#I have been in a chokehold for so long

[erazonpo3]

I’ve been seeing a lot of genderbent Lysandre & Augustine ancestor concepts around which I love but also if ur into toxic yuri they’re right here. They exist they’re right here I’m on my hands and knees

[dewwshi]

i liked the sparring scene from the start of siege of darkness a normal amount

[spooksicl-e]

it’s january 29th and i’m pretending like i have an adequate drawing for the anniversary🎉

[chewyhanniebug]

(LOVE) AGAIN? (LOVE) AGAIN!

[leverage-ot3]

okay I’ve seen a lot of posts about sterling just being crowley and. guys. the implications just hear me out 😭😭😭

bending lore slightly here BUT let’s say crowley’s body was once inhabited by a human and crowley is possessing the body (maybe he kills the initial inhabitant bc he doesn’t care)

but he still has the guy’s memories. he doesn’t bother keeping up appearances with his ‘ex wife’ because he is too busy building up his hell empire. BUT for some reason he can’t quite identify, he still feels something towards his ‘daughter’. he lets the divorce happen and doesn’t feel the need (or desire) to fight for custody, but he can never quite forget her, to cast her out of his mind for good

some hijinks ensue with the leverage team. it’s mostly because even a grind culture demon wants some off time every once in a while, and for him the insurance investigator stuff is more of a hobby. interacting with the leverage crew is very low stakes for him, and honestly, quite amusing. they aren’t on his level power-wise, but that ford character gives him the mental exercise he hasn’t experienced in, well, he can’t even remember

he can feel their frustration and anger when they learn he has become employed by interpol and feeds off it. it’s great, and relaxing in a way he is never able to achieve while conducting hell-related business

one year he gets wind that olivia is in a really bad situation associated with his ‘ex wife’s’ new husband. he’s selling vital hardware to terrorists, and while that might actually be the kind of chaos he would normally support or be entertained by as the king of hell, something feels wrong about letting olivia stay anywhere near that man

he calls upon the body’s adversaries. he wouldn’t admit it, even under duress, BUT he feels slightly fond of them. nate for the three dimensional chess they play, sophie for her ability to charm and disguise, parker for her chaos and slightly unsettling nature (it’s the autism swag and being bad with human interaction but he doesn’t know that lol), hardison for his unapologetic intelligence and eliot for his hardened violent past and take-no-shit persona (he’s fun to tease)

they perform exactly as he expected, right into his carefully crafted plan. and then olivia is under his care and things get more complicated. he keeps her FAR, FAR away from anything related to the supernatural (heh). no one can find out about her, ESPECIALLY not those imbecile hunter brothers (if for nothing else than the embarrassment in revealing he has a weak spot)

not sure how to work it into this post but I also want to add that somewhere along the way he develops feelings for nate and sophie. the frame up job is near and dear to my heart and you can’t convince me that isn’t fighting as flirting behavior. his interpol persona is more of a side hustle so to speak, but he finds it fun (relaxing, even) to fill that role. there aren’t any obligations of other demons, bothersome hunters, or anything like that. nate and sophie are low stakes, except, they aren’t, really. they make him feel things he can’t ever really remember feeling. his heart beats fast when sophie sat in his lap and cradled his face, his hands sweat when nate gives him that certain smug look. he’s exasperated by the way they can run circles around him like no one else has ever before. they annoy him and get under his skin in a way no one else can and it’s infuriating. but also not, at the same time. maybe he likes it

and then the long goodbye job happens

hear me out and suspend your belief here for a second, because I can’t remember if crowley supernaturally knows when ppl die/are dead or not.

so nate is in interpol custody and the interviewer is obviously out of her depth. (most people are, when it comes to nathan ford.) he walks in and pours the man a drink, but he’s fuming. somewhere along the way he came to care about the team. hell and suffering is literally in his (official) job description, but he can admit (only to himself) that he admires what they do. it’s not for him, not anything close to where his passions and interests lie, but he respects their drive and purpose. he is also aware enough to acknowledge that they are a family, a group of misfits that never belonged quite anywhere except to each other.

and nate fucking blew it up, ruined it, because his vice is being so obsessed with the end game that he is apparently willing to let his team, his family, the people that anchor him to reality, die because the ends supposedly justify the means.

not this time. not to sterling crowley

he is enraged. he can admit within the confines of his mind that he cares for nate, for sophie, even for the other three (though nate and sophie have somehow made it a hierarchy where they are more important to him. which he will dissect later in private. maybe.)

nate let them die, he let sophie die, and for what? the black book? hell below, crowley would have made things easier somehow, if he knew that this was where nate’s sights had lied. he would have prevented this somehow. he wants to have prevented this. he doesn’t want any of them dead and is too afraid to check and verify because that would make it real. the idea of sophie (or any of them) somehow making it to hell instead of heaven would probably break something in him he might not be able to reapir fully.

he yells at nate- he’s angry. hellfire burning in his heart because everything is ruined. the deaths aside (however hard it is to set them aside in his mind), nate will not recover from this, not ever. this will be the start of the end, he is sure. a miserable, guilt-ridden existence where he drinks himself to death and nothing will save him. it plays out in crowley’s mind in a thousand different ways that are beyond painful to conceptualize, even in theory.

the story starts to unravel and there is a game afoot. a solemn, miserable, infuriating game because the con is still in session because parker is alive and in the building- which sets another fire alight in his chest. ‘parker even know you got hardison killed?’ he rages for her grief when she finds out. he knows it will double when she finds out eliot has perished, too, because he isn’t fucking blind.

but nate is a brilliant man, lest he forget too quickly. they are all alive, and somehow still the entire crew slips through his fingers. he’s not even angry (he never would have been- he doesn’t actually try too hard to catch them. it’s about the game, not the consequences). he lets them keep the black book because he’s fucking exhausted and honestly, they more than earned it.

‘now we’re even. tell sophie to drive carefully’. they will never be even, not really. crowley would never admit or agree that being human is the superior state of being, but that have made him feel human in a way he doesn’t actually mind. they keep him on his toes and match him in a way unique to them, they remind him that there are other things than the realm of hell. not necessarily bigger than hell, but maybe just as important in a different sense.

watching the van drive away, something inside him settles. when he walked into the interrogation room that day he thought this was the beginning of the end. it’s not the end at all, not an end to anything. it’s a continuation of their story. maybe, he thinks, a beginning to a new era in it

[daydreamingoncloud9]

Nagi Seishiro: A Divergent Path

Spoilers for Chapters 1, 2, 117, 147, 254, 280, 281, 295, 298, 299 & 300 of Blue Lock and Chapters 2, 3 & 4 of Blue Lock: Episode Nagi.

Similar to my last post on Nagi & Reo, this post is also not necessarily a shipping post, but because I do ship nagireo, it might colour my analysis on them, so fair warning. »»————- ⳮⷤ ── ⲇ ── ⳮⷤ ————-««

With the release of the new chapters, I wanted to bring up an interesting parallel I noticed that helps strengthen the theory that Nagi and Reo's journey together will not end here. In fact, I think this parallel just helps to cement that they will continue to diverge from the rest, even with this recent failure.

To start, I think it is beneficial to establish that Nagi and Isagi are meant to be foils in the story and they often have scenes that parallel each other in key ways.

Many others have already pointed these parallels out before, but for argument's sake, I will list some of them down regardless.

Isagi's ego flaring after he shoots on his own vs Nagi's ego flaring after he sees Reo

2. Isagi being the first to enter Blue Lock vs Nagi (& Reo) being the last

3. isagi scoring the final goal of the U-20 match vs Nagi scoring the first goal

4. Isagi being classified as a "world-style" talented learner vs Nagi who is classified as a "self-style" genius

5. And most recently, Isagi who was at the top of the winners' bracket vs Nagi who was at the top of the losers' bracket

Even their designs are meant to be foils of each other wherein Isagi is short (relatively), has a weaker physical build and a darker colour palette vs Nagi's who's tall, has a stronger physical build and a lighter colour palette.

There are surely plenty more parallels you can find throughout the series, but with this, I hope that I manage to successfully establish that there is a pattern going on and this makes the next parallel I'm going to draw up quite interesting.

So!

Going back to the Blue Lock Entrance Test, I want to zoom in on what Ego considers to be "the egotism of a striker".

The idea that in this instance, a striker is someone who "tries to defeat someone stronger than themselves", "goes after the strongest one" and has an "obsession with their own victory which can't be swayed by others' common sense" is fascinating because it describes both Bachira and Isagi, yes, but it also describes someone who ended up losing despite following that doctrine: Nameoka Ryo.

In these few pages alone, we can see that Nameoka fulfills all the criteria of the "striker" that Ego is looking for. Not only is he purposefully going after the people who he perceives as the strongest, he is doing so despite it being seen as rather illogical because of the risk that he is willingly undertaking by focusing on no one else but Nagi and Reo.

Now you can argue that this definition of a striker's "egoism" is rather shallow because the idea has evolved and expanded over the course of the story, and yes I agree. But in the context of these specific scenes, we are being told that this way of playing is the "correct" way because of how it aligns with Ego's words (whose words are often law). Therefore, Nameoka, in these scenes, is considered the "ideal striker".

So what does it mean when the "ideal striker" loses?

In my opinion, having Nameoka lose, and making it so that Nagi is the one that causes him to lose is a purposeful narrative decision to help support the idea that ultimately, despite being in opposition to Isagi's route and therefore against Ego's ideals, Nagi's (and Reo's) path is valid.

Even the fact that Reo was saved by Nagi here is relevant because of how it supports the validity of their divergent path.

Circling back to Kira's elimination for a second, we see that Ego condemns Kira because when the ball hit him, he "gave up and accepted his defeat" and in his eyes, this is what it means to "run away" from the egotism of a striker and that is why he lost.

And what is interesting here is Kira's acceptance of defeat parallels Reo's acceptance of defeat. Notice that just like Kira, Reo was prematurely thinking about his defeat under the hands of another player (Zantetsu) and was blind to the options that he had after being hit.

This is why the "5 seconds" timer was placed behind Reo as it illustrates how he had turned his back on other options except defeat even though there was plenty of time for him to think of a back-up plan, especially considering how Reo had significantly more time than Kira did (1 second vs 5 seconds).

If we were to follow the original scenario, this would have been the end of Reo and consequently, the end of Nagi and Reo's joint path, but Nagi literally interrupts this narrative and denies its unfolding.

And not only does he deny it, he also manuevers The Egoist's plot device (the ball) to eliminate Ego's "ideal striker", cementing the fact that their path, while divergent from Ego's, is a valid path to take because it succeeds.

I think we have to question why Kaneshiro-sensei and Nomura-sensei felt that it was important for Nameoka (again, the "ideal striker) to be eliminated after Nagi reaffirms his determination to stay with Reo (and therefore reaffirming their partnership) and after Reo is shown to have run away from a striker's egoism.

I truly believe it is to showcase that Nagi and Reo's partnership and joint path, despite all the ups and downs, will prevail and even succeed in usurping the "ideal" egoists in the end.

It's just a matter of looking at all the options and not admitting defeat.

[whereissmajor]

Today Scott is in Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage, also known as Project Sekai!!

he's talking to MMJ ^-^

[gilfodile]

colored in my sketches for a proper banner and icon <3

[byanyan]

byan vc: she's just like me fr

[justyourtypicalwriter]

Clouded get off this one really specific trauma response tag that you literally can’t relate to on ao3 challenge

Anygays because the series mentioned in the tags is all about littles/cg send your style hcs revolving around it bc I genuinely wanna hear everyone’s takes on it

[almea]

i dont know a thing about bleach but the ship art youre reblogging is so cute it makes me want to try it

I'm glad you're enjoying them! They are very precious to me and my most beloved non-canon ship. Even if they didn't end up together there's soooo much good content for them (both in canon and by fans) that I'm still having a good time.

[acatalystrising]

*kicks down door*

Soooo…

I know it’s been a while, my life has been super tumultuous, but I’m happy to report I’m back, and about to drop a new Boba story!

The idea originated a bit ago, but I’m finally writing it! Here’s a teeny sneak peek, the full chapter will be posted soon…👀

Your knees locked up, but the Gamorrean behind you gave your shoulder a nudge with a grunt. Pain flared to life, and you winced, nearly tripping down the steps as you entered the room, heart hammering so loudly in your ears you thought it would burst.

Your eyes swept the room, which was filled with all manner of ilk, and your heart sank even further upon realizing very, very quickly, that many, if not all, were bounty hunters. Your gaze was pulled to the center of the room as if gravity itself demanded your attention, and your world ground to a screeching halt. Only one thought managed to escape your panicked mind before terror and recognition seized your heart.

You should have let yourself bleed out in the desert.

Maker, I am such an idiot.

An idiot who was about to die. A fool who had gone out on a limb, one last ditch effort, to survive. Instead of being rewarded for your final act of desperation, fate had decided to give you the most cruel, ironic end possible.

Because sitting before you, impossibly broad frame sprawled on a carved throne like the very world was his footstool, was none other than the king of the very beasts you’d been trying to outrun.

Boba Fett.

[lasersheith]

i volunteered to transcribe some episodes of vld before it gets taken off netflix and i'm working on season 7 and just,,, cryign

look at him 😭 give this man a cookie and a blanket

[sangcreole]

damn. this is genuinely the only space on the internet where I feel completely at peace.

[akechis-special-case]

He won't let me get closer!

Related to this post from earlier (screenshot includes the reference used).

Also the sona used here is my general one, not Lukanja.

As said, Goro needs full ownership of my thoughts in my brain. This is about what this looks like - He owes a lot of my brain. If I don't think about him but another crush (or F/O) for too long he just pulls me aside. Now you know why I mostly Goro Post! I wonder if I just love him too much by now. Sorry, I can't help it.

[ikuhara]

fave nisio isin series or character?

omg tysm for the question 🫶 tho it was shockingly tough to properly settle on an answer !!! i even kept changing my mind while typing this!! i love all his works and get something new from them whenever i engage with any of them. and there's so many of his series that i still need to properly get into (I was just having a convo yesterday about NEEDING to read Medaka Box and Zaregoto this summer. that's the plan)

ANYWAY! To actually answer... My all time favorite series of nisio's, even if it's the cliché pick, will probably always be Monogatari. I've been a fan for more than a decade now which seems crazy to me. It still feels just as fresh and new as when I first watched the anime.

I love every character in that series so dearly that I'm always tempted say fav is whoever was the focus of the last arc I've most recently (re)read/(re)watched. If I HAD to to pick one, I'd probably go with Hanekawa!? But I can't mention gatari favs without also mentioning Kaiki, Nadeko, and Sodachi too. I also have really special fondness for Hitagi and Tsukihi since I guess I relate to them the most in the series.

Otherwise I have to mention Togame from Katangatari as one of my favs. She'd also be pick as the character of his I relate the most too.

And most importantly for last, as his (self-proclaimed) #1 biggest fan— One of the utmost top spots of my favorite characters is indisputably Lai Fudatsuki from the Bishounen series !!!!