#bc she’s literally a devil?! to an extent but like. still.

[angelfrogs]

I’m going to be so real with you guys I 100% thought Asa’s arm was going to grow back

[derww]

hi, 4 am wings headcanons.

tldr: members with wings are using them. members without them usually are using elytras from the end, which they make work with all sorts of tricks, including mechanics that violate the laws of physics, manipulation of reality, and magic. anything, as long as it works.

subz has wings, but not his wings. he killed eldrich-like chthonic beatle, tore its wings off, and attached it to himself with a very old magic. and he can't even properly use them on the lifesteal, so he cheeses the system using tridents while he can. he never lives long enough to catch elytras unban.

mape has giant ass demonic wings, which he usually hides and ignores for all 4 seasons since he can't fly anyway bc of the rules. he starts using them again after elytra unban and they hurt as fuck after years of neglect, but it's not like he cares. at some point, zam caught him, and carefully kneaded and treated his wings, and after that, they gradually began to hurt less and less. wow! paying attention to the problem can solve it!

planet is a literal cosmic god, but he likes to play by the server rules, and he limits almost all of his abilities, which is reflected in the fact that he does not glow, and instead of multiple halos and eyes and stars around, there is only a faintly illuminated circle behind them. his godmod version doesn't have wings, but rejects all rules of physics, so they can walk on the air and fly just by will and roll the continuum, manipulating reality and walking from a selected point to any place in the world. he can do nothing of it in his human-like form, and somehow have no problems with being so much weaker.

s4!vitalasy loves flying so much because it reminds him of their scaffolding trick from s3 and he can't just deprive himself of it because he clings to this memory as the most fun and cool moment between him and subz. its like a dream come true, but at the same time, it's a bitter reminder that something is definitely wrong in their relationship now. he really doesn't like to fly in s5 because of it.

squiddo is a beetle themself, and she is actively horrified by the fact that half of the server carries the remains of her relatives on their backs. at some point, she becomes incredibly paranoid, believing that mapicc wants to rip off her own wings. It's a lie, but not because mapicc wouldn't do it, but because it never occurred to him.

in his overseer godmod ash just has a creative flight and he (or god inside of him) really likes to use it to demonstrate dominance. without it, he surprisingly still can, in some extent and connotation, fly, much slower and more sluggish, followed by a trail of glitches and bugs. spoke can do it too, but with the voidfog trail, but never actually does it. he only flies having an op.

roshambo can't really fly, but he can sit on the air, not too high from the ground. its kinda convenient, but not actually useful.

parrot, of course, has his disproportionately huge bird wings, which he constantly forgets to preen, which is why it always falls on his teammates to take care of them. 

poafa has quite angelic wings, fluffy and soft, and no one understands where they came from the guy who was part of the devils trio in the first season. so far, no one has decided to ask. he doesn't fly very well, but he can stay in the air for a long time. 

pair of minutech's black wings are fully mechanized and additionally armored. he separately monitors and cares for them, and he even has a prepared set for this. he spent most of s5 cleaning the clown's and leo's elytras too.

jaron can just create a pair of wings of any form and kind on him, but he really doesn't want to do it. instead, he steals any modified version from his teammates. or, less often but much more funny, enemies.

zam's elytra always breaks, and he fixes it in the middle of nowhere with the help of the first junk, faith and luck constantly flowing through his body. he never tries to bring the elytras to a really adequate state and just lives in anticipation of the moment when they will break again.

jumper wings look like a bublegum. they are bright pink, non-sticky, very bouncy, and look like she is putting a lot of effort into waving them. they turn out to be surprisingly functional when she needs to run away.

wemmbu isn't flying, rather, he clings to the fabric of reality and stretches in the right direction. his wings, constantly disappearing and appearing, are a tight coil of thick wires and strings that completely obey his will. they are also really easy to cut off...

[metacrisisdoctor]

tentoorose & the gift of domestic life

in my personal opinion it's kind of deeply simplistic to say that tentoorose wouldn't settle down bc they "need" to travel when both of these things are refuted in the narrative multiple times.

i'm gonna go over this under the cut.

to start this conversation somewhere let's start with how tip/tsp is all about them not needing the tardis and travel as long as they're together, and how losing it would be hard - but they'd still be happy on any random planet because being stuck together isn't so bad - the foundation to their life in pete's world is laid here. this is really massively important because you can see that rose saying this touches the doctor, because it's him realizing that it's him that she loves and not what he offers her. if you take the doctor avoiding the subject as him dismissing it instead of him wanting something he thinks he cannot have, then you are misunderstanding the intention behind it.

it's a beautiful culmination when he literally and metaphorically allows himself to fall later in these episodes. he's asked if he has faith and he says he believes he hasn't seen everything, which is why he keeps traveling. this is left in the air until he faces the devil, without his tardis, so small and seemingly unimportant and the only thing that matters to him is the love between himself and rose. and that love translates into his belief in her; in not only his faith in her ability to also beat the devil, but also in saying that he has seen a lot of the universe and believes in one thing: her, he is saying that he has found all he has ever looked for with rose and if this is his final test; the end of it all-that is fine because he is finished searching even if there is more out there.

that's why him saying "here you are, living a life day after day, the one adventure i can never have." in doomsday is so painful, because it's a vocal confirmation of the reasoning behind his avoidant behavior throughout season two. the depth of feeling he has for rose paralyzes him because he has already lost everything, and now he knows he has found a home with her that he will also lose.

but it goes even farther than all of that. it goes all the way back to nine in father's day, "street corner, two in the morning, getting a taxi home. i've never had a life like that." that bit of yearning to slow down and just be with rose in one place is already seeping into his being then, and it becomes completely central to his character when he regenerates into ten.

the fact that he wants to settle down to a certain extent, to have a human life with rose, and cannot have it is why he represses his feelings for her after seeing sarah jane - and it's only in the later half of s2 after, poetically, visiting pete's world that he allows himself to start to open up to her a bit despite knowing he will lose this new family he has found someday. even in late season two there is a barrier they cannot cross because of his immortality, not because he doesn't want the things rose does. it's because their life spans do not match and never will, and he would never want her to be immortal because he sees his own immortality as a curse, which we see him state in the lazarus experiment.

people claim rose wouldn't want to settle down either, but it takes a lot of ignoring things rose says in order to make this true, quite frankly. rose loves adventure and travel, but what she really loves is the sense of purpose the doctor has brought to her life by showing her what she is capable of outside the constraints of estate life, as she says "it was a better life. and i don't mean all the travelling and aliens and spaceships and things, that don't matter. the doctor showed me a better way of living your life." this is something she does not lose in doomsday and it's still not something she loses in journey's end.

and the thing is, we see multiple times that rose wants to settle down with the doctor and pushes it away because she has decided to spend her life at his side. since she knows he cannot do this, partly out of his duty to the univese and partly because he isn't human, she accepts that she never will either. in army of ghosts when jackie asks if she'll ever settle down she looks so sad when she says, "the doctor never will so i can't. i'll just keep travelling." this is such a heavy moment because it shows that this is something rose has considered, something that she does want because if she didn't she would just say so, and something she herself has begun to repress to support him.

not every relationship has to end with a house and kids, but the doctor and rose are a relationship where the foundation to where they got in the end is dangled in front of them, almost cruelly, the entire time. so the idea that them having it would be too boring or something they would feel isn't enough for a fulfilled life is misunderstanding what their relationship was about in the first place.

do i think they still do alien things? of course. do i think they travel? of course! do they still have a home to come back to? a family to have christmas with? a life to live side by side until they're old and grey? of course. those things do not go against each other. settling down doesn't mean they don't have fun, they don't explore, they don't break rules or grow their own tardis. it just means that they get to have an equal and shared life together with a safe place to always come back to for the rest of their lives, which is what they both always wanted.

without understanding all of these things, it dims the tenth doctor's sacrifice in journey's end and leads to people not fully grasping his descent into madness when he is denied this life that he so desperately wants but is denied in this life. in the confidential for journey's end david tennant says, "by gifting rose this other doctor he is not allowing himself to go back." because if tentoo did not exist he would tear apart reality to get her back as the timelord victorious and the only ONLY thing that stops him from doing so is that her happiness is what matters to him, and he knows that tentoo will make her happy because they are the same man with different opportunities who made different choices because the universe showed him the kindness of mortality.

tldr: the doctor and rose love travelling, but they don't need to travel to have fulfilled lives and they never did. that's part of what makes their relationship special and this is part of the canon narrative so much so that there is a song on the season two soundtrack about it.

[ambrosialdesire]

God it’s my favourite thing when an author just builds their AUs by answering a bunch of discrete little asks cacoethes Reiner is on ‼️ my ‼️ mind‼️ 24/7‼️

Would Reiner control readers social groups? What would happen if reader cheated on him would he go apeshit or just do the good ol baby trap

AW TYSM FOR YOUR SUPPORT ANON 🥰🥰 i just love talking about cacoëthes, it’s my absolute bread and butter (and probably the first series that i finished in the ~10+ years i've been writing lol)

reiner definitely controls reader's social groups when he can. before bonding with porco, she was only really allowed to speak with the warriors and his family. anyone else either doesn't pay any mind to her or was too afraid of her (since she originated from paradis and is well-known to be married to the armored titan holder), but very select few like the fisherman that helped her can hold a conversation with her and ignore the status she has. tbh reiner really can't control who she talks to since he's out and about a lot but i think in another ask, i've mentioned that he hired some people to keep watch of her if she's doing anything suspicious or behind his back but they don't really keep complete watch on her bc wtf else is a housewife gonna do (this is literally their undoing bc she got away with a lot before the escape attempt happened 💀💀).

but like after the whole porco shit and the escaping, he never leaves her side and literally goes with her everywhere. groceries, shopping, even a simple stroll to stretch her legs, he's coming with her. conversations with any stranger are cut short and if the warriors are nearby, they'll only get a brief hello and a wave from them. reiner's so smothering that it's even more unbearable and reader never gets the chance for some peace until he leaves for more fighting. BUTTTT when he leaves and the house becomes all quiet, reader can't admit it aloud but she started hating the silence and starts missing his presence, as clingy as he is hehe

I LITERALLLLLYYYYY HAD THIS IDEA BACK WHEN I STARTED THE 2ND PART OF CACOETHES AND WHEN I WAS WRITING THE PORCO PARTS ABOUT LIKE A DIVERGENCE OF THE PLOT WHERE IT'S PORCO'S POV AND HE AND READER GET TOGETHER BEHIND REINER'S BACK. i kinda did wanted to originally add an implication that reader was sleeping with porco but since i was trying to go about this by how the characters were in the actual plot of aot (even tho when i started this blog and posted the first part, i hadn't watched the series since like 2013-2014 so i was extremely rusty when i came back to it), i felt like porco would never try sleeping with his vice captain's wife; maybe he would cause he'd prolly do it out of spite or get on reiner's nerves or has this cocky attitude about being able to get away with it, something to that extent. however, i think he's too prideful to be sleeping with an "island devil" he kinda likes and sorta has a slight amount of respect towards reiner (just bc he's a higher rank and that's about it).

i'm still going to actually make a fic about that plot eventually so everyone can see how reiner acts like in a jealous rage (i also sorta talked about it in a kink ask with the blog's most frequent asking anon, bow anon ( aka 🎀 anon (shoutout to you, you absolute horndog 🫶) if you look around in my answered posts or the love-message tag), and i have another request that's in the works about reiner's jealousy in more detail).

i heavily enjoy talking about cacoëthes and like you said, building upon its silly little fic-verse. sorry to my other fics due to my outspoken favoritism 😭😭 now that i think about it, out of all of them, bounded/boundless and cacoëthes gets asks the most and down boy, down and inamorato gets the least lmfao

[born-to-lose]

higirlie 💞🍻🫂 some devils bells q’s

whtd do devils bells look like? does anyone call jack jd? (i will b calling him jd bc i already “know” a jack n she is ummmm well she will get jealous (half joke)(dont ask)) how does jd feel about being the youngest in the band? whts liz family life like? wht do they all prefer 2 drink? who has the grossest pizza order? wht r all of their pizza orders? wht r their stage shows like? 

will come back w more questions in a few 💞🫂🍻

What do Devil's Bells look like?

Oh boy I don't have a hyperspecific description where I could give you pictures of people who look like them, but I have a vague idea as of now

Liz: straight layered long golden blonde hair with bangs (once dyed the tips pink in a motel sink), rosy skin, the shortest in the band (about 5'4"), medium to chubby with curves, dresses like an 80s glam rocker with fringed jackets, leopard pants etc

Jack: messy shoulder-length black dyed hair with light brown roots growing out but he always re-dyes them before they're too visible, very pale skin, a bit taller than Liz, quite skinny, usually wears band shirts and ripped jeans

Phil: wavy strawberry blonde hair, fair olive skin, the tall lanky guy in the band (slightly below 6'3"), rather thin but still has muscle from his work as a drummer, wears loose half unbuttoned shirts with the sleeves rolled up

Antonio: long curly dark brown hair, tan skin, tall and kinda brawny but a little shorter than Phil, some muscle but not too much, classic outfit is shirtless with a vest or graphic tees

Does anyone call Jack JD?

They all called him JD at some point, but unlike with most other things, Liz is the only one not allowed to call him that. He's completely fine with the other guys because it's "a bro nickname, not a pet name" and even if they're not exclusive, he wants to keep some sort of special treatment with her and call each other pet names

How does JD feel about being the youngest in the band?

Even if his bandmates treat him like the band baby sometimes, they only do it ironically (except Liz, she takes care of him as much as she can when needed). They see him as an equal, although, being the eldest, Antonio does try to have some kind of a not exactly parental role but be someone to give advice when Jack asks for it and keeps an eye on him if necessary. He sometimes feels a bit weird about being the youngest, but overall he doesn't really care because he's also an adult, just a few years younger than the rest and he's never left out by any of them

What's Liz's family life like?

It's actually not bad! The only one who has serious problems with his family is Jack and to some extent Phil, but it's more of an indifferent relationship than a feud. Liz's relationship with her father is complicated since he had a bunch of abusive or manipulative moments while other times he was indifferent and just ignored the fact she existed and other times he was friendly but never as close as she and her mother are. Her mom used to be overly careful when she was younger, but when she turned 18 she let loose a bit and trusted her enough to not get into trouble. She has a good relationship with her four years older sister and attended her first concerts with her. Both her parents weren't too fond of her travelling on her own because they considered her too young, but she promised to come back and start working after a six month break (which she obviously broke later on). The moment she called to tell them she had formed a band, they were sceptical and still are when they have some small local successes, but eventually they came to terms with it because she does what she's always wanted to do, she found really good friends in her bandmates and she visits her family regularly

What do they all prefer to drink?

Jack loves whiskey (he literally named himself after it c'mon), Liz likes gin, Phil drinks pretty much anything but mostly wine, Antonio usually takes some alcohol free drink like cola or energy drinks or even a non-alcoholic beer

Who has the grossest pizza order?

Jack unironically eats pineapple on pizza, which makes Antonio want to strangle him every time so they eventually just decide to get margherita for everyone or eat something completely else (I'll admit I have eaten pineapple on pizza before and enjoyed it)

What are all of their pizza orders?

Liz: tonno e cipolla; Jack: Hawaiian pizza; Phil: quattro formaggi; Antonio: pizza spinaci

What are their stage shows like?

They don't have bombastic stage shows yet since the only gigs they get are at small clubs, but they do try to entertain the audience as much as they can with the means available. Liz usually does something with her bandmates like mic sharing with Jack, resting her arm on Antonio's shoulder, doing the presenting pose at Phil during drum solos etc. She also gets on her knees and crawls on the floor sometimes, eye fucks and winks at certain people because that's one of the best ways to get the attention of the audience. And of course they throw their picks into the crowd (but not drumsticks since they're too broke to give everything away) and hang out at the club afterwards to chat and sometimes even sign stuff when people approach them and want to be "among the first to have met Devil's Bells"

[dictee]

Hm i dont think devils minion changes anything about how we'd think of the crux of s1 which is loustat + claudia as a family, but the recent comment coupled with hannah's comments about how they plan to re-visit the events of 1x05 yet having to qualify that louis will still be believed as a victim (although a victim of who she didn't say) is interesting.

maybe no one is being mind-controlled per se but i think once we see the extent of armand's powers which were already considerable in the book and involved him literally compelling louis to do something entirely against his will , and yet they've made him even MORE powerful on the show... and maybe throw in a potential devil's minion where he can wipe out extended parts of someone's life and almost create a whole other reality for that person, its a pretty terrifying power.

yeahhh That post thats like got divorced from great white shark this is my new boyfriend megaladon :) truly.

Yeah this is very interesting. truly i have no idea what theyre going to do but again even if the assault is totally re-construed lestat as an abuser cant be bc its so ingrained into the plot from the start.

[buttercupbuck]

(I‘m not trying to start shit, i‘m just curious, so feel free to ignore this) What are some takes on here that you absolutely hate? I know you’re one of the people who are fighting Eddie’s terrible mischaracterization in this fandom and i can‘t thank you enough for that.

oh boy where to start lmao ok (under a cut bc it got long)

the firefam doesn't do enough to show buck they love him

the above for maddie in particular.....like did we forget that she trapped herself in an abusive marriage to give buck a chance at freedom and happiness? or that she spent her childhood raising him because their parents wouldn't?

the idea that buck's love and generosity are nonreciprocal. like i love buck so so much but fandom has defo exaggerated the extent to which he's there for others. like i weirdly don't remember seeing him supporting hen in the aftermath of 3.08, or being there for chim after he was stabbed, or visiting athena in the hospital in 3.17, etc. and i'm sure he was there for some of this bc he loves them and not everything can be shown in a 45 minute show, but no one extends this same understanding towards everyone else in the firefam (people still whine about no one being there for him in the hospital in 2.18, or the fact that they DARED go home to their families in 3.16). the fact is that - on screen - we see them supporting him more than we see the reverse, but that doesn't fit in with fanon!buck so people ignore it

literally just all the billion variations of takes that infantilize buck/villainize the firefam + distort canon to make buck out to be the victim of literally every scenario. i can't even try to list them all because the devil works hard but rabid buck stans work harder

oh but also the comparisons of taylor to the therapist from s1 and the claim that she took advantage of buck in the finale (...as if she wasn't incredibly worried about buck and going Through it, and as if buck isn't a grown man who clearly thought through his decision? ok)

i've been through all the eddie stuff before but people will bend over backwards to assume the worst of him and once again make buck out to be the victim in their relationship. and legitimately why is this something you want out of a pairing you ship,,,i don't get it

just in general, people who aren't mixed/mexican feeling like they have the authority on eddie's experience with his culture and religion. please shut the ever living fuck up and stay in your lane :)))

not necessarily a take but just fandom behavior, but it was very transparent when people learned that gw wasn't latina and jumped on that train to justify their hatred of ana as if they hadn't been mocking eddie's full name and the way ana said it the day before...and then who still continued to use "edmundo" as a way to safely spew their eddie hatred and refused to listen to latinx who tried to point out that it was hurtful. them pretending like they suddenly cared about latinx was genuinely comical

also it's clear that people only care about and are willing to "claim" eddie as long as he doesn't step out of line and as long as he does things that lead to some canon buddie future. i don't trust most people who claim to care about him for this reason lmao

[harapeveco]

This is basically a follow up to that one post I reblogged about how Rei got home after Hitotsume stabbed the life out of him...really didn’t go into too much detail bc I feel like I shouldn’t ramble too much on reblogs, the other person shouldn’t have to deal with my nonsense also hhhh these are very stupid lmao

Also this bs very long so yeh it’s hidden oopsie

Anyway my theories and their explanations about how Rei got home that day are:

1) Qta took him home: the less probable one since Qta is like super tiny. I mentioned on the post that he probably transformed into a devil like monster and carried him home, mostly as a joke but then I started to think about it and like...Zingai transformation is posible, Noppo being the prime example of this since he has his og form and his duffel bag form. I believe this could be tied to the person’s personality tho, as we can see with Tobi saying he will protect Rei from shadow danger when in reality he’s just using him as bait to find Hitotsume, maybe that kind of a two-faced personality is what let Zingai change their appearance. It’s mentioned that Qta looks too childish and baby for a high schooler like Rei and it lowkey makes sense: Rei is kinda blunt, short tempered and prefers to ignore problems, which to me are kinda childish behaviors (not in a bad sense he’s a kid after all). Thinking of this, it means he’s still at “stage 1”; for what we know, he hasn’t gone through a situation that would make him a two-faced person. So basically Qta cannot transform himself yet, we would have to see if in the future Rei goes through something that makes him change and therefore change Qta too.

2) Rei dragged himself home: I also said this one as joke but there may be some truth to it. So basically we see him safe in his room after getting attacked by Hitotsume but we are told that the last thing he remembers was being stabby stabbed by tall ugly man, which means there’s a blank space in his memory where he somehow got home, changed clothes and went to bed. But before seeing if he was capable of going home by himself, we need to know exactly why he passed out in the first place; at first I thought it had to be something along the lines of stress since we can see him feeling anxious about people’s words when he was at school and his reactions to being able to see Zingai all of the sudden, with all this combined it would make sense for his baby brain to just be like “hey I’ve had enough of this bullshit bye” and just pass out but now that we know a little bit more stuff I would say he suffered a vanilla version of heart desolation. We are explained that if a shadow gets damage before it’s ripe the host will lose consciousness and won’t be able to wake up....Rei did lose consciousness but managed to wake up bc Qta had manifested before Hitotsume was able to snatch Rei’s heart. So yeh I believe Hitotsume was doing on chapter 2 exactly what Yuu’s Zingai was doing on chapter 10

Notice how the shadow goo trail comes from the mid area of that guy’s body, the same place where Hitotsume was stabby stabbing. Since Rei’s shadow was ripe it’s safe to assume he suffered the effects of heart desolation but to a lesser extent...if he was able to wake up just for a moment to go back home I believe he wouldn’t be completely conscious, rather in a blank state of mind or being dazed and that’s why he doesn’t remember it

3) Pattun was the one who took him home: this was the least serious of them all and only wrote it bc I thought it was just impossible for a guy who appears on two panels to just be there to save baby protagonist but hear me out bc I think I’m onto something with this one. I’ve noticed that people fail to point out that when Pattun makes his appearance, Mocchi is actually with him and not only that but...when Rei first realizes that he can see Zingai, we can see Mocchi again (well assuming it is Mocchi but yeh all my bets are on it)

So my Pattun stalking joke may have some truth to it. We see him being kinda interested? Or more like he notices something is off with Rei? Idk what the word is but considering he was hiding behind a building and looking at Rei I can assume he knew something was up and sent Mocchi to investigate. Since Mocchi cannot be see by regular people they could easily enter the school and then tell Pattun if Rei was able to see them or not and after getting that info both of them would follow him. Now the question of if they were following him, why didn’t they stop Hitotsume before he became a stabbing machine? Remember Rei basically left the school running and also went around some alleys to make sure Zingai weren’t following him so it wouldn’t be surprising if Pattun and Mocchi lost sight of him and when they found him he was already passed out. More of an add on but I would also like to point out Qta wouldn’t have been able to defeat Hitotsume by himself, like how in chapter 3 he was defeated by a shadow who was relatively smaller than Hito, I believe he would have had some help...so here’s when these two enter to fend Hitotsume off. Ofc this theory has some holes like:

1) Hito could’ve just notice Rei’s shadow was already ripe so there was no point on staying there and simply left

2) if Hitotsume is as “known” as Tobi makes him seem then I believe Pattun would think it twice about throwing hands for a kid he doesn’t know

3) I don’t think Pattun could be able to carry Rei by himself unless there’s a third party involved tho Mocchi could have been able to... I cannot imagine how people who cannot see Zingai would be able to perceive that as in would they be able to see Rei just like floating or will he become invisible upon being touched by zingai?

4) I don’t think Pattun knows where Rei lives

So yeh there are more things against this theory than in favor

4) Monitor Girl is somehow involved: didn’t mentioned this one bc it’s really too far fetched. Basically, we know how monitor girl has...well...monitors...and those monitors show cameras (for what we can see in InT) so basically she could have gotten ahold of Rei and decided to kept and eye on him. We know she knows Pattun bc of what chapter 10 tell us (it’s true we don’t how to what extent they know each other but let’s assume they are acquaintances) so maybe Pattun let her know there was a kid in the area that was suspicious or something. Maybe she was digging info about him and found his home address and told Pattun and he and Mocchi took him home. Also we can’t forget Tobi coming out of literally nowhere to save Rei...I’m convinced she told him about that too but I won’t enter too much into detail

5) None of these theories are correct and Eve and Newo won’t give us an explanation for this: I mean come on they probs wanted to show how scary Hito was and everything I said was a pointless waste of my time

[seoafin]

i was so busy with my mid and grinding in genshin that i completely forgot abt the fanbook and was confused for a sec the moment i saw my twt tl in flames,,

😭😭 akutami’s answers feels more of a shitpost tbh,, for someone who dont like gojo he sure acts like him (and considering that akutami’s only a year older than gojo irl)

when i see gojo, i have the urge to yell, "sir, u're so fucking ugly" @/&/&/&/@ ????? I DON'T GET IT,, i feel like i've been conditioned by akutami wtf

jujutsu tech had to have regular classes otherwise nanami wouldn't have been able to get an office job, but the immense lack of presence standardised education has in yuuji's life is so funny to me. he couldn't even join classes bc he d worded within his first week at schoo ,,, was gone for like 2 months, then got sent on a mission,, then the shibuya thing happened,, now he's not in school anymore

and had a stsg brainrot. geto had a good grasp of how to work the world around him even when he was a "good" student,, the fact that he didn't indulge the full extent of his technique's capabilities to the college while not coming from a background that would give him good reason to doubt them...orz

arguably, geto shld have been way more out of his depth as someone with literally no connection to the jujutsu world besides his own technique, but he was more in tune with it and the bureaucracy and the politics than gojo, who was the heir of his own major clan

ig it was privilege that allowed gojo to act that way, and the knowledge that it would take some generations before someone like him would be born again. the lack of that same privilege was part of what exposed suguru to all the worldviews he had...

it always tickles me how the boy who wanted to work towards "the greater good" became the "bad guy" and the boy who wanted the world to be according to his own ideals became the "good guy",,, both are inherently selfish. it's just that one is more obviously self-serving than the other

and it's sort of cute how east asian fandom clung to "my one and only" even tho it's a mistranslation we're all iffy abt (it feels like queer baiting to me)

this “love is the most twisted curse” theme going on reminds me of madoka sm 💀 very very vague spoiler : in the rebellion movie a certain someone was like hope? despair? WRONG it’s love

in jjk, last wills being significant is a recurring theme so it does check out that rika became a curse bc she passed wanting to be with yuuta. adding onto that yuuta also wanted her to be happy, as much as he wanted her to rest in peace... pain

and if megumi coming into the clan as heir was a stipulation on naobito's part, potentially it's bc he saw that megumi could already do a partial territorial expansion, which naoya may or may not be able to accomplish,, if this is actually true and he has one hell of an inferiority/ superiority complex,, in the garbage disposal u go ❤️

anyways i hope ur doing well and have a good night<3 - 🐱

🐱 ANON I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!!!!

yeah all of akutami’s answers are him trolling, they’re all vague as hell ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO SHOKO WE BARELY GOT ANYTHING SUBSTANTIAL AND IM MAD ABOUT IT (honestly she feels like an after thought and it makes me 😐)

you’ve been conditioned by me and akutami. that just means it’s working

yuji barely got to be a regular teenager before he was swept up in the jujutsu world. honestly it makes me wonder how much of it would have inevitable. if he really is related to choso/noritoshi kamo then I feel like he would’ve introduced to the jujutsu world sooner or later but still....

yeah it’s been pointed out before but gojo has immense privilege....and that + his massive ego blinds him to things.

YES I ALSO THOUGHT MADOKA MAGICA REBELLION.....homura....the entire "I'd do anything for you even become the devil" is 😰

[koishua]

I am not great at theorizing but I would love to hear about your favorite characters from atla!

oh my, i am SO down for this. let me take a look, okay

i wont rank them or anything bc i love them all, but my top five would be uncle iroh, sokka, toph, suki, and azula.

UNCLE IROH. is the story's source of lesson and of wisdom. he is such an icon and he is loved by all istg he is the best man ever i love him so much i wish i was related to him as a niece like zuko or something. he truly is so wise and kind against all.

he is one of a kind, he was such a gem and held a strong view of what was wrong and what was right. i think people underestimate how great of a bender he is, tho. he was a member of the order of the lotus (eyyy the oldies but goldies gang basically lmao) aka the strongest people ever hello?? he represented the fire nation in that group and my GOd is he an amazing one.

he is different from most, because unlike other firebenders, his skills and abilities aren't directly derived from anger and fury. that's why he isn't as hot headed as regular firebenders and even teaches zuko about this (which works bc zuko is considerably calmer later in the series)

and then there is his legacy. mans beat an entire dragon in a battle of flames?? he breathes fire too so that's always the coolest thing ever and his diligence while working himself back to prepare for war in that prison absolutely took me out omg the way he strategizes??? explains why he was a general. he has a heart of gold unlike any.

SOKKA. now for him, i have the biggest amount of respect and adoration for. let's adress the elephant in the room here. he singlehandedly devised a ginormous plan to defeat am empire that has been raising tyranny for over a century. how fucking awsome can one get?? mr sexy brain amirite?

plus, he was completely skilless the first part of the series and his entire growth just blows me away every single time. sure, he had his little boomerang but that was it. after they created gaang tho, his potential was so fully exploited i cant even express how proud i am oml he was diamond in the rough.

he acted so brash and was the comedic relief character a lot of the times, so his subtle feats of intelligence didn't get noticed a lot, but oml the way i am down bad for him. his determination and desperation to become god at a skill is so enjoyable to watch like,,, the piandao episode where he learns how to wield a sword is one of my favorite episodes of all time!! anyways, this is getting alittle long so lets move on to....

TOPH BEIFONG. listen. lis-ten. thats my girl right there. i was eight when i first watched atla and she was twelve and the amount of confidence she instilled in little-me is just- *sobs* (also i realized that she is literlly the only character in this with an official lastname lmfao)

toph is forever going to remain as THAT icon. her mindset is as stable and stubborn as they go because of her earthbending lmao i love how self-assured she is. she is the definition of born into riches, growing to become greatness.

her heritage is not at all important to who she is as a character and most people even forget that she is insanely wealthy because she never mentions it. but anyway that is beside my point idk why i touched on this aspect. moving on!!

i feel like they portrayed her childish nature so well in this series like?? sure, she was the greatest earthbender of all time and still is, she was also a twelve year old tween lmao she was something else istg

and her sass, humor and just her entire attitude was so solid oml she was THAT bitch and i mean it in the most awed way possible. i can talk about her more but imma keep it short for this post's sake.

SUKI. my idol right here y'all. this is my og feminist queen right here. badass woman i love her so much. embodies courage, hard work and strength in oneself. man, kyoshi warriors are super awesome i literlly do not have any other words about her other than "woah"

obviously, she couldnt bend at all but growing up on kyoshi island, one made by avatar kyoshi herself by literally parting an entire section of land away to carry them back to make an island by spouting out lava hundreds of miles down the ocean floor is just???? but we aren't here to talk about the blood-thirsty woman rn-

she learned how to deal damage on benders who dared to attack their homeland and she is just- just- idk ugh she is so gorgeous too like?? forget about sokka please, come marry me instead i beg you ;-;

suki is so quick to react to danger and doesn't wait for anyone to save the day. she knows what she can do and she does her best to help ;-; im thinking about that once moment when toph fell into the ocean and suki was the first one to dive right in their to save her while everyone else was just literally standing there lmao even katara who could literally bend water

AZULA. now, this is where shit goes down. i lover her as a character that has been developed to show what a bad childhood environment could lead to in children who are particularly cunning and born a little sharper than others.

azula was a threat to all at the age of fifteen. fif-teen. she was a mastermind in countless incredible plans that overtake populations and she is so incredible quick-witted. perfectly evil for the sake of being evil, but also not at the same time.

the azula we last see in the agni kai between her and zuko, her own bilogical older brother whom she had tormented pretty much their entire life, was the product of accumulated trauma and pressure that she had been subject to ever since she had learned bending fire. blue fire.

she had shown from the start that she was gifted and strong and was on a league of her own compared to other kids. all of her childhood was spent garnering the approval of her father and grandfather who were toxic and evil and bad role models for her. anyone who grows up in bad environments are guaranteed to turn out messed up.

her mother preferred the softer zuko than her sadistic daughter and not receiving her mother's affection enough really showed its consequences in the last few episodes where you get to see her breaking down. she hallucinates about her mother and it was so heartbreaking to watch for me as a seventeen year old. i didn't really get the extent of her pschotic breakdown as an eight year old.

for heaven's sake, she was a devil. idk my thought are so scattered rn but i feel like i can make a post about her complicated character later when i gather my thoughts properly bahaha

tldr for azula: gifted child gone horribly wrong

anyhow, this was super fun omg

[ballplayersxo]

sorry this is loooooooong BUT i was *waiting* for the rachel nichols shit to hit the fan. just ULTIMATE "pick me" energy!!!! DISCLAIMER: i JUST woke l up. i'm 3 hours behind here in LA. i heard the audio, not surprised. but have been ignoring espn in the past few months bc of ppl like her, so i don't know her full stance of chauncey/kidd. but i'll assume it's terrible bc she's rachel nichols. ok SO: she enjoys closeness to these male athletes and what they can do for her image, but says the most surface-level nonsense when it's time to do the serious part of her job. never pushes back if they do even the vile shit. she can't even do the easy part: acknowledging that there's more players in the league she besides the most famous superstars she likes being friends with. or announcing which wnba games are on that night and then complaining that no one talks about the women in basketball. ON HER HOUR-LONG BASKETBALL SHOW. she only talks about the women's league when talking about the lack of coverage, pay disparities, disrespect from media, how more exposure would lead to more money and stability for the league and it's like BITCH???? aren't you in the media?? at espn?? on an unnecessarily long professional basketball show?? i stupidly watched "the jump" all last season waiting for crumbs, and nothing. to make matters worse, the people she placed below her are malika andrews, the BEST basketball interviewer at espn. so respected by players and coaches etc bc of her investment in storytelling. monica mcnutt, who can make any topic interesting, has instant chemistry with anyone she is on screen with, and is just born to lead and host and funny as hell. chiney ogwumike, she's like a living computer and knows every play, every stat, every possible minuscule detail, and has energy for days and carries her own espn radio show. they're all small contributors at most, while KENDRICK PERKINS and matt barnes and paul pierce and richard jefferson and vince carter constantly get/got way more airtime over them. and when rachel would be out, she'd have some random white guy idek his name, fill in. when chiney was in the same city, same building, in her own off-season. and that's only *three* of the *many* black women who can do that job infinitely better! rachel is just a such a hypocrite. like.... chiney's radio co-host is another white dude but is constantly giving her her flowers and defending women who have been victims of abuse from athletes. never plays devil's advocate and instead argues that the nba and other leagues need to hold men accountable no matter who they are and that no, settling out of court does NOT equal innocence and that these people have legal teams designed to ruin lives. same radio show, mind you, that also discusses things like: "is breakfast for dinner overrated?" and "which donut chain is better?" so what is rachel's excuse???? LONG STORY SHORT: rachel nichols is a pick-me who doesn't give a shit about the people she steps on, especially victims and hyper-qualified black women, to stay above everyone. she got too comfortable and needs to be held accountable in a meaningful way. again sorry this is so long!!!! doing this 3 espressos deep is.... not it

don’t apologize cause i needed someone to read her since idk enough about her but this all makes sense! how are you a woman laughing at a man talking about being tired of the metoo movement basically? is this who we are? that’s why i’m saying white feminism is literally a disease because half the shit they preach about, they aren’t living. you seemingly pro-women but when a black women gets certain jobs over you, suddenly they aren’t qualified? it sounds like she’s essentially against affirmative action (which doesn’t even apply here but still) when i swear white women benefit the most from it. she’s just so nasty & sick. that’s how a lot of white women are. fake or hyper woke to either piss off white men, or to somehow use it as a prop to one day get the same power they do. the only thing keeping white women from being oppressors to the same extent of white men is their gender and it makes them SICK, this is why behaviour like rachel’s doesn’t shock me anymore. i really hope espn does something meaningful with this situation but i doubt it tbh

[smarti-at-smogwarts]

10 facts about Jacob Venturi? 😏

- lizzieparkerhphm

SMACOB :D

He was born ten years older than Marti and absolutely doted on her. Could not say no to that girl from the moment she was born.

While he didn’t exactly dote on his younger brother Edwin,( Marti’s middle brother) he could also be just as easily convinced by him. He’d drag his feet a bit more but Ed would turn puppy dog eyes on him and he’d fold nine out of ten.

His mother married his father to escape an abusive home environment right out of Hogwarts. The fact that they  did so hurriedly and ( in his mothers case) desperately became part of the reason they separated. While his parents didn’t disclose this Jacob, being the first born and with latent Legilimency to boost still remembers how sad his mother looked in his earlier years and sorta has some perception of this. Because of this has a vendetta against the Rowle family and it never really dies down ( where his mother came from) during the second wizarding war if the Rowle family death eaters are involved he fights with particular viciousness. It lowkey scares people though also they’re death eaters (so totes deserve it anyways) and Jacob looks like he wants to chew  glass when they get brought up so they...kinda leave it alone.  ( he also doesn’t tell his siblings about this but might have told Duncan Pre-R and other close friends) 

Jacob before Redacted could be a bit too concerned with being cool/popular and used both his latent legilimency and his charisma to climb the social ladder but after Redacted it seems inconsequential. He comes back pretty changed. But the only one who sees those differences is probably Duncan Ashe and Edwin ( Marti has a pretty solid hero-worship view of him and also was like six/ A babie when he went missing so she can’t tell the differences despite how close they are)

He’s an incorrigible flirt but backs off is he’s told to stop/someone’s not comfortable with it.

Jacob’s snark can be a bit sharper/meaner than Marti’s ( think how Fred and George are described in re to their pranks ) but never to his friends ( and can be reigned in by said friends)

Literally the epitome of the Slytherin trait of having a small circle of people who have your loyalty but Oh Do They Have It ( small is relative as for Jacob that circle is friends and family. He’d do pretty much anything for them.)

The fact that he comes back to his dad remarried, two step siblings, his room sealed off  and his little brother and sister aged ten years is....Really Hard For Him To Adjust To?? It really throws him and he grapples with figuring out how he feels about his new family additions and how/if he even fits in it ( he does but he doesn’t realize that/has issues)

He comes back with a lot of PTSD not just from the vaults but also from R. Some are overt like nightmares and hyper-vigilance while some like being a bit too devil may care and cocky ( read: taking too many risks too freely bc self destructive tendencies are a part of ptsd) are a bit more covert (especially because those traits were part of his personality albeit to a lesser extent) and take a while to be honed in land longer to be worked on. His sarcasm is also a bit sharper as a result of this ( irritability/hypervigilance combo) His family and friends help.

He ends up eventually joining Marti’s friend group/being friends with people  in/around her age group ( like Julian) because like “It’s not like I can go to my old mates, they’re old.” ( Jacob you brat lmao) and it according to him just feels less weird to be around people his age. Since he was frozen at 16 and is still sixteen “yeah still f-ing weird. But better” Also Marti’s older friends like  Bill Weasely and Orion Amari big brother him because he’s still 16/Marti’s age when  he comes back and like...he’s...he’s not sure how to feel about that ( Marti thinks it’s hilarious) 

Thank you so much for the ask <3

10 Facts About My Characters

[plush-anon]

after many hours spent pausing the show bc good lord why did they do that, i have now finished Love Never Dies

annnnnd yikes 😬😬😬

I’ll start with the few positives I did enjoy from the recorded Australian production on Youtube:

1.) the camera work. This is the kind of thing I dream of for professionally recorded shows - it really allows for some lovely close-up shots of how the emotions play over their faces, it’s lush

2.) the costumes are well-crafted, and I desperately Want the Phantom’s long-ass swooshy trenchcoat cape thing he wore for the first half-hour 

3.) the sets used throughout this are honestly very impressively used and put together for some really fantastic shots

4.) the opening, with ‘Til’ I Hear You Sing Once More’. This song is honestly very lovely, and really articulates the Phantom’s loss and heartache for Christine. It’s sung very earnestly, and had the rest of the show been more like this I might have liked it more. 

5.) the Fucking Song, ‘Beneath a Moonless Sky’, is a guilty pleasure. It’s so over the top, and it is only about recounting that One Time they totally banged yo, and I love it. I think it’s the orchestration, but it’s also enjoyably silly even while it takes itself 100% serious. 

6.) As much as I hate to say this? ‘Devil Take the Hindmost’. While I hate the gist of the song - that being Raoul and Erik betting on who Christine will choose, and pretty much deciding for her who will get to be her one true love forever, completely negating the entire point of the OF musical where her choice was the most important factor for all of them - the pacing and the lyrics as they dance around each other are absolutely fantastic. It’s kind of sad to say, but Raoul and the Phantom, in this scene alone, display more chemistry in their singing than they do with anyone else. Let the hatefcuking commence~

7.) Some parts of ‘The Beauty Underneath’ I enjoy, particularly the ending scene where the Phantom is trying to talk Meg down. It’s very slow, melodic, and shows his more manipulative side, as well as how he can crawl into someone’s head, I love it. 

8.) This very interesting visual with a mirror in Christine’s dressing room. There are two separate scenes where someone is in the mirror singing. The first is the Phantom, between Raoul and Christine. The second is Raoul between the Phantom and Christine. It’s honestly a nice touch.

9.) The main three are excellent singers. 

 Unfortunately, that’s all on the list of what I liked. Everything else is a Giant Fcuking Mess. 

1.) The Phantom is no longer a complex, messed-up, but still somewhat sympathetic character, no; this is just a giant asshole who takes everyone for granted and barely realizes that anyone else exists except Christine, and even then only really as his personal instrument. 

He never actually apologizes to Christine for the shit he’s put her through and continues to put her through, but still demands obedience and forgiveness and understanding. It completely negates the entire point of POTO’s ending, where he actually realizes he’s done wrong by her and his actions pertaining her, and lets her go from his world entirely, and RESPECTING HER CHOICES AND LEAVING HER ALONE. 

Not to mention This Bitch also threatens to kidnap/possible “lose” her child if she doesn’t sing for him, keeps pushing her around and telling her what to do, and manipulating her life to change her decisions for her. 

AND HE’S FRAMED AS THE BETTER OPTION HERE

2.) Which reminds of me of the next big asshat: Raoul de Chagny, who has now become an alcoholic gambler who pushes his wife to do things she’s not comfortable doing to repay his debts, neglects his son entirely, and also is abrasive and controlling of Christine, to the point he yanks her back and forth on doing shit. Play this role! We should leave bc he was an asshole! No now we should leave bc Phantom is back! No take the role he’s paying triple! I’ll make a bet on whether she loves me to pay my debts! No wait you should quit ten minutes before you go on-stage bc I don’t want to lose you! MAKE UP YOUR GODDAMN MIND YOU MISERABLE PISSANT SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP

Like I can understand being overprotective to a certain degree, which could eventually morph into being controlling. But neglecting your son, your wife, drinking and gambling your fortune away? ALL of that?!? Really???

Shouldn’t he be desperate to keep his wife and son close to him at all times after the events of POTO? Never leave, never go anywhere, only do what’s safe? You COULD have set this up as a continuation of Safety versus Freedom with Raoul and the Phantom, show the good and bad of both and have her choose from there. Show the dichotomies and hypocrisies of both men’s standards. 

But nope! We’re just totes gonna make the husband like this for no goddamn reason, especially since Raoul doesn’t start suspecting that Gustave (his son) isn’t really his until Devil Take the Hindmost. He’s just that much of an idiot!

3.) The presence of Madame Giry and Meg Giry. Oh gods, where to even begin? They’re pretty much only here so that Sir Andy doesn’t have to make new characters with different backstories and motivations and introduce them accordingly. Nope! Now both women are blaming Christine for leaving the Phantom Man-Baby, and talking about everything they sacrificed to help him make his stupid-ass circus, and talking about how they love him and GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH Madame Giry in the POTO musical YOU LED RAOUL DIRECTLY TO THE PHANTOM’S LAIR SO HE COULD RESCUE CHRISTINE WHY ARE YOU COMPLAINING ABOUT HOW SHE BETRAYED HIM

And, oh, Meg... she reaaaaaaaaaaaaally got the short end of the stick here. I just... poor dear, she was horribly treated in this. 

Neither of them deserved to be like this, honestly. 

4.) Christine, to a lesser extent. Experienced Literal Character Assassination, forced to choose between two horrible options, stripped of her agency entirely, used as a bet in a game between said two horrible options, lied to and dragged around constantly, should have taken Gustave and run off with Meg to run a music store together. Fcuk you Sir Andy, for using POTO characters to act out your bitterness and frustration at your ex. 

5.) The entirety of the whole Boardwalk Circus schtick, spawning an additional Fuck You to Frederick Forsythe, who thought this was a tenable option for the story to progress. 

6.) The Phantom’s deformity was literally just four lines drawn onto his face with crayon and some smeared lipstick:

what even the fcuk, you couldn’t make the make-up crayon drawing more detailed??? take more than ten minutes to draw it on???

I never thought I would say this, but even the 2004 film’s depiction was better than this! At least that one partially drew from a real medical condition, Sturge-Weber Syndrome. What the fcuk is your excuse LND?!?

7.)  The Lyrics. Oh gods, the lyrics. Some songs were decent, mostly the ones I listed up top. But the rest? Did someone forget to give the writer a more advanced/creative guide to rhyming lyrics? I wrote better shit in middle school than Glenn Slater did for the majority of these lyrics. 

Glenn my dude, what the fcuk is this nonsense? You’ve written good shit like the Tangled songs and stuff for Galavant! Why are you writing worse than an angst-ridden middle schooler? It is immensely frustrating, to say the least. 

8.) The really WEIRD direction in acting. No one here acts like they know how to move their arms or hands naturally; there’s a lot of really odd and unnecessary gesturing that makes it look like everyone has just had their limbs replaced with faulty robotic arms. There’s also a lot of leaning the characters do, with their arms perfectly straight by their side and it just looks wrong. 

9.) The Phantom’s pseudonym is Mr. Y. No, they never explain why it is he chose that particular moniker. 

10.) Bathing Beauty. Just... all of it, here, tied to POTO, present and here. 

11.) It’s been exactly 10 years since Christine saw/banged the Phantom, and her son is precisely 10 years old. 

That’s... not how pregnancy works. At all. 

12.) This weird scene with the American press, where they are absolutely obsessed with Christine, despite the facts they present, such as:

- She hasn’t performed in 10 years anywhere. 

- She was a French performer, and

- She only starred in three operas at the Populaire (Hannibal, Il Muto, and Don Juan Triumphant, which wasn’t even finished. So technically 2.2 operas that we know of). 

Why, precisely, would American reporters be so obsessed with her upon hearing she’s coming? I could see some interest given the whole shebang with the Phantom, but after 10 years of radio silence, would she really garner an entire crowd of reporters and photographers... in America, no less? 

France I could definitely see. America? Not so much. 

13.) Gustave is a flat, generic kid character, who apparently is totes the Phantom’s son because... he can play the piano well. And also has the same ideas of music as the Phantom, despite never being taught about them, or discussed such things with his mother. 

Is musical talent only inherited through the father’s side of the family in this universe? I mean, we never learn about Christine’s mother, just her famous violinist father. Otherwise, why is it Gustave’s musical talent isn’t attributed to - oh, I don’t know - HIS FAMOUS OPERA SINGER MOTHER?!?

14.) Apparently the Phantom is also now the one who invented cars OH I MEAN “horseless carriages” 🙄 A carriage with no engine and a “ghost horse” appears, and everyone is just fcuking stunned by this, like they’ve never seen a vehicle move without a horse before. In 1907. 22 years after the first functional automobile was invented. Ugh. 

15.) seriously tho who thought basing a sequel on the Frederick Forsythe novel was a good idea why did nobody think to stop him apart from Sir Andy’s pet cat Otto. why.

16) The Phantom’s interactions with Gustave are distinctly creepy and unsettling. I keep getting pedo vibes from him and I Do Not Like It.

17.) The death scene at the end is so goddamn over-the-top and out of nowhere I just want to throw something, ugh

18.) And finally, my last gripe with this mess: This takes place in 1907, and declares that it’s ten years after the original musical. Despite the fact that the OG took place in 1885. Yippy skippy. 😑

I can honestly say I am Not a Fan of this musical as a whole, mostly based on the plot and the character assassinations (one quite literal) and the poor lyrics. I can admire the camera work, the basic singing ability, the scenery and costumes, and maybe two or three songs. But I just do not enjoy it. It took me two days to finish watching it because I kept cringing from what shit kept happening, and had to walk around and listen to other shit to get it out of my head. 

HOWEVER: People do enjoy this one on the sake of it being so bad and over-the-top, and I can honestly see the whys. It helps that most of the cast can sing, and the orchestration is done well. There’s a TON of stupid to mock, and a lot of over-the-top awkwardness to laugh at. This is a good one to watch and mock with friends, IMO. 

For those of you who do enjoy it, I’m afraid I have to disagree on most of it. Still, it is nice being able to watch this one for free, even if it is a giant hot mess.

And that’s all for me on this one! Have a good week guys!

[atalana]

Five, and the effects of Reginald Hargreeves' parenting

So like, I see a lot of posts around talking about the effects Hargreeves had on all the kids, the abuse they went through, and who they turned out to be, but a lot of the time when they get to Five this gets somewhat overshadowed by his experiences in the apocalypse, since that's what he's shown to have PTSD over, and is generally on the forefront of Five's mind

But the effects of Five's childhood are hugely evident in his character for me (potentially bc I've been through similar, just to a lesser extent), so I wanna go into them more

Here's the thing - kids can't help but want approval from their parents, even kids like Five. He can mask it in whatever he likes, but as a kid, Five was hugely dependent on Hargreeves' approval. It's more insidious than with most children, too, because when Reginald Hargreeves is involved, gaining his approval means avoiding his wrath - something you definitely don't want to face.

You see this all the time in kids with parents who have too high standards, even if the parents are considerably more gentle than Sir Reginald - the kids who can achieve to that standard become obsessed with it, turn it into their whole identity, while the kids who can't stop trying at all. And this harms both, because the underachievers feel like they'll never amount to anything, and the overachievers become paranoid, knowing they're one bad day away from becoming like the underachievers - the people they've been taught their whole life are the worst possible thing to be - so they try even harder to make sure that never happens.

The overachievers in the Hargreeves family are Luther, Diego, and Five, the underachievers are Klaus and Vanya (Allison and Ben it's hard to tell, maybe they managed to avoid this or maybe it just manifests in different ways), and this constantly affects all of their relationships with each other.

Reginald actively encouraged this discrepancy as well, because it made it easier to control them. The underachievers don't try anything because they believe they have no power. The overachievers won't try anything because one word of disapproval from Reginald and they lose that status, and with it their entire sense of identity and self worth. They can't band together either, because the underachievers think they amount to nothing, the underachievers don't trust the overachievers because they maintain the same standards, the overachievers don't trust each other because they're all competing for the same status, and the overachievers don't listen to the underachievers because they believe the lie that the underachievers can't do anything. It's a terrifyingly effective strategy.

There's yet another layer with the Hargreeves kids, though, and that's their numbers. This was another deliberate move on the part of Sir Reginald, because a hierarchy only adds to this dynamic.

Number one was superior to number two, who was superior to number three, and so on. It's not a coincidence that the overachievers tend to be higher up on the scale, and the underachievers lower. It's easier to excel when you believe you can do it, harder when you think you can't. And the further down the hierarchy you are, the more you're held to the standard of the ones above you.

So now we get to Five in particular, because Five is a special case - an overachiever very low on the hierarchy. He was constantly held to the standard of numbers 1-4, but Five could actually outperform them. And this was encouraged by their father - Reginald would have realised early on that telling Five he wasn't capable wouldn't have worked, because Five had proof he was, it would have only made him more rebellious (see: the reason he ran off in the first place).

So instead he creates an air of superiority in Five that's highly conditional and dependent on him. Five isn't like his siblings. Five can do better. Five gets praise. Which doesn't seem harmful until you realise, Five has to do better. Five doesn't have the option of an off day. Five has built his entire identity around being the best, because as a young child that was the only way he got anything close to the love and attention he needed, and as soon as he fails to outperform his siblings, he's going to lose that forever.

(It also probably contributed to a lot of that cocky attitude - if he ever did have a moment of weakness, he couldn't let anyone see, or it would discredit him, so he covers it up with the whole devil may care thing)

It's pretty obvious in Five's reactions to things that the siblings he got along with best were Ben and Vanya - 6 and 7. I don't think it was a conscious decision to be closer to the two lower on the hierarchy than him, but I also don't think it's a coincidence either - after all, he's never going to be held to their standard like he is the other four. With anyone above him in the ranking, there would have been a tension in their relationship, the knowledge that they were being compared, and Five would have to be constantly on guard for that. Around Ben and Vanya, he can actually breathe, and that makes it a lot easier for him to appreciate the qualities they have as people.

There's two moments in this season where Five's siblings genuinely get under his skin, and force him from exasperated to defensive, and both of them are hugely telling of this. The first is when Luther tells him "You think you're better than us, you always have. But the truth is, you're just as messed up as the rest of us."

Luther's completely right, but there's two things here Five can't handle hearing. Even after 45 years alone in the apocalypse, this is a core part of his identity he can't shake. One is "you think you're better than us", the implication that that's not true. The other is "you're just as messed up as the rest of us", making Five confront the realisation that he has flaws. Five responds "I don't think I'm better than you, Number One. I know I am."

He even refers to Luther by number, the only time in the series he ever does this to anyone. It's a deliberate jab, a way to remind Luther than even though he was supposedly number one, Five still managed to outperform him. It's honestly a really childish move, because it's Five frantically scrambling to get back on a pedestal he's been on his whole life - and not a very stable one either, if one comment from Luther can bring it down. Five believes he's perfect, infallible, because he can't live with himself if he's not.

The second time comes from the same root but the other direction - his conversation with Klaus in episode 9. Klaus calls him an apocalypse addict, comparing the two of them, and Five internally freaks the fuck out, because of all the siblings he can't handle being similar to, Klaus is the top of that list. If Luther was the golden boy Five constantly had to compete against, Klaus is the dumpster fire that serves to remind Five this is what he can never become.

Klaus, of course, is just a person, and has many good qualities, but Five was never trained to see them. Five was trained to see Klaus as a failure, a disappointment, someone it was better to be dead than to be like. (He may be nearly double the age of the rest of his siblings, but alone in the apocalypse isn't an ideal ground for reexamining your relationships with people, and Five still has so much growing up to do.)

Of all of them, Five is the most willing to push boundaries with his powers, to explore new realms of what he can and can't do, and that's also an effect of this - where the others were a lot more controlled or restricted, Five was encouraged to adapt, to be more powerful, to take risks, and Hargreeves probably allowed him more leeway than the others (again, fuelling that sense of superiority), as long as it provided results (and there's the paranoia part, the risks Five took needed to pay off, he didn't have any other option)

Credit to Five though, because the time travel scene was all him. Reginald's influence should have been enough to keep him from running off like that, but Five had a strong enough will to ignore it.

I think this is the mistake the Handler made as well. The Temps Commission employs people easy to manipulate, and a childhood of abuse followed by a lifetime of solitude sounds like the perfect breeding ground for such a person. If she just wanted Five she could have retrieved him at any age, after all, but she waits 45 years. His skills weren't increasing that much in that time, not more than they would have been working for the Commission. It was just that the longer he was alone, the easier he was to control.

But neither Hargreeves nor the Handler really anticipated just how stubborn and steadfast Five can be. He's affected by his childhood, yes, it forms the core of who he is as a person, but he's smart, and he found a way around it - picking a goal and sticking to it no matter what. Klaus was right, in a way, about him being an addict of the apocalypse, Five gets dangerous tunnel vision with a task in mind. He literally admits to Hazel that not once (in 45 years, with precious few distractions) did he think about what he would do after he stopped the apocalypse, focused only on doing it. He doesn't let anything else through, and that can be a detriment sometimes (not telling his siblings about the shrapnel wound and nearly dying because they were close to his goal), but when someone's trying to manipulate you, it's a huge advantage. (It's also a huge advantage when trying to survive in the apocalypse, you don't stop, you don't doubt yourself, you don't question what you are and aren't willing to do, you just do it and move on)

He broke through Hargreeves' control by focusing on learning to time travel, and he's unaffected by the Handler's attempts to do the same with his one goal of getting back and saving his family. She doesn't understand it either, because all she sees are his other traits - his pragmatism, his intelligence, his dissatisfaction with his own body image, and thinks if she can make him look how he wants to look ("we're all looking for happy"), that'll be enough to let his natural affinity for Commission work take over. She vastly underestimates his dedication.

(And also just his love for his siblings, like, I'm framing this potentially too much as a "he does this so he can't be manipulated" decision, and there is some truth to that, but if that were solely the case he'd only be focused on stopping the apocalypse. No, Five cares so much about his siblings that he's willing to compromise with them on nearly everything, even though stubbornness is kind of his thing, and even though he's been trained to believe they're lesser than him. He seriously debates letting the apocalypse happen if it'll save them. The reason they get under his skin (when other people underestimating him don't nearly as much), is because some part of him genuinely values their opinion. Five says he's not looking for happy, but I don't think that's true - it's just that happy for him isn't made of personal gain, but rather finding a place in his family he doesn't have to fight for)

[aqvarius]

[WALKTHROUGH + REVIEW + CG] Romance MD: Munechika Takado

Expectations:

To be honest I wasn’t super excited when I saw the trailer for Romance MD. I thought it was just going to be another teacher/student romance with the basic Voltage storylines where one or two events would get closer and they’d fall in love etc.). That being said, I was actually quite interested in most of the potential LIs even though they do seem quite conventional for the standard Voltage lineup (oresama, kuudere, darudere/4D, flirty, jokey but actually hardcore ossan). I do also like the character designs. The one I was most interested in was Kyogoku because I can’t place his type. He’s been described as a prodigy, not too empathetic, feisty, cute, has a chilly side, tricky, coy, shady, obsessed with Kasumi. So I think he’s actually one of those devil with an angel face types? Cute on the surface but actually a bit shady? Maybe it’s because of his character design but he just reminds me SO much of Shinonome from Her Love in the Force. I keep calling him Ayumu because of that and I think it would be interesting if they were actually similar because Ayumu is one of those characters that I think is quite unusual for Voltage games because he doesn’t completely fit into one of their usual archetypes.

Anyway, this is not about Sen. This is about Takado. I knew he was the title character for Romance MD but I still had all of my fingers crossed that we would get someone else’s route first like Finally in Love Again had Aki as the first release rather than Momoi (I think?). And some other games had title characters that weren’t the usual type (like Issei from Kiss of Revenge and Masaomi from Serendipity Next Door). I also think that the only characters released so far are Takado and Hosho (I’ve searched and searched to get CGs or ameblo posts about the other guys but to no avail). So I kinda hoped they would give us Hosho first LOL or maybe just surprise us all and give us Kasumi but alas. 

Finally, my expectations going in were that Takado was going to be the quintessential oresama type (like Eisuke/Leon) because he has that spiky brown hair look lol? I also thought the MC was going to be like the standard MC. What a fool I was…

Click below to read the full review, plus walkthrough and CGs PLUS THE ELUSIVE MC SPRITE.

Reactions:

My first reaction is that this MC (henceforth Dr. MC) is so annoying. She wouldn’t stop running her mouth, she was arrogant, she seemed a little inconsistent? The guys accuse her of being a journal junkie at the beginning and to be honest, they’re kind of right. She’s super nerdy to the point where it’s kind of over the top? Don’t get me wrong, nerds are great. I’m a researcher. I moved to a new city to study under my academic crush too. I get it. Sometimes other MCs are annoying because they’re too wholesome and earnest. This time, it got to the point where I was begging to have OG MC traits back. I almost cried with relief when I first saw her demonstrate empathy.

I think the thing that made me dislike her almost immediately was how clinically she originally described the ICU team. It sort of felt like Voltage was trying to push the ‘these guys are beautiful!’ and the ‘Dr. MC doesn’t give a fuck about real men’ points too hard and it sort of became contradictory, especially because the narrative is read through the player’s/MC’s perspective. So she had to explain how ‘objectively’ good looking they all are without gushing and thus it became this very clinical expression of their looks while also really pushing that opposing point of “but I don’t care around real men”. I think that it would have been fine for MC to appreciate how good looking they are but sort of have a ‘snap out of it’/’pull yourself together’ moment where she reminds herself what she’s here for. Like I think it’s fine and probably in fact more relatable to be able to acknowledge handsome men and be a bookworm/academically inclined and also enjoy 2D men lol. You don’t have to treat people like specimens MC 

(Just say he’s beautiful. We all know he is)

I get that they needed her to be special in some way so Matsunaga would hire her, but she could have gotten hired on talent alone. I don’t think they needed her to be all like “this kabedon does absolutely nothing to me”. Overall I think her being totally uninterested in dating doesn’t quite mesh from the perspective of the player. I’m assuming most of us play otome games because we’re interested in dating the characters or seeing them fall in love, right? The game tried to be meta and make fun of the shoujo manga/otoge tropes at least three times (e.g. kabedon, cooking for LI when they’re sick and getting close, wiping tears leading to a kiss) but honestly, I play these games to experience all that cheesy shit lol. So for me I didn’t think it was particularly clever to reference these tropes and play them off. The audience tends to play these games for these moments lmao? Right?

(I agree, Takado.)

The one thing that all Voltage MCs have, however, is persistence. And my God does Dr. MC have persistence in spades. I actually didn’t mind it too much but I think it’s because it was sort of turned into a bit of a joke so the humour kind of played a role in tamping down what might have otherwise been obnoxious (when she kept waking Takado up I was like omg just LET! HIM! SLEEP!). I do also like that Dr. MC is very competent. Her shortcomings don’t have anything to do with technical ability which is quite refreshing. In this game, Dr. MC is more just inexperienced and idealistic when it comes to the actual practice of medicine and its accompanying emotional (and otherwise) complications.

The thing that I feel is her biggest flaw is her arrogance. I know, right? A Voltage MC, arrogant?! It’s unthinkable!! Usually Voltage MCs are insecure, self-deprecating, self-doubting. At times they are competent enough, or have moments of inspiration that allow them to do well. This Dr. MC is clever, and she knows it. Unfortunately, just having read lots of journals does not a good doctor make. Luckily, she becomes more likable when she finally gets taken down a peg and actually starts listening to Takado. I feel like Voltage tried to switch up their MC personalities (as seen with Masquerade Kiss too) but I think they tried to make Dr. MC snarky and sassy but she just comes across as arrogant/rude a lot of the time, like have some respect for your seniors please. When it comes to backtalking MCs, I much prefer Ayumu’s or Toma’s (from Irresistible Mistakes) MC. But at least Dr. MC is not as awful as Luke Foster’s MC in Kissed by the Baddest Bidder. Luke’s MC is my least favourite of all time and I honestly think he needs to leave her.

Also! I think with the JP version, you can choose whether or not to have the MC sprite. In the Love 365 version, you aren’t given that choice but the elusive MC sprite does pop up randomly in one frame.

(Tbh I prefer it without the sprite bc her hair reminds me of 2015/2016 me lol)

Her interactions with the other doctors is quite enjoyable, particularly with Kyogoku and Hosho, although I have to admit they’re enjoyable because Kyogoku and Hosho are really fun. I especially enjoyed with Ekuni joined in and did like the little snippets of Kasumi time you get as well. I do wish there was more time spent in the Pen (with Kalmia!) but alas, you get what you can. Kyogoku seems nicer than I expected he would be (because I really thought he would be Ayumu 2.0 – maybe he will be in his own route, but he does come off nicer than that snarky devil Ayumu). Kasumi also seems less cold than I expected. Hosho and Matsunaga were basically how I thought they would be, and Ekuni too to some extent, although I wasn’t expecting Ekuni to be such a mum and give them custom drug cocktails to pump them full of nutrients lol. I want Ekuni (my future husband) route so badly. I’m going to end up with a whole folder of images of him with that internal dialogue board lol. I did enjoy some of her conversation with Sex Maniac/resident slut Hosho (when his route comes out I won’t forget that he went on a date with Sara from Cardio………..) as well but I feel like Dr. MC doesn’t react enough to be more interesting? I know I sound like a typical Voltage LI, you know when they’re always telling MC she’s interesting cause her face shows everything she’s thinking and they like her reactions? That me lmao. But when she does react, she overreacts. Like, she doesn’t react to intimate/sexual things but then she FLIPS OUT because Takado was AWOL for literally a day and she thinks he died. You know what, he wasn’t even AWOL, he was literally on his day off. Take a chill pill, Dr. MC - maybe Ekuni can whip up a special sedative blend for you.

Now, Takado… Takado is basically Kaga from Her Love in the Force as a doctor. Sadist, reputation as a murderer, relies on his intuition, has a violent tendency with MC, misunderstood but doesn’t care. His version of Kaga’s Iron Claw is hitting you on the back of the head, usually with a file. I really thought he was going to be an oresama type but he’s more of the rogue sadist type. I thought he was not that interesting until I finally got to chapter 17. Naturally he’s ~damaged~ lmao. But actually I enjoyed learning about his backstory. I expected him to be so bonesaw-happy because he hadn’t acted quickly enough in the past and it led to someone’s death that could have been prevented if he’d just taken their limb. The truth is actually quite a bit more complicated than that, so I did like that it wasn’t predictable. I won’t spoil his backstory but it was definitely an interesting take on the doctor-patient relationship and worked well to help Dr. MC overcome her naïveté. I will say that I feel like the number of amputations actually increased throughout the route lmao.

Speaking of HLITF, the route definitely took on an action spin that I wasn’t expecting. I was surprised that Romance MD is categorised in the Action section in Love 365 but I think the story ended up going in a direction that I’d expect from HLITF or MSB (or Metro PD? I haven’t played that though so idk) and it was quite thrilling and surprisingly dramatic. Also, as per usual, the gap moe is real with Takado. Voltage loves employing gap moe with their characters, but especially the oresama and stoic types.  

Additional note: Something I really hate about Love Choice is that a lot of the time the LI backstory is hidden in a heart scene and you can only find out the truth if you pay for it. However, the route reverts back to the main text so it seems like you (MC) know what’s happened even if you (the player) don’t.

The dynamic between Takado and Dr. MC actually ends up being quite fun even though sometimes I think Dr. MC is just being disrespectful. They bicker like an old married couple. It’s like what Kaga and MC would be like if she ever dared to speak up against him lol. Takado is like Kaga in that he expresses his love more through actions. Honestly I wouldn’t be able to pinpoint the moment he started to fall for Dr. MC even if you had a syringe of poison to my jugular. You basically only find out that he treats you differently because the other doctors have a grand old time teasing you about it. That being said, there are some nice scenes where you can spot Takado treating you specially if you squint a little. It’s fine that it’s not obvious; I think it would be out of character if he just confessed his feelings lol. Personally, I believe this is a marketing trick to get you to buy Takado PoV when it comes out.

The length of the stories (30 chapters) and the pacing did remind me of old school Voltage games which I liked. It was long enough to develop Takado, his backstory and have a plot with sufficient plot points. The length also gave the blooming relationship between Takado and Dr. MC enough time to mature without feeling too rushed. While I think this improves the story quality, it also really seems like a moneymaking ploy. That being said, at least they didn’t split the story up into two parts like HLITF 🙃.

I reread my old route reviews to remind myself how to review and I said that Goto’s route in My Sweet Bodyguard was not worth the £2.49 I spent on it. I can’t believe I only had to spend £2.49!! Regular routes in Love 365 are 400 coins which equates to £3.99 and I easily spent around £15+ on all the hearts needed for this lengthy LC route 😭. Obviously it would be even costlier if you needed to buy passes if you wanted to unlock chapters early. I didn’t keep track of how many hearts in total I spent but this ameblog says that you need 207 hearts to get all the heart scenes which translates to about £21 if you start with 0 hearts, which is honestly ridiculous. The same money could be spent on FIVE  main routes (or other 400 coin stories). Or FOUR full bundles (MS, epilogue, sequel, sequel epilogue) from Seduced in the Sleepless City (i.e. sixteen stories). Or THREE full bundles from Pirates in Love. Or basically every available route for Subaru, Goto, Ishigami or Kurosawa in MSB. 

So while you do get quite a lot of content, it is ridiculously expensive if you wanted Super Happy Ending. Don’t skip the heart scene in chapter 28 if you don’t want to miss a kiss scene. Chapter 7 “Apologize to Takado” doesn’t offer too much I believe. Chapter 22 “Ask for details” and 26 “Explain” options also don’t add too much imo. There are a total of 30 points available, so you can skip 5 points worth of heart scenes if you want SHE but don’t want to spend all those hearts.

You may like this route if you like rogue characters like Kaga and Shin from Pirates in Love. If you are really interested and are willing to pay, I suggest playing before 12/08 (12 August) to get the collector’s edition so at least it won’t feel like a waste of money. I really wish Voltage would get rid of Love Choice and just let us buy routes, but they likely never will because they probably earn so much more with LC compared to regular routes. The normal ending is good enough honestly, he actually confesses in NE and not in SHE, but in SHE you get a kiss scene and CG. I think ultimately it would be more worth saving up your hearts for another LI like Kyogoku lol... or Kasumi (but not my future husband Ekuni because I can already tell that I want him all for myself).

I forgot to make note of how many hearts each heart scene costs before I spent the hearts unfortunately so I’m just taking the word of the blogger who says it costs 207 in total. I know there quite a few options that require ~20 hearts.

ETA: I went through my heart spending history and found the prices of each heart scene 

Walkthrough and CGs below:

25 points to Super Happy Ending

Ch 1

Observe Help Takado (Love Meter +1/CG) 5 hearts

Ch 2

Wait till later. Flip back the covers.

Ch 3

Missy Takado

Ch 4

“This isn’t a conversation.” “You’re missing the point.”

Ch 5

Ignore him. “It’s not every little thing.’”

Ch 6

Apologize Offer an excuse.

Ch 7

Don’t apologize to Takado. Apologize to Takado (Love Meter +2) 8 hearts

Ch 8

“Teach me!” “What’s got you in a snit?”

Ch 9

“I’m not ready to die!” “I value my time, you know!” (pick this one to see Kasumi being funny)

Ch 10

Stick a hand on the wall. Lean on Takado (Love Meter +1) 10 hearts

Ch 11

A scalpel. An aspirator (Love Meter +3) 13 hearts

Ch 12

Tail him. Chase him and shout

Ch 13

Ask Takado. Ask Kasumi.

Ch 14

Don’t ask. “I want to know.” (Love Meter +1) (pick this one if you want to hear about Takado’s backstory. If you select “Don’t ask” the first time, they will ask you again if you want to know and it costs 15 hearts)

Ch 15

Ask about the Pen. Ask about Takado. (Love Meter +1) 8 hearts

Ch 16

My duty as a doctor compelled me. I was worried about him. (Love Meter +2) 10 hearts

Ch 17

Avoid his potential wrath. Ask. (Love Meter +3) (pick this one to hear Takado’s full backstory) 15 hearts

Ch 18

Go back to sleep. Carefully sit up (Love Meter +1/CG) 13 hearts

Ch 19

Stay silent, like Takado Defend Takado

Ch 20

Stay out of it Insist on examining the woman (Love Meter +2) 10 hearts

Ch 21

“And then they’d kiss.” “And it’d get all tragic.”

Ch 22

Ignore him Ask for details (Love Meter +1) 10 hearts 

Ch 23

Give up for now Talk to Takado again (Love Meter +3) 20 hearts (fml)

Ch 24

“I’m off.” “Dr. Takado…”

Ch 25

Don’t go. Follow Takado.

Ch 26

Feel sorry for him.14 hearts Explain. (Love Meter +2) 

Ch 27

“No need.” “Tell me, then.” (Love Meter +1/CG) 15 hearts

Ch 28

Get some sleep. Stay with Takado (Love Meter +3) (kiss scene) 19 hearts

Ch 29

Call Dr. Kasumi. Don’t call him yet. (Love Meter +3) (if you choose to call Kasumi, you get a second chance to not call him which costs 22 hearts fml. If you don’t call him, you get quite a cute scene with the iCU team)

[emperorren]

Do you listen to What The Force podcast? They have this crazy weird but interesting theory that Palpy wants to marry Rey to control her and obtain power...And I don’t know what to feel about it because it’s such a weird thing to consider that Palpy is gonna be romantic rival lol But it could happen mainly because a lot of stories have this kind of trope...but Palpy?! I have mix feelings bcuz I dont even want Rey to entertain this idea at all. She can be tricked who knows. What are your thoughts?

Yes, I’ve listened to it! I joked on twitter that all I can picture now is this:

But seriously, I can say I’m definitely intrigued, and I don’t think it’s that crazy, though I’m not sold on the /romantic rival/ part. I don’t think it will be literal.

So this theory hinges on the trope of the “dark suitor”: usually some kind of demonic figure or evil magician archetype that tries to lure/force the maiden-heroine into a dark marriage to harness her power—or, in more prosaic stories, her resources. This is quite common in Disney and dark fairytales, particularly those that center on a female protagonist: Beetlejuice (as above), A series of unfortunate events, Legend, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Beauty and the Beast to some extent (Gaston might not be an evil magician, but he’s a dark suitor nonetheless, someone who lusts after the heroine out of a desire to control her)—The Little Mermaid has a gender reversed version of this trope, with Ursula trying to marry Eric (a male proxy, in this case) to permanently steal Ariel’s magical voice and keep her as a slave. As the podcast put it, it’s not about a love triangle per se, but about controlling feminine power, often in a sexualized way. I think it’s important to note that the dark suitor trope differs from the more general “villainous crush” because the villain in question doesn’t have a genuine crush or feelings for the heroine, but tries to seduce her for his own personal gain, or because he’s simply evil personified, an inherently dark force that only exists to corrupt and enslave. In contrast, the real love interest is the one who lets the heroine go, learning to respect her freedom and giving up any attempt to control her (see: the Beast leaving Belle free).

Now, this is pure speculation based on an analysis of tropes and archetypes, but this time not based on canon material, merely on predictions of how those tropes could evolve, so I recommend taking it with a grain of salt. Our theories about the force bond or Reylo being reminiscent of Hades/Persephone, Beauty and the Beast, Bastila and Revan etc. were so strong because they had a lot of canon evidence or foreshadowing to rely on. (think of how many hints of the force bond were in the tfa novelization, or how much the cinematography screams “Hades” and “Grim Reaper” when Kylo comes on screen). Otoh, we have nothing in canon to predict what Palpatine’s role will be in relation to Rey, other than a brief glimpse of Dark!Rey from the sizzle reel and, well, Palpatine’s own track record with seducing people. We haven’t even seen a glimpse of Palpatine himself in this trilogy so far.

We have, of course, our understanding of the trilogy’s main themes and what they’re trying to accomplish as the final word on an entire saga. Namely, redemption, healing the wounded masculine through the feminine, and incorporating the former into the latter and vice versa, in a “divine” reconciliation of opposites (a wound opened by Anakin’s choking Padme and falling to the dark side via Palpatine’s orchestrations).

One thing that imo the Reylo fandom got completely right is that the Feminine—Rey’s femininity—is really crucial to this trilogy. Rey being a heroine defines and changes everything, from the nature of her heroic journey to her dynamic with the villain(s). So I think it’s definitely plausible—almost certain—that Palpatine will identify in her the ultimate bride apprentice to seduce, exploit & maybe subdue, PRECISELY bc she’s a woman (“Padmé reborn with the Force”) and NOT a Skywalker (a bloodline Palpatine has now a BAAAAD track record with). Whilst Snoke, who tried so hard and failed to be Palpatine like Kylo tries and fails to be Vader, targeted Kylo and ignored Rey, Palpatine will do the exact opposite, and try to get rid of Kylo (or maybe use him as a bait / cannon fodder / sacrificial lamb) to get to Rey. Because he knows where the real power resides. In essence, he’ll throw Ben/Padmé under the bus to secure Rey/Anakin’s powers.

(but exactly like Snoke before him, he will underestimate both Ben Solo and Rey, and his hubris will be his downfall)

My main issue with this is that I don’t think Rey’s weakness is her need for romantic love, so I find it unlikely that she’ll be tempted by a second romantic suitor. She longs for a belonging, for connection, yes. But Kylo offered her exactly that in the form of a romantic proposal, and she was able to turn him down. So why should she fall for Palpatine’s seduction, instead? Even if he manifests himself in the form of sexy Matt Smith? What does he have to offer, that Kylo does not? How can he seduce Rey when even Kylo, the man Rey falls in love with in TLJ, could not?

well,

unlike Kylo, Palps is incredibly good at manipulation. Kylo’s proposal was naked, blunt. Join me and together we will rule the galaxy. He said she was nothing but not to him, but that’s kindergarten manipulation compared to Palpatine’s skills (it’s not manipulation at all, actually, but that’s another issue). He didn’t try to blackmail her, bargain her surrender in exchange for her friends’ lives, offer to reunite her with her parents, offer her to resuscitate her parents, NOTHING. Hell, he actually tried to heal Rey’s conflict over her parents, forcing her to confront her suppression of her abandonment, accept it and MOVE ON. We been saying that a real Sith, on the other hand, would let the wound fester, and fester, and fester, and then strike, because an apprentice with a huge achilles’ heel is much easier to manipulate into the dark side. 

this “dark marriage proposal” might not be literal, but symbolical. The sexual symbolism of such a union might be hidden, disguised as something else—something Rey needs desperately, or thinks so. A father figure. Something Kylo repeatedly called her out on. 

Related to point 2: what if Kylo’s proposal failed because he explicitly presented himself as her equal (and potential mate, scaring the shit out of her, because she’s in the adolescence phase in TLJ and she’s confused by her sexuality, and still clinging to the childhood version of herself, see her *regression* in the last act of the movie), rather than as her… daddy? If not as her literal father, as an older, wiser, trustworthy, authoritative male figure that plays into Rey’s need for guidance and belonging. We thought she was over it by the end of TLJ, but what if she hasn’t fully processed it yet? 

Now enter Palpatine, the ultimate demonic figure in this entire story, with unparalleled skills in disguise and manipulation and vast experience in mentoring young, troubled apprentices with abandonment issues, either presenting himself as a seductive young(ish) man claiming to be able to bring Rey’s parents back / tell her the REAL truth about them, or literally pretending to be her father. Enter an Elektra complex, that would be a great counterpoint to the vastly documented oedipal subtext in Anakin and Ben’s narratives. Make it REALLY ambiguous as fuck. And here’s your “weird” story.

The nice thing about this theory is that it’s a subversion of the villain x heroine narrative we’ve been watching so far (and reviled for liking by the rest of the fandom). We thought Kylo was the Murderous Snake, the evil seductor, the dark suitor. And he was, but only because he’s Rey’s Shadow. In truth, he’s an angel in demon clothes. Underneath the monster, there’s the real Heroic Love Interest. He’s the darkness that Rey needs to incorporate and reconcile with; Palpatine is the darkness she needs to reject.

Another thing—whether or not this theory comes to fruition, I’m fairly certain there will be a moment where Palpatine, seemingly in control of Rey, urges her to kill Ben (remember that “kill him!” in the TFA novelization?). Because that’s what Palpatine does—he’s the Devil whispering in the Lovers’ ears, turning them against one another. But because this is reverse anidala, Rey will succeed where Anakin succumbed, and categorically reject to hurt her lover. The Lovers will be stronger than the Evil Magician this time.