#would have been a neat parallel to point out

[fulcrums501st]

When Vi became an enforcer, Sevika should have been like “you’re playing lapdog to topside, just like your old man” or like “and you called me a traitor?” or something

[koushirouizumi]

Digimon T.C.G (Trading Card Game) {Revival} ~ HerakleKabuterimon (Sample Card) {From here!}

[kalied0skull]

“ front and center, girly! ”

— “ yeah, I'm hearin'! ”

now playing: Hey Cowgirl — Mac Demarco ♪

★ ramble & extras under the cut !

it was only a matter of time until i got my grubby hands on cowgirl curtis, i have been running around grabbing EVERRYYY SINGLEEE trans headcanon and absolutely eating that shit UP!!!

shout out to @trevination & @broareweabouttoviberightnow because when scrambling around for ideas to draw her I've discovered that she is your guys' collective daughter and it feels only right to show her to you (so sorry for the @'s I'm not prone to tagging people but i take it you both wouldn't mind much 💀)

this is my little take on cowgirl! and AAAUGHHHH I LOVE HERRRRR I DOOOOO!!!! i am holding her so gently in my hands and brushing her hair with a tiny little comb ,, she's my gal. ..

soemthing about transfem curtis brothers makes my heart go wah, i love them really i do they're so lovely to me

I don't have many headcanons of cowgirl at the moment, but i am obsessed with the idea of calling her "girly" (thankyou to my memaw, who uses girly and inspired the idea) — like... pony / girly? the parallels... okay whatever I'm shutting up i promise /j+silly

anyways, whilst trying to make up a little design for her, i got a bit sidetracked and made this drawing of ponyboy and cowgirl sharing a cigarette and having a real short talk

the specific ponyboy i have there IS post-story, his bleached and overgrown hair making a weird appearance in the drawing. i dunno, i like to imagine post-canon pb would have a way more enamored response to cowgirl compared to pre or during.

he's really in love with the girl he becomes in another universe, even if it might not be him. he still loves her no matter what, and i think that's really neat :D

my favorite little detail of cowgirl has to be the little designs i put on her clothes, something tells me she is a girl who is in LOVE with embroidery. i think it might be one of the things she picked up when transitioning, because you always have to be a little punk in terms of being transgender in my opinion — and i take cowgirl to be quite crafty :3c

i just think she'd fawn over tiny flowers and spirals all over her stuff, because "they are so cute n' simple, right?! but they're so complex and cool!" and awawawahhh... she just likes her details in my eyes

anyways i really really REALLY enjoyed making this drawing, mostly digital though – the traditional sketch was a hit of a process, i accidentally made her too tall at some point and was like "??? nuh uh" 💀 but she's beautiful and she's such a doll and wahhh my babyy...

i hope all the transfem pb fans out there can appreciate another addition to the gallery, I'd also like to shout out GLORBIEZ' ART !!! who also inspired me very heavily to make my own version!

please please please go look at it glorbiez is an amazing artist and i really love their take on cowgirl /BEGGING, DESPERATE (/silly)

who am i if not to jump on a trend with a very niche headcanon amirite ;3

[asha-mage]

where are you on the 'is P Carlo' debate post DLC? feels like the issue only got muddier

Where I was before, which is 'P isn't just Carlo in a new Puppet body but he also isn't entirely a separate being- rather he is a little both and neither'.

I actually think the DLC in general did a really good job of maintaining ambiguity on the subject- enough so that everyone will walk away having their existing point of view affirmed. Two characters who knew Carlo extremely well (Rosaura and Lea) come to radically different conclusions after meeting P, while P himself gains more parallels and more contrasts to Carlo.

I've said from the beginning that Lies of P doesn't answer this question for a reason. In-narrative Gepetto is the only person obsessed with drawing neat lines between what is and is not 'Carlo', because the version of 'Carlo' he is chasing is one that isn't real. Gepotto wants everything to break down into clean neat rules, structures, and binaries. He wants P to just be a automaton copy of his son and useful vessel for carrying out his plan- it doesn't matter if he has Carlo's skills, bonds, memories, ergo. He is a Puppet and a Puppet Can't Be Human, and Carlo needs to be human, needs to match up this idealized perfect version Geptto has in his head, or else Gepetto won't have successfully erased his mistakes and gotten his second chance. Rather then drawing conclusions based on what's in front of him and living with ambiguity and uncertainty, Gepetto starts from his idealized world and his idealized son and works backwards, doing whatever atrocities are necessary to get to that romanticized vision, without any regard for what anyone else needs or wants.

That's part of the difference between Gepetto and Romeo in their pursuit of bringing Carlo back: Romeo would have been perfectly content with P and he valued P/Carlo's freedom and well being more then his own selfish desires, deciding to mercy kill him rather then let him be chained by Gepetto after he realizes he can't persuade P of the truth. Romeo makes his choices based on what is rather then recklessly and callously pursuing what he thinks should be.

It's also the difference between Gepetto's efforts to resurrect Carlo and P's resurrection of Sophia. P's gives Sophia new life not because he misses her or because of guilt or regret, but rather to set her free and finally give her the chance to live her own life, something the game telegraphs very heavily through the butterfly symbolism. Again he places Sophia's well being ahead of his own desires or feelings, something Gepetto categorically can not do.

Any clear cut answer to the question undercuts the point Lies of P is trying to make. 'P is Carlo reborn' undercuts P's central arc of slowly gaining humanity through building relationships and breaking free of the neat clean rules lain down for him by Gepetto, while 'P is not Carlo' undercuts his most important relationships and their character arcs, since if P isn't Carlo then the King of Puppets isn't Romeo and the new Puppet at the end of Rise of P isn't Sophia- meaning Romeo's desperate attempts to save P wheren't an active choice but him just following his pre-programming/the wishes of someone long dead and Sophia's isn't really set free, but rather a facsimile of her is created solely so P can feel better, which is the exact thing he just fought Gepetto about.

Instead Lies of P rejects the premise of the question, because it isn't important to begin with. P is both himself and Carlo, both a Puppet and human, both a lair and a hero. Whichever answer is technically true, nothing changes that P is inherently worthy of love, autonomy and respect- things that Gepetto denies him in every version of the story. P himself probably doesn't real know where he ends and Carlo begins and that's okay, because the bonds, both the ones from before Carlo died and the ones P built after he awoke, endure and give him reasons to keep fighting and growing and making the world better. It's those voices that call to him during the final battle to give him the strength to defeat the Nameless Puppet- Antonia, Eugénie, Sophia, Vegini, Romeo, and those relationships that matter.

Overture only reinforces this idea because it is all about P coming to terms with Carlo's past, confronting the grief and pain left behind by Carlo's passing, and figuring out what he can and can't do about it. Throughout the DLC everyone heroic wants to save somebody: Gemini and Alidoro want to save Lea, Lea and P want to save Romeo, and of course Romeo, we know, wants to save Carlo (which Gepetto will prey on), but pretty much no one gets to save anyone, at least not long term. But just because they can't be saved doesn't mean their lives don't have value and the struggles to preserve them don't matter. Those relationships and the ripple effects from the acts of kindness and heroism taken in their name matter and stretch forward in time. Lea still falls in the end, but Romeo was held by his mentor one last time before Gepetto got his claws into him, and Lea dies knowing that their is hope for the future- that the love and loyalty and kindness she gave to Carlo isn't just lost to the void, but is carried forward by P.

The exacts of who P is and is not don't matter. What matters is that he is loved.

[sunflowerdigs]

What if it's not Tommy's Baggage?

So i've seen a lot of speculation that the baggage that will get between Buck and Tommy is going to be Tommy's baggage with Gerrard. But think that may be a misdirection - I think it may be Buck's mustachioed baggage that intrudes into their relationship instead.

If the show wanted to make Tommy's hazing of Hen and Chim the central issue, it would have spent 8x01 reminding the audience of just how brutal Gerrard was back then in order to drive home why Tommy siding with him then isn't something Buck can overlook. Gerrard's racism and misogyny would be on more overt display and Tommy would likely be more wishy-washy about him. Instead, the show has emphasized Gerrard's authoritarianism (and diminished his actual bite as a villain) in order to set him up as a better enemy for Buck (and yes, we should talk about whether that's a good move or if it diminishes what Hen and Chim went through - just not in this meta). The point of Tommy is Buck's growth and Buck breaking up with someone who betrayed his friends is very similar to what happened with Taylor. The show may think of it as retreading old ground.

So, maybe instead we're about to dig into what happened in 7x04 and who Buck was really jealous of. The first few moments of the birthday scene tonight were a misdirection - the viewer was meant to think that Buck and Tommy were doing something together, only for Eddie to literally come to sit between them because the entire scene was actually all about him (and Buck and Christopher). And that's kind of the story of Buck and Tommy's elationship (it's almost a direct parallel to the first Buck and Tommy scene in 7x04 - Buck and Tommy were getting along after the tour and then, boom, in came Eddie).

The show may frame the baggage more around Buck's fear of abandonment and fear that he doesn't deserve the love he wants. Coming on the heels of his attacking Gerrard because he denigrated him verbally, that would make sense. But ever since 7x04, those issues have been tied to Eddie - they're why Buck couldn't face up to his feelings about him. So, I suspect Eddie will come into their fight somehow (I think that's also why, in the US Weekly interview, Oliver didn't mention Eddie as someone he would be leaning on during the dispute with Tommy. Heck, I think that's why Oliver talked about Buck leaning on other people rather than how he and Tommy specifically might work out a disagreement - because this disagreement isn't one that can be worked out. If Tommy isn't it, he isn't it (neat parallel to Eddie and Ana's relationship there)).

[joejhang]

theories + predictions before tgr comes out

not in any particular order. spoilers for tsc and obv aftg. if any of these happen individually i will be insufferable. bonus if more than one of these ends up being true. feeding my god complex fr.

jeremy killed a sibling. either accidentally or on purpose both works for me. tho it would be a million times more interesting if it was intentional. obv there are a million and one jeremy theories floating around but something about jeremy being a repented murderer endears me to him the most. like THAT'S the nora sakavic kinda character i know and love. anyway yeah there is definitely something weird about jer and his siblings tho. cat mentions two brothers, but so far we've only heard about annalise and bryson. cat also hesitates before saying "two brothers" so we can safely assume something happened with one of the brothers. my bet is that one of them is dead, that's why she hesitated to say. jer probably (definitely) had something to do with it. annalise also says that he ruined the family. and references the fall banquet of his freshman year. but idk if the siblings stuff and the banquet stuff is actually connected.

bryson tried to kill jer/they had a huge ugly fight/bryson was just abusive in general. i get these vibes. jer was desperate to avoid him and mentions him like once the whole book. cat mentions that he's a "tool" and a "jerk" and jer's convo with lucas about grayson is also notable, but that last part might just be bc jer's a nice guy, not to do with his own sibling issues. but yeah i think this is pretty likely, like they always had tension between them, then after mystery brother died, all of it came to a head and they had a really bad fight and someone was badly injured/nearly died.

annalise dies. this isn't very likely but i think this would be a PERFECT book two plot point. just imagine how it would WRECK jeremy. all of jer's carefully constructed masks and facades and fake smiles and pretending everything's fine would all come crashing down and it would essentially force my long-awaited jeremy crash out into action. it would force him to confront family issues, his older brother, his parents/step-parents??? and also the fact that he is deeply Not Ok™. also it would be a neat parallel that both jean and jer would now have dead younger sisters. bonus points if she dies in a car accident. if this happens i'm actually god.

kevjean interview goes horribly wrong somehow. my delusional ahh NEEDS neil to crash it but i can admit that that isn't likely and that i just miss my shayla. whatever. i'm pretty sure it's confirmed that kevjean IS having an interview together???? and since kevin is confirmed showing up in tgr i guess this will be it??? ok listen. i know nora said in the ec that kevin and jean would never be friends again, but i still have HOPE for them ok. kevjean you INVENTED one-sided homoerotic yearning. anyway i have no real thoughts about how it would go wrong probably just an interviewer stepping out of line and either jean or kevin crashing out during it. if someone attacks jean, i honestly honestly believe kevin would defend him. kevin is NOT a coward, and especially now that riko's dead and tetsuji is out of the picture, and after the whole "i've never been skiing" thing i doubt kevin is gonna be living in fear and paranoia and secrets anymore. and if he's gonna defend anyone to the press, it's obviously gonna be jean. and jean would do the same for kevin. guys i'm holding out so much hope for kevjean it's gonna ruin my life.

grayson death. is this not like, confirmed??? whatever i just need to see it happen. or hear of it happening. and i'll smile contentedly knowing that neil ordered the hit on a napkin at a thai restaurant. GOD i love that man like nobody can. it would also be very interesting to see jean, lucas and the other trojans' reactions to his death.

gameplay!!! i will admit, neil made me somewhat of an exy junkie asw. i'm so interested to see how jean narrates exy games and how the trojans play in their comps. unfortunately i doubt we'll see any championship games in book 2 but i'm hoping for book 3 and we get to see the trojans become champions for the first time!!! i have mixed feelings about the trojan red card thing but i wouldn't be mad if it happened. i kind of think it seems unrealistic tho tbh. but it WOULD be fun. yeah ummmm and i need to see like a scene where jeremy gets hurt and jean realises he cares IDC i am a SIMPLE simple girl. also i'm curious to see how the exy storyline plays out w jean. it's confirmed he never makes court, but i'm interested to see if he ends up actually enjoying the game, bc i think it wouldn't be a fitting end to the trilogy if he continues to play but resents it. i do think it is possible for the trojans to teach him how to actually love the game, but we'll see.

someone in jer's life/past committed or tried to commit. maybe it was even jeremy himself. idk i definitely think jer has some dark past, whether it includes like drugs or violence or gangs or murder idk, there's just SOMETHING there i can smell it. something that makes jeremy "captain sunshine" knox the black sheep of his rich political family. also jeremy being "unexpectedly ferocious" when jean made a quip about suicide. noted.

jeremy family drama. idk this is just a general note for uncovering more info about jeremy's complicated family. i need to know like, what's up with his dad. his dad is either dead or out of his life, because he only refers to his mother and stepfather. also why jer doesn't like being referred to by his last name and what he did to tear their family apart. contrary to popular opinion, i actually don't think it has anything to do with him being gay. i acc don't think his family knows he's gay. i feel like otherwise they would've just cut him off completely. like why is he still involved in campaigns and shit???

jerejean almost-kiss. this is just me manifesting tbh.

jeremy crash out. duh.

[theamityelf]

Ngl, I LOVE the idea that Kyoko announced the Ultimate Hope thing (meaning, announced that Makoto should be called the Ultimate Hope) with ulterior motives.

I'm not saying she didn't believe it, but (like I kind of said in Panel) saying her belief out loud is a significant choice, especially for someone like Kyoko and especially because she now knew they were on TV everywhere. It was 100% an option for her to passively observe in her own mind that he could be called the Ultimate Hope and not say it out loud, the way she does with most information.

Don't get me wrong, I'm into the idea that she said it just as an expression of admiration or pride for him (and I'm sure she's not the only reason people think that way about him; more on that later), but also I find it pretty compelling to think that she called him the Ultimate Hope there because she knew:

When they leave the school, they will all be under the watchful eyes of the world. Depending on how much of what Junko said is true, it's possible they'll all be under unprecedented scrutiny and have unprecedented influence.

She herself has demonstrated enough excellence in the killing game that it's possible the world will want to make her the figurehead they emphasize. Not really for hope reasons; she's just very competent, and the fact that Junko erased her memories more than the others can serve as an indicator that she's the greatest threat of all. She's the one who keeps bringing up hope and despair and the broader fight; Makoto is just being a person who cares about his friends.

She is not a person who can be her most effective in that kind of role. She prefers to creep around the background sometimes, to show up late because she's been doing her own snooping somewhere, and she doesn't like answering people's questions that much. She prefers to provide information on her own terms.

Makoto is a kind person who will take the heat for his friends. If she asked for his input before giving him the title, and if she gave him all her thoughts on what that could mean for him in the worst case, she's sure he would volunteer to be the one of them with the greatest burden. (She didn't ask, though, lol. There was no private opportunity to do so.)

Makoto listens. If she's being super self-serving, she might specify, he listens to her. (It definitely benefits her to foist the spotlight onto someone else while also having a huge amount of influence over the person in the spotlight. She pretty much did the same thing with him during parts of the killing game.) But it's also important that he listens overall. Even if she didn't already believe Ultimate Hope is an accurate and fair title for him, if any one of the survivors had to be That, it's good that it's him.

All of that to say, I like the idea that she was approaching the decision like, "I believe you're talented in hope and I believe I directly benefit from saying so right now." (The timing of it, directly on the heels of a dramatic victory, also reads as strategic on her part.)

Alternately, there's something to be said for the idea that she knew history might downplay a non-Ultimate's role in things and she wanted to make sure he got his flowers. Make him impossible to ignore.

If that was her motive, it's interesting that she deliberately does this by using the kind of language the world cares about: Ultimate Hope. She could have framed it as, "It took the common decency of a normal person to beat despair," but that would challenge the audience in a way she chose not to do. Path of least resistance; turns out he did have a talent after all, and it's hope. It's parallel. He's as hope as Junko is despair.

I'm sure there were people out there who noticed and felt strongly about Makoto's leadership role and his gung ho attitude before that point, but Kyoko saying the words "Ultimate Hope" as a conclusion to the trial definitely centralized things in a neat, tidy way that the world would appreciate.

[the-catmans-offical-2]

The offical art when it comes to Ed and Wrath are few and far between. However, there's some things I've noticed and would like to share!

Wrath, as a human, would have blue eyes - while this is something we pretty much already knew just by watching eps 28 through 30, if you look at Ed's eye color then you'll realize that they're very close to being inverses of each other!

Also Wrath is cool colors (Blues and greens, blacks and purples) whereas Ed is warm colors (Yellows and reds, whites and oranges). I think that's another contrast or inverse between them to show who they are as characters - with Wrath being a homunculus he is colder colors like the tones of a dead body or just generally not something alive, while Ed has warmer colors like a living human would.

There's more differences between them! Wrath's iris shape is (in the picture and originally) more circular than Ed's - who's is more ovular. Wrath also has slightly larger eyes than Ed, giving him a bit of more childlike appearance though his facial shape keeps him appearing as though he is of similar age to Ed. (I remember reading somewhere once, and please correct me if I am wrong but I personally believe this greatly, that Wrath was made with the goal kept in mind that he'd be an opponent to Ed of similar age and similar in other ways as well.) Wrath also has sharp teeth whilst Ed has dull flat ones - oddly enough Wrath's ears are pointed slightly and Ed's ears are rounded, furthermore giving the visual feel that Wrath isn't human. He must appear rather uncanny to Edward or to any human - same with the homunculi in general - because he looks human but with subtle things that make him... Off.

Wrath is all smilely too, whereas Ed looks more serious or weary; Showing off Wrath's inital innocence (which stays there throughout the series until he was betrayed by Dante and Envy, and I will fight anyone on that) and Ed's lingering distrust for Wrath. Fun fact, in CoS he seems to trust Wrath more even though the two never see each other again. Oh, they're gonna be the end of me. ED FUCKING ACTED LIKE HE KNEW WHAT WRATH WOULD WANT, which leads me to believe they had a talk or just SOMETHING during ep 51 that was cut out.

I have no idea what this image is from so please let me know if anyone knows! I've been curious for a while.

Anyway, Wrath:) He's poking out from behind Ed, and there's more things to point out between them!

Wrath is wearing dark clothes whereas Ed's wearing light ones. Like usual, Wrath's hair is down and messy while Ed's is up and neat. This is the offical art that made me realize that Ed has longer, thinner eyebrows than Wrath - who has thicker ones!

Also Wrath seems to be staring directly at Ed, but I personally can't read his expression as anything? Maybe curiosity? I'm not good with reading facial expressions lmao.

I only added this one bc WRATH LOOKS SO SILLY WHO THE FUCK PUT HIM IN A LIL SUIT??? HOW THE FUCK DID SOMEONE PUT HIM IN A SUIT???

I'm looking for a clearer image for this so I may update this post at some point to put the clearer one there if I find it!

Anyway so Wrath and Edward are standing back to back. They have a slight height difference with Wrath as the shorter of the two (I bet Ed is very happy/j)

Ed's expression is more angry or solem while Wrath's is a grin - but both can be said to look angry I'd think.

They both have a hand on their hip (Ed's in his pocket but Wrath doesn't have pockets, L) and the opposite arm resting more languidly at their side. They're both standing straight, Ed's head is tilted slightly downward while Wrath's is tilted up - no one else is shown standing back to back. Only Wrath any Ed. Al is there, standing beside Ed, but Gluttony is standing with his side to Alphonse, and Lust is more off to the side and facing the others rather than with her back to anyone. I think it is to further show that Ed and Wrath are such parallels (and Lust is standing a little to the side, possibly showing how she isn't really obeying anyone but herself - showing how she betrayed Dante and went to help Ed get Al back in exchange for becoming human again; But we know how that played out..)

I'm not really gonna talk about these here, as one of them is simply a scene redraw, and they're more Izumi focused if you look at them - with Izumi appearing somber while Ed looks weary or even fearful, and Wrath is just.. Being a kid. Running and flipping, and then in the redraw fighting Ed and Al.

The same could be said about these!! They aren't really interacting - in the first image Wrath is asleep at a table with the other homunculi, and in the second he does appear to be staring at Ed; But again Ed isn't focused on him.

Probably some of the ONLY FUCKING COS OFFICAL ART I HAVE FOUND with Wrath in it. Wrath and Ed are facing opposite of each other. No one, other than Wrath in the image, is fully facing at a side profile - which at first I thought represented how he had died, but Alfons is there and so is Eckhart.

Ed looks wistful, not angry but not happy. Sad perhaps, which is what he seems to be a lot in CoS. But Wrath, he looks down right angry. Yelling maybe? His mouth is opened wide and showing his sharp teeth, his visable eyebrow furrowed, he looks dirty and tired. Clearly this is during his fight with Gluttony, or. OR, this is just showing what Edward last remembers of Wrath. An angry boy always yelling and violent, but also determined and weak - and this fucks me up because out of EVERYONE in the image, only Wrath is the one Ed never sees again. Except like.. Riza but this aint about her. I love that they're seperated by the margin, representing the Gate kinda - Armestrian characters on one side, 'our world' characters on the other.

Again, this isn't really Ed and Wrath in particular. But I want you all to really look at Wrath. He's licking his Ed arm. In a similar fashion Dante does to Lyra's arm after possessing her body, and basically asking Hoenhiem to.. Yk, fuck. While I definitely don't think Wrath is doing it out of sexual desire or reason (although i do not know his intention), I do believe he's doing it to mimick or copy Dante. Wrath could've seen that she liked Hoenhiem, which is putting it lightly but for the sake of the sake I'll just say she liked him, and then copied her by licking said limb out of liking Ed or desiring his body/limbs. To become human.

Also jfc Envy is buff, go back to being a twink you loser.

Uhh I dunno, I just rambled a lil. Maybe I'll make another post with this? Maybe not, but this is what you get for now!! Use my ask box if you have any questions! :)

[basilpaste]

theres this thing i noticed playing corru.observer that could very well be just like. an rng thing on my end. but it tells a neat story so im willing to incorporate it into my worldview.

cavik is like... substantially more prone to getting the 'fear' status than any other character in combat. it was EXCEEDINGLY rare for me to get more than one turn in a row in chapter four where he didnt have it. it felt like he STARTED combat with the status. (I HAVE BEEN MADE AWARE THAT HE DOES GENUINELY DO THIS AND I WASNT MAKING IT UP.) which would be a cool trait if all of the non-fighter characters shared it! but they didnt! miltza, who in the text is described as being terrified constantly, never had that same fear lock cavik had.

and i think its really interesting. because unlike her, cavik isnt really mentioned to be scared like... ever. anxious, sure. tense. scared in the way that all of them are. but his individual fear doesnt seem to be pointed out very often? which is especially interesting considering the cavik stuff in the memory hole and the way he repeats some of those phrases in the collapse combat segments.

and . i think about that and how he, specifically, has to be the one to kill miltza. and how he has to convince tozik to NOT blow himself up prematurely.

i cant articulate it very well at the moment but something about masks, man!!! they cant know youre scared if you wont let yourself be!!! something something akizet and cavik childhood friends and parallels. pretending to have control over the situation at hand in radically different ways.

in short: i need that twink to have an on screen panic attack.

[psychopomp-namine]

// post-prologue thoughts

the thing that gets me about the tsukumo twins is that on the surface, ima impedes on kako's agency with his obsessive protectiveness. but in the long run, kako has much more freedom to be any person she wants to be. kako has interests and hobbies outside of ima, while ima's sense of self is so deeply entwined with being "kako's protector" that he really doesn't have any meaningful desires of his own.

like, you look at kako's room and it's filled with books and detective stuff. the gifts you can give her have variety. you look at ima's room and gift-o-matic wishlist and it's all. kako. and survival stuff (his brain has been in survival mode for so long, tbh it makes sense now why he seems relatively happy at the academy)

which is why I think post-reconstruction ima is so fascinating because it happens at the point where he has already accepted kako as an equal and he tries to be less overbearing. at the same time, he gained a new body, and there are hints that he actually shares some memories with sirei. I think, given their backstory, ima already had a complicated relationship with his body (and the reconstruction just adds more on top of that) but ultimately, ima-as-sirei allows him that extra physical distance from kako. he, quite literally, had to become a person outside of "kako's twin brother" and "kako's protector." he no longer looks like kako nor can he even use hemoanima or even just fight at all.

but ima without his kako responsibilities? he doesn't know who that person is. so he assumes the role sirei once did.

and I think that, because he was enjoying pretending to be sirei (and everyone else was fine with it) it allowed him to finally make connections with other people during the prologue. like he was REALLY into being a commanding officer and planning the excursion and actually helping drive the plot forward, figuring out the mysteries. he gets to do things and show more of his personality that aren't strictly about/for kako! he's contrarian and strategic and observant and plans for the worst case scenarios. maybe he actually shares an interest in mystery solving with kako, but he would have never known that as an inherent desire for himself. in any other situation, he'd be convinced that he probably likes it because kako likes it, and anything kako likes is good.

you don't really start to know the non-kako side of ima until very late into the first 100 days. maybe ima himself didn't know either

and that's thing. kako knows all of this. her desire to stand equal to her brother is because she wants to protect him too. she wants him to become his own person too. it's also a really fascinating look at kako because she really is just as devoted to ima, but is just less obsessive about it. btw I still feel kinda cheated that she didn't get a hemoanima boost considering how many times she stabbed the last commander.

I'm still convinced that ima would not put kako through reconstruction though if their roles were switched — I don't think he can mentally cope with that. he'd have to look at her every day and be reminded that he failed her. he also puts kako on a pedestal and wants to protect her innocence (which is why he takes on the all that underground work so she doesn't have to). so a reconstruction would probably further devastate him. he would probably just opt to follow her to the grave tbh. kako can promise to kill ima if he wakes up and hates being put under reconstruction, but there's no timeline where ima will ever make the same promise about kako. idk, I just think the differences between them are so good.

and again this acts as a neat parallel as well to takumi, whose main reason (not the only reason, but certainly the biggest driving factor) for time traveling is because he failed to protect nozomi. his sense of self is so deeply entwined with the idea of being "karua's protector" (bolstered by their childhood promise and karua frequently asking takumi to repeat his promise whenever she's scared). karua gets to be nozomi and she can live without takumi, but takumi will always define himself in terms of being karua's (promised) (failed) protector

[serenpedac]

Dismiss the invisible by giving it shape

“Some of what keeps us human is to be outside on a dark night, gazing up at stars and galaxies and simply wondering.”* 

This quote made me pause, because of how I feel the same, but also because it made me think about M. M, who sits on the rooftop at night, watching the stars. M, who would choose to be human again if given the option, even though they don’t remember their human life. I feel like M’s human life is not often discussed, which makes sense, as we know next to nothing about it. However, that doesn’t mean it’s meaningless for who they are now, as a vampire.

On an old version of this post, @/agentnatesewellwas wonderful enough to point out that there’s a Patreon special in which M says they feel like they can rely on the stars, because they are a constant, they stay the same. The night sky that they watch those nights at the warehouse is still the same they would have seen when they were human. Maybe M used to look up at the sky as a child, mesmerised by those twinkling stars. Night after night, they would learn to recognise more of the patterns to be found there. And among all those stars, there are the Pleiades, standing out as a bright star cluster.

Six of these stars can be easily seen with the naked eye, but in the myth of the Pleiades, there are seven sisters. The brightness of one of the stars is variable, so models suggest it was brighter many centuries ago, only to then "disappear", giving rise to this legend (side note: see here for an interesting article about how the similar legends re the Pleiades in different cultures may have a shared origin). Although it's not hard to spot several more than 6, some time to adjust your eyes is needed. 

I can imagine that after their turning, overwhelmed by their senses, they go outside to find whatever quiet they can. As they look up at the sky, that once-familiar cluster catches their eye and suddenly, they see that seventh star so very brightly! And not only the seventh, but so many more, their blue-ish light scattered, veiled by an interstellar dust cloud. Their attention captured by the spectacle, they can forget about the loud, fast, itching world for a while. It’s a moment of peace.��

Adding in @/serially-wayhaven's idea here that it might have been N who tells them later about the myth, because I love that so much. As N tells it, there’s this feeling of remembering that M has, as if they’ve heard the story before. Some subconscious part of them remembers having heard this story when they were a child. Even if they don’t remember it, their past has left an imprint on them.

It's often talked about how looking at the stars is looking into the past, but what isn't talked about is how the universe we see reflects its history. In the very early universe, there were small fluctuations in density, called primordial density fluctuations. These increased in size because of the inflation of the universe, and under the influence of gravity, dark matter accumulated into them. These dark matter "wells" also drew in "regular" (baryonic) matter that condensed into galaxies and stars. The structures we see in the universe on large scales, of galaxies being clustered together and being spread across filaments, are all the result of these initial density perturbations leaving their imprint.

The dark matter that can't be detected directly, but underlies the structure we see in visible matter, creates a neat parallel to how M doesn't remember their past, but it did leave its mark on them. It's still visible in them in some way, whether it's through their Greek accent or the fact they can play the saxophone (among other instruments). Much like we can deduce information about the underlying dark matter distribution in the universe from looking at visible matter, we might be able to piece together more about M's past by gathering those crumbs.

* David J. Eicher in Astronomy Magazine, issue August 2024 The title is from I'll Keep You Safe by Sleeping at Last

Other parts in this series: [ N ] [ A ] [ F ]

[r--kt]

Tenzo is a replacement for Obito.

From Obito's point of view.

contents | introduction · the essence · similar story: Jinx and Caitlin

[ I mention the similarity with Arcane here, but if you haven't watched it, you can just not read this part, the essence won't change much. ]

here's the thing: It's a headcanon, and it is simple in formulation, but a bit complex in explanation of the certain image. below I discuss the reasons for some of Obito's reactions during the war, and his perception in general.

if Kakashi and Obito had somehow happened to be in the same place once during the ANBU period, or if Obito had known about the members of Kakashi's team, he would be jealous of Kakashi for Tenzo.

not romantically jealous (it's up to you though), rather painfully possessive, with resentment and anger. and not in a vivid way. it's more of a gnashing feeling inside, clogged enough not to recognize it, but not weak enough that it doesn't affect anything at all. why would that even be? their kekkei-genkai, appearance and bond with Kakashi.

CH 317 on the left; CH 605 on the right.

Tenzo's mokuton is smooth, malleable, these are neat bars of wood, and Tenzo has no difficulty making large houses or complex thin figures out of them, such as keys or eyes (ANBU arc in anime) or cute figures (almost any scene where Yamato uses kekkei-genkai).

Obito's mokuton is broken and sharp, it's branches with thorns, which rather embody his frustration, instability and anguish. such wood is easy to use to injure, kill, block the way, isolate yourself from others, but not to build anything out of it. this can not protect gently (to make a shelter or a useful object), this mokuton can only attack. the detail parallels very well with the personalities of both characters and their connection with Kakashi, with how Obito perceives it.

no matter what Obito says, he's a good liar. the old bonds he had in his "past" life remain important to him. his anger at Kakashi in the war, among other practical reasons, is due to the fact that Kakashi dared to acquire new connections that are more important to him than that bond with Obito. at least that's why, among other things, Kakashi doesn't go over to his side (while Obito hoped he would, I'll make a post about it one day). and the connections Kakashi has, subconsciously or not, are perceived by Obito as annoying, as a disregard for everything they've been through together, for everything Obito went through. this is a resentment that provokes anger, the root of which is as follows: "you should not have new connections, you should suffer, because I am lonely and I suffer for you" (for others in general, but this one is the agenda).

his anger is sometimes about "I did so much for you, I gave you the most valuable things I had (life, strength, the ability to care for others), and you ruined everything, well, maybe not you, but I thought it was you at first... and now you, bastard, are trying to stop me?" but not about that today.

and that's why not only Tenzo would annoy Obito, but anyone else who's close to Kakashi. the man consistently selected the people most similar to his past experience, and here they are all around him. then Minato appears in the war. so why am I talking specifically about Tenzo, whom Obito may never have seen?

Tenzo's kekkei-genkai makes everything more confusing. This becomes something personal, which Obito perceives in the way described above. That's just an interesting parallel between these two.

And that's not to mention Tenzo's appearance. He is in some ways still looks like Obito, at least because of the silhouette, hairstyle, etc.

And what this can be compared to? Jinx and Caitlin from Arcane.

Arcane EP 7, "the boy saviour"

Of Course Jinx experiences it much vividly, it's her canon event. for her this storyline is more important than something like this for Obito, but the essence is the same. It is a feeling of betrayal from a person dear to you, who showed with all his appearance that he/she would be on your side until the very end. And it feels like you've been replaced by someone who's really more comfortable, or better at something, or more socially approved. And you're just a lonely sick weirdo.

It is not surprising that both Jinx and Obito treat Vi's/Kakashi's kind words or regrets as something annoying - subconsciously, among other things, they can see it as a mockery. They just don't really believe it.

so here it is. just the way I see all of this.

what is the role of this hc? to show the subconscious in Obito, which is constantly manifested in war through his action or inaction, through his words, through the way he manipulates, through illusions that he shows or sees himself. I like that about him. I like his big vulnerable uchiha heart.

[ I should have written some other post about Obito first, otherwise you will now decide that this is the only way I see him... ]

[thankskenpenders]

There’s been some discussions on Twitter recently about if Blaze’s dimension is worth keeping around and expanding on or if it should be ignored/merged with Sonic’s world thanks to a Bumblekast clip. What are your thoughts on Blaze’s dimension as a story-telling hurdle/ alternate setting? I personally feel like it wouldn’t make a difference if Blaze was a princess from another dimension or a princess from the other side of the world, it would just be easier for her to show up if she wasn’t from another dimension, but I also think it’s be neat to expand on Blaze’s world as a parallel to Sonic’s.

I think there's a whole cottage industry of Sonic fans who just like to take things Ian says out of context so they can rile people up on Twitter, and the fandom falls for it every time, and it's extremely tiring

But also I think Ian is right

This isn't something I've really shared, but I actually have a document where I've kept ideas for what I would do with a hypothetical modern reboot of Archie Sonic where I'm allowed to start from scratch and change anything I want. (I might share some of this someday, perhaps with some character designs, but for now it's just a thing for me. It's not like I'm gonna do a comic or anything.) For Blaze, I immediately decided that all of the elements from the Sol Dimension should be merged with the regular Mobius. I would just say that Sonic and friends have all their adventures on one hemisphere of the planet, and Blaze is from the other. I mean, the Sol Dimension already has a heavy Australia/Oceania vibe. It'd be really easy. This way, there would still be some level of separation, and Blaze would still have her own territory where she gets to be the main hero, but it'd be WAY easier to actually use those elements. Characters can just show up on whatever part of the planet they need to be on for any given story

For some reason people seem to think that Blaze being from a separate dimension isn't a storytelling hurdle at all, and I really don't know what franchise they're following, because it sure as hell isn't the version of Sonic I know. Yes, in theory it could be as simple as just using a warp ring to hop over to the Sol Dimension whenever. There are ways to write around it. I'd love to see that happen so that we could flesh out Blaze's world some more. Give Blaze some more allies and villains of her own! Give her more to do over there, and more reasons for Sonic and co. to visit! But clearly Sega isn't down with that, considering the Sol Dimension has only ever been in one game and, what, two issues of the IDW comics for maybe ten pages total? Sega's just sitting on it, and it's impossible not to see the fact that it's a whole separate dimension as the reason.

Even if we were getting more stories about traveling to and from the Sol Dimension, it'd still be a hassle. You want to use the Chaotix in a story in the Sol Dimension? Wanna use Marine or Johnny or whoever in a story set on the main world? Well, you'd better think up an airtight excuse for why those characters are traveling between the dimensions and pray that Sega approves of it. And right now that seems to be one hell of an obstacle, given how little we see of the Sol Dimension even though I know damn well Ian and Evan would love to explore it more. It's gotten to the point that Blaze is now on an endless "vacation" on Sonic's Earth so that they can actually use her in stories. People have been acting like merging the worlds would completely take away everything that makes Blaze special as a character, when it would just make all of her personal story stuff infinitely easier to work with than it is right now.

"Oh but what about the Sol Emeralds?" There's no reason the Sol Emeralds couldn't exist on the same planet as the Chaos Emeralds. We've already got other magic rocks like the Time Stones, the Phantom Ruby, and the Warp Topaz. "But what about Eggman Nega?" I could not give less of a shit about what happens to Eggman Nega and Sega doesn't even use him anymore, but also he's already supposed to be from Silver's future, not the Sol Dimension. "But what about the plot of Sonic Rush where the whole point was that they had to stop the worlds from being merged because they thought it was a bad thing?" Yes, because Sonic has always been a series that treated canon as sacred an immutable, and Sega would never do something that contradicted a game from almost 20 years ago

Anyway, all of this is a moot point. It's not like this is going to happen. Ian just brought up the possibility on the BumbleKast as an "if I could change literally anything" type deal. Sega is not going to do this. He is allowed to have his own opinions on Sonic things without fans having to take it personally and scream and cry about it. You don't have to agree with him on everything. I've certainly had points I disagree with him on! It's fine! That's normal! He's only human. Yes, Ian is on the Lore Team, but he's just one voice in the room. He's not even the boss of that team. If Ian could get whatever he wanted, we'd have seen the Freedom Fighters and Sticks by now

[dilly-dahlia]

"if y’all want more on specific characters just drop an ask i will gladly answer because it forces me to think about it" Okay.

Vylad.

(please)

guys i’m being so serious but Vylad has actually been so hard for me to figure out because he has such a pivotal role in my rewrite (even if he doesn’t show up for the beginning part) and i need to get like. that good feel for him which I DONT HAVE 😭😭

anyways. as opposed to the more sure “this is Vylad” post like I did with Garroth and Laurance and Dante and whoever else, this is kind of gonna be me throwing stuff at a wall and seeing what sticks. it’s also gonna be me going over some concepts i have for him, even if they’re ones i decided not to go with. you will see me connecting dots in real time. but i promise Vylad is so important and i want to get him to a point that feels right for me!!

okay so we keep the basic mcd lore. affair baby, shadow knight, brought Adelaide (Aphmau) into the world, all that. but i’m gonna start at the beginning

okay, affair baby. i very briefly entertained the thought of Vincent being his birth father, especially since I think the two could have some neat parallels and like obvious similarities yk. plus (and this is more minor) there’s the fact that like, all of the Ro’Meave kids have a name that starts with the same letter as their parents, so like… V and V. ykyk. i decided not to do that cause i feel like that’d be a useless plot line anyway. i’m thinking more like Zianna sort of had a fling with a maritime merchant that often visited O’Khasis

so it’s obvious that Vylad is an affair baby. not only because of his very different appearance compared to his brothers but also because Garte literally announced it and humiliated Zianna. i haven’t figured out the exacts of that but he publicly humiliated her to teach her a lesson

it’s also widely known that Garte hates Vylad. however despite this, Garte took Vylad in as a subtle manipulating “look how kind i am taking in a child that isn’t mine” kind of way yk?? and in the public, at least when Vylad is young, Garte seems to treat him like his own. but in private it’s clear that Garte does not see Vylad as equal to the rest of the Ro’Meave line and kind of shuns him. like he doesn’t give Vylad the same resources his brothers had, especially in academic fields. so Vylad is kind of pushed to the side. Zane kind of plays into that to appease his father

he spends a lot of time with his mother, and with Garroth when Garte allows. Zianna and Garroth actually taught him to read, which is something he’s thankful for because he doesn’t think he would have learned otherwise. Garroth was also the one that was always protecting Vylad from harsh punishments, and a large conflict for Garroth about going to the guard academy was leaving his brother to fend for himself

but Vylad and Zianna spent a lot of time together. their favorite place to frequent is Zianna’s palace garden, where she teaches him the meanings of all sorts of plants and stuff. and when Garte locks Zianna away for whatever “lesson” he’s teaching her, Vylad always finds a way in to keep talking with her. that’s how he got so good at sneaking around later as a shadow knight

okay so as he got older he was sort of excluded more and more from public events. his absence kind of solidified in peoples heads like “oh Garte DOES NOT like this kid…” but Vylad doesn’t mind because he wouldn’t consider himself to be made for these events like the rest of his family

okay so his death. it was something that was semi-planned?? so this kind of serves as a double purpose to also build tensions with Tu’la and all that. so what had happened is that a Tu’la spy infiltrated the O’Khasian guard. and that spy rose through the ranks and became one of Garte’s most trusted and Garte was eventually confiding in them that he wanted Vylad gone, even bringing up a premeditated assassination. the spy took it as an opportunity to kind of put O’Khasis against itself and took it upon themselves to kill Vylad. so his death wasn’t exactly planned, but it was on its way.

so Vylad died when he’s about 16. and he’s actually one of the reasons i have shadow knights age the way they do because I considered having him be like forever sixteen, but i didn’t really like that. i don’t remember why though because i think that’s a fire idea now i might change it…

anyway he’s 16 when he dies. that’s also another reason Garroth isn’t very happy about his marriage to Nicole, because she’s the same age his brother would be, but that’s another topic i’ve already yapped about

back to Vylad!! so he was turned into a shadow knight because it was known that he’s a Ro’Meave, or at least introduced as one. because of this, Gene and whoever else (i haven’t decided who’s in charge) resurrect him assuming he has the blood of Esmund the Protector. when they discover that he doesn’t, they also kind of discard him and hide him away

Vylad eventually breaks out. idk how. but he does. and the thing is he had devised this entire plan to start a new life for himself because he was getting tired of constantly being pushed to the side because he isn’t who people want him to be. so when he breaks out, he steals an orb and herbs that Gene had been working with to plant false memories in someone. Vylad steals this stuff, goes to the Overworld, realizes he doesn’t have a clue what to do, and goes into the sacred forest seeking the help of Hyria

his plan is to give himself a new slate. erase his memories and fabricate a new life for himself to live—one where he would never disappoint anyone or be tossed away. he asks Hyria to help him, and she agrees

before she does that, though, she starts talking to Vylad about the Divine Warriors, warning him about dangers that may come with the memory change. she kind of sort of manipulated him into instead reincarnating Irene, and she kind of used the fact that Vylad is a people pleaser that just wants to be Vylad to convince him to take Irene.

he agrees. with the help of Hyria he created a fake life for this reincarnation to have lived and experience and hides those memories in the orb he stole. and then he starts his journey to find where to place her

now obviously we know he chose near Phoenix Drop. he chose this place because he had been scouting it out for a while beforehand and actually had the suspicion that the head guard was Garroth (who had faked his death at this point, but Vylad didn’t know). so he places the staff or whatever nearby and is absolutely appalled when a whole person just comes out of it. he panics and then she starts waking up and Vylad doesn’t know what to do and he remembers the orb and very quickly does the spell Hyria told him to do

and when she wakes up the first thing Vylad says to her is “Good morning, Adelaide. How did you sleep?” and he comes up with this whole story that she’s a mercenary and then whatever else i decided that i can’t remember now

and. Vylad named her Adelaide, and he named her that because it was a name his mother loves. she always said that if she had a daughter her name would be Adelaide, so to put some goodness into this new being he named her what the most good hearted person he knows would have

and until we get a proper introduction to him in my rewrite, Vylad will be a recurring motif. i haven’t decided what exactly he’s going to mean, but he will often come to Adelaide in dreams or Adelaide will often talk fondly about the person she travelled with before settling in Phoenix Drop

overall Vylad is very insecure. he has this looming fear that everyone he comes across hates him and in an attempt to get people to like him, he ends up being a people pleaser or quiet altogether.

and that’s all i have for him 😢 i wish i had more for you anon because i love Vylad so much and he’s so important to me but alas. i hope you enjoyed this regardless

once again if you wanna know about a specific character just drop an ask! if be happy to answer :)

[joelletwo]

resolving loquats. badly

if i had more time i would have written a shorter letter. sorry

loquats the arc of threes - miharu with its three guardians, the two exorcists and their tag-along marriage counselor natsume, three chapters, etc etc

reading it for years ive been stuck on how none of the parallels resolve cleanly. comparisons are drawable between just about every character and every story element, but none really make a straight line to a neat conclusion.

most roadblocky to me is matoba's similarity to both masakiyo and masakiyo's would-be youkai companion. what does it mean to compare him to both the man shutting himself off from his desires and the being trying (unsuccessfully) to reach out and fulfill them? what does the actual point of miharu as an arc boil down to and why does it need to be so obfuscatory?

and then earlier this year unrelatedly i read the seminal text on metaphoric triangulation and romantic horniness. and went aha. lol. it didnt actually help me it just unleashed me but its been fun.

i still dont have it together enough to do my dream of untangling every single connection we've all been drilling into for years all in one place. i still think if i could i could unlock midorikawa's brain. but i can lay out

(dont try too hard to read these)

[a square diagram messily laying out relationships between masakiyo, the interfering youkai, matoba, and the mihashira (miharu's three guardians), the square then broken along the diagonal into two triangles showing how matoba identifies with both masakiyo and the youkai, and both of them displace a desire of theirs onto the youkai and the mihashira respectively]

[two triangles - 1. the identification/desire relationship between masakiyo, his beloved, and the interfering youkai, all able to be cast as matoba 2. the same between matoba, mihashira, and an interchangeable miharu/natori]

[two triangles showing unresolved/unbalanced relationships between 1. yorishima, matoba, and natori and 2. matoba, natori, and loquats]

at this point i started getting incoherent. and then i died for ten million years from Job

but what im still trying to work towards. is that matoba - who sits on the I Hate My Life Bench with masakiyo (with whom he shares a few on-the-nose name connections to really hammer it home), has long black hair and one eye like the youkai who wants someone stubbornly alone on their own path, is jealous of the mihashira's naive commitment to obsolete promises - has a link to basically every story element that represents Unfulfilled Desire.

everything that could mean to him in this arc - quitting exorcism, keeping promises, being the most capable vs relying on others, shouldering a legacy, enjoying a loquat - remains ambiguous. but he Wants. strongly enough that his usual mask keeps slipping bc he's having to think about it. he's The Wanterrrrrr.

and natori, well,

[spreadsheet with three categories of question marked relationship to each other - subjects with displaced desire (teen seiji, hiiragi, yorishima, touko), objects (all natori), and displaced objects (all loquats)]

well he's just in hot demand. what's he do in this arc? people want relationships with him, and the means they have available to get that is through the available loquats picking opportunity. he is. the universal object of desire. he's swept along with the flow for all the setup to this arc more than he's really an Actor (lol) in it.

(and do they both, to complete the triangle, make natsume the universal Means of Resolution, like how everyone uses loquats to get natori? don't involve natsume in your exorcist business even tho i do that, but if he was here he could solve everything for us, and now he's gonna get in the middle of our loquats reminiscing unbeknownst to both of us for unclear reasons,,, well he doesnt really solve anything for them. concretely. but he does. with his 90 chapters of development with both of them. serve as a wedge to open up some space in their closed-off relationship.)

but so anyways. matoba the wanter and natori the object to want. simple, even if all matoba wants, if he can admit it, is to enjoy a loquat with a peer and nothing more. so who's driving this car and spinning it round and round in unresolvable metaphors. midorikawa youre just making it more tragically gay by making it plausibly deniable.

but in the arc of Unfulfilled Desire That Is Also Self-Inflicted - the foolish mihashira could just stop showing up don't they know, the youkai could just go enjoy the freedom it's been given, miharu could just let his beloved share his burden - he can't admit it. he lets all the metaphors get all tangled and tangled and tangled because he's caught in between his desires for connection and withdrawal and isn't able or willing to resolve that tension himself.

but its NOT the arc of repeated cycles - matoba would let himself get stuck there, but natori in the backhalf is the one to take action to break us out. by offering his shoulder. over and over and over. and then over and over in every arc after but lets not talk about that.

so natori makes it simple again. and what we get when its simple is just direct one-to-one visual parallels of matoba and masakiyo. and what we get when this gets animated is an extra scene of masakiyo with his (romantic) beloved, pushing her away (romantically), refusing to let anyone's support in or any of his (romantic) desires be fulfilled (he didnt even succeed at keeping his house alive!!!! lol common cringefail exorcist behavior). and what we end the arc on is matoba... made up of twenty layers of self-denial... not quite able to accept it... but paralyzed by not being able to reject natori's help anymore

which is. mwah. chefs kiss beautiful incremental excruciating not-progress. makes a man want to affect the trout population

[afflatuslux]

Look. I know that coming from me, it sounds like I'm solely projecting, and to be fair — you'd not be wrong with that accusation. That said, I do believe it's not unfounded to assume David's mother to be an affectionate, but overly controlling and protective mother. Overbearing, to an abusive degree.

Within the current canon available to us (which, yes, two chapters is not much to go off of,) there is yet to be anything that contradicts it. Only* information we have on his family is the "secret" he shared of having a history with depression within his family, and his claim of having an older sister — both of which may or may not be lies**, the latter even likely to be a lie due to the phrase from the MV ("I am, and always have been, an only child.") (* as far as I'm aware. Still ain't a DRDT-theorist.) (**I don't actually believe the depression one to be a lie, but the point I am trying to make is that we have nothing truly confirmed about David's family as of now.)

Of course, the lack of anything contradicting it doesn't equal to anything speaking for it, and while referencing my own memories would make for an incredibly weak argument (and I refuse to go the psychoanalysis route), I do have something to reference that is entirely disconnected from my personal experiences, and that is Whit's.

DRDT loves its foils, I'm sure everyone reading this knows that much. David and Whit in particular have a lot of "almost the same, yet the very opposite"-traits going on, such as their use of a persona and their (flawed) efforts in helping those around themselves. That said, we know Whit idealizes his dead mother, which is not something we yet have an opposing trait for David for.

Sure, you could argue that his idolization of Xander would do the trick, but I moreso believe that to be a parallel for Whit's focus on Charles, not his mother. Following the "Almost the same, yet the very opposite"-pattern, though, makes a bunch of scenarios (e.g. a neglectful mother) less likely than my hypothesis: Where Whit dearly misses a loving mother, David is more than happy to be far away from his "loving" mother. "Almost the same", with both mother's caring deeply for their children, and yet -- the very opposite, leading to one child clinging to the memory, while the other is repulsed by the thought.

Furthermore, from a storytelling perspective, this would create another neat parallel with J: a parent who didn't love its child enough, and one who "loved" its child too much. (as opposed to the scenario where David has a neglectful mother, where -- again, from a storytelling perspective -- would echo J's issues, and therefore be a bit surprising to see the song being sung twice in quick succession.)

I also believe that the thought of David having a mother who's overly preoccupied with assuring only the best for her child, to the point of unreasonably high standards to guarantee a good public image for the both of them, would fit perfectly well with how David turned out as a person, but that's a can of worms I am not opening here. I'm just… gently gesturing at it.

Don't misunderstand, this post isn't me claiming that my understanding must surely be the canon one — I believe any scenario that isn't "David has a 100% healthy relationship with both of his parents that are both alive and healthy" would be perfectly reasonable as an official reveal. I'm just saying that this would make considerable sense, though.