#like i dont think it coheres to his story arc up to this point

[isdalinarhot]

the only reason im not a kalmoash stan is that when i was in high school i had a boyfriend that i met on. god i think it was discord but we knew of each other on bpd tumblr. you know. the shit show that was 2017 bpd tumblr. anyway long story short he tried very hard to get me to join in a suicide pact with him and said all sorts of edgy emo depressed teen nonsense like "youre the only one that makes me feel anything :(" and shit like that. so vyre hits a little bit too close to home for me lmao like i know when brandon sanderson wrote vyre he probably was drawing inspiration from input from suicidal people talking about what negative self-talk they used to justify killing themselves but the thing is that he accidentally made my stupid ass ex boyfriend and thus i lack the capacity to get really into him and kaladin kissing with tongue

[mihai-florescu]

I need enstars to be over because i need to know what akira's plan for himeru is so so badly (cue eichi's quote about asking an author how they plan to end their tale is poor manners). I can imagine various ways in which id consider his arc completed but there are too many variables that can change...

[lizard-shifter-noms]

Still Subject to Change Chapter 29 (NEW)

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Hello everyone! i decided to repost arc 1 of SSTC

(the chapters were way too long and had a bunch of typos but hopefully this will make reading easier)

this Story contains Vore, Dont like dont read.

if there are still any grammatical errors i’m sorry.

——————————————————————————

Barsen could probably waltz into any room of the castle and nobody would deem him a threat.

Because he wasn't one, He was just the gardener and tended to all plants here, including the ones inside the castle even if those were just potted flowers and the like.

“Say how do you like the celebration party?

They throw one any chance they get so after a while its just boring”

He was probably right, being at a party was fun but at some point it was enough, also i was pretty sure the music had gotten even louder.

Looking over I was pretty sure some of the musicians were slightly inebriated.

“Well i liked the long yellow fruit”

It had been tasty, and cinnamon bread was something I already knew.

“The Banana?”

That surely wasn’t its name, was it?

“That’s what it’s called? Really?”

“Really, they grow on palm trees in bundles like grapes”

I just stared at him, I didn’t think he was making stuff up as he took his job seriously but at the same time the yellow fruit got more ridiculous by the minute.

Well he’d know better than me, I was no expert on plants.

But if they did grow on palm trees it was no wonder I had never seen one before, palm trees were more tropical plants as far as i knew.

Why was I thinking about the semantics of a damn plant anyway?

Man, my brain felt slightly foggy.

Maybe one of the many treats I ate contained some alcohol after all.

Also it was loud as fuck in here and stupidly warm too.

I’d get some fresh air after I found Rikaad.

Where was he anyway?

“Hey, have you seen Rikaad? Uh i mean the new King, I wanted to talk to him”

He was probably still guilty about the stabbing thing so I wanted to let him know that Oakley fixed it.

“Hmm, well i saw him last in the corner with the big punch bowl, i’m not entirely sure how coherent you’ll meet him though”

Eh, good enough, and knowing him he wouldn’t have had too many drinks.

“Really? Thank you! I’ll head over then, see you around”

He waved and went back to, well whatever he was doing before.

So Rikaad was in one of the corners that had a big bowl.

There were only four corners so that technically shouldn't take that long.

And one of the corners was occupied by the musicians that somehow managed to get even louder to cover the happy and drunk howling of some of the guests.

So that left three other corners to check.

And only two of them contained tables, so I only had to go through half the room.

Walking to the corner that was closest meant I wouldn’t have to walk through much of a crowd, a crowd that had gotten increasingly drunk over the course of the late evening.

Not the most pleasant company to be honest, but I bore it and did my best to avoid any sort of smalltalk from the inebriated patrons.

Weaving through the people was at least something I was already familiar with from my time on the street so I managed to not bump into anyone till I reached the corner.

No Rikaad here, hmm, but there was a plate of more cinnamon bread.

Yoinking one I went back to weaving through the crowd to get to the other corner while munching on the tasty bread.

hopefully Rikaad was still there and hadn’t left for some other table.

Oh wait, there he was, talking to Norrin who was pouring himself some of the punch with a ladle that looked way too fancy for my tastes.

Norrin just waved and gave a thumbs up as he saw me and I noticed that his face was slightly flushed pink, he’d had some of the punch for sure.

Whatever, it surely wasn’t bad if he still managed to hold a conversation.

Rikaad shoved his cup away, a cup that I was pretty sure contained alcohol that he didn’t want to drink judging by the face he’d made when he looked at it.

“Hello Donovan, how do you like the music?”

Back to smalltalk huh, not exactly my favorite part of a conversation.

Well, Norrin was here and until he left neither of us could talk about what we actually wanted.

“I think it’s Loud, like a bit too much so, but i’m gonna go outside later anyway”

The obnoxious music certainly wasn’t helping my brain defog and some fresh air would be nice.

At least the musicians could actually play the instruments, and where some of the better ones I’d heard.

Thankfully Norrin decided to leave at that moment.

“Maybe I can ask them to tune it down? I’ll be back in a bit”

He went up to the opposite corner to try and talk to the musicians.

I immediately turned back to Rikaad after making sure nobody else was within earshot.

“Uhh, well, about the stabbing thing;

Oakley managed to help me so it’s all good now, he used some magic paste or whatever it was so the stitches are gone too”

I didn’t tell him that Oakley had to rip them out, he didn’t need to know and besides it was good now, no pain no wound just like before.

Beides, hearing that what he had done in an effort to help me turned out to be dangerous just because he used the wrong items wouldn’t help.

Even if it had hurt as hell when they got ripped out.

I could see him slightly untense at the information and I hoped he would stop feeling so guilty about it.

“So you are okay now? No lasting damage?”

I nodded my head at his questions.

“No, I’m good, don’t worry, I just wanted to tell you that I’m fine now so you can stop dwelling on it.

Now you have fun at this party, i’m going outside for some fresh air, It's way too loud in here and the temperature is not helping my brain to stay focused and i wanna leave before i do something dumb or embarrassing”

“Your face does look a bit pink, just make sure you don’t fall of the cliff and avoid any Guards you don’t know, i’m not sure if everyone has gotten the information yet that you are a friend”

I nodded at him, I had planned to go back into the Ardua form and sleep on the rock Barsen showed us anyway, Since the shed was still a bit dusty and I had no idea how to navigate the castle, Nevermind that I had no idea which rooms were occupied and which ones were free.

As for falling off the cliff, I wasn’t THAT stupid and the atmosphere here was still somewhat tolerable for me, It literally was just a tiny bit too warm and loud that put a slight fog over my brain.

“I’m not that feeling that bad, it’s just a bit too loud and the air a bit too stale for my tastes, i’ll be fine, oh and if you see Robin tell him i’m back outside by the rock”

“of course, i’ll let him know should i see him”

At his affirmation that he’d tell Robin he saw me I left to go outside again.

As soon as the cool air hit my face I felt immediately better and the fog in my mind cleared.

After all, I was just a bit overwhelmed with that many people in one room, not to mention the overly loud music and way too many people heating up the room just by being there.

Eh, whatever, I already felt better and I wasn’t going to go back inside.

I decided that such events weren’t my thing. 

Aside from the tasty food, There wasn’t much to do anyway and I barely knew anyone.

Walking a few steps away from the castle so I was sure I wouldn’t bump into anything I twisted the gem on the bracelet and was promptly back in the Ardua form,

Shaking the stiffness out from my limbs.

Yeah, way better, and now i didn’t have to worry about anyone flipping out about my pointy ears.

By now word would have gotten around about the green beast that was friends with the king so this probably was the safer option to just hang around the castle as a whole.

There was also the fact that most people wouldn’t randomly attack something this big.

And the long legs were faster than my human form which was also a plus as I could get from the castle back to the rock in a matter of barely a minute.

By now it had gotten dark outside, it was still bright enough to find my way but I steered clear of anything I couldn’t identify.

At least the way back to the rock wasn’t that far and I made sure not to get too close to the edge as it probably was a lot more dangerous to get near in the dark.

Even if I found that I could see strangely well, but then again there was still light from the castle windows.

And the stars, they were actually very pretty even if the light from the castle made them a bit harder to see.

Just to be on the safe side I went to the spot where the boulder went under the dirt, so a good few feet away from the cliff itself.

I wasn’t keen on falling off of that should I fall asleep.

I’d end up impaled on one of those spikes, or drowning if the impact didn’t kill me.

No thanks, living is actually nice now.

Settling on the patch of grass next to the boulder I ended up staring out into the darkness for a bit.

This place was actually really pretty, the castle staff took good care of it even if the floorplan was absolutely moronic, like whose idea was it to build like this?

But so far the garden was my favorite place.

I briefly wondered if Barsen had any helpers or if he did it all by himself.

Surely not, he might be good but nobody could be everywhere at once, And just because I hadn’t seen anyone else working in the garden didn’t mean there was no one helping out.

At a sudden noise that sounded like a snapping branch I turned my head to whatever was disturbing the quiet that was here just a moment ago.

At first I saw nothing, which I attributed to suddenly looking at the light from the castle again, but then I could make out a human silhouette.

With the light coming from behind it was hard to tell who it was, especially since they were hunched over and seemed to have their hands over their ears.

The figure let out a high pitched whine and I suddenly recognized the voice, as well as the mop of red hair they possessed.

“Robin? Are you okay?”

I immediately stood up and went over to him to make sure he wasn’t hurt.

He was acting strange and only seemed to register that I was here after I spoke.

And he didn’t stop clutching his head.

I wished he’d step out of the bushes and into a brighter part so I could make sure he wasn’t bleeding.

“Donovan? I- i… what are you doing here?”

He sounded like hed been crying, oh fuck what happened?

I hadn’t been gone that long so what was going on?

I kneeled down, or at least what was the equivalent of that as Ardua and looked him over.

“Hey, are you okay? What happened? Why are you out here alone?

Are you hurt? Why are you holding your head like this?”

He didn’t seem to be bleeding from anywhere, but that still did not mean that he didn’t get whacked in the head.

He looked up at me and in the sparse light of the castle I could see half dried tear tracks that went down his face.

He was also slightly hyperventilating and trembling, What the hell had happened after I left?

Softening my voice as much as I could, I kneeled even closer to him, attempting to comfort him with my presence.

“Hey, talk to me, what happened?”

He suddenly wrapped his arms around the fluffy part of my neck and kept holding the fur while he trembled.

“I- I’m sorry, it’s just- just too much, way too much, it’s too loud, too bright and there are too many people! I- my brain can’t keep up, it’s just- ! “

He had started hyperventilating even worse as he spoke, and while I still wasn’t sure what was going on at least I knew now that he hadn’t been attacked or otherwise physically hurt.

“I’m not sure what exactly you mean, but if you want some peace and quiet you can just join me in lazing about out here?”

Since he was now very close to my vocal chords I took extra care to not be too loud and keep my voice soft for him.

He just mumbled something that definitely wasn’t words and shoved his tear stricken face into my mane.

Well, then I would have to figure it out myself.

Hooking one arm under him and holding him in the space between my neck and underarm I walked on three legs to the spot I had just left before and settled down again.

This time with a little ginger cuddled up to my thorax and hiding in the fur of my short mane curled up with his hands over his head as if to protect himself from some unseen foe.

The worst thing was that I had no idea what the hell was wrong or even how to help him.

I found it best to try again to get an at least somewhat coherent answer.

“Robin? I’m not sure what is going on right now, Can you tell me? I want to help but i don’t know how”

At first I thought he wouldn’t respond, aside from another high pitched whine, but then he finally gave me at least some information.

“My brain is screaming at me, that I need to go hide and that there’s too much noise, too much- everything right now! And it wont shut up!”

He sobbed out.

Oh, he had a bad brain day, err night, I've had some of those, shortly after my mother had died but they weren’t frequent and certainly not as severe as his.

Apparently all the stuff that had happened over the past month had just gotten too much as he attended the party where a ton of loud people were and not to mention that the room was stupidly hot too.

“Well, considering what has happened over the course of the last month that isn’t really a surprise, believe me my brain had trouble catching up at all!

And don’t worry, everyone gets overwhelmed sometimes, that’s just a thing that happens, you can stay with me for as long as you want”

He just tried to bury himself further in the fur of my neck, even if there wasn’t that much more to burrow into.

“S’not the first time, it happens a lot to me and i don’t know why, I don’t do anything that the others don’t, so why me?

Why’s my brain like this?

I try my best to keep it together but it never works”

He sniffled a little and continued to try and disappear into my fur.

Oh, so this was not a new nor unusual occurrence for him, no wonder he tried to ditch the party by hiding out in the garden.

And the fact that he hyperventilated must have been because he had a panic attack before me speaking snapped him out of it.

“Is there ANYthing i can do to help you?

If not we can just stay here for a while”

He curled up against my neck and mumbled.

“I just wanna hide somewhere till my brain is quiet again, but i don’t wanna be alone, but i also don’t wanna see anyone’s face right now”

Well, those were a tiny bit conflicting with each other, What the hell was I even supposed to do with that information?

With his form curled so close to my throat he couldn’t see my face, and it was sorta hidden, he wasn’t alone either.

But maybe that was still too exposed for him?

Or too loud as I could still faintly hear the party in the distance and see the stupidly bright light from the windows.

“I- well what can i do?

I’m not the smartest in such stuff so please tell me”

He pressed himself even more into the fur of my throat, if that was even possible and mumbled into it.

“I- i just want to Hide, somewhere were the outside world can’t get me”

“Hide? Where? Do you want me to bring you to Oakleys tower?

Oakley might even be able to help better than I did, but if he didn’t want to see more people right now then I would just try my best and hope that it would work.

“No, I- i want you to hide me, can you hide me again? Like in the snow?”

Like in the snow? What did he-

Oh.

Surely that wasn’t what he meant?

“i- like when you were cold?

Are you absolutely sure that’s what you want?”

feeling him nod i could hear the softest voice answer

“Mhm, i just wanna be somewhere where the outside world can’t get me, but i don’t wanna be alone either, and i know you wont hurt me”

He wanted to hide with me, go back in THERE of all things too.

And only because he thought it would help, and that he was absolutely convinced that I would not hurt him.

How the FUCK could i say no to him? I couldn’t, not when he displayed such an amount of trust in me that I would keep him safe.

“Only if you are absolutely sure, and if you get scared for any reason tell me and i’ll get you out as fast as i can, okay?”

He made an agreeing sound and slowly uncurled a little so he could reach my face.

While getting out of my mane he used one hand to brace himself on my face, and his hands were tiny, HE was tiny.

If he truly thought this would help him then i would do it, even if i didn’t understand it, i said i’d help him so i would even if it was rather unusual.

I carefully shifted around him so I had enough space to move my head properly and he wouldn’t have to awkwardly climb over my legs.

He just stood there for a second, hugging himself with his arms and slightly hunched over,

He was so small, he already wasn’t a tall human but with me as Ardua he was just so tiny, and with him standing there so vulnerable right now it was as if a breeze could knock him over.

I took a deep breath before looking at him again.

“Okay, last chance to back out, are you SURE about this?

If you don’t wanna say anything, tap three times and I’ll stop, okay?”

He was still shaking, and I had no idea how long such an episode usually lasted but I was sure that if he thought it would help then I’d do it.

He just leaned forward and put his slightly shaking forehead against my snout.

I could feel that his head was cold and clammy, yeah, he needed help.

“M’ sure, go ahead”

He mumbled out in a shaky voice.

That was probably all the confirmation I was gonna get from him.

So without further ado i opened my mouth, waiting for just one second in case he backed out at the last moment.

He didn’t, instead he reached out and grabbed hold of one of my teeth.

Admittedly that was a very weird sensation, but since he seemed to be okay with it I brought him fully into my mouth, making sure to shield my bottom teeth with my tongue so there was no chance he could get nicked by one.

I gave him a few more seconds before I closed my mouth and sealed him in, then I waited a few more seconds, sort of expecting him to tap three times and ask to be let out.

There was no tapping, instead he just kind of sunk into my tongue, relaxing the tiniest bit.

This was weird as fuck, but i didn’t do it for myself, I did it to help my friend.

If someone had told me a few months ago that i would actually have friends i’d have laughed at them, but now I actually did have people to care about.

And a lot of other unbelievable stuff happened too of course, like right now.

Since Robin still hadn’t asked to be let out I decided to slowly tip my head back, giving him one last chance to back out before I swallowed.

Robin just put his arms over his head, not in an attempt to stop though,

It was more like he tried to make himself slimmer.

He really was okay with this, well he had suggested it, weird as it was.

Tipping my head fully back I let him slide a bit before taking the first swallow.

I waited for one second to see if this would cause him to freak out but there was nothing aside from the trembling that had persisted since he walked into me.

I gently swallowed again, Placing my paw softly against my throat, I was barely able to sense the bulge traversing down before it made its way behind my collarbone and out of reach from my limbs.

Another swallow then sent him spilling into my pouch and I held my breath, there was still a chance that this could cause him to freak out.

He did not freak out luckily, The only movement he made was to right himself and get out of the sort of upside down position he had initially landed in since he’d gone in head first.

He was still trembling though, so I thought it best to check up on him in case he just froze in a fight or flight response.

“Robin? Are you okay? If you are scared i’ll let you out right away”

“No, I’m- i’m okay, i’m calmer now, this is actually helping”

Thank FUCK he wasn’t freaking out, and it really was helping? How?

At least he wasn’t trembling as much anymore, if that was from finally calming down or his adrenaline running out I couldn’t tell.

I hoped it was the former.

“Hey Robin? Not to pry but uhh, How is this helping?”

If he didn’t want to answer that was also okay, but I couldn’t deny that I was curious as to WHY.

I could feel him shift for a second before he answered, or at least tried to.

“I- well- i just-”

He seemed to flop over and I was pretty sure I heard an annoyed groan before he tried again, this time a lot more coherent as the words just spilled from his mouth.

“Sometimes the world is just too loud, there’s noise everywhere and- and if it gets too much I just can’t anymore!

And it’s so bright too! Some days it hurts my eyes.

And then it’s too quiet again which makes me really anxious that people don’t like me and don’t want to talk to me!

But here it’s- it’s sort of calm? Like it’s not silent, I can hear your Heart and everything and I know I’m not alone but-,

I- I feel like nothing can get me while I’m here, I feel like I don’t have to stare people in the face to find clues to what they actually mean!

I get it wrong most of the time anyway, and you’re the only one that always tells the truth so I don’t have to guess if you actually mean what you said or not!

And there’s no light to hurt my eyes! I mean it’s not completely dark.

Just sorta very dim so it’s not scary either.

I mean you’re not scary, at all, you’re nice to me even if you don’t have to.

I just- sometimes I feel like there is too much space and I don’t like it!

But- it’s nice to be able to escape reality, At- at least for a little bit.

I- I’m sorry for rambling, if you don’t want me here now i’ll leave!

I know i’m weird-”

“It’s okay, I’m weird too, I mean look at me, I’m a big green catlike creature with flowers growing on its back and a pointy eared bastard, and sometimes a giant”

I interrupted him before he could talk himself back into a less than ideal headspace.

How about I’ll promise you something? Is that okay?”

“Mmh?”

He seemed a bit confused that I would offer to promise him anything.

Well as half Fae it was binding, so i could not back out, ever.

PREVIOUS / NEXT / OVERSIGHT

[beesmygod]

JJBA PART 5, VENTO AUREO IS THE UNDERBAKED MESS I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT FIXING...PART 2

FIX 2: WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A PROBLEM LIKE GIORNO?

thats the homo photo of my dad

answer: i dont know.

the unfortunate and honest to god truth of the matter is that the protagonist of JJBA part 5, giorno giovanna, fucking sucks.

what if that little shithead from the twilight zone episode "it's a good life" was gay and watched "goodfellas". you might think "wow that sounds great" but, well, somehow it's not.

it is months later and i have been struggling with writing this for a bazillion reasons: i got sick, real life events occurred, i had to work on comic, i died, etc. but the most strenuous reason of all in the end was facing the impenetrable, tangled, and deeply complicated gordian knot that is the little ladybug loving bitch named giorno and not knowing where the fuck to even begin.

i had to think long and hard about how to approach the problem of "giorno giovanna". he is like a diamond of sucking ass: multi-faceted and beautiful in his perfection but is, ultimately, just a stupid fucking rock from the dirt. he completely lacks the innate charisma and personality inherent in previous jojo protagonists AND antagonists; despite having both the joestar AND brando gene pools to pull from, he manages to snag a net total of 0 personality traits. this problem is multiplied 100 fold once he starts actually doing things to move the plot along and the universe repeatedly bends itself like a pretzel in order to gift him undeserved and unrewarding (to us, the audience) win after win after win.

his theme goes hard as hell tho

if you were to ask me what is wrong with giorno, i would have no problem making a long and detailed list of why i want to slap the little cinnamon rolls of his head. i have no idea how to organize that list into a more coherent form of criticism that points at the overarching structural weakness of part 5. part 5 really, really wants you to like and root for giorno. it hinges on it. his victories are explicitly supposed to be emotionally and morally gratifying. they are instead trite and annoying.

for years, YEARS, my only experience with the entirety of part 5 outside of infamous panels and the most basic information about the story, was this incredible, evergreen and laser targeted tweet:

i thought this was a funny shit post. all i knew giorno had some kind of "life creation" power. what i didnt know was:

giorno says this exact line and then turns cars into frogs so that they (the bad guys) cant catch them (they do catch them)

giorno's power IS fucking stupid

i fucking hate him

he should stop using it

abbacchio was right. he was right about everything

how DO you talk about giorno? giorno's blandness permeates any situation he has the misfortune of attending and the parts of the narrative where he's missing for one reason or another are significantly improved by his absence. in comparison with the deuteragonists (bruno bucciarati) and tritagonists (the members of bruno's squad in the mafia family passione), he has all the flavor of a communion wafer. his character arc is non-existent. emotionally, he might as well have just gone to the store and back by the end of the story.

and, look, araki likes to play fast and loose with how powerful a stand is or what its abilities are. im not here to measure power levels or fucking whatever stupid shit people get up to. the more wild and insane he gets with his incredibly "unique" ""understanding"" of science and geometry, i'm 99% on board for. but giorno's stand, gold experience, is whatever the narrative needs it to be at any given time with no consistency. it's OP as hell long before he gets the 11th hour power boost; his stand has the extra trans-dimensional ability to remove any tension from a fight scene. through this, gold requiem can destroy the psyche of the audience, truly making it the most powerful stand of all time.

people used to love to bitch about not understanding how the villain's stand works in this part, but if anyone tells you they understand what the fuck THIS means they're lying to you.

anyway, there is only one solution i can think of when it comes to how to approach this: assess the major story beats in order. i think jumping around in the progression of events to highlight individual flaws in the character will not adequately impart the suffering one feels as an audience member while the narrative yo-yos between being rollicking good fun and being at the mercy of the little 15 year old twink with god mode on.

and so, having made it past koichi's tiny ass role (and his tiny ass) in the story and addressing how we can proceed, we can cover bruno (a genuinely wonderful character), polpo, and the wasted character building opportunity of the piss drinking scene, which vexes and infuriates me to this day. [thinking about the piss scene and getting mad again] ooooh!!!!

[moonlightdancer26]

Hello There.

this is kinda weird and meta and i cannot tell if it’s written coherently so plz just hear me out

so yk how J*R admitted that, when she was writing OOTP at the same time as the first movie was being made, she made a lot of the changes/revelations we see for severus’ character bc she liked alan rickman’s portrayal so much? her only valid opinion

prior to that it is much easier to see the relationship between james/the marauders and severus as ‘slytherin vs gryffindor antagonistic’

(the prank (PoA) is imo played off more as ‘sirius was in the wrong by organising it, james did better by following severus and getting him out of there’ without input from OOTP)

anyway, this is all to say that pre-OOTP james and post-OOTP james feel like very different characters, bc one is very much good-guy-in-the-making and the other is the worst of the worst, and i think it can be brought back to J*R’s inability to write interesting slyth vs gryff rivalries without resorting to bullying and harassment from one party (the way she writes slytherins makes me want to smash my head against walls)

what do you think? bc this is coming from a kinda biased marauders stan, pro-james perspective, even though i dont hate young!sev in the slightest

i feel like a lot of my issues with this whole thing can be summed up by The TERF Bitch Can’t Write, And Now We Suffer Because Of It

I’ve heard of that claim before, and iirc I’ve seen a source of her saying that a long time ago, but could you tell where cause I’d love to confirm this? 😭 She had already had Snape’s arc planned out because during the earlier films Alan wanted to quit his role because playing Evil Greasy Potions Master might get him type-casted (since he’s played villains before) and he didn’t want that, so Rowling decided to tell him about the grandiose reveal in DH, which is what made him stay.

what do you think? bc this is coming from a kinda biased marauders stan, pro-james perspective, even though i dont hate young!sev in the slightest

I actually think that was the point. In the earlier books we’re led to believe that Snape had no good reason for hating Harry’s dad and only resented James (and Harry) because he was a popular, loved Gryffindor and a talented Quidditch player. It was a bit of a red herring, and in PoA when Sirius and Remus are introduced we’re told about the prank and since Harry already hates Snape, obviously loves his father, and wants to know more info about his parents because he now knows two people who were the closest of friends with them, he assumes Sirius is right and evil Sneep Snoop is wrong and was just being petty as per usual. So for the first five books the readers are like “yo James is the perfect awesome guy and Snape is the jealous bad one,” which is increased when we remember James is a Gryffindor and Severus was a Slytherin, we sort of get the same image as Harry and Draco. It’s an extremely black-and-white image, the dawning realisation that it might not be just a simple rivalry/jealously-issue is what makes SWM in the 5th book so jaw-dropping to all of us, because we actually realise that it wasn’t the whole story. “Snape was right all along” is a super scary realisation for Harry, especially since it makes him completely rethink the image of his father that’s been painted for him by basically everyone around him, everyone except the one character Harry despises most of all.

This isn’t to say JKR doesn’t make shit decisions in writing, I 100000% get what you’re saying, but I think this was deliberately written that way so it can to be a big build-up to the plot twist. (Doesn’t make it very well-written, but it was still her intention ig.) and tbh the fact that we have so many unanswered questions/concerns about the plot holes/arcs/writing/etc and have to fill it in with the most plausible assumptions really goes to show how overrated JKR’s writing is and how her series has been enriched mostly by its fandom.

Also dw you’ve gotten your point across very well, I always get concerned with my writing because I’m worried it just sounds like a pile of unorganised bullshit 💀

[blueiight]

hello! how are you?

for the series ask, could you do lotgh?

hi! this question is framed so politely… im hangover grumpy but other than that im doing well..

Favorite character

cheating a little by doing this in tiers so empire side i like reinhard, kircheis, oberstein, reuenthal & hilde… alliance side i like yang, jessica, schonkopf (u notice i like good ideological challenges to MCs in this series) & julian

Second favorite character

n on the next tier of faves is mittermeyer, dusty, dominique, elfriede (an enemy of reuenthal is a friend of mine), frederica (if only tanaka knew women had interiority amirite), and many more

Least favorite character

its not so much least favorite character so much as it is i feel like bc tanaka really is so harsh about religion (& i say this as a nonbeliever myself but u cant deny that religion is a powerful social force) the entire earth cult as a concept really suffers in the writing of canon... and ova designers what the fuck was they doing w machungo’s design

The character I’m most like

ummmm ..i think if i said it id be subject to fines and cancellations so... u can decide ^_^

Favorite pairing

reinhard/kircheis, mittermeyer/reuenthal, reinhard/reuenthal, everybody/yang .. getting into crack pairs here dominique/el & ferobe :3

Least favorite pairing

its not hate cuz i love their dynamic but framing reinhilde as a love match is hilarious .. i can buy yang/frederica cuz yang is need of mommy doms but reinhilde is a lavender marriage. also ry would also be a lavender marriage to me the appeal of reinyang is yang to reinhard is like the girl that got away .. reinhard’s one true ‘equal’ that he could never gain supremacy over or sublimate into his camp. and yang has a sort of abstract admiration for reinhard as a historical figure but also recognizes that hes his ideological foe/nightmare of sorts in the present lol

Favorite moment

the kunmel incident itself, when reuenthal is at his desk in the ova and is like ‘this is everything in my life that built up to this incident’ (literally have a drunken thinkpiece about it somewhere on this blog), hilde saving reinhard at vermillion, reinhard & yang meeting..the dishonor gaiden (ngl i need me some thyoxin)+ ‘dont be nice to anyone but me and my sister kircheis’ gaiden …oberstein’s REDACTED

Rating out of 10

7.5/10, to me history, mini odysseys n shit n mythmaking by characters in a narrative is something tanaka seems to have a consistent interest in if u take his other works into account and i feel like u can tell that lotgh was his first foray into space opera & milsf w/o even getting into his other works .. theres lingering plot threads that dont rly go anywhere or arent answered satisfactorily (the entire earth cult-fezzan-lang connection is rly weak in terms of writing. yang disavowing conspiracies & terrorism as ‘impacting the flow of history’ couldve been a cruel stroke of irony if the terrorist conspiracy was in anyway narratively coherent).& an overarching motif of the series being the idea of ‘might makes right’ not only attracts an unsavory crowd of fans to say it politely.. but it also weakens a good bit of the series as yang is physically ‘weak’ but mentally + strategically a genius , he has no real conflicting force in his camp outside of schonkopf at a certain point where reinhard has oberstein hilde + reuenthal who all have their own ideological deigns on him as hes the leader of his camp. yang being so cerebral + very easygoing/bereft of the desire to have power dynamics despite being a military leader (seeing his subordinates as friends, rather than lord and master) makes him a very fun character but in later arcs it lends him to being a bit of a device/ insert for meta ideals more than having internal conflicts as a character of his own right & it makes me so sad bc just when he has one of his biggest dilemmas he CENSORED. also if the story dealt w/ reinhard’s final arc more (namely the revelation he has of REDACTED considering how much of his identity is built around his militaristic might) id rly love it. im speaking vaguely bc my friends r watching & ion wanna spoil and i also feel like im being mean to this series but i rly do like this series TTvTT

[junebuggeryy]

The thing about Apple White is that the story sets her up to be deranged in such a way that makes perfect sense for the lore. I feel like the desire to follow the previously established story isn’t entirely something that’s invalid, but I feel like the royal storyline clearly kind of drowned in its own initial conflict especially as like… The lines got blurrier, but like. The fact that there are enough details in world to understand why Apple might cling to it, like the fact that she’s got an immediate connection to the Charmings and her mother’s incredibly industrious background as well as just like…

The promise that she’s going to live happily ever after, the fact that her story is considered the epitome of fairytales in setting and how she essentially can’t imagine how anyone wouldn’t want that for her. She easily stands out as a character because of the fact that she obviously has a lot of toxic traits, but I feel like they do come from such a like “pure” place to use language from an earlier post. She can’t imagine why people wouldn’t want what she wants at first and wants to help even though her idea of helping is a flawed premise. I think Apple as a representative of the Royals is really interesting in that way with her and Darling serving as an excellent potential frame work for like… The “rebranding” of the Royals in a sense where they get to play out their roles, now changed, rather than oppose the Rebels.

But yeah like, the dichotomy really did fall apart because by the end of the Wonderland arc they all have to agree its too dangerous for the facilitating artefact to even exist and that fundamentally it’s better to let people choose their own fate so like. If they wanted one then they really needed to build around it a little more coherently, but I think just letting the initial dichotomy die and replacing it with something else would have been fine! It might even have given them excuse to rebrand their dolls and update their designs and sell more of them if that’s the point. Anyway, hi again

Hello Lovely Followers It's Still Ever After High Hours.

hi again. these are some damn good thoughts, and i think you're completely right? this is perhaps an ironic point, but stories are supposed to evolve. i could absolutely see a version where the initial conflict of the royals changed shape, and Apple and Darling got to rewrite what it means to hold the power they do. i would have loved to see the "royals" name change to mean something new rather than peter out, and im sure it could have even been worked into whatever marketing/doll design goals were required to keep the show running? but these things are easier said than done, i suppose

anyway, im ECSTATIC you bring up the wonderland arc, as i have a comical amount to say about it. in general, the wonderland arc feels like the point where the story stops being about challenging oppressive power structures, and starts implicitly preserving them. it makes sense for raven to want to help protect her friend's mom, the Queen of Hearts, and i dont think it was even a bad story arc? but i do think its notable that Courtly is the first time we see someone trying to change their world's power structure is painted as unequivocally bad. and it's not as if EAH's Queen of Hearts is a particularly kind version of the titular ruler, either? then, by the time we get to epic winter, the villains are explicitly servants that no longer want to live in servitude, and are acting out, and this is not commented on at all.

idk. maybe you could argue that Courtly is someone taking advantage of an unstable system? but i am biased and Courtly Jester is forever my #problematic fave. i have a known soft spot for clown terrorists.

i do wish they had written different exit for the storybook of legends? if i recall correctly, Apple finally voted to get rid of it because she was afraid of someone signing their name into the wrong page and stealing a destiny- which, honestly, i still find to be a fascinating piece of worldbuilding, and to be a concern in-keeping with Apple's character? but it feels like only one piece of a larger puzzle. it just, feels weird to have the defeating blow to the Storybook of Legends™️, and it's societal hold over people, to be the preservation of tradition. maybe the writers felt they had already done a thorough job of tackling the ways being trapped in tradition was bad for these characters, and needed a new reason to get rid of it? but- IDEK. i feel like there may have been better options.

honestly, it feels like the thing that's missing from EAH are the Royals expressing empathy or understanding for situations outside of their own? which, honestly, isn't really a complaint- the show's about teenagers, and it makes sense they would be a little myopic! hell, that's why Apple takes it so personally.

that being said, i do think its notable that i can't think of a single Royal that didn't turn over to the Rebel side for a reason outside their own destiny, from wanting to date a non-prince charming, to not desiring to be comatose for a century. maybe this could have been Apple? our girl with nothing to complain about, our girl being offered the most heavenly future she could imagine, deciding that her guarantee at a perfect life isn't worth it if it requires that her friends must suffer.

again, that's the Apple in my heart. idek. i feel like im talking a lot about broad strokes potentials and story building rather than canon characterization? even through all this, i still love what we got of this dumb silly fantasy highschool show, lol.

[violetlunette]

I really dont like the recent chapters. Which sucks cause i like these concepts and tropes!

The lack of world building and discrimination as a tangible thing is the story screwed Shoji and Spinner over. Especially since both of their stories been foreshadowed since the very beginning but the lack of build up and focus around them makes the pay off feel unearned and shoved in.

Shoji's arguements make no sense, Spinner can't even coherently oppose him since he's under AfO grasp. It doesnt show or provide anything. We didn't know before hand the abuse heteromorphs face was inconsistant in the city compared to the countryside (which feels like a copout to me) nor were we ever shown the characters questioning any form of discrimination and actively doing something about it in a broader societal sense.

It feels so underdeveloped despite apparently being a core part of the worldbuilding.

Speaking of discrimination, what about the quirkless? What about those with weak quirks? Why is it focusing only on Heteromorphs? What about the broader implication of that discrimination? What would happen to others under AfO's new rule? Why is it exclusively a city and country thing? If defeating Spinner is defeating his arguements then why isnt he present for it?

Not to mention, what about the current system? Why have we not seen the systemic issues be challenged or change and only get a brief mention? Why have Spinner be unable to counter Shoji's weak arguements? Why bring AfO into it at all? (aside from what he was offering)

You know the longer im writing this the more i wonder WHY AFO?

The meta liberation army represented these themes much better and there would be a more concrete focus on why what theyre doing is wrong for everyone (ie changing who the aggressor is rather than addressing factors that limit them)

AfO has no connection to this, aside from beneffiting him. AfO being involved cheapens it since because of him Spinner can't respond! Hell combine with him possessing Shigaraki it feels more of 'AfO is the root and cause of all the problems' rather than 'AfO is exploiting the problems the heroes themselves cause' since the heroes apparently aren't aware of those problems or are tackling them.

Sorry if this sounds incoherent. I like AfO as a villain and him possessing Shigaraki is still neat, but i feel like the way/when of it isnt the best executed. I dont know how to word it without going to another long ramble, but the short version is i feel like the league members should have been more opposed to the whole possession thing and have more imput into the situation before majority where killed or incompacitated. But that may just be me.

Welcome back, Longy! (Hope that's you. If not, hello Longy 2.)

I agree with several points here! I think a lot of these come from the fact Hori’s a plotter, not a pantser. For those unaware, a plotter—aside from being someone who schemes—is a type of writer who needs to plan the whole story out before writing. A pantster--aside from being a mischievous asshole who pulls people’s pants down—is a writer who writes by the seat of their pants. Meaning, they figure things out as they go along with only the bare basics to guide them. Hori seems to fall into the former. Everything that he planned since the beginning seems to be flowing smoothly. Like with All Might’s arc; that was planned out since the beginning, and there wasn’t a lot of change to it, so it all connects together smoothly. Meanwhile, things he was forced to change or suddenly add feel rocky and out of place. For example—just pick an arc that feels weird to you. That was probably suddenly added or changed. (Trust me, you’ll know what this is. As I stated previously, human brains are programmed to follow stories. That’s why plot holes, or things that don’t fit, irk us so.) And now Hori’s being forced to rush things, so he’s trying to force it all in, but there’s no time, so it’s clunky. It doesn’t help that these are subjects that he doesn’t have experience writing, as evident from his previous works. Hori does have interesting ideas; Shoji’s conflict and backstory are interesting (though they should have been introduced before the climax, that's for when the manga's done). And having Spinner become a monster was also good. It was supposed to demonstrate how All for One corrupts desperate people and twists them along with the things they once valued. However, he didn’t have enough time to sit with it and plan it out, so it was hurried and sloppy. As with several points of this story.

Personally, I believe that if was able to plot out the entire series and write it before publishing, we would have gotten a better story. But sadly, as a mangaka, you can’t do that. That profession requires pantser skills where you have to adapt in an instance to every little thing in context and meta-wise. Fans like a character you were going to make an asshole, or suddenly got the urge to write said character in a different light? Then you have to make up a new arc and fit it smoothly into the story on the dot. People don’t like a character who was going to be a major player? Gotta either figure out how to fix him or kick him to the wayside. The plot point doesn’t match up, shoot gotta fix it, and so on. That’s why a lot of manga characters are pretty simple to start off with and the stories are in smaller arcs with a VERY simple overarching arc to tie them together. (Such as there's a great evil that the heroes want to stop, or they're looking for a lost treasure.) It’s unfortunate, but that’s how it is. I really wish we got to read the version where Hori was able to take his time and plan everything out but once the manga became popular, that wasn’t going to happen.

[hellraiseher]

fuck it whatever .. semi-coherent review (with spoilers!) under cut 🎃

objectively i can't say what is Good or Executed Well or Bad about Ends, just that it awakened the id part of my brain and even while consciously thinking 'wow this is a swerve' i still enjoyed it immensely... of course it isn't anywhere near h1978 (and there's no point expecting that any sequel / remake will be a reprisal of the original) and i wouldn't get up off my ass to defend it (apart from That Kitchen scene) but when it comes down to it i love melodrama i love unhealthy obsession / possessive romance i love moody darkwave i love characters who just keep getting Worse i love michael getting undeniably overpowered by laurie ...

the risk of bringing in corey was uhhh i can understand why people hated it but idk!!!! i guess i already knew to expect the film would be clumsy in its 'evil is inside us all' so the disillusionment didn't get to me... and it was from a love story angle and as cliche as it got with 'if i can't have her no one can' i am still a slave to that trope especially when you get to witness corey killing everyone who has wronged allyson / everyone who gets in the way of them being togeddur... my pupils dilated i was there for it 100%

well not 100% bc eventually that lead to laurie but !!!!!

his arc did feel... plausible ... in a batshit suspending all disbelief kind of way.. its major flaw to me was that it has to contradict the simplicity of h1978 SO much and is shoving in your face that 'ok corey is supposed to be michael's ?? motivation proxy/??' which cool!! i will indulge!! but i feel like it's a v convoluted mirror to construct in order to solidify the tether between michael and laurie.. like i feel vindicated but at the same time the source material says it enough...

the unpredicability did work in its favour tho, while i knew what to expect with the ending judging by route previous films in trilogy have taken, i was still caught off guard a lot .. ANYWAY onto most important part

the Kitchen ....

THE KITCHEN !!

i dont know WHY they chose a kitchen (staging purposes??) idk!! BUCKWILD !!!! VISCERAL!!! SHE CRUCIFIED HIM!!! SHE STRADDLED HIM !!! not only that but michael attempting to / inflicting the same wounds she did on him???????????????????????? extreme courting ... THE HAND HOLDING ?? A FLASHBACK SEQUENCE??

A FUCKING FLASHBACK SEQUENCE?????????????????

100% real footage of me:

i didnt care much for the whole town procession.. i would have preferred laurie and allyson burning michael in the garden like a bonfire but the most important thing is she kept the mask :^)

also the part where michael starts shaking after killing the cop like he's at jesus camp had me so creased

[whomst-the-hell]

i was thinking about it and i realised that i had sort of subconsciously been under the impression that atla was one of those star wars situations that tells you anyone can be magic but in actuality every major plotpoint just ties back to one single family every time (some of you may be saying “but rey wasnt a skywalker!” to which i respond “who was the primary antagonist then wiseguy” but this post isnt actually about star wars so fuck me ig) anyway what im getting at is, other than zuko, whose major theme is his relationship with his family and therefore with his nation as a whole (and also he was actual royalty so it was inevitable tbh), every single other main character’s parents were not explicitly benders, or were nonbenders. aangs parents arent ever even shown! i mean for a show where its canon that magic is genetic, they do a waaaayyyyyy better job at delivering the “anyone can be a hero” storyline than media that actually textually tells that story lmao

not only is the show about children, its also about lots of marginalised groups. all the characters are POC, toph is blind, katara is a girl (toph is obviously also a girl but her character doesnt really explore misogyny like katara ykwim?), sokka is just some guy even in the context of the magic system, even aang — the literal chosen one!!!! — is just a random kid who also happens to be the reincarnation of the most powerful spirit in the galaxy or whatever (thats a recurring theme of the show actually), and zuko ,who is the most nepo baby protagonist, isnt actually the prodigy of his family and is instead frequently upstaged by his little sister lol

like it would have been so easy to do a “and guess what the reason toph is such a great bender is because she’s secretly king bumi’s great niece!!!!!!” reveal, which is such a classic plot twist that tbh its barely a twist these days, but instead toph was a badass specifically because of the unique perspective she gained by being disabled and the way that allowed her to connect with the world around her ie the badgermoles — thats a way stronger story! the only relationship reveal we get (other than i guess aang learning he’s the avatar which kind of maybe counts??) is zuko learning he’s related to roku which. i mean he was already a nepo baby so it doesnt detract from his agency really and in fact reinforces his recurring “there are two wolves” conflict, which up to that point was mostly shown through azula and iroh (think his ba sing se fever dream wherein there were two dragons inside him voiced by azula and iroh respectively one advocating good the other evil, foreshadowing the final conflict of the season where he must choose between azula and iroh and he backslides in his moral arc by choosing azula which is a really cool narrative choice that tbh now that im thinking about it i probably should have made this tangent its own post but we’re here now ig)

also i was thinking about how bending is genetic but also skips generations (neither kya nor hakoda is a bender, and we dont know of any grandparent other than gran gran, who is a nonbender, and i think its a dominant gene bc ursa wasnt a bender to my knowledge but zuko and azula are, so probably neither kya nor hakoda had bender parents, but obviously katara is a bender, but sokka isnt, plus there were identical twins in the volcano episode where only one was a bender which does confuse me scientifically but i dropped science so whatever) and bending is shown as common enough that probably everyone has atleast one ancestor who is a bender so tbh it sort of circles back to being random lol

this post is really just me thinking out loud (well not. out loud. bc its written. you get it) so it might not be coherent but idk its another way that atla is very clever and has effective storytelling and creates themes subtextually etc etc ok thanks

[lucifermeo]

Personal wishlist for future anime adaptations of BSD (assuming S4 can come out this year?? @/Bones hello my guy??)

(very light out-of-context spoilers for 55 minutes + stormbringer)

Season 4:

2-3 eps for The Untold Origins of the Detective Agency (only Fukuzawa/Ranpo part)

10 eps to cover from where S3 left off until the ADA reunites in Anne's room*

*manga chapters 54-79 which seems a lot but the manga chapters've been getting shorter & not longer, plus their poster did show the sky casino. also it'd be such a nice, hopeful note to end the season on (before everything went to hell :v)

Season 4.5**:

4-5 eps to cover 55 Minutes light novel

7-8 eps to cover Stormbringer light novel

idk call it Bungou Stray Dogs: Nobody likes Europeans Singularities or something***

**i think there's enough to kinda plan a S5 right now but at the same time we (and Bones?) don't know when and how exactly the DoA arc will end. it does look like it's reaching climax (maybe a two-front final battle aka airport+prison?) and iirc Asagiri said he's done with the draft to wrap this arc up, but if it can end fast enough Bones might just want to wait and cram its conclusion into S5 because tbh letting one arc, nevermind one that takes place in ~10 days canon time, drags for 3 seasons isn't really great for viewer retention

**(+) speaking of viewer retention, i think wan! is cute and all, but if they're waiting out the manga they could do so much more with actual content that enriches the worldbuilding aka, 55 minutes & stormbringer. tbh i could see 55 minutes as a single movie, but stormbringer is wayyy too long to shove into 100 minutes of film with any coherency and doesn't lend well to being split in a two-parter either, so why not do both in single season? we can get atsushi (the, y'know, main character), akutagawa, dazai & ada adventure AND chuuya, dazai & port mafia adventure, which will definitely sell well while not having to sacrifice the narrative trying to shove either into a "main" season, so win-win-win?? (@/Bones)

***i know 55 minutes and stormbringer are like two separate timelines/stories, but they both touch a lot on European skill/singularity weapons and singularities in general, so it might not be that hard trying to link them together. they could start with 55 minutes, then at the end when they're reflecting on the events have atsushi ask dazai about gab/verne and dazai would be 'sike, arent i too familiar with that shit', or have ango (give the man some sleep) type up a report and retelling both events together or sth. not to mention we already have mentions of singularity weapon in the main manga so it'd be a nice idea to introduce all the foundations before S5. plus, verlaine mentioned h.g. wells by name in stormbringer so that'd be a nice tie-in

Season 5:

(hopefully) concludes the DoA arc

dunno what other light novels Asagiri plans on writing, but if Bones hopes to cram the DoA conclusion here maybe it's better to not have any LN content at all and picks straight up from S4

misc thoughts: i dont think DoA will be the last arc of BSD, there's still a lot not touched on about the European side of things (Clock Tower hello?) and world war might or might not pick back up so im sure asagiri still has some wild ideas to write. fukuchi dies for sure which will probably signal the end of DoA arc, but just because dude's a trainwreck doesn't mean he didn't have some good points about govt-sanctioned horrors, so that might lead us into the next arc. fyodor's dying is 50/50? somehow hes both been here too long and i still feel we havent done enough with his character yet. anw im more than ready for DoA arc to end, please asagiri have mercy 🥺

[tokyo-daaaamn-ji-gang]

hi, is it ok if i word vomit my thoughs about tokrev? i promise ill be as coherent as possible,, i dont have many thoughts anyway, im hooked on the story but im also completely clueless, im just perceiving, also none of my mutuals watches or reads tokrev so ugh i feel like i missed something. im just so baffled by wakuis um narrative mode cuz it feels so incoherent and inorganic and poorly thought out you know? what i mean is that at first for most the of arcs he got us thinking the story revolves around takemichis future/present or past whatever, being continually jeopardised by kisaki, time leaps, revenge n stuff, he tricked us with the hinting of the possible existence of a second time leaper, but then he suddenly changes direction and now it's all about mikey. i mean sure we did get a peek of mikeys problem since the vahlalla arc but the story still feels unresolved? everything that was a focal point at the beginning like michi's power, courage and resolve, is now dismissed and it's like we're reading a different story but not entirely? im sorry but it feels so stupid and shallow but i doubt that so im definitely missing something here , im kinda annoyed, i guess were not gonna get an explanation of michi's power and the fact that he was saved by the same person he himself saved by going to the past and warn him about the day he will die like that's a paradox whats the real trigger in all of this? if that matters at all... or maybe its smth like a psychological allegory like evangelion or revolutionary girl utena ahhhh idk hope i made some sense, just wanna understand where yall are at because i can barely trust the panels im reading its almost surreal

Yeah I understand where you're coming from, I feel like I'm almost reading a different story now from when I first started. It actually doesn't annoy me though since I prefer the direction in which this ones going.

And when you think about it the future is still being jeopardised by Kisaki. All this is happening because Kisaki killed Emma which lead to Mikey and Draken missing the start of the Tenjiku fight so Hina then had to confess about the future thing to make them show up. Then because Mikey found out about it he decided to separate himself from the others and create the kantou manji gang and the current timeline. It all comes back to Kisaki's actions again.

Yeah the second time leaper thing was weird, a lot of people still believe that there is one though. Personally I'm doubtful but not 100% against the idea. I think he maybe put it in to show just how good Kisaki was at manipulating his surroundings.

I think it's pretty much always been all about Mikey though, in most scenes he's in he almost seems to steal the mc title from Takemichi. From the moment Takemichi meets him a lot of his actions shift from being just about Hina to also helping Mikey (and saving Akkun too but he seems to forgot about this after a while????). Also with the constant references to there being something not quite right with Mikey I think it was foreshadowed that something bigger was going to happen. Though I did think this was because of Kisaki's manipulations at first and it was a suprise to find out this was happening way before Kisaki.

I also agree that I don't think we're going to get an explanation for Takemichi's powers. I think Wakui wants us to focus more on why he's time leaping rather then the how. (Not entirely sure why he can suddenly sometimes see the future now too though.)

[xenosagaepisodeone]

ok 3.0+1.0 longpost -_-

it’s difficult for me to describe how I feel about 3.0+1.0 as a film because it’s artistic vision is just a 25 year cultivated response to the otaku fixation on nge. this film hardly feels like it can stand on it’s own feet as a coherent story -- it’s constantly introducing and reinterpreting symbols, contexts and concepts in order to lay down some kind of grounded world while also wanting to be evocative of the freeform flow of feelings occurring in EoE/Ep25/26. if this movie was it’s own thing and just living in the shadow of it’s predecessor, I could probably live with it and maybe even say that I liked it, but it’s flip flopping on if it wants the metanarrative to drive the story or if it wants to erect a new mythology of Eva altogether completely squanders maximizing the potential of doing either. what were left with is a very cowardly iteration of the message at the end of nge -- “human connections are important, even if they can be painful” becomes “ if we show you what you wanted to see for the past nearly 30 years, will you grow up now?”

"Defeated" feels like how I would describe the ethos of this film.

reiQ’s farmer adventures were cute, but in a way that felt bittersweet- because this character is not actually rei. not simply because she is not ayanami, but because she carries no actual development from her previous iterations like the other characters of rebuild. reiQ answers the question of “what if rei was actually as moe as she looks in official art” but forgets to pull the rug out from beneath you to unveil the depths of her turmoil. while Ayanami would say “I am not your doll to control”, reiQ has almost every aspect of her character dictated to her by other people - and this is depicted as fulfilling and human (because Anno wants you to get a job and have kids). not even her name is her choice. her sudden death only exists to serve as a motivator for shinji. I wanted to believe that this was some commentary on how a relationship without pain and loss cant exist, but it seems unlikely as rei (1, 2, 3, Q, Ayanami, lilith, etc) does not have an arc in this film. also the TV production quality of the village segment made it feel like I was watching a 12 episode sol as opposed to an actual film.

funnily enough, my feeling towards reiQ made me feel retroactive distaste towards 1.0 and 2.22. I’ve never thought rebuild was good, that much has never been a secret. 1.0 and 2.22 however carried enough over from the original series that it felt like the original characters were picking themselves up and getting better. I was happy seeing asuka, who had previously spent 26 episodes and a movie being miserable, open herself up to happiness. I was happy seeing rei connect more with shinji. even if the characters had to become simplified versions of themselves to find their own peace, it didnt feel thatbad. I didn’t realize until 3.0 came out how little this tetralogy had to it beyond puppeteering iconography and hoping that fans find meaning in it. 3.0 and 3.0+1.0 carried the same conviction of 1.0 and 2.22 of showing you characters you like doing things you wished they did, but with the support of the original series environment withering away to unveil half baked ideas, convoluted plots and meaningless regurgitation of every meaningful image this series has produced. seeing rei stripped even farther than her bare bones as reiQ put into focus what I thought I appreciated about 1.0 and 2.22.

there were a few times throughout this movie where I was trying to figure out what it was that anno was trying to say. as stated in my op paragraph, the film does carry it’s own simplified message about how important it is to grow up and face the real world, but this message largely betrays the framing. its cowardly. the pain that shinji experience does not come from the Other anymore, it is all self inflicted. learning to endure hardship simply became a matter of overcoming your own feelings, because now everyone else in your life effortlessly accepts you. there are 3 girls with who dont have any problems anymore and a solarpunk empire that would be all over you if you simply stood on your own two feet. there is no asuka experiencing hedgehog dilemma with shinji, there’s only asuka who exists so shinji can learn how to confess to a girl. there is no misato constantly subjecting shinji to a interplay of projecting her issues onto him and attempting to mother him (with varying degrees of success), there’s just shinjis step mom who accepts that she is responsible for him (which feels GREAT to see but feels bad when you think about what it sacrificed to get there). for a guy whose complicated relationship with otaku culture has bled into his work, you would think that idealistic fantasy of the real world wouldnt be the crutch of the delivering his message. when I say that “defeated” is the ethos of this film, I mean that it is so lacking in purpose compared to its predecessors that it wears itself thin trying to superficially have something for every conceivable audience while throwing out the meat of why people liked those things in the first point.

I was surprised to see that it was gendo who survived as the most introspective part of the film. i’m conflicted towards how I feel about a gendo redemption arc, but I feel as if his instrumentality sequence itself was decently shot (I hate having to compare it to ep 25/26 but it lacks the artistic flare for such a big budget film) and very well articulated. there’s a beautiful story in here about realizing your parents are people and parents realizing the responsibility they owe to their children, but I wish it could have been explored in a different film where characters are less held back by their established canon. honestly watching this whole sequence made me wonder if anno is still friendly with goro miyazaki LMAO

I was largely uninterested in the fight scenes, I think the only one that genuinely made me feel something was the one towards the end where asuka turns into an angel. the poor fight choreography coupled with weird shot composition and the overbearing usage of cg makes fight sequences overbearing and kind of difficult to decipher. cg fights are largely 1 eva vs a swarm of enemies that take up the screen, all of them having the same line weight which just ends up making all parties involved look like a mesh of colors. there arent real stakes for the most part either, asuka and mari tear through waves of enemies with effortless precision accuracy in a way that isnt visually or technically impressive.

believe it or not, I don’t actually dislike Mari. Mari enacts what Anno sought to do with the Rebuilds -- to destroy Evangelion. Mari (literally!) falls out of the sky into the story and is not gripped by the pain of the hedgehog’s dilemma as she exhibits her adoration for most things. her romance with shinji is intentionally analogous to how anno perceives his relationship with his wife -- that she saved him by encouraging him to live in the real world. the actual, textual ridiculousness in her character is softened when you realize that she’s just another component of his 4 movie long exhibition of telling everyone his life is better now that he’s successful and has a hot and talented wife.

is it worth complaining about all the crotch or ass shots. i think we all feel the same way about it. anyway i have more thoughts but these are my loose ones.

[littlx-songbxrd]

Chain of Iron:Death theory

As the awaited release date for Chain of Iron approaches and the fandom decends into pure madness, I want to put in my last two cents of overthinking before I stop having coherent thoughts

So we all know this is a second book, and second books bring the absolute pain in the shadowhunter chronicles. There is likely going to be a death from the mains considering the theme of this book, and I am here to throw my theory and reasons as to who I think it might be. Im here to sadly theorize about why I think Christopher Lightwood might not make it past the last hours

1. Tatianas revenge

Right now, Tatiana wants revenge after all our main families: the carstairs, herondales, fairchilds and both branches of the lightwoods. For the lightwood-collins theres barbaras death. For the herondales her daughter has been manipulating their son for over 6 years. Theres a theory that the fairy poison Mathew bought that caused Charlottes misscarriage could be traced back to her. And there are other theories that Elias dissaperance between chog and choi could have something to do with Belial. As of right now the only family who is yet to recieve any permanent damage or tragedy are the lightwood-herondales. Which is really ironic considering its the only family that has two bloodlines Tatiana wants to harm. Not only that, but theyre also the children of who Tatiana blames directly for her fathers death, Gabriel. It seems fishy to me there hasn't been any permanent damage in their family, and I dont think that is gonna last for long

2. The family tree

The family tree states that Grace Cartwright (Aka Grace Blackthorn) marries Christopher Lightwood and theyre the ones who continue the line that leads to Alec and Isabelle. Now Cassandra has said varius times the family tree can be misleading, and I am a firm believer this is one of the misleading ends. Why this lie was created, I'm not sure, but lets analize some things. As of right now there are 5 lightwood children. At least 3 of them can pass down the lightwood name. Of those three, if we take into account that Thomas may not have kids due to being gay, that still leaves two branches of lightwood kids that may continue on. As of present time we only have word of one line, Alec and Isabelles. And Robert isnt said to have any cousins, theres no mention in the future of another lightwood line. So the idea that both Alexander and Christopher have kids is pretty unbelivable considering theres only one lightwood line in the future. Unless Alexander goes on to have only girls and Christopher has only one boy, it seems more likely the family tree is wrong. Isabelle and Alec are confirmed as of the bane chronicles to be decendants of Gabriel lightwood (Isabelle makes a reference to looking up her great great grandfather Gabriel Lightwood and telling magnus he was hot in the last story of the book)

So its already confirmed they're a) the last decendants of the lightwood line and b) that line stems from Gabriel. If we based ourselves solely on the family tree and Christopher being the one carrying the line, that would have been believable enough not to raise any red flags. Christopher IS the son of Grabriel Lightwood, able bodied and seems to have a general attraction to women (I mean, we all know hes aro/ace but lets stick with canon). There isnt anything pointing to him not being able to marry and have kids. Where the red flags raise for me is with Alexander

Alexander wasnt in the original plans for the family tree, he was added when Cassie started writting the last hours. If you take into account his role in chog, there really was no reason to add Alexander Lightwood. He doesnt seem to do anything, hes a 3 year old kid, you can very well delete him from the narrative and nothing would change. So why did Cassandra add him?? Why did she decide to make Cecily and Gabriel have another kid ?

To me, it seems a lot like the baby carstairs situation . The family tree says Alastair carries the carstairs line, Alastair is a gay man so he cant have biological kids, theres another unplaned baby to carry the line. It seems to me Christopher carrying the lightwood line is a lie, and Alexanders role is to carry it in his place. I even found a little info from an ask wayy before chain of gold came out where it said Alexander had green eyes, but in the book she changed it to blue eyes. The exact same shade the modern day lightwoods seem to have. A trait hes more likely to pass down than his lavender eyed brother who supposedly "marries" grey eyed grace

3. Character Arc

Characters in literature need goals, things to work for or work towards through the story in order for them to develop. We call those things character arcs, and it seems we have all ignored how christophers may have indirectly ended. If you read his short story, or just overall analize his character, his main goal is simple. He wants to create something that will help the nephlim through science. His personal character arc is that he wants to prove himself and his skill to the clave using his passion to be a hero.

An arc that could have been expanded all through the series, and ended with him using his skills in the end to defeat belial in some way, proving his passions worth. Through the story we could have had a glimpse at his struggles, how he was put down, the failed attempts, fustrations etc. This all could have rounded christopher as a character, and brought more satisfaction to the end goal of his arc which is proving the value of his science. But instead, his arc in book seemingly already ended? Because he did it, he figured out a way to combine science with his duty and saved the entire enclave from the demon poison. He is now acclaimed a hero for his skills. All the other characters have things to finish going into chain of iron, Christopher doesnt. Why would she end an arc that could have taken through the entire series in just one book? Christopher is the only secondary character with a defined personality and a lack of arc to look foward too in following books. This could all point that his arc was rushed because it was being cut short

4. Lightwood blood

There has been a lot of theories going around about Thomas being the one who gets killed in this book, which is resonable considering the unerving amount of forehsadowing we've had to him getting himself caught up in something. But I raise you this, why would CC be giving us so much assurance that Thomas was going to get hurt if she was going to kill him? Not only would she be reaveling one of her most devastating murders, she would basically be spoiling a very big part of her own book. Thomas death would affect everyone, if she WERE to kill him she wouldnt be indulging us in our Thomas death theory as much as she has. Itd be too expectable, I actually believe that by giving us all the info she has she has more or less confirmed he wont die.

I believe this is all a decoy. Shes giving us foreshadowing towards something bad happening to Thomas, to cover up the very big reality shes planning to kill someone else. Theres a very big chance that for the resurection, theyre gonna need Jesses families blood. Same way Malcom needed blackthorn blood to raise Annabel. As of rightnow there arent any blackthorns (by blood) left alive, the only blood relatives Jesse still had are the lightwoods. So we already know Thomas gets captured by the murderer (referenece to the art), but it is most likely he gets rescued. People speculate he most likely got captured for the resurection Tatianas trying to do, because of his lightwood blood. But if Thomas escapes, Tatiana still needs her families blood. And I'd like to point out this is also where the fact she hasnt taken permanent revenge on the lightwood-herondales would come in. Theres a good chance that if the murders are releated to her, and she cant have Thomas, she wont stop at just Thomas.

5. Story relevance

In all sense of story, Christopher is the perfect candidate to kill. As hard as that is to say: he's a secondary character, who has a well defined personality, loved enough by the fans that there would certainly be a shock factor following his death, important enough to the story that there would be a big impact to the narrative, and interwined enough with the main characters to cause emotional distress in the story. His arc is indirectly done, this author has a history of killing lightwoods, there isnt much to discourage the possibility he might be killed besides the faulty family tree. And as I said, that tree has been stated multiple times to be misleading

Bonus prove

6. Christophers cut-out

Same way were analizing the hell out of a broken spear, why are we not talking about the skull on christophers?

(Sorry couldnt get better quality pics)

The truth is, I hate this theory as much as everyone, Im genuinly hoping chain of iron proves me wrong. But there are 5 deaths comming, and not all of them can be side characters. Cordelia Lucie and James all have main character protection. I already explained why Thomas dying is unlikely. Anna, Ariadne and Alastair have gay protection (and I think some asks about Alastair dying were pretty much answered with a discreet no)

If there are mains dying, Christophers the most likely to go

[telaraneas]

Your explanations on the progression of a Thief is very interesting. What do you believe a Thief of Heart would be like? In a general sense: How could something be raised in Mind?

RUBS MY LITTLE HANDS TOGETHER

IF YOU WILL INDULGE MY NONSENSE.... I HAVE A VERY SPECIFIC EXAMPLE OF SOMEONE I CONSIDER A THIEF OF HEART. WHO IS A CHARACTER FROM MY *OTHER* CURRENT HYPERFIXATION. so this is going to be just me rambling at lenght about a character you probably dont know or care about, But. im gonna talk about WHY i think of them as a thief of heart, and what that implies. (mostly just cause its easier for me when i have examples, cause classpects are descriptive not prescriptive)

meet sasara nurude from hypnosis mic

this one anime guy has been eating all my braincells for half a year straight. here's the weird thing about him: he's one of the few characters in this work who is allowed to frame HIMSELF in the narrative. as in, there are characters who are "presents themselves to the world as one thing, is secretely another" but in those cases the work presents that gap as part of their character, right? like how a tsundere isn't just A Cold Girl, the "secretly sweet/ends up behaving differently" thing is part of the character's appeal

but with sasara, the work really just... his character appeal in a basic "this is how he seems to be written, this is the archetype he fits" sense has very little to do with who he actually IS, and everything to do with what he PRESENTS himself to be

the guy is a comedian, he's fun, he's an idiot fool who plays off against his straight man best friend, he's goofy and silly and doesn't think before he acts. this is how the work frames him, this is how he comes across, this is what his character bio says, *this is the character sasara concieves himself to be.*

the thing is that his actions tell a very different story

sasara is not just smart, he's one of the most logical-minded people in hypmic. everything he does and says is for a specific reason in pursuit of his goals, whatever that goal happens to be. he *scripted improv in real time* as in he knew exactly what his partner would answer to whatever he said, and as such continually set him up and thus steered the direction of entire skits (and just real ass conversations) based on Knowing What They Would Answer To Whatever He Did.

"but tumblr user telaraneas" you might say "this doesn't sound very much like a heart player at that point, aren't you just describing a mind player at this point??". well heres the thing: despite him doing this stuff constantly, he doesn't place much weight in it, or even seem to actually realize that what he's doing is weird or manipulative. he knows WHAT he's doing, but he doesn't think of it as "ah yes everything according to keikaku". to me it reads like he acts this way because it's the only way he knows to interact with the world around him, PERIOD.

but what makes him a thief of heart is that all of this nonsense is never for the benefit of Making Logical Actions; no, sasara uses mind as *performance of heart*

if heart is identity, soul, The Self, sasara is someone who doesn't HAVE a self, but everything he does is in pursuit of projecting a well-defined Self into the world. everything he does, says, thinks, avoids saying or thinking, is devoted to crafting a coherent narrative about himself and his life that he 1. can believe about himself, and 2. that will allow him to recieve emotional sustenance from others in the form of attention, affection, and anything he needs of them in that moment

and like a good tragic thief, this spills out into harming other people without him realizing it.

his arc is tied to that of his former comedy partner (who i think of as a knight of hope)- someone who, UNLIKE him, actually HAS a strong identity, not because he cares about it, but because he DOESN'T care about it; he lives by his beliefs and passion for the things he DOES care about... only to be pushed around by an impatient sasara who wants to make things fit neatly into the conception he has created for what he is, sowing his partner with doubt and making him start seeing HIS lack of a capacity for performance over passion as being wrong and his fault, and ultimately winds up with sasara driving him away without even realizing it was happening, and destroying the best thing in his life in his misguided attempts to protect it. without knowing it, he almost literally stole away his identity and unique style by burying it in "what would work better", because that's what sasara is used to doing as normal for himself since he was a child who first learned to fake a smile and define himself as "a comedian"

anyways, sorry for the random rant about characters you neither know or care about skfnskjd

tldr: a thief of heart can mean someone who is naturally born to mind, and uses it almost as an afterthought, as a tool to craft what he REALLY wants as a heart player- a coherent self-identity

(if by any miracle someone reading this both knows and cares about these characters. i have a billion words about hypmic. my sideblog for that is @cyrillean )

[aesphantasmal]

NEW EP SPOILERS 16 JUNE

so. peter nureyev. Here Are All Of My Opinions

ill start by saying i'm not a meta writer, im a clown. i've never had a coherent thought in my life and i'm not gonna start now. all I'm gonna say is that fandoms tend to be awfully pessimistic, and tend to treat not being pessimistic about stories as naive. (and when i say pessimistic, i mean that fandom tends to treat hoping for not the worst outcome for characters as naive.) i remember after shadows on the ship, a lot of people were saying we can't trust nureyev, that we never should have done so. and that kinda stressed me out at the time even though it actually being nureyev didnt even like. occur as a thought in my head. so! 1. the penumbra and recovery quoting savanah @mraudiodrama, "Penumbra has proven itself to be about recovery, about finding love and found family and i dont see Kabert as the type of writers to sacrifice such an emotionally complex character as Peter Nureyev and not give him that chance to find family and start to rely on other people and get mentally healthier for some cheap twist!" for my part, i think that its possible we might get some kind of darkest hour morality wise from nureyev, as in, he might end up as a villain in the next season but eventually change sides again. ill address this again in point 6, but im not sure if this will happen. hell, we could even end up with something like the end of s1 where the person gets exactly what they want from nureyev and ot just doesn't work how they expect it to (im pretty sure the curemother doesn't exist at this point.) also, I'll go over this more in point 3, but i think grtting betrayed like this would pull juno significantly back in his arc, and. like. we've seen juno's arc. its great. but i dont kmow if we need to go through it again, and it wouldn't be remotely as good this time because we dont live in junos head full time. 2. the penumbra and hope the penumbra podcast is not the magnus archives. its not the kind of thing where everything's gonna end horribly, its not a tragedy, unless kabert are worse writers than i think they are. after everything, nureyev betraying everyone like that would be pretty bleak. 3. gay people if nureyev isn't at least seriously considering turning on whoever his debts are to, his behaviour towards juno throughout cyberjustice is. uh. pretty bad and manipulative. the closer he gets to juno, the more badly it will hurt him if/when nureyev betrays him, and nureyev doesn't want to hurt juno. he was willing to give his name up to engstrom and potentially lose his life saving him from miasma, i just cant imagine him both deliberately getting closer to juno and planning to betray him because thats some cartoon evil bullshit 4. from a purely practical perspective audiences are fickle, and easy to piss off. and i don't think there's many fans that would like tje penumbra more if it turned out nureyev had been bad all along. hes on a lot of the merch, and i think the queer romance is what brought a lot of people here in the first place. the two episodes done as liveshows heavily feature nureyev. alienating your fanbase like that just isn't good when you're an online creator 5. the evils of capitalism i dont have a whole lot to say in this section. just that spending so much time on capitalism bad and then having a thief with large debts be an antagonist for any decent length of time feels kinda weird 6. i dont want to think about it because it makes me sad im gay leave me alone! so, at the end of it all, it basically comes down to "do i expect the penumbra to be well written and satisfying". now, i'm a firm believer in keeping a knife raised just in case you do need to kill the author, but for now? i trust kabert. im still anxious tho lmao