#also if i'm wrong on my theory just look away a lot can change in 10 episodes

[slyandthefamilybook]

so this is something that's been on my mind for a while. I wish I could make a big magnum opus post on it but I don't have the energy

I've noticed in my travels that antisemitism seems to be one of the only forms of bigotry that's not self-evidently wrong. People may think they think it is, but I don't think they do. Every time antisemitism comes up as a topic, I see Jews sharing posts with twin explanations: one on why something is antisemitic, and one on why that's a bad thing

I've seen this a lot, and have fallen into it myself, although recently I've been trying to stop. On a post about Bibi changing his last name to "sound more indigenous": "Imagine if someone said this about Black people". On a post blaming Jews for what Israel does: "Imagine if someone said this about Chinese people". On a post accusing Jews of owning too many industries: "Imagine if someone said this about Asian people".

There was a post that went around claiming the IDF harvested the organs of Palestinians with very little evidence. (There are some great posts debunking that but that's not what this post is about.) I remember looking through the comments and one of them stuck out to me. I can't remember the wording exactly, but it went something like: "Israel heard about blood libel and thought why don't we just do that?". Ignoring the fact that blood libel is about the accuser, not the accused, this comment played over and over in my head. I thought about it as I went to sleep that night. Here was a person admitting that the thing they were saying has a strong resemblance to blood libel, but saying it anyway. It struck me that the underlying thought here was "it's not blood libel if it's true".

Once I realized that, I was stunned. I suddenly heard right-wingers in my head saying "it's not racist, it's just a fact that on average Black people have a lower I.Q.". And suddenly everything clicked into place. I know it might seem like an elementary idea, but it genuinely had never occurred to me

In the eyes of bigots, racism protects power. Antisemitism protects truth.

I've often said that all conspiracy theories eventually lead back to the Jews, and this newfound realization fit in nicely. A popular neo-Nazi slogan I've seen recently is "the goyim know". This idea that Jews have something to hide has saturated the political spectrum

Antisemitism is itself a conspiracy theory.

I realize that makes it sound like I don't think antisemitism is real. That's not what I'm saying, it absolutely is. But the way people talk about it is unlike how they talk about any other form of racism. The Jews are a shadowy cabal, who meet in secret to deplatform people who dare speak out against them. This is something we see on the right and the left, from Kanye accusing the Jews of destroying his career, to leftists accusing the "Zionists" of controlling social media.

Spouting antisemitism now becomes a moral good, a political necessity. It's the most important thing in the fight for truth

I understood then, why people on the left are so comfortable calling out accusations of antisemitism as "frivolous", "unserious", "over-used". How they think people are using antisemitism to silence them. You can't just say something is antisemitic and walk away. It won't stick. You also have to sit there on your computer for the next 2 hours, looking up sources to debunk their claims. You have to appeal to the truth. With any other form of bigotry, it's understood by leftists that whatever the facts may be, they don't excuse racism. The number of Black Americans who commit crimes doesn't justify saying Black people are all criminals. The number of First Nations people who own casinos doesn't justify playing off that stereotype. But when it comes to the Jews, it's open season. You can say anything you like about the Jews, as long as you think it's true. Being told that it's antisemitic isn't enough.

This is a great example of just that. "Yes it's antisemitic, but it's also true." The accusation of antisemitism becomes an accusation against the truth. So when it comes to people who really believe in what they're saying, it all just bounces off. This is why people never seem to learn. They hop from conspiracy theory to conspiracy theory. As long as someone assures them it's all true, the bigotry doesn't really factor. They apologize not when confronted with their own racism, but when confronted with the facts.

In this way, antisemitism has become baked into society, especially Christian societies. Because why wouldn't it? Yes, the Jew is greedy, yes the Jew is sneaky, yes the Jew is bloodthirsty. But the Jew is above all a liar. They lie about their names, their culture, their history, their victories, their defeats

I wish I knew how to end this post. Some sort of call to action, some idea of how to fix this going forward. But I have no idea. I suspect if I did, we might not all be quite where we are right now

[beaulesbian]

[egghead spoilers, up to chapter 1110]

Sanji's humanity & Zoro's strength

(or lack thereof) - a theory of possible conflict between Luffy's wings before the end of Egghead arc. Long post ahead. Like.. very long post.

So the new chapter had a very interesting new "banter" between Sanji and Zoro, but no, actually just Sanji, because there was no usual back and forth quips followed after.

Yes, this whole post started because of these few panels: (" ...!!")

After rereading the chapter more times I realized, Sanji's not even speaking to Zoro or knows that Zoro can hear him. He's talking about Zoro, and calling him a burden to the team.

Which is just baffling to me? (fair, maybe I'm looking too much into it and next chapter it would be explained in different way) but for now, I need to put this out there and make my own small (long) theory on this.

There's lot to be said about the word burden here, and I will get to it later in the post, but for now, let's start with Sanji and his eyebrow!

It wouldn't be a perfect story if Oda didn't tangle threads of each respective characters from multiple arcs before and brought them up together later on during one of the most difficult times when Strawhats and Luffy are facing off with so much danger (reminds me of Sabaody but in a very different way).

In this instance Sanji's past could be brought up again, something that started worrying him since his fight with Queen in Wano, and especially given that his left eyebrow has been changing its shape quite a lot during the run of the Egghead arc.

Here's just few panels throughout end of Wano up to current Egghead chapter, where Sanji' left eyebrow is in the focus on the pages:

Chapter 1029 was the first part where Sanji was thinking his body might be undergoing some changes he couldn't control -broken bones insantly healed, stronger and faster than ever before, due to him beforehand using the Germa suit which possibly triggered this sort of superhuman modification he wasn't really aware of until then. When he realized he couldn't remember certain memories, he panicked, thinking he might be changing into something similar like his brothers, a scientific weapon created by his father. The worry and panic was all the more present because he thought he hurt someone without his knowing, and that'd slowly take away his kindness and sense of humanity. (Too bad I hoped the changes his body might be undergoing would only be realization of his non-cis gender status, but maybe that's still on the table for sometime in the future.):

^In this second panel his face is on purpose shadowed, which was the last time he was shown in that chapter,

and only again was in chapter 1031 - where his eyebrow changed:

and it takes him to think about Luffy and what his purpose would be if something so important of him would change. He knows why Luffy went after him in WCI, he knows what values are important for Luffy and his crew, and of course he doesn't want to be reminded of his family and his brothers and act as they did. He chooses the humanity, the kindness that Luffy loves in him.

Even to the extent to call Zoro and make a deal with him - to kill Sanji if anything would go wrong with him. "If I'm not in my right mind, I want you to kill me." That much trust he has in Zoro to protect the crew and Luffy!

Of course Zoro wouldn't do anything reckless without a good reason, but part of their banter and understanding each other would be to promise something like that - echo of Thriller Bark and the range of how far Zoro would go to take on someone elses pain. It's a promise to win their separate fights, but also this was something that Sanji put out there for Zoro to take notice of. (I will come back to that later.):

(still the "bad eyebrow" - he had that the whole chapter 1031).

After his fight with Queen (where it was also cleared what his actions were and weren't), he was only shown two times until he woke up, and both times he had his eyebrow back on good side.

1036 & 1044 (hearing Luffy awaken his powers):

All the way up to Egghead he seemed to have his eyebrow drawn this way, and it started to change only during fights -

ch 1075, still good eyebrow, tho.. ehh this behavior.. whatever:

ch. 1078, protecting his crew from Seraphim, bad eyebrow:

in between chapters 1090 - 1105 (most of which were flashbacks and Sanji nor Strawhats were shown) he appeared with his typical eyebrow:

and it changed again in ch 1107 - when he was again protecting Bonney / fighting against Kizaru:

interesting was chapter 1108 where he's standing between Saturn and Vegapunk, and he's describing Saturn with "he's less and less human by the minute" while his own face was obscured, (I mean.. interesting choice of words and what character said it, huh?):

and the next page he still has the bad eyebrow:

in chapter 1109 it's back on his typical side, where it continues from previous chapter of Sanji carrying Vegapunk- so at some point it must have shifted back (and I'm curious if these changes would be noticable in the animation). At this part he's watching how Saturn is summoning the other Gorosei to Egghead:

Which leads me to the point from above with Zoro.

chapter 1110 and their interactions (for me) was just off. I like their usual banter and bickering, it's funny (if it's in the manga and contained to few panels to make sense, not so much in the anime, but i'm not going into that now), but the thing to call anyone of their crew a "burden" just doesn't fit right. (Especially after WCI... c'mon Sanji, and especially to someone like Zoro, who's always the first one to think about the crew.)

I would understand it if he laughed along with the words to elevate their seriousness, or said something like "Finish it up, Mosshead, we need to get moving." but no. He calls him a burden. And again as I mentioned, it pretty much could have been even Sanji not realizing Zoro can hear that.

These words (in my opinion) were chosen on purpose for multiple reasons:

First we have the Zoro vs Lucci fight that goes on for a while in the real world - in the One Piece world it might be just few minutes - plus we don't know how tough were the fights with the Seraphim which let others be injured.

When Lucci attacked, Zoro immediately thrown himself with him away from the rest of the crew. Zoro was possibly stalling with the fight for time to leave. I feel he could have finished that fight earlier but that wasn't the point. The point might have been to hold him back from his crew.

also this was possibly the only fight after King where Zoro could test the limits of his powers and haki, just like Luffy in the Udon prison in Wano was basically training, this (and the Seraphim fights we haven't seen) could be something similar for Zoro.

Some people think that just because of these characters getting new powers it means they already understand how to use them/how it works, but that's usually not the point of how stories go - there can be progress and there can be setbacks, growing up but also falling back down, which makes the stories more interesting.

The words that Lucci used against Zoro were basically the same thing that Sanji said to Zoro few chapters later:

Amongst them he pointed out the Strawhats inability to cut off one of their own out of their crew to save others - like Lucci left Kaku behind just chapters before this fight when he attacked Vegapunk and Stussy (and Sanji trapped Kaku in the bubble prison). It's a play on very different characters and how they think and act to show clearly how they different they are.

The words burden or dead-weight really stood out, already when Lucci said it in chapter 1107, and the fact that they were targetting Zoro - someone who always blames himself (in his mind, not usually out loud) for not being strong enough, and someone who always has protecting his crew at the first place, was interesting in the connection to Sanji repeating basically the same words in the latest chapter.

I will probably make a different separate post only focusing on Zoro and his fear of being weak, but for the purposes of this post, just to pick a few moments where it's important in the manga:

One of the first time I've noticed how much Zoro keeps berating himself with words like "not strong enough" "too lax" "still too soft" "if I'd been stronger/ faster/ better..."

was just after Little Garden arc, where he almost cut off his ankles just to keep fighting. Time after time the crew encounters strong enemies and Zoro gets a new understanding how far up is the limit that he has to reach to keep the crew safe, so he keeps training. ch. 129:

When Luffy went to fight Crocodile and Zoro was worried and kept training on the way to Alubarna, this banter between Sanji and Zoro felt typical between them - it's about the two way street, the back and forth (that's why that new chapter and insult from Sanji feels so foreign, there's no reply, not quip back - only silence and some sort of determination, which isn't good nor bad, just.. weird.) ch. 179:

and after the final fight of Alabasta, possibly one of the first times I really started paying attention to how much it gets to Zoro, this question of how strong he needs to be. (along with what possibly was one of the first introduction of his haki and how he began training the Observation haki, disguised as meditation in the terms of the early manga) ch. 213:

Thriller Bark was one of the biggest arcs in this sense of Zoro and his protectiveness towards the crew and Sanji knows that - he knows what happened there, he even wanted to sacrifice himself in stead of Zoro for Luffy (but this is beside the point here, and I talked about it in other post before).

Zoro took on himself Luffy's pain, and after that arc he still went right to train as soon as he could despite being still injured, ch. 490. "still too weak!"

which goes through to Sabaody arc.

Chapter 510 until the end of that arc is just painful to go through again. Luffy was worried for Zoro and didn't know the scope of his injuries, while Sanji knew and was concerned in his own way too - that is another thing of how they care, sometimes wordlessly but there is that understanding of what to mention or not. ("Burden" still shouldn't be one of the words to use between them, not that far into the story.)

Now - fast forward to Punk Hazard where one of similar moments played out - Zoro telling Luffy not to goof around because they got in the New world and needed to take things seriously.

It was one of those small moments where Sanji was actually one of the few people shown with reaction to Zoro's words and his urgency, ch 678:

Sanji saying "He's so tough on himself" really puts into perspective how he sees Zoro - he knows what he's been through, and knows to what extremes he's willing to go to protect his crew.

He's definitely not someone who would carelessly call Zoro "a burden" even in the time and place and situation they found themselves on Egghead, if anything, he was supposed to be one of the first ones to know how serious is Zoro always about protecting the crew. (Even in the beginning of Egghead, Zoro stayed at first on the Sunny because "who will save them when they will need saving.")

There's few others scenes and parts where Zoro questions his worth and strength, especially in later Wano, calculating what needs to be done so they have strength to face off with Kaido, ch 980:

and later against King, ch 1033 "it was my strength that was lacking!" while unlocking his Conqueror's haki, still unknowingly:

The fact that it's been happening pretty much since the beginning of the story - how Zoro views himself as not strong enough, yet persisting in always getting stronger and protecting his crew - means so much for what character Zoro is and how much he values and loves his crew (just like all the other Strawhats in different ways), and also, as I've been catching up so quickly with the manga, there's been that hope for some call out of this behavior, to poke it where it hurts, to see what would happen if someone turns those words Zoro possibly feels in his mind against him out loud. And that's kind of what's been happening lately - and I'm curious what impact will this have on both Zoro personally and on the other Strawhats, depending who will be around for the conclusion.

Zoro is one of the few strawhats really thinking about the future, plans and what they need to still fight through, carefully calculating what his opponents might be doing, how strong they are and how much of a problem it would be to go through them.

And Sanji normally understands that, he knows how Zoro works and the other way around, that's why he still protected him when Zoro was injured, (if anything, in this moment Zoro could have been something like hinderance or annoyance to Sanji, yet he never said something like that), ch. 1015:

Even on Egghead, where there was temporary truce with Lucci and Kaku, Zoro pointed out how to recognize the Seraphim's weaknesses, and apologized for 'wasting their stamina' - again, calculating on his strength, ch. 1077:

Zoro isn't just fighting for the sake of a fight, he does have his dream and does know what's important to focus on (he himself always keeps the crew in focus when it's important!)

So it's difficult to have a conclusion about the whole Zoro vs Lucci fight without knowing what is Zoro thinking - hopefully in next chapter we will have more info on it (that is number 1111 - Zoro's birthday and bounty! so I hope it will be a big focus on Zoro again). But even beside that, it was obvious in such short time two people around him suddenly called him a burden to his team - something he takes very close to his heart and mind, something that will hopefully have some consequences for us to see and read, because as Oda is choosing words definitely carefully to have the right impact, two very similar words like "burden" don't seem like a coincidence.

To wrap this up - with Sanji telling this to Zoro felt different than their usuall banter, and as I said before - maybe because Sanji wasn't even speaking to Zoro. At the same time, on Wano Sanji gave Zoro a clue that somehting was happening with him, the fact that there was a panel with just Zoro's ear twitching and then being silent, thinking, and not replying to Sanji with anything that would hint to us about his state of mind, and it could mean he's also aware of some difference in Sanji's acting.

The way he says this reminds me of the what Sanji was thinking during his fight with Queen - "what would be more useful to Luffy, regular flesh-and-blood body? Or a cruel, cold emotionless warrior of science." Even for this small part of seeing him speak with Jimbei and hearing what Zoro was up to until then, he speaks without almost any emotions beside anger? Even with his eyebrow not indicating the change, precisely, it doesn't have to be connected in this way, except physical fights, but there could be something still changing within Sanji to make him act this way, a way that really isn't something we've seen before. I think if in next chapters he speaks to Nami, Robin or some other woman without his typical over-the-top pleasanteries, it could indicate how much of a problem this could be for the Strawhats.

So we have Sanji's need to stay human and kind, the pact created with Zoro to kill him if anything felt wrong; and we have Zoro - someone who's biggest purpose from the beginning was to protect the crew and Luffy, while many times we've seen him question his own strength, and now two people in the span of like 5 minutes in the One Piece time are calling him a burden.

It will be interesting to see if this is heading towards a clash or conflict between Luffy's wings while Luffy needs the support to fight / flee from the Gorosei.

To end this too long post, I feel it's very on point for One Piece not to have a sole focus on just one character going through it™ in one arc, but it's always a few crumbs here and few hints there. This sort of conflict would be perfect to deal with both of Zoro and Sanji's respective fears - because this is very much about fears in their minds, while at the same time if they can resolve this, it would only strengthen their crew once again.

[butmakeitgayblog]

"Canon Clarke (I have theories)" may I ask 👀

Ok hear me out! I'm gonna try and explain this as best I can 😅

I believe that Clarke was extremely vocal in bed. If we look at the facts, Clarke has a big mouth and talks a lot. A lot. Often robustly, generally at inopportune times, and almost always out of turn. Girl just barely gave the tiniest of fucks at any given point in time. She did not shy away from saying exactly what she felt at any given time.

It's literally why we love her 🥺

And going off that you're not gonna tell me that didn't translate to the bedroom. How am I, a virgo lesbian with impeccable taste, meant to believe that that woman wasn't just as demonstrative in bed as she was outside of it? Just as vocal?

If you take into account the fact that after 307 everyone and their goddamn brother seemed to be aware of Clarke and Lexa's relationship, the logical question comes: How did they find out? How did literally everyone suddenly know about them without a doubt, to the point they felt comfortable speaking intimately about Lexa to Clarke? Yes Lexa wasn't subtle about her affections, but Clarke before them sleeping together was still very standoffish in her anger.

So what changed?

My theory: word of mouth.

I absolutely theorize that the guards/occupants of the surrounding tower floors quite literally heard Heda kom Body Glitter and Wanheda blowing each other's backs out, and then immediately started gossiping about it. Given the fact that their public interactions up until that point had been cloaked in so much pomp and ceremony, broken up with these strange, sporadic private moments of Clarke spending hours alone in the silence of Lexa's room as Lexa read and slept, to finally hear the sounds of them going full sapphic pauna on each other would've absolutely been something that any warrior would've gone on break and been like "biiiiiitch do you know what I just heard???" about immediately 🤷‍♀️

"Well what makes you think it was Clarke who was loud? Clarke was the one who fucked Lexa into a nap 🤨" you may ask.

To which I say: shut up and you're wrong.

Because, again, look at the facts. Lexa's love language was not only acts, but also she liiived for encouraging Clarke. Lexa was always Clarke biggest cheerleader. Her most ardent and vocal supporter. She was always the one stepping up and telling Clarke that she was capable and strong and everything else Clarke needed to hear in moments when she felt vulnerable. Do you honestly believe, after months of pining, when Lexa finally got the chance to make love to the woman who had stolen her heart and then spit in her face, that she wouldn't want to hear every single last sound of Clarke's pleasure? That she didn't encourage Clarke to completely lose herself in the pleasure of it? Do you honestly believe that when she rolled over and kissed Clarke, when she straddled her and made her writhe beneath her, when she licked through her folds and fucked her in her plush bed of furs, that she didn't ask Clarke if it felt good? If she liked this or that? That she didn't quietly beg into Clarke's ear for her to moan for her? Do you honestly believe that Lexa didn't pay attention to every twitch of Clarke's lips and gasp of her breath and use all those signals to make Clarke completely lose control? And that Clarke didn't give Lexa exactly what she wanted to hear? Willingly? Robustly? That she didn't want Lexa to hear exactly how much she made her feel? As far as either of them knew, this may be the only time they got to experience this intimacy together before their people pulled them apart. Do you really believe they didn't do exactly what they wanted to the fullest extent in those few hours they lay hidden from the world???

Clarke may not have been ready to tell Lexa that she loved her because of the anger and betrayal that lingered between them, but you're not going to ever make me believe that when she made love with Lexa she didn't do everything she could to show it

[zoeykallus]

Hm? A note?

*opens the note and reads*

“I kindly request a Pheromones but with Tech with a mix of predator and prey into this nasty smut. But if you do not want to do this that is fine with me your majesty.”

Finally! Someone's asking me for unhinged Tech Smut 🔥🤩🔥🥵 I feel like I've waited for this one for years 😱

And I had so much trouble writing and editing my draft 😅😭 A lot of hours later: "I'm not happy with what I did here 😓

Warnings: SMUT/Sex Pollen Trope/Unhinged Tech/ Shy Tech Turning Feral/Dubious Consent(!11!1!!)/PiV/Oral/Groping/Biting/Pining/Pinning Down/Restraining/Plus Short Dirty Dream Sequence/Angsty/Creampie/Messy/Fluff (Believe it or not)18+

_____________

Ko-Fi (If you feel like giving me some coffee)

_____________

>Master List<

____________________

AC: This is very feral Tech, Reader is definitely having fun, but there are possible triggers, so mind the warnings!!! This one is dancing heavily on some very thin lines concerning consent and pleasure/pain. I wasn't even sure if I should post this. Guess there was a lot of pent-up smutty stuff left in my mind about this guy. Okay I tamed the original version down, a good bit, I think it was a tiny bit too much. But still, this is pretty messy.

Update: damn it, I changed this draft so often now, I don't know if it's still readable...

_____________________

Wrecker, who playfully bumps into his helmet, nearly knocks Tech off balance. Tech glares angrily at his brother through the lenses of his goggles, but finally sighs and turns back to his holopad. Again and again, his gaze sneaks from his holopad to you, watching Hunter talk to you. Today, you and Tech are to complete a mission, just the two of you. A more or less simple exploration tour. His heart beats faster just thinking about it. You've been traveling with CF99 for a while now, and Tech has had a crush on you practically since day one. You smell good, you're pretty, you're curious, and you always listen to him so intently. He's been blown away from the beginning by your little laugh, the smile, the way you talk, how your fingers move when you're lost in your thoughts. Tech takes in so many little things, by now he knows so much about you, so many wonderful little things that he admires, almost idolizes. But as straightforward and logical as Tech actually is, he can be just as shy.

He hardly dares to exchange a word with you that has nothing to do with work, he hardly dares to look you in the face. So often he has dreamed of you, of touching, kissing and even more, things that have done wild things to his mind and hormones. But he can't bring himself to do it, just doesn't dare touch you. So many times he had been close to just gently touching your hand, or sliding a little closer when you were sitting next to each other, but each time he has backed down. Tech wouldn't know how to deal with you, in theory he's already read everything there is to know about intimacy, romance and the like, but the practice is somehow so damn seductive but also so incredibly scary for him. What if you reject him? What if he kisses you, and it's bad? What if you feel nothing when he kisses you? What if his touches leave you cold? What if he does something wrong, scares you away, or leaves you unsatisfied? With all these questions, his guts tighten, and a heavy pressure builds on his chest. This is a challenge that can't necessarily be tackled with logic. Love doesn't really feel logical, but it feels intense, Tech thinks silently. Another light bump against Tech's helmet snaps him out of his thoughts.

"Cut it out, Wrecker!" "Come on, you two finally alone again? This time you have some guts!" the giant rumbles. Tech hastily glances over at you, but you're still engaged in conversation with Hunter, then he looks at Wrecker and nervously waves his holopad around. "Keep it down, Wrecker, she can't hear this!" he whispers energetically. Wrecker rolls his eyes and laughs softly, "You're way too nervous, I think she likes you a lot too" Tech pauses in his tense movement and asks, "Oh yeah, did she say anything?" "No, but that one particular smile, she only smiles at you like that". Tech's gaze darts back in your direction and that's when he sees it, that smile, his face gets all hot, and he hastily turns back to the holopad in his hands. "You're such an idiot," Wrecker grumbles, "She's smiling heavenly at you, and you're staring at your holopad" "Shut up, please, Wrecker," Tech says tensely.

The others are on their way, doing their jobs. Tech is finally alone with you. His knees are soft, he feels slightly shaky, and his pulse is permanently slightly elevated, but he's more in control than he suspected. Tech puts on the helmet he customized for you and says, "This helmet has an air filter, just like mine. We don't know what to expect yet, so we'll play it safe." He explains as you look at him questioningly through the visor. He can't really see your face, but he always senses when you look at him. Actually he is annoyed about the helmet, just because he can't see your beautiful face, but Tech also wants to protect you and when you are moving among unknown flora and fauna, this helmet is actually indispensable. "Okay," you say, groping for the helmet with both hands, an unfamiliar feeling. "Don't take the helmet off outside, please," Tech says gently but firmly, "We don't know much about the plants and animals in the area yet" You give him a thumbs up and say, "Okay, got it. We're good to go as far as I'm concerned" Along the way, you carefully take some samples of various plants, take holo-images of the environment, and look at various species of animals from a safe distance. You listen with fascination as Tech comments on some of your observations. It's so nice to spend time alone with him, you like the way he looks out for you.

You discover a cave that is riddled with glowing crystals and mushrooms. You put on your gloves because Tech told you to. "We'd better not touch anything with our bare hands for now," he notes. You nod and reply, "Sounds reasonable." With a gloved finger, you poke a neon-red glowing, thick mushroom, which then begins to blink and emit a thin cloud of spores. Tech leans over and says, "See, this is why we have the helmets, we don't know what these spores might do, hallucinations, fevers, toxic reactions..." You nod and say still intrigued, "It's blinking, like an alarm light" "Indeed" Tech looks at his watch and says, "We've been walking for a few hours, maybe we should head back" With a nod, you agree and follow him out of the cave.

Something is wrong, he is way too warm, the outside temperatures are not that high, but his body temperature seems to keep rising. He feels strange, maybe Wrecker knocked his helmet a few too many times, maybe his filter wasn't working properly. Tech quickened his steps, and you tried to keep up with him in surprise. Arriving at the Marauder, Tech takes off his helmet, and you can tell something is wrong, the expression on his face, that slightly glazed look. "Are you okay?" "I don't know," Tech admits, "I'm very warm, and I have a headache." He blinks in surprise as you start to help him take off his gear, but he allows it to happen, he also lets you push him into his bunk and tuck him in. "You must be overworked," you say gently, "You're always working, around the clock. At some point, your body just can't keep up with your mind, Tech." He blinks, accepts the water you brought him, and says, "Maybe you're right." He likes the way you take care of him, fluffing his pillow, covering him up, bringing him water and putting a cool, damp cloth on his forehead. He feels miserable right now, but he literally melts at every little thing you do for him.

"I'm sure a few hours of sleep will do you good," you say with conviction and a soft smile. Tech looks at you from wide, glassy eyes, he gets lost in that smile of yours, and before he can pull himself together he says, "Can you stay here, with me?" "Oh," you say in surprise, "Sure." You lie down in the bunk across from his, barely two steps away from him. Tech turns to the side, so he can look at you. You say with a smile, "Don't worry, I'll take care of you". Tech's ears turn red as he smiles back. At a certain point, you both fall asleep.

His dreams are wild, very wild, much wilder than usual. Intimate dreams are not unknown to him, but this one is very intense. He watches you suck him while his hands on the back of your head give you a wild pace, shortly after he pins you to the floor and plows his hard cock through your pussy while you gasp, sigh, moan and whimper under him. Then he spins you around and shoves his length into the tight little hole between your buns, taking you so fast and hard that the clash of bare skin, echoes loudly off the walls. His hand is in your hair, pulling at it as he thrusts ever more savagely into the tightness of your butt. Tech tears open his eyes, feeling even hotter than before, his thoughts a wild jumble of sexual acts. His cock pulses hard under his blacks, almost painfully. Everything inside him burns and screams to grab you, to take you, to taste you, to fuck you. He moans softly and wipes his forehead, a very small part of him knowing that he's thinking and intending very naughty things right now, that he actually needs to pull himself together. But this small part is lost in the wild, feverish racket of his suddenly felt hundredfold intensified sexual desires.

He is so tense with horniness that a slight tremor goes through his body. He looks over at you, you are still asleep, you are still alone and will probably be for a while. Automatically, almost of his own accord, he takes off his blacks. He looks down at himself, he doesn't see much, it's still dark, but his cock is clearly standing at full size. Against all reason that tries to survive somewhere under the wild chaos of sex thoughts, he walks over to the bunk you are lying in. In between he hesitates, this little part of him is only small, but stubborn. "You can't do that, it's indecent, you'll scare her... it's wrong..." he whispers to himself, and yet he keeps coming closer to you.

You feel someone climb into your bunk or sit on the edge and slowly awaken from your slumber. Your eyes do not immediately adjust to the darkness. You blink, there is someone, in your bunk, you are uncovered and that someone is bent over you. "Tech? Is that you?" you ask, confused and not yet in your right mind. Your fingers grope for the nightlight and turn it on. It's not particularly bright, but enough to clearly see the naked Tech kneeling above you on your bunk. Your gaze lingers briefly on his hard length, thick, long, gently curved, the tip slightly red and swollen, a trickle of precum on the small slit. You look up at him, startled. "What's going on here?" you ask, perplexed, completely bewildered by the unexpected situation. He's not touching you yet, but you can still feel his body heat already. "Tech, you must have a fever- wait what are you doing!" Ignoring your words, Tech reaches under your sleep shirt for the waistband of your panties and sets about pulling them down. "Need you, need to smell you, taste you, feel you," he stammers as if delirious with fever.

When you automatically grab his hands in surprise to stop him, he fends you off and tugs impatiently at the fabric until it tears. You let out a startled little scream as he rips the fabric from your body, and right after that, impatiently, your sleep shirt. His eyes get even bigger behind the lenses as he sees you naked in front of him. "Tech, what are you doing....?" you ask quietly. He grabs your wrists, rips a strip off the sheet and goes to tie your hands together, but you fidget and stubbornly resist. He grabs your hands and pins them down, glaring at you impatiently. "Tech, what the fuck!" "Need you, need you to comply," he says hoarsely. "I don't understand," you say quietly. He looks at you, feverish, almost desperate, "I need to taste you and smell you and feel you, I need to have you!"

His words make you nervous, it doesn't sound like him at all, neither the pitch nor the way he said them.

Tech smells your hair and shivers, as do you. You feel his legs pushing your thighs apart, his pelvis thrusting between them and his cock pressing down on your pubic, rubbing against it. You let out a small surprised moan as the friction drives heat and wetness into your pussy.

He moans softly and repeats, "I need you." You've been into Tech for a while, but this wasn't really Tech, was it? Again he tries to bind your wrists, this time he's faster, and a little rougher, overpowering your flagging resistance and finally tying them to the headboard of the bunk. Your pulse races, your heart hammers in your chest. A startled, surprised squeak comes from your lips as he presses up against you, and dig his teeth into your shoulder, not hard enough to really hurt you, but hard enough to leave pressure marks. He licks over the spot, kissing it as his hands travel down your body. You're hot and cold, thoroughly aroused, but this seems so foreign. His body is burning hot, you are sure he has a fever. You want to tell him that he needs a doctor, but at the same moment his mouth moves to your breasts, and he begins to lick and suck your nipples, his long fingers greedily embracing the soft flesh. Your head is swept clean. You loll under him, sighing softly, he presses his lap into the mattress as he moves down your body, a low rumble coming from his chest as he sucks your nipples and rubs against your body.

Suddenly he rises, kneeling higher over you, his hard cock hovering just in front of your mouth. You blink and look past his hard length up into his face. His hand roughly grips your chin, pushing it higher, then he demands, "Open." Nervously, you open your lips as he finally presses his tip against them, letting him in. Your tongue automatically presses against the underside. You see him shiver, and hear him moan. Admittedly a nice feeling and a delightful sight. But Tech is under pressure, under fire. He grips your head and pushes further until you gag and your eyes tear as he fucks your mouth. His whole body trembles with tension. You stare up at him, having no idea how long you can keep this up or what to do when you can't anymore. But it doesn't take long, you feel him throbbing in your mouth, Tech moans out, then his semen shoots down your throat and mouth. You swallow in surprise as best you can. There's quite a bit. He pulls his cock out of your mouth again. Some of his semen trickles down your chin, but you can't wipe it away because of your bound hands. He keeps moving, his lips and tongue roaming from your breasts down, over your belly, faster and faster, as if they're impatient.

You start breathing faster the closer he gets to the heated triangle between your thighs.

There is something tugging at you, a craving, a want, something you didn't know before you had. It's weird, all of this, yet you feel you want this, you want him.

Then he's finally there, you hear him take a deep breath, feel him shakily expel the air on your wet folds. While you're still shuddering from the soft draft, his mouth is suddenly on your pussy, his tongue heatedly exploring your folds. A surprised squeak escapes you, followed by a gasp as his tongue glides over your pearl, repeating the motion several times in quicker succession. You have no idea how he does it, but his tongue is so nimble and strong, getting wilder and wilder. Your thighs tremble around his head, the gasps from your throat become faster and faster, mixing with hoarse moans. Tirelessly, his tongue flicks over your swollen, pulsating clit, again and again and again. You mewl in arousal, stir in your bonds. The feeling of his soft, wet tongue dancing on your sweet spot, that bundle of nerves is delicious.

He's rutting his cock into the mattress while he licks and sucks your clit, moaning as he does so, humming, muffled by your pussy where you very clearly feel the vibration, an added stimulus. You don't know what's gotten into him, at the moment you can't get a clear thought either. But somewhere in the back of your mind, you think back to the red glowing mushroom in the cave.

No matter how surprised and overwhelmed you are right now, you are also incredibly horny. Your abdomen trembles, your thighs quiver, the tension, the tingling and pulsating is heading towards a climax.

Tech's tongue gets faster, flicks your little clit in rapid fashion. Your abdomen tenses, your walls clench around nothing.

You almost cry out as you tip over the edge into your climax. Tech continues to lick your clit, a little too long, you become hypersensitive, and you jerk under his touch, but his hands grab your hips hard and hold you in place, pushing you into the sheets. He's still rutting his cock into the pad of the bunk, and his tongue finds your dripping opening. A little cry comes over your lips as Tech slips his tongue between your slick walls and wiggles around inside, starting to lick you out like you're candy. He's greedy, and intense and he's making a mess. "TECH!" He growls, not a word, not really a response, just a growl. His nose keeps pressing against your hypersensitive pearl, but every twitch of yours is held in check by his hard grip. "This is too much, Tech, too much!" You see him twitch, another growl, he rolls his glassy, reddened eyes back for a moment. You realize he's cumming in the sheets.

He finally lets go of you for a moment, sits up, somewhat breathlessly wipes his mouth and chin with the back of his hand and forearm, wipes away your juices and his saliva. His sweaty chest rises and falls heavyly. Tech still looks feverish, his eyes still wild and without focus. "Not enough," he says, slightly hoarse, smoky, "More!" You see that his length is still hard and erect. Then you see his gaze fall between your legs, you automatically want to close your thighs, you don't really want any more over-stimulation, but he pushes himself in between. Automatically, you want to use your hands, but they are still tied to the head of the bunk. Tech lies above you, pressed against you, his body still glowing hot. He seems to be wrestling with himself, hesitating, but only briefly. In the next moment, he has brought his tip to your hole and is penetrating you, parting your moist folds and plunging deep inside you. He's quite long and thick, you feel him stretching and filling you. "Fuck," you curse softly.

It hurts a little, but somehow it also feels so damn good. He's leaning on his hands, hovering half above you, his cock deep inside you. Sweat is on his forehead, his muscles are shaking, his reddened eyes keep blinking. He looks strained. You realize he's trying to hold back right now, but barely managing it.

This is not your sweet and shy Tech.

He starts to move, dragging his cock a bit out of your sensitive entrance, and right after that he pushes forward into you again. Slowly at first, but he gets faster and faster. He half sits up, pulling you to a different angle as he does so he can push deeper inside you. Tech moans, gasps, makes little sounds you've never heard before, every now, and then he stammers words you don't understand. His hips move faster and faster, the sound of naked skin meeting naked skin fills the room. You didn't expect it, but your arousal picks up again and as if Tech sensed it, a hand moves between you and his fingertips, deftly find your pearl. A hoarse sound passes your lips as his cock inside you, as well as his fingers on your clit, speeds up. As if of their own accord, your legs close around his hips as your thighs begin to tremble.

His name comes moaning over your lips, again and again. He stares at you, but his eyes are still so glazed and wild that you don't know if he's really looking at you. A shudder goes through his body, a twitch, then he growls softly, you feel his cock twitch and pulse in your cleft, his warm seed filling your pussy. Every other thrust, accompanied by a squelching sound. Shortly after, the knot in your abdomen loosens, tingling all the way to the tips of your toes. But Tech doesn't stop, he's still hard, thrusting into your pussy filled with his seed. "More," you hear him say in a shaky voice. You moan, "Tech, I can't take anymore." You don't know if he really understood you, perceived the words, but he pulls his cock out of your pussy with a wet smacking sound, grabs your hips and turns you onto your stomach. Your heart races, you're not sure what he's up to. His length is still full of his juices and yours as he pushes it lengthwise between your buns. His hands grip your buns pretty hard and squeeze them together as he begins to rub his cock in the crease between them.

He moans, gasps and trembles. You are glad that he has refrained from sticking it in your ass. Without preparation, that would have been very unpleasant. Tech rubs himself against your buns, panting, trembling. He suddenly slows down, then you feel his warm load splashing on your buns and your back. By now you are full of his cum, in and on you, even the bunk is full of it, everything is sticky. Tech, of all people, who is very conscious of his hygiene, has made this mess. His breath is getting shaky, you hear it, feel his cock finally softening on your buns. "Oh maker... oh no... oh hells no...", you hear him whisper, in his tone a desperation that is hard to overhear. You pull at your bonds and say as calmly as you can, "Please, Tech, untie me." "Oh my goodness, of course, right now.... I'm so sorry... really so sorry..." he continues to stammer and with trembling hands he loosens your bonds. Finally, you can sit up, turn around and look at him. His eyes are back to normal, no longer glassy, nor reddened, but his cheeks and ears are red, and the expression on his face completely desperate and ashamed. He hastily grabs a pillow to cover his crotch as you look at him.

"I'm so sorry," he says softly, almost whispering, barely managing to look at you, his gaze jerking away again and again, "I felt everything, perceived everything, but it was like my body was just a doll, controlled by overwhelming sexual desire...my mind had no control." "I figured something wasn't normal," you say dryly, looking down at yourself, "I'm all sticky," you grumble softly. "Oh maker, please don't hate me now, I couldn't stand that" he says, ducking his head. You laugh softly and say, "I'm never touching any mushrooms near you again". He doesn't feel like laughing, and your attempt to loosen him up unfortunately fails. You say softly, "Tech, well, before all this happened, you and I really liked each other, didn't we? I mean, we were just a little too shy to interact more." Tech blinks and lifts his eyes after all. His cheeks are flushed as he clears his throat and says meekly, "I've been in love with you for a long time, if that's what you mean." You feel heat rising in your cheeks and your heart beating faster. "Yeah, that's what I meant" you say nodding "The feeling was mutual by the way". Tech's eyes grow wide behind his goggles, but then he lowers his gaze again. "I guess I ruined that now".

"No," you contradict him, "you didn't. The fungus has twisted your senses, or whatever you want to call it. Nothing is broken because of it yet." Cautiously, Tech raises his eyes again. "I'd like to make you a proposition," you say softly as he looks at you. Tech nods and says, "I'm all ears." "You and I are going to take a shower together, nice and relaxed. We'll wash, maybe each other, some tender touches, no pressure, no expectation, just enjoy each other's closeness. Some tenderness after this, little disaster?" Tech blinks several times and asks, "You would still let me touch you?" You nod and admit, "It's not like I wasn't having fun at all. Besides, that wasn't really you, but I'd still like to get to know the real Tech better." Tech smiles, stands up and after a moment's hesitation, puts away the pillow he was covering his crotch with. He takes your hand and helps you out of the sticky bunk.

Under the warm stream of water of the shower, you both slowly relax, Tech letting his tension escape with a sigh and smiling at you as you look over your shoulder while he gently washes your back. Tech says tenderly, "You're gorgeous, by the way". Your ears get all hot and a tingle spreads through your stomach as you say, "You're not bad yourself, handsome" Suddenly you hear voices, the boys must be back from their errands. Then you hear a curse and Crosshair yelling loudly, "WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE TO MY BUNK!!!" You look up with a soft, "Uh oh," at Tech who then whispers, "Oh. That's probably bad." "He's going to kill us," you say, biting your lower lip suppressing a grin, "We really made a hell of a mess." "Indeed," Tech says dryly, "I'd say we stay in here for now until he calms down." "That could take a long time" Tech smiles mischievously, "I don't mind"

@rintheemolion

@andyoufollowyourheart @clone-whore-99

@brynhildrmimi @kaliel2310

@misogirl828 @tech-deck

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@1vlouds

[somerandomdudelmao]

Okay. This is it. Theory time.

I'm going to write an essay on "how I love elaborate lore in Mystic Hands by @characcoon " It may or may not be a complete circus, but at least you'll have fun watching me getting it wrong eh?

Okay, first of all, let me put on my clown suit for this performance. Because, I'll be honest, I can only understand 70% of a complex text if I don't use a translator. And the translator also tends to change the meaning of the text.

I'm also writing this essay through a translator and just hoping for the best, so...ahahaha...yeah.

Chapters nine and ten of Mystic Hands gave me something to think about. Mostly because, all of a sudden, Bishop and his lab-military squad turned out to be more than background characters. And let me tell you, I grew up on the 2003 series. I may not remember all the nuances of the plot there very well, but I remember the asshole named Bishop perfectly~ But I'm not sure how similar 2003 Bishop and MH Bishop are, so I'm just...anxious in advance and start looking for things that would ring a bell.

From what I learned in chapters 9 and 10:

Bishop is an asshole.

He has his precious organization.

He also has access to empyrium and a recipe for crafting an incredibly toxic herbicide.

He also has a mustache. ( funny how this part puzzles me the most)

Michelangelo talks about him as a cruel and despicable scumbag who should have been rolled in asphalt at the first opportunity. He also calls Bishop a liar, so I guess in the future Bishop and the turtles have a... "adventure" haha... And of course we all know how fun stories with a cruel scientist and mutants can be. Yep.

This is where I start trying to put the puzzle together.

When Michelangelo sees the glowing blue stuff in the vials he reacts rather emotionally and says it could be a version of a anti-mutagen. He also says that it might help bring Raph back to normal when he asks Donnie to analyze the thing.

Donnie does the analysis.

The so-called "anti-mutagen" turns out to be an herbicide. Yes, very toxic and suspect and containing empyrium, but only herbicide.

In this moment. ONLY at that moment does Michelangelo realize that his information about the substance and its capabilities was wrong. And for SOME reason, it makes him absolutely furious.

And this is where the shit hits the fan.

Everything written above leads me to believe that the Turtles have already dealt with Bishop and his "anti-mutagen" in a bad timeline of the future. Whatever happened, Michelangelo came out of that adventure with the certainty that the blue stuff was a anti-mutagen. Which in itself is not suspicious, because even with his constant sleepovers in Donnie's lab, Michelangelo is still not that advanced a science dude. If he was young enough, Bishop could pour Sprite into a test tube, call it a anti-mutagen, and Michelangelo would buy it.

What a good thing they had Donnie for situations like that, I thought. And then I thought again. A little more anxious.

Did they?

Obviously, if Donnie had participated in the "adventure" with Bishop, he would not have allowed the turtles to call the strange liquid a retromutagen without analyzing it at least ten different ways. Even if Bishop hadn't given him a free sample, Donnie would have found a way to extract as much information as possible. Michelangelo was his lab partner. There was no way he would have missed something that important.

So...I guess at that point in the future, Donny wasn't there. Which leaves me with two possibilities. Either he was dead, or...he was taken out of the game for some reason.

The death option looks pretty straightforward. Donnie wasn't there to take control of the situation, so Bishop could probably afford a lot of free lying.

But I tend to think more about the second option.

Because Michelangelo, after getting into the past, intends to keep Donnie away from Bishop. This cannot be dictated by logic. Donnie, of all turtles, would be best able to consider if Bishop tries to pull something sneaky. Donnie has his technique, his knowledge, and his ability to hack any computer with just a dessert fork and rage. And yet Michelangelo takes Donnie with him into the tunnels. Because I'm sure he's guided not by logic but by fear.

Which leads me to the second option.

Donnie was not there at the time of the "adventure". Maybe physically he was alive, but he wasn't there at that moment of the future. Because Bishop did something to him.

That's why Donnie couldn't discover the lie about the anti-mutagen. And that's why Michelangelo wants to keep his younger version away from Bishop.

Now. This is where my knowledge of the 2003 series comes into the chat. More specifically, about one of my favorite stories from there - season 4 episodes 24 and 25 - "Good Genes."

( These are the episodes in which Donnie mutates, turning into a monster because he was previously stung by one of Bishop's mutants. Donnie's brothers spend a very "fun" amount of time trying to figure out how to cure him, but none of them are smart enough. So they are forced to make a deal with Bishop to reverse Donnie's mutation. Bishop was nice enough to actually do it and at the end of the story Donnie is fine again)

What if. Listen. WHAT IF something like this happened in a bad timeline.

Maybe Donnie was infected by Krang. Maybe he mutated for some other reason. Something happened to him. Something that caused the rest of the turtles to go to Bishop for help, because Donnie was usually the one who solved problems like this and Donnie wasn't there at the time.

This is where I pull out the "squeeze apple juice out of oranges" pokemon, because I'm starting to use information that isn't in the fanfic. We have the art, and the post.

And Donnie is not having a good time there. There's also the idea that the anti-mutagen in Mystic Hands doesn't work as neatly and conveniently as it did in 2003 and 2012. It doesn't turn a hypothetical mutant turtle back into a regular turtle.

The art quite clearly complements this thought.

At first I thought - hey, anti-mutagen works differently. I guess it's because it's supposed to reverse a secondary mutation or Crang infection?

Then I thought again. You know, more thoroughly. Bishop was lying.

There was no anti-mutagen, at least not in the sense that the turtles needed it. They only THOUGHT the thing existed because Bishop convinced them it did.

So. What are the chances that Donnie was infected with something the turtles couldn't handle on their own? So they had to enlist the help of Bishop. But unlike the man in 2003 this Bishop didn't do his part honestly and used some version of the toxic herbicide on Donnie?

What are the chances that at first the herbicide actually worked as a cure for Krang, because in this universe Krangs are apparently very evil vegetables? How long did it take for this substance to start killing Donnie himself? Because there's no way I'm going to believe that this caustic stuff is harmless to living creatures of any kind. Was the herbicide slow enough for the turtles to think the "anti-mutagen" was working and happily celebrate Donnie's healing? Maybe it took hours, maybe days, but my guess is that at some point the herbicide destroyed Donatello, giving enough time before that, however, for Michelangelo to remember that "blue stuff = cure for krangification."

That's why Michelangelo was so furious when he found out the blue stuff wasn't a retromutagen. He realized that Bishop had lied to him by calling this toxic crap a healing possibility. He realized that Donnie, his Donnie from the future, was not healed. He realized that Bishop probably didn't even try to heal him, taking advantage of the incompetence of the turtles.

_________

Either that or Bishop in the future just stole Donnie and experimented on him for fun and science or something. And I just wasted a lot of your and my time for nothing~

Everything I've written here could be complete nonsense haha. And I'm not even sure I used half the terms correctly, because translating things from English into my native language and then translating back is tedious. But I hope that at least this post will be fun to reread when the fanfic plot moves on and mysteries are solved lmao

[the-badger-mole]

I feel like I don't harp on Aang's lack of leadership skills enough. I can already hear people cracking their knuckles to type out some long diatribe about how it's unfair to judge Aang's leadership because he's a kid. Let me stop you right there. As with his lack of respect for consent and his lack of preparation to deal with Ozai, his age is irrelevant because the framing of Aang would have us believe that he's right. The show wants us, the audience, to see Aang as clever and wise beyond his years. To say I can't be too hard on Aang because he's a child flies directly in the face of what the writers intended. So, step away from the keyboard and let me finish, alright?

Bet.

When I think of Aang as a leader, the episode that comes to mind is The Great Divide. Someone recently brought this up to me as an example of Aang being a Trickster type. I disagree. I think Aang is more of an Innocent than a Trickster, but I get how someone might see him as either *. It doesn't make him a great leader, in any case. In fact, it supports my theory that he's a bad leader. His actions in TGD show that he is far more interested in taking the easy way out than in any real sort of conflict resolution, which in a world looking for guidance post war is...not a great attitude to have. This is the most egregious example of his lack of conflict resolution skills, but it's not the only example of this. He also looks for the easy fix when Katara and Toph are fighting (although, this is interestingly actually framed as a misstep for him. A box of Mars bars to Bryke for that, I guess). It would be fine if this was acknowledged as a short-coming in him, but the way TGD ends, it's supposed to make Aang look clever. (P.S. there's NO way those groups didn't go right back to fighting, because that's not how conflict works).

Bryke could have left that alone and just have more examples of Aang being a good leader in the rest of the series or in the comics, but seeing as they don't seem to understand why Aang isn't the wonderful person they frame him to be, I get why there's not a whole lot of growth in him. Speaking of the comics, remember that time that Aang jumped on board with anti-miscegenation without considering the consequences? Remember how the only reason he changed his mind is because he would be personally affected by it? Yeah...

So, in the comics, Aang meets a group of wanna be Acolytes who studied Air Nomad customs and wanted to actually live them out. They shaved their heads and painted on some tattoos, and Aang was all about it...until he realized that it wasn't paint, they had actually gotten the tattoos, and at that point, he feels insulted. Mind you, he wasn't insulted about his culture being used as cosplay. He was mad that they misunderstood the significance of the tattoos and in their misguided attempts they did something they weren't supposed to. I'm not saying he was wrong to be upset, per se, I'm just saying that cultural appropriation is probably something that the creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender are out of their depths on. Well, this incident sours him on the idea of mixing cultures and in his anger, he jumps right to anti-miscegenation.

Let me repeat that. Avatar Aang, who is supposed to represent all peoples, got angry at some well-intentioned, but severely misguided girls, and decided that the solution would be to support policies that would literally tear apart families. Then he only walked that back because he wouldn't be able to keep Katara. It wasn't him realizing how much damage he would do to other people. It wasn't him understanding that the issue he's trying to solve requires more delicate handling than simply saying "everyone go back to where you came from". It was his selfishness that saved the day (sort of? I think annexing a part of the Earth Kingdom to make pseudo-New York was...questionable at best).

These are the two biggest, if not only examples of the type of leader Aang is. In both cases, his solution had more to do with him, his personal convenience, his feelings, than any thought of how best serve the people looking to him to lead. They are not presented as issues with his leadership, highlighting the ways he needs to grow into his role. The solutions he comes up with are presented as examples of his cleverness and wisdom, but actually, they just show how he leads based on what's best for him. The people of Planet Avatar ** are subject to Aang's whims and how much work he feels like putting in on a given day. But the people he's leading are supposed to think he's a Big Dang Hero. In a better written story, this would be the beginning of a villain arc.

*(btw, it is still The Year of Content ™️©️®️, so probably expect another post in the future about why I think Aang is more in line with the Innocent than the Trickster. Maybe. We'll see...)

** (is there a name for that world in the fandom? Can we come up with one? Planet Avatar is incredibly lame.)

[busyxfangirling]

The second season is honestly becoming increasingly harder to watch because what are they trying to do?

The show is titled Loki but he feels like a side character is his own show, I know many MANY things are happening but literally Loki is not the central figure driving the story.

My expectations were low but I did not know Disney could do this much worse!!!!

What the FUCK was episode 3 with the Miss Minutes thing and weird little Ravonna/Victor attempt???

Marvel is just getting worse and worse with what they're putting out, I want the character or even narrative driven stories back where people were well fleshed out, had consistency and their actions made sense to who there were!!! This feels like just trying to sell shock value because you know you have a base of consumers who will stay to see what happens to their favourite character.

They are absolutely ignoring all the material they have available to them to work with! This Loki has only experienced things till the Avengers movie, there is so much character deep dive they could do! What is the point of giving them their own show and then not talking about them at all??

I'll come to the queer things later cause boy do I have a list for that, but first of all, Loki is not a new character in any capacity??? He has been loved and is arguably the biggest fan favourite since his introduction, the amount of theories about him and what people would like to see is very well known!! Right in front of them is his still unclear feelings in his adoption, about being a Jotun, loosing his family and the complicated relationships with them. I can see they are acknowledging his God of Mischief status a little bit but!! Trickster!! Let us see him be a wild card properly!! Not in the sense of betraying his new TVA family - that's what it is and you can fight me on that- but being chaotic!! Yes, using his magic like with Brad!! SHOW ME HE IS A GOD!!!

The worst thing is how lost everyone feels, like I'm not talking about the whole free will conundrum everyone is going through, that is spectacular! Unfortunately it is not coming across, we literally don't get to hear any of the characters talk about what they think of it. There was the key lime pie moment but no follow up to what that is for Loki? It's just one crisis after another, maybe rehash some of what has already happened, bring back the seriousness of this!! The entire multiverse is at stake but we'll make it look like whimsical wishy-washy stuff??!??!!!

Don't get me wrong, I am LOVING the time travel aspect of it, where it looks like Loki/Mobius are on cute dates. But then make it real, the fucking queerbaiting is ridiculous. The throw-away comment in season one about looking being bi was just that and nothing else. And I'm not saying this cause aww they look cute together! But also cause the development of their relationship has been as such!! They have been very dependent on each other and that's not being addressed at all.

I know there are multiple posts about a possible betrayal and my fear is that they're going to try to use that to basically change everything about the characters again, a lot of OOC based on the fact that oh yeah they're going through an existential crises so it makes sense.

Sylkie made barely any sense to me even apart from the whole selfcest issue- they just imposed a the structure of what a straight relationship should be where there was barely any chemistry. S1 E3 had them as really good chaotic siblings/twins and then adding the romantic tones to that really ruined it. Trying to bring it back, possibly, is just weird cause so far they want very different things. These people just don't align together, stop forcing them to? The fact that they refuse to even talk about that kiss shows that they are keeping it open and not just acknowledging that "hey, we don't want the same things in life and I'm happy for you, you matter a lot to me but a romantic relationship is not happening. Also cause you know, we're the same person, lol."

Sylvie as a character is also very confusing rn, there is honestly no need for her to keep coming back in this way??? I'm going to reserve further opinions because half the season is left but I dont expect anything to really get better.

[pumpkinpartynoelle]

Deltarune Angel Theory! Who it is, what changes in the weird route, why we do it, + more!

Variable Angel Theory Part 1:

Hi! Noelle Holiday here!

It's my first time posting anything like this so I'm not totally sure how it works, but here's my best shot. Spoilers for everything currently released in Undertale and Deltarune, and hopefully, spoilers for parts of Deltarune that haven't been released yet too!

A quick multi-paragraph intro with like 15 disclaimers:

Okay so I've been binging theorycrafting videos and Deltarune and Undertale playthroughs over and over for the past month and I think I've just cracked the code and seen into the matrix.

So, this started when I noticed that Spamton calls me Angel, which is weirdly specific, right? But then I noticed one of the Addisons also calls me Angel, and both of them only do it in the weird route. So that got me wondering why, of course! And I think I've connected enough dots that I might be able to predict not only who the angel is, but how the weird route changes things, exactly why we do it, what will happen in chapter 3's weird route, and even some mostly-unrelated stuff involving characters like Seam.

I'm more confident in this than almost any other major Deltarune theory I've heard, despite how little we know about the angel. I wouldn't be sharing it, and wouldn't have put this much time into a full writeup, if I didn't believe in it. And, given how limited our information is, don't expect rock solid, undeniable evidence for each point I cover. I'm working with what I've got. This is a theory about stuff we're probably years away from seeing to fruition, so I have to make a lot of predictions.

A lot of this uses @jarujaruj's theorycrafting method, which involves considering the story from a writer's perspective rather than relying on pure hard logic, but we're also going to be going over most of the info surrounding the angel in both Deltarune and Undertale, both stated and implied. So, if you're familiar with Jaru's theories and find them hard to believe, you might not get much out of this one either. I won't go over those theories in much detail in this post, as it's already long enough, and while I'll reference Jaru's theories a few times, even if they're wrong I don't think it would invalidate much of this theory. You also don't need to know them to understand most of what I'll be discussing, however, a few details make more sense with them in mind.

I'm looking for thematic parallels and interesting story implications just as much as the hard facts, but since we have so few hard facts to work with, you'll see more of the former I think. This will take a while, so stick with me if you care about the evidence.

Here's my theory:

The angel changes depending on which route you play, and when you play the weird route, Noelle is the angel.

Not only that, but you end up turning me into the angel yourself, at least in the weird route, but maybe in other routes too. And, borrowing from Jaru, every route (except maybe one) ends in the angel deciding to reset back to the start of the game. Look into his stuff for why I think that part is the case, but it's not quite as relevant to my theory as much of the info I'll be showcasing here. I'll still be discussing it though, as I think it explains a lot of what happens in the weird route. Much like Undertale's merciless route, it makes more sense after a reset.

I'll be going over all the evidence I can think of in this post, and giving my thoughts on who the angel is likely to be in each route, and why I think it varies.

Direct "angel" mentions in Deltarune:

Spamton and Addison call me angel in the weird route

I say I would hypothetically grow angel wings and fly out of the ferris wheel when I'm riding it with Susie

Alphys calls her cat that she may or may not have a "perfect angel"

The ANGEL'S HEAVEN

Discussion of the angel doll in Rudy's hospital room. The doll was made by Dess and I.

Alvin talks about the angel a few times

There's a clear pattern here of angels being associated with me. Not exclusively, but far more than any other character, other than maybe Alvin, but he's a priest of the angel so I'm not sure that counts for as much. Let's go over each one to see what they can tell us.

"Angel" is used here just like a nickname, there's not much clear context beyond that for its use. Spamton says it when you've cleared out all the weird route encounters and talk to him at his dumpster.

Here's that full conversation:

* [Angel], [Angel]

* ARE YOU LOOKING FOR THE [Ring] of [Thorns]?

* THEN [[Why]] GO TO A DUMPSTER!!!

* THat'll be 1997 KROMER.

* HERE'S YOUR [Ring]! CAREFUL, IT MIGHT [Sting] * EAHEAHEAH

* (You got the ThornRing.)

Addison, specifically the pink Addison, though I'm not sure it matters all that much which one it is, calls me "angel" in a similar way, as a nickname with no clear meaning behind it.

Here's that conversation:

Addison: * If you're something else, maybe a Dating Shoes isn't right...?

Addison: * Maybe I could interest you in a FreezeRing?

Noelle: * Huh...? A ring...?

Noelle: * Faha, sorry, I don't think WE need something like that!

Addison: * C'mon, angel! You can't get stronger without good equipment!

Noelle: * Stronger...? R-right, I guess that's how it works here...

Following this, of course, Kris (or the voice associated with them) has me get the ring despite not being able to afford it, presumably by attacking the Addison with iceshock.

So, clearly there's a pattern to this, right? I could see *one* person calling me angel being a coincidence, but the fact that it's two different people, and both only on the weird route, feels too intentional to ignore, but there's not much meaning you can derive from the way it's used here other than establishing a strong connection between me and the angel, and specifically on the weird route. Additionally, the fact that it's associated with acquiring rings both times could mean something, maybe involving the romantic implication of the rings? It's something to keep in mind!

This isn't enough to say I *am* the angel though, even if that might be a possible implication. We can only be confident that there's a connection, so let's keep going.

2. This one is interesting, being an association I have with angels that isn't on the weird route, one that may not mean much on its own but combined with the other two we just went over is clearly important. I've included a bit more context than is probably needed, because I think it's relevant later.

Here's the conversation:

Susie: * So, uh... Ferris wheels, huh.

Susie: * Kinda makes you wonder what car they were built for.

Noelle: * (It's... it's different than riding one with Kris...)

Susie: * ... the hell's wrong, you scared of heights?

Noelle: * No! No, I... I love heights! Haha!

Susie: * You're, uh, shaking.

Noelle: * Well, um, maybe, I'm a little scared, but... I...

Noelle: * To be honest, I... I actually like... scary things.

Susie: * ... what do you mean?

Noelle: * When we were little, me and my sister would stay up...

Noelle: * And go past our bedtime watching horror movies.

Noelle: * At first I cried, but now... it's like... watching them...

Noelle: * Makes me feel... comforted...?

Susie: * Comforted? I guess I do like slime and blood...

Noelle: * It's scary, but I can just turn it off, right?

Noelle: * Now it's mostly... people, that are scary. Haha.

Susie: * You can just say you mean me.

Noelle: * Haha... umm... well... I guess y-you too, but...

Noelle: * But that's... what's... NICE about you, y'know?

Susie: * Nice!? The hell does that mean???

Noelle: * You're the... good kind of scary.

Noelle: * You aren't afraid to... break the rules, y'know?

Noelle: * ... I wish I could do crazy stuff like you.

Susie: * So, um...

Susie: * If YOU could do something crazy right now,

Susie: * What would you do?

Noelle: * U-umm... Well, I... I...

Noelle: * I'd... I'd jump out the window!

Noelle: * It's a dream, right?

Noelle: * I'd grow big angel wings,

Noelle: * And fly as far as I can, gazing back at it all...

Noelle: * The skyline shining like Holiday lights.

Susie: * ... that's kinda... beautiful?

Susie: * Wait, you wouldn't seriously jump out, would you!?

Noelle: * Hahaha!! No promises!

I actually noticed this one pretty late into crafting this theory, it almost felt like a smoking gun at the time, but obviously given what we've discussed so far this isn't enough on its own. It *is* a third instance of my being associated with the angel, undeniably a pattern at this point.

Growing big angel wings could be like not just being the angel, but becoming the angel. Flying above everything and looking down at all of it sounds like what the angel's role may be, to watch over and protect people, as Alvin will hint later. This solidifies the angel association even more and implies that I might become it at some point, but that implication is still a bit weak for now, so let's move on.

3. Alphys's saucer of milk. I was inclined to think this one doesn't mean much, but for the sake of being thorough, let's give it a good once over.

* Oh, this saucer of milk?

* I-It's for my kitty, MewMew! She's a perfect angel!

* ... uh? What does she look like...?

* W... well, I've never actually s-seen her, b-but...

* Ever since I started putting out milk, it's been disappearing.

* S... So I'd like to think that there's a cat.

* M... My cat.

There's enough mystery here that it could potentially mean something significant, but then we get the reveal to that mystery in the next chapter.

* Hey Kris, this free milk? It's amazing.

* It just magically refreshes itself over night.

So presumably, it's just Susie, and may just be a joke. However, this does give Susie a minor association with being an angel as well! Given how serious of a topic the angel is, I'm inclined to think this, while definitely a joke, isn't *just* a joke. We'll come back to it later, because it might be important.

4. The ANGEL'S HEAVEN is a pretty unclear concept. Whatever it is, Ralsei seems to think the heroes will banish it, or at least try to. It seems to be associated with the Roaring, but that's also an unclear concept. I'm inclined to believe Jaru's theory on this, that the Angel's Heaven is the reset at the end of the game, and the Roaring is the release of magic back into the light world, but it could mean something else. However, I don't think we have enough information about it to draw any significant conclusions about who the angel might be from whatever the Angel's Heaven is, unless it's a reset, the potential of which I'll be giving my thoughts on later. It's something to keep in mind either way, because whatever the Angel's Heaven is, it's obviously very important. Moving on!

5. Here's where we start getting into some bigger evidence for the specifics of my theory: the angel doll in Rudy's hospital room.

* (It's an angel doll.) * (Its lack of facial features is unsettling.)

* That angel? * Noelle n' Dess made it in youth group.

* It's kind of like a good luck charm to me now.

* Oh, right, you and Azzy tried to make one too...

* But you wasted the whole time making huge wings for it!

And, with Susie:

* (It's an angel doll.) * (Its lack of facial features is unsettling.)

Susie: * ... so why do you collect creepy dolls?

Rudy: * Hey, Noelle and her sister made that. Respect it!

Susie: * (Noelle's sister...)

So, weirdly, chapter 2's dialogue doesn't really reveal much, at least not much that you can't infer from other information. It tells us that Susie probably cares somewhat about whatever happened to Dess, but that's it.

Chapter 1's dialogue though, WOW there's a lot here, way more than you'd expect from such a short conversation. Let's break it down line by line, since I think we need to. I'll be drawing heavily on the thematics of this since we have so little hard evidence on the topic, and if this means anything at all, which it probably does, it's likely some non-literal foreshadowing.

* (It's an angel doll.) * (Its lack of facial features is unsettling.)

The fact that it's a doll could be referencing the puppet motif, the idea that somehow even the angel is beholden to fate, even its choices don't matter.

The lack of a face could mean that the angel's identity is unclear, could change, or is unimportant. I think all 3 are true. It's unclear because we don't know who it is, it could change because I think the route you take changes who the angel is, and it's unimportant because I think that, no matter who the angel is, they'll probably end the game by resetting back to chapter 1.

* That angel? * Noelle n' Dess made it in youth group.

The doll having been explicitly created by specific people could mean that the angel is created too, like an arts and crafts project. You might build up the angel over the course of the story. Plus, it's another association I have with the angel. This also associates Dess with the angel, but since she's already my sister, that might not mean anything new.

You could maybe argue the same for Susie's association, that she's my love interest, but the connection there is less solid, and Susie is an established main character, so I think there's merit to considering her association to the angel more separately. Don't count this as a full dismissal of Dess's connection though. I'd like to look into it, but we know so little about Dess that it's hard to really say much for it.

* It's kind of like a good luck charm to me now.

This line probably means the least. It could be a reference to the angel's role potential role as a protector, though. There's a decent chance Rudy will die by the end of the game. If he does die, and I become the angel, my resetting at the end of the game to bring him back, and undoing all of the damage done by the weird route, could be considered protecting him, like a good luck charm. However, that's a lot of ifs, too much speculation to be sure just yet.

* Oh, right, you and Azzy tried to make one too...

Kris and Asriel trying to make an angel is another point in favour of the angel being "made". Kris is our way of interacting with the world after all, so it makes sense that if the angel varies depending on the route, it would be Kris that makes them.

As a bonus, if Jaru's theory on the nature of Asriel (and Ralsei) is correct, and I strongly believe it is, this makes even more sense, for reasons I'm sure are clear if you're familiar with it.

* But you wasted the whole time making huge wings for it!

Wings, thematically, are heavily associated with freedom, not just in Deltarune but throughout media in general. Freedom is something we know Kris desperately wants from many sources, most clearly their interactions with the soul and with Spamton. Given the terrible fate this world seems to have in store, it's something everyone might want. This could mean that, if you focus solely on your freedom, you'll run out of time to make the angel, you won't make one that's complete enough to give you what you want, or, more vaguely, you won't achieve what you're after.

6. Father Alvin's dialogue is kind of a lot to go through, just because he's a priest of the angel, and as such, anything he says could potentially relate. However, most of it doesn't seem as relevant as you might expect, and, to be honest, I remembered him having more to say. Either way , there's still some interesting stuff here.

In chapter 1, if you select "Nothing" after he asks you if anything is weighing on your mind, Alvin says this:

* I understand. * I hope in time you may find the words you seek.

* Let the Angel's power light your way.

This associates the angel with "power". It's a very vague word, but it's used consistently at save points, implying the angel has a connection to saving and loading (and thus, potentially, resets). Of course, it's also used in the weird route. The whole purpose of the weird route, seemingly, is to gain power, and specifically for Noelle (me) to gain power. As I'm already the most strongly associated with the angel, this farther strengthens the connection. Kris is also connected to power, of course, but as I believe your actions determine who the angel is, and Kris is who the player acts through to affect the world, that connection is already accounted for in my theory.

While it could probably be assumed, this also tells us that the angel is likely a very powerful entity. If anyone's choices matter, it's theirs, but I'm not convinced even they can break the theme of the game. We'll explore the most powerful entities known in Undertale and Deltarune later, to see if we can draw any parallels.

Next, chapter 2.

Selecting "Gerson" as a conversation topic yields this:

* It's been a few years since my father passed on...

* Fans of his famous book series, Lord of the Hammer...

* We still received condolences from them until just recently.

* A brave man, brilliant, and sharp.

* Kris, it is a shame you were not able to have him as a teacher.

* And, difficult for Ms. Alphys, as his replacement.

* Let us pray that the Angel will smile upon her.

Selecting "Hammer" gives this response:

* As per the ritual, a hammer is buried in the earth here.

* To symbolize his existence.

* To connect his spirit to the divine.

* Originally a smith by trade, he began writing history...

* And made a turn into telling stories,

* As a means to entertain his children.

* That such a story, created for such a simple purpose,

* Could blossom into such a large, wonderful, world-changing thing...

* That is the majesty of words, Kris.

* My father was blessed to have such a talent for writing.

There's probably not too much to get out of this. The angel is associated, seemingly, with watching over people, and protecting or guiding them, and may be associated with Alphys. Specifically though, the angel is implied as distinct from Alphys, so this connection does nothing to support Alphys potentially *being* the angel, just having some connection. As a student in her class, this of course supports my own connection, but it also could support anyone else in the class.

This also seems to support the ritual of placing monster dust on an important item so that the monster's essence may live on, being connected in some way to the angel, or "the divine". This implies a connection with everyone in the graveyard, and anyone still living who may be associated with this ritual.

Again, those who know of Jaru's Asriel/Ralsei theory will understand why I think this may be supportive of Ralsei being connected to the angel, and by extension, maybe Asriel or even Kris. Outside of that speculation though, I see nothing else from this. The undead have yet to clearly establish themselves as much of a presence in Deltarune, as opposed to Undertale.

Alvin's other dialogue discusses sin, but I can't find anything particularly noteworthy in it, other than sin being associated with a couple lines in Sans's boss fight in Undertale, and by extension the merciless route as a whole. I might come back to this later, but right now, it doesn't tell us much.

Direct "angel" mentions in Undertale:

You might be wondering why I'm bothering with Undertale's angel mentions when we're talking about Deltarune. While they're different games, they're parallel stories, so unless a contradiction is shown or implied between the rules and themes of Undertale and Deltarune, I think it's safe to consider Undertale's lore as part of this discussion, and I feel it would be incomplete if I didn't look into it. Plus, Undertale literally has the Delta Rune in it, and a lot of this information is directly related to Gerson's lore on that.

Here are all of the "angel" mentions:

Gerson talks about the angel when discussing the meaning of the Delta Rune

An old inscription on a wall mentions the angel

The Riverman (or is it the Riverwoman?) mentions the angel

First up, Gerson!

While we go over this, we'll have to figure out what we can carry over from Undertale's Delta Rune into Deltarune's Delta Rune, since some of the details apply too specifically to Undertale to transfer easily. However, we can't 100% dismiss ANYTHING said here as unrelated without some serious consideration, as we're discussing the Delta Rune itself. So you can consider this sort of a Deltarune Undertale Delta Rune interlude.

That emblem:

* Eh? * You don't know what that is?

* What are they teaching you kids in school nowadays...? * Wa ha ha!

* That's the Delta Rune, the emblem of our kingdom. * The Kingdom...

* ... of Monsters.

* Wahaha! * Great name, huh? * It's as I always say...

* Ol' King Fluffybuns can't name for beans!

There are several reasons why I don't think Deltarune has a "Kingdom of Monsters". Here are just a few:

No one mentions it

There's a human in Hometown

There's enough intermingling for there to be a book on how to care for humans in the librarby

There's enough intermingling for there to be "monsters 4 humans" dating ads (Kris clicking on Poppup)

Granted, there are probably still tensions between Humans and Monsters, but whatever they are, I don't think it's enough to cause a complete schism like in Undertale.

So, how much lore can we retain? The "Kingdom of Monsters" is probably out. Does Deltarune have an equivalent? Sort of. The "Kingdom of Darkness" is Deltarune's closest counterpart, being trapped in a different plane you fall down into, for example.

However, the Delta Rune seems completely absent from the dark worlds, bar one location: Castle Town. This is also the only place directly called a "Kingdom of Darkness", by Ralsei. As Ralsei was its only inhabitant, and the Delta Runes were already all over Castle Town when we first got there, this associates Ralsei with the Delta Rune, and by extension, the angel.

This is a little strange, since the Delta Rune is otherwise exclusively a light world thing (barring one example we'll discuss in a moment), implying Ralsei has some connection to the light world. Seeing as he looks almost exactly like Asriel, and his name is an anagram, he at the very least has some connection to a specific lightner, so this isn't out of the question, especially given how religious Asriel is.

However, the Delta Rune, seemingly, can't be the emblem of the "Kingdom of Darkness", at least not primarily, given how often it's used by lightners who have, presumably, never heard of dark worlds. However, the "Kingdom of Darkness" may only be associated with Ralsei's Castle Town, rather than all dark worlds, which would explain the Delta Rune's presence there exclusively. This could tell us that Ralsei knows more about the light world than most, something that seems to be true given the specific directions he gives us to the unused classroom at the start of chapter 2, as well as all the strange lore he seems to know.

The weirdest placement of the Delta Rune, the one that seems to break this pattern, is in Seam's seap. It's prominent in the top left of Seam's shop's background. This, combined with the fact that the music that plays is named "Lantern" for no clear reason, gives Seam a weirdly strong connection to light/the angel, at least compared to any other darkner besides Ralsei.

Could Seam be considered a light in the dark because of a potential relationship with a lightner? As a worn down old plush, Seam was probably very beloved. Or, could that light in the dark theming mean that Seam absorbed a lightner's soul at some point? Spamton implies that's a possibility, as he tries to do it with Kris. Whatever the case, it places Seam in a weird spot. We'll consider Seam more later, there's a lot I want to talk about, some parts much more speculative than others, but there might be enough information to take a decent guess at his origins.

Emblem's meaning:

* That emblem actually predates written history. * The original meaning has been lost to time...

* All we know is that the triangles symbolize us monsters below, and the winged circle above symbolizes...

* Somethin' else.

* Most people say it's the 'angel,' from the prophecy...

Ironically enough, despite Gerson knowing they symbolize monsters in Undertale, I'm actually less sure about what the triangles mean in Deltarune than I am for the winged circle. It may still mean just monsters, but that doesn't feel quite right. The implication seems to be that the angel is more powerful than everyone, including Kris, and the disparity of power between monsters and humans doesn't seem to be a thing anymore. Monsters and humans seem to be on a more level playing field in Deltarune than they were in Undertale, seemingly having physical bodies as well, since they can wield determination.

So, I posit that, in Deltarune, the two upward-pointing triangles symbolize humans and monsters, and the downward-pointing triangle symbolizes darkners. It's still just a guess though, we may not know for sure until we get a more direct discussion of the Deltarune Delta Rune in Deltarune.

The prophecy:

* Oh yeah... * The prophecy.

* Legend has it, an 'angel' who has seen the surface will descend from above and bring us freedom.

* Lately, the people have been taking a bleaker outlook...

* Callin' that winged circle the 'Angel of Death.'

* A harbinger of destruction, waitin' to 'free' us from this mortal realm...

* In my opinion, when I see that little circle...

* I jus' think it looks neat! * Wahaha!

As for the circle, that still seems to symbolize the angel, so let's look at what it meant in Undertale. The angel is someone who's seen the surface, and has the power to free monsterkind, some way or another. This could apply to many people. Frisk, Chara, Asriel/Flowey, maybe even the player if you want to consider them enough a part of the world to have a prophecy about them. Freedom, of course, remains relevant, and may be much more relevant in Deltarune than it was in Undertale.

So, the angel is someone with an ambiguous identity, who, through murder or mercy, holds control over the freedom of those below it, perhaps as a protector, perhaps as a destroyer.

This, I think, is another point in favour of the angel in Deltarune potentially changing depending on how you play it. Even in Undertale, their identity was markedly ambiguous, and with how little information we have on the angel, the fact that attention seems to be brought to that ambiguity in both Undertale and Deltarune probably means something.

You could even argue that the angel changes depending on your route in Undertale, too. Frisk is the most prominent in the neutral route, freeing themself in a variety of ways. As they're the apparent player character (though I posit we actually play as Chara possessing Frisk, hence why we name them), they have the most versatility, but it also makes it hard to say there's any particular way Frisk "freed" everyone. Asriel explicitly frees everyone in the pacifist route, and Chara has a greater presence in the merciless route, freeing everyone from mortality. This isn't to argue that Chara is the cause of the merciless route, just that they have a greatly increased presence there. You could consider it "their route", to an extent.

It's not perfect, but it works far better than I'd expect from a pure coincidence, and you could absolutely make the argument that Frisk frees people in some way in the neutral route, or that the neutral route just doesn't count for as much, since it feels less complete and final than either of the other two routes (neutral has been called essentially "boneless pacifist"). You could also argue Frisk and Asriel share the pacifist route, as it's where everyone learns Frisk's name and they first clearly establish themself as distinct from just a nameless vessel for the player and/or Chara.

Either way, the ambiguity of the angel, and it changing based on route, is pretty clearly baked in to Undertale, and given that they're parallel stories that are likely to share a lot of themes (and already do in a multitude of ways), it factors nicely into a potential variation in the angel's identity in Deltarune as well.

What's "the surface" equivalent in Deltarune then? The light world? If so, all serious candidates so far, except for perhaps Ralsei, have seen the light world. Even for Ralsei, it's possible he's seen it, given that he knows the school's layout, and the game seemingly goes out of its way to never explicitly call him a darkner in the narration, menus, or Ralsei's own dialogue, but instead refers to him as a more ambiguous "dark world being", leaving the metaphorical door cracked open just enough for him to potentially be able to traverse the light world. Even if he is a normal darkner, it could still be argued that, as objects in the light world, every darkner has seen it, so this may not tell us much at all.

* However... * There is a prophecy.

* The Angel... * The One Who Has Seen The Surface...

* They will return. * And the underground will go empty.

The waterfall sign doesn't actually seem to tell us any new information. You could maybe see the specificity of the wording implying that the prophecy only applies to Undertale, as it specifically mentions the underground going empty, which seems to apply more to Undertale than it could to Deltarune.

However, even looking at this with more scrutiny, it's possible the angel's heaven, whatever it is, will destroy all dark worlds, or, by the time it happens, the roaring has already begun, all darkners have turned to stone, and the dark world, Deltarune's closest underground equivalent, has gone empty that way. In fact, I think the roaring being first is the implied, or even stated, order of events. There are plenty of ways to spin this that don't feel too farfetched.

* Tra la la. * The angel is coming... * Tra la la.

This tells us basically nothing. Thanks, Riverperson.

Stuff that's not direct "angel" mentions:

This section is going to go over some miscellaneous stuff. I'm not going to cover everything, because I realistically can't, but I'll cover everything that seems the most relevant to my theory.

I won't be discussing the design of the church, because, despite its obvious relevance to the angel, there's not much info I can get out of it besides the resemblance to Christianity. I tried.

First up, the character with the most angel connections, me!

Noelle, And The Purpose Of The Weird Routes:

So, right away we've got a lot of angel indicators in the character design, most clearly the dark world one. There's themes of christmas angels, snow angels, and when Queen's giant mech thing holds me at the end of Chapter 2, I'm strung up not only like a puppet, but like one of those angels you put on nativity sets.

Even my face is unseen, just like the doll, and I don't show it until I'm released from the hand and out of that angel-esque pose.

At this point, there are so many hints that I'm the angel, it feels almost too obvious! Which is why, on top of being called angel explicitly only in the weird route, I think I'm not the angel in a first playthrough. If I were the angel, and the angel's heaven is something we're trying to stop, why would we intentionally make the angel *more powerful* on a first playthrough? We wouldn't, of course!

But on a second playthrough, intentionally making me more powerful in the weird route to replace the previous route's angel makes perfect sense, and I'm the ideal candidate with all of my angel connections anyway. We're doing exactly what Queen did, albeit more harshly, and creating the angel rather than the knight. If the angel doesn't do what we want, we will simply make a new one. It's a reason for the weird route that isn't pure sadism. I don't think we'll have a repeat of Undertale's merciless route, where you do it just to see what happens. It's already been done, and the steps you take for the weird route are much more methodical and precise. This time, there's a purpose.

Plus, on a second playthrough, you'd know I have some hidden power, at least from Queen, but probably from other sources by then too. After all, the part where Queen mentions my power is immediately after the weird route section, you can't see it if you do the weird route to completion on your first playthrough, so anyone playing normally wouldn't know to make me more powerful, they have no reason to. It has to be a second playthrough, minimum, to make sense, just like the merciless route in Undertale.

So, if I'm not there for chapter 3, and it seems like I won't be, what might its weird route hold in store? How could it farther this goal? I believe the next step is to isolate me from my support network, anyone I might go to for help. That's why we killed Berdly in the first place. If I find out that Berdly actually died, the first people I go to would be the police. As such, I think we'll manipulate Toriel into killing Undyne, who is likely nearby watching over the house, as otherwise I doubt Toriel would be able to sleep soundly.

I bet we'll do it by getting Kris's health low and forcing Toriel to "protect" us with force. This is also supported by my mention of Fireshock in the hospital, as we know Toriel uses fire magic in Undertale, so she'll likely have it in the dark world, and it could serve as an equivalent to my Iceshock. We also know from Undertale that Undyne is specifically weak to heat. Over the course of the weird routes, we'll gradually eliminate anyone I could rely on except for Kris (or whoever is possessing them), letting them manipulate and mold me freely.

The fact that the angel themes are only so obvious with my dark world character design may also be meaningful. Only a certain, darker version of me is the angel. The normal me is just me. It's also interesting how much Chapter 2 seems to be trying to push me as a main character, despite my not being a normal part of the team.

As a bonus, though perhaps this is a bit of a stretch, I'm also wearing a white sheet almost like a ghost, possibly foreshadowing the death and destruction that comes with my being the angel? But that could just be coincidence given the clear angel theming the outfit already has. The pose may also invoke the idea of crucifixion. Knowing Toby's penchant for foreshadowing and double meanings, and how much the angel religion seems to share with Christianity, maybe it's intentional? Speaking of which...

Angels, Demons, and Power:

Lore on demons is incredibly sparse, far more than even something as enigmatic as the angel. Chara calls themself one. Kris has probably tried to summon one with Catti. That's it, as far as explicit mentions of the term in any even remotely serious context. However, despite this, I think it may be able to tell us a few things.

In some sects of Christianity, demons are fallen angels. I've been wondering, are demons and angels similar in Undertale/Deltarune? Or even the same thing? Maybe! Perhaps this is a bit, to borrow a term, dubious, but I think there's a case to be made for them being more similar than you might expect.

Chara matches everything we know about the angel in Undertale, and Chara also calls themself a demon. We know that the angel religion in Deltarune bears similarities to Christianity that feel more than coincidental, so angels and demons being one and the same wouldn't contradict that inspiration. What really makes me think this is important though, comes back to Power.

There are 2 beings in Undertale with power far beyond anything else: Chara, and briefly, Flowey. Flowey comes into power through his own actions, and while he couldn't have done it without our help in either route, to say we "made" Flowey into an all-powerful being is perhaps a stretch. Or, perhaps it's not. It depends on your perspective.

To say we made Chara into an all-powerful being however, not only is that perfectly reasonable, but it even seems to be the intended reading! Here's what they say:

Greetings. I am Chara. Thank you. Your power awakened me from death. My "human soul." My "determination." They were not mine, but YOURS. At first, I was so confused. Our plan had failed, hadn't it? Why was I brought back to life? You. With your guidance. I realized the purpose of my reincarnation. Power. Together, we eradicated the enemy and became strong. HP. ATK. DEF. GOLD. EXP. LV. Every time a number increases, that feeling... That's me. Now. Now, we have reached the absolute. There is nothing left for us here. Let us erase this pointless world, and move on to the next.

That's kind of explicit, isn't it? The blame lies with us. We made Chara into what they are, and we do it through mercilessly attaining Power above all else. Chara doesn't even meet the qualifications to be the angel until we make them into a demon. Even though we're making a demon in the merciless route, we're also making an angel. This all sounds pretty familiar to me!

It even ends the same way as I think Deltarune will. Chara takes control, and resets. Or, erases the world and then eventually resets.

You could also say, then, that "god" is an equivalent term to demon and angel, as that's what Flowey/Asriel calls himself in the pacifist final battle, and the angel seems to take the place of God in the angel religion. So, we're making a demon, we're making an angel, we're making a god, we're making frozen chicken, all in an attempt to drink some of that sweet sweet freedom sauce. Plus, what RPG inspired by the classics wouldn't end with confronting a god? All three routes of Undertale did it!

As for the less serious instances of "demon", I don't think Temmie's demon comic or Alphys's mention of demons ruining the later seasons of the Symptons really mean anything relevant. It's possible that the Alphys one has some meaning, so I guess let's give that a brief look:

* But make sure you don't watch past the second season

* Since they just rebooted it as Symptons Turbo

* They all started driving their own motor-vehicles

* And fighting giant giga-demons and stuff

* The main problem about that is that it kind of

* Lost the focus on family that it had earlier

* When their vehicles were shaped like animals

* And they were friends with the animal vehicles too

So, there's a chance that "when their vehicles were shaped like animals" refers to the rollercoaster cars in the second chapter, matching the second season. But the only potential "giga-demons" we might fight are the titans in the roaring, and those don't really give the impression of being things you can fight so much as forces of nature, mountains brought to life by the magic of a dark fountain, and presumably having so much magic in them that their emotions run wild and they wreak havoc (there's a lot tying magic to emotions in both Undertale and Deltarune, look into it if you're interested!). Unless the roaring happens way earlier than makes sense given the current pacing of the story, or we start fighting some giant demonic entity in chapter 3 with some kind of motor vehicle, this probably doesn't mean anything important.

If the Temmie one has any meaning, I can't for the life of me figure out where to even begin in deciphering it.

A Brief Extended Intermission To Talk About Seam:

It's time to talk about that one outlier Delta Rune again. What association does Seam have with light?

One of the possibilities I touched on before is the answer I've come to. Seam is likely the most powerful darkner we've met because Seam's so beloved by lightners.

Seam used to be owned by Catti, and possibly her family as well, passed down from person to person. That explains why Seam's a purple cat, the somewhat gothic aesthetic, why Seam's so worn down yet has been patched up multiple times, why Seam seems so old, and why Seam was the court wizard. Catti is the only lightner to mention magic as a real thing, outside of dark world contexts, and we know she involves herself in it frequently. Seam is like if she had a family member that was "more goth", as she says she wants.

So, how did Seam get to the school? How does Seam have a history with Jevil?

Catti's family is the perfect one to misplace Seam. They probably donated a bunch of items to the school, like a deck of cards, which is why Seam's known Jevil for a while. We know things get donated, because some of Kris's old books are there. I bet dad cat donated them, he's forgetful enough to accidentally miss Seam being in the box of stuff to donate, and their house is messy enough that they might not realize Seam isn't home anymore. That might also be why there are cardboard stands at the bake sale, they could be repurposed from the cardboard box used to bring Seam there.

This, I think, explains a lot of Seam's light in the dark theming. However, I don't think it's quite enough to fully justify Seam having a Delta Rune just from having a strong connection to a lightner. If angels and demons are the same thing, that could help, as we know Catti has an interest in demonology, and has looked into how to summon a demon with Kris. Seam, then, would absolutely be able to have an association with demons, and thus, angels.

I'm not fully confident that this is the only reason for Seam's Delta Rune, but it's the best idea I've got. Either way, while Seam is obviously important, I don't think Seam has enough of a presence to be a very realistic candidate for the angel on a non-weird route. Which brings us, finally, to...

The End:

Much like "kill or be killed", I think "your choices don't matter" is a theme that applies to the whole world, not just to Kris. The difference is, in Undertale, Flowey was proven wrong. In Deltarune, everything seems to be set out to prove its theme right. The secret bosses and Seam, those characters with the most knowledge of the world and its lore, seem to agree that the world's fate is sealed.

Even Ralsei, who also has a lot of lore knowledge he seemingly shouldn't, might agree with this. His approach, however, is not to lose hope, but to try to make sure his adventure with Kris and Susie is the most fun it can be. That's why he doesn't want you to think too hard about Spamton NEO. That's why he almost never asserts his will over Kris or Susie, and lets them make all the choices. When the destination is set in stone, it's best to just enjoy the journey, and he wants to make that happen for Kris and Susie. He doesn't want you to worry about a fate you can't change, so he never brings it up, and he tries to make sure you don't think about it. He only puts his foot down to stop the roaring, something that would cut that journey short, and perhaps he holds out a bit of hope that there might be some way to change fate.

I think the true message of the story isn't really "your choices don't matter", but "in a world where your choices can't affect anything on a grander scale, how will you live your life?". Jevil decides to focus purely on having fun, consequences be damned. Seam loses hope, but finds comfort in those that share his knowledge of the inevitable. Spamton tries desperately to escape his fate, but at the end of the pacifist version of his NEO fight, he finds new purpose in his existence, to live for the sake of himself and his new friends. Even when he fails to be freed, he still gives himself to his friend Kris, holding out hope that, maybe, they can break their own strings, even if he couldn't.

All we have left is figuring out how viable our candidates are for being the angel of a non-weird route. I've touched, already, on why I don't think I'll be the angel in that route (or routes, maybe), so we'll move on to who I think is the most likely:

Susie:

If I had to guess, I'd say Susie is the most likely by far of the candidates we know of to be the angel in a non-weird route.

But why? Isn't she always making her own choices? Doesn't she have the most meaningful impact on the world of any character we know of, besides the one we control? Yes, she does. And that's exactly why I think she'll become the most powerful being in the world, able to do just about anything. As the person who's choices have always mattered the most, what an irony it would be to, in the most important moment, with all this Power, have her choices not matter.

But, aside from the impact, why else do I think this? Well, first, she's the only other character who's ever been explicitly referred to as "angel". Susie is also the most powerful attacker, and will often refuse to equip items that lower her power. Power is practically baked into Susie as a concept, including power over choices. But in this world, your choices don't matter. Your fate is already sealed.

The roaring happens before the end of the world, before the angel's heaven. When Susie gains this power, the roaring will have already started. Lightners will die, darkners will turn to stone, including Lancer. Her hand will be forced. All this power, and she has no option but to reset.

But what even is Power?

I think the heart on Susie's belt may be a clue, not only to what Power is, but to Susie's eventual acquisition of it. Power is vague, but its function in Deltarune seems to at least match Determination. I think power is short for "soul power". Soul power is a very vague concept, but Determination falls under its purview, and thus the ability to save, load, and reset.

It's unclear exactly what sort of Power you gain by becoming LV 20 in Undertale, but the results seem to be much the same: control over the timeline, and perhaps even the power to attack reality itself. So, did Chara potentially retrieve the 6 human souls when we weren't looking? It doesn't seem like it, they were multiple rooms away, under the floor, and we cut immediately to the conversation with Chara after killing Asgore and Flowey, while still in the throne room.

Plus, Chara is a human, and while perhaps they're not one anymore by the end of the merciless route, or perhaps being a spirit means they're not human anymore, it would still feel a bit odd for them to have absorbed the 6 human souls, especially without us even seeing it. We see Flowey do it, why wouldn't we see Chara do it?

As such, I have to assume there are ways to attain this reality warping Power without needing human souls, which means we don't have to account for our candidate killing multiple humans to gain this Power. Or monsters as the case may be, if our candidate is Kris or some other human, as monsters can wield Determination too in Deltarune, though I don't know if that translates to other aspects of soul power.

Of course, LV is still tied to killing, and while Susie so far seems to be the most violent of our candidates, killing people to gain Power seems pretty far out of character for her, especially by Chapter 2. But Deltarune has a second system of LV used in the dark world that isn't tied to killing. You level up at the start of Chapter 2, whether you used violence or not. Maybe that holds the key?

Another piece of evidence, and a bit of a strange one, is the theme of romance with Kris. Both times someone calls me angel, it's when I'm getting a ring, and the romance themes of that are intentionally played up a bit. Kris may have a crush on Susie, that seems to be implied a few times, but most clearly by them liking Susie tea so much, by clicking on a Poppup ad for "monsters for humans in your area", and by them clearly preferring Susie when asked who they'd take to the fair at the end of chapter 2.

As I'm known to like scary things, and I mention Kris's name first when visiting the hospital after the weird route, it's possible I'll develop an unhealthy crush on Kris in the weird route, maybe even replacing my crush on Susie. Spamton even calls me Kris's "side chick" in this route, not only supporting the romance connection between Kris and I on that route, but that Kris has a different love interest as well, a "main" one, rather than a "side" one. As such, who Kris ends up in a romance with may also relate to who becomes the angel.

I can't be sure that Susie will be the angel, and while I think she is far more likely a candidate than anyone else we know of, our evidence is still limited. I'll be thorough and examine the other options as well.

Ralsei:

Ralsei is clearly based on Asriel (or maybe the other way around, as the idea for Deltarune came first), and we know that Flowey, a mysterious being with the essence of Asriel, met all the requirements to be the angel in Undertale. There are many clear parallels between Ralsei and Flowey that are easy to find if you're interested, so many that I don't see how it could possibly be a coincidence. So, if we know someone very similar to Ralsei in a lot of ways was the angel in Undertale, why do I think Ralsei won't be the angel in Deltarune?

Well, first, it feels too easy, and too much of a rehash. Deltarune is a remixed version of Undertale to some extent, right? So it would be odd for someone so much like Asriel to be the angel all over again. We also don't even know that darkners have souls in the first place, and while Ralsei is clearly no normal darkner, it still doesn't help his odds at all.

Ralsei is also never referred to as "angel", while Susie is, despite Ralsei clearly being more fitting to be called "angel" than Susie. He also, of course, knows of the angel's heaven and seeks to stop it, along with a lot of other lore knowledge, including how some future events are supposed to go. If he were the angel, he'd probably know it, and of course, knowing the lore doesn't mean he's the angel, as Jevil, Seam, and Spamton know it too.

So, aside from Ralsei having a clear association with Delta Runes, there's really not much evidence of Ralsei having a strong enough angel connection. There's the fact he has heal prayer, which may be associated with the angel. I also have heal prayer, and I think I'll be the angel. However, I think Toriel will also have heal prayer, as she's the only one to explicitly use healing magic in Undertale. I think you can have heal prayer with any sort of healing/angel association, it doesn't have to be a strong one.

The game does seem to place an odd emphasis on Ralsei being in romantic situations with Kris, like the swan boat ride, but Kris doesn't reciprocate. If romance with Kris is actually connected to who the angel is, it may work for Ralsei as well, giving him a bit more of a connection.

Ralsei is absolutely a possible candidate, I won't dismiss him. He has a few things in his favour, more than anyone but Susie. I just feel like it makes far more sense, especially from a storytelling perspective, to give Susie the role of the angel, unless there's more than one non-weird route so you can do both.

Kris:

Kris has fewer angel connections compared to either of the previous options. We know they've looked into demon-summoning, so if demons and angels are the same thing, that's a connection. They also resemble Chara, much like Ralsei resembles Flowey/Asriel, and while those connections exist and are numerous, they're not as strong as Ralsei's connections with Flowey/Asriel. Kris also has some Frisk connections, and Frisk may also meet the requirements to be an angel in Undertale. So, there's at least something here.

If the power of the angel is achieved through souls, Kris would probably need monster souls, but we don't actually know that monster souls are strong enough to grant that sort of power. They can wield determination, sure, but determination doesn't seem to be the only aspect of soul power, just part of it. After all, Kris is the only one who can seal the fountains, and they do it with their soul. Kris's soul may be unique, and I think it is, Jaru's Asriel/Ralsei theory can tell you how and why, but they don't demonstrate significantly higher power than anyone else on the team, just their own style.

Kris, unlike Susie, has not been called "angel". Kris's house has Delta Runes on it, but that's probably Toriel's design choice, not theirs. Kris is certainly mysterious, and has some unique abilities, but them being the angel feels too off. It feels like it would run counter to "your choices don't matter" if the character we control is the one to have all this Power. And if the normal route ends with them being so powerful, and we get to control it, it doesn't make sense why Seam, Jevil, and Spamton are all so convinced that the world's fate is sealed. Maybe, like Chara, they take control from us? But that, again, feels like too much of a rehash, and to do it, they've always demonstrated needing to remove their soul, seeming to be greatly weakened in the process.

It's not impossible! Certainly not! But there's just not enough evidence for me to think Kris has a strong case.

Anyone Else:

Berdly doesn't seem like an important enough character. If you kill him in a weird route and then abort it, if he's the angel in a normal route, what happens at the end? His personality also doesn't fit well for such a serious role, and we've already defeated him. It doesn't make sense from a writing perspective.

Toriel already had a major role in Undertale, I don't think she'd get one of the most important roles in Deltarune as well. It also would strike me as odd just by the vibe of it. She'll become important in chapter 3, I'm sure, but that feels like it's a little late to start getting to know the character that will become the angel.

Catti is even worse in this regard. She'll probably have a major role in chapter 4 at the earliest, and that just feels way too late to introduce your angel. The same, of course, goes for Jockington, but he also has the Berdly problem of not being suited for such a serious role.

Alvin has clear angel connections, but he doesn't even have a dialogue portrait. He doesn't seem important enough, and I think he's probably more tied up with knight business.

Lancer has nothing going for him. Absolutely nothing. He also, again, has the problem of not being suited for such a serious and dramatic role as the angel, and as a normal darkner, he should turn to stone before the angel's heaven even happens. This also rules out King and Queen.

Asriel might be an option, but again, him being the angel feels too much like a rehash, even more than Ralsei, and if we don't learn about him for a while, it'd feel kind of cheap, especially to pull the exact same stunt again as Undertale's pacifist ending.

That's about it!

Thanks for sticking with me on this, and suffering through all my ramblings about the variable angel theory, even the parts that only sort of related. Or, if you just skipped to the end, how dare you! But here's the TL;DR for you anyway:

The angel changes depending on the route. In the weird route, it's Noelle. In the normal route, it's probably Susie, but might be Ralsei, and probably ends with a reset to undo the roaring. The weird routes are about manipulating Noelle into replacing the normal angel by the end of the game, and removing Noelle's support network so she has no one but Kris to turn to. First Berdly, and in chapter 3, Undyne, so Noelle can't go the police if she finds out that what happened to Berdly was real. Seam used to be owned by Catti, before probably being accidentally donated to the school along with other toys, including playing cards, which is why he has a history with Jevil. "Power" probably refers to soul power, of which Determination is a part, and angels and demons may be the same thing.

[twig-tea]

PHEW, ok, now that I've compiled and read all the meta (everyone is amazing, I love all of you, thanks for the love back!) and slept on it, I feel like I have processed enough to gather some thoughts and make a prediction on ep12 [clown checkpoint at the end of this long post].

Pre-Prediction Groundwork i.e. what the heck are you thinking and why did this take you two days

First, I want to say, I still think the montage over the years was not off. The depiction of a happy couple that annoys one another, accommodates one another, is sometimes just happy to be in one another's presence and sometimes happy because of one another's presence, is a perfect summary of a long-term relationship to me. Some folks mentioned that it seemed like they were unfulfilled but as an introvert and a homebody I can tell you when I look back on time spent in relationships these are the moments I think about. Yes, I've gone and done fun things with significant others, but those moments aren't the ones that necessarily feel like they're about us. It's the moments doing nothing that feel like they really capture a relationship, to me. And @rebel0777 hinted at this in a post: sharing food has been the love language for this couple all along, so for it to have mostly focused on them sharing meals doesn't feel strange at all. Anyway I'm fully ready for the show to have a different message but reading everyone's thoughts didn't change my mind on this.

That being said, the thing that other people have said that has swayed me most is the idea that Pisaeng does have some things he left unsaid, and going back in time gives him a chance to say them (whether or not Kawi is fine in future). As mentioned in the roundup, @bengiyo and @incandescentflower get credit for their thoughts on this theory.

In a conversation with @pandasmagorica the potential for a time loop was raised; I laid out why I don't think the show will go that route here--writing this also helped me frame my thoughts around what the show is trying to say and where I expect it to go as a result.

One thing that I think Pisaeng hasn't really been called out for in this series yet is how dedicated he is to Kawi--maybe that's just romance tropes doing their thing, but this man really has been through it in the various timelines. He fought hard for that plushie, celebrated his confession-aversary for at least 8 years, continued to follow and support Kawi's career even when he removed himself from his presence to save him from gay rumours...Pisaeng may need to learn to not sacrifice for Kawi's sake.

The other thing that I've been thinking a lot about is why Kawi seems to have a sense that the amusement park date has already happened [based on the ep12 trailer], when in the other timelines nobody had that same feeling of deja vu, and the reason I came up with is: in all of the previous timelines, Kawi made significant changes to his behavior that rewrote the timeline so profoundly nothing in it was the same. He spent time with his dad; he befriended Pisaeng; he went on the departmental trip and confessed to Pear; he tried out for student council and joined a band; he convinced his dad to get surgery; he confessed to Pisaeng. Because of these major changes every time he goes back, we don't see Kawi relive any days from his original timeline (or any of the other timelines) except kind of the first one (and even that one has major differences).

However, to my mind Pisaeng must be terrified of doing anything differently, other than maybe put some things into words (as mentioned above) and/or staying away from Kawi entirely [and I highly doubt that could work since Kawi knows Pisaeng's tricks from the other timeline as per @zzh3], so if he tries to relive their date from the latest timeline, the events would be similar enough that there could be multi-verse/timeline bleed-over. [There are other potential explanations, and of course this is fully blown out of the water if I'm wrong and Pisaeng does decide to make major changes to the timeline, but this is the one that my brain kept chewing on].

This also made me realize that if I'm right and only Pisaeng's consciousness travels to the past, and if Pisaeng does not decide to make any major changes to the timeline, if Pisaeng stays in the past, it will not make Pisaeng and Kawi equal, but will instead give Pisaeng a huge knowledge advantage, because Pisaeng will have lived all of this once before; in the last timeline, in contrast, Kawi did not jump ahead to peek at his future before sticking with the timeline after making significant changes, so he didn't know what was going to happen (he just had the imbalance of knowing what could happen, which he did share with Pisaeng though it's not the same to live it as to hear about it). The only real way in which they would be equals is if Pisaeng jumps back to the future [so they will be equal in their time travel experience and opportunities to make change], or makes a significant enough change in the past that their lives will be completely different [so that both of them will be equal in their uncertainty]. This is not quite counter to, but is a wrinkle to the points made by @bengiyo, @grapejuicegay and @he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle about relationship equality being achieved with Pisaeng time travelling, which at first really resonated with me and I think still hold true if they go one of the two routes I mentioned above. [And yes, I do think leaving things as they are would still put them on equal footing because choosing not to make a change is still a choice, and is still exerting power over their future that the other doesn't have.]

Speaking of this, thanks to a great conversation with @pandasmagorica and @thegalwhorants I went back and dug into the timeline of the series here, but TL;DR I think we could in theory have reached a few months before Kawi time travelled in the first timeline. That doesn't massively affect my prediction but I wanted to capture it because I do think it's relevant re: the balance between Kawi and Pisaeng; if Pisaeng goes to the future and I'm correct that this lines up closely to the point at which Kawi first travelled backwards in the original timeline, then in the current timeline both Kawi and Pisaeng will be at a truly equal point where neither has seen anything past where they are.

Shifting focus slightly, @grapejuicegay's thoughts about consciousness and the mechanism of time travel also made me wonder, if Pisaeng jumps back to the future [going to keep saying this because it continues to be funny to me], does the consciousness of the version of him who he took over from in the past go back to being the one in control? Is that why the Kawi of the past always seemed to stagnate whenever he jumped into the future, because the person left in Kawi's body had not had the character growth and life experiences that allowed him to make the changes in his life, so he was his former self living a slightly better life but without the personal growth to really take advantage of it? Essentially what I'm getting at here is, if Pisaeng doesn't make a change and does go back to the future, maybe the version of their relationship captured in the montage isn't lost after all, because they would make the same choices? [shout-out to the mourning of the montage by @ellaspore that got me thinking about whether it could be salvaged]

One last point I want to make: As much as it would be deeply satisfying to see Pisaeng and Kawi fight for their rights like @rocketturtle4 theorized, or going abroad so that they could get married like @marbles290 posited, or even working out a lavender wedding arrangement like @grapejuicegay suggested, I think the show already made points on these possibilities with Max and the changes to his choices, and so it would be repetitive to make it with Pisaeng and Kawi [I would not mind if the show did this, I just think this show has so much to say that it will take the opportunity to make a new point]. I think instead it's going to help Pisaeng learn the same lesson Kawi had to about time travel not being able to solve everything [hat tip @waitmyturtles], and needing to be brave and resilient enough to face the future without knowing what the future will bring, and reinforcing appreciating the time you have by being present in the present and not sacrificing your own happiness.

This show has set up so much that could happen, and this isn't the only ending I would be satisfied with by any stretch, but what I think would be most satisfying (at least for me, as I write this) would be if Pisaeng learns to accept that he can't fix everything and goes back to his future to live in the present, not knowing what the outcome will be. Also can I just say, it is really exciting to have multiple endings that I could be satisifed with?! I feel like that doesn't happen that often, at least for me.

Theory time!

So, all that being laid out, here's my Official Clown Theory about what happens in ep12 (adding lots of details so that there are a lots of opportunities to be wrong):

Pisaeng goes to the past and tries to play it cool; they re-live their first date and when Kawi notices something off, Pisaeng tells Kawi that he time travelled [this is based on the trailer so I'm not numbering it as a guess, though this show has done such a good job recontextualizing what we saw in the preview before so this could still be clowned]

Pisaeng is able to put into words what Kawi means to him

Kawi helps him come to terms with not being able to change everything the way Kawi had to come to terms with it too

[More because I want it than because I think it will happen but I'm writing it to manifest it] Pisaeng also talks to his mom while in the past to say hey, if you care about my future, help change the politics in Thailand rather than sending me abroad--giving his mom a chance to change with her kid like how Pear's dad said she should

Pisaeng jumps back to the future

We get the montage again and it looks almost exactly the same maybe just sped up, also maybe [because I've been good and deserve a treat] added bits about marriage equality moving forward?

Kawi recovers, and Kawi and Pisaeng are the ones married May 2027, at the beach [because almost all BL weddings are beach weddings, I don't make the rules]

Kawi tries to give Pisaeng the same speech Pisaeng gave him about if how he does die in future, Pisaeng should try to move on [credit to @tinycowboybro for thinking about the importance of this speech]

Pisaeng responds by reprising Unable [Gawin's OST which I have become recently obsessed with] or one of them performs a new OST we haven't heard yet? [GMMTV seems determined to milk having two protagonists who can sing]

Kawi and Pisaeng confirm neither knows what will happen from here but they'll face it together in the present [YAY]

Post-credit cut scene is Not being given the chance to go back in time by Time Travel Guy [this is still the funniest possible ending to me and I'm not going to stop speaking it into being until it's proven wrong]

Alright we'll see how many of these 10 guesses I get right on Friday. [You may have noticed I ditched the his-death-was-inevitable theorizing I did initially, even though my timeline deep dive does potentially support it, and it could still work with a lot of the above, but I just decided to go with what would make me happiest. I would still be satisfied if they do go that route or leave it ambiguous, as long as they lead up to it well.]

No matter how this goes, it has been an honour and a privilege digging into this show with all of you!

[That being said I realized I will be travelling on Friday and Saturday so depending on the train wi-fi, I may end up being late to the final episode].

cc. the other folks whose writing I was thinking about and have linked in the round-up post but didn't reference directly here: @telomeke; @benkaaoi; @jjsanguine; @stuffnonsenseandotherthings; @shortpplfedup; @williamrikers; @heretherebedork; @visualtaehyun; @knighthacker; @minorista; @neonsbian; @nemesis-21; @snidgetwrites no pressure to interact I just want to give you all credit becuase reading what everyone wrote has informed my thinking [though of course if you disagree with my conclusions, I am the only one to blame (and also I'd love to hear about it)!]

[ibm7094lover]

Is Sarek abusive?

After a lengthy argument/discussion with my mother (og Trekkie, strangely unfamiliar with K/S culture), I seem to be at a stalemate. It's fascinating because there's a lot of points on both sides. I'll provide my own argument and my mother's argument under read more.

Mine:

-Sarek's behavior (and by proxy, many Vulcans) towards Spock's mixed genetics is a direct contradiction to IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations) as Spock represents a small portion of that ideal: Mixed race, arguably queer, and neurodivergent.

-In the Star Trek 2009 deleted scene, Sarek calls him "so human," and from some theories it's believed Spock was surgically altered to appear more Vulcan

-Arguably, you could say this was so other Vulcans wouldn't bully him for looking so human, but we already know how that went.

-Amanda is passive in her parenting, and does little to engage Spock in human traditions along with Vulcan. She goes along with Sarek's beliefs, even if it hurts him.

-Sybok was exiled(?) for embracing emotion and encouraging others to do the same. Michael ran away and is a complete emotional mess (but probably the best out of the three). Spock has identity issues. See a pattern?

-Tuvok is seen to embody a healthier ideal of Vulcan: Permitting himself positive emotions, because it is illogical to deny himself of that. You could imply Sarek's family is just very dysfunctional.

-You can only go so far when excusing behavior with culture, but if someone is being hurt or caused harm, however indirect, it must be addressed by the society or a third perspective in order to improve.

Mom:

-everyone is abusive by modern standards / by human standards, everyone's abusive

-Sarek is an extreme outlier for marrying a human

-Most surgical procedures for Spock make sense, because they'd have to fix some conflicting issues (iron-blood/copper-blood, organ arrangement, etc.) but it is sad Sarek thought to change Spock's appearance when it didn't hinder him in any way.

-By Vulcan standards, Sarek isn't abusive because if anything he's less strict than other Vulcan parents.

-Sarek wasn't considered abusive when the show aired, and he isn't considered abusive now.

-You can't judge another culture by your own standards. (Side note: also believes you can't judge the cult in MidSommar for drugging someone, along with other things they did because it's "their culture.")

With all this in mind, I'm curious to know the general consensus around this topic. I'll leave some extra context below:

My mother comes from an extremely abusive family. Jack Stauber's Opal-level abusive. (I showed her the film and she cried with me) As such, it's understandable that we might have different definitions of abuse, given the generational difference (she's an older mom) and cultural difference (she's Mexican).

Because of this, I'm a pretty sheltered kid, but that also means I don't have a lot of exposure to difficult situations or significant abuse. I can acknowledge that I still have a lot to learn, and I'm trying to peel off my black-and-white mentality as well. I'd appreciate any feedback relating to this and the poll above so I can revise my perspective if I'm wrong!

[eshtaresht]

guys how are we feeling? in pain, devastated, or screaming crying throwing up, what's the consensus here? spoilers for ep 11 under the cut (and minor spoiler for manga)

first things first, my theory from the last week is proven wrong. still don't know what the red plants were for (safekeeping? protecting from the last run?), but nai ain't gonna exploit them to "fix" vash. instead he EXPLOITS HIM AND SUBJECTS TO MENTAL TURTURE AND WIPES HIS MEMORIES CLEAN TO ACCES A HIGHER DIMENSION and create more independent babies ig

(yep the plant mpreg moment is sure a thing... for the next week, get ready for mass abortion)

finally, a gate that's an actual GATE. I think the plants lore was pretty self explanatory, but I'm so happy we're getting it and it's much more comprehensive that the manga, even(and 98' anime basically didn't explain anything and I had to spoil myself through fandom wiki to understand who vash and knives were). like, it's changed A LOT but it's in the same lane

this knives is so capable, holy shit!! everyone was already joking that he would put kniveses of the past to shame, and it's so true... he knows what he wants and how he wants it done and when he just goes ahead and does it. what a giga chad, honestly

I'm a bit disappointed they didn't keep the manga version of knives pre-tessla (that was softer than vash and wanted humans to like him), but it's definetely better than the old anime. like, he's colder due to him being the stronger twin, but he's still playful and doesn't hate ppl. he kinda distrusts rem, but they fucked around out of curiosity rather than malice. also, and I can't be the only one who noticed, his file name said "kni"? mmm ok interesting I'll have to think about it

that probably was the sequence code knives was talking about in ep 8, he used it again for the great fall. I wonder what it said, had to be something important to rem that vash could guess. geranium? their birthday?

the tessla sequence was quite short, but DAMN. status: alive. after all they've done to her. they put her on ice in this condition so they can keep studying her later. and the twins made her come alive. I'm gonna be sick it's so much worse..... no comas or suicide attempts this time, but these kids were still traumatized as hell (vash looks worse, like he haven't slept or probably eaten in a couple of days)

it was a serious moment but when nai revealed he was reading THE BIBLE I can't ahajakahajajahah... like, NO WONDER HE STARTED A RELIGION omg... pls put that book down you've got the message wrong

and or birthday boy vash... oh babygirl I'm so sorry. when I said I wanted to see him going through this I didn't mean a literal mental torture gaslight dimension!!! like, it's SO crucial to his character to REMEMBER all the good and terrible things he went through.... to have it taken away while he can't do anything, even when he clings to the memories as hard as he can, knives still takes EVERYTHING away from him, until he's the only thing tying vash to this world.

again, any other knives could never! and even before tearing apart all those memories, he gaslights vash even further, saying that he did the fall for him (which is true) and so it's basically his fault (which is very much not true)... and this BREAKS him quite literally... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

on a brighter note, loved that goofy meryl & nico interaction, remember, when we could still laugh? now it seems like meryl is gonna manage to reach vash in his infinite soup of despair, and that breaks his gate?? I'm so thrilled for the finale it's not at all like I imagined already said this in my previous post, but the flowers are a consistent theme for stampede instead of angels and, like... it's just makes sense for a plant to be a plant, yk. also it's pretty. july is already being destroyed by the roots, I wonder if that's gonna be it or there'll be a big kaboom (in this case it would be hard for meryl to survive, but potentially vash could make a root cacoon to protect her)

also this ep gets bonus points for showing what's going on in the city with the police guys and civilians, 'cause usually stampede isn't great at background and side characters

now making theories about the (potential) second season. amnesia aspect is getting established rlly hard rn! the only question is whether vash gets to remember key moments (like rem, meryl, wolfwood) or if he only retains the vibes of "someone important who said I shoud protect ppl". because it's gonna be interesting if he forgets everyone completely and when nico and meryl (and milly, fingers crossed) eventially find him, he''s like "hi, have we met?"

oh, the POTENTIAL! I think he's gonna get his 98' characterization as super goofy, borderline annoying, because he just doesn't remember all the pain! at least, he doesn't remember the details and fills the blanks with astonishing amounts of cope. and when he's finally able to remember, oh boy, he's gonna crumble.......

[nimirel]

I have thoughts about Leander and need to share them.

First of all I think it's hilarious that we are all speculating about him. The devs knew what they were doing making his intro so cryptic, and I fell for it too so get ready.

We got that sweet combo of light eyes, dark circles and massive tit- a kind disposition with some twisted secret that lead us all down the possible yandere route. And while we see some suspiciously controlling/jealous/possessive streaks with him not letting anybody else treat the mc to drinks, forcing the mc to touch him when they hold back and saying negative things of the other LIs in his alone time, there is a post here already analysing how this might not be the case. I agree with them on the whole, he values freedom too much to go too far on that front.

So I'm going to include my humble theory to the mix. I think with Leander they can go for a really tragic story of a boy who grew up in the Lowtown, who saw all the horrors that lurk in the dark. He founded the Bloodhounds to help the people since the Senobium do nothing for those less fortunate. He wants to save everybody, but (according to Ais) he is only human after all. He is the only LI that does not have a monster background in his intro, it's just his shadow. However, we know that he is very powerful and has incredible abilities to yield magic without any incantation (this is giving strong FMA vibes). So, how does he do it? How could a regular mage encounter such power and why is he not with the erudite in the Senobium? I think, that he has to have made a pact or some sort of deal to achieve all this power at an incredibly high cost. If something feels too good to be true, it probably is... He is kind, he wants to help his people, and he has the power to do so. All free of charge, of course. There is no way he could have gotten all that power without giving something vital of himself away (again in true FMA fashion). We will have to find out what that is. We already know about his massive scar, how he likes to work hard, play harder and does not like to sleep. He is always drinking in his free time and having plenty of "escapades". It feels like he is trying to distract himself or forget about something that he cannot change and is inevitable. Ais says that Leander's resolve will be tested in this plane and the next, and I wonder if that could mean that he is reaching a turning point in which he has to decide between himself or the people. Or if he is too far gone and could forget his initial intentions.

Then again this could all be wrong :). I have only played with the Unnamed Origin, and as an oracle, the mc does not feel anything amiss when meeting Leander, while the oracle can feel a lot of stuff when meeting Vere, Ais or even Kuras (and don't get me started on that "nagging feeling" and "sense of familiarity" with kuras omg what if him or his power have something to do with the curse and that is why he is so guilty bdjnfioefjn). So he could simply be a Guy ™ that happens to be very powerful.

Then there is also how Vere talks about him. Vere straight up insults him and calls him slimy. I feel like we can trust Vere's sense of smell and he can really see through others’ intentions so I wonder if that is really how Leander truly is, although Vere doesn't really have anything nice to say about anybody (other that how big Ais is snfinrf). Could I just be another victim of Leander's charm and fail to see that he is a little evil gremlin ready to show how you don't need to be born a monster to be truly villainous? Possibly, but I don't mind I would just like to hold them him.

I feel like all the LIs do have a good heart or at least no real ill intent against the mc (looking at you Vere), but Leander is the only one that seems to openly claim that he is doing this out of the goodness of his heart. And that is terribly suspicious. Anyway, I still need to play with the other origins and see what else I can find. I would love to hear your opinions on this!!!

[ao3cassandraic]

Crowley the Maker, God the Wrecker, Part 1

I've been thinking about do be do be do since I first posted it. It's big. It's woolly. It's got a lot of parts. I can't get a handle on it, entirely.

But there's one piece I think I'm on firm ground with, so let's have a look at it.

By your leave, I will preface with a personal story: My former niche in librarianship was running a sort of then-new online library service with a strong change agenda that (it turned out) nobody really wanted. I did the marketing, I did the schmoozing, I did the service-model and software revisions (as best I could, anyway; I'm not a developer) to make the service more inviting, I proposed endless ways to make the service better, or have it serve additional constituencies, or leverage some of my other skills in service to the service's avowed mission... none of it took.

I wasn't supposed to actually do anything, much less change anything (it turned out). I was supposed to sit there quietly and make an incredibly backward, set-in-its-ways library look all shiny and innovative via nothing but my existence on its payroll.

And the sheer pointless indolence of it drove me absolutely around the bend. I need to do things. I need to do things I think are worthwhile! I went more than a bit feral -- not in good ways -- when I couldn't, when I was blocked at every turn. I'm still ashamed of myself for that, but I understand why it happened.

So yeah. I'm not in that job or that niche of librarianship any more. (Many librarians would say that as a library/archives educator, I'm not even in librarianship any more!) And I think Crowley would absolutely understand why I'm not.

Before the Beginning, we see angel!Crowley (as I will call him, not wishing to deadname) doing maker work and exulting in it. We see Aziraphale a bit confused by the whole idea of hands-on work, but game to give it a try (especially for this attractive and dynamic redhead). Then we learn that angel!Crowley is making a star factory. He is literally making a thing that will do more making! And he loves it! He loves his thing that will make things!

And he's distraught, poor soul, at the idea that the thing he just made won't actually make anything else, it won't have time. That's just some bullshit. Things that make things should make their things! Or what was the point (arc word!) of making them at all?

We also learn that he "wasn't the original concept designer," though he claims to be on fairly close terms with the being Who was. And that's key to what distinguishes Her from Crowley: She thinks and delegates, he DIYs. (Though She doesn't even do all the thinking he thinks She does! "Show me a Great Plan!" he begs Her, when we all know it's only an ineffable game because She told us as much from the start of s1.) There can be no clearer demonstration of this than taking the line "Let there be light!" away from Her -- it's quite definitely God who says this in the Bible! -- and giving it to angel!Crowley.

Angel!Crowley is also a bit of a fixer; when something is wrong, he'll do something about it if he can. Aziraphale hints pretty strongly that angel!Crowley should back off critiquing Her or even asking for a suggestion box by which anyone else might critique Her. Angel!Crowley scoffs, because fixers assume others want things fixed as badly as they do; what kind of muttonhead wouldn't want things fixed? (Je suis fixer. I'm trying to learn to restrain myself.)

But Aziraphale's right! She doesn't want to hear it, and She boots angel!Crowley out of Heaven over it, torturing him horribly and unconscionably along the way. So what does She make? She makes demons by wrecking angels. By contrast, Angel!Crowley made star factories.

(I'm aware of the theory that She had already stopped listening, such that it was the Metatron who booted angel!Crowley out. Curiously, if that turns out to be true, it doesn't change this meta a whole lot.)

So here's what Crowley knows: God can't be arsed to listen to anybody even when they mean well, nor will she lift a finger (or divine analogue) to fix one blessed thing, and even worse, She only bothers to take actual action when She's out to do harm! And this lazy vindictive schmuck has set Herself up as the sole and entire arbiter of what counts as "being good"? What She did to angel!Crowley was not by any measure good!

(Comparisons between GO!God's behavior and Lone Skum's treatment of Twitter-I-mean-X are not only warranted, they're practically impossible to avoid.)

I have to think Crowley thinks he's well rid of Her, and I also have to think his loathing of Her hypocrisy -- She is good without doing good, which is practically the definition of hypocrisy -- is part of the reason he clings to the identity as demon that She forced on him so brutally. (Not the whole of the reason; kayfabe is also part of it.) He, unlike Her, is damned well going to -- well, either be honest about himself (as She isn't about Herself) or make Her eat Her blessed words about what he is and what he does. He can do better than She ever did. Who couldn't?

So at Eden, Crowley's been told to "make some trouble." Which he does! He likes making stuff, even if it's trouble. Then he has his opinion of Her confirmed: God takes action again, to boot Adam and Eve out of Eden. Once more, Crowley thinks that's bullshit, only he's rather less direct in how he expresses it this time around. The poor snake does learn.

But. Crowley also finds, atop the garden wall, another being who actually does things, who tries to fix things! Who's not so different from him! And he's mesmerized! But he can't stop himself poking at the "do good" vs. "be good" sore place again: "oh, you're an angel, I don't think you can do the wrong thing" "wouldn't it be funny if I did the good thing and you did the bad one?" Aziraphale doesn't quite pick up on what's going on in Crowley's head, being quite immovably (as it turns out) stuck in essentialism, such that anything a demon does must be wrong because of what a demon is. Our angel's only other surety is that doing whatever She thinks is the wrong thing (and She's not exactly clear about that, is She?) has terrifying consequences.

This is already quite long, so let's call it a post. Next up: Job and speech-act theory, since @ferallair asked me about it. Mind you, I'm not by any means an expert therein; my linguistics specialty was historical Iberian phonology with a side of semantic drift in Spanish verbs, okay? But I can explain the extreme basics of the idea.

[lej222]

Please do an analysis and theorize the latest chapter, chapter 126 where the biggest cliffhanger happened in Aslfua. I just love your theories so so much🙂

I won't make this post long because I don't want it to be controversial, but I feel like we are far from the end of the story. Logically speaking, the Korean title also includes the year 1999 and we are only halfway through that year. Considering the series will possibly end with a new century starting (metaphor of Miae growing up and entering high school - I want to include this in my next post because it's such a great parallel), we still have half a year to fill in.

Now, if we look at unresolved plot points if Cheol and Miae get together, there are not a lot:

Cheol's story with the bully from middle school

Jisu's whole past with Miae and how she will remember it + Jisu's backstory and why he's so disengaged

Possible Sora miniarc??

Resolution to the Cheol/Miae relationship (preferably soon so the story doesn't get repetitive - but at the end of the year the latest before graduation). Hopefully a real talk about their feelings without childish jealousy fits and avoiding each other.

Other than these, the story basically won't have substance. Cheol getting jealous at Jisu is already getting old, and Miae and Cheol have kept going around in circles for so long, it would be unwise to still make them run away from their feelings as the writing is concerned. There's not much the author can spend on their actual relationship because they are still kids so we wouldn't be able to see a drastic change either with the remaining time left of the story. Also, looking at the kids' profile, Miae had her birthday first from the main trio while Cheol will in September, followed by Jisu in November. Considering that Jisu is probably the third main character (he also appeared in the last two ads), it might not be a coincidence the year almost ends with his birthday.

So, if you are asking me, I would say there will definitely be more twists, otherwise we would be out of plot points very quickly and it seems like the story is not close to ending. So basically anything is possible at this point 🙂 or maybe I'm wrong, could be😅 we will have to see

Thank you for your kind words!🙂

[marshmallowprotection]

Jumin with ….. a little sister. DOES ANYONE SEE MY VISION?!

I've seen the concept done many times before but I've never liked the execution. I think there is potential to the idea but it would take a lot... and I mean a lot to make it make sense. Chairman Han very much did consider his marriage to Carolyn, Jumin's mother, to be fruitful. She's the one who got away in his eyes even though she never cared for his romance or desires. Her goals and aspirations were materialistic.

She wants what she wants and if she doesn't get it, you won't get a damn thing from her, and Jumin never gave her what she wanted.

I don't see her as the kind of person who would have another child in life when Jumin would be enough to secure her ties to Chairman Han for the rest of her life and ascertain enough money to live in luxury as long as she wants. She literally wouldn't divorce that man until he had a settlement in hand that gave with I don't even know how much! The fact remains that if Jumin had a sister, it certainly wouldn't be a sister that shares a mother with him.

Then, that makes another issue.

Chairman Han is the kind of man who throws money at women all the time to win their love and affection.

He will move on from one relationship to the next after whoever he's dating gets what they want out of the relationship and then they leave him for greener pastures... as seen in the RAE where you speak to him on the phone and he tells you about a lounge singer he dated who he put down a on of money on to help her further her career only for her to leave him in the end in an instant when she got her goal. It isn't unexpected given what we know about him.

He loves to throw money and gifts at people to show his love. Hell, he does the same thing to Jumin! I can't stand the man for that. He truly thinks throwing money at the problem helps. He dates woman who're in his life only to get money from him, and he does just that over and over again, as if that pattern is something that will change. He is also the worst when it comes to hitting on women.

To the point where we know that Jumin asked Jaehee to cut her hair and wear glasses so his father wouldn't hit her on and try to make her his girlfriend! Chairman Han has done that to him before, and we're not going to get into how Jumin was wrong for that one, either. That thought made sense to him to "protect" Jaehee to him but it wasn't what needed to change. His father is the one that needed to change ll all along. He still does.

He is a womanizer who wants to "settle down" in theory, but he's never going to be able to do that given how fast he goes through relationships when he fails to get what he wants out of it. He thinks he wants one thing and then he sees something else, deciding that he wants that instead. He's looking for something he won't find in the ongoing pattern he continues as he shuffles through love again and again to find what he thought he had with Carolyn.

Jumin can't even begin to tell you how many failed relationships and wives his father has gone through. Let's not even get started on the relationships with women who traumatized Jumin as young as eight years old because after the divorce from Carolyn, Chairman Han put himself out there immediately.

Now, for your consideration, we have to consider how Chairman Han handles his relationships. He doesn't seem like he would be the kind of person who would have sexual encounters without protection nor would he be the type to have kids out of wedlock, but if it did happen to him, he would marry that woman immediately, and God knows the outcome that would have on Jumin's life.

So, with that in mind, I'm so doubtful that a marriage like that would last long, if at all.

Without any context as to what that relationship would be like, all I can do is surmise his sister's possible age and where that might be along the timeline. Jumin was seven years old when his parents split apart. That means the absolute earliest Jumin could've had a sister is when was nine years old, since I don't think Chairman Han would've jumped into something in the first year and some change after that divorce.

That would put a sister way younger than anyone in the RFA around the time of the game. Since a nine year age gap would put a sister at 17 when he's 26. That's an interesting dynamic. Jihyun actually has a half sister that's a lot younger than him like that, too, but I know that his half-sister lives out of the country with his dad and stepmother! I don't see friendship for those siblings in the works, though, I do think Jihyun's sister is a preteen from the one photo of her that exists...

Hm.

As far as a sibling dynamic with Jumin? I believe he would value a strong bond with his family, since full and half blood mean nothing when it comes to him. Family is family and he wants to be with his family.

I think a lot of people could pull an interesting story out of this but most of the time, when he is given a younger sister, she is usually not that much younger than him, and shipped with Zen. There's nothing wrong with that because everybody's allowed to enjoy silly scenarios like that, it's just not my bread and butter, so I don't consume content like that. 

I do think it would be sweet to see him looking out for a sister who's still in high school, trying to do her best in a world that expects a lot from someone who is related to Jumin and Chairman Han, and it would flesh him out further in a good way, pulling that soft side out of him a lot sooner with his MC on the horizon. 

Like, imagine Jumin in a situation where his sister is teasing him about MC, and Jumin is very honest and sincere about it, dampening the teasing and turning it into a sweet conversation about emotions! If I were to give Jumin a sister, she would be strongly empathetic and outgoing, able to understand the people around her, even if she's just a bit silly because of her age. A natural foil to Jumin who often has a hard time expressing himself to people since not everyone knows his personality and kindness at face value.

Basically, if Jumin had a sister, I'd focus on the family bond between them and help further flesh out how much Chairman Han sucks as a human being, while Jumin and sister focus on building a family with the RFA, you know, the people who actually give a shit about them.

[kyros-tha-soldier]

⚠️ ONE PIECE CHAPTER 1113 SPOILERS ⚠️

Spoilers aheeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaad!

You've been warned

We are SO back with another glorious set of brief spoilers until the scans drop, so I'll give you a quick spin on what's gonna happen (spoilers by @pewpiece from twitter btw)

🔥last time we saw Mars wander into the lab from where the live broadcast was ALLEGEDLY being aired and searches around for the den den mushi, he finds it but then looks up at something that's making bubbling sounds, turns out it was a big jar with vegapunk's head inside it which is... Odd? Like, didn't he die a couple of chapters ago?

🔥Mars destroys the den den mushi but it turns out it's only a decoy, the broadcast keeps on running and vegapunk resumes talking after a 10 minutes long pause.

🔥 we can see the reactions of various arc and island characters, i still don't know which ones but I'm hoping... just hoping 🥺

Oda pwease answer my plea 😔

🔥The gorosei are absolutely clueless about what kind of hot tea Vegapunk will be spilling this time so they're trying to stop the broadcast at all cost because either way he'll end up serving some SERIOUS tea. And having worked with the elites of the world, he sure does know a lot of dirty stuff.

🔥Nusjuro and Sanji encounter and Sanji attacks him.

My boy saw a centaur and said "Giddy up"

🔥 back to our silly willy goofy but formerly shady scientist, vegapunk says that if this broadcast plays then that means that he's dead (RIP) he confesses that he has done so many misdeeds and bad things which is why he decided to record a message where he wants to share something important to redeem himself

🔥Saturn arrives to Usopp's group and starts talking (I don't know exactly what he was saying) and Robin remembers his voice.

NO FUCKING WAY SATURN GETS AWAY WITH TRAUMATIZING LITERAL KIDS!

First robin and now Kuma, ginny and Bonney????

Your spider ass better be PREPARED for my making my Robin cry!

🔥 at the end, Vegapunk drops some truth bombs and says that the world is going to sink into the ocean!

(let's hope your OP favs live in an area higher than sea level like Alabasta or dressrosa or wano or in fishman island or water seven or anywhere that cant be fully submerged in the flood)

Also is it just me, or is Oda trying to bring his fans to think back on the noah arc back in fishman island because, you know, this sounds like the abrahamic/biblical/quranic retelling of the great flood?

But how will he use it is what's still a headscratcher to me but we'll figure it out soon.

On a sidenote ive seen some people theorizing that the OP world actually went through a flood before which is why islands like wano and long ring long land ended up being submerged and their geography changed.

I dunno man, i think those theories are correct. Also what caused this flood? Was it Imu? Was the world government itself? Was it because Poseidon fell in the wrong hands?

So many questions! But i hope we get to answer them soon