#or idk maybe it is more complex than that even in a meta way. maybe everyone is just coping with what they saw and interpreted differently

[scalproie]

people will see curly being violently dehumanized and will go "oh no! let me do the same in the exact opposite way!"

[sepublic]

Christianity for Dana Terrace and TOH

I have to wonder about and consider The Owl House as an expression of Dana Terrace's own nuanced relationship with Christianity. We know she was raised in a Catholic school, and we've heard of the out-of-context incident where she got put into a headlock by a nun as a child (idk if context even matters in this scenario);

Plus, there's the show's obvious critiques of Christianity, via Belos' fanaticism and demonization of witches, plus his superiority complex and belief in predestination. And then we have Tarak bonding with King as a potential father figure, even being mistaken for his dad, only to sacrifice him anyway for the Grand Huntsman despite whatever hesitations he has; This story beat echoes the tale of Abraham and Isaac. The Emperor’s Coven/Cult is clearly Catholic.

But at the same time, we have Steve's reminiscing over the Titan as perhaps just some dude who doesn't know what he wants, either; And he's saying this as a former member of the Emperor's Coven, which itself applied a very Christian understanding of the Titan via Belos. We have Luz meeting the Titan in-person, and seeing that he's not some deity but just a person who meant well and tried his best.

The show emphasizes people being able to improve and get better and needing that chance, plus what I've said about Luz possibly being meant to represent a more positive, accurate portrayal of Jesus Christ; She dies and is resurrected with the power of the Titan, who isn't quite God but maybe she is in a meta sense? It's complicated.

So to psychoanalyze a real life person through their art (which I guess is what single author classes does to a mf), I have to consider that it's not as simple as Dana condemning Christianity as a whole; More than likely, a specific brand of Christianity, namely Evangelicalism, Catholicism, etc. We have to remember that what we often criticize as Christianity is more so a specific denomination, or group of; Christianity is a widespread religion comprised of countless different takes and interpretations of the Bible.

And IIRC (a source would be helpful), I think Dana even clarified that her experience with Catholic school wasn't wholly negative either? She did not consider herself abused, or at least abused abused. Her feelings might be mixed, especially because one doesn’t need to personally experience the worst to know about it; That is another way in which one might become critical.

I don't think Dana is outright resentful of Christianity as a whole, she might just have complicated feelings, criticisms, and thoughts; Tbf, this is how many denominations came to being. So when I see Steve reflecting on the Titan, and Luz getting to meet him... I think these scenes are, in a way, Dana making peace with the idea of God in her life; Getting to consider her relationship with and belief (or lack thereof) in him, and his paternal status to the world as a whole.

She's also recognizing his fallibility, God is a person and like any person his insight and support is illuminating, but not all-encompassing; It's not doctrine, it's just advice, from one person to another. So when the Titan reassures Luz, or Dana, he's not saying she's the specialest chosen one in the world; He's just someone with a lot of experience who can provide some guidance and clarification on life, not unlike Eda.

The Titan saying goodbye to Luz feels like Dana being able to part on -ultimately- good terms after resolving that major anxiety in her life, on a final note that is no longer resentful and more a fond memory overall. It’s her moving to the next stage of her life, as Luz herself does, now able to carry and believe in herself, and not need that same guidance to figure out what to do.

It’s a coming of age moment appreciating what was given by a paternal figure, with Dana now comfortable exploring other beliefs and practices after making her farewell with Christianity by realizing it isn’t absolute, yet still treasuring what it was able to give her. So she carries on what she can, at least in spirit, like… Luz and the glyphs, remembering them, and now having her own palisman to continue her love of magic that the Titan helped support. So we have both the narrative meaning to Luz behind all of this, and the real-life significance for Dana herself, which aren’t quite the same but there is overlap. And there’s also the other meaning for Dana in how the Titan represents her father, which we’ve already discussed.

So The Owl House and the storyline of the Titan could be Dana's own nuanced takeaway from Christianity; Her exploring how she feels about it, what she appreciates, what she doesn't, how it fits into the rest of her worldview. And I don’t think Dana is trying to convert anyone, nor condemn those who feel irreverent. I think she’s more about deconstructing Christianity to reconstruct it.

Be Gay, Do Witchcraft of course, I think there is a catharsis in exploring that. And also, because the sentiment behind that phrase might be less about Christianity being inherently evil, and more so that many queers don’t care what evangelicals think of them anymore; So sure, we’ll humor your fears for fun, we ARE the demons we’re accused of being. It’s like Eda saying “Well we ain’t!” in response to Belos’ claim that humans are inherently better. Plus demonized belief systems that aren’t Christianity deserve validity as well, hence the pagan influences being portrayed positively, with the narrative questioning the dismissal of certain ideas being ‘demonic’ or ‘savage’.

And of course, co-existence IS possible. And I find this important because it can be easy to just dismiss religion entirely in an edgy internet atheist type of way, but in the end one must reconcile that religion means a lot for a lot of people, many whom ARE chill and willing to co-exist; The narrative presents the spirituality of the Boiling Isles as something precious, for example. All belief systems are valid, not just these select few.

And maybe they don’t have to be mutually exclusive with queerness or “alternative” lifestyles, because a lot of people from these demographics aren’t quite comfortable with just getting rid of religion entirely, and they’re entitled to still maintaining that connection. If feminists can still have a nuanced relationship with femininity, so can believers with their religion.

People are simply asking to be allowed to exist and practice their beliefs in peace, they aren’t really calling for the eradication of the other. Just as queers don’t actually intend to abolish heterosexuality, they just want to be left alone. Let people decide how they feel about certain things, instead of making them get rid of it for their own good; That is every individual’s personal choice, just as yours is. And that feels relevant, given how much Choice is a theme in this show, and especially in the finale in which Luz meets the Titan properly, with the Titan emphasizing this agency to her.

[bleachbleachbleach]

You've always been my go-to for all things Bleach lore and world-building! Do you think Shinigami all sleep in futons or beds? Or maybe it varies from character to character? We've seen the 4th division with beds in their wards, but I think every other character has slept in futons.

Haha, thank you! We do love a furniture deep-dive here, and people's headcanon speculations about shinigami life even more.

I started a list of any time we'd ever seen a character in some kind of bed (futon or frame), but it mostly just ended up being a long list of "_______ at the 4th," lol, so we'll see all those aside (almost all those aside). But canonically, there is a mixture! We see:

Hinamori in Aizen's futon

[Bleach 100]

Ukitake in his quarters

[Bleach e40]

Isane in her quarters

[Bleach 179]

Hisana at the Kuchiki house

[Bleach 179]

I think Rukia had a similar setup during the Bount Arc, as well.

Also, I'd like to note that for the record as I was retrieving *bed pictures* I got emotionally destroyed by my re-encounter with this panel. It is just SO deeply sad:

[Bleach 180]

The incredible, isolating vastness of the room, and the way the shadow cuts across the space. ToT <33333 It also reminds me of a really excellent meta piece done by afinepiece, where she analyzed the panels from Byakuya's story about Hisana and pointed out sections where the panel visuals might suggest Byakuya's memory/headspace more than physical reality. Her journal is deactivated but I know the reblog is on B3 somewhere! I'm inclined to go with that reading here, even though I also feel like the room probably just *looked like this* because every room in Soul Society is like this. (Maybe it's also for airflow, given her illness seemed partially respiratory and possibly contagious? ngl I'm basing this off that one anime elaboration scene and my co-blogger's post about Circus Hisana and Elephant TB).

In my mind Byakuya's convalescent setup was the same as Hisana's (is this the sad Seireitei equivalent of couples' outfits) but I was wrong:

[Bleach 180]

He's in a bed! But from the look of this building he's probably at the 4th and not at home. Put simply, this building is too brutish and workmanlike to be part of the Kuchiki complex:

[Bleach 180]

Hanatarou's quarters (implied)

[Bleach e259]

The tatami floor, layout, and big closet on the right-hand side seem to imply that Hanatarou uses a futon.

Abarai family quarters (implied)

[Bleach "No Breathes from Hell"]

This is probably not the only room in this house and they could put *anything* in those cabinets, but their sheer number and the style of the room suggests that this converts to a futon-filled bedroom, regardless of what might exist in other parts of the house.

Bonus 1: Renji in jail

[Bleach 118]

Is this at the 6th? Is this at the 4th? I always assumed the 6th, though obviously the 4th was involved. Idk, Byakuya left him on the ground. Maybe if you don't pick up your invalids the 4th just stashes them in their jail.

Bonus 2: Hitsugaya in Junrinan (non-shinigami, non-Seireitei)

[Bleach -16 (in between 286 and 287)]

These examples are pretty skewed in favor of futons, but if we think about this collection of characters, there is an overrepresentation of people who trend more traditional in terms of aesthetic, so they might not meaningfully represent the whole. Also, half the list is the same family.

We've seen a number of different offices and meeting rooms for each division, as well as some private residences, which have been a mix of Western and traditional styles in terms of the building itself and the furniture within it. Most of the offices seem to have Western furniture (or at least, the 10th, 6th, and 3rd), whereas Byakuya and Aizen, at least, seem to prefer the traditional at home.

Though, I don't know what this big-ass room is, but given its size and feeling of formal reception, this may well be the 5th's office?

[Bleach 100]

NB 1: I tried to look up what the office looks like under Shinji, but what is happening here:

[Bleach "No Breathes from Hell"]

NB 2: The 2nd also has traditional receiving rooms (used by both Yoruichi and Soi Fon, wherever the division between Shihouin and the 2nd is. But I assume Soi Fon's office is not the Shihouin Family Receiving room).

--

My feeling is that the differences are more regional/Division-based than personal preference-based, and *when*/by whom this design language was established depends on how much time and money the people in charge want to devote to furniture.

But that doesn't necessarily mean each Division is uniform, since we can see Isane and Hanatarou, both seated officers of the 4th, have different-style rooms! Maybe this is an effect of the 4th being an early bed adopter for their general professional purposes. Unohana is 100% a futon lady. I feel like Isane just accepted whatever was originally in the room, and that if there were no bed at all in the room she would sleep on the floor before asking to remodel. Does that mean a previous 4th VC wanted to modernize the VC quarters?

Was that previous 4th VC the original bedframe proselytizer, and got permission from Unohana to do up their quarters like a model home that gave examples of both types of room? Do Isane and Unohana live in an IKEA showroom?

What are the benefits of futons?

the room can be multi-use, a general common room by day and sleeping dorm by night

don't have to make a bunch of bedframes

Given what a big deal everyone makes out of transporting goods from the Living World, I feel like they probably make all their furniture and don't import particleboard from Nitori, so this would be expensive! Plus, given the amount of building reconstruction that needs to happen, I feel like there's probably a fairly small quota of wood released to civilians and/or divisions for non-essential use.

What are the benefits of bedframes?

BUNKBEDS

easier cleaning/long-term savings?

Yeah, you'd have to make the bedframes and have a whole separate common room, but having beds implies you've probably done away with the tatami in the room, since you're not really supposed to put heavy furniture on the mats. And I don't think in a barrack with heavy use you'd be able to rely on shinigami simply "being careful." Same logic as college dorms and their "IKEA, but completely indestructible" furniture.

So if you decide in the long-term that you don't want to do tatami maintenance/replacement and want wood furniture on wood floors, maybe the bed route is for you! ("You" here meaning "your division"!) At which point it'd be a matter of:

caring enough to do a cost/benefit analysis about this

whether or not you want to preserve the traditional aesthetic

whether you have the initial capital to invest in making the change

Some additional thoughts:

We know that at least a portion of the 2nd has heated floors, as financed by Oomaeda. I'm not a heated floors aficionado--though I stayed at an AirBnb once with a heated driveway--NUTS) but I feel like that would...not work with tatami? That over time the heat would dry them out too much and make them brittle? So maybe the 2nd has beds.

Despite the fact that the 10th office changes out their couch out a few times during the canon timeline, I feel like there's a 0% chance Hitsugaya has considered a bedding/architecture overhaul during his tenure at the 10th. He's spent the last 15 years developing a real filing system and an actual budget procedure. He didn't come in with extra money to put towards beds and the 46 doesn't generally approve that kind of line item. That's more of a "gift fund" expense.

Shinji is trying to get a Pod Hotel proposal approved, on the grounds that the idea would benefit more than just the 5th. They could implement it in the Tsumesho (Gotei WeWork)! And provide them in strategic outposts across Rukongai!

During what decade was the 11th briefly "HAMMOCK DIVISION" because it seemed like the cheapest, most low-maintenance option?

[angy-grrr]

i dont have the energy to make the meta now BUT before any leaks I want to say something; after reading again this amazing post about chapter 424, which explains too some Japanese staples and perspectives, I started thinking, could izu//ocha moments count as this intimate exchange of promises and reminding the other how great the other is?

And my conclusion is, well, not really, because the promise they made at the same time, and the memories that remind of it, are not to each other -they'll stop them, they say, but not even looking at each other. They look at the city, the ruins, and im guessing have different feelings about that conversation.

Ochako's promise was for the world? For Himiko? She went there to not think about her qualities, to force herself to see her as just a villain, and yet when the battle happens, all she wants is to go reach her even if others dont understand.

Izuku's promise was for the world? For Tenko? For both? The last chapters showed how, even if he wanted to do more to help and actually save, he is also angry about all the pain caused by the war, and keeps both emotions in his heart, more or less balanced.

Maybe this was just a promise to themselves, more than anything else.

After reading that post, it kind of just convinced me more to not see this moment as an izu///ocha moment, along with the flashbacks to it, as they are reminders of their respective goals and feelings towards villains, not towards each other.

I also started to think, maybe there was a bigger reason why Ochako didnt think at all about that scene in her fight -she was clear in her mission to get to Himiko, even with the struggles and miscommunication. Was Izuku 100% convinced about going to Tenko? This isnt bashing at all, but appreciating his complexity -he wants to save and have a happy ending for everyone, he is the most idealistic of them all, and will try to help everyone who needs it, but how can he help this person? The thoughts about all the hurt caused by him, even under AFO's influence, its a lot to handle, and he is a villain too. How can he help him truly, when he himself is in pain, confused, and mad?

Maybe the flashbacks can be interpreted as a way for him to remember there's a human in there, who is also lost, cries, and suffers, instead of the unstoppable monster that he wants to believe he is, and honestly, that Izuku did too when he lost his mind.

Idk, maybe this was obvious, but it makes me happier to have Ochako be there to support Izuku as his friend and hero, not because she is another love interest. She is crazy and different from him! Let her be like that!

[wimbledon2008]

so i just finished the captive prince series about a week ago and am rereading it now. just finished the hello lover scene and honestly im still so confused over what's going on in laurent's head lmao like??

was he previously compartmentalizing his resentment so well that real feelings developed, but now he finally has a chance to truly let his anger out, he's locking down the positive feelings?

was he being truthful about manipulating damen the whole time (highly unlikely to me)? or was the cruelty in and of itself a play, either to push damen away despite not actually wanting to, or some other convoluted reason? bc damen really would have done anything he asked, trying to outmaneuver him like that was unnecessary.

my first theory feels the most right to me, and he just needed more time to process and purge his desire for revenge but idk im a taurus and very akielon coded. i love laurent but i do not understand that man lol

okay, disclaimer, i haven't read the books in quite some time so this probably isn't the fullest or deepest analysis. i welcome any additions or corrections from those who are better at meta than me <3

so the hello lover scene is incredibly complex and nuanced, a standard of pacat's writing that makes his works so infinitely re-readable. based on my personal understanding of the scene, there are a few key things that help to explain why laurent behaves the way he does in the tent scene:

1. laurent needs damen and the akielons to win against his uncle, which he very much wants to do. charcy didn't go how he'd originally planned, and he knows damen is pissed about it and probably thinks the worst of laurent right now - that he intentionally abandoned the akielons at charcy for his own purposes. so laurent is being manipulative; he is trying to outmaneuver damen. because what damen says is true: laurent has no allies, no friends, he's ruined his reputation by aligning himself with akielos, etc. we as the readers know that damen cares deeply for laurent and wouldn't just abandon him, and if laurent simply explained what happened and asked damen to help him, damen wouldn't hesitate to stay at his side. but laurent doesn't think damen has any reason to trust him, so laurent can't trust damen either. so instead of being honest, he chooses to be cold-blooded, to assert control over the situation and force damen's hand to ensure that the alliance he worked so hard to establish stays intact. he could've just asked, but this is laurent, and there are other factors at play, such as the fact that

2. laurent is already in love with damen by the tent scene, or at least most of the way there. but laurent can no longer pretend damen is anyone other than the person who killed his brother. damen walks into that tent as prince damianos, in full akielon regalia, covered in blood, with a sword. laurent has been doing some aggressive compartmentalizing, especially in order to have allowed himself to sleep with damen. who killed his brother, which was the inciting incident that made laurent's life a living hell. laurent has not forgiven damen for auguste, and he's having to really confront that hatred and anger for maybe the first time since the first book. and laurent is also punishing himself for caring for and sleeping with damen, his brother's killer. can you even imagine? it's better not to. laurent probably hates himself as much as he hates damianos in that moment. so he shoves all those glimmering, positive feelings down because he wants to hurt damen, and himself too. and none of this is particularly rational because

3. laurent is very upset at the beginning of king's rising. this is an understatement. he's still reeling from nicaise's death, which he blames himself for, he's losing damen, the only person he trusted, he was recently stabbed, and everything is spiraling out of his tightly held control. and when laurent is upset he's cruel. he's not at his best in the tent scene. he's clinging to his own self-preservation, and he's making it up as he goes along because whatever his original plan was got blown to hell, which is clear because he's saying shit that doesn't even make sense. see, e.g., this post about him allegedly enduring damen's "fumbling attentions" to win a battle he didn't even know about at the time. while laurent is being cold and ruthless to secure his position as best he can (see no. 1), he's also acting from a place of emotion instead of strict rationality, which is how he typically operates, and how he prefers to act. he's on the defensive, he's deeply confused and unable to cope with all of his conflicting feelings about damen, and he's lashing out - protecting himself before damen can hurt him first. and then damen literally sticks his thumb in his stab wound. basically: our boy laurent's going through it in a major way.

going back and re-reading your message i realize i've essentially just reiterated everything you initially said but with a lot of extra words. so i guess the long and short of it is: you're right. honestly there are so many ways to interpret the tent scene and everything else laurent says and does, which is what makes him so fascinating! so thanks for giving me the opportunity to dive back into his psyche for a little while <3

[kafus]

i say this with zero judgement whatsoever, it's just an observation, but i've noticed that more casual pokemon players (completely valid way to play), when they see someone doing more intense/complex play, refer to anything of the sort as "competitive" or "the meta"; i've been seeing this a lot on my entei post recently but i get that a lot in general on my posts. i guess that's interesting to me because except on rare occasion i don't actually post about competitive pokemon and i only got into competitive pokemon more seriously like... literally this year. not to say i was "bad" at pokemon overall before, but competitive pokemon is like, a specific skillset, you can be very good at other parts of pokemon and even in-game battle facilities and suck ass at VGC/BSS ladder, i know i did at first. i don't think i ever lumped it all in together so i wonder what leads people to do that :thinking: i guess lack of knowledge means you wouldn't be able to distinguish the two or maybe lack of personal interest just means you don't care to distinguish the two? idk (well more than 2 there's so many pokemon playstyles but u get what i mean)

[monstersinthecosmos]

As a fellow Marius lover, I always find it kind of disheartening how most of the content/fandom talk about him (meta, fic, fanart, etc.) revolves around m/m ships (Marius/Armand in particular but I’d even go as far to include Marius/Daniel here) when, in my opinion, Marius is like the one male character in the VC universe whose relationships with women are far more interesting than his relationships with other men (the only other character might be Lestat but even then it’s pretty 50/50). They’re so monumental and so full of complexities and pain and so much love and they define him and inform his character in ways that I think, his relationships with men simply do not. Interesting/hot under the right circumstances? Sure but like ARE YOU GUYS SEEING THIS MAN??? AND HOW HE RELATES TO WOMEN??? It’s one of the best things Anne ever wrote and I can never get enough of it and it makes me sad how little content there is of it and I feel I can never say this out loud because I would never want to make people feel bad about what they ship (truly not my intention here) but ugh SO MUCH potential there for life changing discourse and meta about Marius and the women he’s loved and lost and have shaped who he is and there’s like… nothing.

Tl;dr the reason I’m sending this ask is because I’m a firm believer that you must be the change you want to see in this world and because YOU get it! And every time you post or write about Marius/Pandora (or Marius/Akasha! Or talk about Marius/Bianca) an angel gets its (black) wings. You are seen, you are loved and appreciated tysm <3

OKAY FIRST OF ALL THIS WAS SUCH A DELIGHT TO GET IN MY INBOX, SECOND IM GOING TO BE COMPLETELY HONEST AND ADMIT I FEEL TOO INCOHERENT TO TACKLE THIS TOPIC HAHA. I don’t feel articulate enough to do it justice. And I don’t say that to be obnoxious and self deprecating but like in all honesty idk how to synthesize it neatly but I think you’re sharing some GREAT IDEAS. 

I have to say this in bullet points because I don’t feel equipped to string this into a cohesive post:

Marius was based on Anne’s husband, and Marius/Pandora was based on their marriage!!!!! And I think it explains a lot about why their relationship feels so fuckin POTENT to me, like it’s so genuine!!!!!!! And like knowing that I think it makes sense why she wrote him so HOT lol. Like she’s just writing thirsty stuff about her husband right? LOL

Also like insofar as there’s a lot of genderfluidity in VC there’s also something vaguely misogynist about it at times. And Anne Rice was a mega feminist and her work had so much womens lib in it!!!!! So I don’t think it’s intended as misogyny at all vs. Anne having conversations about gender and maybe her own relationship to gender. I think enough characters have said vaguely misogynist stuff that it makes me think it’s an Anne Problem vs being Watsonian. (This is also a historical/time period issue and we can discuss another time if and when vampires are supposed to break out of that when they transcend humanity and social constructs even when they’re still saying weird sexist shit at their big ages.) But I say that to say all VC characters are a tad sexist, even if perhaps she was writing with the intention of her own male power fantasy/male superiority/penis envy. AND THAT MAKES MARIUS VERY INTERESTING. 

Cause like really the three main ladies in his life (Akasha, Pandora, Bianca) DO define him so much! And we don’t see him pine for Armand the way he did for any of them! Why!!!

Like there’s that aspect of sexism where women can be infantilized by men who don’t think they’re being unkind and it makes me wonder, especially when the author is a boomer, like where is that line between condescension and respect? I don’t have an answer here, this is too big-brained for me LOL but like he is SO devoted to the women in his life and I just wonder like if he sees them as creatures unlike himself, you know? 

This is headcanon territory but I bet he’s such a fucking sub to Pandora lol and it just thrills me that he spent 2000 years begging Akasha for affection and she ignored him the whole damn time wow. And he continued to simp!

AND ALSO LIKE, I think people DO NOT DISCUSS THIS OFTEN ENOUGH, but did we forget that he chose Armand because he needed a Bianca rebound? He was absolutely TORTURED by his love for Bianca and picked Armand because he didn’t want to kill her oh my god. Oh my god!!! HE KEPT HER LETTER IN HIS POCKET OVER HIS HEART OKAY??? HE DIDN’T WANT TO DRAG HER INTO HIS COLD AND FATAL DOMAIN????? Fuck lol

It’s so fucked up that he didn’t go after Armand but spent like actual fucking millennia trying to find Pandora. HE KNEW EXACTLY WHERE ARMAND WAS AND LEFT HIM THERE LOL BUT PANDORA HAUNTED HIM EVERY NIGHT OF HIS LIFE FOR CENTURIES.

After everything he wound up spending like 200 years with Bianca or something and ?????? CORRECT because Bianca was the fledgling he actually wanted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But it’s odd, I know I’ve said this 337589235 times, but Marius like. Has an idea of the person he wants to be and he tries SO HARD to live by logic & reason and he just can’t reconcile with the fact that he has EMOTIONS. And so like part of the person he wants to be like, open/empathetic/wise and he begs his lovers/students/fledglings to CHALLENGE HIM when he’s not actually healed enough to be challenged? And to me there’s something kinda like, extra spicy about it when you’re in Rice World and you’re a lil sexist; how much that burns EXTRA when it’s Pandora or Bianca sticking up to you or AKASHA FUCKIN IGNORING YOU. 

Just really incredible that this person who is like the epitome of a patriarch has such fucked up relationships with all the women in his life. And like he underestimates these women, like the way he tries to manipulate Bianca and she leaves him! PANDORA AND AKASHA ARE UNAVAILABLE TO HIM AND BIANCA FUCKIN LEAVES.

akasSHA JUST IGNROING HIM!! JUST STRAIGHT UP FUCKIN IGNORING HIM FOR 2,000 YEARS!!!! HE'S OBSESSED WITH HER!

Anyway Enkil is ignoring him too but he doesn’t give a shit about that guy tbh lol 

Also the amount of space he gives Eudoxia and Zenobia in his book like there’s more here too but tbh it’s midnight and I can’t start unpacking. I just think like, in 2000 years it’s interesting how Eudoxia wound up having such a lasting impact on his life. 

I did just peek at the Eudoxia part and I’m dying, he goes “Her face was small, oval, and as close to perfection as anything I've ever beheld, even though she bore no resemblance to Pandora who was for me perfection itself.” CERTIFIED WIFE GUY.

What kinda mommy issues are we dealing with here? HIS MOTHER WAS A SLAVE THAT DIED IN CHILDBIRTH AND HE INHERITED HER GENES AND LOOKED LIKE HER AND DIDN’T LOOK LIKE HIS FATHER & BROTHERS? AND HE’S SORT OF AN OUTCAST AS A HUMAN LIKE ? THE STIGMA HERE? AND THEN HE SPENDS 2000 YEARS WORSHIPPING HIS NEW MOTHER??? PERHAPS YOU COULD SAY ENSLAVED TO HER? IDK MAN. 

IS THIS ALSO WHY HE WAS SO OBSESSED WITH LOSING PANDORA?

The irony too, and something I think a lot of people miss, is that he DIDN’T WANT TO MARRY PANDORA LOL. He wanted to be betrothed to a child so that he could FUCK OFF and NOT get married because she wasn’t old enough to get married! He fucked off! He went exploring! He said this is not for me! 

AND TO GO OUT INTO THE WORLD AND BE MURDERED BY HIS MOTHERS PEOPLE???? IDK. 

I’m not sure how these last two points tie into anything but I just wanted to mention his complicated relationship with Pandora and his own heritage lol. And then Akasha like DELIVERS Pandora to him because she’s like “wow this guy needs somebody lol and I am not emotionally available” — Akasha who was famously a violent genocidal radfem and who would not approve of his relationship with Armand but explicitly allowed him to have Pandora and Bianca. IDK WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN! 

Did Akasha approve of these women because she knew Marius was completely pussywhipped and would worship them and she wanted to see someone mommydom the fuck out of him and she knew that Armand would never be that person? 🫢

And again I want to say like, taking the author into consideration!! Anne Rice had a HORRIFIC relationship with her mom so you see these themes pop up occasionally in her work. DESPITE ALL OF THAT SHE IS STILL A FEMINIST AND WRITES ABOUT MATRILINEAR FAMILIES like The Great Family or the Mayfairs. But thinking about Mothers in Anne Rice Works makes me think a lot about this like, the damage they can do and the voids they can leave even when you’re a feminist and love women! You see a TON of this with Gabrielle and I always think that Lestat & Marius are such similar characters that you can do a lot of extrapolating or backwards engineering to ask questions about them and how they work, since we get SO MUCH Lestat POV in this series to work with and how we can zoom out sometimes and ask like, what is common across her entire body of work and what is more specifically common between Lestat & Marius and WHAT EVEN MORE INTERESTINGLY is a result that they were both based on her husband in their inceptions. 

Like how much of this has to do with Marius’s actual feelings towards men vs women on purpose, or how much was subconscious author bias, how much was simply that Anne Rice based him on her husband and she was THIRSTY, idk. It’s always hard to say in VC because Anne was such an intuitive and self-indulgent author and the stories are so weird!!! So your mileage may vary!

But I agree with you that these are FASCINATING relationships!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I like Marius/Armand too (I recently made a post about how I didn’t “””””ship”””” them but then I spent 2 months working on a M/A fic every day and now I think I’ve corrupted and converted myself LMAO) but yeah like. There’s such a lack of substance between them in the end. He treats Armand like he’s temporary, fucks up and moves on, and it’s such a departure from how DEVOTED he was with all his other partners. 

Wow I didn’t think I had a lot to say, sorry about that. !!! EVERY TIME I BROUGHT A POINT UP I THOUGHT OF 5 MORE POINTS GOSH I COULD TALK ABOUT MARIUS ALL DAY.

[distant--shadow]

I don’t know how to reconcile my love for Imodna and my fear that they’re going to not be end game… which is causing me a fear of purchasing artworks. Do you have any advice?

I’m afraid I’ll do it, hang it, love it and be completely heartbroken and want/need to take it down. OR, they do end up together, I don’t buy the art and then the art won’t be available that long down the line. I have stress and fear..

Sorry if this is dumb

hey there! first off, it ain't dumb. I know I freak out a little bit at the reality of when this campaign will be over, and I was the same with c2, jester was my character of all time and I had been watching live since the first episode aired, it's a lot of time to spend with a character/characters and real understandable to feel that way. it's always bittersweet, but life moves on

and I guess that's it, you have to enjoy what you enjoy whilst you have it. this is a show that's a lot like life, in that your favourite character could easily die one week without much rhyme or reason, no scripted foreshadowed build up. so give yourself to enjoying that thing whilst its here, share that enjoyment with others, and know that in the future there won't be an empty void - there will be something else.

speaking from the point of view of an artist, yeah, of course I think any of us would really appreciate the support, it's rough times, and once again, i can say from experience it's real nice to have that artwork there to see whilst you care about it. enriched environment and all that. and it's hard to say who's enthusiasm will stay, whether the couple is still together in canon or not, or once the show is over. I'm not someone who dabbles in more than one fandom at a time and this is the most I've committed myself to one, personally, but also personally, I'm a slutty aromantic so like whilst I do really care for imodna as a ship and all of that, it's kinda always been Imogen first for me. a whole lot of us were invested in them as a couple before it happened, I'm sure a lot of us would have been invested in it regardless, and we can still love what we were given either way. I love the story of it, I think for me the bump in the road makes it even more interesting, and something we haven't really been given by a CR romance during the campaign before (maybe we had in c1 idk I didn't watch it)

also, getting personal again, I'm also old enough to be of a generation where there wasn't a lot of queer rep. there was a lot of settling for subtle glances and heavy subtext. what we've had already has been so good, I really enjoy it, I love that we're already passed a time of like, well we don't have a lot of queer rep so everything we do has to be all lawful good alligned flowers and smiles and basically rebranded heteronormative fairytale romance but with coming-out grief, it's so far from beauyasha baybeeeee endgame and honestly for me that's perfect. these two have always had great charisma acting together and I love the layers and complexities we get from these two particular characters working out being in a romantic relationship with the burdens they carry, those years they had together before the campaign started and all of that ground we can play with, how they saved eachother...

have fun, try not to stress about being legitimised by others, enjoy your corners of fandom and fic and art and meta and interactions and your own conclusions and attractions and relations. take all the joy you can from the little things in life. make them as big as you want them to be.

[queerlyvictorian]

Idk what this episode did to me, but I have even more thoughts I need to get out. Because I haven’t even considered Eursulon yet!

EP. 22 SPOILERS BELOW

I understand Eursulon perfectly. I as an audience member was always nervous about how easily our Wild One acclimated to city life in the Citadel. Obalfind (sp?) was voicing all of my own worst fears about the precarity of Eursulon’s current position of safety and relative privilege. The more we learned about the Wizard Stripe, the more I could feel that Eursulon stopped feeling like he belonged here. I’ll be thinking about that Deception escape for a long time. Starting off by blending in and attempting just look “normal,” until at a dead sprint, the butterflies land, and Brennan hints that they might be here in response to Eursulon’s sister’s deception and subsequent escape. And then “in defiance of this place” he drops his glamour. And as he runs headlong in danger, he finds that his sister prepared the way for him. An added inspiration to help him leave this place like she had to.

As far as his options go…

Follow Ame. The clearest choice. It was what he was already doing, and on a meta level, it most aligns with the plot of the arc. I wouldn’t be upset by this decision, but maybe slightly disappointed at the lost potential of the other options (one in particular)

Descend the burrow. This is the choice I’m pulling for. If Eusulon chooses to pass it by for Ame’s safety, that in of itself is a complex decision that will be have repercussions going forward, but I’m SO curious about this off-the-path option. Will it take him to the Near Spirit? Could it actually take him directly to Kalaia? I want to knowwwww, and I don’t have confidence that we will know where it leads unless Eursulon makes a selfish choice and continues down the trail his sister left for him.

Turn back to face the Stranger. The least obvious. I’ll be a little baffled if Lou as Eursulon decides this is the route to go. The Stranger’s appearance establishes fascinating lore about his possible relationship with roads (like, is he the Taboo of Passage?), but I don’t know what choosing him does meaningfully for the story being told other than derail it in a fruitful but a little too chaotic of a direction

We shall see what the answer is, but it’ll definitely be interesting, regardless of the option Eursulon choses.

[spaceorphan18]

A few things for you - I read you want to revise your meta on Kurt. Do you not think people are interpreting Kurt and Blaine differently than ten years ago? And your meta isn’t wrong it’s just different gens see different things. for example that Blaine isn’t that great person.

I saw an old graph on tumblr that showed pre season 6 about 90% of people on tumblr were still watching because they loved Kurt and Blaine. (Kurt more than Blaine, but still Blaine really was far ahead of every other character)

I don’t think there’s the same Blaine positivity anymore. And maybe it’s because how people view Darren?

Oh. Oh Nonny, lol.

So, a couple of things.

The revisions on the meta - first of all, it was done before tumblr showed you spelling mistakes, etc, and there are a TON of typos because I never reread them before I posted. And I'm just embarrassed by that. I mean, I call myself a writer, and the writing looks like crap.

Secondly, I also meant expand on a few things I should have -- one thing is talking about Santana vs Klaine in early Season 3. I kind of glossed over some of the context of Santana's POV and I wish I had been more thoughtful in my commentary. There are also, just, other things I could have elaborated on, or made more clear, you know?

Thirdly, Nonny, my god, Blaine-hate has been a thing since the beginning of time, and the (figuratively) funny thing about it is that every group of Blaine-haters have been saying the same damn things in ever reiteration.

Yeah - there has been a shift. There are a ton of people who just love Brittana more (why, idk, to each their own) and Klaine doesn't grab people the same way (different times I guess? I have opinions but I'll get yelled at, so I'm not going to). But the way people hate on Blaine is exactly the same as it ever was.

Also, Blaine haters can just fuck all the way right off. He's a complex character written for a cheezy, not well written TV show. I've never gotten it. I will continue to never get it. And most of the people who hate Blaine do it because they feel superior in that it seems to uplift some, weird narrative they've got going about their own favs.

Signed, an actual fact Kurt fan. (Even though I'm pretty sure I'm banned from the Kurt fandom.) <------ that was a joke.

Also, how does Darren perception figure into this? I've always felt he was more liked than Blaine? I probably don't want to know, lol.

[luxraydyne]

I am very invested in the idea of an eitoku high era prequel (<- biggest manaka fan I know) and am interested to know your ideas for it? Putting a question mark at the end of that sounds weird but. This is an ask I guess

me 'n anon right now

tbh i have less than ideas and more like a big globule of vaguely channeled feelings knocking around in my brain lmao. from what little we see of her manaka seems like such a charming, bright, optimistic young woman, and with the trio having such different backgrounds and approaches to their lives i so want to see the three of them in action and what experiences caused them to form such a powerful bond such that we see even just in the awful horrible (albeit wonderfully done) snippet we get in aitsf. like hitomi and renju's conversation about baby iris and 'a war is about to begin between you and the baby' is hilarious and sweet in a way that is so indicative of their dynamic i want to see all three putting their heads together over something. i guess something somewhere between aitsf's real-world investigation sequences, a very pared back persona 4, maybe a dash of ace attorney or even older point-and-click mystery-adventure type games, a serious, but very local (like, within the school sort of local), contained sort of plot they bring into their personal life out of a combined sense of curiosity, naivete, and frustration at a lack of agency in their own lives, that steadily spirals out of their control in some way without becoming, yknow, a literal apocalypse level disaster. branching end pathways could be tricky, for one, knowing from the jump there is one precise complicated scenario we have to end up with in at least one "canon", and for two, also having to weave in throughout some pretty major side-happenings with renju's entrapment by the kumakuras, hitomi as an only child dealing with the sudden death of her parents, manaka meeting so sejima and becoming his "mistress", however that happened (this is reminding me more and more of a more mature but equally nutty persona plot actually, minus the demon fighting, although that could also be a fun romp, and that draws me back to my psyncer!hitomi/renju revenge au. anyway.) like for a writer i am in fact shit at plotting out anything lol.

i suppose as a footnote to all this i should add that a dedicated prequel letting us see more of them would probably remove much of the vague, ghost-like presence that manaka and renju both have in aitsf, retroactively (retroactively?? would that be right??? for something made after but set before?? idk) making aitsf less interesting. but part of what makes characters like those two fun is the almost-not-quite-futile effort trying to reconstruct a sense of a whole complex living person out of the bitty unstable artifacts they left, allowing them to persist beyond death and intrude on the present in this fragile, timeless state (and that's real haunting the narrative baybeeee), which is kind of what we're doing with this exercise, dressed up as "imagining the fake eitoku gang prequel which would be way too grounded and non-meta, non-sci-fi to ever actually exist anyway"

[littleholmes]

I can’t stop thinking about the trauma of it all. I love how Wakui’s created so many complex characters and how trauma and grief run throughout this series and I think in a way reading this series and rewatching is helping process my own grief after losing my dad months ago but I keep thinking about Takemichi at the end of the manga and like…the trauma of it all.

I can’t stop thinking about how at the end of the day, the trauma of all of these timelines has got to come back and visit him—like, it’s gotta, and I can’t imagine it wouldn’t/there’s no way it doesn’t with everything he’s seen and experienced.

He’s witnessed so many people die, held people as they took last breaths, and been in so many fights and situations, like…surely Takemitchy post-ending has nightmares or panic attacks or moments when he’s just crying more than usual and someone has to just…be there for him and tell him it’s okay while he just breaks down over everything he went through.

And honestly not even just Takemitchy, he’s just outward with his emotions. Don’t get me started me on Mikey post-ending. Sure he seems fine and likely still bottles things at times and tries to smile, but those last couple of timelines when he gripped Takemitchy’s hand and when he actually held Takemitchy as the life left him, I’m sure there’s a night or two when it comes back to haunt him. Maybe he wakes up in a hotel after a race and just cries from the memory or maybe he texts Takemitchy just to be sure he’s alive, and Takemitchy does the same to him (he probably does that to a lot of them, really)

I just…I digress, but the trauma. All the trauma these characters have experienced in the past timelines I think way too much about, and Wakui gets into it a little but there’s still so much we don’t know, and so much room for more, but also room for interpretation and meta and analysis and discussion and fics….but post-ending?

With that ending I can’t stop thinking about the post-traumatic reactions Takemichi and Mikey may be experiencing and sharing with each other as they move forward (and back when they were growing up again) while carrying the weight of those previous timelines that may not exist anymore but were very much real for both of them.

and idk I’m rambling and this post isn’t in depth but I really love this series, the complexity of the characters, and the way trauma and grief, both spoken and unspoken, plays such a prominent a role, and after that ending, I can’t stop thinking about these two characters and the weight that comes with the bond they share in experiencing all of that.

[linkspooky]

Spinner, the Heart of the League

In response to Spinner’s short monologue about Dabi last week, there’s been a lot of (in my opinion) mischaracterization, of these words as misunderstanding Dabi, or even as jealousy. Spinner’s low self-worth is definitely a flaw he needs to overcome, because it leads him to doing dangerous things like accepting a quirk from AFO when he’s known to blow people up for defying him, and risk it all for Shigaraki. 

However, Spinner seeing the best in other members of the league is also his greatest strength as a character. What people are missing is literally nobody before this point referred to Dabi’s determination as a good thing. Just like Toga noticing and referring to Dabi as a kind person when he burns down the home of her childhood trauma, the other members of the league are basically the only ones who see any good in Dabi’s actions or frame him in any positive light. Everyone else sees Dabi’s lifelong determination as a problem that he should just stop and give up on his goal of bringing Endeavor to justice, Spinner is the only one who recognizes that Dabi’s convictions are his strength. 

1. The One With Everything. 

Spinner referring to Dabi as “already having everything” isn’t jealousy, nor is it mischaracterization, because the context of which is different from the way AFO, Endeavor, Shoto and almost everyone else refers to Dabi. Yes, Spinner is in fact viewing Dabi through the lens of his own lack of self-worth, but also in complex character writing flaws and strengths are often one in the same. For example, 

Dabi’s flaw is his tunnel vision the belief he’s had to do everything by himself, first proving to his father that he was worthy of being trained, and later on in life taking down his father. This tunnel vision has also led Dabi to spurn any attempt to connect with him, including other members of the league. However, Dabi’s tunnel-vision is also a positive quality, he has strong convictions he never gives up on, he got this far and survived by himself through his own hard work. 

“The past never dies” his unwillingness to forgive Endeavor makes him one of the few characters who actually wants to hold an abusive hero accountable. His anger can be a positive thing, because instead of just letting go, he’s actively trying to change the world, and this drive is compelled by traditionally negative qualities (need for revenge, unwillingness to let go). 

I went to length with those past two examples to show that what are considered to be character flaws are usually strength and weaknesses at the same time. Which is why spinner is not wrong, for framing Dabi’s actions in a more positive light. Yes, maybe Spinner misses out on the fat that Dabi is actively suicidal, but I think we should contrast the way Spinner refers to Dabi to the way literally everyone else does. 

SHOTO: YOU CHOSE TO BE A MURDERER ALL ON YOUR OWN. 

UJIKO: IDK MAYBE HE WAS JUST BORN EVIL BEFORE AFO.

ENDEAVOR: IT’S NOT MY PARENTING TO BLAME. NO IT WAS TOUYA WHO WAS SIMPLY BORN TOO STUBBORN TO GIVE UP ON TRAINING. 

I’ve commented on this in past meta before, but Dabi tends to get scapegoated by his own household and also the public to blame Endeavor’s actions in a more positive light. Rather than confronting Endeavor about his actions and putting a stop to him, it’s easier to just put the blame on Touya for being the problem child and refusing to let go of his training. 

Everyone around Endeavor constantly frames Endeavor’s good qualities while ignoring his bad qualities, to excuse his actions, well he’s a good hero so who cares about his family drama. The opposite is true for Dabi, everyone focuses on how Dabi needs to stop, without seeing the good in what he’s done, that he’s trying to hold heroes who have committed murder and crimes accountable. The focus is always on Dabi stopping, and no one seems to realize Endeavor is the problem maker, he’s the one who needed to stop and still has yet to change his behavior. Maybe Dabi shouldn’t stop considering Endeavor and Hawks received slaps on the wrist for murder (Touya did in fact, die as a child because of Endeavor’s neglect), buying a spouse, etc. etc. 

And I’d like to point out one final thing in regards to the relationship between Spinner and Dabi. Dabi has literally never been anything less than an asshole to Spinner. He calls Spinner by names he requests not to be called by, and doesn’t apologize. He belittles Spinner on his biggest insecurity. 

When Toga was going to leave the league behind to pursue Ochaco, Spinner was witness to Dabi pretty loudly proclaiming that he doesn’t care what happened to her, and it was Spinner who rallied the league and reminded the rest of them that they were all mourning Twice’s death. Spinner has been exposed to some of Dabi’s worst traits, he’s been pretty much nothing but unsavory around him and Spinner still sees good in Dabi, and more good than his family ever saw in him because that is what Spinner does. 

AFO set up Shigaraki to be a symbol of hatred, someone so broken and always constantly in a cycle of lashing out that everyone around him would only see him as someone to be hated or feared, a representation of the ugliness of society. Spinner was the first person to take all of that in, and still see the beauty behind Shigaraki’s actions. “The warped crumbling horizon... I’d never seen anything prettier” it’s not just Spinner falling in love with Shigaraki’s dream, it’s also a turning point the first time a character actually sees that Shigaraki’s destruction can actually lead to something, change, which is what motivated Spinner to start cosplaying Stain in the first place, a desire to change things. Every character before this characterized Shigaraki’s goals as just an empty desire to destroy, Re-Destro did, before him Chisaki, before him Stain. Spinner was the first to see that Shigaraki doesn’t just want destruction, but also a change to the society that excludes him and people like him. 

2. Spinner’s Heart is his Strength

So marketing and merchandise has set up the league trio to be Dabi, Himiko, and Shigaraki. However, I would say the actual writing of the story (Ie the characters with character arcs), sets up the three main protagonist of the league of villains as Shigaraki, Spinner, and Toga. 

Between the three of them a nice little alchemy triangle is set up. In brief, most of the time the main characters of a work are divided into three categories. The characteristics of a “Mind” character are obvious, they’re the logical thinker of the group, the planner, seperated from their emotions. While the main character is usually a heart character (think in the case of Deku / IIda / Uraraka, Deku is clearly characterized by his good heart), in this case Shigaraki is a mind character more than anything else because the main focus of his character is how detached from his emotions he is, his agency over his own mind (AFO literally tries to mind control him). 

That would leave Spinner and Toga. Toga is someone who looks like an obvious heart character at first, she sucks blood, she falls in love, however I would say Toga’s entire character complex revolves around her lack of a heart. Toga doesn’t have anyone to love, and anyone who loves her, so she mistakenly searches for those two things in order to “fix” herself. However, a deeper analysis of Toga’s character will reveal she finds much more satisfaction in her platonic connections with the rest of the league which are altogether healthier, than the strangers she develops crushes on and stalks. Toga’s power is also to transform her body, into anybody else she wishes to be, in true Mystique from X-men fashion. 

Which leaves Spinner as the heart. I mean, people already constantly comment on this, the way Spinner’s complete and utter devotion to Shigaraki is written, is the way most female shonen leads are written in regards to their male counterparts. If there are two lead characters of a work, protagonist and supporting protagonist one will be marked as a mind, the other as heart, corresponding as the emotinoal counterpart to the minds rationality. It’s not always male mind / female heart, but female characters in general tend to be written as more in touch with their emotions, and more actively empathic towards other people. ANYWAY. All of this to say, readers have already noticed how much Spinner is invested in Shigaraki’s emotions and well being, even going so far as to protect them, like he’s acting like SHIGARAKI’S HEART or something... idk...bro... seems pretty gay. 

A lot of people tend to act like Spinner worships the ground Shigaraki walks on and that’s all there is to his character, but no, Spinner is just extremely emotionally intelligent and capable of understanding emotions in Shigaraki that Shigaraki himself isn’t understanding. Spinner often acts as the voice to the emotions Shigaraki is repressing. He will even get confrontational with Shigaraki about it, when he noties something Shigaraki doesn’t seem to notice. 

Shigaraki is just as disatisfied as the rest of the league here with the poor state they’ve been living in and their lack of progress, but Shigaraki won’t ever voice it, because he’s a repressed little baby (this is the proper academic terminology). He relies on Spinner to act as his heart for him and actually confront him about the emotions he’s feeling. 

Spinner also doesn’t just act this way in regards to Shigaraki. I would say previously Twice was the heart of the league, seeing the good in everyone’s actions, focusing on the league as a group of friends above all else, but as a part of Spinner’s character development in reaction to Twice’s death, Spinner has almost comletely stepped into the role Twice previously inhabited of giving everything he has to be of use to the league, and seeing the good in the league’s bond with each other. Spinner and Twice even share the same flaw of low self worth, Twice doesn’t see a life outside being a crimminal in the league of villains, Spinner views himself as the most expendable member of the league. However, that trait is both a positive and negative, because it’s that exact insecurity that also drives their protectiveness for the league and their determination to help their friends.

Another common trait of heart characters, they tend to be both strong and weak of heart. Spinner is weak of heart, because he lets his insecurities get to him and constantly belittles himself. However, he’s strong of heart because he can remain such a caring person after everything he’s been through, even in the case of the event that pretty much shattered the bond between the league, Twice’s death, the loss of Compress, AFO taking over, Spinner is still desperately working to protect both Shigaraki and the rest of the league. His lack of a self makes him not want to take care of himself, but his lack of a self also makes him want to take care of others. 

So people point to Spinner’s low self esteem and say it’s a problem that’s causing him to critically misunderstand his friends, but it’s more complicated than that it’s just a part of who he is with both positive and negative aspects. For example, you have to look at the way Spinner views the league in comparison to the way everyone else does. 

Yes, Spinner might be slightly mischaracterizing Toga’s desire for love as freedom, but also he’s also the only one who engages with her and talks with her, and doesn’t dismiss her as crazy. Dabi just thinks she’s an insane girl until right before the second hero war arc. Spinner asks questions about Toga’s love, because he views her as a person and wants to understand her, he doesn’t just reject the idea of her chasing love from the outright. Spinner’s remarks are humanizing because he actually listens, in contrast to how dehumanizing the heroes can be. 

There’s no, BUT IF YOU FEEL THAT WAY, YOU MUST NOT BE HUMAN. There’s no characterizing Toga’s flaws the same way Dabi’s flaws are characterized. They’re not a human being, just a villain to be stopped for exhibiting those qualities. So yes there’s the ‘you’re so free’ line, but there is also the fact that immediately after Twice’s death, Spinner is the one who recognized her grief over Twice and the desire for the league to stay together. 

The heroes only see Toga as the destruction she causes. Twice and Spinner are the first characters to frame her actions in any sort of positive light, and give value to her emotions, and motivations, to see past the destruction she might be causing in her lashing out. That’s the power of this scene. Twice calls Hawks out, because he only sees villains in terms of the destruction they might cause or the threat they present to society, and not as human beings who are just as capable of empathy and kindness as any other human. Twice was the only one who recognized that Toga had the ability to do just more than destroy, she could reach out and help people, she helped Twice and that meant something to him. She’s not just a serial killer, she’s also a little girl in pain capable of sympathizing with other people’s pain. The ability of the league members to see Toga as more than just the serial killer she presents herself as, is pretty telling of their bond. Compress goes from being a solo act in the league to constantly babysitting her and checking up on her. Spinner goes from not understanding her, to telling her that he mourns Twice’s death the same way she does. Even Dabi, very recently started to realize that Toga was more than just a murderer, she was someone treated horribly by her household. 

This is in stark contrast to the heroes who constantly say shit like. 

“Yeah, I’m looking at the destroyed city scape to remind myself that these villains aren’t people.” (I know that Uraraka is still debating what to do about Toga, but seriously how messed up was the implication of that before Deku actually spoke up that he wanted to see Shigaraki as a child in need of saving too.)

So, yes Spinner does tend to put other people on pedestals in order to belittle himself, but that’s not all there is to his character. Spinner is the heart of the league. It’s because he believes his own heart to be empty (almost full on tin-man style) that he is not only constantly trying to take care of the emotions of other people, but also acting as a humanizing force for all of the league. 

People bring up Spinner’s decision to put the hand on Shigaraki’s head in the first place as what allowed AFO to start taking over, but that’s not really true. What allowed AFO to start taking over was... the fact that Ujiko was already planning to do that in the surgery. Remember, the symbolism for that last remaining hand is two-fold. Yes, the hands are representative of Shigaraki’s trauma and the past he’s trapped in. 

However, the hand on his head is also theorized to be Nana Shimura’s hand. Nana Shimura, the same one who after testing Deku on his willingness to kill Shigaraki, also requests him to save the last remaining member of her family. Even in the hallucination itself the above panel appears in, Shigaraki is shown to have mixed feelings on whether or not he wants to remember or forget his family. He first appears as a child saying he’s forgiven Hana, and apepars quite affectionate for his mother, and it’s not only until he’s reminded of his father’s violence appears again that he shifts back into his adult self and rejects all of his family. 

Destroying the hands in Deika was not in fact the final moment of Shigaraki’s character arc, because the solution is not for him to just destroy his past trauma. If Shigaraki let Tenko, and his connection to his family die entirely, that would be doing exactly what AFO wants him to do. He’d cease to be Shimura entirely and become “Shigaraki” the next vessel for AFO. This is symbplized from the fact that despite him destroying the ahnds, one of them revived from the wreckage still. 

And of all people it’s Spinner who finds that hand. Symbolic of Shigraki’s last connection to his past tauma, despite his desire to be rid of it and destroy it. So yes, Shigaraki’s rage is what allows AFO to manipulate him, but that’s not all it is. 

Spinner was the first and only to see the beauty in Shigaraki’s rage, his destruction, because he’s right to be angry about a society that excluded him and continues to scapegoat both him and his friends rather than confront it’s own flaws and it’s own heroes. Shigaraki doesn’t rage because he’s an empty force of destruction like AFO has tried so hard to condition him into. While Spinner putting Shigaraki up in order to keep putting himself down might not be the healthiest thing in the world, it’s also important to remember that Spinner is one of the few characters genuinely invested in Shigaraki’s well-being, who desire him to live past all of this. (Toga showed concern for him too while he was writhing around on the ground in pain. Dabi didn’t show any concern at all, and that was when AFO gave him the you have no friends speech, so it’s my opinion Dabi’s lack of concern for Shigaraki in that scene was to show how cold he still is to other members of the league and how that’s a flaw). 

 It’s because Shigaraki is still human, his rage comes from the part of him that values his friends, is angry about the way he was treated by society, it’s because he cares that he rages and that human part of him is what cannot be discarded. Trauma isn’t something you destroy, you just, live with it. 

There are two characters who are invested in saving Shigaraki, one of them is Deku, the other is Spinner. These two characters are also, coincidentally, the hearts of the trios they inhabit. (Idk even if you think Uraraka and Iida and Deku aren’t the canon trio then the other trio set up for Deku is with Bakugo and Todoroki and he’s still the heart in there). It is Spinner and Deku who are constantly thinking of other people’s emotions first before their own, and reaching out to protect their hearts. If it’s Spinner’s flaw to have no regard for his own well-being and not to value himself enough, he also shares that flaw with Deku. It’s the two of them acting as the heart for different aspects of Shigaraki that are going to save Shigaraki in the end, because Spinner cares for Shigaraki’s adult self and believes the way he currently is isn’t beyond salvation because that’s what Spinner does, sees beauty in the empty, destroyed horizon, and Deku is the one who recognized that Shigaraki’s past self deserved better and he’s still a child in need of saving. 

The line AFO uses to manipulate him is specifically a Deku line, and also the central theme of the series. “Everyone can be someone’s hero.” Deku was already a hero when he was just a faceless quirkless kid in the crowd, Spinner when he was just a random NEET with a desire to change things was already a hero, because it’s not powers or a costume that makes a hero but the ability to reach out and try to save others, and that’s what Spinner and Deku do. 

[scoups4lyfe]

VegasPete and Stockholm Syndrome

Okay so….just obsessively scrolling through the KP and VP tags every Saturday I end up seeing everybody and their brothers takes. (And if not on Saturday then I will the entire rest of the week because I check that tag like checking the morning newspaper 🤪)

And seeing “Stockholm Syndrome” for the tv series (esp cause I read the VP side story lmaooo rip) really amused me for multiple reasons,,,

Lemme just start right from the bat and say that it is perfectly valid to be confused on Pete’s actions, especially as he’s been held hostage.

“Why didn’t he leave?? He should of left???”

Obv the thought process here is: Pete hates Vegas —> seen what Vegas goes through and empathized —> worries about his captor —> doesn’t leave when presented the option —> therefore he has Stockholm syndrome.

Mhm mhmmm I can understand how you could come to that conclusion. However, I firmly disagree. I saw a post that said they wanted to label Vegas and Pete’s relationship Stockholm sooooo badly but knew that wasn’t entirely it and that there was something more complex but they couldn’t understand what.

Haha let me explain to you just what that “what” is.

Having read the book, I have a bit more of a foundation when it comes to comparison, making it easier to see and understand the intent behind the way the Director and writers have adapted the novel into the series. I’m in the middle of writing an essay about these changes and why the tv show is hands down (no competition) a million times better (written) than the book.

In the book, yeah I would say Pete and Vegas have a Stockholm relationship. Hmmm maybe not even then? Because if we’re defining Stockholm as a coping mechanism of empathizing with the captor during times of stress and harm in order to help make it through a traumatic situation; then I say: So~so. See, Pete’s mindset in the book is completely different than it is in the series.

In the book there was no understanding for why Vegas is a fked up lil maniac. “Parental abuse? Tough, but people out there have had it tougher 😶✌️.”

That was Pete’s mindset.

It was really “well that sucks for you but I don’t care — cuz you’re a henious villain” thought process.

In fact Pete only started being nice to Vegas/doing what he said so that Vegas would get bored and either kill him or let him go. That’s it. That’s like 92% of their novel relationship. Pete being fake asf so Vegas would find him boring.

Even prior to being captor and captive Book!Pete could not and did not see behind Vegas’ mask. In his own thoughts during his time captive, he thinks about how he had always perceived Vegas as y’know “just some guy” even with Kinn/Tankhun’s warnings — these warnings being the only reason he knew to be wary of Vegas in the first place.

Chef’s kiss 💋 👌👌 to the show for the way they made specific and subtle changes from the source material that would greatly change the entire dynamic of all the characters and their relationships with each other. (But that’s an essay for a whole other day 👀)

Now, how did the show change Vegas and Pete’s relationship into something entirely new, even more fked up than it was in the narrative, and yet somehow a million times better?

Simple.

(1) Pete’s observation skills and ability to see through Vegas mask from the very beginning. AND his “there’s no heroes or villains” mindset

(2) Pete *choosing* to sneak in with the knowledge and preparation of his torture and death should things go wrong.

(3) The shared experience of both having abusive fathers.

(Pete being the more mature and introspective and aware one between the two, aKa giving Vegas some solid therapy and enlightenment.)

(4) The clippers that have been left in the room with Pete. These writers have been intentional to the *T* — if all these damn essays and meta aren’t proof enough to yall of that then 🤷 idk what else I could give to prove that to you.

(Listennnnnnn,,, you don’t have all these intentional choices for every little thing and then accidentally leave bolt cutters on set of an important scene. Would make no damn sense.)

(5) The hedgehog 🦔

(Vegas didn’t have a pet in the novel…not one I remember at least.)

(6) The Key 🔑

(7) Vegas not initiating the Kiss

Okay. All of the above 1–7 are just a few of the changes made that have major importance for both Pete and Vegas’ relationship.

With Pete being able to see under Vegas’ mask we know that Vegas’ fake masks don’t fool him. There’s something about Vegas that Pete can see through. So when Pete chooses to sneak into the minor family compound — vocally stating before he does it that he knows the consequences— this informs the audience that he’s prepared for them. For capture, torture, death. Which is why when Vegas comes in to torture him and Pete knows he’s foiled his plans and will most likely die? Dude has nothing to lose, so he’ll be damned if he’ll let Vegas see his fear.

Not only does this give Pete a lot more agency. (In the book it was just, wrong place, wrong time); but — as fked up as it is — it also lets the audience feel less bad when he does inevitably get caught / tortured.

It’s not that he asked for it, but at least he knew what was going to happen. An unsuspecting victim is a lot more pitiable than a suspecting victim. Especially if it’s a consequence of a choice he voluntarily made — compared to being forced to investigate via ‘boss’s order.’ So already the writers are setting us up to not hate Vegas as much as we would if Pete truly stumbled into the situation on accident.

Now one of the most important differences — that shared trauma of having an abusive father, and using it to relate to Vegas. Unlike Book!Pete, our Pete recognizes Vegas’ situation. He’s been in the same place — while having the actual affection of his grandmother to fall back on (which Vegas obv didn’t have); therefore he also understands why Vegas tortures him the way that he does — he understands that Vegas is only feeling pathetic and lousy and is taking that out on him.

But in that tender and melancholic moment when Vegas decides to be vulnerable after patching up Pete’s wounds, Pete talks to Vegas with an understanding only someone in his position (or a therapist lol) would have. Even then, objectively knowing something is different than having experienced it yourself. And it’s the fact that Pete’s *also* experienced that sh*t that lends credibility to what he’s saying — at least in Vegas’ eyes.

This is why Pete knows there’s no good or evil, hero or villain, black or white binary in this world.

Because when you get down to it: we truly are shaped by our environments and the things we experience as we grow (obv not ignoring genetics but that’s not the point). And it’s this reflective and mature/observational outlook that helps him empathize with Vegas.

More than empathize — it’s *this* outlook that helps Pete not hold lasting grudges or hate for past hurts.

It’s always easier to forgive someone when you know where they’re coming from.

And Pete never really took it personally (for the most part) considering Vegas is on an opposing side. When an enemy gets captured on the enemy’s base of course they’d get either killed or tortured, esp for information.

That’s not something special to Vegas.

Vegas refusing to kill Pete tho? Lol. That’s enough for a dislike to sour. But I don’t think it sours all that much once we put in the consideration of Pete’s observations recognizing what Vegas is — a victim of an abusive home/situation.

(Not that it excuses him, but nobody’s trying to do that here LOL.)

Now getting down to the nitty gritty.

The hedgehog, the key, and why Pete isn’t a victim of Stockholm syndrome.

First, I think the hedgehog 🦔 is very important because it gives the audience (and Pete) another reason to empathize with Vegas — humans might not mean sh*t to him, but he loves and takes care of his pets.

He loves something. He cares about something. This humanizes him.

And a small and fragile pet can often humanize a character more than a human. A real sicko kills animals. But Vegas’ care for his hedgehog 🦔 shows that he isn’t that. He’s human too—albeit a really fked up one, but human nonetheless. He’s capable of love too, but perhaps humans have hurt him so much that he knows only an animal would be something he can trust.

This kind of trust and love he can only find in animals is also a very isolating existence. It highlights just how trapped Vegas is — the Hedgehog is literally a mirror of himself and his situation.

Yes he cares for Macau — but it’s “easier” to care for a human than an animal. Easier to empathize with a human. So while yeah, his care for his brother, while subtle in the show, is important, it isn’t as important to the audience as his love for his hedgehog. Especially when it comes to convincing an audience to forgive a character’s past villainy and long list of crimes.

But here’s what’s really important — the key.

Vegas leaving the key there (intentional or not; but imo, I think it’s obv intentional. Dude is way too meticulous for that to be accidental), gives Pete the agency to either escape or stay.

This, again, helps the audience be more okay with the idea of the two of them ending up in a relationship. It’s one thing if Pete has no choice and goes along with things to survive or cope with trauma — but it’s entirely something else if he’s allowed to leave, but doesn’t.

But Pete’s reason for staying has to be rational in some sense so the suspension of disbelief doesn’t attack the audience going 900 mph on the logic freeway.

So him escaping but seeing Vegas sitting pathetically on the grass, alone in the dark, and holding his dead pet?

The person there isn’t the dude that tortured him. Naw, that part of Vegas — is the child trapped in a cage and left isolated in the dark while anything that had ever brought him light or comfort in his life leaves him. He may be sitting on grass, but for Vegas it could’ve been the equivalent of sitting on broken glass.

It’s such a stark difference too from the versions of Vegas Pete’s used to seeing. Yeah he had that conversation about dads last episode, but even then Vegas wasn’t totally broken and left in despair.

But this Vegas?

This Vegas was someone so broken he couldn’t even cry until Pete touched him to provide comfort.

This Vegas isn’t just a sharp edge that can cut you if you get too close, now’s he’s much too broken for that — and his sharp edge has twisted inward from attacking others to attacking himself.

At this point, Pete’s beyond empathizing with his captor — esp because he isn’t a captive here. He’s not chained anymore. Vegas has no interest holding him captive. Pete at any point after he got out of those chains could have left and Vegas would do nothing to stop him.

Vegas is broken. He’s depressed. And he’s numb because it hurts too much to do anything but sit in his own despair. Pete touching him in comfort might’ve opened the floodgates of that hurt, but that doesn’t mean it changed how Vegas felt. Dude is still in despair when he heads inside.

Anyways this is getting too long so I’ll make a part two — getting more particular in the psychology of why Pete stayed, and why he kissed Vegas.

Closing words to end on:

Pete doesn’t leave because he knows what it’s like, and he’s sees the humanity and pain in Vegas and he cares. He cares because no broken and abused kid should be left isolated in the dark, not even knowing how to cry. He cares because he wants to do for Vegas what his grandmother did for him. What he wished more people would have done when he was in that pain and darkness.

He cares because he looks at Vegas and he sees himself.

[blole-hack]

max omg, yk the nickname situation regarding katsuki and izuku as toddlers, well?? forgot that katsuki also literally only cared that izuku couldn't read as well as he could ("you mean you can't?" directed at izuku, glancing back at izuku, really tightening his izuku goggles as much as damn possible). and that even if in that situation katsuki was just looking for attention from his peers and to tease izuku, that means he was specifically enthralled by izuku's attention and also implies that he subconsciously thought izuku was worthy of attention from him and wanted a reaction out of him. and THEN katsuki then proceeds to continue using the nickname for izuku whilst hiding under the flimsy false pretense that he thinks izuku's dumb and useless which we both know is him being full of shit. i'm not even exaggerating when i say my boy is and always has been obsessed. i'm. having so much brainrot rn

edit: FOR CONTEXT for what i will say below READ @justawhoresblog 's post here first

OlivER Oh my god YEAHHH YOURE RIGHT QJDJWJJSW

HES SO ATTENTION SEEKING

in some way he does want izuku to admire him, because he wants to show that hes better than him *at stuff* and only him.

like "can you do that izuku? lol u cant"

its not just "hah u suck" but also "hah izuku im better than you, seE"

to connect with the recent chapters;

Man, his feelings for him really run deep and complex

He wants izuku to think that he's better than him, because he wants Izuku to look up to him and think he's great. Which means he wants Izuku's attention, subconsciously even since he was a kid.

Hes afraid of izuku surpassing him, because hes afraid of being left behind by izuku. He's afraid of that because he wants to be with Izuku. But he's also scared of Izuku which is why he wanted to push him away,, but that's exactly why he's afraid of izuku surpassing him. So he also wanted Izuku to back down and be afraid of him instead, but it also gets complicated because he also wants Izuku's attention.

Maybe its because deep down he really thinks he isn't good enough. No matter how arrogant he looks he really has a twisted sense of self worth. Deep down he really seeks Izuku's approval, which ties into (his almost final moments-)

He wants to be perfect as how everyone expected him to be, but its more important to him that

He also kept comparing himself Izuku, but that makes sense because you want to make someone you deem awesome admire you, and since they're awesome to you you want to be better than them too, especially with all the societal pressure in MHA.

in the words of Lil Nas X, "I wanna fuck with those I envy. I envyy-"/j im sorry

AND NOW HE DOESNT WANT TO BE AHEAD NOR BEHIND DEKU

he FINALLY ACCEPTED THAT HE JUST WANTS TO BE BY HIS SIDE

FUCK BEING BETTER AND BEING THOUGHT OF AS A BIG DEAL THAT THE STRONG WANTS TO FIGHT AGAINST

Fuck being better than deku

in SHORT WOW bakugo has had bakudeku angst longer than deku???

and also MORE PARALLELS

Since Deku's admiration to Bkg and All might both foil and parallel one another

Bkg's admiration to Deku and All might also both foil and parallel one another (the desire to surpass them...but deep down actually really looks up to the other? i mean it was obvious in the case of All Might but he DID keep it suppressed and hidden) but idk thats a topic for another dayyy OR for someone else to cover since I'm too shy to write actual metas

AND THIS may BACK UP THE CASE FOR DEKU NOT BEING MEANT AS MALICIOUS AT FIRST! And the other scenes and in the "de-izuku" moments because he subconsciously refered to him as such in times he didnt have bad feelings towards him anymore. It might have just started as a way for Bkg to get attention from him.

For (younger) Bkg, everyone else was already, by default extras compared to him. It is by default that he's better than everyone else. It is only Deku (and kind of All Might and other adults but they arent peers so it doesnt count) that he ACTIVELY TRIES TO PROVE he's better than him. And thats because he sees something in him. (which is obvious now in hindsight now that he explicitly said how he feels but man was i dense THE SIGNS WERE THERE ALL ALONG)

Also man rewatching some parts of the Bkg vs Uraraka fight

the reason why he was so passionate about defeating her is partially because of deku right

"Don't underestimate me" he told her. But iirc he kinda had no reason to besides *looks at deku*

how he thought Deku was looking down on him. man i didnt even cover that yet

one's thoughts abt how someone they like feels about them gets warped by their insecurities

an added oof the balance of all of BKG's complicated feelings. Its precisely that he thought that someone he wanted to like him ACTUALLY looked down on him made him so upset at deku right?????

RIGHT

WAIT

if thats NOT GAY WHAT IS WHAT ISSS-

[the-indigo-symphony]

Have you ever heard of a plural singlet?

For those who haven't, it's someone who is a singlet that is plural. This may mean that they are fragments of one person, their plurality spikes at certain times or they exist as one person with multiple states of self.

As a plural singlet myself, would the identity be something that bridges the disconnect of experience of plurality and singularity without having to fight over how experiences are.. experienced?

I see and know about the overwhelming hatred and/or off-putting feelings about singlets mainly because of past misunderstandings and the fact that most singlets are not plural. Singlets are usually in a place of "No, you're not welcome" to "you're fine, just don't speak over me" and it's starting to feel odd being stuck in the middle or not experiencing one or the other enough for one side to claim me.

We've never heard of this sort of thing before. I'll be honest and say I'm not sure if you're looking for advice, just commentary, or something else, but it's interesting to hear about this sort of thing.

I think empty systems have spoken up about similar experiences of feeling estranged in the past, and median + midcontinuum systems may be able to relate to some other experiences you've mentioned. I don't know if there's a perfect solution to the problems you've brought up – identity is messy, selfhood even more so, and for as much as people generally like to neatly organize things, with all the complexities of the self, it's far from easy to separate the world into "us" and "them." Which is probably a good thing, to some degree at least, but I don't have many thoughts down that path.

I get what you're saying, though. It reminds me of how "straight" and "cishet" are used in queer spaces. You'd think that these words neatly describe those who aren't queer, but there are straight and cishet people who are queer in ways that might take people a few minutes to understand, if they do at all. For those situations, I've always thought that simple phrases like "non-queer" probably work better, and maybe in plural spaces, "non-plural" would work better than "singlet" when trying to describe those who aren't plural, but I don't really see people using the phrase "non-queer," and I doubt the plural community is gonna pick up the phrase "non-plural" any time soon. After all, if the general definition of singlet seems to mean the same thing as non-plural, why make the change? ... That's what most would probably think. Might take a good while for folk here to understand that people have their own reasons for using seemingly contradictory terms to describe themselves.

But, eh, maybe that's also partly because the queer community is more experienced with complex identities. I've always thought of the plural community as the queer community's younger sibling when it comes to things like this. I can talk about aroallo acespecs on an aroallo blog and get people nodding along or chiming in with their own experiences, but plural peeps ain't really so used to something like that in this ballpark. All the infighting, misinformation, and chasing people into the closet ain't help none, either.

Idk. I'm rambling because it's late and I like theoretical + meta discussions maybe too much for my own good. Hope you have a good day. Feel free to send another ask or just reblog this if you want to talk more about this. I ain't good at reaching out first because I forget people exist, but I'm here to talk as long as it doesn't cross into extreme vent territory.