#also also I’m like 1.5 a chapter into this series and considering how everything is going I’m not..

[0celesteisthebest0]

What is The Concept of Fate ? :0

ANON ANOOOOOONNNNNN YOU DO NOT KNOW THE AMOUNT OF JOY YOU CREATED FROM ME BASED OF THIS QUESTION!!!!!!! IM RUNNING AROUND FROM EXCITEMENT YOUVE SUMMONED ME FROM THE DEPTHS OF WRITERS BLOCK LOL

ITS!!!!!!!!! 💗💕🌙💓

ITS A love letter to Ezra’s character in a story about cycles between Ezra, Cee, and a reader insert! I’m trying so hard not to spoil too much but it contains all my favorite sci-fi tropes and has a lot of story building! It’s something that I’ve been working on, an on and off project of sorts but I JUST HAVE SO MUCH FEELINGS TOWARDS EZRAS CHARACTER!

I’ll give you the littlest sneak peak because you asked so kindly. Without giving anything else away here is the first chapter title card

[felassan]

Dragon Age development insights and highlights from Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

Some really tasty factoids here.

Cut for length.

Dragon Age: Origins

The continent of Thedas was at one point going to be named Pelledia, a name initially floated by James Ohlen

“Qunari” was a temporary name that ended up unintentionally sticking, much like “Thedas”

Mary Kirby wrote the Landsmeet. To this day, nobody understands how it works, except possibly her. If she’s “really really drunk” she can explain how it works. There’s as many words in it as Sten’s entire conversations put together

Concept art for Thedosian art - as in in-world art - draws heavily on Renaissance-era portraiture, the Art Nouveau movement, religious styles and media like stained glass, and favorite pieces from the golden age of illustrations in the early 20th century

Andrastianism in-world (art-wise) is depicted in wildly different methods depending on who in-world made the art in question. “One religion, 3 different lenses”. There’s the Chantry take, the Orlesian take and the Fereldan take; each with its own different interpretations, different mediums and different stories

The stained glass images were drawn by Nick Thornborrow for DAI, to decorate religious spaces in that game “and beyond”

irl Viking art influenced Ferelden

Greek and Italian art influenced Orlais

The book also had other insights into and anecdotes from the development of DAO, but I’ve transcribed them recently as they’re essentially the stories DG has recently been relating on the awesome Summerfall Studios DAO playthrough Twitch streams. (On those streams he provides dev commentary while Liam Esler plays through DA. The ones with DG are currently once every two weeks. Check them out! Here’s a calendar where you can check when the next one is) Instead of repeating myself I’ll just provide the link to the first transcript. From there you can navigate to the subsequent parts. Note these streams are ongoing. At this point I will also point you to a related post which is cliff notes of the Dragon Age chapter in Jason Schreier’s book Blood Sweat and Pixels.

Dragon Age II

DAO had the longest development period in BioWare history. In contrast DA2 had the shortest

Initially DA2 was going to be an expansion to DAO. A few months in EA said “Yeah, expansions like these don’t sell very well, so let’s make it a sequel.” So it suddenly became DA2 and they had to make it even bigger, although they still only had 1.5 years of time in which to do this

Production of DA2 officially lasted only 9 months, and at the time the team was still supporting live content for DAO! They finished development that January after the design team crunched all the way through the holiday period that year. Then it went to cert 9 times

The limited time they had is why the story takes place mostly in and around 1 city, and over 7 years (so it was temporal, rather than over physical distance, because a more expansive world would have taken more irl time to make)

They had no time to review even the main plot. Mike Laidlaw pitched the idea of 3 stories taking place at different points in the PC’s life, tied together by Varric’s recollections of events. DG rolled with this and made 1 presentation on the idea. This presentation was then approved and off they went

As they were writing DG realized that there was going to be no oversight and that everything was going to be a ‘first draft’. “Because nobody had time.” He sat down with the writers and said “Look, here’s the conditions we’re working under. A lot of what we’re putting out is gonna be raw. We’re not going to get the editing we need. We’re not going to get the kind of iteration we need. So I’m going to trust you all to do your best work.”

Looking back, DG has mixed feelings on DA2. “A lot of corners were cut. The public perception was that it was smaller than DAO. That’s a sin on its own.”

Despite this he thinks DA2 has some of the best writing in the series, especially character-wise. The DA2 chars are his favorite

The pace with which production progressed may in some ways have helped. “When we do a lot of revision, we often file away [as in buff off] some of the good writing as well. Somehow DA2′s whirlwind process resulted in some really good writing”

The pace meant chars landed on the writers in various stages of completion. For example Isabela was fairly defined due to appearing in DAO. In contrast Varric at the start was just that single piece of widely-shown concept art

Varric was conceived as a storyteller not a fighter. His skills are talking and bullshitting. Hence the question became, so what does this guy do in combat? The direction was to make him as different as possible to Oghren, so not a warrior. He couldn’t be a dual-wielding rogue in order to differentiate him from Bela. But you can’t really picture this guy with a bow. “For a dwarf, it would probably be a crossbow. We didn’t have crossbows, or we only had crossbows for the darkspawn. And they were part of the models. We didn’t have a separate crossbow that was equip-able by the chars. They had to like, crop one off a darkspawn and remodel it. And that became Bianca” (quote: Mary Kirby)

“Dwarven mages are exceedingly rare.” [???]

If DAO was a classic fantasy painting, DA2 was a screenshot from a Kurosawa film or a northern Renaissance painting. (Here Matt Rhodes was commenting on art style)

John Epler: “In any one of our games, there’s a 95% chance that if you turn the camera away from what it’s looking at, you’ll see all kinds of janky stuff. The moment we know the camera is no longer facing someone, we no longer care what happens to them. We will teleport people around. We will jump people around. We will literally have someone walk off screen and then we will shift them 1000 meters down, because we’re fixing some bug.” John also talked about this camera stuff in a recent charity Twitch stream for Gamers For Groceries. There’s a writeup of that stream here

Designing Kirkwall pushed concept artists to the limits of visual storytelling, because it has a long history that they wanted to be present. It was once the hub of Tevinter’s slave empire, so it needed to look brutal and harsh, but it also then needed to feel reclaimed, evolved, and with elements of contemporary Free Marches culture

The initial plan was for DA titles to be distinguished by subtitles not numbers, so that each experience could stand on its own rather than feel like a sequel or continuation. (My note: New PCs in each entry make sense then when you consider this and other factoids we know like how DA is the story of the world not of any one PC). Later, DA2′s name was made DA2 in a bid to more clearly connect the game to its predecessor. For DAI they returned to the original naming convention. (My note: so I’d reckon they’d be continuing the subtitle naming convention for DA4)

DA2 was initially code-named “Nug Storm”, strictly internally

The Cancelled DA2 Expansion - Exalted March

This was a precursor to DAI

It was meant to bridge the gap between DA2 and DAI

It focused on the fallout from Kirkwall’s explosion, with Cory serving as the villain

Meredith’s red lyrium statue was basically going to infest Kirkwall and it would end up [with what would end up] the red templars taking over Kirkwall and essentially being Cory’s army

To stop him Hawke would have recruited various factions, including Bela’s Felicisima Armada and the Qunari at Estwatch, forcing Hawke to split loyalties and risk relationships in the process

It was meant to bring DA2′s story to an end and end in Varric’s death. DG was very happy with this because all of DA2 is Varric’s tale. The expansion was supposed to start at the moment Cassandra’s interrogation of him ended in the present. “And we finished off the story with Varric having this heroic death.” It tied things up and would have broken many fan hearts, something BioWare writers notoriously enjoy. But between a transition to the new Frostbite engine and the scope of DAI, the decision was made to cancel EM, work any hard-to-lose concepts into DAI, and in the process save Varric’s life. DG has talked about the Varric dying thing before

Concept art for EM explored new areas previously not depicted in the DA universe, with costumes that reflected next steps for familiar chars. Varric was going to war, what would he have worn? With Anders, if he survived DA2, the plan was to present a redeemed Warden

A char that vaguely resembled Sera in DAI was first concepted for EM. This fact was mentioned near this concept art (see the female elf) and this concept art of Bethany with the blond bob

The writers sketched out plans to end it with Hawke having the option to marry their LI. This included alternate ceremonies for party members like Bethany and Sebastian if the player opted not to wed. There was even a wedding dress made for Hawke. This asset made it into DAI (Sera and Cullen’s weddings in Trespasser). The dress can also be seen in DAI during an ambient NPC wedding after completing a chain of war table missions

The destruction of a Chantry was explored in concept art as it might have happened in EM. This idea ended up carrying over to the beginning of DAI. (My note: Lol, the idea that DA2 could have had 2 Chantries being destroyed in it 😆)

World of Thedas

Sheryl Chee and Mary Kirby started with “a disgusting little dish called fluffy mackerel pudding”. In the middle of DAO’s busy dev period one of them (they can’t remember who) found a recipe online for this, scanned in from a 70s cookbook. “I don’t understand why it was fluffy. Why would you want fluffy mackerel pudding?” MK says. “We loved it so much we included it in a DAO codex.”

This led them to create more food for Thedas, full recipes included, like a Fereldan turnip and barley stew from MK and SC’s Starkhaven fish and egg pie. The fish pie became Sebastian’s favorite. “To me it made sense for it to be fish pie because a lot of the Free Marches are on the coast”, SC says, “It was something that was popular in medieval times, so I thought, let’s make a fish pie! I looked at medieval recipes and I concocted a fish pie which I fed to my partner, and he was like ‘This is not terrible’”

For WoT the whole studio was asked to contribute family recipes which might have a place in Thedas. SC adapted these to fit in one Thedosian culture or another, including a beloved banana bread that localization producer Melanie Fleming would regularly bake to keep the DA team motivated. “Melanie’s banana bread got us through Inquisition”

DAI

It says part of DAI takes place in or near the border with Nevarra [???]

This game was aimed to be bigger than DA2 and even DAO in every conceivable way

The first hour had to do a lot of heavy lifting, tying together the events of DAO and DA2 while introducing a new PC, new followers etc in the aftermath of the big attack. DG rewrote it 7 times then Lukas Kristjanson did 2 more passes

DG: “Our problem is always that our endings are so important, but we leave them to last, when we have no time. I kept pushing on DAI: ‘Can we work on the ending now? Can we work on the ending now? Can we do it early on?’ Because I knew exactly what it was going to be. But despite the fact that it kept getting scheduled, whenever the schedule started falling behind, it kept getting pushed back... so, of course, it got left til last again.”

“The reveal of the story’s real antagonist, Solas, a follower until the end, when he betrayed the player”. “Solas’ story remains a main thread in Inquisition’s long-awaited follow-up” [these aren’t DG quotes, just bits of general text]

Over the course of development they had 8 full-time writers and 4 editors working on it. Other writers joined later to help wrangle what ended up being close to 1 million words of dialogue and unspoken text. While many teams moved to a more open concept style of work for DAI, the writers remained tucked away in their own room, a choice DG says was necessary, given how much they talked. All the talking had a purpose ofc as if someone hit a bump or wall in their writing they would open the problem up to the room

As writing on a project like DAI progresses, the writers grow punchier and weirder things make it into the game. This is especially the case towards the end of a project (they get tired, burned out)

Banter and codexes require less ‘buy-in’ (DG has talked about this concept a few times on the Twitch streams) from other designers. DG liked to leave banter for last as a reward because it was fun. Banter begins as lists of topics for 2 followers to discuss. These may progress over time or be one off exchanges. One banter script can balloon to well over 10k words. “The banter was always huge because we were always like, laughing, and really at that point, our fields of fucks were rather barren, so we would just do whatever”

The bog unicorn happened pretty much by accident. It was designed by Matt Rhodes and was one of his fav things to design. They needed horse variations and he had already designed an undead variant which was a bog mummy [bog body]. irl these are preserved in a much different way to traditional mummies. When someone dies in a bog their skin turns black and raisin-like. The examples we know of tend to have bright red hair for whatever reason. It’s a very striking look and MR wanted to do a horse version of this as he thought it’d be neat. 5 mins before the review meeting for it he had a big ‘Aha!’ moment, quickly looked up a rusty old Viking sword, and photoshopped it through its skull like that was how it died. “And I was like, ‘I just made a unicorn. Alright, in it goes!’” It got approved. “So we built the thing. It fit. It told a little story”

With the irl Inquisition longsword, one of the objects they tested its cleaving ability on was a plush version of Leliana’s nug Schmooples

The concept art team explored a wide variety of visuals for the Inquisitor’s signature mark. It needed to look powerful and raw but couldn’t look like a horrific wound. In some cases, as cool as the idea looked on paper, they just weren’t technically feasible, especially as they had to be able to fit on any number of different bodies

Bug report: “Endlessly spawning mounts! At one point during development, Inquisitors could summon a new horse every time they whistled, allowing them to amass a near infinite number of eager steeds that faithfully followed them across Thedas. “You could go charging across levels and they’d all gallop behind you,” Jen Cheverie says, “It was beautiful.” Trotting into town became an epic horse siege as a tidal wave of mounts enveloped the streets. Jen called it her Army of Ponies”

The giants came from DA Week, an internal period when devs can pursue different individual creative projects that in some way benefit DA. They also had a board game from one of these that they were going to put in but they didn’t have time. It’s referenced though. It was dwarven chess

Josie’s outfit is made of gold silk and patterned velvet, with leather at her waist. She carries “an ornate ledger” and she has “an ornamented collar sitting around her neck, finished by a brilliant red ruby, like a drop of Antivan wine in a sunbeam”

Iron Bull’s armor is leather. His loose pantaloons and leather boots give him agility to charge

On DAI in particular, concept artists took special care to make sure costumes would be realistic, at least in a practical ‘this obeys the laws of physics and textiles’ sense. “While on Inquisition, we thought about cosplay from a concept art perspective. Given how incredible a lot of [cosplays] are, I now am not worried about them. In fact in some cases in the future I want to throw them curveballs like, ‘All right, you clever bastards. Let’s see if you can do this!’”

2 geese that nested on the office building and had chicks were named Ganders and Arishonk (it wasn’t known who was the mom or the dad). Other possible names were Carver Honke, Bethany Honke, Urdnot Pecks, Quackwall, Cassandra Pentagoose, the Iron Bill, Shepbird, Garroose, Admiral Quackett, Scout Honking, HChick-47 and Darth Malgoose

Bug report: “The surprising adventures of Ser Noodles!” DAI was the first time the series had a mount feature, meaning this had a lot of bugs. A lot of the teams’ favorite bugs were to do with the mounts. There was a period of time where the Inquisitor’s horse seemed to lose all bone and muscle in its legs. They had a week or so where all quadruped legs were broken. It was a bit noticeable in things like nugs and other small beasties but the horse was insanely obvious. “The first time we summoned the horse [for this] and started running around, the entire QA exploration room just exploded with laughter.” Its legs flapped around like cooked fettucine, leading testers to lovingly nickname it Ser Noodles. At galloping speeds the legs almost looked like helicopter blades, especially when footage was set to classic pieces such as Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries

For DAI the artists were asked questions like “What would Morrigan wear to a formal ball? Can Cassandra pull off a jaunty hat?”

On DAI storyboarding became the norm. John Epler: “Cinematic design for the longest time was the Wild West. It was ‘here’s a bunch of content, now do it however you want’, which resulted in some successes and some failures.” Storyboarding gave designers a consistent visual blueprint based on ideas from designers, writers and concept artists

Quote from a storyboard by Nick Thornborrow (the Inquisitor going into the party at the end of basegame sequence): “Until Corypheus revealed himself they could not see the single hand behind the chaos. A magister and a darkspawn combined. The ultimate evil. So evil. Eviler than puppy-killers and egg farts combined.”

A general note on concept art:

In the early stages of any project, before the concept artists are aware of any writing, they like to just draw what they think cool story moments could be. It’s not unusual for the team to then be inspired by these and fold them into the game as the project progresses

– From Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

[bostongirl13]

A SINGLE SHOT OF LOVE

Chapter 1 

Summary: She is a federal agent and he is the boss of one of the most powerful mafia.  Fate wanted their paths to cross, which could cost them both more than they were willing to sacrifice. 

Words: 1.5+

Chapter warnings: murder, a description of a dead body 

18+ ONLY CONTENT! 

A/N: I know that two more people wrote to me to tag them, but I forgot. I'm very sorry....😭😓

New York City was a vast, intricate, labyrinth of noisy, streets and alleys. You could hear the incessant honking of the vehicles even before the sun rose. Impatient businessmen who had to get to the office, mothers who had to leave their children at their schools, facing the puzzling challenge of navigating through the crowd of parents and children; even some of the teachers who had stopped at the local bakery to get a bagel or two before their morning classes. After every person had reached their respective destination, the traffic congestions cleared significantly as if humungous snakes had eaten their fills and were retracting back into their dark and eerie caves. All this made you know that the city is coming to life. And in all this chaos you were. For several hours you've been awake and just entering your office building.

You greeted the security guard at the front desk, handing him a cup of coffee like you did every day when he finished his night shift and you were just starting your day. Dave was a nice man and always ready to help so you didn't mind buying one more drink.

In the elevator you took a deep breath getting ready for a hard day at work. You tweaked the badge on your belt and took your phone out of your pocket to make sure you didn't get any new information on the new case.

As the elevator door opened, you were struck by the smell of carcass, dust and what you called office odor. You couldn't name it, but it was so specific that you wouldn't mistake it for anything else. In addition, it was only noticeable in the offices of the FBI. But not only that was characteristic here. Most of the people, except for undercover agents, wore suits or very formal outfits. You didn't know how to convince yourself of it, and since you started working as an agent, you wore jeans, T-shirts, sweatshirts, sweaters, etc.

After saying hello to a few people along the way, your boss stood on a dais, something like half a floor, waiting for you, still glancing at his watch. Your boss was the kind of agent who'd been born in a suit. He was never a baby or an infant. He was a serious man with a serious gun who rolled off the assembly line in Quantico, Virginia. He was shaved 24/7 and he spoke with a baritone voice and clipped legalistic words. Life had no color for him, no shades of grey either, it was all black/white right/wrong legal/illegal. He was the perfect FBI agent.

"Y/L/N" only greeted you by saying your name, and immediately moved towards the conference room.

When you entered a large room with a large table in the center, where several agents were sitting and with whom you had the opportunity to work, you realized by their expressions that it was not an easy case. So you took your seat at the table and looked at the image projected by the projector.

First it was a case number, then a map, a few photos of the city, a few criminals, and finally photos from the crime scene. Your eyes widened, surveying every smallest element of the projected image. You noticed one of the agents covering her mouth with her hand and running out of the room. It must have been new, or this was the first time she had dealt with this type of thing.

The photos showed a lantern on the docks by the port, with fragments of a woman's body hung on thick butcher's hooks.

"I invited you here because each of you, well, almost everyone worked to some extent on similar things. However, in other cases, we did not know who was the culprit. The situation is different here, because this kind of cruelty is characteristic of only one person. As you can see Vladimir Elistratov is back, which means we have a lot of work to do.”

The term "murderer" was now reserved for psychopaths.  There were those that took life and crumpled under the weight of guilt, even if they'd no choice. There were some who killed when necessary and never lost a wink of sleep over it, that's pretty much where you sit. There are others who have made it a whole new hobby, look at them the wrong way and they attacked with lethal force. That last group are the only ones considered murderers now. Vladimir Elistratov belonged to the latter group.

After explaining, assigning tasks, and settling all the details needed for the moment, the agents went their way. You stayed for a while looking at all the photos from the beginning.

"Memories are coming back, aren't they?"

You looked up at your boss.

"You could say that," you laughed nervously. "Elistratov ... It will be a tough business. You know that well, Jack. ”You got up from your chair and put your hands in your jacket pockets.

“I am not saying that it is not. I want to be sure you can do it. Last time…"

“The last time I had less experience and acted in the dark, not knowing what I was doing. Now, well, now I can do more. "

Jack - your boss - said nothing, just nodded, agreeing with what you said.

"Just remember that you can talk to me at any time."

Although everyone thought him to be a cold, typical FBI agent, not expressing emotions, they were wrong. Jack had a heart and soul, and you saw it perfectly well when you dealt with Elistratov for the first time. However, this is not a story for now. What was over and no one will turn back the time. The mistakes were made and you can only pray not to make them again.

Your first task for today was to go to the docks to look around at crime scenes, see if the technicians missed any traces. Not that you didn't trust their abilities, but it must be admitted that each person pays attention to something else. Especially if they work in various positions.

Upon entering the underground garage, you saw a man standing by a black Mustang. He had a paper bag in one hand and a telephone in the other, typing intently, judging by his frown.

"Clint?"

"Y/N" the man immediately put the phone away and came over to greet you. "It's been a long time," he laughed and hugged you.

"What are you doing here?"

"I help. Jack didn't mention it? " You shook your head, "Well, maybe he forgot. He is no longer a teenager. Well. Get in. We're going to the docks. The technicians must have missed something. "

You haven't thought about it now, but your boss hasn't forgotten anything. Never. However, you trusted Clint too much to question his words, so without unnecessary words, you got into the car and drove to the indicated place.

Clint was a rather remote FBI agent. He was only summoned for important matters, and so no one ever knew where he was or what he was doing. A real secret agent after all.

When you arrived at the place, you immediately saw yellow tapes separating a certain area, suggesting that this area is forbidden for unauthorized persons. But now it was no longer necessary. Both of you broke the tape and started to circle the area, each one on a different side, looking for some traces.

“Something's not right for me. Why docks, why not a park? There are more people in the park, and as we know Elistratov loves the audience. "

“I also think it's a bit off his style. It's as if the copycat did it and not himself, ”Clint agreed with you. "Fuck, I have to pick it up, ”he said, looking at the screen of the ringing phone. You let him know it was okay and indicated with your hand that you were walking towards the hangars.

At first glance, everything seemed normal. A huge hangar, riddled with years of etching rust and bullets after numerous shootings. In the past, fishing boats were repaired here. Now it was a large building with a lot of metal. You went over to the other side, seeing that you wouldn't find anything here anyway, but still wanted to be sure that you checked every millimeter of the terrain.

And then you saw him. A tall man dressed in an expensive suit - or so you thought - hair combed back and sunglasses. He was leaning against a car, a black Audi, and talking on the phone. You didn't hear what the conversation was about, though, but judging from his clenched jaw, it wasn't pleasant. You took out your phone and took a few hidden photos and sent them to Clint. You looked again at the man who seemed to be staring right at you….

~ To be continued ~

Tags:  @worksby-d @sweetflowersforthebroken @speechlessxx @angrybirdcr @patzammit @ivettt @ozarkthedog @optimistic-dinosaur-nacho @a-moment-captured @buckysteveloki-me @denisemarieangelina @sweater-daddiesdumbdork

Series tags: @kelbabyblue @a-moment-captured @wayward-blonde @peaches-roses-sins @cynic-spirit @redhairedfeistynerd @stargazingfangirl18​ 

[meimae]

Language Learning Through Immersion: One Year Japanese Update

11/03/2021

I did it, you guys! I’ve successfully reached my very first year of Japanese language immersion! I honestly thought that I would have given up by now, but this really has been a fun and ultimately rewarding endeavor.

Studying the language has been at the back of my mind for years since elementary school, I just never really knew how to go about it before, and I always thought that I could learn it in a classroom setting someday. That someday for me was in two elective courses in university, and while those were fun as well, it did not give me the same gains that I have achieved in this past year.

It’s probably easier to quantify learning a language in a classroom setting, especially when going through a program to earn a language degree. Learning through immersion, however, I had to really consider what my goals should be on my own. Eventually, I stumbled upon an article saying that for an English speaker, Japanese was exceptionally difficult to learn and that at least 2,200 hours must be spent with the language to reach a certain level of proficiency. So I said to myself, “well okay internet, if you say so!”, and set that as my long term goal going forward.

Spoiler Alert: I did not hit that goal in my first year. I am not crazy and will never listen to Japanese in my sleep regardless of what Khatzumoto (the creator of All Japanese All the Time) says. 

I did, however, hit a total 1,226.65 active immersion hours in my first year, so I guess I’m still a bit nuts. That is 874.96 hours of active listening and 351.69 reading hours. I also did 270.59 hours of passive listening, also known as the time in the very beginning of my immersion where I was using Japanese subtitles (therefore not really concentrating on listening alone). That’s a cumulative 1,497.24 hours spent with Japanese. That’s more than halfway towards my goal! 

To further break that down for curious animanga fans out there, that’s 973 episodes from 109 anime, 765 episodes from 33 dramas, 7 movies, and 967 chapters from 107 volumes of manga (21 series). Here’s my anilist and mydramalist to see what I’ve read/watched.

During all this, I was also doing my daily Anki reps and now I have a 530 day SRS streak (includes the time prior starting immersion and only doing RTK and some vocabulary cards) and a total 8,857 sentence cards. I’ve been averaging 406 cards daily (because I’m trying to cure my leeches) and I spend about an hour per day doing reps and learning new cards. I don’t really track my time on Anki, but I do have a set timer that goes off after 1-1:30 hours.

What I haven’t touched upon at all is output. I have not gone out of my way to find a tutor or a language partner. There’s still plenty of input out there to immerse in before I even consider outputting.

Graphs, stats, and more thoughts:

Here's my current card count in my main deck (minus the cards in my new/learning queue and leeches I've been relearning which are in separate decks):

That one day in 2019 where I did not do my cards because I was seriously doubting whether I can actually stick with language learning this time around will forever haunt and inspire me to keep going everyday.

Workflow and Tips

You might be wondering, how do I have a lot of time? I started this whole endeavor in the middle of a pandemic, which eliminated the option of me going to a language school, and a slew of other things I were considering doing last year became impossible (and if anything, very scary to do in a pandemic). All I can say is that, things work out eventually if it is His will, and if I can learn a skill before everything properly settles back down again, then why not? 

I wake up at 5 in the morning everyday to either do my Anki reps or read until the time when I need to get up and I listen to compressed audio throughout the day. The biggest tip is to switch the time you spend watching/reading in your native language to your target language instead. Listen to a podcast during your commute, watch an episode during lunch break, read before going to bed, do your Anki reps in the bathroom if you have to. 

But, if you’re feeling burnt out, there is no reason for you to not take a break! I have been watching a lot of Among Us streams before bed, and I chat with my friends from time to time. Language learning is not a race.

More Stats

Here are a couple of grids of the kanji characters that I have encountered at least once in my immersion and how well I have answered them in my vocabulary/sentence cards.

It's interesting that after almost 9000 words, I have yet to encounter every single character from the Remembering the Kanji 1 (RTK 1) book by James Heisig, which teaches you the most common use characters that are part of the 常用漢字. Which brings me to the question, was writing down every single character being taught in RTK worth it every time it came up in my reviews for the first 3-ish months I was reviewing them? Maybe, maybe not. It certainly removed my anxiety whenever looking at blocks of text in Japanese, but the longer I think about it, the more I feel I should have switched to Recognition RTK earlier. Still, being able to write in proper stroke order is cool I guess, and it also helps me when looking things up in the dictionary.

Here’s the same grid but in JLPT order:

I clearly need to grind those N2 and N1 level cards! Speaking of which, I have apparently almost covered every single character that could possibly appear in the JLPT (except for the N1 which I have only covered half of) in just a year's time. If the JLPT word frequency lists I’m using are accurate, I have about 2,000 words more to go to to cover most vocabulary that could appear in the test. This makes the "10,000 sentences/words to fluency" argument a reasonable milestone to aim for for Japanese learners if said aim is only to pass the test. That said, 10,000 words is just that, a milestone. It's more akin to a comfortable level of comprehension, but not my own concept of fluency which is being able to read with ease, speak articulately, and write comfortably.

READING IMMERSION GRAPHS

My biggest motivation for tracking my stats is for the purpose of seeing whether my reading speed is improving over time. Reading speed is also easier to measure than listening comprehension which is kind of subjective, so I had a lot of fun making these. What I found is that for the first volume or chapter of whatever it is I’m reading, I always take the time to get used to the writing style of the author. My speed really improves whenever I keep reading the same topic over and over again. On the other hand and quite obviously, looking up many new words in a row and trying to parse sentences slows me down.

Manga: Reading Speed Progression per Volume

I clearly love ちはやふる and I am not ashamed to admit it.

I need to start reading longer manga. When I do, I’ll probably split this graph into less than and greater than 20 volumes. Imagine if I start reading something ridiculously long as 名探偵コナン or ワンピース, these graphs will start breaching the bounds of time and space.

Novels: Time Spent Reading per Chapter

#neverforget the time I read chapter six of Norwegian Wood for 9 hours when it took me less than half that time in English RIP. Also, my interest in Kitchen plummeted LOL. Still planning to finish it don’t worry. 

I also need to start branching away from manga and start reading more novels and light novels, too just so I can make more pretty graphs.

Visual Novels: Time Spent Reading and Daily Word Count

Also known as images that clearly show that I’ve already spent several days only reading the prologue of Island. I’m not sweating. 切那 needs to stop using words I don’t know in succession. More thoughts on this VN far into the future.

Thoughts on Immersion

I can’t really say anything else other that that it works for me, and needless to say if you’re considering this method, remember that the SRS is your friend but immersion should be your one true love.

Prior to all this, I couldn’t even read a sample paragraph from Genki without being confused to my very soul. Yes, I know, it’s embarrassing, but that’s the truth. I was way more scared of failing my Japanese classes than my actual thesis for my bachelors degree, I kid you not. I would quite literally spend all my free time in university trying to understand grammar, memorize vocabulary, and answer my workbook exercises with little to no success. 

I tried so hard to get all the grammar “formulas” into my head for 1.5 years and it only brought me more confusion. I’m never going back to traditional classroom study for language learning, but I will still refer to grammar books when I need to, and not because I feel like I need to answer 4783342 different workbook exercises like my life depended on it.

I still can’t believe it, but with immersion this statement is actually true to a point, don’t try shadowing anime/or calling your boss anime language slurs, use your common sense:

study anime to understand Japanese > study Japanese to understand anime 

Future Goals/Plans

2,200 immersion hours was my initial goal, but honestly I feel like that number could be much higher. There’s still a lot of stuff I don’t understand (news, politics, sciences, etc.), so I’ll make attempts to cover more of those things in my immersion. 

I’ll continue reading more, because that’s a natural SRS in itself. Try to read longer manga, more novels, visual novels, and light novels, and maybe news articles. 

I’ll try to mine as much “JLPT vocab” as I can before making any attempts at taking the JLPT. I noticed that a lot of the words I know don’t appear in the JLPT word lists as much, even though they appear a lot in media/daily conversation. 

Continue mining all words I don’t know because all words are useful anyway. There is no such thing as useless words. I never really understood mining only “interesting words” or words that “pop up” in your immersion. As I said in my previous blog post, 美人局 is an interesting word and I certainly caught it being said in my immersion, but in the three languages I know, I wouldn’t know when I would be able to use such a word, as compared to something like ジャガイモ which is a significantly less interesting word, but is certainly useful to know. 

_

I have managed to talk up a storm, but if you have any questions regarding my process or recommendations for new immersion material, please feel free to send an ask/reply to this post. I love hearing about other people’s language learning/immersion journeys. 

See you on my next post!

[quirkwizard]

Spoiled Sushi

For a while, a certain article has been vexing me. One that seems to have a great misunderstanding of the series it was writing about, missing obvious points and core parts of the worldbuilding. No, it wasn’t by CBR, nor was it by Screenrant. But it was by Cruchyroll of all places. They decided to make an article about the Top 5 Misused Quirks in My Hero Academia. It was not good and has been bugging me. So I decided to give them a taste of their own medicine. I mean they try to shut down whoever even attempts to do what they do, so why not make fun of them for trying to do what I do? Plus you guys seem to like it when I’m snarky, so this could be fun for everyone.

For clarity’s sake, this was written at the beginning of 2019, when the most recent chapter was Chapter 214 and the the anime had only reached Season 3. I’m keeping that in mind as I write. I will also be skipping around some of the parts of the article as I am talking about it. If its not worth mentioning, I won’t bring it up, simple as that. For instance, I’m skipping the intro because it is completely superfluous and would only serve to make a completely different fanbase mad. Might as well, most of what I am passing up are just dumb jokes. But if you are curious... don’t waste your time reading this. Your time is valuable and you have better things to do then read this article.

5. Kurogiri Can Create Free, Renewable Energy

“In all seriousness, though, Kurogiri is probably one of the most powerful characters in the anime, with their being virtually no limit to how far he can extend his Warp Gate portals.”

I mean there are certainly limits for his Quirk. Besides the need to know the coordinates or see where he is moving, there’s obviously a limit to how much he can spread out his body.

“Why then doesn’t he use them to create near-infinite energy? Open two portals one above another, throw in a heavy object inside and watch it fall endlessly. Devise a way to hook a dynamo or something to it and, bam, you have free power that would make Kurogiri a billionaire overnight and a hero to the entire planet.”

This idea has so many problems that I don’t even know where to begin.

One, if this could work, it likely wouldn’t make a lot of energy. Besides the various physics problems involved in this, Kurogiri would just be one guy doing this, meaning that it’s unlikely he’d be able to make enough power to matter.

Two, Kurogiri would still need rest as he is a living being, meaning he wouldn’t to keep up this theoretical contraption forever and you’d get even less energy relying on him. At most, it would work best in a small bunker as a last resort.

Three, that sounds like it would be a lot more dangerous then it would be worth for the energy made. If Kurogiri would to lose focus for a moment, the portals fall apart and there would just be a lot of damage from this heavy object moving at high speeds.

“Even if Kurogiri only cares about taking down All Might, it would still be much easier to do if he had a literal mountain of money/public goodwill at his side.”

What kind of bizzaro universe are you living in where the guy who makes energy could possibly turn public option about the very well liked Number 1 Hero that saves lives every day? That’s literally what Lex Luthor does and people hate him for it.

4. Koji Koda Could Help Feed Billions Of People

“Koji is the resident Class 1-A stoner (get it? he's made of rock? come on) with the power to control ANY creature in the animal kingdom. This would logically also include spiders, meaning that Koji could literally end all street crime in, like, 5 minutes tops by swallowing all the criminals up in a giant arachno-tsunami.”

While this article is infuriating in many ways, it did give us the mental image of an “arachno-tsunami”. Which is totally worth sitting through this jumbled mess of words and ignorance.

“But, you see, Koji is just too shy and nice to be an effective hero. He wants to do good but he just doesn’t have that fighter instinct in him. Which is why he should instead use his Anivoice Quirk to revolutionize agriculture all around the world.”

You can be an effective hero and not beat people up. Sure, it certainly can come up in the job description, but that isn’t all of what a hero is meant to do. Koda’s Quirk makes him great at information gathering and rescue work, two very important aspects of hero work that suit his personality perfectly.

“Give him a megaphone and fly him over American fields, telling feral pigs to stop causing $1.5 billion worth of damage a year in destroyed crops. Fly him to Australia to tell the invasive cane toads and rabbits to kindly lemming themselves off a cliff. Have him tell the aggressive lionfish the get the hell out of the Atlantic. FORCE HIM TO GET OVER HIS FEAR OF BUGS AND MAKE AGRICULTURAL PESTS A THING OF THE PAST. “

There is no possible way Koda could be everywhere at once to pull that off. And considering that the average human voice can only carry for about a mile, IE, about the average size of a single farm. You know, because animals need to hear his voice in order to receive his commands. So even if it was limited to a single farm, its unlikely to do much to help. But by far the biggest issue with this entire plan is that what Koda does to an animal is not permanent. The second his control is interrupted, the animals return to normal, bound to just go back to whatever they were doing before. 

So if Koda tries to change anything, its just going to end up undone by the time he leaves, just delaying the inevitable problem that comes from these animals. So even if Koda told the pigs to go away, they’d likely be back by the next day, destroying farmland like nothing happened. Even then, because of the previous limitations, he’d still have to go farm by farm to pull it off. That’s not even mentioning all of the other suggestions. Honestly, if you wanted to do something with Quirk, you should just convince all the animals to line up during hunting season. Dark, yes, but it least it would offer a more permanent solution then what the writer is suggesting.

“If Koji was utilized properly, he could travel the world undoing mankind’s mistakes and creating organic, pesticide-free crops instead of doing what he does now, which is largely sitting around on his ass roleplaying Snow White.”

Which, in spite of many fans joking about his Quirk, has shown to be very helpful quite a few times.

3. Inko Midoriya Would Have Made A Great Nurse

“Izuku’s mother in My Hero Academia has mainly done two things so far: jack and squat.”

I mean she did design Izuku’s costume, even if it got replaced, its is still a corner stone of his design, and she offered a good amount of drama after the fight with All Might and All For One. 

“She did try to be a good mother but kind of failed at that when she tearfully apologized to her son because he was born without a Quirk, essentially telling him: “I’m so sorry I gave birth to such a loser.””

Would you believe that this one line was what really prompted me to talk about this? Because that is probably one of the worst takes I have ever in relation to this series. If you honestly believed that is what Inko was doing, the woman who practically raised her child by herself and constantly talks about much she cares for him, you must be watching the wrong series. That’s the only way I could explain why that is.

“So, she doesn’t really have much going on in her life. That’s why she should try nursing instead. I realize that becoming a nurse takes a lot of hard work and dedication, but Inko would be a natural fit for it. Despite her initial shortcomings, she is a very caring person with loads of empathy.” 

Inko’s empathic? Could have fooled me. I mean she did feel the need to apologize to her son for giving birth to a loser. No, I am not over that, how could you have possibly gotten that from the scene?!

“She also has the power of limited telekinesis. Inko can move small objects over short distances, and while that would not be helpful for stopping crime, it would be great for, say, removing kidney stones. Or things stuck in people’s throats. Or coins from children’s stomachs.”

Trying to use a Quirk like this in any kind of medical procedure is laughable at best and dangerous at worst. Imagine if Inko had to remove a bullet from someone. From what we see, the process of her moving objects is slow and need several pulls from her to attract the object to her. So if she’s going to try to pull it out and its going to get caught on something, causing more damage to the person she is trying to save. She’s basically going to be keying the insides of whoever she is trying to operate on.

The entire reasons doctors, especially surgeons, train for so long is because the human body can be extremely delicate. It needs a lot of care and time so the doctors don’t make things worse for the patients. It’s why surgeons need to have such steady hands and a lot of time even to due minor procedures. But trying to do that with a Quirk is just going to cause more problems then it can solve. Doing that with a Quirk like Inko’s just lacks a lot of the precision and dexterity necessary to pull this off.

2. Uraraka Should Go Work For A Shipping Company

“Ochaco Uraraka has one of the most well-rounded Quirks out of all the main characters: Zero Gravity. With it, she can make objects and people float, which is great for offense, defense, and rescue operations. As a superheroine, she is doing everything right with her Quirk.”

I mean “Zero Gravity” can kind of be used offensively, but not effectively as other Quirks. Its why she did all of that training with Gun Head to make up for her lack of an offensive presence. Eh, two of three ain’t bad. I’ll take what I can get.

“I just think Uraraka should never have become a superheroine in the first place. Uraraka has actually always been honest about her motivation: she wants dem YEN YEN BILLS YO (for her struggling family.)”

That’s because hero work is an extremely frugal business even super minor heroes can still seem to make a decent living out of it.

“But regular jobs also exist in that world, and that must include shipping companies that would instantly hire Uraraka to Zero-G their freighters, trucks, and planes. Even if she cannot make them float, she can still remove enough gravity from them to save the company tons of fuel. Company profit margins are razor thin.”

First off, its mentioned several times that if you want to use a Quirk for a job, you need to have a hero license. Its to make sure you know how to use your Quirk properly so you don’t end up hurting someone with your powers. So for her to even try this, she needs to go through hero school anyway. Might as well get the most out of it. Second, Uraraka cannot lower the gravity of her target. Either the object is floating or it isn’t floating. There is no in between for Uraraka. 

Third, given what we’ve seen from Uraraka, there is no possible way that she could ever lift that much. She’s barely able to lift three lower numbered robots and that was only for a few seconds. So, at the most, she can lift a few tons. How exactly do you expect her to work with something like a cargo plane, which, on its own, can weight over forty five tons, not including fuel or any extra cargo?

Which is another thing I noticed throughout the article: the writer seems to severely overestimate how effective Quirks actually are. The range and scope of Quirks is much smaller then other power systems, even when compared to similar “low level” series like HunterxHunter. Like every kind of application listed goes far beyond what most Quirks are capable of, such as forgetting certain drawbacks. And that is most notable with the last suggestion.

1. Momo Could Solve Literally All The World’s Problems

I bet Kohei Horikoshi was really proud of himself when he came up with Momo Yaoyorozu’s design: No, see, she HAS to dress scantily because her Quirk is Creation, i.e. the ability to create any object she wants through her skin, which must be constantly exposed. Peachy.”

Oh boy, it wouldn’t be any sort of discussion about Momo without beating that long dead horse. What’s next? Bakugou angry? Izuku cry? 

“Momo can apparently create anything as long as she understands its composition, and seeing as she’s made an ethanol spray can, infrared goggles, a lighter, and a tracker, it seems like there’s nothing she cannot make.”

Oh boy, it wouldn’t be any sort of discussion about Momo without a grievous misunderstanding of how her Quirk works either. Maybe they are in the fandom. As I have mentioned in my Momo Misconceptions post, Momo needs fat to make what she does. She’s not an alchemist where she can just clap her hands and make whatever she wants. If she doesn’t have enough fat, she cannot make items. By those very rules, some things are just out of her reach because it would just take too much fat. It’s why she limits herself to simpler items.

“Cool. MAKE US SOME HELIUM THEN. The world is running out of the gas and we need it for MRI scanners and the like. Momo could make more of it.”

Actually, we don’t even know for sure if Momo is capable of making gases. All we have seen her make is solids and a few liquids. There is the lighter she made, but that could easily run on lighter fluid.

“Or thorium. She could make thorium that we could use to make thorium-based reactors that are apparently way safer than uranium ones.”

Thorium isn’t even that rare, just as about as common as lead and three times as common as uranium. Even if it was a problem, it would likely kill her, either from burning through all of her fat or from the exposure to radiation.

“Medicine, fresh water, cheap electronics that we could send to developing countries: Momo could crank all of those out in an afternoon.“

Yes, in theory, Momo could do that, but not the extent that she would make a major difference in the world like they are suggesting. There are just more practical and better long term solutions then trying to force a single person to do all of that. It’s almost as if Momo is a regular human being who has limitations you need to keep in mind when making these ill informed suggestions.

“And while spending your life as a walking Everything Faucet might not seem that glamorous, it actually has the potential to change the entire planet for the better.”

Given the kind of set up and effort that would be required to even attempt that, I think “horrific” would be a more appropriate descriptor since it would be done to a living, thinking person.

Honestly, I think that most of these people are doing more with their Quirks now then with any of these suggestions. At least, when you actually think about the rules and limits of the characters. Sure, Inko isn’t doing much, but she is a civilian with a fairly weak Quirk. Kurogiri acts as a major player within the League, getting them around quickly and evading capture. I mean he is using his power to help out a bunch of villains, but my point still stands that he is not “misusing” his Quirk.

In fact, a majority of the people on this list are doing more to help people and save lives by being heroes. Given the limitations of their abilities, using them to stop superpowered criminals who risking damaging the people around and helping victims of these crimes is doing then any of those roles in spite of the fact that the article tries its best to downplay that these people are already saving lives. So, in reality, they are doing far more to help people then doing any of these ideas, you damp sock of a writer.

[kuchenackerman]

EREMIKA POLL RESULTS

The poll was opened on January 6th, 2019 and closed on January 13th, 2019. It got a total of 403 responses and the main focus was to explore the shipper’s thoughts and feelings, especially after Chapter 112.

It consisted of five sections:

General questions

On chapter 112 and current feels

On eremika content

Content creators

General demographics

I’ll present the results’ interpretation by section and in almost the same order the questions were asked to make all the information a bit easier to follow. This way if you aren’t interested in one of the sections you can just scroll down until you see the title of the next one. I recommend using the shortcut CTRL+F to look up for the section results you’re more eager to read or to just jump to general result key words faster.

I want to thank Selena and Heidi again for proofreading the poll back then and suggesting some questions. Big thanks to EVERYONE who participated and took their time to write their thoughts down ❤  

Most of the respondents answers will be shared, and I mean “most” since I had to group up similar worded replies. For example, short answers like “chapter 50”, “ch 50”, “in manga chapter 50” got summed up. However, even if I tried to summarize things, there were too many answers that I’ll be sharing with you all anyway.

I apologize in advance for any grammar mistake or error in the presentation of the info. This turned out longer and required more time than I thought it would. Besides I’m tired and I don’t have as much free time as before.

I hope you enjoy digging in the results of the EM focused poll~

1. GENERAL QUESTIONS

1.1) Regarding when did the respondents started to ship Eren and Mikasa, over 65% of them does since 2013-2014 (35.2%) or 2017-2018 (30%), concurring with the years when we got Season 1 and Season 2 of the anime, respectively. Then, 24% of the respondents said to ship it since 2015-2016. About 11% of the respondents started liking the pairing before we even got the anime adaptation: 5.5% since 2011-2012 and 5.2% since 2009-2010.

1.2) Eremika is the main SnK ship of 66.5% of the total respondents. 12% (33 responses) of that 66.5% have other OTPs besides Eren and Mikasa. More than half of these shippers (19 of 33) support another hetero pairing as well.

1.3) When it comes to the people that don’t consider EM as their main ship, over 50% of them have another hetero ship as their main. Around 30% have a M/M ship as main, almost 10% a F/F ship and 6% an OT3 / trio.

1.4) Almost 70% of the respondents started shipping Eren and Mikasa while watching the anime. Besides the manga (27.3%), some of the shippers started liking the pairing because of fanart (including a “rather steamy NSFW” one, lol), fanfiction or because of some people in the fandom, like someone they follow that influenced their shipping feels or because of an enthusiastic friend.

1.5) 65% of the total respondents has NEVER stopped shipping eremika (y’all good), while 35% has stopped doing so at some point only to jump back on the ship again (I declare myself guilty of this, I’m a damn traitor), though a small part of that 35% never really jumped back on it and just drowned in the waters of their full betrayal.

1.6) On which character of the ship is their favorite, more than half of the respondents prefer Mikasa over Eren, who got 18.4% of the votes. 28.5% like both characters equally.

1.7) On canon looks of the characters:

The thirst for manbun Eren won this time and got a bit more than 37% of the votes. Our traditional short-haired Eren follows with 22%. There’s a tie between hobo Eren and middle-short haired (?) Eren at 12.4%. Almost 16% of the respondents don’t have a preferred look for our boy.

In Mikasa’s case, the responses were more even between all her looks. There’s a tie in first place with 22.6% of the votes between ponytail Mikasa and traditional bob Mikasa. Short-haired Mikasa and long-haired Mikasa got 21.3% and 20% respectively. 13% of the respondents couldn’t choose a specific look for her as their preferred one.

1.8) Now, time to share the shippers’ answers and the results about the specific moment of the manga or anime that sold eremika to them. There was a total of 289 written responses to the question. I tried to organize them in quantity of mentions of certain scenes or chapter/episodes. Some replies mentioned more than one moment.

The first place was taken by S2 Episode 12 / Chapter 50 from the Clash of Titans arc, since about a hundred people mentioned it as the moment where they started shipping Eren and Mikasa.

Trost Arc got second, third and fourth place: S1 Episode 6 / Chapter 6 got almost eighty mentions, while S1 Episode 8 got around fifty mentions and S1 Episode 7, with a bit more than twenty mentions.

Eight times people mentioned they started shipping EM since they were introduced in S1 Episode 1/ Chapter 1. Some don’t identify a specific moment but talk about their appreciation toward their general relationship, dynamic or scenes together.

S1 Episode 14 / Manga Chapter 19 trial scene got mentioned about seven times.

The final episode of season one got mentioned five times.

S1 Episode 12 / Manga Chapter 13 and Chapter 51 got both mentioned at least four times.

[ Answers to 1.8 ]

~ S1 Episode 1 / Manga Chapter 1

Literally the first scene Eren dreaming abt Mikasa with that scarf and asking why her hair got longer and when he gave the scarf to her

Her tossing his ass into the side of a building, spilling the firewood everywhere

When Mikasa threw Eren against the wall in episode 1 season 1

In the first op when they're surrounded by dead comrades and mikasa looks at eren. The shipping feels started. The scarf scene (entire backstory of Mikasa and Eren's meet strengthened my feels)

Mikasa taking care of him since day 1

~ Unspecified

No specific moment. I just knew they were meant to be together from everything they did!

I don't remember exactly. It just felt naturally that they have to be together.

The very first time their dynamic was truly shown. It's so rare and interesting to see a het pairing where the girl is the cool, stoic protector and the guy is the reckless but good-hearted damsel in distress!

It grew on me over time - they just seem to both really care for and look out for each other.

All eremika scenes 💕💕💕

Idk....it just kinda happened.

"Ereh"

No specific scene, it was just that her desperation wore me down over time

just their bond and dependence on each other through hard times and how resilient their unspoken trust and faith in one another is

Tbh I was originally an Ereannie shipper and don’t really pay too much attention to other characters at least in that aspect of going to ship them but after rewatching the anime series for who knows how many times I came to realize that Eren and Mikasa were just a ship that I can’t deny in which I think it’s only natural for them to be together.

I had watched all of season 1 without focusing on shipping. It wasn’t until I reflected later on and rewatched that I started shipping Eremika very much <3

~ S1 Episode 6 / Manga Chapter 6

When for the first time they slain evil, love at first kill.

The World the Girl Saw! I had this inkling feeling that I was going to ship them ever since the beginning, but this really did it for me.

Eren saving Mikasa from kidnappers / Mikasa losing her parents / Eren wrapping his scarf on Mikasa

I think it was the scene in the anime (as I watched the anime before reading the manga) when Eren wrapped his scarf around Mikasa and her face softens because of his kindness to her.

Episode 6 of the anime, when we got the backstory of Mikasa, but also, while reading the manga chapter 50 killed me.

Episode 6 of the anime; the scarf scene melted my heart

When Eren saved Mikasa from the thugs and told her to fight. Also the scarf scene really got me.

Episode 6 of the anime when Eren wrapped his scarf around Mikasa sealed the deal for me. ❤

The chapter/episode show Mikasa's past and especially when Eren pull Mikasa's hand while blushing, I knew that my whole life is for these two.

Their first meeting. It left an impression on me.

Mikasa's memory of Eren wrapping the scarf around her and grabbing her hand. Mikasa looked so grateful and happy in that moment.

Mikasa's tragic backstory and being saved by Eren who then gave her the scarf. And the moment she finds out he's still alive inside the attack titan and cries while hugging him.

Eren saving her when he didn't have to. (Kidnappers)

Episode 6 - when Eren wrapped the scarf around Mikasa when they were kids. It made me realize how strong Mikasa's feelings were for Eren, and how their bond was sealed the moment he gave her the scarf.

Mikasa's backstory episode earlier in Season 1. It only took that scene to validate me the fact that these two are meant to be always together. Call it string of fate or whatever. She is attached to the boy that saved her life. Chapter 50 of the manga also further validated my point.

The moment Eren gave Mikasa his scarf. It's a heartwarming moment as it gives Mikasa new hope to live and a home together with Eren.

I fell in love with Eremika the first moment I saw them when Mikasa was staring at sleeping Eren in the first episode, but I started shipping them when Eren wrapped the scarf around Mikasa and gave her a home. And one of my favorite scenes if not my favorite is when Mikasa started crying when she heard Eren’s heartbeat in S1E8 after he came out of his Titan form the first time. God that’s a lot to say :D

Since retrospection of their adventure in stabbin cabin

The moment I found out they are not blood related

Scarf scene (bet everyone's gonna put that though) but also their constant care and concern for each other throughout the series

I started watching the anime before fully reading the manga. I always thought Eren and Mikasa would be cute together from episode one. I didn’t really have a reason I felt that way, it was more of an instinct. However I didn’t fully ship them until Mikasa’s backstory in episode 6. I enjoy how their relationship is “tough love” instead of a in-your-face sap show. They just belong together. Their relationship matches the world they are in, and I always had a thing for ships that take a long time to come together. The end result is more satisfying.

Seeing their backstory of how they met because before reading/watching I saw people saying they were siblings. But that's not actually true so it expelled my worries about the ship.

When Eren wrapped his scarf to Mikasa and said "let's go home…"  

When eren saved mikasa as kids and also the end scene of season 1 when eren picks up the scarf and says "that thing has seen it's best days, ill just get you a new one" and mikasa is like but it's special :c

“As long as you’re alive I can do anything” scene after her back story

~ S1 Episode 7 / Manga Chapter

Ep 7 of season 1 where Mikasa is about to get grabbed by a titan and in her last moments she thinks of Eren, and she's just like "If I die, I won't be able to remember your face". And decides if she goes down, she's gonna go down fighting, the way she knows Eren would want her too. ;_;

Scarf scene. Also when Mikasa remembers smiling down at a sleeping Eren and regains the will to fight, then Eren's titan shows up and protects her

First Attack Titan appearance and Eren saving Mikasa

when titan!eren came to smash the titan as mikasa was about to stand for herself after her pomegranate speech

When Mikasa thought Eren had died, and her reaction to that, that's when I REALLY started to ship them.

This is too difficult to answer lol. But if I choose one scene that charmed my heart with them it's would be that scene in ep.7 (s1) when Mikasa gave up to live. She remembered the words that Eren said to her in the past to keep fighting! TATAKAE! and the emotion that trigger in her the streght to protect the last memories that she had of him... MAN, I always get goosebumps at remember her speech! "If I die, your memories will die with me, that why I will fight! No matter what! I will live!"

Mikasa's being suicidal and hopeless after Eren's supposed death at the Battle of Trost District made me realize how much Eren means to Mikasa, and so I was sold on this ship.

ep 7, "I'll never give up again. If I died, I won't be able to remember you"

The episode where Eren dies and it flashes to Mikasa thinking about him, I knew I shipped them. I was a bit concerned because the anime wasn't clear on their relationship if they were brother or sister at that point, but the next episode was Mikasa's backstory and I knew it was safe to ship them!!

pomegranate scene was just too good :')

CH7, related to CH6, but seeing her find her resolve so quickly after losing him was sobering. I interpret this moment as a big precursor to CH50, but that's another moment

When Mikasa decides to live, because if she died she would not be able to remember Eren. And also when she sees that Eren is alive and runs to and embrace he.

~ S1 Episode 8 / Manga Chapter

In the anime when Eren emerged from the titan form and Mikasa ran to see it's Eren.

When mikasa cried holding eren after his first transformation as a titan

When Mikasa found out Eren was alive in trost

It wasn’t anyone thing. It was a lot of moments, but mostly the scene where Eren is revealed to be a titan shifter and Mikasa holds on to him and cries. That or the reveal of their backstory. Mikasa's clinginess suddenly made a lot of sense.

Mikasa being openly emotional for the first time while embracing Eren in ep 8

Definitely the scene where Eren comes out of the nape of his titan and Mikasa sees him.

The moment when Mikasa clutches Eren and tries to hear his heartbeat after they see him emerging from his Titan the first time. And when Eren defends Mikasa from the cannon and then at his trial, that's when it changed from one-sided to full-on Eremika for me.

Episode 8 of Season 1 when Mikasa found out Eren was still alive and started crying

Episode 8 Mikasa crying whilst hugging Eren after he comes out of his titan form. Chapter 50. Chapter 51 Eren worrying about Mikasa and apologising.

When Eren appeared for the first time out of his Titan form and Mikasa run to him, when she started crying while listening his heart beat I was sold.

EPISODE EIGHT "I CAN HEAR HIS HEARTBEAT" MOMENT

"I can hear his heartbeat"...I cried when Mikasa ran to hug him and heard his heart beat, and then cried and cried. Like...she's so strong and brave all the time - that really hit me. You could feel the amount of love she has for him. Either that one or the scarf scene where Eren wrapped his scarf around her and welcomed her into his family!

Hugging eren when he first emerged from the attack titan

when she found out he was alive again and started crying

when eren appeared out of the titan and mikasa hugged him

I first bit when Eren wrapped the scarf but they reeled me in when Mikasa finds out he wasn't really dead and first comes out of his titan

Cap 8 anime, Eren sale del titan y Mikasa corre hacia él y lo abraza y llora

The manga equivalent of episode 8. Forgive me I can’t remember chapter numbers for the life of me.

When Mikasa ran to Eren after he first emerged from his Titan corpse and cried as she embraced him.

I think I've always loved the idea of them being together romantically since Eren saved Mikasa as a kid. However, the scene of Eren first coming out of his titan and Mikasa holding him while crying will forever be a highlight from the show/manga that I won't forget.

when Eren comes back to life in season 1 & Mikasa sobs while clutching him hard against her chest, uncaring about everyone watching/hearing around.

When mikasa started crying after she found out that eren was alive, when she said “If i die, i won’t be able to remember you” and the scene from season 2 episode 12, “I’ll wrap that around you as many times as you want. Now and forever... as much as you want!” that line makes me cry every time.

The scene when Mikasa hugged Eren and cried in relief that he’s alive.

When mikasa hugged eren tightly after he came out of his titan form on episode 8

MIkasa crying into erens chest after she pulls eren out of his tian for the fist time in Trost, season 1, plus the last episode of second season had me bawling on the floor tbh it  was such a great scene

When Mikasa realizes the person emerging from the Attack Titan is Eren, and she immediately goes to him, holds him, and cries.

~ S1 Episode 12 / Manga Chapter 13

When Ian pointed out Mikasa’s feelings about Eren during the Trost battle

When Ian called Eren Mikasa’s boyfriend - and she blushed.

Cliché haha but: when she blushed when Riko said that Eren is her boyfriend I was like ohhhHHHHH girl

~ S1 Episode 14 / Manga Chapter 19

When Eren defended Mikasa during his judgement

The court trail scene where Eren stood up for Mikasa

The scene in the anime in the courtroom where Eren defends Mikasa after the bystanders accuse her of being like him

It was when Eren was at the court house he said it was all his fault and not to blame Mikasa

Either it'd be the scene in chapter 51 or the moment Eren stood up for Mikasa during the court trial back in season 1

~ S2 Episode 12 / Manga Chapter 50

Chapter 50 10000%

the "I'll wrap this scarf around you as many time you need" scene

The anime scene at the end of season 2 where Eden unlocks the power of the coordinate to save mikasa

when she encouraged him right before meeting Dina.

Chapter 50 “I’ll wrap that around you now and forever, as much as you want”

When she confesses while they are surrounded by titans about to die, and then Eren declares “I’ll wrap it around you as many times as i need to-“

Season 2 when Mikasa says thank you.

Cuando Mikasa le da la gracias la Eren por enseñarle a vivir, y colocarle la bunfanda, y él señala que siempre lo hará.

Season 2 almost kiss scene - you know it bro, and her falling asleep by his bed

the scene... "I’ll wrap it around you again, again and again, forever" bruh...

When mikasa talked about how eren saved her and gave her the red scarf.

Had been there for a while but chapter 50 solidified it for me. Mikasa's heartfelt words giving a broken Eren the strength to fight.

Eren saying “ill wrap that scarf around you as many times as you want”

In the chapter 50 of the manga (scene from the SnK S2's finale) when Mikasa confessed her feelings to Eren

Season 2 episode 12, when mikasa confessed to eren, and him promising to her.

Chapter 50 had the best EreMika scene so far because Mikasa really went heart-to-heart about her feelings to Eren (in the anime, we see her leaning in)

When Eren activated the Coordinate for the first time when saving Mikasa.

There was a lot of stuff in the earlier chapters but chapter 50 took the cake

Although their relationship has always been meaningful to me, I first began shipping them romantically after I read the scene where they’re sitting in front of the smiling titan, and Eren promises to wrap her up in her scarf over and over again, before unlocking the power of the coordinate when he contacts the smiling titan.

The scene when Mikasa almost kissed Eren

La escena en la que Mikasa casi besa a Eren y el se levanta y dice: "Te la pondre las veces que quieras" siempre veo esa escena cuando hay tambaleo en el ship

There is too much but I would say chapter 50 (like a lot)

I think that the first one, was the one in chapter 50. I discovered Snk too late, and I fell in love for them since this chapter :)

Chapter 50, Mikasa worrying over the post-experiment Eren in Chapter 54.

Eren and Mikasa second confrontation with the Smiling Titan/Dina's Titan

I think it was THE eremika scene in the manga, aka the infamous chapter 50 scene, but idk anymore

The Eremika shipper's Bible, of course! Ch. 50. Specially when Eren basically says he's always gonna be there for her. Also, when Eren apologizes to her right after the whole thing and she's recovering from her injuries. And that panel when he's thinking about everything's he's lost during their journey to end this for good, but he looks back at her and says "No, not everything" or something along those lines. And when Mikasa is sitting next to him when he's unconcious and Armin leaves and he has this fucking little smile and he just  k n o w s and Mikasa knows he does. Oh, and when Eren, Mikasa, Hanji and Levi finally get in the basement and they're both looking at the things down there together and when they open the book together, their hands barely touching. Oooh, and when Eren tells everyone they're special to him and Mikasa's blushing and looks up to him and kind of smiles and he looks away?? Gold. Oh and of course, Ch.112's cover! The soft and tender look in their eyes while looking at each other is just so painful !! And soft !!

~ Post time-skip. Chapter 101 onwards

I started to ship them when they both blushed at each other in ch. 108

Flashback of Mikasa Chapter 108

Manga 108 when Eren and Mikasa have their own panel and both of them were blushing at each other

I started shipping them a longggggg time ago, but i think it was chapter 108 in the manga, (i think) when Eren says that he cares about them all, but hajime gave Eren and Mikasa those two seperate panels of them blushi,g at eachother. That one really chained my heart to this ship, and i will stay with it whether it sails or sinks.

I started shipping them after post-time skip. There wasn't a specific scene, but rather, both matured and their relationship would be more balanced.

Eren talking to Mikasa in ch 112- it was so obviously a contradiction to their relationship that it actually proved (imo) mutual feelings

The moment in Marley Arc when Eren is looking at her before the WH comes to

I became interested in their romantic dynamic after Mikasa's, "Come home," line in the Marley arc. I'd always loved content with both of them, but I hadn't found their relationship very interesting, so I just hadn't thought about it much. The recent developments have changed that.

Nothing in particular. Maybe when Eren attack Marley and Mikasa looked at him tearful. It’s not romantic but I appreciate the heaping amounts of angst of the ship.

Liberio reunion

~ Other responses

Eren looking up at Mikasa and then transforming into Rogue Titan when fighting Female Titan.

When mikasa tries to save eren from annie

When Mikasa put a blanked over Eren in RTS

Anime episode 13

When mikasa picks up eren

When Mikasa announced that she'd join the scouts with Eren.

they breathed and i was like ‘otp’ joking— the moment eren was out here pushing her away using his forehead and mikasa said ‘please don’t die’ because that scene spoke to me and then the history of them (childhood, eren saving her you know the drill) kicked me and my feelings.

[After a dream]: “It was a straight up fanfic in my sleep. I woke and was like "I guess I ship them now?" I used to not be so into Eremika but since then I've been a bit more accepting of it.”

Either when Eren first turned into a titan and wounded her/left the scar on her cheek or the courtroom scene, most likely the first one

The last episode of season 1, Eren and Mikasa in the room, she holded his hands, I found this scene intense, and started to ship them even more.

The hand hold when Eren was lying on the bed

2. ON CHAPTER 112 AND CURRENT FEELS

2.1) The 403 respondents’ got multiple choices to check that could fit their first thoughts and feels about the alternative cover for Volume 27. 

38.7% of them simply appreciated Mikasa, Armin and Eren being cute in it. 36% called Isayama a bitch, 34% reacted with Queen’s “IS THIS REAL LIFE? IS THIS JUST FANTASY???” because yeah, no one was expecting such a blessed cover, and 33.3% reacted with Backstreet Boys’ “Quit playing games with my heart~” because Isayama loves hurting us all and has probably been plotting to do so since the 90′s. 31.5% of the respondents saw the cover as a shippy exchange between EM, as they considered they’re staring at each other in a flirty way, and 31% checked the keysmash and cry choice... (I understand)

13.2% considered Eren was looking at both Armin and Mikasa, without anything explicitly eremika going on and a bit more than 7% are so dead inside they felt nothing with such a wonderful cover (RIP their miserable souls).

~ Added answers:

Lies

Let them have babies please ;^;

Ehh

I think this cover gave me the strongest dose of Eremika feels ever. I can't look at it without grinning from ear to ear~

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK

It's beautiful. Nothing to freak out about tho.

How dare I get taunted with this blessed image when I know shit's about to go down between the three! 😭

It's so peaceful and beautiful. I wish it happened in the manga.

I have a theory actually for this...

Armin is cute

THIS IS FUCKING CANON.

It is actually the first time I see this cover and it's very cute and nice but after the chapter I can't feel nothing about it. Only hate for Eren and his words.

I can see how it can be interpreted in both ways and if we lean towards eremika then: cute!!!!!!!! so sweet!! but it makes me cry!!

Both Eren and Mikasa sees each other as their most important person in the world

*DIES*

they just look happy and looks like eremika actually canon but isayama try to cover it.

NANI

Mikasa clearly looks super in love with Eren. Eren may be looking at either mikasa or both mikasa & armin. I’m not sure...

My soul left my body.

Id say they're all three looking at one anoth another tbh

I love the Eye to Eye contact of eremika

Must protect

crap i think eremika is dying, BUT I DON'T WANT IT TO DIE, so i hope that this scene was just a build-up for their relationship (otherwise i'm knocking on Isayama's doorstep at 3am)

The hurtful words will save Mikasa's spirit, so Eremika shippers should support Eren's efforts in freeing her.

Is this foreshadowing that Eremika will become canon?

ISAYAMA REALLY GONNA PLAY WITH MY HEART LIKE THAT HUH?

How cute and pure the way Eren look at his Mikasa XD

EREMIKA IS STRONG ON THIS ONE

Poor Armin gets ignored by the two lovey-doveys 😠

You trynna fuck

Armin: okaaay, I will be going...

Indifference

I knew by just seeing that cover that it was gonna hurt lol

I just liked that they were all together just like the old days

OMG are they finally canon? Please isayama sensei make them canon *.*

I thought it was nice but I knew it was ironic.

There’s a dagger hidden under the cover.

2.2) When it comes to analyze the cover in relation to future manga developments, most respondents (47%) see it as a glimpse on Eren's authentic feelings toward his friends, around 39% see it as a symbolic image, 36% see it as a trap meant to make us hurt more after what happened in chapter 112 (we know you, Isayama), 25.6% consider it foreshadowing, 20% a somewhat alternate reality / timeline, almost 19% see it as an utter lie or that Isayama is just trolling, 13.6% only see it as a blessed cute cover and 5.7% think it’s irrelevant story-wise.

~ Added answers:

Im torred between a foreshadow or just a cover…

What it could have been

This isn't teasing or trolling; its Isayama's way of telling us to have hope/showing Eren's feelings.

An ironic and nostalgic cover

A mix of possible 'alternate‘, maybe end-game, but for me mostly a CLUE to something...

Mikasa's hopes for the future

Honestly I don't know what to think after all that happened. But I hope it's foreshadowing toward his true feelings about Mikasa and Armin. Especially Mikasa. Maybe Isayama gave us a hint that Eren loves his friends and so we shouldn't buy all his words.

It's all Eren wants but it's something he'll never have again

how things could be if differences didn't stand in their way

Eren and Mikasa fucking

That was Eren's real feelings, but I believe he is partly hurt by believing that everything Mikasa has ever done for him is because of Ackerman's blood. Eren is also blinded by the idea that he is free and that he can make his own choices without being manipulated by his blood or the personality of someone in his head.

2.3) What was your initial reaction to Chapter 112 regarding all the things Eren said to Mikasa?

In this other multiple choice question, 55.6% of the respondents said they wanted to hug Mikasa so badly after what Eren said to her, 44.7% checked the “Eren: why the fuck you lying, why you always lying?” option, 40% wanted to punch Eren so hard and felt so proud when Armin did it, 37.7% were shocked, almost 29% called it bullshit / laughed / pfft-ed at Eren’s “I’ve always hated you”, around 25% just reacted with an “Eren, pls”, 22% were just as heartbroken as Mikasa and cried their eyeballs out, almost 13% have been crying ever since so not very “initial reaction” only, 11.4% checked the “Chapter 112? I don’t know her” option and 9.4% checked the “Uhh.. I didn't feel much because everything was too odd...” option.

~ Added answers:

I WAS SOMEHOW SATISFIED WITH IT BC I SUCKS FOR ANGST EREMIKA

I was kinda thrown off guard for a sec there when I first saw the conversation between them but then I think abt how this could actually leads to a better development in both Eren’s and Miaksa’s characters (romantically) I mean their feelings for each other have been a constant which I think this would hopefully trigger something between them.  

Eren is lying

Shocked at first, but I think it's an interesting development.

I laughed

I actually felt encouraged! No way it was true, Eren was obviously lying/being controlled.

Immediately knew that Eren was only doing this to protect Mikasa

Carla, your son's gone rogue again...

Was angry and felt Mikasa should‘ve retorted back aggressively. But honestly, I‘m more intrigued by his words.

I want to go there and kidnap Mikasa immediately, then Eren gonna suffer til the rest of his life

Cried multiple times bc of it.

I tought that his words couldn't be true

the first real step between Mikasa's and Eren's romantic relationship

Eren is cancelled

Enjoyed the drama and didnt get sad over it. Since it happened so suddenly it took me by surprise and the conversation was nothing like what I expected it to be. Barely a glimpse of emotion from Eren and Armin being the one to start a fight? I was dumbfounded.

It feels like a huge giant misunderstanding and Eren sucks with words. I can't believe Isayama builded the deep of their relationship just to end into this bs. If everything is going to end badly for Eren and Mikasa then Isayama doesn't know how to write.

I feel all of that

Had a bad feeling something like this would happen so I wasn't horribly shocked

I actually love it, mainly for the angst. Love the drama, love the feels n im such a sucker for angst lol

Eren seems to at least partly mean what he said, but maybe not as strongly as he said it. I also think he’s being influenced by memories/zeke/wht so I’m not too concerned.

Sad

I already know that's not the same Eren so I was just shocked by his wording more or less but that's it.

It needed to be said

I enjoyed it

I was expecting Eren to have a moment like this, tbh. Not because I believe he really hates either of them, but because he is clearly spiraling and isolating himself.

fight between mikasa and eren similar to sasuke and Naruto

eren can do no wrong in my eyes so idk

Conflicted. What he said was hurtful but I also felt like it wasn’t completely untrue. Mikasa has been having major doubts recently and this thing in Eren she won’t face. The Ackerman instincts don’t have comelktely grip over her but they do contribute majorly to a lot of things. It’s awful but at the same time I feel like if it was all nonsense then why did it trigger those memories and why did Mikasa just keep shrinking into herself. Mikasa doesn’t shrink away from things.

OMG, Eremika has become so exciting, dramatic and awesome!

I think I kind of expected the outburst

There is no way he hates her really

I was glad Armin punched him and I hated Eren more than I ever have before.

2.4) "You only cling to me because of your instincts as an Ackerman." If he truly believes the information he got and said about the Ackermans, could Eren be hurt because he thinks his relationship with Mikasa was never authentic?

Around 69% ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) of the people think Eren is indeed hurt or that there’s a possibility of him being hurt because of what he nowadays thinks (?) is the true nature of his relationship with Mikasa. The rest of the respondents have really no idea what to think about it or just plainly discard Eren hurting because of Mikasa and her cursed Ackerinstincts. 

2.5) From 1 being "influenced by the Ackerbond" to 5 being "of her own", how do you see Mikasa's feelings for Eren?

Most of the respondents (over 77%) think her feelings are mostly determined by her own person and not the Ackerbond. Only 6.7% consider Mikasa’s feelings are fully or very influenced by the Ackerbond and 16.1% think there’s a 50/50 situation.

2.6) Around 160 people decided to share their thoughts in relation to what happened in chapter 112, focusing on Eren and Mikasa of course:

Even if he won’t admit it, I think Eren still cares/loves Mikasa. His eyes seem tired and dead, but I noticed that they glimmered differently right before he told Mikasa he always hated her, and then they changed again when Armin asked if hurting Mikasa is the “freedom” he sought/had. If there is one thing that hasn’t changed about Eren, it’s his inability to hide what he truly feels. It’s obvious that he’s upset and perhaps feels betrayed, but i definitely think he still cares.

Yeah I believe the Ackerman stuff influences it *a little bit*. But her emotions are mainly real and she truly does care for Eren.

Eren deserves a good Ackerpunch to be honest.

Mikasa needs to realise that all her feelings are her own, and Eren needs to know, too.

His facial expression through the whole confrontation was CONFUSING like you can't tell if he is ANGRY or if  he is  HURT or if he really just have genuine hatred  toward his old friends? Like I am confused about his facially expression when Armin  told him "does freedom means hurting mikasa feelings" his expression was completely different than the rest of the panels. His expression had more emotion for some reason.

I hope that people didn’t forget abt the scene where Mikasa punched Eren in the face when he was being mean and venting off his anger towards Armin when the were at the refugee camp after the fall of Shiganshina.

Look at his face: this poor boy is as broken as us. There's a reason behind his actions.

I'm sure eren want mikasa to get away from him in order to keep her safe, this was the only way to broke the acker spell

I think Eren was rejecting Mikasa to free her from the ackerbond. I wrote an analysis about eremika due to ch.112 incidents here : https://nhamstory.tumblr.com/post/181741856688/eren-and-mikasa-relationship-from-now-onwards

I hope Mikasa leaves his ass

I don’t think she’ll give up on him easily, but I think she needs to let go, for her own well-being

Eren is only partly right. Mikasa's instinct to always be near him and protect him (incidentally the things that irritated him) come from the Ackerbond impulses. Her life and affection for him are her own. Eren obviously doesn't hate Mikasa and he wouldn't treat her this way without a very good reason. They both have genuine care for each other.

Eren is a bitch and Mikasa didn’t deserve that bullshit

I think Eren is genuinely mad (his morals and arguments consistent with his character from the very start) and, if anything, is deeply wounded. I wouldn’t be surprised if those emotions inspired him to act out, even though it’s wrong. He also has 3 titans inside of him, so I’m sure his brain is super jumbled and loud.

Its interesting how Eren never hurt Armin until the Yaegerists entered the room...

I think the Ackerbond brought them together but they stayed together for love

Mikasa deserves the world. Eren

I really don't believe a happy ending is in store for them, but I want to be wrong so badly. My biggest fear is that Mikasa will have to be the one to bring Eren down, or that the Ackerbond is exactly as Eren says.

i really hope that when he said that he hated mikasa that it was all a lie

It is just really confusing.

Eren still cares about Mikasa. It wouldn't be like Isayama to just pull a complete 180 out of the blue like that and not have a reason for it. I remember he said a while back that the thought of Mikasa having nothing else to cling to but Eren was sad and that she'll have to grow apart from him in order to get development, which I believe will happen soon. That doesn't mean that she can't still be happy with him though, so I'm sure this conflict will be resolved in some way near the end.

I think that Eren doesn't hate her but wants to make her free from her ackerbond. He would like to see her real self.

It's weird, but I think the extra attention Isa gave to Eren and Mikasa's relationship is actually a good thing, despite the negative context. As readers we're supposed to obviously know that Eren allegedly hating her is a white lie. Could he harbor resentment for a particular aspect of her character? Maybe. But it's already been blatant that he truly cared about her. I don't know if we're headed towards a tragic or satisfying ending from a shippers perspective, but I do believe that it indicates that we will get some sort of mutual acknowledgement of their real relationship. For starters though, we really need Isa to tell us what the hell's going on inside Eren's head.

I believe we need to get more info about Eren’s thoughts and intentions before assuming anything either good or bad about Eremika for now

We just need to wait for more chapters everyone. I still have faith💜✨💕 No one should go berserk or riot, not even later.💖✨🌅

"Only know you love her when you let her go", Eren gonna suffer because of this, one day.

THEY BETTER FIX THIS

I pity Eren for not being able to tell the truth about his feelings. It must hurt him to hurt Mikasa.

I hoping that the theory about eren being controlled by the will of the attack Titan is true and chapter 112 eren wasn't really "our" eren. Also, eren never hated Mikasa. The will of the attackTitan hates Mikasa. It even tried to kill her way back in season 1 while eren's consciousness was trapped in some fantasy where his parents were alive and he even saw Mikasa in it. If Mikasa can be so dear to him that she becomes an element of fantasy of security and family, then I'm sure our Eren never hated mikasa. So yeah. I'm hoping our Eren is still in there somewhere and will regain control of his consciousness and thus EMA will be a family again. Hoping. Fingers crossed.

There's a river called the Nile, I am in denial! (About what happened in chapter 112)

Eren doesn't hate Mikasa at all. Look at the court scene in chapter 19 when Eren defends her when they accuse her of being a monster and threatened to dissect her. Chapter 50 when he promises to wrap her up in her scarf again and again forever. As well as chapter 51 when Eren looks concerned as Mikasa lies down with broken ribs.

fuck you eren fuck youeren

That scene just hurt too much

Their relationship didn't ruined

I hate Eren now, though I really liked him very much before time skip. I don't know what I want more now: all of it to be a mistake/some cunning plan of Eren to save friends or I want Mikasa to be free from the feelings for this bastard and be happy on her own, without need to always protect and care about this stupid child Eren. Maybe still I like the first option more.

Yeah I have a thought. IM A MASOCHISTIC IDIOT TO STILL FOLLOW THIS MANGA.

Sinceramente no creo que esto sea el final entre ellos, sino que es un preludio para que en un futuro cercano Eren se de cuenta de lo importante y de lo que tanto ama a Mikasa.

Mikasa will realize that she truly love Eren in a romantic way

I honestly think that their relationship is not going to end like this. I have a strong feeling that Isayama is going to make everything work out in the end for Eren and Mikasa, slowly but surely.

Chapter was powerful, yes, it hurt my shipper emotion, but powerful hands down. Isayama is genius.

Eren is cancelled

I think Eren has a goal in alienating his friends like this, he isn't just 100% apathetic toward them all of a sudden. He might be trying to keep them out of something BIG that's going to happen soon. Maybe his entire plan with Zeke is doomed to failure but for a greater goal, and he wants to keep them away from the losing side?

eren and mikasa’s bond is the only beautiful thing in this cruel world sO PLS STOP YOU GUYS DONT BE LIKE THIS 😭

Not need, but Eren is such a hoe. But I love him.. But he's still a bitch.. But I lo-

Eren is controlled by others so I believe he is kinda lying. He love Mikasa and Armin so much but now he has to hide it

Mikasa  should move on

Et tu Isayama

PLEASE ISAYAMA! AT LEAST DONT MAKE MY BABIES HATE EACH OTHER, EVEN IF EREMIKA NEVER BECOME CANON, LET THEM BE HAPPY WITH EACH OTHER, DON'T MAKE THEM ENEMIES!

"stop being a bitch, eren." -- armin.

I mean what else would I have expected from this depressing af series

They still love each other regardless of what Eren says and how hurt Mikasa is. They're bond is too strong to be broken and thrown under the rug after 1 chapter.

Bless Armin for standing up for my girl.

2019 is our year, guys. Just wait.

Wouldn't be satisfied if they reconcile without Eren heavily kissing Mikasa ass tbh.

He seems hurt by the thought of hurting her.

The attack titan "always pushes forward" plus he's probably seen things via the paths hense Krugers whopping out the EMA

why you can't just be honest with each other guys? honesty is one of the important things in realationship

I have no idea what Eren's true objective is and I really want to know WHY he'd do that to his best friends. I mean I'm hella biased so I'll still be on his side even if it turns out he had no real excuse but...

I just wonder if he said that for mikasas own good,so she could have a life apart from him.

When Eren said that he hated Mikasa and was 'bullying' Armin around, I think he was really just lying to keep them away from him and not hurt them as a consequence of his future actions. I remember in a chapter where the new Levi Squad were building train tracks and Eren saying he cared about all of them. I bring this up because I truly believe that he still sticks to his words from that day, and is trying to push them away including Mikasa so they don't get killed like Sasha did.

Eren is playing 4D chess. Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt though.

we need another eren flashback okay

It was a (good) highly emotional chapter

Mikasa’s ackergene may have activated because of Eren, but she fell in love when he wrapped the scarf around her and extended friendship to her. Her love is true. Eren is just cray cray right now because he is influenced by memories/has spotty information.

I just want Eren to get hurt back by Mikasa herself

Eren truly is shocked from hurting Mikasa, he doesn't enjoy what he is doing.

Still wondering what is really going on in Eren's mind and his plan

Eren just want to keep safe her

per question above: Mikasa had protective feelings for him before he was a Titan which would still influence her feelings in the present, so I feel they have a genuine bond that's developed.

Isayama is just trying to make us hate Eren, and he knew this would hurt like a bitch! I have faith in our boi

It's pretty clear the truth isn't being spoken by Eren

It was both shocked and saddened to see them falling apart.

Mikasa is a strong character with potential. At this point I only want her to develop into the best strong girl boss she can be. As her own person with or without Eren.

I want to punch eren in the fucking face i want to dress him up like a cabbage and feed him to the snails

"Eren don’t you ever make my baby cry ever again or else

Mikasa is a little bit obsessed with Eren, so I understand why Eren used such cruel words, because they would get through her tick skull.

I think he lied to them (or at least told them half-truths), for what purpose I do not know. But if he really meant it he wouldn't look so hurt in that panel where Armin called him on his bullshit. Plus, I believe that if really believed in what he said, it would make his character irredeemable, and I don't think Isayama would ever do that (but that's just a guess though).

Sad babes

I feel like in this chapter that Eren is protecting Mikasa so she doesn't have to get hurt and Eren have to do that and I feel that Eren doesn't really mean all of that.

he’s definitely doing this to protect his friends

Fuck Eren in this chapter, but fuck Zeke more.

At this point Mikasa deserves better

I no longer ship them because Mikasa deserves so much better after everything she’s done to care for him. His words were too horrible, and therefore, they can never be a dignified ship again :(

Please wake up, Mikasa.

I await for a good Mikasa development arc and a tender Eremika and EMA reunion.

I want them to be back together again

They have'nt chemistry and common things.

It was cute and predictable

"just kiss already you two!" lol 1/2 jk

Eren is acting way too controversial recently. What he said isn't really what he truly feels, in my opinion.

I think, even though there was still emotional devastation on my part because of Mikasa and Armin’s reactions, it took a long time for me to evaluate the possibility that these were actually Eren’s words, since the whole thing was so bizarre and the degree to which he’s being controlled still hasn’t been clarified. I still believe that Zeke or Kruger may be influencing him, just because this is so antithetical to the Eren we know.

I think what Eren said is Isayama's way of setting up the inevitable confession of Eren's true romantic feelings for Mikasa somewhere along the way. I think Eren's pushing Mikasa (and the others) away so they won't get involved and be hurt on his future decisions, lest something bad happen to them. I've seen this thing happen before in other shonen stories, where the protagonist pushes away their potential romantic interest only to come back to them to apologize and confess. Idk I could be wrong though. I could never know what Isayama's really planning lmao

It's rewind time

it will give mikasa good character development

The ship is dead

If they were to mend back their bond, it wouldn't be the same as before. This is not a playground where they will all be happy. This is reality and they are bound to hurt each other whether they like it or not.

Eren is pulling the oldest trick in the trope book to try and force his friends away to protect them from his own fate

La ignorancia de Eren y el apego de Mikasa

Ok first of all Isayama himself said the Ackerbond is a CHOICE. Also even for Eren, that was an impressive amount of bullshit that came out of his mouth.

Eren looks so affected for Armin saying he made Mikasa suffer and we can appreciate he is truly hurt when he proves true that Mikasa is under influence of the Ackerbond while pushing Armin against the table. Plus, his reaction when Mikasa cries because she is disappointed of him in Liberio... thus it’s pretty obvious he DOESN’t HATE HER in my humble opinion.

💔💔💔💔💔

I need to see the story through Eren's eyes again for me to have a solid opinion.

I think that deep down Eren is doing everything to make him see Mikasa as a woman and not as a second mother. Deep down I think he loves her as she loves her

Well, someone previously mentioned before the contradiction found between Eren declaring that Armin is becoming soft and the fact that Armin suggested to have a titan devour and inherit Eren's powers back at chapter 108 which i totally agree with. Thus, i believe that the full truth has not yet surfaced and that it is still too early to judge on things that happened in chapter 112.

I really want to what he has in mind currently.

Mikasa's bond to Eren seems way stronger than Levi's to Erwin or Kenny's to Uri, so I feel that it's half Ackerbond and half lust

Eren lied to protect his friends

I think it's funny how a whole fandom can just totally overlook every moment between the pairing because of one chapter🤷‍♀️

EREN IS BUTTHURT THAT MIKASA MAY HAVE NOT REALLY LOVED HIM AND ARMIN IS DADDY AF

The chances for EreMika to become canon has increased and we might get a kiss and a sex scene between the two

I believe Eren is lying and Mikasa is really love Eren not because her ackerbond

I didn't expect this development so I still feel confused. I have a small hope Eren at least admits to himself he loves Mikasa.

I think Eren is brainwashed by Zeke. Also clearly hurt by the thought of his relationship/friendship with Mikasa being fabricated by her Ackerman genes since IMO he confessed back to her when he said he’d wrap her scarf as many times as she wants.. when she was about to kiss him cause she thought it was the end of both of their lives. Furthermore, whatever his plan is I think he wanted to keep Mikasa & Armin out of it to protect them cause i do not believe he could just start to hate them overnight. I hope this situation is temporary.

He doesn't hate her. How could he? I only hope her not to forgive him too soon (for herself, I mean). And I hope her to express her feelings just to, maybe, feel better.

@ eren why you gotta hurt her like that, MAMA DIDN’T RAISE YOU LIKE THIS!

Eren is obviously hurt for hurting his friends

I'll just wait for future chapters. Don't wanna make early conclusion

Lmao Yams is trolling

I have faith in eremika

I know mikasa won't end up with eren, but I just wish eren has same feeling like her.

I REALLY FUCKING HOPE eren is going to feel sorry for what he said to her, and that they‘re going to make up!

Eren is so blantantly obviously lying. Maybe Mikasas Ackerman genes have a bit to do with her protective nature, but not her feelings for Eren. There may have been times where Eren was frustrated with Mikasa, but he never has hated her. There is so much canon evidence he cares about her. For example him showing concern about her widget loss, the blushing scene, and him standing by her when she was injured. Much more where that came from. Maybe he said he hated her because he thought her Ackerman genes have control over all her feelings (which I don’t believe to be true, but perhaps he does.) Thus, sets her free because he cares about her that much.

it hurts eren to hurt his friends but he's got limited options here.

Eren better apologize to mikasa

I honestly think Eren's lying. We all know he's never been a good bullshitter, and he's transparent as HELL im 112, so tbh, i think he's partially being controlled be zeke who probably forced Eren to do what he did, and that he didn't mean what he said to Armin and Mikasa, and that he's doing it to keep them out of danger. Relationships like that don't just break off because someone said something hurtful. There's history behind the EMA friendship, and considering the type of person Eren is, he wouldn't just backstab them like that and tell them all those things, especially if he knew they'd cut deep. Eren's just a really, REALLLLYYYY terrible ass liar. (Wow i wrote a book here)

Something is up with Eren. While I think what he said seems harsh and unfair, I think what he’s expressing is true but the reasoning is off. I dunno how to explain its like... Eren isn’t the kind of person to say something like this for dramatic effect or do I see how pointless drama serves this kind of story at all. That and Mikasa’s reaction to what he said and her own doubts I can’t ignore that as much as I want to. Something is up but I think there’s is some truth in there

As much as I like Eremika I want Mikasa to get rid of Eren.

BRUHHHHHHHHH IAM HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABT THIS

Eren you bastard... why are you like this

It hurt Eren when Armin said that, his face says it all .. just that Eren got mad because he got a reaction out of it

Fuck u eren

The points he makes are quite logical, but the bond between them and the strong development of their relationship throughout the years  just make every harsh thing he said sound really really odd and although sounding like a truth - give the feeling of an utter lie

bitch i was ready to swing this edgy hobo boi is on some dumb shit obviously lying out of his ass to keep them safe or make them hate him for their own well being but he went too far with mikasa >:c

I believe Eren is simply way too aware of his and everyone's on the island deadly position/situation (Sarah's death definitely triggered him,too) hence his harsh words towards Mikasa and Armin in order to push them away and making whatever Eren has to do in order to safe them easier (i strongly believe Eren will die by the end of the series)

I wanna see more pain. (I’m sorry, I like the angst)

WHERE IS ALL THE ANGSTY FAN FICTION, I'VE BEEN REFRESHING AO3 LIKE A MADWOMAN

Just makes me sad that their relationship has always & seemingly will always be based around tragedy

Im scared and excited at the same time

Zeke's a liar and must die for giving Eren this bogus intel. Also, this scene is really similar to that anime only one from EP2, isn't it? It's the scene where Mikasa punches Eren after he implies Armin is a parasite, has to be canon now that Isayama is approving changes. If there's anything to call a smoking gun over disproving supposed genetic influences, this would be it.

Mikasa is most likely a key character in understanding Eren's behavior and general goal. For me this dark turn clearly paves the way to some juicy development in the future.

He might just be pushing her away so that when he dies she can more easily move on.

Maybe he purposely wanted to hurt her because he thought it was best for her for some reason. Maybe he’ll do something dangerous and he didn’t want her to be involved so he tried to push her away (don’t know, I’m just hoping so much that this will turn out to be positive)

I'm so sad y'all

Bull *wait for it* shit

I'm more confused, baffled and kind of amused at Eren than sad or even angry. It's just... what the fuck? Like, yeah, he's been all mysterious and shady for a while now, but this??? wth

Eren and Mikasa forever !  Seriously 112 was tough but we all know that Eren never hated Mikasa , what he did was because he had to .

There will be world war against eldians and eren tries to break his bond with mikasa cuz she should go to hiruzu far away from war. She is no eldian and eren thinks it's not her war.

Feel like Eren thought the only way to make mikasa free was to try and cut the “ackerbond”

chapter 50 exists and shows Eren's real feelings!! all's good!!

Eren might have memories from previous titans overlapping with his own memories and feelings - hence the change of attitude

Eren doesn’t hate Mikasa and doesn’t hate the fact that she’s an Ackerman. He was and always will be her family before anything, I know that he wants to set her free from her ackerbond and I know that he’s hurt from the inside cause he’s causing so much pain to his only family left but I know deep down that he still loves her and cares for her. I was never affected by the whole ‘Eren hates mikasa she should forget him he’s ungrateful and blah blah’ cause eventually he’s doing everything for his friends just like what he told them in CH108  I know I’m not the only one who believes this. In the end it’s up to isayama to decide everything and I hope that Eremika will end up together due to many factors that I can’t explain but clear in both the manga and the anime <3

I think Eren’s just going through some shit right now/is being manipulated by Zeile and hopefully Mikasa will help him come to his senses soon.

She deserves better

Eren is trying to cut off the ties he has to people important in his life.

bless Armin for saying: this is what you wanted??: the "frEed0m" to hurt Mikasa? fuck Eren, ackerbond or not what the motherfucking fuck are you thinking??

Pues creo q Eren solo dijo eso para proteger a sus amigos

There has to be a plan up his sleeves. A plan that temporarily had to sacrifice his relationship with the closest two people in his life but in turn it will protect them and they will one day realise this fact. I am just petrified that by then Eren could be dead. Isayama will finish me off if this turns out to be his plan all along.

2.7) Did Chapter 112 affect the shippers’ feels for eremika?

A bit less than 8% of the respondents are thinking about stopping shipping Eren and Mikasa or they don’t ship them anymore (74% of the people that checked this option have another hetero ship as their OTP and around 19% have a male/male ship as their OTP. None of the pickers of this option has eremika as their main ship, they either dropped it already or they never actually had it as a main)

Chapter 112 didn’t actually affect the feels for the pairing for 33% of the shippers, while it made 21.3% of the respondents to ship eremika even harder. 

There’s also the people (27%) that got affected by what happened in 112 but are trying to remain positive about the future of the ship and, on the other hand, less than 11% of the respondents are feeling down about it.  

2.8) Despite everything going on in the manga, 53.4% of the respondents still have high to very high feelings toward the ship, while 19.9% have very low to low feels toward it. The remaining 26.8% are in some sort of shipping limbo, they don’t ship them too hard nor too little.

2.9) "I'll wrap you up in it again... Again and again. Forever." Will Eren's promise be ever brought up again?

The majority of the respondents (70.2%) consider Eren’s promise to Mikasa has to be addressed again in the manga, while 24.3% are not so sure about it happening and 5.5% think it won’t be brought up again.

2.10) Considering everything that's going on in the manga, do you think Eren and Mikasa will become a canon couple at the end?

47.1% of the respondents think there’s a high chance for the ship to become canon by the end of the manga - almost 9% of them claim to have always been sure about it happening. 23.6% don’t know what to think anymore due to confusion or other reasons (Ereh, pls) and almost 14% don’t mind if the ship become canon or not.

15.4% don’t think the ship will become canon or that it sunk already. From this percentage of people, about 76% of them don’t have eremika as their main ship. Something similar happens with the ones that don’t mind the ship becoming canon or not.

Regarding the last four questions of this section, and to no one’s surprise, the more you ship a pairing the more positive you are about thinking it may become an official thing one day, meaning you consider the characters can overcome the obstacles or see these obstacles as chances.

The less you ship a pairing, the less you care about it becoming canon or you are more prone to interprete any obstacle between the characters as a signal of a doomed ship. This doesn’t surprise anyone either.

3. ON EREMIKA CONTENT

3.1) Around 46% of the respondents look for eremika content often to very often while 32% never or almost never does. 22% do it sometimes.

3.2) The favorite type of content that the shippers look for is Fanart with 47.6% of the preferences, followed by Fanfiction (24.6%) and written analysis or discussions about the ship (21.6%). Edits or memes and videos only got 4% and 2.2% of the preferences, respectively. No one chose cosplay as their favorite type of content.

3.3) With 399 responses, the frequency that the shippers reblog, retweet or like fanarts / edits 41.4% often to very often, 34.5% almost never or never do it and sometimes 24.1% of them do.

3.4) With 371 responses, around 44% of the shippers say they never (29.4%) or almost never give some sort of feedback to EM Fanfiction writers… which, sadly, isn’t unforeseen. A bit more than 17% claim to do it very often and about 39% do it sometimes or often.

3.5) 39% of the respondents have at least once made content for eremika and 31% still create content for the ship.

4. CONTENT CREATORS

This section was optional and 73 content creators responded to it. 

4.1) Around 60% of them are Fanfiction writers, 37% are fanartists, 20.5% are graphic makers and/or analysis writers, 8% of them make videos and almost 3% do cosplay. Other responses included writing headcanons, EM Facebook page and group admin, sewing EM plushies plus photographing and editing the pictures to add dialogue and effects, animations and someone will try their best at fanart.

4.2) Their favorite kind of content to create is Angst with 20.5% of the preferences, followed by Fluff (13.7%) and Smut (8.2%). 35.6% of the respondents stated to like all the types of content listed: Fluff, Angst, Smut and Humorous. A bit more than 12% claim to not really have a favorite kind of content. Other responses included “Fluffy and Humorous”, “a mix of angst yet powerful”, “canon compliant stuff”, “angsty, fluff”, “[...] all eremika content is GOOD FOR THE SOUL” and “I like to write rated M stories that don't just focus on the smut factor of the rating.”

4.3) On how often they create and publish their content, about 29% rarely do, over 27% do it once every a couple of months, 15% do it monthly and less than 10% do it at least once a week. Other responses included whenever they feel like it or are inspired and have time to do so, someone “create a fair bit but rarely publish anything”, someone else tries everyday to do something even if it’s not EM related, a writer used to update their fanfic monthly but nowadays barely writes, someone never publishes what they make but gives it to their close friends, a fanartist draw eremika all the time but never publishes it because they “know no one will like it”, someone else talk about EM with a friend everyday and they theorize together, and a writer used to write often but they rarely do anymore and it seems it’s been more than a year since they did.

4.4) Most of the respondents rate the support of the eremika fandom toward their content as regular (31.5%), a bit more than 23% rate it as very high, almost 25% as high and 20.6% as very low or low.

4.5) 42.5% of the respondents consider they help circulate other people’s creations very often while around 58% do it sometimes or often. Less than 3% said they never help to do so.

5. GENERAL DEMOGRAPHICS

5.1) This section was optional, except for the fandom and social media question, in which 72.3% of the respondents said to participate on Tumblr, almost 35% of them on Reddit, around 23% on Twitter and 17.7% on Discord. There are mentions of other social medias like Instagram (less than 8%), Facebook (a bit more than 2%), Youtube (1%) and Amino, Pinterest, a French forum, 4chan, DeviantArt, Fanfiction.net, Archiveofourown, Wattpad and real life. 5.5% of the respondents stated they don’t participate in Fandom.

5.2) In terms of geographical location, 47.5% of the 398 respondents to this question are from the American continent, almost 35% are from Europe, 13.6% from Asia, 2.3% from Oceania and 2% from Africa.

5.3) The native language of the respondents, considering 390 responses:

English 43.8%

Spanish 13.8%

French 5.1%

Italian 4.4%

German 4.1%

Russian 3.6%

Arabic 3.1%

Filipino / Tagalog 2.5%

Portuguese 2.3%

1.8% Hindi, Indonesian

1.5% Greek, Polish 

1.3% Mandarin Chinese

1% Dutch

0.8% Swedish (one of them also speaks Thai), 

0.5% Thai, Malay / Malayalam, Finnish, Romanian, Vietnamese, Japanese, Serbian, Bulgarian, 

At least one of the respondents speaks either Hebrew, Tamil, Welsh, Ukrainian, Urdu, Danish, Hungarian, Cebuano, Turkish, Bengali, Cantonese, Bisaya and Sami. 

5.4) When it comes to age ranges, almost 62% of the 398 EM shippers that responded to this question are between 18 and 24 years-old, 21.6% are between 13 and 17 years-old, 15.1% are between 25 and 34 years-old and only 1.5% are between 35 and 44 years-old.

5.5) 396 people responded to the gender question and the majority of them identify themselves as Female (70.5%), 24.5% as Male and 3.8% as Non-binary. One person identified themselves as demi-girl and someone else stated they didn’t want to say it. 

5.6) Finally, regarding the sexual orientation of the 388 respondents to this question, 64.2% are Heterosexual / Straight while 35.8% are among the LGBTQ+ spectrum: 13.7% are Bisexual, 9% don’t know or aren’t sure about their sexuality, almost 4% are Asexual, 3.4% are Pansexual, 2.3% are Demisexual, almost 2% are Gay / Lesbian and less than 1% are Queer. Other replies include Pan-Demiromantic and Lesbian/Asexual.

[godknowsrmt]

Future Management - Roger Taylor x Fem!Reader

A/N: English is not my first language! I’m sorry for any mistakes. I’ve read so many Queen fics it’s unreal. I just had to try it myself. Please give me feedback, I would like to make a longer series out of this. Future Management is one of my favorites and it fits the plot too (also Roger looks freakin’ gorgeous in the RockPop video of 1981). This could also be Ben Hardy as Roger.

Warnings: cursing (also smut in later chapters)

Word count: around 1.5 k

Plot: Shortly after Freddie joins “Smile“ and re-names the band „Queen“, the gigs are getting bigger, the masses are screaming louder and the record label is getting uncomfortably clingy. Therefore a qualified manager is needed. Considering her graduation in management, reader might be really useful for the rockstars to-be. Luckily she is an old friend of Brian and might just find herself in the job of her dreams. Only if there wouldn’t be a certain blonde letting her question everything - especially her morals.

Tags: @perriwiinkle

-

„We can’t do this on our own anymore!“, Brian leans back in his chair ruffling his locks. Freddie raises a brow, watching Pete, a guy from the record label, hotly debating with Roger.

„These never ending fights with the label are tiring us out.“ Brian states, while Freddie remains silent taking in the view of Roger starting to throw sheets of lyrics at Pete. „It’s not the sound of Queen if the label wants to blemish every song we write!“ Roger spits, prompting Pete to flinch.

„Maybe we should do something.“ John suggests, not bothering to detach his gaze from the bass, playing a random melody out of increasing boredom.

„And what would that be darling? Producing songs with no label at all? That’s ridiculous.“, Freddie laughs.

„How about a manager?“ Brian proposes. 

John stops playing and stares at Brian while Roger enters the room fuming with rage. „We need someone to handle the business we have no clue of. Record label guys for example“, he explains pointing at Roger who starts walking towards the couch.

„This stupid twat has no fucking clue what he’s talking about. Can we just throw him out the window or somethin’?“ Roger whines and takes a seat next to Freddie.

„Brian just talked about getting a manager. What do you think about that?“, Freddie spoke.

„Well, then at least someone else had to deal with this leech and we could make music in peace.“ Roger says gesturing to Pete, who is engaged in a serious talk with another guy from the label.

„Any suggestions on who is qualified for this?“ John asks. „Personally I don’t know any managing agencies.“ he adds. Brian gets up from his chair remembering a certain friend of his with a degree in the exact thing they are searching for.

„I might just know the perfect person for this job.“ Smiling he leaves the room while leaving the others guessing.

-

„You would be perfect. I trust you. You’re witty, funny, diplomatic and most of all loyal. You could keep us in check. You know us.“ For a solid half hour Brian tried to talk you into accepting his job offer. Sitting in a small café on the university campus you take a sip of your Latté. Never had you expected something like this, when Brian called you the other night, asking if you’d like to meet up.

„That’s really sweet of you Brian, but I just finished education, I don’t know if I’m ready for such a responsible position. Also, would the four of you even obey my instructions?“

Brian draws circles in his English Breakfast tea, looking rather disappointed.

„Listen Y/N, I know you can do it. You have to start somewhere, why not help out a friend and gain some experience. It’s a win-win situation! You’ll know how to handle us, you’ve handled me for such a long time now.“ He beams and you couldn’t deny he had a point. Managing Queen? A bright, rising star in rockstar heaven? What if you messed up? You could never forgive yourself if you would harm your friends dream.

Your relationship with John, Freddie and Roger limits to a tiny amount of time whenever you spent time with Brian. Being a band, they just happened to be there too. You got along, but you never gave a thought about meeting them outside of your rather coincidental encounters. But you had to confess, the boys were indeed entertaining you with their permanent bickering. Maybe you would be quite good at keeping them in line.

„What if I mess something up and somehow destroy the bands success. Or worse, I make a mistake and don’t drive you to success at all.“ You tell him your worries hoping he would understand your fears.

Brian snickers. „Oh love, you couldn’t do anything like this. Just give it a try. If you hate it that much I’ll search for someone else to manage us. Deal?“ He holds out his hand for you to shake.

The pressure on your chest releasing a bit, you thought about it for a few seconds. Impatiently Brian taps his finger on the table, his silver rings making clap noises. Sighing you reach out your hand. In fact, you have to find a job sooner or later and you got nothing to lose, right?

„Deal. But just on a trial.“, you say shaking his hand.

„For now.“, he smirks.

-

You saw them perform before. Of course, since Brian is a good friend of yours. But watching them, knowing they are your band in one way or another, makes it somewhat… different.

Your gaze lingers on the four men, taking in every detail of their magical performance. The way they play their instruments has you melting under their melody. Never had you heard anything like it.

You close your eyes and hum along to the sound of “Killer Queen“ forgetting your surroundings completely.

When the song ended, you realize how hyped the audience is. People screaming and whistling. Girls throwing their tops on stage. When a girl with incredibly long red hair screams „Roger we love you!“ your attention is drawn to the blonde behind the drum set. He just gives her a wink causing a strange feeling to erupt in your stomach. You had to admit he does look annoyingly handsome.

Tearing your stare away from Roger you realize the redhead handing a note to the security guard next to the stage before she floats back to her friends. Since the gig is going to end soon anyway, you head into the backstage area waiting for the boys to come join you.

While waiting you talk to Melissa, one of the interns at Queens record label, asking her about the issues with Pete Dawson.

„It’s just the classic disagreements. Mr. Dawson wants this, Mr. Mercury wants that, it’s a never ending circle of nerve-wrecking arguments.“, Melissa sighs.

„Well, from now on I wanna be informed about everything going on with the label. As Queens manager I am the communicational intersection between Mr. Dawson and my boys. Nothing’s going to happen without my knowledge anymore, alright.“ Your tone is serious as you enlighten Melissa about certain changes and your plans for the future.

„I see. You’re gonna be very good at it.“, she says winking at you.

„Good at what?“

„Being a boss ass manager, not taking any of the labels shit.“,  Melissa laughs and you join her. Maybe this whole manager thing is actually a great idea. It definitely is fun to kick some asses now and then.

-

„How did you like it.“ A sweaty Brian grins widely and chugs a bottle of water when entering the backstage area. You stand up from the couch making your way over to him.

„You were amazing! All of you!“ You state watching John, Freddie and Roger coming through the door as well.

„Thank you love, glad you liked it. You’re kind of our mother from now on.“, Freddie smirks causing you to blush. „Mother? I’m younger than all of you.“, you laugh while taking a bottle of vodka mixing it with some orange juice.

„Thanks for trusting me with this.“, you say, bringing the cup to your mouth. „Ah, thank you dearly.“ Roger takes the drink out of your hand with a smug expression on his face. He downs all of it immediately and all you could do is stare at him in disbelief.

„Hey!“, you complain after a few seconds, but Roger already steps out of the room explaining himself with an „Sorry, can’t be late to my rendezvous in the bathroom.“

You thought back to the girl handing a note to the security guard. Well played, that certainly is a way to get Roger Taylor to notice you.

Anger bubbling inside of you, you turn around mixing another drink for yourself. How dare he? You are his bands manager from now on, not some random girl lingering around.

A lesson concerning “respect towards your management“ is what this drummer needs badly. In your head, you try to come up with ideas, to show Roger who the boss really is.

-

This is my first fic EVER! I never liked anything or anyone enough to actually WRITE A FIC for them. Come get me demons, I’m all yours.

I can’t wait to continue this story, but I’d love to hear some feedback first so I know I’m not falling on deaf ears. Have a lovely day y’all!

-A.R.

[gascon-en-exil]

I Liked Fates Before It Was Cool!: The Opening

Prologue

Here begins my run of Fates, in which I react to things that I believe merit either praise or criticism and that hopefully haven’t been thoroughly picked over yet hundreds of times by everyone else in the fandom. I’ll be doing each route in the sequence I used last time, with gameplay details to follow as they come up. To answer @damoselcastel, I’ll be doing an all-male run, and it does indeed suck that the game screws this over a bit at the very beginning by forcing me to take Felicia over Jakob first. Breeding will come when I feel like it, more to have extra chapters to play through than anything.

Prologue

In what I assume will continue to be a series trend going forward, all of the 3DS FEs open somewhat in the abstract, including a flash forward to a future event. Fates’s particular take is both the most surreal and the least dependent on shock value, as the events it depicts are only several chapters away rather than near endgame. Azura picks up her Lady of the Lake associations right from the start, there’s a very early glimpse at what will be eventually revealed to be Valla, and Ryoma and Xander and Xander’s ludicrously acrobatic horse square off to set up this setting’s central conflict. The chapter proper is (fittingly) dreamlike, with surreal music and a high-energy scenario that begins in medias res and doesn’t entirely follow the normal rhythms of FE combat. I have absolutely no idea how this would come across to a newcomer to the series - I got my hand held through Lyn Normal Mode, cut me some slack - but I imagine it would be disorienting.

Chapter 1

That’s apparently official concept art of Nohr. Reasonable worldbuilding, what’s that?

The in-game presentation starts off rather less absurd. Hell, if it weren’t for the ominous castle rooftop setting of Xander’s training session one could almost find Corrin’s slice-of-life interactions with their servants and their Nohrian family quaint. Xander is just a drama queen like that. This fight calls back to Path of Radiance and New Mystery, which also start off with training sessions against significantly more powerful named characters. For Birthright it also forms a narrative bookend, but I’ll get to that in due time. I have Feelings about the presentation of Xander...and not just because he’s my husbando either.

I like that Corrin’s retainers are domestics first and combatants second unlike those of the other royals, because it stresses that they’ve been isolated in a non-combat role during their upbringing, their exposure to Nohr’s allegedly spartan military culture limited to sparring with Gunter and Xander. I have no idea how that would be enough for them to survive when they evidently live in Mordor, but then Nohr is the source of the most consistently sloppy worldbuilding in Fates so at least we get that established right away.

Oh, and Lilith is here. There’s never a point anywhere in this game where Lilith’s character is competently handled, so I have a tendency to forget she exists unless she’s on-screen. Here she’s just an unassuming stable girl with an unusual design, and Elise makes an incestuous insinuation in her direction that’s only funny if you played the appropriate DLC. 

Chapter 2

Structural contrast with the towering Hoshidan royal palace aside, I don’t entirely get how Krakenberg works. A dragon did it?

Anyway, Corrin gets an under-explained and clearly evil magical sword from his shamelessly homicidal father only to balk at the thought of killing anyone with it. Leo salvaging this faux pas isn’t the silliest example of Corrin not understanding the basic concept of lying - it’s presumably easier to fake someone’s death with magic than with a giant sword - but it’s definitely up there. The Nohrian royals on the other hand have no trouble with such things based on their traumatic but mostly implied experiences at court. Important to note that everyone here up to and including the prisoners of war calls out Corrin for their sheltered worldview; their development from here on out really is dependent on the player’s choice of route. I vastly prefer this approach to Awakening’s for explaining why the Avatar is such a relatively blank slate - almost no amnesia necessary this time.

And while they appear in most chapters, I want to praise Dragon Veins here for being a really cool concept that doesn’t get as much love as it should. Draconic or otherwise superhuman bloodlines in FE are usually expressed in gameplay with the ability to wield certain legendary weapons, and while that also makes an appearance in Fates Dragon Veins represent more dramatically visible utility. They really make a difference in some chapters, and I’d like to see them reuse the concept in future games where it would be a logical addition (which would be most of them since humans with dragon blood pop up all over this series).

Chapter 3

I chose this image because I want everyone to appreciate as I do that Hans dresses like the world’s most tasteless leatherman. A harness and straps that show off all the wrong bits, and it’s in purple. Not even the overall weirdly fetishistic look of this game’s berserkers can excuse that.

But aside from that, Hans sucks. Iago also sucks. Less characters than plot devices that pop up whenever there’s a need for someone to act completely despicable to move the conflict along, there’s no way to spin them in a way that sounds like they contribute anything positive to the narrative. Case in point: in this chapter Hans single-handedly reignites hostilities between Nohr and Hoshido by Leeroy Jenkins-ing his way through the chapter and later (possibly) killing Gunter, with the only interesting caveat that he claims to have done so at Garon’s behest. And sure, Garon is also flat over-the-top villainy incarnate, but he at least has gravitas and a master playing a long game that arguably succeeds in two of the routes. Hans and Iago are just two more in the line of FE villains with flat motivations and personalities who lack even the good grace to be attractive, but unlike Desaix and Darin and Chagall and others like them they stick around in the story long after they’ve worn out their welcome. Did Nohr really need not one but three flat antagonists in its ranks around for most of the game?

I haven’t even gotten into the first appearance of Camilla’s...issues surrounding Corrin or whatever the dimension-hopping hell Lilith pulls with her invocations to presumably deceased dragon “gods” now that she reveals her true form. This is really the first chapter to offer a hint of how disjointed and frequently contrived Fates’s stories are going to end up, saved only by the very end when Rinkah puts this game’s new blunt weapon category to its logical use. Not like the game wants us to feel bad for Corrin....

Chapter 4

...because Hoshido is paradise. And also Takumi.

Everyone knows the story, both as it’s explicitly told and as can be read through the lines. The writers weren’t afraid to let their biases show, the localizers and the Western fandom did a fair amount to mitigate that with some bias of our own, and the final product is one big mess that fails to make logical sense in-universe and teeters on the edge of real-world two-way racism. Here we’re introduced to Castle Shirasagi, glimmering and verdant and awash in cherry blossoms, as well as Azura, Corrin’s foil in Stockholm Syndrome. But it’s all good, because Mikoto is tranquil and peace-loving and enforces her tranquility through a plot contrivance magical barrier that is just one of many examples in Fates of magic not working the way it does in the rest of the series (or at least I can’t think of anything else like this, correct me if I’m wrong). We don’t learn just why Nohr is so hellbent on invading Hoshido that they’d resort to summoning soulless monsters to do so until much later (and only in Birthright of all routes!). For now they just sound like unprovoked aggressors, and the Hoshidan royals Corrin’s true and loving family.

However, what I really wanted to bring up for this chapter is how oddly it’s structured, such that it never fails to throw me off a bit. It opens in an unnamed Fire Tribe village in a snowy area of Hoshido, which might I mention is the only point in the game we see anything of the Fire Tribe other than Rinkah herself. Considering all the time we spend in multiple routes with the Wind and Ice Tribes, that lack of detail strikes me as peculiar. Kaze then brings Corrin to the Hoshidan palace where Ryoma and Mikoto reveal the truth, then it’s immediately back to the snowy north to rescue Hinoka and Sakura from Faceless before returning to the palace to meet Azura. Was there any reason the Faceless fight couldn’t have happened before Corrin left the village, and the reveal and trip to Shirasagi left for after the chapter map and partially in response to Hinoka’s OOC crying fit?

I also hate maps where high-powered NPCs go around stealing kills. Kaze barely got to see any action this chapter, poor guy.

Chapter 5

Props to this manakete design, which is unlike anything else in the series and manages to work in elements of Anankos and Corrin’s weird outfit. No props to the scripting of the thing, as after this chapter Corrin may as well not even be a mankete except for gameplay purposes (which are minimal anyway unless you need them to tank something). You’d think learning that you can turn into a dragon would leave more of an impact on...anyone really, but nope. I guess it technically becomes relevant again in Kana’s paralogue, but that’s as tangential and ultimately irrelevant as everything else involving the kids.

There’s a lot else going on in this chapter, but I’m sorry to say that neither Mikoto’s death nor the obliteration of a large chunk of Hoshido’s capital lands as powerfully as they were meant to considering Corrin and the audience have spent all of 1.5 chapters with these people. This isn’t anything like Elbert or Greil’s death scene or even remake!Rudolf’s for that matter - at least that one came with a shocking twist that was responded to appropriately. It’s hard to even appreciate these events from the perspectives of the Hoshidan royals because they’re still pretty new characters in the player’s mind, though with the hindsight of Conquest I can maybe sympathize with Takumi here at the beginning of his downward spiral.

Corrin also picks up their legendary sword in a way that feels extremely random. I guess the Yato was inside the statue that got blown up? Weird place to keep a divine peace-bringing relic, that’s all I’m saying.

Branch of Fate

Despite some early warning signs and a few slight missteps, I’m happy to say that this story moment works. It’s a good thing that it does too, as this is the defining moment of FE14 in everything from its marketing to its game design to its core themes. The setup is rushed and tense and allows only Corrin, i.e. the intended player self-insert, full knowledge of the weight of the choice put before them, as none of the other royals are aware that they are all in a way family to the person they’re now abruptly forcing to pick a side. Familial connections (biological or otherwise) may not be a narrative hook that grabs me personally, but nonetheless this scene sticks with you. There is no easy choice, and the consequences of any of them immediately define the direction of the story.

This is not to say that all three of the iterations of Chapter 6 that follow succeed equally well, but that’s for other posts...including the next one, which will kick off Birthright.

Next time: Birthright Chapter 6 - 11

[mamcollection]

What Sold—and for How Much—in Art Basel 2020 Virtual Art Fair

David Zwirner

Balloon Venus Lespugue (Red) Jeff Koons $8 million

Hauser and Wirth 

The Press of Democracy, 2020 Mark Bradford $5,000,000

Painting Mixed media on canvas 287.0 x 359.4 (cm)113.0 x 141.5 (inch) 

‘The Press of Democracy’ (2020) features a loose urban grid in bright blue, with organic golds, browns, and blacks radiating from the center, evoking the release of mounting pressure caused by the suppression of kinetic energy. Using his signature techniques of layering paper, rope, and other materials onto canvas and processing the surface to reveal complex intersections between layers of meaning, Mark Bradford’s most recent work examines a world undone by crisis. Named after a chapter from ‘Gotham’, Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace’s monumental history of New York City, ‘The Press of Democracy’ considers the unspooling of generations of established power structures. Bradford makes a case for the animating power of abstract painting at a moment when everything seems up for grabs.

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Gladstone Gallery

Untitled, 1982 Keith Haring $4.75 million

Painting Enamel and dayglo on metal 230.0 x 184.0 (cm)90.6 x 72.4 (inch) Provenance: The Keith Haring Foundation, New York

Throughout his career, Keith Haring (b. 1958, Reading, Pennsylvania) used his signature artistic vocabulary to become a spokesperson for his generation, responding to many of the urgent social and political issues that defined his lifetime. Beginning with his first works in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Haring developed a universal language comprised of iconographic motifs – including barking dogs and dancing figures – that remained accessible and recognizable to a global audience. 

The painting ‘Untitled’ (1982) is an iconic representation of how Haring employed these motifs to create an exuberant composition that speak to both formal expertise and brilliance in conveying social messages. Here, his use of day-glo paint captures the vibrant energy of his age, one shaped in part by a popular underground club culture, street art , and Neo-Expressionist painting. As an artist, Haring provided a unique take on universal concepts such as birth, death, love, and war, ultimately creating an oeuvre that remains as relevant today as it was during his lifetime.

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David Zwirner

Untitled (Blot), 2015 Kerry James Marshall $3 million (to an American museum)

Painting Acrylic on PVC panel 213.7 x 303.5 (cm)84.1 x 119.5 (inch)

Experience Kerry James Marshall's Untitled (Blot) in depth and explore Basel Online: 15 Rooms on David Zwirner Online → Engaged in an ongoing dialogue with six centuries of representational painting, Kerry James Marshall (b. 1955) has deftly reinterpreted and updated its tropes, compositions, and styles. At the center of his prodigious oeuvre, which also includes drawings and sculpture, is the critical recognition of the conditions of invisibility so long ascribed to black figures in the Western pictorial tradition. For his Blots series, Marshall utilizes the language of abstraction to suggest alternative ways in which black experiences are formally manifested in painting. Like his more familiar figurative images, the artist’s Blots invite viewers to consider what, and whom, the history of abstraction has obscured.

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Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art, New York

The Nineties (1980) Ed Ruscha $2.4 million

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Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco

Untitled (87-33) (1987) Donald Judd $1.85 million

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White Cube

Komplementär bräunlich (2012) Georg Baselitz $1.66 million:

Baselitz cites as an influence Italian abstract painter Lucio Fontana, who made his images by slicing or digging into monochromatic fields of colour to reveal black voids behind the picture plane: “I wanted an apparition, something that appears out of the depth”.

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Hauser and Wirth

The Fragile (2007) Louise Bourgeois $1.5 million

Diagonal Evolution (2020) George Condo $1.4 million

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Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

Elke in Frankreich II (2019) Georg Baselitz $1.35 million

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Luhring Augustine, New York

Untitled (1990) Glenn Ligon $1.2 million

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Xavier Hufkens, Brussels

White Snow Cake (2017) Paul McCarthy $1.2 million

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Galerie Max Hetzler

Intervals 6, 2019 Bridget Riley  $1.2 million

Painting oil on linen 271.0 x 181.0 (cm)106.7 x 71.3 (inch)

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Hauser and Wirth

Untitled, 1972  Ed Clark $1.2 million

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David Zwirner

Pastel (1991) Joan Mitchell > $1 million

Work on Paper

City, 1928 - 1936 Josef Albers $1 million

Painting Tempera on Masonite in artist's frame 56.2 x 109.9 (cm)22.1 x 43.3 (inch)

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Almine Rech, Brussels

The Dreamer (2008) George Condo $950,000–1 million

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Skarstedt

Ralf III (Remix), 2005 Georg Baselitz $900,000

Painting oil on canvas 300.0 x 250.0 (cm)118.1 x 98.4 (inch)

'Ralf III (Remix)' belongs to Georg Baselitz’s acclaimed Remix series, a self-referential body of work that the artist began in the autumn of 2005, in which he revisits and re-interprets subjects from earlier decades of his practice. Addressing his own personal history through the lens of retrospection, the Remix series confronts how perceptions evolve and transform over time, especially within the context of Germany’s dark and troubled past which so persistently reveals itself in Baselitz’s work. Often enlarged and rapidly painted, the spontaneity with which the works in the series are executed gives rise to mnemonic flashes of things in the past, present, and future. Extreme transformations of the their muted, more ponderous forerunners, this particular work makes reference to Baselitz’s Ralf series painted in 1965. 'Ralf-kopf' pre-dates Baselitz’s inverted pictures by four years and sits within a seminal body of work that would form the basis of Baselitz’s artistic investigations that still continue today. The character Ralf is an imaginary depiction of fellow neo-expressionist painter A.R. Penck (real name Ralf Winkler) who is depicted once again in the present work, held in a moment of isolated introspection. Baselitz would paint three versions of Ralf in 1965, one of which now resides in the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.

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Galerie Max Hetzler

The Flaming Fields, 2020 Walton Ford $850,000

Painting watercolour, gouache and ink on paper 212.1 x 151.8 (cm)83.5 x 59.8 (inch)

VAT, where applicable, is not included in the asking price.

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Hauser and Wirth

$850,000: Lee Lozano, No Title (ca. 1964) $730,000, $619,000: Günther Förg, Untitled (2007)

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David Zwirner

Im Turm, 2019 Neo Rauch $500,000

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Levy Gorvy

Mother, 2020 Dan Colen $500,000

Painting Oil on canvas 149.9 x 383.5 (cm)59.0 x 151.0 (inch)

“I have a natural inclination towards using nostalgia as a creative prompt. I have always been interested in the power of cliché. But I still feel very connected to the idea that an artwork must be a reflection of my most individual self and an expression of my most intimate feelings. And so these Mother paintings allow me to explore that tension between the deeply personal and the universal.” —Dan Colen

Dan Colen began his Mother series in 2013, using stills from animated Disney films as source imagery and translating their compositions into traditional oil-on-canvas paintings.

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Lisson Gallery

Listening to the Poets, 2020 Stanley Whitney $450,000

Painting Oil on linen 243.8 x 304.8 (cm) 96.0 x 120.0 (inch)

“I don’t worry about what the color does. If it feels right, if it sits right... To me, it’s all about how things feel. I never know what the colors are going to be... I’m trying to open up space, for people to wander.” — Stanley Whitney

Discussing color entails abstraction; any color represents much more than its literal color, and the discussion is abstract especially when the paintings aren’t representational.

The effects of color call up many responses: visceral, physical, neurological, instinctive, impulsive, adjectives that require others to satisfy or elucidate usage. I can say: the eye communicates with the brain, so that we see. The brain receives signals and creates, constructs, or pieces together an image. It’s involuntary activity, as are sensations, which have no organic basis.

“I don’t know what color does,” Whitney tells me, and says he doesn’t have a theory of color. His art engages with and is about that question, actively playing and working with perception, involuntary responses as well as voluntary ones. Knowing something about painting will usually charge a viewer’s relationship to a painting, and bring other meanings to it.

– Lynne Tillman, Afternoon Paintings, Lisson Gallery catalogue, 2020

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Stephen Friedman Gallery

Happiness Beyond Paradise, 2020 Luiz Zerbini $400,000-450,000

Acrylic on canvas300 x 600cm (118 1/8 x 236 1/4in)

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Hauser and Wirth

Still Life, 2020 Nicolas Party $250,000

Source: Ocula, ArtnetNews

[kingdomheartsfaq]

KH:358/2 Days Manga

*Spoiler Free

I’ve been collecting a lot of KH manga recently, and I finally managed to get the last book I needed for the 358/2 Days series.  As an avid lover of the game, I am aware of its many weaknesses.  It is very stagnant, drawn out, and lonely.  A lot of what you do is busy work, which makes sense in context but it makes for a very boring game.  So I’m always eager to find alternate ways to tell this game’s amazing, beautiful story.

In 2013, when KH 1.5 was released, I was more excited for the 358 movie than anything else.  Though the HD cutscenes were gorgeous, it really fell short in terms of storytelling.  Boss fights were alluded to at best.  Scenes were strung together with on-screen text blocks.  Side-characters were practically nonexistent (no pun intended!).  It took my favorite thing about the game and trivialized it.  A recent patch in KH 1.5+2.5 on PS4 added a more elaborate scene with the final boss, so that the final moments of the movie have context.  But I still don’t think the 358/2 Days movie is a good medium for the emotion and impact of the game.  It just isn’t... right.  It’s just not all there.

So I went into the five-book manga with skepticism.  I had already read the KH1 and Chain of Memories manga, so I knew what to expect; they are silly and over the top. I came out of them thinking: “These were fun to read, but they definitely don’t replace the games.” They were supplemental.  And with how dramatic and desperate the 358 game is compared to the upbeat optimism of KH1 and CoM, I didn’t think it would translate well to manga.

But wow.  I was wrong.

These books were great.  They were impactful and suspenseful and dramatic, but they were also silly and funny and they had the cutest non-canon art on the opening page!  It addresses things you didn’t even know you wanted.  And I know that it’s technically not canon, but it fills in gaps in the series in such casual, unobtrusive ways.  For example, one of the end-of-book comics is about a dusk that cleans up the castle, and... ugh, it’s just great.

My first point of comparison is the Disney worlds.  As a member of the Organization, you aren’t supposed to be seen or influence the worlds.  In the game, they handle this by dropping you in a Disney world with an objective that doesn’t really culminate in anything.  A means to an end.  In the manga, you spend a few chapters in each world only once.  Roxas always has another Organization member with him and their interactions help shape Roxas’s beliefs and identity.  It’s a much better way of handling the “can’t impact the Disney worlds” trope.

Next is the characters.  One of the things I really loved about the game was how it fleshed out all the Organization members through small interactions and missions.  It made them side-characters instead of background noise.  The movie really failed at highlighting this, but the manga took it above and beyond. Each organization member had quirks and personality, from Xaldin’s interest in nutritional health to Saïx’s irritation when people know words he doesn’t.  Demyx is my favorite!  And though these traits aren’t exactly “canon”, they fill in the characters in interesting and believable ways.  Like in Chain of Memories manga, we learned that Lexaeus likes to solve puzzles.  In the game, we don’t learn anything about him or Zexion at all!  It’s nice to be able to imagine these characters as real people, and the manga nails that perfectly.

My biggest worry that the manga would be too silly to address serious issues, and I wasn’t completely wrong.  The manga is very silly.  But they had this weird way of interweaving silly happy scenes with a panel of a character’s expression that really brings gravity and tone to the moment.  There are a lot of “secrets” being kept and you can plainly see the weight of those secrets.  But even more surprisingly, I found that the silly moments made me enjoy this story even more!  358 has always been about friendship and belonging, but in the game most of what you see is eating ice cream and some nice gestures.  In the manga, the characters joke around.  They do stupid stuff together.  Their friendship is so much richer because of the silly stuff.  You know what’s at risk.  You know how important it is.

The end was very impactful.  I couldn’t put the fifth book down.  I knew what was going to happen and I had to keep reading anyway.  There is very little humor in that last volume.  They sort of “simplify” the final battle the same way the CoM manga did, but I didn’t mind it as much in this.  It really changes the tone of the fight.  In the game, the final battle is about survival, but in the manga it’s almost... a plea.  Begging.  I don’t know which version I like more, but I definitely appreciate the manga’s portrayal.  I can’t even explain this in words.

There were a couple non-canon things that I loved.  Oathkeeper happening was amazing.  The Moogle shop was great!  Roxas going to “level up” was funny.  They really play into it being a video game and I like that.  Chain of Memories did the same thing with the vending machine at the end.  I'm also glad that the manga not only used the “memorable quotes” from 358, but kept them mostly word for word.

One big difference between the manga and the game: the manga really focuses on Axel’s perspective.  You learn things a lot earlier than you do in the game.  I thought this sort of ruined the suspense and mystery, but at the same time I like that they tell you this big “secret” even before the main characters learn about it.  It builds a lot of tension and you really appreciate Axel in a way that you don’t in the game.

There was one omission from the manga that I thought was very important: what Xigbar sees.  This is a lead in for a later game.  The cutscene is in Day 353 and can be watched here.

As I’ve said in my Beginner’s Guide, I wholeheartedly recommend this manga.  Actually, it’s the only manga I consider a suitable replacement for the game.  It isn’t entirely canon - especially the more silly parts - but it covers everything important that you need to know (with one exception).  If the game is too much for you, please consider the KH:358/2 Days manga required reading for the series.

<3 KCM

[mikaey43]

#15 Percy Jackson & the Olympians:

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

Rating: 4.5/5

Pages: 381 (with a brief excerpt from the first book of Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero)

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion Books (an imprint of Disney Book Group)

I'm glad to say that this story is definitely one of those you hope won't end. Let's start with the part where I needed to savor the ending as long as I could. I forcefully read this book in about five days—about 1.5 to 2 hours a day—because I didn’t want to finish it too quickly. I forcefully stopped myself reading. And wow. Just wow. I am posting this review so late in the year because I wanted to take time to really think about this last book. (Okay, I have been very busy and lost this file a few times.) I'm going to try and put all this information as best I can on paper. I've been trying to mull this last piece of Percy Jackson over in my mind. I tried to let my thoughts settle as much as possible but only one word comes to mind to describe this adventure: wow. Of course, I'm talking about the fifth and final book in the series: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan.

(WARNING: Reader discretion is advised. Spoilers up ahead of PJO.)

My journey into the world of Percy Jackson started the day I saw the teaser trailer for The Lightning Thief  during the previews of the latest Harry Potter movie. At that time I didn't know it was a book. I began to wonder where I had seen that title before. Only until I became a bit more interested did I begin to see the dull glow of the burnt orange of the cyclops's eye following me around; the havoc of the lightning storm of the first installment as I passed it by heading to the saturated table of Harry Potter merchandise. But I never reached for it. That is until the oldest of my twin brothers became interested in reading this series. That helped me to finally read it a full five years after they both finished reading the series plus Heroes of Olympus.

As I said in my review of The Battle of the Labyrinth I wasn't expecting anything extraordinary, just a satisfying conclusion to this great series. But wow, did Riordan deliver beyond my meager expectations. He saved the best adventure for last. There isn't much to the plot that won't give something away. We're already five books immersed into this story so everything said is a spoiler. (I have my disclaimer at the beginning, if you haven't been spoiled already.)

Although this series has been compared to Harry Potter, it shouldn't be. They do have similarities, such as: their middle grade audience (yet most adults enjoy it too). The magical elements. They can be classified under the urban fantasy subgenre. And of course, the ultimate evil; but, that can be said for any book in the fantasy genre. That is mostly where the similarities end. What makes Percy Jackson different is in the most obvious details: the use of mythology with the participation of the Greek pantheon, where there is nothing of the sort in Harry Potter. The gods mate and leave it all to the mortal parents (male or female). The half-bloods educations is also different, it is a camp. The story is told during the summer months (and one winter) as opposed to the whole year around. Yes, there is a “trio,” but one is a satyr, another the daughter of Athena who is born out of (one can only hope) her mother's forehead. The most glaring difference is, of course, the characters themselves who make up this world. And while you may have similar “stock characters” in each story, just as with real people, it's the experiences of each one that makes them uniquely different from the other. These are just a few points I think are pretty obvious that show the comparison of both stories is unnecessary to them and the authors. It is very apple and oranges.

This adventure is a fast-paced read with an immense amount of action as the previous installments. The setting of this story takes place in New York City as Kronos's forces close in on Mount Olympus (located on the 600th floor of the Empire State Building). This is a strong point of the series: the sheer amount of traveling, exploration and “world building” in each book of the mythological world of the gods and the real world. Amazingly, we still travel before the major battles. Percy goes to a few places before returning to NYC. First, we travel to Long Island on a secret mission out on the Hudson River, then dive into the depths of the ocean and then back to camp Half-Blood. There's a pit stop in Connecticut (to visit Luke's mother) and then we journey to Percy's home for a blessing. Unbeknownst of Nico's intentions, we travel to the underworld and finally to the battleground. Lots of traveling until the very end. Even through dreams Percy travels with Rachel to her vacation on a Caribbean island. I like it. Exhausting at time, but really like it.

Usually when the reader is taken on an adventure there is a period of at least a chapter or so where he or she is reacquainted with the story and the world. In this adventure Percy takes off from the get-go without really taking a moment to breathe. Technically, he did since he had about a “year” to rest. But  the reader—especially if you binge read the series—doesn't have time to take that figurative breath before diving headfirst into the story. There might be a tiny breath but that's about it until you come up for air during the moments of exposition.

Most of the characters mentioned in my previous reviews (The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters) where either mortal or half-bloods. I would like to focus on the reason theses adventures have taken place. Although there are other gods mentioned, to me these stood out for their involvement in the overall scheme of the “prophecy” of this tale. On the outskirts of Connecticut we meet Hestia, the goddess of the hearth, who proclaims herself to be the “last Olympian.” We find out that she has been present at Camp Half-Blood in the form of a girl as the sons and daughters of the pantheon offer up the best portions of their meals to their respective mothers and fathers before they eat. There is Percy's father, the god of the sea, Poseidon. He can be considered the middle child in his importance and demeanor in more ways than just the order of birth of the “big three.” He is more relaxed than his older brother Zeus but less rebellious than his younger brother, Hades. Speaking of Hades, we know that he is Nico's father and god of the underworld. He is ironically linked to the self-fulling prophecy because he cursed the oracle when she reveals that his children's fates (Nico and Bianca) are involved in the prophecy. And finally there is Hermes. Besides being messenger of the gods, we know that he is Luke's father and was May's lover. He carries with him the burden of knowing the destiny of May and Luke and the knowledge of what was to come.

I like that this book was dramatic (like ancient Greek literature) and not melodramatic (like a soap opera) filled with endless unnecessary theatrics of cat fights just for the sake of causing a commotion. Although, in my opinion, Annabeth was being too catty at times for my taste. As highbrow as it may sound, the loves stories between characters in classics seldom have over-the-top obstacles and have legitimate concerns. And when it comes to “love triangles” it also has relatable choices with reasons why the protagonist would choose either the love interest or the “obstacle.” Rarely did any of the protagonists lead the “obstacle” on. If there was a pair, the “obstacle” could pine (if they wanted) but the protagonist would not play with anyone's emotions for the sake of drama (unless it was a “coquettish” drama and even those had consequences for doing so). Romance (in today's definition and not the early 19th century artistic movement) are novels with melodrama (again changed from their early definition). Melodrama now is a work that has sensational and an exaggerated plot with sensational and exaggerated characters. It's what, I believe can be compared with soap operas. For some, these are considered “guilty pleasures”  for stress relief and enjoyment, but for me, as good stories go, I like that the “romance” of this series is the minutest of details because there is so much more then the attraction between Annabeth and Percy. So much more. There were hints of the budding romance and it wasn't spoken of or made concrete until the end of this series. I think that gives young readers a great message: everything in due course.

Another thing that I like very much is the parting of Rachel and Percy. It ended not because they didn't share a mutual attraction, it just wasn't in the cards. And that's fine. They have different paths in life. There is no reason to lead someone on or have this incessant drama of an unnecessary “love triangle.” I really liked the importance Riordan gives Rachel. I applaud how Riordan handled the relationship between them. I like that Rachel is given a bigger role in the story and not just seen as an obstacle. I'm glad Riordan gave her something more than the role of an obstacle to the main romantic pair—if you want to call them that. And that's more to the relationship Rachel is given a bigger overall arc in the story and Percy is a gateway rather than the object. One downside is Annabeth's coldness and cattiness towards Rachel. It was a bit unnerving at times throughout the series. It was annoying how it melted once she saw that Rachel wasn’t a “threat” anymore. I remembered back in the The Battle of the Labyrinth Annabeth treated Rachel as if she was stupid or unimportant because she was a mortal girl who might have the slightest interest in Percy. I don't think Riordan was successful there.

Speaking of battles, which may be the climax of adventures series, but for me, reading them is always a challenge. They make better visual than they do written experiences. So much happens during that moment that I feel that written storytelling can be a bit restrictive because I don’t think that it can envelope all the chaos. It may be written with short sentences to make it fast paced; or with longer, more detailed sentences to make it slow paced and perhaps focus on a scene or a moment. These things make combat scenes a miss for me since I get apathetic or too zealous and I don't absorb the necessary details of something important. I am either overflowing with too much information or none at all. However, these battle scenes made me feel as everyone else. I was low in spirits, high on adrenaline and yet emotionally exhausted as the battles raged past the “climatic” fight of one moment/day. And bonus: I was always worried about the characters I cared about, hoping they wouldn’t die. I'm glad Tyson didn't. (phew!) Riordan did what few authors have done (and usually the setting is historical battle.) Wow.

Another downside is that I didn't find Silena's reason to become a spy for Kronos justifiable. I understand why she stayed a spy. I mean, once you're in a clandestine organization it's hard to get out and that was the consequence. For Silena to make things right again she had to sacrifice herself wether she lived or died. It seemed too much of a “shock value” factor. It appeared awkward, forced, and seemed to me used for the sole purpose to have Kronos be one step ahead. It appeared very much like a “deus ex machina” as Silena then becomes the “hero” as she usurps Clarisse's place to have all of Ares's children go to battle. It could be seen a hundred miles away.

I gave this last book a 4.5 out of 5 stars. This has been a great book and definitely a great series. I am immensely happy that I finally read it and discovered this awesome world of mythology come to life. There were times when I have questioned that half star. But the couple of points I mentioned had me take away half of that 5th star. I appreciated Riordan's imagination and the work it took to bring all of this world to us. Hopefully soon, we can get a series or reboot of the movies because it's a shame that this series has not been optioned again. I would love to see it as a live-action anything. On any screen. (Maybe Netflix!) I am going to miss it very much. I plan on reading the follow-up series Heroes of Olympus soon. Until next time.

Thanks for reading!