#the song is from his own perspective also. like hes biased

[vaugarde]

volcano palette for a character of your choice!

"You had to have it all

Well have you had enough?

You greedy little bastard

You will get what you deserve"

[retellingthehobbit]

Retelling The Hobbit Chapter 15: Unattached First chapter / Previous / Next Read full comic on: Webtoon/A03 

Other blogs : Instagram/Tumblr Sideblog

Thank you for reading! The next chapter of this comic adaptation of The Hobbit will be titled (drumroll)....The Song of the Lonely Mountain!

Check under the cut for notes on the callbacks to previous chapters of this comic, and to Tolkien stories like the Unfinished Tales! —-

—-

One of my guiding ideas for this comic is that the story is being written/drawn by Bilbo Baggins, an  “unreliable narrator,” who has a biased way of recounting events. As the comic goes on, parts of the story get retold through new perspectives (or through the eyes of other characters), and you realize the initial version you read was incomplete. 

A lot of you probably noticed that this chapter features a ton of callbacks to the earliest chapters of this comic! We saw child Bilbo and Gandalf's friendship told from Bilbo's POV in Chapter 3.....but in this chapter we see it retold from Gandalf's POV. However, Belladonna Took is our biggest instance of that!   Not to overexplain my own writing, but Chapter 1 is an older Bilbo painting an idealized happily-ever-after fairytale picture of Belladonna, while Chapter 15 features a younger Bilbo telling a far less optimistic version of her life.  While there's truth to both of them, neither of them is the full truth.

In the Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo tells Frodo that ‘books need to have good endings,' like endings where everyone "lives happily ever after." If I were to continue this comic to the end of the novel, Bilbo’s habit of “rewriting things to be happier" would become a whole Thing. 

Second: Much of this chapter is taken directly from “The Unfinished Tales: The Quest For Erebor.” That story was Tolkien’s attempt to unite the tone of The Hobbit with LOTR, by having Gandalf explain what The Hobbit looked like from *his* perspective. The gay line about Bilbo feeling incapable of settling down into a Traditional Marriage with a Wife And Kids is taken almost directly from the Unfinished Tales. So are all the lines where Gandalf reflects on what Bilbo was like as a child, and the moment where Bilbo reflects that all of his desire for adventure has dwindled to a private dream.

Third: Obviously, the other big influence on this chapter (outside the original novel) was a similar scene in the PJ film. The little bit where Gandalf reveals the lore behind Bullroarer took monologue is the only dialogue I’ve directly lifted from that scene. ;3

Fourth: some of you may have caught that I used a quote describing Frodo’s wanderlust in the Fellowship of the Ring to describe Bilbo. The bit describing "the maps that only show white spaces beyond their borders" is also why I emphasized Bilbo’s canonical nerdiness around  maps in earlier chapters (chapter 5 especially, but also in Chapter 6, Chapter 7, and a blink-and-you-miss-it moment in chapter 14.) 

Fifth: one of my favorite things in the original book are all the scenes where Gandalf does fun Whimsical things with smoke/smoke rings. In the book he usually makes them change color or race around; in my comic he usually makes them turn into butterflies (he also does this in chapters 3 and 11.) you may have noticed that Butterfly Symbolism is a big thing in this comic.  But yeah, in another callback: Gandalf finally had time to blow smoke-rings with Bilbo, which he said he 'had no time for' in Chapter 2!

Thanks again for reading! I tentatively plan for the next chapter to arrive on November 13th.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I don’t know if you’ve already covered this, but I had a question to ask about the VDC in Book 5. To clarify, I understand that RSA needed to win for thematic and character arc purposes, and that in-lore it was an audience vote not a professional one. The story beats line up. But the choice of cutesy and childlike RSA performance over the more refined and professional NRC performance still doesn’t quite click with me. Is there some kind of cultural difference that didn’t translate to explain why one performance was supposed to be understood as preferred over the other? Even if it was an audience vote, the standards should be higher just by virtue of this being a big name competition for teenagers held at a prestigious school.

Very quickly, I want to add a couple other points that help to explain why RSA won over NRC! Book 6 opens early on with Vil noting that NRC was not able to perform as well as they wanted to since they had just come out of a difficult battle against his OB form. (Because of this, he accepts responsibility for their loss.) Thus, the NRC performance may not have actually been as "refined", "professional", or as polished as we imagine it to be.

Additionally, it’s stated in book 5 that RSA’s song choice had universal appeal whereas NRC’s did not. We see this effect on the production crew when Neige and the Seven Dwarves do their practice run; their performance has a refreshing and soothing effect on what appears to be an older audience (as it plays to their nostalgia); we must consider this when evaluating RSA and NRC. For example, I know that I really disliked NRC's performance (sue me/j) because it sounded very oppressive and therefore unrelatable to me. The lyrics are literally about how NRC will dominate their opponents and win 😭 Sure, the music and lyrics for Neige's song aren't complex, but they're at the very least accessible and easy to follow along with. (That's not to say that I prefer RSA's performance though; I'm just explaining why someone might not find NRC's performance appealing.)

Lastly! We as players are looking at the two song + dance numbers from an omniscient perspective. We need to consider our own biases when judging, and accept that it may differ from the characters in-universe view things. Maybe you prefer NRC’s performance. That’s fair! But how much of that is informed by your personal music preferences? And how much of that comes from your attachment to the NRC characters, since you’ve followed their stories up until this point? As Rook points out in book 5, he’s aware of how hard NRC has worked to get here… but he’s also aware of Neige’s hardships too (er, in terms of his lifestyle; ie living with the dwarves and doing chores, etc.). Consider then, would you honestly not have a bias for RSA had Twisted Wonderland’s story centered on them instead of NRC?

It’s also worth noting that how things are seen in Twisted Wonderland may reflect its own unique culture rather than how we in the real world may perceive it. Maybe the people of Twisted Wonderland just prefer a cute, nostalgic performance. This may not necessarily correlate with west or east at all and that has always been a possibility! (While TWST does take inspirations from the real world, it’s not a 1:1 with the real world.)

dkhlbaiyfadvfoad Okay, NOW onto the actual question being pitched!

When you look at media from different countries, there are some stark differences in how the same information is presented. One example is like... any Gordon Ramsay show yes, I am using him as an example. Compare the American cut and the British cuts; there are much more loud sound effects, dramatic music, yelling, and cussing in the American cuts. The British cuts, by comparison, are notably quieter and contemplative, with hardly any cursing. Another example! Looking at variety shows from the east vs the west, they're quite different as well. Eastern variety shows tend to be "cute", usually using various cute sound effects or edits which make the guests appear more bashful (like drawing blush over their cheeks or something). We don't see this in western TV shows, which are louder and more boisterous. I've noticed a similar trend in the music industries of the east vs the west as well, where eastern stars tend to emphasize their youthfulness and playfulness and western stars try to be more "mature" and grown-up. These are just my personal observations and may not reflect reality, especially seeing as I am not involved in music-oriented spaces.

I asked friends and personal contacts in both eastern and western pop music fandom spaces for their own insights (which is also in no way representative of both fandoms, but at least this gives us other perspectives for consideration). To summarize, most of them replied that they did not think cultural differences account for this situation, since equating a preference for a "cute" aesthetic is not the same as RSA performing what is basically a nursery rhyme. There's no real-world equivalent for that (at least none that they can think of), and I agree with all of this. There’s really no point in trying to compare the two.

I remember lots of Japanese fans being upset at NRC’s loss too (when book 5’s ending was first put out), so the impression I got was they didn’t prefer the performance of RSA over NRC either. It was not just the international fandom that was disappointed. I don’t believe TWST ever intentionally set out to present “Everyone Yahoo!” as the “superior” song and dance number, or as the performance we’re supposed to like more than the other. It was very much framed as something pathetic and unlikely to win in most of the eyes of the NRC characters. They make fun of RSA’s clumsiness and claim it’ll be easy to win over them. The player most likely is supposed to think this way too—until Vil, the one with an eye for showbiz, realizes his loss. Why? Because it doesn’t matter what we think. What matters is how this clumsy performance will resonate with the common person.

What I think it ultimately comes down to is emotional appeal to the audience, which is more of a personal/individual level thing than a cultural thing. The competition is decided by audience vote. The average person honestly does not care about quality or standards. No one is giving them rules to evaluate by, no one is going to tell them off for not having strict standards. They will pick based on what they like best or whatever makes them feel good. And what will make anyone feel food, regardless of age, sex, race, education, socioeconomic status, etc.? Something cozy and familiar, thoughts of simpler times… Nostalgia.

Something else to think about is what a powerful motivator emotions can be. There are irl idol competition shows that are high stakes and decided by audience vote just like VDC/SDC… and people will still vote for their favorites even if they gave a technically bad performance. This is because fans are so emotionally invested in and attached to the performer. It doesn’t matter how “bad” they are, the performer/performance makes the audience member feel impassioned, and they will then act according to those intense feelings. Think about what you’re like when you’re in a terrible mood vs a good one. You act completely differently, right?

I hope that perspective helps! 🙏 I tried to be as thorough as I could be in this response, but please let me know if I misspoke or maybe missed a point.

P.S. I happen to be responding to this ask after TWST showed us the NRC Tribe’s dance performance in a MMD video. I wonder if this only made the “NRC should have own” crowd double down on that opinion since now we’re seeing just what their performance looks like 🤔 (though we don’t have a complete MMD video of Neige’s group to directly compare, just this which shows part of the dance and not in the same clumsy way that Neige and co. perform it).

[verosikastrikerstellaexcuser]

Regarding Stolas and Stella. It says something that both their VAs were thinking there was something more to their relationship than the actual showrunner.

Fans wanna throw up this excuse that “their headcanons weren’t true.” But what about the actual input from the actors? Do they not get a say in their own characters?

Also I have to be honest, this whole arranged marriage has been completely pointless as a ‘plotline’ because Stella is just a nothing character and Andreaphuls is going to be the big bad.

You can write Stella out of the show and nothing changes, hell in hindsight she wasn’t even needed for S1. You can have her just be dead and things can play out the same. Striker could still be involved, just don’t show who hired him, but it’s revealed later that it’s Andre.

Yea definitely I find it very notable that her VA thought we'd see more of her side of things and then... nope. So many people thought there would be more to her, and that doesn't translate to thinking she'd be a good person like the "stop crying about your HC" people insist, but rather, we simply thought she'd be, A PERSON AT ALL. She was set up to be genuinely upset over being cheated on, like so many of her S1 scenes are her screaming with rage and throwing things and panting over it. We also had this plotline that once the Stella/Stolas marriage had been happier. These people insisting Stella was always just evil seem to forget the S1 era of this show and how its subtlety was so good. How it was able to tell us a lot without insane biased BLITZO KYS party type writing. Remember this dialogue? (Sidenote, God seeing this makes me remember why I used to like Stolas and this show a lot less critically its such a shame it used to be so good).

There was a lot of intrigue and mystery as to how things occurred in regards to their marriage at this point in time but we knew Octavia, granted she was a young child in the early marriage but still, she saw the home environment as having changed. I think her missing signs as a child because she was little could explain some of it... but clearly there was more to everything than that alone. And she blamed STOLAS specifically for it from what we saw. She says to him you ruined it, aka the cheating was the instigating event. Stolas' "I thought love would be fun" in the song of this episode and his failed explanations to Octavia suggested multiple possibilities. Back then a lot of people suspected Stolas was gay and now in 2024 we know its true, so the scenarios that seemed to be at play were either:

A) Neither of them loved each other but pretended to for Octavia's sake and maybe other reasons, but then Stolas broke that arrangement by sleeping with Blitz which angered Stella for reasons outside of love ie reputation.

B) Stella genuinely loved Stolas while he never did her, he tried to make it work but just couldn't, leading to Stella being furious over being arranged married to a guy, falling in love with him, only to find out he never loved her and no longer wanted to pretend.

Both of these are really interesting and this all felt so much different than S2 imo. We didn't need to be spoon fed a side to pick. Getting to have seen which of those scenarios it was and Stella's perspective would have been so good. At this point in time they were both victims and in turn the arranged marriage had made Octavia one too as she was stuck caught between them and their drama. It felt nuanced, realistic, interesting and cool. Stolas was still allowed to fuck up back then (just like Stella). It was painted as understandable but still a fuck up. Now, hes just a victim, victim, victim, and to write him as one, they took this interesting thing and twisted it into something else.

They made Stella some evil animal torturing bitch from birth that seemingly was completely unaffected by being raised and forced into an arranged marriage and that decided to devote her sole existence to stick around Stolas to torment him in various over the top and cruel ways (what is with this show and making people throw hate parties). Instead of being ANGRY, like she was in S1, panting with rage and clearly stressed, shes gleefully happy when it comes to her urge to hurt Stolas and at the idea of hurting him? How in the fuck is writing Stella to be like that instead of just focusing on how she felt about the marriage and how it affected her not outlandishly unrealistic and weird and stupid? Being forced into an arranged marriage and then the guy not loving you and cheating on you would hurt and affect anyone. Yet she seems so unaffected. Shes not allowed to actually feel anything other than hate for Stolas, she can feel no grief for herself, love for her daughter, sorrow at having to move out of her home for the past 18 or so years, nothing. Shes just a device to beat on Stolas so we feel sorry for him and she has no goals or thoughts outside of it.

Even fucking VALENTINO in Hazbin was shown to have more depth than this in that he was allowed to be shown to be upset at Angel changing where he lived. Yes it was shown as unhinged abuser's upset, but he shown as being bothered and hurt by Angel not wanting to be around him. I repeat: Rapist pimp Valentino who has convinced several people into abusive sexually exploitative soul contracts was allowed to be shown to be hurt and to long for someone more than Stella was.

Stella is so much so a device instead of a person that they had to shove in a brother character and divorce settlement plotline to overturn the assassination plotline (since that too has fulfilled its purpose as Stolitz drama now). All of this nobody saw coming because all of it was barely set up to the point Stella is still actively working against this new plotline once it comes in and is told by her brother she's a stupid cow and to stop doing what shes doing. And so she does. Instead of getting to drive her own story and goal and what she wants, instead of perhaps being written to change her mind herself, to choose to focus on something else even temporarily, nope, just have a man command her what to do (while still giving her no sympathy over being merely a puppet either of course). Now its time for the bullshit Andrealphus plotline so Stella can be replaced by the gay male character who gets to be a relevant plot driving antagonist instead. Its pathetic writing.

This show constantly does this. It sets things up, people get invested, then it gives them the middle finger and tells them they're stupid idiots for seeing what was actively shown and trusting the writing and it focuses on something else its now decided instead. Striker being bigoted straight and a joke is another example. The fact he appeared in Blitz's dream sequence, flirted with him while proposing blitz follow an alternate path in life in which they work together - nope you saw none of that he's just a dumb joke and you're dumb for seeing things and expecting consistency!

[borderlinebloodsucker]

(HELLUVA BOSS S2 E9 SPOILERS)

I'm fucking pissed that Stolas has absolutely no ramifications or blame for what he did wrong with the relationship! (As of S2 E9)

I feel like Blitzo is such a good representation for BPD and they've done a good job showing it's effects on his relationships. However I feel like they're going a bit heavy handed on blaming Blitzo for their relationship falling apart. The show does portray the complexity of his feelings but I still feel like it's villainizing him and his disorder that's already heavily villainized.

That's my own personal small issues with how they've portrayed Blitzo. More of my criticisms are for how it's being written like Stolas has done absolutely nothing wrong. We were there throughout the series where he mocked Blitzo for being an imp and called everyone in his company "little creatures" and using his race and status as a means to fetishize Blitzo and mock him.

Just because he's not aware of his own prejudice or have no intention of having one doesn't mean he wasn't expressing those inherent biases as a Goetia. He may have had treated Blitzo well other wise but that didn't stop him from using imps as servants and exploiting his power for a good fuck.

I was hoping that this most recent episode would have Stolas more actively reflecting on his own actions and how he could've done things differently. Other than having one line in a song about "maybe I should learn something from this" only to have in response "no he's just a mother fucker" reestablishing the idea that Stolas did nothing wrong.

WHICH IS OBJECTIVELY NOT TRUE!

I really hope they bring more focus to that in future episodes. I like Stolitz as much as the next guy but I'm not going to feel good about them getting back together until both learn from the situation. They're showing Blitzo learning that his fear of intimacy effects and hurts others but Stolas needs to get some perspective through his bird brain on how his privilege and ignorance effects others aswell.

Balance it out Vivzie it takes 2 to tango.

___________________________________________

(Side Note: this is going on my vent/gore page because this shit hit a little too close to home. Also I wrote a whole paper about Blitzo being a good representation for Borderline Personality Disorder idk if anyone would be interested in reading thst but it do be existing)

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Pitch for the Earth Kingdom-Avatar show:

Assuming that Aang represents the 1800s (colonialism, warships, coal and oil) and Korra represents the 1920s (jazz music, steampunk, cars), let’s say the Earth Avatar takes place in the Avatar world’s equivalent of the 1970s/1980s.

For episode 1, instead of the traditional opening, we get a montage of how the world has changed since Korra died. Someone is watching TV and is flipping between channels, resulting in this montage:

1) A cheesy commercial about the home computer, developed by the Air Republic (by this point, the Airbenders have formed their own country)

2) A tacky ad about a cruise line for Kyoshi Island. The ad is intentionally degrading and not at all respectful of the island (lots of “ooohhh, how exotic!” type of editing).

3) A 60 Minutes interview with the Fire Nation Prime Minister (the Fire Nation government has changed since Korra died). The Prime Minister accuses the Earth Avatar of “Fire-phobia” and that he is biased towards the Earth Kingdom since that’s where he was born.

4) A news report that the crime rates in Ba Sing Se are skyrocketing.

5) A music video from a Northern Water Tribe celebrity. The song is in the style of city pop (ex: Mariya Takeuchi, Plastic Love).

6) A movie adaptation of Aang’s story. The actor playing Aang is obviously based on Arnold Schwarzenegger and the costumes are all wrong. It’s like the 1980s’ version of “Avatar The Last Airbender”.

7) Another interview in which several intellectuals argue about a “revisionist” perspective of the Hundred Year War. The intellectuals argue that the Fire Nation “needed” to attack in order to combat Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe aggression. They also placed the blame of the war on Aang for “cowardly” running away instead of acting as a peacemaker and that the real reason why the war ended was because of Zuko taking the throne.

8) Another news report that war between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom is “imminent”. The Earth President and the Fire Nation Prime Minister both insist that they don’t want war but the news anchors cast doubt on the leaders’ statements. (obviously, this is to mimic the Cold War standoff between the US and the Soviet Union)

After the montage, we see that it was the Earth Avatar who was watching. He’s completely stressed out by what he was watching, which you can also see in his disheveled appearance. He tosses the remote and says something along the lines of, “Korra, if you’re out there, I need your guidance”. Korra doesn’t respond. The Earth Avatar then says, “Fine…I guess I’m on my own”.

Cue opening credits (which may or may not have 1980s synthpop beats).

[y3ahwhat3ver]

Been seeing this over and over and it's sort of been annoying me but. Valentino and Alastor are not even remotely comparable. Like. Look I may be a bit biased bc I like Alastor and don't like Valentino beyond the funny moments he has but like.

Okay. Alastor sucks. Like he's a violent dickhead but part of that is that he's very restrained in his violence. The only times we see him do anything outright violent are when he/the hotel are under attack and then his one moment with Husk. His relationship with Husk gets brought up a lot when people make the comparison but to me like.

Throughout the show you see Husk talk shit to Alastor, literally all of the time. He heavily dislikes him (in my opinion a major part of that is bitterness over losing his own title just to become subservient to Al) but he doesn't ever really seem scared of him, beyond the one moment. He and Alastor have known eachother for years and it's pretty clear to me that Alastor sort of just. Let's him say whatever as long as he doesn't hit A Limit. Alastor's own contract is something he's very clearly sensitive about and Husk bringing that up when he was already in a bad mood. I'm not saying the way he treats Husk in this scene is good, or right but just that it makes sense in context.

I guess what really does it for me is Niffty as well? Like it's so clear she loves Al, quite literally crawling all over him and crowning him. They have a very sweet relationship in the show. She's comfortable enough with him to freely speak about her own feelings ("I really like them Alastor. They let me put on roach puppet shows without booing")

You just get the sense that like. Alastors relationship with his contractee's is. Maybe not the most outright friendly but it's not inherently violent.

And then you compare that to Valentino. Valentino is violent, but worse he's impulsive. And also kind of an idiot. Like the first time we see him it's Velvette calling Vox to come deal with him bc the man is on a rampage and killing her models. He has to be talked down from going to the hotel and killing everyone there. (Already a bad idea image wise but like. With the literal Princess of Hell in that hotel it's like. What was your plan for after that Val. What was your plan for after you attacked the only heir to the throne, the literal daughter of the devil. Christ.)

The difference here is that the only contractee we see him interact with is Angel Dust, and their relationship is fraught with abuse. Physical, sexual, and psychological. Valentino enables his drug addiction because it makes Angel more compliant. Even when he is not being violent towards Angel himself, he's still perpetuating that violence through the work he has Angel do (literally the everything about Poison makes me kind of sick to watch. Tbh, like great song but i cannot watch the mv without getting kind of upset. And look there's a conversation in there about sex work, and specifically SAFE sex work but that's not really what this post is.)

Like. There's literally a line in the show about Angel being WATERBOARDED at work. ("You know, Val, he's into that waterboarding shit now - I don't know, it's a kink." - episode 6 welcome to heaven) And this is JUST Angel's perspective. You don't see Valentino's other contracts but from the way Angel is treated, it's kind of clear that he does shit like this to anyone under his control, and thus anyone who cannot tell him No.

Look. You get the sense that Alastor is a dick, but there's no implication that he takes Niffty and Husk out back and beats them when he's aggravated (with them or otherwise.) We literally watch Valentino assault and threaten Angel because there is someone stronger than him [Valentino] who is trying to get him out of work.

[Edit (June 2nd, 2024): I want to clarify that I do like loser, baby and also Husk as a character and this is more abt my grievances with fandom comparing the two. In series, Angel needed that discussion with Husk and even thought their situations aren't 1:1 or even really that similar, it's still clear that Husks attempt to like. Empathize with him worked for Angel. That is all, thank u and goodnight]

[placeinthisworld]

ttpdta review part one 🤠

let me preface this by stating that i am a swiftie first and person second in this situation. i have grown up with taylor and feel as if shes my big sister- yes i can make fun of her but if i see anyone else do it i will get fiercely protective. i do understand her music is not only art but also her form of therapy. that being said, throughout these nonsense notes i am constantly mentioning that taylor should go to therapy. i am aware of what she has said about therapy (and why she doesn’t go) but i would beg to differ with her…especially after this album release lol.

taylor is an extraordinary storyteller and song writer. i believe this album is full of evidence of that, but it also has some faults that prevent from being as good as i felt like it could have been. overall the album feels rushed.

i also feel like it’s important to recognize the elephant in the room. i know we probably all expected this to be a joe breakup album, so the fact that it turned out to be a “fuck you matty healy” album shook us all a little bit. i know matty had a controversial history, im not gonna sit here and defend him. i don’t know much about him other than what is forced against my will. i do however know that he struggles with mental health issues/ substance abuse/ addiction. i’m not gonna comment much about his personal issues, i don’t feel like that’s right and taylor’s constant references to drugs throughout ttpd definitely rubs me the wrong way. i should also mention i grew up with an active addict and do view things from that perspective, so i feel slightly triggered by the topic and my feelings about that may just be personal but i do mention that in my notes when it’s relevant.

lastly, i am not a music production girlie idk shit lol. i only know i am a aaron dessner stan so any song with his name im already biased towards and i am aware, if u don’t like that idk what to tell u lol. i just know what i feel like is “good” or “bad” but music is subjective🫶��

1. Fortnight:

Hate the functional alcoholic part. Like the beat, the chorus is catchy. One thing i love about a taylor swift song is that theres always a story and its always visual. I like the metaphor of the “good neighbors” of like having this teasing/ longing feeling for someone that you could have had a life with. “Your wife waters flowers/ i want to kill her + my husbands cheating/ i want to kill him” feeling like you were robbed of her life, feeling “all my mornings are mondays stuck in an endless february” reminiscing about the short period of time where you were together and convinced it would last forever (only for it to end before it even started). I do not listen to much post malone but i enjoyed his verse!! So many florida references we get it everything bad happens in florida.

i have not seen the video yet oooopsies

2. Ttpd:

i thought this was the opening of Hey Stephen (the remix) or something at first. gotta say i absolutely love the way she sings “you left your typewriter at my apartment/ straight from the tortured poets department” i enjoyed the vibe of this song, and lyrics up until the “you smoked then ate seven bars of chocolate (OKAY SOOOOOOO ME CODED NGL I LAUGHED at this point i could let this lyric slide- bit then she had to mention the charlie puth and golden retriever thing and ngl it almost ruins the song entirely for me. Tbh when i first listened to the leak i thought this was a fake AI song and that i was sending around a fake leak bc these lyrics started to get a little weird to me. ‘Sometimes i wonder if youre gonna screw this up with me/ but you told lucy you’d kill yourself if i ever leave” …………girl i am begging you to see a therapist (side note did anyone else have a friend in hs whos bf would say that shit a lot?? I remember straight up fighting with a friend who refused to break up w her bf bc he would threaten to end his own life is she did and he was like 16? If an adult is saying that same shit i would be Very concerned not gossiping about it???) “i chose this cyclone with you” my first reaction was: ride the cyclone the musical? Overall i liked the first half but you lost me at charlie puth (hes the one with eyebrow right? I think i get him and miles teller mixed up) (i dont know who either of these men are)

3. My boy only breaks his favorite things:

Okay tbh i thought this was gonna be one of my least favorites, but the total opposite happened. I think this is one of my top 5 favorites on this album. I do think that there is a difference between a poem and a song and that they are not always interchangeable. I feel like if this was edited into a poem it would be KILLER. The visuals, the the story, the vocabulary, the sadness in it. “Im queen of sandcastles he destroys/ There was danger in the heat of my touch/ once i fix me/ hes gonna miss me/ i felt more when we played pretend then with all the kens / cause he took me out of my box” i feel like ever since folklore, taylors been trying to push these big fancy words and sometimes it feels awkward and forced, but this is one of the rare songs that doesn't suffer from that.

4. Down bad:

meh. Chorus is catchy. I dont love the narrative “fuck it if i cant have him/ i might just it would make no difference” but i also have never once experienced that over a person before lmao……….taylor go to therapy. Nothing really stands out about this to me otherwise. No offense, but it sounds like a generic jack antonoff song lol. Like maybe if another artist released this, i would enjoy it more but idk i wouldnt expect it from taylor i guess. Just kinda feels boring to me sorry if u enjoy it <3

5. So long, london:

oh man were done with british men now for real for real. “ two graves one gun. I'll find someone” its over for joe and matty (but thats fine if all she has to say about joe is what i think she said on this album i am happy i think We Get It…) Aaron dessner i love u (remember when he reposted me on his ig ahh).”i kept calm and carried the weight of the rift/ pulled him in tighter each time he was drifting away” + “I stopped trying to make him laugh/ stopped trying to drill the safe/ i didnt opt in to be our odd man out/ im pissed off you let me give you all of that youth for free” oof i FELT that one a LITTLE too hard. I think this is both a song about matty and joe- i think she had a life and an attachment to london just in general through both relationships, “im just mad as hell because i loved this place” and so reflecting back on how both are over and how all those plans with either are done. “You sacrificed us to the gods of your bluest days” OKAY kinda hate this phrase bc it feels like shes placing blame on whomever’s mental health/ depression, like as if they made the conscious decision to sacrifice the relationship solely. This very much feels like “how much sadness did you think i could take before i got bored???” overall top favorite songs bc it doesnt have too many cringey or odd lyrics and the production is 10/10 thank u aaron dessner ilysm king

6. But daddy i love him:

tbh when i got the leak this was the first song i listened to bc i thought it was gonna be the worst one and i wanted to get it over with (i was RIGHT until she dropped that second half……..) and i DIDNT have the lyrics obviously so i couldnt for the life of me figure out if she really said “im having his baby…..NO IM NOT!” until the VERY end of the song and bro…….the cringe. The cringe. The cringe. This is also when i started to question if this was real or if i was passing out a fake leak, lol. I dont understand how she could be saying this shit about matty. And like we all know it lol. “Sometimes growing up precocious sometimes means not growing up at all” …….but like does it??? I feel like thats kinda an oxymoron or something like i understand what shes trying to say and MOST of the time her metaphors and comparisons make sense to me but like this one doesnt. Growing up precocious means to grow up more advanced in maturity, how would that also mean not growing up at all? Is it just me getting stoned and overthinking things? “Ill tell you something about my good name/ its mine alone to disgrace” true that bestie ur doin a great job by being so politically quiet over the past couple of yeats after making a whole asss documentary about wanting to be on the right side of history. But I digress i am just one of those bitches performing soliloquies you'll never see. Overall this song is very weird and cringey imo and i wish it stayed in whatever vault it was sitting in lol.

7.Fresh out of the slammer: “In the shade of how he was feeling” -_- dont like this narrative already. I could honestly go on a rant about why i dont like this song but im going to spare for the sake of my sanity in this review of thirty one fucking songs but its along these lines “to the one who says im the girl of his american dreams” oh brother. otherwise i dont care for many of the lyrics, the chorus/ melody/vibe is mid i guess. It sounds like another jack song (i was right)

8. Florida!!!: “all my friends smell like weed or little babies” okay i know what she was trying to say but im SORRY you cant tell me she couldnt think of ANY other way to say her friends are either parents partiers lmao. Deserves jail for that but luckily the vibe and the chorus of the song are really catchy and florence’s voice is beautiful in it. “Well me and my ghost we had a hell of a time/ yes im haunted but im feeling just fine” CHILLS i loved it. I didnt think i would like this song but (maybe as much as i like no body, no crime which is meh) but no i lowkey love this song and think its really fun. Once again the drug references start to get heavy here in the album and like i mentioned i do get slightly triggered by drug mentions.

9. Guilty as sin?:

okay taylor we get it you masterbate. Another strong jack song and it’s pretty similar to others on the album so nothing besides the sexual lyrics stand out.

10. Whos afraid of little old me?:

“if you wanted me dead you should have just said/ nothing makes me feel more alive” ooooooooooh i love that. I feel like a live or an acoustic version of this song would give me CHILLS. “Is it a wonder i broke / lets hear one more joke/ then we can all laugh until i cry” honestly so relatable, “i was tame, i was gentle til the circus life made me mean” oh :( that hurt bc it just reminds me of the vibe shift during midnights era/ eras tour where it *feels* like she started to pull back from being taylor swift and started to become Taylor Swift (™) and the way her fans/ media has treated her made her mean or cold or something and that just makes me feel sad. “Whos afraid of little old me? You caged me and then you called me crazy! I am what i am cause you trained me! SO. WHOS. AFRAID. OF ME? Again the narcotics line kinda makes me feel icky but thats bc i have that thing about drugs and just dont LOVE all the references to them. Like i know its not that serious but theres a reason why i dont seek out artists that typically talk or write about that stuff ya know so its weird. Overall i think the production is one of the most unique ones on this part of the album.

11. I can fix him (no really i can):

i hate it all around i think. I hate the narrative of “i can fix him!! I can handle a dangerous man!!! No really i can!!!” there is a reason why this song is barely 3 mins long lol it should have been cut but i think taylor wanted to Be Edgy. i dont care for the productions or the lyrics, its very forgetful imo.

12. Loml:

okay i really thought this was gonna be a joe song (rip) so i was thinking it was gonna be really deep and sad and like it IS but with the context of it being the pt 2 fling with matty it doesnt seem like it now. Anyone who thinks this is not about matty please look at the lyrics and be so serious “whos gonna stop us from waltzing back into reklndled flames/ if we know the steps anyway” I think matty just said too much shit to taylor during their fling and taylor WAS truly convinced this her invisible string and he promised her a lot that he couldnt upkeep and ghosted her and she took it SUPER hard, i mean two breakups in one year is a lot (me, whos never been through a single breakup once). I just dont understand how she feels like matty is the greatest loss of her life. One of my favorite tracks on the album, “our field of dreams engulfed in fire/ your arsons match your somber eyes” a LOT of these lyrics are actually really good imo. I think im the only one that didnt find the “mr. steal your girl and make her cry” line idk i thought it was actually kinda neat, the phrasing of it, kinda contradicts the title “love of my life” because he was never that serious or respectful of her and only use her from the beginning. This is another song that i think would make KILLER poem over song. Overall i think the piano is haunting and a live version of this will make me die, thank u again aaron dessner 10/10

13. I can do it with a broken heart:

ngl i thought this was the opening to mastermind for a hot second- also gave me a scare on whether or not this was a fake leak lol. Catchy ass chorus but very YOYOK. “Breaking down i hit the floor/ All the pieces of me shattered/ as the crowd was shouting “more!” ooffffffff seeeeee that is exactly WHAT i was afraid she was feeling durning the eras tour after the joe breakup/ matty situation and all these stupid twitter and tik tok swiffers were out here overanalyzing EVERYTHING and demanding rep tv like every other day. “Im so depressed i act like its my birthday” …….okay taylor. Like a lot of people have said, i think she interchanges “depressed” for “sad” a lot and the two are not the same. I think taylor wrote this song (but specifically the “i cry a lot time but i am so productive” and was like “yup this part is gonna go viral on tik tok,” initially i wrote “feels like taylor saw that depression barbie commercial in barbie 2023 and wrote a song based on that” lol which i still agree with. Overall the production of this screams midnights reject lol, very jack antonoff. Over time this song has grown on me a lot. Originally i didnt care for it but now its kind of a bop but i think its bc its so similar to YOYOK. “Try and come for my job” @taylorswift deadass you couldn’t think of anything else to say instead. cmon. I was mostly on board until that very last part, just seemed very cheesy lol like its not a big deal but i thought it delivered well without it.

14. The smallest man who ever lived:

(aaron thank u for saving me and this entire album) “they just ghosted you/ now you know what it feels like” OUCH. “i dont even want you back i just want you to know/ if rusting my sparkling was the goal/ and i dont miss what we had but can someone give/ a message to the smallest man who ever lived” oh this was somber af. I am obsessed with the phrasing of the chorus. I also LOVE taylors deeper voice its def giving me the same feelings MTR gave me from folklore, that made me CRY and this was very similar. This is another classic taylor song that i could EASILY write like a ten page essay about if someone put a gun to my head. I know that its about a *romantic* relationship, but it feels general enough to be able to relate to anyone who is close to someone with an addiction or struggles with substances. A lot of addicts dont understand the impact of their addiction or their behaviors that they display while struggling. To meeeeee, this feels very much like “you were self centered and betrayed my trust, was any of this true? Real? Am i paranoid or is this that deep?” “it wasnt sexy once it wasnt forbidden” has me thinking lots of things. I think that describes taylors “type”if that makes sense? Like i said i would need to literally break this song down line by line like its ridiculous i have too many thoughts about this song i have listened to it on repeat six times by the time im typing this. “In public showed me off/ then sank in stoned oblivion” FUCK. “you treat her like an also-ran” honestly i have never heard of that phrase/word thank u dr. swift. “Were you sent by someone who wanted me DEAD/ did you sleep with a GUN underneath OUR BED/ were you writing a BOOK?/ were you a sleeper cell SPY? IN 5O YEARS WILL THIS BE ALL DECLASSIFIED?/ AND YOU’LL CONFESS WHY YOU DID IT!/ AND ILL SAY GOOD RIDDANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” tears were formed besties. Also love the gracie abrams reference. “And you deserve prison but you wont get time” i feel like is very metaphorical like you DESERVE to be punished for what you did to me but you won’t admit to the guilt, you wont admit your wrongdoings, you wont admit that i would have done anything for you and you have no problem replacing me. “You said normal girls were boring/ but you were gone by the morning” first of all red flag girlie, nonetheless heartbreaking. “And in plain sight you hid/ but you are what you did” i say this with all the love in my heart, someone take taylor swift to a really good really private therapist. I could say more but i think i need to move on because i am now on my eighth cyle of listening to this song.

15. The alchemy:

already kinda hate it. “What if i told you im back/ the hospital was a drag/ worst sleep i ever had” do you think taylor swift has ever been admitted to a real hospital in this context. Feels very out of place and like i said earlier i dont love the psych ward visuals/ references she keeps inserting in this album. “He jokes its heroin but this time with an e” thanks! I fucking hate that line so much. Feels very icky, not funny. I get what shes going for but it falls so flat for me. The football references (yall know my opinion on meathead!!!!!!!! I will not engage!!!) are fucking dumb. Production is kinda lame and uninterested. Will only listen to this song if by force and will not repeat it ive head enough lets move on.

i have Lots Of Thoughts. i don’t think anyone cares about what i have to say though so i don’t think i’ll bother posting the rest lol but i did do a lot of work so ill post just a bit to make myself feel better.

[sixteenstrikes]

PLEASE talk more about DurgeWyll and Hozier, PLEASE... I am rotating the songs you posted and the vision is so good

thank you for asking me :) (the doors close sealing you in the crypt)

i joke. ok first of all i need to cite ten @bladesmitten as a resident durgewyll expert and direct you to his blog... she's written some incredible fic & analysis of the durgewyll romance and made a lot of gorgeous wyll edits and art in general, can't rec his blog enough.

i have sadly never played through the durgewyll romance & only watched it so there are undoubtedly story details i am unaware of. alas i have only played the tav version of his romance so far

some spoilers for durge beneath the cut. i tried to be vague but a warning there. also i didnt stick my oar into unreal unearth or any of the adjacent eps for that album .. sorry

all that being said here are my 2 cents

i think the main draw for picking hozier songs for durgewyll is that incredibly sexy dynamic they have of being each other's foil as well as each other's love interest. both wyll and durge are bound to an inescapable doom within the story: to pay with their body and soul for the fate of baldur's gate. durge must destroy it to please their father, wyll must save it. (wyll's saved it already, at the cost of his soul, and durge has to sacrifice their soul to destroy it as (redacted), but i wont go further on that tangent lol. its fascinating though.)

i think a core concept of wyll to focus on here as well is his faith. in his act 2 dance scene, in response to one of the dialogue options, wyll replies that he 'still keeps faith in the old tales of true love'- this is crucial. wyll is the man to whom the gods gave a cold shoulder. he has no love or faith for them. but he keeps faith in the old tales- he keeps faith, specifically, in durge.. 'his greatest adventure'.. and if durge chooses to resist their father's authority, they spurn a god for wyll's sake. there's an incredible amount of mutual devotion there.

there is also the monster hunter/monster dynamic. i haven't delved into it much here bc i am more interested in how eerily wyll and durge parallel each other as twin mirrors and exiles from the gate, the light and dark sides, sharing almost a common doom, trapped in the long shadows of their fathers.... man. but the monster dynamic should absolutely be examined and explored, it's fascinating. i think it's another compelling aspect of wyll's character. he's a man with a lot of resonant contradictions. a monster hunter who refuses to hunt the monster of baldur's gate and instead severs them from the one who made them .... a monster hunter who holds out his hand to the monster he is supposed to kill... wyll's love of the mysterious and strange and his kindness, i think, predispose him to see durge as an ally and a friend. not from naivete, but from an open heart

my hozier picks for durgewyll overall:

it will come back - i love the way the view shifts in this. one of my top durgewyll picks for the way it evokes a lot of the horror & tragedy that wyll looks into and doesnt flinch away from & the hunger durge has toward wyll extending his own lonely & friendly hand

shrike - i see this as primarily from durge's view. picked for the devotion & regret

NFWMB - applies beautifully to both of them. theeeee durgewyll song to me from andy's works... consider the lyrics from both person's perspective to feel the world open beneath your feet lol

as it was - ditto, i think it encompasses both perspectives. also one of my favorite songs he wrote so im biased lmao. i think this is another very resonant choice for the durgewyll dynamic

like real people do - feels an overly obvious pick but it could work especially well for a resist durge

no plan - could be an intriguing choice. i can't quite swing it but some of the lines in this for durgewyll... i like them...

you could definitely make a case for from eden for another from durge's view. gives me a feeling of a durge who's not resisting but idk

[quirkyfries]

I’m seeing more tagged ruin slander so I’m gonna tag some ruin positivity

Guys, hear me out. Villain characters can be good characters, you with me? Villain characters can be good characters even if you don’t like them. I’m half sure that Davis had Solar, the popular side character, be caught in the crossfire of Ruin’s plans so that viewers would take Ruin seriously. The unfortunate side effect of that was the viewer’s general opinion of Ruin plummeting.

It’s one thing for Ruin’s plan to come to fruition, in which he destroys countless dimensions. It would be fair to have everyone act like said event was bad, and be horrified. But, it’s another thing to have the consequences of that event directly impact the main characters, which kickstarts the next arc.

This is to say, Solar’s death was optional, Davis could’ve just said that the Creator from Solar’s dimension was also a complicated situation like the main one is. I think that Davis had Solar die so that there was weight to Ruin’s actions. No one would’ve cared if Ruin deleted thousands of dimensions if it just stopped at that.

I think Moon would’ve reacted to Solar’s death mostly the same way no matter how Solar died, it just happened to happen during a period of near-constant stress for Moon, and if you gave him a person to blame for that death… well. Here we are.

I love Ruin, and maybe this is coming from a biased perspective because he’s the character that convinced me to watch TSAMS. As a new viewer, I started off in the “jigsaw” portion of the show and then watched the recap.

I was a little disappointed that “jigsaw” was cured, I liked Ruin a lot better when he was unapologetically maniacal and played the game by his own rules and sang his silly theatre songs. But, the new Ruin grew on me in time. (Imagine my pleasant surprise when it turned out that Ruin was acting the whole time!)

Whether you believed Ruin was always evil or not prior to the reveal, I think he was always an enjoyable character, an outsider that didn’t have a reason to care about anything that happened in the show prior. He would certainly use show events (villains like Bloodmoon and Eclipse) to his advantage, but he had no reason to feel any sort of way towards any of the main characters.

But, as a villain, I think his motive is solid on paper— I personally think they could’ve had a little more showing how Ruin was affected by his past, but decades of acting would cover that up pretty well, huh?— and the twist was something the viewers were probably meant to pick up on, with characters like Moon constantly ending episodes with “I have a bad feeling about that guy” and Ruin being the main suspect of several things and a few comments on the similarities between jigsaw and ruin (like the tune they both hum.) You were waiting to see when Ruin’s time would run out. But when it did, it was too late.

As far as I know, Ruin is one of the villains that got (mostly) what he wanted, what he set out to do. While it didn’t work 100%, it definitely worked partially.

I really like that Ruin is an eclipse in the context of the show, but I love that he’s an eclipse in a slightly different font. In the context of the show, Eclipse is the remnant killcode left behind in Sun when the brothers seperate. It’s established that Eclipses tend to be workaholics (not stopping until they complete a goal, which afterwards they don’t know what to do with themselves), usually get themselves killed, and want to be accepted or loved in some capacity. However, Ruin came to be by the combining of the brothers. He technically has all of the components of an Eclipse, and generally has the same traits as one. He worked to complete his goal, and didn’t care if he died or not after everything was said and done. He adapted to his situation to avoid dying, acting infected (which probably became a coping mechanism over time) and maybe silently mourning the loss of the world and people he knew. He wouldn’t have set out to kill the other Creators if what his Creator did didn’t personally impact him in some way. I believe that the last trait is a bit of an exception when it comes to Ruin— or maybe it’s something that he’s grown out of over the years. He doesn’t feel the need to belong to a group anymore, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t try in his own dimension.

I also agree with the sentiment that Ruin’s story isn’t over yet. Davis could have easily killed him off soon after the reveal and Solar’s death, but he’s still contributing to the B plot.

I don’t know how I’d feel about a Ruin redemption arc. I see Ruin as the sort of character to be fully convinced of his own perspective, and has realized and accepted the consequences of his actions but won’t say that what he did was wrong. He’s an anti-villain— a character in a story that does bad things in the name of good. He had good intentions, but he went the extreme route.

But, I also want to see him alive and well and happy, and if a redemption arc is what it takes for that to happen, then I guess I could learn to like it. I severely doubt that the rest of the main cast would allow for any one of those things though.

I just realized that this is getting long, but, I really like Ruin both as jigsaw and eclipse. I like that he defines himself as an actor, slash compulsive liar, in order to survive and fit in. I like that he’s a little dorky, a theatre kid at heart and watches things like anime on a few occasions. His body language is charming, and he’s super fun to watch move around and dance and wave his hands. Davis’ vocal performance is very satisfying and fitting for a character like Ruin, and is a big part of his charm as a character.

I like that he has a tragic backstory, one that he sometimes references in half-lies, and was forced to grow and adapt for it, which lead to him choosing the end-all solution to what caused him pain in the past, under the guise of preventing future tragedy. He says he’s doing it to save people, but I think he wanted closure to his own traumas and revenge, in a way. At least, I think that’s more realistic than Ruin caring about dimensions being torn apart by errant creators. He doesn’t care that the dimensions die via the creators— he doesn’t want what happened to him be repeated to others, if that makes sense? It just happened to be that the Creator was the cause of that, and the Creator’s motive (studying the effects of the wither storm) was what disgusted Ruin. Everything that happened to Ruin’s dimension and family was done in the name of research. I would be furious too! But, because Ruin is an eclipse, he was smart enough to figure out how to go about his closure/revenge/preventing future tragedy. Mind, he says he’s not as smart as Dark sun who’s been shown to be dimension hopping and whatnot, but he’s definitely been able to study other dimensions extensively.

One thing about Ruin that I found a little bit odd was that he was able to use magic. Not that there’s a reason for him not to have it, or that it’s a bad thing, it’s just something that you don’t expect from a character like Ruin. But it does make sense, given the dimension stuff, combining of moon and sun, etcetera.

TLDR I think Ruin is a worthwhile character in TSAMS and we shouldn’t dogpile him because he killed a popular side character, and please stop tagging character hate I just want to see my boy. okay goodnight

[weirdestarrow]

So I thought about what we talked about in my post, and here are some things about the general fandom's interpretation of North Korea that I don't (personally) like... Some of them might fit with the general ~evil NK thing~ but yeah! :3

Sorry if it's a bit messy, its a little bit of word vomit haha.

- Nuke obsession? Just very strange considering that characters like Russia or the USA aren't portrayed as also nuke obsessed as well even though... You know, the number of them they have;

- Angry all the time. It's just strange. Not only that, but also some things that people make him get angry over seem kind of reasonable (hating the country who bombed his own nation to the ground and also strangely a big amount of him in fics and art getting manhandled?);

- Poorly written English to... Denote he is not Anglo. Which a lot of times just comes off as very racist;

- The classic brainwashed by government thing so many countries fall into lol. But knowing how people treat real life N. Koreans as just actors hired by the government to trick the foreihners, it just feels especially dehumanizing with him;

- And if its not that it's "oh I secretly hate my government but they will not let me be happy :'''(". Let countries align with political opinions out of their own free will!;

- "Hermit Kingdom" shit. Is the DPRK kind of isolated from the rest of the world? Yeah. Do you think they'd do that if they didn't have to? Why do we so quickly forget embargos and the whole "the US will topple your government if they can" thing?;

- NK is sometimes depicted as very naive about the outside world, but I personally don't enjoy that characterization much. They treat him like an injured deer who cannot navigate the world by himself, for a lack of better words;

- This is going to be more my own petty grievance but I'm not too big of a fan of "the ussr was the one who took NK's eye". I like the eyepatch thing but like... The USSR and NK had a good relationship it's so unnecessarily made to paint it in as much a horrible light as physically possible;

- In general, people don't really depict him outside of the military man thing or "woe is me stuck in a dictatorship ;(". It does seem as an extension of real world politics were people just don't believe that North Koreans are real breathing human beings with things going on besides their relationship with their country. I made it so that my version of NK really likes literature, even writes a little himself :D.

Honestly I think the way this could be remedied really is looking at sources outside of what the West says and like... Radio Free Asia lmao. You will have to look for the perspective of actual North Koreans. I understand the aversion to seeking their sources, but honestly if you can read a BBC or Washington Post article about NK, you can take a quick glance at like KCNA or Pyongyang Times and judge accordingly.

And, actually media from the DPRK is not that hard to find! There are movies available online, as well as songs and pictures. I do all three, and its very cool stuff :3. I'm very willing to share! ^_^ As always, learn more about the history and culture from a genuinely curious, non-judgemental manner and you will always be able to learn more.

As you can see from my endless yapping, I just really like North Korea and wish people would be less obviously biased when making him (or her or them, depending on the headcanon). Yeah, thank you for your time! :]

Yes this is very good.

My NK is a bit of an introvert. I think he’s interested in geology and volcanology because of Paektu Mountain and that’s something he really loves studying. He’s very gentle and soft spoken and wants to do his best for his people. He cares about them deeply and he would put their wants over his over and over again.

I think he often feels like he is seen as the “extra” Korea that no one likes, but he’s not eager to try and make friends with other countries. I think he also doesn’t like leaving his country cause he’s nervous about being in countries unfriendly to NK, afraid that someone might try and assassinate him to give SK more legitimate claims to his land.

He cares about SK in a weird way, but is also jealous because people like SK and SK got to meet their mother and he didn’t. I think he feels like he was abandoned almost.

[dei-lab-assistant]

Nothing Builds a Friendship Like a Crisis

Co-written with multifandoms27 Summary: You wanted to work in peace, but a certain CEO wanted you to take on a job for him. Dub canon plus a version of DSOD. Female Reader. Set maybe two years post DSOD. Fun fact: I always write my Reader character with personality and specific description. This means she may not be as generic as is customary for this type of story. Each reader character also has a specific place in the Yu-Gi-Oh world, and is basically an OC with set connections and feelings about the various canon characters and other reader characters. This is reader B, who is immune to the siren song of romance, cheap, eccentric, logical, and hands-on. Word count: 1,100 You never intended to become friends with Kaiba. You'd heard too much about him from Joey over the years to think such a thing was possible. But... It felt lonely after Yugi and his friends’ graduation. Over the course of the three prior years, while you had worked at Kame Game, Yugi had slowly pulled you into his friend group. Always slow to form emotional connections, you found you were no match for Yugi’s bright smile and quiet nudging to join in the fun. And despite being four years older, you had been well integrated by the time Yugi graduated—although, truth be told, you were only marginally aware of how much you had come to delight in spending time with the group. At least, until it ended, then you became keenly aware. Téa left to study in New York. Tristan was working full time in his dad’s factory. And Joey spent his days working a collection of odd jobs and chasing down his dream of becoming a professional duelist. And then Joey started dating your younger sister, and it felt like losing two friends at once. Fortunately, you and Yugi grew closer, starting Pharaoh Games together, designing a few games which the two of you sold for a slight profit at a small scale. And Mokuba started to swing by; he latched onto you, quickly becoming close. It was Mokuba who hired you and Yugi to design the proof of concept game for his older brother’s new solid vision holograms. And that was how, amidst a whirlwind year and a half project, you met Seto Kaiba. He was the most interesting human you had ever met, he designed incredible things, and he loved his little brother—the three shortcuts to winning your favor, all in one person. You and Kaiba worked well together—which Mokuba encouraged—and to your surprise, by the end of the project, Kaiba was going out of his way to talk to you, tell you about his plans, and ask for your advice on specific elements of scenario design for his own Solid Vision projects.

You even tried to help Kaiba win a bet with Pegasus, and although the two of you eventually lost, it did help create a true bond between you, (especially when it came time to pay up.) Still, once the Solid Vision game was completed, Kaiba moved on to other projects, and you were left with nothing to return to but quiet work at the game shop. It was a good job, a good life, and Yugi was a good friend; but you missed spending time with someone smarter than you, someone who built imaginary worlds from light, someone with impressive dreams for the future. It felt like, after years of hearing about Yugi’s adventures, you had been swept up into the edges of something grand, only to be dropped again back into the mundane—and there were fewer friends to share it with now.

Still, the Kaiba brothers both kept in contact in their own way, and you had low social needs, so it all seemed like it would work out. 

While working alone at the game shop, you flipped the radio on. An old fashioned trumpet fanfare blasted out of the speakers as you scrambled to turn the volume down. You were all too familiar with the melody—the theme song for a rapidly ascending game company, Knightly Rook, which had been in an advertising blitz for almost a month now. From your admittedly biased perspective, the company seemed more hype than substance, but it was the company’s snide, barely concealed jabs at Kaiba Corp that irritated you. Still, there was a lot of talk from the company’s popular president that Knightly Rook would soon go public, so for the moment, even the news was covering their rise to prominence.

At your hip, your cell phone went off, playing the Kaiba Corp theme. Switching off the radio, you popped the phone out of its clip and answered it. “Kaiba?” 

“You’re taking Mokuba to Kaiba Land tomorrow.” Kaiba rarely bothered with the customary social dance that defined most people’s conversations.

Had you forgotten about a plan made months ago? You switched to your calendar app, “No, I’m not. I’m working tomorrow.” You liked jumping straight past the niceties too. “Besides, I don’t remember asking you to plan my schedule.”

“You should. You wouldn’t make yourself a long-term plan if I paid you to do it.” Kaiba gave a harsh little laugh. “Yugi can run the shop. I want to hire you to assist Mokuba for his park inspection tomorrow.”

“Don’t you usually do the monthly park inspection with Mokuba?” You switched your phone to speakerphone, setting it down and grabbing a box cutter. “Besides, Yugi’s out of town this week.” Cutting open a few boxes of supplies, you began to check the contents against the provided invoices.

After a moment’s silence, Kaiba gave a little growl, “Why is Yugi in New York?”

He must have checked Yugi’s duel disk location. “He’s visiting Téa.”

“Fine. I’ll pay Mr. Muto to give you the day off.”

“Honestly, just wait a couple of days and—“

“Do you think you’re not up to the task? Is that why you’re turning this opportunity down?” 

“Hey, we both know I’m capable of keeping up with Mokuba. I’ll be available in a few days. You don’t even have to pay me.”

“I’d rather you did it tomorrow. And I’ll pay you. The last time someone other than me did the inspection with Mokuba, he ended up covered in wet paint and quit.”

Not surprising. Mokuba could be something of a feral gremlin with anyone he didn’t like. You sighed. “What time will a car be picking me up?” You weren’t going to pay for parking at Kaiba Land if you could help it.

“Nine. I’ll have someone fax you your W-4. Fill it out and have it ready for tomorrow.”

“Okay.” You marked off the last of the supplies on the invoice. “Anything I need to read up on tonight?”

“I’ll send you the latest security protocols. But be sure to destroy the papers after you read them.”

“Security proto—Kaiba what’s going on?”

“I’m handling it. But I don’t have time to accompany Mokuba tomorrow. Just keep an eye out.”

You sighed again. Why did Kaiba have to be secretive? “Fine. But I’m not a bodyguard. I don’t have the right training.”

“Mokuba will have guards with him.”

You set down your pencil. “That’s good. Will we see you tomorrow?”

“I doubt it.”

“Well, I’ll keep Mokuba out of trouble.”

“Bye.” Kaiba hung up. Abrupt as always. Hopefully, you wouldn’t make any embarrassing mistakes tomorrow. If Kaiba trusted you, then you had no intention of letting him and Mokuba down. Part 2

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

https://www.tumblr.com/reflections-in-a-critical-eye/752192695524589568/so-hybe-treats-fan-songs-also-differently?source=share

May i know what you think of this difference in treatment? I have seen solos talk about it but you know they can go to extreme with their biasness but i have never seen jkkrs talk much about the difference. They only say the comapny hates jm and nothing more than that is addressed. They never say jm is competition or any kinda assume but just comapny hates it so idk what ppl that love both jm and jk thinks of this difference in treatment.

Also did you notice that they put jk's solo logo on that song. I mean why put the logo for a song that's supposed to be for armys and festa.... isn't it his solo logo or it's different..

I think I've talked about differences in treatment of both of them in terms of label management. Perhaps last year, around the Seven release. I would have linked the posts, but I apologize once again for this website not being helpful at all.

Jimin and Jungkook have proven that they are the only two members of BTS with an actual succesful solo career in terms of popularity. I'm mentioning this criteria because it's the one brought to the front in every single debate/insult/you name it. So from that perspective, they are both doing well. The difference is that Jungkook's solo path was a BH project in collaboration with Hybe America, whilst Jimin's was not and took a more traditional k-pop direction. Which does make him a competition because his achievements have had close to zero label support. Does it sound absurd? Yes. But if Bang Si Hyuk wasn't happy with NJ and obviously prefered Le Sserafim, even though the success of both groups made him a richer man, then I believe anything is possible. It may be more subtle in the case with BH and the BTS members, maybe there's nuances there on a personal level, I don't know. I'd expand more on it if other text messages would be leaked. Until then, shall I say that it remains a bit vague.

It's clear that Jungkook's solo career in 2023 has been crafted folowing a very specific model, hence all the promotions and label involvement have been in accordance to that model. I would also want to mention that a concept such as fairness or equal treatment is non existent in such an industry. Perhaps the fandom at large was led to believe that based on the BTS idea of togetherness and unity and whatever meaning they have went for. Solo careers are obviously a very different thing in which a lot of factors are at play. From individual preferences, to financial aspects, to what is worth investing in based on possible returns, to perhaps more malicious reasons. Jimin appears to have gotten the short end of the stick with his first solo album, but nevertheless, has had quite a lot of impact. That's a remarkable achievement, especially when compared to a debut fully backed by the label. I don't know what the treatment of Jimin's second album will be like or even after he returns, but I do know that as a fan, it can be frustrating and as much as I still have some hope left, there hasn't been any indication yet that the situation will change. (Sometimes I wish I had been a casual fan, with no access to details or more insight, so I could just enjoy his music and that's it).

As to your last point, I did notice the logo. Regardless of its use or not, the song is for his fans and army, both words used in the announcement (the same as when Jimin released Closer to You, so I find theories on this subject a waste of time).

That logo is part of his brand, which is now under a trademark. If I recall, there was an application for this right before he enlisted. It is a direction he chose for his solo career and I personally don't have an issue with it. He is a BTS member and a solo artist and those two sides can be interchanged and/or used at the same time. To me, it looks like Jungkook chose to create his own brand in connection to his music career. At the same time, Jimin has done something similar. His dad is making sure of that with the ZMillenial brand, but in a slightly different direction. So far, I believe they are the only members of BTS who have done it and perhaps it's nothing but a smart business decision.

[meekmedea]

⭐️ keyboard conversations and/or wisteria blooms decorate our home! ⭐️

I think I said most of what I have to say about in another universe, wisteria blooms decorate our home in this ask here, but feel free to let me know if you wanted anything more specific from the fic :)

Ooh keyboard conversations!!! My first fic for the fandom...

Hmm... it's been some time since I wrote it, but I do remember how much music I'd pulled into it.

Fun fact! All the piano pieces named are actual songs. And Sonata X, the piece that Coriolanus and Clemensia cringe at the thought of being performed is the tenth piece from a collection called Sonata and Interludes by John Cage. What makes the piece a bit more special from your usual piece is that you've got a prepared piano where you essentially temporarily alter the instrument by placing things between the strings.

There's also an earlier scene where Clemensia is angry at him and they make things up when he joins her at the piano, transposing what she's playing to a higher pitch before they eventually end up playing a duet together. This one was highly inspired by this piano scene from Corpse Bride. In a way he's playing the higher pitch notes - sounding more optimistic + asking to be forgiven, while her lower pitch voices shows how she feels.

Piano/Music is sort of how they communicate - both with each other and a reflection of what they're feeling. Like how Clemensia plays angry/volatile/melancholic music after the 10th games.

Relationship-wise between Clemensia and Coriolanus, while the fic tags them as platonic, I want to say it's not very clear cut because I wouldn't say it leans completely to romance either.

Coriolanus is a bit hypocritical/biased and because we mostly read from his pov, we never really know how it looks from a different perspective. So he'll call it friendship, but get jealous over small things, he's oddly protective of her, 'jokingly' promise to kill her husband if the man doesn't treat her right...

Whether he refuses to admit his feelings or is genuinely oblivious to his own thoughts/actions is left up to interpretation.

Though near the end, that ambiguity begins to slip. This is one of my favourite parts that takes place after Clemensia's death:

Coriolanus goes to her funeral because it is expected. People would talk if he didn’t. He empties the decanter in his study that night - because it has always been more than just that. 

Just the mention of it being 'more'. Like more what?

And we can see the impact on him with her death -

She is gone and so had any thoughts for mercy.  The man isn’t allowed to live, nor his mistress. He arranges for it to be anything but painless. 

While it's never confirmed who's at fault for her death, l like to think that for Coriolanus, that's not the point. It's more of - she had to die, so now so do you and your mistress, for all the heartache/pain you caused her when she was alive. But don't get me wrong, if he does ever figure out who's responsible - the culprit isn't getting off easy.

[bunglegaydogs]

Hiiii I'm just sending an ask because they're all different posts (read : I'm lazy) so please don't mind me lol

First and foremost, YOU ARE AMAZING AT EXPRESSING YOUR THOUGHTS AND YOUR ESSAYS ARE ALWAYS SO NUANCED?? SO YOU SAYING THAT WAS A HUGE COMPLIMENT OMG- I love reading your bsd essays so much and it's just now that I realised that they're all your essays abaammw some of the best in the fandom really. I'm always baffled when in the middle of an essay you go "I may not be articulating my thoughts right" or "this is kind of just put together" because girl you're amazing! Never stop writing these please ajajahsbw ALSO! Hearing your little thoughts and feelings pop up in the middle of an essay makes it so endearing to me. Like, that's a whole ass person writing these many words just to express how much they like this show and they're so adorable! (So sorry if that's offensive idk if calling someone adorable is)

Also, completely unrelated lol but this is exactly why I prefer to ask people questions instead of googling! Knowing that the person explaining is a human has their own opinions and hearing their feelings and experiences is so much more better and relatable than reading stuff off a Google website. Also your pfp is the cutest everyone has cute pfps nowadays 😭 anyways yes cute pfp :D

Actually getting to the point now:

1) yes yes Oda and Dazai's relationship is so dear to me I love them sm and I adore seeing Atsushi all caring for his mentor 😭 he's basically Dazai's emotional support cat!! Dazai let the boy in please I'm begging you he can purr probably and it would melt away your stress pls pls (Maybe everyone in the ADA sees Atsushi as their emotional support cat...)

2) Mori is a piece a shit, and you should be allowed to say it. I'm never biased in my writing but I loathe that guy with my very being and the whole people who like Mori thing really got me reconsidering...was *I* the bad guy for not liking a character when I actively liked a character very similar to him? Then I realised, I completely respect and treat equally all the people who don't like/hate Dazai. I don't treat them any different just because they don't like a character. And that's what I should expect too!

There's no post defending Dazai, and yet I still like him because I accept his wrongdoings and want him to keep getting better, like Oda told him to. Yknow, the argument would be MUCH different if Dazai was a woman and not a man, imagine bashing someone for liking a teen girl and not liking the guy who groomed her to be his heir. Yeah, really puts things into perspective. I'm not sexist, I treat (respectful) men and women equally, but Mori is just. No.

3) I haven't see it before in any canon source material but I feel like it's definitely true. It's clear that Dazai WANTS to want to keep living, but he can't bring himself to want it because of all the pain he's endured. He literally said in dark era that the reason he joined the mafia was to try and seek meaning in life by being close to death and violence. It's ironic, Dazai feels the most alive when he's about to LOSE that privilege. It could also mean that Dazai only realises the "value" in living when he's about to lose it. Perhaps he thinks of things he could've done, things he'll regret, and that helps him to stop before he actually does it. But in my opinion? I don't think he finds anything of worth in that time. He just convinces himself that he does. This is a personal hc but it's probably likely to be the case.

If you've listened to the song My R, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.(totally recommend btw!).The girl in the song speaks to herself about her woes and the 'other' version of her comforts her telling her about all the things that she DOES have, but by the end of the song, she has lost everything of meaning and she can't comfort the "girl". It is only revealed that the girls she comforted are different versions of HERSELF that she stopped from jumping.

Anyways, in conclusion, SOMEBODY PLEASE GIVE THIS BOY A HUG HE DESERVES IT

oh my god oh my god oh my god

i am sat here on the verge of TEARS in my goddamn chuuya cosplay

okay okay give me a second i need to collect myself

you are singlehandedly the SWEETEST person ever im sobbing

literally i cant- thank you so fucking much! you dont understand how much this all means to me WOWOWOWOW <33333333

literally, my brain doesnt let me consume my content positively and so i always think that theyre quite bad or that im the only person who thinks that or that im saying all the wrong things lol

i have so many words and thoughts floating around in my little brain that i just cant find the words for, so thats honestly what those rants are, my delusional 4am thought processes when i deep things too much

and YOU THINK??? genuinely, thank you!!! i love reading people's essays and thoughts, so hearing you say that genuinely just warms my absolute heart <3

and yes yes i do get quite sidetracked very often and start just rambling and adding my own personal twists- genuinely i thought that was annoying for people to read, but you're just putting a big smile on my face right now :) and PLS DONT THINK CALLING ME ADORABLE IS OFFENSIVE I LITERALLY GIGGLED READING THAT SHIT FR. <333

i like to add personal experiences and thoughts into it, just to get my point across, put it into an irl perspective and let people also relate and see what im getting at. (unfortunately) i have the same experiences as most of these characters, and so that is why they're so dear to me and why i get very defensive and passionate writing about them!

and yes! getting your answers and stuff from irl people instead of strange irrelevant responses is much more preferred lol. it's more raw and in depth and definitely a lot more personal! and thank you so much!!! it's genuinely one of my favourite dazai panels istg hes such a pretty mf

1.) i love love LOVE their dynamic, i think it's one of my favourites in the show along with skk and ranpo and yosano. it really fucking hits hard, as all family dynamics do with me fr, idk what it is about them, they just get me. and yes!!! i love when atsushi shows that he cares for dazai it MAKES ME FEEL NICE <3 and that's so real oh my god hes a tiger please PLEASE he can fucking PURR (there was a tumblr post i saw, i can try and find it but it made me actually cry laughing)

THIS ONE i was fucking howling but yes! their relationship is also one that really really gets to me! and yes, he is just the ada's support cat, it's canon, i'm ranpo's sweets

2.) thank you thank you THANK YOU mori is an actual degenerate human being. he's not made to be liked or appreciated or revered, it's just fucking AEUGH. i'm not going to demonise the people who enjoy him as a character, but seriously, it's a big red flag to overlook the canon pedophilia. i saw someone make a defense against him saying "yes, but he's never actually touched kids, so that doesn't mean anything" SORRY? they also went on to say that he "restrains himself" from having pedophilic thoughts with elise, and basically praised him for that. needless to say, it got me feeling fucking icky. and yes! i feel exactly the same. i always think that "oh, maybe i'm the awful one for not liking him? am i bad?" even though, no, i'm perfectly fine thinking that way and i am allowed to think that way. and exactly again! dazai is my favourite character, but i recognise his flaws and his mistakes and don't forgive them. but he's actively trying to "be a better person" (i say this in quotation marks because dazai sees everything he does as inevitably pointless, but still wishes to uphold oda's dying words. i am definitely going to make a post about this in the near future lol) and i dont make my analyses biased towards him, and i stay on neutral ground UNLESS personal opinion comes up, to which i then say that it's my personal opinion, not fact, and that it's anybody's choice to think however they want. if somebody doesn't like dazai; okay! i'm interested in talking with them, and we can both talk about things we're very passionate about and have healthy conversations! unlike some people i have seen on reddit, goddamn. but no, we're not the bad people for hating that knobhead fr. we should all treat and be treated the same as any other fan in the fandom and get along, and i wish we could ALL do that in non-toxic ways. 99% of this fandom are the loveliest people ever, but that 1% just needs to get a grip like omg. we should treat others how we want to be treated, regardless of who favours what ship and who likes what character. and real!!! if gender roles were reversed for dazai, this would be much more problematic, and that's upsetting! dw dw, i dont think its sexist, i think its putting things into perspective bc, either way, its shitty how he was treated. i fucking hate mori. whenever i see people defending him to like, the bone, like not getting into a decent discussion and being civil but instead bashing everyone who says otherwise and completely overlooking the abuse, manipulation, grooming, pedophilia and just him as a sick and twisted person in general, it just really irks me. as someone who has in fact had to deal with separate strands of abuse including many fucking counts of sexual abuse and pedophilia, it disgusts me seeing people overlooking it and it makes me feel fucking sick. that shit is not just something to be overlooked because of the fact that you enjoy mori as a character, he's not supposed to be a character that's consumed positively, he's a bad guy. a lot of characters in bsd are morally grey, but mori is just fucking morally black. he's downright evil.

(TW for suicide and self harm next btw :) )

3.) yes yes yessss!!! again, bringing personal stuff into it, i deal heavily with the whole topic of suicide and self harm. i've attempted twice and still deal with thoughts of it every single day, as well as self harm. so, this is one of my main reasons of dazai being my absolute favourite character, because of the representation and actual presentation of these topics. at first, we're shown them in a whimsical and whacky way, then it gets so much darker once we get into the dark era. it's a complete tonal shift, and it really sets in the gravity of the situation for him. and, as you said, he wants to have that ability to want to keep going and living, and he wants to be able to put the effort in, but he can't/ he physically cannot. as much as he would want to try, he can't. and yes, when he said that it fucking BROKE me fr. just at the chance that he's not able to keep living on anymore as a human is the one thing that keeps him alive, i fucking love asagiri's writing, it's so complex and beautiful. and its so so so real!!! youre literally right idc lmao. youve so eloquently said it im crying, youre putting all my thoughts into words <3

and yes!!! i have listened to the song, i absolutely LOVE it! and i never fail to think of dazai whenever i listen to it </3 and, i also think it's very very much like dazai, because of the multiple different versions we see of him too. chuuya hasn't exactly changed much, but he has gone through some very very complex and deep character developments, such as in fifteen and stormbringer. hes a lot more "tame" and respectful now, and a lot more mature. (except with dazai lmao) aku, we see he's changed slightly thanks to atsushi, but still no major character fucking flip arounds. all these characters we've watched slowly become better and more complex throughout the series. dazai? he just does 180s every single fucking year. hes different at 14 and 15 than he is at 18. hes different at 18 than he is at 20-22. and the different faces he puts on for each and every person, all his masks that he has. there's much variety to dazai; you never know what you'll get. there's so many different sides to him, because he doesn't know who he is. as odasaku saw him, "a lost child crying out". no matter the age, no matter the state, dazai is always going to be harbouring that broken child with him, trying to hide it and build up walls around it, because the only time he's ever shown it, he's gotten hurt or betrayed and lost some key figures in his life. trust issues much?

anyways i am sorry i am sorry i rambled too much lmao

in conclusion, YES, GIVE HIM A FUCKING HUG OH MY GOD PLEASE I JUST NEED SOMEONE TO HUG HIM PLS GOD LET ATSUSHI GIVE HIM A BIG HUG WHEN HE COMES OUT OF MEURSAULT I SWEAR-

thank you so so so SO much for your kind words!!! sweetest person EVER fr <333333

thank you my love!!! /p have a lovely day/night :) <3

[strangefellows]

Something that occurred to me this morning and that's been living rent free in my head all day RE: Canto IV part 3 and the Yi Sang / Ayin parallels (under cut bc spoilers for Canto IV and Day 50 of Lobcorp):

Watching Yi Sang's interactions with his mirror self/Sang Yi reminded me so much of the Keter suppressions, especially Day 50.

And I went back to look at a lot of the Day 50 spoken dialogue during the workday and...

I want to hope that Sang Yi makes it retroactively clear that we do not, actually, know the real Ayin's opinion on his fate. We don't. The only person who says he should be happy and satisfied and willing to fade away is "A", who we talk to on Day 50, who isn't Ayin. It's simply Ayin's Sang Yi, Ayin's mirror self, a part of his consciousness.

"A" is the one who says it's okay to fade away. "A" is the one who says to be satisfied with the work you've done so far. "A" is the one who says all that's left to do is watch. He says you/your and we/us constantly -- he's not saying how Ayin feels, he's saying how he should feel.

In fact: "A", in his final line, says 'fade away without a trace'-- which is a direct quote from Carmen. And I don't know about you, but at this point I don't trust a goddamn word out of that woman's mouth, especially when it's involved with someone she very clearly manipulated at least a little.

(I could write an entire essay on how I feel like Carmen manipulated Ayin into the situation we see in Lobcorp due to using her near-suicide against him as leverage, as well as the conversation she conveniently has with him before that about 'oh, if anyone said something mean to me i'd probably do something drastic, but not you, right, you can endure' and making him promise to continue her work...but I'll leave it at that for now.)

My point remains: how did Ayin feel in those last few moments, that final day? Was he crying? Was he angry? Did he beg not to disappear? Was he okay with it? Was he resigned to his fate? We don't know. We were just told by "A", his mirror, how he should feel.

In fact, "A" as narrator is the one telling us about all the flashbacks from a present-day perspective. He's not letting us see, he's not showing us how Ayin felt back then, he's telling us. He's not showing us how Ayin feels now, he's telling us. We're told secondhand everything we know about Ayin: from "A", his mirror, from Hokma and Angela who are biased in opposite directions. From the other Sephirah, who are also biased. Because the real Ayin, our "X", never had a voice or a face of his own, we don't know a single damn thing about him. Not really. Not like Angela and Roland. We're only told how he felt, what he was like from others' perspectives.

And it's so, so tragic.

It's why I am so sure Limbus will bring Ayin into the picture again somehow, whether or not Ayin is Dante like I theorize: seeing the parallels and seeing Sang Yi so heavily parallel "A" and Day 50 in the cutscene during the final boss fight -- it paints a stark picture that we have never, ever seen Ayin have a voice of his own. He's never been free to speak for himself. Never been given a chance to show who he is or how he feels. He's been told by everyone else who he is, and was, and how he should feel about it over and over for 10 thousand years. It's not fair. It's so deeply sad. Does Ayin even know who he is anymore, amid all the memory loss, all these people telling him about himself from biased perspectives? And he never was allowed a chance to learn-- in the end, he was told to fade away, and be okay with it, and we never even saw how he felt about that, either.

The first and last time we're giving Ayin's actual name...is right before he disappears. It breaks my heart, especially now with the parallels to Yi Sang -- Ayin, unlike him, was never allowed to fly again. He was just...swept away into nothing. (Fly My Wings fits so well as an Ayin song too, hoough...)

So I think, given we now have a protagonist who's also had his voice and face stolen from him -- who struggles to be heard and seen -- who is around people who know him and refuse to tell him the answers -- who has to find out who he is on his own, discover himself from a blank slate...I really do think at the very least we're going to get a very blatant parallel, if not Dante being Ayin outright.

It just doesn't feel right for them to just leave Ayin as a nothing character in a series where he's so, so important. We know more about fucking Carmen than him, and she's been a ghost that haunts the narrative since day one!

Anyway, oops, this got longer than I thought it would be.