#like the premise would be so good!!!! but i hope they don't screw up the implementation...... OTL

[welcometoteyvat]

[leaks] kaeya’s skin is looking good but I’m also eyeing the supposed lion dancer boy

[parachutingkitten]

Jay = High Intelligence, Low Wisdom

Kai = Low Intelligence, High Wisdom

Essay about this concept below the cut

Now these are all just my interpretations of the characters, I don't necessarily have hard evidence on hand to back all this up, but here we go:

I've been trying to put my finger on the Kai smart/dumb duality, and I think I can finally somewhat make out my thoughts. Kai is not smart. Book smarts don't come easily to him, he's not great at math, he's not great at overly complex stratagizing- but he's got a LOT of great knowledge in him.

Take the dragon healing in DR. He might not intuitively know how different medicines work or why, but he's got injured enough that he knows that type of information is important to know, and so he's forced it into his head. He couldn't tell you why the blue goop helpped the dragon, but he knew that it would, and that it would be important to remember that it would.

He's pretty good at navigating complex social situations, because he's good at reading people. Having had a history with extreme emotions, he knows how to take them into account, and knows how important it is to do so, even if it's not necessarily logical. I hate to say this, but he's very emotionally intelligent, which sounds kinda like an insult but is actually insanely valuable, because humans are inherently emotional creatures.

He's got a solid basis of common sense, and is constantly looking at the bigger picture. That's why he can come up with the best outline for a plan, because he can not think through the details. Now, if he tries to implement a plan of his without consulting others, he's probably going to miss some very important details, and screw himself over. But, he's most likely to have the best basic premise for an effective plan. This is why his intuition is usually correct. He's not logically thinking through the most likely scenario given all available factors, he's looking at every problem from the birds eye view, and is easily able to fill in the blanks, because he sees the whole picture. You can not tell me this kid knew Lloyd was the Green Ninja because he used logical deduction to eliminate all other possibilities, he had a gut feeling based on realizing the value of human life.

Now, sometimes you need details. And Kai is not good at those. He sucks at those. Big time. But he's self aware enough to know when those times are (most of the time, sometimes he wastes all his lives in a video game before talking to anyone else).

The thing all of these points have in common is that he's lived a very full life while making very many mistakes, and he's learned from all of them. He learns from his dumb mistakes, and is wise enough to know which lessons are worth holding on to.

Jay on the other hand... does not learn from his mistakes. He's got a real thick skull.

Inside that skull is a really smart guy who intuitively latches on to engineering and science concepts. He's got a whole heck of a lot of information that his brain is holding onto simply because it can. This man is all about the details. He gets hyperfixated on details to the point where it's a problem. He's the most likely to solve the intricate problem facing the team, forget that they need to stay hidden, and yell "I did it!". Good at details, bad at big picture. This is also why he usually gives up hope so easily compared to the rest of the team. He can not think long term, he can not see the bigger picture like Kai can, so road blocks in the current plan seem insurmountable.

Sure, he might have rigged an old sailing ship with rocket boosters, but he couldn't unscramble "darnagom" his logical problem solving skills are not what's carrying him.

My standby for the Jay dumb/smart duality is that he should have a significant amount of William Osman energy to him. He's very smart, and can work out how to solve intricate problems and make insane builds, but if making said things is a dangerous or dumb idea has never once crossed his mind, and if it has, he has actively chosen to ignore it. Jay's intelligence is much more creativity based than I think a lot of people like to think. Engineering is about slapping crazy ideas together which barely hold together at first- and that's Jay's brand of smarts.

If you compare this to Zane, that's the vital component that his intelligence is missing- the creativity. He is VERY good at assessing options, but not so great at coming up with new solutions himself. He's running on pure logic and tested successes. He's also missing that social intelligence that Kai has. I'd venture to say that Zane is, by far the most gullible member of the team. If there is not a solid logical reason to doubt something, he is absolutely going to take it at face value. Point being, all the ninja have different smarts, and stupidities, let's not try to conflate them too much.

[kyliafanfiction]

As I may have mentioned before, I have seen a number of fanfics where the author describes Carol as Amy's 'Stepmom' which is... not how words work. I can only hope that it's an issue of an author not having English as a First Language and screwing up that phrasing, because otherwise, it makes no goddamn sense for anyone to make that mistake.

But I ran into another fic that did it today, and that gave me an idea. A cursed idea, but then, all the best ones that involve Vicky and Amy in any form are cursed, aren't they?

In an AU where New Wave isn't an unmasked team (Maybe they're still called the Brockton Bay Brigade, but I like the name New Wave more, so let's stick with that), as far as the public knows, Carol Dallon is just a really good lawyer, known for being aggressive in the courtroom. She has a daughter, Victoria, and a husband, Mark.

No one knows that she's Brandish, that her husband is Flashbang, that her sister is Lady Photon, etc. But one day, when Vicky is... let's say 12 or 13, Flashbang dies. Maybe it's an Endbringer, maybe it's a battle against some group like the Teeth or some other villain that doesn't care about the general custom of not killing other capes in fights, who knows.

Carol mourns, but after a year, maybe two, she meets a man. Handsome, charming, rich, invested in making the community better. Patrick Lavere. Good man. Has a daughter, Amelia, that he absolutely dotes on. Despite herself, she starts falling for him, they start dating, Amelia and Vicky seem to be okay with it and get along well and then they remarry and Carol and Vicky move into Patrick's very nice house near Captain's Hill or wherever.

And now, Carol really is Amelia's stepmom.

But of course, somehow, through the dating, Carol never finds out that Patrick is actually the crime lord supervillain Marquis, or that his daughter Amelia is the cape Duchesse (to borrow a name from @mechakingghidorah100-blog's fic The Problem with Shipping).

And to make it more fun, Amelia and Patrick don't know that Carol is Brandish or that Victoria is Glory Girl.

(Don't examine too closely how no one figures it out, it's a cursed fic idea :P )

Amelia, being gay, and Victoria, being, you know, Victoria *gestures at her* develops a crush on Victoria, which is less of an issue for her psychologically because it's not the same level of 'I'm a freak' to crush on a stepsister you never even knew until you were 14/15/16, (still not necessarily 'super normal', obviously, and Amelia would presumably not intend to act on it all things being equal) and she doesn't have most of the same baggage that she'd have from being raised from Carol in canon about her moral standing (not that she'd be either perfectly well adjusted or unrecognizable, she's still Amy and Marquis, actually loving parent aside, is still Marquis). Maybe throw in some Glory Girl and Duchesse rivalry for fun, or maybe they strike up an unusual caped friendship... even while Brandish and Marquis fight. There's a lot of places it could go.

More of a premise than a full fic plot concept but the idea of a fic where Carol really is Amy's stepmom just burrowed into my brain and I at least had to spit it out here for the rest of you all to see :P

[bnhaobservation]

Any predictions for how the next Todofam chapter will go? The two week break has already beaten me down 😭🔫

You aren't the only one! I'm worried as well!

As for the predictions... they're probably not what many expect.

Premise, I'm not Horikoshi, I'm not even Japanese and I'm just speculating so I might be wrong but here are my two cents on the future.

Let's start with Enji.

I know many hope he will be punished for what he did to his family but I think it's safe enough to assume this won't be the case.

Rei, Fuyumi, Natsuo and Shouto aren't interested in dragging him to a trial, if they do nothing, there's no reason for the police to act. They will just judge it a private family business and let it slide (which yes, happens in Japan). I honestly doubt Rei is interested in asking for a divorce so there probably won't be a divorce.

At most they'll live in separate residences.

If there will be a punishment, it will be in having to deal for the rest of his life on the consequences his actions had on Touya.

As I said in another post I think the Todorokis contribution to the final battle helped them to stop being social outcasts due to what Touya did, especially Enji and Shouto's final stand against All for One (for more explanations about why they risked ending up as such read this).

I think they won't use Eri or Overhaul's power to regrow Enji's arm and I'm not sure the scarring the Todorokis received when they attempt to stop Touya will be erased.

There's to say while in real life scarring is a source of social rejection, in BNHA Shouto was considered an ikemen despite his scarring, so I don't think it'll be a problem that will cause them to become social outcasts.

Differently from Aoyama, Shouto didn't mention he'll have to leave U.A. high, so I think the Todorokis will be mostly fine.

Will Enji drop his job?

I don't think they'll ask him to do so, as they are in need of strong Heroes... and by serving as a Hero he keeps on atoning to society.

If he'll do, it'll be of his own will, likely in atonement (when you screw up doing your job, in Japan is common to resign... Enji didn't exactly screw up as a Hero, just as a father but it's still something he might feel he'll have to do) or due to the wound he received... which actually aren't serious for BNHA standards (considering they can regrow arms, restart a heart with no damage for the brain despite it having been stopped for likely more than 3/4 minures and that a meeting up close with Dabi's very hot fire didn't cremate Hawks on the spot nor caused his vital organs to be damaged after a few minutes which would have lead to his death and so on) but Horikoshi can change the rules if he wants to. After all Enji is shown sitting on a wheelchair, wearing bandages and in what looks like hospital pajamas so who knows what's his exact physical state. He has the highest fire resistance but he was also the closest to Touya so he might not be well.

I guess what everyone wants to know is what will happen to Touya (and consequently to the rest of the league as I think the league will end up with the same fate).

Chapter 425 shows Enji watching someone.

I'll be surprised if that someone isn't Touya.

Now...

The most realistic scenario is Touya and the rest of the league will be jailed into Tartarus or the new prison equivalent to it and sentenced to death as BNHA has death as one of the available punishments (I'm not saying this is what I want for them, just that it's more likely).

The only ones who can hope to get some leniency are Himiko, who's still a minor and saved Uraraka and, ironically, Machia, who, despite having the highest death count of all of them, helped the Heroes fight All for One which, in manga and anime, is always a good reason to give a character a lot of leniency. In real life relevant cooperation can spare you from death sentence if you make an agreement first... which Machia didn't but that's usually not a manga/anime problem. If a story decides you were helpful and heroic enough and you didn't end up killed, they might hand you a free pass card... which was why I was hoping the league would turn against All for One. It would have helped a lot their case.

They didn't though.

By all account the league kept fighting until they were stopped and I honestly doubt society cares about their motives.

Still, I think the idea is that the Todorokis are going to meet Touya, that that's why Shouto said he'll go to the farewell party as long as it isn't today and then left, because he's going to meet his brother and, with him, likely will come Natsuo, Fuyumi and Rei.

This was, after all what was hinted in the final preview sentence, 'The Todoroki family faces...'

The perspective in the image is... weird because it seems they're keeping Touya vertical instead than horizontal, which reminds me of when the characters met up with prisoners.

The window is different from the ones in Tartarus (but also from the one in Central Hospital) however Enji seems wearing hospital pajamas.

I don't think they would have carried him to a prison to meet his son in pajamas.

Also I don't think Horikoshi will be so morbid as to show us Touya being executed, so that he's about to give his last salute to his family before being killed off. If he dies, it's probably because they'll fail to keep him alive as they did with Nighteye. If that's the case it would probably be another case of 'we could save his soul, not his life' like with Shigaraki.

Long story short. I like to think/hope he's in a hospital (maybe a Villain hospital but still a hospital) and they're probably either curing him or just keeping him alive.

I said the perspective is weird so I might be mistaken and Touya is actually lying down and being operated or something as there are cables coming out his chest.

In severe burn cases the patient might be put into coma until he's better, so it's also possible that's what's going on and the fact the Todoroki family would face him only now might mean they had to wait for Touya to wake up.

The fact they're giving him medical care doesn't necessarily means things will be okay. As I said I guess the general idea is to jail and kill the league off.

Considering how long All for One was kept alive (he's captured in August, he escaped at the end of March) despite everyone knowing who he was to the point they jail him in a special detention center without a trial or sentencing... (chap 94)

...this might mean they'll stay jailed for a long time before being killed. Well... maybe the Heroes managed to plea for their lives so they won't be killed. I don't think they'll be give the chance to get some form of house arrest, even if I would love if this were to be the case.

Unless this mini arc is going to give the league a chance to socially redeem themselves, I doubt their fate will be different, though there's a huge chance this mini arc is just to show us the Heroes saving mystery guy who looks like Edward Scissorhands before he'll become a Villain... as to say it's too late to save the League but now the Heroes might save other people from following their fate.

So if the League's fate is going to stay jailed and possibly end up executed in a future we won't see... or stay jailed and be spared.

Japan isn't big on psychological aid, so I genuinely doubt Horikoshi will have someone say 'let's send them to therapy'.

So... if that's Touya's fate, why Horikoshi kept him alive? Isn't this depressing and cruel? What's the point?

This is the point:

We have Tobita's family kicking him out of the house for what is really just a mistake in judgement, we've Himiko's family calling her a demon child (with Himiko being forced to escape) for something she couldn't control, neither of them back then causing someone to die and then... we've the Todoroki family being still willing to be with Touya despite what he had done.

For many of us, what the Todorokis do would be normal... but the Tobitas and the Togas show instead what's supposed to be the norm in the BNHA world (and in Japan). If you commit a crime even your family will turn against you and kick you out.

So the fact that the Todoroki family, who could be socially pardoned, isn't willing to cut strings with Touya despite him being jailed and possibly sentenced to death, likely gives a strong, hopeful, positive message to Japanese readers.

To us it mostly fall flat because we've plenty of families who, despite their relatives' crimes, they don't stop loving them and will still visit them.

Likely that's the positive spin Horikoshi wanted to give to the whole story, that the Todoroki family will be there for Touya, Rei and Enji even apologized to him instead than doing like Himiko's parents, claiming they did all they could but Himiko was just a demon child.

In Japan this is BIG. In the west this is... often normal.

It's similar to how Midoriya saves Shigaraki's soul and we aren't impressed, but Japanese readers are.

In the western culture when someone dies, at most, we only worry about the soul regretting his wrongdoings or he’ll end in hell (that and that he won’t look deserving of being forgiven by the audience if he doesn’t regret them).

In Japan, when someone dies in a violent way including murder or suicide or dies leaving behind unfinished business or do not receive appropriate funeral rites upon their death, they believe his spirit remains trapped in the world of living and can’t move on and this is torture for said soul.

So the idea that Shigaraki's soul was soothed, that was put to rest, is really important and equates to salvation in a Japanese mind-setting... but, to us, it's only a last smile before death.

BNHA is a work that talk about Japanese society so, differently from other mangas, it strongly relies on Japanese society rules which are different from ours, which leads us to react differently from the intended audience.

Anyway... I really, really hope things will go different for Touya, but I expect the most we'll have about the Todoroki family will be that, the family is socially forgiven except for Touya but, despite this, they'll remain close to him.

Likely they'll also keep working to atone to society.

I don't dare to hope for more, actually probably Horikoshi will likely be stretching things (if not outright retconning them) because it was established it was hard to visit prisoners in Tartarus, meetings needed to be set up and All Might of all the people couldn't just drop by to meet up with Stain, no, they need to set up a meeting in order to allow people to visit prisoners (never mentioning Tartarus was blamed of violation of human right and keeps its prisoners tied... only for the ties to come away during the escape)...

...but the story will likely paint as easy for the Todoroki to meet Touya (after all Uraraka planned to meet Himiko in jail to give her blood donation... how I don't know since Himiko would have probably been kept tied and behind a glass window) but I already knows it'll feel depressing because, for me, it's nowhere near enough and I really hope I'm wrong and we'll get a more positive ending for the family.

I just fear Horikoshi won't feel like stretching things that much as, currently, there's no hint society is willing to also take the blame for the reasons why the league decided being a Villain was their best option instead than becoming Hikikomori, Jōhatsu or Toyoko Kids or something like that... or just follow Shōji's path and endure the abuse, hide the scars and become upstanding citizens in hope this will change the world.

Likely the world will somehow change but this will likely regard the future.

So for my standards the future of the Todoroki family is pretty sad... but likely for the Japanese audience the Todoroki family will be more a role model of how a family shouldn't leave behind his family members even if they make mistakes. We'll see though. Sorry for the depressing thoughts and thank you for your ask.

[queenaeducan]

So I'm intrigued by Modern Thedas Pub Quiz. Is it just a fluff piece with a group of companions doing Pub Quiz games? Which companions feature in it?

ask me about my wips!

it is very fluffy. i was talking to joly the other day while writing it that i can write angst and keep a mostly straight composure, but writing fluff (especially modern fluff) makes me feel like i am descending into madness.

but yes the basic premise is that solas and some friends are part of a trivia quiz team. he invites ian to join one night, hoping to get to know him better and introduce him to one of his friend circles, and some antics ensue.

there's a lot of cameos in it (one of the other teams is sutherland and co., the jennies, cabot is the bartender, etc) but it actually features mostly ocs. besides solas, the team consists of thora cadash, her cousin cadri, iron bull, and josephine (who isn't in the fic b/c she would bring too much stability to the table). and ian, obvs.

here's a little excerpt of iron bull teasing solas before ian's arrival:

"Don't you agree, Solas?" Bull's voice rumbles from across the table, rousing him from his watch. "Hm? Yes," he says, stumbling when he realises he doesn't know what he agreed to. "Say again?" "Mahalla's deco period- overrated, right?" Solas screws up his expression. "If you have been entirely removed of your good taste, then yes. I-" The lingering smirk betrays Bull's purpose and Solas's hand knocks his fist against the table in defeat. "Clever." "Ha! Got 'im," Cadri snorts, rising from her seat to high five Bull.

[ben-talks-art]

Really interesting premise I kinda want to see more of: "Women who can see a person's true nature"

I was thinking about this after hearing the story of this one girl who was struggling to keep friendship with all her guy friends because she found out many of them were only hanging out with her cause they wanted to date her.

This is a different take on the mind-reading premise that many stories like to do that I feel has good potential for social commentary and storytelling options.

The idea would be a female character having the ability to read someone's emotions, or feelings, or ulterior motives, and use this as an opportunity to show how the world looks at women, and what it feels like to be the woman being looked at like that.

A few examples of this premise can be seen in Cassandra Cain's Batgirl, who has the ability to read people through their body language and she gets to see how Superboy looks at her when she's at the beach.

In Mousou Telepathy, the main lead can read people's minds and accidentally finds out the boy that sits next to her in class has some rather specific thoughts about her.

In the manga "First Love Zombie" (which isn't exactly a good series, btw, but I needed examples to make this point 🤷), the main female character has the power to see who someone's first love is, and to many boys around her, that first love was her, and she felt so overwhelmed by the way people looked and lusted after her even at an early age that she decided to hide she was a girl to feel safe and comfortable.

In "Two Weeks And Counting," the female lead has a power that lets her see people as bugs whenever they hold some sort of "ill will" towards her.

Usually manifesting when they want to harm her or take advantage of her, which ends up happening so much that she eventually struggles to find normal-looking people anywhere she looks.

Basically, I think this type of premise can lead to some good stories and good messages as well as some good breakdown of the objectification of women in the eyes of many, but people usually don't focus on that that much when they use it in a story.

It's usually used to make a female character go "Oh! So many men are dangerous, but that one specific guy is decent and will treat her well!" when I would actually like to see a person learning about how a woman is being seen and had to reflect on it.

Reflect on why they're looked at like that, what they can do to be better, what they can do to help them out, what the people who look at women like that look like when they act like that, and so on...

I think there's really good potential here to tackle some heavy but important themes if this were to be tackled by someone who truly knows how to talk about this subject.

(Edit)

Screw it, I'm gonna try doing it myself. Just wrote a script for a future chapter of my comic tackling this idea. Hopefully it turns out as good as I hoped for once I get there 🙏

[saiilorstars]

☁️✨️🦩 for the summer qs

☁️ wip you want to write but haven’t started yet

I've been hooked on my adventures with superman so every time I see a new episode, I keep imagining an oc throughout the series. And I always loved the plot of the world killers (that was literally my fave villain in the cw supergirl series) so I drafted a few scenes. Her name's Ginevra (Jimmy would call her 'Ginny' to annoy her lmao) and she was part of a group experimental hybrid world killers left to fend for herself as a youngster on Earth by her own crew of (older) world killers who deemed her too Kyrptonian and not enough 'word killer'. As she grows on Earth, she doesn't have too many memories of her time in the labs but she still knows that she's most definitely not human. It's still a mess but that's the main premise so far.

✨ newest wip

I've been (re)working on a new The Originals OC. I've changed her a couple times but I think this time she's finally got a solid foundation lmao. Her name's Aura, and she's a witch from a secluded coven outside the U.S. Aura and her brother get caught in Marcel's dictatorship while he has Klaus prisoner. Aura possesses special abilities that Marcel uses to get into Klaus' head but ends up prisoner herself. Sometimes later, she helps Klaus escape (with those special abilities of hers) and stays prisoner herself in order to save her brother. Grateful, when Klaus returns to the Quarter with his family the first thing he does is free Aura from her imprisonment. Although Aura is free to go with her brother, the concept of the Hollow and the fact that it's going after little Hope Mikaelson troubles her and so she agrees to stay in the Quarter to help where she can. At the end of the day, the time gap happens again and ironically, Klaus goes in search of Aura again to ask beg for her help to save Hope (now a teenager). Only now, Aura is at the lowest place in her life than she ever was and Klaus has to snap her out of it (help her heal) before time runs out for Hope.

For some reason, I really want this fic to end in tragedy though so I don't know how exactly I want to end it except that I know it'll be season 5 (the show's finale). Either Aura might die, or Klaus, or her brother - I'm not sure yet. The thing I really want to focus in this fic and the two seasons is the theme of grief and healing. I've never done a short series, and much less about the two aforementioned concepts so it's like a new challenge for me and I like it! sorry for rambling with this one

🦩 wip you hate working on but are too far gone to turn back

I wouldn't say that I hate it, but it is trickier to write than I originally planned and it's made me set it back for a while now. It's my doctor who oc Grier. I'm thinking of changing her face claim (her first incarnation) too so there's that?? It's her second fic that's got me in trouble because my dumbass decided to make it one of those "they're time travelling in opposite directions" for a while (like season 5 to the first half of season 7). I like the challenge but it's working out the nitty-gritty stuff that's got me aaaaaa. I love Grier, and I really want to make this fic one of those morally gray 'is he/she wrong for how they reacted" things so that's one thing that keeps me going. I plan on making both the Doctor and Grier royally fuck up and that's a first. I've always tried making my ocs do bad things but for good reasons. In here, the Doctor screws up first and then Grier takes it REALLY to heart and starts screwing with him in painful ways as well. It's chaos after chaos but here I am <3

Send over some summertime writers' asks if you'd like!

[nellie-elizabeth]

Grey's Anatomy: Cowgirls Don't Cry (19x13)

I'm just... I don't know. I'm frustrated.

Cons:

I've been so uncertain on how to come down on the Winston and Maggie debate this whole time, because honestly I thought it was an interesting premise for marital conflict, and I was really willing to see where they took it. But here, we get some things coming to a head, and it turns out we're pinning the majority of the blame on Winston for always running away when things get tough. Yeah, honestly, Maggie is sort of right, but one thing this episode fails to fully address is that while being too conflict-averse can be a bad thing, being too ambitious/ready for a challenge isn't always a good thing either. There's this sort of clumsy metaphor about following one's passion. Maggie sees herself in a patient, a girl who won't stop bull riding even though it might end up killing her. Maggie says it must be so painful for her to be told she's selfish and wrong for wanting to pursue her dream.

But like... Maggie, come on. Pursuing dreams is good, it's a wonderful value to have, but pursuing harmonious married life is also a good goal, and acting like everyone else is unreasonable for having some qualms about your ambition isn't doing anyone any favors! Maggie steamrolls people. She sees what she wants and she goes for it without examining the consequences. She holds to her opinion so tightly that it erodes all the relationships around her. It happened with her ill-fated romance with Jackson, it happened with her ailing mother. I'm completely on board with Maggie's critique of Winston. I think it's right on and should be further explored. But to act like at the end of the day Maggie is the victim here, that she's the one being abandoned? That's a stretch. I wish this was going to get to play out more thoroughly, that we got to explore it in a nuanced way with a reasonably balanced ending. Instead, it seems that Maggie will be leaving us next week, and the only question is whether Winston is going with her. Frankly, I hope not, I liked Winston a lot and would be down to see more of him. But at the same time, what an annoying and lackluster conclusion for Maggie on the show. Really frustrating.

While I liked the story of Lucas and Simone figuring out their patient's pain and not dismissing him as an addict, I felt like there were some aspects of the story that were too on the nose, even for Grey's Anatomy. Having the patient literally say: "you screw up once, you're a screw-up forever" was like... yeah, okay, thank you. We get it. Also, Simone asking Lucas to be her man of honor at the wedding is such an awkward idea. Super unforced error there for Simone. Force Mika or Jules or even Blue to do it, I'm serious. This is weird.

And finally, Jo and Link. They're really laying on the sweetness, showing how well Link knows Jo, how good he is to her. I feel like someone's trying to pitch me on a product I'm never going to want to buy. If they hand this romance to me on a silver platter, I'll take it, I guess. I feel sort of defeated, because it's clear that's the direction they're heading. I don't want it, and yet there it is. I like Link, I like Jo. I want them both to have something good and comfortable and peaceful. The concept of them having a little blended family with their two babies and all that is honestly very sweet on paper. But the energy I get from these two is so familial. Even still, I just see them like a brother and sister, and nothing has been able to change that so far!

Pros:

But I did like that Richard had to be reminded to give people another chance, and that Lucas decided to trust his gut, even though it meant disobeying Richard and Schmitt. He needed that victory to boost his confidence, and I'm glad he got it!

The part I liked best about the whole bull riding story was Blue talking about how cruel it is to the animals. Because like... yeah, he's right. What their patient is doing is her "dream" or whatever, and her parents talk about how taking her away from it would kill her more surely than allowing her to do something that dangerous. But she's not the only factor here. Sometimes you don't get to just chase your bliss without thinking about the other factors. And it frustrated me that everyone else in the hospital seemed to nod their head sadly when told "it's her dream" as if that was the end of it. Maggie's speech about slowing down wasn't actually designed to discourage her in the long-run either. So I really liked that Blue was pointing out how fucked up the whole thing is, from a different angle. I don't blame Jules for being into it!

I liked Schmitt having to learn a lesson about what kind of leader he wants to be. Over the course of this season, he's had to learn to stop conceptualizing himself as the victim, the sad-sack, always at the back of the pack. But he's got a position of actual authority now, and he needs to figure out how he's going to handle that. Bailey talks about how they used to call her "the Nazi", and Schmitt is horrified by how inappropriate that is. I appreciate them bringing that up, it's a sign of how long this show has been on the air that back when it started, that was the kind of thing you could say as an exaggeration of someone being a hard-ass. Instead of like... an actual indication that said person is a literal present-day fascist. Which is what it would mean now. Oof.

And Schmitt takes Bailey's words to heart, complimenting the interns and taking them out for free drinks, trying to engage with them on a more personal level. I love Helm as the wise bartender offering advice; I think it's so cool that they had her quit being a doctor and then actually had her stay on the show. I'm waiting for the romance with her and Yasuda to heat up, that should be fun.

And speaking of Yasuda - I like that Mika was able to connect with her patient and encourage her to go into debt to get the x-ray and treatment she required. I mean, I don't like it, that the system is set up in such a way that people have to risk serious financial strife just to avoid death, but I like the way we're tackling this here. This is an issue that doesn't just affect one type of person in one type of way, but that can seep into so many areas of the world. Mika was able to get through to someone who needed help, and the fact that her personal experience leads her to be an advocate for others is quite heartwarming!

I'll stop there. Still vibing for the most part with the intern stuff, still pretty frustrated by some major developments for our more long-standing leads. Let's see how long we can keep this streak up of Teddy and Owen barely being in the episodes and thus not having a chance to annoy me! :)

6.5/10

[amplexadversary]

More Utena, ep 13

"Might makes right" from the Greek Chorus, right off the bat. Gee, I wonder if we're going to be challenging the premise of these duels sometime soon.

"And the winner walked away, looking like a lesbian lily" Actually, I'm glad I watched this after I got clued in to that particular cultural metaphor, and not like, when this show was first recommended to me in high school.

Huh, that's two episodes in a row where the Greek Chorus screw around with a flying saucer; it was treated as a real thing in 12 and as a prop in 13. Wonder what that's about.

Ohhhhhhh and look who's being definitively shown as a flesh-and-blood person outside of a flashback for the first time! That's certainly a very distinct hair color pointing me in a direction. The guy is wearing red rather than white though...

tbh another part of why I didn't watch this show earlier is that I did want to have time to forget some spoilers I'd seen earlier. It might be the influence of those that are leaving me convinced that the prince is probably Anthy's brother? (I mean they are the only purple-haired, dark-skinned characters in the show, and it would explain why Anthy has such a "special" role in ... it's still not clear what. It would be something of a parallel between Nanami's sibling incest thing going on to have Utena being possessed? by Anthy's maybe brother?? while fighting over her???)

NOPE, there are now three characters in this show with that particular color pallet. Also the duels have names, not ominous at all. Surely that's not hinting at something important we don't know about yet.

So we have amitie (friendship, green tone, Utena v Saionji defending - Utena wins),

choix (choice, Saionji v Utena defending - Utena wins),

raison (reason Miki v Utena defending - Utena wins), (I actually did think Miki was a girl until his episode. wishful thinking.) (I'm still not over how douchey it was of Touga to use the guy's sister's emotions to fuck with his motivations like that)

amour (love, that one didn't need translating, Jury v Utena defending - Utena wins),

adoration (Nanami v Utena defending - Utena wins),

conviction ( Touga v Utena defending - Touga wins),

and soi (self, Utena v Touga defending- Utena wins), so far.

and then at some number that isn't specified, revolution.

"having hope for Anthy," when Utena started winning duels? That doesn't spell good things about her role in this business.

Wait, the color of the windows here are based on Utena's opponent, aren't they? ... Yep, Miki's duel is blue.

It doesn't line up that way every time, but I am a little amused by the line about the darkness of distance and the darkness of light frequently being sung to Anthy cupping her hands over her crotch. Yes, the darkness, that couldn't be referring to anything in particular could it.

(Edit: it lined up that way frequently in the first cour, but the second consistently lines that shot up with the line before. Still funny. Hey, these days, joking about vaginas is classy when Shakespeare does it! Utena can have some classy accidental vagina jokes as well! It's only fair!)

It does re-emphasize how fucked up it kind of is how most of these people aren't even fighting over Anthy herself; she just represents some other thing that they want. Arguably Saionji is different in that respect because he actually has feelings for her, but he does not treat Anthy well at all; he still kind of treats her like his possession.

Speaking of flashbacks, fuck Nanami for what she did to that kitten. People writing about characters being cruel to animals tend to put cats in the crosshairs; I think in a lot of cases the writers want something people are going to feel bad about, but like, not TOO bad, like if they were to harm a puppy. Jokes on them I have the opposite reaction; I'll feel sad about a dog, but a cat will actually make me cry.

... aaaaand there's another saucer, NOT shown with the shadow chorus this time. Huh.

[mysticcollectionbee]

What If? Season 2 Episode 1-3 thoughts and predictions for the seasons

S2 Ep.1: I'mma be honest might be my least favorite out of the whole series: I just wasn't a fan of a lot of what they did with the story and characters. I thought the animation of the previous season was pretty good but I do agree that they improved the animation tenfold for this new season. But that was the most I could say positively about this episode. I wasn't really that crazy with the premise, because Nebula just goes from one strict organization to another. It also doesn't help that the story is obviously based off a genre I don't like and references I don't care about, so maybe the episode just wasn't meant for me. The biggest issue I had with it was the comedy. I think the other two episodes did this a lot better. But this episode was Love and Thunder levels of misplaced comedy moments: Anytime I was kinda into the serious or dramatic moments a bad joke would show up and ruin it.

S2 Ep.2: 80s Avengers team-up! : Loved this episode! The animation really got to shine through with Peter's powers and the fight scenes overall. The story was really fun and interesting to play with, getting to see Hanks hatred for Howard while also getting to the OG SHIELD Duo react to finding out about Bucky, and finally getting to see Black Panther royalty interact with Asgardian royalty was great (Both of 'em thinking Light Beer was a fancy exotic thing when they both probably have a lot better in their respective kingdoms was funny). The only things I weren't crazy for were Young Hope and Young Quill, story-wise they were useful but I just don't really like kid characters overall. Though it is interesting that while I don't like these two, a lot of my favorite new avengers are kids. Wonder if it got something to do with knowing the characters as adults beforehand or something. Oh and...Screw Howard Stark. I liked him in Peggy Carter but anytime he makes a shitty comment about his son I get flashbacks to all the stuff that makes me hate him every other time he popped up in the MCU.

S2 Ep.3: Silly, Campy, Christmas fun!: Not much to say about this. There were a lot of Christmas comedy and references but unlike Ep.1 this completely fit in with the vibe of the episode. I was disappointed to barely having the Avengers in this one, but the trio we did get: Happy, Hill, and Darcy, were entertaining enough. Hammer was written a bit weirdly but he was still our entertaining business narcissist so I didn't mind. Only that felt out of place was the german thing. I thought it was gonna build to some hydra joke but it ended up just being a story reason for why everything was up to Happy. I kinda feel you could do the same thing by just making Darcy fail in getting to the room or something.

Overall, really good so far! I think they improved a lot of stuff but I think still prefer most of the stories from the first season. But who knows, maybe the future episodes will change my mind. Kahorri's introduction and Evil Strange's return seem neat. The episodes I'm most interested though are probably the next one, because Tony in Sakaar is a great oppurtunity to see some awesome vehicles and weapon designs, and the 1602 episode because I like it when they put an old-timey twist to things and characters in media. I also don't got any theories so far lol.

[twinhood-2dot0]

Superhero media

I watched Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3 and Blue Beetle a few days ago and like I don't really have very many topics so here you go :P.

Popularity of superheroes seem to have a lot of ups and downs. Ever since they started appearing even, and now seems to be on the downturn. It reached its peak in 2019 with Avengers: Endgame and then seems to be tapering off. The movies still make hundreds of millions, buuuuut.

Blue Beetle.

GotG Vol. 3 did make 845 million, which I'm glad for, it's a phenomenal movie. Blue Beetle tho... It didn't have the fanbase of James Gunn and 2 prequels, and well, DC doesn't seem to have much of a reputation, so it was pretty much set up for failure. The movie was meh too. It's not awful, but like, it's so generic. I am very hopeful for Gunn's DC Universe though, I trust him to make good Superman and Batman movies. Plus, Batman: The Brave and The Bold seems to set much later in his career, so I'm hoping to see characters like Nightwing and Robin. I would love to see Tim Drake and Jason Todd too but like, it's very unlikely. Batgirl is slightly more likely tho, which would be awesome but seeing as a completed Batgirl movie got shelved uhhhh idk how much faith they have in her. I wanted that movie so bad, you know how much I love Batgirl. I can't believe they shafted a completed movie. Marvel however... Well, let's just say I hope to god they don't fumble Secret Wars.

Video games are a whole another story. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 was the fastest selling video game in the Playstation's history. And we already know how legendary the Arkham games are. Marvel's Avengers is awful, Gotham Knights is apparently mediocre, and Rocksteady, please, we know you're capable of making good games, hell, you made some of the best games ever made, please for the love of god ditch microtransactions and battle passes, it's not worth it, I really want Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League to be good. The premise is genuinely so interesting, and your gameplay seems fun. Please don't screw it up for the sake of a few extra bucks. This shit is why I'm socialist smh. Comics are still pretty niche I guess, but I do love the stories.

TV too, seem to be doing pretty well. The Boys is so freaking good, Invincible seems to be pretty popular. Harley Quinn is pretty good, Peacemaker is awesome, we don't talk about the Marvel TV Shows.

[tigerbasilisk]

Watching anime!

I have now completed all the anime I was watching previously, and it's time to pick up some more! It's always a delightful medium, with great potential for presenting notable stories in a fresh manner. For reference, the two I was watching last season were Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru and Attack on Titan: "final season". While I think the entire corpus of Attack on Titan is exceedingly high quality fiction, you might be able to tell from the rest of my blog that the single anime season which brought me more joy was Bisque Doll, otherwise known as My Dress-Up Darling.

The upcoming season is full of wonderful anime that I would recommend to you! Personally, I don't think I will be picking anything up, though. I will go over the most popular looking ones and comment on why that's the case, and why you could consider watching them.

As for what I will be watching, I have on my list just one anime for now: The Vision of Escaflowne. It's a rather old anime from 1996. I have heard that, while it employs mecha, it's not sci-fi at all and is more of a fantasy style anime. I watched the opening and it seems oh so dramatic. This one's a classic, and I hope I enjoy it too!

Now, here are the top new anime airing this season.

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War -Ultra Romantic- This one is going to be amazing! The hilarity of the previous seasons continues and you can expect some thrilling developments to the romance as well. Some of the best arcs are going to be covered in this season. The reason I am not watching this is because I am a long time manga reader and the anime is really far behind. Watching it would get a little disorienting. I have noted that the anime has great voice acting, and that alone makes it worth giving a try. The sheer intelligence and honesty of the writing makes me grade this as one of the best series around.

Image

Spy x Family With the advent of free, legal, online access to Weekly Shōnen Jump, I got the chance to follow this series right form the beginning. It has amazing art, lovable characters, top tier physical comedy, some great action and a solid premise that constantly pays off: What happens when a Spy, an Assassin and an Esper have to act like a loving family while maintaining their secrets? This series caters to so many cravings that you will end up loving it for reason or another. The strongest reason just might be little Anya Folger. I might just watch this one, since Spy x Family is a manga that can be greatly enhanced through an anime adaptation.

Komi-san Can't Communicate S2 I really like this manga! It has been a constant source of lighting up my day. I was excited when the anime was announced. The initial episodes had surprisingly high polish. Due to Netflix completely screwing up the subtitles I had to put the anime on hold and unfortunately never picked it back up. Nevertheless, the first season had a decent run. You can expect the anime to get much better with the permanent developments coming up. Expect more funny gags and the charming presence of Tadano Hitohito.

Shield Hero 3: I haven't heard good things about this series and there isn't enough time to complete the previous seasons in time for me to give this a try anyway. A fun addition to any isekai fan's list.

Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie: The manga wasn't quite to my liking. There is a lot of hype for this one, and I hope all those people enjoy it as much as they expect to.

A Couple of Cuckoos: This one will be a fun watch for enjoyers of Heisei era romcoms. I wasn't too fond of the execution but the premise is interesting.

Shout out to Witch Hat Atelier getting an anime adaptation confirmed. This might be a good watch whenever it comes out.

[missnight0wl]

In-chapter quotes don't matter much but I found it interesting that when MC and Corey were talking about Legilimency, Corey says:

Corey: It must be confusing to hear peoples' thoughts unexpectedly.

My guess is it's a response to MC saying they can sometimes sense their opponent's next move when duelling (which is a reference to current duelling mechanics), but it's an interesting premise to build upon.

What if MC's powers have been going haywire this entire time to the point their thinking abilities are affected? Hence the illogical conclusions, general stupidity? Maybe it's even two-ways! MC gets influenced by the others and they influence the others! You can even say that someone has been influencing MC since Year 6 and 7, and MC has been influencing those around them in return?

Is it stupid? Yeah.

Does it have any type of basis other than a random blink-and-miss in-activity quote? No.

Would I absolutely prefer it over MC being a braindead person? Yes.

You know, it’s actually not that stupid.

Alright, so when it comes to Corey, I actually think it might’ve been a response to this:

At least, that was my interpretation, probably because MC didn’t know back then about their Legilimency. So, it makes sense to call it "unexpectedly". But either way, the thing is there’s more to this idea besides that one line. And it’s indeed an interesting premise.

First of all, all the way back in Y1, after MC had a very first vision in the Artefact Room, we had a conversation with Rowan because they were a bit freaked out. And then, we could learn this:

So, it’s the first proof that MC doesn’t fully control their Legilimency (and I think we can see it as an implication that at some point, there was a little bit more lore planned behind it). To be fair, it happens in Y1 and MC talks about an unspecified past, so it could’ve simply been the case of a child not controlling their magic power because it’s also not really addressed anymore at any point. Still, it’s a good start.

Moving on, MC learns about their Legilimency properly in Y5, and they gain some control over their Legilimency. Unfortunately, it’s also where JC truly screwed up. Because instead of abandoning this subject entirely for like the whole Y6, they should’ve said that MC "lost" their ability due to trauma after the Portrait Vault. I think it’d be pretty believable, convenient for JC, and it’d fit very well your current proposition. It’d mean that MC didn’t really have control over their mind in that period – yet, it doesn’t have to be equal to not having Legilimency at all. Moreover, Y6 was very difficult emotionally which probably made MC even more vulnerable.

In Y7, MC suddenly remembers about their Legilimency, and while it is a shame that we didn’t get a proper explanation for this change, I do believe (and hope) that it’s gonna be relevant somehow. And what is particularly important for this discussion is that we saw again that MC doesn’t fully control their Legilimency:

To sum up: MC’s Legilimency was fully awoken in Y5. Then, MC didn’t practice either Legilimency or Occlumency for over a year. Even after that, MC still doesn’t really practise, and we see the negative consequences of it during the scene with Jae. So, if you ask me… it’d totally make sense to say that MC's powers have been going haywire.

Now, as for the effects of this situation… This is where we’re entering the territory of: “it feels like a stretch”. Although I have to say that the explanation on its own is still not bad at all. And I could totally accept that MC’s mental processes were affected and that they influenced the others as well. The real problem I can see here is that MC’s stupidity was sometimes so… stupid that it’s simply hard to explain with anything. But like, it already happened and we can’t exactly change it, so… I’ll take your explanation, to be honest.

And again: I do feel that Legilimency will be important again. Even if it won’t be in the way you’re describing, I expect that it’ll be about Peregrine messing with people’s minds. It just seems too random, in my opinion, to suddenly bring it back to the story after such a long break if it’s not meant to be relevant.

[bnhaobservation]

How much do u think Enji and Touya loved each other? Do u think Touya still loves Enji? (And the family too ig)

Let's start from the easy part, with the premise that, of course, this is my opinion and my understanding of the story. Different people might have different understanding and opinions. I'm not Horikoshi, I don't own the truth.

The Doylistic approach first.

Since this is a story targeted to young people that aims to a happy ending and to transmit positivity and so on, I'll be very surprised if it were to end with Touya not loving his family and this having no hope to be fixed. The message would be that the situation can't be saved, that once you screw up there's nothing you can do. Which is realistic but it's a bad lesson to give to youths.

Shonen manga generally prefer to drive home how, with hard effort, you can overcome even Nighteye's predictions of the future, how there's always hope and nothing is the end.

So, of course, since the whole Todoroki family is putting an effort in saving Touya and wanting to reach him and Touya has a sympathetic backstory that basically tells us he became a Villain (and not a Hero as he originally wanted) because his family screwed up, it would stand to reason that the story would reward all this by confirming it's not too late for them to be a family, a functional one.

And, of course, the same applies to Enji, as the story is likely meant to drive home how, despite all his mistakes, he loves his children very much.

Likely, to a Japanese audience, this is meant to feel even more hammered, as Enji is also one of the good guys and therefore needs to love his kids, never mentioning Enji is also the one that, in Horikoshi story, who is meant to be used to discuss of the family as Japanese people view it.

It's highly unlikely Horikoshi would want to promote the image of parents who don't love their children to young readers, more likely he's just interested in showing how parents can make mistakes but, despite them, they love their children and, eventually, (if they stay alive) they can even fix them (so as to get in line with the positive and hopeful message of the story).

The Watsonian answer now.

Touya's feelings (and Enji's as well) are complicate and complex.

Generally, when we talk about "love", we talk about the one of the pure and selfless kind, the one in which you care about someone and wouldn't hurt that person and prioritize that person's need or, at least, consider them as equally important as yours and so on. In short of the one we would call 'true love'.

Actually the definition of "love" is just that 'you like someone/something very much' where the definition of "hate" is 'you dislike someone/something very much' and the one of "indifference" is 'you feel nothing for someone/something'.

Why all those definitions?

We'll get at them soon.

Let's start with Enji because, again, it's simpler.

Enji loved his children. All of them. However in the past his love hadn't been of the 'pure' type, because it had been tainted by selfishness. When interacting with his kids, he has always prioritized himself, his wants and his needs.

He had them so that HE couldn't feel negative feelings, when he didn't know what to say to Touya he dumped him on Rei so HE wouldn't feel uncomfortable, he ignored Fuyumi and Natsuo because HE was busy with his own Hero ambitions, he forced Shouto to train because HE wanted Shouto to fulfil HIS ambitions.

So, even though he loves his kids, for most of his life he had their needs taking a backseat compared to his own, which is... kind of like the ultimate sin in a parent, as we expect a loving parent to always PRIORITIZE his kids.

Enji doesn't, and, in this, he's helped by the culture he lives in. Japan is a country who for centuries strongly believed in what Enji did, kids being viewed as something that existed to serve the parents' ambitions, needs, whatever and nothing else some things Enji did were, for years, presented as something absolutely natural and acceptable for a parent to do in manga and anime.

I've talked in reply to another ask to how in manga/anime they used to depict the idea of tough love and how Enji is probably one of Horikoshi's attempts to subvert that old trope (there are others through the manga).

Now there's a problem that come with being selfish.

Caring about yourself is important, but stretching things too thin is wrong.

There's a nice Aesop's Fable "The Horse and the Donkey" that discusses this (interesting enough it seems in the English version the fable is called "The Ass and the Mule" with the Horse being the Ass litterally and figuratively).

A donkey and a horse travel together with their master but the donkey is overburdened so he asks the horse, who is carrying nothing, help in carrying his load. The horse refuses so, when the donkey dies, the master put all the load of the donkey on the horse PLUS the dead animal's skin.

The horse in the story didn't wish for the donkey to die, he had no ill will toward the donkey he just... didn't want to give up his own comfort. It was so nice he could travel unburdened by any load... why should he care about the donkey's problems?

And this works just fine for him, until the donkey's problems became HIS problems because he had refused to help the donkey.

While the story isn't meant to be a perfect mirror of what Enji did, it shows well the consequences of selfish behaviour.

Out of his selfish behaviour Enji causes his wife to be hospitalized, Touya to 'die' and his children to reject him as a father.

If he had left his comfort zone a little and cared about them more things would have gone differently... PLUS he gets the donkey's skin, aka Touya coming back from death to return with interests all the pain and the damage he suffered psychologically.

Enji's arc is one in which he tries to overcome his previously selfish behavior, in which he starts spending his nights thinking no more at what he can do to get rid of his envy for All Might, but at what he can do for his family, the family he loves, because he has realized his previous behaviour with them was wrong. And this includes his behaviour with Touya, the child he has mourned when he thought he was dead and that he can't fight not even when Touya attacks him.

Shouto fights Touya but Enji can't. He doesn't lift a finger against his son, his behaviour contrasting sharply with how he was with Shigaraki. As far as Villains go, Shigaraki and Touya are the same, and Enji was more than willing to murder Shigaraki but he won't do the same with his child.

Since however he doesn't know at that point how to save him, how to stop him, he thinks he'll die with him even though he admits he never thought about dying before, he wanted to LIVE and atone but instead he's willing to die with him so that this time Touya won't be alone, dying a quite horrible death being burned alive.

So yes, Enji, for most of his life, acted in the wrong way with Touya. Even now what he's doing isn't the best he could be doing, but it's the best he could think of. There's love and it's finally he's trying to express it in the right way, leaving his comfort zone and doing things FOR HIS CHILDREN'S BENEFIT instead than thinking solely to himself.

It's of course a story, so it makes things simplers and, despite this, there's plenty more to say and I've just summarizing the whole thing as overwise this reply would be a 60 pages meta, so don't take this as all that there is.

And now we switch to Touya who, instead, is a more complex case.

Touya started by loving his family and, specifically, his father, very much. When he can't train any longer and feels Enji is ignoring him, he's desperate for his attention.

While from Enji's perspective Touya is disobeying him because he keeps on training, for Touya's perspective he's doing all that to make his father proud, to make his father see him again.

Then he burns himself alive, spends three years in coma and, when he finally comes home, he snaps under the belief his family has conveniently buried and forgotten him and comes to hate them all.

Even heard of the proverb "the greatest hate springs from the greatest love"?

That's his case.

So now it's just hate?

No, the problem is that in Touya's case love and hate or, if you prefer 'odi at amo' are the two faces of the same medal, his hate existing solely and specifically because his love also exist.

"I hate and I love. Why I do this, perhaps you ask. I know not, but I feel it happening and I am tortured." [Catullus 85 by Catullus]

If he could stop loving his family, if he could feel indifference toward them, then what he perceived as rejection wouldn't hurt and wouldn't push him to hate them.

You might say Touya loves his family but hates so intensely the way they handled him he came to identify their behaviour with his family.

He's not just trying to punish them for what they did, he's still trying to force them to look at him, only now instead than positive attention, he's searching negative attention.

It's something children do, in children getting the attention of adults is a PRIMARY need (and with attention I don't mean just the adults watching over them but also showing interest in what they do and giving them emotional care), if this need isn't satisfied there can be psychological consequences which can be pretty severe.

Touya is destroyed, physically and psychologically by his family's neglect.

Sadly, one of the maladaptative strategies to cope with neglect is to try to force the others to pay you attention, we see often in children who are neglected, how, when they realize that by behaving well they don't get attention, they resort to the opposite method, they misbehave to get you to look at them.

Touya becomes the opposite of what he wanted to become, if before he wanted to be a Hero, now he becomes a Villain and destroys society (which he views as complicit in the neglect he suffered) and tries to do the same with all he thinks his father hold dear.

The root is still the same, he wants his father's attention, he wants his father to finally look at him because Enji's indifference (and his family's indifference), the indifference of who he loves, kills him emotionally (and it almost has physically), but things had gotten so warped and out of control in order to have the attention he needs, he tries to kill them all as he can't see any other way for them to finally look at him and be with him.

In real life it would require a lifetime of therapy to unpack all this because, of course, his behaviour solves nothing, this doesn't really make him feel he's being seen, that his family is with him (never mention you can't go around destroying a country but we're talking about Touya's feelings for his family here). He needs genuine positive attention, attention that's given to him freely and unconditionately and out of love, and not because he forced their hand by 'misbehaving', or tried to humour them by making them proud.

He basically needs to feel loved because he's part of the family, not due to what he does or doesn't do, what he can or can't do.

And because he has this need, we know he loves his family, and because this need doesn't get fulfilled, he also hates his family and the two feelings are inescapably tied together and exist together. And yes, it's very warped because this is what happen when two hugely contrasting emotions exist in such a fierce way inside a person. Love and hate are often emotions which are tangled together in one way or in another (for example in Shouto and Natsuo they are in a very different way) but in Touya's case they aren't just tied together, they overlap. It's madness.

The other option for him would be, of course, for him to finally let go of his family, to get indifferent to them. In that case his hate would also eventually die with his love, because what he perceives as his family's indifference toward him wouldn't hurt him anymore, which would result in him not hating their indifference anymore, and so the hate inside him would have no fuel any longer and would die as well.

Honestly though, I don't think Horikoshi will go for this endgame.

The most likely solution to have a positive ending is for Touya to finally realize his family is sorry and not indifferent to him at all, that he doesn't need to kill them and himself to be with them.

Again, I've oversimplified the whole story because here we would need a 6000 pages meta for how complex the whole thing is, so please, forgive me if I didn't dig into it as well as the whole topic needed but the reply would have gotten too long if I had.

Again, all that is just what I think, I don't pretend to know the truth.

Thank you for your ask! I love to talk of the Todoroki family!

[terezis]

re: "sorry i tried to drink your blood i think you're cute," which one of them says it, i have to know :0

"It's alright," Kravitz says automatically—and then frowns as he actually processes the words. "No, I mean—no, it's not alright! You shouldn't be drinking anyone's blood. Period! End of story!" He presses his stake up harder against the vampire's ribcage. 

What a pain. When Barry told him that he was ditching Kravitz for date night, of all things, Kravitz had been hoping for a low-stakes patrol, pun intended. Barry owes him big.

The vampire frowns, as though he's very put out by this. "Even if they're cute?" he asks.

"I—especially then!"

"I guess consent is important," the vampire says thoughtfully. His eyes flick down to the wooden dagger poking a hole in his shirt, and then back up to Kravitz's face, lingering there like he’s looking for something. Kravitz is too well-trained to squirm. "You sure you don't wanna let a fella slurp some of that 'gurt? Ch'boy's, uh—pretty fuckin' thirsty."

Kravitz snorts. "Yes, very sure, thanks.”

"That blush of yours is looking real appetizing right now, is all I’m saying," the vampire continues, looking amused when Kravitz flushes darker. "And I figure if you were gonna kill me you woulda done it already, so..."

"The night is still young," Kravitz says. "'Thou shalt not suffer the undead to live,' is—it's vampire hunting one-oh-one. That's the first thing you learn at slayer school. Kind of the premise of the whole thing."

“Even when the vampire has an adorable gap tooth and very pretty eyes?"

"Especially then."

"So you do think I’m cute.”

Kravitz hisses a sigh. He wishes he had a free hand to rub his temples; he feels a migraine coming on. "Look, just tell me where your sire is and we can make this quick,” he says. “You're obviously new. No one else would have tried to attack a reaper. I thought we dealt with the last of the vampires when we took out Wonderland last month, but clearly someone screwed the pooch." Probably Kravitz, but he doesn’t want to think about that right now. If someone survived, it’s not going to look great on his quarterly review.

The vampire raises a brow. "Yeah, uh, no idea what you're talkin' about, homie. I woke up like this last night. Dunno how I got vampified? Dunno what I was doing before then either. Surprised I even remember my own name, T-B-H.”

Kravitz blinks. "You don't remember who turned you?" And then, belatedly, "What's your name?"

“I can’t believe you were gonna stake me before you even knew my name. That’s bad manners, handsome. Or very good manners, depending on your type of hookup.” At Kravitz’s look, he grins. “T to the double A-KO. Taako. Charmed, I’m sure.”

“Taako, great. It’s a pleasure.” It’s not, but he pulls away anyway, slipping his stake back into his belt. Taako stares like he wasn’t expecting this turn of events. “I’m Kravitz. You’re coming with me to the Stockade. I’ve got some questions for you.”

[cocoartistwrites]

Do you have any thoughts on the New Yorker Trauma Plot essay?

First of all I should say I was a sympathetic audience because I am so bored of having characters' motivations explained by Something That Happened to Them. That can work very well but it is very tiresome that it always has to these days, so the basic premise of the essay is one I already agree with. I was particularly struck by the phrase 'the tyranny of backstory' - this is exactly it! BUT that's not to say that people should not write about their trauma, or explore trauma. Of course not. I just oppose the relentless insertion of it into things.

I am of course guilty of creating a backstory for Tom Riddle in unsphere the stars, so let's examine that for a moment. I think, on reflection, that isn't a trauma plot. Firstly that was in reaction to holes I felt were there in the original. I'm not sure it was necessary, though it was certainly interesting and I hope I didn't dwell on it too much or create too obvious a link. The Trauma Plot version would have had what I think was a fairly brief glimpse of life at the orphanage transformed into something much bigger that sort of caused him to do terrible things.

I, like the author of this very good article, am wearied by these inserts and explanations. It's not that it's always bad, to be clear, and sometimes it can even be brilliant. It's that it is e v e r y w h e r e. And the correlation is so reductive ("Two modern adaptations of Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw” add a rape to the governess’s past.").

ANYWAY tl;dr I thought it was a superb article so thanks for mentioning it, and I don't think people getting het up about it probably read it properly. The case is against shoe-horning in trauma as character explanation, not that all writing about trauma is bad.

What do you think? Other people feel free to chime in.

some key pull-outs:

The experience of uncertainty and partial knowledge is one of the great, unheralded pleasures of fiction.

Unlike the marriage plot, the trauma plot does not direct our curiosity toward the future (Will they or won’t they?) but back into the past (What happened to her?). “For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge,” Sylvia Plath wrote in “Lady Lazarus.” “A very large charge.” Now such exposure comes cheap.

The trauma plot flattens, distorts, reduces character to symptom, and, in turn, instructs and insists upon its moral authority.