#(is a really loaded scene and imagery)

[icharchivist]

But honestly, Maleagant's speech moved me to tears. Just. Being subjected to all of that horror just because of the way you were born. Being ostracized and hated and treated as less than human just because of the way you are... As a LGBTQ person, that hits close to home. That's really relevant in today's times and I'm glad the subject matter was treated with respect and they weren't made out to be the villains because they retaliated against the oppressive system. It was just really good. cries

honestly yeah, same. it genuinely messed me up.

i don't really talk about it on here but hhh my Mom is of Jewish and French&Algerian descent, and while she didn't pass down anything culturally speaking (she considers herself atheist and she did everything in her life to conceal our heritage, so i don't know as many cultural stuff that isn't just. the Trauma:tm: or just things my mom unconsciously passed down), the conversation, especially, about how much our family had lost to the holocaust when her family lived in France, and then to the Algerian war after they moved there have been.... a lot. this is something we talk about a lot.

like. i think it's why i also kinda flew off the handle a little at receiving dick jokes out of it because to me it's just. Yeah. Yeah i those are conversations that hit extremely deep especially in term of generational trauma, and, of course, current politics as well.

I think it's also like. something i'm kinda eyeing Lancelot about in case his Valiant heritage ever happen to be relevant. Because i know i've seen people brush it off like it doesn't matter because Lancelot doesn't seem to feel anything with the dragons around him or not but there's... definitely something to be had with a heritage to a culture you weren't taught anything about and yet still the ghost of knowing it could fall down on you at anytime.

I think it's really hard to find a story that really talk about genocide while also being like. fair to the victims. More often than not fantasy stories in particular end up falling into the trap of saying that there was a reason it happened, actually, or that well it's from the past you can't punish the people now :/ or stuff like that and it's. wehh.

Personally, it made me think especially about the Ainu people in Japan. I am not really well versed on the topic, but there was basically a whole genocide on the Indigenous people of Hokkaido, and i know in recent years, Japan has been trying to take some lands that belonged to the Ainu in order to build in some themeparks, and when the Ainu survivors tried to make their plea heard and have Japan acknowledge their warcrimes, the government denied it fully. (and it's not to mention how Koreans have been asking for the past decades for Japan to recognize their warcrimes and the gov still fully in pure denial it even happened. which is a similar topic that is worth mentioning)

in the past few years Japan has been under fire for their complete refusal to address the genocides and warcrimes they had commited, and there's been a really big public outcry around the world about the state denial going on and the way it also transcribe on how those genocides are... well... /not/ taught.

so i do think it's like, extremely relevant to Japanese politics. I even saw a seiyuu mention how topical this event is. This is an event that directly criticize the current Japanese policy of constant denial and stuff.

and, obviously, it can apply to any other situation where rights are denied to people for various reasons, which is extremely relevant all around the world because of the rise of fascism and the way most governments these days are completely lost in the history revisionism sauce, and it's genuinely alarming. Look at any country's politics and all of them are trying to rewrite history in some way and it's sickening.

I personally immediately connected to it because, on top of my history awareness, it's just like. conversations i regularly have with my mom when we discuss our family's past. It stung extremely close from home. even if i'm also LGBT+ this was where my thoughts immediately went.

but therefore, it's something that applies to any experiences of oppressed people who are currently having their history erased by fascist government that are trying to get rid of "the undesirable"

i genuinely think granblue dealt with the topic with a lot of grace, and Maleagant genuinely managed to pass down the politics, the pain, the history, the old hurt as well as the new hurt, just so well.

it really struck a cord with me. It was really well done.

so yeah feeling you fully on this one friend.

I think this event was pretty graceful at addressing this topic while also really anchoring itself as anti-fascist and it was honestly a breath of fresh air.

[arceus-insanity]

Endeavor Deserves No Sympathy!

I don't understand how anyone can think Endeavor was ever a good dad. It also always comes off as incredibly victim blamie, especially towards Touya, and often Shoto too.

He literally only got married and had kids to use them. He never gave a shit about their well being, never even thought about it until he had the one thing he cared about and was still miserable. I've already gone over the math proving he gave up on achieving his dream himself at 21 at the absolute latest. (https://www.tumblr.com/arceus-insanity/763259515356512256/i-liked-endeavors-character-when-he-was?source=share)

And basic math will once again be used to prove just how little this waste of flesh actually tries.

This time the focus is on how quickly he abandoned Touya and immediately went to emotional abuse via neglect & literally replacing him, and once again risking that more children be born with self-destructive quirks.

For context we only see Endeavor doing anything with his kids that's not him literally walking through and ignoring them in two circumstances. Once when Fuyumi's a newborn and Touya is attempting to crawl (not walk) over to her. And training. Those are the only times he tries to spend with any of them, even after he starts his 'atonement'

Now comparing Touya in the scene of them training and himself as a toddler and all the child imagery this series loves to use instead of actually saving imperfect victims, Touya is at least 3 (probably closer to 4) when he's taken to the doctor and they are informed of his condition

Natsuo is 4 and a half years younger than him.

We know for a fact Natsuo (& Shoto) was conceived after they got the news, not willingly either. Pregnancy takes 40 weeks average, so Touya would still be 3 when Natsuo was conceived. So once again it took this 'man' less than a year to give up and have another child he hoped to use as a tool, and was explicitly making to hurt his existing son. And as I have said plenty of times before, risking that the new kids could be born with the same disorder, I hate how convenient it is that Shoto gets near zero negative quirk side effects.

Want to know what we never see, Endeavor doing something else with Touya and Touya demanding training, it's always him walking past/ away from Touya. Considering all of the shit they've pulled to soften Endeavor's abuse both in the manga and even more so in the anime, they wouldn't skip something like this. It's not hard to tell that Touya's 'obsession with training' is really about spending time with his dad, you know like a human child that literally needs love, proven by numerous studies and research in the real world.

He throws all parenting responsibilities onto Rei, adds more children to that load, and when Touya suffers for it (like everyone else) he does nothing, doesn't even hire a nanny

Another are you kidding me take I've seen is that somehow Touya's quirk issues are worse than Midoriya's and Yuga's. Touya managed to train his quirk to produce blue fire at 13 with zero equipment and less than no help, and only lost control of it, because of the mental abuse Endeavor had inflicted on him leading him to a mental breakdown. And/ or the theory I've only seen once of AFO using his ability to force quirk activation (seen with a passed out chapter 90 during his first confrontation with All Might)

Midoriya was breaking his bones all the way into the Shie Hassaikai arc and was only able to fight because Eri and was breaking support equipment in the following arc as well. Yuga had a support belt all the way back in the entrance exam and was still struggling with that.

Speaking of Yuga let's compare parental effort here, because as much as it backfired Yuga's parents tried a whole lot more. For starters they nearly bankrupted themselves to get him a quirk, so he could feel equal. All For One is a mythic man prior to his arrest, and those who knew of him were shown to be serious long-term villain groups, so they had gone to quite a bit of effort to find that he existed to begin with. They also got him support gear (the navel belt thing) as a kid to help him with said quirk, he literally had it in the entrance exam. Endeavor never looked into that, Endeavor is not only rich too but he's a top hero he would have direct access to support equipment companies that would jump at the opportunity and it never even occurred to him.

Endeavor's name is an irony as endeavour means to try hard to do or achieve something. He never tries hard he gives up incredibly quickly the second there's any road block, but instead of moving on he makes everyone suffer for it. He's a toxic pageant mom who'd rather force their child into a toxic world and a role they don't want than work on himself

And what finally makes him change? Getting exactly what he wanted and still being miserable, and he still expects through his actions his family to cater to him.

Not his son getting a major disability due to his actions, no, he decided to double down, mentally abusing and neglecting the son he supposedly loves, raping his wife who didn't want more kids or participate in this abuse, and again risking that Natsuo & later Shoto might have that same issue. Not when his wife breaks down and permanently scars his precious masterpiece, who proceeds to rightfully blame him, and he just thinks of it as a tantrum despite it lasting a fucking decade. Not when his eldest literally dies as the result of his selfishness. Not literally during any part of this entire process!

Dabi is 23 when Endeavor finally starts to 'try' to be better, that means that for at least 24 years he has only been caring about his fucking precious number one spot in a popularity contest that he couldn't even bother to try to be likeable for, this wasn't one bad decision, this was him constantly choosing to be so insanely selfish that he found ways that shouldn't even be possible for over two decades. And it was all him.

[maryanddeadthings]

AAAAAAAND ITS DONE.

My first book cover for any of my fanfics ever. I started this story way back in September, I believe. I’m back at it and hell bent to finish with weekly chapter posts. I haven’t really been too vocal about this AU, but I would love to share it! My writing could always use sprucing up as I have loads to learn so very open to critique and advice if you wanna stop by AO3 and check it out!

I pitched this idea a long ass time ago, but it takes place ten years after the ‘explosion’ of the Beira. The rig reappears in the same spot of the North Sea miraculously, alarming the UK forces. The crew are without memory of the explosion, the years lost, but seem to be experiencing some symptoms the longer they go in this new decade. As well as the various changes to their families. And of course, it’s featuring Josie! If you’re not a fan of OCs in fanfic, I get that, but there is heavy attention on the crew, as well. Especially Caz, Rennick, Roy, Trots, Brodie, and you guessed it, Muirinnes ☺️

(Does contain a whole variety of swearing. Scottish, English, and even French swears. Disturbing imagery and scenes. Sexual and explicit themes, and even violence. Definitely for mature audiences over the age of 17. Sensitive moments related to family and relationships may be triggering.)

This song would def be the theme for TYL, it’s been my jam since I picked up the story again.

^ Here’s the link to the story!

[capesnjapes]

Comparisons on what Selena believes herself to be doing for Bats versus what the Joker is, and has actually done; another comparison of their relationships. I think, again, Batman and the Joker know each other on a very deep, pathological level that Selena could never match. Top panel: Batman/Catwoman: The Wedding Middle panel: War of Jokes & Riddles, Bottom panel: Batman: The Brave and the Bold #13  Along with what Joker says HE needs Batman for on the other end:

They really explore this dynamic pretty hard in Batman/Catwoman #1-#6. Cutting from making out with Selena to running off to Joker, and then cutting directly to Selina looking at photos of elderly Joker's grandkids highlights Batman's preferences pretty clearly:

I also appreciate that this series has a call-back to the chapel scene I referenced earlier in Batman/Catwoman: The Wedding, where it seems as if Joker died after trying to kill Selena in order to keep Batman from marrying her/keep him the way he was:

And more parallels from the same comic (I'm a big fan of this series, it's cracking smart stuff):

Joker asking her if she's Batman or Catwoman, and then Bruce mistaking her for Joker is choice stuff. She's very obviously caught between their little tete-a-tete and she knows it. The "helping" panels have such nice mirrored imagery too, with Selina wearing the same orange that Joker is, except she's in Bruce's bed...and Joker, well... he's in Batman's head. And his Batcave. Again, Selena being the "safe" choice here, the domestic choice, says a lot. The panel with Selena putting on red lipstick while talking about Batman & Joker is A+ honestly. That's some loaded symbolism right there, too!

[thisapplepielife]

Written for @corrodedcoffinfest.

It Was His Year

Day #21 - Hate This Town | Word Count: 1000 | Rating: M | CW: Slightly Graphic Imagery, Blood, Injuries | POV: Gareth | Pairing: Steddie (If You Squint) | Tags: Missing Scene S4 Finale, Evacuation, Canon Divergence, Eddie Munson Lives

Gareth runs out to his mom's minivan, carrying another load, and his hand hurts, even with his fingers taped together. At least one is broken, he's certain. Fucking Jason Carver.

The town has cracked wide open and everyone is panicking. Fleeing. Packing their cars, ready to haul ass out of this godforsaken place. Goodie and Jeff are helping load up his drums, and what gear they have between the four of them.

But Eddie is nowhere to be found.

Hasn't been around for days, and Gareth's worried. Something's going on, something more than an earthquake. Something more than an evacuation. He gets that Eddie's been hiding out, and for good reason, but this isn't just about that. Can't be. 

Eddie wouldn't have hurt Chrissy Cunningham. Not a chance in hell. Eddie's mouth runs a good game, but Gareth knows him. Really knows him. And Eddie was ready to finally get out of this sorry fucking town. Graduate.

It was his year.

And now he's missing, and the fucking Scooby Gang that is always somehow in the middle of every disaster that befalls Hawkins, are missing, too. 

Dustin Henderson is never this quiet. Something's up. 

Something big. 

A couple miles outside of town, Gareth slams on the brakes, and Goodie braces himself against the dash, "What? What is it?"

"Steve Harrington," Gareth says, because that was Steve Harrington's BMW hauling fucking ass in the opposite direction, towards town.

"So?" Goodie says.

"That wasn't Steve Harrington driving. That was Nancy Wheeler," Gareth says, starting to make a three-point turn in the middle of the highway, getting honked at by everyone behind him. He throws his hand out the window, flipping them off, then follows the BMW as it barrels back towards town. 

"No, no. Over my dead body. We're not going back. Tell me you're joking? The streets are caved in," Goodie says, looking for back-up from Jeff.

"Gareth, maybe we shouldn't-" Jeff tries.

But it's too late, he's giving chase. If anyone knows where Eddie is, it's that group, Gareth's sure of it.

After dodging streets that don't exist anymore, he sees Steve's car parked under the awning of the already bustling emergency room. Gareth gets out of the driver's seat, and looks over at the group that's surrounding the familiar car. They seem to be in costumes, like they went and raided The War Zone outside of town. Robin Buckley is standing there as Dustin is fucking bawling, holding onto the open door of the car. 

And Nancy Wheeler? She's absolutely screaming, arms waving, pointing. Barking orders to an already overwhelmed staff. 

That leaves Steve Harrington, and Gareth can see the soles of his boots as he's in the backseat of his own car, on top of Eddie, as Eddie's limp, boot-covered foot hangs out of the vehicle. The leather upper torn, shredded to the bone. 

What could even do that? What the fuck has happened here?

Gareth runs to the other door, the still closed one, and when he opens it, Steve barely looks up at him, doing chest compressions, breathing for Eddie.

Steve looks feral. Soaked with blood, smelling of kerosene and fire.

Death.

Eddie's neck is bandaged, his cheek, and Steve drags Gareth's hands to Eddie's neck, pressing them down. Gareth puts pressure, while Jeff hovers behind him. Goodie nowhere to be seen.

Gareth holds on tight, but he thinks Eddie's dead. He's not sure there's anything he, or Steve Harrington, can do about that. 

But Steve keeps working, arms pumping against Eddie's ribcage, and Gareth tries not to cry. 

He's in a daze, when he realizes Goodie is standing behind him, with his dad. Dr. Goodwin. Of course. He's not the kind of doctor Eddie needs, not by a long shot, but maybe he can get him into the right hands.

"What did you kids do?" Dr. Goodwin asks, but there's no answer to that. Between all of them, they're able to get Eddie pulled out of the backseat, and loaded up onto the gurney.

Steve Harrington bullies his way beyond the staff only doors, and Gareth doesn't understand why, as he stands there, the doors gently swinging, as Eddie's taken away.

Jeff is scrubbing Gareth's hands at the public bathroom sink, and Goodie is wiping at his neck where Eddie's bloody hair rubbed against his face when he helped pull him out of the car. His bandana is in Gareth's pocket now, soaked in red. This is fucked. It's all so fucked.

"What happened? It looked like he'd been attacked by an animal," Gareth mutters, "Did Carver do this?"

"I don't know," Jeff says, and yeah, Gareth thinks, none of them know anything. Not anymore.

By early morning, Eddie is hooked up to machines and tubes, and Steve Harrington is sitting at his bedside like a guard dog, still filthy. Still itching for a fight.

"We're his friends. His band. Corroded Coffin? Hellfire Club? With Dustin?" Gareth tries. Steve Harrington doesn't look well, he's glassy-eyed and pale. He has one dirty hand on Eddie's bedrail. Gripping tight.

"We can stay with him, you could go change clothes. Take a shower? See a doctor yourself?" Gareth offers, because Steve Harrington is sweating, and looks like he can barely sit, let alone stand. 

And then Robin Buckley is here, fussing, calling him a dingus and leading him to the sink in the corner of the room. Lifting his shirt.

Jesus H. Christ.

"Oh shit," Gareth says, seeing the angry, weeping wounds on Steve's sides. At the rope burn around his neck. "Goodie. Maybe get your dad again."

It takes weeks, more than a month, and they all take turns sitting with Eddie, before Eddie finally opens his eyes and blinks, looking around. It's a full-house.

Gareth leans over him from one side, Steve from the other, "Eddie? Are you okay? What year is it?" Gareth asks.

Eddie coughs, but smirks, ever so slightly. Voice hoarse from disuse, "It's '86, baby. I told you this was my year."

If you want to write your own, or see more entries for this challenge, pop on over to @corrodedcoffinfest and follow along with the fun! 🦇

[thisisatesttai]

IchiRuki is not "delusional," and saying that it is means you have no media literacy

IHs seem to think that all it takes to interpret Ichigo, Rukia, and Orihime's feelings is to read the epilogue. To a literary critic, that is absurd. Characters explain how they feel over and over again across a piece of media. An ending may give us context that alters the earlier scenes, but this is always in very specific ways. With Bleach, nothing about the epilogue indicates that Ichigo and Rukia are not supposed to be read as at least potentially romantic.

For posterity's sake, I should point out that I've only seen the first few arcs of the anime, so most of what I say below is based on the manga. That said, the anime is part of the story as much as the manga is, so just because something happened in the manga and not the anime, or vice versa, doesn't make it "truer" to the text, just true to different texts.

Let's start with the fact that the story repeatedly suggests that Ichigo and Rukia have a romantic vibe to them. The rumors at school make this explicit, but just from the setup of two classmates who clearly have a secret that are constantly sneaking off, especially when you add in that they go home together and sleep in the same room. I know a lot of people want IchiRuki to be the Platonic Boy/Girl Friends (TM) but honey, they just ain't them. You're thinking of Naruto and Sakura. Claims that they have a sibling vibe are utterly baseless, especially in Bleach, where sibling relationships are a very explicit theme. Not every non-romantic couple that's nominally the same age (don't get me started on the "she's 150" arguments; go prosecute ACTUAL 150-year-olds dating 15-year-olds and leave me alone) is automatically a sibling vibe. The most I could say is that they do bicker a lot, but we all know that's just as comparable to a married couple. Saying Rukia is a mentor to Ichigo admittedly has a little more basis, especially when Bleach doesn't have a designated mentor figure. I still think Rukia's role in teaching Ichigo about the Soul Society is more of a guide archetype, though; think less Genkai, more Botan.

But setting aside the setup, the Soul Society Arc, or Rescue Rukia arc, is loaded with romantic themes and imagery. Don't get me wrong; nothing says that Kubo couldn't have introduced these as a fake-out to the audience, with the intention of subverting their expectations. I don't personally think there's anything that really suggests that, at least not so far as the romantic reading of the Soul Society arc itself being entirely off-base. The whole arc kicks off because Rukia is asked by Orihime and her friends if she "like-likes" Ichigo. She says she only likes him as a friend, but all of the narrative cues suggest that she's being dishonest, from the narration to the fact that she was so bothered by the question that she chooses now to go to the Soul Society and face her punishment. The suggestion at this point seems to be that Rukia having any type of affection for Ichigo, be it friendship or romantic, is inappropriate or even impossible for a shinigami. Ichigo's feelings are treated similarly, as he never gives a straight answer when he's asked why he wants to save Rukia, but several characters suggest that it's because he's in love with her. This doesn't mean he is, but the narrative does not deny that that is a possible reasoning. We're not even really told what his answer is; the scene where he thinks, "That's why I fought so hard to save you" seems to be suggesting that he wanted her to be able to decide whether she would live in the World of the Living or the Soul Society -- or else it's saying he didn't want the last time he saw her to be her telling him she would never forgive him, or it's saying that he wanted to see her smile again. Like I said, we're not given an explicit answer to this question.

The rest of the manga is basically about Ichigo adjusting to life without Rukia. I think it's fair to say that even if you read Soul Society romantically, from the Arrancar Invasion Arc on, Rukia is no longer written as Ichigo's love interest. This doesn't invalidate anything suggested in the previous arcs, though. If anything, I would argue that Ichigo's feelings become pretty explicit by the time we get to Hueco Mundo. The dramatic reveal of Rukia coming to visit, and the fact that she's the only person capable of breaking him out of his funk, both have a romantic reading to them. When the team arrives in Hueco Mundo, Ichigo is shown to be overly concerned with Rukia's safety, explicitly singling her out aside from Renji, Uryu, and Chad. (I guess that could just be misogyny, though.) Even Ichigo's obsession with getting a rematch with Grimmjow could be traced to him nearly one-shotting Rukia during their fight in Karakura. I'm not saying any of these are exclusive interpretations, just showing how it's regularly reinforced that Ichigo feels differently about Rukia than any of his other companions, even to the point of letting it cloud his judgment.

I don't think I need to say anything about Ichigo and Rukia's goodbye before the timeskip. The way the scene is drawn, and written, and framed by the narrative, is very reminiscent of romance scenes, to the point that if it was meant to be read as exclusively platonic, it comes off as a very bad satire. And jumping to the anime real quick, I know episode 342 is anime-only, but by no means do I think that invalidates everything it says about Ichigo and Rukia's feelings for each other. That episode oozes with ship-bait, to the point of turning the subtext of their relationship into text. And if you think this is something that the anime studio injected into the narrative -- well, first of all, then we'd also have to parse out everything that the Shonen Jump editors injected into the manga -- but Kubo himself has said that he thought the episode was a welcome addition. So, if your'e someone who thinks the author's vision is the final say on the manga, there you have it; Kubo basically canonized ep. 342.

With all that in mind, I think that, at the very least, Bleach's narrative suggests that Ichigo and Rukia are coulda-beens. Maybe Ichigo was more invested than Rukia was, maybe Rukia deemed it inappropriate due to them being from different worlds, but in the language of manga and storytelling in general, the idea that they might have feelings for each other isn't some fan's "delusion"; it is actually part of the text. Whether or not they actually felt something for each other is for them and them alone to know, but the story tells us that these are two people who met, came to care very deeply for each other, and then drifted apart without ever taking the plunge.

The question that this leaves us with is, where does that leave Orihime?

If there's one character whose feelings are never up for debate, it's Orihime. We know from practically her first scene that she has a crush on Ichigo. Now, at first that's never taken seriously. It's mostly just a setup for the running gag of her bonkers imagination. Over time, though, we get a little bit more insight into Orihime's feelings, and she starts to get taken more seriously as a character. There's a version of Bleach where, as Orihime steps up to be by Ichigo's side in the latter arcs, he moves on from his feelings for Rukia and the two develop as a couple. If that were the case, even if IchiHime doesn't appeal to me, personally, I would still accept it. It would actually be a refreshingly mature take on teenage romance. Unfortunately, that version is not in the text.

For that reading of Bleach to work, we would need to see their love for each other build to a place where both characters bring out the best in each other, at least comparably to Ichigo and Rukia. Unfortunately, Ichigo and Orihime don't seem to bring out the best in each other. Ichigo brings out all of Orihime's insecurities. During the lead-up to the Arrancar arc, Orihime starts to compare herself to Rukia. (There's literally a panel sequence that says, without a single word "find you someone who looks at you the way Ichigo looks at Rukia", to anyone who's still unconvinced that there's a romantic reading to those two.) And as the entirety of the Hueco Mundo hammers home, Orihime is personally ill-equipped to be Rukia. Both Rangiku and Rukia herself have speeches where they tell Orihime that she needs to stop trying to live up to what she thinks Ichigo wants and just be herself, but she sticks to the mantra that she wants to "fight by Ichigo's side" -- you know, like Rukia does. Urahara even tells her outright that she needs to stop trying to put herself on the battlefield. It's not particularly nice of him to squash her dreams like that, but it's not as though she doesn't get an out; Hachi is already there, trying to teach Orihime to be a healer, something she has a natural talent for.

Instead of reframing her wishes with the advice of her friends, Orihime makes the worst decision of her life and goes to Hueco Mundo with Ulquiorra. Now, obviously this is coerced by the Espada and not her actual response to the situation, but that doesn't mean they're not framed as consequential to each other, narratively. Orihime is told she has a flaw that she needs to change, but before she's able to do so, she must go through hardships so she can let go of the façade that she's using to cover up her flaw. Well, she goes through hardships alright. She's imprisoned, assaulted, and threatened with death. Orihime is confronted both with her weaknesses, and with her strengths, as she is eventually able to appeal to Ulquiorra's humanity through her willingness to see the goodness in people, even those who are actively abusing her. You would think this would lead to a change in Orihime that goes back and answers the underlying question, but it doesn't. By the end of the manga, she is still fantasizing about being a Battle Couple alongside Ichigo, and she's still not good at it. I don't know how many times I've had to say this, but Orihime and Ichigo losing their fight to Yhwach is not a triumphant moment. The fact that it's the result of Orihime achieving her series-long dream is more of an indictment against their relationship than anything else I could say.

To adopt the narrative that Ichigo got over Rukia to be with Orihime, we would also need to see him come to appreciate Orihime in her own right, something that he is...hopelessly uninterested in. No, we can't just take for granted that he's a dopey shonen hero and "that's just his character"; if he's supposed to be . We also absolutely cannot take for granted that this happens offscreen; that can be a headcanon that you, as the audience, choose to adopt, but it's not suggested by anything other than the assumption that the ending is supposed to be, and can only be, saccharinely happy. There's nothing to suggest that Ichigo changes the way he thinks about Orihime in the text, and we only ever see him thinking about her is when reacting to her in scenes, and just generally not wanting her to die. The closest we get to him expressing a romantic interest in Orihime is the scene where he asks her to "wait for him" -- at Rukia's wedding, no less. I shouldn't have to spell out how having this happen on the very day, at the very moment, that Rukia is considered "off-limits" to conventional societal standards undercuts the idea that Ichigo is not taking Orihime as a consolation prize. Which, don't get me wrong, SUCKS. But it is implicit in the framing, and can't be ignored.

And that's without getting into Rukia's relationship with Renji. I think in this case, we can very obviously see that Kubo tried to write a romance between them, but he did so in such a half-assed way that I find it very hard to take seriously. Yes, Ichigo throwing Rukia to Renji is obviously meant to tell us that Renji is her love interest from that point in the story, but that doesn't mean it works. First of all, we can't pretend Renji wasn't awful to Rukia for a majority of the Soul Society arc. Sure, this is him pre-character development, but it's a huge leap to go from "I'm conflicted over whether I should tell off my boss for killing you" to a canon couple. But even with Renji beating up Rukia and telling her he wished she was dead, you can still get to the point where they repair their relationship -- it just takes a lot of work that Bleach simply doesn't do. We need more than Renji promising to turn things around, we need to see him do things that make up for that. To be fair, though, Kubo spends very little time showing us what they're like when one of them isn't on death row. At most, they seem to train together a lot. Like, you want platonic boy/girl besties? THESE are platonic boy/girl besties. Actually, they're the ones with the sibling dynamic, given that they literally grew up calling each other family.

So where does that leave us? Some people seem to assume that despite Kubo fumbling the ball, the canon couples were meant to be, and that they somehow found happiness despite all the evidence to the contrary. Again, you can hold that headcanon for yourself if it makes you happy. However, if we're going strictly based off the text, the answer seems to be that Bleach doesn't have a happy ending. The characters whose endings are not related to getting married off all end up doing the one thing they didn't want to do -- Chad ends up using his fists for personal gain as a boxer, Uryu ends up alone, etc. -- and the ones who DO get what they want are the ones whose dreams are framed as being misguided, in Orihime's case, or unearned, in Renji's case. I'm not saying you have to ship IchiRuki, of course. I can't tell you how to read the series. At the end of the day, Bleach is to you what it is to you. But saying that reading IchiRuki as romantic is "delusional" is more than just false, it diminishes media literacy for all of us.

[iwenttosee]

I Went To See ... Macbeth

Blood drips into a bowl of water. A quiet, deliberate introduction - a kind of imagery that screams "Tragedy ahead!" But here is the thing: how much did the theatre audience actually see? How much did they hear? That’s the lingering question throughout Trafalgar Releasing’s “Macbeth”, a production that seems as torn between its theatre audience and its cinema audience as Macbeth is about everything in his life.

David Tennant, our Macbeth, does not just speak - he performs directly to us, his eyes meeting the camera in a way that feels incredibly intimate - like you should be taking notes. The 4th wall shatters so beautifully, a moment where slow-motion, eerie sound design, and direct address transforms Macbeth into something more than a doomed warrior: A mad king? One of the Wayward Sisters, perhaps? It was a mesmerizing choice that leans into the supernatural horror at the heart of the play. But it also raises a bigger question: who is this performance actually for? Is it for the live audience at the theatre or for us, watching through the carefully placed cameras of TR? When Tennant turns to deliver his monologues, he is not speaking to the audience in the room - he is looking right at us, as if this production of Macbeth was always meant for the silver screens of the cinemas around the world, a medieval "Fleabag" so to speak.

The staging plays with contrast: the entire cast dressed in black, except Lady Macbeth in her ghostly white. A visual cue for her inevitable unraveling? A way to make her look like a malevolent angel of death? Either way, she stands out, especially when she starts (sleep)walking through the halls like an 11PM existential crisis personified. And then, there is that dream sequence - an absolute show stopper. The lighting, the sound design, the raw physicality of it all - it is a highlight of the play, a moment of pure cinematic horror that feels closer to a psychological thriller than a Shakespearean tragedy. The slow-motion of celebrations and claps, the subtle choreography of movement - all carefully designed to make each moment of tension stretch a little longer.

But then there is that comedic scene that disrupts the play - like a breath of fresh air in the midst of the murders and schemings of Castle of Inverness. The kilt joke and the audience participation can only be described as a shift towards a stand-up routine. One second we are drowning in blood and betrayal, the next we are watching a guy riff about kilts and calling out the first row for being loaded. Is this Macbeth or a late-night show in Edinburgh? For a brief moment it feels as if we would have left the play with him entirely. However, after 3 minutes of jokes, the actor flips so effortlessly back into the routine and the rhythm of the original play. And that is what I would call some serious range!

The production also puts the whole "what makes a man?" question under a microscope. By the tenth mention of 'manhood', one might start to wonder if "Macbeth" is really about ambition, fate, and power or is it just the Elizabethan version of a toxic masculinity seminar. 

Add to that the actors are playing multiple opposing roles (which might be confusing at first, but then the following line explains all: "The tyrant's men fight on both sides"), and the glass wall that divides the stage and occasionally bisects actors in a way that feels less symbolic and more like a frustrating camera angle.

And then finally, there is the ending. Macbeth dies (spoiler alert, I guess?), but his final pose on stage is not the same one we see in the next overhead camera shot. A bold and deliberate cinematic edit? A weird continuity error? A directorial choice to make his death look better on film? Whatever the reason is, it is yet another reminder that this "Macbeth" exists in two worlds, never quite settling on which one it truly belongs.

So, was “Macbeth” made for the theatre audience or was it made for us, watching from afar? The cameras of TR decide where to look, what to focus on and even which version of a scene to present. The result? A cinematic masterpiece, which invites the cinema audience to go to London and compare the recorded version to the live one. Striking, unsettling and at times completely mesmerizing. But at its core, much like Macbeth himself, this production seems stuck in indecision - forever caught between two fates, never quite committed to one.

[ultraviolet-cello]

Gooooood morning Trigun fandom, I'm up bright and early, ready to sink my teeth into today's analysis/detailed watchthrough episode - 11. To A New World.

I can't believe we're almost done with @tristampparty. These 12 days have been a blast and I'm very glad that I got to chat abt them!! I've been in a bout of artblock recently too, so I'm glad that I can just ramble instead!

Spoilers for Trigun Stampede and Trigun Maximum, and CWs for. okay this one is a Lot, but discussion of violation of bodily autonomy, sexual assault and trauma, pregnancy, transphobia, harm coming to children, Millions Knives in general, Vash's passive suicidal tendencies. If I think of any more I'll pop them up here but this episode is a heavy one!

If you wanna skip those first few CWs (Totally understandable <3), you can skip the paragraphs labelled with a [CW] at the front.

[CW] Okay so we're gonna tail off the end of Episode 10 for a second, but uh. Knives in this scene is using extremely Loaded Language to outright tell Vash that there is something wrong with him that needs to be fixed.

Just to be clear I do think Vash is very trans-coded (intentionally or not), and that very strongly influences how I interpret this scene - I myself am a trans man as well.

Cool, moving on! That's all really for the end of ep 10, I just needed to point out that Knives is using language that is commonly used to justify corrective sexual assault; which is pretty much what my reading of this scene is analogous to.

what in the fresh hell i got jumpscared by dub again. returning to subs hold on a moment. Like i've been checking dub occasionally to match up some dialogue and make sure I'm not being misled by Subtitle Jank but I'm one of those guys who can't listen to anything without subtitles lmao

But i also think i do get the funniest possible translation of this line - actually wait no i hate the double meaning (with Vash's body being used to kickstart the pregnancy imagery). was that intentional. who did this.

Anyway Meryl kicking Wolfwood is really funny but also like. Yeah. justified. She's having a no good awful time but like. She's so willing to believe in Vash, to chase after him even into Extremely Dangerous conditions (There's those hints of Trimax Meryl again....) and Wolfwood is being an ass here. (An understandable ass. But an ass nonetheless). Which is to say YEAHHH MERYL GET HIS ASS!!!

Knives' gay little like. bodysuit here. He and Vash have the same build but their respective clothes make them stand out very differently. Also that Knives' stuff seems to have more muscle definition (HYDRATE. You shouldn't have that Knives you need water :pensive:) which could be building towards his more intimidating appearance.

Also I'd be a fool to not show everyone my initial reaction to this

I've talked a little bit about how Vash uses his gun as a tonfa (thwacky baton) most of the time in melee combat, and I think that's a great way to show him utilizing something Knives gave him to Kill as a nonlethal weapon - in this, however, he doesn't have it and his normally very fluid very good form martial arts is flailing and panicked. Vash is pretty good at keeping his cool in most combat situations, and is a very skilled fighter. Seeing him lose that cool and just start struggling when Knives tries to grab him is :(

Once again the metal/organic dichotomy is coming into play - the creation of inorganic but the destruction that comes from the organic. Typically plant (as in flora) powers in media lend themselves to being creation powers, life, and healing. But Vash here has that plant (flora) theme but those are very much a force for destruction.

Also Knives with the angelic white, and Vash with the black.

I hate Conrad So Much (he's such a good character). Like we Know to some extent that dependent plants are self-aware enough to feel pain, to hold onto memories, to hatred, to love. They don't have consciousness the same way humans or Independents do, but they feel, they live, they understand what Vash tells them. Maybe it is a shallow form of themselves. But I think something a lot of people fail to realize is that (some, not all, because they are individuals even throughout a hivemind) plants appear to enjoy their purpose.

Once again the memory that is shared with Knives in Trimax of a woman and her child thanking the plant for her service and she smiles? After being fused, that plant held onto that memory. I've been given no reason to believe that plants in Tristamp are different, so Conrad is just,,, ignoring the subtleties of plants and taking away their agency to choose for themselves. Doubly so for Knives, who can communicate efficiently with them.

A very quick blink and you'll miss it detail is that Vash says "It was our fault humans crashed here!". The shifting blame and guilt between the two is something that is fighting the narrative allll the time, but Vash attributing to both of them as an appeal to Knives is interesting to relay how he feels.

I also don't think Vash is right, though, when he says the only reason humans abuse plants is because they crashed. Tesla was before, Chronica in Trimax has apparently seen independent fusions before (For what reason?). Like yeah to this extent it's a result of the big fall, but there'd still be problems without it. Nobody is right in this argument lmao

(except me. I'm always correct about everything ever)

[CW] Once again - violating Vash's consent and autonomy because he does not agree with or differs from Knives. Corrective violation, in this case. It's also important that it's Meryl who calls this out - she has to really really struggle for her autonomy to be important. She's small, carry-able, inexperienced, doesn't have any special powers or genetic modification. She's carrying a tiny gun from a man who can never back her up anymore. In fact, nobody is backing her up! She's out here alone! But she's sticking up for Vash. She cares about him,,,, so much

SURPRISE ROBERTO ATTACK [sobs]

Meryl pulled the nail out of him and placed his hands gently over the wound, as one might do in a casket. A memorial of cigarettes and his flask. All this will be destroyed soon, but Meryl did give him a funeral to the best of her ability.

Knives using Roberto's image is cruel as hell. Not to Vash but to ME. He's already dead you can't do this to meeee. "How do you think they'll react when they learn you caused the big fall" He will never learn it!! he never got the chance!!!

So fun fact you can actually eat geraniums. It's just that if Rem had said yes Vash probably would have eaten it right there and then. I've made that mistake before (told one of my class that nasturtiums were edible and he just ate one. right from the plant)

So; the Tesla scene. Something I do want to point out is that Rem finds them almost immediately, and Knives doesn't immediately pass out - Is he still catatonic enough to miss Rem's speech, or did he hear it? Because the reason that Vash turned out like he did is because he was awake to go through that with Rem - Knives was unconscious the entire time and didn't get to start that trauma recovery.

It's also important to recognize that these memories could be unreliable, especially as Knives tampers with them later.

I do want to know which version of the Bible Knives was reading. Because depending on translation/version, you can get Very different ideas out of that.

Anyway Knives is kind of beginning his spiral in that memory - "Humanity never learns" kinda shit, which seems to take place after Tesla. Who knows how long. But baby Vash calls that out and goes "yeah lets have faith"! Baby Knives looks a tad shocked and then Present Knives just. Cuts off the memory. What was the ensuing conversation!!! Hello???

Like he's clearly Having Thoughts (The Horror), we just don't get to know what those were.

So remember when I said it was interesting that Vash said it was "our" fault that the ships crashed, sharing the blame?

Yeah that gave Knives some ammo that just. Broke him. Shifts it allllll to Vash. Update Vash's description to running on 18 guilt complexes, CPTSD, and bisexuality.

[CW] There's so many different forms of assault, metaphorical and. Not. That is happening in this scene from mind violation to Knives literally using Vash's (specifically Vash's) body as a vessel to impregnate other plants which. Hey did you know that pregnancy is a massive fear of a lot of trans men. So many transphobes reduce trans men to their capability to have children, as if that's all they're good for (even if it would kill them.), and that often leads to corrective rape in order to "remind them of biological reality". In this case, Vash is a plant, he's meant to create, and yet he doesn't. But he's still being used to create anyway.

Again, Meryl also directly calls out Vash's lack of consent and gets shot down by Conrad. The whole scene is just. Hgnrhgnhrhnrnrn. It's So,,, everything to me, because it's a really good scene and shows you how far gone Knives is in Tristamp.

There are panels in Trimax that are,,, the imagery is there, but it's very overt in Tristamp.

Also hey yeah. Why is Conrad still alive?? Did he have access to cold sleep? or it's probably the robotics but did he not think of enhancing humans that way? It might just be a temporary solution, I guess, given that he is. Actively coughing up blood.

Alright! I have finished this part of the analysis that I always Feel Strongly about lmao - I have fun doing it but that's such an emotionally heavy episode.

[sb-1495]

cw hallucinations, brief description of violent imagery (torture)

They’re investigating a ruined dungeon when it happens.

The crew was separated after they came across some lone pirate who claimed to be an archaeologist, much to Robin’s amusement. He was trying to dig up some sort of relic that makes everyone who disturbed it “go mad,” supposedly. Though, the more they talked to him, it was clear that he was messing with things out of his depth, the surrounding ruins leaking with something sinister. And as the crazed man struck the wall with his pickaxe, the ground crumbled beneath them and swallowed them whole.

Which is how every Straw Hat found themselves stranded in a labyrinthian ruin.

Zoro’s not afraid, because he knows he can keep his senses about him.

More so than usual, the place is a goddamn maze and Zoro keeps hearing little sounds like the shift of blowing sand and water dripping somewhere that he can’t pinpoint. But no matter how loud he yells, he doesn’t hear a single one of his crewmates call back. He considered just smashing through the walls, but he recalls Robin emphasizing the flimsy structural integrity; one load-bearing wall could bury everyone, and Zoro doesn’t feel like digging that much.

So he stomps aimlessly through the quiet rubble, ducking through worn stone arches, listening for anything, any familiar voice that could lead him out.

“Help…”

Zoro freezes in his tracks. That was. A voice.

“H-Help…!”

Zoro clenches his jaw. He knew that voice. But at the same time he didn’t. That was the stupid cook’s voice. But it didn’t sound right.

It wasn’t right.

“S-somebody… please… I ca-can’t—”

Zoro starts to walk again. That couldn’t be the cook. It sounded exactly like him. No way was he mistaking that grating voice for someone else, it could only be him. But it didn’t sound any way the cook sounded like before. It must be a trick.

“An-Anyone… I’ll even take… th-the moss head at this point, haha…”

A pained gasp reverberates against the pathways, choking on something, and Zoro realizes he’s been holding his breath. It was a trap, that sounded like Curly, but it wasn’t. When the cook was down in a fight, he was either gritting his teeth to get back up, or he was out cold. He might yell out for backup if he was still standing and conscious, or grumble towards some unspoken agreement if he was back-to-back against Zoro. If he were really backed into a corner, maybe he’d scream angrily.

“Stupid… marimo…”

Zoro steps on something. A cigarette butt, he thinks. He doesn’t pause to check.

But the cook never begged for help. Never sounded so defeated and helpless, the calls Zoro heard just faint whispers against stone. This had to be an illusion, concocted by some sick bastard cloying through his mind for something that would distract him. An odd choice, surely one he’ll laugh about later to his crew once they find each other. He’ll laugh and tease the cook about begging him for help, another point for Zoro in their never-ending games.

“Z-Zoro…”

Except that Zoro can’t laugh right now. He has felt terrible agony. Imagined terrible scenarios. Yet he couldn’t fathom how a sound could fill him with such despair until right this very moment.

“Zoro..! Help, Zoro…!!”

A sob echoes through the halls and Zoro is running.

Something pulls at him, leading him where he needs to be, his feet carrying him so fast that his shoulders are checking chunks of stone out of entryways, and he can’t remember what Robin said about the structure of this place because his voice is calling to Zoro for help and Zoro needs it to stop.

In his mind flashes the scene of a bloodied cook being tortured, with blades stuck through his hands to keep him against the floor, with his legs snapped and sprawled beneath him, his spirit broken and begging for it to end, and Zoro knows this can’t be true, it’s all made up because Sanji is razor-sharp steel just like him, and there’s no way that could happen to him, he couldn’t let that happen to him, and as Zoro climbs steps towards a room with a light, he’s still holding his breath—

“MOSSHEAD, STOP!!!”

Fingernails dig into his arm as he’s pulled back, his leg hovering just shy of the last step.

He breathes. The fog clears. He stares at the ground in front of him. The stairwell he climbed dropped off into a deep, dark pit, several stories of floor having collapsed a long time ago. The light he saw earlier was gone, the echoing voice quieted, and Zoro blinks away the memories as best he can. It takes a few moments to will himself to turn back to the hand on his bicep.

It’s Sanji.

It’s the cook. A little banged up, but no more than usual. He’s alive. He’s fine. And he’s staring at Zoro like he does when he’s half-dead in the infirmary.

“Idiot, you nearly fell to your early demise!!” He yells, finally releasing his grip on Zoro’s arm. He doesn’t mention how the cook was holding it so hard, there were red indents. “Even you couldn’t survive that fall, and I’m sure there are spikes at the bottom of that chasm! There’s some freaky shit going on in this place but I’ve found Chopper and—“

Zoro’s only half listening. It wasn’t real. He knows it wasn’t real. Knew it wasn’t. He was hearing things. He was right, it was a trick. He’s still gasping for air. And as Sanji opens his mouth to shoot a jab at him, he stops.

Zoro belatedly realizes that he grabbed Sanji’s hand at some point, thumb pressed into the palm like he’s searching for some give in his skin. A scar or wound that should be there, but isn’t. He waits for a kick that doesn’t come, his breath still uneven, and oh how he hates that. Hates his body losing control. He tries to take deep breaths, Sanji’s hand an anchor. And when he refocuses on Sanji’s face, it’s softened, brow furrowed in concern, not confusion.

He understood, somehow.

Zoro doesn’t let his grip up. Sanji doesn’t make him let go.

They don’t say anything as they start walking back together, their crewmates clearly unnerved by the sight when they reunite without a fight.

It’s only when they’re back on the Sunny, smoking and drinking by the railing under nightfall, that either of them speaks.

“What did you hear?” Sanji whispers, so quiet that Zoro nearly missed it. He could ignore it if he so chose, and the cook is fully aware.

Instead, he looks ahead, biting the inside of his cheek before replying. “What did you?”

He’s ready to be hit with a retort about dodging the question, but that doesn’t come either. The tension makes Zoro wish that Sanji would just hit him with a kick or a verbal jab. But instead, a sidelong glance spots Sanji twisting his cigarette in his mouth, thinking. Slowly, like trying not to spook a wild animal, he reached out to grab Zoro’s bicep, in nearly the exact same place he grabbed last time.

“Help.“

Zoro’s eye widens, Sanji slowly turning to meet his gaze.

“You were calling… for help.” He says, trying to keep his face level even as his voice cracks.

And Zoro wants to look away, to make a joke, throw a tease, say something, ANYTHING, to make the memories go away, to force himself to forget knowing exactly what Sanji heard, to chuck them out like a bottle to sea, to be found any other day than today.

But instead he nods, a mournful grimace creeping on his face.

“Yeah,” Zoro whispers, the quiet night stretching between them. The only sounds to be heard are the gentle shifts of Zoro’s hand over the cook’s, and the drip of Sanji’s tears against the Sunny railing.

[voxofthevoid]

I've read a lot of your works in the MCU fandom, and though I am not a jjk fan, I STAY for the smut.

Dude! Sometimes I read your sex scenes and I'm like What!? How!? Why is this shit so hot!? The shit is invocative, titillating, and fucking inspiring.

I want to write smut like this one day, but I am SADLY inexperienced. Both in the writing department and personal experience..

I need to know how you get inspired to write these amazing scenes. What keeps the juices flowing? Is it from watching boat loads of porn or reading smut? Do you draw from a vivid imagination or personal experience? A combination of all these things? I MUST KNOW.

You write better porn than most of the published vanilla shit I have seen sold in stores, so I take your opinion very seriously.

Any tips would be great, and thanks for answering!

- A fan who created a Tumblr just for this one ask.

First, lemme just—

—explode.

Holy shit, thank you. This is so fucking flattering that I made a genuine attempt at biting my phone when I read your ask the first time. My teeth did not appreciate the mouthfeel.

Really though, this is high praise, and I'm very, very glad that you like my porn so much 💗

As for where/what I draw inspiration from, it is indeed a combination of all the things you mentioned! I was a horny teen who grew into a horny adult, so I've watched and read a metric fuckton of porn over the years. Still do! What I consider "wank material" is very different from what I write in terms of both content and style, but the fact remains that it keeps me supplied with a steady stream of sexual material, some of which can be quite inspiring.

I also have a very vivid imagination. Always have. I'm a visual reader/writer/thinker, so whatever I'm conceptualizing becomes a mixture of still and moving images in my head. You can imagine (pun intended) how useful that is for writing sex. Personal experience also feeds into it significantly; the sex I've had helps me write bodies better, and my own tastes in bed color the kind of sex I write. It's not always a one-to-one relationship, of course, but there's a reason sadomasochism is a staple of my writing, for example.

Between what I have felt and what I can imagine, I can sketch out the sensory experiences of a whole host of things, even if I haven't experienced it personally. I promise I haven't bitten off anyone's tongue while kissing them, for instance, but I do know how it feels to dig my teeth into tongues of varying lengths and textures (and... shyness), and then it's a matter of mentally synthesizing that with what it feels like to bite through meat. That kind of shit. Realism isn't the goal, titillation is.

When it comes to tips, the most important one in my opinion is the usual tip for writing: read and practice. Read as consciously as possible and then practice over and over. You already know the kind of sex you want to write, yeah? So read more and more of that type of porn, consciously analyze the way those writers are using language, imagery, dialogue, etc., and then try your hand at it. You can also draw inspiration from whatever else you can find, from visual porn to mundane sensory experiences.

Results likely won't be immediate. Some people do strike gold on the first try, but they're rare, and even writers who're good right off the bat will generally find that they're improving further with greater practice.

I've been writing since I was ten years old and posting it online for a bit over a decade. Scroll far back enough on my Ao3 and you'll find my nervous "English isn't my first language" and "this is my first time writing smut" notes. Even considering more recent works, there are marked differences in style between my YoI fics and MCU fics and also between my MCU fics and JJK fics despite my overall style already having settled by the time I got into MCU. That's the case with most writers I know, and we also tend to be our worst/keenest critics because we see the messy paths that led to the finished work.

Practice is the only way through, even when it's more frustrating than rewarding.

Personal experience isn't necessary to write porn, just like how you don't need to kill people to write murder scenes. Reading, research, imagination, and practice will do the trick.

Oh, and write for yourself first and foremost—and I'm talking specifically about what people mean when they say "write for your dick." Cater to your own tastes. Write what you find hot or what gets you hot. Ignore mainstream tastes (like the vanilla shit you've decried above) and focus on what your heart and nether regions desire.

Go forth and get porny, anon! I believe in you 🫡

[theflyindutchwoman]

Why are you the reason Mitch lost his leg? 'Cause I let him slide on something. It doesn't matter what, just that I cut him a break when I shouldn't have, and because I did, he went back out on patrol, got blown up. That is the most Tim Bradford thing I've ever heard. You showed humanity. There's nothing to feel guilty about. Rules matter, Boot. Then what the hell are you doing out here? Some things matter more.

| ANATOMY OF A SCENE - CHENFORD EDITION 2.14 - Casualties

These two really have had some of their most personal and meaningful conversations in a car… But what distinguishes this one is that, this time, they are not in the shop. They are in Tim's truck. Out of uniform. Without any camera around. There's no trace of Officer Bradford or Officer Chen here. Just Tim and Lucy. And as a result, the atmosphere feels even more intimate… especially with the way this scene is filmed. It's dark, barely lit, with the camera outside, as if we are intruding… It even looks like there this out-of-focus fence standing between Tim and the camera, reminiscent of the imagery of a fenced window in a confessional booth. All of this gives off this intimacy, this idea of a safe space. And that's exactly what Lucy is for him at this stage. She is his safe space, someone he can open up to and talk about some of his demons without fear of being judged.

And Lucy doesn't waste time, asking Tim right away why he feels responsible for Mitch losing his leg. The fact that he answers her with no hesitation or argument is really indicative of how much their relationship has progressed. How much he values her opinion. And that's huge. This is one of those instances where Lucy gets to peak behind the curtain, behind his wall and see how much blame and guilt Tim shoulders. His body language is fascinating… He can barely look at her, his eyes darting around.

'That is the most Tim Bradford thing I've ever heard'. Her soft chuckle when she says that… But she's right, it truly is. This also shines some light on his behavior, on why he can be such a hardass at times. Because the one time he wasn't, it cost someone he cared about his leg. And he hasn't let himself forget. And he hasn't forgiven himself either. But the beauty of this dialogue is that it's not just about Mitch. This is about Lucy too. And how much he feels responsible for what happened to her. Because when he advised her to get a drink or two, he wasn't acting as her TO, but as her friend. He showed her 'humanity' as she said, and it had a disastrous consequence. In his mind, he repeated the same mistake. This makes Lucy's speech that much more important. She may not fully grasps the context here, but she is already absolving him. The way he is looking right at her when she tells him that he shouldn't be feeling guilty… The tears in his eyes… This is such a good foreshadowing of another conversation in the shop, one where he'll confess his guilt for what Caleb did to her. He's just not quite there yet.

This is also a subtle continuation of another beautiful moment : when Lucy made him her first audiobook. Back then, she was trying to show him how being a kinesthetic learner wasn't a weakness, but a strength. How it made him a better person. And she gets to repeat this sentiment here, by reminding him that showing humanity is a strength as well. And that's probably the most Lucy Chen thing she ever said and did. I like how she doesn't hesitate to gently call him out when he tries to hide behind the importance of rules despite the fact that they are in that moment defying their watch commander's order to drop the case. How she forces him to admit why he is here, that his sense of justice and compassion are stronger. 'Some things matter more'. The way he is looking right at her when he tells her that… The loaded implications in that little sentence… Yep, this isn't just about Mitch anymore...

[randomlonelymusician]

Lacey's Petshop - Attempted Transcriptions

Most of this was guesswork and running things through so many image manipulators, but here's my first attempt.

Content warnings for disturbing imagery, mentions of abuse. Also spoilers for Lacey's Petshop.

Text from the "loading" screen scene:

[nightmares come and nightmares go... I... then again and again...pull my hair and my nails... then pretend it was never real... what happens through the night never did.]

(Image update since my friend was able to get this one way better than me.)

I can't figure out the faded text at all. But most of the slightly legible paragraph was just squinting and checking, so please correct me or give your guesses.

White text from the mirror scene:

[...and it sucks and it smells oh i bet...now someone melted here... remains enter my pores blood red...and rests of an eye i suck it all up...my legs smell and turn yellow...]

(Images updates since a friend caught a few words.)

Red text from the mirror scene:

Left: [Hello child. Do you like playing on your computer?... the real girl games... the real girl games...]

Right: [I made lots of games for you. But with none of those...]

This is spoken, but it's quite hard to make out. I can not tell what she is fully saying at 11:40 and 11:43-11:53. If anyone knows, please say.

Text from when Lacey goes upstairs:

[Uncle, have you seen Puddles anywhere? I can't find her... I checked everywhere... Everywhere...stop...laugh...]

Well, this reinforces what everyone thinks happened to her dog. And the dog's name is Puddles.

Text from the interview in the beginning that is hard to read and I found interesting:

[Submitted by Jenny, age 9. Honestly you should just give up. This is utter fucking trash. Did you really have the courage to send this over? You thought Lacey would like it? Well she doesn't. In fact, she hates it. It's only displayed here so other kids can laugh at your terrible work. Never draw again.]

Is this from Rocio? A response to a kid's fanart?

And bonus:

The most legible version of this I can find.

[I've always known what you are. From the moment you first touched me to when I found myself stepping over remains of your skin glued to the floor. You have no regards. I had none either. You squealed like a pig. Just like a pic. This had been my childhood dream. The one you took from me. I collected all those bruises for years. My spine hurt as if a needle went through each seg(?) once I got use to it I didn't think about it anymore. But you make me think about it forever when you make that mistake. You made a mistake. You took my angel away. You took my angel away. You took my angel waya tyou took my agengel waway you took my anegl away you took my angelegaway you yto...]

[o-sunny-day]

Gang…

I cant get away with making this a reality for a WHILE, but I got a very heart breaking earth shattering (across time and space) Forgettable AU visual idea that i’ve just gotta share…

As Wingdings falls into his creation, his life flashes before his eyes, and because all of his life Sans has been there… thats all he sees.

More specifically speaking: In the song, This Is Home by Cavetown, as the music swells with “Get a load of this monster…”, as his life flashes before his eyes, crayon drawings of what theyve been told stars, the sun, and the moon look like, turn to realistic uncountable stars in the real sky, then BLACK as Wingdings goes from the underground, the surface, then PAST that to “Heaven”

More Sans is the moon, Wingdings is the sun imagery ((“THE MOON WILL SING” BY THE CRANE WIVES FLASHBACKS))

Also some falling in general visuals

actually kinda obsessed with this look-

ALSO SOMETHING I NOTICED WHILE WORKING ON THE DTIYS. THE GODAMN- THE FRONT OF THE RIBS LOOKS LIKE A TIE. AND IM MAD ABOUT IT

this is me fr when I go to Heaven

Throwing this in too cause its related to Wingdings falling, I LOVE this part in the score of Soul.

I think its PERFECT for a scene like this, the screaming sounds are like actually chilling and the AAAAAAAAAAA ITS SO GOOD

I wanna like go in really hard with some animation some time and make the falling into his creation scene. That wont be happening any time soon cause if I did that id want it to be like a BIGGG project, fully animated, fully colored, all the works

[bthump]

I’m really curious about this one thing and if the perception of it is different for other fans because i don’t think i ever saw it brought up. In the scene where guts is gazing up at the moon and thinking of griffith, beside the fact that the scene is overall very romantically loaded, the specific panel where guts is picturing griffith’s face on the moon was straight up a forward and undeniable love confession to me and i’m just now realizing that might be because the moon in my culture is always linked to lovers, so theres always mentions of it in romantic text, the subject of attraction is always compared to the moon by the lovestruck fool, so to me that was basically guts associating griffith with the moon thus admitting that he’s head over heels in love with him. Is that view a universal thing and present in other cultures? and did other fans perceive it that way too?

I'm no sociologist so I can't say how present it is as romantic imagery/symbolism in other cultures in general. I do know that it's often, but not strictly, romanticized in American media. Moon imagery isn't always going to be romantic, but it's often used in romantic moments. From that perspective Guts' rooftop dedication has strong romantic vibes to me, but not undeniably so.

The only connection between the moon and romance in Japanese culture that I'm personally aware of is the phrase "The moon is beautiful," used as an indirect love confession. The story behind it might be apocryphal, but the origin is apparently writer Natsume Soseki telling a student of his not to translate "I love you," into Japanese directly, because it's too blunt and feels out of place in Japanese, and to instead translate it as, "The moon is beautiful, isn't it?"

It's apparently well known enough that there's a romance anime called The Moon is Beautiful, and I'm pretty sure Go Nagai referenced it in Devilman lol, which is how I'd first heard this.

Anyway, not sure if that's relevant to this scene in Berserk, or if there's other romantic moon imagery/symbolism in Japanese culture that's relevant, but it's a fun fact at least.

If anyone else wants to jump in with their own take on moon imagery and romance and how it fits their culture, please do! It's an interesting subject. And now I'm curious where you're from Anon, if you want to share (but no worries if you'd prefer not to).

Thanks for the ask!

[notafraidofredyellowandblue]

Puts out a new nice poem and then releases music video with assault scene in it during thia not so good for him times... Till really is something else.

what follows is my personal opinion, so feel free to disagree entirely:

With regards to the video i'm withholding judgment until i've seen the entire thing in context. Ofcourse the one scene they put in the teaser is there to provoke, and i'd say he succeeded. But remember Rammstein's Deutschland video when the one bit that was used as teaser was of the WWII prisoners and loads of people were ready to critique them of being insensitive (at best) (and i'm sure some still do), but in the context of the complete video i would say it was actually a real honest depiction of German history and showed a vital part of that (and even more interesting, it showed that people were inprisoned or killed for various reasons, which is the raw truth, although a truth that Germany has had a difficult time to come to terms with, and Rammstein hit the sore spot).

We know the dreadlock hairdo from photos Till's friend accidently (?) leaked at the time, and that was before the allegations stuff, but in theory it is possible that a video was shot at the time, but that it was reshot more recently to change the narrative (maybe as a reaction to the allegations), and unless we see the whole thing, we don't know the message it wants to convey.

The poem is interesting to me, because, apart from art being open to interpretation, and we don't have (and probably won't get) Till's own comment on what he intended with it. But at some points during the last months i may have had the feeling that Till wasn't bothered or had a 'FU' attitude to what happened. At the very least during the few bits i had seen from his tour (but as you may know, Till's imagery in his solowork is not my thing) he seemed to continue in the same vein as before and possibly provocatively announcing holding after-parties etc; again, it could be interpreted as a FU...

Well the poem, to me, shows that it does bother him, and that it gets to him. Maybe the fact that people again painted slogans somewhere in his neighbourhood recently, still not letting go of the allegations and now he got back to Berlin after the tour and saw it with his own eyes, was the proverbial 'final straw' that prompted him to write the poem... maybe he already made the poem months ago...don't know.

What is interesting to me too, is that the allegations stuff is often attributed to politically speaking 'left-wing' inclined people; and slogans that are used are usually targetted at 'right-wing' others. But we know for a fact that Rammstein as a whole and Till too are, well, officially political, but if we would *have* to 'label' them, it would be decidedly 'left-wing'. I've felt more than once, that actually the phrases used and actions done by the accusers (and their hangers-on) are going to extremes that actually tend to loop back towards the other end of the political spectrum. The accusations without proof, the cancel culture...isn't it really the same as silencing people because of their beliefs or way of life that happens in Right-wing society? If everything in life is a circle, if you go to the extreme left, don't you run the risk of unintentionally becoming extreme right yourself?

The phrase in the poem"Rot wird braun" (Red becomes brown) reminds me a lot of Left-wing (often represented with color red) turning into Right-wing (especially in 1930/1940's Germany the color of Right wing politics)...and although it is just my interpretation, i wouldn't be surprised if Till made that connection too.

Of all of Till's solowork, i appreciate his poetry the most, and this is no exception.

And the poem sparked my interest in the video more than before i read it, so it will be interesting to see the whole 🌺

[blackdigitalrose]

˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚ Finale Week! ˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚

Wed - Smile Pretty Cure! - EP 47 & 48

The first two parter one, so this is going to be a shorter one.

EP 47

Still a tiny thing but Queen Candy's outfit does line up quite well with the actual Precure outfits, wonder if that intentional or coincedence? Although NEW being the key word here, that's a lot of faith to put in some one who has no idea how to use their new powers or what said powers are yet still and still send her up against the EB.

Ha, imagine if that was filled, it'd be the shortest finale ever, that or the narrative would shift to rewrite it, after all, it wouldn't be the first time they've done it.

You'd expect it to look daft but the dark jester idea does actually look quite cool and to an extent intimidating. Actually explains Joker's look as well really considering he seemed like such a fanboy of Pierrot, although leaves the question on who Joker really was?

Out of no where combo attacks! Well I suppose Sunny/March had been hinted but Peace/Beauty was a surprising combo. Now they need a sixth member because Happy is running solo.

Pierrot is the book of despair created from negative human emotions... well darn, they actually took a moment to think this EB through, it even still ties into the overall narrative of the story theme.

This ep has loads of amazing imagery and poor Pop, the guy is on the verge of a complete breakdown between all this worry and stress he's going through with everyone. And surprisingly Candy turned back into her fairy form after exhausting her powers.

And there's the line! That's a bingo card entry right there! Although, curious instrumental version of the intro added in here.

Well, when you start playing on that level, it's just full out cheating. Pierrot with a trump card, nice to see the EB not be a one trick pony. Now that's how you end an episode finale, it keeps you on suspense for the next ep because the victory doesn't seem so clear cut obvious and the Precure's best, keeps getting bested, on top of all the other obstacles they've had to overcome facing him.

And give this preview guy a bonus! It's just a bunch of photo's of the previous eps, so you actually have no idea what's instore the last episode! Plus it does look quite snazzy. EP 48

All this crammed into six minutes... that's a lot of despair to open an ep with.

Gets called out for now knowing what despair is, puts them in a position of despair for them to overcome... A cookie for the lot of them, some really good voice acting going on during this scene from everyone. But poor Pop, on his own, some one give the guy a hug too, he's as distraught as the rest of you.

The blue blazes is that suppose to be? Either way, it hugs away Pierrot of all things and just as quick as the battle is over, Candy and Pop are sent on their way... in which they cry again despite just having a scene about coming to terms with this to do the right thing∘ ∘ ∘ ( °ヮ° )?

We literally wrapped up back on the first ep but with the whole crew this time...and that seems improbable, what about Marchenland? Candy is suppose to be its new ruler? It sorta destroys the message the ending was telling, because that's not responsible or mature and it was such a solid ending to. It's another case of ten seconds too long.

Easily the best finale so far, the Precure were all involved, they all had obstacles to overcome to beat the EB, the EB wasn't hiding behind anything. It was a full blown team effort, even Candy and Pop contributed. Heck, it even made you feel like the Precure may actually lose and they ended up with such a mountain to climb at the very end once the pacts broke.

Pierrot for the limited time he had wasn't even that bad, I liked how he called them out for not knowing anything for being kids and yet they make all these claims. It was a nice touch and you could see it actually gave Miyuki something to think about but on the whole, even the way she responded, it was all handled very well. A cookie for the VA's between the screaming and the crying, this must have been a very rough two eps for them.

Although, I do think having Candy return at the end does spoil it, if they cut off where Miyuki says she's now writing her own fairytale inspired by Candy, it would have been perfectly cut off, (perhaps showing Candy now as Queen to as we have no idea what Pop and Candy are doing afterwards)

Still, I'll give this a very solid 9/10! ͙͡✮⋆˙