#(and I REALLY hope i'm wrong)

[medinaquirin]

Every time somebody looks at the train of bullshit in my life and tells me "you deserve a break" the Universe gets the wrong idea and raises the mallet again.

[rika-mortis]

Accidentally saw some spoiler screenshots for the season finale yesterday and now after seeing the recent episode I DON'T LIKE WHERE THIS IS GOING FOR PERI

[dragondawdles]

did a piece in the LU server's gift exchange ! something of survival and reunions and smug little shadowguys

[lynnetendo]

some sifs I drew from memory into my sketchpad while I was at a family meetup... i thought it'd be fun to digitalize the more original style ones with a pixel brush and the ones that were more my own artstyle with my usual brush (initial pencil sketch under the cut)

unironically, any notable change you see between the traditional sketch and the digital version only stems from the fact that i had no space on the real paper e.g. the sketches being repositioned or sif's hat not being curled downwards everywhere was because i could actually use the space better digitally lmao

[bukashki]

Day 1 (slightly belated): Once upon a time

feligami february 2025!

[catliker49]

BWAAH! I bring forth.. yumeshipping! (still hoping that's the correct term!) And a Puppetsona... that I may or may not touch up sooner or later!

[fisheito]

before mirage of scales: I NEED YAKUYA EVENT

after mirage of scales: ah. um. i . i don't need yakuya event so much, anymo.re... hah..a...

[arscorpii]

these aerial shots of the streets in the scene where anthy was about to jump off a building in episode 37 remind me of a network of blood capillaries gradually flowing with some foreign substance (the way the red lines were drawn certainly resembles some liquid substance). the camera panned towards anthy from the 1st to 4th picture, and the streets gradually turned from pure white to white with some red.

before the suicide scene, utena and anthy were enjoying tea and cookies at akio's place, and they were wearing their school uniforms. anthy indirectly hinted at "poisoning" the cookies. in response, utena directly stated that she had "poisoned" anthy's tea. both accepted the poison into their systems (bodies) without any hesitation or qualms. noticeably, in this scene, utena didn't wear the rose crest ring that she took off at the beginning of the episode. i'd like to think of the streets gradually turning from white to flowing with red liquid as the visualisation of the poison they consumed in this scene gradually circulating in the system (via blood vessels and capillaries); thus, these points represented utena and anthy's bond/relationship with each other up until before the suicide attempt (white) and after (flowing with red).

up to at least the moment utena found out about anthy and akio at the end of episode 36, utena and anthy hadn't been honest with each other, despite utena saying to anthy that she could come to her if anthy had any problems, and that they can help each other through anything (episode 25). from the point akio began making bold moves in grooming utena (episode 30 onwards), which led to sexual assaults and rape, utena had started to keep things out of anthy's knowledge/unable to tell certain things to anthy.

a prominent example of this would be the scene in episode 36 where anthy asked about utena's whereabouts the night utena went to the dueling arena with touga. other examples are in episodes 30 and 35. anthy, on the other hand, hadn't been honest with utena from the very beginning. from my understanding, from both sides, the dishonesty with each other came from the dire need to preserve the sanctity/purity of their bond (and the despairing inability to open up about respective sufferings). both utena and anthy didn't wish to taint their bond with their ugly stories of truths. the situation was more adverse for anthy because letting utena know the truth could derail all of akio's plans.

(note the network of streets) with regard to the series, colour theories were ever-present in every visual aspect. white was equated to purity and innocence; red was synonymous with violence and danger. i think these meanings suited the visuals of the post-suicide attempt scene, the purity of their bond was incrementally coloured with violent truths from one another. moreover, i also think the post-suicide attempt scene further reified the cantarella scene. in other words, the post-suicide attempt scene was the more literal take/depiction/iteration of the cantarella scene (if that makes sense), with the visuals of the white streets flowing with red as the connecting factor between the two scenes.

the final visual of the "poisoned streets" before anthy urged utena to leave the school. the poison was freely and fully flowing through every street. throughout the suicide scene, utena and anthy were both in their sleepwear. this may connote a more vulnerable and honest disposition without any facade, as well as a better understanding and more equal footing with one another, compared to when they were in school uniforms during the cantarella scene. utena was also wearing her ring here, which may highlight her choice to play the role of a prince for anthy's sake to the end.

in addition, i think the streets flowing with poison could also be seen as a network of empty/dried blood capillaries finally flowing with blood; akin to a dead body coming back to life. after a person dies, the first visible change would be pallor mortis (within 15 to 20 minutes), wherein the body begins to pale because blood stops moving through the capillaries. with regard to this information, the visuals may indicate a sign of rejuvenation of the bond between utena and anthy after opening up to one another. the bond between them became more human, alive (flowing with blood), as opposed to being hollow (dried out blood capillaries; like death). to me, i believe both interpretations could work simultaneously for the visuals of the streets.

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

I had a lot of concerns about the writing direction going into the end of season seven. Hen's story line, Eddie's story line, and Bobby's story line all deeply concerned me. I thought none of them were good and that Hen and Eddie's were also particularly and thoughtlessly cruel. Then season eight was really bringing it back for me. I was having a good time, really enjoying it all, felt like the first five seasons again.

And now this.

Call me when Buddie goes canon, I guess.

[moongothic]

Madoka is the promise you won't turn from a child, full of hopes and dreams and the wish to save the world, into a bitter adult who just wants to hurt others and ruin people's lives

Madoka promised to be there for you to remind you of the person you wanted to be and to stop you from becoming what you sought to destroy

Madoka made that promise and became the very embodiment of it

[seventh-district]

Figured I'd try my hand at some Redacted character post/text edits!

[ 1 / ? ]

Credit to @/sainthowlzon for all the Listener icons, and to @/elisacaleisa for their google drive with all the canon icons!

(slightly alternative version of the Solaires' GC edit below the cut bc i had a lil too much fun with what Vincent would name his contacts)

[aseuki]

Posting it on main too, but here's my contribution to the @hoshinokaabi-secretsanta with a gift for @mastercrowned!! All of the given prompts were So Delightful, but in the end I had to go with drawing Morpho ordering a Kirby Burgie (or maybe 10) asdlkgjn

version without the text bubble under the cut!

This whole event was a Delight to participate in! Had I more time and energy I would have Defo scribbled out more, but for Now pls enjoy my Favorite part of the image that Unfortunately got masked by the completed piece which is.

Scrungle Dee

[marshmallowgoop]

No matter how special it is, a kid's lunch is still just a kid's lunch.

I dunno, I liked "The Genius Restaurant" (Episode 1,089).

Happy (belated) birthday, Jimjam.

[Song link] [YouTube link]

[melatonindeficient]

live laugh love mel

"Mel manipulated jayce" yeah you fucker she's a politician.

Mel isn't telling people what to or what not to think or convincing them to make drastic changes to their lives or personalities in order to bend them to her will. She just knew how to appeal to certain interests in order to achieve a goal. Jayce is an honest and sincere person—say what you want about her, but she was honest and sincere to him as well.

Not only that but she was a politician brought up by a narcissist who quite apparently skewed her perception of what relationships should look like so can we be so fucking for real.

Mel saw an opportunity for some sort of positive change and improvement and took it, and along the way she softened and began to actually love jayce. She didn't have to hold on to him any longer than season one. Hell, as smart as she is if she really didn't want to embark on a romantic relationship with him, she probably wouldn't have had to. And dude, jayce talis might be naïve but he also performed illegal operations in his apartment and performed immense scientific feats by the skin of his teeth. It's not like he just sat there without a thought in his head while him and mel first interacted.

And it never sat right with me that one can be so quick to call Mel a manipulator for wanting to use Jayce's knowledge to create hextech weapons while ignoring that that logic makes Viktor a manipulator in joining forces with Jayce to advance his own search for personal perfectability. I mean, they're parallels for a reason. And it doesn't seem so at first--because they worked as partners in the lab, but Viktor knew he couldn't do that without what Jayce knew, and he couldn't make the most of what Jayce knew without getting close--but Jayce and Viktor's lofty ideals of progress prove that they are flawed once the two of them begin to start working separately for different goals (as Jayce creates a hextech weapon and Viktor insists they must stop).

And in the end, who's the one who uses Jayce's knowledge for worse rather than better? Vik.

In addition, I saw a comment somewhere saying that when she met Ambessa again (in season 1) she realised that she didn't want to continue the cycle of transactional, manipulative relationships which her mother started and began to try and change in the way she viewed relationships, and in turn in the way she loved, and that's so fucking true like holy shit.

Jinx's projection of Silco says that "the cycle only ends when you walk away" at the very end of season 2, but Mel breaks her cycle far before she has her final encounter with her mother in episode nine of season two. No, Mel broke her cycle when she realized she didn't want to do to her great love what her mother did to her. When Ambessa tried to sink her teeth into Jayce.

(Meljay is my endgame I scream as they drag me to my enclosure)

[gingermintpepper]

I would love to hear you talk about Kassandra???

So, what can I say about Kassandra.

Well, firstly, I've been thinking about how I want to answer this question since I got it however many months ago and I figured I wanted to speak about my own interpretation of things rather than formal stuff - half because I don't want to cite anything since going through Iliad based papers brings me little joy and half because I figure I could treat it a bit more casually this way. So here's like, a very brief selection of thoughts I have about Kassandra, Saintess of Troy.

I view her tale as a microcosm of the wider tale of the Fall of Troy from Apollo's perspective. A human is given a choice and, of their own free-will, they make the most destructive decision ignorant of the way they're sealing their own fate and no matter how much their patron will want to save and help them, they will be unable to so much as lift a meaningful finger because the choice made is one that is sealed in Fate and powers far beyond any one god. The themes of doomed love are also shared; Kassandra loved Apollo just as Apollo loved her but she couldn't be what he wanted of her. She couldn't accept what it was he was offering, no matter how much power, honour and love he tried to tempt her with and in a lot of ways, I think of her devastating visions of doom and death(tm) as a physical parallel to the feelings Helen must be tormented with knowing that she will be cited as the reason of such mass death, destruction and violence. Likewise, I see Apollo's inability to save Kassandra up until the end as representative of his wider inability to save Troy. All his love and blessing were not enough, even though all she had to do was take his hand, it simply wasn't meant to be and so I imagine that must be a fresh hurt for him with each beloved mortal he loses during the campaign.

Kassandra is genuinely so interesting? Both as a character and as a narrative idea; she sits almost in the center of so many fascinating parallels and foils that it gets me so excited whenever she comes up in conversation! I've mentioned it briefly before but she forms a very neat triad with Iphigenia and Troilus which runs parallel to the three dominant male powers in Iliad - Agamemnon, Achilles and Apollo. They're what I somewhat refer to as the sacrifice trio, innocents who must ultimately be abandoned and stripped away for the sake of the desire of their sacrificer, in turn revealing something intrinsic about the nature of the man. For Iphigenia, she reveals that Agamemnon truly values his ambition over all, that his image and status as a leader is more meaningful to him than the love of his family (which, of course, dooms him in the end). Likewise, for Achilles, Troilus' sacrifice reveals that no matter the glamour or glory that crowns Achilles' head, his rage is ultimately his most powerful feeling and it burns bright and hot no matter the circumstance, opponent or arena. For Apollo, Kassandra's sacrifice (which is much more symbolic as he is a god and therefore need not actually physically kill her) reveals his position as the 'loser', one who will be scorned and reviled and lose all the things he loves no matter how closely he cherishes or adorns them. He can't protect the mortals he's blessed, he can't protect his children - he can't even save one woman. She also has that aforementioned triad with Helen and Andromache - the sequestered women; doomed to wait and pray but each, in their own ways working to save and support their own in the conflict. They're all haunted by the promise of what awaits them - Andromache's hopes and future lies with Hector and with her son yet she is the embodiment of a war-wife, solid and stoic in her support when Hector returns but suffering deeply knowing each fight could be his last. Helen, of course, carries with her both the suffering of the greek women and the hatred of their men - if Andromache fears death taking the breath from her beloved fighters then Helen bears the weight of death upon her shoulders, all grief and scorn is bore like a crown upon her head and she must bear it. It is her duty to bear it. Kassandra then becomes the suffering of the young women - they who are surrounding on all sides by throngs of death and do not know why it has come, they whose screams intermix with that of the dead upon them. There is no avatar for Kassandra to experience the war through, no reason for her to be stoic or strong or upright. She tears her hair, hysterical at the suffering that is poured into her mind day in and day out, wild and unrestrained where her elders must hold their grief and tame it. In this way, she gives voice to the voiceless, she screams for those who cannot and is reviled for it - a young woman surrounded by death yet ordered not to speak a word of its stench or horror. There's many more things I can talk about too such as the whole Kassandra as Apollo's living Palladium thing or the Kassandra-Electra-Clytemnestra trio or even Chryseis as a reflection of Kassandra and how the taking of a priest's daughter could be seen as tantamount to trying to steal away Kassandra (and how this eventually wraps back around to the actual incident of Kassandra being stolen away and ending up right back under Agamemnon's care just as Chryseis before her) but like, we would be here all day.

Y'all maybe this is a hot take but scorned woman Kassandra is like, the most boring interpretation of her ever. She has so much life and passion in her, so much joy, so much despair, so much love - making her jaded and cynical towards both her fate and her god is such a slap in the face to me of what her character could and generally does seem to stand for. Kassandra never stopped loving Apollo - likewise, Apollo (at least to me) never abandoned her. All in Troy suffer heavy, cursed fates - Kassandra is one of the few who at least had some awareness of how hers would turn out. I like that she's a fighter. I like that she screams and cries and spits and is expressive and ugly in her torment and grief when so many of the women around her cannot afford to be. I like that she said no and despite how much she suffered for it, she never begged for her yolk to be taken from her because she knew that the choice she made was the right one for her. She's raw, she's vivid, she's human and more than anything, that's what I love so much about her.

[questionableorigin]