#validate your idea

[aiprotoboost]

Validate or Fail: Lessons from Startups That Skipped Validation

In the competitive startup ecosystem, many entrepreneurs are eager to launch their products without proper business idea validation. However, history shows skipping the validation stage can lead to costly failures. In this article, we’ll dive deep into the stories of startups that skipped validation, highlight the role of AI Idea validation, and show how tools like ProtoBoost are reshaping idea validation for startups.

We’ll also explore the power of idea validation software and why leveraging idea validation AI is no longer optional but essential.

1. Why Idea Validation Matters

Validation helps determine if there is real demand for your product. It ensures you’re not solving a non-existent problem or building a solution no one wants. Business idea validation is the bridge between imagination and reality.

2. Real Startup Failures Due to Lack of Validation

Case Study 1: Quibi

Despite raising $1.75 billion, Quibi failed because it didn’t validate whether users wanted short-form content behind a paywall.

Case Study 2: Juicero

A $700 WiFi-connected juicer flopped when consumers realized they could squeeze the juice bags manually. The core concept lacked validation.

Case Study 3: Color Labs

Raised $41 million but failed because users didn’t understand or need another photo-sharing app.

Each of these startups could have benefited from rigorous idea validation for startups.

3. The High Cost of Skipping Business Idea Validation

Skipping validation can lead to:

Massive financial losses

Brand damage

Wasted time and effort

Team burnout

Proper validation with tools like AI Idea validation saves startups from unnecessary risks.

4. Traditional Validation Methods vs. AI-Powered Validation

Traditional Methods:

Surveys

Focus Groups

Beta Testing

AI-Powered Validation:

Predictive analytics

Customer sentiment analysis

Automated market research

Idea validation AI enhances speed, accuracy, and insights.

5. How AI Idea Validation Works

AI Idea validation leverages machine learning and big data to:

Analyze trends

Predict user behavior

Offer actionable feedback

This is where platforms like ProtoBoost come into play.

6. Critical Signs That Your Idea Needs Validation

New market entry

Lack of competitors (not always a good sign)

Unclear customer pain points

Unfamiliar technology or solution

If any of these apply, immediate validation is essential.

7. What Makes an Idea Validation Process Effective

An effective validation process:

Engages real users

Measures true demand

Tests multiple assumptions

Utilizes reliable idea validation software

8. Top Features of the Best Idea Validation Software

Market need analysis

Competitor landscape review

Customer persona creation

Instant feedback loops

Risk assessment

Platforms that offer comprehensive solutions, like ProtoBoost, stand out.

9. How ProtoBoost Revolutionizes Idea Validation

ProtoBoost is a cutting-edge idea validation software that empowers startups to validate ideas with precision and speed.

ProtoBoost uses AI to analyze market trends, predict customer behavior, simulate feedback, and generate prototypes. It’s designed to help entrepreneurs avoid failure by making validation simple, fast, and reliable.

10. ProtoBoost Overview (Video)

Watch the ProtoBoost overview video to learn how it can transform your validation process:

Watch ProtoBoost Overview

11. Lessons from Successful Startups Who Validated Early

Example 1: Dropbox

Validated with a simple video before building the product.

Example 2: Airbnb

Validated by renting out their own apartment to test demand.

Example 3: Buffer

Validated through a landing page before any backend development.

Early business idea validation leads to smart pivots and stronger products.

12. Building a Validation-First Culture

Create a culture where:

Assumptions are questioned

Data drives decisions

Early feedback is valued

Failure is seen as learning

13. Actionable Steps to Validate Your Business Idea

Conduct Problem Interviews

Map Out Customer Journeys

Test Demand with Landing Pages

Build Prototypes Using AI Tools

Analyze Feedback and Iterate

Use ProtoBoost to streamline and validate faster

14. Conclusion: Validate or Prepare to Fail

If you skip validation, you’re gambling with your time, money, and future. Successful entrepreneurs embrace validation as the foundation of their startup journey.

Leveraging modern tools like ProtoBoost and adopting idea validation AI ensures that you build businesses that customers genuinely want.

Key Reminders:

Don’t skip validation.

Use AI Idea validation to save time and money.

Embrace idea validation for startups as a core strategy.

Trust advanced idea validation software like ProtoBoost to guide you.

Validate today — or prepare to become another cautionary tale.

Let’s Build the Future Together

Ready to bring your next big idea to life with the power of AI? ProtoBoost is here to help every step of the way — from validation to prototyping to refinement.

📞 Contact us at: 415–200–2599

📲 Follow us on social media for updates, insights, and success stories:

LinkedIn

Twitter (X)

Instagram

YouTube

Pinterest

[asexualbuthorny]

you know what i hate?

when bitches wobify Mu Qing and make him into a twink and i especially despise it when they do it for a ship with Feng Xin.

and okay he's not as muscular and more lean (hence being describes as looking scholarly) but do y'all fucking forget the man is a martial god in his own right? by no means is that man a damsel in distress that needs Feng Xin to constantly save him. he's smart, he's cunning and yeah he had a few vulnerable moments but by no means is he a poor wet meow meow he would kick your ass and laugh at you for being a failure. and yeah he's more lithe, especially when he's constantly next to Feng Xin who is kind of hypermasculine in fandom portrayals and impo (general "gigantic masculinity" anyone?) and those two are THE SAME FUCKING HEIGHT so why is Mu Qing always drawn to be much shorter than Feng Xin. and also maybe let's factor in the fact that Mu Qing was poor when growing and likely had to go without food so the lack of proper food while growing probably had an effect on his development(this just a hc btw but still it tracks). also this whole thing kind of smells really bad when people take Mu Qing, who is described as scholarly, and feminise him. it's really giving "EUGH!!! school is for girls!! only boys play sports!! academics=lame, feminine girly, war=cool, MASCULINE, done by REAL MEN URGH!!!"

y'all saw a man who is a war good who doesn't conform to your idea of a "war god" and went "no❤️that one is a femboi catboi twink who gets bent over by that one who DOES conform to my basic, no nuance idea of a war god"

get bent xoxo

[hoshiina]

pairing: hoshina soushirou x gn!reader (no prns)

request: hiii idk if u take these kinds of requests but id like to see jealous reader (preferably if reader and hoshina are already in an established relationship and reader works in a different division, meaning they dont get to see each other much) like maybe he’s used to calling okonogi “my dear” and its the first reader heard him call anyone with a pet name like that and she starts to overthink and gets pouty/ sulky and hoshina doesnt notice it at first but when he does he starts teasing her which doesnt help HAHAHAHA if its ok can it be hurt/ comfort and end in fluff & HELLO!! can i request an angst to fluff with hoshina where reader thinks he likes okonogi more than him especially since he is against revealing him n reader’s relationship to the third division (for other reasons of course). hopefully this isnt too specific!! i hope u have a wonderful day:))

notes: hoshina calls the reader “darling”, hurt comfort, him accepting jealousy a valid emotion (very important to me i fear), so sorry i merged the reqs!! i hope this was satisfactory for both TY FOR THE REQ!, this is a twt thread i thought about while writing this, (l/n) mention in the bonus part

wc: 1400

Oh, you hated when this happened. You hated when your heart started to tighten in this horrible way you knew well. You hated being jealous.

You hated how self centered it made you feel and how it ate away at your thoughts and feelings. It made you feel like your good thoughts were disintegrating to horrible ones. However, what you hated even more was how it meant you were doubting his love for you— and that was the last thing you wanted to do. You didn't want to doubt him, nor did you doubt him, but when the jealousy got to your head it was over. You were stuck in a loop.

To top it off, the cause of this all was truly harmless and hardly that big of a deal, but that's usually how most anxious thoughts start. They start little.

You were called to visit the 3rd Division to help with research on a field you were particularly knowledgeable on, and you happened to hear Hoshina's laughter from the operation room, so you went in to take a peek.

“It was not that funny,” Okonogi was saying to him, but Hoshina only continued to laugh.

“Yes, it definitely was,” he laughed. “I knew Kafka would forget about that hole in the training grounds again.”

“Why don't you remind him, then?”

“Comedic relief, of course.”

“Alright then.”

“Okonogi dear, you're no fun,” he said.

They said a few more things, but you couldn't seem to focus on their words. ‘Dear’? Was that merely a simple pet name? Or was there more to them than you initially expected?

Oh, the worries started to fill your head. And they were things you didn't want to be worried about— Okonogi was always so sweet to you when you popped by and you knew Hoshina loved you. The last thing you wished to do was doubt them, nor did you want to make things awkward around them. There were just so many things that you just didn't know about, being in a different division as him. You doubted they even knew you were dating, and the voice in your head would only get louder.

It was then that Hoshina saw you at the doorway and called over to you.

“Are you done with work?” he asked, his voice excited and hopeful. Your heart stung.

“Not quite yet,” you tried to sound disappointed, but for the right reason. “I’ll get going now.”

You walked away from the room as quickly as you could, seemingly naturally. You didn't want to be there and you didn't want to talk to him before calming down first— you were sure you'd say something silly if you spoke now.

Yet, immediately you heard footsteps behind you and a hand you knew well grab yours.

“Soushirou?” you asked, turning to look behind you.

“What's wrong?” he asked, his voice soft and visible concern in his eyes. “Do you feel unwell?”

Pang in your chest again.

“Not at all, nothing's wrong?” you said, but you could see the way he pursued his lips— the hurt in his eyes from how you wouldn't tell him what was troubling you. Gosh, why did you feel this way? Why must you feel much silly emotions.

“It's truly so stupid,” you said. “I'll tell you another time.”

“Alright,” he said, letting go of your hand. That one was your bad— you knew he wouldn't push you any further, even if he wanted to.

Dinner that night was awkward. You weren't even that jealous, but the fact that you felt something was gnawing at your brain upset you. Not to mention the fact that you were keeping something from him made you feel even worse.

“How was your training?” you asked.

“Alright, I suppose,” he said. There was a horrible moment of silence. You weren’t sure what to say.

“I think I’m getting a hang of this new technique,” he finally continued, but you wouldn’t look up at him— you were afraid he wouldn’t look your way.

“I see,” you said. “That’s really cool… I’d like to see someday.”

“I’ll show you as soon as its better,” he said.

The rest of dinner felt… quiet. The two of you still talked throughout it but it was terribly different from the usual lively catch-up you’d have— it was heart-wrenching quite frankly.

So as you’d imagine, going to sleep was even worse. You subconsciously faced away from him and pretended to fall asleep quickly, hoping he’d sleep soon too. You hated what was going on, but you just couldn’t bring this up. You knew it was silly and you knew you’d forget soon enough. You’d probably regret making such a big deal out of it.

“Darling,” he said, and immediately you turned to face him. He was already facing you. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t feel like it… I’m sorry I pushed you.”

Gosh, you thought. You gulped. You wished he wasn’t so kind.

“You’re going to think I’m so annoying though,” you said, voice cracking in a way you didn’t wish for it to and immediately his eyes widened.

“Darling, what happened?” he asked, suddenly worried. “You could never be annoying to me.”

“I… heard you…” you started and he just listened— he waited. “I heard you calling Okonogi, ‘dear.’ And suddenly I—”

“I’m so sorry,” he said, without hesitation. “I hadn’t even realized I did that, it was completely by habit. I won’t anymore.”

You finally met his eyes and the way he looked so horrified he had made you feel bad was so prominent in his eyes.

“No, Soushirou,” you said. “I didn’t mean for you to have to change anything— I know so well that both of you are so sweet to me and there’s nothing going on. I just—”

“Darling, calm down,” he said, cutting you off. “You’ve done nothing wrong, why are you beating yourself up? This was my bad and that’s about it. None of this is you.”

“I—,” you said, taking a moment to collect yourself. “I hate to be jealous, Soushirou. I’m so sorry.”

“Why?” he asked and you paused to look up at him, utterly confused.

“Why?” he asked again.

“It’s such an… ugly feeling,” you said.

“Is it?”

“Is it… not?”

“What’s wrong with being jealous?”

“Because it’s like I’m doubting you or something… when I don’t at all.”

“I think that’s a different thing entirely, no?” he asked. “You can know in your head that I’m in love with you and still feel something else— they’re not always the same. A little jealousy is perfectly healthy, I think.”

“Oh…” you said. You wanted to say so much more but there was so much to process first. Your heart swelled with such warmth.

“I get jealous too. I hate when Narumi gets too close to you or bothers you when I’m not around,” he continued on. “But in my head I know you’d never do anything to hurt me and you’d stop him if he crosses a line. I’ll try to stop if that bothers you though.”

“No,” you said. “That sounds… nice. I’m rather… happy… you were a jealous actually. But I’ll make sure to keep some more distance between Captain Narumi next time.”

He laughed. “Sounds good. But you tell me if there’s anything more that bothers you okay. I’ll fix myself up.”

“I will,” you said and he kissed your forehead. “But Soushirou, I don’t mind much anymore. You can stay the way you are.”

“No, no, stop overthinking. You need to sleep now, you have an early morning tomorrow.”

“Yeah. You too Sou,” you said and he hummed.

Once you were certain he was asleep, you kissed his cheek and slipped your hand into his. You liked holding his hand when you fell asleep, but you weren’t sure if it made it harder for him to fall asleep.

“Thank you,” you whispered to him. “You mean the world to me.”

You lightly kissed his cheek, careful not to wake him up, but to your surprised he smiled. He squeezed your hand and without opening his eyes, “You missed,” he said.

He kissed you on the lips and you laughed, snuggling up against him. “You were awake.”

“I was waiting for you to hold my hand,” he said. “I like when we hold hands when we sleep.”

BONUS:

From then on, Hoshina stopped calling Okonogi “dear” as much, and it’d only happen when it truly slipped out of him from force of habit.

“Vice-Captain, you’ve started dating (l/n), haven’t you?” she said to him one day while they were sorting through files.

“How... did you know?” he asked. The two of you had been dating for quite a while now, but he was more surprised she guessed you correctly.

“It’s terribly obvious you’re completely in love,” she said.

He blinked. And then he laughed. 

He’d have to ask you that night if he can share the news with everyone, properly, then.

[the-judicial-assistants-notebook]

not enough discussion about the gavins' complicated relationship with feminine-coded/beauty products, i don't think.

[kacievvbbbb]

Mihawk and the Red Haired Pirates

-Look I don't know what to tell you, Mihawk's epithet is literally Hawkeyes meaning he is world-renowned for his eyesight meaning that he'd probably make a good sharpshooter. And maybe Yasopp decides to test this theory with a little friendly competition. And after giving Mihawk a quick intro into how guns work, maybe Yasopp had to pull out every trick there is in the book to narrowly avoid losing to said Hawkeyes, who as it turns out is indeed very good at hitting targets and who had literally just learned how to cock a gun not even 30 minutes ago. But who's to say what actually happened, the day of November 25th at 2:35pm? Certainly not Yasopp, the record clearly shows he is undefeated.

-Once a year Ben and Mihawk go on a little trip just the two of them. They act like it's just so they can shit-talk Shanks but actually, they just go fishing somewhere in the middle of the ocean and drink horribly overpriced and fancy alcohol. Look Benn loves his crew, and would die for them but also if he doesn't get at least a week to himself once every year he'd kill them all himself. He deserves nice things and a little peace and fucking quiet and not being constantly inundated with the whims of a man child and Mihawk's the closest he's ever gonna get to a friend with taste, and he travels alone with a bunch of fancy wine. Sue the man. Mihawk who would rather nap is fine to let someone else sail his overgrown raft against the annoyingly ever-changing grandline for a week or two.

-Wouldn't it be cute if Mihawk learned a lot of his fancier cooking techniques from Roux? Like he knew how to cook to survive but watching Roux is how he learned to like properly dice vegetables and that eating fish prepared the same way three times a day is not infact a life he would like to lead. This was of course less cute to Lucky Roux who in the beginning had no clue what was happening and only felt the weight of Mihawk's otherworldly stare on the back of his neck as he handled knives. (he defiantly for at least a little bit, thought Mihawk had a knife fetish. which, he's not entirely wrong)

-To Building Snake (who I just learned is the RHP's navigator) Mihawk might as well be a modern-day miracle. In his eyes, Mihawk's sailing is proof that god exists, because only divine intervention can explain how this man ever gets anywhere never mind on time or early even. Building Snake is pretty sure he owns neither a map nor a log pose and he has never actually seen the sails of Mihawk's pretend ship unfurled or in use. Actually, he has never seen Mihawk do anything but sit menacingly on the throne in the middle of the boat, which why? If you think about it for even a second longer that 2 minutes how Mihawk "sails" anywhere breaks every law of physics and somehow even the concept of geography. Building Snake would like to dissect him and study him under a microscope but knows the boss would disapprove.

[snekdood]

"if we make america worse and more of a dictatorship that will be even harder to unravel and make it the way we want the country to be, maybe then everyone will join our Glorious Revolution!" bb girl you cant even be in the same room with someone who thinks you should vote, how in tf do you think you're gonna unite people to fight in The Revolution with you? it's gonna be you and your 5 friends, i hate to break it to you.

[velvetwyrme]

Okay, you like both Undertale and Transformers, so maybe you can see my vision.

Crossover au where transformers and monsters simultaneously exist. Not an undertale characters as transformers au, or vice-versa. An au where post true-pacifist, the monsters leave the underground only to find a new sapient species has arrived on the planet.

“Humans couldn't share the Earth with us, but they can with giant alien robots?!!! ...Wtf.”

An earthspark-like setup would work best for this, honestly. Just the “How dare” vibes on the monsters’ side, and the “You humans did WHAT?!” On the transformers’ side, with humans in the middle.

Also, the humans, whether through time or magic, completely forgot about the monsters. It would be such a spectacular shit-show! 😈

And don't get me started on the lore implications!

This idea has been rotating in my head for weeks, and I actually want to talk about it with people. So I entrust it to you to spread, 'cause I have like 10 actual followers, and I don't think there's enough overlap there for this to gain traction on my blog. (I'm asking on anon because I'm nervous)

Thanks for reading! :D

oh that is a really fun idea!!!! like. hey not only do giant alien robots exist but so do MONSTERS. also MAGIC exists too. what a revelation.

i have not watched ES as of yet so i dont have much more to add in that respect but. really really fun to think about. did monsters know abt cybertronians before they surfaced... did the news spread that far........

im putting this out into the world like sending a little paper boat out into open water. GO FORTH AND GATHER OTHER UNDERTALE/TRANSFORMERS FANS...

[aiprotoboost]

What are the 3 Main Points in Idea Validation Step? ProtoBoost

Bringing a startup idea to life is an exciting journey, but the risk of failure is real—especially when assumptions go untested. That’s where idea validation becomes critical. It helps determine whether your concept has real-world potential before significant time or money is invested.

One of the most powerful tools for streamlining this process today is ProtoBoost, an AI-driven prototyping and AI idea validation platform that accelerates product discovery by helping founders and teams validate ideas quickly and efficiently. In this article, we’ll dive into the three main points in the idea validation step using ProtoBoost and explore how AI is transforming how startups validate and iterate on new business ideas.

1. User Feedback Collection

The foundation of any business idea validation process is understanding what potential users think. ProtoBoost enables startups to create AI-generated, interactive prototypes that can be tested by target audiences in minutes—not weeks. These prototypes simulate the core functionality of the idea, giving users a hands-on experience.

This phase focuses on gathering qualitative and quantitative feedback. Using built-in tools and integrations, ProtoBoost collects insights on user behavior, pain points, preferences, and reactions. You can answer critical questions like:

Do users understand the purpose of the product?

Are they able to complete key tasks easily?

Do they find value in the core feature?

By using AI-generated interfaces and automated survey tools, ProtoBoost makes this process scalable, repeatable, and incredibly fast.

2. Assumption Testing

Every idea is based on assumptions—about the user, the problem, the market, and the solution. One of the core principles of startup idea validation is to identify and test these assumptions early on.

ProtoBoost helps founders structure and test hypotheses using its AI idea validator framework. You start by listing your assumptions (e.g., “Users want a simpler way to manage personal finances”), and then build tests that either validate or disprove them.

For example:

Will users sign up for early access?

Will they complete a key action in the prototype?

Do they express willingness to pay?

ProtoBoost uses AI to generate the right testing scenarios, analyze user behavior, and provide data-backed insights. It also offers a confidence score on which assumptions are validated and which require further testing. This structured approach minimizes guesswork and allows teams to pivot early if necessary.

3. Iterative Refinement

No idea is perfect from the start, and successful innovation relies on iteration. After collecting feedback and testing assumptions, the final step in idea validation is to refine the concept.

ProtoBoost excels here by using AI to recommend changes to design, user flow, and feature prioritization based on the feedback received. Founders can tweak prototypes instantly, launch new versions, and repeat the validation cycle until they achieve strong product-market fit.

This continuous loop of AI-driven prototyping, testing, and refinement saves time and dramatically improves the quality of the end product. Instead of building in the dark, startups can validate every decision with real user data.

Watch the Demo: ProtoBoost Idea Validation System

To see how the ProtoBoost system works in action, check out this ProtoBoost Idea Validation System Demo on YouTube:

👉 Watch Now

Why ProtoBoost for AI Idea Validation?

Here’s why ProtoBoost is becoming the go-to AI idea validator for early-stage startups and product teams:

Speed: Go from idea to validated prototype in hours, not weeks.

Automation: AI handles design, feedback analysis, and iteration.

Insight: Data-driven decisions replace guesswork in product development.

Scalability: Test multiple ideas or versions simultaneously.

Whether you're a solo founder or part of a product team, ProtoBoost can turn your raw concept into a validated business opportunity, ready for investment or development.

Final Thoughts

The idea validation phase is arguably the most important step in building a successful startup. Rushing through it or skipping it altogether can lead to costly failures. With platforms like ProtoBoost, AI-driven prototyping and business idea validation are no longer intimidating or resource-heavy. Instead, they become structured, fast, and insightful.

By focusing on user feedback collection, assumption testing, and iterative refinement, ProtoBoost ensures that your startup idea validation journey is grounded in real data—not just optimism.

If you’re ready to take your idea to the next level, let ProtoBoost guide your validation process with intelligence, speed, and clarity.

Let’s Build the Future Together

Ready to bring your next big idea to life with the power of AI? ProtoBoost is here to help every step of the way—from validation to prototyping to refinement.

📞 Contact us at: 415-200-2599

📲 Follow us on social media for updates, insights, and success stories:

LinkedIn

Twitter (X)

Instagram

YouTube

Pinterest

[the-kingshound]

Is there a reason you made Lancelot a non romance? Just wondering since Lancelot and Guinevere were a thing in arthurian tales. No shade or anything just curious. :)

The main reason is that, when I first created the characters for the game, Lancelot was not included. I am taking loose inspiration from Arthuriana, and in many ways my lore differs greately from the legends, with many more fantasy elements. If you take, say, Bastard of Camelot, it is much more grounded in the Arthurian legends than TKH.

Even my ROs names are taken from lesser known characters, from which I didn't take the lore or familiar links to Arthur either. So, yeah, Lancelot came later.

Also, Lance has gradually been taking her own place in the plot, one that is linked with other Round Table Knights rather than MC, with Arthur and with Uther.

Sometimes I regret not choosing her as a RO, same for Morgana, but what's done is done

[countlessofvoids]

With his father, Toothless along with all of Berk's dragons, and all the villains who became their allies:

Hiccup has infinite scary dog privilege

[caraecethrae]

great tip for intermediate practitioners:

start a journal of your own practice and UPG. not a log, though that is very useful – but it should already be part of your practice if it's been a few years.

instead, keep a journal into your own insights. little "aha" moments that click different things into place. don't just jot those down, include what made you realize and what is your plan to do with that information. it can be very brief, its the long-term collection of this that can be incredibly affirming to look back on.

[fanfix666]

i don't care what anyone else says, raphael is the brattiest, laziest bottom pillow princess in all the hells and i like him that way. that is what he is to me

[arn9tails]

Some SdRGAU ideas that have been floating in my head, y'know like lil au riffs

- Soulmate-esque au where certain Earthlings are drawn to certain Teyvatians for various reasons

- Familiar Earthlings where due to either exposure or magical bonds, an Earthling can act as a conduit for an Allogene's magic. Allowing said Earthling to use the magic, but it does mean they're basically the familiar for the Teyvatian

- Maybe a little more fucked up end of the spectrum where Earthlings are destined to be pets to certain Teyvatians with wacky ass chemical signal stuff or perhaps even a telekinetic bond (maybe imposed by Celestia because well Celestia is a bitch and might be into that shit)

- Adoption Centers where humans down on their luck sign up to the centers and can be picked out by Teyvatian families or folks to adopt into their lives

- Lets not doubt for a second that governments will immediately use this to try to get rid of "undesirables" (The homeless, immigrants, poor people, so on so forth) and use it as an excuse to provide less aid to the poor ("if you can't find a house just sign up to be a pet, you'll at least be useful then)

- Not to mention the struggle in legislation to get it passed and how perhaps Certain Teyvatians (cough cough Fontainian Nobles, the Fatui, DOTTORE) would definitely push for this and use it to basically legalize Earthling Trafficking

- On a lighter note, maybe after a bit of interaction the gods take control of the portals and have it so that the person's scale gets changed depending on the world

- How shocking would it be for Teyvatians to be able to truly see how large an Earthling city is when they're Earthling size?

- Tiny Earthlings would quickly become even more of a commodity since they could theoretically sneak out and get to one of the portals so it would re-register them as big and free them

- Inverse AU where it's Teyvat who's 1/3rd the size of earth. Probably just for crackfics but it would be silly to be able to hold the great Lord Morax in your palm

- Memory wipe AU where after the portals happened all evidence of Genshin Impact was (mostly) wiped, maybe as a result of laylines or Irminsul interaction (like shown in Seven Wishes Shooting Star's fic)

- Maybe have notable exceptions be the MC or folks who owned physical media of Genshin Impact (maybe even had the game's album on disk) or had pirated it (because piracy is a preservation technique). Maybe even the creators and Hoyoverse wiped it manually to prevent the folks from Teyvat killing them.

- in the same vein perhaps there was like... A board game series, card game, or book series that featured Earthlings in it that got wiped the same way

Teheheh just some thoughts. These can be sprinkled in if u need ideas

[dethroned-by-ghosts]

The Women of Trigun 98

People need to understand how ahead of its time trigun 98 is in regards to women and their portrayal. You can't keep looking at modern media and comparing it. It's the 90s. It was a different feminist movement back then. Back then women wanted to be seen. Wanted to be taken seriously and handle jobs previously titled for men only.

Below is a review of every single episode (all 26) of trigun 98 and how women are depicted in each one. I also added a summary on Wolfwood and Vash.

I'm gonna add the conclusion here too, as a tldr:

In the end, I think I’m just happy that the 98 anime was written and done the way that it was. I’m glad that I wasn’t disappointed by it. I’m genuinely so happy that it has all of these 90s elements without having the uncomfortableness that comes from watching an old anime with outdated thoughts and views on women and society. I think people need to look at it more critically and see how much it gives to the women in the series, in some instances it’s even more than the manga just because they had the time and space to stretch out and expand more. I hate seeing it discredited, or seeing people characterize 98 Vash and Wolfwood as “weird”. My feeling is that this is a collective reflection of people’s view on 90s anime, and not an actual analysis or conclusion from the 98 anime itself. I want people to be able to appreciate what 98 actually gave us. It’s not cheap, it’s not superficial, it’s a deconstruction on many levels, and a good interpretation of the manga and story of trigun.

Everyone is of course entitled to their opinions and thoughts, I’m not out here asking anyone to love 98, I’m just asking that people stop throwing it under the bus for no reason other than a time-era bias that doesn’t even hold true when you actually analyze the content of the anime.

Warning that this is 10k long all together, sectioned into the episodes:

Episode 1. Look at Meryl and Milly, out in the wild, two women on their own, no man around them, tasked with tracking down and containing the one legendary and terrifying gunman, the Humanoid Typhoon, the man who single handedly destroyed one of the biggest cities on the planet. They alone are tasked with this. Not only this, the 98 introduction for them is the "classic" bar scene joke. The men pointedly state "for this gag to work, you gotta-" they are literally breaking down and defying this misogynistic gag in episode one and showing you how strong and scary Milly is. How cool and collected Meryl is. Attributes associated with male lead characters. We also get introduced to how much power they have on their own. It’s something else to have a shounen show open with their two main female support leads being fearless from a bar full of men and then scaring the men trying to demean them. The show literally opens and tells you this isn’t your regular show. Meryl and Milly are powerful. Milly carries a giant heavy stun gun. Meryl carries 50(?) guns on her cape, she carries that daily on her back, she walks around like that weight on her back is nothing, it drapes to her shins! These weapons aren’t just for show, they know how to use them. But what I like is they’re not just badass, they have such a vibrant personality!! They keep approaching “Vash” despite rumors, despite how unsure they are, they have that courage and perseverance to them, and they’re going to do a good job no matter what.

Episode 2, Marianne. Posing as an innocent sheltered girl. She's not. She's a cop. She's on a covert mission. She is fighting for everyone's rights here. She's a good cop. She never needed Vash's help. She never even needed to be in any of the random romance situations. This also isn’t the first or the last time we see women showcased in the 98 anime as fully capable fighters who stand on their own. Vash being all love struck was also just his way to get closer and address her wound, inquire about what was going on. Was he disrespecting women? Did he cross any boundaries he shouldn't? no. The ‘peeping tom’ gag is in this episode, yes, but the intentions were for the injury, and the animators didn’t give the watchers anything either, there’s no reward for the gag (instead you get Milly being very perspective and lovely). Did Marianne express being uncomfortable and he pushed ahead ignoring her comforts? no. A full episode for one random woman not mentioned in the manga, they just dedicated it to her to build on the tone of the manga and Vash's values. (I need to rewatch it to address meryl and milly here, i'm sorry)

Episode 3, we have a lady being THE bartender and master of that space. Is she being mistreated and demeaned? no, she kicks you out immediately. She takes no slander and no drunkards. She is the master of her space. She dictates what happens there. She also clearly tells Frank that she's upset with him, but also never calls him out as Frank in front of others, because she and the rest of the town still hold up their pride of housing him in their midst.

Episode 4, we have a daughter learn about the atrocities her father has done. She is a spoiled girl. She lives in luxury. She gambles (gasp, shock, booing, omg you don't like women being lazy and as bad as men? wow, where did your equal rights go). She learns that she has been living off of money stolen from the lives of others. She doesn't look away from that reality. She's a gambler, remember. She doesn't escape out of it. She looks that truth head on and vows to do something about it, to fix what was done. She also doesn't forsake her father, (and to my memory, her dad also didn't forsake her? either way not the primary point). She stands on her own and makes her own decision regardless of her father.

Episode 5, and I'll admit that my memory of this is primarily from the manga, but Rosa and her lady friends are the ones that hold down Vash and corner him. It’s primarily a group of young women. It’s a mom that gives the speech about capturing Vash for the money needed to help the plant survive, so that her sick son can get better. It was a young girl who delivered the message of capturing Vash to the mayor. This is all being done by the women for the town, for each other.. You have to understand the subtle details that are uplifting women here. It’s a 90s show, it will be subtle about this. That’s how the culture was, women were still laying down the groundwork here. It was brief, but they actually had nearly forced Vash to make a stand and do something, had they not been interrupted. That's a whole town failing and 4-5 women winning, had the mayor not released the Nebraska family.

Episode 6, oh my freakin gosh episode 6. Elizabeth, a gorgeous woman. She is not touted around for her beauty, but her intellect and her own hard work that placed her as a plant engineer, though she uses that aspect of herself (beauty and looks) for her ends and goals, and that is feminism too, idk what to tell you. Femme fatale, whatever you wanna call it. I don't care. 98 made the effort to go out of their way to tell you a story from a survivor of the most atrocious event humanity witnessed in its brief history on that planet. If I may be so bold, this is one of the best additions to all the trigun media currently out. We don’t just see a survivor trying to take revenge, we get a full in-depth dive into who she is. They took the time to show you the grief and loss witnessed by one small girl. She’s very complex in that regard, especially for a one-episode story character. All she went through to find the culprit and avenge her parents, her life. She is taking the path of vengeance, yes, but she is also here because of her hard work and efforts to survive. Did she nearly forsake an entire town herself? yes!!! Women's wrongs!!!! OMG!!!! But here’s the thing, though, they go as far as showing how she recognized Vash as the same person who comforted her, however briefly, in the ruins of July. It’s the complexity of meeting your hero or source of hope/good in a bleaker memory, and realizing they were also the cause of the suffering. She knows this man helped her. She knows she wants to, but can’t harm him. She knows that what she was about to go through was the same as what had happened to her, but here she gets, at least, some sort of resolution. That her whole life, one way or the other, she’d gotten stronger and smarter and navigated life with a goal in mind, but now she gets to move on from it, we never know. It’s implied. Vash doesn’t absolve her from anything either, he acknowledges her pain, acknowledges the hurt he has caused her, one way or the other, despite not knowing or remembering anything of the truth. She has to take his truth and believe what she must to move on.

Episode 7, not too much to say, except the resourcefulness of Meryl and Milly despite not being properly funded by their jobs sndkfjvbsdkfhd not the greatest moment, but they are so resourceful i love them

Episode 8, Hallelujah, the girls are there to save Vash. He'd be a piece of toast with bullet holes if not for them stopping BDN. They also help Vash while he's injured. Also we get introduced to Rem. Is she the motherly saintly figure? yeah yeah sure, but who is following her every principle and guidance and outlook on life? a man and the main character of the show. Vash. Her philosophy of pacifism, something so often associated to women and their ‘aversion of violence’, their ‘nature’ to care and nurture… he’s the one taking it up, he’s the one who is looking at the world through her eyes, her outlook on life, and tries to show others how it can be seen as well. The show isn’t conceited, it genuinely is taking so many ideas and concepts that are generally subconsciously associated with women or ingrained misogyny and deconstructing it to show the viewers why these women are amazing.

Episode 9, a single mom with two kids. not much here, but it's rep and we love rep. Oh! Oh I completely forgot that Meryl and Milly come to the boys’ rescue twice here!! Milly’s quick thinking to fire her stun gun helps hold off the robotic sentinels (or the murder machines that the episode is named after). When Vash and Wolfwood get stuck in the underground piece of lost tech, it’s Meryl and Milly who blast through the ceiling to get them out. The voice of the ‘murder machine’ is also feminine, and that’s also a small nod to women being in a role of fierce protectors, vs gentle nurturing, etc etc.

Episode 10, also a single mom with a self employed job, and the guys doing what they can to help her. What is misogynistic about that???? Meryl and Milly celebrating with the guys at the end is great imo. Is there a gag or two through the episode? yes? And? It’s a filler episode, a little bit more so than the previous ones, and I think it’s good at showcasing the group’s values when they are functioning together for the most part. Vash tries to flirt, and literally fails with his face in the ground. It was so out of nowhere, like they wanted to show him being casually able to dissuade any attention from coming his way by being an absolute annoyance. Kudos to having none of the women fawn over him, heck none of the women seemed to quite fawn over anyone in the tournament where guys competed by showing off their gun skills. Milly gets drunk during the episode, but we aren’t shown anything, and the implication is neither did Vash or Wolfwood, they don’t take advantage of Milly, they didn’t take advantage of the single mom. Wolfwood was found helping her, and yeah, he roped Vash in for a few reasons not directly in the sake of helping, but he justifies it by emphasizing that this would help the single mom, and in the coded language that is vash and wolfwood’s ‘read between the lines’ they basically agreed to be taken for fools knowingly by each other if it meant helping out. Afterall, Vash and Wolfwood are both good, respectful people when it’s in relation to single moms. Perhaps I have a bias in that interpretation, that’s fine. (I know we don’t see Wolfwood growing up with a motherly figure, but he has his own orphanage, I think he knows the value.)

Episode 11, ANOTHER 98 win imo. The independence needed from a young lady and a young man trying to defy human trafficking going on for too long, the complexities of found family vs blood family and what you owe to your parents when they are in the wrong and using you ulteriorly despite loving you. Also freakin hell a full episode for Milly???? For showing off how strong she is? How selfless she is? How powerfully righteous she is? How she takes scalding water that will 100% scar her for the sake of these two strangers? Is this building too much on your 'misogynistic' narrative of women being sacrificial for the next gen and caring and kind and good spirited? Need I remind you that both Milly and Meryl get so mad in this episode? How Meryl points a gun at Vash? How Milly outright throws him to the ground with a punch, unfiltered rage? Are you going to tell me that Milly and Rem are written as weak women because of how they self-sacrifice to protect the future of others in their own way? Vash does that too, and you like him for it. Are you going to tell me Vash is a better character because he has these qualities but is a man instead? I can go ON for hours on how amazing this episode is and how everyone seems to dislike it. Another thing to note is how Wolfwood in particular takes a good portion of the episode admiring Milly, her intelligence, her perceptiveness, her kindness, her anger, her earnestness, her strength of character and physical strength, her conviction, her beliefs, her determination to do what’s right, her unwillingness to compromise on anything she might regret in the future, her self assuredness with herself and her actions. People sleep on Milly, and you have Wolfwood here telling you how amazing she is. He looks up to her. He looks up to Vash. But while Vash is an oddity, Milly is an oddity that everyone admires for similar qualities. Vash and Milly are written to parallel each other in many ways. This episode, Wolfwood highlights it further. Milly and Vash’s good will and personality that doesn’t allow for compromises in morals, that they snap into action and do what is right regardless of the situation and circumstances, they will choose to do good no matter what, because that’s who they are. He tells Vash as much, and Vash agrees about how good Milly is. There’s also another layer here where Milly and Vash get directly compared, and it’s treated as an honour to be compared to Milly to begin with. Wolfwood admires and wants to be like her, like Vash. (this rant will also somehow convince at least somebody of how amazing polygun is, they all love each other). Ahem, I also want to point out that Milly’s anger that had her go all the way to punch Vash as hard as she could, that Meryl threatening Vash at gunpoint and her disappointment in him, both of their disappointments in him stem from how earnest they are, how good they are, and how they’ve come to trust Vash to be the same. I love the distinction, too, where Meryl is upset but feels bound to her job and sets her personal feelings aside, while Milly doesn’t care and makes sure Vash takes the full brunt of what her disappointment (and some of her anger) looks like. It was a breach of trust, what Vash did, but ultimately revealed as a facade he had to keep to make the entire thing believable. I just think it’s absolutely amazing that this show kept the integrity of its two main female characters and showcased them in contrast to the main male characters. Wolfwood also stood aside despite wanting to help, because he knows there are rules that govern the world they live in. He’s similar to Meryl here, where he struggles to follow in his own emotions and follows ‘the way of the world’ in defeated acceptance, but like Meryl, is trying to find inspiration and a way out.

Episode 12, Diablo, Meryl spearheading the defense for Vash. Milly capturing so much of Vash's mask. Showcasing Meryl's strength and intellect in navigating law and the world of men, showcasing how intelligent and perceptive Milly is. Meryl going in to defend Vash. Milly being protective of Meryl, but of Vash too. Both of them being so protective of each other and of him. Vash never belittles them. I could talk about this episode forever, and I do actually talk about it again, a bit more in depth, near the end of this, so stay tuned.Episode 13, a full reflection of Meryl (and Milly) on Vash, their journey, their own opinions that 98 highlights is what colours our view of the show and main character so far. We are guided through them. They are giving us the narrative. We also never see Vash demean them, he treats them with the utmost respect. He never encroaches on their comfort, he never makes them uncomfortable, he never flirts with them, he's kind to them, he cares for them. He knew from episode 1 that they were approaching him professionally, and he might make their life a little difficult, but he'd never cross a boundary with them that may jeopardize their career, or their assignment which they need to keep being employed. Contrasting with many anime, Vash never pursues either of them, or gets the trope of being torn between his mission and the love he found along the way. No, he is genuinely there to love Meryl and Milly as people and as their own persons. He also tries to protect them, maybe brutishly at times by pushing them away, but they take none of it, and they don’t allow for even a small crack of doubt in their capabilities. I’ll just add here what I say later on, which is that after this episode, Vash doesn’t pretend around Meryl and Milly as much anymore. They’ve seen him as he is. He lets them into his life, and promptly wants them out of it for their safety. He cares about them, and has never once encroached on their jobs or on them as people until he feels it’s become too dangerous, and he knows and acknowledges how capable they are.

Episode 14, Little Arcadia, an episode dedicated to Meryl and Milly, and their view on family, on life, on what they want to do, on what the future looks like. It's important. It's not domestic. They are actively fighting to protect this family, and trying to figure out their own lives. They have a story. They have a life outside of what the show gives us. It is important to who they are. Would it be nice to look into that? Absolutely, but that's not the story theme we are here for. We are here for humanity, and the 98 team did their damndest to show us how rounded all these characters are. Let’s not forget that this episode we get Badwick’s lovely mom, how supportive and strong she is, how she doesn’t back down from anything, and she treats her son as her son, and that is, she’s not about to have him go making bad choices or badmouthing anyone, because she and her husband are doing all of this for him, regardless if he understood or not. We also get Milly’s strong outburst to finding out that Badwick was outright harming his parents to appease a stronger power. It’s important to me that we constantly see the women fighting back on what they see as being stupid logic, and they do so by fighting sdfkhvbshdf Also, hello??? Nebraska family women side???? Marilyn is adorable??? unapologetically herself, happy to dress how she likes, happy with herself and her family. Also the mom (Patricia) being super powerful and amazing, this is a point to Nightow for not constricting women to specific body types and shapes and power levels. Btw if you skip this episode, you're being a misogynist :D teehee

Episode 15, Dominique my beloved, but before we get there, we have the three women Legato saves. We are shown misogyny in this world. The women we have seen thus far are free women. Facing hardships, surviving, but none of them had a man beating them down or telling them they can't work, they can't be [insert anything], but here? Here we see cruelty, and yet even our token villain doesn't stay silent about it and doesn’t let it pass. We know why from the manga, but that's not the point here. As far as 98 goes, this was voluntary good will from Legato to respect women. Back to Dominique, she is powerful. She goes toe to toe with Vash the Stampede. If he hadn't figured out how she was doing what she was doing, he'd be dead. He survived because she was toying with him, what a queen. Is the unbuttoning of her shirt misogynistic? Yes, fine, you can see it that way, I won't rob you of that. Hear me out though. She takes out Vash's buttons, he just returns the gesture in kind, it's a show of equal power. I am not encouraging this, I'm not a fan of this trope as it is, but I'm saying it doesn't decrease from her power and influence and neither does she seem all too bothered by it. Again, not my favourite thing in the world, but I'll leave it there. We also get tensions between Vash and Meryl & Milly. They scold Vash for mistreating Dominique, and Meryl questions him on his evasive behavior. Which, if I may add, wouldn't be happening if the writers were misogynist and wrote Meryl and Milly or one of them as a love interest. 

Episode 16, Fifth Moon, 98 style. The ladies make their own decision to follow Vash, knowing all the risks. They witness the second act of god on this human colonized planet. They are not terrified by it, though they also are. It's not 'love sickness' that has Meryl wanting to stay and reach Vash, it's her own will, her own curiosity, her own emotions. Milly grabs and runs with Meryl for her own safety out of her own will. Because what do people keep forgetting? Milly is a protector. A strong one. As bullheaded about it as Meryl is. As Vash is. Wow. Women getting to make different, individual decisions based on their moral and ethical code separate from the wants of any male in the cast. Wow. As much as this episode was Vash facing off against Legato and the GHG, it starts and ends with Meryl and Milly's agency and their own persons as individuals who have their own life, thoughts, and choices.

Episode 17. Rem. Boy is she flawed in 98 and girl do I love her for it. She is the epitome of your 'misogynist-written' caring motherly peaceful woman to a fault who has a dead lover and condones any and all violence so much that she overlooks it. Hit pause for a moment. Let's rehash that for a second, shall we? Not any single person is made to be a mother. No one is made to be a mother. Nobody has that stuff figured out, so don't you dare reduce motherly traits to the female character most likely to exude it. She herself admits she barely knows what she's doing. She's just playing with the kids and pointing out lessons as she goes. Emotional maturity and/or intelligence is something thrust on all women by society, whether they're good at it or not. She has a flawed sense of what peace should look like, so much so that she never properly addresses the physical abuse the twins are going through. At 'best' she never notices, or at 'worst' she ignores it entirely and brushes it aside as something they have to work on to get people to accept them. Does this sound motherly? Not really? Good, you're catching up to the breakdown of the 'perfect womanly image' you thought Rem was embodying but is secretly a deconstruction of. Let's continue. She also never addresses or makes any comment about Steve's unwelcome groping of Mary, it's like she doesn't see it happening in front of her. She's in her own dreamy world. Let me quickly point out that having a dreamy world is fully valid, she is the positive spirit of the crew and their source of optimism, but she is actively not equipped to address things she doesn't agree with despite what she puts out in ideology. She even wants a fair hearing from Steve, fully ready to ignore Mary's claims. Women are always dismissed when they claim rape or SA, and sometimes other women, because of how society raised them, can actually work against the rights other women should receive. I am not saying Rem isn't right, that a fair trial needs everyone to be heard properly, but she's not being the best here either. 

Mary, now, Mary is a lovely complex woman, because by her own admission as she complains to herself, she finds it fun or interesting how Rowan and Steve fight over her, but she is clearly not enjoying whatever Steve is doing to her, and she's not comfortable about it. She easily agrees to accuse Steve and has no remorse about it had it not been Rowan who went too far and tampered with Steve's cryopod. 

Rowan and Steve are both Misogynists. Steve walks around seeing Mary’s body before anything else and doesn't care for any slap on the wrist he gets or discomfort Mary shows. Rowan feels he is owed Mary's unconditional love and at the first sign of rejection he kills her, because her value to him was only in her existence as a woman and nothing else. If she rejected him, then she didn't even need to exist at all. He had no qualms pointing that gun at Rem. I do think he would have fired, he wasn't mentally there for that exchange, and reactions from a twitchy shaking finger are more than enough to cause irreparable damage. Here, though, I do commend Rem and how she shows compassion for someone who is very clearly in a nervous breakdown and not mentally stable, and she approaches him with calm stability that he cannot deny or argue with. She also takes charge here, defending the twins and trying to get everyone into a safer, calmer state. I do think that the 98 writers weren't quite fully settled on how she conducts herself, but the latter half of the episode showcases so much of her strong determination, her personality, and her capacity for leadership and taking control of a situation. She did, after all, save all of humanity with those qualities of hers.

Words by my dear friend, legendofthesevenstars: The fact that they depicted these characters in such a realistic way is what makes it so effective. They aren't caricatures of evil villains. These could be real men who exist in the real world. THAT'S good writing of character flaws and an excellently painful depiction of misogyny. We as the viewers are uncomfortable not because the writers are disrespecting women, but because they've so effectively shown the pain and discomfort that these women are put through by these two men. Not what you'd expect from a shonen, huh?

Ultimately, Mary isn't quite written to be her own person, not fully, but rather as a show of contrast and to show how misogyny looks in a workplace setting, in a domestic setting, on an interpersonal level. Rem was shown to us as playing everything by ear, for the most part, when it comes to motherly qualities. She never addresses a lot of things, including Vash and Knives' fight and disagreement. She just tells Knives he shouldn't have done that, no explanation or reason given. She placed him on the bad side, and he retaliated by going there fully. IQ be damned, he's 1 years old. I have more to say, but I said a lot already and you get the gist. Maybe I will quickly add that 98’s version of Rem and having the SEEDs ship be a skeleton crew instead of her alone with the twins, and having the group dynamic be this? I think they knew what they were doing with Nightow’s spark notes. I think they did a very good job at adapting this episode to convey the core of the themes that 98 deals with conceptually, and framed it in a way that viewers can easily see the flaws.

Episode 18. Bless Sheryl and Lina. Bless them in particular. Before you go and tell me 'but it was an elderly woman and a little girl finding this old man in the alley and caring for him, taking up stereotypical caretaker roles thrust onto women and young girls’. Hold that thought for a second. Sheryl is a single grandmother with a rifle. She is respected in her small town, and seemingly known for her capacity to do what she threatens to. Lina is a young pre-teen who has either lost or is estranged from her parents. She's not your typical young girl in this sense, and that makes her choice to bring back Vash to her grandmother and ask to save him somewhat self serving and reflective to her character and to Sheryl's. Maybe you could imagine 'I couldn't help my parents', 'I don't know what happened to my parents', 'Maybe a stranger was this kind to my parents if they were found like this'. Look, ignore my thoughts. Stick with this: what 12 year old would find an old man in a back alleyway barely standing or speaking or looking coherent and thinks 'I gotta take this man home and take care of him because I want to be a good woman'. No one. The answer is no one. The answer is someone who has had their share of traumatic or semi-traumatic thoughts and wonderings about missing parents and living alone with their grandmother. Maybe I'm speaking from a place where I can see myself in Lina here. I'm not commenting about that in public. Now, yes, Lina and Sheryl take care of Vash as Eriks and get him back on his feet. Please pay attention to the fact that neither Sheryl nor Lina treat Vash with 'traditionally feminine care'. Sheryl is strict and harsh and straightforward/blunt, and verbally gets him moving. Lina physically gets him moving by dragging him around, kicking him about. They both treat him like a normal capable human being and not coddle him which is what a misogynist narrative would do. I also think it’s nice that their treatment of him isn’t ableist either (i’m not very confident saying this publicly).

Episode 19, the Fris & Polo feud. I can't say much remarkable here, except that we get to see Meryl and Milly happily back in pursuit. Aside from that, we have two men fighting to avenge a murdered daughter. Not the strongest feminist rep this episode, but we're here to broaden the narrative from other aspects and cast light on how we now see the parallels between Vash and Rem, now that we know, and how it's detrimental and not practical or functional or even remotely just. It's just the principle to keep people alive and able to speak for themselves and make choices for their own paths. A bad person can't make amends or be a better person if you choose to damn them and silence their soul forever, etc. etc. Oh, I'm not 100% sure, but is this also the episode where we see Meryl and Milly in the office for the first time? We see them not being treated or respected to their fullest potential due to small tidbits about their personalities that they don't give up or forsake for others in the workplace, and I freakin love that. Let them be themselves unapologetically. Additionally, this is where we get the mini lecture from the side character Karen, about “womanly happiness” where Karen doesn’t seem to understand how Meryl would have felt fulfilled or happy chasing around an outlaw, being out in the wilds. This happens in the manga, too. The implication is that what Meryl is doing could never possibly make a ‘normal woman’ happy. I think it’s effective that we see this office scenario after having gotten to know Meryl and Milly to the extent that we have because we see how restricted they are within that space. We know their full potential, and we see others dismiss their strengths, and it’s upsetting, but realistic and reflective of their choices in going back after Vash. In a way, they’d found their freedom through the course of this story, and it’s shown to us in the sense of ‘you don’t know what you had until it’s gone’ type of thing. Meryl doesn’t stand for it when she finds Milly being ‘punished’ with menial cleaning tasks when she knows how strong, smart, and powerful she is.

Episode 20 & 21, I love that we just get an actual typhoon and put Meryl and Milly in its path to witness and feel it. There is something about showing them face disasters together and alone and come out just fine being very satisfying to me. Moving on, we have Jessica. I love Jessica. Any Jessica slander in my house will get you kicked out. She is more than what she is shown or acts to be. She is that hopelessly romantic dreamer, yet another trope deconstruction (have you noticed how many we've had so far???) She gets taken hostage, another trope, except her face is also used as a puppet and weapon against Vash. This episode we also get more Plant rep, and while we don't get much, I count that as worthy of mentioning, because plants, despite being a full enigma in the 98 anime, are still shown to have a will of their own and capable of their own choices despite the situations they are placed in (see episode 6 as well). Back to Jessica, she is not a one note love-struck young woman, she outright blames Vash for Brad's death and casts him out and away from anything to do with her or the Seeds colony that fell 'because of him'. It was also the puppet with her face that shot Brad, the shot being meant for Vash. If Jessica was written by a 'misogynist team' she'd mourn Brad while being held in Vash's arms. Not here, folks! Here we have a woman full of anger, anguish, devastation, she lost her home, her life as she knows it, the one person who was always there next to her despite her fantasizing about another man, and she's directing all of that at Vash. Again, I'm here to support women's wrongs, justified as they are!

Episode 22, a moment of peace and caring. Recuperation. Before anyone says anything, the guys do their fair share in taking care of the place and being parental towards the kids. The work isn't left to Meryl and Milly, they just chose to do the jobs they are most comfortable with. People forget that feminism is supposed to allow all women to choose whatever they wish equally, including being presented as caring for children and/or cooking. It is a choice. Either way, the episode's intent is to reflect a peaceful domestic life. Take that as you will, I can't stop anyone that wants to see this as either misogynist or regressive to Meryl and Milly's characters. In my view, they are exhibiting things we'd never see from them early on in the story, and that's because they're more comfortable with themselves, perhaps, but also, there's kids in need of adults here. They're not gonna play super modern a la 2024/25 style and deliberately have the ladies look down on cooking simply because they are 'educated independent women who are above such roles and tasks'. Before anyone says anything further, Wolfwood is immediately introduced to us as helping out being a chef in episode 10, and Vash isn't bad at it either. Neither of them see themselves as 'too manly' to do tasks that need to be done and need help with. Wolfwood spends the episode admiring Meryl and Milly and all the work they do, he’s even jokingly jealous of how Milly gets the kids to smile. Both Vash and him are smiling and admiring the girls, not as love interests, not in any uncomfortable way. The line “women are a marvel” is really genuinely admiring women as amazing people, admiring women and all that they do, all that they handle in a society, how much they have to shoulder, how powerful they are. Wolfwood and Vash both respect women so much. If one more person tells me Wolfwood or Vash are misogynists.... well I wouldn't do anything, I'd roll my eyes and ignore them, but it's annoying to see so much lack of comprehension.

Episode 23, possibly a controversial one on the topic of women, but again, hear me out. The whole group is mentally in shambles. They are desperate for any form of normalcy, and they also can't stomach pretending to be normal after what had happened. They end up finding a place to take a break in, but ultimately everyone is taking a break from each other and trying to reflect and organize themselves after the traumas. Milly reaches out to Wolfwood, she is sympathetic enough to hear him out, and not afraid or withholding her judgement in telling him how what he did was wrong, even if it was the right thing to do at the time. She listens to him, she hears him, she offers him a shoulder to cry on. Things go further, yes, they're both in grief and seeking an escape. Milly isn't one to just let others take advantage of her. She chose this, too. Meryl also cares about Wolfwood. Wolfwood cares a lot about the ladies and Vash. They're there in his paradise, his paradise isn't complete without them, and they, in turn, have lost their chance at paradise with him there. 

Episode 24 continues with the emotional devastation on the team, compounding it onto Meryl and Milly being given the truth and reality of what they're dealing with and the consequences of being close to Vash. Remember that Meryl has a huge arc for her character in opening up to others, being more emotionally honest with herself, and not repressing her wants and needs. Aided and guided by Milly, not by any romantic rush of emotions, she makes the choice that would have her be kinder to her future and past self, and that is to pursue her own wishes regardless of what others tell her to do, and that is to reach out for Vash with Milly alongside her. Milly, herself, is also grieving and hurting, but she is shown as strong and emotionally mature to not wail about the loss, but to move forward and find what she can do for the people she cares about who are still with her. Both are such strong, strong women.

Be that as it may, we do get them captured as hostages and their autonomy and safety threatened by Legato. Effectively, they are used against Vash to force his hand, not by virtue of them being women needing to be saved, but because they are Meryl and Milly. They aren't just anybody. They are the people left to Vash and the only people alive where he would pull the trigger on someone else's life for the sake of saving them. I think it also shows a lot that when Vash is trying to stop his angel arm, he thinks of all the women in his life (plus Wolfwood). He thinks of Meryl, Milly, Wolfwood, and Lina (that’s his little sister!!). It's so important here that, after having Rem mocked to his face, he makes the decision that these are two women, two people, he'd rather lose Rem's spirit than lose them forever. Rem already gave up her life to save him, his brother, and humanity. He can keep her alive in his memory for as long as he lives, but Meryl and Milly are here and alive now. and this is the culmination of all the deconstruction we have been carefully going through across the entire anime. I've said this before, but 98's scene for this is more powerful to me than trimax in the sense that Vash isn't thinking of owing someone or being tied to an obligation (don't get me wrong, i love livio & razlo and trimax and how it contextualizes this decision, but 98 is a masterpiece especially when you remember they were going off of spark notes and nothing else). Vash actively makes the decision to let go of Rem and her spirit and all he has lived by just to make sure he doesn't lose anyone else after so much loss, but especially these two individuals who have stuck by him through every single thing and never tired of him, instead they welcomed him into their hearts despite everything. This is also after Vash told Meryl everything and left, hoping they’d never go after him again. It is so much deeper than just having the heroines needing the main lead to save them. It is so, so, so much more and part of me thinks the only reason people might dismiss 98 for this is because trimax gives more bl angst fodder. 

For me 98 is stronger for framing the decision as Vash fully weighing Meryl and Milly as more important to him than keeping Rem's spirit alive. vs trimax framing it as Vash finally making a choice being due to honouring Wolfwood's sacrifice and trying to meet him half-way in their back and forths. Don't get me wrong here, both versions of this scene are extremely powerful, and let it be known that I have an LR bias (the characters, not to be confused with the 98 town of LR). I just have a preference for how Vash broke his vow in 98 because it also was purely and simply a choice. No battle. No distractions or exertions. A choice. To take one life by his own choice to spare two, or keep his hands clean and doom two lives.

Side note: I saw someone lately say that people cheered when Legato was killed in the manga. I don't know about the majority of people, but I didn't. I didn't in the manga, and I didn’t in the 98 anime. Legato dying isn't something to be celebrated, and the 98 anime and the manga very explicitly tell you it shouldn't be celebrated so idk what that was about. Both scenarios showcase how traumatic that was for literally everyone involved.

Episode 25: I have mixed feelings about this episode, but I'll get to that in a bit. From the standpoint of Meryl and Milly, I find it actually quite interesting in how they are both portrayed in this episode, and there are different ways to interpret it when you consider the horror and trauma of what they'd just survived in the last episode, and the loss of Wolfwood still weighing on them. Now they are faced with possibly losing Vash. 

To give the premise, the insurance ladies find a town to stay at and take care of Vash while he was a) unconscious for a number of days from the shock and trauma, and while he is b) recovering from said shock and trauma. The town itself is possibly the same town that the men Legato was controlling came from, because I can't think of who else would have untied Meryl and Milly and helped them out. That in itself adds a ton of levels of messiness here, and the ladies were left vulnerable to danger even after Legato’s control faded, plus the situation they're in semi forces them to be as kind and pleasing to this town as possible to stay safe. Maybe I'm assuming too many negative things about the townspeople. 

Edit: I just checked the episode summary and it says “a small town well away from LR”, so apparently they managed to get out of that situation, somehow, and get well away from there…. That kind of seems logistically not reasonable with Vash unconscious for 10 days.

I'll start with the interesting depictions here that I kind of liked. Milly gets to help and is working hard alongside all the men, showcasing how strong and powerful she is. She’s capable, she’s seen throughout the series as almost being a jack of all trades vs how her boss treats her at the office simply because she ‘arrived late’, which is such a stupid offense, and he put her on cleaning duty. What I’m trying to say is, I love that she gets to be on the same playing field as the men, I love that she seems to be happy, busy, trusted to work, depended on to work in a setting outside of her duo with Meryl. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We know Meryl (and Vash and Wolfwood) are the ones that truly see her potential and trust her. When we are shown the office boss’ attitude towards her we get the sense that she is not being treated fairly nor put up to show her full potential in a setting that standardizes expectations and what a ‘good worker’ means. In contrast, here we see her almost thriving. She’s still mourning, she’s still there with Meryl, she’s still worried about Vash, but she is able to help by being her unabashed self.

Meryl. I will admit I wasn’t too big of a fan of what was done. I’ll be the first to say that. In contrast to Milly, she’s struggling to fit in, she’s surrounded by leery men while working as a barista, she’s placed into the ‘caretaker’ role. Hear me out for a minute here, though. I’m not happy with that setting for her either, but hear me out. This isn’t the first time we see her (or Milly) working in a job of service. We know how capable and sharp both Meryl and Milly are, the show doesn’t shy away from showing us that, either, and emphasizing it. We also get to see her have that time and space to think for herself, to contemplate what they, what she went through, and what it is she wants to do. She is trying to find her path, just as much as Milly and Vash are.

Here’s the thing. This episode is subtly telling us that the ladies are done (forever or temporarily, or not at all, you can interpret it as you like, but here’s my short take) they’re done with the insurance job. They’re done with following around the stampede. They’re in this town of their own choice, of their own will, and they’re taking care of each other, they’re taking care of Vash, they’re trying to find their space in this world. The events before were, understandably, similar to a wakeup call. Any normal person would have dropped everything and walked off. They didn’t. Not entirely. They stuck together.

They're there for their friend, who just sacrificed something they know he had worked hard to keep in a world that threw every opportunity at trying to take it away from him. There is guilt, yes, because he chose to drop his lifelong ideals for them. There is so much more love. The way Meryl hurts and doesn't know how to comfort him, period, when he breaks down remembering what he'd done. And I like that. I like that she has no clue how to comfort and support him. She can feed him. She can make sure he goes through the mechanics. She doesn't force herself to talk. She doesn't force herself to be traditionally nurturing. Meryl’s character arc is learning how to be emotionally vulnerable with herself first and foremost, and meeting others halfway afterwards. She never got to meet wolfwood halfway. She nearly just died. Vash may never be the same again or recover. She wants to meet him halfway. Milly keeps telling her as much, that she should, that she shouldn't keep frozen and watch the world and life pass her by. This is important because a misogynistic writing of a main female lead would have her be miss perfect, full knowledge and control of emotional control and softness, full fledged ability to care for the wounded, endless empathy and sympathy and ability to adapt to others' needs. That's not Meryl. That's not even Milly. They are both unique, individual women, with their own personality, their own person, they have their own misgivings and failings, and their own strengths and confidence. In this episode, Meryl gets to finally connect her emotions to herself, she gets to be empathic, she gets to see others and put herself in their shoes more than before, and most importantly is she is finally able to communicate and be understood by others. She gets to finally reach others. She understands what the cycle of hate and fear can do. She wants to break it. She does. She succeeds. She successfully talks down a situation. No flashy guns. No power moves. No sweet talking. She communicates, she emotes, she gets through, and she also saves Vash in the process by giving him hope for the future, in humanity, and in himself. He wouldn't have been able to go on and face his brother without that. 

I also don't think that Meryl and Milly were used for giving Vash “man pain”. Vash was devastated for having killed another living being. This is the same Vash who begged wolfwood not to shoot a giant worm about to eat them. 

Episode 26: Rem. She’s the focal point here, to me, and this ties my arguments to the past two to three episodes. Rem haunts the narrative. Rem is a person. She influences Vash in every episode. His actions, in turn, influence others around him. They influence Meryl so much that Vash could see Rem’s spirit reflected in her actions of that moment. She literally is the embodiment of the song of humanity, she sings her Sound [of] Life and cascades it down to the world. Rem is not a fridged female character.

What is a fridged female character? I’m gonna be very broad here. Literally speaking, think of Mister Freeze’s wife, Nora, from the Batman series. Think of Singed’s daughter, Orianna, from Arcane/League of Legends. What do we know about these two ladies? Nothing? Next to nothing? They are literally female characters that are frozen within the narrative. They do not get shown to have a personality, they are not shown to be their own person. Their will, their mentality, they don’t affect the respective male character or others who are related to them. They exist as a motivation for those male characters’ actions.

All this to say, Rem is not a frozen female character. Rem is very much there, very much shaping the world we are seeing through Vash, his hopes, his actions. From episode 1. We may not know she was there, but we see how she has shaped Vash, how he makes his decisions based on her values, how he sometimes needs to take a moment to properly remember her before taking action again. She haunts the narrative. We first see her in episode 4, where we see how far Vash goes to save a life, where we see Vash seeing her in others who are also finding their way, and turning to see that life can offer them a different path. She is a guiding light not just for Vash, but for all of humanity in a metaphorical, symbolic way. She’s the power of choice, the power of freedom, the power of choosing to be kind and choosing to not stand for what is wrong. She’s also a powerful motivator for survival of the community with how her essence and message spurs on that trait in others. Humanity doesn’t need to know that Rem existed, because she is an essence that is present in all of humanity that we get to recognize and see alongside Vash and how it encourages him in a world where violence and life-loss seem to be so common.

What I love about this episode? This ending piece to this show? He honours Rem by giving her a place to rest. He is symbolically communicating that the world, humanity, the people she gave herself to save, himself and knives, whom she sacrificed everything to protect, it’s all okay now. We see, and Rem symbolically sees, though Vash, that the world understands the importance of breaking out of the cycle of hate and violence, that they understand the world needs love and acceptance to be at peace. Vash, who has been struggling for a century and almost a half with his emotions towards his brother, how many times he’d tried to convince himself that violence was the only answer, that he had to hurt him, that he had to kill, but he couldn’t. When he realizes that there is another option even for Knives, that’s when he understands. When he accepts and understands and forgives that his brother was also the cause for Rem’s death, for her last living relative’s death, for the indirect destruction of July, for the indirect scar on the moon, Augusta, for the indirect deaths of many people…. When he finds in himself and understands on his own how Rem would have forgiven him, only then he finds it in him to let her go and find his own path. He returns to Meryl and Milly. He doesn’t leave them alone. We see him happy after so much anguish and loss we go through with him in the past series of episodes. I don’t think the female characters in this episode were done badly at all.

Vash the stampede as a flirt. My friends, trigun 98 is a shounen anime from the 90s. Scratch that. It’s a shounen. You’re telling me none of you dropped My Hero Academia because that one underage character who constantly hits on women and girls and peeps and flirts and justifies his actions. For comparison, MHA ran from 2014 to 2024 and the anime is still going. Anime and manga alike under the shounen tag still run this gag. Yes, I despise it too. I despise it so much that I dropped MHA like a hot potato. I nearly dropped naruto when i was younger, if it wasn’t for the fact that the gag wasn’t used often (full transparency, I barely watched naruto, i vaguely watched shippuden, and my only media interaction with it was the manga and video games). Bleach didn’t run the gag much in the manga either, but the anime bombarded it through Kon for a while, and kept bringing him back just to remind you that it’s a shounen. I’m bringing those examples because I can’t remember other popular or recent shounen that I’ve watched. I’ve actually not interacted with any of these fandoms, just the media itself and not with any dedication or intensity. 

My point was, most manga don’t focus on the gag, but most anime do. I’m also saying I can’t stand the gag, and generally drop the show if it makes me uncomfortable. Trigun is no exception to using the gag, it’s a shounen, but the difference here is it never gave me the ick that every walking woman is treated as an object to be ogled, a damsel to be saved, or a prize to be won. Let me quickly re-dive into this here. Marianne seemed like an oggle piece. She was a cop in disguise, about to crack a case and take down a monopoly. Stefany seemed like a damsel. She learned the truth, she made her choice, she sided with what she saw was right and didn’t give up on that despite familial relations, despite that she was kidnapped. Elizabeth seemed like a prize. She was/is actually a super well established engineer who also had a near catastrophic plan to enact her revenge and justice. The manga itself never uses the gag except in the pilot chapter, which frankly was done very practically in order to get the idea approved. You go up to a shounen comic and you have one shot to get them to agree to let you write your messed up and/or deep story, what do you do? Guarantee an in, and show them what they want to see. Beyond that? Vash doesn’t disrespect a single woman in the manga. He also doesn’t disrespect any woman in the show either, by the way. Yes, he flirts. Yes, he asks random ladies out knowing full well he’d get rejected. I know the fandom excuses his behaviour as a bit. It is a bit. Vash literally only does it when he’s trying to worm himself into or out of situations by getting others to physically kick him out or not care about his presence at all, he’s not stupid. We see him switch from silly and stupid to serious and calculative in milliseconds, multiple times. The show is telling you it’s a bit. Vash never disrespects Meryl or Milly. He takes them both very seriously. What I love about the 98 early filler episodes is that they very clearly establish who Meryl and Milly are, and who Vash The Stampede really is. Vash also learns from episode 1 that Meryl and Milly are assigned by their job to follow him around. He knows it’s a business task for them. He doesn’t flirt with them, he doesn’t distract them, he tries to run away and keep away as much as possible, he never flirts with them, he never makes any unsavoury comments towards them. He even stops doing the bit. His ‘I'm dumb silly ignore me’ bit, after Monev’s attack. He was so worried about them, and saw what lengths they went to in order to protect him, and he stopped pretending around them to be someone he’s not. He doesn’t want to see them hurt, he keeps telling them to stay away. He cares and he wants them as far away from him as possible. 

Wolfwood. I read a long post of someone's review of 98 after they'd finished it, and they didn't want to articulate anything about Wolfwood, lumping him in with Vash as misogynistic beyond compare, or something to that effect, and I was so, so boggled by that. What?? Is it because he got paired with Milly? Is it because they did the bit where she pretended to be pregnant and he her husband? Is it the one night stand? All situations in which Milly was an active decision maker and decision driver??? You know Wolfwood wanted no involvement in helping the young adult kids escape. You know he would have never taken advantage of Milly, even if he was being vulnerable and a bit out of it. I'm not defending him on that point, I'm just saying I don't think Milly would let herself be taken advantage of. She doesn't hold her punches. The only transgression I can really think of is how in the bus on their first meeting he cozies up to Milly and sleeps on her shoulder. If it were me, I would have kicked him off, idk who that is. Milly could easily punch him through the bus roof. She didn't. It's also Milly, her general outlook on things and what she allows vs doesn't allow aren't exactly the norm in this world, or ours, even, but we love her. Wolfwood loves her too. Wolfwood also loves and respects Meryl. They don't get much interaction, but wolfwood never encroaches on her space or bothers her. He reads her demeanour and acts accordingly. When wolfwood thinks of his perfect paradise, his Eden, Meryl and Milly are front and center right along with Vash. Wolfwood is also a character who keeps people at arm's length, and the fact he warmed up and loved these two so much speaks volumes for his character with how standoffish he is Conclusion: In the end, I think I’m just happy that the 98 anime was written and done the way that it was. I’m glad that I wasn’t disappointed by it. I’m genuinely so happy that it has all of these 90s nostalgia without having the uncomfortableness that comes from watching an old anime with outdated thoughts and views on women and society. I think people need to look at it more critically and see how much it gives to the women in the series, in some instances it’s even more than the manga just because they had the time and space to stretch out and expand more. I hate seeing it discredited, or seeing people characterize 98 Vash and Wolfwood as “weird”. My feeling is that this is a collective reflection of people’s view on 90s anime, and not an actual analysis or conclusion from the 98 anime itself. I want people to be able to appreciate what 98 actually gave us. It’s not cheap, it’s not superficial, it’s a deconstruction on many levels, and a good interpretation of the manga and story of trigun. Everyone is of course entitled to their opinions and thoughts, I’m not out here asking anyone to love 98, I’m just asking that people stop throwing it under the bus for no reason other than that a time-era bias that doesn’t even hold true when you actually analyze the content of the anime.

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[ragnarlothcat]

I know I’m a chronic overthinker but I’ve been in the same fandom for three years or so now and I was reflecting that writing seemed so much easier when I first started out. Just looking at my output since 2021 shows a clear trend: I’ve been writing much less and it’s been taking me way longer.

I figured that I’d gotten a little burned out and that three years is a long time to focus solely on the same two guys making out and that there’s a limit to the number of situations I can put them in before I start to get bored. But I don’t think that’s quite my problem because even now, a million years later, I have ideas for dozens of fics and AUs that would be interesting to explore or funny to write.

No, it’s that I’ve let the larger fandom overwhelm me and it’s left me constantly second-guessing my writing. And I don’t mean that I’ve gotten nasty comments or asks, because I haven’t! All the other fans have been consistently wonderful and fun people with really valuable insights. And it’s not that I’ve been obsessing over stats or comments or worrying about going against popular headcanons. I mean, I’m just as excited as anyone else to see an AO3 email in my inbox but I’m also perfectly happy posting niche fics for an audience of me and my three weirdest friends.

It’s more that after so long engaging with other fans and other fics and the general meta, I’ve ended up writing too self-consciously. I’ve read so many interpretations of canon events, analyses of characterization and comparisons between fiction and real-world politics over the years, and I’ve enjoyed them because I genuinely care about these stories and these characters! I like seeing what everyone else thinks and then considering their points of view, no matter how bewildering they might seem at first.

But now it feels like I’m writing almost defensively, like I have to justify every choice I’m making based on this enormous and contradictory body of information. Three years ago I’d have written a scene in a few thousand words and moved on to the next plot point with my momentum intact. Now I’m constantly wringing my hands over things like physical details (I guess he’s not exactly a redhead) or broader social implications (is this trope misogynistic?) or finicky logistics (these locations are too far apart for this scene to make sense) or controversial character nuance (does writing this guy as a kind, doting husband make me an abuse apologist???) and the result is that I’m paralyzed with indecision and a ridiculous need to support everything I write with a lot of context that isn’t especially fun to write or, I suspect, especially fun to read.

I’m aware that this problem is entirely in my own head and that no one has asked me for any of this. And it’s not that all those questions aren’t interesting and important things to contemplate. But I miss the days of sitting down at my laptop and going “wouldn’t it be funny if these dorks played a video game together?” and then writing exactly that.

I don’t know. Were my fics better three years ago? I kind of doubt it. I’ve looked back at some of them and if nothing else I now have a better grasp of what tense I’m supposed to be using. But I definitely had more fun writing those older stories, which maybe feels more important.