#however i have Opinions about how they were treating that animal. why was he in a hologram room. where was the actual grass. wtf.

[scattered-winter]

What are your thoughts on Kaltenecker the cow?

A FRIEND!!!!!!!!!!!!! idk if he'll be in the rewrite because he. doesn't really have much effect on the plot. but I treasure him in my heart always <3

[forestdeath1]

Canon Sirius through quotes

Part 4. How Sirius shows care towards people and animals.

Sirius has a trait that often seems like irresponsibility or excessive harshness.

Sirius really respects another person's free will and choice and even treats teenagers as adults with their own minds. It's a deeply rooted idea of respecting others as agents of free will.

That's why he has no pity for those who make mistakes, including himself. To him, any mistake is always a person's free choice. Sirius will never forgive Peter because, regardless of Peter's circumstances for betrayal, it ultimately was a CHOICE. He even refuses to forgive the Ministry (as if the Ministry cares, oh Sirius):

‘Don’t worry about Percy,’ said Sirius abruptly. ‘He’ll come round. It’s only a matter of time before Voldemort moves into the open; once he does, the whole Ministry’s going to be begging us to forgive them. And I’m not sure I’ll be accepting their apology,’ he added bitterly.

He tells this to Molly after she encounters a boggart. Contrary to popular belief, in this scene, he doesn't really comfort her after their argument. Lupin does most of the work. Sirius just adds this phrase. He's still angry at Molly for what she said, just acting more maturely and not escalating the conflict further. He's angry because he understands Molly said exactly what she meant. Molly is also angry at him, they generally love to get angry at each other because they don't really understand each other.

They were both speaking in carefully light, polite voices that told Harry quite plainly that neither had forgotten their disagreement of the night before.

He even considers Kreacher an agent of free will. 

‘You’d be surprised what Kreacher can manage when he wants to, Hermione,’ said Sirius.

As they say - where there's a will, there's a way. When people say that Kreacher was lower in the hierarchy than Sirius (as any house-elf would be), Sirius himself did not see it that way, and it’s truly paradoxical. He argued with Kreacher, kicked him, engaged in verbal battles, though he could have just given direct orders. Kreacher's insults towards Sirius were similar in style to Walburga's  (otherwise, where would Kreacher learn those insults?), and Sirius... Sirius, instead of direct orders, just yells back or kicks him. When Harry gives Kreacher a direct order to shut up, Kreacher obeys instantly. A house-elf must obey the direct orders of their master. But Sirius doesn't give direct orders. Because for him, Kreacher is also an agent of free will (and also some ‘‘member‘‘ of his beloved and hated family, as Sirius is much more attached to the Blacks than he would like to admit).

Because of his attitude towards equals, Sirius fights for Harry to get the information he needs. For Sirius, Harry is an adult, not a five-year-old child who needs to be looked after in the style of Molly. Molly deprives Harry of his agency, his choice, and his own opinion with her overprotection. We have to understand Molly; she really worries for all of them, as half her family is in the Order and can die. She doesn't want to lose Harry, so she tries to protect him in every way. Plus, they all have orders from Dumbledore. Isn't Molly right? Molly has her point, she works for the Order and thinks Sirius could harm with his too "independent" behaviour, and teach Harry this excessive independence. And what does independence from Dumbledore lead to? Molly knows well (and so does Sirius) – last time such "independence" from Dumbledore cost the Potters their lives. I don't want to judge Molly. She's a member of the newer incarnation of the Order of the Phoenix, and a good one at that. Sirius, however, is still mentally in the era of the Order's original incarnation (as is Lupin, though he is more conforming and softer), a time when the rules of engagement were harsher, with much more focus on the grim realities of war. The newer version of the Order operates with different tactics – emphasizing manipulation, cunning, and caution.

Molly and Sirius have different approaches. Molly is about caution. Sirius is about action.

Sirius treats Harry as a subject, not an object to be shielded from information.

Sirius knows where his area of responsibility is and what he can influence, and where he should not interfere:

‘Not just yet, Molly,’ said Sirius, pushing away his empty plate and turning to look at Harry. ‘You know, I’m surprised at you. I thought the first thing you’d do when you got here would be to start asking questions about Voldemort.’

‘I did!’ said Harry indignantly. ‘I asked Ron and Hermione but they said we’re not allowed in the Order, so –’

‘And they’re quite right,’ said Mrs Weasley. ‘You’re too young.’

‘Since when did someone have to be in the Order of the Phoenix to ask questions?’ asked Sirius. ‘Harry’s been trapped in that Muggle house for a month. He’s got the right to know what’s been happen—’

‘How come Harry gets his questions answered?’ said Fred angrily. ‘We’ve been trying to get stuff out of you for a month and you haven’t told us a single stinking thing!’ said George.

‘It’s not my fault you haven’t been told what the Order’s doing,’ said Sirius calmly, ‘that’s your parents’ decision. Harry, on the other hand –’

He doesn't tell the twins anything because it's not his responsibility. But Harry – that's his responsibility. And Sirius believes it's up to him to decide what Harry is allowed to know and what not (considering Dumbledore's instructions "I don’t intend to tell him more than he needs to know, Molly").

‘He’s not your son,’ said Sirius quietly.

‘He’s as good as,’ said Mrs Weasley fiercely. ‘Who else has he got?’

‘He’s got me!’

In the situation with Molly, you see two opposing views clash. Molly, with the archetype of a guardian, wants to shelter everyone with her care. Sirius, with the archetype of a rebel, respects Harry's wishes and wants to open up new knowledge and opportunities for him to fight.

‘He’s not a member of the Order of the Phoenix!’ said Mrs Weasley. ‘He’s only fifteen and –’

‘And he’s dealt with as much as most in the Order,’ said Sirius, ‘and more than some.’

‘No one’s denying what he’s done!’ said Mrs Weasley, her voice rising, her fists trembling on the arms of her chair. ‘But he’s still –’

‘He’s not a child!’ said Sirius impatiently.

Sirius probably stopped considering himself a child very early on. Maybe it came from his conservative family, where children were expected to grow up earlier, not walk around as "little children" until they were 18. They think about marriage, duty to the family, responsibility early on. Plus, wizards come of age earlier – at 17. So, for Sirius, 15 years old is not a child anymore.

That's why Sirius defends Harry's right "to know".

‘Since when did someone have to be in the Order of the Phoenix to ask questions?’ asked Sirius. ‘Harry’s been trapped in that Muggle house for a month. He’s got the right to know what’s been happen—’

-

‘But as he was the one who saw Voldemort come back’ (again, there was a collective shudder around the table at the name) ‘he has more right than most to –’

Sirius really encourages taking action. His way of caring isn't about coddling. It's about giving knowledge, opportunities, resources, and supporting in the right direction. For Sirius, to live is to act; he can't be without action, doesn't understand life without it:

‘Personally, I’d have welcomed a Dementor attack. A deadly struggle for my soul would have broken the monotony nicely. You think you’ve had it bad, at least you’ve been able to get out and about, stretch your legs, get into a few fights ... I’ve been stuck inside for a month.’

Sirius can't not act and he doesn't understand how you could do otherwise. He knows Harry is the same because Harry is like his dad, meaning James was the same – always acting.

And he encourages this in Harry. But he always teaches to act with thought, not just charging in. In the 4th book, Sirius was telling Harry not to stick his neck out, but in the 5th, it's the opposite. Sirius has his own logic, which he shows here:

‘So, you want me to say I’m not going to take part in the Defence group?’ he muttered finally.

‘Me? Certainly not!’ said Sirius, looking surprised. ‘I think it’s an excellent idea!’

‘You do?’ said Harry, his heart lifting.

‘Of course I do!’ said Sirius. ‘D’you think your father and I would’ve lain down and taken orders from an old hag like Umbridge?’

‘But – last term all you did was tell me to be careful and not take risks –’

‘Last year, all the evidence was that someone inside Hogwarts was trying to kill you, Harry!’ said Sirius impatiently. ‘This year, we know there’s someone outside Hogwarts who’d like to kill us all, so I think learning to defend yourselves properly is a very good idea!’

‘And if we do get expelled?’ Hermione asked, a quizzical look on her face.

‘Well, better expelled and able to defend yourselves than sitting safely in school without a clue,’ said Sirius.

That's Sirius through and through. A true Gryffindor, who won't just sit around when there's danger afoot. You might argue that he shouldn't have encouraged Harry in this way. But what else was he to do? Hand Harry over to Umbridge? Of course not. He trusts Harry, believes in his potential. He treats Harry as an equal, not as a child, and that's why Harry feels so connected to Sirius – at last, someone sees him as mature enough, respects him as a free person. Throughout the series, Harry has been shielded from the truth, kept in the dark, yet Sirius shows him a different kind of respect – he sees Harry as someone who can act, in whom he places his trust and belief. Is Sirius right? When it comes to Harry – absolutely. As for the war, the Order, and following Dumbledore's orders – Molly would definitely disapprove.

He even passes Molly's words on to Ron. In his sarcastic manner, but still:

… anyway ... first of all, Ron – I’ve sworn to pass on a message from your mother.’

‘Oh yeah?’ said Ron, sounding apprehensive.

‘She says on no account whatsoever are you to take part in an illegal secret Defence Against the Dark Arts group. She says you’ll be expelled for sure and your future will be ruined. She says there will be plenty of time to learn how to defend yourself later and that you are too young to be worrying about that right now. She also’ (Sirius’s eyes turned to the other two) ‘advises Harry and Hermione not to proceed with the group, though she accepts that she has no authority over either of them and simply begs them to remember that she has their best interests at heart. She would have written all this to you, but if the owl had been intercepted you’d all have been in real trouble, and she can’t say it for herself because she’s on duty tonight.’

Again – a striking difference between what Molly understands by care and what Sirius understands by it.

Sirius lets Harry feel that he's believed in, respected, that his actions are encouraged. Sometimes Sirius criticises them, because as much as he encourages action, he believes all actions should be reasoned. Act according to logic, not thoughtlessly.

For instance, Sirius sternly reprimands him in the 4th book when Harry, in his opinion, does something foolish. And notice his communication style. Sirius is often blunt in conversation, in his way of talking, he doesn't sugarcoat. And Harry's okay with that. Sirius isn't one for mushiness.

Harry – what do you think you are playing at, walking off into the Forest with Viktor Krum? I want you to swear, by return owl, that you are not going to go walking with anyone else at night. There is somebody highly dangerous at Hogwarts. It is clear to me that they wanted to stop Crouch seeing Dumbledore and you were probably feet away from them in the dark. You could have been killed.

Your name didn’t get into the Goblet of Fire by accident. If someone’s trying to attack you, they’re on their last chance. Stay close to Ron and Hermione, do not leave Gryffindor Tower after hours, and arm yourself for the third task. Practise Stunning and Disarming. A few hexes wouldn’t go amiss either. There’s nothing you can do about Crouch. Keep your head down and look after yourself. I’m waiting for your letter giving me your word you won’t stray out of bounds again.

That's what care means to Sirius. Not forbidding him from knowing information. But actively helping him so Harry is ready to stand up to challenges.

Or like this:

‘Now, listen ...’ he looked particularly hard at Harry – ‘I don’t want you lot sneaking out of school to see me, all right? Just send notes to me here. I still want to hear about anything odd. But you’re not to go leaving Hogwarts without permission, it would be an ideal opportunity for someone to attack you.’

‘No one’s tried to attack me so far, except a dragon and a couple of Grindylows,’ Harry said.

But Sirius scowled at him. ‘I don’t care ... I’ll breathe freely again when this Tournament’s over, and that’s not until June. And don’t forget, if you’re talking about me among yourselves, call me Snuffles, OK?’

At the same time, he provides Harry with emotional support. Just without the mushiness. There's a sort of rough tenderness about it, making these signs of attention and love seem even more important and pleasant.

‘What’re you doing here, Sirius?’ he said.

‘Fulfilling my duty as godfather,’ said Sirius, gnawing on the chicken bone in a very dog-like way. ‘Don’t worry about me, I’m pretending to be a loveable stray.’

-

The post owls appeared, bringing Harry a good-luck card from Sirius. It was only a piece of parchment, folded over and bearing a muddy paw print on its front, but Harry appreciated it all the same.

He also provides Harry with real resources that can help him:

‘I want you to take this,’ he said quietly, thrusting a badly wrapped package roughly the size of a paperback book into Harry’s hands.

‘What is it?’ Harry asked.

‘A way of letting me know if Snape’s giving you a hard time. No, don’t open it in here!’ said Sirius, with a wary look at Mrs Weasley, who was trying to persuade the twins to wear hand-knitted mittens. ‘I doubt Molly would approve – but I want you to use it if you need me, all right?’

-

‘Sirius’s knife,’ he said. ‘Excuse me?’ ‘Christmas before last Sirius gave me a knife that’ll open any lock,’ said Harry. ‘So even if she’s bewitched the door so Alohomora won’t work, which I bet she has –’

Sirius isn't inclined to pity. He respects the choices of others. His care is expressed in this – he knows people's strengths and trusts them to do their job. He thinks Hagrid will be okay because Hagrid is tough. Why worry?

‘Listen, don’t go asking too many questions about Hagrid,’ said Sirius hastily, ‘it’ll just draw even more attention to the fact that he’s not back and I know Dumbledore doesn’t want that. Hagrid’s tough, he’ll be OK.’

And he respects the choice of the twins' father, though many find Sirius's words harsh:

‘We don’t care about the dumb Order!’ shouted Fred.

‘It’s our dad dying we’re talking about!’ yelled George.

‘Your father knew what he was getting into and he won’t thank you for messing things up for the Order!’ said Sirius, equally angry. ‘This is how it is – this is why you’re not in the Order – you don’t understand – there are things worth dying for!’

But it's not cruelty or indifference, it's respect for their father's choice, as an agent of free will.

Sirius even treats animals this way. Look how he got on with the cat. And yet he understands that animals are defenceless and need support. He doesn't expect danger from them and often finds comfort in their company.

‘This cat isn’t mad,’ said Black hoarsely. He reached out a bony hand and stroked Crookshanks’s fluffy head. ‘He’s the most intelligent of his kind I’ve ever met. He recognised Peter for what he was straight away. And when he met me, he knew I was no dog. It was a while before he trusted me. Finally, I managed to communicate to him what I was after, and he’s been helping me ...’

-

Kreacher injured Buckbeak the Hippogriff yesterday, and, at the moment when you made your appearance in the fire, Sirius was upstairs tending to him.’

-

Crookshanks, Hermione’s bandy-legged ginger cat, who wound himself once around Harry’s legs, purring, then jumped on to Sirius’s lap and curled up. Sirius scratched him absent-mindedly behind the ears as he turned, still grim-faced, to Harry.

-

Sirius, who had just entered the room carrying a bloodstained bag of what appeared to be dead rats. ‘I’ve just been feeding Buckbeak,’ he added, in reply to Harry’s enquiring look. ‘I keep him upstairs in my mother’s bedroom

-

Soon, however, he was moodier and surlier than before, talking less to everybody, even Harry, and spending increasing amounts of time shut up in his mother’s room with Buckbeak.

-

He became more and more prone to what Mrs Weasley called ‘fits of the sullens’, in which he would become taciturn and grumpy, often withdrawing to Buckbeak’s room for hours at a time.

Sirius befriended the cat, treated it as an intelligent being, and constantly cared for the hippogriff. Sirius is very closed off from people (after Azkaban, he only opens up to Harry and Remus), he builds a tough armour, but easily opens up to animals and easily cares for them in a nurturing manner – and they love him back.

In conclusion, Sirius respects the free choice of others. For him, pity towards another is demeaning. Sirius hates pity – neither for himself nor for others. To pity = to demean, to pity means to acknowledge the other as incapable and weak. And Sirius doesn't meddle in others' relationships, he well separates his zone of responsibility, and care for him is to give resources and information so the person can act. And he's good with animals, and to animals, he can show a different attitude – nurturing, because acknowledging animals as weaker doesn't demean them, because animals truly are weaker.

This character trait of Sirius isn't for moral judgement, just that's how he is, and it's important to understand that.

[pastadoughie]

Just to be clear you don't hate everyone who likes mushrooms and frogs, right? I like mushrooms because they're living representations of entropy and decay and some are so similar to humans that eating them can cause diseases related to cannibalism, and I like frogs because they're fucked up slime dwellers. Is that bad in your eyes?

i dont think that liking frogs or mushrooms makes you bad no, infact i dont think that thinking any plant or animal makes you a bad person, i just dont personally like frogs i find them gross

i do however have issue with the people who are like, weird about me *not* likeing those things, like, thats a fucking massive red flag in so many fucking ways

a) im uncomfortable that people even assume these things about me and moreover that theyre upset when their assumptions are proven wrong. my opinion shouldnt mean ANYTHING to you! you dont know me! and its really uncomfortable going on the internet to post your cat art and then all of a sudden find people acting overly familiar with you when you dont know them and have never interacted with them! i am not some large internet figure and its not ok to treat me that way! you should not be forming any kind of parasocial relationship with a 16yr old cat artist! thats weird and fucked up on so many levels!

b) the idea that i as a queer person "have to" have certain opinions and act a certain way (on things that are just, entirely harmless and meaningless) for some of you to like me is REALLY concerning. like if you genuinely think less of me because i dont like frogs when im a queer person then that makes me really concerned about all the other shit you expect me to do.

i have had alot of experience with people who do fit into those gay stereotypes of loving mushrooms and frogs and a CONCERNINGLY LARGE AMMOUNT OF THEM are like, a year away from falling into just full blown violent transphobia, the willingness to gatekeep what queer people are allowed to do and the idea that they HAVE to like certain things is like, it just makes it very clear that even if you arent a transphobe (or atleast dont THINK of yourself as one) your willingness to gatekeep these things makes you REALLY REALLY suseptible to BECOMEING one.

back when i used to be a lesbian and was in alot of these supposedly queer accepting and friendly spaces i found this out the hard way, when i started questioning my gender, and starting to not conform as much i had so many people who i thought were my friends talking about how i wasnt "allowed" to call myself enby AND a lesbian, and that im just someone trying to force myself into lesbian spaces, that i wasnt "allowed" to use he/him pronouns, because that makes other trans people LOOK bad, as soon as i stopped directly fitting into their veiws of a "respectible" queer person i realized that no. this isnt what a queer accepting space looks like.

and so thats why, i am extremely cautious around anybody who fits into that stereotype. its not *about* frogs, its not *about* mushrooms. its about how people who make these distinctions about what is an ok and not ok way to be queer will immediately turn on me the seccond i dont fit into that. and im not comfortable having those kinds of people around me

[whatsthelimitoncharacters]

So, in my opinion, Athena is probably dead. I think that it’s dumb and doesn’t make sense but the listening party animatic definitely implies she’s dead

Here we have some before and after pictures. When I first saw the livestream, I assumed that she was just gonna pass out and that people were overreacting. However, the glow fading really implies that she is in fact dead.

Shortly before the earlier images, we see Athena kind of holding onto life with her glow flickering. We can assume she is almost dead because Ares asks if she’s even alive(I will return to this). All this considered, despite the fact she isn’t glowing in a lot of scenes in this song(such as Odysseus showing her Telemachus), her glow fading really does show that she is probably dead.

If you need some evidence from the songs, we can also get some without looking at the animatics. First and most importantly, Ares asks if Athena is dead. While Ares isn’t the most respected god and many would label him as kind of dumb, he would probably know that gods can’t die if that’s the case. Him asking this does show that a god can, in theory, die. If you want mythological precedence, you can look at how Pan died(I know that there’s a bit of debate to that but idc). Another piece of evidence is actually Calypso saying “Last i checked, goddesses can’t die.” Many people take this as proof that Athena is incapable of death but it’s already been established by major gods that a god/goddess could die and there’s a mythological precedent, so calypso may be lying. In honesty, she isn’t being entirely untruthful in saying that she can’t die. Odysseus is just a half dead mortal king and Zeus is the single most powerful god. Odysseus can’t kill calypso while Zeus could kill Athena. This segues very well into how this line fits into the larger saga. Instead of this line acting as foreshadowing for Athena’s survival, it instead acts as tragic irony for Odysseus. Athena is Odysseus’ only chance at leaving and she dies. The irony comes because Odysseus’ problem could be solved if only a different goddess had died. The wrong goddess died and now it’s up to Zeus to decide whether Odysseus should be set free.

Now, if I’m correct, then I have a lot of feelings about this. If I’m wrong I have slightly less. If I’m right, you can see my previous post for a lot of my reasons why I think athena dying is a bad decision, but I’ll give one here. Gods don’t die. Pan is the only death I can think of (not counting stuff like Helios disappearing over time) and the phrasing of pans death could also be interpreted as the cult of Tammuz praising him for his one myth. Even characters that are treated as mortal like Medea (both her parents are minor gods so she probably should be too) don’t get myths where they die. Medea just runs off to a far away land. Kronos is sliced to bits. Typhon is sealed under Mount Etna. Kronos’ children are swallowed whole. ATHENA’S MOTHER GAVE BIRTH IN ZEUS’ HEAD. IT DOESNT MAKE SENSE THAT ATHENA COULD DIE. If she isn’t dead, why is the animatic like that? Jorge had to have commissioned it. I doubt the animator would have added that in on their own. Why would it be framed so much like she’s dead if she wasn’t.

[melonteee]

Zoro’s “she’s a woman” is also very funny to me, but after re-reading Skypeia I *think* I understand the vision behind it, even if the execution might’ve been clumsy.

Back in Jaya when Robin and Zoro are searching for the South Bird, there’s a brief scene where Robin criticizes Zoro for indiscriminately cutting down random critters, to which Zoro retorts that it’s the critters’ fault for getting in his way before reiterating his distrust for her. Despite this distrust, however, Zoro does seem to take Robin’s criticisms to heart as he stops uses the bladed end of his sword on critters in Jaya and mostly avoids using his swords on animals in Skypeia.

Which also creates an interesting parallel to Enel, who shares a very similar opinion to the one Zoro held in Jaya. Hell, some translations of Zoro’s response to Robin have it along the lines of “it’s their fault for challenging me” which is almost verbatim what Enel says in the arc about his “lambs.” And despite Enel insisting that he is an Equal Opportunity Vengeful God, there are scenes before the ones with Robin where Enel’s treatment of women is framed as predatory, in a way that also parallels how the Celestial Dragons are portrayed as treating women later, which also colors the way that Enel specifically attacks Robin also being predatory and motivated by misogyny. So I *think* Oda’s intent for Zoro was seeing his past attitude in Jaya reflected back at him and ultimately realizing that just because you can do something doesn’t mean that you *should* while also using the scene to comment on how god complex’s are often used as covers for bigotry.

But, even so, Zoro’s line is a clumsy summary if that’s the case. The Doylist explanation is that Oda has always struggled when it comes to threading the needle that is “how to convey female fighters are as strong and capable as the male fighters without also inadvertently endorsing real life gender-based violence” and sometimes this results in clumsy lines like Zoro’s. But my personal Watsonian head-canon is that the Plinko Horse in Zoro’s brain didn’t fire up fast enough to coherently summarize 45 chapters of character development, which results in him spitting out what sounds like a complete non-sequitur.

I respect this but my interpretation of it was Zoro does have an internalised misogyny, which is proven to us in Punk Hazard. He admits he doesn't like to nor wants to fight women to Tashigi, and Monet backs him against a wall because of it. He thinks it's dishonourable to target women as a man, and considering his dojo dad was from Wano, and he was raised with Wano ideals, AND he was raised in an all male dojo, it makes tons of sense.

I know a lot of people are confused about this because of Kuina, but his mentor said TO HIS FACE "I am a woman, you are a man. You will be stronger than me." How in the world would Zoro, at his baby age, not internalise that in some twisted way? Especially coming from the person he looked up to. It feels like it's commentary on the fact misogyny is taught, it's not just a natural born thing, and it ruins ones own perception of self and lives around them.

Zoro was quite literally raised in a male dominated space, where ONLY men were trained and told they were the strongest - it has been programmed into him. The thing is, this is written to be a NEGATIVE thing. This isn't me pointing at Zoro and calling him a piece of shit, this is me saying it's a FLAW Zoro has, and it's clearly one he must get over. The strongest swordsman in the world can literally not afford to look down on women as weaker, because I HIGHLY doubt Mihawk does that. Tashigi calls him out for it, and it's very obvious this is an internalised issue Zoro doesn't LIKE that he has.

Why in the world would Oda make Wano openly sexist towards its women, refusing to let them fight, and THEN reveal Kuina's family is quite literally FROM this country - hence WHY Kuina's dad was so insanely sexist. Of course this is going to become commentary on Zoro having to overcome taught beliefs, especially considering Zoro is one of the few Strawhats who has never actually fought a woman. Not only did he not actually touch nor fight Monet (he just scared the shit out of her), but he also took zero shots at Big Mum on the rooftop lmao. He fought her homies but not her, physically - not even once. There's clearly something going on there, and it's Zoro (and Sanji) specific, cause literally NO other male strawhat has a problem fighting women or seeing women on the battlefield (once again, apart from Sanji, and that's possibly a parallel).

I say that last part because yes Oda has sexism in his writing, but every time I hear Zoro's 'woman' line is just Oda being Oda, I want to tear my hair out. Otherwise EVERY male character would act like Zoro towards women, and they quite literally do not LMAO

I don't know why this is the hot take it seems to be, because I LOVE Zoro, but it's clear there's something going on with him in regards to internal prejudice. I think it's because, as a Sanji fan, there's an irony to saying all this lmao. But of course, I do not mean for any of this to be negative, because I am excited to see if this side of Zoro actually gets explored. Ie Zoro defeats misogyny and sexism HAHA

[imagobin]

Hiii!:) can you do head canons for the Zoldyck Siblings that have a sibling who is about 15 so like middle child sorta who always try’s to care for each sibling they have and is still is very skilled assassin and try’s to hold everything together please 😋

Omg okay I love this idea, just a poor 15 year old trying their best fhgk Thank you for requesting this, I'm gonna have lots of fun! Dividing this in sections, with what the Reader does for each sibling and their opinions on them!

🔯Being the Zoldyck's middle child HCs🔯

📍Illumi📍

Illumi is always working hard for the family, often taking on the most jobs, no matter how far they are. He doesn't show any sign of exhaustion, but you can always tell when your brother is feeling tired.

He takes a bit more time to reply during conversations, his footsteps actually make sound, his usually perfect hair has some strands out of place... you notice it all.

Seeing your brother overworking himself is really saddening for you, so you try to do small things for Illumi whenever you can: you ask him if there's any hit job you could handle instead of him "keeping them all to himself", you get him his favorite drink or snack... when you see him looking particularly stressed, you even offer to braid or brush his hair, and he's often taken off guard by this. "You want to brush my hair...? Hm, that does sound nice..."

Illumi doesn't know why you do all this stuff for him (he still hasn't caught on that you can see his fatigue), but he's really grateful for it, especially the hair-brushing; that always manages to calm his nerves like nothing else, it even makes him sleepy!

Needless to say, he's very proud of you as well. Your talent for assassination is undeniable, which is why he often agrees to hand a couple of his jobs over to you; he knows you can handle them.

Killua will always be his favorite sibling, but you also hold a special place in his heart since you seem to care so much about him.

He does however have a small tendency to still treat you like a little kid, giving you head pats and such when you've done a good job with an assassination, or to simply thank you.

---

🎮Milluki🎮

Needless to say, you rarely ever see Milluki leave his room, and nobody seems to be worried about that. You do though. You're always wondering what he might be doing in there, and if he's doing okay.

Honestly the rest of your family kind of acts as if he doesn't exist, unless they need something from him.

Milluki seems pretty used to this by now, so whenever you want to hang out with him, he just wonders why, or if you might have some ulterior motive. "W-wouldn't you rather go play with Kil? I'm busy here! ... though I guess I could make an exception-"

Of course, you just want to keep your brother company, plus, he's genuinely very fun to spend time with! You guys play games together, watch anime and eat snacks to your heart's content, nothing better than that for a chill afternoon.

He'd NEVER admit it right in front of you, but man, he loves when you visit him. He feels like you're the only person in the family he can talk about his interests to without being made fun of.

Milluki is a little bit jealous of your assassin skills, but doesn't really let that bother him, mostly because despite that, you don't act like you're better than him, you actually recognize his skills too, so there's like- mutual respect between the two of you.

He doesn't really take missions that require leaving the house anymore, but... he might give in if you were the one asking, he feels like you'd make a pretty good team with his brains and your brawn.

---

🪀Killua🪀

You and Killua are very close in age, you basically grew up together! So of course you two would be very close.

Among your brothers, he's definitely the most fun to hang out with. He's the outdoorsy type, which means that whenever you meet up, there's always adventures to be had, and sometimes... pranks to be pulled.

You're a bit more level-headed than him, since you're older, but you don't always manage to keep him out of trouble, which predictably isn't something your mother approves of. You're always getting scolded, because you should be setting an example for Killua, not encourage his rebellious side!

Killua finds the way Kikyo scolds you pretty annoying. "Who cares about what she wants? At least you're not boring like everyone else here!"

He also doesn't really understand why you still spend so much time with Illumi and Milluki, he not jealous, but would definitely love to know what pushes you to be so nice to them, especially Illumi.

You've explained your reasoning countless times: it's because you're family! You need to take care of each other, otherwise things might go wrong... he feels like you might be too nice. Not that it's a bad thing, just like Alluka, you bring him a sort of familial comfort that nobody else has there, which makes visiting home more bearable.

When Killua was still working as an assassin, he'd always be excited to go on missions with you. You two just get each other like that, and the job would always be completed flawlessly.

---

🧸Alluka🧸

Your parents always advise you against visiting Alluka, but do tou listen to them? Nope. Of course you're going to visit your little sister! She's always in that room on her own, you don't want her to feel lonely!

You play pretend with her, have cute tea parties with her plushies, and of course, say yes to anything she demands, which are usually very easy things, because you never take advantage of her wish-granting ability, and basically nobody else makes wishes to her anymore, because they're all too scared of her powers.

You always ask for something simple, like a hug, and she's always happy to comply.

Both her and Nanika are very happy that you visit them, and that you accept her for who she is. "You know, whenever you visit me- it makes me soooo happy I could explode!" You are definitely her favorite along with Killua.

You interacting so often with her has also given your parents a better understanding of her power, making them less scared of her, though they still don't allow her outside on her own, for fear that someone might misuse her ability.

She still explores the world with Killua, but whenever those two visit Kukuroo mountain, she's always extremely happy to see you again.

She's also very impressed with your skills as an assassin, and always jokes around, saying if Killua doesn't want to be the heir, you could be a candidate.

---

🪭Kalluto🪭

Kalluto is your youngest brother, so you feel pretty protective towards him.

He's often got this sort of melancholic aura around him, because he'd really want Killua to pay attention to him, but the white haired boy never does. He's a little bit jealous of you, because of how much you two hang out, but not too much, because he sees you also making the same effort with the rest of your siblings, him included.

When you see him looking a bit gloomy, you always offer to play with him, though he doesn't really know how to play a lot of outdoors games. He'll try to convince you he's okay with playing anything you want, but that's because he doesn't want to bore you.

You insist on doing what HE wants to do though. Your determination to let him choose what he wants to do makes him really happy, even if he doesn't really show it.

His idea of fun is always something pretty relaxing; his main hobby is making origami and paper dolls, and that's usually what you two end up doing. He's really good at both those things, and gets a bit embarrassed if you compliment him on that. "I-it's just a dragon origami... nothing too complex... ... thanks though"

He looks up to you, for being young and already so skilled, you're a natural with the family business.

You're always a bit concerned whenever he goes on missions with the Phantom Troupe, but you have noticed he's become more talkative since he's joined them.

---

[attex]

I love your UI design. Any thoughts on them like their interaction with others?

that innocence is pretty paralleled if we are being honest...

My interpretation of UI is based on the idea of them just being attention and stimulation addicted... They were made like this on purpose, by the same group of engineers (not exactly the same persons though) as NSH, due to the seeming work efficiency in a more active and stimulation seeking personality. This is also why they are named ironically too, along with having a fake mouth! However, such a personality tends to give diminishing returns, especially when there isn't things to focus on constantly. Which is why UI leaned towards gossiping and messing around.

They don't do things out of malice, (the ordeal with 5P was not malicious lol) it's all just another little thing to pass the time. But they do feel guilty and awkward if pushed around a bit. They're more honest than they seem, they won't lie about their mean thoughts or opinions. They will lie if it causes more attention to be given to them or they dislike the way they're treated from their honesty; but this is all hard to achieve as they can get VERY stubborn. They're naturally curious in a gawking at things and not shutting up kinda way. If they see something weird, they will point it out and keep bringing it up to talk about it.

I interpret them to be the youngest, being built a short while after 5P. This is why they look the way they do, but they still have discerning traits due to the engineers that built them. Their design for the puppet should be obvious in the ways it's similar to how NSH's puppet is designed, at least I hope I managed to show that... I also imagine their structures have much bigger bio-engineering lab sections, not for actual production of purposed organisms but rather for experimenting with them and the like. Those two would be occupied with that often, along with their other duties. The small cloak, a lot of parts that light up to indicate status, fake mouth, more angular parts, focus on strip patterns, sturdier legs... Their cloak has patterns resembling rod cells in eyes, also!

As for their relationships with others in their group...

LttM gets along well with them, which usually surprises outsiders. She knows they just need things to do but does get disappointed at their more reckless behavior. UI likes LttM for being a bit too lenient regarding things they do that they probably shouldn't, but besides that they do see her as a trustable friend albeit not taking her senior status too solidly.

5P definitely doesn't enjoy having to interact with them at all after getting humiliated by them. He doesn't hate them or anything, he never did. While he wasn't surprised about them doing what they did, it still soured his view of them by a lot and feeling that many heavy emotions in one moment didn't help. Otherwise, he can't be bothered with them in general. UI sees 5P as an extremely difficult peer to mess with in any way, he is impatient and easily annoyed but his tendency to just cut things off makes anything silly near impossible. While they do find his issues interesting in a shallow way, a part of them secretly wishes to know more of him on a personal level... Most likely because he is the only one they've never gotten to engage with closely, their nosy interest in him got more blatant as time went on too.

SRS actually enjoys talking to them a decent amount, though they can't help but feel like there is always a barrier of sorts in fully understanding and connecting with UI. UI finds SRS very amusing. Definitely their "favorite" in the group due to SRS' extrovertedness combined with that iconic tinge of obliviousness. UI has always enjoyed snooping in on SRS, especially when they talk to outsiders. SRS isn't fully aware of the extent of UI observing them like a weird animal, though...

NSH is neutral, yet wary regarding UI. They both know how either one can behave pretty well. He still sees them as a friend though. He's the second person that tells UI to "behave" the most- but it isn't like UI can't snap back at him for being overly playful as well. UI is nearly the same way towards him. Both of them know of each other's mischievous attitude and that makes it difficult for them to mess with one another. They can get a bit too caught up in being silly if he eggs them on and vice versa… even if they don't fully notice NSH views them as acting more childish by a lot. CGW… I haven't thought of and characterized CGW well enough to say anything regarding them honestly… But the things I'm certain of are UI seeing CGW as being way too "put together" and unfun, because they act very proper in comparison to everyone else. That's more incentive to mess with them, though. CGW doesn't dislike UI or anything, but they see being closer friends with them as not entirely possible.

[xinyuehui]

Link Click live action drama EP1-4 thoughts

Where to watch: Bilibili (no eng subs at the moment) Bilibili English site (Releasing on Jun 22, assuming it will have subs)

After seeing the atrocious live-action adaptation of Fox Spirit Matchmaker, all hope is lost. But the Link Click drama is produced by the same team who adapted Hikaru no Go (Qi Hun), which was good. Let's see how this goes…

Plot

The screenwriter said this is a prequel, but I disagree. I would describe it as taking the Link Click universe and creating a canon adjacent edition of it, an AU to the original. The outline of the story is very similar, but the finer details and premise are very different from those of the donghua.

In the donghua, the boys were already engaged in time travelling, and we learn later on that they met at university. So far, it has never been explained how they discovered their superpowers.

Whereas in the drama they changed the premise, Cheng Xiaoshi meets Lu Guang for the first time when Lu Guang rescues him from being beaten up by a fish vendor...interesting choice of first meet...Cheng Xiaoshi explains that he was born with a natural instinct, but it's not exactly clear what the superpower is. Qiao Ling is also unaware of Cheng Xiaoshi's superpowers.

Instead of Emma, we have Zhang Xueting, a corporate worker that face injustice. But in this case Cheng Xiaoshi doesn't take over her body, but some other guy. The relationship she has with her parents and the iconic line "Dad, mom, I miss you" is no longer in the drama. I feel like this one is a miss since the family aspect has been shifted.

Then the noodle lesbians...haven't appeared, unless they moved that to a later episode???

Following the donghua, the next one is Chen Xiao who went back in time to say final words to his loved ones before the earthquake. This one made me cry once again 😭

Characters

Everything has changed. OOC at some moments in my opinion. Since season 3 of the anime is not released yet, I'm taking a wild guess that the drama will have an original ending as well. The donghua team appears to have no involvement with the production of the drama.

Qiao Ling is not just a landlady, she is also a journalist at her day job. By the looks of it, helping people will be executed through her reporting profession, and it seems like she will have a lot more involvement compared to the donghua.

Her parents also comes into the story, her parents on the right in the screenshot below. They run a restaurant. Cheng Xiaoshi is very close to them and helps out some times.

Cheng Xiaoshi is portrayed as someone with no real job, he hasn't gone to university and uses idioms incorrectly. Obviously Lu Guang couldn't have met him at uni in this universe. He's a lot more exaggerated and cartoony. I have mixed feelings about this.

Because of the casting, Cheng Xiaoshi is shorter than Lu Guang. I'm sorry to all the girlies who were into canon tall Cheng Xiaoshi 🙏

Lu Guang now has a back story, he has a teacher who passed away that taught him about time travelling?? He briefly mentioned he found the Cheng Xiaoshi they were looking for. Looks like they will unveil the superpowers origins in the drama.

^ A glimpse of the teacher in his memory. Can you believe it's Yuen Kingdan?!?

The overall acting from the cast is fairly well done. There are several actors acting as Cheng Xiaoshi at the same time, and it still feel like it's the same person. Anyone who watched the Hikaru no Go live action will find familiarity here, as some of the actors from that production are also part of this one.

Overall

It's okay so far, although that might change as it airs. It's difficult to digest if you treat this as a faithful adaptation (I know the none cdrama fans have been questioning why Lu Guang don't have white hair). However, if you watch it like it's an AU, and resist the urge to compare it, it's not unwatchable.

I do have one small complaint, the drama should have had a different title because now it's going to get mixed up with the donghua content when people look it up.

One last thing. The ending song slaps hard!

[gemsofgreece]

Hello!

This is a genuine question tangentially related to the response you posted:

Do you think the characteristic of the God of the dead in Greek myth as someone comparatively more positive of a person (as close as a God gets to being one, at least) is something based in cultural/historical/archeological/mythological evidence or the absence of it? As in, when you view him through a more positive lens, do you base your opinion on any particular local idea of him, or on the lack of "negative" myths about him?

I know there are certain parts of the general cluster of info on him that point towards his positive traits (some epithets, seemingly positive take on H/P in Lokri area, and so on), but what do you think is the main reason for him to be viewed positively? What is your reason?

I do agree with you, by the way, that there's a lot of weird... hypocrisy in how people now treat different Greek Deities. So, my question is more to ponder with you on the topic, don't consider it a nuanced attack or anything. Thank you in advance!

Hello! This is a great question.

I do have a reasoning and it is based on the general information we have about him rather than the lack thereof.

First of all, Ancient Greeks generally did not like Hades and avoided mentioning him but this was not because of some presumed cruelty or flaw of his character. They simply thought of him superstitiously and feared that too much engaging with the worship or even thinking about Hades would bring - what else - death upon them. (This superstition is huge even nowdays - don't mention / analyze something bad or unfortunate or it will come to you). This avoidance and the fear are perhaps the reasons why there are relatively fewer myths about him compared to some other gods.

However, it seems they were also aware of this avoidance and in the back of their minds they were concerned that it would anger the god and have the opposite result (bring them death out of spite / vengeance). I believe this is why they also developed positive traits about him (the most important being that he was also the god of wealth - Pluton). The fact that this name and domain of divine authority was attributed to him a little later in time supports the hypothesis that they were trying actively to make his worship more palatable in order to appease him.

But I think there's another reason why Hades had generally positive traits and this is that... he was the God of the Underworld!!! OK, hear me out! Unlike the major Olympians, Hades was the only one who was not ruling over living beings. The other gods domineered life and all of the nature with its elements. They domineered over things that underwent changes constantly, sometimes unexpected or violent. So their personalities reflected that constant change and this unpredictability - be it in nature, in the sky and the sea, in the animals and humans themselves and the livings they led. On the contrary, Hades ruled over the dead, the unchanging eternity, the ultimate silence. It didn't make sense for him to be a noisy, lively or volatile god because this is not what death is. I bet this is also the reason why he was the only one who was viewed as mostly monogamous and interested in longterm romantic relationships - he was not a god who contributed to creation and procreation, he was associated to the exact opposite. It would be jarring for the dead to have a god that constantly has sex and has babies and births life. I believe the few partners given to Hades and his few children (three and three respectively) were likely even serving some necessary concepts Greeks had to attach to some symbolism (i.e Persephone and nature), otherwise Hades might as well be portrayed as celibate. Him ruling over the eternity of death made him stable, consistent, more sensible, generally quiet and calm and capable of more profound, undying emotions.

Hades was also responsible and decent. There are some insinuations in the myths and their variations I think that he wasn’t all that happy for being assigned to be a ruler of the underworld. He accepted his fate with dignity however, even though he was the oldest brother, out of respect for his younger brother Zeus saving all of them from Cronos and perhaps out of wisdom for deciding it’s not worth it to argue it out with super strong Poseidon for the seas. After that, he ruled the Underworld with dignity, total responsibility and great care. I think this might be some symbolism associated with the solemnity, decency and sacredness people treat their dead.

Furthermore, he was viewed as just. This also makes sense because upon observation Greeks could guess that Death is just. It comes to all, lucky, unfortunate, rich, poor, privileged and loved or marginalized. No one ever escaped or returned from death. Death was fair and absolute. Surely the Greeks would also like to imagine the Underworld as fair and equal towards all the souls of the dead [with a special treatment for extreme wrongdoers - Tartarus, rarely for normal human beings - and rare glorious legendary heroes - Elysian fields - and then all the average souls together in Hades (the place)]. Hades (the god) also employed three srict but good judges to determine how a soul was to be treated in the afterlife, based on how they had fared once alive. Despite being generally good and fair, he was stern and cold because how could the god of the dead be joyous or overly expressive and animated? And he was adamant at keeping the souls to his realm, greatly guarded, because who ever came back from the dead?

So this is why I think Hades was viewed as quiet, consistent, just and reliable. Because this is what death is - reliably it will come to us all and we will all receive the same treatment.

And now, sorry, but I have to do this:

[fushiglow]

If JJK characters were in Non- Curse world, what would their job be if not become Jujutsu Sorcerer (in your opinion)? Why? Please pick your top 5 fav characters...

I love you for asking this, anon ♥ It's an opportunity to wax lyrical about something I've given a great deal of thought! These are my instinctive answers, although I could make arguments for a number of other professions for each of them depending on the life choices they made in this hypothetical non-curse world — but we don't need to get into that! So, here I go (in no particular order):

Yūta is an emergency paediatric surgeon

When he was young, he made the decision to become a trauma surgeon after losing his childhood friend in a car accident. He spent some time in hospital as a child and he knows what a scary place it can be for children, so he always does his best to make his patients smile when he's checking in on their progress.

He's brilliant at what he does — a once in a generation talent — but that doesn't mean he can save everyone. It's heartbreaking work on a good day, but when he's been at work for approaching 30 hours and he feels like he wants out, he looks at the photo of Rika in his locker and finds the strength to go on.

Kenjaku is a performer

If the average Japanese human enjoys at least 80 rotations around the sun, why waste them by playing the same role every time? That's Kenjaku's outlook on life — which is why they chose to go into acting. However, they quickly became bored by other people's narrow view of the world, dissatisfied by the limits of everyone else's imagination.

Nowadays, Kenjaku marches to the beat of their own drum in a one-person show. There are more than ten roles available, all of them played by Kenjaku — who is also the writer, producer, and director. Critics can't decide whether it's madness or sheer brilliance.

Megumi is a vet

He's grumpy with humans, especially if they're irresponsible pet owners. However, he's soft as anything with the animals, and his regular clients trust him implicitly with their beloved furry family members — because it's obvious how much they love him.

Megumi is really good at his job, but he's guilty of taking his work home with him and finds it difficult not to get emotionally attached to the animals he's treating, even after years in the profession. Although he'd never hesitate to make difficult decisions, the unique ethical dilemmas his job presents take a toll on his wellbeing — especially when human cruelty or indifference come into play.

Suguru is a school teacher

Teaching is neither recognised nor appreciated by most people. However, although Suguru had the brains to follow his friends into their highly respected fields, he couldn't imagine anything more rewarding than doing his part to ensure that the next generation have an easier time of things than he did at the same age.

He tries to be the person he needed when he was at school: a pillar of support for struggling children who have no one else on their side. Unfortunately, the school system seems determined to hurt the very children it's supposed to support, and some of the parents go out of their way to undermine any positive developments he makes with their child — not to mention the terrible pay and working conditions!

Satoru is a physicist

But he could have done anything he put his mind to. In fact, that's the only thing Satoru ever really found difficult in life: choosing one path to follow. Sometimes, he wishes he'd become a musician or a historian or an athlete, but in the end, nothing captured his imagination quite like the limitless bounds of the universe.

He's younger than most of his peers in the field, and his revolutionary ideas (alongside his casual disregard for traditional academic hierarchies) get him in trouble more often than not. However, he's a certified genius, and popular with the media, too. He's doing a lot to improve the image of physicists among the general public — which translates to more funding for research. That keeps them out of his hair, most of the time at least!

-

These are too obvious, but I thought I'd mention them anyway:

Yūji is a firefighter who remembers the names and faces of every single person he couldn't save.

Shōko is a pathologist who devotes herself to improving the diagnosis and treatment of disease, often at the expense of her own health and wellbeing.

Because they're *also* huge nerds, I imagine Sukuna and Yuki as physicists in slightly different fields to Gojō:*

Yuki is a brilliant mind, but she doesn't live up to her potential because she hates the oppressive nature of academia. In fact, she vocally criticises it and goes out of her way to undermine it, to the chagrin of all the old stuffy professors who try to discredit her at every opportunity.

Sukuna, like Gojō, is a genius who's fascinated by what he doesn't know, shaking up the field with his cutting edge (lol) ideas. I like to imagine the pair of them getting into heated arguments at conferences, though they both have enormous (albeit grudging) respect for each other.

*As long as Sukuna is, you know, ~normal~ in this hypothetical non-curse world. Otherwise, he'd be a chef that moonlights as a sadistic serial killer lol.

-

Thank you for the extremely fun question, I had the time of my life! I hope you enjoy my answers ♥

[anime-fan-05]

Forever

Manga/anime: Naruto

Warnings: slight angst (nothing that it's unbearable), but there is a happy ending

(Y/N): your name

Madara, do you remember how we met?

~ 💜 ~

"Nii-sama (big brother), where are we going?" Hashirama, my big brother, said he would take me somewhere special, but he didn't tell me where.

"In a special place." This is the maximum response I get from him!

"Come ooooon, nii-samaaaaaaa!"

"I'll just tell you one thing: you'll meet someone." What? Who?

"Nii-sama, who will we meet?"

Our walk continues with my incessant questions and eventually we come to a river. It's a truly beautiful setting: the rays of the sun, high in the sky, are reflected on the water of the river, which is so clear I would see my feet if I stepped into it; the trees frame the entire panorama, with the beautiful green of their leaves; to complete everything, there's the figure of a boy, perhaps the same age as my brother.

"Hashirama, you're late!" The boy turns around and his eyes meet mine. He's so handsome...

~ 💜 ~

I've always told you: the first thing about you that struck me were your eyes.

You often tell me the black of your eyes represents your soul, but I don't think so: in my opinion, your soul isn't dark at all, on the contrary, it's bright and shiny. I can understand it from the way you always treated me: even if we were from enemy clans, you always spoke to me kindly, you always acted sweetly towards me, you consoled me when my brothers died, you accepted me when we were supposed to get married, even if it was an arranged marriage...

Although, in reality, it wasn't exactly an arranged and unwanted marriage.

~ 💜 ~

I'm so happy today! We Senju, the Uchiha and all our affiliated clans will come together to found a village of peace, under the leadership of my older brother and Madara. Finally, our dream will come true.

"(Y/N)?" Hashirama calls me.

"Yes, nii-sama?"

"The Senju and Uchiha clans are thinking of a way to strengthen our union and the Uchiha clan proposed a marriage between Madara and a Senju. Do you have any ideas about the girl who could be his wife?" What?! Will Madara get married?

My heart breaks. I love him so much, but if he gets married...

What can I do?

An idea comes to my mind: "I, Senju (Y/N), offer myself as Uchiha Madara's wife to unite these two clans."

~ 💜 ~

Tobirama opposed my choice, but I remained firm in my decision to marry you.

Hashirama told me you had opened your eyes a little and accepted the marriage immediately when he had told you I had proposed myself to marry you. I was very happy.

However, I was also very insecure, because I feared you hadn't agreed to marry me because you loved me, but only because I was a long-time friend of yours. Nevertheless, you always reassured me, telling me you loved me more than as a friend.

And, Madara, do you remember when you told me you loved me for the first time?

~ 💜 ~

What a beautiful night! This evening Madara and I celebrated our wedding anniversary: we married exactly one year ago.

To celebrate the anniversary, we cooked and ate dinner together, and now we are taking a moonlit walk through the streets of Konoha.

"Kyou tsuki wa kirei, desu ne? (the moon is beautiful today, right?)" Eh? What?

"What did you say?"

"Nothing!" He's blushing. So cute!

"It isn't true! You said you love me!"

"You must have imagined it..."

"No!"

"Yes."

"No!"

"Yes."

"No!"

~ 💜 ~

That night, we went on until you admitted you said you loved me. You also promised me you would always take care of me and always protect me.

Yet, why did you leave? Why did you hurt me like that?

~ 💜 ~

I wake up in the middle of the night. I had a terrible nightmare, which terrified me: Madara was going away, leaving me alone with the baby I was carrying.

My anxiety increases when I realize my husband (how beautiful it is to call him that!) isn't in bed with me.

I manage not to panic and I look for him. I find him in front of the door, as if he was about to open it.

"Madara, why are you awake?" He gasps and turns to look at me.

"I'll go away."

"Oh? Has my brother already given you a mission? You just got back from the last one! I told him not to overload you-"

"No, I'm leaving forever." Eh? What?

"W-what are you saying? I-it's a joke?"

"No, it isn't."

"W-why?"

"You don't have to care about this."

"What does it mean?! Of course I should be interested, I'm your wife!" Meanwhile, I'm taking his arm to try to stop him.

"Let me go, (Y/N)." His tone is so cold it sends shivers through my body.

"No! First you'll explain to me why you want to leave."

He turns to me and his eyes meet mine.

His eyes... Sharingan?!

I see his dangerous and deadly, but beautiful red eyes.

Then, dark.

~ 💜 ~

That was the first time you turned your Sharingan on me. You told me the red of this represents the blood of everyone you killed, but I don't think so: in my opinion, your Sharingan represents the love you felt first for your brothers, and then for Hashirama, for all the citizens of Konoha and for me.

And it's for this love I decided to bring you home.

~ 💜 ~

"What? Has Madara left the village?!" So it wasn't a nightmare... He really went away.

"Why did he do it, nii-sama?"

I don't know how I should react: should I be angry at him? Sad? Both? But I know one thing: I absolutely have to convince him to come back.

Without thinking twice, I run out the door.

~ 💜 ~

While I was looking for you, I heard some noises, which sounded like battle noises, so I went to the source of these.

When I arrive at the place where that noise I heard came from, I see a dreadful scene: you're about to stab Hashirama with your sword!

My body moves on its own and, in an instant, I'm in front of my brother to take the blow for him.

Your sword instantly pierces my chest, straight into my heart; your face goes from pleased to full of horror; your arms hold me close to you as I fall to the ground, my legs no longer able to support me.

"(Y/N)!" Both you and Hashirama scream.

"Why? Why did you do that?!" I turn my attention to you.

"Because I didn't want... the killing of your best friend... would destroy you. At least this time... I wanted to be... the one... to save... you." Yes, at least once I managed to do it.

My vision is fading... I'm starting to see black dots...

My cheek feels wet, so I look at you. You're crying.

With the little strength I have left, I raise my arms and place my hands on your cheeks to dry your tears.

"Please... don't cry... Madara... I love... you."

I feel my life is slipping away from me. I can't keep my eyes open anymore, I only hear voices.

"Don't die, (Y/N)! Your nii-chan will save you!"

Sorry, Hashirama. I would have liked to see more of your village where peace reigns but, after everything you did for me, I felt I had to save you. Thanks for letting me meet Madara.

"What happened here?! Why is (Y/N) dying?"

Sorry, Tobirama. The last time we saw each other, we fought about Madara, sorry. I never got to tell you I love you, nii-sama.

"Hashirama, save her, I beg you!"

Sorry, Madara. I wish I could have spent more time with you and lived to grow old with you and our children. Thank you for being my husband and for loving me.

Madara...

~ 💜 ~

Eh? Where am I? Wasn't I dead?

"(Y/N)!" I feel someone hugging me.

Hashirama?!

"Nii-sama? What's going on?"

"We resurrected you with Edo Tensei because we need your help."

"My help?"

"Madara has been resurrected and he's causing problems for our successors." What? Successors? What does it mean? What's going on?

"We don't have time to talk. We'll explain everything to you along the way."

While we're running, they explain to me everything that happens. I don't believe it! How can Madara do all this?

But I still don't understand one thing: "What can I do to stop it?"

"Are you kidding us?!" Tobirama exclaims, annoyed.

"Madara will only listen to you!" He continues.

"After all, everything he's doing is for you..." Hashirama adds. What?! For me?

"I never asked for this! I didn't want a war to break out for me!" The silence that follows makes my stomach turn.

“After mistakenly killing you, Madara was so devastated and heartbroken that he declared war on the Shinobi. He easily manipulated Uchiha Obito because he had lost the love of his life too." Meanwhile we have arrived at the place where the Shinobi are fighting against Madara.

I see him! Is that his appearance as Juubi's Jinchuuriki? His appearance is so strange: he looks like a supernatural creature! But he's still very handsome; I think I've blushed.

"Madara!" He turns to me, his eyes wide.

In a second, without me realizing it, I'm in his strong arms. I hear everyone around us gasp, but I almost don't notice it: I'm too focused on his heat. I missed being held by him so much...

"Madara, please, stop all this."

"I can't. Finally there will be peace in the Shinobi World." He answers sharply.

"But this won't be true peace! I don't think you've noticed, but here, in a certain sense, there's already a sort of peace: to oppose you, all the Shinobi have united for the first time, they've allied themselves, they've made peace with each other. You've done enough, Madara. Please come with me: let's leave this world and return to your brothers."

"I..."

He breaks away from the embrace; he walks away and makes gestures with his hands. He's freeing the Bijuu!

I run to hug him again and ask Tobirama to erase the Edo Tensei on me.

"Thank you, Madara. You made the right choice."

Our body is starting to dissolve; soon we'll "die".

"We'll finally be together forever."

And, with one last kiss, we disappear from this world. This time forever.

If you didn't know, the phrase "Kyou tsuki wa kirei, desu ne?" is a way in Japan to confess your love to your crush.

I think this is my best post yet, what do you think? I've had this idea for a few days, but it took me a little time to write it down. I hope Madara wasn't too OOC!

💮 Rules 💮 Masterlist 💮

[nagichi-boop]

I’m not sure if this is something anyone else has picked up on, but after watching reactions to Itsuomi’s confession to Yuki, a lot of people got confused as to why she kept asking why Itsuomi even wanted to date her. I want to offer my two cents, but please note that there’s a degree of projection in my opinion, so maybe y'all will have a different viewpoint. As another disclaimer, I haven’t read the manga (yet!!), so my assessment of the characters is based on episodes 1-9 of the anime.

Yuki, for the most part, is a somewhat self-assured character. She’s a little insecure, but she also isn’t afraid to take chances on developing her relationship with Itsuomi. But she has also never experienced a romantic relationship with anyone. On top of that, she has grown up only being able to talk to very few people. One of the only people she could talk to, Oushi, has only used sign language to be mean to her. Sure, maybe on the outside it doesn’t get to her. But if you hear negative thoughts over and over throughout your life, it can influence you subtly.

If you’ll indulge me for a moment, I’d like to share my experiences briefly so that hopefully my viewpoints on Yuki’s behaviour makes sense. I myself am disabled. I’m not deaf, but I am mentally and physically disabled. As it stands right now, I feel I am growing to accept myself more and I’m working on treating myself with more kindness. However, when I think about someone liking me romantically, my biggest fear is that they won’t be able to tolerate my disabilities. It affects my communication, my independence, my tolerance for activity, among other things. In my mind, there are so many better and easier options than me. Even before I watched this anime, I always imagined that if someone I liked confessed to me, I’d be compelled to ask them why, not because I doubted the person being genuine, but because I am clouded by my own negative self-perception.

Going back to Yuki, I can totally see her having a similar line of thought. She views Itsuomi as someone who is popular; she even makes a comment about how anyone would fall for him if they were treated the way he treated her, since she assumed his treatment of her wasn’t special. She also, multiple times, becomes insecure about his relationship with Emma, despite being assured by multiple people (including Itsuomi) that they aren’t romantically involved. And despite doing so much that would indicate his affection for Yuki - the gentle way he talks to her, the fact he repeatedly wraps his arm around her, pats her head, smiles at her (despite being an otherwise inexpressive person) and literally kisses her hand - she still doesn’t realise that maybe her feelings are reciprocated. Why? Because of her own self-doubt.

When she asks Itsuomi why he wants to date her, I don’t think she is confused by what he means. I think there’s a part of her that can’t believe why, out of everyone he has met, he would choose her specifically. She needed Itsuomi to convince her that he genuinely wanted to be with her. Even after they start dating, she still needs to clarify with Rin that it’s okay for her to call him her boyfriend. These things are perhaps givens, but she is an anxious person by nature, so of course she struggles a little to understand the ‘rules’ of being in a relationship are.

Anyways uhh, thanks for reading this ramble! Let me know what y'all think. There’s a chance this won’t be the last post about A Sign of Affection that I make. I want to talk about my thoughts on Itsuomi (and maybe Oushi) in more depth at some point, but I’d like to catch up on the manga first.

[fantasygerard2000]

Fandom's Rigid Standards

In my previous post about issues I have towards the Starboy craze, I briefly discussed about how most human Star designs tend to just stick with the Jack Frost "inspired" design over creating their own original designs for him.

Most fan designs try to stay loyal to the rather infamous piece of concept art.

While they made changes based on their own preferences, they kept major core elements like the glowing gold hair, floating, cape, and being white. However, what they neglected, or rather leave out is that this early version of Star can also shapeshift like Genie and Maui. Also, another factor is that this version Star was her grandfather's spirit as an early version of the story has him passing away instead of her father.

The reason why most people didn't know about these early ideas was because they only heard about the Starboy and Villain Couple ones from the more vocally outraged fangirls who cried about "being robbed".

This tweet in particular only adding fuel to the dying fire as most people would just express disappointment to the film, but this only give them an excuse to dislike it even more. Majority of people are so anti-Disney that they would even fact check from official sources from the people who made the film and only listened to the ones who have seen it and have totally not biased opinions on it.

Anyway, even with info about the actual early version of the film being out, most of them just stick with the love story idea. An idea that was the result from the lack of context and spite from said lack of context.

Coming back to the topic of human Star just being Jack Frost but yellow, that also brought up about how fandom has this awful habit of only caring about characters if they are attractive and white. We literally see this behavior with Magnifico and that this is also happening towards a character that doesn't exist says a lot. The fact that most human Star designs just colored Jack Frost yellow is proof of this.

Hell, back then, Disney themselves considered making a non conventionally looking love interest back when Tangled was in early production. Bastion was made to be your non standard prince.

Heck, an even early version of Tangled had the "prince" look like this.

There are people who genuinely like non conventionally looking characters for their looks. Beast is literally known for making people prefer his animal form than human form for crying out loud. You literally have zero restrictions to design a human or even monster Star. But instead, y'all ironically did this meme.

Y'all accuse Disney for not going with this early alternative design for Asha for "not being conventionally Disney".

But y'all also thought this ain't too pretty so you "borrowed' from the most conventionally good looking character from a different film.

Now, this is the part where I focus on the issue regarding Asha and her "romance". Well, lack there of.

Someone once said that people only like a work for the tropes they like being present over how they were executed, comparing how ads are recommending you to buy a book that lists off tropes you're into. L To fandom, the presence of tropes only matter.

When you think of Disney romances, you might thought of the princesses. And ONLY the princesses because their films have romance as a major factor. However, romances in Disney is notoriously bad, especially in their older films. It's not until in the later films that we got a more proper romance with Naveen and Flynn/Eugene. Romance requires both characters to be equally treated. In regards to the "potential" romance he has with Asha, there's this underlying feeling that Asha is treated like a vector for the reader/writer to insert themselves as.

Most romances, especially ones made for women, always centered on the main lead with the "protagonist" being in situations to ensure they get together. Majority of romances are made to be like a dating sim. There's nothing bad about going on fictional dates with a fictional partner but the issue here is that how the protagonist is barely a character of their own right. They are made to be relatable so the reader can insert themselves into, with any personality they have being treated as traits and quirks. Even with examples where both the protagonist and the love interest are both main leads, there's likely more emphasis is put onto the love interest.

And Asha is being somewhat unintentionally treated like this, especially in fiction where Starboy is the focal character is really upsetting. I get that Asha wasn't a great character but she shouldn't be treated like this. Or any character at all.

Asha being rewritten to be a completely different character to the point of being given a different name is just so jarring. That isn't Asha anymore. Just like the concept art above, she's small core traces of what was her there, but it's mostly all fan interpretation.

And this, to me at least, are the vibes I'm getting from. Wish being "remade" into something that it isn't. Being made to cater to a niche demographic whose tastes are just plain bad. I'm not one to judge people's preferences but disregarding the concept of a deceased family member who became magical shapeshifting creature from space for a more generic love story where you could self insert yourself into?

This isn't to say to giving Asha a love interest or making Star a human aren't bad ideas. I do in fact find the early concept interesting and I was initially neutral towards Starboy until that's what most of this "fandom" consists of.

This isn't the Wish fandom. This is the Starboy fandom.

[callmeklair]

Tbh with all of this I feel say to fully say my opinion on Ayato.

I do NOT hate him however the overhype about him has made sort of fed up of him. Like it’s always how great and pure hearted he is , and I’m not sure if it’s just me I’m finding it hard to believe he is.

People pull out the Dark Fate prologue that he saved Yui, he did but what would happen if Subaru never showed up?

In the anime Ayato literally threw her in the pool and despite her saying she couldn’t swim he still tried to get her to say she’s the best of his brothers. He only jumped in to her her when he got a flashback from his mother then kissed (without consent) and people just sort of ignored it? Even if it doesn’t happen in the games it shouldn’t be ignored or pass of as romantic as “aww he saved her”

I’m not hating on Ayato for this , I’m not holding this against as ALL the diaboys have done nasty shit. When I say ALL I am saying Ayato to.

I feel like alot of people baby him and act anything he’s done to Yui is nothing now due the curse even the whole curse idea came in at around 2018.

Also I don’t find the nickname chichinashi cute either , maybe slightly better than bitch-chan but it’s still not cute.

People say it’s okie to dislike a character but as soon as you say an opinion that isn’t positive but it’s still isn’t bad people see it as hate therefore treats it as such.

no fr, we state our opinion about the overhype and suddenly it's "hate on Ayato" 💀 plus he was no saint in anime. whatever you said about it and on top of that, in season two when he took Yui back he still bit her in middle of the forest despite her saying please don't I'm not in good condition, Yui definitely didn't fall for him after that it was more like no matter where she'll always be sucked dry despite her health being terrible. the curse thing just came out for rectification tbh, because in MB every guy went through thirsty part, and it was later on that ayato was declared as main interest, so yep.

also in darkfate, all boys warmed up to Yui, ayato saving yui is not the only thing in prologue, Reiji and Yui literally shared such a warming tea time with each other and the other boys came to interrupt it cuz they were little jelly which was really cute.

just like they say, it's a fictional character and it's useless to fight over it then why did you misinterpret our words into whatever you like and fight over it using analysis. I'm done with this topic :/

because I literally highlighted that I don't hate Ayato, it's just the overhype that I feel suffocating. my point is, everyone did horrendous things to Yui, including ayato then if ayato had reasons and development for it according to them then so can other boys.

[pjsk-writin]

can u write the boys with a reader that has a weird affinity for cats and keeps bringing them stray cats that they're somehow familiar with to pet and whatnot

odd rq but I think it would be adorable

cute req to start with !! im just combining these bc they're pretty similar, and welcome aboard 💮 anon !! I hope you both like this!! <3

♡ STRAY CATS - Akito Shinonome, Toya Aoyagi, Tsukasa Tenma and Rui Kamishiro x Reader

Akito:

In all honesty, Akito is just glad that you're not bringing home dogs-

Sure, he's a bit bewildered that cats seem to love you so much, but at least it's not dogs-

At first, he doesn't really want to pet the cats, mostly out of fear that they'd hate him or hiss at him

However, his opinion is entirely changed when a little orange kitten approaches him first and nuzzles his hand

As much as he would hate to admit it, he absolutely falls in love with the cats you bring in. Sometimes, you'll find him sitting with all the cats, a wide grin on his face as they play with him <3

He'll immediately tell you that it was nothing, but you could see the bag of treats right by his leg. He just loves the kitties okay, leave him alone-

Toya:

Toya's never really been around animals, so he's definitely pleasantly surprised by the cats!

He does ask why the cats love you so much, and you just shrug. Ah well, he loved you just as much as they did anyway!

He doesn't really know how to be around cats, he doesn't want to risk hurting them after all-

However, his nerves slowly begin to wash away every single time a cat approaches him willingly and nuzzles against him

He asks you for help most of the time, far too scared that he'll piss off or scare the cats- You get the treat of his look of awe every time he pets a cat and it purrs <3

He always feels weird asking, but he wants to go out and help you with the cats. He just finds it to be a nice bonding experience with you!

Tsukasa:

Tsukasa absolutely loves animals! No matter what kind, he'll always gush over them!

So, he's more impressed than anything with how much cats love you. You were a lovely person though!

He immediately starts trying to pet as many cats as possible, much to some cats' displeasure-

You have to tell him to slow down, and he'll give you probably one of the saddest looks you've seen to date

Still though, he thinks it's worth it when the cats start going up to him one by one for pets. His eyes sparkle, and he gives each of them an affectionate nickname <3

He begs to keep a couple at his house, which depending on how many, Saki also ends up adopting a cat or two!

Rui:

Rui doesn't spend a lot of time around cats, but they are definitely one of his favorite animals!

He relates to their nature quite a bit, so he isn't too shocked when he discovers how much cats love you!

He'll stand perfectly still and just watch all the cats, a small smile on his face as he observes them. He definitely asks about each and every cat

Some cats were content with just staring and watching him, while others approached him. He rewards those cats with little scritches

Soon enough, all of the cats are on him, and you just have to laugh as he pets all of them and gives them forehead kisses. He teases that they love him more than you <3

He is a natural with them though, and is very helpful whenever you go out with him and save stray cats

[utilitycaster]

Any passionate hot-takes or thoughts on The Legend of Vox Machina animated series? Anything you didn't like or thought could've been handled better or didn't grip you as much as you thought it might? Anything you thought they did really well that the fandom doesn't agree with you on?

Hi anon, I would recommend you check the "tlovm" and "tlovm spoilers" tags on my blog if you want any detailed analysis because it's been like 6-7 months since I watched it. Overall I liked it a lot. Based on a quick skim of those tags myself, and what I remembered offhand:

I am, on the whole, extremely in favor of the adaptational changes made. I think the writer's room understood the challenges of adapting something so long and extensive into the small chunk of time they had, and the choices (notably: the party split, the Osysa scene being much more confrontational/Kash and Zahra being less friendly, Grog's plot, and moving the Feywild to pre-Umbrasyl with all the implications that has for Vex's plot) were well done. One of my only small complaints is that while I get why the Kamaljiori scene was drastically changed for the sake of the adaptation, I do prefer both the puzzle of the original campaign and the fact that he wasn't killed.

In an interesting parallel to some of the ongoing Campaign 3 discussions, I think I diverged from a segment of the fandom in being strongly in favor of Vex's plot. This is honestly not specific to TLOVM; I watched Campaign 1 after it aired but the discourse surrounding Vex has always been tricky. The thing about Vex is the thing about all of Laura's characters, as others have said: for some reason, she tends to be treated as the self-insert player of the fandom. For Vex, I think this is also muddied by the fact that her most obvious "negative" trait, her issues with money, has been accepted for what it is, namely, the result of a life of poverty. However, perhaps because it was more compressed and obvious in TLOVM vs the more spread-out over time nature of C1, people really didn't like how much Vex cares about the opinions of Vax, Percy, and especially her father. I think a lot of people really wish Vex were Vax But A Woman, to be honest (though often those people do not like Vax...there's a whole other thing about how few people in the fandom manage to actually like both twins as individuals; either people love one and hate the other or are those "omg TWINNIES! and then one dies? and one lives? the MOST tragedy of tragedies" weirdos whom I have to assume actual twins would probably find kind of creepy), and TLOVM definitely brought those ones out.