#I just like that she has a character motivation that makes sense given her previously established experiences!

[hellofeanor]

I know some people are upset about this, but

Adar had a complete and narratively satisfactory character arc and here's why.

(I'm saying "narratively satisfactory" because it satisfies his purpose in the narrative even if we think he deserved better.)

The two main problems I had with Adar's arc throughout most of S2 were as follows: his decisions to release Halbrand and then rabidly charge into Eregion after Sauron make no sense, and his character was inconsistent with what was established in S1. I complained about both of these things at length with people who were willing to listen, and some people who just smiled and nodded. But certain things in ep 6 made me start to rethink, one line in episode 7 really stood out, and the events of ep 8 put everything into perspective. So let's explore.

In 6, we have the scene of Adar and Galadriel speaking about Sauron. The major theme here is that he worms his way inside people's minds, insidiously exerting his will over them. Both characters at this point acknowledge this as fact. And in light of this revelation, Adar's "decision" to free Halbrand starts to make a little more sense. All it took was that one interaction for Sauron to get back inside Adar's mind and start influencing him again. There's no reason for Adar to do any of what he does in S2 unless he's under Sauron's control. Galadriel even says it herself: this is what Sauron wants. But Adar's mind and judgment are too clouded to see.

In 7, there's one critical line. "You think it was only you who put yourself in my power?" It's Annatar speaking to Celebrimbor, but he might as well be speaking to anybody here. It's pretty telling that this line shows up in most of the character-specific teasers, including Adar's.

Which brings us to 8, where everything comes together. Adar has Nenya, which has been shown to have healing powers, and a lot of people theorized that this might lead to him reverting back to an elven form. Which is exactly what happened. But the ring didn't only heal him physically.

Previously, we've seen Galadriel gain clarity of mind through Nenya: she better understands Sauron's ploy, and her part in it, and how she fell right into his trap. The exact same thing happens with Adar. When we first see him, crouching next to a rock, hiding his face, he's not just hiding his elven transformation. He looks like he's genuinely crushed. Not by seeing himself as an elf, but from the sudden ring-given clarity and the realization that he's been used by Sauron all along. His motivation and personality do a complete 180 here, and this isn't a plot hole or a contrivance. It's meant to show that the ring healed his mind as well as his body, shaking off Sauron's influence, and he's suddenly, for the first time all season, back to where he was at the end of S1. He's himself again. The searing desire to kill Sauron is gone, and he just wants to return to Mordor and build a home for his children.

He may have taken the ring because he thought it would help him kill Sauron, but in the end, it just helps him come to his senses.

Unfortunately for him, his actions can't be undone, and by sending the uruk to war, he's put them, as Annatar says 'under my control'. The minute Annatar asks Glûg what his name is, and Glûg falters in killing him, it's over. Sauron has control of the uruk again. He's wormed his way in. How do we know this for sure?

Adar's children wouldn't have set up that elaborate ruse to assassinate him. If this were all their doing, they would have just stabbed him and been done with it. The foreshadowing all season hints that Glûg may disagree with Adar's orders, but probably would never have done anything about it without a strong push from Sauron. The scheme was all Sauron and Sauron's control. Sauron orchestrates Adar's death in the exact same way Adar killed Sauron in ep 1, specifically out of spite. Sauron even appears to watch Adar's final moments: he wants Adar to know.

Is it a shitty way to die? Yes.

Is it a shitty plot twist undeserved out of nowhere? No, because the entire season has been setting us up for this moment. Hell, even some pieces in S1 have been setting us up for this moment. Halbrand could have killed Adar way back when, but at some point must have decided that Adar was more useful alive for a while longer, and a more elaborate form of revenge was in order. Sauron gains control of Adar and uses him as a puppet warlord against the elves while at the same time setting Adar up for the ultimate betrayal at the hands of his own children once he's no longer useful.

I actually love this. It's a horrible way to go, and I'm sad to see the end of this character, but it's a complete arc for him and makes sense within the narrative. It doesn't feel cheap or undeserved or at all surprising to me. It's sad, but satisfying.

RIP Adar, you will be missed. But at least you died... uh... feeling betrayed by your own kind as a result of your own actions that you realized too late were orchestrated by the guy you hate most. And if that isn't top tier tragedy, I don't know what is.

[thetriboulet]

Woooo so the Magnus Protocol premiered and I have things to say and things to overanalyse!

As we know, 'Chester', 'Neil' and 'Augustus' are, maybe?, Jon, Martin, and Jonah, respectively. Hence this:

And, of course, there's 'J1', 'M1' and 'J2' in the trailer.

However, I've seen confusion over the fact that the third 'Error' is voiced by Tim Fearon, who as far as I'm aware has not previously voiced any characters in the Magnus universe. Even though the name is distorted, I can make out what looks to be an H at the end of the name, so this very well may be Jonah.

My theory is this: 'Augustus' is Jonah (or just his voice). However, since the body of Elias was killed in the Panopticon, Jonah does not use Elias' voice anymore. Jon, Martin, and Jonah are all disembodied, if we are to believe they are somehow inside the computer/other technology (ie Alice/Sam's phone in the pub scene) or in some way somewhere adjacent to the world of Protocol. So it could, in a dream-logicy eldritch sense, follow that Jonah is able to survive in his own creepy old ass man way, and use his original voice. Obviously, I cannot corroborate this claim in any meaningful way. We have not heard Augustus speak yet, but I think it is a possibility nonetheless.

The fact that Augustus supposedly shows up to read cases aloud significantly less than Chester and Neil could also be a clue. Maybe Jonah is weaker than Jon and Martin due to his injuries, and is therefore unable to materialise as often as Jon and Martin. Maybe the voice that speaks the true cases (because, similarly to how true statements were identified using the tape recorder in TMA, I imagine true cases will be singled out using the text to speech system) is relevant to the case itself - ie, Jonah only speaks when a case is heavily linked to the Eye, etc.

Furthermore, there's the question of who is spying on who and when/why. By this I mean that we hear our perspective switch between devices (the phone, the computer, the security camera during Colin and Sam's interaction, etc), and I believe that this happens because one or more of the 'Errors' (as I am going to refer to them henceforth) is travelling between devices to spy on the characters' conversations. What we hear is dictated by what the Errors, characters who have prior knowledge of the Fears, deem important. This is backed up by the episode's closing scene: Colin's paranoid closing lines. It is clear that Colin believes someone is listening to them, and it is implied that he has made a connection between this and the Errors. What intrigues me is the Errors' motivation for doing this at all. If what they deem important is what we hear, and this is the first that we are hearing, then it seems to me that it is Sam's arrival that has given them cause for concern, or (in Jonah's case) hope (if he is plotting to return, or something, I don't put it past the scheming weasel). So, why are they listening? And how can we really tell if what we are hearing is the spying of Jonah, or of Jon and Martin?

Another thing. Jonny makes a point of letting us know that Alice does not think the work they do is of any significance, or is checked by anyone. She constantly mentions it in passing and is very casual in her attitude towards work. We obviously have the foresight to know this isn't true. The reason I point this out is because of what Sam does when filling out his paperwork: he ticks the 'Response' box, to which Alice responds that it doesn't matter. This could be nothing, it probably is nothing, but I feel like the fact that Sam has ticked the onboarding box of a mysterious department of an already mysertious organisation might come up later...

Yes I know I am jumping to a lot of conclusions, especially where the Errors are concerned. Please take every theory you hear, from me or anyone else, with a grain of salt, this is all speculative. From a writer's perspective, I honestly think it's pretty likely that Chester and Neil aren't actually Jon and Martin, and just their voices taken by the Web or something, but shh I can dream.

Edit: oh my god they changed his name to Norris that is even worse. Jonny and Alex were fr like 'neil is too kind, we need the name to be Chester levels of horrific'

[hecate-editing]

Making Characters That Make Sense

Walk-through character template & "how to" guide for writing complex, original protagonists.

If you google "character templates for writing", you'll get a lot of very basic examples that read like a grocery list: eye colour, hair colour, skin colour, positive traits, negative traits, etc.

And sure, filling out this kind of template isn't completely useless - but it's also not particularly useful, either. Choosing whether your protagonist has blue eyes or green eyes isn't going to determine whether readers connect with them or not.

Instead, I prefer to use the below template:

There's some fairly left-of-centre categories here, so in this blog post I'll be creating a character from scratch to demonstrate what each section means and how to use the template effectively.

Primary Goal & Raison D'Être

Fantasy Romance is having a bit of a tournament-to-the-death moment right now, with Hunger Games-inspired stories like Fourth Wing, Throne of Glass, The Savior's Champion, and The Serpent and the Wings of Night in high demand - so that's what we're going to work with in today's blog post.

The story premise and primary goal of the protagonist are almost always interconnected. In this case, the story premise is a tournament to the death - and the character's main goal is to win that tournament, obviously.

But where there's room for some originality is in the raison d'être. This loosely translates to "reason for being" or "purpose". It's the why of it.

For example: what motivated this character to risk their life by entering such a tournament in the first place?

It is sometimes helpful to look at similar stories when thinking about this category. Not so you can copy their protagonist's motivations - but so you can do something different.

The whole selfless-self-sacrifice thing, for example - that's done. At least in relation to this particular sub-genre. We can do better for our hypothetical Maera Mystfang character.

Actually, let's really turn the trope on its head and make her raison d'être incredibly self-centred.

Already, this is character is shaping up to be something a little bit different within the niche of tournaments to the death. Which goes to show how putting a little bit of thought can go a long way, even with something as simple as identifying your character's initial purpose.

Primary Obstacle

Every protagonist needs a goal - and every goal needs an obstacle. This is what gives the story some tension and keeps readers turning the page.

An obvious choice of obstacle for this hypothetical character, since we're dealing with a fantasy romance, would be that Maera starts to develop feelings for one of her fellow competitors.

This concept has definitely been done, but that's okay. Not every section of this list has to break the mould. Tropes exist for a reason and it is totally okay to lean into them sometimes.

However, just for funsies, I'm going to try and put a slightly different spin on this one too.

Instead of the obvious "I love one of the people I'm meant to kill", let's make Maera's (previously dormant) conscience be the problem. Her reasons for entering the tournament may have been self-motivated, but as she gets to know her fellow competitors - admires some of them, even - she starts to second guess those reasons.

Core Traits

A lot of character templates will divide personality traits into positives and negatives - but I don't think this is particularly helpful. It is far too one dimensional - not to mention unrealistic. The key components of someone's personality aren't usually so black and white.

In fact, most core traits are both good and bad at the same time - it just depends on the context.

Instead of being wholly positive or negative, try to think of three core character traits that can serve as two sides of the same coin, with both positive and negative implications to each.

For Maera, I've given her these core traits:

Self-reliant;

Rebellious; and

Good-humoured.

Her self-reliance means that she is incredibly capable - but it's also the cause of her selfishness. She's always had to look after herself, so she expects others to do the same.

Her rebellious attitude means she isn't willing to accept the status quo. But at times she is also a rebel without a cause, causing trouble just for the fun of it.

Her good sense of humour means she is fun to be around, but she also tends to not take things as seriously as she should.

Thinking of core traits in this multi-faceted way not only adds realistic complexity, but it also sets you up well for showcasing character development and growth throughout the story.

Fatal Flaw & Character Arc / Growth

You've probably read negative reviews that throw around terms like "Mary Sue" or "Gary Stu". People tend to be over-zealous with these terms, especially for Mary Sue, but the gist of it is that the character in question is "too perfect".

They're the chosen one, they're good at everything, all the boys like them, etc.

Some characters can get away with this just fine. Look at Aragorn. He's the ultimate Gary Stu but I still swoon every time he opens those damn doors. You know the scene I'm talking about.

Ooft.

But for the most part, you want to incorporate a fatal flaw into your protagonists - because this is what gives them room to grow.

And, no. "I was born to be King but I don't wanna" does not count as a fatal flaw.

Instead, think bigger. Think worse. Think about where your character starts versus where you want them to end up. Think about how you want the events of the narrative to change their world view - or even their initial goal.

For Maera, her fatal flaw is pretty obvious, given her initial motivations for entering the tournament. Similarly, her growth/arc is linked to her primary obstacle, which is developing a conscious.

Her journey throughout this hypothetical story might be learning to appreciate how her past shaped her, while also acknowledging that there are things she can do to ensure others don't have to go through what she did. By being shown acts of kindness, she learns to appreciate their value.

First Impression

Now that we've covered all the "big picture" stuff, let's get into some of the smaller details that give your character some texture.

The first impression category is a hypothetical exercise where you image how your character might appear to a room full of strangers. In dual, multi, or omniscient POVs, you might even get the opportunity to include this impression somewhere in the story.

But even for first-person narratives, it is still worth thinking about, because it will help to inform how other characters interact and respond to your protagonist (at least at first).

For Maera, I've written this first impression as: a fun person to have a few drinks with - so long as you keep a close eye on your wallet.

From this description, we can guess that Maera probably likes to have a good time, but also comes across as untrustworthy. Whether that impression is deserved or not is up to you, as the author, to decide.

There's also a lot of deeper directions you can take this first impression category, too. Like if most people react to Maera this way, but one particular character doesn't, then your readers are going to sit up and pay extra attention during that interaction. Especially when that person reacting atypically is the future love interest.

Spirit Animal

Ah, this one is a fun one!

I always encourage my authors to assign a "spirit animal" to their characters - especially when they're doing multi-POV.

There are two main reasons for this:

It will allow you to assign some very distinct adjectives and verbs with that particular character; and

It is an opportunity to flesh out some additional character traits beyond the core traits.

For Maera, I've chosen "spider" because she is solitary by nature, opportunistic, and patient.

But, more than that, I also like the idea of Maera being the kind of person who knows how to watch and wait. While her first impression might be "here for the good times", her joking façade is actually a mask she wears while carefully observing others.

For example:

Her words were laced with venom. She crawled her way across the rooftop. At some point, weaving lies had become more of a past time that a necessity. Her thoughts were a tangled mess. She didn't bother to conceal her predatory gaze. Inch by cautious inch, she crept forward. Her sanity was already hanging by a thread. If there was one thing she knew how to do, it was spin a good story - truth be damned.

I've never outright compared Maera to a spider in these examples, nor have I made it blatantly obvious that that's what I'm doing. But by peppering these kinds or words throughout the story, I'll be able to subtly create a very distinct kind of impression for her character.

For comparison's sake, let's assign "cat" to the love interest. Examples of possible words to consider in this instance might be:

He clawed his way through the bushes. "What are you doing?" he hissed. The comment had some bite to it, that was for sure. He slunk away into the darkness. His still, unwavering focus was unnerving. He prowled towards her. In a few quick, agile steps, he'd made it across the parapet. He yawned and stretched out beside her.

Of course, not every single word you use in association with a character needs to be related to their spirit animal. But keeping a certain type of animal in mind - and finding opportunities to throw in some subtle messaging through language choice - can be beneficial on so many levels.

It helps to distinguish your characters from one another through the kind of language you use to describe them - but it's also just really, really fun way to add some bonus texture to your characters. Giving your readers some little easter eggs like this is never a bad thing.

Love Language

If you're unfamiliar with the concept of the five basic love languages, then here's a quick visual overview:

Love languages aren't a consideration that's specific to romance. They're important for friendships and familial relationships too.

Because thinking about what your protagonist values most in love is going to tell you a lot about who they are. Especially when you take the question deeper and think about why this is something they value.

For Maera, I've chosen "Acts of Service" because this ties in quite well to her character arc.

In terms of Maera's why, I could easily go with "because this was how she was shown love as a child" - and this is a good enough option most of the time. However, since her love language is very much tied into growing out of her fatal flaw, then I actually want to do the opposite.

Maera winds up valuing acts of service because this is something she craved - and wasn't given - as a child. She had to do things the hard way instead. Hence why she ends up appreciating the kindness of others so much. Such generosity is new to her - and precious.

Conflict Response

This is potentially one of the most overlooked character components. Conflict and tension is central to story telling, yet there is so little attention given to creating authentic, original responses to conflict.

The way I see it, there are three main considerations in regards to conflict response:

How your character reacts in the moment;

The unhealthy methods they use to deal with the aftermath; and

The healthy methods they use (or discover) to self-sooth.

When faced with conflict, Maera's immediate reaction is to antagonise. She doesn't like to back down and enjoys creating trouble.

However, in the aftermath, the conflict affects her more than she lets on. She stews on it - and her solution to that is to get drunk until she can forget about it completely.

But even though she sometimes forgets it, Maera has a more healthy coping mechanism at her disposal. When she is surrounded by nature - in the forest, by the sea, whatever - it calms her.

In addition to identifying your protagonist's various responses to conflict, it is also helpful to think about why. Again, this is a great opportunity to insert something unique into their character backstory.

With Maera, for example, let's think about why she finds nature so soothing. Perhaps, amidst a very bleak childhood, one of her fondest memories is of picking grapes in a vineyard.

Perhaps the elderly woman who owned the vineyard was very rude and abrupt - but also quite kind to Maera in her own way. Maybe she would sometimes stitch up Maera's clothes or feed Maera a hearty, meaty dinner - even though she didn't have to.

If you're struggling to think of a real, tangible, unique memory such as this - then it's always helpful to go back to the old classic of write what you know. Think of a real life moment or memory - something that's stuck with you, no matter how simple - then adapt it to your character.

To create this vineyard example, I simply drew on my experience of picking strawberries with my Nonna after school.

Mentor / Idol

I could write an entire thesis on mentors. Or, more specifically, the "death of the mentor" trope - both in its literal and metaphorical interpretations.

But, for the sake of brevity, let's save that sh*t for another time and focus on what's important for a basic (yet complex) character template. And that is:

The Formative Mentor (past); and

Transformative Mentor (present).

The formative mentor (or idol) is someone who influenced your character prior to the events of the novel. Sometimes they're a character the reader will meet, or other times, they're long gone before the novel even begins.

The transformative mentor is a much looser term. It doesn't necessarily have to be a traditional mentor character, but rather it is a character who heavily influences or changes your protagonist throughout the events of the novel.

For Maera, I want her earliest idol to be a random female sell-sword who she crossed paths with. Prior to meeting this sell-sword, Maera was living without hope for a future, surviving on scraps and petty crime.

But after seeing an independent and moderately wealthy sell-sword in her local tavern, Maera got a glimpse into the kind of life that might be possible if she learned to fight. With the right kind of skills, she might be able to earn some decent money for a change - and travel the world.

This is an example of how "mentors" don't always have to be a wise wizard who oversees your protagonist's training and education. Young minds are impressionable - and even distant figures can have a lasting impact.

Just look at all the women who cite Legally Blonde as the reason why they were drawn to law. Elle Woods wasn't even real - but for plenty of young girls, she made an impact.

Similarly, your protagonist's "present" mentor or idol doesn't necessarily have to be a wise wizard either. It can simply be someone who motivates them to change their world view or strive to be better.

In romance, it is more than acceptable to have the present mentor coincide with the love interest - especially in standalone enemies-to-lovers. I know this seems counter-intuitive, since the word "mentor" implies a power imbalance, but it makes more sense if you readjust your definition of mentor to be "inspires change".

However, for Maera, I kind of like the idea of pairing her up with a love interest who shares some of her flaws. I vibe with the idea of making him a bit self-interested too, although for different reasons.

So in her example, I've listed the present mentor as a selfless secondary character. The way I would envision this going is Maera and the love interest team up early on - but somewhere along the way a secondary character saves them both. They're both heavily influenced by this character before this character sacrifices themselves. The aftermath of this incident rattles both Maera and her love interest, and serves as the spark for growth.

I hope you found this template - and very long explanation - useful!

[vasito-de-leche]

Hello hello! I love your writing so much and was wondering if I could request some Sonnetto analysis and hcs about how she would act around an older sibling-like reader. Someone who looks out for her and is protective of her but has a bit of a mischief streak. I don’t want to make the ask too specific because I want to give you some freedom with it lol. Thank you so much!

;R1999 SONETTO - Familial Headcanons

Compilation of headcanons and analysis about Sonetto and an older sibling figure.

ty for the request! it's always fun to write familial or platonic dynamics! <3 and sonetto is always such a treat to study under a microscope

sorry if this was short! i ran out of steam and ideas at the end, ough

The subject of Sonetto and family is one of my favorites to discuss because it always highlights just how disconnected from humanity she is. Not in the sense of "oh, she's heartless and very cold and logical because of the Foundation" but in the sense of "oh, she's kind, but only in the limited way a child soldier from the Foundation can be."

I can't remember if I've already written about this, but as far as I know, Sonetto is the only main/playable character within the Foundation who doesn't have any themes of "community" nor mentions any actual family members.

Compare her to other characters: Vertin, who was explicitly one month old when she was taken into the School of Discipline, still has her mother and is aware of her. Matilda and Mesmer Jr. have their whole families. If we analyze these characters, a big part of their lives and personalities can be traced to their interactions and history with their families, and these are just examples within Sonetto's generation. Outside of this specific group we have Horropedia, who owes everything to his adoptive grandfather, and Tooth Fairy, whose relationship with her family - the Campbells - is explored in her own character event from 1.2.

We can keep going with characters adjacent to the Foundation! X has his orphanage, he mentions the people he grew up with and took care of him in a few voicelines. Medicine Pocket has their mother, as seen in their 01 Story. Lilya has her parents, mentioned in her birthday messages. Leilani, also from Zeno like Lilya, doesn't mention her family per se, but her entire character revolves around the concept of being welcoming and friendly, around the idea of community.

Sonetto's character and her entire life revolve exclusively around the Foundation. This is the only family she's had, and this is a detail that her Storybook brings up in her first paragraph.

Child of the Foundation Sonetto knows nothing about her background. Before she was adopted by the Foundation, she had neither family nor motivations. It was the Foundation that gave her everything. Now she is completely clear of her glorious mission: to devote her life to the peace and well-being of mankind.

The Foundation is her only family, it makes sense that Sonetto would go on to become the perfect arcanist and soldier by their standards.

With this ramble, I want to emphasize the fact that Sonetto doesn't have the same knowledge or context about the idea of "family" like the previously mentioned characters. We know that her relationships are one-sided, because of the way she cannot reciprocate something as simple as friendship in a way that is traditional.

The most obvious example being her initial relationship with Vertin. She clearly cares for Vertin now that they are older, but we don't know if this is because of her guilt - born from her involvement in the incident that turned Vertin into the Timekeeper and everything prior to it - but we do know that the two rarely interacted given Vertin's reaction at the beginning of the game. To this, we must add the way Sonetto is constantly compared to a dog: she's described as a puppy, endearing and honest in the way she eagerly follows those she cares for. But also a military dog, obedient and attentive. One can argue that the only way Sonetto knows how to love and show affection is through usefulness, because it is the one thing she was taught by the Foundation.

Yes, Sonetto is kind and helpful, and this is a double-edged sword: being useful is the priority. If she cannot be of use, she cannot be worthy of affection, she cannot justify her existence. And a few of her voice lines highlight this--the ones we hear when leveling up her Insight are very telling.

Raising a character's Insight level is described as Vertin helping them gain a better understanding of themselves and the world, hence the wording--"Insight." Notice how Sonetto's Insight voicelines all focus on how usefulness.

Hu... la ringrazio. I will make good use of this power.

This place has brought me so many things: freedom, fresh knowledge, brave friends. How can I ever repay you? I want to be of help to you at any time.

The first one is straightforward, but the implication is that Sonetto sees her own development, her own understanding of her own life and personality, as something that must be used accordingly--a power, an ability, something useful.

It's a huge contrast to her second voice line.

It's only through a lot of exposure, help and insight that Sonetto can recognize all these good things--freedom, fresh knowledge, brave friends. She still wants to be useful, but now with the full understanding of her surroundings and situation. This is why she defends Schneider so passionately during Chapter 05 - "El Oro de los Tigres." This is why her entire character revolves around her slowly finding her own footing outside of the Foundation's influence through Vertin and all these new experiences, as opposed to the sterile environment she's used to.

And we're just talking about how she treats her friends, and there is this barrier that keeps her from forming connections so easily the same way Vertin does. How would she treat someone that's like an older sibling, a mentor, a parental figure, when she's never had anything remotely similar in the first place?

I think it depends heavily on when exactly you meet Sonetto!

On one hand, if you meet her while she's attending the School of Discipline, then I imagine it would take a long time for her to warm up to you. She insists that your behaviour makes no sense, but she can't exactly stop you as you're not breaking any rules that she knows of. Part of her cannot understand why you would treat her like this, regardless of whether you're a few grades ahead of her or part of the School's staff, but you make her feel safe, despite this mischievous streak of yours.

I can't see her supporting or turning a blind eye to any of your shenanigans--a younger Sonetto will absolutely snitch on you if given the chance, unless you give her a VERY good reason not to. If you're too much of a troublemaker like Vertin, then she settles for trying to steer you into the right path with advice, knowing that you're absolutely not going to listen. I like to think this specific path would end up with Sonetto being your little annoyed little sister! Or rather, that she sees you as an endearing and embarrassing older sibling figure, constantly apologizing her coworkers and others for whatever you might do or say for her sake. Yes, you're an inconvenience at work, but she knows that you care for her very much. Everyone can tell at a single glance that the two of you are close, that your mannerisms end up rubbing off on her in subtle ways, that she finally emotes and feels like a real teenager instead of a child soldier when she's around you.

On the other hand, if you met her after she joins Vertin's team, she's much more mellow, more open to interacting with people who don't fit the Foundation's standards. Initially, she may assume that you look out for everyone, not just her, but it takes a considerably less amount of time for her to warm up to you. Thanks to all the new people she's met, it's easier to accept this sort of kindness and concern, and Sonetto's first instinct is to reciprocate it tenfold. Every little nice thing that you do or say, she will imitate it--if you help her braid or brush her hair, she will ask to do the same. If you make her favorite meal, she will do the same. Just like a puppy learning how to play with other puppies. If she sees you being up to no good, she's instantly confused--you're so caring and considerate, it's hard to wrap her mind around the idea of you getting into trouble on PURPOSE. She reluctantly tags along, just to make sure you have someone in your corner should you get caught.

Both paths would lead to some idealization from Sonetto's part. This is the first time she's felt like this--the concept of home has always been a quiet, empty and standard room within the Foundation's headquarters, but now, when she thinks of home, she thinks of you and Vertin, of a big, warm and noisy suitcase full of people. This is the first time she understands what family means.

Of course, she's torn between her duty and these new experiences, I think that there are times in which Sonetto feels guilty for choosing one over the other--sometimes, it's the realization that she will still prioritize the safety of mankind over a happy life with her friends, or realizing that her instincts still expose just how deep her indoctrination runs, how detached from a regular teenage girl she is.

And sometimes, it's the feeling of wanting to run away somewhere safe, somewhere with you and everyone else, when the stress of work gets to her. And what really affects Sonetto the most is knowing that you would never, ever make her choose, that you'll always be her big sibling, who teases her for days on end and who comforts her when she needs it.

This idealization manifests as the usual martyr behaviour that's been instilled in her. She cares for you, and so she will lay down her life for you if necessary--this is a feeling that defies all logic.

I do want to say that the aspect of idealization differ depending on which path we're discussing! The first one, the one in which you pretty much adopt her when she's very young, leans more towards a regular dynamic of a child idolizing their older sibling, someone who is very close to them. The second one leans more towards a fan idolizing a celebrity, a distant figure worth of admiration.

Because you've spent more time with Sonetto in this first path, I think that she would also be more open to being vulnerable since, you know, she's a literal child. Your presence and influence somewhat mitigates the damage her training will eventually do to her psyche and mentality, meaning that part of Sonetto is able to recognize that what's happening to her - what happens to every orphaned arcanist - is not okay. She can't fully explain why, other than it feels unfair, and so she turns to you. I think this would be one of the very few moments in which you will see Sonetto cry, in which Sonetto will internalize a very important thing: if she ever feels afraid, alone or scared, you're the only person she can go to.

This is a lot of text to say that she will die for you because you're the only person who accepts her, the best and worst parts of her. Whereas in the second path, she will die for you because she sees you as superior, as someone who deserves to live more than her.

Aside from this analysis, I do have a few cute headcanons!

Lots and lots of puppy behaviour. If left alone for long periods of time, Sonetto defaults to trailing after you. She just likes to orbit around you, which is great if you're overprotective. And if you happen to be busy, she simply trails after Vertin instead.

Sonetto doesn't show off when working, given how seriously she takes her role, but as soon as she's done with a mission, she will ask you to rate her performance. Partially, she does it because she genuinely cares about staying on top of her training and you're the one person who knows her the best, but it's also her way of asking for attention, I don't think she even realizes that she's seeking out validation lol. Please, feel free to pet her head or fret over her.

I think Sonetto has a lot of control, so she wouldn't slip and accidentally address you as her big sibling--but if someone else were to address you as such, she won't correct them.

Whenever Sonetto struggles with her art and poetry, she goes to you first and foremost. I do think that if you're the type to constantly hype her up regardless of what she's created, she will slowly stop showing you her work out of embarrassment and because she needs someone who can give her a proper critique.

The same way some of your gestures and expressions rub off on her, you WILL end up picking up some italian and some hand gestures from her. Everyone loves to point out whenever this happens.

Sonetto can pretty much take whenever others tease her about whatever--on one hand because she may not understand that they're teasing her, on the other because she's rather stoic in social situations. But when YOU do it and go a little too far, she WILL start a very heated rant about how inconsiderate you are why would you bring this up now can you please not talk about this it's not the appropriate time or place please do not talk about her relationship with Vertin it is so unprofessional what even is there to talk about do not bring up that one time she messed up and called the instructor mom please do not talk about her first few incantations PLEASE FOCUS ON THE JOB.

[yuseirra]

ONK theories: how the ryosuke incident played out & the character's motives/about how the manga will go

ONK SPOILERS CH 155 and beyond:

To get straight to the point, I've correctly guessed all the key elements of the latest chapters of this manga. I'm quite confident in my abilities, so keep making posts about onk... I should stop.. I'm nervous talking about work that's still in progress but well!!! When will I be able to do this again!!

Although I'm usually terrible at solving mysteries and just watch while going "Oh~ Oh~," this manga is more about emotional analysis than deduction, so I've been able to guess a lot of the major points correctly.

Here's what I've guessed right:

Aqua has romantic feelings for Kana.

Ai liked Kamiki quite a lot and was considering him in her future plans.

Kamiki wanted to take responsibility for the children, but Ai hid and disappeared to protect him and avoid burdening him.

This process likely occurred unilaterally without Kamiki knowing about Ai's feelings and circumstances.

I got all of this right. There are some minor differences in the details. Ai didn't just like him quite a lot, she loved him deeply and informed him about the pregnancy (though she said it would be difficult to keep the baby), and they broke up after that.

Having guessed these things consecutively, I have a good sense of what these characters' personalities are like and what actions they'll take, so I'm motivated and have been continuously writing about it. I'm quite confident in this area.

Previously, I wrote a post about something odd during the dome performance celebration incident, but I didn't consider Nino at that time. Even then, I felt that Kamiki didn't seem like the culprit.

Please read that post first, as I plan to continue writing from there. I'll put the rest in the read more for viewers who scroll past!:

In that post, I focused on three possible scenarios.

It’s true that Kamiki leaked the address to Ryosuke. That isn’t a lie, and that character probably believes he is responsible for Ai’s death because of it. So, with that as the baseline, I came up with three possibilities:

If Kamiki and Ryosuke weren’t acquaintances from the start

If they were acquaintances and went to the hospital for Ai’s delivery with a common purpose

If they each had different purposes but met near the hospital on Ai’s delivery day and became acquaintances then.

Except for the first case, the assumption was that the "middle school boy" near the hospital on Ai’s delivery day was Kamiki. However, with Nino entering the picture, I started to think it might have been Nino who was near the hospital.

Therefore, I think it’s most likely that Kamiki is case 1.

There are reasons why it isn't case 2, which you can see if you read the post. Even if it were case 3, I concluded that Kamiki likely had no intention to harm Ai.

So, why do I think it’s most likely that Ryosuke and Kamiki weren’t acquaintances?

If Ryosuke, Nino, and Kamiki are connected in some way,

the one most likely to be acquainted with Ryosuke is Nino.

Ryosuke is a big fan of B-Komachi and Ai and even personally handed over stardust sand at a handshake event. If Ai remembered him as a fan, he must have been either extremely enthusiastic in his activities or conspicuous in some other way. Given Nino’s interest in and jealousy of Ai, it’s highly likely she took notice of Ryosuke.

If Nino found out that Ai planned to have babies, she might see it as an obstacle to Ai’s career as the perfect idol. So, she could have coaxed Ryosuke by revealing this information and formed some kind of collaboration.

From my perspective, Kamiki doesn't seem like the type to have any aversion to the idea of having children with Ai. Even if he thought Ai left him because she got pregnant, she told him she wouldn’t keep the babies before leaving. So, if he later found out that Ai did have the babies, his reaction would likely be one of confusion or curiosity rather than dislike. Something like 'Why did she have them when she said she wouldn’t?' And then, I think his reaction would go beyond surprise to possibly even happiness.

The character’s attitude towards the main characters, the twins, is pretty tender. Even if you assume "Mephisto" is his song, he calls out to the children telling them to come after him. He shows no signs that he intends to harm them. It just makes sense to me that he does care for Ai and his twins. They're his kids too. I keep talking about this, but Kamiki's said he was glad Aqua got to meet and talk with him in 153 and it makes sense given this character’s past personality that he has a father's heart. What he says seems genuine.

Nino is different. Nino cares about Ai, but I don’t think she has positive feelings about Ai’s babies. The whole group went on hiatus because of those babies (which made Nino realize the group revolves around Ai). Ai not only focuses on being an idol but now has something else to focus on because of them. To me, it seems Nino not only hates Ai but also desperately wants to preserve Ai as an idol. She doesn’t want that image to be tarnished at all. If there’s something that threatens it, she might want to remove it. The issue is how extreme she would get. If Nino knew about Gorou’s death, she would realize that someone died because of her actions, which could lead to her breaking down. That could have caused her to act out even more. Nino’s mental state, based on the few panels we’ve seen, seems really unstable and destructive.. the way Ryosuke's been.

When Kamiki and Ai were dating, he didn’t show any signs of being obsessed with Ai’s idol work, like saying, “Wow, you shine so brightly, I want to preserve that image.” At least, based on the movie arc, he seemed to have had a normal relationship with her, aside from his terrible life circumstances. I'm thinking he changed to his current ominous self after Ai’s death. Up until just before they broke up, he seemed fine. There wasn’t a big difference from when he was younger.

The "IDOL" song was a spoiler. It had the stance of, “Our invincible idol Ai, I’ll protect you no matter what. I can’t forgive you for being less than perfect, and I can’t forgive myself either for being this way.” That perspective came from a fellow member. That’s why Nino, who is obsessed with Ai’s "perfection" and would be hostile or at least unkind towards the hidden "children," fits this profile.

For these reasons, I think it was Nino who was at the hospital and collaborated with Ryosuke.

Did she really intend to go as far to harm Ai’s children in a physical sense? That, I don’t know yet...

And then the first attempt failed; Gorou died.

Ai returned to her activities, hiding the existence of the children and doing well. Perhaps, that led Nino to think, "Is this enough...?" and kept low for for 4 years. She had her own career going too and if Ai was performing beautifully, there wasn't a need to take more action.

But then Ai tried to show the babies to her boyfriend... If things had gone well and Ai and Kamiki had become close and interacted well with the children, Ai might have even tried to reveal everything... Maybe Nino wanted to prevent that from happening.

Looking at chapter 132, which shows a glimpse of Nino's insanity, it seems (surprisingly) that Nino didn't want Ai to die either. Ai was very significant to Nino, right? She hated her, was jealous, and wanted her gone, but didn't actually wish for her to die. If someone like that disappeared, it would feel more than liberating; it would feel empty. Nino doesn't seem all that sane. For this character, Ai became an obsession at one point, and losing Ai meant losing her "idol". Kamiki, on the other hand, while he also idolized Ai to some extent, speaks as if he understands that Ai was just an ordinary person. To him, Ai was the love of his life and partner. He liked her differently, not just as an idol to be worshiped.

Nino probably coerced and used Ryosuke again, giving him a knife to scare Ai, which led to her death, resulting in Nino's "regret." Maybe she even arranged for Ryosuke and Kamiki to meet? That bouquet of flowers...; I mean, could it be that Kamiki really asked to deliver flowers to celebrate the dome performance? If Ryosuke was introduced to him as Ai's fan by a B-Komachi member, Kamiki could've just lent the flowers to him to pass it on his stead. Isn't that possible? Am I thinking too optimistically? But it's not because I like Kamiki's character that I interpret it this way; (if he's the one who killed Ai, I'm ready to grab him by the collar and spank him anytime) it's just that his personality shown around that time doesn't fit with him intending to "scare" Ai. He's too mild..;

I can't quite guess how Kamiki and Nino, or Ryosuke and Kamiki, met.

I think it's more likely that Ryosuke and Kamiki met shortly after Ai’s phone call. Honestly, I can’t really picture Kamiki and Ryosuke being long-time acquaintances. What would they do together? Is there anything that would keep them in contact? Meeting his girlfriend’s hardcore fan—what’s the point? It would make sense if Kamiki had the intention to harm Ai, but I believe Kamiki when he says he didn’t actually think Ai would be killed. This seems true to me. I don’t think he could have imagined that the person who killed Gorou wouldn’t kill Ai. Up until that point, Kamiki was probably still relatively gentle. He hadn’t darkened yet.

We need to look at Kamiki’s personality. Even when someone like Airi, who exploited him, died, he was mentally distressed. The timing is a bit tangled... thinking about it, did that happen after the main characters were born? I think this guy was simply... entranced by Ai? As Aqua says in the very beginning (chapter 2), he’s like a moth drawn to a flame, unable to stop himself even as his wings burn and he falls. He seems to genuinely like Ai a lot. He probably blames himself for her death and can’t stop. Omg I just noticed, Aqua’s line is strikingly similar to what's described in "Fatal"...

Kamiki and Nino seem to cooperate, I think their common goal is related to Ai.

After meeting with Ruby, Nino says that no one can surpass Ai, not even her daughter, and she wouldn’t accept it.

In contrast, Kamiki was actually happy when Ruby showed the potential to surpass Ai. He was disappointed when he thought she just wanted to resemble Ai.

From this, it seems they both do want to find someone who can surpass Ai.

Nino can’t accept such a person, but does Kamiki feel the same way? If so, his reaction to Ruby should have been different. I think their intermediate goals are the same, but they might want different outcomes.

I suspect that Kamiki is searching for someone who can replace Ai to offer as a tribute to a "god." Thinking that he simply can't accept someone surpassing Ai and kills them seems too simplistic given the songs. The songs clearly express the desire to find a way to fill the "Lack of AI" (absence of Ai). The songs really seem to reflect Kamiki’s feelings. He is looking for a way to revive Ai or at least meet her again, and there is likely a character in the story who can make that possible. In a world where gods can reincarnate souls, there would be someone with the persuasive power to claim they have such abilities, whether it be real or just a mere taunt.

Ruby is the one who showed that potential, but considering that Kamiki just passed by Ruby in chapter 155, it doesn't seem like he would harm her. I closely examined chapters 153-155, and no matter what, he doesn’t seem like a crazy person who would harm his own daughter for the sake of his wife/girlfriend. If Ai hadn’t died, he would really have been the kind of person who could have raised the children with her as she envisioned. After Ai's death, he strayed off and is now firmly on the wrong path. That’s probably why Ai asked the main characters to help him, she knows what kind of person he originally is.

Continuing on, "stars" are likely the "gods" of this universe. The black star is a "god who loves absurdity and irrationality" and probably possesses great power but demands a high price in return. It seems that Kamiki is influenced by that.

In the anime, Akane's star eye color is different. That might be because it's an imitation. The humans truly inhabited by gods are different. Ruby, Aqua, Kamiki, and Ai are likely to have something inhabiting them.

The white star and the black star may each correspond to the "god who loves humans" and the "god who loves absurdity and irrationality" mentioned in chapter 144. The line "キラキラお星様宿したあなたのeyes(Your eyes with glittering stars in them)" in Fatal’s lyric could imply that Ai may also be a person inhabited by a star=god. Pay attention to the word "宿した" in the lyrics. The original Japanese lyrics can be translated like this: "your eyes that the sparking star that dwells within"

宿した< I looked it up, and it can be translated as "bears" or "conceives" "dwells".. it seems like a "star" was blessing Ai, it lived in her as she was alive (the fact that there's a "god that loves humans" oddly works with how Ai's whole life was about loving, too..)

Coming to think of it, didn't this manga start with a disclaimer that "this story is fiction"?

Then, is this manga in fact a stage meant for the gods?

Wow, and I JUST noticed as I went back and checked, the first scene of chapter 1 has the exact same quotes compared to what Kamiki says in chapter 153.

Fiction being "Fabricated, exaggerated, and everything inconvenient being completely concealed".

But Aqua rebuts him saying what he's made isn't one:

With the basis being Ai's love was genuine and therefore "true".

I have a feeling that the conclusion of this manga might be something similar.

It might be that everyone is like pawns in the game of gods, but the sincerity within them is all genuine.

The development is somewhat ambiguous... but this manga is definitely well-structured. There are certainly a lot of hints, and I see that things mentioned in the very beginning are being brought up again in the latest chapters? Still. So, looking at the bigger picture, maybe we don’t have to worry too much.

There's no new chapter this week... I backed up some drawings on Pixiv without knowing about the break. If I had known, I would have drawn a bit more before uploading... ;v;) well, it'll have to do!

Maybe now is the time to really sit back and watch patiently.

If things go the way I think they will, I can draw a lot more stuff, so I wonder how it will turn out...

The songs are definitely spoilers, for one thing.

They’re definitely related to the development of the story. It feels like they’re spoon-feeding us, but I'm not sure what exactly they’re spoon-feeding us. The creators seem to have a lot in mind.

[tokiro07]

Ichi the Witch ch.12 thoughts

[Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger...]

(Topics: speculation - narrative progression)

I blame @wickedsick for making me think that Kindake was going to challenge the Death for Death concept; I might never have even considered that angle on my own, and now my previously non-existent expectations have been dashed. Thanks, Wick, you lovely clown you

But seriously, I do think that's an angle that Nishi is going to need to tackle sooner or later, but now just wasn't the time, I guess. Given how it's been established that Togeice's plan is to prevent Ichi from hunting wholesale, I think it's safe to say that the intention isn't to put Ichi in a hopeless situation

However

Spoke Too Soon

From a narrative perspective, it might actually have been better for Ichi to have the deck stacked against him. If Kindake was a bad matchup for Ichi philosophically and Togeice was a bad matchup competitively, then Ichi would be overcoming both internal and external challenges that would force him to grow as a person

Instead, he's quite literally hunting a mushroom, when he's apparently an expert at mushroom hunting, against a woman with no sense of direction. Togeice is clearly at a tremendous disadvantage based on the necessary skillset, so while her own skills may still prove surprisingly challenging for Ichi, we're going into this challenge with the expectation that it's going to be a breeze for Ichi

That is what actually worries me most. There has to be some kind of twist or surprise that makes this more of an obstacle for Ichi to overcome, but while it would be easy enough to have Togeice simply prove to be more of a threat than she's so far let on, again, I don't think it would make sense to have Togeice actually win the contest

For the sake of making Ichi experience failure without being so disproportionately punished, I think the best option is for this contest to end in a draw, possibly forcing Ichi to still go to school but under more relaxed circumstances than Togeice intends. He might even willingly go to school because of how he fails, but that's speculation for later

For now, I'm more interested in what's going to cause him to fail, and I think Nishi has telegraphed her intentions quite clearly

White They Spotted

Ichi's ability to sense ill intent has been well documented by this point, so for Ichi to have so much confidence that he's basically just ignoring Togeice but to suddenly have his attention stolen by this random stranger, this is obviously someone dangerous

Togeice established that the only legal outcome for this challenge is for either her or Ichi to acquire Kindake, but she meant that neither of their respective teams could interfere. She clearly has no expectation that a third party could interfere, and Ichi's flashback in this chapter showed him taking out a competing predator that was too distracted with its prey to notice him: we're being told directly that the two of them are going to be too caught up with each other to keep this third dog from running off with the bone

As I said, this would be a big enough blow to Ichi's ego that he could learn just how little experience and understanding of magic he has and motivate him to go to school without giving Togeice grounds to rob Ichi of his freedom. A best of both world's scenario, I would say

Most of the responses I've seen have taken this character to be another male Witch, which was definitely my first thought, but it's difficult to tell with Shirozaki's art style if they're just androgynous at the moment. This could easily be a woman, so I'm not going to worry about the implications of that right now

The more immediately interesting implication to me, though, is this character's outfit. Not only are they dressed more like an Eastern monk, they also have what look to be deer-hooved boots. These design choices bring to mind Minakata, who comes from an island to the east and wears a deer skull. I think it's safe to say that this person is from the same nation as Minakata, and may even have a direct connection to him

Again, it's too early to speculate on what that connection is, but I'm getting the feeling that the recurring deer imagery is symbolic of this nation's equivalent to Mantinel that I projected last week. Maybe they'll be villains, maybe they'll be allies, maybe they'll justifiably challenge Mantinel's position and prompt Ichi to go against them. I don't expect these answers any time soon, but I'm looking forward to getting them sooner or later!

Until next time, let's enjoy life!

[raayllum]

I don't know if you've already posted about this, but why do you think Claudia seems to have a strong hatred towards Rayla that she refuses to acknowledge her and refers to her as "their elf" in her reflection short story. Could it stem from Rayla being the catalyst that essentially turns Claudia's world upside-down, or does it stem from a sort of jealousy somehow?

Oh bless, as I was just thinking about Claudia's end of her and Rayla's dynamic (given that she also has more of one, tbh)

I've written metas about Rayla and Claudia's dynamic previously (X, X, X, X) but most of that has been from a Foils perspective rather than an interpersonal one. For that, I'd recommend the fic I co-wrote, "if heaven and hell decide," a S2 divergence where Claudia and Soren don't betray the trio right away at the Moon Nexus, and thereby spend the bulk of the season actually travelling together as a group.

As to your actual point of Claudia's view on Rayla, well, first and foremost:

Rayla is an elf, and that means she's not a Person.

“So are you two… Did I interrupt something? Between you and… your elf?” Claudia asked, lifting her eyebrows slightly. (—Book Two: Sky novelization)

Where Terry and Aaravos are exceptions, likely precisely because they are willing to help Claudia with her goals, Rayla is never anything more than an obstacle, and there is never ever given even a shred of conceivable 'humanity'. This is best seen in her response of her smiling at the prospect of Soren murdering Rayla, citing not even that the girl is an assassin, but that she's an elf (although, with Moonshadow elves, that could easily be one in the same):

It is also most likely, given that Claudia is the one (1) other character we see refer to elves as bloodthirsty (whereas Viren reassures Runaan that his drink is berry juice) that Claudia learned stories about elves from Amaya and then told Callum and/or reaffirmed stories that Callum heard from his aunt.

Never mind in the one (1) interaction they've had, it was Rayla arguing that the dragon egg was a baby who deserved to go back to its mother. Claudia didn't even see or know for sure that Rayla had threatened the boys, and saw that Rayla was speaking with them and only (visibly) drew her swords once Claudia showed up.

Claudia's malleable stakes of what constitutes a person reinforced that while despite definitely knowing Rayla's name (Callum introduces her and says it a few times around Claudia) and knowing Rayla's features well enough to pick up that Lain and Tiadrin are her parents (also makes sense, given that being a dark mage means being able to differentiate and identify a lot of very similar looking components), Claudia never uses Rayla's name. Not once.

Zym, with thoughts and feelings and a name and a mother, is not a person. Magical creatures with lives and cultures and languages and families, families she knows Rayla gives a shit about because that's precisely what she weaponizes against her (comparing it to her love for Terry), are not People to her.

And this all loops back into Claudia's big cognitive dissonance, which is that even when she and Rayla are doing or want the exact same thing, Rayla deserves to suffer and/or be punished for it, because Claudia (in her mind) is a Person with Understandable Good Motivations, and Rayla is not.

Keep in mind that Claudia saw Ezran and then Callum consciously choose to go with Rayla. She saw Callum hesitate and then chain her to a wall, stealing her primal stone without Rayla saying a word. Hell, Ezran is even the one Claudia sees take the lead ("Follow me") that Rayla follows. That kidnapping the princes is literally exactly what Claudia is going to do an episode from now, and while she apologizes, she cites, "I have to do what's right" and when she and Soren are punished upon their homecoming (much like Rayla in S3) with being seen as traitors, Claudia insists, "We didn't do anything wrong!"

Aaravos whispering in her ear takes this up a notch, to the degree that Claudia claims that intergenerational trauma is a uniquely human trait that the elves and dragons couldn't possibly understand:

Which like, dehumanization and being willing to cause suffering generally go hand in hand, both IRL and in the show, so that absolutely tracks. But despite literally being an assassin that she knows killed the king, Claudia never shows the same vitriol towards Runaan. If anything, she seems almost sympathetic in the one scene we see of her with him, even if she also took him for "practical" (dark magic "uses".

So why does she seemingly hate Rayla, then, so specifically? Well...

In season one, losing the egg can't be the boys' fault (they're spelled, they're innocent, they're—) and it can't be Claudia's fault (she's going to get it back, really, just like her dad asked), so it must be Rayla's. She invaded Claudia's home. She stole the boys away. She's the one literally stepping in between her and Zym, between her and her goal, between her and her dad's approval. Absolutely not. This evil elf's braid (however cute) will be her undoing. (The fact that the braid is a symbol of someone who loved Rayla is just the icing on the cake, tbh, symbolically.)

Then in season two, Claudia actually meets Rayla and realizes very quickly that Callum is inordinately Close to her. She's seen them interact twice — Callum, noticing that Rayla is missing in the middle of the night, running to her aid, and being in defensive stance for her, not Claudia and Soren; Callum and Rayla sitting closely on a bed, Rayla looking like she's about to nervously confess something while Callum listens patiently, regrouping for their own convo the same way Claudia and Soren did — before she assumes there Might be something between them. Not just that Rayla might've caught feelings for the boy Claudia's always been gently teasing, but that Callum — whose knowingly liked Claudia forever, and whose feelings Claudia has always been very confident in — might've fallen for her, too, in only a week or so's time. Which says a lot, I think.

Then, even after not knowingly doing anything wrong to Callum - and to Claudia, all she's trying to do is safely bring the boys home and keep a weapon from falling into Xadia's hands - he still lies to and betrays her in his own way. With a moon illusion magic spell that Rayla was blatantly, clearly, in on (even if Claudia may not know it was literally Rayla's idea). And that, of course, Callum ultimately trusted this elf over her; it was Callum setting his own Test of Love for Claudia in a lot of ways, and she failed just about as poorly as she possibly could.

She and her brother take down a dragon, and there's the elf, again, getting in their way and wasting their time. But she does present an opportunity: she can lead them to Callum and Ezran. Only Callum shows up - and Claudia doesn't know whether this was the plan or not - willing to do dark magic - which he wasn't before when he offered it - with an angry, vengeful look on his face. Him breaking the chains, and Rayla freeing the dragon (as Soren says) is what leads to her brother becoming paralyzed. And although Claudia doesn't want to think of the lingering ramifications, that is still the moment she knows on a certain level that she Loses her family, because the second Soren tells her that their dad tried to kill the princes, she can't actually come back from that unscathed. From this until the end of S3, she's in damage control trying to hold onto both her father and her brother at any cost.

And I'm not gonna summarize further (after all, it doesn't seem that Claudia knows Rayla was the one who killed Viren, otherwise I don't think she ever would've given back the coins come hell or high water or a massive character arc) but I think it's a few things:

Rayla is an elf, and a Moonshadow elf, and all that comes with it in regards to dehumanization and demonization. A process that Rayla never returns (admitting the pancakes are good, looking happy for Callum when things seem to be okay / Claudia understands why their mission is important)

Rayla's presence and influence being the consistent through line that ruined Claudia's life, culminating in the literal (unknown) death of her father.

Rayla is an enemy by default and because she creates instability / disruption. The boys trust her over Claudia, which would've been unthinkable a week or perhaps a day ago; Soren is on her side and is the primary elf that he presumably knows; Rayla has Callum's loyalty/devotion, not Claudia - not anymore (which, I will be interested to see if they ever give us a moment where Claudia puts it together that they're a thing, but I'd be fine without one, lol).

Claudia already has a smug streak (see plenty of her interactions with Soren and Callum, and even Terry and Viren) and enjoys feeling more secure / in control. Claudia being able to lord something (the coins) over someone has magic ("We were born with nothing") and who just threatened someone she loves... Claudia being able to get Rayla back for tricking her all those years ago?

TLDR; I think there's jealousy for the life Claudia perceives Rayla has having / having 'stolen' from her (for all she knows, Rayla has been living a cushy life in Katolis with the boys the past two years) and for having earned Callum's trust so decidedly and drastically. I think Rayla, subconsciously, is where Claudia has levelled a lot of blame in how her life turned out (because it can't be her own fault; she can't Be Wrong; the dragons leaving the Storm Spire is a "Sign" she's on the Right path, isn't it?), partially grounded in reality, but mostly not. Rayla is just the easier person to blame, and well... Rayla also has a habit of destroying / fucking things up, mostly unintentionally. Claudia's life might as well be one of them, at this point.

[ru5t]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ more or less as u please i am just.... brrrrrr on vibes for some reason for them i'm so sorry ik it's shown aKHBJSCHNCS

Every ⭐️ exchanges for a headcanon about our characters’ (potential or existing) dynamic.

I did not mark the codependent box but I think. actually. the potential exists because I have now realized Maddy's brother simply does not exist in this verse (or they were separated before they could really. get dependent on each other but-) which that. sounds like I'm saying CJ would replace her brother and it's not like that i just mean like. maddy has that kind of bonding as a capacity and given that it isn't filled it might even be more relevant than ever, in this verse, which I had not previously considered. especially if they're like, in any way bonded before/while she's otherwise on her own, y'know? and it could be like. kind of like that thread to follow that says "the world is bigger than where you are" if that??? makes sense?? b/c... she does a weird version of codependent where it's less like being tied at the hip and more like running to the end of a tether so hard that it yanks her to a stop and then going back to the person holding her down(positive) and then. running again. rinse n repeat. still tied but she's gonna like, yo-yo about it. and she does that with several of her dynamics but it's stronger in some than others just like, depending. and i think that could happen here in a really intense way esp because i almost feel like CJ is kind of the same way so it's just like. idk weird mutual push n pull

with the way their birthdays are (April 17th and May 5th) this makes it possible that like. they're just a couple weeks short of a perfect year's age difference and i think this is the ideal age distance between them where Maddy is older but like, not by enough that it makes a huge difference and i don't know there's just something about it being almost a perfect year but not quite that my brain really likes. and then they can have little squabbles about it ("well i'm older so you have to do what i say" "well im taller, so fuck you" and then the threats start) and ultimately it's like. it's only 11 months and for all intents and purposes they're the same age ;dkfjg;ldkjg

CJ being a clothes thief and Maddy also being a clothes thief ("borrower") potentially means that sometimes. CJ will steal something from someone and then Maddy steals it from CJ and this has probably resulted in some very silly shenanigans at least once but maybe lots of times. and also more squabbling ft. them arguing over the shirt and the person it originally belonged to like ????? IT'S NEITHER OF URS?????

i think. the initial 'found a stray cat' maybe didn't take? like hear me out like. it was maybe the first time she runs away after CJ encourages it and it creates the thought/pattern of Maddy repeatedly trying to escape right but i think. that first time everybody's too little and by isle law Maddy like, belongs to a different faction and in the place she ended up so she just gets shipped right back and there's not a lot anyone (of the people who care even a little bit) can do about it. so there's still those years of kind of being trapped. and it's for both of them. b/c Maddy's trapped where she is and CJ's under Hook's thumb for most of this era and it all just generally generates the wedge between them except the wedge being there might even be part of the motivator to spend any time together (for the Spite of it all, against the 'rules' and the challenge of it and maybe even common sense) and it's not until Maddy can fight her own way out and make herself useful to the other gang that she actually gets to get away for real and by then i think CJ would have fallen into her more party-like dalliances (after the siblings left) and just generally being out of touch which would put some distance between them as it's very much not Maddy's thing and also she's not so eager to risk being like, too far out of what is for the first time in a long time something even kind of safe and THEN CJ freakin evaporates from isle D:< and eventually comes back and you think Maddy'd be mad about it and she definitely was but like, in that "I am going to KICK YOUR ASS" while marveling at the fact she's not dead and probably even hugging her before they both get weird about it

and I really do think they squabble and snark and stuff constantly like just.... sarcasm and bitey little comments. and yet they're still hanging out and doing that tether thing. this is because they're nice to each other in Code, because that's the way being nice works, obviously. you have to hide it under like 12 layers of being a little bitch.

CJ....Maddy's scary dog privilege. send post.

[dearcat1]

hello! i was just rereading your bleach/KHR fics, and had a thought to try my hand at one. my only problem is deciding on flame types for bleach characters.

i think it'll make it easier if i just let all Shinigami be dual-types (the thought process being that not everyone on the afterlife becomes a Shinigami, and stronger flames would mean a stronger flame) but I'm still unsure of which types to give everyone 🤔

do you have any insights on a similar au, or a list of what flames you've used for bleach characters previously?

Well, I have a few of them and I'll reblog this post later with a few recommendations once I've had the time to go through my own bookmarks. But mostly, what I do is I go to the wiki and remind myself of the poems associated with each flame.

For example, my first instinct was to connect Kisuke with Lightning, given the mad scientist thing. But if you look at the poem, it doesn't fit at all.

To draw damage to himself and away from the rest of the Famiglia, serving as a lightning rod.

I think that fits Ichigo more than it fits anybody else but if we're assuming Ichigo is a Sky and has a Lightning of his own, I might consider Renji or maybe Rukia. Though I'm shaky on this flame, honestly. It's complex. Renji I'm not sure, I think of him because he keeps trying to keep up and one of his motivations is to not be left behind but he also seems determined to fight beside and not behind. If that makes sense. And he seems to have no problem sacrificing himself if that's what it takes to feel like he's not dragging anybody down. But Renji is a long shot.

My justification for Rukia is that she knew full well that giving Ichigo her powers was an execution worthy offense but knowing that and understanding that without doing it, Ichigo and his sisters would have died, she gave him her powers anyway. And when time came to face the consequences, she didn't even try to have Ichigo return the favor and protect her in turn. She went out of her way to avoid his involvement because she knew Ichigo, for all his conviction, wouldn't stand a chance as he was at the time.

Now, Storm:

Continuously at the heart of the attack, the furious Storm that never rests.

Renji or Grimmjow, for example. Neither of them are the kind to sit back. But if we're going for duh, that one: Kenpachi. That one lives for the fight. It's his main characteristic.

For Rain:

To square away conflict and wash away the blood spilled. The Requiem of Rain.

If we're going by my head cannon, I think Mizuiro would do nicely here. But if we're stepping back and going through personalities: Yoruichi (I'm not sure if I wrote her name right.) Or Shinji.

She's pretty good at mediating between Ichigo's friends and her whole job description is to take care of problems that need to be done away with, quietly and bloody if need be.

Shinji's approach is more mental manipulation than assassination, I think. But he was captain of a the militaristic afterlife for centuries, I doubt he's squeamish. Either way, both of them are good at keeping peace inside of a group of loud personalities and both of them feel to me like the kind that would deal with a threat with weapons in hand.

Honestly, the rains are the ones I'd be personally more wary of, they seem to be the kind that could genially talk to you, smile and all, while fully knowing you're ending up dead by the end of the night.

The Sun:

Destroying the misfortune that attacks the Famiglia with their own body, they become the Sun that brightly shines upon an area.

If we go by "activation", Kisuke. Come on, that guy has spent the entire manga just pushing and prodding and provoking Ichigo into becoming a powerhouse. It's why I made him a Sun in Mizuiro, the information Broker and I find Reborn fits into this category as well.

But if we're going only by the poem: Chad. Come on, his physical ability, protectiveness and willingness to physically defend the rest of the group is practically his entire point.

For Cloud:

A drifting Cloud, whom cannot be bound. Protecting the famiglia from an independent standpoint.

I briefly considered Shinji but then I remembered he all but poached Ichigo from the Shinigami and fully declared him one of theirs from the get go. There was no independent standpoint, that was point blank: "I have adopted you and your silly denials matter nothing to me."

So Yoruichi. She mostly does what she wants and thinks needs doing, though she does coordinate quite a bit with Kisuke. Which might be just common sense, no point disturbing Kisuke's carefully crafted plots. But consider: Byakuya. He's supportive and has Ichigo's back but they don't really coordinate in any way, they just know soul deep that the other has their back. It's even outright stated in the full bring arc.

Well yikes, this is an enormous post. I tried to be quick but alas. I hope this helped.

[lumi-klovstad-games]

So I have to share my Tavs. Can't stop me.

So, I have three Baldur's Gate 3 Tavs.

Lorgan Greylight is easily my "main" character in that he's the one I always come back to, and the most frequently.

A port from an aborted TT campaign that was full of promise, Lorgan is a Paladin of Tyr who swore his Oath of Devotion to the Order of the Left Hand, a group of Crusaders and Knights Errant who fight for the Just God and seek to bring righteous justice to the lands. A kind man at heart, Lorgan is especially drawn to the cause of those who are being mocked and oppressed, a tendency that derives from the strong sense of justice he cultivated in childhood, defending his younger dhampir sister from bullies and religious zealots, going so far as to now bear on his cheek the scar made by a wild priest's burning thurible when the young Lorgan stepped in front and took a blow that had been meant for his sister.

Despite his religious bearing and his oath as a paladin, he stands in constant defense of Astarion, acknowledging that Astarion, though a vampire, is first and foremost a victim of evil, and while often frustrated by the Elf's unhealthy coping mechanisms, sees them for what they really are and tries to help his friend (though Astarion would not use that word) rehabilitate naturally. He is also quite friendly with Shadowheart as something about the girl reminds him of his sister, Shar worship aside. Even the worship of Shar doesn't bother him like it should, because beneath Shadowheart's practiced selfishness and callousness, he sees a good but lost soul that may yet be motivated to save itself, if given the right conditions to do so.

Though bothered by his tadpole and his potential fate, Lorgan looks to his future and the adventure it holds with a Crusader's excitement: for the Cult of the Absolute perpetrates one mighty injustice after another, and it seems that Tyr has made sure his devoted follower shall be in the right place to stop it once and for all.

Wilhelmina Tollebrook is a returning adventurer from an earlier Pathfinder campaign. A Halfling Bard in self-exile from her village due to a minor scandal involving the baker's daughter, 'Mina' has traveled far and wide in the years since, following her tribe's pre-settlement path as they wandered the Northlands as nomads before establishing their peaceful corner of the world. Mina has become a moderately popular bard and troubadour as she composes songs, tales, and yarns based on her own adventures and travels.

Having previously assisted in the defeat of the returned Dread Queen Menrae (her songs don't mention that her group of adventurers were also the REASON for the Queen's return, though to her credit she did tell them not to listen to the creepy old lady in the prison who very conveniently had a way out for said group), Mina was kidnapped by Mind Flayers after a raucous victory party in Baldur's Gate, and ended up with a tadpole in her head for her trouble. Mina is a self-described "ethical slut", "frequent legal clusterfuck", and genuinely good soul who has devoted her life and career as a hero to giving the people with nothing something to sing about, and giving those in power who would abuse their positions "something slightly worse than a scathingly worded pamphlet" to worry about.

Perhaps, one day, she will return home and make things right with her mother, but for now the story unfolding before her is simply too salacious to drop. And while she very much as a thing for tentacles, she'd rather they not be her own and would very much like a cure for "this whole Mind Flayer situation", as immediately as possible.

Elerina is a young Tiefling druid from the Circle of Stars. With a name that means "Crowned by Stars", she is constantly aware that greatness has been expected of her from birth. Born of a Star Circle Druid and a Waterdeep sorcerer, Elerina's existence as an Asmodeus-line Tiefling has added considerable magical potential far beyond that possessed by either of her parents. It's entirely possible that this was the point of her birth to begin with, for although she cannot remember the incident, her sorcerous Father immediately tried to use his newborn daughter as an offering to Asmodeus. The Archdevil's magical presence twisted the infant's flesh and bone into the cruel image of a Tiefling, and may have done worse had the ceremony not been interrupted by Elerina's mother. The recovering Druid had struggled from her recovery bed and taken the shape of a Saber-Toothed Tiger, leaving Elerina's father with grievous wounds, and also swearing revenge.

Elerina was then taken and raised by her mother and the druids of the Circle of Stars. She learned to listen to the subtle voices of the Moon and night sky, the spirits in the wind, and the harmonies of nature all around her, and has proved quite a prodigy, especially with Animal Shapes. Able to transform into at least a dozen shapes, from familiar cats and ravens, all the way to Owlbears, a fearsome acid-spitting Dilophosaurus, and even Elemental Archons, Elerina still has a fondness for the shape of the Saber-Toothed Tiger. Something about that particular shape stirs feelings of safety in her, for reasons she cannot put her finger on, and the shape has become her safe space when stressed.

Perhaps as a result of her kinship with taking the forms of animals, her more devilish Tiefling traits have been "sanded down", in her words: her horns have become antlers, and her skin has taken a more natural (though still pale and otherworldly) pallor, and her eyes have become the color of starlight.

While on a trip to Baldur's Gate to trade on behalf of the Circle with another druid, she was separated from her fellow, and subsequently attacked by a mad cultist with fearsome magic powers. Though she could not have known, this assailant was her own father, who had tracked her down with the intent of finally offering her life for his Lord, Asmodeus, and though likely far more powerful than her father, his greater experience had her on the back foot, and ultimately it was a Mind Flayer Nautiloid that proved her incredibly unorthodox salvation.

Elerina struggles to hold on to her Druidic stoicism in a world filled with fear and anger, and much of it directed at her and her fellow Tieflings for their mere outward appearance. One can always expect her to side with "her people" first and foremost on almost any issue concerning them, but a lifetime of being mistreated by those outside her circle has mostly just left her tired of suffering, not just her own, but of others as well. Quickly identifying the Cult of the Absolute as a major force in the manipulation and suffering of others, her heart has filled with anger for the victims of the cult, and the resolve to destroy it, even if it costs her life. After all, suffering is not a thing of nature, and it must be stamped out like an invasive weed.

[netherfeildren]

I feel like the reason Joel won’t initiate the divorce with Eva is because she kinda seems like the person that even if she already has one foot out the door as soon as Joel says okay let’s get a divorce she’ll switch up her story to I’m trying to be a good mother why won’t you let me and play victim and will drag it out. But if he lets her be the one to leave then she’ll actually leave and it’ll be over quick and less painful for Sarah (??? Maybe I’m wrong but idk that’s what I was kinda thinking)

I love that you all are able to see her character in your own light. That's very much what I wanted to establish her as... this sort of like... I don't know, idea that can be many things, or molded into whatever it is that the person is reading needs or feels her to be based on their own experiences. I want her to be for you whatever it is you feel or need her to be.

I don't know if that makes sense, and I don't think I even have a clear cut answer in regards to her motivations honestly. She just kind of is -- if that makes sense. I will say however that the inspiration for her came from, yes, my own experiences, but also this reddit thread I read recently of this man complaining about his wife who'd recently given birth to their child. The woman had always been of the very sure opinion that she never ever wanted to have children and he sort of strong armed her into having a child with him after their marriage and so after the baby was born the woman was having a really hard time with postpartum depression and with connecting with the baby -- basically she wanted nothing to do with it. Now, the situation I've created in someone's wife is nothing like that. There was never ever any coercion on Joel's part when Eva got pregnant -- it was a one night stand that resulted in an unexpected/unwanted pregnancy but for whatever reason, be it fear of termination or what have you, she decides to keep it. But I guess my intention was with that reddit lady in mind who's feelings were entirely valid, and even to a point, expected. The loser was basically asking for advice in the thread on what he could do to get her to connect with the baby and everyone was telling him off in the comments, rightfully so. And so yeah, there's this child now that exists and deserves everything any other child deserves, and that is the most important thing, but her feelings are also real.

So I suppose the idea of a woman who has a baby for whatever reason, and doesn't end up wanting it or connecting with it, and not like in an ill intentioned manner or anything, but something that is just circumstance, unavoidable, shit happens sort of thing, was interesting to me. Something that I think happens a lot more than people talk about for fear of censure or criticism or whatever. And of course, the situation is again not the same at all, Eva is very much negligent towards Sarah, and that was my own choice when crafting her. Not so much to give an excuse, per se, to Joel and MC's affair, but just something else I wanted to explore. Like I said previously, I ask more questions in this story than I think I come to answers at the end. I leave it all up to your own interpretation, and thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me. I love this sort of discussion with you all so much 💗

[themattress]

@ngc-5194: Hey, guess what? Your strawman burns easily. Nobody thinks other KH games are "unimportant spin-offs" because they're on different platforms for one another. They think they're spin-offs, important or otherwise, because the series has games called Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II, Kingdom Hearts III, and later Kingdom Hearts IV. Rabid stans like you just expect people to throw all logic and reason surrounding numbering, including how it's used in literally any other series, out the window for special snowflake Kingdom Hearts series, and get pissy when they naturally won't, then act all superior because you do.

And more to the point, yes, it IS bad writing to force someone to play or watch or read up on so many different installments to have the remotest grasp on what's going on in titles that are still numbered sequentially. Especially when the content in said installments is increasingly incoherent gobbldegook. Any reasonable person not familiar with KH will read your initial post and most likely go "oh Hell nah, there are much better and more accessible series I could be investing my time in than this." You aren't really persuading anyone; you're just shilling.

Cases in point?

to which i first must ask, what part of kingdom hearts does make sense to you then?

Disney meets Final Fantasy/JRPG/anime style and adventures ensue.

It's a weird concept, but once you accept it, it makes sense. You can do it without time travel and time loops, worlds and people actually existing in a computer simulation, multiple variations of characters including literal clones, characters who are also partly other characters, body-jacking, different layers of reality, memory loss, existential angst, tangled relationships between characters, previously established information going out the window once later information is learned, convoluted plot turns due to dreams and/or memories, characters dropping long-winded exposition dumps, detailed lore in written unlockable reports, overtly obtuse terms, characters never staying dead and no permanent consequences or sacrifices, and omnipotent villains behind everything as part of some contrived master plan. All of that stuff is why the KH series is so confusing to people.

there are many many people out there in this fandom who would be thrilled to talk to you about parts of the plot you found confusing. who have posts pages and pages long on minute details

You really think non-fans WANT to read that shit!?

That doesn't help newcomers. It scares them away.

strelitzia, someone deeply important to marluxia, larxene, and ventus’ backstories, is seemingly implied to be one of the main characters in kh4 and if you have no knowledge of union x, then you likely have zero idea who she is.

This is not really an example of the problem (that you deny is a problem) - Sora doesn't know who Strelitizia is either, so players wouldn't need to know her history since Sora is their POV.

it gives a lot of depth to xehanort and eraqus both.

No. It doesn't.

eraqus’ behaviours and motivations are given reason—not necessarily morally good ones, and certainly not ones that always provide justification for his actions, but actual fully defined reasons for it all.

Birth by Sleep released in 2010. Dark Road was a whole decade later. In all that time, I don't recall seeing anyone who cared enough to ask "what past incident made Eraqus become a zealot for light?" Because it wasn't important. Nobody wanted or needed to know because that wasn't the point of Eraqus' character, which was what effect he had on his students, the actual main characters. Nobody wanted or needed a spin-off about him and the fucking villain who ruined him and his students' lives.

as it has always been with kh, every game is important to understand the story.

And that's why KH fails as a series, and why every game that isn't KH, KH2 and KH3 has been stuck between 1 million and 2 million sales even when other series that have been able to surpass that easily. Why series that have been out for far less time and had far less installments still overall sell better than KH even when the Disney angle alone should have hypothetically made KH a much bigger success.

but you have to accept that they are important to the plot of the series. that they can not simply be ignored if you want to grasp the entire story of kingdom hearts.

And you in turn have to accept that for most people, the response to this will always be "then the entire story of Kingdom Hearts can go fuck itself, because this bullshit ain't worth my time when there are so many better options out there that don't operate like this".

yknow i could very easily accept someone not liking the mobile kh games if people actually gave... understandable reasons??

mostly i've heard that they're 'inaccesable'. which. they're in general more accessable since the console they run on is a phone, a device more people have than a ps4. though, granted, it is the offline version of both games only.

however, if you don't have a phone, have limited space on your phone, or are uninterested in a mostly unplayable game, all of which are understandable, there are cutscene compilations (ux (story important, all), dr) available on youtube too!

if the lots of reading is the issue then there is a completely dubbed version of the cutscenes of ux and you can easily find voiced playthroughs of both union x and dark road on youtube as well.

(for instance, here is a playthrough of dark road that i watched as my phone needed repairs by the time i had caught up with the series enough to move onto khdr. but, of course, there are many more options if you simply search up 'kingdom hearts [dark road/union x] playthrough' on youtube. find whichever one suits the kind of videos you like to watch best!)

if you don't have the time to sit through all of the cutscenes, there are summaries also avaliable! here is a video one for union x, and though unfortunately i can't find a similar one for dark road, it is also always acceptable to just read the wiki section on the story of the game! (here is the union x wiki section as well)

the other major complaint i've heard is that it's 'too confusing' or that the story 'doesn't make sense in parts'.

to which i first must ask, what part of kingdom hearts does make sense to you then? many many signifigant, heavily important parts of this series can be the most mind boggling things you have ever read or heard. so much so that we are known as the fans of that overly complex and insane disney game. that is what we are known for!!

and more to an actual point, there are many many people out there in this fandom who would be thrilled to talk to you about parts of the plot you found confusing. who have posts pages and pages long on minute details.

we are all fans of this weird ass game series and we all can. i don't know. help each other, newcomers and people who have been here awhile alike. us fans who like the mobile games are no different. we are willing to share and help and explain anything you need.

and as for the take that the mobile games are 'unimportant'.

strelitzia, someone deeply important to marluxia, larxene, and ventus' backstories, is seemingly implied to be one of the main characters in kh4 and if you have no knowledge of union x, then you likely have zero idea who she is.

the foretellers and the master of masters are being set up as potential villians in the next arc of the series. all of these characters were introduced in union x, four years before back cover released. and while yes, back cover gives the perspective of the foretellers more while union x is from the eyes of the keykids, there are many interactions with the foretellers in union x, beyond the scope of back cover, that are deeply important to the plot and establishment of their characters.

while yes, dark road has drastically less set up for the future in it, as all of the characters featured are now dead, it gives a lot of depth to xehanort and eraqus both. eraqus' behaviours and motivations are given reason—not necessarily morally good ones, and certainly not ones that always provide justification for his actions, but actual fully defined reasons for it all.

as it has always been with kh, every game is important to understand the story. you couldn't simply play kh1 kh2 and kh3 and expect to understand everything, and you can not expect to understand everything if you don't at least know surface level of the stories of the mobile games too.

you do not have to play them yourself. they do not have to be your favourite games in the series. if you are reading this and you hate them, you can stay not liking them even for all i care.

but you have to accept that they are important to the plot of the series. that they can not simply be ignored if you want to grasp the entire story of kingdom hearts.

[solargoose]

I thought I was done for the day but actually I’m gonna talk about Berryheart! Spoilers for River ahead!

Berryheart is interesting because it’s so clear how her current mentality came to be! For a lot of warrior cats characters, unless they get a villain monologue, we just have to guess at what events influenced them to be the way they are. With Berryheart, though, we have a pretty clear path.

So her current mentality is one of extreme xenophobia and strict adherence to the rules, which she also has deeply engrained in her children.  The clan takes precedence over everything, and any break with this worldview is met with hostility. Although the only thing she’s done so far is talk, it’s pretty clear that she’s going to take action at some point in the next few books, or is going to encourage someone else to take action.

What’s pretty clear to me is that this mentality is based on fear and a warped sense of self-preservation. Now, I want to be really clear, this isn’t an excuse for her behavior, only an explanation.

So it starts with Needletail, her rebellious daughter. She initiates the rebellion that leads to the kin taking over. Berryheart joined the kin, along with her daughter and 2 of her sisters, going against her leader, breaking the warrior code. 

In the ensuing chaos, her daughter and one of her sisters die, and Berryheart and her mate flee the clans. She lives away from Shadowclan for a time, then journeys back. One of her brothers leaves entirely, becoming a kittypet. Her kits are born outside the clan, she returns to a clan in shambles, and has to pick up the pieces. 

Then, the Imposter debacle happens. There’s a lot of emphasis put on code breakers. Her remaining brother dies in an act of vigilante justice, once again breaking the code.

In her experience, breaking the code has only ever led to pain and death. She starts out afraid, afraid of cats outside the clan, afraid of breaking the warrior code, and afraid of change. Fear becomes anger, and now she’s so afraid of the past repeating that she’s willing to do anything to ensure that everyone follows the rules, including her own kits.

Now I’m going to poke at a couple things that aren’t as explicit in the books and are partly speculation.

So any cat from outside the clans would’ve likely set her off, but I think Fringewhisker being from Skyclan may have been a particularly sore spot for Berryheart. We might be seeing not just fear and anger at outsiders/rule breakers in general, but also a built up resentment towards Skyclan itself.

So going back to the beginning, alongside the rule breakers at the beginning of the kin rebellion, was Violetshine. Violetshine who was friends with her daughter, who was an outsider that turned out to be Skyclan, whose very existence heralded the coming of Skyclan. Skyclan, strangers from far away, who put all the clans in upheaval, living on Shadowclan land, with strange names and an unusual permissiveness to outsiders. Violetshine joins Skyclan, she has kits with an outsider, and even names one of those kits after her daughter.

Then, when she returns from her exile, she finds that Shadowclan has merged with Skyclan, and are living under Leafstar’s rule. We, as the audience, know that this is very different from when the kin took over Shadowclan, but to her it may have been just another group controling Shadowclan, especially considering she may have already hated/been afraid of Skyclan.

So why does this matter?

Once again, I’m not excusing her behavior, present or future. But I am LOVING that this potential villain isn’t coming out of nowhere. Whatever she does to try to convince the clans that this code change is bad, we’ve got plenty of evidence to see how she got to where she is. And it’s stuff that already exists, not things that were made up after the fact. A lot of the villains we have in previous seasons were introduced as villains, and then retroactively given motivation. It’s a nice change of pace.

[jessamine-rose]

◈ Housecat — Author’s Note ◈

ଘ(˶╹̆ ▿╹̆˵)੭່ﾟ Read Housecat here!!

(づ๑•ᴗ•๑)づ Read Alea Iacta Est here!!

Sndksnsajaja thank you so much to everyone who read my work!! Your feedback means the world to me and I hope you all suffered from enjoyed my yandere version of the Regrator

This post is just me sharing my Yandere! Pantalone headcanons, my characterization of his darling, the creative details in both fics, and bonus content from the rough drafts. I hope you all don’t mind this behind-the-scenes look into my work :>

“Your entire life has been a gilded cage. The gods refuse to grant your greatest wish, and so you have resigned yourself to the will of destiny. But what happens when the red string of fate is severed and replaced with the silver chains of the Regrator?” (AO3 Summary)

⬩Introduction⬩

♡ First of all, I must give credit to @bye-bye-sunbird and @ddarker-dreams for inspiring me with these posts from their blogs!! I rlly liked the idea of Pantalone pursuing a darling who grew up with everything he wanted but couldn’t have. By claiming her, he achieves what was previously unattainable to him and gains control over the divine ψ(｀∇´)ψ

♡ I was originally going to write a single fic from the darling’s perspective, but the word count for i. scarlet quartz convinced me to split the story into two fics. Which, in turn, enabled me to incorporate Pantalone’s POV and more facets of his character!! While Housecat focuses on his charming manipulative side, Alea Iacta Est reveals the full extent of his ambition and cruelty :>

♡ Before I continue rambling, I want to say a big thank you again to @diodellet for another peer review!! Aside from providing feedback, she motivated me with her brainrot <3

⬩Pantalone⬩

♡ My version of Pantalone is a possessive and manipulative yandere. He likes to refer to his darling by “my [nickname]” and dress her up in his choice of clothing and jewelry. He is extremely cruel and ambitious in pursuit of his desires, so he will stop at nothing to own his Kitty darling completely.

♡ Wealth and authority aside, he mainly utilizes his intelligence, social skills, and friendly facade to manipulate how others perceive him. In taking note of his target’s wants and weaknesses, he presents himself as someone who can fulfill those wishes.

♡ This is the reason why Pantalone gives Kitty quality time and words of affirmation more often than material gifts. He knows that she wants something which wealth and prestige cannot buy, so he adjusts his love languages accordingly. He also consistently includes her in conversations, stands up for her, and makes time for her unlike Kitty’s other relationships.

♡ Given his character design and backstory, I think Pantalone indulges in his newfound wealth but remains mentally affected by poverty. The easiest way to set him off is to express ingratitude towards his luxurious gifts as shown in ii. fool’s gold. I wanted to depict his wealth as “different” from that of high society, in the sense that his extravagance is only limited to his preferences. He doesn’t follow trends or feel the need to prove himself to aristocracy, because he is already confident and superior in terms of authoritative power.

♡ Askdnkdendkw I hope you all liked his soft moments in vi. noctilucous jade and vi. diabolic waltz. I hc that he dislikes being seen without his material riches or “perfect” appearance, so when he is forced to be genuine and vulnerable around his darling?? It was a nice break from his deception and cruelty (ෆ˙ᵕ˙ෆ)

⬩Kitty Darling⬩

♡ Once again, in order to feed my love for docile darlings and twisted happy endings, I put myself through the pain of giving Darling her own detailed personality and backstory. To start, I made her a cat-hybrid for the housecat/ stray cat theme and because it was cute to write about her feline features. That is all  ^•ﻌ•^

♡ Kitty grew up with the privileges of high society, but it is that same upbringing which makes her lonely, insecure, codependent, and resigned to her fate. I chose fashion and dance as her aristocratic interests, since they align with her desire for attention and participation. Given her internal conflict, it is inevitable that she falls for Pantalone before his proposal.

♡ My own name and appearance for Kitty <3

⬩Other Characters⬩

♡ 賴 Lài family – Hahaha so here is the source of Darling’s issues!! Because of work and favoritism, she grew up ignored and babied by her parents. They did the bare minimum in raising her and only recognized her potential as a link to other important families. As a result, her sister also looks down on Kitty and is bitter about her lack of productivity. Their surname ironically means “depend on; trust in; rely on."

♡ Chairman 金 Jin – I wrote him to be someone whom Pantalone would view as a worthy challenge given their opposite upbringings. Symbolism-wise, his surname means “gold” to contrast with Pantalone’s silver accessories. His Dendro Vision foreshadows how his downfall is caused by his association to Kitty (Pyro Vision).

♡ Kitty’s brother and friends – These characters do care about her, but they can’t prioritize Kitty over their own responsibilities. This enables Pantalone to take full advantage over her loneliness and self-esteem, because he is the only person who actively seeks her company and sets aside his work for her.

⬩Literary Motifs⬩

♡ Housecat/ stray cat – At this point, the parallels don’t need to be explained. Kitty is the housecat, a pampered child who doesn’t know any practical skills beyond what is expected of her in high society. On the other hand, Pantalone is the stray cat whose destitute past made him cunning and self-sufficient.

♡ Red string of fate – Given his view of the gods, Pantalone probably scoffs at beliefs pertaining to destined/ forbidden love. Even if his darling or destiny refuses him, he will get what he wants through his own ambition. I'm also simply fond of that motif :>

♡ Fire – Sooo Kitty’s Pyro Vision was chosen to represent her codependence on others. Her Vision is her only source of self-esteem, being the only object which she was able to attain on her own. Alas, its warmth and light cannot compare to what Pantalone provides for her~ On that note, I’ll point out a narrative detail repeated in i. scarlet quartz, v. shivada jade, and v. the die is cast:: When Pantalone opens the door, he brings “warm light” into Kitty’s dark world.

♡ Love and contracts – Yeahh so Pantalone and Kitty are both cynical towards the concept of love. Similar to the former, Kitty views love as a give-and-take contract and refuses to use that word. So her “I love you” in the ending marks her complete descent into Stockholm Syndrome </3

⬩Chapter Titles⬩

♡ Jewels – For the most part, I referred to Genshin lore and irl symbolism. The jewels chosen with the most consideration were Smaragdus Jadeite, Shivada Jade, and Electro Crystal due to their lore, symbolism, and function respectively.

♡ Figures of speech – I didn’t know what else to use for Pantalone’s section dividers, so I just name-dropped a bunch of motifs or phrases lol. The last title vi. diabolic waltz is the title of the Kuroshitsuji ost which I described as the orchestral music for the dance scenes.

⬩Deleted Scenes⬩

♡ Fun fact, Kitty’s old life used to be angstier!! Originally, the distance with her friends was because Yinji was Chairman Lai’s mistress. (Cue a more dramatic reveal during the wedding) I scrapped that idea for the “too busy to hang out” tension in order to put more focus on Pantalone and worsen Kitty’s anxieties over being “more of a pet than a wife.”

♡ Pantalone adopts the stray cat from Yujing Terrace. I didn’t find the time to write that, sadly, plus I didn’t want to risk a “Pantalone dislikes cats” from Genshin canon lol. But yeahhh for now, the cat currently lives a comfortable life in the Regrator’s Liyue estate.

♡ I entertained the thought of writing a crossover with my Yandere! Capitano fic Herbarium, but I scrapped that idea because it didn’t contribute much to the story. Additionally, an interaction between Kitty and Damsel felt forced, given their conflicting personalities and the latter’s asocial nature.

⬩My Favorite Scenes⬩

First Kiss, Wedding Night, and “Stress Relief”

♡ Ansksnajaajahw I DIED writing those scenes. Compared to Capitano’s chivalry and comfort in Herbarium, Pantalone is more greedy and passionate with his physical affection. He strikes me as the type to take pride in tainting and overwhelming his darling during intimacy~ Honestly, I was just rlly thirsty for him and I think it shows in the sexual tension throughout Housecat  (〃▽〃)

Aftercare Scene ft. Hand-holding

♡ I’m quite happy with this scene!! I wanted to cool down from the wedding night with fluff aaand it became a rare glimpse into Pantalone’s vulnerable side. Yes, it was necessary for me to add that final dash of dark spice~ That bitey ending was inspired by a scene from the manga “The Villainess and the Demon Knight.”

Pantalone Says No to Baby Trapping

♡ Honestly, this scene was quite self-indulgent. Aside from the Fatui’s ongoing mission, I tried to rationalize my Pantalone’s “I don’t want kids yet” speech with the fact that Kitty actually wants children due to her lack of wifely responsibilities. Hopefully, the scene played out well?? I was afraid that it would turn off some readers, but I hope it provided some dark wholesomeness and reverse-psychology-esque manipulation. And hahaha Pantalone’s greedy last line—

Diabolic Waltz: Reprise

♡ *sobs* Pantalone being vulnerable with his darling again……realizing that she has truly given herself up to him……comfortable enough to let his hair down and have fun dancing, because there is no crowd of partygoers to judge them…….just the stars watching them……Pantalone allowing himself to be genuine and to say “I love you” for realsies skdwkfwewnkww

♡ But yeahhh I’m rlly happy with how I ended the fic. Aside from the last waltz being a direct contrast to the beginning of Housecat, I wanted to show how Kitty isn’t the only one who is acting “differently” in this scene. I just wanted to see Pantalone all happy and victorious. And so they lived happily ever after ₍՞◌′ᵕ‵ू◌₎♡

⬩Pantalone x Kitty Playlist⬩

Songs which motivated me throughout the writing process. Istg why are these so perfect for Pantalone and Kitty’s story  ˭̡̞(◞˃ᆺ˂)◞

♡ Diabolic Waltz — Kuroshitsuji ost

♡ Tricologe by Niru Kajitsu ft. flower

♡ il by Anna Evans golden folks

♡ Gensou no Kyrie — Dance with Devils song

♡ The Slightly Chipped Full Moon — Kuroshitsuji II ost cover by Lollia

♡

Aajsndjedj but yeahh that’s all for the twisted tale of the Regrator and his darling!! I was concerned about cramming too many ideas into this fic, but aahh I rlly wanted to exhaust all of my brainrot. And so we ended up with 15.8k words of my blood and tears~

I hope that more readers will enjoy Housecat and Alea Iacta Est. Do share your reactions and feedback with me—it truly warms my heart when you compliment my work!! Same goes for brainrot bc your keysmashes and suffering are a delight to read ლ(｀∀´ლ)

[bigassheart]

I’ve seen a couple posts about how everyone was wildly out of character and totally inconsistent this season and I’m just like... were you guys paying attention? 

1. Luther

Arguably the biggest shift in character between the two seasons, but it makes sense. Luther spent a year fending for himself and thinking his entire family was dead. 

This is the first time in his life that he had to hold down a job and actually live on his own. It was literally his first time living out in the world among anyone other than his family, and you can see in his reactions with the other characters from that life (the boss, his landlord, those kids that idolize him, and the waitress) that it has really mellowed him out. It has allowed him to be more normal, despite being very much not normal. You can see the way he’s so much more comfortable in his skin. Literally the only times he looks uncomfortable is when he’s fighting people, shirt off and body on full display. He’s still not comfortable with that, but he’s not trying to hide under huge overcoats anymore. He has people in his life who accept him for being a little weird, but really do treat him normal. 

So is he a little less uptight and mission focused? Yeah. Because he can finally see another life, and it’s the life that he honestly did want in season 1 but felt like he couldn’t have because he was number 1 and he had a responsibility to his dad, his family, and the academy to be the leader. Having a year on his own frees him of all that. 

But he also spent all that time thinking his family was dead and feeling so guilty about it. You can see in his very first interaction with Vanya, where he suddenly feels that responsibility again. He brings a gun, not knowing what’s going to happen and, despite what he told Five, he absolutely does still have that lingering feeling of responsibility. But then he sees Vanya and she’s not a threat and everything he has been holding in for the last year comes out. Because he does feel guilty as hell for what he did to Vanya, but also for the fact that his actions pushed her into causing the apocalypse. He spent a year with the knowledge that he did that and thinking that his family was dead because of his actions. 

He’s willing to listen now because he spent a year living in a world where his actions killed his whole family. And now he finds out that that didn’t happen and he has a second chance. Of course he’s going to take it! 

2. Diego

In the first season, Diego finally admitted that he wanted to be close to his family and that he cared about them and wouldn’t leave them again. He confronted the guilt about leaving, which he had previously denied. He realized the difference between revenge and honoring someone’s memory. But despite all that, he never confronted the reason why he, a grown-ass-man, wandered around the city as a leather clad, mask wearing vigilante. 

So when we see Diego show up in 1963, that’s still who he is. He wants to be that hero and he finds an answer for how to be that hero in the first several minutes that he’s there. So he takes it. I mean, what else is he going to do? His family is gone. Maybe they’ll show up again. Maybe this is it. Either way, he’s on his own like he was before, so he’s got a duty to be the hero he has chosen to be. 

And then he meets his dad again. Everyone keeps telling him he has daddy issues, and they’re right. He absolutely has daddy issues. He’s still trying to simultaneously prove that he’s good enough for his dad, but also doesn’t need Daddy’s approval. Except he does need it. He still desperately craves it and he feels gutted when his dad denies him that approval, even falling back into the stutter he had as a kid. 

Now, despite the way we joke, Diego is not dumb. He is so observant and he makes some of the most poignant statements about his siblings and the way they see the world. He sees the people around them and he understands them, but he has never been able to completely turn that gift inwards and see those same things in himself. In this season, Lila breaks through all that and he finally sees himself in her at the end. 

“Do you know how hard it is to trust people when your whole childhood was bullshit manipulation? Then why would you do that to me?”  

Diego sees himself in Lila, in her failure to break away from her mother despite the fact that he knows she wants to. In the final episode, he sees that she is just like the rest of the siblings, but she doesn’t have to be. None of them have to be stuck with their daddy issues, because they have each other. They can support and care for each other. It’s the last step of the growth he started in season 1, moving beyond his tendency to define his life and his family through their father. 

3. Allison

Throughout season 1, Allison struggled with whether or not to use her powers, but it was all centered around getting back to her daughter. When she appears in 1961, that motivation is effectively removed. She thinks everyone else is dead. She thinks that she is stranded in the past and that she will never get back. She finds a group of people to support her and before long... she finds her voice again. 

It’s no coincidence that Allison’s first spoken words in the series come right after she gives Ray that pamphlet with a bunch of added notes. She finds her voice in the civil rights movement. She finds her power there. She finds a way to help change the world, to change reality, and she does it without her powers. 

This is something she struggled with through the entirety of season 1, feeling inadequate for using her powers to get what she wanted, not knowing if anything was real or earned. Now she has the chance to earn everything without those powers and she is thriving. 

And then she is forced to use her powers again. It all turns out fine, but now she’s showing off and experiencing all over again how good it feels to have power. She spent two years in a world where she was denied equal treatment, where she could be arrested and assaulted for any reason those with more power came up with. And now she feels that power... She doesn’t have to wait for people to give her respect. She can demand it. But the pain is still there, and it’s not enough to just be respected, because these people have hurt her. They almost killed her husband. They have used their power to cause pain to her and all those who look like her time and time again and now it’s time to understand what it’s like to be powerless, to be hurt and to be unable to stop it and... 

And it’s scary. It’s scary to have that much power, to see how you could become the kind of person who uses your power to hurt others. And she knows that her power has hurt people she loves and suddenly she’s right back where she started. 

Only not entirely. 

She doesn’t shy away from her powers in the final fight. She is obviously still finding that balance and I would expect this struggle to continue for her in future seasons. Power can be addicting and Allison’s power is so strong. She knows the danger there, but she also knows that sometimes it’s needed despite the danger. 

4. Klaus

Klaus is an addict. He finds obsessions to bury himself in to avoid dealing with reality. In season 1, he buried himself in drugs and booze. When he shows up in the 60′s, he finds a new drug to bury himself in: adoration. 

Klaus is so impulsive and it’s not difficult to connect the dots of how one thing leads to another until suddenly everything is out of his control. Honestly, that’s the story of Klaus’s life, no matter where he goes. And then something changes. He gets tired of his cult and leaves. Except... that’s not really the reason. 

After all this time, Dave is still the love of his life, and he knows he has an opportunity. He knows where Dave will be at this one time and he knows exactly what he has to change to keep Dave alive. 

He also knows that Ben is going to have thoughts about this. 

I know some people were disappointed that there wasn’t more Klaus and Ben bonding this season, but it makes sense that there is tension there. I think a lot of that tension comes from Ben’s circumstances, which I’ll discuss later, but Klaus is also not responding to that tension well. 

They are fighting more than ever (not that they ever didn’t fight in season 1, where they spent much of their time being snarky to each other and Ben literally punching Klaus in the face for being an asshole), but the fighting is about something new this season. Ben wants his own life and Klaus is not in a position to give Ben what he really wants. We also learn that he has been carrying around this guilt for the last 17 years about forcing Ben to stick around as a ghost. He forced this half-life on his brother and now that it’s not enough for Ben, Klaus doesn’t want to deal with it. So he avoids and deflects and snarks and we see the toll on their relationship. We see it in the way he tries to deal with his plans around Dave entirely on his own. He focuses so much into that last ditch effort. He’s already in such a low place before this, so when that fails, we see him snap. We see him give up and crumble. And Ben falls back to his old role, trying to save Klaus from himself. 

But the tension isn’t gone and Klaus’s guilt isn’t gone. We see it again when Klaus finally agrees to let Ben possess him. Klaus has always been afraid of his powers and being possessed is just as terrifying a thought as being surrounded by the dead. And yet he gives Ben that chance. It’s the last good thing he can do at that point. 

I do wish we had gotten more closure for Klaus and Ben’s story. I think Vanya’s reveal could have been given a little more time, but that’s not really a problem with inconsistent characterization, so we’ll save that for another post. 

5. Five

OK, who would argue that Five was out of character or inconsistent? He’s obsessed with stopping the apocalypse, is willing to cross a lot of lines to save his family, and constantly frustrated by his family’s failure to go along with his plans. This is textbook Five. 

What I loved about this season was that we got to see Five finally meeting his father again. They interact as two adults, not as a child trying to find away to become his own person, frustrated by a lack of trust from his father. It allows Reggie to see Five in a different light and to actually provide advice in a constructive way, something he has almost never been able to do when viewing them as his children. But despite outward appearances and despite the fact that Five is a grown man, he still sees his father the same way he always has. He doesn’t register Reggie’s advice as advice. He hears that he’s striving beyond his abilities and that maybe he can only travel in seconds. He hears his father telling him he can’t handle time travel. That’s why he doesn’t try to actually take the very good advice until the very end.  

An old dog can still occasionally learn a new trick and Five proves that true. 

6. Ben

As I mentioned earlier, Ben is chaffing at his ghosthood. Maybe it’s because Klaus has been sober enough to keep Ben around solidly for 3 years. Maybe it’s because Ben is no longer spending all his time trying to keep Klaus alive and sober. Or maybe it’s the fact that he has finally found someone that he actually wants to spend time with. Whatever the reason, Ben wants to be alive this season. 

Again, as I mentioned, that’s causing some tension. Ben doesn’t want to be tied to Klaus, but Klaus is ignoring that because he feels so guilty about it. Ben doesn’t want to admit that he was too scared to go into the light on his own, so they’re at a bit of a standstill. 

And then Ben gets the opportunity to be alive again, if only for a while. And in a lot of ways, it’s wonderful! But it’s not the same as being truly alive. 

So when the time comes, when he’s faced with that light again... he’s not afraid. He knows that it’s time to move on. He knows this isn’t where he should be, but he also got the chance to be there for his family. He misses them, but he got to talk to Diego and Vanya. He got to save Vanya. He got to save Allison and Diego and Klaus and Luther and Five and the whole world! So while he would have stayed, he’s not sad about leaving anymore, and he’s not afraid. 

7. Vanya

OK, she was a little out of character because... you know. She had amnesia. 

But aside from erasing her past, the amnesia allowed us to see Vanya without the anger and resentment that plagued her for all of season one. Vanya was always someone who was kind and loving, someone who cares enough to leave peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches out for a missing brother for years. Someone who knows the pain of not being seen and who will always take the time to truly see other people. She’s someone who wants to love and to be loved and to protect those she loves. 

That was all here, with or without the memories. And as soon as the memories came back, so did the guilt and fear about what she had done, what she had become, terrified of what was inside her in a way that she was not when her powers first surfaced. But Ben is used to being afraid of what’s inside of him. He knows she’s not a monster and is the perfect person to explain that to her. And this time around, she has experienced the love and care and attention of her siblings (and Sissy) to back up those words. That’s how she finally accepts them as truth, how she finally accepts her power as a part of her. 

Overall, there are things that I wish this season spent more time with, but there was nothing that I felt was out of character or wildly inconsistent. The characters still struggled with all the baggage from their shitty childhood, their fear of their powers, and the guilt in their past. Some struggled in new ways this season and some continued old struggles that had never fully been resolved. The season felt very different than the first, but it still felt like the Umbrella Academy. It was a good mix of new and old and a good mix of feel-good moments we have all been waiting for and frustrating and sad moments that just come with having a complicated family. I loved this season. And now, I’m going to go re-watch every episode. 

[centrally-unplanned]

Thoughts ahoy, and spoilers:

I think it is often challenging in Sci Fi+ stories to make interior character arcs match their setting in fantasticality. The default state is that its a fantastical setting & conflict, but the emotions are people emotions, which makes sense, its people reading the story. (Or something fully alien as a contrast). Su's arc really does a good job of pushing that boundary as far as it can go without breaking it. Her forced mind-meld, quasi-hostile subconscious, and self-destructive levels of regret over her past actions are in the end yeah relatable, right, people definitely get trapped in cycles of guilt. But her mind still feels alien, the slipping between identities, both as independent entities and as love/hate dyads towards each other, is depicted with bracing detail without it ever/rarely being "two minds in one body" which would just be two people and a plot device. One of peak moments of craft for a writer is capturing an emotion in a way that the audience has never seen before while still fully impacting them, making them see it in just a tiny bit of a new way, and I think Su's cursed existence reaches that peak.

On the other hand, look me in eyes and tell me that, if none of the time loop murder mystery timey wimey ball stuff happened, and Su just visited Samium, had her last hope destroyed, and left the Sanctuary like normal, how her arc would be different at all. There are few nods to ideas like the loops letting time help her heal, etc, but its very minor and its not really evident in practice. Its a big problem, the story is like split in two, and those halves don't talk much to each other. The reality is that the large majority of Su's arc happens in flashback; we are seeing her at her culmination, and its a culmination that is occurring completely independently of the events at hand. And additionally besides Ran no one knows or ever learns about her true "identity", so the events with other people lack pathways beyond the illustrative to really impact her. She even, at the end of the loop-plot when Ran dies, dismisses the plot as irrelevant herself! Little on the nose there.

I enjoy how "in too deep" Ran is; she is from page 1 at least 50% ~done with this entire "resurrect Utsushikome" crusade, and is totally done by the end, but she can't just say that. She started it! And Su now completely buys into it. So you just...shoulder on, absolutely mood

It says a loooot about me that I instinctively see Kuroka as male, and struggled a bit to shake that. Their despondent struggle with a sort of society-wide devaluation, of needing to earn every scrap of affection and "place" and it being always contingent, it resonated with me quite strongly in the Deep Ways.

Oh previously I criticized the story for self-sabotaging its "moments" for the sake of drip-feed pacing, so I just want to note that Fang's death fucked, that is how you do a moment! Spend an entire chapter building up his affable superiority, given him multiple bluff check wins in a row, all timed for what seems like the resolution of a big plot moment that had a ton of build up. Spend all that, set him up to give a classic Poirotan reveal speech, and then JFK the fucker right in the temple; back and to the left baby. I felt the panic as the group just exploded, real win. This is similarly done with Kam's Determinator arc later, even if that gets a bit more stretched out. When the author wants to commit to the bit they know how, definitely hope more of those moments are given space in future books.

Okay, a big critique on this one - the story is branded as a murder mystery, very aggressively so (including 4th-wall-ish breaking fair play whodunnit rules), but it really isn't? There was even stuff like one chapter even had a poll asking who did a killing, quite cool! But there are so many structural problems that kill interest in that concept. Motives is the biggest one; none of students have any pre-established motives or even depth of character to support the idea that they would be at all involved in these harebrained schemes. Characters are debating whether or not Ophelia killed Yantho, and if Seth is collaborating with the Order to betray them for idk money?? and it all falls totally flat. None of these characters would do any of these things, because they are just normal students. (Lilith is the only one that somewhat works, as her sheer weirdness begged for a cause) And the Order's motives are simply cartoonish. We get stacked revelations one after another- oh they have a gun that stop time, tell your friends! Oh now entropy is conscious yeah I know entropy never came up before none of the students study this but trust me bro. Oh wait one time we made babies with space implants and just kept killing them, baby after baby, so now we might be cursed, and so on. If this was a story about the Order, maybe this could work? But in the end it isn't - its about Su, and she doesn't care about any this. Su has no interest in a time gun unless she can use it to off herself, Ran's only interest in entropic gods is so she can judge them as cheap plot devices in her genre fiction, Kam's problem of being a bootlicking blabbermouth (affectionate) will not be solved by her eating space babies - for one, she's vegan. Its a tonal break from how grounded the story was and fails to connect. By the end the story itself is self-aware of this fact, making fun of how convoluted the solutions are - which is funny, those scenes work! But that is a trick you can play in a real murder mystery when you have given the audience solid fair-play tricks beforehand to solve, and its like a change of pace. If you make a joke of the one big time you give out any true answers...well then the whole thing was a joke. So why all the time spent on it? (I understand that some of these things might "connect back" in Book 2, and to that I say Book 1 is almost 3000 pages. You can't stretch your foreshadowing that far at this quantity)

I liked the fact that Director & Playwright are quasi-real characters representing the culprits of the Time Loop just fine! Yeah its meta you have seen before but you've seen everything before, I think it added a bunch of humor and fun change-ups of the narrative style.

Alright long enough already overall I enjoyed it a lot. Its emotional peaks were very strong, its world-building is top notch, and I like a lot of the characterization. It definitely has weaknesses that could be deal breakers for some, and that is fair - but if they aren't for you, I can recommend giving it a go.

Finished Novel 1 of A Flower That Bloomed Nowhere!

...There's a second one! I didn't know that! Fuck meeeeeee