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alovelyburn · 2 years

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Just thinking about the Casca Apostle theory...

This is whole speculation, not a real prediction although I do think it makes sense with the story and would fit the tone of the story very well.

OKAY SO THE THEORY THAT CASCA WILL BE THE ONE WHO MAKE THE SACRFICE WITH GUTS’ BEHELIT AND TURN INTO AN APOSTLE

This is a theory that I hadn’t heard at all until my return to Berserkdom a few months back. At first I had a hard time with it for two major reasons:

1. In most theories it took place too early in the timeline to really work for me. Because the thing is, Casca turning into an Apostle would be a gut punch the likes of which Berserk hasn’t had since the Eclipse. That’s definitely a third act type of plot turn, and we seem to be sliding into the third act right now, so it would have to be later than right now.

and

2. I just didn’t think that there was enough going on to catalyze it without it coming off as kind of floppy. Don’t get me wrong, realistically she’s had enough bullshit happen to her, but I guess I was just having a hard time imagining what event could trigger it to get that deep.

The abduction plot obviously took care of the timing issue I had.

But what I have now realized is that it also provided the necessary “shit gets real” catalyst to trigger that level of drama.

Let me explain!

(Obviously I didn’t come up with this idea, it’s just the specific variant on the idea that came to mind because it works for me whereas others didn’t feel quite right, IMO.)

So as we know, Guts has had this behelit since the beginning of the series. That makes it essentially a Chekhov’s Gun - it has to be fired by the end of the third act. Someone is going to have to use it.

Meanwhile, the other thing that’s become a Chekhov’s Gun is this concept that Casca may not want what Guts wants -

Now of course we eventually find out the issue - she has her emotions and memories of the Eclipse (well really everything from leaving to rescue Griffith forward) locked up in her thorny heart. The thorns haven’t come off.

Which makes the potential return of those memories ANOTHER Checkhov’s Gun - it’s got to happen at some point.

So obviously as of now we’ve seen that a major catalyst for those memories returning is just looking at Guts.

It happens every time she looks at him, which is obviously why she can’t.

So now we have three major powder kegs simmering, all of which have to blow at some point before the end of the series. A behelit that needs an owner. A dread warning that what Guts wants may not be what Casca wants. And all of Casca’s worst experiences and memories locked up inside her heart, unconfronted, waiting to be unleashed.

Dramatically, it didn’t really “feel” right to me for her to just get her memories back, lose her shit and turn into an Apostle. Even though it’s psychologically valid, it doesn’t strike me as.... narratively satisfying? Because I feel like something that big needs to be teased and revved up to, not unlike how the Eclipse kept coming up and being referenced and hanging over their heads for like 6 or 7 volumes. Not saying they would need to foreshadow it for 7 volumes but just something more than occasional vague references to her perhaps not wanting the same thing as Guts, for example because without that it would feel kind of like it came from nowhere. This is especially the case for someone like Miura who always wanted everything to be as dramatic as possible - Casca and Guts only got together because he thought it would be more dramatic, etc.

NOW. When Guts asks Flora to teach him how to activate the Behelit so he can summon the Godhand and instantly be killed fighting them (lets be real here), Flora tells him that the behelit will activate for its intended owner “at the very moment that the owner craves their power.”

So, when would someone crave their power?

How about when they find themselves in a city with someone they dearly love and no memory of all the horrors that were inflicted on them, and then their former lover arrives to save them, but looking at him causes awful flashbacks at which point she realizes that she’s literally surrounded by people who have raped (or tried to rape) and traumatized her as well as the murderers of all her comrades?

-Guts, who she loved but who attacked her multiple times and tried to rape her.

-Griffith, who she loved and who had all of her comrades killed and then actually did rape her.

-The Apostles?! WHO ARE NOW GRIFFITH’S ARMY? Guys, if she’s in Falconia, she’s not just in there with Griffith/Femto, she’s in there with the Apostles who slaughtered the Hawks and gangraped her into madness. And they’re all reformed and largely trusted members of the regular army of Midland now? I can’t imagine how this would feel to her.

-Hell, even her son literally shares Griffith’s body so she can’t be with him AND get away from Griffith.

There’s no... respite for her. No safe place. Even Guts attacked her, so what’s she supposed to do?

Feel powerless?

This would also...

-Pay off all the Casca/Griffith parallels. Of which there are many - Guts’ resolution to stay with her because he didn’t stay with Griffith and as a result everything went to hell, for example, or even just her position as the “leader” of the Hawks even when there are no Hawks left to lead. But also:

-This sneaky reference to Guts’ departure from the Band of the Hawk in Chapter 359: A Wall, in which Casca is placed in Griffith’s position on the ground, looking away.

I also do think that panel is meant to indicate that Guts is ultimately going to have to do this alone, whether literally or metaphorically. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up leaving the rpg party behind, which would make sense as well since Miura had said it was time to focus on Guts and Griffith’s relationship again.

Oho, but you may say, she’s Branded, Branded people can’t Sacrifice.

NOT SO MY FRIENDS.

Not only does Flora specifically note that it could be Guts’ behelit, perhaps, but...

Slan suggests it, and given that she’s one of the Godhand I daresay she’d know how possible it is.

In fact, what if all these things with Guts being named as a potential user of the behelit (including that bit right there, as well as Flora’s comment, etc) is meant not to foreshadow Guts using it but rather to let us know that a branded person can in fact use it so that we’re not confused if Casca does it. We already kind of know it won’t be Guts because Miura had said that he didn’t want Guts to get a bunch of powerups or lose his humanity because that would defeat the point.

And if you know my commentary about how Casca is basically just used to spark changes in Griffith and Guts’ relationship which this theory may seem at odds with... But it’s not, because obviously if Casca ends up going apostle because of the Eclipse, it furthers the tension between Guts and Griffith as it’s Griffith’s fault that this would have happened to her. Also, it could put Guts into a position where he has to decide whether or not to kill Casca, which seems like a terribly horrible Berserkish situation to put him in.

Long story short(lol too late): Right now if I had to pick the person that is likely to use it, it would be Casca. That’s just based on where we are now, though, things can always change, thoughts can always drift.

And that’s all!

#berserk meta #ariel talks about berserk #im a bit nervous about posting this #for some reason #but hey live dangerously

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ancient-day · 4 years

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On the Third Semester and PT Awareness

Over the year, I’ve seen various interpretations concerning the third semester and how “guilty” the Phantom Thieves are in falling prey to Maruki’s reality, and I wanted to throw out my own take and observation on the group. And this observation is based under the assumption that Akira has reached Confidant Rank 10 with every single party member, including Akechi and Sumire.

This isn’t to argue with anyone, and I’m not looking to make any sort of “I’m right; therefore, you’re wrong if you don’t agree” arguments here because at the end of the day, responses to media will always vary, and these characters are all human enough to have a multitude of interpretations. That does not make them badly written, it simply means that we as the audience may have different understandings based on our own personal experiences that impact how we view the characters.

With all that being said, I’ll get right into it. Do I think the PT were “bad friends” to Akira in the third semester? Short answer: It’s complicated, and different friends fulfill different needs. Long answer, below.

Starting with Akechi.

I’m gonna get this out of the way, but worry not, this isn’t an elaborate excuse to gush about their bond even if they’re my favorite characters. Bias aside, Akira and Akechi have a solid bond where they’ve finally come to rely on each other, and we finally get to see that come into play in this final arc of the game.

In Rank 8, Akechi expresses admiration for Akira’s strength and admits that he’d be relying on him in a pinch.

And this is exactly what he does when he seeks out Akira as soon as he’s let out of police custody. He notices things are odd and immediately goes to the person he knows he can rely on so that they can figure it out together. It’s painted as a deal, and obviously that appears strictly transactional, but that’s exactly how Akira has operated in his own relationships. He makes deals with his confidants; this is nothing new.

He even admits that he’d have snapped Akira out of the delusion, just like Akira does for all his other friends (albeit in a much less gentle way, but in his defense, he’s not exactly equipped for gently talking someone out of their happiness).

So for better or for worse, Akechi’s here with all the straightforwardness and sharp edges you could expect from someone dragged back from death’s door to deal with yet another manipulative adult trying to control his and his friend’s lives. He isn’t without his sympathetic moments, but for the most part, he’s clearly trying to be the consistent voice of reason when anyone may falter.

One of the most incredible displays of this is 2/2. By this point, all of the PT have been broken out of their trance, and they’re well aware that Maruki is going to confront Akira, especially because Akechi basically goes out of his way to point out that it’s the most likely scenario in their group chat.

Even though they all know this, they trust Akira to be able to handle this as their leader and to reach out if he needs anything. The problem here is that... Akira isn’t exactly known to do this. By now, they’ve all known him for a year, and they know that he handles most of his shit alone (mostly due to the Protagonist ProblemTM where the protag has to be mostly self-reliant to give the player something to do, but there are also instances of Akira deliberately hiding his pain and trauma from others to ease their minds [his headaches and responses to Shido]).

So why are they making him do it alone? Why isn’t anyone on stand-by? It’s possible they consider Morgana as enough support, so perhaps the thought never crosses their mind. Even Morgana is apprehensive about the whole thing, but doesn’t advise him to contact anyone else.

So who does give him back-up? Akechi. He doesn’t invite himself in, he doesn’t text Akira to let him know he’s just outside in case he needs him, and he doesn’t draw attention to it until Maruki calls him out.

He could be here for any number of reasons, and it doesn’t even have to be just one reason. But let’s assume he’s here because he wants to make sure Akira won’t be swayed by Maruki’s words or the temptation of his life without him being present to speak for himself. In both cases, he’s emotionally backing Akira up and going out of his way to help in his own way.

This speaks volumes for his strength of resolve and how far he’s come.

I don’t need to discuss the rest of this interaction because the primary focus is that Akechi demonstrates his friendship by being there for Akira even when his year-long friends weren’t (physically).

But are they bad friends for not doing this?

Not necessarily. Not everyone has this kind of strength and awareness to understand their friends on this level. Akira and Akechi understand each other well because they’re very similar at their core. This isn’t necessarily bias because the game goes out of its way to show and tell us this (hell, Arsene’s and Loki’s silhouettes are strikingly similar!). It makes them inconsiderate perhaps, but it doesn’t mean that they’re overall bad friends.

It’s not completely their fault that they buy Akira’s stoic leader personality. He doesn’t really give them much to work with, and as much as we all want to believe that we’d do better as friends, sometimes you really do think people can handle the problems they say they can and just hope that they’ll come to you when they need you. It’s human.

So rewinding now that I’m done focusing on what Akechi offered as a friend this semester and going back to the PT being under Maruki’s influence.

Each of the thieves offers Akira an apology during their third awakening, and I’m sure many people found this highly unnecessary because as far as we know, they were completely brainwashed by Maruki’s control on the world around them. However, if this were the case, then why would they feel so deeply apologetic? I have a couple theories about this.

One. This would be the second time Akira has to push them out of their own wallowing (the first time in the Velvet Room just before fighting Yaldabaoth), and their resolves back then would appear flimsy to them now having fallen under yet another form of manipulation. Where before they were ready to submit to the hopelessness and sloth, here they’re falling under Maruki’s spell because a strong enough part of them desired things to be different regardless of how far they’d come and how much they’d grown.

Two. Because they were at least partially aware things were odd and willingly chose to ignore it because they didn’t want to confront the truth.

This is said before the third awakenings, right after the group comes to rescue Akira and Akechi and help defeat berserk!Cendrillon. While the group had a conversation about vaguely remembering events that contradict their happy reality prior to this, this confirms that at least Futaba was aware things were odd even before Akira tried to snap her out of it. Whether this is due to her navigation abilities or her awakening having been linked to her desire to never again turn her eyes away from the truth, it’s hard to say. But this is important to note that while they were tempted by Maruki, at least one person in the group was aware that things were odd and willingly chose not to question it.

Can we blame her? Of course not. But it’s still worth pointing out that this situation isn’t so clear as “the PT had absolutely zero idea that they were in an odd situation until Akira tried to wake them from it.”

So what about everyone else? What do they really have to be sorry for?

Morgana apologizes for not holding true to his resolve, and he feels as though he’s let both himself and Akira down in doing so. He also acknowledges that he’s responsible for shoving all his own problems onto Akira and vows to change this.

While he doesn’t seem to admit to any awareness that things were odd before Akira put the idea in his head, it seems like he still holds himself responsible for having had doubts in his resolve that he’d reached with Akira in their rank 10. And these doubts caused him to rely on that false happiness and turn his back on Akira, even if he didn’t mean to.

I think it’s great that he brings attention to this and wants to be more independent. Of course Akira will still be there for him, but it’s not healthy for either of them for Morgana to have put him in this position, and now they can continue growing in their friendship. And so when he promises to protect Akira from here on out, it’s a vow that rings true because he had the strength to confront his own weaknesses, admit to them, and apologize for how they hurt someone he cares deeply about. Sometimes we hurt people we love without meaning to or when we’re caught up in ourselves.

And these characters are teenagers. They’re inherently pretty selfish, which isn’t an evil or bad thing so much as it’s a stage of life that makes it difficult to look outside yourself. Makoto even admits to this in her own apology.

When we’re fans of these characters, our instinct is to say you didn’t do anything wrong; you have nothing to apologize for, but these apologies aren’t coming out of no where, and they’re allowed to reflect and regret what they’ve done even if they didn’t mean to.

And I know I already touched on Futaba’s situation here, but there’s something else in her third awakening that shows her bond with Akira and adds to her guilt. She specifically fears that she’s betrayed him and hurt him greatly, even though he reassures her she hasn’t. Why does this stand out to me? Because all throughout Royal, one of Akira’s consistent fears is the fear of betrayal.

And this shows that Futaba knows him well enough to know this is something that hurts him personally, and she’s worried she did that to him. While the hurt isn’t as severe as she fears, it’s a fair assumption for her to come to after having admitted that she willingly turned away from the truth.

I’m going to cut the awakenings here because I don’t have much else to add about the entirety of the PT because it could end up redundant, but these were specific examples that show that they do have things to apologize to Akira for, and it’s not a matter of them blaming themselves for being “brainwashed” so much as them apologizing for once again putting Akira in a position where he has to snap them out of their weaknesses after they’ve promised to be there for him.

The overall impression I get from their responsibility in the matter is that to an extent, all of them probably experienced something similar to what Futaba described about having felt something was off initially but ignored/denied it until Akira came to them and really made them confront it out loud. Her sense of it may have been the strongest, but I still think there has to be some degree in each of them, even if faint.

This makes them human, flawed yet sympathetic. They’re allowed to mess up in their friendships, especially since a majority of them have close to no experience with friendship as is. Akechi isn’t the better support here due to his own skills in friendship; he and Akira have a special understanding of one another because they’re extremely similar and aren’t convinced by masks and appearances. And Akechi has been severely manipulated, so he knows damn well that Akira’s gonna need back-up against another manipulative person even if he thinks he can handle it alone. Akechi’s been there and he knows how that goes.

So it’s not necessarily a matter of him being the better friend overall so much as they’re all Akira’s close friends and support him in various ways. And ideally, Akira should have that in his friend group. There are things that the PT can offer that Akechi can’t, and vice versa. But I think it’s more than fair to acknowledge when the PT slip up and have a messy handling of their relationships.

They’re all growing and learning.

#jest ramblings #whoops i rambled but there are at least screenshots here?#I was gonna go through each of the 3rd tier awakenings but tbh this is already so long #kingdom queue

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katzkinder · 4 years

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Mikuni Alicein and the Virtue of Kindness

(Scan credit for the majority of the images in this post go to kingmakochan, who seems to have either deactivated or changed their url as I can’t find their blog, and dm5.com for the RAWs used)

For most Eves in the series, how they express their “Virtue” is... Pretty straightforward. We see their Virtues in action rather frequently or it’s tied in with their character arc, with more... Obtuse, shall we say, exceptions being Licht, who is also much more subtle about his Charity, and Niccolo, whom we don’t know very well yet.

But Mikuni... Holy shit, Mikuni outclasses Licht in terms of headscratcher by a country mile-- At first glance.

Mikuni is actually... Deceptively, heartbreakingly kind when you really start breaking him down and picking him apart.

Something he would absolutely LOATHE me doing, which is exactly why I’m doing it! :D

okay, SO

The first time we get a real good look at Mikuni embodying Kindness is actually... One we, as the readers, can only recognize as the kindness it is after reading Lust Arc in Volume 4. This particular situation takes place during Volume 2.

The alley fight.

Specifically, when Envy pair rescue Mahiru from a Kuro who has gone berserk.

Here, it’s implied that Mikuni has actually been watching for a while. He looks comfortable, relaxed. Like it’s just another day at the movie theater. We also learn that he’s also the one who called Doudou to come to everyone’s rescue with the car, something that shocks Doudou because, according to him, Mikuni never contacts him. (this in and of itself can be taken as an act of Kindness since it’s likely Doudou would get in trouble if he kept in frequent contact with Mikuni, given Mikado’s well meaning but ultimately misguided and, honestly, cruel, ban on talking about or acknowledging his eldest)

So why didn’t he step in earlier?

Simple.

Misono.

Mikuni is Misono’s older brother. He loves him more than anything else in the world, and everything he does is with Misono kept in the back of his mind. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Mikuni values Misono’s life over his own, because Mikuni is incredibly selfish and calculating, but... Preserving Misono’s life and having him grow up strong and loved is one of his bigger priorities. He’s willing to risk a lot for his baby brother.

The reason Mikuni didn’t jump in when Sakuya slashed Misono is, in my opinion, because Mikuni more than anyone recognizes how hard Misono is trying. He didn’t want to take away a potential victory from him. Misono actually struggles a lot with his self confidence, despite his blustery nature. Where Lily coddles and protects out of fear and love, Mikuni steps back and lets Misono take risks despite his fear, because he loves him.

Because he wants him to grow up. This is also his motivation behind his apparent callousness when Lily’s Item was shattered and he saw that gigantic plume of Jin coming from the Alicein Estate. He knew what was going on, and while he didn’t like it, he thought that it was imperative to Misono’s growth as an individual. He’s also the one who collected the letters from Misono’s mother in his old room, as well as the pocket watch. He’s the one who left his journal out for Misono to find.

He was very careful to ensure that once Misono discovered the truth, he found the whole truth. That he was loved, had always been loved, and there was nothing wrong about his being born. What happened to their family wasn’t his fault.

The burden of blame laid not with him, but with the adults in his life. Misono had never asked to be born, but everyone is so happy that he was.

Mikuni’s character song and his duet with Misono are also all about him expressing his love and willingness to get his hands dirty, to play the villain, for as long as it’s needed of him.

How is that not Kindness? How is that not love? Mikuni is cruel to be kind, hiding his good side behind a selfish, conniving mask, and as an older sibling with a younger half sibling myself, I fucking adore him for how far he’s willing to go to protect and encourage Misono. Even at the expense of... Everything that should have been his.

--I went on a tangent there, sorry. Ahem.

While reading through looking for panels to back up my claims and provide evidence that I am not a stark raving mad person, I also noticed this. As soon as Mahiru starts blaming himself, Mikuni steps in, reassures him, and then immediately sets about trying to distract him. It’s... A surprisingly responsible way of handling things wwww

I also always found it odd that Mahiru’s uncle, Tooru, just so happens to drop by for a surprise visit while Mahiru’s at his lowest. It’s just... Too much of a coincidence.

Except it isn’t a coincidence. At least, I no longer think so.

Given that both Tooru and Mikuni are affiliated with C3, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Mikuni called him. Like, “Hey! Your nephew’s in over his head. Go check on him!”

I’m actually starting to think he might have a soft spot for kids, which is adorable, laughs. Or, at the least, he has a soft spot for Mahiru. He definitely doesn’t care very much for Tetsu. Who can blame him, though, after poor, sweet Abel was handled so roughly. They’re a very delicate doll!

This is already, like, essay length, so one last example to finish up--

During the extra story for Volume 10, “Once, We Ate Together,” we see another example of Mikuni showcasing his Virtue. (apologies for the dip in quality, I wanted to respect the wishes of the original scanlation uploader so I took photos from my own volumes again)

Here. Right here. This was the moment that stood out the most to me, because Mikuni absolutely did not have to do that.

He remembered that Tsurugi has someone important to him. Someone that’s his family, who is also very very tall, laughs. He remember how happy Tsurugi was when Mikuni asked if Touma was his big brother. He also remembered... How he himself felt when he was ill and suffering from a high fever. How the people in his household worrying and clamoring over him made him feel.

And then he gave the experience to Tsurugi, who had his own suffering alleviated by the mere illusion that Touma had come to see how he was doing. That Touma was worried about him.

Mikuni gave Tsurugi something so precious that... Might have actually saved his life. Health and recovery from these sorts of dangerous bouts are as much mental as they are physical.

And now if you’ll excuse me... I’m going to go cry :’D

#kat's katerwauling #servamp #servamp meta #mikuni alicein #pls show up in the tags #if u don't i will cry for a different reason entirely #kat's meow

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blue-dream-rhapsody · 4 years

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BBS CFYOW Part 7 Kugo Blah Blah

I don’t have enough to say to make a whole bullet list like I did for the first part of BBS’s adaptation, but I want to touch on the two major Kugo scenes in the last part

And by touch on I mean swear excessively while typing about.

Because the first scene was Bad and the second one made way more fucking sense than it did before

.5) obligatory no new unit

.75) also minor gripe but everybody calling Ukitake “Jushiro” including Kugo who barely knew him at best is a bold move

1) Yeah so, what the FUCK was with deciding Kugo should be the one rattling of Tokinada’s whole-ass involvement in his life? Which he just happened to hear EVERY DETAIL OF from Aura and not, I dunno, fucking TOKINADA. The whole NARRATIVE POINT of that scene is the emotional tension, like oh my god. He’s face to face with THE bastard that caused him literal years of misery extended past an already awful moment in his life, and doesn’t fully realize it at first, until Tokinada takes the chance to just indulge in revealing everything in front of his face. TOKINADA is supposed to be the one to tell him Ukitake’s decisions against him had been based on information that had been manipulated before he got it. That HE manipulated that information specifically to fuck with BOTH of them. He’s supposed to revel in it because that’s his FUCKING CHARACTER, to be a BASTARD. Instead it just gets glossed over because Kugo got the Reader’s Digest version from Aura already and is straight to Big Angry.

Which also leaves no room for any of the plethora of other reasons to hate Tokinada he might’ve had at that point (using Yukio in a way that could’ve risked him getting targeted by the Court Guards had the kid not been as clever as he is, manipulating Aura who he now knows to be the daughter of someone killed That Day, planning Soul King shit for the kid he’d met once, purely being a Tsunayashiro who are All Bastards).

And the end of that scene pulls its poignance from the fact that even learning everything, Kugo still feels he’s made the right decision to turn on the Court Guards, WHILE also wishing he and Ukitake could’ve fully understood each other before his passing. But we don’t get to see him find that resolution—he’s already decided it before he showed up because he already had the whole truth! That’s dumb!

2) Okay for the positive now—with that last scene.

They kept the most important (to me) bits around the meat of the scene—Kugo wanting to leave the other two living Fullbringers alone (and Yukio refusing that), Shishigawara’s mention (though I feel like Shu’s reaction comes across as more dismissive than it should), and the whole book thing (which is just a treasure).

Most importantly, Kyoraku’s explanations made more sense to me this time. Maybe I just had zero reading comprehension before—or maybe they’re fully wrong in BBS, but more coherently written. I literally don’t know. But there’s something painfully meaningful in this iteration so I’d frankly really like it to be true.

BASICALLY,

The whole thing with Ukitake trying to get Kugo amnesty from both Captain Generals wasn’t about everything he’s ever done. Which is fair. The point is, if they ever duked it out and Kugo killed him, Ukitake wanted him to face no punishment for it. Ukitake wanted to shoulder all of the blame should it happen, because he knew it was his own decisions that turned Kugo against them. (Kugo says this is the case too.)

Ukitake had spent years prepared to lose his life to Kugo. He would’ve fought, because it was his duty to protect his men—but if his life was going to end at his hands, then that was nothing less than a consequence of his own choices. Choices which caused serious harm, and which he fully embraces his guilt for.

(Also, I think the implication was the monitoring and the Pass were Ukitake’s idea, but the Tsunayashiros basically hijacked it for their own ends as the creators of the Visuals Department, leading ultimately to the massacre to obtain Soul King fragments from Fullbringers. Kugo’s retaliatory killing of the Soul Reaper the family had sent (and presumably, the manipulated data Tokinada presented to suggest Kugo had gone berserk and killed several humans himself) was then the grounds Ukitake used to declare him a threat. But a lot of this stuff is just not remotely explained in BBS so… cool.)

For me, the big thing this changes is that Ukitake’s pleas for amnesty don’t invalidate Kugo’s feeling that he doesn’t regret his own rebellion. He isn’t saying, “No, you were right all along and we forgive you for what you did, so it all no longer matters.” Kugo doesn’t want that, based on his response when he thinks that’s what Kyoraku is talking about. And it’d be too nice and tidy a bow to put him firmly into The Good Boy Column, and that’s just not who Kugo is meant to be.

It also demonstrates Ukitake’s understanding that the Court Guards are not always in the right, which was a major undercurrent of Shuhei’s side of the plot. He’s not looking to absolve himself of blame in Kugo’s choices just because he had some doubts. And Kugo killing him in retaliation would, in its own right, be justice—and an action that the Court Guards may not have much of a right to decide is punishable.

So yeah. Points for you, Brave Souls!

In conclusion: Read the FUCKING NOVELS. They’re being translated officially, the first book of three is available now, and MissStormcaller’s got great fan translations past Volume I should you need it to hold you over. BBS didn’t do an awful job, but they abbreviated and kind of sucked some of the best little details out of the story. It’s a good plot synopsis though if you just want the basics. I’m mostly here to scream about Kugo Ginjo too so, just—just read the books.

#bleach #bleach cfyow #can't fear your own world #kugo ginjo #ginjou kuugo #hey tumblr wanna let me find my own posts ever??#maybe ill touch this up later rn i need to do something useful

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 5 years

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Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works 1 - 25 (FINAL) | Waver OVA

Much like the Fate/Zero post, this is mostly a set of notes which has already been released and is preserved here because of the difference editing makes. There was one completely insensitive, uninformed note and a note which I was writing down to be “more in character” which I’ve removed in all instances of the notes, though - it’s better you not know what was being said there.

F/SN UBW 1 (Prologue)

Now that’s the Rin I know from fandom whispers.

Turns out this is ep. 0 and there’s actually 12 eps…

This brunette reminds me of Maiya.

This wavy haired guy’s a Matou? Geesh, he somehow reminds me of the Great B*stard Archer.

Miss Fujimura’s a bit of a non-sequitur…

If I remember the fan whispers right, his name is Issei Hyoudou…? (Or is that the High School DxD guy?) Update: Issei Hyoudou is the High School DxD guy, this is Issei Ryuudou.

If people die when they are killed, then machines should, too.

I already know from checking up previous info that UBW is for the 5th Holy Grail War and Shiro Emiya is part of it.

The button says “voicemail”…well, it’s actually rusu, where rusuban denwa = answering machine (denwa = phone, so rusu means something like “protecting the house (while you’re gone)”). The best way to translate it would be “voicemail” though.

Fuyuki Church (Kyoukai)? Rin has them on her voicemail???

I seem to remembr reading that this white-haired character is an alternate universe Shiro Emiya…but I guess we’ll find out later, huh?

Hmm…I’ve seen this Command Seal before. I think it might be Dewbond’s profile pic, in fact…which tells me that he likes Rin.

The compulsion the guy is talking about reminds me of Steph from NGNL and how she was forced to fall in love with Sora.

Rin’s treating this like a gacha game…LOL.

Pride vs. pride, huh? Anyways, I think the really entertaining thing of putting me under the pump like this is that I have such an incomplete understanding of how the Fate/ universe works that the outcomes of everything create enough entertainment for those who’ve committed to said universe. The things that I do know might be really late-game though – such as the white-haired Servant being an alternate Shiro – so I have my own surprises to confirm.

“The Archer class really is made up of archers!” - …and people die if they are killed, y’know? (<- I know this from the memes. I won’t cover Deen/Stay Night, people don’t normally recommend it.)

Why is a cup omnipotent, anyway? Cups don’t have the ability to have knowledge. By the way, I bet Rin’s acquaintance will have something to do with this.

Rin’s Holy Grail War work reminds me of my own experience with piano. Basically, I grew up doing it, so I never questioned it until I thought about what I really wanted to do. I expect Rin will be the same way.

Hmm…Sakura and…the Great B*stard?

Rin says all of this about “crude garbage”, so all I can focus on is the bin off to the side…LOL.

Oooooooh…so this appearance of Sakura is why people put F/Z before this.

Saber…the reason she’s so popular is because she appears in so many incarnations of Fate/ that she’s basically become a poster girl for it.

F/SN UBW 2

There’s something that pisses me off about Sakura. It’s probably because she’s fairly submissive, like a girl who was written to be a guy’s fantasy.

The OP and ED was subbed the first time, so the fact this isn’t is interesting.

I think I’ve seen these scenes before…probably because they look exactly like the setup for Today’s Menu for Emiya Family.

Hypoxia.

Sakura’s boobs jiggled…urgh…

This episode feels a lot more like a VN intro.

Some of these scenes were from a different perspective in the prologue, so I’ll try to skip them.

Stove = heater, if you didn’t catch on.

Oh hey, Emiya isn’t part of the archery club anymore…but there’s some evidence that an alternate Emiya became that Archer Rin has.

That’s Ilya, isn’t it…?

Emiya’s magic incompetence reminds me of Waver.

Shinji is Sakura’s older bro??? I never heard of this…? Step-bro, maybe?

I read one of the labels on the machine – makanai setto – and turns out it’s a [meal] set for staff (teachers).

This series’s messages are like anvils…even more so than F/Z.

Where does Emiya work…? (For some reason, I call Kiritsugu that but Shirou “Emiya”.)

Archer’s not in white…not that much, anyway.

“…I really nearly was killed.” – Yes, and people die when they are killed, Emiya. You said so yourself in Deen/Stay Night.

I know this iconic scene where Emiya stares at Saber! I’ve seen it in all the screenshots and everything.

F/SN UBW 3

The blindfolded woman in the OP is apparently Medea. I think I mentioned her offhandedly in one of the WP posts I did, so I didn’t expect to see her so soon.

Most of this ep is explaining this stuff to beginners. I can skip that.

I don’t get the appeal of Rin, but then again, I’m neutral at best on tsunderes.

Shoten Books? Like, Bookseller Books? How redundant…

“[G]enuine fake priest” - …LOL wut?

Why is Kirei giving me Equilibrium vibes…? Oh, it’s because he has silly hair that reminds me of Christian Bale. That’s why.

Most of this episode was recap from F/Z, so I skipped it.

F/SN UBW 4

I’m laughing – this new Berserker reminds me of Tsukasa (Dr Stone).

Ah, same old Gilgamesh. He’s just in different clothes.

Kiritsugu felt like he actually was a character. Emiya? Just a blank slate, really.

Welp, that was over fast…

F/SN UBW 5

I’m getting sick of Rin’s tsundereness, fast.

Okay, crash course in types of Servants. I needed this.

*Saber reveals the outfit is from Rin* - Ooh, Shiro, don’t go judgin’ Rin like that…

Oh-hoh, Sakura does archery, huh?

I bet Kuzuki actually is a mage. That’s how these things always turn out, no?

Actually, I think Emiya might be a better match for my piano experience. There’s this one person who played at a higher level of piano than I did, but they kept telling me that I was way better than them at piano (although I don’t know if that was self-deprecation and/or inflating my ego). As I mentioned in my relation to Rin, I forcibly cut it out of my life because my parents chose it for me – in short, no desire to hit the target, in one way of speaking.

I can see why Fate/ needed a cooking spinoff now…LOL.

Shinto = New City, with a particular combo of kanji.

Are these Touken Ranbu enemies, Rin…? (They’re called Historical Revisionists, technically, and I specifically refer to enemy wakizashi.)

I seem to remember from somewhere Sakura is Caster’s master…hmm. Another thing to confirm.

F/SN UBW 6

That Rin reaction face! I’ve seen it before!

LOL, that “I haven’t been sleeping lately” is relatable.

Medea is one of the only Servants that was originally a woman, so…it’s interesting to see she’s been given a chain as a method to keep up (but also vaguely annoying to see her have such a short skirt). A chain weapon seems to be the sort of weapon for an agile user, with possible sexual overtones (if you want to interpret it that way), so it seems like it came straight from a male fantasy of a woman.

Rin is the sort that places a lot of stock into obligations, I see.

F/SN UBW 7

I learnt how to read the word “mirage” in Japanese somewhat recently (in comparison to the basics, which I learnt through a CD-ROM maybe…15 or so years ago?). It’s shinkirou.

I find it interesting that these eps. are marked as Fate/Stay Night and the series is Fate/Stay Night UBW, because Deen/Stay Night (as I’ve been referring to the Deen version of F/SN) looks pretty different to Ufotable’s F/SN, judging by that “People die when they are killed” meme.

The subbers spelt “specialty” wrong…

Well, Emiya, being in a room with a girl…alone…you really are a typical VN lead, aren’t you?

LOL! I knew Kojiro was also part of this series and I think I knew he was an Assassin, but s***! He’s an absolute looker!

…and *sigh* Caster is using her sensuality against men. A regular Fujiko Mine, she is.

I think my heart did something when Archer gave that intense stare at Caster, too. This is no time for a reverse harem!

F/SN UBW 8

Ahh! Kojiro Sasaki’s (this Assassin’s) so hot! I love it!

The only person who can beat Saber is another swordsperson, huh? Logic checks out.

That blue ring looks like the one at the start of Shinchou Yuusha’s OP.

F/SN UBW 9

I thought Shinji was gonna barf, but that was actually laughing…that’s what happens when you don’t have the volume on.

This replacement Gilgamesh (Shinji) sucks…

Just squinting at Caster’s chest…boobs do not work that way, people. Fabric goes over things like that, it doesn’t tuck itself so neatly around them.

I think Rin’s a real idiot for ignoring that Shinji is a Master and a mage…

I almost thought Shiro was gonna kiss Sakura for a second there. Apparently you should approach an unconscious person from behind and tap them on the shoulder (as opposed to going from the front to listen for breath), in case they try to punch your lights out.

Watching Eizouken, which doesn’t have girly runs for the girls, and then watching this makes you aware even Rin is capable of girly running…(LOL?)

Gee whiz, I was so sure this purple lady with the whip was Medea and a Caster-class Servant. So she’s a Rider??? Update: So it was Caster, masquerading as Rider…is that how it goes…?

So is this a locked-room – or locked-school – mystery…?

F/SN UBW 10

This is basically “You wanna go?” from Saber.

Considering the coronavirus, these words (about people getting out of the attack completely healthy) seem sort of weird…

Samosan? Seppa seppa? What dialect is this???

*Emiya asks Issei to strip* - Ooh…this is why Fate is popular with women…*thinks of the fact this was a male-oriented VN first* Maybe.

I still think the Great B*stard kinda looks like Kyo from Fruits Basket (…not that I ever mentioned it earlier).

I just realised Taiga’s shirt is striped orange/black…like a tiger.

The amount of still frames in this episode, in comparison to the usual number, is significantly higher.

F/SN UBW 11

I just realised Kinoko Nasu means “mushroom” and “eggplant” if not exactly written the way it is…what a name…

*something about being useful to others* - U-Uwaaaaah…Emiya! Stop reminding me of all the things I’ve done at the cost of myself!

Hmm? I googled Rin’s birthday and I thought she was a Leo – she’s an Aquarius (Feb. 3rd).

Rin absolutely steamrolled Emiya, LOL.

I get the feeling Archer is saying “Only you can save yourself”.

F/SN UBW 12

Randomly, there is a Volkswagen.

*something about Emiya photosynsthesising* - Rin, that’s not how people work…

Batting centre? How can girls go there in skirts without flashing anyone? That’s taking into consideration how short Rin’s skirt is, y’know…(Practicality comes first at all times, people…well, not for Saber, who’s wearing stockings, but I worry about Rin, as you can see.)

People find blushing tsunderes cute…I kinda get it for male tsunderes, but for Rin…not really.

Ack! Another double episode!

Why does this ominous vibe on a bus remind me of Harry Potter…? (Then again, the first things I remember of the movies were a shrunken head and a bus that could squeeze through gaps, which might explain things.)

Hmm? So what is Kuzuki’s place in Caster’s life, huh? Who’s controlling the puppet?

Come to think of it, who is Assassin’s real Master? If Caster has control of him, that means he belonged to someone else before that, right?

I feel sorry for Assassin. I mean, he has to keep talking to Caster with his body torn open like that…

“Princess of Colchis” – So Caster is Medea! Maybe Scott (who said I was wrong about that) was thinking I was referring to Rider. Rider and Caster do look awfully similar…but wait, so what was the real identity of Rider, then? Update: Reading over the notes, I was mistakenly referring to Rider as Caster, hence the comment.

Wolverine!Kirei strikes again, it seems.

Lel, I forgot about Lancer…and Berserker, now that I think of it.

F/SN UBW 13

So this is Brave Shine, huh? It doesn’t sound familiar at all…

…aaaaaaaaand of course Saber is in a fancy white dress. It’ll sell a lot of figures – in fact, I think I’ve actually seen Saber figures with that outfit while browsing for Nendoroids and other merch as of late.

F/SN UBW 14

Well, this blonde guy’s hair is nice…but he’s basically Shou Tucker all over again. (I haven’t even completed Fullmetal Alchemist in any form – I just know what the guy did because the fans talk about it a lot.)

Gosh, evil begets nothing but more evil, huh? (re: Kirei and blondie here)

I gotta facepalm - this blonde dude really shouldn’t have maltreated Medea. She has a reputation for a reason.

It took me a few tries and the brightening of my screen to figure it out, but Caster spotted Kuzuki.

Gilgamesh, what the f*** did you do to those poor maids?! (Even if they were homunculi…)

The subbers appear to have spelt “homunculus” slightly wrong…

F/SN UBW 15

“Going through the front door would be a bad idea.” – Yeah, and people die when they are killed.

I really respect Illya now…and can see why she got her own spinoff.

This snowy mountain makes me realise exactly why they chose Ufotable for Demon Slayer.

F/SN UBW 16

I was wondering what Gilgamesh had torn out of Illya…ew.

I was watching Shazam the other day and a piece of advice the titular superhero gives is “Look out for number one.” (i.e. yourself) Rin has much the same mentality.

I seriously facepalmed when they tried to protect each other. One person should learn to stand down in the relationship for that to work.

Hmm…so this means Lancer’s Master is male, huh? (Why is that Master still a mystery anyway…?)

I facepalmed the third time (the second was soon after the first) when Emiya thought he could seriously protect Rin from Lancer. Knowing who Lancer’s Master is a much bigger priority right now, man – this isn’t a romcom!

I like Lancer’s sideways gaze, LOL.

*Archer comes in* - Well, hasn’t it been a while since we saw this guy? (voice drips with sarcasm)

“druther” – Hmm? I’ve never heard of this word before. Apparently, it means (when used as “If I had my druthers…”) “If I had my way…”.

Hmm? What’s this? There are two pendants instead of one…?

F/SN UBW 17

There’s a lot of shots centring around Lancer’s butt…LOL. (Or is that just the female gaze I’m forcing on to this?) Even still, because Lancer has an outfit like that, it’s kinda hard not to see that he does have a fine one.

“You have a lack of pride in your sword skills.” – Uhhhhhhh…I guess that’s why he’s Archer…?

I never seem to know who the Lancers are…geesh. Like, I could pick one from a crowd of Servants, but not their real names. Update: As it turns out, Karna (the one Indian Servant I had my eye on from Apocrypha) is a Lancer in Fate/Grand Order.

Apparently, Gungnir is the spear of Odin.

Kuzuki is a Master…of the Naruto run. (LOL)

Noting “sieben” and stuff, I think Rin’s magic is German in nature.

Why does Medea have elven ears, anyway…?

F/SN UBW 18

The subs suddenly turned yellow! What the heck?! (Prior to this, subs were white.) Update: Come to think of it, only Aniplex shows have yellow subs, while Funimation ones have white subs (although HiDive let you choose between white and black, the standard is white on the hardsubs). This might mean a switchover between who’s responsible for the show happened while this anime was airing.

“…within your grasp?”

Ooh, this I didn’t expect! Saber joined forces with Rin!

“…your wish was a mistake.”

*Shiro fights swords with more swords* - For some reason, I feel like I need to play some Daft Punk right now. (I don’t even like them as an artist, even though I’m meant to be the EDM expert around here…)

This all but confirms Archer is actually a Shiro Emiya from a distant future.

I just imagined an Archer whose body was made of swords. What a compelling image – a literal human weapon.

Those hand gestures…Shinji is a massive creep.

Huh? I’ve been skipping the post-credits segments for previous episodes because I’m binging, but there’s a post-credits segment here…

Hmm…this next-ep preview had a rook (or a king? I’m no good at identifying chess pieces by their appearance) with a red glowing symbol on it facing what appeared to be the symbol of the Saber class. What an interesting representation of the upcoming inevitable faceoff.

F/SN UBW 19

Wouldn’t it not make sense for future!Shirou to kill present!Shirou? I mean, you know the time travel paradox…if you kill the present guy, the future guy doesn’t exist.

“Sorry about that, punk.” – LOL. Lancer’s great.

Hey, wasn’t Kirei dea-oh right. In fiction, when there is no corpse, you can’t have assumed the character died. They probably skedaddled off somewhere, heavily bleeding and/or on the edge of death…and I’m assuming that was how Kirei got out of his scuffle too.

All this talk about ideals makes me wanna play Odd Future for some reason, LOL. (Well, the first line of that song is “I keep my ideals”, no?)

“…it is you who is disobeying orders.”

A eunuch, huh? Rin, you do know that a eunuch has his *erhem erhem* cut off…right?

Okay, people. Why must women be the source of the Holy Grail? This is only the 2nd time I’ve gotten to this point and you’ve got enough men to fuel the Grail instead. Why not use them??? Update: It’s safe to say I get my wish later.

“You’ve been removed from the bounds of time.” Subbers, I know you’re under pressure to produce subs, but please proofread…? Pretty please? Update: I should proofread too. My E key is a bit dodgy at the moment.

I predicted, a few seconds before it appeared on my screen, that Shirou wasn’t the type to do things he regretted. Yyyyyyyyyyup. That’s Shirou, alright.

F/SN UBW 20

Okayyyyyy. That was not an episode title that needed to be subbed.

Oh, gosh. Can you please just knee Shinji where it hurts, Rin…? I know you’re being choked, but you could still do something lik that.

…(lol)…What the heck, Shinji’s such a self-preserving prick!

So how many times did Lancer actually die and how many times was he faking it out?

“Dying because of some order that comes with being a hero.”

So who’s Gilgamesh’s Master now…?

Hmm…I thought by saving Rin and Saber, Shirou was already a hero. Maybe it’s just a perception thing.

H-Hey, Shirou…you keep saying redundant things…

F/SN UBW 21

Why is Saber just standing there, anyway…? (Well, Shirou did say it was his fight, but…she can do something…)

Okay, whose idea was it to cut after “However…”?! That’s terrible pacing.

This series peaked quite a few episodes ago. Now it’s just stretching for time.

Um, hey. Random question. Didn’t King Arthur draw Excalibur from the sword in the stone? Is that a stone or a tree stump? It’s hard to tell since the zoom quality is funny, but…if it’s a tree stump, someone got a crucial detail wrong. Update: Nup, it’s a stone. Forget I told you.

Having sacrificed myself for over a year for other people’s sake, I can’t say I agree that giving yourself up for others is a beautiful thing. This is speaking as someone who volunteers at a not-for-profit (the charity store). In fact, having thought long and hard about the fact I’ve completely gone down the wrong path from having taken this one opportunity I was given (note I did get rejected from a similar place before I got the position I did), I’ve thought, occasionally, that sort of thing is disgusting.

Did the Great B*stard even age 10 years while waiting for this new war…?

“…left off 10 years ago.”

Uh-oh. I don’t like Shinji – you can clearly tell that from the way I’ve been reacting to him – but there’s no way you’d use him as a Grail vessel…right?

F/SN UBW 22

If I understand the pink box correctly, it says kayumino-ru which is…*checks that up* itch cream(?) Another of the boxes says either iburon or ipuron, but it seems to be some kind of medicine (although I can’t figure out what it does).

“…flashy gold jerk…” – Yup, that’s why he’s the Great B*stard. The most narcisstic of all b*stards –so narcisstic he survived a Holy Grail War without being the victor.

Lemme guess, Rin…if I know my visual novels right, then the way to establish the mana link is either kissing or sexual intercourse, right? Update: Oh well, transplantation of a Magic Crest will work too. With the way Rin was reacting, I thought it was gonna be really intimate, but…nup. It’s just them taking off their shirts for one another…*whistles and pretends to walk away*

The reason I don’t like tsunderes is that whenever they want to be romantic, you can’t tell whether they’re giving mixed signals or not. Then again, you could argue I count as one, so…uh…*sweatdrop*

Shirou, why are you so concerned for the pillow?!

F/SN UBW 23

You can barely recognise the guy (Shinji)…huh.

H-Hey? You couldn’t mean Assassin’s back, right? Update: Y-Yep, that’s Assassin, alright. At least I can gaze upon his handsome face again…(lol) (<- If you’re wondering, there’s a difference between “lol” (or “small LOL”), “lel” and “LOL”. That’s the order they’re meant to be in, going from smallest to biggest laugh.)

Had to check Wikipedia, but Monohoshizao is the pole (?) wielded by Kojiro Sasaki…well, the correct term is nodachi (which I know better as ootachi from Touken Ranbu), but it’s referred to as a pole. To add something interesting to that, the ootachi I like the most (my beloved Taroutachi) is said to be 221 cm (throwing that into a converter, about 7.25 feet) and 4.5 kg (converting again, about 9.92 pounds)...which is basically something no human should be able to use, so if the pole is anything like Taroutachi...I have immense respect for this Assassin as well.

Assassin’s treatment here reminds me of Tora from Juuni Taisen…in a sense, they got what they wanted.

F/SN UBW 24

Cue the law of equivalent exchange from Fullmetal Alchemist, hahaha.

How can you be so sure you’ll beat the Great B*stard, Shirou???

Well, that Grail’s Holey, alright…(I bet you’re groaning at my joke, yes?)

I thought Archer was dead?! How did he fling a weapon at the last moment?!

Archer, you’re disappearing! This is no time for monologuing!

Why do I get the feeling I’ve seen Rin give the thumbs-up before as well…?

F/SN UBW 25 (FINAL)

Eyyyyyy? London…? Update: Oh, it’s the Clock Tower! That OVA is starting to make sense now! (Although I will watch it next, so there’s no need to muse over it.)

Tohsaka without pigtails is…weird.

Sherou (?)

Oh, romantic infighting (voice dripping in sarcasm)…That’s not what I’m here for. This is not a harem.

Ponytail Rin. This just gets weirder and weirder. Also, she kinda looks like Ishtar from Babylonia like that.

Tiny Pigtail Rin…it gets even weirder.

*yells* See?! It is London after all!!!

Update: Prior to this point, I had Silhouettes (by Avicii) playing in my head on occasion, notably when Archer was meeting his end. When Shirou came face-to-face with Saber’s grave, it switched to So Amazing by Luther Vandross. Although I normally don’t mention what I have on my mental playlist in notes like these, I just want to make note of that because it reflects the switch in mood. (Also, this is basically an extended transition into El-Melloi’s Case Files.)

Hmph. Yeah, nothing like hindsight to make something huge look small.

Sakura and Shinji’s relationship…it reminds me of a grumpy old man and his young daughter…(LOL?)

Ryudou’s reaction to romance reminds me of Tenya (from BnHA) in his more crazy moments.

All this talk about the Clock Tower is making me think that older!Waver will show up at any moment now…

…wa-hey? Well, *spits out some held-back laughter* whaddaya know? That’s the older Waver right there!

Ufotable’s older!Waver and Troyca’s older!Waver look fairly different. Ufotable’s isn’t as attractive because his hair has an artificial sheen to it and the man’s face looks more like a snake’s head in shape, so he looks a bit dumb. Update: Certainly Troyca’s Waver has a more egg-shaped head, but at least that makes his hair look nicer, no?

Post-credits segment. Keep watching.

Huh…that segment wasn’t very substantial. Maybe Hoshiai no Sora spoilt me on that front.

Waver OVA (REWATCH)

*yells* I still think Flat Escardos is a terrible name!

LOL, I think Waver just called out a bunch of political writers right there.

So who are these old people??? (Lennon Glasses and Old Lady here) I still don’t know. Update: You do find out later – Inorai is the old lady and Rocco is the old man.

Okay, so apparently the set of characters used for “Rail Zeppelin” is literally translated to Demon Eyes Collection Train...sounds like something out of Demon Slayer.

If Kayneth is the OG Lord and this Reines girl is the new one, how did Waver become gen. 2? *rewinds a little* She’s el-Melloi Archisorte, meaning that somehow she and Kayneth are blood-related (also note Monkey D Luffy = Luffy is his first name and Monkey is the last name with D being a middle initial, so Reines could have her names around the wrong way as well). Still doesn’t answer the Waver part of the question, though. Update: The character page of the official website says Reines is the rightful heir to the name “Lord (Lady?) El-Melloi”, but she appointed Waver to be the Lord while she waited to become of age and take the position.

As you know, I gotta question the guy’s (Waver) age. In Fate/Zero he was 19 and he looks much the same ten years later, so his approximate age range is 19 – 29 here. Wikipedia (which I linked earlier) says the anime this OVA is attached to occurs between the Grail Wars, meaning I might not be able to get an exact age. Update: “[A]lmost 10 years”, so I’d wager he’s on the back end of the age range (24 – 29).

Ooh, another good boy (Bram). I forgot he existed…and that’s kinda nasty that he’s got the bloodline of Sola-Ui in him. Update: Oh! Younger sister! That is nasty!

The word shisho (師匠), if I’m guessing the right characters, means “instructor” (or “teacher” if you wanna bend it that way). “Sir” is Waver’s title…I’m guessing that translatio choice is because he’s not a professor in title, assuming professor titles in this are given like they are in real life.

There’s something quite cute about Waver making such an indignant face…then again, he does have permanent worry lines on his face, so maybe not.

Like, whose bright idea was it to crush on the loli? Ravioli, ravioli, don’t crush on the loli! (Then again, I’m probaby worse, chasing after older men…)

Come to think of it, Ufotable is good at action motion (see exhibit A: Demon Slayer), but not free-flowing comedic motion like Waver falling over like this. That’s probably why the show jumped studios to Troyca (aside from divvying up the work of the Fate/ universe – Ei Aoki did F/Z, after all, so it makes sense he’d have some ability to take dibs on whatever works best for his studio…although he wasn’t too involved with this, I don’t think). Update: He was supervisor and storyboarder for this OVA.

Waver: Official butt monkey of the Clock Tower. Calling it now.

Troyca animates F/Z (however briefly)…I must say, they did a good job imitating Ufotable.

All I really remember from the first time around is the car chase, which really shows my priorities in anime…heh heh.

Troyca’s CGI is more noticeable than Ufotable’s, but they’re still on of the best studios for CGI, I think. That’s why they’re on my favourites list over Ufotable (since Ufotable, by general consensus, does better work but I think it looks more artificial in parts – case in point, Waver’s hair).

Setting up a mystery, like all stories, is very much about setting up the boundaries that you’re allowed to play in later. The only thing is that mysteries get more stringently judged for logic.

Hey, whaddaya know? Waver can fit Rider’s old shirt now! (Or maybe it’s the smaller version Waver implied was given to him during F/Z.)

“[W]hydunit” (in English) – LOL? There’s “whodunit”, but not “whydunit” – stick to “motive” or “modus operandi”, people.

#Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works #Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files #lord el-melloi ii sei no jikenbo: rail zeppelin grace note #Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files: A Gravekeeper A Cat and A Mage #Lord El-Melloi II-sei no Jikenbo: Rail Zeppelin Grace note - Hakamori to Neko to Majutsu-shi

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

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War of the Realms Strikeforce: Land of Giants Thoughts

This was recommended to me and I’m rather glad it was.

I’ve said before that the best Marvel Team-Up story was in fact...Spider-Man vs. Wolverine. The intended irony of course being SvW executed MTU’s intentions better than any MTU issue itself ever did.

In a similar vein this story is perhaps the best New Avengers issue we’ve ever had, at least as far as Spider-Man was concerned.

Don’t get it twisted, I’m not saying this type of story should be the norm for Spider-Man, either in its setting or tone. Nor that New Avengers should’ve written Spider-Man like this every issue.

But in New Avengers Spider-Man seemingly existed 99% of the time to provide (bland) quips or ‘funny bits’ and otherwise to be a body to throw against bad guys along with everyone else. Little exploration of his character occurred, little use of his personality bouncing off of anyone else’s defined personality occurred. It didn’t help he often was in settings and stories Spider-Man doesn’t really belong in.

This issue weirdly follows in New Avengers footsteps as far as making Spider-Man the ‘funny guy’ and putting him in a setting he doesn’t belong in.

But unlike New Avengers stories this story goes further with that, brings in a dash of Spider-Man’s actual personality beyond being the quipper and embraces it’s premise.

As an ongoing this would probably suck. If this was in a main Spider-Man title it’d probably suck. If it was indeed outside of Spider-Man’s main title but still impacting upon him somehow it’d probably suck.

Because this issue is an odd duck in that it’s Spider-Man’s story but is not a Spider-Man story if you see what I mean.

Allow me to clarify.

A Spider-Man story traditionally is street level, grounded, personal, revolves around more relatable issues and the like. You see where I am getting at.*

This story is nothing like that. Spider-Man’s primary relationship is with a talking flying horse for God’s sake!

However because the story is from Spider-Man’s POV it is in essence his story.

And Taylor (of the current FNSM run fame) does a deft job with the assignment.

By making this a one shot that isn’t even labelled as a Spider-Man story it alleviates expectations from readers. It in essence makes it okay we are seeing a story about Spider-Man talking to a magic horse queen.

It also helps that the whole story doesn’t take itself too seriously. Unlike Bendis’ brand of quips for quips sake, inserting them into serious situations where they didn’t belong, Taylor hits what I call ‘the One Piece sweet spot’.

One Piece is a popular manga/anime franchise from Japan. It is an epic adventure full that strikes a deleicate balance between something of a gag machine, an action thriller and a heartbreaking tragedy.

The gags allow you to accept the absurdity of something like Spider-Man, Cap, Wolverine, Luke Cage and Iron Fist riding flying horses to fight Frost Giants. By rights this isn’t really the best setting or type of story for any of these characters but the gags allow you to go with it.

But there is just the right amount of pathos and gravitas and action at the right moments for there to be a level of genuine emotion to resonate with you.

You go from:

“Oh my God Spider-Man is befriending a talking flying horse queen. That’s so absurd it’s awesome”

To:

“*sob* The talking flying horse queen died. I’m so sad right now”

I think the secret ingredient holding this together is the fact that

a) It’s Spider-Man himself who’s the focus character and

b) His narration is a framing device, specifically one addressed to MJ

Spider-Man is a less gritty character compared to Luke, Danny, Steve or Logan. Of them he’s the least likely to kill and the least likely to be described as a warrior (though he is one of a fashion).

He’s the most like us basically, thus this specific setting, in spite of it being so far removed from traditional Spider-Man fare, works well to emphasis the relatability at the core of the character.

He doesn’t want to fight in a war. He’s the least at home there arguably. After all Cap and Wolverine are clear cut veterans. Danny is a trained warrior and Luke knows what it is to grow up trying to survive desperately.

This isn’t in disparagement of Peter, but rather it places him in a more sympathetic position, akin to a soldier far from home, not wanting to be there, uneasy about his presence on foreign ground, unsettled by the violence of war and trying to keep going by focussing his memories on his ‘girl back home’. Taylor found a way to bring in the ‘normal Average Joe’ aspect of Spider-Man into a setting where by rights it has no place, a setting which doesn’t invite ‘Peter Parker’ but rather just generic superhero Spider-Man.

That’s another way in which this story is weirdly connected to SvW actually. In that story Peter was also unsettled by violence, ruminating on MJ and thrown off kilter by a new unfamiliar setting and gets an up close look at death. Of course death is no stranger to Spider-Man, but a death amidst battle is a little different to something like Gwen Stacy or Uncle Ben’s death.

There is another connection though, and as obvious as it is to spell out...it’s Wolverine. This story could hardly be called a Spider-Man/Wolverine story but this story does bounce them off of one another very well. Wolverine is something of a shit stirrer who messes with Spider-Man and doesn’t wholly take him seriously (in character for him). Spider-Man is meanwhile uses him as the straight man to his humour. But there is an element of respect between them with Wolverine clearly empathising with Peter’s grief over Arctorius. This adds up, not only because Logan has seen much death in his long life, but because he has a kinship with the animal kingdom and understands all too well the loss of a comrade in arms.

So does Cap, who also shows a little empathy after Arctorius’ death. Indeed Peter and Steve’s relationship, whilst it doesn’t go as far as it could, is done quite well because Peter’s respect and admiration for Cap is clear cut and Cap gets what kind of person Peter is. Him recommending a shield is a small, obvious, yet very nice moment between the two that in a way speaks volumes.

Luke and Danny don’t share much with Spider-Man in the story but along with Logan and Cap are great inclusions in relation to Spider-Man.

Cap and Logan are soldiers who in a way are larger than life. You could see them as older brothers to Spider-Man but one who looks after you and the other likes you but trolls you too. Danny and Luke meanwhile are more street level guys like Peter. Any of these guys wouldn’t be bad options for a Spidey team up story and all are out of place in this setting. But when put together their ‘out of placeness’ works.

Helping things along is that the action is decent enough, Spider-Man’s shield attack being the clear cut highlight.

Arctorius is of course the highlight though. In a few pages Taylor makes you invest in this ridiculous concept and character and buy her relationship with Spider-Man. Thus her death and the issue’s end is poignant and resonates nicely, sad as it is.

As a final pro, Spider-Man is referred to as a jester.

This is actually a decent way of reconciling Spider-Man into a high fantasy setting. I prefer JMS’ idea of Spider-Man as the ‘trickster’ but jester works well. Even Thor in older stories has observed Spider-Man’s humour is a mask for his insecurities and Arctorius’ labelling him a jester isn’t derisive. He’s a jester warrior.

Now it ain’t perfect.

I’m no Iron Fist expert so I don’t know how fair this is, but I feel Danny was written a bit too comedic in this story to the point of being out of character.

Additionally when it came time for everyone to list of their berserker rages Spider-Man’s fell flat. It’s played off as Spider-Man is just too nice and wholesome to have such rages when there is a clear history of him having them. Death of Gwen Stacy anyone? In isolation it was a decent if predictable joke, but it’s not true to Spider-Man’s history. You could always No. Prize it but I feel it came off more like Taylor not remembering or thinking through the dialogue.

All in all I highly recommend this issue as a fun detour. It deserves your money more than League of Realms.

*Now there can be exceptions like the JMS run, but he was wise enough to temper the magic and mysticism by grounding it in more a more relatable setting most of the time or connected to more clearly defined Spider-Man topics and subject matter. For example a mystically empowered villain abducted children to the Astral plane prompting Spider-Man to go there and save them. Sounds out of place right? Well yes but the villain in question is a common crook who got lucky, he’s abducting Peter’s underprivileged students, Spidey needed to do regular street level investigation to figure out the guy’s game and saving the kids made him miss a date with MJ.

#War of the Realms #Spider-Man #Peter Parker #Wolverine #Captain America #Luke Cage #Iron Fist #Thor

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nadziejastar · 6 years

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KH3 Plot Holes and Analyzing the Weapon Names of Organization XIII (Part 1)

After beating KH3, I was immensely disappointed. All I could think of was how poor the story was, how many plot holes there were, how many questions I had that should have been answered, how unsatisfying so many character arcs felt, and how little closure we got on so many topics Nomura previously promised answers to. Almost all the issues that felt unsatisfying or poorly explained are now being tied to the next game, when by all rights they should have been resolved in this one. And most of these subplots are now being tied to Union X, when they had no foreshadowing that they involved that game’s lore or original characters ever before.

One of the main topics I felt NO closure on was Ansem’s six apprentices, as well as Lea and Isa’s connection to them. We know Nomura originally intended 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage to be a full-volume game, and that it would have made the characters “more complicated”. Given the scenes chosen in Blank Points, it seems we would have learned much more about the apprentices and their fall to darkness. Here are the things Nomura said in interviews that indicate how much more we were supposed to learn about the original Organization XIII:

What sort of people were Organization members 3-8 as humans?

We know now that they had ordinary lives in Radiant Garden. In BbS we’ve seen one part of Xigbar’s past, as well as members 3-8. 3-6 were apprentices under Ansem the Wise and did things like act as guardsmen, but Axel and Saïx were just young boys who were friends.

What happened to Ansem the Wise?

He is left wandering in the Realm of Darkness. Ansem the Wise, who had been banished to the Realm of Nothingness by his six apprentices, in KHII, wanted to release the Kingdom Hearts made from people’s hearts that the Nobodies of his apprentices had made. The machine that he used for that ended up exploding, taking him with it. It looked as though he died, but we know from the secret event in BbS that he was sent into the Realm of Darkness. Ansem tried to encode the heart’s form into data with his machine, but it didn’t go as planned and the machine went berserk. Ansem the Wise was thrust into the Realm of Darkness, forgetting all of his memories except those concerning Sora.

Did Apprentice Xehanort really lose his memories? Master Xehanort commandeered Terra’s body, and became Ansem the Wise’s apprentice. According to Secret Ansem Report 1 From KHII, the young man asked to become a test subject for Ansem’s research so he could get his memories back. After that they began the study of darkness, but did he really lose his memories? And are those memories Terra’s or Master Xehanort’s?

Why is Xemnas searching for The Chamber of Waking?

To find Ventus. The Chamber of Waking is the room where Aqua leaves Ventus sleeping in Last Episode, and is a part of Castle Oblivion. As you can see from Xemnas calling Aqua’s armor his “friend”, it seems Xemnas has Terra’s memories and he is searching for Ventus, making the other Organization members look for the Chamber of Waking. The only one who can solve the mysteries of Castle Oblivion is Aqua, though, so the Organization was never able to find it.

What are the details of Ansem’s apprentices fall into darkness? Most of what had happened with Ansem’s apprentices before their fall into darkness is unknown, aside from what was touched upon in Secret Ansem Reports. And the mystery of “the plan that was decided on after Axel and Saix entered the Organization” that was talked about in the Secret Reports in Days still remains. According to Nomura there is still much about the Organization’s humans that has yet to be said.

Where is Master Xehanort’s keyblade? As was stated in Secret Ansem Report 13 in KHII, while studying darkness the young Xehanort opened the door to the heart of Radiant Garden. This would have been possible if he had a keyblade, but according to the Ansem Reports 4-8 in KH, he did not yet know about the keyblade at the time. In Last Episode Master Xehanort used his keyblade up until going to the world of darkness, but what happened to it after that...?

Roxas, the "Sora + Ventus" Nobody, was able to use a Keyblade. In contrast Xemnas, the "Terra + Master Xehanort" Nobody, wasn't able to use a Keyblade. Why is this?

I'd rather that point remain a mystery. It's possible that he intentionally wasn't using one.

The King seems to come in contact with Kairi, the heroine from Kingdom Hearts I.

Because the story takes place before Kingdom Hearts I, the part about Kairi couldn’t be ignored. However, the cause for her going to Destiny Island and her detailed history are not revealed. It draws on the mysterious special existence.

Why did Kairi end up with Sora and Riku?

It has to do with Aqua’s “magic”. Nine years before KH, Kairi was thrust into the outside world, and found herself on Sora and Riku’s world. Ansem Seeker of Darkness thought that she had been able to search for a keyblade wielder, but what actually saved her was the magic spell Aqua had put on her.

Lea and Isa also lived in Radiant Garden apart from the Organization members up to No.6.

That’s right, however they are merely residents at this time. They’re just innocent Frisbee playing boys.

Where did the Organization’s coat and mark come from?

Xemnas remembering his human years. One year after BbS, Xehanort as well as five other apprentices toss aside their hearts. Then the Nobody Xemnas was born, and the Organization which he creates takes a lot of things from his memories as a human. But as Xemnas had two people who he was, Terra and Master Xehanort, he takes from both of their memories.

In KH BbS, Master Xehanort's goal behind opening Kingdom Hearts was to "create a new world." But in this game, he says it is to "reset the world." Why the difference? What was revealed in this game was another piece of the truth: his goal was "this world is no longer any good, and we have to recreate it from scratch."

We are interested in why Xehanort would come to such a conclusion. At first, I did want to use a next game to dig down into how Xehanort went from that simple boy playing the chess-like game to an admirer of the darkness. But, if I do that, then the Dark Seeker Chronicle wouldn't have ended with KH3 after all (laughs.) Some ideas had solidified to a degree, but it's shelved for now.

The Dark Seeker arc has concluded, but since when have you been thinking about the conclusion?

The Dark Seeker arc has been a concept ever since KH2. In those days, I just kind of threw together and decided an outline. I was often told by the manga artist that they felt "the characters come alive however they want", and some parts did change from their original conceptualization, but in the grand scheme of things not much changed.

Emphasis mine on the mention of things changing from their original conceptualization. There are many details I suspect were changed, while keeping the overall grand scheme the same. I believe there was supposed to be way more backstory to the Organization than what we actually got. So I decided to look for possible clues in the story. 358/2 Days revolves around Organization XIII and I noticed that the names of their weapons are very unique and interesting. They may very well shed light on what the members’ backstories could have been.

In Days, the weapons are sorted into specific Gear types. The are three types that are the most interesting and most defining for the character. The first is Pandora Gear, “a formidable weapon with exceptional capabilities.” For Organization members, this Gear grants them two of their most powerful weapons; the color scheme is the same for all of the Organization's weapons provided by the Pandora's Gear, consisting of black, gold, and blue or red.

The second is Zero Gear, “a powerful weapon that draws forth its wielder's true worth.” The Zero Gear is emblazoned with the Nobody insignia, signifying that for the Organization members, as well as others who wear the Black Coat, this gear produces that character's signature weapon.

And finally, perhaps the MOST interesting is Mystery Gear “a weapon that draws forth its wielder's personality.” When equipped, it transforms the user's weapon into one that "draws forth its wielder's true personality.” Were these weapons a hint at the mysteries of Organization XIII’s true personalities? I will analyze all of Organization XIII’s weapons, but not necessarily in order.

No. IX - Demyx (Melodious Nocturne)

Prefers to kick back with his sitar, and leave the dirty work to the water under his command.

Not all the Organization members have weapon names that are super interesting, possibly indicating a fleshed out backstory was not thought of for all of them during the creation of 358/2 Days.

Most of Demyx’s Sitars are named after musical or rock and roll terms. Basic Model, Tune-Up, Quartet, Overture, Old Hand, Da Capo, Power Chord, Fermata, Interlude, Serenade, Songbird, Rise to Fame, Rock Star, Eight-Finger, Concerto, Harmonics, Million Bucks, Fortissimo, Up to Eleven, Arpeggio, and Prince of Awesome (joke weapon). The joke weapon is a tennis racket and its name is a reference to the "Prince" brand of rackets, which have the general shape of Demyx's sitar. It may also refer to the anime and manga series, The Prince of Tennis.

Demyx’s Pandora Gear is Sanctuary, a reference to the English version of Utada Hikaru’s opening song. His Zero Gear is Arpeggio; musically, an arpeggio is the playing of notes from a single chord in rapid succession. Dance water, dance! His Mystery Gear is After School, a broom. It is probably a reference to after-school clean-up of a classroom, which is common in Japanese schools. For some, this assignment may have been given as punishment for getting caught sleeping in class. Because it brings out Demyx's true personality, it may be a reference to his tendency to "sweep things under the rug" or evidence that he was a rather ordinary person compared to the rest of the Organization.

No. XII - Larxene (The Savage Nymph)

Wields sharp knives and a sharper tongue. Her lightning strikes as quick as her temper.

All of Larxene’s knives have French names relating to storms and heavenly bodies. Her weapon names translate to Sharp Edge, Thunderstorm, Whirlwind, Tempest, Carmine, Meteor, Star, Irregular, Dissonance, Eruption, Setting Sun, Indigo, Wave, Flood, Squall, Typhoon, Eradicate, Southern Cross, Luminous, Moonlight, and Damselfly (joke weapon).

Some of her weapon names seem like a reference to Final Fantasy games. Squall, Lightning, Typhoon (summon) and Luminous (the engine). Other than that, they seem to describe a stormy femme fatale personality. The Tempest is a play that was written by William Shakespeare in the early 1600s. When the play begins, Prospero, the deposed Duke of Milan, and his teenage daughter, Miranda, live on a remote island where they have been stranded for the past twelve years. Unbeknownst to them, the storm is the work of Prospero, who aims to shipwreck them on his island. It is a tale of magic, deception, revenge, and marriage. The main political theme of the play is gaining power and control over others. A reference to her role in Castle Oblivion?

Her Pandora Gear is Vol de Nuit or Night Flight in English. Vol de Nuit is the name of a book from the French author Antoine de Saint Exupéry, in which a pilot is trapped in a storm. A major theme of the novel is whether doing what is necessary to meet a long-term goal is more important than an individual's life. Her Zero Gear is Lightning. Her Mystery Gear is Light Bulb. The light bulb is the symbol of invention, intelligence, and a great idea. Perhaps Larxene was a lot more complex and intelligent than we have gotten a chance to see.

No. XI - Marluxia (Graceful Assassin)

In the arc of his scythe, flowers grow and all else perishes. His pretty face hides ugly motives.

All of Marluxia’s weapons are named after flowers along with a typically negative adjective. The only exception is the Stirring Ladle, one of his joke weapons. His weapons allude to some tragic backstory, as well as his inner resolve.

The rest of his weapons are Fickle Erica, Jilted Anemone, Proud Amaryllis, Mad Safflower, Poor Melissa, Tragic Allium, Mournful Cineraria, Pseudo Silene, Faithless Digitalis, Grim Muscari, Docile Vallota, Quiet Belladonna, Parting Ipheion, Lofty Gerbera, Gallant Achillea, Noble Peony, Fearsome Anise, Vindictive Thistle, Fair Helianthus, and Solemn Magnolia.

His Pandora Gear is Hallowed Lotus.The lotus flower is regarded in many different cultures, especially in eastern religions, as a symbol of purity, enlightenment, self-regeneration and rebirth. His Zero Gear is Graceful Dahlia. The dahlia is known to represent one who stands strong in his/her sacred values. His Mystery Gear is Dainty Bellflowers or Dainty Liliies-of-the Valley in Japanese. Bellflowers symbolize unwavering love. The Lily of the valley means "return to happiness" and most often symbolizes chastity, purity, happiness, luck and humility. It does apparently indicate that Marluxia was not conceived as an evil character, even as early as 358/2 Days’ writing.

No. X - Luxord (Gambler of Fate)

Life, to him, is just a game to be won...and he has all the time in the world to do it.

Nearly all of Luxord’s weapons are named after tarot cards, with the exception of his joke weapon. His joke weapon is Finest Fantasy 13, which takes the appearance of many compact discs; an obvious reference to how the PS1 Final Fantasy games came on multiple discs.

The rest of his cards are named after the Major Arcana of the Tarot. The Fool, The Magician, The Star, The Moon, Justice, The Hierophant, The World, Temperance, The High Priestess, The Tower, The Hanged Man, Death, The Hermit, Strength, The Lovers, The Chariot, The Sun, The Devil, The Empress, and The Emperor.

His Zero Gear is Fair Game, his main weapon from Kingdom Hearts II and not related to the Tarot. His Mystery Gear is High Roller’s Secret. Instead of being related to the Tarot, its name and design is drawn from the superstition that four-leaf clovers are blessed with good luck. His Pandora’s Gear is The Joker. The Joker is often compared to The Fool in the Tarot deck. They share many similarities both in appearance and play function.

Nomura said that the “Wild Card” that Luxord gave Sora while he was fading away will come into play later and that perhaps it holds the key to Sora's revival. The Fool Arcana is often also called the Wild Card in Tarot decks. The Fool represents new beginnings, having faith in the future, being inexperienced, not knowing what to expect, having beginner's luck, improvisation and believing in the universe.

Luxord wrote a report in 358/2 Days indicating he admires children for some reason:

“I find myself envying the children. Perhaps some fundamental difference exists between those who become Nobodies as adults and otherwise. The longer you have lived, the more you are positioned to lose with such a gamble. But a child can look forward, unafraid even in the face of immeasurable odds. I doubt they even see life as a gamble the way we do.”

#anti kh3 #kh spoilers #kh meta #kingdom hearts meta #larxene #kh demyx #kh larxene #kh org #organization xiii #kh3 spoilers #marluxia #luxord #kh3 #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 358/2 days

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sadboywithbigsword-blog · 6 years

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Volume 4: Part 2

It’s been a while, but I finally got to sit down and write more about Berserk, specifically the second half of Volume 4. My posts are probably going to be more frequent now, so here goes nothing.

The material in volume 4 is probably one of the most common entry points for Western fans of Berserk. It’s the start of the Golden Age arc that most people are familiar with, throwing you for a loop that this is not like any other piece of Japanese media that you’ve read because it decidedly feels so European. The beginning of the Golden Age arc really reminds me of those Howard Pyle picture books that I grew up loving, like Men of Iron, showing the gritty and grueling practice of medieval combat, and also the elements of a revenge narrative that Berserk is just literally dripping with. It’s also patently obvious that many of Mirua’s influences are decidedly Western and medieval as well.

Guts’ challenge of and killing Bazuso is reminiscent of that swashbuckling, high-adventure vibe that’s so reminiscent of medieval depictions in the twentieth century that it’s not hard to see.

But I was reading the second half of Volume 4, something really stuck out for me. When Guts first confronts Griffith, I was surprised that he even made a passing comment on Griffith’s sexuality. “What are you some kind of homo?” when Griffith says “I want you, Guts,” and he’s really saying that he wants Guts to be his solider, but Guts can only hear the sexual nature of the phrase. Then, we have this moment that really shocked me.

But maybe I shouldn’t have been so shocked that Guts uses the word “faggot.” Maybe it’s a translation error, maybe it isn’t. But I never heard him use the word in the dubs of its adaptations at all.

This scene where Guts and Griffith first meet and the following scene, where Griffith duels Guts and forcibly makes him a member of the Band of the Hawk have been recreated multiple times in adaptations, and this sexual innuendo is always left out or de-emphasized.

On one level, I shouldn’t be surprised that Guts would use the word “fag.” And given the sequence before, the dream sequence that Guts has about Gambino, Donovan, and his past sexual trauma and violation by Donovan and Gambino, it makes sense. Guts is a victim of abuse whose past is completely broken. The only thing that does make sense to him is fighting with his sword.

But of course, as the panel above depicts, Guts can’t solve his problems with his sword alone. In his dream sequence after his first fight with Griffith, Guts is running away from a monstrous Donovan, trying to fight him with his sword. He is a boy again, and about to be taken advantage of. So I guess the homophobia is understandable, given that he’s had to be incredibly callous and have all pretense of emotional intimacy stripped away from him violently at a young age, with all of the authority figures in his life betraying him.

What’s weird though is that the comments that Guts makes about Griffith’s sexuality get in the way of the intimacy that Griffith speaks of Guts’ style of fighting, that he never gives up, and would rather be putting himself in danger by fighting rather than living another day. And really, this seems to be what offends Guts more, but I can’t shake the fact that while it does make sense, the bigger story for Guts is that he doesn’t want anyone to control his life. He already has had to endure being hurt by people that were supposed to care and look out for him, and Gambino, the man who was supposed to be his surrogate father, sold him into sexual slavery. So it makes sense that Guts doesn’t want to be controlled by anyone, much less anyone who would threaten to use him sexually. That intimacy that Griffith shows to Guts, that charisma is strange and threatening to Guts. He isn’t interested in what people are going to tell him, he knows he’s good, But he’s also incredibly threatened that he’s being read like a book. And it’s that kind of intimacy that’s truly threatening to Guts. He doesn’t want anyone to have control of him.

But what’s surprising is Guts’ acceptance of Griffith’s fondness for him. Even after he’s beaten by Griffith, he’s worried that he won’t be able to best him again in combat. He keeps reliving the fight in his head, wondering what exactly went wrong. He simply can’t let it go, because Griffith has upended how he sees the world. He has never been wanted by anyone for his entire life, except to be used, and here is someone who sees him for what he is: a reckless warrior, and that terrifies him. It’s an interesting way to see these power dynamics in play, and encapsulates the two central questions that Berserk revolves around: What does it feel like to be powerful? And what does it feel like to be powerless?

I still don’t know how this colors the dynamic that I see between the two. Sure it makes the subtext text, but honestly, that subtext is best left where it is, and I really think that the 1997 anime had it right when they didn’t even allude to any sexual tension between the two, because it was already subtextually there. Guts and Griffith are about as two halves of a whole like Kirk and Spock and other homosocial character pairings (not even ships, mind you, but just simple character pairings) create this intimacy between them that’s just dripping with a kind of tension that’s not entirely explicit but is really there between the lines.

Next time: Zodd the Immortal, fatalism, and more homosocial-ish stuff.

#berserk #guts #sexuality #queerness #queer #griffith

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mysterioustransmissions · 6 years

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My favorite comics of 2017

Keeping with my new tradition of posting this list super late, here, on the last day of 2018, is my best comics of 2017 list. I can offer excuses -- my wife and I remodeled our house and welcomed our first child into the world this year, and I’m also unfailingly lazy -- but 2017 was also a killer year for comics, making this a bit larger of an undertaking than usual. Both Koyama Press and co-publishers Retrofit Comics and Big Planet Comics had absolutely stacked lineups. You’ll see them listed as publisher for many entries below.

I always struggle with how to order this list. I got serious about organizing my comics collection in 2018, and am running into the same problem. There, I’m thinking of dividing it into two -- a single-author section organized by author name (which ends up being mostly minicomics and graphic novels), and a multiple-author section organized by title (which ends up being mostly traditional-sized comics). Here, I’m essentially doing that same thing, but mixing them together; some entries are by title, and some author name.

Comics I especially enjoyed are marked with an *.

Allison, Matthew; Cankor: Calamity of Challenge #2 and #3 (self-published).

Berserker 1, edited by edited by Tom Oldham and Jamie Sutcliffe (Breakdown Press). There was a lot of anticipation and very specific expectations placed on this book ahead of its release, but no one seemed to walk away from the finished product satisfied. But it’s got a killer cover, great production design, and strips by some of the best cartoonists going. I hope Breakdown does another one.

* Booth, Tara; How to be Alive (Retrofit Comics & Big Planet Comics). One of the funniest books I’ve ever read. Booth’s drawings are a riot to look at, that the gags are also great is pure gravy. About as big as crossover hits get in my house. (I.e., my wife also loved it.)

Cardini, William; Tales From the Hyperverse (Retrofit Comics and Big Planet Comics). Cardini’s sci-fi world is made bigger and more engaging by the rapid-fire pace of this short story collection. His wild experimentation with color is always an inspiration.

Corben, Richard; Shadows on the Grave #1 - #8 (Dark Horse Comics). Not my favorite of Corben’s late-period Dark Horse horror books, but there’s plenty to enjoy. I was stunned by the sheer efficiency of the storytelling -- there are entire stories told with a single image and a few word balloons. A lot of these books sport great covers, issue #1 here, seen at the link for this entry, is one of the best.

Darrow, Geoff; The Shaolin Cowboy: Who’ll Stop the Reign? #1 - #4 with Dave Stewart (Dark Horse Comics). I was so bowled over by the experience of buying Shemp Buffet monthly that I initially scoffed at Cowboy’s return to more traditional narrative, but it turned out to be no less wild and no loss at all.

Davis, Eleanor; Libby’s Dad (Retrofit Comics & Big Planet Comics) and You & a Bike & a Road (Koyama Press). You & a Bike & a Road does something that’s often attempted and rarely successful -- it beats the audience down so it can then lift them up higher. Its success is due in no small part from its origin as a real-life journal. The visceral and emotional pain Davis feels on her journey is sincerely felt, and the lack of cynicism the storytelling choices are made with allow the reader to feel it whole cloth. And listen; it certainly doesn’t hurt that Davis is an amazing narrative storyteller besides -- Libby’s Dad is no less affecting.

DeForge, Michael; mini kuš! #43 'Meat Locker' (kuš!). I sleep on DeForge. I take him for granted. I feel like I’m not the only one? I see some excitement when his books come out, but no discussion. Blame it on the high volume and opaque nature of his work, the dearth of comics reviewers, and me, obviously. Also obviously, whenever something of his does find its way to my hands, I’m never sorry.

Estrada, Inés; Alienation #3 - #6 (self-published). The bundled version of this series, seen at the link for this entry, has the coolest book packaging I’ve ever seen in my life.

Expansion by Matt Sheean and Malachi Ward (AdHouse Books). I didn’t like this nearly as much as this same team’s previous Ancestor (due no doubt to its earlier and improvised creation), but damn, what a cover.

* Forsman, Chuck; Slasher #1 - #4 (Floating World Comics). I’d say the majority of my interest in Forsman’s work is in seeing how he presents his it and steers his career -- he’s among the best there is at that. Slasher is his first work I strongly connected with. It digs deep and gets wilder and wilder.

Ferrick, Margot; Yours (2dcloud). I’m a simpleton, so I was surprised at how deeply I was able to be moved by something this abstract. As always, grabbing 2dcloud’s whole line on Kickstarter expands my horizons and makes me a better reader.

Foster-Dimino, Sophia; Sex Fantasy (Koyama Press). I’ve actually only read the minis of this. This collection has the one I’m missing, plus some new material, but I love Sex Fantasy. It’s like a perpetual motion machine for thought -- you can just think about it forever.

Fricas, Katie; Art Fan (self-published). One of those things you dream of happening at a show -- picked this up at MICE not knowing anything about it, and was delighted by the artwork and knocked out by the “reviews of trippy art events”; particularly the first, about Duke Riley’s Fly by Night.

* Friebert, Noel; WEIRD6 (self-published), SPINE: I’ll Still Watch (Bred Press), Old Ground (Koyama Press). Sometimes when I have a fever, I can’t break loose of a single, circular thought -- I have the same thought over and over, only to realize once the fever’s broken that it was barely coherent. Friebert’s newer, decompressed work is like that. You turn page after page, and nothing happens. It’s the same characters still doing and saying the same things, again and again. You turn the pages faster and faster, almost in a panic, hoping to break the cycle and resolve the unease before you. But it’s no use.

* gg; I’m Not Here (Koyama Press), Valley (kuš!). I’m Not Here is one of a few books I recommended to people who were enjoying season 3 of Twin Peaks at the time. It doesn’t convey information so much as emotion, and rewards as much thought as you want to put into it.

* Hankiewicz, John; Education (Fantagraphics Books). I loved this so much I only read a few pages a night to make it last. Michael DeForge once called Noel Freibert an “astronaut” -- that applies to Hankiewicz also. No one’s ever done anything like this before, and if we didn’t have Hankiewicz I don’t think anyone ever would. Bringing poetry and modern dance (!!) into the language of comics, this was another book I recommended to watchers of season 3 of Twin Peaks -- you don’t understand the story by connecting facts, you understand it by connecting emotions.

* Hanselmann, Simon; Portrait, XMP-165 (self-published). XMP-165 was the first big payoff of the longform nature of Megg and Mogg, and it destroyed me. Also released this year was Doujinshi, Cold Cube Press’ gorgeous re-release of a Japanese Megg and Mogg fan comic.

Harkam, Sammy; Crickets #6 (The Commonwealth Comics Company). People talk about how good this book is, and I agree, but I’m not sure I could tell you why.

Haven, Eric; Vague Tales (Fantagraphics Books).

Hernandez, Gilbert and Jaime ; Love & Rockets Vol. IV #2, #3 (Fantagraphics). I made the terrible error after Love Bunglers to trade wait Locas, and for whatever reason they haven’t released one since. So I was way behind when this started coming out, but I bought and read it anyway. I initially found the story to be light, but I eventually realized I had a free ComiXology trial and caught up. It’s as great as ever.

Ito, Junji; Dissolving Classroom (Vertical, Inc.), Shiver: Junji Ito Selected Stories, and Tomie: Complete Deluxe Edition (Viz Media). Tomie may have come out in 2016 actually? I describe it to people as being about a beautiful woman who stands around until some total lech of a man inevitably murders her, then she comes back and annihilates him in the most unpleasant manner possible. Repeat ad infinitum. I don’t think the text 100% supports my reading, but that’s what it means to me.

Landry, Tyler; Shit and Piss (Retrofit Comics). The ephemeral, disjointed nature the single issue format served this story better, but it’s still extremely rad.

Loup, Celine; The Man Who Came Down the Attic Stairs (self-published).

Marcus, Ben; Crisis Zone 3rd Edition (Bred Press).

Mignolaverse and John Arcudi; Dead Inside #3 by Arcudi, Toni Fejzula, and Andre May, Lobster Johnson: The Pirate’s Ghost #1 - #3 by Arcudi and Tonci Zonjic, Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea by Gary Gianni, Mike Mignola, and Dave Stewart (Dark Horse Comics). Ignoring a few years in college when I was a lapsed comics reader, I’ve bought every Mignolaverse comic since I was about 13. That loyalty has slowly eroded over the last half decade about. I’m not alone in thinking the Arcudi-Davis run is one of the greatest of all time, and that the books started to go downhill after Guy Davis left. Beyond the departure of Davis, there are a few reasons for that, in my view.

First was the decision soon after to expand the line’s offerings. Doubling the line’s output and bringing in (inevitably) inferior creative teams was a no-win proposition for readers. Who wants more of something not as good?

Second, I think that Arcudi, a great writer, has shifted his focus from tightly-plotted five issue arcs to series-spanning character arcs. While I’m guessing this reads great in big chunks, it doesn’t spread out month to month, some months out of the year. I’m looking forward to a big re-read of everything after B.P.R.D. wraps in a few months, to see if this theory holds. Lobster Johnson: The Pirate’s Ghost came close to standing on its own, but was still rife with moments that I can only assume were big character payoffs because I didn’t remember enough to know. (Especially cool covers by Zonjic on these issues.) However, the non-Mignolaverse title Dead Inside offered the type of visceral, plot-based payoff his B.P.R.D. run with Davis hooked me with. I hadn’t been this thrilled by an Arcudi book since Killing Ground.

But third, and worst of all, has been the addition of writer Chris Roberson, whose books read like updates to the Mignolaverse Wiki. (The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed was okay, but pretty much solely due to Paul Grist’s fun art and layouts.)

I’m staying aboard the main B.P.R.D. book as it races to the finish line, and will continue to buy anything Arcudi writes, which seems to be mostly these Lobster Johnson comics. (Although even that’s looking increasingly, and sadly, unlikely to continue: https://twitter.com/ArcudiJohn/status/1075086925436874753) And I’ll certainly buy any more of these very sporadically-released Hellboy OGNs, like Into the Silent Sea, they decide to release -- the only real non-Mignola drawn Hellboy books anymore.

* Milburn, Lane; CORRIDORS (self-published). Sits comfortably next to Inflated Head Zone by Zach Hazard Vaupen, one of my favorite comics. They both forsake straightforward narrative in favor of theme-driven emotional impressionism, and do it with horror. This is catnip to me, and something I aspire to (although I’m far too boring to achieve it).

* Mirror Mirror II, edited by Sean T. Collins and Julia Gfrörer (2dcloud).

Now: The New Comics Anthology #1, edited by Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics Books).

* Providence #12 by Jacen Burrows, Juan Rodriguez, and Alan Moore (Avatar Press). It came out months after, but it’s a safe bet Moore wrote this before Trump got elected, right? A more accurate depiction of the shell-shock of being thrust into a post-facts world I haven’t seen.

Roberts, Keiler; Sunburning (Koyama Press). Another big crossover hit in my house.

* Shiga, Jason; Demon Volumes 2, 3, and 4 (First Second). Demon became a book I wouldn’t stop showing to anyone who would listen. Like Gina Wynbrandt’s Someone Please Have Sex With Me, its hook transcends the normal comics reading audience -- you can show it to anyone and they get it right away. Specifically I would show people this amazing video https://youtu.be/NRxCTeM5pyU, which would clue them into what Shiga does enough to get them to read Demon. Demon has a story, but it’s more about rules -- establishing them and playfully subverting them with a level of inventiveness that regularly leaves you in awe.

* Terrell, Jake; Extended Play (2dcloud). This delightful book took me completely by surprise, an experience made possible by 2dcloud’s subscription model.

Tomasso, Rich; She Wolf: Black Baptism #1 - #4, Spy Seal: The Corten-Steel Phoenix #1 - #4 (Image Comics). The end of this second series of She Wolf approached the same hostile disregard for what came before as the end of Tomasso’s previous series, Dark Corridor. But where Dark Corridor acted on that impulse by simply burning it all down, She Wolf has enough respect at least to replace what came before by pivoting into a completely different comic. The freedom this affords the plot to dart in unpredictable directions is exhilarating. And it’s fun and beautifully laid out and designed, as always with Tomasso.

Tran, Thu; Dust Pam (Peow). Gorgeous!

Vaupen, Zach Hazard; Combed Clap of Thunder (Retrofit Comics and Big Planet Comics).

* Willumsen, Connor; Anti-Gone (Koyama Press). The part where the protagonists drive their boat past a window with a dog in it rewired my comics-making brain forever. This was another comic I only read a few pages of a night to make it last longer, and also recommended to friends of mine who were enjoying season three of Twin Peaks -- the plot is obfuscated in a similar way.

Yanow, Sophie; What is a Glacier? (Retrofit Comics and Big Planet Comics).

Yokoyama, Yuichi; Iceland (Retrofit Comics). Another comic I recommended to Twin Peaks season three fans. Similar to the residents of the Red Room, the characters seem truly of another world, their motivations and actions incomprehensible to us.

#best of the year

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alovelyburn · 2 years

Text

Rambles about The Golden Age Arc - Part 5

I sometimes say that I’m not sure if the Golden Age Arc is actually my favorite Berserk storyline... and that’s true. But that said, I do think it’s probably the strongest 10ish long stretch of volumes. Because the thing is, the Golden Age is really broken down into several arcs, as well as three acts - and I kind of want to write about the three acts thing at some point but nevermind that.

The point is, there are several subarcs within the Golden Age, and if I look at the arcs as individual subarcs ala say the Lost Children arc, there are others sub-arcs that I like as much the subarcs that make up the Golden Age. The biggest one that comes to mind is the Ganishka confrontation that culminates in Femto using Ganishka’s corpse to break reality.

But I don’t think there’s any other area where I can say there’s 10 volumes where almost every individual issue or subarc is made of gold.

Anyway, back to....

Rambles about The Golden Age Arc - Part 5

1. Foss and Griffith’s meeting in the palace halls is pretty amusing because Foss is playing 2D Chess with a 4D chess player and he doesn’t even realize it until it’s too late. And I say 2D chess specifically because I do think he thinks he’s smarter and more subtle than he is. The conversation he has with Griffith here is honestly pretty suspicious, you know? Like if you’re Griffith, even if you didn’t already kind of suspect Foss for reasons of eye movement, wouldn’t you get red flags from the way he’s prodding around to see how you react to things like gosh what if you were actually the target gosh gosh, and wow Adonis he sure was young. It’s suspicious especially since the idea had already been settled in the minds of most people.

And since Griffith is in fact the person behind that attack, this correction is quite pointed. It’s also appropriate because this is around the time Griffith is realizing that Foss is the orchestrator of the assassination plot, because of course the men in that hallway are the men responsible for that death, in the end. Julius and Guts were just the hands that wielded the weapons. Julius’s death, and Adonis’s as well, are the result of human machinations with a root in human prejudices, and it’s always best not to lose track of that.

I will also note that Griffith correcting the assignment of “evil” actions to demons vs. humanity itself also suits the themes of the series as a whole - the pettiness and pain and frailty of humanity, which ultimately gives rise not only to the Godhand but even to the very concept of evil itself.

2. The Queen really looks like she walked straight out of a Riyoki Ikeda book doesn’t she? When I was a kid I was obsessed with Rose of Versailles - one of the few manga series that my mother brought with her from Japan - and I used to sit around drawing those ornate dresses and such. Looking at the Queen just brings me right back to things like what I used to call the Number Five ballgown - which was this ornate dress that Marie Antionette wore to court that I was obsessed with. Anyway.

3. Another reason I wondered if the Promrose chapter was around (roughly) the time Miura decided to turn Guts and Casca into a romance is because not only does it mark a change in her reactions to Guts, it also marks a shift in her reactions to Griffith. I don’t think the Promrose speech in itself affected Casca’s view of him, though, it’s more like the narrative starts to prepare her to move away from him.

I do wonder sometimes how the Hawks saw that relationship, the Griffith/Casca thing. Because on one hand it does seem like the Hawks all knew Griffith was extremely obsessive when it comes to Guts... but on the other hand, when Guts is talking to Judeau about his departure he says something to the effect of ‘everyone knows she and Griffith....” and the discussion proceeds from there into the reasons Casca can’t give him what he needs, which is power. So I wonder if people thought Griffith would have been with Casca if he weren’t kind of bound by his ambition into pursuing Charlotte instead.

I’m going to think on that one!

Anyway back to Casca - when I first read Berserk and got to this whole thing with Casca’s period, I really thought.... wow Miura just shouldn’t write about women’s issues, like he has no idea. A friend of mine who has particularly bad PMDD did eventually read Berserk and tell me that it run true to her, so I’ve stopped lambasting him about it but I do kind of doubt that portrayal was based on research and a thorough understanding of PMDD. I often think Casca really takes the blunt of Miura’s youthful inexperience with writing. Even at this early point in the series the writing is generally quite masterful - in fact to this day a lot of people think it’s the best arc part of the series. But there are some missteps and almost every one of them is focused on Casca.

4. Also, let’s look at Guts.

It’s interesting because it wasn’t so long ago - just over 100 pages in fact - that Guts referred to himself as just one soldier when talking to Griffith about his... crazy daredevil tactics with Zodd. Not to mention last arc he was up there telling Griffith to just tell him what to do.

But I think you can draw a line between Griffith’s “Do I need a reason?” and this situation. It goes back to what i was speculating about yesterday regarding the different ways they perceive their friendship - Griffith sees Guts as an equal, Guts sees himself as Griffith’s favorite soldier, and their closeness as being real, yes, but he does still feel the schism of each man’s respective status. But the thing is, when Guts puts that schism to words - why would you risk yourself over just one soldier? - Griffith essentially disagreed with him. “You’re not just a soldier, you’re someone I will put myself at risk for.” The impact of this was pretty powerful - he ends up deciding to stay with the Hawks and dedicate himself to Griffith “for now,” but honestly does anyone think he would have left if he hadn’t overhead the Promrose speech?

Long story less long I’m saying even if he hadn’t fully digested the information in that statement from Griffith about risking himself, it had started to settle into him. His mind was starting to change its path. And he obviously really liked the idea that Griffith truly cared about him and considered him a friend.

And then the Promrose speech just ends up knocking him back to “just one soldier,” except now he’s no longer satisfied with that. He thought for a moment that he was, or could be, something else and now he’s back where he started but now that place stings.

And so we end up here, with his growing understanding obscured by a resurgence in his self-esteem issues even though we as readers know...

...that Griffith is still ready to risk everything over this.

5. Okay so going back to Casca and Guts and the epic flashback, which I do think is one of the most important sequences in the story, let alone the Golden Age arc, as it provides the basic foundation for understanding both Griffith and Casca’s basic characters and dynamic, as well as being one of the strongest direct clarifications of what exactly is going on with Griffith and Guts.

This transition in subject is so funny, like I get it, he’s trying to change the subject from how much she hates him because it’s not like A FUN TOPIC and also probably not that interesting to him. Plus she’s been complaining about being a woman and having to deal with all the bullshit that she does, in fact, have to deal with as a female soldier so I’m sure he’s genuinely curious about what in the world would make someone want to go into soldiering under those circumstances. But it’s still pretty funny how hes like “(FUCK THIS BITCH SHOULD HAVE LET HER DROWN.) So let’s chitchat about your past!”

Anyway it’s kinda tough to break into this flashback stuff but here we go.

I have seen people suggest that Griffith is an asshole for throwing Casca a sword instead of saving her directly. I disagree. First of all I think its a bit much to assume he would have let her be raped in front of him if she hadnt defended herself, but ultimately I think giving her the choice - and specifically pushing her to decide that she wants to fight back, that her bodily integrity is worth fighting for, worth risking her life for, - that’s what empowers her to become a hero instead of a damsel. Because when he first comes across her, she’s given up and accepted that this is her life. It’s Griffith’s arrival, his questioning of the noble’s right to do whatever he wants with her, and his pushing her to the decision point that makes her think there is another possibility.

It reminds me a bit of the scene with Theresia where Guts basically dares her to commit suicide in order to force her to decide if that’s what she really wants, or if she wants to live.

It’s also entirely in line with the bits of his belief system and what appeals to him that show up and leak out (or are, in some rare cases, stated directly). He is, as we’ve gone over before, drawn to someone who doesn’t just take what comes to them - someone who is willing to fight back, to gamble their life and struggled against the things that threaten them.

Also that line - “Does being a noble mean you are chosen by God?” echoes back to his musings way back in the Black Swordsman arc, and also in Promrose - the belief that the world can be changed by people who arent given that power by their birth - not to mention his dislike of nobility that peeks through in certain situations. A disdain for hereditary power, I guess - or at least the hoarding of power in the hands of people who feel entitled simple because of their birth rank.

Anyway the point is - by empowering Casca, Griffith enables her to become the woman she is... but I think in a certain way, by making her decide to be strong, he made himself more of an idol than he would have been if he just made that decision for her. Because now she attributes her strength to him, and that means everything to her.

But there is one quirk.

I have a lot to say about Griffith’s role as a symbol to nobles, to commoners - and maybe I’ll get into it at some point, but for now I will note that her description of her idolization of him is in past tense - back then I idolized him, he was like a prophet or saint, he was a miracle to me. I think this is important because of the way her perception of him shifts basically during the flashback in this chapter.

Enter Gennon. The Berserk manual thingie calls him Governor General Shotacon and says he deserves to die, which yes let’s all agree that’s the case. Anyway as of this point in the flashback, Casca still basically sees Griffith as a godlike figure.

And Griffith, for his part, always seems aware of her and when she needs reassurance, in this case because she’s staring at what could have been her own future - what would have been if he hadn’t come across her in that moment.

Of course this is possible in part because at this point he is still up close and personal with his troupes. I mean... when he met Guts he was 15 years old, right? So when he was running around doing mercenary work and running into Gennon and all what was he, like 13 or 14? What the hell. At this time he’s fairly fresh out of his alleyways - a few years on sure but they’ve just been a band of thieves or doing minor mercenary work. But then we get the death of the child.

Now... when someone says Griffith doesn’t care about his soldiers, when they say he’s a sociopath who only cares about himself, I want to know what they’re smoking because if that’s the case, what’s going on here? No one noticed this kid. No one cared that he died. Even Casca doesn’t remember his name. The only one who cares, the only one who is affected by that death, is Griffith. Not only does he recognize the child and remember him, he even paid enough attention to this kid to recognize the broken knight toy that marks his passing.

Griffith is deeply affected by this. Casca even notes that she had never seen him so somber, and the moment itself leaves her speechless. Casca says herself that this is when her perspective on Griffith starts to change - I would say at this point it is her beginning to see that he is not an untouchable marble figure - there is something fragile and rather sensitive under his carefully composed presentation. ...and of course, that presentation is about to crack even farther and irrevocably change the way she sees him.

Which, of course, brings us to this:

...I hate leaving off in the middle of a chapter, but I have to go to the office tomorrow so I can’t be up until 4am talking about Berserk. Since this is a suitably dramatic moment to leave off, I shall away and then tomorrow after work I shall ramble some more.

So uh, bai, good night, later gators, etc etc..

#not the berserk tag #berserk meta #rambles about berserk

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deoffal-mp-adm7000-n-s1-2022 · 2 years

Photo

My technique after the Spits (how the 57 and the 63 were made):

Before showing anymore posts which include images of my work in situ or publications etc, I want to give a quick synopsis of my processes and materials behind the final resolutions, and after having covered my paintings its only fitting that I elaborate on why I didn’t just keep making paintings on mass and instead leaned on revising and getting back into ink and the achromatic through illustration. As this post evidences in the top images and throughout my notes here, I’ve broken everything down into the most layman mode I could possibly do, for the sake of keeping this post about the practice and not the philosophies behind the imagery. This post is about how the job is done, not why the job looks a whole lot like this.

Firstly I’ll evidence my materials and tools (bare in mind I won’t be showing pencils and rubbers I use, as I only use a simple cheap rubber and a simple and cheap box of 2 pencils, or HB depending on my mood, there’s no real character there either way, if it was super important I would include it, but those tools are just so common it’s not worth evidencing them when comparing them to the more complicate collection of ink tools I will be discussing):

Fig 1. The paper.

Fig 2. The selection of markers.

Fig 3. Whaline brush tip and edged tip markers.

Fig 4. Shuttle Art markers.

Fig 5. Whaline fine tipped liners.

Fig 6. The Staedtler brand of designer pens.

Fig 7. The Paint.

Fig 8. The brushes, scrapers, straws, artificial hair brushes and natural hair brushes etc.

Firstly, I of course go through many of these Daler Rowney sketchpads, they aren’t too expensive and the rigidity of these sheets has often been a great medium for me to work with. No reason to be snobby about paper, when it works it works and I’ve made many hundreds of images on this paper and so I how it well and find it very easy to work with and to exhibit, it’s just as pliable as the lightest canvas material, yet strong enough that it can withstand water and paint incredibly well, and ink doesn’t bleed as easily into it. The selection of pens later applied on this paper run the gamut from making the finest of details in the wisp of a hair, blacking out the borders of a portrait for later painting, or simply to make hundreds of marks quickly without having to painstakingly scratch them in with the smaller tipped liners. This process of using liners and markers in contemporary art is of course a popular medium among comic illustrators and graphic novelists, in particular and found best in the works of Japanese illustrators such as Junji Ito, Suehiro Maruo and Kentaro Miura (as evidenced here, 1 is Junji Ito, from his graphic story: Planet Remina, 2005. 2 is Suehiro Maruo’s version of St Sebastian, 2021, many of his other pieces are maybe a little too graphic for tumblr so you get the picture. 3 is Kentaro, emblemised best by his series Berserk, 1988 to 2021, 41 volumes, may resume production this year after the death of Miura suspended the series in typical japanese manga tradition, in short, mangas often die with their creator, but Berserk is a gigantic franchise and won’t fade from public consciousness just yet, and with this one panel you can see why)

These panels of course take hours upon days at a time and are often drawn with much of the same tools, the greyscale and tonal differences between the gray and the rest of the marks is made in post through various forms of editing software, this of course being a graceful advancement for illustrators such as this, given just how many panels they make in a year and how often the panels have to be approved or reworked for specific stories and to best showcase all the narrative elements without overdoing it. I of course have no love for grey scaling within my pieces, as that would conflict the value found in the extreme contrast within each piece, in turn symbolising my work as the bridge between dark subjects and the literal and figurative ability to shine a light onto them, in turn making such bright details and yet with absolutely soaked in black backgrounds, further emphasising the faces on show. In the examples shown you can see the build up of marks in both my work and that of my featured idols, alot of what I do is about taking a simple sketch and ever adding and mutating it into the image I want it to be, and that’s why ink is such an exciting media, with it’s strong and dense pigmentation in it’s black choices, you can really see just how the page becomes a work of art and how the white isn’t merely dredged over, but becomes just as important as the patterns over it.

It’s important to mention that my pencil sketches as discussed in a previous post are automatically drawn and a featured best here, are by no means the same image by the end, it’s an evolution and this is of course most fitting given the subject of this piece. I also chose this piece to document as it’s one of the earliest works in the 63 and so I wanted to document atleast one piece for Instagram and for this project, knowing full well it would look good to explain and properly show how I work beyond a starting sketch, especially before I finished the 63. This trend of showing progress is quite popular on social media and so it’s a trend I can easily get behind given just how many sketches I make per month (at one point it was 40 within 3 weeks), I have been posting my sketches every time a new batch are started to clue my audience into the realism of what I do, and the response seems to be quite positive. Speaking now of my actual processes, firstly I take the finest of liners as evidenced above, and build up the essential shapes, this means outlining all the minute and much more minor aspects is essential, everything has to have an outline first before the larger, faster and darker marks are made. Once this beginning stage is out the way I work to strike in the majority of the black into the most dense of areas, while using various modes of hatching and scratching with the fine tips and more brush like tipped pens to create the texture of the piece. Once I am satisfied that the entire piece is marked up (This being shown best in the 5th descending order picture of my piece, all central and and greater details blacked in and well textured but no overworked due to how quickly I fill and finesse an area, with a combination of the smaller brush like dual tipped liners and the bigger fine point markers that are the average ink marker, sharpie sized I guess if I had to compare it to anything) I put a thick black mark round all the outer edges, so as to blend the final layer of paint with the rest of the piece, and so no outlines are lost when I go to paint, unless areas need softening to blend better with the background. The final steps are to paint in some darker shade and to fill in the background, this is done with a wide array of brushes, the background may be painted with straight square tipped brushes so that I don’t go madly over those outlines again, yet mainly to connect the ink border and the paint smoothly. The central detail may be worked over with a much smaller, rounder brush to keep the detail blended into each other, if I wanted more rigid blackness in the piece then I would just stick to the square tips and dry them so that the brush can use the paint the same a felt marker stiffly marks ink into things etc. I only apply as much paint as I need to cover areas of importance, the black I use for my paint and ink markers, typically dry quite matte and very pigmented so I don’t need to overwork or add multiple layers of paint and ink to any of this piece just to get a good concentrated blackness all over. Once the piece is painted it is dried in sunlight on my windowsill, then pressed under some books and old sketchpad boards, this flattens the piece for scanning, you can’t scan bowing pieces because it messes with the fitting of the piece in the scanner and it ruins the symmetry of the paper when scanned, so I use any weight to take the bow and it works perfectly. The ultimate and total resolution of the work is handled first by scanning the works into my laptop through my home printer and scanner, then filing the work into a plastic wallet into it’s grouping of ten pieces (just a way to chronologically group pieces so I can find them far easier, especially when working with tens of pieces that are all the same scale), then I work over the pieces on the laptops own editing software to up the contrast and replicate the real world look of the piece, given scanning can often make a piece brighter and so I have make the piece darker and more contrast centric and the ink and paint can reflect differently at first, looking often as if they are different tones of black, so I correct that and use the digital version for my Instagram and coursework of course so it has to represent the real piece exactly. Once a piece is edited it’s uploaded to my google drive for storing the works somewhere where they won’t be lost or mishandled, the last pictures of the piece on this post show how I edit on borders through a free mobile app called Snapseed (it allows you to make adjustments to a picture that don’t exist in the original image and is akin to something like adobe illustrator and/or photoshop), as I redownload the works onto my phone and then edit them thusly, the very last picture is me editing the image to a 3:2 aspect ratio so they can be well fitted to a typical Instagram post without losing any of the image. The choice of black border is quite the motif of social media horror art, so it’s typical that you do that, especially if you have a really dark collection of work like I do, though I may make white versions too just to have some variation, I prefer the black as it pops the whites more but that’s just personal preference.

Those are my processes and typically it can take around 2 hours to fully complete one portrait, I of course had to do this dozens of times during January, February, March, April and May, the majority of time so far on this project has been about finishing and cataloguing this overwhelming collection. Each piece is also numbered in pencil and catalogued in a small notebook to properly keep track of all my current and completed collections. I run quite the tight turn around with my work and so now you can see why I’m focusing solely on the documentation aspect of this project, the practical side is just so time consuming, but I still greatly enjoy the busyness and prolific nature of my practice due to how busy it keeps and me and how often I get to work on new collections of amazing one of a kind ideas through my portraiture, it’s often been one of the reoccurring peer compliments I get, I just have quite the work ethic and always have so I’m lucky.

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thescottpack · 7 years

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My Alpha - Scott Mcall (*SMUT*)

A/N: The world needs more Scott smut, bye!

requested: no

Warning:sexual content, if you don’t feel comfortable don’t read, and my grammar in English is terrible sorry for the mistakes, have fun!

Scott was tense with the whole berserkers situation, it was obvious to anyone, lately he was making some choice that didn’t make sense and his level of leadership was decreasing, he was frustrated and was frustrating the whole pack, I confronted him the whole time lately, I was just trying to help him but he never listened to me because he's the alpha he doesn’t take orders, but the pack was always agreeing with me, we know he wasn’t mentally well, and we have to take care of each other.

"I think we should split up in pairs, so the job gets easier." Scott said.

The pack was in Scott's house more specifically in his living room.

"Are you crazy? We can’t fight a beserker, you couldn’t imagine us!" I interjected.

"I didn’t say it was for you to fight with one I said we have to find where they are, because they are here".

"okay then after we find them what do we do? Run? I'm not seeing your point here Scott."

"Can you stop for a minute and do what I say for once?"

"Scott your plan doesn’t make sense ..."

Scott turned to me, suddenly heading toward me and put his face in front of mine and said.

"I'm your alpha and you're going to follow my command, do you understand?"

"Yes." I whispered.

"What? I didn’t hear you, louder"

"YES, I get it, satisfied now?" I screamed angrily as I pushed him by the shoulders to get him out of my way.

"A lot, okay let's go in pairs, Y/N you come with me we'll look in the woods."

“I want to go with ..." When I looked at Scott he grunted and his eyes turned red toward me."Alright, let's go."

As we were walking through the woods trying to sniff something, which was difficult, Scott pulled me by the waist and pressed me against a tree, his arms one on each side of my body preventing me from leaving.

"I can feel your anger without even trying Y/N, it's distracting me."

"Oh so now it's my fault?"

Scott pressed his body further into mine and bit my neck lightly, then whispered into my ear.

"Baby girl needs to understand that I'm the alpha and you have to obey me."

I let out a moan as I felt his icy hand beneath my shirt touching my skin.

"Um, I think I'm being a bad beta lately."

"Exactly." he said as he spread kisses all over my neck and chest.

"And what my alpha will do about it?"

I pulled his hair making him look at me, he was fucking horny and anybody would notice it just by the volume in his pants.

"Alpha will have to punish you, it's not like I like that, the alpha doesn’t like to punish his mate."

Scott bit my lip hard and I moaned into his mouth, my shirt was already halfway open and then he tore my bra.

"We don’t need this."

Then he kissed me hard, he was going to be the dominant this time I had to totally submit to my alpha, ah I loved it.His kisses going down toward my breasts and he kissed between them, then Scott yanked my shirt and the rest of my bra quickly, his kisses focused on one of my breasts as he tightened and pinched the other, he sucked and bit with all the world's devotion. Then I placed my hand on his cock over his pants and squeezed tightly, Scott let out a moan between his kisses as I put my hand inside his boxer, he rested his forehead against mine and bit my lip hard as I stimulated him , I was about to lower his pants when he gripped my wrist tightly.

"No, you won’t get what you want, not today, you disobeyed your alpha."

Scott knelt in front of me his hands went towards my legs going up my thigh and then stopping in my ass, then he squeezed and pulled me close with his face facing my skirt, he smiled looking at me and he bite the edge of my skirt.

"I love it when you wear skirt, it makes everything so much easier."

Scott bit the inside of my thigh and then gave a kiss so it went up my thigh making a trace of the tongue until it reached my sex, they were holding the front of my skirt while I held his hair tight, he was provoking on purpose, he was giving me kitten licks very softly.

"Scott please"

Then he began to eat me fiercely, his tongue made rapid movement on my sex and all I could do was moan in the middle of the forest. Suddenly Scott stuck two fingers in me at once, he moves fast, his fingers were as wet as his mouth, and he wouldn’t stop, then he added a third finger in my pussy and I screamed, he was spinning all three fingers inside me, he was literally playing with me while Laugh at my sex.

"Fuck, Scott I'll cum, oh Fuck please don’t stop."

And then suddenly Scott took all of his fingers of me and walked away standing in front of me. I pulled him by the collar of his shirt and gave him a deep kiss as he wrapped me in his arms.

"Alpha please."

"No baby girl, you have to learn to obey me."

Then I started to kiss his neck and jumped into his lap pressing my body against his.

"Please Alpha, Fuck me."

Scott leaned me against the tree and caught my jaw and looked into my eyes.

"you can’t control me with your pussy baby girl"

His tongue came into my mouth as he showed dominance. He bit my lip for the twentieth time in the day and opened his red eyes to me, my eyes color changed immediately showing submission so he gave me a kiss and put me on the floor taking my shirt.

"Here, get dressed but your panties stay with me, I hope they see you dripping for me."

"Scott you can not do this!"

"Yes I can, maybe next time you remember to behave, let's leave my mate"

Scott said pulling my hand and we walk into the forest leaving me frustrated all the way.

"Maybe if you behave I'll fuck you in my car." Then we smiled and went away.

Masterlist

#Scott McCall #scott mccall smut #scott mcall imagines #teen wolf imagines #teen wolf #teen wolf imagine #Teen wolf smut #theo raeken imagines #liam dunbar imagine #derek hale imagine #stiles stilinski

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hisazuki · 7 years

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Yona ch.152 spoilers

Akatsuki no Yona chapter 152 “But this is not the only thing I treasure” summary

Please don’t repost/reuse my scans and translations without permission. Tumblr reblog is fine.

Even if the dragons are better, they still can’t move their arms so Yona, Yoon and Hak have to feed them. Jae-Ha is a bit embarrassed about being nursed at his age. Shin-Ah notices something’s up with Hak and asks him if he doesn’t feel well. Hak’s like “what do you mean?” then tells Yoon he has something to do and would like to leave the camp for a while tomorrow to meet with someone. Yoon says it’s fine, but then he remembers Yona told him she’d like to take a bath tomorrow so he would like Hak to stay while she’s away to help the dragons. Yona tells them not to mind her and Hak should go if he wants to go. Hak looks at her and says he’ll stay until she’s done bathing.

The following day, Yona undresses and washes into a pond, thinking she must hurry because she doesn’t want to make Hak wait for her. She also noticed he looked sad and although she doesn’t know why, she’s convinced it’s somehow her fault for letting it happen. She’ll try hard not to be a burden to him.

She comes back still dripping wet to Zeno and Hak and both are worried for her. Hak puts her cloak on her head so she won’t catch a cold (I think he tries to dry her hair too?). She says she’ll be fine and he should go. Yona wonders why he looked so stiff while he was talking to her, where he wants to go and whom he’ll meet, but she’s scared to ask because she wants to be nice to him and she wants him to smile. Hak leaves after telling the HHB to light a firework if something happens.

Yoon wonders where Hak went. Kija thinks he went to see the Wind tribe. Jae-Ha tells Yona to come sit close to the fire because it’s warm and Yoon brings her yuzu tea. Sharp Jae-Ha is sharp: he asks her if something happened with Hak. She denies it, but he sees through her lies. Both were looking gloomy after all. She says she didn’t know what to do. Hak has a fiancee. They’re all o_O what kind of bomb did you just drop on us?!

Kija asks her if it’s true. Yona says she overheard the Wind tribe talking about it, and it was Mundok who decided it apparently. Meanwhile, Zeno and Shin-Ah are asleep (?) and Jae-Ha tells them to wake up because it is important news. Yona explains about the Wind tribe waiting for his return, her advising him to go back to Fuuga for a while to see them, and how he reacted (”Am I unneeded?”). So she told him about wanting to give him back his freedom when the time is right... and her audience is left gasping: Yoon says that sounds exactly like she’s saying he’s not needed, like he’s lost his place among their group. Yona is shaken and realizes her mistake...

Author notes: The track “Take care part 2″ from the new drama CD has the same content as the extra chapter at the end of the newly released volume 25.

Yona regrets not being able to express herself in a better way. She ended up hurting Hak instead. Kija thinks there’s no need to say it in a better way. As long as she’s able to communicate what she truly feels, Hak will understand (Kija is blushing as he says that!). Jae-Ha tries to reassure her: maybe that fiancee thing was a misunderstanding and she should ask Hak about it. Yona says she’s afraid to ask.

Jae-Ha: Afraid? Why? Would it bother you if Hak had a fiancee?

Yona: If I had to say whether it bothers me or not, it’d bother me a lot.

Jae-Ha: Hahaha! I thought so. Then you should tell him that, too.

Yona: I can’t!

Jae-Ha: You can’t?

Yona: Because... maybe he's meeting with Ayame-san right now.

Yona goes on about the “talk” he’d said they’d have but didn’t, and wonders if he’s mad at her. Jae-Ha says if she’s not honest with Hak, he might misunderstand and go off somewhere (he’s telling her that’s pretty much what happened). “Are you still fine with that?” he asks, smiling just like Zeno is.

Yona strongly shakes her head. *She knows he barely just left, but she wants to see Hak already.* Jae-Ha & Kija smile, then Shin-Ah spots Hak coming back (what a coincidence!!! ahem). Apparently he went to buy food and weapons from traveling merchants he knew would come here around this time of the year.

Yona immediately apologizes for what she told him the day before. For using the wrong words and hurting him (she’s half-crying). She tells him about overhearing his conversation with the Wind tribe, and how she’s always felt like she stole him from them. She also mentions her fiancee and stumbles for words again. Hak’s like “Fiancee? Oh, you mean Ayame!” and Yoon & Jae-Ha are surprised he doesn’t deny it. Hak understands... so that’s why she told him to go back and spoke about his freedom.

Yona: *I must tell him!* Yes, but...

Yona: It doesn’t mean you’re unneeded or anything. You’re dear to me, Hak, so... So...

Yona: *I must tell him!*

Yona: Please stay with me...

Hak is surprised, then gets angry: “Didn’t I tell you already? I won’t leave you! It’s obvious!”. He wants her to understand he’s not doing this out of obligation. He treasures the Wind tribe and would go and save them if anything happened to them, but the place he wants to go back to is here (with them / meaning they’re his home). The HHB are shocked speechless with tears in their eyes. Like Yoon thought, Hak felt like an outsider when Yona told him to go back to Fuuga. Yona starts to apologize, but Hak tells her she doesn’t need to. He just wanted her to know that. After that, he insists that he’s not obeying/following her because of her father’s orders. It’s true he swore absolute obedience to King Il, his master, but even if she thinks she might not compare to him, she’s the one he decided to live for after following her and witnessing her strength and passion. She’s the one who taught him the pride of serving someone.

At this point they’re all crying except Hak. Zeno is giving out tissues to wipe their tears :P Yona wants to ask Hak one last thing: what will he do about Ayame if he’s not going back to Fuuga?

Hak: ...Look... I’ll tell you this because I don’t like misunderstandings... This fiancee thing is something gramps went and decided on his own.

Yona: Then isn’t it an absolute order...?

Hak: Ayame has a lover!

Yona: Huh? Wait, then you got reject-

Hak: I’m telling you you’re the one I like!!!

*Yona & HHB* o_O

Yona: ...Eh?

Hak: Don’t “eh” me! Ayame’s dating someone and I love you so that fiancee thing is bullshit, that’s what!

Hak: I’m tired out for the day! Did you get it or not?!

Red-faced Yona: ...Yes.

Hak: Alright. Aaah... I feel better now.

Hisa’s thoughts on the chapter:

Ahaha the chapter most of us waited for! But I think this time the real stars are the HHB, especially Jae-Ha and Kija. They all knew what was going on, and decided to help their dorky friends even if it might have cost them something (I’m not sure how Kija is handling all this, that’s one thing to be supportive of someone, but something else to sort out one’s own feelings).

Anyway, we knew from previous chapters Hak had a lot on his mind: Soo-Won, the Wind tribe, having to rely on others to help the DDHHB, the talk he wanted to have with Yona, his feelings for her... All this time we’ve seen him hide his emotions but also let them slip past his control like the time he went berserk against Soo-Won. So it’s only fair that he’d explode once again :D

What I wonder is how scripted this was. In the end this confession didn’t need much to happen: Yona, Hak & the Wind tribe all together in the same place. This didn’t specifically need to occur in Shin either, nor required recent or new characters, so did Kusanagi plan this from the start and used it when it was deemed right, or did she just make it up now because she felt the story needed it? Having old characters like Ayame and Min-Soo reappear after so long feel unnatural to me and I really hope they’ll be more fleshed out than that in the future. I’ll be sad if Ayame stays “the fake love interest who didn’t last half a chapter” and Min-Soo is remembered only as “the boy who lived” XD

Now for the next chapter, as it opens volume 27 I’m not sure we’ll get a true conclusion to that love confession. Part of me wants to believe the HHB will force a reply out of Yona, and part of me fears we might see a bit more of Yona’s inner turmoil until they’re all suddenly caught up in a new arc.

This will be my last summary :-( From now on I’ll only comment the chapters whenever I read them. I’ll post links to blogs and websites that have spoilers in a separate list soon.

#Akatsuki no Yona #Mizuho Kusanagi #Hana to Yume 02/2018 #chapter 152 #spoiler pics #my AnY scans

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kosmicdream · 7 years

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im at work binging the ffak faq tag because fuck it (also its 76 pages) and I have a Q: do you think you've had any significant changes to ur influences from 2 years ago?

Omg Im so sorry, the ffak faq is in.. a desperate need of organization. Its something i want to try to get to at some point but it also really overwhelms me. Thankfully though I don’t think i’ve gotten this question!

I’d say yes? there has been a couple significant changes in my influences. I’ve been through a lot in the past 2 years and some of my tastes have reflected that. However its probably not a whole lot. I’m the kind of person that is very nostalgically committed to things, so once something has made its way into my heart at some point it pretty much just stays there forever. Even if i don’t really think or care about it that much I’ll reflect on it and what about that work might have influenced me as time goes on. I also dont really take the time to experience new media. If i do, i want to experience all of it at once in a binge reading experience and I can really mess up my schedule in the result of doing that lol.

I’d say the biggest impact has been Vinland Saga which I think I read sometime in.. I think after july in 2017 sometime..? I’m not completely sure of the date, but it was in 2017. I love Vinland Saga so much now that I think its my favorite manga at this point. A place in my heart where I used to reserve for.. Berserk, i think. Berserk used to be (and of course still is) one of my strongest inspirations but my feelings towards it have kind of gotten more and more sour and critical even though I still deeply appreciate it and I wouldnt be the same artist without -- I still want to see the fruition of that story. But. Its not really my sweetheart anymore lol. I think its a common thing to relate berserk and vinland saga as well (or at least, I’ve seen the comparison quite a lot in reviews?) despite how those two stories are actually significantly different from eachother and its probably kind of a cheap comparison to make. (i think berserk is often just Used As A Comparison To Things because Its Berserk. Its just that kind of series.)

BUT the reason why I’m using it here, is that for me-- both these comics affected me very deeply, during very dark times in my life, and unlike in berserk which almost sucked me into a deeper depression of hopelessness-- vinland saga had a resolution of sorts that felt cathartic, healing and hopeful. in a way i have not really experienced in a story before. it was genuinely one of the BEST reading experiences i have ever had and even if that story is still unfinished, the conclusion of an arc was enough for me to feel like i got a satisfaction from this story in a way i didn’t expect to come at ALL or so early. It makes me feel so happy in my heart and I love it so much for what it gave me. (I also was very fond of thorfinn from the beginning of that story, which i usually dont care for protagonists that much, its usually some other character i get attached to.)

I don’t really expect berserk to give me a ‘pay off’ at this point and so I’m kind of thankful that i have found another series that i can connect with in this very specific deep way like i did with berserk, but also kind of gave a sense of closure so that I can almost appreciate berserk more now instead of feeling bitter towards it. I dont need it to do anything more because vinland saga helped give me that already. Vinland Saga also, from a visual standpoint, inspired me a lot to work more on my art and pages. (or specifically, spend more time on my pages to make them look better.)

I think besides that comic, which is the hands down #1 biggest influence, i also have very recently read Houseki No Kuni/Land of the Lustrous and it also inspired me quite a lot but in totally different ways. I could probably go on and on about it as well but I think to summarize my feelings is that it made me excited about manga again. I want to see more stories like this which are creative, yet simple and flexible and the art perfectly compliments the narrative. It really feels like the artist knows what they want to talk about and they are comfortable drawing in the way they like to.

Other comics I have read recently and its completion are: FMA, Eden: its an endless world!FMA was very solid and I feel it completely deserves the attention it gets but i also don’t feel like I really need to think about it anymore now that I’m done reading it??? I guess its almost too polished for me? I still am thankful i finally decided to read it and I enjoyed it a lot. Alphonse is wonderful. Eden made me annoyed for... a lot of reasons LOL but I also really think its going to be a comic that ill dissect my emotions over and think about in detail. and i can really appreciate when a story might not really be my think but was different and still interesting enough to make me fuss over. Also for whatever reason the scans i read of that comic had hilarious, and i think purposefully so, sound effects and i have not laughed so hard at such inappropriate moments in a manga ever before and I think that makes that reading experience so special to me. in such a strange way. and i absolutely want to use sound effects like in that comic.. thing

I think in the past 2 years i also finished rereading Parasyte (because i never got to the ending when i first started reading it) and i also kind of feel kind of a mixed bag with that story. The premise was so exciting when i first read it years ago, i think in 2010 is when i first read it, but i ran out of volumes and never got back to it. Now that i finished it I was like oh that was it? ok i guess. and I dont really feel like i was as excited about it.I also read Devilman in the past 2 years and that was interesting? to reflect on from like, a historical significance point of view but like. I didn’t super duper get into it. It almost felt like a needed reading requirement that i had put off for way too long and Now i feel like I have a better context to the evolution of many of my favorite comics and where they draw influence from in this series. (Also it was very fun to watch the yuasa adaptation recently bc yuasa is one of my biggest art influences for his kemonozume series specifically)

Hmm I’m trying to think of anything else, but honestly Vinland Saga feels are still pouring thru so I guess... vinland saga lol.

Oh! I finally read Pluto by Naoki Urasawa in the past couple years (i think) and, like, i already love Urasawa (Monster is hands down one of my favorite comics/animes), i love tezuka (i will literally read anything he made), i knew id adore Pluto and.. i did! I think one of my new projects (replacer) was definitely influenced by pluto in a huge way.

A couple weeks ago i read Witch Hat Atelier and it was gorgeous, but short so far.

Ok I can’t really think of anything else but I hope this has been interesting/informative of what is circling around in my head at the moment! :D thanks for asking.

#ffak faq #ffak #feast for a king #vinland saga #i just love thorfinn #smugplankton

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