#but it’s so significant to the rest of the story yknow

[yellowsubiesdance]

watched all of fleabag again, this time with me mum

[bomber-grl]

Encounters with Circe and Lamia

Pairing(s): Nico Di Angelo x m!Child of Hecate reader

Summary: Nico comforting reader and their past traumas with their female family members on their moms side (cuz yknow they hate men)

Cw: mentions of torture(physical and mental), PTSD

Your mother, Hecate, didn’t mind men. However, the same couldn’t be said for your female relatives.

You’d always been warned by your mother to be careful near female goddesses, nymphs, etc. She had went on about how men were awful throughout history, and Greek mythology reflected that reality.

She’d warn you, especially since you had it worse with her- and your, relatives. But you could’ve never saw what was coming.

You and Nico had been sent on a burden of a mission an errand. Let’s not get into the logistics but let’s just say you had to go through hell and back for this simple ass thing.

Well regardless, you ended up being the one that had to deal with the “consequences.”

The night of the quest was too painful and raw to remember.

It was the torture you were forced to endure and on top of that, forced to remember.

You’d wake up constantly in the middle of the night from nightmares, Nico at your side.

Previously you tried consulting the hypnos cabin in hopes that their powers would improve your never ending nightmares but alas to no avail.

Regardless of it, Nico was right with you night after night.

Honestly although you’d hate to describe him this way, he was something of a tsundere.

Despite that though, his obvious concern and guilt still bled through his attempt at disguising how he felt about the situation.

The quest was to retrieve a relic that was significant to your own mother.

Yet, somehow, You and Nico split and you had to pay the price with your so called “sisters.”

Of course this wasn’t the first time but it was definitely more impactful.

You were specialized in magic but so were they.

Even more so

So when you tried to attack, they countered.

Plus it’s not like they were guarding what you needed, no, they just wanted to make it more difficult.

The rest you didn’t remember much in all honesty.

You remember Nico finding you, his face looking down with concern written all over it.

Going back to camp and seeing Will try to heal your injuries.

To top it all off, you stayed in bed for two weeks and was surprisingly shown remorse by not your “sisters” but mother.

Maybe you could count a sister though, *cough*cough* Lou…

But it’s not like she was the one who harmed you…

Now was only a matter of time for you to heal from the encounter, though you doubt you’ll ever forget.

Now back to Nico

He was there ofc

Plus when you’d hate to be in the presence of others, he’d respect that.

Going back to camp was difficult as others saw and deemed you as fragile.

They were right, sure but you hated it.

Some days you’d be fine, youd laugh, and some days you wouldn’t.

Better yet, couldn’t

The trauma from the incident showed up in different ways than nightmares as well.

It caused you to step back from your greatest weapon, now made weakness: magic

You just couldn’t use it at the beginning

But, Nico in all his insistence that he was nonchalant- took it upon himself to make you more comfortable.

Through making jokes or being like “damn I wish [insert thing] happened” to influence you to use your magic.

Well to his credit, it worked.

But not in the way he or you, or anyone wanted it to.

There was a game of capture the flag and despite it being known you wouldn’t play, you still ended up being included.

Long story short, you were attacked, Nico was attacked and incapacitated.

You hesitated then forced yourself to use magic.

Not the best situation, and that’s making light of it.

In the beginning, you refused to speak about it

But because of the constant support from Nico, your friends and other campers, you were able to not let this experience dictate your well being or actions.

although it was still difficult sometimes, there was definitely improvement.

You gasped awake and rose instantly. You looked around to see the moon light pouring into the room, and surrounding you was pure darkness.

Maybe you would’ve panicked more but someone next to you on your bed stirred awake.

“Are you okay?” Nico asked while rising to sit and be on your level. He still gave you space to reject his closeness, and this time you didn’t.

He snuck in after curfew by shadow traveling, you secretly thought about how hopefully you two wouldn’t get caught but that was soon overshadowed.

After a long pause you responded, “yea, j-just the usual.” Damn you really gotta get it together.

Nico hummed, “want me to..?” He asked an open ended question, basically asking ‘what do you want me to do?’

“Just lay down” you laid down again and Nico followed you in suit. He laid down and snaked his arms around you. You allowed him.

Nico was no stranger to trauma or ptsd so having he knew somewhat how to approach the situation.

Tonight you hope you’ll finally be able to have a good nights rest, for the rest of the night (or morning) you may have.

-

A/n: I am in no way shape or form an expert in this topic but I’ve based reactions off of my own experience.

[nat-20s]

please elaborate on how Donna fundamentally changed the structure and DNA of doctor who. take no prisoners. i have to know more. I think i know how you feel but i can't articulate it. Donna was the first companion to actually have significant plot relevance. Like, series 4 depended on Donna's decisions to function as a story and no other series until series 4 relied on its companion the way Doctor Who relied on Donna (Amy Clara and Bill excluded, but you could argue that's because of Donna setting the foundation). Or how the entire bit with Clara is such a cruelly ironic thing to put 12 through because it mirrors Donna's fate so well. but there's more. Donna was a massive catalyst for so much of post-series 4 doctor who but i can't articulate it. Your point about Catherine and David hitting it off as actors with unparalleled chemistry has so much to do with it too, i think.

i know there's more.

ok ok ok so this isn't going to be even slightly cohesive because like. I don't think she changed the series in a way that I can point to and be like "Nuwho used to be this and then Donna happened and then immediately Nuwho became That" but I think she did massively influence some of the directions the show went for overall.

I mean the most obvious way she changed the show is that she changed The Doctor, so like yeah if you change the central character of the show. In a lot of ways, Nuwho is very much a war story. And I think in the first three seasons The Doctor feels more like a General- a leader of the army, the one who knows what's happening and where to direct people and how to shift the tides. He is the Central Figure of the war.

And then Donna's season happens, and to me he starts feeling like more like a foot solider, or perhaps more accurately, a floor nurse. Donna very much grounds him in the people around him, he feels less, well, alien. The message that he is not there to always be the Grand Savior of the Universe or the Grand Warrior of Time, but to be on the ground and help the people that he can. And this very much carries through the rest of Doctor Who despite Moffat's best efforts, I mean yeah 12 literally says as much in the show. So there's a big ol change.

I think the second way she changed the show was due to a:Catherine Tate's comedic background and b: Catherine and David being those two friends that cannot stop being Sillay around each other is that I think she did allow the show to take on more comedic elements/ allow The Doctor and The Companion to have more FUN on screen. That's not to say that Rose and Martha never have fun with The Doctor because that's straight up not true but I think Ten and Donna have probably the highest fun per adventure ratio of any pairing and it doesn't ever feel like. Oh why are they having this fun on screen yknow?

The third big shift that I think Donna had on the series as a whole was the role of the Companion(s). Again not that Martha or Rose had ever been like. Inferior to The Doctor but to me Donna is the companion that feels the most narratively equivalent to him. The companion has always served as audience surrogate: the one to be like hey. what?? and get things explained to them for the benefit of the viewers at home. And this also happens with Donna but sometimes she's also the one doing the explaining to The Doctor! I mean, it's the soulmatism of it all, right? While The Doctor is always The Doctor as a character, Ten and Donna swap back and forth in who is taking on The Companion and The Doctor as functional roles in the story. And this was before she Literally Became The DoctorDonna like long before that happens the best way I can describe it is like. There's a podcast i've been listening to where they talk about the most "doctory" moment of the episode and tbqh a lot of times it's like "well really the most doctory moment was done by Donna" (i think her realizing that by the ood having their brains in their hands they HAVE to trust everyone is like the Peak example of this). We see this sort of thing carry on (Especially with Clara, but fascinatingly enough it's in like. a negative way bc she's sooo like the doctor but in a way that makes both of them worse) through the series in a way I don't think would've happened if Donna's season wasn't there.

And then lastly I mean she came, she served for three episodes, and she changed the structure of the show AGAIN by doing something that no companion has ever been able to do: she was able to pull The Doctor OUT of the narrative. The Doctor is like SUCH a doomed by the narrative (and by the way the show works in general) character and she said Nope! I am going to kick the narrative in the shins until I save my best friend actually <3. And then she did!!!! Holy fuck!! I know these specials JUST came out so we haven't seen all the ripple effects yet but there's no WAY that won't result in a fundamental shift of Doctor Who overall. Like 15's personality feels so unburdened in a way that has never been possible before this point. I'm so excited.

Anyway TLDR Donna changed the show by being a friend and an equal in a way that hadn't really been part of the Companion role before and she fucks so so severely <3

[okaystoptellingmetomakeanaccount]

Man you know what i would really want. Kind of like a site that could compare all duck media (or hell, all disney media would be cool too) and how much people like them. Like put the ducktales finale against a barks 10 pager and see which one people prefer, which one has a higher score. If the entire top 100 would be dominated by comics or if a few animated things would slip in too.

And you cant like compare imdb scores to inducks scores because 1 inducks has a weird rating system, and 2 the people voting are completely different audiences. It’s never gonna be a fair logical comparison. But imagine if there was like a site where they had both and where everyone was equally fan of everything and then they would fairly vote i just want to knowww.

Ratings are cool, but cross media ratings are even cooler. How does episode 3 of the this duckburg life podcast/audioplay compare to Paperino skipper from Giorgio Pezzin. I need to know. Has chapter 5 of totem decapitato a higher rating than the first ever episode of dt87? Do people like the ducktales lost lamp movie more than the solving mysteries and rewriting history book? Has the first story of PKNA more historical significance to the fans than Donalds first ever appearance in general? Will they go as far as rate Evroniani higher than The wise little hen?

These ridiculous questions about things that are impossible to compare but I just want to because it’s fun i need that. Because Duck Avenger: Shadow of venus is completely different from: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: mickey gets sick (or whatever i dont actually remember any episode titles) or Mickey Donald and Goofy go on a roadtrip (whatever that cartoon was with the trailer its a fun one) but they’re somehow also all the same ‘mickey and friends’ franchise. I just think it’s interesting and i will probably now not rest until these questions are answered oh help

How does the Scrooge McDuck and money cartoon compare to the kingdom hearts manga? Is Donald Duck going quackers better than episode 7 season 1 of darkwing duck? Is Donalds appearance in who framed roger rabbit better than his orange juice? Is the Toontown in Disneyland Epcot a better experience than The Dark Side from MMMM? Would you rather be stuck in a room for an hour with only a donald duck colouring book from the zeeman or disney crossy road? Do the fans like the donald duck clock more than an extremely goofy movie? Is the Scrooge McDuck boardgame a better experience than that Donald Duck’s birthday childrens book? Did people get more enjoyment out of Sora’s super smash bros ultimate trailer or the Daisy Duck lego brickhead?? IS THAT BOOTLEG DONALD DUCK UMBRELLA FROM CHINA I GOT AS A KID BETTER OR THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO I WATCHED YESTERDAY ABOUT MICKEY MOUSE COPYRIGHT??? (both those last two things did not happen to me im sorry)

going a bit far there but thats because the general idea without all of the insanity just seems so incredibly fun to me. Even the brickhead and trailer comparison. Yknow what who cares about unfair voting. Just compile all the normal unweighted inducks scores, all imdb and letterboxd and rotten tomatoes and whatever more exists ratings, amazon reviews, to videogame ratings that you always see on wikipedia and just put them all together and see what the result is and also implement the inducks ratings because its a very easy and handy rating system and let people rate on the site on too of that.

Okay no dont do that that would be stupid but like all the cartoons and comics and audio things and games and boardgames and books and maybe not boardgames but everything that is a story and see which stories people like the most i just think that would be so cool.

I dont think im making sense i think Im going to bed now lmfao.

[complete-gay-chaos]

hi I'm normal about the new niigo event cards

spoilers for the newest event on JP. eng translation is "saying goodbye to my masked self" but it sounds like one of those awkward eng translations. I just saw the cards and went a little bit nuts because there is so. much. symbolism and callback to other events and cards.

the first very obvious connection is with the cards from the imprisoned marionette event. it's nightcord's first event and it's where we really get it set up that mafuyu's sitaution with her mom is a problem.

mafuyu feels like a marionette, the strings controlling her being her mother and the pressure she feels at school and home, and the mask being hiding her emotions and pretending to handle it.

so yknow with this event's card- the cut strings, the scissors, the broken mask. she's breaking her mom's control, she is "saying goodbye to her masked self". I find it interesting that it looks like not all the strings are cut- it may just be a stylistic choice by the illustrator though.

going further into reading too deeply into things the cards for the rest of niigo are also pretty straightforward with the string thing too. but I find it interesting that in mizuki's card, all the strings are hanging loose, in ena's card she's pulling against the strings, and in kanade's card, the strings all appear to still be tight and she's huddled up in the middle.

I think it maybe represents their different relationships to control. mizuki has always been about being yourself and not being controlled, and has lightly encouraged that in mafuyu or with their personality, at least kept the door open for mafuyu- they never really push.

Ena pushes back against control a lot- she outright lies to mafuyu's mom in "Someday, this wish will transcend the morning sky" so mafuyu can stay at her house. So I think it makes sense that she's directly pulling on the "strings of control".

Kanade never really directly challenges mafuyu's mother until "Immiscible discord". She prefers to focus just on mafuyu, and is kind of tunnel-vision about songwriting and helping mafuyu, so she's not touching the strings at all and is instead focused on the crystal/heart/apple.

(ok I wrote these next slides for a friend discord server so these are a bit more discombobulated)

so apples and heart-shaped apples are pretty significant at points in niigo's story. they appear most prominently in the "Mirage of lights" event when mafuyu get sick and recalls a similar time from her childhood. the memory of eating apple cut up for her by her mom (and later, kanade) is tied to a warm feeling- and it being tied to a feeling, at all, is pretty significant for mafuyu. and the heart shape I think makes it pretty clear- apples are tied to mafuyu's feelings, or her "heart". then there's also a brief reference in the lyrics of samsa and the art for the song as well which I feel like further solidifies it.

yes I know my handwriting is unreadable 😭 I'm going to add image descriptions.

Ok so also the hearts are made out of crystals or have a crystalline look to them and that along with the poses and lighting they're in reminds me of the cards from "Someday, from the depths of despair". Given the fact that the event is about reminiscing on how they all met and the connection and friendship they now share with each other, and the lyrics to Tricologe, specifically "a little chipped pink opal/a lost lolite/a topaz covered in dust/and a lonely ametrine" (although idk how official that translation is) I think the gemstones symbolize themselves, and the memories and feelings they have for each other aka friendship.

I also think it's interesting that for mafuyu's card in that event she doesn't have a fully formed crystal like mizuki and ena do because she still struggles with finding a sense of self and experiencing/identifying her feelings.

But yeah so the crystals/hearts/apples in this event's card symbolize mafuyu, her feelings, their friendship with her, that whole package. So think the rest of the girl's cards are showing them reaching out to mafuyu and supporting them in the ways that they know.

Anyway that's just what I think, it might be inaccurate I don't speak japanese or live in japan so I don't have direct access to things in the JP sekai server or the non-translated meanings of song lyrics, event dialogues, etc. I'm just excited about my blorbos. Mafuyu's story brings me to tears every time she has a focus event istg her story is dear to me and this is the ultimate culmination of all the growth I get super sappy over.

This is event is obviously a very big step that's been built up to since nightcord's first event/main story and I love how the imagery in the cards ties back to repeating themes, other events, and the beginning of it all. It's really the icing on the cake.

[owen-not-carvour]

i love that karnak let constance tell her own story… probably didn’t happen a lot in her actual life yknow.

because she was always with ocean and ocean always talks over/for her.

and even in death, karnak introduces all of them and then they take over with a monologue before their songs (except for jane bc she has nothing to speak for)

and yeah karnak still introduces her. but it’s so much shorter than the rest of them. no mention of her family or anything. only her title, star sign and favorite ride. he lets constance explain anything she wants to on her own and i love that :)

and so then constance has the longest monologue bc she finally got a chance to Talk. no ocean to interrupt or tell her not to interrupt.

i just think the difference between constance’s monologue and the rest of them is So cool,, like how her words are the illustration of her life and not projections and the rest of the cast acting as her family.

i’ve talked abt the significance of the projections throughout the show and what it means for sugar cloud to Not have any of them, but this is honestly on a whole other level yknow.

none of what constance talks abt isn’t Real. because none of the others are involved in it and she’s talking abt her actual life and experiences and they’re Relatable too and just ahhhh!!

i just love her very very much and she deserves a hug <33

[incesthemes]

final thoughts: hannibal season 3

this was so overdue but finally. finallyyyy i finished hannibal. that's so exciting. and i liked it! the first two seasons especially were awesome, really well done and so expertly committed to itself. the third season, i think i'll have to say it underwhelmed me a bit.

it's not really that i didn't like it, but i think a lot of the developments just weren't given proper setup to actually mean anything. not even just with the three-year time skip, which is where most of my problems stem from, but even like... alana's relationship with margot? there was no buildup to that before suddenly they were fucking. and without that foundation i'm not really sure how to feel about that. to me that just came off as "well both of alana's love interests are unavailable, so let's pair the spares" and the spare happened to be margot, since she has her whole pregnancy subplot. there was no on-screen chemistry, no attention to their relationship outside of a bland confirmation and some nods to it in passing, nothing to sell the relationship. and i kind of expect a relationship like that to be sold pretty well, since it ties in with margot's character arc and alana is a major character who deserves time spent on her own arc.

also in general the whole "surprise, everyone lived (except abigail)" thing made me roll my eyes a bit... i like the characters but the total absence of consequences for that massive confrontation feels pretty cheap. and they were all fine! hannibal is the only one who walked away from the season 2 finale with any lasting (visible) disfigurement or scarring. alana fell two stories directly onto her back but she walked around with a cane for a bit and now she's fine. jack made a full recovery we didn't even see the process of. will has a little scar on his belly. i found that whole thing pretty disappointing, like the showrunners were trying to undo their own writing. some of the disappointment definitely comes from my excitement that they had alana in a wheelchair for a short period; i let myself hope that she'd been paralyzed from the waist down, based on the way they showed her skeleton as she hit the ground. maybe i'm just a guy who wants consequences and thinks those are more important than aesthetic. who can say, really.

my biggest issue with the season, though, was the time skip. i recognize its importance for the plot, but molly and walter absolutely got the short end of the stick as a result of it. this could have been avoided if will had met them before the skip, yknow give them some time to marinate and show some kind of chemistry (there's a trend here...) instead of just plopping them into the story with no warning and announcing that they're married. will and molly are a perfect parallel to alana and margot, in that they lack any emotional significance to the audience due to poor setup and execution. which is a shame, because the sparse few scenes molly and walter were in made an impression on me—it was just sorely underdeveloped. and it's kind of a shame that they drop off the face of the earth as soon as molly wakes up in the hospital, like their well-being doesn't really matter to the show and it's evident in the writing. i'm not saying like "they deserved better" or anything, god no, but it is difficult to find the relationship believable and enjoyable when the show itself treats molly as some kind of cockblock to hannigram. which is a bizarre thing to type out actually.

i think my last real gripe was that will and hannibal should have kissed. i don't even necessarily find their relationship overly compelling, at least not in a "i ship them" way, but the situation they were in and the fact that will hurled them into the ocean called for a little bit more passion, i believe. calmly resting his head on hannibal's shoulder i think does something of a disservice to the feelings that have been building inside of will since the first season, especially as everything spirals out of control around him and he comes to terms with his need and disgust for hannibal. will has strong emotions for him, and so it makes sense that he would react strongly in this scene where tensions are at their highest and will has finally made a world-ending decision regarding his relationship with hannibal. will just saved hannibal's life; he chose him. they killed a guy brutally together. there really was only one option going forward with the release of the scene, and the show failed to follow through. i read somewhere that they were supposed to kiss at the end, originally. i'm interested in why this decision was changed, because at the moment i fully disagree with that 🤔 passion begets passion, not fucking. whatever that was lmao.

i do love the decision to hurl them into the ocean though, especially with the context that this is where hannibal took miriam and abigail. it firmly paints will as yet another victim of hannibal, and yet this image is distorted because of who will is and who he's become (and the theme of "Becoming" in the second half of the season was really well-placed imo, and continued a nice strong theme reminiscent of the transformations in season 2) under hannibal's influence. with the push and pull will experiences with hannibal, there's no other option for him. he can't live with him, he can't live without him. and so he chooses to die together—i wonder if hannibal thought of dazai as they fell off the cliff.

i actually quite liked the red dragon plot. i mean, i'm not entirely sure how i feel about francis himself, i would have liked more exploration of his psyche maybe i don't know i guess??? but his relationship with reba was extremely compelling in such a refreshing way for this season. the other relationships were bland in comparison, to put it lightly, so i was all in with francis and reba. i like how they ended up too, and i like what they both obtained from each other. the self-loathing francis struggles with and the pity from others reba struggles with meshed really well and created a great emotional arc. i love how francis tried to save her in the end, in his own way, and how she influenced him for the better. like will said, she saved lives just by showing him love. i appreciate how receptive francis was to that affection, and how gentle he was with her to contrast the brutality of his murders. it was really well done.

god i think there's probably more i want to say, particularly about bedelia because damn her ending was something, but i'm so tired and this is so long already. so i'm gonna go to bed instead 💗 and tomorrow i will, at long last, start season 10 of supernatural lol. overall i liked hannibal, it was well made (at least for the first two seasons, i think the third has a lot of glaring issues...) so i'm really happy i finally got to watch it. insane show for insane people, my favorite :)

[trans-xianxian]

🍧🌙☀️🪤????

I'm going to do these for my oc margo which is this person hehe

🍧 SHAVED ICE - do they still have any objects from their childhood? what significance does it have to them? what would their reaction be if they lost it?:

she has her mothers sword, a pendant from her sister, and jewelry from her father, who were all killed when she was like 13. in her culture/region gifts from loved ones or things that belonged to them are what allow you to speak to them after they've died and are like a connection to them so they can watch over you and give you blessings, so she would obviously be Devestated and would probably do anything to get them back. it would be like losing somebodys ashes

🌙 MOON - what is your oc's greatest wish? how far are they willing to go for it?:

oooooooooohh hm this is definitely very complicated thing for her like internally. for context, her family was killed and her nation was conquered when she was a teenager, and she was the only member of the ruling family to survive and flee, she hasn't been back to her country in a very long time because of her complicated feelings (she's sort of having a simba/aragorn moment about it). the trajectory of the story is that she returns and helps free her people and cuts a bunch of colonizers heads off. so deep down her greatest wish is for revenge and freedom, it's something that's made her very angry and that she's yearned for since she had to run, and she'd do a Lot to make the ppl who hurt her suffer, but in order to sort of live her life she's masked all of that with a wish to be free of her grief and just live as a normal person. she has issues and problems 🥰

☀️ SUN - are they a morning person? what is the first thing they do in the morning?:

hmmm I think margo Can be a morning person if she needs to be and won't be grumpy about it, but she prefers to sleep in a little bit and get her rest. as for the first thing she does in the morning, probably like... it wouldn't exactly be praying but almost greeting or saying good morning to her dead loved ones through something similar to prayer

🪤 MOUSE TRAP - what will always lure them into certain danger? a loved one in danger? a promise of something they are always searching for?:

definitely the classic loved one in danger. she is slow to trust and doesn't make bonds easily and has attachment issues yknow from the whole "entire family being dead" thing, so when she loves someone she Really loves them and the potential of losing them would be very triggering/upsetting. she's usually very careful and logical but someone she cares about and feels protective over being in danger will very much make her reckless

[james-silenthill]

for the questions: 1,7,9 and 19 (also sorry if it got sent twice yknow how it is with tumblr)

Omg thank you so much!!

Who was your first ever OC? Do you still “use” them? How have they evolved over time?

My first OC was a sonic oc, her name was Gothia the Dark, and she was created in either 2008 or 2009- def before the release of pokemon b&w!

My only sonic game was sonic 06, and I was a bit obsessed with mephiles- edgy characters make elementary schoolers insane, dontcha know. My concept was that if mephiles was the shadow, and iblis the source of light, there could be a third party. With hindsight, I can say she was intended to be the penumbra. I think I left her back in elementary school, but I kept the concepts of sentient shadows as characters for some of my stories

What are your favourite relationships between your OCs? (romantic or platonic!)

They have a very 'basic' dynamic, but the character dynamic I've worked on the most have been between my Sun and Moon OCs. They're two celestial gods from a pantheon based in all the planets and moons of our solar system; its a Heliocentric pantheon, so the Sun is the most important, while the Moon acts as an advisor of sorts to Gaia/Mother Earth

The basis of their story is that, despite everything, the Sun does Not want power, or reverence, or responsibility, so she does what any self respecting monarch does and fucks off to the planet earth to become a cowboy, living a free life without any worries or responsibilities. Since she is not within the pantheon anymore, the power structure is out of wack, and the physicial planets have no more sunlight- the physical sun has Disappeared, leaving everyone in darkness.

The Moon is Gaia's only advisor, a trusted and beloved friend. Despite this, she is something of a wallflower in the greater schema of the pantheon; endlessly useful and loyal to Gaia, but not very significant beyond that. She's a pragmatic and cynical woman, and is sent to earth to find the Sun, as every planets moons are sent to their respective planets. Throughout the course of the story, both the sun and the moon are pulling eachother out of their comfort zones, learning about eachother and their personal struggles and helping eachother go. They're on such different playing fields in the heliocentric pantheon, but they're on more equal grounds down on earth. Again, I'd be the first to say it's a basic dynamic structure, but I've had them for years and enjoy their situation:]

Favorite oc?

My favorite OC is currently tied betweeb my characters Rile and Wildfire right now

Rile is generally in her early 30s when I write her, and if I were to describe her without bringing in any backstory or personality, if I were to slot her into a pure character archetype, she would be the Nathan Drake; an average person that comes from small beginnings that finds herself in situations far greater than she initially imagined. An every day sort of protagonist with ridiculous amounts of luck

If I Were to bring backstory into this, I'd say that she's a pacific islander and hispanic and was born and raised in Los Angeles. Her real name is Leilana Rial, and the Rile nickname cropped up due to a consistent mispronounciation error in her youth, and just stuck. Her parents were out of the picture when she was still young, and she was given into the foster care system when her grandparents were unable to take care of her. The foster care system sucked, child protective services didn't do anything for her, and she learned to manage for herself and was able to escape the system while still in her teens, and the rest is history. She was a teenager in the 90s and she's a bit of a fail loser, but in a fun way

Wildfire was originally a DnD oc turned generalized, but now he's my own guy since the campaign he's from has been on hiatus. In DnD, he's a classical hero archetype, practically going through each stage of Campbell's heroes journey, you know?

Outside of a DnD universe, he is half demon, and part Cuban. He's from Florida, and comes from a heavily Catholic background. Naturally, that didn't mesh well with being demonic in nature, so he took off the first chance he could with a boyfriend that was too old for him. It didn't work out with the boyfriend, they had a bit of a fight and cut ties, but Wildfire was Not going back home, so he's figuring shit out, he's working on himself, yknow? My current comic wips that I've been posting- the Road Kill comic- have been about Wildfire, it's about a hitchhiking incident gone wrong, Santa will be there, it's gonna be fun:3

What are some things that inspired your stories? Real events? Maybe a dream?

I try to read and consume a lot of stories/different types of stories as a general baseline of inspo! On top of that, real life situations have an inherent influence on everything I write and create, and also just, general reading + witnessing the world around me has a tendency to help me create the stories I want to create. I think having multiple avenues of thought and ideas is a great thing to have, no matter what level of notoriety you want with your creations, yknow?

[paverics]

😂😂 your interactions with your colleagues crack me up, honestly it’s so nice to read an update after a long day lol would they be okay with it tho or do you get homophobic vibes?

loooool thank you 😭 happy to share

one of them keeps showing me her rainbow bag and saying she’s “like…you know….down with all this new gay stuff” and I’m like ok??? do you want me to high five you? shall i go and tell the rest of us? what do you want me to do? i guess, thank you…for not hating me? you want a little gold star sticker for being such a good girl?

the other 2 are young and have terminally online vibes so they’d probably be more upset at homophobia than i would

and the one that keeps indirectly asking me is really funny and probably would say something really offensive but i don’t care because i know she doesn’t mean anything by it

they’d all be fine about it, it’s just a very gossip-y place and whilst it wouldn’t be breaking news because there’s like 4 lesbians that i know of just in the one little part where i work, an unknown number of bisexuals and according to one of the guys i met shortly after i started working there “lots of lesbian relationships go on” — i just have the aim of leaving every work place without having an adjective or story attached to me, yknow. i want to have minimal social impact and leave absolutely no significant memories or facts

[odrseasonone]

Severax Season 1

THE BASICS: 

Character’s name: Severax

Role in story: Nemesis

Physical description: Smaug w/ Drogon coloring

Age: Unknown (his egg finally hatched when cassius was around 16/17ish??)

MBTI: ENTP-T (the campaigner)

Enneagram: Type 4 (the individualist), 4w3, 478

Zodiac: Leo

PLOT POINTS:

season one:

1.01: gathering dragon more egg(s); a dragon egg hatches (can he sense this?)

1.02: severax sets charles and his barn on fire (and possibly smells/senses arya?)

1.07: dragon fight! probs including severax @ arya w a 'we're not all that difference/join me and together we can rule the galaxy world' kinda speech (either that or a 'lol these humans are so much drama just do whatever' one -- he ~is a chaotic being after all)

misc: presumably asp severax realizes that helena is also able to hear him and he FINALLY has someone else to talk to (besides arya who he knows probs hates him bc yknow he killed off basically their entire species alkdjsflkjsdf)!!!

future plots:

s2: burning of the eastern woods; goes north w cassius; rescue of helena; other eggs hatch and continue to do so for the rest of his life etc

s3: fighting in the south alongside rowena and army; death of charles

s4: final showdown w arya; final battle w various other dragons; severax dies trying to save cassius and/or with cassius if killing riders still kills dragons? (note: unless we keep the dragons die when riders do thing, severax turning to fight for cassius is his last selfless act and he dies for it)

TRAJECTORY:

Overall Arc: goes from a deluional being intent on recriminating everyone else in order to obfuscate blame from himself to someone rejecting fear and applauding himself for his achievement of embracing his flaws (yet still internally grappling w this choice bc all of these are choices made from fear), coming too late to the revelation that he hates the monster he's made himself into -- and can still change

Season 1 Arc (Step 1 of 3): from a delusional being intent on recriminating everyone else in order to obfuscate blame from himself, to someone staring down the darkness in themselves

Season 2 Arc (Step 2 of 3): from someone staring down the darkness in himself to someone embracing it as the only way to survive in this savage world

Season 3 Arc (Step 3 of 3): from someone embracing their inner darkness as the only way to survive in this savage world to someone -- who now that he finally has the ability to escape his loneliness! -- isolating himself to protect himself from getting hurt again now that he is emotionally investing in his greatest fears (it is true that i am flawed beyond change etc)

Season 4 Arc (Step 4 of 4): from someone isolating to deal w the embracing of his greatest internal fear, to someone rejecting fear and applauding himself for this achievement yet still internally grappling w it bc all of these are choices made from fear. he comes too late to the understanding that he hates himself for being a monster -- the monster he's made of himself -- and he can still change

ENGINE OF CHANGE:

Internal goal/desire: To find himself and his significance (to create an identity); to be unique and to experience deep, authentic emotions; to prove himself an individual worthy of respect and appreciation

Why can’t they get it? Severax's whole world is defined by something that he helped bring about 15 years ago -- smth that also doomed him to be, in all the world, only able to speak to cassius and dezod (and possibly rowena, depending on how all that works idk) -- possibly until helena appears in the east, which def makes it tough to prove yourself in any way!! also the 'i killed most of my own species' isn't really the authentic him and is def not the identity he wants (tho he will deF lean into that persona and its ferocious aspect esp when he's feeling frustrated...which is most of the time, and can be quite cruel as a result) plus he just really feels super alone in general and he's v depressed its fun being him <3 fortunately he'll always have his snark and his sweet style ;D

Internally-motivated external goal: to reestablish and protect dragons in this world -- but this time not in a servile relationship to humans -- this time, he wants that the other way around tbqh -- since the dragons extend human lives and give them magic etc, they deserve more respect right!! (esp if they have to die when the rider does!)

Why can’t they get it? there aren't any other dragons (except maybe some wild ones somewhere but lbr they probs despise him ngl) since he killed them all oops

What are they afraid of: Being too flawed to function

How character views the world: Hopeless -- hedonism is the only joy so take what you can get and give nothing back

How character views self: This is a complicated question. If you asked him, he would say that he is the perfect being, marvelous and glamorous in every way and utterly above all these insects around him. This is smth that, in his arrogance, he does absolutely feel. However, he also deep down believes that he's profoundly flawed and can never overcome that bc he's got some hole inside himself where good things ought to reside. TL;DR: self image: god complex vs self-hatred

INTERNAL: THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER

What is his/her greatest fear?  That he has no identity or personal significance, that he is fundamentally flawed; that he is too alien to ever be loved or appreciated by others and/or seen as anything other than a curiosity

Inner motivation: Want to express himself and his individuality, to create and surround himself with beauty, to maintain certain moods and feelings, to withdraw to protect his self-image, to take care of emotional needs before attending to anything else, to attract a "rescuer"

Kryptonite: Being told what to do

What is his/her misbelief about life (to be challenged ~this season)?  His insecurities are due entirely to the fact that he is alone and this is the only thing wrong w his situation not yknow the genocide of his own race or anything like that which HE helped enact,no its just his loneliness which is btw the entirely beyond his control and he's frankly such a martyr to put up w all of this hell just for cassius' sake

Lesson he/she needs to learn (this season): He's responsible for himself, his own actions, and his own pain, and thus he's just as responsible for that slaughter as cassius and rowena are -- it wasn't some misplaced noble loyalty, it was his own decision: smth rotten inside of himself that he will have to face down in season 2

What is the best thing in his/her life?  for all that he whines about him, it is cassius and their connection, toxic as that has turned, (partially bc cassius just accepts all the wrongs of the past as his own burden from both rowena and severax, but that's neither here nor there)

What is the worst thing in his/her life?  The Purge honestly and the host of awful emotions that come out of it as well as the profound loneliness that has been, for severax, the ~unforeseen consequence~ in the aftermath

What does she/he most often look down on people for?  Honestly a lack of personal style -- and im not just talking appearance, im talking vibes(tm), this dragon thrives off drama (you can see why he and cassius were paired bc severax is the type to set the spot cassius is standing in on fire just for the drama and cassius is the sort to grimly walk out again and dramatically fling his still burning cloak off before him and then make some understated comment as the flames billow behind him etc for a combined bamf moment for them both ;D)

What makes his/her heart feel alive?  Inside jokes, shared warmth and laughter, drama <3, excitement and action, fire <3, ppl being impressed by him tbqh

What makes him/her feel loved, and who was the last person to make them feel that way? Being understood, feeling seen -- really seen -- and appreciated for who he is, being sought out just for some shared quality time, not simply impressing others with his majesty (smth he always enjoys immensely) but also to share deep and meaningful moments w others. Cassius was the last person to make him feel like this

Top three things he/she values most in life?  Cassius, dragonkind, the drama genuine and true moments of connection with others

EXTERNAL: NOT NECESSARY, BUT GOOD TO KNOW AND SAYS A LOT ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER

What’s his/her favorite book, movie, and band? God, I honestly feel like it'd be Paradise Lost or smth dramatic af like that alkdsjfakjdsf he'd identify w Lucifer sdlakfjdksjf, fav movie would def be an action movie, preferably one w lotsa fire ;D ummm imma say The Dark Knight Rises but I also gotta list the last two Hobbit movies bc all the Smaug moments would def be his style ;D, Is Imagine Dragons too on the nose for fav band? ;D, he'd also really enjoy Zayde Wolfe. Linkin Park. Queen.

Is there an object he/she can’t bear to part with and why? Cassius umm honestly not really? but he probs would enjoy hording gold old school dragon style but idk that he'd get attached to any one particular piece or anything

Describe a typical outfit for him/her from top to bottom.  He mostly goes around naked bc he's a dragon dslakjflksdf he does often have a saddle on tbf -- between his and cassius' fashion sense, it is def 100% black ;D

What names or nicknames has he/she been called throughout their life?  Sev, the black dragon, the last dragon

What is his/her method of manipulation? omg he's dramatic af and snarky af and demanding af and if that still doesn't work he will def be giving smaug style threats ("my claws are spears" etc)

Describe their daily routine.  Severax doesn't really 'do' routines except whatever cassius' need for routine demands of him (he won't admit it but he'd do anything for cassius, they're def codependent but esp on severax's side ngl) this boy's here for the chaos, but he's def a night owl so usually when cassius appears in the mornings he has to wake the dragon (heh) bc severax is def sleeping off his night of revelry which probs includes hunting and then devouring a whole herd of deer and then rolling around in their charred carcasses like a dog smdh (this is btw another reason for the starvation of the ppl bc severax's artificially massive size -- thanks rowena -- sees him eating a tonnn just to live etc), anywayyy he then groggily flies around and annoys cassius w his every thought and irreverant quip while cassius is just tryna get in some good brooding time; mostly he just sort of goofs off and annoys cassius all day till its time for the moon to appear and then he starts a differenct kind of obnoxious, not just oversharing, but also looking for distractions

Their go-to cure for a bad day? A feast! probs hording stuff, lowkey pranking others, snark!!!!!

CURRENT CHARACTER GOALS:

How is your character dissatisfied with their life? He feels utterly alone and blames the one remaining person he loves for it so that he doesn't have to blame himself

What does your character believe will bring them true happiness or contentment? Connections with others! Not simply a restoration of dragons but a revolution of them wherein they take over the world basically w human pets sdlafjsdjkf

What definitive step could they take to turn their dream into a reality? Since dragons only hatch for humans (so dumb, he hates it), collect all the eggs and subjugate all the humans and then file them through etc! This way he can prove hs own importance and mastery by reestablishing the order of things and freeing his kind, thus proving that his action of destroying it was really for the greater good (bc deep down he knows he's responsible for it too)

How has their fear kept them from taking this action already? If he really is as flawed as he fears, he truly will destroy both his race and humanity by going through with this! plus, he knows cassius would set himself against this, seeing it as the enslavement of humanity, and then he really, truly would be alone...perhaps forever

How does your protagonist feel they can accomplish their goal while still steering clear of the thing they are afraid of? If he takes his time and simply gathers up all the eggs, ppl will come voluntarily to them, surely, and thus cassius will have nothing to set himself against! its the perfect plan!

THE BACKSTORY SCENES THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

moment #1: the purge

What does your character go into the backstory scene believing and how are they surprised by the outcome? i think severax thought that they'd submit after a lil persuading! he wanted, even then, a new dynamic and felt rejected etc by the others and he wanted to prove that he could take them all down. what he didn't expect was that he'd have to go through with it. o ver. a nd over. a nd over again. i mean, couldn't the other dragons seee why this was a good thing even if their silly humans couldn't????

How does your character struggle to hold onto their old beliefs? Severax is frankly still lowkey tryna do that to persuade himself that he was in the right when so many so violently ojected!

What is their conclusion/new belief? That he did all of this out of loyalty to cassius! a nd not at all for himself!

[betawooper]

rating every demon fight in kny bc i can

non-biased, completely objective rating (more or less) of every significant demon fight in kny based on a number of factors, including:

cleverness of fighting tactics

placement in the story’s timeline

integration of character backstories

cohesive themes between characters

etc

by non-biased and objective i mean i’m not skewing the rating if a death felt fair or whatever

everything past where the anime ended will be under a read more so anime onlys who havent watched mugen train, youre safe lol

oh and i reread the manga like 20+ times (reread the latter arcs at least 40 times, haha hyperfixations am i right?) so be rest assured im not pulling these ratings out of my ass

also ill randomly be bolding certain phrases just to improve readability

anyways let’s gooooo

VS NEZUKO

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou and Nezuko. Tanjirou is fending her off by putting the axe handle in her mouth, keeping her from eating him. End Image Description.]

10/10

i like how realistic it is, because yeah tanjirou would react the way to he did with zero fighting skills against a demon

very clear why tanjirou is fighting nezuko and shows a bit of worldbuilding on how normal people react to their family becoming demons

always nice to see worldbuilding

giyuu is the perfect example of a seasoned demon slayer who’s good at his job, and he juxtaposes tanjirou very well in that aspect

my only complaint is not directly in this fight itself but how nezuko is handled throughout the story as a whole

like bro, it is literally never explained why nezuko is different from demons

could have been easily explained if maybe her family’s ghosts like slapped her hand every time she wanted to eat a person but nope

she’s just built different lol

so yeah youll see future ratings get points docked off bc nezuko unlocks some secret power with no prior explanation other than she angy >:3

VS TEMPLE DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of a demon. The demon has a sharp-nailed hand over his neck and there are four text bubbles around him saying “But a wound like this... will heal in no time! See? The bleeding already stopped!” End Image Description.]

10/10

may be more forgettable compared to like rui but still good

tanjirou did exceptionally well in this fight and his ability to think on his feet is once again beautifully illustrated here (trapping this dude’s head against the tree trunk with the axe)

very clever

again, establishes more demon worldbuilding regarding regeneration and still being able to move without their head

and the demons burning in the sunlight thing since nezuko wasn’t able to show that

the ending where tanjirou hesitates to kill the demon also serves to show his sympathetic nature towards demons that will last throughout the entirety of the first 60-ish chapters

:)

we’ll talk about what the hell happens to tanjirou after that

or not, it could honestly be its own post

VS HAND DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of a many-handed demon. He has six hands around him, three of them covering his mouth while he chuckles, two of them grabbing his cheeks, and one holding on to the top of his head. There are two text bubbles saying “That’s how many of Urokodaki’s students I have eaten! I’ve decided to kill all of his students!” End Image Description.]

10/10

ooooh probably the first big fight against a demon in the series

oh yeah not doing the two random demons tanjirou one shot in a single blow bc eh

anyways hand demon’s pretty goddamn scary, considering the fact that this is the 5th demon or whatever tanjirou has had to face so far

very nice way to show us how much tanjirou’s innate intuition and all his other random abilities (sense of smell, hard forehead) can come together and help him decapitate this guy

i liked the mini history with urokodaki this dude had and why he had beef with our favorite mentor figure, it establishes that urokodaki was in fact a super good demon slayer and its cool to see that actually shown

i also liked that small moment of compassion tanjirou gave this demon, staying consistent with tanjirou’s established kindness

the demon’s sad tale with killing his own brother very much humanizes him when all the reader has seen up to this point is that this guy is a monster who eats people

sets up the theme of demons just being humans but being victims of circumstance that unfortunately doesn’t hold up as well in arcs past mugen train

VS SWAMP DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou fighting off three horned demons as they appear from below. There is a spiky text bubble saying “Three of them!!!” End Image Description.]

10/10

not my most favorite fight but it still portrays everything alright and im not allowed to let my personal opinions mess with the rating so

i like how tanjirou mentioned the fact that he trained in conditions similar to the bog and explains how he pulled off the whirlpool form

using past experiences to aid him in the present, nice nice

tanjirou and nezuko dont quite work together very well but its yknow the first mission so ill chalk it up to simple inexperience

also the way the muzan curse thingie was hinted at here? fantastic way of showing that little bit of demon worldbuilding

...

oh god, it mentions nezuko being stronger than normal demons

ok its not a problem here per say since i can still suspend my disbelief, but later on it just becomes a glaring problem that gets worse over time

VS SUSAMARU AND YAHABA

[Image Description: Manga panels of Susamaru and Yahaba. The first one is a joyful Susamaru about to throw a temari ball. There is floating text saying “Is she one of Kibutsuji’s minions?!” The second image is an annoyed Yahaba, holding one of his eye-hands to cover himself. There are two text bubbles around him saying “My kimono got all dusty. Tch!” End Image Description.]

9/10

why dont these bitches have a good looking panel together dammit

anyways amazing entrance, the way yahaba used his hand eyes to track down tanjirou is really neat

the synergy yahaba and susamaru have is incredible, its awesome dude, they work extremely well together and it shows

tanjirou actually mixing his water breathing forms together is a god tier move and i absolutely love how he can show off his ability to think on his feet once again

establishing how yushiro’s bda works early on is really well done

establishing tamayo as a fugitive this early on is also super well done

not to get into spoiler territory but both these things pay off

how tamayo ended up defeating susamaru is literally awesome in so many ways

shows off both how smart she is by exploiting the muzan curse

and speaking of the muzan curse, we actually get to see what happens to demons who even say his name, back when it was hinted with the swamp demon

tamayo is amazing dude, and we get some real evidence of the horrible suffering demons go through if they even accidentally attempt to betray muzan :D

...

now heres what keeps this fight from being perfect

nezuko somehow grew stronger against susamaru’s temari

with no explanation

which could have been easily explained if tamayo was like “oh yeah the drug also boosts a demon’s strength temporarily”

but nope

god, i just dont like how gotouge handles nezuko’s power boosts throughout the series bc like i said before

no explanation is given anywhere

this is a huge issue, this isnt a pokemon game, you cant just kill demons and get exp at the end of every battle, level up, get some sweet stat bonuses and move on

(actually if gotouge established that this is how nezuko grew in power, than all my complaints about this would be gone, im not even joking)

anyways i get that nezuko is supposed to be “special” but thats too vague of a descriptor

how the hell is she special? ya gotta be more specific and stick with that explanation or that suspension of disbelief is going to disappear

VS TONGUE DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of a four-eyed demon with horns and a long tongue. He is crawling in an awkward position, one foot in front of his tilted head. There are two text bubbles around him saying “Heh, heh! I’ll slurpy slurp your brains out through you ear!” End Image Description.]

10/10

not much to say, showcases zenitsu’s true abilities really well

nicely done

VS HORNED DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of a big, single-horned demon. There are three text bubbles saying “You dodged! You’re awfully lively for a human! It’ll be a treat to carve away your flesh!” End Image Description.]

10/10

would have ignored this fight if not for the fact we havent seen inosuke fight before

it definitely shows how very fast-paced and wild inosuke is

no complaints here lol

VS KYOGAI

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kyogai, a demon with tsuzumi drums attached to his shoulders. There are four text bubbles around him saying “Why?! Why does everyone keep sneaking through my house? It’s so aggravating. It’s my prey! It’s my prey! Found in my territory!” End Image Description.]

10/10

establishes marechi blood pretty early on, once again expanding the worldbuilding of kny which is always cool

interesting terrain where it’s always shifting, tanjirou once again proves his ability to adapt really quickly by altering one of his forms to work with the turning room

(man, i wish the form mixing/form modification thing carried on throughout the rest of the story, but it really didnt which is just a shame)

the injuries tanjirou had prior to this mission actually affecting him was a nice touch

oh yeah, kyogai gives us more worldbuilding (which is always nice) regarding the 12 kizuki, and the aspect of him being cast out due to being weak shows a lot about muzan’s indifference towards his own demons if they arent strong

his backstory being a failed writer once again humanizes kyogai as a former human being and not just a monster

tanjirou shows his sympathy and compassion again by not stepping on his written work and complimenting his bda

well, tbh tanjirou’s actions kinda came out of nowhere but its a very minor thing and not enough to dock a point off, like it didnt affect the outcome of the fight that much if at all

(so if you see future battles where points are docked off for things not logically making sense, its bc whatever nonsensical concepts were integrated into the fight actually turned the tide of the battle and thats a big no-no)

very good fight and if you remember how kinda bad tanjirou was at accurately slicing the swamp demon, you can see that he’s already improved leaps and bounds

im so proud of him

VS MOTHER SPIDER DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou and the Mother Spider Demon. There is a light shining down from the top right on to the demon as Tanjirou slices her head off, rain following in his wake. There is floating text saying “Water Breathing: Fifth Form - Blessed Rain After the Drought!” around them. End Image Description.]

10/10

i mean does anyone disagree?

all the demon slayers getting their necks snapped by her threads was pretty horrific, probably more horrifying than anything else we have seen in the entire series if im gonna be honest

the death scene is probably the most beautiful one in the series

it reveals a water breathing form that we havent seen before thats the 5th form

as far as i know, no other breathing style has this merciful sword stroke so it shows a lot about the original water breather and what they might have been like

but enough about them, really the focus is on tanjirou bc this is like the best example by far of how kind and sympathetic he is to demons

dunno what else to say, its perfect

VS SON SPIDER DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Agatsuma Zenitsu performing Thunder Breathing 1st Form: Sixfold on a spider-like demon. Zenitsu is crashing through the roof of a shed, and a zig-zag path is left behind. There are sound effects all over the panel, saying “Bam!” in large font. End Image Description.]

10/10

chose a picture without a huge spider on it bc i would like to not scare myself half to death

anyways extremely amazing fight, showcases zenitsu’s immense talent and skill, adapting the 1st form of thunder breathing to be a more versatile move

theres a moment where his backstory with kuwajima and kaigaku were revealed and his hidden insecurities are out in the open which is super nice and further develops a character weve only considered as comedic relief until now

the anime made the backstory scenes and the killing scene so much cooler

while there is no thematic connection between zenitsu and the demon, it really isnt necessary to keep this fight interesting

anyways another pretty much perfect fight

VS FATHER SPIDER DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou and Inosuke slashing at the Father Spider Demon. The demon has blocked Tanjirou’s sword with his arm, and Inosuke is slamming both his blades down on the demon’s other hand. End Image Description.]

10/10

again, not my most favorite fight but it does everything right

i do have to say it was excellent how gotouge hyped up the father spider demon to be the big bad, only just so the plot twist later takes the readers by surprise

nicely done

VS DAUGHTER SPIDER DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kochou Shinobu and the Daughter Spider Demon. Shinobu’s back is seen and her haori looks like a butterfly’s wings keeping her afloat as she holds her stinger blade out to the side. The demon looks surprised as blood gushes from her side, arm, shoulder, chest, neck, and forehead. There is floating text on the panel, saying “Insect Breathing - Butterfly Dance - Caprice!” End Image Description.]

10/10

first time weve seen shinobu and her fighting style

what i love most about this is how much it shows her true character, appearing as a carefree and naive individual so she seems underwhelming

then bam, reveals exactly how dangerous and uncaring she is of demons, listing out the specific ways she would torture the daughter spider demon in grotesque detail

her using poison to take demons by surprise is also super clever and brings back the worldbuilding established way earlier about wisteria being poisonous to demons

amazing integration of that concept

anyways this fight really encapsulates who shinobu is as a character and thats why it gets a perfect score

VS RUI

[Image Description: Manga panel of Rui holding his hand out directly towards the viewer. There are two text bubbles around him, saying “Give me your sister. If you hand her over quietly, I’ll spare your life.” End Image Description.]

8/10

not only is it a super scary fight but there is a deeper conflict between rui and tanjirou, what it means to be family

they are opposites in the sense that while tanjirou believes love is what makes a family, rui’s subconscious desperation for an unbreakable bond drives him to use fear to keep his “family” together

excellent juxtaposition of their values, and this is only further emphasized when rui expresses out loud what he was going to do to nezuko

i also like the symbolism regarding rui’s bda, how he uses threads or the “familial” bonds to cut up his fake family with it if they act out of turn or annoy him

super neat detail

alright what i dont like about this fight is nezuko (again)

mostly her unlocking her bda to turn the tide of the battle bc her mom was like “yo, wake up, your brother is going to be killed”

feels... forced ig

her bda in general is confusing and not consistent

man, i wish i could make a stronger argument for this but i do believe the problem stems from the fact that we dont ever know what nezuko is thinking, and what she thinks of tanjirou specifically

if she even cares for him as a sibling or if shes only going along with what her family is saying to her, things like that which would have been fixed if gotouge actually gave her thoughts some screen time

so the action feels pretty shallow

im also conflicted over tanjirou somehow remembering how dance of the fire god works

on one hand, hes using past information and applying it in the current setting so he doesnt die, which is understandable

but on the other hand, this was a teeny bit random?

i think what could have fixed this is if there was a scene in the beginning of the series where tanjirou was performing it himself, like practicing before he actually had to do it for new years

so that when the rui fight rolls around, it would have felt less like throwing dry spaghetti at a wall

but yeah

overall super good fight, giyuu ending up having to kill rui instead of tanjirou was super good in that tanjirou didnt become a pillar this early in the series and to show how strong giyuu is

there are some odd bits regarding the ultimate “beheading” of rui using nezuko and tanjirous supposed bonds but it doesnt kill the fight entirely so it deserves its pretty high score

***under read more is manga-only fights so beware***

VS ENMU

[Image Description: Manga panel of Enmu holding his hand out directly at the viewer, with a mouth on the back of it. There is floating text to the top right of Enmu that says “Whispers of Forced Unconscious Hypnosis!” End Image Description.]

9/10

id say this fight is definitely overshadowed by the dream stuff prior to this but its pretty good in its own right

enmu fusing with the train was kinda confusing, like when was it established that demons could fuse with objects?

this worldbuilding element doesnt even appear again so yeah thats why it loses a point

how the kmbk gang end up defeating enmu is pretty sweet though, tanjirou using dance of the fire god to sever the neck bone was really nice and shows that him using the breathing style in the rui fight wasnt a one time thing

while kyojuro’s role was smaller in this part, the next part makes up for it so i cant complain

anyways ye, almost perfect score but its pretty good

VS AKAZA (MUGEN TRAIN)

[Image Description: Manga panel of Akaza holding his hand out to the viewer’s left. There is a text bubble saying “Why don’t you become a demon?” End Image Description.]

10/10

this encounter is literally amazing okay?

after the crew kills the big bad, it seems like everything is fine

but plot twist, upper moon 3 appears out of nowhere

this is the first time the reader has seen an upper moon, let alone the 3rd/4th strongest demon in existence and the way gotouge handled this twist is fucking amazing

kyojuro’s death scene really shows just how human even the strongest pillars are against demons with incredible power

its just

amazing

VS OBI DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panels of the obi-like demon. The first image shows the obi hung in the air and strung over each other like decorations, with women-shaped patterns in its folds. The second image is Hashibira Inosuke fighting the Obi demon which now has lips and eyes. There is floating text in that panel saying “Breath of the Beast: Sixth Fang - Jagged Gnaw!!” End Image Description.]

10/10

on to red light district

this fight is admittedly super forgettable and not very interesting at least compared to the main fight with daki and gyutaro

but it wraps up the sub plot of the women and uzui’s wives going missing so it gets a perfect score for not messing that up

oh and it establishes the stretchy neck thing daki has going on which is very good

VS DAKI AND GYUTARO

[Image Description: Manga panel of Daki and Gyutaro. Daki is sitting on Gyutaro’s shoulders. There is a text bubble on the top right that says “The two of us are one, after all.” as well as floating text that reads “The power of the irregular siblings...!? Next issue lead color and the fight reaches its climax!!” End Image Description.]

8/10

love how this battle challenges tanjirou’s sympathy and kindness towards demons, just simply bc daki and gyutaro are horrible people

(too bad nothing came of this, which ill explain in the hantengu portion)

daki and gyutaro are very good villains and kept this fight super interesting from start to finish

uzui acting as a foil to gyutaro is nicely integrated and properly shown with how jealous gyutaro gets over seeing uzui’s perfect form and stature

tanjirou not only mixes forms but mixes breathing styles as well, which is so fucking awesome

(too bad it was only used like once throughout the entire series, its quite unfortunate)

the super high tension right after inosuke gets stabbed and tanjirou wakes up was expertly portrayed and handled, it felt like the kmbk gang and uzui were actually going to lose

super awesome

the tanjirou and gyutaro parallels are expertly portrayed, with how gyutaro taunts tanjirou over failing to protect his little sister, and the more visual thing where tanjirou imagined his own neck underneath his blade, that was super duper nice

the ending is extremely tense and emotionally gripping, gotouge did a really good job with that artistically too

the demon mark acquisition scene was surprisingly not frustrating, considering that it wasnt really explained prior to the battle

i do think it has to do with how it was explained later just exactly how they worked so its not just some random thing gotouge pulled out of their ass

so pretty good

/

what i dont like is nezuko and her full power demon form

first of all where the fuck did that come from? she just got angry and suddenly shes as powerful as an upper moon

like

how?

that doesnt make sense???

her extremely quick regeneration makes no sense

her ability to manipulate her blood’s properties makes no sense

and it doesnt even appear again so what was the point of that existing

none of this is even explained later which annoys me

that one part where tanjirou sings a lullaby to her to calm her down was alright ig but nezuko in this fight makes me extremely irritated and frustrated

just ugh

VS HANTENGU

[Image Description: Manga panel of Hantengu opening a shoji door. He is crawling inside, his hand in a gnarled, unnatural position. There is a text bubble saying “Eeeeeeek.” End Image Description.]

1/10

swordsmith village

this fight can go fuck itself /j

no but seriously it has so many problems that it would be shorter to name its redeeming qualities (which ill do later)

first off, the nezuko full power form thing again

i hate it so much with a passion

again, where did her ability to regenerate instantly even come from???? this is never explained, ever

and why did she cut herself on tanjirou’s sword anyway

did she somehow know that it was going to turn red if she burned it?

gotouge what the fuck, there is literally no reason why nezuko would do that and we cant even read her mind to see her thought process

gotouge hates nezuko, i swear

/

remember when i said uzui is meant to be a foil to gyutaro in the rld fight? its pretty obvious that those two are opposites, it was nicely done

... what the hell does mitsuri’s insecurities about strength have to do with whatever the fuck hantengu has going on (which is basically nothing)?

so no meaningful connection between mitsuri and hantengu

theres no meaningful connection between tanjirou and hantengu other than tanjirou getting pissed off for like the second time

also tanjirou’s thing with being kind and sympathetic to demons was entirely dropped at this point

but instead of it leading up to a corruption arc of some sorts, it just doesnt

like honestly if something actually came of that anger he exhibited in this arc and from red light district from this point forward story-wise, i would have counted this as an amazing writing decision

but it literally doesnt so who cares

(god, i really start to hate what happened to his character after this )

and genya’s revealed motivation also doesnt fit at all with hantengu’s thing, he’s not a foil, not a parallel, nothing, there is nothing

/

tanjirou being the catharsis for development for mitsuri and muichirou, who he has only talked to like twice

theres definitely a better way to handle those two’s developments without his help

like gotouge, you have a big cast of characters, use them lol

/

i want to kick hantengu in the face for being boring as fuck (at least his clones have cool looking weapons)

doesnt even have a proper backstory, just a single spread of him being blamed for shit as a human

like... thats it? this is upper moon 4 what the hell

/

theres no clever form mixing here at all (regarding tanjirou) which probably would have helped with foreshadowing the 13th form for dance of the fire god/sun breathing better

also gotouge established that as tanjirou’s thing and now he doesnt do that stuff anymore which sucks

/

oh hey remember when tanjirou actually learned how to do zenitsu’s speed boost thing?

if you didnt, i dont blame you bc it literally doesnt appear again, ever

you could argue that he adapted it into his “waltz flash” technique or whatever the fuck that is but the way it was integrated into this fight was like throwing dry spaghetti at a wall

which is just a shame bc its meant to be representative of how tanjirou and zenitsu are good pals but the way it was utilized is forgettable as hell

/

i absolutely loathe the crimson blade concept as a whole and im mentioning this now bc its going to come into play why future instances where this goddamn thing comes up again causes points to be lost

its inconsistent as fuck ill tell you that

/

at least some yoriichi stuff appeared here and not shoved into the final battle with everything else

so the yoriichi stuff later didnt come out of absolute nowhere

genya and mitsuri’s unique fighting styles expand the kny worldbuilding just a little more which is always nice

tanjirou got a cool sword out of this which would have been cooler if him and yoriichi had a deeper connection that was actually explored

but we didnt get shit so whatever

other people getting demon marks being revealed here is also okay so that again, the final battle isnt filled with absolutely everyone getting their marks at once

demon marks have their own slew of problems but its not as bad as the fucking crimson sword shit

god i hate the crimson sword shit

...

dude this section needs a tldr, even i cant sit and read through my shit

TL;DR - this fight sucks and crimson swords are bullshit (more on this later)

VS GYOKKO

[Image Description: Manga panel of Tokitou Muichirou and Gyokko. Muichirou is looking to the left while Gyokko is looking to the right, both with their backs to each other. There are mist clouds billowing in the foreground and background, as well as a slash mark going across Gyokko’s neck. End Image Description.]

7/10

this fight suffers from the same lack of cohesive themes through characters like the hantengu battle bc the antagonist is given nothing

but its better

we havent actually seen mui fight before so theres no consistencies that the reader has to keep track of for now

and there arent like 10 characters in the fight so this fight gets a lot of points just for being a lot more coherent

i do like that this fight shows just how good mui is that he can defeat an upper moon by himself

mui’s backstory is neat

gyokko’s bda is very interesting too

... thats pretty much it lol

ye, anyways not the best fight but not the worst fight either

VS KAIGAKU

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kaigaku holding the hilt of his blade with one hand. There is two text bubbles around him, saying “...As usual, you’re still shabby. It’s been a while, Zenitsu.” End Image Description.]

9/10

alright on to final battle arc

theres some good fights and then some really sucky ones, but this one was pretty incredible and very emotionally charged

theres a clear reason why zenitsu and kaigaku are battling each other (kai betrayed the corps and inadvertantly caused the only parental figure in zenitsu’s life to die, and zenitsu is rightfully pissed off about that)

the visual yin-yang symbolism is awesome too

zenitsu winning due to using the 7th form he created himself (which i have reason to believe was inspired by tanjirou) was the perfect ending to the fight, really couldnt ask for anything better and is a perfect example of how much of an effect tanjirou has had on zenitsu

the 7th form is what tanjirou’s waltz flash should have been lol

/

what keeps this fight from being absolutely perfect is lack of development prior to this conflict

(since the final battle arc is basically a culmination of all the hinted developments through the series, im going to actually factor in how much and how well these conflicts were foreshadowed)

anyways if we had actually seen zenitsu, kaigaku, and kuwajima actually interacting with each other and showing how they were essentially a family (not just through flashbacks), it would have made zenitsu placing the responsibility of killing kai onto himself a lot more tragic

but like, apart from brief flashbacks where zenitsu actually met kaigaku off screen and that one thing all the way back in natagumo where both kuwajima and kai were introduced, thats pretty much it in terms of thunder family development

so yeah its underdeveloped for sure

also one random thought, i personally think zenitsu should have gotten his demon mark in this fight, it would have been cool to see

VS AKAZA (INFINITY FORTRESS)

[Image Description: Manga panel of Akaza’s face. There are two text bubbles around him, saying “Okay, let’s get started. It’s time for the feast.” There is also floating text saying “The inspection of the strong has begun...” as well as a simple box on the lower left, denoting its the end of chapter 147. End Image Description.]

6/10

oh god please dont hate me for this

ill list the good things first how about that

this conflict was foreshadowed perfectly in mugen train, you bet the readers were expecting a tanjirou vs akaza battle after the death of kyojuro and gotouge delivered

akaza’s power is shown extremely well with how many close calls tanjirou and giyuu had while fighting him

akaza eventually giving up on his own volition was really nice and fit into the context of the battle very very well, like sure tanjirou and giyuu wouldnt understand why he gave up but us readers do know

akaza is a really good character and a good villain

/

now notice how im only mentioning akaza and not giyuu or tanjirou in the good aspects

bc those two are eh

no form mixing at all from either tanjirou and giyuu

i know i said form mixing was kind of tanjirou’s thing but you’d think giyuu would have gotten more creative with his moves once akaza said that he was getting predictable

(well he said he “ran out of water breathing forms” but same thing)

so its kinda bland lol

speaking of giyuu, his whole thing with his insecurities of being weak wasnt handled well (it was sort of immediately brushed off in pillar training, and its unclear what part of his character arc he was in)

like sure him announcing that he’s going to protect tanjirou is cool but it feels like he was haphazardly dropped into the tanjirou and akaza conflict

isnt he supposed to be both their foils? that wasnt really explored that well in this fight and theres no deep meaning behind him even being here just analyzing what he did in it

he could have been handled better or even given more focus is what im saying

the anatta state came out of nowhere, im sorry okay? just bc inosuke like barely hinted at not being able to sense grandma hisa bc she had no fighting spirit and tanjurou magically taught his son how to achieve this state doesnt mean it was properly integrated into the fight

if the anatta state was actually explored prior to this battle, i would have given it a pass but it just feels like a cheap and poorly developed trick to get around akaza’s technique development (which is overpowered as fuck might i add)

gotouge should have just given akaza a plausible weakness to his technique development instead, especially since they dont use or even mention the anatta state after this

the transparent world shit makes no sense but ill elaborate on that in the koku battle analysis

oh and this thing doesnt affect the score but why wasnt there a “yoriichi visage overlapping” moment when tanjirou was fighting akaza? hes an upper moon, he should have gotten those visions but he didnt

for some reason

anyways this battle was alright and has good set up but the middle and end parts didnt hold up as well bc random concepts were thrown at us without prior explanation or development

VS DOUMA

[Image Description: Manga panel of Douma licking Shinobu’s butterfly pin. There are two text bubbles around him saying “Anyway, tonight is a good night. Such fine feasts keep showing up one after another.” End Image Description.]

9/10

damn, such an amazing fight

the build up to this was properly foreshadowed

shinobu finally showing her true anger after hiding it for so long is amazing

douma is a super interesting character and fantastic villain

shinobu showing off her true power and determination against douma was sooooo nice

shinobu’s poisonous body plan is so clever and so interesting

if i was to rate the shinobu part of the fight alone, it would have gotten a 10/10 no question

the reason why its knocked down a point is because of the kanao and inosuke part

dont get me wrong, the way kanao is able to hold her own against douma by herself is pretty cool, how shes meant to parallel douma with their similar struggles surrounding human emotions and demonstrate how she has grown as a person, how she regains the ability to cry

that shit is cool, inosuke also getting in touch with his emotions after learning what happened to his mom was super neat as well

however

bc this battle takes place in the final arc with everything else, there wasnt proper build up regarding many things, the kotoha reveal especially

so inosuke feels kinda forced into the kanao shinobu and douma conflict, similar to how giyuu felt forced into the tanjirou and akaza conflict

its quite unfortunate bc if the kotoha stuff was actually explored prior to the confrontation, this “forced” feeling would have disappeared

i know some people have suggested that the douma fight should have just been its own arc, and i very much agree, it would have certainly helped fix this problem regarding inosuke and kotoha

last random thought, i wish shinobu, kanao, and inosuke got their demon marks

VS KOKUSHIBOU

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kokushibou looking directly at the viewer, holding the hilt of his blade as if he’s going to pull it out. There are text boxes around him saying “This... is Upper Moon One... He’s so different compared to the other Upper Moons. He looks so dignified and majestic.” The text boxes are narrated by Tokitou Muichirou. End Image Description.]

5/10

this fight is... mediocre

at least theres a more tangible connection between muichirou and kokushibou

even though that was handled kinda poorly

tbh there really was no point to revealing that mui is koku’s descendant like at all, it just had no significant bearing to the plot of the fight

sanemi’s backstory being here is... okay ig?

idk the whole shinazugawa conflict has fundamental problems that i just cant think of any other place to put it without changing the entirety of canon

the marechi blood concept coming back was nice though

genya is there

him getting his bda was cool and helped turn the tide of the battle in a satisfying way (before kicking the bucket but thats not the focus here)

gyomei is a hollow husk of a character who barely got anything at all

but his fighting style is extremely cool and conveys his immense power very well

oh and him and sanemi are amazing at working together, like better than giyuu and tanjirou, and better than kanao and inosuke

theyre that good yet pretty much nobody acknowledges it which is sad

koku himself is pretty interesting and pretty tragic, very nice villain

but everyone together?

gonna be honest but this is such a random collection of characters, there was basically no foreshadowing that these four were going to go up again kokushibou, they are not that connected very well

i know there was this one post that focused on the theme of family that was common in all 5 characters in the fight but its just not enough

it would have been more cohesive if gotouge emphasized gyomei, mui, sanemi, and genya being like different aspects of yoriichi coming together to kill kokushibou hundreds of years after yoriichi failed to kill him

lmao its not like the 4 of them defeated koku with the power of family or friendship, they just smacked him over and over with a flail, shot him with magical bullets, and stabbed a crimson sword into his abdomen

wouldnt have been too hard to switch over to koku’s pov and go “damn these bitches are like my stupid brother”

...

speaking of crimson swords

i fucking hate the crimson sword concept oh my god can i complain about it now? im gonna complain about it now

unlike demon marks, the crimson blades werent even given any proper conditions, you just hold the stupid thing hard enough and it somehow imbues it with magical properties with no logic behind those properties

what part of crimson swords completely destroys a demon’s body in an instant? even muzan didnt go through that process when he was almost killed by yoriichi so where in the goddamn fuck did it come from

it could be explained bc the sword was left in the same spot for a long time but this tactic doesnt even appear again in a meaningful way (didnt kill muzan when tanjirou and giyuu held the sword together) so what the fuck was the point of having this even exist

its so underdeveloped and confusing and i hate it

the transparent world stuff is also confusing as shit and its pretty much never explained how they work aside from the vague “close your mind” advice, like why did it exist, it did nothing to help the present day demon slayers

its just so... poorly integrated

yeah anyways this is around the same rating as the akaza fight but a little worse bc there wasnt that strong set up beforehand

VS KOKUSHIBOU (SENGOKU ERA)

[Image Description: Manga panel of a bag getting ripped open, pieces of a wooden flute tumbling out. End Image Description.]

10/10

easily 10/10

this fight shows the tragedy of kokushibou giving in to his envy and hatred, when yoriichi cries over seeing his own family commit terrible attrocities against the people he wanted to protect

and yoriichi dies, now carrying the fact that he couldnt even save his own brother from the influence of muzan on his conscious forever

what a sad ending for yoriichi

and after koku angrily slashes apart yoriichi’s corpse, having him find and keep the flute he gave to him when they were kids to the present day gives him a small shred of humanity in the midst of his monstrous anger

VS NAKIME

[Image Description: Manga panels of Nakime. The first one shows a low quality version of her playing her biwa. The second one is a close up of her eye. There are spiky text bubbles saying “It’s Upper Rank... 4!” End Image Description.]

0/10

no nakime backstory

not even a goddamn fight

forgettable

useless

VS MUZAN

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kibutsuji Muzan in his white-haired, mouth-covered form. There are text bubbles around him saying “Not a single one was of use to me. I will crush the demon hunters tonight. I’ll massacre them all right now.” End Image Description.]

1/10

._.

i have many complaints but ill try my best to not make this another hantengu rant section lol

first off, obanai deserved better

im serious, this poor dude was forgotten until pretty much the end when we finally get a backstory out of him

and then he died

what a waste of a potentially amazing character

mitsuri getting taken out early was ehhh

pretty sure someone else made a post about her supposedly being extremely strong but she was nerfed in this battle which i agree with

literally none of the pillars work together very well, like remember how i praised sanemi and gyomei for being super coordinated? lmao that doesnt exist anymore

you could say this is caused by desperation though and you wouldnt be wrong, its just boring to sit through

that causes issues bc this now basically requires the crimson sword and transparent world concepts to be there to spice things up

but in this fight, they do nothing in the long run (except for tanjirou using the crimson sword at the very very end)

youve already heard me talk about why those two things are super shittily integrated and i cant be bothered repeating myself so moving on

kanao, inosuke, and zenitsu

they... exist? they didnt do much tbh, which i guess is the point but like, now its boring again

nezuko could have been used as a potential way to raise the stakes and make things interesting again (like “ah shit, muzan might actually be unkillable if he gets nezuko but its okay bc shes not here- oh fuck shes here this is not good”)

but nothing came of her running off except confirmation that she became human again so whatever

uzui and shinjuro are useless, why werent they at the fight?

like they could have followed nezuko and contributed to the battle even a little but they just didnt and now theres literally no point to them appearing in this arc at all

wasted potential

tanjirou

i wish him going absolutely apeshit had actual substance behind it, like it being a part of his character arc or something

i remember having this one theory that he had a corruption arc (due to dropping his kindness thing towards demons) and i wanted this to be true so badly

but it doesnt exist

not with how the series ended

god

the only thing that saves this fight from being complete trash is tamayo’s poison thing being amazingly executed

and the part where everyone got blasted away, losing limbs and shit, that made things a little more interesting again

but thats it

VS MUZAN (SENGOKU ERA)

[Image Description: Manga panels of Kibutsuji Muzan, Tamayo, and Tsugikuni Yoriichi. The first one has Muzan and Tamayo, while the second one has Yoriichi pulling out his sword. There are text boxes saying “And the moment I met him, I understood that I was born into this world to defeat this man.” End Image Description.]

9/10

finally something good again

while short, that’s just the nature of all of yoriichi’s battles with demons

anyways pretty nice, theres a clear reason why this battle exists (shows the scenario that made the original breather get super close to defeating muzan in detail)

adding tamayo here was a nice touch

my only complaint is that it seemed extremely coincidental that yoriichi somehow developed a breathing style specifically countering muzan’s multiple organs without even knowing prior that he had all those brains and hearts floating around freely in his body

like thats kind of ridiculous, even for yoriichi whos supposed to be “blessed by the gods”

could just be me though

VS TANJIROU

[Image Description: Manga panels of Kamado Tanjirou in his demon form. The first image has his eyes closed. The second image has his eyes opened and the tumor on his face almost completely faded. There are text boxes around him saying “You will destroy the demon hunters in my stead.” End Image Description.]

1/10

hoo boy

ok first off, demon tanjirou lasted for 2 chapters

thats it

2 chapters

so thats already a problem

i am aware its meant to parallel the beginning of the series but also its ridiculous how completely vague and rushed this entire thing was

nezuko doesnt do shit through not just this battle but this entire arc which i already explained so not gonna go into it further

kanao magically having a demon cure on her made very little sense

the scene where tanjirou leaves muzan in purgatory is pretty but if you look at it in the context of everything else, its ambiguous and confusing

(if someone could explain it and see how it connects to the original theme of “demons just being victims of circumstance,” i would love to hear it)

/

actually you know what makes me so mad about this “fight” as a whole? there was so much potential to do more with this concept

and im not talking about him escaping and nezuko becoming a demon slayer roleswap au (even though its a pretty cool concept)

him becoming a demon could have been a metaphor for his lost kindness and sympathy towards demons halfway through the series

it could have been a punishment for letting his anger towards muzan cloud his judgement

it could have symbolized literally anything about him losing his humanity as he got stronger

but those three things are just scenarios from my head, they dont exist in this series just based off of what weve seen from these two chapters

its disappointing

the only thing keeping this from getting a 0 is the one part where inosuke couldnt chop off tanjirou’s head bc he cared about him too much

that at least shows inosuke had grown as a character

everything else is just meaningless and convoluted garbage and “convoluted” is not what you should be aiming for if this is supposed to be the ending of your series

IN SUMMARY

early kny is very good, later kny is questionable and the ending is just a mess of wasted potential and disappointment

i get why gotouge had to have the transparent world ability, crimson blade ability, and the demon marks appear before they all appeared on yoriichi but theyre all just so underdeveloped and terribly handled in the battles they are used, it makes me want to kick a wall

like lmao, i could literally think of so many ways they could have been properly integrated, hell, im even writing a whole goddamn rewrite using my ideas for these three things (link to that is in my pinned)

just, god

if you want to debate over these ratings, my ask box is open ig? idk

[kuboism]

Bleach Canon Vs. Studio Clown Episode 1

Intro to the series

WARNING: Long read but theres plenty of pictures

The first deviation we’re greeted with is what the anime presents as the arrival of hollows into the human world. With a likely artistic rendition of them forming from the shadows of Hueco Mundo and dripping/bleeding over into the human world like splotches of ink, after which they disappear - unable to be perceived by humans.

A/N: Which, kubos to the anime, is rather neat.

The anime also decided to incorporate the first volume poem which is the thematic beginning and a great establisher of the mood/themes of Bleach, which roughly translates to: 

我らは 姿無きが故に それを畏れ

“We fear that which cannot be seen”

And then they curiously add a line to this poem? 

姿無き故に敬う

”We revere that which cannot be seen"

A/N: Which, initially seems on brand with the spiritualism of that “which is not seen” - the shinigami, DEATH itself if you will. However, unlike the themes of “fear” and “fear of death/the unseen”, “reverence” is not really a theme prevalent or definitive for bleach. Reverence is not particularly reserved for death or death gods, but antagonists with themes of divinity/the Soul King himself, but I digress.

Next off the bully scene has a couple of missing/reworded lines, as well as some of the delivery changed, but overall it’s not significant enough to mention.

I also wish they’d kept Ichigo’s shit yourself scary face from this moment right here, since it really underlines how serious and personally invested Ichigo is in bringing small justice to the souls of the departed, but I can only pray a future remake does include it.

^ I am disappointed in y’all :/

vs.

v Karma delivery, bitch

Then for some reason the next scene is changed significantly:

In the manga, it builds up slowly to Ichigo’s reveal of supernatural abilities with the iconic TM character profile intros (which I can see why weren’t recreated in the anime, but I sure wish they put them in....)

with him spooking the bullies off with the ghost girl right behind him

Versus his scary face doing the job instead.....

It’s a small change, and I can see why it would be opted for - we don’t really know if they even saw the ghost in the first place (then again you could argue that would spook them anyway). There is a tonal difference in the long run though. The manga emphasizes once again *why* ichigo is scolding them in the first place - he sees the people disrespected by them knocking down the vase, he wants them to acknowledge their actions *because* in his mind, there are real victims he knows from it. While in the anime, since the ghost is not yet introduced, it feels more like “you are disrespectful to the dead” in a more generalized way vs. him actually being acquainted with the dead and treating them like the living. 

(Again, not sure why change it so much at all........the suspense and reveal are in the manga just the same.... but ok)

As well as cutting off this small moment where you can see Ichigo’s very human (and cute!) interactions with the ghosts. To him they’re just as real as the living, and he lends them a hand whenever they ask for help.

Also lmfao this 4kids level of censorship.....

It goes on rather faithfully for a while, no significant omissions, then Pierrot decides to randomly replace Yuzu’s lines with Karin??

Manga:

Anime: 

Which is an odd choice, given that not only does Yuzu sense ghosts just fine (albeit at a much lesser level than her family) and that later comes into play with Fishbone & Grandfisher, but Karin literally later admits that she doesn’t even want to acknowledge their presence, so why the change....?

They also cut short Karin’s little talk about Ichigo’s stats, which is a fair change for screentime’s sake, but mentioned for the record.

There’s a bit of a divergence with Yuzu lore, when the manga explicitly states she sees them, but not “clearly”, the anime focuses on her barely sensing them. I guess it doesn’t matter that much in the long run, since she is not that prevalent in the story, but it’s here for the record nonetheless.

Anime: 

vs. 

Manga:A

Also this next bit was removed, probably for the sake of pacing (which, totally fair!!), but it’s funny and I love the Kurosaki family so here it is:

It does make the flow a bit better in the manga, since this talk of selling his talents distracts Ichigo and creates an opening for his father to strike, in the anime, the same is done with Ichigo just randomly saying 

and thats where his father attacks him, which isnt really an issue, just kind of funny of how the manga is like:

Ichigo’s distracted by his sisters plotting to sell him out and hence Isshin has his chance to strike back

vs the anime being like:

Ichigo randomly thinks about dinner mid convo about ghosts and thats what distracts him from play-fighting with his dad 

gfdkhlgfdg okayyyy....moving on 

In the manga this scene is interspliced with Ichigo’s inner monologue about the nature of his powers (with hip jargon like “for real” courtesy of Viz ) 

(but my beef with Viz translations are for another day)

Also the line about “He told me more ghosts than ever have been haunting me” has been given to Karin for some reason, probably to make her feel more included in the scene/Ichigos life.

Notably, Isshin’s response is changed from “What?! He talks about stuff like that with you (Yuzu, singular)” to “What?! He talks about stuff like that with you guys?” as well, again probably to include Karin more into the dialogue. (Mmmm ok....)

Minor detail, but Karin’s lines has been changed to more “boyish” speech structure in the Japanese dub, which may seem insignificant, but ...... that is for later. 

.....

This little exchange

 is replaced with: 

Which, seems innocuous adaptation differences, but Yuzu’s lines keep decreasing and it’s a short enough moment to like....include and establish how motherly Yuzu is acting towards Ichigo.....but ok...huh. 

And now we get into the big boy changes.

So, probably for the sake of grounding the supernatural element of the series, the anime decided to skip time to the next morning and introduce the hollow attacks with a news report.

Which.....is an interesting choice. I am assuming this is addressing how the real world perceives the hollow attacks, which Bleach doesn’t put too much effort into addressing, but very soon after this we learn about stuff like memory replacement and other various technology to keep things under wraps so this is either redundant or implying that shinigamis have not been doing their job, which hm......

Next off is the bizarre choice to paint Isshin out of the picture for the night

Not sure why, but ok

Again, where’s the shinigami with their Kikanshinki (memory replacement devices)??? Pierrot where’s the lore coherence......

Anyway, Ichigo goes to replace the girl’s vase, but suprise-surprise she’s gone-zo. Wonder what happened to her.....

(And....again, people vehemently don’t want a reboot when the anime looks like this? )

So Ichigo hears a scream and a hollow scream and follows the sound (Ok?).

Totally random hollows attack. Which Ichigo somehow has never seen so far? Mind you, this isn’t like in the manga, where Fishbone was sent by Aizen specifically after Ichigo to make him aware of it. These are random-ass hollows attacking people, so how come Ichigo suddenly sees them. Ya coulda played it safe Pierrot, and stuck to the book, but we got plot inconsistencies episode one so let’s party.

The girl is, of course, not eaten and they run away.

She trips at the most inconvenient moment. (can ghosts trip? Ghost don’t even have legs in japanese lore and Kubo draws them floating around so okkkkkkkk)

(ok ok, im just being petty, bUT YKNOW)

(convenient tripping on deadass levelled ground is convenient)

(also God I really want that bag Ichigo’s got on his shoulder, it looks so nice)

Random-ass hollow closes in and 

BOOM

Rukia

(Now, if the rest of Bleach and the manga didn’t exist I would like this moment. We get a glimpse into Rukia’s abilities, into shinigami as a concept and we don’t really get to see her slice and dice hollows that much overall so the moment itself is rad in isolation.

Now, unfortunately for Pierrot’s screenwriters, Bleach manga exists and so does it’s lore, which again, would not be inconsistent with each other if the adapation was faithful. Now, Ichigo sees a shinigami, for some reason, for the first time in his 15 years of life. All of a sudden. 

You could argue, that much like in the manga, this is all part of Aizen’s plan TM, but like, she literally leaves right after leaving Ichigo gaping in awe ghfkjgdf. Why’d Aizen give him an appetizer, I really don’t understand how this change is benefitting the narrative in any way. It’s ....dare I say....generic.)

Rukia yeets the hollow

(why is this kid suddenly not wearing shoes?)

and goes off on her merry way, leaving Ichigo shooketh

ALSO RUKIA MA’AM THERES A FUCKING STRAY GHOST RIGHT AT YOUR RIGHT????? ISNT IT YOUR LIKE....JOB.......... TO HELP GHOSTS MOVE ON??? i know killing hollows is the fun part, but like ghjkfdlgfd ??? are you gonna ignore her???

( his fucking face ghfjdkgdlfgfd)

So after this wholeass pointless detour (you’ll see why it’s pointless in a moment)  we timeskip again (the filler is strong in this one. These 6 minutes were worth not coming up with something cohesive and removing scenes that actually make sense ah yes)

Ichigo is in deep thought TM about who tf is the stranger he’d just seen. Likely mulling over the monsters and how this person was able to slay said monsters. Probably thinking how unusual they are.

and as if on cue

the stranger makes their presence once more

(my God these faces gfhgkldfg)

....

Now let’s briefly address what happens in the manga instead.

Instead of the whole timeskip scene with the fight, Ichigo simply returns to his room on the same day, and oddly enough recognizes the species of the butterfly he sees? (nerdy boi! nerdy!! boi!)

rukia arrives much the same

(With the little text emphasizing how he’d never been aware of soul reapers, which is unsurprising given their secrecy, and makes sense in the long run since their first meeting is specifically orchestrated by Aizen. Two species that werent meant to interact brought together by his schemes.)

Back to the anime:

Ichigo pauses to ponder who tf they are and why the fuck they’re there.

and then the anime has the gall to suddenly revert to sticking to the manga, which like.... Ichigo kicks her for no reason? I guess because she isn’t answering? Even though Ichigo knows she has a sword and can wield it? Reckless boy.

Manga Ichigo thinks she’s a burglar, therefore, unsurprisingly, is comfortable kicking her outta his house. It’s a silly moment, but it also shows how accustomed or stupidly brave he is with the supernatural.

In the anime Ichigo asks her who she is instead of all that, and she responds pretty similarly to the manga

AND THE NEXT SCENE IS WHERE IT CLICKS WHY THEY WENT OUT OF THEIR WAY TO REMOVE ISSHIN FROM THE HOUSE.

(Ichigo and Rukia addressing the pointless filler, this leads nowhere)

Rukia check him out like she’s checking if the oranges on sale dont have mold on them 

slapstick ensues

and Rukia decides to answer his question.

Vs. the manga in which Isshin doesn’t leave his children home alone for some random conference and is actually used very efficient for two reasons:

1) building up on the burglar gag with actually funny slapstick that is based on a previously established joke

2) Instead of Rukia just saying “oh usually people can’t see me”, we get an actual demonstration of it, the reader gets to see “oh Isshin can’t see her - she must be a spiritual entity,” which further clicks with her surprised reaction at him being able to kick her in the first place.

The next scene is the classique Pierrot censorship.

Ghost girl runs away from what I’m assuming is Fishbone.

Aside from not showing her get eaten, the scene is pretty much delivering the same message, 

bUT

BECAUSE OF THE STUPID ASS FILLER WITH THEM MEETING RUKIA BEFORE THIS, I CAN ACCUSE RUKIA OF NEGLIGENCE.

UNLIKE THE MANGA, where Rukia arrives the night before and is specifically seeking Fishbone, therefore having no time to help this girl pass away, 

This vvvvvvv

could have been prevented if SOMEONE DID THEIR FUCKING JOB THE DAY BEFORE VVVVVVV

(I rest my case. Thank you Pierrot for making Rukia either negligent or an idiot. Awesome, And mind you, these changes were unnecessary. The manga’s pacing is fine. They could’ve extended scenes. But nope, had to go for making them meet beforehand.)

Anyway, we get to see some actual stakes in the manga

The next scene which is this in the manga 

has two changes to it. Firstly, obviously Isshin being consoled by Yuzu isn’t included since he isn’t home in the anime, and even if he were, I can see why that would be removed, cute as it may be.

And secondly, due to them having met prior Ichigo asks two additional questions:

And Rukia nods at both, which means she acknowledges that she had seen the girl the hollow was after and yet did nothing to help her pass on. 

(Reminder the Bleach anime was in production WAAAAY past the first 4 volumes, which gave a good general idea of the series, which y’know, was fine to adapt as is.

You’ll see these changes add up into becoming inconsistent with further Bleach lore. There’s a reason people call Bleach a hot mess, and I’m afraid Kubo ain’t really it.)

(Volume 14 Note from Kubo where he talks about the anime being announced)

Back to the series

Pet peeve time: Wish the anime was half as expressive as the manga

These scenes are supposed to represent

This panel:

(Nitpicking? Perhaps, but idc)

So uh, this scene is odd

Again, because of the addition of that filler with the hollow

Ichigo has seen her in action

And they even added Rukia trying to convince him 

even though, yknow???

LITerally the previous day???

Anyway  in the manga, where Ichigo has reason to be distrustful of her and her claims since y’know hes never seen her or a shinigami in action, but has enough proof that she’s a ghost bc his dad didn’t see her, he simply dismisses her before she can reply, and instead of just getting angry for being called a pipsqueak

she shows both Ichigo and the audience proof of her spiritual powers by binding Ichigo and forcing him to quietly listen to her explanations.

(To reiterate - Anime Rukia  has to verbally try to convince Ichigo WHO SAW HER FIGHT A HOLLOW THE OTHER DAY that shes no ordinary ghost. And because of that, she has no other reason to use Sai on him other than that shes mad she was called a pipsqueak bc she just tried to verbally convince him shei is a shinigami. When they could just adapt the manga and have her both demonstrate her powers and put him in his place at the same time. Wild.)

Also CRIMINALLY BORING SHOT, WITH CRIMINALLY BORING RUKIA

#NotMyRukia

LOOK AT THE MANGA

LOOK AT HER SMUGLY OWNING ICHIGO’S IGNORANT ASS #FuckYeahRukia

Also the subs may not show it if you’re watching it on Netflix, but anime Rukia says “I am not allowed to lay my hands on humans outside orders,” which like, you ARE LITERALLY DOING THAT. Manga Rukia is fine with bullying Ichigo, but she draws a line at killing him, but man Anime Rukia, you give no fucks about the laws huh.

why so cheerful?

(also Rukia be right tho)

(specifcally compared to hell you could say Soul society is a resftul place lmfao)

Also anime salary man gets to rest in peace, even like, pray and shit

Meanwhile the manga

YEET TO SOUL SOCIETY

(also notice how we’ve been robbed of ichigo’s silly socks

I swear the anime knows how to suck the soul out of the manga 

Get it? Soul! haha ....moving on.)

Really Rukia? One of your jobs?

GUESS YOU WERE OFF DUTY HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I’M SORRY BUT LIKE, SEE HOW POINTLESS THIS FILLER IS UGH!!!)

(Again pet peeve but look at how ugly this screen is COMPARED TO THE MANGA)

(What have they done to you, queen)

(also they never mention the name Konso ( or as Viz calls it here -”soul funeral”, thanks Viz)

Next on, not a pet peeve, but an observation:

Anime Rukia keeps her sketchbook in her kimono

Manga Rukia keeps it at the titty

Yep, which you neglected to do the day before,

she literally says “With the konso I did just a  moment ago” like she used the word before. Like you can contextually get it, but why cut that line out of the dialogue if you don’t change the next line it’s referenced in?

There’s also a dialogue change from the manga’s well, Viz uses “vaporize” which is not a bad choice given the specific wording Kubo uses, but the original says 

昇華 • 滅却

sublimate/convert • extinguish

which is a clever little nod/foreshadowing to the nature of souls in bleach and that they can be “converted” in and out of a hollowfied state. 

While the anime just says “to slay hollows”, and albeit it lacks the little nod the manga has to offer, I can’t see how they’d include it in the anime at that stage so I’m fine with them simplifying it to like, an exorcism.

A better question then Rukia - WHY DIDN’T YOU SEND OFF HER SOUL????

also WAIT THE GIRL IS STILL ALIVE?? she’s dead-dead by this point in the manga.

BULLSHIT !!!  YOU LITERALLY EXPLAIN LATER WHY!! ACTUALLY YOU EXPLAINED EARLIER WHY!!! YOU LITERALLY SAID THIS, 1 MINUTE AGO :

Anyway, Fishbone almost grants her the priviledge of escaping this God-awful anime, but is suddenly stopped?

AND CAN TALK??

wait WHY DOES FISHBONE TALK?? GHFJD isnt this supposed to be  a juicy reveal for later when Ichigo realizes “hey theyre not actual complete monsters - but used to be humans!” Hm, ok.

Also leaves her alone? Damn ok...

Reminder:

Moooving on...

Speaking of the manga, this little moment is missing:

Since there is no pointless filler that would make him ask about the ghost girl therefore exposing Rukia’s slacking off of her duty, Ichigo realizes that there must be a hollow nearby bc in the manga he actually has braincells to spare. 

Also wiping off the Baron’s moustache moment is gone 😢

Missing and dearly missed is also this moment, which consolidates how protective Ichigo is of his family. He only needs to hear Yuzu scream to click that the hollow is nearby and his family is in danger. I feel like anime Ichigo should be even more worried since his sisters are alone but ok??

Also foreshadows their dynamic of Rukia trying to stop his reckless attempts at pushing himself to protect his family, bc yknow....she has her own Kaien trauma to process.

Next off....

This is .... a choice....

They were very eager to give Yuzu’s lines to Karin just a couple of moments ago but now this whole exchange:

Where we see a very pragmatic yet soft side of Karin

She doesn’t know what is happening, and doesn’t expect her brother to fight it - he just wants him to be safe, because she loves her family. At least warn him before it gets to him and hurts him.

is replaced with this:

Yuzu, sweetie, what do you think he can do to achieve that.

I guess at least Anime Ichigo tries to get Rukia to do her job as she looks down on Yuzu in silence. 

But compare it to the manga:

#MyRukia stops by Karin to check for a pulse and reassures Ichigo that his sister is alive.

Manga Ichigo is NUMBER ONE oniichan in town and doesnt have time to call out to a stranger to save his family - HES BEYOND READY TO GO FIGHT, RECKLESS AS IT IS, EVEN THOUGH HIS OWN FAMILY BEGS HIM TO JUST RUN. because he cant let himself be unable to protect them. He cant live with himself if he doesnt try his darnest to protect them.

*elevator music playing as ichigo tries to get rukia’s attention but she fucks off downstairs, but instead of doing shit he just does the worm on the floor*

which I guess is more realistic for a teenage boy, but Ichigo is literally traumatized by being unable to protect a family member. Y’all think a ghost he’s never seen before is gonna stop him? 

Yooo, pathetic. #NotMyIchigo

[amjustagirl]

Nikki. Hon.

Boy do I have some thoughts about Storm Chaser 😩

Atsumu, Atsumu...I want to first start off by saying that you characterized him <i>beautifully</i> . Atsumu is one of those characters that I actually love reading about the most, because in addition to all of his wonderful traits and his relationship with his brother (honestly I could read banter back and forth between those to for days), his flaws are on full display, usually wrapped up in his virtues. His single minded determination? Sometimes at the expense of his loved ones. His stubbornness? Can turn to bull-headedness and he has a tendency to blindly think he's right. His passion? It's all or nothing with him, and getting the short end of the stick can hurt irreparably.

Okay and this might be a controversial opinion? This is exactly how I'd imagine a relationship with Atsumu might go. He's not always the most tactful and says what's on his mind, and sometimes that can be something you don't want to hear. And he can be spiteful, too - directing his frustrations with himself at those around him is a nasty habit he has that I think not a lot of FF writers touch on. When he left his ring behind on purpose in a place Kaiyo would see it, that actually hurt my heart.

That's why I think Osamu is such an integral part of his life, and even though he'd probably rather eat a spoonful of salt, I think Atsumu subconsciously turns to his brother for his troubles because Osamu's been setting him straight for most of his life. And <i>huge</i> praise to Osamu for being, IMO, the primary reason why their marriage was salvageable in the first place, and also for just being an amazing boss, brother (to Atsumu), brother-in-law (to Kaiyo), and uncle (to little Shino).

And last but not least, Kaiyo. I love her personality and think she's most a good fit for a partner to Tsumu. She has a good head on her shoulders, she's kind but not a pushover, and while initially I was against the idea of taking Atsumu back after he decided to ditch his responsibilities, I'm happy the got back together. And something else I did, this might seem extra but bear with me, but I actually went back to Chapter 6, hit CTRL+F and looked for the word 'sorry' and not once did it come up. Throughout his entire run for working to gain her forgiveness, Atsumu hadn't actually apologized to Kaiyo like Osamu said, but when he finally did in Chapter Seven and she gave him another chance, I liked it a lot. The healing process started once he finally swallowed his pride and apologized, and even then it took time - apologizing to her, her family, his brother for heaping his responsibilities on him. I liked that, and I liked that it wasn't instant either.

And then in the stands, when she miscarried 😢 My heart broke into so many pieces. And despite the circumstances, I'm so happy Atsumu was there for her. And the rest of the MSBY team as well, being there for both of them. Shoyo, my little ball of sunshine, made me smile when he offered her his mother's number if she needed to talk to someone about it, how sweet of him!

This one was absolutely aptly named, and it was a whirlwind of emotions I wasn't quite prepared for on a Saturday 😂 But I loved every moment of it! Thank you so much! 🤗💖🤗💖

<s>PS this all confirms why Osamu is my favorite of the two akdkakdnelqjsn</s>

oh darling lemme give you a hug ahhh <3

i knew atsumu wld be an amazing character to write cos as you pointed out, he's so flawed yet lovable. the dark side of his passion for volleyball is that he's more likely that not, going to resent anything and anyone that gets in the way of his ambition, and that's when his spiteful side really peeks out. it's not pretty, he's not a romantic hero but a flawed human being. i cried when i wrote the scene where he leaves his wedding ring right by the door, so kaiyo's reminded every day that he walked out on her and shino and the fact that she kept the ring clean, kept it exactly where he left it despite clearing all other signs of him from their apartment hurts my heart.

and that's where osamu steps in. he's really the silent support behind both atsumu and kaiyo and really, he deserves all the love cos that poor man just shouldered the burdens that atsumu left behind. but in a sense osamu's goodness just...kind of makes atsumu insecure. i weaved a little bit of that in the fic - when atsumu gets jealous of the relationship btw osamu and kaiyo, when he just assumed that he's the bad twin and doesn't have a conscience. i find their sibling relationship really...complicated yet loving and it was just such a blast to write.

kaiyo, my queen. when i was coming up with her personality i knew for a fact that atsumu could NOT be paired with a pushover, and my sense is that he'd be drawn by someone with strength of personality (look at how he's drawn to shoyo!) and in any case kaiyo had to have this ironclad will to survive atsumu's bullshit.

and yeah i definitely had a lot of readers discuss whether or not she should've ended up back with atsumu. i think...yeah the story at the end of the day is about...marriage that takes time to settle, about family and forgiveness and relationships that crumble, that can be rebuilt. and yknow i love that you combed through chapter 6 for an apology from atsumu because the omission of a simple 'sorry' from him was intention on my part. leading up to chapter 7, atsumu was being utterly selfish in his desire to get back together with kaiyo. he couldn't fathom that he should put her needs and desires ahead of his, and so he couldn't give her a proper apology until after the talk with osamu where his twin sets his head straight and reminds him to not be selfish for once in his life. and so when kaiyo takes him back, it's not because he bought her a motorbike (i mean, that in itself is significant in symbolising his desire to return her independence and autonomy back to her, which she lost after marriage and parenthood) but because he demonstrated that he's truly sorry and has learnt the error of his ways by taking her needs and wants into account.

oops the miscarriage. i wasn't sure if it was too melodramatic but i wanted to show how he'd changed as a husband, and in any case - miscarriages aren't uncommon so i rly wanted to write a...hopefully realistic account of it. and aahhhhh yes hinata is really a ball of sunshiney goodness <3

HAHAHA and yes hence the title storm chaser - for (1) the whirlwind of emotions i put my readers through, (2) the comparison of atsumu to a storm (cos he's volatile and destructive to those around him) and (3) kaiyo for being crazy enough to chase after the storm that is miya atsumu. i probably overthought this HAHA.

[chimielie]

E, EXTRA SCENES 👁️👄👁️ once your requests are open or whenever you’re up to it and aren’t busy (i saw you mentioning that you felt burnt out from writing hq so the last thing i want to do is make you feel pressured) i’d love to see what you’ve got in mind for these little extras!!! the ones i’m sending here are just little brainrots i had and once again, i hope you don’t mind my rambling haha

the image of oikawa and the reader jumping on the bed is so funny because like i can see the two of them jumping on one together and nothing happens but then one of them decides to flop down on it or sit down just to rest and it just BREAKS and the two of them are dying from laughter (when iwa hears about this he is thoroughly Done because he’s already had to deal with his own team testing out their beds)

oikawa starts dating the reader and the rest of his team is really supportive because they like you too!! you’re very nice and cool and it’s fun to tease oikawa about you!! they’re clapping him on the back while saying stuff like now you have a use for all of those condoms!!! and oikawa’s like Alright,

gosh and if the reader ends up making it the beijing olympics in 2022 oikawa is LITERALLY gonna embody that meme that’s like “i apologize for the person i’m going to become when (x) happens” because he would be so insufferable (affectionate) when it comes to them like he’d be bragging telling everyone he knows about his wonderful sexy beautiful hardworking dedicated ice skater s/o who’s gonna be competeting and long story short you now have hypemen in the argentinian national volleyball team and in oikawa’s old teammates from seijoh

if oikawa and the reader end up making their relationship public their names would most likely end up trending and they become such a power couple because they’re both very attractive and talented athletes who are clearly very passionate about what they do LIKE IMAGINE MAGAZINES CALLING THEM FOR PHOTOSHOOTS TOGETHER OR oikawa doing a little instagram livestream and he brings the reader into the view of the camera and is like “and now here’s the person you’ve all been waiting for!!” he gives them a little kiss and the comments go wild i just want to see oikawa and the reader break the internet yknow

I’M GLAD YOU AGREE WITH ME ABOUT THE DOUBLE DATE i imagine favor the brave’s reader might initially feel a bit nervous/intimidated because not only is she with Iwaizumi Hajime (27) Athletic Trainer for the japan national team but she’s also with his pro volleyball player-turned-olympian best friend in addition to said athlete’s olympian figure skater significant other like who WOULDN’T be nervous tbh but it’s just a great experience for everyone and i love the image of the readers from both stories becoming friends and spending time together even without their boyfriends LMAOOOO

dw i don’t feel pressured at all!! i just put out like,, an unusual amount of writing this week and i kinda wanted to establish for whoever reads my lil posts that i can’t write that much for this blog on the regular lmao

and i LOVE these ideas omg i’m gonna need a name for the universe... maybe i’ll just start a “ftb extras” tag lmao ;-; but i realized that i have no idea how to write two reader characters together... i’ve seen some people use pet names like names? like babe and princess hmmmm

[wolfywolfy]

hi! may i request some headcanons about julian's favorite hobbies? either when he was growing up or now

Ooooh I love this idea. I'll see what I can come up with!! (Sorry this got pretty long)

We know when he was younger he was always intrigued by tourists in Nevivon. I think maybe seeing so many people from different walks of life might have inspired him to be interested in acting and theatre. Maybe he became particularly good at telling tourists stories (usually ones that he heard from other tourists a while ago, but he was better at adding suspense and tension and, yknow, twisting the truth a little bit). Sometimes if he grew a crowd, some of the tourists would leave him small tips in the form of various world currency. He would keep it all in a bag tucked under his bed, and sometimes late at night he would look at the coins and study how they were different.

Also, Portia would LOOOOVEEEE to hear his stories while she was growing up. She would beg and beg and beg for him to tell her a new story every night before bed, and while Julian acted like he didn't like it, he actually loved spending the quality time with his sister. She was sharp as a tack even then though, so he had to come up with new stories fast or she would call him out on being "unoriginal".

Once Julian was able to join Mazelinka on her travels, he became the ship's sort of chore/scrub boy. He would handle anything that had to deal with cleaning or helping the crew out, like throwing out the cook's trash, tying down the masts, and most importantly, swabbing the deck. Julian actually enjoyed that last one a lot though, especially at night, because he could just stop and stare at the sea and take it all in. Being in the middle of the ocean always felt so right to him, maybe it was because of all the possibilities. When Mazelinka told him how to read the stars for navigation, she told him about a constellation that sat right above Nevivon -- he would always check on it those nights and think of Pasha.

While he was a battle medic, the only thing keeping him sane was to read. He would read any book he could get his hands on, and once he read them all he would read them again. There were a few nights where the camp was blissfully peaceful, and that was when he would go outside and stare at the stars and wish he was back in the middle of the ocean.

After adopting Brundle, his old dog, he used to try and play fetch with her. She was never very energetic though, and would just give him a look whenever he threw a stick for her. Eventually Julian gave up, but one day he came up with the idea of hiding treats for her around the house. She was a hound dog, after all, and she could sniff practically anything out. Julian loved to find a new place every day to hide a treat and watching Brundle sniff it out, usually within just a few minutes. He would give her the biggest hugs and pets once she found them!!

Julian writes letters a lot, he just hardly ever sends them. Not only is he the only one who can read his terrible handwriting, but it's more therapudic than anything. He's written the most letters to Portia, where he talked about his daily events, how he was feeling, asked her for advice... But he never sent any of them. He kept them all though, scattered around any desk he ever sat at for an extended period of time.

He loves to play card games at the Rowdy Raven. Everybody there cheats, including him, and it keeps everyone on their toes. Sometimes if he's lucky a fight will break out, and he just loves the chaos. Really gets the blood pumping! Don't worry though, he dips out before it gets too awful rowdy... much to his opponents chagrin. Julian is very slippery and somehow knows just how to sneak away when things start to get crazy.

Used to, when he, Nadia, and Asra were closer, Nadia would invite the two of them to afternoon tea. Julian would joke about it at first, but he actually loves the tiny teacups and saucers and figuring out where they came from, telling stories if he had ever been to their place of origin before, and just having a nice casual time with his friends. Plus he thinks tiny sandwiches are adorable.

Obviously he is a theatre nerd. He volunteers every once in a while at the community theater in South End, and auditions whenever he has the spare time. He doesn't ever expect to actually get a part, but whenever he does he gets super excited and motivated to be the best he can be. He loves performing and being loved by the audience, and he's sincerely touched whenever anyone he knows comes by to support him and the rest of the cast. Whenever he is in a show, he'll spend hours each night reading the script and deliberating on how certain lines should be delivered. He'll write notes to ask at the next rehearsal, like "what's my motivation when I'm talking to [xyz character]? Should I say this quietly to myself or should I project it to the audience?" etc etc etc. It's quite charming to see him so passionate.

After the events of the main story are over, he picks up reading again. He'll read practically anything, doesn't matter what. He still has insomnia sometimes and reading helps distract him from himself. He especially loves it if his significant other will brew some hot coffee for them to drink while they just spend time curled up together, his nose buried in a book. He won't admit it, but his favorite genre is those steamy romance books with the painted muscle men on the covers. Does he have reading glasses?? Yes. Does he look adorable in them??? Double yes.

Whenever he's at home, he ends up humming a lot of tunes to himself whenever it's quiet. If he realizes that his significant other is there, he'll break out into song and pull them into it. Sometimes it's old sea shanties he remembers from his time on Mazelinka's ship, sometimes it's folk songs the soldiers used to sing on the battlefield, sometimes it's just some pretty tune he heard however long ago. Around friends he acts as if his singing is terrible to get some laughs, but his voice is actually quite lovely and measured, he just only shares it with the person he cares for the most. If the song is more lively he'll pull them in for a dance around their home, spinning and spinning through each room... It's one of his favorite things.

Eventually he gets into writing and developing his own plays. It turns into a deep passion, where he longs to tell the stories he always told as a child to a greater audience. He feels like to some extent it's his purpose to be a storyteller, and his friends & family agree. He was always good at it, and playwriting is no exception. I'd like to think he becomes rather famous for it

Man absolutely does needlepoint and sometimes it looks awful but he's surprisingly adept at using the needle (he is a doctor / surgeon after all). Would love to teach you how to do it sometime.