#very interesting. anyways sorry for the long ramble I think too much abt these things

[scrappedtogether]

one of your posts made me remember that I used to be obsessed with riva ras regas when I was a kid because i had a crush on rufus lol

This is so valid, Anon!!! I also had a pretty big crush on him when I was a kid. I think it was a combination of his voice, his stage presence, and how sweet he was with his cat. 😂 He’s for sure one of the reasons I love Riva Ras Regas so much! You’re not alone at all, Anon!

[alciedoodles]

hi!! i saw your other post about how you simplify details and it was really helpful - was wondering if you had any tips abt drawing expressions/poses to express a story/emotions. like i saw your recent sumeru char doodles on twt and the way you draw alhaitham and hungover kaveh is so!!! ahh!! all of the lines feel really intentional, from the expressions to the fabric of the clothing and omg i love it so much. anyways sorry for rambling HAHA thank you sm for sharing your art! gl w art school 💪

Hello!

Thank you so much for the lovely words <3 it's really such a honor to hear that so many people consider my art to be very expressive, which I think is an essential skill to have for storytelling in comics!

First of all, I'd like to say this isn't something I can easily answer... you must already know there's no easy step-by-step guide on how to be "good" at art or expressions or whichever aspect you're trying to improve, the answer will always be observation and practice. However, I can tell you some of my methods I use to make sure emotions are conveyed as efficiently as possible(?). Here are the key points I always try to apply (note that these aren't rules, these are just my guiding points):

Understanding the character(s), the context, and how the two work together

Laying down a foundation

Not letting dialogue be the main driving force behind storytelling

Paneling conveys emotion too, actually

The absence of something can also convey emotion

You didn't specifically ask about comics, but since it's my favorite subject and it ties into your question, I'll be using a lot of examples from the comics I made! And it might interest other people who were curious?

VERY long post ahead :)

1. Understanding the character(s), the context, and how the two work together

This is what I think is the most fundamental part of storytelling! I mean, makes sense, right? Obviously you don't need a PhD in The Character to make stories based off them. I literally cannot tell you every detail about my favorite characters despite loving them very much, but I think understanding them and their relationships on a big-picture level is primordial. What drives them, what are their principles, what are their biggest fears, who do they make exceptions for, etc. Also, to me, understanding their relationships is sometimes more important than understanding the character at a molecular level. We can tell so much about someone just from the way they interact with specific people vs how they interact with strangers. The person I am online isn't the same I am with friends nor even with family-- like one of the reasons some characters can feel one-dimensional is because they don't show variation in their character throughout their relationships (and since you mentioned Kaveh and Alhaitham, I don't need to tell you the way both of them interact with each other is far removed from the way they interact with friends, strangers, etc... I think a lot of people forget who they are outside of their relationship, which a huge point of contention behind mischaracterization in fan works). I don't have much to say about this other than this is something I keep in mind every step of the way through.

2. Laying down a foundation

This is what the majority of my comics look like on second draft:

I said second because the first drafts usually look like this, which are barely comprehensible to anyone but myself:

The purpose of these are not only to give me a better guide for posing than whatever i did on the first draft (storyboard), but also have a first pass at motion and emotion. The expressions and gestures are legible enough that you can probably glean the emotions of each character based off the little sketches. Ultimately, some of the things I'll draft will end up adjusted, changed, expanded on or even removed.

This particular panel of Reigen is a favorite of mine, because the first pass already shows his confusion, but the final one is even more distorted because it felt like it needed to be even more accentuated.

This panel where he mansplains is also a good example, because the first pass gave him too much of an arrogant/uninterested look (notable with his upturned face), whereas Reigen is more likely to take pride in explaining something he knows to make himself look like a wise and mature figure (notable with his slight smirk and downturned face, as if nodding to himself; the hand is also slightly more forward as if inviting rather than dismissing). And since I basically made an example of it above: body language is super important! This applies for everyone. It doesn't stop at characters who make grand gestures and exaggerated poses every waking moment of their life, but also characters who are socially awkward, private, reclusive...

The posing here is intentionally stiff but not entirely closed off, giving the sense that he's earnest, tries his best to make connections , but also doesn't want to take too much space, thinking the smallest wrong move could cause trouble. Also, give room for the body to do its thing. Avoid cropping out things that shouldn't be cropped out. Leave enough room between the edges of the panel and the point of focus to emphasize what you want to emphasize. Close-up shots shouldn't be too frequent (in fact, personally I don't like doing close-up shots but it doesn't mean they're bad or shouldn't be done, again, my word isn't gospel!), especially if what you're conveying isn't too emotionally charged. Lastly, I have terrible news for people who hate drawing hands. Hands are possibly the second most expressive part of our body (if we don't count the body as a whole), so especially for your charismatic characters, you will very often want to use hands as a tool of expression.

(Think how much emotion and personality would be lost if the hands weren't there!)

3. Not letting dialogue be the main driving force behind storytelling

With my comics, I play an incredibly dangerous game called "I'll think of dialogue as I make the storyboard and then when I'm done drawing every page I'll write the dialogue over it guided solely by memory and whatever I drew". Don't do this. Have a script in hand or write it at the same time as you draft your storyboard. The reason I do this is because I'm lazy and I don't want to open a simple writing software to type down a script. Genuinely I have no other reasons. Anyway, the only advantage this gives to my comics is that they will generally be able to stand on their own without much dialogue; obviously dialogue is essential, but what I mean is that we don't need it to have a pretty accurate read on the room.

For example, if I remove all the dialogue from this page, you probably can't guess exactly what's being discussed. However, you can identify through their emotions alone that there is disbelief, bargaining, and finally a pretty devastating info was dropped. Alternatively, cutting down dialogue from your page and leaving room to expressions/body language alone can be entirely more beneficial than having any dialogue to begin with.

AKA Readers aren't stupid (some may be, but the majority can extrapolate just fine). You'll realize how much you don't need words and how your stories can be even more funny/impactful by pushing forward visual storytelling.

4. Paneling conveys emotion too, actually

Being a "good" artist isn't enough to make good comics. The way you panel things is extremely important, because it sets the tone, mood, pace, you name it. Some of the best works out there are the ones with the most care put into the flow of the comic. You need to understand how people will read it, and it starts with what order you deliver the information and how. This is paneling 101, but a page with irregularly shaped panels, multiple changing camera angles and such will be exponentially more dynamic than a page where each panel is the same size, have similar compositions and/or repetitions with little to no diagonal or curved lines of action.

The two examples above are WIPs from 2 different stories so unfortunately you'll have to make do with the rough sketches. That being said, you don't need to know the context of either pages to know the kind of emotion that should be felt through the paneling alone. Give time for the important emotions to be processed by the reader (unless it's intentionally fast-paced). Every emotion that needs to be emphasized should have its own panel.

In this example, I could easily have condensed these two panels into one by transferring the dialogue from the second into the first and jumping on to the next action. However, it would undeniably give much less impact to Kaveh's disbelief. On an inverse situation, sometimes you will want to condense two panels you made into one, because whatever those two panels are doing are perhaps not important enough to deserve separate panels! Lastly, you can notice that the space on the page is not always filled. Leaving space between each panel and/or between the edges of the page gives room for the reader to breathe and slows down the flow; and inversely, if you want to make the situation more frantic, make everything look more tight and constricted.

5. Not showing facial expressions sometimes conveys more emotion than doing so

This ties nicely to the point I made about body language. You don't need to see a character's face to know what they're going through, necessarily. Sometimes, their posture or their dialogue is enough. In my opinion, a story is more compelling when this equilibrium of facial expressions / body language / paneling / dialogue is correctly adjusted-- you will not need to have all the elements to convey the message or it could be a little overbearing. I don't have many examples for this one because they tend to be more relevant in dramatic scenarios, which I haven't done that many of.

(The first one is once again from a WIP)

And that's about it for my insane guide on comic-ing. I hope ANY of it made sense.

***

Here's a round up of extra tips, focused entirely on the drawing part which might be more of what you asked to begin with :'D

- That little line/wrinkle that adds so much character

Yall know what I'm talking about. In my opinion, too many artists are afraid of giving laugh lines/wrinkles because it makes their characters look older, except when it's to add those sexy sexy eyebags. I'm encouraging everyone to add them to their art little by little and see how much it can improve the expressiveness! Obviously, I don't use it everywhere, but it's a very effective way to make your expressions feel even more... well. expressive.

- Line of action

You've probably seen this picture going around before, from Preston Blair:

Although it's called line of action which implies action, this line is important even when the character isn't really in action.

You can gain a lot in expressiveness when you think of the body as one whole fluid instead of a sum of multiple disjointed parts. This is why drawing a very rough base comprised of only lines and circles can help figure out if the posing works before you start refining it.

On a different note, animation principles work very much in comics as well! I recommend looking up animation guides especially those that show how to make key poses.

- Shadows and/or color fill

This is one I will use quite often for different situations.

Shadows can immediately set a tone when they're used dramatically. For example, a shadow over a character's face can convey unease and/or evil intent.

On the other hand, I will use color fills for different purposes:

Differentiating ground layers

This can help with readability.

2. Conveying a certain mood

It can separate the character from the color of their background to give a sense of isolation, reflection, realization, being disconnected from their surroundings, etc...

- Don't be scared of using codes / tropes / archetypes

...As long as it benefits the narrative, of course. By codes / tropes / archetypes, I mean posing or expressions or visual effects that are universally understood and used for specific expressions. The semicircle sweatdrops and blush made with slashes are incredibly typical of manga/anime, but it doesn't mean they're bad! Visual effects are there to help remove the ambiguity of an expression considering a single expression without visual codes could convey multiple emotions!

- Find what inspires you and take notes!!!

In my case, what greatly shaped my art style to what it currently is: One Piece, the Ace Attorney series and Mob Psycho 100 (yes, I only watched the latter last year but it still managed to become a source of improvement/inspiration for my art even at my current level, because you'll never stop improving :) )

I hope this wasn't too long or too off-topic, and I hope it can also help other people who might be interested! Thank you for reading!

[subarashiihibi]

my thing about izaya is that he's so strange and weird and i love that so much. i didn't want to ramble too much in the notes of that poor person's post but i find the way he speaks and the words he chooses so interesting so let me ramble a little bit. this may or may not even be coherent so bear with me here im just going to speak my thoughts.

ok this got really fucking long and all over the 0place so im putting this under a read more sorry.

so i have volume 9 of the novel in both english and japanese. i only have two novels in japanese and that is this one and yuuyake wo. so i'm pretty crazy about this izaya speech analysis shit. anyways i was rereading thru the jp ver the other day just to compare it to the eng and i kinda realized that like.

a lot of people you can separate their speech in either formal and informal speech right? someone like shizuo speaks really informally and uses a lot of rough, dragged-out versions of words and stuff (しゃーねえ vs しょうがない) and then someone like shinra who speaks in a ton of yojijukugo and generally sounds like a nerd emoji gijinka.

izaya on the other hand rly... doesn't fit in either? i mean sure he sounds like another nerd emoji gijinka but it's kinda different. it's not so much the words he speaks but rather the intonation and his tone...

and he has his moments where he speaks pretty seriously and whatnot of course, but in general he just... doesn't sound very human when he speaks? i don't know if that's a conscious effort or not. is it his attempts at distancing himself from his own individual humanity? or is it just because he's a weird guy? i dunno. but it's interesting nonetheless.

one thing i will note though is that despite his somewhat inhuman speech patterns, it's also pretty...dramatic? to the extent where it's really exaggerated but also very cute and charming. (this part is important.)

i think a lot of what makes izaya's speech so weirdly inhuman is because he doesn't really use a lot of slang or similar lingo that people his age would typically use. i know mikado said in the novels that he doesn't really try to fit in with his age group's fashion sense either so it makes sense but still. he's like an old hag it's so funny. and it's because of that that when he says stuff like 'i don't get all hot and heavy over headless women' or whatever he said to celty it's really amusing to me because like... why is the strange man saying this?💀

another example i kinda giggled about on my twitter when i read it it's not even crazy and i sound corny and cheesy and stupid but theres this scene in vol 9 where izaya messages celty for business and hold on let me just put it as a quote.

he sounds so old saying 'video game' like 😭 idk it's just funny cause he barely even knows anything abt games like bro knows nothing im crying

in the jp hes like 「…ゲーム中なのかい？」 and then when celty tries to explain herself he says 「何を言ってるのか、良く解らないんだけど」 and im rly bad at tling parts of sentences and stuff but just know that the way he words it makes it sound like this gif to me

i love both versions i think the original jp makes him sound like hes so lost and confused (hence why pw gif cause lord that man always looks lost LMFAOOOO) and then eng tl just blunt ass "I don't know what you're talking about." makes him sound like full on hag 😭😭😭

OMFG WAIT I HAVE TO MENTION THIS FUCKING SCENE WITH SHINRA ITS SO FUNNY.

first i think it's funny the translation has izaya say fuck here cause he very rarely swears and i did read this one thing about how he only swears when his mask slips so to me this is like genuine bewilderment that he cant even hide LOL. second why is he so excited to hear about 'whatever sexual fetish' shinra has im crying he's so damn nosy . okay but this is not the funniest part let me add that now.

???

ehy the hell is izaya orihara talking about foot fetishes???😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 im crying bruh i was so flabbergasted when i read this i was like WHAT did he just say? he says it in the jp ver too which just makes it even funnier. this goes back to what i said earlier but i always get so amused when izaya has something to say about sex or whatever cause he's so fucking weird and unsettling why does he know that

(i mean i also get so hard i nearly pass out thinking about izaya tlaking about sex but thats probably just a thing with my heart condition and stuff)

oh also another scene i think is really cute and amusing and funny is back when shinra was first still trying to get izaya to form the bio club w him.

1. shinra is funny as fuck in this scene but also izaya's "Hmm. Can I punch you?" made me havbe a good laugh. in the jp he says 「んー。殴ってもいいのかな？」 which is pretty much the same thing just with the intonation of like 'hmmmmmmmmm should i hit u or not...' sorry like i said im just bad w explaining this stuff. but i felt the need to point it out not cause im one of those annoying ppl who praise the original jp ver and reject translations and localizations i just think it's important for izaya specifically cause i love him and i want to analyze his speech patterns as best as i can.

i was going thru the novel just now for other stuff i wanted to mention and i forgot abt this part but it's so funny.

'Let's not get hasty. Type calmly, please.' its not even funny or nothing i just find it so amusinf whenever he talks like that💀 i will say though the english translation kind of makes him sound more weird and inhuman than the original. that line in the original was basically just him telling her she needs to calm down enough to at least type properly LOL. idk if im just being nitpicky cause this is izaya tho so feel free to ignore that. fwiw i like the eng tl bc while it's a different intonation than the original japanese ver i think if he did speak english it would probably sound smth like that anyways.

this too made me laugh like ??? seriously he is really nosy when it comes to people's intimate affairs. in the jp ver he calls them an 'intimate couple' which just is like .. ok bro💀

does anyone else see my vision of izaya getting cucked by celty (does it count as cucking when celtys the one dating shinra) while he looks sad and pathetic and miserable that he never decided to shoot his shot w shinra back in the day

if i were commenting on the actual stuff going on in this scene rn this post would be a lot olonger and even more terribly all over the place so im just gonna focus on how i think it's funny izaya says 'easy, man...' this is like one of the only times his words are somewhat natural and sound like smth you would hear someone else say. in the jp ver it's 「おいおい…」 which is somewhat less out of left field in terms of coming from izaya but still it's pretty surprisingly normal. i have to wonder if in that moment he's too worried about shinra to care about keeping up appearances.

this is just random and me making fun of izaya as usual but why the hell does he weigh himself after his showers💀💀💀 it's cute and endearing and only adds to his strong gap moe but still... it's strange...

speaking of cute things this is from a volume i forget but he says this one phrase a couple of times and it is just both really cute and also kind of idk... saddening. one of the times i can remember he says it is when namie was making fun of him or something and he replies 'Don't tease me. I'm only human.' or something along those lines and it's like . hm. ok.

i think it's cute he says 'dont tease me' a few times cause eughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (trying to ward off severe brain damaged incoherent thoughts) but 'im only human' is like... are you really? even after you try so hard to escape your own humanity and individual self so much... im going to try and give my thoughts on it here but this is just based off my hc that izaya has bpd so yanno. im basing a lot oif this on my own experiences sorry. i do that a lot. (gestures over to all the posts i make abt fob/mychem fan izaya)

when it comes to just straight up acknowledging his humanity izaya has no problems with this because 'sure, i'm human. isn't that obvious?' is probably something along the lines of what he thinks. it's easy for him to just say that because it's just that. it's just words. it holds no real meaning and shows no true insight into how he actually perceives himself. but when it comes to actually having to come face to face with his own humanity and the fact that yes, he is only human, it's a lot more difficult because now it's out of his control. i wonder also if he has problems with perceiving his own self.

i say this a lot but i truly do believe izaya is so so so beautiful and i love him so much. also i just saw a funny post on twitter so i wanna say this here idk if yall know this but izayas actually a latina hes got chismosavirus❤ ok thats all i have to say sorry for rambling so much

[queerxqueen]

out of curiosity, what do you think the duffers could have done to help mitigate the homophobic fandom? do you just mean making byler canon earlier, or dropping heavier-handed hints/clues/foreshadowing that are harder to dismiss in the show? or are you thinking something they themselves could’ve done in real life, like actively going out of their way to support pride month or something like that?

i’m also thinking abt how the show presents itself, on several occasions, to be very anti-bullying and how it prides itself on celebrating those who might be considered losers, weirdos, and outcasts. but because this idea is never really explicitly stated or emphasized in the show, casual viewers tend to gloss over it, or miss it entirely. is this the duffer bro’s fault? is this an indication that they could have done more? done better? and do they have a moral responsibility to educate those who are intent on missing the point?

maybe! i don’t rly know how i feel. i love the show, i love byler, and i do agree that there are certain moves the duffers have made that i’m not 100% happy with. also the idea of a gay plot twist is kind of…. you know, fun, but not the best. however, i also try to keep in mind that these are two (presumably) cis straight men and so, i cut them some slack and i immensely appreciate what they’re trying to do (assuming ofc they are moving in a canon byler direction).

for them to establish two canon queer relationships in a mainstream show that i love that isn’t centered around queerness??? i could cry tears of joy just thinking abt it, and so i feel i’m more compelled to dismiss some of the mistakes the duffers make along the way.

anyway, sorry that the ask is ridiculously long (feel free to ignore it, or only address a small part of it if it’s too overwhelming!). i hope it makes sense, though it might just come off as incoherent rambling - whoops. i’m honestly just speaking recreationally lol, but i’d love to hear some more thoughts frm you on the subject if you’re willing!

Agh, thank you for the ask, I love hearing your thoughts!!!

[Re: this post]

To touch on the first/main question - what could the Duffers have done to mitigate the homophobia?

There's a lot they could have done.

Within the show, if they're intending to make Byler canon, which I do believe they are, I think that season 4 should have officially broken up Mileven and also have had an undeniably, overtly romantic moment for Byler that the GA can't miss. Even if the final cabin scene had a hand touch rather than the shoulder touch, that would have been enough for me. Because yes, to me, and you, and 250k other Bylers, it has been obvious; but for the GA and Milevens, they have purposefully left enough wiggle room to keep them on the hook. Again, I respect the straight-bait, but if they're prioritizing straight-baiting over protecting their queer fans, that's not a great look.

But to me, much more important is what they could do outside the show. While there are occasional posts about Byler on various Stranger Things social media, I feel like there is so much more that could be done to show support to the ship and its queer fans, especially if it is endgame.

They could have explicitly and overtly addressed Will's sexuality on all channels after the release of season 4 instead of leaving it to Noah Schnapp.

They could have explicitly stated in an interview that Will is an equally viable love interest for Mike as Eleven is going into season 5 instead of prioritizing shock value and spoiler avoidance over the wellbeing of their queer fans.

Most vitally, they could have acknowledged/addressed the presence of homophobic fans and bullying in the fandom and explicitly condemned hateful folks as misunderstanding the show's core values. Take for example how Rick Riordan responded to racist fans criticizing the casting for Annabeth & Grover:

"The negative comments she has received online are out of line. They need to stop. Now. Anyone can be a hero. If you don’t get that, if you’re still upset about the casting of this marvelous trio, then it doesn’t matter how many times you have read the books. You didn’t learn anything from them."

After season 4's confirmation that Will is gay, they should have made an outright statement along these lines, that hate is unacceptable and that those who are hateful are fundamentally opposed to the values of the show. Instead they (or at least, Netflix) is more preoccupied with maintaining the general audience for as long as possible, even at the expense of the often-more-dedicated queer fans.

Really though, I'm more happy about a queer relationship being canon in such a mainstream show than I am upset about the lack of support for queer fans, because ultimately, this queer relationship and representation is offering support in a lot of ways. But they're doing this while also spending years allowing some of their biggest fans to be gaslit into thinking they're "delusional" for interpreting what the show is saying.

I guess ultimately I just feel like, if they're going to engage with queer stories and queer characters, they also have to have some responsibility for mitigating the negative impact they can have on real queer fans and queer spaces.

[skitskatdacat63]

super obsessed with your art, seb looks soooooooooooo stunning!!! I am now very curious however, only if you feel like going into it, as to which other historical figures you align with which drivers?👀👀

AAAAAA tysm Grace!!!! Though I am so so so sorry for how rambly and long this post is gonna be, but you just asked me abt one of my brainrots!! I will answer your question but also talk about my history alignments and AUs in general LOL

But if I'm making comparisons of F1 drivers and historical figures, my brain kinda forces me to make it an AU because I'm like "this needs to make absolute sense historically and contextually.)

So, tbh of the four historical AUs that float around my brain, only two of them are really specifically about certain historical figures. The four are: Nandopoleon(About how Fernando reminds me of Napoleon), War of Spanish Succession(mostly about that era, but Seb and Nando are supposed to be paralleling Charles VI and Philip V), Napoleonic Hussars(which is about how , in general, Hussars = F1 drivers), and Rennaissance Muse(this just happens to take place in a different era.)

Explaining my AUs and the historical contexts(proceed with caution, its a lot)

Nandopoleon:

Okay so I'm really really am so deranged about Napoleon = Fernando, but I’ve not posted about it too much because I wanna make a well thought out post about it. But basically I think they’re similar people with similar characteristics and motivations. There was this period of time over the summer where I was only brain rotting about how well any of Napoleon’s quotes fit Fernando(with my fellow nandopoleon confidant @/sweatyflytrap haha.) Here’s some quotes as example: 

“Victory belongs to the most persevering.”

“It is not necessary to bury the truth. It is sufficient merely to delay it until no one cares.”(Piasco era lol)

“Victory is not always winning the battle…but rising every time you fall.”

“From triumph to failure is only one step.”

"A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon."(trophies y'know)

"Always carry champagne! In victory you deserve it, and in defeat you need it!"

Tell me Fernando wouldn't use these as instagram captions! TELL ME!!! But the other thing that was driving me crazy is how well excerpts from the personality/image section of Napoleone's wiki line up with testimonials from Fernando's doc. Examples:

"He cheated at cards, but repaid the losses; he had to win at everything he attempted."(Napoleon) "Whatever activity I take part in, I have this compulsion to find the compeititon in it."(Fernando)

"He could rapidly dictate a series of complex commands to his subordinates, keeping in mind where major units were expected to be at each future point, and like a chess master, 'seeing' the best plays moves ahead"(Napoleon) "When you talk to him, his mental capacity is so strong. He's talking to you, but his brain is thinking ahead"(Fernando)

Like c'mon tell me they aren't at least a bit similar??? There's a lot else I find similar about them but I cannot list my whole manifesto here skdjlsd

Anyways this AU would be Fernando as Napoleon and would be Webbonso -> Strollonso. Basically, Napoleon had two wives: his first wife, who was older than him and who he was super in love with, but had to divorce because they couldn't have kids, but he still loved her deeply. And then his second wife , who was much younger thanhim and from the Austrian royal family, and this was a politically motivated marriage but they still got on pretty well!!(also it's funny, before she married him she didn't want to be with him because the public perception of him made him out to be not the best guy, but then she wrote to her father about how loving and kind he was. very Strollonso, no?)

War of Spanish Succession:

Mostly explained it here and here. I'm not too interested in either Philip V nor Charles VI themselevs as individuals, but rather the roles they fufill in the "story." Though I will say, I got hit with a brick while reading Charles VI's wiki when finding out that he apparently had several male lovers! So I guess my AU having an arranged m/m marriage isn't even that far off the mark hahaha. Why did they have a 13 year war, they should have just arranged a marriage between the two canidates sigh sigh. But yeah, mostly Austria vs. Spain, I think it fits well with the Vettonso rivalry!! They would end up being: Fernando I King of Spain and Sebastian I Holy Roman Emperor hehe. Also I sketched some more:

Napoleonic Hussars:

Explained here as well as with art, and more art here. I'm really still proud of the points I made, I just feel very ardently about it!!! Not about any specific figure, but rather a historical group that I think lines up extremely well with F1 drivers. But this one is fun cause I can kinda insert any driver into it and they'll work pretty well. It's fun to figure out what kingdom what driver would be, either based off their nationality or the nationality of their team. I remember vividly staring at a map from this era trying to figure out where Maranello would be....But like Renault = Kingdom of France and RBR = Kingdom of Austria, and stuff like that

Rennaisance Muse:

Mostly just this post, I've not thought about this one incredibly deeply. Mostly just brainrot about how I think Seb looks like The David with his curly hair

[anemoflower]

HI PHIA 🥺🥺🥺 I HOPE IM NOT TOO LATE TO SEND ABT SOPHELIAS and i would love to hear you answer for both if you can spare the time 💚💚 ANYWAYS can i have 3, 6 and 11!!!! heheh

↳ self insert lore ask game

HELLO JIL sorry this is so late but THANKS SO MUCH! I just noticed you also sent another ask with also 10 mentioned, so I'll answer that too if you don't mind! HEHE I CAN ANSWER FOR BOTH!! I think this will be quite long so the answers are below the cut :3

3. how do the other characters generally feel about your self insert?

I haven't thought much about other “canon” characters in this universe yet, so I'll just answer this for people in general :>

Sophie - Other people, except close friends, don't really notice her at first as she's very timid and quiet. Sometimes she's overwhelmed by social interactions and gives just short replies, which make her seem a bit arrogant to others. BUT SHE'S NOT. She's a very kind soul if you get to know her well enough!! Her friends love her for her creativity and often ask her for advice or just reach out to her to listen to their rambles.

Elias - Most people like Elias a lot due to his friendly aura and confidence. He's the kind of person to go to, when you have problems, need advice, etc. (... They are the problem solver couple now aren't they) He's also pretty cool to "nerd" with about different fandoms (discussing theories, sharing interests etc.)

6. does your self insert have any pets?

Sophie's parents had a lot of cats, when she was still living with them! (like... 5 in total) I think I mentioned once that Elias was never really allowed to have a pet with his parents. But since he's together with Sophie they think about to get themself a cat or a bird maybe.

11. what kind of outfit(s) does your self insert wear?

Sophie: (there's alot of things she likes to wear)

Two pieces like a top and off-shoulder/loose shirt over it - comfy sweaters - leggings again bc comfy - medium length dresses & hoodie dresses - blouses - coats - shirts with nerd motives - always a choker on & other necklaces - high top sneakers or these boots in the pic (I don't know what they're called in english) Most of her clothes are black but she also loves colorful & cute themed clothes with di.sney or po.kemon theme :3

Elias:

Ripped jeans - flannel shirts - jeans jacket - band shirts - accessoires like wrist bands and buttons on his clothes - just because I found this just now when looking for images, I think he would "pimp" his shoes by drawing silly doodles on them (mostly something sp.ider-m.an themed I think bc he thinks it's cool)

10. how do the other characters feel about your self insert and f/o’s relationship?

Sophie's mother loves Elias and is very very happy that her daughter finally found a nice guy like him <3 Elias' co-worker (name to follow) who knew about his crush on Sophie was the one who pushed him to her to finally start a conversation. (and he fully supports their relationship) I... I can't think of more people at the moment tbh hfdgklsdj

[sorroute]

aaaa hii!! idk how to do this but could i get a tbhk matchup? a lil bit abt me is:

my names banny, but my nicknames are bans or beans lol

my gender is female, and i'd prefer to get a male matchup

i'm very impulsive and spontaneous. like i blurt stuff out of nowhere mid-sentence, hop topics like nobody's business, and make random changes in my life on a whim like dying my hair or getting a bird

im generally a total dork LMAO like my favorite movie is scott pilgrim vs the world, i love horror movies and games, i play zelda chronically, one of my all time favorite bands is weezer, and my room is literally a dungeon of trinkets and posters!!!!

i love nature and animals, especially birds and rodents. sometimes ill pick up random spiders from outside and bring them inside, or put two different bugs together in a jar and watch them.

i wanna major in russian lit for college, and/or go to film school. im a total freak for english and literature, until i have to any essay or read any required books for school, and then i DESPISE every aspect of it

im very indecisive, and i tend to procrastinate a lot. i have adhd and literally debilitating anxiety, so my head is basically a cesspool of thoughts🙏 i have a habit of collecting things i dont need, and i have a very flip flop fashion style. like i'll be goth one day and then butch the next LMAO but i literally only wear the crustiest pair of timberlands like everywhere

i also have very dark and niche humor. ill call myself a siltmaxxed mulchpilled soilcel and then wonder why nobody gets it 😭😭

thats all, im so sorry if this too rambly, and no pressure to do it😭 tysm!

Aaaa hihi!! ^_^ Honestly it was a bit hard to pick someone to match you with but then that thing in cartoons where the lightbulb pops over their head when someone gets an idea and I was like "omg !!! Wait !!! Tsuchigomori !!!!"

Tsuchigomori

I feel like, despite your differences, you guys would get along really well :3

He wouldn't mind when you randomly blurt stuff out, he thinks it's cute and likes how you speak your mind

He does get worried about you though

Tries to talk you out of doing some stupid shit

Although, honestly I feel like he'd be all for you dying your hair

(as long as you're sure you want to)

I mean.... Have you seen this guy's hair

No WAY that's all natural

Dork X dork real

He has no video game experience whatsoever and is honestly not interested in them at all

He does like how passionate you are about that stuff though <3

He's definitely a classical music type of guy

Or heavy metal maybe...

Anyways, not a big Weezer fan, but would listen to them for you if you put it on

Another trinket collector !!! :3

He's often find little trinkets for your collection or buy things relating to your interests just because he loves how excited you get ^^

Would love to see your trinket collection some time

He admires your love for nature alot <3

Sometimes he gets worried you'll try to lock him in a jar though

He's seen some shit 💀

In terms of literature, obviously, he's all for it

He probably has a ton of different books in different languages so if you ever wanted to start learning Russian literature early he's got you covered ;3

Would be happy to teach you about anything you'd like in terms of literature

Probably much more knowledgeable in English and Japanese literature, but he's a big nerd so I wouldn't be surprised if he's dabbled in other languages as well

In terms of film school..........

He can't help you

Besides getting you some books about film theory and stuff

He's not a fan of procrastination, he prefers to just get things done quickly so he doesn't have to do them later

That doesn't mean he doesn't get it, though

He's a teacher, of course he's dealt with procrastination before

With himself and students probably

Will try to encourage you to get your work done, and gives some advice on coping skills you could try

He's a bit harsh sometimes, but he just wants what's best for you </3

Very maternal in that regard

He definitely has anxiety as well, so y'all are struggling together

Will read up on some coping mechanisms for anxiety and tries to get you to use some, but won't force you

Surprisingly, he does like how spontaneous you are

It keeps him guessing as usually he can read people like a book

He doesn't get all of your different styles, but does enjoy them

He's a fashionista so he appreciates the variety

He 100% tries to get you new shoes though

Probably has nightmares about your shoes

Purposefully avoids looking at your feet because he can't bear to look at them

(sorry for the slander anon 😭)

(he can't help it, he's a princess)

Likes your dark humor, but is also very worried

Understandably so

Will do daily check ins with you to see how you're feeling

Teacher, doctor, therapist, librarian, fashionista, AND princess??????

You got the whole package tbh

Anyway, all in all, he loves you alot- despite your differences <33333333

All he asks is that you don't trap him in a jar and that you get new shoes

A/N

Honestly this was really fun to write :3 Also a ZELDA ENTHUSIAST????? AND LITERATURE NERD??? You're amazing mwah mwah ໒꒰ྀི´ ˘ ` ꒱ྀིა Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed this !! You seem so cool ໒꒰ྀི >ヮ<꒱ྀི১ Any feedback or constructive criticism is always appreciated<33 ^^

(Sorry for the shoes slander again btw </3)

[hanafubukki]

okay Hana i am here to tell you abt my twst self ships :3

preface is that you’ll have to forgive me for any mistakes as far as lore and timelines because i am still fairly new to the game (been playing since June!) and i and still working things out ofc but that’s all the fun about self shipping right? is changing things up and tweaking things hehe

also for a bit of background i don’t go by the Yuu/prefect story in my au hdhfhf ~ but instead my self insert a princess who has sunshine magic from a small kingdom that neighbors Briar Valley and i have know Malleus and the other Diasomnia crew for awhile <3

also ofc for me NRC is a legit college LMFAO and i share this au with a few friends where we all go to the school together which is a ton of fun for talking abt our self ships and adventures and lore !

⭐️ Leona, Malleus, and Silver are my main f/o’s

in my ss with Silver, he actually starts out as my bodyguard while im attending NRC per Mal’s request and we get closer and fall in love that way 🥹 he was actually the reason i started playing Twst !! he is very much so special to me

with Mal it’s essentially “childhood” friends to lovers aka ive known him since i was younger and we rekindle our friendship upon me coming to NRC and he’s happy to see me again and from there we rekindle our friendship and fall in love (he has loved me for a long time and was patiently waiting for me sobs)

with Leona he was at one time betrothed to a friend of mine who is also a princess and they didn’t want that (but they’re obviously just friends now) and he and i meet and it’s very sunshine x grumpy! he denies his romantic feelings, we bicker, and there’s a kiss in the rain and etc heh

⭐️ Idia and Trey are my “not my usual type but i fell for them anyway” f/o’s idk i just….LSJFBCHFH i want them lmfao (the Obey Me Leviathan to Idia pipeline….so true)

⭐️ and then my BABIES aka my platonic f/o’s who are my besties or sibling types are Deuce, Jack, Kalim, and Cater hehe <33

there’s like….a billion more things i could write tbh i am constantly talking abt them and adding/taking away things and thinking about scenarios with them! UGHH Hana i love them haha sorry for rambling on so much ;w;

Hello Gray 🌻🌷🌺

Yesss, definitely! The fun part of self shipping is that there’s no rules, only that you have fun ☺️💞

Welcome! I hope you are enjoying the fandom Gray 🌷🌻 I’m happy you have friends that you can share your thoughts with, it’s so much fun when you can talk to others about it. ☺️💞💚

A Yume with sunshine powers??? Yessss I adore it greatly. (Yume = self-ship character) I have a weakness for those types of characters.

That’s so sweet!! Princess and knight romance my beloved!! And you know that Silver would treat your yume sweetly and would court her properly and it would be so sweet. I’m calling them the wholesome couple 💞💞

Childhood friends to lovers!!!! Yes yes yes yes!!!! I love this trope, it’s one of my favorites. Especially since malleus has always wanted someone to love him and get to know him and ahhhh you two are so sweet 🥹

Oh Gray you’re using all my fave tropes in your yume, kiss in the rain??? Hell yes!!! I can see the “no one can touch them” 🫶🫶

THE LEVI TO IDIA PIPELINE IS SO TRUE!!! I’m shaking your hand, yessss I know how you feel. I also like idia too and part of it is because of my softness to Levi.

Trey is wonderful, who doesn’t want someone who can bake?? Domestic husband for the princess ☺️💞💞

Oooo wonderful platonic babies 🙌 they all are so so good. I can see how deuce and jack would get along with you (school mates??), but what about cater?? Did your yume know kalim?? From travels or something?

Please! Don’t be sorry. I would love to hear about them. They all sound wonderful and interesting.🌻🌷 please ramble away ☺️🌺

[cubedmango]

hi!! i just wanted to let you know that i started reading cherry magic in july last year after seeing the anime announced on toyota-sensei's twitter! i couldn't even rlly translate the announcement myself without the help of google translate LMAO but her illustration of them looked so sweet i had to snoop around. more than half a year later. i am no longer normal and my brain is fully rotted over and i think of those two nearly every waking moment!! your art, along with so many others feeds me and your translations are So Appreciated thank you for doing gods work. i usually don't get super involved in fandom or w/e other than consuming fanart or fics so the fact i find myself actually drawing them is so new to me...idk cherry magic really is so refreshing and it's just nice as an adult to see a mature relationship between two working adults. there are callbacks to childhood or childlike behaviors or interests sprinkled throughout the manga's dialogue and i always appreciated how they weren't seen as embarrassing or immature to embrace or learn from as an adult, but encouraged or seen as a valuable part of balancing work, life, and love. idk it's def one of the more subtle and less expanded upon parts of it but i love how adachi's and kurosawa's love of manga, though seen as a children's activity (from how kurosawa thought people saw it) was actually one of their first mutual hobbies. it's also interesting to see how many things about kurosawa's psyche are remnants of ideas probably for a lack of better wording, were taught to him from an early age. his self-image, how he tries to uphold certain societal standards, etc etc. im glad he found refuge in adachi that way. im sorry for rambling for so long but i've just been thinking about these two so much ldks

anon pls u never have to apologize for rambling abt my fav guys of all time, u should actually talk w me about them more i want to hear ur thoughts !! the eng speaking fandom isnt that big (or at least i dont get to interact w a lot of ppl personally) but its fun making art and doing the translations for my blorbos so im happy other ppl enjoy it too 🥺

and yess everything u said abt the childlike/immature stuff krdc enjoy like the fact that their interest in manga and stuff is never made fun of or anything (which would be ironic anyway since theyre In a manga themselves fdkjskf) but actually one of the things that gets them closer is So good augh?? (also spoilers for the radio drama if u havent seen it yet, but to me one of the best changes they made was changing the port scenes setting to an anime con instead like Yeah!! theyre little nerd guys of course theyd attend a con!!!! that plus how they both like watching animated movies and playing games too like its a very specific thing to Me but that relatability w stuff i do myself makes them both feel a lot more human? if that makes sense)

also w kurosawas whole deal its Definitely a longterm thing hes had for a while, and in canon its mostly been his friendships/relationships that affected him (probs the most clear in ch45 my beloved) but from the way the meeting w his parents went theres for sure a lot of parental/family pressure involved too?? this is going into hc territory but i have like a whole Thing brewing in my head about kurosawas and maris relations w their parents and how that affected their self image and all growing up too and i rlly wanna make stuff for it someday (idk if anyone would be interested but id probably do it regardless so fkdjksjfk)

[yannysifgen]

Hiya! :-D I've been meaning to reach out w some questions and finally decided to commit!!! ;v;

Idk if it's stated anywhere, but I'm curious what inspired the concept of the game? And what made you choose Lucien as his name bc it fits him so well <3

I'm also really curious abt the original plot of Rosalind's Lie, how much of in-game lore do we get to see? Or is it only mentioned in passing here and there? Just the idea of a game's storyline (RL) inside another game's storyline (IITAOAYD) intrigues me a lot

Sorry for the long ask ;v;!

Hii!! Thanks so much for reaching out! If you think your ask is long then wait till you read this answer haha... But on that note it's totally fine, I absolutely love reading any and all ramblings because I'm a rambler myself (it's the adhd) and like to consume new knowledge, even if I can't actually retain all of it :') (btw I love Mychael and can't wait to see what you do with the rest of the game aaa)

Honestly, the idea just kinda came out of nowhere one day (my brain does that) because of the recent(?) boom in yandere games, I was thinking what kind of yandere I might make and just thought of a concept where mc might be isekai'd into the yan's garden and he kind of immediately gets attached because they're 'untainted' by the world and other people and wants to keep it that way.

I should mention that I'm a fan of isekai genre in general because it's such a self-indulgent escape from our boring mundane lives, a kind of fresh start that a lot of people wish they had access to. Ironically though, I prefer the isekais that are more focused on living a new life as opposed to getting op powers and making waves in the world

Back to the topic, didn't really think too seriously on it till I saw the yanjam announcement and decided why not. Then I decided to add the reincarnation/otome isekai tropes into the mix to make it more interesting, except that mc is themselves and not another character. So stories like "My next life as a Villainess: All roads lead to doom!" and "Death is the only ending for the Villainess" (I promise it's two different things) come to mind for inspirations.

The game will lightly parody these popular tropes, which is why if Lucien looks like every other 'Duke of the North' with his red eyes and black hair(but less buff as I'd like because drawing men is an ongoing struggle for me) then it's on purpose. His name....... well it's honestly embarrassing but it really just comes from angel/demon inspo while talking it out with a friend, since Dukes are mostly portrayed as 'monsters' in comparison to the angelic Prince or so, when in reality it's the other way around. So its kinda like Lucifer...Lucien... yeah, not very creative but I also wanted a name that could be turned into a cute nickname(Lucy) so I decided to roll with it.

Since I gave such a specific name like "Rosalind's Lie" for the og game, I do intend to flesh out the story at some point, though for now I only have rough concepts because I'm terrible at planning lore I'm so sorry. But that somehow didn't stop me from being ambitious with it because I'm weird like that. Anyways, Rosalind's Lie is named so because the titular character Rosalind kicks off her relationships with the eligible bachelors through lies. As for why, it's because she was born in the slums and orphaned at a young age, and had only herself to rely on to survive. Thanks to that she's very street-smart and cunning, and by chance she caught the attention of a kind Baron who decides to adopt her. He was nice enough, but not very smart or ambitious, which she felt was a waste, so she decides to make her own fortune in life and marry rich - she's really more like a villainess than a heroine lol but basically she encapsulates both roles. Her "lie" in Lucien's route is basically her nicking his brooch during a ball and pretending she found it and returns it to him, which prompts him to invite her for lunch or something as thanks. And then she plans various other small schemes because he's notoriously hard to get a hold of but eventually starts liking him for real.

I'm actually not sure how much of the og lore I'll involve in yanduke, other than mc occasionally making some callbacks when they're reminded of something, because mc is isekai'd before the plot of the game starts this time, which is ofc heavily derailed and non-existent by then thanks to our yan.

Sorry for the late reply, I actually had to knock around the old noggin to articulate an answer, but again, questions like these are always welcome because it actually helps me formulate some plot points too!

[missingn000]

HI IT’S ME AGAIN

Anyway!! to continue from my comment:

i have a huge weakness for descriptive writing and you nail (pun possibly intended, you’re welcome) it every single time with your delightful use of figurative language. something in particular that i found really interesting was the diction of injury in association with tokyo tower - it’s undoubtedly a sight nobara’s dreamt of seeing her whole life, but higuruma’s perception of the very same view is, by comparison, jarringly bleak.

okay wait i’m sorry for rambling about one (1) minute detail about what was probably meant to be a character study 💀 i love love LOVED the contrast between nobara’s hellbent insistence on self agency and yuuta’s hesitation to disobey getou’s will!! both of them want to be loved, which is of course normal for children (especially ones as criminally neglected as they are), but where yuuta embraces being saved, nobara is looking for something slightly… different. she’s never been a damsel in distress and never will be; instead she seeks “to be loved so much” that she’s “something to fight for.” absolutely banger line btw, it hit me right in the feels. IRONICALLY THOUGH higuruma has already done that!!! and intends to continue to do so!!! bc every interaction is a fight of some sort to win her approval! hell, their very first one was higuruma deciding that going against geto was worth it if it meant nobara lives to see another day, sooo……

“That’s none of your business” being the comeback Nobara defaults to is very intriguing considering… well… what the sheriff from her village said in response to Higuruma’s probing- “That’s our business.” seems like the village rubbed off on her a bit, huh. not to mention it feeds into her unyielding independence too: “it’s none of your business” -> “i can handle this on my own” -> proving both to herself and an invisible entity that she’s worth loving, goddammit

ok omg one last thing. dyou think the reason behind nobara’s decisiveness is the lack of stability (for the lack of a better term) in her life?? making her own decisions was the only way she could ever gain a modicum of control over her surroundings and that’s why she confuses support (which she never had to begin with, and would therefore be unable to recognise) for people trying to wrest her agency from her, which she would of course resist

I do apologise if literally none of this is correct because I don’t. actually know a lot abt Nobara and Higuruma’s characters or paid attention to them in canon until you worked your magic as usual LOL

Thanks for reading & have a good day!!

HI OH MY GOD I LOVE YOUR ANALYSES?? no need to apologize, they're right on the nose! with regards to yuuta and nobara, i really wanted to highlight the stark contrast between how they view getou and higuruma, respectively. to others in random chats, i've described it like this: nobara doesn't want to listen to anything her father figure says, while yuuta has a hard time doing anything but.

while yuuta and nobara were both shunned by others, they had completely different responses to it. nobara fought back against the villagers' judgmental words and isolated herself willingly, while yuuta is a people pleaser who just wants to be given love, no matter who it's from. and ahh you're right, higuruma is fighting for nobara -- she just can't see it, and he barely even realizes it himself. these two have such a long way to go

it's cool that you caught nobara's "that's none of your business" vs the sherrif's "that's our business" because it was totally intentional :D i think nobara's decisiveness does stem from a lack of stability, and a lack of overall control of her circumstances. since she's a child, she couldn't choose to just leave the village or take care of herself, so she clung to the little agency she did have and made snap decisions with little forethought, because too much rumination could lead to choices being made for her, which was not an option to her.

also you're making me ;__; i'm so honored reading my work has made you interested in these characters!! hyper-analyzing them made me more attached to them too lol

[linawritestwst]

hiiii congrats on 1k! i'd like to request a matchup please~

i go by she/they pronouns. aside from playing games and watching anime, i like reading books, specifically YA romance novels since im basic XD one of my main hobbies include experimenting w coffee beans too. (i've been obsessed with them since the pandemic started that i can probably make a 2 hr presentation on the history of coffee lmao jk) ANYWAY, i dont really know much abt my personality outside of personality types: i'm an infp, type 9w1 enneagram which is like being the peacemaker in a friend group bc i dont like confrontation lol. with that, i usually look assertiveness and decisiveness for a partner bc i cant have someone whos passive and agreeable as me HSHDHDHSJ but ofc, them being selfish is a whole diff thing. im usually the listener since im not good at making conversations and ppl find it easy to open up to me (prob bc i dont talk in the first place AHDHSHDHHS). but it would be good if my partner can hold up a conversation for us or at least let me feel comfortable to them that i can actually ramble and talk a lot :) my love language is giving gifts bc i think its nice to see something and immediately think of ur loved one like thats so cute!!

also, im okay with anyone from any dorm aside from the first years since theyre still a bit young~ i hope this is not too vague and too long. thank you so much and i hope more readers can find your writings!

hi, thank you so much for your kind words and i hope you like your matchup!!

also i'm so sorry for being so slow with matchups, i have exams coming up and i have to study a lot 😔😔

the character that i think would be a good partner for you is..

rook hunt!

i'll explain why i chose him:

this guy wouldn't think you're basic at all! everything about you is special to him and even if most people think your interests are "boring", he says that there's something beautiful about you liking popular things. come on, you like romance novels, that's so cute! he would be very curious to hear about your experiments with coffee beans as well and you can tell him everything you know about them, he will listen and he will genuinely find it extremely interesting. and your passion about this topic makes it even more beautiful for him.

rook would admire you being the peacemaker, because it means that you're a kind and caring person and it makes you even more beautiful in his eyes. you're already perfect to him, but if you want to become more confident, he would be glad to help! though he can also just be there in case you need someone to make a decision for you or someone who's not as passive.. but this man also can easily go "all of these look/sound nice <3" when you have to choose something, so.. good luck with that.

rook doesn't mind doing all the talking, since.. you know. he talks a lot. however, he would love to hear your thoughts and opinions more often, so in case you need to talk to him about something, he's all ears! he will react to everything you say and he will express his own thoughts about these topics as well, but he will try his best not to interrupt you and if he does, please forgive him, he gets very excited when he's able to spend time with you like this and get to know you better. he would love the gifts you give him too, the fact that you saw something and it reminded you of him warms his heart and makes him so happy!

[coredrill]

the ttgl movies are very fun and i’m glad they exist but i gotta say they really give me SUCH a deeper appreciation for rossiu as a character (who like. i already love lmao) because they trim down his character arc. and like i get it, it’s out of runtime necessity so there’s really no way around it, but he adds SO MUCH to ttgl as a whole and i feel its absence when watching the movies

uh the rest of this post is under a cut bc my rambling got too long 😅 tw for discussion of ep23 if ya wanna read the rest!!

on the off chance someone clicked on this without knowing anything abt ttgl, or forgetting which ep is 23, the tw is for attempted suicide. anyways!

i’m gonna start w ep5 cause it really does start there lmao. obviously it’s good worldbuilding — in that it shows yet another underground village and the ways it’s similar to and different from jiha and littner — but i think the most valuable overall takeaway from that ep is its foreshadowing. it’s the “one million apes” population cap on an intimate scale, and by centering rossiu in both conflicts, he’s shown what happens when humanity DOESN’T move forward. it just spins, and becomes a circle instead of a spiral, creating this repeating cycle of suffering (which is even mentioned in some of the episodes’ beginning narrations!!).

also very important abt ep5 is that it breaks rossiu’s faith in two. literally, towards the end of the episode he says to father magin “i’m sorry, but i no longer believe.” and ofc it’s a triumphant moment, because magin’s been raising him on complete horseshit. but in the world of ttgl? where believing is literally strength? “believe in the kamina who believes in you, believe in the you who believes in yourself”? OF COURSE it’s gonna have some repercussions lmao.

and i think part of that is HOW his faith was broken!! a LOT of ep5 relies on how kamina Does Not Vibe with adai village whatsoever. the entire way of life is incompatible with his own view of the world, so he handles it the only way he knows — by being LOUD and abrasive abt it lmao. and like, yeah!!! father magin IS being a controlling tyrant!!! but something i find so interesting is that in the very next episode (the cut down version w all the flashbacks to adai) simon expresses a LOT of sympathy for rossiu. he points out that it’s not like rossiu would be able to go to the surface all on his own; simon & co had to lead him up there. he even says “if i had been born there, i think i could’ve turned out a lot like rossiu.”

kamina handles things in adai village in his own way — with overzealous and sometimes toxic machismo. and that harshness straight up shatters rossiu’s ability to hold onto Belief and Faith as Concepts, i think. they’re collateral damage in the process of breaking him out of adai’s ACTUAL shitty views. whereas simon, who defines his masculinity by rooting it in gentleness and love, potentially could’ve let rossiu down more softly, and allowed him to still Believe in an abstract way if not in this made up religion. it always just makes me think abt how it might’ve gone had simon had the confidence and sureness that he has at the end of the show, and was able to speak up while at adai. like, imagine how much pain could’ve been avoided if rossiu had just believed in simon the whole time!

because… it IS simon’s love that saves rossiu in the end!! the first half of the first timeskip is just the situation getting worse and worse for rossiu, and him handling it worse and worse because he can’t have faith in simon and his drill anymore. because he’s just not capable of that!!! and so eventually, when he sees that belief DOES work and it actually would’ve (and did!!) save them all, and that he very nearly doomed all of humanity because he — IN HIS OWN WORDS!!!! — “no longer believes”, it breaks him. how can Believing both be dumb and illogical and ultimately mean nothing like it did in adai village, and have the power to save humanity at the same time? hence why he decides he needs to “atone” for what he’s done… and why he, raised in adai village, which had some pretty fucked up notions about how precious life is, came to the conclusion that “atone” means that he needs to end his own life.

……and then simon rips the universe apart with his drill for the FIRST TIME EVER to SAVE ROSSIU!!!!!!!!!!! and that. THAT. that FINALLY allows rossiu to believe again, and to have faith in simon!!!!! simon says “your atonement was me punching you in the face and i need you in order to save humanity” but there is so much love between them in that scene and it finally finally FINALLY snaps rossiu out of it. FINALLY, only with the help of simon’s love-powered-masculinity, is rossiu able to get any kind of faith back.

and that’s!!!!! why!!!! it’s SO IMPORTANT in the final episode, when the antispiral is attacking tengen toppa gurren lagann with a literal big bang, and all of their spiral gauges are falling, that the shot cuts to rossiu on earth. because yeah, by the end of the show, simon DOES believe in himself!! but he also still draws strength from others’ belief in him, too. it’s not the only thing keeping him held up, as it was before kamina’s death, but it’s still a support he can lean on. and in this last moment, when simon needs support the most, ROSSIU IS THE KEY!!!! he looks to the sky with the most determined expression and says “it’s bad, but it’ll take a lot more than this to finish them” and that one sentence works twofold!!! for rossiu, it’s the end of his arc — he finally fucking believes again, and it actually pays off this time around. he’s demonstrating that he finally found his faith again, and it’s in the people around him, and that’s enough to save humanity. and for simon!!! simon is receiving strength from the belief of the one person who’s always held out on him, and that extra strength allows him to fight back and WIN. and it’s fucking awesome!!!

and like, yeah i get it. the movies have to condense 26eps into 4 hours, so obviously some nuance is gonna get lost. but it really is a shame, because i personally think rossiu as a character is like, INTEGRAL to the thesis of ttgl, and makes simon a much stronger character by acting as a foil and as a friend. and basically i am so happy to be posting online abt ttgl in 2022 when it’s entirely irrelevant bc i can SAY ALL OF THIS and no one cares LMAO. i just lov him so much <3

[mushroomwriter]

(pt 1) "Atleast we can suffer together!" lol true! Gosh, that line (and tbh that whole scene with Sergio and Martín murders me of FEELS)... it's just so angsty cause it's not even the fact Andrés died, but he was also sick and Sergio knew that and he still never truly considered the possibility of his brother dying :(

BTW, what headcanon for the hermanos backstory do you subscribe to? I'm not sure when you first started the show, but I watched the show back when s3 was just released and in those days everyone subbed to the hc that they were half brothers, and there was this interview where Alvaro mentioned even more headcanons abt the bros (they shared a father, who abandoned Andrés for Sergio & his mom, then after he died Andrés appears on the scene and tells Sergio he is his brother, took care of him for medical treatment etc)... of course, 2 years later s5 seemingly retconned all that and just made them normal full(?) brothers growing up in the same household with both parents which I didn't appreciate very much lol. Anyway, just asking you that because some of my thoughts about the hermanos are influenced by my thoughts about their childhood - especially if Andrés raised Sergio as a kid, it makes everything so much more WORSE and heartbreaking cause of course he'd have grown up thinking his older brother is invincible almost, right? Interested to know what you think!!

(pt 2) Yeah all but one of my exams are done with... meh I've been pretty miserable but thank you for all your kind wishes! You're so right, if Andrés just mentioning Sergio makes us feel things, I can't even imagine what a whole scene with them together again would do!! I miss Sergio too 🥲 Once again, feel free to take your time and wait for the inspo, I actually came across an angsty quote that might fit the Scene that shall not be Named and since you love pain, I will tell you. "I wanted to fall down right there but I knew you wouldn't catch me because you're dead." - Richard Siken. Don't think about how as Andrés fell, Sergio was also falling in Helsinki's arms. (Also please don't feel like I'm forcing you to make a gifset with the quote or anything, I'm sorry if it comes across that way I just wanted to share for the #hermanos angst) I have no words for your next para but just. yes. I agree with everything you said. I will never get over the fact he literally tried to run back into the (idk how many metres long) tunnel himself despite knowing the police were on the other side and it would almost definitely lead to capture but Sergio was willing to risk all that just to get his brother to safety :( (pt 3) "When they're together, they're a big brother and a little brother" I knowww 🥺🥺 it makes me so SOFT. I'm with Andrés, how can you possibly eat breakfast when the world's most precious hermanito is not there yet? That scene when he wakes up Sergio is so sweet, Sergio looks so adorable and just the fond amusement Andrés has when he picks up the book "did you stay up late studying again" and how gentle he is when waking him up, Sergio also does not startle in the slightest, in that small moment you can see how familiar they are, how much they both love and trust each other, your honour I LOVE THEM!! Ah the Toledo house always makes me think how they spent those 5 months pretending to be strangers, I mean you can't tell me that Sergio was also not taking every excuse he can to spend more time with his brother (it's DEFINITELY to discuss important plans with the heist Captain!) but I like to imagine Sergio also took care of Andrés in secret, helping him with the meds and stuff... despite everything, Andrés did have a clock running out and they both knew it :( On another sidenote, I've been wanting to write a oneshot of the bros in Toledo since like 2020 but I never got around to it LOL so thank you once again for letting me ramble abt the heist brothers to you Oh god yes, those lyrics truly come straight for the heart and make Sergio's grief infinitely worse! Awww I'm glad you enjoy my thoughts (and I hope you haven't regretted your invitation yet) Haha, you should probably put this one under a cut too, how do these things always get so long??? Truly the hermanos live rent free in my head... but you're right it's great the Range of thoughts they give us from sheer tragedy to happy little childhood memories asdfjsk. YES IT'S THE CUTEST EVER and Alvaro plays it so well :') Comfort scene of all time to me <3 No, thank you for your patience and just being so lovely!! As always, it gives me so much serotonin to talk with you abt the heist bros ❤ Have a great day/week whenever you see this!! (also I hope you got all 3 parts, my wifi is being so weird rn 😭 I can't imagine how confusing it would be to get only 1 half or someth, anyway. pls ask me to resend if tumblr did in fact disappear an ask)

So true (that scene really leaves me on the floor suffering!!)... he knew and yet... at the very least he was convinced they were going to have time after the heist (the scene where he's giving instructions to the other band members about where they'll live etc. always gets me because he was supposed to go somewhere with Andrés...)

About the hermanos' childhood, I feel like I'm an outlier there 😅 because I learned of that headcanon later, I don't remember exactly when, for sure after watching season 3, and season 3 gave me the impression they were full brothers, because I think we get scenes where Andrés refers to their mother and to their father in a way that made me go, okay, so they share both parents. You know, the scene where he tells Sergio he's got mom's disease and the scene where he asks him where did dad go wrong when he robbed the bank... So when after that I saw that interview I didn't really embrace (? I don't know how to say that lol) the half-brothers headcanon because the show had already given me another impression. On the other hand, I immediately accepted the idea of Andrés bringing Sergio to Russia where he got the cures he needed (also because lol that's a point they never clarified in the show, right? How he ended up healing). That said, I really like the potential and implications of the half-brothers headcanon too... like, for example, as you said, Andrés basically raising Sergio. I think you can kinda work that into the full-brothers scenario as well, though maybe not quite at the same level, because if their parents already had trouble with medical expenses for Sergio when they both were there, once their mother was alone I imagine she really had to bury herself into work, which left Andrés in a position to really have to take care of Sergio... also as I mentioned I believe he was the one who found that hospital in Russia where Sergio could be cured, and found a (probably not very legal) way to take him there and so on... and at this point I like to play with both options and confront them and see like, okay, in half-brothers scenario Andrés probably resented their mother for abandoning him while in full-brothers scenario he ended up resenting her because she couldn't take proper care of them and (probably especially) because she failed to come up with a way to save Sergio's life, Andrés had to take matters into his own hands. And I think it's super interesting that he doesn't end up resenting Sergio (which I think he could have easily done in both scenarios! Like, in half-brothers scenario because he was abandoned for him, and in full-brothers scenario I have to imagine his unhealthy little brother received a lot more attentions!) One thing I think we get more intensely in the half-brothers scenario is that taking care of Sergio is really a Choice, like he really didn't have to and still!

Oh, and regardless of scenarios, I really love the idea of Andrés being the one who ultimately saved Sergio's life, it's possible that at some point doctors in their hometown were a bit resigned about him not making it but Andrés was like NO. And he did save him! I bet he's ferociously proud of that, and maybe it's another think that makes him feel especially protective of his hermanito (and makes Sergio feel like Andrés can do ANYTHING).

I see, at least you're almost done... ugh, I'm so sorry, I get it... I hope once you get rid of that last one too you'll feel a bit better... Gosh, I would probably never ever stop screaming if we get a new hermanos scene! And HOLY HELL, that quote fits the whole thing so well, I feel sick! Literally literally Sergio falling but he's not falling in his brother's arms, his brother isn't there anymore... no, absolutely, don't worry, it goes without saying that I appreciate the #hermanos angst, and suggestions about quotes that could fit them are always welcomed (I mean, as of right now I wouldn't know how to make a gifset with it but maybe by turning it over and over in my head I'll get an idea...)!! Also, I actually got inspiration for a gifset about them, finally!!! from another Richard Siken's quote, no less (he was really writing about them lmao), like I'm still not completely sure of which scenes to use, but I do have an idea, I hope it'll work :D

Oh god that's true. Oh man he really tried to run into that tunnel, no matter how crazy that was... I cry!!

It's trueee, that scene where Andrés wakes Sergio up OVERFLOWS with familiarity, it's so clear it's not the first time he had to wake his little brother up after he stayed up late to study and had to pick up some book Sergio left lying around... he's so fondly amused!! Please and now I'm smiling so much at the idea of Sergio coming up with Very Important Topics He Needs to Discuss with The Heist Captain... and I wonder how many times they were the last ones left in a room (a mere coincidence, of course!)... and yeah, I bet Sergio also played the Finding Many Small Ways To Take Care Of You game, this is making me emotional! Hehe I'm happy I gave you the chance to talk about these things, if you ever get around to write that please let me know (if you want to of course)

I definitely don't regret my invitation, when I saw your new messages I was like yessss! Oh right, at this point the ability to put things under a cut is my friend sjsjsjsk but I feel you, I can't get them out of my head!!

Don't mention it!! Talking with you about the hermanos is such a serotonine boost, and honestly I very much needed that, the last few weeks have been pretty tiring! Thank you, I hope you do too, despite that accursed exam! Please take care! (Also as you can see all three parts made it safely to my inbox, thankfully!)

[genderqueeradrien]

same anon as earlier hi! something else i think is interesting is how mlb as a show views sacrifice and selfishness.

adrien agreste is incredibly selfless to harming degrees. getting killed as a hero. getting pushed around as a civilian. everything around what's best for him is decided by someone else. he has very few moments in the actual show where he's allowed to make the snap decision to be anything other than a self sacrificing doll. and this leads to harm of people other than him, too, like with how he decided to deal with lila. compared with marinette, who, time and time again has made selfish decisions that lead to harm in more direct ways.

but the thing is that neither of these traits are shown to be inherently bad by the show, which is SO fucking rare. marinette sacrifices more as a civilian, adrien sacrifices more as a hero. and they both have an excess of (respectively) selfishness and selflessness. THATS treated as wrong. its incredibly refreshing to see some kind of media that says "thinking only about yourself is wrong, but thinking only about others is wrong, too."

anyways i think a lot about the themes of balance in the show, creation and destruction are central but arent the only way that the show uses balance to compare and contrast characters and situations

sorry for rambling lol ! >u<

do not ever be sorry for rambling i love it. and god youre so right. like adrien is so self sacrificial and doesnt seem to care abt himself as much as he should- like my man has essentially killed himself (as chat noir) in front of ladybug multiple times to save her without understanding why that might be super upsetting for her. i think part of that comes from his insecurities abt not being needed or necessary which- to be fair. the ladybug miraculous is fundamentally necessary to defeat akumas. but weve seen time and time again that she cant defeat them without chat noir. like when he was cat walker and she couldnt figure out what to do with her lucky charm bc she needed the real chat noir. and adrien gave up his miraculous bc he didnt feel it was necessary and he thought she'd work better with someone else and. agghhhh it makes me so insane. hes always compromising and sacrificing and giving things for others and like . man its just so SAD. & im hoping he'll like. figure out his self worth anf that thinking abt himself is okay actually in later seasons but with the way kids shows work hes probably like. metatextually doomed to that pattern of behaviour for at least several more seasons if not forever<3

and marinette i feel tends to do more selfish things when shes emotional and not thinking thru her actions, & then realizes her mistakes and has to fix them later, but when shes thinking thru what she does before she does it shes also very selfless (but not to the worrying extent that adrien is). like all the times where shes making insane plans to try to stop chloe/lila/kagami in the earlier seasons/whoever from talking to adrien, or when tikki has to stop her from using being ladybug for personal reasons, giving adrien the snake miraculous (and accidentally locking him in a 5 minute long time loop for months tho she couldnt have known he was fucking crazyinsane in love with her lol) when luka was the one who needed to use it, all the times shes tried to expose lila.. its all in this like. rush of emotion and when she stops to go Hey. what if i actually did not do that . shes able to realize her mistakes and fix them and learn from them (until she also is doomed to repeat this forever due to being trapped in a kids cartoon lol)

though she also does show a similar tendency to adrien when she tries to take on being guardian and handing out miraculouses etc on her own when she is FOURTEEN YEARS OLD(!!!!!!!!!) and has geometry homework to worry about. bestie . bff. girlie. u do not have to do this alone !!!!!! u literally have a partner to help u please learn to accept help u r not burdening people u r not endangering them i prommy

[noxtivagus]

Lune I just talked abt milgram to my friend and now she's off to her tutor SO PLEASE DON'T MIND ME RAMBLING ABT THEM TO YOU!?2)3)2)4)2 anyways on your post one of your tags “you cant really vote based solely on moral and values” AND THAT HITS A LOT the best example is yuno on her second trail!!! spoilers if you havent listened/read abt it but yuno says there that she thinks that our (viewers) sense of rigthousness is pathwtic and that she doesnt want us to vote her innocwnt based on our morality and values. she thinks we are only giving her half-baked justice and that we are only looking at their thru rose-tinted glasses. she's very much self-aware of her actions.

I CANT REALLT SAY ANYTHING BUT KOTOKO but mu.. for mu i actually relate to her on a personal level But i wont be talking abt her since you dont agree with her! but if you want to hear what i have to say abt mu, feel free to give me the go sign!!! ANYWYAS FUUTA SO FUUTA YEAH FUUTA OH MY GOD SO ABT HIM!!! he has a heavily misguided ego and has huge hero complex and has this tough guy act so yeah! maybe a facade of looking like the hero!! pair it up with his strong sense of justice, fuuta thinks everything he did is right or like maybe and it makes it worse bcs social media adds more fuel to the fire which makes fuuta blinded by his own heroic sense. he was voted guilty in his first trial bcs if people haven't then he would be blinded by his ego and thinks that what he did was right. milgram was a place where he could taste his own medicine and that he could know that his actions cannot or may not be justified. out of all, he has the chance of redeeming himself but he needs to let go of his ego first and learn to hold his temper. he doesnt feel guilt for his victim bcs he thinks he did nothing wrong and that he is not guitly.

OH MY GOD I WILL REPLY TO YOUR OTHER ASKS LATER OH MY GOD IM SO SO SORRY I JUST NEEDED IT OUT OF MY HEAD 😭😭😭😭 BUT YEAJ PLEASE DO HAVE A NICE DAH AHEADKAKFKWKDKE AHHHH IM SUCH A MESS RN FORGIVE ME

HI YORI IT'S SO NICE SEEING YOU HEHE DWDW RAMBLE AS MUCH AS YOU WANT!!!?!?! >:3 my reply got rather long oh dear i'll put it all under cut SORRY FOR RAMBLING HDFKASDJLF I'M A MESS RN BUT🫶🏼

"you cant really vote based solely on moral and values",, YEAH WITH YUNO AA oh my hehe i really. really like how self-aware it is it's really interesting to see ahhh all the characters in milgram r so interesting!!!!!! hdfjalksdf thinking about what you said n yeah personally n. you mentioned you too & apollo thinks the same n majority does as well that yuno's innocent w abortion n all but it's just. so interesting thinking of what wld happen to her?? after this trial ><

ON KOTOKO AA IIRC. THEY'RE V SPECIAL TO YOU RIGHT I'M SORRY HDKJAFLKSD ngl for as critical as i may be at times i genuinely find all the characters in milgram interesting n. KOTOKO IS STILL COOL /gen n she's so interesting honestly but.. the violence 😭😭 i'd love to hear you ramble about her too if ever you want !???! genuinely i wldn't mind at all hehe (just. saying in case you wna ramble bcs genuinely i wldn't mind at all i'd love to hear actually what any of the charas mean to you or wtvr ><)

MU 🥺 i don't know how to say this so honestly i'm just gna be blunt n straight-forward about it rn SORRY IF EVER HDFLKSJDAFL but i understand you! i saw your twitter & :( WAIT GENUINELY I DON'T KNOW HOW TO GO ABOUT SAYING THIS but i really do understand /gen n honestly i'm probably critical n conflicted on mu's character bcs i relate to her as well to a certain extent.. & oh my god i'm rambling but i myself know well the. "villain" thing & feeling like a monster,, no one ever deserves that t_t ngl i'm worried about like. the direction she took in those previews n all after the first trial. honestly aside from like yuno who i personally think with abortion and all really is innocent and i don't think that counts as murder, the rest of the prisoners are all guilty in some way with some sort of "murder" yeah and they're also victims too. i THINK at least.. i'm not the most knowledgeable yet >.> so with mu it's really sad honestly; i think her "high pride" as mentioned though iirc is just something that hmmm stands out to me especially personally. as well as. i'm not updated with stuff like the voice dramas and all but.. personally i think it just makes me rather sad w the uhh preview for her trial 2 songs bcs i doubt she hasn't made her own mistakes as well but the 'i didnt do anything wrong' things :< we all have our faults & we all can move past them but the certain sort of lack of self-awareness that i feel from her development into trial 2 personally makes me a bit sad but i find her character interesting on a personal level >.>

i really just rambled w that aaaa with that said though hehe feel free to go on! i genuinely would really love to hear what you'd say on her character hehe bcs my mind is a mess oh my god n your insights help make it clearer N GENERALLY I AGREE V MUCH!!!! so go ahead <3

FUUTA! FUUTA! HDJFLASKJDFD iirc i remember seeing you mention once i think to apollo that he's also one of your favs!?!?! ON TWT.... ON THAT BTW SORRY FOR THE SPAM I LIKE MY FRIENDS' POSTS A LOT 😭😭 THAT SAID THOUGH! YOU'RE SO RIGHT. ty hehe hearing that cleared my head on it, i very much agree! fr he definitely has a good chance of redeeming himself. guilty first trial definitely i do think that was for the best, i hope this trial by being forgiven, maybe he can forgive himself,, ? (rambling a bit again but sometimes when i see people's reasoning for voting fuuta & by extent kotoko n honestly other characters it just rubs me off the wrong way when they really only look at the surface 😔 i find it really interesting though thinking of how it really reflects on the audience) next though on milgram! yeah! milgram for him is like. fuuta used to judge others n now he's the one being judged (something like that) n it's really. interesting yeah really just milgram is so intriguing oh my god. this has gotten really long >.>

NWNW AT ALL YORI THAT'S ABSOLUTELY ALRIGHT ITS OKAY <33 JUST REMEMBER TO TAKE CARE OKIE 🫶🏼 I'M GETTING TO THIS SO LATE HKFJADLS i saw it like when i was rambling earlier BUT MY. ATTENTION SPAN HFKJASDLF SORRY 😭😭😭😭 genuinely tho dw fr NO RUSH! N I'M A MESS TOO c: I HOPE YOU HAD A NICE DAY N SLEEP WELL ( ´ ˘ `)/♡