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anderscim · 11 months

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bagel’s drdt death predictions but they’re all based on character relationships and assumptions (lots of assumptions)

//spoilers for drdt ch1 + ch2 pt. 1

//long, long wall of text warning (nearly 4k words am i right 😭)

i mean, the title explains it all.

there’s really nothing else other than my unhinged predictions which will likely be wildly incorrect compared to the actual outcome in DRDT

so, as always, take this with a grain of salt

alright, let’s get straight into it.

arturo and j:

obviously these two have a… very interesting dynamic. they’re constantly at odds with each other, and this worsened especially after arturo found out about j’s family through her secret.

arturo is following j around and she hates it. arturo constantly crosses j’s boundaries, idolizes her, places her in his own “perfect image” that she doesn’t want to be a part of, and she (justifiably) hates it.

meanwhile, arturo sees j as one of the “beautiful people” that he idolizes and tries to get close to in order to improve his self value, possibly in an attempt to resolve his own insecurities. (okay i don’t think i’m gonna talk about this later so i’m gonna say it now. but based on the fact that arturo seems very attached to “societally valuable” things and people (major brands, celebrities, etc.) and the fact that he instantly pushes away things he sees as “ugly,” arturo may actually be trying to preserve a certain image of himself and/or his ego by surrounding himself with valuable things—which could be due to holding some sort of insecurity that he can’t be as “valuable” as others without those factors surrounding him constantly. maybe because he sees himself as “ugly.” just a thought. not justifying his actions though. idk)

but though i love j with all my heart… i’m very, very scared that she’s going to be the culprit for this chapter.

except for the possible motive, there’s actually a suspicious amount of logical conclusions and reasonings one can make that point to j being the culprit.

this isn’t my post, but i’m going to put this here because u/Difficult-Parfait627 on reddit explained the logic significantly better than i could have:

i also saw some theories on j’s secret weapon (the remote) possibly opening trapdoors that only she could access, so that’s definitely another possible advantage.

aside from that, i find it intriguing that MonoTV makes specific mention of this detail regarding the playground:

it would be very, very interesting if this proved to be foreshadowing of some sort regarding arei’s murder. whether it would just be the height of the room that plays into a factor of the case, or the fact that the movie screening room and the playground are only separable by a single wall, or both—that, i don’t know. but seeing multiple prevailing theories it could be possible that this is more important than we think.

not only this, but during the trial j constantly pointed fingers at many people and jumped from suspect to suspect—which is exactly what min did as well, and might be an indication that j is desperate to pin the crime on someone else.

though i’m probably wrong

revision: the following is… likely incorrect (_ _;) i’ll keep what i originally said here for the sake of it, but just know that arturo is more likely to double down and shun himself even further from any guilt if this theory proves to be true. here’s a reblog chain ft. @/aquariiium that explains it really well!

but if j is the culprit for this case, it could actually lead to character development for arturo. after all, if j gets caught, he would probably blame himself—if he didn’t get so worked up over eden and the reveal of his secret, if he didn’t let j overhear the conversation—she might’ve not committed a murder. i think he might feel intense guilt that he let j die—especially since he’s so (unhealthily) attached to her.

don’t know man. just trying to give him redeeming qualities here lmao

essentially, i think j might die this chapter as the culprit for arei’s murder, and arturo will survive for at least the next few chapters. whether he’ll be a victim/killer in the last few chapters i’m unsure about at this current moment, but bear with me

side note: it would be absolutely cruel if whoever the killer is, they get a quiet execution in a way that reflects arei’s body discovery ;-; also tbh i’m probably wildly wrong about all of this. for you guys who say the true culprit is someone else (especially people who think it’s levi, eden, or whit), i see you and i do see why that’s definitely a possibility. take all of my theorizing with a grain of salt lmao

whit and charles:

(sorry i couldn’t find a proper CG for them haha)

ah, one of my favorite dynamics. i love these two so much

it’s cool to see how they’re actually quite open with each other now, compared to the beginning where they were established as near-total opposites of each other (mainly looks at the free time event)

but as it goes with many ships in danganronpa…they’ll probably end in tragedy. unfortunately

i believe i made a really brief analysis earlier on how whit deals with grief by completely deflecting his true sentiments through the use of humor, and i think as of now this still holds true. whit’s bottling up his grief, and sooner or later he’ll have to come to terms with it.

whit has developed an understanding for charles, though, and seems to be genuinely considerate towards him. plus, he’s willing to admit to any mistakes he makes and is very open about it to charles, which indicates how close they actually are

charles struggles with not only his hemophobia + necrophobia (fear of blood and fear of corpses/things associated with death), but with the pity from others that result from it.

he really, really hates being pitied. we actually saw this earlier in the FTE between charles and whit as well—he seemed very worked up with how whit was “belittling” charles to make teruko laugh. obviously whit figured this out, admitted what he did, and eventually became more considerate of charles’ feelings. charles notices this and decides to open up to him.

👆 this line is so cute btw

i think though, especially because they’re so close to each other it’ll really impact their characters when tragedy strikes. personally i’m more scared that charles is going to die (as a victim) because plot-wise it would force whit to come to terms with his grief—the grief over not just his mother but the participants of the killing game—that he has pushed into the back of his mind for a long time.

but at the same time charles surviving is also definitely a possibility given his importance in the plot right now—and not only that, if whit dies, i think he would have a clear moment of feeling ashamed of himself for not even being able to look at his partner’s body and being unable to come to terms with whit’s death until later.

either way, one of them is definitely doomed to die, and the other is probably going to be a survivor.

for me, regardless of who bites the dust, they’re going to be a chapter 3 death. i personally believe this because it would give both of them time to cope and face their grief in their respective character arcs over the next few chapters—but also because i think chapter 4 is going to be surrounding a separate character dynamic.

nico, ace, and hu:

yes, it’s the “two people who absolutely hate each other and the one person that stands in between” trio.

as already established within the series, nico and ace hate each other. i don’t even need to put screenshots as proof—plus nico literally attempted to murder ace.

and by the way, for those of you who said other people manipulated nico into doing it, i think that would be very contradictory with what the series is trying to get at. nico is their own independent person—and they’ve tried to solidify that fact. this specific murder attempt was to probably establish that nico has their own limits, despite how much they are infantilized by others. if it’s true that someone manipulated nico, i feel like it would… just take away from nico’s individuality and turn them into someone to be pitied upon.

not only that, even nico established themselves that they have a tendency to be agressive.

there’s not much to analyze here, but it definitely is a strong indication that nico does have their own limits and will not act all innocent-like if those boundraries are crossed. it’s interesting though, because this kinda makes nico a foil to ace. while ace is “all bark and no bite,” and/or accusing and insulting everyone 24/7 but never acting upon it, nico is the opposite: not the type for words but will genuinely act if they are pushed hard enough.

i genuinely think nico attempted to murder ace on their own accord. plus, it would fit perfectly with one of the themes from this chapter

anyways—though i’m not going to condone her for infantilizing nico—there’s one person who’s kinda been keeping both of them in check. (or moreso, keeping ace in check) quite literally, hu defending nico, despite the fact that her way of doing so was really flawed, temporarily stopped their conflicts with ace from escalating in a short amount of time. at least until ace almost got murdered though.

the thing is, hu sees things in black and white. she trusts a little too much into nico and she thinks they desperately need to be protected. meanwhile, she essentially antagonizes ace, and didn’t seem to attempt to sympathize with the fact he almost got murdered. she didn’t make many attempts (especially during the second chapter) to genuinely understand their “grey areas,” instead jumping to what she knows. and… it’s understandable why she does this, but regardless, it’s one of her greatest flaws. however, that flaw is exactly what humanizes hu. she cares immensely about others, even if that means trusting them too much. she puts it on herself to help anyone she can. she wants others to rely on her, even if that means she inadvertently forces the role of “the damsel in distress” onto them as a result. though it doesn’t exactly justify her actions, i felt it was still important to bring up. (by the way i actually like hu, plus i love the concept of a really flawed but sincere mother figure. i don’t hate hu at all lmao i think she’s a really good character)

especially as of ch2 ep11, hu seems to show possible signs of change after getting called out by david. his so-called “betrayal” (by throwing hu’s personal impression and expectations of himself out the window) might begin a development arc allowing hu to see past her… i guess… her biases.

but, i’m scared that hu’s character arc would end (whether abruptly or gradually) in the middle of the series, rather than continuing to the very last episode of DRDT—and that she’ll get killed/executed before she can truly develop and leave the killing game with a new perspective.

additionally, as far as i can tell i don’t expect nico and ace to ever make up during the killing game—because in traditional danganronpa, that never seems to be an actual occurrence. not only that, but the whole tension surrounding their situation has already gone too far—neither of them will probably ever forgive each other after how far this conflict went (especially ace, who almost got killed by nico). i personally think hu, though the way she went about this was not exactly the best, acted as a “mediator” of sorts between ace and nico by throwing herself in and breaking up each conflict. if hu dies, their relationship will completely fall apart and their arguments will likely escalate past the point of no return—which seems to be a perfect setup for a murder case. personally i’d put hu as a chapter three death (regardless of victim or culprit), nico and ace’s dynamic escalating to a breaking point during chapter four, and either nico or ace dying in chapter four (with the other one surviving the killing game). my personal opinion as for who dies is nico, but mainly because i think ace might actually be a survivor.

ace and levi:

oh no i wasn’t done talking about ace yet, did you seriously think i would stop talking about him after all of that? plus i. didn’t give ace a proper character analysis in that previous section

ace and levi’s relationship is very unique as well. at first, ace and levi felt at least relatively comfortable around each other—which was really rare for someone like ace, who’s essentially scared of everything and holds many insecurities that prevent him from easily trusting people/processes/objects.

over time during chapter 1, ace and levi get closer to each other. ace develops a feeling of safety when around levi, since to him, he seems like one of the only few people who don’t just see him as a coward.

and that was true for a while, at least, until this happened.

this blog post by @thefandomenchantress explains the effects of levi’s dialogue here better than i ever could. go read this. please but essentially—the death threat is really important because it essentially shattered ace’s sense of security around levi, but the fact that levi out of all people called ace a coward really seals the deal for him. this is my interpretation, but ace probably felt that levi was more non-judgmental than the others and was also one of the few people that saw past his insecurities. so levi specifically targeting one of his largest weaknesses, probably hurts a lot.

not only that, but ace genuinely seems to believe that this is what levi actually thinks about him. though he focuses on the death threat here, i think it still holds true that he’s really paranoid of levi and thinks he actually hates ace, despite their dynamic in the first chapter.

on the other hand, levi regrets threatening and insulting ace in the first trial, and makes attempts to apologize and make up with him. he even asks teruko for advice here.

since ace is really insecure, it’s really difficult to make him actually forgive levi. ace’s paranoia makes him believe that others are out to “get him” and cause him harm, especially when it comes to people who bluntly pointed out his insecurities in the past. and as a person who genuinely hates those parts of himself and wants to get rid of his paranoia, it makes ace act really aggressive when people begin pointing out those issues again. after all, they’re reminders of what he thinks he is.

👆this quote is actually from an earlier point, and is ace talking about why he still races despite being scared of horses. but it’s representative of how he hates his own reputation and his insecurities that are connected with it—which he desperately doesn’t want people to see. that’s why ace is so aggressive. it’s because he feels he needs to bluff and act all “strong” to prevent people from targeting his insecurities.

the reason why i actually believe ace would be a survivor is because of some personal unhinged interpretations i have for chapter four. like i mentioned earlier, i personally believe that the current conflict between nico and ace will reach its climax during chapter four, which will likely also be a major part of the murder case during that chapter. and uh. if we go by traditional danganronpa patterns we know which character is probably doomed during that chapter (that is, assuming DRDT still follows a similar equation). though i admit the stereotype of “buff character dies during fourth chapter” is a bit overused—the thing is, if the conflict between nico and ace does actually reach its climax during that chapter, it actually makes sense relationship-wise for levi to play a major part of it. getting into major “this is probably wrong” territory here despite the fact that ace is currently distrusting towards levi right now, i think there’s still some part of him that harbors more personal feelings towards levi (whether that’s positive or negative)—i don’t think ace would be attacking levi so much otherwise. he probably feels like he was betrayed by levi, likely due to their changes in character dynamic during the first chapter. i also find it interesting how ace has always harbored a feeling of resentment towards nico—and i personally feel that this is because nico also reminds ace of one of his insecurities. they represent something that ace hates about himself, or they represent the antithesis of this insecurity—as for what specifically, i’m not sure, but it likely has something to do with ace’s paranoia. that’s probably why he attacks nico so much—because they remind him of something he hates about himself.

if both of them die, in the same chapter, i think ace would start doubting himself. all that would be left are people who have already seen how insecure he is. i think he’d lose his “purpose” and “relationships” in some ways, in that case—which would actually be a great setup to his secret quote: “i don’t know what to do with myself anymore.” ace markey existential crisis at 3 anyone /j

okay but. like. idk what i was even trying to say there. just take all of that with a grain of salt

okay, finally:

david:

(okay he’s literally just his own category at this point.) (i like to psychoanalyze him independently because i uh. have so much to say about him)

if you couldn’t already tell from my multiple theory posts about david, i have a considerable amount of interpretations regarding his character:

his current demeanor doesn’t reflect his true personality, but it’s not exactly like he’s a constantly optimistic person either

he’s not actually manipulating everyone into making the worst decisions. even his plan, though it wasn’t foolproof, was probably better than any of the options the cast had. however he did try to preserve his own image a little while presenting the plan since he’s trying to hide his depression

(both of those bullets are linked to other theory posts i made that elaborate more on these points)

either way, david is currently established as the “antagonist” character for this series, which was especially solidified after his breakdown in ch2 ep11. i think we all know what usually happens to the antagonist character in chapter 5.

however—david, unlike other canon danganronpa antagonists (especially nagito and kokichi from goodbye despair and killing harmony), has different motivations. rather than acting fully evil and/or cynical in an effort for the “greater good,” to me, he just… seems like he’s acting cynical and manipulative because that’s who he thinks he actually is. he’s playing a glorified version of his self-doubts and insecurities. so, to be completely honest, i think rather than him acting in a way to throw everyone off and ultimately end the killing game, i think david’s just in the middle of a breakdown and is acting suicidal. he’s actually pretty smart, so unless he was really emotional/desperate, i don’t think his lying would be as obvious as it is now. i think he honestly would’ve thought about it more (/lh) if he was genuinely attempting to end the killing game through lying and making everyone vote wrong. plus, we have already seen in chapter one that david doesn’t really… think straight when he’s emotional. we saw this during xander’s trial with the way he kept accusing teruko and thought she was the culprit despite the gradual accumulation of evidence that proved her innocence. (i think it’s general consensus that david actually did care about xander—and arei actually—and was therefore pretty emotional regarding their deaths, but i will make a post on that later if necessary.)

if david really is breaking down and acting suicidal in the second trial, i think it would fit if the plot decided to pull some irony and… y’know, have the one person who wants to die the most actually be a survivor. i really have no backing to this (and tbh i think i’m saying this because i want david to live LMAO), and i don’t exactly have any concrete evidence that establishes david as an antagonist character that doesn’t follow canon danganronpa antagonist traditions, but even then i still think it would be pretty cool if that happened.

god. this was. unhinged.

okay but watch me be entirely wrong on this lmao

i hope you guys could actually understand that entire wall of text because i don’t even know what i was writing halfway through also i didn’t put chapter 5/6 here because i literally have no idea what’s going to happen. it’s just going to be full of plot twists and i know it

i also didn’t exactly put a clear amount of killers/survivors so they don’t exactly. match up. plus i didn’t actually do a thorough analysis on veronika, rose, eden, teruko, etc so i’m probably going to have to go through those if i genuinely feel like doing a proper death order. (something is telling me rose and veronika are both going to get significant character development though, especially in the later chapters. we don’t have too much information on either of them yet (moreso veronika than rose) so i’m kinda waiting until we get more scenes to make assumptions about those two in particular)

but in summary:

j might die this chapter, arturo’s going to get significant character development as a result

no matter what, charwhit is absolutely doomed and one of them is going to die in the third chapter while the other is a survivor

hu will probably die in the third chapter, leading the conflict between nico and ace to escalate and reach a climax during the fourth chapter

(of course, this is assuming drdt follows traditional danganronpa and has a double murder during the third chapter. i’m not too much of a fan of the trope myself, but for the sake of organization)

nico and levi, who ace has the most personal (mostly negative) emotions towards at the current moment, will probably die during the fourth chapter leading ace to have an existential crisis and get character development (and will have to navigate his way to the end)

david is a non-traditional antag so he might die during chapter 5, but i personally see it more ironic and fitting to see him survive until the end seeing his current emotions and character

anyways.

i know there’s a lot of you who are significantly better at analyzing certain characters than i ever could so please please don’t hesitate to correct me if there’s an assumption i made that’s incorrect, and/or if you have anything i said that you could refute

plus i didn’t like. rewatch the entire series to make this i just had a long train of thought and searched for certain scenes that fit the most to what i was saying even if my assumptions weren’t correct

and as always. take this all with a grain of salt

(no but seriously, feel free to voice your opinions on this as well! i’ll definitely listen to them)

#bagel’s train of thought #drdt #danganronpa despair time #j rosales #arturo giles #charles cuevas #whit young #nico hakobyan #hu jing #ace markey #levi fontana #david chiem #despair time #okay but. this is nearly 3.8k words holy shit #sorry about that #i really went overboard 😭

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theabyssgazesalsointoyou · 10 months

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upstage is cute but the way i see it it was never going to work out because jake didn't actually like christine. everything i'm going to say in this post are my personal interpretations & headcanons so don't @ me.

jake is, unfortunately, kind of a dick. he's my favorite character but he's self-centered and insincere and guarded. he's rich and privileged and therefore not very considerate of others- it's not completely his fault, it's an inevitable consequence when you're a teenage boy from an elite family who places a lot of value on popularity. he has trust and self-esteem issues because of his parents and he has an image to maintain. chasing relationships he knows aren't going to last is one of his many unhealthy coping mechanisms. at the same time, he's starved for approval and praise and would do anything to feel loved- but his abandonment issues lead him to believing it's never going to last so he constantly self-sabotages himself.

that is the essence of his relationship with christine. he got tired of chloe for whatever reason, maybe it was the toxicity or maybe he needed something new to feel the thrill again. and yeah, at first he was probably genuinely captivated by christine's energy. she's unashamed of being herself. she radiates personality. she's passionate about her interests and the values she believes in. to jake, who's essentially living a false life built on lies and façades to keep up his reputation, she's everything he thinks he lacks. wishes he could be.

but like i said- jake is insincere. he doesn't trust easily. he doesn't open up to people and christine is not an exception. i've already made this post before but in the trt production jake mentions his insecurity about the pressure to be perfect all the time then immediately deflects it with a joke. similarly, he reveals his parents are absent but shuts down any possibility of further conversation by brushing it off. of course christine is confused by this and unsure of her status with jake. (why did jake mention any of those things in the first place? from the doylist perspective it's because the show wants to deliver this information to the audience and make them realize his character has depth, of course. from the watsonian perspective, however, i am choosing to interpret it as him either trying to win christine over with pity points or slipping up because of his desperateness for someone to notice his struggles.)

what really makes it certain that jake wasn't truly committed to christine is the halloween scene. jake's prince costume isn't just a 'dumb jock' joke, it proves that he wasn't really listening to christine when she suggested the idea. christine says it herself- to him, 'she's not juliet'.

to top it off, jake is the typical 'romantic rival' character. he's meant to be a contrast to jeremy when it comes to christine. say what you will about jeremy's feelings for her being one-sided for the majority of the story but he truly adores her. jake does not. upstage is a couple that was never meant to last, it was quite literally written that way.

(... but the broadway production seems to forget this and has jake really spill his heart to christine during upgrade (contrary to his cheesy flirting in the trt version) and be generally more sincerely devoted to her. i am firm in my opinion that the writing for jake in the broadway production was horribly inconsistent because the attempt to give him more depth backfired. he didn't need to be a dimensional character, bmc simply has too big of a cast for every character to get their own story. jake is a side character written to come off as a dick with the little screentime he has and that's the point of his character.)

but yeah it's cute and post-canon they could work out their problems. i can see that happening.

#bmc #be more chill #jake dillinger #christine canigula #not tagging as upstage because. it's not #i am passionate about jake dillinger he's my poor little woof woof and i have STRONG feelings about him

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thestupidhelmet · 3 months

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Oh sorry this is a big ask but E for 1-6 but also for couples: 17-21? Thank youuuuu 😘

Emotional Wounds: Eric, Donna, Jackie, Hyde, Fez, Kelso, Eric/Donna, Jackie/Hyde, Kelso/Brooke, Fez/Rhonda, Red/Kitty

Eric: Low self image, particularly where his sense of being "man enough" is concerned. This issue affects his confidence in many areas of his life, and he both internalizes the negativity with how he thinks about himself and externalizes it by projecting his need to "be the man" (in a regressive, gender essentialist way) in his relationship with Donna (e.g., prove he's smarter than her, more athletic, can earn more money, etc.)

Because Eric is naturally sensitive and empathetic toward other people, like his mom, his dad views him as not being masculine in the manner Red understands masculinity.

Eric also isn't athletic enough to be on a team, but he does enjoy playing basketball with his friends and watching football. Yet that's not enough to counter Red's perspective that Eric isn't man enough. By the time Eric demonstrates what a good shot he is with a rifle to Red, it's too little too late.

Unfortunately, after growing up with this messaging from his dad for seventeen years -- exasperated by his friends' near-constant confirmation of Red's opinion that Eric is more like a girl (the worst insult a straight, cis, American male can receive according to so many generations of people) -- Eric has internalized his supposed inadequacy.

This feeling of inadequacy leads to intense insecurity about not being enough for Donna, which leads Eric to trying to control her when she asserts more and more of her independence and power (over her own life).

Eric's mom often infantalizes him, and that only deepens his distorted sense of self.

Donna: She grows up with parents who don't set enough boundaries. Boundaries help children feel safe and protected (but when boundaries become too restrictive, they're a method of harmful control and don't allow a child to make mistakes without punishment, to explore their sense of self or the world properly).

This lack of boundaries exposes Donna to the ups and downs of her parents' relationship (entendre intended). She witnesses their emotional, sexual, and marital struggles.

Her parents' relationship also models an unhealthy, regressive, gender essentialism that she rebels against. Her mom doesn't engage in feminism until Donna is sixteen or seventeen. By then, Donna has already internalized the message that women and feminine attributes are viewed as weak by society at large and will limit her possibilities.

Early in life, Donna's gender expression and interests skew stereotypically male (our understanding of gender today is, thankfully, far broader than it was in the 1960s and 1970s). Her parents' relationship might have been the cause, or it intensified Donna's inherent sense of her gender.

Because of the instability of her parents' marriage (not only how Bob and Midge relate to each other but also how their participation in weird fads absorb their attention), Donna feels out of control of her homelife and craves control over her own. She also goes in the opposite direction, becomes out of control when she loses all sense of external stability.

Jackie: Her parents teach her from a very young age that giving and receiving gifts (or money) demonstrates love. Their frequent physical and emotional absences create in Jackie a need to escape reality through fantasy, one where she's loved unconditionally and is always taken care of financially.

She speaks loudly and often because her parents don't truly listen to her. She's vain, self-centered, classist, and xenophobic because her parents raised her with their values and by modeling similar behaviors.

She lives in constant fear of being alone and penniless -- and, for her, being penniless means unloved. She counters this fear with controlling behavior.

She tries to control everything and everyone she can to stay safe (and, again, because of how he parents modeled how to act).

She fantasizes regularly, sometimes to the point of delusion, to avoid deep emotional pain.

She focuses on the superficial and social status to keep herself from self-reflection and to get external validation of her value.

Her arrogance and vanity disguise low self-esteem. See my meta Jackie Burkhart and Steven Hyde: Loser and Dirtbag? for a detailed analysis on this particular point.

Her experience of parental abandonment makes romantic commitment an obsession.

So much of the above is mitigated, unlearned, and grown out of during her relationship (platonic and romantic) with Hyde. He teaches her that love is support and quality time, among other things, and not gifts. He doesn't give into her controlling tendencies and teaches her that if she asks instead of demands, she'll get a much better outcome. He counters her fantasies with reality, sometimes harsh and other times far more emotionally satisfying than any fantasy.

With the right (mostly Hyde's) encouragement, Jackie learns to value herself beyond the superficial. She learns that she can provide monetarily for herself rather than be dependent on a man for financial security. She becomes self-reflective and owns her behavior. And more.

Hyde: His parents' alcoholism, abuse, and neglect create a host of emotional wounds in Hyde, who is full of empathy fir other despite growing up so mistreated.

Low self-esteem, to the point where he's afraid he's unlovable.

Doesn't believe he can hold onto love or that people he loves won't betray him. These beliefs create a mild to moderate pathological paranoia in him about nearly everything. Fortunately, the paranoia eventually de-intensifies into anxiety (unpleasant but can be managed).

Because he's taught by his parents he has no value, combined with his compassion for others, he has a tendency to be self-sacrificing and put himself in danger to protect vulnerable people -- regardless if he likes them personally -- often when the danger to them is significantly less than that to himself.

His mother weaponized his feelings against him, so he hides them (and his true, compassionate motives) as best he can from nearly everyone -- including himself sometimes.

He's very angry because of his childhood, but his mother's physical abuse likely makes him wary of expressing his anger directly lest he gets violent. His treatment of Kelso, of course, being the exception plus frogging his male friends.

Instead, he usually masks his anger behind sarcasm. He also has passive-aggressive tendencies, a trait he clearly took on from his mother, which intensify during season 5. He has more to lose than ever, so his trauma triggers increase and his defense mechanisms kick in harder to compensate.

Fez: We don't know much about his upbringing, and as I've written previously, six or so versions of Fez's character exists. 😅

But certainly, once in the U.S., he experiences xenophobia from schoolmates, including Jackie, and from Red. And the show generally does depict the prejudice against Fez as xenophobia, not racism. The exception is in season five when he meets Nina's parents, who exhibit both racism and xenophobia toward him.

Being sixteen when he enters the student exchange program, he faces the hurdles presented by acclimating not only to a different country but also its teen culture. His efforts at fitting in with his male friends in season 1 often go too far and are -- at that point in the show -- innocently inappropriate.

He's bullied in tenth grade at Point Place High, including by Kelso when he's discovered in the locker by Hyde, Kelso, and Eric. Hyde essentially offers to be Fez's bodyguard, and he's welcomed into Hyde, Eric, and Donna's friend group without question. Kelso is the only one who regularly uses Fez's foreign origin as a weapon to bully him with in the first four seasons.

Hyde, too, uses Fez's naivete -- once -- to switch blind dates with him. Fortunately, the writers are on Fez's side n this episode, and Hyde screws himself over by trying to do the same to Fez. Mostly, though, Hyde is Fez's American culture mentor and closest friend (until Kelso takes that place in season 5).

Fez experiences occasional bullying at school after joining the basement gang. But one incident, which is a physical attack, occurs because Fez visibly supports his high school football team in the opposing team's section.

Kelso then Mitch are the worst offenders where bullying Fez is concerned. At least with Kelso, Fez burns him back and/or has the support of their friends afterward. Mitch treats Fez terribly, and the writers piled it on because it generated laughs. I hate Mitch's character, as many of you know, and his abusive behavior toward Fez is a major reason.

Kelso: He is one of seven kids in his family. In "Stolen Car" (season 1), we learn his parents give him barely any attention. His mother seems particularly hands-off. At least Kelso gets to spend the day with his father during "Career Day" (1x18), and Kelso is clearly happy about this fact at first.

His father also disciplines him, confiscating his paddle ball after Kelso misused it.

We hear about Kelso's mother in specific only once when Jackie calls her a whisker face and Kelso is insulted on his mom's behalf and defends her. Otherwise, she is M.I.A.

All of which leads to Kelso's narcissistic wounding. Growing up, he's deprived of parental love, attention, and boundaries. He craves attention and validation from other people, and the anger he has at his mother is expressed through his infidelities, his invading of Jackie and Donna's physical/sexual boundaries, and his overall misogynistic perspective.

He also has a deep entitlement issue. Because of the emotional deprivation he experiences as a child, he believes his feelings and desires are the only ones that matter. He expects his friends and girlfriend(s) to be loyal to him while he doesn't -- and believes shouldn't be -- held to the same standard. He reenacts his parents benign but nonetheless damaging treatment of him in a malicious way on the people who care about him.

His arrogance about his physical appearance and, eventually, sexual exploits hides a very low self-esteem. His parents' neglect, coupled with his brother Casey's bullying, create behaviors in Kelso that are detrimental to others and, ultimately, himself.

Eric/Donna: The differing emotional baggage they have from their respective upbringings often creates conflict between them. Eric's insecurity about his worthiness as a man clashes with Donna's rejection of and rebellion against male chauvinism limiting her possibilities.

Further, Eric's insecurity clashes with Donna's need to assert her independence and self-sufficiency. The more she builds parts of her life that are only hers, the more he tries to control her. The more he tries to control her, the more she rebels against him -- to the point of being entirely disrespectful of him and unapologetic it about in "Backstage Pass" (3x24).

Their relationship comes to an impasse at the end of season 3, leading to their breakup. Frustratingly, they never discuss this impasse once they reconcile in season 5. Donna's relationship with Casey in season 4 is mentioned then dismissed, but what actually needed to be dealt with is how Eric's insecurity and Donna's fears of being limited led to their biggest relationship issues.

Jackie/Hyde: Their childhood wounding and their teen relationship wounds cause them trouble. Interestingly, Hyde and Jackie's history in the early seasons of the show creates a distrust in Hyde of his romantic relationship with Jackie in season 5.

Hyde develops romantic feelings for Jackie through his support and protection of her in seasons 2 and 3 (to the extent of going to jail in her place and becoming homeless because he doesn't rat her out afterward, to use his language) and despite rejecting her relentless romantic pursuit of him.

During their first date in "Jackie Bags Hyde" (3x08), he realizes his feelings ... and she realizes she doesn't have romantic feelings for him after all. Relatively soon after this date, she and Kelso reconcile and continue their romantic relationship.

To Hyde, this series of events in seasons 2 and 3 looks and feels like Jackie used him to get over Kelso's cheating so that she could renew their relationship. He carries this wound into his own romantic relationship with Jackie. Compounded by his fear that he's unlovable created by his parents' abuse, he closes himself off even more emotionally as protection.

He also can't shake the doubt that Jackie's using him again, this time as revenge against Kelso to help her get over his latest betrayal so she and Kelso can reconcile romantically.

He's so in love with Jackie that it exacerbates his childhood emotional wounds and triggers. He's terrified of being hurt. He becomes controlling in a way he wouldn't accept himself (i.e. orders Jackie not to be with Kelso alone). He's not thinking clearly (terror does that to a person), and when he finds Jackie comforting Kelso on Donna's sofa, he assumes the worst.

And assumes what he expects (from experience): betrayal.

Jackie stops many of her learned, negative behaviors while she dates Hyde. But she also has a need, due to her parents' emotional neglect and general lack of presence -- plus Kelso's multiple infidelities, to feel needed by her romantic partner.

Because of Hyde's fear of being hurt and abandoned, he doesn't often express how he truly feels. This protection mechanism inadvertently gives Jackie the message that Hyde could walk away from their relationship any second and not care. That he doesn't need her (or to be with her to be happy).

Once she and Hyde reconcile in season 6, Jackie grows obsessive with getting what she believes is the ultimate guarantee that Hyde's devoted to her and committed to their relationship: a marriage proposal and, of course, marriage. Hyde doesn't like to be boxed in or controlled, but again he's so in love with Jackie that he lets slip, in his own way, that marriage is on the table for them (some day).

"Do You Think It's Alright" (6x18) affirms Jackie and Hyde's long-term commitment to each other, as do other episodes of season 6.

Season 7 is a hot mess for them. It rehashrd previously-resolved conflicts. It also gives Hyde one of his most out-of-character episodes outside of season 8 in "Winter". The writers clearly didn't know how to create new organic conflicts for Jackie and Hyde. Season 6 ends their commitment issues and demonstrated clearly, directly and subtextually, and repeatedly Hyde's happiness with Jackie.

Kelso/Brooke: Brooke is a tightly-wound, focused, rule-follower. Responsible to the core. Straight As in high school. Risk-averse. And trapped by all of that. She lets herself lose control one night at a Molly Hatchet concert, get drunk, and have unprotected sex with a virtual stranger.

Someone so responsible and sexually active would likely be on the Pill in the late 1970s. The fact Brooke isn't might mean she generally practiced abstinence. It also might mean that the Pill has too many side effects for her (the birth control pill was rather different in the 1970s than the different options that exist today).

Brooke's one night of freedom leads to a significant consequence: pregnancy. Kelso proves his irresponsibility to her, and she can't afford any more of that. She's frightened. The dreams she had for her life have been irrevocably altered.

Kelso finally, after a misfire and with encouragement from his friends -- Donna in particular, takes responsibility for his choices where Brooke and their unborn child is concerned. He gets a better-paying (and more stressful) job at the Holiday Hotel on top of going to the police academy. He gives Brooke support despite her initial rejection of it. They go to a baby care class together, etc.

Brooke and her pregnancy inspire Kelso finally to think of other people's needs instead of only his own. To put other people's desires ahead of his own. He matures a lot -- except that he continues to treat his friends with the same selfishness as always.

Perhaps he views Brooke and their child as extensions of himself, which is why his narcissist sense of entitlement doesn't exhibit itself with Brooke (mostly).

Through her relationship with Kelso, Brooke learns how to stop being rigid and allow herself to have fun. Being so restrictive often leads someone to break, like a rubber band stretched beyond its limit. Brooke learns the first, yet deep, layer of this fact in a life-changing way.

Fez/Rhonda: Fez desperately wants to lose his virginity and have a sex life. Rhonda, who's used to having meaningless sex, wants sex finally to be meaningful --with someone she loves. Fez and Rhonda date. They fall in love. Fez loves Rhonda enough to go at her pace sexually. Their relationship is healthy and should have been endgame.

But the writers screwed it up at the last moment. Rhonda's actress left the show (or was let go). To substantiate Rhonda's departure, the writers destroy Fez's character. His actions toward Rhonda in "Everybody Loves Casey" (4x26) contradict every other interaction they have together in previous episodes.

Red/Kitty: Red and Kitty have about thirty years of history together at the start of the show. Kitty holds onto some old pains that she doesn't think about often, but the memory can be triggered. For example, as Red and Kitty's relationship gets serious, Red makes out with another woman at the movies. Kitty catches them and wonders why Red isn't sexual with her that way (at that time in their relationship). She doesn't an answer until over twenty-five years later in "Ski Trip" (1x13).

Kitty craves excitement, and Red enjoys routine. Kitty expresses compassion through words and actions; Red, while also compassionate, is reticent to inconvenience himself or put a financial strain on his family. Kitty rarely accepts a gender essentialist version of marriage; Red holds some regressive views about men and women. Kitty is a social person and enjoys people's company; Red doesn't like most people and is generally antisocial. These differences cause conflict, but Red loves and respects Kitty so much that he usually either compromises or goes along with her wishes.

Jukebox Ask Game

#that 70s show #that '70s show #jackie x hyde #eric x donna #jackie burkhart #ask game #jukebox ask game #michael kelso #fez #steven hyde #donna pinciotti #eric forman #red forman #kitty forman #my meta #my essay #meta #essay

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antarctite · 2 years

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The Quarry and How It Handles Jacob, Nick, and Travis

Here’s a “writing a likeable character that does bad things” spectrum with Jacob, Nick, and Travis because i once again have to reiterate that the writing in this game upsets me but i’m too passionate about these characters to leave it alone (really, i love these guys, keep that in mind.) As i will be describing, the writers attempted to make all three characters have a list of gross actions and still be enjoyable, but i have many qualms with how they approached Nick and Travis’ writing in comparison to Jacob’s. Jacob is written pretty well imo. When interacting with other counselors, he tries his best to be entertaining and friendly (similar to how emma also values being entertaining to her peers and youtube audience.) He does silly things like sing and dance to the butterpops theme or use the “beerdar”, is supportive of his friends (such as cheering when Ryan and Dylan kiss or encouraging Nick to get with Abi,) and wants to be helpful/heroic for the others (more on that later.)

On the other end, he breaks down the car just so he has another chance with emma, leading to most of the events in the game, and generally does irrational things or is needlessly harsh to others when he’s agitated. His positive and negative traits are established in the first few chapters (keep this is mind for Nick and Travis’ analysis’.)

Later in the game, when confessing to Emma about his sabotage of the van, or during his werewolf transformation, his dialogue makes it clear that he is afraid of worthlessness and being abandoned. In the “bitter” confession dialogue, he claims that Emma views him as a loser. In “remorseful” he states he wanted to spend his time with Emma like they did before the breakup, contrast to Emma stating she still loved him but didn’t want anything more than a summer fling, showing their differences in how they view/deal with attachment (also seen in the campfire and skipping stones scenes, she doesn’t view relationships with as much importance as he does.) In his transformation, Jacob says “stupid boy, summer’s over and you’re nothing, she doesn’t want you, nobody wants you” to himself. Again, he puts a lot of worth into his relationships and being wanted. Hell, for a lot of the game he’s trying to prove his value, like trying to be heroic (running to save Abi and Emma,) the shooting range scene, and his insistence on being a party person (getting the fireworks, being rude to Ryan for not wanting to party, willingly stripping to jump over a fire pit naked, etc.)

He’s insecure, and you see so much of him trying to be on people’s good sides and prove he’s not boring or worthless that it feels awful to hear his werewolf dialogue. He’s a better version of what nick’s writing tried to be.

Nick should have been similar to Jacob, in that he should’ve had his traits *actually* established. The Nick we have in-game doesn’t have much of a character outside of his relationship with Abi and becoming a werewolf. He’s almost a watered-down version of Jacob in that he has the same issue (trying to be a Cool Guy Ladies Love while having insecurities that are explicitly revealed when becoming werewolves) but compared to Jacob, Nick does not get the proper amount of characterization.

i do think the idea that Nick hates women and is an abuser is false and stems from his character not being allowed to be anything more than Abi’s romantic interest. If Nick actually hated women, he would probably have some nasty things to say when Abi corrects him on his pedantic dialogue options. But he doesn’t, he accepts and even likes that Abi knows more than him (not to say misogynistic ppl can’t find intelligence in women attractive, just that the writers of this game would probably make the choice to make him more insulted if he was actually intended to be a misogynist.) We know it isn’t just him trying to suck up to Abi, because in a one-on-one conversation with Jacob, he mentions that part of what he enjoyed when he spent time with Abi was how smart she was.

However, without it being established beforehand what Nick’s insecurities are, his bitter dialogue when infected does make it seem like he’s actually an abusive douchebag. We only really know that Nick’s weakness is opening up to people because of his informational blurb all the characters get, which states “his fatal flaw is an unwillingness to drop his stoic guard and let people in.” With this in mind, his insistence when he’s infected that Abi doesn’t like him back and his attraction becoming hunger is the werewolf-ified version of his struggle to let his guard down and express his emotions. It would’ve been great if we knew that he had these issues! He doesn’t need the same amount of dialogue as Jacob, Nick is a narrative tool for things to get rolling in the story, but some lines that made his worry about how Abi or just anyone perceived him would’ve been better!

Btw, Nick kissing Emma at the firepit isn’t exactly a flaw of his though, because while it was a stupid move and the whole idea was petty, it is an example of how he and Emma have different views on attachment and relationships compared to Abi and Jacob. Nick and Emma don’t have to view kisses like Abi and Jacob do, especially since Abi and Nick have never even discussed their boundaries as they aren’t even together at that point. As Nick said, he just wanted to help Emma make Jacob jealous anyway, and it’s nice that he would admit to Abi that he just saw it as being helpful rather than shying away from saying how he feels at all (look, a kind of good Nick moment!) other positive things about Nick include his genuine interest in Abi’s art and her smarts (as mentioned before.)

His positive traits don’t need to be as obvious as Jacob’s, because he is mostly in the game as a narrative tool for werewolf shenanigans and the reasons for his flaws are what should be focused on. All in all, Nick just needs a little more dialogue that makes his werewolf attitude less gross.

Travis. oooh boy, Travis. i already made a little rant about how his grey-area characterization is moot when the game allows his racist attitude to go undisputed and even supports his ideas. This is my problem with him.

ill get what i thought was good writing out of the way. Travis is a great, interesting character who is very complicated. You’ve probably heard it a million times before. He’s a family man who does his damnedest to protect them, doing illegal things in his efforts to cure them of lycanthropy and keep them out of jail, even with how mistreated he is by them (specifically the abuse he faces by his mother.) Yet, he also relies a lot on Laura, which i also mentioned the dynamic of in this post. i won’t get too into detail here about them because of that and other great posts about them like this one, so we can focus on the big issue.

If you want a character that does bad things and is meant to be redeemed of their actions, or at least the reasons for doing those things and the good qualities outweigh the bad actions, do not let them have a horrible view that is never contested and resolved. Why is Travis allowed to say anti-romani slurs and that not ever be addressed?

As i mentioned in the little rant, his mother also has anti-romani views and this could be why Travis (and the other Hacketts) share the same ideas. Unless the writers just hate romani people (which yknow what, they probably do,) this story should not have been about how the Hacketts want revenge against some “terrible g*psy witch and her feral boy.” It should’ve been about a misinformed family making a terrible mistake (starting the fire,) and looking for undeserved revenge, only for Travis to learn he was in the wrong. Travis already has his little arc about trusting Laura with curing everyone’s lycanthropy over saving his family, why couldn’t he have learned the error of his views on the Vorez’s?

#the quarry #jacob custos #nick furcillo #travis hackett #ant's quarry #<rewrite tag #sorry if this wasn't formatted properly im no writer #anyway the quarry belongs to me and ppl i follow no more supermassive games writers <33 /hj

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aprils2ndhandshop · 3 years

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can i request the 2003 raph, don and mikey with a sweet, anti-social, shy girl? thank you cowabunga!!!

Raphael, Donatello & Michelangelo w/ a shy, anti-social girl ‘03

Sorry King Leo and all my Leo stans!

Summary; how each of these turtles would treat a shy s/o, their plan to approach a shy girl and how their relationship would function in relations to how shy she is.

Notes from me; hey everyone! I’m sorry for the slow posting, I’m super busy at the moment so it’s hard to work on this blog. I will try to post again soon! Enjoy dudes!

Raphael;

Raph would, in many ways, come to appreciate your humble nature.

In the beginning, his intense observation of your shy demeanour revolved around his curiosity. He became determined to better understand you like you were a mystery he needed to unravel.

His initial curiosity quickly became romantic the closer he got to you, the more he came to realize how thoughtful the person behind the quietness was.

Raph being a guy that struggles with emotional intelligence admires your ability to observe and understand the moods and vibes in the room.

Your ability to read people is something his brothers also admire in you, especially at the thought of how beneficial it would be for their hot-head brother to be able to experience first hand.

"Raph and y/n?"

"Never thought Raphie boy would be into such a sweet, shy girl!"

"Guess love really is unpredictable."

Although Raph enjoys a loud and rowdy time on a special occasion, he much more enjoys the peaceful moments with you. His hostility is something that would solely exist in his training if it wasn't for his insecurity and anxiety; by nature, he is calm and values quiet time.

Everything surrounding Raph has been chaotic since his childhood; he and his brothers clearly don’t lead normal lives - to have something so sweet and soothing is a luxury he can't lose.

Eventually, the thought of you becomes enough to bring him back down to his sanity, enough to help him sleep through the night and avoid unnecessary anger.

Due to your quietness, Raph becomes much more attentive; he is always sure to address you if something feels unusual.

“Hey baby, you seem off. There something you wanna tell with me?”

"No Raph, I'm okay."

Knowing very well you aren't being honest with him, he scoops you up in his arms and places you into his lap to talk.

Donatello;

Donatello would initially be intimidated by you. Despite being labelled the smart brother, he fumbles a bit with you, struggling to wrap his mind around something so beautiful being so shy and anti-social.

Being inexperienced with humans, he naturally subscribed to the belief that beauty equates to confidence. This belief drove him to believe that it wasn't shyness keeping you from talking to him - you were simply too good for him.

Of all people, Donnie knew better than to judge somebody by their appearance, yet with you, that proved to be more difficult.

But don't worry he comes around.

"Y/n, I had no idea that was you would be into such..."

"Dorky stuff? You can say it, Don, it's not a bad word."

You bond over common interests, nerdy interests he never imagined you would have, quickly after his fears of a pretty girl disliking him would fade.

Once Donnie can pass his insecurity barrier, your shyness evolves from intimidating to charming!

He finds our adorable shyness so charming that he develops an inability to ever say no to you - a deadly one.

"Don? Can I eat some of these cookies? You don't think Raph would mind, right?"

Oh no, those are Raph's cookies... He'll kill me.

"Of course you can, beautiful."

Raph was not happy...

Donatello would encourage you to branch out. Although a selfish part of him would love to suck up all of your free time, it's not the life he wants you to live. You're such a sweet girl and he knows you could make friends easily.

When you become buddies with his elder brother, Leonardo, he is over the moon - especially after hearing you open up with Leo and seek advice from him.

"She's good for you, Don. I really like her."

Initially, Donatello was scared that your shyness would keep you hidden from his family so witnessing you gain their love is super significant for him.

Michelangelo;

Mikey is drawn to you right away, finding your shyness to be endearing and absolutely adorable. From the moment he met you, he wanted nothing more than protect something so sweet from all the bitterness of the world.

He essentially views you as some modern-day princess or earth-dwelling angel.

Although he has a thing for shy girls, he's never really put thought into it and has no idea how to approach you. Being the loud goofball he is, he worries that you'll stray away from him or be discouraged by his bold personality.

He tones himself down just for you.

"Hey, y/n/n!"

"You're Michelangelo, right?"

"Yeah! You can call me Mikey though if you want!"

In the beginning, he is determined to be as mellow and soft around you as possible - he does not want to mess up his chance with you!

This change in Mikey shocks his family. Master Splinter specifically, is touched by his son's compassion, yet he refuses to let it go on for too long. He takes the time to explain how important it is for Mikey to be himself with you, especially considering how much he seems to like you.

"Why would you do that, Mikey? You being goofy would never change how I look at you."

"I just wanted to be sure you'd like me."

"I really like you."

Looking back on how your relationship started now, both you and Mikey get a good laugh from it.

Although your shyness isn't as prominent when you're alone with Mikey, he still appreciates the little hints of your nervousness that pop up from time to time: occasional studders, emotional fluster when he flirts, hiding your face from him.

"You're so cute, angel cakes!"

He fanboys over your cuteness from time to time.

Michelangelo may be a chaotic goofball but his attentiveness towards you was never faked - he wants nothing more than to keep you safe and happy.

#tmnt #tmnt 2003 #teenage mutant ninja turtles imagines #teenage mutant ninja turtles x reader #tmnt raphael #tmnt donatello #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt x reader

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idontblushsrry · 3 years

Text

Love Language|| Yona of The Dawn

“I wanna be fluent in your love language. Learning your love language.”

A/N: Almost every man in this show is fine asl I won’t lie to yall. Slight spoilers on Zeno’s part if you’ve only watched the anime.

Warnings: none!

Characters: Yona, Hak, Yoon, Ki-ja, Shin-ah, Jae-ha, Zeno

Word Count: 1425

Plot Synopsis: The 5 love languages; physical affection, words of affirmation, acts of service, gift giving, and quality time, how the Yona of the Dawn characters love you Ft. gender neutral reader

Yona

Love Language: quality time and gift giving

So if you and Yona are together before she leaves the castle/ during her time at the castle she showers you in gifts

Like if Yona’s spoiled, imagine how spoiled you’re gonna be

She often has her servants go and give you gifts if she couldn’t directly give it to you

They’re so tired but also happy for her because, how sweet

She’d also blow off her duties as the princess to spend time with you

Sure she gets in trouble, but King Il could never truly punish his daughter, especially not when she’s happier spending time with you

After she escapes the castle however, she can’t really get you gifts or lavish you in the way she used to

As a result she puts in double the work in trying to spend as much time with you as possible

She also learns to sew and weave from Yun to try and give you presents

Sweetheart’s trying her best ok

Yona also appreciates this effort from you

She often times feels like a burden to her friends and she can get insecure and feel like she’s bothering you

But if you pull her aside to give her something you handmade or bought at the market, suddenly all is right in the world and she’s on cloud nine

Hak

Love Language: acts of service (also teasing but what would you call that?)

So anyways, I said what I said and that’s all I need to say about this issue

Jkjkjk but seriously, Hak is such a devoted person that he’d literally do anything you asked of him

Sure he fronts and will tease you but like “Hak honey... why are you making me a plate? I can make my own?”

“Sit down, I’ll bring it to you.”

He’s literally so sweet, always going above and beyond to not just protect you but to make sure all your needs are seen to

You better reciprocate tho

Like sit him down and remind him to slow down, if you protect him, his heart will melt ever so slightly

Also if you can’t fight, that’s fine! But patch his wounds up after a battle and kiss every cut, bro that’s not Hak, that’s a puddle of love.

Yoon

Love Language: acts of service

Ok so Yun is kind of difficult

He has a hard time communicating his needs to you because 1) he’s inexperienced and 2) he’s not really used to asking and receiving things of people

But the one thing he does know how to do and the way he knows how to love best is through acts of service

The world’s dangerous and he knows that he isn’t entirely built for combat nor has he put forth the effort to be a combatant but he swears to protect you until his dying breath

It’s a pretty steep promise from him but he meets the goal everyday

Aside from that, if you’re ever sick or injured, Yun is immediately all over you checking for any signs of anything that could worsen your condition

After he knows you’re in the clear he’s all mad that you got hurt and worried him

As for him, please help him with keeping the camp functioning

It seems like the bar is low but it takes a lot out of him to run camp especially considering all the tasks he has to see to

Sure the others help but they aren’t always there and they aren’t always able to move much less help with chores

That’s why it means so much for him that you help him

He doesn’t even have to say anything, it’s like you just get it and his heart feels so full

Ki-ja

Love Language: words of affirmation and acts of service

If there’s ever a doubt in your mind that Ki-ja doesn’t love you, it won’t be there for long

Whether yall are together or apart, he likes to remind everyone in the vicinity that he does love you and that to him you are the most beautiful person in the world

He’s a somewhat prideful person as well as being very narrow minded, to him, it’s the most obvious thing in the world that his s/o is the best, should that information not be shared?

He likes to prove that he’s strong or worthy by carrying various things for you

This coupled with he fact that Hak takes every chance to tease him leads to what essentially amounts to competitions in your honor to prove Ki-ja’s worthiness as your boyfriend

Sweetie Hak is literally just messing with you

Anyways, he’s not necessarily insecure, but he’s never been in a relationship so he does like to hear that you also think he’s the best

Call him pet names or give him a nickname and he’s blushing as he proudly proclaims to the world his love for you and how “My dear has given me a special name to show their love for me!”

He’s such a sap

All in all, Ki-ja would move mountains to see you smile

Shin-ah

Love Language: quality time

Shin-ah lived in a cave for most of his life up until this point

While he has gotten better with talking and overall being more open, having friends is a new experience for this man, let alone being in a relationship

So really the only way he knows how to show affection is by spending time with you

And offering you his meals, like the day you asked him out he pulled a fish from the river and offered it to you

But he just likes being around you, your presence just makes him feel calm and safe

His ideal date would be you, him, and Ao just chillin makin flower crowns or smthn

Jae-ha

Love Language: physical affection and acts of service

So obviously Jae-ha shows love through physical affection

However, Jae-ha as a person is just someone who generally thinks talk is somewhat cheap without follow through

Sure he says plenty of flirtatious remarks and is generally flirty but he never really follows through with any of his remarks

He’s also just a really loyal person, so to him if you do things that tangibly show your love for him, he’ll be over the moon

Especially at the beginning of your mutual feelings towards each other, what made him truly fall for you was when you took out an archer that was set to kill him

Now that you’re both deep in your relationship, he takes any and every opportunity to just hold you

Whether it be extravagant displays of PDA or just holding you tight in a crowd, Jae-ha is very liberal with his affection and doesn’t mind giving you as much of it as he can

He loves to hold you, but he isn’t clingy with it

Like he’s definitely dramatic but he of all people knows what it’s like to feel chained down initially was scared to even be with you in the beginning because of that fear but anyways-

So he definitely gives you space if you need it but as soon as you’re ready to come back he’s all like “my lap has been feeling a little empty lately”

You just roll your eyes and move to take your rightful spot in his arms again

Zeno

Love Language: quality time

Zeno is immortal, whether or not he ends up outliving you or not, the man has seen a lot

So he values every second he gets to spend with you

He gets very apologetic when he is unable to spend time with you, he feels very guilty because he feels like there isn’t enough time for him to express how much you mean to him

He tends to just make up reasons to spend time with you...they're always obvious, like he isn’t even subtle about it

“Y/N please, allow me to escort you back to camp”

“I’m fine, it’s right there, I think I’ll be able to handle it.”

“But what if you trip????”

Yeah they’re really flimsy and dumb but if you let him spend time with you he’ll be the happiest man in the world

He’s also really attentive

He’s good at noticing little details about you and remembering them

You mean the world to him so if you reciprocate and notice little things about him or go out of your way to spend time with him, he’s beaming for the rest of the day.

#yona of the dawn imagines #yona of the dawn x reader #yona of the dawn #akatsuki no yona #hak xreader #jaeha x reader #zeno x reader #yona x reader #shin ah x reader #yoon x reader #yun x reader #kija x reader #gija x reader #x black reader #im sorry shin ah is so short #idontblushsrry

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milf-harrington · 3 years

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thinking about dynamics and character relationships for my crossover au,,

I feel like Kaoru and Zuko wouldn't get along, not at first anyway. Zuko's pretty much always ready for a fight and doesn't tend to read social cues properly, and if you snap at Kaoru he'll snap back which just kind of leads to a cycle of the two of them getting on each others nerves. Kaoru would definitely try to be civil, what with being an adult and all and I can imagine him softening towards Zuko as they get to know each other. I don't know how to explain it right now, but they just feel... very similar?

Sokka and Reki would get along I think, except that Reki is an optimist where Sokka is a pessimist. Like, Reki does have his insecurities and his mental troubles but he generally tries to be upbeat and positive and he finds so much joy in the simple pleasures of life; whereas Sokka can be anxious about wasting time and is often critical of 'fun' when there's more important things to be doing. but reasons i think they'd get along: - both deal with feelings of inadequacy thanks to having impressive friends - both pick up alternative talents among their desired field but don't realise how impressive those talents are - both are incredibly smart and critical, i feel like their brains work in similar ways - adhd + tourettes twins - both are the older brother to a headstrong and talented sister (slipping my own koyomi headcanon in there)

Aang and Reki would get along, because they both value the importance of fun and taking time to enjoy life, but i can't imagine them growing close-close because I can definitely see Reki being intimidated by Aang's avatar status and feeling like he isn't good enough to properly befriend him. But he's always down to hang out and mess around. I can also see Reki being protective of Aang, like he is with Miya, and trying to help him with his struggle to keep to his airbending morals while being the Avatar.

Toph and Miya would get along bc they have the same bullying-as-a-love-language approach to friendship and both have the notion that they're better than their peers, which is technically true AND a way for them to protect themselves against their own self-perceived weaknesses/vulnerabilities (toph's blindness, both of them being lonely and not knowing how to make friends, being surprised when they realise they do have friends)

Shadow would also get along with Toph, the same way he gets along with Miya

So would Joe I think, but Toph will vehemently deny that she sees him as a father figure

I think Zuko and Miya would get along the way Toph and Zuko get along, except I do see Miya as being a little more sensitive than Toph (and therefore being more similar to Zuko) and being quicker to bite back. Where Toph is more of a grounding presence for Zuko, something stable that he knows will support him, Miya is often more aloof and tends to let things go when they're no longer interesting/relevant and then Zuko tends to unintentionally hold onto things and I feel like that could lead to some tension.

I dont think Katara would like Miya at first, until she got to know him better like with Toph.

I think she'd appreciate Reki's optimism and love of fun paired with his caring nature, but there would ultimately be a gap between them because of Katara's struggle with her grief over Kya and Reki's struggle with expressing his emotions. I do think they'd bond over their love of family and community though, and Katara would kind of get attached to his older brother energy.

Joe simply wouldn't react to Zuko's grumpy behaviour. He'd get protective over his "kids" and would probably step in with a very calm but stern "hey" if feathers got ruffled but ultimately Joe would just see Zuko as a hurt kid with a lot to prove and would just try his best to help and be there to show him that life isn't just about survival. (Reminds him of someone he knows.)

Langa's devastating honesty would give him an immediate in with Katara I reckon, along with his waterbending and they'd probably hang out quietly together and practice. I also feel like they'd bond over losing a parent.

#just thinking thoughts #im trying to get back into the heads of the atla characters so i can write them properly #and that also involves figuring out how the two groups would exist together #atla / sk8 crossover #captain speaks

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lunarfly · 3 years

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Defending Harmione part 3!

I'm back to defend my fav ship!

I have a part 1 where I debunked some of the most popular arguments against Harmione and in part 2 I debunked the "siblings" argument. Time for part 3! This one is going to be about a video on YouTube titled "Why Harry and Hermione Wouldn't Work - Harry Potter Video Essay" and I'll go over the points the YouTuber made and try my best to debunk them. 💘

Also, I accept that there's still a few minor flaws to the ship, but these little flaws and obstacles make every ship beautiful. 🥀

1. "It would be too cliche. The hero gets the smartest and prettiest girl as a trophy."

This is a fair argument to the whole story itself, but it doesn't defeat the ship in any way. If you put it in other words: "Harry and Hermione wouldn't work together because they're both very powerful and great and that would make it very cliche." That's silly. But even that isn't right. The situation isn't exactly how people make it seem.

Hermione isn't the all-perfect girl, the most beautiful, the most intelligent, everything perfect. She has flaws, many flaws (which weren't portrayed in the movies) and she is a very realistic character. She is intelligent and productive, she is a perfectionist in a way, but that also causes her to be very anxious and stressed out at moments, she puts too much pressure on herself, and she's also insecure! Who said Hermione was the most beautiful one? Just because Emma Watson was gorgeous doesn't mean Hermione was too. Of course, Harry thought she was pretty according to OotP, but it's clearly stated in the books that she wasn't the prettiest girl in the series. Fleur, Cho and even Ginny were much more beautiful. Hermione is NOT the perfect superstar.

You might say that even if she's not perfect, she's still the female lead. But the actual "cliche" part is about the hero ending up with the perfect superstar and not necessarily with the other lead hero.

So back to Hermione being the brightest witch of her age. But her being very bright and powerful doesn't make her a bad match for Harry. Ginny was very smart in fact, she was beautiful and funny, very sassy and confident. Why isn't she considered as a trophy for Harry?

The point is, NO, Hermione is NOT a perfect all-star and their relationship wouldn't even have to be built on the hero and the heroine being perfect, their relationship would be built on trust and loyalty.

2. "Harry and Hermione's relationship prove that a male and a female can be friends without having a romantic relationship, so we shouldn't ruin that."

Yes, it's truly a beautiful demonstration that a male and a female can be best friends, but this says nothing that's actually against the ship, just like the previous one. If you put this in other words, it would sound like this: "Harry and Hermione were amazing best friends so they can't date." I understand that their friendship was amazing, but that in no way means their relationship would be bad. Of course, you don't have to see their relationship as romantic just because they were good friends, you can see it as platonic, but I'm just saying that the argument makes no sense.

Besides, was Hermione really the only female friend Harry had? What about Luna? What about Ginny (if you consider Harry and Hermione start dating and Ginny remains a friend, she was clearly very included after OoTP)? What about Ron's friendship with Hermione? What about Ron and Luna's friendship? What about Neville and Luna's friendship? What about Harry's quidditch teammates (Alicia, Katie, Angelina)? Why does everyone always make it seem like Hermione was the only female friend he had? Surely she was his only BEST friend but then Ron and Hermione were best friends too...

3. "It ruins the dynamic of the story. Harry's relationships were never meant to be the main focus, just a demonstration of his maturity. While Ron and Hermione's relationship developing in the background is nice to see."

I really didn't want to drag Romione into this because it's my second favorite ship from the entire Harry Potter universe. Just a disclaimer that anything I say here is not meant to bash Romione and hate on it because I'm truly a big fan of them and their love is undeniable.

I also mention Ginny and Harry's relationship in this and I have to say they're ALSO one of my favorite ships in the entire hp universe so no hate to them either. 🥺

Okay, so, basically every point he made in his video was about the story and not their actual relationship. The title is wrong, this doesn't show why Harry and Hermione wouldn't work, he's just saying how it would change the storyline. But I think we are all already aware that Harry and Hermione getting together would change a lot in the story. But I'll go over it anyways.

First of all, I don't entirely agree that Harry's relationships weren't the main focus, I mean half of the half-blood prince was about him developing feelings for Ginny-

But anyways, if Harry and Hermione were going to end up together, it would still happen in a similar way. We have all read the beautiful moments they shared together throughout the books, and those would've been enough for them to develop their feelings, but just not realize it until the last 2 books. We wouldn't have to add in any scenes that would change the story massively to lead them to falling in love, honestly, we had enough already in the books. So the only thing that would change would be probably Harry not developing feelings for Ginny, but instead slowly realizing his feelings for Hermione. Simple!

And as for Romione, I agree, the slowburn was beautiful, but we could've had the same thing, same development but as a friendship! Ron's character arc is one of my favorite things about the series and nobody can convince me that it wasn't amazing. Instead of Ron changing for Hermione to become her lover, we could have Ron changing for her to become a better friend. His character arc remains the same and Ron Hermione become best friends. Of course this would change many scenes and the storyline would've changed a lot as I already mentioned, but hey! At least we wouldn't have Ron haters who bash him for mAkInG hErMiOnE cRy. 🤡 And JKR could add different scenes instead of the ones hinting at Ron and Hermione's romantic relationship. We still would have had a beautiful story with a VERY SIMILAR dynamic.

4. "Harry wasn't the kind of guy Hermione was looking for. She already made a mistake with dating Viktor Krum, and she realized she didn't need a hero. She was a hero herself. Although Harry ≠ Viktor, they have very similar qualities like: bravery, loyalty and they are both heroes."

This is probably the best argument of the entire *almost* 5 minute video.

But there's still so much wrong with this.

Bravery and loyalty are literally Ron's best traits lmao. That's exactly why she chose him. 🤣 Every Romione shipper knows she doesn't value intelligence and looks, she values bravery, courage, loyalty. That's exactly what she said in the first book and stuck by it until the end.

She didn't need a hero? She was a hero herself? - Then why are we forgetting that Ron was also a hero? Everyone always makes it seem like Harry and Hermione are the mighty heroes and Ron is their goofy sidekick. He was also a hero! I believe he is even on the chocolate frog cards (correct me if I'm wrong)! And we all know that's the biggest flex. 😌

But besides that, Ron and Harry are very similar in many ways. They're both brave, they're both loyal, they both like to have fun, they're both lazy, they're both amazing at quidditch, they're both talented (Harry is very powerful and he's good at DADA, while Ron can do many impressive things like mimic voices and come up with quick solutions even when he's under pressure and his life depends on it!). So if Hermione liked one and thought he was her "type", then there's a hight possibility she liked the other too. In canon, she only likes Ron obviously, but I'm saying that since Ron and Harry are so similar and share the same traits, Hermione could've chosen Harry too.

Anyways, that's all that the video included, it was very nice hearing different opinions and I actually wasn't writing this out of anger like I wrote the post about defending Romione against *the ridiculously stupid* arguments that Dr*mione shippers like to use.

Once again, if it isn't clear, I STAN both Romione and Hinny, but Harmione definitely could've worked. :)

Thanks for reading! ~ Lia <3

Art: Asha47110 on DeviantArt :)

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wannabe-fic-writer · 4 years

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Natasha Romanoff x Reader : Prove Me Wrong

Summary: She can trust you, even if she doesn’t know it yet.

Warning: 18+ Mental Health, Mentions of Death, Mentions of Violence, Smut

Chapter 8

******

Heat rises from the mug in front of you, warming the finger you swirl around the rim.

At your right sits Bucky, Steve on his right. They’re talking about this show they’d been told to watch by Sam. You were engaged in the conversation since you’ve seen the show, but your thoughts have pulled you to another place.

Thoughts about your date with Natasha later. She told you straight out that it would be simple: dinner and a walk in the park. That did nothing to quell your nerves though.

Your distraction is short lived.

“What’s on your mind, Doll?” Steve asks, Bucky’s boot nudging your foot under the table.

Looking up from the mug of tea, you sigh,“ I’m nervous about my date with Natasha later.”

You say it as if they knew anything about it. Last they checked the two of you were avoiding each other for whatever reasons.

Steve leans forward, careful not to knock over his water,“ date? You and Nat?”

“Mhm.”

“When did this happen?” Bucky asks, gaze flicking to Steve then back.

You almost smile at the clear concern in his eyes. He cares about you.

Running a hand across the back of your neck, you answer,“ yesterday. We talked, which I don’t think would’ve happened so soon if not for Liho, but we-”

Steve frowns, hand raising a little,“ who’s Liho?”

“Natasha’s cat. She’s an adorable little thing.” You smile fondly talking about the cuddly, yet very nonchalant cat.

Now both men are frowning. They hadn’t seen any cat, apart from Goose that is. When had Natasha gotten a cat? Why?

Deciding those are questions for later, they ask you to continue.

You nod,“ yeah so after Liho found me I went looking for how he got in and ran into Nat. I asked if we could talk and she said yes and long story short I told her I have feelings for her despite barely knowing her and she reciprocates.”

“Did she specifically say she has feelings for you?” Bucky is quick to ask.

You nod, smiling a little wider.

His brown eyes narrow,“ just be careful.”

That makes both you and Steve look at the man.

“Is there something I don’t know Barnes?” You laugh as you ask, but both of them pick up on the nervousness in your voice.

Bucky sighs, pulling his lip between his teeth,“ there’s always going to be something you don’t know.”

Trust Bucky to be blatantly honest with you. You appreciate it but it makes you a million times more nervous about this than before.

Insecurities rise in you and it once again detaches you from the present again.

Obviously you and Natasha will always be learning about each other. People change like the weather and there’s nothing wrong with that, it just means you need to remain openminded and understanding.

However, the way Bucky said, it sounds more like Natasha will always be keeping things from you.

The hours leading to your date, you spend in your office. With the space being your comfort zone, you’d hoped it would calm your racing thoughts and pounding heart.

But it doesn’t. So you nervously get dressed and head to the common room to wait.

“Wooow, you look great Y/n.” Steve says, eyes respectfully taking in your outfit.

You smooth your hand down the burgundy top and black pants with a deep breath,“ you think? It’s not too much for dinner and a walk right? Or maybe it’s too little? Shou-”

“You look perfect.”

That smooth, sultry voice sounds behind you, words coming out with a breath of air.

When you turn, you find her smiling softly at you, green eyes quickly scanning your form but snapping to your e/c ones. And you take a moment to look over her outfit.

Only to notice that you’re unintentionally matching. The woman choosing to wear a short black dress and a burgundy leather jacket.

Like always she looks beautiful and you tell her so, a little more breathy than she had told you.

“Thank you,” her smile never leaves,“ you ready to go?”

Nodding, you both say goodbye to Steve and Bucky, who watches you both cautiously.

You two move around each other, as if scared to make any sudden moves. It’s clear you’re both nervous, about this going badly but also, the slightest fear that it goes well.

If it does go well the dynamic between you two changes. How you can’t know, not until it happens, but it will change.

Despite those fears and Bucky’s warning playing at the back of your mind, you will yourself to relax and enjoy this moment with Natasha. And it’s only settled in you to do so when she pulls up to the restaurant.

You feel horrible for not having said anything to her the whole ride. How uncomfortable had you made her? How awkward had this become?

“Do you plan to stay in there all night? Cause a dinner for two would suck without you.” Natasha’s lighthearted joking pulls you into reality.

She’s standing outside your open door, hand waiting for you to accept. And when you do a warmth blooms across your hand, up your arm, and through your body.

You mumble a thanks as you step out of the car and walk hand in hand with her to the restaurant.

As soon as you’re seated you smile apologetically to Natasha,“ am I completely bombing this date?”

“No,” she chuckles,“ I’d love to have a conversation with you but it’s okay that you’re nervous.”

“How are you not?”

Red hair tussles with a shake of her head,“ if you tell anyone I said this I’ll deny it but, you make me incredibly nervous.”

A few simple words make you that much more comfortable. Your heart still races but for a different reason.

The softness in her eyes and the smile on her face pushes you even higher up a mountain of feelings that you’re sure you’re going to fall from. And throughout dinner you find more and more reasons why falling wouldn’t be a bad thing.

She focuses so intently on the things you say, she makes you laugh, and she continues to challenge you.

“Wait no! You shot Sam?” Your eyes widen at the woman’s story.

Having finished dinner, you both moved over to the bar and continued talking. One White Russian and a glass of Pinot later, you’re both past the nerves.

So much so that your legs are pressed together at the lack of space between you both as you face each other, your fingers brush every so often almost subconsciously.

The comfortability level having risen with each passing moment.

Natasha’s hand waves as she lifts her White Russian to her lips and sips it,“ he was fine. It was a widow’s bite. And I warned him.”

You feel a little bad for laughing but you keep picturing it in your head.“ So your defense is that you warned him? Tasha that does not make it better. I’ve never been electrocuted but I imagine it’s not a good feeling.” You say through more laughter.

That falls short when you see the way she’s looking at you. A glimmer in her eyes and a smirk on her lips.

Her eyebrow quirks,“ Tasha?”

You did just call her Tasha. Said it as if you’d known her forever and it was just what you called her.“ I’m sorry I-”

“It’s fine. More than fine.” She assures you.

Neither of you had paid much attention to the time, until the bartender comes over to tell you that they’ll be closing soon.

Finishing her drink, Natasha looks at you,“ still fill like a walk?”

You nod and follow after her out the restaurant.

Quiet settles over the two of you again and it opens the door for your thoughts to pick back up. They range from how much fun you’re having with this woman, to the hopes of there being another date, to the thought of this progressing beyond just that, to getting to know her more and liking everything else you learn.

And then you remember what Bucky had said: there will always be things you don’t know.

As your feet carry you down the path Natasha notices the, near foot, of distance between the two of you. Then focusing on the frown knitting your brows the way your finger taps against the strap of your bag.

She can admit that she doesn’t like how quiet you’ve fallen. Especially not after how talkative and open you’d been just at dinner.

“You’re being uncharacteristically withdrawn again.” She points out.

Hearing what she says, you quickly direct your gaze to her. You notice the small smile on her lips so as not to intimidate you and the demanding worry in her eyes.

“Sorry I’m just-” you cut yourself off with a deep breath.” I guess I’m thinking too hard about something Bucky said.”

What it was she doesn’t need to know, if she doesn’t already.

The inside of her eyebrow raises,” funny statement coming from someone who’s avidly told me to ignore what others have to say and focus on my own opinions.”

“Well that’s not the same.”

“How so?” She replies quickly and challengingly.

“It’s-” nothing. You have no rebuttal because it’s the same.“ Okay the scenario application is similar.”

A smug grin plays on her lips and she takes that moment to step closer to you. Her teeth nibble on her bottom lip as she thinks, before asking,“ have I done something to make you rethink things?”

The pause you take scares her a little. She runs through your past interactions in search of where she may have hurt you or done something wrong.

“No, you haven’t. I’m just- you didn’t exactly make things easy in the beginning. And everyone is different so I didn’t expect you to be as open as I am it just makes me a little hesitant. I’d be lying if I said it wouldn’t hurt for you to be all in now only to pull away later.”

When you’re finished you spare a glance at her from the corner of your eye. Taking in the way she’s looking ahead and not faltering in a single step.

She nods,” I see how my actions haven’t proven to be dependable.”

You scoff and chuckle at the same time,” no kidding.”

A little laugh escapes her,” I can’t promise you that things will be easy, especially not with me of all people.”

You don’t expect it to be but you keep that affirmation to yourself as she continues.

“But I can admit that I value our relationship, what it has been and can be, and I’ll try, harder if need be, to make you feel secure in what this is.”

Natasha Romanoff, diminishing fears and insecurities with a single smile and honest words.

Heat rushes up to your face and you duck your head, focusing on your shoes instead of the woman who has not ceased to make your heart pound.

Coming to a halt, you reach over and grab her hand before you can think yourself out of it. Your hit with that warmth from before and you wonder why you hadn’t held her hand the whole time.

“I trust that you’ll keep your word.” You tell her.

Trust is still a growing concept to Natasha. You know that. It’s why you chose those words. And she knows it.

It’s why she so quickly pulls you into her and plants her lips on yours.

And this was the epitome of what Natasha could make you feel, so far at least. That warmth from her hand was nothing in comparison to her soft pink lips on yours.

You take a hold of her waist and press closer just a little more in hopes of this not ending. But you both have to breathe of course.

When she pulls away, her eyes slowly open to catch yours.

After a moment of silence she says,“ I wonder how my therapist is going to react to the news of me seeing someone.”

Grinning stupidly you tell her,“ something tells me she thinks it’s more than okay.”

******

taglist: @username23345 @muffliat-o @aaron-despair @natasha-danvers @wildhoney32 @criminallyhamilton @fayhar @nat-km-mh @chicken-wang09

#natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff x reader #black widow #black widow x reader #marvel #marvel x reader #mcu #mcu x reader #prove me wrong #reader insert

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hemera989 · 4 years

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Hot Takes: Yukio Okumura

Aka, 'My Analysis Of Yukio That No One Asked For And Yet I Will Give It Anyways’ asjhdkajshfs also, tw for talk of attempted suicide, suicidal thoughts, depression and trauma!

The main reason I felt it necessary to give My Take on Yukio was not entirely because I love him and feel like he’s a lot more immature and human than people like to think though that is a large chunk of the reason. It was rather because recent manga chapters have really gone on to shake up how I view him, and it helps to write things down.

I feel like perhaps it’s best to start chronologically in a way, because there’s no one event that really led to the reveal of Yukio as he is today- depressed, suicidal, and destructive. There is no one reason to point a finger at, or one life event to deconstruct. He’s a product of his personality, childhood, and the overall events that led to his birth. And what better way to start a childhood off, than with bullying?

Considering how traumatic bullying can be, it’s just a little bit surprising to see how much it tends to get glossed over (for both Rin and Yukio). This is where I believe Yukio’s inferiority complex may have developed, or at least started becoming prominent. He was teased and harassed as a child, and unable to defend himself besides relying on Rin to protect him. While Rin was only doing so out of genuine love and care for Yukio, this is likely where his twisted opinion of their relationship began. Rin was good and kind and strong, and defended him out of love, and Yukio was weak and a crybaby, and resented both Rin and himself for how little he was able to protect himself on his own.

This is where we can see his mindset begin to develop; Rin = good and strong, and Yukio = weak and bad. This even extends to Shiro, which we can see somewhat in what I believe is the Kraken arc.

This also becomes what I believe is the core of Yukio’s character- he does not like himself. Because he hates himself so thoroughly, he doesn’t believe that he deserves to be liked, or even that he genuinely can be liked for who he is. We see this in his conversation with Rin during the Aomori arc, where he remarks to Rin that if Shiemi knew the ‘real’ him, she would hate him. He believes that he is an unlikable person, to both himself and others.

In a way, this also stems from his relationship with Rin. Rin is in no way at fault for why Yukio is the way that he is, but the friction between their two personalities does deepen their own insecurities. Because Rin is reckless and headstrong, Yukio is forced to be the ‘mean guy’, the one to put his foot down, the one to say ‘no’ because he knows that Rin isn’t often capable of doing so himself. He is forced into responsibilities too intense for him to properly handle both due to Rin’s position as the inheritor of the blue flames, and due to his brother’s personality as the goofy, fun-having teen. (If you’ve ever had siblings, or, hell, even had to be the voice of reason in a situation where people are having reckless fun, you know exactly how this feels.)

When you take how his personality is, you can see exactly how his position as an exorcist has exacerbated this to an almost extreme amount. Though Shiro didn’t do so intentionally, he almost single-handedly createted one of Yukio’s most damaging mindsets- that becoming strong is the only way forward for Yukio.

(Don’t take this as Shiro slander, I love that man and he tried his best with the complicated history he already has with childhood) Through trying to give Yukio the chance to seize strength for himself, he set off quite a few chain reactions within Yukio’s mindset. First, he associated strength as a person with physical strength. Second, he associated worth as a person with physical strength. Third, he associated Yukio’s strength and worth with Rin, by making exorcism a way to protect Rin from other demons. Foruth, in my opinion, we can see the reduction of Yukio and Shiro’s relationship from a father-son bond to a teacher- student bond. Now, Yukio begins to lose his main support system- his father. Shiro is no longer his dad, but the paladin, a strong man who offered him an unhealthy way forward in life.

In one decision, we can see how Yukio’s self hatred found an external focus to worsen itself for him. Yukio believes that he is a weak, worthless, and unlikable person. But, now, he does have a purpose, something in life that is worth living for. He begins to develop his entire concept of himself as a person on that of becoming an exorcist, becoming strong, and protecting his brother. He hates himself, but he knows that he can do one thing- protect Rin.

We can also see where his superiority complex begins to develop. Being born human while his brother was born clearly demonic, Yukio has more worth in the eyes of the True Cross. Being the good child, and the smart child with a plan for his future, he has more worth in the eyes of society. He is better than his brother, and he knows it, but he also knows that Rin is (in his eyes) inherently good and kind, and Yukio is not. He is better, but he is also lesser than Rin.

Protecting his brother is also where I believe his relationship with Rin begins to deteriorate to a dramatic extent. Yukio wants strongly to protect him, because that’s where he believes his worth as a person is, but in a way, he resents the burden that’s been placed on him. He has to be the responsible one, the mean one, the assertive one, the negotiator, the one to clean up Rin’s messes, the one to fix everything, the one to give up his entire childhood just for exorcism to protect Rin. Yukio is a child, and one who was denied the chance to be one. He was never allowed the chance to selfishly externalize his emotions (like children should be ALLOWED to do, imo) and so never learned how to process his own emotions.

At this point in his life, he resents Rin for being ‘allowed’ to be selfish and destructive, he resents Rin and the world for having this burden of responsibility put on his shoulders, and he resents himself still for being an unlikable, weak, and worthless person, and for resenting Rin and the world. He is vastly, vastly unhappy and hateful towards himself, and is already suffering in the assortment of circumstances he finds himself in.

And then throw in a murdered dad, because why not?

Now, the burden that was placed on him and shared between himself and Shiro, is now solely on him. On top of having his father suddenly and traumatically killed, he is now responsible (in his mind) for Rin. One could argue Mephisto, but he proved... extremely quickly that he was not interested in the finer details of guardianship LMAO. Yukio now is the sole bearer of Rin’s wellbeing, and he finds very quickly that this is a role he does not (and cannot, as a child himself) succeed in.

Yukio has been thrust abruptly into the world of becoming a parent, in an extremely twisted and awful way. He is a child, in an adult field, surrounded by adults, treated as an adult, and now he essentially is the parent of Rin. This is complicated enough with Rin’s personality, but then you have to add in that Rin is the illegitimate and illegal son of Satan, and his very existence, if revealed, would lead to his certain death. As Rin reveals his powers, gets sentenced to execution, picks fights with Amaimon, uses his powers across Kyoto and in damn near every public space whenever possible, Yukio’s distress and mental state begins to worsen as he realizes that he is failing.

We can see him begin to externalize his mounting frustrations and anger and fear, through reprimanding Rin harshly, threatening Suguro, threatening Mephisto, and also that scene where he punched the shit out of Rin for being reckless. Yukio needs his brother alive, because Rin is his only family left, and because his worth as a person is tied directly to protecting Rin. It is his only purpose in life, and he is failing at it, and he deeply resents Rin for making it difficult, and himself for failing. His downward spiral begins to become visible around these points, and we can also see the start of his worsening habit of taking his volatile emotions out on others physically.

He is progressively being backed into a corner with no way out, and like a wounded animal, he is lashing out at anyone who dares come close. Yukio’s violent and hurtful behavior towards others is not because he’s an uptight asshole who does it for fun, but because he’s a traumatized, depressed, and suicidal child who is losing the one person he has left and who gives his life worth. He has no substantial guidance from the adults around him, and for all intents and purposes, he is alone. He wants to rely on Rin, but because Rin has a tendency to process negative emotions by shoving them down and away, Yukio can’t rely on him.

This is what I think is the most heartbreaking aspect of Yukio. He is a hurt and lonely child, who is deeply mentally ill, who is losing his brother and lashing out at others because he doesn’t know what else to do. He is acutely aware that he is being cruel and unkind, and he doesn’t want to be. He wants to be good, and kind, and liked, and valued. He doesn’t want to hurt others.

This scene makes this obvious. This is what I believe is the cliff’s edge where Yukio takes the drop that leads him to where he is in the manga now. He is terribly lonely, and hateful, but in a moment where he lashes out emotionally, he managed to do something he feels is well and wholly despicable. Shiemi is the one person he cares for genuinely, healthily, and truly. She wants to help him because she cares for him, and yet he hurts her for daring to mention his largest insecurity- and he knows that.You can see it written across his expression- he’s shocked, and horrified with himself for how he lost control. His hands are shaking.

He managed to do the one thing he feared above all, and that was to let Shiemi see who he ‘truly’ was. He hurt someone who unselfishly cared for him, and this is where he begins to think that he has gone past the point of no return. He is so awful, and terrible, that he hurt someone as kind as Shiemi. He is so worthless that he is failing at the one job that gives his life meaning. He is so evil and cruel that he has shoved everyone away, and now he truly has no one left.

He is worthless, and evil, and terrible- this is how Yukio views himself. Why not kill himself, and then the world would be rid of him?

Except, now another wrench has been thrown in. Yukio finds that, with Satan possessing his eye, he has become worse that worthless and evil and terrible. Now, his life poses a threat to humanity, by allowing Satan a way into Assiah. His life isn’t just worthless now, it’s become an active threat to the world, in his mind. Now, he can rationalize that his death is necessary. He is suicidal, but he has convinced himself that it’s fine, because he needs to die anyways.

This is where I believe he is in the manga, now. He is convinced that he has to die, and says it’s because he wants to save the world from Satan, but it is extremely likely that it’s mostly because he is extremely suicidal. He is hellbent (pardon the pun) on his own death. He will stop at nothing to secure his own death, no matter what it takes. His trauma, his mental illness, his self-hatred- they’re all open and exposed, now. If he’s an evil, unlikable, and cruel person, why not commit to it? Why not make himself the most evil, the most unlikable, the most cruel, if it means someone will finally get tired enough to truly put himself out of his misery?

He’s cast aside his true kindness and gentleness, and has embraced what he believes to be his ‘true’ self. He will die, and he’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that happens.

That’s my take on him, what I believe his mindset is and how it developed. Yukio is not a hero. He hurt Shiemi, threatened his students, threatened his guardian, and shot Rin multiple times. Whether or not Rin heals from it is irrelevant, Yukio still made the conscious choice to harm Rin, and others. But, he has never done so because he is evil inside. He’s done so because he’s a wounded animal, lashing out, determined to secure his own death. He is a traumatized child who has hurt others.

He deserves kindness and understanding, but also to be held accountable for his actions. He’s what I believe to be the embodiment of the ugly side of mental illness that many people are resistant to see. His character is uncomfortable to read, because he is startlingly real and three-dimensional. Like many of the characters in aoex, he cannot be classified as good or bad. He is a complex person, with good and bad aspects, like any person in real life.

godDAMN could someone give him a HUG and some THERAPY PLEASE.

#ao no exorcist #blue exorcist #character analysis #yukio okumura #okumura yukio #yuriotoko rants

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sou-ver-2-0 · 4 years

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Sou Hiyori and Kanna’s Sister Parallels

In my short time in the Your Turn to Die fandom, I haven't seen anyone discuss the similarities between our Sou Hiyori and Kanna's older sister Kugie. This subtle parallel is one of the many fantastic writing details in this game, and it happens to be my favorite one. So I wanted to talk about it!

I love the irony that the characters in YTTD draw a more obvious parallel between Kugie Kizuchi and the game's protagonist, Sara Chidouin. Both Sara and Kugie are high-school aged girls, and Sara often plays the part of Kanna's big sister, leading Kanna to project her feelings for Kugie onto Sara. Although this is sweet, it's still a superficial parallel. Sara and Kugie play the same role, but how similar are they really? If you choose to chat with Kanna on the first day of Chapter 2's storyline, Kanna will tell you the truth about her adoptive sister. Instead of idealizing her, Kanna paints a more complex picture of a flawed young woman. Unlike Sara, Kugie bullied Kanna when they first met. It took time for the pair of them to feel like real siblings. On a deeper level, Kugie's own mini-character arc is very different from Sara's arc, but it perfectly mirrors Sou's arc!

Both Kugie and Sou have a cruel streak and they each make rash judgments about other people. However, they eventually reveal with their actions that they truly love Kanna deep down. While Sara can make the choice to abandon Kanna, both Kugie and Sou would die for the girl. Because of the striking parallels I see between Kanna's memories of Kugie and Kanna's present relationship with Sou, I want to believe that Kugie was just as willing as Sou was to die in order to save Kanna's life. Kugie's story effectively acts as a microcosm of Sou's story. So let's take a close look at it.

KANNA: ...Sara... / You're just like... my sister.

SARA: Huh...?

KANNA: Your strength... and your kindness... / ... / But my sister... / Wasn't always kind from the moment we met.

SARA: (The moment they met...?)

If you speak to Kanna during negotiation time on Day 1 of Chapter 2, the girl begins her story by telling Sara that she's just like her sister, since Sara shares Kugie's "strength and kindness." However, she admits that her sister "wasn't always kind from the moment we met." This is the first major difference between the two girls, and it's what clued me into the idea that Kugie's story might be a metaphor for Sou's story instead. It's also an early moment in which Kanna reveals that she's not as naive as people think she is. She's aware that Kugie was flawed, just like she's aware of Sou's flaws. She keeps choosing to believe in their capacity for good, even as she understands that they are capable of hurting her.

Following this revelation, we come to a notable choice.

1. CHOICE: You aren't blood-related?

SARA: ...Kanna. Are you and your sister not blood-related...?

KANNA: ...Right...

2. CHOICE: Guess I win

SARA: I was nice from the start, so guess I win.

KANNA: Ah... Even the way you say weird things like that is just like my sister...

SARA: (Strangely, that just got her more emotional...)

Sara can either ask "You aren't blood-related?" or smugly observe "Guess I win." Either way, Kanna will steer the conversation back to her adoption by the Kizuchi family. But the choice to declare "victory" over Kugie here fascinates me, since it's easy to connect this competitive sentiment to Sara's relationship with Sou. While Sara and Sou are obviously in a competition for their lives, what ends up mattering more is their competition for Kanna's affections. In both cases, Sou is painfully aware that he's the underdog with "zero percent chance of success." Sou is sure that Kanna would choose Sara's life over his life, if she were forced to make that awful choice.

For Sou, who believes that Kanna loves him less, his moral dilemma is whether to support Kanna in spite of this. The fact that he supports her unconditionally in the second Main Game speaks to his strength of character. He proves that he truly values Kanna more than his own life. For Sara, who already feels comfortable in the "victory" of Kanna's devotion, the moral question becomes whether the player will make choices that are worthy of the girl. Will you help Sou protect her? Or will you decide that Kanna's life is worth less than Sou's hacking skills? Sara's choice determines whether she truly shares Kugie's "strength and kindness."

I'll come back to Kanna's feelings on this "competition" later. For now it's enough to say that she recognizes that competitive streak in Kugie too, and that memory makes her "emotional." It shows how she loves these three characters even when they say "weird things." Again, Kanna is aware of Sara, Kugie, and Sou's flaws but still feels affection for them. That's just how it is when you love someone.

Kanna continues her story:

KANNA: ...See, Kanna's adopted.

SARA: ...!

KANNA: She came to her current family from an orphanage when she was little...

SARA: So you had different parents, too?

KANNA: Mom and dad were really kind... / Kanna... was determined to always smile, childishly thinking "I can't trouble them." / ...And Kanna's sister didn't seem to like her...

Here, Kanna reveals that she has always had the type of personality where she tries hard to please others. She was worried about being a burden long before the Death Game, but for a more ordinary reason; she's adopted. She's always been self-conscious. Her ongoing heartbreak and anxiety comes from a deep place of worrying that her big sister doesn't love her. This informs her current relationships with both Sara and Sou.

At this point, the narrative shifts to a flashback of Kanna's memories.

MOM: Stop it, Kugie! Why do you do such cruel things?!

KANNA: No, it's fine! Kanna's not angry... She's not, really... / Look, see! Ahaha... Ehehehehe...

KUGIE: ...What're you always laughing for?

KANNA: Huh...?

KUGIE: ...You're creepy. I hate it.

DAD: Hey, stop that! Apologize, Kugie!

Kugie calls Kanna "creepy" and even says that she "hates" that part of her. Sara can't ever say such cruel words to Kanna; the worst you can do as a player is speak sternly to her sometimes. But Sou absolutely can say cruel things. He has called Kanna "stupid kid," "dead weight," and a "hindrance" in front of the entire group. And just like the Kizuchi parents scolded Kugie for her mean words, our group members condemn Sou for his mean words.

Now, we know Sou wasn't actually speaking his heart with those words. He didn't have malicious intent. (In fact, he was trying to save Kanna's life.) Sou said those words because he wears a mask to cover his true self. That's the essence of his character. He tries to sound tough and logical to force people to take him seriously. He assumes that once he lets his guard down and shows weakness, everyone will vote to kill him. He becomes a bully because he's insecure.

What if Kugie was also wearing a mask when she bullied Kanna? Not because of the Death Game like Sou, but for a more ordinary reason. Maybe she was simply trying to sound "cool." Maybe Kugie bullied Kanna because she was also insecure, and it would be easy to take out her insecurity on a little girl like Kanna. Kanna is an awkward child who speaks in the third person and laughs for no reason. It would be easy for an older girl to look at Kanna and think, "At least I'm not as embarrassing as that." Even though we don't know Kugie as well as Sou, I think it's a logical assumption.

KANNA: Even then, I kept on smiling... I didn't... want to make sister out as a villain. / But one day, when it became unbearable... I ran away from home.

This is the saddest part but I love it because it's a direct parallel to what Kanna says about Sou!

During the Second Main Game, when Kanna confesses that she took the Sacrifice card from Sara, she says, "Kanna...Kanna...!! She didn't want to let Sara die...!! And also...!! She didn't want to make Sou a murderer...!!"

The things Kanna does for these two!!

In other words, there comes a point for both Kugie and Sou where their actions are so harmful that Kanna feels like she has to throw herself away to thwart their "villainy." She runs away from home. She takes the Sacrifice Card. Because she doesn't want these two people she loves to become villains.

We continue Kanna's story with another flashback. This time, it's accompanied by visual imagery of a small Kanna sitting by herself and crying while hiding her face under a bucket.

KANNA: ...sniff... sob...

KANNA: (narrating) I couldn't go home. I didn't want to... Thinking that to myself, I sat in the park with a bucket on my head and cried.

This is Kanna at her most vulnerable. She is isolated and alone. She has given up.

In the present day, Kanna has many hopeless moments like this since she has just lost her sister, the person she loved most. We can judge any of the game's characters by how well they treat her, the most vulnerable among them.

In Kanna's memory, there is a character who comes to speak with her at this time. A little boy who tries to joke with her and cheer her up. Kanna only remembers him as "Brat," but to the player, he looks an awful lot like a small Joe Tazuna! The following confrontation between Kanna, "Brat," and Kugie is my favorite part, because it leads to my favorite parallel.

BRAT: Hey! Whatcha doin'? / What's with the bucket?! Yer funny!

KANNA: ...sniff... sniffle...

BRAT: Huh? You cryin'?!

KANNA: ..........

BRAT: ...Alright. / *He lifts his shirt over his head.* How's that! Ehh?! Look at me! C'mon! Funny, right?

KANNA: ...uuuuu...

VOICE (KUGIE): What're you doing?!

BRAT: ...Huh...?

KUGIE: How dare you put a bucket on her head and tease her!! Beat it, you!!

BRAT: I-I wasn't teasin' her!

KUGIE: Liar!! Kanna's crying, isn't she?! D-Don't... be so cruel to my little sister!!

KANNA (narrating): ...That was the first time she called me "little sister"...

In the scene, "Brat" greets Kanna and tries to cheer her up by being a goofball. However, Kugie sees this and gets the wrong impression. She assumes that the boy is hurting Kanna and she rushes to her little sister's defense. As a result of Kugie's actions, Kanna finally sees Kugie's true loving heart.

This is, beat for beat, exactly what happens when Sou confronts Sara about Kugie's smartphone. Just like Kugie wrongly assumed that Joe was bullying Kanna, Sou wrongly assumes that Sara tampered with Kugie's smartphone to make it seem like Kugie hated Kanna. Even though Sou is wrong--Sara was trying to fix the smartphone, just like Sou was--this is the first moment that the player can see Sou's true heart. We learn that Sou's reasons for targeting Sara aren't due to him being some scheming mastermind; he's simply suspicious by nature and he makes rash judgments. He acts the way he does because he genuinely believes that Sara is dangerous. And for the first time, we see how deeply Sou cares about Kanna. We see him stand up to Sara to defend her. Then we see how he wrote a message full of love and hope on Kugie's phone.

When Kanna finally receives the phone, she cries "tears of salvation" over Kugie's new message. But Kugie's words are really Sou's words. And by the time we reach Chapter 3, we learn that Kanna knew the truth the whole time.

(KANNA): Kanna was always with her big sister. / Because she loved her a lot… / But Kanna was always just a bother to her… / Even that time when it mattered most, she couldn't do anything. / So she thought she was hated… / But that message... made her remember. / That surely, her big sister was watching over her… / That she had to stay strong on her own… / But, well… / The truth is, she knew… / That it wasn't her sister who wrote that message… / *Kanna remembers Sou's face.* .... / ...There's people who tried to protect Kanna. / There's people who worked to encourage her. / So... she doesn't want anyone else to die. / Because... they're all such kind people...

In the game, Kanna shares these thoughts with the player in the aftermath of Sou's death. This is the scenario in which Sou gets to complete the same arc as Kugie. They both sacrifice themselves to save the little sister they love so much. I'm sure that Kugie would have been grateful for Sou's help in writing that message and saving Kanna's life.

I'll finish sharing the rest of Kanna's story about Kugie:

KUGIE: ...You still crying?

KANNA: S-Sorry... sister...

KUGIE: ... / ...So you cry too, Kanna.

I think the wording of that last sentence in English is interesting. The obvious interpretation is that Kugie realizes that Kanna has been secretly crying and hiding her true self all this time. But on another level, I wonder if Kugie is admitting that she herself "cries too"? That would confirm Kugie's insecurity. And it would make this a moment in which Kugie sees herself in Kanna, just like it's implied that Sou sees his "weak self" in Kanna. In any case, this "unmasking" of Kanna's true heart is a good parallel for Sou's story as well. Kanna also hides her feelings like he does.

KANNA: ..........

KUGIE: .......... / Kanna... I'm sorry...

KANNA: ...Sister...

KUGIE: Mom and dad are worried, so let's get home quick, okay?

KANNA: O... Okay! Eheheh...

It is possible for Sou to apologize to Kanna in the prologue of Chapter 2, Part 2. His wording is more ominous than Kugie's, though he keeps Kugie's sentiment about returning home: "...Sorry. / Just relax. If you’re obedient, I’ll tell you how to survive."

Continuing with Kanna's story, the narrative shifts back to the present day.

KANNA: ...Ever since then, my sister and I got along really well.

SARA: I see...

KANNA: Without any blood relation... Kanna and her sister got along really... really well... / ..........

I love this line because it can apply to Sou as well, since he isn't blood-related to Kanna either. All of Kanna's protective siblings commit to her well-being by their own choice.

SARA: Kanna...

KANNA: Kanna... will definitely go home...! Because she needs to tell mom and dad...! / Determination... / A kind of determination... much too heavy for a girl her age to bear. / ...I should be going soon. Sou might wake up, after all... / Thank you very much... Sara.

Kanna ends her story with a determined speech to return home and honor Kugie's memory. As we read earlier, Kanna gives a similar determined speech in the aftermath of Sou's sacrifice. Later in Chapter 3, she further expresses a desire to honor Sou’s memory, saying “I want to know more about the man who sacrificed himself for me.” This is Kanna at her strongest! This is a Kanna who wants to live!

I mentioned earlier that I would come back to Kanna's feelings on the "competition" between Sou and Sara for her affections. Because Sara resembles Kugie physically, everyone believes that Kanna would choose Sara over Sou. Kanna even says that Sara is "the person she most wants to live." That is Kanna's emotional appeal to save Sara from being voted as a candidate. In the event that Kanna dies, Keiji rubs Kanna’s words in Sou's face at the beginning of Chapter 3, leaving Sou desolate.

But it's important to note that Kanna's choice was always to save both Sara and Sou. To say that she would abandon Sou discredits what actually happened. After Kanna makes an emotional appeal to save Sara's life, she shrewdly makes a logical appeal to save Sou's life. And when Sou tries to direct the votes to Kanna, thinking she has the Sacrifice card, Kanna easily thwarts his efforts by simply telling the truth. Kanna was the only character who chose to be honest about the Sacrifice Card, because she never intended to let anyone else die for her.

Kanna's choice was to reject the “competition” outright. She doesn't even take it seriously. Her reasons for taking the Sacrifice card were twofold: to save Sara's life, and to save Sou's soul. It's never a real question for her which person she values more. She would have died for them both.

This matters because Sou doesn't parallel Kugie in such an obvious way like Sara does, but the parallel is still there. It's subtle enough that Sou can't even see it. He never feels confident in Kanna's affection, which is why he ordered her, "Kanna. / Don’t you betray me." He can't see what's right in front of him: that Kanna cares about him as though he were her own brother.

In contrast, Sara feels self-conscious about the comparisons people draw between Kugie and herself. She always feels awkward about it. She is fully aware that Kugie was her own person, and Sara can only pretend to understand what she was like. I really like the way that the manga treated this issue. Although the manga cuts out many of the excellent character moments from the game, it adds more focus on Kugie.

Sara thinks to herself, "I don't know...how many regrets that person had..." which neatly foreshadows that Kugie would have regretted bullying Kanna. Speaking of regrets also reminds me of Sou, who--in the route where he dies--regrets not trusting everyone sooner.

I wanted to end this piece on a happy note, so I'll just say that I like to imagine that Sou and Kugie would have gotten along! Maybe they would even be able to see through each other's masks and help each other. They could work together to protect Kanna, and the Player could choose whether Sara joins them.

#yttd #your turn to die #kimi ga shine #sou hiyori #kanna kizuchi #shin tsukimi #sara chidouin #kugie kizuchi #sou and kanna #sara and kanna #kizuchi sisters #sou and sara #mine #meta #my meta #your turn to die spoilers

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tomorrowsdrama · 4 years

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Do You Like Brahms Ep 8

My Thoughts:

(side note, I finally figured out that the video player I was using to screenshot the episodes was saving them all weird and I‘m so annoyed because all my prior screenshots were weirdly squished)

Wow, Jung Kyung actually gave Song Ah good feedback and constructive advice. Color me surprised. As twisted and messy as she is in her personal relationships, it seems like Jung Kyung is a decent enough person when it comes to music/teaching. Look at that, a multi-dimensional crazy second lead girl.

Gosh, the contrast between all the notes Jung Kyung wrote for Song Ah and the clean music sheets from Song Ah’s professor/”advisor” kills me. You know, maybe if Song Ah’s professors actually tried to help her instead of insulting her all those years, she’d actually improve.

Speaking of insults, is it a day ending in “y” if someone doesn’t insult Song Ah unprompted?

Same, girl. I’m also tried of people constantly putting you down for no good reason.

Just two cuties being cute.

And the “let’s further isolate Joon Young and remind him that his life is not his own and people’s worth are measured purely by how good others perceive them to be” train keeps coming and running over poor miserable Joon Young. One of the very few joys he gets out of playing piano is playing with his friends but now even that is being taken away. And it’s all because they’re not at his “level.” He’s already a very lonely person because of his status as a world class pianist who has to constantly travel around the world to play concerts. But now they’re further separating him from his very few friends and making it out as if it’s his fault for being too good. Talk about making him resent and become burdened by his genius even more than he already was. I guess that saying “it’s lonely at the top” bears some truth. The only thing is, Joon Young doesn’t want to be alone. He’s being pushed towards the top by everyone but himself. Even during his sabbatical he’s pressured into participating in a competition to maintain his status and income.

He rips off the orchestra seating arrangement because he doesn’t want her to obsess over it but she takes it the wrong way. All the talk about different levels leads up to the two of them having their very first serious (albeit still very polite because this is still Song Ah and Joon Young we’re talking about) argument.

Oof, he uses the word “meaningless” and you could tell it was the wrong word to use with Song Ah because of the way her face changes. He wasn’t belittling the orchestra arrangement or by extension, Song Ah’s last place position, by calling it meaningless. To him, it’s meaningless because he doesn’t value people based on their orchestra position (unlike everyone else in the field). However, his point of view is different from Song Ah’s.

And once again Joon Young is being alienated (albeit unknowingly) because of how good he is. We know how important being a violinist is to Song Ah so it makes sense that the orchestra seating is for her. Because no matter how hard she’s tried in the past four years, there doesn’t seem to be any sign that she’s improving or on the right path. Being able to move up one seat would be the type of concrete validation she would be able to see to prove that the path she has chosen is the correct one. Also, she is constantly being reminded of how subpar her violin playing is so of course she would be obsessed about moving up in the orchestra seating.

Omg Joon Young’s poor face as he lets the words sink in. This is the last thing he wanted to hear after a day replete with people telling him who he shouldn’t spend time with because of their difference in musical talent. The thing is, I was not upset with Song Ah for saying this. I wish she hadn’t said it because of how much it hurt Joon Young, but I also understand why she did it. She’s feeling insecure and unsure because (1) people constantly look down on her because she’s not “up to their level”; (2) Joon Young seems to be at a level she is unable to reach and; and (3) people have been telling her (1) and (2) non-stop. So I get where she’s coming from and it’s really not that unreasonable to react the way she did given the circumstances.

And then you see Joon Young get upset with Song Ah for the first time and he actually expresses it. You can tell that it catches Song Ah off-guard, too. One, because she was too caught up in her own insecurities and feelings that she didn’t realize she was hurting Joon Young. But also two, because Joon Young has always been amenable and went along with everything, no matter the discomfort to himself, to keep the peace. Just like I don’t blame Song Ah for how she reacted, I don’t blame Joon Young for this either. He’s feeling frustrated and trapped by all this talk about levels. He just wants to be free to live however he wants and be with whoever he wants. Song Ah is the last person he would expect to also subscribe to all this “difference in levels” nonsense. The fact that Joon Young who always agrees to whatever people say is speaking up about how upset he is shows how important Song Ah is to him. He likes her too much to just go along with her incorrect assessment that they can’t be together because of “difference in levels.” To be honest, even though that confession and kiss at the end of the episode was epic (so much squealing!), I think this moment did more to move their relationship forward. I mean, they were actually communicating with each other about their concerns instead of letting it fester within themselves! When do you ever see a couple communicating BEFORE a big misunderstanding that could jeopardize the relationship happens in a drama?

This sums up Joon Young and it worries me to be honest. When you live your entire life putting everyone first and just trying to please everyone, you’re going to reach a breaking point. I just want Joon Young to be happy and live the life he wants to live! And speaking of going for what he wants in life...

Omg he confesses to her and gives her the kiss that she deserves! Oooh boy, I was seeing stars just like Song Ah was. What a tender, yet searing kiss! I love that she stumbles a bit and her hand slams on the piano keys. I say, just let these two sweet, beautiful people make out for the rest of the drama!

#do you like brahms?#kim min jae #park eun bin #kdrama

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everythingithinkiknow · 3 years

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I DON'T CARE HOW INDEPENDENT YOU ARE, YOUR MAN SHOULD ALWAYS COME THROUGH! LOL! LOL! MATURITY AT ITS BEST! [- MEN ARE SUPPOSED TO WOO YOU LADIES!!!! YOU SHOULDN'T TRY TO MATCH THEM OR OUTDO THEM IN THE AREA OF PAYING FOR DATES, SUPPORTING THE FAMILY OR PAYING BILLS!!! THAT'S MASCULINE ENERGY!!!!

IF YOU'RE AN AMBITIOUS WOMAN ON YOUR OWN, THAT'S GREAT!!! BUT MEN SHOULDN'T BE EXPECTING YOU TO DO WHAT THEY DO OR MORE!!!

[***THEY SHOULD ALWAYS STRIVE TO OUTDO YOU!!! PERIOD!!! LOL! LOL!]

[-THIS IS A TRICK FROM THE PIT OF HELL TRYING TO GET WOMEN TO ACT LIKE MEN & BE MASCULINE & TAKE ON THE ROLE OF PROVIDER WHICH IS THE HUSBAND'S OR MAN'S JOB!!!]

Women Are Meant To HELP & Flourish Into What They Are Put Here To Become, NOT To Outdo the Husband Or Some Man By Matching His Male Energy To Wear Themselves Out By Taking On TONS Of Responsibility & Acquiring All These Things To Be "ACCEPTED," "WORTHY" Or To Feel "RELEVANT", "IMPORTANT" OR "SPECIAL."

NOPE!!!

Women ALSO Shouldn't Be Getting In Men's Faces Puffing Their Chests Out Bringing Up All Their Education & Accomplishments Making Men Feel Unneeded & Inferior Or Like They're Their Mothers Paying All The Bills. NOPE!!!

Women Don't Have To PROVE Their Worth By Outworking Men To Puff Their Chests Out Like They're Masculine. If They've Accomplished Some Things Or More, THAT'S GREAT!!! Women Should Be Proud Of Their Accomplishments & The Men That They're Dating, Engaged Or Married To Should Be Proud Of Their Accomplishments Also. (Without Feeling Competitive, Inferior, Jealous Or Less Than.)

Women Were Not Meant To Take Over Men's Roles As The Head Of The Household To Lead, PROVIDE & Protect The Family!!!

Women DO HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY To HELP With Love, To Nurture & Take Care Of The Husband, Household & Children As Well As Themselves In The Most Healthy, Loving & Spiritual Way, So That The Family Continues To Thrive & Remain At Peace & There's Cohesion.

- Of Course, Some Women Are More Ambitious Than Some Men, But That DOESN'T NEGATE THE MAN'S RESPONSIBILITY AS THE LEADER, HEAD, STRONGER VESSEL & PROVIDER. He Shouldn't Be Able TO SIT BACK & NOT EXCEL IN WORK, CAREER, BUSINESS, OR LIFE BECAUSE HIS WIFE OR WOMAN GOT THIS!!! NO!!!!

- THE MAN SHOULD GO HARDER, IF HIS WIFE OR WOMAN IS A POWERHOUSE TO MAKE SURE SHE & THE CHILDREN HAVE ALL THEY NEED TO MAINTAIN THEIR LIFESTYLE OR BETTER & OBTAIN SOME OF THEIR WANTS THAT ARE REASONABLE & ATTAINABLE!!!!

(The Husband Or Man May Not Make More Money Than The Wife Or Woman Does, But He SHOULDN'T EXPECT HER TO TAKE CARE OF EVERYTHING!! OR FEEL LIKE IT'S AN OBLIGATION OR EXPECTATION OR REQUIREMENT FOR HER TO BE THE WOMAN IN HIS LIFE TO PAY FOR & TAKE CARE OF EVERYTHING!!) I DON'T THINK SO!!! LOL! LOL! That's A Man Exuding Feminine Energy!!!

Men SHOULD NOT EXPECT THE SAME KIND OF TREATMENT AS WOMEN!!! MEN ARE MEANT TO WOO, WOO, WOO A WOMAN!!! That's With His Time, His Intellect, With Experiences & With His Resources!!!

(Yes, If Men Are At A Certain Level In Life & Progressing & Want To Continue To Live A Certain Way, Yes Men Can & Should Want & Expect Women They Marry Or Date To Have Something Going For Themselves As Well.) There's Nothing Wrong With That!!! That's Not The Problem.

THE PROBLEM IS THIS:

IMMATURE GROWN MALES LOOK TO BE SERVED!!! WHILE GROWN MEN LOOK TO BE OF SERVICE!!!

- But If ANY Man Have Not Care Of His Own, And Especially Of Those Of His House, He Hath Denied The Faith, And Is Worse Than An Infidel. 1 Timothy 5:8

1) THE CONVERSATION IMMATURE GROWN MALES HAVE WITH THEIR FRIENDS OR OTHER LIKE-MINDED IMMATURE GUYS THAT CONVINCE THEM THAT WOMEN SHOULD PAY FOR THEM BECAUSE NEITHER OF THEM UNDERSTAND THEIR PURPOSE OR PLACE IS THE ONE SIMILAR TO THE RECENT POST ("SHE AIN'T ONE OF THEM BEGGING FEMALES...SHE CAN BRING ANOTHER TABLE TO THE TABLE." )

2) THE CONVERSATION THAT IMMATURE, MISGUIDED, ARROGANT GROWN FEMALES HAVE WHEN THEY LEAD WITH THEIR EDUCATION, ACCOMPLISHMENTS & WHAT THEY MAKE OR DO FOR A LIVING!!! IS THE ONE SIMILAR TO THE RECENT POST ("SHE AIN'T ONE OF THEM BEGGING FEMALES...SHE CAN BRING ANOTHER TABLE TO THE TABLE." )

(Which SOME Women Use To Make SOME Men Feel Unneeded & Inferior Because They Don't Know How To Take The Hat Off When They're In A Man's Presence. YOU DON'T HAVE TO DIM YOUR LIGHT WHEN YOU'RE ACCOMPLISHED! JUST KNOW THAT WOMEN SHOULD BE FEMININE & ALLOW MEN TO WOO THEM & LOVE THEM PROPERLY!!!)

- The Right Man Won't Allow You To Dim Your Light. He'll Encourage You & Help You Even More Because That's What He's Built To Do!!!

FOR MEN & WOMEN: (The (2) Scenarios I Posted About The (2) Different Conversations Is Where The Problem Lies.

For Example: 1) Grown Males Telling Other Grown Males That Women Should Go Harder Than Them Or Equal To Them Is What MEN SHOULDN'T EXPECT!!! Nor Should They Expect For Women To Pay For Them, Take Care Of Them & Just Service Them All The Time Without INITIATING & CONSISTENTLY Doing Loving, Kind & Thoughtful Things For Women. They Don't Realize That When They Don't Do This & Have An Expectation Of Women That Exceeds What They've Actually Invested In The Relationship & Invested In Women, That They're Acting Just Like The Women In The Relationship - They're Exuding Female Energy! 2) Grown Females Leading With Education & Accomplishments To Make Themselves Feel Better Because Of Insecurity & Not Sure Who They Are, Which May Lead Them To Bash Good Men & Unable To Rest In Their Femininity To Allow Men To Woo Them Properly & Provide For Them, Even Though They're Able To Do It Themselves, Most Times Is The Other Problem.

It's When Men & Women BOTH Don't Understand Their Own Purpose, Value & Worth & PURPOSE For Each Other That They All Talk Like This - IRRATIONALLY!!! (I COULDN'T BELIEVE HOW MANY WOMEN WERE PUFFING THEIR CHESTS OUT AT BRINGING ANOTHER TABLE TO THE TABLE EXHIBITING MALE ENERGY FOR MEN THAT FELT ENTITLED TO RECEIVE FROM THEM WITHOUT HAVING TO WOO THEM FIRST OR INVEST IN THEM CONSISTENTLY!!! I ALSO COULDN'T BELIEVE HOW MANY MEN BELIEVE THAT WOMEN SHOULD PAY FOR DATES & WOO THEM INSTEAD OF THE OTHER WAY AROUND!! I COULDN'T HAVE MADE THIS STUFF UP!!! I WAS MIND-BOGGLED!!! LOL! LOL!)

***When MEN Understand Who They Are & Their Purpose, They Already Know That They Are Valuable, Needed & Worthy!!! [e.g. Leader, Protector, Provider] - That's What They Operate In Also.

***When WOMEN Understand Who They Are & Their Purpose, They Already Know That They Are Valuable, Needed & Worthy Also!!! [e.g. Helper, Maker Of The Home, Nurturer Of Men (lovingly, NOT motherly) & Nurturer of Children (motherly & lovingly)] & To Take Care Of Themselves. That's What They Operate In Also.

- THIS DOES NOT MEAN WOMEN CANNOT HAVE JOBS, CAREERS, BUSINESSES & RUN THINGS OUTSIDE OF THE HOME!!! WOMEN SHOULD JUST BE ABLE TO LEAVE THE HAT OF "RUNNING THINGS" OUTSIDE OF THEIR RELATIONSHIPS, SO THAT THE MEN OF THE HOME CAN TAKE THEIR RIGHTFUL PLACE (AS THE HEAD, THE LEADER, PROVIDER, PROTECTOR) & NOT BE UNDERMINED OR SEEN AS LESS IMPORTANT, DISRESPECTED, UNNEEDED, UNWORTHY & UNLOVED!!!

THEN, WOMEN WILL BE IN A POSITION TO BE LOVED, WOOED, PROVIDED FOR (Even If She Has Her Own) & CARED FOR PROPERLY!!! [Men Should Also Provide Love & Respect To Women.] **It All Works Hand In Hand!!! Men & Women Should Work TOGETHER In Their Respective Positions & Lives, NOT AGAINST Each Other.

#relationships #men #women #marriage #engagement #dating #masculine men pursue #feminine women wait to be pursued #women should have their own #men should have their own #men & women can love in peace #healthy relationships #healthymarriage #healthy lifestyle #healthy mindset #healthy love #no toxic romantic relationships #no toxicity

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fmdkiana · 3 years

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*youtuber vc* WHATZ up famerz. i’ve got another SICK character for you to get to know! so SMASH that follow button! MAIM me with that like!

...anyway hi i’m demi, the famed hag, and this is my fourth child (following sung, andy, n jeonghwa) her name is kiana, also goes by ki and kiki, and if that nickname brings to mind anything But kiki’s delivery service u shall b Wrong. she’s fuse’s main dancer and lead vocalist, iconic qwen. here’s her pinterest, bio, public profile, private profile, timeline [wip for links], plots, & social media [wip for insta]. i’ll leave a condensed version under ze cut <3 you can reach me easiest at fmdjoosung or demi#6468 on discord if you’d like to chat abt this girlie!

okay first things first i’m gonna nip this in the bud. if ur like excuse? iu in fuse? ur coocoo for cocoa puffs for that one. u would be right! and i intend to prove to u that she Is fitting. example a-z demonstrates an at home kiki and a fuse ki. thank me later for all this pretty laydee content

background

may 28th, 1994 ya girl is a gemini

from seattle

born to a pediatric surgeon and a software engineer (who specializes in ai bc her mom is Cool) kiana developed a love for science... then tossed it away to be A Star

not immediately though

really it all stems from the desire to be unique in a positive way

with seattle’s large east asian population, she was lumped together with everyone else, and places where she stood out, kids made fun of her for

she felt like an outcast in every sense of the word, which is why when A Boy gave her the genuine time of day, she latched on

they quickly became bad for each other, codependent at its best

kiana’s lil ass rly thought they were romeo and juliet torn apart when her parents made them break up

she kept sneaking out to see him, and eventually it became troublesome enough that her parents decided to move the fam to korea

heartbroken and with the desire to feel desired, she auditioned for gold star

since she was young, she had dance classes, just as her mom did before giving it up for something more stable

dance isn’t what drove her as much as the feeling of a crowd being entertained by her

trained for 3 years, gold star had high hopes for her given her dance background + looks, hence her role in impulse’s a

a couple years after debut, the company manages to snag her an ost, and when that does well, they shove her onto as many osts as possible, but it manages to do basically nothing to help her or fuse’s fame, no matter the impact of the song itself, and they slow down on trying

that *big bad wolf vc* my dears, is what sets up her overall Thing, that no matter what she does, or how many people claim to love her, they don’t show up for her as a solo celebrity

it leaves her a little dejected, fearful, worried, but idol life isn’t something she minds doing anyway. part of her still wants to strive for more attention, and claw her way there, because she aches terribly to feel special and different, and to a degree, idol life will always give that to her

personality

the archetype of the kid in middle school who calls themselves L and only draws in anime style and comes to school in cosplay and naruto runs around and randomly speaks japanese........ yeah, that was kiana as a kid

and really, she’s only let the problematic parts of it go. she’s still a big fat weeb (& has lots of other fandom type interests too)

an internet kid, someone who never got a big following. draws fanart, has written fanfiction, engages on fan forums. stays at home unless she’s dragged out by friends

she’s a very Normal, Everyday type person in most ways, and that bugs her to no end

she’s someone who as a kid thought she had superpowers, like full on believed it, and to this day still thinks well maybe it’s just not kicked in yet

considers herself ~an empath~ because she naturally has very strong emotions, and seeing or “feeling” the emotions of others makes her feel that way too. that includes positive And negative emotions

she can and is wrong about what she “feels” from others, but the emotional effect on herself is still the same

and because that happens so much, kiana retreats into herself

she has a very small inner circle, and isn’t very interested in more than surface level relationships with most people because it’s exhausting to feel so much all of the time

that means usually, most people meeting her will meet someone who can be doin a little doodle, you’ll say hi, she’ll say hi back, then go right back to her doodle

she’s Nice and polite enough, but doesn’t take those first steps. some ppl might view her coldly bc of it

HOWEVA if someone were to bring up one of her ~special interests, she would come off like a completely different person

animated, kinda loud, won’t shut up. that’s more often the type of person her inner circle gets to see

she’s also a reversal of the hard shell soft inside trope, as a lot of her outward self and personality can seem soft, gentle, maybe even naive depending on someone’s view, but there is a core to her affection thats... dangerous

but i’ll leave that for the dms

and finally, here’s a phat list of personality traits that apply to kiana, depending on her relationships with who she’s talking to and how she’s feeling. yes some are complete opposites. see: gemini. if you wanna kno how to get a certain trait from her, i’ll be glad to explain

abnormal, apathetic, artistic, clingy, contradictory, dedicated, demure, disorganized, earnest, effeminate, emotional, empathetic, excitable, fanatical, guarded, hesitant, insecure, introverted, jealous, loyal, mercurial, modest, neat, needy, nervous, numb, obsessive, organized, overthinking, passionate, persevering, protective, quiet, romantic, scatterbrained, silly, stubborn, tactful, temperamental, vigilant, vivacious, volatile, wall flower, withdrawn

fun fax

claims her style inspiration is the 70s but really mixes in influences from ~the 40s to 80s

if she’s dressing herself, heavily prefers skirts and dresses over pants

doesn’t like being touched unless she’s really close with someone, then she likes a lot of it

plant mom. apartment basc a greenhouse

insists one day she will make her own jam but has yet to get around to it so she just has a bunch of jars in her apartment and uses them for plants and paper clip holders and the like

her fictional character romantic Type is the tsundere. is convinced fictional characters are the best dating partners

always wears glasses when at home, and a good amount of the time when not working in general

her mario kart main is link bc nostalgia and valuing a strong stat set that favors zoom zoom

the furthest she goes for environmental impact is always using a hydroflask

prefers having bangs and hair with a wave

always carries bandaids and bandages in her bag because she gets eczema patches when she’s stressed and it’s Embarrassing to her so she covers em up

#fmdintro #'condensed' i say #tbf this muse is well over a year old i just have a lot to say abt her #i luv her v much

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ncfan-1 · 3 years

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Because I feel like we’re being set up to encounter Sabine once more in The Mandalorian, some of my more discontented feelings regarding what happened to her in the epilogue of Rebels have been coming to the surface, because I just can’t be 100% okay with anything, can I?

But I really, really do not like what is implied to have happened with Sabine in the epilogue of Rebels. Over the years, I have become more cognizant of the problems I have with certain things in the back half of Season 4 of Rebels, but I think my problems with what happened with Sabine were there in the forefront of my mind from nearly the beginning, even if it was a while before I was willing to really engage with it.

Okay. The natural culmination of Sabine’s character arc over the course of Seasons 3 and 4 was for her to accept the mantle of leadership. We’re all in agreement about that, right? I remember having problems with her shirking that role on Mandalore back in the Season 4 premiere, but I had thought at the time that, from there, her arc would culminate in her accepting the mantle of leadership within the wider rebellion, rather than merely in the Mandalorian Resistance. After all, Sabine has had Hera as one of her most important role models since early adolescence, Hera who decided that it wasn’t enough merely to liberate her own homeworld, but that for liberty to last, she had to go out and free the whole galaxy. Sabine might more readily follow Hera’s example than, say, her mother’s, or Bo-Katan’s. It would have made sense for Sabine to transcend the need for just her own people’s liberation, would have made sense for her take everything she has learned since she was cast out of Mandalorian society as a child and dream bigger than just the dream of a liberated Mandalorian society.

And she really did seem on track for that culmination in the finale. There was a moment that I was sure was the culmination. You guys can probably think of what it is yourself, but it bears pointing out here. It was that moment after Sabine spotted Ezra sneaking off to carry out his own plane, that moment after she covered for him, that moment after the others realized that Ezra had gone off on his own. It was that moment when Sabine stopped Hera from trying to force Ezra to come back, that moment when Sabine took charge of the situation and formulated a plan of action for the team—and her leitmotif started playing.

This was the moment to me. I watched this play out, and I well and truly believed that Sabine had finally reached the culmination of her character arc. I believed that this was Sabine finally pushing past all of her doubts and insecurity. I believed that this was Sabine overcoming her feelings of unworthiness and taking up the mantle of a leader. I believed that this was Sabine accepting herself, accepting the fact that she was capable of being a leader, that she was a leader. And every part she played in the finale after that moment seemed to bear this out—it was Sabine acting as a leader without hesitation, without doubt, without second-guessing herself. She’d finally overcome that block.

And then, the epilogue. Then, Sabine’s voiceover talking about the parts everybody else played in the events to come—and behold, she is nowhere to be found in those recollections, and behold, the absolutely hideous implication that she completely abandoned the fight after the liberation of Lothal, and spent the rest of the war on the planet.

No, it’s never said outright, and that’s the one saving grace of it all. But it certainly is implied, isn’t it? It’s implied, and it’s such a monumental step backwards for her character, so out of left field, that the only way to make sense of it is to look at the man behind the curtain and think about it Doylistically, instead of Watsonianly.

It feels to me like Sabine was forced to abandon the culmination of her character arc in favor of shouldering the natural culmination of Ezra’s arc. Ezra’s arc would have had a natural conclusion in him remaining on Lothal to protect the planet from further reprisals and help it heal from the damage done to it, but it really hits differently when it’s a character whose arc was never heading in that direction before the last five minutes of the show. It’s not natural, is it?

Now, I don’t have as many problems with what happened with Ezra as I do with what happened with Sabine, and I honestly think that what happened with him works fairly well as an alternate culmination of his arc. But it doesn’t work with Sabine, does it? It does not work with Sabine to have her character arc mutilated this way, because what’s happened is that the implication that she abandoned the fight and stayed on Lothal makes her regress as a person as a character. I was originally going to say it regresses her to her early Season 1 self, but actually, it doesn’t, because even in early Season 1, Sabine was still willing to take the fight to the Empire, even if she was daunted by her doubts and all of her baggage. Where it regresses her to is her pre-series self, right after she and Ketsu escaped Mandalore, and Sabine is so utterly discouraged and heartbroken by her family and society’s rejection of her that she abandons the idea of fighting the Empire for a long time, and turns her heart away from the suffering of the galaxy at large.

It makes no sense, but then, forcing one character to take on the arc of another character rarely ever does.

Now, like I said, it is the strong implication that Sabine abandoned the fight after the liberation of Lothal. It is strongly implied, but never outright stated, and like I also said, that’s the one saving grace of all of this, that it’s never outright stated in the show itself. If The Mandalorian has her saying that oh, she actually was out doing stuff with the Rebellion during the war proper, it might go against the implication, but I’ll still accept it, because it would be so much easier to engage with a Sabine I actually recognize, rather than the stranger who was dropped on us in the epilogue.

I write all of this both to get it off of my chest, and as a long, long preamble explaining why I am writing this. I write it because I think that after meeting Bo-Katan, the next logical step for Din Djarin is for him to meet Sabine. He’s met someone who performs the Mandalorian identity differently from himself, and by the end of ‘The Heiress’, he seems to be on the way to accepting that there is more than one valid way to perform Mandalorian culture and identity. Sabine is the next logical step in the progression, the next step after Din coming to accept that there is more than one way to perform their culture: someone who has a deeply complicated relationship with her cultural identity as a Mandalorian, someone who has done harm to that culture while also deeply harmed by it, someone whose identity as a Mandalorian includes not only battle and loyalty to her family, but self-expression through artwork.

I think that self-expression through art, always so important to Sabine’s character, might be introduced here as well. Because Din’s unpainted armor has always been jarring to me, and I think that his ability to engage in self-expression might have been just a little stifled (or more than a little stifled) by his raising in the Watch, and the values the Watch inculcated in him. Sabine might well introduce him to the concept of painting his armor, whether in his clan colors (and if he doesn’t have any at present, there could well be a scene of him deciding what they are), or in colors and designs that he chooses, that are personally meaningful to him, without clan affiliation or loyalty to the Watch entering.

There is something else about Sabine that I think will be of interest in this show, especially since she is most likely to turn up in Ahsoka’s company. Sabine provides an interesting inverse to the Child’s present situation—where the Child is a Force-wielder sheltered and cared for by a Mandalorian, Sabine was, once upon a time, a Mandalorian child sheltered and cared for by a Jedi, a Mandalorian child who was in her adolescence brought up alongside a child who was a Jedi.

I don’t think that Din’s journey leads him ultimately to give up the child to the Jedi, because that would be a betrayal of the bond that has formed between them. I think that his journey leads to him finding the middle way, finding that place where Mandalorians and Jedi can coexist, held fast by bonds of care and loyalty and love. That Sabine has all of these bonds with Jedi—with Kanan and Ezra, and by the implication of the finale, with Ahsoka as well—may well be the thing that proves to Din that it can be done, that just because Mandalorians and Jedi have traditionally been enemies, does not mean that they must always be enemies.

Din has gone out into the galaxy as the man who has everything to learn about life and how his can be richer than it has been, who has everything to learn about how his own people can be more than just one thing. Both he and Sabine are alienated from their culture in their own ways, and I’m interested to see the way they might play off of each other, what they can learn from each other, and especially what Din is willing to learn from Sabine. I know it’s not a sure thing that Sabine will show up, but it feels right, and I’ll be interested to see what role she has to play in the show.

#The Mandalorian #Star Wars Rebels #Din Djarin #Sabine Wren #Meta

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