#feels like both emphasize the themes and motivate the characters

[goldenharmony]

I always try hard to like the “rival love interest” of a love triangle even if I don’t ship them with the MC, so that for rival love interests that I absolutely hate, people’s argument falls flatter of me hating them only for “shipping reasons” and not because I think their existence/romantic interest is utterly pointless 😭Cause then, you can’t accuse me of hating them just cause they get in the way of my ship because the list of hateable rival love interests is very small yet they still somehow made it on there so congrats to them for being insufferable

[hoyotournament]

Quarterfinals: Bronya Zaychik vs Collei

(Propaganda under the cut)

Bronya Zaychik:

revamping this bc i feel like it could be better: i love her so so bad <3. canonically disabled lesbian who has trouble with feeling intense emotions BUT HER ENTIRE CHARACTER REVOLVES AROUND LOVE!! whether it be from her romantic love of seele in the early game/manhua (it being the primary motivation for her to take care of herself and a partial reflection of her initial goal of saving seele from the quantam space no matter what); familial love surrounding her (her inheritance of the legacy of reason from welt yang who lost his own father, her guardians love for her being the only reason shes survived for so long even after their death <- many examples of that but the most obvious one being alexandra trading her own life for bronya via misteln, cocolia's relationship with bronya being emphasized as complex in part because of the real love they do feel for each other alongside all the other resentment from cocolia's betrayal of her), literally just. the core of reason and its 300,000 minds being representative of welt joyce's decision to fight for humanity because he loved humanity from that. and all of this from (again!!!) a canonically disabled lesbian! who's character and marginalized identities have been dehumanized over and over again in real life and in the plot! this isn't even mentioning how her entire arc exemplifies honkai's theme of agency!! which makes me sob my eyes out bc bronya hasn't really been allowed agency since she came to cocolia's orphanage!! she was a child mercenary who's lost her home and guardians over and over and over again and forced to care for herself when she was young. her first true point of domestic stability was in cocolia's orphanage (which even then wasn't perfect!! cocolia, for how much she loved her children, still asked them to participate in dangerous experiments!) and when that was threatened because of her loss of seele and her trust in cocolia, she chose to leave. her agency is also exemplified with cocolia literally taking over her body in the early chapters of the game and ofc the parallels w wendy. AND DO YOU SEE HOW THIS CONNECTS TO WELT JOYCE, HUMANITY'S ADAM, WHO CHOSE TO FIGHT FOR HUMANITY AND EMBRACE HIMSELF AS A HUMAN INSPITE OF HIS ORIGIN AS THE CURRENT ERA'S FIRST HERRSCHER AND HOW THAT ALSO EXTENDS BACK TO ELYSIA'S SACRIFICE? she's so important to me everyone watch cyberangel rn.

Collei:

MY DEADALIVEGIRL!!!!!!!!!! i genuinely don't even know where to start. collei is such a beautiful beautiful character who's entire story revolves around a girl who's been dehumanized and exploited for her entire life, healing through compassion and a recognition of her own humanity. first of all, when we meet collei in the genshin manhua, she is full of vitriolic anger and hate at both the world and herself. she's been dehumanized over and over and over again and because its a repetitive experience, she fully believes that her lack of worth is something innately true. this only changes when someone (amber) shows her unrelenting compassion and trust. amber goes against everything that collei believed about herself. amber tells her that she is not only capable of good, but she is good. amber reinforces this novel idea that collei deserves goodness. and that realization is the moment that collei begins recognizing her own humanity, and thus, recognizing her own potential to grow, heal, and be the good person that amber knows she is. every moment thus forth is a demonstration of her attempts to grow and be kind!!!! she decides to go through with cyno's sealing ritual even with its conditions! she asks lisa to help her write a letter at the end of the manhua! she mends amber's tattered clothes like she promised! she decides to go to sumeru, a land of wisdom! it's so pertinent to her character that she gains her vision (representative of her ambition) during a show of compassion (protecting a child during a dangerous storm)! it's even in her symbolism with the way she's constantly referred to as a sproutling. NOT EVEN MENTIONING HOW THE REBIRTH METAPHOR THATS APPLIED TO HER CHARACTER (re: sprout of rebirth, revived serval, cyno and anubis and their ritual) IS SO DEEPLY CONNECTED TO SUMERU (her being the first sumeru character we know of and having that rebirth metaphor hinted at in the manhua! that rebirth metaphor carrying over to the actual sumeru plot w nahida! the rebirth metaphor tying in with the snake and cat symbolism that she and the archon residue complete!!!!!!) she's just such a loaded character!! AND collei's one of the few genshin characters with canonical cptsd who has identifiable and realistically common triggers. most importantly, the game acknowledges that its there and in spite of that, shows her resilience in still trying and healing!!!! my disabled deadalive mummygirl i love her so bad.

[antianakin]

what are your opinions on the sequels? specifically how luke (and his new jedi order) is portrayed. but also like just the jedi stuff in general, the training and everyone becoming force ghosts and somehow palpatine

Oh gosh, it has been a MINUTE since I've even watched the Sequels. I'm planning on rewatching them sometime early next year for Reasons, but for both episodes 8 and 9, it'll be the first time I've seen them since I saw them in the theaters. I MIGHT have seen episode 7 after its theater release, but not often. I can definitely say I haven't watched a single one of them since 2019 lol.

All of that to say, I don't remember them super well. I liked episode 7, but didn't care AT ALL for TLJ and was ho hum on TROS. My overall opinion is that it's too bad these characters didn't have anyone writing for them who seemed to actually CARE about them at any point and that nobody bothered to create a fucking blueprint for the entire trilogy and then stick to it. Say what you will about the execution of the Prequels, but Lucas had a damn vision in mind and a clear end goal for the story and the characters and he STUCK TO IT. You can go back to those films and rewatch them and find that story and see the arc he was trying to take the characters on. You may not LIKE what he chose to do or feel like it worked very well, but it's clearly THERE. The same cannot be said for the Sequels. The characters change personalities in basically every film, the primary motivations and intended end goals for them are never consistent, the relationships aren't built up well, and the theme and message of the Sequels is so muddied with all of these changes that they may as well not exist.

All of that is very broad, though, and doesn't touch much on your specific question about the Jedi and Luke and how they were portrayed in the Sequels. To be honest, I don't remember it very well, and when I saw these films, I was a pretty casual Star Wars fan who was still what I would now consider Jedi critical. I didn't hate them by any means, but I had absorbed the fandom osmosis of the Jedi having been too repressive/old-fashioned and how they caused their own doom. So I haven't watched them from a more pro Jedi lens yet in order to comment on it with any level of authority.

What I DO remember feeling was that making Luke bitter was a bad choice. There's undoing a character a little in order to allow them to develop somewhere, and then there's complete and utter character assassination and TLJ's characterization of Luke falls closer to the latter for me. The biggest thing anyone remembers about Luke is that he chose not to kill Anakin in ROTJ. That's his big climactic triumph. He goes on an entire journey towards understanding Anakin and having to accept that Anakin was a person making evil choices so that he could believe in Anakin's ability to be BETTER. That's kind-of the core of Luke's WHOLE JOURNEY. So I don't really get the entire concept of Luke reacting so violently to "feeling some darkness" in his teenaged nephew. He's already sort-of worked through that particular flaw of his and overcome it, why is he suddenly reacting this way? What's the point of that? And why would Luke just completely lose himself to cynicism and bitterness in the aftermath of that kind of failure? What was the point of leaving a piece of map behind or whatever? None of it really seems to make any sense to me and you can just FEEL Rian Johnson sort-of tossing things in the trash as he wrote this so that he could do his own thing.

All of that being said, what I've seen other people comment on is that there's a lot of shit Luke says in TLJ that are pretty anti-Jedi, but that the whole point is that Luke is wrong. Luke is succumbing to despair and so he feels like he's defeated and there's no point to anything and he's WRONG. The movie does pretty strongly emphasize that he's WRONG to feel this way and act like this. So I think a lot of people take what Luke says in this film sort-of at face value without taking into account that context that you're not SUPPOSED to agree with him any more than Rey does. I'm interested to see how I feel about it when I do end up rewatching them in a few months, but it rings relatively true to what I can remember.

It doesn't seem wrong that Luke and Leia could end up being able to ghost, it doesn't make any sense that Han can ghost but we all know that that happened specifically because Carrie Fisher died mid-filming and they had to figure out how to work around that, so I'm willing to give a little bit of slack to TROS for that exact reason.

I don't remember much training even HAPPENING on screen. I remember Luke barely teaching Rey anything at all in the one week she spends with him and Leia sending Rey on an obstacle course at the beginning of TROS. I wish they'd chosen to spend more time really showcasing more of Rey's actual training (or, ya know, FINN training in Force abilities at all), but I don't have any strong feelings about it at this point.

And as for Palpatine, I think everybody knows it was a bad choice to make at this point. It was lazy, it was silly, and it doesn't work. It feels like a direct response to Snoke having been killed off too early and disagreements between the directors and the studio execs about whether Kylo Ren should be a villain or not. It doesn't work and nobody likes it.

So, yeah, my feelings are a little faded at this point because I disliked them enough that when I do my Star Wars marathons, I never include the Sequels in it and I just stop at ROTJ. I feel like that says enough on its own.

[swervestrickland]

HANGMAN PAGE BIRTHDAY WEEK

-> starts Friday, July 21st, 2023 and ends Thursday, July 27th, 2023

Hello, everyone! It's me, Emi adampage here, coming to you fresh from the post-Double or Nothing high, to announce that HANGMAN PAGE BIRTHDAY WEEK will be happening again this year! I am going to make this considerably hard on myself, as I will be out of the country during the week of, but I will do my very best to reblog any creations you make!

That being said, here's what I have in mind for this year :)

OBJECTIVE

To create wonderful works [edits, gifs, writing, art, videos, etc] in the name and in the honor of our lovely cowboy, Hangman Adam Page, during the week of July 21st, 2023, to July 27th, 2023.

RULES

There are prompts/themes for each day, sometimes even two. You may choose to do either or both! You may also do multiple of each, if it strikes your heart to do so.

Do not take the prompts at face value. You may interpret them in any way you would like! (If you cannot choose one of something for a theme, feel free to talk/write/create about more than one. Multiple loves and multiple favorites are implied!)

You can use any form of post available to you through tumblr. Video, photo, gif, text, audio, etc etc. It’s ALL up to YOU! (Fics can be linked from ao3 if it’s easier for you)

If you only want to do certain days, no worries!! Do everything in any way you would like. And if you’re a bit late on some prompts than others, that’s completely fine (just don’t be early lol)! the hangman gang will want to see them either way <3

If you have ANY QUESTIONS, please don't hesitate to DM me or send me an ask!

THEMES

Day 1 - July 21st - FRIDAY: Hangman + LOVE

Day 2 - July 22nd - SATURDAY: Hangman + HATE

Day 3 - July 23rd - SUNDAY: Hangman + BLOOD (or, if that's not your style, SILLY/GOOFY)

Day 4 - July 24th - MONDAY: Hangman + PLAYLIST

Day 5 - July 25th - TUESDAY: Hangman + FOIL* (or other literary device, such as 'parallel')

Day 6 - July 26th - WEDNESDAY: Hangman + FANTASY/DREAM

Day 7 - July 27th - THURSDAY: HANGMAN'S BIRTHDAY! Hangman + FREE CHOICE

*it was brought to my attention that this one can seem confusing. The definition of "foil" is as follows (from literarydevices.net): Foil is a literary device designed to illustrate or reveal information, traits, values, or motivations of one character through the comparison and contrast of another character. A literary foil character serves the purpose of drawing attention to the qualities of another character, frequently the protagonist. This is effective as a means of developing a deeper understanding of a character by emphasizing their strengths and weaknesses. In addition, a literary foil allows writers to create a counterpart for the protagonist that puts their actions and choices in context. (You can use this definition, or you can get inspiration from it. Or, you can use a different literary device, if you so choose. You can also liken the word 'foil' to, I dunno, tinfoil. What I love about word prompts is that you can take a word and create something completely different than someone else. Go crazy!)

As always, thank you to @mistress-omega-majesty, @jonmoxleys, @sheslikealostflower, and @cowboyshit for the feedback on the prompts!

LAST BIT OF RULES

Please remember to mention the THEME in your post, as well as to TAG YOUR POST with the following: #HANGMANPAGEBIRTHDAYWEEK within the first five tags, and to tag ME (main @adampage​), in a reply comment under your post, or in the body of your post, whatever is easier. I will be posting my edits to @bloodycowboyclub, and likely will post any text posts/writing from my main.

PLEASE REBLOG TO SPREAD THE WORD! Even if you only plan to enjoy the creations!! I want as many people as possible to participate and it’s only possible if this ends up on their dashes! Thank you (:

Don’t forget to have fun!!

[patzweigz]

read the challengers screenplay and it almost feels like a novelization of the movie, in a way? spells out a lot of the themes and ideas explicitly through some of the dialogue, and i'm glad that a lot of it got conveyed visually in some form or fashion instead.

that said. some of my favorite bits:

this was just hilarious, kind of wish this was still in the movie

very interesting change from telling patrick to ask for help from his (rich) parents; on the one hand, it removes a bit of nuance from his and tashi's relationship (it's very clear tashi believes patrick should be listening to and taking orders from someone in some respect, but at the very least with respect to his tennis), but on the other it emphasizes the fact that patrick has just been coasting by on talent and likely has enough to teach (albeit not professionally) on some level and make a living just fine, but chooses not to... let alone actually get better as a player

i was discussing tashi's character with a friend i saw the movie with, and he didn't enjoy her; i argued that in how this exchange played out in the movie it was clear that art was asking for stakes beyond the match itself to give himself motivation to try and win, even if he doesn't verbalize it. he disagreed, but in the script this is explicit

this was also. so hilarious, but would undercut the mood of the scene so i get why it was altered

this is verbalized in other ways in the script (and only directly talked about in the applebees scene in the movie), but it didn't hit me until reading it that art and patrick both feel the outcome of their match was the eventual cause of tashi's injury. explains exactly why they each feel the way they do about tennis later on

and tashi in turn feels responsible for patrick playing so poorly as a result. but she doesn't allow herself to feel or express that, especially after being married to (and then cheating on) art, which is why she's been angry instead. and then to try and do by right by art asks patrick to throw the match anyway... my god

[cursedvibes]

omg I finally found someone who cares about Kenjaku and interested in them as much as I do. I always felt like most of the annoying fans (cough Geto/stsg fans cough) see them as an extension of Geto and not their own character with a unique personality, also they’re not really popular with Japanese fandom so there’s that…

Sooo idk if someone has already asked you that question but I just wanted to know what do you think of the existing paradox within Kenjaku’s behaviour? I’m talking about the fact that they seem to behave differently depending if they’re being observed or not, in such cases as: Kenny generally treating Yuji like a tool for their plan but saying “thank you for getting along with my son”, while they were walking with Yuji’s friend inside the “cursed space”, in complete darkness, not observed by a single soul — I’m still not sure whether it was just a way for Gege to emphasize that Kenjaku is, in fact, Yuji’s parent (if some readers didn’t catch it in ch.143) OR it should be interpreted as Kenny saying “oh yeah thanks for helping me to fulfill my plan by befriending Yuji —> resulting in him finding a finger”… but I also wonder could it be their real, genuine feelings? The fact that they actually care about Yuji in a sense would probably feel weird a lil bit but on the other hand there are also cases where they act contradictory, for example looking down on Tengen in general when fighting Yuki & Choso, mocking Tengen in that scene where they sit in front of TV, but the moment they’re not observed directly - the moment Tengen dies - they say their goodbyes to her and call her their “friend”. You see what I’m trying to imply? I might be completely wrong on this but it kinda feels like Kenjaku has an issue with the whole true feelings/emotions shtick. It probably makes sense since they should stick to their plan and any kind of attachment might ruin everything, it’s high risk on their part — Kenjaku shutting down their excitement immediately after they start feeling something real for the first time in hundreds of years, pressing Takaba to the ground — once again, understandable, but I do wonder if it results in something more in the end. There is also a theme of loneliness/intellectual loneliness specifically that is associated with Kenny so I’m honestly sooo fascinated by their character and I’m looking forward to see how it all unfolds.

Also do you have any analyses/meta posts about Kenny maybe? I’d love a link or something and I would definitely read it!!

Hi! Always lovely to meet a fellow Kenjaku fan! It's a real shame that Kenjaku so often gets overshadowed by other characters, particularly Geto, even when the story is focusing on them (as we can currently see) and when they are talked about, then often purely in the context of stsg, when they have so many more meaningful connections and ones that are also more important to their character.

The stuff you bring up about Kenjaku's contradicting behaviour is exactly what's been ghosting around my brain the past months or year even. I talked a little bit about it recently here and here. As far as other analysis posts go, what I could remember (and find again on my blog...) there's something about Kenjaku's motivations and how I think "for the lulz" is a bad way to describe it, a post about their perspective on death and a post reflecting on the power Kenjaku & Tengen have over Sukuna and Gojo, despite those being technically "The Strongest". I hope that's helpful and what you were looking for?

Regarding what you said about Kenjaku's contradicting behaviour, I think it all ties back to Tengen and their dispute because here you can see very well that Kenjaku both cares about Tengen, but also puts her as the centrepiece of their plan and is thereby ready to sacrifice her when push comes to shove. Despite going through with capturing her, Kenjaku doesn't seem very happy with how things ended with Tengen. They like her, respect her, see her as an equal, but are also very frustrated by her stubbornness and inability to change or even engage with the world. They had to force her in the end to do it and they didn't even get a good conversation with her after waiting centuries to see her again. She just kinda went along with what they did, again showing no resistance or strong will for survival. So Kenjaku doesn't really hate her, they are just frustrated with her non-actions.

You can also see that in the words they scream at her in ch 205 about having actually lived and gained new experiences, contrary to Tengen, who stuck to her old ways. It seems like they wanted to bait her into a response, a discussion, something, but they didn't get anything. At this point it was probably not surprising to them. I assume Tengen used to argue with them a lot more back in the Heian era and that is what Kenjaku is currently missing. Even if people disagree with them, Kenjaku wants to be presented with interesting perspectives by people who understand the world like they do. Tengen clearly used to have that, she build jujutsu society on it, but then she decided to distance herself from Kenjaku out of self-preservation and...maybe weariness? Hard to say at this point, but she was clearly not about allowing her body to evolve to discover new things about cursed energy and humanity.

Kenjaku tried to find something similar in Yuki, but she doesn't engage enough with them to bring any meaningful discourse (unfortunately, I wish the two had discussed their world views more during their fight). So now that Tengen is gone or controlled and can thereby not give any meaningful intellectual input, Kenjaku is looking for new people to fill that hole, new friends who are equal to them, challenge them and also give them some sort of stimulus they have been missing for centuries apparently. That's part of why they do the merger in the first place. They want something that can truly surprise them and present them with something completely new.

Besides intellectual curiosity, Kenjaku just seems lonely. Unlike Sukuna, who is fine just playing around with others, eating and having one person to rely on, Kenjaku seems to want more people around them. Not many I assume, but they need friends and currently they seem a bit desperate to find new ones, seeing how they even ask Hazenoki to hang out with them. That's also where we see that contradiction. Kenjaku wants friends, but over the last millennia their plan has taken up so much of their headspace that they are ready to kill said friends for that end and that tendency to use others for their gain is also what keeps them from finding new connections because obviously nobody wants anything to do with them when they get treated like that. They ask Hazenoki to be their friend, despite both of them knowing he has to die for the Culling Game to end and their plan to progress. So at best he could've given them company for a few days and then they would've killed him. But at this point Kenjaku is even fine with that. Hell, they are talking to dead people and the thin air (a non-listening Tengen). Not a good sign for the state of your mental health.

Takaba is interesting because he came to Kenjaku out of his own will and offered to give them something interesting/funny, basically fulfil their conditions for friendship. He doesn't even mind that much that Kenjaku is trying to kill him. Perfect candidate for friendship, but by being so open, forthcoming and generally being a weird guy, he unnerves Kenjaku. For one, they aren't used (anymore) to people being so friendly with them without any self-serving motives, listening to them and sharing their interest. Like with Sukuna & Uraume, Kenjaku is always the one who engages conversations and meetings, the two don't care about Kenjaku unless they need to further their personal goals. Similar with the reincarnated sorcerers. Kenjaku approaches them for a binding vow and the entire relationship depends on serving their own benefits. The other thing is that Kenjaku doesn't seem used to having someone they share so many common interests with and who they can indulge with, without ulterior motives playing into it. In this case it's comedy and pop culture instead of cursed energy, but that doesn't seem to matter and solving the riddle that is Takaba's cursed technique gives Kenjaku another reason to get invested in/with him.

It's like you said, Kenjaku wants connection, but when presented to them, they get uncertain and awkward on how to deal with them and don't seem to want to get too attached because they will kill them in the end anyway. With Tengen that was less of a problem because she's immortal and will always exist in some way, but not talking to her still seems to be very aggravating for them. Even with Takaba, despite having the time of their life and feeling better than they have for centuries, Kenjaku will have to kill him in the end. At least with how the Culling Game rules are now (they could change them...). Takaba is also very hard to kill... The ocean scene where Kenjaku goes from happiness to trying to drown Takaba honestly perfectly encapsulates their mental state towards close relationships, including how they treat Yuuji. Someone gets too close, they try to push them away like they're allergic to feelings. It's like a defence mechanism. If they want to follow through on the plan they have been working on for thousand years, they can't afford to dally around with some random clown, even if they like his company.

Same with Yuuji. I think Kenjaku does care about him in some way and sees him as their son, but that just doesn't keep them from hurting him. They sound proud of him in Shibuya and excited to see what he will evolve into. I think they banked on Sukuna switching vessel and Yuuji using his special body to become hopefully something interesting in the future, using Sukuna's cursed energy as a kickstarter for his development so to say. I mean, if Sukuna hadn't switched vessels, he would've been useless and unable to ever come out again after Shibuya and Kenjaku was clearly preparing for him to participate in the Culling Game. So Yuuji being a vessel/cage was only a temporary solution.

So I think Kenjaku's words to Sasaki are genuine, but they are also thanking her for starting the whole finger situation (Yuuji was the one who found it, but Sasaki was the one who wanted to play around with it). I'm also wondering if they intended for her to look into Yuuji's past and confront him with his parentage because they know Sasaki is very curious and Yuuji's parent he never mentioned turning up in her bedroom and telling her about a death game they started seems like something that she wouldn't be able to brush past. I mean, they didn't say this to Iguchi, who was also Yuuji's friend, only Sasaki. Only question is, how do they expect Sasaki to get in contact with Yuuji in the state Japan is in? And then there's of course the question of if Gege will even pick up this plot threat again.

Being interested in seeing what Yuuji will evolve into is Kenjaku's own way of showing they care, you could say. They don't give a shit about Choso's power level or potential after all, he's just a failure. Yuuji's potential is what makes them care and I think having birthed him themselves plays into their feelings as well, since Kenjaku clearly has a very close attachment to the womb, pregnancy and birth. Their interest in him is self-serving, but that doesn't mean they don't care or deny any parental feelings (at least not when in the right company, where they can open up more). Hell, despite looking down on Choso, Kenjaku does call themselves his parent. There's only a bit of blood connecting them, they didn't even birth him, but they don't deny their familial connection. So yeah, despite all that, Kenjaku always treats people bad because their own interests come first.

The current fight is interesting because Takaba could give something different to Kenjaku. He can entertain them, satisfy their curiosity and show them something new. He proofs that they don't need to go through with the merger, that there are other options they could take and might even end up happier for it, but I also think that Kenjaku will not use that opportunity to turn around. They have come too far, suffered set-back after set-back for thousand years just to get to this point, so no matter how good the alternative is, they will not give up on the merger. Tengen is already captured, she can't stay inside them forever and when she's set free, she will likely wreck chaos even if she doesn't merge with other humans. This fight shows us what Kenjaku could be or less destructive ways they could take, but at this point they are too far gone. I'm really curious to see how this will all play out and how this fight will end, what it will mean for Kenjaku, their plan, the protagonist team and how exactly they will deal with Takaba. Highly doubt it will mean anything good though. Either way, I smell some character development incoming.

[kijosakka]

how. how would i even write out a proper fic of dramaturgy au,,

cutting this off bc i got too caught up in myself and rambled

ok umm,, dramaturgy as an au is just so character study-ish and generally character-focused,, plus the initial developments made on island are kiinda important to the cast dynamic?? so as i see it there are a few options:

A: rehash/go through the unchanged plot of island, the TDDDDI special, some eps of WT, using it to develop the Situation from other characters perspectives while maybe having one or two to emphasize noahs characterization

it gives a lot of time for character developments outside of noah himself, and time to reinforce noahs own characterization using that outside perspective,, but could potentially get boring/long-winded, since nothing different happens and its literally just Characters Having Screentime

^ maybe sub a full going-through with character vignettes and specific scenarios throughout island/the special/celeb. manhunt or after TD/eps of WT??? i guess you could also slot smth like this in with the other ideas aswell

B: begin the hypothetical fic post-jamaica challenge and leading into london, use it to exposition some minor things and generally establish characterization before getting into challenges and actual canon divergence

it doesnt drag on (as much atleast), gives you enough time with enough cast members to establish what the others think of noah and what noah thinks/how he behaves and why (probably slot in his distrust of alejandro here??), more challenges gives noah more chances (and reasons) to break character, though the character development has to be slow and conflict should probably be built up (but im kinda partial to this one ngl)

C: kindof half-baked but beginning in london (i’m imagining literally at his eel line), where hes eliminated that episode, but comes back via comeback challenge; arc kicked off by being so pissed off that he has to come back and do the Same Shit yet again (and probably because of producer-rigging. again.)

the conflict/character dynamics would move a little faster, its less to trudge through and figure out canon changes like the butterfly effect of noah staying in the game in london, but having less characters to have relationships/interactions with (but making the ones had can be more developed/rounded as a result), less Time in general, the original idea of noah ‘unmasking’ alejandro is kiiinda less impactful this late into the game?? slightly i feel like

or D: even more half-baked than C and kinda just 'possible' and feeling out of place, but you could have noahs arc happen in all-stars instead (smth smth the audience was vv dissatisfied with how he ranked in WT and so he gets brought back)

^ this is mostly bc i like the motif of noah having eel-pond related scars and seeing it as a physical reminder of where 'acting like the camera isn't there' can get him (but you could potentially fit this into the C idea, posing it more as a bitter feeling/theme rather than a motivation to continue his facade)

i dont really like this one from a storytelling standpoint, and it doesnt make much sense since theres no character motivation via unmasking alejandro since everyone already knows at this point?? idk it is there though

umm yeah thats all ive got, i guess you could also mismatch ideas like B&C so the fic starts post-jamaica but noah still gets eliminated, or have noah eliminated after london but still winning the comeback challenge and coming back swearing vengeance (within his own head mostly) or smth like that

i kinda wanted to just put this Out in the World and let it simmer before i start combing through WT to make the allotted ‘official’ canon changes of this au lol

(and not to mention theres still the issue of the actual Ending,, does he win?? is his winning both symbolic and the first genuine, intentional break of character he makes, to the audience and his peers beyond the unintentional ones hes made along the way???

smth smth character growth, hes learned how to let himself break character but now hes learning to do it intentionally too??? < im partial to that but im also biased towards noah and any hypothetical win of his

^ or does he lose?? and his ending watching the finalists parallel the island bit where he Did Not Care but now??? idk idk the longer i think the more i like the whole symbolic win thing but in terms of storytelling/the Themes, does it Work. i do like to think so

the original draft of this idea has noah not in fact winning but it also had a strangely,,,,, vindictive tone?? that might not be the word but the Themes were different and noah was more scheme-ish rather than defense mechanism-having so im thinking the ending should change as well)

[shoujomangathoughts]

Shoujo Thoughts - Angel Sanctuary

I finally completed Angel Sanctuary by Yuki Kaori. For me, it's been a long time coming, having watched the OVAs well over a year ago and reading a couple volumes last fall, to finally continuing and completing it within the last couple months. In comparison to the last series I covered (Hana Kimi), this one is a lot more fresh in my mind and honestly just denser content wise. Again, I'll be pretty light on spoilers until the character section.

To get things out of the way, yes this series touches sensitive and weird scenarios, I assume most infamous for it's incestuous relationship between Setsuna (the protagonist) and his sister Sara. This is done for several reasons that I won't really go into for sake of spoilers, but in a manga with heaven and hell and religious themes, they are condemned throughout the entire story. I never really rooted for them or considered their relationship "cute" because of the nature of their relationship always looming in the back of my mind, but the story itself consistently marks their love for each other as a huge sin so contextually it made sense. It wasn't fetishizing their relationship, rather it was a building block for the greater narrative and the result of a curse placed on Alexiel (who Setsuna is the reincarnation of). It's still admittedly weird but I was able to compartmentalize it for sake of continuing and seeing what the story built around it offered. On a whole, this story tackles many taboo or tragic relationships.

This is my first time reading something by Yuki Kaori and it certainly made a big impression. Her art is really well done and detailed, with a gothic-leaning style that at times emphasizes horror and gore. The tone of the series is pretty serious but also is well balanced with humor and lightheartedness. As someone who's not religious or overly informed, I'm sure many of the references went over my head and at times the names of the various places would be hard for me to remember. The story had a lot of twists and admittedly was pretty tragic throughout.

I enjoyed the worldbuilding as well; all three of the realms (Earth, Heaven and Hell) had interesting areas visually and the way things operated in each place was pretty well explained or shown through visual cues. The politics were easy enough to follow while still allowing twists in the plot to occur. It was interesting to see that the inhabitants of both heaven and hell were portrayed as somewhere between morally gray to straight up twisted. It made most of the characters have unique and interesting motivations. There's also a ton of different characters (with varying significance) so I'm sure any one could find several characters that they'd enjoy. Some of my favorites throughout were Kira, Kato, Hatter, Katan, Rosiel, Michael, etc. The mangaka also seemed to have no issue with killing a character off which made it anxiety-inducing for me at times when a character I liked seemed to be in danger because I stopped doubting that she would really kill them off.

I would say my favorite arcs were the Hades arc and the Hell arc, I really enjoyed the look of these places as well as the pacing. Kato was one of my favorite characters so it was nice to see the parts that had a larger focus on him as well as the beginning of Setsuna realizing the possible flaws of his recklessness. Hatter was also a pretty twisted character that made for an interesting arc with a lot of great imagery (the parts with Kurai specifically had nice visuals). I found the story overall to be a interesting fantasy epic that covers a lot of ground. In fact, I feel as though this one would be good to reread at some point to help absorb all the content.

Favorite character (contains spoilers) : Kira

Kira was the character that I found most interesting throughout. He was pretty layered due to his tragic past and all the suffering he went through, which made it hard to tell what his actual motivations were or if he truly meant some of the things he'd say (even when it seemed like he didn't). He was an emotional support for Setsuna (presented as a lot more mature than Setsuna), and it seems like he struggled for a while about whether he was actually attached to Setsuna or just there for him because of his affection for Alexiel, who he has always been chasing. Kira however is also a reincarnation of Lucifer, which creates a lot of issues later on (ruthless murder, seeming betrayal, etc.). Overall, he was the character I would get most excited about seeing because it was hard to tell where his character arc would lead him.

//Sidenote// I found the little sidebar comments from the mangaka in this series amusing. She would say things like "Sorry I killed this character but I wasn't really fond of them" or "Yes this character was specifically created to later die so sorry if you got attached", etc. I had to hunt this sidebar down because I remember finding it funny how she described this ("kind of a gay and dark, perverted story"). Were these characters ever used? I have no idea but it made me laugh.

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

If you wanted to convince someone to give shuggy a chance what would you tell them? I wonder what arguments you would find the best for them

well, that really depends on who it is i’m trying to convince! you have to tailor your argument to your audience, after all.

if it’s someone totally new to one piece, i wouldn’t offer too many details upfront. the way their history is gradually revealed in canon is really compelling for me, i wouldn’t want to ruin that experience for a new reader. i’d probably describe the ship in vague terms… something like: luffy’s mentor has a messy, almost tragicomic history with one of luffy’s antagonists, which reveals itself to be even messier the further you get into the story.

now, if it’s someone who already knows the whole story, i don’t have to worry about spoilers, i have find a way to explain the appeal of the ship.

for me, that’s tied up in narrative stuff. their roles in the story, their character arcs, how their relationship fits into the larger themes of one piece… so rather than present an argument for shuggy, i think i would probably present my audience with the type of questions this ship makes me think about, in the hopes that thinking about those questions for themselves will help my audience to understand where i’m coming from when i say i ship it.

if they’re pretty neutral on shanks and buggy as characters, i think i’d use a similar tack as with my one piece newbie: they’re narrative foils with a tragicomic history, going from twenty years no contact to being back on their bullshit again on sight. and now they’re both emperors searching for the one piece! do you think the seriousness of their goal can overpower that instinctive reversion to old habits? are they going to squabble like children over whose ship landed at laugh tale first?

if they’re already a fan of shanks, i think i’d emphasize the shared history kept secret. in one piece, characters tend to fall into one of two categories; either “never shuts up about the past (it’s my motivation/grudge)” or “never talks about the past (to keep precious memories safe/keep painful memories at a distance),” and shanks is definitely in that latter category; narratively he’s almost always associated with the future, and we’ve only seen him talk about his past with people who were part of it (rayleigh, whitebeard). buggy was a big part of that past, and things between them ended badly. do you think memories of buggy are more precious or painful to shanks these days? do you think that could change? would buggy have to be part of his present or future for shanks to feel comfortable talking about their past?

if they’re already a fan of buggy, i’d focus on buggy’s character arc. buggy’s most emotional moments in one piece have involved shanks—specifically, shanks accidentally wrecking his plans in increasingly tragic ways, and shanks never understanding why because buggy wouldn’t admit what his plans were in the first place. this, and the battle of selfishness vs selflessness that’s an ongoing theme with buggy, seem to be leading to a character arc-concluding encounter. there’s no way of knowing how that encounter will end… but we can guess. what do you think would be most satisfying: shanks accidentally helping buggy succeed this time? shanks accidentally wrecking buggy’s plans for a third time, but getting to know why? buggy choosing to wreck his plans for shanks’ sake? the two of them choosing to work together? something else altogether??

and if they dislike either shanks or buggy… well, i’ll be honest, i don’t think i could convince a hater to ship it. 🤔 maybe if they hated both of them, i could convince them in a “those two deserve each other (derogatory)” kinda way.

[afternoon-fireworks]

“SAVING LOKI PRIME”:

A Complete Blueprint for Another 6 Episodes of Loki’s Post-S2 Storyline

POST I OF IV

Hello-hello! I know this tag is dying, but if you’re still closure-hunting or simply curious about how a Loki S3 could work, buckle up—I’m excited to announce we have a bountiful full-season outline to discuss that I’ve tried to model after the pre-existing canon as closely as possible, having studied this series as an undergrad screenwriter. When I was stumped with my own WIPs lately, I adopted the Loki S2 finale for a major drafting exercise. It’s been such a fun, special side project to do (although I’m not in any official writers’ room, nor claim to be for Mickey Mouse legal purposes), and I now rest it in your hands.

Feel free to skip to the images after the paragraphs if you’re not in the mood to slug through big text blocks to reach my main selling point here, but for extra tidbits on special thematic details and motivations behind episode structure, definitely stick around or revisit this section later!

Okay, down to business. My goal? To invent a logical back door out of the Yggdrasil Predicament, because while Loki’s major character arc for the MCU got beautifully resolved in S2 (glorious purpose), we all know his minor TV show arc remains tragically incomplete (a need for normal companionship). That’s 50% thematic damage, and with the tight corner the plot is written into, there is minimal room for further resolution. You can’t satisfy one arc without slashing the other in half. There aren’t many places to take Loki from this point without cheapening his sacrifice and overall development—which, you could argue, is either a genius move employed by the writers, or a downright frustrating one. Maybe a bit of both.

But a MCU installment with Mobius in the forefront? That’s our loophole. Maybe we revisit him sitting atop a jet ski he can’t afford because TVA retirees don’t have pension funds—somewhere to emphasize his (1) lack of purpose AND (2) lack of normal companionship. He has double the narrative incompletion/ambiguity, making him perfect for an advancement to main character status. Sure, he could wrap up his loose ends by settling down like his Sacred-Timeline-self did, manage to find a branch without Don on it, save enough to cash in on a jet ski, and take a childless vacation to Cleveland’s picturesque Edgewater Beach, but he is hundreds/thousands(?) of years old with a pressing conflict of abrupt access to human mortality, seeing as the TVA no longer halts his natural aging process. A century to him must feel like a decade, and a decade like a year. Midlife crisis material, am I right? He is going to die soon, and that’s slowly sinking in.

Furthermore, Loki may have spent centuries searching for alternative measures regarding himself and the Loom, but Mobius doesn’t know that. Even if he does remember the conversation his past self had with Loki in the Time Theater about “burdens”, depending on if that dead timeline ever got regenerated or if it’s a branched reality Mobius can’t recall, the fact remains that as far as he knows, Loki cut his search short and took the martyr route without a fair consultation first. Who’s not to say, then, that Mobius doesn’t glance up at the sky and declare,

“I’m not gonna leave you alone up there forever. I’m gonna get you down, even if it’s just for a minute.”

It’s the Savior archetype in motion—a classic—and not unlike Loki’s own archetype. This time around, however, Mobius will influence the Yggdrasil Predicament himself so that any thematic shift isn’t at the expense of Loki’s glorious purpose. Mobius’s glorious purpose, he believes, is using what few human years he has left to alleviate Loki’s burden. He knows Loki’s identity better than he knows his own, remember?

Diving deeper into themes, perhaps we can expect to see a sharp deviation from our initial expectations of these two. Loki comes to embody the stubborn force of selflessness, refusing accommodations, and Mobius gradually becomes the force of selfishness. Loki becomes Order, whereas Mobius, on his sometimes irrational quest to free him from his prison, becomes Chaos, unaware of the mental prison he has also trapped himself within. They each only get everything they want when they swap their primary characteristics and locate equal footing thereafter.

On that note, let’s take a peek at how another six episodes can take shape. “Episode 1: Changing of the Guard” and “Episode 2: Ageless Antiquity” are provided within this post, and you can find the other four uploaded to my page (all posted within a reasonable time frame of each other, because I know delays are a bane on memory and entertainment)! Oh, and since this season doesn’t follow a typical fic format so much as it does a disaster-bullet-point format, I’ve elected to keep it on Tumblr rather than on a fic website. Cheers, and happy reading!

- Lin

[atopvisenyashill]

I think they both succeeded and missed some key things out with the theme of motherhood. I think the central theme of motherhood was super strong but only, really, around Rhaenyra. It's her mother, it's her sons, it's her baby girl. It's her labour at the mid (ish) point of the season. It's still present with Alicent; her lack of a mother, having children when she was a child, her relationship with them now. But with the Velaryons it felt underdone. Especially with Rhaenys, who had zero interaction with her own kids and yet it's her love for them and grief for them that is at the heart of a lot of her actions. I think they can pull that back a bit by having her focus on her grandchildren (particularly Baela) but the theme of motherhood was oddly lacking for Rhaenys. Perhaps because we don't see the inception point? As she's an older character? Whereas we see Alicent, Rhaenyra and Laena all BEFORE becoming mothers.

Hard agree. That’s something I think could have been remedied with not rushing to the beginning of the dance. We can get Rhaenys interacting with Laena and Laenor when Rhaenyra goes to Dragonstone, see her feelings for the boys change over time, see her interact with Laena at home after Laena’s lil stunt with Daemon. Laena in show is really defined by her interactions with other people and not as her own character, and if we got her living with her mother, it would have gone a long way to showing us both of them as individuals and mothers.

Because yeah, not having Rhaenys interact with her kids on camera is as mind boggling as not having Rhaenyra interact with her siblings in camera. I mean, Otto and Viserys are “older” too but their interactions (and non interactions) with their kids are the center point of the show, and Aemma’s loss is felt in Rhaenyra throughout and Yet. Lacking for the Velaryons! There’s some scenes where Rhaenys is obviously cut out that are Good, like the fact that she fades into the background when politics start up is a great writing choice, but I think then there should have been a focus on how Rhaenys once again (through no fault of her own) can’t be present in the room because Laena is on another continent giving birth, a way to emphasize that how often Rhaenys is defined by loss and absence even as her motives are rooted in the family she can’t be with.

[mindmeltonabun-blog]

My Demon: Theories and Analysis for Eps 11-12 Part 1

Hello Readers!

To enhance readability, I've decided to split my theories and analysis posts into two parts! I understand my posts can be lengthy, but they are designed to be comprehensive.

Eps 11-12 were a solid 100/10 in my book! I was truly amazed!! Some of my theories were completely off the mark, while others were almost spot on! I got the big picture right but got some of the finer details wrong. It's worth noting that this writer can be somewhat unpredictable. However, I find this unpredictability fun, as it keeps me interested and motivates me to dig deeper into the narrative so I can make more accurate theories.

For those who prefer to skip my general thoughts about the show, please feel free to jump to Section 2, where I provide an in-depth analysis of the events in Gu Won's past! I'll be posting part 2 of this post either later today or tomorrow!

Ok, thinking caps on! Time to analyze and theorize!

Section 1: General Thoughts

One of the biggest issues I have with this writer is how she tries to push her religious views onto viewers. "My Demon" almost feels like one big Sunday School session. I mean, look at the religious messages conveyed throughout this show. If you believe in God, you're promised both earthly and afterlife rewards. On the flip side, if you don't adhere to God's rules, you're destined for Hell. Even if you simply don't believe in God, the consequence is the same — Hell. How can this be considered a genuine "choice"?

It feels more like an ultimatum than a choice, where the alternatives are either conformity to a specific belief system or facing extreme consequences. The narrative doesn't allow for a nuanced exploration of diverse perspectives or individual beliefs. It's as if the characters are presented with an illusion of choice when, in reality, the options are quite rigid and the stakes are exceptionally high. This approach not only oversimplifies complex matters of faith and spirituality but also fails to acknowledge the richness of human diversity in thought and belief.

While I thoroughly enjoy the great acting, the comedic elements, and the chemistry between the leads in "My Demon," I found myself increasingly bothered by the writer's persistent attempts to incorporate and emphasize her religious views. The show's success in creating an engaging narrative is somewhat overshadowed by the writer's inclination to use the storyline as a platform for promoting specific religious beliefs.

This overt agenda feels not only unnecessary but also distracting. Instead of allowing viewers to appreciate the characters and the plot for what they are, it tends to veer into didactic territory, almost like a sermon disguised as entertainment. While I understand that personal beliefs can influence creative work, there is a fine line between subtlety and heavy-handedness. In the case of "My Demon," it feels like the latter, and it detracts from the overall viewing experience.

In sharing these thoughts, I want to acknowledge that these are just my two cents, coming from the perspective of an atheist watching this show. I appreciate the diverse range of beliefs and opinions that viewers bring to the table, and my intention is not to invalidate anyone's faith or enjoyment of the content. Rather, I'm offering my personal observations on how the heavy emphasis on religious themes affects my experience as a viewer.

Section 2: The Past

Section 2.1:  Rodion Raskolnikov of the Joseon Dynasty

If you've read my "My Demon" posts, you know I often draw parallels between the themes and characters in "My Demon" and those in Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment." The writer of "My Demon" takes many inspirations from this novel. Despite its title, "Crime and Punishment" doesn't really focus on the act of the crime but delves more into the intricate aftermath—Raskolnikov's internal struggles, guilt, and moral conflict. Similarly, "My Demon," particularly in Eps 11-12, echoes these themes.

In a nutshell, "Crime and Punishment" follows Rodion Raskolnikov, who commits murder believing it serves the greater good. However, his guilt intensifies, leading to self-isolation and nightmares. Raskolnikov's journey towards redemption begins after he falls in love with Sonya, paralleling events in "My Demon." Sonya's love becomes his salvation, as she encourages him to face the consequences of his actions by confessing to the police. Eventually, Raskolnikov is sent to prison, and during his time there, he finally experiences guilt for the murders he committed. It's this newfound guilt that marks the beginning of his journey towards redemption. Random thought: Even when Seok Min was placed in prison, he displayed no remorse for hitting the pedestrian, and to this day, he remains unapologetic for killing his own mother. It seems like there's little hope of redemption for him haha.

Raskolnikov and Gu Won had something in common — they both liked taking shortcuts and were a bit lazy. In "Crime and Punishment," a servant scolded Raskolnikov for being lazy because he wasn't working. Raskolnikov said his version of "work" was thinking deeply. He was basically a freeloader, benefitting from the hard work of his mother and sister without really contributing financially in any way.

Gu Won was the same. When he was human, he freeloaded off his father, without bothering to do any kind of work. Do Hee was on point when she called him "the most carefree freeloader." His mindset was like those people he signed contracts with — he thought geniuses didn't need to work.

Gu Won's personal philosophy centered on the pursuit of happiness and a strong inclination to take shortcuts in life in order to avoid challenges and pain. He was devoted to the idea of finding easy solutions to challenges, always opting for the path that led to immediate joy. A clear example of this is when Gu Won proposed eloping as a solution to the challenges posed by their differing social classes. Instead of confronting the harsh reality of their social barriers, he suggested fleeing and eloping with Do Hee. However, Do Hee, being the voice of reason, emphasized the importance of facing problems rather than evading them. Gu Won, driven by his hedonistic desires, preferred avoiding challenges to maintain a state of happiness, even if it meant taking shortcuts to get there.

Gu Won, being the sloth that he was, sought an effortless solution to overcome the class barrier that existed between him and Do Hee. He turned to Catholicism not out of genuine religious conviction but as a shortcut to bridge the social gap. His belief in the teachings of the Catholic faith was driven by the hope that, by adopting this newfound faith, he could persuade Do Hee their love could transcend social constraints, given that the idea of equality was central to the Catholic faith. Simply put, Gu Won only believed in God for personal gain and didn't have a genuine desire to commit to God's teachings and principles. He was just one superficial/self-serving mf. God was about to teach Gu Won a lesson though!

While the love birds were in their happy bubble, the world outside was still spinning. Political factions were fighting over power and using the threat of the rise of Catholicism to their advantage. Villages were getting destroyed as authorities searched for Catholics. The people in this village became fearful their small town would be next.

Gu Won's father thought he could use the matter at hand to his advantage. He obviously didn't want his son to marry a Catholic kisaeng so he suggested they sacrifice her for the greater good. For Gu Won's father, it was like killing two birds with one stone. He could eliminate Do Hee while protecting the village from ruins.

The idea of sacrificing one person for the greater good is a philosophical concept called "Utilitarianism" and was present in "Crime and Punishment." There are a lot of problems with utilitarianism (i.e ignoring the rights of individuals), but for the sake of brevity, I won't go into it here.

A question I would like to pose to my readers is do you think Gu Won's actions were justified? From my perspective, I don't think it was. Two wrongs don't make a right. Yes, it was wrong for the villagers to sacrifice Do Hee to protect their village, but it was also wrong for Gu Won to kill them all for it.

The way I see this whole situation is that Gu Won was one big privileged baby who didn't get this way and threw a temper tantrum (kinda like Seok Min). Since he never had to face any challenges or obstacles in his life, he never knew what it meant to struggle. In turn, this caused him to not know how to effectively handle negative emotions such as sadness, pain, disappointment, and anger.

This deficiency in emotional management is what prompted him to explode and kill all the villagers. It's a stark reminder of the consequences when one is shielded from life's challenges and lacks the necessary coping mechanisms. The ability to face challenges and navigate negative emotions is not only necessary for personal growth but also for developing the resilience needed to face adversity.

Rather than face the consequences of his actions (i.e killing the villagers) and the negative emotions stemming from the loss of Do Hee, Gu Won once again took the easy way out and ended his life. He thought he could run away from his problems and avoid being where God was, but he was about to be in for a surprise.

His declaration, "If heaven is where God dwells, I refuse to go there," now seems quite ironic. In the context of this show, God was depicted as being "everywhere", residing not only in Heaven but also in Hell. This notion was further exemplified by the portrayal of God living in a hut in the subway station, symbolizing the underworld/Hell. So, in a twist of fate, after Gu Won died and went to Hell, he ended up where God was too.

Section 2.2: Journey Towards Redemption Begins with Repentance

In "Crime and Punishment," Raskolnikov's punishment was twofold, encompassing both psychological and physical dimensions. The internal anguish and nightmares he experienced following the murders was a form of mental torment, a living hell of his own making. Additionally, Raskolnikov faced physical consequences as he was sentenced to work in a labor camp for eight years. This dual punishment, spanning the realms of the mind and the body, highlighted the profound and multifaceted repercussions of his actions.

Similar to Raskolnikov, Gu Won faced a dual form of retribution. Gu Won's transformation into a demon could be interpreted as a type of physical punishment, an altered state that separated him from his human existence. Simultaneously, the internal struggles he grappled with upon remembering his human memories represented a form of mental torture. In this way, Gu Won, like Raskolnikov, endured consequences that transcended both the physical and mental realms.

Much like Raskolnikov's journey, Gu Won's path toward redemption began with a pivotal moment of admission of the crime he committed. The turning point occurred when Gu Won, similar to Raskolnikov, confessed his wrongdoings to the woman he loved. This act of acknowledgment and vulnerability served as the catalyst for both characters, marking the beginning of their respective quests for redemption.

As I watched Gu Won's confession, it became evident he didn't feel remorse for murdering the villagers. Rather than directly acknowledging his wrongdoing, he framed it in the context of the villagers sacrificing Do Hee, suggesting he believed violence towards them was somehow justified. It was almost as if his moral compass was backward or flipped. Instead of recognizing that loving someone isn't a crime and killing people is, Gu Won seems to think the opposite. In his current state, Gu Won is clearly struggling to place his guilt appropriately. He redirects his focus onto something less severe, his feelings for Do Hee, as a way to avoid confronting the more serious consequences of his violent actions toward the villagers.

For Gu Won to truly grasp the gravity of murdering the villagers, he first needs to disclose to Do Hee that she was the woman he loved in the past. Doing this would require significant personal growth on his part. Based on the preview for Ep 13, it would seem Gu Won may not share this information just yet, perhaps due to his hedonistic and avoidant tendencies.

Gu Won's desire for present happiness seems to drive his choice to withhold the information. This raises the question – is the happiness they share truly genuine, or is it merely a facade built on secrets and omissions? True happiness requires transparency and a willingness to confront the complexities of one's painful past, a reality Gu Won seems to overlook in his pursuit of happiness. He also needs to realize you can't have real happiness without sorrow or pleasure without pain. That's life!

By revealing to Do Hee she was the woman he loved in the past, he would be able to forgive himself for what happened to her. Do Hee would probably tell him that just like in the present, she willingly chose to sacrifice himself to save him and that he shouldn't blame himself for her death in the past. Her reassurance that he shouldn't bear the sole responsibility for her death may be instrumental in Gu Won finally forgiving himself and, in turn, facing the reality of his violent actions towards the villagers.

If Gu Won doesn't want a repeat of their tragic fates in the past, he must make different choices and break free of his bad habits like taking the easy way out of things and avoiding pain. It’s only then Gu Won can be saved from his immortal existence as a demon devil (to be human is to suffer and suffering is great haha) and he and Do Hee can have a more positive fate in the present!

Section 2.3: Do Hee's Father's Contract With Gu Won

This section will be in the second part which I will post either later today or tomorrow! It will contain theories so stay tune!

[dotthings]

Misha's commentary on Harvey from this TV Guide interview especially gave us clues on what to expect from Two Face. Bolding mine to emphasize the theme of what I think Batman represents for Harvey and why losing Batman pushes Harvey to need someone darker and scarier and tougher than himself. With Batman gone, he starts sliding towards Two Face.

"I think we will know that there's a good guy locked inside him at the very least, and want to find a way to mental health and redemption for the character as time goes on."

"I don't want to alienate all the voters by appearing to be on the side of what appears to be a criminal and a murderer. But at the same time, I am motivated by a desire to help my friend's son and to be on the side of actual justice, not just expedient political justice, and it gets more complicated as the season goes on because my political aspirations—and in some respects, my own self-serving darker side—start to take hold, and I start to make some compromises."

"I have this sort of darker alter ego that has been a constant companion from my childhood, as we learn as the show goes on. That darker side begins to emerge as, in a sense, I feel like I need him. The good guy just can't fight the fight, and increasingly it's like the tough, dark side character emerges out of necessity, and that's all I'm gonna say on the matter."

This Deadline interview with Misha highlights Harvey's decency and goodness. Yes you're supposed to like him. And the complexity and compassion of what happens with his fall. Two Face not as a downright evil villain, but a chaotic force. And as the TV Guide interview indicates, not entirely altruistic. That doesn't mean evil. That also doesn't mean Two Face is harmless, he's capable of doing harm, he's also likely to do things based on Harvey's wants so he might hit back against what's harming Gotham.

"He is basically the cornerstone of morality and righteousness at the outset of the show. You can count on him to do the right thing, and he is uncompromised, and he is really taking Batman’s adopted son now, who is a second-time orphan, under his wing."

"...over time, you see that he’s fighting his own inner demons. He had a traumatic childhood. He has a family history of mental illness, and he’s starting to see cracks in his own psyche emerge. He’s starting to unravel, and he’s trying his hardest to hold it together. But you know, he’s good. You’re rooting for him, and yet you see this fracture happening, and it’s tragic. Ultimately, when he becomes Two-Face, because the audience has gotten to know him, you can’t help but still kind of root for him."

Harvey's got a lot of Freudian and Jungian going on. It's id, superego, and ego duking it out in there. It's also about The Shadow. And Batman is Harvey's shadow and Two Face is Harvey's shadow.

I would be careful about going with "Two Face is good, actually" even if he's not evil. That doesn't mean Two Face won't do harm. And Harvey is the good inside Two Face.

There's a fine line of difference between Bruce/Batman and Harvey/Two Face. Both take on an alter ego. Both have mhi. But Bruce's sense of self proves to be powerful enough to contain the darkness and be able to manage tapping into it, so he creates the bat. I know it's common dc commentary to say that Batman is the real person and Bruce the persona, but without Bruce, Batman is lost, Without Bruce, Bruce is lost. Bruce in other dc stories and in GK thinks he doesn't have light in him, so he adopts kids and protects their light. But Bruce's light and Bruce's heart are some of his strongest weapons and are why Batman is a force for good. Harvey, like Bruce, has a big heart and he's in the light and he cares and has a powerful sense of justice. What happens with Harvey is the Two Face alter ego nearly devours him...just not completely obliterating Harvey.

[fatedtime]

Can you explain what you were talking about with the whole author intent vs. reader intent surrounding LB2 criticisms? I kind of get it since a lot of LB2 opinions I've seen are proposals for alternate paths the story could have taken/character shuffles (I remember "swap Beo and Napo" was hugely popular back when the LBs first came to NA), but I haven't really seen much recently/it still feels kinda off from what you alluded to. Maybe. Just pickin your brain a bit, if ya don't mind.

Okay, so, first I'm going to stipulate that I haven't read Lostbelt 2 since it's release, so my recollections on its specific themes (or, what I gathered from it, because I find Lostbelt 2 to be kind of muddled generally) are going to be inexact.

The simplest way I can explain it though is how fandom treats Skadi. Skadi is a pretty widely-hated character, characterization wise. I think, in terms of passion of how much the people who hate her do hate her, she's matched by extremely abrasive characters like Medb. I've heard tons of people talking about rewriting Skadi, tons of people emphasizing distaste for her direction, and METRIC shittons of people dismissing anything the author wanted to say with her as 'she's waifubait', without taking any time to actually dissect the intention behind her. Conversation around Skadi immediately devolves into assuming nothing about her themes has any narrative value, and that the totality of her builds into one thing: Skadi only exist for men to sexualize her.

This is sexism, full-stop, but plenty of other essays exist that dissect fandom culture and the tendency to put no effort into analyzing mediocre female-characters while fixating heavily on mediocre male characters, fleshing them out and developing them far beyond what actually exists in the source material.

Which like, I think Skadi is a mediocre female character, but every time I've seen Skadi discussed, it is with two motivations: either to dismiss her as a waifu, or throw her personality out entirely in a 'rewrite', discounting every single thing the author is trying to say with her and putting the reader's own desired Skadi in its place. These rewrites tend to make her 'cooler' and give her 'more agency' without understanding that Skadi's lack of agency is the point.

Lostbelt 2 is Ophelia's Lostbelt, a character defined almost entirely by her own lack of agency and her romantic fixation on a man who doesn't really care about her best interests. She exists as a satellite to him, doing his bidding and entirely willing to sacrifice herself for him, without any hope of reward. She wants what he wants. Her dreams are his dreams.

Skadi parallels this.

She's a woman who, in her Lostbelt, is so paralyzed by the weight put upon her that, in lieu of making any real decisions, instead constructs a world of child-farms. Skadi and Ophelia are both infantile in their decision-making ability; they defer entirely to other people (or, the lost images of another person.) These are clearly meant to be toxic relationships, and LB2 is a story about relationships and what happens when the parties within them are emotionally immature. How if you can't grow up, you can't live, and will make it impossible for those around you to grow and live as well.

This is why the story has sympathy for Skadi, too. It's a fucking awful position to be in, and getting mad at people who are emotionally stunted is an exercise in fucking futility. The world has failed them, of course they'd fail others. The world has failed them -- what is the point in another goddamn revenge fantasy of punishing a woman who wasn't given the tools to live as an independent being? Society itself tells women that enough already, while also telling them that they have no worth outside the men they serve. There are enough stories about it in the world.

The stuff with Surtr, the stuff with Napoleon is all about relationships -- positive and negative, cold and hot, immature and mature, healing and hurting. I firmly don't like the idea of swapping Napo out for Beowulf because Napoleon exists to be like, the ideal of Napoleon's hope and freedom. It's this ultra-positive idea of self-actualization and belief in yourself. Beowulf just... doesn't... have that? I feel like it's another thing that exists without considering what would be better for the characters already existing.

Now. Do I think the various characters and their relationships are like, examined well and the ultimate thematic core of it conveyed well? E.....eeeeeeeeeeh. I mean, I've already said I think Skadi is mediocre, and ultimately, I don't like the story. But when approaching suggestions of what to change, I'd want to keep the author's intent in mind, because it's not my story. It's hers. Its what she wanted to do. Examining it through a different lens, with different ideas, and theorizing on how these ideas could be reflected and transformed into other things is valuable, but can only really effectively done with the heart of the writer is taken into consideration first.

This is something I think fandom generally has trouble with. Online fandom and the relationship to creators that has developed is like, deeply, toxicly fucked up. Those who create have been dehumanized to such an extreme extent, their so-called fans stripping them of any humanity and consuming their content in pure, decadent self-absorption, that no thought goes into the hearts of those who put their work out into the world. Idolized or demonized or forgotten, if you create and share it, you are doomed to having your watermarks filed off, your intentions disregarded or maligned, your work fed to AI to be regurgitated en-mass, and all manner of assumptions placed into the void of your privacy as people slander you, harass you, or glorify you into an inhuman caricature of yourself.

Like, THE REASON IT IS NO LONGER STATED WHAT AUTHOR WROTE WHAT STORY-CHAPTERS IN FGO IS BECAUSE OF THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO SENT SAKURAI FUCKING DEATH THREATS. ANY DISCUSSION OF SKADI AND HER INTENT AS A CHARACTER, ANY NEGATIVE ASSUMPTIONS MADE ABOUT WHY SHE WAS WRITTEN THAT WAY, IS WRITTEN ABOUT A WOMAN WHO WAS TOLD EN-MASS TO GO DIE FOR HER WORK, SIMPLY FOR THE CRIME OF A GACHA GAME CHAPTER BEING KINDA BAD.

When talking about her ideas, her stories, her characters, just... think of Sakurai as a human being, please. That's what I mean with all this, a generalized plea to remember that every story was penned by a living, breathing human being. Creators and their characters aren't thought of as people anymore, and analyzing a character or story while paying no regard to them or what they were trying to say fucking sucks. There's value in examining how you'd approach something, but editing someone's work and saying 'I did it better!' is cruel. Dismissing the writing of women by calling them waifus, talking about how 'clearly, the author was stupid and didn't take any time to research' about new story-chapters, without yourself thinking through what the author could have been trying to say with it is... just... treating people like they're soulless sacks of flesh meant for you to dispense content as it pleases you.

No creator in this world gets paid enough for that horseshit.

-- Thank you so much for the question! This wasn't inspired by any kind of immediate take I saw, by the way, I was just trying to dissect the authorial intent of Mephistopheles in the last JP event and got to thinking a bit about LB2, Skadi, and how even if I don't like her, I viscerally hate it whenever LB2 comes up on Beast's Lair.

[knyplotrewrite]

my thoughts on canon Shinazugawas

(I said I was just gonna do Sanemi but these two are basically inseparable from each other so...)

Will have manga ending spoilers!

These two are probably some of the most controversial characters in the fandom in some of the wildest ways possible. I honestly find it quite interesting how polarizing people’s opinions can be on Sanemi especially when his character offers unique insight into the overarching tragedy of the story, but I’m gonna talk about that later.

Right now, we’re talking about Genya.

For me, Genya feels like he just barely gets enough characterization to be considered fleshed out. Just barely though. While his motivation in being a Demon Slayer is clear, and his past with Sanemi warrants his narrowminded mindset in eventually apologizing, it really feels like that aspect is the only thing that’s considered important above all else. There is a huge chunk of his adolescent years after the tragic incident that went essentially unexplained. His history training with Gyomei? Left as fanbook trivia and one single off-hand mention when it really could have been explored in a flashback of sorts to deepen both Genya and Gyomei’s characters.

So yeah, for KNY’s narrative as a whole, Genya is functional as a character meant to emphasize a core theme of sibling relationships and to act as a parallel to the Kamados but that’s it. I’ve seen people make him so complex, it’s honestly disappointing to go back to the manga and see just how little Gotouge actually revealed about him or bothered to do anything else with. I get that his main purpose was to die, but idk. Could’ve done so much more before that happened. At least have him talk to literally any other person who isn’t Tanjirou and Sanemi.

Now, Sanemi.

The concept of his character is actually so good. He perfectly encapsulates the tragic part of the entire narrative, that the world is unfair, he acts as a parallel to the Kamado siblings but in a unique what-if scenario (What if Tanjirou started completely isolating himself and left Nezuko behind after Demons took away his happiness? That’s an oversimplification of what Sanemi is), and he’s punished by the narrative for being so self-destructive by taking the only person who mattered to him away.

It really feels like the fandom focuses way too much on his treatment of Genya, but unfortunately I can see why. In the story, Sanemi is pretty shittily executed. He’s not given any meaningful introspective moments on his own prior to the Final Battle, and basically all of his appearances after Genya’s flashback in Swordsmith Village are him being treated as comedic relief. Giyuu makes fun of him for thinking obtaining their Marks is simple. Tanjirou tries (and fails) to beat the shit out of him. There is that one moment where Genya tries to talk to Sanemi, but the whole interaction feels so inorganic and impersonal that I just can’t take it seriously.

It almost feels like Gotouge didn’t really know how to write him at this point? Like, his characterization in Infinity Fortress is given substantial emotional maturity that just does not exist in any of the prior appearances he’s had, which really sucks because Infinity Fortress has so many other fucking things in it that he’s competing with everyone for the spotlight. So all people have left of Sanemi that isn’t colored by Genya’s rose-tinted glasses is him during Pillar Training, and I already mentioned why that’s so cringe.

In summary, Genya as a character and how he was executed in the story is okay, but there is definitely more that could have been done to make him more complex (like touching on the whole other part of his formative years training with Gyomei). And Sanemi as a character is really good, but only in Infinity Fortress and his introspective/backstory scenes. Anything prior to that, absolutely ass. Horrendous. Cringe. Gotouge could have done better.

(tagging the ceos of the shinazugawas @soldez and @hearth0me in case you want to add your thoughts, don’t have to though <3)

[alagaesia-headcanons]

When shipping Orrin/Murtagh, do you ever feel the need to just... give in to their alcohol abuse tendencies? I wanted to do a drabble with them but halfway their communication problem turned into retreating, moping and drinking :(

Oooh that idea has a lot of interesting possibilities within it. Of course, it’s perfect for angst, and I think there’s great potential to develop it into a meaningful resolution.

I definitely encourage you to keep going! I don’t feel like the characters relapsing into alcoholism to some degree has to halt the progress of your story, especially when writing Murtagh and Orrin. After all, the ways that both of them made mistakes with alcohol in the past is one of the many interesting overlaps between them. The way their communication issue led them back to drinking is an interesting concept in itself. It’d be a cool approach to illustrate what emotions they’re most vulnerable to and what makes Murtagh feel the need to drink versus what makes Orrin feel it. What parts of their relationship are most affected by these struggles? Do they try to keep it hidden? Do they ever drink together?

That has a lot of potential to shift the situation and explore their dynamic from an entirely new angle. Would Orrin first suggest it, or would Murtagh? How exactly would they interact in that kind of state and how would they feel about it afterwards? That could lead them to reveal or confess things they were avoiding and kickstart proper communication. Or on the other hand, if their drunken distress feeds into each other and makes their pain and misunderstanding even worse, it could make them realize afterwards that they need to deal with things directly before they break something that can’t be fixed.

Alternatively, maybe one or both of them realize what the other is doing without ever seeing them drink. Since they both had past experiences with alcohol abuse, they could be particularly conscious of the signs. Maybe Orrin notices the glint of a flask tucked surreptitiously in Murtagh’s pocket even though he’d never seen him carry one before, or he sees tiny drops of red staining the sleeve of his shirt. Maybe Murtagh notices the smell of Orrin’s breath through the heavy perfume trying to disguise it, or catches him bringing his goblet away with him when dinner is finished.

Realizing that the other is also struggling can spark deep empathy and concern. Perhaps that earnest care and desire to help can overpower the feelings that caused the communication issue to begin with. Or the worry and urge to help make it clear that their own drinking habits are harmful and need to be addressed. It could provide a lot of motivation to open up and work through hard things together once they see how much they’re both hurt by such miscommunications. And breaking their habits and recovering together could ease so much shame and fear and show Murtagh and Orrin the value of support that they’ve never had quite like this.

So much potential! I really hope that was helpful or inspiring in some way, and I hope it wasn’t overbearing or anything. I just adore chatting about ideas for the two of them. If you do finish the fic, please please PLEASE send me a link, I’d fucking LOVE to read it!!!!!!

(If it’s of interest- I haven’t really felt drawn to show them falling back to their alcoholism during their relationship, but it’s more because I don’t tend to emphasize substance abuse in my own writing. On an individual level, I find it somewhat uncomfortable to write in depth, and I’m not fully confident in my ability to depict it well. It’s a very interesting theme and I’ve enjoyed plenty of stories that deal with it, but writing it myself is a different beast I’m not always up for.

Within my own story, I work through the alcohol abuse they demonstrate during canon in the first part and bring it to a resolution before they meet. Orrin overcomes his brief but brutal descent into alcoholism during the first few months after the end of the war as part of his journey to properly process his grief for the loved ones he lost. In my headcanons, Murtagh’s drunkenness was more isolated and extreme incidents, also very unhealthy, but not consistent in a way that led to dependency. That makes it easier for him to overcome, facilitated by the fact that he simply has no alcohol to drink in his isolation. By the time they meet, they both have a resolve to not drink if they can avoid it.

For the most part, they’re pretty good for each other in that way. They want to support the other’s resolve to stay sober and don’t want to undermine that with any temptation, and that tends to keep them from initiating drinking together. (Though that doesn’t always keep them away from other unhealthy behaviors...) I’ve written a conversation between them where they first talk about that part of their past. In a certain way, it helps alleviate some of their shame and fear of judgment to know that they’ve both made similar mistakes. They empathize with that struggle and would never condemn the other for it.

Although, all this has made me consider some ways having struggles with alcohol come back up might play a meaningful role in the story, so I definitely want to give that more thought!)