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kaiijo · 8 months ago

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ok. bllk and jealousy rate. how jealous can they get over their gf and what do they do to cope lmao

HOW JEALOUS IS HE? — [BLUE LOCK]

characters: isagi yoichi, bachira meguru, itoshi rin, itoshi sae, kunigami rensuke, nagi seishiro, mikage reo, oliver aiku content: gn! reader (request says gf but reader is gender neutral) notes: some of these are lowkey toxic, minor spoilers for kunigami’s character arc, nagi is taller than reader

most jealous: bachira, rin, reo

bachira meguru ✶

bachira has many, many insecurities. growing up isolated and without many friends, he is more possessive of those he’s close to, which obviously includes you. he just doesn’t want to lose you, which manifests itself in jealousy over anyone he perceives as a threat to your relationship

bachira gets really clingy when he’s jealous. he thinks that inserting himself into the situation, sometimes literally wedging himself between you and the other person. he usually chooses to drape himself over you, nuzzling into your neck and speaking low enough that only you hear, trying his best to divert your attention. third-wheeling is pretty uncomfortable for the other person, especially with the smiling sneer bachira’s shooting at them, so they make a quick irish exit

itoshi rin ✶

an egoist to his very core, rin can get very jealous. while he’s very sure of himself in nearly every other part of his life, he knows that he is not an ideal partner a lot of the time, though he’ll never admit it. he’s not the most expressive or the most patient, and he’s sure that there are better partners for you out there.

when rin’s jealous, it’s a silent but deadly thing. like when he’s locked in on the ball in a game, his focus you and his ‘competitor’ is unwavering. he stalks over to stand behind you, his chest bumping right up against your back, and he snarls, “what the hell do you want, you mediocrity?” usually the other person backs off after seeing rin’s bone-chilling glare but if they’re bold enough to answer back, rin bares his teeth and is poised to strike. it’s probably best if you diffuse the situation quickly before it gets uglier

mikage reo ✶

we already know how jealous reo was over nagi so it’s safe to say that he’s definitely very jealous. having been bored with the world and other people for so long, he’s thrilled when you two get together. it makes his very protective of you and he wants to be one of the most, if not the most, special person in your life.

reo can go a couple of ways when he feels jealous over someone else but it think his primary response is to tear down the person methodically. he tilts his head a little, looks the person up and down, and notes everything about their appearance — hair, skin, clothes (including brand and cost) and criticizes every little thing. it’s a strategic move in his opinion, using observational skills and knowledge he had given his upbringing to pick apart the other person. he also might make some underhanded comment that includes that he has a black card

less jealous: isagi, kunigami, sae

isagi yoichi ✶

he definitely gets jealous from time to time but he doesn’t feel the need to act on it a lot. he’s pretty mature and for the most part level-headed (plus his ability to piece together future events helps him keep his cool a lot). this doesn’t mean that he isn’t jealous

when isagi is jealous, he’s sulky. he won’t take immediate action and watch from afar, arms crossed and a little pouty. he tries to look as dejected and as ‘wet-cat pathetic’ as possible to make you feel bad and come over to comfort him. when you inevitably do, looping your arm through his and kissing his cheek, he can’t help but smirk at the other person like a cat who go the cream

kunigami rensuke ✶

i debated where to put kunigami since there are ‘two sides’ to him — pre- and post-wildcard. pre-wild card kunigami is definitely a lot less bothered; he trusts you 100% and is 100% confident and secure in your relationship and himself. post-wild card kunigami is less chill and more forceful. he’s not a hero anymore but even as he plays a more ‘villainous’ role in soccer, he won’t cross that line in your relationship. he’s still very secure in you and himself, but he’s more protective of your relationship. definitely a ‘i trust you/us but it’s other people i’m worried about’ kind of guy

when pre-wild card kunigami got jealous, he won’t act in the moment and will talk to you about it afterwards, in a private setting. open lines of communication were important to him and working out problems like this. post-wildcard kunigami is all stormy looks and intimidation. like rin, he also stands behind you but in less actively aggressive way and more just to be threatening. it’s 95% effective and the 5% of times it doesn’t work, kunigami is not above muscling the other person away

itoshi sae ✶

i thought about putting sae in the ‘most jealous’ section but i just think that he is someone whose jealousy simmer just beneath his apathetic surface. he sees most other people as beneath him and believes that they are not worthy of speaking to you, let alone hitting on you, but because he’s sees them as so beneath him, he can’t be bothered half the time to do anything since they’re simply not worth it. he gets the most jealous when it’s people who he can potentially view as equals, like other professional athletes

when he’s jealous, sae literally just pretends they don’t exist, only talking to you. if the other person tries to interject, he sends them a sideways glare — the only acknowledgment of their existence — and then turns away to continue whatever conversation, suggesting that you both get away from the other person as quickly as possible. if ignoring the person doesn’t work, sae doesn’t shy away from spewing vitriol at the other person

least jealous: nagi, oliver, michael

nagi seishiro ✶

simply put, being jealous is a hassle to nagi. it makes him too hot and too annoyed for him to want to feel it so he suppresses the feeling a lot. nagi’s height is already intimidating enough for most people so they don’t approach you when they see you two together but that isn’t a deterrent to everyone

when nagi gets jealous, he does one of two things: just gives a thousand-yard stare that freaks people out or he gets whiny and clingy. his stare is eerie and silent, and the lightness of his eyes doesn’t help it. he towers over you like some cryptid companion. when he gets whiny and clingy, nagi tugs at your sleeve and asks drily, “can we go yet? why are you still talking to them?”

oliver aiku ✶

sigh… oliver is undoubtedly someone who thinks and knows he’s the shit. with so many women and men alike fawning over everything about him, his ego is through the roof. he has very little worry about you leaving him for someone else. honestly, he finds it amusing most of the time when someone attempt to draw you away from him, and let’s it play out a lot for his own entertainment. of course, he’ll intervene if it’s making you uncomfortable but he also believes you can handle yourself

when oliver gets jealous, he acts as casual as possible. he’s friendly towards the other person and but it’s not hard to uncover that it’s all fake, whether it’s from the glint in his eye or the way his smile is stiff and forced. common tells when he gets jealous is that he pokes his tongue against the inside of his cheek or he clenches his teeth and inhales softly but sharply. he employs the good old tactic of calling the other person the wrong name and making all kind of underhanded comments that slowly chip at their nerves. (“haruya? haruki? oh! you’re haruto! right, right, you know, they’ve never mentioned you before! crazy, huh?”)

michael kaiser ✶

kaiser in german literally means ‘emperor,’ and it’s no secret that kaiser views himself as one. similar to sae, he see himself as so above others that he’s not even bothered by other people hitting on you. it displeases him greatly, sure, but these cockroaches will never be able to steal you from him so why should an emperor deal with the plebians? the only time that ever happens is when a peasant is particularly forceful and then, kaiser intervenes

when he gets jealous, kaiser puts on a show. if there’s one thing about him, he’s a bit of a drama queen. he will absolutely posture and puff out his chest at the offending person, looking down his nose arrogantly and smirking. he makes a big display of wrapping himself around you, gripping firmly at your hips and saying, “liebling, you’re very charitable to entertain this insect, but it’s time to end this ruse.”

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minnlahzz · 15 days ago

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Alain Relationship Headcanons.

requested.

alain, alain... i hate french people, but ig he gets a pass because his pokemon are sick!! sorry for the delay of this request, procrastination gets the best of me

alain isn’t the type to wear his heart on his sleeve. he’s reserved, almost to a fault (dangerously nonchalant 😔🙏) and it takes time to understand how he shows affection. he’s not one for grand declarations, but his loyalty and quiet care speak volumes. you might not get a lot of words from him, but his actions leave no room for doubt.

alain would never confess first–not because he doesn't care, but because he's too cautious. (also because he doesn't know how he would talk to you about this, considering he's still young and doesn't want to look like a fool infront of you) you guys have a great friendship already, why ruin it with all that mushy stuff? even if it's obvious you like him back, he's not quick to make assumptions and sees this as your 'friendly gestures,' which definitely killed you as he ignored all your signs BLINDLY. so realistically you would have to confess first.

when you confess to him, he just zones out trying to process what you said. almost like he didn't believe that you liked him back. It would go something along the lines of this.

you weren't planning on confessing, and especially not today. it just slipped out of your mouth while you guys were hanging out. “i think i’m in love with you,”

alain blinked, turning to look at you like you’d just spoken gibberish. “what did you just say to me?” he heard it loud and clear, he just didn't understand why you said that.

“nothing!”

“...you’re terrible at lying.” (he likes you back)

for him, actions speak louder than words. that's why his love language is 100% acts of service. he’s not great at expressing his feelings, but he’ll go out of his way to do it for you. need help with something? already done. forgot your umbrella? he’s there with one even before it started getting cloudy.

alain is okay with pda, as long as its not excessive or like frequent. holding hands? sure, why not. hugs? yup! kiss? sure, but only on the cheek.

he’s very observant and notices things about you that even you might overlook. if you’re stressed or upset, he’ll pick up on it right away, even if you’re trying to hide it.

alain can be quite protective, but not the point of being overbearing. he trusts that you can handle yourself, but if ever someone tries to mess with you, they're going to face alains charizard!!

arguments with him are rare, but when they happen, they’re intense. he’s not the type to yell or lose his temper, but his stubbornness can make things drag out longer than they need to. he hates conflict, so he’ll sometimes shut down instead of addressing the issue right away. it’s frustrating, but once he’s had time to think, he’ll come back to make up.

dates with alain aren’t traditional, and honestly, they might not even feel like dates at first. like a walk through the streets of lumiose city or spending time at a Pokémon Center while Charizard gets checked up. it’s less about the activity and more about being with you in a way that feels natural to him. he tries his best though!!

he's not that romantic let me make that clear, but his silliness is somehow charming in a way. he does hilarious things without noticing, and he'd just stare at you confused on what you're laughing about. he's the type of guy who would give you flowers randomly and then say "it was on sale..."

one time, you walked in on him mid-rant about how the weather was today, and charizard was just sitting there nodding like it understood. when he noticed you, he got all defensive: “what? it’s not weird.” yeah, okay, whatever you say alain...

rating time!! 8/10 he's actually really fun to be around despite his cold demeanor and nonchalant dread head energy, he's dependable and genuinely cares for your well being, but his communication skills are through the floor because its almost non–existent! goodluck showing him to your parents...

#pokemon #pokemon x reader #pokemon anime x reader #pokemon anime #pokiani #pokiani x reader #alain pokemon #pokemon alain #alain x reader #pokemon alain x reader #pokémon x reader #pokémon alain x reader

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ewingstan · 5 months ago

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So one of Ward's main themes has been asking what's needed to change as a person. Its the whole setup for Breakthrough: People who've done horrible things trying to become better. There's been lots of sub-themes within that—accountability, punishment and repentance, separating yourself from your past. There's been a constant counter to it, with most of the foils or antagonistic forces expressing the idea that you can't get better and might as well let yourself get worse. Lisa does this through her pessimism about things getting better. A lot of the minor career villains have represented it through their willingness to "be more brutal" rather than stick to the old rules we're pretending anyone followed. Cradle represented it through how he blamed Rain for not letting him stay good, and before that the rest of the cluster represented it through blaming Rain for their own bloodthirstiness via bleedthrough. "This isn't my fault, the world is making me bad" has repeatedly been positioned as the obstacle to "Regardless of why I did wrong before, I can put in work to get better."

I do think that "others are too quick to judge agents for reacting to bad circumstances imperfectly" is a bigger problem then "people are too willing to blame their circumstances for their behavior." Mostly because those unfair judgements of moral character has been the justification for uncountable cruel punishments throughout history, lead to untold people being paralyzed by the fear of Hell, lead to children being treated like they needed evil beaten out of them and convicts being treated like they're being disrespectful for daring to continue drawing breath. It can be hard for me to overcome my gut reaction towards anything that seems to be arguing for moral responsibility, because I genuinely think our ethical systems would be better without that concept being included.

But, that's not quite what Ward is doing, at least not when its at its best. "You need to take responsibility" in the sense of recognizing that you could act differently in the future is, strictly speaking, different from "you need to be held responsible" in the sense I find harmful. So as far as central themes go, its not bad. I have resistances to finding it astounding, but it's not an inherently terrible angle or anything.

That said, Ward has framed the opposing theme in counterproductive ways. While "the world wouldn't let me change" can work as a good beat, its not something that people are consciously thinking and being motivated by. We can talk about "they thought I was a monster, so they stripped me of all means to live honestly, so I had to live as a monster" or even "they thought I was a monster, so none would speak with me except others they considered monsters, and we made each other our worst selves," but in neither of those cases is the character's actions driven by their own belief that people wont let them be good—its driven by the actual external circumstances of how people treat them and restrict opportunities. So the way Cradle suddenly starts behaving horribly, not because others are treating him in ways that affect his material circumstances, but because of his reaction to the cluster bleedthrough—it just feels mistaken to even invoke "you made me a monster" as a trope. It doesn't work as a critique of pushing the blame for your actions onto others, because Cradle's reasoning for pushing the blame onto others feels written as an afterthought.

My problem with how this is treated in Amy are related, but not identical. A few chapter's ago, Amy complained about the world not letting her change. I don't think it made much sense for her, not only because her becoming someone who externalizes her issues feels like an unsatisfying direction for her after Worm, but more directly because it doesn't make sense in the context she's in. And sure, she's someone who makes poorly thought-out excuses for herself, so I'm not gonna ding the writing for that. It just feels like it makes more sense as just a parroting of what some commenters have said about Victoria and Amy, rather than something that Amy would herself think.

The same thing seems true for the above passages. A lot of things that readers have said about Amy are now being said, by Amy. Amy is of course voicing the rhetorically worst possible version of those claims, but I think the interesting thing is that the context Amy's saying it is the main thing making it reprehensible. Because as much as Amy is repeating the thin substance of what some readers have argued, fans arguing with other fans that "you shouldn't hate this character because X," is just substantially different than a rapist telling her victim "you shouldn't hate me because of X." Even if the strict words spoken were the same, they aren't at all the same claim, because one is what the audience should feel and the other is how Victoria should feel.

You could argue against this by saying "if its right for Victoria to hate Amy, its right for the audience to hate Amy, because hate is right when it reflects an accurate judgement of someone's moral character." I won't pretend that conception of justified hate isn't somewhat widespread, but I don't think it stands up to scrutiny. Especially not applied to fictional characters.

#mals says #mals reads ward #wildbow #parahumans #wardblr

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yuseirra · 6 months ago

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Relationship Anaylsis: the parallels of Aqua-Akane & Aqua-Kana and Hikaru-Ai

In short, what Hikaru had with Ai is the combination of what Aqua has with these two girls.

I'm really good at analyzing emotions. It is my forte. I think I got this!! I got a huge hunch after having seen the most recent episode of the onk anime (S2 EP 15).

this post is mostly about Aqua's relationship with the two girls. It does lean towards aqukana.

If you're okay with it, please read!!:

*this was originally written in a different language, then translated through chatgpt..hshsh I've been doing this a lot..wow but it's so helpful though..

I just watched this episode, and oh, there's definitely something to it this time. I do have the volumes, but I read them last year... haha, and the memories are really coming back.

I think this episode really highlights how the relationship dynamics were set up.

It became clear that Hikaru and Ai's relationship split into Aqua-Kana and Aqua-Akane. Akane's relationship with Aqua feels like she emotionally supports him. On the other hand, Kana tends to break through Aqua's barriers and pulls him towards her.

Moreover, Akane's feelings towards Aqua seem to be a mix of wanting to help him, feeling sorry for him, and a tender affection, wishing he wouldn't be sad.

Kana's feelings towards Aqua, on the other hand, are the kind that make her happy and excited. Seeing Aqua lifts her spirits and energizes her. This greatly affects her condition—when Aqua responds to her, Kana can perform at more than 200%, but when their relationship isn't going well, she drops to below 70%, becoming subdued and deflated. Acting is her main job, so she'll perform regardless of Aqua, but when it comes to her idol work, which she started because of Aqua, the fluctuations are much more pronounced.

I think Aqua's main feeling towards Akane is gratitude. If I were to classify it as a type of love, it would be more like storge or pragma, a comradely affection accompanied by a sense of stability. He sees her as someone who understands the difficult parts of himself that he finds hard to express to others.

Aqua's feelings towards Kana, on the other hand, are romantic. If we were to classify it, it would be eros or philia—love that makes his heart race. The reason I felt it would be hard for this character to end up with Akane is that he has never shown any romantic excitement towards her. On the other hand, he's shown this a lot towards Kana throughout the manga, consistently. If Akane provides stable support, Kana's actions have a significant impact on Aqua. Kana is the one who shakes Aqua, making it clear that "Aqua likes her." Aqua is usually a very subdued character, but Kana stirs him up, provoking meaningful reactions and lifting his spirits. Whenever this happens, Aqua is a bit surprised and troubled, wondering why he's feeling this way, but he definitely becomes brighter.

I believe this would be similar to his biological father. Actually, Aqua has never once been distracted. He is clear about who he likes, and this consistency makes it hard to call him a playboy, even if he might seem like a bad boy.

Hikaru probably liked Ai and only Ai. There's little room for doubt about that. Even if he dated someone else, his heart was with Ai, which would have left the other person feeling very hurt (similar to how Aqua was with Akane). That's the type he is.

Speaking of which, I think Aqua and Akane might have ended up together if Akane hadn't taken a knife and tried to find Hikaru. Storge-pragmatic love is still love, even if it doesn't have the thrill. Being with someone can feel comfortable and stable, bringing peace of mind. That's a feeling usually found in couples who have been together for years. If nothing had happened and Aqua decided to focus on Akane and ignore Kana for a few years, it might have been possible.

However, Akane has an unusually strong desire to protect Aqua, which sometimes makes her overly intrusive into his personal space. It's not that her character is bad, but this is the opposite of Kana...

Unfortunately, Kana hasn't had many opportunities to deeply understand Aqua, while Akane goes in too deep. That's probably why it's hard for me to fully attach myself to her character. She's skilled at profiling and understanding others, but it feels like she's crossing a delicate line—almost rude, even if it's out of affection. Her character is kind. But, as someone who analyzes characters, I find that dissecting someone's personal life and then acting based on those assumptions, before they've said anything, can be really touchy and intrusive. It's more considerate to wait until the person opens up to you. Akane, however, strongly believes in what she perceives, which is why she took up the knife for Aqua. She saw something so clearly, but the problem was that Aqua didn't want her to go that far. That's why things didn't work out.

I understand where she's coming from. Akane is very sensitive and perceptive. When it comes to characters, analyzing deeply doesn't hurt anyone, so I can comment on them. But with real people, even if I notice something, I can't act on it with such certainty. It's important to experience things directly and listen to what the other person wants. Akane's confidence in her perceptions led her to act, thinking it was the right thing to do for Aqua. However, Aqua didn't want her to take such extreme measures, and that's why it didn't work out.

Watching today's episode gave me some insights. It seems that Akane's feelings for Aqua are indeed love, but they also resemble a maternal kind of love, wanting to protect and support him. Saying "I'm on your side no matter what you do" is something a deeply loving partner might say, but Akane and Aqua aren't at that level in their relationship yet, even if they have mutual affection. At this stage, such words seem to stem more from a sisterly or motherly instinct to protect rather than romantic love.

So, it struck me that Ai's feelings for Hikaru are essentially a combination of Akane's feelings for Aqua and Kana's feelings for Aqua.

To add, Ai's influence on Hikaru is similar to the combined influence of Akane and Kana on Aqua.

In the current movie arc, the emotional aspects of Akane-Aqua and Ai-Hikaru relationships seem very similar. Ai was a source of protection for Hikaru, someone he could turn to in times of great distress. When they were dating, Hikaru genuinely loved Ai and saw her as his only understanding companion. Their relationship was one of emotional support.

Ai wanted to share Hikaru's burdens, and it seems they might have even lived together for a while (in chapters 153-154, Ai packs her belongings, including a toothbrush, to leave. The fact that she could fit everything into a small bag and leave in such a sudden manner feels very real;; This must have been devastating for Hikaru, as it signaled the end of their relationship, she didn't even leave so much behind). To Hikaru, Ai was a refuge, and Ai wanted to provide that for him.

However, their relationship wasn't just about emotional support. The excitement and "I'm in love" feelings that Kana has for Aqua seem to echo in Ai's recorded videos.

Scenes of Hikaru and Ai dating or kissing are said to be fictional and Hikaru himself claims they are fictional. However, if we compare these scenes to Aqua's relationships, they resemble his interactions with Kana (and these emotions are typically found in romantic relationships, which is why I think Aqua and Kana will end up together). While they might be labeled as fiction, Aqua's immediate rebuttal suggests that, although not exact replicas, these scenes are likely rooted in truth.

I feel that the Akane-Aqua relationship has already reached a certain conclusion (I think these two will remain partners and good friends).

What's still unresolved is the Kana-Aqua relationship. The theme here is that while Akane was the one supporting Aqua, Kana is the one pulling Aqua towards her, bringing him into the light. I think this is the significance of Kana's role in the story. Just meeting Kana brings Aqua to life (honestly, this alone makes me think that Aqua would be happy with her).

I believe that ultimately, this is also what Ai wanted to do for Hikaru. She wanted to support him, share his burdens, and then, move forward to live a future together with him.

The fact that such words could be said about Hikaru shows how much Ai cared for him when they were together. A few paragraphs up, I mentioned Kana's excitement towards Aqua.

Actually, Ai's character is rather indifferent. She's cute and pretty, but Ai rarely shows genuine emotion, even when smiling. Hikaru even thought that Ai never loved him, just like everyone else. Even though they had two children together, he still wasn't sure if he was loved.

But Ai says that Hikaru was the first person she ever wanted to love. This is significant. When Kaburagi explained the moment Ai fell in love, Ai's face showed a blush and an expression of infatuation, which was really how she felt about Hikaru. This wasn't well depicted in the movie arc (I think it's because of the idea that Hikaru thought he was relying on Ai had to be convincingly portrayed. That's why it was handled this way). I think there's a chance this might come out more clearly as the Kana-Aqua relationship develops. I was cautious about whether Ai truly loved Hikaru because her feelings towards him seemed similar to Akane's feelings towards Aqua, which is a form of love but not quite the romantic, heart-fluttering kind between lovers. However, after watching the video, I understood. Ai really liked him. Romantically.

Both Ai and Hikaru must have had the same kind of love that Aqua and Kana share.

The emotional trajectory of Aqua and Kana is moving towards the brighter side together.

Ai probably wanted to give that to Hikaru. She wanted to take him, who was wandering in the dark, and bring him into the light where she was.

But she couldn't do that before.

The reason Kana's turn comes at the end is because of this. I believe Kana represents light and the future, and moving towards that direction would conclude the story.

It reminds me of Death Note. Everyone knows that L is far superior to Near and Mello. But Near says that combining his and Mello's abilities could surpass L.

Akane and Kana individually might not surpass Ai's abilities. But if they combine their strengths, the outcome for Aqua could be better than what Ai achieved for Hikaru.

The relationship dynamics for this comic are set up incredibly well. This is truly well done.

And I think Ai didn't give up on Hikaru. Something Ai left behind will likely offer redemption for Hikaru. It's like accomplishing something with the main characters that she wanted to do but couldn't as a child...

Additionally, as I mentioned before when analyzing Kamiki, Ai was an immensely significant presence for this character. Hikaru was originally a person who lacked love, and Ai gave him almost all the love he longed for. He couldn't help but love her. Look at what he says about Ai in chapters 153 and 154. He loved her enough to sacrifice his life for her—I've always thought this line was crucial. When would he have risked his life? He also said he genuinely loved her from the bottom of his heart.

Those words have to be true. Seeing his reaction after watching the video, I'm sure of it. I think there's a high probability that he never tried to harm Ai. I'll estimate about 70%.

Losing someone like that? The reaction should be something like Mephisto or Fatal. He would definitely be capable of doing anything for her sake. Such a strong feeling towards someone would lead to that.

And Ai really did like him.

I believe Ai will ultimately get everything she wished for because she's ambitious :) I think the true essence or the final impact of the song "Idol" hasn't come out yet. I believe that song will encompass everything until the end of this story. It seems like it was made with the ending in mind.

I'm looking forward to it~

#oshi no ko #hikaai #aqukana #aquakana #kamiai #oshi no ko spoilers #spoilers #oshi no theories

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onemustalwaysbecarefulofbooks · 1 year ago

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Why I Dislike Rhysand, Part 2: #NotMyHighLord

Part 2 in the rant I have suppressed for the past several years. Rhysand Stans, be warned, this is not for you. Be prepared to see critiquing of SJM’s writing as well. Proceed at your own risk!!

I feel like this section of the rant is going to be the one that most people have seen, heard, or expressed themselves already. I myself have seen many posts and takes on this before. There will probably be the least amount of original ideas in this post. Nonetheless, I can’t turn down an opportunity to finally say it in my own words.

In Part 1 of my rant (and many other posts), I discussed how Sarah J Maas blatantly has an insane sort of obsession with Rhysand. It is impossible not to notice and acknowledge if you read the series from start to finish. All it takes is about 2 minutes listening to her speak about anything related to him for you to see it as well. He is unequivocally Her Favorite and she has demonstrated that by deeming him to be THE MOST of many different things, especially in comparison with others. I made a post last summer about how I really struggle to define what I think of Sarah as an author overall. She has given me some of my favorite fictional characters of all time, written scenes and exchanges between characters that I carry in my heart and soul and overall provided me with an endless amount of entertainment. On the other hand, a GLARING fault I find there to be with her is that she often writes in an extremely puzzling and contradictory way: beating us over the head with something about a character she presents as being true, verbally stated through the dialogue of characters or through the narrative of the story, while having these characters act and behave in a totally OPPOSITE way to the way they are being described by everyone. And this obviously contradictory behavior is never addressed by anyone in the story--or if it is, the ones calling attention to it are vilified and shown in a negative light, even though they are providing commentary on actions carried out canonly by these characters.

In the simplest form, it’s like this: The author creates a character who others routinely say is the most kind, unselfish, loving, and generous person to grace the planet. An opportunity will NEVER be lost to state these things, through the narrative and through the dialogue of other characters. The fandom comes to accept these things as totally canon traits. You hear the author repeat these same beliefs. The character becomes a favorite of the fandom, who praises him/her for being so kind and selfless. You get excited to read about such a character and open the book yourself. . .only to find scene after scene where the character acts in a way that is cruel, selfish, and arrogant. All while everyone else continues to laud them for being so wonderful. There is a direct contradiction between what you’re seeing and what you’re being told. Tons and tons of readers seem to find nothing unusual about this. You’re left with the feeling that you’re in some kind of insane asylum where nothing makes sense but no one questions it.

This is the feeling I get whenever I hear about what an amazing High Lord Rhysand is.

As we’ve established, SJM is obsessed with Rhys. Therefore, she automatically makes Rhys the best at whatever he does. One day I’d love to do a drinking game where we take a shot every time someone reminds us that Rhys is The Most Powerful High Lord In Prythian’s History (he should really just get that phrase trademarked at this point). But in addition to that, we are also often reminded about what a good, just, fair, and progressive beloved ruler he is.

Rhys as High King: he could think of no other male he’d trust more. No other male who would be a fairer ruler than Rhys. And with Feyre as High Queen. . .Prythian would be blessed to have such leaders. (Cassian, ACOSF, page 451)

There are a lot of ACOTAR lines that provoke actual visceral anger and disgust in me. This is probably in my All Time Top 3.

Yeah, Rhysand is SUCH a great High Lord!! Didn’t you know. . . there are no slums in Velaris!!

There’s just, you know, female mutilation going on in the mountains!

Where to even BEGIN unloading?

I guess I’ll begin here: One of the reasons I strongly dislike Rhysand as a character is because he’s a terrible High Lord.

(And what makes me infuriated and passionately dislike Rhysand is the fact that we are beaten over the head by what an exceptionally wonderful High Lord he is despite the glaring faults shown in the text).

I really really fail to understand how anyone can believe any differently, when it is canonly stated that two thirds of Rhysand’s court are hellish and terrible places. Women are oppressed and mutilated, people who are brutal and cruel are basically given free reign to do as they please, there is not an ounce of respect given to their so-called true ruler.

And Rhys, “The Most Powerful High Lord in Prythian’s History” has done. . .nothing. Nothing to truly change either of these places.

Let’s start with Illyria.

We all know how horrible life is for Illyrian females. They are forbidden to train, are viewed as vessels for breeding, and have their wings clipped at a young age so they can’t fly. Cassian’s mother is raped by an Illyrian warrior and then worked to death, when her body is dumped off a cliff. Azriel’s mother has her young son taken from her by the male who sired him and relies on his mercy as to when he can be released from his literal prison cell to see him. Rhys’s mother was starving herself so she wouldn't get her period, which is when her wings would have been clipped when she was saved from her fate by his father’s mating bond. Emerie and her mother are horrifically abused by her father, resulting in her mother’s death. Emerie tells Nesta and Gwyn that he would slam her head into walls, crunch her fingers in doors, and that he broke her fucking back. Like most females, her wings are clipped so she’s unable to fly. Upon her father’s death, she gains control of his store much to the displeasure of her male family members who frequently harass and threaten her about it.

It’s plain to see that these are not randomly occurring isolated situations. Abuse can happen anywhere, with anyone, but there is CLEARLY a cultivated system of abuse and oppression among Illyrian females. Rhys tells us that he has banned the clipping of Illyrian female wings and is slowly working towards implementing changes that will allow women to have more freedom and choices. He tells Feyre that the Illyrians are “slow to change” and that it will take a long time to completely undo the way they’ve lived their lives for centuries.

I’m sorry, I call BULLSHIT.

The attempts we’ve seen towards this so far in the story have been half-assed at best. Rhysand makes these laws but doesn’t put anything into place to actually enforce them. In ACOMAF, we get this from Devlon, the war lord who rules over the Windhaven camp:

“Another inspection? Your dog,” he jerked his chin toward Cassian, “was here just the other week. The girls are training.”

Rhysand’s strategy to prevent female wing clipping: Tell the violent sexist males with all the power in the camps that it’s banned. Send Cassian in once a week to check up on it.

That’s it.

Allow me to demonstrate how utterly ridiculous and contradictory this is.

In ACOMAF, we have the scene where the IC visits the Court of Nightmares (oh don’t worry, we’ll touch on this place in a bit). Right before their departure, Keir insults Feyre and calls her a whore. (Sidenote: no one should ever be called a whore and I am no way in the SLIGHTEST defending Keir but honestly, I don’t know what Rhys expected. It’s like when Rhys goes out of his way to act evil and do evil things and then everyone takes offense to people calling him evil. He dresses Feyre up in skimpy revealing clothing, has her sit on his lap on his throne, and proceeds to basically finger her in front of an entire throne room of people. It’s stated a million times that fae can sense and smell arousal, and both her and Rhys are both completely turned on by this. Feyre calls HERSELF his whore: “The High Lord’s whore. Who I’d become Under the Mountain--who the world expected me to be. The dangerous new pet that Mor’s father would now seek to feel out.” Like. . .buddy, you have her play and act the part of “The High Lord’s whore” and make a public scene in front of a man who has no respect for women, and then are enraged when he calls her a whore. What did you think he would do?? How did you think he would respond?? It’s almost like he was purposely trying to goad Kier into a reaction so he could punish him for it, honestly).

ANYWAY. . .Keir calls Feyre a whore. And Rhys loses his shit:

Night exploded into the room.

People cried out. And when the darkness cleared, Keir was on his knees.

Rhys still lounged on the throne. His face a mask of frozen rage.

“Apologize”, Rhys said. My heart thundered at the pure command, the utter wrath.

Keir’s neck muscles strained, and sweat broke out on his lip.

“I said,” Rhys intoned with such a horrible calm, “apologize”.

The Steward groaned. And when another heartbeat paused--

Bone cracked. Keir screamed.

And I watched--I watched as his arm fractured into not tow, not three, but four different pieces, the skin going taut and loose in all the wrong spots--

Another crack. His elbow disintegrated. My stomach churned.

Keir began sobbing, the tears half from rage, judging by the hatred in his eyes as he looked at me, then Rhys. But his lip formed the words, I’m sorry.

The bones of his other arm splintered, and it was an effort not to cringe.

Rhys smiled as Keir screamed again and said to the room, “Should I kill him for it?”

No one answered.

Rhys chuckled. He said to his Steward, “When you wake up, you’re not to see a healer. If I hear that you do. . .” Another crack--Keir’s pinkie finger went saggy. The male shrieked. “If I hear that you do, I’ll carve you into pieces and bury them where no one can stand a chance of putting you together again.”

Keir’s eyes widened in true terror now. Then, as if an invisible hand had struck the consciousness from him, he collapsed to the floor.

Rhys said to no one in particular, “Dump him in his room”.

Now. . .does this in ANY way, shape, or form seem like a man who has trouble getting people who are opposed to him to do what he wants them to do?????????

Rhys doesn’t even move off of his throne and he has Keir groveling on the floor with his arm shattered into pieces. It takes no effort whatsoever on his part. He is, after all, The Most Powerful High Lord in Prythian’s History, in case you’d forgotten. He later laments to Feyre about how ashamed he is for her to see “that side” of him. Feyre says:

“You’re my friend--and I understand that you’re High Lord. I understand that you will defend your true court, and punish threats against it.”

DO YOU SEE THE RIDICULOUSNESS AT PLAY HERE.

Sarah. You can not have it both ways. You can not have Rhys claim that he is “doing all he can” to defend the Illyrian females and protect them from the violent males in their lives and then simultaneously give us this scene. Keir hates Rhys’s guts and I’m sure would gladly not only refuse every order he gave him, but also run him through with a sword. Does it seem like any bit of this matters in this moment?

One of the responses to this I stumbled across on Reddit literally floored me. Someone brought up this very argument, that Rhys had more power to control the situation in Illyria if he really wanted to, and I saw several people respond with: “Well, if he literally tried to control them, either through physical intimidation or mind control, then he’d be a tyrant, and that’s not who Rhys is. That’s not who he wants to be. Is that really what you’re suggesting?? You want him to be a tyrant who controls people???”

Um. . .YES???

Like. . .do these people hear what they’re saying??? Do they understand the concept of “context matters”????. Do I want Rhys to walk around flaunting his power over innocent law abiding citizens of the Night Court who are minding their own business and not hurting anybody? Obviously no. But do I want him to use his power in a meaningful way to punish people who are physically mutating and beating women to death??? Hello??? The lengths some people will go to to defend this man is incredible.

What is the POINT of Rhysand having all this power if he doesn’t use it to defend the good and the innocent??? What is the POINT of him being “tHE mOsT poWERful HiGH lORD in PryTHIAN’S hIsTorY” if he sits on his power while innocent people in his court are being abused under his watch???

Spoilers for Queen of Shadows: To me, this is like someone saying Lysandra shouldn’t slit Arobynn’s throat in his sleep because it would make her a murderer. Is that what I want??? For Lysandra to be a murderer?? Does the average person deserve to have their throat slit in their sleep?? No. But does Arobynn?? YES.

These Illyrian males, if they are behaving in the ways we hear about in the story, DESERVE to have their asses handed to them by Rhysand! They DESERVE whatever punishment comes their way! Don’t want your arm shattered into a million pieces?? Don’t fucking mutilate and beat your wife!!! Easy as that!!

For real change to come about in the Illyrian camps, there needs to be a zero tolerance policy, with public punishment and humiliation, to send a message to everyone that this kind of thing will no longer be tolerated under any circumstances. There needs to be trustworthy people from Rhys’s court stationed there at all times to actually enforce this. I’m not saying that there wouldn't be things that slip past the enforcers, or that Rhys and the Inner Circle have the power to actually change the will and opinions of the males who do this kind of thing. They almost certainly won’t gain any respect from these males. But at the end of the day, it’s very simple. You don’t have to like it, or us, but you WILL stop partaking in this behavior. If you don’t, your consequence is going to be so severe you’ll spend the rest of your life regretting it.

One might ask, This seems pretty straightforward, why hasn’t Rhys attempted anything like this already?? If these males are willing to commit such evil deeds, why even waste his time at all with them? Who CARES if they go rogue and refuse to fight for him anymore? Could it possibly be because he needs the Illyrian soldiers as the main component of his armies? He doesn’t want to outwardly anger these war generals so strongly that they no longer cooperate or associate with him?

So, what you’re saying is. . .Rhys turns a blind eye to female abuse in his court . .because he needs the might from these people in his armies.

If I’m wrong and you have a rebuttal, I’m all ears. But I’m not really sure what other conclusion I’m supposed to arrive at. Rhys CAN control, humiliate, and intimidate powerful people who go against him. But he’s choosing not to do it here. . .why? Because controlling and intimidating people is bad?? Even if it’s directed towards those who are killing and mutilating innocent people?? I don’t understand and I don’t think I ever will.

Honestly, I thought the reason Illyria was being left as such a mess was deliberately done, because that was what Nesta’s story and arc was going to revolve heavily around. When they announced in that teaser way back in 2018 that she was going with Cassian to train in the Illyrian mountains, I was fully convinced that that was how she was going to “find herself”, by changing the lives of the Illyrian women and empowering them. I thought she would be a major catalyst in whatever happened there. And. . .that’s not what happened. Maybe that part of the story is still yet to be told, maybe she’s saving it for Azriel’s book or something. . .who knows. For the time being, I guess it’s just there for aesthetics, so the Bat Boys can have a tragic backstory. Still, even if it DOES change in later books, I would still be left wondering why Rhys, who Sarah claims is as different from the other High Lords as humans are to fae, didn’t do something about it sooner.

On the subject of Illyrians, let’s talk about Feyre and her shape-shifted Illyrian wings for a minute. I’m sure everyone knows what I’m going to say, and you might argue that this is a critique of Feyre’s character and not Rhys’s. I both agree and disagree with that and to explain my reasoning, we’re going to have to back up a little bit.

I made a post a couple years ago about how Feyre’s title as High Lady holds no real weight in the ACOTAR world and is nothing more than a fancy title and a sign of respect from her husband. Which is admirable in it’s own right, but it’s not truly what all the stans make it out to be. It’s stated as canon fact in the series that the High Lord is determined by whoever this mystical force (is it supposed to be The Mother? I don’t even know) in each court chooses. It’s not a monarchy. If I don’t like my High Lord, I can’t go out and kill him and declare myself the new High Lord. The magic of the court decides who it is. That’s how you end up having people like Tamlin, who have no desire to be High Lord become one.

Anyway, all of this means that Feyre is NOT equal in power to Rhys, no matter what title he gives her. Let’s pretend their dumb-ass suicide pact doesn’t exist and Feyre can live on if he were to die. If Rhys were to die, Feyre wouldn't continue on as the magical High Lady ruler of the Night Court, while they all just did without a High Lord. The magic would select someone else to be the High Lord, with no regard for her. Feyre is only “High Lady” because Rhys says she is. She has no magical tie to the Night Court. She is a ruler in title only.

Don’t like it? Doesn’t sound very feminist?? Yeah, I’d agree. And for some insane reason, TAMLIN is blamed for the lack of High Ladies in Prythian rather than, uh. . .the woman who created the magic system that made it this way!!!

(Seriously, the fact that Tamlin is shit on for telling Feyre there are no High Ladies is asinine. Tamlin is not giving personal commentary, he is stating fact. Remember how shocked everyone is when the IC shows up to the High Lord’s meeting in ACOWAR and Rhys announces that Feyre is High Lady? There AREN’T any High Ladies of Prythian! But in ACOMAF, SJM has Rhys tell Feyre that there absolutely are. This is what I mean when I say SJM makes Rhys say and do completely nonsensical things simply for the sake of inflating him as a character. Logic doesn’t have to enter the conversation, if it makes him look good, that’s all that matters. Even if it directly contradicts something SHE wrote!!! It’s mind blowing, honestly).

Wow, I got REALLY side tracked!! Anyway, you get the point: Feyre’s role as High Lady is really just a fancy title with no true magical tie behind it. But despite this, she is still Rhys’s wife, and therefore a certain level of respect is expected to be given to her.

And if I were an Illyrian female, I’d find it REAL hard to conjure up any of that respect.

In my opinion, SJM is guilty of not truly writing these characters with the scope that their immortality entails. Feyre is physically mature and an adult by human standards. But what constitutes an “adult” by fae standards? The IC is collectively thousands of years old. I find it hard to believe that they wouldn't have a hard time seeing someone in their early twenties as someone super young and naive. Especially if this someone wasn’t born a fae and was only transformed into one within the past couple years.

Think about it. . .how many times have you had a conversation with someone who is older than you, maybe by generations, maybe by just several years and they’ve made comments about how young you are, or how “one day you’ll feel differently” or “one day you’ll understand”. They speak with a wisdom that they claim comes from simply existing longer and going through phases of life you haven’t reached yet.

Now imagine somehow being over 500 years old and interacting with someone who is 21. They’d be an infant to you!!

My point in saying this isn’t necessarily to say that I think Feysand’s relationship is creepy because he’s so much older than her. It’s really to say that, as I’ve stated, you can’t really hold Rhys and Feyre accountable in the same way as far as being high fae leaders goes. She hasn’t been alive even a fraction of the amount of time he has and she wasn’t born a fae. This isn’t her fault and I don’t think it’s something she should necessarily be disrespected for. She’s definitely smart and capable of making her own observations and decisions but at the end of the day, I don’t think you can really argue that it falls back on Rhys to help to guide and navigate her through this political life they lead. Rhys had been leading a country for 500 years by the time Feyre was shitting in diapers. Their experience is NOT the same.

So at the end of the day, I think that Feyre’s use of Illyrian wings says as much about Rhys as it does about her.

Imagine the pain and the anger you would feel as an Illyrian woman to see your so-called “High Lady” flaunting the wings you were born with and using them to escape to the freedom of the skies, something you had been denied of against your will. She knows nothing of the trials and tribulations you face each day, the abuse you endure. She was not born into your culture, nor does she take the time to try and help you, or get to know you, or learn about you. But she shifts the Illyrian wings onto her back and takes to the sky to do really important things like have sexual intercourse with the High Lord above the most populated city in the court, while you remain trapped on the ground. Imagine the anger you’d feel at your so-called High Lord, who allows his new wife to flutter around Velaris on perfect un-maimed wings, while claiming he wants to advocate for and protect you but does the bare minimum.

To be clear: I most certainly hold Feyre accountable for this thoughtless decision. She is more than capable of deciding for herself what she feels is right and wrong. But as I’ve stated, I have a really hard time not also putting part of the blame on Rhys here. As I established, Feyre was not born into fae culture and she is a child compared to most of the fae living in the Night Court. Rhys, on the other hand, is over 500 years old, has Illyrian culture in his bloodline, and has been living among these people, leading them, for almost his entire life. I’d like to think he’d have the foresight to pull Feyre aside and explain to her that while she may not have initially considered it, it could be viewed as disrespectful and offensive for the Illyrian women to see her gallivanting around with Illyrian wings when most of theirs have been clipped.

If I were an Illyrian women, I think it would be nearly impossible for me not to feel a strong bitterness towards Feyre and Rhysand. One could make the argument that Feyre is young and naive and doesn’t truly understand Illyrian culture. The same argument could NOT be said about Rhys.

So thanks, High Lord, for flapping around shiny happy Velaris with your wife and her fake Illyrian wings, having kinky Illyrian wing sex, while doing the bare minimum to help and protect the women who were actually BORN with Illyrian wings.

Alright, moving on from that mess, let’s touch on the Court of Nightmares.

Now, a lot of what I have to say here is going to be the same as what I said about Illyria. But honestly, I feel like this place gets the even shorter end of the stick.

One of the most truly bizarre things to me in the ACOTAR series is this idea that the people of Hewn City/the Court of Nightmares are somehow just all evil malicious wicked people who are happy to live sequestered in this underground kingdom. This is a super weird notion and I’m not sure at all how Sarah validates it. Especially when a character like Mor exists. You’re telling me she was the only “dreamer” born into the Court of Nightmares? No one else is suffering the way she was? I don’t get it.

I’ve heard the argument made before that it’s quite possible that this kind of wickedness is specific only to Mor’s family. I’ve heard people say that we’ve never really seen anything in the Court of Nightmares other than the household she grew up in. So it’s actually quite plausible, people say, that the rest of the court is just a normal court, there’s no evidence to suggest that this kind of abuse is happening among the entire group of people. (They claim we are “reaching” for things to blame Rhys for).

Yeah, NO. Sorry, that’s just a willfully stupid take. Here’s what we hear about this place from ACOMAF:

“The nobility of the Night Court fall into one of three categories: those who hated me enough that when Amarantha took over, they joined her court and later found themselves dead; those who hated me enough to try to overthrow me and faced the consequences; and those who hated me, but not enough to be stupid and have since tolerated a half-breed’s rule, especially when it so rarely interferes with their miserable lives.”

“Are they--are they the ones who live beneath the mountain?”

A nod. “In the Hewn City, yes. I gave it to them, for not being fools. They’re happy to stay there, rarely leaving, ruling themselves and being as wicked as they please, for all eternity.”

That was the court he must have shown Amarantha when she first arrived--and its wickedness must have pleased her enough that she modeled her own after it. (pages 175-176)

Not enough to convince you? Here’s Mor explaining it in her own words:

“In the Court of Nightmares,” she went on, that voice falling soft and a bit cold once more, “females are. . .prized. Our virginity is guarded, then sold off to the highest bidder--whatever male will be of the most advantage to our families.”

‘I was born stronger than anyone in my family. Even the males. And I couldn’t hide it, because they could smell it--the same way you can smell a High Lord’s Heir before he comes to power. The power leaves a mark, an. . .echo. When I was twelve, before I bled, I prayed it meant no male would take me as a wife, that I would escape what my elder cousins had endured: loveless, sometimes brutal, marriages.”

“But then I began bleeding a few days after I turned seventeen. And the moment my first blood came, my power awoke in full force, and even that gods-damned mountain trembled around us. But instead of being horrified, every single ruling family in the Hewn City saw me as a prize mare. Saw that power and wanted it bred into their bloodline, over and over again.”

Is everyone sufficiently convinced now? Okay great.

And Rhys, by his own omission, allows them to “rule themselves” as a reward for not being foolish enough to challenge HIS authority.

But do they REALLY rule themselves?? Take a second and scroll back up to read the excerpt I already included where Keir calls Feyre a whore and Rhys absolutely wrecks him. Who does it seem like is really in charge here?

I’m sorry, I get viscerally angry over this. In the Court of Nightmares scene, Keir is written 100% completely and totally as Rhysand’s groveling little bitch. He is literally nothing compared to Rhys. Rhys is total power and domination. Seriously:

He led me the few steps onto the dais--to the throne. He sat, smiling faintly at his monstrous court. He owned every inch of the throne. These people. (page 409)

Before Rhys, Keir was nothing more than a sullen child. Yet I knew Mor’s father was older. Far older. The Steward clung to power, it seemed.

Rhys was power. (page 411)

This entire scene honestly disgusts me and is so stupid. Rhys swaggers in and the entire throne room drops to one knee in submission. It’s told over and over that he exudes raw power that no one there can even hope to compete with. We’re told he “owns” the people, that Keir is nothing more than a child compared to him. He snaps his fingers and orders Keir to bring Feyre wine and he does it! Mor calls Rhys “Your High Lord” when speaking to Keir. Keir “grovels” when Rhys suggests that the wine he brought them is poisoned. And then the ordeal where he starts shattering bones in his arm one at a time, forbidding him from seeking any healing on pain of death, eventually knocking him out.

SO IF THIS IS THE CASE. . .WHY. TOLERATE. KEIR. AT. ALL????????????????

If this is how easy it is to control this man, why on EARTH is he given one INCH of control in this place???? The whole scene loses its meaning entirely. . .why do they need to STEAL this orb from him?? In ACOWAR, why does Rhys need to BARGAIN with him about the use of his armies??? (at the expense of Mor’s feelings and security!!!!) Why are these people ALLOWED to treat females the way they treated Mor??!?

There are two answers here and both of them are shitty:

Option 1) SJM just wants to write scenes to fulfill her dark!Rhys fetish. She needs the Court of Nightmares for her Rhys aesthetic. That’s where the true reason for scenes like this begin and end. She wants to write scenes where we all marvel and swoon at Rhys’s “raw power”. We don’t need logic, it has no place here. We’re supposed to ignore everything else and just swoon over Rhys, as usual. We’re not really supposed to think too hard about Keir because he’s literally just a prop that is there for the purpose of having Rhys flex his power. It’s the epitome of wanting to have your cake and eat it too. She wants all aspects of what makes Rhys sexy and doesn’t care how she makes it happen. She wants the hot, powerful, wicked High Lord we got to see in ACOTAR, but she also wants the saint she made him out to be in the rest of the series. So we’re just supposed to ignore the fact that in making it plainly obvious that he is able to control these people means that he should be able to apply this to making innocent people’s lives better down there but isn’t.

Option 2) Rhys is deliberately allowing the wickedness and evil behavior to continue to put on a front for the rest of the world. He says that the Court of Nightmares is the version the outside world gets to see of the Night Court. It’s how Amarantha came to design her own court with it as an inspiration. It’s why everyone has such a negative view of the Night Court. Rhys is praised by the IC and pitied by much of the fandom for the “sacrifice” he makes in putting on this evil front and lets the world believe of him, in order to protect his “true” court--the Court of Dreams, the City of Starlight. I’m sorry, what sacrifice???? What is Rhys sacrificing of himself by doing this? He sits on his throne in total control and power while others grovel at his feet. I’m supposed to feel sorry for him that his reputation is being tarnished by the rest of the world seeing this while people like Mor are having nails driven into their bodies because they went against their family’s wishes regarding their virginity and marriage??? No, I’m sorry. The only people I feel sorry for are the people he is doing this on the backs of. Because the fact of the matter is: Rhys needs an evil court to put on this show for the rest of the world. And you can not have evil people without evil deeds. And you can not have evil deeds without victims. Evil people are evil because of their actions to other people.

So Option 2 is. . .Rhys is allowing people to be abused in the Court of Nightmares and not putting a stop to it because he needs an “Evil Court” smokescreen to protect his REAL court.

Again. . .do you see why I have such a hard time liking him???

Also, after ACOMAF the whole world knows about Velaris anyway. So there’s no need for a smokescreen evil court anymore. But has anything changed?? NOPE.

Not only that. . .but if this is the face he puts on for the people of the Hewn City, this is who most of the people there probably believe him to truly be. If another female, or anyone else really, is in a horrible situation like Mor’s, what would make them think that Rhys is someone they could approach or reach out to for help? They're probably terrified of him! The whole situation is just so fucked up and awful.

What’s also fucked up and awful is the fact that while all of this exists in both Illyria and the Hewn City, Rhys has a shelter/sanctuary in Velaris for abused women. Sorry, get your fake feminism out of here. You can’t stick that detail into the story and expect it to erase blatant abuse of women happening in two thirds of Rhysand’s court. . .under his watch!!!!! When he has the power to stop it!!!

I’ve heard many people try and make the claim that Rhys is written to be contradictory in this way to prove that he is a “morally gray character” and to that, I call total bullshit. For one, allowing the blatant abuse of women when you have the power to stop it isn’t “morally gray” , its borderline irredeemable. And two, I’ve said it before. . .listen to SJM talk about Rhys. Read the ACOTAR series. This woman is so far up his butthole, I’m wondering if he somehow offered her her own riverfront mansion. She honestly believes him to be God’s gift to humanity!!

So again, we’re back to my same age-old question: Is SJM a good writer or a bad writer?? I don’t really think it’s as simple as sticking one word on her writing to label it one way or the other. As I said, I’ve gotten immense enjoyment out of some of Sarah’s work and have been blown away by the places she takes her characters and stories. But in this case. . .it’s objectively awful. You’re giving me this character who you’re constantly telling me is good and righteous and incredible, beating me over the head with the level of worship he gets by the narrative, but then you’re making him do things that are like really blatantly terrible. And he faces NO accountability for it! Like???? You are the author??? You can control the things he does?? If you really believe that he’s that great, why don’t you just write him that way??? Why beat us over the head with how great he is, only to make him do awful things and then completely ignore them?? I’m telling you, it’s almost bizarre. . .like she’s seeing just how far she can go with what people will excuse. It's mind boggling!!

(Honestly what’s even more mind boggling is the sheer number of people who lap this up and accept it completely. For the life of me, I can not understand how people are so blind to this stuff!)

You can’t have it both ways, Sarah. You can’t tell us Rhys is the most powerful high lord ever born and expect me to believe that there’s nothing more he can do for Illyrian females and the “dreamers” of the Court of Nightmares. Especially when we’ve seen him demonstrate otherwise! Like I said earlier. . .if he’s not using his power for good, what is even the point of it??

So, to sum up: We are told over and over again how utterly powerful and incomparable Rhys is as well as what an honorable and giving High Lord he is. We see raw power displays from him where he swiftly and forcefully exerts brutal punishment on those who offend or go against him without so much as breaking a sweat. Despite this, he adopts a passive view on the Illyrians, banning wing clipping and the mistreatment of females but not doing anything to really enforce it, and continues to allow females in the Court of Nightmares to be abused and brutalized because he needs his evil Night Court aesthetic to protect the IC and Velaris.

My Ick Factor is OFF THE CHARTS.

And let me just end by saying….try and picture our Queen and Savior, Aelin Ashryver Whitethorn Galathynius allowing the mutilation and abuse of women in Terrasen because “change is slow to happen”….and she needed some armies. AELIN WOULD NEVER.

It is a dream of mine to see her humble Rhys.

So, yeah. . .Rhys is a terrible High Lord. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

Part 3 is probably my most highly anticipated rant---we’ll call it “Let’s Talk About Tamlin”. Coming soon!

#acotar critical #acomaf critical #sjm critical #anti rhysand #illyrians #court of nightmares #morrigan

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clarabowmp3 · 6 months ago

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hate brigade? I'm sorry but joe alwyn is directly responsible for a lot of the mental hurt that taylor will have to deal with for the rest of her life. I don't understand how people can hear sll, half the songs on midnights not to mention the anxiety ridden lover album and not see the emotional gaslighting joe was putting taylor through! Like that takes a toll and fans qnd the general public alike has a right to call that out. Now he's saying ish about tayvis when none of this concerns him?? Like if that's not manipulative, my name is Bennett cuz he's literally re inserting himself into the ex he resented' life. Unhinged if you ask me. So I don't think it's fair to characterize people as doing the most in this case. Alwyn could have just kept quiet and ate and ate food but now he deserves the dragging. Peace.

wowww wow okay so a couple of things:

we don't know much about their relationship. all we have is speculation based on taylor's lyrics, but we have to remember she is an unreliable narrator, so at best we can take them with a grain of salt. that is excluding how she might have modified certain things to present herself in a favourable light. I'm not saying she did or didn't, but it's a possibility. I say this because of how she's written music about her cheating. She very obviously focuses on how she was feeling and what led her to cheat, rather than her considerations of how it would affect her partner, which I think is yet another manifestation of how she perpetuates her victim narrative. I'm not saying all cheaters are villains, there's definitely some complex emotions involved, but she writes in such a way so as to encourage the reader to root for her by default.

This plays into her desire to be seen as the underdog or hero that everyone wants to support. She did this with Miss Americana too where she spun this whole standing up for women and other marginalised groups narrative, which I think contributed to being a swiftie becoming a trend, along with her whole 'relatable' schtick, fostering personal relationships etc.

There is nothing wrong with liking her music (I'm not gatekeeping), my issue is with people who treat becoming a swiftie as some girl scouts patch to earn by ripping into her 'enemies,' most popularly her exes. Naturally, he has been put through hell on social media since the break-up, up till ttpd dropped and the attention shifted to matty instead.

I agree that many of her love songs from as early as lover are anxiety-ridden, but I think that speaks more to her personality rather than his actions. Certain events may have transpired and he might have acted in a certain way which made her feel insecure etc but we have no reason to think he did it maliciously. What we do have is reason to think this is extremely unlikely. 2016 was rough man, no one knew if she would ever recover from #taylorswiftisoverparty, and yet he still stuck around. To me I think that shows he genuinely cared about her, something taylor has also thought.

Could you elaborate on the emotional gaslighting he has done, (and hence the "mental hurt" he has caused her) keeping in mind all those other reasons why her music is not an accurate source of info ^^?

getting more specific with sll, I don't see how he did anything wrong? I don't want to get too much into it but I know what it feels like to be burdened by someone else's mental health issues, and I do feel irritated by it at times, even though at the end of the day I know it's something they can't control. There's nothing wrong with creating art about difficult emotions, but I think she did not need to release it for the whole world to hear, knowing that they know who she is talking about. The song itself isn't too egregious, she just expresses her frustration with the whole situation ("you'll find someone," "I'm not the one" -> even she doesn't blame him for anything let alone the emotional gaslighting you're accusing him of anon what are you on 😭) the main problem is when people like you use it to villainise joe. like explain to me what part of it shows his gaslighting

For context here is what the whole deuxmoi thing is about, taken from this post:

You can clearly see that he was expressing an opinion on what he thought was a private enough setting. How could he have known he was going to be overheard and it was going to leak to the internet and eventually reach taylor (if any of this ie even true)? She is his ex of 6 years and it's only been a year since their breakup, I think it's fine that he's still somewhat emotionally occupied with her. We don't know if he obsesses about her every day and since the London travis thing is pretty recent, maybe it was just on his mind that day? Also why does he have to keep quiet? taylor can write whatever she wants in her songs, I think he is more than justified to have a conversation in public. We have no reason to think he meant for this to get out or to "[re-insert] himself into the ex he resented' life," as you put it.

to end off, anon I really think you should touch grass (and I'm not trying to be condescending here) because it feels like you're blowing up select details out of proportion to fit the narrative taylor has created through her music. We don't know how accurate that narrative is.

#had to retype all this when I was almost done 😭#hope i didnt miss out anything #anon #ask #joe alwyn #tayvis #taylor swift #discourse

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pupmkincake2000 · 11 months ago

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Now I may be expressing a very unpopular opinion, but I do not consider Kamski an asshole, a creep, a rapist, a bad person, an evil person, an antagonist or any kind of a villain. I mean, at first he comes across as someone who has God Syndrome, maybe a little autistic, or maybe even narcissistic. But I have looked at the scenes with him in great detail many times, and it seems to me that he is quite a good person, not prone to violence and disgusting actions.

He undoubtedly has some narcissistic tendencies and perhaps he does have God syndrome, but not clearly expressed and not in the negative sense.

And I also think that he doesn't care about humanity. I mean, he literally created a new life that is superior to humans in many ways, a new round of evolution, so to speak. Machines that know how to feel and love.

And this whole scene with him… it was like he was trolling the entire CyberLife through Connor.

He behaves confidently and defiantly, but I wouldn’t use the word “creepy” to describe him nor would I sexualize his behaviour.

He teases and provokes, but when Connor leaves, denying his deviancy, he tells Connor how to find a solution to a possible trap.

Why would he do this? Perhaps to spoil CyberLife, perhaps he just wants to see what all this struggle between humans and androids will lead to. He himself does not act, he just watches. And with all this, he creates the impression of a kind of parent who watches how his children grow up and what kind of life they build for themselves (this, by the way, is one of the reasons why I think that if Connor needed a parental figure, Kamski would be an ideal candidate in this case).

Kamski probably couldn't have foreseen that Connor and Hank would show up at his house, but I like the idea that he probably realized that Connor and Hank had a complicated but obvious relationship.

Just imagine him as a father whose child has come to introduce his lover to him.

Kamsky be like: “Son, are you saying that your chosen one is this big bear-man who is 53 years old, who is also a cop, lives in a small house with his dog and you met him a couple of days ago? Are you sure?”

"Yes, father, I'm going to marry Lieutenant Anderson, we'll live happily ever after and fuck a lot."

Kamski, looking Hank up and down: “Well, son, I, of course, could object, but I respect your choice. Your happiness is my happiness.”

Connor, ready to defend his choice: “Dad, even if you don’t agree, I still love… wait, you approve of my choice?”

Kamski: “Of course, son, this is your choice. And you chose a man for yourself… a good one. With a career, responsible, kind, who is probably one of those who only gets hotter with age, he has his own home and he clearly loves you more than his own life. How can I not approve of this choice?"

#dbh hank #dbh rk800 #dbh connor #hank anderson #dbh #connor x hank #detroit: become human #hankcon #detroitbecomehuman #detroit become human #rk800 #kamski #elijah kamski #connor rk800

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daikaiju-zilla · 1 year ago

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Analyzing Gangle Based on 4 Minutes of Screentime

Comedy Mask:

So first impressions of Gangle, in the “Meet the Character” clip and the pilot itself, we are shown her Comedy Mask. This is probably due to showing the juxtaposition and surprise of seeing her with a Tragedy Mask when the other mask is broken. In both introductions to Gangle, she’s seen excitedly waving to the audience, indicating an open and welcoming demeanor. When the opening theme song starts, she also has her “hand” (ribbon) on her hip, giving a somewhat confident impression as well.

During the Q&A with Gooseworx during the GlitchX 2023 Livestream, Gooseworx mentioned the unique physics within the Digital Circus, using Gangle as an example: “I like to think that when she’s happy, [and] has her happy mask on, she’s more able to do anything”, which also brings up Jax’s sarcastic comment about Gangle being “capable” when she has her Tragedy Mask on. The keyword here is able. Despite the little screen time we have of her in her Comedy Mask is mere seconds, there’s a lot of information on her character that’s communicated through that limited amount of time.

Tragedy Mask:

Also during the Q&A with Gooseworx, she makes an interesting comment about Gangle regarding her Tragedy Mask, and describes it as the “real her”. This is quite evident, the symbolism regarding putting on a mask to hide one’s true self being an unfortunately common behavior, primarily in mentally ill and autistic people; the official psychological term of this being “masking”. While a clear nod to this phenomenon, one can’t ignore its significance for Gangle’s character and actions.

Circling back to the “able” theme in regards to which mask Gangle wears, Gooseworx commented that “-if [Gangle] was that happy, delightful person, then I think her sad mask would be able to break more”, which instigates that Gangle’s ability to do certain things or anything overall is extremely hindered when being herself, even though her Tragedy Mask is near unbreakable (shown when her mask hits the floor before being dragged down the Zooble Hole, and when Jax pushes her on the ground). Her strength lies in her Comedy Mask, and it can only be theorized if this is due to Gangle’s skewed perception of masking to make her seem like someone better than her genuine self. Her unhealthy, self-depreciative mindset could influence how capable (or incapable) she is depending on what side she chooses to show.

Something smaller that also speaks volumes in regards to Gangle when being her true self is how she covers her face. In the beginning, while mourning her Comedy Mask, she cups her face with her hands (ribbons), as well as when looking at the Zooble Hole. A prominent scene that highlights this behavior is when Kinger is startled, she attempts to cover her face with the shards of her Comedy Mask like a shield. This mask protects her, it makes her feel safe.

Gangle’s reliance on the Comedy Mask is almost like that of an entirely different person, a friend perhaps. It seems like she isn’t aware that she’s the one who wears this mask. She controls what happens while wearing the mask, the reality of this could be lost to her. This could also be a form of a coping mechanism, as it seems that not much of the cast cares or acknowledges her in a respectful manner (even Ragatha), so perhaps taking the form of a different person helps soothe the loneliness she may experience.

However, in her Tragedy Mask, she is not entirely without ability. Throughout the pilot, she is focused and cares for Zooble’s safety, being the only person to bring up how they needed help. She understands the situations she’s in, and what is most important in that moment. Gangle explains what the issue is to Kinger when he forgets, and expresses shock and horror after discovering Kaufmo abstracted. Her true strength lies in her care for others. Care and concern for the people around her, despite how they act or feel towards her.

I hope we see more of Gangle as a person and maybe have some of these questions answered in the coming episodes. Perhaps she’ll even learn that her real self isn’t a weakness, and that she is capable of things she, or others, don’t realize.

#I love her dangit let me live #Digital Circus #the amazing digital circus #tadc #Gangle #daikaiju roars

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softeninglooks · 2 years ago

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a3! | juza hyodo as your boyfriend...

part 1. part 2.

he cannot believe it at first

how could someone as kind and well-loved as you choose someone as intimidating and reserved as him? he can’t wrap his head around what you could possibly see in him

it takes a lot of words of affirmation to finally convince juza that he is so much more than he thinks

it saddens you that someone as hard-working and deeply involved in the company as juza could still doubt himself. he always says that he wished he could do more for mankai company, but to you he already does more than enough. although it took him some time to perfect his acting, his passion on stage inspires all the other actors to do their very best and mesmerises the audience

whenever he gets too stressed or pushes himself too hard, you offer him pastries and a long, soothing hug. you have him take breaks and go outside so that when he gets back, he feels a little lighter and more energized to resume his work

to thank you for your unwavering support, he invites you on surprise dates or takes you for a ride on his motorcycle. because juza isn’t the best at expressing his emotions, his love language is acts of service and he always makes sure to be available when you also need his help

when it is you who gets too anxious, he will hold you tightly and listen to you vent about the issue at hand. he will try to offer you words of comfort, but his primary course of action is to help solve the problem at the root

he gets more demonstrative over time, holding your hand in the streets or kissing you on the cheek in public. he is really proud of you and your relationship, but his fear of staining your reputation because of his scary looks holds him back from displaying affection more openly

in private, he is the sweetest. juza is self-conscious about his clumsy use of words, so he makes up for it by showing you love through physical touch and sharing his favourite snacks with you

he won’t say it out loud, but juza melts when it’s you who wraps him in your arms or hugs him from behind. being held is something new to him, and it feels so special, almost a sacred moment - before that, most of the physical contact he had with people was blocking punches or trying not to hurt anyone, so someone lovingly and willingly touching him moves him beyond reason. when you run your fingers through his hair and kiss his neck, his deep and raucous sighs speak louder than words

juza is straightforward and honest so he doesn’t shy away from telling you how grateful he is for you - especially when he is drunk. after a couple of drinks, he will look even more serious than usual, save for the tinge of redness blooming on his cheeks, and say the most heart-wrenching things about how you make him a better man and he wants to guard your happiness forever

he comes to you for help whenever he struggles with the interpretation of a line or wants to try out different acting techniques. reading lines together and acting out scenes is one of your favourite activities to do together, so you happily give him a hand with case studies or character analysis. if the scene involves yelling or violence, juza will apologise and make an effort to be extra affectionate with you when you’re done

you wave at him from the front row and offer him flowers after his plays - banri teases him about it, but juza can’t stop smiling and shrugs it off by telling banri that he’s just jealous. juza feels incredibly lucky to have you by his side

kumon adores you and plans family activities that you can join in. because they know juza so well, he and muku can notice the way his face lights up whenever you’re around

omi often asks juza and you to help him with baking because he guessed that juza has a sweet tooth and you find cooking relaxing. juza likes to taste the sugary ingredients just to make sure that they haven’t turned sour and are still good to eat, which always makes omi and you laugh because you can easily see through his excuses

although he is still a little bashful about his voice, you love to hear juza sing. knowing that you appreciate his singing is a huge motivation for juza to overcome his shyness and find the confidence to sing on stage

he is an attentive listener. it makes him happy that you trust him enough to confide in him, but he also enjoys listening to you talk about your hobbies and your current interests. he remembers many details about them and is never against watching something with you or looking up something you’ve been reading online. you do so much for him, so he wants to be equally there for you and

the two of you have a lot of fun together. although juza appears stoic and still has many insecurities to work through, having you by his side never fails to brighten up his days and fill his heart with joy. when you are hanging out, he smiles a lot more and is less apologetic about his behaviour, even cracking jokes from time to time (he feels like it’s awkward, but you find it exceptionally endearing). he hopes that you feel fulfilled, so he always offers you a shoulder to cry on when you’re feeling down or does his best to make you smile. he wants to learn all about your preferences and passions so that he can fully enter your world

most of all, he just wishes for you to be happy and safe. he has never been loved like this before and he wants to do everything in his power to reciprocate your love with as much force and sincerity

#juza hyodo #juza hyodo x reader #juza hyodo fanfiction #juza hyodo fluff #juza hyodo boyfriend #a3!#a3! fanfiction #a3! x reader #a3! fluff #a3! imagines #juza hyodo imagines #a3! act addict actors #my writing #writing

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ask-serendipity-sky · 2 years ago

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uhm, hello! i've been lurking around some jkk blogs and finally decided to come out of the shadows,,,

one thing i noticed between most of armys collectively, be it jkkrs, tkkrs, ot7, solos, etc, is... that they don't really seem to trust JK very much? take their 10th anniversary for example. just because JK was the last one to post a message about it, people already startes doubting that he'd post anything /at all/, questioning it, wondering why he didn't post anything. but for real, its his group's /tenth/ anniversary, people really think that man wouldn't post a single message about it? JK? the man who is ever so considerate and caring to armys?

i'm using this as an example, but i feel this stretches to everything else. people doubt JK and question his behaviors every time a rumor pops up. people often times take those rumors as being the sole truth regardless of what JK says himself. i'm tired of people thinking he isn't serious about what he does and says.

and obviously, this stretches to jkk too. even to tkk, because many tkkrs love to throw him under the bus to explain their own delusions. why do his actions need to be questioned and explained and scrutinized every single time? why, for everything he does, it must have an underlying meaning, a hidden message, something that he isn't telling us? why do people feel the need to explain his every action and words? why him making a live to see JM content has to be under scrutiny? can't it just be JK watching content of someone he loves and wanting to cheer himself up? and when i say this goes for tkk too, is exactly because tkkrs love to add explanations for what JK does and to tell everyone that "it isn't what you're seeing that is real actually". and i imagine that, a lot of the biggest ot7s blogs and pages being tkkrs themselves, this mistrust spread to regular armys too.

and this is a callout for those jkkrs who throw themselves in a well of despair when JK seemingly acts like "he doesn't care for JM anymore" too. the man himself said a hundred times that he is shy, that he doesn't like to expose himself too much, that he has a hard time taking selcas, etc. how many times people believed jkk just "don't interact anymore" just for us to find out months later that they hung out as they always did, they just didn't post about it or tell us about it in their lives?

why can't people trust JK more? he more than once told he communicate his feelings and thoughts to us through lyrics, is honest and straightforward in his speeches, says lyrics have meaning to him and that he never does anything without being intentioned about it, always makes it clear to say what he means even if he doesn't find it easy or believes he isn't the best when it comes to expressing his feelings. i don't understand why many people see him as this shallow puppet, as this dumb guy who doesn't know what he's doing, who doesn't know the meanings of his /own creations/, be it songs, lyrics, GCF videos, posts, etc. as this guy who isn't to be very much trusted, when JK is so trustworthy and earnest. that's the only reasons i can come up with to explain how some "fans" rather believe in rumors and leaks than JK himself regarding what he does with his life and his art and music.

i know you're JM biased but i also know you're very fair in your judgements and is always defending both of jkk. i hope this ask make through, especially now where there are so many "leaks" and negative rumors spreading again about him.

Hi anon,

I love this. Thank you for taking the time to post this. I'm happy to know that Jungkook has a fan who defends him like this and who loves him so much.

Everything you said is on point.

"Why can't people trust Jk more?" This is my take on this question and I'm curious to know what others think.

I will speak in general terms, ok? I think we doubt Jungkook because:

-We let tkkrs get to our head and therefore don't think all Tae & Jk interactions are only platonic.

-We let the weekly Jk and random woman dating rumors get to our head.

-We believe the "fuck boy" image this fandom has tried imposing on him.

-We believe Jikook is fan service.

-Genuine people don't exist so he can't be genuine.

-We feel a hunch.

-We don't understand that he won't act according to our fantasies because he is an actual human being and not a fictional character.

-We think he plays the parasocial relationship card really well.

Maybe it's a combination of these things?

But you are right. It is unfair to Jungkook because everytime he has talked to the fans, explained, sang, and/or demonstrated his love he has been 100% genuine.

And his actions towards Jimin have been 100% genuine too.

I think the issue is not Jungkook. The issue is us. That simple. And how sad.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

#jikook #kookmin #asks #jungkook

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emojellyace08 · 1 year ago

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Lookism Men x Reader/Y/N (If their relationship were a romantic pop-punk/rock song)

pairing: character x reader Warnings: none! just pure entertainment (slight angst?)

Daniel Park (Park Hyung Seok)

youtube

I'll describe Daniel's crush's on Y/N as this song, why? Remember him having a crush on Crystal and Yui? Yeah when he wants to confess his feelings for you he felt like you'll going to judge and reject him which he's so tired about it. "And why, all the possibilities, where I was wrong". Remember when he thought Yui really respects chubby people? Just because she's nice to his second body doesn't really means that she's genuine about her statement. Just because she said that she's fine with chubby people to his "handsome body" doesn't mean that she really likes him for who he really was (not that she knows about his situation about his bodies but still). So the possibilities of Yui liking his other body back was just a high expectation that Daniel have and in the end he got disappointed by his interaction with her in his other body. "That's what you get when you let your heart win" like the song quotes. He gets hurt when he confesses his feelings to someone and doesn't receive the same affection. So if Yui discriminated his original body and Crystal judges his second one just because he's handsome, he'll be so scared about his crush on you so I really associate this song with him about his feelings :(

Song meaning (based on Lyric Interpretation):

I almost wonder if this isn't like an "I told you so" kind of song where a past love wronged her and it turned around and bit them in the rear.

The other thought I had is that its a song about getting over be depressed that love can hurt, and getting over the bumps in relationships. I mean she says "I burned every bridge I ever build when you were here" meaning she gave up a lot of things to be with them, but at the end she says "I can't trust myself with anything but this" meaning she's confident in her decision.

Zack Lee (Lee Jin Sung)

youtube

Another Paramore song! (I mean who doesn't love Paramore). I interpret this song as having a crush on someone and wanting more than just being friends. I think it perfectly fits Zack. "Nothing compares to a quiet evening alone. Just the one, two, I was just counting on. That never happens, I guess I'm dreaming again. Let's be more than this" I think the second to the last part of the chorus is Zack "dreaming" for a romantic relationship with you which he can't tell straight despite his affection being obvious. And "that never happens" line in my understanding is that him breaking out of his dreams and thoughts thinking to himself that you'll never be his. Him being able to express his love and devotion to you through act of service and gentle actions, being the role of the protector between the two of you yet he can't seem to tell his true feelings for you through words makes him hurt so much deep inside though he doesn't show it too much.

Song meaning (based on Songtell):

"Crushcrushcrush" by Paramore is a song about wanting to have an intimate connection with someone and to be more than just friends. It speaks of the feeling of being trapped in a situation where all you can do is watch the object of your affection from afar. The song expresses frustration, as the singer wishes they could break free of their feelings of helplessness and express their desires openly. The lyrics express the need to break down the walls of inhibition and silence, to free the person who has been “taped over” and let the truth be known. Ultimately, the song speaks to the desire for a romantic relationship and to take it far beyond the platonic or just the surface level of an emotional connection.

Eli Jang (Jang Hyun)

youtube

Please listen to this song it's so BEAUTIFULLLLLL I LOVE MCR (I mean it's okay if you don't want to but still). I feel like this would be Eli's song with you. In my interpretation, this song is about all the terrible things and challenging events in you life that can overwhelm you. It's about how traumatizing things that happened in a person's life can affect their mental state so much and it really hurts. But the line "'Cause the world is ugly, but you're beautiful to me" and saying this genuinely to someone who is struggling about their personal problems can really hit them to the core. Saying this genuinely to your special someone (whenever it is a family member, lover, or bestfriend/friend) can really make them feel appreciated and loved. And who else can we associate this song with? Eli's childhood was sh*tty considering that many people abused him and the ones who actually loves/loved him will either leave. But meeting you in good terms and forming a strong bond with him can make him more open about his feelings. Considering that Hostel, Yenna and you are the only people who he felt who values and loves him makes his heart swell so much. The world might be against him now, but your beautiful smile and personality along with Yenna's melts his ice cold heart >3. (I also think that Daniel fits this song too)

Song meaning (based on Lyric Interpretation):

First of all, this song is extremely beautiful and it means so much to me. I don't know where I'd be without it. But nobody wants to hear me complain about my life, they came here for people's guesses on what the song means. Personally, I feel like the song is saying that society is a fucked up place, and it'll be rude and judgmental and just ugly. Gerard is saying that despite the fact that the world is ugly, he thinks that 'you' are beautiful to him. I believe 'you' is the fans. I believe this whole song was made for fans, and maybe Bandit, too. It's just a beautiful song with a great meaning, and I love it. Hope this was detailed enough lol. (Also after reading this listen to The Light Behind Your Eyes. It's also very beautiful, and it's probably the reason I'm still alive.)

Vasco (Lee EunTae)

youtube

This another MCR song sounds too pure like Vasco man. This song really sounds nostalgic, sad yet happy at the same time. Just running away from your problems and enjoying life seems fun, which fits Euntae's energy so much I luv it.

Song meaning (based on Lyric Interpritations)

I think the song is about people that you love in general, friends and lovers in particular. The line "Turn my headphones up real loud" represents trying to tune out real life and the people that are trying to pull you down, and "I don't think I need them now, 'cause you stop the noise" is abou meeting those people, who understand and are messed up too, but slowly bring you out of the trance you get into ignore real life, and will guide you through the dark times, holding your hand and stumbling with you.

The lyric "You can write it on your arm" is about Gerard and Lyn-Z (like the whole song, but that line in particular for me) on tour together, and Lyn-Z wrote 'You can run away with me' on her arm during her set, and Gerard wrote 'Anytime you want' on his. The song as a whole is about those people you meet who pull you out of your sleep, and make you wake up to real life, the good, beautiful things, and although they can't sheild you from the bad stuff, they protect you and stay with you throughout it.

Jay Hong (Hong Jae Yol) and Warren Chae (Chae Won Seok)

youtube

Despite the hidden dirtiness behind this Avril Lavigne song (search it up if you want). It still sounds sweet for me at least. We all know Jay and Warren are not the best with expressing themselves with words (like Zack but theirs are just a bit worse). So I think this song fits them a lot. Just them stuttering and unable to say what they want to say to you, that they love you so much. "Marry me today, guess I'm wishing my life away. With these things I'll never say".

A/N: Part 2 of this with Jake, Goo, Gun, Johan and other characters I hope you like this song picks and it's a pleasure to share my music taste to you even if you don't like rock lol. Goodnight and stay safe :)

#Youtube #lookism x reader #lookism webtoon #lookism manhwa #lookism fic #daniel park x reader #jay hong x reader #warren chae x reader #eli jang x reader #zack lee x reader #vasco x reader #emo music #emo revival #emo blog #emocore #emo #pop punk #alt rock #midwest emo

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mistbow · 2 years ago

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Sorey and Mikleo at the core of Zestiria

長谷　人間と天族の共存を象徴するのがあの2人の絆なので、どういう決着にするかはいろんなアイデアが出ましたね。

HASE: Since the bond between the two symbolizes the coexistence of humans and seraphim, there were many ideas on how to put a conclusion to their story.

Those two.

I know I have talked a lot about Sorey and Mikleo, but at the same time, I feel like I haven’t talked enough about them yet. It is certainly one of the relationships that is often talked about in the fandom, but for how much they’ve been brought up, there is surprisingly not much effort to actually analyze what makes them work in the context of Zestiria.

I would like to begin this with bringing up the core themes or ideas underlying Zestiria as a story: the specific genre name, “Passion will light up the world” (“情熱が世界を照らす”), and “Legends will someday become ‘Hope’” (“伝承はいつしか「希望」になる”). I want to keep these in mind when talking about Zestiria as a whole.

The idea of “passion” being the heart of Zestiria actually came up when the creators wanted to incorporate the “passion” of Sakamoto Ryouma, a Japanese historical figure, a low-ranking samurai in the late Edo period, as revealed by the director, Hase Yuuta, and producer, Baba Hideo. They were enamored by the fact that he was a low-ranking samurai, yet through his deeds, managed to indirectly change Japan. It was his passion and love for Japan that exactly made him think that Japan could not remain the way it was. Then, intertwining in various ways with people in various positions, the world moved on. He didn’t try to move the world, but the results of his actions moved and changed the world.

Elements from Sakamoto Ryouma’s life and personal figure can then be found in various aspects of Zestiria. We do things because we want to do it, not because we have to do it, yet both of those things are important, so how can we realize both of them without sacrificing one or the other? Sakamoto Ryouma also left his small hometown, out to the vast world. The part where he originally did not want to change Japan, but ended up changing Japan while he was pursuing his own dream. The part where Sakamoto Ryouma was thought to be able to see things “differently” from others who had lived in the same era, as well, like how Sorey is able to see the seraphim.

長谷　坂本龍馬の要素を全部スレイに持たせることはできないので、実は一部をミクリオが持っていたりします。あまりにも感情的な行動をするとユーザーさんとの気持ちがかけ離れてしまうおそれがあるので、スレイは意外と冷静で落ち着きがあります。むしろ、クールに見えるミクリオのほうが感情的ですね。

HASE: It is not possible for Sorey to have all the elements of Sakamoto Ryouma, so actually, Mikleo has some of them. Sorey is surprisingly calm and composed, as too much emotional behavior could lead to a disconnect with the player’s feelings. If anything, Mikleo, who seems cool, is the more emotional one.

Which might seem familiar, since the head writer also said the same thing, and I see this quote being thrown around a lot anyway:

山本　[...]そういう意味ではおとなしい主人公に見えるかもしれません��、熱い思いはちゃんと持っていて、叫んだりノリや勢いだけで解決しようとはしないキャラクターにしたんです。代わりに、ミクリオをストレートに感情表現するキャラクターにして、2人で1人の主人公のような言動をとるように工夫しました。

YAMAMOTO: [...] In that sense, [Sorey] may seem like a calm protagonist, but he has passionate feelings, yet does not try to solve problems by shouting or just going with his spirit or momentum. Instead, we made Mikleo a character who expresses his emotions in a straightforward manner, so that the two of them act and speak as if they are one protagonist.

So they were concerned about Sorey being too unrelatable if he is fully modeled after Sakamoto Ryouma, who seems like someone bigger than life when you look at him throughout the history, as such, they divide the elements inspired by the figure into two characters, Sorey and Mikleo. This is because despite the fantastical framework they worked with on Zestiria, they also wanted to convey that the legends also lived in us all. That the characters that lived through those legends, were also just like us. That point is important.

――どのキャラクターも強い個性をもっていますね。山本　シナリオチームには「物事でドラマを描くのではなく、キャラクターの心情を繋げていくドラマを作ろう」という大きなテーマがありました。勢いだけで動くのではなく、互いを思いやる部分やそのときの心情によってキャラクターからどういう言葉が出てくるのか、というのをリアルかつていねいに描こうと。なので、その言動から、スレイたちが何を考えているのかを読み取っていただけるとありがたいです。

――Every character has a strong personality. YAMAMOTO: The scenario team had a major theme, “Rather than a drama based on certain things, let’s create a drama that connects the emotions of the characters.” We do not want the characters to only act because of the momentum, but to realistically and carefully depict what kind of words the characters would say depending on their emotions and how they care for one another at the time.

――ストーリーを作るにあたって、特に苦労した部分がありましたら教えてください。山本　やはりその心情ドラマが非常に難しくて、何度も修正しました。RPGとしては目的を提示したり、これはこういうことですよ、と書くほうが楽なんですね。事件でストーリーを繋げていくという。ただ、今回はそれよりもキャラクターの性格との整合性を重視して何度も書き直しました。セリフの収録でも、役者さんにキャラクターの細かい心情を大切にして録ってもらったので、後半になると役者さんのほうから「このセリフってこのキャラクターだと言い方が違うんじゃないですか？」という意見も出てきました。「じゃあ先に行こうぜ」と言うのか、それとも「ここにいてもしかたないよね」という語りかけにするのか、といったちょっとしたニュアンスの違いなのですが、そういうセリフひとつでもキャラクターらしさを重視していました。

――Please tell us if there were any particular challenges in creating the story. YAMAMOTO: That emotional drama was very difficult, after all, that I had to revise it many times. As an RPG, it is easier to present a goal, and write based on “this is what it is all about.” Something like connecting the story beats with certain incidents. This time, however, I rewrote it many times, focusing more on consistency with the characters’ personalities. In the recording of the dialogue, we asked the voice actors to record their lines with the importance of the detailed feelings of their characters, and in the latter half of the production, the voice actors instead would suggest, “This line would be said differently by this character, wouldn’t it?” It may be a small difference in nuance, such as whether to say, “Let’s go ahead then!” or “I don’t think we should stay here,” and even in such a single line, we focused on the character’s personality.

I know it seems like I’m not getting anywhere with this, but bear with me. So we have both Sorey and Mikleo sharing parts of Sakamoto Ryouma, but what I personally find interesting is that Sorey takes the parts of Ryouma that are more “legendary” about him (e.g. he brought upon a huge change without meaning to, he was believed to have seen something invisible that couldn’t be seen by his contemporaries) and Mikleo takes the parts of him that are more mundane (e.g. that he was full of emotions, very expressive). On the outset, Sorey as a human is regular-looking, and Mikleo, as a seraphim, has ephemeral, otherworldly qualities to his appearance... but even in the game, Sorey is the one depicted as being a child of miracles, the only human amongst the seraphim, someone who keeps going against all odds, the one Shepherd with a special end to his journey, and Mikleo is “merely” a young seraph who doesn’t even know a lot of things about his kin.

(Just like how we see things through Sorey’s eyes, and how he learns from the various humans he met and parted with along the way; when it comes to how seraphim work, we usually learn about it because Mikleo, the youngest seraph he is, is curious enough to ask about it from his seniors. You can see it in the skits in-game.)

伝承はいつしか「希望」になる

Legends will someday become “Hope”

I’ve talked about in detail how Zestiria is hugely inspired by Shinto, and, subsequently, places a great importance on legends and history just like Shinto as a religion. The catchphrase of the game nicely illustrates this. However, one thing I’d also like to point out is that it’s easy not to think too deeply into “legend” as an English word, we tend to take words for granted after all. I don’t know if what I’m saying is making any sense, but Zestiria is a work that chooses its words very carefully and you’re supposed to read between the lines.

In the Japanese word for “legends”, “伝承”, lie implications that might not be immediately obvious to people who can’t read Japanese: that legends are transmitted, imparted, handed down (伝える), and that legends are received, taken in, accepted (承ける). There is a give-and-take relationship here, it’s not a one-way road.

The epilogue in the novel, focusing on Mikleo like in the game, emphasized more on this:

永遠に流れる時の中で、人の一生はまるで一瞬の光だ。けれど、語り継がれ、受け継がれた意志は長い時を超える。伝え続けたいと思い続ける限り。

遺跡もまた、語り続ける意志だと青年は考えていた。時を超え、未来へ伝えたい思いを形に残し、いつか受け止めてくれる人を待つ。

いつまでも、いつまでも。

その意志を余すことなく受け止めたい青年は、ひとりでここを再訪したのだ。

In the time that flows eternally, a human’s life is like an instant flash. However, the will that gets handed down and inherited transcends the long time. As long as we want to pass it on.

The young man believed that ruins are also a will that can continue to get passed on. Transcending time, leaving behind a shape of thoughts that they want to convey to the future, waiting for the right person to accept them someday.

Always and forever.

The young man, wanting to take in [to accept] all of this will thoroughly, revisited this place alone by himself.

Humans and seraphim are fundamentally different beings: time flows differently for both, humans accept external changes, seraphim stay the way they are due to their nature as incarnations of the purest hearts. To Mikleo, whose passage of time is comparatively stationary, seeing Sorey, a human, who keeps changing (growing; maturing) just makes their fundamental differences even more obvious, so of course it gives him complicated feelings on the whole matter.

Just before, they were the same height, then Sorey grew even taller than he was, as highlighted in the manga. However, the Sorey that has lived up until now, still lives on inside Mikleo anyway. After all, they’d been together all their lives up until then.

…陪神になってスレイと同じ使命を感じてなんとなくあの時僕を拒んだ理由がわかった

導師の使命も世界も知らないただイズチにいた頃のままの僕らをスレイは残しておきたかった

…As I became a Sub Lord and feel the same calling as Sorey, somehow I understood why he refused me to become one at the time.

Sorey wanted that that part of us, that didn’t know of the Shepherd’s calling nor of the world, just staying the way we were in Elysia, to still remain.

But Sorey’s core―the reason for why he is who he is―it’s Mikleo, the one who has come to share his dream and time, who has it. To Mikleo, a seraph who will continue to be for a very long time as an untainted and unchanging heart, Sorey entrusts his dream. So that after this journey ends, he can walk with himself again.

Sorey, the childhood friend who holds the dream of seeing a world where humans and seraphim could coexist, won’t go anywhere, as long as Mikleo is there, even if Sorey changes. Even Sorey, the one who carries on the Shepherd’s burden, isn’t going anywhere, because that will is carried on to the next generations, by Rose and the succeeding Shepherds.

Speaking of Rose, I think her role in the story as Sorey’s foil will highlight Sorey and Mikleo’s relationship even more (this is not saying that Sorey and Rose’s relationship is any less important, just that it’s a different form of relationship). Even from the character design perspective, Sorey’s gold/orange (the image color that is used for him in both the World Guidance and the manga) and Mikleo’s teal are complementary colors, their eye colors (green and purple) are also complementary colors, and they share the color blue as well, whereas Sorey’s blue and white contrasts Rose’s red and black. I believe this is deliberate, as deliberate as Rose and Lailah sharing the color red yet contrasting black and white, because from the information that has been revealed, Fujishima and Inomata as the veterans of the series were asked first to design two humans and two seraphim respectively, based on their styles, and that their characters would be the main focus of the work.

(Which I also believe is the basis for why it is Sorey [Fujishima] and Mikleo [Inomata], Lailah [Inomata] and Rose [Fujishima] in the night before final battle scene, a scene that has held importance in the entire Tales of series.)

Also, I want you to pay close attention to the key visual for Zestiria above. I will also bring this up again:

右手は身・体の、左手は霊・心の在処

The right-hand side is where the physical body is, while the left-hand side is where the spiritual heart is.

To his left, Mikleo, the Sub Lord, and to his right, Rose, the Squire. Lailah, the Prime Lord, on the far back, evoking that distant feel of the mystical, of the legendary, in the same center as him, the Shepherd. Sorey and Rose actually have a lot in common that are easy to miss... they both grew up with seraphim, sort of, and it cultivated in their pure hearts and high resonance. They’re both humans. But it is with Mikleo, the one who’s decidedly different kin from him, that he has complementary relationship with.

Maybe Zestiria wants us to focus more on their similarities, than their differences, when it comes to Sorey and Mikleo. However, humans don’t grow if they only hear what they want to hear; they have to be challenged, and besides, if you’re going to step into the world out there, there are many kinds of people, people with different views and approaches from you. This is what is needed for Sorey to meaningfully grow. So despite the similarities, Rose is the one human who Sorey knows, outside from himself, that lives with a seraph yet rejects them vehemently at first. That each of them has their own role, to give life and to take life.

This is getting more and more about Rose instead, but I promise I have a point to make here. Besides, it was also Mikleo that managed to convince her to join, for Sorey’s sake.

MIKLEO: We seraphim are indeed Sorey’s friends. MIKLEO: And yet we cannot say for sure if Sorey sees and hears the same things we do. ROSE: Because he's... the only human out of all of you? MIKLEO: Yes. Sorey has no human compatriots who can truly understand the burden he bears as the Shepherd. ROSE: You want... me... to join him. MIKLEO: It's ultimately your call.

Pay attention on the camera positioning, on how Mikleo is on the left on the screen talking to Rose on the right of the screen. It’s not enough for Sorey as a character who has been surrounded by seraphim his whole life, to just be surrounded by a party of seraphim, yet it was Mikleo who first realized this instead of Sorey himself. Also, it wasn’t just in the way he didn’t force her to join Sorey, but the way he was also so gentle in his word choice, even telling her that it was okay for her to be scared of him.

This is why I like how the English trailer dubbed Mikleo as Sorey’s “voice of reason.” Sorey isn’t exactly unreasonable himself, but I think this fits nicely with the designation that in the end, Mikleo chooses to act as the “spiritual heart” to Sorey’s “physical body.” I deliberately use the word “choose” here, because, just as it was Sorey’s choice to be the Shepherd, it was also Mikleo’s choice to fight alongside him.

天族とは誰かの想い、誰かの祈りから生まれた露な＜人の心＞そのもの。

執行者の名を持つ天族は、その心の最も純粋な形として生まれた化身。

Seraphim are born from someone’s thoughts, someone’s prayers; they are the very bare “hearts of humans” themselves.

Seraphim bearing the name “Enforcer” are incarnations born as the purest form of those hearts.

It was implied that Mikleo, the seraph, was born from the thoughts of Michael that were paradoxically both his hope and his despair. And I’m sorry for repeating myself here, but these pages of the manga really spelled it out (I have an entire post on Sorey, Mikleo, and Growth here and here):

SOREY: …I never… want to forget this pain… SOREY: It’s exactly because I felt pain that I was able to continue this journey. SOREY: We’re grieving, suffering because of the reality across this world… and that’s why we are able to rise up for hope. ROSE: ! SOREY: Many feelings even beyond that I had never known before were shining through! That being case, we— MIKLEO: (Humans accept [receive] something, and with that, they change their way of being.)

SOREY: We’re not afraid to go down this road!! MIKLEO: (With time, you grow taller. With your calling, you don the mantle. If you, with all that, are willing to accept the pain that tries to dye you…) MIKLEO: (Then I, the seraph that resides within you, as the thought that you are who you are, will draw the bow together with you.)

(Another neat detail is how on the first page above, the paneling positions Mikleo on the left and Rose on the right.)

So Mikleo was born as Michael’s hope and despair, but decides he will act as the thought that Sorey is who Sorey is. The left to his right. The spiritual to his physical. The seraph to his human.

Choice indicates agency here. I will always remind people that Zenrus has never raised both Sorey and Mikleo to be the Shepherd and his Sub Lord, even though Muse did suggest that idea to him when he took them in. No, they came to accept these roles themselves. The one thing they learned from Zenrus was the dream of coexistence between humans and seraphim, basically the core idea of Zestiria itself.

And their bond is conceived to symbolize the possibilities of that coexistence.

(Speaking of Muse, I want to bring up that there are only two story-related weapons in the game (as in, weapons used/obtained through story and not by loot): the first is Lailah’s Sacred Blade, used by Sorey when fighting the hellions during the Sacred Blade Festival, and the second one is Muse’s Staff, used by Mikleo. I feel these weapons nicely represent Sorey’s connection to the seraphim and Mikleo’s connection to humans outside of each other.)

If such seraph and human—heart and body could exist together, if the physical body could not lose sight of its own heart, could listen carefully to its voice, and could feel its presence, then humans should be able to live the way they want to live, without being tainted. Sorey, who has lived with the seraphim, is that proof.

I won’t let you carry this by yourself.

They share their passion together, they share their inherited will together; for that, they share the burden needed to get there. Personally, despite what I might seem like, I’m actually detached when it comes to liking characters... I don’t really care about the characters individually themselves, and this might make me seem like I don’t care about them personally, but it’s more like that to me, characters cannot be divorced from the narrative and context they’re supposed to work under. Sorey and Mikleo are obviously intended to be the symbols representing what humans and seraphim (the right and the left, the physical and the spiritual, the body and the heart) can do for one another, and legends are full of those symbols. Their unspoken, unseen bond, often described as something like tacit understanding/heart-to-heart communion (以心伝心) also contributes to that feel of seeing something transcendental you often find in legends and folktales, because even words are not necessary anymore, it’s shown in every step they take for themselves and for each other.

Yet at the same time they’re also depicted just as boys. They can get to be happy over the smallest things, they get into heated arguments, they tease each other, they get worried about each other, they don’t want to lose to each other... they are so normal, despite what I’ve said about them before. They’re both symbols and realized characters that I can relate to on a more personal level, and there is multiple facets to both their characters and relationship. I think that’s the best way to show what living in harmony with the world, with the history, with everything that has been there all along without us immediately realizing it, means. They really are there to embody the themes and messages of Zestiria together.

MIKLEO: Both iris gems and ruins are just fragments of the past. What’s important is what you get out of them. MIKLEO: “Because history is the architect of our hearts.” SOREY: Whoa, Mikleo! That was a sweet quote! MIKLEO: You think so? I’m planning to put it in the book I write one day. EDNA: Well, aren’t you full of surprises. MIKLEO: I mean, don’t you think it'd be a waste not to pass on our tale to future generations?

Yes, the details and nitty-gritty are important, but above everything, it’s the bigger picture. What you get out of them. And what I get from them is that hope is not created but inherited. Their journey, their tale not only carries on the hope from the previous generations, but to the next generations as well.

This tale begins with them and ends with them. It is their tale after all.

#tales of #tales of zestiria #mino rambles #mino talks zesty

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