#incidentally it would be cool to work out how the canon ''becoming gods'' thing would interact with this

[hinotorihime]

i'm honestly not sure exactly why he gives me these vibes* but i do genuinely think that canon dave** is not religious because he never got exposed to actual religion beyond general cultural osmosis rather than because he's actively not religious??

in particular, i love me some jewish strilondes, and dave feels to me like the most likely one of them to be genuinely observant if he got the chance, so i've been enjoying exploring that in a couple of my wips where the context allows for it.

*beyond, like, personal projection, and some nebulous thoughts about his extremely antagonistic relationship with his aspect

**in a watsonian sense, i mean. the doylist reason real-world religion isn't ever discussed in hs beyond a few dumb jokes is because that wasn't something the author was interested in exploring, which i am grateful for because come on, would you trust him of all people to handle that well

[ecto-stone]

So I don’t really know that much about that my blood au you created could you tell me a bit about it?

Ha hah I Hope this is Edible

So My Blood Au is just Me dumping all the cool stuff i can think of into a DP what if Vlad is Good ^For Starter MB Vlad or Vladimir Jude Masters is a Paranormal investigater/ hunter/exocist in a sense. He seemingly Perfect in People eye, Not Really on the inside as he have many problem stem from living so long and going though alots of thing that he prefer not to talk about that he hide from People , go so far as to adjust his own emotion to what he find fit to the situration making him really hard to read. (Not Jack and Danielle, those are close enough 2 peel him like an onion if they sense something off). -Vlad And Danny are not same kind of Halfa in this AU, Vlad is Two soul (Half Blue Demon Vampire Ghost, Half Human twisted together and blend into one) and Danny is Soul within soul (Going though the accident give him two identical soul that over lapped each other) -Ghost are nerf and ecto beam and ecto Base attack can harm ghost but they can't harm Physical thing in living world Unless they are infuse with Core element same with Human entering Purgatory. -The world have 5 Realm: LivingWorld, Purgatory (GhostZone), Elsewhereness, Fairy Land and Unworld. +Going with the idea that originaly Vlad is supposed to be a vampire and many ghost in the series feel like they are more supernature creature then Ghost. Living world now have many Human and other Creature living among each other , hidden in plain sight +Purgatory: Where Ghost go and heal before they move onto Elsewhereness (Heaven in this verse) or Rebirth back to the living cycle. There are many area in Purgatory that fit human decription of after life look like , this is due to collective faith and ideal of many Ghost focus with each other to created these Resting stop. Incidentally like the living world these area are also watch over by being call King and Queen of the Death (Caretaker and protector of the Death soul, a being with incredible power capable of bending reality). Most well known one are the King Dark, Prince Argon and Princess Dora of the Dark Age Zone. Queen Desire of the thousand and one night. ect.. newest King of the death is Ghost Writer (library of the forgotten) but he prefer not be refer to as king, just Ghost writer. +Elsewhereness: The final resting Places of enternal Bliss. Once the Soul is ready to let go of all earthly desire, they are send here. Not much is known about this realm or it location. When a Soul reach enlightment it will automatically know where to find it. The realm also House many god. +Fairy Land: Home to care taker of the childhood inocent and many god that work to keep the universe running. Most common creature that live here is Fairy with two side one silly colorful side that appear to children to granted what ever their heart desire. The other is the Blue fortune side that Weaved the fabric of Luck and fate. +Unworld: A Dark realm with one way in no way out. It house many dangerous creature, ancient outer god and unspeakable Evil that have been banish to through age by god and human. >the Origin Story: +Vlad and Jack are Friend from Childhood (Their Bond are really tight kinda like Sworn Brother ) unlike their canon counter part meet in college. They Hunt Ghost but in more of a Release soul from their earthly bound kind of way via the info they get from the Masters Family Grilmore. (There is one major inconvience is that You need to wait for the correct day and time to perform ritual sending ghost back to purgatory so they can Move on to Elsewhereness/heaven of this verse ) +They Meet Maddie in college (Maddie and Vlad almost alway in a total clash with each other with Maddie tech almost Hunter like way in dealing with ghost and Vlad more traditional Way of Handling them) Which end with Three of them forming the Original Ghost Trio. With Maddie accept Vlad and Jack Respect the Death ideal. And Vlad and Jack incorperate More Technology into their Asset. +Maddie point out the inconvinient of having to wait for the correct day for each ghost to send them back to Purgatory (Their room are fill with

Container for ghost), Which lead to them comming up with the idea of Making a Ghost Portal. <Note: MB Vlad is not into Romantic relationship, Platonic one Matter to him more> >The Accident: No diet soda the Accident is purely due to one miscalculation that cost Vlad life (his Head got Blash Clean off infront of Jack and Maddie) In that Split Second of His face getting disintigrating, Vlad get a Glim into UnWorld (the Realm where are Demon and evil of the four realm are banish to) and Got Latched on and Pushed Back to the living world by a Demon Vampire Ghost Both Soul are now inhabited Vlad headless lifeless body, in Which about 3 day after Vlad burial that Vlad Body got completely decontructed inside the coffin and recontructed into a body that is more fitting to host both . Vlad have a hard time remembering Who he is after kinda get rebirth and Wander the world until he Get Suck into a Natural Ghost Portal and got Flunk Back in time. >Journey of an Immortal Being: -Vlad Stuck in the Past, He recovered his memories, Going through existenal crisis, Evil phase, Evil make me feel bad, Not Evil anymore, Found out that he is immortal now, Existenal crisis part2, Acceptance, Travel the World and Start doing the what ever he like, learning old way of magic still helping ghost and other supernatural being. -Caused several Major Change to the past that Mythical Creature got un extinct. (Due to the Law of life and death this does not affect who get born or not, it just that the world got alots more races now and those used to be born human in the original timeline might get born as another races entirely) -Get Mistaken for Messiah.( Look You can't kill Vlad, He would just be gone for like 3 day then comeback) -Caused the legend of Dracula. -Vampire cult have a horrible obession with Vlad as a Whole. Look like vampire act like one, can walk in plain day light and more importantly the ability to Open a Portal to Unworld . ( Vlad don't use this ability much and can only open small one as it is very energy consuming) -Meet his own ancestor Which is the Fentonightingale that Later Splited into Fenton and Nightingale (later change to Masters) leading to revealation that Jack and Him might be very distant Related. -Bickering With Time God (Do not trust the Clock Man that work for the Eyes) -Get Caught in War far too many time. -Meet Phantom (an odd entity that is oddly clingy to him) in the Great War. -Meet Other Some of the DP ghost when they still alive -The Horrible Bar incident that reveal Phantom true nature, an evil being that wish to turn the world back to it original nature of nothiness and try to turn vlad to the his side, Kill, Seal in Rock Case covered with Sigil to prevent Phantom from escape, Chuck it into the ocean. - The Contruction of the Coffin Ghost Portal. (Havent actually went into the Purgatory caused the CCP is one Way Portal. -Forming of many Hidden town that home supernatural being. Amity Park is one of them. - And many more unseen story >Daddy Stolen Ribbone saga (MB Vlad is sterile, he want to have kid but can't.) -The Vampire cult that he have grudge with attemp to Clone or at least created a child that have Vlad Power through ritual and cult like method. Imagine Danny Clone but even more mess up . -Vlad end the life of most of them by his own hand (they are suffering, it is best to let them go) -Birth of Danielle: +Danielle Evelyn Masters or just Dani/Dee for short is the only Stable child come out of this whole odeal. She is Created From Vlad Ribone like a Twisted Eve. And like in the book it caused both of them to be very attached to each other in a Fatherly Daughterly Way. +Dee Have Vlad Ghost power and Demonic Power but No ghost form (Her default funtion as both and whether she is in ghost mode or Human mode is all Up to energy control) and no connection to Unworld there for she can't open portal to Unworld. Dual Soul nature Wind/Fire.

+She like Frog and is interested in Marine biology (which Vlad have full support over, she have a room fill with Vlad hand made frog plusie that she all named. +He raise her teach her everything he know about how to deal with supernatural being and how to Snipe Vampire from a long distant with pin point accuracy.

+An kidnapped incident with the Vampire cult latter resulted in Dee Death at the age of 12 (1999), and Vlad becoming fully Merged into one Being with Plasmius. and wipe out the entire vampire cult in a horrible Vlad the impaler way). +After wiping out the remainder of the cult, vlad go into retirement and work as a wall Painter < he work supper fast on celling painting and no one know why> >The Boy Who Fly (2 year before the start of actual MB story) -Danny Gain his power at the age of 10, his parent know. The event of Portal acivation caused the whole town to have a black out. -They move House alots for 2 year. And Jack try his best to make his family as normal as they can be after accidenly k his friend all those year ago and now half eff his own son. -They finding out amity park their new home is on accident when the RV engine die mid way through the middle of no Where (The town shown it self to those in need) -Danny hide his abiltiy. But after a gym incident. and getting Praise by his peer for it instead of scold like with the adult Danny start getting bolder using Floating power around his new friend when no adult is watching. <Vlad who is Working on the Giant Raven paiting for the School Saw this and know imediately What Danny is> -They offically meet each other on the the roof top, when Danny mom ask him to go down the store and by some bread and he decided to try to Air Frog Swim to it. They become friend and Vlad even teach Danny how to fly properly before having to leave (they visit each other alots after the revealation, and vlad is a good adult friend that Danny can talk to) (Danno forgot about the bread and return home breadless) -Jack may stop with the whole Paranormal hunter/ghost scientist job but not Maddie. She keep doing it behind his back due to danny special need in ecto base consumtion (he havent grow abit since the accident and keep getting smaller and it concerning) -Jack found out and they have a Fight. which lead to Maddie go to his Sister house. -Danny Found out about why his dad was so stressed out about ghost thing now. When looking through his parent old stuff with his new friend tucker. (Dude why does your parent have a Picture of the wall painter in thier old junk). He show the image to Vlad. -Danny Get jack to tell the story about the inccident. Dad what if i tell you that Your friend who die 18 year ago survived and is on our front door right now. Reunion, Jack feeling guilty about making them both like this. Go Get Maddie. Happy reunion of the trio. -Fenton Parent become accepting to Danny condition, Danny have a good mentor that can teach him ho to control his power And they live happy ever after for now

[spockandawe]

Well, this is interesting! So, in that post yesterday, there was one line that really baffled me, a thing about people brushing off a character as an asshole “because he shows literally zero growth.” I kind of set that aside because it was such a weird non-sequitur, and guessed that it was just someone’s sentences not quite keeping up with their train of thought, which has happened to me many times. Apparently I was wrong! I already spent long enough on that one post, I’m tired of talking about that, but this is new and interesting. 

Okay. I kind of wanted to see if I could talk about this purely in terms of abstracts and not characters, but I don’t think it’ll work. It would be frustrating to write and confusing to read. It’s about Jiang Cheng. Right up front: This isn’t about whether or not he’s an abuser. Frankly, I don’t think it’s relevant. This also isn’t about telling people they should like him. I don't care whether anyone else likes him or not. But I do like him, and I am always fascinated by dissecting the reasons that people disagree with me. And the process of Telling Stories is my oldest hyperfixation I remember, which will become relevant in a minute.

I thought I had a good grasp on this one, you know? Jiang Cheng makes it pretty obvious why people would dislike Jiang Cheng. But then the posts I keep stumbling over were making weird points, culminating in that “literally zero growth” line.

So! What happened is that someone wrote up a post about how Jiang Cheng’s character arc isn’t an arc, it’s stagnation. It’s a pretty interesting read, and I broadly agree with the larger point! The points where I would quibble are like... the idea that it’s absolute stagnation, as opposed to very subtle shifts that still make a material difference. But still, cool! The post was also offered up as a reason why OP was uninterested in writing any more Jiang Cheng meta, which I totally get. I’m not tired of him yet, but I definitely understand why someone who isn’t a fan of his would get tired about writing about a character with a very static arc. Okay!

Now, internet forensics are hard. I desperately wish I had more information about this evolution, because I find this stuff fascinating, but I have no good way to find things said in untagged posts, reblogs, or private/external venues. But as far as I can tell, that “literally zero growth” wasn’t just a slip of the tongue, it’s become fashionable for people to say that Jiang Cheng is an abusive asshole (that it’s fucked up to like) because he doesn’t have a character arc.

Asshole? Yes. Abusive? This post still isn’t about that. This is about it being fucked up to like this character because he did bad things and had a static character arc.

At first, that point of view was still deeply confusing to me. But I think I figured out the idea at the core of it, and now I’m only baffled. I’m not super interested in confirming this directly, because the people making the most noise about this have not inspired confidence in their ability to hold a civil conversation and I’m a socially anxious binch, but I think the idea is: ‘This character did Bad Things, and then did not improve himself.’

Which is alarmingly adjacent to that old favorite standard of ‘This piece of fiction is glorifying Bad Thing.’ I haven’t seen anyone accusing mxtx of something something jiang cheng, only the people who read/watched/heard the story and became invested in the Jiang Cheng character, but things kind of add up, you know?

Like I said, I don’t want to arbitrate anyone’s right to like/dislike Jiang Cheng. That’s such a fucking waste of time. But this is fascinating to me, because it’s like..... so obviously new and sudden, with such a clear originating point. I can’t speak to the Chinese fans, obviously, but exiledrebels started translating in... what, 2017? And only now, in 2021, do people start putting forth Jiang Cheng’s flat character arc as a “reason” that he’s bad? I’m not going to argue if he pings you in the abuse place, I’m not a dick. I’m not going to argue if you just dislike his vibes. I’m just over here on my blog and in the tag enjoying myself, feel free to detour around me. But oh my god, it’s so silly to try to tell other people that they shouldn’t like him because he has a static character arc.

I want to talk about stories. I don’t know how much I’ll be able to say, because it’s impossible to make broad, sweeping statements, because there are stories about change, there are stories about lack of change, there are all kinds of media that can be used to tell stories, and standards for how stories are told and what they emphasize vary across cultures and over time. But I think that what I can say is that telling a story requires... compromise. It requires streamlining. Trying to capture all the detail of life would slow down most stories to an unbearable degree. Consider organically telling someone ‘I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich’ versus the computer science exercise of having students describe, step by step, how to make one (spread peanut butter? but you never said you opened the lid)

Hell, I’ve got an example in mdzs itself. The largely-faceless masses of the common people. If someone asks you to think about it critically like, yes, obviously these are people, living their own lives, with their own desires, sometimes suffering and dying in the wake of the novel plot. But does the story give weight to those deaths? Or does it just gloss by? Yes, it references their suffering occasionally, but it is not the focus, and it would slow the story unbearably to give equal weight to each dead person mentioned. 

Does Wei Wuxian’s massacre get given the same slow, careful consideration as Su She’s, or Jin Guangyao’s? No, because taking the time to weigh our protagonist with ‘well, this one was a mother, and her youngest son had just started walking, but now he’s going to grow up without remembering her face. that one only became an adult a few months ago, he still hasn’t been on many night-hunts yet, but he finds it so rewarding to protect the common people. oh, and this one had just gotten engaged, but don’t worry, his fiancee won’t mourn him, because she died here as well.’ And continuing on that way to some large number under 3000? No! Unless your goal is to make the reader feel bad for cheering for a morally grey hero, that would be a bad authorial decision! The book doesn’t ignore the issue, it comes up, Wei Wuxian gets called out about all the deaths he’s responsible for, but that’s not the same as them being given equal emotional weight to one (1) secondary character, and I don’t love this new thing where people are pretending that’s equivalent.

When Wei Wuxian brutally kills every person at the Wen supervisory office, are you like ‘holy shit... so many grieving families D:’ or are you somewhere between vindicated satisfaction and an ‘ooh, yikes’ wince? Odds are good you’re somewhere in the satisfaction/wince camp, because that’s what the story sets you up to feel, because the story has to emphasize its priorities (priorities vary, but ‘plot’ and ‘protagonist’ are common ones, especially for a casual novel read like this)

Now, characters. If you want to write a story with a sweeping, epic scale, or if you want to tightly constrain the number of people your story is about, I guess it’s possible to give everyone involved a meaningful character arc. Now.... is it always necessary? Is it always possible? Does it always make sense? No, of course not. If you want to do that, you have to devote real estate to it, and depending on the story you want to tell, it could very possibly be a distraction from your main point, like the idea of mxtx tenderly eulogizing every single character who dies even incidentally. Lan Qiren doesn’t get a loving examination of his feelings re: his nephews and wei wuxian and political turnover in the cultivation world because it’s not relevant, and also, because his position is pretty static until right near the end of the story. Lan Xichen is arguably one of the most static characters within the book, he seems like the same nice young between Gusu and the present, right up until... just before the end of the story.

You may see where I’m heading with this.

Like, just imagine trying to demand that every important character needs to go through a major life change before the end of your book or else it didn’t count. This just in, Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg go through multiple novels without experiencing radical shifts in who they are, stop liking them immediately. I do get that the idea is that Jiang Cheng was a ~bad person~ who didn’t change, but asdgfsd I thought we were over the handwringing over people being allowed to like ““bad”” fictional characters. The man isn’t even a canonical serial killer, he’s not my most problematic fave even within this novel.

And here is where it’s a little more relevant that I would quibble with that original post about Jiang Cheng’s arc. He’s consistently a mean girl, but he goes from stressed, sharp-edged teenager, to grief-stricken, almost-destroyed teen, to grim, cold young adult (and then detours into grim, cold, and grief-stricken until grief dulls with time). He does become an attentive uncle tho. He..... doesn’t experience a radical change in his sense of self, which... it’s...... not all that strange for an adult. And bam, then he DOES experience a radical change, but the needs of the plot dictate that it’s right near the end. And he’s not the focus of the story, baby, wangxian is. He has the last few lines of the story, which nicely communicate his changes to me, but also asdfafas we’re out of story. He was never the main character, it’s not surprising we don’t linger! The extras aren’t beholden to the needs of plot, but they’re also about whatever mxtx wanted to write, and I guess she didn’t feel like writing about Jiang Cheng ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But also. Taking a step backward. Stable characters can fill a perfectly logical place in a story. Like, look at Leia Organa. I’m not saying she has no arc, but I am saying that she’s a solid point of reference as Luke is becoming a jedi and Han is adjusting his perspective. I wouldn’t call her stagnant, the vibes are wrong, but she also isn’t miserable in her sadness swamp, the way Jiang Cheng is.

Or, hell, look at tgcf. The stagnant, frozen nature of the big bad is a central feature of the story. The bwx of now is the bwx of 800 years ago is the bwx of 1500+ years ago. This is not the place for a meta on how that was bad for those around him and for him himself, but I have Thoughts about how being defeated at the end is both a thing that hurts him and relieves him. Mei Nianqing is a sympathetic character who’s also pretty darn static. Does Ling Wen have a character arc, or do we just learn more about who she already is and what her priorities always were? I’m going to cut myself off here, but a character’s delta between the beginning of a story and the end of a story is a reasonable way to judge how interesting writing character meta is, and is a very silly metric to judge their worth, and even if I guessed at what the basic logic is, for this character, I am still baffled that it’s being put forth as a real talking point.

(also, has it jumped ship to any other characters yet? have people started applying it in other fandoms as well? please let me know if this is the case, I am wildly curious)

(no, but really, if anyone is arguing that bwx is gross specifically because he had centuries to self-reflect and didn’t fix himself, i am desperate to know)

And finally. The thing I thought was most self-evident. Did I post about this sometime recently? If a non-central character experiences a life-altering paradigm shift right near the end of the story (without it being lingered over, because non-central character), oh my god. As a fic writer? IT’S FREE REAL ESTATE. This is the most fertile possible ground. If I want to write post-canon canon-compliant material, adsgasfasd that’s where I’m going to be looking. Okay, yeah, the main couple is happy, that’s good. Who isn’t happy, and what can I do about that? Happy families are all alike, while every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, etc.

It’s not everyone’s favorite playground, but come on, these are not uncommon feelings. And frankly, it’s starting to feel a little disingenuous when people act like fan authors pick out the most blameless angel from the cast and lavish good things upon them. I’m not the only one who goes looking for a good dumpster fire and says I Live Here Now. If I write post-canon tgcf fic, it’s very likely to focus on beef and/or leaf. I have written more than one au focusing on tianlang-jun.

And, hilariously. If the problem with Jiang Cheng. Is that he is a toxic man fictional character who failed to grow on his own, and is either unsafe or unhealthy to be around. If the problem is that he did not experience a character arc. If these people would be totally fine with other people liking him, if he improved himself as a person. And then, if authors want to put in the (free! time-consuming!) work of writing that character development themselves. You would think that they would be lauded for putting the character through healthier sorts of personal growth than he experienced in canon. Instead, I am still here writing this because first, I was bothered by these authors being named as “freaks” who are obsessed with their ‘uwu precious tsundere baby’ with a “love language of violence,” and then I was graciously informed that people hate Jiang Cheng because he experiences no character growth.

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

The Voyage So Far: Paramount War (Part Two)

east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano (1 | 2)

ace’s execution is, in a way, the exception that proves the rule when it comes to one piece’s themes of blood and family. ace is set up to die for the crimes of a father he never knew and never wanted, and he does die here, but in the end he dies for the family he did choose, in the form of luffy, rather than the one he didn’t. 

god do i wish we knew more about ms portgas d. rouge. with ace’s storyline pretty much wrapped it looks unlikely that we’re going to be learning more about her than what we got, which in my opinion is an absolute tragedy, because what little we do know about her is amazing and she’s an absolute badass. oda give us more female ds please.

whitebeard’s power is so cool. it might be one of the visually coolest devil fruits we’ve ever seen, in my opinion. he he causes earthquakes and tsunamis while far past his prime; he pulls the sky apart with his bare hands. this whole arc is world-shaking, and whitebeard’s power is perfectly appropriate for it. 

doflamingo’s speech on justice and rightness is one of the most well-remembered quotes from this whole saga, and rightly so. i’ve always found it fascinating, myself, because he’s right. he dead-on hits how the one piece world works- the world government and the marines rule the world not because of any inherent actual goodness or justice or right, but because they won a war a very long time ago. 

in a way, this reminds me of blackbeard’s line of “people’s dreams never die” from jaya. i like how oda isn’t afraid of letting his villains be right about the themes of the story, sometimes even having better awareness of them than the protagonists. 

man, if i had to pick a single favorite spread out of the whole manga, it might be luffy’s marineford entrance. it’s so epic, and so completely unexpected for everyone else there. absolutely nobody was expecting strawhat luffy to drop out of the sky with a posse including two former warlords. it just makes me grin!! so much!! 

it also gets followed up by a solid two pages of just people’s reactions, from smoker’s “what the HELL is he doing with CROCODILE” to moria’s immediate incoherent rage, and i just love that the world and cast of one piece is so well-established and built up that we know exactly how all of those people know luffy and why they react the way they do. 

going back to what i mentioned in the last post about marineford being luffy’s conflict of interest arc, i’d say it’s also the only time where he isn’t the future king first and foremost. in this arc, before anything else, he’s a little brother.

there are a lot of what-if moments in marineford. moments where you kind of have to ask “what if this specific thing hadn’t happened, had gone differently?” would things have turned out differently? squard’s betrayal is one of them. does this change the outcome? would whitebeard have been able to survive if not for this injury? there’s no way to know. marineford is a lot of little tragedies, and they just pile up and up.

marineford has just so many incredibly striking spreads. all of the momentous moments (and there’s a lot of them, in this arc) are done full justice. this is such an image heavy post just because marineford is such an incredibly visually strong arc. 

conqueror’s haki is so cool and i love the way it’s set up and built up throughout this saga, with luffy’s constant inadvertent uses of it, from duval’s bull to marigold and sandersonia to the wolves in impel down, all leading up to this moment. 

i’ve heard people complain about conqueror’s as kind of a deus ex machina, but i honestly love it, it’s very cool and honestly i think it just seems to fit luffy as a power. if there was ever gonna be a character who turned willpower into a weapon, it would be monkey d. luffy. 

i’m gonna take this chance to talk about garp, because this sequence of panels is heavily implied to be garp’s thoughts just before luffy punches him down, and it hurts. garp is a flawed person who makes some bad choices, and there’s no arguing that, but i think it’s very obvious he really, really cares about his grandsons, even if he never could understand them as people and that they never would have been happy as marines. and that’s just tragic, really. 

the moment ace gets freed and the brief span of time where he and luffy can fight together feel so triumphant, and i think it’s one of the reasons the final tragedy of marineford hits so hard and feels so cruel, because luffy succeeds, here. he saves ace. he gives absolutely everything he had and makes it, and saves ace. the ultimate failure isn’t his. there was nothing more he could have done. 

the first time i was reading one piece, i hit this page (which is also the last in the volume) and had to put the book away, take the bus downtown, wander around for a few hours, and buy myself some candy and some new books before i started feeling okay again.

the thing about ace’s death, i think, is that it’s a tragedy, but it also feels so completely essential to the story going forwards and luffy’s character growth specifically that it’s really, really hard to imagine one piece without it. there are a lot of (really excellent!) fix-fics out there for marineford, and although those are often really good and their authors super talented, i think it’s really hard for them to ever hit the same way canon does with regards to this. 

i always think of this scene specifically in contrast to zoro and mihawk’s fight, back on baratie. zoro and mihawk are both people who believe in honor in battle, true victory or death, and that’s reflected in their fight, in zoro’s refusal to turn and run even in the face of imminent death, and mihawk’s respect for that resolve. whitebeard, too, is an honorable man. he refuses to turn to run, even when facing certain death. 

the blackbeard pirates, however, are not. 

i do enjoy how, just like roger’s, ace’s execution backfires tremendously on the marines. this was entirely a predictable outcome, too! this exact thing happened twenty years ago! the marines don’t learn. they don’t change. they’re so assured of their own rightness and power that they make stupid mistakes like holding a massive public execution after the last one blew up in their faces. 

(this is why they need coby so badly, for the record, and why it’s important that he still decides to become a marine after witnessing their corruption firsthand in shells town. the marines are long overdue for a reformation, one that orients them towards real justice.)

i really, really enjoy crocodile in this saga. mostly because he hasn’t been redeemed at all, he’s still pretty much the exact same kinda awful person he was in alabasta, he’s just on luffy’s side this time, and it lets us see him in a better light, when he gets angry at whitebeard for nearly dying or when he helps luffy and jinbe escape to keep the marines from getting their way. few of one piece’s characters are truly so one-dimensional as they can seem, and i really appreciate that. 

i really really love all the interactions between luffy, ace and sabo as kids. they’re so fun and bounce off of each other so well. even though we only see them together for a brief time, they really feel like siblings. (which of course only makes later events hurt so much more.

i’ve always been a little fascinated by the fact that it takes us this long to get luffy’s full backstory. it’s almost a fakeout, because we get part of his backstory in the very first chapter, and we’re kind of led to believe that’s all there is. it’s not until ace’s introduction nearly two hundred chapters in that we’re given any indication there’s more.

but at the same time, it makes sense. marineford is luffy’s focus arc, as arlong park to nami or thriller bark to brook. he hasn’t had a focal arc that’s really about him before this, while all his other crewmates have. it makes sense that this would be when he finally gets his flashback. 

i think it’s cool that dragon and the revolutionaries show up at the grey terminal fire, because it’s one of the only looks we’ve gotten so far into what their actual regular operations are like. and, of course, they’re saving people. i really like this about the revolutionaries, that helping people in trouble is basically their modus operandi, when pretty much everyone else in one piece’s world mostly does saving on an incidental basis if at all. 

i think a lot about how the last line of sabo’s letter to ace is also both of their last words to the strawhats. 

death in one piece always feels much realer and more impactful to me than in most other series, and i think this is part of the reason why: in one piece, we are always shown the mourning. nami at bellemere’s grave, carrot grieving pedro, ace and whitebeard’s funeral. 

there are fewer deaths, comparatively, than most other series, but they’re given so much room to echo. we’re still feeling the impacts of ace’s life and death in the most recent chapters of wano. it ties into the theme of inherited will and all the way back to hiriluk’s final speech, of men not being dead so long as they’re remembered. 

the picture of luffy at marineford always kind of strikes me. he looks so young and so solemn, and yet much more himself than he did when we last saw him losing his mind on amazon lily. i really like it. 

sometimes i just think about the sheer depth of trust and love the strawhats must have in each other to separate for two years, far longer than they were ever together, to solely dedicate themselves to improving for the sake of crew and captain. none of them even hesitate, and none of them ever doubt that the crew will be reformed at the end of it.

after all, luffy keeps his promises. 

[tanoraqui]

okay I have to do this today because even I wouldn’t do it after the godforsaken finale airs, and it’s basically my specialty and I did spend like an hour thinking about it last night while washing dishes. Definitely partly inspired by @words-writ-in-starlight​‘s insightful post on everything Supernatural did wrong, and apologies in advance to all the characters for dragging them into anything related to Christian mythology:

Wei Wuxian’s parents die in a house fire when he’s 6(? I refuse to look anything up) months old

Jiangs are a hunter family I guess? That whole disaster of a family dynamic, except WWX dips out at some point to be idk an environmental activist bc at the time, that seems like the larger threat to the whole world. “Mom and Dad went on a hunting trip and they haven’t come back”, “bitch” “jerk”, 2 brothers in a beat-up old car, you know the drill

Jins are also an old hunting family, but more Men of Letters energy - they have a fancy bunker and do research and avoid getting their actual hands dirty. Jiang Yanli ducked out of the active hunting life a few years ago to be happily married to her peacock and settled down with a baby and she’s fine. We’re not going to bother Yanli. She’s safe and happy and doesn’t need to involved in any of this

so, WWX is the demon blood child developing exciting new abilities like telekinesis, mind control, exorcising demons by sheer force of will...etc, and Jiang Cheng is the Righteous Man. Lucifer, Michael, etc.

s1-3 probably proceeds more or less as spn canon...which I more or less remember...by the time they find their parents at the end of s1, Jiang Fengmian is...ugh, we probably shouldn’t kill him offscreen, I mean, we should probably meet him before he dies. I guess. Madam Yu lasts longer because I’m way more interested in her. But we do know that both Jiang parents are totally inclined to fling the boys into a metaphorical or literal escape boat and go hold the line for as long as possible, so...that’s spn energy...

Xue Yang is the one who’s like “fuck yeah, demon powers” and opens the gates of Hell, because I want him to have nice* things

*nice for Xue Yang

from characterization rather than memory, I’m 90% sure that Dean tried to hide his crossroads deal from Sam, but Jiang Cheng does it...better. I think it does come out, though. Right before the hellhounds do.

here’s where it starts to go farther off from spn canon. Jiang Cheng crawls his way out of the grave, gets stalked by a menacing presence that explodes windows for an episode, incidentally can’t find WWX...*Lan Wangji voice* “I’m the one who gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition” (a baller line then and a baller line now)...and then the next episode starts with them all awkwardly standing around, and JC is like, “ok well let’s go find my brother then”, and you think there’s going to be an mdzs-riffing JC+LWJ Roadtrip To Find WWX...and they’re immediately attacked by like a dozen demons

in fact, the first time we see WWX in s4 is here, wherein he goes toe to toe with an angel and...holds his own. that’s new and terrifying! also is leading a squad of demons??

because here’s the thing: for the last 3(?) months, there’s been war in hell

because unlike Some People Mooses, upon finding out that his brother’s soul was legally nearly-owned by a crossroads demon, heir-apparent-to-Satan!WWX went, “actually fuck that” and kicked open the door of Hell (metaphorically, not loosing any demons this time) and was like, “who do I have to beat the shit out of to get a specific crossroads contract around here”

this did not work, obv. He didn’t know until it was too late, Lilith had already snapped up the contract, etc. etc.

obviously he also tried to offer himself instead, and got rejected for some reason

Since Jiang Cheng died, however, there’s been a war for control of Hell. Leading one side, Lilith, the Original Babe, who wants to break all 666(?) seals keeping Lucifer bound and in the meantime, break the Righteous Man so Heaven won’t even have Michael’s destined host ready for the Final Battle. Leading the other side, Wei Wuxian, infamous upstart, who wants to rescue the Righteous Man and restore him to life, tear Lilith’s guts out through her nose, and also stop her from doing the Lucifer thing because Wen Qing explained that yes, that’s a Thing, and it’s Bad.

Wen Qing! I’ve decided to combine Bela and Ruby’s roles and let WQ be both the cool badass example of how demon deals can go Bad and the demon deliberately leading our heroes astray for most of s3-4. Wen Qing is a very new demon; she used to be some sort of herbalist/witch but then she sold her soul in a crossroads deal to cure her brother of some lingering illness. 10 years of happiness and then boom, hellhounds. WQ is so obviously competent, though, that they (Lilith, I guess?) immediately offers her a job, with the promise threat that gee, that’s a nice brother you’ve got there, even with his Designated Chronic Health Condition getting all relapse-y. It’d be such a shame if something were to...happen to him...

we find this out at some point in last s3 I guess? some Monster of the Week case involves WN as a witness or something, or possible next victim, and WQ shows up to be A Normal Amount Of Invested In This, while desperately trying to avoid actually interacting with her brother (who thinks she’s dead). YES, the truth comes out; YES there’s a tearful reunion

now in s4, Wen Ning is fine actually, health-wise, bc he maybe made a crossroads deal with Wei Wuxian personally, and Wen Qing may or may not have admitted that she’s supposed to be working for Lilith to get WWX ready to host Lucifer? Or potentially that comes out later, idk. Either way, she’s 100% his top lieutenant in this exciting Hell War they’re waging

[insert whatever the hell (ha) happened plot-wise in s4 of supernatural]

we obviously mix up the relationships, too, bc it’s like, *LWJ internal monologue* I’m too young to remember my brother Lucifer as he was before he Fell, but surely Wei Wuxian is his Heir and Destined Vessel in truth, for he is Charismatic and Charming and Makes Me Feel Things, with his Clearly Feigned Righteous Drive and Compassion for All God’s Creatures and - why does heat keep pooling in the lower abdomen of my vessel when I look at his lips, which I am definitely doing a Normal and Not-Weird Amount - I’m just keeping an eye out for the famed Silver Tongue, and not in any way wondering how it would feel in my own mouth -

it’s actually DEFINITELY plausible for Lucifer to still be released even if our designated Heir Apparent is using his demon powers to his full potential and no one’s lying to each other about their motives. You just need to let Lilith be more scary too, and especially bc by “no one” I mostly mean Wen Qing; the angels are still totally hiding the fact that they, too, want to jumpstart the shit out of this apocalypse.  LWJ decides at the last minute that that’s a bad idea actually, gets himself discorporated to send JC to intercept WWX because he accidentally releases Lucifer, etc. etc. Oh yeah, the boys were def fighting before this, bc JC has actually fairly reasonable concerns about the sort of things WWX is getting up to in his quest to become King of Hell...

SO

...I neither know nor care what happens in s5

it does end with both Lucifer and Michael locked in the cage probably, bc I rather liked that solution. Fuck both of ‘em, basically.

I was toying with the idea that WWX also found Madam Yu in whatever hellish torment she was suffering after making a deal so her idiot son(s) would survive, and she was leading forces for him in the war against Lilith as well. If she came back to life somehow, body and all, it’d probably be compelling if she offered her own body to Michael - bc it’s her lineage! - and we’re all led to believe that she’s, uh, being a bitch and actually wants to risk destroying the world in order to destroy all demons...but then she seizes back control and flings herself/Michael and Lucifer into the Pit, because she’s just That Hardcore?

which means we’d actually have had her around and having characterization for most of s4-5, too, which would be fun

More importantly, it ends with newly crowned King of Hell Wei Wuxian appointing Wen Qing as Queen-Regent and ditching to go on an indefinite honeymoon with his new angel boyfriend (they’re going to fuck for like three weeks straight, then roll up their sleeves and go conquer Heaven in the name of free will), and Jiang Cheng gets to live out his hitherto-unknown-to-himself life’s ambition to be the sugar baby of the Queen of Hell. It’s very Hades/Persephone, except he goes back down to the underworld at least once a month. He gets his own demon squad whom he trains up in all the hunting techniques and it’s gr9. Wen Qing is reforming the crossroads deal process to make it more fair to the humans.

the end

Addenda:

it should go without saying but Jiang Yanli is definitely a recurring character, like, at least once a season there’s a filler episode where they go to Jiang Yanli’s for dinner and have to get along as a family, and also do the much easier job of defeating some sort of terrible demon that gets loose in the bunker and turns the evening into a horror movie. She’s their main research/emotional check-in person, a la Bobby, more often appearing in later seasons when there’s, uhhh, more to emotionally check in about.

Jin Zixuan is actually a perfectly competent hunter; he’s just a priss and we don’t Like him

we like Mianmian, though. Oh, I guess the official Hunter’s Guild or w/e tries to declare WWX a public enemy on account of the whole “King of Hell” thing and she’s like “actually what if you’re morons and assholes?” and joins hte team in s4 or 5? Yeah.

idk how the 3zun disaster happens in this ‘verse but I do encourage it to be happening in slow motion as a recurring subplot for several seasons. NMJ is a hunter, LXC is obv an angel, and JGY is...I wanna say one of the more human monsters, like a vampire? Or, you know, something that could be born from JGS sleeping with someone/something he shouldn’t have

[thankskenpenders]

So, about the movie...

At long last, a week after it came out, I was finally able to see the Sonic movie. The Daytona 500 being held across the street from my favorite theater and conflicting work schedules had been keeping me away, but now I’ve finally seen it. And it was...

Decent!

Which is way, way, way, way, way better than a movie with this awful premise has any right being. That’s for damn sure. I enjoyed my time at the theater. I don’t know how they did it, but they did it. If you like Sonic and haven’t already seen it, you will probably get a kick out of this film. If you don’t like Sonic (or Jim Carrey), there is very little in this movie for you

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, it’s time to break that whole movie down. This will contain full spoilers for the Sonic movie

This movie kinda gave me deja vu because it’s set up so similarly to the Bumblebee movie. Both open with a slavishly faithful CGI sequence on another planet to ensure long time fans that the creative team gives a shit, but a conflict sends the title character to Earth. There, they form an emotional bond with the human lead as they’re pursued by the bad guys, who are working with the US government and tracking the energy signature of the title character. This setup worked extremely well for Bumblebee, because it’s so similar to the usual plot of Transformers. For Sonic, it was... a mixed bag. But it worked better than I expected

(This shot does not happen in the movie.)

That opening though, huh? Green Hill Zone looked great, and I was pleasantly surprised to see they did, in fact, use the Hyper Potions track from Sonic Mania in the actual film. (The piano rendition of the Green Hill theme used later was also lovely.) Longclaw was also interesting. I’ve seen one person bring up all the bird-themed ruins in Sonic 1 and 2 as a possible source of inspiration for the character, and I think that’s a valid take. And man, the echidnas! I wasn’t expecting that AT ALL. I guess that was probably the Knuckles Clan or something? I would never, ever picture them being alive during Sonic’s lifetime, but like... I guess Knuckles had to come from somewhere, right? If they do another movie with Knuckles, will the rest of his kind have died out?

Sadly, though, this sequence felt like it was over in a heartbeat. We barely see Sonic’s life on his home planet, and we’re expected to feel emotional over Longclaw’s sacrifice when she only gets like three lines before Sonic is sent to Earth. This is a common theme with the film--it goes for these big emotional beats that it just does not earn with its rapid fire pacing

Anyway, then we fast forward and Sonic’s a teen. This is actually kind of an interesting one if you’re constantly neck deep in Sonic Character Analysis like me, because it’s a pretty different take on the character. It’s hard to give them credit for doing something somewhat fresh with the character, though, because like... how much of that was intentional, and how much was just Hollywood writers trying to squeeze a generic action-adventure movie out of Sonic? (Honestly, it’s probably mostly the latter.)

The closest other piece of Sonic media to the movie would probably be Sonic X, a story in which Sonic isn’t really the protagonist. The Sonic of the anime is fairly emotionally distant. He cares deeply about his friends, and does nice things for them, but he’s totally fine with running off on his own for extended lengths of time, and he doesn’t really talk about his feelings. He’s not the character the audience is meant to sympathize with, but is instead this cool older kid who Chris wants to impress. This is pretty much in line with how Sega likes to depict the character. He cares about his friends, but he’s also cool with being a loner. It feels like he only runs into them incidentally, usually when Eggman is causing trouble, and then when the crisis of the week is taken care of he’s back to going on his own adventures. There’s a reason why one of his catchphrases is “long time no see”

The Sonic of the movie is the polar opposite. His main conflict is that he’s lonely and desperately seeks friendship. He’s also an overly-eager, extremely earnest goober. He literally flosses twice. (Which I loved.) I’ve seen him compared to Silver, and honestly, that’s not a bad comparison. I did like it, though! I don’t mind Sonic being a more emotionally open character, like he was in a lot of older Western media. I mean, he cried in like the second or third episode of SatAM

It’s just that, like many things in the movie, it feels less like a deliberate creative choice and more like a logical string of decisions to make when writing a generic action-adventure film for general audiences. Sonic’s the only one of his kind on Earth, so of course he’d be lonely. He has to have some sort of arc for audiences to connect with him, and if he’s gotta be accompanied by James Marsden for the whole movie, well, his arc’s gotta be about them becoming friends

I’ve gotta say, though: Ben Schwartz is great as Sonic. As much as I like Roger Craig Smith, I wouldn’t complain if he became the new main voice of the character. And thanks to the redesign, he looked great. I can’t imagine how nightmarish this movie would’ve been if Sonic wasn’t cute

My main fear with this movie, though, was that Sonic wouldn’t really be the protagonist. As a fan of Transformers, I know all too well that the cost of doing a full CGI character usually means that said character can’t really be the star of the film. Optimus and Bumblebee aren’t the stars of the Transformers movies--they’re supporting characters who are primarily present for the sake of the action scenes. The humans are the real stars in those movies, and the robots are barely even characters. I was terrified that Sonic would be the same, with the actual character I paid to see taking a backseat to James Marsden The Cop

I’m not quite sure if they struck the right balance there, but they did better than I worried they would. Sonic is central enough to the film and gets enough screentime that you can easily say he’s the protagonist. BUT there is absolutely too much of Tom and his family. The human cast is fine, the performances are fine, and there were a few good jokes, but every time the movie tried to get me to care about Tom’s life I was bored out of my mind. It’s just so trite and passionless. The other characters barely felt fleshed out at all, including Tom’s girlfriend (wife?) and Agent Stone. The little girl who gives Sonic the shoes had some cute moments, though

I do, however, love the part in which James Marsden is walking around in a San Francisco t-shirt, to remind us that he’s planning on moving to San Francisco... which then becomes the excuse for Sonic to think about San Francisco and accidentally send his warp rings there, which becomes the excuse for the buddy road trip aspect of the film. And as much as that was a focus of the marketing, the actual road trip part is like... maybe 20 minutes of the movie? There’s like three scenes with Sonic and Tom on the road and then they’re in San Francisco for act 3. The movie tries to act like they’ve formed this deep bond and I just did not give a shit. I don’t care about the cop. All Cops Are Bastards, and that absolutely includes Tom, whose dream in life is to join the extremely corrupt San Francisco PD

The whole excuse for Sonic having to sit in the passenger seat of a car going the speed limit for a good chunk of the movie is also, just. Stupid. If he doesn’t know where San Francisco is and time is of the essence, just... give him a map?

And then there’s Jim Carrey. I was worried about this one. The previews tended to highlight his most Jim Carrey Being Wacky moments, and as fond as I am of movies like The Truman Show and Bruce Almighty, that’s just. That’s not Robotnik. I was pleasantly surprised by the actual movie, though! I thought he was pretty good. I’m not sure what incarnation of Eggman I’d most compare him to, but like... it was close enough, and he was entertaining enough. I’d pay to go see another movie with him as Robotnik. Sure. (Especially with how he was looking at the end of the film.)

There were some other little interesting tidbits here with Eggman, although again, a lot of that is less “let’s do a new take on Eggman” and more “let’s do a marketable movie with Eggman in it, which requires us to explain some stuff.” Like him straight up just being a normal human from Earth, with none of the confusion present in the current “two worlds” canon of the games. Or him apparently being an orphan who was bullied in school, and who trusts machines more than other humans. It’s a safe way to depict the character in a Hollywood movie, but I thought it worked

The way they got to his nickname was kind of funny, though. Like, obviously they didn’t put Jim Carrey in a fat suit, and thank god for that. So instead of mocking his weight, the nickname is derived from the egg-shaped robots he uses. Which made sense, I guess. It at least felt logical for this incarnation of Sonic, who had annoyingly been calling Tom “Donut Lord” the whole movie, to make up the nickname “Eggman.” (Said robots, by the way, were a weak point of the movie to me. They just didn’t have that Eggman whimsy and felt very safe and very Hollywood. Honestly, though, if they had just made Robotnik’s ship grey and slapped some hazard stripes on it, it’d probably be fine.)

As a whole, I thought the humor of the movie was... okay. Sonic had a lot of good moments thanks to Schwartz’s great performance, as did Robotnik. There were just so many weird lines, like James Marsden telling Robotnik that he was breast fed, or the agonizingly long child trafficking joke with Sonic in the duffel bag. Stuff like that

The action was great, though. They definitely owe a lot to the Quicksilver scene in that one X-men movie (I forget the one), but they had a lot of fun with Sonic’s powers and it felt extremely true to the character. Seeing him do one of his Smash poses during the San Francisco fight was great. The action scenes were an absolute delight

And then the ending. Oh, that ending

So, I had already heard that Tails shows up in the stinger before I saw the film. And when I heard that, I expected it to be like, the classic Tails origin story. Maybe Sonic would return to his planet, and run into this precocious kid who decides to follow him around... but no! Not at all! Tails is already the Tails we know and love. He’s already an inventor, he’s already tracking down Sonic. I’m shocked that Sonic actually stayed with Tom instead of running off to have new adventures, but hopefully this is a sign that more characters will be brought into the fray if they make a sequel

And boy, they better make that damn sequel. This movie had a great opening weekend and a positive reception. They have no excuse not to. GIVE US SONIC AND TAILS GOING ON AN ADVENTURE

Other stray thoughts

Holy shit they put Sanic in the movie

The Sega logo animation meant that Kiryu from Yakuza was in this movie for a few seconds

The pixel art credits sequence, which featured both the Sonic 2 special stage and Get Blue Spheres as well as the Eggman logo screens from the Studiopolis Zone boss, was cute

The Saturn logo could be seen on the diagram of the other habitable planets

Robotnik had a label for “Badniks” on his circuit breaker. I wonder if the drones in the movie are intended to be Badniks, or if we’ll see actual ones if a sequel gets made

Also, was it implied that Robotnik committed war crimes for the US government

One of the government guys who I think only got one line was played by Garry Chalk and as such sounded exactly like Optimus Primal

I can’t tell if Sonic getting a red race car bed was an intentional shout out to the Archie comics or if it’s just a coincidence, but I loved it

A dude about my age wearing a Sonic Mania t-shirt literally stood up and clutched his head in shock when Tails showed up

After the movie a very excited kid got his mom to take his photo with the Sonic display in the lobby. Afterwards he was so excited that he flossed

I can’t believe they talked about Olive Garden so much

[fasterthanmydemons]

(I know this is a hectic time for you [and it's getting to be late], so no pressure to answer right away but) Seeing WandaVision's Pietro interact with the twins got me thinking...what's your headcanon about how your Pietro interacts with kids (in general or with the twins or with his own kids if you headcanon it)? :)

{out of breath} Oh, it’s okay! I actually have the perfect storm (for once!) tonight of having time to write and feeling good enough to. No headache, and I finished all my grading a couple hours ago. So for the moment, I’m here and writing until I fall asleep! XD

Okay let’s break down all the categories you mentioned and I’ll tell you Pietro’s thoughts on the subject:

Children in General

Pietro really loves children. They’re tiny humans with endless energy and curiosity who are so perceptive and smart in their own way... what’s not to love? It’s canon that he doted on some of the children in Novi Grad, Sokovia, like for example, Zrinka’s little brother Costel, incidentally the boy Pietro gave his life for.

In a deleted scene, he gave Zrinka a ball to give to Costel. So Pietro likes children, is considerate of their needs, and I think wants to make them happy, even if they aren’t his.

I think a lot of this comes from things Pietro suffered as a child. Losing his parents, living on the streets, dealing with unsuitable foster parents, being cold and hungry and teased and persecuted for ethnicity and religion... things like that terrified him and unfortunately shaped major parts of his personality. I say unfortunately, because we all know what a stand-up guy he turned out to be so why is it bad right?, because in his mind he feels damaged by these things. He feels like he had to grow up very fast, lost his innocence early on, and didn’t get the full childhood experience he thinks every child should have.

Namely, he believes every child deserves to feel safe, loved, and wanted. No child should be afraid of the adults who care for him, or not know where they’re next meal is coming from, or not have any toys. He thinks children should be free to be children, to play and learn and grow in a safe and happy environment. Even though Pietro knows that’s not possible for every child, I think in his own way he tries to bring some of that about in the children he meets in his life. Like giving Costel the ball, maybe hoping it’ll bring him some joy and distract him from everything going on in Sokovia.

With Wanda’s Children

Wanda is the person Pietro loves most in the world, more than I think any ship he would have. He only has one sister, one twin, and given all that they’ve been through and how close they’ve been for so many years, no one else really has anything on that kind of history and level of total trust that he has with Wanda. Given that, any children she has are immediately under Pietro’s protection and loved by him as much as if they were his own.

He would gladly babysit for her at any time, would be the “cool uncle” and give them gifts and play games with them, but would also try to help guide and teach them as well. They would mean the world to him, because his precious sister had them. They’re blood, they’re family, they’re clan, and he is 100% there for them anytime they might need him. And if, gods forbid, anything should ever happen to Wanda and her baby daddy, Pietro would become the children’s guardian in a heartbeat and take that responsibility very seriously.

I think too... Pietro would really love seeing Wanda be a mother. It’s very important to her, she’s wanted it since she was a little girl... and so to see that dream fulfilled and see how happy she is with her babies, that would bring Pietro a lot of joy as well. 

With His Own Children

Basically, everything he feels with Wanda’s children... but then ramped up even more, heh. That’s how he feels about his own kids. These are his own tiny humans. He helped make these humans. He would die for these humans. Like... he would just be in awe that they exist and would do anything and everything for them. He is not a hands-off father in any regard. Pietro jumps right in to clean up puke, change dirty diapers, pick up toys, clean up spilled food - whatever he has to do. If his baby mama needs a night off, or a week off, that’s fine with him. He will absolutely take turns getting up in the middle of the night to change or feed babies.

He wants to be a part of his child/children’s lives, and that means not just the good/happy/clean times, heh. He shares the burden and the mess and the screaming/crying and the pacing with a baby who won’t go to sleep and all that. XD Really, it’s all a joy to him and he doesn’t mind it at all, and with his extra energy, he’s happy to do more of the work so that his baby mama can get sleep or have time to herself or with friends. And yes, he is absolutely that father who will go about his day with a baby in a carrier harness on his chest or back. He’s strong enough, so... if he had twins, one baby would hang on his chest and the other would hang from his back. Not a problem. XD

[kegareki]

tbh i'm always curious about the kaguya causes the apocalypse au, but rarely have concrete questions to ask. so um, what are sakura and obito's abilites like? how powerful are they, both as a team and individually? sakura canonically had healing and super strength, which are great, but I'm also a fan of aus where she branches out and learns other things, so i gotta ask. does she learn genjutsu from obito? also they survived a WHILE in the apocalypse, right, presumably they got even better (1/3)

and learned new stuff from each other? and/or from other survivors in their group? what are their go-to weapons? how does their power level now compare to people in the past? (2/3)

(3/3) ALSO! they travel to other dimensions using kamui, right. where does the kamui spit them out when they go a new dimension? somewhere randomly? (if so, how many times have they ended up dumped in a swamp, or in the middle of nowhere?) some fixed place every time? wherever obito wants? where? and can they choose when they arrive in a new dimension, or are they also just randomly spit out whenever and good luck figuring out in what time and place they are?

these are really good questions!!! i apparently wrote 1100 words in response, so: under the cut!

sakura and obito did survive a while in the apocalypse, yeah. people survived in groups–konoha especially espouses teamwork–and people took positions well-suited for them, at first, like they have been trained to do. hyuuga, inuzuka, aburame, yamanaka, and sensors were good at keeping track of people and directing the groups to safe spaces and such, for example. but people die, and at some point you stop being able to replace them

so people learn to cover those positions in any way they can. enhancing their senses with chakra; trying to recreate barrier seals that you’ve only seen and never studied; etc. people share information about what they remember. people go off and come back with clan scrolls, because there’s no point in hoarding clan information if that information will help keep them alive.

obito and sakura learn together, and what they teach other is–incidental, at first? sakura is healing someone, and she nabs a passing obito into helping her. obito can heal himself just fine, thanks to hashirama’s DNA, but–well. he has deep chakra reserves, as well as the ability to absorb and transfer chakra, so he might as well learn how to heal other people, because at some point they’re going to run short of medics, and it’s better for everyone if most people have even rudimentary medical skills

obito… okay i’m going to be entirely honest here: obito is fucking HORRIFIED at how sakura was treated as a genin. obito’s already complicated relationship with kakashi is complicated even further because he cannot BELIEVE that kakashi didn’t teach her SHIT, didn’t CULTIVATE her OBVIOUS TALENTS, didn’t direct her to anyone who WOULD. kakashi failed sakura, and obito is pissed off on her behalf, because that shouldn’t have happened!!!! obito offers sakura his knowledge Readily and Gladly because she should never, ever feel useless again. she should never, ever be given less than what he or anyone else can offer.

it had been noted in canon that sakura would have been adept at genjutsu, and he gives her techniques. they have to be adapted some, because genjutsu with a sharingan is formed differently than genjutsu without a sharingan, but sakura figures it out. she’s quick and eager to learn! and she’s GOOD at genjutsu! she learns how to conceal people and things; she learns how to subtly redirect a person’s attention so that their eyes skip over something without truly seeing it; she learns how to muddle a person’s sense of balance, of temperature, of pain.

and obito teaches her some ninjutsu, because that’s ANOTHER area where she was failed! why the FUCK did kakashi skimp out on even THIS?!!

sakura has water and earth release, so obito basically goes: okay, cool, here’s some mist techniques. here’s a few iwa techniques that i saw when i was 12 and that i picked up from deidara. you’re going to be so badass, i’m so proud of you.

sakura especially becomes more well-rounded than she was previously, and honestly kind of terrifying because she’s ENJOYING being versatile which means making use of her new techniques, but obito’s pretty happy with his end of the deal, too. his self-healing is passive rather than active, so learning how to use medical techniques and gaining medical knowledge is Actually Helpful because, hey, now he knows what the fuck is going on and now he can actually heal other people. AND now he knows how to do stuff like making blood clots! while that may not help much against kaguya, he’s not going to NOT appreciate new and interesting ways of killing people!

in terms of power, it’s hard to tell when your opponent is a Literal God, but by the time everyone else is dead and they abandon this world, they’re kind of stupidly powerful. like 12-year-old sasuke would eye them warily and challenge them to a fight in a hotel hallway because he can Tell they’re powerful, maybe more powerful than even Bane Of His Life Itachi, and he needs to see how he matches up against them. like–they don’t really escape because they’re dying; they escape because there’s nothing left for them, and staying would just mean dying meaninglessly.

weapons like shuriken, kunai, and senbon had become, increasingly, a scarcity, because making more becomes difficult and then impossible. they picked over past battlefields for weapons that they’ve thrown. not a lot of people had Many Throwing Weapons after a point

but when obito and sakura hang out in kamui, it’s not like THEY’RE going to lose weapons now, so obito pulls out some from his Long-Discarded Weapons Stash and they sort of idly brush up on their bukijutsu. is sakura likely to ever have need of a gunbei? no, but obito’s going to show her how to use it, anyway.

the mechanics of kamui in this ‘verse are like–

the sort of “neutral ground” is the space that obito is used to, the grey landscape of blocks where everything he puts inside of kamui shows up. in order to access anywhere else, kamui needs a set of parameters, conscious or subconscious.

in the beginning, the only parameters are the conscious “not our world” and the subconscious “please be empty,” so the destinations were random and without people. an empty forest; an abandoned cabin; a peopleless island.

obito isn’t USED to making use of this aspect of kamui, so at first, aiming for particular places and times would be difficult. he’d overshoot or undershoot, or get there at the right time but not the right place. but he’d get more precise about it and learn what sorts of parameters work best with what he has in mind (ex. events can come quicker or be delayed or happen somewhere else, depending on the circumstances! some events are sort of fixed in time and place–october 10 in konoha for the kyuubi attack, for example–whereas others shift–like who kumo takes to make a jinchuuriki). if he isn’t clear on a specific variable, what comes out will be random–like if sakura was like “i miss hashirama trees. can we go check that out” and obito’s parameters were just 'hashirama trees around konoha’, they could drop ANYWHERE in that particular forest and at any time where those trees exist

obito and sakura kind of–tend toward peaceful times and places, at first. they gather themselves up and put themselves back together as much as they can. they’re tired.

but then one day sakura makes a comment, like i wish i’d known you sooner, and obito thinks: but you could.

not this sakura, of course, but another one. a different one.

they find an obito crushed under rock, still alive, and obito can use his mangekyo to take him into kamui, and sakura can heal him from there–at least enough to keep him from dying, at least enough to take him to konoha.

being able to help–that goes a long way, after such a long period of helplessness and hopelessness, and when they think about it, there are so many things that they could help prevent, so many lives they can save with the information that they have now.

so they basically become S-class dimension-hopping superheroes just because

[brandxspandex]

Thor: Ragnarok review of sorts

So I just went to see Thor: Ragnarok for a second time and I think that I’ve collated my thoughts enough to give an overview of my opinions on it. Under the cut because this got really long…

Firstly, what I didn’t like about it:

I wasn’t crazy about the way they killed off the Warriors Three with so little ceremony, especially Volstagg and Fandral (Hogun’s death was a bit better). Volstagg in particular is a pretty major and beloved character in the Thor mythos so to see him done away with like that was unpleasant. It’s made even worse by the fact that The Dark World implied that MCU Volstagg has a family with a bunch of little children like 616 Volstagg does.

I similarly didn’t like the way they wrote off Thor’s relationship with Jane Foster with the same casual disregard. I didn’t even like the Thor/Jane plotline and kinda wished they’d never taken that particular path in the first place, but it really irks me when a story sets up a particular relationship or character or plotline or whatever as important and something we should be emotionally invested in, and then proceeds to write it off as though it never mattered. It weakens my trust in the narrative, as it makes me wonder why I should get invested in anything else it pushes me to care about, if there’s a chance it’s just gonna act like it was never important later on. Plus, even if I personally may not have particularly cared, it makes me feel bad for people who did. Sure, more often than not people’s ships don’t work out in canon, and you just have to live with it, but it’s a whole other level of insult to have your ship just tossed away as though it never meant anything. Contrast this with how they dealt with Bruce/Natasha in the movie; I don’t really care for that pairing whatsoever, but I’m still glad they acknowledged it in a way that was consistent with the way it was presented in Age of Ultron. Ultimately, while certain relationships don’t do it for me and I personally think they drag down the narrative, I think that if they’re going to be done away with, it should be nonetheless done in a manner that is respectful to way the relationships have been presented up to that point.

While I enjoyed Hela, as I will expand upon a little further on, I couldn’t help but feel somewhat underwhelmed by her character, knowing how much cooler the comic book character she’s based on is. As keen as I was for Hela, I knew that there was no way they were going to manage to make her as interesting as her 616 counterpart, but I nonetheless hoped they’d chuck in some little reference to the clusterfuck of factors that make her so fascinating in the comics, but there wasn’t really anything like that. On that note, I was hoping that there would be some interesting Hela and Loki interaction, given they have such a major relationship in the comics (not to mention the connection between their mythological counterparts), but they barely interacted at all. I was also really hoping that Hela was going to survive in order to act as a substitute for Mistress Death and Thanos’s object of obsession, and whilst that still isn’t completely off the table, it honestly didn’t feel like they were setting that up after all. Still, I can hope.

On a more minor note, I was a bit irked that the after-credits scene from Doctor Strange ended up being a scene in the film. It felt a bit like being retroactively robbed of an after-credits scene since there is no longer any point in watching it on its own at the end of Doctor Strange.

As for the things I was more ambivalent about:

I had mixed feelings about the humour in the film. On one hand, I love comedy and levity, especially when it is mixed with other genres I’m into. In fact, the humour that runs through the MCU is a big part of why I love it so much. On the other hand, when the humour of an established setting is suddenly amped up, particularly when it smacks of a very particular (and new) style of comedy as it did in this film, it can feel rather discombobulating, almost like the rules of that universe have spontaneously shifted to make this string of funny things happen. So while I found the humour in the film to be a lot of fun, I did feel that sense of discombobulation.

On a related note, Thor’s characterisation in particular felt like it shifted quite a bit to fit the style of humour in the film. I enjoyed his characterisation, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was quite the break from how he acted in previous films. I guess I’d have to watch this movie back to back with some of the previous ones to determine whether or not this is a valid feeling. It is something that does seem to happen quite a bit, I find; certain creators have a very particular way of handling characterisation that causes a lot of characters to take on a certain…tone, when they are written by said creator. I got the sense that was going on in this film.

I’m not sure how to feel about the destruction of Mjolnir. On one hand it was a bold move, but on the other it takes away the most iconic thing about Thor.

They didn’t show Thor and Loki hugging at the end, and while I’m sort of outraged, I also have to wonder if cutting away actually made it all the more impactful, but I guess we’ll never know for sure.

Things I thoroughly enjoyed about the film:

While I found Hela’s overall character rather underwhelming, I certainly can’t fault the stunning way she looked or the overwhelming amount of swag she simply radiated; it was glorious. I would have liked to have it wrapped around a more interesting backstory and/or character motivation, but I can at least relish this shining beacon of sassy goth villainy.

It is also good to know that Hela is at least still a dog person in the MCU, and Fenrir was a very fine example a death goddess’s best friend.

How fricking cool was that seemingly ROCKET POWERED DRAGON at the beginning???

I found myself endeared to Valkyrie the moment she drunkenly staggered off the walkway of her spaceship and then proceeded to mow down a gaggle of scavengers with gauntlets that controlled her ship’s turrets. It was a good first impression.

Both the Hulk and Bruce Banner were fabulous, funny inclusions in the movie, and I really enjoyed their interactions with both Thor and Valkyrie. Honestly, if either Bruce or Valkyrie end up romantically involved with anyone, I think I’d most prefer for it to be with one another.

Doctor Strange was also a fun inclusion from start to end.

I also loved how Thor had Mjolnir disguised as an umbrella during those Earth-bound scenes, in reference to the old comics where it would transform into a walking stick. They even had the detail where he taps it against the ground to transform into his Asgardian garb.

The Grandmaster (and his fricking orgy ship) was just a whole lot of fun.

As was that bloody Kiwi space rock (and his ant friend)…but let’s be real, the mere existence of New Zealand is funny in itself.

While the revelations about Odin and the royal family weren’t explored nearly enough for my liking, they certainly provided a goldmine of worldbuilding and fanfiction possibilities for fandom to play with.

Finally, the things about the movie that I loved:

When I first became invested in the MCU one of my favourite things about it was the bond that formed between Bruce Banner and Tony Stark in The Avengers, so I felt a bit bummed by some of the more recent films in which that relationship seemed to fall to the wayside. Therefore, the way Bruce kept mentioning Tony in this film, even if they were little, incidental mentions, made me very, very happy. I really hope this means their relationship hasn’t been forgotten after all.

Personally I was never truly convinced that Loki killed Odin at the end of The Dark World, but I was very glad to have it confirmed that Loki just dumped him on Earth. Loki’s desperate love for Odin was the thing that ultimately won me over to his character in the first place, and I think that would have been ruined for me if it turned out that he had killed him. I think the way the movie dealt with Odin overall was pretty spot on actually; it introduced the darker elements of his character that have been apparent in the comics for some time, but kept his characterisation nonetheless consist with how he was portrayed in the former films. I was quite satisfied with how his arc played out.

Out of all the characters in the movie, I feel like the tone suited Loki the best. After all, it makes sense that a god of mischief would be at home in a bizarro comedy. Whilst I felt that a number of the other characters had shifted their behaviour slightly to suit the film’s comedic tone, Loki’s characterisation felt completely natural to me. Now that I think about it, I think Loki’s been growing progressively funnier over the course of each movie he pops up in, which is great since he absolutely should be funny. Don’t get me wrong, I loved angsty little Loki from the first Thor movie, but he really needs to have a solid dose of mischief served up alongside all that angst. Honestly, what are the more quintessential ingredients of Loki than angst and mischief? I feel as though that scene of Loki masquerading as a suspiciously fruity Odin, building statues of himself and watching dramatic theatre about his life would seem like absurd Flanderization for most other characters, but for Loki it felt as though he was finally becoming the character he was always meant to be.

I furthermore loved the character arc Loki undertook in this film; it felt like a really organic progression from his character growth in The Dark World. What really got me was that scene where Thor tells Loki that although he refuses to change, he could be more, because if that isn’t a Journey into Mystery/Agent of Asgard reference then it’s a hell of a coincidence.

On that note, Thor and Loki’s interactions were wonderful; a fantastic blend of funny and heartfelt, antagonistic and cooperative. Basically their relationship in this film was everything I want to see from their comic counterparts that Marvel keeps refusing to show me goddammit.

I loved the unique aesthetic of the film both visually and aurally; such a cool combination of the high fantasy thing the other two Thor films had going on and the synthy, 80s Kirby-esque sci-fi element that they introduced. Seriously, what other movie looks and sounds like this one does?

Admittedly I’m only really familiar with 616 Skurge from the Walter Simonson 80s run, in which he doesn’t have that many appearances, but of course it does contain his most notable appearance, and I loved the way they adapted that into the film. It might even be my favourite scene in the movie. Skurge’s whole character arc was really the cherry on top of this film for me.

LOOP ZOOP

But fricking seriously how the hell did we get to the third movie in a Thor movie trilogy and only now they’re playing Immigrant Song?

I did not see that twist on the Ragnarok thing coming and honestly I was pretty impressed by it; I especially liked how they subverted expectations in regards to Loki being responsible for instigating Ragnarok by indeed having him directly responsible, but for reasons I never could have anticipated.

While Infinity War is probably gonna screw it all up, I loved the promise presented by set-up at the end with Thor being the Captain King of a starship of homeless space fantasy gods traversing the stars, with Loki by his side. Holy shit I desperately want to watch a sci-fi series spinning off from this premise.

SAFE PASSAGE THROUGH THE ANUS

[thepurpleblossom]

I went to watch the HF movie earlier! So I’ll be posting my thoughts. I’ve already read many reviews prior so I sort of already found out how some things are different, so the changes didn’t quite surprise / disappoint me, and overall, I really really enjoyed it. If possible, I’ll probably go and watch it at least two more times!

I actually wrote a brief summary of the movie on the way back, but I just remembered there’s a post that pretty much talked about what I wanted to, but!! I’ll do it again in any case!

I really enjoy the first few scenes because they were anime original. Since I read the post linked above, I did know that they were animating those pre!story scenes. But what I didn’t expect was how long it was. There was perhaps a good 10 minutes devoted to these scenes. 

Starting off with a beautiful scene in the archery club depicting Shirou’s mastery of archery, Ayako and Shinji looking from behind, and a stranger praising his skills to Taiga. And then immediately juxtaposed with a short scene of Shinji reprimanding Shirou’s carelessness in getting injured during work. And then Sakura’s visits. We get his original insistence that he can’t make his friend’s sister help him like this...! and snapshots of Sakura’s stubbornness, visiting everyday until Taiga warms up to her, and Shirou gives up, giving her a key. And then he wakes up in the shed, with Sakura’s prompting.

I love these scenes so much, but I also love the bits where they slowly depict the changes happening in Sakura. When she first arrives, her eyes are completely dead, and she hardly talks. And then she talks, her eyes remaining dull. And by the end of the flashback (where Sakura gets accepted to Homurahara Academy), her eyes are brightened and as seen in this pv, she smiles so brightly. 

These are so important in establishing the effect Sakura has on Shirou, as well as Shirou’s on Sakura that now, I’m almost surprised that they aren’t in the original material.

Incidentally, there was two separate instances where Sakura touches her ribbon, (oh my god, i can’t believe my hc of her touching her ribbon is actually canon now). The most important one being when they were discussing Kiritsugu being Shirou’s hero, and when faced with the same question, Sakura simply repeats the words while touching the ribbon. 

Originally I was worried how they are going to deal with the repeats from UBW. But they really did just compress them into a few images, serving as a reminder to jolt our memory rather than a full scene. Which is actually a direction that I really liked that they took, because it would be taking time away from content that we have already seen -- there is no point in animating the same scenes again as well.

There are other scenes in which they were longer but the movie cut them short. Such as Sakura noticing the mark on Shirou’s hand, but it skips the following breakfast scene, and changes scene to Sakura leaving and asking Shirou to come home quick. I also really like these cuts, whilst the scenes are lost, its usually done without much consequences and the viewers can fill in the gaps. To borrow @fishofthelake’s words, it really fits the movie’s format.

Also, Saber in Shirou’s yukata.  👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀

About the dream that Shirou had. I think the movie is my favourite rendition. Whilst the original is just Rin H scene. And Realta Nua a scene between Rin and Ayako, this was Rin putting the moves on Shirou at first and then turning to Sakura. The first was awkward given how Rin is not the heroine of the series. And RN’s verison makes me imagine that Shirou... ships Rin and Ayako. And HF’s felt the most natural? Shirou’s crush on Rin can’t be separated from the narrative, and they also showed it during a scene where Shirou chances upon Rin helping Sakura pick up the papers fallen on the floor ( “Oh... The person who helped me is--” “Tohsaka Rin, right?” “... You know her?” “Oh aaah, *flustered* she’s beautiful and everyone knows her.” ). But the change to Sakura felt more natural given that it is her route, and also highlights that Shirou is gradually gaining an romantic interest in Sakura. ( Important as they cut out the bit where Shirou walks Sakura to the Matou’s mansion, as well as the morning scenes including the monologue where Shirou is like “ah this is problematic. Sakura is becoming more beautiful by the day” )

Actually, there are actually a number of scenes that effectively portrayed Shirou’s attraction to Sakura, and vice versa. Whilst the added scenes at the beginning of the movie showed how important they are to each other, the scenes scattered throughout the rest of the movie showed how their feelings for each other are decidedly romantic. With Sakura’s silent jealousy when Sakura finds out that Shirou knows Rin, Taiga’s joking comments that Shirou asked Sakura to stay over so that she won’t be jealous of Saber... And of course, the scene where Sakura first collapses, and Shirou is there, looking after her, and their hands are held together almost tenderly. I teared up.

Speaking of a tender scene, Sakura visited the shed with Shirou. And one of the topics was that Shirou is an adopted child, and Sakura mentions briefly that he had good people around him, and that made my heart break a little. Because Sakura is also adopted and she didn’t have good people around her. While the scene broke my heart a little, the overall atmosphere was really soft and tender, and Sakura seems so glad that his experience is different from hers ( of course, it might be just me assuming that she’s drawing a parallel between his experience and hers since she didn’t talk about herself being adopted, but it’s highly likely that she is. )

The fight scenes were super cool. I was holding my breath the entire time during the Cu and Hassan fight, on the expressway before they moved to the lake. I’m so glad Cu got some scenes before he was gone. Though, I felt like the scene where Medu showed up in the temple could be done better? The scene in the VN felt more creepy in comparison, and I could sense the danger and how she’s so much more powerful compared to her earlier appearance (the scene where Saber absolutely destroyed Medusa was beautiful by the way). I can’t quite recall if the dangerous aspect in the VN was due to Shirou’s monologue, but I feel that they could have done better, perhaps through a new, creepier OST? I don’t think they changed the OST from Shirou’s fight with Zouken. But that’s probably just me nitpicking. My friend thought she seems powerful anyway.

AND, let’s talk about the music. I’m too much of Kajiura’s fan to not devote a section to talk about her to be honest. In summary, I... really like it??? I’m not sure how else I could say it. Other than that scene mentioned above, I really like the music direction. Sometimes the scenes are without music, but it doesn’t take it away. In UBW, the lack of music in some scenes made it rather boring for me to watch, and hard to grip my attention, but in the movie, I felt like it was used brilliantly. The first scene of Shirou’s archery had no music, but served to show Shirou’s hyperfocus and tranquility of archery. Some of the flashback scenes generally had soft, calming music, but other scenes are quiet, without music. It felt like it added to the peacefulness and the fondness in the memories.

The first heavy, dark music is used when Shirou notices the Lancer and Archer fight and he starts running for a safe space before the scene fades to a scene with Sakura somehow noticing this happening and then we get the compressed, repeated scenes from UBW. I really like how the first piece of dark music is used as a lead-in to the rest of the movie because the flashbacks are done now, and this is where the plot starts. It felt like a summary / warning as to what the rest of the movie has to offer, which is dark, dark, and dark. They also used one or two F/Z tracks btw. If I’m right, Back to Zero, during the scene in which Kirei reveals to Shirou Kiritsugu’s involvement in the 4th Holy Grail War. Most of the tracks in the rest of the movie were dark, and very, very different from UBW’s, which is understandable, given that they are done by different composers after all. But it really is a huge indication of how dark HF is compared to UBW’s and I love it.

Things that I’m not too happy about are nitpicks. The loss of the classroom scene, but the inclusion of the scene may have led the movie to feel draggy (since it takes place before the Lancer & Archer fight -- ie where the movie truly begins), so I will accept that choice begrudgingly. The other bit is the dream sequence involving Saber Alter talking to Saber. I liked the horror that Saber is truly gone, and then the resulting shock when Saber Alter showed up later in the story, and such a scene felt like it took away both of such elements. Still, at this point in time, Saber Alter is hardly a secret anymore, so perhaps these factors are gone ever since the popularity of FGO and the Fate franchise in general. So why not capitalise on their knowledge, instead of pretending that everyone watching are Fate noobs right.

Perhaps that’s why the Prize A for the Ichiban Kuji lottery for Heaven’s Feel is not Sakura, but actually a figure of Saber Alter. They’re just like, Saber Alter??? Keep her a secret??? I think /not/.

In summary though, I’m really happy with this movie. The director really seems to love the route and Sakura a lot. The movie was beautiful, and the scenes with Sakura felt so beautiful and wonderfully portrayed and her expressions. And the last scene where Shirou comes back to a worried Sakura waiting for him with her nose and cheeks red from standing too long in the snow... It’s beautiful.

Now, if you excuse me, I’ll just be looping Hana no Uta.

[judgesabo]

A Year of Theory

One year ago today I posted my Classpect Analysis, my first serious attempt at theorycrafting for CaNWC. Now seems like the perfect time then to look back and see what has changed. What old questions have been answered, and what cool and new questions have been raised?

Classpects

I am absolutely delighted by the progress that has been made here. My original classpect post has essentially been confirmed in full, and we’ve made plenty of new discoveries as well. Jhon is the Boss of Wheels, Hecka is the Mus of Time, and Rose is the Lord of Space. Beyond this, Lord Spanish/Lord English has also been confirmed as the Lord of Time, and Papaya/Kanaya has been confirmed to be the Sylph of Space.

Hecka has also made significant progress in inspiring people for war, even convincing Dabe to fight against his daddy. He’s also demonstrated an intuitive understanding for all matters related to time, showing an even greater understanding than a sprite. As yesterday’s update demonstrated, Hecka is able to skillfully use this in the fight itself, creating stable time loops on the fly.

Rose continues to follow down the path of the Lord of Space, giving a greater analysis of the Corruption and working tactically off of that plan. Jack Noir has also offered an analysis of Rose which is very similar to my own.

Lalonde isn’t someone you want to cross. It’s bad enough that each of the heroes has the ability to manipulate an aspect... Not to mention that she now has the horrorterrors doing her bidding, and she has an above-average intelligence, even for a woman uncorrupted. And you’re not one to give out compliments lightly.

If anyone can get this awful reality back to normal, it’s her.

New difficulties have arisen for each player though, and the bids for power will be intense from here on. Hecka Jef’s main goal of killing Jhon has already been completed, so for this moment he’s fighting for nothing. Rose has been officially recognized as a horrorterror herself, so her command over their entire forces is now more explicit, but they are also clearly preoccupied with their own fight for survival against Lord English. Jaed is also likely going to lose control of Prostit soon, facing challenges from both the Blapck Quen and Fresh Whyte Germysprite. But Jack is also pushing to gain control of Durst himself, which may gain Rose new control over the Dark Kingdom. Major changes to the balance of power are due.

Enough with the old, on with the new. Jhon has been given the title ‘Boss of Wheels.’ Since this is a fanon class and aspect, instead of using the classpect to analyze Jhon, we will use Jhon to understand the class and aspect.

The most obvious thing about the title is of course that "Boss of Wheels” is essentially a rewording of “RollerCoaster Tycoon.” When Jhon did the ‘wheely thing,’ he caused a roller coaster to rescue him from lava, seeming to simply will it into existence.  Bg’ogubmom’ibulsprite explicitly confirms that ‘control of theme park rides’ is a power of the Boss of Wheels.

The aspect ‘Wheels’ should be taken as referring to roller coasters, or possibly any kind of transportation. Taking it even more broadly, it could even be taken to mean ‘velocity,’ fitting in with time and space as a fundamental force. Or perhaps it is meant to represent technological progress and advancement, as the invention of the wheel often marks the dawn of civilization.

Wheels are a common symbol across many cultures, but the most famous is the Wheel of Fortune. The Rota Fortunae represents the ever changing and tumultuous nature of fate, spun at random by Fortuna, the goddess of luck. Dynasties are built and they collapse based on its movements.

This concept was adopted into the tarot deck as the tenth card of the Major Arcana, representing destiny, fortune, and success, and reversed represents troubles and negative forces outside of your control. Incidentally, the Homestuck tarot deck shows a god-tier John looking up from his planet as Skaia.

And, of course, the Wheel of Fortune was also adopted as a popular game show where people solve hangman-style word puzzles to win money. A little less mystical, that one, but it strengthens the “money” theme.

Jhon’s own destiny in saving the economy of the Land of Dollers and Danger from President Obana. The LODAD economy is centered around the millions of small businesses that populate it, which are now facing a depression under Obana’s rule. Jhon’s quest will be to become an extremely powerful business owner and build a theme park so awesome it will save the economy before facing Obana in the Oval Offace. So obviously fortune and wealth play a big part of Jhon’s life already.

Jhon’s class as Boss also takes a distinctly economic focus. A boss of course refers to a supervisor, someone in charge who manages a business, directing their employees. The word boss was taken from the Dutch word baas, meaning ‘master.’  Looking at the synonym of tycoon a bit more, while the English definition simply means a powerful person in an industry, the word itself is a corruption of the Japanese word ‘taikun’ or ‘great lord,’ referring to a shogun.

An important question here is whether a Boss would be a standard class or a master class. The word itself certainly wouldn’t be out of place as a master class, except perhaps for breaking with the Medieval theme, but it’s unclear if master classes could work like that. Calliope certainly seems to indicate that there are only two master classes, and marks them as distinct for being the furthers on the passive/active scale. If a Boss is a master class, what is it’s pair, if it has one, and what relation does it have to other classes? It could also be a standard class of course, the existence of which  beyond the twelve we know having always been a solid maybe.

Looking at Jhon’s behavior, this class is also likely connected to Jhon’s role as a ‘daddy’ in CaNWC. Jhon is considered the daddy of Dabe Stidrer, Momi, Dadd before he met Dacronian Dignity, and made two independent offers to be a daddy to two different crocodiles mere moments after meeting them. LODAD might also be a reference to this, being the Land of DAD.

I would argue that Boss is an active class, assuming that scale applies, possibly with an interpretation of ‘manager of their aspect’ or ‘one who manages via their aspect.’

Interestingly, a video game boss is typically the main antagonist of a series. o has explicitly stated that he’s already building up Rose’s side as being the villains of the series.

Rose’s Time Powers

In addition to her space powers, Rose has been shown to have some degree of control over time. At the moment there is little explanation for this, although we do know that it is not part of her power as Lord of Space. AR and Bg’ogubmom’ibulsprite both seem to be aware of the source of these powers and imply that Rose will discover this source during her quest. As of yet we do not even know what her quest is though, which makes theorizing about it rather difficult.

It is worth noting that Rose’s time power is marked by her signature color, while her space powers uses the traditional green sun shade of green. The fact that it’s her color does seem to indicate that it is some kind of innate ability, or at least one tailored to Rose specifically.

Contrast this to Hecka Jef’s own symbol, which is marked with the Time red, rather than his more pinkish red.

Any answer to this question will likely be of o’s own invention, and certainly doesn’t seem to match any existing Sburb mechanics. The closest incident that comes to mind would be items related to an aspect, such as Caliborn using the Ring of Void, or John using the Fear No Anvil, but those aren’t exactly innate. For the moment I will simply concur with Jack’s own conclusion that this has to be cheating.

For the sake of sheer speculation, I’m going to guess that Rose got the time powers from Lord English in some kind of exchange, or perhaps as a reward, for freeing him and the rest of the Felt from the corruption. Rose has been confirmed as a Lord of Space, so I’m standing by my own classpect analysis to say that she will be the explicit cause of why some characters have been enhanced. As a Lord of Time, it could make sense that Lord English would grant her time powers even before she makes the exchange.

Troll Players

The next bit of news is that we have learned that Nepeta is indeed trolling the humans, and we can see her corrupted handle. This leaves Eridan and Feferi as the odds one out as the only two characters that haven’t had their handles revealed.

Of course this isn’t definitive proof that they are the two non-player trolls. In fact, it’s basically nothing. If Dabe can be in the human session without being a player, the trolls might have brought the two odd ones out with them as well. Still, it’s best to keep track of these things. Plus we already know that Eridan is, ahem, tied up at the moment anyways, which is a much better reason to think he’s out.

Considering that the background for Act 5 contains all twelve astrological symbols, we should expect to see the full cast of trolls.

Coulor and Darknes

We finally have some indication as to why the trolls are harassing the humans. According to Kraket, the reason they are looking for vengeance is because their “winners door” has been stolen, which I am happy to say I predicted.

Unlike what I predicted however, Kraket claims they are still being killed by a pair of demons from Earth, one of color and the other of darkness. In addition, Kraket extends this blame to Dabe, even though he’s not a player, claiming that he has known both demons for years, and emphasizes Hecka Jef’s blame over others.

In canon, Karkat never had a good grasp on how long a year was meant to be, so who knows how long he’s really talking about, but it’s fair to say that this is significant.

Lord English makes the most sense for being the Demon of Color, especially considering we already know he has the door, but that leaves an obvious problem with the rest of Kraket’s description. Dabe doesn’t know Lord English. He likely knows Lil Cal, but that’s a fairly weak connection. Caliborn is technically from Earth, but not from the session that the trolls are viewing.

The evidence so far also heavily indicates that Caliborn is indeed still Lord English. We know that Lord English is the Lord of Time from another session, that he leads the Felt, that Lil Cal exists, that the Cairo Overcoat exists, and that it travels through time via sarcophagus.

The Demon of Color might still be some other minion or version of Lord English, like Union Jack in Homestuck. This makes both Dabe’s Bro and the Big Man likely candidates.

The Demon of Darkness on the other hand could work for Rose, further contrasting her to the Lord of Time. Her connection to the Horrorterrors is already well established. Assuming it’s not her personally though, a few more options open up for who this could be since the Queen’s Ring turns people into creatures with the powers of the head of the noble circle.

The fact that Hecka Jef prototyped Rose’s grimoire also makes Kraket’s blame all the more appropriate. That’s an action that very explicitly puts the blame on him.

The bigger difficulty with this theory is that the Queen’s Rings do not work on humans, which makes it difficult to see who Dabe could have known all his life, yet still use its power. One possible answer to this is that since each ring is also prototyped with Dabe’s life-long friend Germy, Kraket may be placing the blame on him. So while a carapacian will still be wearing the ring, Kraket will blame Germy.

Final Thoughts

And there you have it. One year later and CaNWC is still going strong, with plenty new and cool content, art, and music. I’m looking forward to another year of content in the future and all the new facts and theories to come.

[ryttu3k]

For the ask meme: Sycamore for 3, 6, 7, 12, 14, 19, 28, 30, 33, 34, 45, 49!

Oh boy howdy let’s go :D These will generally be for both gameverse and animeverse versions, although where they diverge, I’ll note it down.

3. Do they exercise, and if so, what do they do? How often?

Just working at the lab is pretty good exercise! Looking after the Pokemon in the enclosure and running around after them, giving squirming baby starters their check-ups, meeting up with students - he doesn’t have an official exercise regime or anything, but does plenty of running around just in his everyday life.

6. Eating habits and sample daily menu

Vegetarian, although that’s very much the norm in my headcanon Pokeverse. His eating habits are best described as ‘holy shit dude how are you not malnourished’, since when he gets right into working, he pretty much subsides on pastries and coffee, aside from when friends/family/concerned coworkers actually get him something with actual vitamins and minerals that aren’t caffeine and go “EAT THE FUCKING HEALTHY FOOD, AUGUSTINE” and stare at him intently until he shows a bit of self-care. …Ahem. If he was to go out for dinner or something, he prefers comfortable, homey dishes like ratatouille and minestrone and green salads and some nice crusty bread, nothing super fancy. He is a bit pickier with his coffee, though, and has pretty refined tastes there.

7. Favorite way to waste time and feelings surrounding wasting time

Drawing. He’s a natural doodler. Given a few spare minutes, out come the pencils, drawing everything from still-lifes of his surroundings, to Pokemon, to people and landscapes from memory. He does tend to feel guilty about wasting time, though, and will generally tell himself off and make himself get back to work. Animeverse version also enjoys TV, including watching performances. (Great use of lab equipment there guys A+.)

Putting the rest under a cut, it’s getting long ;D

12. Favorite book genre?

Very much with escapism, he’s pretty fond of fantasy, when he’s reading for pleasure. It’s pretty rare these days, but he enjoys it a lot just as an escape from everything else, and there’ll often be a novel at the bottom of his bag.

14. Physical abnormalities differences? (Both visible and not, including injuries/disabilities, long-term illnesses, food-intolerances, etc.)

So if we’re including disabilities, then technically Aspergers and ADHD comes under this? So, comorbid Aspergers and ADHD, yeah, although they’re much more just… neurotypes rather than disabilities.

On an actual illness note, for the gameverse version, he also has depression, anxiety, and is prone to insomnia, so general health issues resulting from not enough sleep and a fairly shoddy diet. Medication-wise, he takes an antidepressant for it, something Diantha encouraged after everything with Lysandre.

The animeverse version doesn’t seem to have the same depression and anxiety issues, I feel? He’s still autistic and has ADHD, but basically has his life together more. Still kind of prone to overworking, weird sleeping patterns, and not eating as well as he should, but not quite as badly as gameverse.

19. What do they think about before falling asleep at night?

For both versions, work work work, lots of thinking about work. Gameverse version tends to have a lot of dark/sad/upsetting/guilty thoughts about everything with Lysandre, which, honestly, is a big part of his insomnia. Animeverse version had a lot of trouble sleeping through stress after the Flare incident, mostly in the form of guilt about not realising what was going on with Alain sooner, but that’s slowly working out, especially since he knows that Alain is sleeping comfortably in the next bedroom.

28. Who do they see as their best friend? Their worst enemy?

Best friend is Diantha, and that’s true whether they’re twins (gameverse) or unrelated (animeverse)! Although her career does tend to mean she’s pretty busy, they get together as often as they can and just. Hang out. In animeverse, Meyer is also one of his closest friends as well as his partner.

Worst enemy is… uh, in gameverse, it’s basically himself :| Lots of guilt over Lysandre. In animeverse, it actually is Lysandre and his only regret is not being able to punch the fucker in the face in person for everything he did to Alain.

30. Reaction to sudden intrapersonal disaster (eg close family member suddenly dies)

Gameverse, he canonically does the whole “:) :) :) Nothing is wrong :) :) :)” thing. Like the Couriway scene, he starts out pretty flat and sad, using a lot of ellipses, generally subdued body language, actually turning away from the protag. Within seconds, he’s all smiles and energy and !!! again, so basically suppress, suppress, suppress, and fall apart when there’s no one else around.

Animeverse strikes me as being more emotionally honest and proactive? Like gameverse did make moves to stop Lysandre from behind the scenes, but animeverse, when Gabby was stolen, actively and immediately went out to find her and like. Flung himself down a cliff to defend her! He acts quicker and actually shows much more honest expressions - when he’s angry with the Rockets, it shows, when he’s scared, it shows. So I feel animeverse would react to intrapersonal disaster by actually reaching out to people and not bottling everything up (unless he’s trying to keep a strong face for someone else, like Alain or the kids).

33. Concept of home and family?

Family and home are basically synonymous! I see him having a pretty good relationship with his biological family (gameverse Diantha, Auntie Drasna, parents, et cetera), but also others becoming part of family of choice. Best example, of course, is in animeverse, with Alain, who is definitely his son, and his relationship with Meyer, and Clemont and Bonnie becoming his stepkids (and he’s already great with Bonnie even before that, like lifting her up to pet Gabby in the second episode!), and he’s sort of adopted all his other students too, especially Manon (protective Papa Wolf Sycamore defending Manon from the Flare grunt was SO GOOD). Whoops, he’s acquired another child :’)

Gameverse version pretty much adopts all his students too, although since they seem to be older than in gameverse, the dynamic can sometimes be more like a mentor and protege than a parent and a younger child. Sina and Dexio, for instance, are more like grown-up offspring - he’s still protective and proud of them, but also trusts them more to be independent. He’d have quite a different dynamic with 10-year-old Serena (a child, he’s protective of her, is proud and encouraging of her, and basically looks after her during the Flare crisis) than he would of 17-year-old Serena (still protective, proud, and encouraging, but he knows she’s much more capable of taking care of herself, and sees her more as a protege or apprentice than a dependent).

34. Thoughts on privacy? (Are they a private person, or are they prone to ‘TMI’?)

Private, definitely, although he’d basically joke about TMI without actually like… revealing actual things. So he’d basically deflect attention with masks and jokes, because he doesn’t want to worry people, or he doesn’t think it’s anyone’s business, stuff like that.

45. Superstitions or views on the occult?

So I always get stuck on this question for the Pokeverse because they have like. Actual canonical Ghost-types and various Gods and stuff like that, haha. Ghost-types definitely exist! Ghosts of Pokemon and people, probably, there’s been reputable sightings. Also, frankly, the Paris/Lumiose underground is probably A Mess thanks to the catacombs, I bet they’re packed with Ghost-types and. Actual ghosts. Probably more ‘it could definitely happen but haven’t personally encountered them’ for the actual ghosts. Superstition-wise, I bet there’s a ton related to the legendaries, and I’d bet the ones relating to Zygarde become a whole lot more interesting for animeverse version now that he’s actually met them! “Oh, yes, the deity of the balance between life and death? Yeah, swabbed the little one, they didn’t seem too pleased. My stepdaughter carried them around in her little bag. Cool li’l bean. Well. Big bean.”

This question becomes really funny for my Xerneas!Sycamore, incidentally.

49. If this person were to get into a fist fight, what is their fighting style like?

OPERATION HIDE BEHIND THE GARCHOMP. …Okay no he does grab that Flare grunt but, uh, that wasn’t really a fist fight, and he was still pretty quick to get Gabby out, haha. He’s, um, not formidable. (Gameverse is basically the same except it’s OPERATION HIDE BEHIND THE CHARIZARD or something XD )

AND DONE.

[whydoyouthinkileft]

aos spoilers

having my breakfast - at 12:30 and so excited about this ep because of reasons so let's go

-btw watching the previously I just remembered Kasius and the other alien lady having their talks (Because he wants to leave that planet) and trying to top each other while also trying to sound like they don't hate each other's guts?  It was hilarious to me, it was like watching ANY conversation between people in my town ever (incidentally, my town if you live in it long enough does give you the feeling you are trapped underground waiting for giant roaches to suck the life out of you)

-oh hello lil cute boy -how old is he? is it me being weirdly old if I say that?

-oh even the white slave-owner guy has a soft spot for him?

-NO HE DROPPED THE FRUIT

-I feel like I'm too invested in him eating already

-senator Gaius whatever is also someone I could see living in my town

-thaaaaat's the scene from the promo. also can you imagine if ALL the people there are lying their asses off to look more evil?

-he looks soooo fantastic to me, I love cowboy in space clothes

-OOHHHHHHHH -the look on his face and lack of breath -I died fifty days over it -Kasius should have just been in something like Desperate Housewives -also I'm starting to find funny how he reads what Sinara says just from her expression and she never has to talk -Jemma looking at space and being deaf OH MY GOD FITZ. IS HE GONNA TALK. IS HE GONNA GO ALL I LOVE YOU I WANNA MARRY YOU HAVE MY BIOCHEMENGINEER BABIES and she's gonna walk away? -oh my god. He realized the universe can't stop them, they are stronger than curses. Now that she's deaf. He needs to repeat it. And then let her make fun of him for the curse thing for other 74 years -I FUCKING KNEW IT. I KNEW HE'D PROPOSE -nooooooooooooo the deaf thing -'oh are they' Fitz would love to kill him, wouldn't he -OH MY GOD HE'S TOUCHING HER FACE IN FRONT OF FITZ -Of course Kasius would appreciate that sentiment from Fitz. If all he's going to use from the Doctor is talking about bullshit and pain like a villain would, give those speeches, while he doesn't believe in a word he says and the actual bad guy there is like 'uuhhh this is my new friend' I'm here for it. This is basically high school and becoming popular. -Also still here if Jemma wants to break a pitcher on Kasius's face though -I am worried though because Jemma wasn't 100% chill when she saw Fitz's face -oh my god the look on Fitz's face after Kasius walked away -Tess just quoted me with 'soft spot' for the kid. I'm Tess now. -Flint 'if I turn I won't have to beg around' yeah well he's NOT WRONG, mind you -is Jemma going to mother this one too and then Daisy will train him? -AAAHHHH FITZ AND JEMMA -the hatred on Kasius' face whenever he speaks to all people who are supposed to be on his same level or higher makes me laugh, I'm so sorry -they are just so... mundane about 'uhhh your daddy gave your big brother the big job and you are stuck in here lmao' -evil eyes of hatred- -I'm glad Daisy is befriending the mind-reader, he's adorable -also he didn't expect her to go all 'I'm sorry' and he's even more adorable -no seriously they seriously could be living in my town -Fitz. Fitz don't fuck this up, my boy. -the almost smile when he describes it tho, that kinda sells it as him being a bitch so... good -what is that snail thing, also I TOO FIND MOIST CREATURES (and stuff that changes from hard to soft depending on the bite, and really most meat) DISTASTEFUL BUT NOBODY LAUGHS WITH ME WHEN I SAY IT AND REFUSE TOT IT, THEY CALL ME SPOILED. ALSO I RAN OUT OF THE ROOM IF THERE ARE SNAILS BECAUSE NO. Next fucking time we have a dinner with other people I'm going to talk with that attitude and slam the food on the plate and wait for someone to laugh. I'll instruct my little brother to laugh and make other people feel like they have to laugh -sidenote: the jackass who brought it up attempting to laugh along not sure of what's happening is amazing. I don't know which one of those guys is really the loser in the real tvshow that is going on in there. Kasius, cast away and trying to climb up the ladder and become a Big Shot, the snails guy who is soooo loud and soooo friendly and everybody knows he's just desperate to keep being in the inner circle, or what -HAHAHA the Kree discussing why the kid disappeared like. Even before they looked around like 'did we crush the kid' 'how did he disappear, what did we do wrong? look under your shoes' and now 'maybe his power is to disappear' 'nah' I can see these Kree driving a car and talking why they stopped -lmao 'you mean this guy?' 'no he's just cool' -Mack looks proud of himself- you are cool, Mack. You are big enough you don't need superpowers -at this point Kasius and others are just courting Fitz -MAY, IT'S MAY. MAY WILL FIGHT HIM. GET THE HELL OUT. also he KNOWS Jemma and Daisy were laying and how the ell idd he find out her name is Melinda May -Melinda and Fitz looking at each other like that, oh my god. And she hasn't seen what happened of Jemma yet after she let her go -is... Fitz... bromancing Kasius to trick him? what is this episode?? this is also perfect because Fitz's superpower since s2 has been to befriend EVERY person he met and get a circle around him super fast, first Hunter and Mack and then Hunter and Coulson, then he grabbed Bobbi too, befriended Radcliffe super fast, like, of course he can use his 'father's memories (with Jemma watching like a hawk - with impared sight) to get to Kasius. Fitz in this episode is me in high school, I'm not even kidding anymore. You gotta fit in to survive, so fit in in a way that will make people fight to sit next to you without even lying -is telepath boy going to tell May how to behave because he SHOULD -lmao May hitting him without thinking and succeeeding, bet he didn't see that coming -if it wasn't for her leg he'd in a world of trouble -LMAO KASIUS' FACE when Fitz went 'this fight bores me' -he just insulted May's age and just... her face. -the horror at Flint not knowing what tacos are -we finally know Elena's terrigen story lol -oohhhh my god white guy needs to die -he's about to kill him because he lied, oh my god, OH MY GOD, BEN. NO. NOOOO. DON'T DO THIS. -FITZ, don't try to control Kasius too hard, he'll know -one more death in Daisy and Jemma's conscience oh my god are you kidding me poor sweet Ben -oh the white guy had a second when asking about the prophecy and he might buy it later -aw Jemma and Daisy, with Jemma being able to hear -'there was nothing you could do' 'I have to kill him' 'you'll have to get in line'  just... Jemma, of all the people, always reassuring others that it's not their fault, but also REALLY, let Jemma kill at least one person who humiliated and hurt her instead of having her fail and get someone else to do it? -I KNEW IT. I KNEW JEMMA LIKED THE CARDIGANS, PREFERRED THEM. I'M THINKING OF S2. THEY WERE SO SOFT LOOKING -I love that their having girls talk in the middle of this too because oh god they are 29-30, and yes, they have been through hell, and in situations like this people don't necessarily act like super efficient zombies, they find humor, they find reasons to chat with friends, they still smile, and I always found unrealistic when in tvshows, including aos, they were only shown super serious ALL the time. -Daisy the shippers is back. Which I don't know why people don't like or find weird because honestly, I ship my friends with their loved ones when they are so in love -Jemma has a knife. Jemma KEEPS STEALING KNIVES AND WILL STAB PEOPLE, YES -Elena being tortured twice now -uh oh controlling rocks. BREAK HIS HEAD. CRACK HIS HEAD OPEN. YES FLINT -also the loooook between Jemma and Fitz was so lovely, they almost got to talk -Kasius is peacocking so much over his brother -oh they have a plan B, alright -oh wow Kasius' brother is such a sweetie, 'there is no honor to be found in this human cesspool'. that's kinda my attitude when they force me to go out for holidays. -oh yeah, Kasius 'pleeease Sinara fight for me' and then trying to talk her into not being mad at him lol. Also yes for Sinara dying. Fuck you.  You kept killing people with your stupid-ass balls. Your turn now. -jesus for a second I thought they had hung Tess for her neck -IS SHE? DEAD?? NO??????!!! -Daisy's look is so cool tho -KILL SINARA. KILL HER, KILL -aw shit they have a barrier -break her neck, break HER NECK -NO KILL HER. KILL HER FOR REAL. -JEMMA FUCKING SLIT KASIUS' THROAT I'M SO ALIVE FOR THIS, ALSO FOR DAISY FLYING UP LIKE THAT OH MY GOD -OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK -THEY HAD A REUNION KISS FOR FUCKING ONCE -JEMMA PROPOSED TOO AND HE ZFHAADSKJHFKDF -THEN THEY PICKED UP DAISY I'M SO -AND FITZ TALKING ABOUT HOW HE PROPOSED EARLIER THO I'M GOING TO HAVE A HEART ATTACK -honestly I said that I didn't want them to propose and get married until they were a little healthier but that can be solved writing fanon, when it comes to canon, if... Fitz managed to somehow work through his doctor issues and just needed one last push from Hunter (maybe that's also what happened in those six months) and to not be holding back on his love for Jemma anymore because he's completely there and not worrying about the cosmo... then I guess it's fine? honestly, I'm a sucker for this sort of thing so I'll just accept it in the show and then write 59494864 things in which they process things slower after the proposal, they'd have been together anyway -I CAN'T HELP IT OKAY I'M JUST EXCITED -ENOCH LIES THE WAY JEMMA LIED IN S1 OKAY, I LOVE HIM 'hello friend' 'who are you' 'I am a Kree as I've always been, brother' -I love everything about them dividing tasks and Jemma finally getting revenge on Kasius and Fitz finishing Sinara after Daisy did her fighting and also Daisy is there to listen to the proposal, I'm laughing oh my god