#is there an extent to which she sympathizes with them?

[pingintech]

"i like this character" vs "i like how this character is written" = you can like a character who is poorly written because there are interesting themes inherent in how theyre depicted or simply in the way they interact with people

"i like this character" vs "i care about this character" = just because a character is intriguing doesnt mean you necessarily care enough to see them again it doesnt necessarily mean you sympathize with them or want good things for them in fact sometimes you like a character specifically for how much you hate them and want them to die

"i like how this character is written" vs "i care about this character" = well written antagonists for example see above you can be a fan of how well their dialogue is written how their character arc gets resolved nicely you they interact with other characters in a way that seems pretty consistent with their characterization and not inherently like or care about them as a character

for me an example of a character i like who is poorly written who i dont care about is xorn from xmen i think there was a lot of potential there but the final reveal was atrocious and i dont want to see the character even again to the extent im not sure a retcon would even fix it

an example of a character i like but dont care about but who is (generally) written well is pixie shes cool i mostly just havent read much about her and she doesnt really light up my happy neurotransmitters much ya know???

a character i care about who is poorly written and i dont like is wanda maximoff i love the idea of a mutant who was a founding member of the avengers whos magnetos daughter and whos romani i care a LOT about all of that but she is so poorly written she is A. no longer magnetos daughter B. no longer a mutant C. magneto is also??? no longer romani??? which??? uh..... D. she has always been a romani character whos power is shes a witch E. She was responsible for the near extinction of all mutants F. they love to randomly make her a bad guy for all of those reasons i dont really like her either i mean her core concept was already bad tbh barely saved by the fact her brothers powers arent magic so at least theres a romani character whos super power isnt being a literal witch in the story but still

a character i care about and like who is poorly written is monet st croix mutant m shes an awesome autistic baddy whos powers are basically that shes superman with telepathy and telekenesis??? sounds amazing you say why dont people use her more often you ask and the answer is because she was also turned into a (actually genuinely sympathetic) mute diamond skin monster named penance by her brother a bone marrow vampire and then actually it turns out the whole time monet that we knew and loved was actually her twin sisters merged into one being to look like their sister and actually monet isnt autistic one of the two twins was (and it was demonstrated in the comics by monet randomly going catatonic) and in order to free monet from her prison as penance her twin sisters merged into penance freeing monet??? and then she was in a few things for a bit on the sidelines and then her brother merged with her and started killing people and then she was freed because she absorbed the powers of hindsight who sees the past of people he touches and a ton of people touched her making her brother somehow unmerge from her but then!!! she was controlled by mentallo into joining a cult girl cannot get a break

Can’t properly explain it, but “I like this character”, “I like how this character is written” and “I care about this character” are 3 very different things which may or may not overlap.

[altades]

Alternitive Universe Eve I think she'd be the paralyzed eve from S2, but she rebuild herself when mark was visiting and used his body to gain viltrumite powers. Might also brainwash him to use against omniman later (mark can heal from losing half his body weight right?)

She isn't evil she's just crashing out cuz mark destroyed her world, killed most of her friends and then paralyzed her so she just has to sit there and watch it happen everyday - which yeah made her a little unhinged but that's understandable

It broke her to the point that her mental blocks give out - letting her use her powers to the fullest extent, fighting mark and winning. She almost dies too but uses marks body to rebuild herself (she eats all his limbs😔)

Some sympathizing doctors hide her and Mark - cuz of course he can't just die and leave her alone - and the doctors couldn't kill him. But Eve, realizing she'll probably need help to stop Omniman wants to try to brainwash Mark the way she did in her backstory

Mark wakes up later, still fucked up completely, wanting to kill eve, but bro got no limbs so thats not going to work lol. She tries to erase his memories and put in mental blocks like she had so he can't kill (or disobey her). It doesn't work at first,

But cuz this mark is... Insanely obsessed with her he eventually gives in. So he gets put in a tube to regenerate. 

Eve stats a rebellion - probably with the help of dinosaurus - assembling all heroes who are still alive to kill nolan

It goes as well as you'd expect - nolan is almost impossible to kill, so they use the "the son you thought died because of your incompetence is actually alive and he's brainwashed to hate you :3" mental nuke to get him unstable enough and beaten down enough for eve to control him

So with both evil graysons now under control they start rebuilding. Alan shows up, Eve gets him to help her rebuild earth. They fight Thragg, find out mark is the fucking emperor (cuz OF COURSE he is), the viltrumites execute Thragg (eve isn't taking any chances)

I also think it would be an interesting position for eve to be in - even though SHE saved earth, SHE went up against the viltrume empire, SHE is the good guy Mark still gets to be the main character SOMEHOW. 

And that motherfucker is still weirdly obsessed with her😭😭😭

Also i think she'd get together with Rex - they lead the rebellion together (kind of. He was her emotional support) And Mark is very jealous. 

Maybe Eve could get an heir from Mark - a child she can raise to be the new emperor, and who will be a good one. Just to add to the drama

Mark also regains his memories at some point - he even changes for the better, but he's still a weird non-human freak with little empathy. He's also weaker cuz all his limbs are not fully viltrumite.

The robot parts are there to keep her body from shifting too much - since the mental blocks are gone. But she can basically shapeshift and heal immediately - as long as she's not worn out or insta-killed she's practically unstoppable.

I also think she can’t immediately kill viltrumites cuz their body is so dense it's like moving mountains. But she's strong enough to fuck them up.  Thinking too much about her becoming Evevincible and saving the universe and all that

[jewishbarbies]

This is really random and mostly unprompted but I just absolutely cannot fucking stand the pure hatred that people hurl at Gal Gadot *strictly* because she’s an Israeli woman, and she’s proud of that. I’m a very very casual follower of hers from the Wonder Woman days, so it’s possible that she truly did or said something awful which could validate the hatred. But even if she did, I wouldn’t know… because 99.9% of the reasons given for why people hate her and spend their days shit talking her and harassing her and her family ALWAYS fall back to “well… she’s Israeli. She was in the idf. She posted in support of Israel on Oct 7. She wanted the hostages released. She doesn’t like Hamas. She is proud to be Israeli.” like ??? Okay??? An Israeli Jewish woman is not ashamed of the fact that she’s Israeli or Jewish and its reason to hate her and direct some of the most vile, antisemitic things at her? And I swearrrr, this hatred also did not exist (or it wasn’t as bad) until she started posting/talking more about being Israeli in general. Just say the quiet part out loud for us next time guys. We can read between the lines anyway.

I remember when Wonder Woman first came out and there was a huge boycott just because she was Israeli and people started spreading the “she killed innocent people” bs for her IDF service. when it was disproven bc she was a gym trainer, they continued with “well she was still helping The Enemy!” just so they could keep hating her. then there was backlash because shortly after, she posted a picture lighting her shabbat candles (i think with her infant daughter?) saying she prayed for victims of Hamas. in, like, 2016. that’s the extent of her “controversies” until Oct 7. just being Israeli and praying for victims of terrorism. she didn’t even specify who the victims were, bc she was talking about anyone harmed by them.

it’s gotten worse obviously and even more ridiculous reasoning, but even back then I thought it was insane. like, so she wants people to be okay and live peacefully? that’s a bad thing now? and the same people hating Gal for her mandatory service are the same fuckass kpop weirdos obsessing over their idols who have no problem with and even sympathize with the kpop stars who have to serve. you don’t think your idol is out killing people? some people watched the hunger games movies and identified with Gale a little too much. but it’s all to show that it’s clearly bc she’s an Israeli jew and that’s 2 strikes already against her. anything else is just seen as a third and final strike to ‘cancel’ her. it’s getting so tiring to listen to.

[finkriel]

A Serious Confession

No amount of vitriolic emotions within me for these past two days will ever satiate the level of hatred, disgust and betrayal I am feeling. But it cannot compare to the numerous amount of people that feel the same way.

As a former ex close friend of Kittycorn Samson, I need to get this out as it has been eating me away for these past four days. I was one of her friends that was not only introduced to her incestuous content but also contributed to enabling her behavior and hiding it from the public. While I engaged it in private and controlled settings, I did contribute to it throughout these past nine months and I take full accountability for my bad decisions there. Many people have already spoken on the matter and I will do the same here as I owe it to everyone.

To start off, my relationship with her has always been that of a close friend. As someone who was a sparklecare fan since the middle of 2022, I met her on the official Sparklecord, to which I would approach her on her personal tumblr blog on November 2022, to where she introduced me her comet characters and we soon found commonalities with each other, such as living in the same state as well as so it was fairly simple to connect with her. With the way she described her trauma experiences to me as well as the love she had for her characters, it was easy for me to sympathize with her and I grew to care for her immensely. While I was never a clown myself, she would spoil to me the entirety of the story she was planning (including the Mickey Family and Sly’s “secret canon” character archetype) and the more stories she shared, the more I got invested. But it was during June 13th, 2024, where she asked me a strange and specific question that I never questioned, about the topic of being into something that comforts the person that other people would say otherwise and, being into something that heals the traumatized person that other people would say otherwise. While I was uncomfortable and confused at the time (hence why it took so long to answer her questions), I pushed aside those feelings just because she was my friend. And I thought that it wasn’t as harmful like she described it to me here. (The screenshots here were taken on Tuesday, where I blocked her afterwards, I still have access to her messages so if anyone wants me to divulge additional information, I am more than willing to do just that)

Looking back at how I acted when she revealed to me about this and her incestuous story, I feel so disgusted and ashamed of myself. The "googles" I had on, did not allow me to see how truly deplorable that the content she had been indulging and the only reason I did support her was from the pure belief that it was helping her heal her trauma when nothing else at the time could, which to an extent it was, given the way she has been acting throughout out 2024. I truly believed during all that time that it was the right thing to do and that it wasn’t as bad as she made it out to be. In addition, it was around this time where I was finally in a place to work again that I felt the immediate compulsion to help her out financially, which boosted my incentive to keep supporting her and not tell anyone about this. This also extended to Imani, who also engaged with this incestuous content and I sacrificed countless days and nights at work to financially support her, given the sympathies I had for the abuse she was suffering from. (This screenshot from the callout document, took place in one of Kittycorn’s private servers that she invited me five days later (the one with Emsody, Kai, and chaosblast) and as you can see, the person blurred out that was responding to Imani, was me. What I said here, I no longer believe but I know it is not an excuse.

Little did I know that Kittycorn has secretly been in contact with groomers, pedophiles and predators such as Chimera, Woof, and so many countless others, to the point that she was actually friends with them and has been abusing and silencing victims all this time. Keep in mind that during all of these months, it was knowledge that I was completely unaware of, knowledge that she HIDED away without me knowing it and it was only until the callout document came out that I found out about the matter. That was the point where I blocked her out from my life. (Edit [Sunday - 3:22 PM]: I removed the part about Imani of her action in the doc, as chaosblast_ has informed me in a server that the art was shared in an 18+ server so anyone could have sent it to the alleged minors. In addition, sparkletroll [the person marked in yellow in one of the screenshots] said that they didn’t want the person behind the doc to share it anywhere since they weren’t sure if they had the right story but the person did. The proof is unsubstantiated so know that information has been updated.)

That however, does not cancel out the complicity I am a part of when it comes to Kittycorn. In no way, does it make any of the things I have said, an excuse. Hell fucking no, is it not, and I do not want to deny it. I have nothing blame for but myself and the blinded love and compassion I had for Eve as a friend.

To anyone that reads this, you do not have to forgive me and you all have every right to be furious at me. I’m not innocent in any way and there’s no excuse for the participation that I played a part in all of this. I just want to let you know that I am truly, truly sorry. I can never ever forgive myself for supporting her nor can I ever make it up. But know that I will always stand against incest and pro-ship content. It was never something I indulged prior to that day and I for the life of me, would rather stand my morals and my gut feelings than blindly accepting excuses that individuals such as Eve, engage in, while hurting hundreds of people in the process. I hope you all can at least gauge the information I have provided here. Feel free to ask questions if you have any.

[hungriesttable]

this post is MY “oh man…this doin numbers”. while I have you all here anyone want to hear my thoughts on Out(interrupted by loud foghorn, signaling the breach of an abnormality)

(for those of you interested in hearing some of my Outis thoughts, check the tags. for those not, go in peace 🙏)

one of my favorite things about Dante Limbus Company is that they achieve a level of what I will call “sogginess” rarely seen in the wild (source material), more commonly seen in captivity (fanfiction)…

The insecurity. The inability to understand that they have a positive impact on others without being told outright. The sad, resigned self-deprecation. “I know it’s the same tired old face for you…but here I am” when you re-select them as an announcer (a line which you are literally incapable of seeing during gameplay). The “you guys only love me for my clock 😞” mentality.

Dante wouldn’t ask, “would you still love me if I were a worm?”, because they’d be afraid of a resounding NO.

Not to say Dante doesn’t have their satisfying moments of asserting themselves as manager, but man. What a creature

[moistvonlipwig]

the ozymandias phone call is a rly interesting moment in breaking bad to me for many reasons but one of the biggest ones imo is the fact that like.....a huge part of walt's abuse of skyler has been making her out to be the bad guy. he continually puts her in a position to look like the 'bitch wife' who is shutting him out for 'no reason' or the 'bitch mom' who is taking away flynn's shiny new car or the woman who 'cheated' on him with ted (nevermind that she had already separated from walt and he was refusing to sign the divorce papers and the 'cheating' was a tactic to get him to do so).

additionally she is an imperfect victim and he damn well knows that and uses that to his advantage multiple times to get her to do what he wants. marie has already slapped her and berated her for her complicity in walt's crimes and she doesn't even really understand the full extent to which skyler helped him. and both walt and skyler know full well that no one from the outside looking in (except perhaps jesse) would ever be able to understand why skyler did what she did even if they knew the whole story. because people don't hold compassion or understanding in their hearts for imperfect victims, which is to say, human victims, because no human is perfect. which is one of the things that can make abuse so isolating for the victims -- the shame they feel about their own actions & the fear of how others will judge them. the reality of the abuse becomes an unspeakable, shameful secret that only the abuser & victim know, so the victim comes to rely on the abuser even more, because at least they know the truth.

so the ozymandias phone call is interesting because in that moment walt makes skyler a perfect victim. for the first time, he makes himself out to be the bad guy (which he undeniably is, but which he has refused to appear to be in front of flynn prior to now). the way he talks to skyler on the phone is both true and a lie; he is sanding down her complexities to feed marie, flynn, & the police an abuse narrative they can understand and sympathize with. the abuse he put skyler through never quite looked like that phone call, which is how skyler knows he's putting on an act, but he did abuse her, and in this moment, despite its performative and dishonest nature, he is also, paradoxically, being finally honest and admitting what he did to her, and letting the other people in their lives see their dynamic for what it was. it doesn't heal the wounds he inflicted on skyler, it doesn't absolve him of what he did to her, it probably doesn't even make it easier for her to talk to anyone about what he did to her -- but he speaks aloud the truth he had previously made unspeakable, and he makes it clear, at least to the people who love her, that she was not the bad guy. she never was.

[tothepointofinsanity]

Forgive me if you've already been asked this, but I'd love to know how you interpret Sayaka's ability to act separately from and control Oktavia in Rebellion. It's interesting that she's willing to summon the very thing that represents all her failings, doubts, and inability to live up to her morals at the time. Yet allowing Oktavia to appear without her when she was guiding Homura toward the truth, even able to sympathize with a witch which would've been unthinkable for her during the original show.

But she still seems to have a clear preference for appearing as her magical girl self. And the use of Elsa Maria's barrier and black and white art style for when she summons Oktavia by, as her dramatic self would, stabbing her own heart out feels like it's implying that she still others Oktavia from herself akin to ugly and complex feelings she doesn't want to fully own.

Pardon the rambling, I'm sure I got parts about her wrong here and there but she's such a fascinating character and my favorite of the cast. Symposium Magarum is my favorite song from the series. And it's so refreshing to see someone handle her with so much care and attentive eyes, she tends to get overlooked and misunderstood.

Ah, interesting question. I don’t believe I have been asked this before, and even if I was, no worries. Surprisingly, I was thinking about a section from the Puella Magi wiki before this letter came in, so this is an opportunity for me to aimlessly ramble my thoughts on Oktavia and Sayaka’s relationship, an exploration which is also present in my own mindless scribbles anyways.

From the way I view it, although witches are described to be the rebirth of magical girls in their form of despair, I always thought that the personal role of a witch was to try and salvage the wish made by their magical girl counterparts. To note, the game has described Oktavia (the Doppel) to be playing the song for her “master”, which confirmed my thoughts that even though the magical girl inside of the mermaid is unresponsive, Oktavia does not allow her orchestra to be disrupted because the songs are meant only for Her (Sayaka) and herself (Oktavia), and others listening to the music too long would otherwise be driven mad. Really staying true to her role as a knight and protecting someone. Oktavia is also said to be “dreaming about love”, which is very much aligned with Sayaka’s character and goals, but also mocked because she can only dream of having it.

Witches are a reflection of magical girls, and given Sayaka’s motif (water), this is very much played up with her character, as well as her appearance in Rebellion. It is said that Oktavia can appear anywhere as long as there is water, and Sayaka just has water constantly following her magic to begin with. Sayaka was not always Oktavia, but Oktavia was once Sayaka, their existence tied like cause and effect. Since Sayaka is not in despair, she does not reflect the appearance of a witch. Being able to command Oktavia to some extent simply means she has overcome her complex feelings about her lover (not allowing herself to succumb to despair), and stabbing herself in that sequence was literal “my heart goes out to you, Homura” because she understands how miserable it is to be so unforgiving and cruel towards Yourself.

One other reason why Sayaka can act so independently from her witch as well is because she always had an extreme view of distinguishing things, especially between Good and Bad things, which strengthens the line between them, but Sayaka has started to learn that she has to treat herself well, however unpleasant an extension it might be. Oktavia is still the embodiment of Sayaka’s tragic past, but Sayaka now understands she cannot simply cut ties with a being who is inseparable from her. She learned to accept things and that in turn was an acceptance of her own witch.

I also think her addition to the Law of Cycles has familiarised her with other witches in general, and being an “angel”, she is then supported by other witches because she wields a part of this Law. Due to this, in Rebellion, her abilities are very different and whimsical thanks to her having to hold onto some of Madoka’s memories as a divine being up until Homura intervened.

All in all, that’s just a long and winded way to say that Sayaka has a very strong relationship to Oktavia due to these factors, and granted her the ability hold such command over her own witch and even influence other witches she once killed. My response isn’t very clear, but I hope it gives some vague understand to how I interpret them. And thank you for the ask and high praise 🙇‍♂️🙇‍♂️!! Sayaka is very pleasant to me, so I’m happy that others are able to like her too.

[eternalera]

realizing that there was so much missed potential between kate and immortal makes me lowkey mad ngl. cause i actually HATE them and they make the story so much worse when they could be making it better. lemme just- okay here

starting off with kate, arguably the worse between the two as her power in the series is literally just being canon fodder. she doesn't have any tactics for her abilities like her brother as well.

we all know that kate was raised by the government as her and her brothers powers made their dad go crazy, making it so that the only people in her life was the government and her brother. her brother then LEFT her and she was left with only the government (smth which you do NOT want to be raised by).

then there's her powers and the fact that she feels literally everything that happens to any one of her clones. making them all the real kate. as there's not one kate, she can duplicate a clone and then die, making the clone she duplicated be the next real kate. they would also feel the death of whatever happened to ANY of the clones that die.

yeah that's gotta fucking hurt. then there's the fact that she most likely can't retire unless she fakes her death (which fucking SUCKS but also they do it SO WRONG in the series) as the government probably wouldn't allow it (i feel like this was kinda the same boat rex was in before he yknow... escaped using... certain means but he's not in it when he joins teen team, at least as far as i know).

so lets put this up. she can feel the deaths of ALL of her clones, she's literally just government property, they probably won't just let her retire. "oh but she retired with the immortal!!" yeah but then there's the case of when should a hero retire? when they can't do the job anymore? When they've had enough? in battle? when is it possible for someone to retire?

when can kate retire? she probably felt like faking her death was the easiest way. NOW does it excuse that? does it excuse her saying she 'saved the world' that she 'put her life on the line' when she didnt? no. hell no. rex and rae were the only two in the fight against the lizard league who actually had their lives on the line.

so what couldve been done about kate? well first off they couldve made the fact that she feels everything her clones do a LOT more obvious and shown her bonding with immortal more. they couldve shown the trauma that she faced from the hero life and guess what? THAT WOULD BE FINE. one of the major things about invincible is how they show what the hero life is actually like. but with kate they dont do that and it makes her unlikable. it makes her REALLY unlikable and has her come off as entitled, bratty, and selfish.

then instead of having her faking her death with the lizard league they could've had her come back instead and maybe get mad at rex or rae for not helping her with her fight and mention that "hey if i was actually there i wouldve died" which would be a lot more reasonable to get mad at. as if she DIDNT have that backup she WOULD HAVE DIED and while neither rex or rae were in the position to help her, it was because they weren't fighting as a team.

this could be kates first realization of 'i dont think i wanna do this hero stuff anymore'. make her more anxious about going out, more of a wreck as she tries to keep things together only to end up snapping at the people around her. then show the immortal helping her keep it together as yeah, them being the only ones in the group who have DIED (actually died) would make them bond.

okay then we have the immortal number 1 fraud and what not. i think its pretty clear that the show wanted to do two things with the immortal.

show how traumatized he was after what happened with omni man

show that he wasn't what he used to be and that its affecting everyone around him negatively

and to some extent they do this but they don't make you sympathize with him. after all how can you sympathize with the guy who's actively making things go to shit and then DOESNT do anything about it, or take responsibility. it would piss ANYONE and i mean ANYONE off.

he's pretty much never won a fight, all he does it yell at people and antagonize them (especially our main character mark who DOES get things done), never truly takes action (when mark yells AND threatens cecil in front of him basically), and overall is a pretty shit leader.

so what could've been done? show him struggling, struggling to keep it together. have him drop the whole 'stoic leader' bs just for a minute. have him do it around kate who is also struggling. show them bonding. show him more shaken up and unsure of things each and every time he does and really (i mean REALLY) show it. dont just say 'oh ive given up too much' show that each and every time he comes back more of his stoic-ness drops or just SOMETHING. because right now the only 'personality' he's shown is just being an asshole.

there's so much that could be done with the trauma both of them have and yet the writers dont. almost like they want us to hate the characters (which idk if they do but it is going towards that direction). and if they did i can totally see that because for how good invincibles writing is (especially with writing hate-able characters like angstrome) the writing with them is just so... so bad and i cant stress that enough and it makes me wanna tear my hair out.

ALSO THIS IS NOT DEFENDING THEM!! I JUST THINK THAT THERE WAS MISSED POTENTIAL IN THEIR WRITING!!!

[sn0wcr0ws]

More Crowfish hcs For the Soul

Authors Note: Minors please dni! Mentions of nsfw later on thank yoooou ✨ (also not proof read at allllll lmao these are my unedited thoughts!)

Getting Together

I think it would be sylus to bring up the idea originally. Either because he couldn’t bare to not be with mc, or he’d sympathize with rafayel. After all, sylus is closed off but not evil.

The point he brings up? It must be difficult to let yourself feel the full extent of your unbridled love for someone when their soul is split with another.

Rafayel, stubborn as always and doesn’t admit at first that sylus is right. He’s actually a little pissed off at the notion. He didn’t want to share what he decided was “his”. Oh absolutely not—however, as time passes he can’t help but actually feel the physical pull that sylus held.

This whole argument went on for moooonths. Mc would invite sylus to one of raf’s art shows (they’re friends at this point; she has no idea what sylus and raf have been talking about) because she knows sylus has a love for the arts. All the poor girl wanted was for her two (again at this time) friends to bond! All the while sylus would corner rafayel to plead the “she had two hands! Why must we both suffer!” case.

Eventually after forever of arguing back and forth and pleading cases, sylus wins. Rafayel can’t really ignore the truths of the matter. So, then they finally have to tell Mc what’s been going on and she h o w l s with laughter.

The two men she’s been fond over for while both want to be with her?? Awesome! Kinda saves her ass because she herself was battling emotions on having a crush on both men and didn’t want to accident hurt either in the process. It’s a win win win.

Naturally the relationship is kind of…awkward at first. Sylus and Rafayel argue sometimes, mostly due to the power struggle.

Sylus is domineering; rafayel is a brat. It takes a couple months for those two to work through the growing pains of the relationship.

Like, those two would argue over little things—maybe bicker would be the better word. Never in bad faith! Just a “but I wanna take charge :((“ mentality

Once they finally settle into routine Mc can finally breath and enjoy her two boys to the fullest extent.

Sylus falls into a silent role, peacefully watching his lovers interact with passerby’s with a small smirk on his face. He’s still sassy as ever, but true joy stems from watching his puppy and kitten frolic about.

Raf keeps his dramatic persona. In fact, his theatrics get worse!! What do you mean we can’t hang out 24/7 and go on dates every day!! Outrage, outcry!! He simply cannot sand for this injustice!

No but in all seriousness the time Raf has with sylus and mc is his most cherished times.

About once a week, sylus, mc, and raf have at least one day set aside where all three of them either stay in or go out. If it’s a stay in week it’s usually some wacky movie chosen by mc herself, and too many (luxury) snacks to count. If it’s a going out week all three of them will spend an hour or five getting ready to hit the latest, probably expensive, cocktail lounge in town. (Which is kinda funny because raf usually gets the most drunk on accident; it’s extremely cute).

For maybe—-the first maybe 3 months pda is actually pretty tame. Little curt kisses here, hugs there.

But maaaaaan once the new relationship jitters are worked through sylus and raf both become menaces. I mean—serious menaces.

We’re talking sneaky make outs and hands on thighs, we’re talking cute but slightly suggestive pda.

In the Bedroom

WOW IS MC!! GOOD LUCK MY POOR SWEET GIRL. Sylus; unhinged. Rafayel; also unhinged but needier about it. Whatever shall she do ;;

Okay but actually sex with them also comes with its own growing pains. At first it’s just mc and one, or the other. It takes a lot of time, and a lot of communication before the three of them sharing the bed was even an option.

Sylus being sylus wanted nothing more but to be in control at first, his first time with rafayel by themselves was the biggest learning curve. Him and raf were just so—out of their own elements within each other. Sex wasn’t for pleasure but for education funnily enough. Mc definitely picks slight fun at em’ for it.

Rafayel’s biggest struggle when it came to sex with sylus was—learning what pleasured the both of them.

So, through trial and error, the two of them eventually figure out what makes them both tick; which in return paves way to many many nights spent with Mc.

Sylus always tries his best to be the last to cum. He’s made it a game lmao. How long can he last while experiencing the most intimate parts of both his partners? Who’s to say. Its funny. Really. Especially when Mc and Raf realize what’s happening and gang up on him one night.

For Sy his favorite part of being intimate it’s watching Raf eat you out like a starved man while’s deep inside the man. The way Rafayel whimpers inside mc is enough for Sylus’ mind to go blank and completely let go.

Now Rafayel—his favorite part about sex is making sweet love to Mc while making out with sylus. Something about kissing sunshine trying to focus on her is so—intimate. It’s raw, and emotional like a carefully crafted poem.

Oh, and at some point he convinces sylus to bottom for him—and that’s is a game changer.

At the end of the day, they’re both attentive and go for so long Mc isn’t sure how she’s still walking most of the time. Conclusion? Three love sick idiots.

[rowie264]

Councilors vs Chem-Barons

Remember that creators wanted to "show there is merits and flaws on both sides"? While I still feel that agenda in the first season, the second season is... well.

The easiest way to see that creators wanted you to be more sympathetic to Piltover is to look at the rulers of both cities. The Council is flawed but mostly fine, while Chem-Barons are purely bad.

You can protest that 'wait, but in s1 we saw that the Council is corrupted' and... i agree with that. But let's take a closer look at all members with information from both s1 and s2, hmm?

Torman Hoskel was portrayed as silly and easily manipulated person. He is the worst among them.

Salo makes the same appearance as Hoskel in s1. But in s2 he becomes disabled. This is the easiest way to manipulate you into sympathizing him. Of course, this wouldn't change your view of him completely, since his personality remained the same, but you can understand his anger (his suffering is shown on the screen). Besides, later when Viktor heals his legs, Salo changes, losing his arrogance and becoming a good person.

Irius Bolbok is strict, composed and slightly harsh ruler (remember him saying to find the culprit no matter what). But he isn't shown as bad as Hoskel and Salo in s1. He is quite decent.

Shoola was portrayed as reasanable ruler from very beginning. She was the first who said "They [zaunites] may not be your preferred consituents but they're still our people." She was the first after Mel who voted for Zaun's independance. In s2, we see how she cares about people rather than acting in the interests of revenge like Salo.

Cassandra Kiramman was also showed as good person even in s1. She might not be active Zaun's simpathizer but she did schedule an audience for Caitlyn and Vi giving them a chance to change Councilors opinion about Zaun (ofc it's bc Cait is her daughter but Cassandra could just deny her). Also in s2 we learn that she built a ventilation system which makes her the only Councilor (beside Jayce) who actually did something for Zaun.

Mel Medarda is shown as a woman who does things for her own benefit, manipulating others. But she still did vote for the independence of Zaun (albeit for personal reasons). You also can't say that she's a bad person or that she's done really bad things for her cause (like Silco for example).

Jayce is a bad politician and has made few mistakes, but at the end of the day, he is a good man.

Heimerdinger is portrayed as good person as well.

Even though we know that all of them are corrupt (except Heimer) and that they have ignored Zaun for decades, only one of them has no good traits and completely unlikable (Hoskel).

But what do we have with Chem-Barons?

Finn is an idiot and power-hungry.

Rennie is too. She lost her son, which to some extent makes you understand her attacks on memorial (not justify, just understand), but the show itself does not even focus on this fact, ignoring that little nuance.

Chross's goons force children to work in the mines. He also fights for Silco's chair to gain more power.

Smeech's business is connected to shimmer (i guess he provides it after Silco's death?). Only, unlike Silco, Smeech isn't shown as someone who uses shimmer simply as a tool to achieve a higher goal (nation of Zaun). He is just power-hungry like others. Also s2 shows that he doesn't value his own people.

Margot is unloyal as well. "I'd rather favor my chances with Topside". She fights for power like others.

Silco is the only one who commits bad deeds for a higher purpose. All he wants is an independent Zaun, not power itself. We see his positive traits such as dedication to his city, love for Jinx and others, which makes him the only really likable among other Chem-Barons.

Of course the government doesn't represent people themselves. We saw that there are good people in Zaun and there are bad people in Piltover. But you know what it does represent? Creators' true view of Piltover/Zaun conflict.

Despite everything Piltover was ready to grant Zaun independence. The Council was shown flawed but the characters themselves were not completely bad persons. You, as a viewer, can understand and sympathize them. Creators made sure you will sympathize them.

But Zaun? Bandits and criminals who don't think beyond their pockets. The only person who did and tried to do something good for Zaun was wrong, bc s2 promotes us "violence is not the answer" and "power of forgiveness" agenda.

So where are the "merits and flaws on both sides" again?

[theadhddimsenion]

Some theories on how the potential imp rebellion will affect the main cast.

I think a great way to tie millies family and by extention millie herself into the wider narrative is having Andy and stella fuck up the harvest moon festival. If the locals thought stolas was royal prick then they clearly haven't met Andy and his aggressively bitchy sister! Stolas was only acting like that because he didn't know any better Andy and stella on the other hand know damn well what kind of uptight snobs they are and revel in it!

We know for sure that one of stolas jobs was blessing the crops of wrath and that in vivis verison of hell at the very least needs to function for at least the hellborn. It's probably the most oppressive and cruel system that one could imagine but I has to at least function as in this setting the lower ranked demons are more physical than spiritual so they likely need to eat. My point in this being that for as big of a dummy as our favorite owl can be he most likely did his job with a fair amount of competence but Andy and stella strike me as the type what while good at scheming their way into power, aren't actually any good at wielding that power.

One of two things might happen. They will either try and force octativa to do their job for them and she will fail do to her lack of experience or they will try and do it themselves and Andy will freeze over this years harvest and they start making a scene alongside his sister when the crowd rightfully gets upset at them for undoing their years worth of hard work with their incompetence.

And with a potential invasion of hell by the dhorks in which several relatively innocent hellborn where killed by a bunch of humans and with stolas legions quitting in disgust it wasn't the supposedly almighty goetia who stopped the invasion but a band of common imps like them.

I really can see things boiling over and going off the rails due to stella her brother fucking up stolas job.

Speaking of stolas most famous duty in both the show and mythology Is prediction of stars and I really doubt stella has brains to do that or that Andy has the patience to learn. So who knows what kind of havoc could be wrought by them failing at this!

And with all this I can really see a imp revolution coming but how will our main cast react?

Blitz while was certainly trying to rise above his station I don't think he ever saw himself as a hero or a savior. I mean knowing him he likely will only going through his new role out of a sense of obligation and the need to keep his found family safe but will later embrace it as he sees he can do what he did for the rest of i.m.p and stolas for all of impkind.

Moxxie I'm sure will be more anxious then ever considering how generally scared he is to challenge authority given his upbringing.

Millie is a mystery on this topic but I think she won't really know how to react as she like blitz mainly wanted to rise above the system not be some grand movement dedicated to bring it down.

Loona is interesting in this case as the only creatures in hell more abused then imps are hounds like her so perhaps she will see the movement as hypocritical and ingenue or maybe she will follow in her fathers footsteps and become the leader of the pack when it comes to hounds.

Stolas Is also interesting here as he is a blueblood himself and while I'm sure he's far more sympathic to the under class then his kin and could care less if his wife, brother in law or father was beheaded by a guillotine by if any of those little anarchists lay a finger on his Starfire they've got another thing coming!

Fizz is a interesting case as well as I have always believed that one of his flaws as a charater is that he is far too quick to forgive people especially those of the upper class. As charile can tell you forgiveness is an important and essential virtue but like all things it has to be measured. Fizz's forgiving nature has done good as it allowed him to make up with his best friend even after being blow to pieces but it also effects him negatively like making him a prime target for exploiters like cash and mammon. And then there's that "it sounds like you just hate him cause he's a prince" line. This fascinated me because it revealed a lot about fizz's character because it shows both his emotional maturity and his overly apologetic nature in a single line.

What I mean is what fizz was doing was both inviting blitz to consider whether or not his anger towards stolas was justified but also failing to recognize that it came from somewhere you see blitz's anger towards royals while misdirected at stolas was justified and that second part is what fizz is struggling to understand due to both his like i said forgiving nature and the fact that a royal like Ozzie was not only his savior but the love of his life so it is completely reasonable and understandable that he would be hesitant to condemn the upper class. However he must eventually come to terms with the fact that on some level blitz was right and that his boyfriend is the expection and mammon is the rule.

Speaking of Ozzie I'm going to group them together on this and go on a side tangent about the infernal hierarchy and how it effects each one of the ranks. It's a belief of mine that in this setting the more spiritual and therefore magically inclined and powerful demons are ranked higher than the more physical demons with some expections.

Like for example conccubi are ranked higher than imps due to having some magical abilities or at least more than what your average imp has. But they don't seem to be all that much up on the ladder themselves so i am led to believe that conccubi tend to have a "barons ego" towards imps. What I mean is that veroskia for example was always putting out some form of anti imp micro aggressions like "nasty ass gremlins", "shrimp", "little" etc etc. And this isn't a knock against her charater this is just me trying to speculate so my point is that I think conccubi have a habit for lording what little power and autonomy they have over imps as a way of coping with their own less then enviable postion and this suits the nobles just fine. Having the lower classes squabble amongst themselves rather than going after them works out just fine and dandy.

And speaking of envy that brings me to my next point which is that both bee and Ozzie's resident demons are on the lower class of things. For bee and her hounds I believe that they were put on the bottom of the hierarchy precisely because they were the most useful to the higher ups. Think about the hounds are fast, strong, much smarter than most other forms of hellhound in media and can double as steads for imps and therefore could pose an even greater threat to the hierarchy then the imps if they were ever given even the slightest sliver of power or antomany so they where placed at the bottom of the food chain below even imps likely against bees wishes.

My point here being that if a revolution does come bee and Ozzie could be the people on the inside. They could be the ones to sabotage the war plan of the nobles and other sins as a way of supporting their power and getting back at the assholes who put them down in the first place.

[akirathedramaqueen]

Did the crowd's hatred outmatch Blitzø's?

Christ on a stick indeed, Blitzø.

This question, which our beloved imp had kindly raised himself, has been bothering me since the 'Apology Tour' came out.

I've seen plenty posts speculating on this topic, and it's not going to be a super unique take, I admit, but I would still like to think aloud about what that party really symbolizes.

Is it the true extent of Blitzø's tendencies to hurt anyone who dares to reach too close? Or was it exaggerated by Verosika?

Let's see what evidence we have on hand and make some assumptions about what that could mean.

A quick note of appreciation before be begin: I sincerely admire the amount of work done on detailing the crowd at the Halloween party. Just look at the progress in animation they've made since the 'Queen Bee' episode! From animating three-four people max to drawing almost each character separately, and giving basic movements to many of them.

(tumblr, your 10mb gif restriction sucks ass. I struggled to show just how good these animations are with such a limited size)

Wow, my hat's down, I am in awe.

But okie, let's go.

The avoidance

It would be silly to deny that Blitzø has issues forming meaningful, deep connections. He is afraid of affection, of love. We've seen this with Stolas. We've seen how hurtful, brash, and aggressive he becomes when offered vulnerability and feelings, how deep his distorted view of the world runs. During the Full Moon tryst, he is so terrified that he is completely deaf to what has actually been said, and he lashes out violently, scorching everyting along the way.

We also know Blitzø is extremely horny and finds comfort in sex, while being too scared of emotional attachment and craving it just as much. Given this, is it really surprising to see more people affected by his demeanor?

Take Verosika, for instance. He dumped her by running off after she confessed her love, leaving her to pay for a hotel room, stealing her car, running three Rings to Wrath, and maxing out her credit card on shitty horse riding lessons.

Then there are some people we don’t know who are visibly destroyed by their time with Blitzø. We know nothing about them, but simply observing their distress and Blitzø’s reactions is enough to draw conclusions.

We can endlessly sympathize with Blitzø. We understand what he has been through, why he behaves the way he does, and how much he still suffers. However, this does not give him a carte blanche to ruin the lives of those around him. The show does not glorify him as a poor, misunderstood figure—instead, it poignantly exposes how insensitive he has been to other people's feelings, and shoves it in his face immediately after he damages another relationship that, as we know, he actually held dear.

I mean, from some points of view, even Dennis, who only made out with Blitzø, could justifiably be deeply offended and scarred by his insults...

...

...

...

Wait... fucking DENNIS is here?

The hatred

Okay, something doesn’t add up. This was supposed to be a party for those whose hearts were broken, not for whiny bitches who couldn’t handle one little insult that’s quite common in Hell’s environment!

Ugh, thanks, Dennis. Now we need to untangle the other side of the mess, because it’s clearly not so one-dimensional anymore. But fuck you still, you fucking suck (affectionate <3 you actually slay).

So, what’s going on? Let’s take another look at the crowd.

For starters, Tex, baby, what are you doing here? Didn’t you say her beef ain't yours? Why the fuck are you involved? Did she pay you to be a backup for Stolas and passionately repeat 'motherfucker,' referring to someone who arguably did nothing wrong to you?

And aren’t those succubi and incubi from Verosika’s Spring Break entourage? Lads and lasses, did Blitzø fuck up your bleeding hearts too, or are you just hanging out at the same places as Verosika?

Fucking Wally selling hate merch? Blitzø, look at me—do you remember him in your bed? Or, maybe, just maybe, he doesn’t give two shits and is just capitalizing on a quick profit opportunity?

Blitzø doesn’t remember everyone from that party; he admitted that at the very beginning of our discussion. He recognizes some of them though, but doesn’t act particularly sorry...

As much as I’m willing to believe and admire Blitzø’s stamina to fuck that many people, I don’t think he’s had enough weekends in his adult life to meet, charm, have intercourse with, and dump all of them. The math just isn't adding up.

But he never questions whether the crowd was genuinely hurt by him or if they just came as someone’s friend or to participate in a thrilling experience of hating on someone they might not even know. Hey, those piñatas, darts, and fire pits look quite fun, don’t they? It almost seems like they don’t care about the implications—literally bullying someone and taking joy in it.

So, could Verosika be a little too obsessed with building the image of Blitzø as an irredeemable, ruthless, and atrocious imp, to the point of letting just about anyone in to exaggerate the extent of the real issue? Perhaps even doing it quite intentionally?

What the actual hell?

Before you get lost in my elaborate attempts to make my point, let me draw three conclusions from what we’ve seen.

Conclusion one: Both statements are true.

We’ve learned that not everyone in the crowd was hurt by Blitzø. However, even if we narrow it down to just the confirmed cases—six in total (Stolas, Verosika, two crying demons, and two demons Blitzø acknowledged before insulting them again)—it’s still a significant number. It’s enough to start questioning Blitzø and encourage him to change, as this harmful tendency leads to nothing good. For Stolas's sake and for his own, too.

Conclusion two: Blitzø entirely belongs to this party.

His spiky, insufferable attitude he shows to others is actually, from some point of view, this:

He is so adamant that he doesn’t deserve love that he deems all the affection shown to him as a lie. So he pushes away, snarls, insults, and attacks. Because how dare you love such a monster? This can’t be true; this is wrong!

It is himself whom his hatred is directed toward.

He should be an honorary guest at this party, a fucking star invitee. No one can fucking beat him in the craft of hating on himself.

And the crowd, which he didn’t even attempt to challenge, is just a showcase of what he thinks he is. It represents what he actually isn’t, considering we’ve proven that some of the people there have nothing to do with him. It’s an exaggerated, untrue reflection of his worst ideas about himself.

Conclusion three: Verosika's obsession with bullying Blitzø is unhealthy.

Yes, even considering her good intentions to help those who suffered because of him.

Just as the crowd reveals Blitzø’s extent of self-loathing, it also highlights her inability to move on and the persona she has created for herself. She is wholly engulfed in it.

While we now understand her point of view and where she is coming from, it doesn’t excuse her for organizing the bully party, stalking Blitzø and his partners… Seriously, how invested do you have to be to learn about the breakup after just one night? Or to even know who your ex of 5+ years (allegedly, we don’t know for sure) dated to begin with?

Lady, you need to put away your booze and get yourself together. He acted horribly, no doubt, but the effort you’re putting into trying to prove he’s a motherfucker just isn’t worth it.

This isn’t the solution. People are either still hurt or just enjoy hating on Blitzø, but they are simmering in hatred nonetheless.

They are not healing, and neither is Verosika.

A closing note (yay?)

TL;DR (should be at the beginning, really, but who cares): Everyone in this show needs some fucking therapy. Mental health sucks ass in Hell (wonder why?). And bullying also sucks. Don’t be bullies. Thanks.

Okay, class, put away your notebooks and put down your pencils. The homework will be to find some anti—and... why the excited, shimmery eyes? *gasp* No, don’t bully them. Have you learned nothing from what I've said? Move on. Block them. Because #stolitz will be canon, and nothing will change that, so let them whine somewhere else.

Thanks for your attention! <3

[miraofhearts2point0]

i cannot stand the fact adap Chishiya is a Hearts player, sowz. it's clear to me the adap writers completely misunderstood what makes someone a Hearts player in the first place and ran with it.

Chishiya can read others emotions to some extent, sure, but not in-depth enough to sympathize.

you wanna know why Chishiya (and Niragi) are Diamonds players? because they don't care enough to truly understand the hearts of others. they manipulate situations, not (usually) out of desperation, but because it's all they know. they lack a genuine understanding with others.

(adap) Arisu being a Diamonds player also completely misses the point: Arisu is so similar to Chishiya and Niragi that if, at any point prior to the Borderlands, he had one more thing go wrong, he could've ended up like the two of them; but he didn't because he refused to be like that.

Arisu is a Hearts player because he's both smarter than he gives himself credit for, and emotionally mature enough to take to heart (wink wink) the emotions of others and actively put himself in their shoes to get through a game.

that last reason is why Matsushita Enji is such a lousey Hearts player, because, like Chishiya and Niragi, he isn't emotionally mature enough to truly be good at Hearts. he has great setups, sure, but he's too proud to acknowledge other players and their inteligence, which is why he was ultimately defeated by Yaba and Banda.

Yaba and Banda both come from backgrounds where they need to read others to some extent: Yaba, a CEO who climbed the corporate ladder by reading others and using those emotions to his advantage (as we saw happen with Arisu when he was confronted by the militants), and Banda, a misogynistic murderer who got into the houses of women he killed, needed to be agile enough to get them to trust him by manipulating the situation in his favor, all while keeping in mind the emotions of those he killed.

Hearts games are not won by sheer manipulation, as we saw with Enji and Urumi; there needs to be a level of connection with others if you want to survive, which is also why Mitsurugi's defeat was so upsetting; ideally, he did everything right, but ultimately was a bit too confident in his plan and thus, refused to acknowledge the power the other players had. he was too good of a person.

Mira is a bit of an outlier, not because she was bad at the games or anything, but because she's the perfect mix of both understanding and master manipulator; if she went up against any other player in the Borderlands, they would easily lose. Arisu almost lost too, but as we've established, Hearts games are built off connections with others and Usagi was needed in order to make it.

I'm sure Mira was well-aware of that fact, especially with Arisu, but her ulimate failure was the same as Mitsurugi's: she ended up downplaying the connection between him and Usagi. Hearts games need love, level-headedness, mild manipulation, and an open mind if you intend to win.

going back to my main point, that's why Chishiya either avoids Hearts games all together, manipulates people during them, or turns to violence; he lacks the emotional maturity and agency to clear one the way they are meant to be cleared, why Arisu is a much better Hearts player than Chishiya will ever be, and why the adap writers completely misunderstood that point.

[emiplayzmc]

You can't even be mad at Vee for wanting to ditch Glisten. If I remember her lore correctly, she's physically incapable of feeling sympathy, which isn't her fault, and operates on pure logic. That's probably what saved her from countless Twisteds.

It's also probably what got Rodger Twisted. Glisten probably wouldn't have gone psycho mode if they had just taken him with them. But Vee couldn't have known that.

Exactly!! Augh, Vee my beloved, tried my best to portray her personality accurately instead of like, less realistic to her robotic tendencies, but at the same time not a total jerk that people make her out to be. She just wants to do the best for her teams and the surviving Toons, and that means wanting to minimize the chance of anything threatening their safety. I feel like she can sympathize to an extent, which is why her immediate reaction wasn't just 'stay as far away from him as possible' when talking to Rodger bc she misses Glisten, too (based on their interactions + the cartoon with them they give sibling / close friend vibes ✨️), and she knows Rodger and everyone else does, but her logic tells her that bringing a Twisted / potential half-Twisted to the lobby with them is NOT a good idea.

But exactly, Vee just couldn't know for sure. She couldn't have predicted Glisten would snap in Panic Mode. She couldn't have predicted he'd be so out of it as to literally hold someone back from the elevator even if he knows that they need to leave. Given he still had enough sanity left to be talking and joking and even laughing with the others she assumed he had enough left to understand how risky it is. Clearly he didn't, and the one thing going through her mind seeing the elevator close with Rodger still outside was how, in her logic, one of her teammates has probably died because of her decisions. It wasn't intentional, she can't have predicted it in her processors, but she still made the call to not bring Glisten. She still made the call to leave Rodger to babysit Glisten alone because she assumed he'd be fine. She'd still see it as *her fault.*

Also, he's not. ENTIRELY Twisted by the end of the fic :) Glisten was able to use Medkits to help Rodger while he was unconscious (with a lot of panicking about how much of his ichor was corrupted by then and if he can detox it properly), and he can still talk and everything, just a little woozy!

(Via a doodle I did of Rodger and Twisted Glisten in a deleted scene [Faint red in the eyeball]).

Doesn't mean he ENTIRELY got out of that safely though. I still like to think Glisten got him back from losing 3 hearts (one when Glisten initially dug his claws into him, one when he was tackled and his arms were punctured, one more when Boxten knocked him to the ground and probably bit / clawed him a little until he could be gotten off) with the health kits and probably didn't waste time trying to fix him. Glisten saved him from Twisting / Dying by like. A gap the size of a salt grain. He's not doing too hot but at least for that moment in time he's stable and alive, could probably get better as long as he wasn't exposed to more tainted ichor / injuries that make him lose his own ichor.

[bern-the-bridge]

Why the TV Show Version of Luke is a Better Person Than the Book Version

(Percy Jackson and the Olympians Spoilers)

While I will not argue about which version of Luke is a better character or better written, I can confidently say that the show version is a better person than the book version, and we see this mostly in the finale.

But before that, let’s go over what the book version of Luke did that the show version didn’t do.

1) Go unnecessarily hard on Percy during training, especially after he found out that he was the son of Poseidon.

2) When asked about who might have stolen the master bolt, imply that Annabeth could have in an attempt to plant seeds of distrust between them.

3) Immediately try to kill Percy after he got back to camp.

The show version of Luke is blatantly more sympathetic to Percy than the book version. He doesn’t antagonize Percy for succeeding on his quest or for gaining his father’s approval. In fact, he actually tries to recruit Percy at first. He doesn’t want to fight him.

However, the extent of the show version of Luke’s compassion can be seen with what he did for Clarisse. Or rather, what he didn’t do.

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover were the ones who came up with the idea that Clarisse stole the master bolt. Luke just went along with it. They even asked Luke to warn Chiron and the rest of the camp about her. It would have been trivially easy. Whether Chiron believed him or not would have been irrelevant. Either way, it would have helped his plan immensely, since he would still be sowing discord into the camp.

But Luke didn’t do that. And by not telling Chiron, they were able to figure his plan out. So why didn’t he do it?

Simple. Because he sympathizes with Clarisse.

I haven’t gotten a good look at how many beads Clarisse has, but it’s clearly around the same number as Luke and Annabeth, so it can be assumed that she’s been at camp for about the same amount of time as them, which is longer than most of the other campers. In fact, it’s not improbable that they were all in the Hermes cabin at one point while they were still unclaimed. And she’s one of the handful of campers confirmed to stay at camp all year round.

And Luke understands Clarisse. He understands her desperate obsession for glory. He understands her longing for her father’s affection. He understands her frustration when she is repeatedly ignored. He understands her contempt when her father finally does pay attention to her but it doesn’t go the way she wants. He understands her resentment towards heroes like Percy who seem to do the impossible without any training, with a seemingly perfect home life, getting both a mommy and daddy who love him.

It wouldn’t have been right to frame Clarisse. Actually, it would have gone against everything Luke was actively fighting for. All of the misdeeds Luke commits, it’s for the sake of his fellow demigods. And no matter what your opinions are about the show, this version of Luke reminds us of that.

[midnightshade]

People forget the demons – yes, even Muzan – are all meant to be sympathetic to some extent because they're a metaphor for those who have trauma and inflict their pain on others instead of healing from it.

The human characters are meant to be the opposite: those who undergo trauma and try to help others despite it. Saying Muzan is "pure evil" kind of misses the point.

Muzan suffered: Terminal illness, chronic pain, abandonment by his own family outside of the bare minimum, being used as a guinea pig in an experimental medicine he didn't consent to (that doctor had it coming) which turned him into a demon, more chronic pain after Yoriichi's attack, etc.

As someone who suffers my own share of trials due to medical issues outside of my control, it's hard for me NOT to sympathize with him. I can totally understand why someone like him would become so cynical and self-interested.

No one cared about him, not really – and life dealt him some shit cards – so why should he care about anyone else? You can also read Muzan and his relationship with the other demons as a metaphor for generational trauma

Generational trauma doesn't have to solely be familial, it can impact others outside of the family as well. Muzan suffered trauma and became cynical due to it. He never found healthy coping mechanisms and never found healthy support systems.

This bled into how he dealt with others (the demons) which in turn made them worse (I.E manipulating Akaza and Kokushibo, never letting Dōma grow outside of his shit environment, encouraging Nakime and Gyokko's behaviors etc. etc.)

They all had their own trauma, but Muzan's trauma impacted them as well, continuing the cycle instead of any of them getting better. You can read Tamayo and Nezuko as demons who broke the cycle of trauma, especially Tamayo, since she later turns Yushiro – who is notably much more stable than any of the demons Muzan turned. Nezuko retains her humanity and morals thanks to a strong support system around her.

After all, Demon Slayer is all about how connections and the human heart can change people for the better. Muzan continuously dismissed those ideals up until his death where Kagaya's words finally made it through to him. Even he wasn't above that reality.