#I have no idea what it says in any other version including the Japanese one but feel free to tell me

[elirium]

Recently i noticed that one of my favorite panels is way more boring in the english version than in the one i read. So. I decided to share it with you.

English version:

German version:

Translation: "Red... I understand your feelings [...] but in a battle there should be no romantic feelings."

[from chapter 40]

[pawberri]

The key problem with "proship vs anti" discourse is that the most extreme versions of each side, the ones who actually bother to identify with these labels, accepted each others worst takes as arguments they had to debate. "Fiction =/= reality" is, in practice, an absurdly reductionist, anti-intellectual, thought-terminating-cliche that dictates we can learn nothing about a person via art and that their fiction reflects no political or moral messaging worthy of critique. In response to this, the "puriteens" who are too young to possibly hope to articulate their discomfort, to untangle their position from what is often real trauma experienced online, simply argue "yes, fiction influences and reflects reality in a 1 to 1 capacity." They, and people who want to use the groundwork they laid to make bad-faith callouts, make bad arguments about how the action of engaging in problematic fiction is on equal ground to real life abuse, or is a clear indicator of interest in real life abuse. Both of these arguments are terrible, but each side seems to radicalize the other further and further into their own brands of anti-intellectual reactionary belief. "Proshippers" become libertarian absolutists about free speech and view all transgression as righteous and alternative and therefore leftist. They gain a reactionary nostalgia for the past, desiring a time when people didn't seem to care about the implications of art. "Antis" become authoritarian and hypervigilant for signs of moral decay, at their worst, willing to align themselves with government bodies that offer carceral solutions to the debate. They are willing to use harassment as a tool of punishment, which then leads to false accusations and a fear of openness that puts people at risk of being triggered via obfuscation. (That said, proshippers also take part in plenty of harassment.)

I will say that I believe both of these movements are equally sensitive to co-opting by right-wing forces. We see the authoritarian tendencies of anti culture in harassment campaigns and even the way Republican law makers co-opt "grooming." The proship/fic crowd has such extreme nostalgia for the past that I often see people align themselves with the cultures of 4chan or other happily right-wing websites. They so heavily reject the idea that a drawn sexual depiction of a child could reflect any desire that they are disinterested in analyzing what the motivation behind the depiction is. i.e If we track the history of lolicon in Japan we do find that is, yes, countercultural, but that counter culture is right wing, very misogynistic, and defensive of patriarchial Japanese culture as it is and was including its culture around rape and abuse. Plenty of fictional content works as radicalization material, and radicalization material needs to be ambiguous. There is a valid reason to be hesitant to trust people who consume this content, even if I do not believe most of them will ever be dangerous towards children. The mere presence of sexuality is not enough to make a movement left wing. This kind of thing can again be seen in right-wing libertarian movements in the US. (And even leftist movements can be bigoted and even "pro-pedophilia" or otherwise disinterested in social reform around abuse.)

Is all content with elements of age-play this way? No. But to me, that is why kink media deserves to be treated as art and analyzed, critiqued, treated seriously. It doesn't have to do anything to anyone to be worthy of a moral critique. Said moral critique just doesn't warrant harassment and cruelty and reactionary exaggerations of the person consuming said content.

Anyway, what's my point in saying all this? I don't know. I'm just begging you to tag your God damn content with specific tags instead of random and nebulous shit like "dead dove" or "dark content", and also begging you to stop harassing people who do tag their content so I don't have to guess what "dead dove" and "dark content" mean. No one will erase incest kink fics or people who feel sickened by the idea of them off this earth because we aren't god, but we could at least all be responsible about tagging, flagging, and age-gating our stuff.

[the-moon-files]

Hi! I'm kinda new here but I was hoping to leave a request or at least something to chew on. So there's this genshin sagau where the reader has a bit of a language barrier with the other characters and I was wondering if that translated over to the Linked Universe as well? Like imagine the boys finding this random person with different clothes, accessories, and they talk in a language never before heard of? What are they, some kind of eldritch being? Meanwhile reader recognizes them obviously but frustratingly can't express any feelings asides from base concepts! Man.

Some funnies include; reader voicing more thoughts out loud now that no one can really understand them and reader eventually learning the language and getting a really sick accent out of it.

That's all my tired brain can think of atm so I bid you adieu. Have a good rest of your day :)

First Official Request!! :D oh and its amazinggg, ooOOO a language barrier AU, genshin? hm wonder who wrote that

Reader wasn’t specified and ive adopted masc!reader as the normal over here, so masc reader it is 👍

Sun: Masc/Male Reader (”you”/he/him)

Orbit: EXTRA LONG Headcanons-ish/scenarios SORRY 😭, Language Barrier AU my beloved

Stars: The Classic Chain of Links <3

Comets & Meteors: Content Warnings: mild cussing, typical mild loz violence, & Trigger Warnings: none known.

Please comment if I missed any. /gen

so for the sake of even funnier confusion, lets say the boys kinda missed u falling thru a portal, and instead just see the portal, and it disappears w/nothing coming out

(bc u obv are a competent person and clearly recognize the giant horse head stable from Breath of the Wild and went inside, like to orient urself, u will NOT be a Y/N damsel in distress 💀)

the boys had already been heading to that stable to sleep for the night, and needless to say, u nearly have a fit LMAO

first, the Hero of Time walks in, then the Link from Hyrule Warriors, then from Link’s Awakening? Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom Link?? Wind Waker Link, Four Sword Link??? The original Legend of Zelda Link-!!!!

well at least u arent the only weirdly dressed person there

(well, u arent weird looking for the hylians in the stable, theyre used to this weird shit, but the Chain of heroes on the other hand…)

they get to observing their bunkmates for the night, subtly squinting at you, then turning to talk to each other, and slowly every link gets made aware of ur prescense, u didnt think u stood out that bad..

(”くいんね しら んらな すいそらきみについ ちみん らは かくちか まいていりすん はすらも んらなす いすち・”) *

it also quickly becomes obvious to every traveler in the stable that you either cant speak, or wont speak, as when ur exchanging money for rupees at the front desk, the owner is accommodating with you by pointing and grunting and ur just nodding and pointing back

well, its not like when u first greeted the guy u understood even a single thing the guy said, it sounded like some sub-dialect of Japanese or something

u had realized earlier with horror that the game was staying true to its creators, and that most likely everyone spoke a special version of Japanese and ur English ass was abt to be so lonely and confused 😭

Wars/Time/Sky/Four in particular clearly noticed u exchanging all ur currency, as u can see them whispering or glancing at you occasionally as u pocket ur now little green gems the size of coins, rather than strip of paper

(”しにし くい まなとかるるる みらか くちひい すなせいいと・ てくら しらいとみゃか くちひい すなせいいと・ かくちか くちとみゃか すいちりりん そくちみきいし らひいす かくい いすちとね くちと にか てにりし・”)

and the boys move on in the morning, and its acc torture for u bc u had no idea how to even begin to quell their suspicions enough to let you travel along with them

u think u could say u came out a portal, but.. how would tell them that? drawing pictures in the dirt?? 💀

and this just keeps happening.

even when u just try to admire from a distance or even outright just leave them to it and go off to explore Hyrule (as safe as u could after acquiring a weapon and some more clothes)

but its like fate (or maybe Hylia tbh) wants u to run into these legendary heroes (both kinda in ur world and definitely here) constantly

after the stable u manage to run into them in Kakariko Village, which wasnt crazy bc u needed more supplies, and it was the nearest town to the stable

ur sure they noticed, but u outright avoided them out of paranoia or making them paranoid u were following them, and u definitely saw who you thought was the hero of the Four Sword whisper about u as u walked by, not that u caught much

(”るるるかくちかゃと かくい とちもい とかすちみきいほりららのにみき きなん はすらも かくい とかちこりいる てい とくらなりし のいいせ ちみ いんい らみ くにもる”)

but you’d started to recognize some Japanese words! …and tbh anime is the only reason for that, something definitely like “watch, him” 💀

which rlly didnt make u feel any better, and u avoided them even harder, u bought a map, so u made sure to head in the opposite direction of them out of, lets be honest, kinda lowkey fear of what theyd do if they thought u were stalking them

but despite u trying to actively go away from them, either you, or them, would show up everywhere the other went,

you passed by Wind playing in the water in Zora’s Domain,

Twilight riding Epona around the plains in Central Hyrule, Sky hanging laundry outside Wild’s house in Hateno

Honest-to-fucking-god seeing Wars, Wild, and Legend all crossdress to sneak into Gerudo village- u cant fucking escape them-

and the worst part is, you cant understand anyone, other than some basic words atp 😭

its as the Chain come from a path that merges onto yours on the way to Rito Village when Legend snaps first

You’re not even surprised, tbh it was more surprising it took them so long 💀

(”にかゃと んらな!! ちきちにみ!!! てくん ちすぃ んらな はらりりらてにみき なと・ くらて ちすぃ んらな はらりりらてにみき なと・・ くらて ちすぃ てぃ はらりりらてにみき んらな・・!!”)

the look on ur face must have drawn some pity from Twilight bc he’s trying to talk Legend out of his yelling and pointing his sword at you,

(”ひいか そちりも しらてみ! りにのい んらな とちにしね に かくにみの ていゃひい ちりとら とらもいくらて こいいみ はらりりらてにみき かくいも からら!”)

Wars joins in, giving you a confused look, before talking to the group at large, most of which have their hands near their weapons, but dont look that inclined to use them, thank the fucking gods or whoever rules over Hyrule-

(”かくい すちみそくいす くちと ち せらにみかね かくにと すいいのと らは もちきにそ ちみし にゃも となすい にかゃと くんりにちゃと しらにみきる てい とくらなりし まなとか かすん から かちりの から かくいもね といい には かくいんゃすい いさせいすにいみそにみき ちみんかくにみき とかすちみきいる”)

oh no. they want to talk you, you barely picked out in their argument

Time nods in agreement, before stepping forward to talk first, you cant even imagine how anxious u look rn lol

(”かくい らかくいすと ちすい すにきくかね かくにと にと りらみき らひいすしないる もん みちもい にと かにもいね ちみし かくいとい ちすい もん かすちひいりにみき そらもせちみにらみとね ちと にゃも となすい んらなゃひい きちかくいすいし はすらも なと すなみみにみき にみから いちそく らかくいす とら もなそくる てくちかゃと んらなす みちもい・”)

why has Hylia forsaken you. what did you do to not receive some sort of fancy natural translator power in ur brain or something after getting portaled here, its the least she could do for fucks sake- talking to someone in a diff. language is SO much harder than just listening to them to understand what theyre saying-

you desperately try to recall the words people have said at stables and whatnot when introducing themselves, before they realized you couldnt speak the same language

(”Uh… もん みちもい にと… and I’m not following you…とらすすん”)

you just try to say ur name and then say sorry LMAO 😭

Nearly every Link is staring at you bug-eyed in shock, confusion, and understanding all at once

the Chain’s attitude changes pretty quick after that, and they quickly connect the dots after, yes, u do a drawing of a portal in the dirt 💀

u gather from the few words u can get that it was indeed magic (probably Hylia) that kept shortcutting you and the group of heroes together over and over again

…

she can move your position in space time and yet she cant get u an auto-translator after being forced to be here.

(in the middle of u drawing to communicate Hyrule manages to understand the gist of what you meant by that and laughs)

the Chain are quick to be very accomdating, Wars/Sky/Wild all offering to try and better teach u their language, but in return they want to learn yours?

actually, that was smth u noticed pretty early on in the ensuing weeks of travel, was the fascination they had w/English and ur voice??

Wind constantly rambled at you and poked and smiled at you to try and get you to ramble back, and after getting more comfortable around them,

u start to talk like they cant understand a word ur saying, which is entirely accurate, and you notice some like to lean in when you talk, or respond with humming/saying smth like u can understand, or even just gesture for u to keep going

Four/Time/Legend?? surprisingly/Hyrule/Twilight like when u get rlly talkative like ur having a one-sided convo w/them all the time, and they constantly are looking at you poinetedly to hear u narrate whatever ur doing or give a response whenever they same something at you (Rulie/Four/Twi/ and sometimes Time, (and he turns away but Legend too) give a little smile whenever you ramble)

Wild is Very Interested in your langauage, bc the Zora, Rito, Gerudo, and Gorons all had their native tongue that he ended up learning, and so he constantly makes notes to try and decipher some of what ur saying in English

he lights up anytime ur able to successfully tell him another something abt it, like the alphabet, or grammar or structure etc

they seem to pay attention esp in the mornings or late at night? ur not sure why until Wind both draw pictures and tries to get the general idea to you to explain

(”かくいんゃすい ちりり きちんる んらなす ちそそいみか にと くらか ちみし んらなす ひらにそい にと しいいせる かくいんゃすい ていちのる”)

smth abt ur voice being nice? deep? but theirs do that too? u dont get it, but thank him anyway

they also help u out at markets, keep out of trouble w/locals, and other misc tasks that need some language help

everythings going great, the Chain trusts you, ur getting better at their language every day, and bc English is one of the hardest languages to learn in the world, theyre slowly getting some of urs!

it isnt until ur camping out in the Temple of Time when things get weird again

Not only is there English carved into the walls, which u read as the Chain give u “explain now” looks and u communicate that the rlly ancient looking script they may or may not be able to read is, in fact, the written version of ur language-

but then another portal opens, and there’s sentences wrapped around the edges, which are fully in English too.

☆

* = hint: JIS

So i love ciphers for language barrier AUs, so have a cypher! have fun decoding it if u like, but don’t worry abt translating it, as its purposefully not important for u to enjoy this :)

JFC IM SO SORRY AB THE LENGTH I WROTE THIS FROM MIDNIGHT TO LIKE 1:30 AM- UGH sometimes this happens when i get on a scenario kick, SORRY 😭😭

also so sorry abt late reply! at least i already established im slow w/u guys so ig its not a huge surprise 😭

tysm for the request it was such a fun idea to write abt :D

i also like genshin, just a little bit u could say, so it was cool to see this carryover across fandoms lol

language barrier is so versatile, could be angst, crack, etc. so that makes sense

have a great weekend!!

Peace out,

🌙

[cry-stars]

Komaeda and Dementia: Part 1 of 5: Introduction and Overview of FTD

Hi everyone!

I’m an aspiring Komaedologist with an interest in dementia. I often see people doubting Komaeda’s stated diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia, since it presents differently in him than in the common portrayal of dementia in the media. While his portrayal may not be completely accurate, there is a lot of truth to it, and there are many symptoms visible in-game. I wanted to share a few posts about dementia symptoms that we do see canonically in Komaeda’s portrayals in SDR2 and DR:AE, and share some information regarding his specific diagnosis as opposed to Alzheimers, for example.

I work with people living with dementia as a recreation worker. This means that I see them living their daily lives, and know about difficulties they might have with recreational or day to day activities. There are a lot of observations that I might make that can’t be backed up scientifically yet, but do make sense in a practical way. Everyone with dementia is different, and since I work with seniors for the most part, some observations won’t transfer onto Komaeda. However, I’ll do my best to back up whatever I can with sources.

This post is just for fun and to give people ideas. It means a lot to me to see a fascinating and endearing character like Komaeda portrayed with dementia, since it is a sad and terminal disease, and I usually see it end badly in my job, so I hope to give people ideas on how to portray it, or just to notice things in a different way they might not have before!

My main sources for this post and the following ones include “Dementia Diaries,” which is a really cool project where people with dementia talk about their experiences, National Institute on Aging, Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer’s Society, and my own work experience. I plan on doing more posts about specific symptoms that we see in Komaeda later, but I would be happy to hear from other people who have dementia knowledge, or to answer any questions that I can.

For the most part, I'm only going to be talking about SDR2 and a little bit of DR:AE. I haven't finished watching the anime yet and have not read any of the manga. If anyone has ideas from any of those sources, I would love to hear about them!

Overview of FTD: Which Variant does Komaeda Have?

There are two major forms of frontotemporal dementia. The first, which Komaeda likely has, is the behavioural variant (BvFTD), which is also the most likely for young people to develop. This variant of FTD mainly affects behaviour, empathy, judgement, and planning.

Komaeda is less likely to have the other variant of FTD, primary progressive aphasia. This form of FTD mainly affects language skills, including speech and comprehension.

Komaeda doesn’t seem to have very much trouble with understanding the concrete content of what people say to him, but he does occasionally seem to have trouble fully comprehending hidden meanings behind statements (for example, taking statements literally rather than as sarcastic). To me though, this is less connected to him not being able to understand the words or content of statements, and more not picking up on the emotions hidden in the statements (which I’ll address more in the behavior post). He does seem to have some trouble with word-finding in the Japanese version of the game, but again, it doesn't inhibit his ability to express himself given enough time to speak.

Another thing to note about FTD is that, in its early stages, it mainly affects behaviour and language processing, as stated above, rather than memory. In later stages, memory does start to be affected as well, but it’s different from Alzheimers (probably the most well-known form of dementia) in that memory loss isn’t the main symptom.

FTD’s prognosis is about 6-8 years. Komaeda states in his fifth free time event that his life expectancy is between half a year and one year. However, he is also referring to his lymphoma diagnosis, meaning he expected to die from a combination of both illnesses within that time frame. In SDR2, Komaeda is probably in the early to middle stages of FTD, since he was diagnosed right before entering Hope’s Peak, and was a Remnant of Despair for some time without treatment, so while we can see evidence of memory issues (which I will address in another post), it’s something he’s able to cope with and isn’t a debilitating symptom yet.

One more observation: while dementia as a whole is usually seen in elderly people, Komaeda’s specific frontotemporal dementia diagnosis has an earlier age of onset, usually between ages 40-65, and is rarely seen in elderly people. Even though being diagnosed in high school seems unlikely, it is not impossible. According to Alzheimer Society Canada, early-onset or young-onset dementia (between ages 18 and 65) accounts for 2-8% of all dementia cases.

Thank you for reading! I plan on making five posts total. The other post topics will be Outward Behaviour, Judgement/Thought Processes, Other Symptoms, and Writing Ideas.

[alpaca-clouds]

The Thing About The Age of the Characters in Digimon

Okay, let me talk about one thing in the western Digimon Fandom, that has always bothered me. And it has to do with something very weird: The age of the characters in the first four seasons.

See, in a lot of western fandom discourse there is this idea that the main characters in Tamers are 1 year younger than the characters in Adventure, 02, and Frontier. This mostly originates with one thing: The Japanese dub of the other three seasons do not give any age for the characters, as they introduce themselves saying just their grade in primary school. Tamers meanwhile gives official ages for the characters (with pretty much everyone but Shaochung and Ryou being 10). While the western versions of the other seasons gave an age for the main characters, making the Goggle Boys 11 years in their respective seasons.

However... This does not make them a year older.

See, most of the main characters in the first four seasons of Digimon are 5th graders. This maintains to Taichi, Sora and Yamato in Adventure, to Daisuke, Hikari, Takeru and Ken in 02, the entire main cast in Tamers, and Takuya, Izumi, Kouichi and Kouji in Frontier.

What does this mean for age? Well, basically it means that these characters should have been 10 by the 1st of April of the year that they entered 5th grade. To be exact, it means the birthdays should be like this:

Taichi, Yamato, Sora: Between April 1st 1988, and March 31st 1989 (through Sora's birthday being recent in movie 2, which takes place during spring vacation, we can assume her birthday is in March 1989)

Koushirou, Mimi: Between April 1st 1989, and March 31st 1990

Jyou: Between April 1st 1987 and March 31st 1988

Takeru, Hikari, Daisuke, Ken: Between April 1st 1991 and March 31st 1992

Iori: Between April 1st 1993 and March 31st 1994

Miyako: May 21st to about June 21st 1990 (we know her star sign is Gemini)

Takato, Jianliang, Ruki, Hirokazu, Kenta, Iori: Between April 1st 1990 and March 31st 1991 (this should also be true for Junpei in Frontier)

Shaochung: Between April 1st 1993 and March 31st 1994

Ryou (Tamers Version): Between April 1st 1986 and March 31st 1987

Takuya, Izumi, Kouichi, Kouji: Between April 1st 1991 and March 31st 1992

Tomoki: Between April 1st 1994 and March 31st 1995

And yes, if you have autistic knowledge of this franchise, you will know that there is in some cases stuff that does not make sense.

Notably the fact that within the old Artbook with the character reference pictures 02 Sora is referenced to be 14 years old. However, that book has been released years later, and the information came from Seki Hiromi, so I am fairly certain this is just her not quite realizing that Sora's birthday is somewhat confirmed to be in March through movie 2. (The same is also true for Ruki, who also has her birthday in movie 6, which also takes place during the spring vacation. However, other than with movie 2, which is confirmed as canon for the series through 02, the canonicity of movie 6 is a lot more doubtful, as there are several ways in which it contradicts the canon of the show.)

The other thing is one very specific for Tamers.

See, Tamers is unique in giving the ages of the characters. And in fact with every screenplay of the series (which have been digitally distributed and are most available and actually super interesting for some background information) in the list of characters showing up in that episode most ages are given. This is why we know the ages of the parents in Tamers. However: Tamers takes place over the time between April 2001 and late February or early March 2002, so over the course of a roughly year. And even in the last episodes the ages for all characters are still the same as by episode 1. However, I assume this is just simply an oversight, that nobody has thought about. At least this is a lot more likely than none of the main characters (including the adults) having had their birthday before March. lol

So yeah. Generally speaking: All four goggle boys are 10 or 11 in their respective season. 5th graders at the very least.

[thornswoggled]

yori is fumiki and heres why: my manifesto

or: wait, we werent all on the same page about this?

i should have written this when i first read chapter 98, but im only getting around to it now. this is less me trying to convince you, the reader, and more hoarding all my collected thoughts on why yori is absolutely fumiki, if its a red herring its a silly one, and if he isnt or if its left ambiguous forever i will eat crow. here we go:

before i start let me say most of my evidence is the way yamazaki frames him visually rather than solid "proof." comics are an artform, theres a reason things get framed the way they do, and her artistic choices in ch 98 (i feel) are meant to serve as a big blinking neon light that says "you should be feeling this way about xyz right now"

iic, there were rumblings of "the young auditor" being fumiki as far back as his introduction in ch 51 due to to his unique ability:

which is essentially a refined version of fumikis innate ability to keep fae away. we know yori is part of a "family business," and it seems appropriate that with the proper training, he would be able to freeze fae in their tracks rather than simply ward them off

unfortunately this is where "evidence" ends and "vibes" begin

chapter 51 didnt get adapted into what was otherwise a pretty faithful adaptation in season 2, and i understand why - theres a lot going on, and this chapter is fairly out of left field. but theres one other quip that got left out of season 2:

this is a one-off thought that wouldnt have been difficult to include in the anime. imo, i believe this line from ch 62 didnt get animated because we hadnt met fumiki yet like we did in the manga. now, onto more recent chapters... (under a read more because this is going to get pretty long)

chise and yoris first meeting is framed in a very purposeful way. in chapter 98, elias is preoccupied with ousting all the outsiders so that he and chise can be alone, stuck on the idea that "christmas is for family only:"

and three pages later, who do we meet?

im really struck by the way chise and yori are drawn together here. personally, i dont read this as "chise is meeting a new unimportant side character," this is "the strings of fate have pulled us miraculously back together again"

waiter! waiter! can i get an order of drifting sakura petals and sparkles with this panel? am i waxing poetic here or do you see it? the way theres no background drawn here, no other characters, even in later pages when we know elias is standing right behind chise, he doesnt get included in frame so that its just the two of them:

while im at it, can we appreciate how theyre wearing the same outfit? black pants and a hip-length dark coat/sweater with oversized pockets, a collar, and six left-sided buttons. yoris dark gloves also evoke chises cursed arm here but i dont want to risk looking like a maniac any more than i already do. i mean... dude, look at them, theyre matching

speaking of matching, lets pop back to 51 for a sec

both yori and chise have canine familiars! actually, it looks like yori might have multiple - look at all those pokeballs i mean bamboo tubes in his coat. if my memory serves, we didnt know yori was japanese at this point, but everyone assumed so because of the appearance of this familiar... which was another log on the "this might be fumiki" fire

fun fact: this little dude is almost certainly a kuda-kitsune, which were said to be kept in tubes and summoned by a soothsayer, who could use it to perform curses, or tell the past and future

and the drama with which we find out his "name":

"i bet you were expecting me to say fumiki, huh. good luck im not giving you that this early you have to work for it." as far as aliases go, "ri" could be derived from "hatori," but neither of the kanji in "fumiki" can be read as "yo," so its probably just random

after yori leaves, we get another repetition of "christmas is for family," which at this point feels like yamazaki is leading us to water and dunking our head in it:

i think its awfully convenient that ruth was absent for chises exchange with yori. do you think he would have been able to smell that theyre related? or whiffed the kuda-kitsune in his coat?

right after this, too, we get this line from elias which i have been thinking about a lot:

theres a few different ways this could be read, so im not married to any one interpretation, but it could be foreshadowing "if chise decides to pursue a relationship with her estranged family, what will i do then?" as gabriella would say, "i hate to be a third wheel"

given what we have seen of yoris aloof personality, i have to imagine there will be drama if/when the reveal is made. sadly i can picture him actually pushing chise away if she tries to reestablish a relationship with him

now! that is pretty much where my thoughts end, but i do want to share questions/doubts i have:

if yori read all of simons reports to determine he was an unfit observer, there is no way he doesnt know chises full name. i wonder whether he had any reaction to it? he may assume that its just a coincidence. i briefly wondered if the hatori name was an invention by yuuki, until i remembered that the family chise stays with in the OVA also has the same name. unless yuuki was adopted by another family like seth...? dont mind me, im going pepe silvia mode over here

have i mentioned i talked about yuuki before in another theory post? take it with a grain of salt, i already got proven wrong on one front now that jasper has been introduced

will yuuki be reintroduced if fumiki is? i desperately want chise to get that closure, but this scene from ch 42 has a sense of finality to it, a sort of "you will never get to resolve things with your father or see his side of things" stank:

... actually, now that ive mentioned the kuda-kitsune, can we look at this thing again?

another word for the kuda-kitsune is "izuna," which is read in modern japanese as "weasel." could the critter whos watching yuuki here come from the same place as yoris familiars? yuuki leaves his family immediately after this - getting summoned maybe?

okay, okay, let me stop myself here before i start looking like im ranting and raving. can we talk about the mail, please, mac? ive been dying to talk about the mail with you all day, ok? "pepe silvia," this name keeps coming up over and over again. every day pepe's mail is getting sent back to me. pepe silvia! pepe silvia! i look in the mail, and this whole box is pepe silvia!

if youre a fence-sitter, what are your thoughts? do you think we just dont have enough evidence yet? inquiring minds want to know

[lilyginnyblackv2]

“Father” Based Words in Buddy Daddies

I figured a lot of Buddy Daddies fans might be interested in this video from Unseen Japan called “How the Japanese Words for Parents Lost Out to English.”

I also thought that this would be a great video to talk about how Kazuki, Rei, and other characters usage of words for “dad” and “father” in Buddy Daddies thus far (as of Episode 9, though, if there are any further interesting usages or things I feel could be added after the series ends, I will definitely include and update reblog on this!).

In Episode 3, when Rei asks Miri:

“What about your real father?” He uses the term 父上 (chichiue), which is far more formal than other terms that we see other characters use, such as Miss Anna. She refers to Kazuki and Rei either as お父さん (otousan) or パパ（達) (papa (tachi)), usually she uses Papa when talking about Kazuki or Rei directly to Miri:

(Miss Anna to Miri:  “Are you happy to have two papas?”)

While using otousan when directing her speech at Kazuki and/or Rei :

(”Two fathers, you say?” - She uses お父さん - otousan here, which gets translated to “father,” just like Rei’s use of chichiue did, because they are more polite and formal ways to say “dad.” But, we’ll talk a bit more about this later). 

We’ve never had Kazuki mention his mother and father separately, just in a more unit type of way (”parental abandonment” etc.). But, we see that he refers to the other mothers as ママ友 (mamatomo), which can be translated as “mom friends” or “other mothers/moms,” like in Episode 6:

(Kazuki: “Of course, the other mothers all say the same about their kids.” - Since he is talking more generally here, and not, for example, about his group of mom friends, it makes sense that the English translation went with “mothers,” instead of “moms”).

When talking about himself, he sometimes uses papa, specifically when talking to Miri about himself, like in this Episode 6 scene:

(The English subs use: “Anna-chan told me a little story,” while the Japanese itself has Kazuki saying “Papa heard something from Anna-chan” or something more so along those lines, that’s a bit unnatural sounding, and usually English speakers don’t refer to themselves as their parental role, unless it’s something like “As your father/mother/etc...”).

And, speaking of that phrase, in Episode 6 as well, when Kazuki states:

“As a father...” He uses chichiue. Like Rei did when talking about Miri’s father, which we’ll get to in a bit. I believe there is one time when Kazuki is referring to himself as well, and “dad” gets used, either in the sub or dub translation. I can’t remember the exact scene though. But,that fits with the point that, generally speaking, Kazuki is pretty informal with his speech. Like how he calls Kyutaro, Kyu-chan, as opposed to Rei, who calls him Kyutaro-san (more formal). Miri seems to be following after Kazuki in this way though.

This post is getting quite long as it is, so I’ll put the rest of this under a Read More:

Although, the teen Miri that Kazuki envisions, isn’t just informal in her speech, but also rude.

The subs have her calling Kazuki, “old fart,” which is an appropriate way to translate ジジイ (jijii), both a very informal and rude way to refer to one’s father.

Getting back to Kazuki though. He uses chichiue when talking about the idea of “father,” right. “As a father...,” but not for himself. Since chichiue is distant sounding. It’s colder and more formal (Draco Malfoy refers to his father as such in the Japanese version of the Harry Potter books, for example).

This then brings us back to Rei. He referred to Miri’s blood father as chichiue, and then he thinks:

“Father...” using chichiue and thinking of his own. 

When he calls out to his father, he uses 父さん (tousan), which gets translated to “Dad!” It’s a very common way for older children, teens, and adult children to call their fathers, so that makes sense. Most children speaking English, at least in the states, switch from “Daddy” to “Dad” when they’ve reached the age Rei is here (probably near his preteens). 

But Rei’s father replies back:

“Don’t call me, ‘Dad.’“ He uses 父 (chichi), which is more formal. Over on Hi Native, a Japanese individual did a break down on politeness levels for different father words:

Text: 

お父様 - otousama - formal polite

父 - chichi - formal

お父さん - otousan - polite

父さん - tousan - less polite

親父 - oyaji - casual

パパ - papa - casual

His father requests that Rei uses “Boss,” a term not attached to fatherhood at all, and it is the word Rei does end up using:

(Rei: “Forgive my long absence, Boss.”)

As we can see here in Episode 8, when he calls his father, “Boss.”

But, of course, when it comes to himself, Rei is a Papa. He calls himself Miri’s Papa, responds to Papa, and has used it for Kazuki as well.

Rei’s own experiences with his father, his ideas and concepts of fatherhood, and his own relationship with politeness levels all played additional roles in his reluctance to referred to as “Rei Papa/Papa Rei” at first. 

But, as you can see, Buddy Daddies has used a variety of different words for “father” over the course of the show, each with their own levels of politeness, tone, and warmth to them, and many of which are mentioned in the above video I embedded into this post. So definitely give that a watch if you haven’t yet! 

[blueikeproductions]

More CyberWorld/EarthSpark stuff that stuck out to me.

Another page in the planning document cropped up, & it gives a general overview of what Hasbro had in mind at the time.

Two new shows are planned to come out, but this page confusingly doesn’t mention CyberWorld, just an “animated kids series” & an “animated pre-K series”.

The other pages still reference CyberWorld, so mostly going by what we’ve seen, CyberWorld is meant to be the kids series, but it’s a big question mark on the pre-k show. Rescue Bots ran its course, I got the feeling lil’ kids weren’t interested in RBA since it didn’t last as long, stories were both too preschool but also trying to tack on IDW centric ideas by forcing Laserbeak to be forgiven and becoming an Autobot, for reasons. Stuff that’s not interesting to lil’ kids or their parents.

When RBA ended, a new toyline took over but I don’t think it sold super well, nor did it have any fiction.

As well as only including Optimus Primal & BW Megatron Gator…? It was a random line, and clearly just filler to eke out RB style toys longer. I don’t see the new Pre-K show being this, but CHT did sell Decepticons as enemy characters unlike RB/A, so the Pre-K show might be based on the Great War this time? Or at the very least, stuff like the Decepticons robbing banks and power plants, lol. Or some gag about Soundwave illegally downloading music, only to be put in his place, but with a contradictory gag about the human kids and Bumblebee doing the same from time to time.

It’s pry too late to ape it now, but a modern pre-K show I could see being Spidey & His Amazing Friends tonally with toys similar to Paw Patrol’s. Like say you have the standard Optimus toy partnered with Spike (Skybound or G1 doesn’t matter), and the trailer transforms into a big jet for Optimus and Spike to ride in. Something like that.

As for CyberWorld.

The current assumption based on the toys, is it might be a return to vehicles vs animals that both RiDs, Beast Machines, Beast Wars II and ROTB (kinda) did.

The Decepticons seemingly being animal themed supports this (plus if Meg Bull IS Megatron, Megs trying to push off road Optimus off a cliff in bull mode is hilarious), though Galvatron is the odd one. The only one with a beast form is the BWII version…

Hasbro might be more open to Beast Wars again but they’re still a bit dodgy about the Japanese cast despite Lio Convoy and Magmatron. I could sooner see a G1 Galvatron than BWII Galvatron, but the fun approach would be an Armada Galvatron inspired design that borrows from G1, Energon & BWII.

Toy speculation suggests the line might be a repaint line like the old TF Universe series made up of Cyberverse, RiD15 and EarthSpark molds.

A possibility. Cited speculative examples of Sky-Byte being his Cyberverse toy, Chomp & Stomp Grimlock being another go at the AoE toy of the same name, & Mirage being RiD15 Blurr make sense, but I dunno. Scorponok and Galvatron stick out, as I would think they’d have to be new molds, though an argument can be made for a G1 colored version of RiD15 Scorponok… Similarly, they might repaint TFP Predaking into Galvatron if he’s a repaint and they wanted to homage BWII, but I’m leaning towards new molds for now.

CyberWorld ISN’T a cartoon, but a toy only subline or size class meant to replace the abandoned Core/Legion class.

Inconclusive. The tiny toys don’t seem to sell well as it is, Legacy just stopped being restocked my way so no BM Cheetor or Energon Megatron for me. Also guys like Iguanus shelfwarmed HARD. Rungs were still clogging Ollies until recently. CyberWorld is also shown to be the successor to ES in most of the documents that we can tell.

The CyberWorld cartoon will have a half of a half shoe string budget like Cyberverse and possibly be similar to it.

Inconclusive but not out of the realm of possibility either. Hasbro has been having its own problems lately, while Paramount is practically on fire right now. A lot of people mostly just seem to be clinging to how similar World & Verse sound, with the logo also looking slightly similar but still different enough. A lot more people also seem resistant to the idea of more Cyberverse either way. CV didn’t perform well either, the toys clogged store shelves from start to finish, heck the first wave went on clearance immediately after Christmas, and the series JUST came out, the messy, lackadaisical approach to the show’s (lack of) story, the bad voice acting, etc. It’s not a fondly remembered show as much as some make it out to be. And even then, you’d sort of expect, if it was directly related, Hasbro would shove Bumblebee front & center, despite the CV cartoon wanting little to do with Bee as it went on. Like let’s be real, if it was a CV sequel, Bee, Windy & Shadow should be here right out the gate. They’re not. At all. Windy is practically benched in favor of Elita now.

Mirage is the focus (seemingly) instead, presumably due to the ROTB version’s popularity. He’s certainly more fun than the rich snob that may or may not be a traitor the G1 version tends to be. Not that you can’t make the G1 version interesting but boy has Hasbro not really had any interest in doing so beyond his invisibility gimmick.

So really until told otherwise we know very little. All we know for sure is EarthSpark is being slowly phased out in favor of CyberWorld & a potential Pre-K show. The Slag Podcast host has given a knowing wink, and has a show planned that will presumably lay these Snaketicons out straight, as people have been calling him a lying liar again for sticking to what he knows. Similarly some have pointed out Nick Roche may have also been lying, giving false hope EarthSpark is continuing on when it’s pretty clear it isn’t. S2 is it people, one way or the other, and the new CyberWorld order is coming whatever it ends up being.

[ruminativerabbi]

Anti-Judaism Then and Now

On Sesame Street, they used to sing a song that challenged young viewers to decide “which of these things belong together.” The idea was that the youngsters would be presented with a group of things all but one of which belonged to the same group. But the trick, of course, was that the specific nature of the group wasn’t revealed—so the young viewer had to notice that there were three vegetables on the screen and one piece of fruit, or three garden tools and a frying pan. You get the idea. All of the things belonged together but one didn’t. It wasn’t that complicated. But the tune is still stuck in my head and I don’t think I’ve heard the song in at least thirty years.

In the grown-up world, there are also all sorts of groups made up of things that are presented as “belonging together.” Some are obvious and indisputable. But others are far more iffy.

Languages, for example, are in the first category. Danish, Japanese, Laotian, and Yiddish all belong in the same group; each is an artificial code devised by a specific national or ethnic group to label the things of the world. You really can compare the Japanese word for apple with the Danish word because both really are the same thing: a sound unrelated in any organic way to the thing it denotes that a specific group of people have decided to use nonetheless to denote that thing. Languages are all codes, all artificial, and all each other’s equals. The world’s languages, therefore, really are each other’s equivalents

Other groups, not so much. Religion comes right to mind in that regard: we regularly refer to the world’s religions as each other’s equivalents, but is that really so? In what sense, truly, is Judaism the Jewish version of Hinduism or Buddhism? Is Chanukah the Jewish Christmas? Is the New Testament the Christian version of the Koran in the same sense that the Danish word for cherry is the Danish version of the French word for that same thing? You see what I mean: the notion that the religions of the world are each other’s equivalents hardly makes any sense at all.

But what about prejudices of various sorts? Are racism and homophobia each other’s equivalents, distinguished only by the target of the bigot’s irrational dislike? Are sexism and ageism the same thing, only different with respect to the specific being discriminated against? And where does anti-Semitism, with its weird medial capital letter and its off-base etymology (because it denotes discrimination against Jews, not other Semites), where does anti-Semitism fit in? Is it the same as other forms of discrimination, differing only with respect to the target?

I suppose my readers know why this has been on my mind lately.

Last week I wrote about that grotesque congressional hearing in which the presidents of three of America’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning, including two of the so-called Ivies, could not bring themselves to label the most extreme form of anti-Semitism there is, the version that calls not for discrimination against Jews but for their actual murder—they could not bring themselves unequivocally and unambiguously to say that that calls for genocide directed against Jews have no place on their campuses. The president of the University of Pennsylvania paid with her position for her unwillingness to condemn genocide clearly and forcefully. But hundreds and hundreds of faculty members at Harvard, perhaps the nation’s most prestigious college, spoke out forcefully in support of their president despite her unwillingness to say clearly that calling for the murder of Jews is not the kind of speech that any normal person would imagine to be protected by the First Amendment.

At a time when anti-Semitism is surging, it strikes me that treating different versions of prejudice as each other’s equivalent is probably more harmful an approach than a realistic one. That is what led to the moral fog that apparently enveloped the leaders of three of our nation’s finest academies and made them unable simply and plainly to condemn calls for genocide directed against Jewish people.

I think we should probably begin to deal with this matter in our own backyard. And to that end, I would like to recommend three books and a fourth to my readers: the three are “about” anti-Semitism (and each is remarkable in its own way) and the fourth is a novel that I’ve mentioned many times in these letters, the one that led me to understand personally what anti-Semitism actually is and how it can thrive even in the ranks of the highly civilized, educated, and cultured.

The first book is by the late Rosemary Ruether, known as a feminist and as a Catholic theologian, but also the author of Faith and Fratricide: The Theological Roots of Anti-Semitism, published by Seabury Press in 1974 and still in print. This was not the first serious study of anti-Semitism I read—that would have been Léon Poliakoff’s four-volume work, The History of Anti-Semitism, which also had a formative effect on my adolescent self. But Ruether’s book was different: less about anti-Semitism itself and more about the way that anti-Jewish prejudice was such a basic part of the theological worldview of so many of the most formative Christian authors that the task of eliminating it from Western culture would require a repudiation of some of the basic tenets set forth by some of the most famous early Christian authors. I was stunned by her book when I read it: stunned, but also truly challenged. In think, even, that my decision to specialize in the history of the early Church as one of my sub-specialties when I completed by doctorate in ancient Judaism was a function of reading that book and needing—and wanting—to know these texts (and, through them, their authors) personally and up close. Jewish readers—or any readers—concerned about anti-Semitism could do a lot worse than to start with Ruether’s book.

And from there I’d go on to David Nirenberg’s book, Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition, published by W.W. Norton in 2013. This too is something anyone even marginally concerned about anti-Semitism in the world should read. The book is not that long, but it is rich and exceptionally thought-provoking; its author describes his thesis clearly in one sentence, however: “Anti-Judaism should not be understood as some archaic or irrational closet in the vast edifices of Western thought,” but rather as one of the “basic tools with which that edifice was constructed.” Using detailed, thoughtful, and deliberate prose, Nirenberg lays out his argument that Western civilization rests on a foundation of anti-Judaism so deeply embedded in the Western psyche as to make it possible for people who have doctorates from Harvard to feel uncertain about condemning genocide—the ultimate anti-Semitic gesture—unequivocally and forcefully. This would be a good book too for every Jewish citizen—and for all who consider themselves allies of the Jewish people—to read and take to heart. Anti-Judaism is deeply engrained in Western culture. To eradicate it—even temporarily, let alone permanently—will require a serious realignment of Western values and beliefs. Can it be done? Other features of Western culture have fallen away over the centuries, so I suppose it can be. But how to accomplish such a feat—the best ideas will come from people who have read books like Nirenberg’s and taken them to heart.

And the final book I would like to recommend is James Carroll’s, Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews, published by Mariner Books in 2001. The author, a former Roman Catholic priest, makes a compelling argument that the roots of anti-Semitism are to be found in the basic Christian belief that the redemption of the world will follow the conversion of the world’s Jews to Christianity. I was surprised when I read the book by a lot of things, but not least how convincingly the author presses his argument that the belief that the redemption of the world is being impeded by the phenomenon of stubborn Jews refusing to abandon Judaism is the soil in which all Western anti-Semitism is rooted. It’s an easier book to read than either Ruether’s or Nirenberg’s—written more for a lay audience and clearly intended by its author to be a bestseller, which it indeed became—but no less an interesting and enlightening one.

So that is my counsel for American Jews feeling uncertain how to respond to this surge of anti-Semitic incidents on our nation’s streets and particularly on the campuses of even our most prestigious universities. Read these books. Learn the history that is, even today, legitimizing anti-Jewish sentiments even among people who themselves are not sufficiently educated to understand what is motivating their feelings about Jews and about Judaism. None of these reads will be especially pleasant. But all will be stirring and inspiring. And from understanding will come, perhaps, a path forward. Any physician will tell you that even the greatest doctor has to know what’s wrong with a patient before attempting to initiate the healing process. Perhaps that is what is needed now: not rallies or White House dinners (or not just those things), but a slow, painstaking analysis of where this all is coming from and an equally well-thought-out plan for combatting anti-Jewish prejudice rooted in the nature of the beast we would all like to see fenced in, tamed, and then ultimately slain.

And the novel? My go-to piece of Jewish literature, André Schwarz-Bart’s The Last of the Just, was published in Stephen Becker’s English translation by Athenaeum in 1960, just one year after the publication of the French original. A novel that spans a full millennium, the book traces the history of a single Jewish family, the Levys, and tells the specific story of the individual member of the family in each generation who serves as one of the thirty-six just people for whose sake the world exists. (The book begins in eleventh century England and ends at Auschwitz, where the last of the just perishes.) I read the book when I was a boy and have returned to it a dozen times over the years. No book that I can think of explains anti-Semitism from the inside—from within the bosom of a Jewish family that is defined by the prejudice directed against it—more intensely, more movingly, or more devastatingly. This is definitely not a book for children. I was probably too young to encounter such a book when I did, but it is also true that, more than anything else, it was that book that set me on the path that I followed into adulthood. (And that is probably just as true spiritually and emotionally, as it is professionally.) I was too young, perhaps, to process the story correctly. But when I was done reading even that first time as a sixteen-year-old, I knew what path I wished to follow. The Last of the Just is not a book I would exactly characterize as enjoyable reading. But it is riveting, challenging, and galvanizing. To face the future with courage and resolve, the American Jewish community needs to look far back into the past so as to understand the challenges it now faces. And then, armed with that knowledge, to find a path forward into a brighter and better world.

[kiawren]

Heeyy.... Back again for tonight before I leave again. They leaked a bunch of SM stuff 😃I did not expect it, I thought all the leaks had been covered. I was really bummed cuz I KNEW there were things, but the main leakers perhaps just didn't go through the and upload them. But there have been some now!... But overall my mood is poop cuz I've been feeling really dreadful about exams. Discipline is something I really struggle with.

ANYWAY! Some of the leaked stuff includes concept description of the main alolan cast. I've yet to read through them all so I'll just say stuff about the Kiawe one.

Btw these character concepts are early and change over time. Also this is Google translated so the translation is not excellent.

Honestly the thing I found most funny and baffling is "African-American descent" and they put a pic of a Japanese dude. Not even mixed I think. I googled him and it looks like this particular pic he's just tan 💀 if you see the stuff they have for other poc it's also something along these ignorant lines LMAO. Anyway.

I'll go generally chronologically

- "master of flying", I just assume to do with charizard cuz he gives the player the pager for it after his trial. Although the games didn't show him with a charizard AT ALL, the anime did show this and other stuff mentioned in the character description.

Which is cool becuz although I ship with his game version I did merge some familial exposition from the anime. Anyway

- "his grandfather dancing acrobatically with Charizard" no idea how that's supposed to look like. But it's cool there's a bit of flying elements. Also in the anime Kiawe is the one who performs the flying-type Z move in the show. Not Kahili or any other character. (If I'm not wrong lol). If charizard is on his team along with talonflame, he'd have two flying types as the only other type outside of fire that he'd need to be more skilled in. I'm pretty sure it's obvious Wren would specialise in Flying types. So it could mean something kiawren but also nothing at all don't worry about it

-interesting that instead of dancing with charizard as the concept idea, they went with alolan marowak as his dance partner in the end, which I think is perfect and very fitting. It would be nice to imagine him navigating his image of dancing with charizard as his grandfather does, but then obtaining a marowak and adapting to it and finding his own style with that. In the anime his grandfather passed before the canon story takes place, not specified at what age kiawe was then,...

-but reading on about his conflict with his ambition and obligation... He'd probably feel quite lost for a while on his own without his grandfather.

I actually never thought about any expectations that may have been placed on him. But that MAKES ME EVEN SADDER hhggfghhhhh

I had the headcanon that his parents support him but he felt bad about them covering too much of his study and travel expenses so he wants to work and cover it himself. BUT.... BUT WITH THE IDEA THAT. IN THE GAME HIS PARENTS WANT HIM TO TAKE OVER THE FARM. WHAT IF HE'S WORKING TO PROVE HIS DETERMINATION THAT HE CAN BE SELF SUFFICIENT AND WORK FOR IT BECUZ HE REALLY WANTS IT. AND THEN THIS SHIT HAPPENED BRRUUGh well i just think of his parents as the versions in the anime cuz in the games it's just reused NPC models that don't look related to him especially his dad is a white guy. So I always envisioned his parents to be the supportive caring ones in the anime. Though the game has more maturity to it. In the anime he's not even a dancer btw LMAO. So. So. In my Kiawren vacuum universe. His parents look the same in the show. But they're slightly sterner (though still caring) and want him to look after the farm. ALTHOUGH LIKE. THEY'RE NOT EVEN THAT OLD. AND KIAWE IS STILL 18 LIKE HE STILL HAS HIS LIVE AHEAD OF HIM WHAT TAKING OVER THE FARM BRO YOU GUYS ARE STILL PERFECTLY YOUNG AND WORKING AGE

But yeah yay more kiawren lore to think about. Actively working through his dilemmas together. I guess in the end his parents would support him. OH YEAH HE HAS A SISTER. Yeah incorporating her into the game universe although the character concept didn't note him having a sister. She wants to help out on the farm all the time in the anime and he gets protective over her carrying heavy stuff so. I guess she can be take more responsibility for the family farm when she's older. Things will #work out

-Do you know how comforting this (below) is to me lol. That he's a silent romanticist. In this way he's a lot like me you know. I know I say this a lot but I'm not reaching with this, it's out there, not blatantly obvious in his character but theres traces of it.

That he is practical and realistic, but also has passions and dreams. I also can't decide if I'm more of a realist or idealist. I feel like I'm realistic about the world but idealistic when it comes to myself. I have self-actualising ambitions, but I know about the real life obstacles and work needed to get there. Which even right now, in my real life, is really bothering me. Academic exams are such a burden to me when I just want to get out to the field and the world and engage with the nature and people around me. There's always room for more conservation and I wish I could start NOW. And skip the school and textbook stuff. I want to help now!

Sorry for derailing to me but I feel like for Kiawe and I, we've found our passions. We know it's our calling. We want to extend it to other people and community, and deepen our knowledge and love for the world and nature, art, culture. It's just the getting there. The personal obstacles and constraints we have to overcome. The how to make it in a world that doesn't care about art and conservation as much. Do you understand meeeee???

When I first selfshipped with him I only did it for comfort and enjoyment. How in the world was I supposed to know he'd have me reflect on my own ambitions. And think about us talking about them and achieving them together. It just makes me yearn even more and feel even sadder that we can't experience it together. FUCK MY STUPID BAKA LIFE

Fck it's so late I need to sleep. Anyway. Less serious stuff ahead.

-"casual jeans and high-top sneakers" LMAOOO LMAO

-"Distinctive features include a beard. Very long black hair tied up" that's interesting to imagine..

Actually my previous ideas of a future version of him, and the au with my spidersona, has him tied up long hair (below) Haha haha.. Though it's a bit hard to imagine him with long hair being let down but he'd look nice. I guess as he becomes an older adult he'd want to keep facial hair. Taking notes

Alright about his ethnicity now. I reached 10 pic limit so scroll up to the pic of his parents if you'd like.

I always established him to be native Hawaiian at least from his mom's side. His grandfather is maternal btw, and since he was so dedicated to a native tradition I just established that that side of the family is native lol. That will still remain.

As for his dad he could be black but they don't put in enough effort to hint at any heritage of that which is expected but it would have helped. Since my mind was wandering to our fursonas (sorry the jump in topic is abrupt) and how it bugged me that I want to assign him the red ruffed lemur but it's not a native hawaiian animal. I was thinking his dad could be Malagasy. Though I haven't read up much about it and it's just a rough thought. But honestly a lot of this would already be headcanon. So I might as well.

Wikipedia: "The Malagasy (French: Malgache or Malagasy: Gasy) are a group of Austronesian-speaking ethnic groups indigenous to the island country of Madagascar, formed through generations of interaction between Austronesians originally from southern Borneo and Bantus from Southeast Africa."

Honestly I think it's interesting they're Austronesian, Google the map and see how far Austronesian people span! If I go with this headcanon, it'll enrich his cultural background so much and it'll be a lot of cool stuff for me to learn about! His dad and mom would both be Austronesian but native to completely different parts of the world. Borneo is also a region I'm very interested in. Although I'm Chinese diaspora, my home is in Southeast Asia (if you zoom in slightly more, Malesia, which is the part of SEA that overlaps with the Austronesian range more.) I want to learn all I can about SEA. I love this region so much. I don't even love Singapore that much. Our government doesn't like to acknowledge our Nusantaran roots. Btw, I have very little knowledge of history and what I know comes from recent interests (that I'm excited to develop with time) But yes I'm glad to be part of Southeast Asia. The lamest country in it fucking Yes but I'm glad I have time to learn about this region and Austronesia in general. It really fascinates me so much, the geography, history, languages, culture of Austronesia and how much it spans. How many people it includes, how so rich and diverse it is. To go back to kiawren... That only means there's so much to learn about together and discover about this together!!! WHERE ARE YOU BRUHHH MY CRINGE STUPID LIFE

The takeaway out of all this is that Kiawe and selfshipping with him makes me think about ambitions and culture and. It surpasses just a Selfship lmao. Changed my brain chemistry so much. It covers all my bases for greater fulfilment of my life. Does that make sense. But at the end of the day it's also a fun thing I do for little comforts. Thinking about us just hanging out and stuff. Just.. Why is he not real. WOW I FORGOR ABOUT MY EXAMS WHILE WRITING ALL THAT. NOW IT HIT ME AGAIN AND IM FEELING THE Dread™

Okay, that's it. If you read this Wow thank you 1 billion. Its very late as I write this and I should really be heading to sleep.

[secretgaygenttomura]

Say do you have any headcanons about principal nezu? Like aside from him drinking tea and such. Since you know he was seen or mentions a few times and yeah we have a snippet of his somewhat life. (And a fanart of him being a smoker, is it true to manga or just an headcanon? I honestly dunno) Like he was a terrifying creature to mess with. And the world smartest creature around the world. I wanna hear your opinions and interpretations about him. Sorry if this is somewhat annoying it's been a while since i dropped by on this fandom. And man i felt overwhelmed hehehe...

I believe the name spelling comes from a different romanization of the japanese characters, and what the official tag specifies on Ao3. It confuses me, myself, but the Death Note fandom was more egregious about it back when I was in there haha- Romanized versions of Japanese versions of English words, so the different spellings here in the MHA fandom are a little less jarring to me. No worries, feel free to send me fandom asks, I love these! Haha- Most of my personal Nezu headcanons are sort of separate from my more recent works, and come from a friend of mine that I haven't talked to in a while haha- A little more lighthearted- (Actually... Maybe not, depends on where exactly you're looking haha)

Him being a smoker is canon, but I haven't really seen it taken seriously (including by myself) until my recent collab with WordyBirb on this fic! Awesome interpretation, really love how it's handled- In both this work, and their other Nezu one-shot ;)

But what I've written/seen from this other friend of mine myself, has him as a pill-popper rather than a smoker- And more due to an insecurity, and stress over how he appears to the public eye, rather than a more vicious trauma response. Though, of course he does have his own, more unsightly traumas :)

This would be the Nezu you usually see in my drawings with an older Tomura, and if the distinction is needed, with a nick in the left ear ;) He's a lot less keen with the idea of being a father when he first personally meets Tomura, denying how he starts to care about him, when after a deal to keep Tomura hidden instead of shipped off to Tartarus, Tomura uses the codename "Dad" on a whim to disguise his conversations.

And Nezu really does try not to care, it's adorable, but eventually after like five months, he comes to his senses, and decides he probably shouldn't be distancing himself from his feelings by sending Tomura on death-defying missions to do things he personally couldn't. (And Tomura, being the adrenaline junkie he is, doesn't really get why he's not sent on these missions anymore. He thinks they're fun lol.)

Other than current-time headcanons, I do headcanon that he escaped his lab around the time that Tenko had his incident with his quirk, and hopefully I can write more about this scenario where this homeless Nezu has to take care of an also homeless Tenko, just trying to build up motivation, it's a hefty task with my other projects going on haha-

[darkcircles4lyfe]

Hii I’ve stumbled across a few of your posts and haven’t even gleaned the tip of the iceberg that is your blog, but I would love to hear a more fleshed version of your Bakugo with AFO post (if you have more that you wanted to share), because that is such a cool concept???

Like, it’s such a nice way to address the symbiotic nature of the two quirks + Bakugo’s relationship with Midoriya at the same time, and there’s also so much to explore in terms of the repercussions of that (not just the symbolism of it, but also the parts you’ve mentioned like what that would mean for people who’ve had their quirks stolen, how they will deal with all the stockpiled quirks, or even on a wider scale of how the media would react if AFO/OFA is leaked/ revealed to the public).

Just imagine the amount of continued exploration in terms of the nature of quirks v nurture of society, because AFO/OFA has so far been (imo) one of the few evidence that quirks carry personality, which is so awesome because it’s like saying a quirk literally holds a part of you through the vestiges while demolishing this idea through basically the entire plot of the manga loll. (To phrase it slightly better, the manga is sort of reaching the conclusion that a quirk is a part of you and you only, without being all of you, and that it’s exactly what the name says it is: a quirk.)

The thing I don’t really like about this conclusion is the blatant disregard for the quirkless community, which was the initial point of discussion and social commentary in bnha. This is why I think Bakugo being given AFO would be great fuel for the debate of should we be allowed to mess with the quirks we are given.

As in, who gets to decide? Who gets to play god? How will it be regulated? Should it even be regulated? How do you do all that without dehumanising Bakugo the same way society dehumanised pro heroes? (Bonus points for linking this to real life because I’m all for social commentary/ reflections in fictional media)

And then on a personal level, what will it take for Bakugo to be able to control AFO’s personality (hello, eye symbolism + name symbolism) within the quirk? How will All Might handle this info? How does this all relate to the conflict of children in war? The development of the league of villains’ character plots (esp Tomura’s)?

I have a lot of questions with very few answers loll, I would love to hear your thoughts on this!!

this post, for reference

Gosh, I am so sorry for taking forever to answer this. But you ask so many good questions! And I think this is actually a pretty good time, after 419.

I guess where I stand with the idea now is still somewhat ambiguous. All for One as a power is too big and interesting to go away--or at least, if it did go away, it would speak volumes. It feels like an almost elemental, fundamental, and even spiritual power, something beyond the man himself. So I'm still wondering about its future.

While a lot of other characters' narratives, including Katsuki's, are about this "nature of quirks vs. nurture," with the original Japanese name for quirks literally meaning "individuality" ("個性" or "kosei"), All for One (the power) oddly represents a lack of individuality. Like a shapeshifter with no form of its own. With that in mind, might we actually compare it to quirklessness? This is worth considering if we're trying to guess who might be a fitting person to inherit it.

I'm at least certain that Tenko shouldn't keep it, since he was literally groomed for it, to be a vessel. For him it represents a lack of individuality in the absolute worst way: a lack of agency, and an identity determined by/in the image of someone else since before even the moment of conception. Actually, as of 419, it seems like if there is any echo of him left after being possessed again, Tenko needs to get rid of the quirk. If he is able to regain control for even a second, the most logical action he can take to save himself and do something of his own free will for once, is to pass the quirk on to someone else.

What I'm a little less certain about is who should get it. On the one hand, Katsuki has a very strong sense of self, especially now. As I said before, this would make him an interesting candidate because he wouldn't want AFO, and thus wouldn't use it for his own gain, on principle. However...

In between now and when I wrote that little post, the future of One for All has also become ambiguous. Does Tenko have it even though All for One does not? (because of Izuku's intent in passing it on?) I've wondered for a long time what would happen if OFA and AFO combined. Would they become more than the sum of their parts, creating something new? Maybe something that can connect with other people and build them up? Perhaps it would develop some aspect of agency that takes away its capacity to exploit people. I'm just speculating...

And I haven't wanted to talk about it, but I'm ambivalent about Izuku becoming quirkiness again. As in, I think Horikoshi could pull it off either way. So this is just an idea:

Izuku could also be a candidate for AFO because he lacks a sense of self, in his own way, as I've gone into before. At best, this means a lack of an ego, the opposite of AFO's personality. In AFO's words, Izuku is the boy born with nothing, who now has less than nothing. There's also a nice symmetry to this idea: Izuku giving OFA to Tenko, then Tenko giving AFO to Izuku. It would be interesting to see what the power would be like in the hands of its antithesis.

But like I said, if you ignore AFO's own selfish interpretation of the power as a tool for domination and a sign of his natural superiority, its essence is a lot more comparable to quirklessness. Just as one's quirk does not encompass one's entire self even though it is unique to them, so too does the quirk have potential beyond its user's point of view. It is potentially ideal for someone who wouldn't make it a part of who they are or use it to enforce their desires, and this applies to both Izuku and Katsuki.

The final thing to mention from your question is the possibility that whoever received AFO would have to deal with overcoming his possession. Maybe this is too much for one person to handle. Maybe Katsuki plays into this either way.

[meowicule]

it’s not a mistranslation, mori ogai likes kids: an look into anime translation and the bungo stray dogs fanbase

tldr; yes mori is a pedophile, he is not a “doting father”, this is a key point to his character

4/8 people voted that i should make this post and mg boyfriend said that if that won, i then was essentially obligated to make it. so i am making it. before i begin i just want to state a few things:

1. i’m not saying “We need to CANCEL!!!! fictional character MORI OGAI!!!” i’m just trying to elaborate on a common misconception regarding his character.

2. at the same time i’m also not saying that this is a good aspect of his character. obviously. this is bad. mori is a villain.

3. this is mostly about translation and less about mori so if you’re looking just for him and don’t want any context, section four discusses him.

this will be seperated into sections to hopefully make it easier to read but overall i’m just kind of rambling and i didn’t edit this so if it’s disorganized feel free to ask questions

PART ONE: translation overview

contrary to popular belief, the process of officially translating manga or anime from japanese to english is not typically the work of one person, especially when we’re considering anime/manga published and produced by major companies (anime: bones, manga: kadokawa shoten*). at its core (though processes and the nitty gritty is dependent on tons of factors), a translation will go through at least one translator, a typesetter/subtitle timer (manga/anime), and editors. for official translations, it is REVIEWED by typically multiple editors and revisors before being sent off to the public.

i feel many people talking about mistranslations assume incompetence and that it’s just one guy doing whatever he wants with the original text while the original creators are none the wiser (this is not true). generally this is born from the common belief among anime fans that japan is full of incompetent and naive people who have been isolated from society their whole life (ex: arguments on how japan doesn’t know what black people are, “legal age of consent” debates, etc). japan is not a magical land where everybody cannot do wrong and is simply misunderstood; you are just fucking insufferable.

this isn’t to say that mistranslations don’t happen but rather that they aren’t as common as a lot of anime fans like to claim.

*kadokawa shoten is a major publisher. repetoire includes: cowboy bebop, lucky star, mirai nikki, re:zero. their videogame section also did lollipop chainsaw, fun fact.

PART TWO: translating for understanding

the intent of a translated work is not to copy the text word by word but rather to communicate the core messages and ideas to a different audience. as i’m sure you’re aware, japanese and english are two different languages. going beyond just cultural understandings, the languages themselves utilize two entirely different alphabets. with that, english and japanese have different abilities in what they can communicate with the alphabet provided! a great example of language barriers are PRONOUNS.

in a very boiled down version, english pronouns are categorized by relation to the speaker, gender, and possession.

she = girl that is not the speaker

me = speaker

his = owned by boy that is not the speaker

your = owned by the person being spoken to

our PRONOUNS are not hierarchical. an old man and a young boy will both be referred to as “he”. titles such as “mr.” and “doctor” can elaborate on status and respect, but generally, a male doctor is going to use the same pronouns as a male farmer.

pronouns obviously go a lot deeper than that and i’m glossing over a lot of stuff but if you can read what i’m saying here then you know enough english to comprehend pronouns.

on the other hand, japanese includes multiple levels of formality in pronouns. this means that their pronouns are heavily based in context and can be considered hierarchical.

in english, the sentence “he is over there” only tells us the relative location “he” is to the speaker and the area. we know nothing about who “he” is and require more information to understand his place in the world.

in japan, however, the sentence “he is over there” would be translated in a way that would either formalize or deformalize “he”, providing us information on who he is and his place in the world as well as the personality of the speaker (are they more laidback or are they polite?).

all of this is to say that if you directly translate from one language to another, you lose a lot of the original meaning. that is why meaning is more important than exact translation. so, using the “he is over there” example:

if the japanese phrase uses formal pronouns, the english translation may look something like this: “dr. lastname is over there” or “the old man is over there”. instead of just saying “he is over there”, words are changed to replicate the formal intent of the japanese dialogue.

going beyond this, certain cultural references may be added or changed to resonate better with english audiences. using a more infamous example

4kids changed dialogue that likely originally referenced an enjoyment of onigiri to revolve around food that american kids are more likely to be familiar with. though in this particular instance the translation feels silly and unnecessary (since brock is obviously not actually talking about jelly-filled donuts and the onigiri staying in the visuals of the scene just creates confusion), the intent carries over. brock likes a food with flavored filling that is easily transportable. this scene was translated with audience understanding in mind and that is the point!

PART TWO POINT FIVE : why understanding matters

if you’re thinking, ‘well hey, i think understanding is stupid. why can’t anime just carry over japanese phrases and terms and just explain them later???’. well first off, they do. to avoid jelly-donut incidents, foods and places are often left romanized rather than changed and translator notes are utilized to explain these things to english audiences. HOWEVER, if you keep every word that doesn’t have a direct literal/cultural translation, you end up with this:

this specific example comes from a fan translation of death note. by prioritizing keeping the original work intact, the translator created something that would be mocked on the internet for years. they did not need to explain what keikaku meant, they just needed to put “plan” in the sentence in the first place. “all according to plan” is more understandable to audiences than “all according to keikaku (btw keikaku means plan)”. it simply distracts from the point of the scene rather than adding to it.

PART THREE: actual mistranslation

as mentioned earlier, mistranslations DO occur. however, most mistranslations happen intentionally. whether it be for censorship purposes or a miscalculation from the editors, a lot of the most famous mistranslations happen for a reason.

sailor moon is the best example of this. despite being produced by a major company and generally having the resources to create a good translation, the examples of mistranslations in the anime and manga have warranted hundreds of their own articles and thinkpieces. why were the translations so fucked? it wasn’t by accident but rather shoddy attempts at censorship.

most famous would be how in the original english version, sailor neptune and sailor uranus were said to be cousins. they are not. they are girlfriends. and it wasn’t until the show was retranslated by viz media in 2016 that they were allowed to be girlfriends!

some other intentional mistranslations in sailor moon include

- changing a gay man to be a straight woman

- cutting out/toning down violence and death

- fully cutting out episodes or scenes and reversing scenes that were kept to make them longer

- different names

- more slang (this is a pretty common mistranslation and generally the editing of dialogue to be more #cool with the kids is the most prevalent type of change in translations. such as atsushi saying bruh)

- moral recaps of episodes

PART FOUR: what the fuck does this have to do with mori.

i really did all of this explaining to showcase how there is literally no fucking way that mori was poorly translated in english. it is literally impossible for his behavior to be an accident and, unless we need to put the editors and translators in jail, there is no way somebody would add that character trait to him if it wasn’t involved in the original.

here is just one example of so many. but pay attention to fukuzawa’s word choice. do you still LUST after young girls. lust, as a word, refers explicitly and solely to sexual desire. if the translator wanted to show a nonsexual relationship towards young girls, the word lust would not be used. the usage of lust is intentional and, again, unless somebody needs to be put on a fucking registry, not a word you can use by accident.

it’s also really important to consider his ability. and before you say that the real mori ogai was asexual so that means bsd mori’s ability doesn’t refer to sexual desires, be serious. no longer human isn’t about how osamu dazai can cancel out other people’s abilities, it’s a fictional autobiography about a guy named yōzō who is the bojack horseman of japanese literature. their abilities tend to relate pretty loosely to their namesakes and the characters themselves aren’t 1:1 representations of their authors.

with that being said, the book vita sexualis was banned at the time for being an affront to human nature. all mori said was that he doesn’t think he feels sexual attraction. asexuality doesn’t matter in our society like nobody gaf the way they did when the book was released. does it not make sense for asagiri to adapt the impact of his work as opposed to the work itself. we do not see asexuality as a taboo crime but liking kids is something we all agree is an affront to human nature. so it makes sense that his ability reflects sexual attraction that horrifies us. odd writing decision but you can see how he got from point a to point b. his ability is a reflection of his sexual desires and as you can see from the yosano flashback, he is able to change elise’s temperament and appearance (as during the war, she was taller and more obedient) if he so chooses. her existence as a petulant child is deliberate.

so it is with all this being said that the original intent for mori was to be a creep and that is carried over in meaning by the english translation.

[goldensunset]

you wanted me to talk about ooparts from twewy. ok. this song is an absolute hot mess and it’s one of my absolute FAVORITES. but specifically only the version that plays when you fight konishi in final remix (‘ooparts -give me a chance’) the original is. eh. but the difference between them is not the thing that matters to me anyway so i guess i like the original too

first and foremost. i have gone through the process of color-highlighting the lyrics (screenshotted from the wiki) to point out which song each line comes from to visually represent just how much this massive word mashup borrows stuff. i also just straight up put the names of the songs next to some of them but i couldn’t fit them all or else this would be a mess lol. please enjoy

🍎red: ‘hybrid’ (both english and japanese)

🍊orange: ‘detonation’

⭐️yellow: ‘game over’

🍃green: ‘owari-hajimari’ (japanese)

💎light blue: ‘someday’ (both english and japanese)

🫐dark blue: ‘satisfy’

☂️purple: ‘twister’ (both english and japanese)

🌸pink: ‘make or break’

•‘surely there was a better way to convey this information’ no there wasn’t

•most of this information is on the wiki page but i’ll have you know i discovered most of these connections by myself anyway long before i ever even checked the trivia section. also there are a few that i caught that the wiki didn’t. not to flex or anything. but y’know what credit really isn’t important anyway it’s really all about sharing information within a community so. peace and love

•there is a bit of a liberty taken with ‘you’re getting out of control’ bc the line in game over is just ‘you’re out of control’ but i still think it counts as a connection

so basically i think this song is really cool and amazing not just bc the music goes really hard at about one minute in (but only specifically in the one where you fight konishi, at least in final remix) but mostly because it represents a few of my favorite things about twewy. the whole ‘melody/vibe over lyrics’ thing twewy has going on where it says hey who cares if these lyrics are in any way comprehensible; what matters is that it’s a lot of fun to sing

but beyond that? ooparts also does the thing that twister is known for but even better. aka word salad lyrics that may not have any innate meaning in the words themselves, but they matter BECAUSE they’re word salad. apparently the intention behind twister’s nonsense lyrics is to represent all the different clashing ideas in shibuya. it’s diverse and noisy and weird and it all comes together into something fun. ooparts does the same except its lyrics aren’t even random words; they’re from other songs in this game. including twister itself!

to me it really feels like a turning point in the game when you fight konishi, the final week’s game master, the last actual valid legal boss within the framework of the game, and you have this crazy wild song playing that, through its lyrics, serves to remind you of everything else you’ve encountered in your insane journey. it’s a culmination of all your struggles and you’re here to see it all through

and the call-and-response lyrics back and forth between the two vocalists are soooo fun! it feels like teamwork: the song. like truly this is the moment of revenge and triumph for neku and beat. they’ve made it this far and nothing can stop them now. they’re not afraid of konishi they’re hyped up to defeat her. and konishi is such a great villain with a really tricky and unique boss fight so it feels super satisfying to finally get the better of her! it’s not about fear it’s about fun! and when the beat switches on the chorus to something so much brighter and smoother… feels like that moment in the battle where you break through one of her gimmicks and you can see clearly now

in conclusion: i love the weird telephone beep song with the strangest lyrics known to man

[invisibletinkerer]

Leonhart

Oh, Leonhart. The spiritual predecessor of both Cecil and Kain.

For one thing, he's the origin of the "dark knight" class. It's not in fact quite the same as Cecil's, since Leonhart's title is ダークナイト: the English words "Dark Knight" spelled out in katakana, while Cecil's is 暗黒騎士: Ankoku kishi, "dark knight" in Japanese, though that distinction would be impossible to preserve in English translation. I think that in FF2 it's more intended to invoke Darth Vader than anything else, but it's interesting that FF4 took the concept and ran with it.

But more than that, Leonhart has the same basic character arc as Kain. He starts out as a member of the main party, turns into an antagonist for most of the game, and then rejoins the heroes. This is interesting, and there's something complicated going on with him as a character that gives him staying power in the imagination. It's no wonder they tried to make a more fleshed out version of this aspect in FF4 a few years later.

Because unlike Kain, the game doesn't give us any sense of why this happened with Leonhart.

He gets separated from the other heroes (his sister Maria, Frioniel and Guy) in the prologue, and when we meet him again he's the evil emperor's right-hand man, wearing a dark armor and calling himself the Dark Knight. The heroes meet him a few times, but only briefly, without knowing his identity. When the heroes find out that it's their friend/brother under the armor, the idea that he might be possessed or mind-controlled is brought up, but it's only ever a thought, no confirmation either way.

After the heroes kill the evil emperor, "the Dark Knight" takes his place as the new emperor. When the heroes - having found out who he is - go to confront him, he tells them that power is all that matters, and he's not letting go of this power. He's ready to fight them, and the only reason there is no fight is because the old emperor comes back as a demon, and predictably smacks Leonhart down from the throne. And since the demon is about to kill them all, Richard the Dragoon sacrifices his life to allow the others (including Leonhart!) to escape on his wyvern.

In the next scene, we see the three heroes + Leonhart meet with princess Hilda. She's understandably shocked that they brought the Dark Knight back with them. Frioniel asks her permission to keep Leonhart with them, and she grants it, basically "Yes, I'll leave managing the Dark Knight to you." And then he's a party member! Yay?

We get no explanations. Was he under some kind of spell (that lasted beyond the emperor's mortal death)? Was he brainwashed? Did he actually think the emperor's idea of conquering the world under a single empire (and killing anyone who resisted) was a good idea? Was he seduced by power after being powerless for most of his life? Even if he did everything on his own accord, it still makes sense that he'd want to destroy the demon emperor who has now declared that he want to erase the world and kill everyone in it, so that in itself doesn't mean Leonhart is a "good guy". We just don't know anything about his motivations.

In the ending, he leaves on his own. When the others ask him to stay, he says "We now know too much about so many things. We can't go back to how things were."

Know too much? About what? About him? "We" implies this goes both ways. Is he lamenting that both he and his friends found out about the darkness within him? But we never see him express either regret or justifications for what he did. Or maybe he means knowledge about how the world works, how power works, what they're all capable of? Leonhart knowing he's not the same person as he was, and therefor not wanting to stay with his old friends doesn't even have to be angsty. Maybe he goes off to try to become emperor again? That would be a possible reading!

I kind of wonder what was the intent with this character. It's like he's trying to be both FF4's Kain - a friend who was forced to become an enemy against his will, and later got freed and is a friend again - and Chrono Trigger's Magus - an enemy who is forced by circumstances to become an ally. Or rather, he's the somewhat confusing ancestor of both.

I do have headcanons. But in the game itself, it's frustratingly vague. Complex characters in video games weren't really a thing in 1988, so the writers were trying something new and didn't quite stick the landing. It's still a fascinating and very influential attempt.

[innerchorus]

Okay I'm suddenly having Farangis brainrot and consequently have like, a bucketload of questions. Hear me out.

Was Farangis native to Khuzestan? Was she born elsewhere, sent to a temple from that region, only to be transferred to the temple in Khuzestan or was she from Khuzestan to begin with? I realize this is somewhat of a stupid line of question but whatever! My brain can't help it! I wonder how young she was when her parents died and she was sent to the temple, fairly young? 8-9-ish? Even younger? In her teens? I'm just now pondering in amusement how she ended up on the opposite end of Pars from her homeland— southwest to northeast. Also I planned to have her join the clan around the same time Ranna does: aka when she's about like, 13 and they 7 or so, and have them bond with each other as they get accustomed to their new home, but maybe I should move it up a little, but gah I've gotten so fond of the idea!

I'm not sure there are confirmed answers to many of these questions but let's have look at what the novels say! (These are exactly the sorts of things I wonder about too, so I'm more than happy to look into them.)

I don't recall seeing any direct reference to where Farangis was born. It could have been in the region of Khuzestan, or it could simply be that the cultural importance of the temple at the time was what led to her being sent there. It does seem that she was sent there to be raised immediately after her mother's death, though (her father died earlier, leaving her mother more or less a fortune, half of which her mother instructed to be donated to the temple after her death, while the other half was left for Farangis herself). Her mother asked that the temple support her daughter, presumably because there were no other relatives capable of providing for her, or perhaps because she saw being raised in the temple and becoming a priestess as the choice that provided the best future for her daughter.

The temple of Mithra in Khuzestan was built as a donation to mark the birth of Prince Arslan (ordered by Andragoras himself). Arslan was born in 306, at which time Farangis was around 8. So that's the youngest she could have been when she was sent there, and I do tend to think it was likely to be around that age that her life at the temple began.

This seems like a good place to talk about Khuzestan itself, since I mentioned that geographically it doesn't match up with the real life location. It is an area located east of Ecbatana, west of Peshawar Fortress and just north of the Nimruz Mountains. (That's not super specific, but the comment about the Nimruz range helps the most, especially because that's included on the map from the guide that covers up to Book 10)

(annotated map courtesy of the first fan translation)

As well as being just slightly above just above the Nimruz mountains, if Khuzestan is more or less mid-way between Ecbatana and Peshawar that would make it very close to Soleimaniye's location on the Continental Road.

The Chinese version describes Khuzestan as a 'small town' (小镇) but when checking the Japanese the novel is actually talking about the Khuzestan region (地方) which makes more sense.

Now for a little cypress diversion; we were talking about cypresses being planted around temples in ancient Iran, and although I didn't see a mention of it for the temple of Mithra in Khuzestan, the temple of Ashi in the Oxus region is surrounded by them, so that appears to be a thing in Parsian culture too. (Although this is a female-only temple dedicated to a different god, there's a little more detail of temple life in that section which probably applies to other temples like the one in Khuzestan too, so it's a good section to look at for inspiration for that.)

And also, since I may as well add it to this post after I think I forgot to mention it in comments yesterday, concerning the novel's use of the term magpat for a Parsian high priest, it hasn't come up in manga canon presumably because the time it crops up in the novels is when one of these high-ranking priests betrays Tahamenay's location to Hilmes, when in the manga Arakawa changed it to Husrab. In looking at that scene in the novels again I did see Tanaka gave us a brief description of what that priest was wearing; robes of 'gaudy gold and purple'.

Anyway, I think your proposed timeline for Farangis meeting Ranna in your AU would work! Perhaps the jinn told her to travel that way?