#* meta.

[cadejos]

Nanami was always beautiful, but it's amusing how drastically he evolved in appearance from his teen years to adulthood. I know the diegetic reason for it (needing to #conform to that corporate drone lifestyle), but that only makes his choices during HS that much more interesting

For example, his hair. While skimming late 00s Japanese hairstyle catalogues for men, I failed to find a direct inspiration for it, the way I could for the likes of Gojo and Haibara. IMO it could only be a strong indicator of his personality and interests (maybe even subcultural).

He clearly drew from his technique for the hair part as well, which would be endearing if intentional, although part of me wants to believe that it was mostly instinctual, carrying on into adulthood because once you find a comfortable way to part your hair you tend to stick to it.

Then there's the topic of his uniform. All JJ Tech uniforms get custom fits, and Nanami's has a strong silhouette. He has the wide shoulders and the cut gives his torso an almost rectangular, prominent shape. Contrast with Gojo, which is just a bit more triangular.

On the other hand, his pants are possibly the skinniest out of the whole crew, or even in general if you include the modern generation of students. This was definitely an active fashion choice. Coupled with his gloomy, angsty teenage attitude, I feel like Nanami has quite a dramatic side that is often times overlooked. Probably because, just like his fashion choices, he had to learn how to conform to societal expectations.

[jojo-schmo]

I wish I could tell the original artist that this drawing permanently changed the entire direction of my life in 2009. I want to shake their hand, look them in the eye, and admit I would not be who I am today if this drawing didn’t exist.

EDIT: Original artist is @ivynajspyder !!!!

[kismetconstellations]

I want to talk, for just minute, about the amount of self-disparagement in Shiro's statement, here. He's grievously injured, ailing, and trapped in a tiny cave with creatures lurking outside, waiting for their next opportunity to attack him.

Despite this, he's been repeatedly assuring Keith that he's "all right", and inquiring after Keith's well-being whenever he hears Keith struggling over the comms. Then, Keith expresses his belief that Shiro's presence and influence changed his life, and Shiro agrees. On the grounds that he's actively made Keith's life worse.

Keith's response to this extremely concerning assertion?

Nothing. He hears Shiro cough, tells him, "Stay with me, Shiro," and that's it.

This is an example of exactly what I mean when I say that Shiro has no support system. His best and closest friend hears him say something seriously disconcerting while in a state of utmost vulnerability, placing all of the blame for Keith's current predicament on himself, which is objectively not true, and does nothing to refute him. No, "Hey. Stop beating yourself up. We're gonna be just fine". Or, "How could this possibly be on you? Did you purposely eject us from the Castle?". Or even, "When we get out of here, we need to talk about why you feel like you don't matter and something completely out of your control is your fault. It's not like you asked to be here, either."

Maybe I'm expecting too much from a young adult with his own trauma whose interpersonal skills have already been shown to be lacking. I know I expected too much from a team of showrunners who believed that dark content automatically equals mature content, and insisted on shoving as much disturbing subject matter and questionable to outright deplorable messaging as they could manage to get away with into a series aimed at children. Shiro was never meant to heal from his trauma. The intention was to kill him to pave the way for Keith to take his place as The Chosen One.

But, in this fandom's determination to woobify their favorites to the extreme based on said favorites' moments of insecurity, they seem to have forgotten that the most blatantly traumatized member of the cast is the most blatantly traumatized member of the cast. Self-loathing and passive suicidal ideation are every bit as much a part of that as Shiro's flashbacks and the fear-induced paralysis that seizes him when a repressed memory resurfaces from the dark corners of his mind to drag him under. And, he, too, deserved all of the sensitivity, care, and love that they believe their favorites do, which makes it all the more abhorrent that he was repeatedly denied it in this show's canon.

[sealrock]

been rotating these old gals in my head all month and finally got a chance to take some gposes of them: introducing the wormwood sisters, a first of many wormwood family meta posts. incoming lore dump in no particular order under the cut

from left to right: goneril, regan, cordelia—

goneril:

a longtime member of the forum and part of sevestre albright's bibliothec faction. hard to please and dislikes most people

married to a sharlayan nobleman named albany, has two children and three grandchildren

the eldest of the sisters and thus inherited their family's fortunes and estate. the wormwoods were one of the founding members of old sharlayan and were involved in the arts and humanities

believes in sevestre's politics and beliefs, often butts heads with younger sister cordelia about it

conservative in her old age, a strict rule follower. spoils her grandchildren nonetheless and was deeply saddened when she heard news of her nephew's disappearance. didn't interact with paris as much

regan:

classical history teacher at the studium

married to a scientist named cornwall, has one child and two grandchildren

the middle sister. usually acts as an impartial party between goneril and cordelia. treated hector like the son she never had and wanted to teach paris the ways of white magicks

more magically inclined than her sisters, is known to hoard tomes and scrolls on magic. has the nickname 'the good witch of sharlayan'

also spoils her grandchildren, indulging them with gadgets and trinkets collected from the mainland

cordelia:

younger sister of goneril and regan, enjoys anything supernatural or paranormal. collects oddities and trinkets in her spare time

widow of a sharalyan researcher named burgen, mother of hector and grandmother of paris, her only beloved grandchild. had an unconventional marriage with burgen; burgen only married her for her family's wealth to fund his research projects, and they were rarely seen together. they slept in separate rooms

once a close personal friend of galuf baldesion. after her husband died, she began funding the students of baldesion as a benefactor

the most liberal member of the wormwoods in both fashion and politics, a follower of louisoix and openly speaks out against sharlayan's isolationist stance

loves both andromache and achille as her in-laws, spearheaded the campaign to bring hector home by appealing to goneril to let them become sharlayan citizens. works closely with andi and achille as they partnered up with the students of baldesion to investigate the ascians

[agentnash]

parker is like. generally not a good person. he's mean, and meaner when he's drunk ( which is most of the time ). he likes to say things specifically to get under people's skin, and he'll act like he doesn't care about anyone or anything. he cusses a lot ( mostly at people ), he's easy to anger and will always say that one thing that will hurt your feelings. and he refuses to apologize for any of it.

but he's good at his job - underneath it all, he cares about justice and wanting to do the right thing ( even if he goes about it the wrong way ). he has a soft spot for kids and is good with victims who are answering his questions. he's fiercely protective and loyal, and will bite anyone who raises a hand to the people he actually cares about.

he's just a sad and lonely alcoholic who got the shitty end of the stick, but if you can put up with him for long enough to see underneath all of his many, many, many flaws, you'll be able to see the good parts of him. it just takes time and trust.

[supurman]

+ TOPIC : // the npc profile of the krypto you will find on supurman

QUICK SUMMARY: this krypto follows an original origin story but then features a twist when clark goes to college from my own design. i do this because i feel krypto has become a underutilized and eventually forgotten beloved companion of superman. on this blog i seek to make krypto more of a character in clarks life. its HIS dog from his home planet after all. he's a good boy.

KRYPTO HC DIRECTORY: 1 ( random summary of krypto facts and hcs )

NAME: krypto ( real name ), spot ( past, secret identity), dusty ( current, secret identity ) ALIASES: krypto the super dog BELONGS TO: kal-el superman, and the house of el family FAVORITE PERSON: kal, but he loves all his el's. AGE: unsure & verse dependent., definitely older than superman by AT LEAST 4 years. doesnt show signs of aging. clark always says he's about 4 for his identities sake. OCCUPATION: live stock guardian dog, guard + attack dog ( always ), protector of metropolis ( current ), trained therapy dog to clark kent, part time guard dog for others if superman allows ( i,e green lanterns ask for krypto )

SECRET IDENTITY: dusty, the normal farm dog. as dusty kryptos high tech collar is black and shows a tag that says dusty. but when he turns into krypto the collar turns red, his tag turns into to the super insignia, and a cape pops out! even without krypto's collar can he blend in as a normal white dog who has no sense of duty and just likes to be content canine.

+ SUB TOPIC : // mannerisms....

krypto is a medium social dog who is only ever excited to see those he has a bond to. hes not overly social to meet strangers muhc preferring to stick with his people. but, he is not aggressive to random pettings from strangers which is completely fine. he more or less will just sit there. he is a friendly dog with a level head and a strong sense of duty as taught to him by superman.

IT IS IMPORTANT KNOW KRYPTO IS A DOG. unlike humans, he doesn't feel guilt to kill. krypto is trained to incapacitate but he also BITES TO KILL. more often then not he is shown in comics to go for the neck. so be sure to tell the dog first if you want him to kill or simply incapacitate. if you try to go for his family or people he is dedicated to protect often times krypto will make his own choice and that is to KILL.

+ SUB TOPIC : // powers ...

EYES: a brown-orange. a common dog eye color... WEIGHT: 157 LBS FUR: white, has a coarseness to it on his back. EARS & TAIL: pointed ears, long paddle tail... prone to happy tail. but his tail wont hurt him it can hurt others like you kicked your beside corner!

krypto is a large white dog who looks like a cross between a german shepherd and a grey wolf. he has the same gait as a grey wolf which promotes calorie efficiency and maximum endurance. when asked by normal clark says his dog is very specific unrecognized breed from his corner in kansas. this is to not make any suspicious how clark seems to always have these very similar looking dogs over the years, since dogs do die but krypto does not !

+ SUB TOPIC : // DOG BREED . . .

BREED: kryptonian shepherd. much like the german shepherd of today they are a versatile breed who can do more then what they were originally intended for. krypto has a innate strong sense of guarding his people, a gentleness with domesticated animals, a high prey and ball drive which makes him great as a working dog. kryptonian shepherds feel happy to do any job. down to the bone this breed is a working dog and seeks stimulation. intelligent. capable of being independent and figuring things out on their own.. has a good 'off ' button so they can be an active dog when needed or a calm and relaxed companion at home after a good days work.

developed on krypton. it was a popular breed that could withstand the lower temperatures the planet could endure in the winter due to the red giant sun being very cool. featuring a white double coat that sheds out in the spring. these dogs only came in white.

sent in a test rocket before the infant kal-el from krypton, krypto was meant to land on earth to accompany his infant kryptonian kal. in a sad turn of events krypto's rocket lost course so he laid suspended in space. after about 12 years krypto crash landed onto the same farm kal, now named clark, had when he was an infant. dog and boy now united they bonded quickly as the 2 only survivors of their destroyed home krypton. to krypto, the destruction of krypton meant nothing, finding his boy again meant everything.

krypto stayed with clark on the farm and just like his kryptonian the dog developed amazing powers under the yellow sun.

when clark turned 18 he sought to bring his dog with him to metropolis so he too made a secret identity for his pooch. clark learned how to train dogs himself , trained krypto, then eventually become a certified service dog so he can readily follow his boy. together, they headed off into metropolis.

over the years, krypto did develop a rebellious stage becoming quite reactive for reasons clark could only equate to not knowing how to go about his powers. the dog would scare lois, and was even aggressive to kara. he was a liability to hurt someone. however, clark always believed his dog was good and never gave up on krypto. going back to square one, clark trained krypto more to properly utilize his senses and powers and hone his focus.

now, the dog is a staple to metropolis having earned the name super dog, dog of tomorrow! his el family now goes beyond just his boy kal but to all his kids as well. life is good for a dog and his boy.

krypto helps defeat atlas and becomes metropolis's dog too ! hes just happy to be here.

rp notes ... : anyone is allowed to direct an ask at krypto, or ask for him ina thread. i am very happy to write out this very intelligent dog and make bonds with him!

puppy

[ferociiumarchive]

just a small reminder that danny is indeed 5'6

[witchkillr]

do you ever think about how agatha watched billy grow up. she was literally with him almost from birth, looked after him, watched him when his mother was struggling, kidnapped and held him hostage and then met him again years later when he didn’t remember a thing but idolised her, somehow, some cosmic way. and she didn’t know then, but she suspected — this was the little boy who sat on her couch and said he liked it there because her mind was quiet, unable to control his power, innocently grateful for the reprieve she offered in the course of betraying his family.

she tried to distance herself, and it almost worked, but the trick of it is this: her son, too, had power he couldn’t control at that age. her son, too, had dark hair and big eyes and knew more tragedy than someone that young should ever have to hold. she suspected, but there were several possible explanations, and as she worked through them he was unfailingly, naively sweet in the same way he had been that day in her stolen westview home. it hadn’t broken him, not yet.

even when he nearly died, he didn’t break, but agatha did. not entirely, not irreparably, but she cracked — she was caught caring in the throes of a trauma flashback and forced to reconcile the fact that it doesn’t matter who he is, whether he’s nick or billy or someone else altogether. agatha does not want him dead.

he isn’t hers, but it doesn’t matter. it’s good to see him again, even in the midst of all his familial baggage and volatile, teenage emotions. he’s finally starting to let go of the naïveté and come into his own as a survivour — as a witch — and she is proud of him. (this coexists with other, more complicated feelings: the fact that she is painted as the monster, for example, in order to break him out of his picturesque worldview. she is a monster but she wasn’t in that moment. in that moment she was a starving animal, and he doesn’t believe her, because he is sixteen and two things cannot be true at once.)

she doesn’t know how to be a good mother, but she knows how to teach. so that’s what she’ll do.

[cadejos]

ON NANAMI'S POWER LEVEL, DOMAIN EXPANSIONS, DOMAIN COUNTERS, AND HOW JUJUTSU SOCIETY PLAYS A ROLE.

This analysis originally turned viral on twitter. I'm posting it here for archival.

Nanami treated sorcery like a job and Gojo treated sorcery like a lifestyle. I've thought long and hard about why Nanami does not have certain skills (DE, Simple Domain, etc) that'd easily bump him up in terms of power, as he's already very strong. The reason is two-fold:

He never set out to do more than what he absolutely had to do. ("Moderate effort where moderate effort suffices," etc)

Information about sorcery is very gatekept and compartmentalized, because Jujutsu society sucks.

For point number 1, we are to keep in mind that Nanami is a grade one sorcerer, very much the peak of what sorcery is supposed to be outside of Special Grade work. The purpose of sorcery, up until very recently, has been about killing curses, most of which are not special grade or intelligent. The disaster curses are anomalies, and battles with Domain users were very rare until they showed up. They vastly skewed the power system. Remember that not even Naobito Zenin, the head of one of the great clans, had a Domain expansion either, and it took the work of a Domain user (Megumi) and an experienced sorcerer killer (Toji) to properly counter Dagon in his domain.

If domain battles are truly so rare, I don't really blame Nanami for not going out of his way to work on developing one, especially since Domains require an element of self-assurance that Nanami, due to trauma and disposition, was never geared toward developing.

His soul was strong enough to protect against a novice Mahito subconsciously, which is a promising start, but once Mahito grew too strong he was way out of Nanami's scope (not to mention Gege deliberately tired him over the course of Shibuya) and Nanami was more inclined to take his loss gracefully than to force himself to craft an spontaneous Domain Expansion. It's not like he really had the energy to try, either.

Overall, developing a DE for the off chance that he stumbled upon a Domain user just doesn't sound like his style. And he wouldn't do it for fun, either, because jujutsu is not fun for him, and it never has been. It's just work.

Let's say he would want to at least develop a domain counter, though. That's where point number 2 steps in. The whole reason something as fundamental as a domain counter is so rare in jujutsu is purely because jujutsu society is inherently selfish and self-serving.

If I recall correctly, SD is not something you can teach due to a binding vow tied to the technique. It has to be something you learn on your own through observation and intuition, or by joining New Shadow Style. Up until UiUi's soul swapping, there wasn't a reliable work around for this conundrum. And the other domain counters? Old, not very well known, and gatekept by the clans.

Sometimes I'm inclined to believe jujutsu sorcerers learn sorcery not because of the school system but in spite of it. Unless you're already a genius, born gifted, or willing to go an extra -- ambiguously illicit -- mile (like Kusakabe), there's not much the average sorcerer can do, and not many tools for them to learn to begin with. Nanami is presented as the baseline of what modern day good sorcery looks like; what you can achieve if you're competent, and don't have the privilege of relying on very good mentors, obscure knowledge, or ancient techniques. Even then he had an expansion technique, not something every sorcerer has, and he was capable of achieving one of the pinnacles of Jujutsu, which is the black flash; precisely because of his attitude toward jujutsu and his ability to focus when things get serious.

Maybe if given enough time to heal from his psychological wounds, and given opportunities for more black flashes, as well as a strong enough incentive, he could have circumvented a lot of problems and enlightened his way toward a DE or other such jujutsu-relevelations.

But that's speculation and not really the point of his character.

Had he been a villain though? Gege probably would've made him stronger, if his Culling Games score in JJK's draft Jujutsu Sousen is anything to go by, which is amusing.

Supplementary reading:

In regards to black flashes: a post where I go over why I think Yuuji and Nanami are especially good at them, and why I think they require conditions that are in opposition to Domain expansions.

Measuring Nanami's critical hit power: where I use a statement to further analyze and evaluate the capabilities of the Ratio Technique.

[machineheralded]

bruh. what. where was the MACHINE part to the machine herald

why did he look like that

that was gay as hell but WHAT - "i just want my partner back" then finding out vik is the mage at the beginning like I said and he kept giving jayce the one rune he needed. that ending was gay where they both disappeared into the void together.

me and seb are so divergent because WHAT where is the true divorce era and WHY DID THOSE MACHINES LOOK LIKE THAT

fuck it the eternal Machine Herald (that mage self is gonna look like the herald) is gonna augment him in the Void like my original idea because WHAT?

then jayvik can go into the void at like the end of time or w/e and spend their eternal happiness and life together by themselves

however WHAT THE HELL, it completely diverged from actual LoL stuff and m salty

no lab break ins? no divorce era where they try to kill each other? the forcing of everyone to join the evolution when Viktor only wants to change those willing?

[kismetconstellations]

Because I'm still bitter... The first time I consciously verbalized that "I hate this show", came when, as I predicted, there was absolutely no acknowledgement of Shiro having no living family on Earth, come the Atlas's "launch date" at the start of Season Eight.

We get shots of each of the Paladins interacting with their families, including Allura as a part of Lance's family, which is a sweet touch.

Then, there's a passing shot of Shiro standing alone and isolated on the Atlas's bridge that he isn't even the focus of.

I had a feeling this would be the case when, ahead of the finale of the second season, the Paladins are cheerfully reflecting on their growth and the challenges that they've overcome preceding what they believe will be their final fight with Zarkon.

Shiro, however, is dead silent, back turned to the others, and, when we do see his expression, he's stone-faced and seemingly deep in contemplation. Something that no one acknowledges, or seems to be in any way concerned about, even with Shiro's history of thoughts that he loses himself in being distinctly unpleasant ones.

When he does speak, it's to somberly offer the definitive statement, "You realize, once we defeat Zarkon, the universe won't need Voltron, anymore." The kids naturally express wanting to see their families, again, once the burden of defending the universe has been lifted from their shoulders, even if it means, for Pidge and Keith, going out and finding them.

Shiro, though, voices no such desires. He dons the Fearless Leader/Black Paladin mask and encourages his underlings that they can't fail, and that's that. Cue them looking dramatically out over the horizon before the credits roll.

One could hem and haw and offer any number of supposed explanations for the unsettling absence of any lifegoals for Shiro outside of "defeat the bad guy and defend the universe", especially viewing this scene in hindsight.

"Shiro and his long-term partner split up before the Kerberos mission. Maybe it would be awkward for Shiro to see him, again, and Shiro doesn't want to discuss that with a group of teenagers, especially as their commanding officer."

"Maybe they intended for Shiro's family to show up later and simply didn't have the time to include them, or he has a strained and/or estranged relationship with his family and wasn't too concerned with going back to them."

"He's been declared legally dead, and the cartoon made to sell toys to kids didn't want to bog their child audience's brains down with the confangled nuisances of bureaucracy."

"Maybe Shiro had no personal desire to return to Earth, and would have assisted Pidge in looking for Matt and Sam had he lived."

And, any of these would be more interesting than what we were actually given, which is nothing, because the showrunners didn't know how to and weren't equipped to handle the sheer level of complex and compounded trauma they had afflicted Shiro with. It was easier to brush it all aside, as that shot of an out of focus Shiro so deftly displays. Especially once Shiro had been killed and effectively permanently replaced as the Black Paladin, then brought back to life and retired to "boring adult" status. They killed his partner off-screen, following the dissolution of the relationship, and briefly showed Shiro mourning the loss,

and I guess that was their "emotional pathos for Shiro" quota met for the rest of the show.

After that, he was gifted his own ship and the position of Captain/Admiral aboard it to sequester him off with Sam, Iverson, Veronica, Slav, a similarly unceremoniously demoted Coran, and the rest of the side characters, under the guise of him being promoted to a position of actual significance. And, as much as I love Shiro having his own ship, and the figure he cuts in that stylish and immensely flattering Admiral coat, it shouldn't have to be said that this is both a massive insult to his character after he had the most narrative significance and pathos of anyone during the first two seasons, and a cheap, cowardly tactic employed to avoid the reality that the writers have alluded to Shiro seeing himself as having no purpose if he isn't performing a heroic duty to others, and being passively suicidal when no such duty exists.

"Don't look too closely, everyone! Let's not linger too long on this!" Otherwise, you'll realize that Shiro, in fact, has no one to support him outside of people who already have families of their own. And, "The universe won't need Voltron, anymore", was really Shiro saying, "The universe won't need me, anymore."

And, damned if the brain trusts behind this show didn't try to prove how little they needed Shiro, only for their story to fall apart at the seams after killing him, and the quality to, fittingly, take a nosedive straight into the abyss once they committed to nerfing and sidelining him while having other characters pitifully attempt to retrace steps that he had already taken, stumbling over his distinct and unforgettable bootprints.

[sealrock]

so this guy hit me over the head with a baseball bat looney tunes style and his place in the story is kinda funny—meet paris' former fiance, agamemnon 'aggie' tiryns. some lore in no particular order:

second son to a mining empire, good-natured but spoiled

has dalmascan and mhachi ancestry, has a natural talent for spellcraft

the tiryns are rivals of the tatlongharis thanks to a 150 year long political feud a la romeo and juliet

elder brother is a soldier for the immortal flames. his name is menelaus and they don't see each other often

was promised to paris when they were kids by the elders of their families as a marriage of convenience to end the bad blood between them

completely ignorant (or at least in denial) to paris' visible disdain of him

showered paris with gifts, praise, and public displays of loyalty and devotion

was meant to marry paris when they became adults, only for paris to run away from home to become an adventurer, and later the warrior of light

despite being rejected, aggie doesn't hold that against paris. he is probably paris' biggest supporter

can you feel the love in the air?

[tanyakennedy1899]

I DIDNT KNOW THOSE FIRST 2 DEFINITIONS.

[ferociiumarchive]

despite danny being so short, rest assured that he can and will throw anyone over his shoulder or manhandle them when he needs to.

[exiitiosus]

let it be known that if danny takes a liking or fascination on someone ( in his rather obsessive way ). you can expect myriads of candid polaroid photos taken of them. do they know about said photos, though? not always.