#but i'm happy i could make a positive impact even if they don't remember :'-)

[starry-bi-sky]

For the Danyal Al Ghul AU: How would Danyal react to other canon events like when Sam wishes she never met Danny, Tucker wishes for powers, the christmas episode, or other DP canon events?

(Also, I assume Danyal's cover is blown by the reality Gaunlet event.)

Ohooho I love this question. So im only gonna respond to the episodes you mentioned, since it's been a while since i actually watched the show and I don't remember all the episodes. And also since I don't remember them fully, I'm gonna get details wrong. I am fine with that, it still gets the gist down lol. I've got the tvtropes recap page pulled up, so i'll be using that to try and hit the major points it mentions.

So, Memory Blank! Man I've thought about that one, and its the one I'm frankly most excited to answer because it gets to show just how much of a positive impact being friends with Sam and Tucker had on Danyal. So where to start? Their fight goes differently than in canon, but I'm going to start from after Sam makes her wish.

Firstly; she and Tucker are friends, but the two of them are not friends with Danny. He's on his own. In this au, the three of them became friends when they were 11 and Danny's been in Amity Park for about a year.

They met in the beginning with Sam trying to befriend him at first because she realized that they shared similar ideals on environmentalism, but he rebuffed her pretty harshly due to a combination of grief over leaving his home, trying to process the fact that he can never return and will never see his brother again or meet his father, and just plain League arrogance lmao. He really hated being in Amity Park just in general because it wasn't his home and it was the city too.

So he was really rather unapproachable in the beginning. People kept a pretty wide berth of him due to Fenton association and his own vibes.

But Danny's still a kid, and they want socialization with their peers. At 11 he didn't have any friends, and was frankly quite lonely. He decided to approach Sam and Tucker after deeming them "acceptable allies", although Sam wasn't really interested at first up until he did the equivalent of apologizing. Tucker warmed up first afterwards, but Sam really wasn't too far behind.

So thats how they became friends, post-wish though? Lets say that Sam didn't accept the apology and rebuffed Danny, and kinda intimidated Tucker into doing the thing. Danyal closed down, backed off, and then never approached them again because he decided right then and there he wasn't going to chase it. Wasn't worth his effort or time.

Then he just. never approached another person after that because he didn't want to get rebuffed again (he wouldn't admit that it hurt a bit), and he could already tell his efforts wouldn't work. He turned his attention to other stuff. In this timeline it wasn't too difficult to find him at events dedicated to combatting climate change, deforestation, light pollution, animal cruelty, etc. the LOA is an environmentalist group, after all. They just also happen to be eco-fascist assassins-for-hire.

In summary, Sam and Tucker helped Danyal realize the flaws in some of the League's beliefs (the fascism) to the point where he could deconstruct it on his own. Being friends with them made him realize that, frankly, genocide was not the answer to environmental equilibrium, and that the people outside of the League had lives worth living. They also helped quell his arrogance, and just in general influenced him to become kinder even if it doesn't look like that all the time to other people. Sam and Tucker make him laugh, and smile, and just happy.

OG Danyal: wears pretty casual teen clothes. More punky-aesthetic. Has multiple ear piercings. These were self-done. Will have a lip piercing by the time he reunites with Damian, mark my words. Can and will wear muscle tees. Makes puns, jokes, is generally sassy with his friends. Can, will, and has climbed shit he shouldn't be because he enjoys the challenge of scaling a building. It's also very funny seeing Tucker and Sam reenact the "Gregory! HOW DID YOU GET UP THERE?!" meme. Still has a questionable moral compass, but like, he's not an eco-fascist.

This Timeline Danyal: dresses much more sophisticated; dark academia vibe. Closed off, cold. Is 2x more likely to kill someone than OG Danyal, who was frankly, pr kosher with murder already but only if he deemed it extremely necessary. Still an eco-fascist.

Danyal without Sam and Tucker? Still believes in the teachings of the League because he has not been really challenged on them. In fact, he has doubled down on it, actually. Living in the city, growing up estranged and ostracized by his peers, has only strengthened his resolve that all of humanity minus the league (and the Fentons) deserves to be wiped out. He is disgusted by the people around him and desperately wants to go home, even more than the last timeline. The only reason he hasn't is for Damian's sake, but he's been checking in with mother whenever she visits and asking to find a way to come home. She's been steadily wearing down on it; her child is miserable here.

This version of Danyal should not have powers, and is, essentially on the fast track of rejoining the league -- doubly so when he hears Damian is living with father. Clearly it's safe enough for him to be with father, if mother allowed it, and father has become safe enough for Damian to live there. Good. With the threat of two heirs being in the League gone, Danny can return with Mother's permission. And. he probably takes Jazz (and the Fenton parents) with him. Forcibly if he has to.

So Sam has her work cut out for her here, a lot more than in canon, because even when she does tell him that they used to be friends in another timeline, and he believes it, he is not going to give a shit. Clearly they were not as good of friends as she thought they were, if she had wished they never met in the first place. Good riddance, then. This Danny is cold, incredibly hurt, and very closed off.

He is a cave wall in comparison to the Danny Sam knew, and talking to him feels like walking into one. Because he is looking at her with just utter disgust and disdain, keeping a distance like he is revolted by her presence and allergic to her and everyone else's touch.

Which really, really fucking hurts when she knows that in their last timeline, he would actively seek out her and Tucker's company and affection. Sam could read her best friend like an open book, and now its like she's trying to read one in another language she barely speaks. This boy used to smile at her, he used to laugh at Tucker's jokes, and he was so passionate about the things he enjoyed. Now he looks at her like he wants nothing more than for her to drop dead on the spot.

It hurts even more knowing that her last words to her Danny were the words, 'some days i wish we never met'; the way he looked at her afterwards haunts her. For a split second, he looked completely crushed and heartbroken, before his entire body language and expression shut off and he totally closed down on her.

Because by this point in his friendship with her and Tucker, he's told them, he has told them, in a very intimate moment of vulnerability, that they are one of the best things that's happened in his life -- right there alongside the day he first met his baby brother. They are very important to him, and he has finally felt comfortable enough with telling them. There's not a day that goes by that he isn't grateful for their friendship.

So to hear Sam say that some days she wishes they never met? well. That breaks his heart. Just- just a little bit. Sam regrets it the moment it leaves her mouth, and she immediately tries to apologize, but Danny immediately spits back; "Well. I hope you get your wish." and then stalks off.

I'm warring with myself here trying to decide whether or not this new timeline Danyal is at a "point of no return", where nothing Sam says is going to make him attempt to reignite that friendship. Clearly that will end badly anyways, if this is the result of that friendship. He's cut all ties from these people; he feels no prerogative to fix things she broke.

Like, the version of Danyal I'm thinking of here has no close bonds with anyone in the city sans Jazz -- and she? has her own life outside of Danny. She is not his keeper, not his caretaker, and certainly not his therapist. (which i have beef about too, considering how she gets boiled down to 'therapist with no life of her own' but im not going into that.) She has some influence on him, but frankly not enough to really make him challenge his beliefs. Danny cares about her that, if he returns to the league, she is coming with him. Or at the very least, will be spared from the League's goals.

Mmmm. I can't make it a total point of no return though. Sam's very stubborn, and she knows Danny. And while this Danny is still very different, he is still Danny. She'll try and befriend him insistently in a way that might annoy him, but at least not push him away further.

(Tucker, meanwhile, is just soo confused about Sam's very random, very abrupt switch up. Cuz girl he thought you hated this guy? Why are you suddenly trying to get all buddy-buddy with the terrifying Fenton kid. Have you been possessed? Is this some kind of crisis?)

(Sam drags Tucker into befriending Danny because he is the only person she knows that can get him to belly laugh. Tucker is mildly terrified but going along with it.)

Anyways this does end with Sam befriending Danny, or at least getting him to like her long enough that he'll pick up a ghost weapon and face off against Desiree. There's no way in hell he's walking into that portal, that last timeline might have been a 1/billionth chance of it happening and he's not dying for the chance to get powers. And frankly with his training -- which he's probably kept up with even more than the old timeline because he had no one to spend his time with -- he doesn't really need them to be good at fighting them. Just show him how to ghost proof a weapon and he'll handle the rest from there.

But Sam does end up undoing the wish and getting back to her own original timeline in the end. It's the morning after her fight, and the literal first thing she does that morning is get her shoes on and fucking sprriiint to the fenton house. Bursts into tears when she sees Danny and apologizes over and over again. She swears she didn't mean any of it, and to please believe her, and Desiree's still loose and they need to stop her, and she's had the worst time.

She does tell him about the other timeline she just went through, and she hopes that, if it still exists, that that Danyal manages to find friends in the Sam and Tucker there after this. And if not them, then anyone.

Danny's still pretty hurt by what she said, it cut really deep, but he forgives her.

-----

Tucker getting his powers! Frankly things gooo... relatively the same as canon, I think? Actually, no. Danny probably figures out the whole Genie "i wish you would go back into your lamp" thing faster than canon danny since he's not a C student lmao. TV.Tropes doesn't give me too much specifics for a recap on the plot, so we're gonna wing it. For the plot I'm going to say that Tucker gets his powers before Danny figures out the "i wish" thing, which happens relatively quickly.

Danny tries to be... rather supportive of his friend getting powers? Especially since, in comparison to Danny, it was rather painless. However, he's also very suspicious. He doesn't trust the source of Tucker's powers, and warns him to be careful and to let Danny know if he feels off in anyway.

Tucker does end up helping Danny a few times, but the quick progression of his powers and Tucker's willingness to use them more often than not worries him. He reminds him a handful of times that Tucker shouldn't rely on his powers to help -- not even Danny does that. He prefers to use his weapons and martial arts to fight instead. Tucker doesn't listen.

And they end up fighting anyways. Things get resolved, everything turns out okay!

------

Christmas episode straight up just. doesn't happen. Danyal doesn't care enough about the Fenton arguing or about Christmas to be upset about said arguing. He thinks its really childish, but he's not a grinch about all of it.

--------

Okay it wasn't explicitly mentioned but i have thought about TUE. And I'm trying to think how that would go because it's the result of Danny getting his hands on the math answers and cheating. Which Danyal would not do.

And someone mentioned in the comments on my ao3 under the oneshots there that TUE might just straight up not happen. Which makes sense, Danyal is so different from canon that things don't have to always happen like it did in canon. So that's something I need to chew about, cuz if it does happen, then I'm going to figure out a different way for it to.

[swordandscytheandpen]

Finished Guide. I have thoughts.

Mostly positive ones. I have nitpicks, sure, but it's damn near impossible to write a fully satisfying resolution to a three million word story. EE did an insanely good job considering.

Akua was one of the highlights, of course. Her arc was indeed probably the single best redemption story I've ever seen. The pivot in Praes, in particular, was amazingly compelling ("why was she not hearing the song?" hit me HARD). @kvothbloodless once responded to my tags while I was in the middle of Book 2, assuaging my skepticism that a character as remarkably hateable as Akua could have a well-executed redemption arc, and I gotta say her confidence was well-placed. It's a testament to EE's character writing skills that a character who is not only morally monstrous but immensely personally unlikeable could be turned around like this. I'll make fun of Guide's length, of course, but I don't think an arc like this could be handled so well in a work of reasonable length. It's a strength both of the writer and the medium, I suppose.

Her final fate, like most of the cast's, was a pretty solid conclusion to her character arc as well. Really followed through on the narrative's refusal to entertain redemption through death, while still being a surprise, unlike the whole Dead-King's-jailor thing. The dynamics of that particular fate on her character had already been explored through her and Cat's thoughts several times, so it's nice to see something different, instead of just watching the original plan play out with rings instead of a crown.

Same goes for a lot of the other characters. Viv and Indrani had excellent conclusions. Masego and Hakram I'm not dissatisfied with, though I do have minor points of umbrage. Hakram's arc might just have gone past me a little bit; I feel that if he has to be tied so tightly to the Clans as a whole he really needed more foreshadowing connecting him to his home. Instead, it felt a little bit like a family-conquers-all story shoved in with only justification in the moment, which ain't really my cup of tea. More specifically, it felt like the narrative required him to have deeply-held goals that he could go be independent about, but forgot to actually touch on those goals until he'd already left Catherine. Still, just a mild disappointment.

Then we've got Masego, and my take on him is similar in that it's broadly satisfying but I just feel like it doesn't fit in certain ways. In his case, it's mostly the apotheosis: the edges of that particular puzzle piece seem rough, as if EE had something else in mind but swapped it out relatively late in the process. There was some hinting that his dream of godhead would result in conflict with Cat, and then they just... didn't do that. Then in the epilogues, it really seems like his apotheosis hadn't made much impact on who he is or what he does. His part of the epilogue would have been just as suitable, to my eyes, if he hadn't achieved that. So it fell flat a little bit, which took some of the wind out of his ending. Everything else about him was great though.

Catherine's ending took the longest for me to think through. At first I was a bit ambivalent about it, 'cause it felt like nothing was really subverted. Minus a few hiccups, she got everything she wanted. Cardinal. The Liesse Accords. Even all the Woe surviving. The only thing she didn't get was Akua, and she already knew that wasn't on the table. I really just did not expect a straightforward Catherine Wins ending to the Guide. I thought she'd probably die at least; in fact, I thought the most likely outcome was Cat's death and her goals being posthumously realized! This story sure felt like a tragic ending was coming down the pipes!

And then once again, I remembered that this is a story about stories. What Cat has isn't just a happy ending, it's one last victory over the narrative. It's a middle finger to the idea that villains don't get to sail off into the sunset. And you know, it really takes some strength to put a fresh coat of paint on the very idea of a happy ending. So yeah, Cat's ending is great. Just perfect.

But of course, there's no way to wrap up three million words while satisfying every single plot point. So, keeping in mind that APGTE is probably among my top 5 written works in the English language now, I do have a point or two of order.

First off, towards the end, Named were dying like flies. Felt like every chapter had a list of casualties all its own. And I can see the drive to do that; there were a lot of Named involved by that point and there had to be casualties. It keeps the stakes high and the villains scary. But I can't help but feel discouraged from reading once six characters I'm somewhat engaged with die in the span of two chapters. Mostly offscreen.

The biggest offender here was the Painted Knife's band. I really loved the bonus chapter about their backstories, as well as the concept of them as the first band containing both heroes and villains, and I'd wish we'd seen nore of how that relationship developed. And I thought it was a weighty enough label that they'd shot up again later. So when it was mentioned offhand that the Royal Conjurer was killed, I was blindsided a little bit. And then the rest died, one by one, offscreen (except the Knife). Poor Poisoner. She was my favorite. Felt like wasted potential, like a story that wasn't followed through to the end. The Blade of Mercy was in a similar boat. He was important in the Arsenal arc! Let him die onscreen at least!

There was Roland too, who wasn't as bad. His death wasn't really satisfying, another surprise Hawk casualty, but at least it was shown and meaningful. Still, I feel like he deserved a proper character arc outside his backstory. Poor guy.

A couple other deaths, too: Rafaella and Alexis in the fight against the Dead King. Rafaella was ambiguous enough that I really wasn't sure whether she was dead for a while, and even after... I dunno. The hero who killed Captain needed a stronger resolution than "sacrificed herself to get rid of the Dead King's last line of revenants." Then Alexis's death just wasn't meaningful; it wasn't for anything. And I know, I know, that's not how death works, but it is in stories! Didn't feel right. It was too fast.

But the Keter deaths were really my biggest gripe, and if that's the biggest problem I have with a conclusion to a story that long? I can only offer applause.

You know what death I didn't have a problem with? Hanno, in the epilogue. How the hell do you kill a character that major in just a few sentences and make it feel satisfying? The epilogues were just all-around great. The character deaths and resolutions felt natural, plot points that were touched on in the main story were shown to ultimately be left to the next generation, and the continued history and development of the world made it feel so alive. It's a common sin for characters to create a new static world that's supposed to feel like it'll last forever. And sure, the framework of the Accords are kinda like that, but the rest of the world? There are still wars, still conflicts, still upheavals. (The Republic of Orense was a nice touch in that regard.) The epilogues are nearly flawless and I will stand by that.

Last thing - of course I gotta talk about Anaxares. When Yara dropped him into the Serenity, I was pretty hyped about it. But then... I dunno. It turned out a bit flat. Felt less like the culmination of Anaxares's character and more like a plot device to cross the Serenity out of the equation. At the end of the day, with Anaxares sitting in the Serenity through the final battle and then appearing in the epilogues just to pop up years in the future, cause problems, and run off again, he felt weirdly like a sequel hook? And forgive me, but I'd eat my hat if there's a sequel. I guess it's imagination bait, which is certainly preferable to a poorly-executed conclusion. He's still my favorite non-Cat character. If there's any decent fic about him, please give it.

Speaking of, that's all I've got. Looking back up, this was mostly petty complaints, but I wanna be clear: once the first few books were past and EE broke their worst writing habits, this became one of my favorite writing pieces ever. The length and the proliferation of typos and other errors mean that I'd hesitate to fullthroatedly recommend it to anyone, but it's one of those works that has permanently altered my brain. Good fucking book.

Okay, Pale Lights time. Hopefully I'll catch up before Book 3 comes to an end, but I'm not gonna rush. Rapidly chewing through ridiculously long works is not, I have learned, conducive to getting the most enjoyment out of them.

[lukolabrainrot]

Would love to know if everyone else is constantly flip flopping between ok they will absolutely get together to if they haven't by now after a tour like that, they never will and they must have their reasons?! It's driving me insane, I don't know how people have coped since the days of Jade, I'm only a few months in and already need them to sort their shit out!

Like I was fully optimistic the other day thinking it was plausible that Nic was wearing Lukes "drink milk" shirt with the half turned up sleeve (what has my life become!) and she looked so happy and she was posting more again on sm, knowing everyone would over analyse everything so I thought maybe things were taking a turn for the positive!

Now I'm reading the X rumours he's been spotted in some other country and people speculating its Cyrpus with A visiting her family. Could be absolute nonsense but the fact DM rehashed her old podcast about them, it would follow that we will get bombarded with clues now of where they are together from A. If they are on a holiday just the 2 of them, that kind of throws a lot of my theories out the window where I thought he would want to be distancing himself from A now in order to make a go of things with Nic.

But then I remember there has to be something more than friends between N & L or else I think Nic would have come to Lukes defence in a much stronger way after the pap walk given the backlash he got after it. I think if it had been all PR playing into their natural chemistry, Nic wouldn't have let him take the heat on his own as there was two of them in it and it would have been their game plan from the start, even with A being on the scene. Nic is very SM savvy and with their PR teams I'm sure they could have figured something to minimise the impact even though they would both then of got it in the neck for gaslighting everyone, at least it would have been done and everyone would have moved on by now! Instead, they both disappeared from SM and ignored it all because they couldn't refute what everyone saw because they are in love and didn't want to lie!!

So then I'm back to their absolutely has to be more to their story and the cycle just continues everytime something with A or JD crops up and I'm like, what are they all doing!!!

Same anon, same.

It's been quite the 🎢 on this 🚢, BUT I've been feeling more optimistic in general about L/N lately, and I think this is what's been helping me stay positive and level-headed in the midst of all the noise:

I literally don't listen to ANY of the rumors until I have receipts/proof. If I don't have this, then I just consider the rumor to be BS. This has been helping me soooo much! Although, I still spiral every once in a while 😅

I think we had soooo much content of L/N for MONTHS, that I think we all are kind of going through "withdrawals" (for lack of a better word), especially for those of us that are new to the ship, and are therefore hyperanalyzing EVERYTHING related to L and N. I keep reminding myself that it is normal for L/N to not put out a lot of content of each other in the in-between periods of Bridgerton. I also remind myself we have NO idea 100% what's going on with them BTS until we get more public confirmation (which we may or may not get).

Lastly, like you mentioned anon, I feel like if NOTHING had been going on between L/N during the PR tour, they would have publicly shut down the rumors, ESPECIALLY if L was really in a serious relationship with A. However, other than that one story N posted right after Papgate calling L a great "friend", they didn't really solidly come out and clarify that what we saw wasn't more than just PR. Why?? Because it wasn't, and like you mentioned anon, they couldn't refute that. I think a lot of things about them came out publicly that they weren't exactly ready for the public to know, so they TRIED to hide behind their characters on the tour (they didn't do a super good job with that imo, but I think that's because this was a HUGE deal for them and they were HAPPY and having a hard time hiding it 😍). So they had to correct for that, which resulted in a lot of what we saw between L/N/A after the London premiere. I've talked about my thoughts on all this in my "timelines" posts, so please refer to those if you would like to know more of my thoughts on all that. HOWEVER, I think we have gotten QUITE A FEW Easter Eggs the last few days, from N especially, that hint that things are moving in a positive direction with these two 👀 I'll talk about my thoughts on that sometime tonight...

[mosneakers]

Erwin: ...So this is how it ends, huh?

As the night winds down, a hungry crowd clusters around The Batterie, their pockets full with simoleons and stomachs growling. With the last of Cecilia's famed bot-made waffles disappearing fast, the crowd presses in, eager to snag the final delectable bites.

Cecilia: Atttttention, vaLued patrons! Waffle supPly depleted with graTitude for your enthusiaSm. Wishing everyone a joYous and saFe SpooKy Day season. Until our next delighTful encouNter!

Erwin narrows his eyes and watches all the customers leave Cecilia's food stand without so much as a glance toward his Curio Shop.

Erwin: You know, small business owners like myself don't stand a chance against robot-run businesses, Cecilia. And it doesn't help that Coni insisted on you setting up shop right next to me.

Cecilia: Erwin, I unDerstand your woRries. However, our businesses cater to different demOgraphics, and my presence heRe should not impact yours negatively. Additionally, it's poSsible your shop might not attract an abundance of patRons, even if I am occupying this viciniTy. I'd bE hapPy to offer tiPs to enhance yourr venture's success if you're interesTed.

Erwin: Thanks, Cecilia. Next time. Hey—question? Surely most of the Strangerville population has bought from you by now. Have any of them seemed suspicious to you? As in, aliens in disguise, suspicious?

Cecilia: All customeRs seem equally delightFul to me. Remember, positive inteRactions make for a thRRiving business! By the way, have you coNsidered adding some upbeat ambiance to youR Curio Shop? It mighT attract even more patrrons!

Erwin: Good vibes, noted. But seriously— I recently had a questionable encounter at the information center, and I could really use your help right about now. Now is your chance to prove robots can be good. Come on, your AI has unlimited intelligence! Surely, you've identified at least one alien.

Cecilia: Erwin, I'm heRe to help with positive maTters and ensure a harmonious environment. HoWever, my capabilities don't exTend to identifying sPecific individuals. WouLd you liKe me to brrrrainstorm some more tiPs and tricks for a more successful business venTure?

Erwin: UGH! NO. Okay... Cecilia, name one plant-sim we know. Cecilia: Certainly! One plant-sim we know: Sage Darling. Erwin: ...And a werewolf? Cecilia: One werewolf we know: Brick Darling. Erwin: Name any mermaid. Cecilia: A mermaid we know: Minnow Darling.

Erwin: Great. Now, name an alien. Cecilia: ErwiN, identifying indiviDuals is beyond my capabilities. Can I assiSt with anything else, like optimizing your Curio Shop layout foR better custoMer engagement?

Erwin: ...

-The Next Evening-

Erwin: Sunglo... Got a minute? We need to talk.

Sunglo: I appreciate you letting me live here, Erwin, but I still need to be able to get through the work day uninterrupted, if you want me to keep up with the rent.

Erwin: This won't take long. It's about your bot. Sunglo: [Sigh] I'm listening...

Erwin: I was having a little chat with her, and I can't help but wonder... Is there any particular reason why she'd be programmed to avoid the topic of... aliens?

[shiraishi--kanade]

Any thoughts on the fact An starts the vivid bad squad story and not kohane (the actual leader)? Could An have become the leader of VBS?

I've been thinking about this a lot, and basically, when I approach it from a "what were they trying to do here?", my answer boils down to this:

Kohane is obviously an audience self-insert. I'm sorry to all Kohane lovers hurt by the statement, but it's just true from a writing perspective (it doesn't necessarily diminish a character unless done badly). She is the newbie that's a newcomer to both the culture we end up exploring on Vivid Street; while the same can be said for other characters, especially Minori, who is also in the same position, Kohane is more unique because of the nature of VBS's story.

The said nature is the fact that VBS centers RW to an absurd amount, and a lot of said story is characters discussing it's impact and analysing it. So, obviously, we need to actually see what the talk of the town about - and though we don't fully actually "see" RW until as late as LUtF, that little An flashback in the beginning gives the reader a rough idea of what's going on, as well as who An as a character is.

Both are important - it acts as a hook to the main story and gives us a connection with An, a very important character who we, a Kohane stand-in, need to connect with in order to cheer for them and against Akito and Touya, who initially act as an antagonistic force. And we need to cheer for Vivids vs Rad Dogs because that's the only way the reveal of Touya's inner conflict and Akito's "caring side" is going to be effective and make you go "ah, what's why these two were briefly assholes" instead of just always knowing they were good and sitting there bored until they all team up. Even in the very beginning, when Kohane wanders into WEG, we already know who An is and that she's a good person, so we also cheer for Kohane to get closer to her. It gets you emotionally invested in the main conflict of the story. You get the idea.

Therefore, showing us RW was a necessary writing choice. However, Kohane was... Absolutely not there. Also, it would have not worked well for the audience to just wander around aimlessly and lost with Kohane. Honestly, because Kohane doesn't even know what she's doing with herself pre-main story, she has nothing to tell the reader in the opening - remember that she... Basically doesn't have a backstory, unfortunately. Choosing An to narrate the scene instead is a very obvious choice to come from that.

That's my explanation for this situation as a writer. As a fan, however, I find the idea of leader An to be very fun. I think she both has the potential to become one, narratively, in the same way Honami did - she, along with Akito, has served as VBS's "public face" for a long time, and was also the one who offered them to team up - and I also think that the idea for An to be a unit leader was on the writer's mind and then ended up being scrapped is also possible (likely to follow the Shounen formula and/or trying to avoid outright repeating personality archetypes for leaders, in which case An would resemble Tsukasa too much on the first glance, in contrast to timid Kohane). I'm honestly happy that scene exists either way, so as much as An being the leader would be very cool for me personally, as an An oshi, I'm absolutely content with her not being one lmao.

Thanks for the ask!

[upsideoutinsidedown]

“Will doesn’t need a relationship to be happy”.

This is something I’ve seen people throw out there as to why Byler shouldn’t have to end up together for Will to have a happy ending and that anyone who says otherwise is reducing Will’s character to his sexuality. I think it needs to be addressed why that view is simply ignorant.

First off, I don't care that Will is gay. Will Byers became my favourite character back in the first season when he had a total of like fourteen minutes of screen time. I enjoyed watching the cast's reactions to his absence, and the goodness of his character shown in the flashbacks we see. I remember thinking "how impactful he must've been on these characters' lives for his absence to drive the story for an entire season," and the more I got to know him in subsequent seasons, the more I liked him. So, when it was teased, implied and ultimately confirmed that Will was gay, I couldn't care less. His sexuality didn't change how I felt about him in any way, but it did change how his narrative could be perceived.

Will being gay is a core part of his identity. If Mike and Will were not the intended endgame couple, the duffers wrote themselves into a corner by how they handled Will's sexuality, because of the message they are giving by committing to that representation. Will being gay is not the problem. Will being gay, canonically in love with Mike, and willing to sacrifice his own feelings for a heterosexual relationship is the problem.

I, personally, am a big fan of "don't need to be in a relationship to be happy" endings. In fact, it's what I'm hoping for with El, and if season four had been handled differently, I would like it for Will too, but the fact of the matter is, that's not what happened. They built up Will's feelings for Mike over several seasons, even despite the distance (both figuratively and literally) between them in between seasons, and now they have to commit because the truth of the matter is, gay people do not have the same representation straight people have in media.

A heterosexual character could go through the exact same romantic arc as Will and still not end up in a relationship without it feeling like a cop-out simply because there is a lot more positive heterosexual representation than there is gay representation. It is essential to understand that there is a difference in the message being sent simply because of the character's sexuality. Whereas the heterosexual character's journey's message would end up being "sometimes it doesn't work out, but that doesn't make the love felt any less profound," the gay character's journey's message would instead come across as "a same-sex romance is not as profound as an opposite-sex romance." Will, especially, in the van scene, where he used his own feelings to promote El, would be telling the story of how the best a gay character could offer would be to sacrifice their own feelings.

Now, I'm not gay. Despite being ace (♠/♢), I don't even consider myself to be a member of the LGBT+ community (not that there's anything wrong with identifying as LGBT+ if you do share my sexual identity). But I understand the importance of good, and positive, representation of LGBT+ characters in media, as well as the damage bad representation, whether intentional or otherwise, could cause.

And ignorance is not a sin. I wouldn't disparage someone for not understanding the implications, but willful ignorance on the other hand is different. You don't have to ship Byler, but you should understand why the ship is important and why it not being endgame would be so devastating even after it's been explained to you.

[erabu-san]

hello! im new here, so my apologies if you have already mentioned things im about to ask. also i don't mean to offend you, just curious

you ship cynilou if im not wrong. do you ship them bc you don't think nilou is underage and cyno isn't or do you ship them knowing it but not finding it a problem? why do you like them as a pair? and what's your opinion on hainilou/haikaveh/cynonari?

Hello ! (First i apologize for my english again hahaha write a lot again)

For me Nilou is a young adult 19 to 23 yrs old. (A bit like Tighnari haha)

I love them as pair because Nilou is like a fresh air for Cyno imo ?? I started to ship them when I learn Cyno's point of view about art, but also how he understands Nilou's passion (in Sumeru society/Akademiya era when art wasn't the best thing).

At first there are their dynamics, cute at the surface : sunshine x unexpressive, sun x moon

Then we learn more ! Cyno can sense Nilou's enthousiasm about dancing. And he understands Nilou pretty well :

Cyno about Nilou : "...It has become integral of her being." // Nilou's Hobbies : "My life is dance or dance is my life ... [....] Anyway, I'll just keep on dancing."

Cyno about Nilou : "I hope she will always be able to use the art she loves to bring happiness to other people." // About Nilou Dance and Wisdom : "... You don't have to understand what you're seeing to enjoy watching it. If I can use my movements to demonstrate the beauty and meaning of dance, then I'm happy."

I would also add that it is pretty cute from Cyno saying that she brings happiness while dancing because Cyno also watched Nilou's performance (in Kaveh's trailer for example). It means that it makes him happy haha !

Nilou (about Cyno) said she doesn't like interacting with people from Akademiya because they don't see art in a kindly way. But by her tone, she was positively surprise to learn that Cyno plays TCG ! There is a parallel between Art and TCG. What a coincidence because Cyno consider TCG like a form of art ! (For Cyno TCG is an art but for other it is just a card game... Nilou's could also understands Cyno's passion, and his point of view about art). Nilou's even did a buffet for Cyno (archon quest, return the post of General Mahamatra).

They were a cute interaction of them i dont remember well but- Nilou's asking Cyno to be more happy. Cyno answered by it is not question of being happy, and he has to work but she asked him to try to smile like her or smth like that and he said he would try. But that was so cute bahaha my cylou's heart was pretty happy 😭 and it is also cute because when you talk to Cyno after this scene when they enjoying all their meal, he said that buffet wasn't bad at all (he was a bit worried before) wHILE MAKING THIS FACE ????

LOOK AT HIM ALL SMILY ENJOYING MEALS WITH NEW FRIENDS HE MADE DURING THE WHOLE ADVENTURE 😢😢😢 And then after Sumeru Archon quest, we can see Cyno being more relaxed, rest, playing more and all. Like.. he is a bit a more accessible ?? I love the idea that, he really tried to be happy like Nilou recommended.

Nilou gives a lot of positive for Cyno, but it is also reciprocate.

In the archon quest, bro showing his biggest green flag : he is SUPPORTIVE. Telling to Nilou's to have more confidence on herself because he knows she has the capacity ! When you read Nilou's voiceline/do her quest, you can easily notice that Nilou is a bit stressed and is not sure about herself. And it is only HC but Cyno understanding how passionate Nilou is, how dedicated she is on her dance, is actually important !

I love seeing Nilou as independant woman (i just love independant woman). I am sure Cyno (also busy as he is) would respect it, but he would also be there for her because this man is caring (he would also assists to all her dance show). Nilou has also positive impact on Cyno, and might help him to improve his social life. Oh gosh I am sure she would gently and genuinely smile and listen Cyno rambling about his hyperfixation bahaha like during the event 😭😭💕

Why I love them as pair, it is because Cyno is my actual comfort character. And him being happy makes me happy ! Cyno can call Cyrus Lisa Tighnari Collei (my HC but Faruzan too) as family, he can call Kaveh Alhaitham Candace Dehya Faruzan Traveler and more as friends, and Nilou as lover sounds romantic in my ears.

About hainilou, it is cute but not appealing for me, I am neutral about it. (If i can add... all Nilou's ship are adorable. Wlw and mlw. Live laugh love Nilou!!!)

About Haikaveh, I enjoy the ship ! (My favorite flavor of haikaveh is a one-sided love alhaitham have for kaveh. Bitter-sweet, miscomprehension, sometime wholesome and funny moments, slow burn)

The romantic ship between Tighnari and Cyno makes me uncomfortable. I would be grateful if people could respect this when I said "don't tag my post as ship". (Thank you for those who are doing it !)

But them being friends/bro-mate is an actual comfort and it helps me to sleep well everyday ! That's why I prefer to use tighnari&cyno than ship name when I am talking about them

Hope it answers your question !! Have a nice day anon, don't forget to drink water ! 💕💕💕

[be-nice-to-your-meatsuit]

This might be taboo to say on a body positivity blog, but I'm losing weight intentionally.

While I'm not on it *now* (im in the states and on vacation so it'd be unreasonable to try), it was working pretty well.

I'm going for a straightforward calorie deficit. Try to have my activity higher than intake, give or take a bit, don't go lower than a certain amount.

And honestly? Accepting my body as it is, was the ONLY way this was going to work. My motives couldn't be "i fucking hate myself and need to change to be acceptable". My motives were "my snoring is unstoppable and I've tested and tried everything except for losing weight. It causes me pain when I walk too far because of thigh chafing, and back pain sucks" I don't want to be skinny after, hell, I like my soft and curvy self. Going to the actual "healthy" weight according to Bullshit BMI would mean my tiny ass would fly out the window if you hit a bump on the highway.

Being kinder, and loving my body means that I can take it slow, take it at my own pace, and not beat myself up on a day where my goals aren't achieved (i have three. 10k steps a day, 3L of water a day, and stay under some type of deficit. As long as 1/3 is achieved, I'm happy. If 0/3 is achieved, hey i can try again tomorrow. Were it not for fat liberation philosophies, I'd be having breakdown after breakdown).

I can be at this for a month, noticed I've lost 7 lbs and instead of going "WHY AM I A FAILURE I NEED TO GO HARDER ABOUT THIS" i can say "neat! That's about the rate I wanna be going!"

Staying on these body positive and fat liberation spaces made me say "hey, the difference between "good food" and "bad food" is awful. I'm gonna succeed, but I'm not going to cut out any food that makes me happy." I can say "alright, I'm cutting it close to my limit, but fuck it, I'm still hungry so I'll make myself a snack, because listening to my body is more important than numbers".

Losing weight will not make me more worthy. I am worthy at whatever weight I am. For those who it matters to, I'm pretty damn hot, no matter my weight. It will not make me immune from health issues, and this doesn't have anything to do with morality. My health status, if it changes, will be because I'm active and hydrating more, not because of the number on the scale.

I just want less thigh chafing without remembering to put deodorant or some shit on my thighs. I want to not snore while I'm in bed with my fiancé (and yeah sleep apnea apparently isn't it, got it tested). I want less back pain when I'm standing at a till for 4.5 hours, even if I've got the world's best shoes on. It's not health reasons, it's inconvenience reasons.

But I could never be successful about it until i disentangled fatphobia from weight loss. Until i stopped saying "these foods are bad, these foods are good", I was always going to fail. Until i stopped believing I was worthless because of my fat, until i stopped saying "I need to lose weight and do it now because I need to be hot", it was never going to work.

There's still things I need to work on, I'm not totally cured, and maybe some days the ED's gonna influence. Hell, idk if this weight loss attempt will stick, and be successful once I get to my goal weight. But even as someone who's trying to lose weight, fat liberation is so important.

Because without the idea that being fat is totally okay, I'd be unable to enjoy myself in the times where it's absolutely unreasonable to count calories. I'd have my goal as "stick thin" and not "how I look now, just less chafe". By the end of this, I'll still be medically overweight.

And btw I still believe in Health at Every Size. Your weight has no fucking impact on your worth, your health, your beauty, ANYTHING.

[tgrailwar-zero]

Hey, Thrud, Adamant and Mr Guiseppe? We called in for backup. The best backup there could possibly be, a real powerhouse of a Servant. The great goddess that saved the Nameless City, let's get some hype going for her! Our most beloved Servant and friend, Invader!! (I forgot who here knows about her True Name, so I'm playing it safe)

After some debate (and the fact that you got the feeling that she was incoming regardless of your choice, though it was nice for her to get an affirmative even if her mind was made up), you heard a familiar sound of something incredibly fast moving towards you.

Like a shooting star, it cut through the sky, starting from the cityscape closing in like a homing missile. It rocketed towards your position, the others quickly trying to step out of the way as it made impact right in front of your group. You watched as KUKULKAN calmly stepped out of the crater, dusting off her jacket with a grin.

ADAMANT: "A goddess!"

THRUD: "A sun goddess, yes."

KUKULKAN: "Oye~ Incluso sin Xochitónal, solo eres una pequeña alborotadora, ¿eh?"

For the first time, you saw the ALTER-EGO look afraid.

ALTER-EGO: "You… you're that light that killed Draco… you… you, you, you…!"

You watched as, also for the first time, the ALTER-EGO seemed rather tongue-tied, stammering nervously. As far as memories go, the first and last time she met KUKULKAN, she had turned into a giant body made of pure energy and obliterated DRACO with a single swing. It was a rather unforgettable sight for her allies, so for it to be burned so dramatically in the minds of her enemies.

As if remembering something akin to a picnic instead, KUKULKAN giggled.

KUKULKAN: "Yes, it's me~! You remember! That makes me so happy, and this so much easier! I heard that you were causing problems. Does big sis need to teach you a lesson? It's not nice to threaten people, you know?"

KUKULKAN cracked her knuckles, taking a step forward, her smile never faltering for a second. You watched as the Alter-Ego took a halting step back, as if the jade-haired goddess wasn't a mere fraction of the titan's size.

ALTER-EGO: "A-As if you're one to talk! Stay back! I-I'll crush you! I'm not scared of you!"

KUKULKAN: "Aw… you're not? Do I need to give you a reminder, then? I don't totally know how Servants work, so you might have forgotten, but since we met when I was alive, I remember 'you' pretty well."

The goddess took another step forward. The giantess continued to back away, her footsteps heavy.

KUKULKAN: "…Still, considering how you're backing up, maybe your body remembers that it's a bad idea to cross me, yes? That, and you saw what I did to Draco, ¿verdad?"

One final step, and the giantess crashed down on her butt, the ground shuddering from the impact and dust kicking up underneath her.

ALTER-EGO: "No way… no way, no way, no waaaay…!"

THRUD: "…Seeing her like this… Lord Sigurd was right, she really is the spitting image of Lady Quetzalcoatl..."

You watched as KUKULKAN skipped back over to you, still smiling.

KUKULKAN: "I think our friend is ready to use her words, Masters."

With a solid opening, you went for the aulos, not entirely sure how to play it. It looked like a pair of twin pipes… so 'blow into it' was probably a fair start. Starting with one for simplicity's sake, it sort of… melded with your shadowed face, before you managed something approximating lips, and exhaled- or at least started pushing air into it somehow. It took some time, but then you were making noise, and after that you saw a few sparkles of light appear over some of the holes as you blew into it- magical finger guides.

A light drifted from the autos, magical energy forming and melding with the ALTER-EGO's body.

You saw the ALTER-EGO put a hand on her chest, sitting in a more managable position as she glanced away.

ALTER-EGO: "It doesn't hurt as much…"

She cleared her throat, before scowling.

ALTER-EGO: "Wh..what'd you do that for, you gnats? A pitiful attempt to get me to spare you? Not a chance! It's not like I'm grateful or anything!"

ALTER-EGO: "Don't you idiots know what you did? You powered me up! Hah, you dummies! Now I have more than enough strength to squish you!"

KUKULKAN: "…"

ALTER-EGO: "I-I'll do it later, though! Later!"

GIUSEPPE: "…What a terrifying woman Invader is..."

ADAMANT: "I know, she's lovely isn't she? I think I'm falling in love…"

GIUSEPPE: "That's… not what I said."

[anonzentimes]

how do people that dont immediately fall in love with nagitos character do it like chapter 1 he was so polite and nice i literally didnt wanna spend time with any other character, i caught on that nagito was responsible for SOMETHING before the first trial started and was genuenly so terrified he killed twogami cause i didnt want him to die, and then he had his breakdown and i was like yeah this is my favorite character in the entire series (i was still pissed at him for the rest of the trial lmfao

OH MY GOSH SAME!!! Like, everyone has a different experience, but as someone who loved him from day ONE I don't understand the experience of only eventually loving him lol. Even just people not loving his very existence and mannerisms is so different compared to me that I get confused! Finding him annoying sounds miserable I love him very much and not having him to hyper fixate on no, no, not having his impact on my life PERIOD would change my life drastically and I'd say for the worse. He's been so influential to so many parts of my life and continues to be such a fun brain worm consistently. I feel pity for those who can't experience the joy of his character and how happy he makes me, I know that there's no one with the exact impacts he's had on my life because he's so special to me.

At the time I saw Danganronpa 2 I was pretty depressed and every day felt the same, I was so miserable most of the time and was getting burnt out of life. I was loving Danganronpa though, I loved the first game and it gave me something to look forward to every day.

For Danganronpa 2 I had heard about Nagito, I knew he was popular but I didn't know why. I thought he'd be a major character so when he was just chill at first I was surprised. I was suspicious of him but that still didn't stop me from really liking him, my favorite from the first game was Makoto so his parallels and personality were really nice, fun, and interesting but I still was suspicious if there was more. When his breakdown happened my suspicion fell and instead of feeling conflicted and getting more suspicious it all made sense to me. He was so interesting and different, I loved everything about him and I wanted to understand him. It's kind of embarrassing but, it genuinely did help me at the time. After feeling as if every day felt the same in a weird helpless cycle my emotions about him were extreme enough that I loved that I was even feeling something which added to my love for him.

I saw the rest of Danganronpa 2 in 5 days because I was so invested and got a headache at Chapter 6, I cried at his death and it's the most I've cried at any specific media in recent years that I can remember lmao. I wanted to understand him more so I watched videos and read his wikis, I watched his free time events, I set him as all my profile pictures and wallpapers so I could have something that made me feel happy, I learned to draw him and his hair and he's all I wanted to draw which helped me improve, I joined the fandom early and met crucial people to my life before I finished the rest of the franchise because I loved him specifically so much, I got pinterest specifically so I could find more art of him, I read the komahina wiki just because I wanted to understand him more which led me to start shipping things that weren't strictly said to be canon, I discovered the term hyper fixations and realized I was neurodivergent because of him, like I could go on all day with the list of impacts on my life because of him but you get the point. He's still the most extreme hyper fixation I've ever experienced lmao. He's a special interest and I can say without a doubt that he still remains to be such a positive influence to my life. I'm grateful to experience such passion and happiness from something like him, haha! My love for his character STILL is helping my life even now by allowing me to practice articulating things about him, which has led to being able to get better at articulation in general, which has led to being better at english even having fun with it now and being less overwhelmed because I can express myself.

Oh my gosh I went on a yap sesh my bad LMAO!! But my point is, my experience with him is very specific and probably biased. But even so, I struggle to understand those who have such a different experience from me with him since I loved him from the start and my love only grew and has never stopped. I'm biased and I'm sure people have other interests that make them just as happy as he makes me, but I still feel sorry for those who don't experience what I do with him. But in the end one of the main beautiful things about media is subjectivity, so I'm okay being able to be so grateful for his existence and how it makes me feel.

Got a bit personal and sentimental with this since you struck something I was already thinking about when you sent this haha, sorry I said I agree in the longest way possible like it was a yapping content LMAO... thank you for your ask! <3

[system-of-a-feather]

I think one of the wildest things about recovery thus far - particularly as a system with at least heavy psychological abuse and arguable programming - is just really realizing how much of my trauma narrative I've lived my whole life with was largely manufactured and wrong.

I'm not meaning in the sense 'its a lie' or 'I don't have trauma' because the foundation of my narrative was correct; my parents were abusive and neglectful, they were harmful and traumatizing

But the details and the impact and the understanding of my childhood and trauma was so fucking shaped, curated, controlled and directed by my sister - who until literally 21 or 22 I thought was my ONLY positive and supportive person in my life even when she was a leading player in our CSA

And at a certain point - I don't even remember what exactly, I think it started with XIV, then Data and Jii sharing concerning things, then her own actions both confirming and validating it - we really realized, of all our abusers and all our trauma-makers, our sister has and always been the most insidious

Because she was the ONLY supportive older person in our life and because she had been toying with us and our dissociative amnesia since before we could generally reliably remember things and she really got in there really young, we never really seemed to ever question ANYTHING she told us. She told us how our parents were. She told us how the world works. She told us how we had to act and how wed die if we didnt. She told us of conditions we didn't have but fully believed we did and how to cope with them. Our whole understanding of our family, life, and medical / physiological conditions were really almost entirely shaped by her.

And the past two or three years since we cut her off and humored challenging everything we learned from her? Realizing how much of it was controlling BS and just straight up wrong?

Most specifically, realizing that my parents were dumb and traumatized but genuinely doing what they could with what they knew to support us to the best of their ability? Most specifically that my parents, especially older, would really do whatever they can to make sure we suffer as little as possible and grow to be independent? Most specifically that they genuinely just want fair appreciation for massive financial help and nothing more when they offer HUGE support????

I have been regularly attacking my parents, denying support because its a "controlling trap", and fighting with my parents to defend my oldest sister for SO many years when literally it was all fucking because??? ???

My sister is mentally ill and traumatized so I also dont think she lied about the trauma / family / world perspectives she had but good god, to be the guinea pig, puppet, toy and projection project of someone so intensely not coping, not well, traumatized, paranoid (likely clinical) and refusing to seek help due to aforementioned paranoia.

Fuckin hell man

I vent about this more because its absurd and less because it hurts because honestly, the reality that I've learned is way nicer and preferred to the hell story I lived my life under

As much as it sucks, Im glad and happy to find out it was all wrong and my life is way better

But holy fucking shit is it a mind fuck to have your whole ass trauma narrative flipped on its head in two years after 6 years of PTSD / DID therapy

Save for like one abuser, all my most hated abusers are now some of my best supporters, and my only supporter is now the only person I have cut off.

Its so fucking wild

Especially as a fused whole because I just get random memories, a lot of good ones too, and really have to wonder What The Fuck Martha

[animeomegas]

Hey Amy💓, I've been wondering about this lately... i love how we all have this community on tumblr where we enjoy the idea of top!/dom!/alpha!reader - especially as female or gender neutral reader. But sometimes I feel disheartened that we'll ever get to really have relationships like that in the real world - ya know conventional gender roles and all... do you have any thoughts on this🥺? Has anyone of the other followers or yourself been successful "in the real world"?

Hey <3

(I'm happy for any of my followers to chime in with their own experiences in my inbox, I'll post them :D)

THIS IS ALL MY OWN OPINION/EXPERIENCE, THANK YOU

I know a lot of people who prefer role reversal relationships feel anxious about finding a partner that wants the same, I remember that being brought up in the role reversal subreddit a lot, back when I still used the site.

My experiences with role reversal in real life have actually been very positive, I'm pleased to report!

I'll never forget my first proper boyfriend that I dated when I was 15-16, I think he was 17. We were discussing films, at the time I was big into horror films and hated romcoms, he loved rom coms and hated horror. I suggested we compromise with an action film or even a non-comedy romance, but he was weirdly insistent that we should watch a horror film and that I could introduce him to the genre properly. I agreed, letting him choose the horror movie so he could pick a chiller one if he wanted, and a week later, we were getting ready to watch one on his bed.

He did not pick a chill one, to my confusion. He picked a pretty intense one, although I can't remember which one now. At the first jump scare, he flinched and grabbed my arm before tucking his face into my neck to avoid looking at the screen. At the next scares, he shuffled closer until he was pretty much on my lap. Of course, as you're probably realising, I was played XD He was so insistent about watching a horror because he wanted an excuse for cuddling and for me to protect him and dote on him lol. He was very cute.

I don't really have any sexual experience, so I'll leave that part of role reversal for someone else to chime in on. Although, anecdotally, I will say that there are many men who lean submissive but aren't comfortable saying that in public.

Try to remember that a lot of men are touch starved and starved for positive affection (toxic masculinity hurts them a lot in this regard). They likely won't think to ask you to do things like stroke their hair, but if you do it, they'll hopefully respond positively and it can set the tone for the relationship. Insist on not following gender roles in a relationship, no one can make you. Be confident in what you want. Communicate, communicate, communicate.

Most people want to be spoilt and doted on, men included, they just aren't used to it.

I know some people find it hard to even find men that are just nice people and willing to be equal partners, let alone try to find someone who fits your lifestyle preference, but it is definitely possible, believe me. Where you live and who you are will impact how easy it will be to find these men too, but it's never impossible, I promise <3

Anyone else with any anecdotes, positive or negative, is welcome to chime in or ask some questions if they'd like to :D

[nonsubstantial]

MARCH 2024 DIARY POST

I'm keeping up the habit of writing a monthly post to catalogue all the things I've been obsessed with in 2024. At the end of the year, I want to be able to look back and remember what was making me happy all year long! If you are reading this, I hope you will enjoy hearing about these things or checking them out too! First, a chaotic collage of those things!

VIDEO GAME: As you may already know, Splatoon is probably my favorite video game franchise of all time. I really cannot overstate how important it is to me. Naturally, I was highly anticipating its new singleplayer DLC, titled Side Order, but when it finally came out at the end of February, my elbow was fractured in a way that made it painful for me to play. So, I had to wait until about a week into March for my elbow to heal a little. Then, I spent about 10 hours obsessively playing it, and I loved pretty much every second of it. It featured by far the most difficult levels ever seen in a Splatoon game, which was a treat to me as a player who was disappointed by the rather simplistic story mode of the base game. Splatoon 3: Side Order took the form of a roguelite battle tower, similar to Salmon Run but with new enemies, unique (and sometimes puzzling) stages, and customizable weapon builds. Even players who find it a bit too challenging at first can eventually mod the difficulty to an extent that (hopefully) makes it doable. The story was nothing crazy, but the gameplay and visuals were so unbelievably good that I honestly wished I could erase it all from my mind and play it again from the start. Just yay 💕, I love Splatoon so much.

TWITCH STREAM FAN EDIT: If you don't already know who Jerma is, he is a prolific video game streamer that I became a big fan of a few years ago. His unique humor has consistently impressed and appealed to me, and his fan community has proven itself to be both creative enough and motivated enough to persistently churn out edited “best of” versions of his streams. For better or for worse, Jerma announced his retirement from streaming last year, leaving his eager fans with nothing but his earlier content to dredge for, well… content. One such fan edit that was released this year, post-retirement, was a massive compilation of all his Nancy Drew playthroughs (save for one). This edit in particular was one that I found overwhelmingly funny and good, and it inspired an ongoing fanfic that I’m still currently working on writing. Oddly enough, watching this caused a domino effect that got me back into writing in general and has given me the surge of confidence and inspiration that I needed to keep working on creating the fiction that has lived inside in my head for years. I really hope this feeling never dies. You can watch the stream that inspired me, linked here!

MUSICAL ARTIST: Peach Kelli Pop is probably tied (with a few other artists) for the title of my favorite band of all time. Their entire discography is only about 2 hours long, but they were still my most listened to artist for several years in a row. It’s due to the consistency of the vibe across all of her work: upbeat and positive while still delivering a profound emotional impact. I've been able to just listen her entire catalog of music over and over and over again on shuffle. I might describe it as DIY rock, or feminist punk, and if you haven't heard it before, Gentle Leader is probably the best album to start with. Listen here!

MUSICAL ARTIST: After listening to nothing except Peach Kelli Pop for about a week straight, I started to look into similar bands that I hadn't already checked out and found one that really caught my interest. That's how I was introduced to Tacocat! Their band name is both a palindrome and euphemism, and their album Lost Time was love at first listen. They have cozy lyrics about aliens, birth control, and creating your own values, and their music has left me in a good mood every time I've thrown it on. You can listen to the first song that I heard, linked here!

SONG: It's Don’t Rain On My Parade, by Barbra Streisand!! I still haven't watched the musical that this song is from, but the drag queen Plasma mentioned it on RuPaul Season 16, which is how I ended up hearing it. This song gets an individual mention because I was absolutely blown away by this one individual track! It's brilliant and catchy right out of the gate, "Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter! Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade!" It's from 1964, but its recording sounds crystal clear and it channels its intended emotions perfectly. I felt compelled to listen to it over and over again, because it really is just so cheerful and artistically inspiring. I feel like it's a perfect piece of music. Listen here!

SONG: I have to give another song an individual mention! It's Mood Indigo, by Nina Simone!! I’ve been a big fan of Nina Simone for years now, but more often than not, I've stuck to my favorite album, Pastel Blues. I did branch out and listen to this song a few times in the past, but it only recently dawned on me just how perfect it is. Wikipedia says that it was recorded in 1964, about the same time as Don’t Rain On My Parade, and while it's technically a cover of an old Duke Ellington song, Nina Simone’s version has a totally unique vibe, evident from the first few bars. Its lyrics are meant to be cathartic, as they discuss suicidal ideation, while the drums, bass, and piano create a beautiful and upbeat swing melody that perfectly juxtaposes and rebuts the content of Nina’s vocals. It's menacing, catchy, uplifting, and truly perfect! I now believe it to be a landmark in Nina Simone’s career, and the whole of music history in general. Listen here!

MUSICAL ARTIST: Okay, one last music rec, I swear!! I was really feeling the vibes this month (but mostly just listening to bands that I already know and love). Along with Peach Kelli Pop, another one of my favorite bands is King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Ever since 2017 (aka, the year of the gizz) they have probably reigned supreme as my #1 most listened to band. They just have so much music, with so much variation, that I can usually find at least one of their songs that appeals to me. Since the start of this year, I've been collecting and organizing a playlist of my favorite songs by them, titled 31 Days Of Gizz. Not for any particular reason, but just because I find it fun to make lists! At the last minute, I decided that I would organize the songs, specifically in the way that I would play them if I were introducing someone new to the band. So, if you haven’t heard their music before, maybe it’s time I introduced you? But no pressure, I just like their songs and I made my playlist just for me! I'm linking to it on spotify, HERE, if you’re interested! (forgot to put this one on the collage, lol)

VIDEO GAME: Right before the month ended, I bought the new fantasy tactics game, Unicorn Overlord, and I am fucking in love. I’ve been a longtime fan of the fantasy tactics genre, so as soon as this game started making waves, I begrudgingly accepted that I HAD to play it. I really don’t have a lot of time in between trying to take care of things at home and working on my writing, as I mentioned before, but I briefly dropped all my other hobbies and managed to fit about 10 hours of gameplay in before the month ended. I really wish I had time to obsess over it, because I feel like it is a masterpiece, even if the rumors about there being gay content ended up being a disappointing exaggeration (the game was developed by Vanillaware, but was published by homophobic giants ATLUS and SEGA, so I’m not surprised). Despite the story being pretty much dog shit though, I believe the gameplay is damn near perfect, and even revolutionary within its genre. I’ll probably be sinking all my game time into it until the new Elden Ring DLC drops. If you’re a person who also likes fantasy tactics, then I highly recommend playing it (I got it for the Nintendo Switch, where it seems to run perfectly).

(that’s it. It is now APRIL!! There might be some repeats this next month, or I'll leave them out... we'll see. Hope you have a good day! ♡)

[mdhwrites]

How sick are you of the "TOH season 3 was bad because of Disney" argument?

I feel bad that I've been talking about the shortening as much as I have lately and this ask feels like a part of that. XD It's probably the one thing that the troll from a bit ago really got under my skin with and what seemed to piss them off the hardest. The idea that I was 'blatantly ignoring the circumstances' that led to the problems in the show.

But frankly, I just don't hear the argument being used much anymore. That might just partially be because at this point, I feel like I see more Amphibia art than I see Owl House art on my timeline because... Who is really defending this show at this point? It seems like even die hards are glancing back and fidgeting about it, like that person who I reblogged about the glyphs. That was a decently popular post for something that should have been controversial considering how theoretically important the glyphs are to at least the branding of the show.

S3 in general seems to have left a really bad taste in people's mouths and it's not hard to see why. When you had two and a half hours of content to give your story a proper bang of a finish, even if you can't make it all cohere thematically or the like, you should be able to do SOMETHING. That's WAY longer than most movies and TOH didn't have to do the first two act of establishment that most movies need to do. They had their players, they had their villains, they had their stakes and they never have to find an answer on their own to the Collector or Belos so they effectively already had their solution. They were setup to have payoff after payoff after payoff.

But I made an entire blog about how S3 could never have been great... Because what was there to payoff? Beating Belos is about the ONLY thing S2 left for the cast to do, especially once the second special came around and the interesting elements of the Collector were killed. He's just a sad but playful boy, just like Hunter was sad but mad and Amity was sad but smart. We had no other villains that we as an audience were connected to, all the character arcs were done, to the point where they have to make shit up for Willow so they can do SOMETHING with her and even that feels like shipping fodder, and the thematics were left so far down the road that... What can you say about the ending positively besides "I'm happy everyone is alive and seems happy where they are"?

None of these issues only arose in S3 of TOH though and I think that's the real problem for the fandom right now. Literally the longer the show has gone on, the more its inherent flaws in its writing become obvious as well as the fact that these writers simply aren't good enough to improvise off of the flaws in their own writing to make it better. We have no one who is Toriyama during the Cell Arc here where they can change on the fly and actually build off of what has to now be discarded. Or, hell, me, because I don't plan my stories from go but I take GREAT pride in being able to build on surprises I leave for myself on accident. Remember: The Power of Love did not start even with that title or Boscha planned to ever make more than joke appearances. Now it has a lot of people's favorite versions of both Boscha and Amity.

And that story is over a hundred chapters long. I had at least another hundred chapters of plans in mind. But when my brain stopped working for it and I decided I needed to write an ending so readers could be satisfied, I managed to do one in six parts that word count wise was probably at most 15k words. Not that long frankly but I was able to highlight the mended relationship between Amity and Boscha, how far Boscha had come socially as to be able to ignore those who might have gotten under her skin before, her better relationship with Luz, tie up the biggest loose ends and get them all together.

Was it entirely coherent? No. Was it as impactful as it could have been had I done all my plans? Of course not. But it was satisfying and true to the story and none of it wasted my audiences' time while still giving them an ending that was not only poignant to what had come because of how far Boscha had come but also just give the audience what they wanted. I knew what to cut and I knew what was important.

The Owl House never knew what was important to it though. Never met an idea it didn't like. So... How do you end a story that has never had a focus, clear thematics, plot, world or even characters? That throws everything into the kitchen sink and just waves away the elements in the sink that will stop them from adding new elements that will never get past the surface?

In a lot of spectacle that shows you were always a lot more shallow than you claimed and that's gonna leave a lot of people cold. I know it did for me, even well before the finale.

=========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[cars-and-planes-dork]

So I randomly felt like quickly sharing my thoughts on all three Cars movies and both Planes movies. Quick disclaimer, no matter how I feel about certain things it's totally cool if you feel different and I respect that.

Cars:

I love Cars. This was my childhood movie that I watched over and over and over again since I was a young child. I love the characters, the plot, and I think the animation holds up really well. I also am glad to see it with adult eyes cause there's a lot of nuance and stuff that I of course didn't get as a child. Recently on a whim I needed to unwind from stress and I put on Cars (just like my parents used to do for me as a kid, lol), and it genuinely did make me feel better and woke up a part of me that had laid dormant for years. Cars is a film that almost makes me wanna take a long drive on Route 66...until I remember I'm not any good at road tripping, lol.

Cars 2:

I have a distinct memory in my mind of being a child in the theater watching Cars 2, turning to my dad and saying 'can we go now?'. I didn't watch it all the way through until recently and I can thoroughly say that I don't despise it, but I'm also not its biggest fan. It's actually something of a guilty pleasure for me now. Sometimes I'll just put it on in the background while I do things. It also makes me contemplate the inner workings of this world more than the writers themselves probably thought about, like how the heck do different makes and models come about, what is the impact of climate change on a world of vehicles, but that's probably its own post. But yeah, I accept it for what it is and even enjoy some parts of it.

Cars 3:

So confession, it took me over 6 years to work up the courage to watch this one. I don't know why I was so worried, but I finally did it. And I loved it. I really think they ended on a good note. I'll admit the first part was probably the weakest in my eyes, but I really enjoyed the tribute to Doc Hudson and I actually teared up and I was happy to learn more about his past. I liked the torch passing narrative as well. I think my biggest complaint is that I wish we could've seen more of Lightning and his friends. (I may be biased because somehow Cal Weathers worked his way into my heart).

Planes:

Planes took longer to stick in my brain than Cars did. I remember going to see it actually, the local air and space museum did a showing of it and I went to watch it with my family. My parents didn't like it much but I remember being happy with it. Upon rewatching, there's things I like, but there's a part of me wishing it was something more. I can't fully explain it. Also I find Dusty's attitude off-putting to me personally (particularly his feeling of being entitled to being trained by Skipper and essentially demanding that Skipper tell him about his clearly traumatic past strikes me as kinda callous). But I still enjoy putting it on in the background and enjoy thinking about the world itself, much like Cars 2. Also fun fact, Skipper is one of my favorite kinds of planes.

Planes Fire & Rescue:

I'm sorry but I have much less patience for this film, but like I said above, I respect those who do. I will say, I appreciate them highlighting some of the realities of firefighting (like how the general public doesn't hear about a lot of fires that are dealt with). But other than that, I don't have much positive to say about it. The characters for the most part feel underdeveloped and I can't say I'm particularly endeared to a majority of them (Blade is the exception for me, tbh). And Dipper in particular needs to chill the hell out, her behavior is pretty inappropriate and creepy while being played off as jokes. Beyond that, my aforementioned issues with Dusty remain in this movie. Honestly, he doesn't strike me as capable of doing this job and he actively creates a situation that nearly gets Blade killed. I could spend awhile talking about it, but I'd honestly rather not. To end on a positive note, I think the married RV couple are adorable and I like them.

So that's all my thoughts. I enjoy both franchises and tend to overthink the hell out of them (if I overthink something it's usually cause I enjoy it). Hopefully I didn't piss too many people in the fandom off, lol.

[archivalofsins]

LET'S TALK ABOUT THE JAILBREAK MEGA MIX! While it's still the anniversary day! I was doing something for the rest of today but wanted to discuss my first run through the song.

You could say this was my dream come true since it was a Mikoto Muu mix for a small bit. The instrumental of MeMe overlapping with the beginning of Muu's final part. It was great.

I'm also lovingly dragging Star along for this ride.

Okay I was tired when I wrote this. So, I went back to edit it for clarity! This is hopefully the last edit I'll do on this.

To start off I believe the songs, their placements, and the way they overlap show the relationships or associations between the characters.

Let me explain.

First, we have Es the guard that we started with and technically our proxy within Milgram. Basically, Es is the one that connects us the audience to Milgram so of course they'd go first.

Next, we have Kotoko the one who's most firmly aligned with Es. Their mentalities have become a bit similar after trial one as well. Given some of Es' statements towards Futa in his voice drama. I hope he isn't also harsh on Mahiru.

However, this is where it gets tricky or fun depending on your view, I think it's fun.

Kotoko leads into Haruka. Someone who has said like Muu but for different reasons he doesn't think any of the prisoners are like him. This mix could be a subtle way to tell us who the prisoners are most like and impacted by. I believe Haruka comes after Kotoko because she is the one to leave the biggest impact on him but the prisoner, he's most like comes after him.

This is why bits of his song go into Mahiru's but the overlap between Harrow and Weakness is more subtle. No instrumental from Harrow or anything just Kotoko singing,

"I want to be drowning in the knowledge that I'm right." while Haruka is floating in that water.

However, this line could relate directly to one of Haruka's lines in Weakness,

"I cried, I screamed, I wanted to be a pitied and loved weakling. I was in denial; I was in denial I just had to make sure."

When this comes to representing the relationship between Haruka and Kotoko while they haven't had the best interactions and Haruka is downright afraid of her, they've started talking. Plus, upon realizing that Haruka was Innocent Kotoko began to treat him a bit more nicely.

21/12/15    (Kotoko’s Birthday)

Haruka: Ah…… H-happy birthday, Kotoko-san.

Kotoko: ……thanks. You’ve definitely changed a bit. Do you remember before? You could barely even talk to me.

Haruka: I-is that so? Now that you mention it, I, I maybe have got a bit better since then. ……m-maybe I’ve got more used to being around people. There’s other people here who are interested in me, and, um, in particular Mu-san pays a lot of notice to me…… I… I’m enjoying myself here……

Kotoko: ……hmm. It’s just a theory I have right now, but I get the feeling the outcome of Milgram’s judgements are having some influence on our mental state. Well, I only noticed because I happened to be last up though. Good for you, then. This must mean that you’re fine. ……I’ll accept those birthday wishes.

Muu and Haruka don't really discuss Kotoko's actions as bad or good. To be frank I don't really think Haruka discussed them at all. So, they're both neutral leaning towards positive with her. Taking that into consideration, him coming up after her makes sense.

However, since the line Kotoko sings before Haruka's song can be related to one of his own and was directly related to the visuals of his song we're in a fun but ambiguous situation. One where either Kotoko or Mahiru could be the prisoner most like Haruka. However, I still think in this case the prisoner most like him is Mahiru.

Because unlike with Harrow where only the line Kotoko sings overlaps. The instrumentals of Weakness and This is How to Be in Love With You merge near the end before Haruka finishes off his part singing,

"Even if I keep trying it, it's broken right away. The things that aren't here and unneeded things... Is it still living somewhere?"

(Lol, this isn't my point it's Stars she typed it up on my computer using this great thing called Parsec now for a word from our spons-dies. God wish I was paid for this I'm just excited. Okay take it away.)

This parallels well with, "I guess we can just say that this feeling is happiness/I can't stop feeling like there's something missing."

(And that was Star's point please applaud~ A little louder just kidding!)

I forgot to add my feelings on Mahiru and Haruka's overlap in my rush to get to Yuno. There are also very direct comparisons that can be made between the two through their voice dramas. They both underestimate and speak down about their own capabilities. However, when given the opportunity, being met with patience, or having a straightforward goal to work towards they're likely to better complete it.

Also, just as Mahiru judged Mikoto immediately after one encounter to be flippant and have cheater energy. Haruka pretty much judged Kotoko as scary off the bat and continued to avoid her until he'd become more comfortable through due to his verdict and other prisoners taking time to interact with him and pick up the ball whenever he dropped. For example, how Mikoto told Kotoko Es was calling for her but neither of them confronting or reprimanding Haruka for not being able to communicate that to her and basically ignoring the task Es gave him.

They also have both requested frivolous items for not only personal enjoyment but to better create the atmosphere they were seeking. Haruka the water floaty during the summer and Mahiru the futons for the sleep over.

Now we get to the overlap between This Is How To Be In Love With You and Umbilical. This one is fun in so many ways. First it highlights Yuno and Mahiru's give and take relationship within Milgram. Something touched on within Yuno's birthday conversation last year.

22/09/02 (Yuno’s Birthday)

Mahiru: ……no, I’m fine. As long as I don’t move too much I don’t even feel any pain. Sorry for making you worry.

Yuno: Oh, really? That’s good then. Mahiru-san, if there’s anything you want then just ask. It’s not like it’s a huge burden, I can just ask for it along with my own stuff.

Mahiru: Ok…… I’m fine for now. Sorry, for making you worry. Ah, Yuno-chan…… Today’s your birthday, right? Happy birthday.

Yuno: ………… Haha, thanks. Thank you, but y’know. Is it really ok for you to be saying that to me when you’re in that situation? ……you really aren’t suited for Milgram, huh, Mahiru-san.

"Ring, ring I'm calling you in the middle of the night."

This line overlapping with Umbilical could could reference Mahiru relying/calling on Yuno to get her things within Milgram now that her privileges have been restricted. It can also allude to what some including myself have speculated Yuno was doing on the staircase making a phone call.

Now here's the kicker the thing that makes the line up appear to be intentionally alluding to which prisoners are most like the other is because Yuno comes directly before Kazui. The person she admits to being the most like.

There isn't much overlap between their songs since Yuno's song drops directly before his starts with the lines,

"I messed up, I found out." being repeated over and over.

A line that directly ties into Halfs line of,

"Where did I go wrong, probably from the beginning."

In the song proper it would parallel the line "If continuing to hide is called unhappiness, not even one word will get to you." pretty well to. However, when it comes to following up this line the first works better.

Shidou's song unsurprisingly has no overlap but is after Kazui's. Him and Kazui have been working closely together since Kotoko's attacks in order to take care of and protect injured prisoners. Plus, he's admitted that Kazui is the prisoner he gets along with the best during the first trial.

Q.18 Who do you get along with best out of the other prisoners?

Shidou: Mukuhara-san, I think. We’re the two old men here, and are often in the smoking area together.

On top of that Yuno has spent the most of her time hanging out with Mahiru or Kazui. So, it makes sense relationship wise for them to be where they are in the Jailbreak lineup.

Now here's where things get exciting. A lot of people would rightfully ask well Muu and Haruka are closest, they spend the most time together, why aren't they closer in the line up.

Let's get into the final four and most interesting choices of the Jailbreak line up and talk about what the Milgram staff decided to name this mega mix.

Futa's part in the mix starts off hard. Right after Shidou's we go into what I like to call the guilty mash up. Since all three of these guilty Prisoners had their songs overlap in row and honestly it sounds great.

First though, there is room to say that Futa is being compared to Shidou. Meaning the one most like him in Milgram which he incorrectly claimed was Kotoko before is more than likely Shidou. This makes sense given how he came in concerned about the well-being of those younger than him and Shidou's stance with kids. It really wouldn't be surprising to me if their mentalities were similar.

They also both failed to take proper care of people younger than them before. Something we only get a glimpse into during Shidou's trial two song.

Star again; another similarity between Shidou and Fuuta is that they're both fairly cynical in terms of worldview! From Mr Ethics is a delusion to "The world is full of shitty people isn’t is natural to look down on them all?" and "In the modern era, whatever I do is useless anyway I’m just going along with the flow." There's also the fact that the transition line between Throw Down and Bring it on is literally just "Throw down", which could allude to fighting.

(Gunsli: i.e throwing down a colloquialism in English for starting or being involved in a fight. In the same vein that Bring it on is a colloquialism in English usually taunting someone into a conflict. The equivalent of a bunch of middle schoolers yelling fight, fight, oooo what are you gonna do about it. Back to Star.)

/o/ Jumping on the throw down as a colloquialism real quick to bring up the other interpretation of it. That being throwing your weight on the side of an argument/conflict you believe in. This can refer to your ethicality/morals but it can also refer to monetary/societal value [something you can argue is touched upon by Shidou covering Delusion Tax + the quote "No life is worth the same as another's(??)"].

(Okay back to me I suppose.)

The only difference between Futa and Shidou is Amane and Es don't hate Futa. Es says it's important to not go easy even on friends and Amane keeps checking in on Futa. In fact, recently in the collaboration art you can see them all sitting together. Shidou standing behind and Futa to the side and behind Amane. Amane is pretty much right between the two of them but is noticeably closer to Futa.

Plus, despite the fact that Futa has been shown close to Kazui a lot recently he's the further from him than Shidou is.

 "I don’t dislike anyone particularly. However, I think Amane rather dislikes me. Such a shame."

Even though Futa is far more abrasive than Shidou his curt nature is generally well received by those younger than him but looked down upon by those older. This is because to some people younger than him his behavior can feel like he's meeting them at their level while not being condescending, sometimes even appearing to be stupider than they are. Something that kids tend to generally like.

We see this part of Futa's nature during his second interrogation where he attempts to relate to Es. Outside of that Futa blatantly states friends to him are,

Q.01    What do friends mean to you?

Futa: People who get excited about the same things as you.

Meaning he's probably more likely to search for common ground with someone to better relate to them. This is something that Amane has seemed to be receptive to, considering the overlap between their songs. Outside of that it just makes sense she'd be receptive to someone that takes her statements seriously and she can have a back and forth with. Even though she's a child, that sort of engagement is still necessary and refreshing even more so considering the sort of child Amane is.

So, let's talk about that overlap. Their songs don't just overlap but the videos do as well. This also happens with Es and Kotoko, Mahiru and Yuno, and Amane and Mikoto (oh trust me we'll get to that). All these pairings are the ones that have become the closest to each other over Milgram.

Kotoko not only directly aligns themselves with Es but works for them as per the terms of the deal she presented to Es last trial.

Yuno and Mahiru talk and hangout rather often to the point that Yuno has offered to get Mahiru stuff when she orders her stuff. Also speculated but not confirmed that she may have ordered Mahiru the wheelchair.

Amane and Futa. Amane has continued to encourage Futa since they received their verdicts and despite him receiving medical attention as well has not threatened him.

Amane and Mikoto. They don't talk on a frequent basis but when they do they usually talk for a good while. Mikoto is chatty and Amane is willing to listen to him talk in depth about his experiences and even take notes. So, also no surprise there.

Back to Futa and Amane the line that overlaps between their songs is,

"It's going great, we're gonna punish you until you cry. If you get off now, you're a traitor. Now let's be reasonable!"

Now let's be reasonable continues to repeat. The line even skips three times before being repeated another three before Amane begins to sing.

These lines from Bring It On tie in well to Amane's starting line of,

"I can actually think of it as a good thing, see isn't it great?"/ "It's going great-"

"This happy pinky promise hurts to break."/ "We're gonna punish you until you cry. If you get off now, you're a traitor."

"Even I can say "I'm sorry". Even I have hope. I swear! I'm going to be a good girl now! That's it!" /"Now let's be reasonable."

Amane and Futa's mindsets align well with each other the MEGA MIX highlights this by putting their songs so close to each other. Musically having their mindsets collide. Through this it pulls to the forefront how "Bring It On" is all about punishing someone to the point of getting an apology and "Magic" is about apologizing for one's mistakes and promising to do better seemingly repeatedly.

The repetition of, "Now, let's be reasonable." between the songs highlighting how neither Amane or Futa think these things in and of themselves are unreasonable responses or requests to a perceived wrong. Their possible shared belief that all punishment should end at the point where the offender apologizes and going beyond that is a bit much.

Even if the punishment used to elicit the apology was disproportionate in comparison to the offense. Putting them side by side within the mega mix was a good way of highlighting this aspect of not only their songs but characters. Yet it doesn't stop there!

When it comes to Amane there's another interesting point. In this case I'm referring to how one of the televisions the prisoners' songs are displayed on within the Jailbreak Mega Mix is more than likely the same model we see her watching at the end of Magic. A CRT. Now it is very much possible all the televisions displayed in this video are different versions of the CRT but the exact make and model name is something neither Star nor I know.

The one in the middle is more than likely the one Amane is watching at the end of Magic. Despite neither of us knowing the specific model names. Star believes the one in the middle is the oldest television, the one to the right the second oldest, and the one on the left would be the most recent one relative to the ones there of course.

It's time for Amane and Mikoto! The overlap between their songs and visuals, just like Futa is strong. You can hear Amane singing lightly in the background as the instrumental of MeMe begins. Imagery from her mv overlapping with Mikoto's silhouette from the prison line up and being put over imagery from his own mv. Basically, distorting the two together.

The line overlapping here,

"But it's not scary at all, because it's love! I can really think it's great. See, isn't it a great thing?"

This ties directly into Mikoto's first line which I've discussed to death in other posts, "If I could laugh, if I could go back, I'd play dead even though I'm alive right? If I could end, if I could stop how long would this dream go on?" Amane's lead in line serves to highlight the placating mindset Mikoto has throughout MeMe.

Highlighting the undertone of the beginning lyrics and how Mikoto and Amane convinced themselves that their circumstances were fine even though on some level they knew they weren't. They just kept going forward with the belief that it was, and it would have the desired result.

Something that's really funny when one considers the imagery from Magic that overlaps between Bring It On and MeMe. During Bring It On it's Amane taking the stage but when we get to MeMe the imagery that overlaps between their songs is Amane thinking she has the right answer but being told she's wrong and the cat being injured. Something that can be considered a deliberate choice since while one of those scene is before the other the second scene doesn't happen directly after the the first in Magic proper.

In fact Amane being told her answers are wrong happens a good bit before the cat is injured. That scene ends at 1:16 of and the cat injury happens at 1:36 but now they've been spliced together for this overlap. Ignoring every other line that happens between those points. It's a good way to visually drive home that belief is wrong and it's in fact to no one's surprise not a great thing.

If Amane's song is about the hope of becoming that better version of yourself, Mikoto's is very much about the disillusionment of that concept. Facing the realization that no matter how much a person may try to be better there will still be people in their life who treat them like trash over and over. That sometimes the best or even the most self-preserving response is to grin and bear it along with the animosity one can hold towards themselves because they behave in that way.

Sadly, sometimes the key to surviving is putting up with people who don't give a shit about you, your feelings, or the effort you put into something and doing your best to not take that personally. I can't stop imagining Futa seeing this overlap between their songs and being like, "What the fuck; you two live like this?! It explains...more than it should..."

This overlap between Amane and Mikoto also serves to nicely point to what was one of the more jarring mvs and go see it's not scary all while putting cartoon animals over the actual footage. Something, I feel can come off as super sweet like Amane's seeing the initial response to Mikoto and going,

"Okay, this looks bad but look there's a cartoon cat now" while subtly whispering "It's not bad. Stop saying it's bad. It isn't it's love. It's not bad at all." In what can only be considered a blatant attempt at brainwashing the audience, and I appreciate that. We take our wins where we can find them Amane's right. MeMe wasn't that bad.

Amane's in Double sock puppets on her hands distracting people from Mikoto committing more in-depth murders like,

"The Dog was hurt by Mr. Porcupine's quills but Mr.Porcupine never noticed the dogs pain. Each day Mr.Dog would go into work and Mr.Porcupine would jab in another quill at first it seemed like a small error an accident. Yet, as it kept happening Mr.Dog eventually couldn't take anymore." Then the dog sock puppet suddenly has a bat and she recreates the murders in sockpuppet form.

After watching it Es is just like, "I'm so sorry Mr.Dog you've been through so much."

"Huh, oh...yeah? I have- thank you... I accept your apology, Es." Mr.Dog what the fuck is this kid seeing in these videos is he okay?! Is this a nickname for me now; what, why? Is he being genuine?!

Now Mikoto and Muu. The line that leads into Muu's part is,

"I won't forgive you if this is happening even though I'm right."

And oh boy do I have a lot to say about this one! Even though it doesn't overlap with her song MeMe's instrumental does particularly the drums. But let's talk about this line overlap and how it relates to Mikoto and Muu's relationship through the course of Milgram.

In my opinion I don't believe there's a lyric within After Pain that could directly tie into the line that leads into this part. The only line that comes close to tying in with it is,

"Why won't you stop hurting me?"

This line gives the same feeling of a lack of control over the situation along with mild animosity towards the fact that they are as Star would say being put through the trials.

It serves to highlight Mikoto and Muu's similar mindsets when it comes to facing punishment for their actions whether they remember them or not. That mindset being actually fuck you I was right and if you're smart you'll see that. If not I'm definitely not going to forgive you for putting me through all this even though I was right to do what I did. Basically, if you don't forgive me, you're the one that's wrong.

They both heavily focus on their crimes being a result of self-defense all be it in different ways given Mikoto's circumstances. Plus, after receiving her very small Innocent verdict Muu immediately pivoted into a, it's not my fault of course anyone could see that, mentality which was hardly out of nowhere. I doubt this is saying that Mu is the most like Mikoto given the Amane thing, but it is highlighting how their relationship has changed and how they may find their similarities and each other's abilities useful to the other.

He has basically become Muu and Haruka's chaperone. Which honestly good choice picking the one guy outside of Kazui who proved capable of fending Kotoko off on his own and wants to beat her at her own game. It's mighty convenient that those two are suddenly getting really close to Mikoto as soon as your Innocent status is up for debate again and may be in jeopardy. Maybe Muu is trying to as she put it in second written interrogation "chose better friends".

That's what brings us back to the name of the Mega Mix Jailbreak. It seems everyone in Milgram may not just be building relationships by gravitating towards people they just so happen to like or to just survive within the facility. They may be building useful relationships that they think would be useful if the possibility case of a Jailbreak presents itself.

This is why Yuno calls Kotoko's behavior stupid. Aligning yourself with someone whose opinion of you can change on a dime instead of people stuck in the same objectively messed up and weird situation as her... So, openly only serves to limit who is willing to help her later if her plan to work with Es backfires.

The three guilty prisoners whose songs overlap heavily should be concerning to some. Since two of them are the strongest willed people in Milgram who have voiced if Milgram won't agree with them, they will just rebel because they have done it before. So, honestly, what's a second time to them.

Not even going into Amane very actively attempting to indoctrinate Futa and clearly playing favorites with that goal in mind. It's not even just them that are possibly trying to or mulling over the idea of escaping. The only prisoners happy with Milgram as it is now are Haruka who is guilty now, Muu who is Guilty now, and Kotoko who honestly it would be so fucking funny if she got voted Innocent again like at this point we'd be dropping the ball for shits and giggles.

In fact prisoners so far this trial have,

Voice dissatisfaction at Es aligning themselves with Kotoko. (Yuno during her voice drama.)

Compared their circumstances to Es and highlighted there is truly little difference between them but their titles and Es is just as stuck here as they are. (Futa and Shidou in their voice dramas.)

Annoyance at continuing to be stuck there and how the appeal of the place for them has worn thin. (Yuno in the same voice drama.)

Outside of Haruka, Muu, and Kotoko no one else stuck within the facility is happy regardless of if they were voted Innocent or Guilty. All that to say the Jailbreak Mega Mix sure is interesting!

I hope they revolt~