#technically a repeat

[incognitopolls]

Define "had sex" in whatever way makes sense to you.

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[shrews-art]

Someone had a ROUGH night at the club

[somuchbetterthanthat]

Here and then I think about Elias being a genuinely boring person to 99% of the world by the time it's the 2000s and all his circle of Good Society Gentlemen Horny for their weird Academic friend obsessed with Ghosts Stories are dead.

Not just boring, but easily dismissed, as well ("waste of a suit"), ("A dull little man" // "Gertrude was the one who scared me").

And I don't know, it always drives me a little insane in the BEST way. I love it. I love that his little joys in life are spreadsheets, filing, The Horror Stories of Other People that Are Not Him Thank You, and cake. I love that he is mild, that he looks utterly inoffensive, that he's passive and only shows glimpses of how Cruel and /how much he enjoys being Cruel/ in very specific situations (1. i have all the power and everybody in the room knows, 2. They want to see an evil man i'll show them an evil man 3. EVERYTHING I WORKED TOWARDS FOR CENTURIES IS SET INTO MOTION I AM WINNING)

It makes it extra tasty, with that additional external point of view from characters, that Jon explicitely says that Elias is the most knowledgeable man he knows when it comes to paranormal: Jon actively seeked out Elias enough to be aware of that. It's also delicious to have him say "Elias is a hard man to pin down" because it means that Jon RECOGNIZES that Elias is not just his boring, inefficient superior; that there are myriads of other things he's yet to uncover about him and all.

I think it's nice for us all boring people to have represention in villainy. I said it over on bluesky and all but I know in my heart his perfectly tailored three-piece suits are all different shades of grey (Ah,,), except for the black ones that are for fancy events, and the "extravagant" navy blue ones for "fun" events like Institute parties.

he has inside jokes with himself with his cufflinks and that's basically it.

[knockknockitsnickels]

I think this is one of my favorite lines from the Wraith route because of (imo) how much the meaning changes depending on if you got there via Spectre or Nightmare. For Spectre, it honestly strikes me as a genuine question. Why are you doing this to her? If you're on the Spectre route, you presumably already know the Narrator can't really be trusted, since you had to reject his reward to get here. What are you hoping to gain from continuing to hurt her? For Nightmare, it honestly just makes me sad. As the Shifting Mound describes her, "She desires only companionship, but the only thing she knows is how to hurt." This line feels like a plea from someone who genuinely doesn't understand why you keep rejecting her. She wants to be with you, but she just can't understand how to do that in a way which doesn't hurt you.

[solitairedeere]

i was never as optimistic about the ending of bnha as some villain stans were, but i never thought it'd end so badly it left me wondering why horikoshi ever bothered to humanize the villains or make them complex characters at all.

like-- i expected that at least 1-2 of the 3 villains who were heavily foreshadowed and outlined by the narrative as people to be saved would be, you know, actually saved. i didn't think that was a high bar. i've been let down before in fandoms where everyone was certain a character would live and then they didn't, so i tried to keep my hopes low. AND YET.

what happened to tomura was upsetting, but i wasn't that shocked after how disinterested the manga has seemed to be in him for like, the past 100 or so chapters. a bit surprised, because you'd think if anyone would succeed in the 'saving' mission it would be the MC, but whatever. dabi, well, they've spent a lot of time showing the way his quirk destroys his body even before this arc, so that also sucked but at least it didn't feel completely out of left field.

........but they're not even letting toga live???

i just-- what have we even been doing here? when zero out of the 3 characters that were marked out for saving were actually saved, you have to acknowledge that something has gone seriously fucking wrong with the storytelling. not even just from the perspective of a villain fan but from the perspective of someone who likes stories to be thematically consistent or satisfying in any way.

you can set up an expectation of these characters being saved and then subvert that and turn it into a tragedy- if done well that could even be worthwhile and interesting. but you can't turn it into a tragedy and then just... keep trucking along with the happy ending messaging and act like anything in the manga has been resolved and that the characters have somehow successfully completed their heroic origin stories.

like, maybe i shouldn't have expected this much from a shounen- at the end of the day it is still a shounen so i didn't expect to feel that it truly satisfactorily wrapped up all the themes it brought up around societal ills. but i expected it to at least resolve those things in a shounen-y way where they punch the problems and help these specific people and then you can feel good assuming that the state of things will continue to improve in the post-canon world of the manga.

instead we got... uh, none of that. the story refused to answer a single one of the larger questions it's been outlining for the past 400+ chapters. in the end, it was all flash and no substance, which again could've been fine, if it weren't for the way the story seemed to spend significant chunks of time trying to delude you into thinking it had substance.

truly makes me wonder what horikoshi thought he was doing the entire time. can it really all be blamed on burnout? the most that can be said for this ending is that it is, well, an ending. fuck dude, it is that.

and that's just... such a sad way to end a project that took up 10 years of your life.

[change-name-later]

Woah, guys! Totally real thumbnail for the next episode just leaked!!! I can't believe this is happening!!

You can't tell I'm coping with humor at ALL.

[hoshizoraorchestra]

wxs and n25 have really interesting story and dynamic parallels but no one seems to talk about it since its 1/2 3/4 and that means no yaoi

1 who gets too into their work -- to the detriment of their health -- and attaches their value to how close they are to their ultimate goal in life (which truly began because of an ailing family member) who for one reason or another takes it upon themselves to "save" something deeply important to 2's well-being and sense of self, something they are in danger of losing due to a struggle with their family.

3 who struggles with confidence in their main talent/passion and feels like they're stuck because of preexisting insecurity made worse by events we see only in flashback and how they're being supported by 4 who has issues trying to move on from the past and step into the future + fights w the existential dread of how their fun will end one day but is actually the first to try and break apart from the rest..

[on-repeat-again]

Something about the parallels between Dan Heng and Sunday are really getting to me rn

Like, they both have a past self they are trying to run away from, and an image they want to leave behind

They've both spent time in prison and are currently avoiding the law from their respective planets (mostly bc it's awkward for them more than that they'd be arrested)

They have had expectations of leadership following them for their whole lives, and because of that are naturally very serious and responsible

But despite their histories weighing them down they're both determined to improve themselves, make up for the harm they've done to the people they love, and also expand their horizons by exploring new worlds!

Their only real divergence is their philosophy around their introspection

Sunday was groomed into choosing his path and following the Order and now has to unlearn all the things he thinks he knows. Whereas Dan Heng has no memories of his past life so he has to do his best to learn more about himself in order to confront the parts of himself that made the mistakes.

One in the pursuit of complete reconstruction of himself and the other in pursuit of complete deconstruction, but with the same ultimate end goal

[faeriedoodles]

I’m gonna drink his soul

[reverieprince]

lawyers

[gingermintpepper]

For the longest time, the quintessential song describing Apollo's wrath and consequent murder of Coronis for me was Marah in the Mainsail's 'Your Work isn't Done'.

It's dark. It's seething. Its image of Fate pushing the scorned speaker to complete his foul, terrible work of killing the man who stole his lover away from him is particularly powerful and it's always evoked this gruesomely tragic evolution of a glassy eyed Apollo stumbling through the streets, weak-legged and trembling from the betrayal growning more and more wrathful 'til he can think of no other course than to aim his bow and shoot. The price of betraying his trust is death and Coronis betrayed so much more than just his trust by taking Ischys as her lover.

The song itself captures that sensation of building wrath so well too. From the lonely guitar and vocals at the beginning which evoke this lonely, stripped back but distant grief to the way the singer is practically screaming his refrain of "Your work here isn't done" by the end, accompanied by the full blasting of instruments and an omnious chorus at his side, everything about this song is centered around building stakes, building realisations, building tensions and it creates this feeling of the speaker growing closer and closer with each new verse and chorus that adds to his anger.

There's also the absolute treasure trove of lyrics that work so well for specifically this tale. A brief overview of some of my favourites include;

- There's a crow overhead singing "Oh, Death is my friend."

- And though you think your time has come, the wheels of Fate have spun. Death has declared your work here isn't done.

- There's a girl on my heart safe ashore in her lover's arms

There's just such a vivid image to be drawn here - of Apollo's emotions being swallowed by his rage, of his resolve to end everything the more he bears witness to Coronis' brazen affair. There's even a strong female voice in the first two verses which seem to egg the speaker on in his spiral - a perfect opening to include Artemis who wishes for her brother to hunt that which brought him such pain alongside her. An Artemis who reinforces just what Coronis has done, an Artemis who does not want her brother to repress his anger after such grave an insult just because love was once there.

To me, it was perfect. Apollo's killing of Coronis was a crime of passion, an execution he sometimes cannot even bring himself to commit according to who is telling the tale. It's a wretched situation, harrowing, suffocating and cruel but if not by Apollo's hands, Coronis would simply die by another's. She cannot live after what she has done. The gods simply would not allow it.

AND THEN MY BIAS WAS COMPLETELY WRECKED BY LORD HURON.

Now, let it be known, I am a huge Lord Huron fan. Strange Trails is perhaps the most Apollo-coded album I've ever heard and songs like Yawning Grave and The Balancer's Eye capture such a visceral, gorgeous portrait of cosmic grief and anger that they haven't really left my brain since I first listened to them. Still, 'Setting Sun' from their Lonesome Dream album completely flew under my radar. Maybe it's because the commercial version is so much snappier than the Alive from Whispering Pines recording, maybe it's because I just hadn't listened to Lord Huron's discography in a while but my god. My god.

This song has it all; a quiet menace in its music, a strong male singer who sounds only barely restrained, an absolute HOST of lyrics that are so wonderfully perfect for the scenario -- after getting over how wonderful the song itself is, I immediately dethroned Your Work isn't Done because ultimately, 'Setting Sun' has something in abundance that 'Your Work isn't Done' minimised in order to focus on the wrath driving the song forward.

And that's love.

Setting Sun is so powerful because it's not just a revenge ballad - it's a dirge, a breakup song, a lament, a regret manifesto. So many times during the song, the speaker wonders when his lover stopped loving him. He recounts intimate moments and wonders if his lover was thinking of the other man when she was enjoying herself, wonders if anything she'd said was even real. And I love that so, so much.

Ultimately, Apollo adored Coronis. As inevitable as her death was, he regretted every second of it. No matter how angry, no matter how betrayed, no matter how intensely he was shamed, he still loved her. He weeps for her when she dies, he screams and grieves and cries when he's faced with her corpse. In some tales, no matter the cocktail of emotion driving him, he simply cannot bring himself to kill her. He'd rather cry in Artemis' arms and take his anger out on his own servant than hurt her. His own father has to dispatch Ischys since Apollo can't even bring himself to hurt that which Coronis once loved. Of course, in this case, Apollo's going to kill someone but the point is, it's not a decision of pure anger so much as its this complicated, horrible mix of resolve and lost love.

And my god does Setting Sun capture this conflict, passion, grief and love so well. UGH, I'm vibrating just thinking about it -- there are so many points where I hear its lyrics and can vividly picture Apollo, jaw clenched looking Coronis in her eyes and quietly confronting her.

Coronis, returning home at twilight after spending the day with Ischys to Apollo stringing his bow, "Oh? Is he ready to die for you baby? No, but you know I would."

Coronis lying to him about who she's spent her time with and Apollo's soft, near pained, "Does it hurt when you lie to me? If you asked, I would set you free."

I even really love the image of a Coronis who runs away from Apollo upon realising what will soon happen, not to escape his arrows but to warn Ischys who does not know what will happen. Of Apollo getting into his stance, taking aim at them and gathering his strength as the final refrains rings out "I know I'll never reclaim your love and that's as hard as it gets, so I'll be taking a life when the sun sets."

Other favourite lines of mine include;

- Oh, is he ready to die for you baby, now that the deed is done?

- Tell me when did I lose your love? Was it him you were thinking of?

- And I could never betray your love, you had me heart and soul. You might never have known it girl, but I was all yours.

And ultimately, I just like this conflicted portrait of premeditated murder much more than the crime of passion 'Your Work isn't Done' paints. Crimes of passion - especially when Apollo is concerned - are tragic in their own right, but in Coronis' case, I think I prefer it so much more when there's no way for Apollo's action to be misconstrued for anything other than what it is, especially since he goes on to cut Asclepius from his mother's corpse then carry on with building her funeral pyre. I think there's something so much more impacting about Apollo being unable to hide away from Coronis' blood on his hands and him having to raise Asclepius with those selfsame hands.

Love of the mortal does not supercede the responsibility of the divine. If Coronis' sentence no matter what is death, who better to lead her gently to the knife than he who still loves her?

[nixthelapin]

Emotion (s5) doesn’t really make a lot of sense to me writing-wise. I think Felix’s plan and execution was weird, but… damn it was FUN. It makes so sense, but if I wasn’t vibing with it the whole episode.

Kagami accidentally insulting Lila (“you’re just a stone”)? Vibing.

A bizarre wealthy-person masquerade as a social commentary? Vibing.

Amelie yelling at Gabriel? Vibing.

“Adrien” and Kagami’s banter before their dance? Vibing.

Marinette dancing with “Adrien,” then immediately getting hostile when she learns he’s Felix? Vibing.

Felix having a Disney-villain style musical number in the streets as he Thanos-snaps everyone? Vibing.

Adrien blowing up at Felix? Vibing. (he’s earned that so bad)

Felix having a mental breakdown on a roof? Vibing.

Plot-wise, I have a few issues, but I can honestly say I am so happy to ignore them because I just had a BLAST watching it. Top-tier episode. 10/10. 5 stars.

———

In summary:

[shroomerr]

hi omg ahaha whats this, hanh x canon? drops this and runs away

[moeblob]

Yeah! I haven't read any fics focusing on them but I have seen that they exist! And also there's like a five sentence interaction in a fic I read ages ago that lives rent free in my brain. I think about it all the time when I draw Sixty.

[sapphirebluejewel]

Endless List of Romantic Relationships I Love - Tori Spring and Michael Holden

"I think I’ve loved you since I met you. I just mistook it for curiosity."

[arcane-aesthetics]

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