#again this is how i extrapolate

[randomnumbers751650]

Talking about a ship for me is complicated because the feeling that I might be missing something or extrapolating too much. But still, I want to talk about Kafka/Blade.

Since HSR is a gacha, the chances of playable characters having romantic relationships are very low, so the fans have to pick the crumbs. Sometimes it’s pretty much obvious the devs want certain characters together, but the hand of the gacha business model holds them back. Other times, not really, maybe the devs are really aiming for platonic or other. And, of course, fans are free to interpret their own. So, I’m here to give my interpretation of KafBlade, why it called my attention.

From their interactions, they are working together and they have a level of affection: Kafka calls him Bladie (and he’s upset if others call him by that), Blade loves hearing her singing and is receptive to her whispers; they also seem to have good synergy in the battlefield. It also works in accomplishing missions, with Kafka’s lack of fear making her prone to injuries and Blade acting as her immortal bodyguard. Plus, there’s the implication they had to fake being a couple for a mission, which I hope it never gets a full flashback because imagining how it went is funnier. How they complement each other is what makes them so interesting.

They are both fundamentally broken people. We know Blade’s story, but it’s pretty implied Kafka has some tragedy in the closet (with Blade commenting he doesn’t want to see her sad; would it really be surprising?). And, they are villains after all.

But still, what I see in them is how they can still experience with each other things that they couldn’t imagine to experience or that they thought that they’d never experience. For example, Kafka is a liar. It’s a strength in her job, to the point even when she’s telling the truth it still feels she’s lying. She uses her whispers to dominate men and then discard them when they’ve done their jobs. She goes full “nothing personnel, kid”, because for her everything is just a job.

And then, one day, appears a guy who’s like “can you do that again?” A guy who wants to be whispered, whose lies sooth and motivate him. And then she learns he’s an immortal that wants to die and then she decides that she’ll help, but that she will strive to make his life more fun until that day because he amuses you. She has no feelings for him, because she has no feelings at all (or are very different from what normal people think to be); either she wasn’t born with them or the organization she learned her skills remove them, but still she just wants to make him feel good about his journey to death.

Blade is similar: he wants revenge. He crafted his entire life and used all his bladesmith skills to pursue that goal; it’s easy to imagine him forgoing everything, his feelings, his self-care, eating whatever slop he puts on his face, a very miserable life. And then one day a woman appears saying “join me” and she’s actually…fun to be around. Sure, they are using each other to their respective objectives, but there’s something more to it. He starts to pick her habits and helps her whenever she needs carry her stuff. And then he starts to wonder that, yes, his life sucks, but it sucks a bit less with her around. The blade he crafted for revenge can be used to protect, unexpectedly.

It should be noted that the devs already had opportunities to portray their relationship as toxic and abusive, but they haven’t. I’m not sure I’d call healthy either, but there seems to be a mutual respect and trust about them. I mean, they are dangerous (along with the rest of the Stellaron Hunters, Silverwolf, Sam and Elio himself (it’d be really funny if he was the cat)), but still it’s not hard to imagine them as a found family. We have to wait for future updates to see how they’ll be developed, but their Team Rocket dynamic with the heroes is fun.

One last thing is how I think it’s funny that KafBlade is “what if Gojo and Marin (from My Dress Up Darling) were evil?”. Kafka is the extroverted girl that loves shopping and fashion, while Blade is the recluse artist, but that grew bitter - as Yingxing, he was one the best bladesmiths of the Xianzou, he knows what beauty is (also please read the fanfic “dal segno al fine”, it really captures this side of his) – and would be reluctant even if Kafka’s feelings were like Marin’s; Kafka would have to have a lot of patience, but I think she’s not one to give up once she set up a goal.

I didn’t really review their text and quotes, I’m remembering all of it in the game and some comments in the internet. Even so, I wonder if others share these thoughts on them, especially the fact they bring out things that were previously kinda buried in each other, so it has potential for a more mature love story.

[evilfarmin]

Perhaps we are all baalers in the court of god.

VVV original meme under the cut MCYT content warning

MANGOBAII CONTENT WARNING DNF MENTION

[lostsyren]

The whole riara thing being classified as enemies to lovers never really resonated with me, because are they even really enemies? Like that’s a wild overstatement imo.

Like she is NOT on his mind at all. He doesn’t hate her, he doesn’t like her, he literally just doesn’t care about her.

The notion that they’re both consumed by this visceral hate of one another confuses me so much because Kie is just acting the same way all the other pogues do when they interact with Rafe (afraid of what he’ll do whilst also being incredibly pissed off at him). I suppose Rafe does treat her differently to the others, but idk, I saw it more as Rafe being like “oh look she’s a girl I can make her feel another level of uncomfortable”.

The reason I dislike them is not because I don’t “get” enemies to lovers (which is crazy thing to say– just cuz you don’t like ONE ship in a particular trope??)…I just think that Rafe feels indifferent about her…she’s just there. I feel he views all the pogues like that tbh– it’s a very one sided beef. Aside from like John B, because he blames him for Ward’s death.

And Kie just hates him because he’s a literal murderer. I don’t see the romantic or sexual tension between them✋😬🤚

Their scenes are just odd because I feel Rafe flits from really icky, or smarmy if he wants something and Kie just looks at him like: 😐… so this supposed “tension” is really lost on me

[ulteri0rm0tives]

🖤🩷🤍💜

[3liza]

I think it must be for the lack of going outside of your room on this website that debates about personal presentation and appearance literally never have any material analysis. sorry it's counterrevolutionary to shave my legs or wear makeup or a bra or style my hair in certain ways or "worry" about visible signs of aging but have some of you just never encountered real world situations where those things caused measurable problems dealing with other people, jobs, money, respectability, access to resources, or the ability to influence important situations? this starts happening when you go outside a lot. there's a debate on my dash rn about balding and finasteride in which not a single person has mentioned the potential negative social outcomes of losing your hair and how that can affect socioeconomic status and personal risk. maybe someone doesn't need to be "vain" to care about keeping their hair and consider the risks of medication for it. maybe they've seen how bald people get treated and referred to and made a cost benefit calculation that they can't afford, sometimes literally, to eat that cost, with everything else they've got going on. maybe I wear makeup when I have to go talk to doctors and other gatekeepers because people make assumptions about your class and mental status when you have "bad skin" and "eye bags". maybe a lot of women who wear uncomfortable restrictive bras and shave whatever and buy skin products and do gua sha have already been sharply punished when someone saw leg hair or a mustache or puffy greasy skin or god forbid their nipple through their shirt. not everyone can just say "fuck it, I can afford to eat one more social cost that will measurably impact my ability to get medical treatment or pay rent". sorry this sounds like an economics lecture, that's because it is

if you are about to tell me a long story about how you personally have not been affected by perceptions of your appearance actually so you can conclude it never happens at all, please don't. sometimes you get lucky, that's it. and on this website I think it's less likely that you're lucky and more likely that you're oblivious

[mournflame]

I love how much of Emmrich's magical jargon is clearly nonsense

[friendlyneighbourhoodelf]

cody being a character that values order etc thriving (as much as anyone could) on kamino, an environment that appears to be highly structured and emphasises these qualities (in many ways then, cody is a product of his environment - these are qualities which were encouraged on kamino, and therefore in order to survive and, by extension perhaps protect his brothers, cody actively cultivated these qualities in himself). thus, on being faced with war (which as much as he may attempt to enforce it, lacks the order suggested by kaminoan training) cody is at a (relative) loss. as much as he tries to plan perfectly, to impose order on that which defies it, ultimately he cannot do so completely. his inability to protect those under his command completely, to cody, appears as a personal failing (he can no longer exercise or rely on order / structure to protect those around him, the war cannot be controlled by him). therefore, whilst cody is a highly capable tactician and commander, in order to protect himself from the pain of losing brothers through (what is to him) his own failing, he isolates himself socially. this of course only makes things worse. in this essay i will -

[therosefrontier]

TWST Family Lore: Heartslabyul Part 2

Continued from Heartslabyul part 1, because I forgot doing the whole dorm at once would make this huge... Again, spoiler warning for JP server content! But there isn't anything too story-specific for the events here.

Cater Diamond

And now, following our freshmen duo and their positive relationship with their families, we get to move on to Cater! Whose relationship with them is, uh, mixed at best? Anyways, we have mention of his father and mother, and he has two older sisters of unknown exact age, as well. His father is a banker for a large company, and we learn that because of his job, the family moved frequently, about once every two years, to branches all around the world (Halloween vignette). Cater's homeland is stated in his profile to be the Shaftlands, so that's probably where his family is from and it might be where they are living currently, but he seems to have lived in other countries, as well. This alone appears to have had a negative impact on Cater…with him moving so often, he felt that he was never able to make meaningful connections with anyone, so he stopped trying, instead going for quantity over quality. We also get a little story in Silver's Halloween vignette, when he remembers finally meeting a friend at school only to find out right afterwards that they were going to be moving in a month. He mentions in his birthday boy vignette as well that he "never knew" when they were going to move again, and given the one-month thing, it seems normal that it was on pretty short notice. He talks about this impact on him to his Pop Music clubmates in his Halloween vignette, saying that he met many people from around the world, but the common thread was that "I would always leave, and they would always stay."

(image credit: NightCrow)

Cater talks about his situation in a positive light, saying that it was better that he had all these connections through Magicam and could just socialize casually, on his own terms, but at the end of the vignette, the story goes a little different. Cater watches Lilia have a very family-like moment with the rest of the Diasomnia crew and feels a sense of isolation and maybe jealousy...earlier, Lilia told him he was wise for acting as he did, but Cater sees this and feels that Lilia cannot know the way he feels, because he does have these kinds of bonds, which Cater thinks he can never truly have.

But Cater's relationship with loneliness is, again, is a whole essay in itself! Back to Cater's family!

He talks some about his sisters in his birthday boy vignette, in which he describes how he felt pressed in between the two of them (seemed described a little differently in official vs. fan translations? As the official has him saying "give a guy some space" whereas the original may have been more along the lines of 'squished between them', to reference Mystery Shop), and also, how they'd give him a bunch of "cute" things as a birthday present which was more on lines of what they liked than what he liked. But, he does say that they're better about it now and will actually ask him what he wants. He also assures they didn't mean anything by it.

(translation by Otome Ayui!)

But of course, there's more! Multiple other mentions of his sisters seem to involve them asking him to do stuff...

Will do things like go shopping and leave him with the bags, or get a random craving for ice cream and ask him to go get it (birthday jacket vignette). Cater says they can be "pretty demanding," but he amends this story by saying that they will also treat him to stuff while they're out, like pocket money, food, or clothes.

Asked him for a Scalding Sands body scrub that had been "all over Magicam" since he was there for Fireworks Fest (Silk Adorned voicelines)

Cater would cook for them, making pancakes from a store-bought mix (although this might not have been a request; he could have just wanted to) (Apprentice Chef vignette)

At the start of book 4 (chapter 3), when everyone is going home for winter break, Cater says that "going home is kind of a drag for me, too," talking of how he knows his sisters will "run me ragged," so he makes a weak bid to go to Trey's house instead. When Trey lightheartedly counters that his family would put him to work too, Cater backs out of the idea.

Cater's not wanting to go home slides its way in a couple of other mentions, too... in his dorm uniform voicelines, he asks the MC if they're homesick and gets the question thrown back at him, to which he says that he isn't, citing his "annoying" older sisters as the cause. In slight contrast, in his New Year's voicelines, he says that it’s “not too bad to work during the holiday seasons once in a while” because “sure, it’s fun to go back home, but it eventually gets boring.” So this time, it's just 'boring' and not a family issue, but honestly, with Cater, the shifting story doesn't feel out of place. And definitely, it's up for interpretation...he doesn't seem to hate his sisters, but he doesn't really want to be with them, either.

Now, back to the birthday boy vignette! We get another little story, the reason why Cater doesn't like sweets so much: his mother and older sisters got really into making homemade sweets all the time, and they would feed them to him until he was sick of them. Even if he didn't want any, he felt like he had to eat it because they'd be sad if he didn't.

And then, there's his lab vignette... Cater describes the relationship his family as a whole has with "cute" things: “in the Diamond household, everything's judged by one simple question: ‘But is it cute?’ Day in and day out, no matter what I did, if it wasn't cute, it didn't cut the mustard! Drawings, handicrafts, store-bought sweets, you name it!” And thus, the instinct to make it cute was "burned" into Cater's brain.

So, you could say that "trendiness" runs in the family. But also, this does...raise some questions, I'd think? Again, it really is up for interpretation, but Cater specifically saying "no matter what I did" seems to suggest that he felt like the stuff he bought and things he did, including his own drawings and crafts, would be dismissed if they weren't "cute." Like the reason the instinct is burned into him is because that's what he had to do to earn attention. It also feels a little telling that this is the Cater-tries-to-hide-his-sadness vignette, in which one of the mandrakes he grows in the lab, which are supposed to reflect on the mage growing them, turns out gloomy, and he tries hard to deny that this means anything. But as for what all this says about his relationship to his family...I'd guess that perhaps, he feels a little invisible with them. It's not like he doesn't care about them, or that they don't care about him, necessarily (neglect but not on purpose?), but he doesn't seem to feel like his own wants are ever really seen, and the disconnect is to the point that home is not really a place he wants to be. Maybe, one day, he'll open up more about this, but with Cater, I don't think it'll come easy. But who knows...

TREY CLOVER

And now, Trey's family! He lives with his father and mother, and he has two younger siblings, a sister and brother. His sister is four years younger than him (platinum vignette), but we don't now how old his brother is. His parents run a patisserie bearing their name: Clover Patisserie. They are bakers, and likewise, Trey grew up learning how to cook from them, and in his apprentice chef vignette, he seems to imply that his siblings know their way around the kitchen, too. Also, we do have canon[?] designs for Trey's parents! We get art in the appendix of the last volume of the Heartslabyul manga:

(thanks to Honeyworks on Twitter for the image!)

The illustration is credited to Yana Toboso, whose notes, as run through Google Translate (I do not know Japanese...), describes Trey's mom as an "active woman with short cut, tall" and his dad as having "mild droopy eyes." In this appendix, we also get ages for Trey, Chenya, and Riddle at the time of the incident (that is, the big backstory as seen in book 1 of Trey inviting Riddle to try a tart at the patisserie but then they lose track of time and Riddle gets caught...that whole thing...). Trey is almost ten, Chenya is nine, and Riddle is eight, which seems to suggest that this happened in fall, in between Trey and Riddle's birthdays (Riddle on 8/24 and Trey on 10/25). Trey describes the event in more detail in his dorm vignette: he says that Riddle's mom "stormed" into his house and lectured his "whole entire family for five hours straight." (which is an insane amount of time...how did she come up with that many things to say!?) Also, to clarify, there seems to be a serious translation discrepancy with this? Because in the official English Trey says that it was his parents who lectured him for that time, but that doesn't even make sense in context... The quote I used is pulled from Mystery Shop's translation, and YuuRei has a good post on this, too. Anyways, the scene is also referenced in chapter 17 of the manga with Trey's flashback:

Which is...quite devastating, but anyways! As far as I can see, we don't really have much indication of what Trey's parents felt about all of this, but in the manga at least, they appear to be pretty stressed...maybe even cowed by Rosehearts's laying into them like that, and who can blame them?

But, moving aside to happier times! Continuing with Trey's parents, we get a little mention of what they were like as teachers through his apprentice chef vignette. Trey is doing the Culinary Crucible to better learn how to teach cooking to his dormmates, and he comes to a realization: his parents would watch him cook, but sometimes, they wouldn't correct him when he did something wrong until after he failed, because that way, through failure, he would remember, and he would learn. That was what Trey was not doing with his dormmates: he would always step in to fix things rather than let them have that experience.

Trey also talks of his really beginning cooking days in his platinum vignette: when he was four, he helped his parents bake a fairy cake after his sister was born, which they ate with family and neighbors, that being a Queendom of Roses tradition. Trey says that looking back at the pictures, the cake was pretty terrible, but he was excited about helping and thought the cake tasted great at the time, and all the adults complimented him on it, too. After that day, he would join his parents in the kitchen to help bake cakes, although he said he really just made a mess of flour and probably was a "huge bother" for his parents. That said, from the sounds of it, it seems implied that they were pretty patient with him, though?

Trey gives a different food-related story in his birthday boy vignette: his favorite food is candied violets, and he had one for the first time when he was "really young," before he started elementary school. He was amazed at the idea of flowers being edible, and his parents tell him that he "drove them nuts" via repeatedly trying to eat random flowers and weeds after that. Trey has no memory of this. But he does remember snacking on violets at home that were meant for cakes and his parents getting on his case about it. Eventually, they started setting some aside from him, and now, they send some to him at school in the occasional care package.

(image credit: NightCrow)

Trey also mentions his parents in one of his Silk Adorned card voicelines, saying that they love trying out new ingredients, and that perhaps, they should take a family trip to the Scalding Sands one day. Also, in both his birthday jacket vignette and his outdoor wear voicelines, he mentions that he's gone on camping trips with his family before, during summer vacation.

In Trey's Halloween vignette, we get a little story involving all of his family: he once tried half-rimmed glasses similar to the shape Azul wears, to mixed results. His mother and little sister said that they didn't like the glasses because they made him look "angry," and his dad and little brother said that he looked cool in them... because the glasses made him look like a "movie villain." Therefore, Trey rejected the glasses. He has also considered getting contacts, but similarly, his sister says he looks "sinister" without them.

(image credit: Songstress Studios)

Trey has several mentions of his siblings: they seem to have spent a lot of time together growing up, although also, it seems Trey did a lot of looking after them and taking care of them, too.

It was Trey's "job" to make sure his younger siblings brushed their teeth properly, as them being exposed to sweets so much via the patisserie made it a necessity (school uniform vignette)

Trey would make his siblings' costumes for Halloween. He says he's "not great" at it, but he can sew basic things (Halloween voicelines)

Trey would bake his siblings' cakes for their birthdays (birthday boy voicelines). He also mentions in Ace's school uniform vignette that his siblings would often "pester" him to bake for them, and he says in his birthday boy vignette that he would usually cook dinners for the family back at home, since his parents were busy with the patisserie. His brother and sister would ask for his hamburger steak all the time.

Trey helps his siblings with their homework when he's home (Winter Break Calendar 2023)

Trey and his siblings would often play with fireworks together (Silk Adorned vignette)

Once, Trey took his little brother to a Spelldrive game to fulfill his Starsending wish (Starsending voicelines)

In one of his labwear voicelines, Trey says "you all remind me of my younger siblings. They're always running around and giving me a hard time.” So, it does seem that they certainly tire him out. Again, going back to book 4, chapter 3, as mentioned in Cater's part, Trey responds to Cater's request by saying he's welcome to come to his house, but his family would run him "just as ragged." (but, if he was serious about that, that would suggest that Trey knew that his parents wouldn't mind Cater coming over!) It appears that, with the patisserie family business, it can be an 'all hands on deck' kind of affair, with Trey at least helping out with running things. There's also a little mention in Ace's school uniform vignette, in which Trey says that he's used to carrying heavy things because of shopping for ingredients for the patisserie.

Which is all rather interesting to me, really… both Trey and Cater describe their family as 'running them ragged' in some way and relying on them to do stuff, but with very different tones. For Trey, the 'older brother' instincts are so ingrained in him that he doesn't seem to think twice about it much of the time, such as we see in his school uniform vignette, in which he acts on those same instincts with his peers, Ace and Deuce, in insuring that their teeth are clean, and Deuce notes that he has that "kind older brother" vibe and has a "knack for looking after everyone." Which is interesting in that Trey doesn't really seem to be trying to volunteer for everything, and he certainly isn't trying to stand out, but he will take on everything in pursuit of keeping this ship running smoothly, all the same.

That said, he does seem to have a very positive relationship with his family! Although their busy lives might have led to a bit of a he-raised-his-siblings kind of dynamic. Trey seems to be usually very relaxed when talking about them, thinking back on the stories with a kind of fondness. We don't quite have too much to go on yet when it comes to actually deducing the personalities of his siblings as individuals, but from the general mentions, they do seem quite energetic, for sure! And perhaps, much like so much of the Heartslabyul dorm, will instinctively rely on Trey without a second thought...

RIDDLE ROSEHEARTS

And now, last on the Heartslabyul roster...Riddle. The ever-infamous family of Riddle. A lot of what we know comes from Book 1 of the main story: he's an only child, and both of his parents are medical mages—famous ones, too. Trey says that where they're from, everyone knew their names. Riddle's father is mentioned, but we hear little of his involvement in Riddle's life—the main player on this stage is his mother, who rigorously trained Riddle up to follow in her steps.

In chapter 18 of book 1, Trey first describes what it was like for Riddle: his mother mapped out his schedule to the minute, "from the moment Riddle woke up to when his head hit the pillow at the end of the night," and in the flashback sequence in chapter 25, Riddle describes it in much the same way: "my day was planned, down to the minute." Riddle's mom tailor-made an education program for him and appears to have implemented it herself, and Riddle, in an effort to please his parents, followed every rule they made. He became a prodigy, mastering his signature spell by age ten.

Riddle's mom was very strict with his diet, as well—she kept to very healthy foods, limited Riddle to under 600 calories per meal, and absconded sugar entirely. And thus comes the point of conflict...in the story, Riddle, who was eight at the time, was invited by Trey and Chenya to come outside to play during his one hour of independent study time (in which he was supposed to be studying alone in his room), and then, he started playing with them in secret every day, and it became his favorite part of his day. Then, one day, Trey invites Riddle to try a tart at the patisserie, and they lose track of time...and then, Riddle's mother finds him. She was furious, both at his skipping independent study time and his eating a "mountain of sugar." And then, as mentioned in Trey's section, she goes on to lecture Trey's family for five whole hours.

In this scene with Riddle and his mom, Riddle tries hard to apologize, but she cuts him off, telling him to be quiet, and then forbidding him with playing with Trey and Chenya ever again, and also taking away his independent study time in favor of keeping closer watch on him. In Trey's dorm uniform vignette, he describes Riddle's mom as being "impossible to deal with once she flew off the handle." And so, Riddle was left to just strive to follow the rules she set down, believing that she must be right, for "she was the most accomplished mother in the city, and therefore, the most correct," and he didn't want to lose anything, not again... He also quotes her in chapter 22, saying that "a man who cannot follow rules is a man who cannot achieve anything."

In book 4, chapter 3, we see that Riddle is feeling some dread over going back home for the winter break, but he also does resolve to try to talk to his mother, not that he's confident she will listen. We don't have any mention of how that talk actually went.

Interestingly enough, we don't seem to have that many mentions from Riddle about his family outside of the main story in his voicelines and vignettes, compared to some of the others. He does talk some about his upbringing in his birthday boy vignette: his parents both raised him to take up the mantle and be a medical mage like them one day, which he describes as being a "highly demanding profession." He said that they would tell him over and over "When you grow up, you'll be just like us, Riddle!" Before NRC, Riddle never questioned this path for him, but now, he says that he has developed some interest in law, so he may actually pursue that instead.

In one of his suitor suit voicelines, Riddle mentions that wearing this makes him think of the parties he used to attend with his parents. He also gives a mention in his halloween vignette that his mother taught him social dancing, so it seems like the three of them did go to formal social functions from time to time.

He also mentions his parents in another suitor suit voiceline, talking about how he reads that the Queen of Hearts had an amicable marriage, and he wishes he could share that secret to his parents, which would suggest that their marriage is not doing that great, actually.

Anyhow, social functions aside, it seems like Riddle probably has not had any "real" vacations with his family, or just fun gatherings/outings in general. In one of his Masquerade voicelines, he says "I'm not very accustomed to festivals...especially not ones in other countries. It's difficult to know how to participate and have fun.” And this comes up a lot, it seems, in the 'Lost in the Book' Stitch event, where Riddle is quite unfamiliar with the concept of a vacation at the beach. In one of his beachwear voicelines, he says “Having dinner with everyone while gazing at a sunset on the beach like this… This must be what it means to go on vacation. This is the first time I’ve experienced anything like this.” (Mystery Shop's translation)

In book 6, we get another brief mention of Riddle's mother: upon being invited by Ortho and Idia to play video games to pass the time, Riddle says that his mother told him that video games are "addictive and can hurt academic performance." They had neither a gaming console nor a TV at home. Riddle hasn't read much, if any, fiction aside from classic literature either, from the looks of it. It comes up in the second Halloween event, Spectral Soiree: Ruggie and Ortho, whom Riddle is traveling with, get excited over the prospect of this being like a treasure hunt, with so many tropes coming to life, and they quickly find out that Riddle is wholly unfamiliar with what they are talking about. He says that he has "no exposure" to comic books and video games like the rest of them.

He then goes on to say that he is missing out on absolutely nothing, has read many things, and was reading medical dictionaries by the time he was "Ortho's age." Whether that Ortho's real or perceived age is unclear, as literally, he might be about six? I think Idia finished building him when he was twelve? But Riddle may not know that—obviously, Ortho being what he is gives him a great kickstart in mental development, besides being given memories of the original Ortho, so as far as perceived age goes, he's akin to the freshmen. But saying all that to say! I also wouldn't be surprised if Riddle really was being handed a medical dictionary at age six, honestly.

So, in a general sense, you could conclude that Riddle has a great unfamiliarity with the concept of "fun," which gives a bit of a picture as to his parents and his mother specifically. It was as if everything had to have some sense of necessity; it wasn't enough for something to just be enjoyable. Riddle was put to a strict standard of performance, and in turn, he expects the same of others, in a way he seems to have to take some effort to unlearn. In his dorm vignette, for instance, we see him helping Cater, who was struggling in his practical magic class, with his studying. At first, he makes this insanely long study guide (300 pages), and he gets annoyed when Cater says that this is far too much for him to read, because this is exactly what he is used to doing, thinking that if you don't want to do something, you should just force yourself to (which I imagine is the philosophy his own childhood education took). But then, after a talk with Trey, he realizes that he can't expect everyone to learn like he does, so instead, he makes a plan to teach Cater through pictures and Magicam hashtags so that he could remember them, and it works! And then he goes right back to giving Cater a bunch of textbooks at the end, but hey, it's a start :)

That said, Riddle's development is easily a whole essay on its own! The takeaway here with his parents is that both of them put a lot of expectations on him and are probably very success-driven themselves. In a way, it 'worked' for them, because they are very successful and famous, but their general happiness may be another story. Again, we get little of Riddle's dad specifically except that his relationship with his mom is not great, but with his mom, we get the impression that she is just...very high-strung and obsessive? Her rigorous training of Riddle goes beyond just wanting him to have a good education—she obsesses over his progress in a way that seems to invoke that if anything goes in a way other than what she envisions, Riddle would be hopelessly failed. It's "care" in the worst kind of way... I think that she really does believe that everything she does is for him and his wellbeing, but doing things like that, it becomes a whole lot about herself too, I'd think. Riddle is an extension of her, and therefore, he must be perfect. We know little of what she is like outside of her relationship with Riddle, but it doesn't seem hard to believe that she would have some measure of that strictness and my-way-is-the-only-way attitude with everyone else in her life, although it may be comparatively muted, as it is with some people who will treat their children with a special kind of possessiveness, even if only subconsciously. I do wonder if anyone else ever got the equivalent of the five-hour tirade she gave to the Clover family, but of course, that's all speculation. The silver lining is that it didn't work for Riddle like she wanted it to...he's still his own person, and after he finally came to the point of admitting, at the end of book 1, that he was wrong, and that by extension, the things his mother did to him were wrong (although not so outright), he has become in a better position to grow and move on, although unfortunately, he still has to go back home at the end of the day, and his mom has not changed. It could be a difficult road for a long time yet... but still, I like to think that Riddle is on a better path now, and that, if he ever does become a parent one day, he'll be a better one than his own parents were.

[literallybyronic]

everyone gasping in shock over the bioware layoffs, meanwhile me who's been waving origin's bloated corpse around and screaming warnings for the last decade:

[inkblackorchid]

*cradles his face in my hands, kissing his forehead softly* You absolute IDIOT MY GOD YOU'RE A DISASTER

YOU UTTER BUFFOON YOUR FRIENDS CARE ABOUT YOU DAMN IT

Surprised Pikachu Face

This guy, I swear.

[bitchthefuck1]

really minor thing to be bothered by but I hate when people are like "this actor didn't know about/hadn't seen this before the scene, so that means it's their genuine reaction, they're not acting here!!!" bc like. there are obviously times where it's someone reacting to being, like, jumped out at or something so it's a completely involuntary response, but a majority of the time...they're still reacting in character. There's probably an element to their performance that is more genuine or informed by the reaction they're also personally having, but it's not like that automatically means they're breaking character and just responding 100% authentically as themselves. They might be giving a real-time response, but they're still doing that in character. It doesn't mean that's just how they personally are reacting to it.

[letmeliedown]

hey, assuming that trans men treat cis men as "objects of worship" is really fucking weird! you wouldn't say that about other trans people, so why is it okay about them? that's weird. you're weird and transphobic.

that's been my experience interacting with trans men for two decades, bro. if you've never witnessed this dynamic, awesome. talking about my experiences as a trans person is not transphobic.

i would actually say that about other trans people because they often treat me much the same, just for slightly different reasons.

[killikhive]

the inquisitor balmorra story involves less actual genetic fuckery than I think it should tbh. this serum's only meant for colicoids? I think the inquisitor should be able to be like "okay what if I had colicoid dna then"

is it absurd? yes. but I think taket does suggest this because. listen. shes got scientific curiosity in her but she doesn't have much actual background education. it's just the right combination for her to suggest something absolutely batshit and I think it'd be fun if it Sort of Works. or at least is one of those things where it doesn't actually change how the serum works but just fucks with her DNA a bit and might contribute to the whole mess with what is mostly the forcewalking sickness.

get to the mother machine and it's like "what the fuck did you DO?"

[deepfriedpaddymayne]

GOD isn't it insane how paddy has this whole. unlovable renegade complex, which is subtle but very much There, and then he has not one but TWO whole characters whose main role in the story is just. being utterly smitten with him.

[yourfaveisintersex]

Would Tom from Eddsworld need the hamilton rule tag? Or is the character too different from his real life counterpart?

Good question honestly. I kind of visualized him as too different from his real life counterpart to need to be hamilton rule'd but because I wasn't ever in the eddsworld fandom if anyone has more context I appreciate it. Like truly I didn't even know he had a real-world counterpart I thought it was only Edd that was a self-insert.

[coruscantide]

A Dive into the Heart

The first time you see a hint of Kairi’s heart is in KH1 during Sora’s dive to the heart. During this prophetic dream sequence, he appears to be traversing the hearts of the Princesses of Heart who are technically all connected which is visualized by the staircases. Four of the Stations that appear are of those who’s identity as a princess has been outed. They’re already captured and put into a deep sleep, while the remaining three have yet to be discovered and thus their identities are shrouded in mystery on the single Station meant to be them.

What is a Station of Awakening?

A Station of Awakening is considered to be the ‘core’ representation of a person’s heart, most directly exemplified by Ventus and his struggles with Vanitas. Sora’s own heart manifests as a Station but it also takes on the appearance of Destiny Islands in KH1 during the opening sequence where projections of his friends can be seen, in KH2 where he’s sent when he’s sleeping alongside more projections of his friends until KH2, and in DDD where Roxas, Xion, and Ventus (and Ansem) can be found. It appears to be a ‘level’ above his Station so it may be considered the surface level of his heart. I say this because you only see him really ‘enter/travel’ through the areas of the heart by falling into the ocean in a literal dive to the heart and opening a door of light ( I find it interesting the Station he’s on when that happens represents the hidden princesses, including Kairi, which may have been a little foreshadowing ).

Going off the KH1 opening, the theme of darkness usually being found underneath the light or vice versa, and with Sora inclined toward the light, I abide by an old headcanon that Sora’s darkness is represented by the ocean surrounding the island. It’s lighter near the surface but the further down into the depths you go the darker it appears. Him diving into that ocean, diving into the darkness, brings him into his heart which is illuminated and appears bright against the surrounding abyss. It doesn’t only apply to Sora. We see the dive to heart by falling into a body of water implied to be an ocean occur multiple times for other characters too, like Roxas or the opening scenes in BBS and 0.2. It’s been used to represent a character’s fall into the darkness as well, mostly with the wayfinder trio via themselves or their wayfinders in the openings to BBS and 0.2. As of KH3, we’re aware that sometimes Sora breaches the surface of that ocean and winds up in the Final World, though he doesn’t recall it later, and it happens because sleep is closely associated with both darkness and death with the edges between them blurring at times, allowing the occasional crossover.

What does the inside of Kairi's own heart look like?

Now with Kairi, the outermost surface level also takes on the appearance of Destiny Islands, the place she feels most at ease. However, tying into the times she is seen during these dives to the heart, it usually set under a perpetual sunset with shooting stars streaking across the sky, sometimes appearing as the time of midday.

Unlike Sora though her ocean is… different. The sea and sky are so expansive that it seems to reach out into infinity, and the layer of water is reflective to the point that it resembles a mirror. For some reason, it’s all much more reminiscent of the Final World.

Kairi can’t seem to ‘dive’ like everyone else. With the various openings if you look, whereas other characters are seen sinking into the water and darkness, notice that Kairi NEVER falls in during these instances. She can’t. Her image only ripples and distorts at best and she is always left above to walk on the water’s surface — like in the Final World. You cannot see any darkness beneath because there is nothing really tangible beneath the waves. Just ripples of repressed or lost memories.

If Kairi’s Station appears when she walks far away enough from the island, it simply ripples into existence right under the ocean’s surface with her in the center of it, expanding outwards with doves taking flight and raising higher and higher out of the water. Her surroundings melt away into the flock of doves, transitioning into a blank white void and leaving her with the stained glass the portraits of Sora, Riku, Namine, and Ansem, seeker of darkness beneath her feet, refracting the endless light into a seemingly ever shifting tide of color that’s both beautiful and haunting. If she focuses hard enough, she can trace the connection to the other princesses and staircases will appear to lead her to their heart.

Why the Final World?

In Melody of Memory, a version of the Final World is seen within her heart, a recreation of her memories that she eventually reaches while searching for clues. The thing is… it’s the exact same type of construct on the surface level of her heart as her Destiny Islands. Technically this is a dive to the heart for her like many other people. There is a reason why DESTATI of all songs (the main theme of the Awakening/Dive to the Heart) starts playing during the encounter with Xehanort. He’s the equivalent of the Darkside and Twilight Thorn that Sora and Roxas had to fight. But he’s different somehow. Despite the implied belief of Kairi that he’s nothing but an illusion or memory created from Kairi’s heart, Xehanort’s strangely aware of what’s happening and making comments Kairi herself couldn’t possibly know, like figuring out where Sora is from his abrupt interference in their fight. Unfortunately for Kairi, this Xehanort appears more similar to the Ansem that’s been tormenting Riku for years even after his demise. So, uh, fun times ahead.

But a funny little detail is that at the beginning of this section, while it’s later acknowledged to be taking place within Kairi’s heart, the area gets the same introduction you get whenever you enter a ‘real’ world in the games and when Sora first arrived to the Final World. It seems to be the only occurrence of this within the entire game. I’m not even sure if a dive into a person’s heart transitioned into a world intro like that before.

Because her heart just has to be even more weird, while she’s in this state it manifests itself outside of her body specifically in its flower form and moves independent of her physical body (please note that every(?) other time in the series a heart is separated from the body like that the person basically dies in short order but kairi is. Fine). It breaks itself apart to literally guide her to the answer she seeks. Guys? This isn't normal. She’s interacting with her own heart in such a manner when she’s technically inside it at the moment. It's clearly different from every else who has moved about as a disembodied heart.

This change into a flower is another important detail. Hearts don’t really have a physical form per se, but change their outward appearance when outside the body depending on different factors of how it's removed. It’s natural state is an orb of light. When a person dies as the body and heart perishes at the same time, some persist through a connection keeping them tethered and the hearts take on the appearance of a star of light. If an enemy like the heartless kills someone and steals the heart, it takes on a heart shape. Kairi’s own was seen as an orb of light previously in KH1. However, after KH3 it took on the form of a crystal flower as a result of her being crystallized and shattered. She's not currently dead but being in this deep sleep / almost death-like state and being in a place where the lingering dead reside apparently was enough trigger a change and cause her heart manifest itself in the state it was at the moment of her own death experience. She then tracks down the pieces of her heart, much like when Sora’s heart had to gather his body after he was conceptually broken apart, only it’s reversed now.

It all ties together to imply these events are happening within the real Final World at the same time.

The truth is Kairi’s heart — technically all Princesses of Heart — is likely directly connected to the Final World. The personal versions in their hearts overlap with the real one, making it easy to cross over much like how one can access it from the Sleeping Worlds and the Dive to the Heart. This close connection to the Final World - and therefore the other side - is what enables Sora to appear within her heart at all after a year of radio silence to beat Xehanort’s ass, even if his voice cannot cross the distance. Why would this connection exist though?

Heavy existing star symbolism with Kairi and light in general aside, perhaps it has to do with the nature of the place and the princesses themselves. The Final World is a limbo for the deceased that exists on the border between sleep and death and a border to ‘unreality’. It’s a place of deep connection, and connection is very important to Kingdom Hearts. All hearts return to Kingdom Hearts, aka it is the final resting place. Everything that dies returns to the same place to reconnect and then be reborn. The Final World could be a step down from wherever Kingdom Hearts truly resides. As parts of a whole that exists as a counterpart to Kingdom Hearts itself, it makes morbid sense that the princesses would appear as close as they can to it without actually dying themselves, whether they realize or not.