#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.”

[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 🥰

[pinknightsinmymind]

【 abby anderson as a gf hc's 】

a/n: this is just super fluffy and cute <333 i wrote a lot so it's below the cut

first and foremost, lots of ppl make assumptions about abby and what she's like because of her appearance. she has somewhat of a rbf, and she's insanely buff, so many ppl are intimidated by her automatically.

that being said, abby looks to be understood and known at a deeper level, and wants to be treated like anyone else no matter what she looks like

i think she's the typical "intimidating but a huge softie" type like HEAR ME OUT

anyone can look at her and know that she's insanely strong and that she could easily take them out, and while true, underneath all that abby is extremely kind and caring

she may look scary, but she loves reading, she loves animals, she loves nature, she has a soft spot for lev, she's grown to understand the world outside of herself and that there is more than what meets the eye, she's learned from her mistakes, and she's deeply loyal

so while, yes, she is tough and strong, she is much more than that and wants to be seen for all parts of herself rather than the surface; she wants to be understood and she wants her partner to be someone who isn't intimidated by her and is willing to look beyond her exterior

so while everyone else avoids her and you willingly approach her despite what ppl say? and you treat her like a person—like she were anyone else? that immedately gets you on her good side and gains you her respect

you two begin to seek each other out more and more bc she enjoys your company and begins to open up to you

she lets you see every side of her, even the ones she typically wouldn't let others see

other ppl may be confused as to how you joke around with her so easily when they'd fear for their lives if they did, but that's simply bc you're close enough to her that you know how much of a huge softie she is

okay okay enough of my intimidating softie abby agenda and now time for more interesting stuff

im FULLY convinced that in a modern!au and college!au she'd be in pre-med studying to be a doctor or a surgeon; she'd do it bc she wants to help ppl but also bc she loves and admires her dad for his work

bc of this i also see her bragging to you all the time that she'll be your doctor wife who makes big money so she can spoil you

(and she lives up to that promise)

when she comes home late from work she's quick to make it up to you

ABBY IN SCRUBS

knowing her love of novels, i feel like she struggled to pick between pre-med and english as her major, but at the end of the day being a doctor called to her passions much more so she chose english as her minor

HOWEVER, i feel like her brain is so sexy especially when talking about novels she's read

like imagine her going on tangents about the book she's read and what she thinks the meaning is, then bringing up the story's historical context, and then interdisciplinary studies and just being like "omg she's so sexy i'm going to take my clothes off rn" bc of how smart she is

her book collection is HUGE and she lets you borrow whatever you want from her shelves, and you can see all the things she's scribbled in the margins, her silly annotations, small drawings in the corners, her cussing in her notes about the characters saying stuff like "what the fuck is wrong with you?" so seriously

she'll find poems she really likes and tell you about them especially the ones that remind her of you

i feel like she'd love emily dickinson and the bronte sisters idk i can see it

she's SO excited to introduce you to her dad

she's a huge family person and wants you to feel like a part of her family too

in a modern!au lev is probably a kid who lives next door to her that she babysits and tutors sometimes but she absolutely adores him and sees him as her brother

can you imagine how much of a hopeless romantic she is

she's probably so cheesy and loves romance and being cute with you where if it were anyone else it'd be cringy but its HER and she's just so sweet and so endearing how could you hate any of it?

asks you to be her valentine every year even if you're her gf bc she still feels the need to romance you

will make a spectacle of every holiday in order to treat you somehow

okay maybe gift giving would be a love language of hers too i can see it

but i feel like her top love languages are physical touch and acts of service tho

she's definitely the type to cherish any moment with you, and values being able to sit with you in silence in general but also while you do your own activities together (so parallel play basically)

.... i think she'd love to play video games to destress but not necessarily violent ones i think she'd play more calm games like animal crossing to relax or maybe minecraft where yall can build a world together and have a little farm bc she thinks its cute

teases you when you get lost or when you die in the games tho bc she's a bully (jokingly) like that

definitely the type to be like "only I can bully you"

very protective in general she wouldn't let anyone lay a hand on you and she'd take such good care of you

worries about your well-being (physical, emotional, mental) all the time and will do whatever it takes to make sure you're okay

if you need her at 3 am, she doesn't care she goes to your place right away

if you're sick she won't hesitate to buy you medicine, clean up your place, make you soup, whatever you want

when taking care of you while sick she calls you her number one patient and her favorite patient bc she's corny like that

there's nothing she wouldn't do for you bc when she's committed, she's committed

she's such a devoted and loyal person in general that when she cares about you, she cares about you, and there's no bluffing involved

just a very sincere and honest person who is willing to grow and learn, especially with her partner

i bet she's VERY open to communication and to talk things out with you she's the type to listen to you wholeheartedly and give you all the reassurance you need

she's the type of partner who's SO open to communication and good at it that you're like omg??? how are you so calm??? i'm screaming and crying and shitting my pants rn???

she's a huge softie and such a loving person who looks to be understood the way she understands others; she craves unconditional love and wants to give to others

she's just gf (and wife) material like come ON

[dekarios]

what is your onion of the taash questline if you are comfortable sharing?

ok so ive found out i actually havent finished the ENTIRE questline. just the main part of it, i think ? i finished up to taash's mother dying .

so... i

i rate it poorly. i need like more time.. to digest it . i also.. have a very hard time with this because while i am nonbinary i am just a white british person . i dont have a mixed heritage or culture . i am just white british and not even a cool british like gaelic i am English ...... as plain boring white bread as u can get.

so commentin on the heritage vs culture choice u are given is hard for me beyond that it makes me feel uncomfortable to have to pick for someone. that is not my place. it feels very wrong of me to have this power over someone . when i first was given a choice i said embrace being multicultural. cuz like that feels.. obvious. its beautiful to come from multiple cultures and being pieces of them . thats so cool and awesome to me. and then being forced to pick was so not cool and very not awesome.

in terms of the nonbinary stuff ... the more it got mentioned and brought up the more i disliked it. i don't know how much people will agree with me here so bare with me. it felt very on the nose, unnatural, even the word nonbinary didnt seem like it fit. i feel like they were lazy. i feel like they should have made a new word , maybe even a new concept , to work within the dragon age setting. that maybe was specific to rivaini culture that taash heard from another lord of fortune and it felt right . idk. they could have integrated it better to the world of thedas. i felt.. pandered to . i felt like they were saying hey look, hey. hey thats you right. doesnt this make u feel seen and happy . please ignore the weird racism and focus on this

i could have loved taash i think. but i don't. i barely like taash. i feel like taash is a scapegoat. a mouthpiece. that sometimes taash says and does things that don't feel natural to the character cuz taash isnt talking, bioware is. this gets even worse when you take into account lord of fortune things like selling back cultural artifacts to the people they belong to and bioware going "dw its ethical and ok! trust us!" but they have taash say it and it feels wrong, off and weird. like.. out of character? idk it's strange.

taash is a strange character. i dont think bioware actually respected them as much ... i think they used bioware to push this weird anti qunari narrative and to pander to queer people while being weird and racist and idk. idkdidkdikdksoldfgjzsdlff

i need someone who isnt white and who is smarter than me and better at articulating than me to write a think piece on this. while i am the right person for the nonbinary stuff. theres pieces here i am not the right person for. and i dont wanna speak over anyone. or be the voice for anyone when i shouldnt be. but i will say ...

if i can see how gross this shit comes across , how on earth are the people of colour who are actually effected by this bullshit feeling? they shouldnt be exposed to this bullshit . bioware should do better. hire some diverse writers man . get ur shit checked and looked over by poc before u push it out. ur game shouldnt be hurting minorities . they deserve better than this shit STILL happening . ive got too many friends and mutuals pained over taashs story and angry about it. that aint right. it just aint right man

and yeah like i said i havent 100% finished it, it seems, but i dont see the majority of this changing or any of it . i am uhh "burnt" as it were, i do not think bioware can fix this feeling inside of me

this got rambly i hope it makes sense

[nexlikestoyap101]

Happy Pride Month 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️...check out Splatoon!!🦑🐙

Splatoon is so diverse when it comes to sexuality and gender. Don't believe me? Here's a list:

Pearl and Marina, also known as Off the Hook - the most unsubtle non-confirmed lesbian couple (but it's pretty much canon by now). Check out this post full of evidence!

Acht - the series' first major confirmed nonbinary character, using they/them pronouns, correcting mistranslations from both official sources and fan translations. (Also commonly headcanoned as aroace or other variations, based on their reactions to romantic scenes between Off the Hook)

Orion (the green one) - nonbinary character from the supporting cast, confirmed by this dialogue from their friend. (Only video I could find of the dialogue in quesiton)

The band Diss-Pair - commonly headcanoned as a gay couple based on the fact that they appear in the Valentine's Day artwork for 2019 (by extension, the giant group in the front can be a polycule, if you really want them to be)

Cipher...

And

6. Smollusk - ^ both characters who use it/its pronouns. Listed on their individual wiki pages.

7. Finn - a presumed transgender female fish if we think about real life betta fish biology.

8. Shiver - initially speculated to be nonbinary, based on their pronouns in the Japanese version. Later confirmed to be female in English.

Some of these are more canon than others, but let's just have fun regardless, yeah? And celebrate what we do have!

Some more things I can think of:

Craig Cuttlefish and DJ Octavio - popularly headcanoned as the 'textbook definition of old men yaoi lovers to enemies 🎵'

Agent 24 - popular ship between Agent 3 and Agent 8 (3x8=24, math puns!), due to promotional art + 2020's Valentines Day Artwork. (The characters often change in gender in appearence in promotional artwork)

Multiple ships between the games large cast of female characters

Removal of gendered hair/clothing options in Splatoon 3.

Various same-sex ships from the spin-off manga, Coroika.

Multiple of the above pairings listed are Inkling/Octoling ships (Squid/Octopus) - a reoccuring theme in the game is the opression of Octolings, mirroring real world issues of discrimination and 'forbidden love.'

Jumping off from that middle point, the game is female-centric (with lots of female characters + the default for the playable character being female-presenting), as the developers discuss in a 2015 Famitsu interview:

Splatoon has always been a franchise where hopefully people can see themselves represented in game, particularly young girls. As the franchise develops, more and more diverse characters are added for this exact purpose.

This is an amazing series where hopefully all sorts of people can feel represented in one way or another!

Sorry if I got any details about any of the characters/events wrong - I'm going off of my memory and observations about the fandom, mostly. I just really wanted to share these facts with everyone! You're welcome to share your own intrepratations and facts in the reblogs too! :) Let me know if I missed anything!

Happy pride! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🦑🐙

[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.

[petrichor-idyllic]

Heyy first of i want to say that i really enjoy your writting! I think its incredible! I wanted to ask if you can write a minho x reader with she/her pronouns where the reader and minho meet outside of the glade? like in the scorch trials and when they arrive in save haven they slowly fall for each other? I hope this isnt too complicated 😅

(sorry english Isnt my first language 😬)

I'm loving all the post-tmr requests atm, it lets me add some variation to my writing :))

Though I'm slowing down on the longer pieces because they take so damn long, so this might not be as descriptive- sorry if it's not quite what you wanted.

This took longer than I thought it would to get out because I couldn't settle on a plot, but I think I got there eventually.

IT TAKES TIME

MASTERLIST | MINHO MASTERLIST

SUMMARY: See above. Right Arm Member!Fem!Reader x Minho. Movie based fic for simplicity.

You've been a member of the Right Arm for a while, and things are finally starting to wind down in preparation for moving to the Safe Haven. Which is where you meet Minho. After things go wrong, you focus on helping those remaining, only to be surprisingly reunited with the boy you only met once- but haven't stopped thinking about.

WARNINGS: Inappropriate language, some violence.

Somehow, you've survived this long.

Despite the odds, you're still here. You never thought it would happen, but now you're surrounded by like-minded people, and the end is in sight.

You're sat with Vince and Dr Mary Cooper, along with some random teenagers you rescued from WCKD's Mazes. You know, the usual. The three of you come from very different walks of life.

Mary is an ex-WCKD scientist who used to actually experiment on the kids you've spent the last few months trying to save. You were a Scorch-bound thief who tried to swipe Right Arm gear and got swept into the mayhem. Vince is kind of a mystery- he doesn't really like talking about his life.

When he caught you, you managed to prove yourself useful, and you quickly joined the ranks of the higher end of the Right Arm- despite being considerably younger.

You shuffle on the box you've decided to turn into a seat, looking over Vince's messy plans. It's basically a foreign language to you, but as long as it makes sense when he tells you what to do, you're not really bothered.

He's more stressed than usual, and Mary is running around like a maniac trying to sort out medical supplies before the move.

It's definitely not an easy situation.

But it's nearly over.

"(Y/N)! Vince!" You look over your shoulder, hearing Harriet's familiar voice as she approaches you in the distance- a group of unfamiliar faces behind her.

"Who the fuck are they?" You grumble to your boss. Due to being born and raised in the Scorch, you tend to be more forward and slightly less lenient. Especially towards new people.

"Not a clue."

The group approaches you, and Vince stands first.

Harriet seems pleased, and Sonya is talking to one of the boys, and it doesn't take a genius to be able to tell that they know each other.

Harriet has proved herself beyond useful and you put a lot of faith in her. She's a dedicated leader with sharp wits and a sharper tongue; not to mention she's incredibly intelligent- so why she's brought a group of strangers here without permission is beyond you.

"I thought the Right Arm was supposed to be an army," an Asian boy states, not yet caught on to Vince's presence as he walks towards them, with you reluctantly following.

"Yeah, we were," the group freezes as Vince speaks up. "This is all that's left of us."

You stand behind him, examining each of the group as they blankly stare at Vince. That's until you look at the boy that had previously spoken- who, for some reason, is looking at you.

He's handsome, about the same age as you and is well built. His hair looks suspiciously good for someone who has been through the Scorch. Then again, somehow, the majority of the group seem relatively unscathed.

"Lotta good people died getting us this far," Vince continues as you hold the boys gaze, only breaking eye contact when he looks away, finally cracking under the pressure.

"Who are they?" Vince finally asks.

"They're Immunes," Harriet responds,almost sounding bored. "Caught 'em coming up the mountain."

"You check 'em?" Your ends land on a girl. Her hair is short and she's pretty short- but she's sickly pale and almost a shade of purple. Something is definitely not right.

"I know this guy, Aris," Harriet points to one of the boys, "I trust him."

"Well, I don't. Check 'em-"

"Vince-" he grab his arm, stepping forward and gaining his attention, he looks at you as you point at the girl "-I don't know about you, but she ain't look like a Munie to me."

As if on cue, the girl gasps, her eyes rolling into the back of her head before she collapes. Falling forward, she crashes into the ground, surely conscious.

"Brenda! Brenda!" The elder of the group dives to her side and Vince looks at you.

"What's goin' on?" You shrug, but pull a pistol from its sheath attached to your leg.

The man pulls Brenda up, letting her head fall backwards as he cradles her.

"I'm sorry," she gasps, "I'm sorry."

"What's going on with her?" Vince asks- but you know. You were raised around Cranks. Hell, you were raised by Cranks. The Flare affects people differently; some people could go for months before even showing signs, and others were a couple of hours.

The scavengers and people you surrounded yourself with were picked off by the virus, one by one.

You know what it looks like better than anyone.

"I don't know," the man says. "Brenda, are you alright?"

Vince spots a bandage on Brenda's leg, peeling it away and revealing a bite mark. "Oh shut!" He dives back and your suspicions are confirmed.

You immediately point the gun at her. You're not risking everything for this random girl. Vince does the same. "Crank! We got a Crank!"

"No! No!" The group immediately splits, with one of the teenagers diving in and blocking Vince whilst the man is grabbed by two of your own men, yanking him away.

"Stay back!" Vince yells but the boy doesn't move.

"This just happened, okay? She's not dangerous yet." The boy tries to bargain but you just scoff.

"You shouldn't have brought her here!"

"I know."

"We let Cranks in here now, the Safe Haven doesn't last a week!"

"I understand," the boy continues to argue, but you're more than ready to end this, "Alright, just listen. Please. Please, okay? I told her that you could help."

Brenda is panting on the floor. Her body is limp and gasping. You feel bad for her.

"There's gotta be something you can do."

"Yeah, there is," you step forward, "we can put her out of her misery."

You cock your gun and the still restrained man keeps screaming "no". You suck in a deep breath, preparing yourself to pull the trigger when a familiar voice stops you.

"(Y/N)! That's enough!" Maty shouts from behind you. "Vince; let him go!" She marches over, repeating herself. "Let him go!"

The men do as she says and you lower your gun, even if Vince doesn't do the same. "She's infected, Doc. There's nothing we can do for her."

"No, but he can," Mary looks at the boy that was trying to bargain, making you and Vince exchange puzzled looks. "Hello, Thomas."

Like something out of a comedy skit, the other four teenage boys look at each other. And then, for some reason, look at you for an answer- which you don't have. So, you just shrug, looking at Vince.

Who also just shrugs.

"You know me?" Thomas asks as Vince lowers his gun.

"Interesting. It makes sense they'd put you in the Maze." Mary walks over to the sick girl. "Though, I must admit, I was worried they'd kill you after what you did."

"What I did?" Thomas manages to stammer out.

"The first time we spoke, you said you couldn't take it anymore, watching your friends die, one by one. The last time we spoke, you gave me the coordinates of every WCKD compound, trial and lab."

"He was our source," Vince looks at Thomas in some kind of awe.

"We couldn't have pulled all this off without him. Take her to the tent," Mary instructs the nearest guys, "and get these guys some warm clothes."

She instructs Thomas to follow her, leaving you and Vince with the confused group of teenagers.

He blinks blankly as they wait for a response. He looks at Harriet and Sonya before he looks at you, his mouth opening and closing like a fish.

"Deal with this."

"Wait, what?" Vince immediately turns around, walking away even though you're speaking to him. "Why do I have to deal with this?"

"Because I said so!" He shouts over his shoulder. "Just do it!"

You turn back to the boys, and the remaining girl, swallowing and composing yourself for a second- you're not a people person. You don't deal with people; Vince does.

But since Vince has decided to pussy out, apparently it's now your job.

"Are, uh... are you guys hungry?"

One of them shrugs, he has dark skin and a contagious smile. "Sure, I could eat."

"Alright, follow me, I guess." You turn around, the boys behind you exchanging another round of nervous glances before doing as you say.

You can hear the mumbling behind you, even if Sonya and Harriet have decided to tag along; mainly so they can bond with Aris and catch up. You can hear them explaining some basic things- stuff about Dr Cooper, how things work around here, the departure at first light, etc. Nothing you need to pay attention to, at least.

The boldest of the group becomes apparent pretty fast. "So, you help Vince run this joint?" The Asian boy from before sparks up a conversation, and you squint at him.

"That's right."

"How'd that happen?" You shoot a glare his way. "I mean, you look pretty young- compared to Vince and... uh..."

"Mary?"

"Yep," he clicks his tongue as you remind him of the name. "That's the one. You don't quite fit in with them; a leader, a doctor, and a teenage girl- how'd that happen?"

"What's your name?" You ask, looking at him out of the corner of your eye. He's curious, that's for sure. You might as well learn the name of your interrogator.

"Minho," he states, "and you're (Y/N), right?"

"Hm, well observed," you hum, "can't remember the name of the woman who's saving your friend's life, but you can remember mine?"

This seems to catch him off-guard, and his bold demeanour slips for just a second. "Well, what can I say? It's memorable."

You reach a small table, signalling for them to sit down before you call someone over, instructing them to bring food.

"So, you gonna answer my question or what?"

"Trust Minho to start flirting with the first girl he sees," a boy you're pretty sure you heard someone call Frypan says, earing a sharp kick to the shin from Minho.

You scoff, deciding to ignore the comment as you take your own seat. "I'm a lowlife thief, to answer your question." Minho raises his eyebrow at you, silently pushing you to continue.

"Lived my whole life in the Scorch; everyone- family, friends, you name it -caught the Flare and died. I'm the last man standing. Used to fuck about stealing shit from WCKD, then ended up tryna swipe guns off of these assholes. Obviously, I didn't know it was the Right Arm, but Vince liked my uh... what did he call it? Spark? Whatever, doesn't matter- but that's how I ended up here."

Minho hums. "That's quite the story."

You shrug. "Not really. Ask anyone here; we've all got the same sob-story. Well, not you guys, I guess. Can't imagine what you've all been through."

Somehow, this leads into a brief conversation about the Maze and what the boys have been through, including actual introductions. The only girl, Teresa, has been so quiet you've barely even acknowledged her presence, until she stands up and walks away without saying a word.

The group eats, and eventually, you leave, choosing to let Sonya and Harriet catch up with Aris, and the boys settle down before moving again.

You find Vince, continuing your discussion of plans when he makes a surprising comment.

"You've definitely got his attention."

"What?" You perk your head up, blinking from your seat in the shade. Vince nods his head towards the Gladers, who have decided to take their seats on top of a slight hill. Minho, once again, holds your gaze.

He's not shy. That's for sure.

"See," he scoffs.

"I think you're looking too much into this." You look away, back to your plans. "I've done literally nothing to gain any attention."

"Yeah, well, by the sounds of things, these boys haven't really seen any girls, remember?"

"They literally arrived with two." He glares at you, obviously jokingly, which makes you chuckle. "What does it matter? Have you reached the low point of indulging yourself in teenagers' non-existent love lives?

"Ha-ha," he says dryly, making you genuinely grin at him.

You might not have known Vince long, but him and Mary are the closet you have to family.

Which is probably why what happens next hurts so much.

Teresa's betrayal happened so fast you could barely even process it and the entire thing is kind of a blur in your mind.

WCKD blasted through the remaining Right Arm like it was nothing. They killed Mary and kidnapped Minho, along with several other Immunes.

It was a hard blow.

Vince made the executive decision to leave you in charge of the Safe Haven. After the events of the betrayal, the remainder of the people either decided to help Thomas or retreat to safety. With Mary gone and Vince still leading the rebellion, you're now in charge of the peaceful Safe Haven.

Even if anxiety eats at you every day.

You're left entirely in the dark, waiting every day for Vince and the others to show up.

And every day ends the same; you're still in charge and you're still stressed.

It's shit, to be honest.

Just over six months pass, and you change a lot. You've gone from the slightly sarcastic nihilistic thief that Vince recruited to a well-respected leader who cares for her people.

"Ma'am!" One of your men bursts into the medical tent where you're cheering up a pregnant lady that you've befriended. Her partner got killed at the battle and you've become close, often helping her in the medical tent.

You look over at him, shock plastered on his face. "They're here."

You don't say anything as you rush out of the tent, the blaring mechanical beating sounds of the Berg come to a halt as you start to sprint across the sand. The doors of the Berg open, and for a second, you're thrilled.

Until you see a bleeding and unconscious Thomas. "What happened?" You ask as you arrive at the Berg.

Definitely not the reunion you wanted.

"He got shot," Vince struggles along with the help of Jorge and some random dude you've never met.

You rush them to the medical tent, enlisting the help of one of your trained doctors, who immediately assembles a small group to prep for surgery.

"You've grown up," you meet Vince at a secluded part of the Safe Haven, his back towards you as he soaks in the ocean in the distance. He doesn't even need to look to know it's you.

"I'm not sure I agree with that," you scoff.

"You have, kid. People have been gushing about you since I got back- you've achieved a lot."

"Still got a lot to learn, though."

"Don't we all?" A silence settles in, the shadows on his face are dark and his hair is much longer.

"What happened, Vince?" He looks at you, almost like he's in physical pain.

He explains everything. The struggles they've all faced that you weren't present to bear witness to and the losses. He explains that Gally is a boy that the Gladers used to know and he helped them into the Last City. Which is where they'd lost Newt and Teresa helped them escape, only to fall victim to the crumbling WCKD tower.

They're safe now, but healing isn't going to be easy.

You spend the next couple of hours letting Vince take over your duties, and showing him around. It's nice to feel the weight be lifted off of your shoulders, but some of the folk you've been tending to seem reluctant for you to pass the torch back.

Once night falls, and Thomas is up walking again, you catch a glimpse of the boys you'd met once. And for some reason, the urge to talk to them comes over to you.

"Well," you say as you approach from behind, "I honestly thought I'd never see you assholes again." You step over a box, using it as a seat.

"Same to you, shuck-face," Minho grins at you and you scoff.

"Yeah, I still don't understand your shitty Maze insults," you drop your head, smiling to yourself before pulling it back up again. "Seriously, it's good to see you guys."

"(Y/N), I'm assuming?" An unfamiliar boy asks and you nod as he holds his hand out for you to shake. "Gally."

"Ah, yes- Vince mentioned you." You take his hand in a firm grip, stiffly shaking.

"All good things, I hope."

"Please, he barely has anything to say at all."

Minho clears his throat, bringing your attention back to him. "Heard you've been running the joint, that true?"

"Aye, well, someone had to," you stretch slightly. "Can't complain, though- this place is full of people willing to do what I say."

"You letting the power get to your head, yet?" You jut your lip out at him and he grins.

The conversation is cut short as you listen to Vince's speech, watching as the boys get up one by one to carve names into the stone.

The boys seem to settle surprisingly fast, and with your status, your moments with them are cut to few and far between.

"Hey," you look up, the voice pulling you out of your daydreams. You normally spend the early mornings in Safe Haven sitting on the sand, letting the water splash at your feet hours before anyone else has woken up. Except this morning, you're apparently not the only early bird.

"Hey," you respond as Minho sits next to you.

"Do you even sleep?" He scoffs. You're normally the last person to go to bed and the first person to rise.

"Eh, depends on the day," you joke, sending a friendly smirk his way.

You sit in a comfortable silence for a while, until you clear your throat.

"I'm sorry about your friend," you say, and he smiles sadly. "I'm sorry about everything you went through. Vince has told me what he knows- Thomas has mentioned pieces, and it sounds horrible but that doesn't compare to the actual thing."

"Yeah, it's kinda weird, yanno? Feels like I've been on survival mode for so long, I don't know what to do with myself now."

"Yeah," you nod along, "I get that."

"What was it like? Living in the Scorch?"

"I'm sure Brenda and Jorge have told you all about it," you stare off into the sea, watching the waves roll over themselves.

"They've told me about their side of things- but Jorge has a whole group of psychos doin' his bidding until klunk hit the fan when we showed up. Haven't really told us anything about the Scorch."

"It was... Hard. Years of contact survival, moving one place to the next when someone got infected. It was just years of damage control that never really worked."

This became a routine. You and Minho would get up early, meet on the beach, and spend your time until the others woke up talking.

It's actually kind of nice.

Turns out, Minho isn't always sarcastic and full of wit; he's actually surprisingly emotionally intelligent and you confide a lot in each other.

You'd be lying if you said you hadn't started to develop feelings for the boy. How could you not?

You'd never had a crush on someone before. You didn't have time in the Scorch and no one stuck around long enough to develop much relationship. But this is different.

You're safe here.

And unbeknownst to you, Minho feels the exact same way.

"What the hell are you doing?"

It'd been weeks now. Minho gushed about you to the Gladers, who made nudging gestures and knowing glances to each other. They'd been pushing him to make an actual move for what felt like forever.

Though, they didn't mean to stand shirtless in the salt water at the crack of dawn.

"Goin' for a swim? What's it look like?"

"Dude, it's like five in the morning- I'm not fucking up my hair this early," you stand with your arms crossed, head tilted.

"Aw, c'mon, you gotta slim it, Captain- you're runnin' round here every day. Just tryna help ya relax."

"I'm plenty relaxes- No! Hey! Don't come near me!" Minho plows through the water, grasping towards you. "No! Minho! I swear to-"

You manages to grab your wrist, yanking you towards him and you shreik as he pulls you in with him. The water consumes you and the taste of salt is overwhelming.

"You prick!" You voice breaks as Minho laughs. He laughs with his whole chest, something you've never heard from him before. Scrambling to your feet, you catch him off-guard as you dive at him.

You both crash back into the water, he's submerged for a second but the water is shallow. He lifts his head, resting on his elbows to push himself up as he smiles at you.

You can't help but laugh as you hover above him, your legs tangled together.

Whilst you're having your fit of laughter, Minho just stares at you. You're the most gorgeous thing he's ever seen- like a Goddess in the flesh.

You look at him properly just as he leans forward. Pressing his lips to yours, you freeze for a second before melting into it, shifting slightly to sit on his lap instead. Your hands coming to his face.

"You know," he mumbles as he pulls away from your face, "I always wanted this. Safety- a place to actually call home. But I never thought I'd have this."

"This?"

He scoffs. "I like you, (Y/N). I don't know what's gonna happen- I just know I wouldn't mind having you with me."

Instead of responding, you kiss him again, deeper this time.

And for this first time ever, you think; maybe things aren't that bad.

This took me embarrassingly long to do so I do apologise I am running out of new ways to do this. Definitely not my best work but I decided to not make things too complicated since things move fast in the films.

I hope you enjoyed regardless :))

[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!

[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.

[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.....

[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.

[suffarustuffaru]

What are your thoughts on Re:63 fic by Spriteanon?

(okay also gonna leave a link to spriteanon’s rezero fics here and the re:63 series here if anyone is interested!!! and please feel free to leave some nice comments if you enjoy <3)

hi anon!! :o okay quick disclaimer that i havent touched spriteanons re:63 fic in a Very Long Time but i read a few of their If route/spinoff fics and got to around somewhere in arc 3 of the main re:63 fic yes :o!! (i only havent touched it since because Time and my Uncontrollable Attention Span. i dont tend to read super long fics either—no hard feelings or anything i am just a student with adhd hah.)

also quick explanation for anyone else stumbling across this—re:63 is a long plotty multichapter fic series where subaru and a few other surprise characters are genderbent (i use “genderbend” here in the sense of. biological sex and gender were bent yes). the fic starts from arc 1 and then comes with Major Divergences throughout the entire story. its a very solid read!!

but yeah so from what i do remember, i really enjoyed the fic, yeah. if i did read it again recently + caught up all the way to the current arc of the story (arc 4 i believe) i might have minor criticisms here and there, but again theyd be minor, and big emphasis on might because i do think re:63 is incredible (also i 1. try to adhere to fanfic courtesy of not giving unsolicited criticism directly to the author anyway wkfn and 2. im very light on most fic because. well we are All writing for free). and spriteanon has wrote more than a million words for this, all of which are Very polished with a solid plan for each arc. the fic’s such a labor of love its absolutely one of the best long form multichapter fics in this fandom, in my opinion. the writing style is very precise, i think, while still hitting Hard for every emotional beat and i think they generally get characters right. it’s a perfect balance.

i think what i most enjoyed about spriteanon’s fic though was its take on fem subaru.

the thing with fembaru takes in this fandom (though i see this also happen with fem reinhard takes as well)—im speaking for the english side of the fandom here by the way hah—is that sometimes writers tend to fall into this like. pitfall of being way too different with said now-female-character.

making a genderbend au does kind of show how you think of gender roles and gender and biological sex and all that, you know? not that thats a bad thing thats just an Inevitable fact given how intertwined these things can be irl and how a genderbend au will focus on these things in some way.

but like. genderswapping a character Is gonna change some things but its not usually gonna change Every Single Recognizable Trait in existence. sometimes people fall into pitfall of “this character is girl now” and forget to write her as a Person. they dont let her be as humanly “ugly” as how the character is in canon as a guy. and too many times i look at rezero genderbend fics or requests for genderbend fics in the rezero reddit fanfic ideas thread and fem subaru and reinhard are often genderswapped just to ship them with men (such as fembaru with regular reinhard or vice versa)—it does make me a little uncomfortable sometimes because 1. shipping the now fem character with another character of the same sex (such as fembaru x rem) doesnt really. Happen as much. it doesnt seem to be treated as a possibility that much?? or at least i havent seen it in fic. even though it Could Be, it’d just be less likely for Multiple Reasons (though of course correct me if im wrong if this ever happens in spriteanons fic akdndn) and 2. it feels like making a gay ship (like reinsuba) straight (ie reinsuba but one of them is the opposite sex now). which i have personal feelings on but i wont go too much into that hah.

BUT OKAY i digress i dont mean At All to go after authors who do any of this akndnd and spriteanon does have a few spinoff fics with fembaru x reinhard—all of which i ENJOYED, because 1. what i just said is a Personal Preference and 2. i dont mind it at all if its Well Written regardless (i have enjoyed a few other fembaru x reinhard fics too just bc they were well written yes!!). and spriteanons writing and handling of reinsubas dynamic is very very well written imo and i really liked reading through it. theyve written both fembaru and reinhard + subaru and fem reinhard together with a nuanced understanding of both characters, i think, and it absolutely still feels like Them. if that makes sense hah. like im not thinking “this feels like whole other people”, im thinking “this IS reinhard and subaru” regardless of gender. which is good because the former might take me out of the story a little bit T^T

and also i understand people are gonna have different takes on how genderbend aus would go, and i DO enjoy seeing variety in this yes!! :o (i cant really judge either because my old genderbend au fic is very. its different, lets just say hah.)

also spriteanon is Very good at showcasing subarus positive and negative qualities, i think. and spriteanon doesnt forget to show subarus npc/game/genre awareness-related mentality (in another way this time, given the slight differences in female lead isekai stories) either!! it was very interesting to read for Sure, and i appreciated how well they showed the trauma and horror in the story and showed how subaru understandably responds to it. fembaru feels Human here and like this is still subaru, which i think should be the goal yes. character is Very Important. and subaru can be very hard to get even close to right in fics so i gotta commend spriteanon in general for all the hard work on this fic hah.

and also i enjoyed the exploration of another subaru hobby (music!!) (which iirc is probably also a canon detail anyway?? but its expanded on in re:63??) very interesting. not much to say on that bc i dont Entirely remember every detail of this i just thought it was a fun take yes.

also i did love seeing the other characters that were genderbent. that was very fun. i kinda wish there were More just because i enjoyed it a lot. i liked seeing what changed and what didnt. though iirc spriteanon has some sort of interactive quality with some parts of the fic where they put up polls to vote on some aspects of the story?? so maybe some reoccurring readers voted on some of who gets to be genderbent and who doesnt hah.

and also the canon divergences in the story are Interesting. i was really kept on my toes a bit fr. i think out of what i read arc 2 was ABSOLUTELY my favorite for sure. it was such an amazing read and in a few aspects i enjoyed it More than canon arc 2!! not that canon arc 2 is bad (i enjoyed canon arc 2 A Lot) but re:63’s arc 2 has such Fascinating things in it…. hah i wont go into too much detail though its Spoilery.

but either way. re:63 is a very strong and solid fic imo. i really enjoyed it overall!! i might return to the fic someday to read through it from start to finish—not sure if i ever will but id have a fun time i think hah. its an absolute gem and you can see all the work spriteanon puts into it!!

[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!!!