#which from his perspective is a pretty serious betrayal

[daydreamerdrew]

Iron Man (1968) #50

[rweiser]

You're not wrong at all, becoming a sorcerer is knowing that you will die in the process of protecting others. Which is also why sukuna is the strongest sorcerer in history because he doesn't care about others at all. He only cares about himself.

The loneliness and isolation that come with unparalleled strength is one of the major themes of the manga, and while people usually only examine it in terms of Gojo’s development, they don’t really extend it far enough to the other characters imo. There’s this idea presented that being the strongest means being alone as no one can understand what it’s like to have such great power. It’s spelled out pretty clearly with Gojo’s situation how isolated he feels within society as there really isn’t anyone who gets close to matching his strength, which is what makes his relationship with Geto so much more devastating; Geto was the closest to reaching the same heights as Gojo and tried to understand him, but ultimately these things were proven false with Geto’s subsequent betrayal. This reinforced Gojo’s loneliness as the strongest, and influenced parts of his later teachings, evident in the interaction with Megumi where he says something to the effect of “even if you’re surrounded by others, when you die, you die alone.”

And it’s this loneliness of being the strongest that makes Gojo find commonality with Sukuna. Sukuna is considered the strongest in history, paralleling Gojo as the strongest in the modern era. In addition, we’ve learned that Sukuna was born unwanted and as such likely faced isolation from birth, further exacerbated by his extreme strength. These factors combined with the overvalue of strength in jujutsu during the Golden Age likely informed a belief that individual strength is all that matters, and that strength can only be achieved alone and without the risk of others dragging you down, which is the mindset that Sukuna carries with him even as he incarnates as a cursed object. We see just how warped Sukuna’s perspectives on relationships are when he discusses love with others, deciding that others show their love by challenging/defeating you, and in turn you show love to others by defeating them (or however he put it; I don’t remember exactly). And without a figure to challenge his perspectives while still a sorcerer (like Gojo had with Geto), his beliefs became all the more extreme and all the more isolating.

And now we see that extreme strength and isolation be challenged by the ideals of our main protagonist, Yuuji Itadori. In the very beginning, Yuuji receives a “curse” from his grandpa to help others and to die surrounded by people, not alone like his grandpa would. Right away, you can understand that it’s a complete contradiction to the realities of jujutsu sorcery as demonstrated by the pinnacles of sorcery (Gojo and Sukuna). Yuuji has had to rely heavily on his allies throughout the series because he had yet to develop his personal strength, and now that he’s really come into his own, he still works with others rather than relying only on his own strength—definitely not like Sukuna.

And that’s what makes the current arc so important to that overall theme of strength bringing isolation. While Gojo had been a sort of catalyst in challenging this idea with his attempts at raising strong sorcerers who could stand on his level, it’s Yuuji who’s really driving the point home now. For Yuuji shouldn’t have been a challenge for Sukuna; in the beginning of this arc, he really didn’t capture Sukuna’s interest the way other challengers had. And yet now Yuuji is posing a serious threat not only to Sukuna’s physical wellbeing, but also to his very ideals of individual strength. I don’t want to go too far down the “power of friendship” rabbit hole, but in Yuuji’s case, that’s sort of what it is. Yuuji is strong not because he has shed his bonds in favour of individual strength, but because he’s been willing to create bonds with several others and use those bonds to fuel his strength. And even though he has had many allies fall on the battlefield, their sacrifices aren’t nearly as pointless as some fans make them out to be. For while they may not be present in body on the battlefield anymore, they’re not necessarily out of the fight; they have helped shape Yuuji in irreversible ways, have all contributed to his unprecedented growth in jujutsu. In this way, Yuuji’s strength is the culmination of all the bonds he’s created—has become something more than the sum of its parts. And it’s no wonder Sukuna is so affected by this turns of events; after all, one of those parts comes from Sukuna’s very own soul. Fighting Yuuji now must be like looking in some sort of distorted mirror.

So yeah, I understand why people are upset by their faves dying. But rather than resorting to that knee-jerk reaction of spreading extreme hate when things don’t go the way you want, I think it’s more important to examine why the author decided to kill them off, what effect their death has on the overall message of the story. Because at the end of the day, it really is just a story, a way to get a message across—maybe about the world around us, or maybe even about ourselves. We do ourselves a disservice if we don’t examine it.

[streetslost]

something i haven't touched on really... partially due to inactivity but mainly due to the fact i'm singleship so like. this only would come up when plotting with amber around the time cat and scott first start falling for each other...

since i revamped cat's experience in juvie, she now has literally no positive relation to being in love since she was a child and had her puppy crush on scott ( which only like... partially counts because she was like nine ). her original relationship with vinnie wasn't healthy by any stretch, but she at least felt positive about it until he revealed his betrayal. but she doesn't have this in my revamped version. she's never really had a proper crush, never really kissed or interacted with people in any sort of romantic inclination and then had pretty much a terrible relationship with love and care otherwise.

her experiences ( with love in general, not just romantic love ) now are limited to the puppy crush, amy and jon's affections ( which she doesn't believe were lasting or real and that they gave her up ), margie's maternal but misplaced care, flint and tinderbox's protectiveness, rissa's obsession, vinnie's "friendship", and hackett's... uh. well. he's not real love.

so while scott, amy, and jon were actually positive, cat's long since come to believe they have moved on from her, forgotten her, and would never actually want her. even despite the juvie visits, because she spurned those and had been convinced by margie they left her. margie did care for her but... it was ultimately bad for her because she used cat for her own purpose and lied and trapped her essentially. margie saved as well as doomed her.

flint was a casual friendship. he and cat enjoyed each other's company in a sibling-like way but he has long since moved on with his life.

tinderbox/sweetie is about the only positive remaining experience because sweetie and her crew did want to help cat and were honestly good to her. but cat's prior experiences had tainted her too much by this point and she ended up walking away from what could have at least been a safe haven for her.

rissa, vinnie, and hackett are different levels of disgusting and rotten.

so what i'm getting at is cat is extremely detached from feelings of love and affection. her memories and experiences with them are vastly negative to the point she shies away from true assistance or connection. it makes her relationship with scott all the more rocky when they first reunite, and makes it challenging for her to feel comfortable becoming a true couple with him. it takes time and patience for her to adapt to what love should feel like, what being cared for and lasting should be. she has to remind herself of how sweetie regarded her but open herself up to the vulnerability of truly giving it a chance to be cared for rather than running from it.

her lack of experience with kissing only makes her feel more awkward and nervous about engaging... especially given scott's had a handful of girlfriends by the time they start growing serious. she gets a mass amount of ridicule and hate by his fans for some time because she doesn't seem to reciprocate his feelings from their perspective, not being as touchy or kissy or outwardly affectionate. it takes many many months if not years for her to be more public in her behaviors, most reserved for when the two of them are alone, and even that takes her a time to grow accustomed and comfortable with. but scott displays patiences and helps her ease into what love should feel like and exploring being in that kind of relationship can be.

[melissak2802]

Why do I love The Seven Dials Mystery more than the similar in many aspects and slightly more well-known Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

(CAREFUL, hints of the villains' identities ahead)

These novels do indeed have many similarities: they both belong to Dame Agatha's early adventure mysteries, they are full of humour, they have a cute hero couple consisting of a dashing girl and calmer humble boy and a villain couple consisting of a charming rascal and a pseudo-gentle damsel. They were even adapted to film by same filmmakers one immediately after the other and had some same actors involved.

I do enjoy Why Didn't They Ask Evans? too, it's good fun, but there are several reasons why I have warmer feelings for The Seven Dials Mystery:

First. Besides being fun, The Seven Dials Mystery also gave some good serious potential you don't realize immediately. The story of the victims and why they died turns out to be surprisingly realistic, a story of romanticized adventure dreams of inexperienced youth meeting harsher reality and betrayal. The main investigation by the central heroes also takes an unexpectedly realistic tone to the end, and has dramatic potential. The novel does a very good job at deconstructing spy novel cliches. Why Didn't They Ask Evans? doesn't have such a layer.

Second. The mystery itself. In SDM the solution turns everything on its head while making perfect sense, Dame Agatha even does one of her special tricks of letting us see glimpses of the main villain's (and occasionally their ally's) thoughts and perspectives and sincere conversations between them while making the wording so ambiguous that a naive reader sees nothing when it's just under their nose. In WDTAE, the identity of at least one of the villains is pretty clear almost from the start even to the characters until they get briefly distracted with a false lead, and there's no such play with POV snippets and ambiguous dialogue.

Third. The heroes' motivation. In SDM, they actually have stakes to be involved - Bill was close friends with the victims, Bundle gets pulled into it by fate strongly when the first death happens in her house, the second literally in her arms, and she gets hold on really important information about both (and the victims are connected to her friend/household circle). In WDTAE, Bobby witnesses a death of a stranger but becomes actually involved into anything when an attempt at his life is made (for no good reason, he wouldn't be able to prove anything actually incriminating to the villains at this point, meaning they just dug their own graves) and Frankie is in it mostly out of curiosity.

Fourth. The heroes' narrative. In SDM, we see most of things from Bundle's POV, and Bill stays in background because he's narratively supposed to, he has much more important information than we are allowed to know at the start, which plays a crucial role in the culmination, and in the final he finally is able to tell his part of the story. In WDTAE, we have focus on both heroes' adventures, but if I recall right we aren't allowed in Frankie's thoughts, only Bobby's. (I once encountered a fan work/alternative analysis where Frankie is the villain's accomplice instead of the canon one, and I couldn't help but noticing I can't really prove otherwise... For reasons described in the next paragraph too)

Fifth. The main romance. Bundle and Bill, just like Bobby and Frankie, are childhood friends who develop romantic feelings for each other during the story. But Bundle and Bill kind of... feel more natural? There's Bundle's slight prickling of jealousy when Bill seems to be infatuated with other women (he actually isn't) but she still finds him adorable even if mildly annoyed at his "silliness", Bill being indignant and protective when Bundle is courted by an elderly arrogant official (whom she absolutely doesn't like), Bill adoring Bundle and being afraid to confess for low self-esteem reasons and confessing when emotional during the final. In WDTAE, the ship is externally complicated with the heroes crushing on other people, who just so turn out to be the villains, as well as stereotypes for "attractiveness to the other gender" (a Charming Bad Boy and a Damsel In Distress). The chemistry the heroes have to the alternative love interests looks in fact so genuine that - if those two weren't secretly evil, would the heroes come to romantically like each other? Especially considering that the alternative LIs seem to develop/expand out of the stereotypes, the guy "showing a caring side for his family", the girl "showing a brave side" (yes after all it was all an act, but if it wasn't? They would have no issues becoming healthy couples with the heroes)

Sixth. The villains' romance. The villain couple from SDM genuinely are devoted to each other, while those from WDTAE betray each other without an issue in the end. Also, in SDM they actively interact on screen and have their dynamics shown, while in WDTAE they don't. And like I already said the SDM villains are more defined as individuals due to their POVs being shown at times, which WDTAE doesn't do.

Seventh. The suspension of disbelief. The SDM story while having its minor holes is not that implausible. Plot-relevant coincidences happen mostly to start a plotline, not to resolve it. But WDTAE relies on coincidences a bit too much. Especially when there's a tense scene where the heroes are captured by one of the villains and escape due to... right, incredible coincidence. During my first read I was hoping that Bobby's friend happened to be there not accidentally, that like Bill from SDM he's smarter than he looks and was having their backs secretly the entire time - but nope. It was literally a non-foreshadowed accident with no dramatic/character potential. And this isn't the first incredible coincidence that could be easily avoided (the attempt to poison Bobby failing because he turned out to have incredible natural immunity to the poison? Even in the modern film adaptation they did better by simply having him vomit the poison).

Eighth. The humour. In addition to humouristic scenes and dialogues with the central characters (Bundle, Jimmy and Bill and occasionally Superintendent Battle's irony), SDM has a lot of colourful and fun supporting characters written in best traditions of English humour (Lord Caterham, the Cootes, Rupert Bateman, George Lomax, Socks Daventry, the gardener at the Chimneys, Jimmy's manservant, Bundle's aunt). WDTAE has humour mostly in the protagonist dialogue (plus Roger), two small scenes of protagonists talking to their fathers in the early chapters, and some situational comedy when Bobby inquires Sylvia's acquaintance when impersonating a lawyer, and I think that's it. Not going to say WDTAE did it bad, it did pretty good, but the SDM humour feels to me more... nuanced? And more diverse?

Overall, in my opinion, SDM does everything that WDTAE does but does it better, and does more than the latter.

[tazmiilly]

Hello, hope you’re having a great day!!

What are your thoughts on a yound Fiddleford meeting young Stan? Maybe Portal-era (before Fidds starts getting concerned bout the project)? Or maybe while Ford&Fidds were still in college? I really don’t know how exactly any of those would go, but I’d frankly sell my soul to know what those two’s dynamic would be like. The potential!

so if we're looking at a timeline that stays mostly canonically accurate, i personally don't think its very likely the two would've met up. (Unless if you're talking about an idea that takes a large step away from canon at some point. Then you have a lot more options there to make things happen!)

The entire possibility of fiddleford and stan meeting up that soon is completely up to ford. which means its almost entirely out the window if you wanted to stay close to canon LOL.

In college we can assume ford was very closed up about stan and what happened, so fiddleford had very little information about who stan was or what his intentions may have been (especially that it was an accident). You can try to think of it from fiddlefords perspective too. Imagine if your best friend approaches you about a topic you can tell affects them greatly. if they tell you they feel like they were betrayed and hurt by someone close to them, one of the last things you'll probably tell them is "you should try talking to him again". you are likely going to be biased towards your friend after all. most people are. so i think in a mostly canonical sense things would've been at a stalemate between ford and stan in the 70s.

you mentioned specifically the part of the timeline where fiddleford wasn't concerned about the project and i think for a similar reason nothing would've transpired. the only difference is that ford probably talks about stan in a serious way even LESS than he did right after the separation. and the family that probably takes precedent in fiddlefords mind at this point in his life is his own.

now! i do think that if there ever was a chance it could happen it could only happen after ford and fiddleford had hit the brink. but theres a lot of "ifs" there. but they're possible! bc like i said, fords gotta be the person to initiate contact. which in canon, was only fords last resort. I have no idea what it would’ve taken for stan to say something first. I feel like he didnt want to appear desperate. he wanted to make his family proud first, prove to them he could do it on his own (even though he was kicked out as a child..) but anyways, if we’re talking about them all 3 possibly being in the same room in 1982, either fiddleford and stanford would’ve had to made up before stan arrived or! stan and ford would've had to made up soon enough to not push ford through the portal and for ford to try to reach out to fiddleford again (since we know he tried once, maybe stan could help him with that the next time? probably.) either way the only way i could see them all 3 being in the same room is post fords betrayal by bill. I just dont think ford would’ve reached out.which is a shame bc i think their dynamic would’ve been pretty funny and every once in a while i like to draw all 3 of them, but i have no idea how they would’ve gotten to that point lol.

months back i did try drawing those ideas on how fiddleford would’ve been approached (usually by stan) so ford and fiddleford could start talking about what the hell was going on, but they were all just ideas, nothing solid, and they both took place post betrayal.(x) (x) (x)

Which once again sucks bc it would be so funny to have a dynamic thats like (stan)<- likes to pester ford (fiddleford)<-ALSO likes to pester ford. thats funny stuff. I think they’d easily get along imo but the odds are not likely on them knowing each other that early.

(edit: one other thing i forgot to point out was that i know some people think that in the parallel universe stan actually comes back to gravity falls to work with the both of them at some point! which i think is a nicer outlook on the dimension given what we know, but i havent thought much about that. its very intriguing to me and kinda nice to think about stan ending up somewhere nice in that dimension. but that is outside the timeline window you mentioned.)

basically tldr: ive spent a LOT of time thinking about it and as much as the dynamic wouldve been fun, i cant see it happening quite that early. fords too stubborn for that.

[lookbluesoup]

3. By contrast, what was the moment that first made their ~heart~ Soft for the other person? Not necessarily a conscious realization of “I love this person,” but a moment that had them like “Oh…I adore them…”

7. Do they (or would they) pursue the other character’s affection, and if so, how? Do they tell the other character how they feel? Try to earn their admiration? Woo them with romantic gestures? Flirt with them, skillfully or otherwise?

For Lyrha, with love <3

Thank youuuu :D <3

3. What was the moment that first made their ~heart~ Soft for the other person

There's a few moments like this for Lyrha. A big one is, of course, the first time they sleep together. She was already pretty attracted to him at that point, but X'rhun is gentle and attentive to her in a way she's never had before, which totally changes her perspective on what intimacy with another person can mean. While it might sound a little cliche to say the sex did it... for Lyrha, sex had always been a tool to protect herself. An act of giving something of herself away. It was a really big deal for her to realize that there was someone out there who would take her needs into account too, even when he didn't have to.

It shatters one of the last holdouts in her mind that everyone is selfish and in it for themselves, and helps her realize X'rhun really is the honorable man he claims to be.

And hilariously(?) the tenderness scares her so much she actually retreats from him for a while. She doesn't think he reciprocates any stronger feelings and doesn't know how to handle her own. She's never been in love before.

For the most part I suspect it kind of sneaks up on X'rhun. Having someone to travel with, banter with, fight beside... someone who stays. Though he always had hopes for her as an apprentice, he wasn't really looking for an attachment. But Lyrha is,,, sticky. And got herself gobbed up in his heart anyway.

I do think a particularly significant moment for him - and honestly, Lyrha, too - is the fight against Lambard. When X'rhun is badly injured and tries to tell Lyrha and Arya to flee... there's this Moment.

X'rhun is objectively a better fighter than Lyrha at this point, and she knows it. And Lambard's still strong thanks to his voidsent powers, something Lyrha is terrified of. His fight isn't with her. She could leave. She could bargain. In her old life, she'd probably have tried to ally herself with him because he was the stronger figure, and it made no sense to make herself his enemy.

But that means leaving X'rhun to die.

X'rhun... expects to die. He realizes he can't bring his rival to justice and despite spending decades with the pain of Lambard's betrayal, he doesn't cling to it. His only hope left is to protect his companions. He doesn't want to lose them, the way he lost his friends before.

And for Lyrha it's not even a serious consideration to flee. She's scared. She knows it's foolish. But she steps in between Lambard and X'rhun with ears pinned, sword drawn, and growls. It is entirely in defiance of her old life, a blatant pledge of loyalty to Red Magic. She'll fight for X'rhun.

And as horrifying as it is to X'rhun to watch her and Arya face his great enemy while helpless to aid them, seeing her choose that secures a place for her in his heart that no hell or high water could dislodge.

---

7. Do they pursue the other character’s affection, and if so, how?

This kind of ties in with the first one - but Lyrha soliciting X'rhun for sex was actually partly an attempt to foster attachment in him. Her body was a "gift" she was giving in gratitude for all he'd done for her, and in the back of her mind she felt that if she could give him physical satisfaction, he'd be less likely to leave her behind.

And when he blows her out the water with it (because X'rhun doesn't just take, he gives back) she realizes there's a lot she doesn't know, doesn't understand, and that is terrifying. She's no longer confident in her ability to please him, because he isn't like any man she's been with before. Sex had been her trump card.

So there's a lot of... Lyrha learning the difference between ingratiating herself to someone to have protection, and being in a relationship built on mutual affection and care. A huge element of her story is this very realization, growing in the ways that she wants and reasons she pursues someone's affection.

But overall they're both very good at flirtatious banter. And when they finally have a good sit down and actually talk about their feelings, it's... difficult, they've both got baggage, but extremely sincere.

And though X'rhun initially tries to keep some emotional distance, Lyrha's energetic attitude indeed pulls him in. He'll dance with her, bring her gifts (including one extremely temperamental Vochstein), and isn't afraid to get a little handsy. She gives as good as she gets.

For Lyrha, her determination to stay by his side no matter what is the greatest declaration she could ever offer, and he knows it.

---

Development Questions for Couples

[unohanabbygirl]

‼️‼️‼️‼️Please be warned this topic can be triggering!!! Please read something else if this topic is triggering or upsetting towards anyone‼️‼️‼️.

⛔️⚠️‼️Warning……….Triggering topic……

FMN Discussion…….Sensitive topic………

You gave us a hint that Luke may be using again in the near future and as to what type of narcotics they might be?

While you mentioned that acid won’t be his top choice, I think perhaps milk of the poppy (heroin), thus far it seems like the one drug that he might feel keeps the voices and memories in his head away. The temptation to hit Baela stash of medication is another possibility so opioid addiction another likely one. Your portrayal of Luke’s high is very descriptive and pretty spot on when it comes to individuals who have dealt with addiction or when they feel the need to use again. Most authors I’ve read don’t do a well enough job in taking the reader into the protagonist mind. Glad that you are sensitive about the subject because like many addicts drugs becomes a physical need that the body demands and there is a lot of shame, denial, that comes with it. So Luke’s psychology of how he views himself is tragic but very spot on to how many addicts view themselves which leads to an endless cycle of using again. How Luke’s family deals with the fallout will be the real tick though. Sometimes all the love in the world isn’t enough to save the person from the hole but how he comes out of it is something that I like forward to seeing you develop. This is a great story and one I’m truly invested in on an emotional level because of the difficult topics. It could have easily turned into a modern parody but you’ve taken each character and made them look inside themselves and develop.

Some films that portray addiction realistically, Again very sensitive subject don’t recommend if it can be triggering for some people.

Basketball diaries (Leonardo decaprio)

Requiem for a Dream

Traffic (Michael Douglas)

Candy (2006)

Rush (1991)

Gia (1998)

Permanent midnight (1998)

Rachel Getting Married

Trainspotting

Thirteen

28 Days

Euphoria (TV series)

Apologies again if this subject is heavy or hard for anyone.

I will never tire of hearing that i’ve been able to give justice when it comes to such serious topics and that this story hasn’t branched off into something that doesn’t handle these issues as well as it should,

I’ve read so many different perspectives through forums from current users and those who’ve been sober for x amount of time, watched interviews, and dived through articles to make sure everything is actually realistic. The way someone feels when they’re high both physically and mentally, how their addiction went unnoticed by loved ones for so long, and even how certain people in their lives reacted when the truth came out are the most important details to get right. Addiction is real, sex crimes are real, and the feelings of worthlessness so many people have to battle on a day to day are important to delve into.

Luke’s drug of choice is poppy for multitude of reasons, one being that it’s the most addictive among them all while the second is because Owen introduced him to it in the first place. It serves as the link between these two that Luke will always have to fight against in a world where sobriety is the goal. It reminds him of his most precious and most devastating moments which are addicting themselves. He doesn’t just miss Owen, he misses how Owen would hurt him only to turn soft minutes later before drugging him up as an apology. To Luke this is no different from a parent yelling at their child and giving him a big hug afterwards, it’s love and sometimes love hurts. He misses that love, the love that he now knows was never truly there but is desperate to have back because it made him feel special, feel seen for the first time. It’s a feeling he’ll fiend for when he remembers everything and feels nothing but betrayal.

Another little tidbit i’ve heard quite often from people who’ve struggled with substance abuse is that while they hate themselves, their vice loves them. Liquor and alcohol can’t tell you you’re a disappointment or a waste of space. It’s always going to accept you with open arms even when the people around you can’t. An amazing way to sum up Luke’s addiction as a whole.

I recommend everyone who feels they’re strong enough to watch Requiem for a dream, Gia, and thirteen. Those films show the real gritty details of what addiction and unhealthy relationships does to a person.

[lunapwrites]

Oh, man, we really in it now.

Hi yes hello this reading is about

✨anxiety✨

Also about me finding the jankiest work around I possibly could because fuck that noise.

So, this is strangely symmetrical: 2 pents, 2 wands, and a sword in between. Arguably one of the "worst" swords. In the future position because of course it fucking is.

Caveat: there's no truly "bad" cards, they all have positives to them but it's definitely a super serious warning okay? Okay.

From an elemental perspective this is... Interesting. Wands and pents are neutral to each other, swords and wands support each other, swords and pents weaken each other, and then the two sets of dupes strengthen each other. So in terms of the... emphasis, I suppose you could say, it is almost perfectly balanced, but it has a slight skew to the wands end of the equation here. What I'm taking this to mean is that the energy of this week is going to be more active. Which could mean a lot of things tbh: by itself, it's neither a positive nor a negative.

So let's unpack.

Starting with seven of pentacles: this card represents hard work and long term planning. An investment, if you will. But it also warns against burn out.

The nine of pentacles, similarly, is talking about the fruits of your labors. It represents the results of discipline and motivation and the creation of a solid foundation from which to work. But this could have a negative side: too much focus on work, and not enough on enjoying what you've built.

Taken together, it's overall generally positive: if you work hard, you'll see great results. But there's an axe hanging over your head in the shape of burnout, taking too much on and pushing forward when you should have rested.

This is especially true considering the blunting presence of the ten of swords affecting your results.

Ten of swords is one of the most ominous cards you can draw: it is pain. Painful endings, painful betrayals, painful loss... It's about crisis. It's... Well, it's pretty damn bleak to be honest. It's mostly repeating a theme I keep seeing in my readings, be they rune or tarot: you've reached the end, and the beginning. Because this card doesn't represent a finality, but rather it's indicating that the current collapse will make way for something new. Given the presence of the pentacles, this will likely occur in the realm of work/finances. Given the presence of the wands, it will likely be sudden and violent (which is silly tbh because we're both expecting it and not lol.) Either way, it marks an upcoming period of pain. Brace yourself accordingly.

Now to the wands: I normally just do a three card PPF, but I felt moved to increase to five today for some direction.

Five of wands is a reminder that the fight is never over. Keep an extra close eye out for betrayals and backstabbing. Once again, this card is mostly focused around the work sphere and its proximity to both another wand and your ten of swords means the fighting might get ugly.

On the flip side, you've also got a lot of resources at your disposal, so all of this energy can be transferred constructively into this transition you already knew was coming. Mostly, this calls for meeting the conflict head on, with sword or olive branch in hand, depending. Strategy and communication will be your best friends here.

Finally there is our sweet four of wands: this represents the places and people most familiar to you, and feeling supported and secure. It is a stable card, signifying a strong foundation. In this position, the card presents a reminder that whatever the ten of swords brings, it's nothing that cannot be withstood. You've put the work in. You'll be okay.

Also, a vacation is in order. (Good thing I've got one scheduled lol.)

As added flavor/context, today's rune is Ansuz.

Communication and wisdom, which truly are the keys to the foundation on which everything else is built.

It's going to be okay. It's going to suck for a bit but it's going to be okay.

-

EDIT: So I had put this together hours ago before I got caught up on international news. And uh. Not where I thought this was going but this... applies? Goddamn.

[stardust-in-my-mind-blog]

sacred pizza

I dreamt of my grandmother

how she was and not how I have been remembering her

the last time I saw her was at my aunt's funeral

she was upset because she felt my grieving uncle

and the entire funeral procession weren't

giving her enough attention

I remember being so disgusted and feeling guilty for it

that was pretty much how I felt around my family of origin

just fucking disgusted and feeling guilty for it

in my dream I got into a car with her

she was in her eighties and full of life

I had brought an offering of pizza

and we both ate it in the backseat

she was telling me all about playing softball

even in her nineties she had to do things

her spirit and energy was always wild and vital

her focus was often negative and judgmental

but I remember always finding a way to make her

acknowledge that things weren't so bad

I remember a story my grandfather told

where she'd won a bike from a gas station lottery

and even though that bike was clear across town

she was adamant that she was going to drive it home

I can just imagine my grandfather in the car behind her

I remember the love he had for her

he was absolutely crazy about her

and she nearly killed herself taking care of him

she missed him so much when he was gone

when she died I had a dream about them together

and it put something inside me to rest at that time

I still have the taxidermy fox she made him buy

and I can just imagine the conversation

because my grandfather was a very stoic man

who wore a freemason's fez and still looked stoic

and not ridiculous which is actually impressive

he was very responsible with his money

and he raised my mother like his own

I don't know how he raised my uncle

and I can imagine him with his serious expression

looking at my grandmother with exasperation

"what the fuck do we need a fox corpse for?"

and her giving him a look that likely meant his loss

to whatever logic the conversation called for

and saying quite simply, I need it

and that man reluctantly pulling out his wallet

like I watched him do grumbling so many times

and purchasing the fox that sits on my dresser

and every day makes me feel less alone

if I get caught up in feelings of being lonely

they were the ones who taught me about money

I still remember going to the bank on the weekend

adding money to my little kid's account and getting

a coupon to rent another horse movie

or go get something to eat at a local restaurant

there was always a lollipop and I was taught early

how to be responsible for my money when I had it

maybe that's where the shame comes from

I put my trust in someone I thought would keep my finances

and payments and everything safe and taken care of

and when they decided to stop I didn't take them over

I was so overwhelmed by everything else I was doing

and he couldn't remember the passwords and kept changing them

and I wasn't able to focus on anything long enough

to get organized and take back my responsibility

and I suppose yesterday was the beginning of doing that

she came to me as I remembered her

and I have more wonderful memories with my grandmother

in childhood than I do as an adult who remembers

a very old woman who just wanted me to be in her life

and was willing to use whatever guilt and manipulation

she could to keep me there

for her the ends justified the means

and I get her perspective

but fuck anyone who tried to cage me in shame

even a beloved grandmother

I threw all those letters in the fire and kept the fox

she's not looking at me from the other side

waggling a finger at the fact that I was too scared

to face yet another example of a recent betrayal

she's placing a hand on my shoulder

and telling me to keep stepping forward

and I am while facing all the anger and sadness

that comes with the ruin of trust and the injustice of it

again I feel so much disgust and I'm guilty for it

no wonder she showed up in my dreams

because the cycle to end is likely the feeling of disgust

and being able to accept all the feelings that lead to it

without feeling guilty for all the negativity I feel

around a situation that shouldn't have fucking happened

but it did and now I have to clean up the mess

another fucking mess of a man who never cleans up after himself

and doesn't mind what he ruins in the process of that

it can't be fun being trapped in a house with an angry scorpion

you just never know when that tail is going to come out

maybe I'm not looking at my opportunity right

because he's just as trapped as me

and while I do everything I can to keep civility

I have to confess that it's fun to make him uncomfortable

if I'm going to be uncomfortable then we both are

except I happen to be an excellent storyteller

and I just can't keep my mouth shut about any of it

I'm not a failure for being fucked up financially

I just deeply and depressedly feel like it

and maybe I kept tripping myself up to move forward

because I knew the minute I had income

I'd have to start cleaning up something

that he promised to take care of and didn't

and only one of us really suffered for it

but now that he can't just cut and run

and leave me in all of it

I guess both of us are suffering now

isn't it fun?

I told him recently that if he hadn't decided to just

randomly drop all my bills from his money management

during his documented cycle of devaluing and discarding

that he or I would find it far easier to leave and move on

I asked him if he enjoyed the irony of that

and he mumbled something about me lacking responsibility

and I feel my soul burn with so many creative ideas

but none of those solutions will actually help me with

my current problems and likely cause more

so I will just keep solving things

step by step and build back my confidence

when I take something on I do become very responsible for it

and I'll do the same for this situation

and I will not make it worse to make myself feel better

I will not make it worse to make myself feel better

no matter what chaos is whispering in my ear

karma is not about justice it's about balance

and this situation was very imbalanced

so I trust the universe to balance it how it will

and I will not make things worse to make myself feel better

I will not make things worse to make myself feel better

thanks for visiting, grandmother

I'll take care of this shit and move on magnanimously

or at least give it my best effort to and not listen to chaos

I will not make things worse to make myself feel better

[ctntduoarchive]

c!tntduo have definitely one of the most interesting relationships on the dream smp, if not the most interesting - so here's me ranting for 1.7k words on these dumbass little bitches (on basically ever arc)

firstly, you start with wilbur, who used to believe in the power of words and has just gone through war, loss and betrayal, coming to face an almost mirror image of himself in quackity, who's ambitious, light-hearted and most of all, doesn't know about the consequences of flying too close to the sun

wilbur sees him at first and only lets him run against him for the integrity of his campaign. then, when schlatt comes into play, you see wilbur turn to him and say that quackity cares about l'manburg and wants to do good for it, even if those plans interfere with wilbur's ideals.

then in the manburg/pogtopia arc, whenever you see them interact before quackity joins pogtopia, they're pretty casual and friendly with each other. you have quackity planning on going behind schlatt's back, and right after the elections have been won, you can hear him say that he plans on meeting with crimeboys and even thought that exile was too harsh.

once the white house is destroyed, quackity joins pogtopia and is pretty quickly welcomed in. with wilbur's paranoia and distrust, you constantly hear him speak of how everyone's just following the person with the biggest power (who he believes at this time to be schlatt), but the difference is with quackity is literally the first thing he told wilbur (the person who was in charge when this happened) no, because quackity isn't one to easily wilt to other people's orders.

quackity then goes on in the pogtopia arc to be the deciding factor on whether wilbur presses the bomb or not, for a good 20 days (for a comparison, pogtopia lasted for a little less than two months). whenever someone like tommy or tubbo told wilbur not to press the button and that they can do something else, he would always brush it off and call them childish, because in positions of actual knowledge on the world, wilbur thinks that they don't understand why he's doing this. but when quackity tells him no and then gives him a counter plan, he delays plan B (the bomb) and allows quackity and tommy attempt their plan. (<- this ties in with that idea of equals - like yin and yang - but i'll get into that later)

even after quackity's plan fails, he still tries to prevent the inevitable doom of wilbur blowing up l'manburg. every time he brings it up, he tries to dissuade him, like he has hope for wilbur - which a lot of people do at this point. people like tommy, tubbo and niki believe wilbur's still good, even though he sees himself as the villain.

but from quackity's perspective, he's always seen wilbur as someone who definitely isn't good per se, but probably not to the length of a villain. yet, he has this hope that this plan can be stopped even though he doesn't see wilbur through the rose-colored lenses the original people of l'manburg see him in.

on november 16th, you see dream say to tommy that wilbur was the traitor all along, but it's actually quackity who first points out wilbur's missing from the scene. then, a couple of seconds before the buttons pushed, you see quackity realise exactly where he is - by him calling out to tommy, since he also knows where the button room is.

by this point in the timeline, quackity and wilbur are pretty close around each other and it even seems like quackity has a bit of trust in wilbur. you seem him act less like the comedic relief he does around people like schlatt, but more of his more serious and genuine side, which is normally saved for him talking to chat and interactions with tubbo.

then, this trust is broken once wilbur presses the button, since quackity tried so hard to pull him away from it, constantly telling him there were other ways, one of those ways that had literally just been achieved.

still, even though quackity now has a resentment towards wilbur, he helps rebuild new l'manburg. he's passionate for the country, and this passion then also translates for the people who destroyed l'manburg, that namely being wilbur and techno.

when he says he's getting revenge on techno for the destruction, he also states that wilbur's dead and they can't really get any retribution from him - implying that if he were alive, quackity probably would have done something to change that.

quackity has a deep love for this country, even after originally being turned away from it. even though he truly got to know it after it's original time, he still had that same original dream that all of the l'manburgians had.

he ends up staying right to the end, fighting right up until it's just him, tubbo, tommy and ghostbur left - which brings me to his relationship with ghostbur.

originally, it was clear he had a resentment to him. he would be really humorous and not willing to be genuine around him, and the only time you see that early on in their relationship is when quackity yells at him for not remembering blowing up l'manburg.

but bit after bit, you see ghostbur do things like ask quackity to sing the national anthem and them genuinely enjoying time together. you see little details like quackity thanking ghostbur for blue quietly in the butcher army stream, and then their interaction on doomsday.

you see them talk nicely and interacting nicely together, quackity even comes to say he was sad when wilbur died. this is probably because of ghostbur, since he learned how to remember what wilbur was like before he became obsessed with the destruction of l'manburg. he found this respect for him, and then when he thought that wilbur was right with saying that you need violence to produce power, lead to him to write the PROJECT NEVADAS book. in that, he even went to say that wilbur was his dearest friend.

after spending a lovely 13 year vacation in literal hell, wilbur's back and looking for a purpose. of course, he immediately latches onto the book quackity has left for him. it's a sign of hope that someone hasn't forgotten him and that his memory, other than that of his destruction of his country, still exists in people.

he rushes over to las nevadas, to find quackity who is originally exicted to see him (remembered that gained respect from his death? that's it). but then he sees wilbur beg to join las nevadas, and realises that he hasn't changed and is still man from pogtopia.

the reason wilbur begs like this is because he's been so purposeless for so long and this is the only glimmer of hope he has left, and here is quackity telling him no. which makes him think for a moment, and that that is his new purpose to become.

nobody tells wilbur no, and it's new and exciting - and quackity's probably the only one to do it ever. with the exceptions of dream and schlatt with lmanburg, but those were impersonal, yet this denial is very personal and directly aimed at him.

once wilbur sees this hope for something after going so long without anything, he's determined to make something of it. and seeing quackity get so riled up at his taunting, gives him something to do that isn't just the passive doting he sees everyone else doing.

he knows why everyone's accepting his apologies, because they're scared and afraid of what he'll do. and quackity isn't, but that isn't the thing. the thing is wilbur's afraid of what he'll do, and it's so much easier to do his dance with quackity and believe that he won't implode on himself again.

that's why quackity is his yang to him, he brings this balance to his own destructive behavior with his built up walls. wilbur can try all he wants to break them down, but they won't break. and finally, he's found something he can hold in his hands that won't just snap on impact - unless, he thinks he has.

this intense dynamic between the two not only can have an impact on the both of them, but the people around them as well. you see beeduo get dragged into this conflict of the two of them proving themselves (since they are so used to being told they aren't what they want to be, strong - i mean in the emotional sense).

beeduo didn't expect such a whirlwind of emotions, and tntduo didn't really prepare it for them either. they were so obsessed with the idea of beating the other, they didn't expect there would be such dire consequences.

then, along comes hitting on 16, and tntduo start off with the emotional equivalent of trying to spray pepper sauce in the other's eyes. wilbur gets blinded with the spray and goes onto steal his horse, because he knows just how sentimental the horse was to him.

because wilbur's the same in that regard, in the way he can try not to attach himself to the people and things around him, yet fail so horribly. which is perfectly portrayed in when ranboo pays the price of the mess wilbur and quackity have started.

then wilbur goes onto to trying to make himself a better person, and holds this deep grudge for quackity after ho16. sound familiar? a little like quackity after wilbur's death?

but still, he has to hold some sort of sentiment for the man, since he carries around the las nevadas journal in his own inventory all the way up until eret's apology stream, where it is then relocated next to niki's diamonds in his ender chest (another really important thing to him)

and here you have proof of the other side of the rivalry. you have the two of them say things like wilbur saying that him and quackity could be friends (albeit, after he beats his ass in their homoerotic rivalry) to ranboo when he recruits him - in a tone that sounds genuine and his muttered to himself, like a guilty confession.

you then have quackity saying to slime (in the stream where he dies) that all friends and enemies leave you after a while, which is a weird detail to add. because the only enemy that's possible for quackity to be sentimental towards, is wilbur.

they both seem to have this resentment for each other, in a need to prove themselves to the world, the other and themselves. yet, they still can be sentimental around the other, even if they want to deny it.

[popopretty]

Storm Bringer Spoilers (2)

I translated another part from the novel to give a bit more insights on Dazai’s scheme this time. This time from the perspective of Adam, the AI inspector. Even though it may sound contradictory to what Dazai told Verlaine before, I personally think that they were not all lies, which is kinda sad and terrifying at the same time. 

Feel free to re-translate it if you want. Just note that I am not 100% confident with my translation and some of the meanings might be lost through bridge-translation. 

[CODE;03] 

....

A rain of bullets flew towards me. I opened the shock-resistant shield from my forearm. This shield is like an umbrella. It is coated by a superalloy that is resistant to heat and shock. It can ward off most small-scale mass attacks. It is a custom-made product that was designed to withstand the high energy of Arahabaki. All the full metal jacket bullet slid through the surface of the shield and landed behind me. Three shots didn’t slide but stopped when touching the surface, peeling off the alloy surface with their kinetic energy. But the damage was minor.

I leapt with my shield still raising. I stepped on the soldiers’ rifles and did a double leap. Upon landing at the wall behind them, I bounced back and hit them from the back. It was a light attack that can break some ribs, I knew it from the sensor. First one down. While I was still above the soldiers, I bent my leg like a sickle and swept the legs of another one, knocking him off the ground. When he fell down, I injected him with a dose of medicine from the needle on my finger. That made two.

However, while I was busy suppressing these two soldiers, the other one had more than enough time to raise their guns. Three of them were aiming at me. My hands were both on the floor and bearing my body weight, I couldn’t raise my shield. I did a high-speed search for a countermeasure. None of them would make it in time. 

I ended up not needing a countermeasure. 

The soldiers spasmed with the sound from an electric shock and dropped their guns. After a few seconds of agony, they lost their strength and collapsed.

I didn’t do anything. 

Behind the soldiers, from the corridor on the other side of the door, I saw the savior who saved my day. That was someone I really didn’t expect.

“How boring.”, that person said as he lowered his Taser gun. “You use electric to knock down people, but all they do is to collapse. Boring.”

“You are... Port Mafia’s...”

Dazai Osamu.

The person who brought Chuuya-sama to the Port Mafia. 

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Inspector. Where is Chuuya?”

The boy of the same age as Chuuya-sama asked me, as he threw off the Taser gun. 

“Chuuya-sama is...”

“Well, based on the time, has he been caught? Or is it about time he was rescued?” Dazai-san walked over the unconscious soldiers and came towards me. “If that’s the case then it’s not fun at all. I couldn’t see Chuuya weeping when he was tortured.”

“Tortured? Chuuya-sama?”

So Chuuya-sama was captured and tortured? It’s possible. But how can this boy know all of that? Why is he here in the first place? If I remember correctly, Dazai-san is the nullification ability user, the trump card against Verlaine. And I am pretty sure we tried to contact him because of that but couldn’t get through at all. So why is he here, right now?

“You will ask me why I came. I will answer, “Because it is a part of the plan.”. You will ask me what the plan is. And I will answer, “Everything. From the beginning to the end, I have this whole Verlaine incident in the palm of my hand. And then you will ask what I mean by that.”

In order to understand what Dazai-san said, I analyzed the information with high priority by my processor. However, Dazai-san’s thinking was even faster than that. I had to give it my best just to catch up with him.

“I will then say, everything literally means everything. All Verlaine’s targets, including the detective and the researcher, were decided based on the information that I gave him. It means his assassination planning procedure is also my procedure. Now you will ask me, “Why did you do such a thing?”” 

That’s it. That’s exactly what I want to know. What Dazai-san said just now strongly suggested that he had joined hands with Verlaine. There is a high possibility that he was the one who pulled the strings behind the death of the detective, and Chuuya-sama’s current serious situation. In another word, betrayal. Depending on his response, it might become another battle here. 

However, Dazai-san’s final answer was far beyond my expectation. 

“To buy time, before Verlaine could get to his final target. His final target is Port Mafia’s Boss, Mori Ougai. Mori san was supposed to be the first in his list, but thanks to me handing him the list, he has been changed to the last one. Thanks to the time I have bought, I am almost done with a plan to reverse-assassinate him. But before that, I have one last thing to finish.”, Dazai-san said with a smile as he reached out his hand and helped me get up. 

Then he stared into the middle of nowhere, and said with the eyes of a wizard who could see through everything, “Chuuya will kill N at this rate. Then he will cease to be human. But I want to see Chuuya suffering as a human. So I’m going to stop him.”

***

The alarm went off as if the disaster that will destroy the world has finally come. The emergency lights went red and the scene of the facility changed completely. It is like we were inside a monster’s stomach. The wireless feeds were released to all the general staff and the warnings were being called repeatedly on all lines.  

Intruders in the Lab area. The internal information staff are to dispose of the prescribed materials and leave the premise immediately. The operation staff are to be ready for action with first-class equipment. This is not a drill. This is not a drill.

I continued my work, while removing the noisy warnings from my hearing options. We pushed the unconscious Shirase-san into the equipment storage room. I closed the door and applied the electric lock.

“I have changed the lock here into the time-varying encryption type. That way, Shirase-san will be safe for a while.”

“Thank you. Next is Chuuya.”, Dazai-san said so then walked away as if he didn’t care about Shirase-san at all.

“Please wait, Dazai-san.”, I called out to him. “About Chuuya-sama, you just said “as a human being”? Do you know if Chuuya-sama is a human or not?”

I somehow had a strange expectation that a person like him would know the truth. I didn’t have any reasons, but I felt that. It’s human’s arrogance to think that intuition and inspiration do not exist for us machines. If it’s something humans can do, then I can do it too. 

“I don’t know.”, Dazai-san said simply. But his eyes slightly narrowed like he was having some deep thoughts. “Both N and Verlained said that Chuuya was not human. But I think there is more than that. Because I have read this notebook, this Rimbaud’s Memoir. To some extents, the incidents this time all started from this memoir.”, Dazai-san said, taking out an old leather-bound notebook from his pocket.

Rimbaud’s Memoir!

I quickly scanned the notebook that Dazai-san had. This might be the real thing. This might be. Rimbaud’s Memoir is a kind of journal that the dead spy Rimbaud kept in secret before his mission. It contains information related to the spy missions during the Great War, so even though there were rumors about it, there was no information that it has ever been found. 

“Just what have you done to get your hand on that?”

“You can try to ask, but I will just tell you lies anyway. Because I am a liar.”

A mysterious smile appeared on Dazai-san’s face. I ran him through my lie detector sensors but there was no responses. His vital signs are almost the same as of a sleeping person. The output data is too normal for such a condition. This is not normal. Just who in the world is this boy?

“We do not really have time to hold a tea party and chat here. We have to find Chuuya first.”, Dazai-san scratched the back of his neck and said with a dim voice. 

“How can we find him?”

“Finding Chuuya is always easy.”, Dazai-san smiled as if he already saw through everything. “We just look in the direction with the loudest noise.” 

....

[lovee-infected]

hi! could i see your insights about ace? i saw a anon say from another blog that kinda has unrealistic expectations in a relationship and it kinda stuck with me. i mean in his ghost marriage he already knows the things he wants in a partner but he didn't show guilt about dumping his girlfriend, even. i think if you date him because he sees these quality in you and as the relationship last, he'll dump you if you get boring to him lol

I never thought that I'd say this but, wow, I'm impressed. I've been really curious about Ace since I get to see a variety of different content with different representations of his personality, so I decided to stick with his canon stories and lines. This analysis was so much fun to write and I'd assure you all that not only Ace but rather all of the first year characters are WAY more than they seem to be! Many just decide to ignore them and pass away, calling them good boys or precious stupid beanies at first.

Speaking of Ace, we've all seen how trending he's been recently. Many theories, thoughts and new arguments exist through the fandom as many want to get to know this boy better.

Theories like "Ace's betrayal theory" as well have been mentioned a lot lately, some agree and some disagree. While we aren't going to talk about that theory or any other theories in this analysis, I'd like to take time to talk about the reasons why those theories might seem appealing and accurate. In other words, we're going to talk about where they are coming from!

1) Ace is incredibly smart and brave

It's true that characters like Jade or Azul's remarkable genius often stands out as it's clearly visible through their presence in the game, from iconic decisions to stunning strategies. But what we need to realize is how characters like Ace can be just as inspiring while their true intelligence is often shallowed by extras and giving them much of a dumb picture in the game.

To begin with, let us note that Ace's brother himself was one of the considerably strong magicians in Heartslabyul's history and even his presence through the magicshift is still remarkable even though years has passed. As the second child of the family, Ace's change to achieve success is even higher than his brother's as he already has a role model he really looks up to, so in that point Ace isn't one to underestimate. But, let me point that his relationship with his brother also contains lots of jealousy and sometimes negativity. His brother was one to always trick Ace and he continues to do so even nowadays! Ace on the other hand doesn't enjoy being pissed off over and over even as he's used to it. Well, we can say that it's another reason for him to train his hardest and become a greater magician than his brother therefore he won't be the bully material of the Trappola household anymore.

Regardless of how effective his brother might've been on him, Ace himself has shown plenty of strong hints that reveal not only his high IQ but also EQ:

He can solve math problems in second, which is a rather important feature to note because the way you deal with math can directly effect the way you deal with life. Not saying that one has to be great at math to be great at something else but it's rather about the perspective and ability of logical thinking that it gives to one. I'd say that this effect is quite visible if you take a look at the way he speaks in serious situations; he's got much of an analytical brain. Let's not forget that Cater as well confirmed that he's much of a skill stealer, is pretty good at remembering things and is a quick thinker! These are go on to show how much of an underestimated genius he is.

Whenever something goes wrong, Ace would be the first one to notice it even if it's a silly matter. And it always begins with a seemingly childish argument, but ends incrucial matters that not a single soul had noticed before! Just take a look at chapter one, what would've happened if Ace hadn't spoken up? He was just one of the hundreds of students having to be severely punished under Riddle's strict rules and he surely wasn't the first one to go through this. Him taking the urge to fight Riddle sounded stupid and naïve at first, many even told him off because he was just acting like a pissed off child. But as he continued to argue and oppose toward Riddle's way as a leader, even Trey realized how he's been keeping his eye shut on all this problems for so long. The way Ace stood against Trey was iconic, he confidently defended his point not by his personal demands and feelings but with facts and logical comments on why Trey's way of threatening Riddle is wrong. He did the same thing again at he ghost marriage, just think of it! Not a single soul ever cared to tell the bride about true love but Ace was there, and he was the one and only to do this after more than 500 years of the bride's existence! This Ace, this serious and mature face of Ace is something that can surely fascinate anyone. His bravery, the way he puts all that strength through words, hisextremely logical point of view and his enthusiasm to solve the problems no matter how unimportant they seem to be is indeed appreciatble. Seriously though, what would've happened to Riddle is Ace wasn't there? When Ace firstly begun to oppose to him, everyone thought that is was just a childish argument. They had no idea how severe and destructive Riddle's temper issues were and how harmful they were down inside.

2) He's one of the dumbest characters in the whole game

You know what? He is dumb. Yes he's incredibly smart but this isn't going to change the fact that he is dumb as hell, so I'm never going to argue when someone's nagging on how much of an idiot he is. But most importantly, we need to know what's making him so dumb:

His presence through the stories has proved that Ace is eventually pretty good at detecting the main source of problems both on the mental and physical side. He was the first to realize Riddle's issues, Trey's huge mistake with Riddle, Ghost bride's unawareness and Epel's gloomy and sad aura in chapter 4. Ace's also one to easily tell whether what someone is doing is wrong or not, he can see through people and bring their mistakes to their attention. The problem is... he can't be quite the same with himself. That's what makes him awfully dumb.

Back in chapter one, he did have a point about Riddle's way of leadership being so unfair and messed up, but when he decided to challenge Riddle and even take his place as the dorm leader he was a total idiot who didn't how weak and unpractical his own magic was, he was being too dramatic. When he talked about his ex girlfriend, he just talked about how she held him back from doing what he wanted and was too uncool to spend time with, but he didn't mention a single thing about himself doing anything wrong in that relationship. He often fails to realize that he's got his own incompleteness and lacks just like anyone else, or prefers to put an blind eye to them most of the time (not all of the time)

Ace sets the perfect goals, but chooses the wrong path to achieve them. He needs to realize that just like everyone else, he can be sometimes wrong. He should take his time to get to know himself better; his abilities, his attitude, his faults and his mistakes and learn to be more patient and logical in order to achieve his goals. He's still young an inexperienced, by learning to put that brilliance of him into the perfect use he'd be able to become the great magician he wishes to be, and I'd say that in case that he continues to grow stronger and smarter, he'll have a high chance of being hesrtslabyul's next dorm leader!

3) He legit wants to be the "Ace"

This part's more of an attempt to do a name analyis and see how much it's been effective on Ace's personality. It actually makes a lot of snese since the word "Ace" itself has several meanings, and he used these different terms quite a few times in his personal stories. This point would also be explained in part (4) so for now, let's take a look at direct name definitions:

First of, remember what what an Ace is in a card game? "A playing card with a simple spot on it, ranked as the highest card in its suit" This goes on to tell us a lot, it's telling us what an Ace is. A loner yet the most powerful one of its own, just like how Ace wants to be.

Wanting to be an actuall Ace is definitely one of the things that sometimes makes Ace sound so jerky and he's aware of it! If you give it a closer look, you'll see that Ace doesn't really treat his friends like friends, especially with Deuce and Grim. He's often insulting or challenging them, and even during his birthday SSR when MC asked him about what he thinks of each of other first years (Who are basically his closest friends) he mainly criticized them and all, not a single word was said about things he likes about them and he didn't even call any of them his friend!

Well that's much of a jerky attitude to have toward people whom you spend almost all of your time with, especially your best of time.

He to play the role of the bad guy, the type to hang out with everyone without feeling any attached to them as even friends. Seems like our boy is trying to be a loner, a true Ace of cards and hearts. And he doesn't mind his friends calling him a bastard or jerk because of this. It's even confirmed that he's more of the popular guy type therefore he's mainly used to having people around!

On the other hand, he's trying his best to achieve success no matter what the obstacles are. It's true that he often messes up and fails, but we cannot say that he isn't trying. He almost lost his head for real during his SSR story where Riddle's favorite hedgehogs were lost because of Ace's impatience, but at last with the help of monsieur Rook and his own ability to imitate Rook's mole language skills Ace saved his neck one more time, and ended his story with a dramatic "Of course, I always Ace it!"

4) Ace does care, but pretends that he does not

In contrast to the fact that he wants to sound tricky,manipulative and mean, or how he's denying his friends' true worth to him like stated in part (3), Ace is probably one of the most caring and supportive characters in the game. Not saying that he's just as bright as someone like Kalim, but his way of seeing through people and wishing them to be better, wealthier and happier than they already are is surely something. This fact is often ignored because, well...everyone's too busy calling him either dumb or sus/ jk!

Just imagine having a friend or at least, a classmate you know like Ace. How's he supposed to be? He'd realize it when someone's bullying/bothering/ or intentionally harming you, and he isn't going to be silent about it. If you see that you're permanently sad, angry, rude or loud then again he'd speak up, he isn't going to just pull up with anyone's unhealthy habit like nothing's happened. He's got much of a big brain as well so you should expect him to say a bunch of helpful and meaningful stuff when he's using that brain, mainly in serious situations. He may not be a permanently mutual to have around, but when the troubles arrive, know that having Ace around is always an advantage.

To top it off, he's even shown sympathy toward people whom he seemed to like the least at first like Riddle; he wishes Riddle to be happier, to smile more, to be more open about his emotions with other students. At some point he even admits that he looks up to him, he used to overestimate his powers and challenged Riddle, but during the ghost marriage he said that he knows how powerful and strong Riddle is, therefore he should work his hardest to study and train to become strong just like him! He already seems to be more cheerful and bright when MC is talking to him, but when it comes to Grim and Deuce...it gets quite complicated. What we see the most is often Ace insulting them or saying that he's going to kick their asses, but they're also his closest friends all though he refuses to admit to it.

Just wait for Deuce or Grim to get in a serious danger or pain, and see how much of a protective one Ace can be! He isn't going to remain silent when one is in danger, but he's surely going to deny all that effort and affection he gave into action afterwards. When Ace can feel this cautious and understanding toward Riddle, someone who isn't even a friend of his then imagine how supportive and caring he would be toward his close friends like Deuce, MC and Grim!

In his ghost marriage as well, his words and the way he spoke of the meaning of true love left everyone, even Crowley, impressed (Crowley even said that he's fallen in love with this side of Ace's personality), but refused to admit that he was speaking of his true feelings after the ceremony. Someone like Grim is too bold to recognize how much of a different person Ace can be inside, so he claimed that Ace was just rambling nonsense without thinking of what he was saying back then, and Ace agreed with him! This is a continuation to part (3) where we talked about how he wants to be a loner, he doesn't want anyone to see how caring and sometimes, emotional he can be inside! Poor boy is quite shy showing his true feelings we can tell~

5) Ace can be quite tricky and manipulative

This part will also explain some of the main reasons behind famous theories like "Ace's betrayal theory", and I wanted to have a certain part to talk about this point specifically because it's been quite trending through the whole fandom, and many are wondering why theorizers are considering his betrayal a possibility, so here we go!

As said, one of the main factors the makes Ace seem suspicious would be his incredible intelligence. The fact that he can actually be that smart all the time but isn't openly showing his talents and abilities can be quite questionable, more details regarding his intelligence and most likely high IQ and EQ were discussed in part (1)!

Enough with intelligence, let's focus on his personality! This is mainly what this part is talking about, his trickiness. Just like his father and older brother, Ace is pretty good with magic tricks. Small and fun tricks are a convenient yet easy ways to inspire others and Ace doesn't mind showing the crowd what he's got up in sleeve when possible. But the thing is...this isn't just about fancy tricks.

This ability can be expanded into any other field such as mental terms and enable him to indirectly control and play with one's mind. That's more of a possibility though! He hasn't yet shown any signs of being any manipulative but, well, we can't say that it's beyond his abilities. Ace himself can be quite sarcastic and mean at the time, he doesn't seem to mind slightly tricking his friends either. Nothing about him seems to be serious, but the possibilities remain still.

The way he learnt those tricks as well is mentionable; no one ever teached himm any of those tricks, he learnt them through being repeatedly tricked, and learning to copy and redo what he saw. Both Rook and Cater so far have confirmed that Ace's ability to learn so quickly and learn and redo techniques just by watching them is fantastic.

His genius and ability to learn and memorize everything that he needs to learn pretty fast, along side his tricky and sometimes personality can make Ace quite dangerous. If someone like him decides to choose such a remarkable talent for evil purposes, that's surely going to be bad news. That's much and less of what makes Ace's betrayal theory make sense although there're still fans who find it quite questionable. I'm not a supporter of this theory myself as I hadn't seen any signs of Ace having any bad intentions so far, but I do get where the theorizers are coming from and that makes sense. Ace has been trying to put on much of a mean and lowkey evil face on through the story and no one can really say what's exactly going on in that brain. We'll that about this uncertainty in part (7)!

6) His past relationship was...uh

For now, Ace is the only character who is confirmed to have experience in love and relationships, and this was a rather effective factor since many have been talking about Ace's past relationship afterwards. The thing is...Ace did talk about how his girlfriend held him back from having fun and living the life he wanted to live. Well there's actually a lot we should say about this one so I'm not gonna rush to the end, let's think about all of the aspects of this situation logically:

First of, the relationship itself. I'd say that it was a wrong attempt for them to date each other in the first place because obviously, Ace and his girlfriend weren't made for each other. They were total opposites in interests and they couldn't even have fun together. If Ace chose to go on a wild roller coater ride, the girl would've freaked out and when she chose a small, childish ride that she liked Ace instead didn't enjoy it at all. It's surely an issue when you and your partner can't even watch a movie which both of you can enjoy together since their tastes were totally different, just jow was this relationship going to last? Ace wasn't happy, and if he was going to do what made him happy the girl in return would've been sad. They were two different people of two different points, dating at this point was nothing but a mistake.

On the other hand, Ace as well is guilty. First off, she shouldn't have dated the girl in the first place if he was aware of how different her tastes were. Second, from what he said he never showed any signs of dissatisfaction when he had to give up on what he liked to listen to what the girl friend liked. The girl friend obviously told him that she was scared of a horror movie, but Ace just kept his mouth shut and felt awfully annoyed as he watched a romance movie with her while he didn't like it at all. If he'd at least told her girlfriend about this, she wouldn't have felt as injured and cheated when Ace broke up with her. Ace shouldn't have bottled it up, he deserved to enjoy the relationship just as much as the girl did. He shouldn't have expected things to get any better if he wasn't going to solve anything about it in the first place. If he'd talked about his personal desires and favorites as well, and had his uncomfortableness with most of the girl's choices discussed before hand, there could've been a chance of them coming into a conclusion and even not breaking up! The girl could've tried to be braver for him, and Ace could've agreed to be softer because of her. There would've been a HUGE difference if they'd talked about it logically.

Also, keep this in mind that the girl had no idea about Ace's uncomfortableness which was low key naïve of her (It's not cool when you don't even realize that your boyfriend doesn't like something) but this also made him awfully unprepared for a break up! Ace should've st least talked about his feelings and how he was unable to continue that relationship with her instead of just dropping her out of nowhere. That would've also decreased the chance of having to deal with the girl's friends after wards!

Finally, let's say that this relationship was wrong in too many aspects. They weren't each other's type, and we can't really blame Ace for dropping someone whom he couldn't be happy with. The main of being in a relationship is spending time with someone whom you can enjoy your time with. He as well was guilty because he can't just drop the girl like he just didn't care and had gotten tired of her while he had his own reasons for dropping her, he should've let the girl know that it wasn't necessarily her fault, it was about Ace not being able to relate to her tastes and habits.

Also, let's be honest. Not much is expected when a 15 year old is dating. Being in a relationship is an awfully sensitive and important choice and someone like Ace hasn't reached that level of maturity to be ready to date someone, let alone doing it at his 15s! Honestly... they should've learnt a lot before dating each other because it isn't a silly thing. Dating like this is nothing but playing around for a while for fun, it's a childish game of spending some time together until they break up.

For now, Ace is finds love quite silly and meaningless so we can clearly see that his past relationship has pissed him off. Well Ace needs to realize that his relationship with his ex wasn't a serious one, so it's normal for it to seem unimportant and silly. He needs to learn a lot without dating someone again, such as knowing how crucial it is to make sure that his hobbies would match his partners, to make sure tjat they get along, and simply, he needs to find his own type! Not all people are made for each other, and he isn't supposed to fall for anyone with any possible personality that pops up on his way.

Also, I'd say that he still needs to focus on studying instead of dating. He needs to reach the required level of maturity to be ready to start a healthy and successful relationship again. Also, he might end up being totally different from what we've seen about him being in a relationship do far when he grows up! Idealistics do change a lot olin teenagehood.

7) We need to talk about our first years a lot more!!!

This point isn't just about him, but rather all of the first years! If I were to rate the most ignored and shallowed personalities of twst, the first years should've gone on the top of this list. Even when we're speaking of the mischaracterized characters of the game, many consider Ace and Deuce to be the least mischaracterized while they happen to be the most mischaracterized as no one evencares to see through them and feel like we aren't mischaracterizing them just because we're ignoring them! Come on guys, Ace's design and personality is a lot more complicated and harder to read than characters like Vil and even Leona!

Out of all first years Sebek was the only one to get some proper shout outs so far but why isn't anyone talking about Ace and Deuce the way they deserve to be talked about? Their presence through the game is even more important than the dorm leaders as they are the closest characters to MC, and their personality design is just incredible, no just because of how perfectly detailed it is, but also because of giving them this unpredictability and incompleteness which totally matches their age!

Studies have shown that judging one's personality based on how they're doing at the age of 16 or younger is prettyhard and impossible, and it's a totally serious fact. At the age of 16, human's personality is under severe effects and changes until reaching it's final-developed shape. That's accurate toward almost all of the first years except Jack since he seems to have more of a mature personality.

NRC's first years are really complicated, especially a character like Ace. That why I said that we can't yet tell if he's a good guy or not, because at this level of life he can choose to be anything. He can be good, he can be bad, he can be neutral. That's why he's showing too much of opposite actions at the moment. One second he's being the biggest idiot in the whole world, the other second he's planning like a 50 year old genius. One second he's being protective over his friends, the other second he sighs and tells MC how annoying they are.

That's why Ace is hard to read, we can't tell what his true feelings are until he reaches the required mental stability to be judged as a mature and complete personality. 18 year olds like Vil have already reached that level of maturity and completeness, finding their unique magics as well is another sign of it. But our first years still need to learn and experience until they find their real selves, to see who they are.

This is one of the most adorable facts about their design because they really gave him this young and wild and incomplete nature to show that they're still young! This is quite incredible how careful Yana was to remember that they all needed some this childishness in their design, their designs are just as accurate and realistic as a real 16 year old's! They still need to learn, and that's why they're the closest ones to MC.

MC needs to learn and get to see more and more of this world, and so do the first years! They're just as unexperienced and new to this world, and they can relate to MC better than anyone else can!

So please, from now on, let's remember to talk about not only Ace, but also all of the first years more often. Ace and Deuce's designs especially are the most detailed and beautiful ones if you take time to know them better. Remember that after the 7 dorm leaders, Ace and Deuce's roles as the protagonist's closest allies are the most crucial in the game, so let's not just decide to ignore all these creative features and pass by them without thinking how much they can mean.

Woah, this one was quite harder to write than I'd expected! There are way too many things to say about him which made me have to summarize this into just this 7 parts for now. Ace is surely and odd yet interesting one to study, even more interesting than usually famous characters like Leona and Azul, which is partly because of how unpredictable he is!

[voicefromthecorner]

I did a double take when I saw this because I didn't recognise Joshua here. I looked it up and this sprite is in the DS game, but I never made out his expression so well before. I never realised that he looked so sad.

For the record, I 100% believe everything Joshua is saying here. There's still a bit of room for interpretation, but I still hold to the belief that information like this doesn't just get conjured for the sole purpose of misdirection and Joshua looks more serious here than ever before.

I also think that it probably wasn't his plan to tell Neku any of this. Neku is the one who brought this stuff up and Josh is regularly task focused. He only talks at length like this when Neku gives him the opportunity, either by insisting or asking. Over the course of their week together, I think he's genuinely becoming comfortable in Neku's company and lowering his guard a bit.

So bearing in mind that this story is most likely to some extent true, with a noticeably selective response to Neku's comment, this is a pretty interesting side to Joshua. And it's consistent. Remember the encounter with Makoto in Day 2?

He's truly disgusted by the typical monotonous cycle of an average working life. In fact, I think he's afraid of it, to consider it death like that. I wonder how a show like The Office would be received by him, given that it's about the beauty you can find in a life like that.

I said before that the Reaper's Game had an effect on Neku and Shiki; made them appreciate their lives. Something I forgot was that Neku had no memory of the life waiting for him like Shiki did, so no wonder he was able to look ahead and appreciate the importance of getting out of the Reaper's Game. His take on things now is coming up, but there's a large contrast to be found between Shiki and Josh, based on that whole thing:

The "rush" that Joshua worships is what wakes Shiki up. She says herself that she felt more alive in the Game than she had when she was alive. The Game was a cold splash of water that helped her realise who she was, but she doesn't want to stay there. She takes it as a helping hand towards where she's truly meant to be, alive with her friends and following her dream.

Contrast that with Joshua and I think I get why he asked Neku that question before. "You're as alone there as you are here." Joshua had that experience. He didn't see the point in a life without the UG because his RG life was worse to him. Back there, he had no dream to follow, no friends who understood him and no... Calling. That seems to be the logical way to read into everything we know about him at least.

So hearing it here, which as far as Neku knows is all the whole truth, it's hard not to feel sorry for him. I think Neku is really growing to understand Joshua and does respect his perspective. There's just one issue:

That betrayal he's still feeling after seeing that memory. That thought that Joshua killed him and took his life away for his own reasons. Neku, I think, really wants to sympathise with him and, of course, trust him. But he clearly feels that he doesn't feel the same way and does have something he wants to live for, hence why he draws this line.

This game has some sad stuff in it but I really wish these two were able to just meet in the middle and find the friendship they both need from each other.

[monkeydluffy19920]

Hi, love your blog. I wanna ask what do you think is the biggest SaNa hint from Oda?

Hiya @xebecx and many thanks for the feedback, much appreciated <3

Frankly spoken it’s hard to to name just one big hint since personally I think Oda-sensei likes to sprinkle the hints around when it comes down to SaNami and also with many ships too (like said, it’s all about interpretation). Reason why I started to see potential on their ship was that it feels like their relationship has had pretty smooth development during these years. We have a starting point where Sanji immediately catches his eye on Nami but on Baratie arc. she is benefiting this situation so she could bail out for paying the restaurant bill which is ok for Sanji though (and he makes the guys pay *laughs*)

In Arlong Park the rest of the Strawhats learn about her past which explains lots of thing. Sanji is the only one who doesn’t buy Nami’s betrayal act and defends her when others are against her despite the fact that they were aquantainces at this point of the story.  After Arlong Park there has been some flirt between two of them although Nami still uses her charm to delegate tasks for Sanji and for her benefits.

Perhaps the first major development shipwise happens in Skypiea where Sanji’s sacrificial nature is revealed to Nami (since last time she was unconcious when he took the bullet for her and Luffy in Drum Kingdom so the captain could get her the doctor). Sanji did it so Nami and Usopp could escape safely and first time Nami actually hesitates to leave him all alone and later she shows gratitude for him (although at that point Sanji is unconcious now which is a nice parallel).

From shipper’s perspective, who would have thought that Totto Land and Zou arcs would include so much parallels that combine Nami and Sanji? First of all the wedding theme (this time just roles vice versa). Then she learns about his past from his relative, just like Sanji did back in Arlong Park. On top of that another Bellmere-like smile was revealed once he trew the farewell in Zou..

In my opinion the biggest development between them has happened when Nami and Sanji met in Totto Land since his departure. Those chapters offered so much tension and drama when Sanji first glared Nami angrily (hoping she would stop interrupting him) and then she later replies with a slap on face and teary eyes.

There are more detailed thoughts about emotional slaps in One Piece in this post but shortly said, Oda-sensei has used this element only on a few people throughout the series and it has always the purpose of showing that it things are serious and gone deep under the skin. Also after the things have calmed, in every slap there is a forgiveness and understanding and Nami’s slap isn’t exception.

Although Nami tends punch Sanji every once in a while (as a running gag) and for some reason Sanji is the only who get heart bumps, this slap was something serious and loaded with emotions. So, even without the shipping goggles, it’s obvious that she was hurt from to see her friend to act like sh*t without knowing the reasons because before this incident, she was the most powerful driving force in the retrieval mission. 

At one point it honestly felt like the aftermath might not get any panels and despite many fans (including me) was wishing there could be a moment similar  to @vichan91312‘s /@wiavi’s fanart where Sanji could show his vunerability and Nami would comfort him.

Oda-sensei wanted to yield the aftermath when it comes down to Nami’s and Sanji’s reconciliation although shipwise it would be more interesting that they would have an intimate moment and thought about the stuff. However, the way Oda-sensei decided to do it was more One Piece-stylish and maybe even more canon when it comes down to both of their characters. 

So, instead of forcing them to face alone face to face- conversations which could  have made both of them feel awkward,  Oda-sensei decided that Nami would show the forgiveness not so straightforward-style (since there were other around too) plus it would anyway be more characteristic for her not to admit anything romantic directly.

First approach was toned with comedic elements when she had this “never going to forgive you”- tsundere-ish stuff which Sanji interprets as a proposal (just like after what Nami told him before she battled Kalifa). Anime even extended more the “aftermath tension” this with that corridor conversation). but later Nami  welcomed him back with eyes filled with joy of reunion (and relief of her nakama being okay after that  merry go-round on flames arc).

The panel below was a nice gesture from Oda-sensei too (in addition to the bridal carry) because he could also have dealt this all with so called “out of panels”-kind of style which would have left things a bit vague.

Honestly, it’s hard to decide only 1 hint that could be a “huge ice breaker”/turning point  but perhaps this emotional slap and reconciliation are could turn into something bigger since along the way both Zou and Totto Land included many parallels to past arcs plus the more time has past, the more respectfully Nami is towards him. He is nowadays more than a fool to tool, he has become a good friend.

All in all, in the end we all shippers in the whole fandom should remember that eventually Oda-sensei is the one who decides the plot twists in canon and even if the ending wouldn’t turn as wanted it doesn’t mean anyone’s ship is ruined or deserves some mud on on it. Besides it’s easy to forget that even the author said that One Piece’s main goal is not romance but chasing dreams and the importance of friendships.

[a-dumb-sarcastic-bisexual]

My thoughts about Raya and the Last Dragon because I want to talk about it so bad.

I did like the movie

It was a gorgeous movie like possibly the best Disney film when it comes to animation

With pretty compelling characters

God I adore Kelly Marie Tran’s voice acting

I did have some problems with the humor

Mostly Sisu it was very jarring to be in dystopian southeast Asia then hear about group projects

But for the most part, I think they did a pretty good job of balancing the humor with the most serious aspects

I brought my mama to see this movie and it was really sweet to see her eyes light up when she saw something familiar

She would just point at the foods and go “Look Satay, look Duran, look rambutan, look shrimp paste” as if she didn’t raise me on this food

Raya asking Namaari if she’s eaten is possibly the most Southeast Asian question I’ve ever heard

If you didn’t know this Southeast Asians really show their affection through food

At any and all gatherings we bring food

Food is a major part of our culture so its something I’m glad they got right

I really love Raya she’s such a thought-provoking character

And I love how she’s not the typical princess

Also, I don’t know about anyone else but her mindset is incredibly accurate to my family

The second I was out of the womb my family forced trust issues onto me

My mindset ever since I was little was “never trust anyone or anything new”

God I wish it were a tv show

Almost every single bad thing I have to say about it could have been fixed if it were a tv show

Obviously, I have other gripes with it like how it’s not even available to most of southeast Asia

And you cant really take multiple cultures and mash them together and go “boom representation!”

And I am sad that most of the voice actors weren’t even southeast Asian

The lack of southeast Asian voice actors paired with the smushed together cultures really made the representation feel very fake

Like “here’s you’re princess now you can stop complaining”

As someone of Southeast Asian descent, it kind of felt like a slap to the face

But back to my less heavy gripes with the movie

Making it a tv show really could have fleshed out the characters

I know we would have had to give up that gorgeous animation but I would have loved to see a more rough animation style if it meant more lively characters

Something a friend and I were talking about is all of their character development felt very rushed

Because here’s the thing Raya is an incredibly selfish character

During the entire movie, her main goal was to bring her father back

She really didn’t care about her people which was a really interesting thing to see because that almost never happens with royal characters

But anyway around the end of the movie when she was helping the people of Fang escape during the entire scene the only thing I could think was “but why tho?”

She was never given a scene before this where she could go “ah-ha! Maybe just maybe my father isn't the only person in the world that deserves to be saved!”

So when she was being the typical Disney heroine it felt very rushed and fake

Like she was only doing it because everyone else was

If these characters were given more screen time where they could spend time in the different lands and learn their stories then Raya’s journey could have had more dept

Like we could have seen it slowly go from “I want to bring my ba back” to “I want to bring this person back” and “I want this person to have their parent back” and “this family deserves to have these people back”

And so on and so on until she has a ten-page list of promises to people

I also think it would be interesting for her to lose some people she met and bonded with along the way

Obviously not from the main cast but maybe an ally she made through joint trauma

This would have made the end scene all the more heartwarming because all those people would be there for a reason

I don't think the found family lived up to their full potential

Because as cute as their dynamic was it felt very shallow at some parts

She had no reason to trust them and they never gave her a reason to and vise versa

So when they were all huddled together before turning to stone it kind of felt very shallow

Like don't get me wrong it was a sweet scene that made me tear up a bit

But could you imagine seeing them bond over the course of a season or two

We could have seen them fight side by side and help each other and make sacrifices for one another

And see them really grow into their roles of the older sister or the father or the little brother

Like I said it was a cute scene but it could have been so much more heartfelt

Another thing I want to point out is Raya and Namaari’s conflict

This was another thing that felt very rushed for me and something that could have been easily fixed if this was a show

Because here’s something that kind of bugged me Raya brought Namaari to see the dragon gem hours after meeting her

And yeah I know that she was 12 and she was trying to trust people because she wanted to help her father in his journey to make Kumandra a reality

But could you imagine how much more Namaari’s betrayal would hurt if she and Raya had bonded over the course of years

Like can you imagine watching Raya and Namaari grow up together to a point where they were inseparable

And then Namaari backstabs her and pulls the “in another world we could have been friends” line

I feel like that scene would have hurt so much more if they really knew each other

Another thing I would have liked to see is Raya through that six-year period

Just seeing her grow increasingly frustrated at not being able to find Sisu while also having an Aang and Zuko like bond with Namaari

Like year sure they fight and stuff but they also save each other from life or death situations

Because no matter what the other did they still care for each other

So if they decided to write them as lovers their relationship as a whole would have much more depth

Which honestly would have made the scene where she gives Namaari her gem piece more powerful

Because it kind of reaffirms what we all knew throughout the entire series that no matter what they say or do to each other they still to some extent trust one another

But in the movie again it felt really shallow I think my friend explained it best when she said it kind of felt like Raya was only trusting Namaari because Sisu told her to

There was no emotional backing there was no real reason to trust one another it just felt very rushed

Next, I wanna talk about Namaari

She’s one of my favorite things about this movie

Which is why it sucks that we don't get to see more of her

I think this movie did something really interesting by making the typical Disney princess Raya’s enemy for the majority of the movie

And what I mean by typical Disney Princess is she cares about her people to a fault

She did everything for her people she stole the gem because she thought it would help her people

She tried to stop Raya from collecting the gems because she didn't know her reasoning and she thought she might be a threat to her people

And she has such an interesting perspective of this story which I again really would have loved to see over the course of a season

I would have loved to see her watch Fang slowly fall apart and see her grow more desperate to save it

To a point where she would have to hurt Raya in the process even if she didn't want to

Because as she briefly mentioned Fang looks pretty but it has a lot of holes and I would have loved to see what she meant by that

Like how bad Fang truly was

Like I said most of my gripes about the movie were its pacing and how it would be so much better in a tv show format

But these are just my opinions y’all can love the movie or hate the movie

You can agree with me or not I’m just putting my opinions fully on display for all to see and judge

[firelxdykatara]

I really like hearing your thoughts on ships, so I was just wondering what you thought about the episode 'Seeing Red' from Buffy as a Spuffy shipper. I love the ship too and remember being so uncomfortable watching that episode. It felt like it came out of no where while I was marathoning the show

Ok so, I’ve been sitting with this for a while (my inbox is telling me it’s been 10 days......time plz stop moving without me noticing), mostly because it’s... a really Touchy topic, for a lot of (very obvious, to anyone familiar with the episode or the arc) reasons.

CW for discussion of attempted sexual assault and rape ahead. (I’m gonna talk a bit about Willow too.)

First of all, I wanna state that I understand why Seeing Red was a ‘point of no return’ for many people. There are a lot of people for whom sexual assault/rape is The Thing they simply cannot get past and they could never see Spike or Spuffy the same again, and that’s valid and understandable. For me, personally, I don’t consider it any more or less reprehensible than murder or anything else vampires and demons get up to in the show because they’re monsters and very specifically Not Human, but at the same time it felt gratuitous and unnecessary (like the writers were trying to remind us Spike was really evil right before he went to get his soul back of his own accord, and I’ll talk a bit more about that later), and the episode itself is difficult to watch. (Also because it includes Tara’s death, which wrecks me to this day.)

It’s also been a very long time since I’ve seen the episode in question, mostly because I haven’t done a full rewatch in years, and when I do watch Buffy it’s either starting from the beginning and then losing track of where i was and starting over again, or else jumping to random episodes throughout the show which I enjoy and watching those by themselves (and Seeing Red is very much not on that list lol). So I rewatched it just to refresh my memory and....god there are a lot of other reasons I don’t care for this episode. (Xander was exceptionally horrific to Buffy re: finding out she was sleeping with Spike. Gods I dislike him more and more the older I get.)

In general, it’s just a really hard episode to watch. (And I’ll never forgive Joss for finally putting Amber Benson in the opening credits, only to kill her that same episode.) There’s a lot of ugliness, and the Trio are among the worst villains in the show--not in terms of how they’re written (they feel kind of terrifyingly realistic, although they also seem kind of exceptionally meta in light of how much has come out in the last decade about Joss Whedon’s own attitudes and behavior and treatment of women), but because every other big bad with very few exceptions has the excuse of being a soulless vampire or a demon or a hellgod or some other monster that can’t really help the fact that they were made that way. The Trio are just normal dudes who think they’re entitled to women and money and power and are willing to do absolutely anything to get all three, proving that maybe it isn’t really the presence or absence of a soul that actually makes humans, like, humane.

But that’s me side-tracking. As far as Spuffy goes, yeah, this episode is pretty brutal. There’s no mincing words here--Spike attempted to rape Buffy, and he only stopped and had his ‘oh my god, what have I done’ realization after she managed to kick him off. If she hadn’t, he probably wouldn’t have stopped. And I can almost understand it, from a writing perspective--how do you make a soulless vampire realize that he’s truly a monster and, further, how do you finally get him to want to change that? Make him cross a line he never had before. Except... that really wasn’t necessary. Not for his character arc, nor for his relationship with Buffy, and a part of me thinks that it was really intennded to just drive home the message that Spike was a monster, and that Buffy could never really love him, and the easiest way to communicate that was sexual violence, something that the show never really had its vampires engage in previously. So it would be a shock to the audience, it would throw Spike’s motives into question when he went to get his soul back, and it would make his presence in season 7 a constant question, plus provide a reason for Buffy not to trust him.

I think all of this could have been achieved without the sexual violence. I think the scene was largely done for shock value--again, to douse the audience with ice water and remind them that Spike, no matter how chummy he’d seemed with the Scoobies since getting chipped and eventually working with them, was still a monster. But we really didn’t need that reminder, and I think it would’ve made more sense for him to simply attempt to kill her--still a betrayal, still shocking, still something that could spur him into the actions he would take afterwards (going to get his soul restored), but without the exceedingly uncomfortable attempted rape scene in a season where there had already been serious issues with consent.

I’m talking, specifically, about Willow.

There’s something interesting I’ve noticed in fandom, and it’s that people really don’t seem to want to talk about or acknowledge the fact that Willow raped Tara. Maybe because it was via magic, rather than violence--or because it was never really called what it actually was in the narrative, or because they’re The Gay Ship of btvs, I don’t know. But she did--when she spelled Tara to forget about their serious fight which had been building for weeks, and then went to bed with her. And then explicitly had sex with her the next day. It’s part of why I’ve always had a complicated relationship with “Under Your Spell”--I love the song, but it’s also literally spelling out the fact that Tara’s mind had been violated by the woman she loved and she could not consent to sex while under the spell.

So that moment was already toeing the line in terms of consent and at least Tara was able to talk about how Willow violated her mind and how that made her feel (in song, at that), but Seeing Red was like a slap in the face. Where Willow’s magic addiction and willingness to cross those lines had been building for more than a year, Spike attempting to rape Buffy came out of nowhere. This isn’t a show that explored any really complicated relationship between vampires and consent (in The Vampire Diaries, for example, vampires have an ability called compulsion and compelling humans that they then have sex with is pretty normal and no one really blinks about it, human or vampire; it’s definitely still rape, but it’s not treated as anything particularly beyond the pale, because they’re vampires who can control the minds of their prey and don’t tend to consider the feelings of their food sources to be of any real importance), and while the vampires are hot and have sex, there’s never been any indication that they sexually assault humans in addition to feeding on them.

I think that specific scene in Seeing Red is the hardest to watch in the entire show. There’s really nothing like it in any other episode or with any other villain, and it has a tendency to sit in the back of the mind and sour feelings about Spike and Spuffy because it’s genuinely difficult to forget. I’m not sure if the intention was really to turn people off Spuffy (especially since he got his soul and came back in season 7 and Buffy forgave him and fell in love with him), but that was certainly the effect it had on a lot of people.

For me, personally, like I’ve said I don’t like the scene and I don’t think it was necessary, which is why I tend to ignore it as much as possible when I’m thinking about Spike and Buffy and their relationship. It’s a thing I know that happened, but I also know that I don’t think it was particularly fitting from a character perspective, and that makes it easy for me to file it away as sloppy writing and generally OOC, and move on. Again, I can definitely understand why some people can’t or don’t want to do that, but I also know that a lot of people continue to love Spike and Spuffy and I don’t think I’m alone in considering that moment to be OOC for him and generally try to ignore it in my meta and other analysis of the show.