#especially when that child shares the same name as the protagonist

[aetherdecember]

Another snippet from my Flipping the Coin au. Probably won’t make it into the actual fic, but I’ve been obsessed with these two and keep finding myself writing moments like this ^^

…

Mordred was sprawled over Arthur’s chest, with his thumb tucked in his mouth, and blue eyes serious as he listened to the story with the gravity of a judge. The two of them are slumped in their favorite armchair, the red velvet blotchy from numerous spilled drinks, sticky snacks, and misguided attempts at crafts. It was too warm for a fire, but in the dim evening, with the lone table lamp for light and the window cracked open for a breath of air, it took Arthur back to countless evenings spent in another room. One built of stone and lit only by candle flame.

Aloud, Arthur read, “Because he was the king…”

Personally, it wasn’t his favorite retelling, but Mordred had seen his name on the cover and insisted on hearing it, so he had conceded. Maybe he should’ve waited until Mordred was older before telling him that there were stories about characters who shared their names, but in these last few years, the events from long ago had been so close to mind Arthur had wanted to share it. He assumed Mordred would fixate on the sword fighting and tournaments. Instead, Mordred had picked a book that started with babies being sent out to sea.

“Two by two, he carried—“

Mordred pulled his thumb out of his mouth. “Did you really do that?”

“No.” Arthur marked his spot with a finger and ruffled the thick, black curls. Still damp from the bath, they were in need of a comb. And soon, if Arthur hoped to avoid dealing with tangles. “I never did that.” Dipping his fingers to tickle the back of Mordred’s neck, he smiled as Mordred giggled and tried to escape. “I could never.”

Sitting up, Mordred’s knobby limbs found all of Arthur’s soft spots as he settled knees first on top of Arthur’s chest. “If you had to, could you?”

“Would you,” Arthur automatically corrected.

“Would I?” Mordred’s pitch went comically high. “Nooooooo! Would you!”

Arthur gave him a look, one that Mordred immediately leaned in and mimicked with a giggle. “Would I, Arthur Penn, a man far removed from the ancient past, cast a boat full of babies into the ocean? Absolutely not.”

“What if Merlin told you to?”

He’d never had to. History hadn’t played out like that. But Arthur couldn’t tell his young son that he definitely knew it hadn’t happened because he couldn’t even explain his own past and all that entailed. All Mordred knew was that his father was named after King Arthur, so that meant he’d been named after Mordred. Because they were father and son and that was how it was supposed to be. He didn’t know that in another life they hadn’t been related and that the first time Merlin met Mordred he had helped save him.

“Nope.” Arthur popped the ‘p’. Out of Mordred’s sight, he set the book on the ground. It was time for a better story anyway. “Not even then.”

“What if Merlin did it?”

“Listen, let me tell you about the—“ He almost said ‘the Mordred I knew’ but luckily stopped. Instead, he says, “—the story I heard. It took place when Uther was still king. The first time Arthur met Mordred he was only a little boy…”

[sleepy-wyvern]

Method Acting | Jack Champion x female!Reader

First pic jacks insta, Second pic

Available on: AO3, Wattpad

Summary: You’re an actress playing Ethan Landry's lover so you and Jack Champion start “fake dating” to help your role for Scream 6. Although you detest the idea of love you can’t help but start falling for his charm. At what point is it real, what is fake, and what is acting? Surely he can’t feel the same way… right?

A/N: This fic is intended to be a romance for my babes depressed you can’t be with your favorite celebrity right now, who are so in love with them it hurts. This fic does not contain descriptive sex scenes but does contain descriptive make out! There are clear references to sex as they film a sex scene!

Dedication: This fic is dedicated to (and inspired by a prompt from) my loyal reader over on ao3, Vanttier. Thanks for all of the comments without you I wouldn't be so motivated to write💙

Disclaimer: All characters sharing names with real people in this work are fictional characters I created and are not intended to reflect the views/opinions/actions of the real actors. I know absolutely nothing about acting or movie making so this is all improvised and likely not accurate at all. The point isn’t to be accurate but just for fun so please be gentle 💙

NOTICE: This fic is based off of the Love Interest, you don't have to read it to understand this fic but this fic contains spoilers for that one, so if you want to read an overprotective!ethan landry x female!reader go check that out out first on AO3 or Wattpad!

ALL CHARACTERS IN THIS FIC ARE 18+!!! MINORS DNI!

“Jack Champion,” the name hummed over and over in your head. He was the one to play the role of your lover and today you were to meet him.

To be honest you weren’t sure that you ever wanted to play a part in a cheesy romance movie. Horror had your heart and you were such a big fan of scream that it was impossible to turn down the role. That and your manager would have your ass for turning down such a legendary role most would only ever dream of. 

You weren’t sure how you felt going from a nobody actor to an A-list movie star overnight practically. It really wasn’t something you ever thought of. Sure you dreamt of it from time to time, especially when you were little and your mother held you by the hand to bring you to various auditions as a child. You never thought it would actually happen and never really desired it either. You had fun acting and being in movies bringing characters to life but you were content with just enough to get by. 

The only problem with this gig was it was a romantic role and you despised the concept of love. What was the point of it and why was the world so obsessed with it? When all love stories end in tragedy if you wait long enough.

Still, a role was a role. You’ve kissed people on set for movies before with small relationships on screen but never the main romantic protagonist. Especially for being the first movie protagonist without Neve Campbell there were big shoes to fill and surely your social media would be flooded with hate and undesired criticism. Frankly, you would’ve turned down the role in a heartbeat if it wasn’t your favourite franchise.

Anyways, today was the day you were to meet Jack, running through your lines together in the first scene where your character meets his; Ethan Landry. Nerdy cute boy who held a deep dark secret.

Jack was the same age as you, 18, but he had practically grown up on set, and while you were familiar with it since a child you had mainly worked on smaller, more indie films until somehow being noticed. So it was more than a little daunting to meet him, compared to you he was a professional. So were you nervous to meet him? More than a little.

You practically held your breath as the door opened, doing your best to keep looking at your lap as he stepped through the door. How long should I wait until looking…? You wondered.

“Jack,” the script-manager stood to their feet, going to meet him. 

You stood to your feet allowing yourself to give him a glance over while he was shaking hands. You’ve seen him in photos where he looked pretty much like a generic gym guy. In person though he was much softer. He looked nerdy and cute with his curly fluffy hair but clearly his toned frame underneath made you feel a little intimidated. First impressions were important, especially with your destined lover. 

You fluttered your eyelashes a little shy as his brown eyes looked into yours. The moment he spoke you realized that despite your nerves he was adorable and sweet, seemingly awkward but that just added to it.

“Hey, nice to meet you. I’m Jack.” The words were simple but as he held his hand out to yours his voice seemed to hum through your body. 

Your eyes catch for a moment on the metal chain around his neck as you move your hand to his. His grip was just firm enough as if he noticed how timid you were. 

His eyes seemed to shine in the light while you spoke “Hey, I’m y/n but you probably already know that.”

You feel heat rise to your cheeks as you wonder if you unintentionally came off way too cocky. He seemed to find it amusing though as he let out a small chuckle. 

The director seemed to find this a good sign as they glanced between us “good, you’re acquainted. Are you ready?”

It dawned on you again that this was the guy you were going to be having to do sex scenes with. 

“Yeah, I think so,” his voice answered and you were too afraid that if you tried to speak a squeak would come out of your throat instead. 

“Don’t worry,” his voice was softer than you expected, he must've noticed your nerves. “I don’t bite.”

“But do you stab?” You found yourself wide eyed and he laughed; the sound hummed through your entire body again, swirling around your heart like silk.

“Sometimes,” he replied slyly and you mirrored his smile, tucking your hair behind your ear nervously. It was then that you noticed he was wearing a black Stabathon shirt that seemed to frame his body perfectly.

You tried to distract yourself by focusing on the character you were to play. She was meant to reflect on the average female viewer of the movie and an insertion of the average scream horror fan. It was a total “I can fix him” plot line with a cheesy romance of a girl stopping a boy from being a mass murderer. Completely unrealistic and if anything just plain bad advice, if you felt like living anyways. Still, you liked her and her strength in the script especially towards the end.

Your nerves were still fluttering when you sat across from Jack at the table. You didn’t realize how tightly you held the paper script until you noticed there were wrinkles in the corners. 

Relax, y/n. Nothing you haven’t done before and nothing you can’t handle.

Amongst all of the stress with Jack you almost forgot your other co stars were there too including Devyn. She was to be Anika, your Instagram model roommate. Essentially the polar opposite of who you were to play; you were someone who wore horror movie shirts and ripped jeans while she was always trendy. You were thankful for the comfortable wardrobe at least. Even though your characters were totally different, you grew together that way encouraging growth and adventure.

“Hey, y/n,” Devyn had a sweet smile and comforting aura about her that you enjoyed. 

“Hey,” you smiled softly. 

“Ready?” Jack asked. He was looking at you intently and you forgot how to form words for a second. 

Devyn glanced between you both and it took all of your willpower to not blush. It felt like everyone at the table was thinking about the same thing: the fact that you two were going to have to have sex together. 

You nod though with wide scared eyes “as I’ll ever be.”

Devyn laughed leaning over to touch your arm gently. 

Someone read out loud the setting and you weren’t sure who. Your eyes were reading your first line over and over in your head. When it came your turn to speak though the words came easy. At least with Devyn aka Anika it had. She made it feel like you were already best friends and roommates. She suggested you room together too to help even further. 

The wandering thoughts somehow helped distract you from the guy sitting across from you, puzzling over his script like it was a crossword. It took all of your strength to ignore the way his muscles flexed when he moved.

“Come on, it’ll be fun. There will be lots of boys there.” Devyns voice next to you piped up “you like boys right?”

“Sometimes,” you said with a sly undertone the exact way Jack had said to you earlier. The idea had popped into your head the moment before you said your line, and although you were looking at Devyn you felt him look up from his script with a smile.

While you did take the tone and attitude from him, it was your head-canon that your character was bisexual even though the line likely just meant that she wasn’t interested in the types of boys these parties attracted.

The next lines seemed to come more naturally as you played off one another. She was the encouraging roommate trying to get the shy one to go with her to the party. Really Anika was a great friend to your character and you admired that, perhaps wished you had it yourself.

When you reach the scene where you both pour a glass of alcohol you find yourself wishing you had one, knowing it was soon to be the first dialogue between you and Jack. 

You effortlessly deterred the fuckboy in the script that was later to harass Tara when you found your heart started to race, pounding louder and louder in your eardrums.

“What kind of boys do you like then?” Anika asked. 

“Cute, nerdy, fluffy haired boys,” you answered. The words came naturally because it was true for you too. You avoided looking across the table. 

“Ah, the first murder suspects.” She replied and you wondered how your character didn’t take the hint then and there. “Well, let’s drink to you finding a boyfriend. Or at least some good dick.”

She held up her water bottle to you and you laughed genuinely, doing the same as you clinked your bottles. 

“Perfect,” the script director commented while you drank. 

Out of the corner of your eye though as you drank you met his gaze, forgetting your unspoken rule to not look across the table. Brown and soft, his eyes made you feel like there was no one else in the room except you both. Your heart seemed to catch in your throat as he smiled softly. 

Too quickly the moment had passed though as someone’s voice narrating the scene popped the bubble you shared together. You looked down at your script biting your lip knowing what was to come. 

Jasmin had spoken up for her first dialogue with you as Mindy. Her voice was very different when she acted, more confident and cocky as her character was especially about horror movies. You knew your character couldn’t compete with her on trivia but she had the same adoration for horror. The lines of your shy character came easy, especially with your genuine discomfort with romantic relationships. 

But now you knew it was time. Your first lines with Jack.

While Anika and Mindy have their playful conversation you imagine being there at the party. Loud sounds, people talking, constant movements and noise. Usually you would try to avoid letting yourself feel this anxious but it was important for the script. 

You imagined yourself flopping against the old college couch as the script manager narrated.

Jack's voice was suddenly different, softer this time and more nervous as he looked at you but not into your eyes as if suddenly nervous. 

“You look like you’d rather be anywhere than here,” he said with a cautious smile. 

“Yeah, well, you’re not far off.” Part of you wondered if you were having a real conversation or were acting. “I’d rather be watching scary movies. I'm only here because Anika invited me,” and because your manager would kill you if you turned down this opportunity. 

“Me too,” his eyes sparkled as he looked at you before glancing down to his lap “oh, uh, I mean about the scary movie part.”

“Oh yeah?” Despite your character's confidence you felt your arms start to shake, trying your best to suppress it. “What one’s?”

You found yourself leaning across the table pressing your elbows into the sturdy wood to hide your shaking. You held your head in your hands as if actually on a date with him, curiosity mixed with shyness. A date with Jack Champion…

“Slashers,” he admitted, only making careful glances into your eyes as his character Ethan would. Jack gestured to his Stabathon shirt playfully and it took all of your being to not giggle. 

You channel your laughter into excitement for your line “I love slashers! They’re like my comfort movies.”

Somehow, some way, he started to make you feel more comfortable just sitting here talking to him. 

“I would’ve panned you for more a Quentin Tarantino fan,” he admitted and you remembered you were supposed to be dressed as Mia Wallace.

“Oh don’t worry, I am. D’Jango? Kill Bill? How could I not be!” You exclaimed “you have me there. Slashers though, they have my heart, truly. Just I couldn’t turn down an opportunity to dress as Uma Thurman.”

“Understandable, pulp fiction is what really got me into movies.” He smiled looking into your eyes the steadiest he has since reading the script. “What’s your favourite slasher?”

“Hmm, I have to say stab.” When you answer Jack's face turns into surprise and shock as he gestured playfully to his shirt again. 

“Really?” He says with eyebrows raised and you swallow your laughter. 

Talking to him was so… natural. So fun as you bounced off of each other's lines so effortlessly. Perhaps this wouldn’t be as difficult as you thought it would be. 

In fact when the narrator started reading the scuffle between Sam and the fuckboy you started looking forward to more small talk with him, something you normally dreaded.

“Hey,” you whisper to Jack loud enough for the others to hear. He leaned forward across the table playfully as if to listen to your secret “uh, how about that movie?”

Mason, who played Chad, looked at Jack with an impressed gasp. Devyn did the same to you but hers was more shock that melted into approval.

“Y-yeah, I’d love to,” for some reason hearing Jack stutter made something stir in your stomach.

That’s when you realize the racing in your heart, the way your cheeks heated when you looked at him and the light fuzzy feeling in your stomach. 

No. No way I was in love with Jack Champion. No, no, no, no. Your thoughts buzz and spiral as you recite your lines. This can’t be happening.

“Wonderful,” the director praised as the scene ended, “If I didn’t know any better I could’ve sworn you were actually nervous with a crush on Jack,” he chuckled.

You felt Jack’s brown eyes on you as you looked at the director, swallowing hard before you spoke “thanks. I practiced.”

CONTINUE READING ON: AO3, Wattpad

===

Thanks so much for reading, read the rest over on AO3 or wattpad!

Hope you enjoyed and had a great day my lovely reader!

-Wyv

💙💙💙💙

[mae-i-scribble]

Seeing that one reblog of yours about the manhwa I Became The Male Lead's Adopted Daughter really intrigued me! Is it a good one? 👀

Funny story about that, after your reblog brought the post to my attention again and after talking with a friend on discord about stories that subvert tropes I just went back and reread that entire manhwa up to the end of season 2 so this is great timing XD. Im summary: It's absolutely worth your time if you're a fan of father/isekaied daughter fantasy, if you're an isekai manhwa fan in general, or if you just want a well made fantasy father daughter story. Its fantastical concepts are handled with a grounded maturity that most stories in the same genre just don't manage to pull off because it takes the time to truly flesh out its characters as human being first and any tropes last.

The long story is below the cut, I'll be discussing vague spoilers throughout seasons 1 and 2. (side note, im using the official TL names for this bc i like em better)

I Became the Male Lead's daughter has a lot going for it, first of which being Pelliot, the cold duke of the north who adopts Lionia from the orphanage. Most manhwa of this nature have the isekaied person be our main pov with brief glimpses into the parent's perspective, usually done more for plots sake or to comment on how strange the isekaied child is acting. Pelliot shares the protagonist spotlight with Lionia because this story is about both of them concurrently- in fact, we don't even get a look int Lionia's head to find out she's been isekaied until chapter 8(i think, either way its after chapter 5). Before that we get to know her from how Pelliot and the people at the estate see her. Which is such a refreshing take for me, especially when you consider that Pelliot while a stereotypical "violent and competent northern duke who becomes a parent" in theory, is actually played out in a grounded way. The reason he even wanted a child is because he's feeling lonely and he sees how his best friend (yes!! our cold duke has friendships!! and they're super sweet!!) is so happy with 2 children, that he goes about getting a child in the most pragmatic way possible. He is violent and regularly commits war crimes, but he isn't cruel to his staff or his knights as is standard fair for these archetypes. (Can't say the manhwa avoids classist tropes, but such is the way when you have noble protagonists and don't want to make them look complicit in a degrading class system but overall things are handled well enough in that regard). Pelliot, in his fatherhood, also avoids falling into trope traps yet again by being a very believable first time parent. He struggles to adjust to Lionia's emotional needs but is learning, he goes to his knights for advice, he's studying Lionia and trying to make sure she gets a proper childhood and does his best to protect her from further exposure to violence beyond what happens with the abusive orphanage staff. They have a believable banter and play off each other to a scary degree, and while he loves her and worries for her he isn't an overbearing protective trope either. I feel like this is already too long but like. He's such a cool protag to have in a genre that tends to have very narrow and singular dynamics of parent/child relationships. And this isn't even talking about the other relationships we see him have with his peers which are just as good.

Moving onto our other protagonist, Lionia, the post made by @living-as-the-enemy-prince HERE (which clearly you have read but in case other curious souls want to look at it) sums a large part of what makes her work. This is a story that fully realizes its concept to the most effective degree. And I love in turn the story addresses the trauma that comes with being reincarnated- not only from a "i miss my home and family and friends" but from the inherent trauma of being an adult only to one day become a child. Lionia didn't get a chance to rest, she was thrown into a life of abuse, all her agency stolen from her, forced to look after the other orphans because she was the only one who could thus she felt responsible. That sort of disruptive event isn't something that can be brushed off, and it shows in the way Lionia is deeply insecure about her relationship to Pelliot. In this way their dynamic is made equivalent from both sides- in many stories its almost one sided, with the parent figuring out this relationship naturally and the isekaied child playing things 'for the story' and only recognizing the relationship theyve built later (thank you wmmap for helping solidify that -_-). It's truly so well thought out and every aspect of the central relationship feels so natural.

As for the story at large, I'm very excited to see what the plot has in store. As of season 2 of the manhwa, we're only just starting to kick things off plot wise, up until now its been far more concerned with relationship building and giving us a foundation on these characters. But things are definitely cooking now that we've heard mention Baria- the protagonist of the novel Lionia read in her past life (I could probably write another blurb about how well that is being handled but this post is so long already so). On that note though, don't be worried about that "oh but i have to follow the original plot against all common sense and reason" trope bc that doesn't matter at all here. Lionia has her concerns when it comes to the story, some of her insecurities stem from the fact that Pelliot never had a daughter in it, mentioned or otherwise, but at the end of the day she doesn't give a shit, she just wants her dad to have a happy and peaceful life.

Tbh anyone who hasn't read this should absolutely give it a chance bc I haven't even mentioned half the things I find cool about it like all the side characters that I love or the empress storyline that I am eyeing with extreme interest, etc etc

[edgy-ella]

I think the Fnaf movie (and all the sequels it will inevitably get) is a great way to see what Scott views as the most important aspect of each character in the series.

Spoilers below.

Obviously, Mike and Vanessa are both very different here than in the games. Mike is (PROBABLY) no longer an Afton, Vanessa is definitely an Afton, Mike isn’t going by an alias, Vanessa is a victim of abuse rather than possession, etc.

In some regard, they almost feel like completely different characters (especially Mike). So with that in mind, when we look at the traits that these characters do share with their game counterparts, we can boil these characters down to their fundamentals (or at least what Scott views as their fundamentals)

Mike is riddled with guilt over the death of his brother, which he feels like he should have been able to prevent. Even well into his adulthood, long after the deed is done, he is still trying to fix what he perceives as blood on his hands, whether that is the case or not. This guilt often manifests as vivid dreams.

Vanessa is William’s reluctant follower. She has been manipulated into supporting him, even though she knows deep down how wrong her actions are for helping him. To aid him in his exploits, she takes up a career in a position of authority that lets her inconspicuously hang out around Freddy’s.

On a personal note, I think it’s interesting that these are the traits that Scott chose to emphasize between the two characters. While Mike’s relationship with his brother is definitely a strong part of what makes his character interesting, I’d argue that it is better executed in the games because there, he actually did cause his brother’s death and has reason to feel guilty over it. I also think that Michael’s dynamic with William is just as important as his relationship with Evan/Garrett/the Crying Child—William is Michael’s shadow archetype, he represents the absolute worst of what Michael could be. The movie completely lacks this dynamic, which makes their beef feel less personal despite the fact that William did kill Michael’s brother in this timeline (though I’d argue that that’s more the fault of the fact that William only has THREE SCENES in the movie total)

Movie Vanessa fares better, but mostly because she absorbs a lot of Michael’s role from the games by virtue of being an Afton child that lived past adolescence. I personally prefer her role as William’s successor rather than as a reluctant follower; copycat killers are a staple of the horror genre, and we are severely lacking in batshit crazy, irredeemable female villains in both movies and video games. That’s more what I was hoping Vanny would end up being in Security Breach, but I also acknowledge that that’s 100% just me projecting.

Unlike the two protagonists, though, William stays mostly the same between the movie, the games, and the books. I think it’s interesting that they chose to continue the trend of giving him an alias to hide under, while his real name is something of a dirty word because of everything he did. We notably don’t have proof that he did this in the games, and it’s got me thinking. Is there a named character mentioned somewhere in the games that’s actually just William under a fake name?

Who knows. Get speculating!

[reikunrei]

It's Always the Dad

Yes, we have another installment of comparing Stranger Things and Doctor Who! Today we'll be going through:

Season 1, Episode 8: Father's Day

The general premise of this episode is Rose and the Doctor going back in time to the day her dad, Pete, was killed in a hit-and-run accident. Initially, she just wanted to be there for him during his passing, since he died alone with no one around. However, in a split-second decision, Rose runs out and pushes him out of the way, thus saving him. This causes a "wound" in time, as the Doctor puts it, which summons creatures called Reapers that start killing and "consuming" everything in the vicinity. It even makes the Tardis unusable, leaving them stranded with no way out and no clear method to fix things.

Immediately getting hit with the name Peter is soooo... even getting an Alan in there?? Anyway.

We open on a flashback of Rose as a young child talking to her mother, Jackie, about Pete. Jackie mentions that how, when he died, "I only wish there'd been someone there for him." Now Rose, in the present day, talks to the Doctor about how she wishes she could be that someone, and asks if he could take her to him. He agrees, but when the moment comes, Rose freezes up and Pete dies before she can go comfort him.

She asks if she can try again, but the Doctor warns her that they have to be very careful this time. He says it's dangerous having two sets of them there at the same time, though he doesn't elaborate further than that, instead simply warning her that, while she doesn't "have to do anything [she] [doesn't] want to," this is the last chance they'll have, as they won't be able to come back a third time without it getting risky.

However, overcome with the sudden understanding that she could save her dad, Rose runs out before Pete's been hit by the car, exposing herself to the past versions of Rose and the Doctor, and shoves him out of the way as the car peels off around the corner. The past Rose and Doctor disappear and Rose introduces herself to Pete, who notes how it's a "coincidence," seeing as she shares a name with his baby daughter.

Blurting out that she knows of the wedding Pete was on his way to, she goes with the Doctor and Pete back to his apartment to finish getting ready. We then get an overhead shot, shrouded in red, of the city from the eyes of an unseen creature.

Obviously, what Rose did was bad. Really bad. But we have yet to see the full damage, and first get this exchange between her and the Doctor at Pete's apartment.

Rose protests, saying that now her dad is alive, that what she did was a good thing, but the Doctor counters with the fact that his entire race of people is dead and "Do you think it never occurred to me to go back and save them?" Rose further argues, saying that it's not like she "changed history" in a meaningful way.

Obviously this jumps out in conjunction with Vecna's "he was an ordinary, mediocre man" comment about Brenner. The idea of Pete being important because he's ordinary will come up again later in this episode, and it's something I've spoken of before in some of my prior DW posts.

This concept is present in Stranger Things, and, notably, for the most part, it is presented as a very good thing. It's often highlighted that our protagonists are underdogs and outcasts, specifically people who, while on the fringes, are still very ordinary. They're messy, they're imperfect, and characters like El, who are extraordinary, have a desire to become ordinary, or at the very least to just fit in and live as normal a life they can lead. Characters like El and Henry and the other lab kids are put on pedestals for their abilities, but we're shown time and again that it's really not all it's cracked up to be, especially if they want to be able to exist out in the world and be loved for who they are, not for what they can offer.

This does then, however, quite neatly lead me back around to Brenner. Our protagonists are shown to be ordinary, but so are our antagonists. Everyone in Stranger Things is just someone, and that means everyone. No one character is any more "special" than another, and that's a core facet of the entire show. And again, I mean everyone. Even the bad guys. Even Vecna. They are all ordinary.

Thus, our "good guys" and our "bad guys" are put in the same camp. They're equated to one another. Therefore, one can't simply be cast aside, because doing so entirely undermines the other and strips the story of one of its load-bearing columns.

When it comes to Brenner, as I spoke about in this post analyzing another episode, this idea leads me to believe that we're meant to deeply humanize Brenner. Brenner is said to be seeking out greatness in others in order to uplift himself, in order to make himself extraordinary, and while Vecna makes his "...ordinary, mediocre..." statement as a means to knock Brenner out at the knees, I believe it's also meant as a way to ground him in with all the other characters in the show. If our "big bad," the guy who created the Child Torture Basement, is "ordinary," then what does that make the rest of us? Certainly not worse than him, but not better either.

Moving back to the DW episode, the spat between the Doctor and Rose continues, and we get this gem of a back-and-forth that (combined with the last screenshot in the previous collage) reads very much like the byler rain fight scene and thus also the brennry argument in TFS (which you can see side-by-side comparisons of here from @henrysglock).

Even with the pseudo-"you'll come crawling back" line? Please.

So, the Doctor storms off, leaving Rose with Pete, who tries to comfort her about her "boyfriend" walking out on her.

Tell me I don't need to get into detail with this. Even the stuff with the loony bin? Come on, now... Even the little comment about the Bermuda Triangle, which is something @aemiron-main has cooking up in a post somewhere/has spoken about it personally with me in the past... wrow.

Then we cut to the church where the aforementioned wedding is taking place, where multiple people comment that so many guests are "missing." In a prior scene, we got more of those red overhead shots followed by people in the city being snatched up by our unseen danger. The groom's father jokes with the groom about how it's not too late for him to back out.

Of course we combine time being weird with it getting cold and a “turn back the clock” line… sure.

While driving to the wedding, Pete asks Rose how she knows Jackie, and Rose says that Jackie, when talking about Pete, says she "picked the most wonderful man in the world." Pete scoffs at this, saying, "Must be a different Jackie, then. She'd never say that." This is something Rose finds odd, but I'll talk about it more in-depth and my thoughts on it later.

They're interrupted by the radio suddenly changing channels, which begins playing a rap song that Rose recognizes as having not been released yet in 1987. She pulls out her cell phone to check her messages and presumably call the Doctor, but all she gets is a repeated voice saying, "Watson, come here. I need you." Then, the car that almost ran Pete over earlier appears in the rear view mirror before disappearing.

Pete and Rose pull up at the chapel, and, again, the car appears out of nowhere and nearly runs into them.

Then Jackie comes over and immediately begins a row with Pete while Rose just gawks. The following screenshots are a collection rather than the shot-for-shot, line-by-line progression because... boy she has words.

Jackie has always been fiery and hot-headed, so this isn't exactly out of character for her, but Rose is shocked by the fact that they're fighting so terribly when all Jackie ever told her growing up was that Pete was wonderful and they were happy. Briefly after this, Rose does see them sort of "make up" and have a firm but more civil conversation about Jackie being upset about their instability and Pete promising things will get better, but even after that, she's still very short with him and insults him repeatedly.

While, obviously, it's not the same situation, it made me think of what 001 partially monologues about in 4.07, wherein he complains that while his family put on this happy, perfect image, it was all a veneer to hide how dysfunctional they really were. In DW, Jackie, after his death, spoke highly of Pete, possibly so Rose wouldn't think poorly of him (though, knowing Jackie, I'd say it was also partially to soothe herself lol). When Rose was at their apartment, she saw all of his awards and accolades on display while, in the modern day, they're all boxed up and tucked away. Rose commented on all of Pete's entrepreneurial goods scattered around the house, and though Jackie spoke exasperatedly of it all, it's framed very much as a fond exasperation. Meanwhile, in this chapel scene, it's clear that Jackie vehemently hates it.

I still need to do some exploring through more episodes of DW, but I have a little hunch that aspects of Rose's character and arcs may have been at least partial inspiration for the Creels and Henry specifically, so seeing this family dysfunction crop up had my radar beeping a little faster.

We then get a brief scene of several children at a nearby playground being snatched up one at a time by our red-tinted villains, and one boy races around to the church shouting about monsters "going to eat us!" and one of the other wedding guests asks, "What sort of monsters, sweetheart? Is it aliens?" and several of the adults laugh. Okay.

At this point, we've also been made aware that the Tardis is out of service. The Doctor, after having left Rose at the apartment, finds that the Tardis is empty, just looking like a normal police call box on the inside. He races back to where Rose is (he goes crawling back!), finding her at the church and yelling for her to get inside as we get a first look at our monsters.

They're giant bat-like creatures, of course, because what else would they be, that swoop down and consume several guests (including the pastor) on the outer steps of the church while everyone else races inside to safety.

Rose, babygirl, quit saying Henry words.

The Doctor is also given the groom's father's cell phone, which is also receiving that "Watson, come here. I need you" interference. The Doctor excitedly says that that's "the very first phone call" from Alexander Graham Bell. I'm sure you picked up on it when I mentioned it before, but evidently with this "wound" in time, we're getting a "bleeding" effect where time is sort of overlapping. The area is now unstable because of the way Rose interfered, so we're getting snippets from long before and after 1987.

This makes me think of all the stuff with anachronisms in ST, which has been spoken about heavily by Em and others, specifically in posts like this one irt TFS. This "bleeding" phenomenon is even present on-screen, specifically with the newspapers that Nancy and Robin read at the library, given that they see a newspaper with the name Edward Creel in it, yet they come to only verbally mention Henry. While we're not sure why this is happening in ST yet, as it's used here in DW, it's meant to be a hint toward an overlap/collapse in time and space. Therefore, who's to say it's not something similar, or at least some hint at general instability, in ST?

I also want to briefly highlight the religious undertones we get within this episode, due to the fact that the majority of it takes place inside the church. We already had that one shot I posted earlier of the groom and his father talking, in which we get a prolonged moment on the stained glass window depicting the crucifixion of Jesus followed by the comment of it being "cold." Here, now with everyone hiding inside, we get this shot of the shadow of one of the Reapers through the same window.

This happens several times through the episode across all the windows of the church, but this one is especially pointed and instantly makes me think of all of the TFS promo that heavily favored religious imagery, as well as the recent ST5 leaks showing that a church will definitely be involved, even with UD vines covering it (Creel exorcism, anyone?). To bring it even closer to the MF, these shots of the Reapers remind me of the MF looking through the gate as El closes it in ST2.

We even get a moment later where the Doctor stands behind the pulpit in order to explain their plan to get the Tardis back. That paired with Brenner's Time Lord imagery, and even Mr. Newby in TFS originally being listed as Father Newby, sure had me raising my eyebrows.

Pete and the Doctor have a brief moment while they're going around making sure all the windows and doors are locked, wherein the Doctor spots the disappearing-reappearing car that almost hit Pete going around the corner. Pete catches a glimpse, but when he asks the Doctor what it was, the Doctor says it was nothing to worry about and moves on.

Then we get one of my favorite moments.

This had me jumping for joy because of the Fringe of it all. Spoilers ahead, but, in Fringe, after Peter Bishop was wiped from the universe, he was returned only for the universe around him to not shift to accommodate his presence again. While he still had all of his past memories, even ones that he shared with Walter and Olivia, nobody else had any of those shared memories. He wasn't inserted back into their world retroactively, he was just placed in the present as-is. In the original universe, Olivia and Peter were in a romantic relationship, but that ceased to exist when he was wiped, yet she begins acting like they're in a relationship and being affectionate. When Peter asks why she's doing that, she says she doesn't really know why, just that she knows she loves him even if she has none of the memories to go with it.

Earlier in this DW episode, in the screenshots I posted above shortly after the Doctor leaves, Pete admits he feels he knows Rose from somewhere. Deep down, he knows he's her dad, but he just had to see it.

Given that Fringe is a huge inspiration for ST, I was so pleased to see this concept crop up here too. It reminds me a lot of what we see in the NINA arc in ST4, wherein El is dropped in front of 001 and seems to almost instantly trust him with her life. She doesn't remember what happened, but she seems to know that she loves him and he loves her, which feels further aided by her lashing out at him when he appears "off" to her. Hell, even her still trying to break through to Vecna points to the idea that she knows she loves the man (allegedly) in there, and perhaps even knows more about the truth of the situation than she remembers/than what Brenner has led her to believe. She's being presented with the worst possible image of this person, but part of her still hesitates in condemning him.

Now let's return again to our lovely idea of ordinary being best. The Doctor is approached by the bride and groom of the wedding, and the bride asks if he'll save them.

While these people are deemed "ordinary" and they think themselves "unimportant," the Doctor protests. They have their own individual, unique lives and experiences, ones that he, by virtue of who and what he is, will never get to experience. This is a big reason why the Doctor, across the entire history of the DW series, always comes back to Earth. He's fascinated by humans, which is something I've spoken about before. It's very reminiscent of Gandalf being smitten by Hobbits in LotR.

I've already spoken about how our main characters in ST are deemed "outcasts" and "freaks," and while those monikers feel inherently at odds with the "ordinary" label I slapped on them earlier, the whole point of our main cast is that they're representative of “the everyman,” and they’re meant to be generally sympathetic to everyone in the audience. We're even shown the "ordinary" characters being anything but that (specifically thinking of Karen and how Nancy talks about her in ST1 compared to their conversation in ST3; and Jason being the "perfect boy" before he snaps and loses his head entirely; and, of course, the Creel family seeming picture-perfect before revealing in TFS that Virginia really was Like That with Henry). Point is, there's the "ordinary" we're told, and then the true "ordinary" we're shown.

The "ordinary", or "normal" as it's often dubbed in ST, we're told about it always a facade of some kind, and in fact almost everyone in ST is un-ordinary beneath the surface or due to varying circumstances. In short, this is an extremely long-winded way of, again, saying that there isn't really any "ordinary vs freaks," because everyone is on the same playing field.

So for just one second I want to be That Bitch and talk about how this made me think of the comparisons between Henry and Will, and the common fanon idea of bringing Will "up" to "Henry"'s "level" of supposed greatness by giving him world-altering powers. While I don't doubt that Will has some kind of ability that will aid them, especially given that he can still sense the Shadow when he's back in proximity of it, I find it quite a stretch to believe that he'll be given powers akin or adjacent to what El or Henry have.

While El often falls back on her powers to help/defend herself and others, we also see her crave a "normal" life and claim she "doesn't belong" because she's different (read: has/had powers and lived a wholly different life from her peers because of it). It's something that's heavily emphasized with Henry in TFS as well, with him claiming he's not "normal" and that something is wrong with him because of his affliction with the Shadow and his newfound powers he has yet to understand or control. His entire life has been turned upside down (ha ha), and flashes of medical reports in the play outline that he was a "normal" boy before his flaying in the (alleged) Nevada cave. Overall, the powers are framed as something undesirable that makes life harder than it already is for them.

Obviously everyone knows that Will's homosexuality and El's powers are meant to sort of parallel each other in this sense. And thus, I can kind of see the argument that, if he had powers of his own, this could be a way to tie it together. If he had powers of some kind, they could be another literal representation of his queerness or otherness that needs to be "accepted." However, I find that, to put it bluntly, completely pointless. Him being gay already represents him being gay. It feels demeaning to his arc to give him a proxy to accept himself through rather than just accepting himself... for himself.

Besides, we already have El grappling with the powers aspect on her own in her "am I the monster or the superhero?" struggle. She already has that whole idea covered, so why does Will need to take it from her? Why does he have to accept it first before she does?

Rather, as I've been discussing, I believe it's because Will is "ordinary" (read: doesn't have powers) that he'll be of greater help toward fixing things. He, along with El, very closely parallel Henry's life experiences, with El paralleling his time in the lab and Will paralleling his time outside of it/prior to it (which is something James has spoken of in the past, though I cannot find a post about it !!). However, it's less about them being the same and more about highlighting how they're different.

- Will's family stuck by his side and tried to help him while Henry's tossed him to the dogs. - Will had his life saved and the Shadow removed while Henry was left to fester with it for months, at the very least. - Will had a group of friends willing to give him the benefit of the doubt/help him when he was flayed while Henry never had someone listen to his side of the story, instead choosing to believe he really did everything of his own volition.

Therefore, it feels extremely logical to me to assume that Will would be left without profound powers like the ones Henry gained (which, for the record, we still don't know how he got). They're not meant to match each other beat for beat, but, as people, they're meant to highlight a disparity within society and what circumstances can do to a person. They share experiences, but they don't share outcomes.

I can't say all of this with complete confidence, obviously, as the Duffers haven't given us all the answers yet, but i feel very confident in my agreement with James, as I stated before, that El is meant to closely parallel Henry as a lab-kid and someone with powers, while Will is meant to closely parallel Henry pre-flaying and who he is without powers.

In short: having nothing "special" going on (aka not being a Time Lord or having psychic abilities) is not a detraction and, in fact, just being who you are is what makes someone exceptionally important.

Back to the episode!

The Doctor, in a moment of reprieve while he's trying to think of how to get everyone out of there, is tasked with keeping an eye on baby!Rose. Adult!Rose approaches, but the Doctor physically prevents her from touching her infant self. Doing so would cause a paradox, since they're the same person, and any further disturbance in time might make the Reapers strong enough to break into the church.

At this point, the Doctor is still miffed at Rose for having unintentionally caused all of this, and we get a fun moment where she snaps at him that she's "not stupid" and he responds with "could've fooled me." Hey, Russell T. Davies called, he wants his ST2 El and Hopper arguments back.

Ultimately, Rose apologizes, because she does feel guilty for causing this, and then the Doctor holds her face and hugs her... in the same way Pete just did not long ago but hey we don't need to unpack her love interest acting like her dad right now that's fine-

At this point, Pete still doesn't know he's supposed to have died, so he asks Rose if he and Jackie are still together in the future and if he's a good dad. Rose spins a tale that he read her a bedtime story every night and they all went out for a picnic every Saturday; that he was always someone she could really rely on. All Pete responds with is "That's not me."

I discussed this earlier, but while this does remind me of the whole "facade" thing we have going on in ST, it reminds me too of the idea of alternate selves and different timelines. Which, in the case of DW, I swear is not a stretch because later in season 2, Rose and the Doctor go to a parallel universe where they meet the Pete from that world, who didn't die, and ultimately becomes a great father figure to Rose.

Eventually, Pete figures out that he's meant to be dead. He sees the disappearing-reappearing car going in its loop around the corner, recognizing it as the one that almost ran him over, and on top of the weird way Rose has been acting with his questions and the cryptic way the Doctor keeps talking about how "the thing [Rose] changed will stay changed" (wow, cool TFS word), he finally puts the pieces together.

At this point, Jackie finally overhears Pete call himself Rose's dad, which they'd since been keeping a secret, and we get... uh

Sorry, this one really just made me laugh. Don't mention the lab child breeding program, it's fine.

She even balks at him calling her Rose, asking if he "calls them all Rose," because she assumes Rose is an affair partner and is disgusted that he'd give his own daughter a "second-hand name" from his mistress. I can't even get into this, I just have to move on.

Pete, in his attempt to get her to understand that they're the same Rose, makes to hand baby!Rose to adult!Rose. Too late for Rose or the Doctor to stop it, they touch, and the paradox gives one of the Reapers enough strength to make its way into the church. The Doctor puts himself between the Reaper and the rest of the people, saying that he's "the oldest thing in here" and thus just what the Reaper would want most. It consumes him and disappears, and Rose cries that he's dead and the whole world is over because of her.

Pete, however, realizes what he's meant to do. He tells Rose that he's going to sacrifice himself and complete what was meant to be completed. He even convinces Jackie that Rose is their daughter, and the three of them have an incredibly somber moment.

My leaking tear ducts aside, the "extra hours" reminded me of some weird language that comes up in TFS, specifically something Brenner says to Henry about his "missing hours." Pete gets extra hours outside of "real hours," hours that were never meant to happen, like how Henry may have “lost hours” without actually losing time, if that makes sense. It even makes me think about NINA and how 001 very well be sentient in there, at least to some degree, and therefore would he feel like interacting with El in there was like getting "extra hours" with his daughter?

James has also spoken to me about how time moves strangely in TFS, and not even in the sense that "it's a play and that's just sort of how the transitions within that medium work." Specifically, he's pointed out how the days and scenes bleed into each other in ways like Henry's skipping around hours (which, coincidentally, is similar to a phenomenon that occurs in another DW episode I've spoken about). A really obvious example is Henry in the attic scene in which "he" kills Prancer, wherein it should be at night/before bed. However, when he comes out of it, Virginia is knocking on the attic door telling him it's 9:45 and they need to go to church. Henry even squeaks "in the morning!?", just as shocked as we are to learn an entire night has passed in such a brief sequence of events.

Also I don't have any real commentary on the rest of it other than I would Die if we get a similar exchange between Victor and Henry, or Henry and El, or something. Pretty please. Something something you have to be your dad, but for good. Something something doing everything they can to save their children.

With no other feasible plan, Pete leaves the church and rushes to the street corner, where he steps out in front of the car and allows himself to be hit. This time, Rose does go to him, and holds his hand as he passes. As soon as he dies, the Reapers vanish, time stops going wonky, and everyone who'd been consumed is returned, Doctor included.

Now, we get another flashback like the start of the episode, with Jackie talking to kid Rose, but this time the story of Pete has slightly changed. Jackie says that the guy who hit him was just a kid, it wasn't his fault, because Pete just stepped out into the road. Jackie even mentions a "girl" who stayed with Pete until he died, and then she just... was gone, and they never found out who she was.

Oh yeah btw peep that date lol lmao.

This I thought was really interesting. Sometimes the trope of “history has to say the same” can become boring and predictable when there’s no way around a specific outcome. However, when it’s done well, it’s done well. I don’t think this is one of the best ever examples of this, but I did find it very intriguing that, while the same outcome occurred (Pete was killed), the situation surrounding it has been slightly recontextualized.

Where Jackie once lied (strong word, but you get the point) that Pete was the most wonderful man in the world, now he really was the most wonderful man in the world because he decided to correct the error that was made and save the world by sacrificing himself. It should be noted that, iirc, no one remembers what actually happened because Pete essentially just reset the timeline to where it’s supposed to be.

It’s something I could very easily see occurring, at least in a symbolic sense, in ST, especially what with the truth of Henry’s situation being so murky. Even if it’s without an attempt to “change” things, simply the act of looking at what happened through a different lens can make everything click into place.

Now I just want to wrap this up with some final odds and ends of what various parts of this episode reminded me of irt ST that I haven’t touched on yet.

At the start of the episode, we learn that Rose’s motive for visiting her dad on the day of his death is so she can simply be someone who’s there for him when he passes; she doesn’t want him to be alone. The concept of loneliness is not unfamiliar to ST, and it’s especially on the nose with Henry and Patty in TFS, and comes up fairly frequently with characters like Will, Mike, and El on-screen. We see it in scripts for ST4 with Brenner, and we get it in ST1 with Joyce berating Jonathan for doing things alone. It all comes back to community and support. Being with someone to curb their loneliness can make all the difference, especially when it’s genuine. Especially especially when someone is going through something scary and otherworldly.

And that’s the whole point, isn’t it? Being there for each other, even in our worst moments?

This isn’t a form of compassion that’s exclusive to “the good guys” either. As I said above, the plague of loneliness even affects Brenner, and even a character like Vecna, who’s been trapped alone in the UD for years, probably just needs a good shoulder to lean on for once.

Henry, as per TFS, didn’t really have anyone. We’re told about a boy (or two) in Nevada who very likely was close to him, but he’s otherwise very reclusive from his family (at least post-flaying). When he meets Patty, he latches on the moment he finds her compatible and, despite her mistreatment of him, he doesn’t let go. He’s finally not alone anymore, and even if it resulted in disaster, he wanted it to work. There were just too many outside forces at play convoluting things. All he needed was someone to be there for him with genuine intentions, and I believe that’s something he will receive, come ST5.

I also want to touch on Rose having to “try again” at the start of the episode. I don’t have too much to say about this, but it did make me think of James’s theories irt Henward possibly having turned back the clock in order to save himself. Something about going into it with neutral-to-good intentions, only for something to go wrong and bring it all crashing down. Not that we know for certain if that’s what’s going on with Henry, but there’s something in the continuous tragedy of his life and the earnest attempt at making things better, only for it to go much, much worse, and having to return to the un-ideal square one.

It doesn’t even have to just be about Henry doing it to himself. Someone else might be sticking themselves in, toying with timelines, in an attempt to help Henry, only for other, unknown forces to muck it all up. But now we’re getting a bit into James’s territory, so you can just chew on that concept a bit. The last thing I’ll say on it is I did find Rose seeking out her dad reminiscent of TFS Brenner seeking out answers to his father’s experience in Dimension X, but alas, I’m running out of steam.

Exploring this DW episode wasn’t much anything new, but I found it very satisfying to see even more concepts confirmed and expanded upon that I’ve spoken about in my other posts, as well as touching on ideas that my friends have talked about before. Overall, I’ve reached the conclusion that I need to explore more of Rose’s episodes and see what’s up lol. There's even more within this episode I could pull on further, but a lot of it is just pointing at the words that are said and going "that's the words!!! the words from the show!!!" so. Sort of an "iykyk" situation atp. But! Lots to chew on, and likely more to come in the future!

[studentofetherium]

watch Monogatari

Monogatari is a lot of things. across 18 novels or 102 episodes and three movies, the series spans numerous tones and genres

the premise of Monogatari is that there are supernatural creatures called oddities that represent the characters' mental problems. in each arc, a new oddity happens to force the characters into situations. that's rather broad! because the series does a lot with its concept and treats it rather loosely. the point is, the focus of the series is on its characters and their numerous psychological issues. as a result, the topics the series handles can be rather serious. this includes things like domestic violence, child abuse, and rape. however, not all its plots are so serious, and others focus on sexuality or sibling relationships

Monogatari is highly unconventional. i could say a lot about the bizarre presentation of the anime, or Nisioisin's distinct prose, but i think it's been seen rather than described. needless to say, Studio Shaft and specifically the directors Tatsuya Oishi (who directed the first two arcs, Bakemonogatari and Kizumonogatari) and Tomoyuki Itamura (who directed everything after) did a fantastic job in the series

what about the characters? it's hard to talk about the characters in Monogatari without going into spoilers, but suffice to say that each is distinct in their own ways

Koyomi Araragi is the series' protagonist as well as its narrator. for good and bad, his view is how we see the world. during spring break, an incident occurred which left him in a twilight state between humanity and undeath as a half-vampire. the supernatural attracts the supernatural, so since then, he has found himself involved in a number of other oddity incidents

Hitagi Senjougahara is the cool beauty, a tsundere with a violent side. after a run-in with a crab, she found that her weight had been stolen, causing her to come down with poor health

Mayoi Hachikuji is a precocious and energetic elemental schooler who can't find her way home. at times, she can come across as wise beyond her years, but at others, she seems exactly her age

Suruga Kanbaru is the princely athletic star of the school. however, a recent incident has led to her early retirement. at the same time, she begins to spend more time around (stalk) Koyomi for some unclear reason

Nadeko Sengoku is the little sister character who Koyomi forgot. he remembers her again when he stumbles across her at the shrine in the mountain, taking part in some sort of dark ritual...

and last but certainly not least, Tsubasa Hanekawa is the studious class president who shares some hazy recent history with Koyomi

and of course, there are many more characters than this, but i can't spend all my time introducing them

unfortunately, Monogatari has problems. i already mentioned that it tackles serious issues such as abuse or rape, and while it handles them well, there needs to be a warning for their presence, as the series does not shy away from them. however, not everything is handled well. complaints about the series oversexualizing its cast are frequent, and especially Koyomi's relationship with Mayoi falls under scrutiny. much as i love the show, i would be remiss to not warn people about these issues

but! if you still want to watch the series despite those problems (and you should), knowing what and how to watch can be difficult. the series is infamously hard to translate, meaning not every translation is equal. official subs are not always ideal and streaming services are far from the ideal way to watch the series. i recommend torrenting the series (suggested torrents are linked below). each arc name is unnumbered which easily causes confusion if you're not already familiar for the series. the watch order for the series are:

Bakemonogatari

Kizumonogatari

Nisemonogatari

Nekomonogatari Black

Second Season

Tsukimonogatari

Owarimonogatari season one

Koyomimonogatari

Owarimonogatari season two

Zoku Owarimonogatari

this may seem complicated, but it's much less so once you're familiar with the series

there is so much more i could say about Monogatari. the series is really deep, leaving lots of room for analysis of its characters and stories. even if you aren't inclined to go that far, there is so much to appreciate about the series. Monogatari is without a doubt my favorite story ever, and for many people it has been lifechanging. i cannot recommend it more and i hope if you've read all of this, that you're interested in checking it out!

[iheartpeppino]

More Pizza My Heart character profiles for you guys. Here are Peppino, Melissa, and Pizzahead, in that order:

Giuseppe “Peppino” Spaghetti II:

Our main protagonist, Peppino meets his biggest fan in the form of Melissa Monotoli and falls in love with her. However, his relationship with her has notable hindrances: namely, Melissa's disapproving father, Giovanni Monotoli, and Pizzahead, who is seemingly competing for her affections.

Peppino is currently in his early 50's, about 13 years older than Melissa and Pizzahead, who are the same age. Peppino is very romantic and flirty towards Melissa, rarely getting angry or upset with her and greatly enjoying every moment of her company. Melissa, in return, is very loving and sweet to Peppino, even if she's not the most confident person there is. As a self-described “love freak”, Melissa is just as much of a romantic as Peppino, if not more so. The two of them dream of getting married someday.

Peppino is unaware that Pizzahead is in love with him too, but those insults he likes hurling at Peppino sound an awful lot like flirting… Peppino is very confused by the mixed messages Pizzahead is sending, but mostly he's frustrated and DONE with his bullshit, and he sincerely wishes he'd stop flirting with Melissa. (“She's MY girlfriend, you pizza shit!”)

Peppino shares a name with his father, and inherited Peppino Pizza – and all his pizza-making skills – from him. Peppino is also a war veteran, having been drafted when he was 25. While serving, a surprise attack from the enemy got every member of Peppino's platoon killed. Peppino, who had yet to discover he was immortal, was the only survivor. The experience deeply traumatized him and left him with survivor's guilt. To this day, thunder, fireworks, and other similarly loud noises trigger his PTSD. He also can't stand anything that reminds him of death.

Before he was drafted, Peppino also had a brief history with Totino the Pizza Boy. Peppino, who is an astonishingly good actor, played the role of Pizza Boy's arch-nemesis, the Chef Raider, for a video game based on the Pizza Boy franchise called “Pizza Boy Tower”. Totino and Peppino had filmed a lot of scenes together for the game, and they had a lot of fun doing it. (It was especially fun for Peppino because he felt like a wrestler playing a heel character.) Totino was only a child back then, so at the time, Peppino viewed him like an adorable kid brother. Now that Pizzahead is grown up and evil, however, Peppino is sickened by how much he's changed for the worse, and wishes he'd never met him at all.

Melissa Elizabeth Monotoli:

The love interest of our story, Melissa works as a glorified security guard looking after her rich parents' old mansion and all the treasures inside it. Melissa is autistic, has ADHD, and PTSD from her childhood… all ingredients that make her a very anxious wreck who can't hold down a normal job, hence why she works for her parents. Although Melissa lives a very fortunate and comfortable life, her anxiety won't let her enjoy it.

Melissa finds out about Peppino from watching Pizzahead's Pizza Tower broadcast, falling in love with his feats of strength, speed, and bravery. A year later, she finally works up the courage to meet Peppino in person, and there are sparks between them. However, it's not long before her old childhood friend, Pizzahead, worms his way back into her life after 31 years, causing trouble for her and Peppino.

Melissa was friends with Totino the Pizza Boy when she was a child, and now that he's grown up into Pizzahead, she has decidedly mixed feelings. On one hand, she's furious with him for what he did to Peppino, finding his actions unforgivable. (She's even more furious when she finds out what he did to Fake Peppino.) On the other hand, she genuinely misses his friendship, plus she finds him very attractive, but she stubbornly refuses to admit to either of these things because of Peppino.

Melissa is genderfluid, initially appearing in very feminine pink clothes and putting on a cute, high-pitched voice. It's when she puts on her favorite navy blue suit and hat – a gift from her father – that she feels compelled to deepen her voice and act way more confident, cocky, and masculine than normal. Peppino is a bit confused by this at first, but he comes to appreciate this other side to Melissa and even embrace it, going so far as to call her his boyfriend when she's wearing her suit.

Melissa loves Peppino with all her heart, and wants nothing more than to make him feel safe and happy… even if she sometimes feels like she doesn't deserve him.

Totino T. Pizzahead:

Our antagonist, this zany guy used to be friends with Melissa Monotoli when they were both children, as Melissa's father used to be the biggest investor in his old restaurant. However, a traumatic incident during Melissa's eighth birthday party resulted in her fleeing Pizza Boy's Pizz-Pizza in fear, never to see Totino again for another 31 years, as the sight and smell of pizza became a PTSD trigger for her. (She got better, but it took a while.)

Having a colorful past with both Melissa and Peppino, Pizzahead has been spying on both of them for many years, becoming increasingly obsessed with them, falling in love with them, and now plotting to become their third partner through any means available to him. Unfortunately, Pizzahead refuses to let Peppino know how he really feels about him, while he's completely open about his love for Melissa. He pretends to be rivals with Peppino for Melissa's affections, when in reality he just wants both of them. Why does he do this? “To keep things spicy,” apparently.

Pizzahead was originally brought to life by the legendary Pizzamancer, as a commission from the three former CEOs of Pizza Boy's Pizz-Pizza: Celeste DiGiorno (a.k.a. “Mama”), Mike Wilde, and Sam Stouffer. Before they met an unfortunate demise, they raised young Totino the Pizza Boy as their child, training him to become the perfect corporate children's mascot and TV star. They were even more evil than Pizzahead, and were the primary reason he turned out the way he did. Also, because Celeste, Mike and Sam were in a polycule, they're also the reason Pizzahead realized he was polyamorous and pansexual.

Pizzahead, being a living cartoon pizza man, is essentially immortal, just like Peppino. Unlike Peppino, however, he doesn't process pain in quite the same way, and is immune to most of it. Finding out he couldn't die contributed to Pizzahead's descent into madness and evil, giving him an overabundance of confidence that led him to do unspeakable, irresponsible, or just plain stupid things that further led to chaos. These days, it's often up to Pizzahead's more responsible brother, Pizzabro, to clean up Pizzahead's messes.

[darkartistyt]

I would read that Layton colour essay if you were to write it :)

Hello, hello! Aspiring graphic designer Atticus here to infodump about my semi-basic understanding of color theory in my current favorite video game series

I could probably talk one’s ear off about the symbolism of the colors themselves, but I will instead try to focus on what they mean in regards to the plot and the characters as a whole

Let us begin with our titular protagonist, Hershel Layton

Our favorite lego man has gone through a handful of design changes throughout his life

His palette in this image is pretty simple (I mean, no shit, Sherlock, he’s 5, but still…) A cute little sulfur and white shirt and light blue pants make up his outfit here. Yellow is a color often associated with happiness and, at times, innocence, and that coupled with the brightness of said yellow and the white accent conveys that well, in my opinion. He’s a young child, living a happy life with his family, but after Targent takes them away, we see a drastic shift in colors

This is the outfit he wears when first meeting the Laytons, who will soon become his new family and identity. Notice how dull the colors are, especially compared to Desmond, who is still wearing that same red-orange vest (or at least a very similar one) and a bright red tie. Another thing to point out is the composition of the colors themselves. Here we have an orange button-down shirt underneath a dark colored coat (grey in this case)... now where have we seen that before?

This iconic composition is tied directly with the name Hershel Layton. And Desmond’s palette remains because they have yet to receive their new identity; they are not yet Desmond Sycamore.

Moving ahead through the timeline, Hershel’s colors become a lot brighter, the white returns, and now he has a bright red vest

Sure, it’s not exactly the same, but all (and I mean all) the colors are incredibly similar to Desmond’s and identical in composition. I’m sure it has been stated time and time again how this palette and composition was given to him along with the name Hershel, but it is interesting to note that it doesn’t stop at just the red vest

Red becomes a very prominent color later on, too

His outfit is almost entirely red as a university student

You get it by now; I really don’t want to overstate this point…

ANYWAY 👏

Post Claire getting yeeted through time and space, he starts wearing his coat more frequently as well as an orange shirt. I cannot remember where I saw this but someone made a post saying how that palette was symbolic of how he was at the time; the darkness of the coat, pants, and hat representing his grief and the seemingly oversaturated orange representing his remaining hope, I believe was what they said

And this brings us back to Desmond. Both of them underwent a drastic change in coloration after losing those they loved. Both of them now sport an identical dark brown, which is the same EVEN WITH DESCOLE

Were it not for the lining and shading, the area around Des’s legs would have blended perfectly

The only difference is Hershel has a very bright accent, one that is more than just a dash of red or purple (the boa and mask don't count mostly bc that’s exclusively a Descole thing and not shared with Desmond); it’s his second most used color. He hasn’t fallen as far into darkness as Des; he still has some light in him keeping him from traveling down the same path as his sibling

After that point, though, both of their designs remain consistent, so there’s not much more I can say about them…

Ok Luke time

I think my favorite thing about Luke’s palette is how much it complements Hershel’s

Blue is the opposite of orange, and Luke’s secondary color has always been a pale peach off-white that looks almost grey against the blue, which works with Hershel’s off-black dark brown

For funsies, I put the above image through a reverse gradient filter and snagged some colors to compare

While not identical in hue or anything, the inversions are still pretty close

And Luke has gone through a lot of design changes too

That Luke Blue™ becomes more prominent the older he gets, changing into a much more saturated blue when he’s 14 before his composition pulls a complete 180

Because his color palette stays pretty much the same, there’s not much to say yet on the symbolism of the changes and whatnot. We’ll have to wait until NWoS’s release to see if there is something or if I’m pulling a High School English Teacher

But yeah, Luke is quite opposite to Hershel in many ways, yet they go together extremely well. Luke is energetic, spunky, a bit sassy at times, and is far more outspoken 24/7. Herschel is calm, quiet, almost overly polite, and pretty reserved, always waiting until he has all the pieces in place before revealing his findings and generally not letting many people know about his personal life. They are complete opposites, yet they complement each perfectly, and their color schemes reflect this

And now we get to the fun part… ✨The Villains✨ Specifically Dimitri Allen and The Masked Gentleman

The Future Layton disguise is pretty much just a desaturated Hershel Layton and is way more representative of Dimitri himself than Hershel. It utilizes colors that, while not directly opposite to Dimitri’s design, complement his

Note the blue and red scarves, shift from off-black to off-white and vice versa,  and the red and white roses

Dimitri is our first example of a villain just being a light theme Hershel Layton. He’s reserved, intelligent, forward thinking, creative, and harbors a strong love for Claire. The difference is Dimitri’s “the ends justify the means” mentality. Were Hershel to have that kind of a mindset, I would not be shocked if the story of Future London ends up a reality

And then we have The Masked Gentleman…

Where he lacks similarities in character, Randall’s villainsona makes up for in its coloration. Turning Randall’s prominent purple into an accent separates him from the man behind the mask while the outfit in general is eerily similar to Hershel’s, just with its own Descole-esque spin on it. The hues of their major colors are nearly exact (32 and 31 respectively), blonde hair is pretty much opposite of brunette, and, most obviously, the red and green bands on their hats are compliments of each other. Not only that, but certain parts of Randall’s outfit are tilted down where Hershel’s are tilted up and vice versa, and rounded corners become sharper and vice versa

Putting our boy through a reverse gradient demonstrates this well I think

Could I go more in depth and drag this out even more unnecessarily long than it needs to be? Maybe. Am I going to? No.

Pretty much everything else I could say has to do with little things that don’t matter at all plot wise (aside from maybe kat and flora having warm colors too and alfie being the outlier and blah blah blah) but this is already over 1000 words long and holy shit i rambled so much my goodness

Anyway, excited to pick apart NWoS once that comes out. Just from the trailer alone I can already tell I’m gonna have fun with this one >:]

[unsightedjoker]

Spider-man: ATSV NSR AU

Ok, I usually don’t post stuff and only reblog and like stuff but since i just watched Spider-man ATSV and I really liked it that it hasn’t left my mind and won’t leave it any time soon I’m still so hyped I feel like sharing this. I was on my way home when I started to listen to the NSR soundtrack and the inevitable happened just remembering the premise for the game and what happens in the movie I started connecting thoughts and this entire AU happened.

My writing isn’t the best to make a fanfic that does justice to my ideas at the moment and hell if I can’t write I have even worse at drawing so making fanart for this is also out of the picture.

For anyone who doesn’t know NSR (No Straight Roads) it’s an indie game from 2020 that’s very underrated from what I’ve seen. The plot is very simple a Rock duo Mayday (a guitarist) and Zuke (a drummer) enter a competition made to scout for new talents that want to join NSR, a company that besides functioning as a music company works as the main energy supplier for the city by using a Mcguffin that transforms music into energy. Anyways NSR turns out to be a group of EDM artists that have complete control over the city and never allow any other genres to join especially not rock, so after getting rejected and suffering a city wide power outage (which NSR is completely inmune from) our rock duo decides to start a revolution to bring back Rock and take down NSR by hijacking their concerts. If you have not played it take this as a recommendation the art style, gameplay and music are reaaaally good (worth mentioning the music for each boss is dynamic it starts as EDM but as you start having the upper hand the music turns into a rock version of the same song).

The premise for the game and having Gwen and Hobie right there in the movie made this AU inevitable in my mind so I’m sharing it here.

So the characters I’ll be using changing for the AU will be the two main protagonists and the 6 main bosses of the game.

First off the protagonists

Because it’s a guitarist and drummer Gwen and Hobie take Mayday and Zuke’s place that one seems a bit obvious to me. It can also be Gwen and Miles but I ended up choosing Gwen and Hobie. However instead of starting their movement after being rejected by NSR they’re fully into their revolution agenda and hijacking the EDM concerts

DJSS

The first boss is Dj Subatomic Supernova and honestly that one was also an easy pick as he directly fits with Spot, especially because of his last phase in his fight where his face breaks and it looks like a black hole ejecting black matter or whatever. They’re both also so self-centered and silly.

SAYU

Sayu is the second boss and consists of a virtual idol (like Hatsune Miku) made as a project by four adolescents so for the au she could be made by peni parker and the virtual reality spiderwoman (i can’t remember her name :’) ) but idk who else could be put as one of Sayu’s creators in this AU.

YINU

Yinu is a child pianist prodigy so for her I’d go with Mayday Parker, since Yinu also gets help from her mother during the fight I guess Mary Jane helps her or maybe Peter B. idk? It’s just that Yinu’s dad in the game is dead and that’s also one of the reasons she plays her piano because her dad taught her. Yinu’s character is supposed to represent the lack of control child prodigies have in their lives because their parents or guardians are in charge of making all the decisions during their youth so I imagine Hobie would spend a bunch of this confrontation telling her to go wild and start doing whatever she wants to do while Gwen would tell Peter or Mary Jane to pay more attention to Mayday and be a better single parent, culminating in the piano solo at the end of Yinu’s boss fight

1010

So this one’s a bit weird but hear me out. 1010 consists of a boy band made up by 5 robots that are almost identical with the exception of their color and hairstyle so in this case it’s five alternate versions of Miles Morales robots as a boyband while the original Miles (the one that isn’t a robot) is Neon J (the creator of 1010) in this AU. I ended up choosing Miles for this one because despite how much Mayday says she despises them she has a crush on 1010 and while Gwen and Miles wouldn’t really act like Mayday and 1010 respectively I still chose this because of that.

In a similar way Gwen has a crush on 1010Miles but she isn’t entirely into it because the Miles robots have an artificial vibe to them like prefabricated charm and personalities, they can fool a lot of people but not everyone. Once one breaks and the real Miles comes out to replace it they start focusing on him, Gwen and Miles throughout the fight start to realize they like each other mean while Hobie goesout of his way to show how he’s in the wrong as he should question the stuff they do and shouldn’t be following NSR, by the end when they defeat Miles he ends up accepting it and actually rooting for them to beat the remaining members.

I’m using an action figure as a substitute for robots lol

EvE

This one I reserved for my favorites Nadia (EvE) and Pavitr. Eve happens to be an eccentric artist and Diva that is the second in command because of her skill. There’s a couple of reasons I chose to have Pavitr in Eve’s place:

First, during the briefing before her fight it’s stated that the “instrument” she uses to make her music is her body and mind in contrast to all the previous artists which have actual specific instruments (from sinthesizers to a piano) which doesn’t explain much until you get to her fight and see her dance, she dances (and probably uses a bit of magic as well or something) to make her music. If I’m gonna give the ability to make music through the movement of their body to anyone it’s gonna be Pavitr.

Second, during her phases Eve shows she can warp the space around her in what she refers as the Diva’s realm and from what I remember the part of diva’s realm is supposed to be a reference to Deva’s realm and Devas are deities from hinduism if I’m not mistaken, so there’s also that.

Last but not least I like a bit of angst. In the game its shown Zuke and Eve used to have a good relationship as they were a duo and know each other closely to the point Zuke knows what’s going on in her mind while many don’t, however after a certain incident they disbanded. Similarly in this AU they used to be a duo until they received an invitation to join NSR, Pavitr wanted to share his music and art and be in contact with everyone in their community so he accepted, this however was a deal breaker for Hobie so they disbanded. Once he got his position Pavitr could share his music however after being put in a pedestal he no longer could keep in touch with his community as much when he wanted leaving him feeling isolated and only focuses on his craft now as a way to cope. Their fight besides being about taking him down would have the purpose of mending Hobie and Pavitr’s relationship.

TATIANA

This one was also very obvious Miguel takes Tatiana’s place. To begin they’re the respective leaders of their antagonistic faction but also majorly because the entire story of NSR and ATSV happens because both of them had a very specific personal problem and instead of dealing with it by themselves or getting help to solve it they decided to make it everyone else’s problem and never even try to recognize that maybe they’re wrong.

And that’s it that’s all I have in my mind

[chidoroki]

Hell’s Paradise EP9

aka: plot armor vs immortal enemy

“There are too many mysteries to solve. I need to cool my head and review the facts.” And this is exactly how I feel when I watch Heavenly Delusion.

Gabimaru, please.. I don’t think it’s very ideal for you to act on your own, especially when dealing with the tensen.

Oh we got real creepy trees praying and chanting to something.

Damn, Mei followed him all the way out here? I dunno whether to be thankful since she’s apparently strong or scared since she’s still a child.

Fuck, out of all the tensen, you had to encounter the one who killed Tenza?? Only they seem so laid back now?

OKAY Gabimaru, just break their arm while you’re at it! OH! And their neck! Not that it mattered at all because yeah.. it spun right back around.

Goddamn, even his blaze ninjutsu didn’t slow it down one bit.

Yooo look at them both go! Gabimaru is doing quite well at staying alive anyways.

Wait, that kick of his glowed a bit and actually made the tense spit up blood? Did Gabimaru unlock some new ability or is Mei unknowingly helping from the sidelines since that glow sorta looked like what she did a while back?

Don’t just sit around and tank those hits! Move away from them already!

Holy shit, they keep exchanging such serious punches with each other. I know Gabimaru has serious protagonist plot armor but damn!

Flowers are sprouting from the tensen though, so is it actually dead this time? Or.. just turning into some kinda monster. It vaguely looks like something we saw in the OP.

Ah hell, now we got electricity to deal with.

Oh this little dream is so cute, look how happy he is!

Yo someone has to come and help this man, Gabimaru is seriously at his limits.

Mei, your precious child! Thank god!

Pfftt I love how quick Yuzuriha changes her mind about things.

Wait a damn minute.. does Isabella’s va voice all of the tensen when they’re in the lady form? And the males share one va as well?

Ooohhoho Chobei and Toma are still alive! Hell yeah!

No well in hell I’m gonna remember those seven names.

“They all look and sound the same, but their personalities and roles are different.” So they really do just have two different va voicing all of them. That’s kinda cool.

Oh.. so all those creepy trees earlier were actually the villagers originally.

I don’t think Fuchi and Tamiya are the kind of backup Gabimaru is looking for.

[scripturient1998]

About Me

Hey, I’m Mackenzie! I write a variety of things, including stories, songs, and poems, and this is my imperfect attempt to keep a writeblr.

While I may share content for any of these things, my current focus is a series which I am presently 6 “Terrible First Drafts” into!

I’ve made myself a handy-dandy list of complicatedly aesthetic tags to use as I sort the posts I share here, all related to this series and its characters. I may add to this list in time, especially if I shift focus to other WIPs, but right now I expect this will be the bulk of my content. The tags are meant to be both enigmatic and organizational, so I will share a quick rundown of them below, but you are under no obligation to keep track of them. They’re mostly here so if there is certain content you like, you know where to find it!

Without further ado, here’s the things you might need to know:

c tags denote character p tags denote pairings d tags denote types of relationship dynamics

WIP: DVS

(An official title? Absolutely not. Do I have any idea what I’m actually going to call this series in the long run? Also absolutely not.) Premise (I’m not calling it “synopsis” because it sounds too official, and then I’ll overthink it): six girls with superpowers set out to help their community in little ways, never planning to risk any major danger. Of course, when do things ever go to plan?

Protagonists:      Gabrielle Davis: practical / eldest cousin / early 20′s / prophetic dreams, visions, and feelings + forcefields / (#c: praying for a sign)      Janessa Davis: passionate / middle sister to Gabrielle and Kimberly / graduating high school in first arc / healing quickly + boosts to speed, strength, and agility / (#c: heart and soul)      Kimberly Davis: headstrong / youngest cousin / 15 in first arc / summons and controls electricity / (#c: chaos child (affectionate))      Lynley Davis: hopeful / twin sister to Charity / mid-late teens / time manipulation / (#c: oh you are well-named)      Charity Davis: cautious / twin sister to Lynley / mid-late teens / affects plant life + affinity with animals / (#c: would it kill you to be hopeful?)      Kiera Davis: sagacious / only child / same age as Janessa / literal empath / (#c: beautiful bleeding heart)

Other Characters: (aka minor characters I’m likely to rant about)      Jack: (#c: I just wish you were a better man)      Luke: (#c: who could stay? you could stay)      Steven: (#c: you and I should stay the same)      Kevin: (#c: loyal. earnest. true.)      Other: (#c: the utter importance of impermanent people)

Main Relationship Dynamics: (#d: my sister’s keeper) = dynamics between any of the sisters (#d: love is worry) = family relationships in general (parental, between cousins, etc...) (#d: I’d take a bullet for you) = friendships (#d: why would they be miserable?) = romantic relationships

Platonic Pairing Tags: (#p: what a pair we are) (#p: how to save a life) (#p: anchors) (#p: triumphal tuesdays)

Romantic Pairing Tags: (#p: through the heart right?) (#p: no regrets) (#p: the choice I would’ve made)

--- Alright! I think that’s it for now! As I said, I may add to this (or otherwise change it) in the future, but this should be an accurate representation of where my thoughts currently are in the series. :) Thanks for reading! ---

[universalcollisionleaks00]

Universal Collision: Meet the Adventurer Support Assists!

Name: Rinku Aimoto

Class: 5★ STELLAR AWAKENED / 5★ AS

Summoner/Duo: No

🎂Birthday🎂: Yes

Weapon Type: (Hero In Memory) Sword / (Birthday) Staff

EX Weapons: (Sword) Happy Sword, (Staff) Seashell Memory

Current character status: Released (Hero in Memory & Birthday)

Stellar Awakened Release: 2/28/2024

Info (From D4DJ Wiki)

Rinku lived abroad in Tiotio, Africa as a child due to her parents' work, but she came back to Japan alone for high school and now lives with her grandmother. Rinku's mother is an insectologist who mainly studies dung beetles, and her father is a zoologist. She is always cheerful and optimistic and can sometimes be seen as an oddball, calling even nature her friend. She became interested in DJing from her encounter with Maho.

Relationships

Maho Akashi - Rinku and Maho are the first two members of Happy Around! They formed a nameless group after Rinku's countless attempt to form a unit with Maho after she saw the latter DJing.

Muni Ohnaruto - Rinku and Muni are childhood friends, and attended the same elementary school. They reunited in high school after Rinku came back to Japan. Rinku was the one that inspired Muni to pursue art and she was delighted to know that she was still drawing when they met up again.

Rei Togetsu - Rei was Rinku's piano teacher before joining Happy Around! officially as the keyboardist. Rei really appreciates Rinku for everything Rinku has done for her, especially encouraging her to be the main vocalist for Brand New World after hearing Rei humming to the melody.

Kyoko Yamate - Kyoko was interested in Happy Around! and Rinku's talents, so the two quickly became good friends when the two girls' groups crossed over in the anime.

Sasago Jennifer Yuka - Rinku and Yuka's first interaction happened after Rinku saw the latter taking pictures of her own abs. Rinku then asked if she could touch Yuka's abs, causing the latter to get embarrassed after Rinku kept touching them. The two became closer after that, and Yuka also instructed Rinku to exercise more, telling her that being fit would make it easier to sing and dance at the same time.

Hanamaki Towa - Rinku and Towa became acquainted after sharing lunch at school. Towa already knew of Rinku beforehand as she was a fan of Happy Around!'s music, despite their respective units competing against each other.

VC

Hero In Memory VC:

Don't worry, Muni-chan! Things will definitely work out! - Slash attack on all enemies (XL), and critical attacks of user +100% (3 actions)

Birthday VC:

You know, seashells are amazing! No two in the world have the exact same pattern. - Water Type Magic Attack on all enemies (L), and convert most debuffed ally’s debuffs to buffs (3 Turns)

Skills / Abilities

Hero in Memory Skills / Abilities:

Heroic Jump: Slash attack on a single enemy (L), and type attacks of all allies +50% (3 Actions) + Physical resistance of enemy -100% (2 Turns)

Happy Around Slash: Fire type Slash attack on all enemies x4* (XL), and inflict Stun

* Number of attacks increase based on how many members from “Happy Around!” are there (Up to 8x)

Happy Around! - Speed of user +100%, and cleanse debuffs from user

Hero of a Story - Nullifies any Charm / Confusion effects redirected to user and any protagonist character

Stellar Awakened Skills/Abilities

(Stellar Skill) Wonderland of all Happy Dreams - Slash attacks of all Sword/Katana/Ax allies +100% (3 Actions) + Remove current Zone and deploy Crossing Fates Zone (Slash/Piercing) + Slash attack on all enemies x3 (3XL)

- When in Stellar Burst: Perform The World Started With D4 instead

(Stellar Burst) The World Started with D4 - Slash attacks of all Sword/Katana/Ax allies +200% (3 Turns) + Remove current Zone and deploy Sea of Stars Zone + Slash attack on all enemies x6 (5XL)

- Increased damage if critical

- Cleanse all debuffs from all allies at turn end

(Passive) Stellar Awakening Fill Ability - When there are 3 or more D4DJ party members on the front line:

User's Stellar Burst Gauge Fill rate increases (M)

(Passive) Stellar Awakening Activation Ability - When attacking inside a Zone:

Slash resistance of all enemies -50% (Current Turn Only)

Skills / Abilities

Birthday Skills / Abilities

Birthday Tour - Water Type Magic attack on all enemies (M), and stack Happiness on user

Happiness: Restore HP of all allies (S) (Max 4 Happines; XL)

Happiest☆Dream - Magic attack on a single enemy x2 (XL), and inflict Break on enemy

Break: Damage of next hit is doubled. (Multiplier x2). Break is removed when the character receives damage. Absorbed attacks, fixed damage, Linked/Ultimate/Group/Assist skills do not consume break. Certain VCs such as Airi Amano can consume Break.

Seashell of the Ocean - Water Type Magic attack on all enemies x3 (XL), and inflict Stun

First Time Summon

Rinku: "Heya! I'm Rinku Aimoto! Nice to meet you!"

Rinku: "I want to explore the world and spread the music to bring smiles!"

Rinku: "Starting today, I'll join your group!"

[thunderbone]

The Shadow Hunters

Hello, today I decided to share with you a story that curiously underwent several changes over the years. As a child, I was a big fan of Monica's Gang and Peanuts. To this day I have Monica's Gang comics and I've read several Peanuts comics at the school I studied, especially the comics from the first version of Peanuts (1950), which by the way is my favorite version.

At a certain point in my childhood, I had the idea of ​​creating a cartoon when I'm adult, where this cartoon would be like Monica's Gang and Peanuts, only based on my life, where I would be the main protagonist. As I was a child and I was still starting to draw, obviously the drawings of the first versions of my story were very ugly, after all, I was a child and I didn't even know how to draw properly at the time.

From the first version to the 2018 version, all the characters were children and the intention was to be a children's cartoon, although there is a 2015 and 2016 version that was the opposite of that, where the drawings of this version presented extreme violence, gore and etc (my God! where was I thinking, since when is this for children?!). However, it was from the 2019 version that things started to change, because now the characters are teenagers and the intention is to be a cartoon for teenagers, probably for people over 12 or 14 years old.

The characters that were the protagonists of the first versions were characters based on real people, like myself who was the main protagonist (duhh), my brother, Alex (@alekizw), and my old friends who studied with me. However, it was from the 2015 and 2016 version that I started to create fictional characters, where some were also the protagonists, while the others were mere supporting characters.

When I created the first version of all, I didn't know what the name of the story would be, and as I was without creativity, I chose the simplest name of all, "Os Amigos", which in English translation means "The Friends", which curiously was the only thing that remained until the penultimate version of my story during its constant changes. In each version of my story, the characters had different appearance and visuals. But the version I want to share with you is the latest version, which is the version I created last year.

It all started in December 2022, where after I created the penultimate version of my story, I realized that that version is a shit LMFAO Yeah, the story was horrible and I soon realized that I would have to create a new version of the story that was a thousand times better.

But this new reboot would have to be the definitive version of the story, as I was tired of having to create a different reboot for the same story every time. Seriously, I couldn't take this anymore, having to redo the story from scratch, do a new drawing of the characters, etc.

One day, I was watching a video from a Brazillian channel called Vício Nerd about the most bizarre dubbing in the world. It was thanks to this video that I discovered an anime called Ghost Stories (2000-2001). The story of this anime was very interesting and what caught my attention the most was the fact that a ghost that was in the body of a cat was helping the protagonists in the fight against evil, even if reluctantly at first.

So I thought: Why not create a story about a group of teenagers hunting ghosts? I told my brother, Alex, about my new idea and he really liked the idea. However, in January 2023, my brother and I went to watch the series Supernatural (2005-2020) for the first time, where we started to marathon this series.

Man, this series is really good! The story is interesting, the characters are very good, the monsters and ghosts they hunt are very interesting and the villains so... It was an amazing series. I liked this series so much that I soon remembered my idea and thought: In addition to hunting ghosts, the protagonists could also hunt monsters, right?

When I told my brother this, he loved this new addition to the idea, because for him, the story wouldn't be so good if the characters only hunted ghosts. So my brother and I started creating this story together, where my brother suggested some ideas, but I developed most of the story myself.

Also, I decided to discard the idea of ​​the protagonists being teenagers, because besides the fact that I had already created other stories about teenagers dividing their normal lives with their lives as heroes, it wouldn't make sense for teenagers still in high school to travel the entire country to hunt monsters and ghosts. So I came up with the idea of ​​them being young adults who are in college, because since they are adults, it makes more sense for them to have the freedom to travel the country and hunt monsters and ghosts in their free time, just like it was in Supernatural.

To create this story, I was inspired by Supernatural, Ghost Stories, Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (2001) and Goosebumps (2015).

To avoid making the story too repetitive, I had the idea of ​​adding a monster or ghost of the week, just like that old horror TV series did. Like, at the end of each season, the protagonists would have to face an even greater threat, where this monster or ghost would be a kind of "main villain" or even the season's standout villain.

As in the first four seasons there wouldn't be a main story or main villains, since in the first seasons the protagonists would have to hunt all the monsters and ghosts and there isn't much to complain about because that's how it has to be, I got the idea from the last season have a main story and a main villain. This villain was even inspired by The Creeper from the Jeepers Creepers franchise and Pennywise from the It franchise.

After I created the story, I had to think of a name, because that old name, "The Friends", is rubbish. Then I remembered that two of the protagonists in my story are part of a lineage of Shadow Hunters, just like Edward Carnby in the game Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, so I thought: The story could very well be called The Shadow Hunters, right?

And no, I was not inspired by those books The Mortal Instruments and Shadowhunters (2016-2019), because my story is VERY different from the story of that books and that series and has a different proposal, where my story was created for a audience that loves horror films (that is, my story has death scenes, gore, etc.).

Furthermore, to get the idea that two of the five protagonists are part of a lineage of monster and ghost hunters known as Shadow Hunters, I was inspired by Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, which actually came out six years before the book series written by Cassandra Clare. So don't even think about accusing me of plagiarism >:(

No offense, but my story has more variety of monsters than these books LOL After I created the story with my brother, I decided not to do a new drawing of the story's protagonists, as drawing a group of characters is very tiring, as I have to draw, outline and paint the drawing and this makes my hands, fingers and neck hurt XD

As I no longer wanted to make a new drawing of the protagonists of my story, I decided to try to find someone who could draw them for me. On 08/03/2023, I asked @banenaz (also known as Banena The Sheep), a very talented and kind artist who has done a art for me before, if she could do a new art for me, which she accepted.

After many unforeseen events and 10 months of waiting, Banenaz finally managed to draw the protagonists of my story on the 7th of this month.

This art was really worth waiting for, because I really liked the final result, which is perfect! Seriously, the art is incredible, besides being beautiful and wonderful 🥰❤️ Just look at these neat details 😍 Thank you so much for drawing all my OCs for me, Banenaz 💖 If you want to see her amazing work, click here: https://www.tumblr.com/banenaz

The characters in the art are (from left to right): Claire Parker, Pedro Giovane, Alexander Junior, Alice Silveira and Azaloth (cat and dog).

To draw my persona (Pedro), the artist was inspired by the human version of Rocky Rickaby from the comic book Lackadaisy. Furthermore, to draw the book he is holding, she was inspired by Sarah Ravencroft's book from the film Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost (1999). To draw his girlfriend, Claire, the artist was inspired by Mary Jane Watson, as well as being inspired by an outfit that Ari (@ladybugkisses' Lackadaisy OC) wears.

To draw the persona of my brother (Alex), Banenaz was inspired by the actor Jack Champion. As for Alice, she was inspired by some random photos of black girls that I found on the internet for her to draw. And to draw the kittie version of Azaloth, Banenaz was inspired by Mordecai from the comic book Lackadaisy, while the doggie version was inspired by a Snoopy fanart made by gNAW.

In addition to the art made by Banenaz, I also have other art of my OCs.

In May of this year, I was looking for someone who could draw the 4 human protagonists of my horror story, The Shadow Hunters. Luckily, I had the great pleasure of meeting @divumreves, a super talented and very kind artist. Divumreves was accepting art requests and I soon asked to draw my OCs, which accepted.

The art is perfect! Seriously, I really loved the drawing, I really liked the final result! Just look at Claire, she looks so hot 😍 My persona (Pedro), besides being handsome, seems to be very brave and determined 😎 My brother's persona (Alex) is so cute 🥺 And Alice, just like Claire, is very beautiful 🥰 Thank you very much for making this drawing for me, I loved it so much 💖 This is definitely one of the best drawings I've ever received!

If you want to see the wonderful work of divumreves, click here: https://www.tumblr.com/divumreves

In May of this year, I was looking for someone who could draw one of the protagonists of my horror story, The Shadow Hunters. Luckily, an artist called @stargazer365 was still accepting art requests. She had already made a drawing for me, so I asked her if she could draw my OC, Azaloth, in the body of a cat and a dog, which she accepted.

To draw the cat version of Azaloth, she was inspired by Mordecai Heller from the comic book Lackadaisy (@lackadaisycats). Man, the drawing is amazing! Seriously, I really loved the cat version of Azaloth, he looks cute but evil at the same time XD

To draw the dog version of Azaloth, she was inspired by Snoopy from the comic Peanuts, more specifically the 1950s version, which is my favorite version, by the way. However, while Snoopy is a Beagle dog, the dog whose body Azaloth owned is a mutt, having the same size as a Dalmatian or even a Rottweiler.

Bro, he looks so beautiful and gorgeous aaaaaaaaaaaa 😍🥰❤️ Seriously, this doggie seems so kind yet threatening if someone hurts his friends. You managed to make him very imposing, making him a good dog who will do anything to protect someone he loves. I loved the drawing so much, thank you very much 💖 If you want to see her art, which is beautiful by the way, click here: https://www.tumblr.com/stargazer365

Well, now that you know the whole story behind my creation, below is the story of the current version of my old idea. Have a good read ^w^

Set in Brazil in 2012, the series revolves around Pedro and Alex, two brothers who have just moved to start a new life with their family. Eleven years ago, Pedro and Alex lost their little sister, Sophia, who died in a tragic car accident when they were children. Pedro is 20 years old, has Asperger's Syndrome – the mildest form of autism – and is the oldest brother, while Alex is the youngest brother, aged 19. Initially, after moving to the new city, Pedro and Alex had a lot of difficulty living in the new house, studying at college and making new friends.

However, their lives changed completely after they met Claire, a 20-year-old American girl who was rich and already lived in Brazil with her parents, as well as being Pedro's neighbor and student in his class. Despite being rich and living a luxurious life, Claire is not happy and has no interest in material goods, being a humble and good-natured girl. Pedro and Alex became friends with Claire, and she helped them make new friends and get to know the city and its inhabitants better.

Pedro and Alex, with Claire's help, became friends with their new neighbor who had also just moved in, Alice Silveira, a 19-year-old nerdy girl who dreams of being a writer and lives with her divorced father. However, Pedro and Alex's grandfather passed away at the age of 60, where he left them both a mysterious book, which should never be opened under any circumstances. One day, the two brothers ignored this warning and decided to open the book out of pure curiosity. However, upon opening it, the book ended up releasing several ghosts and monsters, which ended up spreading throughout the country.

Later they discover that their grandfather was actually a monster and ghost hunter, where one of his weapons was that old book, which was actually a magical book of sorcery that also served as a prison for those monsters and ghosts. Realizing the great responsibility they would have to deal with, Pedro and Alex, with the help of their friends, will have to travel across the country to capture all the monsters and ghosts that were inside the book before they hurt people. In addition to the magical book, they also began using improvised weapons that were made to exclusively fight monsters and ghosts, in which Pedro and Alex's uncle, Sergio, repairs some of these weapons.

During the course of the first season, the protagonists face various monsters and ghosts, including Werewolves, Vampires, Mermaids, Fairies, Demons, Ghouls/Zombies, Ogres, Doppelgängers, Wendigo (legendary creature from the USA and Canada that feeds on human flesh) , Amaroks (Giant wolves from Inuit mythology), Medusas (Creature from Greek mythology), Goblins, Vengeful Spirits, Evil Spirits and Supernatural Entities. Throughout the story, the different personalities of the protagonists are revealed, such as the fact that Pedro is a very nice, friendly guy but very impulsive and immature; Alex is kind, sincere, arrogant and quite cocky; Claire is humble, selfless, vain and ignorant and Alice is affectionate, brave, sarcastic and proud.

Furthermore, it was from this season onwards that Pedro and Alex began to see Sophia through hallucinations, where she blames them for her death, saying that they should have saved her from that monster. At the end of the season, the protagonists had to face an absurdly powerful ghost, who did not want to live imprisoned in that magical book again. They tried to defeat him using their improvised weapons which are weak against ghosts, such as a shotgun that shoots salt and iron chains. However, it was of no use, as their weapons did nothing against the villain other than tickle.

Because of this, the protagonists began to suspect him, believing that perhaps he is not exactly a ghost. After several efforts that almost resulted in their deaths, the protagonists finally manage to defeat him, as he, even though he was powerful, was still weakened and was recovering his powers all this time after leaving his prison. However, instead of trapping him in the book, the protagonists accidentally trapped the ghost in the body of Félix, a stray cat that was there.

The protagonists already knew it, where one of them played with that cat and fed it. Before the ghost can use his powers to kill them, the protagonists cast a spell on him, preventing him from using all of his powers. To prevent the ghost from leaving the cat's body, the protagonists manage to cast a powerful spell, ensuring that it remains trapped inside the cat's body forever.

After what happened, the ghost, now in the cat's body, and the protagonists make a deal: If he helps them capture all the ghosts and monsters, they will free him. In the second season, 1 year later, the protagonists are still trying to capture the monsters and ghosts to then imprison them in the magical book, with the help of the ghost, now nicknamed Félix due to the fact that he is trapped in the body of the cat of the same name.

This season, new monsters and ghosts appeared in the series, such as Bigfoot (legendary creature from the USA), Headless Horseman (Ghost from European folklore since the Middle Ages), Kuchisake-onna (Ghost from Japanese horror folklore), Jersey Devil (Legendary creature from the USA), Tiger Man/Catman (Mythological creature from various Eastern cultures, similar to the werewolf), Ahool (Legendary creature from the Java forest, originating in Indonesia) and Alraune (Legendary creature from Germany), in addition to the appearance of creatures from Brazilian folklore, they being the Saci, Headless Mule, Cuca, Corpo Seco, Bradador, Capelobo, Quibungo and Mapinguari.

Furthermore, it was from this season onwards that the protagonists also had to deal with many problems in their friendship. Throughout the season, even though he reluctantly helped them, Félix took great pleasure in seeing the protagonists in trouble, getting screwed at the hands of the monsters and ghosts they faced during the episodes. At certain times, Félix did not help the protagonists under any circumstances and saw the circus burn, but when the situation got worse, he helped them, even against his will.

At the end of the season, several hunters are mysteriously disappearing in the Amazon rainforest, leaving no trace. In that same forest, the protagonists and other students were on a college trip with teachers and forest rangers, where they went to learn everything about the animals, fauna, ecosystem, etc. In parallel to this, a group of people went to the forest in the hope of finding the missing hunters, who are their relatives.

However, both groups are attacked by Curupira, resulting in the death of some people from both groups. After being relentlessly pursued by the creature, both groups met and took refuge in an old cabin. Later, the protagonists, with the help of forest rangers and the hunters' relatives, tried to defeat Curupira. After a long battle, they manage to defeat him.

But when the protagonists were going to imprison him in the book, Curupira asked for mercy, saying that he was just trying to protect the forest from hunters, who are bad people. He explains that he attacked everyone because he believed they were a threat to the forest and the animals. Proof of this was that Curupira attacked the forest rangers and the group that was looking for for their relatives, as they were using firearms.

Furthermore, Curupira spared Pedro's life, and when he was cornered by the creature during the attack, he knelt down to pray, where upon seeing such a scene, he left him alone instead of killing him, in addition to the fact that one of the hunters' relatives killed an animal that attacked the group to defend himself and others, further increasing Curupira's fury, although he did not know that the group did not kill the animal out of pure evil, but rather out of legitimate defense.

Realizing that everything was a misunderstanding and that the forest and animals need to be protected from bad people, the protagonists spare Curupira, as he is not an evil creature like the other monsters and ghosts they faced previously. In the third season, 2 years after the events of the second season, the protagonists managed to capture half of the monsters and ghosts that were loose in the country.

However, Claire's mother passed away, where her cause of death was a severe brain aneurysm, much to the sadness of her daughter and husband. Furthermore, Félix ended up developing a feeling of protection for the protagonists, in which he gradually became their best friend during the course of the season. This season, the protagonists begin to evolve; Pedro is now more mature and is no longer a very impulsive person, Claire is no longer so vain and has stopped being ignorant, Alex is no longer arrogant and cocky and Alice is less proud and less debauched.

Throughout history, new monsters and ghosts emerged, including the Abominable Snowman/Yeti, Kelpie (Creature from Celtic mythology similar to the horse that haunts rivers and lakes in Scotland and Ireland), Strigoi (Creature from Romanian folklore, being a creature similar to the vampire), Iron Witch (Ghost from a Brazilian urban legend), Aswang (A generic term for 5 evil creatures originating in the Philippines that change shape through metamorphosis just like the werewolf, being the vampire, the viscera sucker, the Dog Man, the witch and the ghoul), Dobhar-chú (Creature from Irish folklore that resembles a giant otter), Emela-ntouka (Legendary African creature from the mythology of the Pygmy tribes, being resembling a herbivorous dinosaur), Loira do Banheiro (Ghost from a Brazilian urban legend) and Black Annis (Witch from English folklore).

In addition to facing new monsters and ghosts, Pedro and Claire began to fall in love, but both do not admit their feelings for each other. Throughout the season, the protagonists, except Pedro, had to face their personal problems; Alex had to deal with his Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD); Claire has excessive anxiety and is trying to control it and Alice has had to deal with racism from her boyfriend's mother.

In the Halloween special, the protagonists, with the help of some children, had to face Jack O'Lantern, also known as Samhain, a legendary ghost who gave rise to Halloween and Halloween pumpkins. Having been completely forgotten by people around the world, Jack plans to launch an attack on Halloween parties around the world in an attempt to be remembered by people again.

With that, he used his powers to make Halloween night last forever, in addition to controlling all the ghosts to order them to scare people as punishment for forgetting him. However, the only ghost that resisted Jack O'Lantern's control was Félix, much to the villain's chagrin. At the end of this special, Samhain is defeated, but is spared by the protagonists, believing that he can make people remember him without harming people, and that his intention was never to hurt people.

In the Christmas special, the protagonists had to stop Badalisc, a Christmas creature from Italian folklore who is making life hell for everyone in the city with his very bad pranks. However, at the end of the special, like Curupira and Samhain, he was also not imprisoned in the book, as he never harmed anyone and his intention was just to make fun of people.

In the final stretch of the season, several people are dying mysteriously, where some people were torn apart in an extremely violent way, while others were brutally beaten, having their bones broken and their eyes, jaw and tongue ripped out. The police believe that some wild animal is attacking people, as it is impossible for one person to have done all this barbarity. At one point, Alex's friend and schoolmate, Fábio, died mysteriously, in which his body was torn apart.

Suspecting his friend's strange death, Alex, with the help of Pedro, Claire, Alice and Félix, went to investigate what was happening. At one point, the protagonists received a mysterious link from an anonymous person. When clicking on the link, the protagonists accessed a website called Pesadelo.com.br, where they watched the site's videos out of pure curiosity. Much to their horror, the videos depict the extremely brutal rape and death of a woman.

Later, the protagonists discover that all the victims, including Fábio, before they died, had accessed the same website that they had previously visited. According to an urban legend, if someone accesses this website and watches all of its videos, the person will die within 24 hours. Coincidentally, all the victims died within 24 hours of watching those horrific videos.

Furthermore, according to Alice's police officer father, who is investigating the case, all the victims were acting very strangely, as if they were all seeing bizarre things around them, things that left them quite psychologically disturbed. Believing they have been cursed, the protagonists race against time in the hope of discovering a way to break the curse before they are killed within 24 hours.

At one point, they tried to save one of the college professors from being killed by the ghost, where they managed to trap it inside the book. However, to their great surprise, the ghost came out of the book and attacked the teacher, brutally tearing him apart in front of the protagonists. After this tragedy, the protagonists discover that it is impossible to trap ghosts that created a curse within that magical book, as the book only imprisons ghosts that do not have a curse.

They then realize that the only way to defeat the ghost is to break the curse. Throughout the story, the protagonists begin to have paranoia and many hallucinations, where most of them were apparitions of dead people, including Claire's mother, Alice's uncles and Pedro and Alex's little sister, Sophia, the latter of whom had died fourteen years ago. Initially, the protagonists believed that the only way to break the curse is to show the website and its videos to another person, making them die in the place of the person who accessed the website.

Following this possibility, Claire and Alice's friend, Júlia, who also visited the site and watched their videos, put it into practice. However, after showing the website to a friend, Júlia is attacked by the ghost, who brutally beats her and takes out her eyes, jaw and tongue, much to the horror of her little sister, who saw everything. After Júlia's sister tells everything that happened, the protagonists discard that possibility, as it implies that if the cursed person tries to cheat by showing the website and videos to someone, instead of someone dying in their place, the cursed person will be dead, having their 24 hours of life ended early.

Later, Félix managed to discover the ghost behind all this: A month ago, a woman with psychic abilities named Lindsay had been attacked by a group of men, who raped and killed her by brutally beating her, in addition to rip out her eyes, jaw and tongue. The murderers then dismembered her body, put it in a bag and threw it into the city river, preventing their crime from being discovered.

However, while she was being raped and murdered, Lindsay, using her psychic powers, recorded all that barbarity through projected thermography, creating the website's curse. Believing that the only way to break the curse is to avenge Lindsay's death, the protagonists went after the guys who raped and killed her, intending to attract the ghost to them and then take revenge for what they did to her.

While Pedro, Alex and Alice went looking for Lindsay's killers, Claire will be the bait that will attract the ghost to them, as her 24 hours of life are nearing the end as she was the first to access the website and watch the videos. To ensure her survival, Félix will protect her at all costs. Pedro, Alex and Alice manage to find Lindsay's killers, starting a chase.

In parallel to this, Lindsay's ghost appears and goes after Claire. Initially, everything was going well as planned, but to Claire's great surprise, the hallucinations intensified to a level that made her completely crazy, this being the work of the ghost in an attempt to corner her and then kill her. When Lindsay's ghost was about to kill Claire, Félix managed to save her in time, starting a fight between the two ghosts.

During the fight, Felix assumed his true form, much to Claire's surprise, as usually an individual who is being possessed by a ghost or demon does not transform into the ghost or demon's true form. Being quite powerful, "Mini Mordecai" easily defeated the ghost. After being defeated, Lindsay's ghost confronts Félix, questioning him about his real nature and what he really is, as he is too badass to be a ghost.

This further increased Claire's suspicions about Félix, as it is very likely that he is not actually a ghost. Upon realizing that it would be useless to try to beat Félix just to kill Claire, Lindsay's ghost spares her life and goes after the others. After a long frantic chase, Pedro, Alex and Alice manage to corner Lindsay's killers. At that moment, the ghost appears to kill the protagonists whose 24 hours of life have ended.

However, upon seeing her rapists and murderers, Lindsay's ghost killed them all, where the curse was finally broken for good. In the fourth season, 1 year later, the protagonists' duty to capture and trap all the monsters and ghosts inside the magical book is finally coming to an end, with the only thing left to do now is to capture the last remaining monsters and ghosts.

This season, Pedro and Claire confessed their feelings to each other, where they are both now dating. Furthermore, here we see the biggest change in the protagonists' personalities as they have now become more mature and everyone is learning from their mistakes. Throughout the season, the protagonists become more involved in their hunts for monsters and ghosts, in addition to showing significant advances in their lives.

It is also revealed that the protagonists are managing to resolve their personal problems, where Alex and Claire are managing to control their respective mental disorders and Alice, with the help of her police officer father and her mother-in-law, manages to save her boyfriend from loan sharks – who had been kidnapped by them because he owed money – causing his mother to open her mind towards black people, where she gradually stopped being racist during the course of the season.

During the season, in addition to the appearance of monsters and ghosts that they had already faced before, such as Werewolves, Vampires, Evil Spirits and Vengeful Spirits, new monsters and ghosts also appeared, such as the Kasai Rex (a legendary African creature that lived in the Kasai Valley in Congo, being similar to a carnivorous theropod dinosaur, more specifically an abelisaurus), Kongamato (African legendary creature, being similar to a pterosaur), Chupacabra (Legendary creature from the folklore of the Americas), People of Shadows (supernatural entities), Yōkai (Entities and supernatural creatures from Japanese folklore), Gator Man (Creature from New Jersey that has the appearance of an anthropomorphic alligator, originating in the USA), Yaoguai (Mythological demons from Chinese folklore) and Bloody Mary (Ghost from an urban legend, similar to the Loira do Banheiro).

Throughout the season, while facing monsters and ghosts with the help of their friends, Pedro and Claire are trying to deal with some problems in their relationship. This season, when confronted about his real nature, Félix finally revealed to the protagonists what he really is. Several centuries ago, more specifically in the Middle Ages/Medieval Era, a lovely and kind young man named Prince Adam would assume the throne, as his father, King Charles III, was very ill and on the verge of death.

However, Charles believes his son is unfit to rule, wanting his army general, Phillip, to succeed him. Upon learning of this, Adam was quite enraged, as he did not think it was fair for a man who is not even related to the king to take the throne. Determined to prove his worth and prevent Phillip from becoming the new king, Adam, upon discovering the existence of a divine angelic entity known as Ariel, who supposedly helps people solve all their problems, went to summon him.

Ariel agreed to help him under one condition: First he would have to free him from his prison, as he was very weakened and without his powers he could not help Adam. After following his orders by completing several steps, Adam finally manages to free Ariel from his prison, where that prison was destroyed forever. As promised, Ariel went to help him, but said he needed to merge with Adam's body to restore all of his divine powers.

By fusing, Adam and Ariel became one person, where Ariel is now part of Adam forever. However, Ariel was not just any angel, but an archangel called Azaloth, the legendary Angel of Death, that is, he deceived Adam all this time, much to the latter's great misfortune. Azaloth ruled the Underworld (also known as the Kingdom of the Dead), a place where the souls of the dead go to be judged before going to Paradise or Hell, where he was the head of the reapers, who went to get the souls of the people who died, as did several personifications of death created by humanity in films, books, series, cartoons, games, etc.

However, he was banished by the other angels and by God himself for defying the sacred rules, as he was quite bored and tired of ruling the Underworld, feeling that his life no longer made sense. His daily and monotonous tasks were so boring that they did not cheer him up, so he began to practice evil and absurdity as a means of entertainment, to the great chagrin of the other angels and God, who strongly repudiated his evil actions and attitudes, in which they created a sacred prison to imprison him forever.

During all this time imprisoned, Azaloth was losing his powers, where that prison was slowly weakening him over the years. Azaloth needed someone to free him, where that individual would destroy the prison created by God and the other angels to ensure his complete freedom. Furthermore, he needed to fuse with this individual to regain his full power.

After freeing himself, Azaloth, who had transformed into Adam, fulfilled what he promised him, killing Charles and Phillip, assuming the role of king. After several long years of a tyrannical and perverse reign, the inhabitants of the kingdom, who were against the king's cruelty, tried to remove him from power. The rebels then launched an attack on the king's palace, where after confronting all the guards, they finally went to confront the king face to face.

During the fight, one of the rebels manages to kill Adam by taking his head off with his sword. However, before they could celebrate their victory, King Adam was resurrected, revealing himself to be immortal, much to their surprise. He then assumed one of the dark forms of Azaloth and used his dark powers, killing everyone present except one of the rebels who had managed to escape the carnage. The other rebels tried various efforts to defeat the king but failed miserably, resulting in the deaths of several rebels.

Realizing that the king was very powerful and invincible, in a last ditch effort, the remaining rebels went to ask for help from a sorcerer known as Derkion. Using all his knowledge of magic, Derkion managed to create Darkhaven, a magical book whose function is to imprison any evil creature on this planet. The rebels manage to defeat Adam/Azaloth, trapping him inside the book. After Azaloth's defeat, a lineage of monster and ghost hunters known as Shadow Hunters emerged, whose mission was to capture all these evil beings and imprison them within Darkhaven.

A new Shadow Hunter appeared every 60 years in a leap year. Pedro and Alex's grandfather was the last Shadow Hunter and he had managed to trap all the monsters and ghosts that were left on the planet and by accident, the two brothers and their friends also ended up becoming Shadow Hunters, because like all monsters and ghosts had been imprisoned in Darkhaven and evil was contained, there wasn't supposed to be a new Shadow Hunter, but unfortunately the protagonists made the biggest mistake of their lives when they opened that book during the events of the first season.

Furthermore, Azaloth also reveals that the form he takes every time he fights monsters and ghosts is not his true form, as in addition to having the ability to take on various dark and frightening forms, his true form is literally the same true form of angels according to the bible. In the final stretch of the season, several people and animals are mysteriously disappearing, without leaving a trace. At one point, Pedro ended up disappearing too.

Upon learning this, Claire and the others went to try to find him. Later, they would discover that the person responsible for the people's disappearance is actually the Loch Ness Monster, a legendary creature from Scotland that resembles a dinosaur, more specifically a prehistoric marine reptile known as an Elasmosaurus. To make matters worse, Nessie (the monster's nickname), even though she was a female, had reproduced asexually, giving birth to several cubs that are equally dangerous and murderous as she is.

This explains why Nessie kidnapped several people and animals, as she wanted to feed her cubs, who had not yet learned to hunt, where most of the people and animals were devoured alive by the creatures. Luckily, Pedro and the other missing people managed to escape, where they took refuge by climbing trees in the forest for a few days, avoiding being caught by the cubs and their mother. Furthermore, half of Nessie's cubs have already grown into adults, where they are hunting and killing people, as well as reproducing at a rapid rate.

After finding Pedro and the others, the protagonists tried to stop the creatures from reproducing throughout the country and consequently, the entire world. At the end of the season, the protagonists manage to destroy all creatures, including Nessie, narrowly preventing the extinction of life on Earth. Furthermore, the protagonists finally managed to capture all the monsters and ghosts that had left Darkhaven, ridding the world of their threats. As they had promised, they released Azaloth into the cat's body, where he could finally enjoy his long-awaited freedom.

However, he stopped being a villain and swore to never again do evil as he did in the past, because thanks to the protagonists, he evolved, learned from his mistakes and achieved his redemption, becoming a good person. In the final season, 1 year after the events of the previous season, the protagonists are living a normal life, since they had previously imprisoned all the monsters and ghosts. In this season, Pedro and Claire are in their last year of college.

Also, as he is in his last year of college, Pedro will try to do everything he can to make his biggest dream come true: to become a film director and screenwriter. The problem is that due to his atypical mental and emotional condition, Pedro faces conflicts from his friends, college classmates and family, who see him as childish and unreliable, where the most critical are his parents, saying that he is not prepared to work, live alone and live his life without depending on them, as he does not understand anything about the outside world and its dangers, in addition to the fact that he has great difficulty expressing his own emotions and recognizing or understanding the feelings and intentions of others.

However, several children and teenagers are mysteriously disappearing in the city, much to the concern of citizens. According to the police, before they disappeared, all the victims were mentally disturbed, as if they were seeing their greatest fears having a life of their own. Furthermore, while sleeping, the victims had nightmares about their greatest fears, leaving them even more tormented. At one point, Alice's cousin, Lucas, was waiting for his mother to pick him up from school.

His mother actually showed up there to pick him up, but to his great surprise, his real mother had also shown up there. Upon being discovered, the fake mother kidnaps the boy, who takes him by pulling his hair with brute force while running quickly. The real mother tried to save her son, but it was too late, as her clone managed to escape with the boy flying into the sky with his big wings. After the incident, she told to authorities what happened.

Furthermore, she also revealed that weeks before, her son was very disturbed to the point of going crazy, as he said he dreamed of the Xenomorph (an alien monster from a famous horror film franchise in popular culture), as it was the biggest fear of her child. He also said that he saw it and was constantly chased by the fictional creature. However, no one believed her, despite the police realizing that this case is somehow linked to the other cases of children and teenagers who disappeared.

Despite this, the only person who believed her was Alice, who soon told her friends everything. At that moment, Pedro and Alex realize that they are dealing with the killer of their younger sister, Sophia, where the two brothers finally tell Claire and Alice the truth. In 2001, when they were still children, Pedro (who was 9 years old), Alex (who was 8 years old) and Sophia (who had turned 6 years old the previous month) stayed at home with the nanny, as their parents went out to to the city wholesaler that day.

Weeks before, Sophia was tormented because she was having nightmares about clowns, which were her biggest fear. Furthermore, she said that she saw these clowns and was chased by them, but her two brothers didn't believe her. That day, their nanny had disappeared after the 3 siblings went to play. When they went to look for the nanny, someone was knocking on the door. It was their parents, who had just arrived. When Alex and Sophia were about to open the door, Pedro went to answer the telephone, which was ringing at that moment.

To his great surprise, it was his parents who were on the phone, who had called to say that they would arrive in a few minutes. Realizing that it was not his parents who were knocking on the door, Pedro informed the others, who did not open the door. The individual outside, who was pretending to be their parents, broke down the locked door with brute force, revealing himself to be a humanoid monster. He attacks the kids, starting a relentless chase.

While being chased, Pedro, Alex and Sophia found the nanny, who had been killed by the creature, much to their horror. However, the monster manages to reach them and captures Sophia, taking her far away. Pedro and Alex told everything to their parents and the police, but no one believed them, except their grandfather. However, the police realized that this case is very similar to other cases of missing kids and teenagers, and the strange thing is that all these cases happen every 16 years, further increasing the possibility that all these disappearances are linked.

Furthermore, everyone in the city associates these disappearances with the legend of the Bag Man, as in addition to rumors about the kidnapper using a large bag to take children and teenagers away and that he kidnaps them to sell their organs on the black market, the parents tell about this legend and the disappearances to scare their children if they are too naughty or don't respect their parents and elders. Determined to avenge their sister's death, Pedro, Alex and the others went to summon Azaloth for help.

He agrees to help them defeat the monster, but says he needs a shell, as the cat he previously owned, Félix, is already dead. Claire offers Azaloth to possess her body, but Pedro is strongly against the idea, saying that Azaloth cannot possess someone, as that person can have a family and will be greatly missed by the people who love them, in addition to the fact that that person can die due to the various mortal wounds they will suffer when is possessed, since if the person is shot in the heart, for example, the body will die.

The person will still be alive because of the entity that is possessing them, but that does not change the fact that they are already dead. Pedro is also against the idea of ​​Azaloth possessing the body of a pet, because just like a person, the animal will also be greatly missed by its owners, who love it very much. Azaloth then suggests that the receptacle be a street animal just like its previous shell, because unlike a pet, it will not be missed by anyone, as it has no owner and no one cares about it.

Without a choice, the protagonists agree to the idea and Azaloth then possesses the body of a street dog. At that moment, Azaloth gained a new nickname, in which he began to be called Snoopy, as he looked very similar to the dog with the same name from the comic book Peanuts. When they remember that their grandfather believed in them after Sophia's disappearance, Pedro, Alex and the other protagonists find his notes in the hope of discovering something about the monster they are facing.

Back when he was a Shadow Hunter, Pedro and Alex's grandfather had a book that contained notes of all the monsters he and the other hunters trapped in Darkhaven. Pedro, Alex and the others find the last notes from the two brothers' grandfather, which were in fact notes about the kidnapper of Sophie and the other kids and teenagers. It is revealed that Pedro and Alex's grandfather began investigating the disappearance of Sophia and the other children and teenagers.

He stalked the monster, following its footsteps, in which he discovered basic information about it, such as its abilities, powers, etc. The creature takes on a human form to serve as a disguise as he is among people. He looks for people to feed on, where a part of their bodies will become part of him. However, he does not choose his victims randomly, being very careful when choosing.

To do this, he uses his victim's fear. But it is not enough to be afraid to be chosen, because in addition to fear, the person needs to have something that he likes, that is, even if someone is trembling with fear, if that person has nothing that pleases him, he will not attack them. Fear helps to exhale the smell of the victim's body or organs. When fear releases this smell, the monster feels it and analyzes whether it likes it or not, just like when a person smells food to see if it pleases them, since the smell has a relationship with the flavor.

When choosing his victims, he takes the form of his victims' greatest fears. It feeds only on children and teenagers, as the fears of a child and teenager are easier to take a physical form and consequently scare them easily (such as the irrational fear of clowns, ghosts, demons, werewolves, vampires, aliens, etc., in addition to the irrational fear of some animals such as snakes and lions), unlike adults, who are afraid of more formless things, such as bankruptcy, loneliness, what comes after death, etc.

The monster has the ability to invade the minds of its victims, where it discovers their fears, taking the form of whatever scares them most. So he scares his victims through dreams and hallucinations with the aim of making them even more vulnerable, tormenting them to the point of driving them crazy. Scaring them before devouring them is equivalent to "seasoning the meat", that is, he scares his victims to make what he likes, whether the body or the organs, even tastier.

After his victims become weakened and mentally unstable, he takes the form of the people closest to them and then captures them, such as their father, mother, brother or sister, one of their best friends, boyfriend or girlfriend, etc., in addition to being able to imitate their voice, becoming the perfect clone of someone closer to his victim. In addition to metamorphosis, his powers and abilities are: Super strength, super speed, highly heightened senses, large wings for flying, telekinesis, teleportation and superhuman resistance.

It is also revealed that the creature is very old, because after collecting DNA samples from the monster, Pedro and Alex's grandfather took it to an old friend who is a scientist to analyze the samples, where they discovered that the DNA is from a creature unknown to humanity until today, who lived 8 million years ago. Because of this, he believed that the monster is some kind of demon that has been on Earth for a long time, nicknaming him Beelzebub. The two brothers' grandfather discovered Beelzebub's secret hiding place and went to kill him personally.

The protagonists deduce that before he could surprise attack him, he had a heart attack, dying instantly. Furthermore, it is likely that Beelzebub burned down his entire hiding place, destroying any potential evidence of his crimes, as he had been discovered by the old hunter. This would explain why the grandfather of the two brothers was found in a burning place by people passing by, getting him out in time.

They then come up with a plan to defeat the monster in an abandoned port that night, where they will use Pedro and Alex's friend, Guilherme, as bait, as he is the next victim chosen by the villain. In fact, they manage to lure Beelzebub into the trap, but it goes wrong, starting a battle against him. The protagonists tried to kill him using weapons against demons, but failed miserably, as the creature is not a demon, much to their surprise.

To make matters worse, he managed to control Snoopy's mind, who followed his orders. Even though they know they will never be able to defeat him because he is an angel, the protagonists fought against Snoopy, who defeats them very easily. Not wanting to give up, the protagonists continued fighting against him, where after several efforts during the battle, even though they were defeated again, they managed to free him from Beelzebub's mental control by reciting an unbreakable spell that not only saved him but also prevents him from being mentally controlled again.

Snoopy then went to fight Beelzebub and spanks him by taking on one of his various forms and using all his dark powers. After Beelzebub takes a huge beating and is seriously injured, before Snoopy can kill him, much to his surprise, Beelzebub has the ability to regenerate very quickly, completely healing his injuries. He then used his mind power to move several containers towards Snoopy in order to delaying him.

The other protagonists try to stop him, but he teleports several times and at the same time spanks them, in addition to capturing Guilherme and flying into the starry sky, taking him far away. In the final stretch of the season, the protagonists, with the help of Snoopy, manage to locate Beelzebub's new hiding place, which is an abandoned factory. Furthermore, they discover that they are on the last day of hunting the monster, as it will soon go into hibernation and will only attack again for the next sixteen years, this being their last chance to try to defeat it.

When they got there being teleported by Snoopy, they arrived just in time, as Beelzebub had returned from his hunt, bringing with him yet another victim he had just killed. At that moment, he reveals his real origin and what he really is. He is actually an alien creature, created as a biological weapon by an extraterrestrial civilization with the purpose of exterminating life on entire worlds so they could be colonized.

However, after awakening from a long deep sleep, he developed self-awareness and free will, where he refused to continue with his creators' plan, preferring to live among humans. His creators then visited Earth with the intention of eliminating him personally, bringing they entire army. However, to their great surprise, he proved to be very powerful, killing all of his creators.

Despite being able to live without food for an indefinite period of time, he ended up developing a taste for human flesh, beginning his hunt for humans over the years, hunting them every 16 years. He already knew about the existence of the Shadow Hunters and because of that, he managed to stay off their map for many years, where these hunters never knew of his existence. Realizing that he is a much worse threat than imagined, the protagonists tried to defeat him, starting the final battle.

Initially, the alien creature gained a lot of advantage, as he took the form of the protagonists' greatest fears (except Snoopy), weakening them and leaving them mentally disturbed. Snoopy then encourages them not to be afraid, as apparently the villain's greatest weakness is for his victims to stop being afraid of him. Following this advice, the protagonists are gradually able to face their greatest fears, much to the villain's surprise.

After losing their fear, the protagonists regroup and realize they can stop the alien monster by exploiting the subjection of having a physical form and their perception of it. Their provocation weakens him, defeating him. However, the creature had an ace up its sleeve, because even though the protagonists were no longer afraid of him, he knew that they had another greater fear that didn't exactly have a physical form: Losing each other. He then attacks all the protagonists by surprise, brutally killing them one by one.

After killing all the protagonists in the worst possible ways, the monster went to fight Snoopy, who takes on one of his various dark forms. And so began a long and epic bloody battle between the two most powerful beings on the planet, a very fierce fight. After a long battle that seemed to have no end, even though they were completely exhausted and seriously injured, Snoopy and Beelzebub dealt their respective final blows against each other, resulting in a huge explosion that caused an earthquake of an absurdly high magnitude, devastating the entire planet, almost destroying the Earth and the life on it.

After the fight that almost destroyed the entire planet, Snoopy and Beelzebub were very tired and totally injured, where they could barely stand up, as they were lying on top of the crater caused by the explosion committed by them. Snoopy, who had reverted to the dog form he was possessing, assumed one of his dark forms again, slowly regained his strength and ran towards his enemy, brutally beating him.

The alien tried to defend himself, but Snoopy stopped him, continuing to beat him without stopping. After beating him up, Snoopy rips out the creature's heart, killing him. However, much to his chagrin, the monster was still alive, revealing to be immortal just like him. Realizing that it would be impossible to kill him, Snoopy imprisons him inside Darkhaven, finally defeating him. Despite having managed to defeat the villain, Azaloth is extremely sad for having lost his best friends.

However, Azaloth has the idea of ​​resurrecting them, but remembers that due to his dark powers, if someone comes back to life, that person will not be the same person as before, having quite disturbing behavior, becoming an evil and murderous undead (just like in the book Pet Sematary, by Stephen King). The chances of someone being resurrected and becoming the same person they were when they were alive are one in a million.

Even knowing this, Azaloth decided to take a risk to try to bring his friends back using his powers. To his great luck, Azaloth manages to bring them back to the way they were before they died. At the end of the season, now that all the monsters and ghosts are trapped in Darkhaven and the evil has been contained, the protagonists decide to burn the book, forever destroying all the monsters and ghosts they had previously faced.

10 years later, Pedro, Claire, Alex and Alice have finished college and are working, where Pedro, Alex and Alice have finally achieved their biggest dreams, respectively. Pedro is now a world-famous film director and screenwriter, Alex is an award-winning actor, Alice is a critically and publicly acclaimed writer and Claire is the owner and CEO of her father's company, who had passed away, leaving his inheritance to her.

Pedro and Claire got married and are living together, where they had 3 children, in which Pedro has finally been able to prove his worth to his parents, friends, family and college colleagues. In addition, Alice and her boyfriend are planning to get married so they can start a beautiful family, which they have the approval of Alice's mother-in-law, who has stopped being racist. Meanwhile, Azaloth is enjoying his freedom.

Well, I hope you liked the story I created with my brother and the arts 😊

[mizutori-heiko]

Mizutori’s bakudeku fanfiction master list [complete works]

Really really good writing by these incredible authors. In no particular order! These are all Top!Bakugou and Bottom!Deku. If A/B/O dynamics then it’s Alpha!Bakugou and Omega!Deku. Yes, I have preferences.

Canon World – until 15k

What The Fuck Did You Just Call Me? by reading_raindrop | 8,303 | Izuku starts calling him Bakugou and it pisses the explosive teen off a lot more than he thought it would.

Oh right, you were a little sh*t by SaysiWrites | 5,653 | When Midoriya Izuku gets hit by an age-reversion Quirk, the last thing anyone expected to find out is that Toddler-Izuku is a little shit. Except for one Bakugou Katsuki, who has seen this phase one too many times already. (Bonus+ the entire Little Sh*t (Kidfic) series)

Do Not Disturb by surveycorpsjean | 10,010 | Apply enough force, and something is bound to break.

And Atlas fell by supercrunch | 15,185 | They move in together, after a while. Katsuki joins Best Jeanist and Izuku trains under Gran Torino. They still take comfort in each other every day, curl up in bed and kiss and talk about how life is going. Their live are tumultuous, after all, what with villains and training and rescuing people every week. It’s nice to have something certain. At the end of a day filled with violence and adrenaline, Izuku knows he can come home to someone concrete. It’s perfect. Being a hero is scary and grueling and uncertain, but this part is just right. And then, one day, a child dies in Izuku’s arms.

be loved by bonnia | 5,403 | The kidnapping incident leaves bakugou traumatised about being touched on the back of his neck, and midoriya decides to take matters into his own hands.

Big Protein by Mysecretfanmoments | 13,683 | Bakugou Katsuki has a thriving hero career, an agent to manage his famous attitude, and absolutely zero romantic interest in anyone. With the exception of his favourite health food joint refusing to expand to his city, his life is pretty damn perfect—so why does a viral video revealing Deku's stash of dirty mags involving him and Deku together turn everything upside-down?

Chocolate cake and resin preserved flowers by Anoksun | 11,396 | Izuku loses his memories. Katsuki struggles not to lose Izuku too.

Twin Stars by theperksofbeinglarissa | 8,435 | When Deku saves a woman's life, her quirk is accidentally activated. Her quirk? She reveals a person's soulmate. A star-shaped mark appears on Midoriya's left arm... and on Bakugou's as well. Kirishima is the only one who knows that Bakugou is Midoriya's soulmate, and Bakugou isn't taking the news very well. Can the twin stars of class 1-A work out their differences and find their happy ending?

Unhealthy Fixations by Thesis | 12,522 | Izuku is an adult who knows better than to crush on his childhood bully. AND YET.

Like the Moon by osakakitty | 14,781 | Katsuki Bakugo is having constant, erotic dreams about Izuku Midoriya. He isn’t sure why, but they won’t go away. In order to make them stop, he needs to figure out what Izuku Midoriya means to him.

Worth a Second Shot by cinnabee | 13,080 | Katsuki and Izuku celebrate registering as a Hero Duo together with a big party. What could go wrong?

Like Something Out of A Shoujo Manga by Merrywetherweather | 2,971 | Deku ends up in a rather interesting quirk accident, one that triggers flag events as if he were the protagonist of an otome game.

Canon World – 15k++

Blood Moon by lalazee | 94,860 | The Thank-Fuck-We-Aren’t-Dead Sex had started then, and had never really stopped. Then came the feelings and the fights. The ego, the pride, the jealousy. And then there was Us.

The Way You Used To Do by edema_ruh | 669,463 | During a battle, Midoriya gets hit by a villain whose quirk detaches his soul from his body. Stuck in a ghost-like state, the boy enters a race against time in order to save himself from permanently dying. Much to his luck - or lack of it -, the only person who can see and talk to him in this state is no one other than Kacchan.

Just Like Breathing by MD_Daydreamer | 35,423 | Izuku got engaged. He didn't mind. If that made Uraraka happy, he could do it. He thought his life wouldn't change much.But then, Kacchan went to live in the USA.

briar roses (and hundred years of sleep) by vannral | 15,951 | In which Izuku is hit by a ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Quirk, Class 3-A tries to find his True Love and get them to kiss him, and Katsuki’s very angry about it all.

"what's your type?" by sapphicflower | 20,192 | In order to increase their popularity rankings as up and coming pro heroes, Izuku and Katsuki participate in the most popular late night talk show for hero duos - ‘Heroes Rising!’. They’re killing it, obviously, because they know each other from inside and out. Until one question stumps the two of them: “What is your hero partner’s type?”

and it was Just Right by cinnabee | 23,759 | Katsuki spends two years post-graduation in a furious one-sided competition with his childhood friend and rival's promotional photos - until they finally run into each other, and, well. You shouldn't believe everything you see in magazines. A love story about size differences.

Notice Me, Nerd by useless_donut | 40,000 | Bakugou is in love with Midoriya. He doesn’t hide it, in fact it’s so painfully obvious that the entire class of 3-A has him figured out in a matter of months (days, in some cases). Too bad Midoriya is the most oblivious motherfucker out there, and Bakugou is too damn stubborn to actually ask him out. A love story as witnessed by the class of 3-A.

in your dreams, nerd! by sapphicflower | 37,639 | In a strange and unexpected set of circumstances, Izuku and Katsuki find themselves sharing their dreams together whenever they happen to fall asleep at the same time. Being hopelessly in love with each other, they don’t mind it all that much. What better way to spend time with your crush than in a stupidly vivid dream?

Hear Me by my_name_is_Levi | 22,419 | It wasn’t as if nightmares were uncommon for the freshman class of Yuuei. They’d seen plenty of things, heard and felt and witnessed enough travesty in their lives to last them a lifetime. But Midoriya Izuku was screaming, and no one, not even Bakugo Katsuki could ignore it.

Bridges by supercrunch | 18,018 | Bakugou is signed up for a Calvin Klein modeling gig. The thing is, they really do need the money. And Katsuki's technically the leader of this bunch of morons, so he finds himself taking the job even though his pride will never recover. And even though nobody thought to tell him that he'd be working with his ex-boyfriend. You know, the cute freckled guy from high school who went and broke his heart. So, yeah. This whole situation kind of sucks.

objective truth by mamalade | 15,390 | Izuku gets hit with a truth quirk, as one does. He seems to be handling it well—until Katsuki shows up.

catharsis by dollcewrites | 15,071 | It's been six years since Izuku graduated.It's been six years since he confessed to his childhood friend; his classmate and his inspiration. It's been six years since he deleted Bakugou's number, asked his friends not to mention the name, spent every last effort of his heart turning off the TV and averting his eyes from the newspapers. It's been six, long, long years since he gave up on Katsuki Bakugou ever loving him back.

Here here, my friends and me (You are my familia) by Jeka | 128,832 | Bakugou Katsuki has made a great job of ignoring the fact that he is tragically in love with Deku, someone who could never love him like that and let's face it, he doesn't deserve. Now that he can't ignore it anymore, he has to find a way to keep his childhood friend and move on for his own sake. Or so he had thought, maybe he can have Deku, after all. Izuku has everything he always wanted in life. But suddenly he has to navigate the most important relationship in his life through different eyes.

Canon World – Jealous! 

Hands Off by SaysiWrites | 7,140 | When a new girl at school starts flirting with Bakugou, his friends quickly become invested in the idea of their friend experiencing love - even if he doesn't seem at all interested in her. What they don't see is Midoriya fuming in the background. But how can he get rid of her when they've spent so long keeping their relationship a secret?

Surfaces by surveycorpsjean | 25,225 | Katsuki has a new girlfriend, but something isn't right. As impossible as it is, Izuku can't help but wonder what it'd be like to be called Katsuki's girl.

Green-Eyed Beast by SecretKiwi | 4,721 | Everyone wants a piece of Katsuki Bakugou, but they should beware of the Green-eyed beast always lurking close behind him.

Green with Envy by Sol_Morales707 | 2,611 | Izuku Midoriya is not as innocent and pure as everyone thinks he is. The truth was he was very jealous and willing to do anything for a certain blonde.

Happy Camper by Arysa | 7,074 | Wanting a break from the stress of dealing with the rookie Pro Hero grind, a handful of students from Class A decide to go on a camping trip. Izuku's excited to relax and catch up with everyone, especially Kacchan. But, well, Kacchan's... Kacchan. And dating Kirishima.

How to stop time: kiss by Teddingtons | 31,693 | Deku finally asks Uraraka out. Everyone's supportive except Bakugou who can't even look him in the eye. Deku seeks him out after and is hit with truth.

What I Deserve by s_the_queen | 16,671 | When Izuku starts dating a student in General Studies, everyone is happy for him. She's super sweet and really caring. But something doesn't sit right with Katsuki.

Deku's Already Fucking Taken by asdfjkl129 | 20,704 | 5 times people don't realize that Deku is already in a very happy relationship and try their hand at asking him out, and then in Bakugou's unique and special style, get very firmly corrected, +1 time where no correction is needed.

His by sister_elric | 6,206 | Izuku would like to consider himself a pretty level headed individual. Sure, he had the occasional tunnel vision, especially when it came to training. And hero work. And Kacchan. But, overall, Midoriya felt as though he typically kept his cool. Well, maybe that was a stretch. But, at the very least he could understand his own emotions. So, it surprised even him when an unfamiliar emotion coursed through him as a first year approached his boyfriend, Katsuki.

Down the Red Line by MinervaHope | 7,804 | Izuku has been able to see the red strings of fate since birth. It's no surprise that his is connected to Katsuki.

Canon World – Fake Relationship Goes Wrong

how he should’ve known (and how it turned out) by vannral | 43,918 | In which Katsuki and Izuku pretend to be a couple to avoid journalists, the plan backfires magnificently because of course it does, and the act goes on. Includes feelings, pining, domestic fluff and jealousy.

Vicious by feelslikefire | 105,173 | Midoriya and Bakugou wind up in the very last position either of them thought they'd be in: Hero Partners. It's not fun, but they learn to cope. Their first big assignment together takes them undercover to infiltrate a cult, but the situation turns out far more sinister than they first thought.

What I can never tell you by Mikacrispy | 27,067 | After living in the US for 5 years, Izuku returns to take care of a concussed Bakugou who believes they're engaged. Now, Izuku has to pretend he's in a relationship with the man he's loved for most of his life, knowing that it's just a matter of time until Katsuki gets better and realizes it's all a lie.

Not-Dating by MiraChaDoodles | 14,290 | Katsuki takes Deku on a not-date to save his career, only to find himself wishing it were real.

we'll do the things that lovers do by ethereals | 29,544 | Izuku gets an invitation to Shouto's wedding and Katsuki is PISSED that he asks Kirishima to be his date (also he wasn't even fucking invited

Canon World – Friends With Benefits (?) 

Four Times Bakugou Katsuki Doesn't Intend to Sleep With Midoriya Izuku (And the One Time that He Does) by fallingraine85 | 17,601 | He hadn’t planned for any of this. He isn’t about to go delving into the ball of yarn that is Midoriya Izuku’s heart; he isn’t equipped to try and untangle and make sense of it all. He isn’t about to try to analyze how he’s feeling about all of this, either.... How many times can you repeat the same mistake?

We Wear Chains on the Weekend by surveycorpsjean | 35,086 | Well, in a day of revelations, it turns out that Izuku isn't as vanilla as Katsuki previously thought. Unfortunately, that fascinating discovery is overshadowed by Izuku's dumbassery, because he has zero concept of aftercare."Don't go to anyone else," Katsuki says, because screw it. He can do a better job anyways. Or; Katsuki finds Izuku on a bad drop.

Just for Now by Shiro_Kabocha | 48,135 | Katsuki's parents are out of town over a school break and to keep him from getting up to any shenanigans, they ask Izuku to house sit with him. What are two teenaged boys to do when left alone to their own devices? (Bonus+ the entire Just for Love series)

safe in the darkness by yoonskisses | 20,855 | Izuku and Katsuki had been meeting up secretly for months, with absolutely no feelings involved. Or so Katsuki thought at least. The dorm gossip about Ochaco and Izuku's new relationship seemed to set a spanner in the works for their arrangement.

Alternative Universe – No Quirks

Bluebird by EtherealBeing | 53,108 | Dialing a wrong number was no unusual occurrence. Everyone did it once in a while, and Katsuki was well aware of that fact. However, possessing this knowledge made it no less aggravating for him to discover — a full two minutes into his rant about his day — that he’d been venting his frustrations to a complete stranger. As if that wasn't enough, said stranger was also inexplicably determined to hear his story to its end.

Someone Borrowed by mynameis152 | 138,996 | It felt like hours that he stared at Izuku, coming to terms with the fact that a man, his childhood best friend, whom he hadn’t seen since their senior year of high school, was there in front of his very eyes. Then his brows furrowed and his jaw clenched before he uttered through gritted teeth the very name Izuku had longed to hear for years. “Deku.”

Dark Side of the Sun by Synnie | 51,598 | Staying up too late playing video games, Kirishima wasn't expecting to get an urgent call begging for help. Next thing he knew, he was letting his classmate Izuku Midoriya take refuge in his apartment - without consulting his always angry roommate.

Manage Me by Justaperson1718 | 10,756 | Izuku becomes Katsuki’s model agent.

Don't Set Your Drink Down by Crandberrycrush | 88,424 | With sudden clarity Izuku realized he had broken the first rule of going out. Never leave your drink unattended.

Livewire by pretty_rekless | 18,160 | Per Ochako's request, Izuku downloads a gay dating app in hopes to finally find a partner. Except every single one of his leads keep ghosting him or standing him up... That is until one hot, fiery blond enters the chat. Grindr/Tinder AU fic.

Drinking Watermelon by warschach | 8,906 | Katsuki works as a camp counselor, and Izuku is a boy made of summer heat and sunlight.

Precious Pet by Mikacrispy | 6,379 | When broke college student Midoriya Izuku found a job that offered lodging, food, and good pay for four hours of work each day, he thought it was too good to be true. But he called anyway. Turns out all he has to do is to be the spoiled little puppy of a rich businessman.

Our Eleven Summers by Dark_Mage_Ayumu | 34,472 | The first time Katsuki met Izuku was when he was eight. For the next eleven years, Izuku changed his life, and no one even knew. Their relationship was something they shared in secret.

sticky note crushes by ladyofsnails | 3,239 | Katsuki hates his roommate. The green-haired, freckled, artsy son of a bitch with his dumb pun t-shirts and paint-stained hands he can’t fucking keep to himself. Katsuki can’t leave a single assignment or paper out in his room because that idiot will just grab anything to draw on it. He’s like a shark that can’t stop swimming else it’ll die – he can’t stop drawing. Ever.

Don't Play Pretend by SweetSide | 10,103 | Actor AU: Deku and Bakugou get the leading roles for an upcoming TV Drama. They weren’t aware that they would be working with each other for who knows how long. It would’ve been completely fine if they weren’t exes.

97.6 FM by jamjars | 32,249 | Izuku can’t stop listening to the radio host with the deep voice who sounds like he’s stuck in 2010. It’s a harmless crush. That is until he starts calling into the show under the pseudonym Deku.

Read {between} Your Lines by greatcloudninja | 52,252 | Midoriya Izuku, up-and-coming actor, has finally hit his big break (...), Bakugou Katsuki, who has been acting for over twenty years.However, Bakugou seems to have it out for Izuku, leading to tension both on and off set. When some incriminating photos surface, the studio suggests (...): having Bakugou and Midoriya fake a relationship to get ahead of the rumors. 

I’m not looking for somebody with some superhuman gifts by PassingShadow | 5,522 | Izuku is a professional cuddler and Katsuki is his new client that’s just a little rough around the edges, and needs a natural healing touch.

Alternative Universe – Quirkless Deku

A Good Old-Fashioned Tattoo AU by lalazee | 14,437 | After their paths had split, Bakugou & Deku meet again as adults. While Bakugou begins to repent for the kid he used to be, he also starts to prove himself as he the man he is now.

Call Me a Safe Bet (I'm Betting I'm Not) by WTTTD | 10,803 | He wished he had some sort of heads up before seeing Deku again for the first time after nearly two years, looking like the essence of a lazy Sunday, smiling and surrounded with brand new, adoring friends. It was a little fitting that Katsuki burned for him so badly. (Support Department Deku)

In Which Kacchan Has a Ruff Time by OneshotPrincess | 14,511 | Bakugou Katsuki gets quirked into a dog, gets adopted by an unknowing Izuku and generally has a very rough few days full of realizations

While You Were Sleeping by Belkacaramelka (annabelleg) | 71,197 | The one where quirkless fanboy Midoriya Izuku rescues Pro Hero Todoroki Shouto, gets mistaken as his fiancé while he is in a coma, and gets caught up in the most unlikely fake engagement... until his childhood enemy and Todoroki's classmate Bakugou Katsuki tries to catch him out, and they both end up discovering a lot more about each other than they'd expected.

Let Me Assist You Personally by Seeress | 32,806 | Izuku is long-suffering Personal Assistant to #1 Pro Hero Dynamight.Dynamight can't keep a PA to save his career. They all quit crying after a few days weeks. Enter, Izuku—with enough money problems to brave the jaws of the cranky beast. Childhood friend turned glorified paid slave. Somehow it all works out. ‘Kill them with kindness’, his mom had told him once. If that were true, Bakugou Katsuki would be stone-cold dead by now.

Smile For The Camera by kurokonekokilled | 19,179 | Midnight has a cam site, home to millions of users, but one catches Katsuki's eye when he goes scrolled through it in search for something to help him release a little stress. A live stream and the best orgasm of his life later, his wallet is lighter, and he might be almost as obsessed with this Deku guy as the cam boy is with him.

Just Like The Comics by brichibi | 24,935 | Where Izuku works at a comic book shop because that’s as close to a hero as he’s gonna get, and Katsuki plays the part of heroic ex-boyfriend who is good at everything except winning Izuku back... maybe

Alternative Universe – Quirks

Get on my Level by Mikacrispy | 92,273 | Bakugou Katsuki is a Pro Hero whose boss demands him to take an intern. Midoriya Izuku is a UA student who needs an internship. When the two of them are put together, they learn about what it truly means to be a Hero and what it means to be in love.

A/B/O – Secret! Baby

Home by Emerald2402 | 87,214 | Midoriya Izuku left Japan in a rush, moving to America without a word to anyone else. But then almost 11 years later he arrives back Home and Bakugou Katsuki's Alpha is furious. Fuck that, Bakugou is furious, because Midoriya Izuku, an omega he tasted one time, has been keeping a very big, very blonde haired, green eyed secret.

Those Under the Same Stars by PerpetuallyPerturbed | 325,553 | When Katsuki Bakugo left Izuku Midoriya five years ago, he thought it was for forever. He put aside dreams and wishes of the omega to focus on his career. He was going to be the best hero, after all. He couldn't have an omega getting in his way. So when he's stopped on the streets one day by a pup begging for help for his mom, he isn't prepared to face what he gave up, and what the consequences of his actions were. (Quirkless Deku)

A/B/O – Quirks

Mark Me. Make Me Yours. by decadentbynature | 10,062 | Midoriya is the only Omega at UA and he's been hiding it well but there's one issue that threatens to expose him: his attraction to an Alpha, Bakugo. After being told to give some paperwork to Bakugo, Midoriya lets him into his dorm room and is immediately overwhelmed by his scent. Unable to help himself, he gives in to his urges, only to be discovered by Bakugo but instead of becoming enraged, Bakugo decides to give Midoriya exactly what he wants

Claim Me by ScientificallySinful (VampireGaaraCheesepuffs) | 114,449 | Being an Alpha has nothing to do with Katsuki's success as a Pro-Hero, the same way Deku's Omega status hasn't kept him from becoming Number Two. Secondary gender doesn't mean anything nowadays and “mating” is an antiquated practice. So when Izuku, his rival, asks Katsuki to Claim him in the middle of the night, there is only one logical thing to say. “What the fuck?”

Change of Plans by Mikacrispy | 185,965 | Alpha Pro Hero Bakugou Katsuki never planned to get married to some random omega but what he wants isn't an option anymore. One for All wielder Midoriya Izuku has suffered injustice too many times and doesn't plan in allowing his secondary gender to dictate how he must live his life. Falling in love was never in the plans.

Going Feral For You by ANGIE_fic | 17,977 | Bakugou has an aggression problem that might have to do with his Alpha. His job is on the line because of it. So what do you do with a pent up Alpha? Yes.Rut. (Quirkless Izuku)

i live for you, i long for you by jeonjeonggukkkkkie | 19,165 | The five times Izuku hinted he wants Katsuki to spend his next heat with him, and the one time Katsuki took the hint.

Baby's First Bloom by ContraryBee | 44,945 | Izuku blooms for Katsuki one warm day in their third year of middle school. What follows is both boys learning about themselves, their bond, and the society they live in.

As Fate Would Have It by ScientificallySinful (VampireGaaraCheesepuffs) | 88,737 | Katsuki Bakugo had plenty of reasons why he wasn't mated yet, not that he was going to explain why to just anyone. But now, Ground Zero was running out of time. If he didn't find someone soon, he'd lose his position as a Pro-Hero and he'd never get to be #1. So, when he finds out there's a male Omega recently arrested for prostitution that's headed to prison if he too doesn't get a mate…well it must be fate. (Quirkless Izuku)

A/B/O – No Quirks

Gravity by warschach | 71,477 | Izuku is back in his hometown and plenty hasn't changed much from the 8 years he was gone. Except, Katsuki Bakugou, the alpha king of their small town. He's hotter- because that's fair, right, God? -, stronger, a now-famous pro fighter, and noticeably nicer this round.Not that he cares, pfft. (Fine, he cares.)

Nine Months by greatcloudninja | 23,303 | Omega Midoriya Izuku connects with Alpha Bakugou Katsuki through an online singles ad. Izuku pays Katsuki to help him with his heat, ending up pregnant in the process. What follows is a pregnancy filled with ups and downs, but whatever hurdles come their way, they can make it through together.

The long dark by Ominous-Anonymous (Ominonymous) | 13,289 | He could have been really dangerous. He could be a fucking murderer for all he knew. But Izuku Midoriya, ever the reckless daredevil, was not thinking of that when he got into a car with a complete stranger. Completely ignoring the part where his mother always taught him to never gets into cars with alphas he didn't know...

[megashadowdragon]

dragon is the son of rocks d xebec and is actually garps  son in law

Like gendo ikari , Dragon took his wife’s name when he married into the Monkey family. Garp never refers to Dragon as “my son” but always denotes him as “Luffy’s father.” And after Chapter 550, family classifications should be looked at very closely!

very important fact is that Garp or someone has never said that Dragon is his son in the manga.

In the Japanese chapter 439 released about 10 years ago,, Garp refered to Luffy as “a child of my child.”

Why didn’t he say “a child of my son” (and what he said is very close to someone who almost said son of a b**** but changed it because they are a child of a woman they are close to like a daughter

plus dragon doesnt look anything like garp in fact garp as a kid

resembles luffy

plus one piece was part of the old big three with bleach and naruto both having protagonists who used their mothers surname 

ichigo kurosaki of bleach his mothers surname was kurosaki and isshin took his moms surname when they got married 

naruto from naruto uzumaki was his mothers surname

dragon would be a mukoyoshi

. "en . wikipedia . org/wiki/Mukoyōshi 

A mukoyōshi (婿養子); lit. 'adopted son-in-law') is an adult man who is adopted into a Japanese family as a daughter's husband, and who takes the family's surname. This adult adoption may take place in marriages where the woman's family is of a higher socio-economic rank than the man's family, where the woman has no brothers to be the heir to the family name, when the man has been disowned by his own family, or when the man's natural family comes from a notorious or shameful background and he thus prefers to hide his identity.

The daughter of a famous marine hero is definitely of higher social status than the son of a pirate especially the worst criminal in the world ( and dragon has a good reason to hide his lineage 

so what if dragon is the son of rocks d. xebec and this would add to how roger knew garp  would take in his son for he saw garp do the same for the son of xebec      

this would add context to this guy asking if its his fate he would know who luffys grandpa is  on his fathers side  ( and he doesnt know about luffys dream which he shared with his brothers ) 

edit : 

@eleutherodactylus-about-dragon​

thank you for the addition : 

rocks d xebec

monkey d dragon

there is the resemblance

and luffy alludes to sun wukong a monkey born from the stone/rocks so it fits for luffy to be the child of a member of the rocks family who takes on the monkey family name so luffy would be a monkey ( referring to the family )  born from the rock(referring to his fathers family ) 

Shí Hóu (石猴) Meaning the "Stone monkey." This refers to sun wukongs physical essence, being born from a sphere of rock after millennia of incubation on the Bloom Mountains/Flower-Fruit Mountain.

both luffy and xebecs name reference something to do with ships

A xebec, also called a zebec, is a two- or three-masted sailing vessel common in the Mediterranean from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Xebecs were used mostly for trading, but could also be found as naval vessels and pirates.

In sailing, luffing refers to when a sailing vessel is steered far enough toward the direction of the wind ("windward"), or the sheet controlling a sail is eased so far past optimal trim, that airflow over the surfaces of the sail is disrupted and the sail begins to "flap" or "luff" (the luff of the sail is usually where this first becomes evident). This is not always done in error; for example, the sails will luff when the bow of the boat passes through the direction of the wind as the sailboat is tacked. there is a real life pirate called

Roche Braziliano (sometimes spelled Rock, Roch, Roc, Roque, Brazilliano, Brasiliaan[1] or Brasiliano) (c. 1630 – disappeared c. 1671) was a Dutch pirate born in the town of Groningen. His pirate career lasted from 1654 until his disappearance around 1671. He was first made famous in Alexandre Exquemelin's 1678 book The Buccaneers of America; Exquemelin did not know Braziliano's real name, but historians have found he was probably born as Gerrit Gerritszoon and that he and his parents moved to Dutch-controlled Brazil.  He is known as "Roche Braziliano", which in English translates to "Rock the Brazilian", due to his long exile in Brazil. 

and there are multiple examples of oda basing real life pirates

oda stated that in the real world luffy would be from brazil

Since the God Valley Incident occurred 38 years ago and Dragon being currently 55 years old post-timeskip, he approximately would have been 17; this is the same age as Luffy was when he started his adventure. also roger trusted garp to take care of his kid if roger saw garp protect the son of xebec roger would have no doubt garp would have protected his kid and both ace and dragon would have changed their surnames to an important woman of their life

At the time of the God Valley Incident, Dragon would to be around 17. the same age as when luffy started his journey.

luffy alludes to sun wukong a monkey born from the stone  so luffys father being the son of rocks d xebec means he was born from a union between the monkey and rocks family  ( not to mention luffy is currently going against kaido an oni in ancient japan they built monkey statues to repel oni ) 

heck even if dragon really is garps son and luffys mother was the daughter of xebec  it would hold true )  

@bottlepiecemuses​

[indecisive-behaviors]

Originally I was just going to add this as a reblog to my previous post about the parking lot scene in KK2 but it’s almost 2k words so now it’s getting it’s own post. Be forewarned- this is fucking long.

TW for discussion of PTSD, child abuse, neglect, injury, and death, in relation to topics surrounding the show, under the cut-

Obviously, Cobra Kai is a show based around the premise of “what happened to that Lawrence kid after he got kicked in the face?”, which is honestly a pretty cool idea for a show. Johnny’s story is never explained past sitting on the sidewalk with his head in his hands at the tournament, and there are no real context clue’s to figure out what may or may not have happened.

In the show we get to learn early on that Johnny’s life spiraled after the tournament, going from bad to worse to “holy shit how are you still alive”-dropping out/never going to college, working jobs he seems to hate, becoming an alcoholic, presumably many dead end relationships, and not being there for his kid. And yeah, obviously, this would be a hard pill to swallow for anyone watching the show if Johnny had just lost the tournament. If we never got the scene in KK2, he would have just been some kid who lost a tournament- we see at the end of the first movie that(through tears holy shit Billy) that Johnny is the one who gives the trophy to Daniel with his famous line, “You’re alright, LaRusso.” There’s a level of grudging respect in that moment that isn’t lost on anyone who sees that movie- that Johnny, who throughout the movie only sees Daniel as some whimpy kid, gets proven wrong and respects that. If we didn’t have that scene, there’s reason to believe Johnny would have apologized, tried to make amends, Something, even if it was just being less of a dick at school.

But then, we get the parking lot. We get a far off shot, intended to distance you from the scene, framed over Daniel’s shoulder. This makes sense, Daniel is the main character, the protagonist, the underdog hero- why wouldn’t it be framed in his perspective? But the scene is about Johnny. We get the shouting match, the back and forth- “No, you’re the loser man.”- and again it’s fairly obvious how Johnny sees this situation. This is a man who we assume(and is later confirmed) to be a surrogate father figure, who set his friend up for failure, and then basically forced him to do the same by targeting an injured opponent, and forcing him to fight without honor. This same man presumably follows a teenager out to the parking lot, to harass him, to tell him he’s off the team, to tell him he’s a loser, that he’s nothing.

But at that point, Johnny knows the truth, even if subconsciously. At the end of the day Johnny knows that Daniel LaRusso was a worthy opponent, and that regardless of the cheating and manipulation, Daniel could have won anyway, and did win, despite of it.

And then Kreese grabs him, too fast to react to, Johnny too surprised even knowing that Kreese is the bad guy here, not believing that he would ever willingly hurt him- and Johnny isn’t strong enough to fight him off, none of the boys are, so Johnny is forced to suffocate for almost a full 30 seconds(which I double checked for the record- also as a reference, 30 seconds is about the average time it takes for a person voluntarily holding their breath to pass out- this does not account for the oxygen lost during a struggle, and the lack of preparation from both surprise and panic. The only silver lining here is the fact that Kreese was most likely compressing his windpipe, not his jugular, which would have made him pass out in about 5-10 seconds, and would have caused permanent brain damage or death in about 15).

Now, PTSD is a complex thing. I’m not a psychiatrist, and what small amount of information we have is all we have to work off of, but I feel fairly comfortable in saying Johnny mostly likely developed it after the incident. This not an uncommon take in the fandom as far as I’m aware either. But, if we assume this, we also have to assume that after the fact nothing would have been done about this. Not just in the sense that we still don’t really know everything that happened right after the tournament, but that in the early 80s, PTSD wasn’t really a thing yet.

Sure it was absolutely a condition that existed, but Post Traumatic Stress Disorder wasn’t even added to the DSM-III until 1980- and for a long time afterward, was only seen as a condition that affected primarily war vets. Even after an event as traumatic as having a man you considered a father trying to kill you, in public, without remorse, would not have been seen as something to warrant the diagnoses, let alone treatment.

Johnny Lawrence was 17 when Kreese tried to kill him, and this boy would have been offered no resources beyond filing charges with the police. And as we see in KK3, either this didn’t happen either, or someone(presumably Silver) got the charges dropped. So on top of almost being murdered, Johnny had to live with the fact that the man who did that to him was still out there, and to top it off, still ran a dojo at least for a few months after the event. The only relief he could have gotten is after Kreese faked his death.

And sure, Mr Miyagi may have gotten Kreese to let go eventually, but as several people have pointed out in comments and tags, left him and the other boys alone with Kreese still standing there in the parking lot and just... drove off. Kreese has already been established to be a psycho with no problem hurting children, a little bit of glass might not have prevented him from trying again.

So why did I talk about all of that? Because it all contributes to why Daniel LaRusso works as a credible antagonist in season 1 of Cobra Kai.

Think about this- Johnny blames losing everything on Daniel in season 1, but we specifically get a shot in KK1 and later KK2(”You’re alright, LaRusso” and “I did my best” come to mind) where he seems to be at least mostly accepting of the fact that he lost(with what was actually an illegal kick but that’s a rant for another time). So why does he blame him for everything 30 years later?

Because 30 years later, Johnny is forced to go outside, go to work, and pretend like he doesn’t see what feels like every street corner(including right outside his apartment mind you), a literal billboard sized reminder of what happened to him.

The rest of this is mostly speculation but it makes sense in my head so bear with me.

When we get introduced to Robby, it’s made pretty clear that Johnny has not been in his life for a bit. In season 2 we get Johnny’s heart to heart with Miguel, where he divulges that he missed the birth, because he spiraled after his mom’s death. This however doesn’t suggest that he stayed gone, especially knowing that it wasn’t long enough for Robby to not consider seeking out his dad. Because tacked up to the fridge, is a picture of Robby in his soccer uniform as a kid. It’s an early detail you can see in previous episodes, and says a lot about how Robby grew up. To be fair, this could have been given to him by Shannon, and not taken himself, but it’s the sport Robby’s playing that makes me question this. KK1 dedicates an entire scene to Johnny being on the soccer team in high school. Soccer, while maybe not as important to him as karate, is still part of his character. Robby does not know karate in season 1, Johnny obviously didn’t share it with him, but that doesn’t mean Johnny didn’t share anything with him.

So Johnny’s back in his kids life, maybe doing better for himself, maybe cutting back on the drinking. LaRusso Auto is already established to exist at this point but it’s in Encino, a place Johnny has no reason to go to, and probably doesn’t want to. He’s trying again and things are okay. But Robby knows enough about Daniel to know that going to him will piss off his dad. So Johnny had to have talked about him at some point. The billboards here are what’s important- they’re in the first episode, the first scene montage, Johnny draws a dick on one of them as some petty revenge.

The first billboard goes up in the late 2000s to mid 2010s. Johnny sees it, maybe he has Robby with him at the time, maybe he goes home and says something there, but he says something in a way that sticks with even a child as being important. More billboards go up. Dealerships starting popping up more and more. Daniel’s face, and by extension, the memories, the flashbacks, become inescapable. Johnny, for a third time, spirals again. Before he even knows what’s happening, he’s lost his relationship with his son. And it’s all Daniel’s fault. Of course Daniel doesn’t do it deliberately, but the constant reminders are enough to send him back into a tailspin and Johnny blames him for it.

Because it’s Daniel who is a constant reminder of his failures- it’s Daniel who caused him to lose the tournament and almost get killed, Daniel who put up the billboards that trigger his flashbacks, it’s always Daniel Daniel Daniel.

And then Johnny gets it in his head that he wants to be better. He opens a dojo, teaches Miguel and the other kids, wants to try again- and he almost succeeds.

Johnny up to this point has not deliberately antagonized Daniel in any way. Sure he named the dojo Cobra Kai, but Cobra Kai is all he knows. Besides Johnny doesn’t blame karate for his failures, his best memories are Cobra Kai and he’s trying to be better than Kreese. So what’s the harm in this really? His building is in Reseda, there’s no reason for Daniel to ever be there, he doesn’t do it out of spite, it’s because he lives there and rent is cheap. He doesn’t know about KK3, doesn’t know about Daniel’s own trauma. This isn’t an attack. Johnny sincerely just doesn’t know.

Enter Daniel, stage left. Daniel makes no attempt to talk to him- he simply makes demands and accusations, before he starts making active attempts to put him out of business.

Sure, we as the audience know Daniel has good reasons to not want Cobra Kai back. But Johnny doesn’t. All Johnny knows is that the kid he picked on in high school- who won, who got everything Johnny wanted, who grew up to be successful, has a wonderful wife, two kids who love him, a thriving business- is doing everything he can to make his life hell 30 years after the fact.

And this could only have happened because in 1986 John G. Avildsen decided to add in a scene meant for the original movie into the sequel, for absolutely no fucking reason.