#incomprehensible ​ranting ->

[caifanes]

the version of hq!! i’m watching has a far better quality of translation than the one i saw in 2015 so i have a better handle of the game logistics but as far as interpersonal dialogue, it’s much more committed to translating the emotion of the vocal performance rather than just the words, but it’s still not overly westernized that it’s scraping to equate certain cultural signals

[liedownquisition]

Every time someone, whether in-universe or in meta tries to say that Jason's a "loner" I think about two things:

First of all, the fact that Bruce is frequently referred to as a loner, both in universe and out, as if he doesn't literally constantly have his emotional support child and a rotating cast of lovers (sometimes multiple in any given story at once). In this instance, it's used to try and make Bruce seem "cool," which whatever ig.

Batman #359, which, is so fucking funny to me because this is before Batgirl and Talia showed up in this story. Catwoman too. It was a real fucking ensemble. He's berating himself for snapping at Dick, and sending some civilians (The Todds btw) to die, against Dick's advice, because he's being bitchy about Catwoman. Like, my man, you have a mental breakdown every time you're truly alone. You're not a loner but maybe you should be.

Secondly, is Jason a loner or is he just always alone and isolated? Is he a loner or does he just not know how to be any other way? Jason consistently through both pre- and post-crisis express a lot of desire to be around other people/build connections, as well as referencing factors that isolate him from them. (I'm not sourcing every incident here but here's Jay trying to bond with Bruce right after he gets taken in, and some stuff wrt Jason at school)

Detective #527 (Pre-Crisis)

Batman#395 (Pre-Crisis. This is him being jealous of Catwoman, sure, but given how often in this arc it's referenced that he's isolated from the other kids in school- despite being on some kind of presumably sports team. I think it's baseball? I'm trying to find the exact issue that it actually SHOWS him on said team but it is referenced in the issues leading up to when they switch over the histories.)

Batman Annual #12 (This is Post-Crisis)

In Brothers in Blood Jason's trying to reach out to Dick. I'm not saying he did it the right way or that Dick was wrong for rejecting that, but he did literally expressly say that he was trying to reach out to him. in his brief period that he worked with the Titans, it's explicitly stated that he'd had to sneak out from under Batman's nose to join up with them. Jason has a sparse few interactions with mostly adult heroes in Pre-Crisis and the only hero his age he gets to meet is Kid Devil/Eddie Bloomberg and that's nebulously canon or not since Pre/Post-Crisis was a soft, slowly rolled out reboot where they changed a lot of things in retrospect but also implicitly kept others. (N52 was also like this but I get the impression Crisis was marginally more organized.)

UtH was Jason reaching out to Bruce for connection. Again, not really the right way to go about it but he pretty obviously/expressly wanted affirmation that his relationship with Bruce DID matter to someone other than himself because he felt it had been stripped from him and false.

Someone who keeps reaching out to other people, but gets rejected because they did it wrong, is not a loner.

When those attempts fail and he reaches out less and less, that's not loner behavior, that's lonely behavior, maybe even a dash of self-loathing. When he starts sabotaging his relationships further he thinks they're already fucked, that's not loner behavior, that's bad coping mechanisms for childhood trauma. I don't care that they state it exactly that he's some kind of "loner," his actions don't agree with that statement.

Is his status something of a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point? Yeah. I keep seeing people refer to him this way and, jesus. y'all wanna ostracize him so badly sometimes. You don't want him here you don't want him there. You use the "loner" rhetoric to enforce the idea that his isolation is a good thing that he wants. They use it IN UNIVERSE from the mouths of characters who have biased views about him.

If he's such a loner why does he keep going back? Why does he answer every call? Like a beaten, but unfortunately faithful dog that can't help but return to their abusive master.

[sha-brytols]

see i think he's right in that there is no actual discernable line between Anders and Justice but i think it's a little bit more complex than that because. well obviously we see moments where justice just straight up takes control of anders body like in the fade or the quest with ser alrik or his rivalry path. but i also feel like a lot of the things anders says and does is not entirely just him. like.

okay so justice has a very distinctive style of speech. very verbose. rarely (if ever) uses contractions. has a very declarative style and frequently speaks in terms of absolutes. "It was your condemnation of their race that led to your folly" and "This is a mortal body of flesh! I am trapped within!" it's a very similar, albeit less poetic, manner of speech to that of cole's. their mannerisms are very reminiscent of someone whose grasp of communication is limited to the abstract (if that makes sense.?) so their speech feels unique in that it's more visceral and conveys a certain Feeling in the player. while cole's is more flowery and evocative, justice's speech is direct and forceful.

and as we know anders in awakening, he talks more casually, much more carefree, upbeat, very informal and uses more colloquialisms in his speech. "Erm... i didn't do it?" and "Whoa. She's talking to me. Voluntarily." he's literally the most unserious man in the world and honestly talks more like the class clown from your college frat party than a fantasy wizard.

i think this is most apparent when you see him and justice talking to each other:

justice is very no-nonsense and straightforward and really super does not fucking appreciate anders' cheeky attitude, while anders is borderline obnoxious and seems to enjoy being a smartass for the fun of it.

so like. in da2 we know that for the Most part, the smarm and glibness has been very toned down and anders is now more somber and subdued. he's also become more romantic (both in the literal sense as well as in the literary sense) and idealistic. he seems to have settled in a middle ground between polite and familiar and his tone is less playful and more earnest. he's also become a lot more respectful with how he talks about religion, compared to how he casually wonders if andraste was actually ugly or something in awakening (interesting thing to note: we know for a fact that justice actually believes in the maker and also has a deep respect for mortal faith)

so my personal interpretation of the justice/anders dynamic is that they kind of exist on a spectrum of sorts. one side being "mostly anders" and the other side being "mostly justice" with his default state being right smack in the middle. something that immediately stuck with me when i got it was anders' reaction in aveline's act 2 quest

maybe i'm insane and overthinking it but. this is just such a fucking abnormal response to a cute goofy "oh no how do i get this guy to like me?!" conversation that i can't not immediately think. hi justice.

her banter i think also provides a pretty perfect example of this

hi justice ^_^

hi anders ^_^

so my interpretation has always been that like. while i do believe for the most part they are genuinely "one" as anders claims, it's pretty clear to me that there is still a small divide between them, but it's more like in the way purple is always a mix of red and blue, but sometimes purple is more blue than red. and sometimes it's more red than blue. they aren't entirely separate from one another, but you can clearly see which is the strongest at any given time.

am i making sense. is anyone here. can you hear me. hello

[musicalmoritz]

The amazing thing about Leorio is that he is objectively a really good person, a shining example of morality in a manga that highlights human greed…but he is not the type of guy you’d expect to be a good person. That’s his whole bit, he presents himself as this really superficial dude at first and he comes off as really annoying, but when you look even slightly beneath the surface the guy has a heart of gold. And that is exactly where people go wrong with their characterization of him

Because, like, you have to balance all these qualities. The guy who was willing to throw the Hunger Exam to stop a child from fighting a dangerous opponent is the same guy who, in the same arc, intentionally lost a gamble and gave up 10 hours so he could touch a woman. He has a short temper and he makes quick assumptions about people and he’s led more by emotion than logic and he is perverted and he is prideful and frankly a little arrogant but he is also crazy protective of his friends and keeps a picture of them on his desk and he’s very emotional and eventually learns how to be honest and his entire moral code is founded upon the premise that no one should have to pay for medical treatment. Since Leorio isn’t as popular as the rest of the main 4, fans tend to lean too much into one side of his personality. Either he’s a useless idiot who wasted 50 of their hours or he is hopelessly kind and can do no wrong. And neither of these characterizations are correct

The impact of his character is that he represents morality whilst being completely ordinary. He isn’t aiming to be the strongest or the best at anything, he doesn’t have any revenge to seek or even a remarkably dark past (a sad past, definitely, but a realistic one). That’s why he’s bad at gambling and why he loses sight of important goals to settle smaller disagreements. He is so painfully normal, so flawed and simple and wanting to make a small change. He shows that the real heroes are ordinary people, people who choose to do good despite the corrupt world they live in. The majority of those people aren’t saints, they’re just average every day people

And so like. Yes let him be flawed. But those flaws are part of his goodness. They are part of what makes him unique. He’s supposed to be a little bit “boring” and that’s what makes him stand out. He cannot be reduced to one set of traits because that contrast of “sleazy guy with a heart of gold” is like. The entire bit. I fear that is the entire point. I feel like I should be saying this on TikTok since that’s where the majority of the crimes happen but last time I defended him on there they told me to zip his pants up. So I offer this to Tumblr instead. Please start observing my man more he gets done dirty by this fandom too often

[loop-lover-central]

Thinkin about this portrait.....ough........

[maddydoodlestrash]

I could write a whole article on why chubby Marie makes more sense from a character design point of view, I just always really liked the idea of the squid sisters being contrasts within their weight to reflect their character and their method of exercise. I’ve always liked the idea of Callie being skinny and lithe because when I think Callie I think of cheetahs, she’s presumably a splat roller main and they run a ton! To be speedy is to be lightweight, when you look at a cheetah they have skinny legs and a broad chest. I like to apply this thought process to Callie. Marie reminds me of stereotypical jazz club singers or pinup girls who tend to have a curvier appearance, and I feel her having the weight makes more sense with her being into chargers— they sit in one place a lot. There’s also a bit of off-comments from her in JP splat 1 where she is concerned about not being skinny enough and even compares herself to Callie (idol beauty standard effects on a 17 yr old :( ) so showing her gain weight in 2 and beyond is important to me in showing her progression of character— maturing and not worrying about her weight as much.

[sleepyskeleton-0]

SPOILERS FOR STH 3!!!

Scene analysis (heavily focused on Knuckles).

So there’s this scene in Sonic 3 in London where Sonic decides that despite their initial intentions to never use the master emerald anymore, he insists on using it for vengeance (after Shadow hurts Tom).

In this scene Sonic and Knuckles stand head to head and get worked up to the point where they’re charging up their powers, (Tails in kinda in the middle trying to calm them both down).

I got emotional in this scene, like full on tears in my eyes for a split second. Let me tell you why:

This is the scene that shows Knuckles’ endless patience for Sonic and Tails.

We know as an audience that Knux is always eager to go into battle, perhaps even too eager, but when it comes to his siblings, he’s always patient. So when Sonic tries to start a fight with him, he gets riled up at first but then takes a moment to calm himself down.

He refrains from hurting his brother and instead tries to talk to him calmly, to reason with him.

And if that’s not an oldest sibling strait I honestly don’t know what is.

I don’t think some people realise how hard it is to stay calm when your younger siblings are angering you. Like not teasing but properly pissing you off, especially if your sibling is a younger teenager (think 11-14 or 15).

At some point, you as the oldest have to realise that you have to be the calm one because naturally, teens are hormonal as shit and they can’t really help it (sometimes). We’ve all been there and we all know what it feels like to get wound up easily as a kid, and as an oldest child, you didn’t have someone who would calmly deal with you. Your parents would just get angry or chalk it up to a phase, so it’s either too much discipline or none at all for their first kid, then leave them to deal with the others when they grow up (obviously this isn’t the case with the trio here bc they were all taken in as teens so it’s different - the attention Tom and Maggie would’ve shown to them as babies and children are being shown now that they’re actually a family).

So shout out to all my oldest siblings out there, including Knuckles, because it’s like constantly taking punches to the face and actively remaining steady on your feet without letting your anger get the best of you.

This especially goes for a traumatic or high anxiety situation, like Tom’s injury. Sonic’s love for him and his worry and regret is consuming him in this moment and throwing him into a blind rage. Tails is also really worried, and as the youngest, it goes without saying that you try to cushion any pain as much as possible, so he’s not gonna be expected to help. Who’s left then? To help deal with Sonic? Knuckles.

He realises Sonic’s having a hard time, knows what it feels like to lose loved ones, understands the worry of “will they return home?” and how the reality of the situation can hit at any moment and how crippling it can be.

So Knuckles swallows his pride and tries to reason with Sonic.

And it’s really fucking hard to do that. Especially when being put in this position.

This rant feels repetitive but I have to get it out there just how hard it is to do this. At the end of the day, even if we are the oldest sibling, even if we have an obligation to be the bigger person, we still have feelings. All this emotional burden is gonna build up. It’s not anyone’s fault, it’s just the position we were born in. It’s our job to be that pillar of strength for our younger siblings, but if you keep throwing small stones at a pillar, eventually it’ll start to chip and crumble. So to have the strength to remain steady is the real superpower.

Like holy shit, talk about dual burden. Knux is also feeling the pain of potentially losing Tom, but he’s still there to comfort and protect his family and also shoulder his own difficult emotions. Because no one was there to do that for him when he needed it the most. He may never have anyone to protect him quite like that, and an older sibling will protect their younger ones even if it means making sacrifices. Remember that parents don’t have the same effect as siblings. Adults can only have so much understanding, but growth moves with the times, and each coming generation develops in unique ways, so grown ups will never grasp the full extent of the younger generation’s struggles, just as us younger people will never understand what they went through and how they dealt with it.

So props to Knuckles, he really is 1000000% muscle, and his most important muscles, his heart and brain, work together incredibly well. He doesn’t have to be book smart, his emotional intelligence makes up for that.

(Disclaimer: this is just my interpretation so just take it with a grain of salt, also sorry for this utterly incoherent rant, I have feelings about this movie- and this silly little echidna.)

[khanjarangel]

the way i can see either enki, ragnvaldr, or cahara taking up the role of girl's parent/guardian EXCEPT d'arce,,, like ive tried but i feel like throughout the entire dungeon crawling experience she is too out of it to like be a proper parent figure to the girl. not to say she wouldnt take her in if she found her and protect her, i feel like she would, because its funny seeing her take in le'garde's child without knowing it. but either way she'd be too stuck in her own head and her want to reach le'garde as soon as possible/revive him that she wouldnt be able to give her the proper parental love im sure girl yearns for.

ragnvaldr used to have a child, he probably sees his kid in her, and he takes her in not just as some child he found that hed take care of until they got out or until she died, hed see her as HIS child and would truly care about protecting her and not letting anything come her way. she'd feel like a way to make up for the fact that he could not protect his own child and im sure that one day when he realizes shes the child of the man who ruined his life and family, it'll be extra painful.

for cahara, hes already expecting a child on the way, and so whats one more child to pick up and take home too? enough of cahara dying in the dungeon after girl ascends to godhood, he gets his treasure and gets out of there with her. he can give her and his newborn child the best life he possibly could, and i feel like hed definitely raise her as his own child, so his newborn gets an older sister. shes part of his family now!

for enki, hed begrudgingly take her along with him on his path to enlightenment. at first hes not really fond of her, but eventually, realizes he cant just let her go after he gets what he wants! i mean, gods, thats a waste of an assistant, right? as much as he hates admitting it, hes found some sort of fulfillment and contentment in teaching her spells and seeing her do them decently as she follows him around, and nosramus definitely wouldnt let him just sacrifice her or something. so he keeps her. and shes his child now, even though he only says shes his assistant/student.

but for d'arce, as much as i WANT to give her a happy ending where she gets out of the dungeon and live her life with her three weed smoking girlfriends, i feel like that just wouldnt happen. and even if she does care for the girl and keep her safe, its not the maternal sort of way that the girl probably desperately seeks, even if not specifically from d'arce, but from anyone. d'arce cannot stop and think that perhaps it would be better if she and the girl turned around and left the dungeon when she finally gets to le'garde and sees his corpse lying there. no. she absolutely loses her mind. she has to get le'garde back, he had so much left to do and she trusted that he knew what he was doing. and besides, shes never been one for the children. with the work she does as a knight, be it a knight of rondon or a knight with le'garde's group, settling and finding a partner and even having kids felt like a distant reality. even with le'garde, hes always been out of reach for her and she knew that she couldnt have something like this. she's committed to this. because if she does back out, where would she go? she abandoned the knights of rondon and her family for the sake of the knights of the midnight sun and for the sake of le'garde. she cant go back home. she cant give girl the life she deserves outside the dungeon. she digs le'garde out of his grave and lies in it for the sake of everything she chose to leave the life she knew for.

tldr. d'arce i will not allow you to have a happy ending

[twoa-plus]

every once in a while i have a brief little flash of an scp phase & i wanna scream a little abt 049 bc maybe . perhaps there is someone out there who gets what im sayin

049 is and always has been my fav bc he’s a weird little freak and i love weird little freaks. but i feel like i’m kind of alone in how i view his weird little freakiness. a lot of content with this character revolves around him being Cool and Dark and Mysterious - which to some extent he is !! his design and voice and the fact nobody knows wtf his problem is are all very neat & interesting . however. i feel like a lot of people either disregard his actual personality in favor of aesthetics, or overcompensate & exaggerate his personality to a degree where it’s no longer true to the character

i feel like the former is more common & is most of his depictions atp - people see a Spooky Doctor character who wears all black and has a voice like his and go “ah yes he must be this super mysterious apathetic quiet cool guy” when he’s ,,, not? like the mysterious part i get but he isn’t like that on purpose, & everything else just . isn’t true? like, i wouldn’t say he’s an extrovert by any means but he does clearly take at least some enjoyment from talking to people every once in a while & is a very animated speaker*, & he’s pretty easy to read emotionally - he might not be a super touchy-feely type, but you can tell when he’s feeling a certain way abt something

*i can’t bring this up without this i love this bit it is everything to me

like idk i’ll admit 049 is a difficult character for me to really put into words but hopefully this makes sense so far? like he doesn’t really fit into the archetype he’s constantly getting shoved into - there’s a lot of contrast between his external presentation & the actual content of who he is as a person, and it’s smth i really like abt him & also think is a really neglected part of his character. a lot of people write him not as a Person but as like a generic slasher villain & i think that is very unfortunate

anyways, i also mentioned people overcompensating on this, & what i mean by that is like. people making him Overly silly. y’know focusing way too much on “i am the cure” jokes & making him out to just be some funny crazy guy etc etc u know what im talking abt . i’m sure i don’t really need to explain much why i’m not particularly fond of this it just sucks a lot of the fun out of him, i think it’s way more interesting to go down the path of “he genuinely knows something the foundation doesn’t.” also i think a lot of these depictions of his character can end up falling into the category of horror that’s just “haha look at this mentally ill guy isn’t that scary” which is obv bad for its own reasons & is just. boring tbh. again this is difficult to put into words but hopefully u get it !! he’s way more compelling as a character (& a horror monster !!) if u take him seriously & don’t just disregard him as crazy

idk i just feel like with 049 people either don’t take him seriously at all (boring) or they think he needs a completely different personality to be a serious character (also boring). Who He Is As A Person is probably my favorite part of his character (it makes him fun to dissect & play around with !!!) & is also something that’s consistently tossed aside in favor of either spookiness, silliness, or sex appeal, & there are very very few depictions of this character that i actually like because of this. am i alone on this

[solitary-bones]

so dndads live show St Paul! idk how much of this is a spoiler for anyone else going to shows so I'ma cut here!

we had!

- so many gay people in the audience that as I was walking in to the venue I said to my friend damn this is like a pride parade and a bunch of gay people in front of me were like TRUEE

- a live performance of both! dead and gone and rocks rock! it was so incredible. Beth and Will both POPPED OFFF!!!!!! they were so cool oh my god. and Freddie fucking shredded it on the electric guitar it was so sick.

- silly St Paul themed dad facts plus Ron just uhh thinking all manual labor is called a hand job.

- the people royally fucking up the dice roll (not my fault I was in the balcony I cannot be held responsible)

- the people absolutely manifesting the complete improv prompt as the live show topic. and all of the cast going into mourning over it (will fell to his knees on the stage so dramatically it was so funny)

- the cast deciding to do a DND game with their characters! Starring: Will Campos as Henry oak as Mr Chris (later Dr Chris), by the book health inspector! Matt Arnold as Darryl Wilson as Darryl, ex football quarterback now accomplished priest searching to remember all 10 commandments! Beth may as Ron stampler as Nor Relpmats, doctor (the best health inspector of them all)! and Freddie Wong as Glenn Close as Glenn The Closer, weed enjoyer moonlighting as a health inspector relying on his gut! Anthony Burch as Patrick as Patrick the shit (among other characters)!

- the audience not being able to stop being horny when giving suggestions for what their location, bad guy, and theme were gonna be (bdsm dungeon, just a guy from the audience named Patrick, and a 10 commandments dildo)

- an abundance of flashbacks and one single flashforward

- butt spanking competition to get past the second door (it is a bdsm castle ig)

-mr Chris tests to see if the floor has been cleaned recently and thinks it hasn't. Glenn the closers gut says it's fine but Mr Chris says if he tastes some of what's on the ground he'll be able to tell better. Glenn the Closer bites his fingers and Mr Chris is into it.

- Mr Chris finding a dead cockroach on the ground and revives it using CPR and mouth to mouth (Anthony is the cockroach and also when will tried to fake the mouth to mouth yelled DO IT PUSSY so yeah they actually kissed like twice at least) and revived it to ask about the cleanliness of the floor and found it not very.

- none other than paeden bennets on the second level, who Darryl proceeded to obliterate with a holy football. I'm not lying (not before asking how Patrick the DM knew about their friend Paeden who was long dead and us getting a lively npc on npc scene by Anthony of Patrick meeting Paeden and getting punched in the balls and saying "I'll never forget you")

- Test by the health inspectors to see if the blood of paeden would get cleaned up. all of the soots from spirited away came in with little mops to clean it and cleaned all the party. Glenn rolled to see if he's into it and got a 9 but the crowd gave inspiration and he got a 6, which is 69 so he was and wanted to stay there forever with the soots. Henry as Mr Chris used his persuasion to get Glenn the closer to leave the soots by saying that whatever they're doing he could do it better. because apparently they're ex lovers now. (Anthony yelled something about Will wanting to kiss another boy)

- Flashback reveals that they were highschool sweethearts but were going to health inspection schools on opposite sides of the US and were talking about how their relationship would progress from there when Mr Chris' secret lover barges in and informs them that they're pregnant and he's the father! Glenn the Closer gets upset and asks what happened and Mr Chris proceeds to another, extremely graphic, flashback where Ron the doctor commentates the uhhh conceiving of said child. and Glenn is understandably upset at the graphicness of this explanation about being cheated on. They end with bitter words, stating they're now nemesis in health inspection.

- Nor asks Mr Chris how long it's been since he saw his son Patrick. (not since birth lmao)

- they go up to the final level, find Patrick using the commandment dildo, on the 8th one I think, and upon seeing his absent father run in and ask "are ya winning, son!?"gets extremely turned off. he understandably asks what he's doing there after being absent his whole life. Mr Chris explains that he's finally ready to be back in his life, with his husband Glenn the closer, and his newfound belief in Christianity from Darryl the priest who's really good at football.

- Flashforward to Mr Chris and Glenn the Closer living together and apparently "they're bougie enough to have their own priest" so Darryl lives with them too. Nor comes to visit and we see the commandment dildo hanging above the mantle.

and that's that on that.

[fujobritta]

brad and david literally have no one outside of work . like at any point they have no one . their entire lives are just their work . they have no social life no close social network . like even poppy, who is painted as the person who has zero work life balance, is at least friends with ian outside of work . pretty much everyone has someone but brad and david kinda just Dont

and honestly the whole reason why i like braddavid is that they could be so good for one another . they literally need someone like the other in their lives and frankly all they need is one another's friendship . i dont care about the romantic or sexual aspects of it nearly as much as the platonic because literally they just need Someone to be Someone to them . friendship or otherwise . and i guess at times they both had jo but outside of work they had no one . they leave the office and return to big empty homes filled with garbage thats meant to heal the void

the show often makes it seem like poppy is the only one whos constantly working and has a terrible work-life balance but honestly david and brad (and even jo and ian) have it terrible too . david treats mq like a family, brad treats mq like kate, and they Need to have their jobs because outside of work they exist as Nothing to themselves .

david at least does his best to have hobbies (video games, cycling, music, etc) but hes literally never stopped working for mq because as much as the people there treat him like shit, thats what a family is to him, and at least they accept him more than his actual family did . and brad relies on his job to provide him with a sense of value and a tangible monetary value he can keep track of, and its something that he can sort of . rely on . its the pig and hes meant to slaughter it but he cant because he needs it to lean on . its safety . he chooses mq above anyone and anything in the end, above anna, above running away to a foreign country to live out his dreams of exploiting children and feeling nothing ... because mq was familiar . its safe . its the family he was able to choose, regardless of how much he pretends like he hates it .

they both want to take care of someone and they both long to be taken care of but theyre also just such lonely lonely men so instead of letting themselves actually have someone who really does care about them and that they care about, they bury it all in corporatism and hunger and never let it out . they could fix each other and honestly the appeal is that they really dont want that to be true

[lordoflucky]

Been working on a bit of an Albert Harebrayne character analysis/rant/opinion piece because he's my favorite, and there's something that I realized that's a bit too much of a van Zieks centered tangent to fit with the flow, but I still want to talk about it. (Spoilers for 2-3 & 2-4)

So, at the start of 2-3 Harebrayne has a lot that he believes in. He believes in his hypothesis and that his invention could help make the world better. He believes in Asman & Drebber and that they are genuinely working alongside him to make something great. He trusts them. He trusts the experiment. And he is taken advantage of because of it.

This is all solidified at the end of the first trial segment: Harebrayne's hypothesis is faulty, and Asman and Drebber were most likely using him to steal government grant money. Harebrayne is left at a complete loss because of it as everything he believes in is proven in a court of law to be faulty.

Except one thing.

He believes van Zieks has his best interests at heart.

Even after everything- being betrayed by his investor and engineer, seeing van Zieks's courtroom cruelty- he still trusts his old friend.

And! He's right! Van Zieks does care about him! He does have Harebrayne's best interests at heart! Shown no better than in the the iconic "Laudable not Laughable" scene:

As Harebrayne calls himself a fool for "Misguidedly believing he could do whatever he set his mind to, despite his lack of talent" and van Zieks rebuffs him in an instant: "To believe in yourself and work your fingers to the bone to realise your dreams… That's laudable, not laughable."

And then there's van Zieks himself.

Van Zieks can't trust anyone after the initial professor betrayal, and that's only enforced by the many attempts on his life while acting as the figurehead for the Reaper. He has reason to toss trust and belief in others aside, and that's exactly what he does for the majority of the game before finally agreeing to Ryunosuke's defense in the finale.

But when Harebrayne's belief starts to waver, and he's on the cusp of becoming entirely disillusioned, van Zieks is the one to pick him back up. He doesn't want to see Harebrayne lose that passion, the way he did.

Harebrayne's passion, how much he believes in people and himself, it isn't a flaw. It's his best quality. And van Zieks is the one to state that- in all his distrusting glory- he is the one to tell Harebrayne that.

Look I could say many words about van Zieks arc and it's pacing, but this sets up 2-4 so well.

When van Zieks finally agrees to Ryunosuke's defense and he says he can't trust anyone. Not the police, or the judiciary, or other lawyers. Despite that, there is one thing he's willing to believe in: Ryunosuke's determination to uncover the truth.

I can't help but feel seeing Harebrayne's willingness to trust Ryunosuke and van Zieks despite everything may have inspired him to finally open up in the finale.

Harebrayne chose to trust van Zieks, and now van Zieks chooses to trust Ryunosuke.

It's just so important to me how much respect van Zieks has for Harebrayne. Yes, that man is silly, and eccentric, and has his idiosyncrasies. He makes mistakes, he's forgetful, he's trusting to an arguably naive degree.

But that trust and passion is exactly why van Zieks respects him so much. What Harebrayne launches to call his greatest flaw, van Zieks sees as his greatest strength.

[dizzybizz]

im so

im so .. insane about him right now

I LOVE HIS BIG PEEPERS . HIS BIG PEEPERS WHEN HES SO DEEP IN THE ZONE !!! ITS ALMOST EERIE LIKE AUHGDJJFGGH

look at him hugging his bag. look at his sproing.

i love!!!!! when his eye goes

BOKUTO YOU WILL ALWAYS BE FAMOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[yandere-daydreams]

to add to a previous anon, who is your favourite woman with cock and/or balls?

all women can have cocks and/or balls if you believe <3

[rivereverie]

Personal vent / PSA to FACT CHECK YOURSELF because anxiety lies to you and an anxious brain likes to sabotage itself. I've spent a few days now in a really bad headspace with my writing, feeling like everyone is so much better, faster, and smarter than I am. I was comparing myself to others who have recently posted fics as well, and beating myself up about how I'm not at the same place they are, which is unfair to myself for numerous reasons (I'm brand new to fic writing/reading, spent the past few years in a writing dry spell, have a lot of other things taking up my time and energy, etc.) I know. I think often about the post I made some time ago where I talked about my experience with finally writing fanfic for the first time, and all the encouraging responses I've gotten since then. I keep asking myself, "what have I done since that post? What have I accomplished?" Honestly, anxiety has been holding me back a lot from writing, and I've been massively overthinking and building up the stakes to unreasonable heights in my head. I was feeling really bad about myself for "not writing enough". It felt like months had passed since I made that post, so excited to finally create and share something. I felt so bad about having so little to show for it. Until I checked the date. It's been less than a month. Less than a month, which I have spent very productively doing emotional work (that I talked about in my recent post about being on Tumblr). It's been a lot. It's been overwhelming. And here I am beating myself up because I was going through a ton of emotional processing, not to mention real life stuff and responsibilities, but I "couldn't finish and edit a fic in that time"??? I know I'm rarely fair to myself but this is ridiculous. So here I am, doing my best to give myself grace. Trying hard not to put pressure on myself or obsess over the approval of others. Maybe I'm just having a bad week but this is exhausting. I'm hoping that writing will feel fun again soon.

[pineconnie]

anyway. trans metaphor monologue \/ with 24. if you’re trans of heart