#realized only just now while posting this that the first panel could be read as either wwx or jc saying that

[piosplayhouse]

Lately I've been converting people to my Jiang Cheng Superstar agenda (mdzs Jesus Christ superstar au) so here's just letting everyone know that Heaven on Their Minds is Such a yunmeng bros song

[brightgoat]

Hey hi! I’ve been an avid follower of yours for awhile for your Pucci art but, this green child au has me hooked more and more lately! Your art is stunning by the way, thank you for posting!! The final metamorphosis panel has me excited for the next installment you share ngl.

Anyways, I was wondering if I could ask a few things about it? Specifically, what has happened after O-moon came into the picture, and the buildup to part 13 and 14? Of course if you wish to keep things vague or don’t know, there’s no need to answer! I’m just curious.

When did Jotaro get alerted to the incident and decided to finally come around? Did he encounter Pucci first or Jolyne? After the revelations that O-moon revealed to Jolyne, how did her perceptions of her father and Pucci shift? Did Jolyne ever figure out what Pucci was most likely about to do to FF while they were cornered by him? Have you thought about how Weather Report factors into this AU at all (since he’s probably in prison at this point)?

Sorry for the bombardment, and again no pressure to answer these if you don’t wish to!

- Kimera

Greetings! Thank you very much for the compliment, hope the payoff to that comic was satisfying haha

So, I wanna keep things vague with this AU, telling the main story beats through images and short comics- not only cuz I like it that way but also cuz... I haven't decided a lot of the details hahaha-

Answering this via lore dump, hope you like reading, this can be just one of many ways it could've happened:

I imagined that while Pucci and Jolyne were out getting souls, Jotaro was studying whatever is left of Dio's followers, and eventually tracks down Pucci, and travels to the US. Perhaps he finds out Pucci has been tutoring Jolyne from Jolyne's mum (who knows maybe they reconnected).

Oh and yes, Jolyne's mum knows abt Pucci, but of course not who he really is.

During this, Jolyne has awakened the Green Baby and fused with it. Jotaro may even sense that something is wrong through their family psychic bond thing.

Jotaro, realizing Pucci is a step ahead of him by already taking in his own daughter, tracks Pucci down to the church and confronts him there, sparing no time and going straight to beating answers out of him, where's Jolyne, what happened to her, what's your plan etc.

I had this thought, that once Jolyne fuses with the green baby, she inherits a bit of Dio's knowledge, and it helps her realise she's been getting used by Pucci all along. Not only that, she inherits the will to go to Heaven, and it drives her to complete the plan, she's strung along by fate now.

Now obviously she feels betrayed by Pucci, but still sympathetic to him, and rescues him from Jotaro. She's conflicted, she's angry, the only reason both Pucci and Jotaro reached out was because of some bigger-than-her plot, and not because of herself. She doesn't know how much of what Pucci gave her was genuine or because of her use to him.

(had this idea for a scene that right after Jolyne rescues Pucci, all three of them are still in church and Pucci realises she's transformed, he yells for her to stay still so he can get Whitesnake to take whatever's inside her out, but as soon as Whitesnake reaches out, a hand bursts out, he thinks it's Stone Free and suddenly JUMPSCARE O-Moon jumps out at him and the reversed-gravity throws everyone away from her-)

The only friend she has left is FF, and yes she finds out what Pucci did to them, furthering her anger. So she drags FF along with her, they are eachothers' only allies here, and although FF doesn't fully understand what's happening to Jolyne, they'll stay by her side (cue the uhhhh 'oh jolyne gave me so many memories and memories make up my intellect so i owe her yadda yadda-')

Aaaaand as for Weather, yeah mf's still in prison lmao I haven't thought too much about him. I wanted this to focus on Jolyne and Pucci, though if I did turn this AU into an entire actual story, Weather would probably come up at some point. God knows how though lmao-

[dollwritesarchive]

𝐟𝐮𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 & 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭 — 𝐡𝐚𝐥 𝐣𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐧

𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 ∣ smut ( minors dni ), fem!lantern!reader, rough sex, dubcon in the beginning, suggested age gap ( undefined but hal is significantly older ), sir kink, improper use of constructs, pet names ( little girl, baby girl, sweetheart ), hal is a condescending asshole, very light impact play ( face slapping ), brief knife kink mention, size kink, slight pain kink, all characters featured are 18+

𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 ∣ requested by my bestiest maguroni. do not repost or translate. please reblog && leave feedback. not proofread so there’s probably mistakes. thanks for reading < 3

this should’ve been a dream come true.

your very first, official mission with Honor Guard, legend, and your personal role model— Hal fucking Jordan. after all, he was the reason you worked so hard to become a lantern yourself, and protect your very own sector of the universe. he was a living, breathing interuniversal hero, and that was unheard of for a human. you wanted to be just like him.

out of all the cadets freshly trained, you were hand picked to tag along. to follow his every order, and to learn from the best.

and you’d fucked it up in a major way.

you were only trying to help, and thought that you made the right call by abandoning your post to chase the culprit— until you realized it was a fluke. and the prisoner had slipped by your perimeter as easy as could be while you were chasing your wild goose.

needless to say, your Honor Guard supervisor had been pissed, and tore into you right there, civilians watching and all. he’d gripped your face when you’d attempted to stare at your feet and wrenched it back up towards him, hollowing your cheeks with how much pressure he’d applied as he leaned close to hiss in your face. “Don’t ever disobey my orders again, rookie. I say jump, you jump. I say sit pretty, you sit pretty. You got me?”

your eyes were wide— he didn’t yell like Kilowog who’d trained you, but growled, threatened with dilated pupils and furrowed brows. “Yes sir.” it was all you could muster: a pathetic and humiliated whisper. you could feel everyone staring, and you wanted desperately to disappear.

“Get in the cruiser.” he’d murmured, clenching his teeth. you glanced to the vessel waiting. it was sleek and only required one to man it. it had been designed specifically for this mission, for you and Hal and the prisoner. you nod, obedient, and expecting some form of punishment awaiting your arrival back on Oa. however, Hal adds, gruffly, as he gives you a subtle shove when he releases your face. “Your ass is mine.”

“What did I say, huh?” Hal barks, the emerald specters flowing from the ring on his finger, branching off into a multitude of massive hands, all grabbing at you, pinning you to the control panel of the oh-so-shiny, brand new intergalactic cruiser. “I told you that your punishment for insubordination would be severe, didn’t I?”

“Y—yes sir.” it was hard to think about anything other than how he’d managed to wrap you up in constructs, glowing green fists that cinch your wrists together above your head, coils of them that spread your legs, the glowing blade that’d sliced your suit to shreds, exposing most of your body to him. you couldn’t even concentrate to fight back, and knew better than to try, anyways. your head lolls back, eyes tracing along your bound wrists, nervously gripping at them.

“Look here, little girl.” Hal demands, and your attention snaps back to your superior before you. he’d finished his cock from his suit, and now pumped it to life, and you stare with widened, awe-filled eyes as it swells. he was big and strong, the tip swelling right beneath his thumb as he teases his own slit with a grunt of pleasure, one hand gripping himself at the base as he takes one step closer to you, and then another, until he stands in the gap provided by your split thighs.

there’s a faint bubbling in your belly, an urge nestling deep inside you, just as you take in the full visage of Hal; the thickness, the bulging vein that spiderwebs the underside of his shaft, and the broad head that you could imagine would force a cry from your lips if he speared into you. you can’t help how wet it made you. “S—sir…”

Hal tilts his head, jutting his hips to drape his length over your belly, to emphasize just how much bigger he was than you— how deep he would go. it made your head swim. by the looks of it, he would never fit. “Oh yeah, I’m definitely going to ruin your pretty, little pussy.” he smirks, as if replying to the disbelief in your mind and written all over your face.

“I’ll never disobey your orders again, sir.” you breathed out, chest heaving with anxiety ( or, was it anticipation ? ). “I’m sorry…”

but Hal quirked a brow, running one hand up the length of your body, he made sure to give your tender breast a hard squeeze before caressing your cheek, taunting you by running the pad of his thumb over your trembling bottom lip. “Oh, it’s much too late for that, little girl,” he croons, pushing his thumb between the threshold of your lips. he hooks it against the corner of your mouth to keep it anchored there. “You’re gonna take your punishment like a good girl, and then you’re going to know exactly what happens to insubordinate whores.”

the hand holding himself on your belly has, instead, directed his herculean cock to your exposed, slick sex. but, he didn't plunge right in. Hal takes his time, using the bulbous, pink tip to spread your netherlips, running it up and down, gathering your essence over it. “You’re fucking dripping.” he hums, but it’s guttural as he tries to muffle his primal snorting. you can still see it, though, in the way his massive chest rises and falls. “I think you like my punishments.” his eyes, which had been admiring just how he can split you open, and how each time he’s blessed with a flash of your hole clenching on air, just begging to be stretched. “Want me to stuff you?”

you wished you could hide your face, because your body was already agreeing— back arching whenever the head of his cock bumped your sensitive clit, squirming and soaking him with slick, you didn’t need it to be anymore obvious, but your face would give you away yet again. big eyes, lips trembling and forced open by his thumb, you slur against it, looking down at where your bodies were meant to join. “It… it’s too big… that won’t fit inside me.” you say, incredulous.

but you can tell Hal wants to chuckle, and maybe if he wasn’t so angry, he would’ve. the corner of his lip twitched, threatening to etch into a wickedly dashing smirk, but he stops it. he simply says two words.

”Let’s see.”

and forced his way inside.

you cry out with your head thrown back, for once straining against the constructs that held you down. your body wasn’t meant to stretch as much as it had to accommodate his size. your walls spasm around the girthy intruder, clamping down, and Hal releases a bestial groan. “Fuck,” he mutters, and pushes his thumb against the flesh of your cheek, “you’re right, I am too big for you, aren’t I?” you can’t even think straight enough to nod, but it didn’t matter. it didn’t stop Hal from falling into a hard, deep rhythm. with each, powerful snap of his hips against yours, he fills you to his hilt. “Doesn’t matter to me, sweetheart, I’ll stretch your little pussy out until I fit right. I don’t care if I gotta pound it out over and over again. You’re mine, anyways, until we reach Oa.” oh fuck, you’d forgotten exactly how long the trip back to HQ was. it felt like weeks, but it was hard to tell for sure. no day or night, just the inside of the ship.

a knot forms in the pit of your gut; would he really keep you twisted up and spread open like this, right here on the control panel? would you be so easily accessible that all he would have to do is reach over and he could fondle you? the whole trip back?

with the power behind his thrusts, and the way the head rammed deep, it was clear that you weren’t meant to be the one enjoying this. he’d gone beyond any of your sweet spots, and instead jabbed relentlessly at the edge of your cervix. he was fucking you the way that he wanted, even if he thought you wouldn’t like it. it even hurt, each time, taking so much more than you were designed for, but you couldn’t help but moan out loud. it still felt good, no matter how much you knew it wasn’t supposed to. his girth plowed through your canal, and you squeal for him to please be gentle, but you don’t mean it. not really. it feels too good to look up at this titan of a man, and watch him decimate you. watch him use you.

it made you so fucking wet that, when he dives in this time, you squelch in response, and Hal moans louder, grabbing a fistful of your hair with one hand, whilst the other grabs your face and forces your chin into your chest. you sounded sloppy, and he liked it. “Come on, baby girl, go ahead and watch me destroy that pussy. ‘S what you deserve, after all. A good, hard fucking to remind you who the fuck’s in charge here.” you mewl pathetically, staring down the length of your belly. your emerald suit was merely a chunk of threads against your ribs, your breasts spilling out the gash at the neckline and the entire crotch ripped out. you could see his shape and size, the imprint of it, bulging against your stomach with every thrust, and your hands ball into tight fists. but you stare, and whine, and come undone without so much as a warning from your body. it was almost as if you were so overloaded with sensation that you just snapped. your orgasm wasn’t big the first time, but you were now twice as sensitive. each thrust feels like it has double the power and malicious intent behind it, now. Hal seems to like it, too, because he smooths his palm over your heated cheek before planting a rough smack against it. “Takin’ orders just fine now, aren’t you, little girl?” the slap temporarily stuns you, or maybe it’s the orgasm that was wracking you, but Hal brings you back with another thwack against your cheek. “All I had to do was shove my dick in you and you’re ready to comply now? You wanna be your Honor Guard’s good, little fucksleeve?”

it stings, a lot. and your eyes widen again, flickering up to watch his face— offended, but incredibly turned on. he hit you. twice.

“The answer is ‘yes sir’.” he threatens between hot puffs of strangled air, his rhythm never even faltering. but he was glaring at you, palm rubbing the pain of the slaps into your cheek, as if reminding you that he can do it again if he wanted to.

“Yes s—sir!” you squeak.

another slap.

you whimper and flinch, and try to turn away from it, but his grip on your hair is too tight to escape. you had to take it, whether you liked it or not.

the worst part was: you fucking loved it. it twisted your guts into knots when he hit you, coupled with how ferociously he was rutting into your body, you were only moments from cumming. again.

“And you’re gonna do whatever the fuck I say from now on?”

“Y—yes sir!”

“Damn right,” Hal grinds his teeth, yanking on your hair harder, but his other hand travels down to knead your breast and pinch at your nipple. he can feel when you unravel for a second time, this time your climax has you spasming and babbling, fingernails digging into your own palm.

“C—cumming,” you whimper, helplessly thrashing, “I’m cumming aga— again!” it was a cry for mercy, mostly. in shock that your body could even function after the first one, but this one was strong and, seemed to be, never ending. wave after wave of torturous pleasure washes over you, and Hal refuses to ease up. he’d so much rather force you to ride it out, and before you knew it, your legs were trembling. your eyes could hardly stay open, and you couldn’t think. “P—please, sir,” you were gasping, punctuating each, violent thrust with a syllable, “p—please c—cum, I— I need… r— rest…”

you knew he must want to. he was throbbing inside you, moaning, breathing ragged, and his jaw was sewn tight. but he only scoffs. “You’re done when I say you’re done. This is your punishment, remember?” he spat, and the constructs melted away, freeing your arms and legs. the only problem was that you were now too spent to move, so you could do little but lie there and tremble. squinting, you peer up in time to see his power morph into a chain-like ring that clamps around his engorged base before a heavy, green lock snaps into place, swinging back and forth as he ruts. he snorts at the sensation of the ring tightening around his cock, squeezing. it would keep him from cumming, you realized, until he felt like you’d earned the break you so desperately wanted. you whine again, and he plows into you harder to accentuate his next statement, “It’s gonna be a long ride home, little girl.”

[beanghostprincess]

Not to keep beating a dead horse so to speak, but circling back to how the anime handles the Shuggy breakup it is personally the first time I've fully understood people who say the manga is way better & the "true" story because on the whole I think the anime is a really good adaption....except for this omg. I haven't read the manga fully either yet so now I'm wondering what else got a totally different vibe than intended & how that colors the perception of the story & characters. For instance, I'm already seeing anime onlys completely misinterpret Buggy's feelings in the shuggy breakup probably because of how brief it was.

I've had arguments in comments sections about people who do not think Buggy wanted to be Pirate King himself & his anger with Shanks isn't tied to him secretly sacrificing his OWN dream to follow him. To me the manga made it very clear that Buggy was making a great personal sacrifice in order to stay with his friend & how that all ties into his own insecurities, but a ton of anime onlys only saw it as Buggy being a whiny baby & not realizing how deep of a conflict Shanks refusing to look for the One Piece was for them 😭 and it's so frustrating! They just think Buggy is being "ungrateful" for everything Shanks did for him. I'm tired of the Shuggy dynamic being viewed so one sidedly in Shanks's favor & Buggy's detriment because they both narratively hold equal amounts of significance to each other. We just haven't been allowed to explore Shanks's side of it...yet. Oda kept Shanks's face obscured for a reason I'm sure.

And since the anime didn't frame it correctly Buggy's speech to Cross Guild about reigniting your dreams & setting sail for Laugh Tale loses all seriousness & comes off as just another gag instead & it breaks my heart because in the Manga while there is humor in it Buggy's tears are REAL & you can literally feel the spirit of One Piece flow through his speech. That speech shows us Buggy is a TRUE pirate! He ALSO inhereted Roger's will! I could literally feel the "I'm gunna become king of the pirates" OST from the anime play as I read it, but the anime framed it like another one of Buggy's "upward fialures" 💔 and it breaks my heart anime onlys don't get that. Imagine if Luffy gave up on his dream & finally after 30 years decided to believe in himself again? Imagine If Usopp really did give up in Water 7 & we didn't see him find the will to believe in himself until 39 years later? Buggy is an example of forgotten dreams & a lesson on it never being too late to go after them.

So I completely agree with you that it doesn't matter how little panel time a moment gets because if Oda can convey all of THAT in like 3 panels then the anime can do so and then some in a minute or 2. I also can't help but think this will confuse viewers later on because I'm certain Buggy is going to get to do some really cool & meaningful stuff in the last arc & a lot of them will feel blindsided because the set up was executed weirdly.

Sorry for sending such a long post & feel free to ignore If ur tired of discussing this I just wanted to give you some validation &let you know you're not the only one who thinks this way. Adaptation has a lot more going into it than just copying manga panels & the a good anime should definitely know when to expand on brief scenes & how to set the correct mood for them.

Oh, please, if it's not a negative ask you can keep sending me stuff about the episode and the breakup all you want!!! I'm just tired of having to defend my opinion. As if it wasn't just that, an opinion. But I'm sooo open to talk about it!!

And you're right!!! It bothers me so much to just think about how Anime Onlys are going to perceive this episode... If Buggy is already misunderstood within the fandom, I can't imagine what's gonna happen now that HIS episode has gotten this awful pacing and explanation (I complain but I've watched the episode so many times already lmao)

People misunderstand their relationship so much and in such levels... I don't get it because it's literally right there. You can't miss it. They're canonically crucial for each other no matter how you see it. It IS mutual whatever they have going on. I know we don't have much of Shanks' POV but you don't even have to read between the lines to see it.

And Buggy being seen as whiny because he has... Feelings... And is emotional... After his whole life crumbles down... Idk about you but if I lived in my best friend's shadow for years and gave up on my dream to trust in his instead, and suddenly when our captain dies he says he won't follow it... I'd be pretty fucking emotional too tbh. I could defend Buggy all day long and explain his character, but I believe I've done that already... So many times... (I love it it's my favorite thing ever)

I love your comparisons to other characters giving up on their dreams because it's so real. Buggy is the representation of people who once gave up on their dream and now are getting the courage back to follow it again. His speech is so emotional I think I know it by heart at this point with how many times I've read this chapter. I always cry-- Every time-- And I'm sooo angry Toei made the episode for laughs basically. It frustrates me in unimaginable ways.

Buggy is gonna do something incredible and people will complain and say it was out of nowhere because his speech in the Anime seems for jokes and like one of his schemes to get away from his problems. But this man was literally having a breakdown in the middle of a torture session and made an impulsive, emotional decision that came from the depths of his heart, because he had been holding onto it for his whole life. That's what bothers me about the animation. The pacing is bad and the way they treat him is even worse...

Don't apologize!!!!! I loved reading this. You expressed yourself sooo well and in such a polite way!!! Basically, you wrote everything I thought about the episode and I'm so glad to finally talk to someone with my same views 😭💖💖

[bubblewrapsnek]

Phantomarine Live reread: Prologue

I'm anticipating the reread before the chapter finishes cause I want to read it now again, altho I wanted to wait the chapter to be over to have a cleaner finish line for mental order and to avoid posing questions to things that would be maybe have more ground to speculate on or outright be answered in a few days This is my first time rereading Phantomarine, so if anyone is actually goint to read these posts expect me to come to realizations about stuff that everyone knew ages ago probably, also it's my first time liveblogging something since a friend suggested it could be appreciated, I am not convinced there would be interested but it can't hurt I guess. That said I hate the idea of clogging with posts and like keeping stuff a bit more tidy, so I'll post one post per chapter with my thoughts, silly ramblings and whatever comes to my mind that I feel like sharing while trying to put my thoughts in order

So uhh if you exist and are reading, have fun and feel free to interact!

First thing I'll not here with a few examples and try to not say everytime, but I can't help seeing how the royal family brands EVERYTHING with the Manta, I swear you could fill a where's waldo book by searching the mantas in Phantomarine's pages at this A manta hat, manta drawer, manta desk, and a manta polo in just the first pages, I swear they have a disney park-esque gift shop outside the palace

A manta hat, manta drawer, manta desk, and a manta polo in just the first pages, I swear they have a disney park-esque gift shop outside the palace

Bonus neat things, the candle has the same pattern as Cheline's dress and there is what I guess is a samoyede on Irving's shirt

Next thing is something I hadn't noticed before but I've seen already people point out in the comments now, Irving having very clearly pink eyes, at first I thought it might have been lighting but in the pages where he is alive they are very clearly pink, and even when in shock the characters get drawn with pinprick irises, while the others get black dots he has pink and is even more blatant in the shot with the Fata morgana stabbing them where he is eye to eye with a Fata with the same eyes

Bonus: alive Lani is very cute

I pointed the next thing in another post but I love how Cheline wanted to be sure to scapegoat the Fata Morgana so much she painted the arrows and bow too with Cheth's name bands(confirmed to be painted on by the transcript too altho it was the only possible reason they had those bad with what we know now), also I love that the cyan outline was faintly on the Fata Morgana's eye from the beginning

I am also getting suspicious about the ghosts being blue and the veins(referred as such in the transcript) that spread from the bite being purple, tho I don't have a concrete or sound thought about this

Also, something I love a lot in comics is paneling so some of this won't be thoughts but just panels that are really pretty or fun or creative here I love how the action flows very well, having many details making what happens readable such as the "magic" squares making phae's body on the bottom edge of the silouhette in the middle also appear on the heart, showing the wound being "repaired"

Love the veins snaking behind her

Something I had completely glossed over was Phae's middle name being Augusta, and I do find it possible to have a reading on it, as Augustus was the name and title that Octavian took as the first emperor of rome, the member of a what can be considered a royal lineage establishing the name for himself and becoming a key turning point in the history of an empire, just as I can see Phae become the turning point for the history of her reign, a change of the guard and of the status quo of the kingdom she watches over

End in the end, to finish the prologue of this reread, a funny typo Cheth appears, tipping his fedora: "M'Phaedra"

[cleromancy]

one thing i think people miss when trying to nail down the like nitty gritty of like-- okay. so post-crisis post-resurrection Jason's a hypocrite, right? and hes purposely fancast himself as the villain opposite bruce in utrh.

but also even while Jason's doing this he *has a point,* and he *knows it.* Jasons got a lot of big moral ideas hes spouting, and from what we see, he mostly only abides by *some* of them. so while you're like acknowledging that utrh/lost days jay is motivated by his emotions and doesn't act in ways that align with his moral principles, but also he *keeps bringing **up** those moral principles*, you start to wonder like. What the hell is going on in that big brain of yours jay.

and what i was getting at. the thing i think most people miss or forget when exploring that. is jasons appearance in outsiders 2003.

im looking through the tpb so im not giving you the exact issue numbers for any of these panels sorry but its 44-46 plus the annual.

but here is the crux of the matter:

cutting for length!!

so whats going on here in outsiders! is that black lightning, aka Jefferson pierce, aka anissa pierces dad and one of the few really good dads in the dcu, got (basically) framed for murder by deathstroke; believed he (accidentally) actually did the murder; eventually turned himself in to serve his time in prison.

jason happens across this information entirely by accident, and goes out of his way to deliver that information to dickie, who has an on-again off-again relationship with being the leader of the outsiders at this point in time. and im just going to post a lot of it, both bc i like it and also so you see what Jason was going against JUST TO DELIVER THIS INFORMATION:

skipping the first page to save images but jason asks dick to meet up with him in Gotham; the next pages:

im skipping a bit of really enjoyable fighting after that as well but pls know its there. jason asked dick to meet up and dick fully said okay ill come to your rendez-vous *just* to beat the shit out of you. and he was so valid for that. but this aint about him so lets get back to jason:

why does jason bring this up + how does Jason come by this information? well

ok. now youre as caught up as dick is.

some times fools and jackanapes say to me. but sisky why would jason do this and bring this information to dick. why would he try to break black lightning out of prison. why would he do such a thing when he is a known knave, neer do well, scoundrel, etc. to which i say HE TOLD YOU!!! HE TOLD YOU WHY HE DID IT

JASON FUCKING VALUES THE *GOOD GUYS.*

(and also sidenote. winick is writing this so we have to assume he knows how competent and resourceful jason can be bc... as the guy who defined the character after his resurrection... he *made him that way.* so based on utrh we have to assume both that 1) jason could have pulled this prison break off solo and 2) jason *knows* he could pull it off solo...

but he also knows he's a Bad Guy now, and he realizes that *if* he sprung black lightning hed just fucking! turn himself back in! so jadon needs to convince some big goddamn heroes to do it....

so he goes to dick.)

((and also secondary sidenote. willis todd canoncially spent enough time in and out of prison that jason assumed hed wound up back there without telling him or catherine before she died and jason wound up squatting, and he only found out otherwise when he read the entry on the batcomputer on two-face.))

the point is. jason has a *lot* of moral ideas he is not, at this point in time, capable of living by for a variety of Jason Reasons, ill do more meta on that some other time. so he's inhabiting the bad guy role, but sometimes he keeps slipping and falling and accidentally caring about things, and...

god damn it dick, black lightning is one of the *good* guys. like *you're* one of the good guys. aren't you going to fucking help him??

i will probably elaborate on this more in the future as well. i just need to hit send rn LOL

[justheretoposttrash]

day 9 in endhawks hell (actually over a year in endhawks hell but moving on):

not one to spread apocryphal info on the internet but my very unverified source (my friend) told me that losing a right arm in anime/japanese media symbolizes shame, disgrace, some other kinda downfall, or the need to redeem oneself. to be clear i have not found an actual source on this, but it definitely would explain a LOT (tears of the kingdom, aot, fma, hunter x hunter, so many more)

and big surprise, that all 100% tracks with endeavor's loss of his arm. if we were to assume all the symbolism is true and accurately described by me (which i encourage not to assume outside of this post), it's very interesting that endeavor loses it in the afo fight protecting hawks rather than in his fight with touya.

it should be noted that him losing his temper is what indirectly places hawks (and tokoyami and jiro) in danger, bc his rage at afo opened him up to injury and being absent from part of the fight in the first place. i also appreciate that, when hawks shouts at endeavor to "keep a cool head" in the face of afo's psychological warfare and endeavor fails to do so, hawks very clearly doesn't view this as weakness, but as a natural human reaction and is mainly worried about him--whereas endeavor is furious with himself right after the fact.

he says it outright in the text--that from the beginning, the whole tragedy, even his rage at afo leading to his current injury, is all only made possible because of the wounds he inflicted on his family in the first place. it's also notable that endeavor's inability to manage his anger, rather than having anger at all, was a core aspect of his abusive outbursts in the past, and his initial fall to afo in this fight. his temper continues to be a source of problems for himself and those around him.

and while endeavor made an overt mistake, hawks made a covert one: it is confronting his own emotions, rather than shutting them away (making a "clean break", as it were), that allows endeavor to re-enter the fight in full.

in result, endeavor's struggles with his own shame create an opportunity for hawks to be killed, but in accepting his shame, he saves him. (aside: the playful echo of "keep a cool head" in the above panel is so ridiculous. non-judgmental, trusting, teasing--knowing, yet forgiving/appreciative--like hawks and his intern hadn't just nearly died, lmao. arms were lost but there's always time to squeeze in a wisecrack)

this also fits well with hawks initially thinking that it's because endeavor is in an emotionally vulnerable place that he couldn't fight touya without losing (read: dying).

hawks initially felt certain that endeavor needed his support and protection because the man wasn't shutting his emotions away--but it's after endeavor is able to resurge back with his emotionality intact that hawks reverses his decision and is the one encouraging him to be the one to confront touya. and with full confidence! (the, uh, touya fight was a hair's breadth from ~not going well~, but let's not tell hawks that right now lol)

to slightly shift back to this "clean break" moment: by contrasting himself against endeavor, who is trying to do better = still vulnerable to the past = has emotions that the enemy can exploit, hawks implies that he doesn't see himself as being the same on *any* of those counts, which is a sad thing to realize. shutting off his heart? not being a better person than he was before? this implication would have benefitted from more intentional and clear closure in the manga (i think the single tiny frame of hawks talking with tokoyami in 430 is just *fine*, ish), but at any rate, endeavor certainly sets a solid example of a person learning to open themself up to these sorts of things, and those lessons are ones hawks could very much use.

anyway, in short, thematically/symbolically/what-have-you, endeavor's work towards atoning for his family, taking more emotional accountability, and accepting emotions rather than rejecting them is connected to inspiring hawks, doing right by him, and even saving him a second time.

[cerealandchoccymilk]

Trigun Bookclub: Trigun Vol.1, Chapter #05

previous | all | next

CW: Some of my analysis in this post handles the topic of death and suicide (there will be a warning around that portion). There are also more spoilers than usual. Stay safe!

I’m doing a deep-read of the Japanese original print (reread) and Overhaul 1.0 (first read) side-by-side, and writing down everything I notice from small details, version differences, translation differences, etc.

As always, here are the silly silly non-analysis panels:

And the rest is under the cut >:)

[link for if the images aren’t in horizontal rows]

Milly and Meryl (especially Milly goddamn) rolling nat 20's on their perception checks. It really is scary how good their sixth sense is.

In the previous chapter, Vash asked for (and for a while was using) a 3rd class seat, but it looks like he asked for a grade-up or something to accomodate for Kaito.

A sort-of mistranslation - Kaito means that Vash talks as if he were someone from the Big Fall (because in that time period, there's no way any human from then would be alive), so it should be more like "You talk as if you were actually at the Big Fall, over a hundred years ago." The existing phrasing could also mean that, but this would make it less ambiguous. Also, I would replace his "I/my" statements with "we/our," since it's not specified and he assumes Vash is just a human that's talking weirdly.

This line is really interesting to me from a rereading standpoint. At this point, Vash's origins and age are still a mystery, and this is the first hint at it. Vash's expression makes me think that maybe he was reminded that no one other than him (+Knives+the people at the Home ship) is from that time period. To the overwhelming majority of people, No Man's Land is their only home; this life is all they know.

Don't have much to say about this one that's not in the image. Vash's pussy is out again. Excellent (horrible) form. Kaito is either a bit worried about how hard he fell, or he doesn't give a shit and is just nervous/cautious about the mission.

I love how over-the-top neon is. Smoking a firework!! Damn!!

A decent amount of lines from Neon and the BL gang (I'm going to call them that exclusively) are in katakana English.

I like how he says "maggots" in place of the...rude 3rd person pronoun (??)(that sounds kinda stupid in english lmao) Neon says something more like "It's about time that boy set everything up!!" referring to the small bombs he was putting in the vents.

His pose here reminds me of kabuki. I'm not sure about details, since I don't know much about kabuki... But it looks like a stereotypical kabuki pose. Another over-the-top point for Neon.

In Japanese, the first line has "reeking of manure" describing the wagons. For the "Big Man" in Japanese, the kanji for the sandsteamer (砂蒸気, usually ruby-ed サンドスチーム/sandsteamer) with the ruby note saying Big Man (ビッグ・マン). Also, the guy mentions that the chasing them off is part of the fee they paid.

More over-the-top-ness from Neon. In the Japanese version, the first line looks a lot like one of those super long German words to me lol (究極華麗弩級盗賊). The portion saying "The Bad Lads Gang!" in Japanese is pretty much just "Hhhhhheaaaddd!!!!" (as in leader).

The introduction for Neon actually has play on words/kanji. The word 降臨 (kōrin) is originally for Christ's coming or descent, usually used for any arrival of someone "godly" (fyi Japanese has a much more casual sense of godliness than in English). What it says here, though, is 光臨, which replaces the first hald with the character for "light" (also kō). How bright can this guy get!?

Did Kaito nicely go through the trouble of moving Vash onto the bed before venting? how... that's a grown man...

And here is Rem's first appearance!! Just now realized that her name is probably based off of REM sleep (the stage of sleep associated with dreaming). The two are wearing similar (but not the same) clothes, with Rem wearing a tucked t-shirt and jeans, and Vash wearing an untucked button-up and jeans. I'm not smart enough for this but there's gotta be something to analyze here along with the fact that Vash is an adult (the dream isn't entirely based on memory)... Also, this is the first time we see Vash in a casual outfit.

This may very well be me reading into things too much, but it stuck out to me that Rem is barefoot while Vash has sneakers on. I had two speculations about this. One is that Rem has been at that picnic for longer than Vash, and Vash just got (appeared...?) there. I'm not sure about Western picnic customs/etiquette, but in Japan, you always take your shoes off when sitting down on the tarp. Rem is the one that set the picnic up, but Vash hasn't had the chance to even take his shoes off. this sounds kinda stupid now that im typing it out. idek (throws computer out of window) [death/sui cw] The other, more messed up one is that it symbolizes Rem's death. This one is definitely more overanalysis-y!! It reminded me of what Reigen did during the final arc of MP100...iykyk. During the Great Fall, Rem willingly stayed on the ship to save humanity, sacrificing herself. I'll spare the details, but in Japanese culture, people often take their shoes off before committing suicide. It's a frequently used symbol in art that handles the topic. Rem being barefoot may be symbolizing her resolve at the time of her death, of being prepared to die if it means she can save one more person. [/cw]

did i write all that for a single panel. this aut really be isming OH MY GOD MY COMPUTER JUST RAN OUT OF BATTERY I HAD A HEART ATTACK. I FORGOT IT WASNT PLUGGED IN HOLY SHIT THANK GOD FOR AUTOSAVE.

This line of Vash's is also interesting. Is he viewing "people" from an outsider's perspective, as an independent Plant? Or is including himself in that, questioning the meaning of his own current life in the desert planet, too?

In Japanese. way he responded to Rem's giggling looked a bit childish to me, like he reverted a bit back to his childhood, or he's just being a more relaxed around Rem. mom........

Ok okokok. In Japanese, she (more literally) says "All I can muster/the best I can do is ask my heart [the destination] (read: what I can do)." This may be a translation correction but I honestly was not thinking about that at all during the annotation lol. I'm too sleepy to actually talk about the importance of this line and the way it's phrased. but you get it. you get it.........

Silly Vash face for the first time in a while!! Vash's reaction upon waking gives me the impression that this is the first time (in a long while, at least) that he's dreamed about Rem...? he looks so cute..........................help...................

And that’s it for Chapter #05! As always, the Japanese annotations are in the reblogs.

i know i'm getting very behind. theres absolutely no way im going to complete all this in real time with the book club. and all this stuff about rem is not helping. send help

[timetravelersdoctor]

Unexpected allies Pt.1 rewrite

lol it's been about a year and a half since I've written the first part of my Unexpected Allies au. I read what I had posted and I realized I could do better so I decided to start from scratch. there will be a few changes and I've added some more stuff so I hope you enjoy!

In the Tfa Universe a nameless scientist found a way to create a very powerful teleporter one that if modified in the right way could connect to a certain planet and allow a possible ambush at any time. so the Tfa Decepticons decided it was a good idea to steal the teleporter. Unfortunately for them the Tfa Autobots were prepared to stop them. During their scuffle one of the bots ends up smashing in to the control panel activating the teleporter.

the Tfa Autobots not knowing something was wrong decided the best course of action was to throw the Tfa Decepticons into the teleporter then shut it off. So they managed to do just that and the Tfa Decepticons are teleported to a whole different place. once they gather their bearings they look around only to see what looks like desert. Almost immediately a ground bridge opens up and out comes Tfp Megatron wanting to check out these new cybertronian signatures himself. Tfa Megs not wanting to fight manages to convince Tfp Megatron that they (the Tfa Decepticons) no threat to him and just want to find a way back.

Tfp Megatron invites them back to the nemesis and offers to help them under the condition that while they are here in the Tfp Universe they would help him and his crew to defeat the Tfp Autobots. Reluctantly the Tfa Decepticons agree and are taken to the nemesis.

they are introduced to the Tfp decepticons and are given a brief rundown as to what is going on in the Tfp war. During their stay the Tfa decepticons witness Tfp Megatrons madness and abuse towards his subordinates. Tfa Megatron now wanting more information about Tfp Megatron ask Tfp Megs about his goals after winning the war. Tfa Megatron quickly realizes that Tfp Megs wants to oppress all that stand against him. Tfa Megatron informs his team that they won't be staying and finding their own way back would be better than hanging around the nemesis.

once they finalize their escape plan and put it into action they are attacked by the Nemesis crew in an attempt to stop them but the nemesis crew fails and the Tfa decepticons escape. The Tfa Crew decide that they need to stay low so once they hit far enough away from anything in sight they land and start walking.

That's when they are confronted by the Tfp Autobots and they fight but due to being low on fuel and already having lost a lot of energy escaping the nemesis the Tfa Decepticons lose the fight and are captured by the Tfp Autobots. they are brought to the Autobots base and quickly put into makeshift cells (very well made ones if I might add).

That's all I'm putting for now because I want to make a separate post about the Tfp Autobots interactions with the Tfa Decepticons. i hope you like my semi rewrite of my Unlikely Allies au!

[amity206]

Sky Theories: The Shattering Diamond

In this post I’ll be going over various theories on the Shattering Diamond, and evidences to support (or not support) then. This is probably going to get a bit long, so the rest will be below the cut. If you have any theories you’d like to add or flaws you’ve noticed in what I’ve written, please let me know!

I also ended up going into the aftermath of the explosion so tw for discussion of nuclear fallout

We can be pretty confident that the Shattering Diamond was a massive darkstone / artificial star. It seems to have consumed a lot of light and had some sort of purpose, so what was it supposed to be used for?

Theory One: it was meant to levitate Eden into the sky, like some sort of spaceship (sort of a modified Ark plan like we saw in concepts) - that being the reason part of Eden is now levitating. We know that darkstone can levitate things, see the platforms in the Vault of Knowledge.

This could have been a sort of Planet B project, as the ancestors realized their world was dying. It could have also been a plan to reach Megabird as sort of a religious journey (I remember one user comparing the structure of Eden’s city to the Tower of Babel). It could also have been a plan to OVERTHROW Megabird. But the massive ark (which seems to have been scrapped, in 7 Days of Sky they said (my emphasis on certain words) “in ONE ITERATION of Sky’s story, they built a massive ark to survive the apocalypse) would have been much more efficient at all of these things. Which brings us to the next theory.

Theory Two: it was meant to be an unlimited power supply, tapping into Eden’s light beacon to provide sustainable energy for the Sky Kingdom.

I’ve been seeing this theory a lot more lately, and I think it makes sense - with light getting scarcer in the Sky Kingdom and increasing protests against the use of light creatures for power, the King could have turned to Eden’s light beacon - a seemingly unlimited power source - for power. That could possibly explain why everyone is praying beneath it (though not entirely, I mean I’m not going around worshipping solar panels, so probably it’s the King they’re worshipping, with the Diamond seen as a symbol of his power).

This could have run into two problems - first of all, the light creatures needed that beacon for migration purposes. They might have been drawn to it - only to be absorbed - or attacked to keep their migrations safe. Second, that was a LOT of power.

I’m going to pull up the quotes from four of the six Shattering memories (if you’re hanging trouble reading them, you can find these on the Season of Shattering page of the Sky Wiki):

It’s possible that some of these could refer to light creatures being drawn to the Shattering Diamond, or just to artificial beacons set up to capture them. This could also point to the Shattering Diamond actually holding the souls of these light creatures, and that being how we can view them inside these “frozen memories”. So perhaps when the Shattering Diamond started to absorb the beacons power, for a while it glowed brighter than the beacon and the light creatures were instantly drawn to it - and as a result, absorbed by it. Since this meant their souls couldn’t rejoin Megabird, it further weakened the light in the universe, possibly causing the stars to start falling as we see in “The Seed” from the Aurora Concert.

It also had another consequence - the Shattering Diamond couldn’t hold that much light. Something was going wrong with it, and it was getting unstable. Let’s look at the final two Shattering memories:

This points to a massive explosion of the Shattering Diamond - as it absorbed too much light, it, well, shattered. Somehow the Elders were all there when that happened - the concept timeline says they gathered to curse the King in Eden (trapping him forever), so maybe they were doing that? (Maybe the King is the dark star thing at the very top of the Diamond?)

In Light Awaits, there was a note on them trapping the resulting storm behind the Gate, so maybe they were trying to stabilize / contain it?

The explosion also created the just mentioned storm of darkness from all the light it had absorbed, warped, and released (I believe someone in TGC referred to the red as a warped flame and @/lelanida theorized that red presented darkness mixed with light). The storm corrupted light creatures caught in it, turning them into the krill (“a distorted reflection” of light creatures).

(Images from Aurora Concert and Seed of Hope quest)

We know from the Seed of Hope and Stealthy Survivor’s memories that ancestors encountered krill, so the blast didn’t kill everyone in Wasteland and beyond - it might have done so in Eden, however.

It might have been similar to a nuclear bomb, and krill creatures created by “radiation” poisoning - many people would have survived the initial blast, only to be crushed under falling buildings, die later of their burns, or die days or months later (maybe even years) of radiation / darkness poisoning.

Life would have very difficult for ancestors that did survive, especially in Wasteland - the water was polluted, krill searched for any light they could consume, and they had little light left to power the darkstone boats they could have used to escape. Darkness pollution would have sickened and killed many, especially children.

Vault accepted some refugees (as seen in Season of Remembrance), but probably shut their doors to keep the corruption at bay. This was probably the era of the Abyss spirits - concept art has Cackling Cannoneer wearing trophies that represent their battles with krill, and the spirit’s search for resources would fit in with this era.

Other areas faced a lot less of a threat from the explosion, but no longer having light to power their boats they would have lost contact with each other. The Elders had died in the Storm and they had no one to lead them. The animation trailer points to the falling of the stars as the reason Isle became a desert - meaning the people there would have starved (of course, they could have gotten food from the sea, but a lack of light probably also meant a lack of fish).

Prairie’s farms might have suffered, but they probably still had food for a while - we do see darkness growing on their bell towers and out of pots, so perhaps their farms became contaminated. Maybe the storm used to be a lot bigger, and affected all the realms a lot more.

Forest probably would have suffered due to the polluted rain and lack of food. Valley likely relied on imported food as well, so they would have starved.

The Lightseekers would have become very important, as they searched for the last traces of fallen light the ancestors could use for power.

Slowly, the last survivors died. The explosions around the Shattering Diamond continued to maintain the storm, as the beacon was still an infinite source of power. Eventually, it would start erupting again - triggering the start of Season of Shattering.

The shards we get are referred to as “pieces of frozen memory from the Eye of Eden”, again connecting all these memories to the theory that every one of them (not just the obvious ones) takes place in Eden.

It’s possible Eden started erupting again because of excess light brought to it by skykids, or due to the Megabird and therefore the beacon getting stronger. The fact they’re referred to as “eruptions” links Eden to volcanoes - other links include the way the fallen look like the bodies at Pompeii and the possibility that the storm contains volcanic lighting - but instead of being a regular volcano, it would be a volcano of darkness.

Anyway that’s all I have for now! Please share your thoughts / theories / things I might have missed, I’d love to hear them! (And please if you think I got something wrong don’t hesitate to tell me why and what your theory is, I want to make sure my understanding of the lore and the big lore blog(s) I have on the sky wiki is as accurate as possible)

[anjumbai]

Remembering: Neon Genesis Evangelion

Director: Hideaki Anno

I must not run away.

Another one of those anime that I watched Gigguk make loads of videos on. There's an almost persuasion quality to his videos, where he doesn't directly try to persuade you into watching an anime. Instead he makes love letters in the form of video essays on different anime, which sound so artistic and funny that you want to watch the anime just so you can grasp all of what he's saying. Sure, you can talk about anything passionately and people will find it beautiful. But it's a totally different thing when you love somebody's work so much that you wanna pick it up yourself and try it. Just so you can experience a fraction of what they did. I picked up journaling like that once. It really is beautiful what somebody's passion can make you do.

So NGE, another anime that I watched during Covid lockdown. I've loved this anime for how simply it tore apart all of it's narrative just so the depressed middle aged man known is Hideaki Anno could grasp the world's attention and deliver his message. His message was as simple as -"I don't like life. I'm no good and this world has no place for me. Somebody please, see me." As Gen Z, nothing beat a sweet glass of milk with depression back then.

What do I remember about NGE? Well-

Never skipped the damn intro. ZANKOKU WA TENSHI- *head beat intensifies*

Shinji was a pu*sy. It seemed that most of the viewers agreed that Shinji was a coward when it came to facing his life head on. While his behavior has always been memed, the same viewers were as sympathetic to him as they were critical. It was easy to make fun of him, but imagining myself in his shoes was really tough as well.

Rei was nice.

The adults were as hopeless as the teenage cast. None of the adults managed to act as adults where they should have. That resulted in a different kind of fucked up-ness. Shinji's father was a menace to him, burdening him with responsibilities totally not appropriate for a teenager of 14. I don't remember the age but yeah. You could see adults making moves on kids so that they could suffice for their loneliness; and you would think that how can that pass in a show? Well, it all seemed so subtle that you'd have to read some analysis on the characters. It was all pretty fucked up.

I read at least 2 reddit posts for analysis on each episode. At first, I thought I should do it because it's a mecha anime with loads of robots and prophetic terms. But soon you will come to realize that these religious terms and extremely cool robots were just for show, just to look cool. You didn't need to analyze any of it nor did you need to know what angels were, what was the spear of longinus or anything of that sort. As the story unfolds, you could see it was a deep revealing of Hideaki Anno, the director's troubled and disturbed mental state.

FLY ME TO THE MOON.

The studio lost it's budget before it could even end the show properly. You would have one shot of animation running for 10 minutes to end an episode, accompanied only by the dialogue. The last episodes used colorless panels of animation- even a regular viewer could see this as a budget cut rather than an artistic choice. But just because of this- they put some extra care on the only panels they could draw. You couldn't help but smile at a studio's budget constraints.

These are actual frames from the final episodes.

The anime finished with me gaining some deep knowledge on human emotions and that is what made NGE memorable to me. I still remember most of the lessons I learned and happen to instinctively follow now.

Evangelion is divided in 3 parts imo. The first is the original anime, then the follow up artistic movie called End Of Evangelion- my favourite movie this day, and the Rebuild of Evangelion movies. I loved Gigguk's explanation on how part 1 was an insight on the troubled mental state of Hideaki Anno. It showed how he failed to deal with emotions, how human interaction can leave you so hurt and how pointless all the pain seemed. End of Eva seemed like an acceptance stage of the pain, the woe and the inabilities. And the rebuild showed full acceptance of life and gratefulness. It was literally the most artistic and different way to get therapy in my opinion. And I love that about Eva.

I love Evangelion for all it has presented. It's an anime I hold close to me and I often run to Reflections of Despair in youtube just to remind myself of what I learned through this show.

You never understand anything. Nothing ever changes. Is that wrong? I don't wanna be alone. I'm no good. Nobody wants me. You betrayed my feelings. Somebody help me. Somebody care about me. All lines from the ASMV. I don't remember whether these are lines from NGE but they seem connected. There's so much to uncover through this lines, so much to live with. Nobody will truly understand you- and maybe that's the beauty of it. You have some feelings to yourself and you keep them with you. Nothing really changes, people stay the same. Not particularly true but maybe all of it is a part of life. We can't beg people to be with us so we can look at them instead of looking at our loneliness. And when they won't look at us, when they can't be the crutch we use to walk on, we focus on the rage of betrayal instead of learning why we actually feel all that rage. For whom is all that rage for? The betrayal? Or the pain you're gonna feel? Is it another crutch? Why let somebody care about you when you can do that for yourself?

10/10. Would watch with my kids. When they are 18 and mentally unstable.

End of Evangelion is much different than this. There's so much to talk about this anime- but I never have the proper words at any given time.

[that1notetaker]

when did you find out about hijack and what has kept you interested also you have good vibes

Oh hey @nninoxasauraur ! I've seen you around my posts and I have to say thanks for sticking around! Also no u, you have the baddest vibes of all. This ask has opened the gates, so-long answer incoming. Like, seriously long, you've got me ranting. Good luck!

Unsurprisingly...Of the Northwind and Skies it was for me...sort of! Httyd and Rotg have always, always been two movies that stand as an all-time favorite and have been very close to me ever since I first saw them as a kid. I remember watching them every single night once and again, sometimes many times in one night. They really stood up for me in a very personal, close way, that still remains to this day.

Still, years passed, and despite me being in the internet for a good while now, it never occurred to me that: oh hey, people still like and still create content for these guys! It was as if the movies were in a bubble in my head, so I never searched content of them. Even better, surprisingly and to my delight, I never realized both stories could even be fused.

I was super reluctant at first, though. I remember taking a look at the title of OTNAS and debating whether to give it a chance or not. It was half Wonder at the idea that my two favorite comfort media just happened to come in a One Package of Glory, but also suspicious of what to expect. So 'fine, for the laughs', I said. 'What's the harm?' I said.

BOY AM I GLAD I READ IT EVEN IF IT FELT CRINGE FOR LIKE THE FIRST CHAPTER OR TWO.

What kept me interested was a mix of things.

The films have...so much lore. So much fantasy and love. They have so much story-building, even without considering the books and comics, which I only found about as I discovered Hijack at the same time. Reading about Berk and the characters that make Berk makes me feel like being at home while simultaneously feeling far, far away, in a place I would like to call home. It feels free, and it also makes me relate.

Then there's Rotg, a movie that makes me feel so much more at ease. It brings me hope and comfort and it helps me confront such a realistic world as this one, just as it did when I was eight. Now, fusing both worlds? Both favorite characters that coincidentally, mix together very well for a BUNCH of different reasons? The characters feel so alive, and the relationships feel like care and love, and I can't help with fall a little in love with that, myself.

The stories bring me so many ideas and inspiration. Both writing styles of the stories, the way both stories have been delivered...it inspires me, as a creator and as a person.

And yeah, maybe it may be deeper than it might be for some, but that's how it was for me. I wish to be the kind of person who can make kids with broken hopes and troubled dreams, and even teens and adults, at ease with what I make.

So, thanks for the ask :) If you've reached here, man, congrats. Have a a fun panel of the unofficial rotg comics that sent me, Please zone into Jack's book for a better experience.

This absolute dork.

[quietduna]

Escaflowne 'Letters to another world': Analysis of chapter 4

Hello! Following my post about sharing content from my Patreon, here I have my collection of notes about my (now on hiatus) doujinshi ‘Letters to another world’ that you can read here.

Chapter 4: ‘The eye of the seeress’ comments

Page 3

The royal family has their own private matters to attend to, and Merle is well aware of it. This is something that is obvious not only in this fantasy setting, but in any context where power and politics are involved. However, I want to make it clear that this doesn’t mean the royal court in Fanelia is corrupt. They hold honor in high regard. I just want to emphasize that there’s more to their ruling system beyond the public palace audiences. In the comic, I won’t focus too much on this aspect, but it adds background to Merle and Van’s efforts in rebuilding Fanelia and their relationships with other countries and guilds.

Hitomi, on the other hand, sees politics and politicians in a similar way to how we perceive them in our society: there’s corruption and disappointment involved. She disagrees with Merle because she doesn’t fully understand the system yet. Although Hitomi has a general idea after her experiences in Gaea and the information Van has shared with her, she still needs to deepen her understanding before she can become a ruler.

Page 4

In the first scene of the following page, Merle suggests that Hitomi should marry Van and live a royal life. “Just say the word” she says. However, Hitomi is not interested in being a queen and prefers a quiet life. Hitomi needs time to adjust to her new surroundings since she has only recently woken up from a long sleep. She was crying over Van just a few hours ago, so it’s quite a leap to expect her to marry him already. This is a scene I wanted to add since the beginning! I always intend to show that Hitomi is not a reckless young girl following love. She has very clear priorities, and first of all is her well-being.

As you will see in the video of the progress of creation of this page, I was struggling with the backgrounds. I was learning how to improve backgrounds using Clip Studio Paint.

Page 5

We all realize the immense happiness that Merle derives from being alongside Van and aiding the people of Fanelia. This aspect holds great significance in her persona and personal history. In my perspective, I envision adult Merle as possessing remarkable social and diplomatic skills, while Van embodies charisma and leadership. Together, they form an outstanding team in terms of governance and administration (you could already see more of this Merle in my previous comic “Second Chance“). Consequently, Merle’s unwavering dedication to Fanelia is understandable, even though she has been blushing more frequently as of late, specially around Hitomi. In my headcanon, Merle and Van seldom engage with individuals their own age and instead interact mostly with older individuals. However, Hitomi is an exception to this, being a close companion of similar age. Despite their dissimilar backgrounds, they both make sincere efforts to comprehend one another. (Initially, I employed the term “cultural gap” instead of “backgrounds,” but considering Fanelia’s culturally blended nature with Japanese-Western influences, Hitomi finds many familiar aspects within it.)

Page 6

The transformation of Hitomi is truly remarkable. She has grown wiser, more experienced, but it seems as though her bright spirit has dimmed a little. The passing of three years can undoubtedly change a person’s perspective on life. She had a broken heart, believing that Van had forsaken her. Such an experience must have deeply affected her.

However, deep within, Hitomi possesses unwavering convictions, which, in my own interpretation, may have been the catalyst for the pendant’s mysterious energy. Though she claims to have lost her powers, it is possible that her connection to the pendant is necessary for her inner eye to awaken.

The final panel of the story shows a sorrowful and angry Yukari, standing beside a smiling Amano. We are left wondering about the nature of their relationship and what has transpired between them. Hitomi briefly mentioned that Yukari had moved away, leading to a loss of contact. It seems that Hitomi was enduring a difficult time on Earth, and her sudden arrival in Fanelia offers her a chance to start afresh. It is truly admirable how she possesses the strength and determination to leave behind any burden of guilt or despondency, embracing this new beginning with open arms.

Page 7

In this page, and going back to my headcanon about Fanelia’s governance, I imagine that Fanelia’s monarchy maintains a system where the king possesses the authority to make managerial decisions. The king would typically have one or two trusted advisors who provide guidance on matters of governance. Additionally, there exists a Council consisting of representatives from the citizens and various guilds, which the king oversees and listens to. The Council is empowered to operate independently, but for certain decisions, they require the approval of the king. This setup is akin to the internal governance structure of an association, where there is an executive authority overseen by a board of directors led by a president.

Regarding my headcanon (aligned with the canonical storyline), Van has no aspirations of becoming a warrior. Following the War, Van continues his training but as time goes on and the prospect of peace emerges, he begins to explore new areas of interest. The specific topics he pursues remain unknown. It seems as though Van is gradually becoming more akin to his brother

Page 8

I really enjoyed portraying them as two young adults having a playful moment. It was fascinating to explore their relationship as they’ve grown into confident individuals who are deeply in love with each other.

They have spent a lot of time together in Gaea and on Earth, building a strong bond and sharing intimate moments. They’ve likely had not just kisses, but also deeper emotional experiences. Their level of comfort with each other shows that they’ve reached a point where flirting feels natural and right.

Despite their deep love, they often struggle with miscommunication. It’s something they need to work on to truly understand and connect with each other. Van’s reserved nature adds complexity, requiring both of them to be patient and understanding.

Page 9

In regards to this particular page, I tried different designs. I used my own photographs instead of relying on stock imagery.

This is a milestone for this story: there's a book in Gaea written by none other than Hitomi…on Earth. The recurring theme of letters has always resonated with me when contemplating Hitomi Kanzaki. I firmly believe that she would find solace expressing herself through written words. This concept was first explored in my story “Second Chance” back in 2013, and I have reimagined it here. In “Second Chance,” Hitomi writes heartfelt letters to Millerna, detailing her experiences and emotions concerning Van and her stay in Fanelia. In this instance, Hitomi delves into her own emotional journey and transforms it into a bestseller. It is worth noting that there are more letters yet to be unveiled.

[kriffin-ink]

I never see anyone talk about Emiko Queen on here, so this is my attempt to fix that.

One of my favorite issues to analyze when it comes to Emiko is Green Arrow (2016) #7, which is an Emiko focused issue. I like it not only for the awesome Emiko moments that we get, but also how it furthers her character and relationships within the story.

Allow me to explain~

So the issue itself flip flops between two points in time, in the past when she sells Ollie out to Clock King under duress, and in the present where she’s working to free her mother from working for the Yakuza.

From this simple description, we can see her growth under Oliver’s guidance. She goes from only caring about her own survival to actively putting herself in dangerous situations in order to help the people she cares about, stated more clearly when Emiko says that the last time she was more concerned about her own life, bad things happened.

The second she betrayed Ollie she felt extremely guilty about it, but she did it to save her own life, and this is kind of where her want to be a hero and her upbringing come at odds. Growing up as an assassin, she was taught that her own survival was her primary goal.

She says she doesn’t know who she is because the ideals was taught growing up and the ideals that she wants to abide by are conflicting. She’s still very new to this whole hero thing at the time of this event (at least, I think she is? Comic timelines are weird) and she’s still struggling to figure out who exactly she is. She’s not Oliver Queen, but she’s not Simon LaCroix either.

After Oliver realizes what she’s done, she has to self reflect on who she is, and more importantly, who she wants to be.

While we don’t actually get to see this reflection, she just sorta shows up and says she has reflected, I think that this is the moment where she really commits herself to being a hero. At this point in the series, she has not been using the Red Arrow moniker, she’s been waiting for the other shoe to drop and standing with one foot out the door.

After all, Simon used and manipulated her, and her and Shado have a kind of tumultuous relationship (I’ll get into this later I promise), why should the arrowfam want her around? Especially especially with all the things she’s done in the past as an assassin against them. She’s fully aware that at any moment they could decide that they don’t want her around, so she’s not going to commit to a name if she’ll just have to end up abandoning it.

But this is the moment where she realizes that she has to put her all into this, being a hero, being a part of a family, isn’t just something that you can half do.

Clock King says in the earlier issue that he can’t read Emiko like he can other people, specifically because of this crossroads that she is at. And she admits her internal conflict to that, but when her brother is in danger, she decides that her family is worth protecting.

And she is fully ready and willing to put her life on the line to ensure their protection. And while her methods are very all-or-nothing, I do think that that is still something left over from her training as a kid.

She’s not exactly Oliver and she’s not exactly Simon, she’s her own person, and now she’s trying to figure out who exactly that is.

Also, sidenote, this is one of my favorite Emiko panels. She’s scared two grown men and she’s just standing there with her hands behind her back like “:)” do you understand why I love her so much?????

Anyways, I didn’t really touch on the other half of the issue with Shado, but this post is already long enough so I’ll make another post about it, one that will more specifically focus on her and Shado’s relationship and why it’s amazing and important and shouldn’t be dumbed down to “evil mom and assassin kid” but anyways

This is my first time making a long post like this so sorry if my thoughts are out of order, idk if I’m doing this correctly

[20dollarlolita]

Going to do a lolita challenge that The Random Lolita posted 12 years ago. I'm going to be spacing these out, but it seemed like it'd be fun.

I picked this because it's not coord-heavy and so that means more people could join in if they want. I've wanted to do this for quite a while, but always kind of found other people's annoying to read. Since tumblr has a decent blacklist function now, you can just block "20dollarlolita 30daylorlolita challenge" to avoid reading this.

Day 1) 10 things about your lolita bubble.

Not going to lie, I didn't do this one for the longest time because I didn't really get what "your lolita bubble" meant, and I didn't want to start this on the wrong foot. But I read some other people's things and it's apparently just things that are about how you interact with the concept of lolita fashion.

So here goes: 1) my lolita bubble is a mess right now. In addition to being non-weight bearing on my foot, which is making all lolita difficult, there's also some interesting things happening in the local community that I'm in. 2) I'm so used to being the lone lolita that it feels very strange to me to be so wrapped up in what other people in my area are doing. I was lone lolita for the first 10+ years I was in the fashion, and have only had a local community for a year or so. I changed jobs last year, and part of the reason was that I wasn't allowed to have a flexible day off and had to use my PTO any time I wanted a day off that wasn't a tuesday or wednesday. I would have quit over the disrespect that this issue was handled with, but the reason that this was initially brought up was because my lolita meets were not happening on weekdays. 3) I'm into lolita fashion because it allows me to be creative, to craft new things, and to build new things. I love buying pieces that are missing components and then rebuilding those components.

Okay, line break, 4) I'm currently working on a bunch of projects, including resizing a JSK for a friend. I had to replace a broken zipper and add a shirring panel. I absolutely love how shirring panels make sewing lolita so much more accessible, because if the fit isn't completely right, you know the panel will compensate. I had to add a little bit on the sides, which one of the waist ties was sacrificed for. I'm trying to figure out how to turn the existing one waist tie into two so that the dress will have ties still.

5) I got into lolita in a really difficult time in my life. As is often the case with serious chronic mental illness, mine developed when I was in my very early 20's, which was right after I decided to get into lolita fashion. I really want to make a dress with the words, "Live through this and you won't look back," on it, but i've never had the right time or design to do it. 6) I love looking through old lolita blogs. I love looking at tutorials from 2007. I love how much of the more early western lolita scene is archived on livejournal. I love the privacy of lolita discord and the safety it's offered, but I always hope that people will archive tutorials somewhere public for the future generations. 7) I have a werid amount of guilt around the fact that I bought an embroidery machine a year ago and still haven't ever made a border print on it. I make a lot of patches but I've never done a border embroidery. 8) One of my favorite archived lolita things is the argument over that BTSSB flower crown and the person who kept insisting that she be given the contact info of a stranger who bought it so that they could ask it to be sold to them. 9) I think that most of the time when someone says that a dress doesn't look good without the waist ties that, if you dig into what they say, they hate fat people. Maybe this isn't true anymore, but it used to go hand in hand.

10) I spend a lot of time on this blog waiting for everyone to realize that i'm a giant asshole and to leave me alone. I'm grateful for everyone who is willing to stick around even when I say stuff like #9. I love how people are willing to come and tell me that they're glad there's a lolita tumblr that's still highly active, and that I've helped them. I went from doing this blog for me, specifically to give myself an excuse to make more lolita fashion, to being able to tailor posts to the needs of other people and a general audience. I have been going through some additional shit recently, and I didn't have enough time to do both this and my youtube channel, and we can see which one I picked.

Bonus thing: 11) I really want to figure otu how to do a stage transformation dress (cinderella dress) in lolita. The magic of somehow going from old school gothic to ott sweet or something would be so cool, even though it couldn't actually happen like it does in my mind.

Anyway, y'all let me know if you'd rather I stick to normal content and do the rest of this on my personal blog. BTW @handcraftedplumbingnightmares is my personal blog, if anyone wants it.

[youredreamingofroo]

📩 Simblr question of the day: It's time to appreciate the small things! What's a small detail from one of your posts that you love? Could be a small tattoo on a sim, specific clutter in a sims' room, a little detail in a render or screenshot, whatever is applicable to you (p.s. I've been scouring simblr, and I've noticed people don't like how picky SQOTD feels, so please! Share around SQOTD asks, anon or not, I'm only one person and can't find and ask every person on simblr ~ 💛)

Thank you to SQOTD Anon and other Anon for the asks!! (I'm presuming we're gonna start seeing dupe asks with this getting passed around now LMAO)

I RELIGIOUSLY put small details in my renders and stuff, so take a shot (or sip of juice) for every small detail i point out /j LMAOO

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starting off with my most recent post, whether u wanna call these small or not, im still gonna point them out - the next panel after "I'll see you in a weeks time" you can see the text box is still there, which is just a play on perspective, you can also see the lyrics from the Beabadoobee song in frame on the ticket close-up shot AND finally (for this post), a more subtle detail, is the fact that the box with the "-$158" casts a shadow! I gave a before and after, thats how subtle it is and how subtle i wanted it to be :)

That's the one I wanted to share the most, but if you want to see and read about more details (small or just overlooked/overlookable), I'm adding a couple more under the cut :)

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Lighting isn't so much a small detail, but a detail that I think is important and am sharing a couple (not all) moments where I used colored lighting to create contrast or just to outline characters or where I just felt it was important to use specifically-colored lighting:

Just gonna speedrun explain these: Leo's colors are red/red-ish pink and green is the opposite of pink, which I used in that specific render, so it was a nice contrast Hero's colors are a range from Red - Orange - Yellow-ish Green - Green Vanella's (A sim I havent talked about before!) color is Blue and I used blue both as lighting for the walkie talkie and to make her stand out from the background Leo and Roo's colors are [respectively] Pink/Red-ish pink and Purple, I like to, especially in these kinds of renders with no background, use these colors to highlight them and their favorite/representing color Same as the last, I used yellow and purple/pink to contrast the two, with blue as a sort of undertone(?)

Also if you look at the W.A.S Teasers, Green, Yellow and Blue are meant to highlight the different characters and sort of set them apart from each other

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in this post/render-set, I wanted to show (whether u see it as a big or small detail again idk, i see it as small/medium) just how exhausted Harvey/Younger Roo was and how sorry Roo was/felt, hence the slumped over body and Roo tightly hugging him

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you wont see this for a bit (until i muster up the energy for a flashback Hiraeth render), but Leo DOES wear this sweater again after Roo said he loved it :)

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I will never get enough of this panel, i always eat it up everytime I see it... but anyways LMAO The small detail here is just the hair strands... I feel like I did SO well on not making them look exactly perfect but not exactly like... fake hair, kind of representing the "I cut my hair myself" look- also the fact that I managed to perfectly remove his glasses (via model editing in blender)... *chef's kiss*

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shoutout to you if you remember the first nirvana post... anyways, Obv the text isn't small but it's just the fact that you can interpret these two frames in two different ways (that I know of): One is that it's saying DONT. (as in dont grab her hand) and then she does her hypnotizing shabang and it says "DO IT" a bunch (like yk,, do it, grab her hand-) The other, is that it says "DONT. DO IT." (basically just saying DONT DO IT, with a period/comma however u see it) Not necessarily a render detail, but something i realized a while ago while looking at this

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And thats it! Thank you again for these asks!!! I love putting in small details or just details that might get overlooked SOOOO much :)