#Understanding karma

[epickiya722]

I don't expect anyone to agree with me and before anyone get on my case, I am a Sukuna fan so I'm not saying this as a "hater".

And as such, I'll say this.

I know folks are already going "his death is underwhelming" (mind you the actual chapter isn't even out yet) and honestly?

I see nothing wrong with that. Yes, I agree it was underwhelming.

But it's fitting.

Ryomen Sukuna had done nothing but be cruel to almost everyone (excluding Uraume here). He's arrogant, selfish, a malevolent man who lived as he pleased and didn't see value in one's life.

He deserved to have been taken out like that and fade away while Yuji, the one person he hated the most and made his life hell, looked down on him. He deserved an underwhelming, pathetic end while the one person he hated the most was the only one around to see him off to his death.

Wasuke told Yuji to not die alone and be surrounded by others just before he died and maybe in the future, Yuji gets to do that.

But Sukuna? He died alone with only one person who held nothing but pity for him.

You know what, it mirrors Wasuke's death, thinking about it.

Both Sukuna and Wasuke died with just Yuji there. In the end, their final departure is them turning into ash. Wasuke goes out peacefully as he should because he may have been an old grumpy man, he still loved his grandson and raised him with everything he could.

Sukuna himself is a bit of a grump, a little, and an old man himself (over 1000+ years old). However, unlike Wasuke, Sukuna didn't care for Yuji in the slightest. He's the boy's uncle (via soul reincarnated through Jin) and here he is treating Yuji the way that he does. In the end, he doesn't go out peacefully and Yuji still shows him some bit of kindness by giving him one more chance even as Sukuna rages at him.

(Overall, it reminded me of another certain villain's death in a manga that also had an announcement of ending in five chapters recently that is about heroes and villains. Hm... what manga was that again?)

[its-rat-time-babey]

“The Artificer’s campaign has little impact on the overall story” bitch I cannot stress how much of an impact the Artificer had on the entire world. You just need to pay attention to some things.

By the time of the Artificer, Scavengers are basically in the middle of a massive golden age. They have a Chieftain (with a mark of communication (maybe Five Pebbles gave them the mark and citizen ID drone and tried to use them for something but they rebelled and found Metropolis)) with armour made from Red Centipede Scales, they have a permanent home in metropolis above the rain, they figured out how to harvest electrical scrap and broken down Rarefaction Cells from the ruins of Looks To The Moon and pieces of Five Pebbles to make electric spears and Singularity Bombs, they even have specially trained Elite Scavengers, which did exist before in the time of the Spearmaster but it’s still worth bringing them up.

Overall, Scavengers are at a golden age of invention and life in general.

And then they anger the Artificer, who slaughters countless Scavengers, kills their Chieftain and drives them out of Metropolis, locking the gate behind them.

After that, a new Chieftain is never made, armour like the chieftain once wore is never made again, Scavengers suffer a massive population loss, they can’t enter Metropolis without a Citizen ID Drone and Elite Scavengers slowly disappear as the methods used to teach them and the knowledge of how to scavenge and create electric spears and singularity bombs is lost, with the last Elite Scavengers being seen in the Hunter’s campaign, which happens next in the timeline. In other words, the Artificer literally sent Scavengers into a dark age.

It takes until the time of the SAINT for Scavengers to show real signs of recovery, now appearing in larger numbers than before. And even THEN Scavengers never do anything like they did during the time of the Artificer. The Artificer plunged Scavengers into a dark age for countless years, and they STILL haven’t recovered.

And that’s not all. According to the wiki, Scavengers are afraid of Slugpups, most likely because they remember how the last time they killed one they were hit by the full force of an angry explosive lobbing goddess of destruction that slaughtered countless members of their kind. They are afraid of Slugpups in all campaigns, even the Saint’s. So even by the time of the Saint Scavengers know not to mess with Slugpups, presumably because the last time they did so is a legend among Scavengers by that point in time.

Hell, the Artificer’s existence even explains something about the Hunter. The reason that the Hunter starts with a negative reputation among Scavengers is because they look like the fucking Artificer. Scavengers look at the Hunter and see the goddess of vengeance and destruction that they’ve only ever heard of from stories.

Both of them have red fur and a scar on one eye, and will the time gap between campaigns, there’s a good chance that only a few Scavengers that saw the Artificer in person are even alive by that point in time (without even taking into account how the Artificer murdered so many Scavengers that it’s probably rare that a Scavenger saw them and lived to tell the tale), meaning that the Artificer is probably told about in Scavenger stories and her appearance would therefore differ, leaving the most obvious details like the scar on one eye and red fur.

[periwinkla]

Did I add further ridiculousness? .... Yes.

[box-dwelling]

Fuck man I knew aai 1-4 had MVK being dismissive and abusive to the siblings but fuck man.

Actively saying that attending his 13 year old daughters courtroom debut isn't a priority for him

Then this exchange which is prompted by nothing beyond Miles asking to do his job even using the Von Karma framing of finding perfection only for Manfred to just completely shut him down and verbally abuse him

Miles then being completely unable to respond in shame. Even though this is God damn Bratworth were talking about and in the last scene he was saying this

And then Fran coming in to desperately try and deflect her father ire to protect him

Then when she finally does convince him to let them investigate he says this

Basically actively admitting to anyone with the context we have now that he's only making Miles a procecutor to sully Gregory's legacy.

Then Miles thanking her because he saw her defelcting Manfreds abuse for him.

Just absolutely heart breaking. It really shows the dynamic at play here perfectly. He doesn't care about Franziska. He is not putting this energy into her career and only putting it into Miles' because he is using it as an avenue to abuse and control him and further enact his revenge on Gregory. And she doesn't understand why. She doesn't get why Miles gets this attention and she doesn't. But she already knows that she has to deflect his attention to protect Miles. And Miles doesn't understand how he's doing everything he can to do the right thing but is still his target. Its such a genuinely interesting dynamic where both of them think the other is the favourite. Miles thinks it Fran because he's not constantly verbally abusing her and Fran thinks it's Miles because he actually bothers to give him the time of day and is properly mentoring him. She's 13 man. She's about to become a prosecutor at 13 and he still doesn't care about her in the slightest.

Ugh Von Karma siblings, my heart

[nyx-xp]

ok look no matter what, i think ill always be obsessed with dl-6. i know, its kinda overused at this point, but the whole thing is so amazing

like,, miles obviously didn’t know he was innocent, but gregory didnt either. when they channeled him he said it was the bailiff (forgot his name srry) even though there was no proof, because he wanted to protect his son. and the result of a child convinced he is guilty for the death of his dad, who even after death tried to find a way to reassure him he was innocent??? just- the concept of this relationship is fascinating, and honestly has so much potential.

and then you add von karma, and the fact he was not only the murderer of the father but the adopter of the son??? just makes everything gets better (worse)

dl-6 will forever live in my head and in my heart bcs the overwhelming guilt at least two of the three must have felt!! (depends on your headcannons about manfred ofc, maybe he was slightly guilty or smth) the psychological impact and the aftermath of it? amazing. maybe its not perfectly written, nothing is, but its fascinating and makes me want to dissect all three’s brains to see the effects this would have caused.

[in-tenebris-et-in-solitudine]

[pasta-yy]

high effort von karma sibling doodles!!!

“You are nearly adequate at posing for pictures, little brother.”

“Thank you, Franziska.”

“…You’re welcome.”

[starboundsingularities]

hi i'm thinking about the inherently incredibly tragic concept of miles and franziska both being jealous of each other in regards to their circumstances regarding, relationship with, and treatment from von karma during their childhoods. franziska being jealous of miles getting all the attention. miles being jealous of franziska being able to avoid von karma and even being able to, should it come to that, momentarily slip up and have it go relatively unnoticed provided she corrects it quickly enough. difficult to explain. they're both miserable and they both think being in the other's situation could fix them (it could not)

[maglorthecrab]

sillies!!

[lawyerkin]

do u think. franziska is proud of miles. for all he's achieved. do you think she secretly keeps newspaper clipping and pictures of them and things that remind her of miles and smiles to herself in her room when no one's looking. do you guys think she ever wishes she could express how much he means to her. that when she calls him "little brother" is not as much in a demeaning way but actually more of a "i want to guide you through life and see you grow and change and get better and achieve amazing things and i specifically want to help you get all you've ever dreamed of" . or am i projecting ?

[landfilloftrash]

I'm so glad I've found an artist who loves and draws ShinGou and also read "Turnabout Ennemies" (happy sounds) One of my favourite part with this two was when they took cover during Blaise's breakdown - I laughed so hard imagining their faces! XD

Welcome welcome!! Yes I love weird old man ships, they are incredibly important to me-- and "Turnabout Enemies" was indeed a ton of fun!!

Silly old men fight to keep Miles safe; a segment from that very serious saga

[rewritingcanon]

if by some great miracle scorbus becomes a popular ship at one point in the future, i’m gonna become an elitist i swear

[drink-tang-gang]

you know what…. I think Bugs would absolutely loathe Tweety, and Tweety wouldn’t give two seeds what Bugs thinks of him. Thing is no one else knows this.

this secret one sided hate purely comes from the fact that Tweety has never lost in all his appearances, hardly breaks from being cute and quip-y, and you’d think that shared leverage over their foes would bring bugs and Tweety together but nah, Bugs HATES how truly honestly effortless it is for Tweety and (he’ll never ever say it) he finds his “cuteness” a bit much. Ah, ok I said no one else would know this, but tbh, Daffy knows. Only because Bugs drunkenly mentioned it at random one night “so what, all h-hic he does is sit there and look cute? Geez, some actor. where’s the range? I can be cute too. I can do that and more. Sells more merch across seas my hiney, grumble grumble”

and Daffy’s like “Gosh. hatin’ a guy who has it all without trying. Can’t imagine that. funny that.”

[starpros-sunshine]

Eichi gives away the mask so easily because it was never meant to be an "engagement ring" like you delulu wataeis imagined it to be lmao. It was wataru saying that he will continue playing tsumugi clown role in fine and won't leave it for hokuto's mother troupe after graduation. Do you dumb fucks even read the stories? Eichi didn't even understand tf that mask meant when wataru gave it to him and wataru referenced fucking tsumugi in his "proporsal". I dunno why the f you think it's ok to lie about "! EnDiNG wItH wAtAeI EnGaGeMEnT" when the chapter it happened wasn't even close to the end of ep:link. Cope

PS: how do you live with the fact that Eichi clearly admitted to never being in love in his life and Wataru said that even though Eichi likes him, he still can easily discard him for the sake of his objectives?

I love you anon thank you for giving me a nice reason to ramble again beautiful ask 10/10 I'm sorry this is probably not how you hoped this would go but this is such a funny block of text delightful really thank you for the enrichment please marry me

But okay yes now to get down to the actual ask just to disclaim I am solely relying on translations seeing as I do not speak japanese well enough to understant the original text so if anyone has anything to add to this or to correct me on please feel free to do so.

Now to get started I'm not sure if one could say Eichi gave away the mask "So easily" seeing as he claimed that it was "a hard choice to make"? Which, as one might know, implies unease with an idea and pondering and debating and a general amount of thinking behind a decision so? I know this isn't really the main focus of this ask but I'm just a tad miffed with the semantics of it is all. And in either case giving the mask back to Wataru while expecting it back still shows a certain degree of trust in their relationship it wouldn't have been such a big deal for him (as it apparently was) if the mask didn't have a lot of sentimental value to him (the both of them really if we look at the whole exchange).

Now to the claim that the mask was "only" Watarus promise to stay with fine and "continue playing Tsumugis clown role". This is not entirely incorrect. Regarding the acting troupe and staying with fine bit at least.

I'm assuming this bit in EP:Link Deadend/7 is what you are referencing, and I see where you're coming from. But the bluebird line

from literally three dialogue lines further down, which references this line of dialogue (notorious Eichi line everyone should be familiar with)

kind of somewhat really recontextualises that? Because you see this is a reference to a fairytale about a pair of siblings and they get sent out by a nice fairy to find the bluebird of happiness for her sad daughter to make her happy again so they both go on an adventure and travel far and search and search but they can not find the bluebird of happiness and then when they return home again, disappointed because they couldn't find the blue bird, they realise only one night has actually passed and the journey was probably just a dream. But then their eyes fall upon their pet dove in it's cage which appears blue all of a sudden and so they gift it to the fairies sad daughter which becomes happy again and sets the bird free. The real bluebird of happiness is a dove. At least in the version of the story I'm familiar with but I mean everyone sees the symbolism right? It's. very hard to miss.

And then dropping this?

I'm not sure how to say this properly but in the overall context this makes it pretty clear that Tsumugi has nothing to do with this anymore this is Fully between Wataru and Eichi. And I am the last person to dismiss Tsumugis significance in the course of Wataeis relationship as characters I will be among the first to protest when someone dismisses the importance of Tsumugis and Eichis relationship in favour of some image they have of Wataei but he has nothing to do with this one.

Yes Tsumugi gets namedropped but - again - I don't really see how that would lessen the sentiment Wataru is triying to convey here? Because. Yes. Why wouldn't he mention Tsumugi?

The entire conversation pretty much boils down to "Yes I was initially only in this because I thought I could replace Tsumugis role in your life and then I wanted to leave but we have spent so much time together that I realised that that is definitely not working out because I really do love you. I love you as a teammate; I love you as a friend; I love you as a person and I am very angry at myself for not managing to get that into your head. So please allow me to stay with you for as long as you'll have me." And then also Eichi not understanding because he has the emotional self awareness of a very emotionally unaware loaf of bread and also because he hates himself that is a very big thing about his character huge part of his character arc actually that he. you know? Hates himself? And feels guitly for his actions during the war? And doesn't think he deserves love and companionship? Which is why Wataru wanting to stay with him for him and not for some twisted form of revenge is such an alien concept to him? Because he is projecting his insecurities onto Wataru? As one is wont to do when they hate themself? "EiChi Didn'T eVen UnDErStanD WhAt tf ThAT Mask MEAnt" Yeah. That's. That's the point? So he can think about it and come to that conclusion himself which works as a keymoment in his characters journey from hating life and himself to enjoying being alive and wanting to live on because of the people he's surrounded with? He literally explains why he didn't immediately understand the mask during the EP:Link Epilogue/4

And to get back to the "I dunno why the f you think it's ok to lie about "! EnDiNG wItH wAtAeI EnGaGeMEnT" about which I have two things to say:

"Lying" implies further intent and an effort. Neither of which exist in this case.

He literally went down on one knee while making a big proclamation of offering himself to Eichi with a very personal item that works as a symbol for their commitment to each other on a starlit rooftop. The comparison writes itself.

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke

And then I expected there to be a proper reason given and instead you proceed to follow that up with "when the chapter it happened wasn't even close to the end of ep:link". I know the shame is on me for expecting something sensical from an ask which has been near constant in it's lack of correct statements but such is human nature I suppose. And you are not wrong. Deadend/7 isn't very close to the end of EP:Link. That is true.

But do you know what Is very close to the end of EP:Link? The Epilogue Chapters 3-5.

Do you know what the content of those chapters is? I do. Very well actually :)

(Eichi literally explains why he didn't get it)

So if this answers your "Do you dumb fucks even read the stories?" questions, Yes. And I think I'm a lot better at it than you. So I'd say I'm coping quite well over here :p

PS: Regarding your PS, I take the "I've never been in love before so I wouldn't know" comment with a lot of humour actually as an aroace person who's emotional self awareness also ends at "good" and "Not good" I think it's very funny all things considered especially because he mentioned the loving Wataru thing several times before that and I'm generally of the belief that actions speak louder than words and also am in a happy long term relationship with the concept of "Reading Subtext". So please excuse me for not breaking down in tears everytime someone reminds me of that one singuar line of text in one of my favourite all time enstars stories that came out three years ago which also brought us the single best card set in the entire game

as well as absolute banger dialogue such as

Among others <33

And there are soooooo many other examples of wataei dialogue that simply make me swoon but I have already had to take out so many of the one's I wish I could put here so this wouldn't get "Do you love the colour of the sky" long

And also, regarding your "Wataru said that even though Eichi likes him, he still can easily discard him for the sake of his objectives" I'll just say that no he absolutely could not. I mean he'd say that and if pull comes to shove and he has no other option then he might seriously consider it but may I mention that Wataru was gone for a few days at most but really not that long of a time during Sanctuary and Eichi stopped considering being a normal rational person that doesn't leave helpless 17 year olds in the midst of a construction site. Very different situation but I feel like it's worth mentioninh here. Another example is Eichis almost not being able to go through with the war because of Wataru. Wataru had to actively come and tell Eichi to go through with it. Wataru isn't the reason Eichi started the war, that is wrong, but he is the reason Eichi almost didn't finish it. and during the war era that was his Main objective. Again I'm part of the fraction "actions speak louder than words" Show don't tell and all that, but even the words are pushing it.

And that concludes my essay :)

[soulinkpoetry]

Lately I have changed my outlook on the people who have hurt me in the past. As I understand more how generational trauma works , as I start to understand that most anger is actually fear and hurt, as I start to educate myself on human behavior, I now wish them healing instead of karma. Karma will not get rid of their trauma. Healing will assure me that they won’t do to someone else what they did to me.

.

.

[transtrucy]

red tape and the pieces of youth

chapter five: break these bones 'til they're better

Phoenix wakes up curled up on the couch with Trucy. He didn’t mean to fall back asleep after Miles dropped her off, he fully intended to get a head start on the last of the packing, but Trucy clung to him when he tried to put her down, and he ended up going down with her. He wakes up to Maya creeping around the kitchen—a common occurrence whenever she’s stayed with him—and Trucy’s quiet snores. Phoenix rubs his eyes and digs his phone out of his pocket. He only lost about fifty minutes, and between the traffic both directions and general airport delays, he has plenty of time to scramble around the apartment in a panic. He carefully untangles himself from Trucy’s grasp before shuffling through boxes and into the kitchen, checking once over his shoulder to make sure she’s still sleeping. Maya is leaning against the counter eating a rice cake smeared with jelly. She nods at Phoenix as she munches, and Phoenix can’t even remember when they bought rice cakes. Or jelly.

[continue reading on ao3]