#but you cannot deny s2 did them NO favors

[lunar-years]

your post ab RoyKeeleys season two is so true.. “the Roy is sorry for not understanding keeley playlist”…. ppl acting like that was the height of romance instead of a man desperate for therapy.

At risk of sounding like a RK hater (despite it all, I am definitely not, lol)…yeah!

Like…with the exception of sexy Christmas (!!!) every moment people cite from s2 as ‘peak romance’ I disagree with I’m so sorry to say 😭

“You deserve someone who makes you feel like you’ve been struck by lightning” idk at the end of the day, he was talking to Rebecca and I mostly consider this one a rebecca&roy friendship moment. Also, the weird callback usage of “you’ll find the lightning” in Mae’s s3 speech to keeley and that just being about like, a job (and then by accident promoting a weird messy hookup situation with Roy) diminishes it further in a rk context. idk. Can’t elaborate

Keeley wanking off to Roy’s retirement presser after speaking to Jamie because she admires Jamie’s capacity to be vulnerable + his determination to to make his own life better is….idk it’s so messy and inherently wrapped up in the ot3 of it all that I cannot separate it out as a cutesy rk moment in the slightest

Drawing keeley a bath/please forgive me keeley playlist is just like…im so sorry to say but keeley should have absolutely also apologized to Roy in this episode. It was insane of the writers to make Roy carry all the blame when the problem was AT LEAST 50% keeley. Insane. I don’t read it as admirable romance. Ick.

Anything to happen in Funeral episode…YIKES for them…

Vanity fair pep talk is completely tarnished by both of them having something to confess to the other and their heads being in totally separate places. Like. Yeah the love is there but it’s so obviously not enough at this juncture. I think the writers were maybe trying to recapture the magic of keeley comforting Roy in the locker room in the season 1 finale and I’m gonna be honest…it doesn’t hit the same way at all.

[robynrocksforbrains]

What do you think about the whole Mike was only so protective of Will in S2 because El was gone thing? Do you think he’s going to ignore Will again in S5 and be super focused on El? I’ve seen recent discourse about this and it’s making me sad.

Anon, full disclosure I haven't seen this discourse recently. But I'm gonna take your word for it and tell you what I think. This is gonna be kinda long because I am incapable of being normal.

I think anyone who thinks that this is the case has a very very poor understanding of Mike. And also a poor understanding of literally the entirety of s2 and s4.

Mike cares about Will, and he cares about El. It's possible for him to care about both of them at the same time. The only reason he has a hard time balancing his relationship with both of them is because he's denying the true nature of his feelings for both of them. With El, he's trying to convince himself that his platonic feelings are romantic. With Will, he's trying to convince himself that his romantic feelings are platonic. It is my belief that he is fully aware of his romantic feelings for Will, and his lack thereof for El. But being aware of something and accepting something are two different things. However, by the end of s4 I think it's clear he's headed in the direction of acceptance.

So, about s2:

Mike is protective of Will because he's protective of Will. Simple as that. His fierce protectiveness of Will is established in s1.

We see it when Hopper is first questioning the boys about the last time they saw Will. Mike is insistent that he wants to be there. He doesn't just wanna help by answering questions, he wants to be out there actively searching.

We see it when he defends Will against the comments Nancy and Ted make about him at the dinner table. "All because Mike's friend got lost in the woods" "oh so this is Will's fault?" // "See what happens?" "What happens when what?"

We see it when he is the one to plan to go out to where Will's bike was found and search the woods.

We see it when he confronts Troy after the assembly and pushes him down

Mike being protective of Will in s2 is just a continuation of an already established trait. We just didn't see it in the same way in s1 because Will wasn't there. In s1 it was almost like Mike was being protective of an idea, but in s2 he's being protective of a real and tangible thing. He's not just protecting the belief and hope that Will is still out there, he's protecting WILL.

And that isn't because El is gone, his protectiveness of Will persisted throughout s1. El was there and he was still protective of Will. So El's absence cannot be a cause of his protectiveness of Will. However, the intensity of it was likely influenced by the events of the previous year, which would include watching El "die". But his behavior regarding Will definitely has more to do with what happened to Will than with what happened to El.

I think that if El was present in s2, he still would've been just as protective of Will. Because that's just who he is.

Now, about s5:

He's not going to ignore Will in favor of El. Anyone who thinks that definitely just blatantly ignored his entire s4 arc.

I mean, Mike and Will's s4 arcs were almost entirely dedicated to fixing the damage that s3 did to their relationship. Mike apologizes to Will for how he acted since he got to Lenora, but there's also a sense that he's apologizing for more than that. He says "this last year". He's not mentioning anything specific, but we know what happened. Will knows what happened. And although it still should be, and likely will be, explicitly addressed, this is a start.

I kinda think that the "cool" "cool" scene is when Mike starts to prove to the audience that he's worth Will's love. Because if s3 didn't happen, I don't think there would be doubts. If s2 Mike was also s3 Mike, I don't think anyone would be saying "Will deserves better". But s3 did happen. I love Mike, but he did mess up. He did treat Will like shit. And that should be acknowledged by the characters and by the plot. So when Mike apologizes for his behavior, and subtly addresses s3, and then Will decides that it's worth it to bring his painting - which is a declaration of love - it's a confirmation that this was a turning point for Mike. This isn't a fluke. Mike wants to be better, and he's trying to be better, and that's going to continue for the rest of the season, and it will carry into s5. This conversation, which marks a real change for Mike, includes the line "I have no idea what's gonna happen next. But whatever it is, I think it'll be easier if we're together. A team. Friends. Best friends." And then Will makes the decision to bring what is a plot device for byler's development specifically. Like it's pretty clear what behavior the plot is rewarding.

"I think maybe I was worrying too much about El... And I don't know maybe I feel like I lost you or something" is worth mentioning here because not only is this Mike explicitly stating that his s3 behavior was a deviation from the norm for him, but also the plot rewards this confession. It rewards Mike's vulnerability (although tentative) in this moment. Mike's vulnerability is returned tenfold in the van scene. And since we know Mike's vulnerability was rewarded, it only makes sense for the same to be true for Will's. The painting is the catalyst, Will's vulnerability (although veiled) has to be rewarded by the plot.

And then again, in their last scene together, Mike reaffirms that they're a team. Yeah, you can say that when he says "we will" he's referring to everyone involved. But he says this while firmly grasping Will's shoulder. He wants Will to know he's here, and he's not going anywhere. Yes, it's about everyone, but underneath that there's a sort of desperation for Will to believe him. He's determined to live up to what he said in Dear Billy. He wants them to be a team. So when he says "we" he means everyone involved, but there's an unspoken "you and me".

AND THEN AGAIN, in the final shot, they're together. But more than that, Mike makes a CHOICE to stay by Will's side. He's there because he wants to be with Will. Nothing is stopping him from walking to stand by El's side. But he doesn't do that. He stays with Will because he told Will they were a team and he meant it. I could go on and on about what this means from a storytelling perspective. About how there is obvious thought put into using this to tell the audience what to expect. But from a character perspective, thinking of Mike as a real human with his own thoughts and motivations, it's clear what he's thinking in this moment. They're facing something terrifying, and he knows exactly where he wants to be while he faces it, and that's by Will's side. This scene is undoubtedly foreshadowing for s5, and it's very reasonable to conclude that it means his priority will be Will.

TL;DR Mike was protective of Will in s2 because that's just what is natural for him. And his priority in s5 is going to be Will, because that's what s4 very deliberately set up.

[sleepycoffins-and-benhargreeves]

Let’s talk about Ben becoming Sparrow!Ben / Number one

So, I just watched the end TUA s2 yesterday and it really made me think about Ben (but, then again he’s the only one I usually think about). It’s amazing that in this timeline, HE’S NUMBER ONE. He’s the one with the painting in the main room and he’s basically the leader of the team now.

But how did that happen? Of course the timeline now is different but, what were the reasons that led up to that?

Please bear with me, this will be one long ass meta under the readmore.

I think the main reasons are Klaus and Vanya.

Now let me explain first. Let’s start with Klaus.

Klaus is obviously the closest sibling to Ben. Even when they were young, it had been obvious and basically canon already that they were each other’s best friends within the group of siblings. We even have that one scene where Vanya was destroying the house in s1 and reminiscing horrible memories and her memories were of BEN AND KLAUS TOGETHER in one memory

Also, prob a bit of Horrance because this was taken from a Horrance post. But, please bear with me. I would like to point out, shippy or not shippy that it seems that they were also close enough to want to SHARE A ROOM TOGETHER.

I adjusted the brightness of the picture above and confirmed that yes. THAT IS ANOTHER BED. THERE IS ANOTHER BED IN THIS ROOM SO IT IS NOT A FAR REACH TO THINK THAT BEN AND KLAUS SHARED A ROOM.

And seriously? With how rich their father is you know he would be decent enough to give every child their own room. 

But what I get from this is that not only are they close, but how Ben can also be protective and caring of Klaus. Let’s go back to episode 4 in s1 where Reginald locked him in a mausoleum. From that experience alone, Klaus would’ve been vulnerable, afraid, claustrophobic, and obviously traumatized. He’s Ben’s best friend and most closest sibling. Ben is a softy from what I can see, he cares very deeply and is a concerned person. I wouldn’t even be surprised if he was the one to suggest to Klaus that they start sleeping in one room together.

I think seeing his brother being afraid of the dark and unable to function properly brought out his primal instinct to protect and care. He allowed himself to be emotionally vulnerable in a way that he shows and acts that he cares. In their world, that would have been a big mistake. Showing weakness by letting people know that you care and would get hurt if this person were to be hurt is something that can get used against you. I would not put it past Reginald of slipping that kind of idea into them.

Yes, you protect your siblings because you can die from not defending one another. But why protect them from your own father? Why protect them and care for them? If they’re weak, then that’s good for you because you can climb up higher into Daddy’s ranking and get a better position. But no, Ben let himself care and damned it all for his best friend.

And going back to the pictures above, I know that Vanya sees Ben’s words as a stinging knife to the heart. Reminding her once again that she, out of all the siblings, is the un-special one. But you also have to take in the fact that there is such a thing as tough love. I can imagine young!Vanya looking up to her siblings and asking them about their missions and probably in more than one occasion begging for them to tag her along, just smuggle her out of the house. Let her see and experience what it’s like to be a hero like them.

She comes to Ben and Klaus for that. I think out of all the siblings, Vanya is actually closest to Ben in a way that Ben also sees her as someone to protect. Vanya is their *ehem* “most fragile” *ehem* sibling, the one with “no powers” so he has also been protective of her. I can imagine him trying to befriend and play with her as much as he can, including her in many things because he sees that she’s miserable and always alone.

We can even imagine Ben trying to either train with her and worrying about her at some nights. She lives in a house full of people with superpowers and she’s just ordinary. What if one day, someone attacks them and he wouldn’t be able to protect Vanya? What if one day there will come a time that they can’t defend someone evil and he’s gone? How will Vanya survive? How can he keep Vanya safe and protect her at the same time?

Ben sees Vanya and Klaus as people he has to take care of.

Let’s also not forget the fact that Vanya practically told all of us that Ben was the glue keeping them all together. s1 ep3

Here she tells her readers how distraught everyone was for Ben’s death. And that him dying was basically the last straw, nobody could get along anymore because I think, Ben was their peacemaker.

Yes, we have Luther who is by their vote and their father’s, the “eldest” sibling, but being the eldest doesn’t mean you can be the mediator. He is the stereotype definition of eldest sibling, golden boy with a lot of achievements, always follows their parents, prim and proper, and always initiates things to go into motion.

But, he is not a mediator. He is not someone who can get everyone in line to listen. Yes, he has leader qualities, but not all of them. He is missing the ability to empathizing and include others. I actually wish we saw some flashback interactions with him and Ben, or Luther talking about Ben because I wanna see how their relationship would’ve been. 

The same goes with Five. He is leader material as well (given he’s 58 years old tbh), but he has a hard time with his emotions and empathizing with the others as well.

So all in all, who else has the power to empathize with the others? Who else has that? Allison and Ben.

Allison is someone who I think is very good with people even without her rumour power (as we can see with season two). She and Ben seem to have had a very good relationship too judging from her scene in s1 ep2

I think she and Ben were the mediators within the family. They are the ones who is most often on the neutral side of things, thinking about everything and everyone, the pros and cons, everyone’s feelings, and how they can make a solution that will make less sacrifices.

I think out of everyone, both Allison and Ben are the ones who take care of their sibling in a more emotional way. They allow themselves to show weakness or strength in a sense that, they let their guard down and allow themselves to just care. They also protect their siblings, but with Ben I think it’s deeper. 

In regards to Ben protecting and even sacrificing himself on a deeper level than Allison, I will refer to this post that talked about their numbers. Some were saying that they were numbered backwards, from weakest to strongest, yet at the same time, it was also based on their usefulness for Reginald.

If we go with the usefulness and how well Reginald can manipulate them, then it is also very plausible. Luther is our golden boy who wants to please their father, Diego although denies it still tries hard to be a superhero that their father told them to be, Allison is also very much afraid of their father. Although she loves him even when he was abusive, she still followed him. Klaus being four is because of his fear, he’s very lenient and will somewhat do what their father wants. He wasn’t like Vanya who could blow up the place where he was being kept, so in a way he was easier to manipulate. Five obviously had a mind of his own as well.

So why, pray tell, is Ben number six? How was he immune to being manipulated and used whenever by Reginald?

My answer, Klaus and Vanya.

I think he saw how unfairly they were treated, saw how vulnerable his siblings are, and that was what made him rebel against Reginald. Klaus and Vanya are close to him, they are the siblings he is closest to, so having to see them go through all of those hardships, those trauma, and be so unloved by their father because they could not control their powers or have “no” powers in Vanya’s case.

I think in his own way, Ben stood up for his siblings that’s why his rank/number was demoted to six. He was punished to have a lower number.

I think the reason that the Umbrella siblings were so protective of each other was because Ben rebelled in a way that he saw injustice within their father and did something about it, even if it caused him a way to gain his father’s favor and love.

Now, after that explanation with how Ben became Ben with the Umbrella, let’s go to Number One in Sparrow. I will be calling him One now.

One did not have Klaus and Vanya growing up. I cannot assume yet what their upbringing was like, but with how I just described Ben’s relationships with the others, I think the Sparrows are more cut-throat and independent from one another.

One has become the “eldest” and supreme sibling here. He is the most useful and easily the most powerful as well. One did not die at a young age, so him being able to tap more into the secrets of his powers and being able to hone and improve it is deadly. The fact that Vanya is not here, we could also speculate that One is also the most powerful sibling here right now.

I would also like to reference my own post here on how powerful Ben could have been if he had not died. One has had years of training behind his back to polish his skills. The theory of One being a portal that could easily summon and manipulate monsters from another dimension is too good. He is the living embodiment of OP wherein he is calm, collected, and knows how to control himself and his emotions to not set an apocalypse in motion. That is, only if this theory even has a smidgen of a chance to become canon. Or has some aspects that can become canon.

But anyways, Ben with his stomach and Bentacles is OP enough already.

Going back to One, the idea of his siblings here being more independent and cut throat is a big possibility. I’m not saying that they don’t have a bond or that the Sparrow siblings hate each other. All I’m saying is that they might not have been as affectionate and emotionally open as the Umbrella siblings.

I mean like heck, even Diego, who is our most macho character has a soft side, especially for Ben.

Look how soft they both look here, how Diego hugs Ben and just the all around atmosphere of it. You can feel from this scene alone how important Ben is to Diego.

I don’t think the Sparrow siblings have this kind of connection, hence why One was able to become One. Yes, they probably work better as a unit/team and yes, they will probably be better at using their powers and combining it with their other siblings, they’ve been together for 30 years and did not separate like the Umbrella siblings... But the actual connection of being soft and loving one another? The urge to protect and be vulnerable? I don’t think they have that.

I think, the Sparrow Academy will have more emotions and frustrations bottled up inside of them, than the Umbrella Academy. They’re trained to be tougher. At least, that’s what I’m speculating for now. I could be wrong on this one.

My speculation will be that Sparrow kids will be more independent and have lesser feelings and emotions for the others. Unlike Umbrella who obviously care so much about each other.

All in all, I think Sparrow!Ben/One will be an asshole in season 3 lmao we’re probably going to hate him so much in the first few episodes until we see how fucked up Reginald has raised them.

I look forward seeing how everyone will react to One, I think in the end, he’ll become our Ben one way or another. The Umbrella sibling’s bond is too strong to be severed, even in alternate realities.

But also, it will be such a good bitter tragedy if One loves his Sparrow siblings more and they were raised better because fuckkkkk that would hurt so good lmao

[alvearesss]

Tow Ubukata hates Ginoza Nobuchika

I don’t know about you guys since a lot of you don’t care all that much about Ginoza Nobuchika as much and believe Kougami is the stardom of the series and should be treated as such despite the show introduces a balance for each character to have their own share of screentime unlike other shows and anime who share a habit of favoritism for the main character and leaving no other character a fair share for their own growth and how the progress among the characters themselves and the plot.

Although Ginoza was not the main protagonist of show, he was still an important character, or the tritagonist (the third important character after the protagonist and deuteragonist) followed after Akane. I have yet to make a Kouginaka anayls essay on why Akane and Kougami (or as in the Shinkane territory) cannot progress or even happen without the presence of the senior Inspector and no matter you all want to deny this but it is true, where did you think the direction would go if Ginoza never existed?

Anyways on to this…

It’s not a unheard for me for having such a hatred for S2 and for good reason. One of my biggest pet peeves for S2 is that it’s a rewritten version of S1; everything Urobuchi worked and developed for the series was thrown in the trash to make room for Ubukata’s gory sci-fi and melodramatic scenario and the characters are watered down from their representative personalities in favor of the new environment and drama playing in his tunes.

But to become an exact clone of his former father? why make him a Masaoka 2.0 if the writers knew on producing another season for psycho-pass, look at Tenma for peek’s shake he’s basically another Masaoka 3.0 (are there any other Tomomi Masaokas I should know about? ok, enough with the Spongebob jokes) By the end of S1, Ginoza became more down-to-earth after being rehabbed and no one seemed to realize and ignore the fact he was not only devastated by the death of his father and Kougami leaving them behind and was possibly dying from blood loss as well, he showed no signs of the former Enforcer and lost father in terms of personality and antics by the end of the series. This just makes Ginoza appear out-of-character and it drove me nuts to this sudden character change and haven’t notice it by the first time watching S2.

In Case 2, we finally got introduced to Ginoza’s mother for the first time after years of curiosity wondering what happened to her, we came to the conclusion to the possibility of her being dead since she was barely mention at all and how did that impacted Ginoza as a person. Masaoka said his son have the same eyes when he was younger meaning that senior inspector have took after his mother in appearance. We can see distinguish them as they don’t look that similar

let’s not us forget the horrible same face syndrome from Frozen (a movie so mediocre that it deserves the same mockery as Twilight did back in the late 2000s - early 2010s, good old days)

Ginoza and Sae manage to dodge the bullet on this one

Plus, there is also the Mika-Ginoza dynamic, because why not? if you notice how in both season 2 and 3; any interactions between Kougami/Akane and Ginoza seem nonexistent? In season 2, they barely talk about anything else outside of the workplace and all Gino does is worry constantly about Akane’s hue despite knowing she is capable of handling her hue very well by the end of S1 after putting her down multiple times for her so called reckless behavior. His reunion with Kougami in S3 was a shallow one and to my disappointment, was expecting a soft of teary-like or grounded, hell even Ginoza and Akane don’t have any interactions in S3 now that I think about it. In Case 1, it is revealed he is worried and misses Kougami and talks fondly about him; how he hated himself for not saving him but is proud of him for being strong which made him jealous. Then there’s the hallucination trope that Shinkane fans are madly in love with and it brutally debunks the notion that it’s only Akane but it turns out Ginoza also suffers from hallucinating Kougami as well!

To me, it’s feels like the team had Ginoza rewritten for the reconstruction of the new dialogue for the show and as a someone whom Kougami and Akane never had interactions in the past and as someone is now given the background character treatment.

While the official website does mention Mika is a lesbian and the show implied it by the end of the Rikako arc but it was never explored, her interactions with Yayoi seems more like sisterly love rather than romantic love, because of this, Mika’s orientation doesn’t share the same treatment as Yayoi’s creating the notion she is not a lesbian after all. So Ubukata decided it to throw it over the window because an enforcer for some reason doesn’t have a love interest so how could he pair him with someone not named Akane? oh! tease ship him with Mika! (plus gino is not gay so why not AGAIN lol)

what a lovely hetero couple despite they don’t have a much of an emotional interaction but birds of feathers am I right?

Say what you want to say about the Butcher and how he likes to the tease Ginoza just for angst but at least he managed to write and develop a well constructed character who went from an indifferent detective who doesn’t bat an eye for what happens to the people he loves after combating the hurt of losing them to level-headed guy who now accepts a new method on how to handle criminals after becoming one himself because he still has that special someone (not Mika) can show him that there is a life outside and it is not the end of the world to be demoted, Ubukata on the other hand doesn’t know what to do with him and do not see Ginoza as important as the two main two and decided that it was okay to not respect his former character.

I know it is not Ubukata who is only to blame for this, the entire team as a whole and it’s very shocking how Shiotani and Fukami who worked with Psycho Pass since the very beginning hasn’t called any of this out and went along with the flow because reasons

Sure, he wasn’t killed off for any reason but is demolishing his character worthy of it? Geez, who knows what will happen to him in the supposed S4

#JusticeforGinoza2020

I had to delete my previous post because it wasn’t showing on the tag so here’s a standard edition and enjoy your reading and let me know if you want to add commentary in relation to this topic