#And it does sum up the huge confrontation

[sidecharactersdomatter]

Scylla is so He Xuan and Black Water Arc coded

[cashmoneyyysstuff]

fem reader, fluff, hurt/comfort, reader gets into a fight, this fits into the weirdo! shouto ficlet i wrote, older bro touya au, shouto's scar, kindaaa non neurotypical shouto hinted if you squint lol, shouto n reader are lil misfits, lemme know if i missed sum else !

"can i help you, young man ?"

"i hurt my knee."

you're laying in the nurses office when a familiar voice hits your ears.

"oh really ?" no verbal response but you assume there's a nod because the nurse continues "what happened ?" she sounds skeptical.

"i fell." the person, a boy, replies. the nurse sighs, complaining to herself about kids these days coming to the nurses office for every little thing. you're still pretending to be asleep, not wanting to go back to class yet because you know your classmates won't leave you alone. your face is turned away as you hear the office door shut and soon after there's shuffling in the bed next to you.

your eyes snap open and you turn to see a scarred boy looking right at you, blinking slowly.

"shouto !"

"hi." he answers simply. unmoving, he lays on his stomach. after getting over your shock you copy him. "what're you doing here ?" you ask. your friend blinks in response.

"i hurt my knee."

you look at him incredulously "what are you really doing here ?"

shouto lays quietly simply staring at you. he has a habit of doing that, you've heard your classmates call it weird, but you like when he looks at you. his eyes are pretty. his gaze trails off towards the sheets, "i wanted to come see you." he admits. your eyes widen and you feel your ears burn. shouto doesn't seem affected by his confession, his face as deadpan as it usually is.

"everyone is talking about you in class." your nose scrunches up at his words, huffing with a scowl. "what're they saying ?"

"that you won."

that makes your scowl shrink a bit. your eyebrows raise and you shuffle a bit on the bed and hum. shouto only stares. he isn't much of a talker. you've noticed it's because he just doesn't realise that you're supposed to keep making conversation when you're talking with someone. your classmate mahoro says it makes things awkward, but shouto has such kind eyes when he looks at you, you don't mind. and sometimes, you don't really feel like talking either.

"you didn't have to do that you know." is what he says after a while, you blink at him like you'd already forgotten and he continues. "you didn't have to push tanaka like that, it wasn't a big deal."

tanaka, just the mention of the boy's name is enough to make your scowl return full force.

he's one of your classmates that keeps making jokes that all his other friends laugh at that aren't even funny. he doesn't bother you much, but he's kind of a bully and he makes a face whenever you end up on his team for dodgeball. he makes sure you see it too.

you don't care about him much, because he doesn't bother you. but he bothers shouto. you think he does so because shouto doesn't care to confront him about it so he thinks he's stupid. but shouto's the smartest in your class. today though, he went too far and it made you mad, so you shoved him and he'd shoved you back and suddenly you were surrounded by a group of kids screaming in your ears. your face stung from where he'd hit you and then a teacher was pulling you away from him. then you'd ended up here.

shouto hadn't been coming to school for a bit a while ago and when he did come back he had a huge bandage over his left eye. you'd tried to ask him about it but he never told you. so you never pried, but you heard the (not so quiet) whispers from your classmates and shouto who never seemed like he cared, furrowed his brows and slightly clenched his fists underneath your shared desk whenever he'd hear them. and it got worse when he took the bandage off, revealing a big red blotchy scar.

shouto doesn't usually mind what people think, but he'd asked you if he looked ugly and you assured him that you thought he looked super cool. (you'd never seen his eyes so wide and shiny, so pretty.)

tanaka had disagreed with you though. he opened his big mouth and told shouto he looked better with his bandage on. and you'd snapped. you hated that stupid bandage because it'd make his usual face so gloomy. because you only got to see one of his kind eyes and you loved looking at both.

and so, here you were.

"he had it comin', he made fun of you !" you scowl, shouto's brows furrow the slightest bit as well, mildly irritated. "but you got in trouble."

"well, he made fun of you !" you repeat. you both stay unmoving, laying on your stomach while the nurse is out on lunch break. shouto's lips move up into a pout and for the first time ever you hear him huff.

"i wasn't mad about it. i was fine." he insists, his eyes drift towards his fingers picking at his sheets. "you got hurt because of me, and i don't like that." he mumbles sadly. his cheek smushed against the hard pillow makes him look like a little puppy. you hear your heart in your ears.

"well, i didn't just do it for you," you try, "tanaka's always pickin' on everyone, so i taught him a lesson." you huff. you believed you sounded convincing, but shouto looks anything but convinced. others can't see it well, but you can.

"but everyone's gonna think you did it for me. and they're gonna call you weird again," shouto grips and pulls at the white sheets, you're worried they'll rip off and he'll get in trouble. "even though you're not."

you don't care, you'd been called weird plenty of times at your old school. but shouto's bothered for you and your heart beats in your ears "do you think i'm weird ?" shouto quickly shakes his head, as best he can in the position he's in. your chest feels warm and you smile.

"then i don't care what everyone thinks."

the sound of sheets crinkling stops, and shouto stares at you again. he sits up to instead go sit down on your bed. you bring your legs closer to yourself to make space for him.

"i still don't want you to get hurt, even if it's not just for me." his pretty eyes, one surrounded by red zero on you " i don't like it."

shouto never seemed picky to you. except when it came to his lunch (which was always cold soba) and the order in which he started his day at school (first he changes his shoes, then he takes off his jacket and then went to sit in his seat. exactly like this every day.)

he never told you he particularly liked or disliked anything, usually always shrugging. but he said he doesn't like seeing you hurt. it had made him panic when people started pushing him away to see the fight and he couldn't see you anymore. your classmates were talking about you and he didn't like it. the nurse stood in his way and he didn't like it because she kept him away from you for longer.

he does not like tanaka because he'd punched you in the cheek, your cheek that rises up like the sun when you smile at him.

i don't like when you get hurt, he says. i don't want you to hurt because of me, he thinks. you've got a bandaid on your cheek where you'd gotten punched, but you grin and your cheek rises like the sun, shouto hears his heart in his ears.

you hold out your pinky and promise him you won't do it anymore. holding onto your pinky is comfortable and even after promising he doesn't let go. not even when the nurse checks up on you and scolds you when you shamelessly tell her why you'd landed in her office. he doesn't let go in the hallways even when others are looking. they'll think you're weird for hanging out with him, but you told him you didn't care, and shouto feels like he's floating.

( he only lets go when you get to the principal's office. but he ignores the teacher who passed by and told him to get to class and wraps his pinky right back around yours when you walk back out. your smile is pretty like the sun.)

one time, touya-nii had called you weird, and touya-nii is always right. but this time shouto knows he's wrong. because your smile doesn't dim despite the bandaid on your cheek and you only look at him when you get back to class, despite the people calling for you, your pinky stays tightly wrapped around his, only moving so you can readjust and hold it better.

touya is clearly wrong, and shouto knows you're the nicest person in the world.

[izunias-meme-hole]

"A extremely flawed flawed rich guy is spending his days duking it out with a dude who's practically a symbol and easily capable of blending in with the blue collar masses"

Now did I just describe Batman & Jokers dynamic or Lex Luthor & Superman's dynamic?

Hear me out. In one corner we have a mortal man with a bank account that's beyond anything anyones ever known along with weaponry and tech that's built for literal warfare. Then on the other corner there's just a guy that's more on the ground that's meant to embody some type of idea and impacts the environment around them with just their existence. I know the circumstances are different, but their dynamics are almost like inverses of one another.

Both Bruce and Lex are fundamentally extremely flawed rich guys that live in cynical worlds, though Bruce has more of a reason to be an asshole than Lex does. Lex's origin has been revamped a fair amount of times, but his reasoning for being evil basically goes down to his belief that life is a zero sum game where you have to fend for yourself, and the fact that he's always had to kill and steal in order to gain and preserve his status cements this mindset. Bruce on the other hand, despite growing up with more privileges and riches doesn't adhere to this philosophy, and a huge factor of it comes down to the fact that he was at least raised right and that he was directly impacted by a byproduct of corruption. Though his issue is an entirely different one, the struggle to either break down before cynicism or become so engulfed by his mission to change Gotham that he becomes something much darker and malevolent. Either way both are obviously extremely flawed mortal men, and these flaws are highlighted every time they confront their main adversaries.

Clark and Joker are as different as they come, but the one common thing they have is that they're both colorful personifications of two of concepts that impact human behavior who can also easily blend in as normal people. Superman is a a good natured man from the stars who was raised on a farm, works as a journalist, spends his days trying to encourage the best of everyone, and ultimately delivers hope with his powers. Joker in complete and utter contrast is a frail and nihilistic nobody who arose from a vat of acid and spends his days trying to deliver fear, cynicism, insanity, and chaos into the world under the guise of a colorful comedian and artist. Yet despite these massive differences, narratively they both function as personifications of hope and nihilism respectively that brings out the best and worst of others. This includes bringing out the best and worst out of their respective richer adversaries

TL;DR: Clark is evidence of how good Lex could've been while Joker is evidence of the utterly carelessness that Bruce has more of a right to embrace, but actively chooses not to.

[gingergofastboatsmojito]

What Carmy wants

IMPO it's pretty obvious that what he wants is Reparation by Opposition.

In Psychogenealogy and Transgenerational Therapy this means that when you come from a family that was the source of trauma, your responses can only be 3 potential ones: Repetition → status quo that only serves to perpetuate the trauma, Opposition → breaking the cycle but in spite, not as a reparation but as defiance, again: trauma response, OR REPARATION BY OPPOSITION → the only response that includes real healing and liberation from that trauma, which entails not perpetuating the toxic cycle, not acting in spite and just to challenge the status quo to prove "them" wrong or that they don't own us, etc. It's the only mature and healthy response, although the other two do not necessarily imply a conscious conflict. Some people can lead a seemingly "conflict-free" life even when perpetuating the status quo or opposing to it in an act of vengeance, like our case study here:

He wants his legacy to be all he never had growing up:

A panic-less environment.

Anxiety-free.

Be square with everything and everybody.

To make it good, he'd have to filter out the bad.

I already went over this in terms of the show in general because I firmly believe those lines are nothing but a huge foreshadowing of the show's whole arc, and as usual, Storer hid it in plain sight:

That is why MEAT was in the background, in the frame, in the center, because what Carmy was saying was the whole "meat" of the show:

However, as for Carmy, individually speaking, those lines are ANOTHER PIECE OF HARD EVIDENCE, we, Sydcarmy truthers can and should hold onto and go by, to back up our SYDCARMY ENDGAME claims and wishes. We are not delulu. Well, not because of believing in Sydcarmy endgame anyway...

There is no way on Earth Carmy can achieve all that with the C person. Someone who represents his past and triggers his trauma to the point of causing panic attacks, someone who he associates with the "old Carmy" he wants to outgrow to get to where he wants to be and spend the rest of his life in (his purpose). Of course, she represents the status quo for him, the literal girl next door who is totally familiar with his past family trauma and all the things he wants to leave behind. She is what his toxic family wanted for him. She is in no way, shape or form a symbol of progress or healing, you can read about that in pretty much ALL my C Person meta, here ↓

The only character on the whole show that represents change, evolution, growth, and progress, is:

Every one of Carmy's breakthroughs, had her presence in them, in one way or another.

He started turning The Beef around when she came along, even when everyone was still opposing his leadership because he wasn't alone anymore:

He accepted his shortcomings and vowed to change:

He shared his dream with her because he trusted her fully, even when he had only met her for a few months at that point (he didn't even trust C with his right number even after knowing her for years)

He shared her dream:

He put everything in her hands and then couldn't live with the guilt of having let her down, which triggered ALL HIS DEMONS.

She was also there when he gathered the strength to confront his abuser:

Summing up, the only one who can bring out this Carmy we all want, including himself, is Sydney and he already knows that, he told her:

Bonus track: What Syd always wanted and still does is this ↓

The great news is that what Syd and Carmy want are FULLY COMPATIBLE things.

which is the key to any healthy and lasting relationship love story. Not wanting the same things, none of us want the same things as our partners at all times, it's impossible and or childish because we are dynamic beings and individuals, and any relationship that annuls or censors our individuality can't or shouldn't last. Now, finding someone with whom you can be yourself, NOT LOGAN:

Being accepted by them and at the same time inspired and driven to change for the better, as opposed to remaining stuck in the past, THAT IS LOVE and that is at the very least PROMISING. A relationship based on that and on trust can only be a good one, no matter how toxic or hard it gets at times, as most relationships at some point do or might because that means that all the tools to "fix" it, are there, at hand.

Remember to follow my tag #Gingerpovs 💋

[jounosparticles]

reply to the tags of your reply to my previous ask: PLEASE RANT TO ME ABOUT THEIR RELATIONSHIP!!!! i want to hear. they rot my brain too and im glad that i found someone who's also suffering the suegiku takeover

OKAYOKAY YAY!!!!! this will be fun >:)

a huge suegiku analysis:

okay in the last ask you mentioned how tetchou stabs jouno for fun and sillies and stuff which happened to make me think a lot about how tetchou acts decently different around jouno than others.

tetchou is typically rather formal in the way he acts in a way? as in he's very straightforward, generally composed and calm in his words, and polite to anyone he's dealing with.

an example of this is when he still treated the cafe owner kindly despite him being an "accessory to terrorism" in jouno's words.

basically, in most situations, he remains very composed. even when he's up to his sillier antics (like when he was watching ants or doing pushups during a meeting). he's direct and straight-faced almost always around most people. he doesn't act that way to be seen as silly, it's just who he is (and i love it).

i would imagine he could act this way for many reasons. it is most likely him being professional, likely as a reference to the irl tetchou who had samurai lineage; making him act with the tone and professionalism of samurai.

despite his professionalism, maybe he has difficulty being expressive around most people, or maybe he doesn't want to be expressive around people by choice.

but this is where he's different around jouno.

firstly, i'll talk about the times he's stabbed jouno. this has happened twice, and both were to de-escalate jouno from his tendancy to mentally torment people.

the wording in these panels implies this is a regular occurrence. which is a little funny to me hehe.

anyway, we see by the way that he acts around others that usually he de-escalates situations by talking first instead of acting. he will turn to violence if he believes it's needed, but typically he talks first. we see this when he confronts kenji verbally before attacking.

yet with jouno he doesn't bother to tell him to stop first, instead opting to jab him. remembering that the hunting dogs have enhanced physical strength, a small stab wound probably isn't a huge deal for them.

because of this i think the stabbings are tetchou partially teasing jouno. him messing around like that isn't something he does with anybody else but he seems to enjoy pissing off his partner.

also. stabbing him directly in the ass? gay as hell. jouno following up by saying "don't poke my ass every single time" implies that his ass specially gets jabbed a lot. hmmmm

anyways

another example of this is when tetchou smirks/chuckles at jouno insisting that he's the greatest hunting dog. the small laugh was most definitely to bother jouno.

mmmm theyre both so pretty.

once again, tetchou pushes aside his composed self and being intentionally silly only really happens towards jouno.

arguably, this can be shown again in the pushups scene.

tetchou acting unbothered and then calling jouno's weight "just right" while he continues to exercise seems like a combination of him trying to (jokingly) annoy jouno as well as his tendency to not acknowledge his own actions as bothersome or odd to others.

anyway to sum up this segment: tetchou is only seen intentionally bothering and teasing jouno and nobody else. he acts much differently towards others but seems to let his professional guard down around only his partner. this shows a great layer of trust and comfort between the two!

oh. but im not done talking about this. not at all.

the other huge display of emotions for tetchou was everything that went down with kenji.

as displayed throughout most of tetchou's appearances, he's incredibly justice-orientated. he has a tendancy to put justice above everything. here's a couple panels showing this:

ooog tetchou is so pretty. i love that left panel so much

using his own logic here, he should have went after bram after having found him. tetchou even admitted that, but there was one other thing more important to him than that. jouno.

starting here, this panel takes place after bram and aya escape. at this point, tetchou had assumed the agency was using bram to control people; meaning it wasn't just kenji he technically had business with at that time.

i will also preface this by saying the book's influence likely had an impact on tetchou attacking kenji before they could finish talking.

however, the book's writing didn't stop tetchou from insisting on finding jouno before taking down the agency. his worry towards jouno's whereabouts made him change his stance on justice as well as deterred him from prioritizing taking down the agency.

now that he's talking to kenji, i'd like to start it by showing that he seemed genuinely grateful and happy when kenji initially offered to help him find jouno.

as well in the anime, his eyes soften when kenji offers to help.

after talking to kenji for a brief moment, he opts to attack instead of continuing. this seems out of character for tetchou; he even apologized to kenji before saying he needs to find jouno as quickly as possible.

the fact that he apologized, combined with how we've seen him treat people in the past shows that this isn't typically what he resorts to.

also, in the anime we can see the gloss his eyes slightly shaking as he says this line, which could display worry, sadness, or anger towards whatever could be happening to his partner.

he seems almost distraught, which is a huge contrast to his typically-composed self.

and, of course; there's the fact that mid-fight tetchou had to tell kenji that jouno is a good person despite what people think.

he looks genuinely sad here, as if he's speaking from his heart. jouno has very-clearly put up a tough exterior that he uses around everyone, but tetchou goes out of his way to defend him even when he absolutely doesn't need to.

he could have stayed silent or just said he wants his coworker back, but he insisted on stating that jouno is a good person.

it's also important to note that nobody else tends to speak kindly of jouno, which puts a lot more depth on their closeness to each other. tetchou sees through jouno's words and actions and knows that he is heavily misunderstood.

and of course, we have tetchou directly saying that he will place jouno above justice despite knowing what the right course of action should have been.

he is putting jouno above the very thing he basis his career as well as his morality on. that's how worried he is. that's how much he cares.

and in this panel, we see he's extremely angry towards kenji's lack of response.

lets compare this to the first time tetchou fought the agency.

in chapter 61, when he was fighting the agency alongside jouno; he kept a more menacing/intimidating look as he attacked. when he was not attacking, he kept calm-looking despite being pissed off. compared to when he was fighting kenji in chapter 100 and looked infuriated. even the different fonts used for the dialogue puts further emphasis on this.

now, i'm going to jump ahead to the end of tetchou and kenji's fight. tetchou recognizes his mistake and asks kenji to kill him.

it's important to note that his reasoning as to why he should have chased justice was because he doesn't think jouno would have condoned his choice.

he specified it again, even opting to call jouno his friend. also note how white his eyes are here, meaning his intent was pure and he genuinely felt awful for misjudging what jouno would have wanted. he cares so much that he was asking to be killed for misunderstanding what was the correct course of action.

and then after kenji insists on helping him find jouno instead, he smiles in relief before the two pass out.

one last small note is that we've only ever seen tetchou smile three times throughout the manga so far, and all of them were mentioned here and involved jouno.

to sum it all up: tetchou, who is typically very composed and justice-orientated, is willing to throw aside his entire stance on justice for jouno. he lets his professional guard down around his friend, allowing them to tease each other and be silly as well, which he doesn't appear to do around others often. this shows that the two have a close bond and genuinely care so much about each other.

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

as for jouno, i don't have as much to say however there definitely is a few things i'd like to touch on.

firstly, despite claiming to hate tetchou a lot, jouno still uses a respectful honourific (-san) whenever he refers to him. i'm not a japanese speaker so please feel free to correct me if i'm wrong but there's a good chance jouno would opt to not use an honorific at all if he genuinely detested tetchou as much as he claims.

and when it comes to teasing, jouno does it much more often than tetchou does (however he also messes with more people, it's just a personality difference between the two).

clearly with the way they act around each other, jouno does not actually hate tetchou. i think they like to bother each other by play-bullying.

also, noting on jouno's criminal past, he was given an easy oppurtunity to be thrown into the DoA where he could be incredibly powerful and would likely not face any consequences for his actions had he joined.

we know he declined fukuchi's offer because he found joy in saving innocent people. but i would the influence of the other hunting dogs helped set him into that place of mind. tetchou seems to be the one he works with most, so there's a good chance he takes a lot of inspiration from how tetchou handles justice.

another thing i noticed with jouno is that his displaying of emotions is almost an inverse of how tetchou acts. jouno keeps smiling a lot despite who he's speaking to. in contrast, he can keep a straight face when interacting with tetchou a lot.

of course, that could make it seem as if jouno is unhappy around tetchou, but i would argue it's the opposite.

some people will force a happy expression to appear unassuming or kind (or in a lot of jouno's cases, intimidating). so him allowing himself to maintain a straight face around tetchou could mean that he is comfortable enough around him to not feel the need to express everything. he doesn't need to keep his guard up around tetchou.

jouno almost always keeps a very happy or calm composure around enemies, likely as an intimidation factor. yet he allows himself to express frustration and annoyance around the hunting dogs in general, and most often with tetchou. i'd like to imagine this just shows his security in his partner.

jouno talking to an enemy, for reference ^ i also just really love this page hehe

the last thing i'll mention here is a lot of speculation on my behalf. however i think that jouno seems like the type to push away those close to him. i kind of perceived his supposed hatred towards tetchou to be a combination of joking around as well as possibly a defense mechanism to try and avoid keeping people close?

my main reason in stating that is that he's claimed to not like any of his coworkers yet still opts to not betray them and still works well with them. if he truly hated tetchou, he probably wouldn't allow them to work together. he likely says such things to avoid being liked too much, and these actions proved to work since tetchou acknowledged that everyone sees jouno as cold.

yet through all that tetchou still knew he was good despite the exterior, which makes them well-suited for each other.

anyways: i feel like these two really do treat each other much differently than they treat the other people around them. that puts a lot of emphasis on their bond and closeness in general. they can be silly around each other, they can get through arguments no problem, they make a great team, and clearly care about each other a ton! they mean so much to me <3

i love my sillies :)

[dolche-tejada]

Round 7 : The Duality of Qin and Hades

I don't think there was any other round conclusion that left me that confused at first. I mean... why did Hades died so tragically when he was fighting for his family and to honor his dead brother's memory, motives that usually tend to be some huge green flags in those kinds of mangas ? And then I realized the answer was right there : Hades was doomed to lost like this precisely because he was fighting for the honor of his family. To understand what I mean, you had to take a look at Hades and Qin as characters

Let's begin with Hades. He is at his core a tragic figure and this well before his actual downfall. From the moment he's introduced into the plot, Hades is defined above all through one thing : Duty. He's one of the most feared and respected gods of Valhalla, someone on which everyone rely and the Ruler of Helheim.

And this is his tragedy because Hades does not assume the responsibilities and duty that come with his status, he endures them and lets them define his entire life.

His whole language is always axed about how he has to do this or how he can't lose that just because that's who he is, never because that's his own choice.

Hades has no desire to avenge Poseidon. He's emotionally exhausted (look at the bags under his eyes), he admitted not having fought for a long time and more importantly : He damn well knows that Poseidon couldn't care less about being avenged. But he has to fight anyway because it's his inherent duty as an older brother, his vow is part of who he is.

He wasn't supposed to fight in the Ragnarok and didn't even want to kill Qin against whom he hold no real grudge. Quite the opposite, he even comes to sympathize with him and admiring him. But he still chooses to fight without hesitation since it's his duty as a god and king of the Netherworld. He can't lose against a mere king of men.

And that's where Qin comes in.

His introduction actually sums him up perfectly : We see him making his own way by breaking through walls into the gods' VIP lodges instead of waiting in his room ; he ragdolled Ares who tried to force him to leave ; and when Brunhilde asks him to follow her to the entrance gate, here's his answer

This is his core character : Qin doesn't care about traditions and expectations. He doesn't follow the path that is expected of him, he traces his own road (literally and metaphorically) and makes no compromises with anyone, whether they are gods or humans.

When confronted to Chi You, a tyrannical demon god who oppresses his country and people, Qin doesn't resign himself to accept it like previous kings did, he actively fights against this status quo and forces it to bend to his notion of duty

It can be long (his fight with Chi You literally take six days), it can be painful but this is how he proceeds and that's his greatest source of pride. He's not defined by his status as king, he's the one who defines what it means to be one

This is an essential component of his backstory and Round 7 writing. When we meet Qin as a child, he's the radical opposite of the one we know : He doesn't try to impose himself as a person and rather immediately conforms to the expectations of those around him.

Chun Yan scolds him for not acting like a child should ? He forces himself to act as such to satisfy her. His guards and the locals of Zhao use him as a scapegoat for the people they've lost ? He apologizes and endures hatred and excruciating pain because that's what is expected from him. That he passively endures

You know where I'm going with this : Little Qin is basically Hades' foil. Both represses their feelings to conform themselves to duty and exterior expectations, which make them utterly miserable (which isn't that apparent for Hades yet but I'm coming to this).

However, Qin grew up from this through his meeting with Chun Yan, which made him realize something that will forge him into a king

A lesson Alvitr will also remind him at the end of his fight by asking him to say clearly what he wants when he started to doubt of himself. Something to which Qin just answered : "I want to win... No matter what !"

One wants to win because he has made a promise from his own will, the other has to win since his vow define him.

Because Hades never learnt that lesson and always suffered from it. I've seen a lot of people praising him for how cool and badass of a big brother he is in his backstory, for wiping out a whole army of titans to protect his siblings but imo this is just sad. Instead of talking to his family about this threat and trying to find a solution together, he immediately assumes that he has to deal with them alone, even tho he knows that they are too much and he might actually die.

And when Poseidon asks him if everything's okay, he isn't even able to ask for help or just look at his brother when he's lying to him

But miraculously this time he managed to win this battle, thanks to his trump card : Ichor Eos. An ability that highlights how self-destructive Hades is when it comes to protect his duty and family. To activate this trump card, he has to hurt himself and bleed. Fulfilling his duty literally requires from him to sacrifice himself.

And despite this, Hades still insists that everything is fine afterwards. No matter how heavy his burden is, he will never be defeated because that's what the world expects from him

Except he did. Sadly this time, his burden was too heavy and he got destroyed in the process. Hades died and not even in a satisfying way. Just compare with the others fighters' death :

Lu Bu died feeling joy for the first time in his life, happy to finally fighting an equal

Adam lost with a peaceful smile on his face, knowing that he did his best to protect his children

Poseidon was bitter in his last moments but held on to his pride until the end

Heracles remained faithful to what he is and inspired Jack to become a better person

Raiden had the best sumo fight of his life and vanished with the woman he loved

Zerofuku finally got to be happy too

Nikola gave the most wholesome speech ever known to Mankind after making science evolved once again

And Leonidas was proud, having proven that Sparta will always be the strongest

But Hades ? Nothing of that

In his last moments, he was convinced of having let his family down and being a failure as a result, apologizing to them for this just before disappearing forever under their eyes.

And the most painful part of this is that Hades was the only one to see himself as such. The members of his family may have admired him for his strength and his willingness to make any sacrifice for the honor of gods but they still loved him first and foremost as a person. Adamas was ready to throw away his own pride as a god (the thing Hades literally died for) by killing a crippled half-dead Qin for winning in a fair fight. Hermes composed a requiem in his memory and Zeus was both heartbroken and sorry to hear his last words. He knew his brother had nothing to apologize for but realized that the latter didn't.

At the end of the day, Hades didn't lost this battle of kings just because Qin was stronger. He lost because Qin was the better king and learn to find worth in himself rather than in what people expected from him, while Hades let his responsibilities consume him throughout his whole life.

[bfdiredux]

Character proposal: Announcer

Host of BFDI.

Compotent, composed, and cynical. He can be quite snarky when given the opportunity.

He's not super nice to contestants. This is pointedly clear with eliminated contestants. He insists they stay for rejoins then he turns around and neglects them.

One thing he's really bad at is managing the budget. Rather than losing it all in two episodes, it'll gradually get smaller through the whole season.

He gets to finish BFDI with a small amount of budget left.

A mystery customer asks to buy Dream Island for a hefty price. Announcer agrees and sells the island before it could legally be handed to Firey. Announcer recognizes the voice behind the caller as the contestants confronts him. He then tells them about Leafy, fuels their anger, and BAILS.

With the large sum of money, Announcer is able to set up the basis for season two-- BFDIA, taking a hands-off approach.

BFDIA ends and announcer leaves it at that. It happened, it's over. He's satisfied.

He's baffled when he hears about BFB. The hype was HUGE but he didn't get another season greenlit so who did?

Announcer watches the first couple of episodes. The prize? A BFDI. The only physical copy of HIS SHOW. The show he put MONTHS of planning and years of working behind.

Now that won't do.

But he can't just approach Four and take the BFDI-- he's seen what Four is capable of. That number is only chaos and completely unpredictable, they really aren't a good host...

There has to be a way to get under Four's skin. A way to make them give up. Some sort of insecurity or flaw or-

Two arrives and takes over half of his contestants. Announcer could join in on that and battle for limitless power but all he really wants is the BFDI and he'll do anything to get it.

Four seems utterly defeated-- he drives away his one co-host in a fit.

Announcer has to demotivate Four.

Announcer continues to lurk. Two sends the BFBers away so he has to take the time to find them again.

The first challenge of post-split is to bring X back. Four cares a lot about that fellow-- they weren't the same when X wasn't there. Announcer considered using this against them but...

X is just as chaotic and unpredictable. It's not worth trying anything.

Four seems to've softened up some.

Announcer just wants his BFDI. There's got to be SOMETHING he can do!

BFB is coming to a close and Four isn't slowing down. Announcer may have to resort to drastic measures to get his way.

Something happens to Four at the end of BFB that lets Announcer take the spotlight. I am rewriting the entire finale. No sinking into the sun for that guy.

Announcer recalls season 1. The budget.

He takes over BFB. He can deplete the budget and take the BFDI by force. It'll have to work.

Taco catches him red-handed. Shit. He tries to come up with an excuse but she pushes him away from his laptop and runs off with it.

Meanwhile, the rest of the cast are working on bringing the budget back up.

Announcer chases Taco to the contestants. He does a funny speech. He's trying hard to cover up his intentions with something that makes him seem good-

"Look at the way they've treated you, all of you. You can't be siding with him, he's hurt and tortured and tormented you. I'm putting an end to this and taking my BFDI-"

"Didn't... you do the same thing?" Flower inquires.

"Yeah," from Firey.

"Not like they have," Announcer argues.

"Don't downplay it like you did last time," Leafy nips.

SOME sort of confrontation where S1 contestants share their grievances. I feel like Announcer can be reasoned with but Four? Mmmmmmm, they've gotta keep their nature for TPOT.

Firey about how selling Dream Island cost him his prize. Leafy about how while, yes, she did buy Dream Island, Announcer could've said no. Doing that would've saved them all from years of strife-- saved Leafy from years of solitude. Flower about the neglect she faced. Bubble about something. I'll figure it out!

By the end of BFB 30, he's reflecting and Flower sees that, telling him, "I think this is yours."

She hands him the BFDI. He's dumbfounded. "What?"

"I... can't forgive you but I don't want to hate you." There's a mixed look in her eyes. She's had character development since they'd last been one on one. The first contestant eliminated, the first one he hurt and she's here, ready to move forward.

Something churns in Announcer. He's not able to stop and apologize because Flower is already walking away to her friends.

He walks away too. It's time for a change.

[namorthesubmariner]

My mutual, Doombot, has written a great analysis of Namor & why many writers & Marvel fail to grasp an understanding of his character. This is so well written & really sums up what Namor fans have been talking about on the CBR board for years. I think people who don't "get" Namor should read this.

Full text under the cut

Doombot: What's interesting, or disheartening really, is that, for people who don't know Namor that well, all these mini-series' and supporting roles in recent years must be how so many people see Namor, and it's just not him. He's in this awful limbo where he needs an ongoing series for readers to understand him again, but he also (in Marvel's eyes) needs to be popular enough to be given an ongoing. It's like employers asking for 10yrs experience for entry level positions, it's backwards. Plus every modern showing of Namor in all these other books have him as a huge assh*le or an outright villain (or both)

Modern writers simply don't seem to understand Namor, and their OOC portrayals of him present Namor to modern readers as someone he isn't.

Even if Namor felt he had been wrong, if he felt he'd been unjust or needed to atone for some action or judgement he made, he would never in a million years submit to human "justice". (which in Marvel almost always means American) The same justice that has never been afforded to his own people, even when humans (usually Americans) decimate, poison or outright murder them in hundreds, if not thousands. You never see Captain America or IronMan coming to Namor's aid, to help get justice for the scores of innocent Atlanteans that are blown up, murdered or displaced by human activity. In fact, Captain America and IronMan will be the first to confront and threaten Namor if he dares to even think about getting any kind of justice for his people. Yet time and time again, Namor will answer the call to help save humanity from looming threats and disasters. He does this KNOWING it is never offered in return, that the same people he fights for and beside will never come to the aid of him and his people. Yet all the heroes will instantly clutch their pearls and label Namor as unstable or a villain if he gets frustrated or angry enough to seek his own justice. This alone tells you a lot about who Namor is and who the heroes (who claim they're his friends) are.

Namor willingly does this is for a few reasons. First, he simply believes these are the right things to do. Secondly, because he has a deep need or longing to be accepted by the people of his father. Just as he has a deep need to be accepted by the people of his mother, the Atlanteans. Namor, for all his blustering and power, is extremely lonely. He's never been accepted by either, humans or Atlanteans, from his childhood to now. Yet he's always strived to do right by both, in a naive hope they will eventually love him, that he will finally belong somewhere. That's the tragedy of the character, it's the entire fucking point. These are complex social and psychological issues, yet extremely simple at the same time. He's alone. He's angry and hurt, distrusted and disliked, yet always tries to do what is right, and he's usually repaid with scorn. His prickly, pompous or cold demeanor is a facade, it's covering the fact he's a deeply lonesome man who desires a connection to his people(s) and also the fact he was raised as a Royal and everything that means. Being distant, exceptional, superior, a living symbol.

Part of the reason people don't present Namor correctly, as we've discussed here before, is that he's not a superhero. Not in the sense most think about it. Captain America, Superman, Spider-Man, the classic superhero who is out to do right, to fight for "Truth, Justice and the American Way" isn't at all what Namor represents. Not only is Namor not a hero for America, he's not even a hero for humanity. From his very inception he was a champion of "the other", the outsider, the non-American, non-human. He's a main character in American comics who is NOT fighting for America or American values. He's the opposite of Superman. Superman is an alien who does everything in his power to become the best version of a human, of an Amercian, that he can be. Namor is not human, not American, and doesn't want to be. In fact, he's more often than not at odds with humanity. Humans are a real danger to him and his mother's people. This is quite remarkable for a superhero in 1930-whatever. Marry this concept to a character who is also raised as a Royal, as above the everyman, destined not to fight for American justice and democracy, but to be a king and rule a kingdom. All of this adds to the difficulty many readers and writers have with Namor, especially in modern comics. These things aren't made clean enough, instead Namor is seen as a huge a-hole, who's just arrogant and is always on the edge of being a dangerous lunatic villain. The quirks of Namor's personality are left bare, on the surface, but he's hollow. Modern readers don't get to see and understand WHY Namor behaves they way he does.

Namor doesn't need to be deconstructed. How or why would a deconstruction be interesting or valid for a character you barely understand to begin with? What Namor needs in a new and strong foundation so he and his world can be rediscovered and examined/explored for new and modern audiences.

[yourtouchismidas]

Thinking about your posts where you said people at Gigi’s school don’t particularly like Matty. Could we get a blurb of maybe RG and Matty or just Matty showing up at the school to pick up Gigi and a parent or school staff member confronts him? Maybe he gets to defend himself or even Gigi does?

matty is at the school gates with his hands in his pockets. it's chilly, and matty is tired. he is always tired. work is long and there's always people wanting things, wanting him, his words, his time, his thoughts. all he wants right now, is to watch his little girl's face light up when she sees him at the school gates, is to hold her hand as they walk home to you, is to hear about her art project or her circle time or her sums she's finding hard.

there is a group of women next to him, one in yoga pants, one in a pant suit with a skirt, one with those huge nike trainers on women are wearing these days. matty, despite his bank account, gets on more with the ones who rock up in trackies, like he is wearing now, dads who spend their evenings at the pub, mum's who work two jobs trying to get by. today he is too tired to talk to anyone. anyone except gigi, anyway, and you (you've already got the kettle on ready for his return.)

the woman are looking at him, he can feel it. he's got his eyes trained on the doors, where no children have emerged yet, still five minutes to go. one of the woman laughs. they turn to him then turn back to the group. they're all turned inwards, towards each other. one of them is kayleigh's mum. kayleigh who tells gigi she can't play with her. kayleigh who told gigi her halloween costume was stupid. kayleigh who got paint all over the table and told everyone it was gigi. gigi takes it better than him. she shrugs and says kayleigh is mean, and that she doesnt want to be friends with her, and that the teacher always knows that gigi is a good girl and wouldnt do what kayleigh blames her for. gigi says that kayleigh doesnt understand her halloween costume cos she still likes baby stuff. and matty, since he can't drop kick a six year old, has learnt to just do a half smile at kayleigh's mum, breathe and let it go.

except today he is in a bad mood and they are talking about him. he can hear it. he has heard the word "band" and "tour" and he has heard someone say "missing school" which he assumes is about gigi, because she spends some time on the road with him. he has no doubts that if he didnt bring her out to tour, then these women would complain too, about leaving her behind. there is no winning. he is a bad father. because of his career. because of everything they know about his past. everyone knows about his past.

he's trying to breathe and let it go. he's trying to pretend like he can't hear. he should move. the kids will be here soon. gigi will be here. except then he hears the words, "never here," and something inside him snaps.

"i'm here now, aren't i?" he barks at them. he tries so hard. and he misses his daughter with his whole heart when he is not with her, and do they not think, if he could, he would spend more time with her? they all look round in faux surprise, as if they are completely innocent.

"oh don't do that," matty says, "i have ears."

they all look at each other and shrug, frowning, except kayleigh's mum, who stares him out.

"we're just discussing parenting styles. that's all. and yours is... different," she says, still staring at him.

"i'd rather be on tour a few times a year, than have my daughter raised to think that it's okay to talk shit about people in the playground," he shrugs.

"can you not swear please?" one of the other mums says, "we're in a school."

"the kids aren't out yet?" matty says, gesturing at the playground, where only adults stand, "or are you deluded about that too, the same way you're deluded about the fact you were definitely talking shit about me a few seconds ago."

the door opens and kids pour out, running at parents, gigi in the doorway but not quite here yet.

"they're here now," kayleigh's mum says.

"your powers of observation astound me," he says, just as gigi cries out "daddy!" and runs at his legs.

"hi baby," he says to her, putting a big hand on her head where he neat little plaits you tied for her this morning have come loose and are wild and fraying. she looks between you and the other mums, sensing something is wrong, when kayleigh appears, thrusting something glittery into her mum's arms saying "look what i made mummy."

"oh wow that's beautiful darling," her mum says, crouching down to her to zip up her coat that is open. kayleigh starts fussing. whining.

"you ready babygirl?" matty asks, and gigi nods, putting her hand in his, as kayleigh dissolves into a full on tantrum, screaming with a red face on the floor, as the whole playground turns to her.

"kayleigh's crying," gigi says, plainly, as if it isn't obvious to everyone in the playground, or in a one mile radius.

"hmm," matty says.

"she's just getting her coat done up," gigi says, staring too, stopped.

"come on, love," he says, nudging her arm, "don't stare. it's not nice to be rude, is it?"

"no," gigi agrees.

matty starts to walk away, gigi trotting along beside him, not staring, but he does throw back one look at kayleigh's mum, who catches his eye. he waves, doing his little half smile, turning away and smirking.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

This happening very recently, but I was replaying to another fan about the whole thing with the fandom being mad at Marinette about not telling Adrien about his father and about him being a senti monster and how it was dumb that the fandom was (going into a lot of the fandom making fanfic of Adrien leaving Marinette because of her lying and then turn around to complain.)

I, at first, said that I understand the fandom’s criticism because that moment seems OOC for Marinette to keep Gabriel’s secret and that if Marinette loved Adrien, she’d tell him the truth, regardless on him leaving or not.

They responded (to sum it up) that Marinette hates lies yes, but she keeps lies to protect the ones she loves. She does it all of the time. And her keeping a secret has nothing to do with the fear of loosing Adrien, but everything with his safety.

They then responded some more but I can’t get into cus…they blocked me…after I basically said they had Vaild points but I wouldn’t blame Adrien for leaving Marinette if he found out. I see both of their POV’s

My over all thoughts on this is that…I do understand why Marinette did the things she did, but it doesn’t erase the fact that it feels…icky that Adrien has little to no knowledge or anatomy over himself. The knowledge and anatomy lies with his partner…

So….thoughts?

So I disagree that this lie protects Adrien. It might keep him emotionally safe, but it risks his physical safety since he has two magical remote controls that aren't exactly well kept secrets. Marinette has no idea who all knows about them and she should be assuming that the new butterfly is in the know since the butterfly clearly knew about Emilie's hidden chamber.

If Marinette had kept the rings, then you could make the argument that she's keeping him safe in the best way that she can while still protecting the rest of the world since there is a solid argument to be made for not exposing her secrets while there's still an ongoing threat, but that argument's out the window since she gave the rings to Adrien! She made him the unknowing guardian of his own freedom in a world where jewelry theft is a common teenage past time. That's really, really, really bad and you cannot logically justify that choice.

With that being said, I can actually buy Marinette not telling Adrien right away. He just lost his father and, as previously said, telling Adrien probably means exposing her secret identity, which is a huge deal when the butterfly is still at large. I do think that she'd cave pretty quickly, though, because the guilt would eat her alive. I think that she'd quickly start having nightmares about him losing the rings and other such stuff that would quickly poison their relationship.

However, I also feel like this is yet another case of Marinette getting an unfair amount of blame for a thing that isn't all on her. Yes, she needs to tell him, but she's a late comer to this party who only knows the details second hand. Heck, I've said before that I'm not even totally sure that she knows that Adrien is a sentimonster because Felix's play was rather vague about Adrien and Kagami's status.

But you know who is fully in the know about everything? Felix! And Kagami! And Nathalie! And probably Amelie, too. People who are also supposed to love Adrien and want what's best for him. People who have also told him diddly squat even though they knew long before Marinette did, yet I don't see anyone complaining about them.

Kagami in particular really grinds my gears because I especially don't buy her keeping this from Adrien. She's the queen of confrontation who literally called him up to yell at him for being such a push over after seeing a freaking marketing photo! Does anyone actually buy her keeping the senti stuff from Adrien for literal months? In a lot of ways, I actually think Kagami and Felix should be the ones to tell Adrien because they know so much more than Marinette and because they share his status so he won't feel so alone.

Basically, the fact that Adrien doesn't know isn't the result of good writing, it's the hand of the author taking corporal form and sewing everyone's mouths shut because the writers either don't want to deal with this issue or they want to milk it out for drama in the coming seasons. Do I like that Marinette is keeping this a secret? No, but she's not doing it because she wants to. She's doing it because she's a fictional character whose writers are really bad at handling both serious topics and satisfying reveals. I haven't read any post season five fics but I'm sure that they'd annoy me just as much as the fics that deal with the season four conflict by heaping all the blame at Marinette's feet and holding no one else accountable for their actions or lack there of.

[cylove]

heart runs dry (10011 words) Chapters: 2/4

new chapter is up! not my fav but its necessary build up for the ladder half of the work. also it is now completed! it came out to be almost 25k words. the final chapter is nearly double the length of the prev chapters, so hopefully it'll all be worth it!

summary on ao3:

Coming off the high after Laxus’ ascension to S-Class, Freed kisses him, causing a sea of emotions Laxus never knew existed to come forth. He denies himself, locking these feelings away for years, but one day he is forced to confront them once more. Since this is Laxus Dreyar we’re talking about, he does not handle it well.

that about sums up last chapter, for this chapter i would say this is the day all those feelings come rushing back. the story has a huge time skip, but will remain in this time frame for the most part from now on. also theyre both inebriated throughout this chap, but freed is in a worse state than laxus as they engage with each other

[patheticpoems]

Hi! I have several questions I'd really appreciate answers to. To start off, I'd really like it if this ask is not ignored even if you cannot answer some questions. 🙏🤞

1. EIYPO(everyone is you pushed out), I'm sure you've heard of this term, maybe even believe in it, but for me, it doesn't make sense. If everyone is you pushed out, doesn't that mean that all the evil people like murderers, grapists etc exist because you somehow influenced them?

2. How would shifting/manifesting be explained with children who get sick, die, lose their parents very young? It can't be something they assumed in that manifested, or is it? Does that mean their sickness, loss of parents etc is entirely because they manifested that outcome into reality? Using the logic that everything we assume/believe is what our reality is, that would be a yes, but I find this to be very cruel and illogical because most children would not assume/believe they'd get serious illnesses, lose their parents, etc.

3. When the US election took place, a LOT of manifestors/witches claimed Kamala would win, were manifesting it, yet in the end, Trump won. Why did reality not manifest/shift accordingly to assumptions?

4. This is a question more for my personal shifting and manifesting journey, as well as where I am 'stuck' kind of. I've been manifesting a lot of things for several months, none bore fruit aside from what I could see as one being successful, but I'm not sure it can be summed up to manifestation because it required action in the 3D. I haven't 'tried' to shift in a long time, even though I want to. At the same time, I feel like I'm just numb/not interested in it anymore, despite really wanting to live a life full of freedom, power, love etc. I prefer sleep methods, but I've ended up in my CR when I woke up, which is disappointing, and that lead me to just not expect anything different. Honestly, I'm not sure myself how to describe my current situation. Just feels like I'm stuck and can't move forward in my shifting journey.

—I'm very sorry for the huge amount of text, I needed to share all this because it really bugged me. I would be very happy for answers and advice on my questions. Thank you so much! 🫶🫶🫶

hey anon! I appreciate your questions, I tried to tackle them decently enough but do feel free to send another ask linking this post if you have more questions or specific ones pertaining to anything I've said! also some explanations are gonna traverse through the questions because some explain something stated in the other. i should be the one apologising for the huge amnt of text in a min LOLL

1. yesn't? when we say eiypo it means that your perception of people is what will reflect. rather than it being because you influenced them it is more so because you believe they are there, because you assume that they exist. It doesn't mean you caused their actions or caused them to do the things they do but rather it is more so due to external influences. Now, what do I mean by external influences? This goes into the second question.

2. I've actually spoken about this topic before here. To tie in relation to your first two questions I'll semi-repeat the cause here; Circumstances, survival and unknowing.

If you live in a reality where you are constantly being told, be careful, there are murders happening nearby, shootings, assaults, then what would you do? You'd adjust to keep yourself safe. Maybe you'd change the times you go out, how long you stay out, carry something with you for safety. If you were as your example stated a child with illness, you'd be confronted with that reality repeatedly: With how you may lose body functions you once had or they weaken, how you get used to certain treatment, blankly painted walls, maybe your guardians whispers of money and the cost of trying to keep you alive.

That's circumstance and survival, so what's unknowing? Unknowing refers to not knowing about the law of assumption and what brings up that post I made about unconscious and conscious manifestation. The law doesn't stop working. If I stop paying attention to gravity I won't suddenly lift into the air. That's what makes it a universal law. So, the answer would be yes as you said, however I don't find it to be illogical even though I agree it is cruel from the standpoint of human ethics but awareness is neutral, good and bad is a concept we humans made, it isn't something came with the existence of everything. Once you stop looking at it as them consciously manifesting it and rather as a matter of them doing it unconsciously it makes more sense.

It's difficult to be someone in a tough circumstance because you keep trying to adjust to it so you can survive but that reaffirms your assumption that this is your reality and you don't even know it. As a final note on this question because I don't think I addressed it? As to how they'd get an illness as in what would even manifest it, I believe it ties in into the societal belief that "anything can happen" anytime, anywhere, anything can flip in a way we consider good or bad.

3. so, in the first question I said, "it is more so because you believe they are there" there in reference to your reality. I intentionally didn't go into detail then because I felt it would be more suited here.

Why did reality not shift according to those assumptions? Reality did shift, just not for you, not for people who are outside of the assumption. Manifesting (which is just shifting) is about awareness. Who are you aware of being? What life are you aware of having? We don't have one singular reality, there's a new reality every single moment and this is an individualistic experience.

You may have seen this before maybe but some idk how many months ago I think it's been nearly a year now? But at some point, people had begun to talk about doing a void pact. That if one of them entered the void they'd manifest everyone in the pact gets in, however, this was flawed at its core (Here are two good posts about why that wouldn't work 1 & 2.) When you manifest something all that is changing is YOU, how you perceive things. So if I assume kamala won, then IM shifting to a reality where that's true, because that's what manifesting is, shifting. My awareness is what shifts.

4. this post is already long but it is about to get even longer soz xx. im gonna try and pinpoint what you might be having trouble with so, gonna shoot out a bunch of questions then followed by statements: Does your disinterest stem from doubt, how you feel (or felt if my answers helped) that these questions were too blatant a plot hole to ignore and made a reasonable case that maybe loass simply isnt a law? Why do you say you constantly end up in your CR, what dictates a success to you other than yourself?

Statements. You are always shifting. You are always succeeding, maybe not in the way you want to be but your reality is a reflection of your assumptions, in your favour or otherwise. The 3D doesn't dictate if you got what you want, you do. You are interested, you just don't want to be more disappointed than you already feel you have been. I can't look into how those months you spoke of were, if you want you can send a follow up ask describing your perception of your desires and how you went about manifesting but going off what you told me and that alone what I'll tell you is that you are always manifesting, just because it isn't what you want doesn't mean it isn't working.

[archiveofmystuff]

Heesu in Class 2 Episode 9

I'm going to have to rewatch the show to fully get my feelings sorted out, but this episode.......wow it was not good. I seem to be in the minority on my feelings on this episode (at least on this site), but what was that?

This show has made some baffling decisions to me from the very beginning, but this episode especially came off like the writers had no idea what they were doing. There were some good parts, but I can't help but walk away from this episode (and likely, the entire show tomorrow) thinking this was such a missed opportunity. I'm going to try to succinctly wrap up my thoughts on what went wrong.

Chanyoung and Heesu just suddenly being BFFs again and hanging out like nothing happened without any real resolution to their fight was a terrible choice. Why was I supposed to care about this conflict when apparently the writers didn't care enough about it to give it any real resolution? Heesu just helps him go on a date with his girlfriend and that's it? Am I missing something? ]

Now suddenly Heesu's sister also gets a sideplot regarding her relationship? Is everyone in this show going to get a side plot except Seungwon...who is supposed to be our second lead? We're 1 episode from the ending of the show and we still know next to nothing about Seungwon except that he likes Heesu and his parents had a bad breakup and now he has a step mom. I don't think I'd care as much about these sideplots and just chalk them up to setting the tone of the episode if it felt like we were actually getting development for our "main" couple, but we aren't. It's just dragging on and on and on with so little in the way of actual development and it's frustrating.

Does Chanyoung like Heesu as a friend at all? Do the writers want us to see them as friends? Because honestly I've spent now 9 episodes wondering why Heesu is so obsessed with him. These boys do not act like best friends. Chanyoung is upset he feels like he knows nothing about Heesu, but we have seen him treat Heesu as nothing more than a friend of convenience for the entire show. It never felt like he had any interest in Heesu past Heesu just being someone for him to hang out with whenever one of his girlfriends broke up with him. The show has done basically nothing the entire last 8 episodes to make me think Chanyoung had some issue with Heesu not opening up to him, but now this is being introduced in the penultimate episode?

Oh yay! Seungwon asked Heesu to dinner! Oh wait, we don't get to see the dinner....great. We get one scene and then back to Heesu hanging out with everyone except Seungwon.

For a show named Heesu in Class 2, the writers are obsessed with fleshing out every inch of Chanyoung for reasons I cannot quite figure out. Why? As a viewer the whole "You know everything about me, why does it feel like I know nothing about you?" About sums up my feelings with Chanyoung and Heesu as well.

Chanyoung once again just continues to be incredibly selfish and emotionally unintelligent. What is his obsession with publicly humiliating others? This is why it's so hard for me to believe that his friendship with Heesu is genuine. He has had every opportunity to confront Heesu in this way privately and he has failed to do it. And he decides in the middle of the hallway at school when Heesu is clearly upset is the best time to do it? Once again there's been no indication that Chanyoung was struggling with Heesu being closed off, but suddenly it's a huge problem.

Honestly, I just started skipping all of Chanyoung's tennis scenes. Again, it is taking up SO much time and I still cannot figure out for the life of me WHY. It's not like I'm against side plots, it's just that it's dragging on and on and on while what is supposed to be the main plot of the story is getting microscopic levels of development. It's beyond frustrating.

I hate to be the type of person that sits there and counts how long each scene is to see how much time certain characters get, but I was curious. If we count only scenes where Heesu and Seungwon actually interacted/spoke, they had about 8 minutes and 56 seconds of scenes in this 42 minute long episode. And given that Seungwon evidently hears Heesu's conversation with Chanyoung, I assume most of next episode is going to be spent with him doubting himself due to that. I'm sorry, I don't want to rain on the parade of everyone who is enjoying this, but this was seriously such a let down of an episode in a show that's already been kind of average at best.

[wellnoe]

so in bridgerton season 2, kate and anthony have very similar character hangups. they both see their relationships to other people as primarily about fulfilling obligations, and they don't trust anyone else in their families (to be responsible, make their own choices...or even like. emotionally. they do not confide in their families). the upshot of all of this is they've each self-appointed themselves the adult of their respective families, and this situation helps them maintain a degree of distance from the very people they are ostensibly caring for.

imo kate comes out of the season kind of addressing these hangups! she is forced, via all her plans collapsing, to talk honestly with her sister and mother, and she is challenged in her perception of her family members as dependents she has to arrange things for. through this process, she engages in really charged scenes of emotional vulnerability (her scene with mary esp, in ep 8, is really really good) and edwina really insists kate take her and her feelings seriously!

anthony ends the season in a much weirder place. bc. ok. the entire reason violet wants anthony to get married in the first place is because they want to ensure the family has an heir. if anthony does not have an heir and something happens to him suddenly, as happened to his father, the viscountcy will pass to his brothers. this is a problem because both anthony and violet think his brothers are super flaky! they both, at separate times, use the idea of one of his brothers inheriting the viscountcy to explain the urgency of anthony's need to get married! and it feels, as a viewer, that the secret to anthony character development is he needs to learn to trust his family. he needs to learn to respect them as people! because if he does that he removes a huge source of the pressure on himself and he is actually able to engage with his family and other people emotionally.

and then one of the best lines of the show is daphne's "all of these decisions you seem to make and then resent us for, they do not make you worthy of your family's respect". and he does resent them for it! he gets really mean to his brothers, his sisters, his mother. daphne is maybe the sibling he's closest to this season, the one he has the most genuine conversations with, and she sees very clearly this self-martyring vanity, the almost condescension with which he looks down on people who make choices for themselves. so i'm saying this is a hangup for him not only bc it sucks for him emotionally to not be able to really relate to his family, but also bc it is the thing that makes him act worst toward the people in his life. people he ostensibly loves and wants the best for!

so the question is where does he end up with this? and its weird! bc he is able to open up emotionally and the show acts like things have changed, but they haven't! he has an emotional conversation with his mom, which is fairly nice but only one slice of his problem. daphne stops showing up after episode 6 so there's no more insight from her. he doesn't talk to his other younger sister at all. and there's also really no evidence that he's had some revelation that his brothers are also adults! his last scene with colin is him yelling at colin for not paying attention to staffing issues and spending a huge sum of money. one of his last scenes with benedict is him finding benedict high at a party and being mad about it, and then his actual last scene with benedict is a confrontation over the fact that anthony secretly paid for benedict to be admitted into an art school. which does not indicate a high degree of trust in him or his abilities. and benedict can only manage this stale disappointment toward the way anthony ALWAYS acts, which anthony easily brushes off. it's SO weird!

[relleytrots]

More questions! Would you consider having cross splat play for a group with v5, ww5, and h5? Have the mechanics been simplified/streamlined enough for that to be possible without being a huge headache?

Also, unrelated: I think in today's ttrpg terms WoD5 wants to be a "fiction first" type of game. It definitely has introduced some features that add support in that way, such as the relationship maps, considering Coterie type, and the touchstones. But I think some of its mechanics still cleave to that "simulationist" mindset of the 90s and aughts, and get in the way of what the narrative does well 😅

This is a bit meandering, but I hope you gain something from it anyway.

So for my money, the big issues with cross splat play are thematic. Vampire and Werewolf are asking different questions of their players, and pursuing different kinds of horror. For all that they're nominally set in the same world, they don't fit right when they're shoved in next to each other. It's like how comics crossovers reduce the cosmic splendour of interplanar warfare between godlike entities and the workaday world of a nerdy student/photographer to a sort of spectacular slurry when they're put together - it can be fun, but it feels like less than the sum of its parts because none of them are getting to do what they were designed for.

Hunter is the exception. I think Hunter can dovetail with another splat reasonably well, because the Hunters are real people in over their heads and confronting a supernatural horror; a premise that can adapt to whatever kind of horror the other splat is presenting. Hunter also has tidier mechanics, which brings me to the "why I, specifically, wouldn't include Werewolf in a crossover" part.

When I've checked out Apocalypse in the past, I've found it aggressively America-centric (why do werewolves in the Celtic nations or the Balkans use terms from the First Nations?), not quite selling the "melting pot" pack (maybe this is me, but I feel like a werewolf pack should all be from the same tribe and differentiated by something else, like auspice), and worst of all - dull. Between Tribes and Gifts and Auspices and Spirits and five different statblocks it's managed to make pretending you're a werewolf fussy and pedantic.

I like trad games. I came up with Call of Cthulhu and WFRP. Pass me the percentile dice, we're going in! But the strength of V5, specifically, is that it's modular. From "only players roll" to "only simple conflicts" to "right, look in the back of the book for a combat move", V5 scales to an extent where it can be mechanically present, imposing the bare minimum of Hunger and Predator Type, in even a fairly lightweight chronicle - or it can go full tradgame, if you want it to!

The trouble with the wider WOD, in my opinion, has been the development outwards from Vampire. Most of the splats have started with Vampire's mechanics (an equivalent to blood points, humanity, disciplines, clans and so on) and adapted them and developed on top of them, which means they end up overburdened because they weren't working out from a neutral core. (CofD sidestepped this by starting with the human-focused core game and building very similar sets of numbers into the different splats, one direction at a time.) Combine that with the ever more convoluted world-building of the One World of Darkness conceit - you and I know that no amount of "the Lupines from Vampire aren't the Garou from Werewolf" holds up to the way the Revised books were written - and by the time you get to Wraith, both the system and the setting are overdeveloped and creaking at the seams.

I bring up Wraith because I really, really want Wr5 (technically it'd be the fourth edition, but whatever). I want a Storytelling Game of Psychological and Survival Horror, something that interrogates why the dead haunt the living and poses that as its central question. You can keep your Kingdoms and your Legions, but they're the threats that drive the playable ghosts into the periphery - they've made unacceptable compromises to survive deeper into the Shadowlands, closer to Oblivion. The Guilds offer another way - true death staved off by staying close to the truly alive. Maybe that's been the premise of Wraith all along, but I got the impression the game as published was more interested in building Stygia as a dark fantasy adventure than in ghost stories.

You're not wrong though: the WOD games have always existed in the space between blow-by-blow gun-catalogue tradgame and experimental, experiential storygame. When they're good, they turn that space into a sliding scale. When they're bad... well, when they're bad they're the detailed rules for kung fu in Requiem. The whole thing runs better when you're fiction first, but retain just enough risk/resource management that the mechanics get to intrude and remind you that you're not playing heroes. You are the monster. The more action you take, the more those trackers move. The Hunger is rising. When will you Rage?

[paper--machete]

Re: Your tags on the post about writing you love, I'd love to hear your breakdown of music you like? Either "how do you personally breakdown music" OR "Here's a breakdown of a specific song/album"

well for example something I've always seen as very important when it comes to albums is sequencing, i.e. the order that the songs are put in on an album. in theory this shouldn't matter at all but sometimes putting the songs in just the right order can push an album to be so much greater

like for example a good opener can set the tone, but imo the greater task belongs to the opening three-track run to let the listener know what to expect from the rest of the album. a great example of this is death grips' the money store- track 1 is get got, one of the groups notably more lowkey songs with ride doing a much more toned down style of vocals. track 2 is the fever (aye aye), where ride brings out his usual angry-screaming vocal delivery but it's backed up by arguably one of the band's best hooks ever. track 3 is lost boys which is probably the weirdest they get on the whole album. the money store essentially does a perfect job of welcoming an unassuming listener into the world of death grips; it understands they're difficult to get into and organizes itself to become more accessible. it's kind of a winning formula tbh- track 1 is the opener, track 2 is the lead single, and then track 3 uses its similarities and differences with the first two songs to communicate the overall vibe. QOTSA almost always uses this formula; rated R, songs for the deaf and era vulgaris follow it pretty perfectly

as far as the full album goes I think it's important to take into account variety and sameness. one thing that always kills me when checking out albums I haven't heard before is when too many songs in a row are sonically similar and they all just blend together. I think a great album sequences it's tracklist in a way that every song plays off of the one that came before it. the new Kendrick Lamar album GNX did this really well imo. here's a summary of the tracklist for example-

confrontational and imposing opener

high energy banger

low energy chill song

low energy artsy song

low energy banger

mid energy artsy song

MUSTAAAAAAAAAAAAAARD

chill banger

mid energy chill song

mid energy artsy song

weird song

very pretty and grandiose closer

the energy and vibes are always switching it up on a song by song basis, and no two songs of the same vibe are back to back. not to say you can't pull this off on an album, but I find it's so much more satisfying when an album is always trying to keep you interested and invested

I think the thing I've really come to appreciate lately with music though is execution; does this song/album do a good job of pulling off the idea it wanted to. I recently became a huge fan of arcade fire's 2017 album Everything Now which everyone haaaaaaated when it came out back then because the thesis statement of the album was "phone bad" backed up by a more electronic-disco-pop inspired shift in sound. but revisiting it today I feel like everything about that album was deliberately and perfectly executed to sell that album's ideas; Everything Now is sarcastic, it's commercial, it's electronic, and it's so so tired of capitalist life. the production from daft punk's Thomas Bangalter, the cheesy and at times cringe inducing lyrics from win butler, the deliberate shift towards pop sensibilities, all of it comes together to make Everything Now into a complete work that is greater than the sum of its parts

my train of thought stops here but basically there really is a lot more to music than what you're hearing. so many external factors play into how you end up interpreting it for yourself and me, personally, I'm trying to max that shit out. read David Byrne's book How Music Works if you want to go insane like me (I only read half of it but a lot of what he says really helped open my mind to eventually think about music this way)