#also talk to me about the villain of this route god I am in love

[achillean-knight]

JUST watched a video about the Afton's and I really love their British accents, but I've seen people dislike it so.... I'm curious. Reblogs or comments welcomed, I really want to know people's thoughts on this!

[bambiilooloo]

okay so ii thought this would be fun soooo

what epic saga is ur fav nd least fav, what is ur fav song in each saga, ur least fav in each saga, your overall fav and least fav

feel free to ramble and/or go off on a tangent about hidden meanings i fw that shit very hard

oh boy. these were really hard to narrow down. thanks for this ask btw, it was fun!!

my fav saga :

the underworld!! ik it's the shortest but each song is such a banger and it's the only one for where each song gets better from the last. all three of the songs are in my top 10 easy.

the polites cameo broke ppl's hearts ik but it was amazing to hear steven in the role again. i love his voice. anticlea was amazing too.

no longer you was actual fire. i LOVE epic's version of tirisias a lot and his voice is perfect. the orchestration in that song is actually beautiful and both actors absolutely kill it.

and monster? oh i'll take about monster later

least fav saga :

cyclops saga. i like it but i don't have strong feelings about the songs except for my goodbye. plot wise, it's important ofc but i dont find myself listening to it as often cuz it's just sad. i do like all the songs tho

i will say polyamorous the cyclops sounds REALLY GOOD in the remastered version. woah what a voice improvement holy moly

i really love my goodbye tho. that song is in my top 10. the 'YOU'RE ALONE!' is actually insane. i need like a 100 animatics for it. it's too good.

fav song in each saga :

just a man

i LOVE jay's performance here. this song made me cry when i first listened to it. i mean it's just everything.

i think most ppl thought 'oh musical about odyssey call epic probably silly boyish fun' and for the most part horse and the infant leads u on with that. then THIS SONG happens and ur crying on the floor.

i love watching animatics for it too. unlike most songs in epic, there is no action in this song, it's pure agony of a man grappling with one of the hardest things anyone can do and it's fucking amazing.

and i said it before just now but the VOCALS. stunning. perfect. jaw dropping.

in my ideal epic animated movie, what i want is for horse and the infant and just a man BEFORE the title card drop. and when ody sings the last line of just a man, it fades to the title screen. then it would be daytime and full speed ahead can happen.

idk if that makes sense but i think it would slay so hard.

my goodbye

OH MY GOD. THIS SONG. IT IS HEARTBREAKING

the callbacks to warrior of the mind takes me by surprise everytime like holy shit she really just said that?? then ody's 'YOU'RE ALONE!'

it's perfect. the pure rage from both of them is just so good.

it's my favourite saga ender. it's so cold and just wow. like athena was in one song before but the EMOTION from both of them is enough to make u wanna cry.

ruthlessness

see one part of my brain is like 'oh that's interesting the villain and hero have conflicting moralities and the hero may become like the villain and he is establishing the hero's thinking as flawed for his purpose.' then the other half of my brain is dead from how much steven rodriguez SLAYS the performance.

the lyrics are great as with all the song. the callback to remember them? chef's kiss. poseidon really sat down with his son and took notes for his villain number lol

but my fav things about it the performance. the poseidon voice is so so so so good. and i'm not saying it in a 'haha i find it hot' way. i mean i do but also, it's just perfect for poseidon. he sounds like if salt could talk and that's a compliment btw. his sass and personality is great too.

'but noooo' i just. i love poseidon's voice so much.

and i am shaking in my boots for get in the water.

there are other ways

i love the route jay went with the plot. this portrayal of circe is so important to me, i love her sm. i read the circe book just before the circe saga - and i liked it overall - but the ending left a horrible taste in my mouth so this was a very welcome change.

it's so well done. our boy ody '🥺my wife🥺'-ing his way out of the situation? perfect. ik it's more complicated but the end of the circe saga is such a good character moment for him.

and CIRCE. CIRCE MY QUEEN ILY.

her sympathising with ody and helping him is great. i love that she gets fleshed into, why she does what she does and when she sees the good in ody. she really is a loving queen and i love her sm.

her vocals - especially at the end - are stunning. i love tayla sindal's voice for circe. like with poseidon, that is the perfect voice for the character.

i really love gigi's animatic of this song and that's just how i imagine it happening. it's actually perfect. my fav song was a tie between this and done for but the animatic made me fall in love with this one.

monster

odysseus gives into the pam pam 🦖🦖

it's my favourite song in epic. i have a LOT of thoughts on it but i actually cannot put them into words.

mutiny

this one is fresh so my thoughts will not be cohesive. the amount of callbacks in this song actually kills me.

i cried at the livestream. exactly at the lyric 'ody we're never gonna get to make it home' i mean.

ODY. ODY not CAPTAIN. I CAN'T END THIS. poor choice of words nm

but i will say i've seen some takes on eurylochus that i definately do not agree with and he's one of my fav characters. i'm sad he's gone, his acting and presence was amazing and underrated in all the other sagas and he's just a great character.

least fav in each saga:

i like all of these songs btw. i don't dislike any song. i don't wanna got into detail cuz for all the answer is just i like the others more.

full speed ahead

polyphemous

storm

wouldn't you like

the underworld

different beast

winner : monster

second place : there are other ways

third place : ruthlessness

my overall least favourite song : polyphemous/different beast. again i like these songs, i just prefer others

[stiffyck]

Stiff stiff stiff stiff hi. Ok. Coming off of anon for this one bc the brainrot is too much ANYWAYS I was sending tcd asks like last week??? Idk ANYWAYS I JUST FINISHED WATCHING SECRET LIFE THE OTHER DAY AND I HAVE SOOOOOO SOOO MANY THOUGHTS. So many thoughts about TCD Scar and Secret life Scar. And also some of the things Martyn was saying about Scar lore-wise. I’m actually gonna put a few quotes from Martyn here about it:

“That [the end of secret life] was probably the beginning of a really horrible sort of descent into madness for Scar”

“Can you just imagine how distraught and how upset Scar is at just whacking that success button over and over and every time: ‘Win Secret Life’ ‘Win Secret Life’ ‘Win Secret Life’ just over and over and over again”

“Wanting it to either end for himself or for a new game to begin, like he is so deep in that loneliness and being left in a wasteland that he would rather either die or go into another death game — he doesn’t want to be alone”

Ok end of quotes here. I am just thinking SOOOO HARD ABOUT THIS OUGSHSH. I’ve been rotating this in my head for like 3 days now. First of all, like the whole secret keepers/watchers CONSTANTLY giving Scar tasks that end up isolating him from the rest of the server in a way (kind of like they know that loneliness hits Scar much harder than the others and they’re doing it on purpose to break him early on in the game), and then Scar building up those big deep slate walls around most of his base to physically keep people out (and even if it doesn’t keep people out physically, it’s still more or less reflects his mental state and how he’s treating everyone around him), and the whole sneaking around everyone and flitting between groups without committing himself because he knows (EVEN THOUGH HE TALKS ABOUT WANTING FRIENDS) that his best bet is to take advantage of having connections without actually getting attached to anyone (kind of like maybe he’s learned somewhere before that isolation is the best route for survival). GOD HES JUST LIVING RENT FREE IN MY BRAIN AAUGGHH. Also Scar just eventually accepting that he’s going to be isolated no matter what, and giving into what the tasks want him to be. BUT ABOVE ALL OF THAT. Him being surprised that he even won in the first place????

“How’d the guy with no friends win?”

And just being legitimately shocked that he actually came out on top and managed to survive everything. It’s like, even though he knew that not having any true connections gave him the best opportunity for survival he was STILL surprised to have made it out alive in the end. And back to what Martyn said about him being stuck there alone, just losing himself to madness because there’s nobody left but himself. it’s just like being back where he started again, utterly alone with no way out and nobody left to help him, and that he would rather be dead or living through another death game than be completely alone again. ok I’m done lol I am so sorry for going on that enormous ramble in your inbox HRJSKF :’)

HELLO YES YES THIS IS EXCELLENT. YES.

This reminds me of an au I made relating to my immortal scar hc where Scar gets stuck in 3rd life and everyone forgets him. Only the winner, Grian, remembers him and he remembers that Scar is supposed to be another hermit-

But this. Right.

Scar is the only one who didn't die at the end. So I can imagine him slowly going mad and maybe he's secretly hoping that maybe... maybe someone will come back for him. Someone will come save him, right?

But why would they. He was the villain after all. Even if not of his own volition- he was still a villain and he deserves this.

But imagine if the others forgot about him. If he just got erased from their memories basically.

Man.

Anyway yea Martyns lore for Scar is insane rigkrkgkfkg I love this sm thank you for that ramble I home my own ramble makes sense. Very random but i should be sleeping anyway

[artsywriter25]

Let’s talk about Kung Fu Panda 4

Okay, so we finally got some updates on KFP4, the plot, the director and what to expect to see in the film. My reaction to this is….mix.

On one hand, I’m so happy we got something! But on the other hand, I’m just really nervous and I don’t like this deflated feeling. So I’m writing this out to share my thoughts and wanting to hear what the fandom thinks. I’ll try not to make this too long or sound like a rant, I’m going straight to the point and talk about the good and bad about KFP4.

=

So first let’s talk about the director: Mike Mitchell

……Oh boy.

Ok I’m not gonna give the guy any crap, I’m willing enough to give him a chance. Yes I know he directed Trolls, but he also directed Shrek Forever After. I looked back at that movie after The Last Wish and it’s not really that bad. It was actually sweet and serious in some parts. And that’s what I hope this director will do, have the 4th film at least serious in some parts and don’t make it too goofy or jokey where it feels awkward.    

Now on to the story and this is the best way I can summarize this from a few articles I’ve read:

“ Po is getting promoted to be the spiritual leader of the Valley of Peace, but he has to choose someone to take his place as the new Dragon Warrior. He catches a theft fox who he could see potential in their skills but they don’t get along. But Then a Chinese sorcerer known as ‘The Chameleon’, has summon Po’s past villains from the dead. Now Po and his (student?) must journey together and stop this new villain. ”  

So judging by the information that we got, it sounds like many years have passed since the third movie. Po becoming leader actually worries me because it’s probably hinting that Master Shifu may pass away and now Po has to take his responsibilities (This is just a guess so sorry Shifu fans!).  

There is also this fox character they have mention in the articles which they can’t seem to get the name right and they keep flipping their gender. First it was misspelled as Shen, then it was Chen and Zhen so I’m just gonna call them Fox for now on.

I wonder what kind of story arc will they give Fox. What’s their backstory? What kind of lessons they must learn? Does Po see himself in them or are they both different with different views? These are some questions I hope they answer. Giving Po a student to teach was a direction I theorized DreamWorks will go down and I’m glad they did. The trilogy had Po as a student, now taking the role of masterful teacher, it make sense to passed down those experiences to someone. I can really image the funny shenanigans they can get in to, along with the Furious Five. I think it would have been awesome if they each had a student too and they all come together fighting the villains with the skills they were taught. If there’s one thing I’m really worried about is the Five getting pushed aside for this new character or Fox ending up being a perfect character. Have Fox be flawed, have them be a kid we can relate and root for and something that the kids will like too.

Now let’s talk about my most favorite thing of all: THE VILLAINS!!!

OH MY GOD MY FANGIRL IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER! TAI LUNG, SHEN AND KAI ARE COMING BACK!! AND I DON’T KNOW IF THIS IS A GOOD OR BAD THING!!??

I am shock, like I never expected they go down this route. Story wise, I understand why the three shouldn’t come back as they served their purpose as villains, but no, they are bringing them all back. A actual animation studio is listening and giving the fans what they wanted??

DreamWorks must be watching their fandoms, that’s the only explanation I can think of. They must have saw all of our fanarts and fanfics and went like “Oh damn, they really love are villains…you know what, let’s bring them back.”

So how will this affect the story? I honestly don’t know, maybe Fox has to learn all body, mind, and spirit in order to help Po and the Five.

Now what I’m really surprised is they choose a chameleon to be the forth villain. I did some research this morning, and there’s not that many species that look intimidating. But if they could make a peacock threatening, I’m sure they can make a chameleon threatening too. I even looked up about sorcerers in China and I think they meant shamans. Chinese shamans are known to be wizards or spirit mediums, this could mean the Chameleon may have some connection to the spirit realm, which I hope they explored more on. I read some of this under Wikipedia, its very interesting.

=

And that’s all I have to say for Kung Fu Panda 4. I am a little worry for this film but I’m not gonna get worked up about it, I’m gonna stay positive that it will work and I’m sure it will. The only thing that could save this film is the animation. I think KFP is perfect for that hybrid spiderverse animation.  

But what do you guys think and are you still excited for the sequel?? If you wanna discuss anything about this I’m all ears. 

[arcplaysgames]

Man do y'all remember when I was sad at the start of P4G because the game did not adequately pat my head and feed me soup and give me friends on day one like P3P did

that was fucking little leagues. I'm gonna light everyone in this game on fire.

Anyway, we are in the tutorial stages so lemme sum up except with there's weird shit I wanna pontificate on.

Reverie missed a bunch of school on his first day with frankly doesn't look amazing for him. We met Ryoji GODDAMN RYUJI on the roof, because all Persona games love the school roof, and he wants to go back to the App World so he can poke around on Kamoshida.

There is palpably some Beef between Ryuji and Kamoshida. There is some fucking t-bone 3-inch cut that I have seasoned in mushroom salt and fresh ground pepper and left to air-dehydrate for three days, there is soooo much beef between them.

In the Not-Velvet Room-- Look, I am gonna start calling it the VR for efficiency's skae but be aware I do not think this is actually the Velvet Room, or if it is then someone has booted Igor and is pretending to be him.

But yeah Notigor says our rehabilitation can begin and I just wanna claw my hair out. What's funny is I know for a lot of fans, Persona 5 was their entry point. Did they know this was as severely fucked as it is? I feel like the game is pushing Fucked As Hell vibes pretty well, so maybe it was obvious even to the initiated.

Oh so Notigor is the one pushing the unauthorized APK onto my phone. I think Reverie is rocking a Samsung, it's got that Chonk to it.

Also, I dunno what it's called in the Japanese... hang on, to google!

Isekainabi, or "Otherworldnavi" that's pretty good. Which, the adjustment of "navi" to "nabi" reminds me that Japanese doesn't use 'v' does it? Or.... wait.... R is also a no, right?

(That is shit I learned from fucking Metal Gear Solid 2 actually, because my beloved Problematic Fave Kojima called the big villains the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo, because they were 'invisible', they weren't even a part of the language, metaphorically speaking, which when I understand that I thought was fucking smart as hell, though I imagine the original voice actors who had to say it a lot and rapidly did not agree.)

ANYWAY I AM GETTING DISTRACTED, POINT IS, I picked a hilariously un-apt name with Reverie Vantas. That is a tongue-twister and I am sorry.

what the fuck was i even talking about OH YEAH Netscape Navigator, yeah. That's our Dark Hour/TV World, the Metaverse. I find it cursorily interesting that Persona has many different manifestations of the whole Jungian Collective Subconsciousness. P4's TV World was fully separated and impossible to access without the power of Persona. But Reverie and Ryuji stumbled like idiots into the....

wait, that cutscene from the start, that was Reverie's awakening to Persona. So what caused it. Also: Is that relevant to the mystery here like it was in P4, because in P4 that was super important, and I would prefer it wasn't Super Important again lmao.

God the Izanami thing was dumb. ANY FUCKING WAY.

I briefly meet THAT ONE GIRL FROM THE INTRO on the train, and her personality traits seem to be "worryingly doormat-ish" and "thin'

Like man, P5R is not hitting me over the head with DIET SODA ADS but we are still fatphobic, don't forget! BTW if you want a Persona game that doesn't do that shit, P3P Girl Route baybeeeee best Persona.

I am apprently ribbon girl's senpai and she bows to me twice nad runs off to school. Later, gator.

holy shit this game doesn't fuck around with its classroom questions, are you kidding me

also I am sitting behind Moot in class. how's your life been since relinquishing 4chan, moot? I hope it's better.

Mitsuru would use her rapier to carve you like a chunk of roast.

Kamoshida's influence over everyone is kind of baffling to me. It's a VOLLEYBALL TEAM. Oh is that the Japanese equivalent of a football team? Because then I TOTALLY GET IT, CARRY ON.

Like, I understand sort of academically that having sports teams is good for students but also I fucking hate school sports culture. Dunno if its as vile in Japan as in America but if its even half as bad, yeah, abolish it.

Ryuji is so far not the brightest bulb on the tree, bless him. He keeps trying to locate a castle and getting frustrated. Finally, we put him out of his confused misery and use the app to make castle happen.

HE IS JEALOUS! In almost every jock there is a theatre kid's soul, crying to get out.

Ryuji has like no indoor voice, Morgana, I am sorry.

Also, I have so far zero indication of Morgana's gender, which I do like. 8) Gender don't matter, just don't call me a fucking cat.

There is a huge tutorial section, and I immediately understand why this game is +100 long, these sequences are much more complicated now. There's psuedo-stealth mechanics? Blurgh.

Ryuji wants to save the volleyball slaves and Morgana explains that these aren't actually them, they are cognitive copies that are.... essentially the projection Kamoshida has of each person in the school.

I don't wanna be a jerk Persona but this is adding more and more complexity to your already complex world. But maybe I am still in P4G mode, where every aspect of how the Midnight Channel worked was a clue. At this point, there is no central mystery.

hey yo what the fuck

Somehow Kamoshida broke Ryuji's fucking leg?????

What the fuck happened there? Also yeah, Ryuji, I don't know you super well yet but I'm with you, we can wreck this guy. Holy shit.

boy howdy getting your persona stings a bit in this one huh

Ryuji has Captain Kidd as his, with is pretty fun NGL. So our theme is literally Various Types Of Thieves in this game, huh? I'm cool with that.

[thebakunawa]

Errant Kingdom Sucked (Not Worth Buying) 2 out of 5 Game

Okay I need to vent about Errant Kingdom because I LOVED the game when it first came out. But with all the delays and the fact they worked on another game and practically left this and neglected it shows in the game itself. I played a Knight (Maja romance) and I am composing myself as I write this because no words can explain the abysmal disappointment I have in this game. I also have some bones to pick with When the Night Comes so I might write that out later.

So I’ll separate them into chunks:

Story: It felt rushed and at the beginning you could tell they were building it up to something but there was no payoff

The assassination attempt on the rulers of the Kingdom had no bearing later down the game. It’s as if everyone forgot that it happened in the first place.

The cult mentioned or hinted at the start. It was a red herring they failed to capitalize in their writing.

After meeting the King and Queen you’re sent off to a frozen place to play Ambassador. This makes no sense if you don’t play Ambassador and having the Knight just seem so amazing and smooth feels out of character if you don’t headcanon your character this way.

There was no build-up to the other characters accepting you. If anything the story feels as if they had no choice but to accept you into their fold. It made no sense that they would ride or die for you (much less romance you) and the ending had no build up.

There was no hints throughout the game that Erik would be crowned King. The game had to outright point that he was going to be the chosen one. Again that would have worked if there were hints or the story was being angled that way. But no, the villain straight up had to say it.

The build up of working together to even defeat the bad guy had no fucking sense. What do you mean your friends were able to convince their respective factions (assassins and fae) to help you out? What emotional attachment do I have to people I’ve never met in my route and why would they risk their necks to help me?

Speaking of villains, you have no idea why Novoth is weakened or why the King and Queen have any motivation outside of being greedy people. I know you shouldn’t justify all your villains but at least give them a little depth!

The ending was a joke, it felt like a big “Avengers! Assemble!” moment that wasn’t earned at all.

Choices

Your choices throughout the story feel like they have no bearing whatsoever. During the first version of the game there were options on peaceful choices, or more violent options. There was a system supposedly for your character but it was scrapped and now we have a visual novel and less of a choose your own story (which I would have adjusted my expectations if the game marketed itself as such)

Your choices have no bearing whatsoever. You’re given a few options to kiss the character you romance or make a few witty remarks, but over all your choice as a character just feels useless at this point. Your agency is just an illusion and all you can do is let others take the lead. You’re less of an agent of a god and more of just some shiny new toy everyone bosses around.

Romance

I can not begin to stress the utter disappoint–the pain that this game has caused me.

Starting off, as a die-hard Maja romance when the game first came out I had so much hope they’d talk about her past relationship with Erik and exploring how a relationship between you and her and have a good heart to heart talk with the polyoption and the non-polyrelationship option.

What the game does is just FUCK YOU OVER. I feel disgusted genuinely because I didn’t choose a poly option. This was a route that I was going to take with another character I was going to create but the game outright states that Erik and Maja are still together at the end of the fight and even in the epilogue cards. Why the ever absolute sweet Andraste’s tits would you give the option to romance these 2 characters and give non-poly options with both when you’re going to say fuck it and basically still make them end up together. It feels awful and it feels disgusting as a player. The game basically went and said ah yeah fuck your romance and your choice.

This doesn’t even begin to stress how the relationships in this game lost development. You can feel from the first rendition of the game that there was going to be a build up. But now it just slaps on that you guys love each other and live happily ever after! There’s no reason, there’s no bonding, just a few kisses, flirting, and boom together. No talking no discussing just yeah hahah you and me baby <3

From a strong build up with an almost nonsensical continuation of a plot, to inconsistent writing of characters, romances that basically happen all of a sudden with almost no chemistry or conversation and creating characters and moments and expecting us to have an attachment when they literally never introduced us to them:

All in all, I give this game a solid 2 out of 5. (Points for the art work and the strong introduction the game had)

It had so much potential but the devs just squandered it. No apologies can be accepted especially because you can tell they just straight up abandoned this game. I know 2 people were working on this game during a past announcement and it’s not their fault. 2 people dedicated to a big game was sorely lacking and they decided to make “Call me under” and honestly whoever thought it was a good idea to work on both games and ruin Errant Kingdom I hope your food is cold.

But yeah that’s it.

This game is not worth it.

[buzzybee26]

A Rant About Witch Hat Atelier

Read all of Witch Hat Atelier this past week and, my god. Where do I even start? It's like if Owl House had good world building (I might complain about that on here at some point.) This likely won't make a whole lot of sense, so buckle up and get ready to read a whole load of nonsense (or don't, I'm not your mum)

The whole thing is amazing, but the highlight for me is easily the magic system. Both in its mechanics and its use in the story, magic is handled so much better in this series than anything else I think I've ever consumed. It actually manages to stick to its consistent rules and the explanations of those rules don't feel like padding or wasting time because the mechanical function of magic is very relevant to the story. I love how most of the conflicts in the story are built around the pointed hats' restriction on magic and the opinions people have on those restrictions, and yet there's not really one group of people your routing for (other than the children, obviously.) On one hand you've got the pointed hats who restrict magic to a fucking unreasonable degree, and on the other you have the brim hats who are all "Yeah, we want magic to be free and limitless and also we will kill and traumatize children to obtain that goal." which (hat atelier) is also not good, so you're just kinda sat there watching these children try to navigate a world that is entirely against them at almost every turn with just each other and their teachers.

Speaking of the teachers, Qifrey and Orugio are my favourite magical husbands and I will 100% be reading their cooking spinoff. That's all I really have to say about them for now, I'm gonna wait for some more developments on Qifrey's end to talk about my opinions on these guys.

Instead, let's talk about Iguin. I love this guy. Like, fuck this guy, but he's my favourite character. I have a soft spot for villains who just suck in every conceivable way and are also a bit weird and mysterious, so Iguin is literally the character for me. The bit where Qifrey is inspecting the bottle and Iguin just shows up, breaks it and disappears without a word is my favourite seen in the manga so far because it perfectly establishes this character and how he operates whilst still managing to keep him mysterious so it's cool when he shows up and is an actual character later. This scene shows us that Iguin gets shit done with ruthless efficiency, but also has the patience to plan ahead and make sure that he has room for things to go wrong. He doesn't bother monologing to Qifrey about his grand master plan to turn Coco into a brim hat because that's not the point here. There's no "Oh, you thought you could figure me out by analyzing this bottle?" moment, he just rocks up, breaks the thing and leaves. He generally keeps his cards very close to his chest, not because he necessarily needs to, but because there's often no point in not doing so. He's not bothered about people knowing he's smart or better than them, he's single mindedly focused on the execution of his plan and that's what makes him such a big threat, especially compared to the other Brim Hats. The other brim Hats have another motivation or character trait that they are focused on, be it anger, arrogance or personal connection, and this is often the reason they fail, but Iguin is solely focused on bringing down the Pointed Hats and returning magic to how it used to be, hence why he ha not yet been beaten. I have more I want to say about Iguin and the rest of the series, but I am running out of brain power so I'll end this one here.

[salemcantupdate]

Alright!

I just finished all of the routes in DMMD, so now I’m gonna give my thoughts that nobody asked for in the order I played in!

So, Clear was my first. This is the only play through where I wasn’t googling all of the answers and was simply going with what I thought was right, and all the story beats were very well suited to my likes! Clear still holds a special place in my heart and I love him so so much. His good ending is the only one that made me cry out of all of the routes! Over all, I think this story was very good and I like the direct confrontation with Toue at the end, THOUGH GODDAMMIT HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THE TRICK TO HIS GOOD ENDING WHEN I FIRST PLAYED, YOU JUST SIT THERE AND WAIT, HOW WAS I TO KNOW. Ahem. Anyways, Clear is a very good boy who I wanna cuddle with

The next character I got was Mink! He really interested me in the first half because god… his voice… so I definitely was gunning for him. Had the guide all pulled up and everything. And I did enjoy his route, of course, it did make me feel very… eugh in many parts. In general it makes me uncomfortable when I know information is being hidden from me in some way, so Mink never explaining anything was annoying. But that fits the character. BUT, what does drive me insane is that his good ending doesn’t even have you talk to him! He doesn’t apologize or explain! Aoba just hunts him down and it ends on finding me!!!! I wanted so much more!!!!! So, Mink’s route was good but the end just didn’t satisfy me, I desperately wanted more. Also, Mink is likely my favorite character, I have already read so many fanfics about him, I’m kind of obsessed.

Koujaku… hm, his was interesting. Once again the hidden information and lying and whatnot but the tattoo stuff really came out of nowhere for me! But, still it was a lot of fun! And I love that Sky pretty much has his ending in Koujakus bad end! It makes me happy since I do actually like Sly a lot. Also the good ending with Koujaku is just so sweet and cute, the first good ending in the game that made me feel all happy and good. Though… it does bug me that we just flat out don’t see Toue in this, we beat the tattoo artist and that’s it. Guess it doesn’t change the fact that Koujaku’s scrap moment is probably my favorite, just… how Aoba talks to him is still stuck in my head.

Noiz… oh… his route was so disappointing. First of all, no villain at all!?!? Then they say he can’t empathize at all due to lack of pain, which is a bullshit excuse, especially since I’m the locker room area he was clearly starting to empathize for Aoba. And then his good ending?! God it’s terrible! The absolute worst! First of all, they entirely remove his disability WHICH YOU CANT JUST REMOVE WTF, and THEN they half ass it and just show him without almost any of his piercings, he “cleaned up his act” and his sweeping Aoba off his feet to Germany?! We don’t get to see ANY of this character development! Plus it literally got rid of all the stuff I liked about it! We get sold on an edgy pierced up boy that has difficulty empathizing and is a great hacker, but then we end on a fucking Prince Charming rich bitch? UGH

Anyways, to move on from that, Trip and Virus! I wanted to save Ren for last, so I did them first. And… hm, well, it’s not really their route. Just an alternate Ren bad ending. But, I did like it, and I am personally a fan of Trip and Virus. I find them really interesting and I honestly kind of wish we had more in their ending since I just like them a lot. Guess this is just hammering home the point that I need to somehow gain access to Re:Connect, huh…

And now, for the grande finale… Ren!!! Alright! I honestly liked this route from a story perspective the most. Unlike the other routes, I had no gripes with the pacing or the final battle, plus I like how they actually take action very quickly rather than loitering around. By far, this is the best route for Aoba’s growth! Plus the ending with Toue is great and I am quite pleased with the overall worldbuilding. Plus… I do really like Ren! And I do wish we could have somehow saved Sei, not just killing him. And UGH, I want to talk to Sly more!!!! But none of this is proper complaints on the story, I just like it so much that I want more of it! Though, of course the representation of DID is not the best out there, but honestly, with everything I know, it’s actually not all that bad. I even like it for the most part. But yes, over all, I really enjoyed it, a wonderful “canon” ending!!

And thus the rankings

As characters, it has to be Mink, Ren, Clear, Virus and Trip, Koujaku, and Noiz. I do still quite like Noiz, though, don’t worry guys! I just prefer the others.

And for the routes it has to be Ren, Clear, Koujaku, Mink, Noiz, and Virus and Trip. Though they’re only last cause you can hardly call that their route.

[dashielldeveron]

anon from mid december here! god i love winning. ANYWAY much to observe. i love the through lines of government assigned chapstick flavours and the defining moment that makes the soulmate connection work in every chapter. i love that immediately after posting you cited your sources on tenkos characterisation. very funny very charming and you are very right. i adore the mcs vibes she knows so much about so many things with a 50/50 chance of it being useful and she’s MESSY and she’s FIGURING IT OUT and her relationship with tenko teaches her to give herself grace. they’re just so sweet on each other it brings me endless delight as does touyas lil cameos. he’s a dirtbag and he’s a comedian and hes warmed up to the ducks and i want to put him and his fucking HOOVES in my pocket. i’m sure i will return with more thoughts at some point but for now. very delicious to me. WAIT NEW THOUGHT THE FUCKING INVENTORY KEY THING WAS AN EXAMPLE OF THE SOULMATE CONNECTION GOD YOURE GOOD. AND THE GOGGLES sorry i’m re reading the chapter as i type this

ASLDKJFA;SDFJKL;A YOU GET IT!!!!!

oh my god the DUCKS. i needed someone to notice the ducks oh my GOD. he BUILT them a HOUSE in his little art project garden he has a duck for SOME reason in dnd what a LOSER. like he's bonded so hard with them he wanted a fictional one, too!!! like. imagine touya just carrying a duck around in a purse like a small dog. both of them v v v judgy. enemies to lovers duck edition

lololololol "government assigned chapstick flavours" you canNOT tell me that these very kissable boys are only using, if any at all, generic unflavoured chapstick lol. it is STUPID how long i've had "post-canon tomura wears burt's bees tropical pineapple chapstick bc he specifically wants something that Tastes Good" stuck in my head; i'm so glad it's finally in fic and that you've been keeping track asdjfkl;

and yeah i wanted to reblog the shigaraki meta that i'd been considering!!!! bc while i was rereading the manga for this route, i realised that everyone, from police to heroes to villains to students, just make Large Assumptions about shigaraki, and they just Say Things about him. and everyone around them just takes it as fact??? it's like. we the audience are being told things about shigaraki, but they don't match up at all with how we see him act. i am hoping that this is intentional on hori's part, esp. with how heavy-handed shig commentary has been by other characters in the last few chapters, to make the point of "midoriya is the only one who's ever Looked and shigaraki and Perceived." bc, like, AFO and the pro heroes objectify/dehumanise tomura but in different ways. i worry. but so much of what we're shown of shig just doesn't match up with what characters say about him!!! it's odd. i really like him, despite being Told That He Is an Object, specifically one of destruction.

goddddd reader in this route is messy and i have a lot of compassion for her. i think she should allow herself to get angry more often. but i think that gifted kid burnout and basically moving back into your parents' house and people judging your "bad" life decisions even though they can't Know what you're going through--it's a touchy subject, tinged with shame and confusion and insecurity of identity, and tomura, i think, is experiencing his own flavour of that, since he doesn't get to be the Greatest Evil VIllain version of himself that he had in his head for so long and now is Just Some Guy. i didn't want reader to have a saviour complex but i wanted her to Care So Hard, and i hope that came across, esp. since her caring so hard also works with her own insecurities.

also yessssssssss YESSSSSS the KEY the GOGGLES it was there in front of them the whole time!!!!! but they weren't looking for it!!!! bc when soulmate bonds are words and marks, who the fuck is gonna be looking for a soulmate bond in just some weird triviality????? lolololol i talk about wanting to handle tomura with care but gave him the silliest soulmate bond thing. i like how useless it is, because it's, like, tomura doesn't need to be useful rn, either.

godddddd i'm so glad you sent me an ask so i could talk about thissssssss. i'm SO fucking glad that you're noticing details like this and having fun with them!!!!! i am, too!!!!! i love tomura and you and i hope you are having a good 2024 so far!!!! xx.

[v-arbellanaris]

oh God this is gonna come off sounding so hostile but I promise it's a genuine question sjfjsksks but you have a tabris that spares Loghain iirc right? how did they reconcile the whole slaver thing with finding comradery and/or loving him?

(the slavery in the alienage thing is something I usually just. make not happen in my canon because it feels like it was lazily tacked on to make the Loghain issue more "morally grey" even though it was already, (which I wouldn't put past them even in dao, did you know they straight up call genocide morally grey on the back of the disc box?) and ended up just making the situation LACK in moral greyness actually, (and it just. doesn't really ever effect anything. the only purpose it serves is making you and ultimately (TO ME PERSONALLY) it makes Loghain more of a one dimensional villain, which doesn't interest me at all. this is all a very unnecessarily long winded way of saying the way other people handle the alienage situation is interesting to me because bioware did it badly and without weight ajfhjsksjsjs)

it doesn't sound hostile at all, so i'm more than happy to assume you asked this out of good faith as well! thank you for the ask, i DON'T get to talk about kal enough (<- talking about kal constantly for the past year)!!!!

yes, kal does spare loghain. and the reasoning behind why she does it, how she comes to live with what he did, etc, is sort of the kind of stuff i am exploring in my fic.

i can definitely understand why you went down that route! and i've definitely read metas and things like that, which do make similar arguments, and i suppose i did consider whether or not to retcon it, but ultimately, i didn't because:

loghain was a villain in dao. he can, should & does villainous things; he exists as an antagonistic force;

i don't want to cheapen the strong feelings fandom has about him. he's done horrific things, that's why he's such a polarising character, and the fact he can & does many horrible things and then tries to atone for them later is part of the draw for me;

ultimately, i felt like i should keep it in because it's somewhat out of character.

by the end of origins, loghain's headspace is in a place where he can justify selling fereldans into slavery - why? how do we unpack that?

(there's another point here entirely to be made about how often bioware invokes THEY'RE A SLAVER!!!!1!!! as the most easy knee-jerk way of getting people to identify A Villain/Bad Guy/They Used To Be Evil and shut down any discussion around it, and just how insulting - and white - that kind of narrative signalling is, but that feels like another point entirely.)

to be clear: i say somewhat out of character because i don't think his prejudice against elves comes out of nowhere; it's there, in undertones, even in the stolen throne - the way he talks about the elven guy in their group in the beginning, and i personally believe, his suspicion/treatment of katriel is also related to this. he does not really consider elves ferelden the way he's ferelden, or maric is ferelden, or anora is ferelden, and it shows in this instance. (as a sidenote, i am always wondering how much of his loyalty to ferelden is entirely nationalism/patriotism and how much of it is to do with this is the thing maric cares about. this is the thing maric gave so much of himself for. this is all that's left of maric; i have to defend it at any cost. because that also has suchhhh great implications for his morality as a whole.)

so, how does kal come to terms with it? i suppose, in part, sparing loghain at all is part of her trying to come to terms with what he did, and to look past it - for herself, for anora, for the wardens and ferelden as a whole. i don't think it's an easy road for her by any stretch of the imagination, and early on, i don't think loghain's apparent lack of remorse/annoyance about the whole thing helps. i.e., when she demands remorse from him, he dismisses it as how he has bigger things to have nightmares about, as if the elven lives he's ruined are nothing in comparison to that. but he doesn't dodge accountability about it, even if he wasn't hand-delivering people to tevinter or howe was overlooking the entire project, he doesn't dodge that he was the one responsible for it.

but their relationship grows, and changes, out of necessity. loghain should be entirely willing to let kal make the sacrifice and kill the archdemon and die doing it, but he does the dark ritual, which saves her life. loghain is there for her and with her as they fight through denerim, and he's right there next to her when she kills the archdemon - she's not alone. loghain works with her, reassures her, supports her. and even then, i think she's got a very careful wall around herself, wary that he still thinks less of her.

kal ended up being a very strange mirror of loghain, in retrospect (it was entirely unintentional, i assure you); there's discomfort and shame for him, realising that he (and the human nobility at large) play the same role in her life that orlais played in his. they've both outlived their narratives, their uses and purposes, and they're both left together to try and figure out how to piece a life out of what's left. trying to apologise for what happened before won't mean anything for either of them, because it doesn't erase or fix what happened; it's already too late to make any kind of sweeping change that could be necessary for elves to show his remorse, too late to go back and change the laws to show that He's Different. her forgiveness is irrelevant because she's not even the one he wronged, not really, and in the same way he can't undo ostagar, he can't undo what he did to the alienage.

and i think ... like, in kal's canon specifically, she puts bhelen on the throne in orzammar and pushes to preserve the anvil. she fights and kills caridin. she knows bhelen will use the casteless dwarves to fight against the darkspawn; she can more or less predict exactly where the souls for the golems are going to come from. with the kind of poverty that casteless dwarves live under, any "choice" given to them about it is an illusion and frankly, a joke. but the dwarves of orzammar are not her concern. orzammar needs golems but more importantly, the grey wardens need golems. she makes the choice to preserve the anvil, knowing full well the potential & capability bhelen has to abuse it, knowing the cost. in the end, is she really any different? so she comes to reconcile it because she understands it. she hates that she does, but she understands how easy it is for right and wrong to become so muddy when you're driven by pure desperation.

idk if this answered your question? i think there's a lot of complicated factors involved, and not one easy simple moment where she goes yep! im over it! i don't even think it's a linear progress between the two of them, but it's a closeness hardwon.

[shiny-jr]

Been playing the recent Pokemon game (i got violet because Ceruledge grabbed me by the throat), how is ur experience with the new game? Whaddya think of it??

- big hat anon, actively trying to avoid Nemona

Oh god, here we go. Very long reply of my personal thoughts. Remember, these are just my personal opinions and I tend to be a heavy critic. Also, spoilers ahead if you haven't finished the game.

Where do I even begin? First off, this gen's starters were kinda trash. Not as bad as last gen, this gen was actually cute in the beginning but the designs for their last stage evolutions are kinda horrid. I picked the duck, purely so I could name him Quatrina and teach him Hurricane. I originally wanted to go with Sprigatito, but then he stood up on two legs and I was out.

Secondly, my team changed a lot but three remained on there the entire time. Quatrina, a Charcadet I named Charla, and a Fidough I named Conchas. Charla and Conchas? Carried.

Thirdly, I did the order of the story routes kinda weird.

First I did the Team Star route just because I wanted to see the "villains." And let me say, I'm glad they're actually kinda good. Like, maybe they're not as great as Team Skull, but they aren't horrible like Team Yell. The leaders of Team Star are actually interesting, and I wish we saw more of them. In my opinion, I thought they were actually more difficult than the gym leaders. Anyways, they're fun. Penny is a decent character too. I predicted she was the main boss literally before I even raided the first base. Also Clive? He's such a caring headmaster? Love that?? And how he went out of his way to try and understand the troubled students.

Second I did the Victory Road route. I wanted to do that last but it got to the point where became overpowered while playing the Star route and I had no gym badges yet, so new high level pokemon I had would not listen. Which got annoying because my main three: Quatrina, Charla, and Conchas were all higher leveled but they still listened. Anyways, I wanted to like Nemona, and I tried, I really did, but she got on my nerves so bad. She is one of the worst rivals by far. All she cared about was battles. Battles this battles that. That's literally all she ever talks about, its her whole personality, and it got so annoying. Especially because after the Star route, since I was so overleveled and the gyms don't change their levels no matter where you are, I breezed through all eight gyms within a few hours. The Elite Four was too easy, and so was the Champion, and so was Nemona. Actually, the only one that gave me trouble was Mr. Hassel, the fourth Elite Four. He was stronger than the Champion and Nemona. But I still breezed through that too. Anyways, not a fan of Nemona.

And last, I did the titan route. Arven? He is the GOAT. I love him so much, and he had such an interesting story. At first I didn't like him, I kinda thought he was a jerk, but then you learn his backstory and I fell hard. A guy with fluffy hair, Mommy/Daddy issues, cooks for you, and will fight off titans to heal his childhood pet? Sign me the fuck up. He is borderline himbo and I am so here for it. He is my favorite rival in this game by far, and probably one of my favorites of the whole Pokemon series. 10/10. Anyways, the titans were easy too. I usually one shot them most of the time, lol.

Finally, the end story, which I completed literally less than an hour ago. My theory is the crater was made by the same blast thousands of years ago mentioned in X and Y. If you know, you know. Kalos DLC, maybe??? Please?? Okay, so I have Violet meaning I got Professor Turo. When he only showed up during the last route with Arven, I knew it was super suspicious. Like he was absent almost the entire game, and now he wants us to travel to the crater? Red flag. Literally once I entered the cater and heard that beautiful but sorta eerie music, I thought to myself, "watch him be the bad guy." And guess what? I was right, he ended up being the bad guy. Although the whole AI thing and him actually being dead was not what I expected, but it was super interesting when his AI decided to destroy the time machine by going to the future that Turo obsessed over. Still, Turo really was a shit dad for spending his days on a time machine he knew could cause more harm than good and kinda just pushing his son off to the side. Arven deserved so much better. Also, Penny and Arven had a lot of good banter during this but I feel like they tried to make Nemona the peace between the two but she was just more annoying, at least to me. The way I got mad when I would say no to something and she would insist, pretty much giving you no actual choice.

That's all I can think of right now.

[starlight-phantom]

Since you've been really into it lately, AI for the fandom asks!

Ngl I was really hoping someone would ask for this, just so I could have an excuse to gush about these games so thank you

3 male characters I love:

Kaname Date, this man is literally the full package. I mean, he's hot, smart, dumb, goofy, a fantastic dad figure, horny as hell, lover of puns, can kick people's ass with ease, what else do you want?

Kuruto Ryuki, honestly Ryuki is one of my absolute favourites. He is the definition of a poor lil meow meow and a babygirl and my god do I love him for it. I honestly hope that, if we get a third game, Ryuki gets some more time in the spotlight and we get to learn more about him because he's such a compelling character.

Pewter, he doesn't get a whole lot of screen time but when it actually gets down to his parts in the story and you learn his reasoning for his actions, it just makes me feel so bad for him. Also he dresses like the leader of a Pokémon villain team.

3 female characters I love:

Okay, ngl, usually I tend to prefer male characters over female characters. I don't know why, it's just always been that way, I've related to them more, I guess? BUT I love the female characters so much more in this series, they're all fantastic, I adore them. That being said I definitely have some favourites.

Mizuki Date, god I fucking love Mizuki, she is my daughter who can and will kick anyone's ass. When I saw her all grown up in Nirvana Initiative, I screamed... And then I found out you played as her in Nirvana Initiative and I screamed again even louder. Honest to god though, Mizuki is one of the best written characters I've ever seen, especially for a child character, and the poor girl goes through so much... Also, Corina Boettger's performance is incredible, I don't know how they managed to genuinely sound like a twelve year old girl but they did it and they gave one of the best performances in the whole game, which is saying something but the dub as a whole is amazing.

Aiba, I love Aiba so, so, so much. I love how in the real world she acts as a straight man to Date's antics but will still trade puns with him and then in the Somnium's she gets goofy and Date acts as a straight man to her. She has so many funny moments and I adore her crazy smile when she's really enjoying something. Also, her lil jelly hamster design is so cute, I love it.

Shizue Kuranushi aka Boss, Listen... I am not immune to hot women, okay? Especially when they're voiced by Allegra Clark. This is the third time this has happened to me and my heart still can't handle it. But I mean... She's hot, she's badass, she's flirty, she's funny... She's perfect. Also, I want to avoid spoilers since you're debating whether to check out the series or not, but there is A Scene that everyone adores and with very good reasons and all I'll say is, if you weren't in love with Allegra Clark's performance already, you will be after that scene.

3 romantic ships I love:

Hitomi/Date, can't really into this one without discussing spoilers but wow, I was not expecting that and they're so, so cute... Wish they got more of a focus in Nirvana Initiative...

Date/Ryuki, Date has two hands. But honestly, it's the way Ryuki talks about Date that gets me. Plus the idea of Mizuki judging him for his taste in men is just funny to me.

Iris/Amame, I just think they'd be cute, not to mention they're always checking up on each other when stressful stuff happens and share a lot of interests so I can see plenty of chemistry. Also, pretty bubblegum colour scheme.

3 platonic dynamics I love:

Can I just say the whole of Abis and their families? Like, the whole group is essentially a huge family at this point when you consider all the stuff that goes on throughout both games.

Ota and Mayumi, god that route destroyed me emotionally, it was so bittersweet. But I love me a good family driven story, so seeing this mother and son work their way through their issues and how they tried their best to protect each other.

Ryuki and Tama, ngl Tama was so, so, so close to being one of my favourite female characters, she just needs more screen time so, y'know... Anyway, I love their dynamic both in the real world and in the Somnium and I love how Tama knows about Ryuki's issues and tries to help him as much as possible despite his honestly self destructive work mentality, like when she forces him to go to the hospital.

3 favorite moments in canon:

Ooooh... I dunno... Like I said I'm avoiding spoilers for you so that limits me a lot but also, there's so many really, really, REALLY good scenes... I'll be as vague as possible.

The final scenes of both games.... If you know, you know.

Mizuki Route Ending in the first game, I dunno just... Found family and an adorable callback to a conversation way earlier in the route, it's so sweet.

The Annihilation Route interrogation, again... If you know, you know.

3 favorite headcanons:

I like to think that Aiba and Tama sometimes do their augmented reality hologram thing just so they can join Mizuki, Iris and the other girls for their girls nights sometimes. Doesn't matter that they can't eat or interact with anything, just hanging out with them is enough.

I know that we see Ryuki drunk a couple of times and he's really mopey in both of them, but I like to think that when he's having a night out and doesn't have anything weighing on him, he's quite a giggly drunk. Not howling with laughter or anything, just finding everything amusing and almost constant smiling and giggling to himself.

Slight spoiler stuff but I like to think that after Mizuki learned about who her dad's new partner was after divorcing her mother, she makes an attempt to connect with them especially since she can understand their complicated feelings over what happened.

3 least favorite things about it:

Chikara Horadori. That bastard knows what he did.

There are a few plot points where you sit there and think "... Okay, that was kinda stupid, I'm not a fan of that..." But I mean I've seen worse from Uchikoshi *cough*ZTD*cough*

The fact that Ryuki and Tama just kinda get shoved to the side in the second half of Nirvana Initiative. Honestly that was one of my biggest complaint about it, like c'mon they're the new characters, shouldn't you give them even just a little more screen time?

[adventism-atheism-orthodoxy-me]

Realness

I recently had an epiphany - actually it was a few weeks ago. I was called hateful and misguided for making it public. Nevertheless, an epiphany was had, I had it, and I shared it.

God is not us. He doesn't consult us. Our ideas about him do not affect him. They only affect us. Period.

I've often said that the stories we tell ourselves matter.

So if God is unaffected by us and our ideas about him, what do our ideas, or our stories matter?

Because the right stories, however misguided, will get us closer to the truth and God himself; and bad stories will take us down a path of delusion and death.

So, if your theology imagines a God coming down from heaven with a machine gun, putting his enemies to route - then you will vote for a strong-man president who fornicates, is above the laws of the land, and for whom might makes right. Or you will advocate for invading foreign countries. You will advocate for policies that enslave conquered peoples to either be janissaries for your cause, or who use them as breeding stock for the next wave of home-grown invaders. Laws are above you because God is righteous and demands his justice, and you are cleansing, purifying the earth for his glory…

On the other hand, if your God is one who made all the heavens and earth, and everything contained within, then your theology might be a bit different. You might see things day-to-day that you might not like, but you will be generous with a grace that seeks to understand and aid in the conversion of daily discordance towards eternal harmony.

In this we have a problem.

When I was in grade-school, we had a class on synonyms, and I was suddenly fascinated by the idea that adjectives, especially, could alter emotions and a train of thought. A rose stinks, vs that same rose smells good - both talk about the aroma of the rose as it casts off an odor, but the adjective and the adjectival clause gives very different emotional responses. Neither particular phrase however changes the ontology of the rose. The rose just does what roses do, and the odor it casts off is just the odor of the rose itself. the adjectives I use to describe the ontology are my problem - my hangup.

I have been criticized for using narcissism to describe the human condition. Yet, what other words should I use? Self-centered, thoughtless, careless, self-absorbed? Is there a more polite synonym that doesn't offend delicate sensibilities?

As a man I am boxed into my body. I can attempt to see things from another's point of view, but that will never be the same because I will only interpret other peoples behavior in reference to my own experience. And truth be told, I am the star in my own life! Everyone else are bit players, coming in and out, playing their parts as friends or villains, before they exit off stage. None of us, besides the Saints perhaps, can break from this paradigm. We are all self absorbed, and I'm the worst. So, if my assertion is that everyone around me are narcissists, be rest assured, I include myself among you as the worst. As a point of fact - I say I love my kids, but do I really? Do I love them for them, or do I love them because they're mine in some way? There's a reason why monastics talk about dispassion - it's an ideal but it's extremely hard to wrestle with. Yes, I do love my kids, but I fear it's for all the wrong reasons.

Its the awareness of my condition though that is my key point.

My intellectual masturbation - I'm sorry, does "mental contemplation" or "cerebral self-gratification" offend you less? may satisfy me, but it does nothing tangible. Believing the assertion that God is one way or another just makes me happy, makes me feel like God and I have got our own thing going on. But, it doesn't change God himself. It also doesn't change reality.

There's a word that I picked up reading many years ago - ontology. I think of it as the "realness" of a thing. Ideas are not things. They're pretend. Faith without works is dead (James 2:14-26, Matthew 25:31-46). An idea not made manifest is vapor, and not worth the time to entertain.

So, when I hear someone speak in glowing terms of something - I try to discern the ontology behind it - what other words could I use, and how would that color the reality of what I'm witnessing. The same when I hear disparaging comments about something - what's the ontology - the reality behind it. And don't get me started on theories on "how things work" that can't be proven - you're just engaging in "mental contemplation".

When I hear, “Whoever destroys a single life is considered by Scripture to have destroyed the whole world, and whoever saves a single life is considered by Scripture to have saved the whole world.” It has a ring of life, goodness, dare I say - holiness…

When I hear, "O what a disgrace if such a despised and base race, which worships demons, should conquer a people which has the faith of omnipotent God and is made glorious with the name of Christ!", or, "Go bravely to fulfill your military duty. And remember that if you lay down your life for your country, you will be with God in his kingdom, glory and eternal life." It sounds less life-giving, more self serving, more concerned with lines on a map - political boundaries - us vs. them - then on the people involved…

I'm just saying….

Word, words, words, I'm so sick of words…

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy upon me a sinner.

[heatwaveorchid]

Some (Spoiler Free) Thoughts on Tokisada's Route:

Let's get this out of the way: I don't like shotas. Younger guys who do the whole oneesan thing don't do it for me except for Gretel, sorta, but I have a giant crush on Takuya Eguchi so I let that slide. Yet, Otome games love having them. Just really not my thing.

On the bright side, I tend to really adore guys associated with the color green. Shiraishi, Victor Frankenstein, Kent, Gretel I'm sorry for this one, Yang I'm not sorry about this one. So did Tokisada live up to his fellow green comrades?

Well...I suppose the honest answer is to wait until the end of my run but for now, I need to acknowledge the things I really liked and disliked about the route.

Pros:

+ The romance. I was pleasantly surprised by this. I'm gonna be honest here: I greatly preferred this romantic development in this route than in Riku's. I'm a sucker for the boy meets girl, boy is into girl, girl decides to give the boy a chance by going out on cute dates, girl falls for boy trope. I found it to be surprisingly realistic and rather refreshing. A lot of their early scenes were super cute and all of those cute moments were utilized effectively for the later plot moments, which is something I like because I'm an emotional masochist. I think he and Olympia developed really good chemistry as the route went on that if felt natural.

+ I learned about some history? Yeah, that was cool. I caught Tokisada saying something something that I culturally recognized and then I learned a bunch of stuff about Catholicism in Japan of all things. Speaking of Catholicism, Olympia Soiree does the religion much better than Piofiore did. The less we talk about that, the better. I'm a history minor but my area of focus is not Asian History (although I do know a bit about Central Asian) so I learned a ton of new stuff here which is always awesome!

+ The villain of the route. I think I simped harder for the villain than Tokisada himself. So much so I want to write something about it. Also the bad endings were kind of fire, imo. Trashfire but it's still fire!

+ This route gave me an intense need and craving to try mint chocolate ice cream so I bought some talenti and it was amazing. Thank you, Tokisada, for opening my eyes. Your taste in ice cream is impeccable.

The Neutral:

+/- Tokisada's character development. At times, I felt this was too on the nose sometimes, like yeah he wants to change and grow up, we get it. He also does some stupid stuff which I high key kind of found myself groaning at. He does grow by the end, at least and wants to keep changing. Was it as perfectly done as say... Shiraishi? No, but by the end of the route, it did feel like he had changed for the better and found a purpose and a place to belong, which is always a great thing.

Cons:

-It bears repeating but I really don't like his character archetype. Shotas just aren't my thing. At least him and Olympia are close in age, I suppose?

-I loved the villain but I wish there was more time spent on it. It wasn't as bad as Riku's route, where the villain's motives felt weak, as though it'll be revealed in a grander scale on another route, but I felt more could be done. I'm still so intrigued by this person but there's so much more than could be done.

-I found the ending to be rather rushed and it kind of felt cheap. Don't want to delve too deep into that, but yeah.

Verdict:

I hate to say it but I liked this route more than I intended. My expectations were extremely low but I kind of came out pleasantly surprised. I feel kind of bad it's above Riku's in terms of route rankings even though I would much rather date Riku, lmao. He's not at the top of my green guys, who are at an impossibly high tier for me but he tries his best to be a good guy, which is neat.

I'll give him 7 and a half mint ice creams, but I'll be nice and give him 4 ice cream and 4 peach emojis🍦🍦🍦🍦🍑🍑🍑🍑

And a new thing I'm incorporating:

Flashback counter: 76, 79 if you wanna include the short story

I intend on taking a super small break for Deltarune because I realized the other day that I've played 10 Otome games in a row and should try something else, but I'm super excited to get on Yosuga's radar, because he sure was on mine since the moment I spotted him. Also purple is one of my favorite colors. so what it doooo 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

[shadamyheadcanons]

Okay my headcannon is that amy was neglected by her parents because a freaking 12 YEAR OLD WAS IN WAR AND THEY DIDNT STEPPED IN.

I also have this scenario in my head that Knuckles and Sonic walks in on Amy and Shadow watching a movie (Awfully close 🤔) and gets sus that something is going on.

Hope you don’t mind if I combine these two.

The absence of Mobian adults in the Sonic games is VERY conspicuous. As far as I know, we’ve got Vanilla (old enough to be a six-year-old’s mother), Vector (20), and a handful of older teenagers--Rouge, Wave, and Big (18) and Storm (19). Vanilla’s the only Mobian parent in these games!

The only easy explanation is the out-of-universe one: execs wanted the game’s young demographic to have kids to relate to and teens to look up to. Things get messy when you try to read past that.

But that doesn’t mean I won’t try anyway.

I don’t feel comfortable accusing characters of being neglectful without any real evidence, especially because almost none of these kids have parents. Tails is eight, and he’s been on his own since his inception! Amy isn’t the exception, she’s the rule. Either every Mobian parent save for Vanilla is neglectful...or they’re just not around anymore.

Let’s look at the Sonic universe, shall we? Villains in this series take the forms of killer robots, aliens, demons, and even gods. Some are immortal and capable of boundless destruction, even genocide. We all saw what happened in Silver’s future.

The Sonic universe isn’t a very safe place to live. The most frequent villain is a diabolical genius who creates robot armies. He’s demonstrated that he can and will kill without a shred of hesitation or remorse, regardless of the victim’s age.

I don’t usually go the gritty route and I know I’m not the first one to point this out, but...would it be so unreasonable to think the parents all died fighting and their kids took up the mantle? Eggman’s age isn’t confirmed, but he’s a grown adult who could believably have been trying to take over the world for a few decades. Vanilla only avoided it because she’s not a fighter. The kids never talk about their parents, but why would they? It would be a sore subject for pretty much all of them. I had Silver and Amy briefly mention their relatives in Shellshock, but they were all deceased, and this is the unspoken reason.

I try not to focus on it because it makes me sad, but that is my headcanon. It makes the most sense to me.

That said, I’ll answer the more fun parts now! I love Sonic and Knuckles walking in on Shadow and Amy being suspiciously close. It’s especially funny if they try to tease them, but Amy’s oblivious or unashamed, so it’s just Shadow trying to hide how flustered he is, heh. Knuckles would have to be careful, though. If he ever tried to tease Shadow about Amy, Shadow could throw it right back by teasing him about Rouge.

As for the Sonic movies, if they do include Amy, I’m not sure how much they would bother with, tbh. Tails had basically nothing! I was so disappointed! When I saw the ending scene for the first movie, I was excited because I thought Tails was tracking down Sonic for some sort of important mission...but then the second movie just says he was stalking Sonic, watching him take bubble baths and stuff, and idk. That was really unsatisfying for me. I really liked Knuckles’ backstory, but Knuckles is a more serious character. Amy and Tails are pretty similar. We already had “younger character stalks Sonic and looks up to him,” so I fear they’d see Amy as redundant--both with her backstory and her presence. We know there’s more to her than that, but given how many times Amy’s role has been stolen before, I’m...trying not to get my hopes up.

However! I do have a story that goes into that. Someone asked me to do a high school AU a while ago. I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it (sorry!), but I might as well talk about that one aspect. Amy’s mom really likes Shadow because he was a total gentleman when he introduced himself, but Amy’s dad is different. Shadow and Amy were hanging out in Amy’s room, and Shadow wears the required school uniform in a really sloppy, disheveled way, so the dad took one look at this, panicked, and immediately assumed the worst, even though Shadow and Amy really were just friends at that point. Later on, Shadow says to Amy, “Your dad doesn’t like me,” and she goes, “Oh, don’t worry about that! Dad’s just weird around my male friends sometimes. Don’t worry, it’s not you!”

And then the scene changes to the parents, and the dad is like, “I’m telling you, it’s him! My readings are never wrong!” And it’s explained that the dad uses tarot cards, too, and he got a vision/reading when Amy was young that she was destined to wind up with a male hedgehog, so he’s overly protective whenever Amy befriends one. He basically scared off poor Silver, and Sonic won’t sit next to Amy when he’s around. Shadow’s different, though. He doesn’t shy away from Amy at all because he doesn’t care what anyone thinks. The mom adores this and reassures the dad that yes, his readings are always right, just not always in the ways that he expects. She says that she’s proud of how they’ve raised Amy and knows she’ll make the right decision someday--and if it did wind up being Shadow, she’d be happy for Amy because she’d be with someone bold enough to want to be around her even if others disapproved. The dad calmed down after that, but he did have a mini heart attack when Shadow took her to prom because he was in a tux and Amy’s pale pink dress was a little too close to white.

Of course that doesn’t really work for canon!verse, but it’d be cool if she had a parent who also got overzealous when analyzing tarot cards. I don’t know what I’ll do with that story, if anything. I like a lot of the ideas I have for it, but I doubt I’ll ever finish stringing them together. It’s an undertaking. I might post a snippet or two, but idk.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 337: Le traître de U.A.

Previously on BnHA: Kacchan was all “and so in conclusion that’s how my awesome new technique works, and why I henceforth will be bringing back my iconic winter costume, voted #1 overall best hero costume three years in a row by JD Power and Associates.” Todoroki was all “I HAVE DONE IT, I HAVE MASTERED BOTH LEFT AND RIGHT, YIN AND YANG, HOT AND COLD.” Fandom was all, “well you’ve definitely mastered hot.” Hagakure was all, “so about that U.A. Traitor reveal last week.” Aoyama was all “OH MAMAN AND PAPAN, WE’RE REALLY IN IT NOW.” Aoyama’s parents were all, “WOE IS US, IF ONLY YOU HADN’T BEEN BORN QUIRKLESS FORCING US TO RUIN YOUR LIFE BY MAKING A PACT WITH THE PROVERBIAL DEVIL.” Hagakure was all “OMG AOYAMA IS THE TRAITOR, I HAVE TO TELL SOMEONE, THANK GOD DEKU IS RIGHT FUCKING THERE.” Deku was all, “(╹⌓╹).”Aoyama was all, “(⌣_⌣”) anyways yep it’s me, I’m the traitor.”

Today on BnHA: Flashback!Aoyama’sParents are all “[fuck around and find out].” Flashback!AFO is all, “you could not live with your failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me.” Hagakure is all “NOW THAT I AM NO LONGER NEEDED TO PLAY THE RED HERRING ROLE, HERE’S MY FACE! TA-DAH~.” Deku is all, “[immediately defeats Aoyama with NO EFFORT WHATSOEVER].” Rat Principal is all, “dammit and I was so convinced there was no traitor and Horikoshi just forgot about the plotline [looks directly at the camera].” Class 1-A is all, “well this SURE DOES SUCK.” Aoyama is all “I’M JUST GONNA SIT HERE WALLOWING IN GUILT AND DESPAIR.” Deku is all “DAMMIT AOYAMA, YOU KNOW YOU CAN’T JUST WALLOW IN GUILT AND DESPAIR RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME AND NOT EXPECT ME TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.” Kacchan is all “so I’m just completely gay for Deku now and that’s just how it is, huh.” WSJ is all “DO YOU THINK DEKU’S WORDS WILL REACH AOYAMA?!” as if there was ever any fucking doubt lmao.

oh my GOD of all the times to cut away from a scene. hello again, villains

I love how Dabi just immediately knows that AFO is talking about a traitor at UA. way to assume. like for all you know he was talking about his book club. I wonder what books AFO likes to read. or more precisely, which books he likes to read approximately six chapters of before deciding that he’s already got the gist. “yep, bad guy’s gonna win this one too. next!” “er, well actually, Shigaraki-san -- “ “I SAID, next”

anyway so what the hell were we talking about again. oh right, the traitor being exposed. so AFO says it’s not gonna be a problem for them at all

wow, geez

blow it up?? let me ask you AFO, is there anything you don’t blow up when you’re done with it?? you have a problem man

also does this mean AFO is a smoker lol. might be time to give up the habit if so, given your current medical condition. just saying

btw I know a lot of people, myself included, are very, very happy to see Spinner comforting Tomura after everyone else basically just sat there doing diddly squat while he was writhing around in pain last week sob. you love to see it. he just might be the only actual true friend that Tomura has ever had, and that means a whole fucking lot actually. especially with that big redemption arc on the horizon

and meanwhile AFO, who unlike me doesn’t get distracted literally every two panels, is still talking about Aoyama, and is basically all, “if he dies he dies”

BUT MEANWHILE I’M JUST GONNA SIT HERE AND GO HMMM AT THIS “NEXT POSSIBLE ROUTE” LINE

HMMMM

oh god, oh shit

“a disposable life” :’) hey Horikoshi what’s up. you good, bro? you’re not actually gonna kill off any of the kids, right? even if their backstories are just screaming “tragedy waiting to happen” right now? you still wouldn’t actually do that, right? right??

LMAO IT’S ONLY BEEN A WEEK BUT I SOMEHOW FORGOT ALL ABOUT HOW BREATHTAKINGLY STUPID AOYAMA’S PARENTS ARE

RUN WHERE?? LOOK AT THIS. THEY’RE NOT EVEN LOOKING WHERE THEY’RE GOING YOU GUYS. GONNA RUN STRAIGHT INTO A TREE. DEKU NO NEED TO GIVE CHASE, JUST SIT BACK AND LET NATURAL SELECTION DO ITS THING HERE

and meanwhile Aoyama is all “yeah thinking back on it my parents were actually a whole lot more concerned about me being quirkless than I was, probably because they were raised as rich snobs with expectations of having an easy, perfect life, and weren’t about to let their quirkless son fuck all of that up”

“actually makeste, what I actually said is that they tried their best and wished for nothing but my happiness” okay listen Aoyama, you go ahead and interpret things your way, and meanwhile I’ll continue to interpret my own way over here, okay? which of us is doing this recap

“then they got an idea. an awful idea. my parents got a WONDERFUL, AWFUL idea”

oh my fucking lord I just hate them so much lol

“WE WOULD LITERALLY PREFER OUR VERY YOUNG SON TO BE IN CONSTANT PAIN FROM A QUIRK JUST SO LONG AS IT MEANS HE ACTUALLY HAS A QUIRK SO WE CAN SHOW OUR FACES IN PUBLIC AGAIN.” just wonderful, wonderful people. the best people. “with all my hardships in mind” seriously though this makes it sound like he thinks they were doing him a favor by not abandoning him for causing him so much trouble. maybe it’s just the translation, idk! but all I know is that if you ask me, these people suck

oh geez oh fuck

does he always talk like this?? Mr. and Mrs. Aoyama, you really had a wholeass conversation with a man who used those speech bubbles, and you still thought to yourselves, “yep you know what, I trust him, let’s go ahead and let him fuck around with our four-year-old’s DNA”??

jesus fucking christ. he was just a fucking kid

lolol these feelings. oh man. let me tell you. they are MIXED

because on the one hand, it really does bear repeating, THIS WAS A FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD KID?? but on the other hand, these were also HIS FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD CLASSMATES, who were nearly killed on multiple occasions, and somehow Aoyama managed to live with himself afterwards. literally the only reason Tsuyu isn’t a pile of dust right now is because Aizawa is the biggest badass of all time and nearly got his face permanently broken for his trouble. meanwhile the only reason Kacchan isn’t dead or worse (because “worse” is always on the table when you’re dealing a group that loves performing mad scientist experiments on children) is because Momo is the second biggest badass of all time, and because she and Deku and Todoroki and Kirishima didn’t fucking listen when Aoyama “this is secretly my fault but I would rather not say anything :)” Yuuga tried to talk them out of going to save him. my favorite part is when he added “we did all we could ☆” yeah thanks so much for your noble endeavors there Yuuga

anyway so yeah. definitely some conflicted feelings, and I won’t pretend otherwise. but at the end of the day I think I’m gonna focus on the fifteen-year-old kid part of it, and continue to direct the majority of my shade towards his truly appalling parental units

anyway so I apologize for that rant lol. just had to get it all out of my system. now what was this last part about luring Deku out somewhere and isolating him??

oh okay are we not gonna talk about that yet lol. more feels first

MOTHERFUCKING DANGER SENSE AHHHHH DEKU WATCH YOUR SIX

FFFFFF THEY’RE BOTH SO HORRIFIED

DEKU AS USUAL WITH NOT THE SLIGHTEST BIT OF CONCERN FOR HIS OWN WELLBEING SOB. I WONDER IF HE’S ALREADY PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER WITH WHAT HAPPENED TO NAGANT

-- OH FUCK YEAH

“I’M HERE, TOO!!” GIIIIIIIIRL

OMG. QUIRK REVEAL???

I MEAN WE PRETTY MUCH ALREADY KNEW THAT BY THIS POINT, BUT YEAH!!

FOR THAT MATTER THOUGH, SHOULDN’T AOYAMA AND DEKU ALSO KNOW THIS BY NOW LOL. WE NEVER GOT CONFIRMATION, BECAUSE WE WERE BUSY GETTING RED HERRINGED. BUT WHAT’S THEIR EXCUSE. “HAGAKURE... AH, WELL, THE THING IS... SHE’S BASICALLY JUST KINDA THERE, YOU KNOW?” OH MY GOD. NOT YOU GUYS TOO

OH MY GOD GIRL YOU TELL HIM

FUCKING THIS?? ALTHOUGH, WE LITERALLY HAVE AFO ON RECORD SAYING HE WILL TOSS AOYAMA ASIDE LIKE A USED CIGARETTE LIGHTER THE MINUTE HE SHOWS EVEN THE SLIGHTEST BIT OF DISLOYALTY THOUGH. MAN, WHY CAN’T ANYTHING EVER BE FUCKING SIMPLE LOL. WHO THE FUCK ASKED FOR ALL THIS NUANCE ANYWAY spoiler alert I did

OH MY GOD

HAGAKURE FACE REVEAL AHHHHHHHHH

SHE IS ADORABLE OMFG

ARE HER TEARS INVISIBLE TOO. I JUST REALIZED I HAVE NO CLUE ABOUT THIS. WHEN HAGAKURE CRIES DOES IT LOOK LIKE TEARS ARE JUST APPEARING OUT OF THIN AIR AND FLOATING THERE IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. WHAT ABOUT WHEN SHE BLOWS HER NOSE OMG. AND YOU KNOW WHAT, I’M GONNA CUT YOU OFF RIGHT THERE AND WE’RE NOT GONNA TALK ABOUT ANY OF THE OTHER HUMORS THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I DEEPLY REGRET GOING DOWN THIS TRAIN OF THOUGHT NOW, FUCK

IS SHE ACTUALLY VISIBLE OR IS THIS JUST FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT LOL

“WHAT ELSE IS IT GONNA TAKE TO FINALLY CONVINCE YOU SHE’S NOT THE FUCKING TRAITOR” okay look man, I said I was 95% sure. the 5% was just me playing out a hypothetical basically just for shits and giggles and stuff. I believe you, okay?

“YOU STILL HAD THE NERVE TO SIT IN THE SAME CLASSROOM AS US” agreed. and he would have been perfectly content to sit on that information for the rest of his life if AFO hadn’t made a comeback. I mean look, clearly we have established that Aoyama is not quite shounen main character material. but on the other hand those are very high standards to meet. it doesn’t mean he’s a bad kid. just a kid whose fears outweighed his guilt. and because of that he wound up having to live with both, which must have been pretty fucking brutal

-- NOBODY ASKED YOU

WHY ARE YOU STILL EVEN HERE, CHRIST. “YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND OUR SON IS SPECIAL AND WE MADE ALL THESE SACRIFICES TO ENSURE HE WOULD FIT IN WITH EVERYBODY ELSE AND NOT EMBARRASS US. AND SO WHAT IF WE HAD TO ENDANGER A COUPLE DOZEN CHILDREN TO DO IT, AND ALSO ENDANGER OUR OWN SON’S LIFE, AND POISON HIS DREAM OF BECOMING A HERO. YOU JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND THE KIND OF SOCIAL PRESSURE WE WERE UP AGAINST”

THANK YOU, LOL

“YOU DON’T GET TO TALK ANYMORE” FUCK EM UP DEKU!!

oh my god I can’t with this scan quality. I am dying to get a better look at Deku’s “officially done with ALL of this shit” face

Hagakure is actually right there and can in fact speak for herself, Deku. but yes

whoa dude what the hell is happening in this bottom panel here

is he using Blackwhip to cover up his own face as well? is this some sort of manly shounen dignity-preserving technique lol

and where are we cutting away to???

heh. what the fuck

oh thank god, Horikoshi made that segue creepy as all hell for absolutely no reason lol

anyone feel like pointing out how Rat Principal and co. have been searching for the U.A. Traitor for almost a goddamn year now and never found a damn thing and so were all “YOU KNOW WHAT THERE PROBABLY ISN’T EVEN A TRAITOR AT ALL”, and so Hagakure and Deku had to step in to do their fucking jobs for them? you’re welcome, UA. they should name a wing of the school after them. or at least a science lab or something

lmao what

“I know what you’re all thinking,” Horikoshi says as he furiously scrambles to patch up all of his careless plot holes with fucking flex tape. “don’t worry, Aoyama won’t get blown up because [handwave] it’s probably fine.” you are so lucky Nao is here to distract me right now, even if this panel you drew of him is just as half-assed as your explanations

NOOOO MY BABIES

THEY’RE SO FUCKING DEVASTATED THOUGH OMG. THEIR PAL BETRAYED THEM AND ALMOST GOT THEM KILLED MULTIPLE TIMES AND THEN JUST SAT THERE PRETENDING LIKE NONE OF IT EVER EVEN HAPPENED. AND THEN HE WAS GOING TO FUCKING DO IT AGAIN, THIS TIME WITH THE FATE OF THE ENTIRE WORLD AT STAKE

AND THE WORST PART IS THEY’RE NOT EVEN MAD?? JUST SHOCKED AND DEVASTATED. ALTHOUGH THE ONE PERSON WHOSE REACTION I’M MOST CURIOUS TO SEE NATURALLY HASN’T BEEN SHOWN YET, AS USUAL

OJIRO OUT HERE ASKING THE REAL QUESTIONS HOT DAMN

BETRAY YOU ALL YET AGAIN AND THEN CRY AND FEEL VERY BAD ABOUT IT AFTERWARDS. MOST LIKELY

BTW IS HE HOLDING HAGAKURE’S HAND OMFG. ARE YOU GUYS REALLY ACTUALLY DATING. SPINNERRAKI AND OJIKURE CONFIRMED IN THE SAME CHAPTER, WHAT A WILD WEEK THIS IS

OH MY GOD KIRISHIMA LOOKS SO FUCKING HEARTBROKEN

HE’S LITERALLY BEGGING HIM TO GIVE HIM SOME IMPLAUSIBLE EXPLANATION FOR IT NOT REALLY BEING TRUE. KIRI I’M SO SORRY YOU DESERVE BETTER THAN THIS

FDLKAJSLRKGJALSKFG

[PICKS KACCHAN UP AND RUNS AWAY IGNORING HIS INDIGNANT PROTESTS] [SETS HIM DOWN ON THE COUCH] [WRAPS HIM IN A COZY BLANKET AND BUILDS A PILLOW FORT AROUND HIM] [GIVES HIM SOME HOT COCOA AND STOCKS HIM UP ON HOT TAMALES 3 ALARM AND ATOMIC FIREBALLS] [GIVES HIM A PAIR OF ALL MIGHT FUZZY SOCKS AND TURNS ON SOME RERUNS OF GORDON RAMSAY’S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES]

LITERALLY HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO LOVE A FICTIONAL CHARACTER THIS MUCH. KACCHAN WHEN THE FUCK DID YOU OF ALL PEOPLE BECOME A GENUINELY PURE FUCKING CINNAMON ROLL. HOW DID THE TRANSITION HAPPEN SO NATURALLY. I WILL FIGHT LITERALLY ANYONE AND ANYBODY WHO COMES AT YOU. LOOK AT HIM. OMG

omfg. because you know, out of everyone in this room right now he has by far the most reason to feel resentful towards Aoyama. this motherfucker sold him the fuck out. in a way it’s almost worse than what the villains did, because at least they didn’t give a fuck to begin with. but Aoyama did, supposedly, give a fuck. and yet he still fucking did it

and not only that, but this is also Katsuki we’re talking about. Katsuki, who is practically synonymous with spontaneous rage and wildly disproportionate overreactions. and in this case the rage for once actually would be proportionate and appropriate. Aoyama is very directly (if not solely) responsible for the single most traumatic event of Katsuki’s entire life. he would absolutely be within his rights to feel a little raw about it. to say the least

but instead!! instead of blowing up! instead of getting mad about it!! there’s this!! him standing there with that thoughtful expression of regret! instead of being all “me me me” and immediately thinking of how much Aoyama absolutely fucked him over, his VERY FIRST REACTION. LITERALLY HIS INSTINCT. is to focus on the “quirkless” part of Aoyama’s story, and make the connection to Deku. and how he treated Deku. and how everyone else treated Deku

like, this isn’t even just normal standard levels of empathy we’re talking about now. this is ADVANCED MOTHERFUCKING EMPATHY. THIS IS DEKU LEVELS OF EMPATHY RIGHT HERE. LEARNED FROM THE BEST. NEVER EVEN CONSIDERED HIMSELF, AND INSTEAD IMMEDIATELY PUT HIMSELF IN THE OTHER PERSON’S SHOES, AND FELT REAL, GENUINE SADNESS FOR EVERYTHING THEY’VE BEEN THROUGH. MAYBE HE EVEN LITERALLY BLAMES HIMSELF FOR BEING ONE OF THE PEOPLE WHO MADE IT SO THAT PEOPLE LIKE AOYAMA AND HIS CLOWN PARENTS WOULD DREAD BEING QUIRKLESS. MOTHERFUCKER. I CAN’T. SOMEONE PLEASE FIND MY MUTE BUTTON OR ELSE I’M NEVER GONNA SHUT UP ABOUT THIS

AND DEKU STANDING RIGHT THERE!! WITH THE HIDDEN EXPRESSION!! ANGSTY SIDE PROFILE WITH THE HAIR COVERING HIS EYES?? LKSFJLWEFKSLKL SPEAKING OF LEARNING FROM THE BEST??

ANYWAY, GEEZ. THIS FUCKING MANGA. HEY HORIKOSHI WHY DON’T YOU AT LEAST GIVE ME A HEADS UP NEXT TIME BEFORE PUTTING A FUCKING HIT OUT ON ME. MAYBE I HAVE SOME FUCKING LAST WORDS I’D LIKE TO SAY BEFORE BEING MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD BY A REACTION PANEL OF A FICTIONAL CHARACTER IN A MANGA YOU HEARTLESS BASTARD

so now Nao is all “ah fuck, I guess I have to interrogate this scared fucking kid who betrayed all these other kids to the final villain now, fml”

I mean by all means please do go ahead and follow protocol though lmao. this isn’t exactly a “well I think they’ve learned their lesson, let’s let them off with a gentle warning this time” situation

fsldkfjslk

Naomasa he ain’t lying. this man literally has nothing swirling about in his head except a little monkey riding around in circles on a tricycle

fuck man this is so fucked up though

once again, just a splendid job well done ever trusting this man to begin with though. outstanding

“we are the ones at fault here!” the truths keep coming lol. though the fact remains that Aoyama wasn’t exactly playing a passive role here even if he got dragged into it all against his will

see, okay, yeah. this is exactly what I’m talking about. glad to see him owning up to it

see but he gets it. he gets it. I’m not gonna say anything to contradict any of this, Yuuga, because yeah. except maybe that last part, because fortunately for you this is a series where everyone is free to turn around and start over and seize their second chance at any time, no matter how late in the game it is. and don’t I love it for that

see Yuuga, now Deku is going to make a big comforting speech to you because he sees how conflicted you were and how much you’re hurting over it now

true true! and with Dabi and the rest of them right there too

omg another Kacchan serious face. and this time with bonus wide-eyed Tokoyami

again, Horikoshi, just a little heads up would be nice. so I can start making out my will and stuff beforehand

lkdsjflaksjg;l

“BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CHEESE, AOYAMA?! WHAT. ABOUT. THE CHEESE” this is a real manga you guys. this panel and this sentence right here really exist. you’re fucking welcome

meanwhile I have to assume that everyone else is standing there frantically trying to figure out what this could possibly mean. did. did Aoyama send a secret message to Deku, in the dead of the night, written entirely in cheese

“did... did Aoyama send Deku an S.O.S. using cheese?? you guys??”

“wait, so did he like hide a secret note inside of some cheese or something?” “or, you don’t suppose... the cheese actually came to life and started talking to him?” “haah?? no way. talking cheese, what the hell kind of nonsense is that.” “okay but you guys do realize our principal is a giant talking rat, and the class next door has one kid who has a speech bubble for a head, and another kid who is literally made out of glue”

“hold up. All for One crushed somebody’s mind??” “guys, I’m just saying, it’s possible. we can’t just rule out the talking cheese.” “okay, but I feel like everybody is just focusing on the cheese, and meanwhile nobody is talking about the ‘that night.’ like, what the hell does that mean. nobody thinks it’s odd that Aoyama-kun and Deku-kun are just sending each other secret messages in the middle of the night??” “mmm. a rendezvous of darkness”

“wait, no, hold up, I just had a thought. what if it’s like. okay, so you know like how people sometimes find images of Jesus and stuff in like, toast? what if it’s something like that. maybe Aoyama found like, an image of All for One’s face, in, like... some cheese”

aaaaaand once again Deku manages to find a way to somehow blame himself sob

way to ruin that nice little cheese joke streak I had going there Deku. “what do you mean, what streak?” Deku asks, peering over at my recap notes. “wait, what the fuck -- ” okay you know what don’t judge me okay

DLSFKJLSGK

Kacchan we already figured this out last week lol. you guys will use Aoyama as a double agent to turn the tables on AFO. doy. but oh my gosh you are just too fucking cute though dflsklkfsj eyes all wide like that. looking like you’re about to whip out your own nerd analysis notebook and start scribbling down paragraph after paragraph of effusive Deku praise

anyway the chapter is ending now and that’s just how it is!

HE SAID THE THING. HE SAID THE THING THAT MEANS SO MUCH TO HIM. YOU GUYS I CAN’T. THAT’S THREE TIMES I’VE BEEN KILLED BY THIS ONE SINGLE CHAPTER WHAT IS THIS

and fdslgk “will Deku’s words reach him...?!” of course they’ll fucking reach him lmao what kind of stupid question is that. have you ever read a single page of this series

and Kacchan getting all !! at the hand reaching lol. ties in perfectly with the essay I’ve been working on all fucking week. I will get it posted this week! I’m gonna do it for real! I’m taking this as a sign and it’s gonna happen dammit. “okay makeste but you do understand that this chapter was actually about Aoyama” BOY WAS IT. Aoyama Yuuga and his stupid rich parents and surprisingly dark origin story and iconic fucking cheese messages. god bless