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[chartmonks]

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[mogamuncher]

Heeey I'm back! It's finally time for the full Cakeverse analysis gang!

Ok, so, for a refresher:

There's the Forks, the Cakes and the Plates (normal people), and it goes like this:

Plates are just normal people, the majority of the world population, nothing new here.

Forks: Can't taste and sometimes can't smell either, sometimes they used be able to taste but lost it with age; either way, they can only ever taste cakes.

Cakes: Basically normal people except that they're delicious, everything from them (flesh, tears, saliva, etc) tastes like cake (or other foods if you want). You can't tell who's a cake or not unless you're a Fork that's tasting them in some way.

Now, I have to add some stuff that's really interesting and that the og author said, that we'll be getting into today.

• Forks go absolutely bat shit insane when they taste the Cakes most of the time, that can lead to a lot of things, cannibalism, sex, or (if you're cultured) both.

• Both Cakes and Forks suffer from their own societal plights. Cakes die a lot, and Forks when discovered are instantly pinned as murderers, criminals and perverts, even if they haven't done anything wrong yet.

• Cakes can derail a Fork's entire life, and Forks are like sin and temptation to Cakes.

Now, I want to talk about these because they absolutely fucking vexed me and now I want to make this all of y'all's problem.

「The First Taste」

It's essentially a common rule as said by the author that the Forks go insane after feeling the taste of a Cake, now, let's talk about: Why?

See, Cakeverse is technically an Au based from the likes of Omegaverse, which you can see by the structure being similar to Alpha/Beta/Omega with the three types of people out there. But, in ABO the Alphas going insane is due to a specific event, heats, which are there specifically for reproduction and are said to bring out animal instincts out of people's control, while Forks are based on simply taste, food, and not something as biological.

Of course it's up to the individual writer to an extent, but my interpretation of why Forks lose it when they taste Cakes is more psychological when compared to Alphas in the Omegaverse.

Imagine that you are completely unable to see color, never once have you seen one, you grew up hearing all about how wonderful colors are, you saw others compliment the colors of several works of art, you heard all about the colors of the world around you, but all that you see is beige and grey. Now, imagine that one day you bump into someone, and suddenly you're able to see all the colors, for the first time ever in your life, you can finally experience blue skies and green grass, you can see the same way the rest of the world sees, something that was fundamentally missing from you is finally gifted to you by this stranger on a silver tray.

You're finally complete.

That's the reality of what Forks go through, years of eating tasteless food, seeing people enjoy food wholeheartedly and rant about the tastes, hearing about the differences between expensive food and cheap food, and then suddenly finally tasting cake. Of course they go insane and fixate on it, it's like the final puzzle piece finally sliding into place, something that they've been missing this whole time being manifested with only a taste.

Before, eating was a chore, something simply to survive there was no joy in it, no fun to be found in desserts or snacks, but with only a single kiss the Fork finally feels what it is like to crave food, to want food for the taste.

Cakeverse in nature is oddly psychological, playing with the concept of taking away something extremely core to the human experience, taste. It's inherent and everyone has it, you'd probably feel like a freak of nature if you didn't have something while everyone else has, right?

That's what Cakes bring Forks; normalcy, joy and purpose, it's basically like a shot of endorphins all at once straight into your bloodstream, there's a good chance it'd hit like a truck and fuck you up majorly.

Forks acting rashly probably looks different than when Alphas do the same, because the motive is inherently different, but the desperation is arguably more raw.

A lot can be written on what that reaction would be:

Immediately trying to taste the Cake (kissing, licking, biting), trying to play cool only to strike later (potential kidnapping, manipulation, planning and scheming in general), the Fork can try to resist temptation or maybe the Cake can notice the extreme reaction and run away, maybe the Cake can instigate and bait the Fork to take a bite.

It could lead to fluff, to relationships starting, relationships ending, it could smut, it could be gory cannibalism, hell, it could be both.

Either way, the sheer amount of character study that could be made out of this tidbit alone is insane, and the story concepts don't stop there!

「We Do, In Fact, Live In a Society」

Cakes don't know who they are until it's too late, but I can imagine that in society they'd be treated with a lot of extra care if they are known beforehand, as they are constantly in risk of dying.

Imagine that they'd also be majorly babyfied, the "nooo poor babies that can't do anything wrong, poor helpless and weak Cakes, they clearly can't take care of themselves, they're so vulnerable, don't worry I'll speak for you to protect your honor" would be insane. Any Cake that consensually and willingly gets with a Fork will be doubted if they truly wanted to do it, think nosy people pulling them aside to ask if they're ok and pressing to see if they're abused, think people immediately thinking that Cakes can't consent to anything with a Fork on principle despite them being grown adults.

Online discourse would definitely have people saying "Cakes are minor coded" or some shit, mark my words.

While Forks would be instantly persecuted for everything. Because of something they didn't choose, that was inherited at birth, they now are fully seem as murderers, kidnappers, rapists and just the lowest of the low. People will gossip, people will get defensive, people will cower any time you slightly raise your voice, you're seen as a predator, treated no different than a wild bear. To society at large, you're an unruly dog, and all eyes will be on you forever, watching, waiting for the day that you take a bite.

In a sense, it's almost like any Forks that do commit crimes instantly have a justification to do so, it's expected, really, you're a Fork, of course you'd snap one day. It's both maligned and normalized, everyone expects it and it almost gives Forks a reason to do so. Forever a self fulfilling prophecy.

Now I'm sorry that I'll keep bringing the Omegaverse up, it's just that it's really handy for comparison, but I find it fascinating that in a way, the societal effects of this are a mish mesh of the societal views seen in ABO, but like, in a way that doesn't make me want to vomit.

Can I be so fr with you guys right now? I don't like the societal parts of the Omegaverse, ever since I was a kid in the early hay days of the internet, that always made me uncomfortable, and it's also a bit lazy in a way. The problems in society with the Omegaverse are basically just Sexism, it's misogyny with mpreg, and a lot of fics end up feeling like a Handmaiden's Tale with mpreg. Replace Alphas with men and Omegas with Women and you get the Omegaverse, though it gets a bit interesting since there technically is a built-in "fuck or die" and aphrodisiac system with heats/ruts, but very few writers do something interesting with it.

My problem is that it's always either uncomfortable or outright boring, very little fics do it well and most of the time authors simply choose to side step it altogether, which I completely understand and actually prefer at this point.

I bring all this up because Cakeverse actually brings a lot of interesting concepts up in it's consequences on the world at large, the nature of Forks and Cakes mirrors a lot of real life concepts, but leaves enough fantastical elements that there's still intrigue in what could be explored and seem from authors writing certain details of it.

Would there be Cake support groups? Would there be Fork rights activists? Would there be people who are both Forks and Cakes, like a hybrid type? What are different relationship types seen as in the eyes of society as a whole?

It's all so complicated and the problems are different between the both of them, also, they're evenly split, which is a breath of fresh air.

Now, it's time to get even deeper into this, what are exactly Forks and Cakes relationship with each other like?

「Would You Still Love Me If I Was Cake?」

According to the author, Cakes can derail a Fork's life and Forks are temptation to Cakes. Now, why is that?

Imagine you're a Fork, living your life trying to do what you can with what's been handed to you, probably being discriminated against if you haven't been able to hide it well, when suddenly you taste someone (kiss or by accident, like a shared water bottle), and next thing you know you lose your mind. Your entire world falls apart, thoughts of dreams, future, your own sense of morality, it all melts away like sugar in water because you just experienced heaven and now it's all you can think about.

Someone completely normal beforehand, suddenly driven to obsession with just one moment, an entire life detailed into the unknown because they just had a taste of cake, thoughts being all about one person and their taste, the inability to stop even you're desperate to do so. It's madness, and almost like a tragedy, doomed by their own personal narrative of Fork meets Cake, the Forks turns into a starving beast whether they want to or not.

But Cakes? Imagine you have someone you love, and they want you so badly it drives them mad, imagine kissing the same lips that want to be stained with your taste, imagine putting yourself in the way of jaws that any of these days can close down on you and swallow you whole. You're constantly in contact with someone that could just straight up eat you, consume you whole and leave nothing behind, but your heart aches for them, you present yourself in a silver platter again and again.

Maybe you want to be eaten, to be consumed. Maybe you like being wanted, maybe you enjoy providing something to to others, you made them so happy that it doesn't even matter to you that they are taking chunks out of you, you'll gladly let yourself be torn apart if it means someone else is satisfied.

It's all about the usage of "Cannibalism as a Metaphor for Love™", it's all about loving someone but constantly wanting to eat them into non-existence, it's about to struggle between your brain heart and stomach.

It's about having your cake and eating it too.

The themes, the metaphors, the opportunities are endless and frankly I'm driving myself insane just imagining all of it, the angst also would be utterly fucking insane, imagine you live someone and you eat them, wouldn't you be upset? You loved them and you killed them yourself, with your own hands, their taste is on your lips and you licked your plate clean.

I'm screaming and crying and throwing up as we speak, the number of things you can do here are endless, soooo. . . Let's talk about some of my ideas!

「All My Fanfiction Titles Are Just Songs」

Last post I basically tagged a bunch of fandoms that I wish would use this trope (I'll also be doing that with this post), so now I'm going to showing some of the ideas I had for this AU that I might or might not write in the future, all of which you guys are totally free to use as prompts as well (just tag me on them lmao)

So, going ship by ship:

「Loveit」: Dead Plate fanfic, Vincent x Rody, Fork!Vincent and Cake!Rody. I imagine that the moment Vincent finds out is during the Best Served Hot ending, after biting Rody's ear, his reaction would show instantly on his face and Rody would notice right away. After that it can lead to a lot of things, fighting, smut and cannibalism galore, their relationship would only get more complicated after such a discovery. Hell, you can even have Vincent find out earlier, if you truly want more juicy drama, maybe Vincent will attempt to make Rody into the meal instead of Mason this time? For funsies you could even reverse it, Rody as a Fork would be fascinating to see, him bonding with Vincent that he also can't taste anything, only for him to find out later that he can taste Vincent himself, holy shit the intrigue.

「Eat You」: Death Note, Lawlight, Fork!Light and Cake!L. Imagine Light both having to hide the fact that he's Kira, but also having to hide the fact that he's a Fork, imagine the never leaving stain that being a Fork would be on his own self-perception of perfection, imagine the so called god that punishes criminals also being considered a criminal by default in society's eyes if he's ever found out. Kira selling out his own kind because most criminals would likely be Forks (whether they were rightfully convicted or not), and then comes in L, a detective, a nuisance, Light's equal and a Cake. Maybe Light would find that out later on, maybe while they're playing as friends in college or while chained together, and now L had effortlessly thrown another wrench in his life yet again by default, like they're meant to be opposed by fate itself, where Kira is a Fork L is a Cake. L would likely goad Light on, trying to bait Kira out, by any means necessary, even if it means being eaten.

「Eat You Piece by Piece」: Hear me out, Batjokes. Fork!Bruce having to hold himself back from breaking his own morals due to finding out Joker is a Cake, Fork!Joker only getting deeper into his Batman obsession after tasting a Cake!Batman, Both Forks bonded by not having taste, maybe both are Forks that differ on how they react to Cakes (Joker regularly eating them while Bruce retains his morals and chooses to not hurt them), maybe both Cakes that got here because they were almost eaten (different Batman and Joker origin stories?). The opportunities are all intriguing and promptly end in bloodshed, expect angst and discussions of what is moral, also just so much angst holy shit this shit hurts.

「I Eat Boys Up」: Dungeon Meshi, Labru, Fork!Laios and Cake!Labru. I'm thinking post canon by accident, maybe something like sharing utensils, and I'm going to be so fr with you right now, this story coming from me would be a lot of romanticism through food metaphors and unending smut, feral Laios is my equivalent of heroin and I could imagine him describing Kabru's taste in detail to him while eating him out. But if smut isn't your jam, exploring how Laios and his monster obsession, especially in the form of food, as someone who can't taste would be intriguing, in a story so closely tied to food, you have to wonder how it would all change if the main character couldn't even taste. Also, I doubt Kabru would take the knowledge of him being essentially prey well, so there's that bag of worms to go into if you want.

「Blame Gluttony」: This one is purely self indulgent but like, Re:Zero with any ship, Cake! Subaru and Fork!anyone else. Imagine Subaru's world doesn't have this Cakeverse nonsense at all, but the world he's transported to has, imagine how scary it would be that one loop he suddenly finds out that he's essentially universal prey here (maybe in the second loop with Elsa), imagine the weight of all the things that already are trying to kill him along with the fact that he's also got a new thing to worry about? Maybe instead of just the rabbit loop, there's now multiple loops where Subaru is eaten alive, maybe there's loops where his dear friends themselves are eating him. Can you imagine if Emilia was a Fork? If he found out after the kiss of death and she commented on the taste of his lips as he was dying, if it came up again after their kiss, Subaru having to tackle with his love and heart belonging to someone that would one day eat him whole. Imagine the witch not longer just wants to touch his heart or kiss him, but she also bites him when he tries to tell the secret. Imagine maybe Rem is also a Fork, imagine that his death by her hands also involved her tearing into him chunk by chunk. What if Otto was a Fork, what if Reinhard was one? Seriously all the opportunities are equally traumatizing and I'm living for it!

Honorable mentions include: Persona Shuake and Shuada (Fork!Protags and Cake!Detectives) for the optimal mutual murder extravaganza, Okegom DSP Satanivlis (Fork!Ivlis and Cake!Satanick) for a rare case of role swapping, South Park Kyman (any way works tbh) for mutually assured destruction, Slay the Princess (Fork!Princess and Cake!Birb) because themes, Soukouku (Fork!Dazai and Cake!Chuuya) for making canon even worse than it already is, frankly any investigrave game would be peak here, Hannigram for obvious reasons.

But that's all I have for now, so, what have we learned here?

We learned that: I'm mentally ill and you need to write about the Cakeverse NOW.

[estcaligo]

Ok, I had some extra thoughts, so addition to this post

Sebek and gloves

Not quite an analysis.

"…But in canon, he actually wears gloves most of the time. He usually wears a uniform - college or dorm - which includes gloves…"

He also wears gloves in his Lab clothes, Outdoor Wear (protective gear), Harveston outfit (warm mittens), Halloween attire, New Year outfit (again, to keep him warm in winter, he's sensitive to cold), and of course, in his Armor card. To me, all of these cases show times when he's focused, or can't afford to appear vulnerable. (Ok but when isn't he though)

However, he doesn't wear any gloves in his Pajama card (logically), Master Chef card, two previous Halloween cards, Ceremonial Robes, PE, and in all his Birthday cards.

(sorry I can't add more than 9 pics to this collage, add robes too)

I see it like this: in PJs, Chef, and Birthday cards - he drops the facade of a guard and just relaxes, taking off layers - literally and metaphorically. PJs - simply relaxing, letting his hair down, indulging in his hobbies.

Chef - practicing cooking, a very domestic and soft skill (let me be delulu :)

And Birthday - it's his day. For once, the spotlight's on him. It's the day when he should focus on himself first, not Malleus. I find these examples very symbolic.

In Ceremonial Robes - he's a freshman, new to college life, still… unlayered, in a way.

In the Scary Monster card (now, this is nonsense, I just need to say something haha) he's still too focused on Malleus, wearing the same costume (even though the whole dorm does, yes), and his entire personality is just merging into Malleus worshipping. (As a contrast to his 2024 Halloween card)

In the Glorious Masquerade card - although he's technically in "guard mode", it's still a trip overseas - the only other foreign country he's been to outside of Briar Valley, except for Sage Island. It's a chance for him to wind down, to broaden his perspective on "hUmAnS" and gain new knowledge through cultural exchange. It requires to be a little more open-minded, so, less "armored up".

About PE - probably because it's physical training. He's focused on building strength with no magic, no gear - just raw effort. Making his body the weapon. Making himself the weapon.

("Oh Caligo, but who wears gloves with PE uniforms?" Rook does.)

Also didn't include the tsum card because it's basically college uniform but with tsum.

[lady-asphodel]

DR. RATIO ANALYSIS: The hard Truth who Uncovers the sweet Lies | Awareness vs Foolishness

Hello everybody, and welcome back to my analysis of Dr. Ratio in: "Crown Of The Mundane And The Divine". In this post, as a follow up to my previous one about his introductory cutscene, I will talk about Dr. Ratio in "When The Stars Of Ingenuity Shines."

Disclaimer: Whilst it is not needed to read my first post, I recommend you to do so to understand the context of some comments I will do here. Also, everything said in this post is subjective, as my own, personal interpretations, and must not be treated as canon or taken as face value. I don't pretend to know Dr. Ratio better or that my speculations for him are the right ones. I will also often compare the EN lines and the CN lines, and will automatically take the CN as a base for my analysis of there are differences. Thank you <3

1- Strict education or narcissistic correction?

We will start off with the dialogues before the boss fight.

EN: "Are you waiting for a sign? Time is ticking. Descend via the elevator - what you seek is there."

CN: 愣著做什麽，你時間很多嗎？我看不像。坐電梯下去，你要找的東西就在那裡。

CN translation: "Why are you standing in a daze, do you have a lot of time? Doesn't seem like it to me. Take the elevator down - what you're looking for is right there"

The differences here are not that significant, they both kind of give the same message: Hurry up. Right from the start, we're embarked in the action, we have no time. Dr. Ratio's impatience is showing very much right there, a feeling that is much more pronounced in the CN but fairly condensed in the EN.

Though what is interesting to note in the CN is that the part" do you have a lot of time" is very sarcastic and self-explanatory in itself: Traiblazer doesn't have a lot of time. Yet, Dr. Ratio still reinforces the comment with " Doesn't seem like it to me ". Which highlights quite well his critical and observant stand point.

At the end of the cutscene, Dr. Ratio told Traiblazer to get thinking. Then, his first line is basically:" hurry up !". Which relate to the two values I've pointed out in his cutscene: the mind and time.

Then, the last line is strictly informative. He's a guide; he knows Traiblazer's goal, he knows what to do and he gives the direction (remember, always two steps ahead. I will say that a lot with him). It kinda gives off the vibe of your typical game quest cursor which shows you where to go or what to do but doesn't actually actively help you do it. Once again, Dr. Ratio is an observer and not active.

Of course, Traiblazer gets curious and can ask one of the three questions: Who are you ?/ Why are you here ?/ Do you know what I'm looking for ?

Dr. Ratio then answers:

EN: "Have you considered whether the answer to your question will be of any relevance to our current predicament?"

CN: 提問之前，不如先想一想，答案是否對你要解決的問題有益。

CN Translation: "Before asking a question, it would be better to first consider whether the answer will help the problem you want to solve"

There is a heavy difference between the two in my opinion. The EN line is confrontational and even slightly accusatory, as if it should have been obvious that this question shouldn't have been asked. However, in the CN, there is a more technical (professional) approach to it. That's not an attack or an accusation, more like a recommendation. "Have you...?" will imply a sort of expectation while "It would be..." will sound like a suggestion. EN's structure and tone gives off a similar one to "why are you even doing that?" or "That's completely useless right now." while CN is more like "it's best not to do that." or "That's not what's needed right now."

Do you see the difference? There's one word that perfectly describes that difference and it is harshness; Dr. Ratio is not meant to be harsh, he's meant to be eccentric, strict and slightly nonchalant.

EN: "If a question is of no help, then don't ask it. Time is clearly precious to the both of us."

CN: 如果沒有，最好別問，顯然你我的時間都很寶貴.

CN Translation: "if not, it's best not to ask--clearly, both your time and mine are valuable."

In itself, the sentence is the same. However, in CN we find that instructive and even slightly advisatory tone and structure instead of much more condemning one. "Don't ask it" vs "it's best not to ask". It's subtle but it makes all the difference sometimes, especially with a character that is already strict and serious, adding more to that will naturally unbalance the equilibrium between Dr. Ratio's intolerance and his casualness.

Now, putting that aside, Dr. Ratio is right on one thing: That will not help trailblazer to know who he is exactly, what he's doing here or how he knew what their goal was. The thing here is that he's not saying "I expect you to follow my every word because I'm right", more like: "I'm not important, you don't have to trust me, but hurry up, time's running".

Time is extremely important and to make sure to not waste it, we may be confronted with a situation where we have to dive into the unknown and be in a place where we don't know what's trustworthy or not.

EN: "...Never mind. Allow me to clarify something. I know exactly who you are, and I'm aware you are in Ruan Mei's employ. This was not my intended destination — I just happened to find my way here during my visit and saw what she was up to."

CN: ...…算了，就当做个示范：我知道你是谁，也知道你在为阮•梅办事；我本是空间站的访客，误入此地，目睹了她的实验.

CN Translation: "...... Never mind, just treat this as a demonstration: I know who you are, and I know you're working for Ruan Mei. I was originally a visitor of the Space Station but accidentally ended up here and witnessed her experiment."

Here, Dr. Ratio acknowledges Traiblazer's confusion and need of some answers. So, instead of ignoring it, he takes time to address it. He, at first, tried to advise Traiblazer about oral efficiency by explaining it but then the "never mind" comes a change of method to adapt at a situation. He's thoughtful.

There's one important difference in the first line, which reinforces the tone difference for the two previous lines: "Allow me to clarify something." vs "just treat this as a demonstration:"

Since in the two previous lines the EN went with a more harsh and accusatory structure, here, to follow the steps, when Dr. Ratio answers to dissipate Traiblazer's confusion by giving actual needed answers, it feels like he's putting up with it just because they asked first. It's an abrupt transition that doesn't make sense. Why is he explaining itvwhen right before he was condemning it. As if: "Since you already asked, i'll answer it then"

While, for the CN, since the structure was instructive, it is a continuation of the previous lines, which transforms a mere suggestion/comment into a demonstration. His answers are not simply there to answer Traiblazer in a relevant manner, he's using this opportunity to teach what he had already begun to teach before (crazy when he's a professor right).

He knows Traiblazer, he knows Ruan Mei, he knows there's an arrangement between them, he's a visitor to the space station (subtly telling that he isn't someone trying to attack it, he was invited), he was there first and saw Ruan Mei's experiment and that's why he's there. All that information in two simple sentences. That's his demonstration.

EN: "My goals are roughly aligned with yours. Since you're here, I won't intercede... but should you fail, I will be forced to prevent some avoidable misfortunes."

CN: 我的目的大抵和你相同，既然你來了，我便不會干涉。但如果你失敗，我就會強硬介入，阻止一些不必要的麻煩

CN Translation: "My goal is roughly the same as yours. Since you're here, I won't interfere. But if you fail, I will step in forcefully to prevent any unnecessary trouble."

The sentence is kinda the same, the only difference is that for EN, Dr. Ratio says he will be forced to step in rather that he's the one that will forcefully step in.

What he's saying there is that while he'll stay on the sideline, because that's how Dr. Ratio operates, failure is not to be feared. He's kind of telling Traiblazer that there's a safe net below them. If they fail, he will be there to take the torch and arrange everything. It's not only a way to show Dr Ratio confidence in his own abilities WITHOUT arrogance and narcissism (pride and confidence does not equal those), as well as it hints at us that he alone is capable of dealing with this mess, but it is just a show of how Dr. Ratio methods' and mindset fundamentally work: "Failure is not the end, there's always another option after it."

EN: "That's all you need to know. Just two paragraphs. Very effective communication."

CN: 你知道這些就夠了--- -共兩句話，非常有效率的溝通

CN Translation: "Knowing this is enough for you--just two sentences in total, very efficient communication"

Both mean the same. However, without the instructive tone given by the first lines, the last two can't be perceived as educational and ends up feeling like showing off and putting up with the interlocutor (something that can be seen as a burden), which naturally leads to believing he's arrogant and narcissistic. Because, he isn't really praising himself there, he's demonstrating remember, but since the EN didn't utilize the right structure, it can end up being read differently.

Two of the threes choices to say after are either "Thank you for telling me that" or "You're not a bad person after all". Because Traiblazer's curiosity reflected their doubts and distrust to a literal stranger. Dr. Ratio knew and acknowledged that while giving a lesson. And you may remark that Traiblazer still doesn't know anything about Dr. Ratio! All Traiblazer needed to know was that Dr. Ratio is not a menace to their goal, which he delivered. Efficiency ++

If "Thank you for telling me that" or "You're not a bad person after all" then:

EN: "I can't stand discourtesy - even when it comes from myself."

CN: 因為我討厭不知禮數、惡言相向的人一富然，也包括我自己。

CN Translation: "Because I despise those who lack manners and speak harshly--myself included, of course."

A very, very important line that I feel like a lot of people overlooked and partially because of EN. Oh, what do I read here......."AND SPEAK HARSHLY" Crazy! Why would someone who's harsh hate people who speaks harshly? Maybe because he's not supposed to be harsh to begin with! I'm just sayin."What if he is hypocritical?" Ahahahahah. No. The last sentence literally is there to reject hypocrisy.

Anyway. Dr. Ratio explains that he despises - here, the characters 讨厌 (simplified) describe a sentiment between mild dislike to intense dislike, the end of the phrase softens the tone by mixing a sense of humility with strong critique- those who lacks manners; in other words, disrespect and rudeness.

Dr Ratio would have been 'rude' had he not given answers to Traiblazer's questions or reassured them that he wasn't an enemy. After all, while it was a question for an unnecessary answer, it was still a reasonable one. That's why despite his lesson about it, he still actually answered, while turning it into something that both of them could profit for: for Ratio, he proved his sincerity and his alliance, and Traiblazer gained an ally and a free lesson on time management (lol).

And he PRECISES that he also dislikes people who speak harshly. The phrase itself is pretty clear, but the characters 恶语相向 (simplified) also form an idiom in Chinese that refers closely to being cruel, being verbally offensive on purpose and lashing out. So mean and harsh comments. And I think we can't make it more obvious that Ratio is not mean, harsh or cruel in any way. Dr. Ratio is sarcastic, strict and negative minded, but he isn't cruel or harsh about it.

Lastly, "myself included, of course". Self-awareness. Dr. Ratio quite literally tells in black and white that he doesn't like harshness and rudeness, especially from himself. "Of course" there emphasizes the fact it should be a banality, a norm and obvious. Of course it concerns himself! He represents truth, why would truth be hypocritical and insincere? No, truth is strict, straightforward and simple, yet also detached, neutral and helpful. That's who Dr. Ratio is.

(If "Why do you wear an alabaster head...." Then:)

EN: "Because I can't bear to see idiots. Of course, they wouldn't want to see me either."

CN: 因为我见不得蠢材，当然，他们也不想见我 。

CN Translation: "Because I can't stand fools, and of course, they don't want to see me either."

Fortunately, CN and EN are nearly identical on this one, both in tone and structure, because it is a very important line. The characters 见不得 for“l can't stand" are very strong: they imply heavy dislike, absolutely no tolerance or even aversion. But the key word here is intolerance. It's not a surprise when Dr. Ratio constantly expresses his intolerance for foolishness (a.k.a, arrogance and ignorance as we concluded on the last post).

What's funny is that so far he only complains about foolishness, waste of time or mean behavior. And I think we can take those as some sort of standards. And yes those standards, paired with biases Ratio has for the cosmos (but as Truth, how can he not?) kind of honestly nurture a sense of unconventional "self-centeredness" (in the sense that he acts only based on his standards and biases) that isn't associated with selfishness, arrogance or narcissism. Quite paradoxical? That's the point, Dr. Ratio's entire character is ironic and paradoxical, while embracing a complex, perfect imperfection. (note: will be heavily developed later).

The other part is as important and impactful:"Of course, they don't want to see me either." "Of course" implies some sort of expectation, norm once again, while the rest brings forth a direct confrontation.

While Dr. Ratio critics fools he also admits mutual dislike. There's a clear and poignant duality that we were already able to read in his cutscene, because to cure foolishness is a battle of the self and one must go through it the hard way (practice and negativity) to let go of ignorance and achieve awareness. What I find extremely interesting is that the sentence itself is written in stone, it won't change: the confrontation between Dr. Ratio and fools are inevitable. And if we look at it through my personal theory, that Dr. Ratio is the personification of Truth (as a concept itself) then this sentence is even more meaningful. Because it isn't just Dr. Ratio vs fools, it's Truth against Arrogance (foolishness). Fools, ignorant and arrogant people, hate to be told the truth or to confront the truth. Truth is self-aware, fools are not and that's what sets up the global norm to what people are in Ratio's point-of-view: Fools and everyone else. Simple as that.

EN: "Go. Take the elevator and bear witness to this "Genius' Masterpiece.""

The CN is identical.

What I want to talk about for this lines is what represents the "Masterpiece Of Genius" and how it sets the beginning of Dr. Ratio's lesson that will happen in "Mundane Troubles". What Ruan Mei created is mindblowing of course, but also extremely dangerous and that's what "Masterpiece of Genius" represents: it shows Geniuses' habits to selfishly produce danger without them necessarily caring. And that will be one of the points that will lead Dr. Ratio to question their hierarchy in the cosmos and people's careless, blind faith in them, in "Mundane Troubles".

2- Cutscene: Final Observation

In the cinematic, Dr. Ratio stands far and above, with an absolute view of everything. Not only does it showcase exactly Dr. Ratio's methods (remember, standing back and observing) but the fact he is there, like an instructor yes, but the settings itself give him a sort of charisma.

Well, I may be biased on that one because there's no denying Dr. Ratio's attractiveness and charisma. But, my point is that even when he was only in a secondary plan in this situation, his presence still feels significant.

He does a standard, clinical observation about what happened at the end of the experiment. Once again the fact he's the one confirming that the threat is over instead of Traiblazer who had been fighting or Ruan Mei who is the author of it, shows some kind of importance for his character, his role and what he represents (here, can be read as truth).

Then, immediately and without hesitation, it's time to get going. There's no need to linger there or to ponder about further things, no time to waste; again, Dr. Ratio and time management.

3- RUAN MEI: Truthfulness vs Falsehood

For this last section, I will talk about two of Ruan Mei's dialogue moments. You may ask yourself "but why talk about Ruan Mei in a Dr. Ratio's analysis?" Well, let me show you. But before that, keep in mind that what's told below is based on the idea that Ratio is Truth.

I find this specific line to be very interesting, because I think it kind of give an idea of what Geniuses stand for and we can make (and even see) an opposition with Dr. Ratio which ends up being quite ironic (just like his character hm). Trailblazer asks Ruan Mei about life outside of research and Ruan Mei basically answers that she has none and that it's how she wants it.

It seems like Genius Society members dedicate their entire life and existence to research and some extent, to finding answers, so 'truth'. While, on the other hand, from everything that we are able to observe about Ratio in all the contents he's appearing in, it seems like Dr. Ratio is dedicating research to Life. Not in the same way Ruan Mei does. Life as in humanity and civilization throughout the cosmos.

And that's one of the dualities that is present in "Crown Of The Mundane And The Divine". Dr. Ratio, who is pretty self-aware and represents truth, dedicates his existence to the assistance of civilization and their evolution. While geniuses who dedicate life to research don't have much knowledge of civilization (the Mundane) and sometimes even less of the self. There's a clear opposition between them and it may be what's actually the cause of Dr. Ratio being unable to draw the gaze of Nous. I will talk about it in more detail in another post.

Traiblazer talks one last time with Ruan Mei, and it is revealed that she gave the "Anti-Truth" she gave them has more abilities than she had told. Traiblazer will slowly forget about Ruan Mei in order to protect her secrets because she isn't someone who trusts easily.

I find this moment extremely interesting and meaningful in its contrast with Traiblazer's whole interactions with Dr. Ratio.

On one side, we have Dr Ratio, who can be considered the personification of Truth and was there to point out Ruan Mei's lies and guide us to the real truth; on the other side, Ruan Mei, a Genius, uses "Anti-Truth"to conceal her lies and secrets after they had been discovered and dealt with.

We have Dr. Ratio who is often villainized and is eccentric, while Ruan Mei is praised and delicate.

Dr. Ratio (or truth) is straightforward and can be perceived as ruthless, while the Anti-Truth is described as slow and sweet. Almost like a metaphor to truth being hard to accept while lies are sweet and easily deceives.

And finally, Ruan Mei, who lied, tried to conceal the truth (and her identity) while being bare-faced with us. However, Dr. Ratio, who guided tb to truth, had his identity hidden throughout the quest. It's funny when bareness is a typical symbol associated with Truthfulness and their personifications, but Ratio had his identity covered while Ruan Mei was not hiding it. There's actually a story about the Truth Goddess Ratio may be inspired from; about her counterpart (falsehood) pretending to be her (Truth). One of the moralities in those myths and stories is often that lies may start off as successful but Truth will always prevail. Which I think is quite fitting in this situation

CONCLUSION:

As a continuation to his introductive cutscene, we have the start of a slow development of Dr. Ratio's main traits and characteristics. It's diverting to realize, after all the other quests and looking back at the first ones, that early on there were already the hints and showcases of Dr. Ratio's personality and values. Throughout the quest, Trailblazer interacted with an unknown man (Dr. Ratio), and it was that same unknown man that helped Traiblazer uncover the affairs of someone Traiblazer already knew and trusted!

Here, Dr. Ratio may have represented Truth, not in its bare state as he usually does. It's interesting to note that Dr. Ratio tells himself that he could show his true colors but that it ends up being rather counter productive. Just like the fact Truth itself is better represented bare but few people actually can handle it that way. That's also a morality brought forth in the story of Truthfulness and her Counterpart, the one where Falsehood pretends to be Truthfulness by wearing her clothes, Truthfulness was naked and tried to convince Men that it was a trick but Men condemned Truthfulness, preferring a beautiful lie than the bare truth.

Dr. Ratio wearing an Alabaster Head most of the time might be a reflection to that but a little bit twisted, in order to prevent counterproductive results; a covered truth is still truth. Hiding his sight (truth) from fools doesn't prevent them from learning and trying to find it behind the barriers he puts. I also think the alabaster Head is simply a reference to him being the personification of Truthfulness, since one of the myths about the goddess speaks of her being a statue originally.

Here's the points to remember:

Time is extremely important and should be used efficiently. Which we were already aware of, but the fact time is such a close and important concept glued to Ratio's character might have something to do with him being Truthfulness, as whilst one version tells that the goddess was created as a statue, another says that she was the daughter of Cronus (the time titan/god)

Dr. Ratio is an educator first and foremost. He is strict and intolerant but not harsh and cruel. His manner of speech will often be straightforward, simple, instructive and effective. But it doesn't exclude things like sarcasm, a touch of humour without losing that gloominess that surrounds his character.

His intolerance with fools is strong and reciprocal, which could represent, through a metaphor, the confrontation between arrogance/foolishness and truthfulness.

We are shown the premises of Dr. Ratio's methods more clearly: practice and detached observation.

And lastly, The way both Dr. Ratio and Ruan Mei were portrayed in constant opposition from one another foretells of the duality that Crown of the mundane and divine is inherently about and will be plainly talked about in Mundane Trouble

I hope you enjoyed this long but hopefully interesting and insightful post! I always end up writing so so much ahah. Next, I will dive into the very important quest: "Mundane Troubles'

If you like my analyses, and if you're interested to know more, stay tuned!

[erriga]

THE QUARANTINE QUERY

(tl dr I didn't vibe with the demo for some silly and not so silly reasons)

Welcome to my special post where I will try to explain my personal problems with Quarantine and the general creative and narrative direction the next game seems to be heading towards. I decided to write a longer text instead of a couple of bullet points, because one does not simply write a thesis about a game just to later complain about it in a sarcastically laconic tone.

Things this essay is going to be:

my opinion/critique

an analysis

a reflection upon my feelings about the series in general

Things this essay is not going to be:

an angry rant about the new game in the spirit of they changed it so now it sucks

an attempt to prove that old pathologic = smart and new pathologic = stupid

Ok, with the disclaimers out of the way, let's get into it, and by it I mean levels of pretentious nerdiness unknown to many.

I wrote down four statements that describe my general feelings about the demo. They will serve as a frame of reference for what my critique will fundamentally touch upon instead of trying to fit every possible complaint I might have in a disjointed fashion. Here they are:

I feel like Quarantine expects me to:

Consider Dankovsky to be a specific Character in a specific Story

Believe Dankovsky has an internal world that can be mechanically represented in the ludo-narrative

Find said internal world to be compelling enough to let it filter the whole experience of the game

(presumably) emotionally connect with Dankovsky due to all of the above

If all this sounds confusing - good! Keep reading, it's going to get even better.

So, is Daniil a character?

Yes, of course he is. But what does it mean in the context of the original game compared to Pathologic 2 and now Quarantine?

Over the years I've come across vastly different opinions about the quality of character writing in the original Pathologic. I am not including complaints about the English translations or other technical aspects, just the most basic tendency of how the game portrays its characters. Most people I've seen who have passionately engaged with the game (including me) tend to describe the original game's characterizations as nuanced, complex and strangely realistic despite their rather theatrical tendencies. But I've also heard others say the exact opposite. That the characters don't feel like real people at all, their personalities are incoherent and fall flat due to a lack of consistency, and that every single one of them, from an old man to a literal toddler, falls back on the same pseudo-philosophical cadence, which while attempting to make them seem deeper ends up dehumanizing them even further. And even though those two opinions seem to be contradictory, I think that they are both the exact same reason why the writing of the original game captivates me so much. Because it doesn't really matter.

I wrote my thesis about the brechtian influences in Classic. One of the most characteristic aspects of the Epic Theatre is the attempt to remove illusions typical to traditional theatre, among which is the illusion of a character's psychology. I believe that you can absolutely argue that the characters in patho 1 were designed to behave like Brecht's characters - lacking internal psychology, mainly serving as mouthpieces for political and philosophical arguments, more so types than individuals. But here's the catch - I believe it's actually impossible to create a character completely immune to identification, because we as humans love to project our silly little emotions on pretty much anything, including animals and inanimate objects. Compared to those cases, Gorkhon's gallery of strange individuals is a painfully human display. So it's no wonder that many of us did indeed relate to those weirdos, just like nothing can possibly stop an audience member from identifying with Mother Courage or Galileo in Brecht's play. But the fact still remains that none of those characters were designed with this kind of simple emotional identification in mind and thus the attachment we may feel to them is more of a byproduct than the main goal. Taking a character who was meant to be analytically pondered and instead adopting them as a breathing human being is in that case, almost an act of rebellion. It's like saying, this is mine now.

Coming back to Daniil, this lack of clarity of how much he was written with this sort of characterization in mind is the main reason why I found him so compelling, he always kept me asking: is this part of Daniil as a coherent whole or is it just a philosophical stance which I should ponder at this moment or is it the writer's attempt at predicting what the player (presumably a straight male player) may want to say through this character? Does Daniil say "wow" because that's how he speaks, or is it just an oversight? Am I supposed to treat optional dialogue as things he would say or just things that are sometimes said in his world? The point is I DON'T KNOW and I love that I don't know that! It gives me so many posibilities! To me Daniil's character isn't so much about what he exactly says or does, but rather the internal logic that guides him. And I am the one who can choose its exact mechanism. He is mine.

Meanwhile, I feel like Quarantine wants me to treat Dankovsky like I would treat most other characters in traditional/popular media. Here are his personality traits. He is intelligent, he says so himself, and that lady over there also said it and he knows science and formulas and speaks Latin. Here are his thoughts. He has a memory about this thing. He feels guilty about that. I suddenly have a whole army of simple sentences that are meant to help me umderstand Daniil in this new iteration. Not so much a puzzle but a construction manual. And I'm not saying that this way of storytelling is fundamentally bad just because I can parody it as simpler than it really is. I want to engage with the new game's writing on it's own terms but so far I haven't done that mostly due to the giant dankovsky shaped object blocking the view.

Speaking of-

THE BACHELOR-CENTRIC MODEL OF THE UNIVERSE

This demo is so much about Dankovsky that it almost makes me embarrassed in his name. And honestly, I'm surprised I feel that way, considering how much I usually enjoy stories where a character's perception shapes the narrative to a great extent. I love symbolic dream sequences, guilt-driven visions and unreliable narrators. But the way Daniil's perception of himself and his surroundings doesn't really feel like a service to him as a character, but rather a narrative shorthand to spoonfeed me, the player, the most relevant information. The way Daniil's thoughts appear around objects is realistic to the extent that yes, human thoughts can be often rather simple and disjointed but there are moments where I think this mental streamlining is detrimental to his characterization and rubs him of nuance. The worst culprits of that are (IN MY OPINION):

Him calling Eva a ray of sunshine

The part where he references the fact that he and Artemy always fight about whose methods are better

Any time Daniil or someone around him refers to him as especially intelligent

Mr Little's Special Tutorial Perspective or Please Daniil Explain This To Me Once Again

None of those ideas are fundamentally bad, not at all. I'm curious to see his relationship with Eva develop, I want to see him interact with Artemy more like they did in the original, I can see some great ironic potential in the constant hyping up of Daniil's intellect and yeah, I hope Yakov is revealed to be some secret government agent or something. But I'm annoyed that I feel like I can predict all of this from just a couple of lines in the demo. I want to be confused and unsure of my own judgement. I want to be proven wrong, surprised, and ashamed of my own surface level analysis. And that can still very much happen, perhaps even in the comments on this very post or once the full games comes out. But right now I feel rather pessimistic.

I don't have a good segue for this part so now let's talk mechanics.

PRESS B TO EAT A CIGARRETE

The new mechanics try to break away from the body-first focus of the original game and the way Pathologic 2 expanded on those ideas even further. This time it's all about the mind, baby. Which - again - on itself isn't a bad idea. If this game was just 2 with different dialogues it would be very hard to justify its existence as a stand-alone product that needed to somehow be funded over those last 6 years. But the result to me feels more like novelty for novelty's sake. Not everything of course - the diagnosis part of the gameplay is definitely its most well-designed aspect, and there is a consistent logic behind it. Where Artemy saw systems, Daniils sees individual parts, where Artemy had to rely on luck, Daniil controls all the variables etc etc. The same, however, cannot be said about some of the other new mechanics.

Managing Daniil's mental state doesn't feel that much different than making sure Artemy drinks enough water and I personally think it's a wasted opportunity. I'm not going to insert myself into the discussion about whether the game's use of terms associated with bipolar disorder is accurate/tasteful because other people with relevant experiences have already voiced their opinions about that and will hopefully continue to do so in the future. My point is - regardless of what exact mental condition or more general function of the human psyche the game is trying to convey, it does so in a manner so simplistic that it doesn't encourage me as a player to connect with it on a deeper level. Apathy is blue because it's sad, Mania means, well, mania so it's red. Once again, I have only experienced a small portion of the game's final system so I might be in for a surprise and perhaps I will get to see Daniil experience something... purple?

Also adding to my previous point about switching perspectives - I think this mechanic will be an absolute gut punch in the final game. I hope it's something akin to the original meeting with the Powers That Be, especially with the way multiple characters can "jump" into one conversation at any moment. This will surely be utilized for some mind-fuckery and I can't wait to see it. I think this is also the one aspect of the demo that gives me the most hope as far as my beloved emotional confusion is concerned. Because what is the switching of perspectives supposed to indicate really? Are we supposed to filter it once again through Daniil's perspective because of the framing device of him recollecting the events? So nothing we learn by getting the insight into other characters' thoughts can be taken at face value because that's just how Daniil sees them? Are those other/new characters even real or just exist in Daniil's psyche? Does it have something to do with the time travel blahblah? Or are we not playing as Daniil at all but some other entity entirely? That's the main question I hope I don't get a clear answer to but rather contradicting paths to follow. But despite that optimistic outlook I still need to get into the final aspect that made it difficult for me to engage with the new game on its own terms, and instead deciding to take its dead corpse apart.

I CARE TOO MUCH BUT NOT ENOUGH

I just can't get over the fact how much this game wants me to identify with Daniil or at the very least find him cool. Cool as in how modern characters are often cool. Wet cats, chaotic bastards, jerks with hearts of gold and vaguely homoerotic energy with other male characters. And I'm not saying this as an insult, narrative trends are a thing, I find many of those archetypes to be endearing more often than not, but my problem is that it still only serves Dankovsky as our center of the world. By flanderizing him and making him fit into a more recognizable character archetype we lose the feeling of him being always at odds with the world around him, the way he used to be conflicted over every single thing in the original game. This new world is too suited for him to be a hero of his story, a tragic hero but a hero nonetheless, while in my opinion what made him uniquely tragic in classic was precisely the fact that he wasn't anyone's hero.

I know this constant comparison to patho classic can get tiring, so let me use another point of reference which is also the reason why I am even writing this post in the first place - The Marble Nest. I love the marble nest. I find its narrative structure to be expertly crafted, emotional beats placed in just the right places and godd i still cry over the fact that they put his soul into a nutshell. And the funny thing is that TMN does share a lot of similarities with the new demo. It's a Daniil-centric story with a framing device that encourages us to look at the entire experience as Daniil's impression of the reality around him. It's a short and rather simple experience with a strong central theme. So why do I feel so emotional when Daniil talks to the death in that game but feel pretty much nothing when he talk about dying in Quarantine? Maybe because The Marble Nest is still steeped so deeply in the theatre influences which I hold dear to my heart while Quarantine moves away from them and maybe towards another medium entirely. Theatre never pretends to be reality and it's artificiality is always front and center. Film meanwhile often has the tendency to try to replicate reality or even try to be reality itself. In one of those cases I feel like an active audience member and in the other like a passive voyeur of some vision of reality. Or to put it simply, in one case I am afraid of Death and in the other, I am watching someone act out being afraid of death. That is a highly personal preference though and I'm genuinely happy to see that many people do indeed relate to this portrayal of Daniil, especially when it comes to how his mental problems are displayed front and center. And that's amazing! I want to see all the fan input that comes out of it and I hope the final game delivers on everything they hope for. But for me? I think I might need to take a back seat, at least for now. Watch the scene from afar, perhaps get a fuller picture. Because I want to care and understand and know and feel. I really do. But sometimes it's not possible and that's also good.

So, if you've read this overwritten mess to the end, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart and encourage you to voice your opinion. Art doesn't exist without discussion so let's discuss!

POST-SCRIPTUM - ON THE NATURE OF MAKING GOOD THINGS IN YOUR PAST

One last thing I wanted to add which feels highly relevant to the my critique is the question of what to do when someone says they liked your old work better? I like to think of myself as an artist and I think that many of us do, even without getting into how according to Beuys everyone is an artist. So you make a thing, some people like, perhaps many people do. So you keep making things, you grow with them, change, realize your old ideas were often childish or naive which you can only do through gaining experience. So you make new things, often drastically different from the ones you made before. And someone says "I liked the old stuff better". And they don't say it as an insult, even though it may sometimes feel like it. Because you cannot recreate whatever you did in your past. And you want to grow. Does that mean that you got worse instead? That you peaked in your past and it's all downhill from here? Of course not. You know that. I know that. I hope every artist knows that. And yet it still hurts. It hurts to be perceived as a line graph when in reality you are a recursive function.

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all images made by me, the ones with yellow background are from a shitpost animatic, the white one was a joke I made after hearing the famous"sherlock mind palace fruit ninja" pitch, and the last one is me in my Daniil cosplay. Goodnight Bikini Bottom

[ilikekidsshows]

I get that alot of people go with the approach of "every Miraculous character is deeply screwed by the writers, so it's a writing problem" but at this point this feels like deflecting from the real problem

No shit stories and their characters are written by writers, but so many blogs I see now that go with that approach imo keep on dismissing the point of the problems people are pissed about because "well the characters aren't real, so I'm superior for saying it's the writers fault"

Guys, we KNOW they are fictional characters, you're not unique. But what is happening is that I get less and less out of the analysis posts from these blogs because they're beating around the damn bush especially when it comes to Marinette.

Yes, every character is screwed by the writing but Marinette has been retooled into the self-serving center of the universe who gets by though damn technicalities. This writing pattern is 2 disastrous seasons in, SHE IS THE PROBLEM.

You can try and sugarcoat that however you like by saying that Marinette is a fictional character so its the writers fault, but that doesn't change that Marinette's CHARACTER & WRITING is still the source of all the problems and that stories are being told to get emotional reactions. That's the entire purpose of a story.

No, I don't think people are doing it right by approaching all of Miraculous on a mere meta level. That's not how a story is supposed to be read. The meta level is an additional one on top of the emotional one, not the "rational way" to consume media.

And imo the analysis blogs I see around so much deliver less and less analysis posts I can do anything with. They are so caught up in explaining that the characters aren't to blame but the writers that they sideline why people are feeling the way they do.

There is this persistent dissonance in their posts about how apparently no amount of bad writing can change a character when that's just... objectively incorrect. Marinette for example is SUPPOSED to be compassionate and a thoughtful hero and partner/ leader to Cat Noir. Marinette in Canon though by this point is straight up NOT anymore.

But in their posts it's basically said that if people say that, then that makes them irrational because on a meta level the execution and effect of the writing is apparently irrelevant. Distant meta is king and the only rational way to engage with this story.

And I just don't see the point in that.

The outcome and the emotional effect of the writing is what actually matters. Not the intention behind it (no wonder people are using that excuse to defend Marinette's character. It's another variant of "but she MEANT well"). If Marinette is by now a toxic and even abusive partner and leader to be suck with, then that's the fucking damage the writing did. And said damage is DONE. That's her character NOW. Talk about the theory behind it however you like, the character CONCEPT is not Canon compliant anymore, and nothing is gonna change that besides facing the deeply rooted damage that has been done, analysing those on an EMOTIONAL level so you can then course correct the CANON character through the necessary development into becoming what the character was initially supposed to be.

Call me a dick, but just saying "the characters aren't real" is not a productive way of going about this dumpster fire anymore.

---

Another thing to take into account about the “it’s just bad writing” approach is that, like, it’s not like the way Marinette herself is being written has changed that much. What changed is how the narrative and other characters react to her and her behavior. Marinette has always been self-important, self-serving and self-obsessed, but these used to be treated as character flaws, signs of her immaturity and naivete she’d need to grow out of. Now we’re being told she’s flawless, actually, and has never done anything wrong ever and none of her mistakes were her fault. 

Like, I’ve recently been familiarizing myself more with the “my dear diary” teen drama genre, and it really is more of a dramedy genre if anything. Most of these series will have a self-important, self-serving and self-obsessed protagonist and the entire narrative is filtered through their self-centered world-view, because we’re basically reading their diary where they vent about things that annoy or excite them. Now comes the kicker: the “comedy” of the dramedy comes from how comically over the top these protagonists are when they clearly and obviously misrepresent their lives and themselves to the audience. Miraculous is leaning very heavily into this downright selfish protagonist archetype, but actually wants you to agree with the protagonist when you can see, with your own eyes, because this is a different medium, that the world isn’t nearly as unfair to our protagonist as she claims.

Here’s another kicker: if you aren’t laughing at the joke or projecting yourself onto the protagonist, you’re most likely gonna hate the protagonist of most “my dear diary” books. They tend to be the most opinion-splitting characters in their own fandoms, with readers either loving them or outright despising them.

Dismissing these kinds of fandom reactions only when they veer into the negative direction showcases the real motivation of the “it’s all just the writing” crowd. I need to dissociate from the show’s story in order to discuss why Marinette is still so beloved by the fandom, because I just can’t feel that way about her anymore. Similarly, the people dissociating from the story in order to explain why fans are disappointed and outraged by the story, can’t see anything worth getting upset about in the show. They think it’s all okay. They’re not approaching the show purely logically, they are still emotionally invested, they still like the show. Of course the seemingly logical approach to fandom unrest seems to just be defending Marinette and the show, because it is.

It’s basically a way to retreat from the criticism. Like, the accusations of Marinette being a stalker used to be easily sidelined with “it’s just a joke you don’t like” until they made it a sign of canonical mental instability. It was a way to say: "this is a silly thing to be upset about". Now we’re sidelining the abuse apologia with “it’s just bad writing, that’s not what Marinette’s character is”. What these people are actually saying is: “she’s made up, so my made up version of Marinette in my head didn’t do that.” Like, when you have to deny canon exists, your analysis isn’t analysis anymore; it’s headcanons at the very least, completely made up at most.

[ominousvibez]

Okay I'm still thinking about the Amity Park in Ohio thing so here's my proposal for this idea:

Reasons That Amity Park Should Be in Ohio (By Someone Who's Lived In Ohio For 2+ Years)

#1 It's Definitely A Great Lake State

Amity Park has never been stated to be officially in one specific state, just vaguely central United States, possibly somewhere around the Great Lakes area. That specific area is often referenced by other characters in the show. Urban Jungle shows Undergrowth's roots stretching out from this general area, and the Lake Eerie mentioned in the show might just literally be Lake Erie.

Of course it's kinda cartoony and I honestly have no idea if those mountains in the bottom right corner are meant to be the Appalachia area or not but it vaugely looks like the Great Lakes area

Because of this screenshot, I think most of the fandom headcanons Amity Park to be somewhere in Illinois, possibly close to Chicago, but we can basically point at any Great Lakes state and say "yeah that fits".

For my non-American friends, it's this general area of America (specifically Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio)

But I'd also like to say that cartoons do have a tendency to fudge some details about geography (or completely change the states a la Steven Universe) so the map might not be 100% accurate. But with the map, it could technically be any Great Lakes State, so why not OHIO?

Which btw I'm going to be counting as a Midwest state for this analysis. Some people can argue it isn't, but from my experience living here in Ohio there are a lot of Midwestern tendencies. It's more like Ohio is the border state between the Eastern states and the Midwest, so it gets a mix of both.

B*tch H*rtman (as much as we don't like to talk about him) was also born in Michigan, which is a state in the Midwest, so some of Amity Park could be based (consciously or not) on the towns he grew up in there. But because of him I'm ruling out Michigan the state as a whole and Wisconsin for states Amity Park could be in.

#2 It Takes Four Days To Get To Wisconsin, Apparently?

In Season 1, Episode 7, when they travel to Vlad's mansion in Wisconsin, Jazz says it will take "four days" to get from Amity Park to Vlad's Mansion (Somewhere in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin, basically). The geography is a little off for every midwestern/Great Lakes state except maybe New York if you're gonna count that but Amity Park does not feel like it'd be in New York state.

Ohio is the furthest Midwest Great Lakes state from Wisconsin. Case closed there. Of course, it doesn't take four days to get from Ohio to Wisconsin. It can roughly vary from 10 to 15 hours, depending on route options (such as avoiding highways and stuff), but still.

It's a road trip, so it makes more sense that they'd take longer to get there-- plus realistically people don't tend to drive 10 hours on a road trip, they probably stopped through the trip and spent the night in their RV.

#3 They Got Beaches?

Amity Park does exist near a body of water. It isn't clear if it's a lake, river, or ocean in the show. It could be a lake. There's also the area in Frightmare, where Nocturne literally takes up space in some sort of port building/factory that gives the audience the assumption that it's on a pier/port. So they're really next to a body of water.

There is also the summer camp that Danny and his friends attend in Claw of the Wild which is said to be on Lake "Eerie". Which could easily just be Lake Erie, the lake that Ohio is on.

Also Camp Skull and Crossbones?? What an iconic camp name. You could say the name is pretty,,,,,, camp (ba dum tss).

#4 Ohio's Just Like... Very Haunted

Ohio has kinda become a meme recently. Not just one specific part of Ohio, but the entire state. The memes are mostly good fun-- like how the state is mostly just corn -- but I think some of the ~vibes~ of Ohio just fit right.

Like, there's no definite way to say which U.S. State is the most haunted (I think either the New England area or maybe Louisiana could take the #1 spot) but Ohio is definitely something else. Of course, we have the baby bridges and the haunted penitentiaries like Ohio State Penitentiary, but there are some interesting places that could be played with, too.

For one, there's an entire abandoned town called Helltown, Ohio, where rumors are cultists perform Satantic rituals, mutant creatures roaming the city created by an oil spill, and even a giant snake? There's also a place literally called the Gateway to Hell, too, which is right behind a Tim Horton's (oddly fitting).

Bobby Mackey's is also in Ohio! If you've ever seen Buzzfeed Unsolved, you know what I'm talking about.

There are also less hell-related spooky things in Ohio. Like, Lake Erie has its own Monster! We call her Bessie. Danny could definitely befriend Bessie!!!

#5 It'd Be Funny

It'd be funny for Amity Park to be in Ohio. The Most Haunted Place in America to be in Ohio is just kinda funny. With how "cursed" of a reputation Ohio seems to have in a larger cultural context, doesn't it kinda just fit?

TLDR:

Ohio is a very cursed state, has a lot of supernatural lore to it, and I think Amity Park would fit in both thematically and almost geographically. Of course, other Midwestern States like Illinois do fit the bill, too, in this argument. But I am a firm "Amity Park is in Ohio" supporter.

[altaiiriss]

Thinking about it, Chuuya really does have nobody. Dazai has the agency, but Chuuya has nothing at all. Maybe you could base your writing on how isolated Chuuya feels? (Ofc Dazai feels isolated as well, but that's a different issue, because he technically has people)

yep this topic is so interesting!

[disclaimer: i wasn't expecting the wall of text below, it just happened, lol. what's below is just my humble opinion, i'm not claiming these are canon facts. i have never done character analysis and i think i would suck at it to be honest, so just take it for what it is: my personal view on the matter, which could be true or not]

i always try to be cautious when i say this because people will immediately jump at your throat, but i truly think chuuya is alone in the current timeline and has been for a while. are there people around him? yeah, sure. there's kouyou (who is the closest to him imo), akutagawa, his subordinates whom he loves dearly for sure, and even mori (whom he admires as a boss).

but what chuuya lacks is friends.

when you say that dazai's presence was a kind of lifesaver in chuuya's life, people will tell you that you're a delusional shipper, that dazai wasn't everything chuuya had and the redhead's whole existence didn't and doesn't revolve around him. which is true, you know? of course chuuya is a perfectly stable character (in terms of characterisation) without dazai, but that doesn't change the fact that he is lonely.

ironic, isn't it? the one who always puts the needs of others before his and would die if it meant saving people, has no friends.

i wouldn't say it's his fault, because we all know that the sheep betrayed him and the flags were killed by verlaine. he does have a fault though (i wouldn't call it a proper "fault" but i can't come up with a better word) and it's not acknowledging his relationships.

it's part of his trauma, so can we blame him? no, not really. but chuuya never allowed himself to feel or digest his emotions and just kept bottling them up, and that includes positive feelings as well. i think chuuya prevented himself from fully enjoying the people around him (if it's because he didn't want to suffer when he lost them or he genuinely didn't know how to express his emotions, well i have no idea).

within the sheep he was just a leader, someone to be taken advantage of, and while he might have had genuine feelings towards them, i don't think their relationship could be called a friendship. and i find it hilarious that the one moment chuuya decides to act for himself (looking for his past with dazai and rimbaud) he literally gets stabbed.

with the flags it was an entirely different situation. the first pages of stormbringer really stuck with me because chuuya responded to their kindness with... i wouldn't exactly call it "violence", but i hope you get what i mean [cries in english isn't my first language]

like, this boy couldn't fathom the thought of someone genuinely caring for him. again, it's not his fault because it's just a trauma response, but it really did ruin his life, you know? because the flags died in the end, and chuuya never got to experience them fully because he was too busy acting all flustered and annoyed around them. he never let himself grow closer to them, basically.

i think this is a core difference with dazai—the man who doesn't feel human but acts so desperately human that sometimes i wish i could just inject the notion into his brain, lol. chuuya never allowed himself to express his emotions, whereas dazai lives them fully. okay, perhaps not so fully, but i think his relationships were genuine, contrary to chuuya's. that boy truly loved ango and odasaku with all of his heart and that's why ango's betrayal and odasaku's death shook him. i'm not saying the flags' death wasn't traumatising because that's far from the truth, but i dare say dazai had more to grieve than chuuya had, because he let himself experience those friendships, he lived those people. for someone who is technically so loved by people, i don't think chuuya does well around them. that's because his relationships with people are built upon his saviour complex (imo), whereas dazai's are built upon trust (i wouldn't say he fully trusts the agency because we often see him acting on his own rather than together with them, but still, i think he has a beautiful relationship with the detectives)

i might get hate for what i'm going to say lol, but to me chuuya's actions are aimed at himself to feel better, while dazai's actions are aimed at others. we have witnessed dazai acting like the kindest person out there several times now, and mind that i am not claiming he's a pure angel because at the end of the day he's a morally grey character just like anyone else in this series, but it really shows how being in a better environment helps you grow.

i guess what i'm trying to say is that dazai's gestures feel more genuine to me than chuuya's (the cherry on top is that dazai doesn't even realise that and always tries to avert the attention from him when someone points it out)

chuuya is way more emotionally constipated than dazai, period.

regarding these two, i like to think of the impact dazai's defection had on chuuya because dazai was the last close person he had, and of course he didn't even realise that (just chuuya being chuuya)

i'm not wearing shipping lenses right now because i couldn't care less about ships lol, plus i entirely trust asagiri when he says skk hate each other (i mean, you can't look at those two and deny the raging hate between them), so trust me when i say chuuya was important to dazai and vice versa. "but they hate each other" yes, and different feelings can coexist within a relationship. that's what makes their relationship so appealing to me: despite the hate, the fights, the insults, the kicks and punches, there's always some inexplicable kindness at the end (shown by dazai only and definitely not by chuuya lol)

in each other's company they could be kids. they weren't brutal assassins or mafia executives anymore, they were simply kids who loved to bicker and play videogames. when dazai left he took that child-like part of chuuya with him, and all that was left of chuuya was a self-sacrificing mafia executive, because no one other than dazai filled that role in chuuya's life. they could be their true selves around each other because there's never been cute feelings between them, just pure and unfiltered hatred. and that's beautiful, isn't it? to have your true self shine thanks to the person you hate the most.

only a diamond can polish a diamond, after all.

[aapkainvestments]

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[chartmonks]

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[bitterrobin]

Part 1 of analysis on the Batman & Son/Three Batmen arc that no one asked for, bc I'm writing a fic using it and I'm using this website as a public notes app. Basically me making observations and notes on what to emphasize when I write, so it's not very cohesive outside Damian & his interactions w/ Tim and Bruce.

Long Post Ahead:

Starting with of course, Damian's introduction arc. I guess this would technically be considered spoilers for GRAVEYARD, but I feel enough of what I've written so far is contained in Damian's mind a lot/shifted just a bit from canon to not be too obvious.

WRT Post-Crisis, Damian’s first introduction under Morrison implies that Damian didn’t know what Batman/Robin did, and especially after learning - he thought it was ridiculous, something to scoff at.

Prior to this, we don't really get an indication that Morrison-Talia told Damian what Batman did. We can assume he knows Batman as a concept, as he's not very surprised to see his estranged father in a bat costume, nor does he regard the Batcave as something weird.

I feel like I should stress wrt Robin, that Damian did not attack Tim just because the boy was Robin -- he attacked Tim because he (rightfully) perceived Tim as Bruce's son, the son that Damian wasn't. It can also be assumed with how abrasive and bratty that Morrison wrote Damian, that he attacked Tim as a sort of tantrum (turned up to 12 w exaggerated comic book panache), with Tim having (unintentionally) annoyed Damian earlier in the day.

It's also very important to note that Morrison wrote Tim as fairly normal...and as far as I know, in-character. He's a little condescending with the "here in my world, we call this a handshake" line (but that's more likely Tim attempting a joke that doesn't land, which Damian takes as patronizing). Otherwise, he's shown interacting with Damian as nicely as possible and talking to Bruce about his gripes with the sudden situation.

Tim gives Damian the benefit of the doubt, then unfortunately that doubt is massively proven through Damian killing and beheading a minor villain.

Fandom tends to blow their "fight" out of proportion as a mutual slug-fest or as Tim getting the shit beaten out of him. But in the comic, Tim is mostly on the defensive (holding his own, not really getting hurt) as Damian is attacking him, doesn't strike back, and even saves him from the T-Rex in the cave before it can injure him. And that was after the aforementioned scene of Damian pulling about a bloody key and Tim making an ominous assumption about Alfred's status as alive/dead.

Tim sits down to talk with him, and Damian gives him pretty much the exact reason why he's so aggressive. It's laid out right there for the reader. (Not to get too meta, but the comics actually give both Tim and Damian leeway on both their "sides." It's the fandom that generally exaggerates Damian's violence/Tim's reaction.) Anyway, Damian hits Tim hard enough that he falls, steals a Robin costume (notably not any of Tim's considering the black/red color scheme he then had), and Bruce finds out about everything.

IMO, a lot of Damian's actions can be explained through his POV as his limits getting pushed/buttons being pressed. He's 10 years old -- dropped by his manipulative mother to a father he doesn't know, realizes that father has another son older than him and treated better (presumably, in his eyes), put in a room with a password lock (which has implications), yelled at (explicitly told that his father has expectations of him, that he'll be tested until he can prove something) and then he decides to do something about it. Be proactive. He decides to kill the Spook and "prove" his worth, he fights Tim and "proves" his "deserved" place as his father's son, and takes a Robin costume to further that point.

Of course, he then learns that Bruce doesn't and will never appreciate those actions. Everything Damian just did was for nothing, almost, and he's brought right back where he started to his mother -- who then says that she intended for him to only be a distraction the whole time. Damian is a toy, a tool to Talia, and a violent obstacle to Bruce.

This is why I insist that Damian here, isn't really a character yet, he's a glorified plot device that Bruce/Tim have to get around for a couple issues.

Skipping way ahead in the plot, I wanted to highlight this piece of dialogue:

"I'm giving both of you a second chance you don't deserve." Wow. Morrison's characterization of Bruce in this arc (and frankly, his whole run) gives me whiplash. Morrison-Talia aside --- to Damian, hearing this must've been devastating on top of everything else. It's a throwaway line, like Dick's in Resurrection of Ras al Ghul where he snarks to Tim that saving Damian's life "makes us feel better about ourselves" that has a certain bite to it - and then is quickly ignored by the plot.

As I've posted before, Damian's aggression and mistrust is not without cause, he's not fighting people because he just an evil little kid. We know, as readers, that Bruce is rightfully angry about Talia's machinations and Damian hurting Tim/Alfred (and that Dick was only making another of his many jokes) but Damian doesn't. Even if he doesn't immediately say or do anything about what they say, he most likely internalizes it.

Still, he says this. Morrison of course, projecting Peak Divorced Child onto Damian's character --- but I like to think that Damian genuinely meant it. He just wants his parents together, like a child would, even if neither of those parents seemingly like him, or want what's best for him in a rational way? (Talia's just using him here, Bruce apparently is fine with letting her.) Good thing to bring up with Damian btw, it's like that Lady Bird movie scene:

"I wish that you liked me" - "Of course I love you."

You can be someone's child, cherished in that way, but that doesn't necessarily mean your parents like and understand you as a person. While in (my fic) GRAVEYARD, this doesn't fully apply as Taxonomy AU!Talia is nothing like the Talia here -- Damian thinks that she doesn't fully like him and he believes that she's not going to ever understand who he is. (And frankly, there is always the notion haunting her that he's not a normal kid, her kid anymore - that she's worse off because she has to see what the League twisted Damian into. But that's a more meta analysis of her POV than I want to get into; how warped Talia's character became because of Damian existing in comics -- and something more for a diff. fic.)

Coming up on the end of the arc, it's kinda crazy how Talia and Damian were technically supposed to die. And Damian pretty much did, until he got the intense medical attention he got. Something to think about.

Ending the post here! Next time, I'll skip to Three Batmen, quickly go over it, and then just kinda jump around talking about Damian's POV of events happening.

[gabrielsbubblegumbitch]

got any silly voxval headcannons? (Maybe velvette too idk)

like for example who cooks out of the three of them

Of course you can <3 I'm a really angsty girlie so I don't know how silly they actually are but there you go:

None of them can cook, but that's not really a problem for Vox and Velvette. Vox could survive on plain bread and black coffee for eternity, while Velvette could eat only candies. Val, on the other hand, is the ultimate hedonist. He's all about the tasty, full-fat fast food or gourmet stuff, and he's always pushing for takeout. Come on, guys, we're fucking rich, let's order something. Sure, they could hire someone to cook for them, but Vox is too paranoid to let an outsider near their food. He's still on the hunt for a chef who can match Val's extravagant tastes and is willing to sign off soul. If they had to pick someone to cook, Vox would probably be the best bet since he's the only one who can actually follow a recipe.

Velvette is the smartest when it comes to managing finances. Vox technically doesn't like to waste money but he has a taste for luxurious stuff, he can't resist an expensive car, fucking show-off. Valentino basically burns money on every useless shit he likes, I bet those crystals he badazzled his gun with were real diamons.

Velvette helps Val maintain his fluff, and he styles her hair. It's a cute little trade-off they've got going on.

Valentino has a habit of breaking electronic devices and downloading malware. Vox hates him for it.

Vox can easily go 72h without sleep, fueled by coke and rage. Valentino occasionally drugs his coffee to put him down to sleep, because after 68th hour all electronics in the tower starts malfunctioning.

Val used to be a full-time performer, but now he's more like a RuPaul—lending his face to the brand and only occasionally gracing the stage. But every time he does perform, Vox makes sure to be there front and center.

Their schedules are very incompatible and they have to spend a lot of time managing their businesses but they have weekly appointments to do catch up and discuss strategy. Those are usually very unserious, they end up hitting the bong and playing Mario Cart.

There was this one time Vox tried hitting on Velvette because she's totally his type. It was awkward as hell, and they both agreed to never speak of it again. Valentino has no idea about it.

Valentino would really want to have a dog but Vox really likes dogs so he doesn't allow him to get one by imposing strict anti-pet policy in the tower.

Val knows all of Vox's and Velvette's kinks and sometimes produces custom porn for them as gifts.

As much as they love spending time together, Val and Velvette can't stand watching TV with Vox because he gets overly emotional and doesn't allow to skip commercials because he enjoys them

Vox occasionally invites Val to be a guest judge on reality shows, which always skyrockets ratings but sometimes ends nasty for the contestants.

Val's obsessed with textures, especially nice fabrics. Give him a nice fluffy blanket and he will shut up for 15 minutes fixated on touching it.

Vox, with his business and strategic management degree, sometimes tries to pitch these ideas to Velvette and Valentino, he's like Guys, have you considered using the BCG matrix? Ever heard of SWOT analysis? We should discuss KPIs. They mock him relentlessly for it.

Val once tried putting drag makeup on Vox's face, and let's just say the result was... less than glamorous.

During their honeymoon phase, Vox and Val fucked everywhere. At first, Velvette found it amusing, but eventually, she grew to hate it. She finally snapped when she found out they'd fucked on the dinner table and she set it on fire.

Val "secretly" ghostwrote some trashy smut novels (they are absolutely horrible, worst Wattpad shit you could dig out). Vox secretly bought and read every single one, finding plenty of references to himself along the way.

Vox loves it when Val wears stripper platforms, even though it makes their height difference even more ridiculous.

Valentino's wardrobe takes two entire rooms and still expands. Vox doesn't know how to stop it.

Vox owns a few lingerie sets, only because Val loses his fucking mind whenever he wears them. Velvette designed them herself and keeps photos of Vox wearing them as blackmail material, just in case.

[sapionic]

Chrisean Rock and Blueface Synastry

I am going to do a Synastry chart reading or analysis for blueface and ChriSean Rock and I'm already seeing how Chrisean was in the situation she was in with a blueface and just being involved with all these extra people besides him.

Chrisean has Three placements in blueface's 11th house. She has sun in his 10th house. So that is probably why she was so smitten because of that 10th house sun influence.

But she has Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in the 11th house of his chart. Which also makes sense how she met him by being on his show and then she has Mars and Jupiter in the 11th house as well With Venus and Mercury in his ninth house. So that's why it seemed like he was The complete opposite from her.

not only does he have Mars in his fourth house natally, his Mars is in her fourth house So that could be the whole Close chemistry that kept them together despite having such distant Synastry + the baby.

even though they were pretty close when they were together.. Spiritually there was still some distance there. like the chemistry was There but in a different way

Because again, she has Mercury and Venus in his ninth house So he was distant towards her/still technically independent in his eyes. He still was acting like he was single and with her Mars Jupiter Saturn being in his 11th house, That's why she was in a third-party situation with Jaidyn and the whole family situation… and just everything getting blown out of proportion.

then we can always look at the planetary aspects with the Synastry chart in general

so when it comes to how their planets interact with one another, of course these two have an Ascendant conjunction which could be why it seemed like they're not helping each other grow. They both are giving off late degree Gemini rising influence and if you really know how to Study a rising sign energy then you would understand why I am going with this but even if you don't understand why I'm going with this, that is what I'm going with and the Ascendant conjunction could be more than enough influence to make people be strongly drawn to each other.

You know, it could be hard for these two people to pull away from each other. her sun squares his ascendant So she's not technically Perfection in his eyes basically and this could just show up as a lot of different things such as why she falls in his 11th house and not his 1st or 2nd, but with Mars square and Sun, that's a lot of Complex energy, but they can also create that weird Fiery passion between them as well. Like there's some complexity here, but it's causing a bit of arousal and then her ascendant is conjunct his moon

This could show up as Emotions clearly coming to the surface which we did see a lot. mainly with her though because with blue face His Mars and moon is square and his Mars is in the fourth house, so he didn't really want to show or present his emotions

Meanwhile, Chrisean's moon aspects allows her to freely show her emotions Especially when she's communicating.

that is where her emotions show the most. What's interesting is that her Venus trines his moon. So they had some type of emotional connection with this. then her sun is squaring his moon But the Venus trine moon can be more than enough for an unbreakable bond.

Okay, her moon opposes his Venus, but Her Venus trines his moon so it's like That's what that's kind of what caused his nonchalant reactions to her emotional outbursts. He dont like all that wild emotional stuff or the way she shows it on her end.

that moon and Venus connection plays a strong role w/ their stubbornness when it comes to pulling away from each other.

That creates like a really nice chemistry flow and that's more than enough for people to not want to let that go right away especially With any fourth house synastry.

so again his Mars is in her fourth house. So she was providing him with indoor activity basically and that could you know translate to family or just some type of domestication if it wasn't like a baby and stuff like that, but basically she's meant to Be connected to him in a way where there's frequent Interaction because her north node is in his second house. So it's like she's meant to be involved with him basically and he's meant to provide her with a sense of family with his north note in her fourth house.

But looking at the Davidson chart which is technically the chart for their relationship Let's take a look At what is showing up for them So when it comes to their relationship, they have two placements in the third house which is sun & Mercury and it's in Leo.

They have a second house Venus. they did get money together But Venus in a second house also could be like the whole You know display of affection and just the whole touchy-feely Type of thing.

Like how we seen that Chrisean just couldn't keep her hands off him and maybe he couldn't keep his hands off her as well It's just that Chrisean being heavy in Pisces energy. She was more Sensitive to the synastry. So it's like she showed more of the effects.

But they both have a cancer moon. So what's interesting is that they both separately have a cancer moon in the first house And they also have it in their Davison chart.

the Sun and Mercury are in third house It's like they enjoy each other's company so much.

Connection makes them both feel young. it's enjoyable and they have a light-hearted energy to it So things was flowing a lot and very high maintenance with a lot of 2nd and third house energy.

Venus and mars both in a second house. This makes this connection Very high maintenance. very close knit. that's why you always see them both together a lot because when you have this type of like Make up in your synastry chart,This means that you guys are gonna be almost inseparable.

I'm surprised there aren't any fourth house placements in the Davison chart. They do have Virgo there, but it's at the fifth degree too. So it's like it wasn't and isn't the perfect Domestic situation, but you know, they do have Virgo there.

So that in itself can kind of tell you that something tangible will come from this connection And of course Mercury is in Leo. Okay So that's a Sun based type of thing and of course they have Sun in the third house So it's like it's a Sun based type of relationship It's light-hearted and child-like!

So when it comes to their domestic life, it's ruled by Mercury and Mercury is conjunct Sun so overall they have a pretty happy, active,potent, loud, domestic life and It's very interactive- very stimulating for them both and that is the only aspect Mercury makes so

You know, it's not necessarily bad or good. It's just more so how to utilize the energy

[caldera1000-7]

I'll probably add more onto this when I can write more. For now I'll dump these maybe along with some basic thoughts before I write a long analysis a few hours from now.

To sum up a thought instead of my upcoming dump-analysis and random theorizing. This reason could be Akutagawa seeing a value in a life which isn't his own. In beast we see him trying to teach those who killed his friends the value of a life through killing them, and eventually even lost his own way and hadn't noticed how he basically didn't show how to value his sisters life or his own with his recklessness until it was too late. And here we may get the answer would be throughout everything he may of seen a value in Atsushi's life, a life other than his own. Someone similar to him but so different, the other side of the coin. I can't describe properly right now but I had a random thought before on how this shows Akutagawa kind of saving himself or past self in a way but differently from when he said he was glad for Kyouka but thats for next time where I write more.

Earlier than this we see Dazai saying he knows why.

Throughout this series its obvious how much they both grew from each other and how their bonds shifted, beast gave me even more insight into how they would be as friends even (atsushi and akutagawa that is.) And them being the successful soukoku is something I enjoy a lot, from Mori and Fukuzawa which are black and white and completely don't see eye to eye or can be a working team, to Dazai and Chuuya who were forced to work together for their capabilities despite not getting along but they are there for eachother when things depend on it as comrades, then theres Akutagawa and Atsushi Yin and Yang - even their designs are showing how they all are so different and how they would work together or not. SSKK balances each other out, (I still don't think SSKK is a good name for their Yin and Yang relation.) But anyways, these two have so much development its amazing.

I know there are many theories surrounding Akutagawa currently with his memory loss etc. But over here he technically is saving/protecting a "commoner" or the "innocent" just as Knight Akutagawa says. And he as a character if you look back has always been a bit of a protector, as we know with his now deceased friends in the slums. Not to mention Rashomon is not just offensive but defensive, which can kind of show how it protects himself and could protect others - just another thought.

Akutagawa's death definitely influenced/impacted/affected Atsushi alot, not even in a shipping POV but as a canon appreciator and theorist/overanalyst I have to say this scene is one of my favourites. And Akutagawa gaining some (or all I am not sure as of now) of his memories after this MAKES SENSE! Because Akutagawa literally has been trying to kill atsushi for so long, their promise was even for him not to kill anyone for 6 months before the death battle with Atsushi (which I kinda hope still happens and ends like how beast's battle between them ended kind of.) And it is a big impactful thing to Akutagawa because this was a moment where he sacrificed himself, for someone who had most of his things being wants and obtaining that wanted goal which stems from selfishness (which atsushi similarily has) this was a selfless act for protecting someone, someone who has become worthy of being saved? Someone who just deserves to live because he now fully understands the value of others' lives? Of course Akutagawa would "wake up" after Atsushi sacrificed himself and said the same words he did since its quite a big deal to his whole character. Also an honerable mention to 55 minutes?! I will make a separate thing on random thoughts of Akutagawa and Rashomon at some point about the cutting through space - or rather how he manages to retain consciousness or memories despite certain things or losing them. Maybe the things that impact him impact him that much that it sticks no matter what. In 55 minutes when he was dying in flames after searching for Higuchi and having his moment of last words - when the time is reversed we see he still remembered the exact time of the disaster, and himself burning he remembers, he also made sure to check up on Higuchi near around that time too so he remembered quite a lot for someone who died and wasn't supposed to have ANY memory of something that never HAPPENED YET. Yet he retained some of it, and VAMPIRE Aku also had some of his consciousness as Atsushi spoke or when he SAVED/SPARED Aya. (Also random noting that the vapirism had no affect on Atsushi.) Aku still kept his promise like the man of honor he is, and this even shows how he'd still protect a child and have moments of memory despite being a vampire who is supposed to only take orders and be mindless like a DOG which Aku HAS been to the mafia but an uncontrollable one too. So what I see is that he really does have something going on with memories and how things personally impacting him plays a huge role in his character and character development which is obvious because Dazai...