#with a hint of copium

[mortysmith]

Okayyyyy vague and ominous instagram response i see you

[fromtheseventhhell]

George: *sneezes*

Me: This is actually an allusion to TWOW being released because, as we all know, sneezing is a symptom of a cold, a sickness heavily associated with frigid weather aka Winter. A sneeze is also an expulsion of air aka Wind, so together it's literally The Winds of Winter. The announcement is a lot closer than we think and I wouldn't be surprised if it drops at his next interview/event.

[diamonds-at-y11]

Okay but there’s literally no way that Viktor is actually dead and YOU’RE NEVER GOING TO GUESS WHAT MY EVIDENCE IS

[deus-ex-mona]

since the new year is just a week away (what even.), remember that time kyhn was almost a thing in honeypre?

we all know hina’s years-long unrequited love for yukki, but in this event~~~~~~ he found her cute!!! and he said “the boy who’ll become setoguchi’s lover will definitely be happy”!!!!

a n d he briefly pictured what it’d be like to date hina!!!!!!!! and the wish he made at the shrine was for hina’s happiness (for the rest of her time in high school)…

also!!!! they pretended to be lovers during this little new year’s date~~~~ they’re so precious~~~~

anyways!!! happy kyhn new year!!!!

[invisibleoctopus]

first regional splatfest and of course its a theme i literally dont care about

HOWEVER look at the art for team hug... it looks like agence 8 and 4... they are lovingly embraced in each others arms...

[teambyler]

Calibrating Byler expectations for TUDUM

Remember one of the points in my "Byler lawyer" video: if Byler is endgame, they have to bury overt hints that it will happen in order to preserve the twist, because it is objectively a stronger ship than Milkvan (given how they've written it in s4) and, the moment it seems like a possibility, then the outcome of the love triangle is too obvious.

Also, any sign of affection between Mike and Eleven might mean things are looking BAD for Milkvan. I know to their shippers this sounds like Byler copium, but seriously: WHY show that in a teaser? What is it setting up? Steve and Nancy kissed and said they loved each other at the start of Season 2. The reason you show things early is to set up future developments.

The only thing that would make me worry is if we don't get more evidence that Will is a central character again and that the mystery of why the Upside Down is "frozen" to the date he was abducted is central. I mean, that's GOT to be a central part of Final Season Hype. However, from what we've heard these things are a near certainty!

Of course, I wouldn't mind seeing Will with a gun.

Linda Hamilton's in this season, and (while this wouldn't be in a teaser) I really want one of our inevitable Season 5 Terminator callbacks to be Will doing this:

=D

EDIT: No shot of Will with a gun, but honestly Will coming into his own should be an arc and not be spoiled anyway =D

-teambyler

[wtpyrofreak]

The "best thing to happen to Kinger's lower half" is not foreshadowing, but a hint to his past in the circus. Hear me out.

So we all remember "Kinger's Special Place" and how those Checkmates socks (Plus Kinger "wearing" one of them) caused a lot of fans to worry over the fate of our beloved chess piece?

Yeah. The more I think about it, the more I feel like we're viewing all this from the completely wrong angle. This isn't telling us what WILL happen to Kinger...

It's telling us what ALREADY happened to Kinger and WHY he's the way he is now.

Gangle's supposed "Near-abstraction" moment in EP 4 made me think back to Kinger's core memory with his abstracted wife. He couldn't recall the exact string of events that lead up to it, but that moment in the fort where she calmed down enough for him to caress her was forever ingrained into his mind.

Maybe it's because said moment was what saved him from immediately following Queenie into abstraction--

"Erm, eckshualeeeee, when Gangle snapped back from abstracting, she didn't go insane like Kinger. Theory debunked along with your Stupid sauce scandal idea."

Well, yeah. Because she was just starting to abstract before Pomni offered to switch shifts with her. Meanwhile, I think Kinger was already deep into abstracting before ending up in the pillow fort with Queenie.

This silly image of Keychain!Kinger wearing the Queenie sock? It represents HOW CLOSE he was to completely breaking. He still managed to snap back, the absolute chad, but having been so near the brink of no return, the mental damage was already done and couldn't be reversed (much like how you can't come back from fully abstracting).

That's why Kinger's mind is so scrambled/fragmented present day.

Upon this recontextualization, so many things start adding up (at least for me).

Both his and Abstracted!Queenie's behavior follow the same patterns. Erratic and unpredictable in the light. Lucid and calm in the dark. This can most likely be applied to anyone else who abstracted too.

He can't recall the events between after Queenie abstracting and before he ended up in the pillow fort because he was probably HARDCORE dissociating.

He was more paranoid and unstable than usual after the Gloinks took apart his fortress because they robbed him of his ANCHOR.

And of course, all this can further explain how Kinger has managed to last in the circus longer than anyone else. DOI\I'T FORGET. YOU'RE HERE FOREVER.

...Orrrrr maybe I'm just on extreme hopium + copium over my favorite character and the checkmates socks are just comfy socks and nothing more. I AM the same person who concocted the crack-ass "Spudsy's Signature Special Sauce Scandal" theory, after all. XP

We'll just have to wait and se

(EP 4 Gangle gifs ripped by @fleshgerm)

[plaidos]

whoever runs homestuck.net injects such redditbrained copium into everything. here's an excerpt from the "toblerone wishes & if they were fulfilled" page:

firstly "Hussie abandoned the franchise" is so funny like she quit as the lead writer of Homestuck, handed the reigns to a collection of hand-picked fans & is still involved as a consultant. hardly "abandoning" to say the least. but "No effect" is literally just copium because even if the hints foreshadowing to John's eventual transition weren't clear as day (they are) the current writing team has express multiple times that they intend to follow through on the June storyline. pure absolute frothing cope

[a-for-apocalypse]

"put under" guys they never even woke her up.

in the game ellie nearly drowns in a flooded bus depot and the fireflies knock joel out as he's desperately trying to revive her. when he wakes up marlene reassures him that they "brought her back" (bc homegirl wasn't breathing the last time we saw her) before telling him they've already started prepping her for surgery.

her diaogue in part 2 confirms that ellie never woke up in the hospital. and based on her general lack of answers about the whole thing, she didn't talk to a single firefly doctor or soldier that day. no one spoke to her. not even marlene.

and nothing about the show indicates that things went differently. ellie wakes up confused in the car. she doesn't mention anything about doctors or medical test or x-rays. joel lies and ellie doesn't believe him but she also doesn't have anything to refute his word. he is her sole source of information about what happened in that hospital.

because they never woke her up. the fireflies never gave ellie a choice. they didn't even give her a chance.

marlene didn't say "she wasn't scared" because she talked to ellie herself before she was supposed to die. ellie "wasn't scared" because she never saw it coming.

thinking of how marlene promised anna to take care of her newborn child because they were best friends and had known each other their entire lives, and then marlene dumped ellie in an orphanage, never reached out to her in her 14 years of living in the same city, chained her to a radiator for three weeks after she just lost her best friend and took her future from her whether she wanted to live it or not, tossed her to joel and tess who cared as little about her as marlene did, and then when she reunited with ellie again on the other side of the country after both of them had been through a horribly grueling journey, she didn't even really hesitate before agreeing to let her die without certainty that it would actually lead to a cure

[fromtheseventhhell]

New "TWOW announcement is coming soon" rumor to be delusional about just launched, I'm up

[illmoraineakoi]

Chat, am I cooked for thinking that the next minisode might feature TCO and TDL?

The portal is the obvious hint, but I actually think there's another clue:

"Our next video releases on July 5th! We’ll be diving into the beta version of Minecraft! It’s another shorter one and is a bit different from our usual Minecraft Shorts, but we hope you enjoy it!"

"Diving into the beta version of Minecraft"

The Minecraft beta.

While I could see the CG deciding to go mess around with older version of Minecraft, I don't really think they'd have much reason or want to do so. It might just be copium, but I feel like it'd be much more likely that TCO and TDL stumble across the beta back around when it first released, and was thus the default version of Minecraft and easy to find.

The Minecraft Beta released on December 20, 2010, and remained the main version of the game until November 18, 2011, which is when 1.0 was released.

Most of that timespan is before Dark's creation/their escape [October 2 2011], but there IS a small gap of about a month in which they could have stumbled across the beta version somehow. Given the fact that we know the Newgrounds Attack also happened in those last two months of 2011, I don't it's that much of a stretch to think they could have found the game at that time too.

And if so, that would actually confirm something I've wondered about since AvA11 dropped, an that's if TCO and TDL attacked other people's computers alongside websites and games.

It would've been really easy for them to stumble across other PCs. Victim did, twice, and so did Purple. All the webstring tunnels eventually lead back to human PCs, where the beta of Minecraft could be installed.

And Alan did say that TCO and TDL might show up in minisodes, during the 30 Mil Livestream.

I don't know, I just...I have a really strong feeling about this, for some reason.

[lilac-sweet]

Varric might still be alive and here’s why:

So this is going to sound like massive amounts of copium, but hear me out:

Why does the veil not collapse immediately after Elgar’nan’s death?

It is made out of and tied to the life force of the Evanuris, so with all of them dead it should fall, right? But it doesn’t - it holds long enough for Solas and Rook to have a heart-to-heart. So what gives? Are there some leftover life force from the other Evanuris ? Are they not as dead as we are led to believe? Falon’Din’s owl statues are certainly hinted at being somehow important since we can happen upon multiple of them and see they are tied to some sort of weird magic.

Or has the dagger preserved a fragment of those it has killed (just like it did with Mythal), and that is what’s keeping the veil up? Since all it takes to be tied to the veil is a cut (apparently), it begs the question: can a mortal be tied to the veil?

Lyrium is such an interesting aspect of Dragon Age lore, and it seems to work as a vessel for spirits: it is what the ancient elves used to bind themselves to the physical world; it is what held Mythal’s spirit fragment inside the dagger; it might be what the dwarves are actually referring to when they say they “return to the stone”; it might also be why lyrium sings, and “Isatunol” would be the accumulation of dwarven spirits flowing through the rivers of lyrium within the Titans.

In that way, Varric might actually have been the first dwarf in a long time to “return to the Stone” - and what happens to Harding when she touches the dagger? She becomes something very much like a titan! Her magic might literally be Varric’s spirit coursing through her body - her body does become lyrium-infused as you see in her romance.

So is it possible a piece of Varric lives on in Harding? Absolutely. It would also be another explanation on what the Varric who visits Rook in the prison of regret actually is. If he is tied to the veil he might have had access to the prison somehow. Solas’ blood magic should have ceased by now, since any further use would be unnecessary and cruel (which would be out of character for Solas), and the only other explanation for him being there, that I can think of, would be as a guide that Rook has conjured up subconsciously and is part of the magic of the regret prison just like whichever companions you chose to sacrifice.

Helping to hold up the veil while Rook deals with Solas just sounds like something Varric would totally do (and I can’t help becoming a bit misty-eyed thinking he might be there with us in the final hour) - of course it might be Ghilan’nain’s fragment doing the heavy lifting here, but it’s not nearly as poetic.

In the ending scene we see a picture of Varric in the skies: it might be a way to honor the end of his story arc, or it might be a way to imply him watching over us still (maybe both).

It is going to be interesting to see which direction the next Dragon Age game will take: the Executors and Those Across The Sea seem to have a connection to not only Qunari and the Elven Gods, but to death as well. We hear how everything turns cold around the executors and hear the same whenever we meet a lich or Vorgoth in the Necropolis. We are also told the Watchers guard many secrets, so who knows, maybe the next game will explore more about what happens after death to the inhabitants of Thedas, and in that (lyrium) vein maybe if we’re really lucky we’ll get to dive more into dwarven lore as well.

[sex-tech]

This is gonna probably be a really long post about my thoughts for Act 3 with what has been set up already because I need to shout into the void about this shit LMAO get ready for a WALL of text

Also a fair warning, I'm gonna be talking about so much jayvik/vikjayce in this you don't understand THE HELL I AM GOING THROUGH THERE IS GONNA BE SO MUCH COPIUM IN THIS

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR SEASON 2 !!!

Quick mini-review: I feel like a contrarian when I say that I actually preferred Act 2 to Act 1. There were a lot of things set up and a lot of payoffs. I do have issues with the pacing overall; season 1 had much better structure and with the introduction of so much LOL lore in season 2, there are bound to be issues. There were 6 years of production for season 1 vs. 3 years of production for season 2, and it has clearly had an effect on the writing. Some scenes are too quick, some scenes are too slow, some cuts are too abrupt - I feel this is painfully obvious sometimes and talking with my friends about it we all agree that the pacing has suffered immensely.

But other than that, Act 2 has been really playing with my emotions and there are so many moments where I just kept breaking down over the scenes with Jinx, Vi, Vander and Isha. The watercolour-style flashbacks were so incredibly well done and those scenes had a lot of love put into them - props to Studio Fortiche!

I believe there is definitely a time paradox happening of some kind, one where Jayce, Ekko and Heimerdinger are lost in some kind of timeline.

This reflection in this artwork feels like it's hinting at what we will see in Act 3, maybe a different timeline, or the future, and Jayce will end up seeing the outcome of the Arcane. I feel that with how the lore is being changed, they need to give him some purpose or reason to pursue Viktor, to officially make them enemies. Whatever Jayce will see or experience will lead to that - a difference in perspectives and ideals.

Also, this shot, where Jayce returns and we see him glitching in and out, I feel that's a really clear depiction of a paradox, of different timelines converging or something similar. I can just imagine him living through all these different events, surviving something so awful, and now it's destroying him from the inside. He's so traumatized and I will defend him with my whole being.

I'm also a bit worried now about Ekko and Heimerdinger. I'm convinced that the latter won't survive however I'm not so sure about Ekko. I feel that everything being a time paradox would lead really well into him finally receiving his time powers, but as of now I think he is really under-utilized in the series as a whole, more so in season 2, and I'm really hopeful that we will get more screen time with him in Act 3.

Singed's role in this season is huge and it will definitely become even more important in Act 3. The introduction of Orianna, which I thought was so great, as well as the name-drop of "Dr. Reveck" has really set up his motivations. Warwick being his experiment for bringing back his daughter I believe will lead to him experimenting with Viktor.

Warwick's design was confusing to me at first. He felt too human but I think that was intentional - Singed wanted to create him with some humanity, a test, hence he is still more like Vander, still able to feel his love for Jinx and Vi. I believe he will survive, and Singed will get rid of his humanity completely, potentially leading to a more LOL accurate look.

This also brings me to Viktor and his OG lore. I really liked his concept in the game and I will admit, seeing them change it in Arcane worried me. While I really love the design, I was hopeful that we would see Viktor entering his glorious evolution era. But now with his interactions with Singed, with Singed's personal motivation for revival, I believe that there is still hope. Seeing how Orianna is preserved, still human-like, I believe that Singed's discoveries will lead him to recreating Viktor with metal, something closer to what we see in the game, maybe a cursed combination of both Arcane and machine, and I believe he will see it as a breakthrough in bringing Orianna back.

The way he describes it, the way he says, "You must survive, Viktor," a parallel to him saying "the specimen must survive" feels so intentional. He sees the potential in reanimation with how Viktor returned, healed, and this won't be the end of him, not yet, he must survive.

This scene where Viktor asks Singed, "Do you believe in fate?" I believe also points to another thing. Viktor knew very early on what his fate would be. He was accepting of it, he was confused as to why he was alive, and I believe in the scene where Jayce kills him, that look in his eyes was of acceptance. He did not look afraid, he looked at peace - with the idea of different timelines, with Viktor becoming closer to the celestial, he might've already known what would happen, which is why he invites Jayce to meet him. That with him saying, "I've been expecting you, doctor," is another reason I think that Viktor is aware of everything.

With Singed's final words to Viktor, the disdain in Viktor's eyes, the way Sky is looking at Viktor directly, frantic, worried, an expression of dread at the thought of the Arcane dying out completely, of all the progress coming to an end. I still believe the core is manipulating Viktor, that Sky is the personification of it, and that the core is aware of its own evolution reaching its final state, death - like a virus without a host.

And then there was this, the heavy breathing, the gritted teeth, squint in his eyes, the way he drops down - it felt like heartbreak, like guilt. He just murdererd a man, a man that spoke to him as Viktor.

Just this look. He's tired. He's returned from hell and he can see the beginning of the end, he can see Viktor's descent into madness, recognizes it immediately, and he's disappointed. Maybe he'd hoped to see something else.

Also, with Jayce saying, "I thought you were done with Hextech, and me," could imply that this new version of Viktor, remade by Singed, would no longer have a connection the Arcane - he is reforged, he has realized the weakness of flesh and compassion, "it's inescapable," and he will be remade with steel and rage, once again against his will, just like Warwick was. And perhaps, in this dark future, when Jayce finally sees what Viktor becomes, sees Viktor reject him entirely, that he is done with him, is also what makes Jayce spiral.

And now that he has returned, seeing Viktor welcome him with open arms, inviting him to spend time together, to show him what he has uncovered - what must he have seen? What must Viktor have said to him to make him feel so denied and unwanted?

Someone he once loved, someone that broke him, showing him the same gentleness and care he had once before.

"I won't fail. I swear it."

This entire sequence was insane. The different emotions in Jayce's face, the way he's cycling through pain and fear and conviction. The initial shock in his eyes, seeing what his Viktor has become, seeing him in this state, before the corruption - he looks vulnerable, he doesn't fight back, doesn't resist. He has made his promise to Viktor before, and I believe this is another promise to him, a promise to rend his mistake and do right by him. And Jayce looks frightened by his actions, frightened by the sight before him - Viktor looks so exhausted, so sick - I can imagine it reminds Jayce of him before he combined with the Hexcore.

Jayce's entire arc this season is about him gaining more agency, more control of himself despite the way he has been spiraling, whilst for Viktor it's the opposite, he has lost himself to a greater purpose, a perfect mirror to how they were in season 1.

The way their designs mirror them both too, Jayce getting the leg brace, his eyes changing, him being afflicted with the Arcane, Viktor keeping the blanket, keeping a cog that reminds him of the discoveries they made together, one side of it being perfectly clear, the other corrupted, a representation of them - two sides of the same coin.

I believe Viktor's monologue at the end, the scenes with him and Sky in a magical world where he is emoting, showing compassion for those that suffer, his realization that emotion is inescapable, shows that he still feels, even if it is all subdued. His reaction to Jayce killing Salo hurt, he looked pained and yet, as though he expected it - "that isn't Jayce" - it's not his Jayce, not the Jayce that he remembers, the one that he stayed with over shared affections, this is a Jayce ruined by him, and he is yet to see just how much they have and will hurt each other.

Maybe the exquisite chaos he is talking about is his corruption from the future, constantly self-replicating and self-annihilating, something that he has never observed before because it is yet to happen to him. He knows his fate, but not anything beyond that.

A couple final notes:

All the butterfly imagery - Jayce's hammer, the explosion in the mesh(?), the "Talis" butterfly - a symbol of death, rebirth, transformation

The parallels between Jayce and Singed, wanting to keep Viktor alive, creating a monster, and now Jayce having to destroy that which he created, a consequence of him breaking his promise

Viktor appearing as though he is connected to both the void and something celestial, godly, a balance

TLDR; jayvik divorce era will be the death of me, they were made for each other and will be the death of each other

[cbrownjc]

Hi! Love all you have to say abt dm & theories for the show. I was wondering, do you think its possible for armand to turn daniel seemingly out of spite, but actually of genuine love? And for that to still be accurate to the heart of their book relationship?

I like the theory of marius being the one who wiped daniel’s memories and therefore being harder to recover than when armand did it. if 2x05 is the reason daniel is doing the interview like rj hinted at, it feels like an introduction of just how much daniel’s own gaps of recollection really plague him. Especially with the end of 2x05, daniel saying he fucked up his daughters and two marriages but kept up his career, he’s realizing the amount his life has been influenced by altered/erased memories.

Daniel’s feelings towards sex & personal relationships are either shallow or regrettable (sex as entirely transactional, stealing playboy magazines to sell, “save it for rent boy”, “my side of the social contract”, “i could be on my knees”, fucking the girl w a bag on her head, alice being pregnant and daniel not gaf, daughters no longer speaking to him etc) After revealing Armand’s true role in the trial, I could see it trigger a spiral in Daniel’s selfhood- maybe not right in that moment but eventually, how much of himself has been manipulated? How much of him has been defined by time he cant recall? He didn’t accept louis’ s1 offer to be turned bc that was before he realized the magnitude of his unknowing, and now he Needs to know. And the more he reflects the more holes he finds.

Armand knows daniel’s Parkinson's is getting worse and is now watching him die tortured by all his own inconsistencies, and in reviewing his life he’s coming face to face with how intimacy was always little more than transaction- his career of interviewing itself being example. He’s watching daniel lose function believing he never had meaningful connection, meaningful sex, and never truly loved or was loved. Because he can’t remember having it with armand.

Quite the opposite of an easeful death. If armand meets with him I’d imagine daniel would be quite angry and aggressive, setting the tone for a layered scene. I dont think show armand could stand letting daniel die suffering emotionally and physically, and daniel isnt going to accept “rest” with the truth of his past unknown. So if armand turns him before daniel has his memories, it could very well be so daniel has the capacity to remember how loved he is. I honestly can’t see how their turning could happen accurate to their show characters without love as the main drive

Thanks for reading :>

Hello,

So first of all, I want to apologize for taking so long to answer this ask. It has basically been almost a year since you sent it, so you might not even care for the answer I have to give at this point. But I always wanted to answer it, but my personal life was just taking up too much time and energy for most of the second half of last year (mostly dealing with a surgery I was having).

And I will say, all the time that has passed before answering this has given me more time to reflect on the answer to the question you asked.

And the answer is that no, it absolutely is possible that the show could have had Armand turn Daniel out of spite. But if the show did really have Armand do so for that reason, then they have not only gutted Devil's Minion, but they would have also seriously gutted Armand's character. And will have gutted it all in a way that there would be absolutely no recovery from. None whatsoever.

However, I don't think the show has actually done that. And that the "spite" thing is a total misdirect. And I don't think my thinking so is just wishful/hopeful/copium thinking.

So first, let's look at the definition of the word "spite":

To deliberately hurt, annoy, or offend (someone).

If Armand really turned Daniel out of spite, then who was he trying to hurt by doing so? (Or annoy, or offend?) The quick, easy answer is, of course, Daniel himself.

And, ignoring what we know from the books, the context for why Armand would want to hurt Daniel is all right there, over the course of Season 1 and 2. We know he never wanted the second interview to happen. We saw what Armand did to Daniel after the first interview back in 1973.

And we saw Daniel destroy the whole house of cards that Armand and Louis' relationship was built on. How did Daniel put it? "77 years based on a seismic lie!"

And then, of course, we know very well that Daniel rejected Louis' offer to become a vampire in the present day, back in Season 1. Something Daniel asked, almost begged for back in 1973, Daniel appears to not want at all in any way anymore.

And, again, ignoring the books for now, Armand is presented as being a big manipulator by the final episode of Season 2. One of the highest order, having orchestrated Claudia's death and (from Daniel's presentation of it) also trying to set up Louis to die with her. And then erasing both Louis and Daniel's memories after the first interview in 1973.

All of these are things that give great context as to why Armand -- as we see him up to the end of Season 2 on the show -- would see turning Daniel as a spiteful thing to do. Why turning Daniel would be a hurtful thing to do to Daniel, and why Armand would have a reason to want to hurt him.

However, this is where knowledge of the books comes into play. Because while Armand did give us a bit of insight into how he feels about turning someone into a vampire on the show -- that it disgusts him, the very idea of it does, and that he's never done it ever before because of that (which all lines up with his character in the book) -- there is even more, specific insight he gives in the books about his thoughts on turning someone into a vampire:

"I would not do that to those whom I find to be despicable, whom I would see burning in hell as a matter of course."

Hating someone, wanting to hurt someone he hates, would never be a reason for Armand to turn them. Not if the show, in any way, plans to stay true to Armand's character.

We must remember that it was Louis who declared that Armand had turned Daniel out of spite. Daniel didn't agree or disagree with that comment from Louis about it, and, of course, we've heard nothing of Armand's POV on the subject.

The passage I screenshot and quoted from above comes from the Devil's Minion chapter, from right after Armand lets Daniel out of the cage he locked him in for 3-4 days, after Daniel came stumbling into Lestat's Garden District house. Right before Armand and Daniel's cat-and-mouse chase is set to begin. Something that we have yet to see on the show, but I feel 99% sure did happen in the past between the two of them, given all the context clues the show has sprinkled through its first two seasons.

Clues that, if you had no idea that The Chase was even a thing (let alone their romance that came from it), you could easily miss.

However, the idea of Armand turning Daniel out of spite works as a very good, very believable misdirect if all you know about Armand's character comes from the TV show.

And yeah, you could have Armand turn Daniel out of spite, and then have them fall in love later. But to do so would be to change Armand's character in a pretty 180-degree way from what he is in the book.

It also changes the whole heart of Armand and Daniel's relationship into something that is the antithesis of what it was. Which was a reverse of the vampire-falls-in-love-with-a-human trope. Yes, the vampire learns more about the human world via the relationship, but in the case of Devil's Minion, the human in question -- Daniel -- lost his humanity over the course of the relationship. Therefore, making either his death or turning, by the end, inevitable.

Armand turning Daniel before any of that happens? Armand turning Daniel out of a desire to hurt him? Armand turning Daniel in order to hurt him, not loving him in any way, but maybe falling in love with him later, afterward? No. That is an entirely different story with two entirely different characters.

I'm actually in a place now, almost a year later, where I'm okay if Daniel doesn't remember a past relationship with Armand at the moment. I'll think it's weird and off-book if Daniel really doesn't remember a past relationship after having been turned, since -- in the books -- Jesse Reeves very much remembered everything her mind had been clouded over with by her Aunt Maharet, wrt vampires after she was turned. And Maharet is not just a Child of the Millennium, but a part of The First Brood, even older than Marius.

So the fact that Marius might be the one who altered Daniel's memories (and yes, I do still think that Marius is the one who did it) really shouldn't have much bearing on whether Daniel remembers anything of a past relationship with Armand after he's turned, going by the books. He should remember it. If he doesn't, then I'll be slightly worried that a past relationship actually didn't happen (which I've already laid out what the problem with that would be) unless Armand himself fully clarifies otherwise later on that yes, one did (and we finally get flashbacks to it).

So, yes, this basically all boils down to whether the show is going to stay true to the heart of the characters, particularly Armand's character, when it comes to the very idea of him turning someone out of "spite."

And, at the moment, I do think they are, and the whole "spite" thing was strictly Louis' -- and Louis' alone -- read on the whole situation, based on very little that I think Louis actually knows about it all. (I don't think Louis knows anything about Armand and Daniel having had a relationship together in the past, nor do I think Daniel was turned in Dubai and then was just left there for Louis to find him after Armand did it.)

And that, most of all, it is all a misdirect being played for the sake of the general audience who only know of Armand what has been shown, framed, and presented on the TV show up to this point.

And by the end of Season 2, with everything that has happened and been revealed up to that point, the show presenting the idea that Armand would do something like that out of spite is not only believable, but possible.

But, in the end, I very much think it will be revealed not to be true at all.

Again, I'm so sorry it took so long for me to answer this. 😊

[tamamatango]

HAPPENING……MAYBE!! (Addressing the anime rumors + Keroro’s birthday plan revealed)

*holding my hand out toward you with sparkles framing me* Let’s take copium together!

Not the post I was planning to make next, but here’s a sudden update for a couple of reasons. Some very exciting rumors which you may very well have seen have been floating around for the last day or so, and while I was initially hype as fuck to corroborate it as fact, there’s a little asterisk to the whole thing that I wanna tack on before we shit our pants too much. In addition, the official accounts have revealed what they’re planning for Keroro’s birthday this year, and while it’s not that closely related, I might as well cover that too.

So, a summary of what alleged info just came out:

A typically reputable anime news/leak account, SugoiLITE, shared yesterday that the Keroro anime series is planned to be broadcasted in Spring 2025, and a new movie is planned for 2026. However, the only publicly verifiable info hinting toward this is a recently released interview in an anime magazine with animation director Fumitoshi Oizaki (from the original series, and was also credited on April’s PV), where he describes the series and movie projects but does not specify the series name. This info is per another credible reporter, blogger ryokutya.

Now, here is my translation of Oizaki’s quote as presented in the post: “Details haven’t been made public yet, but I’m working on a series to be broadcasted next spring. Concurrently, a movie scheduled to be released in 2026 has also started production.”

Sadly, the blog post does not specify which anime magazine this was in, so I don’t have the full context for the interview or the question asked. I checked a few table of contents from recently released anime magazines and didn’t see Oizaki’s name in any of them. My hunch is telling me that it’s Newtype, which doesn’t have a digital version, so there’s no feasible way for me to have it that quickly. So yeah, we’re kinda stuck with that quote floating in the void for now.

I can’t go too deep into it so you’ll have to trust me on this one, but I’ve got a little knowledge myself about roughly how and from where anime leaks usually get sourced. It is very possible SugoiLITE does indeed know this information in advance, but it’s also equally possible he only saw this same quote and extrapolated the most likely scenario from it. If it is the latter, I’d say he made a pretty safe bet anyway.

In the quote, what I chose to translate as “concurrently” can also mean “in parallel”, so the interpretation I’m getting is that the spring 2025 series and 2026 movie are connected and being developed in tandem. Ryokutya also guesses that the work in question is Keroro since it does have a project announced. I’ve speculated that the new series will air in either spring or summer next year for a while now (BNP has a mysterious gap in their schedule, with two series airing in January and the Gintama spinoff announced in late 2023 being pushed to October). A movie in 2026 also make a lot of sense, since it’s the 20th anniversary of the first movie. Oizaki does work on other franchises with recent relevancy, such as Kaleido Star which had its 20th anniversary in 2023, and some works in the Shigeru Mizuki-verse like Akuma-kun and last year’s Gegege no Kitaro prequel. But given the specific language in the quote and just Occam’s razoring it down to the fact that we know Keroro is getting things already, I think this double feature is pretty likely what’s going on. Maybe it’s the hopium talking, but it’s certainly not a reach (trust me I’ve made reaches before I was here for the nothingburger that was the anime’s 15th anniversary).

Okay, tl;dr: Given the one available source we have and the credibility of both reporters involved, I think there’s a pretty good chance the anime will really be next spring and there will be a movie in 2026 as people have been corroborating. But the probability that this is an educated guess and the probability that it’s confirmed are pretty much equal at the moment. So get excited! But not too excited. Just like a bit above average excited. You may draw the party popper pull string back about three quarters.

When I first started drafting this post, I was looking forward to saying that we’ll likely find out next month what the truth is, knowing that today the official accounts were going to reveal what this year’s Keroro birthday celebration is. But…they explicitly stated there will not be any new anime info at the event they have planned. Booooooo. Well, here’s what we are getting:

It’s actually not a physical event like they held last year. This time, they’re commemorating Keroro’s birthday with the first episode of a new live radio show called “Kero! to Radio”, featuring Keroro’s voice actress Kumiko Watanabe and Tamama’s voice actress Etsuko Kozakura. It will be broadcasted irregularly on the official Keroro YouTube channel, and next month’s premiere will be here. There will be various different segments of the show which feature messages and questions sent in by listeners. Submissions are sent in via the program’s Onsen page, which also has details about each segment. You do need an account to send messages, but I don’t think a Japanese address is required unless you want to enter the optional raffle. I’ll play around with it later and potentially do a separate post going more into the show’s structure if that’s something people are interested in (obviously you need to know Japanese to really get anything out of this, so I’d like to gauge if it’s worth it first).

While it’s disappointing that there seemingly won’t be any news about the new anime revealed on the legendary birthday, it’s pretty neat to have another VA radio show. It seems like this is sort of following in the footsteps of Keroro and Giroro’s Earth Invasion Radio from back when the original show was still airing, although Keroro Channel also had been doing its own livestreams featuring the BNP/Kadokawa staff running the channel giving updates about the series’s various collabs and stuff (the majority of these episodes were done before the new anime announcement). It’s unclear if this is going to replace those or not; this is quite different structurally. It would be really cool if they rotate the voice actors out each episode and change the segments up a little since the broadcasts are irregular anyway. I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

*Exhale* All right, that’s enough yapping for today. I know the wait for more concrete details on the anime has been excruciating, especially now that we have a very tantalizing possibility dangling right before our noses. But if spring really is the airdate, it can’t be too much longer now. We already waited over a decade—what’s a few more months, right? Heh heh... (I’m dying Squirtle.)

[drivestraight]

George seems to be hinting his seat is safe (so Kimi’s isn’t?). Thoughts? Idk if it’s George copium or what but in presser he said Toto’s never let him down, but he has to do what’s best for the team (IE —sign Max) but then George follows it up with “For me, it's nothing to worry about because I don't think I'll be going anywhere. And whoever my teammate is doesn’t concern me either”

george ricciardo moment