#(which Would Not give a full accurate translation but would at least give me an IDEA of whats happening)

[yuurei20]

Idk if you've talked about it before, but have you seen the voice lines for Crowley's card? At the end people were saying he implies HE'S the one who brought the MC to Twisted Wonderland👀

Hello hello!! Thank you for this question! ^^

I am not sure that that is how I would interpret his line!

The original Japanese is 「貴方みたいな勤勉で優秀な生徒がいてくれて助かっています。これからも問題児を“監督”してくださいね」

The form of the verb "help" makes this difficult to put into English...literally translated it may be something close to, "It's proving helpful to have diligent, excellent students like you available. Please do continue to ‘supervise’ the troublemakers."?

A vaguer translation might be "It helps to have diligent, excellent students like you," and I can see how that could be interpreted into the implication that he arranged for students like the prefect to be on hand for assistance.

But given the form of "help," I don't think there is that much depth to read into! :> There is nothing to insinuate that he is glad he brought the prefect here, or that he was involved in their being here at all.

Of course there is a lot that is still unknown about Crowley, and the theory that he intentionally brought the prefect over to make something happen (or to keep something from happening 👀) is a popular one (and very fun to think about!).

But if I were attempting to champion that theory, I personally would not use this particular line as proof! It could, of course, be setting a foundation so that a future reveal does not blindside the players 👀 But the line by itself is vague, which is probably by design!

And there were two more Crowley lines that I found interesting!

「私の全力を知りたい？随分と怖いもの知らずですねえ……学園長として心配になってしまいます」

"You want to know the full extent of my power? You certainly know no fear…as headmage, that worries me."

Crowley is not the first character to comment on the audaciousness/fearlessness of the prefect: Malleus has a very similar line but their phrasing is different, with Crowley saying 怖いもの知らず, while Malleus says 恐れを知らない. Malleus repeats this same phrasing at least twice in the original game, though it it written in two different ways on EN.

Both Crowley and Malleus' phrasings are two ways of saying something that could be localized as the same thing in English, but subtle turns of phrase are proving to be very important in the original game.

For example, when you set Crowley to the homescreen he will say, "私をお呼びですか？"

And this is an interesting parallel to Malleus', "僕を呼んだ?"

Malleus’ phrase tends to be rewritten as various different expressions on EN such as “You called?,” “Was it you who called me?” and “Did you need something?”

But in the original game he always uses the exact same phrase, which is different from Crowley’s “私をお呼びですか？” while meaning the same thing.

While it would normally not be an issue for a localizer to take something that seems repetitive in one language and give it more flair in the other, it seems that this repetition was intentional and maybe should have been kept consistent to the original game?

Especially because English does not have things like different words for "I" like Japanese does (Crowley uses "watashi" while Malleus uses "boku") to help tell one person's phrasing apart from another's.

EN experienced a similarly unfortunate problem with Idia’s, “Leave it to your big bro,” with the phrase getting rewritten into "I'll get you trilling like a canary" and "I got this!" on EN, presumably before Aniplex USA realized that it was being repeated word-for-word for a reason.

Is it possible that the information that Aniplex USA receives in advance is limited, so they just do not know which of these phrases are safe to change and which need to be kept accurate to the original game?

With all the variations to Malleus' "You called for me?" on EN, Crowley has the potential to be localized with a phrase that is identical to at least one of Malleus' multiple English-language interpretations. In the original game, however, Malleus' phrasing is consistent, and completely different from the phrasing used by Crowley, while meaning the same thing! (and the "same but different" pattern has the potential to be very significant 👀)

[kurishiri]

Vogel’s LINE campaign: full walkthrough and translation

꒰ ִ ֺ ⊹ @ notice ⊹ ֺ ִ ꒱ this translation may not be 100% accurate or contain creative liberties due to characterization purposes. if you enjoy, please consider reblogging, but please don’t repost these or claim these as your own!

꒰ ִ ֺ ⊹ @ info ⊹ ֺ ִ ꒱ for vogel, there is a campaign on LINE until 08,30,2024 where they challenge you to solve their puzzles (if you want to have fun with it yourself, or have more high quality images of the reward, this will also walk you through the campaign, step by step). the picture above shows their signatures, which you can get the full document from which they came — a certificate, that is — in this campaign. and it also features an interaction with the vogel members as well.

˚˖𓍢ִ໋🦢˚ what you need to do beforehand:

download the LINE app and make an account there

after you have an account, click here to friend them on LINE! this will subsequently start a chat with them too

download the ikévil jp app and make sure you have access to the game (so finish the initial data download)

you need to have access to twitter as well

don’t worry about needing to know japanese. any parts that need japanese knowledge, i will walk you through

♯┆initiate the challenge .ᐟ

when you open LINE, text the following phrase to them:

フォーゲルの挑戦を受ける

this translates to “i accept vogel’s challenge”! the romaji would be [fōgeru no chōsen wo ukeru].

when you send this, you’ll receive the poster promoting the campaign followed by a message from darius🪽 basically welcoming you.

To the one Crown holds dear, miss fairytale keeper,

This is an invitation to partake in Vogel’s challenge. Of course, turning it down is not an option.

After all, the game has already started. See, there is nowhere to escape, so the only option left is to face the challenges.

I will be watching over you as you brave through, alright?

—— 🪽

♯┆puzzle n.1 .ᐟ

this is darius🪽’ puzzle! nika🍒 has one too, and ring💍 will give you the reward upon completing their challenges. the idea is sort of like a crossword puzzle, where you have to find certain words that are associated with crown or its members.

this puzzle is probably the most challenging for those who don’t know japanese, because all the words are in japanese. you basically need to have some at least some rudimentary knowledge.

so let me tell you what words are in there! hint: there may be repeats, and unlike crossword puzzles, it’s possible the words may be spelled out in a ‘L’ shape, and there may be overlap, but there is no diagonals.

[ちぇしゃねこ] (chesha neko) = the cheshire cat = liam’s curse

[はーとのじょおう] (hāto no jo-ō) = the queen of hearts = william’s curse

[きつね] (kitsune) = fox = harrison’s curse

[かがみ] (kagami) = mirror = alfons’ curse

[いばら] (ibara) = thorns = ellis’ curse

[じょおう] (jo-ō) = the queen = maybe referring to a shortened version of william’s curse, or her majesty the queen (女王陛下, jo-ō heika).

[おとぎし] (otogi-shi) = fairytale keeper = kate’s role in crown

[かりうど] (kari-udo) = the hunter = roger’s curse

[じゅうさんばんめのまほうつかい] (jūsan-ban-me no mahō tsukai) = the thirteenth fairy = jude’s curse

[こまどり] (koma-dori) = robin = kate’s nickname in crown

i would recommend highlighting or crossing out the boxes that contain these words, as you will need the remaining characters. if you’d like the highlighted answers, you can click here.

here, you will notice that there are some boxes that haven’t been “filled.” you will need to read these “unfilled” boxes left to right, top to bottom, much like reading a manhwa or webtoon.

if you do this, did you piece together this message?

おしらせのいちばんした

or: [お知らせの一番下] (oshirase no ichiban shita). this translates to “the announcement at the very bottom.”

this is where you’ll need your ikévil jp app! did you find it? if not, here’s how you can find it.

if you did, let’s head to the next puzzle!

♯┆puzzle n.2 .ᐟ

i hope you guys like sudoku, because this is something a bit similar.

you’ll find a 3 × 3 grid with some numbers filled out.

the bottom text translates to “if the sum is 15, where is 7?”

basically, the complete grid should have numbers 1–9, with no repeats, such that the sum of the 3 numbers in any direction is 15. in other words, if i number the grid’s positions as

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

then the 3 numbers located at each of these positions would have to add up to 15: [1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9], [1, 4, 7], [2, 5, 8], [3, 6, 9], [1, 5, 9], [3, 5, 7].

after you solve this, you will want to note down where the number 7 is, because once you scroll down, you’ll see a grid of 9 illustrations of vogel’s crest in a similar formation as the grid you solved.

once you click the corresponding crest where the 7 was on the puzzle grid, you can move on to the next puzzle!

if you want the answers to this puzzle, you can click here.

♯┆puzzle n.3 .ᐟ

this puzzle is pretty straightforward — you’re given a legend made up from the crown members’ names. after that, you must use that to crack the code at the bottom.

the only thing you need here is to be able to spell the characters’ names and a couple minutes to figure out the message.

i would note down which letter is what symbol, because you’ll need it in the last puzzle!

break the code, and then follow the instructions (back on LINE). it’s not case sensitive, so you don’t need to worry about that. once you do this, nica🍒 will give you a puzzle!

the answer to this puzzle can be found here.

♯┆puzzle n.4 .ᐟ

so first you’ll get a message from nica🍒:

Oh? Look at you, you’re doing better than I thought. Great job. Though seeing you so desperately make your way this far, could it be you’re taken by me or something?

Haha, from the look on your face, it looks like I’ve hit the mark.

If you’re feeling shaken, the puzzles will only feel harder, you know?

Alright, time to focus again. Wishing you the best.

—— 🍒

he then sends you these two images, and you’ll want to keep the left side one handy, as you’ll need it later as well.

When you connect the words together,

what was a place where the birds sang together once upon a time is now a variable of an unknown value.

Should you find a one-way ticket to a new story,

you cannot return to the time before you knew of us.

using this grid, you want to do some more code breaking to decipher the pink text at the bottom of the right side image! note that the bracketed numbers are formatted as [col, row]. any numbers not enclosed in brackets should be left as is. here is the answer if you want it.

and now, we’re gonna open twitter, because the cracked code will lead you to an account on twitter.

♯┆vogel interaction .ᐟ

when you visit this account on twitter, you can see a conversation between the vogel members! here’s a translation.

🪽: We must get along with Crown from now on. That’s why, first, I would like to start with the one who has caught my eye: Sir Rex. I should open more opportunities to get to know him further…

🪽: And what of you two? Are there any Cursed ones that have caught your interest? Because if there are, I do not mind if you initiate contact with them. In order for us to become a “family,” we also have to show our share of geniality.

🍒: Hmm, let’s see, seeing the fox be so cautious around us, I think he and I could get along. Oh, and that company president with a harsh look in his eye, maybe? I like to think I do understand his desire for money. Well, I’ll arrange for that soon. And Ring? What about you?

💍: I don’t really have anyone in mind. I’ll get rid of anyone who gets in your way. That’s all there is to it.

🍒: Geez, Ring, going out and saying something so reckless again… ‘getting rid’ of someone is not only risky, but also inefficient and outright boring. That kind of thing is only okay when the opponent strikes first. But for right now, stay put.

🪽: Yes yes, do get along with them, for they may end up becoming “family.” ——Well, aside from that grim reaper, that is. Ahh, seeing him in person made me absolutely despise him all the more. To think he makes the Cursed ones work for the sake of humans, he truly is the worst.

💍: ‘Get along with them’ in order for them to become a “family”… ‘to get along’… what do I have to do then? To get along… since… I, well… don’t have a lot of friends…

🍒: Ring, you just set your bar too high for friendships. Ah, actually, how about starting with the Rotkehlchen? I don’t actually have that much information on her, so take my words with a grain of salt, but I don’t think she’s hostile toward us, so I don’t think she’d do us harm.

💍: That’s a good point… as you said, she really is cute.

🍒: Hm?

💍: Ah—no, it’s nothing! I misunderstood just now! …h-how do I delete that post… hm… hmm? …I-I can’t…

🪽: Anyway, that aside, can I have you follow the fairytale keeper then, my very adorable Ring? I’m certain if it’s you, you can find out more about her, yes? Pass auf dich auf.

💍: Will do. Alles klar.

🪽: Truly, Ring is such a good boy. Not only is he kind and earnest, he listens to everything I say.

🍒: Just what are you thinking about, Dari? You’ve got this evi——I mean you look like you’re enjoying this.

🪽: Ahaha, I see you are as sharp as ever, Nika. But yes, I suppose I was thinking of doing something a little impish with them. Something that will reveal just how useful the little miss fairytale keeper can be, that is… yes?

they then end with this image:

recognize this from in the game? head over to the app and click on that and then scroll down to the bottom! if you’re stuck, you can click here.

♯┆puzzle n.5 .ᐟ

this is very similar to the previous puzzle, except the code word is different, and you’ll need to input this word into LINE to continue! you will need to use the legend that nica🍒 gave you, along with the legend based on the characters’ names from puzzle n.3, and crack it in the same way you figured out the twitter handle!

you can get the answer here.

♯┆finale .ᐟ

once you send the code word you just cracked over on LINE, you’ll receive a message from ring💍

To see you’ve come so far in solving everything… could you be a genius?

A fairytale keeper really is something to behold…

Maybe, you could tell me about many things I don’t know? Like fashionable shops or delicious foods… ah, t-that just now! It was nothing—

—— 💍

he then gives you a certificate, where all of them sign it. yep, that’s where the signatures come from! i have the translation below, but i would encourage you to go through this yourself, if you can, because it’s pretty fun, i think! and it may be higher quality images because tmblr may compress quality.

The end…?

[lutiaslayton]

Hey everyone! Just thought I'd make a quick post to let you know that...

The complete, definite, will-not-be-edited-again-in-the-future, FINAL translation of London Holiday, is finally here for your enjoyment!

AND it comes this time with an in-character fan-translation that DOESN'T read like Google Translate!

For those who didn't know, Professor Layton and the London Holiday is an official prologue to Diabolical Box; it's a short slice-of-life story in which Luke and Layton are just having some good time solving puzzles, and at the end, they receive the letter from Schrader which starts the events of DB. This game is not really lost content per se, but it's still part of the more obscure Layton media, since we non-Japanese fans have no legal way of playing it ourselves unless we buy the Japanese version of DB.

This isn't really some breaking news or anything, but I still thought it was worth warning you that this is it -- if you wanted a fancy in-character translation, you finally have it!

I will make a small shoutout to @call-me-rucy who helped every now and then with the more accurate translation when I had doubts on how a few idioms here and there were meant to be interpreted. Thanks again for your help, and sorry for using you like this xD I do wish I could send you DMs for reasons other than just asking for your Japanese knowledge hahaha

---

When I say that this won't be edited again, I mean that the only way this web page will ever be further edited in the future is if someone else shows up at some point and asks me to change something. Perhaps I took too many liberties in the fancy fan-translation compared to the original text in one or two specific occurrences, or perhaps someone will want to translate this transcript into another language that isn't English, in which case I would absolutely accept to add it! (and you would be credited for that additional translation, obviously)

---

I heavily suggest you take a look at it if you haven't already, because it provides quite a bit of lore and funny/wholesome moments! We notably get the full story of how Schrader heard about, and then tried to acquire the Elysian box (...story which contradicts the fact that he would already own it in Eternal Diva, by the way), but it's not the only fun lore crumbs this prologue to DB gives us :)

Also, for the fans of the puzzle theory -- I suggest you take a look in particular at what Luke says when he solved puzzle 09. It sure is intriguing that he would mention walking from island to island on foot as if he were... Physically doing it?? Or at least had the impression that he could experience it somehow???

Heh, puzzles and hint coins have mind powers anyway, for all we know perhaps some of them can trap you inside your own mind for a bit while you're solving them. Deliciously horrifying, so much potential for fanfics/comics and lore analysis. So shameful that nobody would have thought of taking advantage of this by throwing puzzles at someone with the specific intent of slowing them down by trapping them in a trance for a bit. smh, Level 5. smh.

[hoshinasblade]

Hello!! I saw your tangent, about Hoshina being an audio sender, kind of guy. And I have to say I one hundred percent agree with that sentiment. Vice Captain is someone I can definitely imagine being a talker in bed.

Cause when you REALLY think about it. He seems like the type who can easily get away just by yapping. And often times he's developed the social skills to redirect the conversation to something else. Especially during the days when he'd be compared to his brother and all that.

It could be a simple jab or a comment about his incapability to use firearms. And I see him as a person who can easily facade a laugh and redirect the conversation so that it loses focus, away from him. And because he's an expert yapper, I'd like to think that skill transfers in bed too.

Hoshina is a distinctly intelligent and observant character. As such, he's someone who probably knows what his partner likes. Particularly the type of dirty talk they'd prefer.

And since he's so used to having to issue commands and the like. Particularly in the way he orders Number 10 and lower ranked cadets. I'd like to think his transition to rougher talks in bed is made easy. And he comes to find out that he actually likes to be loud. He's a talker.

While I do think he isn't exempt from silly or giggly type of sex. Where he'd enjoy softer moments with his partner. I do think he's meticulous in the way he times and handles intercourse. And therefore would likely prefer and really take his time with his significant other. To properly schedule a time and place to do foreplay; which of course, translates to dirty talk. And such this may perhaps allude to a more leading role in bed.

Also, Pet Names. He's a talker so of course pet names will be used. Both inside and outside of the bedroom, I see Hoshina being the type to use Pet Names to give his partner sweet praises.

Hoshina is someone who I believe is not against the idea of degradation. But I do think he prefers praise over it. When his partner does something he particularly likes, he'd likely yap about it and praise them. Similarly, I see him as someone who's also a sucker for being praised, since he doesn't get too much of that in his life. (Or at least, he was never told outright in his face. As most characters in the manga compliment him via inner monologues or when he isn't in ear shot)

In summary, yes I think he's a yapper. In bed and out of it, he'll talk you through it. 🫡🫶

taking a break from work right now and this has been the best interpretation of hoshina's character that i've ever received, let me explain:

we can all agree that hoshina is a certified yapper. he has multiple scenes in the anime where he's either just laughing or talking (be it to someone else or to himself through some sort of an inner monologue). long story short, that guy has ALWAYS something to say.

and im crying because aside from what you have mentioned that he is intelligent and observant, he is also a natural giver. so if you're into dirty talk, he of course delivers and even exceeds expectations. the thing is he doesn't even have to try hard, when he was being created, god put an entire jar of "smooth talking skills" on him and called it a day. let's just say that his mouth is full of surprises *wink*.

i will have to agree with you on him being authoritative in the bedroom when he's being rough. don't get me wrong, usually he asks you for what you want, what you need - he is hungry for feedback, but sometimes he ups the game and just straight up tells you what needs to happen according to what he wants to happen. im officially declaring that power over you especially during intimate moments gets him off like no other. completely up to you if you wanna resist or you wanna go with it, but him being a boss is a big thing for him.

hoshina being loud in bed, oh god. this is so accurate. i've mentioned earlier that he gets demanding of feedback from you, and im pretty sure that from his end, he doesn't shy from letting you know how good he feels too. i mean, communication is key and all that. above that, he likes your reactions when he moans so win-win.

considering i don't think he has a lot of free time on his hands, he definitely treasures it when he can get you alone with him, so he would definitely take his time with you. the disadvantage is unless you explicitly beg, foreplay can last for hours. he doesn't like to see you suffering, he's just really thorough and methodic. plus, delayed gratification lol.

THE PET NAMES. he'd prefer your name, but pet names are also welcome, if only to tease you. the pet names he gives you always have "my" in front of it though, so it would be my love, my princess, my darling, my cumslut.

ten points to gryffindor because yes, for hoshina, praise > degradation. he's unique though because when he degrades you, there is still some praise in it ("you're doing so well, slut"). this boils down to his love language being words of affirmation, i'd like to think. he didn't really have a lot of experiences in the past where people would appreciate him verbally so i believe that when he gets the chance, he does it for you as a way of healing himself too. and yes lol he likes being praised too. he knows he's good at what he does, but when you compliment him for something really personal ("i like it when you hold my hand cause you make me feel safe"), i just think his eyes would turn into a heart-shaped thing.

just wanna share something that hasn't been mentioned and not nsfw but you won't have any issue with communication while dating the guy - he is honest, and open, and kind when he has to tell you something so he isn't just a yapper at that.

i'd been enjoying these, please send me more!!!

[markantonys]

The show hasn't really gotten into the Breaking as much as I think they should have at this point. Which does kinda go into the fact that Lews Therin doesn't seem to be feared by the general public at least as far as we know? Which does make me a bit concerned as that is important. It does seem like the AOL flashbacks are leading up to Dragonmount and therefore the Breaking so maybe that's why it hasn't been addressed as much yet? Rafe did say there's less knowledge of the prophecies or at least less belief that they're 100% accurate since they're over 3000 years old and translated a million times so that might play a role too? Idk I'm curious for them to get into the prophecies more so we know what the world thinks and believes about the Dragon.

i just wanna say that as someone who studied ancient history and ancient literature, it is completely accurate that the current people of randland know very little about what happened 3000 years ago, that the average population outside of scholars doesn't care about what happened 3000 years ago, and that nobody is willing to put full trust in the accuracy of the few ancient texts and prophecies that survived to the present.

and mind you, i ran into all these things in my studies of events that happened only 2000 years ago. 3000 years, we are talking the late bronze age collapse in the mediterranean region - an event that's infamously mysterious precisely because we have so little surviving evidence to say what caused it.

when it comes to human history, 3000 years is a MASSIVE amount of time, and to be honest i don't think RJ/the books really understood just how massive (for example, randland should have been able to advance more, technologically, in 3000 years than it did, even considering how destructive the breaking was and how destructive the taint & false dragons & shadowspawn continued to be). the general population outside of scholars does not spend a second thinking about things that happened 3000 years ago or specific people who lived 3000 years ago. they just don't. realistically, lews therin shouldn't be anything more than a vague fable to the average population of present-day randland. of course they're not afraid of him. why would they be? he's insanely far-removed from and irrelevant to their lives - for now. i daresay they'll start to get nervous once they start to see true signs that the dragon has been reborn and that the last battle will happen in their lifetime. but until then, i cannot emphasize enough how much any dragon- & breaking-related shit is not on the general population's radar. they don't care about the bronze age collapse. they don't care about any sort of war or destruction or apocalypse until it starts to affect them personally (see: nobody caring enough to help falme in s2, just as nobody cared enough to help manetheren).

i will also add that as someone fresh from reading the books for the very first time, i can comfortably say the show is NOT lagging behind on Breaking Info-Giving compared to where the books were at this point. we had zero clue about the bore or any of that stuff until rand's rhuidean trip (and even then, i didn't really understand what the hell was going on in his visions until quite a bit later, and in large part due to learning some extra-book information that explained it better). as a show-only during s1, i can assure you that the 3000 years later flashback showing us a futuristic society made me go OH SHIT and hit home the full impact of the breaking far more than anything in the books, where we don't even see any AOL scenes onscreen aside from the rhuidean visions (which are very confusing to a first-time reader) and the dragonmount prologue (which isn't very useful since it's the first scene in the whole series and a first-time reader has zero context for anything learned there).

honestly, i think longtime readers forget just how much of our AOL/forsaken/breaking knowledge comes from extra-book sources like the companion, Word Of Jordan, etc; the books alone are very vague about so much of that stuff and i remember being repeatedly bewildered as to how you guys knew so much about the AOL when the books either didn't have those details at all or had them so vaguely that they flew right over my first-time reader head. i'm not 100% sure, but i believe latra posae decume isn't even MENTIONED in the books and comes purely from "the strike at shayol ghul", as do many of the details about the strike and the bore and the breaking. and so i definitely think the show has already included more information, and more CLEAR information, about the breaking than the books alone had by the end of TDR and in fact for much of the series.

[imustbenuts]

nuts reading trigun 4 - i sniffed out the spirit of leiji matsumoto and his galaxy express 999

so this is. a bit of a doozy and a little detour i took...

first off, i thought it was really interesting that chapter 4 is titled Bang!Bang! in EN but ポポ popo in jp. popo is basically pop pop, but also if pitched down, would sound more like 'poooh poooh'. very similar to what sound a steam locomotive makes,

but not quite. the 'correct' one would be ボbo, not ポ po.

like the sound effect here:

sfx: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOH

there's no good way to translate this, to be clear. nightow seems to really like pulling off these weird little japanese wordplay here and there. theres one instance with the escorts trying to sleep with vash, but thats a lot of effort to explain a pun and its not very interesting so. uh. sorry. (these posts take very long to write bc im poopoo)

so. its CH 4: PoPo. 4 =Death? this feels deliberate.

the next chapter is CH 5: 強襲 / Assault. EN title is very accurate here so yippee. but wait.

that. dark contrast and a presence of a vaguely steam locomotive. the framing of the train itself being this romantic machine that was built to send people on their journeys to parts unknown. the presence of 4 = Death.

theres something about the following panel. and i know exactly what it is despite having never read or watched it bc of just how influential this particular work is.

so i went sniffing.

Galaxy Express 999.

and. uhm. i found a thread and a rabbit hole that links back to TriStamp again.

Galaxy Express 999 first ran as a manga in 1977- 1981. Made by the late Leiji Matsumoto (25th Jan 1938 - 2023) who passed away last year.

the gist of this story. we follow a boy named Tetsuro in the super far off future, who wants to obtain a mechanical body so he never again feels the inconvenience of a flesh one. and to also fulfill his promise to his mother who was hunted down in front of him and turned into a trophy by mechanized hunters. he meets a mysterious blonde woman named Maetel who gives him a pass to ride on the Galaxy Express 999, promising him one at the end of the journey, but there seems to be a catch.

the same themes of a train in the darkness, its window the main lightsource, but in GE999 theres the added planets and stars. GE999 is full of promotional material and artwork like this, its iconic

the story is very philosophical and full of questions about death, living, and the worth of a human life. theres a constant theming of the train bringing its passengers to a place unknown, and how its a departure from the base in which they start the further they go. like a wanderer. (something something blank ticket wink wink.)

but anyway. Chapter 2: The Red Wind Of Mars is the interesting one.

i strongly recommend reading this chapter at least, but ill summarize the interesting bits.

the cast arrives on Mars, a Red Planet thats constantly being buffeted by a Sandstorm. its said that the planet is pretty much in a state of poverty and is barren due to people turning themselves into machine bodies and having no need to care for the environment and nurture it.

also an american saloon on this red desert planet wowee--

testurou later gets jumped by a couple who basically wants to steal his pass to the GE999, but once they realize the boy has not been mechanized at all, the couple lets tetsurou kill them. they are then left in the desert to be eventually covered up by the red sand. and then, the final page has this fucking thing:

"They say that the sound of Mars' red wind comes from the wailing of people resting under its sand. This vermilion wind will continue to lament for the fate of those who couldn't make their dreams come true... That's why they say this planet will stay red forever..."

....studio orange. listen.

STUDIO ORANGE. PLEASE

ON WHAT LEVEL ARE YOU GUYS EVEN COOKING. stop sending me on these rabbit hole runs i swear to god ill never finish trigunbookclub at this rate GGGGGGGGGAAAAAH

anyway the sandsteamer arc in the original trigun seems to be a homage to Galaxy Express 999 in a way, and Studio Orange understood the assignment.

[catsharky]

I've just discovered your Rolan x Tav comic.

It's SO neat and accurate, in matter of deign and details!

In case you don't mind, of course, I have some questions you maybe have answered before:

What software do you work with? What kind of pencils do you use? How do you manage to set so neat and clean results? Do you need many references for that or is just a gift you have? How many years have you been drawing to achieve those results?

I don't mind at all! And I don't believe I've answered any of these questions before, at least not since I started doing my comics.

For software I mainly use Clip Studio, though I do also use PaintTool Sai (v2) for certain things that I feel it does better. All of my Mass Effect comics are lined in Sai, for example because things like armour have a lot more inorganic shapes and require long, sweeping, unbroken lines, and I like the pen stabilization in Sai far better than CSP's for that sort of thing.

For how long I've been doing art, I've been at it basically nonstop since I was 9 (so 20 years now, jeez). I was in an art program throughout highschool, went to college for art/animation for 4 years, and I'll have been working professionally as an animator for 8 years in May! So there's a lot of practice there for sure.

And yeah, I use a ton of references. Usually a good chunk of the time I'll spend on something is just collecting or making the reference material I need for it.

I'm putting the rest under a read more because it's pretty long:

(Tumblr keeps eating my formatting so sorry if this is a little scuffed)

Because I'm normally working full time and doing this stuff in my free time after hours and on weekends, if I know I'm going to be drawing something a *lot*, I'll usually put together some kind of reference for myself in 3D so I can take some of the brainwork out of it and get more out of my evenings even when I'm feeling fried. It also means I put as little extra strain on my wrist as possible because I injured it a number of years back and it gets angry at me if I go for too many hours in a day.

But to give you an example, for Ember I have a Sculpt of her head that I can use to reference any angle I want, or to draw directly over top of for tricky angles. How I draw her isn't quite 1:1 to the model, but it gives me a base structure and landmarks I can build on top of.

My basic workflow is to take the angle I want, draw over it using the model as a guide (while picking and choosing where to stay true to it and where to say fuck it and do what I want), then I get rid of the 3D and do another pass, tweaking and redrawing anything I'm not totally happy until I'm satisfied with how it looks. I draw Ember with a slightly softer, more rounded face than the model has, for instance. Just because something looks right in 3D doesn't always mean it looks right once translated to 2D and I don't care if something is technically "correct" if it doesn't feel right or isn't conveying what I want it to properly.

I'm also always checking reference screenshots to make sure I'm in the right ballpark of how something should look. I actually have a wall of photos next to my desk and while I didn't put them up for that purpose, it has come in surprisingly handy for quickly checking face or hair details when needed. I also just have a big folder of screenshots and other saved reference material.

I don't have a problem noooo~ 😅

Additionally, if my art has a background these days, there is a 100% chance that's a 3D set I built in Blender because I hate drawing backgrounds, but I do like building them in 3D.

Here's two examples: the area around Astarion's bed, which I built out of some of the in-game assets like a lego set (this was a pain in the ass, it probably would have been faster to just build it from scratch based on screenshots 😩) and a closet I modelled for something that's still a WIP.

I'll get the angle I want, have Blender generate some linework from it and then grab a basic render of it to slap into CSP so I can draw the characters over top of it.

And as for brushes: the main brush I use in CSP is just the default 'Real G-Pen', with opacity effects turned off and these pressure settings: (I like to keep it simple, and I have a bit of a heavy hand so the altered pen pressure just helps me get a smoother taper). I change up the stabilizer settings depending on what I'm doing. Lower for things that need short, quick lines like hair and higher for most other things.

For Sai, I use a 9B pencil I found a number of years ago on Deviantart (I think?) and I wish I could link you to the original post I got the settings from, but Deviantart's search is... bad and I'm unable to find it again.

I hope that answered all your questions! If not, feel free to ask more!

[makoto-shizumu]

A Long Rant About the 2024 Olympics Boxing Gender Row

Disclaimer: DO NOT REPOST. This post contains personal opinions and information gathered over the past week concerning female boxers and Olympic finalists 🇩🇿 Imane Khelif (left) and 🇹🇼 Lin Yu-Ting (right), as well as their opponents. You are welcome to share your thoughts, but if you come to me with hate or an attempt to convince me they are men through claims such as that of XY chromosomes (which have never been proven, mind you), especially if you or your source(s) cite the corrupt, biased and discredited International Boxing Association (IBA), will be blocked and have your comment(s) deleted. If proper fact-checking is too much work for you, I suggest you save your energy and block me instead. On the other hand, if there are relevant updates or information that I may have missed, do let me know in the comments, and I will edit this post accordingly. Lastly, I do not condone the harassment of any of the individuals involved - that time is better spent on more valuable causes such as 🇵🇸 helping Palestinians, 🏳️‍⚧️ supporting trans people, and calling for the rearrest of convicted child rapist Steven van de Velde. Thank you for reading.

Angela Carini is not a hero.

We all know Carini abandoned her match not even a minute in and complained about being “punched too hard” by Khelif - who made the women’s lightweight quarterfinals in Tokyo. The cop competed in the welterweight division and lost her opening bout 2-3 to 🇹🇼 Chen Nien-Chin (who will join Khelif on the Olympic podium, fuck yeah).

Carini’s involvement has gradually garnered less attention since her apology, but she will have a long way to go before she can be forgiven, especially by Khelif. An Italian posted and translated her deleted tweet before the infamous 46-second bout clearly alluding to Khelif as a man, and Algérié Football Média recently released a recording of Khelif, where she explains how Carini’s club and the Italian media took advantage of her.

What’s worse, the IBA decided to offer Carini a hundred grand as a “consolation prize.” At least this time the Italian federation values their dignity more and refused the money.

Luca Hámori is not a hero.

Remember the Instagram story reshares that she had to take down? Besides the bull-headed giant, Hámori reshared another which called Khelif a korcsot - a dehumanizing Hungarian slur which Google interprets as “monster” or “freak,” but more accurately translates to “mongrel.”

Hámori entered the ring expecting to walk out as a “savior,” but it was Khelif who turned out to be the bigger person that day. Upon her victory, Khelif called out the IBA for their abuse towards her, but she fights on because of her faith in justice.

Svetlana Staneva is NOT A FUCKING HERO. Neither is her equally ill-informed coach, Borislav Georgiev.

This case makes me especially furious not just because I’m also a Taiwanese woman like Lin Yu-Ting, but also the abysmal immaturity of 34-year-old Staneva, THE SECOND OLDEST BOXER IN THE FEATHERWEIGHT DIVISION. Even Hámori has shown more decency in the ring, and she’s eleven years younger!

If you, like me, have watched their full match, you should acknowledge that Yu-Ting was undoubtedly the better boxer that day - same case in her RO16 bout against Sitora Turdibekova.

On the other hand, you’ll see that Staneva doesn’t need “protecting,” considering she literally held Yu-Ting by the head and SLUNG HER ACROSS THE RING (around 3:25-3:30). I’m sorry, Staneva, did you ever realize the audience was there to watch boxing and not wrestling?! And she calls herself a “proud XX woman.” Our commentators did not witness that gesture, but if they did I trust they would’ve been fuming as much as I have the past few days.

If she truly were a proud woman, she would not play dirty the entire time, then give up five seconds before the final bell. Look me straight in the eyes and tell me that you would want to be represented by such behavior. I feel sorry for the Bulgarians and her other supporters who had to witness such a shameful performance.

Oh, one more thing… Guess who the IBA gave a bronze medal in the 2023 World Championships after disqualifying Yu-Ting?

That’s right, it was Staneva. No wonder her coach was willing to give up all professionalism and pander to the IBA’s lies. And look what that got them - now they’re not allowed anywhere near the Olympic podium! This could be unlikely, but let’s hope they are punished by the IOC and/or any relevant departments back in Bulgaria.

(I’m not going on Twitter for a better resolution of this photo. This one fries my eyes enough.)

Esra Yıldız Kahraman is not a hero.

I am at a loss of words.

What the actual fuck, Kahraman. We thought you were better than this.

I will only say this once. DO NOT confuse bad sportsmanship, disinformation, transphobia, (inter)sexism, and racism with “defending women’s sports.”

Reducing womanhood to chromosomes, genitalia, physical appearance, and/or some other bullshit is the most despicable and disgusting thing to come out of such hatred, and I will die on this hill. And gender tests? They were abolished due to their ineffectiveness at identifying maleness after Atlanta 1996, but the IBA won’t admit it. And considering their latest mess of a press conference, they would rather stay relevant with empty claims and unnecessary threats. Stop giving them the time of day! Listen to the podcast Tested instead for more info on this matter.

Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting did not make the podium in Tokyo, but they will both leave Paris with their heads high up and medals hanging down their necks - all the while the likes of “fEmInIsTs” and bigots such as J.K. Rowling, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and Logan Paul can only COPE AND SEETHE. Their victory is a victory for women, a victory for Algeria, a victory for Taiwan, and a victory for the boxing world that I never thought I’d care so much about.

I’m counting on Khelif and Yu-Ting to win gold and dunk on all the haters all over again. But respect to every other medalist in the welterweight tournament for being great sports - 🇨🇳 Yang Liu, 🇹🇭 Janjaem Suwannapheng, and our dearest Nien-Chin. You all deserve the podium! 💖💖💖

[howlingmoonrise]

Hi! Same anon here! Don't worry I barely sent the ask like a day ago :P

Thank you for giving such a detailed answer! I gotta say, I never considered the Ds to be akin to plants (I did think of them being the chinese equivalent to kamis tho, I think the term was xia?) but I can see what you mean by that, maybe like trees? I like the idea of sentient sacred trees taking on human forms, wouldn’t it be cool if the "real" Tsuki-hime was one of their kind?

In a less serious note, when I read the plant part, my dumb ass brain started to think about Trigun, and Vash as a plant being in his universe with completely opposed ideology to the Ds, the one of unwavering love and faith in humanity despite most humans in Trigun being far worse than any of the literal evil ones in PSOH, and what would happen if they ever met :'D

Also, do you have any theories on why our D was sick and apparently needed a transplant of some sort? Personally I always thought that he may have been born "flawed" either due to their kind's equivalent to genetic degradation on their biology, or alternatively a literal manifestation of the ideals conflict between Sofu D and Papa D? Both?

Sorry if I ask too many questions, I had no idea PSOH had a surviving fandom until the 7seas announcement!!

huh. you know. i was fairly sure the term kami had been mentioned in at least one of the translations but i just checked the last two chapters in both and apparently not? though the el dorado chapter seems to confirm the meaning if not the name when it mentions the touch of a "dying god" and accepts d's blood, at a minimum; i'm not sure if the japanese original text uses the word "kami" either, but it's possible.

anyway, i've been kind of going with the assumption that they're something similar to that - not exactly gods in the western divinity sense, but more like beings of the land. i probably absorbed the term kami in regards to the Ds from fandom, but now that you mention it, it doesn't make all that much sense since he's chinese. the term in question in chinese seems to be "shen" (written with the same character) but it doesn't appear to be an exact equivalent in terms of meaning. i'll have to look more into it!

yeah the plant thing for me comes from several occasions generally associated with d and life/death (as mentioned before, the gattolotto extra, d entering a state of despair, d's blood turning into rare plants when he's running from vesca, d being taken over by plants when falling into despair, the plant core of the papasplosion) and also from the hilarity of leon only ever getting anywhere with a lady if they're plants (as per the flowers and the detective extras) and d lowkey also being one and following this trend 😂 though that latter bit is more the shipper goggles than anything lmfao

BUT!!! MORE IMPORTANTLY!!!! *rubs hands together* you fool! you just activated my trap card when it comes to talking about d's illness and all issues surrounding it! i love discussing this topic and poking fun at the tokyopop translation and putting up a murderboard full of red string for theories!

okay so the first thing you need to know is that the tokyopop translation took some. liberties. and is not entirely accurate. they seem to paint papa as far more of a villain and sofu as far more of a saint than they are, for one, and an important implication about d's health kinda goes in the wrong direction based on this. as such, if you only read the tp translation, you may be caught off-guard by some of what i'll say below.

once again under the cut because i'm a rambler!

things we know about d's illness:

needs sugar to keep from getting faint/dizzy

extremely low endurance at times (which makes leon think that he might have a heart condition) that either triggers or is triggered by his illness, as per the dragon chapter

may or may not be related to his eye (either as a symptom or a cause)

some sort of pain attack is involved? in the donor chapter we see him hover his hand in front of his throat, though it might be while it's in motion to go elsewhere, such as his heart (the dragon chapter has both the highlights near the throat, but the hand placed by his heart/lungs)

papa mentions to the pseudo-sister that d's body was "born incomplete" - whether this is true, he thought it was true (more on this below), or it was a simplification for her sake (as she had the mentality of a child) is not clear

d apparently is lacking several things, or they are in the process of failing (also as per the donor chapter). THAT BEING SAID, there is an interesting point here

needs sugar to keep from getting faint/dizzy

may or may not be associated with his eye

some sort of pain attack is involved? in the donor chapter we see him hover his hand in front of his throat

the illness has been present for at least several years, presumably for as long as d can remember (though not necessarily from birth; more on this later)

papa has been studying and trying to cure this illness also for years

after d drinks a "medicine" processed from the orangutan hybrid's body the symptoms seem to stop - i'm pointing this out as more of a curiosity thing, because on other occasions d couldn't as much as eat fish flakes without some ominous remarks about his bloodlust almost awakening again or something of the sort (you'll excuse me if i don't go looking for this particular quote right now)

papa mentions to the pseudo-sister that d's body was "born incomplete" - whether this is true, he thought it was true (more on this below), or it was a simplification for her sake (as she had the mentality of a child) is not clear

d's body had several things apparently lacking or in the process of failing (also as per the donor chapter). THAT BEING SAID, there is an interesting point here

this post from one of tumblr user @chaikat's psoh liveblogging japanese translation notes (several of which you'll see me mention at other times in this post because the info in there is just THAT crunchy) points out the following:

When Nue Erh says she’ll give D what he lacks, the part where she says “my eyes” in the eng version is actually specifically “this eye” in the jp version.

keep this quote in mind for a bit!

and now, back to the revelations of the final chapters!

aka, the panels that give me fucking brainworms:

uh??? hello??? one could understand that endless asexual reproduction of the same being through centuries would eventually result in mutations, and in fact it was under this assumption that i laboured when i first read psoh, but this conversation points to a different cause entirely, originating from sofu's interference.

doesn't help that the tokyopop version is wildly different, too:

tokyopop's version doesn't seem have anything to do with either d's illness or eye whatsoever, alas 😬 and considering several of their past instances of mistranslations and ad-libbing on this manga, i'm far less likely to believe their version of events.

another detail i didn't notice on my first go-arounds: the fact that the first words sofu d says in response to papa's accusation imply that the undertaking of q-chan's form took a sacrifice, and that this is related to d's eye. it took me this other translation notes liveblog post to realize that the two things were connected, since there's an entire other page with side-comments in the middle breaking up the dialogue flow.

ANOTHER most excellent thing that chaikat's commentary brings up and that i haven't seen on either translation is that sofu specifically mentions using the eye, or the term yorishiro:

(small text above Grandpa D): I borrowed one eye for the yorishiro.

i cannot claim to be even remotely close to an expert on shintoism, so here's a quote from wikipedia (which might or might not be correct) regarding yorishiro:

Yorishiro were conceived to attract the kami and then give them a physical space to occupy to make them accessible to human beings for ceremonies

i'm not sure if sofu d used it as this exact purpose, or if there's any sort of tradition in manga to lend it a slightly different meaning (jshk for example uses it as an artifact that stores the powers of the being connected to it, and something similar to this would make some sense to me here since he's shifting into a different form and putting his powers/presence away). either way, sofu has definitely used at least a portion of d's body for his own purposes without consent, so we cannot discard him using more.

*puts tinfoil hat on* it is at this point i bring up our precious orangutan sister's words again! she's listing the things she was made to replace in d's body, with the specificity of one singular eye. coincidence? i think not! i'm not entirely sure i agree that she means the left eye as considered in chaikat's post, but as an exercise let's think up the motivations for both possibilities:

replacing the left eye (purple, papa's colour): implies that the eye that was interfered with by sofu has bypassed the illness, and d's original one remains imperfect and bound to deteriorate; implies also that papa/sister know that the right eye is not a concern when it comes to d's health situation, which does track with papa's later accusation

replacing the right eye (gold, sofu's colour): implies that something is wrong with that eye, in ways that go far beyond the bounds of d's illness, since the original one would be okay to leave as-is; since papa is aware that the gold eye was caused by sofu, it would make sense to want to replace it due to both his resentment for sofu and concern for d

it is also worth mentioning that sofu never seems to have devoted any time to trying to cure d's illness, unlike papa (who was deemed incapable of raising a child by sofu, which may or may not be true), and that his reaction to the death of both his son and stray animals in a forest fire is to not even blink twice.

sofu having removed d from papa's care, mixed with d having mismatched eyes as a child under sofu's care, and the fact that we don't really see a mention of q-chan being around at that time make me poke interestedly at sofu d - because even if you buy that he *checks notes* only traded his grandson's eye to turn into a tiny cute creature in order to keep an eye (heh) on him, that doesn't really... track with the timeline of when he actually left d alone and had cause to become q-chan? which makes me wonder what sofu's actual use for the eye was, since he presumably had it since d was around-ish maybe five years old. (remember me saying "for as long as d can remember, though not necessarily from birth"? yeah.)

does this mean that he caused the illness? probably not, but fun to think about in connection to everything else! especially because the main point i'd expect d to ask when papa mentions the mutations/changes resulting from the inumerous replications of the d line would be his ?now-cured? illness, but what he does actually ask about is his eyes, despite papa and sofu - supposedly perfect clones - also having eyes that differ from the other (papa's being purple, sofu's being gold). one would think the illness would be the priority, but no! unless the two things are connected, and-- *continues to add red string to the murderboard*

anyway this is the theory i find the most fun to play with!

slightly less unhinged ones would probably be just. you know. normal replication mutations and genetic degeneration and stuff? or if you go with the tokyopop translations and i remember correctly, there are some implications that papa experimented on d before sofu took him away, but take that with a grain of salt. another thing that comes to mind is also the alice/daughter chapter, where after several generations the resulting rabbits were killed by the sugar and stuff consumed by the original generation - it could also be something like that, because since they're clones their bodies wouldn't have changed to adapt to the times, different foods, different air quality, etc, which would translate into poison for the newest generations.

i hope i didn't go too far down the theory rabbit hole, oops! 😂

[blackstarchanx3new]

Red's characterization is frustratingly inconsistent (based on the viz translation)

So I tried to do a "Red centric" FS reading the other day and honestly:

Red as a character lowkey pisses me off the more I think about him.

Trying to write him doing ANYTHING in FSR just, breaks my brain because: What character does he actually HAVE?

To explain further: WHAT CHARACTERIZATION DOES HE HAVE THAT IS CONSISTANT?

Because I can list a fuck ton of his traits, but none that remain consistent and reliable character traits that I can make into a rule set for me to follow to write him properly and which rules I could BREAK depending on the scenario.

I'mma admit this rn: This might be extremally bad faith reading and I'll admit that with my whole chest but it just bugs me the further I try to think about characterizing him.

Buuuut on the other hand. Venting my frustrations might help me get a grasp on what he's MEANT to be like and that'd be useful.

TLDR: I genuinely think Akira has no fucking clue what they were doing with him and I think he's the worst written Link of the set of four/Shadow Link. (This admittedly could also fall hugely on the fault of the translation team too with botched dialogue.)

And I even hypothesis they cut a whole chapter about him for time. (We'll get to that)

Full rant:

Okay. So you'd think this idiot would be pretty simple to figure out.

There's a lil page dedicated to each Link describing their traits, which are all pretty accurate. (This to my knowledge i only in the legendary???)

EXCEPT IN MY OPINION, RED'S. (Green's too but maybe I'll get into Green at a later time...)

His is just. Wrong. Upfront wrong depending on how you read his character...Which...is imo inconsistent based on the canon events of the story.

Let's go down the list of traits from this page

Easygoing - this is accurate since he takes the mission the least bit seriously between the four and gives everyone silly nicknames.

Bright- ...I'm going to assume this is in reference to his personality being "Optimistic" not his intelligence, as we'll get into soon.

Innocent - ...I have some counter arguments to this one but go off I guess. He's SUPOSIVELY more innocent than the other 3.

Simpleminded - again there is a shit ton to suggest the opposite, but well, get into that shit.

So, depending on how you read the word "bright," there are already inconsistencies with "simple-minded" (I'm trying real damn hard not to be obtuse as fuck here but I'm a stickler for wording...)

So for the "innocent" thing...okay this one particularly rubs me the wrong damn way. Because of a few diffent things.

Let's go over smth first:

Identifying the links, you can always tell its red in a panel due to his even screen tone tunic and white sleeves.

Blue has a gradient that goes almost black with screen toned sleeves. Green also has an even screen tone but black sleeves, and Vio has a noise screentone with white sleeves.

Now, Red's "Innocence" or imo lack there of.

Now thought bubbles are hard to pin to anyone specific without like, tails to lead to characters. The fs manga is guilty of not having proper word bubbles often or pointing at the wrong damn character. But here were lead to think the one who assumed the knights were dead were Red and Green. Green starting the thought and red finishing it here.

Red is the first one willing to stab who they assume to be very close people to them. Green as we know is the one NOT willing to fight and rather just defend himself.

So much for "innocent"

Tangent time: I'm not unconvinced the screen tone artist didnt fuck up here, and this was meant to be Blue, but...uh that's not what it ended up being

It's hard to tell because the eyebrows could be either red or blues from my guess.

Until coloring the first volume of manga I ALWAYS ASSUMED this was Blue.

It's for sure not vio or green since their eyebrows are nearly always blonde/not filled in while Reds are thin but occasionally have a bit more thickness, especially when giving heavier expressions. And if this was meant to be Blue. It would be a bit on the thinner side but would match way more personality wise.

Further on the whole "innocence thing"

Wtf was all this shit

Like...I get it. It's for comedy haha. But it just feels so out of character for him this scene just ends up annoying me.

Like it makes him feel so fake. It makes ALL HIS PREVIOUS AND SCENES HERE ON OUT FEEL FAKE.

His tears feel so crocodile considering he doesn't cry when stabbing someone he assumes to be his friends and does THIS SHIT immediately after assuming blue is MAYBE DEAD???

Seriously I kind of hate this scene it feels so two-faced, out of character, and mean-spirited for no fucking reason.

I get it. It was a joke haha. But why the fuck is he joking around and being a goof when his response to green possibly being dead TWICE was to panic and cry and be terrified for real. Why am I meant to take one seriously and not the other from a character standpoint.

From a character stand point: it just feels like he gives less of a shit Blue is in danger/dying vs Green and considering later character interactions I don't think that's meant to be cannon/intentional. (He also calls out to green exclusively on occasions so like...Again was this on purpose or on accident...)

I'm just not a fan of writing characters shittily and out of character for the sake of comedy that doesn't even land.

From a character context: it just looks like he doesn't give a shit about blue here. Which, fine write him mad blue has been a dick but this feels like such the wrong way to go about it to me. Idk.

Onto his intelligence:

Imma be real it feels like he just is only smart when the writing needs him to be for plot reasons and not for characterization reasons.

His intelligence fluctuates so damn much it drives me insane. He's either dumb as a brick or literally smarter than vio, and there's no in-between or reason behind why. It's not like he's good at certain things and dumb as fuck at other things it's literally just because Akira pulls it out of their asses and said so and that kind of writing especially character based pisses me off. 😭

Examples of red being smart:

I don't have a problem with Red having intelligence of his own, but they had to give vio 1 functional brain cells for this scene to work the way it did. Like red can be smart, it'd be great if he was in some instances! It'd even make sense they're all dumb at some shit or excel at others. That'd make them a good well rounded team!

Vio randomly being shit at directions would be a hilarious character trait.

IS this why he gets lost in the tower of winds? Idk if that's a genuine intentional writing reason, but I'm going to assume/head cannon. Imma say that's why, for my own sanity and making this scene make any sense. But i shouldn't have to justify vio being an idiot here with head cannons.

I'd have loved for a scene where Vio over thinks to shit about smth and red is just like "lol the answer is just this silly" but red and vio literally never speak sooooo...thats off the table.

That almost feels like that's what this was trying to be but just...failed at.

He randomly grows a brain again in the temple of darkness. But it just feels so out of nowhere, considering how he's such an idiot most of the book. Like his competent moments, feel SO out of character in comparison.

Like I can see what I THINK they were trying to do with him but it just doesn't land. It just feels like he randomly grows a brain every so often instead of always having one but he he just lags behind the other three in terms of other contexts.

What i think they were going for is "red IS smart. He IS capable. He just needs to be in the right scenario for it to shine. He has such a unique mindset compared to the other three and hes a valuable team mate"

What it comes OFF as... is bad writing.

Onto his like "crybaby" persona the manga and the Fandom itself likes to fall back on

I've touched on it but it feels so fake.

Like I genuinely cannot tell if this is meant to be a character trait I second guess but it's thrown out the window all the damn time.

-him stabbing that one knight with no fucks given really

-him quickly getting over blue being frozen in lue of a stupid joke

Okay let's see when he DOES CRY...

Virtually all the damn time but here's smth I noticed:

He doesn't cry when shadow dies lmfao.

But he does when they kill random rock babies.

Yeah sorry but that rubs me the wrong way too.

Like Reds whole reaction and facial expressions to shadow dying just gives "I wonder if we're having Wendy's of McDonald's later"

Like I think most people are too distracted by vidow to notice that shit but it's so off-putting from a guy who will take the change to bust out the water works at any given change doesn't shed a damn tear when a version of himself kicks the damn bucket.

Not even a reaction to vio being upset about it. Like wtf.

This is what I mean about him being inconsistent. Literally the entire manga is just "He does x sometimes but not other times when you think he would" I genuinely cannot find rhyme or reason to half his character traits and it drives me up a wall. There's no consistency to ANY OF IT and it just leaves this sense of fakeness and it rubs me such the wrong way.

One last thing:

I'm pretty sure he had a cut chapter centered around Red.

I don't have concrete evidence but here's smth i noticed:

This is the last time we see him before his next apearance

And then...suddenly. THIS IS HIS NEXT APEARANCE:

I'm sorry WHAT.

DID WE MISS SOMETHING???

Randomly:

He has a fairy. They've apparently been looking for the other three. TELEPORTATION IS JUST A THING WITHOUT EXPLANATION???

Like, Wtf????

What my opinion?

And SUDDENLY later Red's all like "I'm so independent!😇 "

WHEN. WHEN DID WE SEE THAT RED BECASE IMEDIATELY AFTER YOUR TOWN SCUFFLE YOU'RE WITH A FAIRY AND GET BLUE SO STFU.

If you want what I THINK happened in this hypothetical cut:

Red got away from the towns people and ran into the fairy, and Shadow shape shifted out of being that kid that stole his shit.

Because like...I never knew that kid was meant to be shadow Link until someone pointed that out as a possibility because...Literally I thought Red having his sword and shield gone after he left the waterfall was an art error and not because of the kid.

Like the fact that is even up for debate whether or not that kid was shadow or it could be misinterpreted is a flaw in the writing imo but whatever.

Like it was never solidly conformed. There's evidence but it wasn't stated/shown directly and having the idea Shadow can shapeshift to THAT DEGREE is very interesting/cool lore. (We know he can look like green/Link but still. Would have been nice concrete powers around him he can be random ass people too and he's not bound to being just Link.)

If you think about it:

Green got the Pyramid segment

Vio gets the whole shadow link subplot

and Blue gets the temple of darkness.

Wtf does red get. He gets tacked on in the temple of darkness KIND OF but that felt like it was ONLY because he didn't get his own chapter and they had to mash Blue and Red's arcs together making both of their arcs WEAKER. And it just, annoys me idk.

Aaaaanywaaaay. That's my rambling nonsense.

I think with the idea of what they were TRYING TO DO with Red's character I can get a better grasp of where to take him in FSR.

It's so hard to describe why Red gives me "uncanny valley" vibe in his characterization but I hope I did a decent job explaining my thoughts.

You probably noticed: When smth about red doesn't make any fucking sense. I try to rationalize it. But I don't think there was any thought behind a lot of what he does. Which is why it makes me annoyed. 😭

[akfelpsrecaps]

Recap of Vod 12 — Golira

the recap here is quite short! mostly just a lot of mining of the cube + irl sorts of discussions. they find a lot of things \o/!!

recap under the cut, also reblogs are appreciated so more people can find these recaps \o/!!

(quick note that nothing I write here in quotes is verbatim + accurate translation. I will try to be as accurate as possible, but it’s more about quickly conveying vibes)

-this vod continues on from vod 11 \o/

-“hey matt. The moon looks strange. What did you do.”-Meiaum (it’s just a new moon)

-Felps kills a zombie and knocks it off the cube. Then jumps off after it to get the loot bag pfft. it gives him crystal horns which he puts on!!

-he goes back up to the cube to mine and they find a small room that only has a photo of Felps in it (the one he puts on his vod thumbnails)

-“this is lore, I’m certain”-Felps

“do you think this is the mayor without a mask? or is it the other (meiaum’s photo)?”-F “prefeito jelps”-M

-felps asks if the cube was always here or if it appeared, and Meiaum said it appeared. felps says it doesn’t make sense

“you have horns”-M “Yes. They shine”-F “Beautiful”

-felps gets some creepers that spawned on the cube to blow up and destroy some blocks

-finally they go back to talking in a group while mining pfft

-they talk about Twitter a bit, which leads to talking about meiaum’s subathon timer. felps googles how many hours 5 billion minutes would be to see how long Meiaum would have to stay if he was donated 5 billion dollars (at least 9000 years)

-they talk about liking bluesky and seeing the Felps updates blog + the fanart + Meiaum updates blog

-some kind of lore is happening tomorrow morning according to Meiaum?

-they spend a bit of time talking about chats \o/ (Felps’ chat for example, but others too)

-Felps is talking about the paradox of the Time Machine

-felps and Meiaum get distracted from mining because they hear a noise. they start digging to try and find the source of it

-after a lot of digging around they find a small house with a gorilla in it (appears to be two rooms—a bedroom and a main room)

-felps takes a photo of the gorilla and sends it to the groupchat with him matt and Meiaum 

-felps wonders if this is the gorilla’s house or if someone else lives here and takes care of the gorilla. Meiaum suggests maybe someone lived here the gorilla killed them

-Felps is confused as to how the gorilla even got here because there’s no path to the house + it doesn’t even have a door

-felps irl leaves to go get food. Meiaum continues mining + tries out some shaders. felps has towered up near the corner of the cube so you can see Meiaum moving around

-the video cuts here to when Felps is back.

“I broke five plates”-F “I heard!”-M

-Felps finds another room \o/ it has a gaming chair + desk. with a screen that’s playing Felps’ livestream I believe? Meiaum broke the screen accidentally so they didn’t really get to see what was on it

-there are holes in the walls and floors…? Ant nests

-the screen is put back by an admin. it is playing Felps’ livestream \o/ I think this cube wants to give akfelps and akmeiaum an existential crisis

-the screen is now playing meiaum’s live

-like with the pictures, they say they don’t know the stream versions of themselves

-felps calls the person streaming (Meiaum) um menininho and Meiaum disagrees pfft

-Meiaum stays staring at the screen for fun visual effects (stream in stream in stream in stream, etc)

-“it’s worth noting this room was full of ants”-F

-Meiaum sounds/acts like he’s in physical pain when he gets high amounts donated and added to the timer. every time this happens Felps runs over to the screen to watch his live 

-“i can do something funny to Meiaum if you give me permission”-a felps chat member—And they sent Meiaum $1000

-felps found a room with nothing

-just when Meiaum recovers from the $1000 someone sends $600 bringing the timer up to 400 hours

-“don’t support your streamer”-M

-Felps found another room—this time it’s an aquarium. there’s a shark with a name \o/ thúbaraum

-vod ends with Meiaum suffering. It continues on in the next vod

[maibluemen]

ok while i'm working on which meta stuff i want to have on this blog, i do want to make a somewhat? detailed post on some name headcanons i have. so. some countries whose names i either tweak or change from the ones suggested by himaruya (arguably, there are no canon names. alfred is really the only one you could argue for lol)

🇷🇺 - ivan ivanovich morozov

hima doesn't give patronymics to the countries that would use them. ivanovich comes from ivan being very young and asked what his full name is, and the only male name he could think of was his own lol so he just stuck with it. and yes both sisters have teased him for this. morozov is derived from the russian word for "frost," which i find fitting; i wanted to find a non-jewish surname for him because i don't headcanon him as jewish and. of all the non-jewish countries to have a jewish surname.....well. no judgement on people who use braginsky and i doubt himaruya meant any harm or anything but yeah that's why i use a different surname for him lol

🇱🇹 - tolvydas jonas laurinaitis

shoutout to @hinotorihime who i believe was one of the first, if not the first person in the fandom to suggest tolys being a more accurate translation of トーリス (since japanese doesn’t distinguish between R/L sounds like indo-european languages do, and english doesn’t distinguish between I/Y the way lithuanian does, and tolys being an EXCEEDINGLY uncommon name, i don’t think “toris” is an unreasonable translation to have made after the game of language telephone from lithuanian->japanese-> english lol. トーリス would be directly transliterated like “to risu” for those unfamiliar with katakana. it’s worth noting that pixiv translates his character tag as “tolys”). uhh the source he gave me is a website that no longer exists and wasn't archived unfortunately, but "tolvydas" means something like "far seer" and tolys is a shortened form of it jonas is the name he added when he was finally baptized, and it's in reference to john the baptist anyway, here is an old post where she explains some name meanings!

🇪🇪 - eduard tamm

look i know eduard isn't really used in estonia but the guy simply gives off eduard vibes to me, sorry tamm, aside from being the most common surname, means "oak"

🇱🇻 - raivis bērziņš

bērziņš is, again, the most common surname and means "birch"

ed and raivis having the most common surnames in their countries i swear isn't me being lazy, i like the idea of all 3 baltics having tree names (laurinaitis referring to "laurel")

🇵🇱 - feliks mieczysław kazimierz łukasiewicz

who let the poles be catholic so. feliks has only been a name used in poland since around the 1800s? iirc, it was specifically brought over because of a fascination with french names but i might be wrong lol (and ultimately the origins of the name are latin, so variants of it are pretty old anyway). anyway. i've decided that his first name used to be mieczysław and he changed it around the time of the napoleonic wars to feliks, but kept the old name. kazimierz was chosen at his baptism and refers to st casimir, one of the many patron saints of poland (there's literally a wikipedia article dedicated to them all lol)

🐥 - gilbert maria beilschmidt

mary was just a hugely important aspect of gil's history as a knight (and the specific orders he represented also). he hasn't been catholic in centuries but he keeps maria in his legal name because that's his mom, guys

N. 🇮🇹 - felice luca veneziano

veneziano and romano being surnames (meaning "venetian" and "roman" respectively) i decided to just...assign the italy bros their uh. titles? as surnames. apparently siblings having separate surnames isn't unheard of for the nations lol, anyway. i thought it would be more fitting as i also headcanon that there's at least 20 italies (corresponding with each modern-day region though the actual history gets a bit messier, like my tuscany oc is more properly my florence oc.....that's another post, tho) and vene and romano represent. well. veneto (but originally venice) and lazio (but originally the city of rome...though i have yet to decide when he started representing rome because he's not an Ancient....anyway.....) felice being the italian variant of "felix" luca is a baptismal name referring to st luke, who is a patron of (amongst other things) artists

S. 🇮🇹 - lovino francesco romano

heh so lovino is in the category of not really a real name but i like it and have never really felt drawn to another name instead francesco refers to st francis of assisi who is hugely popular. well, in general. and is a patron of italy. i need to workshop some more headcanons about romano and religion because of....reasons lol, but this is definitely a name he took on relatively recently.

[museqmeg]

Reporter’s Notes - Ch 2: Target (a vashmeryl fic)

Reporter’s Notes - Chapter Two: Target

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A vashmeryl fic

Author’s Note:

This chapter is inspired by the wonderful art by @redundantz_z They are a fantastic artist - please check them out!

____________________________________________________________________

The sharp recoil of the small derringer in Meryl’s small hands still caught her off guard. It didn’t help matters when she kept missing the target of empty bean cans that were only 15 yards away. She thought that was a good distance to start with the small pistol since watching Vash with his behemoth of a handgun and the range in which he was accurate. The trio of Roberto, Meryl, and Vash had set up for camp this late afternoon and she had asked Roberto to borrow his derringer for target practice. She bought a box of ammunition for her own practice at their last stop. She didn’t want to disgruntle her mentor by wasting his bullets. Given the recent events, she thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to at least know how to point and shoot. Her university education in November never required her to think about such things. “Focus on application,” as Roberto had put it. So she was going to give it a go.

She was entirely frustrated with the whole endeavor. It was so small, why was it giving her such a hard time? Was she really that terrible? She restocked the chamber and held the gun up to her target again, trying to focus and take aim. One shot… two. She still missed! “Ugh, this is stupid… Why do I keep missing? Just point and shoot dummy!” she groused.

“What’cha doin’ Meryl?” 

The bemused voice behind her made her jump and turn around cursing, almost dropping the tiny pistol.

“Vash! Are you insane?! I could have shot you!” 

“Sorry, sorry!” He said with a face that told her ‘not likely.’ Her chambers were empty and he clearly heard the rounds go off and counted.

She was about to tell him off, embarrassed at him catching her failing miserably at a skill he was so clearly adept at. She then felt a large mass envelope her tiny body. A warm hand came over her right hand and a slightly colder one over her left. She froze.

“Here…” Vash breathed into her ear. He lowered his body to her eye level and guided both their hands and gun up to their shared eyeline. 

She took a quick, cautious glance over to his face and watched as he squinted his right eye and then the left. She couldn’t help but think of a bullfrog in a book from her childhood. Slowly blinking each eye and looking silly. 

She was about to share her memory with him when he said, “Ah! It looks like you’re not using your dominant left eye.”

“What?” She retorted. “It’s my right side.”

“It’s a common tendency when learning to shoot. Yes, you do use your right hand to write. I noticed it when you were interviewing me and taking notes. However, not everyone’s dominant hand translates to their dominant, shooting eye. It’s called being ‘cross-dominant.’”

“Huh?” Meryl was even more confused.

“I’ll show you,” Vash answered as he gently took the derringer from her hands, clicked the safety, and tucked it away in his coat pocket. His hands came back around and in front of her making a triangle shape that encompassed one of the bean cans.

“Look through my hands. Close your right eye, then your left. Which one stayed in the triangle?” Vash asked.

“Umm… the left.” She mumbled.

“See? That’s why you were off target by a couple of feet.” He said triumphantly. “You were consistent though, so at least your hands are steady.”

“Huh…” She mused and turned her head over her left shoulder to look into his face to show she understood… and was completely struck by how strikingly teal his eyes were. Being this close she could get a full view of his eyes behind his orange-tinted sunglasses. She didn’t know anyone with eyes that vibrant. Was that why he wore the glasses? To diminish the color? It definitely would give people pause. It was otherworldly in this desert hellscape. Or maybe because they were so light-colored, they were sensitive to the sunlight?

He grinned at her and said, “Here, let’s give it another shot.” Then winked.

“Haha… I didn’t know you were a fan of puns.” She smiled back and rolled her eyes.

He chuckled and pulled the derringer back out from his coat pocket. “Hold out your left hand.” 

She did and watched as he carefully placed the gun in her hand telling her, “Start with a relaxed grip and make sure your fingers rest under the trigger guard before tightening the grip, just not too tight. Good! Now let your thumb rest on the left side. There… Now your right hand can join the grip with your right thumb over the left thumb. You don’t want them to crossover. Okay! Now since we’re not shooting, your right index finger can rest lengthwise alongside the pistol until you’re ready to engage the trigger. Don’t want any dangerous accidents!” 

Meryl was having a very hard time concentrating. Especially when his own index finger came over hers and the tiny derringer. She was reminded just how much bigger he was than her. His finger ran down the whole length of the pistol while hers maybe only came down about halfway. She gulped and was suddenly aware of his frame over and around her again. She noticed how his coat had unintentionally enveloped them both. She thought that had he wanted to, he could zip them both up into it with room to spare with his lean body and her petite frame. 

She gulped and took a steady breath through her nose. Big mistake, all that came in was Vash. He smelled like the desert, earthy and dry with a hint of Roberto’s secondhand nicotine from smoking in the truck while they drove. There was the clear smell of gunpowder too, which she expected, and something else… It was sweet and bright. What that lemon? There was something else she couldn’t place, but it was so bright and sweet. And something that reminded her of the mild teas she once received as a gift that were so aromatic. It reminded her of sunshine. 

That’s what Vash was… sunshine. Trying ever so hard to be kind and considerate. Never wanting anyone to feel distressed or unhappy. Helping and saving whoever he could. Not the Humanoid Typhoon character the world painted him to be.

“Ready to try again?” Vash asked, pulling her out of her daze.

“Y-yes!” She chirped. 

He finally stood back from her and took a few paces back to allow her to take aim. She turned her head to him and he gave her one of his signature warm smiles and a thumbs up with his glinting prosthesis. Ever the encouraging Vash.

She faced forward again, refilling the chamber, checking her grip, and releasing the safety before bringing the pistol up to her newly found, dominant eye. She allowed herself to breathe and sharpen her focus. It was much easier without Vash all around her.

She sighted the can and blocked out her surroundings, moving her index finger from the position Vash taught her and around the trigger. A quick grip and the bullet grazed the can. She made a slight adjustment and pulled again… she hit it!

A loud whoop came from behind her and she saw Vash laughing and waving his hand above his head in congratulations. 

She smiled broadly back at him and said, “Thank you!”

He continued waving at her as she smiled, thinking about how kind and considerate he was with her very beginner endeavor compared to his mastery of this art. She thought again how Vash was really a ray of sunshine, waving back at him.

____________________________________________________________________

So… I got the idea for Vash’s scent from an official cologne that was released for him. I just had to include it in his sunny description.

The coat idea is something my husband does to me with his giant, winter coat.

I was able to use some of my archery and gun safety experience for this little fic. I hope I got everything right. It’s been a while…

Thanks for reading! :)

[farlynthordens]

SKB Volume 9 Summary

this is a summary of important points, including spoilers and new characters.

Vols 2-5 now have official translations! | Volume 6 | Volume 7 | Volume 8 | Volume 9 (here)

As always, my translations of characters' names or other new things introduced in the book likely won't be accurate to the official version.

"The Black & White Coexisting Spacetimes Theory: like how objects have a reflection in the mirror, the world is made up of 2 spacetime layers that similarly coexist in a balance with each other." This idea has not yet been proven to be true, but it was realized by high priest Ochagama. ...

A woman with long, billowing hair like flames stands looking up at Mt. Fuji - akaboshi bisco, also known as red the twinshroom, and the last mushroom keeper on earth.

Her full body tattoos are the manifestation of the souls that reside in her. they glow and throb with a dull pain. she HAS to win this, not just for herself, but for all those lost, and for....

Milo, also known as blue and the other half of the twinshrooms. she and actagawa find red, and blue scolds her for going off alone. blue is described as being small, and with a panda-like mark and bright eyes.

R: "Like I'd actually go by myself. I keep my promises!" Red gets onto actagawa and pulls in blue for a tight hug, basically shoving blue's face right into her chest. R: "C'mooon, don't be mad at me... If we're dyin' then we're doin' it together, right?" B: "Hmmph..." And yet somehow, like always, blue was assuaged by her words. B: "We can't die though, we have to come home alive for Sugar." R: "Oh yeah, how is he?" B: "Sleeping soundly ... Tirol set up a barrier dimension with mantras, so they shouldn't be able to be found from the outside." R: "...And where is Tirol now?" B: "Ummm...."

Tirol [male] runs up behind them. he's short and has jellyish-like hair.

Tirol explains their plan to defeat the rust god, who steals people's souls and makes their power his own. they have to attack from outside the rust god's visual range, because once they're in his sights it's all over.

It's revealed that pawoo died a while ago after trying to fight the rust god.

Main universe: Bisco wakes suddenly in a panic, having just seen red's life through his dreams. he accidentally wakes sugar, who tells him he just had a bad dream and needs to get some sleep before their beach trip in the morning.

The whole family is sleeping together in a tent, seemingly all living a traveler life together for the time being. pawoo and salt are to bisco's one side, sugar and milo on the other.

The memories of the dream rapidly fade, but bisco can't shake the disturbing feeling he got from it. he is unable to sleep the rest of the night.

Red's universe: the rust god, named rust (yes i know. naming choices) sits atop a throne on the pinnacle of mt. fuji. he is an automaton, but looks like a young boy. the souls of countless people swirl around him, asking rust to grant their wishes for wealth, talent, and power.

Rust seems bored by all the souls pestering him. with each snap of his fingers, he grants their wishes... or at least appears to. by doing so, the souls declare their fealty to him and he absorbs them into his body.

A tiny, flying bug-like creature named N'badu asks rust how the souls tasted, to which he replies they were disgusting.

They go for a walk and look down over the fields full of rust-covered statues - people whose souls had been taken.

When rust first began taking over, he would simply kill all who opposed him and take their souls that way. However, n'badu came up with an idea where those who willingly gave up their souls would have their wishes granted by rust.

The vast majority of humanity chose to give up their souls in exchange for a wish. less than 2% of the population is still alive.

Rust is quite pragmatic, asking why humans chose to stop fighting and why they wanted wishes when the wish was simply a hallucination they saw as their soul was consumed. if the humans had attacked en masse, even he would not have been able to stop them all in one blow.

Despite the massive amount of souls he has, rust is not satisfied. he wants a high quality soul, one that burns with strong passion and a willful fighting spirit. he remembers hearing that red was still alive, and says that she's perfect to be his target.

Like rust, red has an ability that allows her to absorb souls into her body. this is a passed-down mushroom keeper skill in this universe.

As if on cue, red appears. actagawa casts a tiny shadow against the backdrop of the full moon from how far away they are. red shoots at rust with a powerful poison arrow and the resulting growth eviscerates mt. fuji.

Red cheers that she defeated him. her tattoos are lit up like fire from activating the souls' maximum power. however, the mechanical pieces that had rained from the explosion come back together. rust begins to reform right in front of them.

He sends red and blue flying and crashing into the rocky ground with punches and kicks that contain unbelievable strength. both beaten and bloodied, red cradles blue in her arms. Red: "It's impossible... I thought I killed you...!" Rust: "And you did. ... But it matters not if I die once or twice, for I can revive once for each soul I contain." Red is overcome with a sense of despair. She was a human who could only die once, while Rust could brush it off like a minor scrape.

Rust loves those who are strong, who fight against fate and do everything they can to survive... so that he can watch them break down, grovel, beg for forgiveness at his feet.

He thinks of how he can make red truly go mad with despair. his first decision? to kill actagawa right in front of her...

Main universe: Bisco wakes up screaming in terror. he's on the beach next to actagawa, and gives him a hug. he later talks to tirol (who came with the fam to the beach) about his nightmares, and she explains the black & white spacetimes theory to him.

Tirol says he shouldn't worry about what he saw since there's no way to travel to other timelines. he should just be happy he ended up in the "good" one.

Sugar is playing in the water when a meteor appears in the sky. as the protector of earth, she tries to destroy it. on the first hit, it doesn't break. she goes to hit it again, but senses it has an energy like it's alive.

Sugar sees that the meteor was actually a human woman. she creates a platform to pull the woman onto, with not only her clothes but also her eyes gone from having burned up. R: "W... who's there.... Is that you, Milo? You're safe, right? Don't worry, I'm fine, I'll protect you..." S: "It's okay, Sugar will make you better again!" R: "...Did you say, 'Sugar'??"

Sugar uses her powers to restore red's eyes, heal her body, and give her a new set of mushroom keeper clothes. able to see again, red hugs sugar tightly and cries. sugar is confused. red realizes something is off too.

She marvels at the existence of the alternate timeline being true, before trying to wrack her brain for what happened during her fight. she only remembers tirol sending her away, and that she has a mission: to devour her other self.

Riding on actagawa, bisco arrives to see if sugar is okay. the instant red and bisco lock eyes, they go into battle mode.

They realize simultaneously that they're both akaboshi bisco. bisco jeers that there's no way red is the strongest mushroom keeper since he already exists, but it's quickly made clear that red can overpower him. she is able to deflect his arrows, then when they cross blades he's barely able to hold her off. he tries to stab her, but doing so only makes the metal of the blade bend.

She breaks bisco's nose before grabbing his neck. She shoves his head underwater as if trying to drown him. R: "That's right. I'm 'Akaboshi Bisco.' ... To save the future of my timeline, I'm goin' to take your soul!"

S: "Wait, that's my papa?! Or, um, my mama?! But my mama is Milo...?!" ... R: "Havin' both of us be called 'Bisco' is a pain in the ass! In my timeline, me n' Milo are called Red and Blue. If you need a name for me, then call me Red the Twinshroom!" B: "Well ain't that a fancy name, huh?" R: "Somethin' like 'Enoki' is good enough for you ... You're so damn tiny, can you really use a bow lookin' like that?" B: "You're just too damn muscly! ... Besides, it's 3 against 1, you think you can win?" R: I'm alone, huh...? You'll regret sayin' that."

She summons a giant bow that glows orange, which she calls the crab god's bow. it's made from actagawa's soul.

Bisco and sugar summon the choushin bow. red knows of this power, but it was never able to be used in her world. they clash and are perfectly matched.

Bisco calls the souls in red's body "evil spirits" and this sends her into a rage. as they fight at close range, glowing vines come out of red's arm and form into shishi's signature sword.

Red's body starts burning up from overusing her powers. as she's dying painfully, all she can think about is fighting and winning so that everyone's deaths were not in vain.

As red falls unconscious and bisco catches her, she thinks of blue... R: (I guess I really can't do this on my own... I need you... Milo...) ... She holds Blue's corpse in her arms, unable to stop the continuous bleeding. Red's clothes become increasingly stained, trembling in anguish and despair as she feels the body of her loved one growing cold. R: "No.... no!!! I'm gonna die with her!! Just kill me! Please kill me too...!"

The squad brought red to banryou-ji, where milo runs tests and watches as she sleeptalks and writhes. he gently touches her face and this seems to make her calm down.

Tirol, Bisco, and Pawoo force their way into milo's space and stare at red like a zoo exhibit. as usual, they all start bickering and the noise wakes red.

Red can't see very well, but freaks out upon realizing she's tied down. she activates her powers, and flexing her muscles breaks the metal bonds. milo tries to explain things, and hearing his voice makes her pause. R: "Who... are...?" M: "I'm Milo! I'm Bisco's partner, and I've gone to school, so you have nothing to worry about!"

She becomes enraged at remembering blue's death. everyone backs off while pawoo handles things, but red easily knocks pawoo's staff away.... before jumping in to hug her.

Red is happy to find that "her husband" is "alive". everyone shouts at pawoo to knock red out, but pawoo is too taken in by red's brazen affection. bisco says to keep her hands off of his wife, and pawoo passes out from happiness at two biscos fighting over her. Milo watches all of this with great amusement.

Tirol hears the voice of her counterpart in her head. he shares his memories of the alternate timeline with her, and she projects them to everyone else.

Tirol's memories: he managed to save red just before rust killed her, but she was frozen in shock after blue's death. she only snaps out of it once she sees tirol hurting his own body from using mantras to protect them.

Tirol says that to get stronger than rust, she needs to take the soul of her alternate self. tirol uses his remaining life energy to activate the ultimate mantra, Akasha Tripper, which can send people across realities.

R: "Stop it! Why are you dyin' for me?!" T: "Call it my selfishness... Is it so bad?" R: "I thought you hated me...!" T: "I don't bother arguing with people I hate ... Goodbye, Akaboshi. Be nice to the other me."

Seeing tirol's memories clears red's amnesia. she apologizes to milo and pawoo for acting out. pawoo gives her a hug, seeming to feel bad for the horrors she experienced.

Red's universe: using tirol's soul, rust and n'badu figure out how to activate akasha tripper. rust plans to go steal souls from the other timeline, but he wants to preemptively cull the mushroom keepers as well as sugar who is a god that could rival him.

Rust possesses their world's (red's son) sugar now as well since tirol is dead and the mantras protecting sugar faded. sugar seems to be a normal baby.

N'badu borrows a soul from rust and transforms its former physical appearance - and it's none other than amli. n'badu enters the portal and goes to carry out rust's command.

Main universe: having received her counterpart's technical knowledge, tirol programs a copy of akasha tripper. pawoo is restless, really wanting to be helpful but unsure what she can do. seeing this, tirol thinks of something and tells pawoo to sit tight.

Meanwhile, milo has been refereeing bisco and red's endless competitions to see who's superior, which includes tests of strength and speed to who can cook better or watch a horror movie for longer. everything's ended in a tie.

B: "Next we'll see who can grow more shimeji mushrooms!" R: "You're on. I'm gonna cover this whole damn country in 'em. ... Milo, get out the manta bow! I'm gonna win this!" M: "Huh?! But, uh...." B: "Hey, the hell you think you're doin'!? You can't take someone else's partner!" R: "Just lemme borrow him for a bit. Bad enough you're a guy, but you're stingy too. No one in the whole universe knows how to work with Milo better than me!"

They grab milo's arms and fight over him, until bisco suddenly falls down. he looks at his hand, only to see that it isn't even there.

N'badu, also skilled at programming, was trying to overwrite bisco's timeline with a fake reality where he and milo don't exist. tirol just barely managed to stop the change.

Tirol says they need to find the person who cast the wish to overwrite the timeline and stop them.

Banryou-ji transforms into a tetsujin being piloted by pawoo. using pawoo's massive love energy, the tetsujin activates akasha tripper. bisco tells her to stop because it's dangerous, but red shuts him up. R: "Thanks. Love you, Pawoo! I can feel the love you've given us. Just for you, I'm gonna win and come home safe!" P: "Yes, honey...!" B: "What the fuck?! Cut this out, Pawoo is married to the one and only Akaboshi Bisco...!" R: "Yeah? And that's me." B: "No! I'm only talkin' about ME! Because... I love Pawoo MORE than you!!!" he shouted like a child who didn't want to be one-upped.

Bisco, milo, and red get sucked into the portal and hold onto each other so they don't get separated. milo passes out from moving at high speeds. he's squashed between the 2 biscos.

Bisco's senses are telling him that they might not come out of this alive, and tells red: if things turn dire, she can willingly take his soul. but in return, red has to promise to protect his family.

In the false reality: Izumo has become the new capital, and all religious sects were forced together to become one under the rust god. it's gone from six towers 108 to represent every former sect. everyone is praying and giving their energy to the rust god, which is being used to form this fake reality overwriting bisco's world.

The trio falls from the sky and crashes thru multiple towers. red wakes up, feeling something pressing on her chest and figures some rubble landed on her.... but she opens her eyes to see milo kissing her.

She sends him flying in her rage, but then cries thinking about how she cheated on her husband. she accuses milo of making her pregnant (she's not). milo was just giving her CPR because she stopped breathing. red turns... well... red in embarrassment.

Trying to pull herself together, red talks proudly while still blushing hard. R: "...Anyway! You said you're experienced but turns out you're [the other reality's milo is] nothin' special! Don't tell me that's the best you got. With kisses THAT shitty, you'd never excite even a single girl." M: "Okay..." He presses against her. "Should I give you a real kiss?" He was not joking. His eyes narrowed, and Red felt herself being oppressed by his aura. It was like that of a hunter aiming to take down a predator in one shot. M: "Are you scared? You're the one who picked this fight..." R: "Uh, um...! Milo! I was jokin'! Just..." M: "Mm-mm, I'm not letting you get away. This is the perfect opportunity to teach you a lesson..." R: (Is this really what Mllo would'a been like if she was a guy?!)

But milo pulls off of her when he hears bisco calling for them. red is extremely confused, having accepted that milo was going to kiss her. milo says red needs to be careful about protecting herself from shitty men since she doesn't have blue around to help.

They find bisco.... who has turned into a palm-sized kinoko. milo exclaims at how cute he is and tries to tickle him, but bisco blasts him and tells him to focus on the serious task at hand.

They get attacked by Kyurumon and Corpulo (fire and gold tower leaders). corpulo says he'll let red live if she becomes his whore, and then an arrow slices through his throat. "How dare you say something so disgusting to Bisco... Do you regret it? Ah, maybe you didn't even have time to." Red stands there in shock at Milo's incredible readiness to kill. He then turns to look at her. "He can't talk anymore, so don't worry!" he said with a smile. B: (Scary, ain't he.) R: (Way more than Blue...)

Kyurumon uses gold creation mantras to draw in lots of people and makes them form into a giant mass. milo has a plan to fight it, but red won't listen and just blows holes in the amalgamation without caring if she kills anyone.

Bisco says Red won't listen to milo since they aren't partners. to become her partner, he needs to use her REAL name. M: "...Actually, I wouldn't be cheating on you, would I?" B: "Huh?!" M: "Are you telling me it's okay? Even if it's just for a minute, I'm going to be someone else's partner--" B: "The hell're you talkin' about?! Just do it already!"

Milo calls for red... or now bisco, and stops her just before she fires an arrow that would've surely decimated the city. she felt blue's presence in his voice, and can feel her partner's warmth on her back... She scolds herself for being so easy to sway.

The trio commits yet another act of religious impersonation. red and milo use the mantra bow and fire a jizou-shroom, which creates a giant jizou shaped figure. bisco jumps onto its head and pretends to speak as the "great spore buddha" to the people, and those in the amalgamation come to their senses and leave quietly.

Red doesn't feel good about this win. she's never used jabi's jizou-shroom because it's useless for battle, but bisco explains that wanting a way to end battles without killing was what made jabi create the jizou-shroom in the first place. R: "You fight, and one side is gonna die - that's just life. Jabi's dream was nothing more than that!" ... B: "We don't wish for things hopin' they'll come true. I think what life's really all about is dreamin' and chasin' after those dreams."

Red gets angry, saying that bisco can only dream of nice things because he's had good luck. she acknowledges his way of thinking isn't wrong, but to remember that those who dream are protected by those who see reality.

A decrepit kelshinha tries to steal the scriptures to regain his power and take back the title of "rust god." amli (n'badu) appears, mocking him for his weakness. amli's hair has now grown long, and he is the official rust god of izumo.

Just as n'badu is about to kill kelshinha, red and milo bust in to protect him.

N'badu breaks a hole in the floor under kelshinha and he plummets. bisco jumps in after him. milo and red escape the building, but n'badu follows them. N: "I see that the other world's Blue also has some level of mantra power ... But compared to what the real Blue could do, yours are child's play. One who was raised in the comfort of the good timeline could never be fit to be Red's partner. You're nothing but a weakling using the name of the Twinshrooms." ... Red explains who n'badu is and tries to form a plan of attack, but now milo is the one not listening. M: "You think I'm not good enough? You think I don't have what it takes to be Bisco's partner...! Even though I... I even had one of his kids....!"

N'badu keeps prodding him when he realizes how well it's working. R: "Don't let him provoke you! you gotta work together with me here--!" N: "So useless. You can't do anything without Red's power, can you? Just a poor little star who can't shine on his own. All you do is drag your partner down..." M: "SHUT UUUUUUUPPPPP!!!"

Enraged, Milo expels massive amounts of energy and summons the mantra bow by himself. he fires it, only for n'badu to stop the arrow easily and sling it back at him.

A fully powered kelshinha appears and protects milo from the attack. kelshinha absorbed kinoko!bisco and is borrowing his energy.

Kelshinha fights n'badu using new techniques that are a mix of mantras and mushroom energy, which he invented on the fly. it looks like he's going to win, but n'badu manages to snag bisco from him, which causes kelshinha to weaken and fade from existence.

Red convinces kelshinha to give her his soul. they use his soul's power to form a new bow, and fire a shot to destroy amli's body. amli's soul is set free and he talks one last time to red, thanking her for all she's done.

The reality they're in begins to fold in on itself. the trio tries to escape thru the akasha tripper portal, but then milo is grabbed and dragged back.

N'badu took control of kyurumon and used her powers to form a new human amalgamation. the energy from the peoples' prayers is closing the portal, so milo tells red and bisco to leave him behind. he'll defeat n'badu and rejoin them later. red is hesitant, but bisco says they should always trust when milo says he'll do something.

Milo defeats them quite fast and sets everyone's souls free. n'badu is extremely pissed about this defeat to the point he no longer cares about going after red. the portal closes behind milo, and he considers what to do to get out now.

Blue's soul appears and she passes on her powers. she says he has the potential to attain new powers that no one's ever imagined. blue's soul, as well as all the others around him, are absorbed into the emerald cubes, and the unstable spacetime reforms into something new...

While n'badu kept the trio distracted, rust had gone to the main timeline.

He destroys the banryou-ji tetsujin instantly. pawoo fights him, only to create a repeat of what happened to red in her final battle: rust's body explodes to pieces and pawoo thinks she won, only for rust to reform and attack her while she's unaware.

Tirol is frozen as she watches pawoo get beaten bloody by rust, unable to hold a candle to his power. T: "Someone, please, save her...! Save my friend! I'll give you all the money I've got, just please...!"

Rust threatens to kill tirol unless pawoo gives up her soul, to which she agrees. rust then goes to kill tirol anyway, but is stopped by a rainbow-colored blast. S: "You promised all your money, so give it!" T: "?!?!" S: "Juuuust kidding!" T: "She really IS the daughter of those idiots..."

Sugar heals pawoo and lets the two escape while she faces rust. for the first time ever, rust feels excited, knowing there's a chance he may lose.

Red and Bisco (still a kinoko btw) are stuck in the cold, dark subspace tunnel after the exit back to the main timeline closed.

Red summons all the souls from her body and uses them to form a path that points to where the portal should be. without the soul's power in her she loses not only her tattoos, but she feels incredibly cold and exhausted.

Bisco offers up his soul if it means keeping her alive. she refuses it, so instead he heats up his own body using the spores inside him, and acts like a heating pad to keep red warm.

Somewhere else, Milo wakes up.... standing at the front of a college classroom giving a presentation. he finishes his report on apollo particles and the perceived benefits and dangers of it. the professor praises him for a great job and class is then dismissed.

B: "Well that was something. You spend your free time thinkin' about that sorta stuff?" M: "Of course not, I just chose that topic because it would make the professor happy." B: "Gross." M: "Lying is the key to getting ahead in life!" he says with a wink. "By the way, are you ready for your presentation next week?" B: "All I gotta do is read the script you wrote me, yeah?" M: "No! You need to rehearse what you'll say if the professor asks questions too ... I'm trying to make sure you graduate, so come over to my place again to practice!"

Milo latches on to bisco's arm and asks if he wants to go out for ice cream. but as they're walking, things start to go wrong. someone drops chemicals out a window over their heads. a professor uses an apollo particle-powered canon to kill students. bisco acts like everything is normal.

Bisco offers to help with the professor's 'tests', aka volunteering to be killed. milo takes bisco's place, absolutely refusing to let him die. just as he's about to be shot.... domino appears.

She fights the professor (n'badu), saying that blue created this space and n'badu has no right to be in it.

Bisco, who is merely part of the illusion, acts as n'badu's ally and shoots at them. domino 'kills' him, and milo tries to rush to his aid.

Domino chases off n'badu and helps milo wake up from the hallucination.

Domino leads him to where blue wanted, so he can learn the soul absorption technique...

Red's dreams: red absorbs actagawa's soul and gains the crab god's bow, which is said to have a power equal to a hundred million souls. if rust gets hit with a single shot, even he would die from running out of souls to restore himself with.

Red is unable to get the bow to draw. blue uses a mantra whip to snare rust, but he isn't fazed. he grabs blue and holds her hostage, yet even so blue still tells red to shoot so they can win - so they can protect the future of the world for sugar.

Red fires.... and misses. blue is tossed by her feet. She missed to not hit her partner. As long as Milo was alive, as long as she at least had her partner by her side, then...

But rust took that away from her too, killing blue by tearing out her heart. Red screams in anguish and tries to comfort blue as she dies.

Rust tells her to stand up and fight, but red refuses over and over. she's going to die with milo. she begs rust to hurry up and kill her already...

Red wakes up in a fit, upset for wasting the lives of everyone who loved her and upset at bisco [/herself] for being loved by everyone when it's impossible to live up to their expectations. B: "If you don't wanna fight the rust god, then you don't have to. You should just live the life YOU want." R: "But then everyone's love for me would have been for no--" B: "People don't love you just because they expect something from you in return."

The voices in red's mind telling her to fight and win were not the souls, it was her own voice. SHE was the one burning. but even if bisco tells her 'live how you want,' what can she do in a world where everyone she loves is already gone?

Bisco invites her to come to his world and live with his family. R: "Won't it be kinda complicated havin' 2 Biscos around?" B: "I'm already havin' to do the work of 2 husbands, so havin' another Bisco would make it even out." Red smiles and agrees to it.

The subspace tunnel's raging blizzard is gone. red calls the souls back to her body, and they glow rust eater orange now, instead of the ashura red they had been before. she feels she's realized her true self, granting her a new form of power.

She summons a new weapon called the Atman [True Self] Crossbow and fires it, tearing open a new exit in the subspace tunnel.

Main universe: back to sugar and rust's battle. rust questions why sugar is fighting so hard to protect the earth when living is only a series of suffering and chasing after dreams that may never come true. R: "Protecting these lifeforms amounts to nothing more than prolonging their suffering ... Let us work together to free the humans from having to live in fear." S: "The one living in fear is you! ... The reason you grant wishes all the time is because you're scared of what humans could accomplish by their own power. People will never rise up if they never learn what they're capable of."

Sugar creates a giant chain to ensnare rust and drags him along the rocky mountainside. she goes to finish him off before his body reforms again, but collapses from exhausting almost all of her power.

Rust, having used billions of souls, begins to age. when he reforms, he looks like a man in his 20s instead of a child.

Rust strangles sugar until she passes out. just as he's about to kill her, n'badu takes over her body and begs rust to reconsider since sugar's powers could be useful to him. rust has no interest.

Realizing that n'badu is useless to him too, rust goes to kill the both of them. n'badu activates sugar's powers and tears open a hole in spacetime, allowing red and bisco to return.

With her new powers, red delivers a punch straight to rust's face and heavily damages him. feeling proud of herself, she touches her tattoos and tells everyone to watch as she finishes this.

Rust slices through her stomach... but gets stuck in her muscles. red uses the opportunity to punch the shit out of him, knocking limbs off and causing mushrooms to grow across his body. kinoko!bisco activates his choushin ability to heal red while she keeps fighting.

Rust continues to age. he forms his arm into a giant drill made up of layers of spinning gears, stabbing it straight through red's chest.

Red grits the pain as the drill keeps destroying her and bisco tries to keep up with healing the damage. she pulls rust closer and wraps her arms around him, activating her soul power and using her insane strength to crush rust's body.

Bisco warns that if he uses the choushin ability any longer, the amount of rainbowshrooms in her body will kill her. red is moments away from destroying rust, but bisco makes the decision to separate the 2 of them to save her life.

Red's chest wound heals completely. rust has cracked and aged to the point of a dying old man, and he panics at the loss of his youth and beauty. he grabs bisco... and sticks him inside his body to absorb his powers.

Overflowing with power once again, rust flies high into the air and sends giant spinning gears raining down across the continent, killing many people and stealing their souls.

She summons the crab god's bow, but rust mocks if she'll have the heart to fire it and kill her own self when she couldn't even kill blue.

Seeing her hesitate, bisco calls out to red. "I'm givin' you the name of 'Akaboshi Bisco', so...! Protect the planet I care about, and all the people who loved me! Use your bow to save all of it! BISCOOOOO--!!" The instant that Red heard Bisco's cries, she felt 'love' well up from deep within her. In that moment, Red felt a love for the self that stood before her eyes. (I get it now...) (I love...) (Bisco [myself]...)

With the power of her realized self-love, she transforms her bow into the Red Star's True Self bow ** . her arrow pierces thru bisco and rust... only for bisco to realize he isn't dying, but transforming back into a human.

Bisco falls from the sky and red catches him. he's confused how he's still alive, but red says that this is her own ultimate bow technique - it isn't meant to kill, but to let things live, just like the technique that jabi invented.

Rust has been restored into his all-powerful form, but red is calm. burning hot, red tattoos suddenly cover rust's body and destroy him from the inside out. red's arrow awakened all of the souls in him and they were now trying to escape.

Rust continues to burn but doesn't die. bisco says they should end things since they've already won. R: "Okay, we'll need the choushin bow." B: "Seriously?!" R: "We need a way to calm the souls and send them off, but my bow can't do that. We need your power, the choushin bow's power of dreams!" B: "But I can't do it without Milo...!"

Bisco tries to summon the choushin bow but fails. up til now he and milo had used their combined power/belief in each other to create it...

So red helps him, by believing that he can do it. by believing in bisco [themself]. and it works - they create and fire the Ultimate Self-Truth bow ***. the souls are calmed, and return to the great cycle of life.

R: "Man, you're so easy to use. Your big sister gives you just a li~ttle encouragement and you completely go off." B: "What part of you is sisterly? You're just 'big'." R: "Chose your words more carefully when talkin' to a lady, you shrimp!" They start fist fighting and rolling on the ground, but red pins him after a few minutes.

After an awkward moment of silence she thanks him. she leans in and... looks like she's about to kiss him...... bisco is confused and so am i as the reader. they both sit up in a hurry when they hear n'badu fly to them.

N'badu laughs maniacally and disrespects the pieces of rust's automaton-corpse. he reveals that he was the one who created him.

Red throws an arrow at him and takes off one of his legs, only for one of her own legs to disappear. red asks why they're connected like this, and n'badu states that not only did he create rust... but all of the existence that red had known, including herself. her entire timeline was made from a divergence in bisco's.

Seeing red fading from existence, bisco grabs n'badu and heals him to restore red's body.

N'badu projects a dark aura over them, showing memories of past battles and what could have happened if they hadn't won. bisco and milo managed to stave off destruction over and over, but all of those divergences to bad futures still existed within the subspace of reality. those divergences came together to manifest n'badu.

N'badu brings out the sugars of both timelines, using them and the remaining souls he has to form them into "sugar the universe-creator."

When bisco looks up to the sky, there is a giant goddess casting light over the entire planet. a new universe forms in her hands, turning the blue afternoon sky black as night.

N'badu says he is the father of the universe. he orders sugar to overwrite all of existence - every world, every timeline. bisco runs towards the goddess and n'badu orders her to protect him. with barely a flick of her finger, bisco's arm is torn off.

Bisco uses his remaining hand to reach out toward sugar, his voice weak. B: "Sugar... let's go home... we'll go home.... to Milo..." S: -My love. Who is this human?- N: "Oh, you don't even remember who Akaboshi Bisco, your own father, is?!" he exclaims with faked surprise. "He's your very, very beloved papa. Before you turned into the creator of the universe, you loved your papa and mama more than anyone else." S: -That is true.- Sugar and bisco look at each other, exchanging many words in a single look. despite her memories being gone, the bond of their hearts has not completely disappeared. N: "Ahh, how moving! ...Now what the fuck are you waiting for? Kill him." S: -Yes, my love.-

A beam of light pierces bisco's eye, yet he continues to look up at sugar....

TO BE CONTINUED.

The book ends with a teaser quote and placeholder title for volume 10:

“Do partners stay together forever? Until they die?” “Yeah.” ... Sabikui Bisco 10, the final volume: Promises

Other notes:

In the family beach scene, Bisco is still fully clothed besides his cape. he's developed a phobia of the ocean mostly because milo told him a scary story about how vengeful spirits all live at the bottom (milo didn't intend for him to take it seriously). he shivers from remembering "an underwater adventure" they did with actagawa a number of years ago, which I think is a reference to one of the short stories included with the anime BluRay discs.

When Red explains her nickname "Red the twinshroom", "red" is written as 火星, the planet Mars.

Pawoo trained bisco in using a staff so now he's much better at it.

Tirol's great-grandpa (the high priest) fucking died off-camera and we only get a single sentence about it, which says he died from eating too much daifuku. RIP king

The fake realities that n'badu and blue create are referred to as Svapna Akasha.

Male amli is taller than bisco.

Main universe amli saw her alternate self via dreams like bisco did. when she wakes up, she's sad that she's still short.

The college scene: we get to see more of domino's personality, which is that she's very girly and very self-assured. she has painted nails and checks if she needs to fix her makeup. she takes a selfie with milo.

The college scene: Milo scolds himself for not realizing bisco was a fake sooner - "He was weirdly obedient, didn't make sarcastic remarks, and didn't pick fights. I'm so stupid, someone so plain could never really be bisco!" the fake bisco also implied he didn't like sweets, which is very anti-real bisco.

Salt never existed in red's world.

** Red Star's True Self Bow: 真我赤星弓 (shinga sekisei-kyuu), pretty literal translation. and of course red star/sekisei is the same kanji as "akaboshi".

*** 真我超信弓 (shinga choushin-kyuu), i wasn't sure how to make this name short and understandable. since "choushin" means "ultimate faith", this bow's name is "ultimate faith in one's true self".

Red is mentioned to have a high-quality, extremely study cloak. she can use it to deflect attacks.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hey its the Nigerian anon from earlier, and I haven't read events yet I'm going to wait for more reliable translators to bring it out. For now I've only seen twst Zazu, the other version of the outfits and 'catch the tail'?

Catch the tail sorta reminds me of the annual wrestling festival my community holds as well as the masquerades (these aren't as fun, much more traumatising than it sounds). So it's a good reminder at least

Twst Zazu who I've only seen the design of reminds me of Ambrose the third in a Appearance, I showed my fellow Nigerian parents his design but their first response was 'why was he white' ' and reminded them of the dancing guy in African attire.

The outfits I'm a bit more skeptical on, on one hand they seem to implement traditional fabrics, on the other it seems to be a more sexualised version of it. And frankly I'm not a fan of the fan service.

Thoughts?

[Referencing this post!]

Hello, and welcome back!! ^^ It’s good to know that you’re patiently waiting for quality translations for the ongoing event. Sometimes quick translations can result in misinformation spreading (which I’m sure you’re aware of!).

Only 2 parts of the story are out at the moment, but we’ve already seen some exciting things! A new character, a new environment, and lots of new lore…!! ✨

Wrestling isn’t too big of a thing in my part of the world, but it’s cool to see that it is in other places! These kinds of events bring people out and help a community feel more tightly knit~ I wonder if Catch the Tail took inspiration from similar kinds of wrestling festivals in real life?? Side note: hopefully those masquerades aren’t that bad 😅

I believe our twisted!Zazu is named Kifaji!! He seems to serve a similar role as Zazu did in The Lion King, giving morning reports and overseeing the royal household. He has a sort of angular disposition, I think much less “soft” than Ambrose. I’m glad that TWST isn’t afraid to introduce more elderly characters like Kifaji, Ambrose, and Marja (Epel’s granny); it really helps the world feel more “real” than if they just kept throwing young attractive men at us. Funnily enough, Leona actually has a line in the event where he’s all like, “yeah, as if you common tourists would be allowed to meet the king” (Farena/Falena). It feels like the devs are teasing us with that 😂 They knew how hyped we were for his design to be dropped bdkwbzjNvwjwvwjs

I understand why Kifaji’s skin color may be a little odd to your parents seeing as they don’t have the full context for TWST or the event 😅 The Sunset Savanna does seem to boast a light skinned portion of the population as well (Rook, Ruggie, Sebek’s grandfather before he moved to the Briar Valley)! I believe this is also true of Africa, no?

By the outfits, you mean the alternate versions of the Catch the Tail attire, correct? As I said in my original post, I’m not familiar with African fashion so I’m not really at liberty to speak at length about it. I don’t think my opinion should have a lot of weight on this matter, and I don’t want to step on the toes of anyone that does have something substantial to say about this, so I’ll only be giving very precursory thoughts.

I was giving the originals the benefit of the doubt since it would be virtually impossible to “accurately” represent all of Africa in a single outfit without taking some creative liberties and incorporating elements from various parts of the continent. I feel like the bold colors and patterns have a lot of rich history and culture behind them! However 💦 I’m a little less forgiving with the alts??

I’m fine with the arms being exposed because it serves a practical purpose (the goal of Catch the Tail is to grab the opponent’s mask thing off their head snd that’s probably easier to do without the fabric and jewelry in the way). I don’t know about the exposed midriff though? Maybe I’m just misinformed or misunderstanding something (again, I’m not that educated on African fashion), but it resembles a skintight crop top to me and kind of gives the vibes it was only presented this way to be “hot”. I sort of get it from a business perspective; it’s a gacha game and the companies behind TWST want to make money so some degree of fan service is to be expected. However, I can definitely see why this could read as perhaps insensitive fan service 😔

That being said, I’d like to take this opportunity to say 💦 while I’m flattered that some people want to know my opinions, I would prefer it if I wasn’t asked to give my thoughts on these kinds of very specific cultural things. I don’t feel right talking about it in detail since my own knowledge is limited, and again, I don’t want to misspeak or to talk over those who know better than I do.

[isfjmel-phleg]

We need a Flash adaptation in which Barry is dead.

That sounds harsh. Hear me out.

I haven't seen every Flash adaptation ever, or even most of them, but I have noticed a trend in recent ones, namely the CW series and the JL film that I made the mistake of watching. They feature Barry as the Flash, but neither of them really portray the character as he is in the comics, at least in terms of personality. The series gave him some of Wally's traits (and plotlines!). The JL movie decided to make him more like Bart, and not even in a good way.

Heaven only knows what was going on with that movie, but the series Wallified Barry so frequently perhaps because there's comparatively little material featuring Barry. He was created in the Silver Age, and most of his stories are very characteristic of that era's cheerfully chaotic and nonsensical approach to writing. That (presumably) doesn't translate well to twenty-first-century viewers. There are much fewer recently-written stories featuring him, especially when the 2014 series started, because Barry was brought back into the comics only rather recently. It was canon for twenty-four years that he was dead.

And what an impact that death had. It resulted in Wally's having to take up his adored mentor's mantle while struggling with his perceived inadequacy to live up to Barry--a major part of his characterization for a long time. Bart too has the legacy of his grandfather hanging over him; he's more removed from an angsty connection to it because he never knew Barry, but he feels the weight of the expectations placed upon him and has a complicated relationship with those expectations. Barry died saving the multiverse--essentially died a martyr by superhero standards--which puts him on a pretty tall pedestal to those left behind. The internal and external conflicts resulting directly or indirectly from Barry's death set the tone for the Flashfamily for a long time. And those stories from the late 1980s through the 2000s established a lot about the characters and mythos.

So in a continuity that brings him back...what do you do with him and with all these characters whose journeys have been built on his absence? Hence the Wallification of Barry in the CW series. Just transfer some of the more familiar characterization and plotlines to him, and there you go. (Which results in a flattening of Wally's character, so they give him some of Max's characterization, etc. etc.)

I think it would be a fascinating angle to explore stories that reflect the Post-Crisis state of the Flashfamily in which Barry is dead but still looms over everyone as the idealized representation of all that they must become.

An adaptation, say, of Wally's early years as the Flash as he grapples with feelings of inferiority that hold him back from reaching his full power--lots of flashbacks to his relationship with Barry, but colored through Wally's not-quite-accurate perception (his uncle wouldn't really want him to be so hard on himself! he wouldn't want to be remembered as an impossible standard of perfection!).

Or maybe an adaptation of the legacy struggle that ensues when Bart shows up and there's a possibility of Wally having to pass off the mantle.

Or an adaptation of Iris's Life Story of the Flash but framed in terms of the family's responses to and perceptions of Barry's life and how that affects them and interacts with who he really was before the lens of his martyrdom.

Say, a series of adaptations that sets all that up--and then, and only then, bring Barry back to life. Right in the middle of all that drama, of a family dynamic that's built around his not being there anymore. And let them all have to adjust to that.

The Flash comics have become at their heart a story about family. Barry's death played a vital part in getting the narrative to that point. So an adaptation that wishes to capture the dynamic of the family shouldn't ignore that. I'd like to see someone have the nerve to do it.