#and the manga is obviously not for me as evidenced by the fact that I found it godly at age 9

[flightybuttlass]

when I was a kid I bought volumes of Sailor Moon at random based on cover art, not knowing anything about linear story, and now that I'm finally reading my completed collection, I can say concretely that I was right to do that bc the Sailor Moon manga is ass. Somehow as a kid, I'd randomly selected the volumes with the best content, aka the side stories about the Sailor Scouts, aka the only ways you get to connect with them at all bc they might as well not be part of the main story for how little they affect anything. Thank god for the anime bc this shit is so shallow. I love and honor it still, but it is so shallow.

[misc-obeyme]

your reaper headcanons 🤲 hand them over please

but if reapers are meant to be neutral, it makes the idea of romancing thirteen as a mortal so sad, to me at least 😭 either she comes to collect your soul, and ig she keeps it close to her to remember and admire

but imagine if like this is a first time circumstance where a reaper has a bias towards a human, and because she's not technically neutral to mc since they have a connection, so they don't allow her to collect mc's soul (maybe in fear of her trying to interfere?)

I don't know what's worse, her never getting to say a proper goodbye because she wasn't allowed to do it herself (and the question of whether or not she'd have the knowledge of when mc will die (there are the life candles so maybe...)).

Or having to collect the soul of the person you love and knowing you'll never see them again. And the possible stalling but you can't change fate, you can't make an exception. And spending the last day together, and mc turning to thirteen with a soft but sad smile and just saying "I'm ready."

help I made myself sad AKDKWJF. My fave characters are always the one's who get hit with the angst beam (sorry Mammon and Solomon)

OH AND I WONDER HOW REAPERS GET LIFE CANDLES DISTRIBUTED. Because she watches over a lot and the cave is big, but there's TONS of people and we saw the demon brothers also had candles, so that adds even MORE candles. I HAVE TOO MANY IDEAS I NEED TO CHILL

ANYWAY the manga makes me very happy and barnes and noble is having a bogo 50% off sale for manga specifically, so you could pick up the first two volumes. There's a lot of Mammon ass shots. And plot. I'm totally reading for the plot...

- ✨ anon

Oh oh oh now you're making me wanna write some sweet & sad Thirteen fics...

So okay, here are my personal headcanons about reapers. This is stuff that I developed because I needed to for my OC story lol.

I think of the reapers as being neutral. They don't belong to any of the three worlds because they exist in all of them.

The fact is there are like 8 billion people living on earth. That means there has to be a lot of reapers just to cover humans alone. Not only are there a ton of them, but their lifespans are short compared to demons and angels. So necessarily, I think most reapers live in the human world.

However, death comes for all and has no affiliation to any world.

Demons obviously have candles, as evidenced by the time OG when the bros went looking for Beel's. So it makes sense to me that angels would have candles, too.

The candles manifest the moment the soul it's attached to comes into being. They simply materialize out of the air into the reaper's cave. As long as that candle is lit, that being is alive.

Human candles don't go out until the entire candle has burned down and this can certainly happy quite quickly. They vary more dramatically in size.

Angel and demon candles are all basically like big ole pillar candles that never seem to actually melt at all. They are eternally burning. However, angels and demons can die, so when this happens their flames just go out like someone snuffed the candle at which point the rest of the candle turns to ash or dust.

The Devildom and the Celestial Realm have a much smaller population than earth does. So Thirteen is the only reaper in the Devildom. All of the demon candles are in her cave. I think of it as her jurisdiction. Candles move realms if the person they're attached to does, too. MC can move between the realms by the end of the OG, but due to their strong affiliation with the Devildom, I think their candle moved to Thirteen's cave some point in the first season of OG. Basically, I think the candle manifests in whatever realm the person thinks of as "home" and certainly MC feels the brothers are like their family.

Similarly, I think there is one reaper whose jurisdiction is the Celestial Realm. They keep track of all the angel's candles.

And due to the amount of humans that exist, there are untold amounts of reapers working in the human world.

I like to think that reapers can kind of make pocket dimensions to house themselves and their candles when necessary. So there would be actual caves where reapers have made their homes (with magic to keep curious humans out), but if they have to create extra space they just create a door that acts as a portal between their cave and the human world.

There is a lot of paperwork involved with the creation of candles and the collection of souls. Because what happens with those souls once they're collected?

Personally I think you could say all kinds of things are possible. I never really bothered to figure that part out because the game doesn't specify and I'm cool with it being unknown.

I like to think that Thirteen could choose to keep MC's soul if she wanted to, she would just need to file the correct paperwork for it.

All of this is how it works in my personal au that I developed for Arrie's story, but it's kind of how I think about all of it now.

I have Azrael as the head of the reapers, but he's an angel still. However, he's become more neutral toward the realms as he's had to step into the role of reaper boss.

It's this idea that any being from any of the realms could die that makes me think they have to be neutral. Especially if the realms are at war with each other. I mean, when the Devildom and the CR were at war, reapers would have had to collect souls from both sides.

Anyway, this is all just my personal thoughts on it lol.

I like the idea that Thirteen would be the one to collect MC's soul. It would be hard, but you know she wouldn't trust anyone else to do it. Plus, MC is hers. And if they were dating, I think MC would give Thirteen permission to keep their soul for as long she wants.

Wouldn't it be a comfort to know the reaper that's collecting your soul loves you? When the last thing you see is her eyes shining with tears? The last thing you hear is your name on her lips?

In my personal au, reapers can't die. But what if they can choose to die?

What if Thirteen doesn't collect MC's soul because she gives up her own life at the same time? Maybe their souls can merge and instead of being collected at all, they simply vanish or scatter into stardust, forever entwined.

Oops now I'm sad too.

Anyway, I clearly have zero chill about any of this, so I say embrace your ideas! Let them go crazy, why not!

As for the manga, I'm probably gonna order it online. I don't have a Barnes & Noble in my town, so if I want to go there, I gotta go to a different town. And I'm just too lazy lol. But now I want to read it, only for the Mammon ass shots. I mean plot is cool too I guess.

[chromatic-lamina]

into the fray

okay, just cos I’ve got a few thousand other things to do, let me draw a few more parallels, this time of these two guys (Yamato and Law) just wanting to get into the heart of things.

Leaving their wards in the hands of very capable others. Yamato, Momonosuke with Shinobu (though she was the primary carer), and Law, Zoro with Sanji (some might argue that he is the primary carer too).

And I adore the fact that Law is so very much a doctor, and so obviously suited to fixing up Zoro, but his passing off of the responsibility reminds me of both his trust in the Straw Hats, as evidenced in the panel below of Law and Usopp at Green Bit:

and his kinda blasé decision not to fight if he doesn’t want too. 

Like, I’m sure there’s good reasoning behind it (not to use up power, to take advantage of having the two yonkou separated—he is strong), but it comes across as, “Not right now, I’ve got far more pressing engagements to attend to” (like cutting my toenails). 

And there’s also an expectation that the Straw Hats will take care of it, whether that’s fair or not. I don’t think Law weighs up the fairness at all, which adds to the humour in the case of the manga.

I had a chat with @itsxandy​ and they had the idea that Law is so used to passing off the injured to his own crew, all of whom are competent in medical procedures (head canon), that he kinda assumes everyone’s got the knowhow. 

And maybe they do! Sanji procured a huge roll of bandages from somewhere and mummifed Zoro in a second.

I think Law’s dialogue is funnier in the scans, btw, but I think these are the official panels.

[mechanicalinertia]

I just remembered something incredibly stupid about the 2017 GITS live-action movie that annoyed me immensely despite the fact I haven’t seen it. No, not the ScarJo casting, and how they tried to rewrite the plot to make it seem like they were aware of that shortcoming; not that the director’s previous work was objectively garbage and the screenwriter’s claim to fame was the fucking Bayformers movies; not the useage of the geishaborgs as a shorthand for the Orient, which even a white-ass weeb like me can tell you is pretty goddamn worn out (Westerners give more shits about Gion culture than most Japanese do); not even the sense that the filmmakers were trying to bridge the slow pace and meditative tone of the 1995 Oshii movie with the more action oriented but still whip-smart SAC stories.

No, it’s the revelation that ‘Mira Killian’ was Asian and that her real name was Motoko Kusanagi.

Kusanagi is - not a real-ass family name. It’s the name for one of the Three Divine Regalia of Imperial Japan, supposedly relics handed down to Jimmu Tenno from Susanoo himself to prove the Emperor’s divine right to rule. Supposedly they’re locked away under incredibly tight guard somewhere in a shrine where no one is allowed to see them. (Kusanagi itself translates to grass-cutting-sword, but that’s beside the point).

Motoko, as a name, translates to something like ‘fundamental child’ or ‘origin child’. It works for her as a cyborg, yeah, as a sort of new species one might say. But, again, Kusanagi. Having a name like that in the West would sound something like ‘Neo Excalibur’.

It’s so obviously a pseudonym or a ‘manufactured’ name that ties really well with the fact that in the original manga no one has any goddamn idea where Motoko came from. The iconic sniper shot which features in the opening of the manga as well as the 1995 film? That’s the first time anyone hears of Motoko, as evidenced by the fact that Aramaki, her later boss, is blown away by seeing this woman blow someone else’s head away and then jump off a fucking building. Then she shows up in the office of Aramaki’s boss with orders from the former prime minister.

So she’s not ‘real’ in a lot of senses of the word in this case. Not a real human with a body made from nanoplastic and fiber-optic, not a person with a real history known to anyone. Admittedly, SAC and Arise give her an origin story - killed in some tragic accident, cyberized from birth to save her life - and we can argue about whether or not they did a good job with that. Shit, the end of the ‘95 movie has the Puppet Master imply that he chose her to merge with because she, too, was synthetic to a degree.

But the point is that Motoko Kusanagi is not a name Scarjo’s character can reclaim, because it’s not a real name either. SAC and Arise gloss over that, but Paramount tries to highlight it, and in doing so proves how idiotic the people who make films for it are. And the filmmakers don’t exactly seem aware of the postmodern blunder they’ve accidentally pulled. I wouldn’t expect them to, either, after all the oriental iconography they throw up in the film to disguise its thematic vapidity.

From what I’m given to understand, Paramount has been flailing around for awhile, since the Transformers movies stopped selling, so now they’re trying shit like milking GI Joe again. Columbia got bought out by Sony in the 90’s, and I think Paramount will be the next studio to be swallowed up by a larger conglomerate. Probably Tencent or Perfect World, since those Chinese megacorps are going to be losing a shit-ton of money in their domestic gaming market as their own government cracks down on video games of any sort. And I assume the films will only get more vapid and willing to soft-peddle Chinese fascist propaganda from there. It’s not exactly the cyberpunk dystopia Shirow predicted that we live in now, but boy howdy is it a dystopia nonetheless.

[bittybattybunny]

You know what? This has been on the back of my mind for awhile, but PLEASE EITHER POST A LINK TO YOU GOING OF ABOUT YOUR SOUL EATER WORLD BUILDING HEADCANONS, OR RAMBLE AWAY HERE BECAUSE I WANT TO HEAR YOU TALK, ESPECIALLY SINCE PART OF ME WANTS TO KNOW WHY YOU LOVE THE TRASH SWORD!!!!!!???????

KLFSJKFJKDSFKFD

THIS

THIS IS NOT THE ASK I AS EXPECTING TO GET

UMM

UUHHH

I DONT HAVE IT ANYWHERE ONLINE ABOUT WHY I LOVE HIM UM

I NEVER

THOUGHT SOMEONE WOULD ACTUALLY WANT TO KNOW??? UM UM IDK IF I CAN PUT IT ALL IN LIKE ONE POST??? IT'S UM

well, I have a lot of headcanons but the long-short is I just think he’s neat.

Um alright so since you specifically asked tho about Excalibur I can ramble a lil on my thoughts on him??

Alright buckle up; I have no idea how long this will get. Please understand I have been a member of the soul eater fandom since yen plus started translating it into English.

I do not really interact with the fandom (not really sure why I never did/do. I guess it’s just cuz when I got into the fandom I didn’t really have access to fandom spaces and by the time I did I wasn’t really sure about it.)

however, I have cosplayed as both Eurka Frog (and I met Todd Haberkorn!!! I chased him to an elevator and threw a fanart at him and then ran away. I did get him to sign a piece the next day. he’s super nice. I am very distressed I missed a chance to get a signed piece by Troy Baker and I really cannot express how upset I am by this. Like honest to god I am so upset. I had been in line I was ready I was so pumped-- and then my friend was like hey let's go he has a thing tomorrow you can do it then and like an idiot, I did and guess what wasn’t the next day? a troy baker signing. Sighs. He’s not been at any cons I've attended since so I’m so disheartened I will never get my annoying sword autograph) As well as Maka Albarn (IDK if I posted photos or not but I think it’s on my cosplay blog or on twitter)

Anyhow onto Excalibur and why I think he’s a pretty neat character.

We’re going into a read more cuz this is LONGGGGGG

Also Obviously I am going into spoiler territory

I pull info from both the anime and manga when it comes to my personal SE HCs. This is more evident in my Shinigami-Sama/Kishin headcanons but I’ll save those for another post if there’s actually an interest in it (as well as my Chrona is a Genie hc. that one is a shorter HC but yeah.) My friends who’ve sat and listened to me (and my sister who knows the show but isn't invested like I am. Like fun fact is even tho I don't do much fanart; anytime I see soul eater cosplayers or merch I like to get it.) say I’m pretty convincing so lol.

So Excalibur as a whole is set up to be this hella annoying, talks over you, egotistical, member of the great old ones, warlord of anger, most powerful weapon.

(ﺧ益ﺨ) 

in both the anime and manga he’s shown to always seem to stick to the same points when he talks. His legend begins in the 12th-century blah blah.

And his ridiculous list to become his meister.

Which set him up to be as you put “trash sword”

But I think it actually helps open something up.

So I, myself am a rambler when I’m nervous or excited. I will reiterate points when I’m frightened or upset (for my I tend to ramble on stupid factoids like octopus or my chronic illness)

And I kinda see this in Excalibur. Not a nervousness per se but that he’s purposely putting up a barrier between him and others.

He’s lonely.

He’s willing to cut down on the list of requirements for Kid and Black Star. Even with Ox he was asking to be taken. And He did partner with Hiro for a time.

He’s been in that cave for a long time. Since Asura pretty much.

How does a weapon who can pair to anyone and is as powerful as he is get shoved into a rock and left there just because he’s “annoying”

This always bugged me.

More so when we get moments later on when he’s like chatting with Death or Kid and he’s actually really serious. Like there’s no pretense, no interrupting. Like yes he does slightly interrupt when they aren’t listening or say something dumb but for the most part you see a completely different side to him.

This is what cemented in my head the fact the whole “annoying” bit is an act he does. He’s capable of emotions. He shows attachment to things like his legend.

Specifically that bit always made me think he really misses King Arthur. Like why else would he always fixate on that? like his legend begins sure but there’s more to it right? he never talks about his time with Shinigami and the old ones. Only his legend and then how he was such a wild child. but it lacks substance. The guy is over 800 years old there should be more he can ramble about.

So here’s where my headcanon takes a weird turn

but I think Excalibur.

Is the sorcerer Merlin.

A man born with a Grigori Soul and the ability to use magic. It’s shown Eibon and Excalibur tended to not get along. and Eibon based the demon weapons on Excalibur but wouldn’t tell him.

Excalibur isn’t counted as a demon weapon. he’s a holy sword.

There is no other record of a weapon like this.

I think Merlin, in an attempt to help his dear friend Arthur with his battles, turned himself into a powerful weapon to aide him. He’s an old one with the power of Madness of Anger. Anger can take many forms including possessive love. Wouldn’t it make sense for someone who knows they are strong to do everything they can for their loved one? I know I’ve been angry enough to kill for the ones I love. Like nothing makes me angrier than someone hurting someone i care about.

I think he was heartbroken to outlive the king. Clearly he doesn’t age and is super focused on the 12th century. I think it really hurt him.

Moving to another point

he’s selfish. Egotistical. but i think it’s another front. Like yes he has some pride obviously. But all his stories involve other people. Shouting fool at anyone who who deems worthy of the name.

People won’t care if you get hurt if you’re a dick.

You can’t get hurt if you aren’t close to people.

If not evidenced by my AHIT oc Eclipse and my baby Kai; I’m a sucker for self sacrificing in the name of love because you don’t see yourself worthy or love. (this is more self projecting than anything but I’m not gonna unpack that here)

I think Excalibur is the same way. he demands to walk in front of people. he wants to be the center of attention. But he won’t get close to others. He’ll take the burden on of being annoying and strong so people focus on him and others can sneak around.

So to sum up my personal headcanons:

Excalibur is a sorcerer named Merlin who had a powerful grigori soul and turned himself into a weapon to aide the man he was close to (and yes I’m 100% suggesting he had romantic feelings for Arthur. but Arthur was for Guinevere so he stood to the side and let them be) He plays up being an asshole because he doesn’t want to lose another person since he outlived Arthur.

Also i didn’t clarify the reason I say he has a grigori soul is due to the facts we know about them. Wings, Halo, purifying, rare. these traits are shared by Excalibur when he’s wielded. I think it’s a pretty cut and dry reason for why I say this ya know?

So Why do I like him?

I think he’s a character who gets written off as a joke superficially but when you sit and reread the manga or rewatch the anime and pay close attention to him; there’s actually a lot there to unpack and enjoy. I think he’s a deep character who puts up a front to protect himself but slowly warms up (I mean heck he’s clearly running around by the end of the manga. and people aren’t screaming)

So thanks for coming to my ted talk I love Excalibur and I don’t care if I’m the only one who does.

Also if curious, my fanstory “Fuller” which has my oc Mira and Excalibur as the main focus actually takes place post Manga and stuff.

Um I guess tho if you want to hear my two cents on anything else soul eater you can ask too I have a bunch of other theories like how Kishin are actually a race not just demonic souls and how soul types show there’s more in the world than we get shown (like look at Free. He’s an immortal werewolf. what’s up with that? and Maka had a Genie hunter during a resonance which means those exist and then there’s teh thing with witches and then blair is a weird existence and just. look. I have a lot of feelings for this even tho I don’t post much on it.)

I just love soul eater okay

[chibimyumi]

Hello!I think your blog is great and I love your clear attitude.I have seen some questions about Sebaciel.Actually, the Sebaciel shipping is very controversial alongside Asian fans,too.I don't really in favor of this ship, but I believe that in season 1 and 2, also the ovas and MBD, there are much yaoi tendency, not only about Sebby and Ciel, but also about Claude and Alois, Eric and Alan, etc.And the staffs(mostly岡田麿里and清水博之)always try to explain the relationship of Sebby and Ciel somewhat yaoi

【Related post】

Dear Lorenzo151,

Hello! Thank you for your kind words!

Yeah indeed, there are discussions about the appropriateness of SebaCiel in Japan too, for example. Just like in the English speaking fandom, there are people who argue that it’s just fiction, so it’s fine, while others are of the opinion that it is a perverse sexualisation of children.

The main difference between the Japanese fandom and non-Japanese fandom SEEMS to be that the Japanese one does not have the false rumour going on of ‘Kuroshitsuji’ originally being yaoi, or intended as one. I think most if not all Japanese audiences of the series see that the teasing is there. However, most also agree that those are just ‘teasings’, and not implications of true feelings.

Obviously wishful thinking in shipping is universal, so the same applies to some in the Japanese fandom as well. But then Editor Kuma’s list of facts about ‘Kuroshitsuji’ surely did make it very clear that Sebaciel is not canon.

“【The foundation of Kuroshitsji no. 16】 The butler is a demon and   competent, that is the truth. However, there is no affection for his master. [Sebastian] supports his master in his revenge as a butler, but the nature of the contract is one where he will eat the soul after the completion [of the revenge]. The contract is the only reason [Sebastian]  works so hard, he is a perverted gourmet. #Kuroshitsuji ” - Editor K.

As for the anime… well. The anime made a lot of choices to appeal to a broader audience (click here for an example about Grell). The most obvious choice was to make Sebastian manlier, more gallant and mature. The voice actor Ono Daisuke was explicitly instructed to play up the suave and emotionless side of the demon, and it worked like a charm for many people.

Q: What is the difference between the time of first season and the current production (Book of the Atlantic)?

Ono: “I feel more at ease playing him now. I was instructed to play Sebastian dispassionately with a low, low voice, and do my utmost best not to show any emotions. As such there really was a part of me that suffered. But this time his bond with Ciel has also gone a step forward and the enemies are also stronger, so I feel like I am finally able to release something in me that I’ve been made to suppress. During the acting I am now able to feel the passion, it’s like a treat to me.” - Ono Daisuke.

【Source: Animedia 2017 March Issue.】

Despite its popularity, ‘Kuroshitsuji’ is still not considered part of the mainstream world, like ‘One Piece’ or ‘My Hero Academia’ are. The airing time of ‘Kuroshitsuji’ was incredibly late, and so the series catered to a more niche audience. The target audience of the animated series were late teens and young adults who could afford to stay up very late at night to watch the series. Many of these people were yaoi fans. By the time the second season was released, the manga already had a very steady fanbase, and it was mostly the more shipping-inclined fans that stuck around for the anime. Hence the second series greatly catered to the hormon- uh I mean those fans’ tastes. Season II basically shouted: “You like Sebaciel but it’s not enough? Then worry not, have ANOTHER demon and child master-servant relationship for you to ship!!”

As we all must have noticed, there became a rather large divide between anime fans and manga fans of ‘Kuroshitsuji’.

Okada Mari is someone who seems to be very large on fan-service as evidenced by many things I discussed in the posts listed in this mini masterpost. Now, who is better suited for the job of catering to BL fans than her?

[moody-blues-requiem]

Scenario where cioccolata and secco are having phone sex inspired by that one scene in the anime and manga you know the one ;)

Not set during that specific scene, but heavily inspired by it. Hope you enjoy~!

(n/s/f/w under the cut)

Surrounded by cool earth and the muted sounds of the world around him, Secco felt completely at peace. The dirt enclosed him completely, suspending him, though he was still able to breathe thanks to his stand. Eyes closed, he took this opportunity to listen instead of observe. No camera, no screaming patients, no gore to clean up. In fact, the whole week had been relaxing for him; Cioccolata was visiting Sardegna, meeting with Carne on orders from the Boss. He loved the doctor and loved his work, but damn if it wasn’t nice to get away and relax. 

Which of course, was interrupted by a sharp ding!

Secco fished his cell phone from the pocket of his stand, squinting in the harsh light of the screen. 

2 NEW VOICEMAILS

Had he really been so out of it to not notice a call from the doctor? Maybe he had fallen asleep, or accidentally set his phone on silent again. The sound of the ringer would haunt him when Cioccolata called too much. No matter, he menued over to his voicemail inbox and played the first message. 

“Secco, my sweet Secco…” Cioccolata’s voice crooned “Listen to the next message when you’re not busy, alright? I miss you dearly…”

The soft, breathy feel of the doctor’s voice was… not unfamiliar, but uncommon for Secco to hear. Normally Cioccolata was all sharp corners, no soft edges to be found. When the soft voice came out, he wanted something from Secco. Usually it was cleanup and body disposal. But other times… well, evidenced by the lewd moan that floated through the phone’s speaker, this was one of those other times. 

“Do you miss me as much as I miss you, my Secco? My side feels empty without you there, my good boy... Surely you know why I’m calling by now.”

The sickly-sweet tone slathered over praise stirred something within Secco. It was different than the excited shouts and head-rubs, no, the noises on the other end of the phone could only be one thing. 

“Touch yourself for me, Secco.” 

He palmed himself through his stand-- though it appeared rough and almost scaly, because it was technically a part of him, it felt like… nothing. Like there was definitely a thin layer between his hand and his quickly growing erection, but it didn’t have a texture. He could feel the slight warmth of his hand through the material, though, and the practiced way his fingers wrapped around his cock. Gentle squeezes and little pumps had him fully hard in no time, rutting against his own hand, but Oasis kept his cock confined close to his abdomen. 

“I bet you’re making such cute noises, I wish I could hear those sweet little moans… I want to be the one making you moan, Secco, imagine for me that it’s my hand around your cock.”

Cioccolata’s hands were so much different than Secco’s own. Thinner and bonier, fingertips dotted with calluses and always a little cold. His own hand didn’t compare, but it would have to do. Secco dismissed his stand from the chest down, everything below the slit on his chest and sleeves fading away. The cool dirt around him was shocking, he’d forgotten about the sharp temperature difference-- but the sudden change felt wonderful on his flushed body. A harsh, loud moan was torn from his throat, while he began pumping himself even harder. He could hear Cioccolata moaning on the other end of the phone, obviously touching himself too, little whines of Secco’s name punctuating the breathy gasps. 

“Do you want me too, little pet? Do you want me to fuck you when I get home?”

“Yes!” Secco cried out, his hips bucking wildly. He was so close already, tears pricking in the corners of his eyes. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes…..” Secco could imagine the feeling of Cioccolata fucking him open, cock mercilessly milking his prostate, those bony fingers digging into his hips and carding furiously through his choppy hair. 

“S-Secco, I’m about to…. I want you to cum with me, Secco. Cum, now.” 

It was an order, and Secco obeyed without question. Thick ropes of hot cum coated his stomach and chest, cock twitching wildly as Secco milked himself dry. Cioccolata was moaning and babbling into the phone, praising Secco, murmuring something about how he wanted to see his seed dripping from his pet. 

“I’ve got to go now, ,my sweet Secco, I’m late for my meeting. I just needed to call, let you know how much I missed you… Be good, darling. I love you.”

There was a click, followed by a robotic “end of messages”. Secco huffed, hanging up the phone, and let himself go limp to enjoy relaxing in the cool, comforting earth.

[strands-of-starlight]

Clow Sorcery: Clear Card Edition

Alright, so I recently caught up on the CCS: Clear Card manga and am therefore back on my bullshit with regard to Clow sorcery stuff. I have a lot of thoughts on various aspects of this arc and what the potential implications are for those of us who like to play in that magical sandbox, but for now I’d like to start with taking a look at the original Clow cards in comparison with the Clear cards. Specifically, I want to delve into what these two systems (because yes, I am about to argue that they are in fact separate systems) can tell us about a) the types of magic present in this paradigm and b) the different types of magicians we’re working with.

As a note, this post will be somewhat image-heavy so I apologize for that in advance. Additionally, I will be discussing SPOILERS UP TO MANGA VOLUME 5 since that’s where we really start to have a clearer picture of things. I won’t be addressing anything specific to the anime because I’ve not watched it yet and have discovered via discussions with other fans a number of divergences on some key plot points, so I’m leaving that alone atm. Be advised.

Now, we have concrete confirmation that the Clear cards are the sole product of Sakura’s power and imagination (something which I speculated on nearly a year ago, so I feel rather validated on that front). For anyone who has been dipping into Clow sorcery, this is kind of a big deal on multiple levels. First and foremost being, they are not Clow cards. These new card spirits exist wholly outside of the original framework that governed the Clow. This is evidenced by a few things, starting with the names and appearances of the respective spirits.

A large majority of the Clow cards were anthropomorphic/humanoid in appearance. Only a handful of them did not fit into this category, and even most of those could be identified as an object of some sort. With the exception of the Illusion and the Wave, every Clow spirit had a definitive and recognizable form that personified its inherent power. The Clear cards, on the other hand, are largely abstract. Even those that are described as birds (Gale, Aqua, Blaze) are not any kind of bird that is immediately identifiable as such. To date, the only truly humanoid Clear card spirit is one that is directly inspired by a Clow card, and consequently shares the original spirit’s name (Mirror).

You may be asking why any of this matters. Obviously they needed a new #aesthetic to hook people, so that covers that, right? Well, I think it’s a little more significant than that, especially since Sakura responded so well to the original cards and developed a decided friendly relationship with them. Why, then, would her own cards be so different to the friends she had already made?

I believe it boils down to a key difference between Sakura’s and Clow’s magic which becomes pretty apparent when you examine their respective mahoujin. Looking at Clow Reed’s magic circle, we see a TON of different magical elements. At first glance, we clearly have some astrology, some sacred geometry, the kanji for the four cardinal directions, and a host of symbols, sigils, and script all divided neatly into sections that obviously have some type of mystical correspondences. This mahoujin is absolutely packed with occult knowledge that Clow spent years painstakingly crafting into a coherent system, the final product of which were the original Clow cards.   

Some of this detail and structure is maintained in the magic circle Sakura ends up using in the second half of the series, but some of it is also lost. We retain the astrological symbols and the Sun, Moon, Star motif (slightly rearranged to reflect the source of Sakura’s power). We still have the cardinal directions and the interlocking geometric designs, but the rest of the glyphs and magical script have gone missing. Looking at this mahoujin, there are enough similarities to clearly show these magicians are still working within the same paradigm. One is a little more heavy on the elements you might expect to pick up over a life-long study of the occult, while the other has been parred down to reflect a magician who is still growing into their craft.

Virtually all of this changes with the Clear cards, though. Absolutely everything about the original mahoujin, save for the presence of the Sun and Moon, has been edged out by the dominance of the Star. Even the four kanji representing the cardinal directions have been replaced by the kanji for Fire, Wind, Water, and Earth. Perhaps even more fascinating, the circle no longer even manages to contain the whole of the design. This magic circle is literally bursting with Sakura’s own power, and very little else.

What this says to me is: Sakura is not only stronger than Clow was, but she is also an entirely different type of magician. While Clow relied heavily on various elements of ceremonial magic and established lore to create a new system that married Eastern and Western philosophies, Sakura isn’t so much creating a new system as she is unconsciously harnessing raw elemental power through sheer force of will.

This is also demonstrated in the different incantations for unleashing the Wand. Both the original incantation and the one Sakura uses in the latter half of the series call upon a very specific force - the “power of the Dark” or the “power of the Stars”. In the Clear card arc, however, she calls upon the “Force without Master” to release her staff and secure the new cards. Honestly, I suspect the only reason the new cards are even cards at all is because she is mimicking a familiar template without realizing it.

The point is, this explains a hell of a lot. The reason the Clear cards are more abstract is because they haven’t been refined by any formal rules or tools beyond the power that is required to wield them. It also explains the disparity in the range of their application as compared to the original Clow. Clow spirits all had a very narrow set of skills and parameters specific to their nature. By contrast, the Clear cards have a broader range precisely because they are, in essence, still very raw. Which is understandable, since it takes years of learning and practice to develop the control necessary to work with fine lines as opposed to broad strokes.

But what this proves is that Sakura’s power is far more chaotic than anyone except perhaps Eriol may have realized, simply because she has no boundaries to contain it.

I’m still not entirely sure what all this means for practitioners of Clow Sorcery, but there are a few things I can say with relative certainty. The first is that I absolutely believe one can choose to work with the new cards without having to give up the Clow. The second, is that anyone who does decide to work with the Clear cards should probably keep in mind that they are an entirely different beast born of a much wilder magic than the original Clow, and therefore may not necessarily play by all the same rules.

Tune in next time...

[thefantheorist]

Traitor Found! (My Hero Academia)

Hello all my fellow Fan Theorists! Today we are gonna cover the second part to this My Hero Academia theory that I left you on a cliffhanger for. So before we get started I just wanted to issue a big fat SPOILER ALERT because this theory is literally gonna spoil everything, including some things in the manga (but only up through the parts that have happened in the anime), and I also wanted to leave you a link to the first part of this theory that you should probably read first.

MHA Traitor Part 1

With that said, let’s pick up where we left off. Last time, we talked about the rules that we needed to establish in order for us to be on the same page about who is innocent and who is guilty. The rules are, simply put:

The character has to have been introduced in the series as of the point in time that they mentioned a traitor being active. The character who is the traitor also has to have had a major speaking role in the series (no extras or such) and must be from either Class 1-A, Class 1-B, or one of the UA staff members.

If they have been specifically targeted (to die) by Shigaraki, All for One, or Kurogiri, then they are innocent.

Likewise, if they have interfered with the works of Shigaraki, Kurogiri, or All for One themselves, then they cannot be the traitor.

We also eliminated quite a few people from the board, leaving only Present Mic, Cementoss, Midnight, Ectoplasm, Vlad King, Mina Ashido, Mashirao Ojiro, Denki Kaminari, Koji Koda, Kyoka Jiro, Fumikage Tokoyami, Toru Hagakure, Momo Yaoyorozu, Neito Monoma, Itsuka Kendo, Ibara Shiozaki, and Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu.However, since it is practically impossible to eliminate all the suspects from this list based on the criteria, I am going to speculate as to who I believe is the traitor. I’d like to point out before we start, though, that this is just a theory and I don’t mean to offend anyone or start a fan war, especially since I could be wrong about it. With that said, let’s start with the people who are least likely to be the traitor.

Vlad King

As the homeroom teacher of Class 1-B, Vlad King is one of the only people who would know about the location of the campsite and would be one of the only people there. However, he was also unaware that the Vanguard Action Squad was targeting Bakugo and the other students, which doesn’t mean that he can’t be the traitor, it just makes it very unlikely.

Itsuka Kendo

Kendo is one of the few class B students who couldn’t be eliminated from the list based on our criteria. However, I don’t think she is the traitor. Aside from the fact that she is very heroic in the times that she saves Class A from Monoma, she also risks her life in the fight in the woods, which, despite the fact that she wasn’t directly interfering with the “capture Kacchan” mission, means that she is probably not the traitor. Also the fact that her quirk... really isn’t one that they would want or need.

Fumikage Tokoyami

So, Tokoyami was one of the characters that I figured I should immediately strike from the list because he is just not the traitor. Plain and simply, it doesn’t really make any sort of sense for him to be. Aside from the fact that I just don’t want him to be the traitor, I also think that there is evidence against it, but since it didn’t apply to one or more of the rules, I couldn’t eliminate him. However, the fact that Mr. Compress tries to take Tokoyami with them to recruit him because of his power, seems to indicate that he isn’t a member of the League. Even Dabi, who is the leader of the Vanguard Action Squad, who would likely be one of the people who knows who the traitor is, seemed to not know who Tokoyami is. Also, something I haven’t taken into account is the fact that the traitor would probably be someone who has a grudge against Kacchan, or at least would rather sacrifice him for the safety of their friends or family, but Tokoyami seems remorseful, he even feels guilty for not being the one taken, which strongly indicates that he would’ve sacrificed himself to save Bakugo.

Ibara Shiozaki and Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu

I just find it hard to believe that these two would be the traitor. For the same reason as Kendo, Tetsutetsu should get a pass, and I would honestly be kinda disappointed if it were Shiozaki, especially since she preaches peace and love and such, so it wouldn’t make much sense for her to be a villain. But if it does end up being one of these two, you can count me surprised.

That’s pretty much all of the characters that I can really eliminate based on like having limited evidence, but I’d also say that Kaminari is probably off the list, since he wouldn’t want his friend getting kidnapped. Anywho, let’s move on to the fun part. Here are the top three most likely characters to be the traitor!

Koji Koda

Okay, so I know what you’re thinking, “Really? He’s one of the top three most likely characters to be the traitor?” and you’d be right in thinking that. However, things with Koda just don’t really seem to add up. First off, he literally pretends that he cannot talk for most of the series, despite his quirk literally requiring him to talk to animals. The show tries to explain this away as him being shy, but like, why the heck would you learn sign language as a form of communication just because you were shy? Like, Koda was trying to convince everyone that he couldn’t talk, but he eventually let the secret slip, first to Tokoyami, who he told his secret because Tokoyami told him about Dark Shadow’s weakness, then to Jiro when he felt bad for not using his quirk and noticed that it started to hurt her. Honestly, though, I don’t think that he is traitor, despite how suspicious this seems.

Neito Monoma

I imagine that some of you are thinking that I am just hating on Monoma because he disses Class A, and while I do love to hate Monoma, there is actually a solid reason to suspect him. First off, he hates class 1-A, that is no secret, and he obviously despises Bakugo because of the Sports Festival, so it isn’t a far cry to assume that Monoma would want to get Bakugo kidnapped and have him turn evil, tarnishing the reputation of Class A. Also, you ever notice how Monoma was the only person to fail the exam from Class 1-B? I mean, if they were taking a similar exam (I don’t think they were taking the same exam, but it was probably something that also required them to work as a team against an obstacle that was hard for them. This is evidenced by the fact that Vlad King isn’t there during Class A’s exam, meaning he was with his students, and Class A’s exams took almost all day.), then it is probably unlikely that only Monoma would fail the exam, especially since he passed the licencing exam. That means than Monoma likely failed the exam on purpose, perhaps because he didn’t want to be in the middle of all the action that he knew was going on outside. Also, he is no stranger to leaving his classmates behind to further his own agenda (see the Sports Festival). However, despite the fact that I truly believe that Monoma could be the traitor, and honestly it seems super likely that he is, I think that there is one other person who could take that title out from under him.

Toru Hagakure

Look everyone, I know that this sounds pretty absurd because why on earth would I have any reason to suspect Hagakure of being the traitor? Well, at first, it doesn’t really seem to be that valid of a theory, she seems to just be a sweet, sassy, slightly underdeveloped character, like a couple of her classmates are, but look a little closer. First off, Hagakure is the only character in Class 1-A who hasn’t had some sort of developing arc, the only one. Every character has at least had some sort of plot directed at developing their character. Obviously the main cast has had the brunt of them, but characters like Yaomomo, Jiro, Tsu, Sero, Kirishima, Kaminari, even Mineta. The three most underdeveloped characters, aside from Hagakure, Rikido Sato, Mina Ashido, and Mashirao Ojiro, have all at least had their character developed in one way or another. But Hagakure? Nope. She passed the final exam so she didn’t have the summer school development, she got the licencing exam the same way that the rest of the B cast did, she wasn’t a player in the Vanguard attack, she didn’t get a highlight in the internship episode, she wasn’t there for the Stain attack or the Bakugo rescue attempt, she didn’t make it far in the Sports Festival, and she wasn’t present anywhere during the attack on the USJ.

Speaking of, where was she during the attack on the USJ? She said she was with Todoroki in the landslide zone, but she didn’t get her feet frozen like she did during their first combat training, and she would have since Todoroki literally froze that whole mountain. Also, why would you not announce your presence to your classmate who could literally kill you if he doesn’t know you’re there? Also, she tells everyone at the end of the attack that she was at the landslide zone, but look at what Horikoshi literally put in his comic.

Do you see it?

We never learn where Aoyama was, though I speculate he was probably in the Configuration Zone with Ojiro and he was just hiding, but the thing is, he later tells us where Hagakure was, so why would he not put her in that location to begin with. Unless... she was lying about where she was. Still not convinced she’s the traitor. Well I have one more piece of evidence:

Notice anything strange?

What the hell is she doing standing in the front there? Look, you might think that this is a stretch, but honestly, it’s not. these openings, they are essentially the newest arc told in so many words. This is why in the above picture, Kacchan and Todoroki are faced away from the camera, because they were the only two of Class A who failed the test. These openings are basically teaser trailers for what is going to happen in this arc, which is why in the second opening in season 2, they had that whole symbolic thing with Iida, Todoroki, and Midoriya. These openings are very meticulously planned, which makes it even harder to overlook the fact that Hagakure is the character that the ending of this focuses on, when every other time, she has been in the background, practically unnoticeable. It also makes sense that the League would want her quirkwise. She doesn’t have a particularly flashy quirk, which means that she isn’t going to be a very popular hero, someone the League would target, but her quirk is also super useful in their case since she is literally invisible. She can sneak in and out of anywhere, practically undetected, which is a quirk that the League would find very valuable, as it is also a quirk that works well if you are a spy/double agent. Also, you ever notice how we get a whole scene in the episode End of the Beginning, Beginning of the End, where All Might and Aizawa are trying to convince Jiro’s parents to move into the dorms, but we never see that for the only other character who was in a coma, Hagakure? She tells us that her parents were hard to convince, but we never see that. She also has no allegiance to Bakugo so it isn’t a far cry to assume that she would sell him out to protect herself, her family, or her friends.

I also hear you screaming at your computer saying, “But if she really is the traitor, then why did Mustard try to kill her in the attack at the training camp?” Well first off, he didn’t try to kill her specifically, she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Also, the Action Squad had a list of people that they could kill, Deku being on that list, and while we don’t know who all is on that list, we do know that they don’t always follow orders, hence Muscular saying to Koda that he will kill him even if he isn’t on the list, so the fact that Hagakure got hurt doesn’t really change anything.

Every way you look at this, Hagakure looks guilty. Every. Single. Way. And that is why I think that Hagakure is going to end up being the traitor.

Thank you all soooo much for reading this theory. It ended up being super long, which is why I had to split it up into two parts, but thanks for sticking with me through it. This theory was a lot of fun to research and write and I am never opposed to rewatching this show, so it was a great experience and I hope you enjoyed reading these as much as I enjoyed writing them. I must say, at first, I definitely didn’t know who the traitor might be, but as I investigated it more, things around Hagakure just kept looking fishy. I also looked to Monoma quite a few times, and I honestly wouldn’t blame you if you still think that Monoma is the traitor over Hagakure. Anyways, thank you all so much for reading this massive two part theory and I hope you all have a wonderful wonderful week.

MHA Traitor Part 1

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 003: Superhero Academy Entrance Exam

Chapter 3 of my not-actually-live liveblog of Boku no Hero Academia! And I have to say, this one is my favorite chapter so far. We’ve got new characters, we’ve got weird video game point challenges, and we’ve got a new crowning moment of awesome for our protagonist! All this, and a guy with the power of jeans. What more could I ask for in life.

Notes: As of posting this I’ve read up through chapter 6 of the manga and watched episodes 1-5 of the anime. My comments (aside from ETAs), however, are from my initial readthrough of the chapter and are unedited. And despite residing here on tumblr where BnHA is a trending tag like every week, I somehow continue to remain almost totally unspoiled (boy that feels like I’m jinxing it).

hey it’s some random speech bubbles just spitting out facts about U.A.! how convenient and helpful

damn, they only accept 1 in 300 people... that’s a 0.33% acceptance rate. I’m pretty sure even Harvard accepts like 5 or 6% of its applicants, so this is... yikes

All Might magnanimously declined the People’ Choice Award lmao

“Best Jeanist.” oh my god. for years I’ve thought Eiichiro Oda was hands-down the best mangaka when it came to creating off-the-wall new characters. but this character’s name is Best Jeanist and he’s wearing a turtleneck denim jacket and has onion hair and I just. I don’t know anymore. my world is shook

what makes it better is the implication that there are other jeanists out there. but he is the best

so much the best that he’s won the best jeanist award eight years running

what is his power?? jeans??

shout out to this other guy Endeavor who I’m completely ignoring because he had the misfortune to be standing next to my homeboy Best Fucking Jeanist

Deku actually went home and took a shower and packed and then got on the subway for a forty-minute ride. holy shit this kid is cool under pressure. probably took a fucking nap on the train too

DID HE EAT THE HAIR??? I ASSUME YES? GODDAMMIT THIS IS BULLSHIT TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED RIGHT NOW

is this the school? I like the trees just chilling out in the entrance lobby there

“there was no time to test out the power All Might had given to me” -- fjkalsjdfj ARE YOU SERIOUS

THEN WHY DIDN’T YOU IDIOTS DO THIS LAST WEEK

YOU COULD HAVE PACKED THE NIGHT BEFORE

THE SHOWER IS FINE, SHOWERS ARE IMPORTANT, BUT YOU COULD HAVE DONE IT FASTER

HE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW IF THE HAIR ACTUALLY DID ANYTHING?? YOU SPENT THE PAST 10 MONTHS BUILDING UP TO THIS? YOU WERE CARRYING THAT BALL FOR TEN FUCKING MONTHS ONLY TO DROP IT THREE FUCKING HOURS BEFORE THE EXAM SFKSHLHK I’M FUCKING LOSING IT

I DON’T CARE IF HE’LL OBVIOUSLY BE FINE, I NEED SOMEONE TO GO AND SMACK HIM PLEASE

-- OH LOOK IT’S MY PROBLEMATIC FAVE

HOLY SAVAGE FUCK THAT “IGNORE + WALK PAST” WAS OFF THE FUCKING CHARTS

“ever since that day, Kaachan never tormented me again”

the answer is yes, right? no? are you sure?? damn

wow they still remember the sludge monster and call it the “sludge incident”

here I was thinking this kind of shit happened on the daily in this crazy superheroes&supervillains society, but I guess some incidents are more memorable than others

also it’s nice that he stopped harassing Green Tsuna, but when my previous (I shouldn’t say “previous”, actually... more like “still current”) favorite Gokudera “GOAT” Hayato had his life saved by his protagonist, he not only stopped tormenting him, but he immediately swore his eternal fealty and dedicated his life to serving him, so that’s a pretty high bar. I will give Baku the benefit of the doubt, though

I’m still obviously on board this ship, as evidenced by the fact that Deku thought “I gotta stop flinching instinctively” and I was like “aww they’ll be lovers any day now”

I don’t understand it either

hey hello I’m cracking up in real life here

wow I thought he was gonna fall and that was hilarious, but instead he’s somehow just... floating there? which is somehow even MORE hilarious

HEY A NEW CHARACTER. [takes notes]

WHY ARE YOU SORRY FOR STOPPING HIM IT WAS A NICE THING TO DO

“[SMILES BROADLY] THIS SURE IS NERVE-WRACKING!” HEY I’M SORRY, BEST JEANIST, BUT YOU CAN FUCK RIGHT OFF, THIS IS MY NEW NEW FAVE

HIGH FIVE, GREEN TSUNA. YOU’RE DOING GREAT

“Everybody say hey” this motherfucker better be saying this in fucking English goddamit. (ETA: he is!! yessssssssss)

nobody said hey

“well that’s cool.” nice recovery! gamfuckingbatte you funky boombox man

YEEEEEEAH

nobody said yeah

my god this is a tough crowd. the practical test could just be warming these stone-cold motherfuckers up and it would 100% explain the abysmally low acceptance rate

I love how Deku talks to himself all the fucking time. I want to watch movies with him. we’ll both talk quietly while trying not to annoy people and probably not succeeding.

they’re sitting next to each other oh my god they were roomaaaaates

no but it’s seriously so cute??

there are probably thousands of people there, they didn’t HAVE to sit with each other. (unless seating arrangements are determined by school)

ETA: which they probably are come to think of it. hahaha)

they can’t take the test together though, aw

look at these fucking Mario silhouettes. did Nintendo sign off on these?

is it allowed because they’re blacked out? how fucking sneaky

(ETA: actually in the anime they didn’t make any Mario references at all, which makes me think there actually was a copyright issue)

these rules seem simple enough. actually seems almost too simple. the amount of different quirks they’re dealing with and the lack of guidelines on how not to use them seems to be asking for trouble. but I guess they probably know what they’re doing by now

I thought this was a high school, why is this 40-year-old man here asking questions about the exam

OH SHIT DEKU HE’S CALLING YOU OUT FROM TWENTY FEET AWAY

we would so get kicked out of movies together

now they’re literally referencing Super Mario Bros by name huh

and calling it an “old retro game”... sob

I actually love the pop culture reference so much and hope that more of these follow. this is how people talk in real life. none of that coming across a zombie and not actually calling them “zombies” because that concept somehow doesn’t exist or any of that bullshit. no sir. “you guys know thwomps from Mario? this thing is like a thwomp from Mario”

here we go. this set-up reminds me of Choice from KHR. please dear god don’t actually be like Choice from KHR

yeah, come to think... how big is this school

there’s a guy whose arm bone is sticking waaaaaay out of his elbow and it’s making me so fucking uncomfortable

please go away

THE GIRL IS HERE

AND THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD MAN IS HERE TOO DAMMIT

all these people who don’t even fucking know Deku are still picking on him for some reason. ugh. just more people to show up, Izu. you got this dude

I’m getting strong Hunger Game vibes here

oh damn they sure did run

thd thd thd thd

relax, Deku, I’m sure there are plenty of monsters to go around. plus most of those guys appear to be morons and I’m sure the smiley girl and the forty-year-old man are the only ones in the group who’ll actually pass somehow

oh fucking FINALLY a flashback to him eating the hair!!

he’ll START to feel SOMETHING in A FEW HOURS?!!!

and there he is running off to take a shower as previously established

I am glad he is confirmed as having good personal hygiene, though

“prepare for some real kickback” noooo I’m getting nervous

when you use One for All, clench up your butt

ssshhf this giant fucking robot literally interrupted his flashback right before we got to the good part??

DEKU. CLENCH YOUR BUTTTT

“why can’t I move?” MAYBE YOU CLENCHED TOO TIGHT. SHIT

some bishounen with a crotch laser just appeared out of nowhere and blasted it!

whew

“merci!” you’re welcome, Tuxedo Mask

wow he’s been standing around for four minutes already?? I take back what I said before, Deku. fucking run

everyone else has killed basically all the enemies. fuck why do I feel like he’s about to face a fucking thwomp. how many points were those again

...lmao zero. well shit

these Ender’s Game test-makers have deemed Yuri on Ice over here a “decision maker”

who am I to argue

BAKUGOUUU

YESSS MY ANGRY SON WHOM I’VE ADOPTED FOR REASONS THAT STILL CONFUSE ME HAS GOT THAT .3% ACCEPTANCE RATE LOCKED UP

OH NO IT’S THE YARUKI SWITCH

WHAT’S A YARUKI SWITCH

ah

now feels like a good time to speculate on just how fucking expensive this fucking test is with the giant robots and the entire fucking city built for the sole purpose of being leveled in ten fucking minutes all for the sake of a test which only 1 out of every 300 people will even fucking pass

somewhere out there I hope there are people whose quirks are just “building lots of things really cheaply and effectively”, otherwise this feels like such a waste

haha now everyone is running again but in the opposite direction this time

and so is Deku. NOW he can move, huh

aaaaaand he’s crying again

something better happen or else he’s screwed

oh fuck me, the girl fell, of COURSE it had to be the girl

(ETA: actually upon reflection I think they redeemed this due to two things: (1) tying it back to her not letting him trip and fall earlier, and (2) the fact that she’s not the first person that Deku has had to heroically rescue, and the person who WAS first was not only a guy, but the angry explosive prodigy character. so I’ll give them a pass here)

(ETA 2: after watching it in the anime, a bunch of debris fucking fell on her, so I take back all of my complaining. good show)

AHHHHH HE’S RUNNING BACK TOWARD THE GIANT MONSTER DOING THE HEROIC “I JUST ACTED WITHOUT THINKING” THING AGAIN AHHH

AHHHHHHHH

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

THIS IS THE COOLEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN

HOLY SHIT WAY TO BRING ME BACK DOWN

-- AH?! NOOO WHY IS IT OVER

I’M GONNA GO READ THE NEXT ONE RIGHT NOW

(ETA: and you better believe I did)

BUT FIRST

BONUS:

”I’m glad he came out so unlikable.” HAHA JOKE’S ON YOU

”his face just screams ‘I’m a rotten thief’” LMAO SOB WHY IS HE MY FAVORITE

GOOD CALL CHANGING HIS PERSONALITY THOUGH BECAUSE THIS VERSION NEEDS TO BE PUNCHED IN THE FUCKING FACE:

I HATE HIM

AND THAT’S IT THAT’S THE CHAPTER????

holy fucking shit.

[estrellaxpolar-blog]

Marth finally gets a meta

The best lord needs to break into this brand new blog 👀

I’ve been holding onto this draft for a looooooong long time, and out of laziness or nervousness of the acceptance of some of my headcanons, I didn’t finish.

But then I remembered characters flow so much better when I can interpret them the way I want (*cough* Ephraim) so without further ado...

(Keep in mind a lot, and I mean, a LOT of these are headcanons of mine over the years. I know I’m not stating facts from the games, anime, or manga themselves. They will, however, be the default for how Marth is interpreted on this blog)

Enjoy this mess, I never format these professionally.

His social anxiety and insecurity

How can we not start out with this? It was one of the most obvious things for me about his personality from the start; that his insecurity with himself went past just being humble, going as far as to deny his own skills and accomplishments. He says things like this plenty of times in Fire Emblem Heroes alone.

“I have come to see my own powerlessness. As but one, I cannot accomplish anything.”

“I found victory only because I had first found so many allies who shared my new sense of justice.”

“I can accomplish nothing on my own. It’s thanks to my friends I’ve come as far as I have.”

He doesn’t feel strong at all, I’d even like to think he’d avoid using the Falchion itself at first just because he feels he isn’t worthy. He’s not at all the same kind of person his father was.

Aside of having low self esteem, he also lives with the idea that one mistake could cost a lot. Hell, he even blames himself for the deaths of his friends, feeling that if he’d done more, that alone would have changed the fates.

“If I’m not dependable, everyone else will suffer for it.”

For someone that thinks so little of their own strength, it’s a bit hypocritical to pin all of his bad accomplishments on himself alone. It punched me in the gut when I thought about it more, but he does not like himself.

Marth disliked his father

One of the reasons he thinks so little of himself is because it’s all he’s heard of his father growing up. (PATHETIC WEAKLING) King Cornelius wanted his only son to be the kind of King he was, and went out of his way to try and mold Marth into his ideals. It very obviously didn’t work, and for a multitude of reasons that will be covered throughout this whole meta.

For starters, Marth knew from a very young age that Cornelius wasn’t the best example of a man. Marth and Elice’s mother was the Queen and his first wife, but Cornelius likely had many concubines as well, something common among Kings who prided themselves in their sheer strength and power. This raised even more tension growing up, watching the mothers of Marth’s half siblings pitting their children against each other, a lot like the how siblings in the Fates games were. Marth didn’t look up to his father from the very beginning because of this, and when worse examples followed, Marth frowned at the very idea of being a King someday. He was taught that they needed to kill, to come out on top and show no mercy or weakness.

Unfortunately, mercy and gentleness were something Marth had a lot of. Cornelius tried to break him out of it, but Marth didn’t even like to fake brutishness to get out from under the harsh thumb of his father. He wasn’t the kind of boy King Cornelius wanted him to be in the slightest, and Marth knew he wasn’t a boy at all.

Marth wants to transition

Marth’s self esteem hangs on a loose thread because he is dysphoric. And because he was the only son of a strict King, he had no freedom at all to be the woman he feels and sees he is.

His sister thankfully noticed this in him at a young age. She didn’t understand it completely, but she would sneak him in to little tea parties when they were small and let him wear her doll dresses. Marth looks up to his sister more than anyone else he’s known, guiltily admitting he’d rather be her. He grew so fond of wearing her crown even after she was rescued, and he was glad she let him keep it. It was subtle, but it at least let him feel a bit prettier.

None of them dared tell their father while he was still alive, yet even after he died and Marth assumed the throne of Altea, he still remained closeted, thinking that his transition would be selfish. He convinces himself he’s just being crazy, and the older he gets, the more he has to bury the idea of his true identity.

He’s not innocent to the core

Despite everything that he feels he lacks, he’s not weak willed in the slightest.

After his home country was taken and he was the sole survivor from defeat or capture in his family, he was furious. He wanted to take revenge for his country, abandoning some of his ideals to train vigorously even when that meant he would bulk up a little despite wanting to keep his slender figure.

“I, too, have seen losses, so I can empathize. After fleeing to safety, I swore to restore my homeland with the help of my comrades. It was Nyna who entrusted me with the Fire Emblem…and it strengthened my resolve to fight on. I no longer fought for vengeance… I fought for the people.”

It doesn’t last long, but after all of those years in exile, growing up around soldiers, he picked up a bit of dirty humor. Imagine getting “the talk” from the biggest block head in the military. Ceada was in the same boat (I like to thing growing up dirt mouthing with soldiers is why she’s so unfazed in this Niles support) and the two would constantly joke whenever they weren’t under the watchful eyes of nobles. Marth is later like this with his close friends, like Merric or Kris, as surprising as it is considering usually his calm and delicate way of speaking.

Marth’s noble actions and words are more or less a front, covering up a child that never got to be a child. He’s playful, albeit awkward around new faces, and doesn’t see himself growing out of that anytime soon. He never got to be a child when he was growing up, save for those few precious moments with his sister Elice, and enjoys spending quality time being an absolute dipshit any time he can to this day.

Marth is a fucking yandere

Not to say he’s the level of insane that Tharja is, or a stalker to a love interest, but he can lose his mind when someone he cares about is in danger.

He’s very critical of the lives of those close to him, as evidenced in some more heroes quotes:

“I cannot allow a single one of my friends to die. Together, you and I, with everyone else, will win this war.”

“I don’t want anyone to die. Surely you feel the same way.”

“As a friend, you are irreplaceable. I will protect you”

His sister also stresses to the Avatar in fe14 that Marth can’t let go of the deaths that occurred in the war of shadows, and knows he will do the same in the upcoming wars. She berates this kind of behavior, admitting he will always be childlike in his values because he believes he could save everyone.

And if you all know me, you know I’m going to take this hot piece of info and run with it.

Going back in time and raising the dead aren’t things that he’d say no to when I came to reviving loved ones. And we know how “well” that can turn out in fire emblem........

Without proper help and support, he could go batshit insane with the torment a friend in danger could bring.

Marth’s half siblings

Speaking of going insane with the death of loved ones, I’ve pictured the stakes being higher when Altea was taken. His entire family aside of Elice was killed, and that includes his half siblings.

While he had a distaste in the idea concubines, it doesn’t mean he didn’t grow fond of a few, espera their kids around his age. They were still family to him, save for the ones with power hungry mothers who would rather see he and Elice dead in order to give their kids a chance to the throne.

None ever dared plot an assasination on the King’s heavily monitored legitament children, but there were incidences between the ones of concubines that were highly favored. This would shake both Marth’s and Elice’s peace while growing up, breaking them inside entirely when they were all picked off during the siege of Altea.

[oneinathousandwords-blog]

More About Kisara and Reincarnation: Yu-Gi-Oh! Style

So, I’ve done a few posts now with @microraptorglider about some of our Yu-Gi-Oh! reincarnation theories. We just can’t let this stuff go, and because we’re masochists we just keep pursuing answers. Basically, there are no absolutes, but in a world of question marks, Kisara is the biggest one. Is she the BEWD? Does she control the BEWD? Is her soul separate from the BEWD, or are they the same? And that’s just scratching the surface.

But, we may possibly sort of kind of have an answer. However, it also raises a whole NEW set of questions. Before we can even acknowledge it as a source, we’ve got to figure out whether it even follows canon or not, as well. So, this new source is . . .

The Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game. Specifically, this card.

Well what do you know? It’s our favorite question mark, Kisara. And look, here come her friends, even more questions!

First off, are we even going to accept the TCG as canon or not? (Oh my goodness, a nice, easy ,yes or no answer.)

I am going to go with a ‘yes‘ on that one, simply because of this girl:

in relation to this character from the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga:

Because even though Mana was animated with brown hair/brown eyes (represent!) she was actually drawn as a {dirty}blonde. (I say dirty blonde, because her hair is lined, while Bakura’s white hair had no lines of detail in it at all. The intent was for her to have some color, probably.)

So, the card game follows manga canon, obviously, because of Apprentice Illusion Magician’s white hair and purple eyes. However, everything we glean from the ‘TCG = The Manga’ theory should probably be taken with a grain of salt.

With that said, let’s throw out the salt shaker. As evidenced by fact that both a Blue-Eyes White Dragon card and a Maiden with Eyes of Blue card exist in the same spirit world, with separate forms, and separate names, BEWD and Kisara have distinct, unique spirits and personalities. They are shaped by each other, and BEWD does bend to Kisara’s will to some extent (example: continuing to watch over Seto after Kisara’s death), but there is some part of their souls that is different from the other.

HOWEVER, what do we do with the fact that there was only one Mana, who wielded one Black Magician Girl, yet the TCG has many different incarnations of the two? (Special note of the fact that it wasn’t just the Black Magician Girl, but Mana herself.) And what about Yugi’s Black Magician Girl? Was she Mana’s spirit reincarnated, or was she just Mana’s ka, motivated by her owner’s will, coming back to protect Atem?

Like I said, it raises a lot of questions. Those can be addressed later. For now, let’s just focus on Kisara. I’m starting by listing what we do know about this cryptic figure’s soul after death.

Firstly, her soul was shown talking to Seto from the BEWD’s form, right after she died. (”Lord Seto, do not let your heart be overcome by the darkness . . .”, or something like that)

She was not shown waiting for Atem when he came to the spirit world. (Mahad’s and Mana’s spirits were, however.)

The BEWD protects Seto Kaiba, as shown in the duel with Ishizu. It’s shown to be resistant to listening to anyone else - but it did listen to Yugi/Atem during the Capsule Monster’s arc. (This was a little surprising at first, but if you think it through, it makes sense. I’ll talk about that in its own separate post.)

BEWD and Maiden with Eyes of Blue have their own cards, but Maiden’s effect is meant to be used to summon BEWD. She obviously is made for it.

Mana, Mahad, and Kisara did not reincarnate. However, they do have Duel Monster forms that protect their former masters. Black Magician and Black Magician Girl are also shown with something of a personality. (However, this does not mean BEWD doesn’t have a personality as well. It may just be hard to emote in a way humans can understand when you’re a giant white dragon made for destruction.)

In the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, Transcend Game, that came out just before DSOD, when Kaiba uses his BEWD to try to break through to the spirit world, BEWD is destroyed by a huge amount of force. In the moment of its destruction, Kaiba sees Kisara’s spirit for a single moment, silhouetted by light.

Let me tell you, point #6 is very important. It tells us a lot about how Takahashi-Sensei himself viewed the Kisara/BEWD relationship. However, the TCG gives us something else to think about as well.

So, here we go then. Based on the evidence, when it comes to the BEWD, it and Kisara are completely equal and interchangeable. (Kisara = X) (BEWD = Y) ( X = Y) Kisara’s soul resides in the BEWD’s body so that she can continue to watch over Seto.

However, when Kaiba died (I’m gonna go off on another theory here, and conjecture the odds of him having died in Zero Reverse being pretty high), Kisara’s soul was still hanging around with the BEWD. Seto wasn’t on earth anymore. She (and it) had no reason to stay. So BEWD went back to the Duel Monster’s world, and Kisara’s soul separated from it to be with Seto.

BUT WHAT DO WE DO WITH MAIDEN WITH EYES OF BLUE?

I’ll show you.

(If you ever saw my other theory on the ‘With Eyes of Blue’ archetype, this’ll seem familiar)

Well look who we have here. We’ve got the Master, we’ve got the Priestess, we’ve got the Sage, and we’ve got the Protector. But we do not have the Maiden. Not only that, they’re in a mausoleum. A grave. But who’s grave is it?

As shown by the statue they’re offering sacrifice to, it must be the BEWD’s.

The ‘With Eyes of Blue‘ archetype is dedicated to serving the BEWD, and probably worshiping it. In exchange for their sacrifice, the BEWD bestows on them Kisara’s spirit, and her ability to summon the BEWD. Remember, Maiden is the only card that references the BEWD exactly by name. Every other card in the archetype just summons or adds to your hand ‘a Blue-Eyes card‘(Of course, in the real world, this includes the BEWD itself). But according to lore, are we supposed to understand that the archetype can’t summon the BEWD y itself? In other words, they need to offer their sacrifices, call on BEWD”s spirit, receive Kisara, and use the power they received from the sacrifice {or their own targeting powers} merged with hers to summon BEWD. {The ‘power they received from the sacrifice’ is the targeting effect Mausoleum of White gains if you sacrifice one Normal monster.}

So, long story short here: Kisara’s soul lives in BEWD’s body. Every moment of its existence, she’s there too. When Kaiba died, Kisara’s soul and the BEWD’s separated. She either then went on to the afterlife, or possibly became a Duel Monster. {However, I’m going to say that she went to the afterlife, because of the ‘With Eyes of Blue’ theory above, and because she isn’t shown offering a sacrifice with the others in Mausoleum. Also, she definitely would want to be wherever Seto’s soul was, so why wouldn’t she go there?} When the ‘With Eyes of Blue‘ cards offer their sacrifices and need the BEWD’s power, Kisara is summoned. She hangs out with them for a while. brings BEWD to nuke the threat, and goes back to her cool digs with Seto when she’s done.

Ta-dah!

Of course, that still leaves us with the fact that there are multiple incarnations of BMG. And what are we supposed to do with all those other Blue-Eyes/Deep-Eyes/Azure-Eyes cards in relation to Kisara? (And keep in mind that the TCG may not even be canon ANYWAY.)

Another time. For now, just be happy we solved one mystery. Questions or comments? I’d be happy to help you, or get some new ideas.

[juuuzo]

Kaneki and Toukas child will live

(DISCLAIMER: This is my own opinion regarding the survivability of Kaneki and Toukas child. There's no actual proof that anything i'm saying is in fact true, and there's a possibility Ishida might just punch me in the gut and prove me wrong.)

Following the release of the latest chapter of Tokyo Ghoul:re, chapter 129, we receive confirmation that Touka is indeed pregnant, and with Kaneki as the father, the child is either a half-ghoul or half-human (im working on a meta on the genetic implications which ill post later on). While everyone has been theorizing about the possibility of a pregnancy since Ishida's drawing of Touka with a bloody belly and the burnt-womb poem; having finally received its validation, the fandom seems sure of one thing: the baby will die. Whether it will be through a natural miscarriage or during some kind of combat, the baby will certainly die. And with reason, after all, its our first time experiencing a ghoul pregnancy,of a hybrid nonetheless, and considering what we know (the ghoul mother absorbs the child, the child dies of malnutrition,etc), there's no hope for the baby. And yet, here I am,saying that I believe the child will live. Why? Well for various reasons:

1. It would be more tragic to have the child live

One of the main reasons readers believe the child is “bound to die” is because this is a tragedy manga. In fact, everything only happens in favor of this tragedy and only pain and suffering are allowed in the Tokyo Ghoul universe. So for all you sadists out there, I raise you the following question: Wouldn't it be even more tragic for the child to live? Think about it. If the baby were to die before birth, be it due to absorption or in combat, it would be sad, no doubt, but there wouldn't be that much of an impact in the story. Sure, Kaneki and Touka would suffer the loss of their infant, which would further cement the “tragic” aspect of Kaneki's life, but there was no hope that it would’ve lived anyway. Kaneki especially understands the stakes of this kind of pregnancy, and with the current situation the ghouls are in, he may even feel relieved the child didn’t come to be. Which then brings me to my point: it would be much more tragic for the child to survive. As of right now, the ghouls have mostly retreated into the depths of the 24th ward. The oggai are on patrol, killing anyone they find, adult or child. And we've seen in this chapter that the CCG has caught onto Goat and their hiding place. Especially, they'll be on the hunt for the King and his subordinates. Not only that, but the ghouls are in a dire situation. Food and resources are scarce, and the depths of the 24th ward consist mostly of ruins and broken down buildings. And we don't even know what's beyond the depths of the ward. Take all these factors into consideration and now imagine having a baby in these conditions. A newborn half-ghoul or half-human, requiring constant attention, feeding and care. Supposing Touka survives this alongside her child, she’ll be forced to exit the battlefront in favor of the infant, and become its guardian. Not only that, but a newborn is extremely fragile, especially a hybrid one, and would be an easy target. As the King's child, well, that just makes it even more of a target. And Kaneki, Touka and everyone else would know that. If, lets say, word gets out that the King has a child, I don't doubt for a minute that Furuta would set forth a race for its death, rewarding whoever kills the infant and brings back its head. And I'm sure there are quite a few characters that would be veeeery interested in its death, either for their own satisfaction or as a striking blow to the King's psyche. It would also force Kaneki to rethink his strategy, after all, he now has something very important he must protect. Other ghouls would also probably put their lives on the line for the child. The entire story would take a different shape. And that's not even considering the psychological effects of caring for this child, evidenced by Kaneki and Toukas rough childhood and family traumas. Nonetheless, if this baby comes to be, whether half-ghoul or half-human, it will have a very rough upbringing.

2. The child will become a symbol of hope

A recurring theme throughout the story, and one of Kaneki's main goals, is the possibility of coexistence between ghouls and humans. Ishida has shown us both sides of the coin, that of prey and that of predator, through the use of Kaneki's character: a human turned ghoul who has experienced firsthand both sides of the battlefield. However, at the same time, Kaneki has been shown to forsake his humanity in favor of the ghouls, acting as their King and fighting on their behalf. On the other hand, there is another character that, given different circumstances, could’ve very well taken on the role of King: Eto.

Eto was the only known natural half-ghoul, born from a human(Ukina) and a ghoul(Yoshimura). Her physiology gave her the best of both worlds: the abilities and prowess of a ghoul all while maintaining human characteristics and traits, allowing her to live both as Takatsuki Sen and the One-Eyed Owl. Her childhood allowed her to experience firsthand the plight of the ghouls, while her late mother's diary and her career as a novelist let her see the world as a human. One can’t help but wonder, had her parents raised her and her circumstances been different, what kind of world views Eto would've had and what kind of role she would’ve taken on, seeing as she believes in a society where ghouls are no longer persecuted.

What does this have to do with Kaneki and Toukas child? Well, I believe the child will take on a similar role. Whether it is half-ghoul or half-human, the child will become a mediator between both worlds. There are many theories regarding the end of Tokyo Ghoul, most saying that Kaneki will die in the end. Whether or not he’ll achieve his ghoul of coexistence, his child, being his direct descendant, could very well take on his legacy and take on the role of King, continuing the battle for a future where ghouls are no longer persecuted, becoming a symbol of hope for ghouls just like Kaneki currently is, considering its future status as both human and ghoul.

3. Allows Kaneki and Touka to have major character development

Having to take care of a newborn child will allow for some major character development, especially for Kaneki. Although he has undergone multiple changes throughout the story, one of Kaneki's main characteristics is his desire to ��sacrifice himself”. Regarding this trait, his relationship with Touka has already altered this to some degree, with her existence “grounding” him, tied to his vow to protect her. Touka, as we all know, can defend and take care of herself. The same can't be said about a newborn child, especially a hybrid newborn. Fragile and defenseless, the baby will be 100% dependant on its parents for its survival, which means that staying alive and protecting the child will become the main priority. No more reckless fighting, no more aimless wandering around. Kaneki will be forced to stay alive for the sake of the child, and knowing him, i'm sure he’ll do everything he can for his infant. The same can be said for Touka, who can already be seen going as far as consuming human food just to guarantee its survival within her womb. 

4. The child will become a plot moving force

It is an undeniable fact that this pregnancy has been foreshadowed for months now. Since the drawing of Touka with a bloody belly, the burnt womb poem, to the development of Kanekis and Toukas relationship, to an entire chapter dedicated to them finally consummating it. Creating all of this build-up just for the baby to die is just too anticlimactic and predictable. Pregnancy and miscarriage theories have been circulating for weeks now, and simply getting rid of the child after setting up the stage just seems too predictable and wasteful. Everyones expecting it, and story wise there's no point in introducing an element with so much potential and immediately getting rid of it. Ishida has yet to disappoint me plot wise, and I honestly think he has a lot more planned. Not only that, but, while both scenarios will have some form of impact within the story, a miscarriage will only directly affect Touka and Kaneki, who will obviously suffer for the loss of their child. On the other hand, introducing such an obstacle in the story will have multiple implications, affect various characters, and become a driving force in plot. It may even be a resource that Ishida may use to continue the story without its current main character(Boruto). Nonetheless, the stage is more than ready to receive this child, and with so much to bring to the story, I doubt Ishida would miss this chance (to bring us more misery).

In conclusion, while all the odds are against Kaneki and Toukas baby, I believe that, for the sake of the story, it'll live. However this pregnancy will progress is a complete mystery to me, but as someone who loves studying obstetrics and genetics, all this exposition on human and ghoul biology is making me brim with excitement. I can't wait to see how this will turn out and whether my theory will be right or wrong.

Thank you so much for reading, and please excuse any mistakes. 

[keyofjetwolf]

The fact that the Inners have had so little focus or development prior just doesn't give their desires to live normal lives any real weight here sadly. Not to mention there has been zero indication of this beforehand. And that is what frustrates me so much about this scene. This could have provided a great bit of much needed insight into them, and a chance to strengthen their relationship with Usagi. Sadly it only succeeded in wrecking it further. Because, Mamoru...

I really didn’t talk about this much, as I was so frustrated by how it all played out in the end. But I have a bit more distance today, SO LET’S FOR A MOMENT.

It’s a rare nod from me to the manga, but my read on the scene wasn’t “we want to live normal lives”, so much as “there are things we want that don’t revolve around Usagi”. PLEASE NOTE HOW HERE FOR THIS I AM. I fucking love the Inners and their bonds, but none of it means a fucking thing if it’s just empty-eyed slavish devotion. The fact that these girls are their own people first and foremost, and sometimes their wants and dreams clash, and they have to struggle, and sometimes they might choose the wrong thing or have regrets or feel resentment. This is the shit that makes them interesting, this is how they’re people and not props.

It’s something the manga’s utterly failed at. As soon as Usagi comes into their lives, nothing else matters. They live and breath and die for her. It’s the beginning and end of their characterization. So having these moments was actually pretty awesome!

Rei isn’t interested in protecting Usagi so much as she wants to further her training, wants to be better, wants MORE POWER. It could be a fascinating commentary on Rei, as it keeps things within the realm of what she’s doing, it just changes WHY she’s doing it. It’s drastically different from the others, whose “wishes” are not to be fighting at all. Rei would be a Senshi no matter what, this is saying, but it twists what could be seen as loyalty and nobility in Rei and corrupts it.

This is ESPECIALLY interesting if we consider this to be some kind of mystical telepathic insight into the girls, and so containing at least some nugget of truth, even if only in their fears. I think Rei’s is the most interesting of the four of them, not just because me and because Rei, but because, as mentioned, it’s the only one that doesn’t remove Rei from her role as Senshi, AND because it’s the only one (sort of; Mako’s is weird) that isn’t conclusive. Rei doesn’t get to respond to this accusation, either in denial or acceptance. How much truth is in it, then? It’s something I’d love to see further explored, though I know that will never happen.

As Ami fuses with a computer, Viluy taunts her, saying “You’re always after more information, you want to be assured of your success. Every day you have to put off what you want to do for Sailor Moon.” As we see here, Ami (at least on some level) agrees. I find the idea that she’d LITERALLY rather just be a computer to be a little on the disturbing side, but I mean, it’s a nightmare situation, I’ll roll with it.

I don’t have much insightful to say about Ami here, because I don’t think it’s a surprising or even especially interesting take on what anyone could’ve assumed from being told “Ami is the smart one”. Save that it’s not even about Ami becoming a doctor, it’s about her getting into medical school. Which changes her goal and perspective a little, but I suspect that may be a cultural thing. Still, point being, this is Ami definitively saying “Sailor Moon is preventing me from doing what I really want to do.”

Minako’s, I find similarly not surprising. She wants to walk away from all of this and be an idol, we know that. BUT I’M NEVER NOT INTERESTED IN IT SO THAT’S FINE. All of it lacks the “center of attention” element that I feel is so critical to any bitterness or resentment Minako feels, but it does add in a particular venom Minako has to being a Senshi. Particularly having read Sailor V, that’s an interesting inclusion (assuming, of course, accuracy of translation). She can FINALLY quit, being a Senshi is totally foolish. If anyone can be said to have soaked up the fun and glory of being a superhero, it’s Minako. So this is interesting as it suggests that’s nothing but another mask Minako wears, trying to convince everyone (herself most of all, perhaps) that she’s having the time of her life.

Obviously this isn’t a new concept for my take on Minako, but to see the manga actually taking a kind of harsh line on it is unexpected.

Finally Mako, aaaand … SHE WANTS TO TAKE A NAP I GUESS. I dunno, Mako’s is particularly weak. She sees pretty flowers and forgets what she’s doing. It’s all very Wizard of Oz poppy field. BUT HEY THREE OUT OF FOUR IS BETTER THAN THE USUAL ZERO OUT OF FOUR.

But then we come back to how it gets shat all over, because these scenes don’t exist for the Inners, they exist for everybody else. To show Mamoru’s super special miracle romance bond with Usagi, to show how much stronger Usagi is than the others, and to show the Outers being so powerful and cool and coming to rescue them.

There’s no fallout from any of this. The first and only thing the Inners do after snapping out of it is look worshipfully at the Outers and then give Usagi their powers. And I don’t mean to suggest that the anime was the pinnacle of emotional follow-through or it didn’t use “let’s power up Usagi” every other goddamn day. But it compensated for that by pouring a fuckton of time, interest, and development into the Inners, so it wasn’t me starving to death for a morsel and finally getting tossed something, only to have the manga pry my jaws open and dig it out of my mouth.

The ultimate problem I have with how all this shakes out, which I was too angry yesterday to really articulate, is that ultimately the Inners are PUNISHED for daring to not put Usagi first. This is Act 34, nearly the end of Volume fucking Seven, and it’s the first time they’ve expressed anything resembling dissatisfaction with their “standing in the background and smile vacantly/look on worriedly as Usagi actually gets to live a life”. And what happens? They’re beaten, manipulated and defeated the moment they confess there’s anything else they’d like in their lives, and then rendered even less useful than usual.

I don’t have confidence enough in Takeuchi’s writing to say that any of this was intentional, but I do feel it’s representative of her feelings toward them, as evidenced by the aforementioned thirty-four issues and seven volumes of material. And as always, it’s her story and she can do whatever the fuck she wants with it, but that in no way means I have to enjoy or agree with her choices.

BUT FOR A MOMENT

JUST A MOMENT

THINGS WERE ALMOST BEAUTIFUL

[horrorbutgay]

NDRV3 Demo Analysis w/ Full Game Spoilers!

(My friend Elfi/Apri made this and jesus fuck shes a fucking genius please love her)

First off, let me mention that I immediately went into sleuthing mode while I was playing the demo for about 4h (both English and Japanese), because I'm aware that even DR demos have a decent difficulty level to its case writing (judging by suspicion not necessarily incriminating Hifumi The Harmless in the demo until the manga came into the picture with the full story) and this demo seemed too easy if you don't give it some proper thought like most of the unspoiled fandom is still not used to doing. From what I managed to piece together with the clues shattered throughout the demo and based on the knowledge of the full game's content, I'm convinced Naegi is the correct culprit vote like we all thought, BUT (huge but) paying attention and giving it some thought grant you the speculation that he could've actually had an accomplice outside of the protagonist room. And that accomplice is no less than the scheming mastermind of the game: Shirogane Shirogane Tsumukweeeen. (Yes, that Despair Arc dub meme never gets old) Let me start my explanation with the clarification that this demo is clearly another in-universe promotional method for V3 like the Maki, Kaito and Ki-Bo poster. It's like a popular show treating its fanbase with the kind of sneak peek preview to let them know what to expect. I also want to clarify that people were indeed able to enter the protagonist room before the gym announcement, because how else would you explain Tojo being able to clean the whole dormitory? This leads me to the conclusion that Tojo likely got her hands onto a master key from Monokuma with Tsumugi's aid and she locked the doors of all the rooms after cleaning them. Yes, Hoshi was there too, but so was Yumeno for a bit and that still doesn't mean they entered the dormitory later. Considering how Ultimate Dedication Kirumi is able to afford wasting time on introducing herself if she was supposedly in the middle of cleaning when you just arrive at the dorm, it's quite safe to assume the job was already done at that point and that is why the protag room is already locked if you do try to open it before going to the gym. In fact, all the rooms are locked. Kaede clearly was the last student to wake up, and Tsumugi being the only one with the ability to confirm Kirumi's alibi - despite Hoshi and Yumeno presumably being at the dorm as well - is a major hint that the clean-up was pretty much done waaay before you awoke, got past all the other students from the AV Room onwards to the dorm, and finally listened to the introduction of those three. I say three because I honestly think Yumeno was in the kitchen at first and only appeared in the dorms once the body discovery announcement was made. Anyway, Kirumi obviously locked the doors for safety and privacy measures once the clean-up was done. I believe Hagakure's "corpse" was already in Kaede's bathroom at this point, and here's why Tojo probably neglected to inspect and clean ALL of the bathrooms: As someone who comes off on the surface as a trustworthy and supportive person, not to mention that she acts as a huge fan of a maid's work, Kirumi is inclined to believe her if Tsumugi simply insists for example that Monokuma told her that all the bathrooms were taken extra care of to be spotless. As I've established, there is no breathing room for the player after the gym announcement, so Tsumugi had to be the only character present while Kirumi was cleaning the dormitory. Because she simply admires Kirumi's work as a maid due to how much of a geek she is, so she had to keep watching and this doesn't seem suspicious to you at all without fullgame spoilers because they always made Tsumugi out to be a bland motherly "heart on her sleeve" nerd type of girl. It is entirely understandable that Tsumugi - as the MM getting her lifetime dream of a writer debut on TDR come true - wants the killing game to start as fast as possible, and this is emphasized in the full game by how she gives them a two days time limit right off the bat to commit a murder or else they'll all be mass murdered. In the full game, this doesn't work out so well and she doesn't like how Kaede gets so well along with Amami in that bonus scene (explaining why Kaede believes in his innocence to be the MM in Case 1) without even knowing about his impressive SHSL Survivor status as the only survivor of V2. And Rantarou also turns out to be better at nail painting than the Ultimate Cosplayer thanks to living with twelve sisters at home, making her outraged with jealousy. To push her over the edge, time is running out and a mass execution would be a boring and way too quick end for the season, which would affect the ratings. She can't allow that, so she goes with the two characters she passionately dislikes so far to get them out of the picture and continue the show. Arguably, she would've even been fine with any vote that wasn't her because the MM being executed would also end the show too early. Kaede and Saihara were the prime suspects, so even though she framed Kaede for also trying her hardest to expose her due to the same reasoning and she conveniently set a death trap with a similar method to how she decided to kill Rantarou (remember, the heavy iron balls were in the warehouse available for anyone to grab), Saihara would have been fine too. Kaede works better though, because she is legitimately convinced of her guilt. Shadowing her as the demo first culprit is a nice nod to the full version and it makes perfect sense in context, and I'll explain why right now. No, sadly enough, there are no chances of that but that info is (preferably?) not spread through the fandom and only on the wiki. Turns out that when you enter Amami's research faculty, you discover a recording of himself before the memory manipulation process (there's a vast difference with that and brainwashing :')) in which he reveals that he is from the previous killing game and he was the only survivor there. That likely makes him more worthy of the SHSL Survivor status in the fanbase's eyes. Especially Tsumugi lmao She's a full-on critic Anyway, I liked clearing that up for the people here, but now onwards. I'm almost 100% sure that Kirumi would vaguely hint towards this exchange of words happening between her and Tsumugi if the player voluntarily approaches her after she decides to stay behind with Hajime, but that's something I'd have to check with a replay. Hajime and Makoto actually being in the demo/in-universe preview episode is also a great treat to hardcore fan Tsumugi. Especially Makoto, the protagonist of her favorite cast. We already established before that Tsumugi is going back to the original and she wanted to recreate the DR1 cast & killing game whilst simultaneously criticizing the flaws of her favorite game/season (the reality tv killing game started with reboots of the original fictional material with real actors, as evidenced by the collage sequence if you manage to read through all of them.)(edited) I initially thought of them possibly being Tsumugi's cosplays, but that ended up being too far-fetched for my taste and some of the 53 seasons do involve aforementioned reboots of originally fictional source material. It's just a little too fastly skipped on in the collage for the most part after the first ten entries.(edited) And just who from the cast do you think even Tsumugi would detest despite being a DR1 stan? That's right: Yasuhiro Hagakure. This passionate hatred is even further emphasized by there not being a Hagakure parallel in her fanfiction. She likes her casts well-rounded. But that doesn't explain the revealed fake death at the end, so let me continue my theory. Tsumugi invited Hajime, Makoto and Hagakure along to the live preview of her writing and acting debut on Team Danganronpa. Because she arranged the perfect protagonist who's like no other and ideal to keep milking the series, on top of that that person is also female, the actors for the OC leads (who obviously also survived in their portion of a reality tv killing game to stay faithful to the omnipresent motto of keeping the MCs alive, despite the vast differences in the rest of the  survivor sets for DR1 and 2 which I'll tackle in a bit) are brought back to their roles to guide Kaede and introduce the nostalgia Tsumugi is going to include in the upcoming season. Ah, and before anyone comes up with a "Rantarou" rebuttal for the sake of completing the DR1 parallel, keep in mind that his personality mainly stems from the previous season and there are some characters (like Gonta) that even Kodaka admitted he has never written before because Tsumugi managed to give a sense of uniqueness to the cast.(edited) And the remaining students also managed to drift apart from the character arcs she so thoroughly planned for them, but that's meta for another day. Remember the "fake" AU leaks that I eventually explained to be V3's version of the (either tv or game) outcome for the events for 1 and 2 in their universe? Well, Hagakure dies in that. Probably also the first victim, explaining Monokuma's fourth wall breaking comment that this is actually his second time dying. It's a double-sided statement that you won't catch up on if you haven't practically finished the game. His character was basically recycled with a look-alike actor in order to fool the audience with that pretense of Danganronpa just being a cool TV show (more on that in that ending meta I plan to discuss here some time) - I assume they do this with all previews of new seasons once the audience started doing some digging on the real people behind their beloved characters or perhaps the real names were initially not even included in the credits (like when they did the reboots) until they started with new storylines to not run out of ideas, keep profiting and take the thrill a step further) - and because he therefore wouldn't have experience with acting like Hagakure, Tsumugi left him out of the preview until it was time for his body discovery. Being the comic relief character he is supposed to be, Hagakure's actor was fortunate to be able to be used as a fake death with the plot convenience of Ultimate Detective not entering the crime scene in the demo. All this clearly explains the black screen ending scenario where the returning characters all wonder if their acting was good, and Hagakure suddenly rushing in to reveal it was a fake death. TDR is teasing and deceiving you, the unspoiled viewer anticipating their announced renewal for another season, because deception is what it's all about with V3's Truth vs Lies theme. A neat manner to let the world know what to expect. TDR probably also uses these previews to test the results of the memory manipulation used on the cast and the audience's reaction on seeing this cast in action. The company wants to know if Tsumugi's adjustments are sufficient or if there's anything left to mold their personalities for in order to appeal the whole cast to the audience, explaining the pleasant surprises like Tenko initially being hyped up as the discourse character yet actually being the most morally good female of the cast. Seriously, the best part about V3 is that it all (even the promotion) comes full-circle if you give it some proper thought. The entry is filled with a never-ending cycle of full-circle moments which are able to blow your mind when you finally connect that cycle. Spoiling, fourth-wall-breaking game promotion before the game is even out. It's incredible how far they planned ahead, honestly Anyway, let's continue. There's some necessary details left to make the full picture. So basically, Tsumugi arranged this whole scenario with the three of them, and considering how safe it is to assume how passionately Tsumugi despises Hagakure, they might as well have even had to resort to a compromise to give Hagakure's nobody actor a planned fake death as long as Tsumugi makes sure nobody enters the protagonist room. The fake crime scene they set up must not be exposed. There's obviously frozen blood bags in TDR's various morgues from all the reality tv killing games, so they used the dead Hagakure's blood to shroud the new actor in. This is all done to make the timing so fresh and in case they cannot prevent the Ultimate Detective from investigating the crime scene. Saihara would definitely catch up on fake blood, after all. You can supply blood in a fresh manner by sustaining them in frozen blood bags. Common scientific knowledge. And it makes sense to supply their blood because TDR started these behind-the-scenes kidnappings and schemes up with running out of ideas and the reality TV reboots of their original source material. No way would the ratings - which are so important to them because they're making a good living off of this show and it can't end in their eyes - stay unaffected by a simple reboot, hence the new survivor sets that I will headcanon as being part of the TV reboot from now on. This indicates that they kept the strengths of the original entries, but they twisted the story of the games like we already were informed of by Tsumugi. They're greedy and huge perfectionists, so those previously fictional characters really had to be brought to life. That's where the development of the futuristic technology comes in. More on TDR specifically in my ending meta though! :P Well then, let's further detail how this off-screen plan worked so well in case the realization is not hitting someone yet. The knife is actually just twisted in a gaping hole from his shirt being stabbed in his abdomen non-fatally, so I suppose it makes sense that it looks so real once he plays dead and they add real blood on him. Implying that the fandom or the in-universe audience will spend that much doubt to it with how legit it looks, but Saihara definitely would inspect the corpse more as it's his duty. It's a huge plot convenience that Saihara does not bother to do so, likely because he's already made up his mind on who the culprit is like all of us did from the start: Naegi Makoto. And while he is not exactly wrong, he's dense to the major foreshadowing of an accomplice due to a lack of evidence. A nice mirror to the real first case. Tsumugi truly is a master puppeteer, and I still view her as a controlfreak because the term means that she is obsessed with maintaining her control of something. And that is emphasized in the game multiple times once Monodam, Angie and Korekiyo turn the planned pattern for the killing game around in chapter 3 and so onwards. Back to the demo: after the preparation process is done, Hagakure is left alone in the bathroom waiting for his scene to act like a corpse, not allowed to make a noise.(edited) Tsumugi and Makoto split up; former approaches Kirumi to start cleaning as soon as possible (probably convincing Monokuma to give the SHSL Maid a master key) in order to avoid anyone meeting Hagakure; the latter goes to check on Kaede in the AV Room in order to continue the plan "smoothly" as he mentions later in the class trial. Wanna know why he had to part ways with Kaede when all the students are demanded to go to the gym? It's simple when you've gotten this far. Since Tsumugi cannot possibly ignore this order from Monokuma and come out of the shadows with her real personality, Makoto is the one who needs to proceed with the last phase of the plan: splashing the actor playing dead in freshly kept blood from the frozen blood bag for his original predecessor. Hagakura is the one who got the kitchen knife and might as well have been the one to non-fatally stab himself, but that's just a small detail and it makes sense that the cast without the detective (thus inexperienced with murder cases) would legitimately assume his death to be for real just upon the sight of a drenched murder weapon and the excessive amount of fresh blood.(edited) And this is exactly why the blood confirms the time of death being a few minutes ago when they were all at the gym. Lastly, this also explains Makoto's hair dropping at the crime scene. Stuff like that commonly happens, especially when you're in a rush and they probably had to fake a convincing struggle in the short period of time they had. He was obviously able to access the room because he was the first one to receive the keys due to likely being the only person not to be infected with sleeping gas alongside Hagakure.(edited) I can't connect where Hajime's part comes in though, so maybe he wasn't involved - which I can understand cuz a fangirl prefers cooperating and interacting with her favorites - or perhaps his only contribution was (unknowingly of Tsumugi's elaborate scheme) aiding Tsumugi and Kirumi with his confidence and experience in order to convince Monokuma to hand over that master key for the maid to do her job. I really believe Hajime's actor was kept in the dark because unlike a personified Naegi, the personified Hajime wouldn't be lured to a route as corrupt as the former took by being willing to do anything to keep living off of TDR's unquestionably high salary if you survive AND return to the show. No, this actor only thought he was hired again for nostalgia's sake, because that's what we all assumed as well. And Hajime was the most intended as a returning lead to guide Kaede on the road of leading her group and passing the leadership onto her, despite not being her instructor like Naegi but that's all according to plan, of course. This is my demo headcanon. This is my conclusive interpretation of the demo

[pajamapatty]

On Tales of Berseria

So, I started playing Tales of Berseria about a week ago, and it promptly grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go... I had something like 52 hours on my save when I finished just now? So yeah, I really liked this game, more importantly (for me) I really liked it’s story. I don’t think I’ve marathoned a game quite so hard in ages. I binge played Dishonored 2 back when it came out, but it was a much shorter game, so it wasn’t as grueling.

The only other Tales game I’ve played is Zestiria, and I never actually finished that one. Hilariously, I had no clue that Berseria was a Zestiria-prequel until Artorius was named the Shepherd and I went to wiki going ‘WTF.’ Not having gotten more than about halfway through Zestiria I can’t honestly say which is better, but I definitely liked Berseria more as evidenced by my binge-ing.  I think a large part of my enjoyment of the story is how it centered on the conflict between passion and reason/logic? It was very emotionally resonant with me, which caused me to enjoy it so much.

Everything else that I want to ramble about is pretty spoiler-y, so yeah.... putting a cut :P

So lets start off with the super amusing thing aka Ceres/Celica. So, I knew that Ceres was Celica’s reincarnation during the scene where Ceres asks Velvet to eat her and her mask breaks in the process. I promptly spent the next 5 minutes freaking out about how my sister asked me to eat her. (I identified with Velvet hardcore guys, NGL) Which meant that the whole big reveal in Innomonat’s Earthpulse flashback was really weird for me, because I knew it ages ago, so in my head Velvet also knew. Which thankfully wasn’t directly contradicted by the game so much.

Now lets talk about Phi vs Innomonat vs Laphi (AKA the original).

So, up until literally the end, I went through the whole game having assumed since Phi showed up that he was Laphi’s reincarnation. There’s so much subtext for it that the idea of it being a red herring is completely baffling and I refuse to believe it. I don’t care what any manga/anime version may eventually say Phi is Laphi and I will never believe otherwise.

Lets start off with what we see/are told in the game.

First: Eizen is the first to explain that humans can be reborn as Malakhim, but they never remember their past lives. Later he says that the humans that are reborn are those that already had resonance with spirits already. Obviously the issue here is Celica, who was not only reborn but as Ceres eventually remembered her human life, and had no spiritual resonance in her first life.

Second: We’re shown in the Earthen Historia, Ceres and Phi being born during the “Opening.” We’re then told that Phi is the reincarnation of Arthur’s dead child with Celica. However we were literally told not 10 minutes earlier that all the flashbacks we are shown are being chosen/influenced by Innomonat.

Third: We’re told that Number One and Phi were Malak created from the sacrifices to Innomonat, implying that Number One was made from Laphi, though they gloss over that hardcore.

So, I’m pretty sure that Number One is actually the dead-baby reincarnated and that the flashback had been altered by Innomonat to fuck with Velvet’s head, which was the goal. We know that Innomonat has Laphi’s memories, but there’s a certain emotional component that seems to be completely absent as Innomonat is a total sociopath that sees nothing wrong with emotionally torturing his sister. So I think that Phi really is Laphi’s soul reborn but that the memories went straight to Innomonat, which explains pretty much everything in the game, lol.

That being said, I expected the game to tell me all this at some point, because it was so obvious to me. The fact that someone can play the whole game and think that Phi and Laphi are completely unrelated except through Velvet is horrifying to me.

God but I just loved this game to bits guys, I think that’s why the Phi thing disappointed me so hard.