keylimejuice

[keylimejuice]

house rules suck sometimes :(

[keylimejuice]

i forgot his event ended today…

[keylimejuice]

i heard durbe is in the game now

[keylimejuice]

Sometimes I remember that both Eliphas and Don Thousand are 8'0 tall and BEEFED OUT but Astral is a lil skinny 5'4 fella

[keylimejuice]

as an Astral lover, genuinely curious about people’s take on this

cause to me, I am kinda baffled by the sheer audacity of Astral pulling this insane manipulative lie ( no matter how “good intentioned”, it was still a lie, and a manipulation. Cause we learn later he it was just a trick to ensure Yuma dueled him and got his “kattobingu” spirit back )

It just seems so??? Out of character???

And especially after he had such a literal conniption regarding Vector's similar tricks and manipulative lies ??

[keylimejuice]

I find it so interesting that, with Eliphas's initial design, that he essentially hides what makes him and Astral so similar with a mask.

There are two kinds of Astral Beings- the ones who are born into that world, like Ena and the civilians

And the ones who were created to serve a purpose, like Astral, Eliphas (and Don Thousand too by design)

But by the time we meet Eliphas, he isn't just a simple tool like Astral is. Astral World created him to execute their ideals, to rid chaos of their world and act as their representative.

It's obviously true that Eliphas took the mission programmed into him to the extreme, harming those around them and, in all honestly, probably is the reason as to why Don Thousand turned out the way he did.

But a part of me wants to think that past doing his mission, it was also a matter of ego as well. This is what he's supposed to do, but he clearly has usurped even Ena's power and Astral World seems to unable to prevent him from doing what he wants even though they all seem to have changed their minds over excommunicating chaos.

He and Astral are so alike that it's easy to interpret them as family.

They were both made by Astral World. They were both made to complete a mission. They look so similar, two of very few who look like they do.

Except Eliphas hides it well.

Astral isn't given any clothes to wear while Eliphas wears brilliant golden armor. Astral is treated as expendable while Eliphas represents their world as a whole, and he isn't even named after their world like Astral is.

Astral wears his distinctive markings for all to see, and Eliphas hides his markings.

He hides proof of their similarity because he may believe himself better than his inception. He serves his world but he has also been deciding whats best for it all on his own without listening to the opinions of it's citizens. It's likely, even more than Ena, that Astral's mission was his decision as well.

And I like that after we see Eliphas accept that he was wrong and acknowledge the existence of Zexal that we see that he was just like Astral the entire time.

I love the Astral World characters so much aaa

[keylimejuice]

good GOD never making dumpling wrappers from scratch again until i get myself a rolling pin and biscuit cutter

[keylimejuice]

still alive, just still recovering from severe burnout 😵‍💫

[keylimejuice]

hear ye, hear ye, i return from the dead (whee!)

not sure what to do with this particular blog, as i have currently lost the drive for zexal and when i started this blog it was just for yelling zexal thoughts into the void. but it might become a behind the scenes for other stuff on here, like recipe building and the like :O

recently i’ve gotten super into the cooking aspect of dungeon meshi! and cooking in general has been on the brain. though! i’d really love to go back to zexal one day and maybe even expand on potential recipes in there as well

i just wanted to write this out here. i probably won’t make anything zexal related for a while, so if you suddenly start seeing a large influx of unrelated cooking related rambles it’s probably me ヽ(；▽；)

thabks!!! ^^ i hope everyone’s been doing well <33

[keylimejuice]

im so dumb i just now realized that this random ass guy in ep 89 that fights astral and yuma

was the godforsaken door this entire time……

its been 11 freaking years man.

like, yeah of course the thing that leads the duo to the numeron code just the door from episode 1 manifesting into a humanoid demon creature (because of course it can do that) to play a card game and no one in universe says anything about this, just of course, so obvious!!! /s 😩😩😩😩😩😩 D UHHHH

[keylimejuice]

nothing irritates me more than apps offloading themselves out of nowhere and forcing you to update them when you have to redownload them

like. i turned off auto updates for a reason. GET A HINT!!!!! 😦

[keylimejuice]

hey hi quick thing: i was messing around with jisho and in japanese, X (chi) is pronounced キー (kii)

the X in zexal is silent. it can stand for overlaying (which i think is what it’s intended to mean), but also: X (chi) pronounced as キー (kii) is the same way the word key is transliterated.

X = chi = kii = key -> emperor’s key, aka the thing that started it all for zexal

so we have zeal, and we have overlaying (x), and now we have x (key). the three things in zexal that make zexal

ok. goodnight :]

[keylimejuice]

we peaked with bread and soup

[keylimejuice]

was looking for art of an old oc, got mega judged instead

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don’t you just love accidental cosplays

[keylimejuice]

Story Time:

Working in retail is really fun, and the times when major fuck-ups happen, they can be either anxiety-attack inducing, or make it possible to get through the rest of your god-awful shift with a smile depending on the customer. My all-time favorite absolute fuck-up is as follows:

This kind woman is just doing her thing. She scans her membership card from her keychain. The register beeps to acknowledge the scan. We continue as usual. Neither of us notice right away, but after I’ve scanned a few more items, I hear a very quiet, “Um,” from the lady, very polite. I look at her. She is looking at the screen of my register, blinking. I, too, look.

And lo and behold. There is a charge of over four-thousand dollars ($4,000) worth of garlic bread staring us in the face. There are no words for a minute. We’re just… in awe. How did this happen? How the hell did this happen?

She didn’t even have garlic bread in her cart.

I sputter a partial apology - I was incapable of forming actual sentences in the moment - and try to void the garlic bread. Since there was no garlic bread to scan, I try to manually remove $4,000-some from this transaction.

Well, the registers don’t like it when you try to void off more than five dollars ($5) from a transaction, so naturally it pings my manager for confirmation, but she’s not by her pager.

At this point, both myself and the lady are just… dumbfounded. She’s not even mad. I’m not even all that embarrassed. Both of us are just looking at the screen. There’s a bit of laughter, but it’s mostly just… confusion.

I have to call through the whole store for my manager on the intercom because she’s not answering. She shows up, ready to override and void it, when she too, sees what exactly is being voided.

“What… did you do?”

“I genuinely. Have literally. No. Idea.”

She voids it, and I go to finish the transaction and tell the woman her total (minus the garlic bread). My register pings. It tells me that she hasn’t scanned her membership card. Odd. I distinctly remember her doing that. The woman goes to scan her card again, and I notice that her library card is stuck to her membership card. I tell her gently, and she separates the two and scans her card.

My manager, hovering nearby still, sees this and says, “I think it mistook the barcode of her other card for garlic bread, and the remaining digits were read as the price.”

And that’s when the laughter really came over us. There were no hard feelings at all. In fact, the woman was incredibly glad that the receipt still showed the garlic bread and the voiding of. I will remember it until the end of time, my only regret in the entire situation being that I didn’t take a damn picture, because she has proof and I don’t. But I swear to God it happened.

TDLR; Library Card Charged $4,000 of Garlic Bread.

[keylimejuice]

come here for a second while I psychoanalyze the Sargasso episodes

this is mostly about Astral, but there will be things about Vector and Yuma too (screenshots from episodes 96 to 98)

Vector was terrible, but he was right

if you don't think too deeply about it, you might miss this whole macabre undertone in Astral's very existence

so.. we don't get to know Astral and Yuma are the same person until the last episodes. Their Zexal morph is a very good hint though!

some points to take into consideration regarding them:

Yuma and Astral's relationship is borderline co-dependent (even more so on Yuma's side, considering his age and attachment style);

Astral was shoved on Earth and forced to stay by his side, risking his own life to recover the Numbers. Yuma's dad was the one who set that in motion by modifying Astral's "programming" and giving Yuma the Emperor's Key - that Astral himself gave Kazuma - and the Key set Astral "free" but causing his amnesia;

the fact that they have been one person is not the problem. Now that they are separated, they have lives of their own. Is it "fair" or "right" to mingle those lives, feelings and experiences into a sole unit again though? What happens with their own singular existences?

2 halves of 1 whole means they're both "incomplete"...... or are they?

Astral never had any will of his own. All this time, he's been bound by his mission. I don't think he's "emotionless" because he's from Astral World (plenty of people there as emotional as humans), it's probably because he is a weapon

he learned a lot of typically "positive" emotions through living around humans - more indirectly, by observing and watching in general; and also directly, thanks to Yuma, his friends and family - and, although, he had also experienced typically "negative" emotions, those were quickly shutdown, resolved or reframed

what Vector did, when he planted those seeds of discord, was to get Astral to face those "negative" emotions without any immediate way to diffuse them

what happens when an individual that is supposed to remain pure and impartial, keeping his feelings in check and using neutrality as much as possible, is driven into an emotional corner? What happens when this individual is pushed to experience conflict - and a very harsh one at that - when he's never had the tools or expertise to deal with it, since he was never really allowed to feel it?

Vector calls for Astral's "free will" knowing he had little to none at that point

his manipulation succeeded because, as Astral was the pillar of support in his relationship with Yuma, and Yuma was unstable with the whole betrayal drama - which, ironically, he also did to Astral, although it was more of a "lie by omission" - Astral did not have anyone close enough (other than Yuma) to support him, and Yuma was now a "liar"

Astral was alone, what a mess!

yes, Astral could have simply brushed it aside and thought about it rationally like he always does, conflict resolution is one of his specialties after all, and it works wonderfully when you're able to put emotions aside and use solely logic

in the end of the day, he would understand why Yuma did that, he would take Yuma's point of view, personality and own issues into account, and he would forgive him - as he did anyway!

he would have not looked into himself though so... Vector asking those questions was maleficent in essence, due to his intentions, but it also served to make Astral face his feelings

and Astral breaks, of course he does

...

one thing that really bothers me now, going through these scenes again with a different mind and thoughts, is how they handled Astral after: everything went "back to normal" and when something similar would happen again - Astral imbued with Number 96's Chaos that other time - Astral went the self-sacrifice route (probably part of his "programming", if I were to guess) as he always have done. Little to no regards to his own self

again and again and again he just pushes himself into neutrality and completing a task - hell, he can't even feel anything that isn't the most wholesome and healthy emotions without that throwing him for a loop, with a risk of him going berserk again, who even knows?

also greatly dislike how feelings of anger, being betrayed, sadness and hurt, are painted as "evil", literally

that is the whole premise of Chaos as the "enemy" after all: while Astral World is "pure" with only "acceptable" emotions, Barian World accepts the full scope, focusing on the sadness, the hurt and the anger.. understandably so

this scene is fantastic and really hits the nail on the head:

yes, Astral, Yuma did something terrible

many other terrible things too

you didn't get angry, how could you? After all, Yuma didn't mean it!

there we go: Vector played him like a fiddle

he knew exactly where to go and what buttons to push - for both Yuma and Astral - and he absolutely nailed it

even though it was the Barian power who caused them to split and Astral to lose control. That power is Chaos, it's all these "negative" emotions Astral literally cannot feel fully because they are fatal to him

what's really interesting though? This is his own inner voice:

it was the first time we heard Astral talk to himself like that - notice how deeper it sounds, much like Number's 96 voice (96 would be Astral's Chaos counterpart, I guess)

and then finally...

oh, now this is fun

I can see 2 things here:

Astral wants to become whole and/or

this is pure power lust (since he is stronger as Zexal)

this scene with Yuma bothers me a little but I get it: they're the same guy and Astral is an alien so it makes sense that Yuma would be able to "access" his heart, now... what he does, although it's a very "Yuma thing", also gets on my nerves but we'll get there when we get there...!

his own words - with a nudge from Vector, of course - man, this was so satisfying to see! Astral recognizing his own feelings, his own pain, not having to immediately make peace with it and just...... feeling these emotions

that's growth, baby!

I also love how he experienced splitting (black and white thinking): can't feel bad emotions at all -> can only feel bad emotions. And hyperbole, over-generalizing: "I can't believe in you anymore."

goodness, I love the immediate change in his tone when Yuma calls out to him: he's back using his soft monotone voice, tinged with a bit of curiosity

and he slowly...

... descent into madness...

... as he speaks about his feelings. I dare to say this was the most expressive Astral has ever been (and it's a shame we don't get to see such huge variety in his facial and body expressions for the rest of the show)

Astral goes back and forth in his exchange with Yuma here: a soft tone when answering directly to Yuma's feelings, just to be swept away by his own frenzy again

it's a really lovely contrast, and I wonder if it was on purpose? Even when lost within himself, he still directs gentleness towards Yuma; even when his very words bring Yuma to tears, he does it kindly.. sort of

we love to see it! And it was power lust after all

now.. let's talk about Yuma a bit, shall we?

Yuma is stubborn

that's kind of.. his whole gimmick with his "kattobingu" and everything. He will get what he wants with the power of friendship and being obstinate to the point of annoying. Unsurprisingly, it does work well for him! He managed to change and befriend, virtually, all characters he have met who showed any kind of animosity towards him or someone else

the flip-side is that he will not take "no" for an answer, will he? Like how he managed to break Ryoga in, by being extremely persistent on wanting to be friends...

... or when he jumped off a window to get Astral to stop

he will see the "good" in everyone and he will push his ideals and kindheartedness with no regards for the other person's wishes. It's really bothersome because it's genuine

too much of "too good" can be very toxic though and, ironically, Astral's predicament is good proof of that. But how can he blame Yuma? How can anyone blame him at all?

he did what was "right" in his heart and had no ill-intent. His naive nature makes him extremely easy to manipulate and he can be driven into corners having to make hard choices he will not be able to make (such as which friends will he be able to save? So many of his foes exploited this very weakness of his)

...

at last, forgiveness:

... and we're back to the "good" X "evil" dichotomy...

this is precisely why Astral World is dying (but they will only realize that later in the show), and why the Barians are trying so hard to save their own world: the "villains" are trying to survive, and the "heroes" are imposing their own wishes over everyone else - how ironic, considering the protagonist and main "hero" is famous for doing exactly that aha!

so the lesson to be learned after all this:

yes, that's the point!

this is a good thing, actually. Astral is capable of experiencing emotions, all of them! He grew and he became stronger than before, this is why they managed to evolve their Zexal form

to me, this was a massive step in completely "separating" Astral's existence from Yuma's, meaning: Astral existing as his own person

unfortunately, the show did not explore that development much further, and like I said earlier, everything went "back to normal" in a way or another

I guess.. uhh... it was probably good that Astral went back to Astral World in the end, after all. He was in his own world, not bound by Yuma or the Emperor's Key anymore, and he was living his own life independently

and an addendum: while Zexal 1st was more alike Yuma, Zexal 2nd was more alike Astral! Probably because the scales were tipping to his side more, due to everything that has happened. I think it's interesting and makes me wonder how Astral would look like as a "human" (2nd looks close enough to me)

also big shoutouts to Mizael for hating Vector's gut. Me too, mate, me too LMAO

Vector is probably the most intelligent character in this whole show, he was written brilliantly and the fact that he doubles down and keep on "betraying" people, just makes him so much more interesting

he is vicious and remorseless, and these are some of the things that make him such a wonderful villain. You really get to see him and his fiendish mind shine in these episodes

...

if you read until here, congratulations! You are very cool yay <3