#my headcanons don’t even change I just can more accurately convey what is in my noggin you feel?

[yasur-sketches]

Every few months when I feel my art has upgraded I get the aggressive urge to redo my reference for the ninja

[violettelueur]

ITADORI YUJI + FUSHIGURO MEGUMI + GOJO SATORU + INUMAKI TOGE || WITH A MUTE S/O

| featuring : itadori yuji + fushiguro megumi + gojo satoru + inumaki toge from jujutsu kaisen

| warnings : grammar errors and a lot of my side comments

| form : headcanons

| published : 25 november

| request : i really really like your writing, it literally makes me so giddy ngl. i’d like to recommend, if you can, a headcanon with toge, gojo, megumi and yuji where the reader is either blind or deaf or mute. you honestly don’t have to, but i think it be pretty neat if you did

| barista’s notes : hello guys! guess who is probably going back to school tomorrow after being in isolation? probably me~ ʕ ﾟ ● ﾟʔ also i can’t really lie, this piece was a bit difficult for me to write that i had to do some quick research about the topic that is related to this headcanons ʕᴥ·　ʔ other than that, i hope you enjoy your cup of classic black coffee (jujutsu kaisen request!) and have a wonderful day/night ʕ •ᴥ•ʔゝ☆

ITADORI YUJI:

Itadori would be confused at first since you weren’t mute due to you having cursed speech as a cursed technique as Inumaki does.

It would be a bit strange to him at first since he is so used to people talking to him through speech due to his energetic personality, but over time he really does try to learn how to communicate to you.

You would at first write to him with a pen and notepad or maybe a whiteboard to make the writing process a bit quicker and easier.

“Wow babe, you have really nice handwriting”

Then there is you replying with the board covering your blushing face - this action will confuse him as he wonders if he said anything wrong only for you to smile at him to ease his worry

He would slowly learn to read you expressions - though not very well, he is trying very hard.

The gestures that he knows you are trying to convey to him within a second are ‘I’m hungry’, ‘I’m tired’ and ‘I love you’ - because I love you is basically you shaping your hands into a heart (girl, that is so cute~)

Itadori will usually ramble a lot, filling the room with his words which makes you really happy since he seems really happy ranting about the movies that Gojo-sensei made him watch for his training or missions that he had gone to.

Even when you are mute, that’s okay because Itadori’s love language is physical touch - so prepare to receive many hugs and energetic kisses.

And due to that, expressing your love to each other is quite easy since the both of you could just physically inform each other - lowkey I feel like Itadori would give the best hugs, he’s like the sun.

In conclusion, he really is trying to understand you and learn as quickly as possible - even then you wrote to him that it was okay and he should take his time - he really wants to be the best boyfriend possible - even though he is the best boyfriend affection wise.

FUSHIGURO MEGUMI:

Fushiguro is the master of reading your expression and what’s going on in your mind.

Sometimes it really scares you because you wonder if he can read your mind since what he ‘guesses’ were just too accurate and precise.

“You seem like you want to eat Udon today, do you want to go to our favourite noodle place?”

You looked at him with widened eyes with the thoughts of: How the hell did he know what I was thinking? Can he read my mind? 

“Y/N I can’t read your mind”

I......what a liar~

When it comes to your expression, he notices the smallest changes from the smallest crease that is formed on your forehead when you’re either annoyed or stressed to the smallest curve that your lips make you smile.

So when you are annoyed, he would gently take your hand in his and grip it tightly to tell you that he was right beside you and that everything was going to be okay.

He really takes in your expression and keeps them into memory, so it’s easier for him and you to communicate - or he just really likes to see you smile and would do anything to keep you smiling.

Fushiguro is really patient with you when it comes to communication, if you have to write a really long response, he would just patiently wait while either looking down onto the board/notepad to admire your handwriting or look at you and admire your face due to you looking so concentrated to finishing your answer - he thinks it’s a really cute sight.

Sometimes out of nowhere, he would kiss your forehead before giving you a soft smile when you look up - girl once again, I’m blushingggggg~

I don’t know but I imagined that little scenario with him sitting down in front of you with his hands in his pockets, while you’re standing in front of him as you write down something - I don’t know after many K-dramas and romance animes this is what is on my mind.

Unlike Itadori, Fushiguro isn’t that affectionate as his classmate but he would do things for you if you didn’t like doing them like washing the dishes or doing the laundry - basically acts of service.

In conclusion; Fushiguro is someone that lets you take your time and is really patient with you, he wants you to be comfortable and allows you to express what you are feeling in any way possible for you to communicate with him - don’t worry he knows what you’re trying to say/suggest.

GOJO SATORU:

Mr Gojo Satoru. The strongest jujutsu sorcerer will probably have a whiteboard himself like you so you didn’t feel alone.

Or maybe it was for him to proudly show you his drawing, just like he did with Fushiguro that one time.

To be honest, this really does light up your mood and sometimes make you forget that you’re mute to begin with because he just has that power.

There are times where he would write cute messages on the board and lift it up for you to see if you are at a faraway distance.

‘You look beautiful today ♡’ to ‘I love you honey~’

You can’t lie, sometimes it is embarrassing when it is shown in front of his students or when you are talking to someone - he’s basically teasing you at this point.

Also about his teasing, even though you can’t verbally respond to his playful comments, your face just expresses it all making it more fun for him to tease you even further.

Prepare for like 1000 flashes because he is going to take a lot of pictures of you - and you can’t even tell him to stop. Also, don’t try to jump around to get his phone, remember he is over 190cm.

On top of that, expect a lot of cute messaged from him during work or when he is on a mission like ‘I miss you’ or ‘I have some souvenirs for you’.

Sometimes he just texts you when you are standing next to him.

But once again, the blue-eyed jujutsu sorcerer really knows how to keep you happy and motivated even with your inability to speak.

There are times where Gojo is worried about your ability to fight for some reason - maybe he was just overprotective of you - but comes to the realisation that talking and fighting are not the same thing.

You are capable of defending and protecting yourself on your own, it’s just that he forgets sometimes.

Or maybe he uses it as a useless excuse to protect you because who knows, you can’t call for help when you might need it - spoiler alert, you bloody don’t.

But does he care?

Noooooooo~

He just wants you safe in his arms so he can come home with you - or maybe just to tease you even more.

In conclusion; expect a lot of cute drawings from him to lift up your mood as well as a lot of teasing here and there because he is Gojo Satoru…..what in the world did you expect?

INUMAKI TOGE:

Inumaki can really relate to you on the fact that you had an inability to speak, even though he can technically talk, it was still limited to ingredients of rice balls in a normal conversation.

Both of you would learn how to communicate with each other since both of you were hard to understand to other people that were around you.

Your friends would be so confused about how you both would understand each other even when there was just little to no words exchanged.

Sometimes you and Inumaki would smile at each other randomly and that other people around you would wonder what on earth the both of you were talking about.

Lowkey you two were gossiping about the second years.

Yes, you two were the perfect gossip couple - no one will ever know what you’re talking about.

Like Fushiguro, he is also very good at reading your expression and would ask if you were okay if he saw you looking upset or irritated.

“Salmon roe?”

You would then give him a thumbs-up before writing down what was making you irritated like “just a bit hungry” or “I really wanna go home, I’m too tired for this”

Since you and Inumaki couldn’t profess your love for each other verbally, you both would either text each other or just physically express it.

Mostly, forehead kisses and maybe some kunik kisses here and there.

Nothing too heated, but mostly sweet and gentle gestures.

Let’s just say you were the IT couple within the second years.

In conclusion; there would be a lot of lowkey gossiping since you two were basically the masters of keeping secrets and gaining new information and light gentle expression of love, even though the both of you struggled with the verbal aspect of your relationship, it really didn’t affect it at all since you two successfully climb over that issue.

[inmyarmswrappedin]

So, because Fatou’s season ends today and, as far as we know, Druck hasn’t been renewed yet, I want to go over the things I feel the team did well in this season and the things I hope they take with them when they sit down to write the next season (which I’m manifesting will be Ava’s).

I think that s5 and, perhaps to a bigger extent, s6, were the team’s attempt to address fan feedback for and criticisms of s3 and s4. So I have hopes that, after possibly the most scrutinized season of any Skams, they are still willing to read even more feedback and sit down once again to craft a couple more seasons (possibly even 3 or 4 more seasons!).

So, without further ado, things that were done well! (Do I have to add “in my opinion”? Do I??)

I liked that for both s5 and s6, the thorough-line for the season wasn’t made obvious or shared in a press release, but rather it was up to fans to connect the story threads for themselves.

I loved that the team sought to address one of the biggest criticisms of s3, that is, that Matteo was given so many symptoms of a mental illness, but it ultimately went unaddressed in the narrative. They did this by giving Nora a dissociative disorder, and Fatou dyscalculia. (Matteo has been headcanoned as being mentally ill and having a disability.) It allowed the teams to develop both fan theories into full-blown seasons and give each of them the importance they deserved.

I have said this already, but I really appreciate that the team chose misunderstood, misrepresented and underrepresented mental illnesses and disabilities. I feel like s5 and s6 will be referents for many years, because they really took the time to portray a dissociative disorder and dyscalculia in a down-to-earth, unhurried way that isn’t meant to shock and awe, but simply allow us to understand why and when Nora and Fatou will struggle. Druck got the viewers to anticipate when Nora and Fatou would struggle, and that’s the first step in being able to anticipate and accommodate the needs of the Noras and Fatous of the world. I really can’t overstate how important this is and what a difference it makes in a real, tangible way. These seasons aren’t meant to be enjoyed for voyeuristic reasons, but they will legitimately help people.

One of the biggest criticisms of s4 was that Amira and Sam didn’t connect as women of color. In fact, it seemed like in s4 Sam was treated as another white friend, when in s2 both she and Amira were the victims of Kiki’s racism. The team addressed this by giving us Ava and Fatou’s friendship, which I want to say might be the first friendship between main characters of color where their race is a substantial reason for their bond. (There are the Sanas with their Jamillas, but the Jamillas aren’t main characters, and then there are friendships like Jo and Megan and Zoya, or Imaan and Liv, or Luca and Yasmina, but iirc in every case their bond as women of color isn’t made explicit.)

Another criticism of s4 was the way Kiki turned into the world’s most understanding white friend offscreen. The team addressed this with the Ava and Mailin storyline, which I think was wonderfully and subtly set up in s5, then built on with the biology test leaked answers.

On the topic of race, I think a major criticism of s3 was that David’s ethnicity wasn’t acknowledged (to the point where a white actress was cast to play his sister gvhvhv). The team has made up for this with Josh (more in the s6 sm than in s5, but I still count it) and with Kieu My. Fatou and Kieu My bonded over being first/second gen children of immigrants, and in doing so, they acknowledged that these characters aren’t white and have different experiences than white Germans.  

The first 6 episodes of this season were some of the finest writing in the Skams. The storylines all connected and built on each other. The motifs were just so good and beautiful and fitting. The themes were all clearly defined and easy to follow.

The tortoise plot was one of the most fun and imaginative storylines in any Skams, it connected Fatou and Ismail in a believable way. And not to rave about a fucking tortoise, but animals can be really uncooperative and that tortoise delivered every fucking clip. Druck has a reputation for being one of the most depressive versions of Skam, but the Maike/Burger plot was just plain fun.

I feel like some of the old gen’s instas were a bit self-indulgent. I’m thinking specifically of Matteo’s memes and how they they weren’t necessarily the kind of memes a gay dude born in 2001 would pick, but someone a decade older. I think this is much better done with new gen. Fatou’s memes reflect her age and her sexuality, and not just that, but Ava, Mailin, Kieu My, Josh, etc. all pick memes and even focus on different aspects of recent news, based on their gender, race, personalities, interests, etc.

I appreciate that the team found a way to fit a sex scene between Fatou and Kieu My to add to the small catalogue of wlw sex scenes on Skams (I’m including the scene in lovleg or we’d only have two lol). While I understood the reasons eskam opted not to include one, I thought there were ways to feature a sex scene that didn’t sexualize the actresses and didn’t require nudity. Cases in point: the lovleg scene, and this scene in Druck.

And it also needs to be said. This is the first original season with a main of color, and the third season overall (after Liv and Imane) where 10 episodes are given to a character of color and no one else. Of the three, it’s certainly the season that loved and respected its main the most. The bar is so low it’s in hell, but Druck did clear that bar!

With all that said, let’s talk about the things I would really want the team to address in following seasons:

The thing I most want them to fix might be small or unimportant for a lot of people, but I think it’s at the core of why the season has been unenjoyable or certain plot points haven’t come across the way the team wanted, for many people. I am talking about the overly expositional nature of the writing.  It appears as if the team approached the writing of the clips with the intention of hitting each beat as noted in their agreed upon outline, and absolutely nothing else was to be added. This is an issue both in s5 and s6. It’s just less noticeable in s5, because s5 is setting up stuff for Fatou’s season, and possibly even seasons that haven’t been written yet. The fact that absolutely every second counts makes for a stressful watching experience for me, because the narrative tension is always heightened. Whereas with Skam, the narrative tension would build throughout the clip. Take the Pride scene in Skam, for instance. The clip allows for Isak and Eskild to get increasingly more agitated as they butt heads. I feel like if this Druck team had done the Pride scene in s5 or s6, the clip would’ve started with both Isak and Eskild already on edge, and cut much of the dialogue that got them there.

On the topic of naturalistic dialogue, this season doesn’t have it. Here is an example from ep 10 clip 2, Wieder vereint/Reunited 11:37.

Fatou: I’ll get a certificate too and bring it over to you. And I checked it, I only have to change one course and my schedule will work.

Teacher: Miss Jallow, you are not the first one to come to me with an epiphany. We could fill entire school weeks with the lessons you missed. In addition, Doctor Steinberg told me about your, well… activities. You don’t have a lot of arguments on your side. 

Fatou: But I’ve spoken to all of the teachers and they said they are okay with it. 

Teacher: You seem to have friends among the teaching staff. Mrs Pavlovic put in a word for you. Okay then, do it and go before I change my mind. [translated by @kieu-tou! Thank you!] 

Like. This is the bare bones version of a dialogue. This should be the first draft, not the final version. The coordinator goes from absolute no to yes, with just one line from Fatou. The coordinator gives reasons that would necessitate more than one sentence of counterargument, like Fatou’s absences and the Biology test leaked answers. The coordinator even says Fatou doesn’t have a lot of arguments on her side, and yet it takes Fatou one line to change her mind!

And of course we viewers don’t want or need a lot of time with the coordinator. And particularly at this point in the season, no one would enjoy a naturalistic dialogue with the coordinator of all people.  But my point is that this is an issue with the dialogue all this season (and last season as well, but this season has been more scrutinized), the reason I picked this example is because of how easy it is to see here.

Which brings us to the pacing of the clips, and specifically the Friday clips. Because the script goes straight to the information the team wants to convey to the viewers, skipping the build up to it, many Friday clips have fallen flat, felt abrupt, and have been, tbh, unsatisfying. Again, I had this issue in s5, but as that season went on, I felt like the team had a better grip on Friday clips. But then they did it again in the first Friday clip this season, and so I think this is something the writers really should work on. The first Friday clip in Isak’s season closes on Isak being sandwiched by Emma and Even on a bench, visually setting up the love triangle, or more accurately, the personifications of who Isak should want to hook up with and who he really wants. But in order to get there, we’re shown a good amount of info, from the way Vilde, Eva and Sana are handling Noora’s absence, to Chris and Kasper, Even hovering around Isak, Emma trying to impress Isak, Isak escaping and, like, draping himself on the walls because he’s so over it all. Isak playing a game on the bathroom to stall for time. The paper towel maneuver to immediately give us a sense of what a weirdo Even is. A conversation between Isak and Even that gives us some clues about Even’s shame, as well as establish interests in common (like weed), and this is all before Emma even joins them! Just think of all the stuff we learn about who Isak, Even, Emma, Eva, Vilde or Sana are as people, before we get to the point of the clip! Fatou’s season simply didn’t have that. Compare it with the first Friday clip of Fatou’s season where the cashqueens quickly talk about the leaked answers, one of the major storylines this season that only gets a couple lines, before Fatou says she doesn’t want to talk about school (Fatou’s struggles with school, another major storyline), and then we’re onto the point of the clip, which is that Kieu My likes girls too. AND FADE TO BLACK. When people say they want longer clips, what they mean isn’t artificially inflate the clip length or add more plot stuff. Just let us watch the characters interact with each other so that we get a feel for how they relate to each other. I know I wish we’d have gotten more of Ava and Fatou interacting with each other before things turned to shit, and Ava with the other girls, so that I know why they all like and value Ava so much. I wish we’d have gotten more of Kieu My talking to the cashqueens about, like, why she didn’t make use of the biology test answers, instead of getting it on a chat. Or food combos they don’t like. So it makes more sense that later on Kieu My actually thinks she and Fatou are friends.  And every line doesn’t have to count. In Skam España, the characters are constantly talking and not everything they ever talked about ended up being relevant. When one of the characters lied about her house undergoing renovations to hide the fact that she was poor, the characters joked about Italian marble and put on bad Italian accents and made that Italian hand gesture. None of this was important to the plot because those renovations weren’t real to begin with, but they made viewers feel like these were real friends joking around, instead of characters needing to hit every storyline beat in a clip.

I have this joke with my friends about Druck always going 🤪🤪 in the last third of every season, in which a season that was very tightly written and cohesive suddenly pulls something inexplicable and pretty much impossible to resolve in 1-3 episodes. Hanna’s season suddenly switching to Mia, Björn creeping on Mia in episode 9! of a total 10, David getting outed in episode 8 and then disappearing for a whole week, Amira’s season pivoting to Mia and Hanna. It has happened in every season except Nora’s, so I thought the team had learned its lesson, but then the forgotten date with Ava happened. To be clear. It really makes no sense that Nora would have hung out with Ava several times since Tuesday, and the topic of the cashqueens being officially introduced to Kieu My wouldn’t have come up. it’s just not realistic.gif I feel like at that point the writing for the rest of the reason became super contrived to keep Fatou miserable and apart from Kieu My and Ava to artificially delay the reunions until episode 9 and 10. Why add a cheating insinuation and the main checking her partner’s messages in episode 8 if you know you won’t be able to properly resolve it? Why make Kieu My mock Fatou’s “uhm” if it’s not going to be addressed in their reunion clip? Kieu My had taken the initiative for a lot of the relationship, so it’s okay for Fatou to take the initiative when it comes to making up. You don’t have to add things that can only be resolved through an expositional info dump. (Please no more exposition than it’s necessary! I think we’ve established that at this point lol.) In the case of Fatou’s season, this is even sadder because I feel like Kieu My’s intimacy issues could’ve been the reason to drive them apart for two weeks, rather than the Maya/uhm stuff. This could’ve also been resolved through Fatou and Kieu My explicitly negotiating their boundaries and how they want to be comforted and how they want to comfort each other, which I thought was the issue with Fatou rejecting Kieu My’s attempts to help while wanting physical touch, while Kieu My didn’t want to be touched but rather seen.  

There are going to be many thinkpieces on why a myriad of stuff didn’t work for people, so I’m going to keep this simple and address one last thing. I think that choosing to focus on Nora’s mental illness and Fatou’s disability is a great choice that doesn’t complicate the themes too much, but Druck (and all the Skams, but I’m invested only in Druck succeeding at this point) still struggles with being intersectional. This is the major reason why the Ava/Mailin storyline ended not with a bang, but a whimper. There just wasn’t enough work done to connect Fatou’s struggles not just to her disability, but also to her race (and even her sexuality). I think that if people really want (and lbr, it’ll be mostly poc who will put in that effort and work), they can see how Fatou’s race affected the way other people and especially adults reacted to her, but this wasn’t made explicit. If Ava and Mailin are going to argue about racism all season, why not connect that with Karin firing Fatou from Aquarius? As it stands, Karin fired Fatou because of a disability neither of them knew Fatou has, and that was the resolution to that storyline. Why not make it explicit that the Physics teacher had preconceived ideas about Fatou because Fatou is black? Why wasn’t Fatou’s disability addressed in the meeting with the coordinator? Why didn’t Fatou express to Mailin that Fatou, too, had issues with how Mailin was acting wrt racism? It felt like, with the way the season was putting so much emphasis on racism, all these threads were going to be connected. In the end though, it almost felt as if only Ava is affected by racism (aside from Mailin mentioning Fatou in the last episode). It’s not like talking about how racism affects Fatou is going to make the topic redundant for Ava’s or Ismail’s season. As a light-skinned black lesbian with a disability, Fatou’s life is going to be impacted by racism in a different way than Ava’s will, as a dark-skinned black fat straight cis girl, or Ismail’s, as a Turkish-German possibly Muslim possibly non binary person. All these experiences are specific enough, and different enough, that they can be touched upon in different seasons without becoming redundant. The fact that Fatou’s season almost seemed to forget at times that she is a black lesbian, doesn’t bode well for Ava’s and Ismail’s season to acknowledge all their struggles.

The bottom line is that this season really was great and did a lot of good, and I feel like the writing just needs to be tweaked a bit for further seasons to be even better and more enjoyable overall. I am very pleasantly surprised by how the team took s1-s4 fan feedback to heart and worked to implement suggestions, and so I really trust them and hope they keep working on the show. It’d be a shame if Druck wasn’t renewed, with this team at the helm.    

[fantastic-rambles]

The Skylark’s Song [3 /4]

Fandom: Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

Characters: Hibari Kyoya, Kusakabe Tetsuya, Oikawa Tsuneo, Namimori Middle Disciplinary Committee, Unnamed Gang

Warnings: Gang, Minor PTSD, Language, Violence, Murder [Again, I apologize if this isn't accurate PTSD.]

Word Count: 3.4k [Lol, what? I don’t know how this happened. xD]

Summary: My personal headcanons of the (pre-canon) experiences that made Hibari into the man that he is today. Part Three: Hibari’s revenge.

[Part 1]

"Unless someone is trying to run away, you will not interfere. Is that clear?"

"Absolutely, Hibari-san!"

Kusakabe and his friends stood stiffly at attention, though Hibari caught the look of uncertainty on several faces, as well as a touch of fear. It seemed like some of them were just starting to realize just how serious the situation was, that this wasn't one of their silly little games. Those ones were probably going to end up running away, but he didn't really care. As long as enough of them remained to trap these rats in their nest, that was enough for him.

When he turned to face the building, he was momentarily startled by a shout from behind him.

"We're praying for your success!"

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Kusakabe and his gang bowing to him, and the rest of them echoed their leader's sentiment: "We're praying for your success!"

Unsure of how to respond, Hibari simply nodded in acknowledgement before walking forward, listening to Kusakabe bark out commands for the others to spread out and cover the entrances. Oikawa scurried after Hibari nervously, staying well out of reach of the older boy as he carried a briefcase in his arms. Hibari had been reluctant to bring them along, but in the end, he didn't expect the police to side with a kid fresh out of middle school over a gang. It probably also wasn't right for him to have dragged these delinquents into this either; enforcing order on a bunch of children in school was entirely different than taking on actual gangsters. But they had insisted on following him all the way out here, so his only option was to take care of this quickly to limit its potential repercussions.

The building itself was nothing special, just a squat, three-story structure that looked like any other office. But Hibari hadn't only been training during all those years since he had lost his parents: with judicious bribes, he'd been gathering information on their murderers and paying off the right people to ensure that they would look the other way when the time was right, as well as maintaining their contributions to various services such as the hospital and the schools. It was fortunate that both of his parents had come from noble clans and made good investments while they had been alive: with the returns, he could do whatever he wanted for the rest of his life. Assuming he lived that long.

It wasn't that he was stupid or had some sort of death wish. He knew that it was crazy to take them on alone, but at the same time, that had always been his intention. Still, if he'd had the choice, he would have preferred to wait another five or ten years, building up his resources and gaining more strength and confidence. But circumstances had forced his hand: he'd learned that the leader of this group was going to join the yakuza, a promotion that would more than likely bring him to Tokyo, beyond Hibari's reach, both geographically and politically. Dealing with Motozawa Tomokazu while he was still just a small-time gangster in a little town was probably the only chance he would have, before the full might of a real criminal organization was backing him.

He exuded an air of confidence as he entered the building, walking up to the receptionist and leaning on the counter.

"Is Motozawa-san here? I have a proposition for him."

"This isn't a playground, brat. Get out of here," the man snapped, waving his hand as if trying to shoo the boy away. But that was pretty much the reaction Hibari had expected, and he glanced back at Oikawa, who looked ready to shit himself, and beckoned him forward. On shaky legs, the other boy approached, dropping the briefcase onto the counter with a loud thud, and Hibari reached over to unlock it, pulling up the top to reveal stacks of 10,000 yen bills. Casually, he picked one up at random and flipped through it, showing that it wasn't some sort of trick with newspaper, before tossing it back into the case and closing it again.

The man's eyes were wide with shock as he looked between the case and Hibari, and Hibari repressed a sigh at his obvious greed and stupidity.

"As you can see, I am very serious. Please convey my message to Motozawa-san."

He gestured to Oikawa again, waiting for the boy to retrieve the briefcase before walking with him to one of the leather couches in the lobby and sitting down. He watched the receptionist pick up the phone, speaking into it with an air of urgency as he kept glancing at the boy still dressed in his school uniform as though afraid he would disappear into thin air. Hibari had considered getting a suit, but decided in the end that his usual outfit would encourage them to lower their guards and underestimate him. He needed any advantage that he could get if he wanted to get out of here alive.

Soon enough, they were being ushered towards the elevators by a pair of men who were built along the lines of a bulldozer. Of course, it would have been extremely easy for them to beat up the two kids and just take the money--or so they probably thought--but the implied promise of more would keep him and Oikawa safe for now. But as Hibari had hoped, they didn't even search either of them for weapons or anything else that could be dangerous before admitting them into the head office. A young man who looked to be in his thirties lounged behind an executive desk carved out of black walnut, his shirt half-open and gold chains draped around his neck. As the two boys entered, he rose, spreading his arms in welcome as he walked around his desk.

"And what do we have here? Izumi said that you wanted to talk business? Please, sit." He gestured towards one of the couches in the center of the room, taking a seat on another so that a low, wooden table would separate them. For a moment, Hibari froze as the familiar voice threw him back to another time. No matter how long he lived, he'd probably never forget it: that cold voice that had taunted his parents and threatened them. The voice drunk on violence that had ordered, "Take care of this brat" right before Hibari had lost everything. The cruel laughter that continued to ring in his ears long after he woke up every night.

His hands clenched into fists, nails digging deep into his palms, and Oikawa approached him cautiously, his voice barely above a whisper. "Hib-- I mean, Kyoya-san?"

He'd impressed upon Oikawa to not use his surname, since Motozawa would probably remember it and become suspicious. But the man didn't show any change in expression at the small slip-up, so Hibari took the offered seat, inclining his head slightly toward the table.

"Leave it and get out."

Oikawa looked relieved to drop off his burden, but as he walked back toward the door, the two men who Hibari presumed were bodyguards blocked his way, looking toward Motozawa for instructions. Oikawa looked back too, his eyes wide with unconcealed fear, and Hibari feigned an attitude of nonchalance as he leaned back, draping his arms over the back of the couch.

"What's the meaning of this... Kyoya-kun, is that correct?" Motozawa asked, raising an eyebrow, and Hibari sighed.

"He's just my errand boy, like your two muscleheads over there. The less he knows, the better. After all, 'Even the mutterings of a man in a well are widely known after three years,' right?"

Motozawa laughed, a sound that scraped on Hibari's nerves, and waved at his men, who stepped out with Oikawa between them.

"I like you, kid. You've got spunk. How old are you? Fourteen? Fifteen?"

"Fifteen," Hibari confirmed. "Although I'll be sixteen in two months. Either way, I'm old enough to be tried as an adult if I do anything."

"Oh? Congratulations on your graduation. So what's this about, then? You wanna join up with my team? I dunno if we'll have space for a rich boy with an attitude though, 'less you're bringing something else to the table."

Hibari smiled, baring his teeth at Motozawa. "Well, then it's a good thing that I don't want to."

The gangster laughed again, reaching out to put a hand on the briefcase and tapping the sleek surface with a finger.

"Alright, I'll bite. What do you want us to do to get this money? Beat up some bullies? Pick up some designer items for your girlfriend? It can't be that you want us to do a hit for you, right?"

Still smiling, Hibari leaned forward, letting his arms fall to his sides even though every fiber of his being wanted to put as much distance as possible between this scum and himself.

"It seems like there has been a misunderstanding. This isn't for you."

He watched impassively as the greedy expression transformed into one of shock as his words sank in. Then, far more quickly, shock turned to anger, and Motozawa's eyes narrowed as he slammed his hands on the table.

"The fuck are you talking about, you brat? Is this some sort of joke? Do you really think that you can come in here with a couple million, have a laugh, and walk out? I'm fucking yakuza!"

"Not yet, and it's a hundred million," Hibari corrected him blandly, which only seemed to infuriate the man even more.

"I don't give a flying fuck!" Raising his voice, Motozawa called out, "Kazuo! Shimpei! Where are you? Come throw this brat out!"

His two thugs crashed back into the room, although Oikawa was nowhere to be seen. Hibari hoped that that meant the boy had been escorted out, since things were about to get messy. Slowly, he got to his feet while Motozawa pulled the case toward himself possessively, and one of the men grabbed Hibari by the arm, only to blink in surprise at the feeling of something slim and hard under the sleeve.

Hibari raised his other arm and slammed it against the man's hand, eliciting a scream and forcing him to let go as his fingers were crushed between the metal. His own fingers curled up toward his wrists, releasing the ties that secured his weapons and letting them drop into his hands as he spun quickly, using the momentum to drive the steel into the second man's gut. Hibari smiled grimly at the sound of the air being forced out of his lungs as the man collapsed to his knees before turning his attention back to the first man, who was recovering and had pulled out a knife. Briefly, the boy's eyes flicked aside, ascertaining the position of the third man in the room. Motozawa had scrambled away with the briefcase and retreated behind his desk with it, fumbling inside his jacket while scrabbling for the phone, and Hibari took a few steps to the side, putting the man-mountain between himself and their leader.

The man had recovered more quickly than he'd expected, but then again, he was dealing with semi-professionals. They'd undoubtedly been in fights before and learned how to work through pain. Still, he'd been able to gain an element of surprise with his sudden attacks, and he'd have to hope that would be enough.

Block. Block. Block. The sound of metal clashing rang through the room as Hibari drove in, using his dual-wielding advantage to put the man on the defensive. He gritted his teeth as he drove one tonfa into solid muscle, feeling the reverberations in his arm, but it surely had to be even worse for his opponent. On top of that, as he'd expected, Motozawa had pulled out a gun, forcing Hibari to keep track of his position as well so he wouldn't get shot. His only option seemed to be to simply brute force this guy and his friend, and then probably deal with whatever reinforcements Motozawa had called before taking care of the leader himself. Just as he had hoped.

His opponent's good arm swung at him, and Hibari leaned back, flinching as he collided with a solid wall. The blade scored his forehead as two arms wrapped around him with a grunt, the second man having apparently recovered. It only took Hibari a moment to realize that he was too short to smash the man's nose with his head, so instead, he drove both of his elbows back with the little leverage he had, the ends of his tonfa smashing into the man's torso. At the same time, he lifted his foot and stomped down on the man's instep with his heel, the combined attack making his captor stagger backwards. Still, he didn't let go, and Motozawa called out, "Great job, Kazuo! Hold onto him!"

With him off-balance, though, Hibari twisted himself around, forcing his leg behind Kazuo's and grabbing the man's other leg before adding his own weight to the backward motion, throwing them both to the ground. In the confusion, he drove an elbow into the man's groin, finally convincing him to let go, and scrambled aside, keeping a firm hold on his weapons.

His breath was coming more quickly now, but for the first time in years, he actually felt alive. Even though he had blood pouring down his face, even though he was facing down two adult men and a gun, even though there would be more men coming... everything just felt right. His joints felt loose and limber as he crouched behind the couch, contemplating his next moves. Shimpei should be close to going down by now, given the damage he had accumulated, while Kazuo had had his breath knocked out of him several times already.

Raising an arm, he wiped away some of the blood. A flash of movement at the corner of his eye had him diving around the end of the couch as a bang reverberated in the office. Staying low, he cocked his tonfa as he ran toward Kazuo, who had begun to struggle to get to his feet, and swung his arm, catching the man below the ear. Instantly, the man froze, then toppled backwards again, unconscious, and conveniently fell in the way of the door that was just beginning to open. A clamor of confused voices rose as the men outside shoved at it, trying to force it open.

"Boss? What's going on?"

"Get in here and take care of this brat!" Motozawa screeched, firing another shot that went wide as Hibari ducked behind the other couch. Shimpei appeared on the other side, and Hibari continued moving, using his smaller build to his advantage to duck inside the man's swing, flipping his tonfa out to extend his reach and bring it down on Shimpei's wrist. The knife dropped, and his opponent quickly moved backwards, out of his reach, while pulling out another. 

Now, though, Hibari was realizing the advantage of his size, particularly against half-trained, muscle-bound idiots. He pursued Shimpei, lowering his center of gravity and aiming for his legs. Doing so would gradually hinder his mobility and eventually bring him down to a level that Hibari could strike the final blow, as he had with Kazuo. Their walls of muscle had made it difficult to make a decisive strike, but there was a natural limit to how much the head, one of the most vulnerable parts of the body, could be protected. Encouraged, he attacked steadily, keeping an eye on Motozawa's position. The gang leader was at the other side of the room, pulling at Kazuo's dead weight to let the rest of his men in... or to open an escape route for himself. A familiar, chrome briefcase leaned against the wall next to him as he tugged at his bodyguard and the door slowly creaked inward.

"Tch." Hibari clicked his tongue, dashing across the room. But something seemed to have warned Motozawa, who turned around quickly, lifting his gun. For a second, the barrel was pointed straight at Hibari's face. But as Motozawa squeezed the trigger, Hibari whipped his tonfa around, leaning away as the gun was pushed out into the open air, the sound of the shot deafening him on the left side. Grimacing, he continued his attack, driving Motozawa away from the door as his subordinates wedged it open just enough to start squeezing through.

And then Shinpei was there, getting between them and pushing Motozawa away. But the bodyguard was clearly feeling the effects of their fight, his legs trembling as they struggled to support his weight. It probably wasn't even worth it to take him out at this point, so Hibari backpedaled, dodging the new members who were coming in and trying to encircle him.

"Him! That kid! Get rid of him!" Motozawa shouted, pointing at Hibari. He heard the clicks of guns, but he discarded that information promptly. In such close quarters and with so many of their allies in the room, their guns were simply a disadvantage. Unless they could pin him down with a clear line of fire, their weapons were essentially useless, more likely to put holes in each other than in him.

A few of the more intelligent ones seemed to recognize this, dropping their guns and advancing with bare fists or knives, only to serve as fodder for his tonfa. Unlike the two bodyguards who had been wrapped in shields of muscle, most of them needed only one nicely placed hit to go down. They were the true herbivores of the group, following the ones with power and swaggering around with the mistaken belief that they were the ones that were feared. Although there were several mixed in who could occupy him for about half a minute, their comrades got in the way more often than not, giving Hibari openings to take them down.

Even so, his muscles were screaming in agony by the time the last body fell and the room was filled with the sounds of whimpers and groans. A quick glance showed him that Motozawa--and the briefcase--was nowhere to be found, and he half-walked, half-dragged himself to the door, carefully stepping over fallen men to ensure he could keep his own footing.

At the end of the hallway, his prey stood by the elevators, jabbing at the call button frantically. The moment he saw the boy, he raised his gun again, firing a shot that hammered into Hibari's right shoulder and sent him staggering back a step before he even registered what had happened. But the next pull of the trigger fell onto an empty chamber, and Motozawa cursed, throwing the weapon to the ground and picking up the briefcase, heading toward the stairs.

Mustering the last vestiges of his strength, Hibari flung the tonfa in his left hand, sending it spinning toward Motozawa in a gleaming arc that caught him in the back. The man went sprawling, and the case fell and popped open, spitting out stacks of bills as it slid away from him. Motozawa scrambled after it, trying to shove the money back inside, as Hibari approached him with agonizing determination, shifting his remaining weapon to his other hand.

"What the fuck? Who the fuck are you? What do you want?" Motozawa demanded, clutching the cash to his chest as Hibari backed him up against the wall.

"My name is Hibari Kyoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." [I'm sorry, I had to do it. xD]

"My name is Hibari Kyoya." He watched as recognition dawned on the man's face, followed by panic. Reaching into his pocket, Hibari pulled out a thumb drive, dropping it into Motozawa's lap. The man looked down at it with obvious confusion, then back up at the boy whose face was a mask of blood as his shoulder bled freely.

"That's your gift. What you couldn't find back then: the proof of your rotten dealings. The money is for the Inagawa-kai to compensate for your death so they won't cause trouble here."

"Wait! Wait, wait, Hibari-san! Let's talk this over! I'm sure--"

But Hibari was no longer listening. He stopped fighting gravity, letting it add to his blow as he swung his tonfa downward, crashing into Motozawa's skull with a sickening crunch before he fell to the ground. As the darkness crept in from the edges of his vision, he felt a sense of deep contentment and relief, and he fell into the shadows with little resistance.

[Part 4]

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: The Greatest Kingdom

Hello, glorious RWBY fandom! It’s that time of the year again. No, not the holidays. Rather, it’s the roughly twelve weeks where my Saturdays are lost to the void of churning out 4,000+ words of typo-laden analysis for our favorite web-series. Does that sound like a good time? If so, stick around and keep reading.

Now, those of you who joined us last year will recall that I took issue with numerous aspects of Volume Six. Many of you are capable of summarizing these aspects in great detail considering that the conversation never stopped on my blog between January 26th and, well, today. But for those of you who don’t otherwise suffer my metas or who might be joining us for the first time, here’s a very short guide to the stuff we’ve been chatting about the last few months:

Holy shit they really went all in on dragging Ozpin, huh?

Is the group part of a collective consciousness now? What happened to diverse thinking?

Should un-licensed teenagers steal military property and start grimm-drawing battles with national allies? No or double no?

We hate adults? Is that really a thing?

When will Oscar’s on-screen development come back from the war?

There are numerous, numerous other connected topics, from Rooster Teeth’s handling of physical assault all the way to theories regarding the relic’s potential influence and Jinn’s motives, but that’s the basic gist. Oh, and we now have a subset of the fandom who got big mad over fans headcanoning trans!Nora based on her new color scheme. ... So that’s where we’re starting this volume off.

Just so we’re all on the same page:

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Anyhoo, with that bare-bones context out of the way, let’s dive in.

We begin, as usual, with a shot of the shattered moon. Except this is the first volume where we know precisely what happened to it and all it may mean for humanity. It lends a certain amount of gravitas to our start. Now, rather than the more generic, “Ah. Right. That motif. Still a mystery, huh?” shots of the moon function as a quick reminder of the group’s new stakes. 99% of the time the focus is on Salem and our heroes’ attempts to keep this genocidal dictator from destroying and/or enslaving the entire world, but “The Lost Fable” set up that the true, end-game antagonists have always been the gods. Even if Salem is destroyed, they still exist as a continued threat to humanity. If they wish to use the gods to help them in their quest against Salem, they likewise risk their judgment. Having introduced them, that’s a tricky problem the show is going to have to solve before its end.

For now though we pan down to the Atlas military, numerous ships and lots of chatter over the radio setting up precisely how massive, organized, and deadly this army is. I would like to remind everyone that this is what the group deliberately decided to piss off by not merely stealing an airship, but unnecessarily attacking the head special operative of the Argus base. The fact that the military has grown more “aggressive” in Weiss’ absence has no bearing on her original knowledge that stealing/attacking this group would be a horrendous idea. She knew it. Qrow knew it. Everyone ignored that in favor of Jaune’s idiotic plan. I bring this up not to rub more salt in a long open wound, but to re-establish how the group is, thus far, unable to think ahead and accurately weigh the consequences of their actions. More on that later.

Their ship, Manta 5-1, is welcomed home and instructed to land so that a security team can debrief them. Whoops. Jaune, again in his infinite wisdom, reminds everyone that they achieved their goal of getting to Atlas. So now they just need to find some answers, yeah? Not quite. Weiss immediately points out that landing with a stolen ship means that security won’t let them anywhere near Ironwood… which, again, is something that holds true regardless of whether the military got more aggressive and their leader more dictator-y. This is not new information. Oddly enough, a group of teenagers with only one licensed huntsmen among them (considering that Maria is presumably still keeping a low profile) flying a stolen airship doesn’t exactly breed the sort of confidence that lets anyone---paranoid or not---approach a leader. These were all issues from the start that the group didn’t bother to consider in their haste to finish this mission.

“They might even take me back to my father,” Weiss says. Another concern that they’re only realizing now, yet one that the fandom latched onto immediately. Though mostly in the wrong way. It’s because Jacques is a threat that they should have found a more covert way into Atlas, or waited to hear from Ironwood, or just send Weiss herself with Cordovin’s blessing… Yes, much of the fandom got quite defensive at that suggestion, claiming that sending Weiss “alone” (she never would have been alone. Bird uncle. Fits into a suitcase grandma) was tantamount to handing her to Jacques wrapped up in a bow. Except, as is made perfectly clear here, it’s their illegal activity that endangers them. Which is more likely to get you sent off to daddy? Acting like a child by stealing military property and then getting caught? Or entering Atlas as a huntress with a special operative’s blessing, carrying instructions that you are to meet with Ironwood as soon as possible? To say the team dropped the ball on this one is an understatement.

Those, however, are all past options now far out of reach. Weiss decides then that she’ll simply call Winter and I absolutely adore Kara’s voice acting here. She managed to imbue so much into a single name, conveying Weiss’ realization, hope, and love for her sister in just two quick syllables. I feel like I got more insight into Weiss through that moment alone then the entirety of Volume Six. Only problem? Blake notices another feed where a recording of Winter emphasizes that anyone found breaking Atlas law will face punishment---something our group will be quite familiar with by the end of the episode---and Qrow decides that they probably shouldn’t go charging into Winter and Ironwood’s hands until they know more about the situation.

Which is the smartest decision we’ve seen in a while, considering that Ironwood’s own feed leaves little to the imagination. He continues to sport that beard, giving him more of a disheveled appearance compared to Volumes 1-3. His voice is as authoritative as ever and he literally towers high above all the people he’s supposedly protecting, keeping his distance from both the city and the airships that ‘govern’ it. A few moments earlier we got to see the startling contrast between the military life and the civilians’. Warm reds and browns give (in this case a literal) down-to-Earth feel and the neon signs are easy markers of a low-class neighborhood. You know the stereotyped kind: cheap food and cheaper entertainment. Compared to the whites and blues of the Atlas clouds, paralleling their elite (and thereby expensive) technology, the city below feels like a slum in comparison, reinforced by the dirty, drunk, and at times violent background characters that populate it. 

As Maria says later, “A home in the clouds is as bright as it gets,” to which Nora responds, “Unless you’re the one having to look up at it,” something she’d be very familiar with as a child stealing bread in the otherwise plentiful looking Kuroyuri. There are contrasts in coloring, dialogue, as well as framing here. Compare Ironwood’s sky-high observation to Pietro’s existence as a black man, in a wheelchair, doing volunteer work in what’s established as a dump. He’s as “low” as he can possibly be and acknowledges that he prefers to actually be among the people, not standing literally or figuratively above them. Just in case the audience misses these cues, we get some rather ominous music on top of all that and fearful looks between Ruby and Yang.

Ironwood’s recording says that some people may view these as “uncertain times,” likewise contrasting Glynda’s recording in the very first episode, announcing that they live in an “extraordinary time of peace.” Whether there’s uncertainty or not, Ironwood promises that Atlas will remain “safe and strong,” even if the other Kingdoms have begun to falter. The speech has a very ‘Us vs. Them’ quality about it.

“He looks tired,” Ruby comments and I just need to chuck another fandom into the mix real quick because:

Under these circumstances, “tired” doesn’t just require the John Mulaney advice of, “Get some rest, tall child!” It’s a clear dig at the leader’s capabilities and even their mental faculties. “James… what have you been doing?” Qrow asks, thereby re-framing “tired” as the nice euphemism for “gone off the deep end.” It remains to be seen though precisely how much of Ironwood’s paranoia is literal paranoia in the sense that it’s illogical and undeserved, and how much of these changes are highly undesirable, but potentially justifiable decisions. After all, we as the audience know precisely how dangerous Salem and her crew are. We know why Beacon fell. We’re privy to the stakes in a way that the average, angry Atlas citizen is not. All Ironwood can do in the face of such odds is try to prepare for every eventuality… it just looks like he’s reached a point where those preparations have started infringing on basic human rights. It’s a very sad setup. A classic case of the wrong things done for the right reasons.

There’s a check-in from the radio tower, whoever’s in charge wondering why Manta 1-5 hasn’t gone towards their landing pad yet. Maria comments that the lady should take a hint and starts finding a different place to land. Which in hindsight is kind of funny because they obviously did take a hint… and then sent out a special team to deal with the implications of that hint.

As the group starts exploring we get a lovely shot demonstrating how much they stand out in this new environment.

Though there’s some color in the neon signs, the otherwise overwhelming brown/beige/black/red makes elements like Nora’s pink skirt and Weiss’ white hair stick out like sore thumbs. As we’ll see in a minute, there are obviously in-world difficulties with them passing as average citizens, but it’s also a signal to the audience that, for now at least, they’re really out of their depth. This is the “greatest kingdom” referenced in our title. 

Maria is leading them to a friend of hers when a bot takes an interest in these obvious outsiders. It approaches Yang at the back of the group, takes an unexpected picture, and she responds by kicking it into the street where it sparks with damage before getting hit by a truck.

(Flashback to Ruby and Penny, anyone?)

Now, I’m honestly on the fence about this moment. You could make the case that they’re all traumatized fighters and responding to that flash was a logical, instinctual response. You can even argue that, just hours after taking her first faunus life, Yang is more than a little on edge—even though the premier doesn’t reference this incredibly significant event at all, outside of Blake’s quick realization that her blade is still broken. Both are valid and easily supported readings. However, I’m still hyper aware that this is Yang. The character who, for two volumes now, has been characterized very strongly by her, “attack first, ask questions later” attitude. Out of all the characters we could have seen instinctively attacking something that hadn’t actually done her any harm, choosing Yang holds the most weight. The story also lightly acknowledges that this was an extreme response, what with the group staring at her and Yang’s sheepish expression.

Whether it’s specifically in the context of trauma over the fight with Adam, or more broadly acknowledging Yang’s tendency to both assume and act on the worst in people, I hope this volume helps her manage these instincts. One talk with Tai about not punching through problems isn’t going to cut it. Especially when her forceful attitude has caused much of the internal conflict recently. 

It’s after this that the group is accosted by a drunk man, functioning largely as exposition to explain what’s been going on in Atlas and why the people are so scared and angry about it. Pissed enough to get literally pissed, of the inebriated variety. Here then, we return to the “this group of teenagers is really bad at thinking ahead” issue that I mentioned earlier. Ruby is all ready to start a fight---referencing her newfound willingness to escalate situations that don’t necessitate escalation---and it’s Blake who holds her back, reminding Ruby that they can’t afford to cause a scene. Which is fantastic. Except they end up causing a scene anyway when the drunk calls Blake a “stupid faunus” and Weiss uses a glyph to chuck him into the trash.

Is seeing a racist asshole get his just desserts extremely satisfying? Absolutely and from a representation perspective I’m thrilled to see Rooster Teeth taking a hard stance in their story. From an in-world perspective though, that was an incredibly bad decision. We’ve been establishing since minute one of this premier that the group needs to be cautious. Blake herself, the victim here, just told Ruby not to endanger the whole group by defending her honor… and then Weiss swoops in to do it anyway. There are two priorities here, to your friends and to your mission, and the issue is that Team RWBY has a tendency to consistently prioritize the former, something that wouldn’t be an issue if this was still a low-key story about a group of students and not would-be, formal huntresses trying to save the world. The choice to attack rather than walking away---paralleling last volume’s final battle---speaks to their inability to think ahead and weigh their priorities. “It was worth it,” Weiss says, but is it? Now that you’ve caused the scene that you couldn’t afford? Now that this guy recognized your glyphs and you’ve blown your cover? I realize I’ll probably get heat for this, but there’s a difference between calling out micro-aggressions in everyday life and calling them out when you’re fugitives trying to keep an invaluable relic safe. It would have said more about the group’s maturity if Blake had succeeded in avoiding a scene and they expressed anger/sympathy among themselves that she had to put up with that shit. Throwing guys into dumpsters is satisfying as hell, but it’s not the action of a level-headed adult conducting a job.

Provided that the story actually acknowledges how young they are and that it’s expected they make such mistakes, we’re golden. As it is though, these issues are usually brushed aside. Later Maria says that Pietro “likes to keep a low profile. Something I’m coming to realize you know nothing about,” but it’s said in a joking, fond manner. This isn’t treated as an actual flaw and is therefore not set up as something for the team to work on. And that, right there, is the heart of the conflict between RWBYJNR and Ozpin. He’s a fine scalpel. They’re a sledgehammer. RWBY continually introduces threats that require a delicate touch---whether it’s the possibility of spies in your midst that force you to carefully monitor who has what information, or needing to move through a city without drawing attention to yourself---these battles require a certain level of strategy and without fail our heroes are characterized as people who can only solve their problems through direct, immediate violence. You don’t walk away from a fight. Ever. Be it Cordovin or a racist drunk. The more I see of their behavior, no matter the good intentions behind it, the more it makes sense to me that Ozpin lied and kept his secrets. Our heroes simply don’t have the patient, level-headed, forward-thinking personalities required to fight this kind of delicate war. Their talent lies in the hack-’em slash-’em situations. 

Anyway, I’m getting off topic. The group runs from the guards that show up after the drunk guy incident and they manage to make it to Pietro’s place. After some fun dialogue about whether he remembers Maria and the state of his shop, we get a potential explanation for Maria’s strange behavior on the train. Everyone remember this?

Obviously the camera focusing on Maria helps us, the audience, realize that she’s a character who will eventually become important to the story, but it’s also a bit coincidental that she’s hanging out near Team RWBY’s room. Especially when she inexplicably ends up on the back half of the train when everyone else was evacuated. It was clear at the time that she’d deliberately stayed back, but to what purpose no one was sure. Here, Maria gives a general answer about how she thought this group might have needed her guidance while fighting all those manticores… which is still an odd explanation to my mind. Because up until her confession leaving the farmhouse, Maria wants to keep that low-profile. She’s done with being the Grimm Reaper, so why get involved now? Especially when, with hired huntsmen to protect the train and a large group of teens with their own weapons, she probably would have assumed they were all in good hands? Even if it was just a fighter’s natural instinct to help, what would that guidance have looked like? Pretending to be a normal, formal huntress lending a hand where she can? Admitting she’s the Grimm Reaper? Is she still able to fight? There’s still the highly coincidental nature that Maria, the greatest huntress of a generation, just happened to be traveling the same route as and randomly became interested in the group involved with Salem, gods, and the relics.

To be clear, I’m not really arguing that there’s some big conspiracy surrounding Maria. Coincidences are common in all fiction because if things happened based on real-life probability, it would all be pretty boring. Rather, I’m simply pointing out that between losing her eyes as a young adult and coincidentally getting involved with Team RWBY now, we pretty much have no idea what Maria has been up to for most of her life. If the story wanted to establish some sort of betrayal/trickery/what-have-you, there’s room for it.

That would make me super sad though. I quite like Maria.

We learn more about Ironwood’s increasing paranoia, a hint that not everyone on the council is happy with his changes---that mysterious woman we keep seeing on the posters, perhaps?---and the acknowledgement that whoever helped bring down Atlas’ tech at Beacon has to be “Either a genius, or one of our own.” Probably both. Enter Watts, seen typing at a computer in our opening.

With all this info bearing down on them, a few characters like Jaune and Oscar start asking whether they can just leave and yes, please tackle that, because it’s a very important question. Right now the show has stalled the, “Will the group continue the fight against Salem and what’s their reasoning for doing so when they all think it’s pointless?” question by throwing up another roadblock with the relic. They got it to Atlas, but they’re not sure they can hand it off to Ironwood yet, which just leaves them twiddling their thumbs. That portion of the quest isn’t technically complete yet, putting off an answer as to whether and why they’ll go onto the next portion. We need to tackle the group’s new motivations though. Soon. I sincerely hope that when Ironwood announces he has a way of defeating Salem, we finally get the group challenging their own assertions that such attempts are fundamentally useless. We had a whole volume of, “Oh no. Oh god. Salem is immortal and all our work is for naught.” We need at least a little attention paid to the development of a new perspective to counteract that.

Before things can get too bleak though, Pietro recognizes Weiss as a Schnee. Yang, in a lovely moment of support, desperately tries to re-direct the conversation back to the council. Pietro then recognizes her arm, puts it all together to get Team RWBY, and drops the loaded comment, “My daughter has told me so much about you.”

Many fans saw it coming. Even more hoped for it. Honestly? I think that’s great. Too many shows nowadays rely on “twists” that don’t actually make sense, or even undermine the original setup. Those are frustrating beyond belief and feel like the authors are selling out good story for cheap, undesired shock value. The fandom saw Penny’s resurrection coming a mile away? Great! That just means Rooster Teeth did a good job of setting up that possibility and then following through on it.

I’ll talk more about Penny’s introduction in a moment, but first I just want to throw out that I legitimately enjoyed the fight scene. Good action and creative teamwork at times. I particularly liked Weiss and Ren working together to take down four grimm in as many seconds. Oscar likewise takes a grimm out with a very impressive strike… more impressive than I was expecting from him, honestly. Right now I suppose I’m just inclined to shrug that off with, “He and Ozpin are slowly merging, so he picks up stuff way faster than everyone else,” most notably Jaune. Also, I’ll be blunt. I wouldn’t touch canon-based rosegarden with a ten-foot pole. You know, because of all the issues like a massive age difference, two minor characters involved, questions of consent, the fact that Ruby was Ozpin’s student---pesky ethical concerns like that. AUs though? I think the ship is adorable. Provided that Oscar is fully his own person and there’s consent on both sides appropriate for whatever ages they currently are in your fic or fanart? Very nice. So, it’s for those fans that I point out an entirely coincidental parallel: Ruby saves Oscar from a grimm with a bullet in nearly the exact same manner that Blake saves Yang from a grimm with a bullet. Make of that what you will.

Back to Penny though. Overall, am I thrilled that she’s back? Absolutely. I actually spoke about this recently while answering an ask, expressing how much I’d enjoy this very scenario: having her consciousness saved and thus allowing for her resurrection. Do I think her new look is adorable? Yes, yes I do. “And yet,” you say, “It sounds like there’s a ‘but’ somewhere in there, Clyde.” Yeah. Sadly there is. Because although I’m happy to have Penny, I wasn’t particularly taken with how they re-introduced her.

Simply put, there was far too much humor for what should have been a touching, emotional scene. With the exception of one moment where Ruby tries to voice the word “killed,” everyone treats Penny’s resurrection as a surprising, but not terribly notable event. Yang, Weiss, and Blake express a sort of long-suffering fondness as they comment on how wholesome this is. Pietro laughs at any shock over her “death” and shrugs about how yeah, it technically was. Whatever. Qrow takes the time to nonchalantly say that things are going better than he expected. Ruby is holding it all together with barely a blink. Penny herself is nothing but exuberance and funny dialogue. Maria cracks a joke about how she has no idea who this child is. Jaune goes, “Well, that was unexpected” as if Penny had showed up in Atlas when they all thought she was in Vacuo. That sort of surprise. The whole thing is treated flippantly with, “Never a dull moment.” Summarized, all this really isn’t the appropriate reaction to realizing a friend is no longer dead.

Yes, Ruby was the closest to Penny by far---we can’t expect everyone to get misty-eyed---but does everyone remember what her death was like? It was the turning point of the entire series, not just for the audience, but the characters as well. Penny was the first casualty of the Fall of Beacon and her death was appropriately gut wrenching. It was then shown across every TV turned to the Vytal Festival, the moment where the whole world watched their golden girl, Pyrrha, unintentionally murder a newcomer who turned out to be a robot. Moments later grimm start attacking and the safest place on Remnant is destroyed. Penny’s death heralded all that. The one time we see Ruby tackling the trauma of it all is when she speaks with Oscar and, notably, crumbles a bit when she instinctively uses Penny’s catch phrase.

What I had hoped for was the group grappling with the sudden, completely unexpected shock of getting one of two losses back; working through the knowledge that their lives have been defined by two friends’ death and now one of those has been retroactively erased. Perhaps we’ll see that in future episodes, but right now it feels like a disservice to the impact Penny’s death had on the characters and the story to treat this as such a comic, light-hearted moment. Let Penny tackle-hug Ruby and then let Ruby give her a much more sincere embrace. Let her cry. Have Yang put a hand on Ruby’s shoulder, giving her a look that expresses how she understands what this means to her. Have Jaune looking away, devastated that Ruby miraculously got her friend back, but such an event is impossible for Pyrrha. Let him or Oscar or Ren or anyone seriously acknowledge that, holy shit, this is a joyous occasion we never expected to experience. We’ve spent months dealing with trauma and pessimism, now here’s Penny, reminding us that there’s still so much good in the world. Have someone acknowledge that sometimes the impossible happens (cough-defeatingSalem-cough). You can allow the moment to function as the momentous occasion it is and then lighten the mood by having Maria announce that she has no idea what’s going on.

This isn’t the first time Rooster Teeth has implemented comedy when they were better off sticking with drama. See: the choice to animate punching Ozpin last volume in an absurd, cartoon style. So yeah. Happy to have Penny back, but that first moment felt underwhelming, to say the least.

We then have an admittedly very cool shot—

— (semblance? Just awesome drama?) right before the group is taken out in seconds by Atlas’ elite. They’re… I don’t know how to spell their name yet. Is it something like Ace-Ops for elite special operations? Or Aesop like Aesop’s fables? Potentially both? Idk. The fandom will figure that out in the next day or so, if they haven’t already. What’s important though is that this group charges our team with stealing an airship, illegally entering the city with it, and starting an unauthorized fight in the streets. If I could just take one second to…

Ahem. I’m good. Seriously though, if I’m at all optimistic for Volume Seven it’s because the story is finally acknowledging that the group made some pretty massive mistakes last volume. Not that it looks like there will be much punishment attached to that. Between them meeting with Ironwood in the trailer and the Blah-Blah-Ops’ clear status as heroes this volume (they’re in the opening a bunch and seem to be working with RWBYJNR), I’m not yet convinced that this arrest will lead to anything other than getting precisely what they want: seeing Ironwood. To be clear, it’s not like I want the group languishing in jail for twelve episodes. That would be one hell of a boring volume. But rather, I’m interested in whether the story will continue to imply that Atlas is in the right for arresting them, or whether Episode Two will quickly turn that on its head and forcefully announce, as they did in Volume Six, that these actions are an egregious insult because we’re the protagonists. How dare you not let us do whatever we want?

Because the group was in the wrong here. It can be easy to miss considering that the rules they’re refusing to obey are tied up in a dictator-like society---aren’t we the heroes for ignoring and circumventing evil Ironwood’s laws?---but what they actually choose to do has far more of an impact on innocent civilians than it does on The Man. Like endangering all of Argus with your needless battle. Or, to a much smaller extent here, jumping into a fight when you’re not authorized to do that. Now, I actually don’t blame RWBYJNR for that one. They are huntsmen and it’s their job to protect the people. Going out to defeat grimm is 100% their thing. Rather, I’m talking about stuff like their commentary on Atlas’ defenses. When the fight starts we get, “I guess the city’s defenses aren’t doing much” and “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.” It’s more of that, “Us huntsmen are the only true defenders of the world. Your attempts with robots would be funny if it weren’t so dangerous” attitude. It’s a certain level of arrogance. As we see just a minute later though, Ironwood’s setup works. Because the civilians all know to get indoors. Because he has Penny. The robots hold off the grimm until she arrives, defeating the rest with a speed and an ease that frankly doesn’t compare to what we saw the group accomplishing. She does from above what it took nine of them to manage, often (as we saw with Oscar and Yang) with great danger to them in the process. When they’re bound and accused of unauthorized fighting, it’s clear that they were, in fact, shouldering their way into a situation where they weren’t needed---and potentially causing trouble in the process. Rules exist for a reason. Are they always perfect? Far from it, but in the characterization folding over from Volume Six, the group has forgotten that most of the time rules are there for others’ safety. They have been thought out. This particular situation is easily defendable (of course they’re going to go fight grimm) and there were no consequences to the group jumping in when they weren’t allowed (like property damage or injured civilians), but this moment does function as a good representation of the overall problem. Just because there weren’t consequences for saying, “Screw your laws” this time doesn’t mean there won’t be in the future. Or that there hasn’t been in the past.

It likewise stands out to me that Qrow consistently tires to use his “I’m a licensed huntsmen” as a justification. He flashes it at the two goons on the train to get them to back off. He tires to use it to get past Cordovin. He now tells his captors that he has every right to fight and protect the people because of this card he carries. Qrow is well aware of how important the status of a huntsmen is in this world… yet he’s running around with eight fighters who don’t have that legal backing. I don’t think the show would ever go for my suggestion of another school arc so they could finish their training, but at the very least we should provide some sort of loop-hole for these characters. Have Ironwood provide special licenses based on their heroics at the Fall of Beacon and their work since. Because right now we have a world that’s continually emphasizing being a huntsmen as a job, something you earn the right to call yourself, yet 95% of our group doesn’t have that right in the eyes of their society. We know they’ve done great, secret work to protect the people. But the people only know that these are a bunch of teens with one year of formal training. So you really can’t blame any officials for going, “Sorry. We’re not in the habit of letting random people with weapons cross our borders. Or fight in our streets.” It’s like if a bunch of 14-18yos arrived at a crime scene with guns and demanded that they be let in on a case. No, we never graduated from an academy, but you should adhere to our demands anyway. The good intentions are there, but you need to iron out the formalities first. 

Really, RWBY should just fix the whole license thing with a throw-away plot point if they’re not going to tackle it seriously, just so this isn’t an ethical issue anymore. I’d rather smooth it over soon since the story doesn’t seem interested in tackling whether a group with one year of formal training should be allowed that status. So just give it to them and let’s move on. They might still run into issues with Atlas, but at least the rest of the world won’t be expected to trust them purely on faith. Not everyone belongs to a small town terrorized by a geist, with four random teens as your only option for safety.

Which finally, as the doors close on our group with heavy heads, brings us to the opening. Some things to pay attention to:

1. We get a glimpse of that mysterious woman shown in numerous posters across the city. 

(I’m likewise interested in the very long shot we got on this “show your teeth” graffiti.) 

2. Watts and Tyrian are presented as primary antagonists. Interesting that Neo and Cinder aren’t there (not that I caught anyway), especially since we know they were heading to Atlas last volume as well. It makes me think that they’ll be the true threat at the end of the volume. Keeping things quiet, even in the intro, so we have no chance of guessing their plan.

3. The main conflict seems to be between Weiss and Winter, as opposed to Weiss and Jacques as many originally assumed. Those expressions don’t bode well.

4. We still see an image of Ironwood briefly flickering to Jacques though as an angry citizen throws a rock at it. Implying Jacques is secretly pulling the strings? James has simply become too much like him? We’ll have to see.

5. We get a shot of Oscar and Ironwood… training? Fighting? I’m inclined to say fighting based on his and Ozpin’s past difficulties, but that’s also up in the air.

6. The image of our staff…

…and 7. an absolutely massive cast this volume. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m concerned with RWBY’s insistence on continually introducing so many new characters, particularly characters who are important enough to warrant decent development. There simply isn’t time for them all.

(Although, is Maria in that shot? Wonder if she’ll leave the group now that she’s done her duty of helping Ruby out with her eyes.) 

Which brings us to the end of the premier! Finally, I’d like to end with a personal note. As is quite obvious, I’m still watching and recapping RWBY, but I feel like I should be upfront about my overall lack of investment in the series right now. Chock it up to getting burned last volume, fading interest in a long-running show, just growing up and changing… I don’t claim to know precisely why I’m no longer jazzed about a new volume like I once was. But, if I perhaps appear overly critical of what I generally thought was a good—and honestly better than expected—premier? That’s probably why. The details just don’t cut it for me anymore. All caps, screaming excitement over Penny’s return or Qrow’s new outfit just doesn’t resonate much, which leaves me with a more critical perspective on the show overall. So if that’s something you’re interested in, stick around because, baring unforeseen circumstances, there will be more metas over the next three or so months. More invested in a flailing celebration of RWBY as a whole? You’re better off hitting up another blog.  

Basically, you know that shot in Pietro’s?

Note the “Days since our last nonsense” sign combined with the defeated expressions. That’s what RWBY feels like to me these days. A lot of nonsense and limited enjoyment. Ah well. Maybe Volume Seven will prove me wrong and I’ll be re-invigorated by the end of the season!

Until then, ❤️️

Minor Things of Note

Maria refers to the group as “kids” in the airship and Penny as a “child.” Acknowledging last year’s debate, I stand by the argument that just because many (but not all) of the group have reached the age of maturity in our world doesn’t mean they’re on par with the adults they were so recently rejecting. There’s a reason why the very old Maria naturally uses “kid” and “child” and it doesn’t come off as weird.

I really like the design of Pietro’s chair. Giving him something that walks on four legs is both different and a nice nod to nature among all the tech. Also, kudos to the Pinocchio reference on his bookshelf in the form of a whale.

Nora remains as adorable as ever. I particularly liked her energy in Pietro’s and her high-key annoyance at Ren getting a jump on the fight. I’m interested in what we’ll be learning about her this volume. 

Not sure I’m a fan of Rooster Teeth using these squeaky toy noises whenever the group is comically surprised by something. Comedy is great, we need it in this story, but sound effects like that are remnants (ha) of a tone we haven’t really seen since Volume 1. I think the show can still get away with exaggerated facial expressions---Nora in her excitement, Ruby laughing at Jaune’s Pumpkin Pete’s sweatshirt---but this feels a bit out of place now.

“Maybe Atlas isn’t as safe as we thought” and yet, astoundingly, no one is inclined to ask Ozpin to weigh in on this. Even now that they know he’s listening. I think I’ll start a tally. See how many episodes it takes to actually acknowledge, let alone act on, the primary conflict of Volume 6.

Image Credit

Personal screenshots from RWBY 

Transflag: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Transgender_Pride_flag.svg

Doctor Who GIF: https://tenor.com/view/doctor-who-tired-harriet-jones-gif-5627138

How I Met Your Mother GIF: https://giphy.com/gifs/celebrate-2o5Ypf4fP6ahq

[dogbearinggifts]

Do you have any theories or headcanons on how each siblings' relationship with Ben was like when he was still alive, based on flashbacks or the reactions they had when Ben manifested? Or maybe when he's mentioned? Thank you

I have a couple, yeah. However, of all the siblings we meet, Ben gets the least screen time and the least development (which—it has been confirmed—will change in Season 2) so a lot of these are just extrapolation and speculation.

Luther: In the comics, we get a quote from Vanya’s autobiography stating that Ben “was so eager to please Father, he was easily drawn into his and Luther’s little games—and those two simply let him die.” I tend to think this quote is less accurate recollection of what happened and more Vanya’s resentment coloring the events as she remembers them, but from this it seems Reginald roped Luther into helping with Ben’s training.

However, I don’t think Luther was as uncaring toward Ben as the quote makes him out to be; we know that Ben was not fond of his powers in the slightest. A comics quote from Reginald establishes that Ben would cry in his sleep, and from what we see in the bank flashback, it’s clear he’s not looking forward to letting the monster out. Luther would have seen this reluctance, and while I’m not sure he would have fully comprehended why Ben felt this way (enhanced strength and endurance aren’t the sort of powers that hunger for blood and make you cry in your sleep) I think he tried to sympathize with Ben as much as Reginald would allow. Maybe he gave Ben a friendly pat on the back after a training session, told him he’d done a good job. Maybe he saw there was only one creme-filled donut left during one of their Griddy’s runs and made sure Ben got it despite wanting it for himself. Maybe he’d save out books from the library he knew Ben would like and leave them at his door, or listen to Ben talk about his favorites even if he wasn’t interested. I think Luther was a lot less aloof prior to his Moon mission (four years of total isolation will wreak havoc on your ability to relate to people) and while he wouldn't have gone against Reginald and tried to argue that Ben be exempted from training—which is what Ben probably needed—I think he did try to ease the pain as much as he could. It wasn’t enough, and it didn’t prevent Ben’s death, but we know from the comics that Luther blames himself for it—and if his reaction in the bowling alley is anything to go on, I think the show backs up this characterization. 

Diego: I wouldn’t be surprised if Diego was jealous of Ben’s powers. This is the kid who was told from a very young age that he would never measure up to Luther, and who spent his adulthood trying to outshine his brother as a superhero. His powers in the show are maybe a little flashier than Luther’s, but Reginald still likely saw them as a disappointment and told Diego as much. So I can see him looking at Ben—who can produce a whole monster out of his torso—and wishing he had a power like that. The comics tell us that Reginald was fascinated by what Ben could do, and so it would make sense if Diego saw this morbid curiosity as little more than extra attention lavished on a brother who didn’t even appreciate what he had.

At the same time, though, I don’t think Diego took out too much of his frustration or resentment on Ben. That same quote calls Ben “the kindest of my siblings,” and so while I believe he was envious of Ben for having seemingly cooler powers, I also think Diego might have felt guilty if he lashed out at Ben too often. I think it happened, but I think that if he pushed too far and genuinely upset Ben, he might’ve wound up feeling like he’d just kicked a puppy. If this were the case, Diego could have become more verbally abusive toward his remaining siblings following Ben’s death, both out of grief and misplaced anger, as well as a sort of bitterness that the best of them (in his view) was gone and there was no point in holding back any longer.

Allison: From her reaction in the bowling alley, I think it’s safe to say she cared about Ben deeply and that his death was still painful for her all those years later. But I also think that of all the Hargreeves, Allison would have least understood Ben’s aversion to his own powers. She tells Luther that she used her power to get everything she wanted. Whether or not “everything” includes Patrick’s love remains to be seen, but it’s clear she grew up seeing her power as an advantage that she used whenever it suited her. So if Ben ever confided in her that he hated his power—or even that he wished he was ordinary like Vanya—there’s a pretty good chance Allison would have looked at him like he’d just spoken Czech. How could he hate his power? It let him take out four bad guys at once. It earned him more of Dad’s attention. It was interesting. How could he hate something like that?

If his powers played a role in his death, this likely would have caused her to see his complaints in a new and darker light, and possibly might have made her wonder if she could have done anything to prevent it. Maybe a rumor would have made Reginald ease up on him; maybe it wouldn’t have. But I think she’d wonder, and those questions would probably haunt her.

Klaus: I’ve seen some fans theorize that personality clashes prevented him and Ben from becoming all that close before the latter’s death, but I don’t think they’re that different. Klaus—high, drunk and grieving—gets behind the wheel of an ice cream truck that he takes careening past two highly trained assassins while “Ride of the Valkyries” plays over the speakers and all Ben has to say is “Wheeee!” Ben has a wild, fun-loving side, and I doubt it only surfaced after his death.

More to the point, however, I think the two of them bonded over a mutual hatred of their own powers. Maybe they didn’t discuss it much. Maybe they didn’t have the words to really examine what they both felt, maybe they didn’t like thinking about the things their powers made them do and see. But I think there was always that understanding between them, and I think that’s why we see them together before a mission in Vanya’s hallucination. And I think that at this point in their lives, Klaus was still hiding the depths of his growing addiction, leaving Ben unaware of just how quickly he was spiraling downward. There’s a very good chance he knew, but not that he knew how bad things really were.

If he and Klaus were close prior to his death, then that might explain some of how he treats Klaus in the present. Not only is he able to see just how bad his addiction has become, but this is his friend. The only one in that household who even came close to understanding what Ben was going through, the one who commiserated with him and probably offered whatever limited support he could, and he’s destroying himself. After his death, it seems Ben spent even more time with Klaus than he did before, and so he would’ve had a front-row seat to all the ugliness of a full-blown substance addiction. When he nags Klaus to take better care of himself, he’s probably acting at least partly out of guilt, knowing he missed too many red flags while he was still alive and capable of action.

Five: Like Allison, I don’t think he quite understood Ben’s aversion to using his powers. He could use his powers without fear, and they enabled him to have a lot of fun at the baddies’ expense. More than that, though, Five wanted to push the limits of his power. He wanted to prove himself. I think he wanted more of Reginald’s attention than he got, and he might have resented Ben on some level for taking the spotlight off him. The fact Ben didn’t want that spotlight in the first place might have mitigated that resentment somewhat, or it might have made it all worse. After Five got stuck, though, I think he might have started to feel some sort of kinship toward Ben. His disastrous attempt at time travel probably left him afraid to use his powers for quite some time, and he probably thought back to Ben’s fear of his own powers. Five might not have understood completely, and he might have recognized that he’d never understand completely, but I do think his jump to the apocalypse cleared the way for a more sympathetic attitude toward Ben’s hatred of his powers. 

However, I think there’s also evidence that Five felt fondness toward Ben—perhaps even protectiveness. When he lands in the apocalypse, he calls out for Ben and then Vanya, both of whom are ranked lower than him and behave more like his younger siblings than his older ones. In the present, Five masks his emotions far more than he shows them, so it’s somewhat difficult to tell if the notion of Ben being there with them in the bowling alley affects him as deeply as it does his other siblings, but it’s clear he’s at least curious. I think he’s long since given up on the idea that he’ll get to see Ben again, and he’s not about to latch onto this hope if it turns out to be false, but he’s open to it.

Vanya: The quote I referenced for Luther paints Ben as one of her favorite siblings, to be sure, and the sheer level of resentment that quote conveys shows his death hit her hard. She saw his kindness and loved him for it, and it seems he treated her kindly as well. However, the fact he hated his powers and she longed to have any power at all probably drove a wedge between them. He probably would have killed to be ordinary, and she would have killed to have his powers.

Ben and Vanya don’t have a lot of interaction, but I think we see a bit of that resentment when she hallucinates him and Klaus suiting up for a mission. He gives her a flat look and tells her, matter-of-factly, that “To go on a mission, you have to have a power.” Vanya sees this as intentional cruelty, but I think Vanya’s desire to go on missions probably struck Ben as insulting and more than a little tone-deaf. How could she want to go on missions? Missions are horrible. He has to put himself in danger and let the monster free, walk away covered in blood and with fresh fuel for his nightmares. Vanya gets to stay at home and play her violin, and here she is acting like going on a mission is some sort of reward. Maybe he’s tried to explain it and maybe he hasn’t, but whatever the case, I think Ben is watching her beg to come along, thinking, She doesn’t know how good she has it. And, ironically, Vanya’s thoughts in that scene probably run along those same lines. Each has what the other doesn’t, and that grass-is-greener mentality probably formed one of the biggest cracks in their relationship. 

[gnostic-heretic]

I'm an aph lithuania fan who is considering the hc that he's trans. Any reasons to adopt this headcanon? ( or like... what about Liet screams 'trans' to you or how does this compliment his character?)

Ah well I think it does compliment his character in a way, though I’m not sure how to explain it.

I guess it’s just that I came up with an entire backstory and a long series of headcanons related to his gender identity I guess... and I love the idea of him being trans because I project a lot of my feelings on this low budget anime man and plus... I love the idea of characters I like being trans in general.

Maybe I can talk a little about my headcanons for him? Idk it’s just a really hard question to answer anon. Because to me that alone is enough to like it and if you flipped it upside down — why should I headcanon Lithuania as a cis man? Why and how would that compliment his character?

... let’s just say people don’t ever ask this question because cis is perceived as default state of being for humans and that’s a bad idea in and for itself. But I’m going to assume you’re engaging in good faith here because it sounds like you are!

Like first of all for me it’s a way (just like all my other trans headcanons) to see more different kinds of trans people in a story and concept I like (hetalia). Cis characters in fiction usually get multifaceted portrayals but trans stories are reduced to pity porn about transitioning and how hard and sad it is and usually written as really sad people. I don’t think that’s necessarily accurate... our lives and history are filled with things that, as Mari Kondo might want to say, spark joy and more trans characters = more chances to show that. Plus we all think of ourselves and our own identity in different ways, its not necessarily simplistic as most portrayals (x trapped in y body is a popular one) would make you think. Lithuania is trans but he doesn’t think about himself and his gender in the same way Poland does for example. That’s something I love to write :D because it shows that we are all different.

I think Lithuania would be very proud of who he is and how far he’s come. His gender identity is important to him because he’s always felt like he’s a part of his people, and wants to be closer to them- so he views his own “transition” not necessarily as “female to male” (because he never thought of himself as “female” in the first place) but as the gender neutral nature of a “nation”, who is dehumanised and put on a pedestal, to “man” — the feeling of finally belonging with other humans. Tolys is a man because it’s what felt most true to him and his sense of self- and he’s lived as himself since he was very young, so his confidence is rarely shaken at least when it comes to his own sense of identity.

(I guess this is aspirational for me in a way but oh well I’ve warned you about projecting)

Also when I say “cis characters in fiction are mulitifacted while trans characters get only to be one dimensional” I also mean that the usual trans narrative is completely centered around gender conforming straight trans people when it’s... not necessarily so. In fact most trans people I know aren’t straight

For one thing views on sexuality and gender have changed so much throughout history that when a person has lived for hundreds of years there’s no such a thing as “gender conforming”. I headcanon Lithuania as bisexual with a preference for guys so decidedly not straight! And as far as presentation goes. When Lithuania first started presenting as male (the Middle Ages) in the Baltic area long hair was considered standard for men to wear. And even in this age he likes to keep his hair long because that’s how he prefers it to look and it’s a good low maintenance hairstyle— plus I wouldn’t call his sense of style masculine as much as I would call it a disaster, he just likes what’s comfortable and cheap and not too flashy. Which usually lines up with men’s fashion but not necessarily in an overtly “masculine” way

Its interesting to have a trans character like Lithuania or really all hetalia characters who lived for hundreds of years across different and very relevant historical changes because he has seen his own “position” change so much throughout history. For starters while trans people have existed forever, the label of “trans” and medical transition science are a fairly recent thing... which is why in historical fics I never use the word “transgender”, but reduce it to the bare fact of life. Lithuania knew he was a man and meant to live as one so that’s what he did.

Now take everything I say as basically speculative fiction based on OTHER pagan religions across the ancient world because there’s not much we know about Baltic paganism in the Middle Ages and the few records we have come from Christians- they’re biased, incomplete and sometimes untrustworthy. I’ve looked into the stances of modern Baltic paganism (Romuva) on lgbt people but found nothing at all— which doesn’t surprise me and wouldn’t surprise me if their stance on lgbt rights was negative because after all in Europe we live in a society (cit) that is strongly shaped by Christianity even if we try to steer away from it.. and Lithuania isn’t the most lgbt friendly place in Europe for that matter— neither is Italy, by the way, this is no moral judgement. IF anyone who knows more than me wants to correct me and or add more info I’d be not only extremely grateful but STOKED please tell me more about the forbidden romuva knowledge because I’m dumb and can’t speak Lithuanian so a lot of (i would even say most...) sources aren’t accessible to me. 😔😔😔

BUT,

The way I base it on other pre-Christian religions across the world Lithuania’s gender variance when he was a young teenager was not perceived as a negative or strange thing. For one because he’s a nation and nations were and are perceived as supernatural beings (sort of demigods) and unquestionable, at least by humans. And secondly because I like to think that in pagan times gender variance wasn’t perceived as a threat to the “natural order” (Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve and so on) but as a part of that same natural order. So a person identifying as a sort of “third gender” or “no gender” (like I headcanon nyo Lithuania would) and a person kinda deciding that their birth assigned gender doesn’t fit and he’d rather be a man, socially (because back then medical transition didn’t exist) wouldn’t be met with fear or disgust but with sympathy.

Lithuania got to transition socially in a supportive environment and then was kind of thrown into the Polish court to a complete 180 in terms of acceptance. The thing is trans/gender variant people used to be a less-known phenomenon until a few decades ago, let alone centuries ago, it used to be easier to be stealth when the regular joe had no idea what a “trans” was — so that’s what he did. And while he found support and solidarity and (gasp) romance in the company of Poland, he also found someone who conceptualised his own identity in a wholly different manner (but this is a post about liet so I won’t get into it ffs) — I don’t think it must needst be remarked that the Russian empire and Soviet Union were just as unsupportive — if not more unsupportive, but we are not here to pass moral judgement. Being stealth would have made dealing with it more simple but being stealth comes with risks and that comes into play a lot when it comes to his anxiety.

...However I think the problem would’ve been and still be mostly humans because fellow other nations (people who- again- have lived hundreds of years and likely have seen a trans person before if they’re not trans themselves) would be open to understanding and learning and not thinking of Lithuania being transgender as a big deal. In the canon hetalia lore we have chibitalia and Hungary as examples of nations who lived as one gender for a long time and then as another. And whether you see this as a trans narrative or not (I sure do) it’s worth noting that we don’t see anyone in the hetalia canon giving them a hard time over it, or being outwardly unaccepting of their gender.

TLDR I hope I could convey even just 0,0001% of my love for trans man liet to you and if I didn’t... well this is just my headcanon and I’m not forcing it on anyone, you do you. Thank you for being open to hearing about it anon because a lot of people just discard the idea before they can even consider it— but most excuses for it (it’s unrealistic, it is weird, i just can’t see it) are based on biases (are trans people not real? why are we seen as “weird” in the first place? why does our existence seem like an impossibility?) and imo not very good. So to wrap this up my question would be how does headcanoning Lithuania as cisgender compliment his character? Well in my opinion it doesn’t— it takes away nothing and I don’t mind it, but it also doesn’t add all the interesting possibilities that being trans gives to his character at least to me. :D

[cooltapes]

Can I ask your opinion as a bigender person (I’m cis)? What do you think of non-fetishy genderbends? I love seeing fanart that’s a different take on a character, whether simply  a different hairstyle or a redesign of their costume or a straight-up AU, and when it isn’t for fetishy purposes some of the genderbend stuff is pretty creative in that direction. But is it something I shouldn’t support?  

I’ve reposted this from your ask just in case you didn’t want to be published, but I wanted to ask other people and also talk about it because it’s a topic I’ve been thinking on a while.

I also personally love to look at genderbends from a design perspective, because character design is really interesting to me and I see it (when it's done well) as an analysis of the conscious choices people make when gendering their characters and how society perceives certain traits to me masculine/feminine, a tool to make yourself more aware of your own biases about gender and the concept of a gender binary. Like, these things shouldn’t impact on the way we perceive a character’s personality, but they do, and those are biases worth scrutinising. Our individual and collective understanding of gender plays a HUGE part when designing both a character's visuals and personality and to suggest otherwise is to just ignore the source of many gendered problems in fiction. Sailor Neptune is a good case study. As a cis woman, she performs hyper femininity within the lens of being a lesbian in an out relationship. If she were “genderbent” (I’ll get to that term in a second) to a cis man in a gay relationship, what would convey the closest impression to her original design? An effeminate cis gay man, with the same mannerisms and style as canon Michiru, or a cis gay man performing hyper masculinity? The former may be related to the original character more but I would argue that from a design perspective the latter is actually the closer equivalent after dissecting the societal expectations Michiru is both fulfilling and subverting, even though both “genderbent” Michirus would seem COMPLETELY different to canon Michiru. But why? What implications on personality and character agency does it have for a character to perform/subvert certain behaviours when the only thing you change is their assigned gender? Is a cis man who makes the same choices as canon Michiru in his presentation expressing fundamentally different personality traits than a cis woman? Why do/don’t we perceive it that way? In short, with what we know of Michiru’s canon personality, if she had been assigned male at birth instead, would she have made the same choices for herself? What is more fitting with her personality? And why and what do we project onto her when we consider this? This is the kind of analysis I run through when I think about “genderbending” characters... But.

I’d argue that most “genderbends” aren’t done well, or done with this analysis in mind, they’re very much just a surface-level embrace of the gender binary and gendered roles/designs. “Genderbends” are one of those things I enjoy playing with myself but probably wouldn’t trust coming from other people unless I already knew where they were working from. A lot of “genderbent” art I see is interesting for me to analyse not because it’s good but because it’s a window into how the artist - and anyone identifying with it - has internalised and expresses gender. I think the very subtle ones - the ones that just barely change a character’s silhouette or facial structure to the point where they “pass” now as a different gender - are both the most fascinating to observe but also the ones that leave the worst taste in my mouth if I don’t know where the artist is coming from and what they’re trying to demonstrate. It is interesting to see just how flimsy our definition of gender is but at the same time so rigid once you are seen to cross that line. And of course, as you said for some a “genderbend” is just an excuse to create more fanservice, which I would argue is incredibly interesting to dissect for how it fits the consensus of acceptable heterosexuality (I cannot stop thinking about the One Piece figures that turn cis male characters into big tiddy anime girls for straight male fans jack off to and how many layers of heteronormativity this is buried under) but again, not a GOOD thing. An anthropological thing. That doesn’t mean that I really want those “genderbends” to exist.

Alright, now to the term “genderbend”. I think the best thing you could do, and what I do on the rare occasions where I share what I make, is to tag them as “cisswaps” instead because it acknowledges that you are working within a cisnormative, binary structure, and if you’re aware of that framing then it at least implies you don’t agree with it. There’s a post roaming around out there that suggests all “genderbends” are trans adjacent and I don’t think that’s accurate or ... good, even. As I said I don’t think cisswaps or “genderbends” are necessarily good things and to suggest an artist adhering rigidly to a binary gender system and couching everything within cissexism is somehow creating a trans narrative is a bad take IMO even if I understand why some trans people would want to perceive it that way. I think gender headcanons are completely different from cisswaps and I love and support them. I don’t know if there’s a specific tag for those, though. If anyone knows of any I’d love to hear them, but I’m afraid they’d just get gunked up with bad content anyway.

This was a long post and the final message I want you to take away is that I cannot tell you if this is something you should support or not because I’m just one person with one very specific experience wrt gender. Some people will tell you cisswaps/“genderbends” are fine and lovely and that all this is overanalysis and there will be others who will tell you they have no merit whatsoever and you should never ever engage with them, even to dissect them.

Personally I think so long as you have a nuanced understanding and approach to gender, you don’t personally ascribe to a binary/cissexism, and, as a cis person, you find and listen to trans experiences, do whatever. That’s more important than whether you reblog someone navel-gazing about hypothetical gender roles in fictional AUs. Tagging stuff like this with “cisswap” is a good place to start, and most importantly it also provides trans people with a tag to block if they don’t want to see this content. And if a trans follower tries to approach you that something you do reblog was hurtful, be open to it.

TL;DR: For me personally cisswaps/”genderbends” are “interesting” but that doesn’t mean "good” and I am very hesitant to actually interact with other people’s because they can be and generally are binarist/cisnormative, but the concept is not inherently bad.

I would love to hear from any of my other trans followers here for their experiences and opinions.

[golden-witch]

Rosa, Rosa, why are you such an idiot?

Hey! I wrote up a long character analysis of Rosa for fun. I hope you enjoy it.

[Read the full post under read more]

The narration mentions in Episode 2 that Rosa still feels like a child because she can’t accept and overcome her trauma which makes her an incapable mother. The banquet scene during the Tea Party has always been one of my favorite scenes in Umineko for its more somber aspects, something both the manga and the anime neglect in order to focus more on the horror themes. I’ll link it here because it’s the most important point of consideration when analyzing Rosa’s character. It certainly leaves an impression of what her childhood was like.

Some people were surprised to learn that Krauss and Eva were full fledged adults when they abused Rosa. If Eva and Krauss are in their 50’s and Rosa is In her early 30’s, that puts about a 20 year age difference between them! This isn't a case of sibling rivalry such as Eva vs. Krauss-- this is the abuse of a child by her adult siblings. We don't know the exact numbers, but we can assume Rosa is closer in age to the cousins than her eldest brother and sister. They suggest this several times in the story when Battler notes her odd position in the family. Rosa is treated as neither an adult nor child and is continuously forced out of conversations with her siblings. (Think of the scene in episode 2 where Kyrie manipulates Rosa to leave the room by gently reminding her that she's left Maria outside.) She acts submissively towards them and follows their guidance. This is likely why 12 year old Battler got the impression that she was “sweet”.

There's also the issue of her parents, who we can assume were neglectful if not equally abusive. I would imagine Kinzo would want as little to do with her as possible; he would have little incentive to raise her as she was a girl and because he was already committed to Beatrice II (who grew up alongside her). Rosa’s relationship with her mother is suggested to be strained (when Rosa talks about running away from home because she did badly on an exam), and I think-- as is the case with the other adults-- that she doesn’t remember the woman fondly.

The way Rosa behaves supports my impression that she grew up in a household where she was undervalued. It’s reasonable to assume she threw herself at the first man who treated her with the slightest bit of compassion and who offered her an opportunity to leave Rokkenjima. His character ended up being flimsy, but someone of Rosa’s background wouldn’t be able to notice the warning signs of abandonment. Rosa believes he left because of her pregnancy, but you could make the argument that he purposefully conned her and dumped her once he had the money Kinzo lent him. Having never been wanted before, Rosa would accept his behavior to feel desirable.

The relationship Rosa had with Maria’s father is one of two romantic relationships mentioned in the story, the other being her fling with the married man in Maria’s book (classy). I don’t know how accurately I can say this reflects all of her romantic endeavors, but we do know that Maria never makes note of any men who might have come in and out of her life. It seems that Rosa doesn’t bring her lovers home out of fear they will leave her due to Maria (as she believes her ex did), so I think the relationships were very shallow. Bringing a boyfriend or girlfriend home with her would have been a step in deepening their bond, but Rosa pushes them away perhaps out of fear they will one day leave her (#abandonment issues). She is in favor of short-term romances with a low level of commitment. This is why I can’t stand when people try to argue that the scene of Rosa in bed with her lover in episode 4 is just “Ange’s fabrication”! Everything about Rosa screams that was the truth of the situation.

“So Rosa sacrifices her time to have passionate one-night stands with guys she doesn’t even care about?” Sort of-- she feeds off of the attention they give her. It’s not very important who her lovers are so long as they acknowledge her as her family did not. She craves the external validation she was denied in childhood. There’s also something to be said about sex as a means of claiming adulthood. I can totally see why someone so insecure of their maturity would go so far.

I could talk a lot about what I make of Rosa’s relationship with other adults. If you want to discuss that further, totally send me an ask, but I’d like to dedicate the later half of the analysis to Maria. This is where I have to give a major content warning for discussions of violent child abuse.

The story alludes strongly to the idea that Maria is most likely on the autism spectrum. I don’t know if it’s canon, but after hearing from autistic fans that Maria resembles their experiences, I feel comfortable saying that she’s neurodivergent. It’s not my place and not within the scope of this essay to make claims about Maria’s mental health, but we should take into account how her behavior affects her relationship with her mother. Nothing Maria does is “abnormal” for a child (I would argue there are no abnormal children); Rambler once answered an ask about a “what if” scenario where Maria was neurotypical and gave the answer that it probably wouldn’t matter in terms of Rosa abusing her. Rosa vents her anger towards Maria. It doesn’t matter if she is a “problem child” or not.

Maria is continuously said to be different from her peers, and differences breed scorn. Rosa wants Maria to be “normally” behaved so she will be acknowledged as a good parent and an adult. Kids are seen as reflections of their parents, and she sees Maria as a threat to her reputation-- especially in front of her siblings, who openly mock her. Ironically, Rosa plays into this expectation; she was considered incompetent as a child and incompetent as an adult. She wants to defy that expectation so badly that she ends up beating her child. It’s a cycle she puts no effort into breaking. For that she should be seen as a deplorable character and an abuser. I believe Ryukishi wanted it to be obvious that Rosa is a neglectful and irresponsible, sometimes violent mother.

Let’s break down their relationship.

Rosa-- at her heart-- cares about Maria’s wellbeing. She acknowledges she should have been a more accepting mother and recognizes that her actions were wrong-- Most notably in episode 8 in the Golden Land. Unfortunately, she is only able to consider mending her relationship with Maria in retrospect since she is, of course, at that point dead.  I believe this indicates that she had the capacity to change her behavior, and it a better universe, she would be able to become a good parent. This is all hypothetical, though there is enough in the story to hint that this was a strong possibility had Sayo not given up on the family. If only someone had intervened successfully…

Ryu also wants us to consider that Rosa is protective of Maria against outside threats. He refers to her as both a mother bear and a mother wolf who will bear fangs when her child is in danger. The story supports this in episode 2 when Rosa fights to protect her daughter from the goats. On the contrary, it is suggested that Rosa’s abuse of Maria stems from how others interpret Maria’s behavior. I don’t really understand how Rosa can both be “protective” of Maria and brutal towards her daughter depending on external threats. I think this is supposed to be further evidence (intentional or not) that Rosa is unbalanced and acts inconsistently.

It was exceedingly difficult for Rosa to manage raising a child. Her polarizing behavior was what led Maria to come up with the “white witch/black witch” concept since a child couldn’t make sense of something so complex. Rosa explains during episode 2 that she often spoiled Maria, and this is seen in episode 4 when she takes Maria out for dessert at a restaurant she can’t afford. This is exemplary of Rosa’s genuine feelings of affection for Maria which she is at a loss for ways to convey. A girl who grew up rich and neglected may see objects as a means to soothe wounds. Her lingering guilt causes her to feed into Maria’s material wants without considering her emotional needs. She overcompensates with gifts. Maria would cry and demand presents, and Rosa would either buy into it to satisfy her or beat her into submission. Neither of these are good parenting!

The reason why CPS is notified about Rosa’s behavior has to do with parental neglect; Rosa left Maria by herself for too long for too many times. We know from Maria’s diary that Rosa was often absent and used the excuse that she was working late into the night and for days at a time, and we know of one instance where Rosa lied and instead went on vacation. However, we can’t say that Rosa was always on vacation when she left Maria alone. I personally believe that Rosa would engage in some unhealthy working habits to offset the cost of her frivolous lifestyle.

More headcanons that I have are that these bursts in irregular behavior for Rosa happened clustered together. Basically, Rosa would irresponsibly work for multiple days straight and then impulsively abandon her daughter to go on vacations in a predictable pattern. I believe Rosa suffers from bipolar II-- the sort of self-sabotaging behavior she engages in is evidence. She wants her business to succeed, but risks its stability. She wants to be a good mother, but she abuses Maria. Her sudden fits of rage and violent mood swings could be connected to this because it's a common symptom for those with mood disorders. I don't think it's out of the question to say that she was suffering from a manic episode during the period Maria writes about in her journal. This isn't to say that people with bipolar II are abusers, I'm just suggesting some of her behavior can be explained this way. This comes from my own experiences and observations, so please don’t take my word for it. I’m just offering up an interpretation.

Anyway, if you want to hear more about Rosa as an abuser, and why she’s responsible for her actions, check it out here!

[ninawritesastory]

What do you think a south park episode on autism would be like?

Well, we already kind of got one with Ass Burgers. Although that one was more of a commentary on the absolute morons who think vaccines cause autism, which in my opinion is probably the more pressing subject. But that’s mostly because herd immunity is vital to the survival of several people I care about and the general abuse of important medicines like penicillin and antibiotics is leading to the evolution of super bugs/viruses that could potentially render a good chunk of modern medicine inert and send us back into the pre-penicillin era which means the mortality rate is going to skyrocket not just in the first word but also in regions such as Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

I’ve never considered going to med school, but I read like crazy and it’s very alarming to me that people who also have never been to med school but apparently do not read are convinced that certain choices, such as whether or not to vaccinate, are somehow completely individual choices with no consequences on anyone but the individual making them. In short, anti-vaxxers are most likely the manifestation of the Horseman of Pestilence and the fact that their entire argument is based on one thoroughly discredited, incredibly skewed study (that doesn’t even qualify as a study) performed by someone whose medical license was immediately revoked upon peer review, yet still gains followers is horrifying to me.

But I’m getting waaaaay off topic. You’re asking about an autism specific episode. There are two ways of going about this that don’t rely on the ‘vaccines cause autism’ bullshit.

Option 1: They create a new character with autism. It would probably be most effective if Matt and Trey were to create a character with a more…obvious case of autism. Maybe obvious isn’t the right word, but neither is severe and there’s not really a good synonym in either case to accurately convey what I’m trying to get across. Think about Thomas in La Petite Tourette’s: it was very obvious that he deviates from the ‘norm’ mentally, but he was still presented as a relatively normal kid trying to lead as normal a life as possible. The same would need to be true of a character created specifically to address autism. Symptoms would need to be present that can’t be easily explained away as something else.

True, people who know enough about autism, who have worked with autistic kids or adults, or who are autistic would likely be able to pick autistic characters out with some degree of ease—this is why autistic headcanons are prevalent. However, for people who have no real or lasting experience with autistic persons, it’s a lot harder for them to recognize the signs. So any episode focusing on this would have to make it obvious, both in how the character acts and in the wording used. It couldn’t be implied; any tics would have to be noticeable or specifically mentioned in dialogue, the differences in thought processes might need to be discussed (possibly between said character’s parents and PC Principal/Mr. Mackey), and so on.

Now, I was never diagnosed with autism. I suspect that I have Asperger’s, but I’ve never been officially diagnosed. However, I’m also female. It’s pretty rare for girls to be diagnosed with autism in childhood unless it’s an incredibly severe case. A lot of the signs tend to fall in line with how society expects girls to act, which means parents who aren’t informed will likely never suspect their daughters of being autistic in any capacity. It’s steadily changing, but it’s still far more common for boys to be diagnosed early than it is for girls. Most autistic girls usually end up self-diagnosed or seeking an official diagnosis in their twenties, after reading about it and finding the signs/symptoms list pretty spot on to their personalities/perceptions. Therefore, I can’t really speak to the experiences of a diagnosed autistic kid.

Option 2: Matt and Trey can have one of the existing characters canonically diagnosed. This would be the trickier route to take, since this would likely be a piece of character development that was never considered prior to the conception of such an episode. My own preference would be Craig, since he already hits a few of the signs/symptoms of autism and it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to canonically give him that diagnosis. But considering how much screentime he’s gotten in the past two seasons as a foil to the Heiman relationship (alongside Tweek), I’m not sure if they’d go that route.

And I can guarantee you that they’d throw in either a Randy or Cartman subplot. Because why wouldn’t they. If they go with Cartman for a subplot, I could probably see him interfering with Tweek and Craig’s relationship. He’d likely exhibit the misconception that autistic people are incapable of love and would probably try to convince Tweek that the relationship was doomed, framing it as concern for Tweek. Kyle would argue, do a bunch of research, and would probably have a personal crisis about whether or not he’s autistic. Meanwhile Tweek is focusing on trying to understand what the diagnosis means for Craig and how he can help. Tweek beating the shit out of Cartman would be a welcome addition.

A Randy subplot…I can’t really think of one, but that’s probably because I absolutely loathe Randy as a character and would be happy if we could a season without seeing him more than once or twice. (Give Kenny his screentime!)

But either way, Matt and Trey would likely do their research. They’ve tackled similar touchy subjects and gotten praise from those communities for the sensitivity they employed. I’m not sure if they’d ever do an autism based episode though; unless Autism Speaks or a celebrity does or says something particularly heinous (but literally everything Autism Speaks says and believes is absolutely heinous, so…), South Park probably won’t touch on it.

They’re probably more focused on Trump and having to carry out the unfinished plotline they boxed themselves into than they are on anything else. And that’s the sort of season they’ve already set themselves up for.

I’m not sure what sort of plotline it would follow, but knowing Matt and Trey, it would be well-handled and present autism not as an illness or a disease, but as something some people are just living with. Just a regular piece of who they are that makes them thick and act a bit differently from the perceived ‘norm’.

[zandyin]

Don’t mind me - I’m reposting some old posts from another blog here cause it’s... relevant. :y This post is from 2016 l m a o

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I got up too early today and have a lot of time to kill, so here’s a rambling of my Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha ship headcanon/mechanics. Yeah. Talking about Louis->Raidou, Raidou/Dahn, and why I’ll probably never draw the obvious slash ship most people have.

This is seriously not going to be interesting if you haven’t played DSRK2 and/or don’t ship any of those.

LOUIS –> RAIDOU

Anyone who follows my art blog probably knows I draw quite a bit of Louis -> Raidou, lmao. It’s been a while since I played DSRK2 (and I have a very shoddy memory in general), but I’ve always seen Louis’ interest in Raidou as very… curiously amused? It’s not a romantic attraction in any sense of the word, and (in my headcanons) Raidou does not reciprocate the feeling at all, haha.

I just like to think grand ol’ Louis Cyphre just wants to have some fun by flirting with a cute boy who may or may not actually be a challenge to take on in a fight. Maybe Louis kinda likes the idea that someone like Raidou can subdue him, if only for a little while. Plus DSRK2 doesn’t hold back on mentioning how beautiful Raidou is – and he is! – so I think even Louis would fall a little for the sideburn detective. :v He sees a lot of potential in Raidou. Iirc, he was interested in seeing Raidou again after the events of the second game for… whatever reason.

Louis doesn’t flirt with the intention to get the goods from Raidou, but at the same time, he probably wouldn’t mind if it went that way. :’^) It’s very one-sided, though. Which is why I’m always writing it as Louis -> Raidou. You could say I like the aesthetic of a one-sided flirting prince of hell towards a beautiful yet unobtainable detective swordsman.

In most of my headcanons, law Raidou just finds it annoying, while chaos Raidou doesn’t reciprocate either but does use it to his advantage. And Louis knows! But Louis always feels like he is in control or he IS in control, so he lets it happen. Anything that happens, Louis has allowed it or knew it would be an outcome. He’s fine with pretty much anything as long as he can watch Raidou do his thing.

Still, I draw too much Louis->Raidou when the main pairing I really love is…

RAIDOU/DAHN

Yes, in that order! This one I’m a bit more serious about. I doubt my words can accurately convey that feeling, but I will try my best!!

Alright, so… where to begin. I was one of those hopeless fools who was easily lead on by a fujoshi seamstress in Mannen-Cho to consider these two as a ship. I used to have the screenshots somewhere, ah!!! I googled it and she asks Raidou if Dahn is “an old lover” and if he came to Mannen-Cho to be with him. Ah… I’m so impressionable.

Anyways, pushing canon aside, I started to really dig the contrast between Raidou and Dahn. Raidou being a very proper looking city boy and Dahn being an unruly looking country boy. Before I burn holes into my own head from rolling my eyes, let’s keep going!

If you play as law Raidou, up to this point he does what he’s told. Usually I think his best interest aligns with those of the Capital. I like to think that… over the course of DSRK2, lmao, Raidou gets to know Dahn. From guy he’s supposed to track down to guy he starts helping to undo the major mistake he made (don’t trust any blond young men!), I think Raidou would start to see the other side of life – going after what you personally want, circumstance and expectations be damned. Dahn has a wild aura about him. I want Raidou to be intrigued by it. I want Dahn to start seeing the other side, too. His rashness led to quite the string of incidents that he clearly did not want to happen, haha. Raidou inspired by Dahn to be a bit more selfish, while Dahn inspired by Raidou to be a bit more selfless…! I know Dahn was doing what he wanted for Akane, but Akane was sort of okay with doing it “for the greater good”, so I do feel Dahn was acting selfishly. That’s what a big brother’s gonna do, tho.

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR END OF DSRK2, which you’ve probably played and finished if you’re even reading this!

“You made me realize you can shape your own future if you take action for what you believe in… Even a stubborn jackass like me was able to change… I’m sure the ones who see you in action will [also change]” – Dahn, right before the Shinado Dahn fight.

Haha, I forgot how much Dahn changes so much towards the end of the game. He hasn’t completely changed, but he starts seeing things the way Raidou does… tragic that he doesn’t get to continue living and show that change. Law Raidou strikes him down, as that’s his duty and promise. From Raidou’s side, I like to imagine he started to think about doing things for himself. Not… unleash a swarm of bugs kinda things for his own means and ends, but just being a bit more-!! Selfish!

Okay, through all of that, you’re probably wondering, “The hell? Where is the ‘ship’ aspect to this?” It’s pretty basic. I love Raidou and Dahn’s dynamic sans shipping as well, however I think Raidou’s new found “selfishness” would manifest itself in – wait for it – slowly being attracted to Dahn.

Big surprise there.

Going even further away from canon, Raidou being intrigued by Dahn!! And the way he does things. Maybe he finds Dahn’s accent cute, as Raidou is no stranger to interesting accents. His demons have all sorts of accents, I’m sure. I wanted Dahn to be that one thing, that one person he could be sort of selfish about – and in Chaos end headcanoning, that’s the Raidou who gives into that selfishness. Law Raidou… well, he still feels that attraction, but he doesn’t let it stop him from doing what he has to do.

Then just completely forget canon after this point, but I’ve thought of too many cute headcanons that make me ship this ship beyond help lmaooooo like you can stop reading here

Dahn’s aware Raidou’s a looker at first, but it doesn’t really start to get to him till they start working together post-Chaos end. Suddenly he finds himself looking at Raidou more often, feeling ‘weird’, and in general wanting to be closer to Raidou as they become friends. I like to imagine this kind of Dahn would even slip heavily into his implied Tohoku-ben(?) accent when Raidou’s really close to him. :’^))))

Raidou always lowkey being into Dahn’s wild look. Doing things on purpose to make Dahn’s accent really apparent like ‘accidentally’ brushing up against him… in whatever situation. Raidou happily staring at Dahn all while being quiet. It makes Dahn uncomfortable to be looked at with such a kind/hungry look, but he likes it. :v  Raidou enjoying his new found selfishness with Dahn while still doing his job to protect the people of the Capital….Wow, I’m going to stop.

And honestly, as with most ships, I have a friend who loves Dahn as much as I love Raidou. We’re always bound to pair our favs together. I shipped Raidou/Dahn before we met, but having someone else to share with definitely strengthens the feelings towards it, haha. [Note from present me: Aw, sad, I’m not friends with that person anymore. :d It was a messy split and I got custody over Raidou/Dahn in the end LMAO I’m kidding]

SO THAT’S WHY I DRAW LOUIS -> RAIDOU WITH THAT SORT OF “FLAVOR”, yet I never draw Raidou/Dahn. Maybe because I’m too lazy to draw Dahn’s outfit. That’s definitely it.

NARUMI/RAIDOU

I just don’t feel it. That’s basically it. I see all the fodder for it, but somehow… I was not taken in. Life would be easier if I shipped only this because I can find a toooooon of art and doujinshi for them.

Try looking for Raidou/Dahn doujinshi where Raidou’s the top! GOOD LUCK!! I own two of them and am still hunting down one I saw the cover of last year. If you… find any…………….. lmk. [Note: I FINALLY FOUND THAT DJ AT THE END OF 2017, I HAD BEEN LOOKING SINCE 2015 Y’ALL!!!]

Since this is my personal blog, feel free to ask me questions and I’ll reply publicly (or privately if that’s what you want) if you wanna talk shop. Send me headcanons for Louis -> Raidou or Raidou/Dahn.

[katsuragi-yako]

—character info sheet tagged by @bomba-tea​ ( thank you so much for tagging me~! )

KATSURAGI YAKO

aliases: High School Detective, Gluttonous Detective, “Louse/Mealworm/Etc”, “Top Slug”

one picture you like best of your character’s fc

two headcanons you have for your character that you never told anyone

Contrary to what it says on my Muse page ( I’ve been meaning to change it but keep forgetting to ), I’ve come to think that Yako dyes her hair blonde rather than it somehow being naturally that way. In the Kamikiri Hairdresser case, she mentions that she always wished she could grow her hair out longer, but because it gets curly, she didn’t like it. So, I started to think that maybe as a way to do something fun with her hair other then growing it out, she started to dye it instead. I also think she might have tried a few different colors like red or light brown before deciding that it was blonde she liked the best. And even when she’s older and has started to let her hair grow out, I think she continues to keep it blonde because she grew attached to it being that color.

Shit, I was gonna try to not be NeuYako Trash™ for like five minutes, but I failed. I actually headcanon that Yako actively keeps herself from telling Neuro with words that she loves him. She tries to never utter or write the words “I love you”. Because she knows it would confuse him and he probably wouldn’t respond like a human would: echoing the sentiment back at her. She knows that he’s a demon and that he doesn’t completely understand human emotions and doesn’t want to force him to respond to paltry spoken or written words when they can clearly convey exactly how they feel about each other more honestly and accurately with their eyes. Though, towards the end of her life when her eyes and vision are failing her and she’s close to death, she might tell him. She might let those words slip out so she can tell him, even if it’s not in the same way that she used to when she was younger.

three things your character likes doing in their free time

I mean, I know it might be obvious as hell and kind of a cliche answer, but... cooking and baking. Yako loves making food almost as much as she loves eating food, and takes great care to make it well. When she has days off ( and she’s not recovering from demonic “affection”, jet lag, or anything else ), she tries every new recipe that she can get her hands on. And, even though she’s a glutton and doesn’t mind devouring all of the food she makes herself, she does enjoy sharing it too if the opportunity presents itself. Seeing others enjoying what she made gives her an amount of joy similar to if she had consumed it herself. But make no mistake, she’ll be having some too. Her stomach is insatiable. 

During the three years that Neuro had to return to hell and even long after he returned, I imagine that Yako spends a lot of time both learning new languages and honing her skills in the ones she already knows. I headcanon that she discovered she has a great talent for it, and she’s very driven to be able to communicate with as many people as she can to help in cases and incidents all around the world. If she’s not spending spare money on food, she’s probably spending it on various language books, lessons, or anything else that she thinks will help her. Though, she probably learns the best through immersion, which is one of the many reasons that she likes to travel so much--it gives her genuine practice in other languages.

Honestly, she probably spends a decent amount of her downtime just... resting, if that makes sense? With the stuff she puts up with from Neuro, running around working cases, and traveling, Yako probably likes to take as much time as she can manage to just relax. And while the things I mentioned above could be seen as relaxing or fun things to do in her spare time, I’m talking more like... calming bubble baths, stretches and ice packs or heating pads to relieve tense/sore muscles, naps, and maybe even massages. Stuff to help her unwind and care for herself after she’s frequently put through the ringer in her hectic life.

seven people that your character loves/likes

Neuro

Godai

Akane

Sasazuka

Honjou

Sebastian/Masaru ( in some weird way haha )

Her Mother and many others

two things your character regrets

Though it’d be very unlikely she’d admit to it, Yako does have many regrets regarding the deaths of both Sasazuka and Honjou. She regrets that she hadn’t noticed the shift in Sasazuka sooner, since reading people is supposed to be her talent and forte. She thinks that maybe if she’d picked up on it sooner without getting a nudge from Godai, they might have been able to stop him or at very least reach him in time to save his life. She doesn’t exactly blame herself for his death, though--she knows that Sicks is ultimately to blame. But the fact that she wasn’t able to truly sense that shift until it was too late is something that she’ll likely carry with her forever. The same could also be said for Honjou in the sense that she regrets, or at least second-guesses, going to talk to him like she did. She sometimes wonders that if she had gone to Neuro first, if the two of them would have been able to get the information from him that they needed and prevent him from committing suicide. To a lesser extent, she also regrets that she hadn’t noticed him pull out the syringe in time to stop him. 

I think... a part of Yako deeply regrets leaving Neuro right after the previously mentioned deaths. Despite it being understandable that she was overwhelmed, scared, hurting, and lashing out ( because let’s be real, even for someone like Yako, that’s a lot for a sixteen year old to handle without breaking down completely ), she still feels regretful that her reaction was to give up, run away, and leave Neuro to essentially fight alone. That she thought it would somehow keep those around her safe, rather than put them in more danger with the threat of Sicks looming overhead. It might have seemed like a good and safe idea to her at the time, but I think she quickly realized how much the odds were stacked against humanity, and that her pulling out of her partnership with Neuro was only going to make it worse. Which I think is one of the reasons why she was so willing to do anything to have him take her back: because if there was going to be any chance of Sicks being defeated, it had to be the two of them.

two phobias your character has

Honestly I really don’t think Yako has any phobias? It’s stated in canon that she’s not a very fearful person so it’d be hard to assign any “official phobia” to her. While some “supernatural” enemies or beings can truly frighten her like X and Sicks, she also spends a large amount of her time with a demon and is mostly unfazed. And though she did lash out and shut down after deaths of those close to her, I still wouldn’t consider it enough to say she has any sort of phobia of death. Especially considering the line of work she’s in.

tag ten people @itadxkimasu, @deviliciious​, @duelhearted, @timeovercome

[sage-nebula]

Hey Scrawlers, hope you've been well. I would really like your beyond amazing imagination and thoughts on this little Alain thought I've been going over. If in the anime, Alain did in fact turn out to be Augustine's son 'biologically' (as many appeared to expect o.0), in a major plot twist, how you imagine it to build up and happen? Alain meeting Sycamore? Do either of them know or hint? How would it affect and change Alain? What about Alain's Mother? How would YOU play it out if it did happen?

Hi! I’ve been all right. I hope you’ve been well too, and thank you for the compliments. =)

Honestly, I really don’t think that scenario would work, and I’m honestly a little bit averse to it for a couple of reasons (as much as I do like to point out how much they resemble each other).

First, I don’t think it would work because Alan doesn’t address Sycamore as “father,” but rather, as “Professor.” Japanese culture is quite polite (though there are rude forms of address as well), and in particular, respect given to one’s parents is a very important aspect of their culture. How one addresses their parents is part of this, and I feel like it would be pretty disrespectful for Alan to not address Sycamore as his father if Sycamore was, in fact, supposed to be recognized as his father officially (i.e. biologically or through official adoption). I think that a lot of people thought that there might be a plot twist wherein they were related back when Alan was first shown because of how similar they look, but after seeing that Alan is still calling him “Professor” even by the time the series ends, I’m pretty sure that theory is dead in the water. They’re not biologically related, and insofar as canon goes, Alan isn’t officially adopted (at which point he would change from “Professor” to “Dad,” and personally, if we’re going with Japanese forms of address given the fact that this show was originally produced in Japanese, I have it in my head that the specific word used would be otou-san due to the fact that it’s respectful without being overly formal).

With that said, there could always be a situation wherein they turn out to be biologically related without either of them having realized it, but I personally don’t like this scenario for a couple of reasons:

The first, and most basic, is that I honestly see Sycamore as being gay. There’s a line in Genesis where Fulbert jokes about Alan potentially being the result of an illicit tryst Sycamore had once, and Sycamore replies with, “I’ve never had an illicit tryst with a woman in my life, and you know it.” The joke here, aside from little!Alan then asking very seriously what a “lisit tryst” is, is that Sycamore is specifying that he’s never had an illicit tryst with a woman, i.e., it’s entirely possible he’s had some with men. Sycamore has nothing against women, of course, and in fact some of his best friends are women (e.g. Diantha), but he’s just not romantically or sexually attracted to them. Thus, it’d be pretty impossible for him to conceive a biological child, whether that child is Alan or otherwise. (Well, I guess he could have always donated to a sperm bank, but I can’t really see him doing that—and especially not at age twenty, which is how old he would have been when Alan was born.)

More importantly, and more personal to me, is that I honestly feel like it would cheapen their relationship.The thing is, if there was a “surprise, they’re biologically related!” moment, then it almost feels like it’s saying, oh, that’s why they connected so well, that’s why they love each other so much, that’s why they’re so important to each other. Even if that’s not the intent (and I know you, I’m positive that’s not what you meant by that!), that’s how it comes across. Rather than showing that they connect so well simply because of how they are as people, or that they love each other the way they do because they’ve formed that bond after all these years, it’s almost like it’s expected because they’re biologically related, and that … bothers me, because I personally believe that biological relationships are meaningless. Like, okay—it’s meaningful in the sense that you can probably find an organ donor easier if you know who your biological family is, because your biological relatives are more likely to be a match for you. But otherwise? Blood does not denote family. Family is not who you’re born into, it’s who you form a bond with. Found or adopted families are not lesser than those who have blood ties. It doesn’t matter that Alan is adopted (unofficially or otherwise), because Sycamore loves him just as much as he would if Alan was his biological child, and likewise, Alan loves Sycamore just as much as he would if Sycamore was his biological father. They are father and son not because Alan is biologically related to Sycamore, but rather because Sycamore took him in, Sycamore raised him, and they love each other as family.I admit that I have a lot of complicated, somewhat personal feelings about this, because my biological mother was absolutely horrid to me, whereas my stepmother is the only woman who has ever acted like a good mother to me. (And in honesty? I probably get along better with her on average than I do either of my biological parents.) Most of the family that I see nowadays is not biologically related to me. Rather, they’re step-relatives, but I know them better and have better relationships with them than I do most of the people I’m biologically related to. So for me, the idea that a biological relationship is necessary is … nonsense, and depending on the situation, borderline insulting nonsense (though note: nothing you’ve said has been insulting or offensive, I’m just speaking generally here, so please don’t feel like I’m angry with you, because I promise I’m not!). And I feel like that having a “surprise, they’re biologically related” moment with Sycamore and Alan really would cheapen what they have, and would reduce it to “well of course they’re like this, they’re biologically related after all.” It’s the same thing that completely cheapened and destroyed Sigma and Phi’s bond in Zero Escape. I’m really not a fan of it.

So I’m sorry to give kind of a non-answer to this question, but as fun as it is to point out how much they resemble each other (or the body language they share at times), I’m actually kind of averse to a surprise plot twist where they are biologically related. Not only would it have to be a surprise to both of them (because again, I feel like if they knew, Alan would already be addressing him as “Dad” rather than “Professor” to convey that accurately to the Japanese audience the show was intended for), but because it would be a surprise to both of them I feel like it would cheapen what they have from an audience perspective. They are father and son, absolutely, and not being biologically related doesn’t change that one bit.

As for the rest of it, though: Even if they were biologically related, it wouldn’t change Alan. While I do think some traits are inherent to who we are as individuals, by and large I think we’re more the product of our environments (i.e. it’s both nature and nurture, but nurture has a heavier emphasis than nature), and since Sycamore would have raised him either way, Alan would be more or less the same. So it really wouldn’t matter in that sense, which is yet another reason why they’re perfect the way they are. ♥ (And as for how Alan met Sycamore, well … we have Genesis for that. ;) )

With all of that said, I do have pretty concrete headcanons about Alan’s biological parents, his mother included, and if you’d like to know more about that, I would certainly be happy to answer. =)

(And once again, just to emphasize: Nothing you said upset or offended me, I just have a lot of thoughts and feelings and that makes me rather verbose about it, haha. But I promise I’m not upset in the least, so I’m sorry if any of this came across that way. I really didn’t mean for it to!)