#English majors do not come for me I see it’s the wrong *too ITS THE TAGS GIRL WHATCHU WANT ME TO DO

[kataracy]

Kataang Week 2024 DAY 1 // Cultural Sharing

“I’m nervous. Am I doing okay?”

“You’re doing amazing Sweetie.”

[the-sand-guardian]

Early Sunsets Prologue

7 months ago, the world was normal, save for one small lab in the middle of nowhere. The lab was ordinarily quiet and privately owned by the head scientist (and most likely his janitor too), but this was about to change. Pac was only beginning to pull on his coat and start his day when his janitor, the only other staff he ever had regularly around) alerted him to a van pulling into the driveway. The vehicle was almost entirely unmarked, save for a large insignia on the side that Pac knew at once: The Federation. He stepped back from the window, his eyes wide and his jaw clenched. He hadn’t been working on anything illegal- well, not recently- but there was no reason for the government to be on his ass this time. A car door slammed shut outside as both Pac and the janitor quickly pulled every blind down. 

“Calma, calma- It’s going to be alright Pac. You didn’t do anything wrong, what could they possibly want from you?” The janitor cooed softly to the other as he had begun to pace. 

Pac dug a hand into his hair. There were voices outside, but they weren’t distinct enough for him to actually make out words. “Fitchi- They don’t come here for no reason! They might kill me! Or us! Or you!” 

A hand gently clasped ahold of Pac’s, and another soon took his other. “I will protect you if it is the last thing I do, Pac,” Fit gently squeezed his hands. Pac hoped it never ever came to that. A knock at the door finally pulled them from each other’s eyes. 

Pac begrudgingly let go of his janitor’s (lover’s) hands and crossed the room to get the door. A masked employee greeted Pac blankly before stepping past him into the lab. Another employee followed, and Pac quickly noted that both had large guns within his view. Finally, a third fed followed behind them. This one was not visibly armed, but the chill dancing down Pac’s spine told him he didn’t need to be. This worker was still clad in the signature ghostly white of the Federation, but they wore their long white hair in a crafted bun atop their head. Their uniform was different, too. Instead of the smooth white masks of the grunts, this worker had an unsettling smile printed onto their mask and a pair of bear (he assumed) ears attached to the top. If Pac weren’t so on edge, he might have been able to admire the clear effort that had gone into their appearance. No more employees came in, but he doubted the Federation would waste a full van on three people.

“Can I help you?” Pac asked, straightening up his posture a little before slumping just slightly again. Fit’s firm hand found its way back into Pac’s. 

“Actually… you can.” The third employee spoke slowly and carefully, crossing to the centre of the room now. The other two flanked either side of them like the bodyguards they may well have been. “You see, the Federation has been keeping a close eye on this here…laboratory… for quite some time now and we think that, perhaps, you might be of some use to us.” 

Pac cocked his head to the side a little before looking over at Fit, who was equally as confused. It wasn’t like Chume was one of those major labs right now. They weren’t pumping out medicine, or drugs, or even anything really. Shouldn’t the Federation have their own labs? Fit squeezed his hand slightly. Pac returned it. 

“Perhaps you’re not understanding me-” The Bear, as Pac was now mentally calling them, effortlessly switched into Portuguese despite never having an accent in English. “Pac, você tem habilidades que a Federação pode usar. Nós precisamos de você.” (‘You have skills the Federation can use. We need you.’)

Pac blinked a second before just staring. “O que- O que vocês precisam?” His gaze flicked over to Fit quickly, which did actually help him calm a little. He could practically hear his voice even though he wasn’t speaking, his eyes said it all. Calma, Pac, calma. Pac steadied the slight shake in his hands– the only real tell that he was nervous at all– and let out a quiet but heavy breath. 

“Seu laboratório é muito útil, e você é muito inteligente, mas… você sabe disso.” Pac could practically hear the smirk lurking in their voice. (“Your laboratory is very useful, and you’re very intelligent, but… you know that.”)

“E? E o que você precisa?” He took a small step towards them and started to study their mask now that he was no longer trembling too much to see straight. Now he could see that this mask was even further different from those of the usual feds. This mask had actual eye holes behind a thin mesh that made up the dull eyes of the smile printed onto it. Something about this caused the hair on his neck to stand on end. He hadn’t even noticed previously that the plain white masks didn’t have eye holes, but now that he had, that shiny plastic (assumedly) would be burned into his brain. 

“Eu quero que você crie um vírus.” (I want you to create a virus.)

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Authors notes: Hello!! If you enjoyed this please please reblog and be ready to catch the rest of the fic on Ao3 tomorrow! The rest of this fic is going to be Spiderbit with some cutaways to Fit and Pac bc I had so much fun writing them here! Also, feel free to send me asks about the AU as it comes out!!

[cleromancy]

okay hmm quiet metal gear disability thoughts now. specifically quiet, dignity of risk & the right to refuse treatment. major spoilers for tpp ahead!!!!

i do consider quiet to be a textually disabled character primarily because of the english language parasite infection. you can, and i in fact will, make the argument that needing accommodations for how her body physically works post-burn trauma counts as disability, but on its own it wouldn't be enough for me to say so emphatically that Quiet Is A Disabled Character. but having a chronic illness that she refuses treatment for because the cost of the treatment is too great is a CLASSIC and incredibly common disability story and weaves it incontrovertibly into her narrative as a whole.

and the way this interacts with quiets choice to live with the infection by not speaking english, is so great juxtaposed with code talker (himself disabled and diné) asking her in diné bizaad if she speaks it, and her responding in the affirmative being the reveal that quiet is herself also diné (quiet not being diné is, while technically textually possible, not actually supported by the text). the scene ends with quiet telling him she was infected with the parasite but hasn't spoken english to infect anyone on motherbase, and repeating, "and i never will. i never will."

so she chooses to live with it, and the way that venom accommodates her is extremely similar to what he does with kaz-- aside from the direct parallel of rescuing kaz and later rescuing quiet in very similar ways at contrasting points in the narrative, you see a lot of venom communicating wordlessly with them both; he leans in close to kaz so kaz can see or feel him, his first impulse is to speak to quiet wordlessly through touch/looks/gestures... i feel like this is highlighted by how kaz, my best beloved bitter hypocrite, is like (paraphrased) "she doesn't talk! how could you communicate in the field?!" and venom looks at quiet and they visibly, silently exchange a thousand words. i can't get into that more rn bc it would derail the post from quiet but theres a LOT going on there w/kaz and disability, and kaz and quiet.

and similarly getting too deep into the theme of language in tpp is also beyond the scope of this post, it would derail it even more. BUT LIKE in a lot of code talkers tapes you do hear him talking about, like... being taken away to one of those assimilation schools and that being part of why he developed the language parasites the way he did. and in another he speculates that quiet refused the treatment bc she wanted to keep the possibility of revenge but considering that she is a disabled indigenous woman, and that the parasites are repeatedly referred to in terms of ethnic cleansing, and the treatment for the parasite infection does make you infertile, i would argue that the text is not necessarily presenting code talker as exclusively correct here; there is another glaringly obvious reason why quiet might have chosen not to undergo the treatment.

so instead she chooses to live with it, and all its drawbacks, including requiring accommodation for it; she chooses to put up with kazs suspicion without explaining herself; she lives with the risk that came with an active infestation; she chooses to leave when it mutates further and puts people at risk. and when venom comes to rescue her she chooses to put her own life at risk to save his by choosing to break her vow and speak english. (also, side note, Jesus Christ but vquiet is so fucking beautiful. venom saving her and getting bitten by the decoy snake in the process....! good lord. who is doing it like them.) dignity of risk is crucial to this story -- none of this would have happened if she had Simply Accepted The Cure, but shes... really not presented as being in the wrong for choosing not to. that was her decision, and she deserved the choice to make it. when her tape opens "i did not choose to be Quiet," it delves into her choices. yes, the desire for vengeance brought her to this place. yes, it pains her that they don't "share a common tongue." but also, she has made the choice to disavow vengeance, to "choose the language of gratitude," and to her that means returning to her vow of silence. this is the dignity of risk.

i do have more thoughts on this, particularly elaborating on what dignity of risk is and why its so important to the narrative of tpp, and want to come back and elaborate on this more, but im just gonna hit send for now, just... quiet 🥰

[roukabi]

Well, I said back here that I wanted to do a NYTW critter-ification. So here we are!

As usual, design notes/trivia/comments under the cut:

"Rook, none of these are animals I'd ever consider related to the Hadestown cast."

Yeah, I know. But it looks cool, right?

Orpheus strikes me as someone who was wild as a boy. And by 'wild', I mean biting and growling and hunting squirrels with his bare 10-year-old hands. He got less feral when approached with food and stable housing. With all that in mind, it made sense to give him something that matched that energy. Also, community-minded? Famous vocals? Effortlessly beautiful? The connections are there! And I stole from this drawing I made a long while back. Yeah I bet y'all forgot about that but I didn't! I still really like the idea of werewolf Orph!

...come to think of it though, we give nytw orph too much credit. I think it's easy to pin him as the brave, heroic union leader because of his confidence, but he's just a poet. He's lovey-dovey, he's gentle. He's got a very healthy ego, but it doesn't overpower his soft core. There's a reason his 'If It's True' is so sad - he's not a fighter, he's an artist, and more importantly, a lover. He has no real incentive to finish his song (for better or worse, narratively-speaking). He's an artist who talks big and loves his wife.

That said, it seems a little weird to give him such a fierce animal. But as is the case for bway orpheus's fox choice, i am a fan of designs that betray the real character underneath. His big snarky wolf persona (fursona?) falls apart when he looks at Eurydice for more than 3 seconds.

Wow, that could've been its own post tbh. Moving on, the star-like speckles in his fur were added because of his name - "the darkness of night". Canis Major is somewhere on his fur.

Now, could a catgirl and dogboy really fall in love?

With regards to Eurydice, you can't improve upon perfection, which is why my design looks very similar to @riveracheron's Eurydice design. You can see most of ismene's design here (I can't find the original ref image, sorry!) for reference. I wasn't sure about making Eurydice's nose yellow, but she needed yellow somewhere in her palette, and a black or pink nose looked kind of wrong. She's a loner kitty built for the snow. Not that she enjoys it. Also I wanted to add a cute white/yellow bow around her neck but forgot :( pretend it's there

Anyway, probably the most interesting animal decision was Hermes. I mentioned in my Broadway critter designs that I wanted to keep the neutral characters as birds. That meant I had to find a bird to match Chris Sullivan's Hermes, and, idk, I liked the barn owl the most. Barn owls are screechy and painfully unexpressive, but if Legend of the Guardians: the Owls of Ga'Hoole has taught me anything, it's that anything can be expressive if you break just enough rules. So there.

Barn owls are associated with doom and death in old English tales, and they're known to live in abandoned houses. It would sound like the barn owl should be given to Hades, but I like to think that since Hermes is the one telling the story, he's in charge of the cycles of death and renewal that take place in the story. He's a harbinger whether he likes it or not.

For the Fates, I already had cat designs in mind, but I almost made them birds to fit my neutral rule. Then I kinda waffled on it and said "well, the Fates are kind of mean, and you know what would be fun? Wild animals vs domestic animals". Cats it is! And they are anything but dressed the same: we got stripes, spots, and swirls. They torment their fellow kitty Eurydice for being 'wild', they're invasive, and they get in fights with the local wolf. The relationships write themselves.

I didn't draw Hades and Persephone since they'd already been covered in the Broadway lineup, and there wasn't much of a difference between bway and nytw to justify new drawings. They're still critters though, trust me.

And that's it! I guess had a lot more to say about these than last time. As always, the designs are free to use with credit.

[randombrambles]

Okay...going to wade into the Sabezra discussion. May the flying spaghetti monster in sky have mercy on my soul...

I guess you could call me a "causal viewer" because, despite being a life long Star Wars fan, I'd never watched an episode of Rebels before watching Ahsoka. I just never got around to it and I've only watched a handful of eps of The Clone Wars too. But anyway once I started Ahsoka I was like "this show will clearly make more sense if I watch Rebels" so I started. I'm almost done season 3 of Rebels as of writing this post. And really loving Rebels btw. Part of me of like "why didn't I watch this earlier?" but on the other hand I don't have to wait for the next episode and I know the major spoilers already so I'm not going to get the rug yanked out from under me.

So back to Ahsoka and Sabezra...the big questions. Did I see the romance "coding" (not sure I agree "coding" is the right word but whatever, that's semantics) in Ahsoka? Yes. Sabine's actions definitely come across as her being in love with Ezra to me. That said I can also see the platonic angle, especially after having watched some of Rebels, so I'm not going to tell anyone they are wrong for viewing Sabine and Ezra's relationship as platonic. These things are subjective and open to interpretation until anything definitively romantic or definitively not romantic happens on screen. And at this point nothing definitive has happened either way on screen. Nobody has been proven right and nobody has been proven wrong yet. Sabezra is basically schrodinger's cat right now.

Next how did I interpret the "like a sister" line in Ezra's holo. Um...full disclosure the first time I viewed that scene I didn't even register that he'd said she was "like a sister" to him. I'd never even seen Rebels at that point so I didn't know Ezra yet. So as a causal viewer my take away from that scene was Ezra meant a lot to Sabine and Sabine meant a lot to Ezra. And I'd be wiling to bet that that was the takeaway for most causal viewers.

So on rewatch do I think the "like a sister" line means that Ezra truly sees Sabine as a sister? No. On rewatch, paying close attention to the body language, and after having watched some Rebels, I think Ezra is both struggling to find the words to tell Sabine how important she is to him and telling her what he thinks she needs to hear in that moment. The problem is that in English we don't have a word to describe someone isn't technically family but who isn't a lover either but who's also way more than "just" a friend. Sister is the best word Ezra can come up with in that moment but you can tell from his awkward body language and his literal scoff as soon as he says it that its not the right word. And yeah I think Ezra thinks that Sabine sees him as a brother so he tells her what he thinks she wants to hear right before he heads of on what very well could have been a suicide mission.

Do I think Sabezra is going to be made canon on Tuesday's final episode of Ahsoka (of season 1 at least). No, but hold on nobody panic!!! I also don't think that means Sabezra is dead in the water either. And frankly I'm kind of mystified as to why Sabezra shippers seem to think that the next episode is make or break for Sabezra when its clearly not? If there isn't a love declaration or a kiss or both (which is what I'm assuming people would interpret can them being made canon) its not like either Sabine or Ezra are going to marry someone else on Tuesday either. And since much of Ahsoka has been set up, meaning not much is actually going to get resolved in the next ep (Thrawn hasn't even left Perida[?] yet! I fear we are ending on a cliff hanger), we'll be seeing Sabine and Ezra again. There's no rush for them to get together romantically (and I know that's hard to hear for people who've been shipping for years but its true).

And further to the "there's no rush" point I actually have to say I that I think its WAY too soon for anything definitively romantic to happen between Ezra and Sabine yet (and again I get how hard that is for those who've been shipping them for a long time). And I say that as both a "casual viewer" and someone who's also watched a good chunk of Rebels now. For the causal viewer who hasn't watched Rebels, which is probably a big chunk of the audience for Ahsoka, they barely know Sabine, have just met Ezra and have only seen them interacting for ONE episode and don't know any of their history. A kiss or a love declaration would seem out of the blue at this point I think. And as someone who's getting into Rebels I still think its too soon. While I agree that Sabine is very likely in love with Ezra I don't think she's admitted to herself yet (that's why Baylan used the word family when he was getting her to hand over the map thingy imho) no way is she ready to tell HIM. And as for Ezra...dude is clueless that Sabine might might have non platonic feelings for him so no way is he going to risk ruining their friendship by blurting out that he's in love with her. And not only that they've been separated for 10 YEARS ffs. They need to get to know each other again before anything romantic can happen, again imho. I want Sabezra to become canon but I want it done WELL. Sabezra is a friends to lovers ship, they are still firmly in the friends stage right now, it needs to be a sloooooow burn.

And finally do I think Sabezra will become canon? Honestly...I don't know. I'd like it to, it would be really nice to have a non problematic ship, especially after the sequel trilogy robbed us of FinnRey and tried to force freaking r*ylo. But I think Filoni and the other powers that be over at DLF (he is NOT the sole person calling the shots here, keep that in mind everyone) are probably testing the waters right now and waiting to see what the audience reactions are like before they make any decisions. I'd be wiling to bet that by the end of Tuesday's episode the door will be left wide open for pretty much anything to happening shipping wise. So we'll just have to wait and see. Time will tell, it always does.

[yamayuandadu]

"There’s a misconception that Matarajin is Shiva which is perpetuated entirely by Touhou fans." - I think you overestimate Big 2Hu when English Wikipedia itself says that:

"Daikokuten originated from Mahākāla, the Buddhist version of the Hindu deity Shiva, conflated with the native Shinto god Ōkuninushi."

The Mahakala-Shiva connection is repeated in JP Wiki, quoting an encyclopedia? And I thought the Shinbutsu merger was also not too controversial

it's a bit of a mess ngl especially since Okina seems designed to be a mess as well

I haven’t seen anyone but Touhou fans make the leap from “Matarajin is associated with Mahakala” to “Matarajin is literally Shiva” let alone to “Matarajin is associated with Okuninushi”. So I maintain it is not incorrect to refer to it as a Touhou fandom misconception specifically. To be even more precise - it’s limited to a specific subset of English-speaking Touhou fans, mostly on reddit and to a smaller degree twitter. Tumblr has its fair share of misconceptions too, don’t get me wrong, but they have more to do with misinterpreting something because of what ZUN said. Anyway, it’s the Daikokuten article which says this. Not the Matarajin one. And this applies to Daikokuten, not Matarajin. These are two separate figures. Both of these wiki articles are entirely reliable on their own but you can’t perform this sort of haphazard synthesis. Matarajin and Daikokuten are not interchangeable.  More under the cut, including a quick overview of some of Matarajin’s actual associations which get entirely glossed over both by ZUN and in fan discussions.

The fact figure x is equated with figure y in one specific context does not mean all of their associations are transferable. And in particular the fact that Mahakala originated as a form of Shiva (though whether this is necessarily always vital in Buddhist context is another matter) can’t be easily assumed to also hold true for Matarajin. This is one step away from arguing Tenjin and Tamamo no Mae are basically just Okuninushi via vague Shiva connections (or rather connections with figures which originated as manifestations of Shiva but acquired distinct identities in Buddhism with time, really).

It is true that there is a theory going back to the 1950s according to which Matarajin has been partially derived from Mahakala, specifically developing as a result of confusion between him and Taizan Fukun (see discussion in William M. Bodiford’s Matara: a Dream King Between Insight and Imagination, p. 240). However, Bernard Faure interprets the connection as possibly only based on phonetic similarity between the names. Following Faure’s and Nobumi Iyanaga’s research it is entirely possible Matarajin’s name has nothing to do with Mahakala etymologically and instead comes from the Seven Mothers (mātṛkā, transcribed in Japanese Buddhist sources phonetically as matara). It’s worth noting ZUN seems to be aware of this, since Okina’s first bio calls her an “an Earth mother goddess” (地母神). It should be pointed out that in Buddhist context the Seven Mothers are a type of dakini-like disease demon, and not spouses of major deities, though.

Keiran Shūyōshū does equate Matarajin with Mahakala (“Makakaraten”) though it also states that Matarajin might instead be one of the dakinis commanded by him. It’s actually this network of associations that matters when it comes to equivalence between them, rather than the separately established equivalence between Mahakala and Okuninushi. Matarajin’s dakini association recurs elsewhere, and there are even (mostly Shingon, but still) cases of full on equation with the dakini par excellence, Dakiniten. I’m actually surprised I haven’t seen it referenced in any Touhou discussions. Matarajin being a dakini, identical with Dakiniten or at least commanding dakinis consistently pertains to the belief that dakinis consume people’s livers to free them from bad karma. As a curiosity it’s also worth mentioning that Inari Kinja Kō from the Edo period lists Matarajin, Dakiniten, but also Izuna Gongen among names applied to supernatural foxes - another major component of the dakini network (down to “fox sorcerer demon” - 狐 魅鬼 - being one of the early Chinese translations of dakini), though one with limited relevance for Matarajin otherwise. It would be fun to reference in Touhou context, though. 

To sum up, my issue is that entry level understanding of the nature of connections between deities leads to a simplified image of them, and overshadows more interesting reality. In this case there are also entirely fictitious associations on top which doesn’t help.

It’s also deeply puzzling to me that people are so eager to invent an Okuninushi connection where there isn’t one when Matarajin already has an incredibly well attested link to a figure from “classical” Japanese mythology, specifically Susanoo. The nature of this connection is somewhat variable. We have cases of direct equation: in various texts from the Mt. Hiei Sanmon tradition; in texts from Hinomisaki (a branch of Izumo Grand Shrine); in the account of Saichō’s journey to China in Sange Yōryakki; in Jimon Denki Horoku (here Matarajin is called a “trace” of Susanoo - we’re essentially dealing with reverse honji suijaku); and in Nihon Shoki Kikigaki (a medieval commentary on the Shoki; the author went all out and also equated Susanoo with around half a dozen other figures, ranging from Pangu [sic] to Kōjin).

Equation with a twist is also an option: in a local tradition from Gakuenji, Matarajin was understood as a name applied to Susanoo after he died and was buried underneath this temple. However, they can also be associated without being equated. A novel take on the Ama no Iwato myth from Fujiwara no Tameaki’s Kokin Wakashū Jo Kikigaki Sanryū Shō has Susanoo team up with Matarajin and a horde of demons (you can find a translation in John Breen’s and Mark Teeuwen’s A New History of Shinto, pp. 142-143; I have yet to add this to the wiki article).

The Susanoo connection also brings us to the arguably most important cluster of Matarajin’s associations. There is a distinct possibility it didn’t arise in a vacuum, but rather due to convergence of two other connections - between Susanoo and Shinra Myōjin, and between Shinra Myōjin and Matarajin. As a fellow old man Tendai deity, Shinra Myōjin is arguably the single figure most similar to Matarajin, though obviously they are not identical. Still, it feels pretty glaring to me he’s not referenced in any shape or form in HSiFS, not even through a single offhand comment or spell card. Matarajin and Shinra Myōjin additionally effectively formed an interconnected network with a further similar Tendai deity, Sekizan Myōjin. This brings us back to something I brought up earlier - the modern theory that Matarajin was partially derived from Mahakala nonetheless acknowledges the influence of Taizan Fukun on his character, and it is the association with Sekizan Myōjin that emphasizes it the most, since the latter was essentially patterned after him and similarly functioned as a supernatural judge determining people’s lifespans. 

The connection between Matarajin and Taizan Fukun had an additional layer to it, though - as a core member of the entourage of Enma, Taizan also had strong links to beings like the Seven Mothers and the dakinis, much like Matarajin did. Faure outright argues this might have been why they came to be associated with each other. The Taizan Fukun connection is another one I have no clue why neither ZUN nor any fan works acknowledge. Especially since Taizan is actually mentioned in Touhou (in the Yama entry in PMiSS). I really hoped we’ll get something in SFW, but not much came out of that and we instead got my least favorite Okina scene yet, the Flandre power level deus ex machina. Tragic! Maybe one day, considering hell is basically a secondary setting of Touhou in its own right, though I’m not very hopeful.

I’m willing to admit obvious omissions like lack of any references to dakinis, Taizan, or Susanoo (coupled with severely overestimating the connection with Hata no Kawakatsu, but that’s a topic for another time) do make it possible to say Okina is a “mess” as you put it, though I don’t think it had to be this way. The problem imo lies in ZUN no longer writing her the way he did in HSiFS - she hasn’t made a single religious reference since despite these making up the bulk of her dialogue. In a perfect world, her reappearances would be used to cover the missing aspects of Matarajin’s network, but it seems like even when the plot is basically begging (once again, SFW) for it we are getting basically nothing. I have no clue what happened, though it also strikes me as notable that despite being named after a Matarajin-esque figure Megumu got precisely 0 meaningful religious references so far. 

Despite my ambivalent views on Okina as a character, I think it would be unfair to call the genuine Matarajin a mess. The networks in which he was included are fairly coherent, and represent a typical example of medieval theology, not something uniquely convoluted or outlandish. It’s not a topic which is difficult to research, either, with plenty of easily accessible publications in English. If nothing else, I think HSiFS deserves credit for opening the metaphorical door to them for more people.

[harumii7]

MHA epilogue (re-write)

By @haruvm1 on twitter

As many people, I too am gravely disappointed by the ending of MHA, to the point that it’s genuinely laughable. 

430 and the entire post war epilogue was downright mid, and I wont even begin with 431 but lets put that aside for now, as I’m writing an outline for a different MHA epilogue that makes more sense!

- I hope…

‼️‼️Disclaimers(PLEASE READ):

‼️‼️ If you’re happy with the ending and aren’t open to criticism, you might not want to read this, but this is not a hate rampage on the epilogue and you might actually find yourself enjoying it.

‼️‼️it contains little to no shipping content, especially not in the center and it has a little bit of everyones relationship 😁!

(‼️Disclaimer: I greatly respect Horikoshi as a writer and take inspiration from his work AND art, but with that respect comes honesty and criticism. As the ending was really worthy of a plethora of such criticism. I am not writing this in an attempt to overwrite his story, view this as more of an idea or a fanfic of what could’ve been-> if it was more thought through.)

‼️‼️ PLEASE no ship wars(from neither sides, they make me ill), this isn’t supposed to cause anyone harm or start any major discussion or fights It’s genuinely basically a canon complaint/divergence fanfiction OUTLINE, which you’re free to consume or not!

‼️‼️ This is also NOT supposed to be a tool for discussing the ending, it’s just fandom content, not an opening for debates and I personally will probably mute any aggressive comments regarding 431 because I genuinely don’t care!

‼️‼️Excuse my english, it is not my first language and excuse the drawings! Im trying to do this quickly LOL

Anyway enjoy!

Let’s start roughly chpt. 424 (the hospitals scene)

424

Side note to loss of OFA-> I think it was an amazing decision to let him be quirk-less again as OFA is the counter part of AFO and should ergo not exist without AFO, also OFA embodies his self sacrifice and doesn’t let him be a hero on his own terms and makes him rather a vestige for an ideal. So losing OFA ultimately needs to happen to set his character free.

Lets keep this chapter as it is, expect for the fact that Izuku understands that Katsuki is being genuine instead of brushing him off 

With the “this isn’t like you” line. Instead he just looks at him without saying anything. 

Here the real page for reference 

I make this change because their development in the show has been overcoming their miscommunication. We’ve been through this for 8 seasons, why were they doomed to their original narrative they have ACTIVELY been working against??

425 

Perfectly fine as it is

426

The Todorokis conclusion is peak, very nice. Could’ve killed endeavor, but I digress as it is not necessary... 

427 

This is where we from chapter 424 slowly see the transition of Izuku getting more and more depressed which I will follow up with later! As Horikoshi very unfortunately never did.

428 

Stays as it is, also fine. 

Except for one small addition:

Since the Epilogue we’ve seen Izuku indulge in his biggest character flaw, not looking at himself (even though he’s been through a war, saw his bestfriend die and feels as though he is a murderer), but quite literally scanning the crowd for people to save, unnecessarily so (Ochaco could’ve been noticed by Tsuyu->for reasons named later. But I’ll keep it at Izuku as its not entirely necessary, just better.)

Well anyhow, while Izuku does what Izuku does, we get a scene of Katsuki looking at him noticing that something is wrong, not yet acting on it though (Bkdk-antis don’t come for me I SWEAR it’s platonic. Unlike some people, I don’t think that a week after a war is the proper time for romance!)

After this scene, Izuku notices Ochacos panic attack(i think it might be one) and rushes to her, end of chapter.

429

Also fine in it’s idea but poor execution, erase the “You are my hero” line, though and here’s why:

All though respect was due to Ochaco, proclaiming her as Izukus hero doesn’t make sense at all, as they both mirror each others biggest flaw which is their self sacrificing heroism, Izuku leading this Ideal in the image of Allmight and Ochaco learning it from Izuku. So not only is Izuku saying that she is his hero, basically just Izuku calling himself his hero (as their arcs are clear parallels) but he’s additionally cementing that he has learned nothing and still believes that doing what they both did should be idolized and is the best form of heroism (which directly contradicts Katsukis impact on the story and his impact on society.-> I can explain this later)

+the “you are my hero” line would have been fine if he didn’t directly reference her self sacrifice.

-> additionally was this also just not a theme that was being explored or pushed at all during the entire story, the people who were fighting along side him being Eri sacrificing a part of her body for him and Katsuki dying in his image (just for example), would make more sense here especially Katsuki, as Katsukis and Izukus relationship was based on them being each others counter parts in heroism-> win to save, save to win.(s.3-kc vs. dk2) Being eachothers heros-> admiring what the other is lacking instead of enabling what both are lacking (Ochaco and Izuku)

Re-write of the scene 

Heres the original for reference:

Side note to the panel about blackwhip breaking out->

Shinzo saved him, not Ochaco. That dialogue would’ve worked without basically just adding something that didn’t happen. LOL…

Keeping the first page I’m just changing the second:

Here i would extend Izuku and Ochacos talk, 

It cuts to a scene where they have calmed down and they talk about their pains briefly (because i suspect theres not much space might even have to add a chapter…)

He let’s her talk more about Himiko in a calmer state and just gives her a moment to collect herself. (While izuku is still closed off as he is during the entire epilogue.)

Next scene-

Erase the class interrupting them, the hell was that about?? 

Instead have Tsuyu walk by them and Ochaco takes initiative to talk to Tsuyu and they go to another place, the dorms or something.

Izukus and Ochacos talk was fine but I would add a follow up scene with her talking to Tsuyu more throughly about everything letting her really lean on Tsuyu because she needs it and Izuku really shouldn’t be running around “saving” anyone in the state that he’s in(talk about a trauma bond LOL), also Tsuyu and Ochaco arguably could talk about this better as Tsuyu can look at it from an outsiders perspective and they are also definitely closer, emotionally. + she was there. This is Ochacos first step in moving forward-> reaching out to Tsuyu, not having to be found or run to but confronting her feelings on her own which i thought was the point of her character…

Now you could argue that Izuku hasn’t exactly learned this lesson himself self and can ergo not give Ochaco this adivce that she needs and I agree, this whole talk doesn’t fit their characters and what they need at the moment can’t exactly be fulfilled by one another because again, parallel narratives. I would cut it out entirely as it’s a flaw in writing to me, but I just kept it and changed it up like this so it at least makes a little sense and isn’t entirely contra productive.

->Just take their conversation as optional depending on your personal preference!

430

Keeping 430 pre time skip to get the most CRIMINAL missing piece of this entire rather sad excuse of an epilogue, Izuku (the literal main character’s) CONCLUSION.

Also Izuku and Katsuki actually TALK. Two main characters, you might’ve thought they’d get a proper conclusion but guess what!

(For the next part, this can be done in various settings, this is merely what I cocked up-> just pay attention to the core of what I’m trying to do with this scene. 

And this is not supposed to be romantic, they are recovering from a war! If you interpret it that way you’re free to do so but that is NOT the narrative.)

I wont put it in this text, but I drew this ish, because it doesn’t exist as a scene and just because I wanted to.- again the art is conceptual at best. I can post this on my twt if anyone wants me too tho. Again the drawings are NOT good, and just concepts.

Izuku is running around in this epilogue not expressing his feelings at all until he wakes up one night from a nightmare of Katsuki dying (And yes I’m sorry to the antis, this logically needs to happen, he almost went crazy back then, it definitely gave him PTSD). He wakes up in tears, then brushes them away and gets up to get out of bed and just walk, he ends up on the dorms balcony. 

He stands there similar to Ochaco(Again, parallels!). He doesn’t cry though. He stands there alone for a moment looking at his hand, thinking about the guilt of not showing up earlier starting to tear up again. Until someone comes on the balcony as well and interrupts his train of thought shocking him a bit, as he quickly brushes the tears away. 

The following convo is a parallel to (dk vs. kchn 2) just that the shift in the nature of the conversation highlights their development. Katsuki walks in as Izuku notices it’s him, he pretends he’s fine just greeting Katsuki. Katsuki can tell that Izuku is on the verge of finally breaking down and steps closer.

Izuku is reluctant to take his help but he sees a flash of Katsukis dead body infront of him and just breaks down. 

This is a parallel to the apology scene, just that Izuku goes to him on his own instead of being caught, showing that he is now ready to accept the help from others and taking initiative in seeking said help. (If you can’t tell, i really like parallels.)Katsuki lets him break down for a moment kind of awkwardly standing there, still being there though.

You can imagine them hugging here or something, like a meaningful moment between friends. 

Izuku tries blaming himself for what happened to Katsuki and to Shigaraki, saying that he doesn’t deserve being a hero.And Katsuki just denies this, then Katsuki tells him that he is a hero and he’s the reason why the world is the way it is, also telling him that he inspires everyone. 

Izuku just looks at him slowly calming down.Katsuki tells him again that his self sacrificing heroism is inherently flawed, also referencing Allmight here. Izuku takes his advice and then calms down looking at the sky or something.  Izuku looks at his hand, and Katsuki looks at him saying that he can still be a hero(Parallel to the beginning when bis mom said that shes sorry, instead of encouraging him.) Katsuki believes in him but still looks worried at Izuku as tears start to form in Izukus eyes. Izuku says that it is ok though, then looks to the sky saying that he thinks he will be fine or something along the lines of that. Thats how the chapter ends.

I think thats a very good way to end the pre- time skip story. As it is hopeful and leads all the main characters into dealing with their issues and being on a path of openness and healing after everything that has happened.

I KNOW it’s very centered around Izuku and Katsuki but c’mon, as much as you might dislike them, the manga primarily focuses on their relationship to each other. Izuku confronting his feelings towards everything is entirely necessary for a remotely good ending and I think that Katsuki is logically then one who would be there for him, cementing his development concerning the self sacrificing heroism. This is because Katsuki, in the apology scene and later on has always critiqued the self sacrifice. That’s why it makes a lot of sense for the person to teach Izuku this lesson to be him. Also it is a nice follow up to 424. I would additionally also wrap up Katsukis guilt here, as it has been 8 seaons and I think this would be the perfect time to let it go, as he should have from the very beginning(according to Izuku).

And if you really hate them as a dynamic then you can also take a similar scene like this with another character close to Izuku who would match here, the goal is just to let him express his feelings, finally!

-431

I would use this chapter to cement the narratives that we have followed and to see the positive consequences of the character’s works.  

Ochaco’s program, helping children all around the world, making a big impact. My girl getting the bag she deserved since day ONE.

Katsuki’s win to save heroism counter part, completing Allmight’s legacy by shutting down the self destructive heroism ideal. Being respect and important to today’s society. Because what the hell was that…?

Izuku’s heroism leading the world to a better place as showcased in the chapters.

And obviously all of the other work within society.

Im getting rid of the “hero’s aren’t needed anymore” development, because one thing I always admired about MHA and Horikoshi was that it realistically tackled real themes and in reality-> history always repeats itself and the world will always have evil. Especially considering quirksingularity, hero’s would logically still be needed no matter what the circumstances are.

The point of the ending of the commission and the way heroism was lead in the society, was not abolishing the hero system but to change the toxic ideals and the idolization that the people had of the heroes.

Teacher Izuku content. Can stay as it is.

Putting Katsuki higher in the rankings, competing with Todoroki and not giving him that doom ending Horikoshi has decided for him as it’s quite literally cruel and unnecessary. 

The suit was not made out of guilt either and passing it on to Izuku doesn’t magically end their relationship, but they just all become hero’s together.

Class 1A has kept close especially after everything they have been through, Ochaco and Izuku also stayed close. (Why ever they were seperated for all those years in the first place like what?)

We see Ochaco being happy with everyone and there we get that scene of toga letting her go and live out her happiness and they just smile at eachother while Toga ultimately fades away. Showcasing that OCHACO now takes initiative to her own happiness, (differently than whatever 431 was but that was a mess from start to finish anyway.) and her trauma hallucinations fade away, her still seeing Toga is not good and that means that she’s still heavily traumatized. Give my girl a satisfying conclusion!

In the meet up scene of Class 1A they are all just having fun and I’m removing the debunking of Kamijiro because that was also downright unnecessary.

Ochaco sits there with Izuku, Katsuki, Tenya and Shoto (Izukus bestfriends) showing that they are still all on good terms.

Todorokis conclusion still peak, can stay exactly like that.

Kirimina sneak somewhere. WHO SAID THAT⁉️🗿

Izuku talks about being happy because of the suit but he also highlights his joy of being a teacher and then they get called to being heros, we see them in action. Izuku and Shigaraki’s ghost smile at each other one last time, symbolism for Izuku being happy and accepting himself as a hero again despite his “failure” 8 yrs ago. Then the ghost fades and he’s free.

I made this final change, because Izuku’s hallucination is not tied to love or general happiness but to his heroism. 

Ochaco’s Toga hallucinations partly is, but Izuku’s really just isn’t. Horikoshi randomly declared that Izuku’s goal to happiness and his character’s outcome is romance, which is a theme that was never explored, (especially not as a core part of his character) or even hinted at as being his ultimate goal and conclusion, that doesn’t mean that he will forever be alone or anything, but it’s not his missing piece to being set free as a character. Which the last chapter should have been used for.

The end 

Wohoo.

Obviously that doesn’t conclude everything as it is an OUTLINE and I have worked along the lines of the epilogue chapters which are WAY too short. But I think it does conclude the main loose ends Horikoshi sadly left wide open- god knows why.

This ending is just extremely hopeful and ending on a good note for every character instead of just giving 75% to one character that hasn’t properly been build out to begin with.

Ships-I loathe ship wars. Never in my life have I ever commented anything on a ships post I don’t like or hate. But anyway, I never wanted any ships to become canon and 431 is a perfect representation as to WHY. You can’t squeeze a practically unexplored theme into one chapter. The only, ship in class 1A that would’ve made somewhat sense would be Kamijiro as we had some build up there over the seasons. But I think merely the fact that the last chapter is being used for this theme that never played an actual role in all of MHA (quite literally ONLY in Ochaco’s character, which could’ve been concluded MUCH better. + Her arc could also be put in the category of her repressing her feelings). The narratives were neglected, the characters were literally changed, just for that dap up. This in my opinion just goes to show that romance just didn’t fit in there and if Horikoshi wanted a good ending AND romance it might have been a good idea to think about that… I don’t know maybe 200 chapters before.  So I think a good ending while pushing a shipping agenda was doomed to fail from the start and… it did fail! Shipping culture in MHA is also prominent and as a public writer you should ideally keep your fandom in mind. But even aside from that it just didn’t work at all and looks extremely out of place from the whole story.  Bummer…. Either way in my ending, I intentionally made no one canon, because let the people have fun! The story and narratives would not have to be sacrificed for a last minute romance plot that makes no sense from the front to the back. Arguably, in this version the romance would make more sense in a follow up and the gates are open for every single ship (if you care about that sort of stuff), without harming the characters, their development or the narratives and themes of MHA.

Please do not use this re-write for hate to anyone and just treated it as harmless fandom content, even if you do not agree with what I have written.

If you have made it this far thanks for reading, I hope you could enjoy this Outline/ sort of turned into a commentary to the epilogue and I would like to hear your thoughts and such.

As mentioned in the beginning, if you like the epilogue as it is, i still hope you could enjoy this!<3

[alessiathepirate]

Pre-Resident Evil 4

A GOOD ENOUGH MOVE: Jack Krauser x fem!reader

Summary: Training with Jack Krauser can be quite the challenge - unless she finds a good enough move.

Notes: English isn't my first language. I apologize for any mistake I made while I wrote this short story.

As much as I love Leon and Luis, I can't deny that this guy makes me feel things as well.

Warnings: violence (fighting, training, knives), slightly suggestive

•••

The sound of knife meeting knife was something she was already used to.

It didn't come as a surprise or as a shocking attack anymore - it has became a long awaited occurence. She could see it happening the moment she opened her eyes in the morning and she thought about a new move to dodge it as she ate breakfast.

She could calculate Krauser's moves pretty well by now, but that didn't mean that she could protect herself against him. Not when he was taller, stronger and heavier, making it easy for him to push her against the wall or kick her feet out and push her down to the ground.

She wasn't stronger than Jack Krauser even if she could think like him.

Once again, it wasn't hard for him to kick her knife out of her hand and with a simple shove push her against the wall. Her forehead was sticky from sweat and her shirt was stuck to her body like a second skin. God, this man can make the training tiring.

"This is pathetic - even from you." she wasn't at all surprised when the blade was pushed against her throat and she knew that with a simple move of his wrist, Krauser could easily kill her.

Just a simple slice and that's it. A wrong breath or a wrong move and she's dead.

Even if deep down she knew the man wasn't capable of killing her - that would ruin his reputation for a lifetime - he definitely had the skill to do so.

"You should be perfectly capable to perform a simple dodge. It's the easiest skill to learn. Even Kennedy knows it, yet you don't." his breathing was heavy, like a predator's who trapped his prey and was about to put it out of its misery. "I expected more from you. Much more."

She pressed her palms against the wall next to her body, not daring to touch the Major everyone hated around here - at least Leon did and that fact alone was enough to form a friendship with him - as if a simple touch could end her life. She avoided the eye contact - because deep down the part of herself what became completely ruined in this place believed his every word.

He leaned in, getting closer than he already was. This time his breath hit her temple.

"Still being shy, huh?" she could see the smirk forming on his face. "Can't even keep up with an eye contact."

He could mock her all he wanted, but deep down she knew the truth. Krauser prefered her like this - weak, shy, 'pathetic'. He had too much fun with her, he enjoyed tormenting her with his words too much to actually want her to change and become a cold blooded soldier.

"I'm sorry, Major." she apologized for something - even she herself didn't know what for.

His other hand touched her shoulder and pushed it back firmly. She felt her hearbeat quicken. Krauser, who probably had seen many people scared and anxious under his gaze, felt the difference in her presence.

"Rumor has it," he started pressing the blade a bit further into her skin. "I make you nervous." he finished, looking at her expression from so close she actually started to feel nervous.

Her mind started to run wild both from fear and a bit of arousal. Her lungs hurt from trying to keep her breathing steady, her mouth felt dry and her stomach fluttered.

"What do you say, girl scout? Do I make you nervous?"

His breath was hot on her skin and she was sure it made her sweat more. His hand what kept a firm hold on her shoulder traveled upwards. If she wouldn't have been through Hell in these past few weeks, which made her look like a person who had been dragged through Hell, she would've started to feel special and wanted.

Did he make her nervous?

He did for sure. He did everytime he trained her and made her do extra sets of excercises because of a 'pathetic' move or dodge. He made her nervous everytime he followed her with his gaze even when she had a few minutes of free time. He made it hard to breath everytime he dodged, touched and squeezed.

He very obviously made her nervous with his whole existence.

"I don't know, Major." she answered after pulling herself together and finding her best teasing tone. "What do you think?"

The smirk what followed her question was something wild mixed with a bit of danger. From what she could see from his face, she read satisfaction and excitement.

"What do I think?" she turned to look at him, cutting her own skin with the knife from the movement - she hissed, but kept her composure. "I think your pulse tells me everything I need to know." he moved his hand back to her shoulder. "I think you enjoy this training too much for your own good - I think it explains your pathetic moves."

He was close. Way too close. She felt the muscles in her thigh tighten and her heart started to flutter.

"I do enjoy your company, Major." she continued as the cogs in her mind worked with full force. "I might as well say what I feel."

His grip on her became even firmer if that was possible.

"Such a tease." the words came out as a whisper, as if Krauser would try to keep his real feelings from coming out, stopping them before they could touch the surface.

He leaned even closer, his breath brushed her cheek and then her lips. He was so close she started to wonder how kissing him would feel. Would it be rough? It couldn't possibly be on the softer side. Krauser wasn't kind to anyone and he most definitely wouldn't go soft on her. Still - would it be full of passion, would it be quick or would he take his time?

She closed her eyes as she almost felt his lips on hers-

Her eyes opened much quicker than she closed them as she pushed her head back into the wall. That's when she broke out. Her hands left the wall, ready to act. She kicked upwards with her right leg, her knee meeting with his stomach with such a force she didn't know she had it in herself. It was only a second long shock, but it was enough - she punched upwards with her free arm, the punch only barely hitting him in the jaw, but his natural instincts worked just fine - like she thought.

Krauser stepped back, letting go of her shoulder, but keeping the knife in place, what she managed to get with a firm twist from her previously trapped arm.

Dodge - he attacked back. Of course he would.

Change of positions. She got to Krauser's previous place and after a hard kick to his feet, she had him where she wanted him. Knife to the throat, back to the wall.

It was her time to smirk - even if she knew it wouldn't take long for him to get his composure back and easily overpower her once again.

She didn't care - a small win is still a win.

"Is this a good enough move, Major?" she asked - god she'll have an extra two if not three sets for this. "Is this what you expected me to do?"

She expected him to become angry, yet all she saw was a twisted kind of satisfaction.

"Such a quick learner."

It was the only praise she has ever gotten from him. Her cheeks reddened. Even if she knew a way to make him dance, he knew one to make her weak - and aroused.

It didn't take long until he had a hold on her wrist.

"I learned from the best, Major."

He tilted his head and she swallowed. He was interested and now she was most definitely prey in front of something wild and primal.

[loveuwu173]

Look, during the time that I was in the PlayStation All Stars fandom I have always been looking for new content since it is the PlayStation All Stars game mmm from the year 2010, so it is already somewhat old and a copy was discounted of Super Smash Bros meant that its reception did not go as well as planned and that in itself we do not have as much content as, for example, Smash Bros, which could be considered direct competition for PlayStation All Stars, so I know that one later gets tired of sending the same content over and over again so I came to share well.

A story that I like a lot that, although it is a little old, does not take away from the fact that it is one of the best stories I have read on the PlayStation all start since it lasts as long as it should. HMN is not that long but it is not that short It has about three special chapters. And although mostly in this community I have only seen one person who is Spanish-speaking and that the majority of you are English-Speakers,But in Fanfiction.net where is the book has an option to translate the book into any language and in English, Russian, Portuguese and many more languages, so if you want to take a look at the book, which I highly recommend because I think you'll love it, you can read it there so you don't have to go around translating with Google and then it turns out wrong like the page and so the book is called “The Legend of the All Stars” By BRANDON369 and the description says:

 

“Legend has it that there are 20 distributed in different universes with super powers superior to the others in their universes that each time must face each other in a tournament to save their worlds will make this legend come true again and Kratos, Sabo and Toro will realize that they are PlayStation All-Stars and will begin a strange but fun adventure.”

that story the protagonists are Kratos, Sackboy and Toro they will also give us a look at the other characters of the other universes of the playstation all stars, also do not want to give spoilers too much because I would like you to read the book on your own, but it is battles by explaining it in a simpler way the all-stars that are going to have their battle, they are going to be taken by polygons to a stage depending on the universe and they are going to have to fight until whoever wins wins and the others are going to have a clock where they can see the rival batteries, the game is about Kratos, Toro and Sackboy traveling through the different dimensions to Defeating Polygons and preventing him from destroying their universes is also not only like a simple thing that they have to defeat him and that's it but also the characters develop friendships, like I said, Kratos, Sackboy and Toro are the ones who first meet together and then the other characters also go making a bond and they form there as if they were a family they also have three special episodes that are in a separate book called “The All Stars Chronicles” really, the fanfic is very good, it is very complete, it comes to you there with humor but it also becomes a little serious and I liked at the end of the book it did give me the feeling even though it was a fanfic.

I really recommend this fanfic because it has its touches of, as I said before, comedy humor, which is what characterizes the author's works from what I've seen and also at the end of each episode it gives you like a info about the characters. Well, about the respective character because it depends on the episode because it's just that I also like that they give personality to the polygon versions of the characters. Since the game doesn't explain much about why they came out, it's simply known that they put them there, but they don't know, we don't know simply what they are like, if they have any difference from the All Stars, but in this one, how they give them a personality.

And in fact there is also like a little ship between two characters that I find very funny because of how all-stars the singles agreed, just to pair those two, and really the work is very good. So I really recommend that if you want a new look or something new that is well done even if it is old and it was like 2 years where more or less the playstation was popular, if you can say that, I really highly recommend reading the legend of the All Stars you can read it on watpad and file. Thank you very much for reading!

[phxntomhives]

"The parade of battlers" analysis

SINCE NO ONE IS DOING THIS??? WHY??? I WILL DO IT

Hopefully my wrong takes will trigger someone and you all will get a decent analysis

Eng lyrics because I don't know japanese are from the official music video! Also warning, English isn't my mother tongue.

Lost in an unacceptable tragedy

An unfading warmth quivers blue in the depth of my eyes

Stifling impurities leave keloid scars and

Even now, still mourn for days gone by, never to come back

Staking my life, spitting blood and vomit

All I want to do is lead a beautiful life

But why can't you hear

Me telling you not to stumble

Love turning on its head, fiction caught in a tangle

Say bye bye to mundane concepts

See how the compensated formless stand imposingly

Their presence is a sight to behold

Rip apart, drag and reveal

Throw away all inferiorities

Even the raw emotions of cursing someone

Take them in like an offering

Just skilled at pretending to be human

Searching for those other than monsters

Like the blue shimmer of

A star of the first magnitude

Far from having enough faith

This utterly ridiculous destiny won't retreat

Fill the air with the echo of the marching boots

Let the parade of the lonely ones begin now

Everything in this world, there isn't much

Difference between the atrocious or noble as you think

Somewhere up in the sky, someone is making selections

To ensure the cycle of birth and passing is upheld

Though we have prayed and knelt down

Our prayers have been cremated

And ignored with a "So what?"

So kind

A colorless encounter, pupils of glass

Thought they may shatter to pieces,

You laugh your head off, saying, "you must be kidding"

You give the finger as you spew poison and let it all out

Scorched, boiling and trembling

A blazing fire from the past still smolders

That remorse still within me

I'll burn and retaliate in full

There is no such thing as eternity, so

There is no ending until all turns to ash

Then why not play

With fire in a refined manner?

No more need for empty rhetorics

Such hollow, scathing criticism

Burn this ceaseless stone-throwing

The parade of the lonely ones has just begun

There's no love, no love, there's no love there

There's nothing, there's nothing, there's no truth

There's just one, just one

In this world, just one person, one person

Question fanatically and

Live the shit out of this world

ANALYSIS UNDER THE CUT BECAUSE THIS BITCH IS LONG

ALSO MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE MANGA!!!

Yana, dear, are you sure this is the intro for the Weston college arc??? And not the blue cult??? LIKE, REALLY REALLY SURE??? My comprehension of text can be lacking in more than one way and I just followed the vibe but... I don't think I am that wrong on some points? You are seeing it too, right?

I feel like the song has a mix of present, past and future along with different POVs and I hope I have been able to separate them well.

The colors are just to show the lyrics and i changed it because pretty.

What I can actually connect to Weston Arc

"Then why not play with fire in a refined manner? / No more need for empty rhetorics Such hollow, scathing criticism. / Burn this ceaseless stone-throwing" Which could very much be related to O!Ciel's pyromaniac episode lol. He didn't forget

"The parade of the lonely ones has just begun" : at this point the "parade of the lonely" could very much be the parade of the bizzare dolls considering the amount of reference there is to them. And it would be nice considering in this case the sentence is right after the stone-throwing Purple house, since the students were "transfered" in the there.

If the previous point is correct then also here, we are talking of the bizzare dolls: "This utterly ridiculous destiny won't retreat / Fill the air with the echo of the marching boots / Let the parade of the lonely ones begin now". I guess the "echo of the marching boots" could be the sound the dolls made before getting free during the midnight tea party? As for why they don't retreat well, we have seen they aren't exactly rational for now.

"Scorched, boiling and trembling / A blazing fire from the past still smolders / That remorse still within me /I'll burn and retaliate in full": this could be a description of what O!Ciel is feeling in general. His determination coming from everything that happened is still going strong.

Onestly, these are the only thing I can see strictly related to the present and this arc in particular lol. Everything else goes deeper.

Memories of the past

This part will likely make the least sense, because I am still sobbing over the whole past ok.

"Lost in an unacceptable tragedy Even now, still mourn for days gone by, never to come back": We all know the past. The safest bet is that O!Ciel is mourning, but is he? He never had the time to mourn, he moved immediately to revenge and working for the queen. So either this is just to hit us in the feeling, or maybe it's my favourite victim of this analysis: Undertaker. Could it be him? Possibly, but this being O!Ciel breaks my heart more. I am excluing R!Ciel because at the moment of Weston arc his version should not be that complex. And Sebastian is Sebastian.

"Staking my life, spitting blood and vomit /All I want to do is lead a beautiful life / But why can't you hear / Me telling you not to stumble": I feel like this either O!Ciel talking to himself, admitting that he would like to just be happy but still forcing himself to be strong and act to revenge his family. Or, high on copium, the first part is O!Ciel's wishes and the second part is O!CIel using the R!Ciel allucination make himself stronger (I doubt it, but it adds to the sadness).

"Rip apart, drag and reveal / Throw away all inferiorities /Even the raw emotions of cursing someone /Take them in like an offering": I got the epiphany after several times of reading this and yes it's about revenge hatred yadda yadda yadda. But what if, in particular, it's related to the moment when O!Ciel summoned Sebastian? I think it's the only time I remember "offering" being mentioned/relevant in the manga. O!Ciel is throwing everything away for revenge, assuming a new identity. So this could be either O!Ciel talking to himself during that desperate time. Or, just to hurt myself more, him allucinating again a conversation with R!Ciel where R!Ciel is the one that is saying all this. I will go cry now, brb.

"Everything in this world, there isn't much /Difference between the atrocious or noble as you think / Though we have prayed and knelt down / Our prayers have been cremated /And ignored with a "So what?" " : God, this section is killing me. Memories of when the twins were captured, For them and all the other children, it was an atrocious experience, while the nobles were truly thinking they were in the right, that there was nothing wrong in what they were doing. They believed to be noble enough to be above everything and ignored absolutely everything in regards to the children.

Undertarker is not being subtle. Like at all.

Somewhere up in the sky, someone is making selections/To ensure the cycle of birth and passing is upheld: here I am conflicted. Undertaker is sure making selections when he is creating the bizzare dolls "you get to be revived. you don't". But at the same time he is not uphelding anything. He is doing the opposite infact. Unless this is supposed to just describe the Shinigami's role to show how Undertaker is going in the opposite direction.

There's just one, just one/In this world, just one person, one person/Question fanatically and/Live the shit out of this world: we only really see two characters question stuff: O!Ciel with the murder of his family and Undertaker with the Cinematic record ways of working. Now, i don't really see O!Ciel "question fanatically" and "live the shit out of this world", while we can debate about how "fanatically" he is searching for the culprits, how are you telling me he is living his best life? He is surronded by trauma, has to go on a mission for the queen every other day, has to live as his dead twin and in this specific arc he has to act all cutesy and adorable when he hates it. He is far from any best life I am more surprised he didn't become histerical yet honestly. The one that IS living his best life is Undertaker (well... more or less). In the Weston Arc he did say he was enjoying being the headmaster. Plus he could make some more esperiments on Derek&co which, on top of that, were mostly successful! Do you know how much serotonin a succesful experiment gives you? A LOT. TRUST ME.

Bizzare Dolls (BD for short because I am lazy)

Well, ofc they are the protagonist of the animation, they are everywhere in the song too.

"An unfading warmth quivers blue in the depth of my eyes / Stifling impurities leave keloid scars and": Are the BD warm? Idk, but I don't think so? A body is warm when the blood is running because the heart is pumping it. Do BD have a working heart tho? I doubt the original version do, but what about the new and improved versions? Agares could have probably be our best bet but he always wore gloves (even when he was alive) so we don't really know.

Warmth aside, what I am quite confident IS a reference to the BD is the keloid scars. I did a reseach and a keloid scar is a "scar keeps growing and becomes bigger than the original wound. They are developed after a skin injury". The scars we have seen are O!Ciel's scar from when they marked him, or the BD's "surgery" scars?

Ofc it could be just metaphorical about the trauma just keep on growing in O!Ciel. Maybe it's more this one but again, I am take things directly

"Love turning on its head, fiction caught in a tangle/Say bye bye to mundane concepts/See how the compensated formless stand imposingly/Their presence is a sight to behold": cambridge dictionary say that "turn something on its head means to cause something to be the opposite of what it was before". Apparently, there are many things that are the opposite of love, depending on your source: hatred, fear, indifference. I think in this case, since we are talking of the BD, we can use indifference. They aren't moved by real emotions at this moment (Weston arc) and even later, they are probably fake emotions based on fake memories (from the orphanage children but I will not elaborate, other theories have done it better). Fear could also work since well, most people are rightfully terrified of them. Being far away from mundane concepts? I would say they fill this box. And they sure are a sight to behold, nothing against it. What confuses me is the "compensated formless" I don't have any idea of what it could mean

"Just skilled at pretending to be human / Searching for those other than monsters + Like the blue shimmer of / A star of the first magnitude / Far from having enough faith": We are looking at the current arcs here in the first lines. The one skilled at pretending to be human and searching for things is Sebastian (it can't be O!Ciel because he isn't pretending to be human). What he is searching is the headmaster, that we know being Undertaker and it ends up bringing with him, again, the BD. In particular, it specifically mentions R!Ciel. You know what is the name of the biggest star of first magnitude that is currently known? Yeah, you are correct, it's Sirius. And we have known Ciel is Sirius for a while now. As to why the star does not have lot's of faith, do I have to remind you "Dear God, why are you smiling?".

"So kind /A colorless encounter, pupils of glass /Thought they may shatter to pieces,/ You laugh your head off, saying, "you must be kidding"": Listen, I have seen a couple of people mentioning "oh it's a reference to monochrome no kiss". But I don't think that's the case, not completely at least. I think this is a parallel of O!Ciel and Sebastian's meeting to R!Ciel and Undertaker. First because one of the people involved is laughing, and Sebastian smirks but has never really laughed out loud, the one that spends his time laughing is Undertaker. Second is the pupils of glass that can shatter to pieces. I wonder if it means that R!Ciel could be using glass balls for his eyes? When we have seen his not-completed form they look pretty empty and they are made of soft tissue, so maybe Undertaker changed the "real eyes" with glass? Idk. The shattering could also indicate the fragility of the BD that are still far from perfect.

There is no such thing as eternity, so /There is no ending until all turns to ash this made me scream Undertaker's BD because we know he needs a full budy for the creation of his dolls and bringing back to life his loved ones. And we know he can't bring back Vincent because his body was too ruined by the fire. So fire IS the only ending in which a person can just die with no possible interference from a Shinigami with resurrection intent.

Tragedy twins

I had no idea of these lines other than, it just fits the vibes. Until I remembered how much Yana likes to mirror the twins.

There's no love, no love, there's no love there: this one is R!Ciel singing. Undertaker may have started to work on the BD out of grief for his loved ones, but it feels like it turned into an obsession.

There's nothing, there's nothing, there's no truth: let's add some angst because this one was not enough. O!Ciel never gets to discover the truth behind the murder of his family before he dies. Maybe we, as readers, can see it. Maybe from Sebastian's eyes. But yeah, we don't have a guarantee that O!Ciel will ever know anything, he could just die with Sebastian being unable to prevent it (either because it happened due to a Shinigami, or maybe an angel or god knows what).

But of course, we can also swap them! O!Ciel was so confident people wouldn't have liked him coming back alive and so started the whole identity swap, so he could still feel like the love he is receiving now is fake, since it's built on a lie. While R!Ciel's truth could now be either the murder or the family again, or the fact that he isn't "real" now. He is a BD, his action and thoughts are based on memories that are likely not his own. He has become a fake, a lie. "There is no truth" because that is a BD similar to him, and not necessary him.

I am exhausted I haven't thought about something this much since my thesis. Yes some of them are quite the stretch, hopefully I will trigger a smart person and finally we get a good analysis. Meanwhile you have to deal with me. Feel free to add your opinions pls, I love hearing theories.

PSA: I have formatted this half on computer and half of phone so idk how weird the formatting is I will check again tomorrow, now I'm tired of rereading it.

[s10127470]

What If One Piece had an LA-based Dub? (Part 1)

So recently, I’ve been talking with some friends on Discord about One Piece, specifically about its’ English dubs.

And essentially, we feel like that One Piece hasn't really gotten the best treatment when it comes to English dubs.

Like, we already know the travesty that was 4Kids.

But this also applies to their long-standing and current dubbers, Funimation.

This is probably a controversial opinion, but I don't think they were the best choice to dub One Piece.

Like, yes, they are of much higher quality when compared to 4Kids.

But even then….

For starters, I feel like there's a lot of miscasting here. Even among the main cast.

Probably the most obvious being in the case of Christopher Sabat as Zoro.

He just makes him sound way too old. He's suppose to be a young man.

I can't be the only one who thinks that it sounds too much like Piccolo.

And finally, I feel like Funimation's dubbing is a bit too…..straightforward (if that makes sense).

After rewatching the 4Kids dub, I've grown a sense of appreciation for it.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still not that good.

But I feel like there’s some elements that they do better than Funimation.

In contrast to the Funimation dub, a lot of the performances have a little more life and energy to them.

Even if they're not all that good…..

One thing I really like is that many of the characters have accents, which just feels right given how the whole premise of the series is about traveling the world..

This is made even better when you get remember the Netflix adaptation, which gave a lot of characters accents, including the main ones!

Plus, 4Kids is just much better at handling the frequent comedic and silly moments.

Hell, why do you think this scene blew up in popularity?

Plus, they did a slightly better job at translating some scenes to English and not having them come off as a direct, one-to-one translation.

It's a little hard to explain, but essentially they keep what was said in the original Japanese version and kinda give their own flair to it.

But with this discussion, being the idea man that I am, it gave me the idea of an alternate timeline.

One where One Piece wasn’t picked up by 4Kids or Funimation.

But instead, it was picked up by Viz Media, who would commission an English dub out of the voice acting capital of the world: Los Angeles, California!

I feel like this alternate timeline would not only give us a much better dub than the other two, especially 4Kids.

But also do the franchise a LOT of favors....

If you know One Piece, you'd known that the series had a hard time catching up in popularity in the West.

It was 2000s. The decade was all about making everything cool, hip and edgy.

And anime was one of the prime contributors to this trend.

Plus during that time, a lot of anime fans had this stigma against Western animation, seeing it as nothing but kiddy shit.

These people are the one of the reasons why we have crap like this.....

And since One Piece is famous for having an incredibly cartoonish art-style and world, it did not do it any favors.

Made even worse with the 4Kids dub, which infamously kidified the anime to absolute HELL.

However, I feel this dub would counteract that.

The dub itself would premiere on June 2nd, 2003 on Cartoon Network as part of Toonami.

And although the would probably have some censorship, it would be NOWHERE near the level of 4Kids.

Plus, from what I've seen, anime that aired on Toonami was able to get away with a lot more explicit content due to it's clear aiming at older audiences.

For the East Blue Saga, the dub would air new episodes every week, Monday through Friday.

That's what we're gonna be covering for this part.

As we go through each arc, I'll be sharing my voice choices for the major characters in each of them.

So without further ado, let's set sail!

Romance Dawn (June 2nd-June 4th, 2003):

Starting off this showcase we have our main star the future king of the pirates himself, Monkey D. Luffy!

When thinking of a voice for Luffy, I wanted him to still be voiced by a female.

And one of the major female VAs, I've come to a tie on who would be good voice for Luffy.

And that tie is between Colleen O'Shaughnessy and Kari Wahlgren.

Between the two of them, I think their voices both perfectly fit the type of voice Luffy would have.

Pretty goofy and silly while still being able to do the more serious and emotional moments well.

And while you can still tell they're a woman, they're still able to convincingly sound like a boy.

I think the coolest thing about this choice would be that in the case of Kari, this would be one of her earliest voice acting roles, as she entered the realm of voicework in the prior year of 2002.

And about a year into her career, she would find herself becoming the official English voice of one of the most famous and revered protagonists in anime/manga history!

Next we come to Koby, who would be voiced by Pamela Adlon.

Oh yeah, let’s talk about that real quick.

In contrast to other anime dubs, this one would primarily feature voice actors typically found in Western animation.

I feel like this would make One Piece stand among the crowd, and it kinda fits since the main character himself does draw heavy influence from the Golden Age of Western Animation.

As for why I choose Pamela, especially since Koby pre-Marines was shown to have a whiny sounding voice, was because I was coming at this with the knowledge of his post-Marines look.

I’m not a fan of how the Funimation Dub gave him a new voice after we were reintroduced to him, whereas the original Japanese version kept his voice actress.

So I wanted to do the same thing they did.

I feel that Pamela was the best option.

She’s known for having a noticeably deeper and hoarse voice when compared to most female VAs.

Hence she’s famous for voicing a lot of male characters, particularly boys.

As for her performance as pre-Marine Koby, it would be pretty similar to her performance as Otto Osworth from Time Squad….which is funnily enough, a Cartoon Network show.

Now we come to Alvida, who would be voiced by Wendee Lee.

And yes, she would voice both forms of her.

Her original fat form, and current slim form.

Now we've come to the second member of the Straw Hats, Roronoa Zoro!

He would be (at least for now) voiced by Ben Diskin.

His performance would be sound like a slightly more serious version of, and I can't believe I'm actually referencing this guy, Ban from The Seven Deadly Sins.

One cool thing about Ben voicing Zoro would be that he would bring a lot of authenticity to the role, since he would've been around Zoro's age at the time of dub's release (20-21 years old).

Also, this would really funny to think about since around this time, Ben was voicing Numbuh 1 and 2 on Codename: Kids Next Door, another Cartoon Network show.

Rika would be voiced by Kath Soucie, essentially sounding like a slightly older Lil Deville from Rugrats.

Helmeppo would be voiced by Jeff Bennett, who would definitely sound like the recent gay shipping icon as of late, Bradley Uppercrust III.

Like, you can't tell me that his voice wouldn't fit Helmeppo like a glove.

And in just you don't believe me, here are some clips to prove my point.

Next we come to his father, Axe Hand Morgan, who would be voiced by Jim Cummings.

And for his role, Jim would definitely use his serious voice that he uses with characters such as Mister Moloch in Project G.e.e.K.e.R. and Hernán Cortés in The Road to El Dorado.

Now to come to Red-Haired Shanks, who would be voiced by Steve Blum doing a Cockney accent.

Yeah, he's basically gonna sound like a swashbuckling Spike Spiegel.

Which actually sounds pretty cool....

As for the rest of the main Red-Haired Pirates.

Benn Beckman would be voiced by Wally Wingert.

Lucky Roux would be voiced by Bill Fagerbakke.

And Yasopp would be voiced by James Arnold Taylor.

And finally, we have Higuma, who would be voiced by Rob Paulsen.

Orange Town (June 5th-June 10th, 2003):

First start off come to the third member of the Straw Hats, Nami.

Nami would be voiced by Kate Higgins.

Who weirdly enough, when it comes to LA voice fan-casting for One Piece, she's always the one to get picked for Nami.

And I can totally see why.

She would definitely fit the character.

Next we come to the big bad of the arc himself, Buggy the Clown.

Originally, I was gonna have Mark Hamill voice him.

But I figured that would've been too easy and too obvious.

So instead, I decided to choose Steve Blum as the voice of the character.

His performance would be pretty reminiscent to that of The Green Goblin in The Spectacular Spider-Man, but a little more silly sounding.

Even his laugh would be pretty similar to Gobby's.

Plus, Buggy's casting choice is pretty funny to think about since as I mentioned earlier, Steve would also be voicing Shanks.

Which would make Buggy's pure adulterated hatred for him even funnier.

As for his main crew members.

Mohji would be voiced by Liam O'Brien, essentially using the same voice he used for Zazz in Sonic Lost World.

Cabaji would be voiced by Yuri Lowenthal, using an Eastern European accent.

And Ritchie would have his vocals provided by Frank Walker.

As for the one notable characters of this arc.

Chouchou would have his vocals provided by Dee Bradley Baker.

And Boodle would be voiced by Tom Kane.

Who was also voicing Professor Utonium on The Powerpuff Girls around this time.

Syrup Village (June 11th-June 24th, 2003):

First we have the fourth member of the Straw Hats, Usopp.

Just like with Luffy, I have two VAs in mind that could voice the God himself.

James Arnold Taylor and Jason Marsden.

Both of them would strike that perfect balance of being able to sound silly while knowing when to take it seriously.

Also, if JAT was voicing Usopp, he would essentially sound like a younger version of his own dad.

Kaya would be voiced by Tara Strong.

The Usopp Pirates would be voiced by Grey Griffin (Ninjin), Colleen O'Shaughnessy (Pilman), and Nancy Cartwright (Tamanegi) respectively.

Jeff Bennett would also be voicing Merry.

Dee Bradley Baker would also be voicing the big bad of the arc, Kuro.

Jango would be voiced by Phil LaMarr, who would doing a what could be best described as a knock-off Michael Jackson impression.

Which, let's be real, would fit the character perfectly.

Phil would also be pulling double duty as Siam, with the other half of the Nyaban Brothers, Butchie, being voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson.

And finally, we have Gaimon, who would be voiced by Charlie Adler.

Baratie (June 25th-July 10th, 2003):

Starting this off we have Kuina, who would be voiced by Grey Griffin.

Shimotsuki Koushirou would be voiced by Phil LaMarr, essentially using the same voice he uses for Samurai Jack.

Now we come to Johnny and Yosaku.

Johnny would be voiced by Nolan North, while Yosaku would be voiced by Mikey Kelley.

So essentially we have Raphael and Michaelangelo tagging along with the Straw Hats.

Finally, we've come to the fifth member of the Straw Hats (and the last one as of right now), Sanji.

Sanji would be voiced by Josh Keaton.

And just like with Ben as Zoro, Josh would bring a lot of authenticity to his performance (given that he would've been 23-24 at the time)

Also, we all know how Zoro and Sanji are rivals.

This would be funny to think about since this wouldn't be last time Ben and Josh would voice a duo of rivals.

Zeff would be voiced by Clancy Brown, essentially sounding like a slightly more serious Brooklyn version of Mr. Krabs.

We would also have John DiMaggio playing double duty as both Don Krieg and Fullbody.

Ghin would be voiced by Crispin Freeman.

Patty and Carne would be voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson and Tom Kenny respectively.

Pearl would be voiced by Jess Harnell.

And Hawk-Eye Mihawk would be voiced Lex Lang, doing a French accent.

Arlong Park (July 11th-July 31st, 2003):

Starting this off, we have Arlong himself, who would be voiced by Fred Tatasciore, which will be really funny to think about once we get to you-know-who.

As for the rest of main crew.

Kuroobi would be voiced by Doug Erholtz.

Hatchan would be voiced by Bill Fagerbakke.

And Chew would be voiced by Jeff Bennett

Nojiko would be voiced by Michelle Ruff.

Genzo would be voiced by Cam Clarke.

Bellemere would be voiced by Vanessa Marshall.

Which would be really weird to think about since she was on Cartoon Network's latest original series at the time, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, voicing this guy....

Well I'm pretty sure I just ruined Bellemere's death for most of you now since it's hard not her with the voice of Irwin now......

Anyway, Nezmui would be voiced by Tony Oliver, essentially sounding like an evil version of Lupin III.

Or how he was in the original manga....

And Moomo would have his vocals provided by Frank Welker.

Buggy's Adventure (August 1st-4th, 2003):

I don't really have anything to say for this one except that it will be part of the dub.

Roguetown (August 5th-12th, 2003):

Starting this off we have Smoker, who would be voiced by James Arnold Taylor, essentially sounding pretty similar to Walker from Danny Phantom, but without the Southern accent.

Next we have Tashigi, who would voiced by Karen Strassman.

Daddy the Father would be voiced by Jeff Bennett.

Five-Alarm Carmen would be voiced by Candi Milo.

And finally, we have Dragon, who would be voiced by Dave Wittenberg.

Well, that's all I have for now.

It's not the most detailed post I've made, but I thought it was fun to do.

Plus, I always like to showcase by knowledge of voice actors.

Which speaking of, I'm not sure how this post will do since I'm not sure how knowledgeable of voice actors any of the potential viewers are.

But hey, I'll just have to wait and find out.

Anyway, let me know what you think about this alternate timeline I created.

And for the two choices I had for Luffy and Usopp, who do you think would be the best choice for them?

And finally, I really hope @mysticalchildsuit actually likes this post since the last time I made a post about One Piece....they were.....

[pico-digital-studios]

Into, Across and Beyond! Scripting: Far from Entitled

(Funkinverse by @robovoidfrog; moment inspired by the finale of No Straight Roads.)

During the events of Benjamin's Corruption encounter, he, Grace and Pico had managed to undo the vast majority of the damage that Lemon Demon had caused, and forced him to book it from Philly, never to be seen again. Though as they thought about what to do next, a familiar jester walked into the topmost tower of Daniel's private mansion, finally speaking proper English instead of Japanese.

Harvester: Oh, Dearest, Dearest…

Daniel Dearest: Robinson. Great…

Grace: Huh? You two know each other?

Harvester/Robinson: I told you before, Dan. You were perfect, your rock was unstoppable! But you decided to retire from your line of work and started taking easier ways out of bargains. Well, take a good look around you, hehe! Because your power has no place in this city, not anymore. New rhythm rules this land!

Daniel: Don’t flatter yourself too much. We saw the readings, and the energy output Ben and Grace have produced by this month is the exact same as my own.

Harvester: Energy output? Energy OUTPUT? Who cares about that?

Benjamin: Hey! WE care!

Pico: Exactly! After the virus first struck, it’s part of why we started the music revolution to dispel it!

Harvester: HAHAHA! No, what truly matters is that we get to see how wrong Mr. Dearest here really is!

Daniel: Eat dirt, you little shit!

The Harvester/Robinson sighed, turning his attention to Ben.

Harvester: Do you finally understand how bad you treated me, Ben? I used to be your biggest, number one fan! I supported you through thick and thin. A lot of people tried to kill you, but I stood with you. That’s how much music matters to me, and it’s how much YOU matter to me! And after we went through all that hardship, you now plan to take the easy way out? Abandoning your career? It’s an insult to… everything I believed in. You yanked my heart, crushed it… Threw it away like a piece of rubbish…

Benjamin, for his part, was barely phased by Robinson’s attempt to get pity from him.

Harvester: Did my loyalty mean nothing to you…? Not even a little bit…?

Benjamin: Okay, listen here, Harvester! I don’t give a DAMN about you, you understand? Only my friends deserve to get very close to me, not my fans I got from making music! And I especially do not like when people like you think you’re entitled to my attention and respect! No matter HOW loyal you are, you are not obligated to my time. I. Owe. You. NOTHING!

The Harvester snarled, clicking their fingers as a light flashed in the sky.

Daniel: What did you do, Robin?!

Harvester: I was… hoping to save this for a more meaningful day, but… no point delaying the inevitable, right?

Grace: Robin, what did you do?!

Harvester chuckled as what they did became ever clearer; a satellite had its orbit destabilised, and was headed on a direct crash course to the Mansion.

Harvester: See that? I’ve sent a satellite that Dearest’s company made to plunge right into this mansion!

Everyone was shocked that they were taking THAT measure to get back at Dearest.

Martha: Robin, you’d better call that off right now! Or so help me…

Harvester: Too late! The coordinates cannot be disrupted now. Oh, you should see the look on your husband’s face now. Complete and utter hopelessness. Now YOU know how I felt when your son-in-law ditched me! Now, come on, kids! Let’s evacuate this filthy building! Daniel Dearest’s reign of terror is no more!

Of course, NONE of the characters were planning on budging.

Harvester: Well?

Darnell: This is WRONG!

Harvester: What do you mean? This was Ben and Grace’s end goal, right? To end Daniel Dearest’s rule once and for all!

Benjamin: Yeah, but I never agreed for any of us to tear apart his frickin’ MANSION! Grace and Chris live here, too!

Harvester: Come on now! Have you forgotten about your fans I’ve seen? They all want you to destroy Dearest’s dark legacy! Remember, if you completely remove him from this landscape, you’ll gain total control over Philly!

Grace: Total… control? That’ll just lead us to repeat history!

Harvester: What did you say?

Benjamin: If any of us go down this path further, we’ll end up becoming the very thing we stood against from day 1… and end up doing EXACTLY what Dan was doing. I’ll end up being the new Daddy Dearest…

Benjamin’s eyes widened upon hearing himself say that, like a “Eureka!” moment came to him.

Benjamin: Wait! I’d end up being the new Daddy Dearest?! Holy crud! How come I never realised that?!

Harvester: Ben, you’re overthinking things! Eradicating everything Dearest stands for is the right thing to do!

Benjamin: Shut up, Robin! I’m not listening to you OR my toxic fanbase anymore! We need to stop this mess right here, right now! Grace?

Grace: Yeah?

Benjamin: What I’m about to do’s gonna be really dangerous, so I understand if you-.

Grace: Save your breath, Benji. I’m sticking with you to the end!

They smirked to each other.

Benjamin: Alright! Now, all we need is a plan of action!

Daniel: As it stands, we need to rally the people you’ve helped to have enough strength to repel the satellite and destroy it.

Pico: You got it!

Daniel: I’ll need some time to ensure the safety of my family and evacuate them from the building. While Ben and Grace are handling that creep, can all of you handle sorting things out around Philly?

Skid: You can count on us!

Nene: Let’s do it!

Harvester: None of you will succeed! Ben’s fans will make sure of it!

On cue, Daniel moved the elevator he and the others were using right back up to the tower, before waltzing over to Harvester and upper-cutting them to shut them up before going back down with the others.

Harvester: I didn’t want to have to do this, but because you’ve refused to quit, you’ve forced my hand!

Benjamin: Well, guess what? I’m sick of you and lots of others trying to kill me and trying to ruin my life, when all I’ve wanted is a peaceful life with my family and friends! This ends NOW!

Back in the present day, Benjamin looked at his now-non-social media-based smartphone while sitting on the balcony of the base for his Funkin' Gang, having closed down his social accounts as a sign that he was feeling the urge to quit music-making entirely.

BluBuni: Is something still on your mind, Ben?

Benjamin: Kinda, considering the whole "music" thing that each of us as -friends do. I saw over my time being the Boyfriend that the whole thing isn't all it's cracked up to be.

BluBuni: You... You're having doubts about yourself?

Benjamin: Well, it's mainly those who have heard my songs that I really feel worried about. So, er, you know how a lot of us Boyfriends are diagnosed with autism?

BluBuni: Yeah?

Benjamin: Well, after I got diagnosed with it, it put into perspective how hard it was for me to make friends before I started the whole music gig. Though, to be honest, I felt scared deep down after the diagnosis.

BluBuni: Huh? Why?

Benjamin: Well, I've seen that people have, and still are, discriminating against autistic people and claiming they have a disease that needs to be cured...

BluBuni: Autism isn't a disease! W-Why would they think that?

Benjamin: J-Just their sickening mindsets, I assume. The toxic side of my fanbase s-somehow found out about my autism, even though I posted nothing about it online, and t-took to personally attacking me f-for it... After I had to actually kill one of them for endangering Philly, I... I felt scared about taking another life like that... I-I'm just glad my family, Grace and Pico were all there for me during that t-time... After all the intrusions on my personal life, I... I've just wanted to q-quit making music entirely...

Blu didn't hesitate to hug Ben close.

BluBuni: Hey, it's okay, Ben. If you really want to quit out of making music, there's nothing stopping you. You've still got friends and family that'll have your back regardless. I can see you still want to help save the multiverse, right?

Benjamin: Y-Yeah.

He hugged her back, really appreciating the comfort.

Benjamin: Heh, t-thanks, Blu. I really appreciate it.

BluBuni: You're welcome!

She nuzzled his nose gently, which caused him to blush a bit.

Benjamin: We'll find our way to stop The X in his tracks and help Salty out. That I'm sure of!

BluBuni: Heh, yep!

Return Funkin' GF came upstairs.

RT!Girlfriend: Hey, guys? Sorry to interrupt, but we just got finished setting up the dance stage downstairs, if one of you wants to give it a test while Mix and B-Bot are researching on the X.

Benjamin: Heh, of course!

BluBuni: Count me in!

Benjamin: If anything works to help take my mind off of some rough stuff, it'll do!

RT!Girlfriend: Heh, I saw Grace was getting excited to do a duet dance with you on the game we got plugged.

Benjamin (blushing): S-She was?

RT!Girlfriend: Mhm!

BluBuni: I'll definitely join if there's a trio routine or two on there!

Benjamin: Sweet! Let's go! And... thanks for being there for me, Blu.

BluBuni: Hehe! Anytime!

They headed downstairs. Over in the computer room, B-Bot and MIX Boyfriend were running scans to identify a weakness in The X.

MIX BF: I swear, he got insanely powerful within only a couple of days. How are we meant to find a weak spot in him?

B-Bot: We'll figure it out. He's still not at an unstoppable level, so we should still have time! I just hope we're not too late in trying to help Salty out...

Amongst the data gathered, B-Bot was shocked to discover a canon event tied to Evan; his set-to-be demise at the hands of a menace resonating in a TV channel, Kirk Odd.

B-Bot: What even IS that thing? Urgh... Whatever it is, I won't let Evan have to face it alone!

He took the data and got ready to relay it to Benjamin later.

[wariofranchisefanblog]

A new WarioWare has come out and I got enough playtime in to feel comfortable talking about it in full, so I’ll do just that.

Right off the bat I can say in short: this is a good game and a good WarioWare. Not up there with my favs, but it does a lot right. My experience did end up quite differently than anticipated and I’ll explain why soon enough.

First I want to talk about the presentation, which I think is an easy high point. Everything is vibrant and colorful, the art keeps showing the strengths of the current style and everything feels very much like it should. Microgames run that perfect mix of genuinely nice looking and deliberately cursed and the cutscenes are the best of both worlds, being smooth and lively, while returning to Gold’s full voice acting.

Speaking of cutscenes, that brings us to the story related stuff and that’s where the game shows some interesting tricks up its sleeves. In terms of structure it’s a return to the pre-Gold era, with the closest to an overarching theme being the vacation set-up.

I do think the Ware crew is in top form, likable, fun and full of life as always and two stories in particular even do something major.

Kat and Ana’s story marks the shocking return of Cractus, bringing a Wario Land character into WarioWare and Young Cricket’s story sees his Kung-Fu Ball partner finally brought into WarioWare properly. Both of those are really massive and show a willingness to more heavily utilize elements from other parts of the verse, which I find incredibly exciting.

Oddly enough, the weaker link of the story for me this time is Wario himself. Now don’t get me wrong, everything that happens here is usual Wario antics and I do like how non–english versions of the script like japanese and german, have him be actually be nice about bringing the others along. His confusion at the Crygor drawings and later ascending to godhood, with the cast roll confirming he got a happy end, are all good too, plenty of nice stuff here.

He just feels weirdly absent here. Having no presence in the Remix stages, no bonus mode in his image and even the final stage has him stuck being cursed to have his face be the avatar of an angry volcano. It doesn’t really feel like Wario and ends with him being the only one of the cast with no moment to shine during the climax, which I can’t help but find a little disappointing.

Still, it’s not a big deal, after so many games Wario taking a slight backseat isn’t a dealbreaker, it just stood out a little.

Moving away from that, there is the audio side of things. The music as usual is full of unapologetically catchy jingles and some major stand-out tracks such as MegaGame Muscles and the Form Guide theme.

We got full voice acting again and with it our first taste of Kevin Afghani as Wario. Pre-release stuff had me very on and off with how I felt about it, but having heard all of him in the game: yeah, I like him! He does have some wonky deliveries, but the overall voice still feels like Wario and has its own fun appeal. Certainly more noticeably different than Mario and Luigi, but I am optimistic Kevin will greatly grow into the role, as he gets to play him more and more.

Then we get to the big one, the gameplay and this is where I was thrown for a loop the most. With this being a direct Smooth Moves successor I thought I’d know what to expect, but was quite caught off-guard in many places.

This surprisingly ended up being the most difficult WarioWare for me by a long-shot, enough that I actually had to take advantage of the second chance mechanic, which I never had to do in Gold and GiT.

If I had to sum the game up in one word, it would be demanding, Wario commanding you to move it is not just a funny title, it’s the name of the game.

With the Wiimote, you could get away with just sorta doing the poses in a lot of cases, but Move It really demands you do the exact poses, down to holding the Joycon juuuust the right way. 

More than anything I was surprised how strict it could be in that regard, not following the form instructions is asking for trouble, but I have to say, at the same token I was amazed how well things worked once I got the hang of it.

I’ll admit, I was ill while playing the game, so maybe that caused me to be a little more daft than usual, but it took me a bit to really get into it and I had to consult the museum several times for some microgames to figure out what I even needed to do.

I do think the game is a touch more complicated than usual for WarioWare, since you have to take effectively two controllers and specific poses into account, on top of grasping what each microgame demands of you, but once it clicks everything feels well thought out and purposeful. Getting things down is immensely satisfying and shows some really stunning results of what the Joycon can do.

That said the game isn’t entirely without jank, Hand Model being a notable culprit of it. The game finds several fun applications for it, but anything regarding reading forms or how many fingers you hold up, can be really clunky in the heat of the moment. In general, the strictness of the forms also means you need to really be prepared for every microgame, since slouching with your form could lead to a bad desync

Still, even with some jank I do think stepping up to the challenge to get a feel of it and get better is very much worth it. I wasn’t sure how to feel at first, but my opinion on it only went up the more I played.

That covers it for the main stages, as for the side-content though, yeah, that is where the game shows a weaker side of itself.

Not so much in terms of what’s here though. You got your standard towers, as well as MegaGame Muscles, which no joke, may be my favorite stage in the game. It’s frantic, fun, the music slaps and the set-up of Mr. Sparkles having ascended to being a literal god of fitness, is pure WarioWare.

The new Pyoro game of the day is a fun, different take on it, much like the one in Smooth Moves was as well and Dirty Job is a cool bonus game expansion of a more stand-out microgame concept.

That is really it as far as the single player content is concerned though and it does feel a liiiittle on the meager side. No souvenirs, which Smooth Moves and GiT didn’t have either, but Smooth Moves had more bonus games and GiT had the final Pyoro stage, Penny Remix, more bonus games, unlockable art and the Wario Cup.

We do still have a decent variety of multiplayer modes to work with and I did get a friend to come on by to try them, save for the 4 player exclusive one.

I think it’s a good selection, in concept it has the best multiplayer mode offerings since Mega Party Games (though I did like GiT a lot too), but there is one issue I have with it and I think GiT was a little guilty of it too.

As I mentioned, I do think there is a learning curve on how to play this game most effectively and you feel that even more in multiplayer, where someone not as in the know, is naturally gonna accidentally grip his Joycon slightly wrong, despite doing the pose and need some extra instructions, much like the characters in GiT can take some learning.

It is something you can overcome and have a good time with, WarioWare is a very good ‘’don’t take me too seriously’’ kind of multiplayer experience, but on the whole, if they want a true party game WarioWare, I still think something simpler like Mega Party Games is in order and by all means, I wouldn’t mind them doing something like that again.

On a side note, I also find it a bit of a shame that the nice new models for the cast, updated to resemble their designs in this game, are ultimately watered down to sprites of their heads during multiplayer gameplay. With how much emphasis is being put on multiplayer to carry the game for longer, I think it would have been nice if they put in the work to fully animate GiT-style models for the multiplayer modes.

That small gripe aside, as I said, I think multiplayer is fine, but not quite the pick up and play experience for people new to the game, as I feel they wanted it to be and I do think a bit too much of the game is locked behind multiplayer.

But yeah, that’s WarioWare Move It. It’s good and if you like WarioWare, you’re getting what you wanted out of it. It’s not one of my top games in the series and feels a bit too lacking on the side content front, but on the whole, I had a good time and it gets a surprising amount out of a controller that I have an openly low opinion on.

[meirimerens]

please disregard this if it’s too personal but i was wondering how you knew being butch was right for you?

signed, a 21 yr old going through a life crisis x

i don't think being (a) butch is something that one registers as being "right for you" in the same way you'd find a painkiller that works, in the same way you'd get "ask your doctor if [...] is right for you" ads on american television. every butch will have a different story as to how they got to coming into their own, to self-actualizing and finding solace/comfort/recognition in the word butch. every butch will put something else to the name, but we all have similarities, and it's in these similarities that i "self-recognized through the other(s)" in many ways.

i, personally, have a history of being really uncomfortable in typically feminine clothing. (this is not a butch thing. feminine clothing is manufactured to be uncomfortable. however, for me, it is part of a pattern.) i, personally, remember competing with boys at a young age, consciously to prove myself as, if not more worthy than; subconsciously for girls' attentions. i, personally, have a history of trying to be feminine in order to compensate a feeling of deep wrongness and feeling, consistently, genuinely monstrous doing so, which only stopped when i dropped that shit completely. i found i related to other butches' ~gender troubles~. i found i related to other butches' relationship to their own selves, bodies, and ways to navigate relationships. many butches are not particularly into femme girls, but butch/femme is an important part of butch history, and this part deeply resonated with me. butches' writings about their butch lovers, butch friends, and butch selves resonated with me. femmes' writings about their butch lovers and butch friends resonated with me. many butches do not have a particularly deep or long history or present of dysphoria, or of feeling of straddling the line of womanhood and (trans)masculinity, but equally as many do, and this resonated with me. butchness put a word on that feeling of cusp, of brink or boundary, which made sense to me, but might not make sense to others.

mostly i stopped staring in my own face trying to decipher its meaning and stared into others' instead and found my own here, and these others were butches. it's a word that makes sense to me. we do not have it in my mother tongue, we have other things, but lesbians Like That have existed across times and cultures, and when i use english, write english, speak english, in the way i'm going with you now, i'll use that word, because it exists, and it fits me in this tongue.

my last piece of advice is like. there are plenty of other things to be than butch. there are also plenty of things to be that are real close to butch but are not it. the butch-femme scale is not a thing. the vast majority of lesbians are neither butch nor femme.

in my personal experience, the more you obsess about your identity and the more you try to look into all the folds & wrinkles of your navel in order to find your reflection, the less authentically you live, and the less likely you are to find an answer. i know it's easy to say "just don't have an identify crisis ^.^ just vibe!" but like. you Are gonna have to vibe. you're gonna have to let the waves batter you for a bit and carry you upon rocks and shores. the more you struggle against the sea the less it'll relent, and it's stronger than you. go out in the world and see how it embraces you and how you feel like embracing it back. the answers will come in due time.

[foreverisntenough]

Hello,

I’ve been here since you posted the first chapter of ”you’re mine” and I just want to say thank you! You’re such a good writer and I really think your work deserves so much more attention.

You’ve been keeping us fed with a new chapter every 3 days it feels like and everytime I come on tumblr I check to see if you posted a new chapter 🤩

During ”You’re mine” I thought that we would get some crazy plottwist where T would turn out to be a psycho or smthn because of the lovebombing but honestly I prefer the lighthearted path you choose. I get what people mean with ”only smut and fluff” but tbh I dont mind it at all. I absolutely loooove the way you write the smut and like you said it is a big part of their relationship and the kind of couple they are. And sure, angst can put more depth into their relationship and the storyline by seeing how they deal with it and react but sometimes its just nice to read something that makes me feel happy and at ease too.

The new chapter had me in tears when Trent and Y/n had their mini speeches to eachother after Teddy was born 🥲 Your writing really makes me feel the emotions behind the words.

Since this is such a developed fic I think you have the space to challenge yourself and explore your talent when writing and try new/different things outside of your comfort because you are a really good writer and I truly believe you can only go up from here. Even if it doesnt hit (which i doubt) we will be here and support and keep reading!

Since last weeks event with T (💔😒) Ive been massively put off from him but I will keep reading your fic regardless cause of how good it is and T in your story is our T.

Im sorry if its a bit all over the place 😅 I just wrote what was in my mind so it might be a bit jumbled. And also English isnt my first language so if anything is wrong appologies 🫶🏼

Youre a really good writer, I hope you know that and never doubt it!

Love ❤️

Okay, this took me a moment to respond to because it was so sweet. I wanted to make sure my response got everything. Firstly, THANK YOU 🥰 This was so kind.

Thank you for noticing my posting cadence. I really like to write and it comes naturally to me but it still does take some time. I hope people like how much I post! I don’t get a ton of engagement so it means a lot when people do! (TY if you do!)

I totally see where you’re coming from but I’m not a twist type person or at least not in this fic! I put a warning for love bombing on ‘You’re Mine’ because I know it was there but it also I kinda like that and that’s the whole story is Trent just completely enamored with this girl.

I will keep the smut. Maybe tone its frequency back but I genuinely think it is an element of their relationship that helps them connect. I think it’s a place where Y/N feels love and happy with her body.

I agree about angst. I do like it other peoples fics. It’s really good but also I like that these two stories are a majority of happy scenarios.

The latest chapter was emosh for me too. I am really happy for them 🥹

I definitely want to keep pushing my self and developing the stories I create. Thank you for complimenting my writing.

Yeah, real life T, is only human. It’s hard when we put someone on such a pedestal. I personally really like the fic version lol 😂

Your English was amazing btw! I appreciate you writing this so much. I loved all your comments. I hope you keep reading the stories. If you ever think of any ideas or have any more thoughts always message me 🫶

Ily!!!

[erisolitudediaries]

Cups of Coffee and a Pile of Books: The Truth About Becoming an English Major Becoming an English Major means a chain of cups of coffee and a huge pile of books. This is often the representation of others when they hear about this course – my course. While this isn’t always true, at least, for the most part, I can’t help but feel like the perception of people that becoming an English Major is just essentially - to teach, has some veracity in it. However, for people like me, that is to say, you guys who are also taking this major, know very well that being an English Major is more than meets the eye. It’s more than its face value, and far deeper than just teaching grammar and educating kids about the universal language. Hence, stay with me for a few minutes as I share four hard-earned lessons that I experienced first-hand, as we dive deeper into the real spirit of becoming an English Major. 

Words can tire you out for real.

I remember the time when I first entered one of my major subjects’ class. I thought, “this is it; I’m finally coming closer to understanding what my course really is”. I later found out I’d spend most of my time drinking unlimited coffee just to reach a deadline for thousand-word essays and scanning through pages and pages of books. One would think it’s easy and enjoyable, and all you do is write and read, but let me tell you, words can be exhausting and repetitive. Imagine writing throughout your college, I mean, that’s what it felt for me. Yet, as time passed by, you learn that just because your course is a repetitive cycle of words and pages, means it ends there. Yes, I’ve been burnt out countless times, but the skills and knowledge I’ve earned from these seemingly endless words, made me realize just how improved I am now with the language and how important English really is.

2. What’s so important about English, anyway?

I often ask myself this before too. I get it, English isn’t our first language, so why dedicate an entire degree for it? Let me share a deep insight regarding this. Communication is most likely the single most important skill that man has ever developed. It will always be vital in our co-existence, especially now with so many cultures and politics dividing us all. Hence, being able to understand each other, no matter the race and culture, will build lasting bridges between nations. This being said, with English being the universal language that all nations are, in some sense, required to learn, it probably is the most significant language to mankind today, and I couldn’t agree more. You see, learning English has global implications, and through endless flow of words, we, English Majors, nurture this huge bridge that develop understanding and comprehension.

3. People are asking: “What is your future with your degree? Become new generation of teachers?”

Yes – and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. As I’ve mentioned earlier, learning, and developing English as a language has global implications, and being able to share this knowledge with the youth, will hone the future of nation building. Teachers are often underrated. Indeed, we do not win Noble Prizes for curing diseases, and we don’t carry arms to fight for freedom, but let me tell you, there won’t be genius scientists and world leaders without education. Every profession starts with us! We don’t just teach you how to read and write, or develop skills and intelligence, but also compassion, emotional development, and inspiration to “rule the world”. Teachers are called our second parents for a reason! This in itself gives pride to educators. Imagine seeing that one mischievous student you’ve spent so much time teaching in grade school, become the next President someday. That means the world to us.

4. We aren’t just valuable inside the classroom; we are community builders too!

Not because we spend so much time writing reports and visual aids for teaching, it means we’re only important in schools. There is so much more opportunity for English Majors outside the classroom too. I’ve seen journalists, news writers, published writers, and leaders that stemmed from our degree as well. With our knowledge in words and story writing, the scope of what we can do is endless. We study this language for years, so you can just imagine how we can contribute to the future of our society, especially with humanity relying solely on communication for its evolution and progress. I mean, what good is a discovery or an invention if you can’t translate it into understandable words, right?

Yes, I get the presumption about English Majors. You see us gulping through countless cups of coffee and scanning through endless pages of books every day, and that we are being equipped to essentially – teach. However, with all these being said, I hope I have imparted with you a very special lesson. English Majors aren’t just teachers, we are nation-builders, developers of the new generation, and principals of communication. There is so much more I can share with you about my course and experiences, and there is a mountain of lessons I myself still have to confront in the near future. I guess, after earning the degree and facing the outside world, I can share with you my new knowledge then. For now, let me clean up my spilled coffee and put a bookmark on my pile of books, I’m yet to see that light at the end of this tunnel too.