#I like seeing the way they adapt classic stories ... the way the characters interact and grow and change

[throughpatchesofviolet]

I'm hoping taking an extended break from Limbus (aside from dailies and weeklies, of course), helps me return to it with passion, again ... make no mistake, I am thinking about the game and characters nonstop--even when engaged in other activities--I've just been having trouble posting about it due to a myriad of things.

[almostempty]

get to know your moots

thanks for the tag @yxtkiwiyxt, i can never resist a classic myspace about me bulletin survey throwback bc i yearn for the days of agonizing over finding the perfect profile song

what's the origin of your blog title?: it's too much pressure to create a witty name, i've used such gripping online usernames as waterbottle, casual-stapler, oldfruit, etc..

favorite fandoms: this is all i participate in actively! but i do enjoy being exposed to other fandoms through y'all here and there

OTP(s) + shipname: i just want all of the various fictional ppcu characters for me

favorite color: black n yellow 🖤💛

favorite game: nothing recently, but i enjoy zelda games, rdr2, elden ring, and roller coaster tycoon (1999)

song stuck in your head: listening to Sativa - Jhené Aiko, Swae Lee currently

weirdest habit/trait?: dissociating in car (parked)

hobbies: reading, writing, finding new/old music, making myself laugh over silly memes, swimming, solo adventures, people watching, going to da movies, etc.

if you work, what's your profession?: drug and alcohol counseling and juvenile justice advocacy

if you could have any job you wish what would it be?: obligatory i do not dream of labor, but like @yxtkiwiyxt, for my next trick i'd like to be a digital nomad somehow

something you're good at: i have a good picker for friends, i'm occasionally funny, dogs like me

something you're bad at: being concise, perception/management of time in any manner and remembering

something you love: music, all day, every day, non stop

something you could talk about for hours off the cuff: various rants about capitalism (i'm fun), movies i haven't seen but feel like i could accurately guess the plot of, my fav cursed double features

something you hate: my poor perception of time and memory issues, executive dysfunction, facing my demons aka doing IFS work in therapy

something you collect: concert vids, i think i'm the only one that rewatches them?, books, nearly dead peach ice Lost Mary's

something you forget: plans, texts, objects and people not in my line of sight, if a memory real or a dream/idea, if i've already told you the story i'm halfway through (but i still think it's funny so i intend on finishing it either way)

what's your love language?: i know it's an innocent question, but i have mad beef with the author of the book about love languages and the christian gender roles perpetuated in the book and lack of empirical research around the concepts, and the creator's homophobia, but i digress (i told y'all i'm fun)

favorite movie/show: some movies: office space, SLC punk, eternal sunshine, the thing, drive, bottoms; don't make me pick shows rn

favorite food: been unable to stop getting nachos and the poblano crema from the taqueria on my block for the last ~6 weeks

favorite animal: big time animal lover here, shout out to my dogs!! i can't choose a fav otherwise

are you musical?: i can play a couple instruments, i wish i could sing

what were you like as a child?: a pleasure to have in class

favorite subject at school?: art, but i pursued science

least favorite subject?: i never took chemistry because everyone complained about how hard it was and i figured out you didn't need it to graduate, but i suppose technically i didn't take it so can't confirm

what's your best character trait?: adaptability (i just took an updated personality test lmao to help me figure one out)

what's your worst character trait?: perfectionist (not with editing heheh)

if you could change any detail of your day right now what would it be?: a few interpersonal interactions

if you could travel in time who would you like to meet?: maybe an artist from the 27 club, just to see them perform

recommend one of your favorite fanfics (spread the love!):

two completed longfics i enjoyed <3, best kept secret- enemies to lovers/bodyguard din by luckbealincoln on ao3, vampire waltz - idiots in love/ max phillips by absurdthirst, wardenparker on ao3

obligatory free memes if u made it this far

tags, but no pressure: @auteurdelabre @gothcsz @lovely-vamp-princess

@slimybeth69 @swankyorange @syd-djarin @itwasntimethatdidit40 @probablyreadinsmut @thundermartini @ace-turned-confused

@persephone-girl @thischarmingmandalorian @pinkypromisepascal

@hoelaris @lilac-boo if u read this and i didn't tag you, tell me all ur secrets and tag me anyway <3

[apeninastory]

ivan as a tragic-love character (pt.4b?)

first post HERE. i have been writing this thing since nowhere came out - 3 times listening to it and i was hooked and obsessed and you can't even imagine how much i'm dying to listen to it again.

anyway. wanted to get the preparatory posts out of the way before nowhere comes out again, so here, take part 2.

it was getting too long, so i split it. let's get going!

6] the making of ivan's character - a story by ivan

so, ivan as a social being functions thanks to his mimetic strategy, and with this, he starts to learn things on his own, of course. he probably puts labels on his emotions, one at a time, the more he experience and feels like he understands them. it's just that not all of them are correctly intended. let me underline this: ivan learns abt emotions from little kids, aliens, (alien? human?) classic literature, and absorbs it all through his own perception and understanding of them. no one tells him "this is right, this is wrong" (or those who do may not be super reliable?) + he is numb to most sensations, so not even the way he perceives them can be fully trusted in his learning process.

being unable to completely comprehend what he feels since he has no reliable models/source material, he can only: (1) trust what he does have and label his emotions accordingly, categorizing for examples things like friendship, satisfaction, hunger, vitality, tiredness, fear as "easy" to recognize, as monolitic and unchangable sensations following certain events/actions/reactions (2) stare at what he doesn't find in his "manuals" until it either goes away or becomes comprehensible or (3) he has to coexist with the unfathomable emotions and his inability to fully understand it, disassembling it slowly.

consequences: (1) emotions he has labelled are reliable only partially, as they may be more complex than he believes, so he files other traits under different labels without realizing that many feelings comes with multifaceted elements - so what he knows is not necessarily wrong, but may be incomplete. (2) what he doesn't understand elicits frustration, so he either misplace the emotions in his labelled list in his haste to categorize them or just... lets the be and avoids situations where he is forced to confront them (his rhetoric must be terribly good to fend off emotional attacks! i can see that in him). i kinda like this latter possibility better, maybe as an unconscious mechanism of ivan's part. (3) he is attracted by the idea of decomposing certain emotions he doesn't understand, even if it is not a pleasing experience.

all this makes ivan super good at reading the room, perceiving shifts in mood and behaving accordingly. it derives from his survival instincts + everything he learned to better adapt and survive at anakt. ivan is to me someone who prefers and is good at being in control/having control over himself and what surrounds him - not necessarily in a i-want-to-control-people-around-me way, but like, he wants to be sure that whatever surrounds him (people, things, event) has no secrets for him. he may have a... superiority complex of sort (?) derived by the total lack of control he had when he lived in the slums. the better control he has over things that influence him, the more stability he can achieve.

the art vivimeng posted abt ivan and sua's interaction, with ivan laughing at sua for being as twisted as he is and becoming a trauma for mizi? yeah. he talks as if he has it all figured out (and he is right, there is logic in predicting how sua's sacrifices will end up being a burden for mizi, in his eyes), but we are meant to perceive more. ivan affirming this with such certainty might mean he needs the affirmation, like he is rebuking sua out of spite for something - envy for being at the receiving end of mizi's affection the way he'll never be with till? mh. and of course, we know what he'll end up doing because it's different for him, since till won't miss him.

BOY.

ivan is a subtle, manipulative-freak with slight drama queen tendencies (only regarding more superficial, known-to-him emotions - the rest, he bottles them up reaaal good), so he carefully build his own character. a boy with a tactical, handsome smile, great student, good at everything, a bit annoying but funny to be around, diligent and a teaser, with big-brother vibes. someone who can be perceived as popular in anakt and can easily attract attention outside, a benefit for unsha's investment on him.

the facade works like a wonder - though, not on sua and till, in different ways. sua sees through it, and ivan feels they are similar, so it makes sense that it doesn't work on her. till ignores it and finds ivan unsufferable, probably prefers when ivan doesn't pretend, since he remembers how freaky he was as a child. we know they both enjoy the quite moments with no fights between them, something ivan thought of as one-sided, but it confirms that till likes (not intended in romantic ways) ivan when he stops being annoying and calculative, possibly kinda likes having him around and considers him a friend of sort - albeit a strange one.

ivan isn't quite aware of that, so he probably tries his hardest with till, and the way he is often seen orbiting around him tells us ivan knows that till at least tolerates his presence. after mizi, ivan is the one till grades with the hightest percentage among the people close to him, so even if ivan doesn't fully understand till and what he feels, till still regards him as a friend.

all the way through graduation, ivan cultivates his emotions, both fake and authentic ones. but as we can expect, this is bound to leave holes and discordances in this narrative he writes/lets others write for him.

friendship. he gets good at it, being a good people-reader, but many kids say they don't know much abt ivan. he probably is that type of friend that doesn't share abt himself, so people have the illusion that he is friendly and open and approachable, but when they think abt it, they don't know much abt him at all. ivan himself is surprised to be addressed as "the popular one", saying "it's a first" in his interview, and that he is getting used to the attention. he also says that back in anakt

I've been asked out a couple of times, but I wasn't that popular. I did have a lot of friends, though.

appearance. he is the one with the beautiful smile, but compliments regarding his appearance are strange to him. he doesn't rely on his charm, since "he thinks he has more flaws (ahah)", but instead studies abt the brand he has to work for - again, studying, reaching out for clear models, mimicking and replicating. conclusion: my baby is stunning and not even he can argue against me abt this.

love. he sees till loving mizi from afar and does the same with him, but his nature is far more obsessive and needy, so he orbits closely around till, who fails to understand what ivan's intentions are. and how could it be otherwise? ivan is unclear abt his own feelings without being able to address the existence of that unclearness (or not totally), so it is hard for him to convey them to others (you can't explain what you don't understand/don't know), let alone till, who's incredibly dense and biased (with reasons!) when it comes to ivan.

love pt.2. i've always found it curious that ivan doesn't mention love in black sorrow (i think someone hypothesized he may have not written the lyrics), since we can see how that sorrow may be intertwined with love. also, love is the most stereotypical of the labels he probably came across, and i guess he must have attached it to till, at some point. i can imagine ivan asking himself "what is love?" and looking for clues around him. growing up, he sees kisses, relays to till that everyone is doing that and he wants to try - half teasing, half curious himself, probably.

understanding of himself. he is naturally detatched. he mocks sua for her intentions toward mizi, but the moment he realizes (by observing and imitating) that what she has arouses envy in him, he probably understands he wants the same. he looks at mizi and sua being happy and wants that - though maybe he feels like he is not able to produce the same feeling within himself. does he understand that what he feels is envy? that he desires till's love? probably, but not totally. he acts like he has it all figured out and mouths poor sua for something he'll end up doing too. first step toward hypocrisy.

understanding of himself pt2. what i love abt his character is that despite this whiny, clingy self he decided to role as, he is incredibly closed off abt his emotions - i am very similar, as i tend to voice little things i find annoying and whine abt random stuff but gatekeep deeper, far more problematic emotions. his portray of himself is flawed - either because he can't look at himself objectively, he mistakes people's intentions/feelings toward him or is unaware of certain things. no matter where we put the origin of this, ivan can't be relied upon when he speaks abt himself.

7] the meteor shower thing and how it is a turning point in ivan's narrative

this is such a pivotal moment in kid-ivan's life.

imagine him training his smiles and trying to be more sociable and studying hard because that's what he needs to do to survive at anakt. imagine till being one of the first spontaneous, not-survival-related thing ivan wants for himself and trying to understand how to please till in order to become closer.

he sees till's struggle, his need for freedom, his fighting spirit against injustice. little ivan would have loved someone like him in the slums - a curageous hero, unafraid to vent and rebel, who could lift their sleeping, numbed spirits. till would have probably drawn more harm than good, though, and ivan probably finds him stupid and reckless, totally unable to be relied upon and ensure his own survival, so his days must be numbered, right? how can someone like till even exists in their world? either his light will stop shining or he'll die in an explosion so bright, he'll be forever remembered.

ivan can't help but be intrigued, so he follows till around. baits him into an alien's den and just can't stop looking at till's light. till is just like the meteors he saw when he was taken - he burns, he falls, all in repeat. beautiful.

so he offers till what he thinks till wants - a life far from the pain of anakt, far from fake walls and experiements and forced singing. a life where till can burn and fall to his own accord, a life full of stars, just like the metors witnessing their escape. did he know there would be a meteor shower? maybe that's what he wanted to do - share with till his most precious memory. sometimes i wonder if ivan had to prepare for a long time to make it happen - he probably studied the pattern of guards patroling and looked for safe exits and such, right? do you think he was something like hopeful the entire time, imagining how it would be?

i wanna kms

till rejects it. no hard blame on him *refrain from delving into till's character, hanji, refrain*, but what a hard blow must have been for ivan. maybe a part of him knew it'd end like that - depending on how much he had already figured abt till's kind personality.

ivan almost had him, but he slipped away. till's reaction makes sense to him, probably - why trade the total unknown, the instability ivan knows comes from living on the streets for something secure, even if fake and temporary? there is no guarantee they'll make it out there, either. beside, why would till want to stay with ivan? it all makes sense.

(NO BABY NO IT DOESN'T I'D RUN AWAY WITH YOU TO THE END OF THE EARTH)

but he can't help feeling resentful and angry and disappointed and sad. that's human, even if he doesn't understand completely, even if he thinks it doesn't make sense for him to feel negative abt till's reaction, given what rationality tells him. escaping without till makes no sense for him, either - escaping was for till, not for himself.

this is where the dissonance is rooted.

"ivan" splits in two: on one hand we have the character he has built for himself. on the other, the raw, unknown and unlabelled emotions he thinks he has under control/understands. love is the most emblematic, for us. in ivan's mind, love is the devotion in sua's eyes when she looks at mizi, mizi's blinding smile when she sings and play with sua, till's longing and artistic inspiration stemming from mizi. he observes and mimics and tries to be part of it all.

he does watch till from afar, but can't completely imitate till as he forces his presence in till's space far too often to abide to till's awkward circling around mizi.

his emotion is as twisted as sua's, who wants to gatekeep mizi for herself, but not as soft and innocent as her gaze on mizi. there is something darker and crueller and more violent and obsessive under ivan's controlled affection, something that is psychologically normal, given what he went through, but that fits none of ivan's labels and definitions.

after all, love is pure and light and vessel of beautiful and positive things. although what he feels for till partly adapts to what love is, it is not only that. it's more, it's less, it's bigger, it's hard to convey.

8] hypocrisy and how ivan signed his own emotional doom without really being aware of it

the dissonance grows, even if he doesn't actively address it. he probably forces it down, tells himself "let it be, just go on", like he did a million times in the slums in orderd to survive. it is a well-oiled mechanism. but he has grown comfy in his new life - a life where he doesn't actively have to fend off dangers, since they are inevitable but controlled, so he has time to think and desire.

Realising he loves till probably wasn't immediate - the feeling is there, it's unnamed, and I wonder if Ivan eagerly put the label on it or not (was he relieved? or was he burdened byt it? maybe a bit of both - like, "i am capable of love, but in this environment, where will this lead me?"), and how long it took. from his anakt profile, we know he dislikes ignorance and rudeness (he is so composed, when he has to play his role in society, so aware of what he has to do, so how could he not?), but we can find these traits in till - so it's not (only) that he dislikes them, these traits frustrate him because despite not liking them, they are part of a person he has deep affecton for. again, hypocrisy.

After the meteor shower, nurturing something that maybe was already there, the feeling grows with the dissonance, and with love comes hate. i like the idea of him (usually so in control) unconsciously taking his frustration out on sua in that scene where he accuses her of becoming a trauma for future-mizi, while silently, he wonders what will be of him and till if they will have to face each other.

PART 3

[miyakuli]

Stray Gods

Lost In A Song

Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome! To cabaret? No, no, in an interactive musical fiction. Yes, you heard that right. Stray Gods is a surprising mix of visual novel and musical, where your choices influence not only the story but also the songwriting. So it's a pretty original concept, but is it note-worthy? Bleibe, reste, stay, and see for yourself.

❤ The mix between the modern world and mythology works really well, and the idea - which I won't reveal here - of bringing these two worlds together is a pretty good one. As a result, we find familiar Greek divine figures mingling with our society in a rather amusing way, and we revise our classics as we meet them. But the real strength, in my opinion, lies in the use of these legends to address harsh yet topical issues such as suicide, grief, relationship abuse etc...offering some emotionally powerful musical moments. ❤ While the music is in the spotlight, it's also a treat for the eyes, with some truly superb comic-book-style illustrations! Some may be put off by the stop-motion effect, but the animation is no less dynamic with its camera work and changing backgrounds and colors to match the tunes of our decisions. So, for the same scene, the atmosphere will not be the same visually and will follow the mood of the song according to the choices made by the player.

❤ The characters are endearing and I really enjoyed the diversity in terms of chara-design. They each have a strong visual identity, which reinforces their personality even more, making them quite memorable characters. The interactions between them are very well handled, with well-written dialogue that juggles humor and drama. On the romance side, I think that each suitor brings an interesting dynamic, whatever the personality given to Grace, our main character. Each player will obviously have their own preferences, but it's rare that I find that all the romances harmonise so well with the MC. ❤ I have to mention the French translation, which doesn't just translate the songs word for word but has tried to adapt the lyrics with more melodious turns of phrase and even rhymes! Well done for the effort :)

+/- You'll have noticed that I haven't yet mentioned the heart of the game, namely the music. The work on the music is clearly impressive; the main musical themes, built like leitmotifs, are quite memorable and echo each other throughout the game. But above all, each song has its own variation, and it's up to the player to direct their own score, taking on the role of conductor. It could have been extremely clumsy, yet Austin Wintory (who has already signed one of my favourite soundtracks with Journey) has managed to make clever musical transitions that never create a rupture…..well, not all the time. Some of the variations fit together more or less well, sometimes making the melody a bit wobbly, and you really get a feel for which parts were written as the main theme and which are ‘optional’. That must be why the song Adrift sticks in my mind the most, because it was conceived as a song in its own right with no real changes. +/- Where there's a song, there's a performer. While the voice cast is excellent, with some of the big names in dubbing, making their characters their own, I found that in terms of singing performances, some were a little subpar and didn't always sound quite right.

✖ While the universe is charming, the script clearly lacks subtlety, being far too predictable, and the scenes are chained together at a very fast tempo without giving the time to really enjoy the investigation. ✖ The game is also short and offers very few changes to the storyline when it comes to the choices made. As a result, it can quickly become repetitive if you try to complete it. ✖ Another downside was that there were a number of glitches during my various games: music cutting out when I made a choice, dialogs overlapping when I wanted to fast forward, delays between sound and image and minor translation oversights.

Stray Gods was a satisfying experience for the Broadway lover in me. Sure, the plot could be better paced and orchestrated, and the music can sound a little unstable at times, but you can't take away from the the game's originality and inspired ideas. Besides, if I've already got one song stuck in my head, then I guess the game has served its purpose. On that note, so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu🎶

➡ My personal VN ranking (in french) ➡ My Steam page

[tsaomengde]

Heavenly Tyrant review + thoughtspew

I have been excited for this book ever since I read Iron Widow, put a review up on here, and @xiranjayzhao themself graced me with their presence and a reply that suggested Heavenly Tyrant would be a partial Three Kingdoms retelling. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is an 800,000-word Chinese classic novel and is probably my favorite book. I've read it more than ten times. Between that, and the fact that I really like the world and the characters Xiran has made, I was eager to dive into Heavenly Tyrant.

Spoiler (not a real one): did not disappoint. Spoilers from this point on will be real, and unmarked, because I am lazy and because if you're actually reading this I expect you've also finished the book too. If you are reading this review to figure out if you'll like the book, I think you will. Because it's good, and because you're on tumblr.

---

I have been told there's a saying: "Young men should read Water Margin, old men should read Three Kingdoms." Water Margin is, along with Three Kingdoms, one of the four great Chinese classics, along with Journey to the West and Dream of the Red Chamber. The saying is the way it is because Water Margin is about fraternity, nobility, and other positive martial attributes, which young men should emulate, while Three Kingdoms is more about politics, scheming, backstabbing, and pragmatism, which they should not emulate. Heavenly Tyrant feels very much like the Three Kingdoms to Iron Widow's Water Margin.

On that note, I'm not going to go into exhaustive critique here, just reflect on my impressions. I know very little about the editing and publishing process behind this book in particular. I know that Xiran has made references to having to cut the book down in size, and I can see the effects of that requirement. This is not a criticism, just an observation. It is less a partial Three Kingdoms retelling than a Three Kingdoms-flavored science-fantasy romp, and I am totally on board with that.

Example: in another world, where word counts were not an issue, I could see this book sprawling into a true epic, adapting Zhuge Liang's seven northern campaigns into an ongoing and bloody feud between him and Sima Yi in-story as the two of them struggle in support of the old government and Qin Zheng, respectively. The book also mentions Red Cliff a couple times, adapting it here into a hydroelectric dam, and I was excited that we might get a version of the Battle of Red Cliff (Chì bì) with Chrysalises and spirit armor and such. In the end, most of the action of the rebellion takes place off-screen, as the book focuses more on the intricacies and interactions of laborism, governance, classism, sexism, capital, etc. etc. Again, none of this is a critique - I appreciate the direction the novel chose to go in with the amount of words it had.

I also liked the, frankly, nuanced critique of autocratic socialism. The philosopher king model has been a favorite of both actual, real-world nations and regions, as well as fiction, particularly fantasy fiction, for approximately Forever. And it is a very beautiful fantasy of "daddy Bernie will fix everything for us if we can just get him into office." But the book does a very good job of showing how the flaws of the philosopher king - in this case, Qin Zheng - get magnified and expanded into flaws within the government they create. Qin Zheng's return to misogynistic delusion at the end to explain why Zetian would try to kill him is going to have knock-on effects on the government itself, as well as its citizens, until he loses power.

Speaking of Qin Zheng. He's like if you put Qin Shi Huang, Cao Cao, Marx, Lenin, and that one guy in your local kink scene who insists that everyone call him "Master Sir" into a blender. What a delightful piece of shit. The absolute embodiment of "the worst person you know just made a great point." I really enjoyed his dynamic with Zetian. I had concerns going into this about losing the Iron Triangle but her having to deal with Qin Fucking Zheng kept the book tense and interesting, and the sex was hot. Which is not a thing I say often about non-erotica/dark romance/straight-up porn sex.

I was also very amused by Qin Zheng because I, too, have written a Three Kingdoms-but-in-space book, one that will never see the light of day because it's more than ten years old and is bad and would need to be rewritten before I'd let anyone read it these days. But the stand-in for Cao Cao in that book - well, I mean, he is Cao Cao, I just have him go by his style name of Mengde - is beat-for-beat Qin Zheng. More powerful than everyone else, manipulative, arrogant, selfish, and thinks he's the Only One Who Can Save The Galaxy. Also he has a toxic sexual relationship with the female main character and she stabs him in his heart and he lives through it with his space magic. I'm not kidding. The parallels are that spot-on and they are hysterical.

Speaking of Three Kingdoms IN SPACE, I won't say I didn't see the twist of the Heavenly Court being little more than a glorified mining station coming, but it was well-executed and anything that reminds me of Roger Zelazny's magnum opus, Lord of Light, aka my other favorite book, is going to be a green check mark in my book.

I am excited to see how Xiran wraps up these disparate elements in book 3 - Zetian's power struggle with Qin Zheng, the need to resolve the war with the Hunduns, the need to resist the Melians when they arrive to keep the spirit metal flowing, etc. etc. Maybe the publishers will let them really go buck-wild and we will get the 200,000-word sprawling epic that we deserve.

[kaibutsushidousha]

Fitting given the recent FGO news, but what are your thoughts on Takeru?

Bundling all these asks together because they're inseparable. Probably the biggest askbox cleanup I ever did in one go.

The short version of the answer is "Fate/Samurai Remnant is the story of a pair completely enamored with each other's least favorite parts of themselves."

Saber was a complete natural. A child too strong. His father quickly noticed that and exploited Ousu as Yamato's mightiest colonizer. All they knew in life was violent conquest until Tachibana taught them love and kindness. But Tachibana was uncritical. She didn't talk Takeru out of their bloody path. On the contrary, she chose death so that the walk would continue. She loved Takeru's good and bad alike.

Through Iori, Saber met a new world. A world where the weak had the option not to fight. A world where rice was easily accessible. A world that had no need for Yamato Takeru's journey, thus no need for Ototachibanahime's death. And there he met an intriguing man who still wanted to fight in a world where this wasn't needed.

In their interactions, Saber grows to envy Iori's rational acclimation to the peaceful Edo. The ability to find solutions that don't require violence. To strategize conversations. To not do things aren't virtuous. To sympathize and empathize. To read and understand the thoughts of others. It's by emulating this that Saber changes.

Meanwhile, Iori is a thinker. His exceptional rationality allowed him to weasel his way out of a village massacre, which lasted until Munenori inadvertently saved his life. After this whole time desperately using his brain to survive, Iori witnessed the easy way out. With a slash that looked like the moon, the sword saint survived without resorting to Iori's tiresome trickery. That absolute strength was the symbol of survival Iori saught.

He learned from Musashi (and Kojirou) for as long as he could, but ultimately couldn't learn all. Without completing Niten's lessons, Iori was left capable only of doing what he does best: thinking, reading, and adapting. He designed his Five Stances model and began fighting by switching patterns according to his circumstances. The opposite of the all-purpose survival mechanism that he began his training for.

Through Saber, Iori saw his original inspiration. Right in the prologue, Iori is already gushing about how Saber fights with the swordplay of a champion who doesn't read or respond to their opponent, letting only themself dictate how they fight, like they were the only one in the field. Saber can survive any situation with far less effort than Iori.

In their interactions, Iori grows to envy Saber's force of character as an unmalleable force. Their outstanding technique is just like the moon he saw at the night at the port. Iori can't feel at peace until he surpasses it. No matter how much of himself he must trim down, he needs to find raw all-purpose power (the Fire and Void Stances). Saber's ability to push through any challenge without as much as evaluating it. It's by emulating this that Iori changes.

The conclusion of Entreat the Darkness sees Iori defeated by Saber's successful read of him. The talentless Iori continuously relied on his "petty" tactic of studying his opponent, so when the talented Saber started pulling the same thing on him, it was so thoroughly hopeless that he had to laugh it off and accept he got as far as he could. Iori was pacified by his own lessons being repeated to him by the person who heartfeltly absorbed them, in classic Ciel route style.

Saber and Iori were born in the wrong eras. The latter would have been more self-assured in an age where he could prove and elevate himself in duels that put the limits of life and death to the test. The former would have been more happy in an age where they could feel assured their treasured companion(s) would last as long as they did.

But through the short time they shared, they got everything they wanted. Iori found satisfaction in finding that insurmountable that confirmed that he became the very best he could possibly be. Saber found satisfaction in gaining a companion through a much more gratifying journey than the unification of Japan.

The logical conclusion to my opening sentence is that Saber and Iori had the missing pieces to each other's puzzle, and sharing those made both of them whole.

[twojamie-o-clock]

The War Games colorized reaction & stuff

Okay so. I don’t really know how to talk about this, because of course I love it since it was my favorite story, heartbreaking, and shiny & colorized. and of course people are always going to be mad about things lol, so approaching this as “a neat way to see an old story” but not really gonna treat it as tv canon (using the word canon in doctor who is stupid but you know). and more of some different way to look at it.

Starting off with the color: GREAT!! STUNNING!! GORGEOUS!! I’m in love. I’ve seen some people say it was better done than The Daleks colorization, which I have not fully seen, but from the snatches I caught at Chicago TARDIS & the commentary I definitely appreciated this more after hearing Ayres/Highman talk about the difficulty of it all & all the little things you wouldn’t think stump them up so much. I loved to see Jennifer & Jeremy in color wahhh <3 and of course the main trio were so fun. The choices for the Time Lord outfits were,,,,,, interesting to say the least but still fun. Actually seeing Jamie & Zoe’s reactions in color to all of it hurt so much more than I was ready for, but of course there’s a certain charm & weight to the b&w haha. Seeing the clips of other adventures (particularly power of the Daleks & the abominable snowmen) made me AHHHHH!!!!! The two seconds of Polly/Ben were yum and of course Victoria running with Jamie <33333333

The other big topic would be the pacing of course. While I didn’t mind it at the start, around the time Zoe/Two got into the SIDRAT & then Jamie came along it definitely felt a bit snappy. I didn’t mind this at first since it’s obviously necessary for such a huge time crunch, but seeing how much time was spent on other shots it felt like more could have been dedicated to all the human on human interaction since that’s where Jamie’s character (his development from his entrance and all the parallels hshshsj) and Zoe (everything she does tbh & her relationships with Jamie/Two. Screamed when Two kissed her I’ll never get over it but a part of me will always wish we got the German trench scene,,,,,,,) really develop, though again I still really enjoyed it.

The music was very sweet towards the end of Jamie/Zoe and I do like when it was put in there, but elsewhere it felt pretty loud and crowding. I DID like how they tried to maintain the general apprehension you feel by changing from the suspense/slow build up route to dramatic music since it felt like a neat way to adapt to/around the time crunch, since cliffhangers couldn’t really have an effect when 4 hours is pressed into 1.5.

As for the new additions & fancy stuff: the only thing I really REALLY didn’t care for were all the shots of Gallifrey & the War Lord building. It felt cheap and unnecessary to constantly throw the latter in & the former really only needed one establishing shot imo; those seconds could have been used on other things hshdjsk like smoothing out transitions idk. As for the future faces - they were an enjoyable nod & better than the drawings I think but bring on an interesting question of if the faces a Time Lord will regenerate into are set in stone. The idea that their faces are already decided………idk if I vibe with that & that’s just delving into personal headcanon/belief.

I like the idea that their faces could be in flux & that it’s entirely dependent on who they meet & what they need, like the modern who (and classic? I haven’t gotten far enough haha) imprint theories of being affected by surroundings as well as the general idea that the future regenerations reflect what the past ones need to work on/what they fear/in general are influenced to change past experiences. So. If all those experiences are predetermined then ig it makes sense but then it’s all messy fate v flux so. Idk. I didn’t mind it since it was nice but it adds some. Ideas for sure haha.

Okay. The War Chief. Yeah. I won’t lie on my first watch around (Oct 12-13) I did entertain the general theory/joke/thoschei wtv that the war chief could be the master just based on his vibes & general interactions with the Doctor & grand speeches & motives & whatnot. But it was much more fun as a theory. I do think it’s a neat idea but I also 100% get the frustration of the clunky attempt to canonize it, both because I don’t really want….him to be the Master (i haven’t consumed enough eu media to understand the angle most fans I’ve seen are complaining about this on, but I do know it would be NICE to have a villain who doesn’t have to be the Master. Because it makes him more interesting and the idea that the doctor is generally known already as this type of character is amazing, as well as the idea that..:/the dr just has weird tension with rogue time lords across the board. He doesn’t have to be the master to have this weird relationship.) and cuz using the master’s various themes here or there is fine but DAMNNN CHILL WE AREN’T MISSING THE MUSIC…..😭🙏🙏🙏 but I’m not gonna try to go too deep into that because I don’t think I’m capable of it & because there would be a mob of fans ready to gut me if I spoke wrong kgkshdk.

I was NOT prepared for the Jamie/Zoe departure to happen so abruptly. I was hoping for more build up of it all but again it seems the focus was less on the companions & humans in general and more on Two/gallifreyans.

TUMBLR JUST DELETED MY PARAGRAPH ON THE REGENERATION SCENE…..I’m not retyping all that fml. Basically I was worried I’d be bothered by it ONLY because it would negate s6b & I don’t want to see Two regenerate, period, since the mystery of s6b ending is all the fun, but there was a gap between the trial & the chair so I don’t much mind, not to mention that again this is merely a different look at the original war games so idk why people are getting so mad haha. l did not mind the nuwho esque regen either & I loved the Pertwee bit, but of course. It’s always better to not see Two lol. Gorgeous and amazingly well done tho!!!!

Overall: loves the construction of everything, sometimes the music was too loud/I didn’t care for the weird war lord HQ shots/gallifrey shown 4.5 billion times, but in general it was fun & sad & great. I did in fact cry again, seeing the departure in color was heart breaking & owwwwww. That’s all for now I’ll probably rb if I have other thoughts or change my mind haha

[lemonhemlock]

I honestly wonder if the writers are seeing what people think about/of this season or if they only look about the ones whonloves everything because they're here to "win" and don't care about the story in any way, because at this point is all a mess (yes, it had some thing that were ok, but it's... bad) and I can't see people really enjoying it

Even thought there's always someone saying "ACTUALLY" and whay if I just scream lol?

It's something I see happening all around, this "defence" squad of a media where the only goal is to gi against every criticism of said media

so there are two things to consider there: the general audience and the critics. since the general audience is made up mostly of team black stans and sympathizers, anything that portrays rhaenyra in a slightly less idealized light is going to get pushback. so i think the writers are honestly blind to that criticism bc they will kind of be expecting that, which is why they already treat rhaenyra with kid gloves.

the fans who are upset over the greens' writing are significantly fewer and honestly i think the writers have such a warped understand of the asoiafverse and of grrm's themes that they just see us as delulu. to them the greens = villains, so any attempt to humanize them a little must be way more than enough in their minds: to them, they have done the greens justice because they're not horrible monsters like ramsay or euron or joffrey. to them, of course they should be constantly punished, of course they should feel shitty, of course they don't really care about each other.

as far as the critics are concerned, i.... do not think that people who have not read the books + Fire & Blood are able to truly understand what the hell is going on here, because they just lack the context. even if they are professional critics. they HAVE just fallen out of the coconut tree in this story. because, if you expect the dance of the dragons to be this classic woman-gets-usurped-by-her-evil-brother's-family storyline, with a hero side and a villain side, as long as you humanize the villains a little bit and give the heroes some flaws, you're going to think this is business as usual.

if, instead, you know this is supposed to be a story in which both sides have equal weight in heroism and villainy, then the adaptation is horribly written. if you are familiar with the source material, you KNOW that rhaenyra has never been in any way this messianic figure tasked with ensuring a prophecy that will save the world. of course that changes the stakes massively, as well as one's opinion of the character and of the way others should interact with her. the dance of the dragons has never been about "saving the world" from the threat of the Others, it's the consequence of feudalism, patriarchy, not having an easily implementable legal system because you lack basic democratic institutions and the indifference of nobles towards massive destruction and civilian casualties.

i would have hoped, at least, that a professional critic could consider some egregiously out of place elements, such as the effusive praising of viserys, but HotD S2 has a score of 70 on Metacritic and i haven't seen any think pieces asking why the show is celebrating alicent's abuser, even by alicent herself. but, apparently, even in 2024, we are not asking ourselves why are we not calling out a 50-year-old man impregnating a teenager repeatedly against her will. 🤷‍♀️ i'm sure that for many it doesn't even track bc of the "it's game of thrones so it's to be expected" brainrot, as if those things were never meant to be critiqued and are just par for the course in this world

[ciaossu-imagines]

Castor Headcanons

Castor puts on the best puppet shows. Not only does he adapt books he’s read to be entertaining and child friendly, but he even writes his own stories. He’s a really good writer, able to bring about entertaining, compelling characters that the children get really attached to. He’ll often have some of the children ask for follow-up stories with some of the characters he’s created. Since he likes to have Razette help him with the puppet shows, he’s learned how to read and write music so that she can use her beautiful singing voice in each and every puppet show.

Castor is a huge reader. In canon, I think he reads a lot of, of course, religious texts, along with non-fiction books of all varieties. History and philosophy are those he goes to a lot, but he’ll also read non-fiction books on the various sciences. He recommends a lot of botanical texts to Labrador. While he doesn’t read a lot of fiction, when he does, they tend to be classics or poetry. In more modern-day AU’s that I have for 07-Ghost, I see Castor as reading a lot of the same things, but I think he has a hidden guilty pleasure for both romance novels and boy detective series, ala The Hardy Boys or Encyclopedia Brown. He’ll even extend this to detective series like Sherlock Holmes. Castor has a fantastic memory when it comes to things he’s read as well, almost to the point of it being a mundane ‘superpower’.

In modern-day AU’s, I have Castor as Chinese in ethnicity and from a very rich family. While he definitely lives with a lot of pressure, expected to excel in everything, he also lives a very sheltered life and doesn’t know a lot about the world, especially the world of those who aren’t rich, until he runs away from home. I think that, in some ways, that extends to canon. While he had that cloying amount of pressure from his father and had to stain his hands with blood at a very young age, made to grow up far too quickly, in a lot of ways Castor was also very sheltered. He wasn’t allowed to go anywhere alone, he wasn’t allowed to interact with very many people, he was told what to eat, what to wear, was limited in what he was allowed to read…it wasn’t until he was reborn as a Ghost that he really got to learn more about the world in large. It wasn’t until then that he was introduced to all these different kinds of people and situations. At first, he really struggled to absorb it all, to deal with the realization of just how terrible things were, but he was able to deal with that realization by devoting himself to helping others. It’s a large part of why he became a Bishop – to do the most good in the world and to ease some of the guilt he does feel for his privileged upbringing, where he never had to worry about the things that he sees those struggling in poverty or those orphaned or homeless or sold into slavery go through. While he definitely would never consider his childhood and upbringing as good, Castor’s not so dumb as to realize that it could have been much, much worse.

I do think that, at some point, Castor does come to forgive his father. At first, he only tolerated him and bore with dealing with him because he wanted to visit the others in the household. He found it hard to completely let go of the grudge and hard feelings, even if he believed he had, but he does completely forgive his father and the two of them begin to build a better relationship.

Castor has a big sweet tooth but chocolate isn’t his typical go-to. It’s actually the last sweet he reaches for, at least in chocolate bar form. He doesn’t mind a chocolate cake so much, but that’s just because he’s a huge pastry slut. It’s his go-to form of sweets, with shortcake being his favourite. I feel he’d also really like those rolled wafers with filling in them, liking the hazelnut variety the most.

Castor, in modern day AU’s, would be the only one to regularly think about and plan on donating to charity. He saves a portion of each paycheck and, at the end of the year, he’d donate to food banks, Salvation Army kettles, and to children’s charity. If businesses like McDonald’s are running specials for their children camps, it’s one of the rare times he’ll actively go for fast food, only because his money will go towards supporting those children’s charities.

Castor is someone who does tend to be rather neat and tidy in his living spaces. He’s good at picking up after himself for the most part and he’ll set aside about a half-hour every day to tidy up, do the dishes, and throw on any laundry that needs to be done. He’s not the best at certain chores (due to his rich upbringing, he had no idea how to do laundry or how much dish soap is appropriate to use, etc.) but he tries his best. He’s one of those ‘everything has it's place’ type of people for the most part, especially when it comes to his workshop. He hates having to search around and hunt for parts or supplies he needs, so he’s hyper-vigilant about keeping that space neat, organized, and well-stocked.

In a more modern-day AU, when it comes to his living space, I think Castor would really embrace Scandinavian design mixed with some mid-century modern elements. He likes more neutral colours when it comes to his walls and furniture, whites, beiges, greiges, or pale greys. He uses more masculine navy blues and hunter greens as accent colours and decorates with potted plants and gifts, souvenirs, or knick-knacks from his travels, along with his collection of dolls and puppets. He tends to gravitate towards living spaces with a lot of natural light and doesn’t like to hang curtains unless he absolutely has to and he only draws them when absolutely necessary.

Much like Frau, Castor really enjoys long, hot baths. Where he’s constantly cold, the feeling of the heat on his skin, and the way it lingers for a couple hours afterwards, allows him to feel alive again. He’s someone who really enjoys bath products too, especially these bath teabags that Labrador makes using various flowers and plants – not only do they smell delicious but they leave his skin feeling very smooth, soft, and they keep the heat in for even longer.

Castor, despite being a genius, feels like he’s never learned enough. He’s constantly curious and wants to know more about the world. He learns from anyone who has something to teach him – he’s learned some languages from Frau, he learns about plants and how to make medicines, ointments, and tinctures for them from Labrador, he even learns astrology from Lance. He’s not too proud to pass up the chance to learn and better himself, even if he doesn’t personally care too much for the person…I mean, there are exceptions to this – Castor wouldn’t sign up to train under Ayanami or anything, but he wouldn’t be above asking questions and learning information that might be useful from the man.

[grelleswife]

Hey this is maybe a strange request but I was wondering if you had any good anime recommendations ?

I've been watching JJK and I've been left feeling a bit disappointed with the writing (it feels kinda all of the place and it feels like characters are dying just for the sake of dying)

So I'm kinda looking for something with darker themes and also maybe with supernatural elements, but that gives all the characters good arcs and development and also maybe is a bit on the happier side?

But honestly anything will do I'm just looking for some new stuff

I've been thinking of watching Vanitas no Carte so that one's already on my list

Hi, anon! I understand your frustration; the despair of the Shibiya arc had become rather gratuitous by the end of Season 2. :/

VnC was one of the first shows that came to mind while I was reading your ask, so you’re already ahead of the curve! Content warnings I recall off the top of my head include child death, nonconsensual blood drinking (which carries certain unpleasant implications in vampire media), use of children for scientific experimentation, and unsavory dynamics (aka the man repeatedly disregarding the woman’s boundaries) in the canon m/f pairing. However, the quality of the story and its unmistakable queerness still make Vanitas no Carte a worthwhile watch, in my opinion. And the manga is even better!

Some other recommendations I can think of, albeit with varying ratios of darkness to good character development and happy moments, are listed below. Please note that content warnings provided are based off my hazy recollections and thus are not comprehensive.

Mushishi

Though existing beyond the realm of human perception, the diverse array of primitive lifeforms known as mushi can warp their surroundings—and the people inhabiting them—in bizarre, sometimes frightening ways. As a mushishi, Ginko is one of the rare few who can see and interact with these creatures, and travels Japan lending assistance to those struggling to coexist with the mushi. Suffused with a quiet melancholy, this anime is perfect to watch on a rainy day with a cup of tea in hand.

Content warnings: Body horror

Mononoke

Nope, not the Studio Ghibli film that gave birth to the classic “I’ll cut your throat” ship meme. This 2007 anime follows the enigmatic and possibly immortal Kusuriuri (medicine seller) as he helps people impacted by mononoke, malevolent spirits that latch onto negative emotions. However, he can only dispel these spirits by uncovering their true nature and the reason for the appearance, forcing him to play detective along the way. Though a spiritual cousin of sorts to Mushishi, the two shows vary radically in style: Whereas Mushishi’s color palettes tend to be earthy and subdued, Monoke’s animation pushes the envelope with a dizzying, gaudy spectacle that could have come straight out of a drug-induced nightmare.

Content warnings: Violence (including violence against women), discussions of forced abortion, body horror, a highly questionable relationship between a monk and his sister, eyestrain (the colors are gorgeous but can be a bit overwhelming at times)

Otherside Picnic

College students Sorawo Kamikoshi and Toriko Nishina team up to periodically explore the Otherside, a parallel universe where urban legends pose all-too-real threats, growing closer over the course of their adventures. Fans of the light novels on which this 12-episode anime is based have criticized the differences in tone between the adaptation and the source material, complaining that the anime tends to come across as a bit goofier. However, as someone who went into the series blind, I had a fun time! Otherside Picnic also numbers among the rare examples of sapphic anime with adult protagonists, although most of Sorawo’s and Toriko’s relationship is relegated to slow-burn due to the short run time. Their black cat/golden retriever dynamic is still a joy to behold!

Content warnings: Occasional gun violence, body horror

Death Parade

The souls of the recently deceased are pitted against eachother in nerve-wracking games meant to uncover the darkest corners of their psyches so that beings known as arbiters may pass judgement on their fate—reincarnation, or eternity in the void. Alongside his assistant, Chiyuki, the arbiter Decim begins to gain greater insight into humanity while starting to question the very role for which he was created. This underrated gem will probably reduce you to a puddle of tears at least once, so have a box of tissues ready.

Content warnings: Violence, assault, suicide, depictions of alcohol use (much of the action takes place at an otherworldly bar)

Noragami

Hiyori Iki’s ordinary middle school life is turned upside down when a bus accident weakens the link between her body and soul, enabling her to perceive the gods and spirits in our midst…including Yato, a brash yet destitute young god without a single shrine to his name. How will their fates intertwine? Written along a similar vein to Fruits Basket and Kamisama Kiss, Noragami charms the viewer with its sillier shenanigans while ripping your heartstrings to shreds during the darker moments. Although the manga (at least what I’ve read of it) is superior, and the anime only adapts a handful of the original arcs, it still holds its own. And the OPs are excellent! 👌

Content warnings: Body horror, child death, suicide

[isfjmel-phleg]

TSG season is upon us, so I've been rereading a few things. Today I finished The Making of May by Gwyneth Rees. Maybe not Great Literature, but a lot more readable than its cover (which is more suitable for a younger reading level) would suggest.

It's not straightforwardly a retelling of The Secret Garden, but it is in conversation with that story and the heroine references it multiple times. I was trying to figure out why this worked for me, while Ann of Sunflower Lane's constant references to Anne of Green Gables came to grate on my nerves. And I think it's because instead of piggybacking on a classic and trying to fully parallel it, The Making of May *interacts* with The Secret Garden but isn't trying to replicate it on every level.

May hasn't even read TSG; her fascination with the story comes from a VHS she owns (this book was published in 2006, when VCRs were not as uncommon as they are now) of what is very obviously the 1975 BBC miniseries. She identifies a lot with Mary, although she acknowledges significant differences in their backgrounds. They are both orphans, but May points out that Mary has grown up unloved while she herself has been raised by her much-older half-brother and -sister, who are a bit in over their heads as parental substitutes but genuinely care about May and are trying their best. Note that May highlights Mary's emotional neglect rather than traditional grief; her understanding of the story comes from an adaptation that closely follows the original text, and she's even actively opposed to watching a "more modern" version (implied to be the 1993 film) that she doesn't feel is an authentic rendering of her comfort character.

Because that's how May sees Mary of the 1975 miniseries--a friend who understands her life circumstances in a way that others around her don't seem to. She rewatches the tape as often as she can, usually when she's in a low mood, and the story informs how she sees the world. It's a kind of escapism for her. She does this to a lesser extent with other films she finds interesting too, but TSG 1975 is her favorite.

Like Mary, she is given the opportunity to restore a walled garden, which she insists on calling a secret garden. But this isn't accurate; everyone on the estate knows about the garden and knows she's working in it. She is joined in this by the son of the estate's owner, and her first thought is that this is just like Mary's working with male friends. But that's where the overt comparisons stop. Alex is very different from Dickon or Colin, and his arc, while broadly similar to Colin's in that he must heal a broken relationship with his father and realize his extent of his own abilities, is significantly different. He and May investigate mysterious goings-on in the house--a locked room and a housekeeper disappearing there with a tray--which initially has a very TSG feel, but the mystery's solution is no gothic secret but a perfectly normal, mundane thing. May even expects the forbidding housekeeper to resemble Mrs. Danvers after having seen Rebecca; this isn't very grounded in reality either. Even the actual central secret of the novel has nothing to do with locked gardens or hidden rooms; it's the fact that May's brother fudged his resumé to get a gardening job on the estate.

Like Mary, May restores a garden, makes friends, plays an instrumental role in repairing a father-son relationship, and experiences physical and emotional growth. But unlike Mary, her arc involves having to learn to distinguish fiction from reality and grow past projecting onto a fictional character to cope. It's not that her engagement with TSG is an inherently bad thing, but the extent to which her relationship with it has gone is maladaptive. She has come to take the story so seriously that she can't see it as a story anymore; when she tries to show the miniseries to Alex and he finds it laughably low-budget and dated (harsh! but not inaccurate), she is as offended by his criticism as if he had spoken against her. Because the story is such a personal thing to her--and I really can't blame her, I feel the same way whenever someone is dismissive of something I care about--that her identity is bound up in it to an unhealthy extent. She needs the balance that comes with engaging with the real world and real people and getting out of her own head, and her adventures at the estate help her do just that. In some ways, the themes veer more into Northanger Abbey than The Secret Garden!

May by the end hasn't abandoned her love of the miniseries, but now instead of fixating on Mary as she is at the beginning of the story, she can see Mary's completed arc and understand the story as finished, not as perpetually ongoing in her own world. May is finally given a copy of The Secret Garden to read, but she isn't sure if she's ready to read it yet, or even if she needs to--she's about to embark on new adventures of her own, adventures that will be completely separate from Mary's.

So ultimately the book is less about recreating The Secret Garden in another setting and more about how the heroine relates to an adaptation of the story--not even the actual book, an adaptation, a constructed interpretation of the book. Which is a surprisingly fresh take and, honestly, more interesting in some ways than a straightforward adaptation because of its meta perspective. It's a story about someone's response to someone's response to a story. And in that regard, it has a lot in common with Noel Streatfeild's The Painted Garden, which concerns the filming of an adaptation of The Secret Garden in late 1940s Hollywood and features broad parallels to the original story while commenting on how the change of medium and the vision of the adapters alters the narrative and characters.

There's probably an essay to be had on the concept of how these two books interact not only with each other but with The Secret Garden and film/TV adaptations of it, both real and fictional, but for now this is long enough and I'm not writing it.

[scarlet--wiccan]

Hello! For a hypothetical Into The Scarlet-Witchverse which generations (classic,90s,etc) or versions (Earth 'insert here' or Cartoon Shows) would you want in your line up? Are there any fun or interesting interactions you would want to see between them?

It's shame that Wanda doesn't have more fun multiverse storylines under her belt, because she's uniquely well-suited to them. One of the main things we learned about Wanda's Nexus powers in Scarlet Witch (1995) is that Wanda has an innate connection to other Nexus beings throughout the multiverse, several of which are alternate versions of herself, like Lore. So, it should, theoretically, be pretty easy to get a bunch of Wandas in a room together.

I've said it before, but I think that understanding Wanda's Nexus powers is the key to understanding how her reality-altering abilities are supposed to work and properly contextualizing everything that happened with both her babies and the Decimation. I've written at length about it here and here. So I really want to refresh this subject for modern readers, and I think that throwing Wanda into something like The Variants or the roadtrip arc from Young Avengers (2013) would be a great way to do it.

I wouldn't want to do a multiversal-hub/peacekeeping-corps situation like Spider-Verse or Captain Britain-- for Wanda, the stakes of using her Nexus powers are usually more personal and close to home. It's more about how opening herself up to the expansiveness of her abilities makes her powerful, but also vulnerable, and the stories which relate to this usually involve Wanda being taken advantage of and having to reclaim her agency. In the past, most of those stories have been... problematic, to put it lightly. Revisiting it with fresh eyes and her contemporary treatment could be really rewarding.

This might literally be where Scarlet Witch (2024) is heading-- in this year's Women of Marvel, there was foreshadowing that Wanda would be "exploring the possibilities she holds," and her featured story was actually about Wanda getting support from one of her variants. We also know that Wanda will be encountering the Queen of Nevers and coming face-to-face with Lore again. Wanda's new enemy, the Griever, is a universal abstract that represents the final end of the multiverse-- maybe exploring her multiversal potential is how Wanda will defeat her.

What versions of Wanda would I want to see? Well, as I mentioned, she doesn't have that many interesting canon variants, but part of the charm of Spider-Verse is that it always generates a bunch of new, eclectic Spideys. Momiji and Weapon Hex are both great, and I think Wanda Strange from the Variants and Imperious Hex from Tarot could both be developed into fun What If characters. I really liked my Bride of Doom and Witch of Wundagore concepts from this post. I'm extremely fond of the Elizabethan fantasy world that Gillen invented for the Secret Wars version of 1602, and it would be cool to see Romani characters in that setting that are, like, authentic and not racist. I feel like you could do something inspired by The Tempest...

Also, Wanda's powers are very broad, so I think the key would be to give each Wanda a specific focus point or gimmick based on her universe. The Wolverine, Namor, and Strange fusions are obvious, and Momiji could focus on illusions and mental manipulation. The others, I'm less sure.

I don't personally care for any of Wanda's movie or TV versions-- I think most of them are very poor adaptations of the character. Obviously the M C U is the worst, but even the cartoons usually whitewash her. But if you change up the visual designs a little and give them a better backstory, some of them have potential--

United They Stand Wanda as Agatha's successor in a story that focuses more on historical covens, New Salem, etc.; drawing inspiration for her powers from the psuedo-pagan treatment she got in the 80s.

Iron Man Wanda in the Force Works costume as the version who's most focused on her probability powers, maybe play her as more of a tech specialist than the other Wandas.

WatXM Wanda as the main representation of Wanda-as-Magneto's-daughter, being the princess and heir of a mutant nation experiment (better than HoM, that's for sure!)

Evolution Wanda as a rebellious punk kid-- maybe with a new, matching design for Pietro? Just based on how the design was inspired by The Craft, it might be cool to play like a character who just stepped out of a horror movie.

[lonelywretchjervistetch]

The Superman Logs: MAWS Season 2 - Episodes 1 - 3

Well, hey, it's me again! My Legion of Super-Heroes DCU essay series has been more difficult than expected to put together (for a whole buncha reasons, I won't get into it), but I also haven't written much on this blog in a while. So, may as well get back into the swing of things, which I've been planning to do regardless. Just needed an excuse, and oh look! My Adventures with Superman just released their long awaited second season! And hell, better now than ever!

Since three episodes have released, with some new characters introduced, I may as well jump in. I'll also say that, from now on, I'll be posting actual character retrospectives and concepts on here, in a style similar to what I've done before, but looking at my headcanon versions of characters, as well as already existent versions and adaptations of characters. Spoilers ahead, by the way. Not gonna go crazy with spoilers, but they'll be there, so, you've been warned! And so, without further ado...

Episode 2.1: More Things on Heaven and Earth

This episode focuses on some of the fallout from the first season, but most importantly gives us and Clark a few answers about his origins. It also throws a pretty major change to Clark's origin our way, but I won't get ahead of myself. The purpose of this post is to look at these episodes from a fan's eye (or an overly picky nerd's eye, but whatever) and inspect them for what happened, and what may be coming. And I have a theory here, so hang tight with me.

As I said, amongst the smaller revelations about Jimmy's quickly decaying fortune and Task Force X discovering Kryptonite (fuck), and the normal shojo stuff between Clark and Lois that is genuinely cute, one of the first big things we get is Clark and Jor-El finally having a conversation. And I gotta say...I really like this version of Jor-El.

Now, I've done a retrospective on Clark's parents before, in my DCCU essay series that you're more than welcome to check out, but at the time of writing that essay, I hadn't yet seen MAWS' version of Jor-El. And I hope we get to see more of Krypton in this universe as well, because I appreciate what they've done so far! We've gone back to the origin of Krypton as a conquering empire, destroying itself by war and inner conflict. Classic, nice. Jor-El, once again a voice of calm scientific reason amidst the chaos, sees fit to send his son to another world as the planet of Krypton is being destroyed. Again, classic stuff. But this version of Jor-El is different from most for one reason: he seems more caring than most.

Don't get me wrong, we've seen kinder versions of Jor-El in adaptations and original source material (although recent comics have COMPLETELY fucked his character into straight-up villainy; thanks a lot, Brian Michael Bendis, GODDAMN IT). And most versions of the character want and support Kal-El being a hero to the down-trodden. But the vast majority of them are a bit cold and clinical from beyond the grave. Obviously, part of that is the fact that the Jor-El that interacts with Clark is basically always a computerized duplication of his personality, but still. We rarely ever get a Jor-El that expressed emotion towards his son, or even acts like...well, like a father.

But this Jor-El simulation? In a short period of time, he gives advice to his son about his love life, he tells his son about his origin story without dicking him around constantly (lookin' at you, Smallville), helps his son as best as he can from the grave, and expresses how proud he is, while addressing him by his Earth name! And most importantly, he does something I have NEVER seen a version of Jor-El do in any of his incarnations.

He...hugs Clark. Maybe that sounds like the exact opposite of a big deal, but it kind of is. This is somebody who Clark can miss. Somebody who, were he to live, Clark could've had real connections with. Somebody who is...well...a dad. And come on, have you ever seen a version of Kal-El who feels like a caring dad? Not a father, a dad. Somebody you can talk to, somebody who can give you fatherly advice, somebody who would give you the world if they could, and is proud of you and your accomplishments. A dad. Sure, an idealized version of one, but still. It's something I've never seen in Jor-El, and I honestly love this version of the character. Hopefully, we get to see more. Especially because of the...OTHER big revelation to happen in this episode. But BEFORE getting to that, I wanna touch on the smaller-but-important stuff.

The crashed Kryptonian ship from last season becomes the classic Fortress of Solitude in this episode! Now, I've barely talked about the Fortress of Solitude, but it's one of the most classic of superhero headquarters in comics. Usually composed of either ice or crystal, and on one of the two poles (Antarctica, in this case), this is typically a Kryptonian repository of knowledge for Clark to visit. There's a bit of a trend that says the more alien Superman is, the more he spends time in the Fortress. That is to say, it's a symbol of his Kryptonian heritage, and he uses it as his knowledge of the past increases.

Now, based on the events of this episode, the usage of the Fortress is something yet to be seen. Jor-El, who's traditionally the guardian of the place, appears to be gone for the time being. He may come back yet, though, especially as we see if the effects of the Kryptonite are long-lasting. In either case, this floating temple of ice is here to stay for the time being, and we'll see if this version proves as useful and seminal to the Superman story as others have. Oh, and for the record, by favorite version of the Fortress is from Smallville, but this has my favorite design for the Fortress thus far, from the outside.

But Jor-El isn't the only thing in this Fortress during the episode. Task Force X shows up with a new member, whom I can't find in GOF form outside of this one above. But yeah, this is also a comic book character, a little-known Rebirth-era one named Damage AKA Ethan Avery. Now frankly, Damage is...a choice to use, especially considering that he was an attempt at a popular character that nobody's really bit into, and is also basically DCs version of the Hulk. MAWS decided to tone down his appearance significantly, but he's presumably kept his army origins, and added Kryptonian technology to augment himself here. Arguably, there were other characters that could've filled this role, but I do get the feeling that we're not quite done with Damage yet. We'll see what becomes of him in the future.

That said, we also get a far more interesting character reveal in the form of Hank Henshaw, an employee of STAR Labs (who also makes their first appearance in this series), former classmate of Lois Lane, budding astronaut, and potentially the future Cyborg Superman! Which is...kind of a big deal, especially considering that I have a hunch that Damage may turn into this series' version of Doomsday. Oh, did I not mention that? Pet theory, and I don't want it to happen, but we'll see. We'll see. In any case, are we hinting at a Death of Superman arc down the line? It'd be too soon for it now, but who knows how far this series is going to go? But continuing with the villain talk...

We get yet another glimpse of those familiar three circles, and confirmation that this technology is indeed Brainiac! Looks like we're taking from the Superman: The Animated Series version of this character, making Brainiac affiliated with Krypton and Kryptonian technology before the fall of the planet, as well as getting hints from last season that Brainiac is involved with the current remaining vestiges of the empire and their conquering forces. And that reminds me...there is one more little hint that we've gotten about something. And I have a hunch about it.

So, the other big villain revealed in the end of last season was a bruiser in a Kryptonian battle suit, speaking with Brainiac. The symbol on their chest was roughly Z-shaped, leading most people (me included) to assume that this was classic Kryptonian villain General Dru-Zod. But, uh...another likely suspect just reared their head. One who may have been raised by Brainiac technology their entire life up until now, in the tradition of the Kryptonian conquerors of old. One who has a last name starting with Z. And I think you know where I'm going with this. Because, in this episode, we (and Clark) found out about...

Clark has a surviving cousin, Kara Zor-El. Yeah. I realize that she's a part of the House of El, and their naming conventions mean that the girls take the name on their father, BUT...last name starting with Z. Just saying, I think the bruiser in the armor very well COULD be Kara Zor-El, wearing a new crest, rather than that of the House of El. We know for a fact that Supergirl appears in this series, but who's to say she starts as an ally of Clark's? Especially considering that she has no actually familial memories of him. Which reminds me!

That's a hell of a change, huh? No older cousin turned younger cousin this time; Kara and Clark are the same age! Who knows, maybe we will get time-dilation or suspended-animation shenanigans, because we still haven't been introduced to the idea of the Phantom Zone or such folderol in this universe, but as it stands now, Clark and Kara are age contemporaries! A very different take that I'm not sure we've ever actually seen before in media adaptations of Supergirl. And this Kara hasn't been raised by her parents AT ALL, as far as we know. Meaning, we're going to see a VERY different version of this character. Exciting!

There was some other stuff seen here too, like more Cat Grant, and the hinting at another major antagonist that I'll talk about with the next episode, but still, this was a good amount of set-up for what's to come! With that in mind, time for episode 2!

Episode 2.2: Adventures with My Girlfriend

OK, before I bring up anything about this episode, I have only one real comment: a REAL Superman villain, baby! WHOO! Up until now, we've had pretty bastardized versions of Superman villains, for the most part. Mr. Mxyzptlk was even a drastically different version of the character, while still being faithful to the original. But no, we now have the best adaptation of a major Superman villain in this series in the form of Joseph Martin, AKA Atomic Skull! And damn, this dude is a bruiser, and a great looking one at that!

There are a few versions of Atomic Skull, with a few different identities, but the Joseph Martin is the most iconic in terms of appearance and ability. In the comics, he's the second Atomic Skull, and a human college student whose metahuman genes are activated via a Parasite-related explosion, triggering an absorption and generation of radiation, as well as a mental break that makes him think he's a character from one of his favorite movies. Comics are weird. Anyway, Martin's continued to be a foil of Superman's, mostly acting as a mook or powerful obstacle, rather than a mastermind of plotter of any kind. It's still awesome to see the character, and this is a somewhat faithful version of him as a result. Hell, him working for another organization that gave him these powers is sort of a reference to the first Atomic Skull (whom some of you would recognize from Young Justice), Albert Michaels, who worked for STAR Labs until joining up with a terrorist group that wanted to take out Superman.

And of course, we get yet another villain FINALLY confirming his appearance: Lex Luthor. Yeah, a lot of us figured this out last season, and it's nice to see him FINALLY making his fully red-headed appearance. Interesting...very interesting. And he's partnered up with Checkmate and Amanda Waller, a winning combination when it comes to villains. This is, of course, not the first time this has happened in media, comics and otherwise. The two famously teamed up when Lex became president for a minute there, and had an incredible joining of forces in Justice League Unlimited. So, not an unprecedented combo by any means!

Other than this, we get confirmation of Amanda's pure villainy (even worse than a lot of other versions, scarily enough), the rivals to her position in Checkmate, Clark and Lois' first argument, Clark getting the Beacon that'll help find Kara, and the official hiring of the Newsboy Legion working under Jimmy Olsen alongside Steve Lombard for Flamebird! Lots of stuff, not to mention setting up tensions between Clark and Sam Lane. But not much else for me to report on here. SO, moving on to episode 3!

Episode 2.3: Fullmetal Scientist

Hoo boy, THIS is a hell of an episode when it comes to references! We start off with a literal bang with the scientist that Superman saves, Silas Stone! You may know this guy better because of his son, who's referenced briefly as being 9 or 10. This is, of course, Victor Stone, AKA Cyborg! If this series gets a future lasting into the Teen Titans era, we have a contender for a member! Only time will tell, but this is a neat name drop! Plus, who knows where Silas is gonna go from here...

Then, right after that (and a cameo of The Flying Newsroom, a Daily Planet helicopter in the comics reduced to a toy helicopter owned by Flip), we meet AmerTek Industries, CEO Thomas Weston, and the most important character spotlight in this one...

Vicki Vale is back! OK, obviously, not the most important character in this episode, but lemme milk this a little. Vicki (who is VERY tall, by the way, holy SHIT) made her appearance as sort of a heel at the end of last season, and has now apparently become a rival for the Daily Planet this season, reporting for the Gotham Gazette. I can't wait for this to inevitably lead us to our Gotham cameos, which may hopefully include you-know-who, but her rivalry with Lois here is pretty fun, and sets up some new conflicts down the line for our central couple!

As for Amertek, I should talk about Thomas Weston and the...other cameo made in this episode. Weston is straight out of the comics, as the CEO of AmerTek Industries, a weapons manufacturer based in Baltimore and Washington D.C.. They're important to the comics of one character in particular, who I'll obviously get to, but I want to mention the OTHER thing introduced in this episode...considering how...upset it makes me. Because once again, this series completely RUINS a major Superman villain by turning them purely technological. And if you've read my previous essays, in which I develop a cinematic universe Superman, as well as my desired villains...you'll know why I'm upset.

LOOK HOW THEY MASSACRED MY BOY

Seriously? THIS is Metallo in this universe? God...DAMN IT! Look, I can already tell that Lex is going to use Kryptonite to stabilize the power core in the chest, giving us a Kryptonite beam that fires from their chest like the REAL Metallo, but GODDAMNIT AGAIN! The point of Metallo is that he's humanity corrupted! He's not JUST a goddamn ROBOT! Seriously? This was a slam dunk character for this show; should've been an easy one! But...I dunno, maybe the real version of the character will appear. I just...really hope that this isn't it. But that said, Metallo is sadly not the real highlight of this episode. Still...dammit. Dammit dammit dammit.

One of the other highlights of this episode, before I forget to bring it up, is the extension of Superman's bioelectric field as one of his powers. This is a recent comic book expansion, which has been hinted at as a possibility since the '90s. Basically, Superman generates a bioelectric field of invulnerability which, with enough focus or external energy input, he can extend past his bodily boundaries and around others. It's the reason bullets bounce off his suit without rupturing the fabric itself; they're actually bouncing off his microscopic bioelectric field. Comic books, what can I tell ya? Anyway, it's a very anime power, which is this series vibe, and I can't help but think he'll figure out how to focus that into some kind of energy blast by the end of the season. Time will tell!

But the REAL big feature of this episode is, of course, John Henry Irons, AKA Steel, one of the most prominent supporting characters in the Superman family. His role is extremely important to the Superman mythos, and this is already a fantastic version of the character. It also does something with him I rarely see with the character, and makes him TALLER than Superman, considerably so! He's also a bigger guy, and as a bigger black man myself (well, not vertically), I appreciate the representation quite a bit!

Of course, even though we get to see him in the suit with the hammer, it's obviously soured when Lex Luthor and Checkmate buy Amertek and the Steel suit, as well as all the Metallos. Like I said, Lex'll stabilize the Metallo units with Kryptonite, but it's NOT THE GODDAMN SAME, NOW IS IT? In any case, what we're likely to get is John creating his own Steel suit, closer to the classic suit we usually see in comics and adaptations. I may actually do a full retrospective of Steel, since he is one of my favorite characters. I feel like I'm short-changing him here, but understand, Steel is one of the best supporting characters in DC, who became a major hero in his own right. Hell, his niece Natasha Irons, who's also name dropped in this episode, is a major hero herself! With her and Victor Stone confirmed to exist in this universe, I can't help but think that we're setting up something special in the future.

With all of that said, that's the summary for these three episodes. I'm actually a bit inspired to do some character retrospectives now, but please let me know if you have any requests for retrospectives. Thank you to the (probably 3 max) people who read this essay, and I'll probably see you after the next three episodes! Unless, of course, something massive happens that requires my prompt response after episode 4 or 5. Honestly, we'll see what happens! In any case, see you later!

See also:

[rayfishandchips]

Torchwood as a call of cthulhu run: ideas

So last time I thought the dw episode "the giggle" can be a great coc story if the kp do some little adaptations and add some eldritch.

BUT. You know what would be even better? Torchwood.

Torchwood is literally about a team of regular humans fighting alien threats, defending humanity, and ending up tragically. All the team members have a distinct responsibility within the team. No need to really ADD san dropping stuff, just rearrange the original alien enemies and turn them into similar but cthulhu-appropriate stuff. Torchwood stories would make great coc material, and it works all the better with non-torchwood fan pls.

The easier running plan would be to just use the core plot. But this might mean losing some of that torchwood feels in terms of in-team dynamics.

Another possible plan would be like this. (note: handouts are info given only to one pl. The players can't directly access each other's handouts.)

Jack: major npc, because you can't give away all that backstory to a player.

Ianto: depends, especially if kp plans to play that cyberwomen plot line.

Handout 1 (HO1) Gwen. Give pl info and say the HO1 player joined the agency (torchwood) because they came in with pizza to investigate. Basically just the Gwen backstory.

Handout 2 (HO2) Owen. Give the pl the Owen backstory, lost wife to alien pest and joined on Jack's invitation.

handout 3 (HO3) Tosh. Same thing, give the pl the Tosh backstory.

usually I prefer HO games with 3 players (it's big enough to form a team but still managable) but the kp can also have Ianto as a HO4. The other three characters don't have backstories locked so tightly and directly to plot, so I would suggest keeping them as HO characters, but again it's all up to the kp. It is also up to kp to decide exactly how much info HO contain.

Note that players don't have to necessarily choose their professions based on the original character their HO is based on. For example the HO2 pc can choose to be a nerd police officer instead of a doctor. The HO determine the most basic backtory and team goals so the basic torchwood team characteristics is kept, but HOs should not restrict pc generation in any way (if they do restrict pc design then it's not coc anymore it's just torchwood rp).

So now there's a lot of possibilities. See torchwood as a organization of investigators united for one goal. pc can have a huge range.

I would personally insist we have Jack as a npc because this is going to be so fun for the players. As captain he can help keep overall plot more or less in check, and other torchwood members (pls) doubting him is literally canon plot. Helpful major npc that seems to be concealing info? Classical. Fun team interactions ensured.

If kp would like to include that "Owen kills Jack" bit somewhere, make sure one HO (preferably HO1) contains the info that Jack can regenerate.

I should write this one as a complete module someday and run it. If it works I may be able to release it somewhere.

[randomthefox]

Episode 3 of Sonic X

if I recall correct: I will not be having anything positive to say about this episode. Strap in.

Oh yeah. You know how Eggman keeps trading cards of all his robots? And decides which one he uses by looking through a trading card deck with all his robots designs on it? And then puts the cards in a slot machine which decides which one he's going to use like he's a fucking Power Rangers villain or some shit?

Just like in the games, right?

Also gotta love how none of these robot designs look even remotely like anything he ever uses in the video games -_-

How and why did Knuckles and Amy end up together? The logistics of them ending up in the human world really don't make any sense when you think about it. Sonic and Cream and Eggman and his robots were all in the same room, and yet Eggmans tower got embedded in that island with Eggman and his robots all being in it, meanwhile Sonic got thrown into the city all by himself and Cream went somewhere else entirely. Meanwhile Tails Amy and Knuckles were all standing right next to each other, but somehow Tails went off somewhere else completely but Amy and Knuckles ended up together?

Doesn't make any fucking sense.

Neither of you know actually know that. You were both outside. You have no idea what happened.

I have no idea because I legitimately have no clue when this show is supposed to take place relative to the video games. Surely we are supposed to assume SOMETHING from the video games happened in some form before the events of this show, right? But the specifics never make any sense when you analyze them. The way Knuckles is talking implies he has a long history with Sonic where things usually tend to go wrong because of Sonic's antics. Which might make sense if we're to assume the Sonic Adventure games take place before this show, but that cannot POSSIBLY be the case because those games take place in a world with humans. But then are we supposed to assume that ONLY the classic Genesis games happened before this show? Then why is Knuckles talking this way about Sonic when his ONLY experience with Sonic up until this point has been the events of Sonic 3 and MAYBE Sonic Triple Trouble and The Fighters and Sonic R if we're being extremely generous? What is the basis for Knuckles negative assumptions towards Sonic if they have barely ANY history together?

You see what I mean when it comes to the Sonic adaptations? It's a catch 22. They DEPEND on the idea of there being a prior history with the franchise and assume the audience will have a pre-established understanding of these characters history and relationships with each other, but if you actually try to APPLY your knowledge of the video games to the story then the writing in the show COMPLETELY FALLS THE FUCK APART.

I should have this screenshot as my pinned post lol.

I hate the design of Eggmans robots in this show. This doesn't look ANYTHING like ANYTHING Eggman would ever design or create. Even in the games like 06 and Unleashed where his design sensibilities are a bit more down to earth.

These robots just look like generic anime trash designs -_-

SHUT UP HUMAN CHARACTER WHO ISN'T FROM THE GAMES, I HATE YOU GO AWAY YOU'RE NOT FROM THE GAMES YOU DISGUST ME STOP INTERACTING WITH TAILS

;-;

Cream<3

too good for this world. too pure. I love her so dearly.

God I hate the way this show tries to go with the "THEY GOTTA KEEP THE SONIC CHARACTERS A SECRET" bullshit thing in these first handful of episodes -_- Sonic has ALREADY been filmed from that helicopter footage that was broadcast on the news, who gives a fuck if he's seen running around again?

ESPECIALLY considering the reason Chris is looking for Sonic is BECAUSE HE WANTS HIM TO GO STOP THE ROBOT STOMPING IN THE CITY ANYWAY.

WHICH IS IT, FUCKWAD? IS HE SUPPOSED TO STAY IN HIDING OR NOT?

.... what year does this show take place?

When was the last time you saw cops using rifles with wooden stocks???

[adarnese]

JJK SPOILERS!!!

The new chapter reminded me again why I can no longer be satisfied with Shounen.

Gojo's dead and people think Itadori has a chance to kill both Sukuna and Kenjaku....

"We can now see who's the main character" (ნიშნისმოგებით, თან) cuz Gojo was "in the way of the story" and "story couldn't progress with him in it."

Yeah, if Itadori randomly gets an upgrate out of thin fucking air, when he doesn't even have a innate technique - "but he is gonna develop Sukuna's CT". — How the fuck is he developing anything if Sukuna is no longer in his body but in Megumi's?? You are BORN with innate technique!! Unless Sukuna goes back inhabiting Itadori's body, Yuji isn't developing anything (unless Gege pulls out some residual cursed energy leftover bullshit — i.e. powerup out of blue sky).

As a writer myself, I don't really understand why some people (especially Sukuna's die hard fans) don't get it how killing of Gojo Satoru OFF SCREEN is bad writing so I'm gonna explain (and rant) here.

Okay, pals, sit down, we are having a lecture in basics!

"How to become good at Writing 101" states that the writer can write story in TWO main ways: 1) is called "tell" and 2) is called "show".

Every single writer and critic from centuries ago to today can confidently say that writer using "tell" is one of the weaker writing choice. Let's compare simple examples.

1) "He died." — this here is "tell". Nothing happened, it's boring.

2) "He felt fatigued, he eyes could no longer focuse on the scene in front of him. The sound of blood rushing in his ears was defeating.. To draw air in his lungs was becoming harder and harder as time went on..." etc — this is "show".

Of course death can come instantly but as a doctor (by profession) I can assure you that human brain even after being decapitated can remine "alive" for few seconds/minutes, can understand commans, can open eyes, can look at someone who is talking to them, etc..

Even Gojo looking down at himself, while he was being cut in two, would have been enough "showing".

But to have another character, in this case, Sukuna, explain i.e. "tell" how Gojo died is exactly how it sounds — "tell".

In every literature: classic books, modern books, manga, etc, "tell" is considered weak writing style and it seems even Gege is bound to it for now.

Also, what was the point of unsealing Gojo if he had to still die in the end? Him remining sealed would make no difference in the story - Sukuna vs Kashimo would still happen and now that Sukuna has "adapted" to Infinity means absulutely nothing, cuz nobody is using Infinity in the manga anymore for him to cut "space".

In fact Gege just replaced Gojo with Sukuna as overpowered character and we can see that he hated Gojo solely based on how "strongest" he was (and on his attitude) and how he couldn't kill him.

And how he handled his overpowered character? Killed him off screen. So how's Sukuna dying now? Also getting off screened??

And Gojo died with no regrets, apparently. His pseudo-son has fried brain, his sister and his speudo-dad are dead (at his own hands (even if Sukuna is using them)), most of his shikigami are gone, and Sukuna is parading around using him as "meat suit" — that should, at the very least, still be Gojo's regret (not saving Megumi) but, no, apparently Gojo is selfish bastard who doesn't care about anything and he is glad that he died (even after not acomplishing anything at all), but just mad that Sukuna didn't go all out???

Talk about anti climatic.

Gojo dying like this is kinda giving Madara and Kishimoto and I do not like that (I don't think anybody does)...

This is why I can't deal with Shounen anymore, because no matter what, at some point story telling gets inconstintent and I better stick with Seinen, cuz story there makes more sense.

Thank you for reading this rant and Sukuna-stans don't interact, cuz I'm blocking you all, if I see one word about "coping" or whatever.

(თქვენი თავი ნაღდად არ მაქვს და დიდი ალბათობით, შემდეგი თავის მერე ამ მანგასაც მივაგდებ).