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I am BEGGING all Amethio and Gibeon fans to watch this-

(The artist is Nicephore_shadowing on Instagram!)

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Did anyone else find the new capture really lacklustre?

I don’t mind Liko getting charcadet, it’s one of my favourite paldea mons and this one has a very charming personality already. I’d thought for awhile whoever got the amarouge would probably be important to Amethio somewhat, so Liko is a good pick.

But I just felt really let down by the pacing in this episode. Charcadet didn’t even show up until the halfway point, had one very small interaction with liko, and then just decides to go with her. If they’d cut the penny battle and begun at the picnic scene we could’ve seen liko and charcadet bond some more. It’s not even at the end of the ep, we don’t see how the rest of the rvt react to it, and from the looks of it it’s not even in the next episode? Just some really odd choices to me. I guess I just feel like hz has never botched a big moment like this before, and it’s especially disappointing given this is most likely liko’s final capture.

I wasn’t even sure if she really needed anything else, but I suppose it’s fair given Roy basically has 4 pokemon atm (Yes cap counts, he gets to command him and has him in his eyecatch) plus even after cap goes back to friede, roy will most likely have rayquaza. Pagogo is only really used to hoover up rakruium atm and hattrem is a support healer mostly, so it does make sense for them to give Liko a second battler. Does make me wonder if we could potentially be getting megas for amarouge/ceruledge? I don’t think everyone needs megas, but if they’re giving liko a new pokemon it might as well as be one that can mega evolve.

I’m going to assume that her charcadet might play a big role in helping amethio? Personally I think he’s been very depressed over the timeskip and is isolating himself on that beach. I’d wondered for awhile if liko’s lyrics in get back would also be pretty relevant for him given the two of them tend to go through similar struggles, so perhaps the ‘just like you i need to evolve’ will be triggered for him by seeing charcadet and remembering how far he and ceruledge have come together? I’m 100% certain Liko is going to play a key role in getting him back on his feet anyway, the fact that they’re meeting Zir and Conia next ep makes me even more certain as it’s most likely setup for her to learn about his disappearance.

I also wonder what kind of dynamic charcadet and cerueldge will have. To me, meowscarada is more ceruledges rival as she’s had a steady arc of catching up to it in terms of strength, so an amarouge had always felt kinda redundant to me when everyone was saying Liko should get one. I really hope instead they have more of a dynamic like crocalor and charizard. I think it’d be really cute if charcadet admired ceruledge instead of feeling a rivalry towards it… ceruledge is also kinda lacking when it comes to dynamics with other pokemon, so it’d be really nice to see it develop a bond with charcadet. Especially if it acts like an older sibling around it aldovivigifiis

All in all, whilst i’d never really subscribed to liko getting charcadet/amarouge and am disappointed in the capture, it’s already grown on me a lot. look at the little guy with his sticks

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// Sinking town meme

Enjoy!! 😋🎀

They are so silly I love them 🎀‼️‼️‼️

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juriori for @/sndjkcka !! 🥀

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Usually I never rely on merch stuff for predictions even if they have the hz logo, but this one lineup set to release in july really has me curious because of how specific it is to current events. All the mons are at the exact evo stage they’re currently in (sometimes they use the hz logo and have the starters fully evolved) and cap + lucario are specifically the ones we know. Pawmont would’ve been a random addition but we know it’s returning with Nemona next ep and we did just get a scene with umbreon at the end of last ep.

Where i’m going with this is that it’s clearly reflecting current/upcoming episodes, so with ceruledge’s presence that probably means amethio will show up soon? I had been expecting him next ep considering the writer for the ep + introducing him around the halfway mark is probably the best timing for him. That and we did just get stuff to do with Friede, so it’d make sense if he’s soon after. Scream tail also makes me hopeful we’re getting another Sango appearance… with the explorers being public figures now it makes sense that they’d be allowed to show up more instead of just at the arc climax.

But what interests me most is the charcadet. There isn’t one in the op, so I don’t think it’ll belong to a character of the day? If we got an amethio flashback I guess it could be there because of his charcadet, but flashbacks this arc so far have been more to do with what everyone’s been up to during the timeskip, so i expect him to follow this pattern too.

That does make me speculate we could be getting another new character? An amarouge has yet to appear in the series, and with how much the merch likes to emphasise it, it would feel weird to me if it’s left out of the whole series. ofc the box legendaries also haven’t appeared, but i chalk that up to them already having stories in the game so there’s little point in including them in the anime. If we do get a new character I also wonder if this person has been around Amethio during the timeskip? it makes a lot of sense to make whoever has the amarouge have some sort of connection to Amethio. I think it’d be pretty cute if they went down a student-mentor bond for them considering charcadet is literally a soldier in training. It would also add pretty nicely to Amethio and Friede’s parallels, we’ve seen both Liko and Roy take on qualities of Friede this arc so I think it follows that Amethio will too? Something also about the theme of generations in hz… we have Ult who already sort of does this role where he’s new to everything and so sees Liko and Roy as role models, it wouldn’t surprise me if they really want to hammer in the theme with someone whose new to being a trainer entirely.

This is all just speculation on my part tho lol. Grabbing charcadet by its tiny shoulders and shaking it. who are you. why are you in the reoccurring character lineup. what is your narrative purpose.

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Just one detail out of the many great ones in episode 100 of pokemon horizons, but I feel like the last two episodes really solidified the parallels between liko and orio narrative roles in regards to friede.

Even before the arc began and the new designs for the trio have been revealed, aside for roy's direct similarity to friede, something I noticed was liko's new design's similarity to orio's. Their hairstyle is very similar, both having two strands of hair at the front and tying the rest up behind, and it was a particular enough choice for me to keep in the back of my mind and not chalk up to a coincidence, as almost nothing in this series is coincidental.

The opening two parter of terastal debut frame liko's grief around her bottling her feelings up, as she tended to do before her journey began, which I feel after the last episode surrounding orio, create direct parallels. Both of them were heavily shaken by the loss of friede, likely more than the other rvt members - friede was orio's childhood friend who roped her into building the brave asagi, and friede was the first person to swoop liko into her life-changing journey, and was a true, impactful mentor figure for her. In response to that loss, both liko and orio tried returning to the guise of normalcy - adopting a somewhat unhealthy "out of sight out of mind" mentality, because thinking about what they could have done and could do at present is too painful. Even more parallels can be drawn by their relationships with ann and karna respectively, as their outside figures from their grand adventure and their sole companion in their attempt to return to normalcy. Both ann and karna point out to orio and liko that their behaviour has changed, both try to understand what they go through, and both liko and orio resort to bottling those feelings up so as to not worry the other/prevent the painful feelings from resurfacing.

Resorting to a sort of routinely stagnancy, abandoning the days of journeying in order to try to, unsuccessfully and against their deeply seated desires, to reintegrate into an un-thrilling and socially normative life, was a nuanced and very realistic writing choice for both of these characters. Similarly, both of them are spurred back from inaction to action by roy's urging, while initially turning him down in a very similar manner. For both of them, the renewed encounter with roy spurs memories of friede - liko and her first encounter with friede at the indigo academy's roof as a direct mirroring, and orio seeing a grown up roy fade into an image of friede in her mind. And after the prolonged encounter, both of them tap back into their desire for adventure and taking action against the rakurium, continuing friede's will.

These similarities are further highlighted by the cinematography choices between episodes 90-91 and episodes 99-100. Both liko and orio are often framed at the side of the frame and out of focus, with only half of their face visible - highlighting their complex emotions in regards to the loss of friede, and both of their tendencies to bottle them up, trying to maintain a facade of being alright for the sake of those around them, not to burden them with their personal feelings:

They both first appear in the respective episodes with their faces at least partially obscured, and similarly reflect on the traumatic event of the past year in shots that mirror each other perfectly:

The out-of-focus framing is similarly used to highlight their internal emotional turmoil in both episodes, when they're confronted with their own stagnancy - liko watches roy and his newly acquired partner pokemon, lamenting about her own inaction and paralysis, just as orio opens up about her inability to move on - their faces are obscured for us as the viewers, just as they try to shove their feelings lest others will see.

It also leads me to believe that liko's knowledge of friede being alive is especially impactful for her as it is for orio, considering the similar framing - out of focus, barely in frame:

Which is also why I think it is no coincidence that in the previous episode, the one to truly convince orio is liko - she knows how she feels, because she's been in a similarly grieving headspace for the past year. She knows how it feels to sink into self imposed melancholy and becoming, as Karna said, "a bit of a stick in the mud". But with reinvigorated spirit, liko recognizes that friede wouldn't sit still, and so they must do the same.

Liko and orio are constantly highlighted in regards to one another in these two episodes - orio firstly points out liko's growth and change of look, further reinforcing my belief that the design similarities aren't a mere coincidence, and as orio decides to join the renewed rvts, liko specifically comes excitedly hugs her. It's a sweet gesture of warmth, but also highlights, to me, their narrative and thematic bond, and similar positions.

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Thinking about how incredible it is that Anthy got a happy ending. The entire world was telling her that she was evil. She wasn't the perfect archetypal victim, she was coerced into perpetuating further harm, even she believed she'd somehow brought the abuse upon herself. She got to be imperfect and the narrative still said she deserved happiness.

From the audience's perspective its obvious that she didn't deserve anything that was done to her, but from inside the narrative, from her perspective, that idea was revolutionary. The point of abuse is to make you believe you are broken and unlovable, whether that is because of the things done to you, or because of something you are. Recovering is difficult, but simple; it's believing you are worthy of healing. This show says you are.

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Women in umineko are all beautiful extremely complicated morally grey characters that you have to spend 70 hours with to even begin to fully see and all the men are like “wahaha I’m doing financial crimes because I love money!!! Wahaha I love my morally grey wife” and honestly I respect that in a writer.

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https://archiveofourown.org/works/66076333

Some yuri for the beginning of pride month!

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I wanted to do an illustration of Gibeon with his daughter... I hope he was a good father.

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I thought this scene in the fourth opening was always meant to be foreshadowing for amethio pulling away from the rest of the explorers, and it still technically is, but it’s interesting how it also seems to be kind of literal?

We don’t exactly know what happened to him yet, but I assume he was separated from Zir and Conia similarly to how Friede was separated from the Rvt’s. So Amethio being swallowed up by that wind tornado thingy was a very literal foreshadowing, but I suppose this also symbolises him being pulled away from the explorers because it’s seemingly as led to Spinel being able to assert himself as head of the Explorers and Exceed, simultaneously removing amethio from the group.

Another point of foreshadowing that surprised was all the way back in the galar mines. The fact that it’s Friede and Amethio who get separated from their respective companions in the midst of the chaos seems like very intentional foreshadowing to me in regards to their fates at the end of arc4. A lot of people were annoyed we didn’t get a team up back then, but I guess that’s because foreshadowing was always that scenes narrative purpose?

The amount of foreshadowing particularly for Friede’s fate is super impressive tbh. I haven’t done a full rewatch since arc4 ended, but there’s loads of Friede falling moments that take on a different context now…

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Curryshipping + fourth wheeling Ult

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Finished Umineko Ep 4. So many feels. Too many feels. I need to lie down.

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As a Dot getting mega kangaskhan believer… I have been fed exceedingly well

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They can do whatever they want with time skip amethio’s hair, just please let him ditch those damn elf shoes

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headcanon thing

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My friend showed me this meme and I knew I had to do it with Beabato because the lyrics are just....

Uuugh-