#(*narrator's voice* she is not over it)

[ash-and-starlight]

.

[dazais-guardian-angel]

Okay but forreal, now more than ever I desperately NEED Aya to eventually wreck Fyodor's shit somehow. I already wanted her to get her revenge before, but I didn't think Fyodor would even remember or know who she was, and would massively underestimate her for that reason (just like Jouno knew that Fukuchi would underestimate her). But now the story has instead created this twisted, fucked-up dynamic between them, where Fyodor not only knows her, but is protective of her for reasons that are not his own: he has taken the pure, noble, kind, fatherly love motivating Bram to protect Aya and warped it into something horrific, vowing to protect her body only while not caring how much her heart and mind has been scarred, and claiming to be doing it for her own salvation, when he cannot possibly understand the selfless feelings Bram had that made him want to protect her and care for her — feelings that he does not have. He may genuinely have some sort of affection for children (the way he treated Karma, "blessings for the children", this), but it is twisted and hollow and is quite possibly only him unconsciously acting out the motions due to behavior instilled in him from the feelings of all the people he's subsumed in the past.

All this is to say that, now the narrative has specifically pitted Aya and Fyodor together as direct enemies: she not only had reason already to hate him because he killed Bram, but because he's also taken Bram's love for her and defiled it, dishonored it and him and all that he was; meanwhile, Fyodor has given himself an arch nemesis that he no doubt takes great pleasure in seeing how much she hates him/how much despair he's brought her, but paradoxically at the same time feels a compulsion to "protect" her that draws himself to her and that he can't ignore. Aya has to defeat him somehow (not permanently, mind you; Dazai will undoubtedly be his final end), and the setup for Bram being able to fight back enough to stop Fyodor from the inside with her help is all right there, too. Their love for each other is still enduring, stronger than ever, Fyodor is proof of that right now, and they will be able to defeat him together, at least enough that Bram can be freed and come back to Aya. Dazai told Fyodor that he would lose because he doesn't understand and underestimates the power of friendship bonds and love, and there is no better a time for that to happen than here, when he is literally using someone's strong love for and connection with someone (acting as that person and claiming to know how they feel and to be the same as them) in a way that he cannot understand, which will be his undoing.

[quirinah]

SLAY THE PRINCESS (chewing on drywall)

[lunar-years]

saw the tags on ur post and I HATE when people super engrossed in fandom get into the well it’s based on ___ or its a reference to ___ or the actor said ___ commentary in arguments. like at the end of the day that stuff is interesting and cool but 99% of viewers don’t read that stuff and the creators know that. so the average viewer who they write for is just interpreting the actions and looks on the screen not going “oh this is a bill Durham fake out moment” lol

yeppp. Also, taking inspiration from other movies and having it be an influence for a tv show doesn't mean the plots are going to exactly align or that the film dictates the canon of an entirely separate piece of art. just because one took influence from the other, they're two separate entities! This isn't a one-to-one type of thing!! if it was there'd have been no point in writing it, everyone would just go watch bill durham!

Now, to be honest I fully had to look this movie up, as I am not up on film culture nor was I alive in the 80s, lmao. so for those who also may not know, the IMBD synopsis for bill durham is as follows: "A fan who has an affair with one minor-league baseball player each season meets an up-and-coming pitcher and the experienced catcher assigned to him." and then the woman dumps the rookie at the end to get with the experienced catcher! so you can certainly see where the influence came in with royjamiekeeley (particularly s1 royjamiekeeley)

buttttt....

not to be incredibly petty (but i am going to be anyway)...need i remind them that by the middle of ted lasso, let alone the end, Keeley is every bit as much not with the "experienced catcher" as she is not with the "rookie".... :)

[crimeronan]

great news everyone. i'm still in love with ianthe

[inuhodo]

afraid, yes, but among you again crying yes risk joy in the raw wind of the new world

The grass under her hands feels different, it feels new, and she can't help the tears that fall and the grin on her face. She doesn't know anything but the ecstasy of being alive.

friend (now isle) makes it out of the fade :> for a moment what was twisted untwists as she just sits in wonder at being alive (excerpt is snowdrops by Louise Glück)

[perenlop]

for a romhack thats supposedly about darkrai, eots is reallyyyyyyyy obsessed with chatot. it also reallyyyyyyyy hates chatot.

[aahsoka]

the desire to slow down and just read a physical book vs the desire to be able to do other things while listening to an audiobook

[missmouse43]

10 days until obx 3. I’m fine. This is FINE.

[faiirytopias]

“i’m fine… i guess i’m just starting to realize that i’m never going to be anyone’s first choice and that hurts.”

@strongxsurvivors

[heartsbreaking-migrated]

@shadowbrn sent [TEXT] - i’m sorry. / ian gallagher

[ MSG : ian ] what the hell? [ MSG : ian ] its been six hours [ MSG : ian ] i'm over it

[soldier--poet--queen]

Hey Everyone I Just Finished Trimax and Oh Boy Would You Believe That I'm So Completely Normal About It.

[wabblebees]

BEE the people demand to know. how was ur audition

DUDE i just got notified im called back!!! for tomorrow morning!!!!! im SO fucking excited omfg,,, and like. Even More Nervous ghdjsk

i dont think i did *terrible* or anything but i def walked out of the room afterwards just... Not Feeling It lmao, but it was still so so much fun -- gOddddd i fucking missed musicals+singing WITH PEOPLE. i even got to use my low range and sing with the tenors😌💕 ((whiiiiich. turned out to be the part with the most fuckery lmao, so i hope i didnt embarrass myself too badly as the... perpetually loudest mf in the room lmao))

the movement call was the part i was most nervous abt for tonight ((since i am patently Not a dancer)) and ngl it was. Rough. bc we'd been standing around for hours doing music and my knees were NOT pleased with me even wearing my braces

but!! callbacks tomorrow are doing solo singing, which i feel much more confident about, and!!!!! i got called back for the part im hoping for AND two parts i was *totally* not expecting!!!!! so im definitely okay with how it went:)<3

[tiredassmage]

Return of the King, the Old Guard’s back together, the boys are back in town, etc etc etc, I’M SO FUCKIN FRAGILE Rishi class quests my beloved. Dad’s back dad’s back dad’s back

[garland-on-thy-brow]

Compare: "the gendered metaphor of faithful narration".

Unreliable translator.

[icharchivist]

What was that Zack scene originally about?

Yes, I'm giving you carte blanche to rant about Zack if you want -

that's so sweet anon. you really shouldn't have said that, but that's so sweet!!

and the original scene was how he met Cloud!!!!

(sorry i am NOT linking the remaster, you suffer through the 2007 graphisms with me but i genuinely can't take Zack's new VA sorry--)

Gongaga is the name of Zack's hometown, they were genuinely just talking about their hometown and messing around

talking more about it (you're enabling me) + more spoilers

I find this scene just genuinely sweet. The fact Zack, at this point, is a pretty accomplished Soldier First Class, he's one of the most respect men of his order, and yet he takes the time just joking around with this new infantry guy, the guys people like Zack never really take the time to care about. He's genuinely thrilled he can talk and have fun with him like that.

meanwhile for Cloud it's just. Out of context it might not be anything, but in context, do you know how rare it is for Cloud to smile this brightly. do you know how Cloud's usual mood, especially in the past, is "being a jerk". Cloud isn't the friendly type, he appears also in Before Crisis which happens at the same time as Crisis Core, and Cloud is literally a bitch with everyone, he rarely manages to connect with people, he's moody and he feels like he can't blend in with anyone.

And Cloud admires the Soldier First Class a lot, because he had a fascination about Sephiroth since he's a kid, and Zack is just that as well -- and then Zack just. Jokes around with him. Genuinely finds him fun to be around.

Zack also grounds Cloud's dreams that way. Sephiroth is a child soldier who was made in a lab, even without knowing this second part, it makes him a sort of unachievable ideal. Cloud is just a country boy who can only hope to be on the level of someone that powerful. But Zack is currently on the same level as Sephiroth - Sephiroth's friend, even - and yet he comes from the same background as Cloud. He's basically a realistic ideal for someone like Cloud.

It's how their friendship starts, and because they had fun like that Cloud actually opens up to Zack about how he wishes he could be as strong as him, and Zack immediately offers to mentor him, that he believes in him, that he'll make sure to help Cloud forward. Everytime Cloud helps out during Zack's mission, Zack takes the time to praise him, being genuinely thankful and earnest about this.

and then Zack goes through a horrible grief, and when he comes back from it.... he still singles Cloud out in an army of infantry fighters like him to tell him he believes in him.

And it's like. The kinship of it all. The moment they could bond about being so similar in term of goal and background, with Cloud's insecurities being eased by Zack's boundless optimism.

Zack is called a puppy a lot in Crisis Core because he genuinely has this excited mind of wanting to cheer up on people like this. It's really sweet and this scene really does a good job at showing how those two did become close.

And it's especially something that's touching because when Zack does die in Cloud's arms, this is what Cloud flashback to.

and the remaster makes it less clear, but you need to understand that the 2007 has graphisms ^ like this at all time except on the opening and closing cutscene, and the closing cutscene is Zack's death, and Cloud has a flashback to it.

3:32 for the timecode, else here a gif:

and fans have talked for decades about "Cloud's shojo filter" on the way he remembers Zack. Because ultimately CC is on Zack's perspective, so the first scene is just a silly thing, he's not thinking hard about it -- but for Cloud it's not even just the words that matters as much as seeing Zack being so joyful about spending time with him.

The "Me? Gongaga" meme was especially started by putting the voiceline of the original scene onto the more "dream filter like" Zack appearance from the ending, to really show just how Cloud is romanticizing and idealizing the person Zack is in his mind while Zack was just being silly.

But then it just got out of context and out of hands and people just laugh at Zack for being the "me? gongaga" guy because it sounds like he's a himbo caveman type, but he's not!!! he's just a guy who was everything Cloud could hope to be, and who took one look at Cloud, and decided right there that of course he would die for him. that's all he can do now. And all of that knowing that this is the last Cloud will remember of Zack for a long while after that. This is the last time he rewinds all of his memories of Zack. And then his brain goes completely haywire and gives him amnesia to cope with the loss while also still idealizing Zack so much in his own head that this is what ends up indicating the way he talks moving forward.

so yeah i just have. lots of feelings about it, the way it became such a huge meme while i'm the person *crying* in both of these scenes just gets me like. what do you mean it is funny. what do you mean your heart isn't breaking in your chest right now. What are you d--

so yeah. yeah. Many opinions about all of this basically,,