#because fuck the universe controlling madoka

[paperglader]

mmmmm… so, the show about the pink-haired girl with the magic powers is actually about a 14-year-old girl that sacrificed herself for humanity and the girl that loved her the most, who was left behind and never got over it

[viriborne]

WAITTT ANOTHER THING FOR MY MADOKA TWST THEORY!!!! Uhh book 6 and vague book 7 spoilers

Ok so you know how Styx is the big mysterious corporation that experiments on overblot and shit? So, in Madoka, there’s an entire alien species that basically experiments on teen girls (bc cough cough misogyny metaphor) and the REASON they do that is because the turmoil of young women is being used to prevent entropy from happening. Magical girls are basically human sacrifices to ensure that entropy doesn’t kill the universe.

We already know overblot is just the twst version of magical girls becoming witches, SO what I propose is, Styx is the stand in for the incubators and Crowley is INTENTIONALLY fostering an environment for them to test on vulnerable, unstable youths. WHY would he be doing that? No fucking clue. If the theory that Crowley IS Malleus’ father, then that could play a part.

Also both Homura and Malleus trapped all their loved ones in an unending, idealized dream when they lost control of themselves soooooooooo blinkblinkblink

[justanisabelakinnie]

Look at this dumbass lol. 🤣

(for context) this is from the page "Unfortunate Implications", which points out the sexist and problematic elements in the show.

Stupid fans like this love to ignore critiques of stories on a meta level and focus on the in-universe reasons instead, as if the characters are independent individuals with their own free will and agency, and not narrative tools controlled by writers. It's so fucking funny how they seem to think that this makes their point more valid, when all it shows is their lack of reading comprehension and susceptibility to criticism. No shit it's because Kyubey is the villain, you fucking daft. The point is that the WRITERS see teenage girls as too vulnerable and overly emotional to handle power. If you weren't so stupid and vapid, then you'd see that that's the argument being made, even if you disagree.

"How convenient for them to forgot(sic) Madoka saves the universe's girl from being harvested by the incubators." How convenient for YOU to forget that even that supposed happy ending isn't as uplifting or as empowering as you think it is. The girls still suffer and die for their wishes, they just don't turn into mindless unfathomable monsters anymore. And once again, an in-universe context being used as a response for an out-of-universe critique. I am frequently surprised at how idiotic and inarticulate(a lot of) Madoka stans are. Arguing with them is the equivalent of arguing with a five-year-old about why they can't eat dessert before dinner. No matter how reasonably or intelligently you argue your point, they continue to cover their ears, bitch and whine, and complain that you're wrong and stupid just because they don't like what you've had to say. I promise if you stop defending your precious little moe torture porn wankfest for more than a second, you'll see what I'm trying to say. Madoka is a trash-ass show and its stans are no better.

[basementcreation]

1 2 and 21 for your personal fav oc

OURURFHGHHH THANK YOU…. (STARTS FLAILING AROUND LIKE A REALLY EXCITED WORM)

my personal favourite oc is a (previously lobotomy corp oc but now in my own universe) character named Rostya ( ´ ▽ ` )b (this got kind of long, so most of it is under the cut)

does your oc have any motifs?

(cw for imagery of death/rot) yeah!! sorry, this section will be a little long, i have a lot of thoughts about themes and stuff. possibly a little generic but it's fine hehe.

most commonly, i relate him to crows/dead birds. i like the imagery of a dead bird swarming with maggots for him - it relates to his feelings of emptiness. his main struggles are depression and lack of control of his life; basically, things keep getting worse for him and he's almost given up. like, y'know, a dead animal being consumed by rot. also, crows are typically associated with death - something his character arc is related to (i mean. he does die at the end of it. so). could also relate to independence (he pushes away other people) and freedom (is struggling to free himself from his mental health struggles and the pressure/manipulation of his mother, even if he isn't in contact with her anymore).

the second thing i've related to him (although, this one is a bit new, so it's not too well thought out just yet) are apples! they're commonly used to represent temptation and sin (eg death note, the bible (yes i thought of death note first, what of it)) but i like it as a metaphor for life. this sort of stems from a scene i thought up with him and his (future partner, but at the time) enemy, who threatens rostya by crushing an apple in his hand. apples are hard on the outside but are pretty easy to cut up with a knife - the fact he crushes it with his bare hand shows the power he has over rostya's life. i'd love to go on more about this, but i think i need to mull this theme over some more first.

ALSO okok i can't believe i nearly forgot about this but. black ink. goop. nothing much to say about this one he's just a goopy guy. actually, no, disregard that, i have thoughts. so there's two versions of the universe he's from, and he has a (spoilers) madoka magica witch transformation moment in both of them. both of these times his other form is made up of black ink. it's basically just a metaphor for his despair. like, depression can feel like it's totally consuming you and dragging you down, right? that's his whole thing.

okay i promise pinky style that this is the last one but. masks. he's constantly masking his real thoughts and feelings. maybe a little heavy-handed, but it fits (he even has a dark shadow, like a mask, cast across his face when i draw him. look at the art below to see). he also wears a mask in both of his transformations - it's sort of similar to a theatre one, look at it below.

fuck i feel like gambling is also a motif for him. my brain is sort of short circuiting now because of all the writing (i know it's not that much. i am tired) but just. trust me. there's stuff there. and sorry for breaking my pinky promise. i'll repent.

2. describe your character's voice. do they have a voice claim?

this one's a little trickier - i generally don't have voice claims for my ocs, and just come up with them in my head, so i'll also talk a bit about the way he speaks. he has a fairly deep voice, probably about average for a guy. he's russian, but moved to england at a young age, so i don't think his accent is very prominent. he doesn't really speak unless spoken to, and tends to use shorter sentences. he can also be very snappy, mostly when people are trying to be nice to him (⍪_⍪) for context - he's a quiet person, but will put up a front of hostility when people try and get too close, which is. kind of anything past small talk for him (vulnerability scares him because of his past). although, after a while, he does calm down a bit with his antagonism.

21. hobbies your OC enjoys?

he really loves music! before he pawned them off, he would collect records. he enjoys singing a lot (in an au he's an opera singer) and secretly wishes he could make a career out of it - which, he totally could. he's a great singer. in the past he played the violin, and he still has some love for it, but as an adult he has too many bad feelings associated with it.

he also LOVES trains. he would love to save up enough money to collect miniature model trains, but can't manage it. at some point he and his coworkers have to go on a luxury train to investigate something and the whole time he is freaking out about it.

thanks so much for the ask!!! rostya is so fun to talk about. as a bonus, here's some art of him!!

the hair strand across the face is essential!

rostya ponytown... think i might remake this soon.

mock cover for the chapter where he dies! <3 this isn't what his transformation looks like, but the mask is the one he has.

one of my first drawings of him... his design has changed a little. and my art has changed a lot

this isn't rostya. i forgot why i drew this

[mediacinemtographyartetc]

Mini rant for media; free to ignore I will add shit to this list.

I hate how western people demonize any type of asian media and throw around dangeorus or beyond racist accusations.

A anime/Chinse book or series is deemed problematic because of certain themes.

Even tho those SAME themes, genre, story telling is ALSO prevelent in Western media, this weird holiour than thou mentality of trying to control another culture without looking at themselves is beyond gross.

For example, anime characters with certain body types and most have an anerusim when we say its an art style-

Look at steven universe, pearl and rose quartz or spinel. Characters that are OLD as fuck but have child like proportions and even pearl/Rose in their fusion dance with greg was erotic. So much WLW nsfw erotica/fanart was made of these characters and yet no one calls SU P*do bait.

Cuties is on netflix, girls in tiaras, also movies that have fucked up dynamics like;

13 going on 30, in that whole movie Jennas mental age WAS 13 while she was going around acting like an adult and even engaging in adult relationships. Time travellers wife, the utter grooming of this movie- or River Song being married to the Doctor from Doctor who, how the Doctor knew AMY POND as a child then kissed her as an adult he was disgusted but the writers WROTE THAT IN. Interview with a vampire how the movie had Cluadia kiss Louiee.

I can list SO many- also how toxic Western ROM coms are-

Then claiming that anyone who watches BL is just like men watching lesbian porn and fetishzie the lgbt communtiy- which is somewhat true and a valid argument! But it keeps assuming that ALL women who like BL don't have reasons for it.

like twilight or 50 shades of grey were cult classics and majority of women were the reasons it was so popular, but most like bdsm/dark tones in a relationship but since most men and women deal with domestic abuse to the point where its not funny, a fantasy is easier to indulge than a harsh reality.

Also MOST who like BL aren't even women, their LGBT themselves! male protags are more popular than female protags their is NO lesbain/trans/ase feminine equevilant of stories out there-

Also porn is porn, regardless if its straight gay or even fucking tentacles its porn the whole point is fetishisation it's not as if we conflate that with real life- what I'm just going to go to a zoo and kidnap an octopus!? Honestyl????

Good omens we have School of good and evil- awesome! But what about star trek, sherlock, destiel, klance, sherlock watson, stiles derek, steve/tony, etc etc. Where is the rivals to lovers in a ton of genre. Giving that anime is the only thing delievering is the reason why I watch anime.

I want feminisim? I watch sailor moon, cardcaptor, inuyasha, and kakeguiri.

If I want dark stories where the women go ape shit? Elfen lied, Utena, magical madoka, and so much more.

Its the fact the western media has 13 reasons why, netlfix YOU, sin city, idk name ANY movie by Zack synder I just- it's so fucking hypocritical. Because Media like celebrities or singers and influencers are way more gross and come across as sexual predaotrs. sex has been shoved down my throat since I was a kid as every celebrity was dancing in skimpy clothes singing about sex and this was during the time when kardashion came popular because she had a sex tape!

Its just annoys me when people point figures and act like a judge jury executioner when the west is JUST as bad with gross problematic themes. ugh I'm annoyed.

[catgirlcommie]

instead of watching new anime i am just sitting here thinking thoughts about madoka magica once again

[autisticandroids]

Very intriguing timely-wimey headcanon you got there, I'm curious how do you think hot girl!Castiel would have reacted to Dean trying to get with her, without knowing him to the depths of his soul would she/they be indifferent? Also if it's pre end of s8 and something happened in the past and he comes back and Cas acts like nothing happened (because of all the lobotomies) would Dean take it personally?

this headcanon

so here’s the thing. cas is, as a person, well. he’s very hedonistic, or perhaps, pleasure-seeking, with no impulse control. basically once dean somehow catches cas’ interest, it’s over for her. like, if dean manages to like. convince her to hang out with him? for a day or two? he would get into her pants. we know cas, all she needs is a little push and she’s mr. cause problems on purpose. he rebelled against heaven for dean after only knowing him for a couple months, i think he would fuck him after knowing him for a couple days.

like, it would take a really impressive first impression but here’s the thing. dean has cas’ handprint burned into his soul. his body is stitched together with cas’ grace (and imo cas intentionally left it there. you know. signing his work and all that). cas would recognize her own grace and be like “wow future me really did this? what the hell?” and then like...... dean would have all this knowledge of cas’ future actions, and cas would be like...... fascinated by the kind of person she could turn out to be. even if it was s5 dean, you know? like, she finds out she’s gonna fall from heaven! crazy! if it was later dean he would be cagier because cas has committed more crimes by that point and he wouldn’t wanna damage her self-image too much, but he would still tell her some stuff. and she would be intrigued. and she would be like “and i did it all for you? just because you asked me to?” and dean would suddenly get a little uncomfortable. also she might tell dean about all the grace inside his body and the mark on his soul, which would definitely cause him to feel some kinda way. the thing about cas is that she’s extremely horny. quite frankly if it was late season dean? and they were stuck together for a few days? she might come onto him.

anyway re: cas not remembering anything...... in order to keep myself sane, i have to imagine that time is self-consistent. like, dean can’t actually change the past because he was always there. otherwise i will go crazy. and there is some textual support for this, given that “the vessel” seemed to contain a self consistent stable timeloop, and also given that they canonically live in a mostly deterministic universe because of chuck. so like. dean had always already met kiss (and maybe kissed her) when they met in hell but cas hadn’t remembered it. maybe this had to do with why cas fell so hard in love with him when he pulled him out of hell. like. some madoka magica the fact that i loved you made it so that you went back in time and made me fall in love with you timelines wrapping around each other shit.

i think dean would have to see hot girl cas being taken away by the other angels at the end of their time together, which given that he’s already seen cas brainwashed in the rapture, like, he should be able to guess what happened. i don’t think he would be too mad that cas didn’t remember.

anyway. i can use whatever pronouns for castiel that i want.

[washipink]

Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion

It’s finally time. We’ve reached the most discoursed about aspect of the entire Madoka franchise. Does it stand up like I thought the rest of the show did, or does it spit in the face of everything that the original 12 episodes stood for?

Listen, I’m going to open with the fact that Rebellion is a damn good movie, actually. I’ll just get that out of the way. I enjoyed Rebellion. It put a lot of thought into the shot composition. Every damn thing about this movie was foreshadowed or symbolized incredibly early on. Did you catch that the teacher’s lesson at the beginning was expressly about the Second Coming of Christ being what ends the world? In this case, Christ is Madoka and the world is Homura’s labyrinth. We know from the beginning that wherever these girls are, they won’t be there forever. As on the nose as I found the Jesus allegories and religious worship of Madoka, I do have to acknowledge that Ryuki Episode Final had a Virgin Mary allusion in it that was really overt. Then again, I liked Episode Final a lot less than the actual show.

In a twist of fate, there actually aren’t that many Ryuki references in this one. Rebellion told a story that WASN’T just fucking Ryuki again beat for beat.

Floating around in the Labyrinth were these blue hands. I’m sure they mean SOMETHING. My thought is that they’re a representation of Homura’s need to be in complete control of this space. Why are they blue? Fuck you. I’m not answering that question. My favorite part of this movie was when @mngwa​ started talking about Flower Language and I was like “How do they decide what flowers mean what the fuck they’re plants” because when people on the internet talk about this shit they talk like the English Teachers that inspired every single “Curtains Blue” post. THAT’S why the hands are blue, ok? Because they’re the curtains. Are you happy now?

Next, the topic of Madoka Magica and Women’s Suffering. We talked about how I don’t think the show really Glorifies suffering. But we realized during the movie that HITOMI definitely does. Hitomi BREEDS suffering. @gaycodedvillainy​ was responsible for the very excellent theory that Hitomi is just fucking kyubey’s witch form. Kyubey doesn’t have ANY feelings so he just fucking turns into Hitomi, who has MANY feelings and NONE of them are good or helpful to herself or anyone else. She’s homophobic, she wants to steal YOUR boyfriend specifically and no one else’s, and then she doesn’t even have a GOOD relationship with him. We talked in the last post or so about how her feelings are usually directly involved with pushing Madoka and/or Sayaka into Kyubey’s clutches. Side note: it was really fucking funny when I thought Hitomi was just NOT there because Kyoko had pretty much replaced her entirely in terms of the friend group.

The last thing I want to talk about is the fact that Homura didn’t... actually do anything wrong in the last third of the movie. Sure, she separated Madoka from the Law of Cycles. But think for a second. What does that MEAN? What did that DO? It just made it so that the laws of the universe existed and a person gets her life back. All Homura really did was act like this was an evil thing she was doing. Because she presented herself that way, some viewers turned off their critical thinking and decided to just straight up believe her. Why would you do that? So many people hate this movie because they missed the part where she SPLIT Madoka. She did not “destroy” the law of cycles. The law of cycles is now an autonomous force of nature rather than BEING Madoka. Madoka can be with her now. I did think it was really weird when Homura was like “Then I suppose you’ll be my enemy one day. But that’s okay because I love you anyway.” Because Homura could have done or said pretty much anything NORMAL in this situation and just elected not to.

Anyway, Rebellion was actually really good. I consider it to be BETTER than the show itself. 8/10.

[chococrab]

that moment where u wanna write a lil viego scenario in a madoka magica au where he becomes a witch, UGH I JUST, gonna write the context here fuck it

man just imagine, viego wished that isolde falled in love with him with i guess kyubei because he is gonna be in this universe, got the wish and at the same time now hes a magical boy and have to fight the witches of camavor.

one day some dudes wanna kill him but isolde dies instead yada yada, read the biography of viego, gets so upset and just like bad which make his soulgem dark, almost to the limit, desperate to have his love back goes to the waters because it can revive things ig i dont remember im in a rush

heres where the shit goes wild because isolde dont like stab viego in the chest but instead nothing happens, like, the little hope that viego had just destroyed while he sees the body of her love under the waters and then just a big explotion occurs because his grief seed have hatched

and hes a witch, a witch with a selfish nature, i wanted to change also his name because the witches dont have the same name as the person they where, do i thinked in give him "romeo" because well, tragic love ya know the deal

thinked so much in maybe give him in hos witch desing a big ass hole in the chest but not like a lil one like in his ruined desing, like u can see the heart black af, maybe he wears a king like armor too and he not only attack with the sword he have but with the black mist that is not like mist, is more fluid, like water, i wanted to give a bit of importance to the place of hatching too giving him that detail, maybe his scenario would be like a maybe underwater cave theme

i wanted to give the power a bit of a relation with the game itself, that he can like control the bodies of the ones he kills, well he wished that isolde love him back, almost like controlling her mind, manipulating feelings, his power as a magical boy was to control enemies when they are knocked out, this can apply to familiars too in case of fighting a witch, as a witch he can comand his familiars to attack or do different actions appart from the ones they can do alredy

man this writting is a mess but im doing my best to make it look good ;n;

i cant write but i can draw so maybe can do smth with it

im not sure what his familiars would be, i have been thinking for really rusty and not cared knights toy like figures, i wanna the familiars to represent how little he cared about his status as a king and take care of the kingdom, just having eyes for his love, im mot sure neither of the names but was thinking in maybe "valentín" to keep with the romance type of stuff

i dont think i have nothing else to give so ye, have this mess

[trickstermadness]

A Decade of Anime Suggestions

Wow! It’s Officially 2020! Spicy. I know I dont tend to make actual post on my blog but I really would like to give a few shout outs and suggestions of Anime that I personally really enjoyed this past decade! Let me know what shows meant a lot to you as well please!

2010

Durarara!! 

Durarara came out in 2010 ( the first season at least ) and I mean if you’re at least vaguely a part of the anime community you’ve probably heard of it. Its a show that is honestly all over the place but its a fun ride. Simply put it’s about color gangs but it also has a headless fairy and a man who can throw vending machines? Its wild but a lot of fun.

2011

Madoka Magica

Magical Girls? Check. Friendship? Check. Soft lesbianism? Absolutely. Death? You betcha. This was not the first show I had seen that was on the Darker side but it was the first one to initially sell itself as something happy and fun. 

Madoka Magica sells itself as a typical magical girl anime where young girls transform into frilly cloths and beat up monsters but this show helped to revolutionize the genre. While a lot of the shows that come after it that try to follow its formula dont always come off as genuine this anime put its best foot forward and had a beautiful soundtrack and interesting art styles. 

2012

what can I say, i didn’t hate the shows in 2012, but none felt meaningful enough to me to add here. Tell me your favorite anime form 2012!!

2013

Free! 

aww yes, free, the sports anime to get people into sports anime. there is no denying that this show is full to the brim with Queer Baiting but hey, It was fun to watch and did get me genuinely interested in swimming. This was the start of a lowkey obsession with sports anime for me ( not all of them made this list tho but if you want to know what other sports anime I like hmu!!)

2014

Haikyuu!!

Dudes being Bros? Aw fuck yeah. This show was one of the shows my friends and i watched together in High School. The Large supporting cast made it easy to have at least one (if not a whole team) character to love with all your heart. These characters helped motivate me in my day to day life, and I know that sounds kind of silly but their optimism was grounded in reality, it wasn’t some big quest to save the world, it was a story about High School boys wanting to play and win at Volleyball and their determination helped me a lot.

2015

Kekkai Sensen 

I have always been more of a fan of fantasy rather than SciFi but this show really does it for me, balancing itself right in the middle. You you like either SciFi or Fantasy I would suggest you give this show a shot. (or if you just like pretty animation and funny characters) The first season is a bit bumpy but its still a beautiful story! Its the kind of show you can keep rewatching and every time notice something different. 

The simplest overview of the plot is that Our World and Another universe sort of overlap, but only in New York, which is then Renamed Hell Salems Lot. But like even before this there were like vampires on earth? Idk the show never takes itself too seriously because it knows its plot is kind of Out There, but the main Character Leonard Watch is basically just trying to do his best to make money to send back home to his sister. Its really sweet but also really wild.

2016

My Hero Academia

Honestly you cant watch anime and not know what this show is right now, but its first season came out in 2016. The general Pitch of it is like a Western Style Comic Book Hero but set in the typicla Japanese School Setting that anime loves. Its really fun and even if its not your favorite show it defiantly deserves a spot on the list

BUT! so does...

Mob Psycho 100

While I couldn’t leave out My hero academia, it felt wrong not to mention this Gem of a show. Mob Psycho 100 is beautifully animate ( yes you heard me right, i think its beautiful, the art is weird but its still pretty and the animation is so fluid) Simply put its about a boy named Mob with Psychic powers who is crazy strong, but he doesn’t want to use his powers because they wont get him what he really wants ( the attention of his childhood crush) As a young boy he wanted someone to teach him how to control his powers and he found Reigen ( a conman who pretends to be a psychic) and thats the best I can explain without spoiling anything!

2017

Land of the Lustrous 

This show has one season and its pretty slow. There is a plot, i guess, but i have no idea on how to explain it in a way that makes sense! It mostly made this list because of how beautiful it is. It is fully CGI and it is stunning to look at. Even if you don’t plan on watching the show I would suggest watching the theme song at least.

2018 

A Place Further Than The Universe

This show is an emotional bitter sweet rollicoaster. It starts off with a girl who feels like she is wasting her youth and wants to do something big who then meets another girl who wants to go to Antarctica because thats where her mother passed away and she wants to “see her one last time”. Its a sweet story about friendship and youth and loss of a loved one and I would 110% recommend this show.

2019

Promised Neverland 

The promised neverland is a psychological thriller about children being raised in an orphanage finding out that they are more like cattle then children. The show is about the three Oldest trying to figure out a way to escape before their 12th birthday. 

That concludes a decades worth of good anime!! I hope the next one hold just as many of not more amazing shows!!

[ghostmartyr]

SnK 130 Thoughts

My opening joke is going to be a brief description of Historia’s circumstances, because it requires no creative energy on my part to make it a joke.

To review!

107 introduces the concept of Historia being a breeding factory. This is suggested as part of Zeke’s 50-year plan to establish Paradis without it being genocided to death. At the end of 107, present-day Historia is shown to be pregnant.

At the very beginning of 108, the Military Police openly discuss how this is kind of weird. And while the mood is largely in favor of Historia having children so the Founding Titan stays in Paradis control, she’s having a child at a very inconvenient time for everyone, because she’s supposed to eat Zeke before he can cause trouble.

In 114, it is revealed that Zeke’s actual plan is to sterilize all Eldians so they die off and stop being a problem. By virtue of five seconds of pondering, this falls apart when you consider that Zeke’s plan is the beginning of Historia being prepped to breed children. Having any royal children would actively interfere with Zeke’s ability to guarantee that his choices for the Founding Titan would be the last.

In 130, Historia is shown to still be going along with the 50-year concept, and no one is stopping her except Eren, who is against Zeke’s sterilization plan (which a child would stop), and who says that Historia making this kind of choice is what’s driving him to genocide.

To which Historia suggests a baby.

-draws a line back to 107-

-underlines Eren’s angry feelings about all of this-

This would make sense if it were live action and the actress were pregnant.

Not within the story or anything.

But an explanation would at least exist.

I should take up drinking. Or cocaine. Or something.

There’s virtually zero content this chapter. Half of it is just Eren going on rampage. This is how you know it’s the end of a volume for a story that’s ending. The subtle ways the story beats come firing at a machine gun’s pace before slowing to a deliberately controlled crawl.

Surprise, Liberio’s no longer a factor!

-surprised Pikachu faces-

-everyone officially burnt out on violence-

-except Eren-

-this is a problem because Eren is indeed causing the most violence, and violence would probably be a great help in stopping him, so having someone on that boat thinking they should just fucking stab him would be just a little encouraging that’s all I’m saying-

Then we dash straight into a slightly more visible flashback to Eren’s memories of the future being unlocked, and get to the development of his genocide plan.

It isn’t much of a plan.

It mostly still involves genocide.

But worse.

He’s basically going to do what Karl did, only when he tells people on Paradis that all the humans beyond their borders are dead, he won’t be lying. He is keeping the genocide and the mind-wiping, though. In this spirit of how well that worked out previously.

This is a choice.

A bad one.

Even by Eren’s current standards.

This is especially impressive given that he has none.

Alrighty then. Uh.

Here we have Eren’s mission statement. That’s nice?

“The only way to put a final end to the cycle of revenge born from hate... is to remove that history of hate from this world and bury it in the ground, civilization and all.”

Legitimately, Eren’s entire plan amounts to, “The First King was right about everything except not actually making us the last humans alive on the planet.”

See, Zeke’s plan of killing all Eldians off is evil and bad, and Eren is disgusted at the very idea of going along with it.

Eren’s plan of killing everyone else off, regardless of who they are, is a good one.

As is manipulating all of his friends into following it, telling them he hates them, fairly directly letting one of them know this is basically all her fault, and.

.

Look, I’m sorry, but what the fuck?

I mean.

Fuck, do I have to go full Madoka on main?

Here is a brief summary of the third Madoka Magica movie, for those who do not understand the reference: Person who has spent her entire life torturing herself to save one girl feels like she didn’t save the one girl hard enough, and compensates for this mental breakdown by turning into the literal Devil.

These are decisions that can be explained by trauma. The character in question has been through a lot, and arguing that she’s too emotionally stable to undo the universe is harder to do than it feels like it should be.

She still takes the established order of the series and 90% of the movie and drops it in the shredder, leaving the characters who are around and aware of this move to stare, aghast, as the new world order is established.

To catch up the uninitiated, when the new world order is established in the series, it’s a happy ending that ties up all the struggles everyone has been through. Not necessarily neatly, but they’re honored, and the cast continues on.

The new world order of the movie is one character screaming “NO” in various cries for help as she pounds her heart into the pavement and the pavement is everyone else’s quality of life.

..

Anyway, the current reason everyone on the planet hates Paradis enough to attack it is because Eren publicly murdered civilians at a festival with international significance, including the one Eldian in the world with good publicity.

Things weren’t pretty for anyone, but Eren snatches the ball out of the court and throws it into the backyard with vicious guard dogs. He decides to bring everyone into a war, and he decides the initial terms. He makes a violent declaration, and ever since, the story has been devoted to people catching up to him to ask what the fuck his problem is.

As opposed to the usual routine of catching up to him to steal him back from whoever’s kidnapping him that week.

Eren’s the direct cause of this mess.

Fucking Marley doesn’t help, what with their hundred years of brainwashing and titanizing to actively keep the hate of Paradis alive -- but Eren’s the one who turns it into an issue of national immediacy when everyone around him is trying to find more time.

All the while going, “look what you made me do”

Right.

Where it breaks down for me isn’t that it makes no sense for Eren to have fallen this far. This entire series has been destroying him one piece at a time, and I do feel like you could have a very powerful conclusion with Humanity’s Hope turning to Humanity’s Despair, and the people he once inspired having to bear the torch themselves instead of forcing one person to carry their entire future.

Hell, that could still happen. I would still love an ending where Mikasa wraps the scarf around Eren, and he’s finally saved from himself.

What’s aggravating is that as many ominous hints as we’ve gotten about Eren’s monstrous nature throughout the series, there’s just as much material of him loving his friends, and wanting them to be free and happy, and understanding that walls aren’t the only prison.

Angry Eren the Rage Boy is there. He’s even easy to understand, sometimes. OG Ymir’s history inspires a desire for death and destruction. It would be and is wrong, but the impulse isn’t difficult to parse.

He’s more than that. He stays up all night listening to Hange’s theories. Armin’s dreams of the sea catches his mind like wildfire. Fighting Annie even after she’s revealed to be someone who’s ruthlessly murdered his comrades is painful. He wants to believe Reiner and Bertolt are innocent even when they’re making the worst show of hiding it. He smiles every time he sees his friends genuinely happy.

Eren’s rage has always been a direct response to his views of the world. The slavers are monsters. He has no problem killing them. Titans are monsters. He wants them dead. He runs off in Trost and gets his leg chomped off because he’s so upset that a bit character we barely spend time with is being eaten.

“When we’re born... all of us... are free. People who reject that, no matter how strong they are... don’t matter.”

Since leaving his friends in Marley, Eren has rejected the freedom of every single one of them. He doesn’t tell them what he’s up to, but expects them to have his back. He pushes events into motion that nearly lead to all their deaths. He actively lies to Mikasa about how her brain functions. He tells Historia to get on board or have her memory wiped.

The rage and agony and helplessness Eren feels isn’t particularly strange, in my mind. He hasn’t coped with any of the manga’s arcs well, and the few victories he’s been part of have landed him in worse and worse places, emotionally.

The conclusions he’s reaching don’t work.

It isn’t that strange for people to not realize that they’re contradicting themselves, especially when they’re in this frame of mind, but Eren loves his damn friends.

Meanwhile, he’d find it easier to take if Mikasa were attached to him because her bloodline made her do it, but that’s.

Actually, no, that’s relevant.

Eren suggests plot magic chemistry before he considers that Mikasa actually loves him.

He’s a dying man.

He’s condemned himself already. It doesn’t matter what he does, as long as his friends are alive. Anything else -- everything else is secondary. They’ll be alive, and he’ll be dead, and it’s as simple as that.

But it isn’t like he doesn’t know right from wrong. This might be a wrong he can accept on his deathbed, but it’s undeniably wrong.

How horrific is it that people might be so attached to him that he can do all this, and they’ll still fight for him instead of putting him down like the monster he is?

Eren struggles with greys. If he’s willing to be the bad guy, it makes sense for him to commit. He’s rejecting freedom, so by his own rules, he doesn’t matter.

It would be so much easier for him if everyone else agreed on that point.

He seems to be doing what he can to make that happen.

...But that’s just whimsical speculation born of profound pity more than anything. I still have trouble figuring out what his deal is. He’s eviscerating his friends in the name of them surviving, but he still terms his want as them having “long, happy lives.” While actively interfering with both those aims.

This chapter doesn’t seem to leave much room for a secret other plan that Eren is secretly putting into action. That’s been my hope from the beginning, and pretty much every bit of my confusion here is why. The majority of the conflict here comes from Eren deliberately fucking things up. It’s like he accidentally poisoned a bunch of people by using the wrong chemicals to clean up the dead body of the person he killed who totally deserved it, and figured the best following response was to repeat the process.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that the Eren we’re starting to see looks broken beyond all repair, and we’re missing the breaking point. We can puzzle out possibilities and trauma, but at the end of the day he has chosen such a destructive route that it needs more justification within the story.

Personally, I think that this Eren is buying into his own bad press so completely that he’s stopped giving himself freedom. That is my most established take.

The fact that that read play in nicely with Mikasa wrapping the scarf around him and taking him home has very little to do with that except that’s where my brain spends most of its time now, I guess.

.

.

AND NOW WE’RE BACK TO HISTORIA BECAUSE WHY THE FUCK SHOULD I EVER GET TO HAVE A SINGLE MOMENT OF PEACE.

Hell.

I am tired of going over all the ways in which this does not make sense. I am, perhaps, equally tired of how every single time the pregnancy subplot comes up, it manages to get worse.

‘what oh noooo she’s being used to breed an army of royal babies who will eat their mother’ ‘wait nooo she manipulated a guilty childhood bully into fucking her so zeke could live for some strange reason’ ‘oh nooooooooes it turns out she actually goes and fucks npc farmer guy because zeke needs to live for eren to commit genocide and if she doesn’t let eren commit genocide that’s bad for some reason even if she was just saying it’s actually bad for him to commit genocide’

I.

????

Additionally, I realize this chapter has probably reinvigorated people’s theories that Eren is the father, which. um. continues the trend of being worse, because then you have Historia feeling like she’s backed into a corner where fucking the guy who’s about to commit genocide is her only option because if she can’t come up with some good excuse to not eat Zeke he’s going to wipe her memories.

(ETA: Hours later, I sit here remembering he can’t actually wipe her memories until after Zeke shows up. Oops. ...That somehow manages to make all of this make less sense.)

I deeply do not want to discuss that element.

I’m just bringing it up to establish that every way you spin Historia’s situation is fifty shades of rape, and it’s skeevy as fuck along with making no sense.

Glad to know that in two years, literally nothing has come along to make this better or more logical.

That’s vaguely true because it lends more credence to the idea that it’s all a lie, but at this point, the writing is breaking its own back bending over to try and make this work.

“If there is a most reliable way to make sure that this island lives on... I’ll go along with it. There was no other way... But... you defended me back then... everyone acted for my sake... That’s enough for me.”

I’m going to try to explain my problem with this without screaming.

I’m probably going to fail.

The thing is, Historia’s entire arc is about fighting fate.

Her entire arc is about undoing the cycle of abuse her family has perpetuated, breaking free of it to reclaim her identity as a person and forge a better future for the world.

She almost kills Eren for her father’s approval.

When she doesn’t, her commentary isn’t that it’s wrong, or ineffective (though she’s aware of both these elements).

She makes her case very succinctly.

“God?! What a load of bull!! You’re just saying whatever you can think of to manipulate me and save yourself!! That’s it, I’ve had enough! I won’t let you kill me!!”

Replace “save yourself” with something related to Eren, and we have the exact same plot beat we already had, for a character who’s already gone through it.

Historia’s lack of agency would be bad enough on its own.

The entire focus of the pregnancy subplot has been that it causes Eren angst.

We have not gotten Historia’s thought bubbles.

We have received her verbal compliance.

We have had her misery over her situation on display.

This is something for Eren to feel guilty and angry over, not something for Historia to interact with.

On its own, that’s bad.

When you have it attached to a character whose entire arc is about breaking damaging cycles and living a life designed by her own choices instead of following orders and roles, you have a problem.

Historia never tries to resist this fate. Not that we’re shown. She��s clearly terrified, even in the scene where she staidly offers acceptance, but Eren is the one to speak up. She’s miserable whenever we see her pregnant, but every scene with her involves her sadly going along with this thing she clearly does not want. Even when she asks Eren what he thinks about her having a child, she’s unhappy.

This is the first time she’s gotten dialogue of her own in two years.

The first little bit is her shrugging at her inevitable suffering.

The second bit is being appalled at Eren’s everything.

Then somehow we land at her proposing her inevitable suffering.

Which...

How does that help??? Anything???

My answer to that is that I’m Team Fake Pregnancy, and Historia is proposing a hypothetical thing where she ponders how her having a child would play out, but I’m sorry, what?

Eren’s upset about you losing your bodily autonomy.

Among other things, yes, but having a child you’re not enthusiastic about is the entire fucking ignition point of this fucking fuckening idiocy how is it that NEITHER OF YOU ARE IN POSSESSION OF YOUR SOLITARY BRAIN CELL WHAT IN THE  F U C K.

Even if you read it as Historia not having a child with the intent of future cannibalism, but simply having a child to get out of eating Zeke --

Holy fuck is that not better.

It’s still her feeling forced to have a kid because the alternative is lots of people dying.

She’s nineteen.

At the very fucking least this could have the decency to be her story, not a story built around making the main male lead angst enough to commit genocide. At the time of this writing, we are denied that, and while I don’t think this is totally beyond saving, the story the narrative is selling is inexcusable and insulting. The only room for improvement is if we’re actively being misled.

Which is a valid theory, but that doesn’t change my disgust at what we’re being told to believe.

Having Historia simply accept her fate is a sledgehammer to Historia’s entire character development, and Historia’s character development is a microcosm of the guiding themes of the main story. You can’t dethrone her without the manga’s entire thematic significance ringing false.

Also, while I’m here, Eren’s being a fucking prick.

In case that was somehow missed.

'hi historia friendly reminder that i’m only here to commit genocide because you saved my life because like you said you’re the worst’ ‘lol remember that time you said the titans should just kill everyone and i teased you and you said you were caught up in the heat of the moment well guess what i listened to you and everyone’s gonna die thx for the protips’

Anyway.

This is either really good or really bad.

Because Historia does some very stupid things. That is not a writing flaw, it’s a character flaw and feature. She’s impulsive and dumb and realizes things conflict with her principles nine steps into committing criminally negligent homicide, and if that’s how this is all justified...

Hell, I guess I’ll just be tired. Which I already am, so that’s. fine.

It’s funny. This is one of the times I could have gotten away with writing barely anything, since half the chapter is just trailer shots for Eren’s monster movie. Yet here we are, many words in.

I’ve thought a lot today on if I should keep reading or not. One of the things that got under my skin is that I’ve spent a long time coming up with ways for this all to turn out okay. I complain a lot, and certainly lose my temper, but I like to think I stick around because however bad this gets, I have faith that the story’s thesis is that beauty wins against cruelty.

If that’s the case, I want to be here to see it through. I want that high of things being okay when all signs point to nothing ever being okay again.

But it’s been a long day, and I’ve spent two years split between anger and hope that I’m not sure if I feel because I trust the story or if it’s become a habit I’m afraid to break.

Or if it’s because if I did give up, I’d feel insanely guilty for any of the times I’ve tried cheering people up over the bleak things going on in the manga.

I want this to be a happier story than anyone I know thinks it will turn out. I’m an optimist to a degree that people tolerate, but don’t find particularly realistic when gauged against the content.

The main character is on a genocidal march in the name of friends he has broken and betrayed. Friends who can still barely vocalize the option of putting him down.

I don’t know if I want to be here for this.

I don’t think I need to watch more cruelty unfold, no matter how much beauty survives it.

[firebunnylover]

LoSH S2 discussion

I love Legion of Superheroes. And i love season 2, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think about how it could have been improved. In terms of quality, it varies more than season 1. Some parts are top tier while others… eh.

Season 2 is darker than season 1. And there’s the inherent stigmatism that darker means better. But it’s not true.

A horror schlock film is not inherently better than an animated film.

I don’t blame the staff on all its shortcomings. Kids WB was on its deathbed, so they probably had less time to work and iron out ideas. And executive meddling.

The second season had a lot of good elements, but there are things that weighed it down. I am here to discuss how to improve said things.

Heads up: ended up editing part of this post after rewatching the episodes.

This first bit is more of a personal preference, but instead of the 41st century, maybe move the original source of conflict to a farther region of space, one that the UP doesn’t interact with, and has been growing in terms of turmoil until they finally resort to bringing the Legion over. In other words, it has just been put aside by everyone else to the last minute.

Parallel to Brainy’s relationship to Brainiac. He doesn’t want to deal with it. He never brings it up. But maybe if he did, he wouldn’t have gotten corrupted.

This place still has plenty of old documentation of the original age of superman, so Kell is disillusioned with the ideal glory days. Keep Kell Edgy.

Kell’s home and K3NT still gets destroyed - reflects Krypton’s own destruction.

SPEAKING OF KELL:

Make his story more apparent that it’s one realizing that kindness is not an inherent weakness. And neither is being soft. He was raised for fighting and killing Imperiex, and was taught to think that they were weaknesses. Have him realize his identity can be beyond the Clone of Superman made to kill Imperiex. Or rather, have him react more to realizing that he’s moving beyond his given identity.

To clarify; they do address his development in the show a few times, but I want more continuous development instead of the rapid nods we get. Have him try to interact in a more humane way with others. Especially with other members of the Legion. Where they have to take a double take in seeing him acting not that edgy. Maybe offer more flashback of him fighting Imperiex in comparison, and how he treated allies then.

Also put K3NT’s story under the microscope. I doubt Imperiex just came out of nowhere with his attacks. Plus the fact they went far enough to send a hitman after a fucking child? That screams yikes and maybe we need to double check the story.

And an overall issue to be addressed is what rights do robots have and what conditions need to be met? Because let’s face it, we make robots to do complex work for us. But Colu is a culture where the main people ARE robots. Like in Transformers. What line do we draw between non-sentient robots vs the sentient ones in the 31st century? And what about cyborgs/people who give up their original bodies for robotic ones?

Plus Imperiex himself came to be because of the perfected combination of organic tissue and robotics. This topic of robots and individuality/personhood could have been a fun topic to explore.

Don’t sideline the girls. Leave TG alone. 

Don’t put SG in a coma for nearly the whole season - seriously it’s the reason why the guys make one bad decision after the other. Although with that said, it’s because she’s not around we got the majority of s2 plots. She’s the goddamn mom of the squad. Just make her busier and unable to keep an eye on her idiot boys for the plots based on bad decisions to happen. 

Or have her deal with after-effects of what Esper did to her. Maybe after a whole season of being the emotional support character, have her be the one in need of emotional support or not being able to help directly, especially when the group needs emotional support. Emotional support paradox.

Maybe don’t make Cosmic Boy appear as much as a dick in the episodes where he does show up. He’s trying to hold this goddamn team together, and there’s a goddamn tyrant trying to conquer the galaxy. HE’S FUCKING TIRED AND STRESSED. AND IM SURE THERE ARE A BUNCH OF JERKS WHO WANT TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT TO DISSOLVE THE LEGION. Better yet, throw in some more backstory with him and his little brother Pol!

And in regards to Imperiex… The dude has a lot of potential. I like his voice actor, Phil Morris. The guy voiced Dr. Sweets from Atlantis.

But his writing needs help.

In the original DC comics, he’s the embodiment of Entropy. Anyone who’s seen Madoka is probably familiar with what that is. But if you're not, here’s a definition: “ the measure of a system’s thermal energy per unit temperature that is unavailable for doing useful work...” He’s the embodiment of that energy that cannot be used for anything. And Entropy grows over time.

Another definition of what Entropy is “lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder.”

In the comics, he’s more of a cosmic being as a result of him being an embodiment of unusable energy. He’s been in existence since, well, the beginning. He had destroyed the universe and recreated it multiple times. Okay, so that lines up with how the show portrays him. And technically, he does get the universe to reset itself in the 41st century when he alters the 31st century enough.

But I personally feel that making him a cosmic being is kinda… meh?

I personally prefer more personal villains most of the time. Don’t get me wrong, an Eldritch being done right makes a great character, but I can’t see Imperiex as one. At least not LoSH’s version.

Plus I like it when the protagonist sees the villain has a point and has changed as a result for the better.

You know, over a year ago, I used to think that it was impossible to make a tyrannical villain who’s presented as real evil seem complex.

And then… I was introduced to TFP Megatron.

Now for you LoSH fans who haven’t watched Transformers Prime, Megatron was once Megatronus. A low caste member who worked in the mines and Gladiator games. He wanted to fix the growing corruption of Cybertron. To make things better.

But his worse personality traits took over, and he lost that good motivation. Now he’s just fighting to win and defeat Optimus Prime. 

But despite the change of goals and ideals, he doesn’t want to simply abandon his relationship with Optimus. He and Optimus, or as he used to be called, Orion, were fighting for the betterment of society. And they meant something to each other. Megatron doesn’t want to just get it over with. He wants fanfare for his victory over Optimus. And he doesn’t want anyone else to rob him off that. But he isn’t opposed to getting Optimus/Orion back on his side. It’s because of this you can still argue that there is a remaining shred of good in him.

They were the best young lovers anD NO I AM NOT CRYING OVER THEM!

Also, the fact we know he was part of a minority group in the form of the lower cast  that was enslaved can make us sympathize with Megatronus of the past, as well as understand how he came to be.

It doesn’t mean we forgive him for his actions - and he has done a lot of shitty things. And I mean a lot.

But his history is more understandable. TFP Megatron’s a fall from grace.

OK I’m done dissecting TFP Meg’s writing.

We know Imperiex was a slave, and was originally organic, who’s from a society where his purpose is literally just to fight, and was gradually stripped of his original body. He was originally stripped of any agency before then though.

But he says this was a good thing. Calling his original body a weakness. And refers to his old self as a pathetic slave.

He gave up whatever softness he had.

Also, this is where K3NT’s story needs to be reexamined. Imperiex was made during what K3NT described as “A Time of Extended Prosperity”. That time had freaking slaves. And K3NT says that when Imperiex did rise up, they were unprepared. So… they were prosperous, but lacked defense to prevent anything like that happening? Or perhaps those who were in charge were that unpopular that it was easy for Imperiex to start the war.

What made him decide conquering the galaxy was the next thing to do after he had every bit of his original self stripped away? Why go as far as destroy it?

What I’m trying to say is that they could borrow a few pages from the Megatron book. Maybe he was once trying to better the society he was part of, but he decides to play the violent card at some point. And somewhere along that strategy, he starts to lose sight of the initial goal. With that, being the victor and in control becomes the main one.

Or perhaps he has grown cynical of the galaxy as it is and decides it just needs to go all together, and then start from scratch.

Like the second definition of Entropy, he gradually declines in predictability and descends into disorder.

Maybe to juxtaposition the fact that Brainiac became the main threat at the end, make him the opposite or foil to him. Rationality or logic do not serve as first-or-second influences to decisions under pressure. Emotions and his own perceived ideas do.

Speaking of Brainiac, maybe offer more of the OG Brainiac. Give us more of that smooth-voiced Corey Burton. 

Or TFA Megatron.

Seductive Bastard.

I’m sorry I have fallen for the shady-business-mafia-boss-but-morally-grey robot.

Also, the members of the legion that only get one episode focus? Give them more screen time. You can’t just introduce superman’s new adopted son Karate Kid and just not bring him for another speaking role again!

Actually, that brings me to another point.

As @spandexinspace​ pointed out, his episode is not the best, and is arguably the worst written of the whole series. Things that are issues do get brushed off to the side.

So a proposal on potential rewrite:

First, have the legion look over its current rules and what exceptions/changes they need to make.

Explore the subject of kids having to participate in these fights.

To clarify, kid shows are meant to be escapism for kids.

Shocking, I know.

So it makes sense that some characters would be the same age as the viewers. 

But while this is good representation, as you get older, you find yourself going “WHY WOULD THE ADULTS LET THEM ENDANGER THEMSELVES?!”

Kids having to fight at that age does have consequences. Batman Beyond certainly addressed it. So did Steven Universe Future.

Steven ended up being responsible for so much, that when he no longer needed to take care of things, he was unsure of who he was. And then there’s the fact he ended up with PTSD because of him having to fight so much. Then you have the fact that Greg and Rose never intended to raise him like their caretakers did... but as good as their intentions were, they still caused damage. Rose for… all the gem stuff. And look, Greg is a great dad, but not enforcing anything for Steven when he’s growing up still has it’s cost.

With Batman, he’s obviously going to do his damn best to keep kids safe, including the Robins. But sometimes, it’s not enough. He wasn’t able to keep Tim safe in the event with the Joker in Batman Beyond. Where he was held captive and tortured.

But the Batkids are never expected to resolve this stuff by themselves. Because Batman knows how much you can get screwed up as a kid. He fucking cares.

And to be fair, in most continuities I’m aware of, the other sidekicks came out pretty okay overall.

Except Jason Todd.

So my proposal?

Have Val originally with Grimbor, as a sort of Protege. But have the legion capture him, only to go “uhhh this is a child with no powers”. And Superman, being the good, wholesome paragon we all love, takes him under his wing.

In all honesty, I want Superman pulling a batdad for Karate Kid in his intro episode the whole time. That was the best part of the episode for me.

Plus after the events of “Cry Wolf”, the Legion should examine the no-killing rule. Because they do need to kill Imperiex to save the universe. But that goes against the code. But they can argue it’s a necessity. But Mar Londo is also a monster. He’s the everyday monster some of us have grown up with.

When do you need to make exceptions to kill someone?

And my final main suggestion:

Add more Mekt.

What the heck were you guys expecting? You all KNOW me by now. I LOVE MY GARBAGE BOY.

Joking aside, here’s what I would do.

Have the Chained Lightning episode pushed back, but have Mekt with Imperiex earlier. Most of us would yell “Why the heck would you join the guy whose main goal is to destroy the galaxy?!” But this is one of the easiest things to address.

Explore more of his past. Use the comic sources with him being outcast for being a solo on Winath. With that in mind, him deciding to side with Imperiex can make sense.

Why try protecting something that has done nothing but hurt you?

There’s actually a pretty good reason why he would side with Imperiex, as seen in Champions and Lightning Storm. Remember, Mekt was willing to cheat to get ahead of the sports competition he was introduced in. And also was thrilled when fighting Garth and was beating him on his own. He likes being in power.

Imperiex offers him that.

As for why Imperiex would bother with Mekt? That’s a little harder to answer. He knows that Mekt has a soft spot for his brother, and in turn sister, which proves to be the reason why the Tachyon Cannon fails. You’d think Imperiex would remove a huge fatality.

But he doesn’t.

Maybe he could hold another type of value for Mekt. Perhaps... nostalgia?

I’m still sold on the idea that they were sleeping together.

Also, give us a conclusive answer on where Mekt stands with the LSV. In the comics, he was the leader, but that role was given to Tyr in the cartoon more or less.

OK I think this has been polished enough for me to post now. What you guys think? Feel free to add on!

[altairattorney]

In response to your little rant about Homura's depiction in Rebellion, here's this.

"The end of Rebellion is... controversial, but let's unpack what happened here. What occurred?

Well, firstly, Homura was traumatized and tortured; the Homura at the end of Rebellion is not the Homura of PMAS; she's gone through trauma and loss that PMAS!Homura can't even conceive of. She literally turned into a fucking witch because Kyubey gaslit her into thinking she made up Madoka Kaname, according to Wraith Arc.

Then, during this process, she learns two important facts that fucks her worldview: 1) Madoka didn't want to leave her loved ones and give up her normal life if she had any other alternative, and 2) Kyubey is trying to destroy the Law of Cycles (that is, Madoka Kaname), and has figured out a means of stopping her from interacting with Magical Girls under controlled lab conditions, meaning they could eventually succeed in their objective.

That means if Homura let herself go into the Law of Cycles, she would be unable to protect Madoka, and the Incubators would eventually destroy her. Madoka will have been erased and forgotten with nothing to show for it. Homura could only cope with everything with the promise of being reunited with her and the solace that Madoka's sacrifice was worth it, and Kyubey took that away from her.

And, more importantly: Homura's wish had yet to come true. Homura's wish wasn't to be with Madoka, or to save the world. It was to protect Madoka. To be the one to protect her.

To put it in other terms, Homura was self-loathing to the point of suicide-ideation because she was worthless, good for nothing, a burden on everyone. That she should just die. Madoka saw worth in her, and tried to change that, but Madoka died.

Only one person in her entire life ever told Homura she was happy to have met her and this wonderful, kind, happy, heroic, courageous, beautiful, miracle of a person who walked into her life to tell her those words died.

DIED. FOR. HER.

Died to protect her. Died so that a worthless piece of SHIT like herself could live. Someone who had EVERYTHING in the world died with a smile to protect someone who didn't even want to. Not without her.

Not instead of her.

She was good for nothing before and now her mere existence caused the best person she'd ever known to die. She ruined Madoka's entire life by having been a part of it.

She has to fix it. She has the chance to.

She wishes, wishes, WISHES to go back, to unfuck this, to undo this, to be cool like Madoka said she could have been. To protect her. To be her shield. To be WORTH something because she protected something valuble. To pay her back for all her kindness like she'd never been able to do and finally, finally in her life, have done something that justifies everything else.

She didn't wish for Madoka to live. She didn't wish for her to be saved. She wished to be the one to save her so she could support her and reinvent herself as someone who isn't a garbage shit person.

And every single time, she fails.

No matter what she does. No matter how she compromises herself. No matter what disgusting sins she does (and she never crosses so many lines that she says she WOULD cross). Madoka keeps dying.

And most of those times. She dies for Homura. She dies, again, for Homura. She dies again and again and again and again in order to help Homura.

Until the very last time, she wishes to save Homura (and everyone else), so much that she never existed at all.

Dammit. Dammit. DAMMIT. DAMMIT. This is worse this is WORSE THIS IS WORRRRSE!

But she still tries to cope. Madoka's in heaven. She's saving everyone. Madoka had a smile. The world is BETTER, and she'll see her again.

Until the above happened. And Kyubey is going to destroy Madoka Kaname. She won't have ever been born and she won't even be saving Magical Girls. She'll truly be nothing.

Because she came to save Homura, fucking AGAIN.

And all this time she still never saved her. Never ONCE saved her. Not a single time has she ever, ever, EVER fucking saved her. Not ever, has she ever saved her, not even when Madoka made her final fucking wish.

Homura made a wish that never came true. So she never stopped being Good for Nothing. She has never made up for Madoka's kindness. She has never, emotionally, left that moment where she sobbed over Madoka's dead corpse in the water and the rain. And she's done that so many fucking times.

So that's her mindset. So when she saw the chance. She took it. If you can interact with Madoka, you can effect Madoka. So.

God dammit. Fucking for once. Fucking finally. This time, her last chance she'll EVER HAVE... she will save her.

Save Madoka Kaname. Not a vague concept. Not a hero. Not a law or a god. Not a cosmic idea. Madoka. KANAME. The person who smiled at her and said she was cool. The person who helped her buy a cellphone. The kind, wonderful person who loved and named a stray cat and pressed her face to hers and laughed and congratulated her for her accomplishments. The person who said that meeting Homura was her happiest memory.

Why can't this person, of all people, be happy? All Madoka Kaname wanted was to live her fucking life. With her family. With her friends and classmates. Living her day to day life which wasn't anything special but it was so special to her.

She WILL save her. Goddammit, she failed so many times because she always kept holding herself back but if this is her last chance then GODDAMMIT fuck it all, damn herself too.

She never cared, really, about being with Madoka. She was willing to die for her. She explicitly had plans to leave the town to Kyouko after Walpurgisnacht and LEAVE (probably to kill herself so her Witch didn't come for Madoka). She was going to die for her in Rebellion so that she'd be safe from the Incubators.

If she could save her, if she can finally succeed and protect that human smile living her human life, it's fine if Homura Akemi isn't a part of it. If Madoka can smile, she doesn't have to smile at her anymore. That's PERFECTLY FINE.

So she did it. She stole a piece of the Law of Cycles. Not a big piece. Not the Law, or the Power, or the Salvation. The Law of Cycles still functions in some sense, because there's still no Witches, there's still Wraiths, there's still Angels.

She stole "Madoka Kaname", the human being that the Goddess used to be. She stole her, yes. She took over the universe, yes. But what did she do?

She made it so Madoka Kaname existed, again. Reunited with everyone she cared about. She gave Kyouko, Mami, Sayaka, and everyone else the happiest lives she could give them without undoing their pasts (disrespecting their agency and core selves), even if it was only to keep Madoka happy in her silver garden.

She tortures Kyubey but no one's crying tears over that fucker. She seems to be letting the world run its course as naturally as possible, save for suppressing people's memories of what's really going on.

Sayaka, alive. Nagisa, alive. Living with Kyouko and Mami respectively. Madoka, alive.

Hell, the only change she made that we know of to Madoka's memories is three years in America.

Because, canonically, English is Madoka's worst subject.

And now, she's great at it.

No matter what it takes. Madoka Kaname will be happy. She deserves it. And Homura will make that happen, even if she, herself, never is.

But yeah go off about how Homura is a yandere stalker who likes to kill people."

Hey there! I thank you for your post and your insight, and I wanted to clarify that I don't disagree at all with this view of Rebellion and how it ended. I think it is all correct, actually. The problem I have with it is 1. Rebellion existing at all, and 2. the way they portrayed her choice as an act of evil conceived by a demon.

To begin with, there are a few details that I don't think really make sense considering how pmmm worked. Homura shouldn't even be a witch, first of all. Secondly, even though she cannot know for sure, I don't think Homura would have willingly told Kyubey about the world of before if there were any danger. Heck, I don't even understand how Kyubey could possibly have stolen Madoka, now that she is not an entity but a literal concept, a rule of the universe. Imo that is beyond absurd. Third, I am doubtful Homura would have gone against Madoka's wish, even though I totally understand why she did in the context of Rebellion.

The problem I have with Homura is that people thought about her as a yandere emotionless stalker who has an unhealthy obsession with Madoka even before Rebellion existed. That was a popular sentiment, and the big, big problem I have with this film is that while what she did isn't inherently bad or wrong - as you explained - the movie paints her as a LITERAL DEMON in the moment she makes that choice, and ALSO at the exact same time she declares her love canonically. That is so fucked up in so so so many ways. As not literal it may be, they gave her that creepy smile, and show that Madoka is confused in her new bubble and feels like she is someone else but can't remember why. And Homura brushes it off. As wonderful as it is that she is there, Madoka is uncomfortable, Sayaka is obviously enraged and Homura plays the part of the Evil Character.

This is just all so unfair and so wrong. It doesn't only negate the way this anime ended - and of course Homura deserved to go with peace and quiet like everyone else. No magical girl has to ever suffer like that again, including Madoka, right? (There were so many ways to reunite her with Madoka, but no.) It also visibly paints Homura as being on the dark side, and validates the horrific lens people saw her character through even before the film. It canonizes her as a lesbian in the same moment she is doing something clearly framed as wrong, and, on a surface level, reinforces her obsession. This is just a textbook predatory lesbian trope. I am sorry if you don't see it the same way, but it is just horrific to me.

I will never agree with Rebellion existing. I cannot stand the ending of this anime being undone and Homura being punched in the face and further tortured both in universe and as a character, after all the crap she went through. It is just disrespectful.

And as I said, she deserved better.

[jutsei]

Alright so basically, changes to the setting

All people who gets powers get a fraction of power from a powerful singular entity who grants their wishes/desires/needs (Maybe a Wish Granter that ended the universe? Bill/Genie vibes), but the power gets stronger from their emotional state, which of course, ties to negative/positive emotions, it’s like an equilibrium, too much joy isn’t bad and can supercharge their abilities, but could lead to unwanted damage. But too much negativity gives the Superego/Ego/Id/Shadow more to work with, and if it gets thrown out of whack, they become a monster controlled by their negative emotions and have to be put down, because they can never return to being a human being

Other Entities help with the show by creating monsters/problems for them to solve, since they can’t grant wishes as easily.

Huo/Tat watch the setting with interest, and their attention gives the “Crew” working on the setting more power to do things, if unchecked they *could* become a problem (but won’t)

May or may not get Madoka ending’d and “reset’ as a new world with no RR influence at all???

Spinel/Nagisa inspired OC will have a bit of Soul Eater inspiration as well

Mathilde inspired OC + Spinel aren’t the central crux of the story

Main character will be Madoka inspired and learn early on how fucked up it is that this setting is basically a TV Shows, could be a Branch/Avatar of Huo/Tat sent to investigate the setting?

People granted powers are called “Actors” by the realm, with any Entities helping as “Producers”, are called other things by the people actually on the planet

[masahikass]

okay so since i couldn’t resist, here’s some info about my random ie:go steven universe!au because i have no energy for online lessons :)

also i didn’t want to post about another au since @/primsbean is making so many posts about her ie:go madoka magica!au which i fUCKING LOVE OHMYGOD- but yeah, alternate universes are my favorite snacc. i have another one to talk about but first let’s say things about the SU one <3

under the cut because it’s LONG - and remember i’m not a native english so i might do some mistakes

okay so first of all, don’t blame me if there will be some events that don’t follow the plot (since i’m NOT remaking steven universe with ie charas!!!!! please keep this in mind) or events that Rebecca Sugar would have never inserted in her show. I respect everyone who worked at steven universe, and my intention is not to say their plot/story was bad, i’m just adding something that did never happen with any chara in the su series to make my au more original, that’s it. peace and love oN THE PLANET EARTH- okay that was the best su song hands down

also keep in mind gems don’t have “gemmic” names (if you know just a little of the su series, you should know all the gems are named after their gem, but i wont give that kind of names to the ie boys - or should i call them gems then? lol)

all the gems - for now - will be males too (as there werent any og male gems in steven universe besides steven, which is an hybrid though so...)

i will list each chara’s gem and ability after the general plot <3

so, the actual protags (though all the charas are!!! these are the two) are Tenma and Fey, who are around 5,000 years old - please if you don’t remember how the gems’ years worked go search it up, there are so many threads about that - and protect inazuma city (insert shooked face) from corrupted gems’ attacks. these attacks are not really frequent and they seem to deal with the situation, but one day they start increasing, being more frequent than usual and also the gems who attack are stronger and different from the previous ones. Fey starts making a theory about a possible new attempt of the homeworld gems (i still haven’t decided which charas will “represent” them, though, since this plot is a kind of season 1 we could say??) to start colonizing Earth via war, as they already did 3,500 years before the current events but failed, with the terrestrial gems rejecting them but also losing a lot of them - since some of them got shattered during the war and others escaped to travel to other planets to start colonizing them theirselves so they could live a new, pacific life. Tenma, at first, isn’t that sure about what Fey said, but as the corrupted gems’ attacks kept increasing he realized he could have been right. as they’re the only two gems who protect their city, they start thinking they should ask help to someone, trying to find more powerful gems. 

Fey suggests to search for a trio (whose name is still not 100% sure... i randomly thought about Prism Trio just because I couldn’t remake Crystal Gems ahahah I still don’t know) which protect old war ruins in a forgotten area which is actually near Inazuma City though - but still, only some gems know about it, for example Fey did researches but Tenma knew nothing. This trio will be formed by your local ie:go chaotic trio aka Shindou, Kirino and Kariya (well, if i don’t get any more ideas for the name, then Gay Trio will be alright), who are respectively 7,600, 8,000 and 7,100 years old and actually fought in the first war. They find them fighting against a corrupted fusion, and try to join them to finish it easily and fastly. As they actually give the trio a good help, they still get scolded by them because they went in an area they shouldn’t have been to. However, the trio is still thankful to them for their help, and when Fey tells them about the situation in Inazuma City Shindou replies telling him his theory might be right as he had heard about the increasing attacks, also because the ruins were more attacked than usual in that period. Tenma kindly asks them if they could give their help back, coming with him and Fey and trying to reject the attacks together, even though he thought they’d never agree. Kirino is absolutely okay with that and shows positivity towards Tenma’s idea, while Kariya isn’t that sure since all of them should get used to a new routine, different from the one they were used to in the last millenniums. Shindou, who was neutral at the beginning, proved Kirino right since that would have been the best way to know more about the new attacks, and finally convinces Kariya to join them.

As they get in TenFey’s temple (which is the only thing IDENTICAL to the original SU one, except for the statue in the original version which is absent now), they start organizing their rooms (you know, in the temple there was that one door who led to each gem’s personal room, so the trio starts get used to them), they also keep fighting against new species of corrupted gems who keep attacking the city.

One day, then, all the five gems get to another ruins area, further from the ones the trio used to fight in, and at a moment Tenma remains alone and encounters... bepreparedtocringeihadnoideassorry... Sasuke. Yes, I did a Lion reference using Tenma’s dog instead. Original af, congrats. BY THE WAY,, he understands this gIaNt DoG (ohmygod the lion sounded better,, damn me and my dumb ideas) is related to gems somehow, and when he gets back - since Sasuke disappears after some seconds - tells the others about it, but everyone gets it as a joke and doesnt trust him. In the next fight, though, Sasuke approaches the gems and gives them help (still idk how, gotta rewatch all the lion episodes 382679345 times to get more ideas), so they all understand Tenma was right.

Some days after that, while Tenma is playing with Sasuke (gOOD BOY,,,,, I MEAN GEM,,,,,,,,,,), the dog drags him into a portal/warp (did i spell it good omg my english gets worse every day...) - just as lion sometimes does in the og series, lol - and since this warp keeps being open for some seconds, the other four gems enter it as Tenma might be in trouble alone. They all discover Sasuke led Tenma to an unknown area, which i wanted to be a desert bUT THAT LOOKS A LOT LIKE THE OG SERIES HOLY SHI- so okay, let’s make it a normal land, where there’s a fight going on. They notice a gem fighting a corrupted one all alone, and this gem seems really in need of help so they try everything to save him (oMg SpOiLeRs ThE gEm Is A mALe ToO!!11!!!111!) as they see he doesn’t have any weapon and only fights with the things he finds around himself, such as common rocks. That gem is no one else (???) than Hikaru *cries in i needed to add him hes so baby* who tells the five gems he had never seen such a powerful corrupted gem before and that he was used to reject the previous attacks in that zone more easily, and when Tenma asks him if he wants to come with him and the others to the temple Hikaru accepts without any doubt. As he gets to the temple, the others ask him if he has any weapon, but he tells them he never had the strenght to “develop” one. Perhaps, his ability (the only i’ll reveal here in the plot!!) is really useful, as he can generate light from his gem and make people and other gems blind for a limited amount of time - which, at the beginning, is really short but always increasing. He also wants to practice it as he wants to control the limit of time (for example, blinding people/gems just for a minute even if he could do for ten). When he shows his ability to the other gems, they all get blind... besides Kariya and here the ship sails *coughs* n-nothing, who is actually immune to the light’s effect. Being the only one who doesnt get blind, he starts helping Hikaru to develop his weapon.

I still haven’t thought about the rest of the plot, but there are still three characters I wanted to add. In order: Kyousuke, as an hybrid whose backstory will be way different from Steven’s in the og series (as he wasn’t born an hybrid, neither one of his parents was a gem), then Minaho and Manabe who are gems from another planet (not Homeworld, though) that are usually fused all the time... but, still, I have to think abt a plot ahah

If you’ve got this far, well... congrats? I know this is really long oh damn-

Btw, before I go, here’s the gems’ weapons and abilities as I promised! <3

Tenma: bow and arrow, he can control the wind

Fey: he basically makes grow poisonous creepers from everywhere (kind of inspired from Lapis in the og series as she generated water and could control it), controls nature in general

Shindou: sword, his voice can reach really high pitches so if he screams he can destroy things (and, maybe, he could start shattering gems too... who knows)

Kirino: lance, has a really high speed

Kariya: basically can make strong claws grow from his hands (idk how to describe it holy fuck,,, i cant draw either, if i could i’d have showed u), his ability is telekinesis

Hikaru: well, i don’t wanna spoil his weapon as i’m gonna make another post asap... i already said what his ability was, btw. also!! i didnt mention it before, but his age is around 3000 y/o

Kyousuke: katana, he can read any person’s mind for ten minutes if he had contact with them, same goes with gems but he must touch their gem in order to read their mind (age, in human years: 17)

Minaho: guns, he can understand if someone or something interacted with someone/something else just by smelling it (sounds cringe ik,, btw his age is the same as Manabe’s, 6,700)

Manabe: since i had no more ideas, don’t blame me if this sounds Peridot-ish, but he can actually generate small but powerful robots he can control and fight with, his ability is controlling technology in general.

Another last thing... these nine characters are the same of the other au i mentioned (which is way more calm than this,,, i also have more info abt that, too), so look forward to that too <3

I’mma go now, bye!

[electronicdelusionstarlight]

I'm planning to do a recurring theme in my fic where MJ gets one specific temporary set of powers during the climax of each arc in my fic so here's some possibilities I've brainstormed:

1) Access fuses her with Wonder Woman during the climax of the first arc, WW is knocked out by something and that's the only way MJ can save Peter and Felicia, who are kidnapped by whatever villain I decide to have in the first Arc (I'm partial to either Mind Controlled by Big Bad from next arc!Superwoman (Lois Lane) or Circe, maybe both).

2) Thor's Hammer during the Asgardian filler arc where they think whatever god caused her and peter to lose their memories of their marriage was an asgardian one, classic red herring, maybe drop in the fact she gets possessed by Red Sonja too while I'm at it.

3) Venom Symbionte for obvious reasons.

4) Spirit of Vengeance during Mephisto arc, gets dropped off in a pit by Mephisto people think she's dead actually a tree broke her fall and the tree is a prison for a spirit if vengeance and that spirit of vengeance is a collection of several repentant deads ala Ghost-Spidey hence her becoming... Red Ghost? Rubicant? I want to fucking quote Dante's Malebranche I'm going to go with Rubicant.

5) Star Sapphire Ring during Hybrid Arc, which, again, I'm only doing so Kitty or Rogue can brain the fucker.

6) SPOILER I'm gona have, like, this whole question over WHY would Mephisto want the marriage and resolve it by saying that in every universe where Mephisto steals their marriage MJ and Peter would have had twin daughters (unlike the ones where he doesn't get it so they don't have twins) and one would have Mantled Origin (Little Girl from OMD) and the other the Unbeing (Red Coat Woman from OMD) because after Quasar fucked up the unbeing Marvel's reality got saturated with Bullshit because nothing gets properly retconned anymore by the actual god of retcons and iys power is all abused by pretenders and hacks so if the Unbeing finally gets a vessel again they'll just restart reality like it happens every time in the DC Universe and renew it out of all the excess bullshit and awful things that happened to create the "real" perfect world and Mephisto couldn't have that so the climax is going to be MJ mantling both elder gods to erase FINAL VILLAIN (partial to Hybrid because he really deserves to get destroyed, maybe Mephisto for thematic consistency) but that causes a big crunch and kills The Twins (Gods) so she has to decide if she wants to become god of both universes ala Madoka or stay in void forever and that's awful and bad but then the Twins (Ann May and May Ann) decide themselves to become the new Twins, restart reality and create the "perfect" world instead where no awful editorial choice ever happened and everyone is safe, happy, if still challenged by the new superhero reality, shared between Marvel and DC, and no genocide nor sexual assault ever happened to anyone. Ever.

Roll credits.