#??? i'm not sure tho it's more abstractive

[suddenly-frankenstein]

overflowing

[transgenderer]

Been thinking a lot lately about the ethics of stealing. It's a bit weird as commonly seen as unethical acts go in that it's sort of naturally zero-sum rather than negative sum. Like if you steal it benefits you about as much as it harms the other person. I think the strongest arguments are about loss to security. Like, a world where people steal more is one where more resources are spent as security and other than that there's the same resource distribution as before. But of course that's a crude approximation. You can argue stealing is equalizing tho, the haves spend on security and the have mots don't. Or it's anti equalizing, Maybe in a higher stealing world the poor are constantly getting stolen from cuz they can't afford security

I shoplift sometimes. This feels like a sort of obviously ethically neutral act, who is it hurting, if it's from like, Walmart. But maybe the harm is just very diffuse, spread over a lot of people. And I'm certainly creating a world where more money goes to anti-shoplifting security, which feels like a waste. And I'm vegetarian, which if it has benefits must be very diffuse benefits. There does seem to be a sort of symmetry between eating meat and stealing.

I got my bike stolen a couple days ago. It was a rental and I had the key so it only cost me 60 euros, so I'm not that mad. If anything the real victim here is the rental company, presumably the bikes cost them more than 120 euros. I felt sad about it but I didn't feel angry (I only really get angry when I feel helpless. Helplessness makes me so angry). I'm not sure if I feel the person who stole it did something wrong. I mean, they are my enemy, in a practical sense, they harmed me. But i think someone can be your enemy without being unethical. This is possibly strange of me, I don't see people often saying this. But I think it's pretty common! When I pirate an article instead of paying for a subscription, I am the publishers enemy. And when they paywall it, they are my enemy. But neither of us are doing something wrong, we just have competing needs. I think stealing is best understood in these terms. Stealing makes you an enemy of the person you're stealing from, an "op", but it's not bad in the abstract.

[g4l4xy-qu33n]

This is a little brain munch but how would jax react to be flirted by someone who wasn't his s/o

Like a new person came in and took a liking to jax and was all flirty with him. Would he be uncomfy or flirt back to mess with his s/o. like to think Jax's loyal, but he'd be a ass about, tho. to either person. s/o or new Flirty perosn

Me personally idk what to do if this happened I think I would just kinda stand there wondering why it's happiness in the first place lol

oooh my first headcanon ask!! Tysm :D

Jax's reaction to being flirted with by someone that isn't his S/O

I definitely feel like Jax would be uncomfortable being flirted with if it's not his S/O. (and also a bit confused, because there's two people that find him attractive???? What?? He's hated by everyone else, and suddenly there's two people that like him?????)

If him and his S/O weren't officially together, then he'd probably play-flirt back to the person, but it would be forced, and he'd be obviously annoyed and half-arsing it, trying to get the person to screw off.

But if him and his S/O were 100% dating (or more) he'd try to ignore it at first, then start getting more and more pissed if they don't leave him alone, eventually resorting to actual violence

(Actual violence includes but is not limited to: throwing a bowling ball at them, drowning them in the digital lake, throwing them in front of a rollercoaster at the digital carnival, etc.)

If the person doesn't stop even after that, Jax will make sure to stick by your side at all times, because they're really stupid if they flirt with him while you're right there, right?

He'll also make sure that you know he loves you and only you, by making sure to be extra affectionate and loving. Especially in the bedroom ;)

And if the person still flirts with him, after everything he's put them through, he'd personally go up to Caine and tell him to banish them, whether it's into the void or the pit full of abstracted characters, he doesn't care. He would just want them out permanently.

Hope you like this, anon <3

And I'm sorry this took a little bit, it's the middle of exam season for me in Australian Uni :(

[amerricanartwork]

I want to say I love reading your headcanons, especially your Iterator ones. Do you have a unique headcanons for Pebbles, since you haven't talked about him much?

Ohhh, I'm so glad to hear that!! I love creating and typing down these headcanons, but sometimes I worry whether anyone actually wants to read these long posts about it, so it's always so nice to hear people appreciate them!

I would love to talk more about Five Pebbles! I actually have quite a few headcanons for him specifically since I tend to ponder him a lot. In fact, of all the canon characters, when it comes to headcanons that aren't purely working out their general personality and backstory I think I currently have more outside headcanons for him than anyone else.

But nonetheless, assuming you mean "unique" as "interesting and relatively uncommon/unheard of in the fandom", here's one of mine that might seem odd or specific, but I really like it!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

I’ve headcanoned for at least a few months now that Five Pebbles is very much an auditory learner. He’s more receptive to spoken and auditory information than just written text, and as such he tends to talk a lot, which is how he best formulates his ideas. 

Now, when I call him an auditory learner (or maybe just an audio-oriented person in general would be a better way to describe it), I also mean he generally cares a lot about how things “sound” to him. Five Pebbles pays close attention to how certain sounds “feel” in a sense, not just with regular abstract sounds, but spoken words, phrases, and ideas too. He likes it when sentences flow smoothly, convey the proper emotion or idea, and sound intellectual and well-thought-out, and dislikes when phrases sound clunky, confusing, or otherwise unprofessional and improper. In situations where he wants to appear smart and sophisticated, especially in a competitive sense, he loves flexing his extremely large vocabulary by throwing in long and obscure words and technical jargon too. To reference my last headcanon ask, this trait is another quality making him dislike NSH, who doesn’t care as much about grammar or syntax and thus tends to speak in casual ways Pebbles finds “improper”.

Usually, when he has a decent amount of uninterrupted personal time, Pebbles will spend several hours on end just talking to himself in his chamber to work out his ideas and plan any essays or speeches he’s preparing to give. He loves making sure that every sentence sounds pleasing, proper, and is grammatically correct, yet still explains his ideas thoroughly and accurately. However, despite being an introvert who values his alone time, he sometimes talks about his ideas to other iterators, especially when he wants feedback and criticism. In fact, having long discussions and debates, particularly about scientific, artistic, and philosophical matters, is perhaps one of the only things he actively enjoys doing with other people.

In this latter regard, this habit was actually one of the only reasons he occasionally, yet still actively sought out the presence of Unparalleled Innocence, someone whom I headcanon he never had much of a relationship at all with, positive or negative (at least pre-AU, that is). But nonetheless, Innocence is a very good listener and never declined an invitation to talk with him, though more often than not it turned more into him just rambling about something and her quietly listening and encouraging him to continue on (which she did for… other reasons besides her fascination with the subjects of his speeches, but I will get to those some other day…)

Another facet to this headcanon is that Pebbles has a strong appreciation for music. He finds it helps him calm down and work through his emotions very well, alongside one other habit I’ll address in a more official headcanon post. Thus, he’s got various music pearls with his favorite tunes that he’ll listen to while working or when he needs to relax. The purple one in Rivulet’s campaign is only one of many, though that was also the only one he could obtain at the time his chamber was broken into by the rot. 

His love of music has always been another little “worldly pleasure” that he took for granted, not realizing just how much he enjoyed it until after mass-ascension. And even then, he stuffed it deep inside him and kept trying to downplay its value to him all the way until his rot condition was almost at its climax. This emotional turmoil I imagine him having is a particular element of his character arc I find very interesting even in regular Downpour canon, but once again I will elaborate on it more later…

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Anyway, there's the headcanon! Seeing as I'm planning to explain major character info in official headcanon posts, I tried to choose one that wasn't too essential for narrative comprehension, but is still unique and hopefully decently entertaining in-and-of itself. I also tried to use this to test a new format of doing more sketches for these headcanon posts, so it's not as much pure text.

Anyway, I hope you like it! And if you (or anyone else reading this, for that matter) ever want more headcanons, or can add to this one, don't be afraid to send another ask!

[cococaffeinated]

I have a headcanon that Jax doesn't like being alone- for himself or anyone else- and that's why he suggested Caine create an adventure for Pomni, and later, that they go find something to eat, since those activities would likely keep people together. It could also be why he made sure Gangle and Kinger would stick together, and hid with them after Kaufmo abstracted.

I have a few more reasons for this hc, but I'm not good with words and this already feels clunky to me, so I'm leaving it off here.

(ps I keep reading your name to the tune of 'go go power rangers'. It's not relevant at all but I thought you should know.)

Oh, I enjoy this! I can totally see Jax trying really hard to pull strings as subtly as possible to make sure people aren't alone.

I bet Zooble is always the hardest to convince to be amongst the others, it's probably why Jax was in no hurry to "save them" from the gloinks to cos those humanoid hashbrowns are from Caine's homebrew adventures, so they should be relatively harmless and a cause for mild inconvenience (which would mean Zooble'll be too busy to be in existential dread even if they were alone).

---

Also, I think it's neat that Pomni got sandwiched between Ragatha and Jax's two opposing attitudes during their breif walk to Kaufmo's room.

Ragatha likes to see the bright side of things or say positive remarks just to avoid the darker side of a conversation. While Jax, on the other hand, just teases Pomni for thinking her situation is still just a dream. It's like a healthy dose of "Technically, this might be shit for you if you're this shocked, kinda funny tho." and "You'll be okay... Probably, Certainly." (I didn't even realize my name had the same syllables as 'go go power rangers, I can't unhear it thank you for this blessed infernal knowlegde)

[aachria]

i was rereading sssbmty and I realised smth, well not realised but yeah. as I was rereading I noticed somthing. Ed was bitch. not like 'omfg Ed ur such a bitch' but like 'wtf Ed? ur such a fucking bitch! jesus...' and then I got to alabasta.

ur a genius, I've read other fics like this for example divergence and another one I cant remember the name of (going to read this bites soon... maybe). but what really puts your fic at the tippity top is giving Ed character development, not a whole fucking arc to them obvi but giving them actual character development. Ive read so many what if I was in... but I rarely see authors giving the oc development because they don't think about it or they don't think they do.

but in alabasta, Ed was saying how no one listens to them and saying how they're always right (kind giving ranpo from bsd) but then the straw hats tell them that they don't say anything with conviction.

they basically tell them (incoming poetry made by mwah) that we cant hear you screaming if youre the one keeping your mouth shut.

yeah you can use that for future reference I'm an amazing poet fr fr but its really an eye opener for ed, so far Ed was making theories with no support or little evidence and everyone went along with it. so it doesn't really make any sense to Ed why no one is listening to them. because they haven't realised that even tho they're right about where to go, its vivi's country. vivi isn't their friend because she doesn't like Ed which further dampens ed's theories on where to go because it ties into vivi and hope. there's an analysis on YouTube by MelonTree (I reccomend her entire chanel) which gets deeper into this. but the straw hats trust vivi and want what's best for her. so when Ed is screaming about where to go, they don't say WHY. they don't further in on how vivi's destination is wrong or how there's other possibilities. instead, Ed tells vivi that's its stupid, we're wasting time, I know where to go, why wont you listen.

they aren't listening to Ed because Ed isn't even listening either. Ed was making bets on vivi's country which is a funny gag, is INCREDIBLE dark to her. she has spent years invading buroque works and when she encounters this strange pirate crew they want to help. but this one crew mate isn't serious and theyre laughing and screaming at her because she's wrong. that is the pov of vivi towards Ed.

so Ed and vivi talk it out and here comes Ed, they realize that even tho I'm on the crew, that doesn't mean I'm likable. its seen through the fic that they start to work on themself and provide more evidence to theyre theories.

another thing, the title was familiar, idk why so why when I ask chatgpt what the title is: it doesn't talk about the fic but a fucking poem from the 1920's!?

"Surely some star binds me to you" is a line from the poem "Tea at the Palaz of Hoon" by Wallace Stevens. This poem, found in his collection "Harmonium" (published in 1923), explores themes of self-identity, imagination, and perception.

The line suggests a mystical or cosmic connection between the speaker and the addressee, implying that their bond is predestined or influenced by the stars. It evokes a sense of fate and the interconnectivity of all things, typical of Stevens' abstract and introspective style.

In this context, the "star" symbolizes an inescapable connection, potentially representing destiny, love, or an elemental link between individuals.' WHAT THE FUCK? anyway I'm burnt out and finished rereading the fic so imma go have ice cream like the dumbass I am ;p

Oh this is a fucking mammoth. For your dash's sake I'm putting this under a break lmaoooo

Ed having ✨issues✨ they had to work through was important to me. Hell Ed still having ✨issues✨ they're working through is still important to me. You know when people do those comparisons of a character at the start of a season and the end and they're just so much sadder and fucked up? The goal was to make that Ed. We'll see how that goes. I'm gonna 'to be loved is to be changed' this bitch if it's the last thing I do.

Ed has that kid in your math class that only writes the answer because showing your work is for cowards inside them. Ed fights that kid inside them like they want his lunch money.

I've watched a couple of MelonTree's videos, they are very good.

Idk what the hell ChatGPT is on but like... that is not correct? I went and read the poem, it's quite nice, but there isn't a single use of the word star in it and the line definitely isn't from it. THIS IS WHY I DON'T TRUST AI AIGHT????

I've mentioned it a couple times before, but the title comes from Persius's Satire 5, it's in Latin and there's a couple translations here and here (neither of which have the line as I have written lmao) and I'm sure plenty of others. The line is about his teacher and is very beautiful ok I like it a lot. I went and did a bunch of digging into it a while ago (because of course my stupid ass didn't do more than preliminary research on it before I NAMED MY FIC AFTER IT) and like... y'all....

(I'm paraphrasing because I'm tired and can't be assed to do more than reread the wiki page this shit) Persius's satires critique societal morals (he also gets upset people like other people's poems more than his but that might be ironic idk these things are DENSE and HARD TO READ), discuss themes of what you can ask of the gods, why you should have goals, why you have to know yourself, MOST IMPORTANTY and in the satire the line comes from; Stoicism and freedom (Stoics believe all men are slaves except Stoics, who are free), and how you should use money. Also very interesting, there's a lot of scholars who believe his satires (mostly the first one, I think??) have anti-Neronian sentiments — which is really fucking funny to me specifically because do y'all (if you're caught up) remember Iva talks about the 20 founding members of the WG and about Nerona Imu? And how empty throne Imu could totes be him if he had the eternal youth surgery thingy??? Idk if Nerona actually has anything to do with the emperor Nero (because of translation diffs and any subtleties in the original Japanese I'm too English speaking to understand) or if they just sound similar in English, but it's a hilarious coincidence to me either way.

OK RANT OVER GANG I'M SORRY.

[ca-suffit]

I have a kind of dumb disorganized question. Do you think we’ll revisit the reasoning for the San Francisco memory alteration in season 3? I might be just missing something but I don’t think there’s actually an established reason for Armand altering Louis memory? I tend to think we’re all in alignment that Armand made the edit for both Louis and Daniel, (again showcasing how the power dynamics in Loumand are kind of deceptive - Armand is just much more powerful than Louis both socially in the world and as a vampire) but I’m just not sure what the reasoning is?

I saw a kind of interesting post out in the wild proposing that Louis actually did ask Armand to alter that memory and while I think that’s interesting in the abstract, I can’t divorce the race/power dynamics angles that would call into question (delegitimizating what Louis has been through). Which brings me back to, for a number of reasons I do think the intended read is Armand erased the memory from Louis’ mind without his knowledge. But I’m back to the question of why? It kind of seems like Loumand is in the same spot before and after the mind wipe to me, is there another layer here I missed?

I think we'll learn more about it somewhere in the show as it progresses, yes, cuz it's too big of a mystery to leave unanswered.

this is sort of an aside before I get into it, but I keep thinking of the extent of these powers. we don't know a lot about it still. armand seems aware that recollection is possible, bcuz he's not ttly surprised when he sees that daniel and louis have remembered stuff. so I think it's interesting why he chose that moment and not others and I'm still piecing together thoughts about it as a whole.

anyway tho. this is potentially a headcanon as my answer, so remember that bcuz I'm def not trying to say this is "the" answer. I have no idea fr.

armand's "explanation" in 2x6 could be a whole post itself but that's sort of ot so I'm just going with what the "truth" was otherwise for so long. let's look at the phrasing of it.

armand doesn't forget that louis thought daniel was "fascinating." he also didn't forget what louis said it meant for their relationship that he stay alive. if we consider that armand has awareness that memories might partially or fully return, placing himself as responsible for seeing the "fascinating" qualities in daniel first and "saving" him from louis makes him look better than what rly happened. without the actual audio from that time period, neither of them prbly would have remembered the rly "bad" parts. I'm gonna guess armand knows this too as he's shown unwinding tapes (I know they're not *the* tapes but still, the visual is there for a reason....alongside editing claudia's diaries too) and obviously this part of the interview was *not* kept to the og version anyone had access to that he was aware of.

assad said in an interview (sry I forget which one rn) that armand is thrown off when he speaks to louis about turning madeleine. when louis kisses him and then walks away, like he could walk away at any moment from the whole relationship and be fine without it. armand in the show says he'd be "nothing" without louis. I'm not sure when it starts exactly but there is a point where armand puts himself in the position of always knowing what's "best" for louis. it's a subtle manipulation and not what louis was used to from lestat. it gives the illusion of being cared for by someone who loves u instead of being controlled. armand knows that louis thinks he's boring so he has to do something to create a world where he isn't....or at least where louis thinks highly of him for *something.*

I always saw a lot of daniel paralleling jonah in this. both of them live to old age even tho their existence is painful to some of the most powerful vampires who could have killed them in a second. killing either of them would drive the wedge between them (lestat and armand) and louis even further tho, and they both know that. it also won't fix the issue. ya ok so jonah *did* have more of a history with louis before that moment than daniel did but it's still the same thing of "why do u feel this for someone else and not me? what is wrong with *me* that we don't have this?" especially cuz both points of interest are humans compared to vampire partners. lestat prbly kept tabs on jonah his whole life too.

so that's as much as I've had thoughts on this anyway. idk if it helps.

oh also ia and I don't think louis would ask to erase anything either. this is a man who keeps pebbles in his ankles to remember claudia's death. louis is so full of catholic guilt that there's no way that man would ask to forget *anything* that hurts him.

[bonefall]

a field guide specifically about the creation of the clans and stories about the early clans would have been SO COOL but no we spend an arc with clear sky

on that note tho are there any cool legends the clans share about the beginning of the clans in BB?

If the writers go 5 minutes without saying Clear Sky smells nice they will die

COOL LEGENDS BB!CATS HAVE ABOUT THE DAWN ERA:

Generally, stories from this time are heavily mythologized. It is the era of legends and high fantasy, with its founders being remembered as abstractions more than real cats.

So ideally I'd love to tell arcs where every appearance of the founders in StarClan is like seeing angels. Monstrous, powerful beings that are more elemental than feline. Then, suddenly, you get to go back and see them before their appearances were twisted by generations of fantasy.

The Red Squirrels and the Gray Squirrels (Pishkaf om Chakchak) A ThunderClan myth, especially popular after the exile of SkyClan. The story goes that the wretched gray squirrels once decided to persecute the humble red squirrels. So the red squirrels appealed to Thunderstar to save them, but Skystar decreed that might makes right, and refused to manage the gray squirrels in his territory. It's treated as a kitten story, a parable about the importance of managing one's territory and defending things with low threat level.

Bumble Mumble and the Rogue of Rot The Clan cat version of a tower of babel story. It's the story of an unnamed rogue who steals the kittens of Turtle Heart and Bumble Mumble, killing Turtle Heart in the process. In response, Bumble lets out a mournful wail that strips the Rogue's words away and scrambles language forever.

Sun Shadow Steals the Sun The story of One Eye's defeat, slowly morphed into a cute tale about why you can't stare at the sun. The legend goes that One Eye was unbeatable, wearing a pelt that could not be scratched, even as all the founders united to defeat him. Sun Shadow realized that the only thing that could defeat him was the power within him, and so he challenged him to "show all of his might." Through this, his flesh was burned, but he gained a power above all. He guards this now as the sun itself, but would have to give it up to the next person who defeats him in a staring contest. So don't look!

Snake Claw's Serpents Newest one I'm still working on; but once upon a time, in his hatred of serpents, Snake Claw slew all of them from the deadliest adder down to the most defenseless slowworm. But without snakes to fear coming into their burrows, all the prey hid there, and all the cats of the Clans went hungry. He begged StarClan to return the serpents, and they agreed-- but he would need to craft them again, from memory. He spun his hate into love, but each one still came out endearingly wonky. It's why a grass snake has no venom, a slowworm's tail can fall off, and some adders are green. And most importantly, it is why "Snakes" (serpent in Clanmew, "Sis") have scales despite being "Worms." He forgor.

That last one's still changing though, I think it's very cute but I also want to make sure to put Snake as a character rework before the fun legend I want him to have, lmao.

[sillyj3sterl0ver]

I JUST GOT AN AMAZING IDEA, RIGHT?

🎪Tadc theory for future episodes-

--------------

What if at the start of each episode, each different character has a dream about the cellar and getting abstracted and rejected.

Lemme explain that better...

Episode 2-Pomni has a dream at the start of the episode, about being sent to the cellar and getting abstracted. What if it happens with other characters in each episode, adding more character lore? Gooseworx did say the show is gonna focus on character lore and story more. So these dreams could lead to us learning about each character more in some way, shape or form. This could mean, at the start of each episode we get dream sequences from each character.

I'm making myself hyped for no reason-

Here's a list:

Episode 2-Pomni has a dream

Episode 3-Zooble has a drean

Episode 4-Gangle has a dream

Episode 5-Ragatha has a dream

Episode 6-Jax has a dream

Episode 7-Kinger has a dream

Episode 8-Caine could have a dream about losing the other circus members

Episode 9-Pomni dreams about the previous abstracted circus members

**Or maybe switch around episode 8 and 9's, I'm not sure tho**

It something like that.....

(If that makes any sense🥲)

SCREW IT!! I'm doing posters for this, no one can stop me or will beat me!!

(Let me have my moment, I'm writing this at 3am)

[rikeijo]

Hi! I've heard somewhere that some lines of Yuuri's speech at the press con in episode 5 were mistranslated and that because of this, the speech comes across as if Yuuri doesn't know what exactly he is feeling for Viktor. I can't tell if it's really mistranslated, but I always found the subs in this scene a bit confusing. So, I'd love to know: how would you translate his speech?

Hi! Thank you for the ask!

I must admit that I've never properly watched Eng sub or dub version, and even though I bought the US edition to someday discuss some translation choices (that's imo super fun thing to do ✨) my only laptop that had a built-in DVD player broke down >.<

Sooo, I searched online for his speech in subtitles, but I'm not sure if the subtitles I've found are official...

"My theme in this year's Grand Prix series is "love". I've been helped by many people in my competitive skating career thus far, but I've never thought about "love" until now. Though I was blessed with support, I couldn't take full advantage of it. I always felt like I was fighting alone. But since Victor has showed up to be my coach, I've seen something totally different. My "love" isn't something clear-cut like romantic love, but the more abstract feeling of my relationships with Victor, family and hometown... I was finally able to realize that something like love exists all around me. Victor is the first person I've ever wanted to hold on to. I don't really have a name for that emotion, but I've decided to call it love. Now that I know what love is and am stronger for it, I'll prove it myself with a Grand Prix Final gold medal!"

If this is the official translation, then well, the overall message is close, I'd say, but at the same time, hmm... If you wanted to base a ""deep"" character analysis on it, it could probably lead you in a wrong direction... Especially the end is just mistranslated.

今年のグランプリシリーズで僕がテーマにするのは〝愛〞です。My theme for this year's Grand Prix series is "love".

今までのスケート人生いろんな人に助けられながらやってきましたが、愛について考えたことは一度もありませんでした。In my life as a figure skater until now, I've come to the place, where I'm now, while being helped by a lot of different people, but I haven't even once thought/pondered about "love".

恵まれた環境にいながらそれを生かしきれず、１人で戦っているような気持ちでずっといました。けど、ヴィクトルコーチが現れて、僕の見ていた景色は一変しました。I've always been in a very favorable ["for me to be a figure skater" in this context] environment, but I wasn't able to make a full use of it and I always felt as if I had been fighting alone. But, Coach Victor appeared and the scenery I see [that is: the way I see the world around me] changed completely.

僕の愛。それは分かりやすい愛や恋ではなくて、ヴィクトルとの絆や家族や地元に対する微妙な気持ち。My love. It's not [general] love or romantic love that is easy to understand, but my bond with Victor, and the lukewarm way I feel about my family and my local community. [This sentence, imo, is often mistranslated, but you can also argue about how it should be interpreted in Jp. However, to do that you have to be able to notice nuance just from the intonation of the sentence... For example, imo, because of where the VA makes a pause in the sentence, it should be "general love or romantic love that is easy to understand" and not "general love that is easy to understand or romantic love", but grammatically both option are possible. "微妙", when you look for the definition in a dictionary, is often translated as "subtle" or something similar ("abstract" is just a mistranslation, tho), but, imo, from the context, it should be the more modern meaning of the world, which basically means nowadays "not bad, I guess, but I don't really know". That's why Yuuko was offended by Yuuri's word choice. Also, based on the intonation and grammar (no need to have two "や"s in one sentence when giving examples) "bond with Victor" and "feelings towards family and local community" are two separate issues.]

ようやく自分の周りにある愛のようなものに気づくことができました。At last I was able to notice the love-like thing that is around me.

初めて自分からつなぎ止めたいと思った人、それがヴィクトルです。The first person that I myself [the vector of the action starts from Yuuri, it's an allusion to what the Nishigoris talk about with Victor in ep. 2] wanted to tie to me [and don't let them go] is Victor.

その感情に名前はないけど、あえて愛と呼ぶことにしました。This feeling doesn't have a name, but I decided to dare to call it "love".

愛を知って強くなった僕をグランプリファイナルの金メダルで証明しますっ！ I'll prove myself, who got to know what love is and because of that became stronger by [winning] a gold medal in the Grand Prix Final. [The way it's worded suggests that Yuuri wants to prove his own "worth", not necessarily that what he says is true - it's not "I want to prove that...", but "I want to prove myself, who...".]

Oh, and by the way, if you read the speech carefully, Yuuri talks about "two loves" here - first, he explains that his theme is "love" and what that word "love" means to him - so "something like love, that is around him", and only then he starts talking about one more feeling - the feeling that doesn't have a name, but he decided to "dare to call love" - and that is what he feels for Victor. Because the word "あえて" is there, and it means "dare to", do something "daringly", to me it always felt as a variation/reference to the famous quote from Oscar Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas' poem "The love that dare not speak its name", but maybe that's just me ✨

[quickends1998]

idk what the deal is but for the past couple days i've been crying so much which is itself unusual considering that as much as possible i dont cry at all about anything ever. but suddenly for no apparent reason i've been crying over anything or even nothing atall pretty much nonstop. im either crying or im at work trying not to cry. im trying to decide on a few particularly illustrative examples of things i've cried about to show just how abundant the waterworks have been but idek what to say when it'd be easier to tell you instead what wont make or hasnt yet made me cry. which atp is nothing cuz some time after the first day of this i ran out of things to cry about so now i'm crying about how much i've been crying. ok like right now im listening to migos and as soon as i heard takeoff's voice i want to cry like he was my brother or something, when in reality he was my least favorite migo. and now that i said something so mean i want to cry even more. but it's fine because by now i've already cried for every person who i know of in the particular as well as every person who's ever lived but who i never knew of in the abstract, many times over. and similarly i've cried for everything that's happened and everything that didn't happen thru all of history and all of the things that might happen in the future. i don't get it because i don't think i really am sad about anything, or even if i am theres no way im sad about quite literally every thing. but when i think of these things i think i do really feel sad in a way idk how to describe and that im not sure if i've ever felt befor. whats weird is i usually would consider it uncomfortable to be able to feel any emotion to this extent, especially a negative one, but it doesn't feel all that bad for whatever reason, it almost might even feel kindf good tho i wouldn't necessarily describe it as cathartic since like i said not actually sad. i think this must be what it's like to be pregnant or have a brain tumor that causes you to hav inappropriate emotional responses to things

[latteandjacks]

The circus is hell, or purgatory or something like that, not literally but a personal one for sure

You know

With Pomni saying "he wants me to suffer" and not sounding like she was talking about Caine, the fact that they refer to that place as hell in a more personal way than just the fact that that is the name of the room they're in and Kinger's sanity getting back from the dark but ALSO the recording of the guy saying he killed his own wife

It all just makes me believe more in the "the characters deserve to be there as a personal hell" theory

In this essay I will-

Something something Jax deserves to be in the circus the most ask answer something

If I remember correctly, the characters didn't just straight up forget everything about the real world, they just forget their names and likely, most of their lives (Like Zooble who doesn't remember their gender), which is weird because why would they remember references to movies such as Augustus Gloop but not remember something as basic as their own names? What even is that system?

Going back, the moment Pomni and Kinger get dragged to "hell" is when Pomni starts to lose her mind and breaks

Tbf I'm also losing my mind i'm running on 3 hours of sleep

I think we all catched up that the "he wants me to suffer" felt too personal to be about Caine, mainly because she's referring to herself and not the rest of the cast even tho she knows by this point that Kinger isn't having a good time either. The thing is that she knows HE wants her to suffer but she doesn't know WHY, she knows she is in hell but has no idea what she did to deserve any of this

And I believe is worse to punish someone and never tell them why, than to tell someone why they're being punished, not knowing what they did to deserve it will only contribute to the mental torment

Yeah, we can easily guess why Jax is in the circus, but how about the rest of them?

We don't know much of the characters, but assuming they're straight up horrible people like Jax is pretty boring This is where the other theory of "Every member of the cast, abstracted and not abstracted, worked for the company at some point, or was somehow affiliated"

We know what the show is based of: I have no mouth and I must scream, we could assume that it's not deserved as in "they did the unspeakable and are going to get tortured because of it" but more like "they got involved into things they shouldn't, and are now paying the high price for it"

Lets move the subject to Caine for a bit

We all now this, Caine is the name of the first sinner, Cain's punishment is to be inmortal and forever walk in earth among humans and can not be killed And also, Caine is probably NOT in control of the circus, apparently, there's someone above him, whether that someone is a human or an AI like AM, is unknown

The circus still depends of him tho

The moment he starts to question what is he good at if not keeping people sane the world crumbles

Caine is, in a way, some sort of opposite to AM

He likes humans but doesn't understands them, he tries to keep them from losing sanity and TRIES (and fails) to treat them good and decently, he also is sentient and doesn't seems to have a problem with it While AM keeps the humans alive to torture them, Caine has no control on their lives but tries to keep them safe

It connects back to the original idea, the cast is in hell, but while AM actively tortures them in the most gruesome ways you can harm a human, the circus destroys them from the inside

His job is to keep them there, you're no allowed to die and instead become an abomination with primal instincts that can't be easily calmed down for probably eternity, the alternative is to surrender to the madness and go into adventures that, most of the time, just end up very wrong and traumatize the cast

Caine is UNVOLUNTARELY torturing the last remaining humans that were put in that world, stretching it and getting confident, I would even say the last humans that worked in the company

Jax deserves to be there the most, this could just be a joke about how much of a dick he is, but it can also be literal and he was a horrible human being It is unknown if the rest of the performers might've done crappy thing voluntarily or willingly, so we can just assume that working for C&A is already bad enough to deserve to be put into a colorful hell as the circus

"He" could be anything, the boss of the company trying to get rid of his employees in the same way many people disappeared after using their products, employees that think everyone deserves to be punished for supporting the company, even a bigger AI that became sentient and realized what they were doing

This also just concludes another thing: They can't escape, they will never be able to because the circus is made to be an eternal punishment, you can't get out of hell (well, technically you can but that's not the point) so you can't get out of the circus either

The characters are being mentally tortured and punished and they can't even remember what they did or what they should be repenting. The headset is MADE to not allow you to remember yourself, but the life's of the other around you

So basically: The cast worked for C&A, they were punished by getting them stuck in the circus and they don't know that so they have no idea that they're being punished and why for

[atlas-of-galaxies]

I'm not sure if you're still doing anything with this but, if you are, could you please tell us about your TMA/YTTD AU? The art was really good and I love the media involved!

ohhh thank you so much! that crossover is still so near and dear to my heart, I'm so glad people enjoyed my self-indulgence.

I've talked about my reasoning in the past, as well as discussion of what other characters might fit what in my tma entities tag, so definitely take a look at that if you haven't already!

I'm seeing now that i never talked about my reasoning for Kanna, Q-taro, and Mishima, so if I may indulge myself further ...

Kanna as the Lonely

a bit of an obvious one - she's defined from the moment we meet her by her loss and the absence of her sister. her position in the group as a whole is also weakened by her isolation with Shin - even if it seems from the outside he's manipulating her, that separation makes it a little hard for Sara to trust her at times ...

she's absolutely someone who's strengthened by her bond with others tho, as we see in 3-1 when she actually gets to work with everyone. it's just up to us whether she gets there or not.

Q-taro as the Buried

ohhh I'm so sorry but I'm so proud of this one. first of all - he literally dies in a coffin. what I really enjoy about this assignment is the whole idea of being trapped tho.

Q-taro constantly feels trapped in his life, and takes big risks to get himself out of those situations - he felt trapped in the hospital, and he was so desperate to get out of the Death Game that he stabs everyone else in the back to do it.

Mishima as the Eye

this is definitely moreso related to his AI (haha. get it.), considering he gets more of an omniscient view of the Death Game proceedings.

he's also a bit of a narrative sacrifice, allowing the other participants to learn about the inner workings of the Death Game ... idk. this one's a bit abstract but I think it fits, especially considering that his death only happens because of a lack of prior knowledge.

and uhhh how about dummies for a bonus round!

Ranmaru as the Corruption - he's sooo toxic it's not even funny. maybe I'll still draw this someday, I have a fun composition in mind.

Mai as the Hunt - she's the one who's most forward about the game Midori puts them all up to. she actually betrays Q-taro for her own survival, though he's far too kind to let that be the end for her.

Hinako as the Stranger - do I have to explain her. do I have to

Hayasaka as the Buried - guy's stuck in a dead-end job doing morally questionable work for an all-powerful company ... guy's as buried as it gets.

Kurumada - I used to have him as the Flesh for kinda superficial reasons but since his minisode I feel like he may also be Hunt tbh ... it's all about the "strong eat weak" mindset, after all.

Anzu - honestlyyy I have the weakest vision for her. I'm not really. a fan. of her minisode so I'm not taking much inspiration from it. I enjoy the Vast tho for her just cuz that's always a fun idea with performers and such. you could always go Stranger for clowns but I feel like that doesn't fit her personality much

[fourswords]

starting sketching out light and like. HES 12??? like I get it- he's about to be 13- And knight is the oldest at a grand total of 15 but like-

BRO DOESNT EVEN HAVE AN ATTENTION SPAN YET???

like I know they're dumb in the manga but ���� every 12-13 year old I've ever met is like a certified dumpster fire, which you might wanna consider in his character lmso

but I just feel like after the manga it wouldn't even matter that he saved Hyrule, he's just getting grounded until he's a legal adult 😭

like azure THATS A BABY- Aint no way he's smart enough to have even survived half the manga even with his dumb luck!

im crying please add like one year to all their ages im on my hands and knees is your goal to give this tiny child some form of PTSD because he is IN CONSTANT DANGER.children need to have a sense of safety (and their stupidity doesn't count, blue got swallowed alive and frozen, vio was lying to SAVE HIS LIFE, green was straight up about to kill vio and had to deal with attacking another knight, and couldn't bring himself to attack their own dad, and then red got chased by an angry mob and then lost all will to LIVE with blue in that one temple-) 12 is barely even conscious and self aware 😭

like I know 12 year olds have complex emotions and can handle abstract concepts and start getting into deeper moral understanding- but my human of earth the self awareness is either ONE THOUSAND OR ZERO AND THERE ISNT A BETWEEN AT THAT AGE-

im sorry if I sound rude or something btw I'm mostly just joking and I tend to overdramatize for comedic effect but I genuinely cant wrap my head around him being just 12- like at least 14??? maybe bump knight to 16 while ur at it? ?

also I'm gonna figure out some way to incorporate the different colors into his hat probably, its big so its like a bag lol since in the manga blue just shoved his whole hammer in there I'm pretty sure

smithy will be extremely small without complaint.

feel free not to take my words seriously tho lol I just cant imagine a 12 year old going thru the manga, like look me in the eyes and tell me a 12 year old-

if I misunderstood anything lmk lol I am a lil stupid sometimes

HAHAHA YES HE IS IN FACT TWELVE. The Legend of Zelda is a series that's all about "yeah let's hand this child a sword and let him go nuts" (to use a popular example, BOTW Link being canonically handed a sword at age four and is said in Mipha's diary to have been able to best grown men in fights: "At the request of Hyrule's king, a group of outsiders came to greet us at the domain. One of them was a Hylian child of only about four years of age. His name was Link. He made quite a first impression. He was curious and full of energy, with a ready smile. Are all Hylian children that way? One thing that surely sets him apart is his swordsmanship, which I hear is exceptional. He has even bested adults. He must be somewhat reckless, however, as he was covered in bruises.") and I absolutely intend to lean into that as much as possible. Light's age comes mainly from comparing Akira Himekawa's designs for Links of varying ages side-by-side with each other; for example, you have Minish Cap Link, who's very obviously drawn like a young child:

You have Twilight Princess Link and Ocarina of Time Link, both drawn to look like older teenagers (and we know OOT Link's older age is 16-17 depending on who you ask):

We have Skyward Sword Prequel Link, who is a fully-fledged adult (his other panels illustrate the difference more sharply, but this is what he looks like, so):

And then we have FSA Link in the manga, who is drawn to be VERY visibly younger than OOT, TP and SS Prequel Link, but is definitely visibly older than MC Link (he's got the rounder face + eyes, the shorter stature, and it becomes even more visible when compared to the knights in the FSA manga itself):

His maturity level also does, to me, match that of an average 12-year-old nepo baby (which he really kind of is)—kid who thinks he knows everything & that he's hot shit but is kind of a giant train wreck internally.

All three Four Sword heroes prior to him were explicitly stated to be "young boys", and FSA manga Link is really no different in that regard—in the context of my own AU, he's actually the one who went on his adventure at the oldest age (with Smithy going on his around 8-9, Four going on his at 10, and Knight now going on his at 11). It's just been a shorter time since his adventure than it has been for the others ^^;

[zvaigzdelasas]

so... is the coup in niger good?

What's that mean? If Nigeriens support it then it's an expression of the will of the people. If they don't then it's not. This can't be determined in the abstract & can only be determined by concrete facts on the ground at a given point in time.

Many Nigeriens seem to support it afaict, judging by western Media (whose incentive to evaluate sentiment is against the junta) covering pro-junta protests - some factors that may make that not as straightforward to evaluate from the outside are A) during a coup its probably best for your own personal interests to make sure you're seen praising the new leaders (tho most protests seem to be more "anti France" than they are necessarily "pro junta") so at least it's hard to hear from voices who might have in a frictionless world attended/lead an anti-junta protest & B) I haven't seen any numbers re: support - and can't really figure out how one would get those numbers in an accurate way at the time, so really all you can know is "X number of people joined the protest, Y didn't" without knowing the reasons for the Y group not joining

Pre-coup is a bit easier to measure feelings towards specific issues that are related, but I'm having trouble finding any sort of formal survey (if anyone knows of surveys in pre-coup Niger measuring attitudes towards France/resource extraction I'm all ears)- it was well known there was already tooonnnns of anti french sentiment across the Sahel & that seems to be the sentiment the junta are using to legitimize themselves - especially in the face of Bazoum doing things like outlawing protests against Barkhane & openly positioning himself as a friend of France.

Resource-centered sovereigntism is also a big factor in gaining public support, particularly when the people (rightly) see their country's resources as being plundered by their (formally) former colonial power.

Note that even in the BBC articles I've posted, the strongest Nigerien voice they've quoted as not necessarily in support of the junta is someone who criticizes their countrymen for wanting Russian assistance because "they're all Europeans". The keen eyed might notice that France is also in Europe, so the BBCs quoted opposition voice (insofar as they directly quote him) isnt necessarily even saying "back to Bazoum! No to the coup!", just "No Russia".

[pepplemint]

I haven't seen anyone talk about a scenario where Rem lives. Like it would change literally the entire story, whether other humans make it (as she intended) or just her (as knives intended), so I get why it's hard to imagine. But it'd be so interesting tho

Because as I've said, I don't think Rem would agree with Vash on a lot of his actions that he makes in her honor. Had Rem lived, that would have changed him fundamentally.

And Knives is even more interesting really. Because it's not as openly as Vash, but Rem is his idealised person too. And I'm not sure how Rem would react to one of her sons causing the death of so many people - could she still love him? Could she still bear to live with herself? And it would mean her last words to Vash was never to stay with Knives, which means if she leaves so might he. If Knives reacted badly to being rejected by humans as an abstract, how could he possibly react to being rejected by his own family?