#I know didn't mention Neos because he's an interesting case

[juanarc-thethird]

Recent RWBY Chapter thoughts

I have read many people saying that someone must die in order to return home. And all this happened because Jaune "believes" that Alxy killed Lewis to get out. "Believe" is the key word here. Jaune isn't sure what happened to Lewis, and I don't think the cat is hiding the information. Throughout the show the cat technically has not lied, he only answers what they ask him. Nothing more and nothing less.

I don't think anyone has to die to get out of Ever After. This is what I think happened with Alyx and Lewis. Jaune says that Alyx is a cruel and ruthless person, and that Lewis is the kind and clever one. Alyx poisoned Jaune, thinking that he would help in some way what she saw in the herbalist's smoke. So she left with the cat and her brother. What did she saw? I have some ideas, but that's for later.

So when they get to the tree maybe Alxy and Lewis had a fight, maybe. If this actually happened, the cat would never have mentioned it because Jaune and RWBY didn't ask that question. The point is that somehow or another they did find the way out and may be that Lewis wanted to bring Jaune. But of course this is when he discovers that he was poisoned and the fight started. I don't know exactly how it happen or what happen, but maybe Alyx wanted to kill her brother in a way to keep him quiet once they arrive the real word. But Lewis is clever, somehow or another he was able to stop his sister, but tragically he made her "ascend". But in Lewis eyes, he thought that he killed her, since the cat says that those who are not part of the Ever After cannot ascend.

Then upon returning to his world, Lewis decides to write the story and because of him for not being able to help his friends and his sister. He wrote the adventures of his sister and the others as a way to apologize to them for everything that happened. I wouldn't say he lied, but maybe he wrote what happened this way as a way to heal from this horrible experience.

Now, what happened to Alyx? The cat doesn't remember what happened and as Jaune said, the cat returned to him after a few days. Since the cat is very curious and nothing was happening, he didn't stick around on the tree, and he no longer cared what happened to the siblings. So he returned to Jaune to see if he has something interesting for him. Jaune took this wrong and he thinks the cat is guilty.

Now comes the complicated part. I believe that Alyx did ascend and become the Jabberwalker. You see, from what Jaune told us, he tried to guide them just like the story, but Alyx, being cruel, committed crimes everywhere they went. In all that narration the Jabberwalker was never present. It means that the Jabberwalker appeared later. First clue.

Second, the Jabberwalker is always scares when he has to fight a group. We figure this out when RWBY and Neo and their clones attack him. The Jabberwalker panics and runs away or becomes paralyzed in fear. The Jabberwalkers that attacked afterwards were copies of Neo, so they weren't afraid of RWBY and Jaune. Where am I going with this? Alyx poisoned Jaune because she knew that he is the only one who can stop her, what ever she is trying to do. He is stronger than her, faster than her, bigger than her. So the poison was the only way to get rid of it. The Jabberwalker only attacks people that he knows he can beat. The first time it appeared, Yang was lonely and tired, a good prey for the creature. Same idea, different tactic. Both Alyx and the Jabberwalker ar scared easily.

Third, ascension supposedly helps reborn creatures by taking their memories and transforming them into something better using those memories. Like the King, in the story they say he played Alyx fairly (I think it was Lewis who played the King), but after he was beaten for the first time because of Alyx cheating, he was reborn as a prince and started cheating too. In Alyx's case, she was already evil but using her memories the tree turned her into the Jabberwalker. This was unintentional, since the tree's job is to make creatures better and give them a new role, not make them worse. And since Alyx is pure evil, only more evil can come of this. That's why the tree turned her into something big, strong and fast, and with the desire to end everything in her path.

Fourth, what I think she saw in the smoke. I think she saw herself as a monster. And trying to escape that, she made a lot of bad decisions. In the end, fulfilling what she desperately tried to avoid.

I think there is more to the story that Jaune has not told us and that the cat knows about Alyx. Honestly, it would have been better if the episode had been a little bit more about what Jaune had to go through with Alyx and Lewis. Just to get a better idea of these two siblings. Just to get a better idea of these two characters. I also believe that no one will die. I think Neo might become good, learning what happened to Alyx as a lesson. Or maybe just stop hunting Ruby and maybe do something else. Everyone will get out of there, I hope that Jaune will become young again (The change of his image when he got angry in the reflection gives hope that this may happen), but I think that everyone else in his world will be a little older. I mean, Lewis and Alyx's clothes look kind of old and Jaune met them and ran into Rwby later. Time must pass more slowly in the "Ever After." But like always, this is just my thoughts, I may be wrong.

[star-light-shadows]

Mike is almost certainly going to be a Shadow Crystal Boss. Here's why:

So what makes a Shadow Crystal boss?

The first Shadow Crystal boss was Jevil, and aside from being really out of the way and giving us a Shadow Crystal for completing his fight, the narrative uniqueness of Jevil stems from an implicit past encounter with a Dr. W. D. Gaster.

Particularly, during this encounter, Dr. Gaster apparently revealed secrets to Jevil that caused him to go nuts like he is now. Secrets that Seam says caused their worldview to become "Darker yet darker" as a result of 2nd hand exposure. Causing Jevil to begin saying things that "Didn't make sense, but didn't quite not make sense either."

The idea of Gaster having access to and spreading forbidden knowledge is already something incredibly in line with what we know about Gaster from Pre-Deltarune.

The 2nd Shadow Crystal boss is everyone's FAVORITE [[Number 1 Rated Salesman1997]], Spamton G. Spamton.

Spamton is also suggested to have had a past run-in with Gaster and since then has similarly gone kooky bananas. Gaster communicated with Spamton on the phone and was said to be speaking through Garbage noise the whole time, which fits into the eldritch unknowable wrongness that surrounds Gaster.

It may be tempting to assume that Gaster once again spread cursed knowledge to Spamton and that's why he's gone nuts, but such is actually not the case. Instead, Spamton actually went nuts because Gaster left, taking with him whatever unnatural edge his partnership seemed to give Spamton, causing Spamton to abruptly fall from fame and fortune into poverty.

However, Spamton isn't simply Insane. Along with that, he has a strange speech quirk where his voice gets taken over by various ads. Such a quirk is never mentioned by the Adisons who knew him prior to Gaster despite it being extremely noticeable and frankly offputting in nonhumorous contexts.

What's especially interesting is that his speech in two specific instances gets replaced with what instead of ads seems to be a signal of someone calling for help in the darkness. Suggesting what could already be assumed that these ads overriding Spamton's dialogue are signals he is receiving from across Cyber City.

Such an implication seems to connect to one other noticeable quirk with Spamton's character, his puppet-ness.

Spamton is blatantly associated with being a Puppet in the NEO battles, with green marionette strings coming from the sky piloting him, but even outside these battles, he's presented in a way that's reminiscent of a different kind of Puppet. A Ventriloquist's dummy.

Ventriloquism involves making a Puppet seem as if it has a voice, speaking words that the ventriloquist is actually speaking.

This obviously connects to Spamton's speech quirk, and we're meant to assume that all of this is a result of Gaster's involvement in Spamton's affairs back in 1997. Implying that at that point in the past, Gaster made Spamton a Puppet and highjacked his voice via ventriloquism.

From this, we can conclude that Gaster used Spamton to further spread his influence and/or the kind of cursed knowledge he had spread to Jevil before. (Presumably in the direction of some person or group that existed in the Cyber World, although Dark-world world boundaries in Deltarune are hella vague so it's impossible to be truly sure.)

This combined with the fact that Spamton directly references Jevil as if having met him, (despite Jevil having literally zero relevance to Spamton as a character,) suggesting that the Shadow Crystal bosses have connections to each-other, which presumably is going to be a running theme, generates an interesting potential premise.

One of the next Shadow Crystal bosses is going to once again have been driven mad by Gaster's forbidden knowledge, but this time through Spamton's ventriloquized mouth.

However, I believe that there is an existing character that's been established that we can be relatively sure is the future Shadow Crystal Boss in question: Mike.

Mike is a Character Spamton references whom he seems to miss and mourn as if he's an old friend whom he no longer is in touch with, the one and only character that Spamton seems to still hold fond feelings for.

However, if Mike had simply left Spamton because he wasn't rich anymore, Spamton should HATE him. There are a huge number of people whom he hates in Cyber World because they ceased working with him after losing his fame, and it's unlikely that Spamton would care so deeply about Mike if he had only become Mike's friend because of his short time of fame anyway.

So what happened?

Well, Most likely what happened is that Mike left because he was scared of what was coming out of Spamton's mouth. Gaster was speaking some horrible truths from Spamton's mouth and Mike couldn't take it and just up and left. Something Spamton blames himself for.

But even after leaving for another Dark World (which is apparently just a thing Darkners can do,) the forbidden knowledge followed him, and eventually, he went mad just like Jevil did.

It's possible that he might be the Shadow Crystal Boss of the 3rd chapter, given the vague possible connection between Mike and Tenna, a force who is going to appear in chapter 3, but it is not wholly necessary, and I'd say it only has a shot above pure chance if the time where Spamton mentions both Mike and Tenna in the same conversation is to be interpreted as implying Tenna tarnished Mike's reputation or something similar.

[bug-the-chicken-nug]

i know this isn't really The Point they're going for in v9 but man i wish Alyx could just be like.

Genuinely a really sweet, caring, sensitive kind of girl, with the flaws that can come with that instead: Shy, naive, a crybaby, kind of a coward, scared to hurt anyone's feelings, etc.

With the theme of her original story being that it's about learning to stand up for yourself and others, while also staying true to yourself.

Because in the context of her being a black girl (girls typically read as more "naturally" mean and aggressive) and her being in a show about girls who are all supposed to be conventionally strong and brave and good at fighting, this *does* actually loop back to being subversive, and it could be used in some genuinely interesting ways.

Mainly I'm thinking of the girls like originally discussing the story in a way that indicates their culture sees it as a "babyish" story. In the early volume, Yang and Weiss keep taking cheap shots at it all and rolling their eyes at their memories of what a boring little goody-two-shoes Alyx was, and how trite and childish it all seemed even when they were little kids themselves.

Blake tries to defend it, but they don't take her defenses too seriously, while Ruby is too moody to have much input on it either way, but Yang mentions that even Ruby mostly only liked it for the bright colors.

And then a lot more denizens turn out to remember and miss Alyx, in the case of ruder or blunter ones often straight up making commentary about how the girls don't measure up to her.

This offends the group at first, because to be fair some of these comments really are pretty fuckin uncalled for, and plus, they just don't really... Get it.

Despite Alyx hating to fight and having been written as crying and shaking the one time the events of the book forced her to, despite her not even actually *winning* that fight, almost everyone here seems to regard her as more heroic and admirable than our mains.

And Ruby is the first to truly see why: Because for all of her faults, at least Alyx was always *careful* and *considerate*. Alyx always admitted it when she needed help, and didn't try to bite off more than she could chew. Alyx was patient and diplomatic, she *listened* to people, didn't make promises she couldn't keep, and didn't even have a Semblance, but still managed to make things *better* for each character she met, not *worse*.

Meanwhile, the group has still just been causing trouble everywhere they turn up, and they're starting to realize that they can't blame *all* of this on the Afterans just being weird.

This would also end up tying in well with the troubled reaction Ruby has to getting Crescent Rose back, although I would not have Jaune have it, and only have Ruby get it back after an epiphany about how she doesn't actually *need* it to do what's right, or to have a positive impact on others, but keep her conflicted emotions on finding it again, as the weapon reminds her of her own past overconfidence and recklessness, her own belief that she could both literally and metaphorically just cut right through anyone or anything that didn't agree with her.

Also as much as a ton of people hate Jaune right now I honestly think he would've been a cool "villain" to illustrate the flipside of these messages. Like. Neo's great and all but she feels really superfluous and not exactly compelling enough to be the primary villain of the volume at this point.

I'm imagining Jaune being the same age, but the one with Penny's sword now, physically unable to let go of it, in some sort of daze of grief and self-loathing that's being further amplified by some aspect of the Ever After.

He is driven chiefly by a belief by if he'd only been "stronger", everything would've been better.

And in a twisted way, he gets his wish.

It turns out his Semblance can actually resonate with and empower a lingering "imprint" of Aura in Penny's sword to both make it stronger and to give him a sort of bastardized shadow of the Winter Maiden powers.

(Winter still has the "real" version, this is like explicitly a twisted, harmful bootleg version that would also be animated differently from any other usage of Maiden abilities.)

Using it harms him as well, and it's noted that Jaune seriously might eventually freeze himself to death just by continuing to hold on to the sword. His presence is also always preceded by a sudden chill.

Ruby quickly realizes and begins to have a crisis over the implication of Jaune being able to tap into a lingering fragment of Penny's Aura.

Namely, does that mean Penny is in some way... *actually still there?* And potentially *suffering*?

You could use the blacksmith lady to like foreshadow and then kinda explain how all of this is even a thing, so it's less confusing.

And then we get an actual answer to this question! 'Cause the big climax of the volume is now Jaune smacking the group around, they just barely get the upper hand again, and then Jaune uses the last of his strength, shifts the sword into MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, everything looks Real Bad, but then...

The sword just... Explodes?

And out comes Penny's glowy green Aura ghost, who Jaune inadvertantly powered up enough for her to materialize herself, and whose first order of business is to turn around and briefly apologize before slapping the shit out of Jaune... Which goes right through him physically, but DOES seem to be able to immediately exorcize whatever horseshit was corrupting him.

Her second order of business is to be like "FINALLY! NOW maybe you'll LISTEN to me, Jaune!"

While Ruby is just standing there gaping like "A."

Before anyone (including the audience) can get their hopes up, Penny quickly explains that this is likely only a temporary affair brought about by how much Jaune has strengthened her, and that she can "already feel herself fading", but then smiles and adds on that she's super excited to see Ruby (likely followed by trying and failing to tackle-hug her because that just makes Penny fly straight through her)

Ruby, still, except this time she's clearly tearing up: "A,,,"

Followed by a conversation where Ruby gets closure and Jaune comes clean, but then Ruby confesses that honestly, even with Penny trying to tell her that she asked to be sacrificed and that Ruby should forgive Jaune... Ruby can't. At least not yet.

Ruby ruefully adds "No wonder nobody here really likes me..." to that, to which Penny immediately replies

"But *I* like you!"

And Ruby just scoffs and goes "Do you? Even though your death is my fault too?"

And Penny just sadly replies "Of course. Do you really have so little faith in me?", which kinda gets to Ruby, as it reminds her that her funk is negatively affecting others too. And that in a way, insisting that she's the worst person in the world is still a form of self-centeredness, just as it was to believe that she had all the answers.

She's silent until Penny begins noticeably fading away and dissolving into particles of light, which has Ruby going "Wait! Don't go! Jaune! Jaune, do something!"

But Jaune is of course Spent As Fuck and also probably has lowkey been struggling to stay conscious through this whole conversation, so they have no choice but to make this quick.

Penny gives Ruby one last fond, sorrowful look and says "I'm sorry not everything can go like it does in this story, Ruby. But you? You're still *writing* your story. And I for one can't wait to see how it ends! "

"You're not going to, though! You're never going to, because you-because you're-"

"Once again, Ruby: Do you really have so little faith in me?" Penny says with a teasing grin, before disappearing completely.

Aaand thats a wrap.

Yes it's weird and kind of cheesy, but your honor, my defense is that this whole show is weird and kind of cheesy.

[dojae-huh]

Today Doyoung mentioned marriage for the first time and it makes me reconsider. Well, am I wrong for the whole time? Because I know that Doyoung will never say something nonchalantly. What do you think about it?

In my memory, he never mentioned about marrying someone. Even on the show, when asked to imagine having a girlfriend, he denied that quite furiously (well sorry for my way of choosing words, but I think I am not in the right mind right now).

I have a lesbian friend and we are pretty close. Never once I heard her talk about marrying a man. Always a woman. She said being pregnant was something she would never try. Yet, if Doyoung was really gay, I think he would not mention it directly.

Here is the moment, 28:32

There was no "wife" in Korean, Ok, there was, but there is still no need to worry.

Doyoung says lies. He once said they (neos/idols) live a life of pretence. He discussed make up and visuals back then, but it applies to everything. So don't think everything he says comes from deep sincere place.

The topic of marriage was obviously brought up at the table by someone, Doyoung joined in. There was a jump cut after the shot of him enjoying the food, and he was looking at the person behind the camera after his initial look at Johnny.

The bit about 4 children is true. Notice, he used past tense. When Do was talking about 2 daughters 2 sons Johnny was looking at him, interested in the information. Do's face expression is open, humorous.

The bit about the future is not a clear truth. Doyoung looked at the plate, it's a sign of uneasiness. There were 2 cuts, we didn't get his full reply, how he transitioned from 4 kids to the future. Johnny's face changed. He should have been interested in the info, because its a great topic to tease a friend (wife, kids, marriage). Just compare Do's open face when he talked about 4 kids versus how he mumbled about the spouse's decision. People talk dreamily about the future and marriage.

What Doyoung said: "But now that I've become an adult [and my thinking have changed], in case of marriage, you think the same as the wife/listen to wife's opinion (heart). If that person will want kids, you will have them, if not, then not".

Then Do finished with an idea he believed in, so he turned to Johnny again. He didn't "hide" the way he was saying the sentence about marriage. "But I think there should be at least 2 children, everyone/a kid should have brothers".

Doyoung didn't lie blatantly, but he didn't say what he really invisions for his future. He talked in general terms.

Also, let's hope SK will join the list of countries that allows same-sex marriage. For Jaehyun's sake, heh.

[artwithoutblood]

This seems like a weird callous ask, but if you only have 3 days left to live why does Aeron even care if MC gets used for flesh instead of another random? Do they feel guilt (if that’s the word or at all applicable) for the parasight? Want to keep them around due to a shared interest in art?

I know it’s because you’re the player and need MC alive for the story. And obviously you get the examination to see if you need to be quarantined/your remains destroyed or whatever containment measures would stop an epidemic. Not to treat you.

But it seems odd to see other humans used as disposable mannequins to be burned out, referred to as leftovers and used as bloodbags while the girls almost seem cordial towards you. Erebus explains things to you, and the ‘three days’ seems as if everybody was considering allowing you to die ‘naturally’. (Except after making discoveries you shouldn’t or that one ending. I may not have seen all endings. Even that one though had a compassionate motive.)

Did the other humans get the same cordial treatment until they put a foot wrong or the girls got bored/needed a leftover? After MC dies will they get the same indifference?

Why not just kill an infected human immediately no matter what? It seems like despite being a supernatural biohazard MC is kept around like a novelty.

Also does the parasight make a human unfit to inhabit or use for blood?

they want to keep you because you're special. if you get killed along the way, that just happens. but there's something fantastic about someone with the parasight that hasn't died immediately. most of them do. iris did. the people aeron mentioned at the beginning did. the difference js aeron intervened and killed the original carrier before they killed you. so while it is a "you're the player" there's thought behind it.

erebus will make an attempt to treat you for the disease in an ending. genesis's plan is that if someone is infected with his disease, he can find a way to swap yours with his, and he can cure it. aeron is different.

for the treatment of the character, it depends. the logistics aren't all worked out for me because in the actual canon, none of these three live together, and their motives are different. genesis is usually just nice with everyone. the people he takes as "leftovers" are usually people who did bad shit at his shows.

erebus doesn't get his own bodies. and he likes to ramble. he is the head archivist of an organization that his roommates are NOT affiliated with. he cares abut humans and about individuals. but his anger issues can get in the way. the other two occasionally give him people for his work, just in case.

aeron has a complicated history with bodies. he doesn't keep any around, exactly. he goes on dates, and if people seem suitable as pieces of art in his gallery, he'll take them home and do what they please. a mini version of this date is in my neo twiny entry. there is only one live person that aeron keeps. i cannot elaborate without going into spoilers.

the same indifference will be given to the mc. they love a good novelty. and you didn't...inherently do anything wrong. genesis could care less, especially when you show up in his route, but he needs someone to solve a mystery with him, so he takes you. erebus uses you as a way to feel control over something for once (where he realizes he was always in control of his new life) and, if you piss him off enough, he uses you as a literary device (he gets two short routes as opposed to one long one). aeron loves to show off their work to the gallery, infected or not.

i feel like an infected body would be bad, but there is one ending i'm planning where aeron forced erebus to use your body to take over. i would assume a demon taking over would null any disease, since there's no trace of the original person once they take over.

[drawnaghht]

lord kogane doesn't know how to carry a blade

lol i never noticed it before but Lord Kogane apparently carries Usagi's sword the wrong way? like in ep 2 where the keisatsu are taking Usagi away to the station

Like earlier in the "funny photoshoot" sequence, he is carrying it the right way ("hanging" pose for the sword and scabbard, the blade pointed up, so it's possible to turn it over, unsheathe it and slash it in the same movement) but then when they're taking Usagi away, its the wrong way again ("up" but blade edge pointed down)

and again later when Usagi is arrested together with the others a second time.

which just leads me to believe he does not actually know how to properly hold and carry a sword - which honestly just makes sense cuz well, corrupt politician + self-centered prick so why would this character bother to learn the art of the sword x3

The tech in Neo Edo allows for swords and other kinds of weapons to be carried differently with specialized magnets, which I suspect are some kind of super-industrial grade derived from the alien tech they adapted after Miyamoto Usagi's time when the fake shogun was defeated. You can also see character designer Irineo Maramba's note on the magnets here, showing the idea behind the magnet tech. So I wonder also if he just put it on the wrong side + wrong way bc 1) he doesn't care 2) he doesn't know 3) for some reason, he just thinks this is whatever? like he feels comfortable enough with his keisatsu entourage, that he is not threatened by the existence of 1 criminal element. lol it's funny to think abt for how much of a bad ruler/politician he seems, he also does not really care about history unless it's about himself directly.

and here's how Usagi carries it, for comparison, at the end of the ep:

Even if samurai didn't really last into the Neo Edo future (something Gen mentions in ep 1), I can only guess that the show creators wanted to make sure the sword is handled properly despite the fantastical setting. so it's interesting to see this kind of detail in the show. Although it's also a possibility that because Kogane wasn't using the sword, he simply attached it to the right side, to make it harder to draw. All samurai were trained to handle the sword with their right hand and the only time they would wear it on the right side was when talking to another samurai, to show non-hostility. So maybe that was the case intead? lol in any case, to my un-trained eyes (been to one kendo demo), it looked incorrect for a moment.

interesting sources to read on this!:

Samurai Fashion Guide: Blade-up or Blade-down?

Tenshinryu Hyouho Battojutsu - art of drawing the sword

Proper way to wear a samurai sword

[a-tale-of-legends]

I juuuuuust woke up and probably gonna go back to sleep but literally right before I properly woke up- like I was in that state where I was aware that I was awake but also not fully awake, you know- I thought about Wayne and Hugh. Like a mini dream sequence between these two. It was during B2W2, and it was at some point where Wayne got outed for being an ex-team plasma grunt. Naturally, Hugh is pissed since he still hasn't forgiven any parts of team plasma at all. And given the fact that one of his friends who he trusts used to be one honestly shatters in. He's hurt, but this is also Hugh,so he latches onto his anger and intensifies it.

Going back to the scene before I properly woke up, I remember Hugh getting a bit physical with Wayne, grabbing Wayne by the shirt and yelling at him, accusing him of secretly helping neo team plasma, or something horrible like that. And poor Wayne, who's scared and shaking, ends up saying something that would just piss Hugh off more: why can't you just let it go?

It's very lucky that Eva was there to break them just after that happened ( Wayne ran away immediately because why wouldn't he, he was being yelled at and was the receiving end of Hugh's anger AND was outed for being an ex team plasma grunt, the poor kid spiraling). Both fit Wayne's sake ( as I described before)and Hugh's, as Eva knows that Hugh was going to do something he would regret later. Though in the moment, Hugh is still pissed and confused as to why Eva was even protecting Wayne. This is where the "dream" stopped and I was aware I was awake.

Now this isn't exactly new to me- the sequence that I just described. It's been part of my vision for Legendverse B2W2 for like. A long while now. But I was thinking about it, probably because of chuggaconroy doing a let's play or b2w2 now. He was going to explain why Hugh didn't exactly hit as a rival for him until he reaches a scene where he kinda stops and thinks about Hugh's character, in which he realizes the depth that he has, which boosts his opinion of him. One thing that he did mention was how Hugh's parents talked about him to the player. His mom wanted the player to look out for him, in case he strays from the wrong path. And his dad literally did not want Hugh to go on a journey because he knew, they both knew, that Hugh has pent up rage that could be incredibly harmful not only to others but to himself. And I was thinking about that last part and like: yeah. Yeah they have a good reason to be worried. Especially with an oc who used to be affiliated with the people he hates the most outside himself. It's why the scene that I described happened.

Cause if there's one thing you should know about Legendverse! Hugh is the oldest of the trio. Hugh is 16 ( might change might not) Eva is 15 and Wayne is the youngest at 14. And as the oldest, and also simply by his nature, Hugh automatically viewed Wayne as someone who he can protect. Obviously, he still holds Wayne up to someone who has his back and he has Wayne's, but it's a lesser degree compared to Hugh and Eva, who knew eachother way longer. Still, for the most part up until that moment where Wayne got outed, Hugh has been nothing but kind, if a little intense, towards Wayne. Hugh considered Wayne a friend. And then all of that is the window when the revelation happens. Like it's so interesting to me. Like, yes, Wayne asking Hugh to let it go was not okay. But in his defense, the boy was scared and shaking and being yelled at ( which probably unlocked some unwanted memories) obviously wasn't thinking properly. And neither was Hugh cause again, he was going to get physical with Wayne even before Wayne said that. Like I don't know how to properly convey my words here, but you gotta understand how much this means to me. How this dynamic and this scene fascinates me.

Before I go, some context: the scene I described was in Nimbasa City, so before Hugh meets to other ex-team plasma grunts, which really kick-starts his development. And some context for Wayne: despite being an ex-team plasma grunt, he does not associate himself with the grunts in driftviel city. At all. He is actively trying to separate himself from Team Plasma in its entirety, which is hard cause he actually lives in driftviel city and the ex team plasma members are kinda his neighbors. Anyway, it's why Wayne, in his panic, asked Hugh why can't he just let it go, since it's something he's been trying to do since he was taken in by Clay. Though I would argue that Wayne hasn't let go at all either. He hasn't actually confronted his past, only assuming himself to be an awful villain.

One last tidbit, both Wayne and Hugh latch onto a certain emotion that kinda consumes them. For Hugh it's anger( out of guilt and self-hatred) and for Wayne it's fear ( out of guilt and self hatred).

[butt-watch]

Deltarune Chapter 2 Theory

DELTARUNE SPOILERS AHEAD

I'll put under a read more, but just in case it doesn't work. Here's your warning to block "#delatrune spoilers" or scroll really fast.

Spoilers for end game and bonus boss, and a long ass dump of all the ideas I have in my head before I forget them. So, sorry if I got anything wrong or it's a mess.

I've seen a lot of theories flying around, but haven't seen this one yet. (Sorry if it is already out there and I just haven't seen it, I'm sure somebody will already have put it together better than me.) This is just some funky ideas I've been throwing around, because I'll be honest here, I love the main 3 so much, and would be sad to see any of them turn out to be evil like so many theories are suggesting.

Maybe I'm just trying to be optimistic, maybe it's the weird nb kid deep inside me latching onto a kindred spirit, maybe I'm on to something.

So here's the thing. I don't believe Kris is the knight.

I know, I know, but stay with me here.

There's no denying that at the end of the chapter, Kris created a new fountain, and with it, likely a new dark world. But I'd like to argue, this is the first one they've created. My evidence is shaky, but I think there's something there that could blossom.

I'll start off with the simple fact that multiple characters who have met the knight, Spades King especially, didn't recognise Kris at all, and you would have thought they'd recognise the person who's been feeding them so much information. You do also have a couple of dialogue options with the king this time, and definitely with the Queen, so it seems strange that neither of them recognise the voice of their Knight in shining armour.

This is where stuff starts to get a bit flaky, but also, a lot more intriguing.

At the end of the chapter Kris opened a fountain, and the night before, we saw Kris remove the soul inside them and brandish their knife. Assuming that Kris spent that time without the soul creating a fountain is a fair assumption to make, and I think it's possible that was Kris's intention, perhaps they have some connection to the knight, and knew how the fountains could be opened. But, they were missing one important ingredient.

In Chapter 2 we get an explanation from the Queen about how dark fountains are created, and with it a word that has largely been missing from Deltarune.

That's right, good old Determination.

Fountains are created when a determined Lightner plunges a sharp object into the ground. And here's where the theory comes in. I believe prior to the end of chapter 2, Kris didn't have Determination. Throughout the game, they've been filled with various sources of power, from Fluffy Boys and Mean Girls, to Cat signs. But at every save point we've been missing the signature Determination.

The closest we get is at the end of Chapter 2, just before the fight against the queen, when "a certain power" is alluded to.

And that lack of Determination, would have made opening the fountain impossible for them, after all, Queen spent the whole game building Noelle's determination high enough to open a new fountain. A smidge of determination doesn't seem to cut it.

So how did Kris get the determination?

Through the good old power of Friendship. Through the trials with their new friends, Kris has gained determination, even without the soul inhabiting them. And even though that started as half a joke (only half), whilst writing this post and trying to find screencaps, for the next section, I realised it's actually more likely than I suspected.

And that brings me to everyone's new favourite:

Spamton. During his dialogue and initial boss fight he offers a deal, rewarding Kris with [[Hyperlink Blocked]] if they accept. As far as I'm aware you're forced to accept the deal. (If anyone else tolerated more than a few minutes of smashing no deal like I did and managed to get a different outcome, kudos to your perseverance.)

What is [[Hyperlink Blocked]]? Well I'm sure you can guess where I'm going with this. I believe it may well be Determination or something similar.

During the initial confrontation, Spamton refers to the players Soul as [[HeartShapedObject]].

But prior to the boss fight against Spamton NEO, he has no qualms about saying SOUL.

I've seen a lot of people theorising Spamton is being censored, and I agree that definitely seems to be the case. From a meta standpoint though I think it's interesting that the [[Hyperlink Blocked]] he mentioned so much in his first encounter doesn't seem to be mentioned at all, now the he has slightly more freedom of speech. I personally believe it's because revealing whatever Spamton was offering would have given too much away.

So how does this come back to the power of friendship? Well, upon defeating Spamton, whether through ACTing or beating the crap out of him, he realises the real treasure was the friends we made along the way.

He suggests that together, the three of them could "break their own strings"

Following the fight, there's a moment, where Susie notices that Kris is acting out of sorts. Whichever option you choose, it's obvious that Kris is shaken by the event, even going as far as to yell the answer if you let them admit how they're feeling.

The similarity to Kris's own situation, being puppeted by the player is a valid reason for the response. Whatever shook them did so with enough effect that the fear showed despite the players control. Either that, or Kris has something they didn't have, more control. More... Determination to overcome the soul.

That last part is reaching a little, which is saying something, given the amount of shaky evidence presented in this post, so I want to wrap this up mostly with something slightly unrelated, but still a Kris theory.

Why do they open the fountain?

There are a lot of theories, about being a pawn for Gaster, being an asshole, etc.

I'd like to think Kris is just a weird kid who's gotten caught up in a mess they don't really understand. They created a scenario where Susie would be forced to stay the night, and opened up a new dark world, that Susie, their friend, expressed a want for before they left the dark world.

A place where they could get away from their lives for a little while and have more adventures together. And I can understand the reasoning, opening a new fountain isn't bad, I mean, as long as they close it at the end, nobody gets hurt and they have more memories. Where's the harm in that? Right?

As much as Kris obviously wishes to be free of the soul's control, that very soul has helped them make real friends. It's taken them on adventures and well.

Somebody had to let it out before the morning.

So to summarise, the strongest power known to man is a group of lonely teenagers, if you run through a peaceful game murdering everything and then blame a video game character for the decision you made, I'll kick your ass, and I guess I'm a Kris stan now, oh god.

[otterskin]

Runes and Symbols in the Loki Series - The Horned God Rears his Bestial Head

This is a sequel to this post here, which explored various runes appearing in the Loki trailer. There are two Norse runes, but also a symbol I didn't expect to see - but which makes all kind of sense.

First off, Kaunaz, which we've discussed numerous times before. But let's recap for those who didn't click the link above. Kaunaz takes the place of the 'K' in Loki, as it is that letter's ancestor. It means 'Torch', symbolizing 'The search for Knowledge/Creativity, and how the use of it can bring prosperity or destruction'. It is also known as the 'Loki Rune', so of course it'd be here!

Next up, Othala/Odal, which is of course an 'O'. It is sometimes mistakenly called the Odin rune, but it is not, despite being the first in his name - I'll cover the real one later. It means heritage, legacy, ancestry, royalty. How interesting. Does this mean we'll explore what that means to Loki? Will we see his heritage addressed, as well as his legacy? It is also related to the Omega symbol - Ω - from the Greek Alphabet, meaning 'Last', but that's stretching a bit.

Now, on to the good stuff! This O with a crescent-moon shaped horn is the symbol of The Horned God.

This is a deity for Wicca and some other neopagans. He is something of a mixture of horned deities from other religions, including Pan, Cernunnos, Baphomet, Janicot, Osirus and Satan, who’s also based on pagan gods. Part of the appeal of the Horned God is that it celebrates gods and iconography that Christianity has demonized. Another god that’s experienced this? Our dear Loki, and that’s been covered here if you want the low-down on that and an analysis of the Stained Glass Window - short version, there’s a mix of Christian and Norse Mythology in its iconography, as well a rundown on what it means for Loki and his mythology that Snorri Sturluson made him the devil in his Christiannized take on the myths that then became the most well-known version of the stories.

So, once again I posit that this show will explore the concept of Loki as the ‘Devil’ - that his designation as an evil entity has been misrepresented or foisted upon him by others, including himself (“I am a Villain” as a line from Loki seems to set this up), when in actuality he is something more akin to an important natural force, unfairly demonized.

More on the Horned God - he represents nature, wilderness, the hunt, and the cycle of life and death. He is usually depicted as theriocephalic - which means having a beast’s head. In his case, usually a stag or ram. This symbolizes the union of the divine with the animal, and blurs the line between man and animal for the same purpose. He is considered a god of dualities: light and darkness, night and day, summer and winter, good and evil, love and hate, death and rebirth, sun and moon - hence the symbol. The two horns symbolize this duality. Funnily enough, Tom Hiddleston recently mentioned that the meaning of Loki’s horns would be explored in the show.  It also puts this symbol in direct conflict with Dagaz, a rune that's literally imprinted all over the TVA. Dagaz ᛞ symbolizes Non-Duality, a thing that is itself only, Everlasting. And it looks like an Hourglass, how convenient.

To touch again on the death and rebirth thing - some Wiccans see him as dying on a specific date (there are various, but a popular one is Samhain) and then reborn again on the Winter Solstice. He is a god who literally dies and resurrects himself, much like the changing of seasons, though interestingly he returns for Winter, not Spring.

He is seen as mediator between the unknowable, vast supreme deity of the universe (Dryghtyn) and regular humans. He is also the consoler of the bereaved, as he is also the bridge between life and death and can give comfort to those separated by it.

He is the God of Witches and Sorcerers, and sometimes called by the name ’The Sorcerer’. Hey, y’all wanted some more magic, right?

This is an exciting new bit of DNA. Previously we mostly covered just Nordic runes from the Furthark Alphabet, but this gives us a door into Wicca and Neo-Paganism, which of course also celebrates Loki among numerous other deities. Some even engage in an annual ‘Trial of Loki’ where someone plays the part of Loki and attempts to defend himself from the charge of orchestrating the death of Baldur. I’ve always wanted to see that…

Things to keep your eyes peeled for: The Horned God has a female opposite/counterpart known as the Triple Goddesses, represented by this complementary symbol:

More on them if it does show up.

Gosh, this is exciting. I’ve got to brush up on my knowledge of Pagan and Wicca beliefs, it’s been awhile. I did once participate in a Wicca festival thanks to a chance encounter, so I’ve long had an interest in it. I have one friend who’s a convert to Wicca. Should start asking her some questions.

I gave her a bag of Norse Runes for divination as a Christmas Gift this year. I’m always on-brand.

Next - this one replacing the 'L'

...in part 2, because I'm not allowed anymore images and there's still a few more to go. However, I might need some help on this one, guys, I'm not entirely sure what this upside down seven thing is, but do have some cool theories (it involves that one hit wonder, Don't Fear the Reaper, so stay tuned.) Comment if you know it!

Sequel Post Now HERE

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

Took me a few days to realize I sent this Ask to the wrong blog, but I'd still love to hear from them if they answer!

But this was definitely meant for you --

How much thought do you think actually went into the writing in terms of character creation?

Bc they all have allusions, right? Like where they at?

Yang seems the most away from her allusion, if that phrasing makes sense. Her hair is the only thing really tying her to Goldilocks and the 3 bears. I'm being nice when I take that small fight in V1 against the Ursa into account. (Also that character short for V5 which was technically pre v1 but still)

I've been told Weiss, Blake, and Ren are based on Disney princesses. I hope to gods the writers didn't just watch the movies for them.

But it makes me think they did just that for Jacques Schnee considering he's supposed to allude to Jack Frost. The only money hungry Jack Frost I've ever heard of is that blue fker from The Santa Clause movies.

And these bitches at CRWBY really gonna tell me that after 8 volumes Neo isn't one of those porcelain dolls from Oz or even Cheshire Cat like a lot of ppl believed, but Hecate??

What's your opinion? (This probably could've been a thing for Nitpick November)

Honestly....it kind of depends on the season. Earlier seasons seem to have more care put into the illusions in some cases at least but as the seasons passed it feels like fewer and fewer characters have any care put in at all. (More below the cut because I get rambly)

For example, Penny's illusion works really well and they have fun playing around with it. Pinocchio loses his stings but Penny is killed by hers. The scarecrow stumbles around because he's a scarecrow and Qrow stumbles around because he's drunk.

I also initially loved how James's illusion was used as the general he buried his heart because he felt like he had to but in this case the tin man always had a heart but the world thinks he doesn't. It's his close friends who can see the heart he desperately tries to bury and knows its their and are the one's to remind him of that instead of Oz.

But the show also fails a lot of their illusions as well unfortunately. Like later on with James they screwed up spectacularly by making him lose his heart or with Penny by turning her human, even if they didn't kill her. And especially new characters just don't get the same care as earlier one's like for most of the Ace Ops I couldn't even begin to guess who their illusions are supposed to be. And the one's we can figure out....they're very surface level like Clover is the luck of the fisherman, he has a luck semblance and uses a fishing rod type weapon. Surface level. Nothing interesting or creative with it.

But as you said even in early seasons before the illusions went to shit some just failed. Like Yangs is similarly very surface level and not much being used for it. Glynda is also fairly surface level as well in just name and semblance being a reference to her illusion and her personality and actions not really tying into hers at all.

Regarding Weiss and Ren (I already mentioned who Blake is supposed to be). Weiss is supposed to be snow white and Ren Mulan. All of team JNPR is supposed to be gender swapped of their illusions, with Nora being Thor, Pyrrha being Achilles, and Jaune being Joan of Arc. Ren and Jaune really don't have many connections to their illusions and generally we only know who they are supposed to be because of over the top color pallets with Ren or because we where told with Jaune.

In general I suppose its very hit or miss and just how much the writers could be bothered to care about putting any effort into their illusions.

I honestly don't know what's been said about Neo and her illusion but I wouldn't be surprised if it is another extremely superficial illusion. With Jacques....well he's another one that is hard to really pin down because his character is hard to pin down. He starts of as a calculating manipulative asshole but in Volume 7 he's....pathetic is the best word for it. Even if we're going with the whole SC version illusion it still doesn't work for how Jacques is developed which is a shame because he could have been a very interesting character.

What I think is earlier volumes we didn't care if the illusions where surface level or not because in earlier volumes it was just a fun slice of life school story that was very small scale and just fun in general. As time went on and the story became bigger and the show tries to claim important character arcs happen because of their illusions, its easier to want to be more critical of illusions because of the writers claims on how important the illusions are claimed to be for certain characters and only certain characters.

CRWBY both tries to hard and doesn't try hard enough and it infuriating with its inconsistency. You could argue technically it keeps the audience on their toes but....it doesn't in a fun way because it makes it unfun to theorize because sometimes illusions matter and other times they mean jack shit. Characters can change how they act and their illusions affect them at the drop of a hat and make the character unrecognizable from how they acted before. Crwby tends to care more about a cool looking scene then making a coherent story that makes sense and it really harms the enjoyment of the show.

[esoraluco]

abt my swap au i forgot to mention but Blue and Spam ARE in love but have an even more complicated relationship.

Bc well Blue is the one that has issues expressing himself, and swap!Spam ISN'T like regular Blue (who's cares a lot (usually too much) and goes out of his way to help those he cares about). In this au Spam is exactly the same as he is in canon before his big shot era- just with the added tidbits i wrote on my post. He DOES have a few sales but not much-so not much confidence, and socially he's not as good as he'd like to be. He says the wrong things at the wrong time, doesn't always get cues or hints and is both blunt and stubborn. Spam HAD his dream of becoming a big shot, but when Blue was the one to achieve that, Spam got very jealous and upset. He was jealous of the success itself, and the fact that his friend was the one to become famous instead of him- unlike regular Blue who was jealous of how Spam idealized Swatch. Spam DID try check back on Blue when the latter started having problems- Spam was still jealous but made an effort to see if his friend was ok; but Blue was already gone. The ensuing guilt and self-hatred Spam felt made him quite depressed and that certainly didn't improve his sales.

Swap Blue is just as mad at his all ex-friends, as regular Spam is- if anything maybe Blue's more mad because he tells himself he WON'T forgive any of them and to just burn these bridges and... Well definitely not move on (he doesn't know how to) but not think of or acknowledge any of them ever again. So when, post-neo, Castle Town has all of them in the same place, Blue prefers to stay a pair a glasses rather than start a scene as he knows he will. Spam manages to see him and one thing Spam is very stubborn, so whenever he manages to see a glimpse of Blue- glasses or not, he runs and keeps trying to start a conversation. At first he (clumsily?) tries to talk as if nothing ever happened; he's ignored to say the least, so he tries other things. He fails each time- is either ignored or gets quick, scathing replies that tell him to buzz off (Blue doesn't swear in this au- Spam does though). But Spam keeps trying- he knows he's not any good and clumsy at best but he really wants to fix things, because he misses his friend (and perhaps crush? Spam himself isn't sure) despite all the bad feelings he had in the past. He knows he's probably more annoying than anything but he just wants things to work, somehow. Spam doesn't want anyone to help him- he wants to fix his most meaningful friendship on his own.

Spam tried everything- pretending nothing's wrong, feign confidence, gifts (he even tried giving some of his own cars (both real and toy ones) since that was one of their mutual interests), apologize (he even tried overdoing it), cry (that one was on accident)- everything except for honesty, because he figured that be the one thing that would break their relationship permanently. When Spam had finally exhausted everything that was written in 'Communication Skills for Dummies' and other such ressources and was about to lose hope to ever be on good terms with Blue again, he finally admitted why he tried so many things- he was his real, blunt and genuine self when he explained his jealousy and the guilt and ensuing depression, and that he, despite his many desperate attempts to fix it all, did understand why Blue felt the way he did- and that he just wished they could 'get back like we used to be in the good ol' days'. But that he didn't know how to do so. And that he wish he did- because maybe it could have all been different, and better for the both of them if it were the case. Blue didn't say anything- but for the first time he truly looked at Spamton and fully listened, without letting his animosity cloud his thoughts. He thought he wouldn't care for any type of apology, especially from HIM, who he was closest to and trusted the most before Blue's big shot era. But he always liked Spam's bluntness and honesty, as in Addison society being falsely engaging with customers AND colleagues is all too common. Blue figured out Spam was less and less honest with each attempt to reconnect, and despite himself wanted his friend to be genuine and unapologetically himself- while Blue wouldn't accept the apology (he was too deeply hurt), he just wanted to know the truth. He was surprised to hear that he wasn't, in fact, the only one to suffer from it- Blue figured his ex-friends never thought of or felt anything for him ever again, after his downfall. So to know he did matter that much to someone warmed Blue's heart, despite himself. He wasn't ready to forgive, but maybe he could start to move on- especially now that he had new friends.

I think afterwards the two aren't as tense around each other, and while they aren't friends they're tolerating each other's prescence. Spamton sometimes makes (more or less awkward) conversation starters (like 'Nice weather today eh?' (there's no weather in Castle Town)), but this time Blue actually tries to answer, and doesn't do so in a sarcastic or dismissive manner. He's not exactly cordial either (he doesn't know how to be anymore, besides his customer service self; despite not being friends he feels his ex-friend deserves better than fake customer-pleasing smiles) but Blue tries. They avoid talking about the past- they both try to move on. I think there'd realistically be 'accidents' from one or the other expressing himself clumsily, and/or crossing boundaries and other such hurtful things, but they both do their best to improve and grow past their mutual social issues. Spam probably ended up accidentally admitting his feelings to Blue, who was confused ('how can ANYONE love ME?', he told himself) but truthfully admitted that he didn't know what he was feeling besides 'lonely', and that he was ready to 'GIVE THIS [Relatinship] A [[Go!]]'.

[roxannepolice]

Ur the only bitch in the house respect. Seriously though, I saw TLJ and liked better than Tfa because I appreciated it more because i like a bold fuck up more than a safe rehash. But then I saw it on netflix and I had the thought, 'does lf not want me to care about the resistance/rebels?' because if they didn't then quite frankly that's how you'd do it, all the 'failures' boil down to either wanting to kill the ppl viewed as space nazis to hard or being 'too compassionate' and even after (cont)

them being reduced to what? a a couple dozen? they’re all standing around chill like they just broke for a meeting break around a water cooler. meanwhile the big bad who’s gonna be that for at least im betting a third of the finale is on his knees crying. i know its supposed to be ‘crime never pays’ or whatever, but seriously, they’re down to a single ship, they’re potential allies said ‘lmao no’ and the biggest source of funding just got blown up. they’re gonna win and we know that but the /narrative doesn’t even pretend otherwise/. and i thought, oh god maybe it is as shit as everyone says. but then you gave me hope but I still have one remaining fly in soup so to speak. There’s gonna be a ST after the ST and we all know it. It may be 20 yrs or whatever but it’s coming. So how do you idk rationalize the idea of integrating the shadow of the empire with the need for there to be an enemy for the war of the warry stars? stormtroopers are ~iconique~ and it was always the biggest stumbling block I had to the stormtrooper revolution. Why would any company worth its stock swap out an instantly recognizable and marketable baddie for idk some other cgi alien army or whatever? love to hear ur thoughts and thanks.

Thanks, anon, those are some really great points! 

Yes, I am a bit frustrated with the way the good guys™ of this trilogy are depicted as - as a collective because obviously we felt for Paige Tico - virtually invincible, getting not one but two jedi ex machina to get them out of the problem. Maybe I should mention that while I use the ex machina term quite extensively, I don’t consider it a bad move by default - sometimes a lightning from a clear sky can have its dramatic beauty. What is frustrating is when a situation is clearly not hopeless yet the text insists it is only solvable by supernatural intervention, as, imo is the case with rock lifting Rey. TBH, when the resistance run into the rocks blocking their way, my first thoughts were huh, they can blast their way through, maybe a shot from MF will clear the way, or maybe we’ll get some teamwork scene where all the members will combine their forces to quickly deal with the problem. But no, we got Rey lifting rocks with the force and being amazed at herself lifting rocks and resistance also being amazed by her lifting rocks and Luke crying joyful tears at the thought of her lifting rocks - and in result the only character I actually felt for was the man who was faced with his holy murderous uncle basically praising the girl, to whom he offered a galaxy, for dumping him, as practically everyone else in his life did. This is some very human venom that gets spit in the I’ll destroy her and you and all of it line. 

But still, I insist the screenwriter who also came up with the You’re nothing but not to me line which is still being analyzed 8 months later and also manged to give a beautiful and satisfying end to the journey of one of cinema’s icons, isn’t oblivious of the contrast between those two scenes and bordering on emptiness lightness of the political subplot. Just imagine how much satisfying the rock lifting would have been if we have seen Rey simply fail at anything before this scene - for example, if before taking up the ls to train she wasn’t training with her staff only, exactly, trying to put rocks on top of each other - and failed and then picked up the ls in frustration. Then her “apotheosis” at the end would feel much more earned and it’s really basic rules of storytelling I point out, so it’s not a matter of Rian Johnson being Fellini and Antonioni and also my countryman Roman Polański all rolled into one only a good movie making craftsman that he is to figure this out. Of course, there is much symbolism and subext to this scene but again - the subtext and symbolism in the overall movie point out to an ending more complicated than gratuitous dragon slaying.

Ending the whining and turning to the actual question - what about future installments? Well, first of all it is very possible that next trilogies will be perhaps closer to usual action based movies, maybe not completely dropping the deeper psychoanalitical symbolism but also not operating on it like the Skywalker saga has been and should be so till the end. It very often seems to us that once we finish the psychoanlysis all our problems will disappear but that’s really not the case - it may be that they’re only about to commence. TBH, I was fully prepared for this trilogy to drop the jungian elements, since RotJ could technically be the end of individuation - Luke reconciled his father’s self and shadow, as well as understood his own shadow. So when tfa’s opening crawls informed me the new villains are actually old villains revamped I felt almost disappointed - only to be positively surprised by one of the stormtroopers turning out to be trilogy’s hero. Still, after tfa itself I was inclined to think creators were just too lazy to come up with something new and maybe are giving some commentary on neo-bad things springing up across the globe. But tlj and additional materials made me think that they really have something new to say about the conflict. Ex-imperials were exiled rather than reintegrated or even imprisoned, galactic history kept Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader seperate entities, finally Anakin’s denied shadow was directly complicit in his grandson’s fall - all that reeks of repression and the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. Because Leia would, and as it turned out did, find it much harder to deal with her father’s memory than Luke, as it wasn’t he who was held still to watch his whole planet get blown up - and yet it was Leia who passed the Darth Anakin genes on, so obviosuly she would have to deal with her father someday.

Tell your sister you were right, the actual last words Anakin has ever spoken, take on a brand new meaning now, don’t they?

But  perhaps more importantly, as far as storytelling and marketing are concerned - the real question isn’t why should they drop iconic villains only how long can they actually keep up the same villains without them losing all dramatic value? Aside from the movies repeatedly employing storytelling devices to keep us unworried about the heroes, that’s the main reason why the political conflict in this trilogy is so emptily obvious, or at least, as I hope, seems emptily obvious. Now, of course, you never really expect villains to win in kids’ movies but a new villain is always someone that needs to be introduced, recognised, have his methods and motives exposed - and that iteself makes the story more interesting. A new villain is someone heroes need to learn, adjust to and this is what triggers their own inner journeys as well as tells the audience something new. Rebels and empires are basically angels and demons at this point and how may times can you watch white clad blondes with circles vanquish red-and-black clad brunets with horns as you know there’s no way it won’t end this way? Empires are Star Wars equivalents of Daleks and let’s face it it’s the Weeping Angels that scare us now, Daleks we just want to exterminate our sadness.

also dr Who bases on time travel so linear storytelling doesn’t apply

The only type of villain that can stay the same for who knows how many episodes is the mastermind with a secret organisation who always sneaks away - but no massive political-military organisation. And even they finally become their own parodies.

I should add, Solo very positively surprised me in this aspect - actually I would say it’s the Stories that keep me so optimistic about this trilogy, what with Galen Erso, Saw Guerrera and imperial officials from a Forman movie - with their depiction of crime syndicates. Dryden Vos isn’t your usual chaotic neutral criminal that’s still lesser evil than evil empire - it’s he who used up Enfys’s people resources of coaxium, yes, to sell them to the empire, but it was still he who was responsible. This really makes me think Disney-LF has some wider vision of the GFFA - and there are more potential for conflict there than just angels and demons RRR and Hugo Boss uniforms

And to wrap up, don’t forget our beloved turtle like helmets I can’t be the only one who always thought of turlte shells looking at stormtoopers? technically started as the good guys - so it’s possible we’ll keep their iconicness.

[dojae-huh]

oh im sad that you dislike the new additions to the jaedo tag :( hopefully you'll find something to your tastes. but to put my defender-of-fanfic-writers cap on, in aus some degree of ooc is completely understandable. because they aren't the real jaedo, and aus bend the reality of the characters to fit narratives. just dont make them 100% ocs cuz then its no fun anymore. i guess im lenient hehe. but one of the reasons i rarely read canon compliant is because the ooc becomes too glaring in that case. aus have wiggle room.

about dotae: they were only winning the poll until the jaeyongers got wind of it, then literally jaeyong surpassed everyone else by a huge margin and when i saw it last/near the end it was almost 5k votes. dotae are too platonic to be a strong contender. the friendship rings felt like fanservice and never mentioned or used again since then. feels... contrived? they'll always have their moments though bc they are besties, so shippers will be fed. at least their interactions are not as awkward as some other ships.

now lets get cracky. what is up with jaerose? since you keep up with jaehyun, i wonder if you know how this ship started? (i searched the blog for it and only found one post about it). because i cant trace it back to any particular moment. is it just pure delusion? it seems so popular. there are so many incredible edits of them lol. they actually would look cute together, if jaehyun wasn't so... obviously head over heels for a man.

anyway jaedo is in the small moments people dont usually catch, not on the overt fanservice idols do purposely. that's why it isnt that popular, i guess. which is fine in the end of the day. they have each other and that's what truly matters.

Of course AU setting will change some character traits or the level of their expression (nurture), that's the point of an AU (what if). However, certain core characteristics (nature) should always stay for a character with a name of a real person/existent character to be recogniseable.

It's interesting that you call DoTae "too platonic", when I had debates here on the blog about Taeyong being gay/bi and being in love with Doyoung. DoTae is a ship like any other, there are shippers who believe in the couple (on the level shippers usually do, "in pretence") or who fight over top/bottom division.

Fanservice for 6k USD? Lol. Doyoung wore the ring for a long time and posted a photo of it when he wrote about Taeyong staying behind at home and healing. Tae took the ring for an important photoshoot. However, Tae didn't like that Do used the rings to cover up JaeDo, he wanted smth for them only. I guess with time Do got the memo. I don't think Do fulfilled Tae's original desire to have friendship rings correctly (maybe the model, maybe choosing them alone without Tae, showing it to fans, gifting them before going away to spend time with Jae, etc).

NCT 127 and BP debuted same year, as same gen and from the big3 neos are shipped with BP girls. I think JaeRose gained following when Jae hosted on Inkigayo. He looked at her, she looked at him, her friends giggled knowingly... Some ships gain popularity just because, without a real reason, just right place and time, good content creators, bored fans, "they look good together", whatever.

[fluffi]

so should i reply in tiny font or just regular font?

hybe should do better in spreading out the comebacks of the groups under them :/ they're already at a huge advantage, might as well use it strategically. AHA streaming mvs is so convenient for a multi. the filler vids i could use in between could be mvs from the other groups that i stan. also you know what, i still haven't watched a single final performance bc im waiting for a friend to watch with me :D

i have a chinese movie recommendation in case you want something to cry over. i still love its ost and it's been months since i watched it. i'm not sure if you watched it already but more than blue. i've never cried over a movie as much as i cried for that one. the angst *chef's kiss*. i'd do anything to wipe my memory of it and watch it again for the first time.

also sungchan is mc-ing in inkigayo every sunday! and honestly, what the hell is nct hollywood :D but a part of me thinks it's just going to be a bunch of asians living in america like johnny that'll be a part of it. just a hunch tho. imagine having all 4 units coming back in a year with like 1 unit per quarter of the year. i'm not sure if sm even has the money to do this, especially when they filed bankruptcy recently.

and i've seen a lot of twitter memes saying taro's ghosted stans T_T alexa play ghosting by txt T_T sm come on give him smth to do, you're wasting talent.

the mall didn't burn down entirely (like from the outside it looked fine). the ventilation system caught fire so it was more internal—ceilings and all that. covered things with soot(?) and ashes so the entire mall was closed for nearly 2 years. and hey, i've experienced a school fire too back when i was younger. i, too, thought it was nothing but a fire drill until i saw the charred remains of the buildings behind our school : D thankfully, no one died.

the new nct track is for a samsung commercial AHAHA it's funny because nearly everyone uses apple TT_TT and the mv screams neo culture tech tho (well as it should lmao). yes, i was talking about that part in hot sauce but yes, it grew on me too.

ateez really know how to do a performance. they put the standard so high for me when it came to performing. their facial expressions and overall stage presence just impresses me. it's been a while since i've seen idols draw me to them by those standards.

ah, the long stan list! good luck in getting through it and i hope you do have fun as you go :] (also you can check out aurora by ateez and whiplash by tbz. the songs popped up in my head as i was typing this reply, you might like them)

ohhhh, what was the pd48 scandal? i don't watch survival shows so i don't know any of the stuff going on. would you care to elaborate? about their disbandment :(( i hope you're okay now tho! are the other girls still debuting in new groups? anyone eyeing an acting career instead of being an idol?

YES, A PATTERN IN THE BIASES (if you count an analysis of two ppl as a pattern, that is.) because it's the same pattern i have for my biaswreckers :D jake & seungmin, not only do they have the same animal to represent them, they have the same 'golden retriever' type of personality that just makes you go all soft. ygwim ;n; i wish i could elaborate but both boys just devastate me in the same level and my friends pointed out that they were quite similar in some aspects.

jaemin used to send really long bbl messages :< like if there was anything he loved most it was nctzens and it was obv in his messages. speaking of dream, album repackage news today! idk what to feel bc my hot sauce albums haven't even arrived yet :D + i'm dead br0ke.

how do you even manage to read 30k TT__TT i cant handle long fics bc of my attention span :D also, yes, i found the user now, i'll check if i'll like their works soon. <33

YES YOU SHOULDVE BEEN THERE T_T what a day that was. i think seungmin is still sweet and active in bbl. not a single cent goes to waste with him. also i think i'll post the drabble some time this month.

and oml seungmin vs jake :o let's see how that goes O.O XDD

clickity-clackity AHAH do you have a mechanical keyboard? :c i wanted one too but i haven't got around to saving up for one. but yes indeed, typing asmr v relaxing \m/

sunny hyuck day, fullsun sunday, fullsunday T_T feels were very strong that day. i kept seeing edits on my twt tl and i would just s o b : D i've only stanned nct for a year but i've seen him grow so much i just wanted to crie i love him sm :') yk my mom didn't cook spaghetti for my birthday, but she cooked for hyuck's? : D

and i checked ur recs blog and indeed, full of nct T_T

also have i mentioned that your desktop thing amuses me so much HAHAH i got confused for a sec if i had twt opened or tumblr. plus, i've been wanting to mention that i noticed that our mobile themes are opposites. black and red, white and blue. it's cute XDD <3

help, people have been telling me that our asks are long but i highkey love it. i added a ‘keep reading’ for the mobile users though, sorry in advance hh.

honestly, both works. tiny font saves space but regular font does more justice for my poor eyes haha. its your call!

hybe comebacks :( yeah enhypen got lucky because they came back right before cb season so they got three wins (yay)! on the bright side, txt just got their first win and bts has six wins, so it all works out i guess. omg yes, the streaming thing is perfect. i stan like 20 groups so i have a never-ending cycle of filler mvs and its always so helpful. ooh for the final performances - you wont regret watching any of them! literally wild, kingdom's budget and talent are wild.

ooh, I don't watch any cdramas lmao. i want to but i can barely finish kdramas. if its a movie ill watch it! ive never heard of more than blue but ill check it out <3 where can i watch it?

yes yes i have just realized that sungchan is yujin's co-mc! i watched their special stage (which is literally adorable) and was today years old when i realized that the dude is sungchan pls. nct hollywood was so unexpected and i still have mixed feelings about it now. LMAO JUST ASIANS LIVING IN AMERICA...help. that would be interesting (?) but the concept reminds me of those horrendous awesomeness tv shows. lets hope sm pulls this off well and proves me wrong. lmao all 4 units coming back would probably happen, but i hope none of them get overworked :( i constantly feel like mork lee has four clones :'( also...sm filed bankcruptcy??? dang, what happened?

ugh omg yeah shotaros talent is seriously being wasted in the basement right now. as for fires, scary T-T i wasnt that fazed by them until the australia wildfires happened, and i learned about the consequences of fire and got really scared. its good that the entire mall didnt burn down though! although its weird that no one is opening it :( schools really need to tell us the difference between drills though, it might be dangerous for those rebellious kids.

yeah i just realized that the nct track is an endorsement which partly explains why i cant listen to it. the mv's visuals are stunning!! the set and people are so gorgeous aa i cant

oh yeah im not an atiny but i have acknowledged since 2020 that they have one of the best, if not the best stage presence and expressions on stage for 4th gen. i think their only worthy competitor would be stray kids actually. theyre truly one of a kind and all of them are cute especially that yeosang guy. i will definitely check out your song recommendations though!

oof the pd48 scandal is extremely complicated. to condense it in a few statements: all of the girls' rankings have been rigged since the very beginning and it was rumored that they already had their end group before the show even started. it was like this for pf48 and pdx101 (group x1) which was why x1 disbanded within a month of debuting, and izone were on hiatus for like 4 months. im not the best at explaining stuff like this haha, but i think you get it. you can check out yt or search up 'pd48 scandal', a ton of articles and videos. as for new groups, nothing has been made clear yet. theyve only made instagram handles for now and appeared on variety shows haha. as for acting career, hyewon was supposed to do acting but was forced to join pd48 so maybe she'll continue acting afterwards? nothing is confirmed yet!

lmao two similarities, its okay it counts. ah, true, i can see their similarities now that youve mentioned it, as well as how jeno is kind of like that. however, i am currently attached to jaemin so we'll see what happens from there hehe. i swerve easily.

jaemin on bubble grr, that would be a whole experience. from the bare minimum of vidoes ive seen for him wbk jaemin is so whipped for czennies. ah yes repackage! i saw the post on instagram and went to the comments to see everything screaming ‘iM bROke!’ and it was lowkey hilarious lmao. kpop is really trying to suck our money T-T.

ope the longest fic ive read is like...40k words i think? and it was by jeonginks. ill read anything eiko produces lmao, theres always so much substance in her work. ooh, tell me what you think of luvdsc’s stuff, i just finished binging their entire masterlist lmao.

seungmin vs jake yeah, i havent been catching up on skz enha content because im still obsessing over the dreamies but when that saga is over then im going to focus on my ults lmao (which might include dream soon, hehe).

yes yes i have a mechanical bluetooth keyboard that i use to connect to my computer! it literally sounds amazing lmao, its only 10am here but i feel like im going to doze off from the clickity clackitys already. i cant wait for you to get one! tell me when you do, we can match hehe.

hyuck is an aodrable brat please. hes like the best comedian of nct at this point, so hilarious and filled with variety i love him. he rose up my bias list pretty fast too. LMAO YOUR MOM IS SO COOL I LOVE HER ALREADY. if only my mom would cook for my ults’ borndays.

yes my rec blog is a mess right now, ill organize it soon haha.

omg thank you and yes my website theme is one-of-a-kind. even i get confused when i open it or edit it, and i constantly get comments about it. also i just realized our opposing theme colors and i love it! its adorable.

[dojae-huh]

I'm not even a JohnTen shipper but I believe they are each other's bff and their personalities and code of humour match best. It's very obvious on Ten's side because he's always Johnny this Johnny that. He never hesitates to pick Johnny (and Mark) when he could have talked about WayV in fan sign. After watching NCT 2020 promotions, I started to think that Johnny is less obvious but he seems truly comfortable around Ten and when he chose Ten for the q&a in NCT 2020 and JCC episodes, it's really Johnny's honest choice. I think Johnny has a good relationship with 127 and so does Ten with WayV but since JohnTen are more westerners and share some similarities, they seem most natural around each other.

Some cross-unit friendships could reveal some of the members more natural sides, like Jungwoo and Sungchan that an anon talked about earlier. Some members share history and there's a lot we still don't know. Sometimes we get cross-unit mentions and content and it's surprising some members get along better than I expect because of personalities, code of humour and cultures. Renjun and Yangyang, Jungwoo and Shotaro. And didn't Kun hear a demo of an NCT 127 song from Jungwoo? Jungwoo and Kun were promoting together before they were officially added to NCT 2018 and without the mention, I wouldn't have known they still contact each other at least occasionally.

NCT is complicated with all these sub-units. It's not my place to think for them but sometimes I can't help wondering if some members miss the older and simpler times. Having best friends in another sub-unit and member lineup changes are more likely in a group like NCT. It's their job and I suppose the guys have some ideas of what they are getting into but most k-pop groups have fixed dynamics and feel more certain (except the cases of members leaving companies). LSM has plans definitely but there must have been some sudden changes too and it could take a toll on the members. Unless it's an ensemble project like NCT 2020 and a more personal content like fansign, the members also have to strengthen the image of their sub-unit's bond. Not saying friendships within sub-unit aren't genuine but NCT 2020 gave me some interesting information about some members through cross-unit interactions.

Ten is Thai, Thailand is in South Asia, it's a monarchy, a predominantly buddhist country where women shouldn't show their naked shoulders, where you can't go to a bank or any government related organisation in a skirt or shorts, where you stand up in cinemas when a praise is played for the king before every movie, where there are shrines to small deities at every corner with strawberry cola and sweets for luck ... Tsk. Careful with looking for things to unite two members and put in opposition to others.

What makes Ten close to Johnny is not "being Western", but the (often dirty) humour and an easy attitude to life.

You are right about the cross-unit mentions. The TMIs are sprinkled all over the place (radio shows, lives, interviews, etc) and unless you follow a particular neo and people who translate all info about them, you wouldn't know the details. For example, Taeil goes to Chenle's house, Jungwoo and Mark visited WayV's dorm to play with pets.

Ten expressed his longing for 127.

It is a job and adult life. After school all friends disperse and become busy. It's a worse thing to be stuck in a group with people you really don't like and have an ongoing confrontation with. This can't be said for any of neos, to their luck.

Agree with your opinion about the need to strenghten unit's image. It's 21 century though. It's not the same as working together for sure, but messaging, video games, going to a cafe and other options are still there to support the friendship if there is a real desire for it (like JaeWin).