#as long as i have you ; season four

[emblazons]

"This is only the beginning— the beginning of the end."

STRANGER THINGS SANS VISAGES S04E09 - The Piggyback (Part II of II)

[lenaellsi]

it's honestly a bit odd to me that so many people have jumped on the 'aziraphale will be pulling all the strings and playing politics in heaven' train. like I think it's true that the metatron is underestimating aziraphale's intelligence and ability to disrupt the second coming even while separated from crowley, but I also think the idea that aziraphale is going up to heaven with a clear idea of how he's just been lied to, an understanding of how much danger he's in, and a plan to stop it is a huge reach.

frankly, aziraphale is very vulnerable to manipulation. I'm thinking now of neil’s post with the diary entry from before the edinburgh minisode where he was duped by two humans, the whole thing with the nazis in 1941, and his sponsorship of shadwell's various obviously fake agents (sergeant milkbottle, etc.). he's not nearly as savvy as fanon tends to portray him. he takes people at face value, especially people he thinks of as Good. (that's not a dunk, btw--I find these things endearing, and a sign of aziraphale's innate wish to see the best in people. I just think that sometimes the BAMF protective aziraphale of fanon overshadows the slightly more naive aziraphale of canon. and honestly, I also think TV aziraphale is just a bit softer than book aziraphale, though he is capable of stepping up when it counts.)

and he's a bad liar! I know it's a meme in the fandom that aziraphale lies all the time, but he doesn't like it, and he's bad at it. he gets nervous and comes up with terrible excuses and the only reason he ever gets away with it is because the people he's lying to are idiots (gabriel), have their own agendas (god, the other archangels), or trust him to be honest (crowley).

aziraphale's real strength is his ability to take sudden, completely unexpected action. that's one of the things that crowley admires most about him. "he's unpredictable," is what he says to nina, and it's true! aziraphale's greatest moments of rebellion have always come from spur of the moment decisions, not intricate plans. (if anything, crowley is the planner--the arrangement and the thwarting of the apocalypse, their two longest cons, were both his idea.)

aziraphale gives the sword away because when he is forced to make a decision under pressure, he tends to land on the side of rebellious kindness. shielding crowley from the rain in eden, lying to gabriel to protect job's family, defying the quartermaster and returning to earth via possession during the apocalypse, blowing up his halo--he does these things because he's following that same impulse. when aziraphale has time to over think, he frets and fusses and is paralyzed by indecision. (or worse, he falls back on what heaven has taught him.)

TL;DR: I don't think aziraphale has any sort of grand plan other than a generalized "make things better," and I certainly don't think he is planning to betray heaven. he might try to come up with a plan once he figures out how bad things are going to get, but my bet is that what will actually disrupt the second coming is an absolutely bonkers off the wall decision that no one, crowley included, could ever predict. and I think it’ll happen, as it usually does with aziraphale, just after he accepts a difficult truth that fundamentally shifts his worldview—in this case, his final rejection of the idea of “good” and “bad” people, and of the entire morality system of heaven and hell.

[maddy-ferguson]

making mlvn out to be worse than it is will always be morally right to me if that's what brings you joy i see you and i support you. some of you are not the haters you claim to be which is disheartening

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Hello! Hope you don't mind the random ask 🥺 You said after the newest episode that Mushitarou is one of your favorite BSD characters; could you talk a little about your thoughts on him/why you love him/his arc? He's one of my favorites too, and it makes me so so sad how underrated he is, because imo he's one of the most well-written and tragic characters in the entire series, despite how little screentime (pagetime?) he gets :' ) I wish more people would talk about him. Really hope that changes after the next episode 💚

I honestly almost screamed when I got this ask YES I CAN TALK ABOUT MUSHITARO. I CAN TALK ABOUT HIM ALL DAY.

Ok well first of all he is the poor little meow meow. Pathetic scrunkly man. I'm sorry but you can't deny that it's true. Even in-universe, it's like he's the BSD world's chew toy. He keeps getting kidnapped by different organizations with like. No breathing room in between. Give him a BREAK. Funnily enough, I enjoy and usually like to poke fun at these kinds of characters, but they're not typically my favourites. Mushitaro is, by far, an exception to my usual favourite character types.

Second, I am a lover of bittersweet tragic storylines. Yeah. Honestly, the way the storyline built to the slow reveal - I knew immediately after Poe mentioned the water droplets that they were his tears, and I was starting to suspect what was really going on, but the way it was unraveled was so, so painful and beautifully done. Even knowing it was coming today when I watched the episode, it still hurt.

Thirdly, Mushitaro's circumstances raise some intriguing questions we still don't have answered. He was captured by the Seventh Agency and made to work for them with his ability - he considers them a worse alternative to Dostoevsky and refers to them as tyrants. (We also know of another shadowy organization that takes on ability users with useful skills for nefarious purposes, V. V also somehow managed to not be discovered by either the government or Ranpo in 13 years. I'm not saying there's a connection there but... but... there might be. 👀) Anyways, point is, there's stuff goin' on there. And I wanna know. (Also I like the motivation parallels with Ango very much.)

But most of all, I fully agree with you - he is very well-written. What I love most about his character is actually the way his narrative showcases what I believe to be some of the series' character writing's biggest strengths - to excellent (and heartbreaking) effect.

Characters are often revealed to be quite different than what their initial introductions would suggest. Later revelations serve to recontextualize earlier character cues - these early cues are often misleading but not outright lies.

To be clear, this isn't a hard or particularly unique thing in character writing - in fact, this is... kind of a minimum requirement. Your audience should be able to go back after the fact and notice new things about characters that you only get on re-read. But I find BSD is interesting for this because these initial impressions don't frequently tell you what these characters actually value - the "establishing moments" are often incredibly misleading. Mushitaro is an excellent example of this.

The best part of the perfect murder arc is the way it slowly unravels piece by piece - and as it unravels, more and more, we get to see the real Mushitaro. He starts off with these terrifying facial expressions, bragging and boasting about how he is the "detective killer" and how none stand in his way, cackling like a shallow cartoon villain. There's not much there to suggest a deeper character. Then there's the first flash to Yokomizo's murder, and Mushitaro appears to revel in it and the idea that he can't be caught. Another flashback shows him making these arrogant demands of a literal terrorist, like all his tableware being silver and porcelain and having access to a library of occult books for his study. Ok dude. This all paints the picture of a selfish individual, primarily concerned with expensive things and money and image - all things that perfectly fit Ranpo's initial conjecture as to the kind of person behind the Kindaichi murder. And just like Ranpo later says, it's a little too perfect.

The reveal builds slowly but surely, and Mushitaro's built-up image as a dramatic, remorseless murderer crumbles. Because he didn't kill out of hatred at all. He killed Yokomizo because Yokomizo asked him to do so. Because this, and the legacy of a mystery that transcended fiction into reality, was his only friend's dying wish. It was enough for Mushitaro to delay his escape just to fulfill it - what Ranpo refers to as a kind of willing self-destruction.

What Mushitaro ultimately values then is honouring the wishes of those he cares about and repaying those he owes. He will take the secret of Yokomizo's ultimate mystery to his grave. He used what he likely thought were his last moments alive to grab the transceiver and warn Ranpo about the danger the Agency was in. He only decided to trust Ango after Ango admitted his use of the Seventh Agency was to honour Oda's memory and wishes.

So, going back and re-reading his intro again, it becomes more clear that he was suffering from a kind of cognitive dissonance. "But wasn't he just playing the role he was supposed to?" No. He wasn't. The first flashback to Yokomizo's murder is much more violent and ends with Mushitaro cackling and going into a full villain monologue when there is no one else around but him. There's no one to perform this role for - except Mushitaro himself.

Both the killing and the ensuing grief stemmed from the exact same source - Mushitaro loved his friend deeply. But there is, I believe, no small amount of bitterness too, for the way they argued frequently, and the way his friend asked this of him. It's practically irreconcilable in his mind, and so Mushitaro leans into his role as the evil perpetrator who hated Yokomizo to such a degree that I honestly think he started to believe it - Mushitaro, with two narratives in his mind running parallel to each other that are fundamentally conflicting, tried to make a monster of himself. Insisted on being the monster, at least until Ranpo made it impossible for him to deny the true motive behind his actions - protecting his friend's last wish.

Fittingly for the climactic reveal of a mystery storyline that blurs fiction and reality, Mushitaro's real-life grief was his perfect fictional role's undoing.

Is he boastful? Arrogant? A bit of a coward? Absolutely. But Mushitaro is no monstrous villain - he is a man unable to confront his grief over his friend's death, and who, ultimately, doesn't intend any real harm.

Because other than Yokomizo, revealed as an agreed upon assisted suicide - Mushitaro never murdered anyone.

2. Characters are not cured of their pain and trauma. They continue to struggle with it during their development and it actively impacts the way they view and interact with the world around them.

Mushitaro's story is heavily themed around grief and his consistent denial of it's effects on him. At first, he denies by embodying the role Yokomizo wanted him to play - it seems to the point where he legitimately started to lose it. He's slipping when we first meet him. In a weird way, for as much as Ranpo tore his perfect crime apart... I feel like he also saved him, in a sense. The dissonance he was experiencing likely only would've gotten worse if he had not been forced to speak the truth aloud.

After that point... the denial focuses solely on the idea that Mushitaro doesn't miss Yokomizo at all. That he's doing just fine and Yokomizo should be jealous (he's far from fine; he doesn't even see a point in going outside anymore now that he won't be able to see his friend) and that he hated him (he doesn't. he never did. but he has to. he can't deal with it.).

Another thing I really like about his arc is that Mushitaro's grief also clearly stems from the entire thing being traumatic for him - but neither Yokomizo nor Mushitaro are demonized or victimized for this; rather the situation is just shown as it is. It's nice, that the story allows the reader/viewer to draw their own judgements. Both had their reasons for their actions - Yokomizo was already dying and wanted to go out in a way that was meaningful to him, while Mushitaro chose to fulfill this wish in spite of the cost to him. They both mutually self-destructed, in a way.

The narrative doesn't frame either as the villain. It doesn't fully frame either in victimhood either. It's a tragedy all the same.

Mushitaro continues to see and hear Yokomizo wherever he goes, not because he can't get rid of him... but because he never wanted him to be gone in the first place. Stabbing me would hurt less I think. :/

3. Characters often grow and change before they consciously realize it or have any sort of "epiphany".

This ties in a lot with the ongoing theme of uncertainty, and I above all really like this aspect of the series. BSD has characters grow and change and try to be better, do better by themselves and others... without being sure of the outcome. Sometimes before they're ready to consciously admit a change is necessary. There are few epiphanies. The characters are forced to slog through hardship and only then suddenly realize how far they've come - for better or for worse.

Mushitaro does change, even in the short span of time he is a focus character. I love the first little signs of it too - Mushitaro, who doesn't even like mystery novels, uses a trick Yokomizo told him about to help himself, Atsushi and Kyouka escape. Look at him :')

Afterwards, he starts to wonder if he can see Yokomizo whenever he enters a locked room - as in, if connecting to the memory of his friend through what he loved in life will mean that he keeps that memory alive.

And as annoyed as he is with Poe's attempts to get him to write a mystery... a part of him is happy to be around people that he could start to consider his friends. Enough that the Yokomizo he hallucinates wonders if maybe he doesn't need him there anymore. And finally Mushitaro bursts.

But this is actually good. He's finally past that denial phase, the part that had him talking about hate when really he missed him all along. Thing is, he'd already been developing and changing by this point, in that he needed the growth to come to terms with this truth, and it was not the truth that drove the growth.

In a sense, Mushitaro working through his grief and uncertainty led him to a brighter outcome, one where he has more friends and can start anew. He lost the closest person in his life. But his arc continuously asserts that in spite of the fact that he will always miss his friend, Mushitaro himself is still alive. And he should live that life - both moving forward and keeping the memory of his friend with him.

Odasaku believed that writing a novel was to write people. Poe was so insistent on getting him to write because it's a way of seeing the people we want to see anytime we want.

What a beautiful character arc, that began with fiction as an escape from real-life pain, and concluded with fiction as a means to work through it and with it instead.

Plus he's just such a funky little dude.

I. Love. Mushitaro.

[microwaving-tesilid-argente]

i wish s class heroine let you download HD pictures somehow, because these landscape scenes are just majestic

[nyxofdemons]

four years for this show...

[imperatorrrrr]

You get the ability to make the team of your choice win a cup, but you have to sacrifice one player you love from that team. Would you do it? And if so, who would you sacrifice? ❤

this feels like a trap. or a monkeys paw situation.

I would do it for sure because that’s how hockey works right. You gotta build a team to win the Cup and that team always changes and it never stays the same.

I don’t want to say who because I don’t want to put it into the ether…

Alls I’ll say is there’s a player that has been rumored/speculated about who may be reaching the end of his time with the Devils. Kind of a writing on the wall situation.

I don’t think said player is gone for yet. But he was on the block for potential trades during the season and I think the consensus is if he doesn’t have a major bounce back year this season those conversations are gonna get way louder.

But I have faith. That he will stay because he can’t leave because they can’t do this. He will bounce back. Last season was a curse for everyone.

So it would be him in so far as he’s already being murmured about.

There is also another option that I would be okay with losing completely different player but again don’t want to put any bad anything out into the universe.

TLDR: yes, I would sacrifice a beloved player to do this.

I just ain’t saying names ‘cause this team is surrounded by so much evil eye.

[fogwitchoftheevermore]

woe trans fwhip headcannons be upon ye. not pictured is fwhip going home and immediately taking the empires equivalents of an "am i gay" and "am i trans" quiz.

[Image ID: A three panel comic on a light blue background.

Panel 1 shows Fwhip, a young white trans man wearing a victorian lolita dress that is black with a white breast panel, black lace, and a red brooch. It has a high and ruffle-y collar. He has a short red bob, green eyes, and freckles. He has a neutral expression and is looking to the side. There are two arrows pointing to him with text. The first arrow reads: "Fwhip, 16, visiting Pixandria for the first time." The second arrow reads: "Hasn't figured it out yet but [drawing of the gay flag] + [drawing of the trans flag]".

Panel 2 shows Pix, a young tan person wearing a long tan jacket, copper shoulder armor, a brown undershirt, and gold dangly earrings. They are also wearing a pointy copper crown. He has dark brown eyes, dark brown hair that is kept in a ponytail draped over their right shoulder, and a beard. They are smiling and waving. There are two arrows pointing to them with text. The first reads: "Pix, 21, certified pretty boy (gn)". The second arrow depicts the aro ace flag and the agender flag.

Panel 3: Fwhip is looking up at Pix with star eyes and shocked expression. Pix is looking down at him with a smile. There is an arrow pointing to Fwhip reading "just had multiple awakenings". There is an arrow pointing to Pix reading "knows full well but is gonna let this happen naturally". End ID]

[mattodore]

the reason why i was offline for a day was bc i was in cas editing mattodore and messing with my cas bg, yeah, but also... i found another oc ask game that i liked the questions for so i started drafting theo and matthias's answers for them....... there's 100 questions this time so i've just been like this in google docs

[miametropolis]

ten in the journey’s end makes me so goddamn mad…rose punched through MULTIPLE dimensions, tracked you through all of time and space, single-handedly saved Donna while you were doing fuck all in a market, gave EVERYTHING to find you again and ALL. SHE. WANTS. IS. FOR. YOU. TO. LOOK AT HER!! WHY WON’T YOU LOOK AT HER ITS ROSE!! ITS THE HEART OF YOUR HEARTS!! YOU COULD EACH DIE ANY SECOND NOW HOW MANY YEARS HAVE YOU SPENT WISHING YOU ACTED SOONER HOW MANY YEARS HAS SHE WAITED FOR YOU, BURNED HOLES IN THE UNIVERSE FOR YOU AND YOU’RE STILL! LOOKING! AWAY!

[olibensstuff]

hello so exited 2 learn ur also a one piece fan,, i must know who's ur favorite character and if you had to be a part of someone's crew whose would it be?? :D

MY FAVORITE CHARACTER IS THIS GUY

Bon Clay is my silly 🥺🥺

[chiropteracupola]

I am desperately hype for werewolf!Sharpe two of my favorite things in the whole wide world

yay and hooray! I too am greatly enjoying this one — here we ask the important question of 'what if Richard Sharpe was a werewolf, and more importantly, what if his daughter was too?'

this fic started out as a joke about Sean Bean's more recent role in the (amazing) film Wolfwalkers, where he plays a single father having a great deal of trouble over his own role as a soldier as well as in raising a daughter who is a werewolf, and in pondering that, I started to goof around about the potential of something similar to the plot of Wolfwalkers as a potential sequel to 'Sharpe's Enemy' and the subsequent films. and then things got out of hand.

“I’ll not raise an Englishman’s bastard pup,” said the old man, his voice made cold with disdain, and shoved Sharpe’s daughter ungently into her father’s arms. Sharpe nearly fumbled the child, all unexpected tangle of paws and tail and mewling mouth that she was. But Harper had a hand under his, and bundled her back into her father’s arms, tucking in the blanket that she’d been wrapped in. “Teresa — Teresa showed me our Antonia. She didn’t—“ “Didn’t look more like a wolf-cub than a little girl half the time? That’s your blood in her, that I know.” Sharpe’s breath caught in his throat — it had been his own damned enemy that had taken Teresa from him, and it was in that same moment that he’d evidently doomed his daughter to the same fate as his own. “Go on, get back to your war. You’ll not touch my family again.” “I can’t raise a baby on the march—“ said Sharpe, his voice a high keen of desperation. “Raise a wolf, then,” said the last man Teresa Moreno had trusted with her daughter, and shut the door in Sharpe’s face.

so it's a tale of having some kind of identity crisis about being a father and a widower and a werewolf all at once, and making that work out because he's really got no choice but to work through it (and also a tale of the Chosen Men being a strange little pack of sort-of-uncles and raising Antonia together!)

[hella1975]

Hhella i have a question. Many people i follow like bungo stray dogs and despite me trying to watch it 2 times now ive just not gotten into it so idk what happens in the later seasons

but.

Literally no one i follow posts anything about the main guy. Tiger ass. Atsushi. I see so much bsd fanart everyday tbh i cannot remember a SINGLE one being artwork of him. Its only dazai and like. 2 other people who i dont know. One of thems got a hat. Anyways like. is tiger ass still the main character in the later seasons??? Do people just not like him as much???? Ive been thinking about this for days hella

this has no business being so fucking funny but i read the entire ask like this

[methinmycoffee]

I will only accept one change to the Status-Quo right now, and it’s if the Marsh’s divorce. Here’s why:

If the Marsh’s divorce, Randy can keep Tegridy. The show can stay in the middle ground, with a half return to form by having Sharon and the kids move back in to their old house, but Randy keeps the farm and Stan and Shelly visit sometimes/half the time. This way you can still use both settings, but Stan isn’t stuck out on a farm all the time and away from everyone else (except To(l)k(i)en). Also it gives Sharon a chance to do something again. She has some potential, I think, but she’s just been reduced to the hysterical wife of Randy.

Let’s see how Shelly takes it. She hasn’t done shit in forever. What if Sharon starts dating again? Like in Clubhouses but way less stupid. Fine, we can watch Randy sort of loose his mind without Sharon around, if you insist.

~Oops I got a little sidetracked here~

Or, and hear me out, we do all this and then LET THE MARSH’S FADE TO THE BACKGROUND FOR A BIT. God they have had so much screen time lately. Bring back the main four, with no weird dynamic shifts or fighting. Let Stan’s family be the same as everyone else’s, not that important most of the time. Let the side characters do something, and not just To(l)k(i)en! Clyde, Craig and Tweek deserve more!

Also, stop bringing in new characters. As much as Betty Boogie is an icon, she doesn’t need a new character every other episode. And if you must bring in new characters, don’t design them weird so they look out of place. Use Heather Williams instead of Betsy if you must have a Betty Boogie character. Betsy looks really weird and out of place, and my heart only has room for one Betsy (Rest In Peace Betsy Donovan).

I think this post has gone off the rails, oops. I think my point is that if we must use the Marsh family as often as we have been, it would be a good idea to separate Randy from the rest of his family so that he doesn’t drag them down with him. Or they could stop obsessively using the Marsh family as often, and just let other characters have their moment for a minute.

[wheucto]

the entirety of BFDI so far is 16:10:39 (hours, minutes, seconds). assuming the average sleep time is 8 hours, then that's a little more than typical waking hours

[muffinrag]

being alive is such a pain in the fucking ass. did you know that hair has three growth cycles?