#more of a speculation or something

[the-r4t-lord]

A stumbling mess of feathers and faces

Explanation/Rambling👇

This is basically a very crusty rendition of what I imagine happens to the voices when you kill the stranger heart and make everyone hate you. In the stranger chapter, when the narrator is describing everything coming together it mushes all of the voices together as well.

They’re basically like chapter 2 stranger aka not knowing what they are, not knowing how/why they ended up like this, and not being able to completely/fully function harmoniously.

Did I only make this because of a song? maybe…

[tawnysoup]

Finally now that the comic is fully public on comicfury, I get to share it with all of you here, too <3

If you enjoyed, please consider supporting by buying a PDF of the comic on itch.io: https://tawnysoup.itch.io/home-in-the-woods

[stolenkissesdiaz]

tommy calling buck ‘evan’ during their entire relationship and the first, and only time, he calls him buck is after he breaks up with him. eddie calling buck ‘evan’ only once and it was when he gave buck his goddamn son. the only time tommy called him buck was before leaving and the only time eddie called him evan was when he gave buck proof of him and chris staying. of them wanting buck. of them keeping buck. id say “which could meaning nothing!” but it actually means everything.

[egophiliac]

Final manifestations for Book 7?

I'm trying REALLY hard not to build up any solid expectations, because I wanna go in ~fresh~! they're already so far away from anything I thought would happen (not in a bad way, I'm just accepting that I'm on Miss Yana's Wild Ride at this point and we're seeing this thing through 'til the end, by gum). so it's nothing too major, but:

they've been handing new crying expressions out like candy lately, I want to see some delicious Malleus tears.

honestly I want everyone to cry buckets. their tears sustain me. the more Silver angst specifically I get the happier I am.

SILVER!!!! 👏 VANROUGE!!!! 👏

just let him have this. the poor boy's been through so much. let him have his big "I'm proud of you, son" moment with Lilia.

I'm 100% expecting Grim's arc (and probably whatever's going on with Crowley) to be its own episode, but a nice hook to leave us hanging on would be good!

a nice hook though, please, I don't think I can take another "Grim is attacking us! now wait eight months to find out what happens :)" cliffhanger...

some Meleanor? as a treat? just a little bit, a tiny quick flashback or something, please Twst I just, I just want to see her again. let her have a little ghost cameo like Dawnathan Knight got. Lilia and his kids are all having their big group hug or whatever and she can gently fade in to be all like

(turning asks off until I'm done playing, SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE Y'ALL)

[glendoriel]

Currently obsessing over Kaveh and Alhaitham's core disagreement on epistemological question of what truth and knowledge is. The way I read their character stories, Alhaitham believes that the truth exists on a pure level in the world around us, and that language and cultural assumptions hinder researchers from seeing that truth for what it is. That's why he keeps to himself, using his sharp mind to earnestly research his topics of interest with the sole motivation of finding a truth that is untainted by such external factors. Kaveh, on the other hand, rejects the concept of an objective truth, believing that knowledge cannot exist without a subject, and that postulating an objective truth is to willfully disguise the subject, the researcher. True wisdom, Kaveh believes, can only exist intersubjectively, when enough people come together to find that truth and agree on it. This fundamental difference was what precipitated their fallout.

When Nahida says that Kaveh is the person who understands best what it means for Sumeru to be a Nation of Wisdom, I believe this is what she's talking about; for there to be a Nation of Wisdom, it's not enough for one brilliant researcher to take home there. Their wisdom will die with them. But if you cultivate an interpersonal endeavor for knowledge, you will get a nation of truthseekers, and the wisdom that is accumulated will transcend the lifespans of the individual humans that contributed to its discovery. The heartbreaking part is that this very understanding is what drives Kaveh to overexert himself to prove the merits of his ideas to the rest of the world, because he's hopelessly trying to cultivate intersubjective understanding in a nation where very few have such an honest desire to cultivate wisdom, preferring to have knowledge fed to them through the Akasha just to graduate and move up in the social hierarchy.

The only person who truly engages in such an intersubjective back-and-forth with Kaveh, is Alhaitham.

[adhdevankinard]

In 8x11, Bobby kept accidentally calling Ravi “Eddie.” What if there’s a flashback to see more of Buck's first week at the 118? And Bobby keeps calling him “Tommy.”

And Buck is like, “Ugh. Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. 🙄 I never wanna hear the name Tommy again.”

Ha. Idiot. 🥰

[sunny-knight]

MASSIVE DELTARUNE SPOILERS

I need to talk about that ending.

Correction- WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THAT ENDING-

This is…such a genius scene that seems so simple, but HAS SO MUCH BAGGAGE WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT. When I first saw it I felt the weirdest combination of emotions ive ever felt in my entire life and now I can’t stop thinking about this moment, so heres an attempt at putting those thoughts into words!

What makes it so interesting is that… yes, it is VERY FUNNY, AND an epic win for Soriel shippers…but…it feels so WRONG,

Kris and Susie were presumed MISSING well into the night, and Toriel seems to not even notice because of her drunkenness. Its incredibly irresponsible on her half, as she’s so distracted by “just having a little fun” (Queen Mom theorists be winning, Toriel has a drinking problem confirmed/hj)

The entire time I was laughing while going “oooooo….” Toriel thats not it girl. And when Susie left, the way Sans completely dismissed her and went “party back on yippee” also felt very off. Kris’ reaction to everyhing makes me so sad and put on edge by the whole thing, IT IS A GREAT SET UP TO THEIR OPINION ON THEIR HOME LIFE, THATS FOR SURE. At some point when Susie looks at Kris, they look away too, and when Toriel falls down they just walk away and refuse to go anywhere but their bedroom. which is just UGHHH I feel so bad for them, they’re tired of this shit

Tenna saying “We’re a happy family RIGHT KRIS???” and the whole Dark World in their house being centered around ACTING and being an ACTOR… hm.

AND DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON PAPYRUS- This bits more my own biases, but it makes me sad imagining him being all alone in a messy house all night like this poor bastard 😭

theres just SO MUCH TENSION from Kris’ end, its so…ugh. The entire thing screams irresponsibility. It is insane tonal whiplash, but not for the funny reasons some may think on first viewing i think. From my perspective it went from somber pain, to more like…oh god. this sucks. so hard.

My opinion on Soriel has never been strong in either direction, but now I am just FASCINATED cause from this scene it feels like- toxic??? they’re enabling each others bad habits, like on the surface it seems innocent but in hindsight its incredibly irresponsible on Toriels half, and only maybe on Sans’, we still dont know his and Papyrus’ whole situation or anything.

But yeah I love when relationships are complicated and not always healthy! gives ME MORE TO ANALYZE

[ironworked]

I know others have expressed the same sentiment, but I have to do it too.

The thing is that we were told Tommy would not come back, and for months we were mocked for believing he might

...but he did. He has come back! first for an appearance kept as a surprise for the audience; next he'll participate in the big emergency in 8b when he did not in 8a, and then he'll be in at least one impactful scene in yet another episode.

Buck's most transformative relationship. Whom Buck still wants to call.

I do maintain that all signs point to the show gearing up for a reconciliation, but even if they're not, at least they've made sure to give them narrative weight far beyond the 'starter boyfriend' bs. They've said this relationship matters, still.

[evilherehotel]

ok admittedly they are startign to grow on me

[eeriesilkworm]

Something something Stranger Things continually hinting to time manipulation and time travel. (“We are all time travellers if you think about it.”)

Something something season 1 Will Byers dressed like Marty McFly.

Something something Vecna’s powers being tied to hatred and thus thematically requiring a counterforce of love to defeat him. (Which Mike and El were unable to do in season 4).

Something something Will Byers defeating Vecna with the power of love and “The Power of Love” being on the Back to The Future Soundtrack…

I don’t know, really. Thoughts being thunk.

[consultingfujoshi]

everyone else is giving their take on this so I feel as if I should too. I am angry about burt and irving now having two almost-kisses and them still finding a reason for them to never close that gap. like, yea it makes narrative sense that neither of those scenes contained a kiss, it's compelling even, if I view it objectively I actually love that because I care deeply about these characters and want them to be written realistically and with nuance.

but I am not gonna sit here and pretend that I'm fine with how this compares to the straight couples that have had so much more this season. if burt and irving's story existed in a bubble where markhelly and all the rest didn't serve as points of comparison I don't think I'd be half as upset at the way this ended. I'd be able to appreciate the impact of their being unable to kiss TWICE now in different universes because of forces outside of their control without looking across at every. single. other. couple. who are all straight. and going. why do they get that and we don't. why is it only the gay couple that have to be written "realistically" where they're still not ready to kiss. why can allowances and indulgences be made for dramatic effect for EVERYONE except them. I don't know if it's intentional homophobia, or queerbait, or if they're really just that squeamish about the idea of two old men kissing each other, but the double standard is there no matter the motivation behind it. and when you combine that with irving's innie being effectively killed off four episodes into the second season, and now his outie potentially written out of the show too, all I'm saying is it becomes hard to give them the benefit of the doubt.

we're all aware john turturro may not return for another season and that's why they felt the need to wrap up irving's two storylines somehow so they weren't left on a loose end should he decide not to come back, and I get that, and I'm glad there was some sense of finality to it, but then why not allow us just this one thing. just one moment of indulgence. because it might actually be our, and their, last chance. would it have killed them to just let them kiss this one time if there was a chance we'd never see them again, a chance they'd never see each other again. the truth is, no, it wouldn't have been hard at all. but they still made the decision to withhold that. because they can't allow us or them even the most basic kindness whilst handing the straight couples everything on a silver platter.

I'm not gonna get into the pacing issues of their relationship this season, how we jumped from them shyly asking each other out on another date to burt carrying out the hit on irving, how there feels like a missing scene in between those two events, because that relates to a wider problem with the structure of the show itself that is beyond the scope of this criticism. but i think it's telling that rather than giving us that extra time with them, they took a whole episode away from our main cast where even cobel got to kiss a one off male character that we will never hear from or see of again, and the supposed flagship romance of season 1 can't even get that. at what point am I allowed to call that thing in the corner that looks, acts, and talks like a duck a fucking duck?

if it sounds like I'm bitter, and jealous, it's because I am. because whether or not the double standard is intentional or not, it's still there. and I really did think a show that was able to present such special, compelling, meaningful queer characters would be a little more self aware about the message they're sending. and it fucking sucks that this has become just another show where I have to swallow my frustration and accept that they're not writing this for me. I and my fellow queer audience will never be the priority. even now we are still begging for scraps

[kattheerat]

redraw

[egophiliac]

listen. people have always debated which character is the most normal guy but what if it has in fact been crowley the whole time. no string pulling no master plan just a guy who wants to keep his school running and is cursed with problematic students and incidents

honestly I think the funniest possible reveal would be one of two options:

ONE: Crowley has no plot relevance whatsoever. he wears the mask to cover his receding hairline. his darkest secret is the bottle of "medicinal" whiskey under his desk. this man can barely plan a PTA function with six months' advance notice, he doesn't have the time or patience for any kind of overarching master plot involving mutating students or whatever. the only thing wrong with him is that he's been running this school for (mumblemumble) years and, quite frankly, if you'd been putting up with NRC students for a couple of centuries, you'd have totally checked out by this point too.

OR

TWO: Crowley IS actually Raverne and HAS been slowly enacting a master gambit...to embezzle school funds. the overblots are still completely incidental. he has somehow less idea of what's going on than we do. we confront him about it and he's just like

[moongothic]

Rereading Dressrosa for the first time in quite a few years, after having become a Crocodad Truther specifically, was a really interesting experience, mainly due to the relationship between Kyros and Rebecca and Luffy's very strong feelings about those two in particular

Starting with the latter point; watching Luffy get really passionate about making sure Rebecca reunited with her father, instead of the two never seeing each other again as Kyros had planned, was just really facinating to me.

Now there ARE layers to this; Luffy saw first hand how much Rebecca and Kyros love each. Even if he didn't know or understand all the details, he knew these two were family forced to live apart due to Doflamingo's rule and that, even though Rebecca didn't know Mr Soldier was her father all those years, he still looked after her and did all he could to protect her. Luffy understands how much they matter to each other. Luffy also gets that Kyros was trying to make a sacrifice out of self-loathing; Kyros saw himself as a bloodstained monster who did not deserve to be by his daughter's side, thus his insistence on them going their separate ways. But not only is that "sacrifice out of loathing" not a thing One Piece rewards within the narrative*, but Luffy emotionally understands what Kyros was trying to do was stupid as hell. *(See; Robin trying to save the crew in the CP9 Saga, Sanji trying to offer his head to Kuma to spare everyone else (because he saw himself as the "least worthy", compared to Zoro who believed he was the only one who could actually tank Kuma and survive), Sanji again during Whole Cake Island, etc)

Adding to that, in what I feel also harkens back to Alabasta (vaguely important since Dressrosa in many ways is a reflection of Alabasta); Vivi made her decision to stay in her home because that's what she wanted deep in her heart, because she loved her country. Just the same way, dethroning Doflamingo, getting revenge for her mother and reuniting with her extended family were all fine achievements. But all Rebecca wanted deep in her heart was to stay with Mr Soldier (regardless if he was her father or not). That's what mattered the most to her.

How could Luffy even think about leaving without making sure Rebecca was able decide on her own if she wanted to stay with her father, instead of him making that decision for her, not because it was truly "for the best", but out of Kyros' own guilt and self-loathing.

All of that to say; Luffy becoming so emotionally involved in Rebecca and Kyros' father-daughter relationship is perfectly normal and on-brand for him, it's not strange at all.

...At the same time. I could not help but to wonder if those two's relationship could somehow reflect Luffy's relationship with his estranged parent(s), and more importantly, kind of debunk the fandom idea of Luffy as someone who 100% does not care if people are related or not and has ZERO interest in Dragon etc

Like I have discussed this before but I've been meta posting for so long on here I'll repeat myself just a lil; I feel like it's less "Luffy doesn't care Dragon is his father" and more "Luffy doesn't know HOW to feel about Dragon". We don't know what Garp told Luffy about his parent(s), presumably and based on the conversation post-Enies Lobby it just seems like Garp never mentioned ANYTHING to Luffy? Like he didn't even tell Luffy a white lie about why his parents weren't there for him? We simply do not know. But what we do know is these three things: 1. Luffy hates being alone, even more than "being hurt". Being alone is his worst fear 2. Although Garp was responsible for raising Luffy, he wasn't always there, meaning other townspeople and Shanks' crew alike were equally "responsible" for looking after Luffy. 3. Meaning Luffy was essentially an orphan. Fans will joke about Luffy's surprise at him having a father being because he's stupid, an asexy and doesn't know where babies come from, and while I may not be fully able to debunk that conceptually. Like. It's just as possible that because Luffy was raised like an orphan, he might have assumed that either his parents were dead or had abandoned him because they didn't want him. And I'm going to argue that if that's what Luffy always assumed was what happened, yeah, it'd contribute to his fear of being alone. It'd explain why he'd be surprised to find out he actually does have a father out there somewhere. And yeah, Luffy might not know how to feel about Dragon if that's the case. Should he hate Dragon because he wasn't ever there for him (from Luffy's POV)? Why wasn't Dragon there for him? Did he really not want Luffy, or did he have some reason for leaving Luffy? What is he like anyways, is he nice or cool or a dickbag?? Should Luffy even care about any of that stuff??? All of that to say; I don't think Luffy is completely disinterested in Dragon, I think he doesn't know how to feel or think about Dragon, and it's not relevant to Luffy right now anyways because Dragon's like, out there somewhere while Luffy is on his journey. Where as, if Luffy were to meet Dragon, get to know what he's like, why he wasn't there for Luffy and most importantly, how he feels about his only son (does he care about Luffy and his wellbeing? Is he a Kyros or a Kaidou?)- yeah, I think then Luffy COULD learn to be interested in Dragon and care about him Not out of obligation (because of their blood) but out of Luffy's own will, out of Luffy's acknowledgement of Dragon's love for him

And yeah, then we get to add the ever-delightful layer of Crocodad Trutherism to this mess.

You know how my personal theory goes; that Crocodile's been trying to find a way to overthrow and nuke the WG (potentially with an Ancient Weapon) to make sure his long lost child would be able to live freely and do whatever the hell he wanted without having to fear the WG would ever target him because he has Evil Revolutionary Leader Blood coursing through his veins. That's what makes the most sense to me as Crocodile's ultimate motivation. To protect his child, no matter the cost, even if he had to become the devil himself.

And hey, what was the story between Kyros and Rebecca again? Kyros trying to overthrow a corrupt government (a fallen Tenryuubito to boot) to protect his child so she could live freely without having a target on her back?

I don't need to explain how One Piece does have repeating themes and motifs, surely. (Also there's something to be said about fathers in One Piece who would go to hell and back for their daughters, Kuma being another example, but that's a whole different essay. But Oda's Girl-Dad Agenda is showing)

But yeah, what's even more interesting here is how Kyros believed he didn't deserve to have a reunion with Rebecca. He commited a murder decades ago, and although everyone else seems to have forgiven him for that crime, Kyros himself still thinks of himself as a horrible murderer with bloodstained hands. Not helped by how Kyros thought him teaching Rebecca self-defence skills was a failure on his part as a father (instead of him doing all he could in the horrible situation they were stuck in; teaching Rebecca how to defend herself was absolutely justified, and Kyros shouldn't have blamed himself for anything there).

Kyros didn't think he deserved to be with his daughter because he wasn't a good father, because was a monster. And Kyros could not believe anything other than that until Rebecca essentially forgave him, by explicitly telling him she wanted them to stay side-by-side. That she wanted him, and no one fucking else, as her father.

And I once again repeat myself just a little as I ask; how would Luffy feel if he found out Crocodile was his father? How would Luffy feel if he found out the reason Crocodile was going to destroy Vivi's country was because he was trying to protect his son from the WG? And that son was Luffy himself? How would Luffy feel that the asshole who stabbed him through the gut, mummified him and poisoned him was his very own family? Who also saved Luffy's life the second he learned of their blood connection? How would Luffy feel in that situation, if he found out Crocodile cares about Luffy, and wants him to be okay? And how does Crocodile feel? After stabbing Luffy through the gut, mummifying him and poisoning the brat, does Crocodile feel like he has any right to call himself Luffy's parent, let alone father? He knows Luffy rightfully hates him for all the horrible things he has done, how could Luffy ever accept him?

The past is in the past and it can't be changed. But you always have the choise, the free will, to change yourself and become a better person. You can choose to do better things, to help others and be kinder. You can have a second chance.

Robin was given a second chance. Hacchi was given one too. Kyros was given that chance to become better. So why not Crocodile?

[zuzu-draws]

[The Cursed, Unwanted Child: Ostracised by the Village]

[krotiation]

ima be so real... i hate the idea of jack being some "greater mastermind who actually escaped death and will come back in bl4 as the Big Bad"

the biggest appeal about jack to me is the fact that despite being genuinely really smart and tough, he's really just human in the end. angel died, he got reckless, he died. same with tales tbh. he found out angel died, rhys betrayed him, he crashed out, he "died". he's extremely self destructive and THAT is why i really love jack as a character. it just wouldn't hit the same if he somehow survived and it was all part of some secret plan