#also she like slapped everyone so she isn't actually helpless i just want to make a joke

[poppystheories]

Tyki’s reaction to being slapped fascinates me. This guy gets slapped by a helpless exorcist that's fully at his mercy and he kinda likes it. It wasn’t a weak slap either! Despite the state Allen’s in, it left a mark! But Tyki just laughs it off. Settles down to chat. Lights himself a cigarette.

Let’s face it. It’s charming.

I really like the contrast between Allen’s first meeting with Road and his first meeting with Tyki. Road had no intention of killing Allen from the start, and she wasn't really there to destroy any Innocence, but she gets incredibly rough with him: nailing his arm to the wall, stabbing his eye out, making a pincushion out of him with her candles. She fully delights in the bodily harm.

Tyki’s here to kill Allen and destroy his Innocence. That’s already decided. But he doesn’t brutalize him at any point.

Because Tyki's so casual, you keep thinking: hey, Allen’s going to get out of this totally fine. Someone is going to show up and save him. Lenalee should be looking for him. We haven’t seen the others in a while, so they must be on their way. Someone is going to arrive in the nick of time to save Allen, and everything’s going to be fine. We still have to get to Japan, after all.

But no one comes.

The scene progresses. Tyki keeps talking, he shows off his power a bit, tries to play with Allen like he played with the others. Tries to make him scared, maybe beg a little. He’s fooling around with the prey he’s already caught, like a cat.

But Allen's not scared, and Tyki backs off. The actual physical torture isn't the appeal for him, so if his victim isn't scared there's no reason to get violent.

So now you're thinking, wow, this guy is gonna regret taking his time when someone finally arrives! What a classic villain fumble; failing your mission because you were too busy monologuing.

But no one comes.

Tyki pulls out the card the Earl gave him. And you find out Tyki’s been searching for Allen. Specifically.

That’s bad, but it's okay. It'll be fine. Someone is going—

You turn the page, and Tyki is ripping Allen’s arm off. No warning, no posturing. One second Allen is fine—someone is going to save him, any second now, Tyki hasn’t even hurt him yet—and the next Allen’s fucking Innocence is on the forest floor.

Tyki keeps talking, smiling. Nothing about his demeanor has changed.

He destroys Allen's Innocence. Like it's nothing.

And at this point, you start to realize, maybe no one is coming. Or if they are, it’s already too late.

Tim gets sent away. He can go get help. But, now Allen’s truly alone with the assassin sent to kill him—if anyone’s coming, it has to be now! Where is everyone?!

Right on cue, you finally get to see the other characters.

And they’re still on the fucking ship.

Then maybe Lenalee—

No. Lenalee’s also at the ship. Tyki has his hand hovering over Allen’s chest and Lenalee’s at the goddamn ship.

No one is coming, you realize. No one was ever coming.

And just like that, Tyki kills Allen. Intimately, with a smile. He wants it to be slow, but quiet. He wants Allen to feel how helpless he really is.

Tyki's a serial killer: we've seen him stage his victims before, like leaving Daisya hanging like some kind of grisly ornament. We saw the state he left the General in.

Allen, however, gets more artistic treatment; he's by the far the favorite of Tyki's victims so far, and Tyki doesn't want to disturb the pretty picture he's already made too much, but it needs a little extra flair, doesn't it? A more personal touch.

So he scatters his own gift to Allen over him: a little something to suit his white hair and black coat and red scars, and the last thing we see is the black crescent of despair. Put there quite deliberately; it is not a typical image to appear on a Joker card.

Volume 6 ends, just like that.

It really is a merciless ending. You can't believe that the protagonist will really die here, but even if he somehow survives, his Innocence has been destroyed. The entire scene is built around your expectations as a reader that the protagonist can't die, so someone will save him, or there will be some other interference.

But no. No one was ever coming to save Allen; not this time.

And that? That has consequences.

[hargrove]

"Jesus..." She knew his pain ran deep but this seemed bottomless. Chrissy got it though, it wasn't just that he thought he was a monster or a puppet on a string, he felt like he wasn't capable of keeping anyone safe, especially Max. "Billy... I know you're expecting me to say it's okay because that's what I do, isn't it? I try to make everyone feel better and make them feel positive, but that won't work on you." She shook her head and the hand that had been pressed flat against his chest was now balled into a fist. "So get mad... get furious, get so angry that all you see is white, hot heat. You keep saying you're a monster? I don't think you are, no one does, but if that's the role you want to play, then play it. Let the rage consume you and we'll point you in the right direction. He's already shown that he doesn't care who he destroys in his campaign so we might as well fight fire with fire... but don't you dare push us out, don't you dare give up on thinking that there will be an end to this, because there will and Max will need you. You, Billy, her brother. Not the rage."

The fact that Billy was already angry, and that was Chrissy’s goal, only made him more pissed off. He was playing right into her plan, which wasn’t something he liked to do for anyone, even a friend. He slapped her hand away from him, his face growing red as he retorted, ❝ What the fuck do you think I am? Happy?! I’m always pissed off! I feel fucking useless and helpless and even goddamn scared and that always makes me furious! But what the hell am I supposed to do about it? ❞ His chest heaved as he breathed heavily, feeling himself finally start to open up. Of course Chrissy could get him do it. He hated it, but also felt somewhat grateful. ❝ When I was in the Upside Down, sure, shit sucked. But it made sense. I knew how to fight those assholes. Put a weapon in my hand and a target in front of me, and I’m good. But he’s not here. We don’t know what we’re really fighting or when the fight will go down. And now I actually give a shit about people caught in the crossfire. When I’m alone, I can think. I can focus. But here? With Max? I’m- ❞ -afraid. He wanted to say it, but couldn’t find his voice.

[twistinghearts]

Could you say Eliza is helpless when she sees Idia~

[trickfootpike]

OKAYOKAYOKAY now that i've had a few nights to Ruminate here are way too many thoughts from 9/16's show -- fair warning that they aren't *super* coherent as a lot of this i just tried to loosely organize from dms i threw at folks night-of, but it is most of what i remember sticking out to me!

GENERAL THOUGHTS --

last saw the show in august of 2019 - back then i saw it up in the mezzanine, this time i was 7 rows back dead center in the middle of the orchestra. watching the show from the mezzanine feels like a god's eye view of the show while sitting up close in the orchestra is much more like being in the world of men, and how it hits in hadestown particularly is just nuts bc you really do feel like you're on the factory floor.

back in the London production i remember eva playing eurydice with more youth and hope to her, and when the show came to Broadway eurydice hardened. in a world with a pandemic eva seems to have actually shifted this back! Eurydice is still holding tightly onto Orpheus Knowing that the world is unlikely to be kind enough to let them have each other for long but she starts off less faithless than she used to, I suppose I would describe it? she's definitely played more open with others from the beginning rather than having it be something she has to really work towards!

WAIT FOR ME IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT FEELING FROM THE ORCHESTRA THAN THE MEZZANINE AND NOT JUST THE LAMPS. the lamps really only swing out to over the first 2 rows, speaking very generously, anyway. what i remember being most impactful from last time was how the whole theater rumbled as the walls of the set split to reveal hadestown. what i couldn't see and afaik no boot's been able to pick up is the the set ALSO SPLITS AND STRETCHES OPEN AT THE TOP. that awning that covers the balcony lifts and the wall of hadestown is revealed to stretch floor to ceiling and it is just so much, so fucking much oh my god i could not stop hysterically blubbering to myself watching hadestown stretch open like it is absolutely here to devour you whole. it makes you feel the immensity of The Wall. I've linked ig videos of the set pre act 1 and post intermission to give like the best perspective on it i can and tried to film them so they were zoomed as closely as to what my eyes were seeing as I could, but here are also some pictures!

PRE ACT ONE

INTERMISSION

after our lady of the underground when eurydice comes back from hades' office and Persephone is finishing with her show, me being closer this time i was actually able to see amber's face during way down hadestown ii and flowers. and how she portrays seph's feelings re eurydice, it's like : genuine concern and watching over her when she first starts on the line, Quiet Seething and Jealous Rage as the fates' tattle "Hades put his hands on ya" that sticks for a While including the first half of flowers, but as soon as eurydice remembers the meadow her and Orpheus visited her heart just b r e a k s and you can see her wiping away tears. seph's just so caught in her own feelings of helplessness in hadestown. when hades tells her to stay out of him dealing with Orpheus all the fight just deflates out of her and the direct accusing look Orpheus gives her at the end of if it's true mixed with seeing his effect on the workers makes her physically rear back like she's gotten the fight slapped back into her

even with this audience who almost for sure has all seen ht before, there was still the loudest heartbroken gasp when orpheus turned. i know everyone calls this out but it still hit me hard that with a greater percentage of previous viewers in the audience it still hit us all like a fucking brick

and ofc. road to hell ii. it's a millions times more impactful than it already was what with the pandemic, making it through hard times and how they could be hard again but making the best of them even if it doesn't turn out well this time either. i was crying so hard last time but this time i was crying harder but also feeling like a huge weight was being like, very softly cradled in my chest to take some of the burden away

TOM'S HADES/HADES AND PERSEPHONE SPECIFIC THOUGHTS --

Tom's Hades whole tl;dr could be that Hades is a Performance. all those descriptions of him beign "jazzy" and "egodriven" are correct, but there is also this massive vibe he gives off that all his showmanship is there as a cover up for the very pessimistic man at the core of him. when him and persephone are getting along the jazziness is there for genuine playfulness with her, but apart from seph it is a purposeful exaggeration on hades' part to get Whatever it is that he wants. he is playing up aggression as king (see papers) and what he thinks as being suave (see hey little songbird) to maintain his throne and his marriage, and Epic III is the Destruction of that performance. Tom's Hades at the end of Epic III isn't trying to sell anyone anything, you just get to see the suddenly very scared and unsure heart of the man behind the performance of foreman and king. And oh boy is Tom's Hades at his heart unsure. He is so fucking pessimistic; back in Act 1 when Orpheus starts to sing Epic I he turns from Persephone even before she gets reminded of the world above and starts longing for it, because he already expects to see it coming and he doesn't turn back to her Ever Again, literally until he comes to get her in Way Down Hadestown. Not even when she gives him a kiss on the cheek goodbye. His Kiss, The Riot is him trying to figure out how the hell he's gonna be able to rebuild his performance after his whole kingdom saw through it, but he also ends it being so very certain that the deal he figures out for Orpheus Will end with Orpheus failing somehow. There is no doubt in this very pessimistic Hades that doubt will come in, whereas Patrick used the end of His Kiss The Riot almost like he was desperately trying to justify that his doubt came to him only in Persephone's absence

road to hell i: tom's hades loves cheering on the band so much he is Part Of The Problem that Hermes has to get to chill out and it makes so much sense for this jazzy dramatic motherfucker

balcony time (road to hell i until livin' it up on top): when they were upstairs playing dominoes they kept laying their tiles with these overexaggerated movements.. Like when they actually getting along they are so damn flirty and trying so hard to make each other smile and laugh and it is TOO CUTE

way down hadestown: Once Again "I missed ya" gives me no rest, mostly because Tom delivered it with this super coy and cocky grin and Amber immediately smiled back at him like Persephone couldn't help herself

chant i: is spent with him looking up proud into his creation while persephone is looking down with heartbreak and disgust seeing the workers as people in suffering and the ugliness of hadestown. as the song goes on he gets increasingly frustrated like a child who's super proud of the drawing he brought home from school that Persephone has nothing but terrible things to say about. when eurydice starts singing about her suffering seph throws out her arm and points to her like "see! See what you're doing!!" while hades is more in himself processing his disappointment, frustration, heartbreak, but over the next minute you start to see him Formulating A Plan as he watches eurydice. but he doesn't look entirely sold on going through with it until seph throws out her last verse in disgust. it was absolutely the straw that broke the camel's back.

hey little songbird: THO IT SOUNDS SO SEDUCTIVE ON AUDIO. OML DOES IT LEAN INTO EURYDICE'S "STRANGE MAN" DESCRIPTOR. HADES IS LIKE THE CREEPY SALESMAN ON THE CORNER WITH WATCHES AND A TRENCHCOAT. BUT HE'S SELLING HIS SHIT WELL, HE'S JUST ALSO A WEIRDO

Why We Build The Wall/"Behind Closed Doors": That followup on hades' threat when eurydice arrives in hadestown. as hades goes to the stairs he like not whacks, but definitely nudges seph's arm harder than Patrick does to get her attention. when he did she Startled and laid her hand over her arm where he'd tapped her like she was overwhelmed by just that touch........ but then she turns around and watches him take Eurydice up and when he opens his coat and she Realizes you see her whole body go slack. once eurydice goes past the office doors hades turns and lingers staring pointedly down at seph, for *seconds* whereas with patrick i remember it being more of a pointed glance. it drills home that hades is doing this specifically to spite seph and he wants her to know it. and you can see amber discreetly wipe her face before she turns back to "does anybody want a DRINK." there's less direct seduction between hades and eurydice but more explicit threat between hades and seph about eurydice

papers: actually isn't too much Bastärde as it is his Performance. HOWEVER, the way he directs the workers to beat Orpheus is chilling. Like patrick he hangs around, but he's watching until the last 10 seconds so it's way longer. And he makes like the smallest gestures with his hand to direct the workers to the different stages of beating Orpheus, fuck it was twisted

how long: how long actually starts with seph and hades seemingly coming to each other on a similar page - hades came out pensively fiddling with his wedding ring and Amber delivered "I know" like seph was already past the eurydice situation. this also could have been a product of time and seeing how actually little he did "seducing" eurydice lmao

chant ii: very much Hades Sees Orpheus As A Threat™️ (more on this further below) , also dare i say it but tom kills I CONDUCT THE ELECTRIC CITY

epic iii: oh man oh man. he looks so untouched until Orpheus starts the lalas and he goes from completely passive unimpressed face to like. his body unfolds on his stool and his hands go slack and he looked between Orpheus and Persephone when he asked where Orpheus had gotten his melody. he asked it a lot softer than I expected him too as well. a big part of the audience actually laughed when Hades sang his lala because Tom cracks his voice during it but it petered off into sniffling when they realized why and then we were all just crying together as persephone placed the flower in his vest.

lovers desire: SOME VERY CUTE STUFF. hades' performance is broken but tom's hades is still a Jazzy Jazzy Man at heart and they're like 100 times more playful with each other - they're both giggling and grinning their asses off while they dance together and give each other these like nudges to the next series of steps and it was adorable and I was discretely sobbing. they both played it like they knew how to do this dance with each other better than they knew anything, the little nudges were like..... them playing inside this dance they already knew so well? Like more overexaggeration to make each other laugh and just revel in this wonderful thing they've rediscovered- specifically I remember that Amber raised her skirt soooooo high when she was doing the curtsey and Tom was like waggling his eyebrows at her and adding extra flourishes with his hands and widening his eyes super big everytime he pulled off a move (the funniest ones were when they do like the two-step where they move one after another in sequence and he's copying her moves in reverse and oml it was just adorable). When Seph had the move where she pulls their linked arms over his head to tuck him into her I remember that was the one part where he wasn't doing this goofy act but his expression straight up melted and he looked so smitten. and when it's the last bit of the dance and he spins her across the stage, seph's face breaks open with tears his expression responds with like this mix of heartbreak and "ohhhhh no baby please don't cry" as he moved across the stage to quickly take her into his arms for the dip at the end

AFTER this when orphydice has finished promises and right before Orpheus turns to ask Hades if they can go, they come out of slow dancing to the side but are still super wrapped up in each other - seph wraps herself around one of his arms and presses herself super close and Tom leaned down with this little smile like Hades was gonna try and steal a quick kiss, but then he hears/sees out of the corner of his eye/senses or something Orpheus approaching and pulls himself up and formal to be the king. When he says I don't know and seph wrenches herself away from him to the other side of the stage to firmly stand behind Orphydice he gets this look of Extreme Frustration on that she's still not standing with him and these damn kids are still more important, bc even with character growth he still is a petty selfish bitch who does not like to share lmao, he's just getting that he Has To now

wait for me ii: Hades stays onstage by the microphone stand to the left to watch Hermes deliver his judgement to orphydice/seph/the workers and watching Tom during this was a Treat. this is the first time he's seeing how orphydice and esp Orpheus function when he's not involved to terrify them. they're so sweet and so good, and they have what looks like so much unwavering faith in each other unlike him and seph, maybe they really could... so when he delivers "i let them try" that last word is stretched with so much wonder. he's getting this first glimpse into feeling how everyone else felt when orpheus sang of how the world could be that isn't just focused in about how he feels about persephone, which always drives him - now he's having to deal with the Greater Implications and orpheus' seemingly unbreakable faith in a better world rocks him to his core. that certainty that orpheus would fail gets shaken as he watches them and when Seph asks him if he thinks they'll make it, his I Don't Know is 1/2 defensive and 1/2 actual uncertainty. he still hates to be wrong but he's wondering if his beliefs about doubt will turn out differently this time. he isn't optimistic about it by any means but orpheus, eurydice, and the workers' response to them both does give him pause

meanwhile in hades and persephone's section, on a personal level they deliver their lines to each other like they're a great deal more nervous about what next fall will bring than i've seen and heard before - something I'm thinking stems from hades' worldview being so suddenly shaken and seph too being a little more vulnerable?

MISC THOUGHTS

Tom seems to be leaning into Hades not having done anything with Eurydice other than tempt her down - once she's in Hadestown even during Why We Build The Wall he drops the salesman croon entirely and when he does rarely speak to her/about her it's commanding as a king who sees her just as another object under his possession, with very little interest in her for anything at all beyond that. he was just going after the goal of making sure Seph knew he had Options whether or not he actually pursued them

tom is super dedicated to how power-hungry hades is. I remember when I saw Patrick during chant ii he was playing hades as more affected by how much seph seemed to care about the workers now and desperately trying to get her attention back (even negatively), Tom was more consumed in seeing Orpheus as a threat because of how effectively he had turned his "children" on him. He knocks Seph down in those "shackle her from wrist to wrist" less as a personal petty attack to her like Patrick does and more like to try and destabilize her as someone backing Orpheus up. Tom's Hades perceives Orpheus as a Threat no matter how much he plays up his Performance as Nonchalant Jazzy King. he really emphasizes Hades' relationship to Orpheus whereas Patrick played more into his relationship with Eurydice, which makes so much sense what with Tom's Hades being a pettier more egotistical messy bitch obsessed with his kingdom and Patrick's Hades' obsession being his wife and Hadestown being like, this side-effect of being a god that he just couldn't help, he Had to build and strive for power whereas Tom's Hades reveled in it and wanted it. Instinct versus drive I guess. one of my buds put it super well as: "Patrick!Hades sees everything as a threat to his power Tom!Hades is so certain of his power that he can afford to be somewhat nonchalant but the fact that Orpheus alone is his main genuine threat is fucking brilliant"

and ok for now, that's what I've got! if anyone wants any clarification or wants to ask details about specific moments I didn't put in here feel free to shoot me an ask!

[shesay]

Sorry to bring this up randomly but I literally cannot stand a single male.

People are like "oh what about fathers" jeez they tend to be the worst of it. Your first rude awakening to the patriarchy. As a small child they see you as an UwU helpless doll. When you start getting your period there's a huge shift to how you're treated. Suddenly you're a sexual deviant who has to be protected from boys. While enforcing their harmful sexualized views onto a child who's in the most critical stage of her development. They see her as a property to fuel their garbage egos. I feel so sick when I remember being 11-14 and how I was treated. Everything was wrong.

I had to cover up, everything I do is sinful. If I stood up for myself then I'd just get threats of hell and internal damnation. Innocent games and stuff is seen as sexual SOMEHOW. Being forced to stay at home and not allowed to play with other children. Everything about your childhood stripped away. Nothing you do will ever be good enough.

I saw a post earlier where some guys talking about maybe dads are so mean to their daughter's bfs because she's bringing a new guy home every month. Fuck that. Dudes always want to act like a girl is pulling guys every second, every girl is a slut in their eyes. They talked about how they'd slap her or call her r*tarded or some shit then insist they're protecting them because girls get pregnant and who's gonna raise the child? The girls.

Everything around it makes me so angry. Those dads are protecting them from guys because they know how males are. They were their age once and know how males view women. No matter if a male is a father, they view their daughters as property, they don't genuinely care. They view them as a means to boost their ego. They don't care if anything bad actually happens to her. They care about what others think if they're known as the dad of a loose girl.

I also fucking hate how religions enforce the idea that if a father doesn't have a strong grasp on the family then the children would be lead astray. This idea got revived by the comeback "fatherless child" people would comment under any girl who dares have a personality that isn't catered to the pedo male gaze.

What's a father going to do? Throw cups at you and scream until they get their bullshit way? Everything has to be tailored to their egos otherwise something bad will happen. Such is the patriarchy.

Or people trying to claim people having trauma from their parents or having "daddy issues" makes them less of a person. A MALE is responsible for serverly harming their child and yet we blame the victim? Fuck this.

I can't stand males and their treatment of children. I can't stand their treatment of young developing girls when they need the most support. All of them are predators for the same fucking system.

I get so mad seeing a post where a dude has only sons and everyones acting like dudes are so much easier to raise. You don't have to worry abour your daughter becoming a slut, a sexual deviant. They don't give a shit if their son rapes. If their son ruins the lives of others. their female siblings cleaning and cooking and yet they get ignored for the bullshit spawn on this fucking earth.

Fuck this

Amen sister.

[mercy-of-the-ashes]

"It's simple." Tenshi looked at Haiji with a serious look, "Adapt or die, take your pick; If you choose to die then are you going to fight to protect all you have or are you going to allow it all to be taken. I lost nearly all I had once and I don't want you to go through that. I'm also scared as hell, I just gotten use to all I see."

Shirokuma 'eeped' from how Tenshi gutted the truth from her mind.

"And no, if you think I'm trying to trick you're kicking yourself in the balls. I'm just a guide to you; enemies or not we both have to survive." Tenshi said.

Her look didn't waver at all. If anything it grew more intense with everything word.

"You do want anyone to live right?! Then stop sitting on your asses and learn to fight. Turn all that hate, anger, sadness, despair, distress, distrust, fear, into the instinct to fight back and protect."

Tenshi was trying to bring these... haunting thoughts out to him. Get him to see he's only harming him and dragging everyone along.

She wasn't going to allow him to feel the pain of loss in mass. The agony of betrayal. The suffering of guilt. Swallowed in despair. She didn't want him to learn the hard way if she can help it.

Sure she wasn't an adult but did that actually matter if she's able to beat the situation with reality and sense? To be a gutter of honesty isn't easy. It's a gored job full of twisted hope and dispare.

"So what's it going to be. Adapt or die." Tenshi finished.

Shirokuma looked surprised by Tenshi's display of honesty. Then again she wasn't too afraid to speak it for now.

She wants him to wake up to see what he's doing possibly, see what the grim future holds for them. He may get pissed off but to whom.

-@thelittleveterinarian

Haiji let her words sink in. They were a hard slap to the face that put his thoughts in disarray. Then images of Towa City’s early destruction played before his very eyes. Monokumas slashing at his cruel father right in front of him. People running for their lives but taking their last breaths as they bled to death. The city falling apart all around him as he ran away in a panic, wanting to fight to stay alive while clenching his severely injured arm. The kids callously watching the adults die. The kids laughing at his helpless form. His inability to prevent further damage even after forming the Resistance.

Nozomi stared at her partner, afraid he might lash out at Tenshi for her ruthless honesty. “Haiji?”

Haiji turned his back on everyone. He didn’t answer for a painfully long moment. Nozomi herself was speechless. He really wasn’t going to yell at Tenshi? Did she actually get through to him that much?

“...I do want everyone to survive.” His voice was low, breathless. “I have everyone’s lives in my hands...I don’t want anyone else to die because I was too scared to do anything. But I know if I don’t fight, we’ll all die. I know that.”

Haiji snuck a glance over his shoulder and found Tenshi’s. There was another pause. But then, he turned so his face was visible. “Fine. I’ll learn to trust you. But if you’re going to help us, you’re going to need your own weapon.”

“I-I can make one for you,” Nozomi suggested. “Everyone has their own individual weapons to go with their respective skills. Like Haiji’s robotic arm.”

Haiji smiled at her. “That’s right. With this arm, I’m able to kick some ass.” He frowned as he mentioned that. “It might need to be modified to take down those Monokumas.”