#and he applies the same logic to will that the audience applies to him: well... el said he had a crush on a girl... and he did make a

[bylertruther]

not getting my hopes up but by god do i really really reeeeeaaaaaaally want at least One (1) scene between robin and either will or mike :(

[thr0wnawayy]

How Corrupt Is Hero Society?. Part 2

Nomu and Endeavor, a cause for concern

To add to the today's chatter about Endeavor and his excessive force and how that applies to the rest of MHA's "heroics". I'd like to point something out

It has always been this way

Excessive violence against Nomu isn't anything new, ever since Hori downgraded them into punching bags so the audience wouldnt question the morality of it all.

It does, however bring into light just how desensitized Hero Society is, how they view villains and may display some quirk-ism. Allow me to elaborate.

To the publics knowledge this is a PERSON.

The general public, hell most heroes. Had no fucking clue what a Nomu was. To their knowledge this was just someone with a heavy mutation quirk.

And they just, carry on.

Endeavor's gut instinct here was to burn his head off to stop him from regenerating and no one bats an eye.

But don't worry it gets worse.

Gran Torino is someone the community has dug into countless times for his attitudes towards Shigaraki and belief that "killing is another way to save"

So when Torino does this:

it doesn't really help his case, especially when Endeavor tried to kill that Nomu prior to this by incinerating him alive (almost killing 2 civilians. But I'll get to that)

Such a move would at the very least, sever someone's spine rendering them paralyzed for life. While I can see what Torino was trying to do, the ends do not justify the means here.

I'm not saying the Nomu are innocent, but it's blatantly obvious that they should be aiming to detain them rather than resorting to lethal force right away.

The worst part is the public has no reaction to this. No one asks anything and the authorities sure as hell aren't telling them squat.

We see it again during the Hood Fight and what's worse is that Hood can talk, bringing into question of how sapient is Hood.

Again Endeavor incinerates the Villain and no questions are asked.

Alright remember what I said about the two civilians?. well it gets worse, Firstly, they didn't even know if they were alright until near the end of the Hosu Incident, just letting them run off.

After Endeavor recklessly unleashes a wall of flame, the Nomu absorbs it and processed to reflect the same attack.

(on a second note: Torino and Enji even refer to the Nomu as if they were fighting a Human!?)

What does this mean?. Well that Enji ran into that fight without thinking!.

He didn't even so much as think up a strategy (just like a certain blonde we all know and despise) for what would happen if the opponent just, didn't die.

In Vigilantes he opts to bathe an entire city block in fire because he can't find the Villain (6)

He creates a fucking fire tornado with no thought for collateral damage

(The reactions of his sidekicks concern me, though knowing how Burnin' reacted to Dabi's exposé I'm not suprised.)

Given that he's this destructive and openly antagonistic in public, I don't even want to imagine the state Rei was in after every "training session" spent protecting Shoto.

This is why looking back, I can't say I'm suprised how some of the civilians dove back into worshipping heroes, even after Hawks killed a man and Heroes left them to fend for themselves.

Because as the saying goes

A bird stuck in a cage believes flying to be an illness

_______________________________________

Additional Info:

As pointed out by @gecmi09 (thank you for bringing that up), Endeavor did indeed refer to Crawler and Popstep as villains, as seen here:

I'd like to draw attention to the fact that he is drawn in a similar manner to Number Six, who is also often drawn in a silhouetted fashion, especially when his true colors are exposed.

The two characters are ironically very similar. Both are willing to resort to destructive means if it means achieving their goals.

Both willingly hurt those around/close them and use flawed logic in an attempt to justify their actions.

Both pretend to be something/someone they're not

Both of them brought about their own demise through one of their victims (Dabi and Knuckleduster [who took in Koichi] respectively. Though Six's was more indirect.)

Even though Vigilantes is loosely attached to MHA, I find it interesting that these two characters are so similar. Really makes you think.

[chaifootsteps]

curious question - are the 'it's wrong to want bad things to happen to Valentino' crowd applying the same logic everywhere?

I ask because (for those who watch both hh & hb) I've seen a consistent pattern of violence being wished on Stella and (occasionally) Blitzo (no prizes for guessing what the thing these two characters have in common that has got fans wishing violence on them)

I mean wasn't there like a whole comic on the hb subreddit awhile back of Stolas slapping Stella across the face? (not to mention the not so hidden undertone of misogny in fanfics where Stolas & Blitzo have a fun old time calling her every name for 'bimbo' -or worse - under the sun) And a comment or two about how good it would be to see Stolas commit domestic violence/kidnapping/whatever else against Blitzo because he apparently deserves it?

and yet when the character is Valentino, who is written as a rapist and abuser on purpose (by which I mean Viv meant to do it, whereas it's anyone's guess if she realized Stolas was also that in HB or if she decided it didn't count the same as Valentino as far back as Murder Family given the very next episode was devoted to making Stolas sympathetic even if he was still allowed to be flawed at that point in time) suddenly parts of the fanbase is insisting it's wrong to hate him or want to see him gone?

I'm sure this is just a thing specific to this fandom, I doubt they do this w/other shows because it feels so clearly a result of Viv (and maybe Raph, idk) making such a point of how much they like Valentino. in any other scenario it would be understood that hating this character is the intended audience reaction and that fiction is a safe and cathartic means of wanting to watch that moth demon get squashed for everything he's done

They're most definitely not applying the same logic everywhere. By their logic, it's not only perfectly fine, but a person's moral duty to wish harm on both characters like Stella (or else you're a disgusting abuse apologist) and real people they don't like (Idolomantises, me). But when it's a character they like...well, you see where we are.

Hypocrisy doesn't even begin to cover it. Their logic literally changes by the minute.

[calder]

At the same outpost, the player can encounter Cass, a bisexual civilian woman. She may flirt with a male Courier, who may imply they are gay, prompting her to imply gay men are more common in the Legion.[56] At the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, NCR General Oliver may remark to Courier Six: "If you think after all that's happened, I'm going to grab my ankles and take it like the Legion..."[57] This writing pertains to institutionalized homophobia which manifests in practice though power structures and social interactions without being written into law. Simply put, in his derogatory remark, the general expresses to his army that military surrender is gay, much like their gay enemy. From the brevity and bluntness of this remark, it's clear that this sentiment is already well understood among his ranks. Logically, to project strength in the eyes of such a leader, one might also project homophobia by scrutinizing and harassing one's peers and subordinates. In this atmosphere, the expression of homophobia is not only normalized, but materially incentivized, and becomes inseparable from ambition. This is why Major Knight is immediately frightened when a male Courier flirts with him. He is so profoundly alienated that he romanticizes life as a gay man under the Legion. The Legion punish homosexuality with death, and yet Knight characterizes them as more "forgiving" than the NCR.[43] Through these apparently disparate events, the audience can trace how a distorted perception of gay people emerges among insecure men in a military environment, and subsequently becomes ingrained in the corresponding civilian culture. Further, Veronica, a lesbian from the Brotherhood of Steel, also wryly remarks that she believes legionaries have gay sex about as often as straight sex.[58] She also notes that this only applies to men, as women have no rights whatsoever in Legion society. In this aside, she conveys a pre-existing frustration with lesbophobic social norms.[58] Veronica also mentions that the people of her bunker would rather she remain on the surface.[59] [...] Upon meeting Courier Six, Arcade Gannon offhandedly makes his gayness known, unprompted. The audience must face the fact that Arcade's apprehension of the Legion is far from abstract; under Legion law, he would be put to death. One possible ending gives further insight into Caesar's hypocrisy: should the player sell Arcade into slavery and leave Caesar alive, Caesar will keep Arcade as a personal physician and philosophical advisor. They intellectually spar at length, and Caesar grows singularly fond of him. Accordingly, Arcade imitates the historic suicide of Cato the Younger by disemboweling himself. Caesar understood his doctor's final gesture of contempt, and mourned him for months.[64][65][66]

written for wiki

[princeescaluswords]

The Teen Wolf fanspace would be a perfect case study for the Mandella Effect. How fandom works to build false narratives to create false memories among a collective when a story doesn't cater specifically to [their] white interests.

On, god, I am really quite willing to trawl through the history of this show's audience sewage responses just to build a paper around it.

Well, I'll tell you one thing: you won't have a problem finding evidence for your thesis!

After you sent me this ask, I read up on the Mandela Effect, and I have to admit I tried to resist applying it to the Teen Wolf fanspace at first, because there's something dissatisfying to me about looking at my experience through that lens. Intentional misrepresentation can be rejected and countered, but with subconscious misrepresentation, the task becomes so much more difficult. In other words, it's easier to dodge a bullet than an avalanche. In the end though, the result is the same.

My discomfort arises even more as I examine the Teen Wolf fandom through that lens, because you can see examples of the effect consistently. Scenes, characterizations, and flat-out lampshading must vanish completely from the fandom's memories in order for their experience to conform to their peer-reinforced expectations. No example demonstrates this more than the way fandom treats Master Plan (2x12).

Do you know how many times I have had to explain to other individuals in the fandom, both new and old, that Scott's plan was never to make Derek bite Gerard. It was Gerard's plan for Derek to bite him, and we know this. In the episode itself, Gerard crows that science doesn't have a cure for cancer, but the supernatural does. Scott figured out that Gerard had cancer, but Scott didn't know that Gerard planned to make Scott be the one to physically force Derek to do it. Scott didn't know that Gerard could sense Jackson's location and that Gerard would show up at the warehouse. Scott certainly didn't know that Gerard would put Jackson's claws to Allison's throat in order to extort him into doing it. Do you know how I know this? Because the show carefully lampshaded every single thing I just said.

Scott's plan was to poison Gerard so he couldn't get the bite, so he wouldn't kill Derek and be able to become Alpha. That's why he switched out the mountain ash. If he had wanted to simply kill Gerard, as many people have pointed out, why not just switch out the pills for actual poison?

But the fandom forgets everything in that scene beyond the fact that Scott made Derek bite Gerard. They forget the logical conclusion that if Scott had died in Raving (2x08), Gerard would have simply found someone else to make Derek bite him. They forget the reality that Allison -- someone who was far more important to Scott than the man who had stepped on his throat to prove a point, had kidnapped and threatened his best friend Stiles, and had sent his classmates to murder Lydia in his freaking bedroom -- was in mortal danger every moment Scott's hands were on Derek.

But the Mandela effect doesn't stop with Scott. Think about Allison herself at the end of Season 2. She's suddenly a "b*tch" because she hunted down Erica and Boyd. Make no mistake, she shouldn't have gone about it in the way that she did, which Chris Argent rightfully pointed that out. Fandom correctly remembers that this was due to an overreaction to the death of her mother and the manipulation of her evil grandfather, but then they treat Erica, Boyd, and Isaac as if they were innocent victims of prejudice, instead of the people who had chosen to hurt her boyfriend Scott, hurt her friend Stiles (who was her friend, not Derek's and not the beta trio's), and try to murder her best friend Lydia. That doesn't include the fact that she had been personally threatened by Erica and physically attacked by Isaac, or that Derek had accepted Peter -- the man who ripped out her aunt's throat and tried to kill her repeatedly -- back into his pack and was working with him. But two entire seasons' worth of violence and attempted murder simply vanishes in order to facilitate the fandom's judgment of Allison's behavior in the last three episodes of Season 2.

I've put it down to racism and misogyny -- and it is! -- but I have to suspect that it isn't a deliberate decision to forget about all the things Teen Wolf did to lay out the story. It's been encouraged and repeated often enough that it's taken on a life of its own in fandom, and now participants aren't even obligated to take what little they've seen into account. Why should they? It's like it never happened.

[the-mickle-pickle]

Good Omen S2 spoilers, The Nightingale

- - - - - -

I’ve seen a lot of confusion around the line “Thats the point. No Nightingales”. When i first watched that scene i thought it didn’t make a lot of sense, i mean what a random thing to say especially in such an emotional scene. However Nightingales have an extremely symbolic meaning outside and inside Good omens

First we will talk about the symbolic meaning outside of Good omens. Nightingales have a long association with spiritual symbolism. Within Christianity listening to the melody of the nightingale song is often believed to bring comfort and hope to those facing difficult times. Hope is a big theme across all the different interpretations of the nightingale. So how exactly does this relate to Good Omens? Well we first see it in season 1, a nightingale for the first time appears in Berkeley square. Now where does the hope part play into all of that? Well the hope that they will be left alone, they even say it themselves. Nightingales are also a symbol of love, we see that as a Nightingale sings somewhat miraculously as they are dining at the Ritz (which is a very romantic scene). Combine this with “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” (which i should say is a very romantic song) one of the few songs that not only we hear but them as well, since it’s common to connection music with situation (the same logic obviously applies to Angels and demon, as we see with Ineffable bureaucracy) they have most likely connected that song with them being together. So nightingales represent their relationship and them being together. 

Now the symbolic meaning inside Good omens. As many people have said the Nightingale represents their dinner to the ritz, a moment that represent their new found freedom and their relationship. However when Crowley says “That the point. No Nightingales” it doesn’t solely represent that moment. Yes that moment is significant yet there is more significant moments (when Azi realised that he loves Crowley is the biggest one i can think of at the moment) than that and i feel that we as an audience place a weight on it because it extremely significant for us. Nightingales for them represent earth as a whole, it represents music (the melody of the nightingale), it represents food and wine (them dining at the ritz) it represents humanity (Hope and love) and it represents nature. These are all things that heaven doesn’t have. So when Crowley says No nightingales he really saying, no music, no food, no humanity, no nature, no earth. 

So now if we put both the symbolism from inside and outside of GO Crowley presents a very complex and personal expression. Nothing that Azi loves will be in heaven, Crowley is trying to get Azi to understand what he is truly leaving behind which includes him. He is also trying to remind Azi of them by bringing up their love for each other and underneath all of it there is hope. Hope that Azi won’t leave earth and wont leave him. 

[bugsbenefit]

Who’s going to die in s5 and does anyone even need to die?

putting my thoughts on this out there now because i'm curious how they will hold up with s5 canon or if the characters that i think are narratively untouchable will bite it in the opening

because objectively, no, no one needs to die. not every story needs to kill off major characters to be "dramatic". strangers things has even gone out of it's way to avoid doing that since it’s first season. the characters that Do die are always ones that were introduced in the same season with the specific purpose of dying. Barb, Alexei, Eddie, all the vecna victims

they even skirt killing main characters, like how Eddie in s4 seems to be the placeholder for Steve since they didn’t want to kill him yet. there’s also interviews saying they wanted to kill him in s1 or 2 but then didn’t because they liked his character and wanted to keep him in the story. (also a fan favourite character too yk). similarly El was also supposed to die in s1, but even before st becomes a multi season show it's implied she’s alive right in the last minutes of s1

so while St sure loves killing people (see just how many people died in lab massacre 1 in 1979, lab massacre 2 in 1984, and the flesh flayer human meat incident) you’re pretty save as long as you’re a main character and survived your first season on the show

so s5 continuing with that and not killing any main characters is definitely an option, they don't need to kill. no matter how much the audience is waiting for "stakes" to be set, not every story needs to kill it's characters

on the other hand, there’s also a lot that suggests they might kill someone for real this time. challenging the perceived safety of main characters in the last season with a world ending stakes set up in s4 seems reasonable. there’s also the more theoretical perspective that we're in the final season now and there’s no coming back for any of these characters anyway, no matter if they live or die. the logic of making it to the next season that saved some of their asses before no longer applies

it would also make sense and not be uncommon for a story to kill someone important during the final installment to make it apparent how BadTM it is. most of the audience is also aware by now that the show isn't killing long running mains so changing that rule would serve the final season well (especially if it happened before the last 2 episodes and put people more on edge for the finale, now that mains apparently aren't completely invincible anymore)

so leading up to s5, I really think the chance of them killing at least one major character for real this time is the highest it’s ever been. the question would just be, who? and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone agree on this ever so I just want to go it over myself, get my thoughts on this out pre s5 spoilers rolling in. trying to evaluate how solid a build up for a death would be

going over various characters under the cut

there’s obviously some side characters that could reasonable die but I think would be the weakest choices, if not an outright joke at an attempt of “emotional impact” on the story

for example, they could kill Murray, there’s really nothing stopping them, but it wouldn’t be a very impactful death. the only one who has a real connection with him is Joyce. if they wanted to kill more than one character I can see them going for it, especially if they killed Murray earlier and had a bigger character die towards the end of the season. but otherwise, if he’s the only one dying it’d be funnily underwhelming. this also goes for Dimitri (depending on if he will be back for s5). easy to kill but would suck phenomenally as the only death

same for characters like Vicky and Argyle, who are both incredibly new characters so killing them would be very underwhelming. here with the added aspect of them both being minorities, and while you can obviously kill minority characters just fine, if they were the only characters dying it would look pretty bad compared to the 90% white and het cast that’d be alive. killing Vicky with her ongoing romance plot where they need to establish an entire relationship first would also be obviously stupid

moving to main and secondary characters of the show that have more significance. secondaries like:

Robin, who like Vicky and Argyle, would also be a weak choice. killing her at the end of her romance arc set up for s5 would be extremely unsatisfying in a way that doesn’t fit any of the shows themes. also again, killing just her would look horrible, and even if two people died, she’s been the public queer rep of the show before they officially had Will too post s4, would be kind of an insane choice to kill her

Steve on the other hand has much more merit to him. he’s the character we know the Duffers wanted to kill years ago and only held back due to the actors charisma and potential they saw for his story. and both of these points would be moot in a final season of the show. there’s also been enough foreshadowing of a death that would stand out on a rewatch and make it feel more planned. like the funnily long handshake he and Dustin have in s3 including Dustin stabbing Steve and him “dying”. killing him would also work to impact a significant number of characters as well as the audience since he IS a fan favourite. on the other hand, it would be a bit questionable to kill the other "guy that's close with Dustin" right after he had Eddie die on him. Eddie was a pretty clear place holder for Steve in s4, so killing Steve the season after wouldn’t be very different from a storytelling pov. but I could see them go for it, easy death, enough set up, potential to be upsetting, not whole show-vibe ruining

because compared to that, Hopper is someone I honestly don’t see dying at all. he not only had a full fake out death, the whole of s4 russia arc was about getting him back alive. if they just kill him anyways most of s4 will feel pretty pointless, especially after he’s Just at the point where he might see that he isn’t a curse on all the people around him. killing him would negatively impact his character growth AND fall flat with him already having died and come back right after. killing him fr right after he came back would honestly just be really funny, like, i don't know how serious people would even take it, i'd just expect him to come back again tbh

Joyce… is just kind of out there. killing her off would be brutal with how central of a character she is. her and Mike really were the two plot leading characters all the way back in s1 and her character seems to be a bit of a face of ST alongside with characters like El. it would also be rough on Will and Jonathan, like, character altered forever rough, so if she died these characters would have to change drastically. which would need her death to happen before the last two episodes if they wanted to do it justice. and killing her that early on would also feel odd with how much she’s a part of the core story. and of course there’s the whole deal with her just having gotten together with Hopper which should at least give her a few episodes of protection to explore that. overall, I think they could do it, but they would have to be insanely careful to pull it off well and I’m not sure it’s something they’d go for or something that's even possible to do well with only 8-9 episodes

Jonathan is someone a lot of people seem to think could die, but I also feel like a that idea comes from general lack of interest in his character. he Could die, yeah, it would also be interesting how characters dealt with it, but just like with Joyce, killing him off in the last episode would very much feel like a cheap kill for shock value since the strongest aspect of killing a character like him would be seeing the ripples it has over the story. and killing him would also put an extremely tragic end to his character arc which he hasn’t finished yet. he’s constantly parentified, steps back in favour of other people, he still couldn’t tell Nancy he wants something different than her for college, and so on. his s5 arc would have to focus more on his own growth over the series and accepting himself and his worth, so dying would be insanely tragic for him. again I feel like they Could do it, but it’s questionable if they’d be able to do it justice and not make it feel like his character is from a Shakespearean tragedy while everyone else is from a different genre

Just on reflex, Nancy is someone I don’t see dying. killing her would be really bold. all with her being one of the few women, and a character that's always been near the center of the story, and with her being the deciding party in the middle of a love triangle. but on the other hand, I could see some merit in killing her. she was the main leader in s4 and arguably already had her moment to shine when she shot Vecna (even if they still lost, it was arguably the most epically framed “win” moment of the season). she also finally got some closure on Barb’s death, ie. knowing Vecna killed her. you could also definitely argue that it would be interesting if Nancy was the one to ultimately die instead of the vision where she saw her mom, Holly, and Mike, dead (or implied to be dead, she doesn't say the word). so the longer I think about it, the more I could see a positive impact on the story. but it'd still be rough, and it would mean upsetting both Jancy and Stancy shippers by having neither have a happy ending, which, actually, would be kind of interesting, but I’m not sure the Duffers would go for

and then there’s of course the kids where it gets really hard imo. both based on the tone of ST and how it would be insanely dark

Erica is just someone I genuinely don’t think they can kill, ever. she’s the absolute youngest, also one of their 3 poc characters. don’t see any reality where she dies. they already didn't handle her character particularly well since her introduction so, no way they're insane enough to kill her

similar to my point about Hopper earlier, I also don’t see Max dying at all. she almost died in s4 during her initial encounter with Vecna, barely survived, and then got got for real and was dead pre El reviving her. her dying for real in s5 wouldn’t hit particularly hard anymore after she starts the season lost in some variation of a coma. her s5 arc already has to be about finding her, and presumably her dealing with the trauma of waking up. also whatever role she plays in the season, since we don’t know how many episodes it'll take before we can get her thoughts and actions again. killing her at the end would be kind of repetitive and absolutely fuck her character arc over since she just realized how badly she wanted to live regardless of her depression

El's character would also not have any benefit from dying, it would actively cut her character arc short, which has been a central point of every season up to now. her whole deal is learning that she’s not a monster that’s responsible for everything and figuring out who she actually wants to be as a person that can make her own decisions. her ending the series dying or sacrificing herself like so many people seem to think she will would be very weak writing imo. having her finally reach a point in s5 where she's free of Brenner, and guilt over what happened, and her het relationship with her boyfriend who doesn’t love her, and finally starts to realize who she wants to be, only to have her make the decision to die for the people she loves would just suck. it’d be compelling... if ST was a drama story and trying to tell a story of hopelessness. which is not at all what ST has been up until now and is also not what anyone involved has said s5 to be

Will is also unkillable without completely breaking the genre of the show. people are right that him dying in s5 would be full circle to s1. and showing the inevitability of the UD killing him after all and how he couldn’t get away would be fun sure, but it’s not stranger things. aside from actors already having said Will gets some form of happy ending, killing him just wouldn’t work. everyone was trying to get him back alive all the way back in s1. him eventually dying after all is a cool concept in theory, but it doesn’t work with the show at all

Mike is also hard to kill. with Byler happening, it would be insane to kill either of the two parties right after having them get together or confirm each other’s feelings. Mike is one of the characters with the most consistent allusions to something bad happening, especially in s4, with the whole set up of “hasn’t unpacked yet”, jaws poster, “death count is going to rise”, and Nancy’s whole vision about him presumably dying, but it’s much more likely he just won’t have a good time in s5, not die. he already had a fake out death as far back as s1 with the cliff, so if they want the show to go “full circle” they could just have him almost die again, or have someone Think he died for a bit. perma killing him just doesn't work with the mleven to byler arc they set up for s5

Lucas doesn’t have any death flags and there would be no benefit in killing him. killing Will for example would at least be interesting on a meta writing level if you disregard the genre of the show, but killing Lucas would just… feel insanely unjust, he's just a kid who already went through writing fuckery in s4. he also almost lost Max, and his s5 arc seems to be very focused on her and helping her. killing him off right after Max survived would just be plain bad. do not see Lucas dying in any reality

And Dustin is my "if they had to kill a kid". there Are some lines you could definitely catch on a rewatch post death that would make it feel less out of nowhere, be it the “if you die I die” said to Steve, or Suzie talking about Dustin feeling like it could foreshadow a death. Dustin also doesn’t have the protection someone like Mike has, where he’s in the central gay childhood best friends to lovers plotline

overall, I think Vicky and Argyle are essentially guaranteed to be fine. there’d be not much emotional payoff for the audience and only the killing of the few diverse characters of the cast. Robin would also be hard to kill without making it look weird with her just introduced romantic interest. Hopper and Max are too much “been there done that” to die for real. and the kids dying would at best seriously derail the expectations the show set until now and negatively fuck some of their character arcs over at worst

so. tldr, my thoughts on this: killing Joyce is possible imo, but extremely hard to do justice. similar sentiment about Jonathan, even more so bc it directly conflicts with his character's core struggle. killing Nancy would probably be the most interesting choice to go for, to me, if done well, but it’s something I don’t really see happen in the show. Steve seems like the most likely choice to die since he’d be a pretty easy kill, the audience and a significant amount of characters like him so it would have impact, there’s enough death flags to make it seem foreshadowed… would just work really well. and if any of the kids died it would have to be Dustin imo, even though I’m still of the belief that they won’t touch the kids when it comes to killing characters

also, Murray's just a free kill to me, not impactful enough on the characters to fully derail character arcs but still with the show long enough to be a bit sad to see go. if they’d kill only him it would be a bit wasted because it would feel like a copout of killing an impactful character, but if they want to kill a primary character and make stakes higher by killing someone else, Murray is the easiest to turn to for that, especially if they want someone to die in the earlier episodes

and this is just about the "main" characters (as a broad term here). characters that could also ofc die are other kids parents, police officers we know like Callahan, other side characters like Mr Clarke or the mayor. but most of these would not really have much impact on the story and would pass more as casualties along the way

the Wheelers are a bit of an in-between here, because while none of them get regular main character focus and don’t even know about the UD, they still come back every season on a personal level and have the most solid characterization out of side characters. Karen even has a noteworthy character arc, which none of the other side characters have. Holly will be fine honestly, Ted is really just there, not much screen time, i don't really see much benefit in having him die, if he did it would most likely have to be in passing or in mass casualties. so Karen would be the one I could realistically see be compelling to kill. as a side character I’d put her on a Murray level, where she’s consistently on screen and everyone knows her but she’s not really someone people would be upset for days about

the Murray treatment also goes for someone like Owens btw, where I could easily see him die as a side note (not as the main death). he's been with the show for a while but doesn't have enough impact on the story to really force you to keep him alive. there's for sure info we can still get from him in s5, but after we have a full picture of what happened with El and Henry at the lab and how Owens was involved there's really nothing keeping him alive as a character

and everyone's done, wall of thoughts over!

that’s where I’m at with all the characters as of now, especially from looking at their past arcs up to s4. I’m just really curious how this will hold up with the actual s5. Maybe they’ll just go in bold and kill someone I would have said has a 0 chance of dying right away, who knows who knows

[archivalofsins]

The Calico Cat

Also known as let's examine the colors of Cat~

I did not know what I was getting into when I started this post. Luckily, as usual @apatchworkstar / @sinfulequity was around to help me out. Pointing out a few things to me while proofreading this post that strengthened some points.

So, get ready because this is a dozy! From color analysis to music history and theory we're opening up this box and seeing what this Schrodinger Cat is really like.

Starting off with black and white.

Now black and white are pivotal colors within the Cat mv. I believe white represents the act Kazui puts up and black his true self. This is supported through various imagery within Cat these being some of the most pivotal,

These scenes highlight the stark contrast between the lies and truth of this situation using these two colors to emphasize that point. Victim and Perpetrator even appearing in smaller black font within the large colorful versions of the words over their faces.

This is why I believe when the background is white Kazui is acting. Something that gives a bit more context to these scenes,

As the color will show us which is the truth, and which is the lie. The truth being Kazui just got greedy and in fact did not wish to simply ask so it was out in the open. We'll be going into the coloring on the words later since that's also something of note.

So, I bet you're wondering what blue is right? Like shouldn't the blue represent Kazui as well. Heh, heh... Now why would Kazui associate himself with his prisoner uniform color? I think some of you may be getting what I'm putting down. The blue in Cat represents the audience's interpretation of Kazui. This is why Blue was never a prominent color in Half but is on full display here.

The impact Kazui's verdict has had on him is the most subtle out of all the prisoners. To the point Jackalope can't even tell us how he's changed during the second trial commencement notice.

However, just because something cannot be observed doesn't mean it hasn't happened. Cat uses subtle coloring tricks to allude to how Kazui has changed as a result of his verdict.

Coming out the gate with a myriad of familiar colors.

Kazui's signature prison blue and the green of the apple associated with him. The red light that subtly becomes more prominent throughout the video before being put on full display at the climax and an orangish yellow light that we'll go into more later.

For the time being it's not important, don't worry about it.

Right now, we'll be focusing on Blue, Green, and Red regarding this scene. At points, these colors overlap with each other on top of the lyrics. I believe this is meant to highlight how in sync these two factors are with one another.

Under this framing the way green overshadows blue over the lyrics "I just wanted" but not fully covering it would mean that the audience was close to figuring out what he did or in this case wanted but were just a little off at the same time.

Like we knew he wanted something but what we ultimately landed on thinking he wanted was a little off the mark.

The blue and red overlapping like a Venn Diagram between the lyrics "To touch" and "To caress" shows us that once again the audience and what Kazui's actual sin is are out of sync. The truth landing somewhere in the middle of the two.

Cat goes on with these subtle color cues perfectly illustrating which color represents what in the next few scenes,

Blue highlighting, "Innocent, isn't that right?" the verdict the audience gave to Kazui last trial. As subtle darker red bleeds into to the line going over, "Oh, shove that!"

The kicker before all this the audience is subtly shown the red that will appear in the end in this image,

The color representing his sin cutting through all his facades and lies while pointing straight towards the end.

So, we now know what the blue and red spotlights represent now let's apply this logic to the words here.

The words in black and white with blue or red highlights to me visualize the divide between the truth and lies growing thinner. Both statements that are presented this way being half right and half wrong. All the while the audience's perception of his sin and how Kazui sees it are battling it out visually.

As he once again reiterates the audience is wrong about him ever cheating through stating, "I just wanted to ask".

While "So, it's out in the open." is all in blue.

I believe this is his response to hearing the audience and recognizing at least his sins have been viewed. Even if he states in his voice drama Milgram has yet to even touch on his sin that doesn't change the fact that it was put on full display. Again, just because something isn't observed at all or correctly doesn't mean it didn't happen.

It seems to me from all this and his voice drama that Kazui found some sense of relief from having his sin forgiven. So, much so that he's now getting greedy wanting us to know more and more about whatever terrible things he did and accept him for not only that but who he is.

Accept him for the way that he,

"I’ve confided in others. I’ve tried to be myself! I’ve tried to just be the way I was born!" x

Now let's get to the fun part, Yellow-

A good deal of people have recognized this as the sequence in which these events occurred. I mean it's written there all numbered and everything.

Star and I wound up discussing this rather quickly after the release of Cat through WhatsApp messages because I was bothering her to figure out what the French meant, lol.

However, I never imagined we'd be able to go this deep into these images on colors alone.

It's in these images that this yellow color appears the most. Along with having the most prominent use of red before the climax. But what exactly does this yellow represent? Well, we do see this color on someone else-

Sir, what a nice gold ring you have there. It would be a shame if your friend confessed something to you ultimately leading everyone down a path of mutual destruction. Luckily, there's nothing that implies that-

01- I realize the futility but I still can't help but dream.

"I'm so dumb. Why did I have to dream?"

"The curse of reuniting with you puts a dagger in my heart. I imagined that you saying, "See you" is the same as "It's over”. Only if your heart would change but that’s not possible."

"All these memories and you. Only if I could erase them."

"I’m sure nothing will change, and we’ll laugh together and call each other stupid names. So many things I wish I hadn't known, I'm just a coward."

02- Phew, oh wow I'm drunk.

"Er, so…… could you listen to what I say without laughing? I……"

03- Love (plus) Destiny=Crap Smash it, shatter it, bye-bye.

"Hinako, I love you more than anything." - "Loving Affection (minus) Love, it’s tacky, this two-way deceit."

04- Lie, until it gets better, follow the king of the masquerade.

"All this time till now has hurt me, the scales of my heart has decided to sway. If continuing to hide is called unhappiness, not even one word will get to you." - "All those things I wanna do that I can’t say out loud- I gotta keep it inside and act."

Hate to say it but who would want silver when you can go for gold-

This is why at the start of Cat we see this-

"Since, when have I ignored my feelings?" as red the color of Kazui's sin and this yellow overlap. Why he starts off dejectedly leaning into the cars steering wheel as this is sung,

"It’s better to be a let down, than to be let down yourself."

Kazui "They won't think I was serious when I confessed if I get into a relationship with someone else directly after I can still lie this away" Mukuhara everyone!

This is also why this color appears during the victim and perpetrator scene.

He's so happy to see his friend look at that genuine smile in comparison to-

In the first he is just so look, my friends here do you see them, they'll probably hang out with me again without feeling weird while the second one is just like- Oh yes, my marriage...that...regret my old friend when did you arrive no don't take your coat off, please leave- and you sat down.

Again, the expression work on cat should be talked about far more Kazui looks fucking dead inside up there.

There are even sparks of this color in his "Phew, oh wow I'm drunk. Hey, so what if I said I liked-liked you, what would you do?" moment. Something Star brought up was the fact that he's drinking Whiskey also alludes to this because whiskey is sometimes colloquially referred to as Liquid Gold,

The yellow light clearly being filtered through his glass and drink to get the effect we see here. All the while its color being dimmed even more by the black background.

I need to state for the record that I don't even go here-

I am not a firm believer in Kazui being gay, bi, pan etc. nor do I care about his sexuality personally. Well, okay I care about it a little just for the purpose of being able to say, "Cool sexuality, still murder though." Outside of rehashing old jokes I really couldn't care less because that's his personal business, it really has no bearing on how I view the murder and we speculate it doesn't have any real bearing on the murder itself at all anyhow.

Yet at the same time all this is just sitting right here- SO I MIGHT AS WELL BRING IT UP!

I started this post for a completely different reason, believe it or not. This was supposed to be a simple thing on colors. When I first brought this up to someone else blue represented the wife! The wife! However, then I looked over the evidence again and was like ha, ha- You stupid fuck that wasn't right, way to go dumbass, great way to embarrass yourself in front of whole ass other human being, gave him completely factually incorrect information right before bed. He has to sleep on that now. You're a shit person- then continued to type this like I guess when the morning comes, he'll know sorry bout that.

Me when it came to this, "I’m still guilty even if the morning comes."

All that to say I'm currently stuck falling down a rabbit hole of the messiest nonsense I've seen in several years. But let's get back on track. Because that's not all.

I wish it was all because I am very tired but no it's not.

Even though the colors in Cat allude to previous speculations being correct a good bit of it very cheekily implies all these things are not his actual sin and the audience is overlooking something integral.

The yellow lighting breaking across the blue and straight over Kazui's legs. It shining through the red lines and word can't. His sin and our perception of it rarely touching in the last image. Subtly implying it's much bigger than we're thinking, in some regards, yet smaller than we're implying in others. The font in all black indicating his true nature.

In a disorienting frenzy as the music just keeps going until-

As Kazui is smoking the black background that up until this point has alluded to the truth is tinged blue. Once again implying how the audience has to an extent realized something about his sin but from Kazui's expression the conclusion the audience has come to about the situation is so off it's funny to him.

This contrasts to Yuno who despite being Innocent shows a general disdain towards the audience for running with their preconceived notions and desired perception of her. More so emphasizing within Tear Drop that she's the one who decided to let all of us in and she wants us to stop getting carried away and saying things about her that she simply does not believe is the case and frankly did not ask for our opinions on.

"Don’t weigh me measure me against your morality Just shut it, will you? You know it all Feeling magnanimous? INNOCENT? I’m so not that Just shut it, will you? You know it all." - "I’m the one who chose, let you and you and you all in- Happy or sad? Why decide? Where’d you get your half-baked sense of justice So nauseating...so creepy...will you please disappear “Phew. Anyway!”."

Instead of doing this Kazui is more so going, "Ya, know- It's so, funny- How stupid you are." throughout all of Cat. Fully embodying the lyric in Undercover of,

"Even with accusations full of faults and mistakes- You will for sure, with a smile for sure be pleased and satisfied."

We also see red outlining Kazui's build visually putting his sin behind him. Yet, as Star brought to my attention again red isn't only representative of his sin specifically but his urges as well.

Or what he wishes to indulge in. Something, illustrated through these scenes

"Lick that sin and oppose punishment, until you can meet the king of the masquerade." - "INNOCENT, isn’t that right?"

Q.19 Do you want to be forgiven?

Kazui: I don’t know. If I’m being honest, I do kind of want my weakness to be pardoned.

Again, suggesting that the speculation, we put forth at the beginning of this post- "It seems to me from all this and his voice drama that Kazui found some sense of relief from having his sin forgiven. So, much so that he's now getting greedy wanting us to know more and more about whatever terrible things he did and accept him for not only that but who he is."

Is correct.

Now, let's flip that beat shall we~

However, before we can flip a beat, we need to understand how Cat works musically. All the cool cats are up on their Jazz but the best cats can Swing.

Cat has many colloquial meanings. So far the focus has primarily been on the meaning in Japanese, but the term has a history in Jazz as well-

It was also used back in the day to refer to a cool, unbothered sort of guy that one may have some difficulty pinning down emotionally.

I believe it would be helpful for people to look over all the links up there along with this information on playing in front of or behind a beat.

X

So, why is this important? Well, some may remember seeing this post. I am just realizing I fucked up. Because I didn't link to the part that I was referring to like I had intended which is fixed now but is also here for those interested.

At the point after that smoke break occurs Cat goes from playing behind beat to ahead of it then to on it once the guitar kicks back in. It does this in quick succession after making a noise that can be mistaken for a rewind or a let's take that back from the top cue as it flips the beat,

Putting the previous chorus out cold; similar to a live remix typically done within swing and jazz inspired forms of music. Something reminiscent of ragtime music one of the influences Jazz is rooted in. Props to Milgram really, I did not think I would get to gush over black music this much while discussing something from Japan, but they managed it.

All this combines to give Cat a very authentic Swing feel that pulls the audience in so hard one could be excused for thinking they'd just been dragged directly into a Jazz Bar-

A place where one can get drinks and listen to all sorts of jazz including its subgenres like swing. Though it could be a music lounge in general.

Q.14 Do you listen to music?

Kazui: I guess I do from time to time. It’s all super old music though, so I don’t think you’ll know it.

Back to Cat though for comparison sakes here's the first chorus at the beginning of Cat

From 0:43-1:04

Along with the flipped version I'm referring to specifically

From 2:24-2:32

Despite there being a rather consistent clapping in the instrumental of the song up until this point it's noticeably absent as a light and whimsical piano can be heard. In the mv this can be heard between 2:34-2:38. Highlighting the genuine longing nature of the line accompanying it,

"To be caressed by you, that would be perfection."

Right after the previous visuals showcasing Kazui's lie in full-

Not only highlighting the parts of the act or lie in big white font but going as far as to highlight them in the lyrics in French beneath these words.

Visually showing us that love being crap is a lie that Kazui may not only be telling others but himself because again,

"It’s better to be a let down, than to be let down yourself." - "It’s for the sake of true love, who wouldn’t lie for that?"

"If I were to make sure and suffer, I would rather be by your side. Laughing together, side by side, this distance in our relationship is misleading me, is this what happiness is?" - "I’m sure nothing will change and we’ll laugh together and call each other stupid names. So many things I wish I hadn't known, I'm just a coward."

"Love always wins and I always lose, and that's fine."

Then in Cat once the clapping begins again a new sound is introduced as well-

From 2:33-2:38

We can hear the sound of a wind-instrument being played subtly emphasizing the whimsical and playful nature of the,

"I wanted to be loved, just like a cat." lyric while tonally contrasting this visual,

As the instrumental part I'm referring to within the mv starts between 2:40-2:42.

This imagery is also telling. The background is red but the blood of the dove that splatters on the victim's face is black, the color used to represent the truth throughout this mv.

This is in stark contrast to when we see the apple hit the ground where red is the most prominent color with a few black stains within.

Let's wrap this up! There are more visual things I'd like to point out in Cat but those will be in different posts. Overall, the videos visuals allude to the audience being half right, half wrong. Their perception of Kazui and the truth of the matter barely touching at all.

Regardless of whether people are making him out to be worse than he is or better the truth lies somewhere in between those extremes. However since it's Kazui the half in half out guy both extremes could be true. Highlighting the lineup of top tier liars that make up the final half of the Milgram prisoners. Oh, look the elevators here-

And we're all going down, right?

[theheirofthesharingan]

I'll never understand why some Sakura fans as well anti/pro-SS crowd keeps dragging Itachi into their fanwars. The arguments usually are the same: Itachi traumatized Sasuke (so he doesn't love him/isn't a good brother) and Itachi killed innocent people (so he's a bad guy). That what Itachi did to Sasuke, neither Sauske would do to Sakura and nor Sakura would ever dream of doing to Sauske.

Fair enough.

He'll agree with you. But the truth is... It's much easier to love and empathize with Itachi than it is to love Sakura. I'm not anti Sakura. I like her as an independent character and don't get the hate either, but won't be dragging Itachi into it to counter this hatred for her.

Itachi gets love not because we think he's a good/innocent boy who did nothing wrong, but because how interesting he is. How his character moves the story forward. How, without him, most of the story would not be as interesting and poignant as it is. In more than 700 episodes of the anime and the manga, he might be a minor character, but he impacts the story more than most characters do.

If you're applying your irl logic in the Naruto world and judging the characters and their motives based on them, then that's not my problem. But let's also not act like Itachi is all what your opinion restricted to his wrong doings allows you to see. He never goes on to acting like a saint. He never goes on to acting like he's the best brother ever. He knew his flaws, his mistakes, as well his love. He knew even if he wanted Sasuke's forgiveness, Sasuke didn't have to forgive him. He knew.

He never made his life, choices, or, you know, anything at all, about himself. A child soldier, a traumatized kid, forced into making decisions adults ought to be handling... Right, you're very wise as an audience and objective in thinking he should not have messed up. :)

Having said that, I'm strictly anti-SS. SS was never about two individuals, it was always about Sakura's feelings. She wanted to accompany Sauske when he deserted the village? It wasn't because of him, it was because she would be alone. I lost any interest in her as Sasuke's potential life partner the moment she decided killing him was the only way to save him from "darkness."

There's a lot more, but I'm not interested in the ship.

The bottom line is - an interesting character in fiction is always more than welcome than a bland one. A character influencing the story will always get more exposure whether you like it or not. Itachi, in all his glory, is a flawed and interesting and an empathetic character. Your hatred for him won't change anything how we feel about him.

[valkieds]

Long AU ramblings....

Thinking about this little nagiiba au I have that I tried to write out a while back....

Essentially, it's a non-idol au where Nagisa and Ibara both attend the same private high school, but Ibara's a new transfer student and generally keeps to himself. But they connect through music, Nagisa who is classically trained in the violin and Ibara who picked up the guitar because one of the few nice older kids at the orphanage would play it for him from time to time. Even if Ibara has already garnered a bit of a negative reputation for having an improper upbringing and generally being rude, Nagisa enjoys the time they spend together and ignores any advising to avoid Ibara.

Over the course of the school year, they have fun, hanging out like regular teenagers do (arcade "dates," going to festivals together, unintentional sleepovers while the parental figures are away), trying to avoid the impending doom of college exams and the like... Because of the time he spent playing music with Ibara, Nagisa's gained a reignited passion for music and seeks to go to music school. Meanwhile, Ibara is being railroaded into business school.

When fall turns to winter, that's when they really start to realize the feelings they have for each other- Ibara in a quick abrupt "oh no oh no" gay panic way and Nagisa in the "I'm not sure how to express the way being around him makes me feel, but it's not a bad feeling" way. And they confess to each other on a snowy winter day before winter break!

They start going on proper dates, and Ibara even gains the courage to be the one to say "I love you" first. Of course, the impending doom of college isn't the impending doom for no reason. Nagisa applied to a number of music schools, including international ones. And now that it's spring, he's heard back from them, having been accepted by a music school in Europe. When Nagisa tells Ibara about it, he's so happy for him! Wow! That's so impressive Nagisa-san! Wait it's in Europe...? Ibara will spend the night looking up statistics about how likely long distance relationships are to succeed, which spirals into "how many 'first love' relationships succeed" and worrying about if Nagisa will find someone better and more in-line with the life he wants to live while at school. At the same time, Nagisa can tell that despite Ibara acting 100% on board with things, something seems off although he can't quite tell what.

It's just before graduation when Nagisa finally winds up confronting Ibara about what he's not telling him. If he's so bothered about something, he should say it, after all. But Ibara, running on "I can't get hurt by him finding someone better if we're simply not in a relationship" logic, fumbles his way through a break up and running away before Nagisa can get a chance to respond. A very bitter ending to Nagisa's high school life, although he doesn't have much time to spend dwelling on it with finals, graduation, and preparing to leave the country. Well, he'll dwell on it in his spare time considering he's tried texting and calling Ibara multiple times to no response (eventually getting a response in a "I think you have the wrong number, sir" way).

But fast forward a decade and Nagisa's become a celebrated violinist, performing concerts around the world. And he's currently about to perform in a Tokyo concert hall when he sees a rather familiar face taking his seat in the audience..... He honestly never thought he'd see Ibara again, and yet there Ibara is, watching him play.... Once the show ends, Nagisa is almost in a rush to have someone get Ibara and let him into the greenroom- he doesn't want Ibara to slip away again (even more than he thought he would have after all the emotions he had felt regarding their break up).

The conversation once they're alone together is awkward and a bit tense- Ibara hadn't been expecting Nagisa to notice him in the audience, let alone want to talk to him afterwards. They catch up a bit, Ibara now being the manager and president over multiple companies that were left behind to him as well as new companies he had formed after completing business school.

It's impossible to avoid the elephant in the room, though, and it's not long before Nagisa expresses the feelings he hadn't been able to share with Ibara since that day and Ibara explains his own side of things. Although Nagisa does understand Ibara and the stupid teenagerness of it all bit better now, he still needs Ibara to make things up to him if he ever wants full forgiveness...... by being his friend and actually communicating the next time things like that happen. They aren't immediately going to go back to being a couple, that sort of thing takes time and they certainly aren't the same people they were ten years prior but... it wouldn't hurt to try a little.

[ao3feed-itafushi]

to all the fairy tales

by hanyus “Explain your logic to me.” Fushiguro asked her. “You know perfectly well that's not what it's about, Megumi.” Tsumiki smiled softly at him. “The important thing about tales is happiness, and I hope that one day you find it and treasure it with someone.” The memories of his older sister made Fushiguro struggle for what he wanted, what he felt, and what would one day be worth not letting go. Nothing is as told in the fairy tales, in the books or in the stories. Something isn’t always going to be so simple. The path is going to be long. Too long. Fushiguro realizes too late that he is going to stumble many times on that same path alone—until Itadori Yuuji takes his heart, his hand, and walks next to him. Words: 10727, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: 呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen (Manga), 呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen (Anime) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Fushiguro Megumi, Itadori Yuuji, Fushiguro Tsumiki, Kugisaki Nobara, Inumaki Toge Relationships: Fushiguro Megumi/Itadori Yuuji Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Fairy Tale Elements, Falling In Love, Feelings Realization, Romantic Tension, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Soft Boys, Canon-Typical Violence, Inumaki Toge Uses Sign Language, Itadori Yuuji is a Ray of Sunshine from AO3 works tagged 'Fushiguro Megumi/Itadori Yuuji' https://ift.tt/xm3ouFe

[roalinda]

this is random, sorry %). In PoA movie Remus says about Lily "She had a way of seeing the beauty in others. Even, and most especially, when that person could not see it in themselves." It clashes with books where Remus never mentioned her name XD but okay, her friendship with Snape applies. And I think - Lily actually shared this trait with James. Dark wizard family heir, a werewolf, weak boy with cruel streak - he went and become their friend.

Hello anon ♡

Sorry for the late reply 😭

In all honesty, I am not much of a fan when it comes to HP movies. They are very misleading, and the whole - straying from the original plot - gets worse and worse with every movie. 🤦‍♀️

But let us assume that what Lupin said in the movie is something that is mentioned in the book as well, because apart from that, the book can give us more information on Lily's character, things that the movie denied the audience.

Most people in the fandom see her as nothing but a random girl who went and got married to James Potter to be Harry's mom whose sacrifice was necessary for the plot, but I think she was more than just a random girl with a history of refusing James' advances. True, we didn't see much of her ( and James) which is sad, but those small flashbacks show us that she was more than just a random girl and she had fire in her.

In the books, it is not explicitly mentioned anything about Lily and Lupin, but his reaction in the lake thing when Lily tried to stop James was not friendly towards Lily. What I mean by not friendly is not seeing her as a foe, I mean not interacting much or acknowledging, BUT I believe that Lily is kind and sees the best in people ( to a logical degree ) as much as she can until she can't. We see that she tries to see the positive traits of the marauders despite the fact that she was not really fond of them at that time in this conversation in the books.

"They sneak out at night. There's something weird about that Lupin. Where does he keep going?"

"He is ill, " said Lily. "They say he's ill — "

"Every month at the full moon?" said Snape.

"I know your theory," said Lily, and she sounded cold. "Why are you so obsessed with them anyway? Why do you care what they're doing at night?"

HP and the deathly Hallows - pages 673-674

She is not stupid. She is smart and probably has her own doubts as well, but she doesn't want to dive in the whole thing, not because she is not talented or not brave enough, because she can feel that this a personal problem and if Dumbledore is involved, it is a serious one. But the marauders are different from her, they are this small chain of friends with no intruders allowed despite being popular in the school, so she knows that nothing personal exists between them when it comes to Lupin's illness. She gets the fact that she should stay away and not meddle, because in the most simple term it doesn't have anything to do with her. I think if we want to link Lily's character and her relationship with Lupin during Hogwarts before dating James, this can be exhibit A and in some sense, it backs up what Lupin said in the movie, despite it was in POA and this conversation happened in the DH.

Same goes for Snape as you put it. She tries to continue and save her friendship with him because obviously she cherishes him as a friend until what happened at the lake.

"It's too late. I've made excuses for you for years."

HP and the deathly Hallows - page 675

So yes, she tries to see the good in people until she can't. ( also I have to mention the discussion here is about Lily not Snape )

Now, let's talk about James. I think James has that kind of character who doesn't make excuses for who he is friends with because he won't befriend anyone who he doesn't see worthy. Sirius Black? James was a bit biased at first in train, but Sirius was so easy-going and unbiased towards Slytherin and later showed such a sharp tongue and quick wit that James practically swooned. Remus Lupin? After spending time with him and knowing him, he was not a werewolf in James' idea, he was a friend worth having despite the risks. Peter Pettigrew? Despite what many people in the fandom think, I don't see James befriending him out of pity. James Potter had a big kind heart but he was not a type to stay in a friend group with a person who was pitiful. I think James saw Peter as friend who despite not being talented like he and Sirius, was a good company and a worthy friend. Yes, a great mistake that cost him his life, but that's for another discussion.

I don't find it strange that Lily was trying hard not to cut ties with Snape, considering the fact that he was her first friend from the wizarding world and who introduced her to the notion of magic BUT we have to pay attention to the fact that James was a lonely child that despite growing up in a wizarding family and being spoiled rotten, didn't have any friends before Sirius and later Remus and Peter. James and Lily were in the same boat with different dimensions.

So yes, your thoughts are absolutely correct with the small addition of my humble opinion that James and Lily's kindness is very different, specially in friendship.

Lily can cut ties but James either won't befriend or never cut ties, something so beautiful and tragic in his young life.

[vihattu-thethoroughbredofsin]

Okay, transformers fans, I need answers from you.

SPOILERS are possible, but not really. It's better not to read if you haven't watched the cartoon yet. Now a new animated series has been released, and for some reason I see the same thing in all opinions  — complaints and misunderstanding about why the GHOST is catching Decepticons and keeping them in prison. To this I have a counter question — why shouldn't they? It seems to be confirmed that for some time in the past, transformers openly fought on Earth. I very much doubt that they did it carefully and absolutely without harming humans . It is unlikely that the military conflict of huge robots did without any casualties at all (If it turns out that way, well... that would be stupid). And when the Autobots, and then Megatron after the destruction of the space bridge, went to cooperate with humans, the rest of the Decepticons did not. That is, there is a situation when supposedly aggressive huge robots that have not accepted the peace agreement are walking free, and it is not known what they have in mind. I doubt that all Decepticons are playful white and fluffy bunnies, considering the conditions they found themselves in. It is unlikely that they are just sitting peacefully somewhere without harming anyone. At least twice already, two of them were going to harm the child, presumably for the sake of entertainment, judging by the accompanying phrase before that. Moreover, there were rivals nearby who could really do harm, but they still threatened children who could not attack effectively. In such a situation, capture and detention in prison seems to be the only way out, if they did not come to an agreement in a good way. It's another matter what they do with them later, but the audience complains about hunting. Maybe the GHOST will turn out to be an evil insidious organization that eats poor and unfortunate Decepticons for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but so far their actions seem quite logical. Even if the Decepticons are starving and suffering, it doesn't automatically make them good guys. There may be reasons for fear. To condemn plot decisions with the fact that "well, they're cute and suffer!" when we don't even know what they did and what consequences their actions lead to is a bit strange. Maybe they demolished cities, maybe  humans were killed or maimed, we just don't know yet. If that was the case, then where else would they be if not in prison? There are more questions for Megatron, what kind of leader he was if the whole faction told him "No!" and went to hide and starve, just to disagree with his decision. Did he try to probe the ground before his decision at all? How did he not find like-minded Decepticons among his own soldiers? Did this Megatron really manage his troops so badly? Well, before condemning the actions of Optimus, he could think about what he could do to improve the situation. And if he has not come up with anything better than direct obedience... Then we found the winner in the nomination "The worst Decepticon leader". From this, I have a more global question for the fandom — do you really love Decepticons so much? To some strange blindness about the plots with them. After about a year of being in the fandom, I somehow got the impression that Decepticons are the public's favorites, no matter what, when fans treat Autobots rather coldly. And this applies to almost any media. Moreover, I do not judge from the point of view of morality, evil characters can be loved, there is no such popular "problematic" here. But it's just interesting. I can't understand what moods are floating in the fandom, I would like to know.

[nalyra-dreaming]

I think people are a bit "obsessed" cause if you take it at face value she was his mistress for so many years, in the show their relationship lasted the same amount of years of Loustat and she was the only human, besides Louis, he took an interest in and whom he turned. It hurt Louis and by the end she was clearly an antagonist. Many people didn't grasp the layers behind it, that's for sure.

🤷🏽‍♀️ If she had been the mistress for all the years Lestat wouldn’t have needed to put an ultimatum to Louis, and Louis himself noted how they were laying low for years. But that just as a note.

The focus on the jealousy is a bit wild to me. I‘m sure that was there, too, but Antoinette was a symptom, not the cause, and Louis put great care into directing the focus.

(And that Claudia’s focus on it is more extreme even is only logical, too.)

And of course it hurts Louis - but he also suffers these indignities for a higher purpose. (No wasted lines in this show 🤪).

I‘ve said it before, but I find the vampiric aspect missing in a lot of considerations… do people really think it’s a coincidence that Louis skips over the good years? Over him choosing to stand by? Over his own kills?

I mean I‘m obviously influenced by the books, but … it’s even spelled out for the audience and shown, repeatedly, that the tale was not the (whole) truth… And of course that applies to her as well.

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super 060

“You see, Kid Trunks, travel is a lot like a sword.  It cuts one way, but it also can cut the other way.  And if you’re not careful, you’ll drop your sword polish while you’re cleaning it, and ruin your best jacket.  Well, my best jacket.  You might have one in your own timeline, but it probably hasn’t been manufactured yet.”

“Um... all I wanted to know was why your hair is blue instead of lavender.”

So in this episode, Bulma has the time machine refueled and ready for the next trip to Future Trunks’ world.  Beerus, however, doesn’t see the point, since he believes that he already defeated Goku Black and Zamasu by destroying Zamasu in Episode 59.  

The current working theory is that the Zamasu of Age 779 was planning to kill Gowasu, steal his Time Ring, and use it to make two wishes on the Super Dragon Balls.  One wish would be for an indestructible body, while the other would be for Goku Black, the ultimate enforcer for his plan.  Then Zamasu would eventually make his way to the alternate timeline Earth where Future Trunks lives. 

But since Beerus destroyed Zamasu before he could do any of that, then the crisis should no longer exist, right?  Well, if that’s true, then Trunks should even be standing here, because if the crisis never occurred, he never would have traveled back in time to seek help in the first place.  And in that case, Beerus would have never had any reason to destroy Zamasu. 

We went through all of this in the Androids Saga in DBZ.  Trunks went back in time and made changes to history, but when he returned home, nothing had changed.  The changes only applied to the past world that he visited, which followed a different timeline than his own.  Beerus seems to grasp the logic of this, but he also seems to think that it works differently when he does it.  So he gets all fussy and angry, and Whis is about to take him home for a nap when Goku suggests that they get a good dinner before heading back to Trunks’ world.  Oh no, don’t show them eating again--

Fuuuuuuck.  You know, DBZ used to do like dozens of episodes without showing the entire main cast sitting down for a full-course meal.  It was like, they had more important things to do with the show’s runtime, like... I don’t know... advancing the plot.  Or... what was that other thing?  Oh, right.  Building atmosphere and tension. 

Not Dragon Ball Super, though.  No, if the characters don’t eat a meal together every two or three episodes, the audience might start to worry.  We don’t want Goku to get malnourished, do we?  I mean, they could just say he ate alone, off-screen, but how would we know for sure?

I’m not sure what to make of this trend, but I suspect it had something to do with that One-Piece/Toriko crossover that DBZ was included in.  From what I gather, all Toriko does is storylines about food and cooking and eating, and that seems close enough to the scope of One-Piece that it wouldn’t be awkward to just have them eat for a whole episode.   But Dragon Ball never really did this a whole lot.  There was a big party at the end of the Majin Buu Saga, and Mr. Satan held that party at his hotel in the Yo! Son Goku special from 2008, and Bulma’s birthday party in Battle of Gods, but those were clearly special occasions.  The last two were obviously meant to serve as big reunions for the characters long after their show ended. 

And yet, Dragon Ball Super seems determined to throw a big party or picnic every chance it gets.  According to the Dragon Ball Wiki, Res F, the Destroyer Invitational Tournament, and this saga all take place in the same year, Age 779. You’d think some of these characters would be partied out by now.

My theory right now is that this was something that happens a lot in One-Piece, or Toriko, or some other very popular shonen anime, and it became so ingrained in pop culture that it became a trope, and every other shonen anime started doing it too.  And then when Dragon Ball Super started, it was just second nature to slap a mealtime scene into as many episodes as possible. 

I’m not saying it’s bad.  If you write the stories with this in mind, you could use these scenes very effectively.  But Dragon Ball Super tends to use them for padding.  There’s exactly one plot point in this episode, and it’s Trunks going back to his own future to see if Goku Black is still there.  The trip takes like two seconds, but they filled out the other 21:58 by having them eat first and argue over what will happen on the time trip that Trunks has already decided to take. 

Also, they throw in some off-model Beerus, for your viewing displeasure.  For a dude who hates time travel, he sure looks like he went back to the 90′s for a double-wide DBZ-style neck.

Finally, Kid Trunks gets frustrated with this arguing in circles and he shouts “What are we doing?!” So Future Trunks has to explain the multiverse concept to him.

He uses 18 as a handy illustration, since Kid Trunks already knows her.  In the “main” timeline, 18 married Krillin and had a daughter with him, Marron.  In Future Trunks’ world, 18 terrorized the Earth for about twenty years.  Trunks went back in time to warn the Z-Figthers about her, and those changes eventually led to 18 turning good and marrying Krillin.  But none of that affected Trunks’ world, and he ultimately had to kill 18 to stop her. 

Of course, the more classic example is Goku, who died of the heart virus in one timeline, but Trunks gave him the medicine to save his life.  So in the “main” timeline, Goku’s still alive, but in Future Trunks’ world, Goku is still dead. Each time someone goes back in time and changes things, it creates a new timeline. 

Future Trunks’ argument, then is that the same thing probably happened when Beerus destroyed the Zamasu of Age 779.  He only knew to do that because of information he gained from when Goku Black followed Trunks from the future.  When that happened, the main timeline changed from what it had been, and a new timeline was created, one where the change had not occurred. 

I think what’s got Beerus flustered here is that he is right, but not entirely.  By destroying Zamasu, he ensured that this main timeline is safe from Zamasu, and he also ensured that there is a version of Future Trunks’ timeline that was spared the horrors of Goku Black. 

However, there should also be an additional timeline where he did not destroy Zamasu, and another additional Future Trunks’ timeline where Goku Black does all the stuff we saw in Episode 47, etc. 

Anyway, this entire conversation is pointless, because Trunks still has to go home, whether Beerus is right or not.  So after a billion years, he finally gets back in the time machine, along with Goku and Vegeta, who want to be there in case the bad guys are somehow still in play.  Also, Bulma wants to tag along because she’s always wanted to visit Trunks’ world, and if all goes well, Goku and Vegeta might need someone to help them fly the time machine back home.

Unfortunately, it’s a one-seater, so Bulma has to sit on Trunks’ shoulders. Also, Goku gets motion sickness when he rides this thing. 

Aaaaand it’s time for the #kisscourse.  So, from Mai’s perspective, this whole Saga probably hasn’t even lasted a full 24 hours, right?  Yet somehow she keeps getting attacked and nearly killed while Trunks is away.  In Episode 47 he thought she had died, and then he returns and she’s totally fine.  Then she sends him back in the time machine, and she’s fine in that episode, but now he returns and she took some sort of hit while doing something or other.  I’m pretty sure she was fine in the previous episode, though.

This time, Goku has the senzu beans with him, and he gives one to Trunks, who chews it up and spits it in her mouth with a kiss.  This is supposed to be romantic, but it’s actually really, really dumb.  I’m not a big fan of Future Mai, but I hate how they keep using her as a damsel for Trunks to worry about while he’s away from her.  She was fine before this, and now suddenly she’s so badly hurt that she can’t even swallow a senzu bean, but not so badly hurt that she bled out or anything.  Maybe Goku Black stabbed her with that energy blade of his.  You know, the one that doesn’t kill people?

Also, if anyone did manage to find something romantic in this scene, Goku spoils the moment by revealing he has no idea what kissing is, or why Vegeta would expect a married man to know what it is. 

This caused a lot of drama in the fandom in 2016, mostly because it added fuel to the fire of the ongoing argument about whether Goku has anything resembling human emotions.  Like, does he actually love his wife, the way a man loves a woman, or is he just a clueless dope who only lives with her because he doesn’t know what any of it means?  It’s not a Saiyan thing, since Vegeta seems to understand the societal norms, but for some reason Akira Toriyama will sometimes do interviews about shit like this, and fans will try to use it as ammo to tear down Goku.  A lot of fans held out hope that the subtitles were wrong somehow, and that the dub version or the manga version would clarify this bit, but instead they basically repeated the line, almost word-for-word. 

Now, I already went through all of this nonsense when it happened, but this was the episode where I realized once and for all that this show just sort of throws shit at the wall, and it’s not worth taking it too seriously.  There’s some bitter fuck out there who despises Gochi shippers and desperately wants everyone to think Goku is a manchild ignorant of even the most basic romantic gestures, so that those mean old fans will stop drawing pictures of Goku loving his wife, or Vegeta, or OC’s, or whoever, really.  Goku’s kind of a slut in fanart land. 

Anyway, some bitter fuck out there thinks that if they make an official anime episode that proves their point, everyone will just magically stop enjoying the thing this person hates, because anime episodes are legally binding contracts, and that’s a totally reasonable thing to believe.  Hey, here’s a scene from another anime episode:

So at best, the #kisscourse boils down to arguing over which animation cels are more true than others.  And since the Androids Saga rules ass and the Zamasu Saga sucks ass, I know which one I want in my personal canon.  Hint: It’s the one where Goku makes out with his wife so hard that Master Roshi is stunned into silence.

Anyway, the bad guys show up, and clearly nothing has changed about the timeline, so we’re basically right back where we were before.  The only difference is that Goku thinks he understands who and what Goku Black is, but Goku Black denies his theory.  He isn’t a copy created by the Super Dragon Balls.  Not at all.  His body is the real thing, inhabited by the mind of Zamasu.  How?  He used the Super Dragon Balls to wish for this, but the wish was to switch bodies with Goku. 

But how did he do all of that if Beerus destroyed him?  We’ll get to that next time, and I can promise it won’t be interesting at all.

[antigonewinchester]

@lonelygodscompanion​

Thank you for your detailed response! My thoughts have always been to not take it as literally as one day being one year in hell-time... I’ve always held the idea that in a plane of existence where there’s nothing revolving around any sun, a ‘year’ or a ‘second’ can last as long as your torturer wants it to. This is part of why I’ve recently been wondering if the sort of time dilation in hell, in which dean speaks of 40 years in 4 months and alastair of 100 years in about one year, was only applied to the ones chosen as the ‘righteous man’, if we choose to believe alastair about this. Then the demons would have a time advantage when trying to break them, and perhaps others in hell would experience time relatively equivalent to earth. Not saying I believe thats true, but theres something there considering those are the only times we’re given “number of years” someone was being tortured. Also interesting because I’ve noticed that in two instances in later seasons, when referring to time passing specifically in the Cage, the characters used the same amount of time which had approximately passed on earth (the instances I’m referring to are 11.10 when lucifer says torture is “so five years ago” and 15.08, which I don’t think you’ve seen yet, where a released-from-the-cage Adam says he hasn’t eaten in ten years.)

Ha, I went pretty literal with my interpretation (in part from working on my Dean & Bela in Hell fic and being like, wait, how long has Bela actually been in Hell before Dean?? and then trying to estimate the time out) but definitely understand taking a less 1:1 approach, and tbh that would usually be more my approach, too. What does a “day” even mean in Hell when, as you say, it seems to be an entirely different dimension where nothing is actually revolving around the sun. The idea of the time dilation of Hell applying particularly to the ‘righteous man’ is a chilling intriguing interpretation, and really hammers home Dean being just a cog in the system, a piece that has to break to push the Apocalypse forward; Dean could’ve held out for 3 months in Earth time, but 30 years was another thing entirely. It would work better for Heaven and the angels, too, since it’s easier for them to ‘pretend’ to be rescuing the righteous man over months on Earth while letting him get tortured for years in Hell.

And I hadn’t even picked up on those later season comments—my inexact knowledge of the later seasons is showing through, lol. I might take Lucifer’s comment to be less literal, him basically saying torture was “so five minutes/years ago” as in out of style, but it does line up fairly well with how long Sam has been out of the Cage, and Adam’s 10 year comment also closely matches the real timing on Earth, too. In-universe, there are ways of hand-waving this discrepancy away (Michael protecting Adam from the time difference, for ex), while at the writing level, it seems like the writers retconning Hell’s time dilation because it would’ve been confusing for the audience in S11/S15. My hesitation with applying Earth time to Hell time for Sam’s stint in the Cage is that it would mean he was only in Hell for about a year and half, and the show definitely frames Sam’s time there as Very Very Horrible and arguably “worse” than Dean’s time in Hell, which doesn’t really fit with that short of a time frame...

But I suppose this is when the ‘logic’ of a story runs up against the emotionality of it, and while trying to get some specific timing for both Dean and Sam in Hell is a fun exercise, for me what’s ultimately most significant is how their time in Hell is framed by the narrative & how it each affected them.