#this applies to the picture perfect arc in

[musicalmoritz]

what are your thoughts on hananene?

I’m so glad you asked this!! Some people assume I hate HanaNene because I ship Nene with Aoi and I don’t post about it as much as Aoi//Aoi, but that could not be further from the truth. When I first watched the anime I absolutely adored HanaNene, they were my favorite ship for a hot second there (though I was saving that spot for Mitsuba and Kou, and it was also Sakura and Natsuhiko for like a day. I never expected it to be the plant lesbians lol)

My love for HanaNene tends to be more mild when I’m not actively reading about them. I have never and will never dislike them, but I don’t think about them as consistently as some of the other ships (though I think of them more than some others). Then I read a scene of them in the manga and I’m abruptly reminded of why they’re one of my favorite TBHK ships. This also applies to when I’m rewatching either of the animes or when I get in the rare mood to read fan fiction for them

The thing that initially stole my heart was how weird they are. Their whole relationship is odd, it’s like if Aladdin got with the Genie. The first chapter doesn’t have anything romantic between them up until the very end and if you didn’t know they were love interests, you’d assume he was meant to be her goofy sidekick. And then we start the gag of him flirting with her while she’s very adamant about him being Not Her Type. But her relationship with him is still so different from everybody else, she’s usually so self-centered but with Hanako she notices things about him and makes efforts to make him feel better (ex: deciding to be his friend in the mokke chapter). Sure, there are still things she misses about him, Teru had to be the one to tell her he was unhappy in the new timeline. But she’s significantly better at looking out for Hanako than she is with everybody else, because he’s so important to her. She gives him time to open up about his past because she knows he’s not ready for it, she wants to be the one to confess to him because he deserves to feel loved. With heterosexual relationships I’m mainly focused on what the woman is feeling/experiencing and HanaNene is such an interesting ship for Nene! It gives her a lot of important development and stands out from her other crushes and ships. She had cheesy romantic fantasies about him but she doesn’t act like a blushing fangirl, it’s real love and we get to see a more mature side of her when they’re together

I have so many favorite moments for them so I’m gonna list them all now because I’ve been waiting for an excuse to do so. The end of the Picture Perfect arc where Nene asked Hanako if he wanted to trap her and he said “of course not, how could you even think that?” The Confession Tree chapter as a whole, it’s my favorite early chapter by far. When Hanako told Nene she’s cute when she’s smiling. When he tucked her into bed at Sumire’s house. I don’t remember when this was but when Nene made some big statement on the roof and then she was like “as a friend ofc.” When she kissed him on the cheek duh that was so cute. That convo they had in the classroom during the Picture Perfect arc. Their first kiss but that’s like a given everybody loves that scene. Wow. HanaNene.

I will say that I prefer their dynamic with Amane’s personality but I’m not one of the people who separates those ships entirely, I think people who do sort of miss the point of Hanako’s character. Amane is still a part of him, there are many scenes in present times when he acts like his old self. Sure, he’s changed over the years, but he can’t fully become a different person the way humans often do because he is forever that same 13 y/o boy. So if you were to ask me “HanaNene or Amanene,” I’d say both. I do prefer to call him Amane tho bcuz it’s such a pretty name. Amane. Amane. Amane. Pretend you can hear it, it’s gorgeous

Similar to how I will never slander Aoi and Akane for Aoi and Nene, I’ll never slander Hanako and Nene in favor of them either. I love all the canon ships so I’ll never be the type of fan to put them down in order to justify my fanon ones. I don’t need to do this because I have good reasons for liking fanon pairings, I can back them up without having to put down another ship. If you have to put down another ship in order to make yours look good, it’s probably not that great on its own

Also for headcanons. They are t4t and bi4bi to me, that’s just how it’s gotta be. Toilet-Bound Woke-Kun. Woke-Bound Hanako-Kun. Toilet-Woke Hanako-Kun. Much to ponder

[theauthorunicorn]

Imagine | Nanami Kento

a painful rundown of your life with Nanami

notes: jjk shibuya arc is so painful to watch. I have read this arc but damn, it being animated hurts so much. anyway enjoy this heartbreak. reblogs, comment and likes are appreciated!

based on ariana grande's imagine.

Nanami Kento x Reader

⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆⠄⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆

Nobody knew how you knew each other. Kento always gives off this stoic vibe while you're the life of the party. All of your friends, especially Satoru, tease how both of you are like polar opposites but still attract each other. Maybe he was the one made for you after all, and Nanami Kento is your other half.

You spend most of your time together, either cooking or lounging in his kitchen, telling him stories that he has probably heard before. You and your theatric movements are trying to describe what happened, and he is just humming and listening to everything.

"And that's it, Ken; that's what happened to the book that I was just reading, but," you pouted, "I really wish you could read it so that we can talk about it."

"I don't need to read it now; you've told me the whole plot anyway."

You sighed, "Oh, I saw a good book at the bookstore earlier; we could buy two of it so you can read it together with me."

He hums in agreement.

⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆⠄⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆

Kento was everything for you. When both of you first kissed, you knew that he was perfect for you. He doesn't need to tell you that it was perfect for him as well, because the way he kissed back was the answer you're looking for. You always loved how you two were in sync; he's either in the bathtub bathing his worries away or you, with no make-up, casually applying some skin care. It's like a routine.

"I love how my face fits so well in your neck, darling," he mumbled as he hugged you after he took his bath. "Hmm, me too, Ken; I love it."

Many nights were spent sleeping on his chest and listening to his heartbeat. Nobody knows this side of Nanami Kento, only you. He puts his guard down and acts like a regular man with no worries about tomorrow.

⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆⠄⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆

"Hey Kento," you say, walking backwards to face him through the halls of Jujutsu High, "can you tell me all your secrets?"

His eyebrows knitted with your question, "What secrets, love?"

"I don't know," you shrugged, "that's why I'm asking."

He held your hands somehow, asking without a word to walk with him, "Sure. If you tell me yours as well."

You laughed as you gripped his hand tighter. "And all of the creep shit too, okay?"

"What creep shit?"

"The creep shits! So, I know it's true, Ken."

⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆⠄⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆

Kento will always treasure his moments with you; with one click of his phone camera, a moment with you is forever captured. He planned to print all the photos and make an album out of them. He thought about letting your future lineage know what kind of woman you are today. Young, vibrant, beautiful, and perfect. He wants to keep you forever until the end.

"Eh?! Why do you have these nasty pictures and videos of me?" Pouting as you scroll in his phone gallery, "I'm deleting this."

He snatched his phone. "No, you can't."

"What are you that obsessed with me?"

"Probably."

"Are you making a movie about me?"

"Maybe."

"Then, just make sure that you will name me in the credits as the lead actress." You smiled.

⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆⠄⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆

You reminisce about all of the days you spent with Kento. Every day of your life with him is played in your head like the lyrics of your favorite song.

You waved him goodbye, a kiss was planted on his lips, and a mumbled I love you was exchanged on the street of Shibuya on October 31, 2018.

"Be careful, Y/N. I'll see you later. I love you always and forever." He smiled.

"You too, my love." You answered, "I'll see you later." You didn't finish your sentence as a gore, painful premonition flashed in your eyes. If you were to ask someone to describe your cursed technique, you'd never be proud of it. You can see flashes of the future—an oracle of a definite future with no power to reverse it.

"I'll see you later or in another lifetime, Kento. I will scour the whole world to be with you," you promised him.

Again.

[roboneco]

Something I noticed about the difference between the writing of boys and girls in lookism is that with boys

WE. GOT. DEPTH.

The "main" side characters to me are Zack, Vasco, Eli, Vin, Jay, Zoe, Mira, Mary, and Crystal. They are the ones who for the first 200 chapters or so I thought the story will revolve around (till god dog arc of course) I'll only talk about two boys and two girls to not bore you.

We got introduced to Zack as an arrogant bully and to Vasco as a kind hero but a biased one. PTJ could have just gave them character development and all would have been well but NO he decided to give them backstories. Vasco got a full one and Zack got a few panels talking about how he was always praised as the best and how that inflated his ego (remember a backstory is reasoning not an excuse for anyone's actions) till we got a bigger picture during Johan's own backstory that explained why he stopped boxing and turned from a kid who picks fights to an outright bully.

Now listen of course that was the right choice (to give them backstories I mean) but when you do that to every male character, I expect of you to treat the female characters the same way! But no.

Mira first is introduced as Zack's "girlfriend" later we discover she isn't and all we know of her is that she's sweet, courageous and hates fighting......wow she's perfect! No flaws to trace the origin of or to think of how to fix them! Ok PTJ I am now waiting for her backstory where we learn what gave her all these amazing traits and how she managed to be such a good person!

Oh.... apparently she's always been like that... because we didn't get shit. Like even the cult arc which was mainly Johan's anyways didn't give us anything about her. Sure stuff happened to her and she did a cool thing but there was no lasting effects on her that showed in the story. No trauma. No bitterness. No nothing. She is the same before and after the arc except.....of course her relationship with the boys got strained.....

UGHH! Ok ok ok cool cool cool COOL! What about Zoe! Zoe is a queen and her character actually developed and changed! She started as a mean girl who only cared about looks and now she is so understanding and sweet! She even sacrificed herself for Daniel!

Look all this is great. I have some problems with her arc (not all of it!!) but this isn't what I am talking about now. What I am talking about is her behavior is never explained.

"What is there to explain? She has bias like everyone in society. That's literally the theme of the comic. That doesn't need explaining" ok the same applies to Zack! He was shown as the stereotypical bully who then changes their ways and befriends the protagonist type of character. Yet PTJ chose to flesh him out with a backstory and introduced another important character through him (Johan my darling boy) and didn't find it important to do the same for Zoe.....

Like for real not even like one chapter that talks about anything in her life other than boys. Her backstory didn't have to be impactful or anything. I still remember Vasco's with fondness even tho it has nothing to do with the plot now what so ever.

I picked these 4 to talk about because arguably at that point of the story they were all of the same importance but the same applies to the others up there I didn't mention. Except Jay because no hate I feel like PTJ made him as fan service and doesn't actually know what to do with him.

[celestiarambles]

since @k0koii-yu got me thinking about angela once again, here are some speculations or “hints” that fans thought of about angela after she was revealed to be the mole (because after that moment that’s when ppl started to look into her character to try and find something that hinted at her being the mole)

warning for spoilers!! (also no hate to the people who thought of these!! i just think that a few, if not most of these hints were grasping for straws a bit)

- tv tropes literally said that she’s using her photography hobby as an excuse to send intel to sombra. maybe that could make sense, but it could also just genuinely be a hobby she’s trying out. pretty simple flat out said that angela’s a perfectionist: if she’s gonna use that as an excuse, then she’d make sure that the pictures were PERFECT perfect. plus what was sombra gonna do with a picture of two women catfighting on a rooftop? xD

- when she wanted to ‘borrow jack’ to demonstrate the murder using her scalpel in case 4. “she was trying to kill jack!” or maybe she was just joking? she has twisted humor leave her alone

- when she doesn’t appear during critical moments, like in the finale of the eurasia arc and when elliot got kidnapped. angela’s expertise mostly lies on biology and medicine, so she probably couldn’t apply that on trying to stop a satellite taking over the data of the entire world. and when elliot got kidnapped, she was probably just as worried like everyone else, and there could also be a possibility where she was the one who treated elliot’s wounds and bruises afterwards. if she panicked and expressed her worry about her teammate getting kidnapped, that still wouldn’t have helped the situation either. she would only do what she can do to help.

- “she probably planted cameras in those matryoshka dolls of hers” OR MAYBE SHE JUST WANTED TO DO SOMETHING SWEET FOR THEM LEAVE THEM ALONE 😭

[honeii-puff]

So me and my friend had a debate and it made me realize how you can see which characters are favored by the creators by how much of their backstory (how the grew up, what happened before s1, their family lives) we know of them.

For this, im going to be using characters that got introduced in S1, as they have had the most time to be added onto (almost a decade), plus Max as a shoe-in.

This list would be: The Byers(+el), the Wheelers, The Hendersons, the Sinclairs, the Mayfields, and the Harringtons.

The Byers:

Joyce married Lonnie and had Jonathan and Will before separating (I don't remember explicitly why, probably because he was a piece of shit). Jonathan and Will live with Joyce with no visitation from Lonnie, and are very close. Joyce isn't the most stable parent, so Jonathan helps around, kind of co-parenting Will. El grew up in the lab, and we see all the stuff that happens when shes younger, which makes sense since she is the main face of the show, so she's kind of exempt from this list.

The Wheelers:

On the outside, they're seen as the perfect suburban family, but in reality, Karen and Ted are in a loveless marriage, especially proven in s3 when Karen is having a weird relationship with Billy. The Wheeler siblings have a normal sibling dynamic of shouting and a love-hate relationship, with (this mainly applying to Nancy) the pressure of having to hold up the "perfect family" image.

The Mayfields:

Max's mom married Billy's dad when Max was young (I dont know if they mentioned what happened to her dad or if i just forgot), after Billy's mom had died. They lived in California until they were introduced in s2. Billy's dad is physically and verbally abusive, which has influenced Billy's actions towards Max. After Billy's death, we know that Billy's dad left, and that Max's mom isn't in a good mental state, leaving Max to take care of herself while also coping with her brother's death.

Now lets compare that to what we know about the Hendersons, the Sinclairs, and the Harringtons:

The Hendersons:

Dustin's dad isn't in the picture (we dont know why), and his mom likes cats.

The Sinclairs:

Lucas has both of his parents, who are in a loving relationship, and he has his sister Erica, who he has a generic sibling relationship with.

The Harringtons:

Rich background, Steve's parents are never around, but it's never expressed as to what his relationship with them is like. (Ik he wasn't meant to be a main character and he was supposed to die in s1, but its been a decade, they could have added onto it at any time)

We can also see this in how their trauma affects them

El and Will both have similar "im the freak" mindsets, which gives them the struggle of being able to make new friends and expand their circle. They also have a lot of trauma from the upside down, and El unknowingly blocked memories of what happened with 001 due to how traumatic they were.

Mike was bullied his whole life, which does reflect in his character, making him quick to react to situations rather than analysing them before responding. His trauma doesn't come from his family, but from other people he has been around. With both him and Nancy, it is shown that they both struggle with telling people that they care about "I love you" (Nancy with Steve, Mike with El), probably from seeing how "love" affected their parents.

Max's mental health had a steep decline after loosing Billy, and it is explicitly shown and a large part of her character in s4, so that one needs little explanation due to how blatantly obvious it is.

Now, Dustin, Lucas, and Steve have all been dealing with the Upside Down just as long as the others have been (besides Max), and little trauma is shown from it.

Dustin and Lucas were both bullied like Will and Mike were, yet it doesn't seem to actually affect their character like it has for Mike and Will. Both also have their share of events happening with the Upside Down.

Steve did go through a character arc, but we don't see how trauma has affected him, especially since he seems to be the shows punching bag. He got tortured by russians, almost got shot by his ex, has gotten into fight after fight for these kids, and got dragged to the bottom of the lake by his ankles and proceeded to get strangled and attacked by bats.

And none of them seemed to be affected by any of it.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

If there are any other ST characters you want an analysis on, send an ask!

[lionheartedmusings]

something very interesting yesterday with the jaiden / cellbit discussion was the fact that the word morality came up a few times and that's wildly interesting to me because… what is morality, really? you can't cast a blanket over the idea of morality and call it a day, and the qsmp is a perfect example of how moral codes are subjective as all fuck.

was foolish arresting pac and mike moral? was the "prank" they pulled in response moral? is seeking revenge at a deep emotional level moral if the other person didn't understand the extent of the pain they were causing?

was cellbit's first federation arc moral? is the bigger picture and the greater good more moral than the well being of the people around you? is it moral if your intentions were good? did your actions lead others to make mistakes they otherwise wouldn't?

was forever hitting leo moral? is emotional turmoil a timeout on morality, or does it still apply? because someone stands in your way while you try to get to someone else, is it moral to try and remove them?

was bad and max killing elquackity not once, but twice, moral? is being convinced that someone can harm the world around you so deeply enough reason to do what they did? was elquackity kidnapping dapper in response moral? he didn't harm him. is bad's search for revenge in response to that moral?

like, i get the points that were being made but also i feel like either you apply the same moral code to everyone, or it's not effective. but even then, then moral code you as a qsmp viewer adhere to when watching our lil cubitos on the screen is deeply and fundamentally your own, and it can have layers and twists and turns.

this isn't to cause discourse or anything, it just got me thinking about how interesting it is to watch people justify what they do or do not agree with and how human nature defaults to talking about morality when morality is what every single person makes of it (plus the analysis, in this case, of what each character's moral compass is).

[lovelymessybubbly]

Tama-Chan! If you had to rate the Hashira from least threatening, who would be your most frightening ler?

In my personal opinion, in solo, it would have to be Gyomei, but a certain trio would be the scariest for lers, Mitsuri, Tengen, and Rengoku!

I could see Mitsuri having this teasy love for how ticklish the Lee is, Rengoku giving motivational quotes to persevere through it and Tengen stating how flashy the laughter of their prey is.

Though least threatening Hashira? Possibly Giyuu, poor boy is probably the most ticklish to even attack.

ahh thank you for this ask !! i love discussing my demon slayer cuties ヾ(☆'∀'☆)

i love your thoughts ahhh esp of rengoku °₊·ˈ∗♡( ˃̶᷇ ‧̫ ˂̶᷆ )♡∗ˈ‧₊° personally i have always found tengen to be the most frightening ler, BUT with the recent gyomei backstory stuff and considering his physical strength, agility and general power, i am starting to lean more towards him haha |๑˃ ॢ‧̫˂ॢ๑ ).*˚‧♡ growing up as the elected older sibling of so many orphans, it is definitely expected that he would be seasoned in tickled fights and know a technique or too lol. and of course with his quick thinking and honed strength… it would be an execution for sure (〃￣ω￣〃ゞ i would not dare imagine the consequences of challenging him upfront. although i can definitely imagine inosuke making that mistake, and winding up a tickle-destroyed puddle on the ground aha <3

tengen-kun also has always seemed a frightening ler to me, mostly due to his teasing personality and love for taking others down in a showy way lol. also just so many scenes that directly gave me ler vibes lol (like the hashira training arc ofc). and he is with three beautiful girls all the time, i mean… come on (눈_눈)

mitsuri is big brain as a ler too even if i constantly lee her lol ( ˘͈ ᵕ ˘͈♡)˚๐*˟ ♡ since she is so aggressively affectionate lol. she def tickles everyone she becomes friends w at least once; it is one of her fav ways of showing affection <3 but she is always really gentle and lovey with it so i just cannot classify her as scary haha.

and rengoku would surely be a formidable ler, i mean big strong man with playful tendencies is always a dangerous combo lol (⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄<⁄ ⁄) i love your thought of him being encouraging while rocking someone’s shit lol. i also feel like he would be the type to accidentally go overboard too haha but he means no harm; honestly even cuter idea, if he is with someone he is close with, he will even have them guide his hands to help him tickle gentler (๑ˊ͈ ॢꇴ ˋ͈)〜♡॰ॱ cute cute

honestly sanemi can be a scary ler too, it is just rare for him to tickle someone. buuut with genya ?? absolutely lol and ofc this only really applied well with like a happy ending au but imagining sanemi waking up his stubborn sleepy brother with merciless tickles is way cute haha, like you can just picture sanemi-kun’s super mean and scary face while laying into genya’s sides with the most playful of tickling (๑॔˃̶ॢ◟◞ ˂̶ॢ๑॓)♡

and shinobu i mean. she has got to be a top ler for me haha (｡・//ε//・｡) and anyone who knows her character even a little bit will know what i mean haha. a soft-spoken dainty girl with secret anger issues, giving her kind of a yandere personality, which imo is a perfect ler recipe haha. it is also canon that a lot of characters that are at least a little afraid of her (even tougher characters lol) and she never holds back when it comes to vengeance. i have drawn her ler-ing a few different times so my stance on her may be obvious lol

and yes, of course muichiro, obanai and giyuu are about as intimidating as a mouse haha; muichiro is so refrained and aloof he surely does not have much experience aha, i think even if he were to attempt (like at tanjiro) it would be very timid and awkward like “am i doing this right..?” hehe ꉂ (′̤ॢ∀ ू‵̤๑))ˉ̞̭♡ and then obanai would never dare haha i could not even imagine. maaaaybe with mitsuri but it would definitely be a gentle scribble or quick goose at most. i could only attest that to his harsh upbringing, which makes him wary of intimacy (๑•́₋•̩̥̀๑) but i should not dampen the mood with angst aha.

and then giyuu you are 100% about hehe my sweet introvert boy (º̩̩́⌣º̩̩̀ʃƪ) he would get flustered as hell trying to tickle anyone hahaha. way too much playfulness for him he just is not used to it hehe  ♡(˃͈ દ ˂͈ ༶ ) and even if he could, any attempt at anyone with a modicum of retaliation tendencies would be instant death for him haha, the poor ticklish thing. he is definitely easy to overwhelm too, whether it be teasing or tickling <3 hang in there, giyuu-kun !!!

anyways, those are my detailed thoughts, but if i had to make a general list of most to least scary hashira lers, it would probably go:

1) gyomei

2) tengen

3) shinobu

4) rengoku

5) sanemi

6) mitsuri

7) obanai

8) muichiro

9) giyuu

sorry for the looong post haha i always get this way when it comes to my demon slaying lovelies ♡✧。 (⋈◍＞◡＜◍)。✧♡

[plague-of-insomnia]

Thoughts on Ciel’s Brand

I’m not the only one to delve into this topic ofc. There’s a pretty detailed older post about it you can read here.

But since I recently rewatched the canon anime, I started thinking about this again.

As has already been pointed out before, the symbol closely resembles the Caduceus and the Rod of Aesculapius, one of which has two snakes and the other, one. Both have been associated with medicine and healing. There’s also a tenuous connection to devil worship (particularly Baphomet) and ofc the biblical temptation of Adam and Eve.

A staff with snakes associated with a god is said to go back all the way to the Mesopotamian times, and the god Ningishzida, who was associated with snakes and spent at least part of his time in the land of the dead.

[Pictured below, the symbols associated with Ningishzida, two twin, winged beasts on each side of a helix of two snakes entwined together.]

He was often depicted with snakes on his shoulders. Remind you of anyone?

[pictured below, an image of Ningishzida on the left, with two snakes, one perched on each shoulder, and Snake from the circus arc on the right, with snakes wrapped around his body and one each perched on his shoulder in a similar way.]

The brand design very closely resembles this God’s double helix of snakes and ofc the Caduceus, minus the wings, with two mirrored snakes entwined around a staff.

[From Left to Right: Symbols of Ningishzida, Ciel’s brand, and The (Demonic) Caduceus]:

Now even before the Aurora Society, it had already been theorized the cult might have a connection to medicine, or the medical field, and hence the design choice, but now that seems even more ominous.

But why snakes? It seems like an odd thing to associate with healing. It’s possible that the symbolism was due to

… the shedding of the skin that indicated longevity and immortality. The snake's ability to change from a lethargic stage to one of rapid activity symbolized the power to convalesce from an illness.

…Or even rise from the dead?

It gets more interesting when we look at the potential connection to Baphomet, and the famous image by Éliphas Levi, whose art was pictured in the manga.

[Below, a crop from the manga of the famous art work of a goat headed being, a pentacle on his forehead and in his lap, the dual snake helix; no wings.]

Lévi's intention was to symbolize his concept of balance, with Baphomet representing the goal of perfect social order

Maybe this is a stretch, but it reminded me a bit of the Aurora society’s little speech that Stoker gives on the Campania, and their goal of “mankind’s perfect salvation through medicine”:

[a crop from the manga with Stoker talking about all the elements of perfect health]

Additionally, Levi also talked about his image of Baphomet thusly (emphasis mine):

the image of the soul elevated above matter, as the flame, whilst being tied to matter, shines above it

Reminds us again of Undertaker and the Aurora Society, and how humans are composed of a soul and a body (with a cinematic record), and the chant of the Phoenix Society: “the perfect flame that burns within us…cannot be extinguished.”

[A crop from the manga with the visual explanation of the difference between death and life, with the ending of the cinematic record and removal of the soul.]

But things get even more intriguing when we add in something I discovered while doing research for this post. The caduceus in Greek/Roman mythology (emphasis mine):

…would wake the sleeping and send the awake to sleep. If applied to the dying, their death was gentle; if applied to the dead, they returned to life.

That sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it??

But let’s take it a step further. We know that Undertaker is no stranger to human experimentation in his quest to disrupt death. I’ve theorized that it’s possible that Snake may have been a human experiment, much as Finny was. Both of them recognize the building the FOL Orphanage is housed in.

While it does seem to resemble the Phantomhive manor, what if the reason it feels so familiar to them is because they were both part of experiments and at one time or another lived or spent time in a building perhaps also built by Underaker (and/or his underlings)?

Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that Snake is a “snake boy” who communicates almost exclusively through his reptilian companions.

Could Undertaker be much more involved in the cult and (Our) Ciel’s life than we’ve been led to believe?

But there’s one more potential connection I’d like to discuss: duality. Both the brand on Ciel’s back and Sirius have two parts, and it’s possible the twins being a pair could be connected.

For one, the dual snakes on the brand. One of the myths about the Caduceus is that the snakes were fighting to the death and they were saved—by being separated by the staff—associating it with peace and unity. Another, that a man underwent a transformation and only several years later was he able to return to his true self. Could that be significant when we think of the twins?

We don’t know what Undertaker’s plans are just yet, or what he is doing with the children at the orphanage. Or if he’s trying to create some kind of synthetic soul. But Real Ciel is killed, Our Ciel assumes his identity and transforms, and then Real Ciel appears years later to restore what is “his.” And that’s potentially just the start of where that symbolism could overlap with the twins and Undertaker.

But who was branded? Maybe it’s not something unique to the twins (and therefore that duality isn’t as significant)? We don’t know if any other children were branded, but both twins were. This is established in ch 135:

[Crop from the manga of the twins talking about the brands and if they hurt, with an image of the healing brand on OC’s back.]

If Undertaker is somehow involved, could the brand be related to his ultimate plans for them?

It’s eerie when one looks at the potential etymology for the name Sirius: the Egyptian god Osiris—who was the god of the dead and resurrection.

And then, to circle back to Snake and his possible connection to all of this: the snake on the staff of Asclepius, sister symbol to the dual-snake Cadeceus:

The snake mentioned in the symbol is an Aesculapian snake which belongs to the family Colubridae. Its zoological name Elaphe longissima. Smooth, glossy, and slender, the snake has a uniformly brown back with a streak of darker color behind the eyes. The snake's belly is yellowish or whitish and has ridged scales that catch easily on rough surfaces (like that of a pole or staff).

And who has a snake that fits this description? Snake. In fact, one of the snakes he brought to the FOL Orphanage could be an Aesculapian. With how carefully Yana tends to set things up, this could be important.

[A crop from the manga on the left of Doll holding a snake with distinctive eye markings. On the right, a real photo of an Aesculpian snake with similar markings.]

While we still can’t say for certain the meaning of the brand or if Undertaker and the Aurora Society have any connection to the cult, or if Snake has any connection to either, it’s clear there’s a lot of potential overlapping symbolism. And Yana isn’t a lazy writer. I doubt she randomly picked the brand design, or the name Sirius, or that Snake talks to snakes and not, say, mice or birds.

I am very, very interested to see what else we may learn as Finny and Snake’s subarc unfolds. It’s very possible Snake is more important to the story than we previously imagined.

[ x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x ]

Special thanks to @apocalypticromantic666 for beta reading this and helping with the snake identification.

[rwby-encrusted-blog]

Shark arc next ultra sound shows twins hugging in weiss tummy

Doctor: Well, Miss Arc-Schnee, your not too far off, only a couple months away now.

Weiss: Yep! All that's left is the ultrasound?

Doctor: Indeed. So get comfortable, while I apply this ... and there! The picture should be coming through.

Weiss: ... What are they doing?

Doctor: It appears that Their hugging. Adorable.

Weiss: ... OH my gods ... They're my perfect little Pups ...

Jaune: (Opens the Door to the Room, to prevent familial destruction)

Winter: (Busting through the ceiling) SOMETHING ADORABLE HAPPENED WITH MY NIBLINGS!

Doctor: ...

Jaune: ... At least it wasn't an Arc this time?

Doctor: Your family is a curse.

Fun Fact! certain Sharks can give birth to hundreds of Shark Pups per litter! Though the most common for Live birth is one to 13 pups.

[mari-lair]

People have theorized that amane was one of previous clock keepers of the present( I understand but a bit of a stretch) and now I can’t help but imagine both of them meeting each other 50 years ago because of the unstable time in the school. They seem like friends in the PP arc, I want to imagine them to have something in reality in the Omen arc.

What do you think?

I would love if Akane meet Amane in the Omens arc! I think would be very interesting to see them interacting but I personally can't see them becoming friends.

We know Hanako wants to be his friend.

As you mentioned, they were friends in picture perfect, where Hanako played the role of 'Amane', but Mei's world isn't based on reality, it was based on the things Hanako wants: Hanako stops being shorter than Nene, he gets to be Nene's classmate, and is so popular even Aoi fangirls about him! (popular boy = Nene's type to Hanako)

So his friendship with Akane is also wishful thinking:

It checks out with how happy Hanako is to interact with the real Akane, no matter how cold he acts.

We could assume Amane would feel the same about Akane as Hanako does, and crave to be his friend, but I doubt it. Or at least, I can't see him liking Akane as much as Hanako does.

One of the main reasons Hanako is so fond of Akane is because of the serious way Akane threat his crime: They both believe murder is something unforgivable and impossible to ‘atone’ for. Hanako may have gotten hurt to have someone so confidently solidifying his personal belief that he is a piece of shit (Hanako hates himself so much is insane) but he respects and admires Akane’s attitude.

Regardless of whatever is going on with Amane, he did not kill anyone (yet), so he can’t have this connection with Akane. While Akane can’t apply the “you’re a supernatural you don’t value people” mindset that makes it impossible for him to be buddies with Hanako (especially after all the times Hanako put Aoi in danger), I doubt he would forget that Amane was the one that killed Tsukasa.

Dead or alive, a murderer is a murderer and Amane’s future is one that is set in stone. Akane will already have a negative bias against him since he looks so much like Hanako, and it doesn’t take a genius to realize Amane is a human Hanako. As for Amane... To him, Akane is just a stranger that doesn’t seem very fond of him.

Everything would mostly depend on the circumstances of how they met, the stakes or lack of and such, but whatever relationship they form, it likely wouldn’t be very friendly. At least not at first. Even if I would adore a 'enemies to buddies' arc with them!

Regardless of how well or badly they hit off, it would be delightful if Aidairo made them interact! :D

[six-of-cringe]

hey so your soc takes iceberg. specifically the "matthias autism" bit.

i got one of my friends (who doesnt know anything about the grishaverse) to guess/assume things about the crows characters based on their wiki page pictures, and my friend took one look at matthias and said

"Just a normal person, no special 

Might have autism or ADHD

Or in a gay couple"

and your iceberg reminded me of that

Well in my opinion, your friend could be right about the autism. It's easy to just place Matthias in the common trope of gruff, reserved, down-to-earth Nordic strongman and call it a day, but beyond the overall Fjerdan culture and his repressive training, Matthias seemed to have traits that transcend those things that certainly would not apply to all the druskelle boys. His thinking was very black-and-white - when things are good they are good, when they are bad they are always bad. He acknowledged that he enjoyed the discipline and regularity his place in the Druskelle gave him, but didn't make many friends (he also admitted he was essentially a teacher's pet. Cult leader's pet??). His sense of justice was extremely strong, to the point where it was the axis around which his world revolves. His whole arc was about seeing beyond the patterns that form his life and reworking his rigid mindset, but at the end of the story he's still a determined, literal, strong-hearted person.

One could argue this is just a product of his indoctrination into the Druskelle, but I feel like these traits may well have already existed in him, and they just made it easier for Brum to prey on him. Brum praises him for having such "pure" faith in SoC - Matthias's all-or-nothing understanding of the world and his extremely strong sense of justice made the perfect conditions for Brum to package his loss at the hands of Grisha as an action item, a clear purpose for Matthias to internalize and enact. Also he tells Nina that she can't cry in a corner because the room is round.

[stemms]

c!Prime’s relationship is of a truly tragic and complex kind, and perhaps, they could’ve been friends, if only c!Dream had chosen friendship over godhood, but if he once chose power over c!Sapnap and c!George, why would it be different now?

Starting with S0, and ending with Pogtopia, until c!Dream switched sides, they were rivals and their relationship was quite complicated indeed, c!Dream was the one responsible for the Final Control Room incident, which actually traumatised c!Tommy, and the war with l’Manberg caused massive devastation to the nation. Still, there were some moments when c!Dream acted like a decent person, so I believe that at that point, he could still be considered morally grey. Despite his lust for power growing stronger, for example when he tried to get his hands on c!Tommy’s discs or chose to cut off his attachments, in order to be the in control, he wasn’t far too gone with it yet, and his relationship with c!Tommy was at a pretty stable stage, unlike the exile or prison arc, in which c!Tommy was his only obsession, as he saw him as the heart of the server and yearned for controlling him in order to control the server, and owning him to torment him eternally for his sick enjoyment.

c!Tommy, being his sympathetic self, always tried to see the good in c!Dream, and genuinely forgave him after every single traumatic event, and they acted as best friends again, and only sometimes did c!Tommy interrupt it when c!Dream did something hurtful to him once again. For example, on the second day of exile, when c!Dream visited c!Tommy with c!Sapnap, c!Tommy initially told him to leave, but after they spent some time together, he came to genuinely enjoying his company and making jokes, as if nothing happened. No matter how much c!Dream hurt the boy, he always found enough sympathy to forgive him, but the moment he killed him in prison was the last straw, it was the sign that c!Dream would never ever change, only get worse.

I believe that c!Dream’s infatuation with c!Tommy formed in S0, when he stalked c!Tommy, followed him around, and had dug a tunnel to his house, and it grew stronger when he saw c!Tommy’s fiery personality and how, unlike the rest of l’Manberg, he continuously defied him instead of blindly bending to his will. For example, when he challenged c!Dream for a duel during a meeting, even though c!Wilbur warned him not to do so beforehand. The strong bond between c!Tommy and c!Wilbur that c!Dream noticed, only fuelled the fire of his obsession, and the man became determined to take c!Wilbur off the picture, and take his place instead.

As I said previously, after all his mistakes, c!Dream still had a tiny chance of becoming c!Tommy’s friend, but he had thrown it away to become divinity. Similarly to exile being interpreted as a metaphor of ‘Garden of Eden’, it also applies to the prison arc. After c!Tommy got stuck in prison, c!Dream could stay in his little perfect paradise with c!Tommy, which implies being imprisoned together, and having the tiniest chance of improving their relationship, as c!Tommy still tried to see the good in him. The act of killing him, however, was the forbidden fruit he took a bite of, with no second thought, and was chased away from his paradise (his more or less peaceful life in prison worsened due to the torture he had to endure, and there was no more c!Tommy…) c!Tommy was the definition of c!Dream’s paradise, and without him, none of it had any meaning (similarly to how c!Dream cared not about immortality, but about immortality with c!Tommy). If only c!Dream controlled his violent impulses better, he wouldn’t have lost it so abruptly.

[foxconfessorandthewolf]

fragments: 06 (snarry)

[I'm clearing out my incomplete wips and posting fragments that might stand alone as a bit of an amnesty of old projects.]

In the dark, with the pale light of the candle in one hand, he turns the pages of his sketches, watching Potter’s form appear over and over again in endless repetition. A shoulder in dark charcoal, a thigh in graphite. Gleaming and bright, perfectly captured in light and shadow. One and other. A sketch evokes the scene for him, the hot, dusty air of his studio, windows cast wide to release the fumes of oil paint and linseed oil, the drape of cloth at Potter’s waist, the perfect arc of his spine as he stretches, the impish grin as he yawns and ducks Severus’ censure. A saint of his very own, half-clad in only loose silk. A man would have to be a saint to resist; Severus has never been accused of being a saint. 

He has been accused of other things. Witchcraft, at times. Devil worship. The devoted of Baphomet. Those he didn’t mind. Worse yet, the Prince accuses him of being a monk. Each visit, the Prince comes to review the progress of the picture, stepping with clear disdain into the spare, sparsely furnished room. His displeasure extends to every corner: the bottles and jars of curious specimens, preserved for future study, the cadavers Severus buys from the city, removing them for dissection and anatomical interest, the cheap wine Severus has to offer, watered down. He curls his lip at the wine and shakes his head at Severus’ appearance, wearing the same threadbare black doublet and cloak, same black tights, all poorly and dearly mended over and over and over again. The high-necked collar of Severus’ shirt is sorely out of fashion; the Prince clucks. “Do you expect to be a monk, Severus?” 

The body has a price. Everything has its price, everything charges admission. The price of his body is want. He curses himself and the hard furious thing between his thighs. 

Begin here, with the sketch, with the underpainting. The saint, with all of Potter’s lithe, loose grace, is posed bound, his wrist tied to the trunk of a tree, his stomach sucked in and convex, as if caught on the inhale. His eyes, the bright green of chlorophyll, turned upward to Heaven as if in both supplication and reproach. Severus spreads the paint, building layers of smooth, pale skin, bared to archers and Heaven alike. Two arrows pierce him, penetrate him, wounding the perfect spread of flesh, taking the first bite of the feast. 

To paint, Severus will prime and stretch a coarse linen canvas, then prepare the surface with a smoothly ground gesso made of gypsum and animal skins. This color, this brilliant color. This is the only color he allows himself. He applies the paint in careful, thin layers, building up depth and texture piece by bright piece. For the saint’s draped loincloth, he paints a layer of deep, brilliant red to enhance the future ultramarine hue. Blue, he thinks, is the most appropriate shade. Blue, the color of the Virgin’s cloak and tears alike. 

Take all that wretched want within you, Severus, and make something beautiful out of it.

[ultfreakme]

I genuinely don't care if you like Chris or not. He's a fictional character, so you don't even need a reason to dislike him. It's your right to hate him if you want. But nitpicking a six-year-old's every move to justify your hate for him isn't it. And also, don't try to dismiss his abuse because "it doesn't make sense." It's wrong to do that. You should probably consider joining Tim Drake's fandom because this is the same thing they do to Damian.

It's obvious the reason you don't like Chris is because you like Jon. But maybe don't go on Chris' tag, a tag used by his fans, and say how you don't believe anyone cares about him. The tag you should've used is "Anti Chris Kent." You wouldn't like it if someone said, "I don't understand how anyone can like Jay Nakamura" and tagged the post "Jay Nakamura." (And no, I don't hate Jay. He is a cool dude. It's just an example.)

As for your arguments:

You don't need your hand held through the whole story to understand why Chris acts the way he does. He's an abused kid who latches onto the first adult who shows him kindness. It's not a headcanon, it's shown in the story. They don't need to spell it all out for us to understand;

Seriously, nitpicking a child saying he is hungry? Really?;

In the story after the one with Tim, Chris is shown to be scared Clark is going to abandon him. It's why he acts like a picture-perfect kid. At the end of the story, Clark reassures him he would never because they are a family now;

Even post age-up, Chris is still Clois' kid. That's how adopting a kid works. Lois is a recurring character in his portion of New Krypton. Chris has something the twins don't—a relationship with Lois. Unfortunately, PKJ never bothered to give Lois any scenes with the twins. Not that he had the page space to;

Almost every argument you gave as to why you don't like Chris can be used for Jon. He was tortured for years by an evil version of his dad and came back normal. He even ate an apple and isn't hungry Clois kids something you dislike? Jon shows no signs of PTSD, no nothing. So clearly, a character showing no signs of previous abuse (even though there isn't a right way to be an abuse survivor) is a problem to you only when you already don't like the character;

Don't try and dismiss Chris' abuse because "it doesn't make sense" for Zod and Ursa to do that. They are monsters and what Chris went trough sucks;

At the end of the day, unlike the Batfam, Clark and Lois' kids don't get enough time and space to develop properly, so there's a lot more that could be done with them. This applies to Chris, Jon, and the twins. There are things I didn't like about how they handled Chris' character (mainly his New Krypton arc), and there are things I didn't like about how they handled Jon and the twins. None of them are perfect or have had their full potential utilized.

Like I said, like what you will. Don't care. Just don't go on characters' tags and say you don't understand how anyone could like them. I ain't coming back to argue more, this is my last anon. Peace.

You're right I should have used the anti tag. You know, I outlined about 5 times, that I am NOT talking about the character. I had also said "hey, this is all entirely on ME, I am not convinced by this storytelling". I had not mentioned Jon extensively(three or four lines iirc) & stuck mainly to the super twins. I had constantly said "Geoff John's fucked up writing this story". You are the one who kept sending me asks, I gave you an explanation. I had repeatedly said "I see why people enjoy the themes attempted at being explained by Chris Kent but the execution was not compelling to me "

I will not be treating a fictional character, ultimately vehicle for storytelling and conveying themes, like an actual human. The Zod-Ursa thing, let me illustrate; Brainiac is an absolutely evil villain but he wont be calling any potential child of his a "little shit" or resorting base verbal abuse because despite this being legitimate child abuse behaviour, because for Brainiac-the-character, its OOC. He'd call any child of his inferior and dismiss any concerns or questions the child has, he won't be using his own hands, he'd be using his tech, he'd not raise his voice. And if he did, I'd ask why because this isnt in line with previous behaviour. I'd say the same for nice character as well, Clark's kindness is different to Bruce's because their backgrounds dictate the way they act. Clark is going to take a kid he rescued to park & talk to him lots and initiate jokes to calm them. Bruce is going to give a kid he rescued candies, speak to them calmly and have a more settled tone focused on helping this kid process the experience. Character motivation and MO.

I am not going to feel bad about asking a fictional character to be written with more coherence. I'm not nitpicking. That was an entire page with a giant establishing shot out of about 20 pages. I'm not nitpicking an actual 6 year old, I'm questioning GJ and the artist's choices in depicting that entire interaction so strangely. This entire medium is visual storytelling, and im going to ask for better. Chris in that issue was apparently so insecure and afraid he was....lifting shit up and smiling the entire time, cool as a cucumber. The tone was WILD. Pardon me for critiquing a creative move.

EDIT ADDITION: "He even ate an apple and isn't hungry Clois kids something you dislike? Jon shows no signs of PTSD, no nothing. So clearly, a character showing no signs of previous abuse (even though there isn't a right way to be an abuse survivor) is a problem to you only when you already don't like the character;" this made me crack up oh my god.

Okay, I'll take it seriously. Jon ate an apple, Jon actually on his return from torture volcano time specifically, pointedly, ate a LOT. Because we see via art on previous pages that Ultraman was barely feeding him and when he did, it was a LIVE PIG. Jon's hungry because of the torture. Even a detail you think is innocuous had previous establishing moment. Jon still eats and eats a LOT, because he was starved. Abuse impacting behaviour! And Jon does show symptoms of PTSD throughout SOKE & AOSJK & every subsequent run he's been in.

It manifests as his insecurities about his powers, and his apprehension around Clark! Jon's been told by Ultraman and many others that he is a tool, an object for people to do whatever they want with. He is also been a rather mercurial and too-powerful tool who on-page has been manipulated for his powers specifically time and time again(even in the recent arc). So how does Jon deal with his trauma? By controlling his powers and making them as fine-tuned as possible. Jon DOES exhibit signs, and it makes sense for his character. His entire deal is being a good Superman, and to do that he neglects anything bad that happens to himself and keeps suppressing, this plays a role in his coming out too (illustrated in SOKE #5 and in Dark Crisis). So no, Jon eating an apple & exhibiting signs of PTSD in a covert manner....is intentional and entirely present & you'd have to read subtext. This is where the writing leaves stuff for readers to pick stuff up from the background and won't handhold me through, which you have entirely forgotten despite how obvious it is.

I literally led you through why, from an objective standpoint, PKJ is a better storyteller, but you keep making this into a conversation about the characters and act like I have kicked an actual breathing 6 year old and made him cry. I read the Tim issue, I further read to the issue where Chris Kent finally expressed an actual emotion that made sense for his character and it took.....let's see....about 10 issues from his moment of existence? And it was done by a different writer! Busiek is good at writing Chris & I'm sure if they continued writing him, or started by writing him, they'd have done a better job with everything. The whole abandonment and adoption theme actually exists as a thing under Busiek in Superman.

I don't care about Chris. It's not a "ahaha I'm evil I hate this abused child" thing. I don't care about Tim, Damian or a million other characters with similarly tragic backstories which probably got handled well. I personally, am not compelled by him and in year 2020-2024 when I jumped into comics, I have more options of super kids to enjoy.

You dont need to make me imagine a scenario where people say Jay or Jon sucks and they arent compelling because half of Jay & Jon's tags are a billion times worse than the two lines I said, often with people tagging on "Chris was better" accompanied by sprinkles of biphobia, homophobia and a dash of racism against Jay. I didnt even say "Chris Kent bad". You are also free to think Jon and Jay dont compel you. If you make such a post, I will block you and delete any ask outlining that, because I don't care to subject myself to that. I'd also probably make a meta post on my own blog about jon and jay. I said I dont think Chris Kent fans exist because at this point in time, the Chris Kent iteration is completely gone from any ongoing storylines and I just didnt think people would be dead-set on a writing decision made over a decade ago. That'd be like saying "hey I miss robin version of Jason Todd, he should come back" at least in my perspective, but I am clearly wrong.

You could've just directly initially informed me to put in the anti tag, you are right in asking for that and I am sorry I didnt do that. I assumed you wanted a conversation with me since this is my blog, my platform & I'm too detached to Chris & the Super twins so I can talk in terms of writing rather than "this character is precious blorbo". I had only read on the Geoff John's Action run and the writing and art was so bad and that's all literally anyone in the chris kent tag even talks about. I get that you're defensive about chris, but you're barking up the wrong tree on speaking of his good traits because I just, I really dont care. Not dislike. I'm utterly indifferent to him as a character. The fan reaction from that side to Jon is what prompted me to make the initial post.

If you are still reading for some reason, go forth, have fun making Chris headcanons, live your best life. I still am not compelled and am confused why people are this hung up on him.

[bbygirl-aemond]

bbygirl-aemond, I have thoughts, I will reread chapter 32, but I do have thoughts if you dont mind me asking them. I think initially, my question is, how do you balance the role of Valyria historically with the nature of their colonialism? Only because it seems like the picture presented is that ultimately Valyrianness is a good thing? It seemed like despite the Firstmen not wanting Valyrian conquerors who desecrated their land with fire, Harrenhal did? And that seems off to me? I mean if your pro-valyrian then totally disregard this but I had got the impression that you were rather critical of them but maybe I was conflating your critique of Viserys with your critique of Valyria and the Valyrian Freehold? Also, side note I very much enjoyed the complex relationship everyone had with Viserys and how it wasn't reconciled and that Helaena stood her ground. Your interpretation of her is my absolute favourite because she is a fully fleshed woman with her own motivations, and her distance from Rhaenyra is that wonderful icing on the cake. Coming from someone who doesn't like my own half-sister, it's very understandable Helaenas weariness but also her stubbornness not to forget what Rhaenyra put her and her brothers through. It's just chefs' kiss.

No that's a fair question! Ultimately, I think my answer is that my opinion on morality of canon is separate from what I choose to play around with for fun. For example, I don't think we're meant to read ASoIaF and come away like "yes monarchy is good actually." I'm very anti-monarchist in my everyday life, but it's tons of fun to lean into the grand imagery related to monarchy and divine right in a fantasy world. This applies to the themes of colonialism and feudalism as well.

Stormbreak is, fundamentally, a Targaryen Restoration fic, so it's not going to be doing any heavy lifting related to concepts of monarchy, feudalism, and colonialism. I do address parts of these themes, but not in full, and it shouldn't be taken as a perfect mirror of my own views outside of the Stormbreak sandbox.

As for Harrenhal--I think there isn't necessarily a moral endorsement of the Valyrian magic there. Just because something exists doesn't mean that it's good that it exists, but it is a reality. Jace's Valyrian-ness is useful in its ability to protect the members of House Strong from a curse that would otherwise kill them off. Jace's arc here also isn't finished, and we haven't seen the final form of the agreement(s) he'll have with the land he rules. This is because the First Men are, you guessed it, also originally colonizers! They invaded Westeros, slaughtered the children of the forest in spades, and destroyed their sacred spaces. They were eventually forced to stop and coexist, but only after a massive display of force (the children of the forest literally broke Westeros and Essos into two separate continents), so it wasn't out of realization that their colonizing was wrong, and they still successfully stole most of Westeros from the children of the forest, relegating them to small patches of land here and there where Weirwood trees grew. I can't spoil too much here, but let's just say the Valyrians weren't the first ones to think of imbuing the land with spells to drive out the First Men… and that Stormbreak will ultimately treat the children of the forest as the only true natives of Westeros.

I'm glad that Helaena's characterization has resonated with you! She's been so fun to write. In general, I've had so much fun with the female characters in this fic, particularly ones like Helaena, Baela, and Alys whose personalities were kind of neglected in the book and/or the show. I also have this pet peeve around the idea that women inherently always have to like each other because of girlboss solidarity, so I deliberately called attention to Rhaenyra's mistake in thinking that Helaena would side with her because they were both women. Helaena isn't necessarily always going to agree with Rhaenyra on things, which is understandable. They had vastly different upbringings, and Helaena's experience with dreaming gives her an entirely unique perspective. In this chapter, Helaena doesn't try to stop Aemond and Aegon, because she agrees with them! Regardless of how much fear she personally felt (since I think her dreams provide a lot of reassurance to her that others aren't able to access), she still spent her entire life surrounded by her family, who were very much impacted by that fear.

[eriexplosion]

Andddd we're getting into the end game of season one with War Mantle.

GREGOR MY DARLING <3 Having a terrible time of it. I'm still desperate to know what fills in the portions between the whole 'getting exploded' and this. Anyone like EXPLAINING HOW TECH LIVED WOULD TAKE TOO MUCH TIME - they could always do a Gregor and JUST NOT EXPLAIN SHIT.

Omega trying to copy Hunter's knife tricks is so cuteeeee

NO MONEY MEANS NO FOOD Tech has been trying to convince them of this all season.

Also Wrecker in this scene is why i can't see the batch dynamic without Tech working like imagine Hunter and Echo at odds about what to do and Wrecker is just like You Both Have Points :) Things would simply not get done quickly.

"Ensure every viable clone is mobilized" I am SO SAD ABOUT ALL THE LITTLE TUBIES? AND THE LITTLE CADETS... I am VERY CONCERNED about those babies.

Hunter is the most hesitant bitch in the world. We're banking a lot on a clone we don't even know. The way this man would bundle his squad into a bindle and carry them off into a cave forever.

More Mysterious Tracking Skill. Smell a stick, get a full picture of what happened.

OKAY SO AS I'VE SAID BEFORE, I WATCHED TBB COMPLETELY BLIND, NO IDEA ABOUT TCW OR THEIR ARC IN THAT. WHICH EXPLAINS THAT HUNTER HAS ELECTROMAGNETIC SENSITIVITY. So let me tell you. When he goes from sniffing the ground to being like THERE'S SOMETHING HERE. INSIDE THAT MOUNTAIN. All I could do was go 'okay whatever you say!' but I had no idea how he would have made that determination. Magic mountain vision.

"We do not know for certain if CC-5576 is even in there... or if he is still alive." the way Tech has this line and then Echo saying that if there's even a CHANCE they have to try to get him out... if Echo doesn't go searching for Tech I'm calling bullshit. If there is even a chance, Echo will take it.

God the confusion over only 50 clone troopers and 1000 'TK troopers.' Just genuinely unaware that the clones are being replaced, and it's such a foreign idea that they don't even consider it.

"That's CAPTAIN traitor" is one of my favorite lines in the show

Perfect screenshot, no notes

Love the exchange between Tech and Gregor. Yes he was captured, AFTER he made it out!

Gonky sounds like he's worried about Omega I know all he can do is waddle and gonk but I will apply anthropomorphization as necessary.

I'm SURE THEY GOT EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL! *Hard cut to the batch NOT IN CONTROL OF SHIT*

SCORCH. This is my first time rewatching since playing Republic Commando and my intense affection is mixed with 'baby this isn't you someone help him'

Gregor getting shot in the chest and surviving like yeah doesn't this tell you something about perhaps not going into battle in a FUCKING TANK TOP I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE REBELS KILLED HIM LIKE THAT

No show that made Hunter take this fall without a single scratch on him is going to kill Tech with a fall into the clouds unless they truly TRULY somehow ran out of ways to kill someone. Hunter bounced down that like he was in a pinball machine.

"Glad we're not going that way!" one of you is

The fact that they don't even think of using Gonky until Omega plugs him in like that's how utterly detached they are from what Gonky is actually SUPPOSED TO BE DOING. He is a friend they just love him!

When Gonky got fried I was actually super worried for him the first time.

Hunter telling them to leave without him and bringing in "That's an order" while Omega BEGS TO GO BACK. GODDDDD MY HEART.

The way she does exactly this when Tech falls in Plan 99

Lama Su's uncertain doom is done so well

LAST MOMENT WITH CROSSHAIR AND HUNTER I AM SCREAMING STILL.

I was hoping for the whole squad (because I'm agonizingly lonely) but you'll do