additional story to uncover, and the challenges they face in this route are superficial.

But I actually liked it, because it was like a breath of fresh air after the angst of the other routes and how badly Fin ends up in all of them. I'm not sure if it was intentional or if the writers were just like "let him be happy for once and don't worry about the plot." Either way, seeing Fin's last name after "Cyrus" on the display at the end was sooooo satisfying. I was just so happy for them lol.

Fin's route was overall the worst route in the game, but it feels like a little treat. Its placement at the end worked to its advantage.

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Grand Finale Route (Spoilers)

This route is basically a victory lap, where everything goes right for Cyrus. This time, she prevents the murders that happen at the beginning of the game, gains influence with the government, punishes the people who wronged her and helps usher in a new era of reformation, making life better for both the people of The Heights and everyone below it. There's a bit of conflict, but the fights end quickly and things resolve without too much effort.

The main highlight of this route is getting to see all of Cyrus' love interests working together to better society. There's only one CG at the end, but it's one with all the boys together, which is nice. Yune looks sooo small and young compared to the others, which was funny to me because you don't really notice that when he's by himself.

Personally, I would have combined Fin's route and the Grand Finale into one route, and made Fin the true end character. There would have at least been more going on in both routes, and it would have felt more satisfying overall. It's sort of implied that Fin and Cyrus will get together in the end anyway, but I wouldn't have minded if they'd formalized it.

Despite being a little simplistic, I won't deny the finale is a fun end to the game. It was nice to see everything coming up Cyrus.

[grantgoddard]

Remember the days of the old schoolyard : 1963-1969 : Cordwalles Junior School, Camberley

“I don’t wanna go,” I was shouting as I struggled to hang on to the car door for dear life. I was being kidnapped and forced into a vehicle outside my home that was wanting to carry me away … to my first day at infant school. My mother was trying her gentlest to push inside the family car her five-year-old son who was usually well behaved and never angry or upset. Passers-by on their way to work in town were gazing. Passengers were pointedly staring out of a passing double-decker bus. What was wrong with that belligerent child? My mother was equally horrified to witness my first tantrum.

I enjoyed being at home. I had plenty of activities to occupy myself there. I never found myself at a loose end. My parents had a remarkably hands-off attitude to my upbringing, letting me put on records, listen to the radio, watch television or play in the back garden whenever I wanted. There was no regime to follow. I was perfectly content organising my own life and did not require a school to instruct me what I should do and when. During the past year, my mother had been sending me to Mrs Potten’s ‘Gay Tree’ nursery school on Grand Avenue in order to mix with other children because I was an only child. I had found most of my peers there to be noisy and bossy, whereas I was quiet and calm. To seek acceptance, I must have adopted their rather posh accents, committed to immortality when my father recorded me on his Uher reel-to-reel tape machine reciting the two ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ books that I knew by heart.

My mother already harboured an aspiration for me to marry ‘above my station’. Whenever we walked into the town centre, on passing Bath Road, she would suggest I call on ‘Wooty’ who lived at the far end of that cul-de-sac in a large house backing onto the grounds of Sandhurst Royal Military Academy. I had met Alexandra Wooten at nursery school but had not developed a particularly close friendship with her, preferring the company of more down-to-earth Liam who lived only four doors away from our home … until his Irish parents moved away to Blackwater. Despite my mother’s persistence, I may have only visited Alexandra’s house once to ‘play’ because, unsurprisingly, I found we had no common interests.

My reluctance to attend primary school was due to anticipation that a new set of peers would be similar to Mrs Potten’s charges, the only children of my age I had so far encountered. I was mistaken! My fee-paying, town centre nursery school had been dominated by the offspring of Camberley’s middle class, whereas my state primary school was located on the peripheral council estate where I had been born, built to rehouse South Londoners whose homes had been destroyed by bombing during the War and subsequent slum clearance. Patronisingly, the council had named the estate’s streets ‘Kingston Road’, ‘Mitcham Road’, ‘Surbiton Road’, ‘Wimbledon Road’ and ‘Carshalton Road’, as if newcomers would feel more at home by eulogising their former hometowns some twenty miles away. Naturally, none of those roads led to the places after which they had been named.

I quickly discovered how wrong my expectations about school had been. My new classmates seemed perfectly normal. Unlike Mrs Potten, teachers did not require us to dress up in costumes and repeat archaic speeches for Biblical reenactments, or to watch violent ‘Punch & Judy’ puppet shows. Instead, we were given interesting creative activities to do and treated with respect and encouragement. Teachers addressed us by our first names. I loved school. I quickly retired my quasi-posh accent. I had already mastered the reading and writing skills with which some of my peers were struggling and was now teaching myself to type. One day at home, my mother had asked me to put away her electric iron and, without realising it was still plugged in, I picked it up by its plate and screamed, burning my right hand. She had to bandage my thumb and index finger for a while, so I continued to learn to type at home using my middle finger … the way I type to this day. I had wondered if my erased fingerprints would ever return, but they did eventually.

After two years, we all moved to the adjoining primary school where teaching was more structured. I attended my first morning assembly in the main hall but was baffled when the principal instructed us to recite something called the ‘Lord’s Prayer’. Everyone around me bowed their heads and recited a kind of mantra I had never heard. It felt unnervingly as if I had mistakenly been invited into some kind of cult in which all the teachers and children had already been indoctrinated … except me. I had no understanding of what was going on around me, more so because next we were told to sing strange songs from a thick book of incomprehensible ancient lyrics I had never heard played on the radio. It was impossible to sing when you had no idea what the tune should be.

Afterwards, having observed my bafflement, a teacher asked why I had not participated in the religious part of our school assembly. She seemed shocked that I had never heard of ‘hymns’ or ‘prayers’, asking whether my family was ‘Christian’. I had no idea what that word meant, so I returned home and asked my mother, who replied that we were not religious. She wrote a brief note to my teacher explaining that simple fact and, thereafter, I was excused from the section of daily assembly devoted to hymns and the like. Every day for the next four years, I would sit in a nearby small side-room alongside several children including classmate Jacqueline Dixon, a Hindu who initially asked me what was my religion. I had to tell her and the other non-Christians sequestered there that I did not seem to have one. I was an oddity.

Although my aunt Sheila worked as a ‘dinner lady’ at the school, I always returned home to take lunch. I would stand alone at the bus stop at the top end of Upper College Road, staring across at the modernist St Martin’s church on the opposite side of the roundabout, puzzled as to what might go on inside. I had heard classmates talk about attending something called ‘Sunday School’ there, next door to the home of classmate Annette van Hartaan Veldt. This church must have been where almost everyone else at school had been indoctrinated into their cult. It seemed to take an age until Aldershot & District Traction Company Limited’s number 1, 2 or 3C bus arrived to carry me one mile home for a halfpenny fare. (Once I had grown to be amongst the tallest in my class, the bus conductor insisted I pay the adult one penny fare despite me still being a child.) Arrived home, I would have just enough time to snack something and then catch the bus back for afternoon classes.

After school finished at four, if it was not raining, I could save the bus fare by walking home alone the length of Upper College Ride. This downhill route passed through a 400-yard stretch of Ministry of Defence woodland, a natural barrier intended to isolate the council estate from private housing around the town centre. It was always a lonely journey bereft of fellow pedestrians and scary on dark winter afternoons, me worrying an escapee from Broadmoor might jump out from behind a tree. The money saved I would blow in the sweet shop near my school on ‘Batman’ bubble gum packets, ‘Flying Saucers’, ‘Swizzels Love Hearts’, ‘Lemon Sherberts’ or a ‘Lucky Bag’. I was obsessed with the ‘Batman’ TV show and, as well as requesting my mother fabricate the superhero’s ‘utility belt’ for me to wear, I saved enough sweet wrappers to send for a ‘Batman’ poster that would grace my bedroom wall.

My favourite school activities were summer days when the teacher would take our class outside, thirty of us sat cross-legged in the shade of a huge tree behind the main building, writing essays in exercise books balanced on our laps. Those remain some of the happiest days of my life, before homework and exams impinged on my childhood, and before my parents sent me to a faraway school stuffed with posh boys and requiring a bottle-green uniform.

My least favourite school activity was ‘swimming’ in the newly constructed, unheated rectangular above-ground pool on the playing field. Alongside were two tiny windowless wooden huts in which girls and boys were shepherded separately to change into their costumes, and where I hated my mates spying me naked. I was so rake-thin that the bottom of my rib cage protruded, making me imagine I had some kind of physical deformity not evident in my schoolmates. My acute embarrassment destroyed any enjoyment and inhibited my capacity to learn to swim … which sadly I never overcame.

In my final year at Cordwalles, teacher Mr Hales encouraged us to open savings accounts with Trustee Savings Bank [TSB]. Once a week after class registration, he would ask if we had coins to deposit, record their value in our individual bank books and update our balances. It was a great way to make us understand the value of money, particularly as the monetary system was about to convert to ‘new pence’ from shillings. Would a school today actively encourage ten-year-olds to manage their first bank accounts in class?

I made some really good friends – including Paul Rowell, Michael Heinrich and Martin Bell – who would invite me to their houses on the estate after school. I was surrounded by peers of both sexes, of various religions and diverse races. I feel very lucky to have been educated in such a safe, sympathetic and uncompetitive environment, full of stimulation and encouragement that immensely shaped my attitudes and life thereafter. Unfortunately, it made my subsequent education and career make me feel all the more like a fish out of water, forced to navigate pathways amongst privileged, entitled people who seemed to have had very different childhoods that had fostered their cold, cutthroat, self-centred outlook on life.

I was sad to leave my primary school in 1969, after which I no longer saw the classmates with whom I had spent the previous six years. My parents failed to appreciate that their decision to continue my education at a distant school tore me away from roots I had forged on Old Dean Estate and isolated my social life by forcing me to travel daily to the other end of the county. At Cordwalles, I had felt like a normal boy living a normal life. I was never again made to feel that I fitted in so comfortably.

Postscript. The first time I went to church was in 1967 to accompany my mother to the final service of St George’s, built by the local Middleton family in the 1890’s on St George’s Road at Knoll Road, prior to its demolition to create a car park adjacent to Herman Solomon’s Garage. Despite never having known my mother attend any church, she was annoyed that our nearest one had been sold off as part of Camberley town centre’s modernisation. 

More than two decades later, having recalled that I had once opened a savings account at school, I walked into the TSB Camberley branch in London Road and asked if I could withdraw the balance. It took several weeks for the staff to locate my details and obligingly add years of interest to my balance before I could withdraw a small sum that I had almost forgotten I had.

[dungeons-are-too-cold]

Criminal Minds and Their God Damn Plot Holes

Criminal minds would be a wildly different show if they ever actually tied up the loose ends of literally any single characters' backstory. I feel like their backstories remain so incredibly intangible throughout the whole show because most of them are just a mess of loose ends that get thrown in episodes when they are convenient and then completely ignored two episodes later. Thats not to say I don't love this show, I do, I just wonder about the universe where they actually care that Hotch was abused by his father, or actually explored Reid needing support for addiction, or what Gideon's relationship with his son Stephen was like, or literally like anything about Elle, etc. etc. I feel like y'all get the point lmao.

Derek is the most fully formed in terms of like backstory and consistency in my opinion. I think thats why he has the most consistent growth over his time on the show. You see how his father affected him, and how that informs the way that Morgan does his job in the FBI. His upbringing and his hometown are both crucial in the way he approaches cases and interacts with his coworkers. When he opens up about what he went through with Carl Buford, his entire demeanor and approach changes when he has kids on cases who went through what he went through. It also opens him up more to his team members, allowing him to be more vulnerable and intimate when offering and receiving help. Its cohesive and consistent. Its what all of the characters really deserved but I don't think they ever got.

Imagine how different Hotch's storyline would have been with Hayley and Jack if they continued to allow his father's abuse to inform his actions. You would have seen more introspection, more deliberation. He would have fought harder to stay in Jack's life. He could have wrestled with the thoughts of what it means to be a good father, considering he never had the best example. You never hear about Hotch's mom, what their relationship was like, what his mother and father's relationship was with each other. There is so much story potential there, especially considering how it relates to Gideon and his son and ex wife.

Imagine how different the story would have been if Gideon's story was explored with Stephen or his ex wife. Gideon has reconnecting with his son on the list of 25 things to do before he dies, like that is incredibly serious and it's the last thing he needed to cross off his list. Its insinuated that Gideon and his ex split due to his involvement with his job. Excuse me, so exactly what happened to Aaron? Maybe the situation could have opened a line of communication between Hotch and Gideon about family, what it means to be a father and still do this job properly, the way they both want to. Clearly Gideon would have ample wisdom to share, and the relationship between the two of them would have grown so much exploring how similar they are and how different their situations could turn out.

Instead, these points of their backstories are relegated to a few throwaway lines in a season one that the writers never revisit.

There were so many characters in the show, and so much plot to cover in each episode for the crimes to make sense and feel fully realized, that so much of the personal development of these characters got swept to the side in the early seasons. There was such little precedent for the way personal story lines were explored, so in the later seasons, you see an exaggeration of the personal stakes each character has in the crimes in order to explore their team dynamics and personal lives. I think that's where things started to get out of hand and devolve in many viewers eyes, especially in the last few seasons.

[padfootastic]

I had to jump in here to just completely agree with a comment you made to your last anon ask, which was that Harry had much more similarities with Sirius than James - YES!!!

I always see Harry as a parallel of Sirius, and I think a large part of this is down to their upbringings, and their relationships with their guardians (I refuse to call the Dursleys Harry’s family). James and Lily were arguably well loved, which was the root of their confidence. James as an only child to elderly parents, and even Lily was more favored by her parents. She experienced discrimination in the Wizarding World, but, in spite of having a troubled relationship with her sister, she was loved. I think Sirius, despite being the Black heir, didn’t experience love in his childhood. After he was sorted to Gryffindor, this is when it deteriorated to outright hate. Tragically, Harry knew nothing but neglect and hate at the Dursley’s so he has none of the confidence or drive his parents has. I see his attitude and aloofness much more similar to Sirius’ than James or Lily’s. I think Sirius was confident too, but in an untouchable, do-not-talk-to-me way. Harry, thanks to the Dursleys and his fame as the Boy Who Lived has a similar bubble around him.

I can go on for hours and hours on this, but I’ll finish off here just saying that it’s such an interesting look into nature vs. nurture. Harry clearly has inherited traits from both his parents, but his experiences have made him most like Sirius.

no but i totally agree!! (and if you…ever…wanna drop in with more commentary for hours on end, feel free, anon 👀)

sirius and harry’s experience parallel each other in interesting ways too. like on the fact of it, they’ve had wildly contrasting lives. i think a feature of sirius’ childhood was conditional love whereas for harry, it was undisputed dislike/hatred/disgust (even if he didn’t know why). they faced different kinds of neglect/abuse and for different reasons, and it definitely shaped them differently too. sirius is confident, like u mentioned, and charming and competent and knows his worth (presumably because of how privilege; always being aware of it, especially as he becomes more conscious of the tensions running within the wixen world) whereas harry grew up fully other’d. he’s a visibly downtrodden kid ykno? ratty clothes; broken glasses; shy, self conscious demeanour (sirius’ first meeting w james vs harry’s w ron comes to mind here)—he’s the exact opposite of ‘knowing your place’ here. i also think their feelings re their family (or relatives, in harry’s case, bc hard agree that’s not a family) would be different. i always imagine sirius to be more conflicted than harry would be tbh.

but despite that, there’s so things that are similar. entering a world that’s not your own but becomes ur family (slightly less monumental for sirius in gryffindor, but similar in spirit, i’d argue); finding ride-or-die friends (some draw james-ron parallels here but i think the latter only works in its potential tbh); getting unconditional love and support, discovering healthy family dynamics, learning to open up, growth & development etc etc

people keep bringing up james and lily as points of comparison for harry, and i think a part of that comes from they thinking they should. but the loyalty? the guardedness? the dysfunctional childhood? always expecting the worst? the do-they-like-me-for-me-or-what-i-am/can-do-for-them dilemma? entirely sirius imo.

this is also why, i think, in a universe where james & lily find harry at the same time sirius does—it would still be sirius harry gravitates towards the most. i’m not underestimating james’ ability to be with a traumatised kid (clearly, he was good at it once) but it’d be different now due to the age difference. i think harry would recognise like, feel safer with sirius.

[nolabballgirl]

Im a white girl and im just learning here so forgive me if im slow on this. But i don't understand why druck is put on a pedestal with regards to how they've tackled race/developed their characters of color. Druck also tends to dismiss race entirely (Sam, David, Fatou and Abdi) or make the trauma of characher their whole character (Ava and David) or underdevelop characters when they've had space to do more (Amira, Sam & fam). So why is druck deemed better than other remakes in this area?

hi, Anon! thanks for your ask. okay, so for me to answer your questions, you have to accept two premises:

neither skam nor any of its remakes (including druck) are perfect.

when a remake acknowledges audience pain and admits that it has made mistakes, hires writers of color, and then greatly improves upon its mistakes, that has to be commended.

so, let's break down race and representation for the remakes. and as you will see below, the remakes are so egregiously bad when it comes to race and representation, that when you compare druck after jünglinge took over, it's on a separate level altogether and that's why i believe druck is deemed to be better when it comes to race and representation. (also, i'm skipping skam nl and skam austin from this analysis because who knows how those two would have ended up...and begoña owes me a heart to heart after she ruined by beloved skam españa, but let's be real, eskam had a long way to go too.)

druck -

well, from the list in your ask and from the hard work that skamofcolor put in, druck is a remake with one of the most racially diverse main cast members in both the old and new gens as well as the most characters of colors in side characters as well, so that's an improvement compared to the other remakes. but you're right, there were a lot of missed storylines they could have tackled with the old gen.

druck's sana season (amira mahmood) does not put their sana through weeks of torture or ruin the girl squad in the process. (and as a muslim, i will say their handling of islam was the best among the remakes but i digress...) however, amira did not get her full 10 weeks of screen time and the show missed a huge opportunity diving into shared microaggressions and racism that sam, abdi, etc. also faced. and druck was ripped for it! for cutting amira's time and playing it way too safe and not giving sam her fair due, among others.

now, here's where druck does something that no other remake has done and honestly, this is where i think most of the praise stems from. they listened to the criticism! wait, showrunners and writers can do that?! do you mean we are not just yelling into the avoid? not only have the writers said the ways in which they could have improved (even after s6 they discussed audience perceptions and overestimating how ava/mailin would be received, etc.) but they also hired JÜNGLINGE to bring the new gen to life. if you are unfamiliar, this is how they describe themselves:

JÜNGLINGE is a film collective of mid-twenties raised in the hybrid cultures of post-migrant Germany. We believe that young, European film needs to tell queer, diverse and most of all – specific – stories about growing up and living together in our societies.

so looking at that progress over time from druck s1 to druck s6, i can't help but give them them props for such a marked improvement. in fact, i don't think ANY single skam season covers race and ethnicity as well as s5 and s6 did. sure, they were not perfect (see point 1 above), but my god, the strides that these two seasons made. so much so that in s6, we had a non-white interracial couple as main, who were both unapologetic about their ethnicities and upbringing and culture (Gambia and Vietnam). and having fatou/ava's friendship be so prominent, listening to them talk about black hair, and referencing nazis in germany - yes to all of this!

and let's talk about ava! what an amazing character who was allowed to be angry, giggly, happy, sad, and express herself, without falling into tropes like imane from skam france, and so many people can relate to her struggles with white liberal mailin. there was a sensitivity there that's so rare in these remakes. and what druck couldn't do with amira/kiki, they were given room to explore here, and i really do feel that it was an important story to tell, especially in the age of whitesplaining, white feminist tears, and white liberals talking over women of color.

skam france -

eight seasons in and skam france is STILL mistreating its characters of colors and not given them their full due. now with bilal literally taking a back seat to jo (look at the YouTube header for crying out loud!) but ever since yann in s1, skam france has done such a horrible job with its depiction of POC, especially black characters. daphne is one of the most racist vildes and the treatment of imane (even beyond her season) has been vile and unfair.

and you would think that post s6 and after a new showrunner and writing team was hired on, that there would be improvements (similar to what druck did above), but no! look at how both aurélien and judith were treated in s7, and after a strong opening for s8, it looks like bilal is now taking a backseat to jo, and once again, skam france and its new team are prioritizing a white character over a character of color.

and has there been any acknowledgment by the skam france team of the criticism over the years? rather, david has often doubled down in the face of fan critiques - just an unwillingness to listen, and so we are left with this as a result.

skam italia -

say what you want about skam italia but when it comes to race?well, they certainly take the cake for the whitest remake, so much so that swaths of fans will refuse to watch this remake for the "wana" debacle, and rightfully so. (whitewashing of the sana casting) and remember how people tried to defend this casting decision? but don't forget that italy has a higher percentage of muslims living in the country than norway does! give me a break.

and how can i forget how hajar brown was dragged after she, as a woman of color, deemed to shade and criticize casting decisions for this remake?

wtfock -

do i even need to get into wtfock and its representation on race?! i mean s4 and s5 are arguably the two worst seasons of any skam remakes period. and the complete lack of acknowledgment from the showrunners after the torrent of criticism they received. the egregiously racist writing. i am a defense attorney by profession, and even i am struggling. there's seriously no defense for them here...

so given all this above, i hope this explains why i value the steps druck has taken, especially in s5 and s6, to tackle and improve their depiction of race and representation.

[kojinnie]

AOT Characters’ Modern Jobs Headcanon; The Vets Edition!

The jobs that The Vets would have in modern!au, their workplace antics and their back story. There might be some inaccuracies when describing the job as obviously I don’t work at these industries to know its intricacies. Most of the jobs are office jobs. Enjoyyyy!

My Masterlist .::. Pt. II: Zeke Yeager’s Modern Jobs Headcanon   

Most recent work: Dream Me Home (Before Shiganshina) | reader x erwin smith

A/N: I really need to finish a presentation deck due tonight for an early morning meeting tomorrow but of course, this comes first hahaha 

erwin!

A/N: Basically lawyer!erwin is the way to go, innit?

He's in his 40s, so he may have a settled career

He came from a white-collar, middle-class family. So he wasn’t silverspoon-fed, but his parents had enough money to put him through good school

Got a scholarship to go to one of the nation’s finest law schools

Kept it lowkey in college’s social circle, graduated with summa cum laude, developed a strong academic relation with his professor, and got recommended for an internship at top law firm at the capital city

Starting his career as a corporate lawyer, but then built his expertise as white-collar crime attorney

In his early 30s, he represented a union suing against conglomerate corporation in a big case that had national coverage, from then on he began to know his calling

Expanding his portfolio and became well-known for defending workers, consumers and civilians against corporate fraud scheme

Currently doing a lot of pro-bono cases for deprived victims of big corporate fraud. You would see him frequently gracing your local newspaper we love us some socialist king

On the side, he often writes for law journal and fills in as guest professor at local universities for summer courses

Established his own law firm with some of his partners, specializing in white collar crime and labor & employment law

He’s damn accomplished, but never really had any time for self-indulgence. Even after he becomes a household name in the country, with tens of attorneys working under him, his employees would still see him working on New Year’s Eve

He was always attentive to his employees, though. Although he has a very strict, borderline no-life work ethics, he never forces his employees to follow his habit, in fact he despises when his employees works on holidays and can be seen blaming himself for it��a bit of a hypocrite but thats ok

He still takes metro to work. He prefers a very lowkey, ordinary lifestyle because he fears if he shows any knack for indulgence, he will be susceptible to gratification from potential enemies or crooked politicians

Definitely a sight to see at the workplace, for he's tall and always oozes a sense of authority in the way he speaks and carries himself generally

His emotional intelligence is top-notch, you would never meet someone who is able to be very objective and calculating, while being kind and compassionate at the same time

His fellow attorneys put a lot for respect for him, and hundreds of applicants come to his considerably small firm every week, because a lot of aspiring attorney find him inspiring to work with

He wasn’t oblivious to his shiny reputation, but he’s trying his hardest to not let the compliments get to his head. Sometimes he doesn’t give himself enough credit for it

Was approached by one of the political party’s committee to run for local senate, but turned it down

basically he’s perfect if you like a man who’s never home for christmas

Hange!

A/N: Ok ok, I really wanna see Paleontologist!Hange because it has always been my fave dream job, but I want Hange to be out and about with people so here it is

Hange is the type to be incredibly good at one thing, that she will dedicate her whole life for that pursuit, but will be awfully oblivious to a whole lot of things (not intentional of course, they just have a very limited attention span) (they wouldn’t know who kanye west is or what tiktok is)

Like Erwin, they came from a middle-class family. While Erwin’s parents might have been teachers, accountants or other common profession, Hange came from a family of academician and researchers

Hange studied Human Geography at uni, but later found passion specifically in its relation to industrialization and urban development

Hange aims to advocate for a better living condition for workforce, and nearby inhabitants of industrialized city detroit would be a beautiful city if only they let hange designed it

Hange is a professor at university, where they also led a non-profit research think-thank that also serves as pressure group for better government policy.

The university that Hange teaches in, is also the uni where Erwin teaches in summer. They’re close-knitted colleagues as they share similar passion. Erwin relies on Hange a lot for some intellectual insights to help his cases  

Hange is relentless in their cause, you may find Hange everywhere! From street protest to a hearing in the government court. They are passionate and will do anything for the cause they believe in

Hange was once hired by the government as an independent consultant for a new housing project, but left because they grew to be frustrated by the government’s bureaucracy and their outward reluctance to follow Hange's recommendation

Hange spends a lot of time overseas, consulting and advocating development in newly industrialized countries

On Hange’s birthday, her fellow researchers surprised them with a ‘pampering day’ where they took them to an optometrist because Hange had been complaining about their eyesight for a YEAR that gave them a lot of migraines, but was always either too busy or too lazy to go

Hange never really considers themselves as working, because they enjoy their job very much. Hange likes to spend months observing a community, talking to people for hours, and trying their best in understanding their problem

Out of so many great qualities that Hange has as a researcher that meets different set of people everyday, prejudice or preconceived judgment is completely absent in Hange’s demeanor and perspective

Hange doesn’t get a lot of free-time, even if they do, they’d wander around the city to do a little observation. But when the weather’s bad and they’re stuck at home with their pet lizard, they would logged into Quora to answer random internet questions

They’re an avid writer for National Geographic, and one time Hange won a pitch to make a documentary about an industrial city project they were working on

After the docu-series got broadcasted, Hange gained a small but passionate and loyal fans on the internet. You could even find a subreddit dedicated for Hange’s works

for real I want to be Hange. I want to have that kind of passion in life

levi!

A/N: I spent a lot of times thinking about Levi’s job in modern!au. Because here’s the thing, either we adopt his unfortunate childhood into its modern!au equivalent, or let’s just recreate his whole upbringing. But I think his personality stems from a specific things he experienced during childhood, so let’s not dismiss that.

Levi came from a struggling working class family. I reckon his parents might have had worked multiple jobs to sustain their living expense. Unfortunately they both passed away when Levi was very little, and left little to no inheritance

Levi’s parents were not close to their extended family, so when they died, Levi was admitted to the system and had to brace several foster families who didn’t really pay attention to him

Little Levi had come to realize that life’s all about survival and so he had been able to fend on for himself since very young age, he never asked for things

His uncle, Kenny, finally won custody over Levi when he was in elementary. Kenny made money from small-scale racketeering here and there. Levi never asked what he did for living, as long as he got food to eat and tuition paid off

Kenny was emotionally absent, but he loved spending time with the oddly quiet little child, teaching him a lot of crafts, from carpentering to how to flay pig’s skin

Levi didn’t really care about getting into college, and thought that he’d probably end up working for his uncle, so he put his bare minimum throughout school, although he was really good with numbers, especially in math, accounting and finance

One time in high school, Levi’s teacher asked him to sign up for the olympiad team, Levi turned it down because he thought that was a rich kid thing

He didn’t even apply for college, and worked odd jobs after high school. Probably working as cashiers or assistant to retail shop’s owner for couple of years, enough for him to afford a cheap studio apartment on his own

One of his bosses came to acknowledge Levi’s talent, and trusted him to handle the company’s accounting

By sheer luck, the company hit it big, and Levi found himself running the day-to-day accounting of mid-sized business with over 300 employees

He made good money already without a college degree, but with a new-found confidence Levi applied for uni, where he chose to study accounting (of course)

Although he was confident with his skills, he understood he needed to widen his horizon and network -- thus uni

Levi was one of the oldest members of his cohort in uni, but graduated with highest distinction

After graduating, with his skills and experience, it wasn’t hard for Levi to score a job at top accounting firm

There, he discovered an interest for forensic accounting, where through audits, analysis and investigation, he basically finds out if a company is doing fraud and embezzlement or not

This is where he came to know and get acquainted with Erwin and Hange (yippie they’re together again)

The firm he works for was assigned to investigate the finances of a troublesome company that had been sued by its workers for a jeopardizing working condition. Erwin was on the case, and Levi helped him with evidences for legal proceeding.

By chance, Erwin introduced Levi to Hange. At first, Levi would find Hange annoying and overtly energized, but after learning the things they have done, Levi grew to appreciate Hange’s passion (and secretly wants to have more of his positive outlook)

Levi is fucking good his job. In short amount of time, he could get a really ideal position in the office. He was almost foolproof, finding even the tiniest bit of discrepancy in his audit. He’d get assigned to the big league case/project.

Although really good at his job, he’s not a social person, especially in his office. He couldn’t understand the lavish lifestyle that finance and banking people often lead. He will only show up to office party if it is really necessary for him to show up (usually to receive some kind of informal awards for, again, being so fucking good) 

He leads a no-bullshit attitude at the office, largely because of his background. He is a self-made man, and is not easy to impress by some young executives from posh school that talk bigger than they can chew

His cold, seemingly dismissive attitude gained him a reputation of being scary, when actually he is very considerate

One of the things he enjoys doing is to actually teach, he really likes when a new kid at the office come to him with none of that pretentious, big talk, and really asks for his guidance. He would love to teach you a thing or two

He would frequently check on his mentee, just to keep up with their development

And he doesn’t take credit too. When his mentee makes a milestone, he believes it’s 100% your work

If you’re his mentee, he probably doesn���t give a crap about your personal life, so don’t expect him to make small talk about that (and don’t ask him about his personal life either). But he really cares about your skill and career development

Same with Erwin, he leads a very ordinary lifestyle. He doesn’t go out often and would rather reading detective novel with his cat on the couch

He likes to spend Sunday at Uncle Kenny’s house, because he finds himself worried about the old man very often. They became close as Levi grew

Overall, Levi is a really kind and caring person if you know how not to push his button

[saby-chan]

Fire Lord Ozai: A blood thirsty monster or the less fortunate “Zuko” of his generation?

Hello again and thank you as always for clicking and allotting some of your time to read my humble post! Since I’ve happened to notice quite an increase in posts lately regarding the controversial character and nature of the former Fire Lord, the now imprisoned fallen prince Ozai, and I’ve personally promised in my previous post that I will share my own analysis on him if people asked me to do so (which actually happened), I am here to deliver my own take on this very intriguing man’s character, while also building a potential past for him based on stuff gathered from the show’s cannon.

I would like to start this essay with what I find to be my favorite quote ever: ”Monster’s aren’t born, they are created.” ~ Naruto Uzumaki (Naruto) What I like about this quote soo much and find very inspirational is the truth it holds within its short, yet powerful message. We are often fast to judge a “book by the cover”, to reduce others to what we assume of them by their appearance or latest actions that we’ve seen them do, but never actually take a moment and wonder where they come from, if this person we soo harshly look down upon really has been this way since their very beginning?

I’ve come across many comments on social media related to ATLA, especially on YouTube videos on which people would throw with harsh comments such as “Aang being a coward for choosing to spare the villain just because they saw a dumb baby pic of them” or “Ozai is the essence of evil and even as a baby he’d been a monster”. I can’t help but wonder who hurt these people to make them be so cruel? Like, how messed up must you actually be to say that a baby, a friggin baby, is the embodiment of all evils? Or that a child was a coward for choosing to see his opponent’s last bits of humanity and opted to spare them?

Aang was soo morally conflicted about the idea of killing Ozai not only because it contradicted the morals of his people, but because he himself understood that this man hadn’t always been the cruel beast he came to met in their first and final showdown. It’s important to note here the fact that upon finding that picture, Aang was actually convinced it had to be Zuko as a baby since it looked so innocent and cute and was actually surprised to learn it was Zuko’s father. And that’s the thing, Ozai was born like us all as an innocent and sweet baby. Babies aren’t in any way evil or twisted, they don’t even have the notion of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ defined in their small, still developing minds. In fact, the very choice of the creators to add this picture in the show is meant to tell us this very thing: this man wasn’t always like this. But if he wasn’t always like this, then what happened to make him become this way?

Well, in order to find out the reason, we must go back in time to the very beginning: Ozai’s childhood and upbringing. For this next part I am going to solely focus on the show cannon, as the comics aren’t the products of BryKe and have a lot of inconsistencies to the source’s cannon (you can go and read my other post on why they fail when it comes to Zuko’s character and his family).

 From what we know and can easily deduce by ourselves just from their appearances, Ozai and his brother Iroh have a huge age gap between them (somewhere between 10 and 15 years). This has to be our first red flag: isn’t it soo odd that this family opted to have their children at such a long distance between pregnancies? It almost feels as if Ozai hadn’t actually been part of his father’s actual family planning... In other words, he was a ‘mistake’ child (I actually hate having to use this terminology, but it will become relevant to when we expand on Azulon’s relationship with his sons). Sure, some may argue that Azulon actually decided to have two sons in case something were to happen to his first born, but wouldn’t it have been more logical to have his second born at 2-3 years max distance from his first? Why choose to have your second child when you are much older and thus risk having a baby with issues, if your sole purpose of this child is to serve as an insurance that you don’t ‘run out’ of heirs? It just doesn’t make much sense, so let’s go for the moment with the possibility that Ozai was an unplanned pregnancy.

This perspective actually gives way to another very interesting aspect: remember the infamous “Born lucky...Lucky to be born” quote? What if I tell you that there is a possibility that this quote wasn’t Ozai’s personal wicked invention, but actually something he himself heard from his very own father? It had been puzzling me for a long time why he choose to say “You were lucky to be born” to Zuko, which implies that Zuko wasn’t supposed to exist. I mean, it’s soo odd that Ozai went with something implying that Zuko was an unplanned pregnancy, since Zuko was the first born. So my theory is that maybe Ozai wanted to convey a different message to Zuko when he said that quote, but due to his anger he ended up replicating the same line he received from Azulon at some point in his childhood. We never got the exact flashback when the line was delivered from Ozai to Zuko, so we don’t have the exact context that lead to it (remember, we are excluding Yang’s take on the matter from the comics).

I mean, this feels like something that wicked old Azulon would have said to his least favorite child. Okay, so let’s go with the scenario that Ozai was an unwanted child, to which we could also add the possibility that Ilah’s health deteriorated after the first birth, which makes plausible the family’s initial decision of stopping at 1 kid.

Moving on, we know from the old ATLA character wiki’s that Ozai’s character design was made with Zuko in mind, being meant to be a grown up version of Zuzu, without the scar. An interesting choice indeed and even Iroh’s letter to Zuko on Ozai from one of the ATLA books describes Ozzy in a similar way to teenage Zuko in book 1: stubborn, feisty, determined and with a volcanic personality (easy to anger and competitive), so it means that these were intentional choices to imply that Zuko and his father are more similar than we were led to believe at first glance. Maybe Ozai was the “Zuko” of his generation. Also, in one of the interviews on the royal family, BryKe stated that Ozai worked very hard to get where he is in book 3, referring to his firebending specifically (we all know how Ozzy got the throne, so clearly, he didn’t “work hard” for that), so maybe he wasn’t always the strongest man alive, with the most exceptional firebending skills out there, like Azula who showed ease in her learning, but rather someone closer to Zuko’s weaker performance as a child, building his way to success through endless hard work until he became the prodigy we know today.

Continuing with our theoretical scenario, after his birth, the second child show’s lesser skills compared to his brother Iroh (by that I don’t mean that he wasn’t gifted at all, but that maybe Ozai wasn’t as fast and great of a learner like his big bro), so Azulon opts to just ignore him and continue focusing solely on his golden child. In my headcannon I actually think that Ilah survived the birth and so she was left in charge of the younger child’s education and upbringing. At this point Iroh is already 10 or older, so he is forced to focus on his development, which prevents him from spending time with his lil brother, but just for the sake of being positive, let’s assume that Ozai still had both his mother and his big brother to keep him sheltered from Azulon’s darkness for a small portion of his childhood.

I choose to believe that Ozai had his mother’s love for a small bit of his childhood due to his willingness in the show to allow Ursa (who mind you, as the granddaughter of Roku was considered a treacherous individual) to spend a ton of time with both Zuko and Azula and share her philosophy with the children, as seeing his wife playing with their children probably reminded him of his own bitter-sweet memories he had with Ilah. They also probably spent a lot of their time near the turtle-duck pond since that pond’s existence prolly dates long before Ozai and Ursa married and had their own children.

Unfortunately, Ilah dies and little Ozai remains all alone, to be influenced negatively by his father (and even by his grandpa Sozin, we don’t really know for certain when the old man died, so he prolly was there for a short time when Ozzy was still a child). Azulon most likely blames Ozai for his wife’s death as the second birth might’ve really had a huge toll on Ilah’s already fragile body, bringing her closer to death, so he still neglects and ignores the child, if not straight out bullies and abuses him for not being on par with Iroh. This prolly leads to Ozai becoming jealous of his brother since Iroh has their father’s love, pushing them further apart. I headcannon that this jealousy between the siblings led to Ozai complaining to his dad when he finally had too much of their father’s discrimination (at a similar age to when Zuko prolly did and got the infamous line, if not younger) only to get the “Iroh was born lucky, you were lucky to be born!” line with the sole purpose of hurting him since now the child knows that he was never wanted.

When Azulon scolds very furiously adult Ozai in Zuko’s memories for daring to ask to be named crown prince, he literally says something like “What, you dare ask me to betray MY own son?!” (this is like red flag number two), line that pretty much testifies how Azulon chose to pretty much treat Ozai as if he wasn’t his son too, showcasing how much he despised his second born and favored the first child over him. Since we are on the topic of their last conversation, the punishment Azulon gave to his son alone proves this man’s level of sadism, which leads me to be believe that Ozai’s childhood was full of this type of punishments for bad behaviors that could be easily corrected trough a long serious lecture or a lesser punishment focused more on teaching him an actual lesson. 

The old wikis also mention on the page about the hall with portraits of the previous Fire Lords that it was the place where Ozai chose to spend most of his time in his youth, seeking advice from his ancestors. I mean, seriously now, if he had a good and supportive father and a present brother in his life, would Ozai had chosen to seek guidance from the dead instead of his living family? That piece of information that was easily overlooked by many proves how lonely this man was in his youth.

So for the most part of his life, Ozai grew up under the toxic influence and abuse of his tyrant father who refused to acknowledge him. Yet he managed to grow up still full of determination to one day prove his worth to Azulon and gain his acceptance (just like we saw with Zuko in book 1, who was desperate to regain his honor and be accepted by his father). But unfortunately, no matter how strong he became or how good of a firebender he was, Azulon was unmoved and unphased by his second son’s performance.

From what we could gather from the little info we received in the show, it seems that Ozai was never sent to the battle field to aid his older brother, being kept as a stay home prince, with the only occasion he actually left home being to search for the Avatar (I don’t think Iroh was sent to do his part on searching the Avatar since he strongly believed that there wasn’t going to ever be one, so it’s safe to assume Azulon assigned Ozai with this mission just to get rid of him for a few years) and the only purpose he ever served to his father was to become part of the old man’s genetics experiment in order to create strong unparalleled firebending offspring (which I am pretty sure were meant to be ‘biological war machines’ used by Azulon in the war, as he didn’t really seem to give a shit about Ozai’s children compared to Lu Ten). So just imagine the level of disappointment and dishonor Ozai must’ve felt as a man and young aspiring soldier to find out that he was going to be used like a ‘non-bending daughter’ in a strategical marriage and never get to serve his country in what he’d been taught was the greatest and most important war for their Nation.

All in all, this marriage didn’t really end up that badly because it seems he and Ursa were actually very compatible. The old wiki for Ursa states that she was a noble woman and the perfect match for Ozai, which leads me to believe that show Ursa was intended to be a very strong willed and determined woman who earned his respect. The show never stated that Ozai never wanted his first born or that he was disappointed with Zuko from birth like the comics say, so it’s safe to assume that Ursa and Ozai actually ended up falling in love at some point since they had not one, but two kids with relatively a short time in between pregnancies. 

There are actually many signs in the show that actually prove that these two loved each other and Ozai didn’t abuse his wife: from the fact that they went every year to see Ursa’s favorite play despite Ozai hating the poor performance of the Ember Island Players (I mean, what man would do such a sacrifice as to endure the same torture every single year just to make his wife happy if he never loved her?), Ursa’s undeniable and sincere love for their children (in the show it was never stated that Ursa saw Zuko and Azula as someone else’s children, so if she were indeed an abused woman who was forced to have these children, she wouldn’t have ever loved them to such an extent, especially Zuko who resembled his father the most physically), the fact that Ursa had equal rights in their marriage and raising of their children (her even scolding and grounding Ozai’s favorite child without hesitation), to the most significant scene to the Urzai ship in Zuko’s flashbacks: Ozai sitting troubled all alone in Ursa’s favorite spot by the pond, in a sad and brooding atmosphere, after he lost her, instead of celebrating what had to be the happiest day of his life since he was finally crowned Fire Lord (it’s clear who had more importance in his heart: Ursa meant more to him than the throne, so losing her outshined his achievement). In fact, Ursa must’ve been the only thing that still kept him outside of the darkness that threatened to swallow his heart and once he lost her, Ozai had nothing else to keep him on the right path.

And even as a father, it seems that Ozai wasn’t always cold and distant to his children, as his true self depicted in Zuko’s memories on Ember Island shows him caring for both of his children, even holding Zuko close to him with a protective arm on the boy’s shoulder. Except the Agni Kai, there don’t seem to be any instances in which he was physically violent towards his son before the banishment (Iroh literally let Zuko in to join that faithful war meeting willingly. Would’ve he done that if he knew his brother to be very violent towards his children in case they disobeyed? If yes, then it would make Iroh actually very questionable on a moral standpoint) and even on an emotional level, I don’t really think that he was actually abusive to him (at least while Ursa was there) because from Zuko’s conversation with Zhao, he’s adamant that his father will take him back and even states "You don't know how my father feels about me. You don't know anything!", meaning that the father he used to know showed him a level of respect and genuine affection (if Ozai were to bully Zuko since the boy’s very early childhood, do you think this kid would grow up to be so sure that his father wants him around and would he defend this bully when someone badmouths them in front of him?).

Even with Azula, despite people demonizing her from early childhood and saying that she was manipulated since birth by Ozai to become a war machine, I do believe that she shows genuine love and affection towards her father. I do choose to believe that back in the good times when the family was happy, Ozai spent quality time with his daughter, filling in the gap left by Ursa’s neglect. I theorize that the reason why kid Azula badmouthed her grandpa and uncle was because she was being very protective of her father: since she used to like spying and eavesdropping, it’s safe to assume that she prolly witnessed many instances in which the old man bullied or insulted Ozai, favoring Iroh over him. It’s a bit harder to see it that way since her snarky comments involve dark topics, but since they live in a society governed by power and war, I see them as something similar to if Azula would’ve said “Uncle sucks and he will surely be fired from his job!” or “Grandpa is old and weak, he should leave the family business to dad!”. Even the fact that the only thing capable of shattering her to pieces was her father leaving her proves how much she cared for him. Ty Lee and Mai’s betrayal was a big blow on Azula’s control and sanity, but she didn’t breakdown until Ozai discarded her after his coronation as Phoenix King. There’s nothing more painful in this world than to be left behind by the person you loved the most and was there by your side your whole life, whom you wanted to follow to world’s end and back. That was the moment Azula finally realized that the father she used to know and love was actually gone and had been in fact, long gone for years at this point.

But if Ozai cared for his family what made him change? Easy, it all comes back to the fact that his father never acknowledged him. The throne doesn’t seem to be his ultimate goal in life since Ozai discarded of the Fire Lord title very easily, tossing it to Azula without any remorse or hesitation. It was more about the meaning behind getting the crown: replacing Iroh in the line of succession was the ultimate proof of his father’s acceptance, that he wasn’t only a “mistake” and “failure” in his father’s eyes, but since Azulon ended up saying and doing what he did, backfired Ozai and made him understand that no matter how hard he tried, the old man will never see him for what he is. So yeah, for a proud man like Ozai this was a hard defeat to swallow, which in turn sparked his strong desire of winning the war and becoming the king of the world: if Azulon wouldn’t accept him even in death, then Ozai will prove to the whole world that he was above his father and his “perfect” brother by accomplishing what they never could and even better and no one was going to stop him, not even his own family.

This is what differentiates Ozai from Zuko: while both had similar upbringings, Ozai never broke away from his obsession of gaining his father’s admiration, allowing himself to fall prey to the darkness left by Azulon in his heart and abandon his true self, only to become the copy of his abuser, while Zuko stood up to his dad and chose his own destiny. If Aang were to come back around 20 or 30 years earlier, then he might’ve actually been able to save Ozai just like he saved Zuko, but unfortunately it wasn’t this way.

Do I think that Ozai could still be saved and redeemed even after the events of book 3? Definitely! Since he’s actually a broken man and still has a tiny bit of humanity left within, I think he still has a chance to change his heart. The only thing is that it’d be a long lasting process: first off he needs to spend a long time in solitude and reflect on his life’s choices and his past, understand where he went wrong and that what happened to him in his childhood is called abuse, which he ended up replicating on his own children. After he understands his wrongdoings and becomes willing to rediscover his true self, he needs to understand the truth about the war, that everything he’d known was fake propaganda and that there was nothing glorious in what he, his father and Sozin did under the excuse of “sharing their Nation’s greatness with the rest of the world!”. But most importantly of all, the only remedy that could possibly save him is love. It sound cliche, but by responding to hatred with more hate like Zuko did in the comics would never change the world “for the better” or bring it “to reality”. The only way to save both Azula and Ozai would be trough showing them the power of love, hope and empathy, how they don’t have to struggle alone and push everyone away. And especially by redeeming Azula, she would be a very important piece in Ozai’s redemption: since he had a closer parent-child relationship with Azula and cared for her the most when he did care, realizing how much he made her suffer through his actions, that would probably break Ozai enough to make him admit that he was wrong all along.

So yeah, this is my analysis on Ozai’s character using the cannon information from the show and old wikis and why I think he is just the product of a very bad environment and an abusive parent who never showed him love (if there’s a reason for why Ozai might be uncapable of showing a healthy parental love to his children is because you can’t show what you’ve never learnt yourself), being the Zuko of his generation who never got to experience the positive influence of an “Uncle Iroh” to guide him on the right path. 

You can agree with me or not on this one, but this is what I choose to believe. Maybe I am way too good by choosing to see any potential good in anyone, but I feel it’s a better way than to counter hate with more hate like Yang did in his monstrous portrayal of Ozai in The Search.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments and if you agree with anything I’ve said, feel free to leave a like and to reblog this post.

See you next time and stay safe! Bye-Bye!

Saby out.

[jesters-gambit]

i made this account just for this- anyways @howaboutalittlehelpneos heres my 1k word yuya n yuri final duel analysis!

okay, so while they’re very different characters with different personalities, yuri and yuya are actually very similar, in that they share the same core desire: to be loved. however, due to each of their upbringings, this ends up manifesting and developing in different ways.

yuya learns from his dad that love and attention come from making people smile and be happy. yusho is his own bundle of issues, but he teaches yuya that to be loved you have to make others happy and want to love you. everyone loves him, so yuya assumes that if he’s the same, everyone will love him too. thats his issue throughout the series, he has no idea how to exist outside his father.

yuri on the other hand, learns that hes unlovable. he doesnt know HOW to make people love him. leo akaba never ‘loved’ yuri, he just used him, but his attention was the closest he got, so he followed him. the farther he spirals into his sadism, the more he becomes convinced hes unlovable, to the point where he decides, if he cant be loved, he’ll just kill everyone else so its only him. then he’ll be the strongest. because at academia, only the strongest are ‘loved’.

first, id like to say while yuya and yuris duel had a LOT of homoerotic tension, i doubt yuri was actually romantically attracted to yuya, more,,, jealous and confused i think? the same way he feels towards asuka just,,,,,, more, like, much more (doesnt help that hes fruity as shit istg). yuri and yuyas battle was them sort of… abandoning their previous ideals of how to be ‘loved’.

okay, rewind.

lets talk about zarc.

zarc is the EPITOME of the yu-boys desire to be loved in general. he becomes what he becomes because he wants nothing other than to be loved by the audience and the people. he then decides the love of his dragons is more important, and changes for THEIR love instead.

and how do the yu-boys treat zarc?

yuya is, of course, how zarc was at the beginning: naive and only wanting to entertain. he doesnt like who zarc becomes, and resists him, because he still believes in his own version of love. yuri, on the other hand, no longer believes he is lovable (please note that at this point he associates love with strength rather than happiness like yuya), so, when zarc gives him a way to be stronger, of course, he takes it.

however, there is… one thing ive always thought was odd about that.

if they become one… zarc has the power, not yuri. yuri probably knows this, as hes seen berserk yuya and can tell its not quite him. so, then, what was he after? back to the theme of it all, the answer is, of course, love. well, uh, kind of. zarc is giving yuri the chance to be loved, to be understood. its… twisted as shit, but to yuri, ‘being one’ is a chance to finally be loved and have friends. “be loved” and “have friends” are very solidly in quotation marks, because being forced to share a body with someone and become a literal dragon demon thing is probably not actual friendship or love, but, like i said before, yuris got a twisted idea of what that actually is. ‘becoming one’, to yuri, is the best way to get the two (one) things he wants most: love and power.

okay, now flash forward a bit. yuya and yusho are at academia, they now know yuya is part of zarc. i dont know exactly what it is, but something about yushos reaction always… irked me. (this part isnt fact, more vibes and feelings i got from the time, but the way a show makes you feel is as important as its text if you ask me) just, the way he seemed like he would abandon yuya (again) almost immediately is well,,,, uncomfortable to say the least. but yuya is still TRYING, he still loves his dad and wants him back and wants him to love him again.

and then he sees his dad lose, and he realizes maybe he… isnt infallible. and if his dad can lose, maybe… his ideals aren’t perfect.

yuyas duel with yuri, i think, is the first duel he really duels to win. despite how the anime tries to frame it, its clear all yuya wants is vengeance. the reason yuya is able to stay happy and motivated throughout arc-v, no matter how much weight is on his shoulders and everything that’s happening, is because he believed in his father, but, when that belief is broken, he’s just a kid. a tired, sad, angry kid with the weight of the fucking world on his shoulders. he duels yuri, the opposite of his ideals, in one last vain hope of proving his father is still right, but i think, deep down, he knew that maybe it was over. and when he wins, he finally wins, hes tired and afraid and just a kid and i think that maybe for a second, just a quick second, he wonders if ‘becoming one’ is what he might want. he doesnt have the energy or naive belief to hold zarc off anymore, and thats when he loses and zarc wins.

lets get back to my point of the duel really being them ‘abandoning’ their ideals of love against each other. yuri GAINS an idealized version of love through the idea of becoming one, and yuya LOSES an idealized version of love after he loses his dad. and even though yuri lost, i think he affected yuya enough that his ideals sunk in a bit, just enough for zarc to slip in through the cracks.

neither version of love for them was very… healthy. not the ones during their duel or their normal ones, but i just found the fact that they dueled for the same thing in the end was… kind of interesting. i dunno if this has a point or even makes that much sense, but ive been thinking about it a lot. that duel was a clash of ideals between two boys who have pretty unhealthy ideas of love and desperately need therapy, and in hindsight, its kind of sad? many thoughts head full

[gossip-girl-of-middleearth]

Hello! I hope this doesn’t make you uncomfy but I was wondering if I could get a bit of advice? From your recent posts, you said you left your home from toxicity and just bad things in general.

I’m in a similar situation, but my dad will be taking me away from my mom. And I just know it’ll be a shit show. And I’m absolutely terrified when we tell her and what the backlash will be afterwards towards my brothers and me and dad in general

How did you do it? How did you take the leap? Do you possibly have any advice on how to deal ?

Hello, friend!! ☀️

Thank you so much for reaching out, it means a lot that you value my advice <3

Hmm, okay from what I can tell of your situation, that is indeed a tricky one, but nothing can’t be overcome!

It’s important to remember, though, I was 19 when I left (now 20), so the way I handled things is going to be a lot different than how a minor can handle things (legally at least, feel free to replicate my insane stunts lmao)

Advice below the cut! (family violence trigger warning, I suppose?)

My entire family was and is extremely volatile, and I don’t speak to any of them anymore except for my older brother, but I’ll be cutting him off in 3 weeks too when I move.

Fortunately, my dad and brother were both kicked out of the house years ago due to violence, which left me with my mother, who’s quite insidious herself (just watch any Conjuring movie and that’ll give a good idea of what it was like living in that house lol)

I get the same feeling watching this scene as when I was around her in that house. Granted she didn’t try to change my gender, but the hatred for my father getting taken out on me is pretty accurate lol, paired with the immediate “motherly love” afterwards (she never hit me though, pleased to say — she wasn’t physically violent, just emotionally, financially, mentally and verbally. She did try to run my dad over once though, so, there’s that too)

Yikes…yeahh the same eerie feeling for sure, still makes all my hairs stand upright in memory.

(For further context this clip reminds me of my father and this one of my brother)

In the clip about my father, he definitely reminds me of Frank Gallagher, except he despises my mother instead of revering her. He’s a workaholic instead of a drug addict, too. But the mannerisms are the same. I always handled him in the way Fiona does.

Regarding my brother, I think everything about our family hit him the hardest, despite being the oldest. He developed a very violent streak, and has very poor impulse control. I love him dearly but he’s a snake in the grass, and has thrown me under the bus multiple times to get ahead in life. I mostly just pity him, since I know what our life was like growing up. But still, I can’t defend him forever, especially not at the cost of myself. Literally yesterday I woke up to a text from him asking me to come pick him up because he got arrested for starting a fight at a bar and smashing their windows.

When things started getting pretty bad with my mother earlier this year, I started to realise in my heart that there was no way I could go forth in life with her in it. I focused on the future relationships I would have one day when far away from this town — romantic partner, children, friends etc

I sort of realised one day I’d care about them a lot more than I care about my mother, because those future people would care about me. That in turn got me realising that I do deserve love, despite how my mother made me feel, and that I don’t want her to deprive another second of that in my life.

Something very unique that triggered this too was going to go visit an old family psychic, who’s basically just the Gandalf to my Frodo (ily, Chris <3). He very accurately predicted my birth years ago after my mother was told she was infertile — he got the date, year and time right three years in advance, and even knew ahead of time what my personality would be like, which he was spot-on about.

Well, I went and visited him a few months ago because I was lost with my direction, and he ended up pausing and had a sudden feeling, which led to him telling me that he’d just found out I would be having twin boys one day.

Normally I don’t buy into that stuff, but this Gandalf dude…well I knew he was right.

Knowing I’d have sons of my own one day took me from a scared daughter mindset and into a maternal mother bear in an instant, and I knew I didn’t want any children of mine around my mother or the rest of my family, for their safety alone, which made me realise, “Well, if I wouldn’t allow my own children near them, why do I allow myself?”

I started grey-rocking her in the lead-up to me leaving, which of course frustrated her (she’s a malignant narcissist), but it was a necessary step to start emotionally detaching myself from her.

It all bottled over one night after a pretty distressing argument (I had locked myself in my room to avoid it, but she was still at my door carrying on).

My cat, who’s been my best friend for years, was sitting on the floor next to me, and sort of looked up and I swear he spoke with his eyes, saying, “You know we can’t keep doing this, right? You know this abuse has an expiry date?”

I agreed with my cat and knew right then and there that I’d be leaving that night after my mother fell asleep.

Well, when she was finally done (with threats that there’d be more in stock in the morning, mind you) I went to bed early and set my alarm to 3am (was a little inside joke with myself, since that’s biblically the “witching devil hour”)

I started quietly packing my quilt and cat up (I’d already been secretly packing the boot of my car up with all sentimental and important items weeks in advance, except she caught on and took all my baby albums and more to her boyfriend’s house, so I don’t have any baby photos or information on me when I was a baby anymore, like first words, size and just general things I’d have liked to compare to my own kids one day, rip)

Once that was all in my car, I quietly said goodbye to the old family dog and cat (they weren’t mine to take, not that I could’ve anyways, since it was troubling enough taking Buddy, who’s actually my pet and not the family one). That was pretty heartbreaking, as I knew that’d be the last time I’d see them (I grew up with them and was the only one who took care of them — mother neglects kids and pets alike lmao).

Once that was over, I looked around my house with my hand on the front door and was very melancholy, but knew Buddy was right: it had all reached its expiry date.

I left very quietly and drove to McDonalds for a coffee, as I had a long drive ahead (I had organised to be a nanny in this rich family’s house far away in the city — two hours drive). Luckily they were away on their country farm 4 hours away, so I had time to sneak Buddy in.

The nanny thing recently backfired horribly because they discovered Buddy, which led to more AM escapes with my car, but I’m staying with my older brother and his gf for 3 more weeks only. Something I’ve been working towards for months now is moving to a wilderness island to live in my country’s equivalent of Bag End — a beautiful country cottage, amazing job and fantastic study opportunities.

Best feature yet: it’s 60 hours away from my hometown by car, and then you’d have to take a boat for 10 more hours!! They shall never find me hahaha

One of my friends has also told me recently that my mother has started spreading horrible, defamatory rumours about me around town, but I don’t care anymore because I’m almost out.

So, although I can’t offer any practical advice (idk if you’re a minor or not, but regardless it’s great your dad is helping you!) this is the best advice I can offer:

Find a dream and hold onto it, one that doesn’t involve your immediate family. For me it’s moving to that island and enjoying all the fresh air. It’ll push you forwards and remind you of what you’re fighting for when at your lowest.

Remind yourself there will be other people in your life, whether a spouse, friends, children or even a dog! (I’m getting a golden retriever next year 🐾) And then remember that you deserve all of them and the unconditional love they offer you.

Remember that if you don’t want your mother/family screwing those people over by proxy of her/their relationship to you, then there’s no way in hell you alone should put up with it either, as I guarantee those future people only want good things for you ☀️

There is a good life after abuse, I’ve seen it, and I know you can achieve it, too!

Be prepared for tons of backlash and bullshit — it’s inescapable when dealing with people like this, but I recommend educating yourself on narcissistic parents and tactics to deal with them.

Finding a good therapist who deals in PTSD regarding childhood abuse is important, too. I found an amazing one in the town I’m moving to, who had nearly the same upbringing as me!

So while I’m still struggling with a lot of fear (scared my mother will find where I’m working and living one day) and guilt (I feel horrible about leaving the family dog and cat behind, especially when they need veterinary help, only to then go and get myself another puppy) I understand I’ve done the best I can in a very abnormal situation, and that I can only do better from here.

Also, this song has been a saving grace when going all angsty over wanting to leave your current situation:

It’s from my favourite Broadway Musical, “Newsies”, and lemme tell you — discovering this as a 17-year-old when I was just starting to realise the severity of my situation was pure divinity.

Jeremy Jordan, my beloved Broadway Bard <3

When I finally get my cottage, I’m getting a wooden plaque with the name “Santa Fe” engraved on it, and am hanging it on my front door.

I wish you much luck and love, my little anonymous friend! And please know my inbox is open any time you need anything — vent, advice, a laugh or something else, ANYTHING, it feels good to know my past can maybe help someone else’s present ☀️

Please update me, too! I’m following your story along ardently now! (Also, be sure to take your sentimental items and store them somewhere safe away from your mother — ie baby albums, birth certificates, other paraphernalia/memorabilia etc).

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must hit the road. DESTINY AWAITS!

[thinkingaboutrwby]

Slave to the Quill: Salem, Authorship, Control, and the Fallacy of Happy Endings

This post is part one in a four part series on Ozma and Salem called Greater Scale Forces, so expect more from me on the subject in the weeks to come. WARNING - in addition to RWBY, there are small references for the following series: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Bojack Horseman, and Community.

Once upon a time there stood a lonely tower that sheltered a lonely girl named Salem. She was freed by the legendary hero Ozma, who succeeded where warriors before him had failed. Salem wasn’t just rescued by the Ozma by chance. As Fairy Tales of Remnant reveals, Salem wrote her way out of her prison through story and narrative inspired by the fairy tales she had read in her adolescence. She tossed fliers out her window with her story and plight etched in ink to gain a hero’s sympathy. In this way, Salem not only asserted her agency but set up expectations for herself that motivated her grasp for control, inadvertently caused an apocalypse, and more importantly placed “story” and “myth” at the center of Remnant’s development as a fictional setting.

Salem was reared off fairy tales, a result of being trapped in her tower for her formative years. Her socialization was limited to inconsistent visits from her emotionally distant father and her kindly nanny, with no playmates her age. Fairy Tales of Remnant pulls no punches in elaborating on how this affected Salem’s aspirations for life. To quote: “[Salem] lived hundreds of lives through other people’s stories, and [dreamed] of venturing beyond the tower one day, finding true love, and becoming a kind and generous queen with her own castle and daughters” (106). Salem’s dream is a textbook fairytale happy endings, and she wants her life to play out just like the stories she’s read. When her dreams are confirmed in her rescue by Ozma, is it any surprise that his death shattered her in such a way to defy gods? Not only was Ozma her only living emotional connection due to her upbringing, but her rescue had all but confirmed that she deserved a happy ending, that she played a role in which freedom and true love were deserved as per story structure and narrative.

Salem’s actions all arguably move to appeal to fairy tale narrative archetypes in some way. In “The Girl in the Tower” she plays the damsel in distress, nudging her narrative onwards with her fliers but waiting patiently until the day she is rescued. When dealing with the gods, she at first plays the humble acolyte, praising both brothers to get what she wants as one would in a myth. When they curse her instead of raising Ozma, she picks up a different mantle of righteous leader and inspirer. Then after the earth’s destruction she becomes a wanderer, then a witch, and then a goddess. While she vies for freedom, a goal nurtured from her initial entrapment, it is ironic that Salem in some ways traps herself in the confines of the story itself, allowing story structure to trap her into roles that dissuade her from personal growth unique and separate from media archetypes.

In addition to being motivated by fairy tales and trapped in its narrative, Salem also uses narrative and media as a weapon in RWBY. This is addressed in Ozpin’s end notes of “The Girl in the Tower” in Fairy Tales of Remnant when he points out that Salem’s use of fliers to free herself from her tower as a technical form of “propaganda.” While used for a generally tame purpose in this case, Salem’s approach to media and fairy tale as a form of control, as a form of propaganda, only appears to evolve as her experience continues. Her method of influencing fellow humans to rise up against the gods is by storytelling. As we can recall from “The Lost Fable,” Salem lied and weaved a tale in which she stole immortality from the gods to convince other humans against the Brothers Grimm. As a goddess-queen with Ozma 2.0, it is likely she also acted through fairy tale narrative as well. She has statues built up of her and her husband. She depicts them as hero-ruler-gods. During the Fall of Beacon, she has Cinder hijack and take down Remnant’s communications’ systems so the media and narrative is controlled by her agenda. While Salem is ultimately harmed from her reliance on story and narrative, it is interesting that she also finds agency through authorship and through embarrassing narrative (albeit in a toxic way).

Salem’s personal entanglement with the structure of fairy tales is arguably further represented through the use of Remnant as RWBY’s setting. Remnant is a literal reflection of fairy tales with an added dose of realism. While its characters and culture call back to ancient tales, they live more mundane, less magical lives than those we know from the Grimm fairy tales. Being a hero is an occupation. Magic is commodified and sold as dust. In this way, Remnant reflects Salem’s dilemma well. Remnant forces her to further confront a world with wonder that lacks a “fair” narrative with a happy ending. I don’t know what came first, Salem’s backstory or Remnant’s concept as a fairy tale call back itself (likely Remnant?). However, I will make the point that Salem’s backstory fits well into the world of RWBY through her interaction with the medium of fairy tales. I commend CRWBY on this achievement.

I make note that the pattern of a character’s engrossment in story narrative is a recurring flaw in figures in serialized television. I can think of a few examples of this. Rebecca Bunch from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, for example, is an anti-hero influenced by musical convention and genre, drawing her expectations for romantic relationships from pop culture: musicals, boy-bands, and rom-coms. Her delusion with cultural media is shown through the show's musical numbers, meant to play out in Rebecca’s head. Bojack from Bojack Horseman similarly engages with celebrity, film, and Hollywood culture in a similar way, engaging with the media as a literal actor while coincidentally obsessing over celebrity as a child through his obsession with race-horse Secretariat. Abed Nadir from Community also bases his social interactions on the US pop culture he absorbed as a child. I think it’s interesting that all these characters who take their cues from the media of their childhood also had traumatic and abusive upbringings (I won’t spoil though). In this way, media takes adjacent blame with these characters’ guardians for misbehavior, ranging from awkward to harmful to world-ending. How these characters evolve through these shows and their changing relationship with the media they rely on provide meta commentary on our individual relationship with culture and story. Rebecca Bunch learns to use pop music as a way to counter romantic expectations for women rather than embrace them as pop music is usually used, a positive message about our relationship with story and media. Bojack’s ending is left ambiguous, but Hollywood’s sway on him is definitely a toxic presence, leading us to believe we should consider rejecting this institution. Abed learns to combine his pop culture obsession with real relationships and become appreciated as a person and better interact with others (also a more hopeful message about media and story).

Like all these character’s before, what does Salem’s story tell us? What will it tell us as more seasons of RWBY come out? Certainly, RWBY doesn’t have a toxic view of fairy tales. Our principal protagonists are positively inspired by them. Ruby wants to be a hero like in all the stories she’s read. Ozpin collects a book of stories from multiple locations from multiple stories. I think where we see the difference is how our protagonists interact with fairytales and how our antagonists (or specifically those under Salem’s mentality) do. Ruby, Ozpin, and our heroes follow fairy tales as a moral standard. The aspire to have good triumph and act to a higher standard through effort and sacrifice. Salem uses fairy tales as a form of wish-fulfilment and totalitarian  control. I think the inherent message of RWBY is that we need to respect the lessons learned through story but abandon the structure and endings stories give us. Act like a hero, but live a real life. And, at the same time, be wary of the narratives that surround you. Don’t just copy a narrative, understand the narratives produced and adhere to the best and wisest ones. Think through a text, don’t just take it at face value. That’s the lesson we should learn from Salem’s mistakes.

Let me know your thoughts and if you think I missed anything. Expect Part 2 -  The Circle: Oz, Identity, Myth, and The Hero’s Journey, within a week.

[dropintomanga]

Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia - 2 Sides of the Same Coin?

Whenever you hear about Koyoharu Gotoge’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, you tend to hear about the records the series has smashed in Japan since the anime adaptation aired. From taking over entire top 20 Oricon manga charts to being one of Japan’s most highly grossed movies ever to influencing political campaigns, Demon Slayer is a once-in-a-lifetime hit that captivated an entire nation. (Oh, and Gotoge is the 1st mangaka ever selected for the Time 100 Next list)

However, outside of Japan, Demon Slayer isn’t as popular as one of its other Shonen Jump brethren, Kohei Horikoshi’s My Hero Academia. Demon Slayer still sells well and fans love the series over here in The United States, but manga sales charts are filled with more My Hero Academia volumes than Demon Slayer volumes.

I’ve been thinking about both series’ popularity in the context of the East versus West dynamic.

As cultural experts will tell you, Western principles are built on a sense of individualism. You deserve the freedom to choose your own path. You can make it on your own. No one should get in the way of what you want. Eastern principles are all about collectivism. Make sacrifices for the prosperity of the group. Don’t do anything that hurts other people around you. The world doesn’t revolve around you.

When I think about My Hero Academia, it makes sense that Western fans love it a bit/lot more than Demon Slayer. We all want to be heroes of our story. We want to be more than who we are. It’s about youth who are focusing on their own growth and getting away from their comfort zones to find new opportunities to become stronger.

Demon Slayer isn’t about being a hero. It’s about a guy who wanted to make his demon sister human again. He’s not interested in being the absolute best to save the world. While saving Japan ends up being a consequence of his actions, family is what’s important to main lead Tanjiro Kamado. Also, superheroes aren’t nearly as popular in Japan compared to here (with the exception of Spider-Man). 

There was a book I read, Amaia Arrazola’s Tokyo Travel Sketchbook, that briefly discussed the Japanese conventional idea about family. Post-WWII, Japan promoted the idea that it was going to take women to stay home and take care of the home life while the men went out to be the breadwinners. Japan had to, since it had to take everyone together to rebuild the country. However, after the real estate bubble of the 1980s’ was burst, the idea of family being the center really fell apart as Japanese men lost their status as breadwinners due to jobs being finite and gone.

I also remember reading about the history of Western influence in Japan. There’s been a bunch of debate about whether Japan truly embraced Western ideals. To be fair, a lot of voices that claim Western influence being high in non-Western countries tend to be Westerners themselves. Japanese voices on Western ideals may have been been misunderstood in the first place. Demon Slayer takes place during a time of transition where modernity was growing in Japan, while My Hero Academia uses the Western love of comic book superheroes as its basis for its story.

When I think about Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia’s popularities in different parts of the world, it’s perhaps the Western vs. Eastern view of how striving for new opportunities often means loss of community. In My Hero Academia, we do see the psychological effects of bad family influence due to the relentless pursuit of status in a modern world. I saw this mostly early on with Shoto Todoroki (this is being explored even further with the rest of his family as of this writing) and much later in the series with Tomura Shigaraki’s past being revealed.

I noticed that a lot of things are blamed on bad parenting (especially in Western culture). A lot of psychological help does suggest that the family has a big role in influencing a child’s development. However, are they to blame for everything? Outside factors, like social inequality, do play a role. Endeavor, the father of Shoto and top 2 hero at the time, had to deal with so much perceived inequality (i.e. being compared to All Might) that it drove him to abuse his own family. When Deku told Shoto that that his power was his alone regardless of his upbringing, Shoto saw that he was in a place of equality since he was in a supporting environment among his peers compared to his dad. He’s started to understand how life experiences with other people and circumstances can change someone for better or worse as he reluctantly re-connects with Endeavor (who’s trying to redeem himself). 

With Demon Slayer, there’s the infamous Spider Family arc, where the villain, Rui, created a fake family in order to fill a void in their life as a demon. Rui ends up abusing their “family” to drive their superiority. They killed their parents at a young age while they were still human due to a fear of not being loved by them. The whole point of the arc was that everyone deserves some kind of loving family in their life. It’s hard to get through life by yourself even when you’re an independent spirit. I do feel though that certain relationships with family members/friends should be cut off if they are abusive like the case with Rui’s. There’s even more stories similar to this with the rest of the Twelve Moon demons (especially another family-related one with the arc that will be featured in Season 2 of the anime, which I might discuss later this year).

My Hero Academia is about moving forward with some reflection. Strive to be a hero of your life. Don’t think of the consequences as long as you’re saving innocent lives. Demon Slayer is also about moving forward, but remembering that there are points in your life where you need authentic connection and that bad people are still human beings who just feel disconnected from the world.

It also feels like both series address the issue of what connection-seeking traditions to pass on to newer generations that feel family/friendship seem lacking today. In My Hero Academia, there’s All for One’s desires to have successors to pass on his Quirk to even if they are dangerous. In Demon Slayer, there’s Kagaya Ubuyashiki, leader of the Demon Slayer Corps, who wanted to end his family’s curse and realizing over time that demons who wanted to fight back (like Tanjiro’s sister, Nezuko) against Muzan Kibutsuji should live. As someone who’s a Chinese-American, I've thought about what I could pass on as my culture has millennia of history and it does feel like age-old traditions/rituals are being passed over for materialistic convenience. 

I do think it comes down to whether we pass on values or beliefs. Beliefs are basically “What’s good? What’s bad? This is real to me even if it’s not to anyone else!” There’s way too much emphasis on them. Beliefs tend to be very binary because people are often more than just their beliefs. Values are just abstract rules to everyday life and don’t involve personal beliefs. I feel like not enough emphasis is focused on values. For example, things like compassion and respect are values, not beliefs. I had to embrace what values I had to finally grow as a person because some of the beliefs I held to in my mind were hurting me. 

Demon Slayer leans more toward appreciating values (usually ones that appeal to the Japanese mindset) due to Tanjiro’s personality, although My Hero Academia is a mix of appreciating both beliefs and values. While I do wish that “values > beliefs”, My Hero Academia does have some good insight on how beliefs can shape/warp values for both sides. 

Both series take a look at the tension between family and the self in their own ways. It’s much more so with Demon Slayer due to how much the concept of family was important in the growth of Japan in the past. I think we can agree that while there are cultural differences in handling it, the idea of family is lost on both sides of the world. American and Japanese cultures aren’t very tolerate of “gray zones” (i.e. illegal immigrants who have families, sex workers who have families, etc.) and want life to be more black or white. That’s why many fans who don’t feel accepted for who they are look to other outlets for some kind of family that will accept them.

Healthy families of all kinds lead to stronger communities that in turn lead to a better world for everyone. I sometimes feel that modernity does family no favors. It’s fine to grow, but constant growth without self-reflection becomes harmful. Plus, family always comes back to affect you one way or another. You can’t ever fully get away from family as they’re the starting point to everyone’s life. 

The only thing I can say is accept that your family/community, good and/or bad, is a part of your identity when you have conflicting thoughts and then take it from there. Denying that is just like trying to hide all your problems instead of dealing with them. It never ends well.

Blood is thicker than water and as both Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia show, when it’s shed, it can lead to disastrous consequences - both individually and collectively.

[fannishcodex]

some more rambling/venting thoughts: Talking it Out Works Better than Turning Your Baby into a Hybrid

Kipo is half human half mute because Lio and Song, who were both completely human at the time, made her that way through experimentation and genetic engineering. Kipo is mixed race because she has a Black father and Korean mother who loved each other. There should be no mixed race metaphor because Kipo was genetically engineered half human half mute due to the scientific experiments of her human parents. There are potential metaphors and commentary for the abuse of science as a shortcut over engaging with others found in the concept of Kipo being genetically engineered to be half human half mute.

Burrow humans seem to regularly hold the belief that they cannot live safely on the surface. Lio and Song started Project Kipo with the goal that their genetically engineered daughter/experiment could make the surface safe for humans. They are of course making huge decisions about their daughter's life and future without her consent and are forcing their ambitions on her before she's even born, but that's not exactly the main thing this time and another meta post.

Years later Kipo makes more progress with mutes not because of her genetically engineered hybrid status, but because she's Kipo. Because of herself. Because of her willingness to communicate, emotionally engage with others and listen to them. Kipo starts making more progress with a number of mutes than anyone else by engaging with them, dealing with communication/negotiation/sympathy/etc. while under the lifelong held belief that she's entirely human and still visibly appearing human. Kipo herself even remarks that all her life she's been told the surface is a horrible, dangerous place--and Kipo does learn it's threatening, but she also learns about the wonders of it too, and generally moves past her fears and the prejudices the Clover Burrow tried to teach her when she engages with the likes of the Timber Cats, Umlaut snakes, and Jamack, and finds their better sides or encourage them to start changing. Kipo continues to make more progress with mutes by continuing to do the work of engaging and communicating with them. Kipo's artificial hybrid status as half human half mute doesn't often play a huge factor in true engagement with mutes, other than some practical uses that still often support a broader effort to emotionally engage with others, and sometimes also are in response to the long-reaching consequences of her parents' actions; and again, her genetically engineered mega mute--not just mute, but mega mute--apex predator traits are volatile, threatening herself and others. What ends up mattering more to mutes and progress with them are Kipo's actual efforts to reach out to them as fellow sentient individuals with their own feelings. Lio and Song did not show signs of actually wanting to reach out to mutes when creating Project Kipo. They wanted Project Kipo to make the surface safe for humans, presumably safe from mutes, or "the Other." They wanted security for humans, not actual engagement with mutes. Their decision to not take away intelligence from mutes did not lead to them wanting to try to fully engage with mutes as fellow sentient beings; they started thinking of another way science could be used to more quickly improve the life and status of burrow humans and bypass engaging with mutes and even safeguarding against the "automatic danger" of mutes. Let's dissect the safety/threat of the surface for a bit. Burrow humans often act like the surface is not safe for them, presumably because of mutes, and they have to live deep underground in their burrows. The surface is truly dangerous, and mostly mutes live there now with so many humans apparently going underground--but the surface isn't that much safer for mutes either. Mutes do fight amongst each other. They have mega mutes and other wild, non-sentient mutes to deal with. There are other environmental dangers to face. Hugo was shown no mercy on the surface even though he was a mute, and had to literally fight for any basic acceptance from other mute primates. (Thanks to @lemonadesoda for the latter point.) And the root cause for Hugo/Scarlemagne eventually making the surface more dangerous for humans is the consequence of insanely oppressive/cruel/abusive treatment he suffered since his birth from burrow humans; it was suffering he endured while young and impressionable and still developing, and so it heavily warped him; his restrictive and abusive upbringing while young left him with a limited understanding of humans and a negative response to them, and he had no reason to believe differently after that or even try to look at things differently, and no one to try showing him differently, and that went on uninterrupted for about 13 years, further warping him. Like, I can't ignore that in an ongoing fictional story. Hugo/Scarlemagne would not have done that if he hadn't been so hurt and traumatized since birth by Emilia and several humans in the DNA Burrow. And again, a lot of Hugo/Scarlemagne's suffering at the hands of humans is because they wanted to revert mutes and go back to the status quo and make the surface safe for humans. Because of a refusal to engage with mutes as fellow sentient beings and instead treating them with fear/prejudice/rejection for the "danger" they pose. Mega mutes also seem like literally the biggest danger. Lio and Song's reactions indicate they're probably the biggest motivation for humans to go underground. But the mega mutes so far have not been shown to be malicious. They do seem like normal animals, but largely more dangerous because of their size. With centuries into this mutation, mega mutes just seem like a part of life now. Other mutes largely don't go deep underground to avoid them, but live with them on the surface. Why can't humans do the same at this point? I suppose what I'm saying is that burrow humans seem to act like the surface is barred from them and it's impossible to live there as it is, and that mutes reign; but the mutes are dealing with similar surface threats and are living there regardless. It's not impossible for humans. It's especially not impossible if humans tried to engage with mutes more instead of fearing them so. Also may seem a little...too privileged? Like humans--some humans--apparently can live underground in burrows; that doesn't seem like an option for mutes. The surface isn't just dangerous, it's very much not to the liking of humans at all and doesn't center them at all anymore; humans are not largely in charge on the surface like they were 200+ years ago. Instead of trying to deal with the surface as it is now and their new sentient mute neighbors, a number of humans seemed to have just packed up and left and went underground, and some of these burrow humans even plot to remove the intelligence of *newly sentient beings like the mutes (relatively newly sentient, like within a span of about 200+ years apparently). I do think largely mute distaste for humans at this point is more a cultural thing passed down through generations, especially since mutes don't seem to have any regular contact with humans. In contrast, Hugo/Scarlemagne has direct experience with humans, and it was a damaging experience, making his hate for them more personal and amplifying his negative response to them; Hugo/Scarlemagne has more reason to hate (and arguably even fear) humans. But I think the larger mute cultural distaste for humans is rooted in experiences similar to Hugo/Scarlemagne's, that it originally came from mutated animals who remembered suffering under humans, or experienced new suffering under humans; but through the following generations that somewhat faded and became more a matter of culture/tradition for mutes, connected to mutes' lessened exposure to humans. But now I do also wonder if the average mute population also might resent humans for hiding underground to be "safe." Like every other mute they know lives on the surface and deals with its danger; but oh no, not humans, they largely have to stay underground for their own "safety." Also I guess I just keep thinking, "Wow, Kipo seems to progress a lot with mutes by actually talking with them and learning about them! ...Has any other human ever just tried talking to them before??" Speaking of, Benson and Dave are a great example of human-mute engagement and friendship on the surface. Other than promoting Ratland, they may not have shown as much willingness as Kipo to try engaging with others*, but Benson and Dave are a big example of a strong personal connection that can happen between humans and mutes when they engage. Speaking of, also Ratland is another example of an actual effort of human-mute engagement.  *But Benson and Dave also have surface/survivor upbringings versus Kipo's sheltered burrow upbringing with a parent and a long standing community. But many humans, including Lio and Song (especially from before), show an unwillingness to really try engaging with mutes and regard them more with fear; and sometimes implied to think them as lesser, like of course they're so-and-so-and-a-threat, of course we have to fear them. It's even suggested in how Lio and Song continue to treat Hugo. When the formula finally works on Hugo, it motivates them to change their minds about taking intelligence away from mutes, but they still apparently maintain other arguably troubling attitudes. Again, they choose human experimentation over trying to actually talk to and engage with mutes. After they decide they don't want to be a part of the effort to revert mutes, do Lio and Song try to get Hugo out of the awful situation they're complicit in maintaining? No, they again go for human experimentation instead and continue to be complicit in Hugo's imprisonment until they're ready with an alternative for humans to live "safely" on the surface. They make Hugo wait, they do not prioritize him or his new status as a sentient mute; the greater good and "safety" of humanity takes precedence over the welfare of one mute. (Like Lio and Song are not on Emilia's level, but I think they're an example of the layers that can happen in something like this; Lio and Song are not as terrible to mutes as Emilia is, but I think that, for example, they don't or didn't actually respect mutes that much.) Kipo is also not a potential bridge between mutes and humans because she's half human half mute. Kipo cannot even meaningfully engage on a cultural level as half human and half mute because her whole life she was culturally raised as only a burrow human. She's learning more about mutes, but still culturally as a burrow human outsider. She doesn't have enough lived experience to meaningfully reach out to both human and mute cultures because she spent most of her life culturally as only a burrow human, and never even had to deal with growing up with a half human half mute identity; and she's an artificially made hybrid due to scientific experimentation conducted by her human parents, not the child of human and mute cultures truly engaging with each other, Kipo is not the child of a human parent and a mute parent. Lio and Song genetically engineered mute DNA into Kipo in the interests of making the surface safe for humans, and did not think of true engagement or communication with mutes and their culture. They probably didn't even consider mutes having a culture and society, etc. They only saw the physical benefit of mute DNA as something useful to ensure human "safety" on the surface, but didn't look at mutes as fully formed sentient beings with multiple layers to them. (*The entirety of Project Kipo is flawed and poorly thought out. Why not at least average mute DNA instead of going straight to mega mute DNA for an already risky experiment on your own child? They probably went straight for mega mute as the highest safeguard against other mega mutes. And they probably went with apex predator mega mute DNA to make the safeguard against other mega mutes even stronger. But there seems to be the heavy risk of an apex predator mega mute also seeing humans as prey and turning against them too. And the risk of that seems to be even more implied now that it's known that half mute-humans can lose themselves to mega mute side. And jaguars are again carnivorous predators. So. Just. I don't think Lio and Song thought this through at all and it's had poor consequences for everyone.) But Lio does end up raising Kipo as more his daughter than an experiment, and he did care for her and kept her mostly safe until the past came back to bite them with Emilia using mind controlled mega mute monkey Song to attack the Clover Burrow, and the mega mute jaguar traits making a comeback in a big way and exposing Kipo to losing her mind in mega mute mode and other traumas and dangers. (Would Emilia target Kipo like this at all if Kipo were a normal human?) But Lio is in a way still not as open as Kipo, or needs her help and/or reminders from her to try to be more open. I think Lio was able to create an environment where Kipo could come to her own and learn to be open herself. So a pro for him there, but Lio (and Song) again still made numerous other mistakes with severe consequences for both Kipo and Hugo/Scarlemagne, and a lot of others too actually (Emilia is using Project Kipo research after all). So Lio helped give Kipo a loving and safe enough upbringing for about 12 years before the consequences of his and Song's actions caught up with them; and Kipo was able to develop to the point that actually the most important thing she can offer is being herself, not the artificially hybrid half human half mute status forced on her.  I suppose what I'm also saying is that Lio and Song really unnecessarily experimented on their daughter, changed her body without her consent and forced these ambitions on her without her consent, tried to use science as a shortcut focused on only improving the status of humans, instead of trying to actually engage with mutes as fellow sentient beings in an ongoing dialogue and relationship. I'm saying that Kipo is doing what her parents and a lot of other humans should have tried before: talk to and engage with mutes on an emotional level. I'm saying that Kipo didn't need to be experimented on and genetically engineered into an artificial half human half mute hybrid for that. I guess what I'm saying is: Human Experimentation or Sending out a Peacekeeping Delegation to Mute Factions (Talk to Mutes)?? And Lio and Song went with human experimentation. (I love that the show has made me think about stuff like this. Lio and Song are very interesting and part of that is because they've screwed up so much, and they'll be even more interesting if the narrative ends up really acknowledging this. Also I felt he was relevant, but I also could not resist Hugo/Scarlemagne thoughts, I love him.)

[pretchatta]

@cameoamalthea made a post about Bo-Katan and I have Many Thoughts, but for ease of reading I’ve put my response here under the read more! (warning: spoilers for the whole of season 2 of The Mandalorian)

Why Ahsoka still supports Bo-Katan is a GREAT question (that I actually started thinking about earlier today), but first, I want to talk about the rest of Bo's past - she is NOT a good person. She's definitely a Yasha Greyjoy, believing in the conquering, predatory supremacy of the Mandalorians, and something I'm exploring in a fic series I'm currently writing is how she came to be that way.

I think it was mentioned somewhere that Satine's father was Duke of Mandalore before she was Duchess, and it was him who started the pacifist New Mandalorian government. I don't know if this is a hereditary-monarchy kinda situation or more democratic, but my interpretation is "there are sort of royal families and even though there technically are elections, it's always Clan Kryze or Vizsla or similar who get elected". My headcanon is that Satine was the eldest child and so groomed to take the throne, while Bo was sort of pushed to the side in very typical second-child fashion. So she grew up with a fair amount of internalised resentment towards her family, and then at some point fell in with some more traditional Mandalorians, and from there it was all too easy to oppose her father and sister and everything they stood for.

So, she believes Mandalorians are top-of-the-food-chain warriors, and that it's perfectly okay to burn villages, kill helpless people, and smack the butt of any skinny torgruta kid who shows up unannounced. She's a Bad Person. She’s also so committed to this ideology that she’s willing to team up with a former Sith and a bunch of criminals to get what she wants. But then Maul kills Vizsla, and declares himself leader of Death Watch and Mandalore, and this is her limit - as you said, not because he's bad, but because he's not Mandalorian. (It was at this point that I, as an audience member, really started to like her - the cool female lieutennant is standing up to a bad guy! And it's for a reason that isn't "this is morally wrong and I have developed a conscience"! I love that, because after a while that does get a bit boring.) So now she's fighting Maul, and we know the Jedi are also fighting Maul, so it makes perfect sense for them to team up against their common enemy who is far stronger than each of them.

I then think that during the Siege of Mandalore she has a bit of an internal crisis. Before, when the Shadow Collective were pretending to invade so Death Watch could save the day, yes there were Mandalorians being hurt, but it was all under control, it was just a pretend invasion, after all. Now, however, everything is much more real - the war is now on Mandalore, her home, and it's hurting her people, and there's nothing she can do to stop it without more fighting. It's actually partly her fault, because she was part of Death Watch, and they set this whole thing in motion. So she then sees Ahsoka, who is committed to peace, take out Maul with no casualties (up until this point, most if not all of the Maul fights she's seen either involve decapitation or lots of explosions - if she'd tried to take him, a lot of people would have died in the fight, both soldiers and innocents). She's also been part of the desperate fighting in the streets, and I think she's finally starting to realise that maybe Satine was right - their people can't take much more of this, because they're going to destroy themselves. Maybe they should think about less combative ways to rule themselves? She says “I wish I was good at something other than war” and then “My sister tried that. I never understood her idealism” and I always thought there was an unsaid “until now” at the end of that second one - she wants to be what Mandalore needs, and she’s realising that might not be a warrior.

But for now, they need to get through this, and that means fighting off the crime syndicates that are literally in their streets, that means accepting the help of the Republic and its soldiers, and it eventually means Bo-Katan herself taking up the position of ruler of Mandalore. We know that doesn’t last long, because Saxon and the Empire rise up to take it from her, but then Sabine finds the Darksaber and unifies the clans. Bo says “I had my chance to rule, and I failed. I am not my sister. I am not the leader you seek” - she’s definitely done some reflecting on maybe-Satine-was-right-after-all, and starting to realise how badly she’s messed up. But as you say, Sabine and the other clans push her into accepting the Darksaber and the throne.

Now I (finally) come to Ahsoka. Ahsoka saw Death Watch Bo - she directly saw her burning the village, and she also saw the effects Death Watch’s attempts at taking over had on Mandalore when she went to help weed out corruption in Sundari. Yes, a lot of it was due to the war, but a lot of those problems were definitely exacerbated by Death Watch’s actions and presence. Ahsoka then teamed up with her to fight Maul - ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ - and on my first watch I didn’t think much of her saying “I’ve learned from the best, including you.” I was too busy thinking “yeah, Bo-Katan IS the best!” but on my second watch - why does Ahsoka think she’s ‘the best’? Did she see something that we, the audience, did not? The Clone Wars didn’t show us any scenes with just Ahsoka and Bo before the fighting started - perhaps they had a conversation where Ahsoka confronted Bo about the terrible things in her past, and Bo explained that she was misguided and regretted it and was trying to do what was best for her people now. That would make sense.

Because then, in The Mandalorian, Bo directs Din to Ahsoka (edit: and she does it very specifically, too - usually in Star Wars you get a system, maybe a planet, but Bo knows the exact city). Why would she even know where Ahsoka is? They didn’t interact in the Rebels arc. From what we see of Ahsoka, Tython Corvus isn’t even her permanent residence, she’s just there to help one village tiny city and get information out of someone. So why does Bo have very recent information on her location? The only answer is that they must be allies who share that information willingly. And since the character of Ahsoka is Good, her allies must also be - unless they’ve made another temporary arrangement to team up and defeat a common enemy. But Bo is hunting Gideon and Ahsoka is hunting Thrawn (I am unbelievably excited) so they’re apparently on different quests. Which means... they must be friends.

In the episode The Heiress, Bo acts pretty okay. Yeah, she calls Din’s way of life a cult and is kinda rude about it, but it’s in response to him literally telling her she’s not a Mandalorian as, like, the first thing he says to her, and there are a lot of people out there who are rude and dismissive of someone’s way of life/upbringing without being Inherently Evil and Bad. Her motivations in that episode are: save a fellow Mandalorian, who might also be able to help her find and fight Gideon, and find and fight Gideon. She’s not interested in helping Din on his side-quest to reunite a child with his people - she feels the struggle for Mandalore is more important than one child. 

In the episode The Rescue, however, she definitely goes out of her way to insult Boba and Jango completely unneccessary. Maybe she has a valid reason to dislike clones? I don’t think it would have anything to do with the Republic/Empire’s takeover of Mandalore - that wasn’t the clones’ fault*. She asked for Republic help, and then it was Palpatine and Saxon who kept them there. However, other than that, I don’t think she did much wrong? She still has the single-minded determination to duel Gideon and retake the Darksaber, which she might feel a need to do this time around because she has to prove - to herself, to Mandalore, to everyone - that she’s worthy of it. But for her, even though she’s accepted that maybe pacifism is okay, Mandalore is still pretty high up on her priority list, so it comes ahead of Din, Grogu and the New Republic.

So future seasons have a lot to answer for:

Why is Ahsoka willingly allied with Bo-Katan, given that Bo has never done anything objectively good/anything that wasn’t motivated by a need to see Mandalore ruled by Mandalorians wearing beskar?

Why does Bo hate the Fetts so much?

How will Bo handle Din having possession of the Darksaber now?

(edit: the below was added after posting)

* Why I don’t think it’s the clones’ fault: Bo knew what she was doing when she invited the Republic to help her retake Mandalore. Obi-Wan specifically asked her about it, and she said she would deal with it later. She knew that by using Republic gunships and clones the Senate would take an interest in Mandalore, and it would be seen as Mandalore allying itself with the Republic. When the Republic then became the Empire, the clones would either have simply continued serving the Senate - formerly Republic, now Imperial - or been decommissioned, in which case the Senate would have sent an alternative force to represent its interests. Unless there’s a specific mention of this in canon that I’m missing, the clones would only have been following orders from the Senate, and that would have been very clear to the Mandalorians. Any betrayal of Mandalore came from the Empire not leaving after Maul was defeated, not the clones spontaneously deciding that now the Republic was gone, they’re free men, they can choose between Mandalore and the Empire, and they choose the Empire.

Bo specifically has it out for Jango and Boba for some reason. I think she knows who Boba is, and that he’s not just any clone - I’ve seen several posts on this but the most obvious is that Boba was a pretty high-profile bounty hunter in the OT who she must have heard of. I think it’s something around how she percieves Jango’s Mandalorian-ness, his status as Boba’s father and the process of cloning in general, and therefore Boba’s claim to any Mandalorian armour, heritage and identity.