#essay in the tags as always. oops

[redbean-nom]

Cadets

(aka trash children, chaos children, and children who understand 98 is getting graded on this)

Inspired by @thefoundationproject! Closeups under the cut:

jesse got this pic from jangotat:

[nyxofdemons]

this was going to be like a mile long essay but i just realized the most concise way to say it is that "it feels like a retcon that blitz has been so resentful and hostile towards fizz all this time since he was supposed to feel guilty" is simply not a good criticism when we have been shown, time and time again, that blitz's number one defense mechanism when he feels guilty or judged or attacked is to lash out, to deflect and ignore all his responsibility, and to shift the blame to someone else. that's like. his defining character flaw

[thewanderingmask]

obligatory scott and scar posting

[shannonsketches]

lays on the floor do you guys ever think about how in ResF Bulma falls for Vegeta's fake-out with Freeza and both she and Yamcha are worried about Vegeta's villain fake-out strategy in Champa and Beerus' mini tournament and how it's only been a couple of years since the Buu saga and how Vegeta straight up stopped using that strategy after that tournament

[rouge-fauna]

I think you’re talking about these posts [here & here], I don’t know if there have been others.

I'm not gonna say what I did was right, you are correct I should probably just not respond to asks getting me to talk about other people. I will say for these two posts those people had already blocked me I’m pretty sure, so it’s kinda hard to talk directly to them in that case. And I was not doing so anonymously and had not blocked them so I wasn’t hiding what I was saying. I did not follow them, I am not part of the innitor community, and not that that makes it right but I do think it is kinda different. Though you make a good point, perhaps we should stop this pattern of responding to asks about other blogs and such.

Still, the biggest thing to me I realized, back in elementary school when I first dealt with this, was that honestly all the time we talk about people behind their back. Talking about people when they aren’t always in the room is kinda just inevitable and part of socializing, however I think the important part is how you are talking about other people. It’s when you are insulting them, talking negatively about them to people they know, spreading false information and so on that it becomes not okay. Hopefully that makes sense.

In these cases I merely focused on the lore. I didn’t insult them or talk shit about them, as a person, as a blog or say their takes were stupid or they are stupid or speculate about their trauma or mental history. I just talked about reasons why I disagreed, or saw things differently and why we might see things differently. They were also not the only ones I saw to say similar things so I think in my mind I was making more of a general discussion, not trying to target them specifically. I didn’t post beyond that about them. But you are right, regardless it was probably not the right way to go about things.

But just to be clear, if I am a hypocrite it is not my intention. I haven’t vague blog anyone or meant to vague reblog anyone. I think this week is pretty much the first time I’ve ever been not naming, passive aggressively talking about blogs, and even then I’m not trying to insult them, trying to cancel them. I’m just expressing that before you go off about how I’m stupid and unable to have a discussion about it, the very least you could’ve done was give me an opportunity to try.

[riftwalker-limbro]

well apparently angst is in the air today and it bit me too so

i've always examined vince vs jay from his own perspective but what do pule and verica even think.

edit post-writing this: oh this is a hot pile of half-formatted brain vomit. click the read more at your own risk. my goal was to get my thoughts straight, and i did, and now this is a mess and i'm not fucking fixing it

pule did his grieving while he was still human, i think. he never did expect to see jay again, but once he remembers the worst period of his fucking life while sitting next to the two (well, 1.9) people who notable weren't there for it, it's... well, a shock is putting it lightly, i imagine. they know his name, they have the right vibes that, despite the fact he'd never felt them as human like he could now as a warframe with transference, just fit - mostly. not all of it is correct, but enough is, and the second he manages to ask if it's jay, he gets swiftly but gently corrected, that, well, yes, but also it's vince now.

once he finds out Why it's vince now, pule struggles hard with being confronted with the walking, breathing truth of accidentally getting his best friend actually killed for a while still. part of the grieving process gets reset entirely, and as friend fashion show has pointed out so excellently, it does do pule a lot of good to hang out a lot with others (bruiser, notably) that he doesn't have a painful shared past with. the threads he dropped with jay are easy to pick back up with vince, though: sharing old jokes and making new ones referencing stuff only they know, ways of thinking that are still almost identical after years of close friendship, etc. they grew together for a significant formative period of their lives, and that still affects just how suited to be each other's friend they are.

verica has a more complex headspace around this. she actively searched for him, knowing that he hadn't died but instead had become a warframe, even though he stopped pinging on the orokin radars even before she got apprehended and warframe'd herself. there's such a huge chance that he's dead, but dammit, if anyone can do the impossible, it should be the mathematician who'd managed to put a pencil into a pocket dimension between solid reality & the poisonous void. and she's... partially right.

when she wakes up on kelth's orbiter, she's going to think the idiot before her is jay. he'd done it, he'd managed to come back from the dead, and found her scattered clues. and, well, we know it isn't really jay anymore. he doesn't even confess the whole thing, at first - he just says, well, i go by vince now. and she rolls with it completely because why wouldn't she. it's only when the cracks start to show, both in his behaviour and in one certain scene between the three of them that i'm sure i'll die two and a half times while writing before i'll get it just right, that she actually realises that Nope, Not Jay. Not Like That Anymore.

she struggles with even just accepting it in her head, at first - he's so much like jay, pinging Correct in so many little ways, but he's Not, calling him by that name hurts him, and thinking of him as jay is wrong for the person vince is now. she goes through the period of grief she hadn't allowed herself even before everything.

and now, all three of them are in the same space, grieving the shit that happened to them, that one of them had to die, but at least they now have each other again. for reasons mentioned before, bonds with vince are built up extremely fast, and they quickly get to the same level of friendship they were at with jay. they go beyond, even - vince needs them more than jay did, even if he might not want to phrase it like that to not force them into anything, but they respond to it in kind. one of the consequences of the way warframes are fundamentally changed, made more rigid and less flexible, from humans in my lore makes it so that they will seek out familiarity at ridiculous costs. removing the memories from fresh frames was a fix for that by the orokin, but you can't just make something Rigid/Inflexible, apply a Change, and expect it to not eventually pop back into its original shape like memory foam.

pule & verica is also an interesting initial dynamic, i think. pule feels guilty for, well, everything - he's still under the impression that he'd gotten ghosted for life, and the fact that the warframe he'd been glaring at from the corner of his eyes, the one that had looked way too much like the recently-vanished artist octavia to be anything like a respectful tribute, had actually been her all along and he hadn't even bothered to look into it- he does struggle with it. of her own part, verica's shocked to see him at all, didn't realise that he'd whole ass up and volunteer for the program if she also disappeared, didn't realise that sitting down and letting herself grieve with him had also been an option. i imagine she does also initially carry some guilt over this, though she gets over hers significantly faster than pule does, both because it's just Less Significant Levels of Guilt & because she's just way more prone to Alright Oops Let's Move On than he is (hi. musician who's been in public about it here. making mistakes & moving on like nothing happened is a Necessary & Learned Skill. show must go on & all that)

i think pule would initially expect her to be hostile towards him, after he gets over the shock of "holy shit you're a warframe too? holy shit you're That Warframe? i was never ghosted on purpose??". but 1. even if she did have the right to get hostile, which she knows she doesn't, it wouldn't do anything, and 2. buddy friend we're still here after everything why would i be mad about getting this second chance at life. i've already lost my other friends and family and everything from that life, just let me hang on to you and this other idiot with all the strength left in me.

anyway, that's how the three of them become inseparable on an almost-physical level. a true triad. they get a shared bedroom and sleep together in a pile and everything. you'll find out

[un-pearable]

hm. hey uh. in the incredibly rare chance you have notifs on for me. i am SO sorry

[direwombat]

high and very much in an "emo about my oc" mood ;w;

[todayisafridaynight]

WHAT DO YOU MEAAANNN "MID" THAT COMIC GOES SO HARD AND NOT FOR ANYTHING... THAT WAS MY FIRST THOUGHT VERBATIM... THIS GOES HARD. Incredibly effective composition and symbolism and use of values and shadow on the first page ESPECIALLY (I would love to hear what the third eye symbolizes as mentioned in your tags :) ) but. But. But like. Masato being Arakawa's comfort and not recognizing it and certainly not remembering it when he's older... despite how much it means to Arakawa in the moment... owwww owwie

I was gonna ramble about how much it hits home to depict Yoko as non-human because the nightmares that have stuck with the most about my mom were like that But Enough Of That We Get It... at any rate, as always, take care and I hope you get some good news soon!

thank you so much ♪(´▽｀) !! it generally felt like somethin i dont really post (but horror/blood is something i really love and love to draw), so its why i was especially excited to share it and see what people thought: im glad people like it from what i see (❁´◡`❁) ! and im glad the lack of color wasn't anything detrimental- it might have worked better in this instance. maybe.

i dont ever 'title' things per say since i feel weird doin it BUT i guess captions serve as the title sometimes. so the caption 'matrophobia' is really ironic with that whole aspect in relation to masato being arakawa's Everything: on the one hand, it can just be a general fear of your mother, but on the other hand it could also be the fear of becoming like your mother. if i ever intended to go through with a jo variant, 'patrophobia' would for sure be the title with that ambiguity in mind, but (and i suppose in both instances) with this its more ironic here since masato is the one who ends up the most like his parents' abusers- which ultimately just makes things more bittersweet in that moment dont it (´▽｀ ;;;) on top of masato being arakawa's comfort, it's not just masato himself being the only reason: tying back into the alt. meaning of matrophobia, it's also a relief for arakawa in that he didn't turn out like his mother- which, again, makes everything so bittersweet in the end. its like spiders in my brain when it comes to that whole aspect in regards to the arakawa family's history and dynamics...... it makes me insane to be blunt ☠️

ah but yeah ! i decided to make her an actual perceivable monster so people who. DON'T. have issues with either of their parents could get a better feeling of what it is like to have a troublesome parent/s (id rather see wolves in my dreams than my mom on that note- even if they were going to bite my face off ( ´◡` ;;; ) ). i ran out of tags before i could make any more notes i had while drawing （；´x｀） but i do have more and i'll be glad to explain the missing eye bit ! under the cut since it'll just be me rambling bout symbolism ig and its gonna get long (´▽｀;;; )

when it came to the third/center eye being missing specifically, i did it in relation to how the third eye can relate to enlightenment or higher knowledge. definitely just as a result of projection, but its cause all the time when i was growing up my mom would not only assert and act as if Her Way Was The Right Way and that she knew everything, but that i should only go to her if i needed help and no one else could help me- hence it being missing being a reflection of how that notion isn't true (or always true i should say). as en extension, it's also a dig at how enlightened persons are supposed to help others reach enlightenment- yk, guide them. yet, again, in this case, they're only doing harm.

that's all for the third eye bit, but also just some other things i didnt have room to ramble bout last post: i had her lips be torn away to constantly show her fangs since. well. i dont have to explain it i guess: its just meant to highlight the never ending feeling of danger when around her (and the promise of danger). her nose being gone is purposeful too: in animals, the smell of your family's significant and it helps you find out Which One Is Yours right. in her nose being gone- again, more projection and personal problems on my part- it's a way to emphasize the separation between mother and child: 'you're no longer my kid anymore, i can't even recognize your scent'. of course, that's only to the mother: she is the only one no longer able to say they're family because she can't smell that shared scent anymore. in reality, they could very much smell the same, it's just the mother's unwilling to accept that anymore.

i know i mentioned the flowers in my initial post, but her wearing a flower shirt really was convenient since it allowed me to add those thorns and vines. when you have a troublesome parent like that, the feeling of not just being trapped is there, but it's painful- it's not something you can deal with quietly. even if you're not interacting with the parent directly, the thought of their presence or the unfortunate thoughts that come about as a result of having been around them so long are a constant thorn in the side. if i may make a pun ( ´uゝ` )

alright NOW i think i've covered everything i wanted to. without all the symbolism aside, i hope she at least looks grotesque for people to enjoy without the added thought- and i hope i didn't overdue it. in any case im glad you enjoyed it !! i hope you'll enjoy the next comic i get out (❁´◡`❁) if i ever start it and i dont abandon it midway through ( ❁´◡`❁ ;;;)

[onlyplatonicirl]

i like how your fanfic shows how horrible of a parent ink would realistically be

I’m glad :)

That’s something I try to go kind of in depth on in this fanfiction, which is taking a lot of the more “non canon” aspects of character interpretations (Ink being a parent, Error/Ink as a relationship, Fresh and PJ having a friendship, yadda yadda) and I kinda turn them on their head a bit and subvert expectations and try to see how those tropes would realistically work with the characters while keeping them actually IN CHARACTER.

Error/Ink in the tags? Oops jumpscare it’s not really an errink fic cuz they “break-up” (to put it lightly) in chapter 4 and basically hate each other for the rest of the 200,000 words. It’s not a shipping story it’s a tragedy looking into an aroace trying to better understand how other people work for his own slightly selfish motives and a man who is so desperate for company and attention after being alone for DECADES that he becomes nearly dependent on the emotional validation of the one person that actually seems to remotely give a shit about him.

And also realistically, the multiverse would not approve of them even being friends in any capacity. It’s always slightly pissed me off when I’ve read fanfic and Ink’s like “guys me and error are friends/dating/whatever” and everyone else is like “ok.” Wdym you aren’t gonna start WWIII. It’s an inevitable (har har) failure doomed from the start.

(Something I also enjoy a out this story is that with minor tweaking you can read the whole thing as them just being close friends - the “romance” is not a crucial part, but it does help emphasize character development with what I’m trying to write.)

So along the lines of trying to keep the characters realistic, yes ink would be a shit parent. Not on purpose and not because he doesn’t care, but because he just as a person with his horrid memory and low emotional tolerance/processing would just not be good for raising kids. Plus, he’s always traveling for his “job”, rarely would he actually stay at home for longer than a day. He treats his house like a fun sims project, free plot of land to build a crazy house for fun. He didn’t design it for much more than that, he’s not living in it full time after all.

Plus that fucked up both his kids. PJ’s become callous and wary around anyone he doesn’t know that well mostly due to having to figure things out and deal with things on their own. (Council. He doesn’t like them.) He’s nearly had to raise himself age 8 onward since Ink wasn’t much help. He just wanders the multiverse by himself. Unlike gray, who’s a total shut-in nervous wreck who barely leaves his room u less dragged by the ankle. PJ’s basically had to raise Gray as well. Neither of them have ever met Error (aside from PJ’s “birth” and a brief run-in on another occasion in which no words were spoken and that lasted maybe thirty seconds before Error ran away in terror).

I cant Write so many essays on these guys do not try me HAHAHA

Tldr I’m mentally ill about character development and emotional depth exploration

[crazylittlejester]

I feel like I'm just always yelling at you in the tags now lol oops

anyways Hi Hello How are you doing today?? have you seen the sun yet today, Jes? it's so nice outside where I am today I'm sitting here and I think I might just have to live here now

- hero-of-the-wolf

ALSKDKDK it’s fine and it’s fair, i definitely deserve it

I’m doin’ alright today! I really miss my friend and I just kinda stare at walls a lot more than I used to but hey, at least I no longer have school (the mental damage that writing 16 essays in 48 hours and a 14 page paper in 30 hours did to me might be permanent i fear. it’s been weeks and i still haven’t physically or mentally recovered LMAO!!!)

THE SUN WAS SO GOOD TODAY, it was hot as fuck here so i didn’t stay outside for long but I did go for a little walk for the enrichment :3

I hope you’re doin’ good today as well!!

[thief-of-eggs]

I missed the actual date (oops) but it has officially been a year since I started writing!!! (Long post ahead, bear with me)

I have always been an avid reader, and consequently, an avid fanfic consumer. I fall deep into each fandom I enter, and my beloved comfort characters have gotten me through the toughest of times.

That being said- I had not written creatively before starting to write fanfic last year. I’d written essays for school, and that was where my writing experience ended. Back in middle school I had to write a few short stories as homework, and I’d never attempted to write anything more.

Last year I decided I wanted to start contributing to fandoms, instead of just consuming. I’ve always held headcannons and mini scenes in my mind, my fuel to get me through boring days and to help put me to sleep at night, but I’d never shared any. I was scared. Intimidated. Worried that I wouldn’t be good enough, worried that I wouldn’t be able to enunciate exactly what I was envisioning.

Eventually I decided fuck it- if I sucked then I sucked, but hopefully I could make one or two people smile with my works. (At the very least, I’d make myself smile)

I did not expect to find the amount of support that I have from you all. I also did not expect to find something I am so passionate about- that being writing and sharing my silly little stories with you all.

One year later and I’ve amassed 322k published words on AO3. I’ve posted 67 works, have written for dozens of pairings and relationships. I’ve used the tag “emotional hurt/comfort” more times than I’d expected (how many times can I break and mend my own heart with a fic?)

I didn’t know how what I was doing when I started. I didn’t know any writing tips, or how best to outline a story, etc. I still don’t know what I’m doing, but I can certainly say I’ve gotten better over this year. I’ve learned through practice alone- hours and hours and hours of it. And maybe I’m doing something right- because a year later, and I’ve collected 379 personal subs to my AO3 account. 379 people who get an email each time I upload a new work (which is the most frightening thing I’ve ever experienced, the most daunting thing in the world, but god do I appreciate every single one of you-)

I know that celebrating a year of writing is rather silly. But I wanted to thank each and every one of you who has read my works, who has commented and left kudos. If I made any of you smile then my initial goal has been reached- and that’s all I could ever hope for.

I guess I’m also posting this to say- if you want to write, please write. Please share your silly headcannons with the world. Please write the stories that you want to see. Change the endings to your favorite books, make your ship set sail, write that missing scene that you’ve always imagined.

It doesn’t matter if you’re good. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never written before. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a laptop or a properly set up space to write (I do it all in the notes app of my phone, from the convenience of my bed!)

Nothing else matters as long as you have a story to share- and I promise there are people out there waiting to hear it <3

[spicyicymeloncat]

Can you do Nya for the doodle/ramble? :o

Nya!!

DISCLAIMER: sorry sorry sorry this is so dang late, I have been sitting on this essay for like 2 months and I feel really bad about it. I just had so many passionate thoughts about Nya until school and work and assignments meant I lost flow and I probably won’t finish it. Tbf I did write lots so Oop lol. I’m just gonna post it unfinished like this so take away what you will :)

Awww hell yeah! So in the last post of this series, I said that Cole is probably the best written character, but i think Nya is the most interesting, and Cole’s only higher because sometimes Nya falls into kinda sexist cliches sometimes. But for the most point Nya is such an inspiring character who goes through so much strife. Honestly I think that her writing is actually a really good commentary on modern day misogyny, which is unexpected since this is just a Lego show marketed to mainly boys, and even if it wasn’t, Nya’s arc hits so much harder than you’d expect. But either way, regardless of the societal analysis, Nya is generally a really strong character who gets a lot of development simply bc was more of a side character who basically fought her way into the plot.

So the main themes of Nya is her struggle with destiny, whether she has free will or choices or if she just has to do what other expect her to. Like so many of her arcs are her struggling against what other people have told her to be or what she tells her self she has to be.

First of all, her time as samurai x and how she initially kept it a secret. In s1, in like, the first episode, we see Nya training on the training course trying to beat Kai’s score, wishing she had a dragon, and generally trying to tag along with the guys despite not being included in their team. Maybe you could argue she always wanted to be a ninja, to prove that she could do that too. However it never really caught on (until much later), and she ended up abandoning that idea in favour of becoming something else; samurai x.

I’ve always thought it was weird that she kept samurai x a secret when there wasn’t really any consequence to it when everyone found out. I think that maybe she felt a little bitter about not being included with the ninja so she decided not to share in what she got up to. Also I bet she just kept it up because the guys’ annoyance at not knowing who she was, would’ve been actually hilarious. But also she may have kept it a secret because no one could tell her how to be if no one knew it was her. Samurai X was her way of having freedom and independency, and her way of proving that she was useful, most importantly, in her own way on her own. She wanted the power to make her own choice and in order to do so, she didn’t even risk letting other people in the know in case they took it from her.

Short mention of s2 but the scene where we see Nya get corrupted is actually so horrific and invasive but it completely fits Nya’s narrative of getting her choices taken away as she’s corrupted by the dark matter. Ooh, quick s2 rewrite concept but the dark matter doesn’t immediately make you evil, but it only builds upon already dark feelings present, and in Nya’s case its her struggle with being alone, presently the fact that she was captured and overall how she gets singled out for not being a ninja or how she has to work harder to be seen alongside everyone else. With both her and Kai, they both seem to equate their worth and right to be in the family with how much they can contribute, and Nya especially puts a lot of pressure on herself, to be just as good or even better than the other ninja.

Now s3. S3… is a mixed bag. Bc it’s notorious for having a god awful love triangle that arose out of nothing but then if you think hard about it, everything after the set up kinda makes sense. Jay and Nya have kinda a strained relationship, where if we view s1 and s2 skeptically, their feelings aren’t really justified further than “jay likes girls and Nya is girl” and “Nya happens to like the colour blue”. It feels very forced hetero 2011 writing because it kinda was, but at least s3 is consistent. If you’re generous and are invested in making the most of a Lego show’s writing, then you’ll be happy to know that all of that accidentally works really well. Because we can assume that jay and Nya were quite young and it’s very common for kids/teens to just get into relationships in only name, for the pure reasoning of “we are guy and girl who hang out sometimes” Nya and jay being in a loveless, one sided relationship where neither are on the same page is pretty realistic actually, and the show tells us that Nya isn’t as invested as jay is and how there seems to be a fundamental imbalance of affection between them. Whilst I hate that Nya changes her whole mind as soon as the computer tells her to, it kinda works in that its consistent with Nya’s incredibly surface level reasoning for attraction. Her mind set is basically: if she was told a guy liked her, then she’s supposed to like them back right? That’s just what you do! Compulsive romance is so real and it’s how I personally see Nya in s3. Also it links in either s3’s theme of relying too much on technology, with Nya being swayed because of it.

Now the actual love triangle links back in with Nya and choice. She’s forced to pick between Jay and Cole but even if she does pick one, she’ll let the other down, or they might not accept it. It looks like she has a choice but there are no good options. And when she feels like she’s fighting against the grain, just like when she gave up from being a ninja, she too retreats from the conflict, avoiding giving an answer that she knows wouldn’t be accepted. She just lets them duke it out until they’ve forgotten about her and any relationship she had or could’ve wanted. By not picking a side, both sides left her after s3 and she just accepts it.

…or maybe I’m looking into to it too much as a way of coping with awful love triangles.

Quick note about s4, bc Nya kinda just kicks ass that season and I honestly don’t have too much to say. She’s just very cool. I will say that’s it’s interesting that she stayed home with wu Lloyd etc when the rest of the team dispersed. You could say she again was left behind. She stayed rebuilding the bounty, which may have been in tribute to zane considering he found the bounty. You could say zane brought the family together and found them a home, so when he died, Nya tried to fix it by remaking their home. Im gonna make a separate post about this actually.

Okay s5 is where we really get going and tbh, this season should’ve been more officially Nya. Because she’s actually becoming a ninja. I think with Nya interpretations, people usually see Nya being a ninja as a bad thing, something that was again forced upon her, which is true. I’ll talk about this again when we get to crystalized. But idk if this is a hot take but I think ninja Nya is a good thing, if you interpret samurai x as being a last resort because she didn’t become a ninja. It’s her learning to not give up, to keep at it, which is how she unlocks her true potential. That she’s just as valuable, in fact, uniquely valuable on the team. Idk I think it’s nice if you look at samurai x being her giving up on trying to be a part of the ninja. Her arc of needing to be perfect at what she does, without allowing herself to be messy or vulnerable or confront what makes her weak because she always thought that if she was a ninja, she’d be the weak link, and confronting why she hadn’t become a ninja makes her vulnerable. And her facing that fear and realising she’s more than she gives herself credit for is so so so good. Nya actually has such a low self esteem and tbh you can’t blame her when it looks like she has to fight tooth and claw to be as good as everyone else, but I’d bet on her being the strongest ninja, in some ways stronger than the green ninja. It’s very fitting that she wears the green gi in s5’s finale, because when the ghosts realise she isn’t the green ninja, they’re actually more terrified. Because she is something more feared than the green ninja. The water ninja. One of the only elements that the fsm couldn’t control. She single handedly drowned the preeminent (and destroyed an 1/8 of the universe but shhh).

And then we get to s6, which is only really good because Nya. Because even when she figures out she’s super op, society hasn’t. We get the whole news stuff in the first episode where the ninja deal with their acquired fame (nice acknowledgment of the rest of the world tbh), and we’re highlighted of how, whilst Nya took down a literal eldritch monster in the last season, she’s still only known for the love triangle, and it feels a little meta because I bet that’s what a lot of fans knew her for too (and I say this because unfortunately 13 ye old me was that, but I’ve rewatched since). We see Nya having to face everyone else’s expectations of her and the media doesn’t see her as anything but the girl ninja and she’s just told to accept that. And even when she’s trying to go against the grain, the fact that she’s only doing it to prove or disprove someone else still means she’s technically still controlled by something else. This is how I interpret the (admittedly mess of) the romance plot. Nya has and does love Jay, but she’s scared of that being all there is to her, that doing what the media expects her to means giving in to it, and losing her sense of independence. She basically can’t do what she wants because she’s holding herself to standard in response to other standards placed on her. It’s like a form of toxic masculinity but for feminism, where women feel like they have to be tough and never vulnerable because they’re trying to fight against being defined by those traits of vulnerability. Nya and Dogshank in particular, have a very specific relationship, they’re on opposite sides but play exactly the same roles, women who fought against the grain and did what was not traditionally expected of them, but in they’re fight to do so they ended up sacrificing their own freedoms anyways (Nya stops herself from getting close to the others in her need to be independent, Dogshank traded her life to be Nadakhan’s pirate just so she could win at something once). And say what you will about s6 but Nya’s death scene will always be the saddest thing, because we truly see Nya just give up her life. She’s so resigned to her fate, finally giving up on changing it and tells Jay that she never wanted to be apart of their boys club anyways. The reference of the “boys’ club” comes up 3 other times in the show: when Nya reasons why she became samurai x - she felt excluded in the group, when Nya is corrupted with dark matter and the guys fight her - Kai quipping that the “club” just became boys only and when the love matcher machine in s3 describes Nya as an independent self confident young woman who refuses to be part of a boy’s club. The evolution of the use of the quote, going from the reason Nya felt excluded, to Nya being defined by it and lastly as an acceptance of her own death, sums up what I mean, Nya internalising that “othering” and just growing to accept it. Nya then says that she guesses it’s true, the greatest love stories end in tragedy, which I think shows how she’s been told and sold so many expectations of how she wouldn’t end up happy, and it further shows how she’s given up. And the resolution of the plot isn’t perfect but I actually do like how Jay essentially bent time and space to show her that it doesn’t have to be true. Metaphorically, Jay erasing the timeline feels like he’s erasing the proposed bad end Nya’s predicted of herself. S6 is definitely flawed but I do like the theme of inevitability and the defiance of that with Nya in particular.

~~~

Yeah sorry friends that’s where I stopped. But I’ll paste my little planning stage so you guys know what I would’ve started writing about?? Anyways Nya good!!

Intro- hell yeahhh - good writing altjough ppl don’t think so

- boys club - choices

- Samurai x inventing her own identity but in retaliation

- Water ninja - child of destiny

- S6 choosing her own fate - crystalise

- S11 powers significant + seabound

- Crystalised

- Tidbits such a cool narrative but like s567 could’ve been even cooler

Conc honestly I get emotional bc she’s actually so cool man

[acey-lacey]

2024 Mid Year Book Freakout Tag

What was the best book you’ve read so far this year?

LITTLE WOMEN and I will never shut up about it, that book is an all time favorite now and I wish I was still reading it tbh I could talk about it forever

What was the most disappointing book you’ve read so far this year?

I haven’t had anything tooo disappointing yet this year, I think I know my taste pretty well but I was a bit disappointed by A Cruel and Fated Light by Ashley Shuttleworth. It was just soooo slow compared to the first one (and third one) and felt like it was just setting up the next book. But the book after it was a 4.5 read so I’m still loving the series despite that little dent in the road!!

What’s the best book recommendation you received this year?

My friend encouraged me to read the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and it changed my brain chemistry that book is incredible and I could write essays about it

What was your first DNF of the year?

I actually DNFed The Mists of Avalon earlier this year which was so sad. I read like the first hundred pages and for some reason it wasn’t the vibe I was expecting so it threw me off and I couldn’t really enjoy it. I’m gonna try and pick it up again eventually tho!

What’s a new release of the year that you read and your thoughts?

To my knowledge I haven’t read anything that was released this year yet oops

A book that came out in the first half of the year and a book coming out later that your anticipating

I haven’t read any new releases yet, but I’m very excited for the new Percy Jackson book coming out later this year!

What’s the most beautiful book you’ve added to your collection or a beautiful book you’d like to own?

I got the British hardback version of Lessons in Chemistry and my heart is fulfilled this cover fits the vibe so much better than the American version 🥹

What genre have you read most this year?

Fantasy forrrr sure live laugh love fantasy

Do you feel like your tastes have changed or shifted at all this year? (New genre new trope or new theme?)

I wouldn’t say my taste has changed, more like I’m rediscovering the genres and themes I always loved as a kid and I still love them now that I’m getting back into reading. I just read the Priory of the Orange Tree and it’s launching my back into my high fantasy kick

How are your book goals going?

My goal this year is to read 22 books and I’ve read 11 already so I’m pretty proud!

A book that you feel embodies the vibe your your reading year

Legendborn and Bloodmarked I would say are the vibes I’ve been getting into this year, I’m so glad I read them but I also can’t believe how long I have to wait for the next one. It has a great balance of fantasy and contemporary which have been my main genres this year, and I just LIVED FOR the plot and Bree has my heart

I’ve seen this all over recently and thought it’d be fun to participate, I got the questions from Jesse the Reader on YouTube haha

Anyone can and should also participate!

[odetojupiter]

this is absolutely random but I got caught up on your tag saying "I'm way too good at reading things that maybe aren't there" and listen. I don't know what you study (I remember you mentioning you take creative writing classes so??? sorry if you literally know this just trying to encourage you) but I study literature and in literary theory there's a lot of discussions about whether what the author wanted/meant/intended actually matters in interpretation and understanding literary works and well, a lot of theorists actually agree it doesn't so if you say it's there it's probably there, no matter if intentionally by the author, so ig please keep going off unapologetically we love to hear it

(also just in general, your analysis of the number three pretty much resonates a lot with Jacques Derrida's formal idea of deconstruction (basically tearing texts apart to the minute detail, and collecting and inter-connecting these details/words with associations of the reader to form a structure of meaning and it's all very abstract (a pain to learn during studies but cool to see in action!) so I just had to think about that)) yeah that's it have a great day

ahhh this is my first ever ask so thank u anon <333

and yeah, i did a joint honours english and creative writing degree (graduating in three weeks :/) and there were literary theory modules each year that were compulsory for single honours english students BUT because i was also in creative writing, i couldn’t actually take them bc they ran at the same time as my cw classes soooo all this to say that even tho i did study literature i wasn’t really able to study that much literary theory - tho of course theory is relevant in all lit modules but i didn’t take a class specifically for that. (i wanted to, cause i love that shit, but i wasn’t allowed) ((annoyingly in first year there was a module that covered not only advanced lit theory but also academic writing that i wasn’t able to take so i never learned how to write university essays? like that’s not inconvenient at all))

that being said, i’m of course familiar with the concept of intention vs interpretation mainly through barthes’ death of the author theory (and it comes up a lot in cw classes because in workshops people share every thought they have about your work and ur not allowed to defend urself!! cause ur intention doesn’t matter if someone interprets what you wrote a certain way!!!) and the thing is i get it, i do - and i love to analyse whatever i can, i tear things to shreds with no mind for intent - but i also know people outside of literary studies love to say shit just isn’t that deep.

im always watching and rewatching shows with one or two of my sisters and one of them especially makes fun of me a lot for analysing everything from the dialogue to delivery to lighting and staging and camera work because she thinks i get way too into it. she either stares at me blankly or tells me to shut up (which happens a lot it’s very annoying let me talk ffs) so i guess i mainly added that in the tags to ensure everyone knows that i know that i analyse a lot so hopefully no one feels the need to tell me?? i don’t know, i just get slightly self conscious about analysing things when i know i could be saying something slightly unhinged lmao.

but, i will of course, keep going off on here about aftg bc that’s what im here for lol (i got sad about not being able to share my thoughts anywhere)

oops forgot to say THANK YOU for reassuring me about my jean number 3 analysis i’m always thinking someone’s gonna say wtf r u on about mate 😭😭

[mach-speed-spin]

Ok @meowstix I know I'm probably not who this was meant for, but I'll do it. Also it's not an essay but but ramblings that I divided into sections. None of these are really worthy of an analysis post on their own so I took the opportunity to put them all here together

Also, I misread the tag and thought it said 3000 word essay. I was approaching 2k words when I saw that. Oops

Kai wanted to destroy his opponent

Kai, at first, wishes to utterly destroy opponents. A character like Reiji embodies this to the extreme, feeling physical pain if his opponent doesn't suffer. Kai's sadism doesn't come from a deep desire to witness others suffering, but rather from a need to feel stronger than his opponents. This peaks with Black Dranzer, which appeals very specifically to Kai's hatred of losses. In this sense, he's closer to Red Eye, who sides with the villain because he can't stand feeling powerless. Unlike certain characters with a "win at all costs" mentality (Barthez), Kai never even considers cheating. This is another similarity to Red Eye, who criticized Violet Eye for battling Wakiya in an unfair battlefield

This distinction between "destroy the opponent to show power" vs "destroy the opponent to make them suffer" is never really brought up in canon, but it clearly exists on a more meta level when looking at antagonists who fall into either category. The first includes Kai, Kyoya, Ryuga, Red Eye, Lui, and Rashad. What do they all have in common? They had times when they weren't villains. As for the second group, it includes Volkov (indirectly), Reiji, and Phi. Villains who fall under the second category don't tend to get redeemed in Beyblade

Kai's relationship with Tyson is the same as his relationship with beyblade itself

As Kai's relationship with Tyson progresses, so does Kai's view on blading. Tyson, especially in season 1, is defined by his outlook on the sport. For him, it's about fun more than anything (in stark contrast to both the Majestics and the Demolition Boys). Their battle in G-Rev was one that Kai thoroughly enjoyed, and is probably the biggest reason people ship these characters (because Kai acts coldly to most people, shippers don't have many choices). The obvious parallel here is Gingka's battle with Kyoya in the World Championship, where their love for the battle and desire to beat the other (without being a hero-villain situation) caused both of them to endanger themselves, get injured, and almost destroy their beys to continue the fight. Kai had no desire to destroy Tyson, he just wanted a good fight

At first, Kai considers Tyson to be naïve and immature due to his views on blading. When he agrees with Tyson's views, he changes his mind about Tyson. But other characters also battle for fun and he doesn't respect them (like Daichi). Why does he respect Tyson so much specifically? Because Tyson was the one to change his mind. Kai has a high opinion of himself, but recognizes when he's outclassed. Thus, if Kai is strong and Tyson is stronger, that means Tyson is very strong (aka being able to lift a heavy object is only as impressive as the object's weight)

Lack of villain loyalty

The number of times in Beyblade when a villain is betrayed by an underling is pretty high. Volkov, Zagart, Barthez, Doji, Ziggurat, Pluto, the Garcias, Ashtem, and Hyde all had underlings turn on them at one point (or more for Volkov and Doji). But what sets Kai's betrayal of Volkov apart?

Volkov was a piece of shit and everyone hated him. Volkov simply ruled with fear. This is similar to Barthez, Doji, and Ziggurat (with Zeo). Kai betrayed Volkov because, in short, he mustered up the courage to do what he always wanted. Kai is closest to the Barthez Battalion in his betrayal. The battle at the lake made Kai realize that a blader's strength comes from more than just the bey, and that gave him the confidence to stand up to Volkov

Kai was, for the most part before the Russia arc, on the protagonists' side. He had his own agenda, but his goals aligned with everyone else's enough that it was in his interest to team up. And he was only with Volkov for a few episodes before joining the heroes again. By making it so Kai never truly agreed with Volkov, it makes his return easier to digest. Had Kai acted more like Ryuga in Fusion, it would've taken far more time for the audience to accept his redemption. They basically half assed a villain on purpose because if they full assed it he might've been too much of a villain, and his "redemption arc" would risk coming off as underwhelming/ not enough (this isn't a post about Red Eye, but I should make one some time)

"Even if I win all my battles, if my teammates lose I'm eliminated"

This is a paraphrased quote from Kyoya in Metal Masters. It applies to Kai. Kai knows that in a best of 3, him winning his match might not make a difference. This is the primary reason, at first, why he wants his team to grow stronger. But in season 1, what started as a selfish reason evolved into a genuine connection. I guess Kai just got Stockholm Syndrome with the Bladebreakers

Oddly enough, this mentality fosters team spirit. It's counterintuitive, probably because it's often said by those who don't have faith in their team, but this mentality discourages having a single blader carry the whole team. We saw what happened with BC Sol in God due to relying too much on Free alone