#I translated the quote so I'm not sure the last two line are the right translation

[operazione-ibrido]

Gryffindor: I'm not a relic to be exhumed and studyed.

Ravenclaw: Perhaps you'll be one in a thousand years.

Gryffindor: And what will they discover?

Ravenclaw: That you've got a thick skull but a big heart.

Gryffindor: A himbo, just what I was going for.

[sl-vega]

✧Sticking to the Script✧-07

⋆｡°✩ 07-rebound already?

"Sorry about that, those were just my friends." you sighed as you put your phone into your pocket. You looked at Xingqiu again. "Thanks for agreeing to help me study by the way, I really appreciate it."

"No problem, anything for you." he replied as the two of you walked into the library. You chuckled and playfully hit his arm "Anything for me huh? Look at you being smooth."

The two of you settled at a table, and Xingqiu pulled out your chair for you. You got your textbook out of your bag, and Xingqiu took out his notes, and two pens, one for him and one for you.

"You need help with your English paper right?" Xingqiu asked as he sorted through his binder, looking for notes that you would find useful. You nodded, giving him your thanks as he handed you some lined sheets.

"You're doing a unit on Shakespeare?" he asked, underlining a few things on his paper. You nodded "Yeah, we're doing a joint unit with the drama department, we're analyzing Romeo and Juliet. And my essay is due tommorow!" you wailed, slamming your head on the table.

Ms. Lisa, the librarian, shushed you from her desk. You whispered an apology to her as you picked up some of the papers Xingqiu set aside for you. "Are you analyzing anything in particular?" he asked, still sorting through more notes, he got out a highlighter.

"Mainly the famous quotes and stuff. Our teacher also wants us to talk about the use of opposites in the play. We're supposed to cover at least one scene from each act." you explained as you watched him take more notes. His handwriting was so neat and pretty, even when it looked like he was just scribbling down words.

He handed several sheets of paper to you, some papers included scenes from the play handwritten by him, word for word. He also highlighted certain bits of the text, and made sure to include modern English translations for you at the back of the pages.

"These are my notes from last year. We did a unit similar to this. Sorry if it's a little messy."

You stared at the page, the blue ink had zero smudges and the sheet had little to no crinkles in it. "If you think that this is messy, just wait till you see my notes." you chuckled. "I know I already said this, but I really appreciate this."

The two of you continued talking, Xingqiu continuing to take notes for you, highlighting important parts of the text and explaining their meanings for you. Once again he had made an hour seem like a few minutes.

"And that's what Mercutio meant when he said 'Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man." Xingqiu explained, finishing off his analysis to you.

"That also foreshadows his death doesn't it?"

"Exactly! See, you're picking up on this so quickly." XIngqiu praised you as he started to pack up his stuff, placing his papers into his folders and his pencil cases into his back pack.

You glanced at your phone to check the time. "You have to go already?" you asked, feeling slightly disappointed that he had to leave.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I'll see you this weekend though, I promise." He gave your hand a quick squeeze. You felt your stomach drop as you saw him exit the room.

Promises can be hard to keep Xingqiu

Xingqiu put his phone down and rubbed his temples. "You okay?" whispered Kazuha.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Xingqiu replied.

Archons he was in deep

additional notes:

-FINALLY GOT ANOTHER CHAPTER OUT

-so sorry for all the slow updates y'all

-i'm trying

-i was writing for another smau i have coming up

-my commitment issues will be the end of me

-holy hell this chapter got a tad deep

-KAZUHA CAMEO

-they're both in their english class during the xingqiu + kazuha scene btw

-lol not y/n being a drama queen cuz she's upset that she has to wait three whole days before seeing xingqiu again

-you guys don't have any classes together btw

-that blue flower gif means that i'm switching povs mid chapter btw

-i went thru sm different versions for this chapter

-ty to @EggosForBreakfast on wattpad for proofreading this for me

-you should go follow them

-also ty to all my readers: @washa, @kasasim, @wisteriabl00m, @rebeccavsabrina, @nmriki0, @rainycafereader, @slu7, @melatoninsblog, @anticlarckwise, @esmetrees, @sn1perz, @littleheartbigbrain, @aldertree-g, @thebiggesthutaofanever, @lilac-sks, @amir8623, @freyao7, @mystic-alex, @myaaaajoy, @tartagliascummdumpp, @green-ginkgo, @lillyinfandoms, @charles-braindump, @samsamsam7, @leynita, @uuyuomi/@mwahkazu, @pwrson, @practicoi, @thatoneswordgirl

-names in bold mean i couldn't tag them

-dw that's just a one time acknowledgment to everyone who liked the original master post, you won't constantly be tagged like that, but if you want to be removed just tell me

-i'll totally understand <3

masterlist

<prev ll next>

✧Sticking to the Script✧

Pairing: Xingqiu x FEM! Reader

Genre: fake dating, strangers to lovers, slow burn, fluff, angst (?), high school smau, modern smau

⋆｡°✩-Synopsis: Xingqiu just got entered into a special writing contest, the type that's invite only, the theme this year is love, the only problem is that he has zero romantic experience. but he really wants to prove himself as a writer. meanwhile, you just found out that your boyfriend cheated on you, and you need to show him that you're 100% over him, the only problem is that there's no way you can get an actual boyfriend that quickly. clearly, the solution to both of your issues is to fake date each other. it shouldn't be hard for an actor such as yourself, all you need to do is stick to the script.

(OPEN) Taglist: @freyao7, @thatoneswordgirl, @sn1perz, @latay7, @esmetrees, @nmriki0, @help-whatdoimakemyusername, @httpsrenren, @cupid-spams, @aixaingela, @kaitfae, @luvkvni, @danhenglovebot

[visualtaehyun]

The Little Prince

Disclaimer: not a native speaker, still learning 🙏

Some followers or mutuals may know that I started reading the Thai version of The Little Prince and even though I haven't gotten that far into the book yet, I did skip ahead to find the two passages that came up in ep. 1 of Last Twilight. So naturally, I wanted to draw some comparisons with the dialogue in this lovely scene from ep. 8:

บางอย่างเนี่ย /baang yaang niia/ เราไม่ตองใช้ตามอง /rao mai dtaawng chai dtaa maawng/ ก็มองเห็นมันได้ /gaaw maawng hen man dai/ = For some things we don't need to use our eyes to look yet [we] can see them anyway.

ใช่ บางอย่างมันก็ต้องใช้หัวใจรับรู้ /chai. baang yaang man gaaw dtaawng chai hua jai rap ruu/ = Right. Some things need to be perceived by using the heart. เหมือนความรู้สึกพี่ตอนเนี้ย /meuuan kwaam ruu seuk phi dtaawn niia/ LOVE he means love!! all-encompassing, indescribable l o v e! I was almost expecting one of them to express it in words but what we got instead expressed it perfectly in actions

I'm not sure where Day is reciting from in ep. 1 (or if they had to change it for copyright reasons that I'm unaware of??) but it's very slightly different from the book so let's look at both!

เจ้าชายน้อย /jao chaai naawy/, ch. 21, p. 125, the Fox:

[...] เราจะมองเห็นแจ่มชัดด้วยหัวใจเท่านั้น /rao ja maawng hen jaaem chat duuay hua jai thao nan/ สิ่งสำคัญนั้นไม่อาจเห็นได้ด้วยดวงตา /sing sam khan nan mai aat hen dai duuay duuang dtaa/ = We can see clearly only with the heart. What is essential cannot be seen with the eyes.

Day in ep. 1:

เราจะมองเห็นทุกอย่างกระจ่างชัดเมื่อเราใช้หัวใจนำ /rao ja maawng hen took yaang gra jaang chat muea rao chai hua jai nam/ สิ่งสำคัญไม่อาจมองเห็นได้ด้วยตา /sing sam khan mai aat maawng hen dai duuay dtaa/ = We can see everything clearly when we use [our] hearts. What is essential cannot be seen with the eyes.

Sidenote: While trying to find out if Day was reciting from a different translation, I happened upon this article from 2020 which included this lovely photo of one of many Braille translations! :)

Back to the editions at hand though!

My edition is from 2013 and translated by อำพรรณ โอตระกูล (Amphan Otrakul). Hers was the first Thai translation, originally published in 1969. There are uhh a lot of versions by now though.

Judging from what I can see of the cover in ep. 1, my assumption is that Day's version is a print of this 2003 one which says on the cover is still the Otrakul translation but this site credits as being translated by พงาพันธ์ุ โบบิเยร์ (Panga-Phan Bobier), originally in 1997. I know there are three well-known translations and I've checked the one by อริยา ไพฑูรย์ (Ariya Paitoon) (pdf version here) so I'm just gonna stick with the assumption that Day is quoting from the Bobier translation. 🤷‍♀️

And because I'm very highkey in love with this song-

ประตูวิเศษ (Better Days), written by Amp Achariya, specifically Jimmy's lines:

/aat mai hen, dtaae rap ruu duuay jai/ = might not see but perceive with the heart /thee mai hen gaaw dai hen duuay jai/ = what isn't seen can be seen with the heart /kham waa rak man gaaw chat nai jai - praw ter/ = 'Love' is clear in [my] heart - because of you.

[nutzgunray-lvt]

An Attempt To Fly Under The Radar - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 is here! Struggled a bit with writers block, but I found that I really love writing from All Might's POV. I also couldn't help but throw a Psych reference in there, as well as a small nod to All Might's canonical 5/5 intelligence rating. Let my man be smart!

Izuku loved his lunches with All Might.

It wasn't just because of the fact that the Symbol of Peace spent one day a week sharing a homemade bento box with him (him! He made Izuku homemade lunches!). In general, it was just nice to spend some time with him outside of training. Sometimes, they talked about One For All, but other times, they talked about anything and everything - from the book series 'Internity' that he'd gotten the older man into, to how his classes were going.

"Present Mic was telling me about how well you did on your last English exam!" The older man said as he held his cup of tea. "You didn't hear this from me, but you were among the only two of your classmates to get both of his extra credit questions right! Great job, Young Midoriya!"

The praise felt nice (it always would, especially from All Might), and he felt his cheeks redden as he shrugged and took a sip of his own tea. "I've been reading some really interesting books, and one of them actually had the second bonus question in it!"

"It better not have been 'Internity'," All Might teased, grinning at his protégé. "You know I'm one book behind, and if I find out that you went back on our agreement and read ahead -"

"No, not at all!" the teen frantically promised, waving his hands in front of him, unaware that he was reacting precisely how his mentor had wanted him to. "I've been reading other books, I swear! I've been reading the third volume of a comic book series called 'Captain Hero' and another book called 'A Treatise of Human Nature'! The second bonus question was from page forty three of 'A Treatise of Human Nature,' and the quote we had to pick the correct translation from was: 'Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.' If you really think about it, that can be applied to the fundamentals of heroics, because a hero shouldn't only save people because that's what they're factually obligated to do, but rather because it's the right thing to do. It falls in line the four virtues as well, as justice is the main virtue a hero should have -"

"Man, no one is better at spouting word vomit than you, kid!" All Might cut in with a laugh. "You sure One For All didn't enhance your speaking ability along with your strength?"

Friendly ribbing aside, as Izuku sheepishly stopped his ramblings and looked up at his mentor, he noticed an unreadable expression on his face. It was the same one he had after he rescued both him and Bakugou from the Sludge Villain last April, and the same one as when he offered to train Izuku to receive One For All that same day.

It said that he saw something in him, something no one else had bothered to see up until now. Something he wanted to help nurture and develop.

"Sorry. I didn't notice I was mumbling again," he mumbled, staring at his lap. "Everyone's gotten onto me about it -"

All Might shook his head and waved him off. "Don't apologize, my prince of nonsense!" He still had that look on his face, and Izuku wasn't sure how he felt about it. "It sounds like it was a really interesting read for you, and it's great to see you so passionate about your studies! Why don't you let me borrow it sometime, and we can bounce some ideas off of each other?"

Izuku immediately nodded, an excited smile growing on his face as the bell rang, making it falter just a little. Realization that he'd have to get back to class and assume his mission of staying under the radar hit him hard, and he slowly set his tea cup on the table and got up, brushing off his pants. Was he stalling? Yes. Would it make him late? Probably. Did he care at the moment? No. He loved these moments with his mentor, and it was up to him to make sure to never take them for granted.

"Sure! It's in my backpack, so I'll lend it to you after training today."

All Might beamed at him, shooting him a thumbs up as he also stood and led them both to the door.

"Sounds like a plan, my boy!"

One Day Later

Toshinori was stupefied as he sat in the teacher's office and flipped through the book Young Midoriya had lent him. 'A Treatise of Human Nature' was an absolute behemoth to read through - 480 pages, with Present Mic's bonus question being on page forty three as stated - and it was littered with post-it notes containing annotations and fleeting thoughts digesting the text, annotations and fleeting thoughts that were surprisingly right on the nose.

This was easily a university level piece of literature, and his fifteen year old protégé had broken down the text to something he could understand and applied his own opinions to it, opinions that could easily be tied back to the original work. Clearly, the work had hit home for him… but this was a university level piece of literature. The green haired boy was a first year high schooler who wouldn't even be taking Philosophy until university if he chose to attend.

Clearly, Young Midoriya was smart.

After getting to know him and even after just meeting him, Toshinori figured out his intelligence pretty quickly; his analysis notebooks were proof enough. His point had only been reinforced by his grades once the school year started - fourth out of twenty in a curriculum as advanced as UA's Hero course was nothing to sneeze at. But yesterday during lunch, as he listened to Young Midoriya dissecting this book like he had read through it a million times (he hadn't - the spine wasn't worn down enough for that), he got an inkling that maybe his boy was even smarter than he initially believed.

But how -

"What do you got there, All Might?"

The Symbol of Peace jumped as he turned around to scowl at the sudden intrusion into his personal space. The source - Present Mic - cheekily grinned at him as he sat at his desk across from him, Aizawa following behind. Nearby, he could hear Midnight and Cementoss's voices approaching as well.

Well, the alone time was fun while it lasted.

"Dammit, Mic," Toshinori muttered, closing the book. "Do you really have to scare me like that?"

"It keeps you on your toes!" the younger man said with a shrug. "And besides, it's not my fault you make it extremely easy and fun for me to want to keep doing it!"

Trying to fight the fond smile growing on his face, he passed the book over to his colleague. Present Mic could certainly be a lot to handle at times, but Toshinori really liked him both as a colleague and a friend. The man just radiated good vibes and positivity, making it near impossible to stay annoyed at him for too long.

"To answer your question, I borrowed this book from Young Midoriya," he explained. "We were talking about his latest English exam, and he had some pretty interesting insights about that second bonus question you gave. It came from this book."

The younger blonde made grabby hands towards it, eagerly flipping through it when he got his hands on it. He had told the older man that he'd seen the inspiration for his bonus question in the paper, and he hadn't really expected anyone to get it right. He had been pleasantly surprised to see both Young Yaoyorozu and Young Midoriya get it correct and plainly said as much while they graded papers together. But as his eyes darted across the annotations written down, his usual easy-going grin slowly morphed into an expression of awe. He let out a low whistle as he closed the book and handed it back to him.

"Well then…" he said, clearly at a loss for words as Toshinori set the book to the side. "Wow… I mean… I had my suspicions about the little listener, but -"

"Wait, 'suspicions'?" The older man asked, maybe a tad too overprotective as he narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. "What are you talking about?"

"Haven't you noticed, All Might?" Present Mic incredulously responded. "Midoriya's smart, like really smart."

Toshinori nodded slowly, not really sure of where the Voice Hero was going with this. "Yes, I have noticed Young Midoriya's intelligence -"

"No, I mean he's really really smart," Present Mic insisted, looking a little impatient that he was being so slow on the uptake. "He's like a little curly haired sponge when it comes to English grammar structure, and you should listen to the way he compares and contrasts it with Japanese grammar structure! Honestly, some of the insights he's told me about are things I saw when studying for the Praxis test!"

"Yeah, the kid's good at English. What's the big deal? Are you just happy to have a student who's actually interested in your class for once?" Aizawa asked, looking and sounding thoroughly unimpressed as he kept his eyes on his computer screen.

Ouch. That stung, and that comment wasn't even directed towards Toshinori.

He saw the split-second hurt flash across Present Mic's face before he immediately masked it and continued on.

Hmm, interesting.

"The big deal is that if he's this smart, why are his grades where they're at right now?"

At both men's confused glances, Present Mic clarified, "I'm not saying that being ranked fourth is bad or anything - it's great! But don't you think he could easily be ranked higher up if it weren't for his grades?"

The black haired man shrugged.

"Then he should study more," he bluntly said. "If he's as smart as you guys say he is, then his grades should reflect that. His Quirk control should reflect that. His decision making skills should reflect that."

The two blondes exchanged dark looks with one another, both silently deciding to ignore the third man from here on out. Their job was made easier by Midnight and Cementoss entering the room, taking their seats at their respective desks after greeting their scruffy colleague.

"Are you saying that Young Midoriya may be deliberately not performing to his full potential?" Toshinori asked, choosing to rephrase what he just heard in a much friendlier way.

Present Mic shrugged.

"Yeah, I mean what else could it be?" he bluntly asked. "I've heard him tutoring his other classmates in things that he'll get wrong on assignments - and it's not like he's telling them the wrong thing or anything. He's teaching them the right things, meaning he knows what he's talking about, but he doesn't apply that to his own schoolwork. If he did, his grades would be way higher, and it's not just me either! Did you hear about what happened yesterday in first period Math?"

The older man frowned and shook his head.

"Ectoplasm had them doing some Trigonometry, and he accidentally made a typo in the equation that he had them solve. He didn't notice it until he was already done writing it out, but he wanted to see if anyone caught it. It looked like Midoriya did, but the kid looked like he was being put in front of a firing squad. Like, he was terrified of pointing out the typo. What's even weirder is that when Ectoplasm checked up on him, he saw that he had the correct equation written down."

Toshinori frowned deeper.

"I'll admit that's strange, but you know how shy Young Midoriya is," Toshinori countered. "I'm not disagreeing with you on what you've seen and heard, but you know that boy avoids the spotlight like his life depends on it."

"Not when doing heroics," Present Mic countered back, leaning forward in his seat. "Not when placed in a life/death situation. You put him in a practical exercise, and his potential is just bursting out into the open. His deductive reasoning, leadership skills, and strategization is in a class of his own. In the classroom, however, he retreats into his shell. It's almost like he doesn't want anyone finding out about his academic potential."

The more he listened to his younger colleague, the more the older man couldn't avoid the realization that he was right. He'd always known that Young Midoriya was shy, but looking back, he saw that something wasn't quite right in regards to his protégé's intelligence versus his academic performance. Last year, Young Midoriya's grades had been pretty bad, putting him twenty seventh out of the thirty students in his class. Seeing both his schoolwork and his natural intelligence and drive, it made something in Toshinori not sit right, but with his boy being hesitant to elaborate on the matter, he let it go. He didn't want to push him into telling him anything he wasn't ready to divulge.

"Look, you knew him before UA, right?" Present Mic asked, not a hint of judgment in his voice. "Why don't you try asking him about it? He likes you, he'll listen to you."

"What about afterward?"

"We talk to the rest of his teachers, and depending on what we see and hear, we get that kiddo an IQ test."

[anruraiocht]

Abatina and carnation

botanical headcanons (no longer accepting)

abatina :   is there anything in life your muse has changed their mind about over time   ( due to becoming more educated on the topic ,   certain experiences  ,   etc .) , or that they   would   change their mind about under certain circumstances ?

ABATINA: THE EVER LOOMING SHADOW OF LEIF FARIS CLAUS

Smiles thinly.

Look. Look. I'm sorry for the feminism loss as well, but it is so hard to talk about Miranda without talking about Leif. Ten years of projecting all of your issues on a guy will do that to you.

When we first meet Miranda, she seems entirely adamant that she blames Leif for everything that has happened to her. The little blame game she tries to play is extremely emotionally driven (literally what was Leif, age 2, supposed to do girl) and falls apart under scrutiny.

like ok. let's walk through this for a second.

"it's leif's fault" > finn is the one who brought him there > finn only brought him because leonster fell > leonster fell because thracia attacked and ulster didn't step in until the end > (dominoes) (THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF NORTHERN THRACIA VS SOUTHERN THRACIA THAT BROUGHT US TO US POINT)

So. Obviously through the events of FE5 and experiencing the war firsthand, Miranda's opinion on Leif changes. She already knows, deep down, that it isn't actually Leif's fault, but it isn't until she is forced to contend with the reality of the situation that she is able to admit it.

carnation :   what is your muse’s relationship with their gender ? how do they express or not express this relationship ?

CARNATION: JUGDRALI MISOGYNY HITS DIFFERENT

(it gets long here)

Okay so let's get one thing straight: if Miranda was a man, she would be dead. Full stop. When you're taking over a kingdom, the last thing you want is to leave a male heir alive. A male heir, left alive, can eventually take back their kingdom and become king, but a female heir cannot. She, however, can be used as a hostage. And she is! For ~ten years! Before we even learn her name, Miranda's agency is stolen from her.

The moment Miranda gets agency (and her kingdom) back, her advisors tell her that she needs to marry Leif to tie Ulster to Leonster. It's no secret that the Munster District is doing. Uh. Bad. As in, Miranda and Leif are the only heirs left alive by the end of Thracia 776. It makes sense, strategically, to have the only two heirs left alive get married and merge their kingdoms and both of them understand this. Doesn't mean they have to like it, though!

Leif: "...And Ulster was successfully liberated by Lord Seliph, so the people should be happy that their princess was safe.”

Miranda: “Well, yes, but… The people want more than that. My advisors are urging me to marry you so that we can unite with Leonster. They think they can just tell me what to do because I’m a girl…” Leif: “Well, you and I are the only heirs that survived this turmoil. What your advisors are saying only makes sense. But I’m not sure…”

We're not gonna get into Leif's little unhinged moment that happens right after this btw. The important part here is that Miranda is frustrated. Obviously. Miranda has been living in the basement of a Loptr monastery for a year and it's not enough that she made it back alive. Well, yes, your highness, it's all well and good that you survived, but there's not much you can do for us as a princess... would you mind getting married? As soon as possible? To the guy you've projected all of your problems and issues on for the last decade? Thanks!

Jesus fucking Christ!!!!!!!!

When they pulled this line for one of Miranda's skill activation quotes in FEH (albeit shortened from 女だと思ってバカにしてるわ to 女だと思って…！), it has been translated as:

I am a girl, not a fool!

Which I think is very evocative of the way Miranda thinks of herself. She does not resent existing as a girl, but she does resent the way she is looked down upon for being a girl.

And while we're on the topic of how Miranda talks (the most inelegant segue in the world)...!

It's not as noticeable in English, nor is it especially noticeable when you first meet her and she's hissing and spitting at Leif, but Miranda uses feminine speech (女性語) when she speaks! This is a style of speaking in Japanese that is considered "ladylike" and formal, using more polite terms. Traditionally speaking, it's a style of speech associated with upper class ladies.

This is more noticeable in her Conomor recruitment dialogue...

コノモール もうおやめなさい！ ... それなのに あなたは何をしているの！

As well as her conversation with Leif in the last chapter...

リーフ王子 少しいいかしら ... 私・・・ あなたに謝らなければ ならないことがあるわ

I've bolded the relevant parts here. Miranda affixes the polite o- prefix to yamenasai and ends some of her sentences with the more traditionally feminine ending particles of no, wa, and kashira.

It's... a little hard to explain in English but the way she speaks is very princess-like haha.

There is also the Genderisms of Miranda's promoted class: Mage Knight. In FE4, Mage Knight is a male only class (as a promotion for Azelle and Arthur + enemy units). In FE5, we get our first female Mage Knights through Olwen and Miranda, but the rest of the Mage Knights in the game are male. We can say that Olwen is following in her brother Reinhardt's footsteps, but Miranda doesn't have that same connection. Would she be better served as a sage, considering her 70% magic growth and fucking 5% strength growth? Absolutely! However, she saw that sages get staff access and said oh no thank you. i'm here to kill and maim.

And she deserves it.

That last part isn't exactly related to genderisms (or is it? Every other girl capable of wielding magic in FE5 besides Miranda and Olwen gets staff access... :thonking: ) I just think it's very funny characterization through gameplay. her ass is NOT healing.

tl;dr: Miranda is a character that is defined by her status as a princess and as a girl.

[fourseasonsfigs]

The Moonlight on the Roof is Beautiful Tonight

But not as beautiful as A-Xu!

The lounging inspiration for this handsome fig set. Surely nothing could ruin the mood on such a beautiful night on the roof above (rechecks the ep) Cheng Liquor Store.

I missed this incredible set twice - first in the initial sales, and then was too slow to snap up the very few remainders when the fig maker released them. I consoled myself that I didn't really want it that bad (dear figthusiast, I sure did), and decided I would simply find a well priced set on Xianyu at my leisure.

I haunted Xianyu for months. Any time I saw a set, I'd have my agent inquire if it came with the roof, which had been an add-on purchase during original sales, and which in my mind was kind of the whole point of the set. Most did not. The few ones that did, I purchased and they were cancelled for various reasons. Finally, there was one set that showed up, and it came with the roof. Sounds great, right? Yeah, except for the price. 300 yuan. 300 yuan!! The original price, mind you, was 94.56 yuan plus a 9 yuan supplement for the roof, so basically 3x. Plus all the fees and stuff. I swore I'd never buy it at that kind of crazy pricing. It doesn't do to encourage scalpers, right?

And apparently I wasn't the only one who swore off of buying it, because every time I searched, there it was. The only one. Over and over and over. So yeah, more months went by.

The good news here, delightful figthusiasts, is that technically I did not buy it from that enterprising profiteer. I got it as a Christmas gift. And if I may note, the listing was marked as sold and then another set immediately went up from the same seller, for the exact same price. I mean, kudos to them I guess?

But, what is Christmas for but for people you love to buy you things you love the holiday spirit, and I did feel pretty joyous as I unwrapped these little guys, and the much-longed-for roof.

You can see why. The roof is just too good for posing figs of all kinds on! (speaking of Christmas, if you don't think I'm going to put Santa Han lounging on this roof next year, I'm sad you think I'm going to pass up such a golden opportunity!)

The underside - it's pretty light since it's hollowed out. It sits sturdily - not uneven or off balance at all.

Our two moon watching, wine-drinking cuties. The only thing I'd have preferred with this set is if Lao Wen's hair was a little more wispy-hair forward - you can see the wisps at either side, but he ends up more with a slicked back look overall. But it's a very minor thing.

Their little legs sticking out is SUPER cute.

A better view of their hair styles.

Lao Wen's hair looks a bit glossier than A-Xu's, but that's just due to the lighting in my little fig photographing area. It would certainly make sense if A-Xu's hair was a bit duller - if I had that much iron blocking my meridians, my hair would be looking a little less sleek too.

As you might imagine from the supporting robes all around them, these figs sit well and have no problem sitting on the roof. No concerns about them tumbling off, thankfully!

The roof ridge is a nice wide base.

There we go! Home at last.

The quote on the card / box is this beautiful line from the theme song Tianyake:

将平生霜雪 与君煮酒烹茶 jiāng píng shēng shuāng xuě yǔ jūn zhǔ jiǔ pēng chá A life of snow and frost melts away as I brew wine and make tea with you (translation Cee)

Material: PVC

Fig Count: 160

Diorama Count: 9

Snowglobe Count: 1

Rating: Appreciate the moon with great wine!

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

[etlu-yume]

Been thinking about this song recently (I did a listen through for Ayumi's albums up to when I got her Greatest Hits collection in 2008 - I need to brave the rest of the discography sometime too)

This track wasn't actually on the CDs I got as a student buuuut it was on the performance DVD and it struck a cord at the time.

Because going back to check over the translations, and between them and what I can translate of it myself, it feels very... appropriate?

「衝動が重なり合って　出口のない迷路にはまる」 ("Seized with several impulses, I'm lost in a maze with no exit")

I *swear* I could feel the weird depressive feelings coming on the first day I came off the Evelyn. It's been a whirlwind of a shitshow this month, so I didn't make much of it until reflecting on it. I'd had a grand total of 4 days without mood swings for the month - and whether that was because of the shitshow, or because I was already predisposed to them I don't know. But after 4 weeks of bullshit, a sudden gut feeling to go to bed early was strange. I thought it could be one of two things - dinner didn't sit well (the last time we'd had that I /did/ get strange 'go to bed early' signals and I /did/ wake up at midnight throwing up), or it was depressive symptoms worming their way back in.

And that week after going onto the sugar pills? An absolute wreck. I'd been struggling with mood swings for weeks; I'd go up into a rage at a drop of a hat, and then be sensitive to the smallest reprimand or hint of rejection. Things that shouldn't set me off (like getting peas out of the freezer) did, and it was worse knowing that these things shouldn't piss me off, but they did anyway.

Swinging between wanting to crawl into a deep dark corner and cry, and ripping paper to shreds with a pen (neither of which are exactly "normal" behavior) some of the closing lines to 'Game' really hit home that week;

「言って　きっと痛みだなんて幻想だって 言って　こんな私だなんてらしくないよって」 ("Please tell me this pain is surely an illusion, Please tell me I'm not like myself right now")

Because it really did feel weird. And frustrating. I couldn't help it, no matter how hard I tried to keep it together. I'd been fighting those snaps for weeks, and it was exhausting.

The flip side, of course, is the "withdraw from everything". Sometimes a quiet, almost hurt train of thought. Aaaaand then the rage hits and combines with the withdraw and makes it into a "fuck everything, set it on fire".

And in those moments the chorus refrains like "I've always walked like this [smiling/laughing as if nothing happened]" and "That's okay - I can find another game" hit hard.

I don't know where I'm going with this. But the more I look at the song, and the more I listen to it, the more it hits home about how I've felt about the mood swings the last few weeks. How it feels like I'm trapped between two opposite ends of the scale, and if I'm not careful one end would happily set the world on fire without a care for the pieces that would have to be picked up afterwards.

And I just want someone, or something, to help get off this fucking merry-go-round.

(Credits: Most lyric quotes and translations from https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/ayumihamasaki/game.html )

[starfellwish]

ML Theory: Episode 22, Finale, Ladynoir, and Everything Else

This will have rocketear and finale synopsis spoilers - be warned.

I genuinely do think that the two part finale of season 4, "The Last Attack of Shadowmoth" (which is,,, a title to say the least; more on that in a bit) is gonna be so tense for a variety of reasons.

Rocketear Analysis

We have a couple of gamechanger episodes coming up. Rocketear definitely was a gamechanger as Adrien was able to realize that Alya and Nino are aware of each other's identities with Ladybug giving them permission. And he's angry about it. He knows that Ladybug lied to him about the rules, and he also knows that her being the guardian is definitely something that has led to their relationship being affected (flashbacks to a previous s4 ep when he's like it's cool if she's the guardian, as long as their partnership isn't affected - well that was some foreshadowing, wasn't it?). Honestly, seeing that as Marinette makes all the rules now as guardian, her decisions should be able to include her knowing Chat's identity. But. Chat Blanc exists, and I think that her not telling him about it and hiding it from him is a parallel to how she wanted Alya to hide the truth from Nino (obviously this failed too - Alya went behind her back to tell Nino the truth). She knows that he'd understand if she told him and its better to tell him that he may destroy everything if they knew each other's identities than left him feeling isolated and alone and at risk for literally getting akumatized. By isolating him, she's quite literally putting the world at risk for Chat Blanc 2.0, rather than her telling him something heartbreaking and being there for him so he doesn't get hurt by Shadow Moth's intentions. I think that she'll come to realize this in the finale and learn from her mistakes.

I think that in this screenshot, we got a snippet of foreshadowing of what's to come:

I saw some people theorize that this is foreshadowing that Adrien's real identity is between Ladynoir, and while this could be general foreshadowing for the entirety of the show (Marinette is in love with Adrien, and that's why she can't love Chat Noir), I do think that interpretation could be misplaced here due to the tone of the episode. Instead, I believe that this is foreshadowing that Chat may reveal himself to Ladybug. After all, she literally knows the identity of literally every other person who has a miraculous, and is the guardian.

*Side note: It also reminds me a lot of Felix. Could be a reference to that? Not sure what my thoughts on that being, but it's just somehting that struck me.

Episode 22

In my mind, it would make most sense for Adrien to reveal himself in episode 22. We've been told by the people who make the show that since episode 22 is the 100th episode of the show overall, it will be incredibly serious. This episode may run the highest risk of Adrien being akumatized into Chat Blanc again, as tensions are definitely running high. However, another akumatization event could happen, and Chat could be left out again, making him angry. I think that him getting akumatized is more likely, however. This is because of his appearance in Sentibubbler - I think that's foreshadowing. After everything is taken care of, Chat Noir and Ladybug will get into an argument. Chat will tell Ladybug that he knows about Alya and Nino, and that he thinks she's a hypocrite. He was loyal to her, and now he's having his doubts about their partnership, because he doesn't even think its a partnership anymore. Ladybug is the guardian and has more secrets that she is keeping from him. She talks about Chat Blanc and tells him that him finding out her identity leads to basically the end of the world. Adrien is surprised that he was akumatized before. He then gets mad at her for literally hiding this from him when they could've taken precautions beforehand, and then could possibly assert that he doesn't know what else she's hiding from him. He also, at the same time, doesn't feel like he should be Chat Noir anymore if he poses that much of a risk to the world. He detransforms in front of her and gives her the miraculous. He tells her he won't be a problem again, and leaves.

Finale

Ladybug, of course, realizes her mistake and tries to get him back. However, over the course of 23 and 24, she is caught up with Alya and Nino's problems with them not hiding their secrets. Adrien is already scheduled to leave Paris for a couple of weeks with Lila, and Ladybug trying to persuade him to stay is basically one of the main conflicts of the final episode. Pair this with "ShadowMoth's Last Attack" and you've got a season finale. I think the name of the season finale, is, as always, a misdirect. There's no way Gabriel is getting all his miraculous taken away until season 5, as that's when the full reveal happens, so it seems like he'll return to just regular old Hawkie. I don't think it would make sense for him to be disarmed now and for next season's finale to have the full reveal. Here's the synopsis below so we can dissect it.

Shadowmoth's Last Attack

Having understood that if Ladybug always triumphs, it's thanks to her prudence, Papillombre (Shadow Moth) conceives a diabolical plan around a super villain endowed with the power to push his victims to take all risks. When Marinette learns that Adrien must leave Paris for several weeks with Lila, new muse of the Agreste brand, she is ready to do she is ready to do anything to stop him. How far will she go? Even to the fatal risk of betraying her secret identity for love? And will Adrien take the risk to finally stand up to his father?

Okay, so let's dissect this. What I said before adds up to Adrien leaving with Lila. It would also explain why Marinette would potentially reveal herself to Adrien, if only to get him to stay. Because she knows that he's Chat, and maybe her being Marinette will somehow influence his decision. Or, it may show him that she's finally willing to trust him with everything.

It could also allude back to the song in the movie. Since the Miraculous movie was originally intended to act as a finale to Season 5, we can take things from early development and see if they end up fitting in the narrative. In this situation I'm going to quote "Ce mur qui nous separe" (English translation: The Wall Between Us), the French song that was made for the movie when it was intended to be the Season 5 finale.

It’s strong when I see him I want to scream on the rooftops our love that reaches out to us But I know that I can’t It’s not the right moment We have to be patient be patient

Here's the French translation in case the translation Genius gave me was wrong:

C’est fort quand je le vois Je veux crier sur tous les toits Notre amour qui nous tend les bras Mais je sais que je ne dois pas Ce n’est pas le moment Il faut être patients Être patients

This part of the song is from Marinette's perspective, and the fact that she's saying that she has to wait for the right moment to actually be in love with him probably means that she knows Adrien's identity. Because why would she "know" that she can't love him? Why is it not the right moment? Why do they have to be patient? Her being Ladybug and being unable to be in a relationship may explain why it's not the right moment, but the fact that she says "our" love points me in another direction. She knows she loves Adrien, and she knows that Chat, and therefore, Adrien, loves her. But she can't tell him her identity yet. However, her knowing his identity would make sense. I remember that before season 4 started airing, a lot of the fandom wondered if Chat was going to have to reveal his identity to her because she's the guardian. After all, that would make sense. Them making it a problem over the course of the season would mean that it would have to be handled in some way. I think that her finding out Chat's identity is probably the most logical course of action, as she can't be a good guardian until she has all the information at her disposal.

There are two specific lines which I find interesting in the finale synopsis. The part where it says, "Papillombre (Shadow Moth) conceives a diabolical plan around a super villain endowed with the power to push his victims to take all risks," is particularly interesting. This could mean a couple of things. Shadow Moth could be akumatizing Felix - after all, he stopped at nothing to try and replace Adrien in order to ruin his relationship with his friends. He kissed Ladybug when she told him no. He was snooping in Adrien's things. Clearly, there was nothing he wasn't willing to do in order to get the ring back. (This whole thing is never explained either after Felix - why is the ring so important?) Maybe that will make a comeback? Or, the "his" in the synopsis where it specifies that the villain has no limits, may be referring to Shadowmoth. In that situation, it could be Lila who is again akumatized. She has clearly no limits, as she's working for Shadow Moth willingly, and likely knows his identity. This is one likely scenario. Or Shadowmoth will akumatize Adrien. He may feel detached, and Gabriel will interpret it as being sad that he's being taken away from all of his friends. Adrien is known for being quite stubborn, and having Ladybug fight Adrien's akumatized state would be season finale material. However, if he is akumatized in the finale as something else, then the Chat Blanc akumatization in episode 22 is unlikely (they wouldn't do something like that twice in a row). Of course, his akumatized state would be different than Chat Blanc because people can be akumatized into multiple different villains and Hawkie doesn't know that Adrien=Chat Noir.

The second line that I find particularly interesting is this one:

And will Adrien take the risk to finally stand up to his father?

Now, why would Adrien stand up to his father? Maybe with literally everyone betraying him, he'll find no reason to stay. He needs a constant in his life, and telling his father that he needs him to be here for him may be a step that he makes. After all, Ladybug and him are having their biggest fight, his best friend Nino told him that he finds his hero persona absolutely abhorrent, and he doesn't feel like he has a place on the superhero team. He needs someone, and he's hoping that Gabriel can be that person.

That could be one scenario, or Adrien may find out about Hawkie's basement. Now, this, could raise a lot of questions for him. While I believe that Adrien would have the normal tendency to be like "father, what the hell." He may honestly believe that this is all he has left, and therefore, will assist his father. This takes me back to the season 2 opening card.

Where is Chat Noir? With the villains.

Maybe Adrien will have his well deserved Dark!Chat Noir arc. Or maybe, he'll be a spy for the Quantic team. Ladybug and him will make up, and he'll tell her that he can spy on Hawkie for the team, and that's how they move into season 5 - with Adrien as a double agent. He will help his father in everything that he does, and therefore, get access to more information that he can share with the team. He can help establish a meeting for Hawk Moth to get caught, with evidence, by planting cameras, calling police, etc.

Honestly, I'm hoping for the latter subplot, as I don't want Chat Noir to go evil for everyone's sakes. I do think that the latter would also give him a cementable role that would logistically make sense and help establish him as an strong character, and more importantly, a valuable member of the team and Ladybug's true partner.

Or, they could go down the more simpler route, and choose Adrien to find out, be shocked, and then yell at his father for being who he is. Gabriel just assumes because Adrien is only just Adrien, he doesn't have to worry about him. He will threaten Adrien, and Adrien will stay silent in front of him, but tell the team on the side. Of course, this doesn't really mean double agent Adrien, but it still implies spy Adrien. It also still manages to make his character more relevant.

Regardless, there's a lot of different ways that line could go, and I'm excited to see where it moves on from there.

Implications on the Love Square

The love square seems entirely messed up this season. There is almost nothing going on in relation to it, especially in regards to Ladynoir, Ladrien, and Marichat. Adrienette has honestly the most action right now, especially with the reverse umbrella scene, them helping out Juleka together, etc. This leads me to think that while we'll get a lot of Ladynoir in the finale as they repair their relationship, Adrienette may be the strongest ship of the four when moving into season 5. Let me explain why.

Over the course of this entire season, Adrien has been getting closer to Marinette, and is honestly more warm with her than he has been with Ladybug. This can explain what everyone has been thinking - a reverse love square. Even if Ladybug and him make up, Chat may honestly want to go and see other people. This includes Mari. What Nino said about Ladybug finding him annoying may actually really affect him and his feelings and make him realize that he can find love elsewhere. It's also the fact that it was enunciated twice during Rocketear that Alya couldn't fall in love with someone that she didn't really know. That could lead Adrien to wonder if he really knows Ladybug, which will definitely complicate his feelings. The Kagami thing was never going to work out, so he just needs to find someone else who cares for him. He knows Marinette; he has called her similar to Ladybug - he may rebound from Ladybug to Marinette. Ladybug may realize that she messed up, and she has already shown that she is becoming more indifferent to dating Adrien, due to what happened with Luka. When she and Chat Noir fix their relationship, she may see him as the only person she doesn't have to lie to, and therefore thinks about pursuing a relationship with him. Therefore, a reverse love square would make the most sense in this situation.

If a ship were to start actually dating in season 5 - it may honestly depend on how the finale is. The two most likely ships imo are either Ladynoir or Adrienette. If Ladynoir makes up during the finale, then the barriers to them dating aren't really present, unless the Alya thing actually makes it complicated for them. Adrienette may get together, but Marinette is wary of dating because she's Ladybug. However, we all know she's weak in the knees for Adrien and will definitely say yes if he asked her out.

Therefore, I feel like this season is leaning more towards plot and character development, and while it may set some things up for season 5, it is important to pay attention at the little shifts in the square, because they are happening right in front of us.

Alya and Marinette

I wanted to be able to talk about this at some point in this theory, but since everything else is more Adrien centric, I added it here at the end. Okay, so we know that Alya is lying to Marinette about telling Nino things. We also know that Alya has bended the rules for Nino multiple times, both before and during Rocketear. This could go one of two ways: Alya telling Nino teaches Marinette that she needs to be able to trust Chat, and therefore helps her realize that she doesn't need to be so secretive and lie all the time. It could also lead to a plot where Alya basically messed up largely by telling Nino, and everything goes downhill from there. Ladybug shows Chat that they can't know each other's identities because of what happened with them. We also Nino is a bit of a blabbermouth - love his character, but he is. He told Adrien not only his identity, but also Alya's. He also told him that they know the other's identity. This is bad, and Adrien knowing definitely affects the plot later on. If Adrien ends up revealing himself to Ladybug, it is likely that she'll find out about Nino saying that, and having to revoke their kwamis. This could lead to a strained relationship with Alya. In fact, it is likely that at this point, Marinette will already have a strained relationship with Alya, as it could be revealed that Alya told Nino about Rena Furtive. This could lead to Ladybug being defensive and worried that she made mistakes, and literally just closing the Miraculous box because of it. Maybe Alya will go rogue? After all, it was mentioned in Rocketear (and I appreciate that they talked about this) how Alya was a reporter and that by extension means that her personality is one of a truthteller. Alya getting angry at Mari could definitely lead to a situation where she threatens to tell he everyone. I don't think Alya would or could do that, but anger leads to akumatization, and an akumatized Alya would not be good for anyone as her judgement would be impaired. Regardless, Rena Furtive may be a short time hero, and Mari and Alya may end the season in a fight. I don't see that being resolved in the finale, as no fight like that is mentioned in those episodes. There is also simply too much going on in the finale for it to make sense. It may be resolved later on, just like how other problems in season 3 started being solved in the beginning of season 4. Or, it could be fought out and resolved in episodes 23 and 24.

Therefore, I think that the Nino carelessly revealing his identity and Alya carelessly disregarding Ladybug's orders may lead to a plotpoint at some point where Alya and Ladybug fight. While I do think that it would be nice if Alya proved Ladybug wrong and showed that they were stronger for working together, I do not think it's likely. The show was deliberate in showing that Alya had a weakness for Nino, and has shown before that it has led to many situations where there were risks for everyone involved. Even Hawkmoth said that love and secrets don't go well together (is he talking from experience?), and I feel like that was so deliberate, but it could also be alluding to Chat and Ladybug. (Side note: it was so weird for Hawk Moth to say that, as he had no idea of the situation; regardless I do think this it's heavy foreshadowing.) Therefore, I do not think the situation that Alya has placed herself in is a situation which will have a peaceful ending.

Final Notes:

I personally cannot wait for the "Gabriel Agreste" episode. I think that the fact that we did not get it yet means that it has serious story implications. Personally, I believe it's going to explain allllll the backstory we need for the whole Bourgeois/Tsurugi/Agreste history and tell us why Emilie is the way she is right now. Of course, maybe it won't do everything, but the fact that it is named after Gabriel makes me wonder if it'll be his origins episode of sorts.

EDIT AFTER MEGA LEECH: IF GABRIEL AGRESTE REVEALS ADRIEN TO BE A SENTIMONSTER I WILL BE SO SO EXCITED BC ANGST BUT ALSO LIKE??? WHAT ABOUT THE PLOT? WHAT ABOUT THE NINE YEAR OLDS?

Chat snapping is honestly something that I cannot wait for. All of his anger has been building up over the entire season thus far, and the implications of his feelings are definitely serious for the show's plot.

I wonder if Mayura will be making a comeback at some point. While this is less relevant, Nathalie's health seems to be making her bedridden for a long time. Maybe she'll return to a similar state to Emilie? I saw theories that stated that if Hawkie gets his wish, Nathalie's life may be sacrificed for Emilie's, and idk, I think it's not likely that it'll happen, but it would be cool if it did. The ultimate payback for his actions being the loss of Nathalie.

Look at the end card of Rocketear:

He's looking at the moon, which was shown in New York to be something he does when he's sad. Also possible reference to him destroying the moon in Chat Blanc.

Kitty do be on a roof all alone without his lady :(

[desert-bluffs-and-me]

WTNV Quick Rundown - 19A - The Sandstorm

Welcome back to my quick rundowns of the WTNV episodes, live shows and novel! This is a two-part paralleling episode, but for brevities sake (this is supposed to be quick bulletpoints of lore, facts and interesting quotes) I'm splitting them up entirely. I am so excited for these upcoming episodes, you have no idea.

Blinking red light in the night sky. The future is changing, but it's hard to tell. Welcome to Night Vale. - 19A's opening, said by Cecil.

The titular sandstorm arrives in NV and Cecil warns everyone about it's potential deadliness (as do NV meteorologists who 'don't know when to shut up'). However, the sandstorm is far from ordinary (I mean, this is NV, right?).

Larry Leroy is the first to discover that despite how fast and hard the sand is flying, he can't feel anything when he touches it. Nothing at all, including that he feels like the past is fiction and consequences are a choice. 'He shouted a bright confirmation of life up toward the sand-covered sun before gasping and screaming “No! Not you! Not you!!” and then hanging up the phone.'

Intern Dana Cardinal is introduced in this episode (what happened to Stacey?!). She helps Cecil translate some runestones on Old Woman Josie's FB page and they say “They come in twos. You come in twos. You and you. Kill your double.” An an aside, Steve Carlsberg writes in to worry that the sandstorm is created by the government as a coverup for something. Cecil angrily explains that of course it is, City Council makes no secret that it can control weather, earthquakes, pandemics etc and is always monitoring their thoughts and activities. Duh, Steve.

The sandstorm spawns perfect copies or 'doubles' of every citizen is NV. Many of which, if not most of which, fight each other with one of them (maybe not even the original) ending up dead (Cecil doesn't condone this, he says violence is rarely the answer). This includes Intern Dana and Intern Dana's Double. A portal appears in Cecil's studio, it is black almost indigo and Cecil bravely steps through.

There is a long silence and then an unfamiliar male voice speaks. The man introduces himself as Kevin, of Desert Bluffs. He is very confused by his surroundings. He remarks that it seems to be night time, that the desk is odd and bloodless, that the technology seems very old and that the vortex is a different colour on this side. Looking at the desk, he sees a picture of Cecil (a man who is not short nor tall, not fat nor thin, wearing a tie like him and who has eyes and a nose and hair like his but who is not him, he is sure of it). "Maybe it is the smile. Is that a smile?"

'You may not know me, nor I you, but we have this mic, and this voice, and your warm ears blossoming open to hear comforting secrets and the vibrations of a voice that pulse so deep into your body your heart relaxes for a time.' - Kevin is so lovely :)

Weather: "Eliezer's Waltz" composed by Larry Cardozo and Ron Fink, and performed by Disparition.

Cecil returns after the weather and is very upset. He says he saw a foul demon of a man who 'tried to attack him'* and he tried to strangle this man to death but at the last second recalled what he said about violence not being the answer and let him live.

*personally I think Cecil just had a gut reaction to Kevin wanting to hug him since Kevin just let's him walk away after this but we really don't know

The NV baseball team is called the Night Vale Spider Wolves. The DB team is called the Desert Bluffs Sunbeams.

The Spider Wolves have a new pitcher, 20-year-old Trevin Murphy. He joined the Spider Wolves 'after they discovered he could use his telepathic powers to cripple batters emotionally, often sending them into weeks-long slumps and fits of crying, even while playing in the field.'

'Exit 6' and 'Route 800' are things which exist so ya know, if you're writing fanfics...there ya go.

There is a sponsorship from Home Depot which contains lines such as Need Help? Incomplete?. The Incomplete? repeats several times and is later parodied in the show.

And we are healing. Those of us, whoever we are, who survived. Those others of us, whoever we are, who conquered. Whoever you are now, you are home. We are home, Night Vale. You and I are together again. My mouth, your ears. We have each other. And for now, and always, good night, Night Vale. Good night. - this episodes sign off

Proverb: Step 1) write down the names of everyone you know. Step  2) rearrange the letters. Step 3) This will reveal a great secret of time.

[earlgreymon]

flying birds & floating petals; a koukari playlist for lovers who questioned about the reflecting wings and fallen cherry blossom on the river. (youtube / spotify)

01. must have been the wind - alec benjamin we can talk about the noise when you're ready 02. venus - sleeping at last astronomy in reverse, it was me who was discovered 03. hesitate - steve moakler excuse me while i fall for you 04. you can - david archuleta show me the good thing comes to those who wait 05. livewire - oh wonder so hold me, when i'm wasting the light 06. (they long to be) close to you - chord overstreet that is why all the boys in town follow you all around—just like me, they long to be close to you 07. take care of yourself - maisie peters you don't get a medal for the last one awake, so rest your eyes and give your baggage to me 08. bright - echosmith did you and jupiter conspire to get me? i think you and the moon and neptune got it right cause now I'm shining bright 09. love u - shye take it slow, you don't gotta tell me. i just wanna know if you need me to call you maybe—it's alright if you don't bonus tracks: there are many ways to say i love you - sylvan esso you'll find many ways to say 'i love you', you'll find many ways to understand what love is

part 1 of lovers in japan series track-by-track commentaries;

since the beginning of june, i've been curating some songs that i think can be associated with my favourite pairs on my twitter. as the digiweek is coming and one of the prompt is "music" i was thinking to wrap them all into a playlist for each pair.

but... i end up having five playlists, and i don't think i want to put them all on digiweek because i actually have another fic entry for day 3. so i'm gonna save one for digiweek, another for a specific otp week (take a guess!), and the others for... well, day-to-day post like this.

you will find the playlist on my lovers in japan series. the name was taken from coldplay's song. please note that my playlists will not be arranged chronologically, so you will see the 'storyline' is kinda messy. i arranged them according to how i think the order of the songs will sound good in the listeners' ears, and trust me when i said i have listened to these playlists a million times to make sure that they do sound good.

please also note the songs may have different interpretations, and i know there's gonna be people who disagree with my song choices. as i'm also not that good at translating songs, this is just my take and 1) i can be wrong; 2) you may have a different take.

for this koukari playlist itself, the title and the subtitle are inspired from @skuag's koukari headcanon. ngl i'm so in love with sku's line about koushiro and hikari questioning things around them, and i put the line into this. i hope you don't mind! :D

onto the real commentaries now!

01. must have been the wind - alec benjamin

when i first heard the song, i thought it was about an attempt to save a girl from an abusive relationship/domestic violence. but generally, this song is also about being a friend to someone who isn't ready to talk about his/her own feelings, and that's how i think the dynamic between koushiro and hikari is. they will both be loyal and helpful no matter what to each other ("promise I'm not playing tricks on you, you're always welcome to come in. you could stay here for an hour or two if you ever need a friend").

the whole song mostly told about the girl refusing to talk, but in the last part of the song, it is also implied that the singer won't push her. koushiro and hikari are both very patient, so this song is perfect. another trivia is that this song is about two persons living in the same buildings and koushiro lives in the same apartment with hikari in da:2020 :D

02. venus - sleeping at last

this is just a general, sweet love song with a hint of scientific touch with astronomical metaphors. also, on the line "astronomy in reverse, it was me who was discovered" that i quoted above, i think it can also be interpreted how koushiro is always passionate about finding things, but then love comes and finds him instead.

03. hesitate - steve moakler

"i've always been the kind to contemplate but you like the kind that don't hesitate, so excuse me while i fall for you." yes. this line is just perfect for koushiro who is very polite and easy to get nervous, and i bet he's very nervous to start a new page full of love. also, i thought the first line when the singer says "the human heart is a scary part in fact" is koushiro-ish because it sounds somewhat biological, iykwim.

04. you can - david archuleta

i (maybe even most of us) often associate koushiro as someone who have no room for romance. even if he does, he will be very careful about it; talk about someone who is very conventional and believe in one true love/soulmate. so that's why when someone as wonderful as hikari comes in picture, he must be thinking this is worth the wait. 'cause if anyone can make him falls in love, she can.

05. livewire - oh wonder

livewire. electricity. koushiro. yes. however, this song is actually more from hikari's side. the first line, "i've been depending on the overgrown" is like her depending too much on taichi. "i've been pretending all my shots are blown, cover my heart up never let it show"—again, with the issue of concealing her feelings. "oh so heavy the water, falling down down deep down" ...well, somehow it fits the dark ocean, eh?

06. (they long to be) close to you - chord overstreet

so i really want to put this song no matter what because it's a simple, sweet, innocent love song—and gee, koukari is such an unproblematic pair! however, the carpenter's version has this line where it says "that is why all the girls in town follow you all around" and i think it's better to reverse the situation because... well, hikari is more popular than koushiro, right? the song can also be used for takari with the "so they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold and starlight in your eyes of blue" but the innocence is just screaming koukari for me.

07. take care of yourself - maisie peters

i think this is the most important song on this playlist. the whole song itself is like things that hikari wants to say to koushiro. i remember @seventeenlovesthree once said that koushiro is very lacking sleep, and we know it's because he keeps working and researching. we even see in tri how he couldn't take better care of himself, with messy workstations, fashion 101 with takeru, and that horrendous dark circles. and when someone told him to just take a rest, he would refuse—saying that the world was in danger and it's more important to save it.

please also highlight these two important lines, which can also be good for yourself:

"you don't get a medal for the last one awake"

"and i hate how you're going through hell when you've never let anyone else, so cut off a little slack and roll all your cavalry back"

08. bright - echosmith

similar to venus, this is just a simple love song with a dash of moon and planets in the refrain. also, remember that koushiro's first kanji in his name is hikari, which also means light (bright)!

09. love u - shye

this is similar to must have been the wind, except it's more of hikari's point of view. koushiro is someone who's also struggling to reveal what he feels, but hikari won't ever push him and wait until he's ready. also, i've mentioned before in my headcanon that hikari texts koushiro more often, but once he gets busy, she will not disturb him and just patiently wait until the morning follows. this song is the perfect description.

bonus track: there are many ways to say i love you - sylvan esso

at this stage, you may probably know the general theme of this playlist is koushiro and hikari loving each other very subtly. i often said that they are not the type of couple who says 'i love you' blatantly, and this song is a conclusion on how they profess their love to each other!

[suffering-with-fiery]

Rune translations and Bottom theories (I did my best!) (: It's long! I mean REALLY REALLY REALLY LONG!!!! You've been warned. (Potential TWs below the cut) yeah Hyoga doesn't have a good time here.

I should probably start calling Hyoga "Hyouga" instead since I'm pretty sure it's spelled with a 'U'... but I probably won't. Apologies.

Bottom English translation by Tackmyn Y! (I can't speak Japanese, again, apologies, though I was able to make my own version of Autophagy)

Potential TWs (I dont want to harm anyone by going on this rant): Autophagy (medical terms), nightmares, demons tormenting a guy, Hyoga being unhealthy in more ways than one, mentions of death/murder, self esteem issues, mentions of destructive behavior, manipulation, violence.

Yeah, my boy Hyoga ain't having a good time in this theory.

I feel the need to clarify that this is all speculation. So uh. Everything here is just what I've been thinking about since I hopped into this rabbit hole.

Sinfan (I'm not sure what order they go in, it's quite hard to tell):

["Death"

"I"

"Revive"

"Spirit"

"I"

"Something with shape"]

I'm not fully sure what "something with shape" means, but there's a possibility that Sinfan could be referring to Hyoga, (a doll/wax figure) or maybe that Sinfan needs something with a shape to be able to exist. Sinfan could need a vessel to stay on the mortal plain and go undetected while staying alive.

Sinfan needs a vessel. And with that thought, it launches into indecipherable theory crafting.

Hyoga summoned Sinfan when he was 12 years old. Thinking he found a vessel, he called upon Pabometh, another grey demon, to help torment Hyoga so the two could get their wish.

Hyoga, at the time, is young, dumb and susceptible to manipulation, meaning it could be easy for Sinfan to grasp the situation with an iron grip which follows Hyoga into adulthood.

"Revival" could also be referring to "Rebirth," symbolized by a butterfly. It could also mean that Sinfan/Pabo has the powers to revive people. Maybe as a last resort if they need it.

In Hiiragi Kirai's album trailer on Youtube, Hyoga shows up in a scene with 'D' and 'B' in calligraphy on each cheek. They could mean "Death" and "Birth" respectively.

Lines from Autophagy:

"I just wants a peaceful life." Likely means Hyoga wants the demons gone so he can live how he wants to. (Who wouldn't?)

"The voice inside my head? Huh... how odd." Also implies that the demons are still with him.

"My body pulses, memories from my past bringing pain." Means that in Autophagy, Hyoga remembers his past, but it hurts him.

""You can't avoid it in life, so it's best to just deal with it." You say, but you dont seem bothered." Is most likely Sinfan talking to Hyoga. It could also mean that Hyoga can't avoid the demons, so he should just deal with it.

"I can't stop now, so pretend nothing happened!" Could be Hyoga trying to ignore the demons, or maybe he did something he shouldn't have. (Always knew those were prison tattoos...)

"I want to wash my skull out! I want to say bye bye! But yet I didn't do it..." Could mean that the demons are still with him in Autophagy and likely still tormenting him.

"I won't stop, I can't look back." Might mean Hyoga is trying to move on, but with the demons still in his head, he can't, so the "Let me forget!" after the instrument solo might be him wishing that he never remembered in the first place and trying to get the demons to take them away again.

"Just stay away from me!" Could be Hyoga distancing himself from everyone he knows, or trying to get the demons to go away.

"Hello! HAHAHAHA Hello! HAHAHAHAHA!" Might be Hyoga as he slowly loses his remaining sanity due to constant tormenting and pressure from the demons.

"A A A A- 'Allo/Allow/Arrow" could all imply different things, so I'll give a short on all of them.

"'Allo!" Is just an abbreviation of "Hello."

"Arrow!" -According to a quick google search- is a common symbolism for peace and philosophical ideas, and used for protection and hunting. It could mean that Hyoga just wants peace and quiet, which is enforced by "I just want a peaceful life." in the beginning.

"Allow!" Could mean that the demons are trying even harder to bend him to their will and take him over as a vessel. They want Hyoga to allow them to posses him so they can do whatever they please.

Pabo only has 2 that I can see:

["Nightmare"

"Save (?)ime"]

It might be "time" but I couldn't make out the rune symbol there.

"Nightmare" hardens my thought that Bottom is just a massive nightmare set up by the demons to torment Hyoga, that the song is sung from the perspective of one of the demons (likely Pabo), and that Young Hyoga(tm) in the video is Pabometh playing the part of his repressed/forgotten memories.

This is all assuming the song is, infact, sung by the demons.

Lines from Bottom:

"You're keeping me alive! Today, today, you're killing me!" Could go both ways (Pabo/Sinfan and Hyoga) For Pabo it could just be another variation of the next line I'm about to talk about.

For Hyoga it could mean that he wouldn't be able to function if he didn't have the demons (Sinfan might posses him to make him fit in so nobody notices, keep him from dying from mortal wounds, and he's lived with them so long he might not know what to do without them), but with them he's slowly tearing himself apart from the inside out due to their constant tormenting. Metaphorically or literally is anyone's guess at the moment.

"Autophagy" (his songs name) is a medical term for "self eat" which normally happens when your body is starved, so it eats it's own cells to survive as long as it can. It can also correlate to certain diseases. Autophagy in these terms might also be referring to emotions. It's possible he's been stewing in any sort of negative emotions to cause such effects. (I.E: Guilt, fear, self worth issues,) which could make his resolve weaker, making it easier for Pabo and Sinfan to torment him/possess him. The longer it goes on, the closer he could be to self destructing.

"A wax figure/a doll is keeping me alive/killing me." Is more related to the demons in my eyes. "Wax figure/a doll" is likely referring to Hyoga. Hyoga could be their only tie to the mortal realm, (Sinfan being more prominent because he was summoned first, and by Hyoga himself.)

It could also mean that they need to inhabit his mind/body in order to survive and make it easier to torment Hyoga. If they both are in Hyoga's mind 24/7 while he suffers from nightmares (which cause lack of sleep, keeping his body in a perpetually weak state), no self worth, and a fragile mental state ("I wanna keep you out of my fragile mind!") while he tears himself apart, it would mean it would be harder to stay with him without something happening.

Due to that, it's likely that the very thing keeping them alive and in the mortal realm is also killing them at the same time.

It may be worth mentioning that a line in Bottom is "You think you're a god to me?" while 9lore translated Rinen's (Möbius') tattoo on his chest, which reads "Be still and know that I am god." It could a a coincidence, but I thought I'd mention it just in case (:

Throughout the entire song the demons are mocking and belittling Hyoga. (I.E: "Defying all logic, you're nothing but evil." "You're so stupid! You scumbag, scumbag, scumbag!") Most of the angry rant type of thing happens when Young Hyoga (tm) is on-screen. (It could be a tactic to make Hyoga not want to remember/manipulate his memories/tear down his resolve even more/or just plain upset him.)

"I mean, who, who, who are you?" It's been made clear that for the longest time (according to WOOMA) Hyoga didn't even remember his own name. "Who are you?" might be Pabo trying to get into Hyoga's head and make him question his own sanity.

"What the hell are you to me?" Implies that Pabo also want Hyoga to question why Pabo is here. Sinfan was summoned by Hyoga, but Pabometh was likely summoned by Sinfan to help tear down Hyoga. That means the two don't have much history, and Hyoga most likely doesn't know why Pabo is here for awhile.

It's "you to me" instead of "me to you" so Pabo could also be trying to get Hyoga to try and notice him in a positive way so that the nightmares stop. I'll expand on that some more a few (a lot) of paragraphs down.

"Inside my heart is- such a rage! Such a rage! So I'll grab you, grasp you, and crush you flat!" Is a line I find interesting. It also leads directing into another line; "The symptom of the unforgettable emotion is my burning intent to murder, which is absolutely right." Pabo would likely be talking about Hyoga, which implies that if he could, Pabo would murder Hyoga himself, but since the "wax figure" is needed to keep both him and his accomplice, Sinfan, alive, he can't.

It also implies that Pabo is extremely angry with Hyoga, for a reason I can't particularly pinpoint, except maybe for the fact that Hyoga's becoming more and more unstable and not safe for Pabo and Sinfan. The only problem is, it's Pabo and Sinfans fault he's like that. They're the ones that chose Hyoga as a vessel while simultaneously destroying him.

However, it's possible that Pabo's aim was to devoid Hyoga of anything and everything, (I.E: memories, emotions, etc. etc.) so that he was just that: a vessel. But with Hyoga being so destructive to himself, the whole plan could have gone awry and Pabo's only thought was how furious he was at Hyoga for messing up his chance to be in the mortal realm undetected for good, meaning he wishes he could destroy Hyoga and just get it over with so him and Sinfan could wait until someone else summoned them so they could take advantage of that.

""How deplorable you are! How deplorable you are!"" Is a line that has a chance of Hyoga himself having said it due to it having quotes on it. It also implies that he he could be fighting back, so his resolve might not crushed completely. However, a show of strength like that would likely just enrage Pabometh even more than he already is. It also doesn't help the positive impression he wants Pabo to have of him.

"You're involving yourself with me again like a clingy, clingy neighbor!" Sounds like Pabo, again, insulting Hyoga. If we go off of another part of this fever dream I've cooked up, (Hyoga not knowing what to do without the demons, but with them destroying himself), sounds like Pabo doesn't want to be with Hyoga anymore, going as far as hating him so much he's festering in it.

The "again" makes it sound like Hyoga's tried to communicate with them more than once, being unsuccessful each time. Hyoga could be trying to latch onto them, either to take them down with him or trying to get the nightmares to stop. Like I said, for a while Hyoga could have been trying to get positive attention and make Pabo like him.

"The low-end is going to manipulate me." Could be Pabo addressing that he knows what Hyoga was trying to do and calling him out for it.

"Brimming with momentary anger, rot away quickly, quickly, quickly!" Again, Pabo is talking about his burning hatred for Hyoga.

"I'm always losing! How, how dare you!" Implies that even with all the nightmares and torment, Hyoga has just enough willpower to keep Pabo from getting his wish, angering him even more.

And finally, a line from Autophagy:

"Oh, rise seeds of evil, bursting with malice!" Might be Hyoga finally giving into the demons and becoming their vessel if they take away his painful memories and stop hurting him.

Pentagram:

["-r Guide(A) N(?)E A(?)R"

"The ability to know wh-"

"Grant me the power to be strong in spirit-"

"Grant me the wisdom to understand-"]

With it over Pabo, it's possible that this was the one that summoned Pabo instead of Sinfan, although with it also under Hyoga, it could be Sinfan's. Who knows, it might also be boths.

In the ending scene with the pentagram, the colors of the other songs are visible, meaning that it's possible all of them are connected.

(I could go on for hours about the small loopholes that I think mean all the songs are connected in specific ways. Either way I know they're all from the same universe.)

With all their colors on it, it might mean they all have a demon of their own.

I'm still working slightly on the pentagram, I'll probably keep ya updated if I can find out what the rest of it says (:

If anyone can find the full version (preferably readable) of the pentagram, that'd be lovely (if it even exists)

(If you find more runes in "Bottom" or another Hiiragi song I'd be happy to see if I can translate it (: I'm not very good though, and I can't speak Japanese-)

English translation of Bottom used by: Tackmyn Y (I don't know where you are but you're a lifesaver)

Find any spelling errors, let me know! I'll see if I can fix 'em (:

If you read this far, what're you doing??

Have an absolutely amazing day!!! <3

[alittlefrenchtree]

Helloooo! Guess who’s back? The Dune notes! yaayyyyy!

ok, chill.

SPOILERS BOOK 2 : MUAD’DIB (Chapters 1-4)

Chapter 1:

I’m still struggling to get all the politic aspects and understand who’s on which side but that’s not what I’m focusing on right now. Once I’ve read the whole thing and had the whole picture, I’ll study all the details of this part of the story.

I loved this quote:

in the French translation, and thought it was beautiful to see Arrakis through Paul’s mind and eyes only to find out that the original quote said stuff like Cheddar-colored. Damn you, American people.

Chapter 2:

Bless you, Muad’Dib, your father and Princess Irulan. Might your words be heard loud and clear on every planet of every universe.

I love, love, love this chapter. This whole conversation between Hawat and the Fremen, the world building made through it and through the Fremen is really good. I don’t think the Fremen has a name because he’s exactly what he describing of his people. He’s only one to serve the whole clan.

Many interesting stuff about the conversation and the scene.

First, I wonder if the Mentat’s abilities can work on Fremens? This part seems to say that they can’t : "But still he did not know what this Fremen wanted and this rankled. Mentat training was supposed to give a man the power to see motives." Then here again : "He said worm. He was going to say something else. What? And what does he want of us?" It’s funny to see how Hawat’s powers seem to be limited after we saw part of what Jessica and Paul were able to do.

"You must make a water decision, friend."

is my favorite quote of the chapter. The whole chapter is built to make Hawat and the reader really understand how primordial the water is. Blood doesn’t exist in the Fremen’s mouth, life is all boiled down to water. They doesn’t seem to care about the Spice either. When he’s thinking in terms of currency, it’s not about the Spice or money, it’s still about water:

"You think we have the Byzantine corruption. You don’t know us. The Harkonnen have not water enough to buy the smallest child among us."

It’s one thing I find fascinating about sci-fi/fantasy writers who are creating whole new worlds in different universes. It’s not only about thinking about crazy new technologies or super powers or anything like this. It’s when they shift the whole logic because context is different and you see it in the smallest details, in ways of speaking, in turns of phrases. It’s where you find so much richness for a fandom. And get so easily immersed in the said new universe. Every time I'll get really thirsty in the future, I'll think about this chapter. And the water decision.

I’m guessing water is one of Dune’s real plot? Every stranger coming to Arrakis comes for the Spice, thinking it’s the goldmine of the planet, the way to conquer it and truly owns it. But it’s not and the Fremen are still the one owning the desert powers because they’re the only one seeing that Arrakis needs to be ruled by water and not by the Spice? I don’t know. But that’s where my guesses are heading at the moment.

About this,

I’m really curious about how they’re going to handle on screen the deep religious roots of a large part of the story. We all know how tricky it can be. Is it going to be tone down? Are we going to see people living in the desert worship a young white male? We’ll see.

Chapter 3:

It’s cute to see how, even if Paul sees himself as a some kind of monster or as something else and undefined, he’s still sensitive to what he sees with his powers of prescience. But it's difficult to get a grip on what he is exactly, and how he feels.

Ok-- wait a minute. Last time I’ve heard about Liet, it was supposed to be a local divinity and now… Liet is Kynes. Ok. If you say so. — does it mean there going to be some kind of competition between Liet and the Muad’Dib? About who has the biggest divine aura? About who’s supposed to lead?

Anyway, what Kynes says, it goes with what I mention earlier. About how all the different people who came on Arrakis have failed to make it a Paradise because they were all focused on the Spice instead of the water.

I love how convenient Paul and Jessica are as characters to introduce the descriptions of every room they step in. You can go wild on details and just be like that’s not me, the bene gesserit/mentat/whatever Paul is things are calling for all. the. details. I should do that. Only write characters who allow me to naturally waste 7 lines of words on the pattern of a wallpaper. Frank Herbert doesn’t do that, but I definitely would.

Again, it’ll be interesting to see how Tim is going to handle the Paul and Kynes’ confrontation/conversation. We’ve seen him touch on these kind of feelings and behavior with The King but Paul seems to require a lot more of everything. So I’m impatient to see.

And I’ve already leaked the quote but let's look at it once more time. Quickest way to prove Timmy is the right cast for Paul.

"In this moment he'd give his life for Paul, she thought. How do the Atreides accomplish this thing so quickly, so easily?"

Because that’s what Timmy does, right? Makes people ready to give their life for him.

Ok about Duncan… We’re back at it, right? He’s not dead until I’ve seen the body. And I didn’t see the body so, he’s not dead. I think? Paul’s abilities don’t seem to be 100% reliable (at least not yet) so even if he believes Duncan’s dead, he might not be. I certainly hope so. My boy Jason deserves more.

I still wonder how the power of prescience is working. Are the blind spots blind because Paul is living through them at the moment and can’t have knowledge of the immediate future OR would they have been blind even if he had looked in their direction long before?

I was also wondering if Paul was going to rely too much on the new dimension of his abilities and how long it was going to take until he realized he made that mistake. It was… quick but I guess it’s Paul, so it shouldn't be surprising.

And that fear litany ❤️ I could kill to write something as iconic and powerful. I could read it every day and still got the chills each time.

Chapter 4:

The Baron is like me, he needs to see bodies to believe in death. I’m delighted to have common ground with that creepy, disgusting asshole. Delighted. To be honest, I’m not that interested with the Baron himself. So far, he’s been nothing but clichés over clichés and really not the best ones. He’s the evil character so he's all the kinds of evil. Shocker. I usually like evil characters (very often more than I love "good" ones) but not him. Really not him. I hope it'll change but I’m afraid he’s too far gone and beyond redemption.

I’m very interested by what’s Hawat is going to become though. Will he turn his allegiance to the Baron? It kind of remind me of Teal’c in Stargate SG-1, but the other way around. The Baron opposes two things : Hawat’s loyalty and his admiration towards those who calculate without emotions. Based on what we know about Mentats and how the human part carried by the human body overpower the Mentat’s education and training, I’d say loyalty should win? And the part of me who is part Mentat agrees on the loyalty so, we’re all good. But it can be an interesting storyline, so I’m waiting for it.

What’s funny about this quote

is that he could very much be talking about Paul and still be right. Or the baby sister. Or Lady Jessica. All Harkonnens are waiting.

And what’s also funny is how The Baron thinks of Feyd-Rautha. In addition of being absolutely disgusting there are some similarities between what the Baron wants for Feyd and what Paul is meant to be/already is.

I wonder if Feyd is meant to become some kind of opposite alter-ego to Paul. A better, more subtle opposant than the Baron. Could be fun.

You know what? Every time I start this kind of post, I said to myself: I'm pretty sure I haven't that many notes this time, it should be quick. And then here we are again 🤷🏻‍♀️ See you next time! 🌖💛

[javertwenttoheaven]

And to follow my previous ask I'm surprised Quast got to the conclusion that Javert just stopped believing in God when he's derailment makes it very clear he's so overwhelmed by this new perspective on morality and the fact that his suicide is his "resignation to God", if you've only seen the musical I suppose it's a logical conclusion to get to but now I'm kinda disappointed by the idea that Quast might've not even read the brick.

Note: This is sort of "part two" of the previous ask I just answered, which is in response to my post before that. Maybe go read those two first!

To clarify, the last part of his direct quote was (the full line starting at 32:30 in the Behind the Red Curtain interview), "Suddenly, where before the stars had been his guide, suddenly he became aware of the abyss above him, so God doesn't exist." He specifically said that the idea about the stars and the abyss was in the book (again, I haven't read that far, so I don't know what it says exactly), but he added the part about God himself. (Of course, he also said the stars being Javert's guide was from the movie seconds earlier and then after that said it was from the book, so that sounds kind of contradictory anyway.)

I could be completely wrong about this because 1) I'm tired and 2) it's been awhile since I've checked, but I'm pretty sure Quast claims to have read the brick at least once, probably multiple times. I could be confusing that with the fact he's said he's read the Bible multiple times, but if he's read the Bible multiple times in preparation to play Javert, I'm sure he's read the brick at least once. Of course, he also claims that Les Miserables is longer than the Bible which is... correct, I guess, if you're referring to the average page count (he says about 250 pages, which I assume is the difference between the version of the Bible he read and whichever translation of Les Miserables he read), but the Bible has about 100,000 more words than Les Miserables..., but that's another conversation. Quast references the brick a lot when he talks about Javert and his time in Les Miserables, so he's at least read part of the brick (I'm listening to a particular interview right now for reference, and he says, "We all had to read the book," which implies he read the full thing, but I don't want to say anything else for certain until I can find a direct quote from him to back it up), and if he has claimed to have read the whole brick however many times, I'm sure he has because I'm not sure why he'd feel the need to lie about that.

I really don't understand how he'd come to the conclusion that God doesn't exist in the Les Mis universe because that's kind of... the complete opposite of the whole point of the story. Both the musical and the brick make that pretty clear, and Victor Hugo often references God directly in the brick, so I'm really not sure how that could be missed.

I really don't have a good conclusion to this one because I'm still just as confused as you are.

[ljf613]

So could you please explain Sessrin to me? I'm not in the fandom nor have I watched the show but from what little I've been told the antis (as usual) have completely mischaracterized the whole thing.

P. S. Can we please ban grooming from the fandom lexicon? It lacks semantic meaning other than age gap bad.

Well, it’s been a while since I last saw/read Inuyasha, and I’m super-behind on Yashahime, but I do love SessRin and am pretty bummed about the amount of hate this ship has been getting lately, so I’m going to do my best to share why I love these two so much. 

First off, anyone who uses the word ‘grooming’ either doesn’t know what that word means, or was not seeing the same story I was. The definition of grooming is “befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child, and sometimes the family, to lower the child's inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse.” This never happened. Sesshomaru did not look at this traumatiized child and go “hmm, how I can I best get her to trust me so that I can convince her to sleep with me” or whatever-- in fact, a large part of their dynamic is Rin choosing, over and over, to stand by him even as he is actively trying to push her away. (And considering that I suspect many of these antis are also Sesshomaru fans, the fact that they’re so quick to launch such a serious and out-of-character accusation at him is rather strange.) 

Here’s their story in a nutshell (and, again, I may be slightly misremembering details, it’s been a while): Rin, whose entire family was slaughtered by human bandits, comes across Sesshomaru in the woods and is initially terrified because, you know, demon. However, despite her fear, she realizes that he’s been injured and incapacitated, and does her best to try and help him (cleaning his wounds, getting him food and water, etc).  Sesshomaru, who, up until this point, has been a fairly typical demonic antagonist with your standard mindset of, “humans are stupid, selfish, and weak,” is understandably bewildered by this, and tries to scare her off. It doesn’t really work. This goes on for some time. (Several days? Weeks? IDEK.)  One day, after Rin returns to her village, a tribe of demons arrives and kills everyone. Rin tries to run back to the woods and escape, but the demons eventually catch and kill her. Sesshomaru finds her body, and, for some reason even he doesn’t understand, decides to use his magic sword that brings people back from the dead (yes he has one of those) to revive her. (This is significant because up until this point he has never even used the sword, as he hated the fact that he’d gotten the stupid healing sword while his little brother got the cool, killing sword.)  And Rin, who has no one left and no home to go back to, decides to travel with him.  (One of the interesting things here is that, despite the fact that she was killed by demons, Rin is actually more afraid of humans, because they’re the ones who murdered her family.) 

Their relationship throughout the course of the story is fascinating. At first glance, it might seem like Sesshomaru is always the one saving her, but she saves him too. Rin forced him to acknowledge that the world wasn’t black-and-white, that humans were complex, that just because he didn’t like someone or something didn’t mean it didn’t have a right to exist. Sesshomaru’s arc is subtle, but by the end of the story, he’s fighting side by side with the heroes-- something that would never have happened if he hadn’t met Rin. 

Now, the thing here is that, for most of the story Rin is eight years old. Their relationship is never, ever shown as sexual, but there’s clearly love there, and the implication the story ends with is that they will likely get together once Rin is older. I’ve heard antis say that they read the relationship as being more along the lines of “Sesshomaru ‘adopts’ Rin,” which explains a lot. However, I personally never saw it that way. They were partners-- just because Rin didn’t take out a sword and fight off anyone who tried to hurt Sesshomaru doesn’t mean she she was primarily on the receiving end of the relationship.  (In a story about battling evil, where nearly all of the characters are these awesome fighters, it’s pretty cool to see a character who is not a warrior, who just gives and loves and trusts and cares, and is never treated as lesser by either the characters or the narrative because of this. I really love Rin.) I think it’s a cultural thing-- people are used to the narrative of ‘coldhearted bachelor meets and adopts lovable scamp who reminds him how to love again’ and are primed to see it even in a story from an entirely different culture set five hundred years in the past. 

(Part of it is also about shipping wars-- many of the antis ship Sesshomaru with other characters, particularly Kagura, and would rather make the argument about morality versus just saying that they would prefer something a little different.) 

Here’s where I admit it gets a little bit sticky: How much of this is Rin just imprinting on Sesshomaru and using him as an excuse to avoid her trauma surrounding other humans?  And the narrative did a great job of resolving this dilemma. Near the end of the story, Rin leaves Sesshomaru. She goes to live among humans, to learn how to be human again, so that once she’s an adult, she has the agency to make an informed decision about what she really wants. 

There happens to be an audio-drama CD that was released in Japan sometime after the show ended, which is set just after the original story ends (when Rin is eleven). In it, Sesshomaru says something to Rin which is referred to by one of the other characters as a ‘proposal.’ Now, I don’t follow anti discourse, so I’m not sure if they know about it, but I can imagine they’d have a field day with that one. “Omigoodness, he proposed to an eleven year old, that’s so creepy.”  However, there’s some context involved. The word ‘proposal’ is used by one of the other characters-- who happens to have time-travelled from five hundred years later (that is, the present day). The whole plot of the CD starts when she complains to her husband/lover/whatever-their-relationship-status-is-supposed-to-be that he never actually proposed to her, and since he doesn’t know what a proposal is (because, again, culture gap), he thinks it’s some sort of monster she wants him to go fight for her before they can actually be married, and hilaraity ensues. She calls Sesshomaru’s words to Rin a proposal as in “see, that’s what a proposal is supposed to look like.” It has very little to do with SessRin in and of themselves. 

For reference, here’s what Sesshomaru actually said in this so-called ‘proposal’ (thanks to @inu-drama for the translation): 

“Rin, have you grown accustomed to life in the village?  No one is bullying you or anything?  Did you make a kimono out of the cloth I gave you the other day?  When you are troubled, or anxious, or sad, or any other time, feel free to call on me.  I will come to you immediately.  Even if we are far apart, if you call my name I will absolutely come flying to you.  If you cannot speak, you can whistle. Whistle through your fingers, if you like.  Distance is no object. Our hearts are tied together.  With the power of trust, there is nothing to fear.  Simply having that feeling should be enough to fill your heart.  That is why it is fine for things to remain as they are for now.  We have plenty of time.  You can examine your heart at your own pace.  Until then, take care of yourself.” 

(Is there something inherently creepy or predatory about that?) 

To me, SessRin is about love, in its purest form. It’s about believing in someone when the rest of the world is against them. It’s about choosing the person who chooses you. It’s about learning and growing and changing together. 

What’s that quote-- I think it was from Dawson’s Creek or something?  “What's a soulmate?” “It's uh... Well, it's like a best friend but more. It's the one person in the world that knows you better than anyone else. It's someone who makes you a better person. Actually, they don't make you a better person, you do that yourself - because they inspire you. A soulmate is someone who you carry with you forever. It's the one person who knew you and accepted you and believed in you before anyone else did, or when no one else would. And no matter what happens, you will always love them. Nothing can ever change that.” Yeah, that one. That’s what SessRin is about. 

[higadlongcake]

Non-Japanese tries to explain the lyrics of "Black Gold" by otetsu ft. Megurine Luka

Note: I am not a Japanese speaker, so I depend on translation engines, and comments are always welcome.

Black Gold is one of otetsu-P's iconic songs featuring Megurine Luka. It's also one of my fave J-pop songs to listen to, so I got curious on what the lyrics meant...

TL;DR I think the song talks about a breakup, in simplest words. But it is not one that ended because of infidelity.

So first off, I'm checking the PVs if they could have highlighted other elements of the song. The original PV by meola is more of a still, exhibiting the sheen of gold, contrasting on a dark background. Meanwhile, Project DIVA's game video features Luka in a railway station, with black-gold motifs.

Down to the lyrics, I looked up one at Vocaloid Lyrics by user @vaffisuco.

On Vaffisuco's, there are some notes, possibly adding more context to the intended message:

1. Not quite sure what the little 'dot' means between 犠牲 and 代償。Here I just assumed these two were connected to one another grammatically and in context. 2. Unsure if the その覚悟 part connects with the next sentence cluster, and can't tell if the intonation is necessarily going down to indicate the end of a sentence. I decided to translate these sentences as such as to avoid a very lengthy English explanation. 3. Here I assume that the singer is verifying her existence/her failed relationship. She grasps the 'love' and the Black gold ring in order to leave her 'mark'. May possibly be referring to the existence of her ex, but I decided to translate this portion in first person.

Those notes aside, comparing it to DeepL and Google Translate, the human and engine translations mostly have the same translation. For comparison on engine translations, I merged lines per phrase, usually into ones or two whole lines. There is also one line-by-line at DeepL, as the line breaks sort of bring a different context, though still similar.

Altogether, the translations at the first verses present a confusing group of lines.

I was asked to decide which way to go, and I lied. The person who told me to go right went left. (from DeepL, merged lines)

As someone who also speaks Tagalog, I might see that "going left" can translate to "pangangaliwa" or a connotation of adultery/cheating. However, I am not sure if this is applicable in Japanese too. So I thought that it implies more of a backsliding, or a reversal of what was once promised.

To be able to breathe / So that I can live / Having to put it into words (from DeepL, line-by-line)

To me this implies that there had been an end of a connection in good terms, that ironically not staying true (lying) to one's initial words would mean being true to the next.

It must have been hard for you to put it into words, but you were still smiling, covered in scars. (from DeepL, merged lines)

There is a slight difference on translated syntax to different engines, but it is pretty consistent with all three presented translations here. However, for the next line, both line-by-line DeepL and merged lines at Google Translate show the same to who is expressing laughter, but differ to who apparently got the injuries:

You're covered in scars/ I was smiling (from DeepL, line-by-line)

It would have been painful to put it into words. I was laughing with all the scratches. (from Google Translate, merged lines)

And so is for Vaffisuco's and merged lines at DeepL, saying it's the other party that did so:

As I became covered in wounds / You laughed. (Vaffisuco's Vocaloid Lyrics translation)

It must have been hard for you to put it into words, but you were still smiling, covered in scars. (from DeepL, merged lines)

I am not sure which among these translations fit the producer's intended message. Perhaps for one, it is open to interpretation. But I also think that the laugh can connote a "hiding the pain" (no reference intended), or it is more of a relief to one that broke the bond, that it had to be a relief for both.

The chorus translations are very similar. Vaffisuco's translation brings an imagery of, likely a lost possibility, a path that with this became a dead end.

Scared of the things that could separate us, / I averted my gaze and ran away / I stop in my tracks, my vision flickering / I am not prepared to be, or repay the victim* (Vaffisuco's Vocaloid Lyrics translation) *The words translated were "犠牲" (sacrifice) and "代償" (compensation). Per the note, the translator "assumed these two were connected to one another grammatically and in context."

Vaffisuco's translation strikes me that it was a shock for the person, as if they were caught off-guard. At least as how I see it, the persona talks about how difficult something was to let go, and consequently "repay" the compensation that for one, will mend things altogether. I reckon a line confirms it, that they still have a significant attachment despite the breaking away:

I'm so, so scared of being separated, / I just want to be by your side (Vaffisuco's Vocaloid Lyrics translation)

I'm afraid of being separated from you. I'm afraid.　 I wanted to be there. (from DeepL, merged lines)

Where Vaffisuco's (and another translation at LyricsTranslate) repeats with "or repay the victim", the engine translations seemed to show slight differences:

Stopping, hiding in plain sight The sacrifice, the price, I'm not prepared for [it] (from DeepL, line-by-line)

Stopping, sacrificing and compensating to appear and disappear (from Google Translate, merged lines)

The words may have resulted from completely different ways of extracting context from syntax, so here we are. But even so, the connotations share something in common. "To appear and disappear" presents itself in a way that there could be a sacrifice to begin with, to compensate in keeping, and the "stopping" in "[to] disappear". That's how I can interpret what I got from Google Translate. But for what DeepL showed, it could be reiterating the notion of not being able to accept for whatever had to be lost and "sacrificed".

The bridge builds up with lyrics that give a sense of "spiralling down". It likely, vaguely if anything, references fate being cruel.

So, what is the 'truth'? / Is it cold, hard metal? / Look, look at me walking! / Look, look at me walking! / So who was the one that made the decision? / Just where is our God? / Ah, how unfulfilling! (Vaffisuco's Vocaloid Lyrics translation)

What's the truth, what's cold metal? Look at me, I'm looking at you, I'm walking backwards, When did God decide? I don't know where God is, I can't fill it, I can't fill it. (from DeepL, merged lines) *Without the rest of the lines, "埋まらない　埋まらない" becomes "I can't bury it I can't bury it"

I'm not sure what the "cold metal" is about, but a quick Google search of "冷たい金属だとか" showed this (and another random translation):

Could it mean that that the brink of sincerity becomes no more than gold, but that of silver? Could it be referencing the conductivity of silver? Or maybe it just generally refers to metal left in a cool temperature, that literally feels hard and cold to touch?

And down to the last two choruses... the lines changed, going to the song's conclusion.

Separating from you, I go far, far away / To the people who went left / I'll leave your last act of kindness right here / So it won't lose it's brilliance (Vaffisuco's Vocaloid Lyrics translation)

To the one who went away, far away, to the left The last kindness you gave me, I'll leave it here so it doesn't fade away (from DeepL, merged lines)

Both DeepL and Google Translate shared very similar results. As for this, it bears acknowledgement on the other party, possibly memorializing the pleasant memories to be left behind.

What drives people apart / is that resolve for victims and their compensation I grasped the love dangling from my neck / and a black gold ring / So my footprints won't disappear (Vaffisuco's Vocaloid Lyrics translation) *Quoting the translator: "Here I assume that the singer is verifying her existence/her failed relationship. She grasps the 'love' and the Black gold ring in order to leave her 'mark'. May possibly be referring to the existence of her ex, but I decided to translate this portion in first person."

One of Vaffisuco's notes imply for the second last chorus that in times of trouble, people look for compensation and will do anything for it. It might try to say that at some point, vengeance is what pushes a person to act upon something; sometimes, this can be seen as closures, closing things. This is such that they believe that removing something from their live will make it easier, that it is a resolution on their part. (There definitely are more connotations that only human translators and native speakers can catch!)

To be separated from you The sacrifice, the price, the determination With [the] love around my neck and the black gold ring around my neck I'm trying to keep my footprints (from DeepL, line-by-line)

For the last chorus, I agree with Vaffisuco's note, seconding that the song is about a process of separation, when honesty is still honesty, and the difficulty of acceptance for one end (the persona). As for whose footprints are being kept, if it is decided that it was the persona's footprints, the persona wants to be remembered by one who left her. Otherwise, the persona wants to remember the other half, implied by the footprints.

As for the title "Black Gold", it can be interpreted in many ways. For English speakers, the phrase may be slang for "petroleum" as this resource in deposits had made certain countries rich by importation. But in jewelries, "black gold" refers to processed gold so its surface exhibits a black color.

Overall, the song shows itself as mysterious and poetic (especially that I am no Japanese speaker) with how the words are translated, and the implications I get by looking at how the syntax is processed for a language I am a native speaker of.

[smartzelda]

Hey, so I'm gonna elaborate on this quote by Hashimoto. Turns out every game from bbs to the end of kh3 limit cut has to do with exactly what he says right there about Sora an Riku. Stay with me on this

Yeah, @xionshadow @minwuwhite @salted-coffee-beans @lovingthatgayshit and everyone else, I essayed again. Keep in mind there aren't quotes in this, it's more of a ramble of events and such

BBS: Riku and Sora are together being best friends and have a focus due to the keyblade, light, Terra and Aqua. Kairi is by her self and meets aqua. Yeah Aqua puts a spell on her necklace that ultimately leads her to Riku and Sora, but at this point in time it's unknown to them who the person to protect Kairi would be. Also, evidence is always thrown in here that Aqua doing that is so//*ai cause it leads Kairi to Sora, but really the hope is she leads to the keyblade weilder (yknow, on xehanort's end) who is technically Riku before kh1 events, and Aqua makes no romantic mention. It's just supposed to be someone with a strong enough light to protect her, not HER protector as in love or something or as in Sora or Riku being her prince.

Kh1: Sora and Riku have friendship problems and Riku has some jealousy. At the end they close the door, Riku's sad over realizing bad stuff he did, Sora has flashbacks to him and Riku spending time together and promises to go get him and come back with him so the 3 friends can spend time together. Kairi has only a few moments, including her joint saving Sora as of kh3 knowledge, her wanting to share a paopu too, and just her giving Sora the lucky charm and knowing that he'll return it. There's also Riku trying to find Kairi. Arguably, this game is the most we get of 3 friends, they're a trio, even on Sora's end. Sora goes through the worlds searching for both of his friends. But even then, Kairi isn't there 80% of the game. The friendship end is covered, but besides those moments where Sora has Kairi visions of her talking to him, he doesn't reference her. On the other hand, he meets Riku more than once, and we get to see Riku's fears evolve and his fear of replacement. We get Sora accepting him almost the whole time and Riku siding with darkness. We get moments like the moment where Sora is falling and he literally remembers Riku going "Giving up already? Sora, I thought you were stronger than that" and he believes after that and is able to fly with that pixie dust. He's the only one Sora has those flashbacks of the past with in the game like that. Sora and Riku get a scene with working together on the door while Sora and Kairi get separated and only Sora's work goes into everything, namely that he's gonna go get Riku while Kairi waits (not like she has a choice, but it stands). Even when it's about Sora and Kairi it's about just friendship or Riku. That kh1 scene where they get separated is an attributed so//*ai scene that people see as romantic, but it contains Sora's desire for them all to be friends and to find Riku. On the other hand with Riku, it's about Riku. Riku and Sora close the door? Flashbacks specifically about him and Riku till the last flashback, but even then it's Sora and Riku running together while Kairi's in the back running behind them. Sora and Riku's interactions and what's going on with their friendship are definitely focused on while Kairi is a doll most the game and doesn't get that kind of focus

CoM: About going to find Riku and Mickey. Evidence at the beginning that Sora really wishes to find Riku. He's distracted by Naminé, but whenever he finally gets to see "Riku" it's interraction that causes Sora to think afterwards about his relationship with Riku and what he could've done (more seen in the novel). If that huge analysis is correct, a lot leads to Riku, including parallels, but it's covered up by Kairi. Even when all Sora's memories of Kairi are replaced with Naminé, Sora's not in love with her until she uses the meteor shower scene, which would be a Sora and Riku memory. Before she uses it, Naminé is essentially at Kairi's current level of "I need to save her cause she's my friend". He only forgets Riku because of Naminé's memory meddling detracting from his purpose and making him forget everything he came to do and everyone except her. Kairi is merely mentioned by Naminé and Sora and everyone else. Even afer Sora knows about the Naminé and the repliku truth of him being not exactly Riku, he still does his actions for Naminé cause his heart still feels the impact of the fake memories, and even though Repliku's fake, Sora treats him similarly as Naminé, probably because of what's true in his heart. In the novels, Sora thinks about Kairi momentarily if she's brought up and when he looks at the lucky charm. Even in the lucky charm case, in the novel, it reminds him of Kairi cause she gave it to him, but also his promise to bring Riku back and of all his friends. It's only in Naminé's case with all the meddling that Sora looks at it and thinks of Naminé and his promise to protect her. Kairi isn't present and the game has no development with Sora and her or real reference to their relationship. On Riku's side, the novels have him mostly think about Sora out of the two, only really mentioning Kairi at the beginning when he decides he wants to say sorry to Sora and Kairi and when he meets Naminé. In the novel, for example, Riku goes to destiny islands of his memories and thinks about times with Sora when they rolled around on the sand. There's a focus on how Riku feels about the darkness and how that translates with his fears relating to Sora and his friends. He makes a promise with Naminé that she'll watch over Sora, and he walks the road to dawn for his redemption and to be able to face Sora and everyone.

Days: Similar to BBS, this one has main character focus on a different cast, but again Sora, Riku, and their relationship is still involved. Riku gets involved with Xion. In the novel, he states that he's willing to help her and not lie to her mostly because she's a part of Sora and is similar in personality, while Kairi factors in as appearance familiarity. In the novel, Riku has clear monologues about how he wanted to reign in his darkness before Sora woke up, and before going to fight Roxas how he's prepared to use his darkness to win at all costs, all for Sora. There's Xion and Roxas having memory visions. Xion awakes from one yelling "Sora". Roxas has a bunch of visions including Riku and Riku lines where he confuses Riku with Xion and wakes up yelling "Riku". There's the focus on how Riku gives up his body to win against Roxas and get Sora back. Then he has Mickey promise not to tell Sora what happened to him. Again, Kairi only is involved in mere mention and memories, and while Sora is too, he's more consistently mentioned. Riku also gets his focus on his motivations relating to Sora and shows up. Riku is there amd we are presented what's going on with him and Sora

Kh2: This one has a lot of obvious. One of Sora's main goals and focuses is to find Riku and bring him back. Along the journey, we also have Riku alienating himself from Sora to protect him while also stalking/leading him to make sure he's okay. There's the big reunion scene moment, and at the end Sora and Riku fight multiple battles together. In the RoD they have a heart to heart, and even though Sora's motivation was to bring Riku back so they and Kairi could be together again no matter what, he resolves to stay in the RoD with Riku for eternity instead without fight or protest, even in the novel deciding that if he was stuck here with anyone, he's glad it's Riku. Again, we see their relationship, how they work together, how they feel about each other. As for Kairi, as usual she is barely present. She is mostly left up to the few times she is mentioned and Sora rarely talks about her. Even with the begging scene and his feelings, we can get that it's a product of Naminé's meddling and not anything to do with him actually developing those feelings. Even Kairi herself only resolves to find Sora, and during the reunion scene, we learn their relationship is iffy due to time, change, and no interaction. After the reunion, Kairi's only Sora relationship moments are when they talk to Naminé and Roxas, which has nothing to do with how Sora and Kairi feel about each other, and when Sora returns the lucky charm. Except the lucky charm thing was just symbolic of Sora's promise to bring Riku back and them all be together again. It didn't have much to do with his relationship with Kairi other than she gave it to him and he remembers that when looking at it too. So again, we don't get much or really anything with Kairi and Sora's development, but we get plenty with Riku and Sora and how their motivations and interactions and everything relate to each other and their motivations and relationship

Recoded: Do I even need to say much? Kairi is again only in mention. There's a whole section where data Riku's about to be overtaken by bugs and Sora resolves to go alone, dive into him, and save him. He travels with Riku and they have a lot of moments and we again get to see (even before when Riku's in disguise and just out of it) about how they feel about their relationship and how they must act with the other in their mind. There's even that flashback of a Riku memory where Kairi is there, but Riku instead focuses on the moon and reaches for it, the moon believed to symbolize Sora.

Dream Drop Distance: Again, need I say anything? This game is about them relationship wise. They think about each other, they believe in each other and have talks with other characters about how they're always connected. There's a whole scene about how their hearts are in tune. In the novel, Riku has a monologue about how light and darkness they compliment each other. We get to see sorta how they feel about the other and trust each other. We again get Riku's motivation to protect Sora and his evolution to finding out that their rivalry is not darkness, but what pushed them to be stronger together and still does. There's so much of them and their relationship. On the other hand, Kairi shows up 4 times in the whole game, only 3 referring to Sora. She isn't even really mentioned. 1 of those 3 is a flashback to Kairi flying through him in kh1, another is just Kairi appearing behind Sora with all the rest of the guardians of light, and a 3rd is just Sora's dream with Riku and Kairi walking away from him. There is really nothing with Kairi and her relationship with anyone here

0.2: There's not much, but even with Riku and Kairi standing there, the only mention between them and Sora is basically how Sora's rubbed off on Riku and how Riku's more like Sora, then Riku talking about how he wants to be more like Sora. So again, more of their relationship focus

Kh3: During Sora's journey section, there is like no mention of Kairi, but he thinks about Riku and mentions Riku and talks to Riku on the gummiphone. We see them meet in the tower and Riku reassures him that he can do it. We see this little of their relationship and the little development. There's the RoD thing where Sora arguably uses the power of waking to get to Riku without having KKD and the gayblade. There's these looks they give where they understand each other without speaking. Even with the paopu scene, it starts out with Sora focusing on Riku. This is also the first point we see Sora trying to do a relationship fix with Kairi. Sora sheilding Kairi doesn't amount to or develop anything. But we get Riku's sacrifice, where by now he's realized that he loves Sora and he tells Sora he believes in him as he goes to sacrifice. It has a bigger focus than Sora's shield of Kairi and is more dramatic. Riku tries to prove to Sora that he is strong on his own. There's Riku comforting Sora and them being the only one left. There's the deliberation of animation in Riku reaching out to Sora and dropping it, only to get up, tell Sora he believes in him and sacrifice. In the Riku keyblade graveyard battle, we get moments of Sora swooping in to protect Riku and them going to fight together, where as in the rest Sora popped in to help or like in Mickey's case where he just gets captured. We get to see their teamwork once again. There's Riku's reaction of being angry after Kairi being "killed" only after Sora gets smad. Riku's heart is the first to reach Sora in kingdom hearts, and Riku supports his end decision and believes in him. All the Sora with Kairi stuff is mention, him fixing his relationship with her, or him going to bring him back and have all his friends safe. I didn't even recognize the evidence of Riku being the light and saving Riku first, even the section of saving Riku having more cutscenes and Sora talk/analysis than the rest of the scenes Sora saves his friends

Remind: All of the Sora and Kairi stuff again is just Sora trying to find her and have all his friends safe and fix his relationship with her. This one is more about Kairi and Sora's relationship, and even then there's a focus on Sora and Riku's relationship. There's still a bunch of the same things as base kh3, but we get more moments of Riku saying to trust or believe in Sora, there's Riku recognizing Sora there when Sora hits him with light when no one else does, even softly saying Sora's name aloud. There's their heartstations side by side and Sora being able to connect to him from inside kingdom hearts. There's another shot when Sora gets Kairi's last heart piece where Riku's heart is the brightest and again reaches Sora first. We still get their relationship and how they feel about each other despite this section not being directly about them, just like bbs, days, and 0.2.

Limit cut: We get big focus here. We see Riku sad over Sora. We learn that he is at least a key to saving him. Riku's dreaming about looking for Sora exactly where he is. We learn Riku is gonna be important. On Kairi's side, she's mentioned again and relegates herself to doll status for a whole year. She can see the final world, but neither she nor the scientists looking in her heart or anyone else looking found Sora or something related, while Riku's dreams hold the or a key and possibly a clue. Also, Yozora, the kh3 Riku lookalike (described by even Sora, Donald, and Goofy) looking for Sora who may just be Sora, but may also refer to him looking for the nameless star who may be his Sora (it's kinda hard to know for now).

In every game, consistently, Sora and Riku's relationship and development is a focus, even if it's not the center or the most important thing

Thanks for dealing with my essay ramble